#releasing Greg and Ness

[cloudwhisper23]

You kill baby … you always KILL BABY HOW DARE YOU

You cannot tell me you haven't at least considered the possibility before, c'mon! There's no rules saying I can't kill Cassie!!!

[viarayy01-blog]

fnaf news tomorrow….

[postguiltypleasures]

My Peak TV Journey *Shining Vale*

I watched both seasons of Shining Vale late last year right before it was cancelled and removed from Starz streaming service. I loved it, but thought that if it had been more popular it would have inspired some kind of backlash where it would involve jeering at the fans for clearly being bad people for cheering for such a harmful  leading character and not careful depiction of mental illness. It would also likely have staunch defenders, though I am not sure I would have been vocally there. But it's not, so I should say how much I liked it and wish there was more.

So let’s talk about the cast which is headed by Courtney Cox (also a producer), Greg Kinnear respectively as Pat and Terry Phelps, all of whom I’ve lived for a while. I’m a more recent fan of Gus Birney, who was great on Dickenson as Jane, (the young hot widow) as their daughter Gaynor, and Dylan Gage who plays their son, Jake.

This is the story of Phelps family that moves from Brooklyn to Shining Vale, Connecticut in the aftermath of the mother Pat’s affair with a contractor. Terry found the house and purchased it without the any of the rest of the family’s input. This does create suspicions especially in regards to the real estate agent Robyn Court, who is played by Sherilyn Fenn (always a joy to see). Also delightful to see Merrin Dungey as Pat’s editor/friend who balances these rolls in funny ways. And then the alway delightful Judith Light shows up as Pat’s mother, who has her own history with mental illness and creates more interesting mirrors between Pat and Gaynor. 

But I’ve been neglecting the series other star, Mira Sorvino! Sorvino plays multiple characters over the seasons starting with Rosemary, who’s a ghost, a demon or figment of Pat’s imagination who “helps” write her long awaited second novel. Her first was an erotic romp with the goal of self definition. The second novel, which is released early in the second season is very different, though still have some filthy bits because that’s Pat’s “brand”. 

The house is TARDIS like in that they keep finding new rooms that were otherwise hidden, most notably a tiki bar that becomes an important location for many scenes, as well as a harbinger of the kinds of substance abuses. It also hints at the building’s secret history as an insane asylum in the 19th century. This history was only partially unraveled in the two seasons that were made.

In addition to liking the cast, I like the series creators Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan. Astor created the two season true crime parody sitcom Trial and Error which I still wish had more time. Horgan co-created and started in Catastrophe and Bad Sisters, both of which I’ve written about here. I kind of want to divide the qualities of the series between the two creators, though I know that it is at best misleading. The series has a melange of horror films reference that was like the  melange of true crime narratives that Astor worked with in Trial and Error. All the things about the dysfunctional married couple and parental relationships with children I associate with Horgan’s work. (Not to mention her treatment of Pat’s alcohol abuse is similar to that of her character’s on Catastrophe)

The references to other horror films are direct, and what I saw of how they add up to something intriguingly different. First as the title and concept of a parent-writer loosing their mind over their latest writing project and the history of their new home suggests, there are plenty of references to The Shining. At least in the first season. The second season, in which Pat’s menopause is reversed by new neighbor Ruth’s (also played by Mira Sorvino) herbal tea, is more inspired by Rosemary’s Baby. There are also liberal references to The Omen and The Exorcist, among other films. And plenty of opportunity to wonder how “real” what we are seeing, especially in the second season where there is an increase in cartoonish-ness. Over the course of the season multiple people get hit by a bus and explode while the bus doesn’t stop. It gets funnier every time. Going in the opposite direction from funny to startling is a gag involving a mysterious Walkman. Three members of it find it at random times, put it on, each hearing a different song, but all doing the same dance. I will forever wonder where they were going with this. 

Tonally the closest comparison I can think is Evil. Sad there will be neither of them soon. 

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 6: Rocky

I have learned that the six Rocky movies (so all of the Rocky ones but not the Creed movies) are available on HBO Max. I was looking for a new watch-and-take-notes-and-post-the-notes project, so yo. Check it.

I've seen all six of these movies. I saw most of this one in the theater, like, back then! I was terribly terribly young! Maybe 7. I remember my friend Greg really wanted to see it, but our parents wouldn't let us. So we had them drop us off to see Capricorn One, but Greg made us sneak in to watch Rocky instead. He was so excited about it he wanted to play-punch afterward, but it hurt and I didn't like play-punch. I also didn't care about the movie. You know what movie is decent, though? Capricorn One. Although the supporting performance from O.J. Simpson might throw ya.

Anyway, since its release the reputation of this movie has remained very strong. It won Best Picture in an extremely competitive year. It is very much the Rocky Balboa of that year's awards contenders! But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be watching this first movie and admiring its scrappiness, then watching the subsequent ones and rolling my eyes at their formulaic-ness.

The opening fanfare sets the atmosphere really awesomely actually.

Oh also I don't care at all for boxing. And yet it seems like the idea of it is good drama fodder, I mean the idea of a sport of just two people punching each other until one of them is the winner at that.

So the first scene is a boxing match in a little church somewhere. Some people are in attendance who apparently like to pass the time watching punching. Rocky is bloody and hangdog. After the fight, which Rocky won, both fighters convalesce next to each other in a back room, kind of indifferently. But we have learned that punch-sport is a part of Christian life.

Rocky walks home through the gritty streets, past his friends who sing rudimentary a capella music on a street corner. They should work on the complexity of their harmonies.

Rocky is home and his home is gritty also. Atmosphere. He has a tank with animals in it. I cannot tell what the animals are. He talks to them. Personality.

He has a mirror he looks at and the mirror is decorated with pictures of Young Sylvester Stallone. They are totally pictures of him as a boy and young man. But Sylvester Stallone was not in character as Rocky Balboa when he took those pictures. It is a little jarring.

At the pet store the next day we are introduced to Adrian. That is the spelling, I checked. She is very very very shy-acting. The director told her to act shy, and she was like OH I'M GOING TO MEET AND EXCEED THOSE EXPECTATIONS.

Rocky's next stop is The Docks. I am surprised that Philadelphia has a dock area with such large ships, but I guess that's real. But I'm also surprised that he's there on the business of being the muscle for a loan shark. I didn't remember about that side of Rocky's complex, complex personality.

That scene just ended with a very 80s-teen-movie moment; a fellow thug rolled down his window and bullyingly yelled, "so long, meatbag!" We feel so bad that Rocky doesn't have the respect of his coworkers in the loan shark gang.

After getting dressed down by his gangster colleagues, he then goes to his gym and there's this whole thing about how the coach guy is so sick of Rocky's boxing mediocrity that they gave someone else his locker. It seems like that wouldn't happen. On his way out, the other boxer taunts him by saying he's pumped to be in receipt of Rocky's locker which is a very fine locker. We saw it, though. It was just a locker.

Adrian again. Broad caricature of an introverted person. I don't buy it maybe. Then a scene in a bar and the conversation with the bartender is also dumb fakey acting.

He later came upon a bunch of jerks on a corner, but among them was an awkward teenage girl that he knows. He makes her leave with him and tries to give him avuncular advice, but that scene ends with her telling him, "screw you creepo!" The exposition of this movie has a very opaque strategy.

0:30:00 - A scene with Apollo Creed does some more very unnatural exposition, setting up the premise that some local underdog is going to get a chance to fight him. This doesn't seem like an acclaimed movie. This seems like a scene in a cheap romance movie where the Handsome Man confesses to his best friend that what he's really looking for in a woman is someone not so pretty.

AC is flipping through a straight-up book, looking for a good boxer to fight on January 1, 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial. I'm a little "wha?" about some of this. He chooses Rocky Balboa because of his catchy "Italian Stallion" nickname and remember because Columbus was Italian so

Rocky and Adrian go on a date. It's Thanksgiving but that happens anyway. It does not bristle with romantic energy. It reeks of social obligations. It seems like the beginning of the kind of loveless relationship your grandparents began in the 1940s in their dustbowl-decimated agrarian community.

They are back at his little shithole apartment and he is a persistent man and I do not root for this relationship.

Things escalated kind of quickly. Rocky got invited to an agent guy's fancy office and offered a chance to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship. The next scene, everyone knows about it and he's on TV. He seems like a dumb lug. How can he possibly succeed. Good job contrasting his character with the big celebrity, though.

Burges Meredith is oddly appealing as this surly, pirate-talking boxer-coach-manager guy. He comes to Rocky's apartment sucking up, and Rocky isn't receptive, I'm pretty much buying BM's different emotions, and Rocky's.

1:11:24 - Pretty sure my friend and I talked a lot about this scene when we saw it back then, he fills a glass with raw eggs and drinks it up. All one shot, baby.

This scene with Paulie, Adrian's brother who is Rocky's friend, I don't like. Paulie is a bad friend. That scene ends with Rocky beating up pig carcasses. They should have just had that part.

His hands are bloody when he punches the meat things. That's his blood, right? That's not like animal flesh?

We just had a very melodramatic scene with Rocky and Adrian and Pauly, and Pauly just went nuts. This time, at least, Rocky and Adrian react to him the way you'd think people normally would.

1:30:55 - Famous training montage. I think as this movie series progresses these montages get more stylish. As it is, it's going for just a rousing moment of "he seems confident as he trains", as the music pumps you up with the profound lyrics, "trying hard now" and "getting strong now".

They have actually explained almost nothing about the specifics of boxing. I realize that now as Rocky says "no one has ever gone the distance with Creed". Which I think means something about going all 15 rounds, right? But the point is that I haven't had to hear much about stuff like that, and I honestly don't mind that.

1:44:30 - Ew, some actually kind of bad stock footage of the crowd at the fight. Oh, but then a cameo by actual Joe Frazier, probably.

As the fight begins I gotta say I have been effectively made to root for this underdog hero. I've been indifferent to most of the movie so far, and I'm indifferent to boxing, but ferrealz I'm excited to watch this fight.

It's cinematic with lots of angles that you don't see when you're watching actual fights (I assume), but also the actual fight-acting by Stallone and Carl Weathers seems like they're getting it right. That can't be easy, right? I mean, it's punching! Faces!

1:54:11 - Oh shit I remember this ahhhhhh his eye his eye, his EYE is swollen shut and he tells them to cut it open! That, like, what? He's going to go back out and fight with his eyelid literally slashed open WHAT

They weren't even that careful doing that slice

I thought they would be relying more on the commentators as narrators to tell us what to feel, but it's really all the cinematic storytelling that is getting it done.

But the aftermath of the fight is like opera, everyone is passionate and yelling and it doesn't work on me as well as it must for most people. I don't even exactly get what the outcome of the fight is (partly because I don't understand boxing). But that's the point, at least a little bit; in the heat of passion he just wants to tell Adrian that he loves her. That works well for this movie. And the way it just ends in that swirl of excitement, no denouement, it's really effective.

So overall there are lots of things about this movie that I don't care for, but there are some things to appreciate. It's not a fancy movie, but it seems like they did a particularly good job with the final boxing match feeling like exciting movie drama while also seeming like authentic boxing. As if I know anything about authentic boxing.

I don't agree that it should have won Best Picture over Network, All the President's Men, and Taxi Driver.

One last observation: looking back, I'm pretty sure that scene with the teenage girl is a result of the observation that the movie greatly lacks females.

(next: Rocky II)

[onisiondrama]

PART 15 - videos #28 & 29

(Click here for video mirrors) - These are not my words or thoughts, I’m just summarizing what Greg / James is saying in his videos. Apologies for any offensive language or comments that may appear. - I am not repeating stories anymore and will replace these stories with brackets describing what he’s talking about. If you don’t know these stories you’re going to have to go back and read previous parts or watch his previous videos.

big stuff

- He says people wanted him to tell his side of the story, but he gave way more than what was asked for. He thinks he gave more than you could handle and now there’s outrage. Don’t ask for something if you can’t handle it. - Another email. The person says they are married to a cop so they know how they are. When this person read the police call logs about Greg, they got the impression the cops were upset someone was calling in bullshit again and it probably never left the desk. Greg says these are the “19 cases” [hand quotes]. The 19 cases are actually prank calls to 9-1-1. If there were really 19 cases he would have been in jail 15 times, but he’s been in jail zero times. - Greg says last time he was in jail was for beating up his father a long time ago. He was 15 and his father asked, “what’s your problem?” Greg replied, “your wife is an F-ing B” because she was preventing Greg from seeing his girlfriend at the time, who was his age. He was mad because he wanted to hang out with her and make-out with her and his father’s wife ruined his plans. His father started choking him. Through the choking-ness, Greg warned his father, “if you don’t stop choking me I’m going to have to fight back.” His father didn’t listen and kept choking, so Greg fought back. Eventually, Greg’s whole shirt was covered in his father’s blood. His father is fine now. Greg was taken to juvenile hall for two days. He said something stupid to the judge, he told her he wasn’t read his rights and she didn’t care. He was released that day and his father didn’t press charges. He guesses it’s embarrassing to have your son in jail for beating you up. - Email person says they spoke to someone on Chris Hansen’s team. They claim the person they spoke to is part of the silent majority who believes what is happening is insane. The person gives Greg the conversation, but asks him not to share it. Greg is upset it says not to share. He says it’s juicy and he didn’t see that part before. He asks the person to give him permission to share it. He’s not going to share when you straight up ask him not to. - Says people are mad because he shared horrible things Sarah had gone through. He shared it because in a tweet she laughed at the idea of Greg’s house burning down. Says she also implied in a tweet if she even saw him again she’d psychically assault him. There’s threats and a sadistic joy at the idea of his family’s house burning to the ground. She’s obviously very vindictive and malicious while pretending to be something they previously repeatedly said she wasn’t. She’s hateful. She went on sadistic rants on twitter about how much she wants to hurt him and see his life crumble. Real victims Greg has seen in his life feel very bad about talking about what they went through because they don’t want to be blamed for it or they don’t have to relive it. Typically you’re broken up about it. That indicates emotional distress, suffering. You don’t go around saying sadistic things. That’s just psychotic BPD bullshit. - Says now that he told his side of the story, people want to shut him down because it’s actually very toxic to them. Their whole case was about a crazy predator when that’s not the case. The real case is what he describes. What he told us has a 98% perfection rate. - [Crime Sarah went through, describes it again.] Says he brought it up because it contradicts a text he allegedly sent about someone taking Sarah’s virginity. The text he sent was delusional. He was trying to shame somebody for rejecting Sarah. That was wrong and manipulative. [Kai is the true victim.] Sarah probably didn’t talk about [crime] because that’s how victims behave. [Describes the crime again.] He says she probably didn’t tell the public or go to the police because she didn’t want to relive it. She didn’t go through a crime with himself and Kai, but he guesses she’s taking what she went through out on them without realizing it’s a coping mechanism or it has to do with her medication. - When you’re in his position and you know all the facts, it’s very hard not to talk about it and explain the story. When you want him to tell the story, then you get mad when he does it looks hypocritical and like you want to silence him. - He says Sarah should talk to Chris Hansen about the crime she went through and Hansen could get real justice instead of taking part in a witch hunt. - If you want to talk about real crimes, what happened to Kai was probably a real crime. He’s not sure. - You don’t get to hear what you want to hear when you ask someone for the raw truth. You just have to deal with it.

enough

- Greg got permission from the person from the last video to share. The screen shot from someone on Chris’ team says Chris’ investigation is a clusterfuck and a lot of the time Greg makes a good case. Greg says it’s good someone is listening to him. He says it’s not possible to make 30 videos off the top of your head without a teleprompter.  - Person from the email tells Greg to look up Johnny Depp on twitter because a woman admitted to psychically abusing Depp in a recording. Greg says there’s a parallel to Sarah. [Sleep in garage story, Sarah threatened him on twitter, laughed at the idea of his house burning down.] He says these show how physically dangerous she could be and why he was terrified to be around her. [Aladdin movie story, all she wanted was a boyfriend, she didn’t want Kai, she tried to lie and destroy their marriage with the weed story, Sarah’s blooper video looks different] People willfully ignore the differences in the bloopers video to the video that was released because they want to believe anyone who accuses anyone of anything. Especially if they hated him before. You didn’t ask what Sarah’s motives were. People hated him before this and Sarah gave people an excuse to hate him more. - He reads a quote from someone saying Sarah is hurting the real victims of crimes. Greg says now whenever he sees people go on campaigns he doesn’t believe them, like Johnny Depp and the woman who went to the media and tried to destroy his image and life. Evil people try to ruin your relationships with other human beings and your image. [He was forced to come forward to defend himself.] - He tells real victims to go to a lawyer or the police. [Crime against Sarah] He tells Sarah she should go to the police about that person and not attack people because they hurt her feelings and said they don’t want to be with her because they’re afraid she’ll psychically hurt them, they don’t want to be associated with her illegal activity, she was very creepy, she made them uncomfortable, she lied about caring about things and only cared about trying to get someone’s husband to be her boyfriend to run away with her.

[quarantineroulette]

20 Favorites from the 2010s

Happy New Year! I could only rescue 20 albums from the 2010s, there are the 20(ish - I doubled up on some) I would carry into the 2020s with me. May this act as your soundtrack on the lazy, hungover day that is January 1st. 

20) Rihanna: Anti-

19) The National: Sleep Well Beast. Still not the hugest The National fan, but I have huge respect for any band that can nearly bring drunken Irishmen to tears, which actually happened when we played “Dark Side of the Gym” in a bar last year. 

18) Leonard Cohen: You Want it Darker .

17) Ahnoni - Hopelessness .

16) Ariel Pink - Dedicated to Bobby Jameson . 13 weird pop gems that are all definitely #1 hits in some alternate, better reality. 

15) Omni - Deluxe . 

14) FFS - FFS . Funny, smart, and touching, this is the “feel good” album of the decade for me. It’s astonishing that Sparks are still doing new things this late into their career, and this is perhaps example #1 in an argument for why they should never stop. And has there ever been a better or more gleeful anthem for misanthropes than “Piss Off”?

13) Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!! / Ultraviolence 

12) Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition . More stressful than a Safdie Brothers film.

11) Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains

10) David Bowie - Blackstar . I remember James telling me he almost woke me up in the middle of the night & said to me, “Maria, David Bowie died. What are we going to do?” I still don’t know what we’re doing. 

9) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly / DAMN. We all know that pretty much everything Kendrick does is brilliant, but to choose just one, I’ll go with “HUMBLE.” and its video in particular. I C O N I C

8) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree . “Girl in Amber” = best Nick song of the 2010s. I won’t be discussing this further. 

7) Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel… . Raw, beautifully sparse, and far greater a risk than it ever needed to be. I can’t think of an album from the past decade that was more singular. 

6) Moonface - Julia with Blue Jeans On . “November 2011” is a Nick Cave-caliber love ballad, and the whole album sounds like it was composed by a deranged, fur-clad poet sitting in a room filled with frayed paperbacks and nothing else. 

5) The Antlers - Burst Apart . My tastes are suspect at times, but I honestly cannot believe this was excluded from the major end-of-decade music lists. Perhaps the trio’s most unique, mature, and consistent release. A respite from the trauma of Hospice but not yet at the same level of peace as Familiars, but heck, all three are fucking tremendous. 

4) Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent . I really don’t know what I can say about Protomartyr, because all my praise of them is so effusive that you won’t believe that any band could be so perfect. But guess, what, they are and Relatives in Descent is a flawless record. I don’t understand how Greg Ahee isn’t being praised to the heavens for his staggering guitar playing, and Joe Casey is of course an all-around great, a poet and genius frontman -- a brilliant concoction of Nick Cave, Mark E Smith, and woke, Midwestern Dad. 

3) Suede - Night Thoughts / The Blue Hour . I can tell you in absolute seriousness that Night Thoughts changed my life. It made me overcome fears, introduced me to new friends, and distracted me from the drudgery of everyday life. Sometimes I sing “I Don’t Know How to Reach You” to myself as I search for missing books at work, and nine times out of 10 this method somehow works. The Blue Hour wasn’t as pivotal to me, but albumwise it was even bolder and more ridiculous, so it’s still earned my eternal respect. It also partially led to me befriending one of my favorite authors, so flying many miles to see this band and be in the presence of my other fave woke Dad seems pretty well justified to me. There may have been more relevant records in the 2010s, but none were as personally significant to me as these, and that’s worth all the relevance in the world.  2) Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest . Any album with a song inspired by a Dennis Cooper short story is going to rate very highly on a list by me. That the song, “Helicopter,” also happens to be my favorite single of the 2010s is just a bonus. Holding a well-justified classic status means there’s little I can say about Halcyon that hasn’t already been said. These songs will live on long after we’re all dead, and future alien races will still be worshipping “Coronado” in all its sax-laden glory. Dark, dreamy brilliance. 

1) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake / The Hope Six Demolition Project . We all (hopefully) know that Let England Shake is a work of art, but where is the love for Hope Six? I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard anything quite like it, yet it sounds like a pure PJ record all the same: the bluesy-ness (here melded with saxes and martial drumming), the Flood co-production, PJ’s peerless vocals. Sometimes the songs take on the qualities of battle hymns yet carry a fierce and critical political undertones. Two records of bold, wholly unique protest music done with the focus and care that so much politlcal music - and politics in general - overlooks. And they somehow sound even better with each listen. If I have one wish for this new decade, it’s that everything will be more like this in every sense. And if we can’t have that, there will at least hopefully be another equally brilliant PJ record instead. 

[dustedmagazine]

Dust, Volume 5, Number 12

Matthew J. Rolin 

Ned Starke was right. Winter is coming, and maybe, for our Chicago and Eastern Seaboard contingent, it’s here. That’s a good excuse to find a big comfy chair near the stereo and dig into some new music. This time we offer some hip hop, some finger picking, some music concrete, some indie pop and, just this once, a Broadway musical. Contributors include Ray Garraty, Jennifer Kelly, Justin Cober-Lake, Jonathan Shaw, Bill Meyer and Andrew Forell. Stay warm.

ALLBLACK x Offset Jim — 22nd Ways (Play Runners Association)

ALLBLACK and Offset Jim have collaborated on a few tracks before, but this is their first release together. Their differences, which are significant, make the disc enjoyable through and through. Offset Jim has a poker face delivery that can fool anybody into thinking he’s deadly serious when he’s clearly having fun. ALLBLACK, on the other hand, is known for his goofy humor, but his goofiness is a mask that obscures a poetic psycho killer. Their combination of a healthy dose of humor and true-to-the-streets seriousness—seen here— makes a case for tolerating all kinds of oddball pairings:

“Don't leave the house without your makeup kit Diss songs about your real daddy just won't stick Hey, bitch, say, bitch, I know you miss this demon dick Please comb Max hair, take off them wack outfits”

Ray Garraty

 David Byrne — American Utopia (Nonesuch)

If you live long enough, everything that seemed edgy and electrifying in your youth will turn safe and comfortable in middle age. You’ll buy festival tickets with access to couches, tents and air conditioning. Clash songs will turn up in Jaguar ads. Kids at the playground will run around sporting your Black Flag tee-shirt. You may even find yourself in a $250 seat, at a beautiful theater, with your beautiful wife, seeing “American Utopia,” David Byrne’s new jukebox musical, and, to borrow a phrase, you may ask yourself, “How did I get here?” And look, you could do worse. These are wonderful songs, still prickly and spare even now in full orchestral arrangements, still booming with cross-currented, afro-beat rhythms (Byrne got to that early on, give him credit), still buoyed with a scratchy, ironic, ebullient pulse of life. It’s hard to say what plot line stitches together “Born Under Punches,” “Every Day is a Miracle,” “Burning Down the House” and “Road to Nowhere,” or how absorbing the connective narrative may be. It’s not, obviously, as kinetic and daring as the original arrangements, stitched together with shoe-laces, stuttering with anxiety, bounced and jittered by the back line of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, clad in an absurdly oversized suit. And, yet, it’s not so bad and if I had three big bills to spend on a night at the theater, I might just want to see it re-enacted. Because I’ve gotten safe and comfortable, too, and anyway, better that than the Springsteen show.

Jennifer Kelly

 Charly Bliss — Supermoon EP (Barsuk) 

Supermoon by Charly Bliss

Charly Bliss’ latest release Supermoon, collects five tracks written during the Young Enough sessions that didn’t make the final cut. The EP showcases the band transitioning from the grungy edge of their debut Guppy to the more polished pop sound of its successor. Eva Hendricks is one of the moment’s most distinctive voices, and these songs find her grappling with the themes so tellingly addressed on Young Enough. Although the songs here deserve release, the interest is in what they don’t do. More than sketches, they are less lyrically formed than those on the album, more guitar driven and without the big pop pay offs. The band, Hendricks on guitar and vocals, her brother Sam on drums, guitarist Spencer Fox and bassist Dan Shure still produce a hooky, engaging record which will appeal to fans. Newcomers might want to start with the albums but Supermoon is not without its moments.

Andrew Forell

  Cheval Sombre — Been a Lover b/w The Calfless Cow (Market Square)

Cheval Sombre - Been a Lover b/w The Calfless Cow by Market Square Recordings

Cheval Sombre teamed with Luna/Galaxie 500’s Dean Wareham last year for a haunting batch of cowboy songs that found, as I put it in my Dusted review, “unfamiliar shadows and crevices in some very familiar material.” Now comes Cheval Sombre, otherwise known as Chris Porpora, with a brace of soft, dreamy folk-turned-psychedelic songs, one a gently sorrowful original, the other a cover of Alasdair Roberts. “Been a Lover” slow-strums through a whistling canyons of dreams, wistfully surveying the remnants of a long-standing relationship. It has the nodding, skeletal grace of Sonic Boom’s acoustic “Angel,” perhaps no coincidence since the Spaceman 3 songwriter produced the album. “The Calfless Cow” anchors a bit more in folk blues picking, though Porpora’s soft, prayerful vocals float free above the foundations. Both songs feel like spectral images leaving traceries on unexposed film—unsolid and evocative and mysteriously, inexplicably there.

Jennifer Kelly

 Cigarettes After Sex — Cry (Partisan Records)

Cry by Cigarettes After Sex

Cigarettes After Sex’s 2017 debut album was a quite lovely collection of slow-core, lust-lorn dream pop. On the follow up Cry Greg Gonzalez (vocals, guitar), Phillip Tubbs (keys), Randall Miller (bass) and Jacob Tomsky (drums) double down on their signature sound with half the effect. The melodies are still here, the delicate restraint also, Gonzalez’ voice whispers seductively sweet nothings but this time around it is largely nothings he’s working with. It’s not that this is a terrible record, it’s more that the wreaths of gossamer amount to not much. Lacking the humorous touches of the debut, Cry suffers from Gonzalez’ sometimes witless and earnest lyrics which are mirrored in the lackluster pace which makes one desperate for the sex to be over so one can get back to smoking. Cry aims for Lynch/Badalamenti atmospherics and hits them occasionally but too often lapses into Hallmark sentimentalism. For an album ostensibly about romantic and physical love Cry is dispiritingly dry. There is only ash on these sheets. Serge Gainsbourg is somewhere rolling his eyes, and a gasper, in the velvet boudoir of eternity.

Andrew Forell

  Lucy Dacus — 2019 (Matador)

Between Historian and boygenius, Lucy Dacus had a pretty memorable 2018. It makes sense that she'd want to document 2019. What she did instead was release a series of holiday-ish tracks over the course of the year and then collect them as the 2019 EP. The covers will likely get the most attention, whether her loving take on Edith Piaf's “La vie en rose” or the rocking rendition of Wham!'s “Last Christmas.” Dacus doesn't perform these songs with any sense of snark; she's both enjoying herself and invested. Counting Bruce Springsteen's birthday as a holiday might be silly, but she nails “Dancing in the Dark,” turning it to her own aesthetic. The weird one here is “In the Air Tonight,” which smacks of irony and whatever we call guilty pleasures these days, but she plays it straight, arguing for it as a spooky Halloween cut, and sort of pulls it off.  

Focusing on the covers might lead listeners to forget how good a songwriter she is. The Mother's Day “My Mother & I” feels thoroughly like a Dacus number, opening with contemplation: “My mother hates her body / We share the same outline / She swears that she loves mine.” Holidays aren't easy. “Fool's Gold” (stick this New Year's track first or last) falls like snow, laden with regret and rationalization. Dacus works through holidays with care and concern. The covers might be fun (even the Phil Collins number works as a curiosity), but when she lets the more conflicted thoughts come through, as on “Forever Half Mast,” she maintains the hot streak. The EP might be a bit of a diversion, but its secret complexity makes it more surprisingly forceful. Justin Cober-Lake 

 Kool Keith — Computer Technology (Fat Beats)

Computer Technology by Kool Keith

Naming an album Computer Technology in 2019 is like calling a 1950 disc A Light Bulb. Ironic Luddite-ness is a part of the charm of the new Kool Keith’s album, his second this year. The record has a cyberpunk-ish (circa 1984) feel, thanks to wacky, early electronics-like beats that no sane hip hop artist today would agree to rap over. But who said Kool Keith was sane? He’s like a computer virus here, infesting a modern culture he views with disdain. His kooky brags could be written off as old man rants if he been in the rap game since day one. On “Computer Technology” he says: ‘You need to sit down and slow down’, yet he himself shows no signs of slowing down.

If Kool Keith’s 1980s science rap messed around in a high school lab, he’s now a tenured professor in hip hop science blowing up the joint.

Ray Garraty

 Leech — Data Horde (Peak Oil) 

Data Horde by Leech

Brian Foote’s work has a knack for showing up in slightly unexpected and subtly crucial places, whether it’s behind the scenes at Kranky and his own Peak Oil imprint, or as a member at times of Fontanelle or Nudge, or even just helping out Stephen Malkmus with drums. On Data Horde, his debut LP of electronic music under his Leech moniker, Foote works with his customary quiet assurance and subtly radical take on things, delivering a brief but satisfying set of bespoke productions that somehow evoke acid and ambient tinges at the same time, feinting towards full-out jungle eruptions before turning the corner and somehow naturally going somewhere much more minimal. Whether it’s the skittering, pulsing “Brace” or the lush and aptly-named “Nimble”, the results are consistently satisfying and the six tracks here suggest that we could stand to hear a lot more from Leech.  

Ian Mathers

Midnight Odyssey — Biolume Part 1: In Tartarean Chains (I, Voidhanger)

Biolume Part 1 - In Tartarean Chains by MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY

 Midnight Odyssey’s massive new record sounds like what might happen if Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army smoked up a bunch of Walter White’s finest product and decided that they must cover Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompei, complete with ruins and really big gongs. It’s interstellar. It’s perversely grandiose. The synths soar and rumble, the vocals come in mournful choral arrangements, the low end thunders and occasionally explodes into blast-beat barrage. It’s almost impossible to take seriously, and it’s presented with what seems like absolute seriousness. In any case, there’s a lot of it: seven tracks, all of which exceed the eight-minute mark, and most of which moan and intone and resonate well beyond ten minutes. You’ve got to give it to Dis Pater, the only identified member of Midnight Odyssey — he really means it. But it’s often hard to tell if Biolume Part 1 (Pater threatens that there are two more parts to come) is the product of an unchecked, idiosyncratically powerful vision or just goofball cosmological schmaltz. To this reviewer, it’s undecidable. And that’s interesting.

Jonathan Shaw

 Nakhane — You Will Not Die 

South African singer Nakhane Touré has a voice that can stop you in your tracks when he unleashes it, and a willingness to tackle uncomfortable topics (homosexuality, colonialism, and the way the imported Presbyterian church interacts with both) that’s seen him both praised and threatened in his homeland. You Will Not Die marks a shift in Nakhane’s music, both in terms of how directly and intensely he engages with those places where the sacred rubs up against, not so much the profane but the disavowed, even while sonically everything is lusher and brighter, whether it’s the slinky electroglam of “Interloper” or the bell-tolling balladry of “Presbyteria.” For once it’s worth seeking the deluxe edition, for the Bowie-esque Anohni duet “New Brighton” and the defiantly melancholy cover of “Age of Consent” alone.

 Matthew J. Rolin — Matthew J. Rolin (Feeding Tube)

Matthew J. Rolin by Matthew J. Rolin

Matthew J. Rolin steps to the head of the latest class of American Primitive guitarists on this self-titled debut LP. He is currently a resident of Columbus, Ohio, but his main inspirations from within the genre are Chicagoan. Reportedly a Ryley Walker concert sent him down the solo guitar path, but the one time this reviewer caught him in concert, Rolin only made one substance-oriented statement throughout the set, and it was more of a shy assertion than an extravagant boast. His sound more than pays the toll. Bright and ringing on 12 strings, pithy and structurally sound on six, he makes sparing use of outdoor sound and keyboard drones that bring Daniel Bachman to mind. Like Bachman did on his early records, Rolin often relies upon the rush of his fingerpicking to draw the listener along, and what do you know? It works.

Bill Meyer

  Claire Rousay — Aerophobia (Astral Spirits)

Aerophobia by Claire Rousay

To watch Claire Rousay perform is to see the process of deciding made visual. You can’t put that on a tape, but you can make the tape a symbolic and communicative object. To see Rousay repeatedly, or to play her recordings in sequence, is to hear an artist who is rapidly transforming. This one was already a bit behind her development when it was released, but that can be turned into a statement, too. Perhaps the title Aerophobia, which means fear of flying, is a critique of the tape’s essentially musical content? It is a series of drum solos, unlike the more the more recent t4t, which includes self-revealing speech and household sounds. If so, that critique does not reproach the music itself, nor should it. Even when you can’t see her, you can hear her sonic resourcefulness and appreciate the movement and shape she articulates with sound.

Bill Meyer

 Colin Andrew Sheffield & James Eck Rippie — Exploded View (Elevator Bath)

exploded view by colin andrew sheffield & james eck rippie

Colin Andrew Sheffield, who is the proprietor of the Elevator Bath imprint, and James Eck Rippie, who does sound work for Hollywood movies, have this understanding in common: they know that you gotta break things to make things. The things in question don’t even have to be intact when you start; at any rate, the feedback, microphone bumps, blips and skips that make up this 19-minute long piece of musique concrete sound like the product of generations of handling. It all feels a bit like you’re hearing a scan of the shortwave bands from inside the radio, which makes for delightfully disorienting listening.

Bill Meyer

 Ubik — Next Phase (Iron Lung)

Next Phase MLP (LUNGS-148) by UBIK

 Philip K. Dick’s whacko-existentialist-corporate-satire-cum-SF-novel Ubik turns 50 this year, and serendipitously, Australian punks Ubik have released this snarling, tuneful EP into the world. There’s a whole lot of British street punk, c. 1982, in Ubik’s sound, especially if that genre tag and year make you flash on Lurkers, Abrasive Wheels and Angelic Upstarts — bands that knew how to string melodic hooks together, and bands that had pretty solid lefty politics. Ubik’s songs couple street punk’s populist (in the pre-Trump sense) fist-pumping with a spastic, elastic angularity, giving the tracks just enough of a weirdo vibe that the band’s name makes sense. The combination of elements is vividly present in “John Wayne (Is a Cowboy (and Is on Twitter)),” a hugely fun punk song that registers a fair degree of ideological venom as it bashes and speeds along. Somewhere, Horselover Fat is nodding his head and smiling. 

Jonathan Shaw

 Uranium Club — Two Things at Once (Sub Pop)

Uranium Club (sometimes Minneapolis Uranium club) made one of the best punk albums of this year in The Cosmo Cleaners. “A visionary insanity, backed by impressive musical chops,” I opined in Dusted last April, setting off a frenzy of interest and an epic major label bidding war. Just kidding. Hardly anyone noticed. Uranium Club was this year’s Patois Counselors, a band so good that it made no sense that no one knew about them. But, fast forward to now and LOOK at the heading of this review! Sub Pop noticed and included Uranium Club in its storied singles club. And why not? The bluntly named “Two Things at Once,” (Parts I and 2), is just as tightly, maniacally wound as the full-length, just as gloriously, spikily confrontational. “Part 1” scrambles madly, pulling hair out by the roots as it agitatedly considers “our children’s creativity” and whether “I’m too young to die.” It’s like Fire Engines, but faster and crazier and with big pieces of machinery working loose and flying off the sides. “Part 2” runs slower and more lyrically but with no less intensity, big flayed slashes of discord rupturing its meditative strumming. There are no words in it, and yet you sense deep, obsessive bouts of agitation driving its motor, even when the brass comes in, unexpectedly, mournfully, near the end. This is the good stuff, and no one wants you to know about it. Except me. And now Sub Pop. Don’t miss out.

Jennifer Kelly

 Various Artists— Come on up to the House: Women Sing Waits (Dualtone)

Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits by Dualtone Music Group, Inc.

Tom Waits’ gravelly voice is embedded deep in the fabric of how we think of Tom Waits songs. You can’t think of “Come On Up to the House” without sandpapery catch in its gospel curves, or of “Downtown Train” without his strangled desolation; he is the songs, and if you don’t like the way he sings, you’ve probably never cared much for his recordings. And yet, here, in this all-woman, star-studded, country-centric collection of covers, you can hear, maybe for the first time, how gracefully constructed these songs are, how pretty the melodies, how well the lyrics fit to them. You cannot believe how different these songs sound with women singing. It is truly revelatory. Contributors include big stars (Aimee Mann, Corinne Rae Bailey), living legends (Iris Dement, Roseanne Cash), up-and-comers (Courtney Marie Andrews, Phoebe Bridgers) and a few emerging artists (Joseph, The Wild Reeds), and all have a case to make. Phoebe Bridgers distills “Georgia Lee” into a quiet, tragic purity, while Angie McMahon finds a private, inward-looking clarity in “Take It With Me.” Courtney Marie Andrews blows up “Downtown Train,” into a swaggering country anthem, while Roseanne Cash infuses “Time” with a warm, unforced glow. These versions transform weird, twisted reveries into American songbook classics, which is what they maybe were, under all that growling, all along.

Jennifer Kelly

[depressedpanda69]

Fck Greg Weisman!!!

Maybe I am alone in the following belief, but I would have felt Greg (his co-creator, and fellow writers) respected LGBTQ+ viewers more if he had just said that Young Justice Outsiders would continue the status quo of Season 1 and Season 2 (Invasion), and pretend LGBTQ+s do not exist in the YJ universe.***

Instead of the NO SPOILERS response he gave almost every time he was questioned about LGBTQ+ inclusion.

13 episodes, ~10 male-female pairings reaffirmed or established (in a few cases gratuitously so), and not even 1 LGBTQ+ character acknowledged, let alone a male-male / female-female pairing established.

Now another 5 months of waiting to see if something was squeezed into the remaining 13 episodes (between even more excessive/gratuitous male-female pairings).

***Even if it was not true, better the LGBTQ+ness come as a "pleasant surprise", than something hoped for episode after episode, but only resulting in disappointment.

I accept that every TV series does not have to include (significant) LGBTQ+ characters, but then the creators, et. al. should own that... and respect LGBTQ+ viewers enough not to pretend otherwise.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watched season 1 and 2 never expecting LGBTQ+ characters and enjoyed them... and I could have made peace with no LGBTQ+ness in season 3 and "enjoyed" it still...

But every episode has been tainted with hope and ended with disappointment instead. I just cannot seem to be pulled in by what's going on, like I did with episodes from seasons 1 and 2.

When Outsiders Part B releases, I may check up on it via Tumblr, and possibly then watch it "illegally" if Tumblr gifs motivate me to... but subscribing to DC Universe is done indefinitely.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** And if it does happen: I'm fully expecting some bullshit like at the end of the series finale, once they have temporarily defeated The Light (and Partner) again, an off hand comment from Kaldur (Aquaman) or another long running character (eg Bart) about going on date with a guy, probably in the presence of multiple male-female pairs making out... the guy, let alone the date won't be shown!!!!

Then Greg, et. al. will expect to be praised, especially since the character was there all the time...

Even though technically my examples of Kaldur and Bart, are barely relevant characters anymore.

[gomoviesweb01-blog]

My Most Anticipated Movies of 2011

As we kick off a new year in cinema, I thought I'd take time to look ahead at the films we'll be hit with over the course of the year. In this article, I'll be going over what my 15 most anticipated movies are for the year. Now it should be noted, these aren't the movies that I feel will be the best of 2011 necessarily. Rather, they're the ones that, as of the time of this writing, I am anticipating the most. So without further ado, here are my most anticipated movies of 2011.

1. Sucker Punch

Director: Zack Snyder

Writer: Zack Snyder and Steve Shibuya

Stars: Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens and Abbie Cornish

Release Date: March 25, 2011

Genre: Action Fantasy Thriller

What is it: A young girl is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility.

Why it should be good: Really hot and badass chicks wearing schoolgirl outfits and other skimpy clothes, with swords and guns, coupled with Snyder's awesome visual flair? Yea, definitely count me in. The trailer for this thing just looks completely awesome. From the style to the action, even the story (while seeming a bit out there) seems cool. I'm beginning to thoroughly enjoy Snyder's work. If The Adjustment Bureau could be this year's new Inception due to its mindfuck story, then Sucker Punch could absolutely be this year's Inception meets The Dark Knight meets 300 meets Inglorious Basterds due to it's style and epic adventure, yet dark tone with alternate realities. This movie just oozes style and badass-ness and I really can't wait for what is sure to be an absolutely entertaining, epic adventure.

Why it could suck: Snyder can be a bit off his mark sometimes. While Watchmen was enjoyable, it did get a bit boring. And Legend of the Guardians is said to suffer from some pacing issues as well and has drawn mixed reviews from critics. Though to be fair to Snyder, he wrote neither of those movies, but is responsible for the writing (or at least screenplay) of the badass 300.

2. Sherlock Holmes 2

Director: Guy Ritchie

Writer: Kieran and Michele Mulroney

Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Noomi Rapace and Stephen Fry

Release Date: December 16, 2011

Genre: Action Mystery

What is it: Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

Why it should be good: I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan. The Doyle stories still stand as my favorite books today. I love Sherlock. He's such a badass. And finally, a movie seems to have captured that pretty well. The first was one of the better portrayals of Sherlock I had seen. Rather than being portrayed as a snooty, 'proper' and sophisticated Englishman, he was shown with all the rough edges that Doyle wrote him with. While the movie was indeed Hollywood-ized beyond anything you'd find in the books, it was a fun adventure and quite an enjoyable movie. Guy Ritchie is a very good filmmaker as well. For these reasons, and my love for Sherlock, I'm very much eager to see how Part 2 turns out, especially as they go head-to-head with Moriarty. Also, I'm eager to see how well Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,etc) does in her Hollywood debut.

Why it could suck: New writers. The original writers from the first aren't coming back instead Kieran and Michele Mulroney are taking over the job. So let's see how they handle it. Relatively new to writing, the two previously wrote Paper Man which didn't fair so well with critics.

3. Paranormal Activity 3

Director: Tod Williams

Writer: Christopher B. Landon and Michael R. Perry; characters by Oren Peli

Stars: Katie Featherston

Release Date: October 21, 2011

Genre: Horror

What is it: Well, we have no idea what this one is going to be about as nothing has been given. However, the first movie followed a couple that were being haunted by an evil spirit who possessed Katie. The sequel (which was more of a prequel) followed Katie's sister's family as that same spirit haunts them and their baby. This all culminates to the two stories converging at the end of Part 2 where it gets to the point where Part 1 ends and we see what happens after the whole event. Undoubtedly, Part 3 is set to pick up where Part 2 and 1 left off. What happens from there? Your guess is as good as mine.

Why it should be good: The first Paranormal Activity became something of a cult phenomenon/sensation. Hailed as the scariest movie of the year, people flocked to the film making it a huge success. And rightly so in my book. It was a minimalistic horror movie that took it back to the roots of the genre by using tension and suspense to really instill fear and terror in the minds of the audience. Part 2, while some people seemed to not like it as much as the first, did more of the same. I actually thought Part 2 was pretty much right on par with the first. And the ingenious storytelling that created a parallel prequel to the first was definitely cool. The creator and writers of this franchise have really shown that the horror genre can be revived and doesn't have to be all about gore and such. They've done a good job with instilling that fear in the audience as well, tapping into that fear, leaving the audience's imagination to run wild while being completely captivated. I expect no less from the third.

Why it could suck: If you feel the second was worse than the first, then you may be in for some disappoint when you find out the same writers and director of the sequel are back. However, like with Part 2, Oren Peli (the creator of the franchise) is still very much involved and is serving as producer on this film.

4. Paul

Director: Greg Mottola

Writer: Nick Frost and Simon Pegg

Stars: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Seth Rogen

Release Date: March 18, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Comedy

What is it: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) reunite for the comedy adventure Paul as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America's UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town-a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost). Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes.

Why it should be good: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost back together again. That should be enough. Seriously. When these two guys get together it's gold, as evidenced by Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This might be my favorite duo around these days. They'll also be pairing up to write this which is always a good thing as well (well, this will be Frost's first real writing job, but Pegg has been responsible for their first two outings together). Now, they won't be reuniting with Edgar Wright for this one, instead they'll be teaming with the director of Adventureland andSuperbad, two movies which I definitely enjoyed. On top of all of that, they have comedic star Seth Rogan joining them. Sounds like quite the team really and I'm rather excited for what I'm sure will be a very funny movie, and possibly end up being the comedy of the year.

Why it could suck: You do have to wonder if some of that magic from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz will be lost as Frost and Pegg carry on without Wright. I think they're great comedic talents though and can stand on their own. And the somewhat all-star get-together should compensate.

5. The Adjustment Bureau

Director: George Nolfi

Writer: George Nolfi; Based on Short Story by Philip K. Dick

Stars: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Terence Stamp

Release Date: March 4, 2011

Genre: Thriller

What is it: Just as he is on the brink of winning a senate seat, politician David Norris (Matt Damon) meets a ballerina named Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). Though David is smitten, mysterious men conspire to keep him away from the beautiful dancer. David learns he is up against the powerful agents of Fate itself, and, glimpsing the future laid out before him, must either accept a predetermined path that does not include Elise, or defy Fate to be with her.

Why it should be good: Honestly, this sounds like it could be this year's Inception. With plenty of mindfucks going on, it's a thriller involving different levels of reality and mysterious forces. Matt Damon really tends to shine in these types of movies. The trailer has me rather intrigued and looks like it could provide quite an enthralling adventure. While this is Nolfi's directorial debut, he did write The Bourne Ultimatum, thus will be teaming up with Damon once again. The movie is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose work has been the grounds for such movies asBlade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and A Scanner Darkly. So with presumably some good source material, and a writer that can definitely do the part (as illustrated with The Bourne Ultimatum) we could be in for a real treat.

Why it could suck: This is Nolfi's first time in the director's seat, so we'll have to wait and see if he's in over his head. Furthermore, it is being billed as something of a romance thriller. So let's hope they don't go overboard with the romance part and make it some sappy romance film for which they sacrifice some of the plot to focus on the romance.

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Director: Rob Marshall

Writer: Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio

Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane

Release Date: May 20, 2011

Genre: Fantasy Action-Adventure

What is it: Jack Sparrow and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too.

Why it should be good: Some people have hated them. Some have thought they've gotten worse as they went along. I've found the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to be a fun adventure. Just a fun movie with plenty of adventure, some cool special effects, and just good times. And maybe it's my man-crush I have on Depp, but I'm absolutely thrilled to see him back as Jack Sparrow. The character is so much fun and always provides for some entertainment. Should be interesting to see how they go about freshening up the franchise as well as they get a new cast of characters while Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are out.

Why it could suck: It's a Hollywood sequel, those always have chances of sucking. Also, the exclusion of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann could put a damper on things. While there is a chance that it could freshen it up, there is just as much a chance that some of that magic might be lost as they look to replace those characters. Also, while we do get the same writers back, we have a new director taking on this sequel. Pirates seems to be out of Rob Marshall's comfort zone (best known for Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago) so we'll have to wait and see how he can handle an action adventure of this scope.

7. The Hangover 2

Director: Todd Phillips

Writer: Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha

Release Date: May 26, 2011

Genre: Comedy

What is it: Not a lot is known about the plot of this sequel. What is known is that the gang is back to get into more trouble as they travel to Thailand. And Phillips promise a lot of fucked up surprises and hilarity.

Why it should be good: The Hangover was hilarious I thought. The cast of the original had good chemistry and the writing was hilarious. It provided for several laugh-out-loud moments and was one of the funniest movies of the year (one of the funniest I've seen in a while too). Hopefully, getting the gang back together will provide for more hilarity that the first one delivered.

Why it could suck: New writers. The writers from the first aren't coming back and have been replaced. Instead we get Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin that have brought us such garbage asSemi-Pro, Starsky and Hutch, Scary Movie 4 and Superhero Movie. If their past work is any indicator of their talent, the writers could really butcher this franchise.

8. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Director: Michael Bay

Writer: Ehren Kruger

Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson

Release Date: July 1, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action-Adventure

What is it: The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers' final battle.

Why it should be good: I've enjoyed the franchise so far. While Part 2, was blasted pretty well by critics, I didn't hate it that much. Granted it wasn't as good as the first, but I still found it fairly entertaining. And the movies are always a fun visual treat. Also, Michael Bay. I still have no idea why he receives so much crap while James Cameron is given a pass. Bay is just as adept a director as Cameron is. Anybody that still likes to tell me there's a difference between Pearl Harbor and Titanic will kindly receive a "fuck off" as you buy into the pretentious drivel. At least Bay knows his place (a mindless action director who can make pretty movies and fun explosions). Whereas Cameron believes his some gift to cinema which often leads to his films being poorly written, yet pretentious as hell. Seriously, I'll take Armageddon, Transformers, The Rock and Bad Boys over Titanic, Avatar, Aliens, and T2 any day of the week. Even though, yes, I know that will enrage many people and get me flamed for that opinion. Now, this movie (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) surely won't be a great cinematic piece. But as a mindless "let's make some cool special effects scenes and also blow some shit up" type of movie, it should be entertaining.

Why it could suck: Well, if I had to pick one movie from the franchise that was better, it's definitely the first. The writer for this third film, unfortunately, is the same writer from Part 2 rather than the first. Also, it's still Michael Bay. He's not the greatest of directors.

9. X-Men: First Class

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Writer: Jane Goldman, Ashley Miller, Jamie Moss, Josh Schwartz and Zack Stentz; story by Bryan Singer

Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence

Release Date: June 3, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action

What is it: Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-MEN.

Why it should be good: A look at when Xavier and Magneto were younger. A backstory to where it all started. For such a thrilling franchise, this could be a nice take on the story and provide quite some entertainment and thrills. Plus, having directed movies like Kick-Ass andStardust, Matthew Vaughn is, I believe, much more adept at creating a movie like this than say a Jon Favreau or such. Vaughn also has the enjoyable Layer Cake under his director's belt, which very much shows off that he learned well producing Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels andSnatch. Furthermore, his friendship and learning under the great Guy Ritchie, only further adds value to his role as a filmmaker. Meanwhile, the writers have brought us such movies as Stardustand Kick-Ass as well as TV shows such as Fringe and Chuck. Also, it has a pretty good cast.

Why it could suck: Well, those writers did also bring us The Sarah Connor Chronicles andAndromeda. Also, prequels sometimes have a tendency to not do so well. It's, sometimes, almost as if a prequel is a last resort when the writers have run out of ideas of where the current story can go, so they decide to go back and cash in on the name once more by filling in some gaps from the beginning. I guess only time will tell if this becomes a Batman Begins (ie a very good prequel movie that did very well to reboot the franchise) or it falls more in line with The Scorpion King (ie a complete waste of my time that probably shouldn't have even been made).

10. Source Code

Director: Duncan Jones

Writer: Ben Ripley

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga

Release Date: April 1, 2011

Genre: Action/Sci-fi-Thriller

What is it: An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

Why it should be good: The trailer just makes this like it could be a cool creative story that provides for an entertaining thriller that could keep you on the edge of your seat. This is Duncan Jones sophomore release, after 2009′s highly acclaimed Moon. So, if he delivers again, we could have a nice treat on our hands and he could solidify his place as a talented filmmaker. I also really enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal. I think he's a great actor and should do fine in leading this movie. Vera Farmiga is also a really talented actress and one I definitely don't mind seeing. Meanwhile, Michelle Monaghan isn't too bad either.

Why it could suck: This is coming from an unproven writer. And while Duncan Jones' Moon was well-received, it's not rare that a filmmaker comes in to become something of a one hit wonder. Let's just hope Jones can deliver a worthwhile follow-up.

11. Battle: Los Angeles

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Writer: Christopher Bertolini

Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridget Moynahan

Release Date: March 11, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action

What is it: A Marine platoon faces off against an alien invasion in Los Angeles.

Why it should be good: The official trailer makes it look so damn bad-ass. Maybe that's in part due to the great song selection for the trailer, but it looks just completely thrilling. It looks to be a sci-fi action movie that actually has some depth too. It sort of reminds me of Independence Day but with the seriousness, depth and emotional-center of some type of good post-9/11 movie. It's like we may finally get a really good sci-fi movie with the heart of the best war movies, coupled with the awesome actual and visual treats of some of the best sci-fi/alien movies. Eckhart is a good actor that should do well in this movie as well. Also, the writer's only past feature film work was The General's Daughter which I thoroughly enjoyed. So if that's any indication of the type of writing we'll get for Battle LA then we should definitely have a compelling story to go with the visual flare of it all. Likewise, Jonathan Liebesman has brought us The Killing Room which I felt was a fairly enjoyable suspense/thriller movie.

Why it could suck: Liebesman also brought us Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginningwhich was garbage. On top of that, movies like this can often take themselves too seriously and often times become pretentious and/or preachy and just plain unimaginative with no real heart to the movie (I'm looking at you War of the Worlds). Let's hope they avoid that here.

12. Cowboys and Aliens

Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof; based on the comic book by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

Stars: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde

Release Date: July 29, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action-Thriller

What is it: A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys are all that stand in their way.

Why it should be good: It just looks fun. It's like Indiana Jones meets Men in Black with a good western feel to it. This also comes from the writers that brought us such movies as Transformersand Star Trek, and such TV shows as Alias, Fringe and Lost (though in my book "Lost" might be a bad example, though others seemed to enjoy it). Also, there's a good cast (Craig, Ford and Wilde), coupled with a nice supporting cast which includes Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano. At the end of the day, it may end up being a mindless action movie, but still looks to be fun.

Why it could suck: Jon Favreau. I'm sorry, but the guy hasn't sold me. People seem to like him, but I'm not entirely sure why. The guy hasn't delivered any really great movies. And only a few decent ones. Well, Elf I thought was really funny. Both Iron Man movies were really nothing to write home about though. Both were enjoyable, but they definitely weren't spotlights in their genre. And the second one was panned quite a bit (though I enjoyed both, but the second was a bit lacking). And that's really the only movies (Iron Man) that he's done in this genre/realm. So that doesn't give me a big vote of confidence in the guy. His other movies: Zathura was crap andMade was decent. Nothing else to note really. On top of that, the writers did also give usRevenge of the Fallen, which I enjoyed well enough, but wasn't on par with the first Transformersmovie. And they're also responsible for such things as The Island and Legend of Zorro.

13. Apollo 18

Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego

Writer: Brian Miller and Cory Goodman

Stars: None Given

Release Date: April 22, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Horror-Thriller

What is it: Apollo 18 is a found-footage movie that claims to be "a film about the real mission to space in the 1970′s that was canceled by NASA." With the tagline "There's a reason we've never gone back to the moon", while implying a government cover-up of monsters existing on the moon.

Why it should be good: With these found-footage movies, they tend to go terribly wrong or be very entertaining. This one is looking to go the way of the latter. It's giving a fresh take on the rising sub-genre and taking us to an interesting location. Furthermore, it's basing itself on some real actual events, thus adding some extra layer to it. The viral marketing on this movie is going along nicely and the film has become something of a hot ticket. Gonzalo is a Spanish-born director who has had a couple of critically-acclaimed films in the past as well.

Why it could suck: It's kind of the nature of the genre. If they don't hit they mark, then they tend to really suck. Couple that with a pair of brand-new writers, and there are no guarantees for this movie. I'm getting a feeling though that this will end up being up there with Paranormal Activity.

14. Unknown

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Writer: Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cromwell; based on the novel by Didier Van Cauwelaert

Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and January Jones

Release Date: February 18, 2011

Genre: Drama Mystery Thriller

What is it: A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.

Why it should be good: Liam Neeson is a bad-ass. Watching the trailer, I'm reminded of Neeson's past movieTaken. Seems to be that similar mystery action thriller type movie. And I absolutely loved that movie. Neeson made it a very good film showing off his bad-assness in it. If Unknown turns out to be as good as Takenwe'll have a very entertaining movie on our hands. Didier Van Cauwelaert, whose novel the movie is based on, is an award-winning author with multiple best-selling novels. The novel this movie is based on has met plenty of praise. So, we're sure to find that the story/source material is good.

Why it could suck: Two virtually unproven writers. While the source material may be good, they could mess it up and adapt a bad screenplay. On top of that, the director is responsible for such things as Orphan and House of Wax, neither of which were that good.

15. Red State

Director: Kevin Smith

Writer: Kevin Smith

Stars: Melissa Leo, John Goodman and Michael Angarano

Release Date: TBA (Screening at Sundance 2011)

Genre: Horror Thriller

What is it: A horror film in which a group of misfits encounter fundamentalism gone to the extreme in Middle America.

Why it should be good: Kevin Smith. Smith is one of my favorite directors around. While last year's Cop Out was rather bland, this year he returns to writing his own material with Red State. Furthermore, he'll be treading into a new genre with his first horror movie. I love Kevin Smith as a writer/director and have been fond of pretty much all of his work. From Clerks to Mallrats to Clerks II to Jay and Silent Bob, everything Smith has actually wrote and directed, I've enjoyed really. Couple that with the enjoyable John Goodman and the "fresh off an Oscar-worthy performance" Melissa Leo, and we should be in for a real treat.

Why it could suck: As stated before, this is Kevin Smith's first venture into the horror genre. Some writers/directors find gomovie  that there are just some genres that they can't do, while they're better suited for another particular genre. We'll have to wait and see how Kevin Smith's foray into the horror/thriller genre goes.

[supportyourlocalghetto]

#earcandy Great mix of Slugabed for Bleep.com A great variety of styles and of course a bit weird as we love it! (Bleep) “Greg Feldwick has been releasing music on esteemed labels such as Ninja Tune, Planet Mu, Ramp and his own Activia Benz imprint for some time now, channelling funk and soul through stumbling, glitched-out electronics and slathers of unfeasible bass - Slugabed is a man of many styles. Here we see him tease from the likes of Madlib, Dimlite and Ronnie Laws among a selection of his own productions, remixes and edits for our latest Bleep mix. Track List ssaladd ~ pedlov's theme slugabed ~ the order tusks ~ paris (slugabed remix) slugabed ~ club viscous madlib ~ face the sun tsuruda ~ war in the jungle flyamsam ~ dont like the tree screw dimlite ~ metal snake rider micro men ~ micro men 6 slugabed ~ CREP slugabed ~ plague slugabed ~ an empty shell klahrk & roxas ~ daemons (feat keloid & script) citytronix ~ dripped in fear slugabed ~ put the runes on u (samuel organ remix) daniel ness ~ rash decisions paint ~ beast mode admas ~ anchi bale game toby gale ~ sapphire mabuta ~ log out shut down (slugabed remix) slugabed ~ levitating above my own useless body nate mercereau ~ joy techniques (feat terrance martin) ronnie laws ~ tidal wave 

[kathrynmjaneway]

Class returns! - official announcement from Big Finish

The Doctor Who spin off created by Young Adult author Patrick Ness returns in six new audio tales from Big Finish Productions. Coming out in August 2018 are six new adventures from the world of Coal Hill Academy.

Class is now returning on audio with six new adventures made in arrangement with BBC Studios. Set during the television series, Class is back in session with the original cast. Greg Austin plays Charlie Smith, Fady Elsayed plays Ram Singh, Sophie Hopkins plays April MacLean, Vivian Oparah plays Tanya Adeola, Jordan Renzo plays Matteusz Andrzejewski and Katherine Kelly plays Miss Andrea Quill.

1.1 Gifted by Roy Gill

When a talent scout arrives in Shoreditch, Ram sees an opportunity to further his goals, whilst April strikes up a friendship with new boy, Thomas Laneford. Their choices draw all three to Carterhaugh House – but who is the mysterious Mab that waits for them there…

1.2 Life Experience by Jenny T Colgan

After signing up for work experience at Sevelin Laboratories, Tanya and Ram find themselves thrust into the world of medical research. But dark secrets lie at the heart of Sevelin Industries – and not everyone can make it out alive…

1.3 Tell Me You Love Me by Scott Handcock

The school day has ended. Charlie and Matteusz find themselves alone – though not quite as alone as they first believed. Three little words could mean the difference between life and death… and Quill is the only person they can turn to.  

2.1 Everyone Loves Reagan by Tim Foley

When Reagan Harper joins Coal Hill Academy, everybody instantly loves her – everybody except for April. Is there really more to Reagan than meets the eye? Or are there other forces at work in Coal Hill?

2.2 Now You Know… by Tim Leng

Following a series of freak attacks on staff and pupils, Tanya and Matteusz find themselves investigating a mystery that dates back to the 1960s. Together, they hope to solve it – even if that means turning on one another to do so…

2.3 In Remembrance by Guy Adams

When an alarm is triggered at Coal Hill Academy, Quill and Charlie encounter a mysterious intruder prowling around school premises. Worse, they also encounter a Dalek. Their only hope of survival lies with the stranger: a woman who calls herself ‘Ace’…

Spread over two volumes, the six new adventures find the students of Coal Hill Academy reunited and crossing paths with characters from the Doctor Who universe.Seventh Doctor companion Ace, played by Sophie Aldred, returns to Coal Hill in an adventure following up her previous skirmish with the Daleks in the Doctor Who television episode, Remembrance of the Daleks.

Class in two invididual volumes is available for pre-order now at £20 on CD or £15 on download from the Big Finish site and will remain at this price until general release when it will be available for £25 on CD or £20 on download. Class will have a limited CD run to 500 copies.

Class: The Audio Adventures Volumes One and Two can also be purchased as a bundle together at the price of £38 on CD and £28 on download.

Read the complete announcement HERE, preorder Class HERE.

[signourneybooks]

There were some firsts this month which was interesting to say the least. There was also a lot of coughing and overal sickness though so I’m not sure how I feel about January yet.

There are an awful lot of reading challenges down below. For the first month I’m keeping it this way and after that I am going to always have the amount reading challenge and my own. And alternate a bit between the others. I think I’m going to do an update and a wrap up of the harry potter board game over the year instead of taking it along here as there are so many levels and all.

The Numbers

# Read 60 Books Read this month: 12 Total: 12/60

Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox 1) by Julie Kagawa / 3,5 stars // ARC

The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations 1) by Michael J. Sullivan / 4 stars

The Girl in the Tower (Winternight 2) by Katherine Arden / 5 stars

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight 3) by Katherine Arden / 4 stars // ARC

A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison / 4,5 stars // ARC

Cogheart (The Cogheart Adventures 1) by Peter Bunzl / 4 stars // ARC

Wintersong (Wintersong 1) by S. Jae-Jones / 3,5 stars

And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness / 3 stars

Shadowsong (Wintersong 2) by S. Jae-Jones / 3 stars

The Ingenious by Darius Hinks / 3 stars // ARC

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children 1) by Seanan McGuire / 4 stars // Reread

Avempartha (The Riyria Revelations 2) by Michael J. Sullivan / 4 stars

Average: 3,8

Fire Breathing Dragon: 3/20 Prompts Completed This Month: Thief / Fairytale Retelling / Classic Fantasy

Complete Alien: 1/20 Prompts Completed This Month: Steampunk

Generic Robot: 4/12 Prompts Completed This Month: WOC / Finish a Series / One word title / Mental Health

Total: 8/52

Read more about my own reading challenge here.

Level: Mt. Vancouver (36 books) Read this month: 8 Total: 8/36

Rules: Books Owned Prior to 2019 / No Library Books / Rereads can count (but not in the last 5 years read) / I Am Counting My Ebooks and ARCS received before 2019

Level: Elemental Witch  (11-15 retellings) Read in this month: 6 Total: 6/15

Level: 1 (1-10) Asian Authors Read: 2 Total Asian Authors Read: 2

⌘ This month was a bit meh on the health department. It took a month for my voice to be back to normal again and a week later it wasn’t exactly great again but also not completely gone. I also got sick for the 3rd time in 2 months which is just really frustrating. And then on the last day of the month, poof my voice went again.

⌘ As you know I have been working on my depression since the end of last year. I got to the half way point with my one on one appointments and she suggested trying a course as group therapy instead of continuing on like this. I started it this month and have been twice now. There are a total of 8 sessions and we follow a book (with homework assignments yes lol). So it does require some extra work from me, especially on the emotional front again. It was interesting to see I also recognized some thoughts of it as I was reading Shadowsong.

⌘ I managed to burn my hand just below my thumb. Very certain a portion of it is a second degree burn. Fun times.

View this post on Instagram

A while ago @therealrobinhobb offered to exchange postcards and of course i send her a #dikkiedik postcard. This weekend i got a lovely card back with a bookplate. Thank you so much ❤️ . . . #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booksofig #readersofinstagram #bookaddicted #booklover #bookobsessed #spreadthebooklove #blogger #bookblogger #boekenblogger #robinhobb #bookplate #foolsfate #thegoldenfool #realmofelderlings

A post shared by Annemieke (@signourney) on Jan 15, 2019 at 12:21am PST

  ⌘ A few months ago Robin Hobb offered on her website (and mentioned on her instagram) that she liked to send out postcards if we send her one. So I did that. And this month I got her card and a book plate. So amazing. ❤

Reviews

⌘ A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer / ARC ⌘ Shadow Captain (Revenger 2) by Alastair Reynolds / ARC ⌘ Pop-Up Guide to Hogwarts ⌘ The Girl in the Tower (Winternight 2) by Katherine Arden ⌘ A Pinch of Magic (A Pinch of Magic 1) by Michelle Harrison / ARC ⌘ The Winter of the Witch (Winternight 3) by Katherine Arden / ARC ⌘ Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox 1) by Julie Kagawa / ARC

Top Ten Tuesday My 5 and 4,5 Star Reads of 2018 / 2019 Releases I Am Looking Forward To – January to June / New to Me Authors in 2018  / Books I Meant to Read in 2018, but Didn’t… /

Other Posts Dancing Out of December 2018 / Dancing Out of the Year 2018 / My Year in Books 2018 Over on Goodreads / End of the Year Survey 2018 / Trying to Be an Elemental Witch – 2019 Retellings Reading Challenge / 2019 Goals & Intentions for Reading, Social Media and the Blog/ Time to Crunch Some Numbers – Reading Statistics 2018 / Why You Should Be Watching Jordskott / From US or UK Cover to Dutch Cover / Year of the Asian Reading Challenge / Books I Want to Reread This Year

⌘ Justice League / Movie Surprisingly I actually liked this. The plot wasn’t that special but the underlying tensions in the relationships were. I was worried I wouldn’t like the flash since I’m so used to the tv show The Flash. But I shouldn’t have worried. Its Ezra Miller. The only thing I wish that it wasn’t that he endlessly was used for comic relief and that there was more humor for the group as a whole. The flash stood out like a sore tumb because of his youth and because he wasn’t as brooding as the others.  More interested in seeing Aquaman now (instead of just for Jason Momoa).

⌘ Astroboy / Movie I’d never watched this and when I was browsing on demand when I was sick I came across it. I liked it. Its cute. It could have done with some more depth (and poeh certainly some more poc) but overal it was a nice watch.

⌘ IT (2017) / Movie I had some time left over one day and I decided at random to watch this. I’ve never read the book or seen the older movie. I actually liked it. I mean the whole thriller parts aren’t exactly my thing but I enjoyed the characters and their relationships. Beverly ❤

⌘ Scooby-Doo Adventures: The Mystery Map / Movie This might be the weirdest movie of Scooby yet. They were puppets and they were shown as they were in the series a Pup Called Scooby-Doo so children. The plot was all kinds of meh so yeah not a good one.

⌘ Scooby-Doo and the Mask of the Blue Falcon / Movie This one had more of a old scooby doo feeling again. But the plot didn’t really interest me.

⌘ The Passage / Season 1 / Ep 1-2 I was going to try and read books 2 and 3 before I went to look up to watch this show, like in a few years, lol. But then I saw that our Fox also started showing it very quickly after its release in the USA, and here we are. This is really just the set up and it doesn’t diverge from the book that much. Amy however in the tv show is so kick ass. Love her.

⌘ Zoo / Season 2 / Ep 1-4 We finally started this season and it is so weird oh my gosh. And addicting in a way. But so weird. Like a train wreck. You just can’t look away.

Blogs

⌘ Jackie from Death by Tsondoku talks about Jólabókaflóðið. ⌘ CW from The Quiet Pond shares their most anticipated diverse debuts for 2019. ⌘ Crini from All About Books updated her spreadsheet for 2019. ⌘ Noura from The Perks of Being Noura had me in her item The Life of a Reader. ⌘ Kathy from Books & Munches has the fantastic february fantasy themed month. ⌘ CW from The Quiet Pond, Shelea from Shut Up Shelea!, Vicky from Vicky Who Reads and Lily from Sprinkles of Dreams are hosting the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge. ⌘ Jamie from The Perpetual Page-turner talks about how her reading life has become more rich and full. ⌘ Greg shares things he’s learned from Game of Thrones. ⌘ Ely from Of Wonderland shared a list of 2019 Releases featuring disability. ⌘ La La in the Library posted the January Snidget with all the Harry Potter News. ⌘ Shannon from It Starts at Midnight talks about open endings. ⌘ Fadwa from Words Wonders shares why she loves rereading. ⌘ Brianna from Pages Unbound talks about miscategorizing adult books as young adult. ⌘ Have you seen Cait’s cover reveal of her second book? ⌘ Imryl from X=1 has created a recommendations list for my reading challenge. You can find part one here!

Dutch Blogs

⌘ Liesbet from Zwartraafje always starts the new year with numbers from last year. She also shares if she stayed within her book buying budget.

⌘ #SapphicAThon 2019 starts on February 1st to February 7th and I am planning on reading two books for that: Down Among the Sticks and Bones and The Abyss Surrounds Us.

⌘Other than that I want to read my pre orders (King of Scars, Firestart, both arrived way late), some review copies and do my buddy read with La La in the Library for The Darkest Legacy.

⌘ As for the blog, I am going on a Semi-Hiatus to fix some of the broken photos. There are still posts coming along like top ten tuesday and a wrap up post, and some books I read for review. But no more than that. Hopefully it will give me some breathing space to fix the broken photos, even though I really don’t want to spend time on it again. -_-

This monthly wrap up will be linked up with the monthly one by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. This so we can blog hop to each others wrap ups easier.

Dancing out of January 2019 There were some firsts this month which was interesting to say the least. There was also a lot of coughing and overal sickness though so I'm not sure how I feel about January yet.

[skyrim-mod-load-order-dt]

Mod load order for skyrim - Microsoft Community

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Asked by bistro I am using version 1. Any help would be appreciated. This happens if you're using an older version of Mod Organizer. I had the same problem because I had downloaded and extracted Mod Organizer 1. What happens is that Loot sorts the load order correctly, but Mod Organizer 1. I was just about on the verge of trying dynamite when I realized I was still on Mod Organizer 1. Once I fixed the shortcut to run Mod Organizer 1. It's perfectly normal, the USKP is an "esmifyed" esp. To put it simply : It's an. So, just let loot handle the position of the USKP as he want ;. Even running loot from within MO , though, while it shows inside of loot that it will move it up when I sort plugins, once I Apply, it does not move it. If this is a version thing, im just going to have to go back to NMM , which would be too bad, because I really like MO now that I had learned how it worked after watching all of gopher's youtube tutorials on it. So I am assuming there is no way to fix this problem since the newer versions require Windows 7 or higher? You could downgrade USKP. There's still a bagillion fixes in 2. Thank you for all the replies. It is really too bad. Great utility, and from what I have experienced, a great great community. I signed up to this forum to say i'm in the same boat as you However, in LOOT it doesn't seem to show any errors. Don't know what's up with that. Again Vista not being supported is a bummer If you are stuck with an old Windows, so cannot use the version of MO which has fixed this problem managing the Unofficial patches - Use a different mod manager. This issue happens to me as well, but I have the latest MO. My shortcuts are also up-to-date. I know this because recently I've had to re-install all of Skyrim, MO , and the other utilities from scratch. In part because of my OCD-ness. LOOT appears to be working fine. The plugin load order of MO also looks fine. Its only the load order on the left that is being automatically rearranged by MO. I'm not sure I understand this completely. I assume you're referring to the left vs right panes in Mod Organizer. The install order is in the left pane and you should be able to sort it manually into any order you want. If you mean the Unofficial Skyrim Patch won't sort into the proper order in the right pane, make sure you're using the latest version of Loot and triple check that you're running Mod Organizer 1. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy! Already have an account? Sign in here. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use. Mod Organizer Support Search In. Sign in to follow this Followers 2. Question bistro 0. Posted July 10, Share this post Link to post Share on other sites. Recommended Posts. Greg 0. Kesta Posted July 10, edited. Will the mod be released as an ESM file? As of October , the answer to this is "yes" - but with a catch. The files themselves are what the CK and the game consider "master files" - that is, a file with the ESM flag set on it internally. However, the file extension on them is still set as. This is what's known in modding as a "false flagged ESP file" which basically just means you won't damage your save by upgrading to the new format but at the same time will gain the various benefits provided by this. Not the least of which is that the game will be more stable and entire classes of engine related issues will no longer be present. Edited July 10, by bistro EssArrBee 8. Thank you again for the replies and your time. Posted July 18, Or you could use Nexus Mod Manager or Wrye Bash to manage your mods instead which : A Dont have a problem with 32 bit integers B Work on older versions of Windows If you are stuck with an old Windows, so cannot use the version of MO which has fixed this problem managing the Unofficial patches - Use a different mod manager Simple. TechAngel85 0. Jimmyflow 0. Posted July 23, Any ideas? Updated LOOT? Create an account or sign in to comment You need to be a member in order to leave a comment Create an account Sign up for a new account in our community. Register a new account. Sign in Already have an account? Sign In Now. Go To Question Listing. Recently Browsing 0 members No registered users viewing this page. Sign In Sign Up. Important Information By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use. I accept.

[black-metallic]

A History of King Crimson

King Crimson is one of the most important bands to come out of the initial wave of progressive rock bands between the late 60’s and early 70’s, being extremely influential to a plethora of different bands and genres as a whole. Their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, being released in 1969, was one of the first progressive rock albums, and probably the most influential early album in the genre. The release of the band’s fifth album, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, would see them incorporate elements into their music that would later be used by progressive and experimental metal bands in the 80’s and beyond. Discipline, the band’s eighth album, which took considerable influence from the burgeoning post punk and new wave genres, albeit twisted to characteristically King Crimson standards to the point of sounding like an early math rock album, inspired that genre. The band’s 11th album, THRAK, saw them returning to a style similar to that found on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, but with a distinct modern flavor that incorporated influences from the very progressive metal bands they inspired, and helped point the way forward for those bands, as well as for newer bands, in turn.

King Crimson’s music can, in fact, be broken up into four distinct periods, one from 1969 to 1972 that saw them play in a symphonic prog/jazz fusion cross style, another from 1973 to 1974 that saw them play in a more eclectic, proto-metal inspired jazz fusion style, another from 1981 to 1984 that saw them play in a more crossover prog, new wave inspired post-progressive style, and one final one from 1994 to 2004 that saw them play in a more modern progressive metal/jazz fusion cross style. The band was also active between 2007 and 2009 and has been active again since 2013, but have not released an album since 2003, and hence these eras can only be judged by the songs they have chosen to play live, which, for the most part, are taken from all their respective music eras. However, even when split up into periods, King Crimson’s music still shows rather heavy between those sections. This is especially true of their first era, and, to a lesser extent, their second era. Hence, in writing a history of the band, it is prudent to go album-by-album. Nevertheless, splitting the band’s music into those four periods is a good way to understand their basic progression.

What became known as King Crimson started out as the band Giles, Giles, and Fripp in 1967, who wrote what can best be described as eccentric pop songs, or songs with a pop structure that incorporated idiosyncratic elements like complex instrumentation and off kilter mood changes. The band was composed of vocalist and bassist Peter Giles, vocalist and drummer Michael Giles, and guitarist Robert Fripp. However, the band never became successful with this format, and started to look for additional musicians to fill out their sound. After the addition of keyboardist and woodwind player Ian McDonald, lyricist Peter Sinfield, and vocalist and bassist Greg Lake, who filled Peter Giles’s role in the band after his departure, the band morphed into King Crimson in late 1968.

After rehearsing a bit, the newly restructured band made their live debut at the famous The Stones in the Park concert (a free concert headlined by The Rolling Stones) at Hyde Park in London in July 1969 to a crowd of around 500,000 people. This catapulted their standing rather highly and allowed their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King which was released just three months later, to receive so much attention. However, after the release of that album and some subsequent touring, the band started to fracture, losing McDonald, Lake (who went on to form Emerson, Lake, and Palmer), and Michael Giles, with the former two not working on their next album and the latter departing right after. Their roles were filled by Mel Collins, Gordon Haskell, and Andy McCulloch respectively. Unfortunately, the instability continued, with the latter two leaving after the release of King Crimson’s third album. They were replaced by Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace respectively. A fourth album was released with this lineup, but, after a short tour for the album, the band more or less disintegrated due to musical differences between Robert Fripp and the rest of the band.

Now, while it was the popularity heights the band were at when In the Court of the Crimson King was released that allowed the album to have the potential to be so influential, being spread all over the contemporary music scene, it was still the innovativeness of the music that caused it to be that way. One important element to the album is the eclectic-ness of the mood, from the chaotic, energetic opener 21st Century Schizoid Man, to the pastoral, tranquil I Talk to the Wind, to the hauntingly beautiful Epitaph, to the ethereal, dreamy Moonchild, to grand, stately closer title track. Another is the varied instrumentation (especially considering the album is not a folk album), particularly in the use of woodwind instruments like flutes and clarinets and non-standard keyboards like Mellotrons and harpsichords, which were both still rather new in rock music at the time. And then of course there’s the fact that each track is at least six minutes long, with the longest being over 12, each with obviously non-standard structures and musical evolutions. The album, in more ways than one, pointed the way forward for progressive rock as a genre and also solidified its popularity among many people.

The previously mentioned internal volatility manifested itself in the band’s later first era music. Their second album, In the Wake of Poseidon, is similar in style to that of their debut, but is more muddled and scattered. The diverse moods and eclectic instrumentation are still present, and the album features three long songs, but the music doesn’t mesh quite as well, with less of a focus on musical cohesiveness and a few clunky transitions. Not only that, but the album feels like the band is treading over old ground somewhat, with several rather apparent song parallels that can be drawn between it and In the Court of the Crimson King, namely Pictures of a City to 21st Century Schizoid Man, Cadence and Cascade to I Talk to the Wind, In the Wake of Poseidon to Epitaph, and The Devil’s Triangle to Moonchild (from a level-of-experimentation perspective and not a mood one). However, since that sound is still so fresh and innovative, it doesn’t come across as too forced or hackneyed, and the music is still as great as that on the debut album.

Now, their next album, Lizard, did represent a true step forward for the band. On it, the jazz fusion sounds are much more prominent, at the expense of the more symphonic elements, being present for significant portions of every song except for the short, gentle tune Lady of the Dancing Water. They accomplished this through the addition of four guest musicians to play additional jazz instruments, which had, in the past, been confined to the saxophone alone, namely the electric piano, English horn, cornet, and trombone. It also features King Crimson’s first (and only, not counting the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic song cycle as one song) epic song, Lizard, which is over 23 minutes long and takes up the whole second side of the LP, but which also feels like an epic, telling the events of a day during which a tremendous battle takes place.

The final album of King Crimson’s first period, Islands, is another oddball. While it is varied in mood like their first two albums are, it is also diverse in musical feel too. The first four tracks are, at their core, jazz fusion style tracks, but are each rather different from each other. Formentera Lady has prominent symphonic elements, Sailor’s Tale is dissonant and chaotic, even by King Crimson’s standards, The Letters sounds like an outtake from Lizard, and Ladies of the Road has the trappings of a raunchy pop song. The final three tracks, however, are basically contemporary chamber music, and a bit more connected to each other. Prelude: Song of the Gulls is basically just a chamber music piece, Islands is a bit more instrumentally diverse and features vocals, and Untitled is like a classical instrument tuning recording. This drastic split is rather hard to digest when listening to the album as a whole compared to most other King Crimson albums, but the variation in the songs inside the two sections are nice to hear, and the songs themselves are all rather good.

Even though Fripp was the only member of the band for a short period, it was not technically broken up, and, after that period, he went about recruiting four new musicians, namely John Wetton on bass and vocals, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir on drums and percussion, and David Cross on strings and keyboards, with Fripp continuing to play his role of guitarist and keyboardist as well. However, this lineup didn’t last long either, with Muir leaving shortly after the release of this new era’s first album and Cross leaving shortly after the second, until the band officially dissolved entirely shortly after the release of the third album, not even two years after the band was reassembled.

The release of Larks’ Tongues in Aspic thus heralded a new direction for the band. The symphonic elements disappeared, replaced by Eastern European classical music flourishes and free improvisation style music, giving the band’s music a very different, but still significantly experimental sound. The inclusion of the violin and the continued use of various keyboard instruments kept the jazz fusion moods somewhat intact, but the presence of that sound was greatly diminished. Finally, the band was, on average, heavier than they were before, with hard rock style riffs present on several songs, albeit played in a very off kilter way. This was also the album that the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic song cycle started, with both of the first two parts present on this album, including the most famous part, part two, which features the classic highly experimental hard rock style most prevalent on this album. Easy Money is another notable song in this style, whereas Exiles is an equally important, but much softer song driven by peaceful violin and ethereal lead guitar. Overall, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic was a fantastic debut of King Crimson’s reformed sound and a strong vindication for them to continue in this new direction.

Their follow-up, Starless and Bible Black, focused, at least in part, on shorter songs, as well as made jazz fusion prominent in the band’s music again, although not nearly to the same degree as they did in the first era. The first six tracks on the album are all under six minutes long and average around four. While still characteristically King Crimson, especially instrumentally, these songs had more pop like structures than were usual for the band and are even rather catchy at times. The final two tracks, however, are roughly ten minutes a piece, and are much more in the free-form experimental rock style the band was being known for after the release of Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Fracture is another classic that’s only slightly below the level of Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two, and are in fact in a rather similar style (although Fracture is less structured and slightly more experimental). Like In the Wake of Poseidon, Starless and Bible Black continued with many of the stylistic elements of its predecessor. However, unlike that album, it went about it in a fresher, more focused way, although there was some duality present between the two sides of the album.

Dissimilar to how King Crimson ended their first era, their second era concluded with a very strong album, Red, an album that is in fact regarded as one of the best King Crimson albums alongside In the Court of the Crimson King and Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Even Kurt Cobain of all people said that he was greatly inspired by the album. The two most important stylistic developments that occurred on this album were the heavier, more depressing atmosphere and the even greater reliance on jazz fusion sounds, practically putting them on an equal level to that found on their late first era albums. The metal like sounds found on their previous two albums remain, but, instead of being driven entirely by fast-paced, abrasive guitar, an additional dark tonal element is present, giving the album an even heavier sound. Starless, the closing track, encapsulates not only the whole album, but acts as a requiem of sorts, meandering through previous iterations of the band’s sound, being the last song people ever heard before the band broke up for seven years. It remains both one of the band’s most popular and most critically acclaimed songs and is a very crushingly powerful track.

After Robert Fripp broke up the band, he took a bit of a hiatus from music altogether, before reentering the art a couple of years later, dabbling in several projects like a solo career, several collaborations, and a stint in a different band. Eventually, he decided to form his own rock group. He recruited former King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, vocalist and guitarist Adrian Belew, and bassist Tony Levin, but originally had no plans of calling the band a reforming of King Crimson. However, after rehearsals and a tour, the group eventually decided to indeed call themselves King Crimson. Nevertheless, even though the band remained consistent in personnel and was enjoying a decent amount of popularity, after only three years and three albums, Robert Fripp again decided to dissolve the band, citing general dissatisfaction for a second time.

The first album that came from this era was Discipline. More so than any other album had in the past, Discipline represented a drastic change in the band’s sound. Instead of being a band whose sound was built on a split between symphonic prog and jazz fusion with heavy doses of experimentation and eclectic instrumentation, now, their sound was much tighter, revolving around more modern sounds like post-punk and new wave, as well as more exotic influences like Indonesian textures and African polyrhythms. Both the instrumentation and song lengths were reined in, but the propensity for copious experimentation remained. This structure combination ended up giving the record a sort of math rock vibe. In fact, a number of the songs, the title track especially, feature odd, frequently changing time signatures, which would become the central facet of the math rock genre in time. The band even managed to achieve a unique guitar playing style for the time on this album. Overall, Discipline was one of the best albums, if not the best, to come from a classic progressive rock band entering the 1980’s, completely revamping their sound to meld with more contemporaneous music, but in a way that kept their original progressiveness more than intact.

Like In the Wake of Poseidon before it, Beat is rather similar to its predecessor, but there are some noticeable differences both between it and Discipline and with the analogy itself. For one thing, whereas In the Wake of Poseidon was a record that tried to recapture the sound of its very popular antecedent in the midst of a fracturing band, Beat was more of a purposeful refinement of its forerunner that had a much more stable band lineup situation. In fact, Beat was the first King Crimson album to have an identical lineup to the one that came before it. Musically, the album is considerably poppier than Discipline, especially in the first half. This represented greater excursions into Belew’s more accessible influences, being a member of the much poppier Talking Heads before joining King Crimson. However, tracks like Neurotica and Requiem still harkened back to the generally harsher, more atonal style of Discipline.

The final album of this era, Three of a Perfect Pair, was another follow up album to Discipline, at least in a sense. However, its level of experimental-ness fell between that of Discipline and Beat, with the first half being Belew-written pop tracks and the second half being near completely instrumental Discipline-style tracks, with one of the songs even being the third part of the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic song cycle. Consequently, there was not much new in the album’s sound. But, given how interesting and original the band’s music still was, it was still full of great moments. And this repetition just now being a problem for the band was really only due to the fact that this represented the first time the band had a truly stable lineup, which stayed the same across three whole albums, plus the fact that Robert Fripp had reformed the band with an express musical purpose.

After a six-year hiatus, Belew met with Fripp to discuss reforming the band. Over the next four years, Fripp recruited four additional people, including Levin and Bruford, as well as two new musicians, Chapman Stick player Trey Gunn and drummer Pat Mastelotto. This formed what would be referred to as the “double trio” of two guitarists, two bassists, and two drummers, with the intention of continuing to be, at its core, King Crimson, but with an increased ability to push outside the previously defined instrumental limits. This was the beginning lineup of the fourth and final era of the part studio band. The band managed to release one album with this lineup. However, before an attempt at a follow-up was made, Bruford left to work on straighter jazz-oriented projects and Levin left due to mounting session and touring commitments outside of King Crimson. This reduced lineup continued for the third album, but, afterwards, Gunn left to work on solo projects and was replaced by Levin, who was free to work with the band again. However, only one year after this further lineup change, the band broke up again, mostly due to cited stagnation.

Like each other era’s debut album, THRAK represented a reinvigorated, more modern iteration of King Crimson that still held true to the core aspects of the band’s sound. On the more experimental side, the album took influence from ambient electronic music (which partially came from Fripp’s continued work in guitar soundscapes), as well as the burgeoning industrial and alternative scenes, whereas, on the more classic side, the album called back to the double lead guitar sounds of the third era and the metallic feel of the second era. However, given the sheer number of musical elements present here, unlike their second and third era work, the album’s songs were a bit more disjointed from each other, with different influences being prominent on different songs. But, with the dedicated way the band went about stringing together all those different musical strands, this fact didn’t cause the album to feel broken so much as cohesively eclectic. Overall, the album represented yet another triumph for King Crimson in keeping a classic progressive rock band alive, both modernizing themselves and staying at least somewhat true to the band’s original intentions, all under the banner of ever present experimentation.

The second album of this era, The ConstruKction of Light, which, uncharacteristically, took five years to compose (the longest amount of time between two intra-era albums had previously been two years), was again another album similar in style to that of its corresponding era’s debut. The main difference was that, in most areas, the music was even more complex and dissonant than THRAK, with the industrial and electronic sounds being even more prominent and harsh. Another notable difference was that the tempos were often slower, especially compared to those their 80’s songs had, with the interlocking guitar parts even being played in hocket as opposed to being played with distinct melodies. Nevertheless, critics found it to mostly be a rehashing of that album, a type of criticism King Crimson had managed to avoid with all its previous follow-up albums. On top of the lack of variation from THRAK, the album even featured the fourth part of the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic song cycle, as well as the song FraKctured, which took clear inspiration from their previous song Fracture. Nevertheless, while the album was indeed inspired more by its predecessor than albums in the past had been, the sound is still unique and innovative enough that the music is still interesting to listen to.

This era’s final album, and indeed the final King Crimson album ever to be released, The Power to Believe, while still another follow-up type album to THRAK, represented more a perfection of the style King Crimson had been working towards for this entire era. The heavier parts had more power behind them, yet the album also had much improved sonic dynamics, with soft, peaceful moments being sizably more prevalent on this album. It often took the sounds of contemporary metal bands and twisted them in a way that, while still recognizable, were also decidedly King Crimson in style, all in a very natural way. The album features the fifth and final part of the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic song cycle with the uncharacteristically named Level Five (the other four parts were all titled “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic”, along with the attached part number). Overall, while not the strongest album in the band’s discography, it was an amazing and forward-thinking album for the band to end their studio work on.

Now, while The Power to Believe was the King Crimson’s last studio album, the band continued, and, to this day, still continue to tour. The band reformed again in 2007 with the lineup Fripp, Belew, Levin, and Mastelotto, along with a new second drummer Gavin Harrison. The band broke up again in 2009 for several reasons, mainly because Fripp wanted to take another break from King Crimson (this break was always meant to be temporary). It reformed yet again in 2013 with the lineup Fripp, Levin, Mastelotto, Harrison, and Mel Collins (who had not been a member of the band since 1972), along with guitarist and vocalist Jakko Jakszyk and third drummer and keyboardist Bill Rieflin. Rieflin was absent for 2016, his role being replaced by Jeremy Stacey. Rieflin returned in 2017, but it was decided that Stacey would stay and that Rieflin’s role would be amended to that of keyboardist alone. So, currently, the band has two guitarists, a bassist, three drummers, three keyboardists (including Fripp and Stacey), and a woodwind player, for a total of eight members.

Looking back over King Crimson’s entire career, it’s clear why the band has been so influential not just to progressive rock, but to many other strands of music as well. Over all its iterations and eras, the band has consistently released, amazing, groundbreaking music that even pushed their own boundaries ever forward. They helped progressive rock build a foundation for itself and then continued to build on top of that. And they’ve done similar work with several other types of experimental music. Not only have they inspired countless bands in the past, they continue to do so to up-and-coming bands of many different styles. King Crimson are truly one of the most understated influences in music today.

[doctorwhonews]

Class Returns in Audio for Big Finish

Latest from the news site: The Doctor Who spin-off Class, created by Young Adult author Patrick Ness is returning in six new audio plays from Big Finish Productions. The series, released in August 2018, will feature six new adventures from the world of Coal Hill Academy. Class was created by the BBC to appeal to the young adult market and initially released in the UK on the BBC Three online platform. However the series struggled to make an impact and when it was later screened on BBC One, it failed to find an audience, getting viewing figures around a third of the timeslot average. After one season the series was cancelled by the BBC. Big Finish is now reviving the series on audio with six new adventures made in arrangement with BBC Studios. Set during the television series, the new version features the original cast. Greg Austin plays Charlie Smith, Fady Elsayed plays Ram Singh, Sophie Hopkins plays April MacLean, Vivian Oparah plays Tanya Adeola, Jordan Renzo plays Matteusz Andrzejewski and Katherine Kelly plays Miss Andrea Quill. Spread over two volumes, the six new adventures find the students of Coal Hill Academy reunited and crossing paths with characters from the Doctor Who universe. * 1.1 Gifted by Roy Gill * 1.2 Life Experience by Jenny T Colgan * 1.3 Tell Me You Love Me by Scott Handcock * 2.1 Everyone Loves Reagan by Tim Foley * 2.2 Now You Know… by Tim Leng * 2.3 In Remembrance by Guy Adams The series will also see Seventh Doctor companion Ace, played by Sophie Aldred, return to Coal Hill in an adventure following up her previous skirmish with the Daleks in the Doctor Who television episode, Remembrance of the Daleks. Director and Producer Scott Handcock says:It’s a real thrill having brought Torchwood back on audio, to do the same all over again with another slice of the Doctor Who universe, and to play in a world created by Patrick Ness. The characters and their relationships are key to the success of a series like Class, and the intimacy of the audio medium allows us to bring that to the fore. We’ve had a great deal of fun reuniting the original cast for the audio series, telling brand-new stories set within the TV run, whilst tackling a host of alien menaces. Of course I couldn’t resist linking up to the Doctor Who universe, and bringing Ace and the Daleks into the world of Class has been an absolute treat. And for full authenticity, we’re lucky to have series composer Blair Mowat return to the world of Class as well. Nicholas Briggs, executive producer saidBig Finish has a strong tradition of venturing into all areas of the Doctor Who universe, so it’s great that we’re invading Coal Hill Academy too. We’ve had so many requests from listeners about us producing audio drama based on Class, so this is something we’ve been keen to do for some time. For me, personally, it’s going to be great to bring some good, old fashioned exterminating to the format! Class is available for pre-order now at £23 on CD or £18 on download from the Big Finish site and will remain at this price until general release when it will be available for £25 on CD or £20 on download. Doctor Who News http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/05/class-returns-in-audio-for-big-finish.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume Five, Number 8

Graham Dunning and his mechanical techno rig

Our occasional survey of records we might have missed continues with a late July edition of Dust. This time around, our hot and hazy listening spanned localities and genres from Norwegian folk to Black Dirt jam to Swedish dream pop to Ohio noise-electronics, Kashmiri war metal and well beyond, with the usual stop-over in Chicago for free-improv jazz. Writers included Bill Meyer, Justin Cober-Lake, Ian Mathers, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Andrew Forell and Nate Knaebel. Stay cool.

Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli — Salika, Molika CD (Hubro)

Salika, Molika by Erlend Apneseth Trio

This project unites two musicians who have set themselves the task of reconciling contemporary means with Norwegian folk music materials in the 21st century. Erlend Apneseth plays Hardanger fiddle, a violin variant with sympathetic strings that give it a striking resonance; his trio includes a drummer with a feel for Norway’s pre-rock popular dance grooves and an acoustic guitarist who doubles on sampler and other electronics. Frode Haltli is an accordionist who has shuttled between the worlds of folk and free improvisation. Their collaboration scrambles lucid memory, which is represented by archival field recordings of folk songs and dances, with a mildly feverish dream of a trip through ambient textures that somehow detours every now and then through beats that’d earn you an extra beer if you played them in a Nordic country dance hall. The field recordings exert a gravity that counteracts the lightness of the spacy passages, and Haltli tucks his virtuoso command of the squeezebox into hiding spots, ripe for discovery.

Bill Meyer

 Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples — NATCH 10: Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples (Black Dirt Studio)

NATCH 10 - Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples by Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples

After a few years off, Jason Meagher's Black Dirt Studio has resumed its NATCH series of releases, with volume nine (ignoring the prefatory release) coming from Wednesday Knudsen and Willie Lane in June, and the latest pairing Hans Chew and Garcia Peoples. The series offers artists the freedom to collaborate however they please to create freely available releases. Chew and Garcia Peoples make for an ideal match on paper, and the actual pairing pays off.  

Garcia Peoples started their cosmic psych just last year, with two albums out in short order. Pianist Chew has been putting in his time for longer, taking his roots-of-rock and Southern rock sound into increasingly spacey places, turning more and more toward a jam sensibility without sacrificing his songwriting. His Open Sea started taking hints from Traffic, so it's no surprise that this release includes a Dave Mason cover, “Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave.” Chew fits effortlessly into Garcia Peoples' jams for a couple tracks, and they meet him in his bluesy-ness for “No Time.” In the middle we have the acidic meditation of “All Boredoms Entertained,” the hinge between the two more rocking segments. The partnership works best when everybody takes off, and the 10-minute opener “Hourglass” burns as hot on record as it would at a festival.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Death & Vanilla — Are You a Dreamer? (Fire)

Are You A Dreamer? By Death & Vanilla

On their third album, this trio from Malmö, Sweden show a devotion to making the most gossamer strain of dream pop without ever losing sight of a knack for peppily compelling song structures. Two of those four earlier albums may have been live soundtracks for movies, but none of these eight deceptively sharply-written songs fade into the background for a second. Singer Marleen Nilsson may be swathed in gauzy atmospherics throughout, but whether on the swooning opener “A Flaw in the Iris,” the foreboding thrum of “Mercier” or the orchestral surges of “Nothing Is Real,” she effortlessly commands center stage here. The music deserves the obvious comparisons to Stereolab and early Broadcast, but Death & Vanilla manage to put their own spin on the influences they share with those earlier acts, and the result is a good reminder that there more than enough room on that territory for multiple bands.

Ian Mathers

 Graham Dunning — Tentation LP (White Denim)

Walk Tentation down on the turntable without foreknowledge of who made it or how it was made, and you’re likely to think that you’re hearing a bit of in sync but off-kilter techno. It sounds like some lost Kompakt release got shaken up and dubbed out with a bag half full of Lego pieces. But the truth is stranger than that. Graham Dunning plays a real time mechanical techno with a homemade, eternally changeable set-up that can simultaneously play a stack of records whilst affording him the means to fuck with individual sounds. True to his techno ambitions, this stuff bumps in ways the kids won’t question. But his willingness to get hung up on a sound and play with it, and then play with it a bit more, mark him as an experimenter with a feline sense of play. “Do I put a bit more reverb on this bit of echo,” one can imagine him musing, “or do I just knock it under this bump in the rug?”

Bill Meyer

  Erin Durant — Islands (Keeled Scales)

Islands by Erin Durant

Erin Durant has a lovely, old-fashioned country voice, flute-y with vibrato at the top-end, rich with emotive sustenance in the mid and lower ranges. It’s the kind of voice that careers are built on, yet Ms. Durant, born in New Orleans now living in Brooklyn, refuses to take the easy road of relying on in-born talents. She brings into complication, depth and contradiction into her songs with a sharp, modern writer’s pen and an idiosyncratic cast of supporting musicians. Her crew on Islands is headed by TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone and includes percussion-centric composer Otto Hauser, the boundary pushing pedal steel artist Jon Catfish DeLorme, at least once on harmonica, the eccentric folk singer Kath Bloom, and a large ensemble of brass and reeds. So when on opener “Rising Sun,” she playfully dabs at the Animals’ blues-rock chestnut (verses begin with the phrase “There is a house in New Orleans”), it’s within a precise lattice of country guitar, of multi-tonal percussion, of flickering bits of flute and woozy surges of trombone and trumpet. It lighter and more delicately structured than the song it references, yet built out elaborately with complex layers of instruments. The title cut, likewise, lifts off in airy weightlessness from the gospel chords of piano, as tied to tradition as it needs to be for resonance, yet fundamentally self-determined. There is nothing lovelier than Durant’s massed, multi-voiced choruses here, but the prettiness isn’t everything, far from it.

Jennifer Kelly

 Four Letter Words — Pinch Point (Amalgam Music)

Pinch Point by Four Letter Words

The Chicago-based trio Four Letter Words comes full circle on its second album. Pianist Matt Piet, tenor saxophonist Jake Wark and drummer Bill Harris first convened to play a night of trios at the venue Constellation, but then pursued an investigation of written material before returning to spontaneous music making for this nicely packaged, short run disc. You can get a lot out of this music by focusing on Harris’ inventiveness and humility, or Wark’s angular impetuousness or Piet’s astonishing capacity to pick the best ideas of a half century of jazz practice and put them in just the right places. But you might get more from listening to how the trio collectively imagines musical environments, realizes them, and then pushes off to the next idea at just the right moment to leave you wishing they’d stayed a little longer.

Bill Meyer

  Jake Xerxes Fussell — Out of Sight (Paradise of Bachelors)

Guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell has a knack for curating old music, but his first two albums were more than simple collections of reworked folk music. His sharp playing and intelligent production (give William Tyler some credit here) have turned old tunes into something a little more vibrant. For Out of Sight, he adds a proper band to his presentation, and the presence of Nathan Bowles on drums is worth noting, even if that sympatico artist largely keeps in the background. In expanding his lineup, Fussell also expands his sound; he no longer just mines particular folk traditions, but instead he inserts himself into a larger Americana conversation. 

The move, intentionally or not, puts more of Fussell himself into the album, to its benefit. If anything held back his previous releases, it was this sense at the edges of the sound that Fussell had tied his own hands, his traditionalism tending toward that curator impulse. The songs on Out of Sight come from a variety of places (though if you plotted most of them on a Seeger-Lomax axis, it would make sense), but they're put into Fussell's current vision. “Three Ravens” builds a broad frame for a singular meditation, the sort of moment his work has hinted at without maintaining. Fussell sounds like he's deep in tradition, but committed to pushing it forward in his own way know, and it's a wonderful step for a gifted artist.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Halshug — Drøm (Southern Lord)

Drøm by Halshug

“Kæmper Imod,” the first track on Halshug’s new LP Drøm, could easily fit onto the second side of Black Flag’s The First Four Years, which chronicles the singles and EPs the Flag released during Dez Cadena’s tenure as front man. The Danish hardcore band hits all the necessary notes, channeling Greg Ginn’s ugly guitar tone and the vicious, overdriven quality of Southern Cali hardcore, c. 1981. The song might be a love letter, but the first side of Drøm doesn’t move far beyond the established sounds of a style now nearly 40 years old. On second side of the record, Halshug does some more varied stuff. “Tænk På Dig Selv” shifts in and out of competing rhythms and makes a winning ruckus. Most interesting are the industrial racket of “02.47” and the extended instrumental “Illusion,” which moves from hard rocking groove, to thunderously exuberant crusty riffing, to arcing drone, and then back again. It’s a hugely fun, sonically engaging song, which makes you wish Halshug would ditch the Hermosa Beach vibe that dominates much of the record.          

Jonathan Shaw

 DJ HARAM — Grace (Hyperdub)

Grace by dj haram

Philly based producer DJ Haram (Zubeyda Muzeyyen) builds the tracks on her Hyperdub debut Grace on darbuka rhythms in homage to her Middle Eastern roots. The album also reflects her involvement in the experimental scene as a DJ and half of noise/rap duo 700 Bliss (with Moor Mother). Over the delicate percussion she layers flutes, big slabs of synth, heavier beats and disruptive stabs of noise. “Candle Light (700 Bliss Remix)” introduces vocals with an impressionistic poetic rap over a purely percussive backing. There is an urgency here driven by the restless, relentless rhythms which makes Grace is a disquieting and claustrophic listening experience. Fans of Muslimgauze and Badawi will find much to admire. DJ Haram uses a limited palette to full and focused effect building atmosphere and impressively drawing a line between middle eastern and western electronic music.

Andrew Forell

 Tim Hecker — Anoyo (Kranky)

Anoyo by Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker may make music that envelops the listener with beatless, thickly textured sound, but don’t call it ambient. For while ambient music holds at least the possibility that you can get lost in its drift, Hecker likes to short-circuit comfort. Soft sounds turn grainy, plush clouds disappear and if you catch him in concert you’ll feel the music as much as you hear it because it’s that loud. Anoyo is a companion to last year’s Kanoyo, and like its predecessor originated with some collaborative sessions between Hecker and an ensemble of gagaku (Japanese traditional ceremonial) musicians. He mixes their sounds up with warped and reversed strings and squelchy synthetic bass, and shapes the resulting amalgam into aural vignettes that are less extravagantly mobile than the tracks on Kanoyo but equally dislocating as national traditions and diverse equipment collections swirl and meet on uncommon ground.

Bill Meyer

 Kapala — Termination Apex (Dunkelheit Produktionen)

Termination Apex by KAPALA

By its very nature, war metal is retrograde stuff. The fact that the bands most strongly associated with the subgenre (Proclamation and — yes, seriously — Bestial Warlust) hailed from nations that haven’t experienced much by way of war-related trauma for decades doesn’t help. Does it make a difference that Kapala live and record in Kolkata, and that India and Pakistan have effectively been at war in Kashmir since Partition, and have been in a U.N.-mediated ceasefire (sort of) since 1965? And that both nations are nuclear powers? And that India is led by a fiery Hindu nationalist? And that the cover art for Termination Apex features a stylized mushroom cloud? Yikes. Aesthetically, war metal has its appeal. It features simplistic riffing, technical primitivism and hammering percussion, all taken to sonic extremes. But its romanticization of industrially scaled destruction and nihilism is repugnant and culturally corrosive. Kapala will attract some attention just through exoticism — metal from India? Sure, I’ll check it out. But a reactionary artwork is a reactionary artwork, wherever it comes from.

Jonathan Shaw

 Khaki Blazer—Optikk (Hausu Mountain)

Optikk by Khaki Blazer

“Mothafucker ain’t nobody playing grooves in 13. You can’t get paid for playing grooves in 13. Ain’t nobody gonna shake their booty. That’s why you’re fucking broke,” observes an uncredited voice in the spikily difficult “4/4,” a typically intricate rhythmic concoction of electronic squeaks, blurts and rattles for this Kent, Ohio-based outfit. Pat Modugno who heads up Khaki Blazer, as well as Mothcock and Fairchild Tapes, constructs giddy, multilayered rhythms. In “Conga Line” sampled, altered voices do battle with rackety bursts of drumming and urgent, antic whistle of a melody. The parts work every which way, throwing elbows, stepping on toes, in furious conflict that somehow resolves itself into slinky rhythm. Whether in four, in six, in seven or in thirteen, Khaki Blazer cuts never take the easy way, but they are grooves all the same.

Jennifer Kelly

 Lambchop — This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) (City Slang/Merge)

Fourteen albums in and Nashville’s increasingly sui generis Lambchop, led as always by Kurt Wagner, is doing something that feels unusual, at least for them. 2016’s digitally-enhanced FLOTUS was a sprawling statement of a record, and given the restlessness that led to the processing Lambchop used there it wouldn’t be a surprise if their new record went off in a totally new direction. Instead the focused, somewhat more straightforward This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) could almost be a hefty postscript to FLOTUS. It doesn’t boast anything with the majesty of the two ten-plus minute tracks on the previous album, but all the songs here sound even more comfortable in their own hybrid skins, and as always Wagner is in fine lyrical form. It remains to be seen if this constitutes as Lambchop settling down, but if so it’s in a richer and more bracing way than most bands half their age can manage.  

Ian Mathers  

 Régis Renouard Larivière — Contrée (Recollection GRM)

Régis Renouard Larrivière was born in 1959. But if Discogs is a reliable reporter, despite having been involved in music as a student, instructor, and composer of musique concrete, this is only his second album. Presumably his works are intended more for the multi-speaker listening environments available to the Groupe de Recherches Musicales; certainly it’s not hard to imagine this LP’s three pieces caroming from speaker to speaker, elevating the listener into a mind-altered state induced more by unfamiliarity than sensate distortion. The way they leap off the vinyl of this 45-rpm LP is a trip in itself. No substance, prescribed or otherwise scored, will get you where this stuff takes you. Even when a sound seems familiar — there’s some identifiable drumming amidst the synthetic twitter and boom — it behaves in ways that are unconcerned with the laws of music. Despite its unnatural sound content, Larivière’s music moves more like some force of nature. “Esquive,” for example, evokes leaves in an updraft, circling and dispersing. Like those leaves, each sound has tactile identity that invites you to deal with his compositions at the atomic as well as meteorological level. Strap in, enjoy the ride.

Bill Meyer

  Gabriele Mitelli / Rob Mazurek — Star Splitter (Clean Feed)

The recurrent astronomical imagery in Rob Mazurek's music makes this much clear; his horizons are farther off than most. A restless multi-media artist (his work includes sound and light installations, painting, and composed and improvised music performed with various brass and electronic instruments in the company of musicians from at least three continents), he nonetheless has certain modes that he revisits. In Gabriele Mitelli, he has found an astute companion to follow him into the realm of ritual. In 2018, the two men stepped into the Mediterranean and blew their horns in the direction of the African refugees trying to cross the sea in untrustworthy vessels. No one showed up while they played, but the energy they projected took wind and you can still get a taste of it on Youtube. On Star Splitter, which was recorded on dry land in Florence, they add electronics, voices, and unidentified objects to their brass (Mitelli: cornet, soprano sax, alto flugelhorn; Mazurek: piccolo trumpet) to stir up four sonic maelstroms in celebration of planets from our solar system. Direct our ears in their direction and see how far your own horizons recede.

Bill Meyer

  Tony Molina—Songs from San Mateo County (Smoking Room/650 Records)

Songs From San Mateo County by Tony Molina

Tony Molina is a master of concision. No sooner have his songs stated their killer riff or indelible melody than they’re over, and damned if you wouldn’t like to hear them again. His blistery guitar and way with tunefulness evokes Teenaged Fanclub, and here, on a collection of unreleased and unfinished material from 2009 to 2015, it becomes clear that he doesn’t have to work that hard to hit that sweet spot. The odds and sods are as fetching as anything on his last three albums. Sure he plays fast and loose with some baroque guitar licks on “Intro” and “Been Here Before,” and maybe that’s a little bit off center for power pop genre. But he weaves them in, at least in “Been Here Before” in a way that reinforces the doomed romantic vibe. He rocks a little harder than usual, too, on cuts like “Hard to Know,” with a sidewinding guitar break worthy of Brian May in his prime, but as usual, any hint of rock star excess is limited: the cut is less than a minute long. “Separate Ways” layers sublime dream pop hooks over an incendiary racket, like J. Mascis stepped in to a Raspberries session. The whole collection is so catchy and so satisfying that you have to wonder what else Molina has languishing in his hard drive. Let the songs out, man. We can always use more of these.

Jennifer Kelly

 Mark Morgan — Department of Heraldry (Open Mouth)

The rise and fall of the guitar in popular and critical esteem relates directly to the fact that a lot of people play the thing, and a lot of them sound like lesser imitations of someone doing something that you never wanted to hear done with the thing. If this is your problem with the guitar, Mark Morgan is not part of your problem. The former member of Sightings makes a case for the instrument as a vehicle for creative sound manipulation that cannot be refuted by lazy reference to the dozens of records in your collection, or memory, or once-clicked, never closed browser pages. This music sounds like it is being chewed and digested during the passage from his amplifier to your eardrum. Molars indent twangs, incisors gnash chunks of fuzz, and acids strip off the crusty coating and lay bare the jagged bones of sounds that you really, really shouldn’t be swallowing, but that you really need to hear.

Bill Meyer

Private Anarchy — Central Planning (Round Bale)

Central Planning by Private Anarchy

Titular intimations of both anarchy and planning suggest internal tension that is born out by the music on this album, which is the inaugural vinyl release by hitherto cassette-oriented Round Bale Recordings. Private Anarchy has a bit of an identity crisis; shall one emulate the petulant, gotta get this off my chest delivery of David Thomas c. 1979 or the twangy stride that the Fall hit around the same time? Since the combo is really one man who is acquainted enough with the 21st century to put a laptop computer on the LP’s cover, Clay Kolbinger has taken the time to figure out how to do both at once. The admittedly derivative sounds are well executed, with enough apprehension to suggest that he is similarly motivated by a discomfort that cannot be assuaged.

Bill Meyer

  Rodent Kontrol — Live (Fuzzy Warbles Casettes)

Rodent Kontrol Live (FW13) by Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes

Delivering post-Meatmen teenage punk knuckleheadedness at its explosively deranged best, the short-lived Ann Arbor high-school band Rodent Kontrol played this impromptu live set on the University of Michigan's WCBN in 1987 following a performance by the Laughing Hyenas. The latter were one of the toughest acts to follow, but Rodent Kontrol's calamitous, search-and-destroy assault is so gleefully unhinged, and full of the kind of ill-defined yet apoplectic animosity that can only be mustered by the young and the reckless, they truly give Brannon and co. a run for their money. While Live is on the one hand an amusing artifact, it is on the other a true gem of a release in our current era of archival overabundance. Make no mistake, this is rough, sloppy, perhaps offensive stuff, and Rodent Kontrol didn't break any new ground musically or aesthetically. But the nearly sublime agitation exuded by these guys here is truly something to behold, creating a genuinely unnerving sense that something very bad about is about to happen, and when it does it will feel absolutely good. If that's not the point of this kind of thing, I don't know what is. In addition to the 1987 live performance, this cassette release (also available as a download) adds a 2012 reunion show featuring a slightly tighter, slightly more "mature" version of the band, but certainly no less nihilistic. 

Nate Knaebel

 Sail into Night — Distill (self released)

In the three years since this Dubai-based Pakistani duo’s very promising debut, it feels like if anything they’ve pared down their already elementally satisfying, nocturnal variety of post-punk slowcore to its simple, direct, powerful essence. Zara Mahmood’s harmonium, Nabil Qizilbash’s guitar, a drum machine and their vocals continue to be enough to generate surprisingly heavy music; although you’d be hard pressed to fit the music stylistically anywhere in the heavy metal realm, emotionally and tonally it exists somewhere between the “stonegaze” of a band like True Widow and the stark grandeur of early Low. From the chiming “Lighthouse” to the closing grind of “Apart,” Distill packs a lot of dark energy into a compact 30-minute run time.  

Ian Mathers

  The Schramms—Omnidirectional (Bar/None)

You might know Dave Schramm as an original member of Yo La Tengo or for his guitar work for a whole slew of artists ranging from The Replacements to Freedy Johnston. You might even remember a string of clever, understated country-pop albums from the early 1990s through the turn of this century under the nom de guerre The Schramms — though it’s been a long time. But this seventh Schramms album, the first since 2000, will take you right back to all that’s wonderful about Dave Schramm: quiet intelligence, unshowy but impressive skills, an alchemical way of slipping abrasive rock sounds into soft pop melodies, quality over flash, but still a bit of flash. Take, for instance, the way that “Faith is a Dusty Word” opens up from a rambling piano ballad into swoon-y Pet Sounds-worthy vocal counterpoints, or how contemplative “New England” blossoms from wispy indie pop into a bitter sweet rock anthem, a la American Music Club. Schramm plays with long-time drummer Ron Metz (their partnership dates back to the 1970s Ohio cult band The Human Switchboard) and bassist Al Greller, an original Schramm, so it’s all very burned in, with the easy, unstruggled-for precision of people know what will happen next. Subdued, well-thought-out guitar pop is definitely not the flavor of the month these days, but who cares about fashion when it’s this good?

Jennifer Kelly

 Slow Summits — Languid Belles (Hundreds and Thousands Records)

Slow Summits come jangling out of Linköping, Sweden like the keychain on a building supervisor’s belt. Their debut EP Languid Belles presents four tracks of perfectly rendered, chiming and literate indie pop. The foursome of Anders Nyberg (vocals, rhythm guitar), Karl Sunnermalm (lead guitar, harmonica, keyboards, glockenspiel), Mattias Holmqvist Larsson(bass, keyboards, percussion) and Fredrik Svensson (Drums) enlists Amelia Fletcher (Tender Trap, Talulah Gosh, Heavenly) on backing vocals on two tracks. If these guys worship at the altar of Postcard-era Scotland their songs pay more than just homage to Orange Juice, The Pastels and international contemporaries The Go-Betweens, Beat Happening and Felt. Sunny melodies and kindly sarcastic lyrics driven by a tight and swinging rhythm section hit every serotonin and dopamine center of the musical brain. Slow Summits are the latest Scandinavian band to keep on your radar; Languid Belles is irresistible and will leave you “simply thrilled honey”  

Andrew Forell   

 The Way Ahead — Bells, Ghosts and other Saints (Clean Feed)

Peel back one layer of the Scandinavian jazz scene and you’ll find another layer. If you’ve spent much time paying attention to Cortex, Friends & Neighbors or Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit, you’ll recognize most of the members of this horn-heavy, piano-free octet. André Rolighten (tenor saxophone, clarinet) and Tollef Østvang (drums) write the tunes, and as you’d surmise from a band that finds three ways to pay homage to Albert Ayler in the album name, those tunes owe a lot to his ecstatic/anguished sentimentality. But they aren’t locked into Ayler’s modes; there are also passages that have a distinctly European brass band feel, and some brusque, almost boppish moments. The band might seem ironically named if you take the title literally; this music is rooted in the 1960s, a time before most of the band’s members were born But if you recognize that name comes from an Archie Shepp session with a similar line-up, their sincerity comes into focus. These guys are just trying to blow some life into music much like the stuff that first made them want to play the kind of jazz they’re playing, and they’ve got the wind power to do it.

Bill Meyer