#river+julia: joined at the hip

[idlenight]

There is no shape Julia could take in which he would not know her. And there should be no shape River could take in which Julia would not know him.

Except she does not know him as she stares at her own reflection in the helmet. She does not know him as they trade blows. She does not know him as he beats her body bloody and blue like the dress she wears before he finally stops to stare at the destruction of her form.

She does not know him anymore. But she thinks she does.

[nadiaportia]

Life Lessons - A Past Tale

Summary: On a day meant for relaxation, a young magician-in-training finds herself in the middle of an explosive confrontation.

Starring the Rubalacaba family; Ximena, Heloisa, Cibela, Esmé and Marisol

Word count: ~4.6k

Content warning for violence (nothing too graphic) and a messed up family dynamic.

It was a warm midsummer’s day, the sun stood high in the sky and my lessons had been finished an hour earlier. Mistress Julia had congratulated me on my good work and progress and allowed to me go enjoy myself outside for the rest of the day while she was going to the docks. Her wife had been travelling to Karnassos to see her family and they haven’t seen each other for several weeks.

As it was a habit, I decided to go the aviary to relax after my lessons. The grounds were vast, in my own opinion a little too vast, so there were always places to hide but the aviary had something about it - despite the fact that I was barely on my own there. It was also my sister’s Heloisa’s prefered location; she could spend hours in there taking care and marvelling at its residents. When we were both younger, she would teach the goldfinches to sing along to her whistling and proudly showed them to the servants and our father. The aviary was her dominion, especially since our older sister couldn’t be less interested in birds and spent the time she was on the grounds training or studying. 

The aviary was a large cage made of gilded steel with vegetation and a small river flowing through it, in size bigger than the main hall in the manor, where its residents had free reign to live in. Upon entering, I heard giggling and following the path deeper into the small forest, I saw my older sister. She sat on the ground, stroking a golden pheasant on her lap while a hummingbird flew about her face. It was currently holding one of her black curls in its beak as if to pull her up from her comfortable position.

“No, please, Xquic!”, she laughed and stopped stroking the pheasant to gently let the hummingbird sit on her index finger.

“Dorian deserves his caresses too, you know I don’t play favorites.”

She had given every single bird in the aviary a name and treated each of them like individuals. I liked all of them just fine enough but to Heloisa they were as much as her friends like the noble girls she went to parties with in secret. When she saw me, a grin spread across her face. 

“Welcome to freedom! I've been here for two hours now, Livia decided to give it a rest because even she didn't have the spirits to talk for too long about this guy's manifest. I mean, reading about revolting merchants can only be so interesting, especially when you already know they were beaten after the armies of Karnassos and Bizatena came to the Zaan's aid!” 

She sighed dramatically and proceeded to make kissing noises at Xquic. I sat next to my sister. The grass was warm and soft, and Dorian raised his head to look at me. I reached out and caressed the top of his crown. 

“Well, I spent three hours trying to make portals large enough for a human to fit through, but it takes a lot of concentration. When Julia does it, it looks so easy.” 

“Your magic stuff is vastly more interesting than politicking and learning how to lie.”

“I don't get your complaints - Tía Esmé has you on track to leave the junior court meetings and go full game. Cibela attended her first meeting last year.”

My sister's smile turned into a sneer. Even though we all enjoyed the luxury of fundamental education - history, philosophy, various languages such as Bizanti, Zadithian and Prakran, literature, art, music, the sciences and common etiquette proper for a noble of Cartagenth - each of us was also given tutelage in a special field in order to prepare us for our future at the Zaan's court. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”, she said and shrugged, “and still, making portals, lifting objects and talking with spirits is pretty wicked and exciting.” I sighed. It didn't matter if she was the best junior politician and won several play-debates against seasoned courtiers during dinners, she would always want the talents others possessed. But I wasn't in the spirits to argue with her, not today. 

“Magic is a lot more complicated than you think, and from what Tía Esme says it might take even years before I am as good as Julia - and I don't wanna be just good enough to become a tutor.”

“By the mother, imagine that! No, you will be the greatest magician of all times, they will build statues for and tell stories of you, not only here but everywhere! Crystalleans in the North, bandits in the South, Firenti in the East and Calpacians all over will know the name Ximena de Rubalcaba!” 

I laughed and shook my head.

“If you say so, it will be true one day.”

“Of course it will.” Heloisa reassured me and gently shooed her avian companions away from us. “I talked to Tía Esmé a couple of days ago, according to her it could very well be that I were to start my travels very soon. If you asked me nicely and with a bow on top, I could consider namedropping you to the rulers of far away and powerful countries…”

“How's that going to go down? 'Oh, Queen of Prakra, say, if you happen to be looking for a magician, I might just know the right person - my fifteen year old sister!'”

“No, of course not, you idiot. One of the essences of politics is: less is often more.”

“Ah, yes, less was definitely more on the party thrown by the son of the Karnasso ambassador. Or when Shayera, Filomena and you went to a 'health resort'. Or-” 

“Okay, I get it. Phew, it's not my fault you are boring and never want to join in on the fun.” 

“Whatever. At least I won't die of boredom in cabinet rooms or in court sessions when I'm a grown-up.” 

Heloisa scoffed loudly and stood up. “Fine! And you'll never be a capable magician, in the meantime I'll be dining with the influential sovereigns of the world. Who knows, maybe I'll become the next Zaan before you manage to cast a portal!”

I looked lazily at her, how she stood over me, her hands on her hips, the sun behind her head and casting dark curly hair into a warm light. 

“Hm.” I closed my eyes and smiled as I heard her walk off and out of the aviary, fuming while murmering curses under her breath.

And yet she was also my best friend even though we were nothing alike. The nightly carousing my sister loved so much was nothing I could ever be interested in, apart from the fact that she was four years older and thus allowed to do it, but rule-breaking and rebellion without a cause in general never had the same appeal to me. It wasn't as if I hated being in company but it wasn't something I craved like a moth needed the lantern's light, and I certainly didn't have the same social charisma as her, with a face known and beloved by all and the ability to make everyone feel special in her company. I liked being on my own, listening to my own thoughts or doing things on my own such as reading, practicing on Cibela's piano whenever she wasn't on the estate (her visits were becoming rarer anyway), stealing into the kitchen to watch the servants prepare our food (the first time I had done that, they thought Madre had send me to make sure they did a good job), making sketches of the paintings in the galleries and many other things lonely noble children seemed to do, as I had been told by my cousin Agustín. The only son of Tía Esmé was a diplomat on track to becoming an ambassador and during his visits, he would stay on the family estate. Despite him and Cibela being the closest in age, they were like cats and dogs to each other, with him having thrown around the words “cruel” and “heartless” while Cibela had complained to Madre about him being a pathetic excuse of a politician and even a traitor to Cartagenth. So he spent most of his visits with Heloisa and me, even though he always told me I was his favorite - and judging by the sharp remarks he made about Heloisa, even to her own face, there was no doubt it was true. It was a nice feeling to be someone’s preferred company even though I felt as if favoritism seemed to be a family tradition, and not a good one. 

I sighed, opened my eyes again and was immediately almost blinded by the sun. The goldfinches were singing somewhere in the trees and something was chirping softly in the scrubs. A thought crept into my mind and I grinned. I sat up, leaned towards the bush and let out a whistle. It rustled and a black manakin made its way to me. 

“Hello, you cutie.” I said, and wiggled my finger at it. “Wanna help me in an experiment?”

I hoped this would work. We would throw marbles throw the portals to see whether they fulfilled their purpose but never tried it with a living organism, so if it didn't work…

The manakin tilted his head and looked at me. I sighed. 

“Right, you don't understand human speech.” I reached out and softly stroked his chest. “But you're not flying away, so I'll take that as a yes.” He nibbled at my finger. “I'll collect some worms for you, I don't have a problem with digging in the ground unlike someone else.”

A chirp, whether he actually understood a word was another matter.

I closed my eyes and let out a breath. I tuned out the noises all around me and concentrated on the manakin, where it was and on creating a gateway to bring it to another location - not very far, just a few meters away from me. A noise that wasn't quite a noise caught my attention and upon opening my eyes, I saw the bird looking curiously at a small doorway, big enough for him to comfortably fit through, and another one near a tree trunk.

“That's for you. Please…?” 

The manakin looked at me as if he himself was unsure of this.

“Go ahead, nothing will happen.” I said with hopefully enough conviction in my voice. 

It seemed to have hit the mark because he jumped through it - and reappeared a few meters away from me. 

“Yes!”, I screamed and pumped a fist in the air and startling the manakin who jumped about a foot in the air.

Time flew by as I made portals, some bigger than others, for my new friend to walk or fly through, and he strangely seemed to find as much joy as this as me. 

I was in the middle of making another one when I heard footsteps. To my surprise, it was Heloisa, with her face dark like a beetroot and her mouth twisted into a snarl.

“What happened?” I asked worried, hurrying over to her but instead of an answer she pushed me away. Her eyes were rimmed red and there was a glint of fire in copper brown that made me take a step back. 

“What do you think you're going to do with this?”

“Get out of my way!”, was the snappy answer I received as she made her way over to a tree, reached into a hole in the trunk and pulled something out. A shining steel blade, one that I was sure I had seen many many times.

“By the Devil, is that one of the Nopali swords in the ancestral gallery?” I blurted out and followed Heloisa as she stomped out of the aviary. When I got no verbal response, I grabbed her arm and made her face me. 

Her lips switched and she scrunched her nose. 

“You'll see soon enough what I'll do to her.” Wrenching loose of my grip, she whirled around and continued her way, and it hit me like a falling anvil to know where she was going. The aviary wasn't far from the estate building itself so it didn't take too long before we reached the first inner court which also functioned as training grounds for the guards. In the center, on the sand ground, a young woman in light armor with one arm on her back and the other wielding a blunt training sword was parrying the blow of a figure also clad in light armor and with a double-handed sword. She dodged the next blow, made a sidestep and used the momentum to hit her opponent in the side with the swords pommel. The opponent clutched their side and wheeled around to meet her blow, metal hitting metal in an ugly noise.

“Hey! Cibela!” Neither of the figures acknowledged us but merely continued their melee.

“Don't tell me you want do what I think you want to do.” I sighed and held Heloisa's arm. 

“Don't tell me what to do,”, she hissed and shoved me away, “and don't even dare to tell Mother. Cibela!”

“Don't be stupid and put down the sword, please! You'll hurt each other.”

Fury was written all over her face when she said: “That's exactly what I want to do. I've had enough of her thinking she is better than me just for being allowed to train as a warrior!”

“Then challenge her to chess or something, not a swordfight.”

Heloisa let out a mocking laugh. “Of course you'd say that, words befitting of a cowardly magician.” My cheeks stung at her words as if I had been slapped in the face. “You wouldn't understand. You don't have any fighting spirit, so all you are good for is rolling over and playing dead.”

“I just know that fighting battles I can't win doesn't do any good.”

The noise of a body hitting the floor brought our attention back to the fighters and we saw how the woman took the hand of her opponent to be helped off the ground. Dark curls had escaped her braid during the fight and made her look distinctively messy, beads of sweat glittered on her forehead and her neck and face were flushed. 

“May the Devil damn you, stop distracting me!”, she yelled at us and pushed the loose strands of her out of her face. Dark eyes fixated us angrily and Heloisa laughed yet again. 

“Oh, is it that easy? I'm starting to believe you are not good a fighter as you make everyone believe. How do you even survive on those battlefields you claim you're so successful on?”

Cibela's face flushed even darker than it did from the exhaustion and she let out an angry snarl. “A mercenary is easy work compared to you, sister. Now go away, be a nuisance elsewhere.”

“No, I won't!” Heloisa screamed and held out the sword in front of her. The swordsman dropped their sword in shock and made a motion to walk over to us.

“Stay your hand, Octavio, or I'll have you fired and sent to live with the rats in the gutter.”

“Lady Heloisa, please calm down. The sword you're holding is sharp.”

Cibela let out a laugh. “Of course it is. Stop this nonsense before you hurt yourself, you're not worth a fight.”

I couldn't stop her from stomping at Cibela and I threw myself between the two of them, holding my hands out. “Will you two stop provoking each other?” I knew better than to ask what exactly caused this dispute to begin; I wouldn't get an answer anyway. Heloisa and Cibela constantly butted heads over even the smallest issues, and it wasn't helped by the fact that they were both too eager to find reasons to get into arguments. 

Cibela's lip curled in a sneer. “Even Ximena is more of a realist than you. She knows I'd gut you like a fish if this were an actual fight. You are no fighter; all you can do is talk a lot and charm people into doing what you want them to - and that is something everyone can do, it takes no real talent. You're just as stupid and useless as those birds you love so much - pretty to look at and have around with their feathers and songs but shallow and of no use whatsoever.”

Heloisa roared in anger, lifted the sword and ran at our sister. I jumped out of the way, and saw in shock how Cibela easily dodged the blow and took a few steps back.

“I won't fight you, you don't even know how to! It's a waste of my time and an easy kill.”

Frantically I turned to Octavio. “Get whoever, otherwise they'll kill each other for real!”, I yelled and as Cibela's coach ran off, I stood up and thought about what to do. Damn me for not knowing how to make protective shields! 

“Get a real sword and let's find out, and do you think me so stupid to fight you without knowing how to?”

“Yes, I do.”

The next hit on the tourney sword left a dent in it, and Heloisa let out a triumphant laugh. “Don't bother with holding back, or is that all you can do? I have long suspected all you did on those battlefields was have others do your dirty work, seems I was right after all!”

A kick to the stomach silenced Heloisa and sent her tumbling back. Cibela scoffed and walked back to the assembly of swords to train with and took out a silver shortsword. “Yield now, sister. Scars don't suit you and we'd never hear the end of it.”

“I have been watching you train with Octavio and the others, do you really think I never learned even a bit? Or that I might have had someone who helped me from time to time?” The grin slipped from her face as Cibela approached her with sure steps, sword in hands and swung at her. Heloisa ducked and scrambled away from our sister's reach, who looked merely amused. “I think you're in way over your head. But I will give you a lesson you will not forget ever, that you may know your place and to stay in it.”

A quick movement and Cibela took off, sword pulled back to strike at Heloisa, who stood her ground with a determined look on her face. But the impact of Cibela, who was at least a head taller and had a more muscular frame, was enough to send her on her back onto the ground. “Your battles are in court and with words, not blades.”

I screamed in terror as Cibela threw back her arm, to swing it at Heloisa's face-

I acted on instinct, for fear for my sister's life. Light bubbled in my hands and I aimed it at the two. Cibela groaned at the blinding light and covered her face as she stumbled back as Heloisa gave a hard kick at her ankle and rolled out from under her.

“You're a true magician, Ximena,”, Cibela spat at me, her face scrunched up in anger as she stood up, “too much of a coward to get involved directly but always ready to help with dirty tricks. You two are a disgrace to our family name.” Then she spun around to catch Heloisa's wrist, I hadn't even noticed her getting up again and trying to hit Cibela in the back with the pommel. 

“Especially you.”

Her grip was so hard that it made Heloisa scream in pain, she dropped the sword and let it fall into the dust between them. Cibela let her fall back, and as if through fog I saw the blade in her other hand find its way onto Heloisa's torso, connecting with it at the shoulder blade and making its way to the hipbone. Someone's shrill scream rang in my ears and only when I covered my mouth I realized it had been me. But I couldn't move, I was rooted to the spot as I watched my sisters, one standing with the tip of her blade bloodied over the other, lying on the group, gasping like a fish out of water.

Someone else's scream brought me back to reality and I spun around to see our mother and our aunt make their way to us, Octavio hot on their heels. 

“Oh my goodness!” Madre threw her hands to her face as she saw Heloisa in the dust. Her flowing purple gown fluttered behind her as she ran to them, while Tía Esmé approached me and grabbed me by the shoulders with urgency. “Marilena, what happened? Be quick about it.”

I stumbled upon my words various times and only when she dabbed my face with her cape, I noticed tears were streaming down my face. “He-Heloisa challenged Cibela to a-a fight. I didn't think they'd ac-actually-”

“What's done is done. With me, now.” Her hand wrapped around my wrist like a vice as she pulled me along. “Julia taught you the basics of healing, now's time to make use of them.” 

I gaped at Tía Esmé but the steely look in her eyes made me swallow my doubts. 

“Are you happy now? Isn't that what you wanted?” Cibela's voice was cold as ice, no hint of regret upon what she did. 

“Cibela, what have you done?” Mother cried as she cradled Heloisa, tears were freely running down her face and leaving dark traces of her make-up. My sister was looking at the cut in her chest as if she couldn't believe what just happened. The blood was beginning to stain the burgundy fabric black as it seeped out. She raised a hand to touch it and screamed at the sight of her own blood on it.

“I gave my dearly beloved sister what she was so desperately chasing; someone who would put her back in her place and teach her some respect.”

I stared at Cibela and felt my throat tighten at the venom in her words. For a brief moment, nothing more than a split second, I considered picking up the sword on the ground and hitting her with it, but the thought of it frightened me as soon as I finished it. 

The vice around my wrist disappeared and Tía Esmé closed in on Cibela, who held up her chin in defiance. “Did you stop to think about turning down the duel and reason with her without spitting poison? Is this how an officer of the Grand Army of Cartagenth behaves, or this is more akin to a lawless bandit?”

Cibela took a step forward, her face mere inches away from Tía Esmé. “She was the one who insisted on a duel, she can be lucky I decided to show mercy even if I was in the full right to kill her and I wouldn't have shed a tear if I had done so.”

The silence behind that statement lasted both nothing and an eternity, and the ensuing sound of the back of Esmé's hand hitting Cibela's face full force seemed deafening. Mother screamed and instantly let go of Heloisa to help her eldest of the dust, leaving me to catch her before she hit the ground.

“You ungrateful little parasite.” Esmé sneered as Cibela held the side of her face where she had been hit, “have you learnt nothing? Family is the only thing that matters. Without us, you’re a fucking nobody. Get out of my sight.”

Cibela scrambled onto her feet, a trail of blood running down her nose and furious tears building in her eyes. Without a further word she whirled around and left the training grounds, with Madre running after her and saying words made unintelligible by her sobs.

“Octavio, get a doctor. Have them bring something for transport.” The coach bowed quickly with a murmured “Yes, General.” and ran back into the building.

I took a deep breath as I laid my hands on Heloisa's chest. She let out a scream and squeezed her eyes shut. Esmé knelt next to us and regarded the wound with an expert's eye.

“Try to keep her from bleeding out, from what I see the wound is not deep enough to make lethal damage but you can never know. I've seen soldiers bleed to death from a lot less and survive a lot worse.”

She reached out and took Heloisa's hand, gently stroking the back of it with her thumb. “Stay awake, it'll all be alright.”

…

It would be alright, but it ended up taking two whole months. Two months that Heloisa spent in bed, taking medicine that would hurry up the healing process and barely being able to move without experiencing pain. That did not prevent her tutors from giving her stuff to read and it drove her mad with anger, along with the fact that this prohibited her from leaving with the junior council to places such as Vesuvia and Firent. I was the one keeping her company most of the evenings, occasionally Madre or Padre would join but more often than not instead of them it was Tía Esmé if she happened to be on the grounds and not in the city or at court giving war council. Cibela had left the estate grounds days after the incident to lead a division of Cartagense soldiers to the Sea of Persephia, which had to be a journey of approximately two months. After a long discussion between Tía Esmé and Madre on which I had eavesdropped, they decided it was best to send Cibela away for at least a while for the bad blood to die down, and the troops desperately needed support on the front.

“Against who is the Grand Army fighting now?” I asked Tía Esmé one evening during dinner.

“The Bizanti are on the verge of starting a trade war after being threatened by a small, way too insignificant city state and it is our duty to stand by our allies and aid them in crushing the enemy.” Her gaze turned cool as she spoke. “You make it sound as if you think we are always at war with others.”

“Aren't we? You're always holding war councils with the Zaan and his courtiers.”

“Ximena!” Madre put down her fork and looked at me. “Don't speak like this to your aunt, especially not at the table.” But Tía Esmé merely raised her hand. “I don't mind, Marisol. And I don't blame you, dearest, after all you are still only a child whereas your sisters understand the way things work. We have the right to defend ourselves from our enemies at all costs.”

“I know, but does it have to be that way? Agustín surely could solve this, isn’t that what diplomats are for?” Aunt Esmé regarded me with a raised eyebrow, Madre laughed quietly and soon everyone turned their attention back to the food. Even Heloisa seemed to agree with them when I told her what happened at dinner.

“You should be glad we have people like Tía Esmé. If generals like her hadn't been so successful, Cartagenth would’ve already been conquered by someone and instead of the Zaan, some foreign ruler would call the shots.”

I sighed. “Maybe you're right. But not everything needs to end in bloodshed.” You out of all people should know that, I thought bitterly and sat down in an armchair. 

“Some people simply don't know better,”, Heloisa sighed, like always lacking self-awareness, and turned her attention back to her book. I looked at her, my tongue barely holding back a sharp remark, and grabbed the card deck. With Julia not teaching me divination beyond the basics, it was the only area I had to work on myself. The books in the library were helpful but it was mostly a matter of practice, as I found out. A lot of practice and listening. I shuffled the deck and pulled out a card. Justice, reversed. Unfairness and lies. How very fitting.

[clive-owen-and-the-knick]

THE KNICK: haunting quality of a fever dream from which you didn’t want to wake

Typhoid Mary and the birth of ‘contact tracing’ – as seen in The Knick Want to know why ‘tracing asymptomatic carriers’ works? Then watch Steven Soderbergh's brilliant, gory historical drama

“ But Thack laid on his back was the perfect fade to grey. The Knick had finished as it started: with the haunting quality of a fever dream from which you didn’t want to wake. “

New York has been paralysed by a wave of deaths, caused by a fast-acting and unrelenting infection. It strikes indiscriminately, targeting the wealthy as ruthlessly as the downtrodden. Scariest of all, this is a hidden killer. By the time you discover you’re sick, it’s often too late. Survival is a roll of the dice.

Such is life as apprehensively lived in Manhattan today, indeed in the rest of the world. Which may explain why we’re all glued to movies such as Contagion and Outbreak, and Netflix’s documentary Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak. But it was also a key plot point from a little-watched television drama that ran in 2014 and 2015. A storyline that was, in turn, based on the real-life case of a lethal outbreak in New York at the turn of the century.

Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick was the prestige-TV equivalent of one of your five-a-day. And it came just three years after he directed Contagion, about a Covid-19-style outbreak. More importantly, it was about the birth of modern medicine: the painful and gory gestation of practices we take for granted now.

Yet the Knick (now available on demand through Sky) explores advances in brain surgery, anaesthetics, infant mortality rates and, most significantly from a 2020 perspective, the battle against infectious diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis, which we see claim a baby in its cot.

The setting is a baroque New York hospital, The Knickerbocker (based on a real hospital in Harlem which finally closed in 1979). The year was 1900: a time when moustaches were huge, syringes even bigger, and surgery had more to do with lopped-off limbs than hip replacements.

The Knick was a period caper with a very modern pulse. Soderbergh used it as a vehicle to address such eternal themes as addiction, racism and the struggle between head and heart (not to mention the importance of a perfectly maintained ’tache).

It starred Clive Owen, one of the go-to-actors for tortured intensity, as a maverick surgeon with the fantastically old-fashioned name of Dr John “Thack” Thackery. We see him forge ahead in areas such as skin grafting (he grafts skin from a patient’s arm to her nose), placenta previa surgery and hernia repair. He was a pioneer working in a time of unprecedented medical advancement.

As was the real-life surgeon upon whom he was loosely based. William Halsted was the house physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he introduced such innovations as patient charts, and invented the painful-sounding Halsted mosquito forceps – “a ratcheted haemostat to secure and clamp bleeding vessels”. And he married the first nurse ever to wear gloves during an operation. He was, in addition, addicted to cocaine and morphine (then legally available), requiring a minimum cocaine intake of three-grammes daily.

With the cocaine and the clamps and the great facial hair, you can see why he was irresistible to Soderbergh and The Knick’s creators, Jack Amiel and Michael Begler. Their fictional version of Halsted was a classic flawed anti-hero. In a just world, Thack would have joined the ranks of the small screen’s great “difficult men”, alongside Tony Soprano, Walter White and Don Draper.

Thack was portrayed by Owen as charismatic, enigmatic, permanently dishevelled and moderately racist (there are tensions early on over the hiring of African-American doctor Dr. Algernon C. Edwards). He also romped with prostitutes – as was the fashion at the time –  and began the day with enough cocaine to floor a camel.

With coronavirus bringing humanity to a stand-still, Thackery is ideal company for an extended binge-watch. The killer infection plot surfaces midway through the first of its two seasons. It doesn’t directly involve Thack. He is otherwise occupied taking drugs and cavorting with nurse Lucy (Eve Hewson, daughter of Bono).

Investigating the deaths are two second-string characters, Health Inspector Jacob Speight (David Fierro) and Cornelia Robertson (Julia Rylance), society lady and head of The Knick’s social welfare office. They discover all the households struck down with typhoid , a bacterial fever caused by a pernicious strain of salmonella, have one thing in common: a County Tyrone cook named Mary Mallon worked there.

But how could a cook spread typhoid, which cannot survive the high temperatures associated with preparing food? Eventually they work it out: she’s passing on the fever through her signature room-temperature dish of peach melba. This leads to another question: if she’s knowingly spreading typhoid all over the Upper East Side, why doesn’t she herself show symptoms?

The answer lies in a cutting-edge new theory: that some individuals carry and spread infection whilst themselves not developing symptoms. It’s a condition known as “asymptomatic”. Today, we all know what that entails, but at the time it wasn’t universally accepted within the medical profession.

Certainly, the characters in The Knick struggle to get their heads around it. “She must be a filthy thing and as sick as a cesspool,” Speight says to Robertson as they rush to stop Mary – “Typhoid Mary”, they’ve dubbed her – from serving another dose of lethal peaches.

How did they find her? By tracking down all those who fell ill, and then the people with whom they interacted, and overlaying the data points on a map of Manhattan. In other words, by “contact tracing” – a concept which might have sounded dreary a few months ago, but which today is on everyone’s lips.

In the final confrontation, they head her off at the kitchen, and she’s arrested attempting to flee. (Some might say that the American actress, Melissa McMeekin, should also be in the dock for her dreadful Irish accent, which suggests a heavy viral load of Darby O’Gill and the Little People.) Scientific ignorance, alas, wins the day. Just two episodes later, Typhoid Mary is freed, when the judge refuses to believe that someone could transmit a lethal fever while immune to its symptoms.

These are, more or less, the facts of the real-life case of Typhoid Mary, an immigrant from the Old Country estimated to have fatally spread the fever to more than 50 people (via her delicious ice-cream, however, not peach melba). Yet there was no Hollywood ending for her, despite press baron William Randolph Hearst helping fund her defence at trial. She avoided prison, as she does in The Knick, but the Typhoid Mary name followed her around. And, though she found work under a number of aliases, people continued to die in her vicinity.

Mallon was eventually sent back to North Brother Island in New York’s East River – where we she see her incarcerated in The Knick – and lived out the last 23 years of her life in enforced isolation. After her death from a stroke in 1938 at age 69, an autopsy revealed a gall bladder riddled with typhoid bacteria.

The Knick itself would submit to the inevitable after two seasons and just 20 episodes. And yet despite low ratings, it wasn’t necessarily an obvious candidate for cancellation. The critics loved it, and Soderbergh, one of the most instinctive filmmakers since Spielberg, made it quickly and cheaply for HBO offshoot Cinemax. (Incredibly cheaply, in fact, considering the realism with which he brought to life turn-of-the-century New York.)

He shot each 10-part series in just 73 days – roughly one instalment per week. That’s a decent clip when churning out a 20-minute sitcom. But to produce gorgeous prestige TV in that time-frame was remarkable. The Knick, which was shot on location in New York, looked incredible. While clearly set in the past, there’s something grippingly vivid and urgent about it. It’s the very opposite of starched, stagey period telly such as Downton Abbey and HBO’s own Boardwalk Empire.

That’s because Soderbergh filmed in natural light as far as possible. He was able to do so thanks to cutting-edge RED digital cameras, equipped with new “Dragon” sensors designed to work in low levels of light. Even when it was grim and gloomy outside, he could shoot using natural light. “Every once in a while, an actor would walk onto the set and say, “Are you guys bringing any light in?’” Soderbergh told Fast Company in 2014. “And we’d go, 'No, that’s it'.”This produced the occasional strange side-effect. Looking back over footage, for instance, Soderbergh would suddenly sense something amiss. He’d freeze the frame and zoom in. And there it was: because of the fading light, the actors’ pupils were massively dilated. 

Bravura directing was accompanied by powerhouse acting from Owen. As far back as his break-out 1990s hit Croupier, he was always a coiled spring when on screen. All that repressed tension spewed to the surface in his portrayal of Thackery, a brilliant man wrestling perpetually with demons. “It was very, very challenging and very, very demanding, and Steven [is] really fast and very concentrated,” Owen said in a 2014 interview with Indiewire. “We did the 10 hours in just over 70 days, or seven days an episode. There’s some incredibly difficult technical stuff there. All the operation stuff that’s logistically very difficult… Sometimes we’d shoot up to 13 or 14 pages a day."And yet, Soderbergh was supposed to have retired when he made The Knick. In 2012 the director of Out of Sight and Ocean’s Eleven had publicly stepped away from filmmaking. A few months later, he received a pilot script by comedy writers Amiel and Begler. His ambition at the time was to become a painter – a mission he expected to occupy all his free time over the next several years. “I was aware that the 10,000 hours required to become just good would take years of steady, applied focus,” he said. “I was basically ready to do that. I was taking painting lessons from [naturalistic wildlife artist] Walton Ford and having a great time learning things, talking to him and watching him work.”

When he read the screenplay for The Knick, and was riveted from the opening page. “I was the first person to get ahold of the script for The Knick and I just couldn’t let that pass through my fingers. It’s about everything I’m interested in. Everything. I was the first person to see it. And I thought, 'I have to do this'.”

Amiel and Begler had knocked around the industry writing disposable chuckle-fests such as the 2004 Kate Hudson vehicle Raising Helen. The idea for The Knick came when Begler had a turn of poor health. “I was having medical issues. I was researching alternative medicine, and was also frustrated,” he recalled to Indiewire in 2010. “I was thinking: What were my options 100 years ago? I can go online and find out so much different information now. Too much, even.

“But what do you do in 1900? On a whim, Jack and I just bought a couple of medical textbooks from eBay. We opened them and it was just incredible. And yes, it was a horror show. I couldn’t believe the things I was reading: people drinking turpentine to help a perforated intestine.

“My jaw hit the ground. The further we dove into this world, the more crazy s--- we saw. There was too much good stuff here. Once we saw that it was about medicine, then we started to look at what the world of 1900 was like. The world was changing so fast, with so much to play with.”

That “crazy s---” was searingly translated to the screen. The Knick is striking in that it’s set in a world only a few steps removed from ours. Thackery and his colleagues are recognisably modern doctors, not medieval quacks or shamans. Yet their practices also feel like butchery by another name. As antiseptically filmed by Soderbergh, The Knick often has the unflinching quality of an avant-garde horror film.

Thackery injecting cocaine into his genitals (all his other veins having collapsed) and performing a bowel operation using “a revolutionary clamp of his own design” are, for instance, among the highlights of the pilot. Episode four, meanwhile, sees the good doctor trying to save a woman from a botched self-administered abortion. The three-minute sequence contains more gore than all the Saw movies laid end-to-end.

The Knick finished in bravura fashion, too. As season two came to a conclusion, it was unclear if it would be renewed. So Soderbergh gave Thackery a wonderfully ambivalent send off. He recklessly attempts surgery on himself – without an anaesthetic – only for the experiment to go awry. There are a lot of entrails and lots of blood.

“My peripheral vision seems to be going… body temperature has begun to drop,” he says. “This is it… this is all we are.” And then his life flashes before him. Has the most brilliant surgeon of his era expired on his own operating table?

Soderbergh later revealed the plan was to kill off the character and that a third season of The Knick would have time-jumped to the 1940s (he wanted to film it in black-and-white). But Thack laid on his back was the perfect fade to grey. The Knick had finished as it started: with the haunting quality of a fever dream from which you didn’t want to wake.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/typhoid-mary-birth-contact-tracing-seen-knick/

[gotham-ruaidh]

Truth to Triumph

Previously…

Chapter 2: The Aftermath

June 30, 1904

The front page of The World - Evening Edition, June 15, 1904.

On the evening of June 15, The World – Evening Edition bore three-inch headlines blaring the bare facts about the disaster and preliminary estimates on the loss of life – LIST OF SLOCUM’S DEAD NOW MAY REACH 1,000. Counts of the bodies that had come ashore on all the different islands. Details about the information bureau the paper had set up on East Sixth Street, the heart of the Kleindeutschland – Little Germany – neighborhood where most passengers were from.

 The story of four-year-old Lizzie Krieger:

 Out of the peril from fire and water came four-year-old Lizzie Krieger without a smudge on her red gown, without a stain on her placid pretty face. She was taken to the Alexander avenue station, where she sat for two hours in a room in which dead women and children were laid out in three long rows.

 Her big brown eyes swept over the crowd, as it surged in and out seeking to identify perhaps the dead. To all inquiries she had but one reply:

 “My mamma is all burned up. I saw her burn.”

 Over 1,300 people – most of them German immigrants or German-speaking families – were on the General Slocum when it caught fire. Their church had rented the boat for a pleasure cruise, on their way to a church-sponsored picnic on Long Island. As it was a Wednesday – and the middle of the working week – the majority of passengers were women and children, as their husbands and fathers could not afford to take the time off work to join them.

 There was still much to discover about the tragedy itself – why it had happened, why it had been so catastrophic, who was to be held accountable.

 But in the days immediately following the tragedy, as Jamie Fraser continued to relay facts back to Park Row from people he interviewed in Yorkville and Kleindeutschland and North Brother Island and Rikers Island – another story formed in his mind.

 Not to rehash the details of the tragedy itself – but rather to share an account of the aftermath on North Brother Island. Cleverly focused on individual stories of survivors, and those assisting in the recovery.

 The mother who found her child at the end of the day – with severe burns to her arms, but otherwise unharmed.

 The hospital orderly who went mad when he realized the body he had pulled from the water was his sister-in-law.

 The nurse who soothed screaming, confused children as she treated their burns.

 The fire of Dr. Claire Beauchamp – one of the only women practicing medicine in the entire city – and her drive and determination to save as many people as possible.

 All the personal stories were touching – but none resonated with him as much as Dr. Beauchamp.

 He had spoken with her for all of three minutes on the day of the disaster, completely by chance. But something powerful about her called to him – something mysterious.

 The article was a sensation – he was the toast of the town. Mr. Pulitzer very publicly donated the proceeds for the entire week’s newspaper sales to a fund he had set up to support Slocum survivors and their families.

 The weeks after the Slocum disaster were the most success Jamie had had in his career.

 And yet all he wanted was to see her again.

 To speak with her properly. To get to know her.

 So many unanswered questions.

 How she was trained as a doctor. How she came to be on that island. How she was ever able to survive the gruesomeness of that day – that day that still haunted his dreams.

 So two weeks after the tragedy, he found himself yet again on a boat steaming up the East River to North Brother Island…only this time, it was an overcast day, and no bodies impeded the man at the tiller.

 He landed at the same dock on the island – but it was not the same. Quiet and peaceful; a few patients out and about, strolling by the riverside. Suddenly he felt foolish as he disembarked – he had no real plan, no objective other than to see her straightaway. He didn’t even know if she’d be there.

 He’d done all his basic background research, of course. Late one night, when he had been working too much to unsuccessfully keep her face from his mind, he spent a few hours down in the basement of the World’s building on Park Row, digging through the dusty archives, sneezing along with Willie Coulter, the bespectacled clerk who enjoyed telling the newsboys about the time he had met Abe Lincoln as a young reporter covering the Cooper Union speech in 1860.

 The Beauchamp family was respectable, if not yet counted among the so-called “400” of elite New York society. Claire’s father Henry Beauchamp was an architect who designed and supervised construction of the mansions springing up along Fifth Avenue – for the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, the Dyckmans, the Astors – the crème de la crème of high society. His wife Julia was wealthy in her own right, her late father Lambert Moriston having been a merchant with roots in New York for over two hundred years; Julia’s brother Quentin Lambert still ran the family emporium, a small yet prosperous shop on the exclusive Ladies Mile and in the shadow of the new, odd Flatiron Building off Madison Square.

 All of this was a matter of public record – Henry’s commissions, quotes from his very satisfied clients, advertisements for Moriston’s latest shipments of furs from Canada and hats from Paris.

 And Claire – an only child, the apple of her parents’ eye. Unlike most girls – women – of her age and means, rarely was her name found in the society pages. Rather, Jamie came across references to her charitable works; how she graduated first in her class at Barnard College, then how she was the first woman admitted to study medicine at the New York University, graduating at the top of her class. There was no mention of how long she had held the position at the sanitarium on North Brother Island, but everyone knew that it was where doctors went when they wanted a challenge.

 Or had no other options. For there was only one mention Jamie could find that even hinted at her personal life – a six-year-old announcement of her engagement to one Jonathan Wolverton Randall, professor of history at Columbia. The second son of Denys “Railroad” Randall, a close business associate of the Vanderbilt family, Jack’s elder brother Edward had followed in their father’s footsteps, rising in the ranks of the family’s railroad empire, which operated under the banner of Wentworth Industries. Edward Randall had even expanded its interests into shipping, no doubt to take advantage of the hundreds of ships bringing thousands upon thousands of immigrants to New York every month. With his elder brother otherwise occupied, Jack was left to follow his own pursuits – classical history, as well as (presumably) the beautiful Barnard students he often taught across the street from his office at Columbia.

 From his work at the newspaper, Jamie knew that the Randalls, who to all outward appearances oversaw a well-run firm, still were the subject of frequent rumors of ill-advised side investments. Much like how one of the Vanderbilt’s poor investment decisions had nearly bankrupted one of the family businesses twenty years before, the Randalls had avoided scandal only by very tightly closing ranks and pitching in to bridge the gap.

 Jamie couldn’t find any record of a marriage announcement for Jack and Claire – just a breathless society column spilling the details of the broken Randall/Beauchamp engagement, scarcely three months after it had been announced.

 And then because he couldn’t help himself, he found Randall’s other announcements – specifically, for his subsequent engagement and marriage, just a year later, to Mary Hawkins, the only child of Edward Hawkins, a partner in Wentworth Industries.

 Somewhere to Jamie’s left, a large fish splashed out of the water – returning his meandering mind to the present. He knew he had gone too far in trying to find out everything he could about the mysterious Dr. Claire Beauchamp – but something about her drew her to him. Something that spoke to him, even in their few brief moments together. Called to him. Pushed him to find more, to learn more, to understand more.

 He wanted to know her. Not just to write a feature article on her – Lord knew, the editors would be all over it. But to truly know her.

 What was it that drew him to her, so strongly?

 And dare he be so forward with her, even if he was lucky enough to find her today? Of course he could comfortably explain his visit in the context of a new article he was writing, now that the Slocum stories were dying down. What was life really like in the sanitariums and isolation hospitals that dotted the tiny islands in the East River? Just hundreds of yards away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, yet so very far away in terms of who the people were, their living standards, how they came to be there – and what their fate would be once they were released, if they ever were released…

 Fifteen minutes later he was still pondering that question, after wandering the corridors, finding the nurses’ station, and inquiring after Dr. Beauchamp.

 But just then, she whirled around the corner and into the hallway – and nearly collided with him.

 “Hello.” His confident voice cracked just a bit. “Do you remember me?”

 She frowned, one hand on her hip. “You’re the idiot reporter who interrupted me when we were dealing with the Slocum survivors.”

 He coughed. “Yes. I was wondering, Dr. Beauchamp – ”

 “I don’t know why the hell you’ve come back. I’m in the middle of a shift and I’m doing rounds. Some of the victims are still here, you know – I’ve been extra vigilant with them, if you care to report on that.”

 He squared his chin. Knowing he had seconds to capture her attention, or risk losing it forever. “I’d like to speak with you again, Doctor. You really impressed me when I was here last – it’s inspired me to write a follow-up article, maybe even an entire series, about places like this hospital. To understand how they came to be, and how people come to be here. I wanted to start with you, if that would be all right.”

 She narrowed her eyes. “What are you getting at? What’s your endgame?”

 Feeling naked, he said the first words that came to mind. “I just want to understand how you came to be here. I’ll speak with other doctors or nurses or whoever you think would be appropriate. But I wanted to start with you.”

 A nurse bounded around the corner, plowing into his shoulder. Quickly he regained his footing. Watching her watch him, appraise him.

 “You’ll have to wait until my shift is over in an hour.”

 “That’s fine. Tell me where I can wait.”

 She pondered this for a long moment. “There are a few benches outside the east wing – I go there on my breaks. It’s quiet. I’ll find you there.”

 He nodded his thanks – but she was already gone.

[undertheinfluencerd]

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J #

Amazon Prime Video has released the first teaser trailer for the upcoming sci-fi drama film titled Encounter, starring Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed as he reunites with the streamer following his acclaimed 2020 film Sound of Metal.

The Encounter teaser, which you can check out below along with the key art poster, highlights the determination of Ahmed’s character to protect his sons from a mysterious extraterrestrial threat. The film is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 3 and will be available for streaming on December 10.

When you stand by each other, you can get through anything. Encounter is coming to @PrimeVideo December 10. pic.twitter.com/VlOPkduHzs

— Amazon Studios (@AmazonStudios) September 8, 2021

RELATED: Mogul Mowgli Trailer Featuring Riz Ahmed as a Rising Hip Hop Star

Encounter is directed by UK filmmaker Michael Pearce from a screenplay he co-wrote with Joe Barton. Joining Ahmed are Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water), Rory Cochrane (Argo), Lucian-River Chauhan (Heartland), and newcomer Aditya Geddada.

“A decorated Marine goes on a rescue mission to save his two young sons from an unhuman threat,” reads the synopsis. “As their journey takes them in increasingly dangerous directions, the boys will need to leave their childhoods behind.”

RELATED: Report: The Tomorrow War Sequel in the Works at Amazon

Encounter is a production by Amazon Studios, Raw, and Film4. It is produced by Raw’s Dimitri Doganis, Piers Vellacott, and Derrin Schlesinger. Executive producers are Film4’s Daniel Battsek, Ollie Madden & Julia Oh along with Kate Churchill and Jenny Hinkey.



The post Encounter Teaser: Riz Ahmed Stars in Amazon’s Sci-Fi Drama Pic appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

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[fictionreads]

Aurora 5: Camping

Landing the Tango wasn’t too difficult the atmosphere was similar to earth. Once in the atmosphere, I flew the Tango above the surface and we began to survey the planet surface. It was amazing that the planet looked so similar to the earth’s terrain. For the most part, the planet was made up of lots of forest and jungle. There were a few plains, swamps, mountains, and even one or two desserts. It was incredible how earth like it was.

“What are the sensors telling you back there Julia?” I asked curiously if the planet was as much like earth as it looked.

“From my primary survey, this planet has basic elements similar to earth. This is to be expected because most of the universe is made up of the same elements that make up the earth.” She said with her focus on the scanners.

“Fascinating,” I said “The the planet safe? Can we camp on this planet?”

“The atmosphere is breathable and the environment is habitable. I won’t know details until we get on the ground.” She said turning her attention from panel to me. “However, I can tell you that there is life on the planet.” She said with a bit more excitement on her face.

“Life?!?” Major shouted over his shoulder.

“Yes, Sir. The scan is not specific to what kind of like. My guess would be wild life. We have seen any structures or roads to suggest anything intelligent.” Julia responded.

“Have you seen an area that would be good for us to camp?” I asked.

“I would want to stay away from the jungle because of how dense, it would make setting up camp difficult,” Julia reported.

“Not to mention dangerous. It is a new planet I want to see potential threats coming.” Lt. White interjected.

“So something less crowded. Got it.” She said studying the screen in front of her. “ 20 kilometers west is a nice spot it is on the edge of a forest and there is a sturdy mountain that should provide nice cover.” She said as she sent the scans to the viewport that looked out onto the planet.

“Looks as good as a place as any.” said the Major  "Take us there Blue.“

"Aye Sir. Coming about.” I responded as I turned the Tango west and headed to the coordinance that Julia gave me. The area looked cozy enough.

I set up down on the edge of a river that separated a meadow from the forest. Everything was so green and all the colors were so vibrant.  Even the water in the river even seemed different from the water on earth. This place seems so fresh and peaceful. I think I am going to like it here. I stood from my chair, still looking out the viewport. I couldn’t help the excitement that rose inside of me. I turned around to see that the Major and the Lt. were already in the rear. Julia and Corbin were adjusting a few things on the Tango’s sensors before the headed into the rear with me close behind them. Lt. White was putting on his holster and body gear and Major  D'ievoire was gathering other supplies from the cargo hold.

“Here Skyler, You will need this air screen. You can transfer the suttles controls to it.” She said with the air screen extended to me.

“Thanks,” I said as I walked over to the hatch and looked at the panel.

“Computer transfer control to me. Authorization Alpha Tango One .” I instructed

“Transfer complete.” It reported

I turned around to see if everyone was set to exit the Tango and explore the wonders beyond the shuttle door. Julia had a belt on with different equipment along with a cute personal phaser no bigger than her palm.

“How cute Julia. You have a baby gun.” I said with a giggle.

“It’s cute, isn’t it. Corbin has one too.” She said as she pointed to the little weapon on his belt.

“Everyone is getting a weapon.” The major stated. I turned and he walked up to me.“ That means you too.”

He slid his arm around my waist and then brought the belt around to the front of my hips.  I instinctively raised my arms to give him access while still holding the air screen in one hand. He snapped the buckle in place and hit a button on its side to lock the belt in place. I smiled as a silent thank you. I looked down to see that I did not have a baby gun but a hand phaser. I looked back up with a smirk.

“I got a big gun,” I said thoroughly pleased.

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing.” Julia teased. Major  D'ievoire smiled and shook his head as he took the air screen from my hand and placed in the holster on my belt.

“Your weapon is on IC which stands for..”

“Incapacitate. I know I was there….. in the early morning weapons training that we did……. together.” I said cutting him off.

“As your commanding officer, it is my duty to make sure you are prepared. A little refresher doesn’t hurt.” He said

“Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.” I said as I opened the hatch to the outside. The rest of the team walked out onto the planet and as I step out to join them I heard the Major mumble.

“When I imagined you calling me Sir it sounded less annoying.”

I pretend that I didn’t hear anything to save the Major some pain. Instead, I took in the scene in front of me. The space was just beautiful with its green grass and peaceful river. There was a breeze that seemed to drift through the landscape like a silent wanderer enjoying a nature stroll. This place could easily be a vacation spot for those looking for rest and relaxation. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, filling my lungs with the fresh air. The air was almost identical to earth’s but there was something different. It was like I didn’t have to work as hard at filling my lungs like this planet was richer in the air itself. This place was not going to be a bad place to stay for a little while.

“Skyler and Julia Mark out where you want to set up the base. Corbin does some basic scans of the area and see if you can’t find anything interesting. Keep your Cons handing everyone check in every 10 minutes.” Major D'ievoire barked orders. “ Lt. Let’s make a sweep of the area.” And just like that, we all went to work.

“We are going to need the markers from the Tango,” Julia said as she surveyed the area trying to figure out where everything was going to go.

“I will be right back,” I said as I sprinted back to the ship and opened the hatch with my air screen. There was a backpack sitting on the floor by the opening. I unzipped the bag to find long black steel spikes with a red sphere on the top. Each spike had a different label on the side. I scooped the bag up and head back to where Julia was standing staring out across the meadow.

“I got them just tell me where you want them,” I said setting the bag on the ground. She didn’t respond she just kept looking out across the landscape of the planet.

“Ummm Ground control to Julia. Come in?”

“Oh sorry I was just taking it all in.” She responded turning her attention to me.

“I get it. This place is…. something else. It looks really similar to earth but…. it feels different. I mean even the air.” I said taking a deep breath in.

“This planet has a more oxygen rich atmosphere than earth. That and there has been no pollution on this planet to damage it.” Julia responded with a warm soft smile.

“Put the command center spike here.” She said pointing to a spot on the ground.

“Can this oxygen rich atmosphere be harmful?” I asked

Julia shook her head. “It is true that too much oxygen can be harmful and can cause problems with organs. However, Corbin checked the levels and determined that the difference was not large enough to be harmful. It just feels a bit different.”

“Hmm, Interesting,” I said putting down another spike where she wanted it.

“You can ask him about it. I am sure he could give you more detail.” Julia said

We continued to put down spikes marking where each tent and station was to go. After a little while, it was time to check in with the rest of the team. As I looked around I could see Corbin not too far taking all kinds of scans. However, I did not see Lt. White or Major D'ievoire. I taped a small circular device on the left side of my chest and I was instantly put in touch with all of my team mates.

“Major D'ievoire, Skyler checking in. Julia and I are finished marking base camp.” I waited a few minutes for a response. I looked around to see if I could find where they were but all I saw was Corbin wading through the tall grass making his way back to us. I was just about to try again when the Major’s voice came over the com.

“Good work Lt. White and I are going to circle around one before making our way back. Start unpacking the cargo hold in the ship.” He said with complete authority. “Corbin status”

“I have made my way back to the girls. The area does not appear to have harmful plant life, insects, or animals. This area seems safe to put up camp.” Corbin reported as he came to a stop in front of us.

“Understood.” was his simple response before the com went silent. Corbin gave a pleasant smile and a flirty wink to Julia.

“Let’s unpack.” He said clapping his hands together. Julia rolled her eyes and walked past him without giving him any attention. She was getting better at handling his flirtiness. I chuckled at their playfulness and followed them to the Tango. The two of them started to pull things out of the nets on the walls. I pulled out the air screen and switched it on. The blue light came from the cylinder and a box floated before me with the Tango’s controls along with another box that held other information like supplies lists and so on. The air screen tracked my fingers and responded to them. I taped the Tango box and it became larger and the other box. I then clicked the cargo holds and the rest of the shuttle faded away and the cargo holds and its contents came into sight. All the supplies had been loaded onto anti gravity slates so the equipment and things could be easily moved. I taped the first anti gravity slate in cargo hold one and the slate came to alive. An orange glow came from underneath the rectangle steel slate and it lifted off the ground. Everything was secured on the slate with a black net so that nothing would fall as the slate moved.

I turned to look out at the camp markers that we had set up. In the bottom left corner of my screen was a button connected to the markers. With a swipe of my hand, I turned on the makers and red lights ignited across the camp showing where each building was and what was to go there. I looked at my air screen and found the manifest that Julia had put together. It showed what supplies were on each slate and where it needed to go. After figuring out where each state in the cargo hold went I sent them out to their appropriate sites.

“That wasn’t so bad I didn’t even break a sweat,” I said over my shoulder to Julia and Corbin who were continuing to remove equipment from various places in the main compartment outside the cargo holds.

“Wonderful. Now get over here and help us with this gear.” Julia said in amusement.

I walked over and started to help them unload. We had the last load on a spare anti gravity slate and were towing it off when Major D'ievoire and Lt. White came into view on the other side of the river. I handed the air screen to Corbin so he could finish up the last load. Corbin gave me a playful smile.

“looks like the major is back.” He said with a grin and Julia elbowed him in the stomach.

“What was that for?” He asked as he held his stomach.

“Do I need a reason?” Julia said with I smile the reached her eyes.

I chuckled and turned back for the tango leaving them to flirt with each other. Walked through the tall green grass letting my hand feel the tips of the grass. I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes for a moment as I walked. I could feel a slight breeze on my face and the warmth of the systems sun on my body keeping my warm. I could hear the steady flow of the nearby river and the splash of the water against the rocks on the side of the river. The environment was similar to that of a summer on earth. If I it wasn’t for the slight difference in air and color I would have thought that I was on earth. Amazing that we could find a planet so similar to our own so far away. I waited for the Major and Lt. at the tango while enjoying the alien view before me. I was enjoying the sounds of what I thought might be a lone bird chipping a strange tune in a distance. The sound was unusual in that it sounded almost insect like, almost.

“Blue!” The major shouted as he got closer to the shuttle. I jumped with the sudden disturbance to the peaceful scene I was enjoying.

“ Major,” I said as I smoothed my uniform out and regaining my composure.

“Sorry Blue. didn’t mean to startle you. Just wanted to see if you were ready to go.” The Major said with laughter on his face. Lt. White held amusement in his eyes as well.  "We are going to go back to the conquest and begin the transport of personnel and equipment.“

"Yes, Sir. The tango I unloaded and Julia have started to set up tents with the help of Dr. Corbin” I reported.

“Good,” Major replied. “Lt. Stay with these two while Skyler and I over see the rest of the transports.”

Lt. White gave a nod in response and grabbed a rifle off the tango and then headed for Julia and Corbin who were playfully bickering back and forth as they set the camp up.

“GOOD LUCK!” I shouted after the Lt. as he headed towards the two.

I turned back to the Major with a mischievous grin on my face. He looked back at me with a smirk his eyes seeming to look at me with something to say.

“What?” I prompted. He simply shook his head and boarded the Tango. I followed a few moments later after taking one last look at the meadow and its beauty.

[newyorktheater]

#Stageworthy News.

Every year for the past decade, I’ve written a preview guide to the dozen or so annual summer theater festivals in New York. Most have been canceled this year, at least one (New York Musical Festival) permanently. But several have been reimagined. The She NYC Arts festival begins Wednesday, New Ohio Theater’s Ice Factory Festival is offering a full “digital lineup” that begins Friday. Dixon Place’s Hot Festival continues online through August 1. The River to River Festival, created in the aftermath of 9/11 and normally a raft of outdoor performances in the Financial District, is this year reimagined as Four Voices — basically four art installations. The Corkscrew Festival, while postponing its live shows until next summer, announced “Corkscrew 4.0, a curated collection of virtual experiences,” although it’s not clear when these begin.

And — silver lining? — some of the summer theater festivals that would have ended their runs by now are still available online, including Theater for the New City’s Lower East Side Festival of the Arts. Last week, the Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park offered “Richard II” as a four-episode radio drama; it’s now available as a podcast on its website.

It’s worth noting that New York is not alone. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival,the granddaddy of all modern summer theater festivals, is going online

The Week in Reviews The Week in News

  The Week in Reviews

Amadeus

Historically, “Amadeus” is baloney. Theatrically, it’s a feast. Musically, the National Theatre’s 2016 production of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play — a recording of which is being streamed online through July 23 — arguably shares something of the same fate as Mozart’s supposed rival Salieri. This “Amadeus” suffers from comparison with the 1984 film directed by Milos Forman, which won eight Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Sound. Perhaps most to the point, the soundtrack of the film Amadeus won the Grammy Award for best classical album in 1985…. Still, under the direction of Michael Longhurst, this “Amadeus” has much to recommend it…

Well that was astonishing. Thank you @Play_PerView, @willarbery, @DanyaTaymor @JebKreager Julia McDermott Michele Pawk, Zoë Winters, John Zdrojeski for#HeroesoftheFourthTurning pic.twitter.com/WMglUsLYxH

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 19, 2020

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme

So there is Lin-Manuel Miranda, ten years before “Hamilton,” three years before even “In The Heights,” galloping across the street to join his fellow members of Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip-hop improv group, who have just frightened a little girl in a purple coat by spontaneously rapping about her at a bus stop in Greenwich Village….Two observations about that first scene, filmed way back in 2005, of “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme,” a new 80-minute documentary that’s now on Hulu: First, there is something frightening about the talent of this group, who make up rhymes in a rap rhythm on the spot…What this documentary offers is the opportunity to revisit something familiar.

Good As New

In “Good As New,” a funny and pointed 25-minute play that MCC streamed live online, Julianne Moore as Jan is arguing with her daughter Maggie (Kaitlyn Dever) on Maggie’s 16th birthday, while the teenager drives her mother home after plastic surgery. Maggie is “disgusted” at what her mother has done to her face.

“I have no respect for any woman that would allow….”

“Who’s left for you to respect?” Jan interrupts, “This knocks out…” and she lists famous women who have had plastic surgery – Betty Ford, Mary Tyler Moore, Elizabeth Taylor.

Tommy Dorfman

Judith Light

Cherry Jones

Homebound Project 4 Review: Promises with Tommy Dorfman, Cherry Jones, Judith Light, Marquise Vilson…

  Tommy Dorfman, in sexy black corset and purple wig, exclaims “I’m a Queen…I’m hot,” does an interpretive dance on the bed, puts on lipstick as if host of a makeup show, plays a tambourine, and curses out someone named Tim – perhaps a jilting lover? Then the telephone rings – it’s Tim, his boss. He takes off his purple wig and changes to his on-the-job voice.

“Assets,” a six–minute play by Diana Oh directed by Lena Dunham, is the funniest of the 11 new monologues in the fourth starry edition of Homebound Project, an online anthology series of original work, whose aim is to raise money for No Kid Hungry, and whose theme for the fourth edition is “promise.” The plays interpret this in various ways.

Book Review: Broadway in the Box: Television’s Lasting Love Affair with the Musical

Before it even opened on Broadway in 1954, the producers of the musical “Peter Pan” had struck a deal with NBC to present it live on television, after its Broadway run, with its cast intact, including the star Mary Martin. It was such a success – 65 million people watched it; one critic marveled at the merging of “the advantages of live theater and live television” – that it was repeated live the following year.

Some six decades later, NBC presented a new “Peter Pan Live!,” created just for broadcast, this time marketed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where viewers commented in real time during the broadcast, largely with snark, helping to coin the term “hate-watching.” The show was viewed (hatefully or not) by 9.2 million viewers. The lead, Allison Williams, has never performed on Broadway.

But the comparison is not meant as nostalgia for the good old days. “Peter Pan Live!” may have gotten fewer viewers, but it was broadcast in the same decade as a rash of popular television series like “Glee” that were labeled TV musicals. In “Broadway in the Box: Television’s Lasting Love Affair with the Musical” (Oxford University Press, 336 pages), author Kelly Kessler, a professor at DePaul University, attempts to chronicle these two eras and everything in-between

Thanks @NYPL_Theatre‘s @DougReside for presiding over the library’s first virtual theater book club just now. We discussed James Shapiro’s Shakespeare in a Divided America (@penguinpress) For those who missed it, my review of this fascinating book: https://t.co/QYFI3aeju3

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 17, 2020

The Week in Theater News

New York City reaches Phase 4 in reopening today — “there are no more phases,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “We are all in the final phase of reopening. And that’s great.” — but that doesn’t include theaters….or movie theaters, museums, indoor dining, gyms, or malls. (New York City’s Phase 4, Explained)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art did announce it will reopen August 29, masks required and six-foot distancing

Interesting contrast with the 1918 pandemic ‘Gotham Refuses to Get Scared’: In 1918, NYC Theaters Stayed Open

Instead of closing theaters, health commission Royal Copeland staggered their curtain times, assigning each to a group. The Hippodrome, for example, started at 8 p.m., the Winter Garden at 8:15, the Lyric at 8:30, the Booth at 8:45 and the Belasco at 9.

Camille A Brown

Edmund Donovan

Vinie Burrows

A Strange Loop creative team and ensemble

Obie Awards 2020 Winners

Broadway Barks 2020

Andrew Lloyd Webber has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign over using his song, “Memory,” at political rallies — an action that Betty Buckley had been urging for a while.

Excellent news!! Thanks to you guys!! Hippetyhaw!! : )Andrew Lloyd Webber Sends Cease-and-Desist to Trump Campaign For Using ‘Memory’ at Rallies https://t.co/OXYslqTPcM

— Betty Buckley (@BettyBuckley) July 13, 2020

Black Theater United will hold a Virtual Town Hall, “Our Voices. Our Votes. Our Time.” with Stacey Abrams, Dr. Jeanine Abrams Mclean, moderated by Viola Davis, July 24 at 7 p.m.

Hamilton Star Mandy Gonzalez has written a YA novel, to be published in 2021, which features the ghost of Ethel Merman “Fearless” follows a group of teen performers who must confront the spirit of the Broadway legend.

Playwrights Horizons 2021 season, which will be the company’s 50th and Adam Greenfield’s first as artistic director, includes: Aleshea Harris’s “What to Send Up When It Goes Down,” a ritual-as-play that honors Black lives lost to racialized violence Sylvia Khoury’s “Selling Kabul,” an Afghanistan-set thriller that examines the human cost of immigration policy Dave Harris’s “Tambo & Bones,” described as a “hip-hop triptych” about two characters trapped in a minstrel show and Sanaz Toossi’s dramatic comedy “Wish You Were Here,” which follows best friends who grapple with cultural upheaval amid the Iranian Revolution.

New York Theatre Workshop’s Un-Season

In place of what most theatergoers have come to regard as a “season,” the New York Theatre Workshop — the birthplace of “Rent,” among other landmarks — is offering what you might call a 2020-21 un-season. A programmatic embodiment of the possible, fueled by the percolating brains of more than two dozen playwrights, directors, actors and performance artists. These artistic “instigators” have each been given an initial $2,500 by the Workshop to develop a project over the coming months — and many of the artists will allow audiences to follow along as they build them. For $10 to $125 a month, members gain entree to the instigators’ evolving work, with no guarantee that anything resembling a full stage production will result.

An unforgettable moment, one year ago this evening. Broadway Blackout! Can you imagine the party we’re going to have when we’re back at the Walter Kerr? #BroadwayWillBeBack #SpringWillComeAgain https://t.co/i2PR04GH9X

— Hadestown (@hadestown) July 14, 2020

(What does it say that we’re nostalgic for a blackout?)

Rest in Peace

Phyllis Somerville, 76, Broadway veteran who was last on Broadway in “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

David Rosenberg, 90, director and theater critic

Bill Timms, 62, talent agent

RIP, John Lewis, 80, civil rights leader, Congressman.

55 years after he led famous march in Selma, he found “very moving” the many marchers for #BlackLivesMatter who took to the streets “to speak up, to speak out, to get into what I call ‘good trouble'”https://t.co/GzecOgTYyt pic.twitter.com/X7aCH6ZbqU

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 18, 2020

This is the man that taught us all how to get into some #GoodTrouble. One of my heroes. A true legend. Thank you for teaching us how to fight for liberty & justice for all mankind. This photo was taken at the @HRC Dinner in DC 2016 right before the world blew up. RIP #JohnLewis pic.twitter.com/8BPFqCb5eA

— Billy Porter (@theebillyporter) July 18, 2020

If you’re not registered to vote, do so today in honor of John Lewis. #goodtrouble https://t.co/qNv955p6ZL

— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) July 18, 2020

  NYC’s Summer Theater Festivals Reimagined. NYC “reopens” #Stageworthy News. Every year for the past decade, I’ve written a preview guide to the dozen or so annual summer theater festivals in New York.

[ctbarb]

Mom’s Story

Mom’s Story

It bothers me that I remember so little about my mother’s death.  In 1971, Tom and I were planning on taking a week’s vacation in Maine and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Shortly before we were to leave, Betty had called to say that Mom had fallen and broken her hip.  She would have to go to a nursing home for rehabilitation.  I asked if I should come to Arizona and abort my vacation plans.  Betty had told me earlier that Spring that the doctor had said that Mom was going down hill and to be prepared for her death.  But now the doctors  were saying that she was not close to death and would just need time to recover from the broken bone.   I felt comfortable that Mom was not in eminent danger and so I decided to continue with my vacation.

I told Betty that I would call every day to see how things were going.   The first two or three days, things seemed to be going well.  But then on the fourth day I called and Betty said, “Barbara, I am so sorry to tell you this, but Mom passed away last night.”  What?”  I said, “ we talked and it didn’t seem like she was in danger.”    Betty said, “she seemed well when we visited her yesterday, but the Doctor says she had a heart attack during the night and was dead when the nurse checked on her.”  I was numb. How could this have happened with no warning?  A giant hole opened in my stomach.  I felt sick.

I was devastated.  I could not believe that I had not been able to say goodbye.  I felt guilty for not immediately going to see her.  I had spent so little time with her since that day in 1964 when she and Dad brought me to Cornell.  After moving my things into the dorm, we had lunch  on campus.  After lunch we said goodbye and they left in the car and I walked back to the dorm. My family has never been demonstrative. We did not hug and so there was just the goodbye.

My brother and my sister Betty had moved far away.  And when Mom and Dad’s health worsened, it was Betty who had stepped up to say she would move them to Arizona and they could live with her and her partner Maureen.  That was in my sophomore year.  John was in Wichita KS.  Margaret would move into the family house in Amsterdam and so she and I were left on the East Coast very far away from Mom and Dad.  I had visited every Christmas since then and Tom and I had driven out to see them the year before.  I was glad that they got the opportunity to meet him.    When I graduated from Cornell, only Margaret and her husband Bob came.  Mom and Dad were too far away and their health would not allow them to fly.  Now I contemplated a life without even a telephone call from Mom.  

My Mom was ….as everyone always says…the best Mom in the whole world.  She taught me to sew, to make bread, to plant and harvest vegetables, to name the birds, to recognize them by their songs, to make jams and jellies and to make that wonderful jelly roll we took to Grandma each Thursday, and to recognize all sorts of wild plants.  She lived up to her maiden name…Cook…by being superb…homemade bread, pies, cakes, cookies, Polish, Ukrainian and Italian specialties and even fudge! And I think she gave me my smile, one of my most prized possessions.

Jane Ann Cook, the oldest child of Yates H. Cook and Maggie Wright Cook, was born in 1910 in Randall, NY.  Grandpa Cook ran a general store.  He had been born in Fonda NY to Jacob H. Cook and Jane Fonda , my claim to celebrity.  Maggie was born in Phoenicia NY in the Catskills to John Wright and Sally Ann Moon.  Randall is a very small village on the south side of the Mohawk River near Fort Hunter, NY.

As the oldest child, Jane was forced to leave high school when her father died to help her mother financially.  Jane had a younger brother Yates and an even younger sister Julia.  During the summers, she and Julia worked at “the Inn” owned my Mrs. Rawlston  in the Catskills.  I do not know whether she worked full time at the inn and Julie only joined her in the summer, but I do know that Yates and Julie were able to finish high school because Mom got a job to help Grandma.  Grandpa was Grandma’s second husband so Mom had a step brother as well.    

She and Dad had met at the Mt Loretto convalescent home where he had been sent to recover from tuberculosis and she was the cook.  In order to pay for his room and board he was working for the home and one of his jobs was washing dishes after meals.  That is how they met.

Mom wanted to name me Sally after Great Grandma Moon, but Betty insisted that she was NOT going to have a sister whose name sounded like a COW!   Dad, John and Margaret sided with her!!!! So when I was delivered, Mom asked the nurse who was holding me what her name was….“Barbara Jean” she said….“put it down on the birth certificate!” said Mom.

I had been a big baby. I weighted 11lbs 1oz.  They say that large babies are omens of impending diabetes, but Mom was not diagnosed with diabetes until many years later.  When I was in high school she developed sores on her feet that would not heal.  I believe she was hospitalized twice in Amsterdam.  Each time when she came home I remember Dad changing the bandages on her feet and using hydrogen peroxide to clean the sores.  At the time I did not know that this indicated that she had lost feeling in her feet and that the sores were necrotizing.  I blame her doctor for not discovering the diabetes. Finally, perhaps at Betty’s insistence she sought a second opinion from a doctor affiliated with Ellis Hospital in Schenectady.  Immediately they diagnosed diabetes and scheduled her for surgery.  Both large toes had to be amputated which caused her gait to become a shuffle rather than firm steps.  

I am sorry that I did not go to Arizona and see her one more time before she died.  One of my regrets.

[gossipnetwork-blog]

Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar Dominate 2018 Grammy Awards

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/bruno-mars-kendrick-lamar-dominate-2018-grammy-awards/

Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar Dominate 2018 Grammy Awards

Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar dominated the 60th Annual Grammy Awards Sunday night, with both artists picking up a slew of trophies and delivering some of the night’s most memorable performances. Mars pulled off an incredible Grammys sweep, winning all six awards for which he was nominated and snatching the night’s three biggest prizes: Record of the Year for “24K Magic,” Song of the Year for “That’s What I Like” and Album of the Year for 24K Magic.

After winning Album of the Year, Mars first thanked his fellow nominees, saying, “Lorde, Kung Fu Kenny [Kendrick Lamar], Jay-Z, [Childish] Gambino, you guys are the reason why I’m in the studio pulling my hair out, because I know you guys are only gonna come with the top shelf artistry and music.”

He went on to talk about the earliest days of his music career, performing for tourists in Hawaii as a teenager and quipping, “I would put together a setlist of like 10 to 12 songs and I’ll be honest, I was incredible at 15.” Noting that he later learned that those songs were written by Babyface, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis or Teddy Riley, Mars said, “I remember seeing it firsthand, people dancing that had never met each other from two sides of the globe, dancing with each other, toasting with each other, celebrating together. All I wanted to do with this album was that. Those songs are written with nothing but joy and for one reason and for one reason only, and that’s love – and that’s all I wanted to bring with this album.” 

Mars also won Best R&B Performance and Song for “That’s What I Like,” and Best R&B Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for 24K Magic. 

As for Lamar, the rapper opened the proceedings with a politically charged medley of Damn tracks that featured U2, an army of dancers and in-performance commentary from Dave Chappelle (“I just wanted to remind the audience that the only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America,” the comedian said). 

Lamar went on to win four Grammys: Best Rap Performance for “Humble,” Best Rap/Sung Performance for “Loyalty” with Rihanna, Best Music Video for “Humble” and Best Rap Album for Damn. 

“This is a special award because of rap music – this is the thing that got me on the stage, got me to tour all around the world, support my family and all that,” Lamar said while accepting Best Rap Album. “Most importantly, it showed me a true definition of what being an artist was. From the jump, I thought it was about the accolades and the cars and the clothes, but it’s really about expressing yourself and putting that paint on the canvas for the world to evolve for the next listener, the next generation after that. Hip-hop has done that for me.”

Late Late Show host James Corden returned to host the Grammys, though instead of delivering an opening monologue or performance, he primarily popped up for the occasional cheeky bit or quip. The “Carpool Karaoke” mastermind tapped Sting and Shaggy for a reconfigured version of his signature sketch for the New York City subway, while he later skewered President Trump by hosting auditions for the audiobook of Michael Wolff’s explosive, Fire and Fury. The readers included John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Cher, an incredulous Cardi B (“Is this how he lives?”) and Hillary Clinton.

On the hunt for a GRAMMY Award of his own, James Corden auditions celebrities for the spoken word version of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” pic.twitter.com/SjTobAbv2N

— JAMES IS HOSTING THE GRAMMYS TONIGHT (@latelateshow) January 29, 2018

Other politically potent moments included Lamar’s opening salvo and U2’s performance of “Get Out of Your Own Way” in front of the Statue of Liberty. Camila Cabello also shared an impassioned plea on behalf of the embattled Dreamers, a sentiment the rapper Logic echoed after his performance of “1-800-273-8255” with Alessia Cara and Khalid.

But the night’s most potent moment belonged to Kesha, who partnered with Cabello, Cyndi Lauper, Julia Michaels, Andra Day and Bebe Rexha for a rendition of “Praying,” off her Grammy-nominated album, Rainbow. The performance served as a powerful statement of solidarity with the Time’s Up movement, which other artists supported by wearing white roses to the ceremony. Janelle Monáe introduced Kesha’s performance with a moving speech, in which she declared, “We come in peace, but we mean business. And to those who would dare try to silence us, we offer two words: ‘Time’s up.”

With only nine awards handed out on stage, performances comprised the bulk of the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, ranging from extravagant and spectacular to stripped-down and stirring. Bruno Mars and Cardi B drenched the stage in Nineties nostalgia for a rendition of their “Finesse” remix, while Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee unleashed a scintillating performance of their hit “Despacito.” DJ Khaled delivered one of his trademark inspirational speeches – “They said I’d never perform at the Grammys, they played themselves!” – before a sultry rendition of “Wild Thoughts” with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller.

Other performers took a more straightforward approach. Lady Gaga partnered with Mark Ronson for a minimalist rendition of “Joanne” and “Million Reasons,” while Pink ditched the gravity-defying theatrics of her 2010 Grammy performance to belt “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken” alongside a sign-language interpreter. R&B star SZA delivered a dazzling rendition of “Broken Clocks,” while Childish Gambino showed off his impressive range with a chilling performance of the gauzy funk cut, “Terrified.”

The Grammys served up several high-profile collaborations as well, with Miley Cyrus joining this year’s lifetime achievement award recipient, Elton John, for a performance of “Tiny Dancer.” However, the most stirring collaborations came during the ceremony’s most somber moments. Eric Church and Maren Morris led a cover of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” to honor the victims of the Las Vegas Harvest Festival shooting and the Manchester Arena bombing, while Chris Stapleton and Emmylou Harris paid tribute to Tom Petty with a performance of “Wildflowers.”

As always, the bulk of the Grammys were handed out during a pre-show ceremony. Most notably, Leonard Cohen posthumously won his first solo Grammy for Best Rock Rock Performance for his song, “You Want It Darker,” the title track off his final album (Cohen previously received the Grammy’s lifetime achievement award in 2010, and earned an Album of the Year trophy for his contribution to Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters). Other artists that picked up their first-ever trophies included Childish Gambino (Best Traditional R&B Performance, “Redbone”), the National (Best Alternative Album, Sleep Well Beast), Mastodon (Best Metal Performance, “Sultan’s Curse”) and the War on Drugs, who bested the likes of Metallica and Queens of the Stone Age to win Best Rock Album for A Deeper Understanding. 

Other big winners included country darling Chris Stapleton, who won a trio of awards for Best Country Song (“Broken Halos”), Best Country Album (From A Room: Volume 1) and Best Country Solo Performance (“Either Way”). An absent Ed Sheeran – who was not nominated in any of the major categories – picked up two awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album for ÷ (Divide) and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Shape of You.”

Portugal. the Man also pulled off an upset in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for their surprise hit, “Feel It Still,” while Aimee Mann won Best Folk Album for her LP Mental Illness and the Rolling Stones picked up Best Traditional Blues Album for Blue and Lonesome. Other pre-show winners included the Weeknd, who won Best Urban Contemporary Album for Starboy, the Foo Fighters, who took home Best Rock Song for “Run,” and Jason Isbell, who picked up two awards: Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song for The Nashville Sound and “If We Were Vampires,” respectively.

Among the other notable winners were Dave Chappelle, who won Best Comedy Album and Carrie Fisher, who earned a posthumous Grammy in the Best Spoken Word Album category for her reading of her memoir, The Princess Diarist. Greg Kurstin won Producer of the Year, non-Classical, for his work with an array of artists, from the Foo Fighters, Beck and Liam Gallagher to Zayn, Halsey and Kendrick Lamar. And Tony Bennett also added another Grammy to his collection, winning Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for his album, Tony Bennett Celebrates 90.

While past Grammy Awards have leaned on unexpected all-star collaborations, this year’s show functioned more as a 2017 pop music jukebox and offered perhaps just one certified “Grammy moment”: Kesha’s performance of “Praying” and Monáe’s introductory speech. Kesha’s ongoing legal battle with her alleged abuser, Dr. Luke, is one of the most prominent sexual assault cases in the entertainment world, and the vocal power the singer and her cohorts amassed on “Praying” served as a powerful reminder that the fight for justice and equality has just begun.

But this moment for Time’s Up and #MeToo was just that – a singular spot in a nearly three-and-a-half hour broadcast. While Monáe made clear in her speech that sexual harassment was “right here in our industry, as well,” the issue did not crop up again during the ceremony, perhaps a testament to the fact that the music industry has not yet reckoned with  sexual assault and harassment to the same degree as Hollywood. 

While the Grammys were happy to tout the fact that this year’s nominees featured its most diverse group of artists, they inadvertently reemphasized their own shortcomings and long-standing gender gap (a recent report detailed that just 9.3 percent of nominees over the past six years have been women). On Sunday, only two female artists received awards during the Grammys’ televised broadcast: Rihanna, who shared Best Rap/Sung Performance for “Loyalty” with Kendrick Lamar, and Alessia Cara, who picked up Best New Artist.

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[idlenight]

the level of co-dependency these two had pre-heartbreak is unmatched. Being joined at the hip is why everyone assumed Sidestep was Charge's sidekick (or that they where dating).

[mrjeremydylan]

My Favorite Album #213 - JAY-Z biographer Zack O'Malley Greenburg on JAY-Z 'Reasonable Doubt' (1996)

To mark the release of JAY-Z's first album in four years, Forbes magazine senior editor and author (Empire State of Mind, Michael Jackson Inc) Zack O'Malley Greenburg joins me for a look back on Jay's 1996 debut album 'Reasonable Doubt'.

Zack lays out the true stories behind the myths of how the album was released, why Jay-Z founded Roc-A-Fella records, how Biggie almost swiped the track for 'Brooklyn's Finest' and how it became a duet between him and Jay, why it's ignorant to wag your finger at conspicuous consumption in hip-hop, why 'Reasonable Doubt' is particularly special to the man who made it and also what is up with the hyphen in Jay's name.

Listen in the player above or download the episode by clicking here.

Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts here or in other podcasting apps by searching ‘My Favorite Album’ or copying/pasting our RSS feed -http://myfavoritealbum.libsyn.com/rss

My Favorite Album is a podcast on the impact great music has on our lives. Each episode features a guest on their favorite album of all time - why they love it, their history with the album and how it's influenced them. Jeremy Dylan is a filmmaker, journalist and photographer from Sydney, Australia who has worked in the music industry since 2007. He directed the the feature music documentary Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts (out now!) and the feature film Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins, in addition to many commercials and music videos.

If you’ve got any feedback or suggestions, drop us a line at myfavoritealbumpodcast@gmail.com.

LINKS

- Zack O’Malley Greenburg on Twitter. Read his Forbes writing here. You should pick up his JAY-Z book ‘Empire State of Mind’ here and his other book ‘Michael Jackson Inc’ here.

- Buy Reasonable Doubt here. (Actually, maybe not? Jay seems to be pulling some funny business with the availability of RD this week. It’s probably still on Tidal).

- Jeremy Dylan’s website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook page.

- Like the podcast on Facebook here.

- If you dig the show, please leave a rating or review of the show on iTunes here.

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER EPISODES

212. #BeatlesMonth Wall Street Journal’s Allan Kozinn on how ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ broke the Beatles in America and the anatomy of an iconic hit 211. #BeatlesMonth Conan’s Jimmy Vivino on the Sgt Pepper remixes and recreating the intricacies of the Beatles with the Fab Faux 210.  #BeatlesMonth Heartbreaker Benmont Tench on playing with Ringo, the Beatles RnB roots and the genius of ‘No Reply’ 209. #BeatlesMonth Ken Levine on ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (1967) 208. All Our Exes Live In Texas on Rufus Wainwright ‘Want’ (2004) 207. Eilish Gilligan on Counting Crows ‘August and Everthing After’ (1993) 206. Katie Brianna on Rilo Kiley ‘Under the Blacklight’ (2007) 205. Pegi Young on her biggest influences, from Janis to Joni, Clapton to the Dead 204. Margaret Glaspy on Bjork ‘Vespertine’ (2001) 203. Iluka on Marvin Gaye ‘What’s Going On’ (1971) 202. Veronica Milsom (triple J) on The Shins ‘Wincing the Night Away’ (2007) 201. Charles Esten on Bruce Springsteen ‘Born to Run’ (1975) 200. What’s Your Favorite Aussie Music? with Benmont Tench, Duglas T Stewart, Natalie Prass, Sam Palladio and Jeff Greenstein 199. Showrunner Jeff Lieber on Gregory Alan Isakov ‘The Weatherman’ and how music fuels his writing process 198. Jack Colwell on Tori Amos ‘Boys for Pele’ (1996) 197. Benmont Tench on playing with Bob Dylan, Jenny Lewis and Ryan Adams and the worst advice he’s received 196. Ella Thompson (Dorsal Fins, GL) on Renee Geyer ‘Moving On’ 195. The Shires on Lady Antebellum ‘Own the Night’ (2011) 194. Duglas T Stewart (BMX Bandits) on Beach Boys ‘Love You’ (1977) 193. Dan Soder on Queens of the Stone Age ‘Like Clockwork’ (2013) 192. Kingswood on The Beatles ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ (1967) 191. Comedian Becky Lucas on Michael Jackson ‘Bad’ (1987) 190. PVT on Brian Eno ‘Another Green World’ (1975) 189. Middle Kids on My Brightest Diamond ‘Bring Me The Workhorse’ (2006) 188. The Bitter Script Reader on Tom Hanks ‘That Thing You Do’ (1996) 187. Carly Rae Jepsen ‘Emotion’ (2015) with CRJ Dream Team Roundtable 186. Sarah Belkner on Peter Gabriel ‘So’ (1986) 185. Mark Hart (Crowded House, Supertramp) on XTC ‘Drums and Wires’ (1979) 184. Emma Swift on Marianne Faithfull ‘Broken English’ (1974) 183. Owen Rabbit on Kate Bush ‘Hounds of Love’ (1985) 182. Robyn Hitchcock on Bob Dylan ‘Blonde on Blonde’ (1966) 181. Dave Mudie (Courtney Barnett) on Nirvana ‘Nevermind’ (1991) 180. Brian Koppelman on Bruce Springsteen ‘Nebraska’ (1982) 179. Nicholas Allbrook (POND) on OutKast ‘The Love Below’ (2003) 178. 2016 in Review: What the hell? ft Jeff Greenstein, Rob Draper & Cookin on 3 Burners, Melody Pool, Lisa Mitchell, Emma Swift, Brian Koppelman, Mark Hart (Crowded House), Davey Lane and Alex Lahey 177. Harper Simon on The Beatles ‘White Album’ (1968) 176. Andrew P Street on Models ‘Pleasure of Your Company’ (1983) 175. Matt Farley (Motern Media) on why The Beach Boys ‘Love You’ is better than ‘Pet Sounds’ 174. Lisa Mitchell on Regina Spektor ‘Begin to Hope’ (2006) and her favorite albums of 2016 173. Peter Bibby on Sleep ‘Dopesmoker’ (2003) 172. Slate’s Jack Hamilton on Stevie Wonder ‘Innervisions’ (1973) 171. Showrunner Blake Masters on Drive-By Truckers ‘The Dirty South’ (2004) 170. Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes) on on their new album ‘We’re All Gonna Die’, loving LA and the albums that inspire him 169. Sadler Vaden on The Rolling Stones ‘Goats Head Soup’ (1973) 168. Guy Clark biographer Tamara Saviano on ‘Dublin Blues’, Guy’s songwriting process and his musical legacy 167. What does Trump mean for music? 166. A Tribute to Sir George Martin, The Fifth Beatle with Davey Lane and Brett Wolfie 165. John Oates on Joni Mitchell ‘Blue’ (1971) 164. Jimmy Vivino on the birth of the Max Weinberg 7, his relationship with Conan O’Brien, country music and the future of rock’n’roll 163. DJ Alix Brown on Transformer (1972) by Lou Reed 162. Taylor Locke on Doolittle (1989) by the Pixies, the album that inspired 90s alt-rock 161. Harts on Around the World in a Day (1985) by Prince and jamming with Prince at Paisley Park 160. Mark McKinnon (The Circus) on Kristofferson and programming the President’s iPod 159. Alan Brough on A Walk Across the Rooftops (1984) by The Blue Nile 158. Peter Cooper on Pretty Close to the Truth (1994) and why we need Americana music 157. Will Colvin (Hedge Fund) on One of the Boys by Katy Perry (2008) 156. Julia Jacklin on Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple (2005) 155. Japanese Wallpaper on Currents by Tame Impala (2015) 154. Montaigne on her album Glorious Heights (2016) and its inspirations 153. Alex Lahey on Hot Fuss by the Killers (2004) 152. Jack Moffitt (The Preatures) on Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin (1975) 151. Mike Bloom on Axis Bold As Love by Jimi Hendrix (1968) 150. Hey Geronimo on Drowning in the Fountain of Youth by Dan Kelly (2006) 149. Mickey Raphael on Teatro by Willie Nelson (1998) 148. Jack Ladder on Suicide by Suicide 147. Rusty Anderson on Hot Rats by Frank Zappa 146. Kenny Aronoff on The Beatles 145. Bob Evans on A Grand Don’t Come for Free by The Streets 144. Chris Hewitt (Empire) on New Adventues in Hi-Fi by REM 143. Dr Warren Zanes on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 142. Dr Mark Kermode (Wittertainment) on Sleep No More by the Comsat Angels 141. Van Dyke Parks on Randy Newman by Randy Newman 140. Imogen Clark on Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams 139. Jesse Thorn on Fresh by Sly and the Family Stone 138. Stephen Tobolowsky on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie 137. Ben Blacker on Blood and Chocolate on Elvis Costello & the Attractions 136. Jonny Fritz on West by Lucinda Williams 135. Adam Busch on A River Ain’t Too Much to Love by Smog 134. Kelsea Ballerini on Blue Neighbourhood by Troye Sivan 133. Natalie Prass on Presenting Dionne Warwick 132. Josh Pyke on Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden 131. Kip Moore on Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen 130. Koi Child on Voodoo by D’Angelo 129. The Cadillac Three on Wildflowers by Tom Petty 128. Julian McCullough on Appetite for Destruction by Guns n Roses 127. Danny Clinch on Greetings from Ashbury Park NJ by Bruce Springsteen 126. Sam Palladio (Nashville) on October Road by James Taylor 125. Steve Mandel on Blood and Chocolate by Elvis Costello 124. Brian Koppelman on The History of the Eagles 123. Benmont Tench on Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones 122. Jimmy Vivino (Basic Cable Band) on Super Session by Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills 121. Holiday Sidewinder on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid by Bob Dylan 120. Ben Blacker on Aladdin Sane by David Bowie 119. EZTV on The Toms by The Toms 118. Jess Ribeiro on Transformer by Lou Reed 117. Whitney Rose on Keith Whitley Greatest Hits 116. Best Albums of 2015 with Danny Yau ft. Jason Isbell, Dan Kelly, Shane Nicholson, Tim Rogers, Will Hoge and Julien Barbagallo (Tame Impala) 115. Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You with Jaime Lewis 114. Xmas Music ft. Kristian Bush, Lee Brice, Corb Lund and Tim Byron 113. Sam Outlaw on Pieces of the Sky by Emmylou Harris 112. Jason Isbell on Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones 111. Ash Naylor (Even) on Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin 110. Burke Reid (Gerling) on Dirty by Sonic Youth 109. Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos) on Kind of Blue by Miles Davis 108. Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall (Frenzal Rhomb) on Curses! by Future of the Left 107. Julien Barbagallo (Tame Impala) on Chrominance Decoder by April March 106. Melody Pool on Blue by Joni Mitchell 105. Rusty Hopkinson (You Am I) on ‘Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era’ 104. Jeff Greenstein on A Quick One (Happy Jack) by The Who 103. Dave Cobb on Revolver by the Beatles 102. Justin Melkmann (World War IX) on Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed 101. Kacey Musgraves on John Prine by John Prine 100. Does the album have a future? 99. Corb Lund on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins 98. Bad Dreems on Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division 97. Davey Lane (You Am I) on Abbey Road by the Beatles 96. Dan Kelly on There’s A Riot Goin’ On by Sly and the Family Stone 95. Ash Grunwald on Mule Variations by Tom Waits 94. Stella Angelico on The Shangrilas 93. Eves the Behavior on Blue by Joni Mitchell 92. Troy Cassar-Daley on Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits 91. Lydia Loveless on Pleased to Meet Me by the Replacements 90. Gena Rose Bruce on The Boatman’s Call by Nick Cave 89. Kitty Daisy and Lewis on A Swingin’ Safari by Bert Kaempfert 88. Will Hoge on Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music by Ray Charles 87. Shane Nicholson on 52nd St by Billy Joel 86 - Tired Lion on Takk… by Sigur Ros 85 - Whispering Bob Harris on Forever Changes by Love 84 - Jake Stone (Bluejuice) on Ben Folds Five by Ben Folds Five 83 - Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Imposters) on Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience 82 - Dom Alessio on OK Computer by Radiohead 81 - Anthony Albanese MP on The Good Son by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 80 - John Waters on Electric Ladyland by The Jimi Hendrix Experience 79 - Jim DeRogatis (Sound Opinions) on Clouds Taste Metallic by The Flaming Lips 78 - Montaigne on The Haunted Man by Bat for Lashes 77 - Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd) on Quadrophenia by The Who 76 - Homer Steinweiss (Dap Kings) on Inspiration Information by Shuggie Otis 75 - Best of 2015 (So Far) ft. Danny Yau, Montaigne, Harts, Joelistics, Rose Elinor Dougall and Burke Reid 74 - Matt Farley (Motern Media) on RAM by Paul McCartney BONUS - Neil Finn on The Beatles, Neil Young, David Bowie and Radiohead 73 - Grace Farriss (Burn Antares) on All Things Must Pass by George Harrison 72 - Katie Noonan on Blue by Joni Mitchell 71 - Harts on Band of Gypsys by Jimi Hendrix 70 - Tim Rogers (You Am I) on Bring the Family by John Hiatt 69 - Mark Seymour (Hunters and Collectors) on The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen 68 - Jeremy Neale on Graceland by Paul Simon 67 - Joelistics on Graceland by Paul Simon 66 - Brian Nankervis (RocKwiz) on Astral Weeks by Van Morrison 65 - ILUKA on Pastel Blues by Nina Simone 64 - Rose Elinor Dougall on Tender Buttons by Broadcast 63 - Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus) on Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins 62 - Keyone Starr on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 61 - Chase Bryant on Defying Gravity by Keith Urban 60 - Brian Koppelman on Southeastern by Jason Isbell 59 - Michael Carpenter on The Beatles White Album Side 4 58 - Pete Kilroy (Hey Geronimo) on The Beatles White Album Side 3 57 - Mark Wells on The Beatles White Album Side 2 56 - Jeff Greenstein on Colossal Youth by Young Marble Giants 55 - Laura Bell Bundy on Shania Twain, Otis Redding and Bright Eyes 54 - Jake Clemons on Surfacing by Sarah McLachlan 53 - Kristian Bush (Sugarland) on The Joshua Tree by U2 52 - Kevin Bennett (The Flood) on Willis Alan Ramsey by Willis Alan Ramsey 51 - Lee Brice on Unorthodox Jukebox by Bruno Mars 50 - Davey Lane (You Am I) on the White Album (Side 1) by The Beatles 49 - Joe Camilleri on The Rolling Stones by The Rolling Stones 48 - Russell Morris on The Rolling Stones by The Rolling Stones 47 - Mike Rudd (Spectrum) on England’s Newest Hitmakers by The Rolling Stones 46 - Henry Wagons on Harvest by Neil Young 45 - Megan Washington on Poses by Rufus Wainwright 44 - Andrew Hansen (The Chaser) on Armchair Theatre by Jeff Lynne 43 - She Rex on BlakRoc by The Black Keys 42 - Catherine Britt on Living with Ghosts by Patty Griffin 41 - Robyn Hitchcock on Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon 40 - Gideon Bensen (The Preatures) on Transformer by Lou Reed 39 - Harry Hookey on Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan 38 - Rob Draper on Faith by George Michael 37 - Best of 2014 ft. Danny Yau, Andrew Hansen, Gideon Bensen (The Preatures) and Mike Carr 36 - Doug Pettibone on Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris 35 - Ross Ryan on Late for the Sky by Jackson Browne 34 - Michael Carpenter on Hard Promises by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 33 - Davey Lane (You Am I) on Jesus of Cool by Nick Lowe 32 - Zane Carney on Smokin’ at the Half Note by Wes Montgomery 31 - Tony Buchen on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles 30 - Simon Relf (The Tambourine Girls) on On the Beach by Neil Young 29 - Peter Cooper on In Search of a Song by Tom T Hall 28 - Thelma Plum on Stolen Apples by Paul Kelly 27 - James House on Rubber Soul by the Beatles 26 - Ella Hooper on Let England Shake by PJ Harvey 25 - Abbey Road Special 24 - Alyssa Bonagura on Room for Squares by John Mayer 23 - Luke Davison (The Preatures) on Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs 22 - Neil Finn on Hunky Dory by David Bowie and In Rainbows by Radiohead 21 - Neil Finn on Beatles for Sale by the Beatles and After the Goldrush by Neil Young 20 - Morgan Evans on Diorama by Silverchair 19 - Emma Swift on Car Wheels On A Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams 18 - Danny Yau on Hourly Daily by You Am I 17 - J Robert Youngtown and Jon Auer (The Posies) on Hi Fi Way by You Am I 16 - Lester the Fierce on Hounds of Love by Kate Bush 15 - Luke Davison on Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs 14 - Jeff Cripps on Wheels of Fire by Cream 13 - Mark Holden on Blue by Joni Mitchell (Part 2) 12 - Mark Holden on Blue by Joni Mitchell (Part 1) 11 - Gossling on O by Damien Rice 10 - Matt Fell on Temple of Low Men by Crowded House 9 - Pete Thomas on Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix (Part 2) 8 - Pete Thomas on Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix (Part 1) 7 - Sam Hawksley on A Few Small Repairs by Shawn Colvin 6 - Jim Lauderdale on Grievous Angel by Gram Parsons 5 - Mark Moffatt on Blues Breakers by John Mayall and Eric Clapton 4 - Darren Carr on Ten Easy Pieces by Jimmy Webb 3 - Mark Wells on Revolver by The Beatles 2 - Mike Carr on Arrival by ABBA 1 - Rob Draper on Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan

[idlenight]

Julia (joking): What are you, twelve?

River (without thinking, fully serious): I’m technically six actually.

Julia:

Anathema:

River: (oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck-)

Julia: Wha-

Anathema: You’re a leap year baby?

River: YES (thank you thank you thank you)

[idlenight]

Julia didn't simply see River and recognize him. Her Cain Instinct just activated and she followed it.

She might not be a telepath but she can sense River's annoying little brother vibes from miles away.

[idlenight]

thinking about this post too much already.

I KNOW people shipped river x julia Chargestep. I know this to be true deep in my soul. C'mon, a man and a woman? Superheroes crime fighting together? They're literally joined at the hips! I mean Hero x their Sidekick??? that would do numbers babey.

River would think it's so hilarious, he'd find the fanfiction and read it aloud in the break-room while everyone cringes. He would give the fans such good fanservice and indulge it if Sidestep and Charge are ever caught on camera. Lean in a little closer to Julia, sling an arm across her shoulder, etc. Nothing to outright mark them as a couple but enough to get people on the forums SPECULATING.

He stops liking it the moment he finds out about Steelstep. He never mentions any of it ever again.

[idlenight]

sidestep knows so many languages - including spanish.

river is the type of shithead to keep his mouth shut about that while ortega curses or mumbles things she doesn't want him to hear in spanish. only to introduce himself to tia elena in perfect spanish, to her delight and julia's horror.

[idlenight]

Riverrrrrrr 12, 18, 45, 50. Now YOU do oc homework!! <3

Hahah. i have tricked you, i love oc homework. it's my favorite. (better than real homework and exam preps i have to do anyway)/

Questions from here.

12. What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

Julia doing anything silly to get him to cheer up. He cannot keep a stoned face even if he tries so fucking hard, he will always slip up and crack at least the tiniest smile.

Also Spoon being adorable. Most of the reason River got Chen's number after the initial dogpark run-in was to beg for Spoon pics of him in little sweaters and other clothes.

18.Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?

easy question. Spoon + his fish.

Oh you though I was going to say Julia Ortega? his best friend? his sister? his soulmate? wrong.

I mean, not completely, but 100% unconditionally? Nope.

(it's the static, on a bad day it makes him want to push his fingers into her eyes until he finally is able to touch her unreadable static brain in some form)

45. What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

I think... the way people prepare their coffee and tea. He's a snob about it fr.

(if you microwave your water for tea just know that Maelstrom is coming for you ass. he knows. and he considers it a crime against the earth.)

50. What belief / moral / personality trait do they stand by that you (mun) personally don’t agree with?

*side eyes River*

I mean, most of his bullshit LMAO. Comes with being a villain i guess idk. No, I lie, i agree with his anarchy revenge scar ways.

I could do without him being so full of himself though, somebody go kick his ass please he wins like. every fight. i recently had to manually lower his mental stats so he wouldn't auto-beat jake's ass into the hospital to get a specific ending.

thank u for asking hypnos *mwah*