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spuffybot · 4 years ago

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Walk Me to the Graveyard

Summary: Buffy walks through the graveyard alone at night, contemplating the past few months following the fall of Sunnydale. She reflects on her relationship with Spike, her friendships, and her future before receiving a shocking phone call.

Characters: Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Spike (mentions of Giles, Xander, Andrew, Kennedy, Faith, Wood, Angel, and Fred)

Warnings: Some adult language

Word Count: 4515

Author’s notes: If you read this, thank you. I’ve been chipping away at it for the past few weeks and I’m just glad I was able to finish something I started. “Ghostface” is a reference to the Scream movies, which Sarah Michelle Gellar had a cameo in. The high tea spot with the egg shaped bathrooms is Sketch, a place I didn’t get to visit this year due to the pandemic. I hope you all have a safe holiday season and new year. Hopefully I’ll finish the second part of this story in 2021.

Walk Me to the Graveyard (part 1)

Buffy’s joints creaked as she stood up from her crouched position. She’d been staking out this grave (no pun intended) for hours and dawn was slowly approaching. In the last few minutes the air had started to change, and she could hear the telltale rustling of birds in the trees. If this vampire was going to rise, it wouldn’t be tonight.

Stretching her arms up over her head, she rolled out her stiff shoulders, feeling strangely relieved by the lack of action.

Buffy had been coming to this cemetery every couple of nights for weeks, sniffing out even the barest hint of vampire activity. Technically she could have assigned graveyard duty to any of the Potentials, but she craved the silence and the normalcy of the activity.

She chuckled to herself. How far she’d come that she could relish a few hours of graveyard haunting and call it normal. If only her sixteen-year-old self could see her now.

The truth was she was tired. After the fall of Sunnydale, she’d been fueled by an insatiable need to just keep moving. Giles had suggested they hole up in LA and take refuge with Angel Investigations, but Buffy refused. She wanted to get started on rebuilding as soon as possible. They couldn’t afford to waste time in LA, on Angel’s turf, killing time as his sidekicks while thousands of girls woke up with powers they couldn’t explain. So instead the Scoobies had moved to London, taking on the role of de-facto Watchers Council. They’d rounded up the few surviving members of the former Council and had started reaching out to as many activated Potentials as possible.

They recruited the ones they could and provided support (emotional and financial) to the ones they couldn’t. It was rewarding and it kept her mind off things.

Things like telling a man she loved him only to have him choose death over a future with her.

Buffy kicked a crumbling headstone, cursing when she stubbed her toe.

She knew that wasn’t fair. Spike died saving the world. It was a sacrifice she’d made more than once, and she knew how much she resented the people she left behind for not understanding the weight of that choice. She didn’t want to sully the memory of his heroics with her bitterness. She just couldn’t help it. Besides, focusing on missing Spike was easier than accepting she didn’t know how to function now that she wasn’t the “one girl in all the world.” The irony of having an identity crisis over getting the one thing she’d always thought she wanted was not lost on her. She should be grateful that she wasn’t the only Slayer. Grateful that her future was finally hers to shape. Instead she just felt lost.

It didn’t help that everyone around her was adjusting to this new life and mission like they were born to it. Dawn was training to be a Watcher, and frankly, they needed as many as they could get. The Slayer to Watcher ratio had been drastically tipped and it was only a matter of time before things got out of control.

Faith and Wood had stayed behind in America, taking up shop at the Hellmouth in Cleveland. It was weird to think of Faith as the reigning defender of the Hellmouth, but it felt right. With Wood by her side she would stay grounded and on track. He understood the mission better than most.

Giles was in his glory. He’d vetted the surviving Watchers, firing some gleefully and taking others under his wing. Between them they’d established a kind of Watchers Hogwarts, training Watchers by day and guiding Potential Slayers on field missions by night. He was happy, which was something she’d never really seen him be before. Their relationship had taken a hit in the last few years and while she wasn’t ready to forgive him for everything, she didn’t begrudge him his success. Her Watcher had floundered ever since he was fired, unable to find purpose while she and her friends had grown up around him. Seeing as she suddenly found herself in a similar position it was hard not to understand how he’d gone off track. Besides, she’d lost enough people to know she wasn’t going to lose anymore. She’d fix things with Giles, eventually. For now, she’d just settle for on the same continent and on polite speaking terms.

Xander and Andrew led the Potential Identification and Retrieval Taskforce. They came up with the name. Obviously. They spent their days traveling the world, chasing down leads and giving their best “join team save the world” sales pitch to scared and angry girls.

Buffy smiled thinking about them. The last time they’d video chatted, Xander had looked better than she’d seen him in years. He’d lost the chip on his shoulder that he’d been carrying since they graduated high school. For the first time in his life he was the best person for the job, and he knew it. Trustworthiness and warmth radiated from him and his knowledge of tactics and the cost of the fight lent him an authenticity the girls were drawn to. He never bullshitted or misled them, but he did inspire them. Like he’d inspired all of the Scoobies over the years to keep on fighting.

The sun was starting to peak over the horizon, and a misty fog enveloped the graveyard. She knew she was dawdling but she couldn’t bring herself to rush home. The alarms would be ringing any second now, Potentials and Watchers scrambling to the mess hall for breakfast before a day of study and training.

Technically she didn’t have any classes to teach until the afternoon, but Giles liked the staff to be present in the morning. He said it communicated solidarity and responsibility. Personally, she thought Dawn had just made him watch the Harry Potter movies one too many times.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, but she let it go to voicemail. It was either Willow calling to say she had another hit on the Potential alert locator spell or Giles calling to ask where she was.

Either way it could wait.

She just wanted to be in the quiet for a little bit longer.

That’s what she missed the most about Spike. Having someone she could be in the quiet with. He had always seemed to know what she needed, anticipating her every mood and desire.

She’d never met anyone she could just be alone with before him. He never expected anything of her other than to just be. In this chaotic mess of a life she now led she craved his company and his silence. Since she couldn’t have that she came to the cemetery. The dead kept her company in a way the living never could. The occasional scuffle with a vampire didn’t hurt either. The familiar comfort of a stake in her pocket, grave dust on her shoes, her breath quickening for the thrill of the kill, reminding her that even though everything had changed, some things never would.

Her phone buzzed again.

She frowned, wondering why she couldn’t even get a few hours of peace before the sun was fully risen.

Flipping it open she saw two missed calls from a number she didn’t recognize. No voicemail.

It was probably someone trying to sell her something.

Technically her phone was spelled against telemarketers, but magic was fickle. If someone really needed to reach her, they would call the office and leave a message with her secretary.

God. How had she ended up here?

When they’d first arrived in London she’d panicked. Back in California it had seemed so clear. Get to London, find the Watchers, find the Potentials, save the world. Simple.

Except once they arrived there had been bureaucracy and red tape to get through. The surviving Watchers had needed convincing and playing nice with morons wasn’t Buffy’s strong suit. After one particularly eventful meeting that ended with some snide British dude’s head slamming into a wall Giles and Willow had pushed her to take a back seat on the negotiations. Much to everyone’s shock, she listened.

As soon as she stopped leading she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. Without meetings and planning sessions to fill her days she’d found herself wandering the streets of London with Dawn, playing tourist.

They were having high tea at this ridiculous spot with baby pink furniture and weird egg-shaped toilets when it hit her. She could walk away. The Hellmouth was gone, and there were more than enough Slayers to pick up the slack. Her friends would be disappointed but eventually they would understand. As she sat there watching Dawn sample pastries, no fear of imminent death getting in the way of her fun, Buffy couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like. This could be their every day.

They could finish out the summer backpacking through Europe then head home to America to finish school and settle down. She was pretty sure she’d heard somewhere that there were hardly any vampires in New Jersey.

She was so wrapped up in the fantasy that she almost missed what Dawn said as they were walking home to their flat.

“Sorry, what with the what now?”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “I said, it’s crazy how there’s this whole world out here and no one was helping keep it safe before.”

“Ummm excuse me, Slayer here, has saved the world, a lot. Even got a nice shiny headstone for my troubles.”

“Obviously but...you were always in Sunnydale. And sure, most of the big bad world endy guys ended up there too but...what about all the other regular level baddies hurting everyday people? I mean, look at them all.”

Dawn stopped and looked around, forcing Buffy to take it all in. The couples strolling along, groups of friends, kids in strollers. The street was flooded with people going about their day. As soon as that sun went down, they’d be joined by all the things that went bump in the night.

“I just think it’s kind of amazing what we’re about to do. For the first time we’ll be able to protect people all over the world. These people will have a chance like they’ve never had before. Like everyone in Sunnydale got because you were around. We can give that to them. I’m just...glad.”

Buffy’s heart warmed even as dreams of running away slipped from her grasp. Dawn was right. This was her calling. She’d find a way to live with it. Normalcy would never be available to her and the sooner she embraced that, the sooner she could start working towards happiness.

At least that’s what Willow was always saying.

Willow who saw a therapist three times a week and a substance abuse counselor twice a week.

After the battle she and Kennedy had parted ways. Their relationship had run its course and Kennedy wasn’t interested in staying on Team Scooby. Instead she took her slaying act on the road, traveling town to town looking for monsters to hunt and people to save. Occasionally she’d run into a Potential and send a heads up their way. She seemed happy. Everyone seemed happy. Buffy just couldn’t seem to find her groove.

Ironically, Willow was the only one to notice how out of sorts Buffy was. Maybe it was all the therapy or maybe it was just that she was more herself than she’d been in a long time, but Willow had become Buffy’s sole confidant these past few months. If she thought about it too much she knew she’d cry. It hadn’t occurred to her how much she’d missed her best friend until she got her back.

At first when Willow tried to reach out, Buffy had been cold and distant. Willow understood, even writing Buffy a letter to explain that she respected her need for distance after the way she had torched their friendship and Buffy’s trust. The letter had melted something in Buffy’s heart. It was the first time Willow had really acknowledged the fact that their sisterhood had been a casualty of Willow’s addiction.

The first time they sat down for coffee together felt like coming home. Willow seemed lighter, more like the girl Buffy had met her sophomore year of high school than the all-powerful Wicca she had come to know lately. She seemed shy, hesitant to take too much from Buffy, a reticence that allowed her to give more than she had intended to when she agreed to meet.

By their third coffee date it was clear that they were going to push through this. When a third turned into a fourth and fifth they decided to just make it a standing girl’s night. Every Tuesday for the rest of their lives.

Last Tuesday they’d finally broached the subject of Spike. Buffy had been dreading this, afraid to pick at the scab only to be met with judgment and condemnation. She wasn’t sure their renewed friendship could handle it. As much as she loved having Will back, Spike was a sensitive spot and she was afraid of how she’d react if Willow said something she didn’t like.

“Buffy, I tried to end the world. What’s a little bumpin of the uglies between former enemies compared to that? I am judgement free Willow of the no judgies zone.”

Willows face scrunched up like it did sometimes when she was trying to find the right words, her nose crinkling and her eyes rolling skyward.

“I just want you to be ok. And if that means loads of tasty mochas and squishy details about Spike sex, I am all ears. I’ve even got marshmallows.”

Buffy saw the sincerity on her friends face and felt something crack deep inside her. She’d been prepared for judgment at worst and stoic acceptance at best. Being met with such openness and warmth took her by surprise and she found she couldn’t hold back anymore. Her eyes welled up and before she could reign it in and full body sobs shook her.

As she cried, Willow rubbed her back and let her get it all out, careful to avoid pushing her to talk. It was exactly what she’d needed to be able to open up.

And open up she did. It was like the levies broke and all the confusion and hurt came pouring out. She told Willow about what happened in the Hellmouth. About her last days with Spike, how he supported her and strengthened her when no one else could, or would. This last part she said without any venom, all her anger and resentment at Willow long gone.

She even spoke about their last night together. How they’d made love in the basement, on that shitty cot. The first and only time they’d ever been truly intimate, Buffy’s walls fully down, her heart totally exposed.

“I know having sex with someone isn’t like, a big deal or anything. Especially when you’ve had sex as many times as we did.”

Buffy cringed as the words left her mouth. The familiar guilt over her physical affair with Spike flaring up.

“No!” Willow exclaimed.

“Buffy no. It is a big deal. It’s like, the biggest of deals. You and sex haven’t exactly had the most copacetic relationship, no offense.”

She smiled apologetically, eliciting a soft laugh from Buffy despite the anxiety that was clenching her gut.

“If you let yourself feel something good with Spike, even just that one time, it’s important. Special. You shouldn’t downplay that. He loved you and you let him show it to you. It’s romantic.”

At that Buffy really laughed.

“God Will. Spike. Romantic.”

Willow laughed too.

“You know...it’s not that weird. Remember when he kidnapped me and Xander? He wanted me to do a love spell for Drusilla. I think he’s always had a romantic streak. In a weird, murdery, vampire kinda way”

Buffy shook her head in amusement.

“Did I ever tell you Spike was a poet when he was human?”

Willows eye widened, and her hands flew to cover her cackling laugh.

“A poet? Oh my gosh. That’s...that’s too good.”

Buffy took a sip of her mocha, relishing the warm caffeinated goodness before adding, “he would kill me for telling you this but, the best part is the whole “William the Bloody” thing? That’s because he had a reputation for being such a terrible poet.”

At that Willow dissolved into full on giggles, hands clutching her stomach

“Ugggggh ok ok, I’m done laughing. Promise. Also why is that so cute? That’s so cute. Little Spike the poet.”

Buffy sighed. “The thing is Spike has this immense capacity for love. Even as a violent serial killer he was still driven by love. It scared me. That he was so willing to throw himself headfirst into love without a shadow of doubt. I’ve never...I’ve never been like that.”

She looked up at Willow, trying to read her reaction. The witch just nodded encouragingly for her to go on.

“I just...I told Giles once that I didn’t know if I could love. I was worried I was broken, like all the slaying made me cold and loveless or something.”

“Buffy, no,” Willow cut in, but Buffy held up a hand to stop her.

“I know it’s not true. I died to save Dawn, to save all of you, weeks after I said that.” Buffy’s eyes filled up again but this time she swallowed it down and wiped them clean.

“He really loved me Will. And I don’t know that I was in love with him but that last night we spent together...I kind of thought that I could be, someday. You know? I wanted him to know that. To know that there was a chance for us. I figured we’d have all the time in the world after...”

Buffy trailed off, suddenly tired. She didn’t need to explain the rest. How Spike had died, believing she’d never love him. How all the time she thought she’d have to figure out if she could evaporated in a burst of fire and ash.

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She’d reached the cemetery gates just as the sun broke through the horizon. Her car was covered in dew, glistening in the hazy morning light.

She still couldn’t believe she had learned how to drive. And on the wrong side of the road! Her mom would die of shock if she were still around.

The thought of Joyce made her wistful. If only her mom could see her now. In her heart Buffy new her mom would be proud of the choices she’d made. She’d encourage her to let go of the past and focus on the future. She’d be overjoyed to know that Buffy had a future now. Sure, it still involved a massive amount of slayage but for the first time in a long time, the fate of the world didn’t rest solely on her shoulders. Her mom would tell her to embrace that and to live this new life to the fullest.

I’m trying mom.

Her phone buzzed again, and this time Buffy yanked it out in annoyance and flipped it open.

“What do you want?”

The silence on the other end only ticked her off more. If it was so important for someone to call her three times before she’d even had a cup of tea they could freaking respond when she finally picked up.

“Hello? I’m hanging up in three seconds if you don’t get all un-ghostface on me and just tell me what you want.”

She heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line. Her annoyance bled to curiosity and she willed herself to be patient.

Infusing her voice with a level of calm she didn’t feel, she asked “Do you need help or something? I don’t know how you got this line if you’re not part of Scooby Central but…you got me.”

The silence eked on for seconds that felt like minutes before the caller sighed. Buffy’s pulse shot up, anticipation making her antsy. She shuffled from foot to foot, fighting her instinct to hang up. If this was a Potential calling for help she needed to wait it out.

Finally, a voice broke through the silence.

“Slayer?”

Buffy dropped the phone on the ground, her fingers losing the ability to function along with her brain, which had gone fuzzy and staticky at the sound of the all too familiar voice on the other end of the line.

She stared down at her phone, the call still connected, wondering if she had fallen asleep somehow.

A muffled “bloody hell” came out of the fallen phone, causing Buffy to gasp and jump back. She crouched down low, getting as close to the phone as she could without actually picking it back up.

“Shit. SHIT. Spike?”

The muttering and cursing stopped.

“Slayer…yea. It’s a long story. But yea.”

Buffy felt her limbs turn to jelly and she sat down on the cold gravel, her head falling into her hands. A sob bubbled up from her chest, turning into a laugh that she couldn’t control. She giggled for a solid minute before gingerly picking her phone up and pressing it to her ear.

“How? You better explain yourself right now.” Her voice was edged with steel, anxiety and adrenaline giving way to nervous anger. If this was someone’s idea of a sick joke she was going to get murdery.

She could almost hear Spike roll his eyes.

“Good god woman, can’t I come back to life without brassing you off?”

She bit her lip to stop a smile, not willing to let hope overrule a protective layer of skepticism.

Rocking back on her heels Buffy gulped down the crisp morning air, willing her body to calm down so she could take stock of the situation. Her dead ex sort of boyfriend was calling her…she looked at the phone number quickly…from LA. Ok. She could handle this. She was the Slayer, queen of things that go bump in the night and let’s face it, this wasn’t her first ex to come back from the great beyond. If Angel could do it…Angel.

“Spike, why are you calling me from LA?”

He sighed again and she could picture him rubbing the back of his neck, a grimace on his face as he debated the best way to tell her what was going on.

Despite the rush of anger, her heart warmed at the thought.

“Eh look, I said it was complicated. I just thought it was right. Telling you I was alive. Thought you should know is all.”

Whatever ice had melted in her heart immediately froze back up. No way was Spike going to call her from beyond the grave and then immediately get shady and secretive.

“So, is that your weird dodgy British way of saying you’re not going to tell me why you’re calling me from LA? Where Angel lives? Are you with Angel?”

She heard Spike mutter something to himself that sounded an awful lot like “bloody bint”. She rolled her eyes and stood up, pacing the lot in an attempt to keep her temper in check.

“Yea. Alright yea.”

His voice had changed, his accent becoming sharper, and she knew he was starting to get worked up.

“I’m in LA and I’m with Angel. If you want to talk to him you can damn well call him yourself. I don’t know what I was thinking. Bloke comes back as a sodding ghost, gets himself corporealized by a nice scientist bird and calls his girl up and she wants to know about Angel. Figures.”

Buffy rolled her eyes, not even bothering to interrupt his tirade. She knew he’d run out of steam eventually.

“Are you finished?”

Spike sighed again and Buffy felt the fight go out of her. She sat down on the hood of her car, overwhelmed by the emotions swirling within.

“Yea Slayer. I’m finished.”

Buffy’s shoulders slumped and she laid back, gazing up at the sky. It was going to be a cloudy day.

“How?”

“That’s the million-dollar question love. Seems no one can answer it.”

“Wait.” Buffy sat up; brow furrowed in concentration as she started to put together the various odd things Spike had said so far.

“You were a ghost?”

She tried to picture that. Spike all floaty and haunty. The image made her chuckle, which she quickly tried to suppress.

“Yea, yea, yea, laugh it up. I don’t know if I was a ghost. I was a something. Couldn’t touch, couldn’t feel. Just trapped at bloody Wolfram & Hart with your beloved Prince of Brooding.”

“Wolf ram and what now?”

“It doesn’t matter. Done what I set to do. You know. Guess I’ll let you get back to it then.”

Buffy felt white hot anger burning in her chest. Did he really think he was going to call her up, say hey, and then leave? Maybe forever? Who did he think he was?

“Fine,” she spat out.

“Fine,” came Spike’s huffy reply.

They’d reached a stalemate and Buffy did the only thing she could think of doing.

She hung up.

She stuffed the phone in her pocket, unlocking the car door and sliding into the front seat. She stared out the frosted windshield for a moment before screaming at the top of her lungs. When that didn’t calm the storm she felt brewing inside she slammed her hands repeatedly into the steering wheel. The metal and leather began to crunch and warp under the weight of her blows but she didn’t care. She felt like someone had set her insides on fire. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t cry, couldn’t do anything but scream and rage into the void.

Eventually she ran out of steam. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed but her throat was raw. Rubbing her face she switched into Slayer mode. Something was up and she was going to get to the bottom of it. Cagey Spike and his caginess be damned.

She forwarded the number he’d called her from to Willow and Andrew. Between the two of them they’d be able to trace it and dig up some dirt on where Spike was. As for how he got there, she was going to need boots on the ground. Luckily Kennedy had last checked in from Arizona a couple of days ago. She couldn’t be far from there and she owed Buffy more than one favor. She might not be Spike’s biggest fan, but she would do some recon and get Buffy the answers she needed. Once she knew what was going on, she could show up in LA and punch Spike and Angel in the face herself.

Buffy felt calmer. She had a plan. It wasn’t perfect but it was a start.

She’d let Spike get away once before. This time would be different. She didn’t know why or how but it seemed the Powers That Be had given her a second chance.

She wouldn’t waste it.

—end—

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bananaofswifts · 4 years ago

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Taylor Swift Leaves Her Comfort Zones Behind on the Head-Spinning, Heartbreaking ‘Folklore’

Her eighth album is a radical detour into the deepest collection of songs she’s ever come up with.

So here we are again. The world was in the middle of the cruelest summer ever, just staggering through late July, when Taylor Swift decided to make it all so much messier — her specialty. In a move that nobody saw coming, she announced a surprise album on July 23rd, less than a year after her career-capping smash Lover. (A year to the day after she dropped “The Archer.”) Like the rest of us, Swift had to cancel her summer, including her LoverFest shows, which would have been next week. Instead, she spent the quarantine season throwing herself into a new secret project: her eighth album, Folklore. But the real surprise is the music itself — the most head-spinning, heart-breaking, emotionally ambitious songs of her life.

It’s a total goth-folk album, mostly acoustic guitar and piano, largely in collaboration with the National’s Aaron Dessner. No pop songs at all. It’s as far beyond Lover as Lover was beyond Reputation. She’s always relished her dramatic creative zigzags, but this is easily her most audacious move, full of story-telling depth she’s never come close to before. Some of us have spent years dreaming Taylor would do a whole album like this, but nobody really dreamed it would turn out this great. Her greatest album — so far.

Lover self-consciously summed up the first 30 years of her life, bringing all her musical passions together. But on Folklore, she leaves her comfort zones behind. It sounds like she figured she wasn’t going to be touring these songs live anyway, so she gave up on doing anything for the radio, anything rah-rah or stadium-friendly. She just made some coffee, sat at the piano, and let her mind wander into some dark places. You can picture the candle on her piano flickering as the wax melts over her copy of Wuthering Heights and another song rolls out.

Her sonic chemistry with Dessner is right in every detail; she also teams up with her longtime wingman Jack Antonoff and duets with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon on “Exile.” The vibe is close to “Safe and Sound,” the rootsy gem she did with the Civil Wars for The Hunger Games soundtrack in 2013. As she explains in her Prologue, “In isolation my imagination has run wild and this album is the result, a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory.”

Folklore really feels like the debut album of a whole new Swift — her narrative scope has opened up, with a wide-ranging cast of characters, for seventeen songs without a dud. Yet you can still hear that this is the same songwriter who dropped “Last Kiss” on the world ten July-ninths ago. Here’s a Swift progress report on her quarantine: “I’ve been having a hard time adjusting/I had the shiniest wheels, now they’re rusting/I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back/I have a lot of regrets about that.” The power of her mind.

It’s amusing in retrospect how people actually worried that being happy in love might mean Swift would run out of things to write songs about. Not a chance. It turns out to be the other way around, as she lets these characters tell their own stories: A scandalous old widow, hated by her whole town. A scared seven-year-old girl with a traumatized best friend. A ghost watching her enemies at the funeral. Recovering addicts. A fumbling teenage boy. Three of the highlights — “Cardigan,” “August,” and “Betty” — depict the same love triangle, from all three different perspectives. Other songs tell both sides of a story: “The 1” and “Peace,” or “Invisible String” and “The Lakes.”

Folklore hits overdrive halfway through, when it reaches a trilogy of heavy hitters. “August,” the album’s most plainly beautiful ballad, is a summer romance gone wrong: “I can see us tangled in bed sheets/August slipped away like a bottle of wine/Because you were never mine.” “This Is Me Trying” is the disturbingly witty tale of someone pouring her heart out, to keep herself from pouring more whiskey. “Illicit Affairs” is another tale of infidelity: “Take the words for what they are/A dwindling mercurial high/A drug that only worked the first few hundred times.” The tension explodes when she sings, “Don’t call me kid/Don’t call me baby/Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me.”

It’s going to take weeks if not decades to puzzle out all the intricately inter-woven narrative details of these songs. “Mirrorball” is about the same nervous dance-floor poseur of “New Romantics,” six years later, except tonight she feels like the disco ball that reflects everyone’s most desperate insecurities. “Mad Woman” expands on the familiar topic of witch hunts, but it also sharpens the feminist rage of “The Man.” “The Last Great American Dynasty” satirizes the upper-crust milieu of “Starlight” when she sings, “There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen/I had a marvelous time ruining everything.” (Taylor uses the word “marvelous” twice in her career, and both time it’s songs about the Kennedys? No detail is too tiny for her to plan eight years in advance.)

“Betty” is a first — she sings in the voice of the 17-year-old boy in a Taylor Swift song, reckoning with the fickle behavior detailed by the girls in “Cardigan” and “August.” It takes off from the harmonica solo in Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” — which feels appropriate for the only tale on the album where she goes back to high school. “The Lakes” is a bonus track for vinyl, CD and (what a flex) cassette, but it’s a must-hear: Taylor walks in the footsteps of William Wordsworth, the Romantic poet who essentially invented the kind of introspective writing she does, wandering the Windermere Peaks of the Lake District.

Remember when she was threatening to spend this year re-recording all her old albums? She does the opposite here — she refuses to repeat her most reliable tricks. So many of the world’s favorite Swiftian trademarks are missing. No country moves, no synth pop, no first dates, no “Taylor visits a city” song, not even a laugh. The references to fame are few and far between, although they’re tasty when they do show up, as in “Invisible String”: “Bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to L.A.” She can’t resist adding: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind/For the boys who broke my heart/Now I send their babies presents.” Touché.

If Lover was the last album of her twenties, Folklore is the first of her thirties. Lover was styled as a well-rounded musical autobiography, with everything from Nashville twang to electro-disco. Folklore takes a completely different approach, yet feels even more intimate, simply because it’s the sound of an artist with absolutely nothing to prove. She’s never sounded this relaxed or confident, never sounded this blasé about winning anyone over. It makes perfect sense that the quarantine brought out her best, since she’s always written so poignantly about isolation and the temptation to dream too hard about other people’s far-away lives. (“Last Kiss” is usually a summer favorite, but this year, “hope it’s nice where you are” feels a little too close to the bone.) On Folklore, she dreams up a host of characters to keep her company, and stepping into their lives brings out her deepest wit, compassion, and empathy. And it sounds like for Taylor Swift, her best is yet to come.

#taylor swift #folklore #review

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ts1989fanatic · 4 years ago

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Taylor Swift Leaves Her Comfort Zones Behind on the Head-Spinning, Heartbreaking ‘Folklore’

Her eighth album is a radical detour into the deepest collection of songs she’s ever come up with

So here we are again. The world was in the middle of the cruelest summer ever, just staggering through late July, when Taylor Swift decided to make it all so much messier — her specialty. In a move that nobody saw coming, she announced a surprise album on July 23rd, less than a year after her career-capping smash Lover. (A year to the day after she dropped “The Archer.”) Like the rest of us, Swift had to cancel her summer, including her LoverFest shows, which would have been next week. Instead, she spent the quarantine season throwing herself into a new, secret project: her eighth album, Folklore. But the real surprise is the music itself — the most head-spinning, heartbreaking, emotionally ambitious songs of her life.

Her sonic chemistry with Dessner is right in every detail; she also teams up with her longtime wingman Jack Antonoff, and duets with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon on “Exile.” The vibe is close to “Safe and Sound,” the rootsy gem she did with the Civil Wars for The Hunger Games soundtrack in 2013. As she explains in her Prologue, “In isolation my imagination has run wild and this album is the result, a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory.”

Folklore really feels like the debut album of a whole new Swift — her narrative scope has opened up, with a wide-ranging cast of characters for 17 songs, without a dud. Yet you can still hear that this is the same songwriter who dropped “Last Kiss” on the world 10 July-9ths ago. Here’s a Swift progress report on her quarantine: “I’ve been having a hard time adjusting/I had the shiniest wheels, now they’re rusting/I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back/I have a lot of regrets about that.” The power of her mind.

It’s amusing, in retrospect, how people actually worried that being happy in love might mean Swift would run out of things to write songs about. Not a chance. It turns out to be the other way around, as she lets these characters tell their own stories: A scandalous old widow, hated by her whole town. A scared seven-year-old girl with a traumatized best friend. A ghost watching her enemies at the funeral. Recovering addicts. A fumbling teenage boy. Three of the highlights — “Cardigan,” “August,” and “Betty” — depict the same love triangle, from all three different perspectives. Other songs tell both sides of a story: “The 1” and “Peace,” or “Invisible String” and “The Lakes.”

Folklore hits overdrive halfway through, when it reaches a trilogy of heavy hitters. “August,” the album’s most plainly beautiful ballad, is a summer romance gone wrong: “I can see us tangled in bedsheets/August slipped away like a bottle of wine/Because you were never mine.” “This Is Me Trying” is the disturbingly witty tale of someone pouring her heart out, to keep herself from pouring more whiskey. “Illicit Affairs” is another tale of infidelity: “Take the words for what they are/A dwindling mercurial high/A drug that only worked the first few hundred times.” The tension explodes when she sings, “Don’t call me kid/Don’t call me baby/Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me.”

It’s going to take weeks if not decades to puzzle out all the intricately interwoven narrative details of these songs. “Mirrorball” is about the same nervous dance-floor poseur of “New Romantics,” six years later, except tonight she feels like the disco ball that reflects everyone’s most desperate insecurities. “Mad Woman” expands on the familiar topic of witch hunts, but it also sharpens the feminist rage of “The Man.” “The Last Great American Dynasty” satirizes the upper-crust milieu of “Starlight” when she sings, “There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen/I had a marvelous time ruining everything.” (Taylor uses the word “marvelous” twice in her career, and both times it’s in songs about the Kennedys? No detail is too tiny for her to plan eight years in advance.)

“Betty” is a first — she sings in the voice of the 17-year-old boy in a Taylor Swift song, reckoning with the fickle behavior detailed by the girls in “Cardigan” and “August.” It takes off from the harmonica solo in Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” — which feels appropriate for the only tale on the album where she goes back to high school. “The Lakes” is a bonus track for vinyl, CD, and (what a flex) cassette, but it’s a must-hear: Taylor walks in the footsteps of William Wordsworth, the Romantic poet who essentially invented the kind of introspective writing she does, wandering the Windermere Peaks of the Lake District.

Remember when she was threatening to spend this year rerecording all her old albums? She does the opposite here — she refuses to repeat her most reliable tricks. So many of the world’s favorite Swift-ian trademarks are missing. No country moves, no synth pop, no first dates, no “Taylor visits a city” song, not even a laugh. The references to fame are few and far between, although they’re tasty when they do show up, as in “Invisible String”: “Bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to L.A.” She can’t resist adding: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind/For the boys who broke my heart/Now I send their babies presents.” Touché.

If Lover was the last album of her twenties, Folklore is the first of her thirties. Lover was styled as a well-rounded musical autobiography, with everything from Nashville twang to electro-disco. Folklore takes a completely different approach, yet feels even more intimate, simply because it’s the sound of an artist with absolutely nothing to prove. She’s never sounded this relaxed or confident, never sounded this blasé about winning anyone over. It makes perfect sense that the quarantine brought out her best, since she’s always written so poignantly about isolation and the temptation to dream too hard about other people’s far-away lives. (“Last Kiss” is usually a summer favorite, but this year, “Hope it’s nice where you are” feels a little too close to the bone.) On Folklore, she dreams up a host of characters to keep her company, and stepping into their lives brings out her deepest wit, compassion, and empathy. And it sounds like for Taylor Swift, her best is yet to come.

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nerdie-faerie · 4 years ago

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After seeing that post about untaught racism in british history and talking to Ana about world history I have come to the realisation of just how shit and lacking our lessons were so here is a rough guide of what everyone I know was taught in history pre-GCSEs in vaguely chronological order cus my memories not that good

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, then ANCIENT GREEKS and then ANCIENT ROMANS who invaded england to expand the roman empire

the original settlers were the CELTS who were pushed out by the ROMANS who were pushed out by the VIKINGS who were pushed out by the SAXONS leading to the ANGLO SAXONS and the name angloland who were then pushed out by the NORMANS whooo

Brought WILLIAM THE CONQUEOR englands first king after winning the BATTLE OF HASTINGS (we all have the date 1066 imprinted in our heads everything else is irrelevant) and started the DOOMSDAY BOOK

Then everythings kinda irrelevant for a while theres the DARK AGES and the first bought of bubonic plague called BLACK DEATH

Then nothing again until the WAR OF THE ROSES which was won by HENRY 7TH whom we nothing else about except that he was HENRY 8TH’s dad whos claim to fame is having six wives and introducing divorce after changing the religion of england the point in the six wives being that he wanted a son who ended up being super sickly was on the throne young and died young I couldnt tell you which of the KING EDWARD’s he was. then was the nine day queen LADY JANE GREY who was eds cousin chosen because she shared the same religious views as henry rather than mary. BLOODY MARY then had jane killed changed the countrys religion back and thats the extent of what I know. Next was ELIZABETH 1ST who changed the religion back again (no i dont know which is which one of the christianity branches) and is generally remarked upon for never marrying.

All that happened during the RENAISSANCE you know that period of ENLIGHTENMENT and the FRENCH REVOLUTION? Yeah none of that gets mentioned because england

Then another bought of bubonic plague this time referred to as the GREAT PLAGUE this is the one where they BANNED CATS AND DOGS thus increasing rat populations, BURNED TAR in the streets and PLAGUE DOCTORS which didnt end until the GREAT FIRE OF LONDON

Of course at some point there was the spanish inquisition and Napoleon but thats not england so it doesnt get taught I mean we dont even get taught about wales or ireland and the only mention of scotland is that there were a lot of battles so you can understand why world history gets ignored.

Then everything becomes irrelevant again until the VICTORIAN ERA in which you learn that QUEEN VIC was the longest reigning monarchy and about the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION a brief nod to SLAVERY but mainly focusing on the few figures who attempted to abolish it and of course the BRITISH EMPIRE but we dont discus of course how exactly one comes about owning the majoprity of countries did they lose their rights in a bet? doesn’t matter because information would surely demonise england so we dont talk about it. and hey WORK HOUSES were also a thing

And of course FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE was around and doing stuff. And there was that all thing with the ROUNDHEADS and CAVALIERS that happened at some point again hella vague

Then nothing matters until WORLD WAR 1 skipping over the fact that really britain had no need to get involved the whole thing was super convoluted. Then we ignore the ROARING TWENTIES and oh look WORLD WAR 2 lets ignore the fact that germany got the idea of concentration camps from britain and instead talk about how horrific the NAZIS were and how shocking it was that anyone could treat a fellow human being like that *cough cough*

Then a brief brush over the following decades the FIFTIES in which the focus of SEGREGATION is all on america completely ignoring any and all racial issues in the uk. then onto the SIXTIES moon landing then SEVENTIES. But what about the cold war with america and russia? Who cares wasn’t england. And the international tensions over nuclear war? Not england. What about the assassination of president kennedy? We don’t learn about our own political leader aside from a brief nod to churchil and thatcher so nope.

And then its present day minus a decade or four but whos counting

So that completes our very shitty guide to English history lessons through the years

#Not rp #OOC #history nerd #British history #Education system #British education system #English history lessons #Tw; swearing #just to clarify i love history and did really well in it but our lessons were WOEFULLY lacking some of the finer details up there (not that #theres many) are actually from horrible histories rather than lessons which were also incredibly england centric but what we were taught was #pitiful we didnt have art lessons at all at my school but history science and geography was like done in a week once a month #we didnt get taught shit most of what i know about history i learnt in my own time when i was a kid with time and enthusiam

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traincat · 5 years ago

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who are kaine and ben? i saw ben get referenced in a post about ripeter from spider verse and i know they're clones?? but idk anything about them.

Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker are both clones of Peter Parker. It’s a very long story, but to cut to the heart of it: when Peter and Gwen were in college, they had a professor named Miles Warren, also known as the Jackal. Warren became obsessed with Gwen, and after her death also discovered Spider-Man was Peter Parker. Using samples collected in their science class, he cloned multiple copies of both Gwen and Peter – two of those clones being Kaine and Ben. (Later it’s revealed Norman Osborn was directly involved in Warren’s cloning of Peter, but originally the story is presented as Warren cloning Peter as revenge for his part in Gwen’s death.) They’re the big two clones you need to know about when tackling Spider-Man comics: the perfect clone and the original clone.

(Web of Spider-Man #118)

Ben Reilly (who uses a combination of Uncle Ben’s first name and Aunt May’s maiden name) is a “perfect” copy of Peter Parker, possessing all of Peter’s powers and memories up until his cloning (the college years) both. Realizing he was the clone, Ben left New York and for five years lived a nomadic life. Spider-Man: The Lost Years is a miniseries that covers this and I highly recommend it.

Ben returns to New York when May falls ill and apparently dies (it’s a long story but considering this was the 90s and May is currently alive in Spider-Man, you can guess that she did not in fact actually die). At first operating as the Scarlet Spider, Ben later took up the Spider-Man mantle when test results were faked so it appeared that he was, in fact, the original Peter Parker and Peter the clone. Peter and Mary Jane, who was at the time pregnant, moved to Portland and Ben bleached his hair blond and began working as a barista at a local coffee shop while operating as Spider-Man.

Ben later died in front of Peter, murdered by Norman Osborn the same night Norman had Mary Jane poisoned to kill her unborn baby. Upon his death, it was revealed that Ben had been the clone all along. He later returned as the new Jackal during the recent Clone Conspiracy storyline, and had a recent comics run in Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider.

Personality-wise, before his return as the Jackal/his most recent run, Ben is a lot like Peter. Despite a rocky start, Peter and Ben got along really well and referred to each other as brothers. Before Ben’s death they were discussing the possibility of them both acting as Spider-Man in conjunction.

(Spectacular Spider-Man #240)

When it comes to Ben, there are two costumes you should know: the Scarlet Spider costume and Ben’s variation of the Spider-Man costume. The Scarlet Spider costume is a red bodysuit with a blue sleeveless hoodie featuring the spider symbol layered over it:

(ASM #400)

Ben’s Spider-Man costume is very similar to Peter’s, but the spider is larger, extending across his chest and over his shoulders, and his gloves and boots are a different design:

(Spectacular Spider-Man #234) Ben very notably wears his webshooters on the outside of his costume in both his Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man identities, which is an easy way to quickly identify whether you’re looking at Peter Parker or Ben Reilly if you’re unsure.

RIPeter’s blond hair in Into the Spider-Verse was most likely a reference to Ben Reilly – it’s a pretty funny meta joke to introduce a Spider-Man whose big line is “there’s only one Spider-Man” when he’s visually based on Peter’s clone.

(Spider-Man Redemption #4)

Kaine Parker – known at first simply as “Kaine” – is the first living clone of Peter Parker Miles Warren created. Seemingly a success at first, Kaine suffered from clone degeneration, a condition that scarred him physically and mentally. When Warren became aware of this, he attempted to kill Kaine, causing Kaine to flee and hide.

(Peter Parker #61)

Kaine became obsessed with Peter, thinking that he was the successful clone when in reality that was Ben Reilly. Attempting to protect the life Kaine felt Peter as the clone should have, he hounded Ben Reilly relentlessly, attempting to keep him from New York and away from Peter and trying to destroy Ben’s own happiness. It gets kind of homoerotic, I’m not gonna lie.

(Peter Parker #61)

(Spider-Man Redemption #1 – highly recommended Kaine reading.)

“Our minds and hearts couldn’t help but vibrate around each other: I’d breathe in, he’d exhale. I’d grow feverish… he’d burn.” This is a lot even before Ben’s love interest, Janine, uses the exact same phrasing to describe her own relationship with Ben. (Based on the heavy parallels between Janine, who killed her father after years of sexual abuse, and Kaine, as well as Kaine’s later focus on and empathy toward young victims of sex trafficking and the Jackal’s own treatment of Kaine, I think there’s a very strong implication in the text that the Jackal sexually abused at least Kaine, if not both Kaine and Ben, but that’s a different post.)

During Ben’s five year exile, Kaine killed a woman named Louise Kennedy, who had briefly been his lover, in a complicated series of events spiraling out from his finding out she was a corrupt cop. Because the clones have the same fingerprints as Peter and because Peter had previously been arrested and fingerprinted, Peter was later arrested for the murder, though he was later exonerated. Kaine also killed Doctor Octopus, although Otto, of course, got better.

Fast forward to more modern comics. Kaine sacrificed himself in Peter’s stead during the Grim Hunt storyline, when Kraven the Hunter’s family attempted to use Spider-Man to resurrect Kraven. Kaine later emerged from the grave further mutated, sporting multiple eyes and more spider-like features. The Jackal abducted him and further mutated him into a giant monster called Tarantula. During the Spider-Island event, he was knocked into a vat of spider-cure created by Anti-Venom and reemerged cured of both Tarantula and the clone degeneration.

(ASM #671)

Headlining in his own solo title, Scarlet Spider v2, Kaine took off with Peter’s stealth suit and, while he planned to cross the border into Mexico, ended up waylaid in Houston when he discovered a mysterious young girl named Aracely who had been left to die. Recognizing himself in her, Kaine and Aracely ended up staying in Houston, where Kaine operated as the Scarlet Spider, focusing his efforts when left to his own devices largely on human trafficking.

(Scarlet Spider v2 #12)

Kaine and Aracely later appeared as members of the new New Warriors team, before he died during the Spider-Verse event. He also got better.

Before being cured of the clone degeneration, Kaine sported very long curly hair and was marked by the scars of his clone degeneration. He’s also taller than either Peter or Ben, likely due to mistakes in the cloning process. He possesses a power called “the mark of Kaine” which leaves burning hand prints on his victims. Before he was cured, he suffered from precognition in the form of violent flashes of the future, but after being cured, unlike either Peter or Ben, Kaine lacks a spider-sense:

(Scarlet Spider v2 #1)

However, unlike either Peter or Ben, he can talk to and control spiders:

(New Warriors (2014) #3)

Kaine is short-tempered and foul-mouthed, but despite his every intention otherwise, like Peter, he is ultimately beholden to his responsibilities. Because of his past, he’s extremely self-loathing, and often measures himself up against both Peter and Ben in terms of what a hero is supposed to be like. However, he’s deeply loyal to his found family, particularly Aracely, who shares something of a psychic bond with him.

(Scarlet Spider v2 #21) Kaine is also possessed by an otherworldly spider entity known as the Other, which can manifest as a gigantic human spider.

And that’s what you need to know about the two main 616 Peter Parker clones!

#ben reilly #kaine parker #peter parker #spiderman #aracely penalba #marvel comics #traincat talks comics #long post/#Anonymous

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tomeandflickcorner · 4 years ago

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Umbrella Academy Recap 2x04

1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10

2x01 2x02 2x03

Well, last episode was pretty emotionally draining. Not only did we get Allison’s husband, Ray, learning about her powers and reacting badly (though not unrealistically), but Lila, the young woman Diego might be falling for, is also seemingly in league with The Handler. Oh, and Luther is still a pain in the tailbone, being all mopey over Allison marrying someone else. So what’s going to happen next?

The episode actually addresses one of our first questions at the very start of the episode, showing us exactly how Lila got involved with The Handler in the first place. It seems that the story Lila told Diego, about her parents being killed in a home invasion, was partially true. Turns out, they were actually killed by The Commission, possibly because they could have potentially altered some major historical event in some way and therefore had to be eliminated. And I won’t lie, seeing the scene of them tied up on the floor while begging for their lives was rather disturbing to watch. After the temporal assassin murders the young couple, with The Handler watching, they begin to leave. But before leaving, The Handler notices a child’s toy lying nearby. Which tips her off that there was a kid in the house. Almost immediately after this discovery, The Handler hears a noise coming from a nearby vent, which leads to her locating a young Lila hiding in a secret compartment in the wall. The Handler promptly takes Young Lila under her wing and raises her as a daughter. Though it’s definitely not much of a loving relationship, as The Handler’s parenting style is on par with Reginald Hargeeves’. And this is driven home when we see The Handler forcing Lila to go through some sort of obstacle course while shooting at her with a Tommy gun, drills her in learning Mandarin and even sent her on a mission to kill a man. Of course, this does mean that Lila has more in common with Diego than either of them might realize. They both were raised by a less-than-loving adoptive parent who treated them more like a weapon than an actual child.

Flash forward to the present. Or at least what is the present in the show’s timeline, considering we’re still in 1963. The Handler has instructed Lila to protect Number 5. Lila is surprised by this, considering how much trouble Number 5 had caused for The Commission last season. Not to mention it was partially because of him that The Handler got demoted. Still, The Handler feels that Number 5 is worth more to her alive. As their conversation continues, Lila voices her annoyance over the three white-haired temporal assassins that shot at her and Diego as they tried to escape the mental hospital. She is not pleased when she learns that The Handler was the one who sent them, considering they might have killed her, even though she’s working for The Commission as well. But The Handler waves away her anger, stating that it’s all part of the act, and it’s important to not let on that Lila is with them. And she also insists that if the white-haired trio really wanted to kill her, then she’d already be dead. As The Handler leaves the room, she once again instructs Lila to protect Number 5, no matter what.

Elsewhere, Luther is waking up after throwing his fight and getting his butt handed to him. To his surprise, Vanya is sitting by his bedside, offering him a pillow or some aspirin to ease his headache. Right away, Luther realizes that Number 5 had managed to locate her. Vanya confirms this by stating the brother in question is waiting outside in the car. She then goes on to explain that Number 5 had filled in some of the gaps in her missing memories, but had been vague in regards to the apocalypse. So Vanya suspects that she might have had something to do with it and she asks Luther about the matter. Luther admits that Vanya caused it, stating she got angry, lost control and blew up the moon. Although, to Luther’s credit, he also states that it wasn’t completely her fault. Before they could get much further in their discussion, Mr. Ruby barges in. He is furious that Luther threw the fight, especially since he now owes a lot of money (because people were gambling on the outcome of the fight). Luther tries to apologize, but Mr. Ruby states that their partnership is done and walks out. Luther, visibly crestfallen, tells Vanya to leave. He then punches a hole through the wall, allowing him to see Number 5 looking up at him from the street below.

Vanya, taking this as her cue to leave, exits the building. As she passes by Number 5, she announces she’s going back to the farmhouse. Number 5 insists that’s not acceptable, as they have to stick together. At this, Vanya begins laying into Number 5 for not telling her that she was the one who caused the April 1st 2019 apocalypse and asking him if he was ever going to tell her the truth. Number 5 admits he wasn’t planning on mentioning it, since Vanya had a tendency to blow things up when she got mad. After a bit of back-and-forth, Vanya announces that she can’t help him, stating that whoever she was before, it’s a new timeline. And therefore, she can start anew. Number 5 tries to tell her it doesn’t work that way, but Vanya drives off, leaving him alone, with Luther glaring down at him from the hole in the wall.

Over at the Chestnut household, Allison is going nuts since Ray hadn’t come home after the riot. She starts to berate herself for rumoring that cop who had been beating him, stating that she’d promised herself that she’d never use her powers again. Klaus attempts to reassure her, pointing out that she’d saved Ray’s life, as the cop would have killed him if she hadn’t stepped in. He proceeds to tell her his own version of The Scorpion and The Frog fable to further cheer her up, but this goes as well as a porcupine in a balloon factory and she quickly runs off to try and find Ray.

Allison eventually heads over to Odessa's hairdressers. She is shocked to find Ray is there, and is holding a meeting without her. Allison voices her anger that he didn’t even bother calling her to let her know he was alright, as she had been up all night trying to call numerous hospitals and fearing he was dead. Ray proceeds to lead Allison outside to talk. It soon becomes clear that Ray is suspecting that Allison was a plant for the police and had been simply infiltrating their group to spy on them. Allison insists that wasn’t the case, and that she can explain. But when Ray tells her to do so, the words fail Allison. Which is understandable, because how does one go about explaining everything about having supernatural powers and traveling in time? So Ray, taking her silence as confirmation of his suspicions, goes back inside.

Saddened, Allison proceeds to walk about seemingly aimlessly. But this leads to her reuniting with Luther, who is also feeling dejected after his falling out with Mr. Ruby and is currently stuffing his face at an outdoor barbecue restaurant. Their reunion is reasonably sweet. They proceed to catch up with each other, though they gloss over their personal heartbreaks. Allison asks Luther if he’s heard from the others, so Luther tells her that Vanya is living on a farm and is actually really happy there and that Diego is in a mental hospital. (Luther doesn’t know Diego broke out at this point.) In return, Allison tells him that Klaus has become a cult leader. Of course, when Luther states that Number 5 turned up again, he tells her that they will somehow cause a second apocalypse, which is supposed to occur in 7 days. Allison is clearly taken aback by this.

Back at Elliot’s apartment, Number 5 has regrouped with Diego, Lila and Elliot, stating he’s confident Vanya will come around and rejoin them eventually. Diego asks him if he’s sure the white-haired assassins (who Number 5 refers to as The Swedes) will go after her again. Number 5 says he can’t be sure they won’t, but right now, their priority is locating 1963 Reginald and asking him some questions about his possible involvement with the approaching Kennedy Assassination. Fortunately, Number 5 knows just where they can find him. During their previous search of 1963 Reginald’s umbrella factory, Number 5 had located an invitation to a gala that’s being hosted by a man named Hoyt Hillenkoetter. Immediately upon hearing that name, Elliot’s ears perk up. It appears that Hoyt is a member of The Majestic 12 (roll credits), which is some secret governmental group that I imagine is in the same vein as the Illuminati. Elliot proceeds to show them a photograph that had been taken of the Majestic 12. How this photograph came to exist is not explained, but I’m sure Elliot wasn’t the only conspiracy nut in the 1960s. Lila voices her observation that there are only 11 men in Elliot’s photograph. In response, Elliot states that nobody has been able to identify the mysterious 12th member. Upon hearing this, Number 5 and Diego share a look. It’s obvious they’ve concluded that Reginald was the 12th member of this organisation.

Meanwhile, Vanya has returned to the farmhouse. Upon her arrival, she is immediately greeted by Sissy, who is overjoyed to see her. She asks Vanya what happened. Vanya admits she doesn’t know where to begin, so Sissy states they can talk over breakfast. And so, Vanya fills Sissy in on the finer points of what happened after she left the farmhouse. Specifically the part about The Swedes being after her. Sissy suggests going to the police, but Vanya turns down that option, as the matter is complicated. Instead, Vanya feels that, in order to make sure Sissy and Harlan remain safe, she has to leave. Sissy is dead set against this, though. She tells Vanya that they can just go away somewhere, and that she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her from The Swedes. At that moment, they both realize that Harlan had been in earshot of their conversation. Realizing that Vanya was considering leaving for good, he runs out of the house, clearly upset, and Sissy and Vanya race after him. They quickly lose sight of him, though, forcing the two women to split up in order to find him. After a frantic search, Vanya overhears the sound of water splashing. Following the sound, she sees Harlan’s bird toy floating in a large pond. Which clearly indicates he’d fallen in. Vanya, in a desperate attempt at saving the boy, concentrates on tapping into her powers. (Either she knows she has them now or this was just her instincts taking over.) With her powers, she pushes back the water in the pond like it’s the Red Sea, enabling her to retrieve Harlan’s unconscious form. Once they’re safely on shore, Vanya begins performing CPR on him. At first, it looks like it’s all in vain, as Harlan remains unresponsive. But then, small specks of light enter into Harlan’s mouth and go down his throat. In the blink of an eye, Harlan comes back to life, much to Vanya and Sissy’s relief.

Upon returning to the farmhouse, Sissy brings Harlan up to bed. When she rejoins Vanya downstairs, she suggests not mentioning what had happened with Harlan nearly drowning to Carl (who is away on a business trip in Waco). As Sissy begins to drink the liqueur Vanya poured for her, the events of the day catch up to her, and she breaks down crying. She acknowledges that Harlan would have died if Vanya hadn’t been there. Vanya consoles her, pointing out that Harlan is going to be fine, as the doctor had already checked him over and determined that he’d pull through. Still, Vanya feels that things might be best if she left. Clearly, she’s still thinking of The Swedes. Sissy then begins confiding in Vanya that she felt unfulfilled with her life, as her husband doesn’t see her and her son doesn’t talk to her. But then Vanya came into their lives. She then kisses Vanya, and, after a pause, Vanya reciprocates.

Over at a diner somewhere, Klaus jumps right into his personal mission by approaching Dave and trying to convince him to not enlist in the army. Because if he does, they’re going to send him to Vietnam, where thousands of American soldiers and millions of Vietnamese soldiers will die for nothing. Unfortunately, Klaus’ efforts are spoiled by Dave’s uncle, Brian, who is clearly of the mindset that being a military man is the highest honor imaginable. Uncle Brian begins throwing homophobic slurs at Klaus and orders Dave to punch Klaus. In the end, Uncle Brian’s taunts force Dave to comply with that order, though it’s clear that Dave isn’t happy about doing so. Klaus then leaves the diner, as Ben, who had been watching the whole scene unfold, stands by in visible shock.

Ben later catches up to Klaus, who is trying to drown his sorrow with alcohol. He tries to talk Klaus out of it, as Klaus has been sober for the past three years and can’t throw out that progress now, but to no avail. And Klaus proceeds to drink from a bunch of bottles. (And I’m a little surprised he was able to get away with drinking in the liqueur store. Were the rules about drinking alcohol before actually paying for the bottle looser in the 60s?) Unfortunately for Klaus, when he returns to his mansion, he finds his followers have all managed to track him down. Horrified, Klaus turns and retreats, with his devoted followers all running after him, not picking up on the obvious indication that he wants to get away from them. Eventually, Klaus manages to give them the slip and returns to the Chestnut household, looking for a place to crash for the night. Allison, while it’s clear she’s exasperated with her brother’s antics (and still upset over how things went with Ray), allows him to camp out on the couch.

Elsewhere, Luther finds that he’s being kicked out of his small apartment, as he’s now on Mr. Ruby’s bad side and his landlord doesn’t want to end up crossing Mr. Ruby, either. So Luther is forced to head over to Elliot’s place to look for Number 5. Of course, Number 5 has already left for the gala with Diego and Lila, so only Elliot is there to let him in. They then proceed to get high on some nitrous oxide. As they sit around giggling and swapping man stories and what not, Luther lets slip that the world will end in 7 days. While Elliot is shocked and confused by that statement, the laughing gas high prevents him from really reacting to this.

At the gala, Diego, Lila and Number 5 plan to infiltrate the party. (And I have to laugh here. While Diego and Lila managed to locate the appropriate attire to attend a fancy soiree, Number 5 is still wearing his Umbrella Academy schoolboy uniform. What, did they not have tuxes in child sizes in 1963? Or could Number 5 not be bothered to try and blend in?) Before they try to sneak in, however, Number 5 makes sure Lila knows that he doesn’t trust her. (And, knowing what we know about Lila, Number 5 might be smart to be suspicious of her.)

Once inside, Number 5 slips off to search the upstairs for 1965 Reginald. Once they’re alone, Diego pulls Lila aside to ask where she ran off to last night. It seems he’d woken up while Lila was off meeting with The Handler and noticed she was no longer lying next to him. Lila smoothly covers up her absence by stating she’d slipped off to a drug store to get more gauze for his stab wound. And then, to further distract him, she pulls him onto the dance floor. They proceed to have a pretty nicely done dancing scene. However, their dance ends abruptly when Diego spots something that makes him freeze. To his amazement, the Hargreeves Siblings’ robot mother, Grace, or someone who looks remarkably like her, is standing amongst the other guests. So of course, Diego has to go and approach her. Of course, it’s not clear if this is actually the Grace that Diego knows or not, as this Grace has a strong Texas accent. However, Grace does state that Reginald is there as her date, but he slipped off to attend a meeting 20 minutes ago. As Grace heads off, Diego suddenly remembers Lila and hurries off to find her again. But we then see The Swedes are also there at the gala, posing as members of the wait staff.

Upstairs, Number 5 teleports himself into a closet. This enables him to spy on the meeting of the Majestic 12, who are planning to organize the assassination of President Kennedy, in order to prevent him from continuing his investigation of their activities. As Number 5 and Diego suspected, Reginald is indeed among them. But when Number 5 accidentally makes his presence known by inadvertently making a noise, he has to teleport away before 1963 Reginald can stab him with a fireplace poker. Number 5′s bad luck continues when he materializes right in front of one of The Swedes. A fight immediately breaks out between Number 5 and The Swedes, with Diego joining in early on. As the fight continues, Lila also stumbles onto the scene. After a brief hesitation, she goes to assist Number 5, following The Handler’s orders to protect him at all costs. As a result, they manage to seemingly kill one of The Swedes. But amidst the confusion, the Majestic 12 decide the secrecy of their meeting has been compromised and that they should regroup later at their backup location. When Number 5 sees them leaving though the window, he teleports off, with Lila hurrying away as well. While this does leave Diego at the mercy of the other two Swedes, he manages to overpower them and gets away as well.

Outside the Gala, Number 5 calls out to 1963 Reginald in Ancient Greek. 1963 Reginald reacts to this briefly, but he still gets into the car with Grace, driving off. When Grace asks him who Number 5 was, 1963 Reginald states he was nobody important. But it’s still made clear that whatever Number 5 said struck a cord with him.

Closing thoughts/questions:

So, was that actually the Grace the robot mother from the first season? Because I thought the implication was that Reginald had built her specifically to be a nanny for the Umbrella Academy kids that wouldn’t get killed by Young Vanya’s outbursts. However, it’s currently looking like Reginald had purposly modeled Grace the robot after this woman. Which does suggest that she was someone particularly memorable to Reginald.

Really hoping that Klaus can succeed in saving Dave’s life. It’s really unlucky he’s under the psychological grip of his homophobic, military-loving uncle.

Also hoping Allison can patch things up with Ray. I’d hate for things to end on such a sour note for them.

What exactly was up with those glowing lights that went into Harlan’s mouth, seemingly resurrecting him? Is this a more advanced stage of Vanya’s powers, or is it something else? Because they almost looked like those glowing lights Reginald released from the glass jar in the 1x10 flashback. Which makes me wonder if my theory of those glowing lights have a connection to the miraculous birth of the Hargreeves Siblings (and the other 36 Miracle Babies) might actually go somewhere

The fact that they’re now presenting us with Sissy and Vanya as being in love is interesting. Of course, there’s the question of what they might face if they’re found out. Especially since Sissy is married. Wonder if they’ll explore that.

Really hoping Lila ends up being a good guy in the end. I still enjoy her relationship with Diego. Even though she does chose to save Number 5 over Diego to abide with The Handler’s orders, the fact that she’d ealier stated she didn’t want to kill Diego suggests that she does have some manner of affection for him. But will it be enough for her to overcome her mental programming?

I also wonder what exactly Number 5 called out to 1963 Reginald. Hope they explain that in the next episode.

#umbrella acedmy #umbrella academy 2x04 #tua

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fortheheavenssake · 5 years ago

Text

PG MM Anon Interpretation Collection- 8

54.

💜🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON..ON ZERO SLEEP🙏🏻💜

💜💜🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

This was very tough!! My best on zero sleep!!

skippyv20

MM ANON … “ I just hope they don’t take the children”… the return of the Valkyrie … HOPE springs eternal …another future PR hiatus …… fashion fluff……… “grapple them to your soul with hoops of steal”. …… “separate tables”…decisions, decisions…… “ justice, what bloody justice”……it’s the only solution. 🎼” who are we to disagree “🎼

“ I just hope they don’t take the children”…

I think this is regarding the Asian tour that the D and DOC are going to be undertaking to Asia. Security must be a nightmare and there was previously mention by MM ANON of a family tour, but l truly hope they don’t take them along on this particular tour.From the Express…

Prince William and Kate under armed guard for high risk tour - terror police on alert

FIREARMS OFFICERS will shadow Prince William and Kate on their tour of Pakistan in the autumn because of “a potential flashpoint”.

the return of the Valkyrie

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle, the valkyries take their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin. So our girl is in the toughest part of her battle as she returns to the U.K. SS has let loose horrific rumours about numerous royal family members. Boorish, foul, vulgarity, she makes me physically ill! Frankly she doesn’t care who lives or dies metaphorically of course, she intends to inflict as much damage as she can!

HOPE springs eternal

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come” is a quote by Alexander Pope. We must keep our spirits up, keep on fighting this battle however devious and grotty it gets. We need to keep our royal family in prayer🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 where there is life, there is hope.

another future PR hiatus

PR hiatus where? Future? What are we expecting? Will she refuse to go to SA and hide out?? Interesting, l am very intrigued by this.

fashion fluff

The capsule collection or whatever she calls it with Smart Works are fluff. Cheap quality, foreign made, means lots of $$$££££€€€€ for our girl, and Bumble app is aligned with a Smart works which means these women will get poor quality cheap clothes, then pay to register to find a mate!

“grapple them to your soul with hoops of steal”

MM ANON has used this before from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The essence meaning is once you’ve tested out your friends and found them trustworthy, hold onto them! Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, l can’t recall who said that. The BRF are united, they are clear on the goal, their eyes are on the prize. With the exception of the issues with PA, a big worry, they are united. The one question l have, MM ANON, you wrote steal, not steel, was that a typo?? Or the financial thievery and merching is being dealt with! Oh please!

“separate tables”

Whose separate tables, will this be PH and mm whilst on the SA tour?? Or are PC and PA dining at separate tables. MM ANON this riddle is hard!!

decisions, decisions

Many decisions and choices are imminent, PA cooperation, the SA and Africa tour. What to do, when to do it. I do think they have enough on her to end this but they are looking at connections and getting all the pieces of this corrupt puzzle. For her what other lies will she leak online or wherever she does what she does.

“ justice, what bloody justice”

Justice in terms of PA being requested to be interviewed by the FBI. PA appears extreme edge, with the incident l wrote about elsewhere. Also, mm, at what point will there be justice. PP must be so angry that HMTQ his beloved, is burdened so at this point. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

it’s the only solution.

PA submit to an interview, talk with investigators. It has to be done and dealt with.

🎼” who are we to disagree “🎼

Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics, Annie Lennox from Aberdeen😁😁😁😁

Sweet dreams are made of these, some of them want to hurt you etc you know the song. Lots of dreams put on hold, some shattered. It must be devastating for both HMTQ and PP to be dealing with all the issues with mm, now with PA and the big bust-up he had with a top aide requiring PC to step in.

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you so much dear PG! We really do appreciate this!😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

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51 notes

Sep 9th, 2019

——————-

55.

💜🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻💜

💜💜🙏🏻 THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON ……an embellished De-generate … a PR mired ……the phantom infant …… an exposure of confinement … Andy-panned-y…… “six of one……”……… “ that dammed elusive pimp…… “sympathy for the Devil “…… and the winner is……not today thank you!!……” pretend it never happened “ …… Charlotte is at Uni

an embellished De-generate

AN embellished DE-generate.

ED has a U.S. talk show. Told slew of lies about meeting visiting feeding amw. Now that may be embellished!

PA , as the Duke of York presented in his dress military uniform at the ceremony marking 75th anniversary of liberation of Bruges. The Duke of York was present in his role as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and laid a wreath at the Charles II memorial in the Belgian city on Saturday morning.He was a guest of Prince Laurent of Belgium, the brother of King Phillipe, and the pair later inspected a guard of honour in the market square. His public reputation has very much soured with his connections with JE and GM. I hesitate to use the word degenerate but others haven’t. All sorts of negative press culminating yesterday in that hilarious stupid blind item A meets B , Z knows D etc etc garbage. Now who do you suppose spewed that ?Hmmm, who would have a motive??? No need for any crystal balls. The medals are the embellishment.

a PR mired

PR mired, let’s refresh ourselves on what mired means. Mired can be cause to become stuck in mud, lies or slime, cover or spatter with mud or lies or slime, or involve someone or something in a difficult situation. Who has been mired in slime? Who has been filthy like that. You know! Who throwing mud or worse, everything in the media in hopes that something’s sticks to hurt the other side as much as possible!! You know, l hVe no need for names.

the phantom infant

Well this is amw, Darren, Dolly whatever your frame of reference is. This supposed infant has yet to actually clearly be seen, and be seen alive and moving, and PH interacting with it. Phantom….unseen shadow….the shadow knows…remember that old show/radio show? Yes l love old radio shows esp Johnny Dollar, but l digress!

an exposure of confinement

Confinement was the old fashioned word for being in the family way which is the lesser old fashioned way of saying pregnany🤣🤣. OH PLEASE MM ANON!! PLEASE LET HER FAKENANCY BE EXPOSED !!! Pretty please with sugar on top!

Andy-panned-y…

PA is being panned in the media. Numerous negative, critical, accusatory articles. The big one also was the alleged argument with a ‘top aide’ which very nearly came to blows, necessitating PC to intervene. The Palace is trying to downplay the seriousness of it.

“six of one……”

Six of one, half a dozen of the other, basically meaning that one has two options of choices to make are equivalent or indifferent. In either case it’s a bad outcome, usually. So who is this relating to? PA. Cooperating with interviews with the F.B.I. or remaining angry, on edge, uncooperative. At some point, an international subpoena could be issued, involving the international court or the star chamber which MM ANON has referenced several times in previous riddles. I studied up on the star chamber, it goes back to 1486 when the King Charles, l think Charles ll was named head of the COE. Anyhow , it’s fascinating and may become relevant as this court deals with wealthy, political or aristocratic people that the regular courts are hesitant to deal with.

“ that dammed elusive pimp

Where is MA??? No sightings in NYC. Is he in custody??? Is he in witness protection??? WHERE IS HE? I bet he has made a deal and has been singing his lungs out!

“sympathy for the Devil “

This classic song by TRS? Interestingly this song refers to Russian connection, U.S.President Kennedy……?JE referral, as an aside! This is most definitely our girl SS PR in overdrive seeking her to be out for sympathy because the big bad British press are all meanies and are unnecessarily picking on little innocent madam. CANT YOU HEAR MY SARCASM??😜😗😉😗😆. Nope not buying it, no sympathy!

and the winner is

Voila, they love me! They really love me! I am aging myself, remember when Sally Field won the Oscar and she said that? Wellour special one won Tatlers prestigious, coveted, rare Social Climber of the year 🥇 award!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

not today thank you!!

Prince Andrew’s relationship with JE has caused several public engagements to be cancelled.The Duke of York’s upcoming appointments in Northern Ireland have been called off amid media scrutiny surrounding his links to the disgraced financier. Organizers withdrew invitations to the prince, with one worrying his attendance would ‘change the narrative’ about the event in question. A ceremony at Portrush railway station to mark its £5million upgrade are among the engagements to be cancelled.

” pretend it never happened “

Carry on,,nothing to see here, weekend in NYC was fabulous, besties and even on the jumbo trot as HRH with her shy non-royal wave. Or alternative may be PA pretending the row with the ‘ top aide’ never happened.

Charlotte is at Uni.

Our dear Princess Charlotte is madly truly deeply in love with 🦄 unicorns. She had one on her backpack/rucksack, first day of school. I think she was also seen with a unicorn purse all glittery during the summer.

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you so much! Looks great!😊💜💜💜

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17 notes

Sep 10th, 2019

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56. Sept. 11

💜🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻💜

💜💜🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻💜💜

ON THIS SOMBER DAY WE REMEMBER🕯

I apologize for the lateness, l had a good friend drive in and spend the day, was very lovely💜🙏🏻☺️

MM Anon

MM ANON …… the hot zone …… “ were all getting older,old thing”…… Together?????……… a caring cabal …… double bluff…… “ such a caring person”…… “gather thee rosebuds”…… like a Biohazard ☣️ …… “ she’s a bloody virus”…… suddenly ‘ last summer …… Sharon Stone Cold…🎼 “ She’s just a Devil woman “🎼 …… “they made their beds” ……… “just read the bloody comments”.… sword of Damocles

The Hot zone

Tv show in America based on the Ebola virus appearing in chimpanzees in a research lab in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and there is no known cure; a U.S. Army scientist puts her life on the line to head off an outbreak before it spreads to the human population. Unfortunately, in reality West Africa had an outbreak on Ebola that was the largest in history. It started with cases of EVD in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea, reported by WHO (World Health Organization) in 2014. Soon, cases were discovered in Liberia,Sierra Leone, which border Guinea. It eventually through international travel spread to the U.S. Africa still has many diseases and often travellers are vaccinated or given anti-malarial drugs and sleep under netting to protect from insect born infections.

“ were all getting older,old thing”

PP and HMTQ musing to one another how the world has changed in their lifetimes, what is currently happening. Supporting and upholding one another, the combined have survived numerous wars, deaths, terrorism in many forms, family break-ups, PR nightmares of unimaginable proportions. Yet, they are still standing firm, one with the other. This brings tears to my eyes. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Together?????

D and DOS going to SA together? It seems by this to be of great question of whether they will both be going, given the number of question marks and given the itinerary. Time will tell what is to come.

a caring cabal

Dare l say this is Skippy’s blog and everyone here! I truly believe it is! God bless you 🐼 for your unwavering faith and devotion to HMTQ and bless all who are here!💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

double bluff

A double bluff is an action or statement that is intended to appear as a bluff but is in fact genuine. Whose double bluffing here? There are many possibilities here. There is the heir and a spare. Is she thinking somehow she will end up Queen if there is enough malicious gossip as been spread a few days ago which l won’t speak of. I personally think this is LG playing games with her, cat and mouse. She is playing so many games with so many people simultaneously, with so many lies, it’s mind boggling and then add substances to the mix! It’s maybe a quadruple bluff of a happy life. If you read her two twitter accounts, the two l know of, life is grand, and simply couldn’t be better. I especially love American English with British terms thrown in, both usually spelled wrong and used in the wrong meaning!!

“ such a caring person”

Our beloved Peoples’ Princess! No one outshone her wonderfully innate caring and the manner in which she expressed it. We see it living on, instilled in both her boys, yes l said boys! They’re our boys, out Wills and our Harry. We will never stop loving them, praying for them wanting them healthy, happy and carrying out their duties and displaying their mother’s caring manner.

“gather thee rosebuds”

It’s so beautiful, l had to share it. There is an old hymn similar line, give me the roses while l live, trying to carry on, useless the flowers that he give, after the soul has gone. I LOVE that hymn🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick - 1591-1674

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today

Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

The higher he’s a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,

And while ye may, go marry;

For having lost but once your prime,

You may forever tarry.

Basically live life well, to it’s fullest, kindness, lovingly, and meaningfully. I don’t need to explain further, l thought in sharing the poem, all would be blessed by it and take to heart it’s meaning.💜🙏🏻💜

like a Biohazard ☣️

Let’s review the definition of a biohazard. A biological hazard, or biohazard, is a biological substance that poses a threat to the health of living organisms, primarily humans. This could include a sample of a microorganism, virus or toxin (from a biological source) that can affect human health and could also be a substance harmful to other animals. The way life has been lived, in terms of extreme sexual behaviours, there are very real possibilities of HIV, HEP(hepatitis/ various types of liver disease). or other STD’s.( sexually transmitted diseases)

“ she’s a bloody virus”

Again PP, infecting anything and everything negatively, jinx at tennis matches. Just pure evil machinations, selfish intentions and from some of the photos the way Catherine is glared at and the children, especially the one photo where Catherine is pregnant, my mind shudders with what possible thoughts might be going through someone’s head.

suddenly ‘ last summer

1959 film of Tennessee Williams’ play, a young woman is traumatized and committed after witnessing her cousin’s violent death on a trip to Europe. Her aunt, wants to hide the events of her son’s death and attempts to bribe young surgeon to perform a lobotomy on the girl. But he vows to find out the truth about what caused her condition before taking any action. By the way a lobotomy is a surgical operation involving incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, formerly used to treat mental illness.

Also song, by the Motels, love that song, about being stuck in memories of a summer fling.

Wonder if institutionalization is the route of dealing with a person is the lesser of two evils as per yesterday’s riddle clue??

Sharon Stone Cold

Sharon Stone, that scene from Basic Instinct keg crossing, that photo from the tennis on Saturday with madams sitting position was sooo familiar. Stone cold, hard, no emotion, self-focused on meeting one’s own needs, wishes goals desires etc. Yeah, again, just going to put that there, you’re all smart!! You know!!

🎼 “ She’s just a Devil woman “🎼

She’s a devil woman with evil on her mind by the great Sir Cliff Richard, who by The by has had his own legal troubles which l will not go into. If you desire and are not aware, there is a plethora of information online, not all true! Friday, is Friday the 13th and full moon, to those on the dark side an especially EVIL day. This song, the lyrics is description of a narcissistic evil woman, l will just leave it there for you to think if that sounds like anyone that is in the media. Extra prayers for everyone this friday🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

“they made their beds”

The saying, you made your bed, lie in it. The public is nearing the breaking point with PH and beyond with mm. That’s the attitude, let them rescind their titles, over to America and be celebrities!! No more public £££££££££! PH we ARE WITH YOU! You remain in our prayers! WE ARE VERY MUCH AWARE YOU ARE SERVING HMTQ!

“just read the bloody comments”

Again that word, PP, angry, comments by the millions regarding the conduct of the Sussexes, her by choice, him by assignment. Just utter frustration and anger at this horrendous situation and the entire conglomeration of issues that are going along with it.

Sword of Damocles.

This will require a bit of story telling/ explaining.According to the story, Damocles was pandering to his king, exclaiming to him that he was truly fortunate man of great power and authority, surrounded by magnificence. In response, the king offered to switch places with Damocles for one day so that Damocles could taste that very fortune firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king’s proposal. Damocles sat down in the king’s throne surrounded by every luxury, but the king, who had made many enemies during his reign, arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held by only by a single hair of a horse’s tail to evoke the sense of what it is like to be king: though having much fortune, always having to watch in fear and anxiety against dangers that might try to overtake him. Damocles finally begged the king that he be allowed to depart because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate, realizing that with great fortune and power comes also great danger. The long and the short of this

is, perhaps madam is slowly becoming “woke” to the fact that her life choices have led her to a very very dangerous intersect, prison, institutionalizations, or worse by her enemies who were formerly her “friends”/backers.

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Wow! Fascinating! Very impressive dear MM Anon and dear PG! Thank you!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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42 notes

Sep 11th, 2019

——————-

57.

💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG LATE INTERPRETATION ON MM ANON 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM ANON … 🎼 “ blackbird singing in dead of night”🎼…… not a problem …… anything and everything …… more porn……there’s not a hole black enough …… redacted ………… me myself and I… … 🎼 you either got or you haven’t …………”🎼………… on your own AGAIN!!!……… give a DOG a bone ……… a Belgrave secret …… not really a secret, whooops!

🎼 “ blackbird singing in dead of night”🎼

This song, from 1968 by The Beatles is not really about a blackbird. The term bird, in England is a slang term for a female. The black African American struggle in the southern United States, was used metaphorically.Along with McCartney’s “Helter Skelter”, “Blackbird” was one of several White Album songs that Charles Manson interpreted as the Beatles’ prophecy of an apocalyptic race war that would lead to him and his “Family”of followers ruling the US on countercultural principles. Manson interpreted the lyrics’ repetition of the word “rise” as a call to black Americans to wage war on their white counterparts, and instructed his followers to commit a series of murders in Los Angeles in August 1969 to trigger such a conflict’.

For our context, there has been an intentional multi-media goal to draw in and play the race card on behalf of madam. We have seen it repeatedly and many people ie “sugars” have been drawn in and are being used to further an agenda. This continues to grow, worldwide and is , l believe one of the most difficult issues that LG and his team have in dealing with madam.

I also am wondering if this draws on DR. Where is she??! The term singing, other than sits obvious meaning, is term term when one is in legal trouble being interviewed and tells about whatever the criminal plan is, who is involved, what has been done, and what is the ultimate goal. Has DR began to sing?? I wonder.

not a problem

Anything and everything Madam, has done anything and everything for fame, power, $$$$$$£££££€€€€. I am 100% certain she is capable of anything. She is narcissistic and thinks only of what benefits her, has no moral compass. I also am 100% certain she has done things that myself for example, as an educated woman, she has done things l have never heard of, in this regard l am referencing sexual context.

more porn

As l just stated, it would not surprise me if more evidence of past vulgarities have arisen. I pray for those in LG team who have to actually view and deal with such content. This has to take a toll on a person.🙏🏻🙏🏻

there’s not a hole black enough

A black hole is a region of space/tike exhibiting an acceleration of gravity so strong that nothing can escape from. The litany of information gathered about madam is so incredibly large, the people she has been involved with, the conduct, is so enormous that using the metaphor of a black hole is to help us to understand the difficulty and enormity of what they have been dealing with. Trying to unwind all the threads, than aligning them so they connect and can be used in legal proceedings.In terms of just making this garbage disappear, it’s not possible, literally meaning the black hole could not contain it and prevent it from escaping out into the ether.

redacted

Redacted, we hAve seen this gem many, many times, especially in high profile cases or agents working undercover. The paperwork submitted in legal proceedings at times are made public. In the U.S., the Freedom of Information Act, often news agencies file in court, to publicly display what the proceedings are about. However, if information is critically sensitive, to national security, to those still working covertly, some information is held back from the public, or the term is called redacted. When you read the information eventually made public, you will see black lines covering some of the information. This can be very frustrating for journalists or those who just want or those who need to know. So, in this context, this is a multi-national situation, different laws, different countries. I think this is telling us, that we should prepare ourselves that we may not be given a lot of information that we want eventually. We need to understand the reasons, as l explained above.

me myself and I

Me and shadow, popped into my head. This is the best description of madam now. NYC was crickets 🦗, no paparazzi, nothing like the baby shower weekend. I thought today was interesting, all the police officers with their motorbikes, no crowds, they were not needed. She looks more and more alone each time we see her, which makes it important that we continue to see her. Quite pathetic attempt by SW in the media today saying how great full she was that madam came to tennis 🎾, but not so great full that madam was invited to the Italian restaurant that SW and her family went after the tennis!

🎼 you either got or you haven’t

This is interesting MM ANON, you clever lady, l ask again was this a typo that the scale was separated from the word havent? Old blue eyes sang this, and the crew he ran with, Dean Martin, oooo remember Peter Lawford, how handsome. But l digressed yet again

This song is all about style , class, elegance. You can wear a quarter of a million dollar wedding dress and look awful. Style, the way one carries oneself, interacts with others, treats people and just generally lives. You cannot buy it!!! Madam does NOT!!! Have it!!

”🎼

Refer above!

on your own AGAIN!!!

Well her big speech was done, an hour of “work” on her first day back from “surrogamegnancy” leave! She has to rush home for FEED TIME😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄! Unbelievable! Yet, with madam, of course it’s believable!!

give a DOG a bone

Obvious meaning, give doggy a bone for a treat! However, our dear MM ANON doing the uppercase. DOG, the obvious meaning to me is Delusions of Grandeur! This we know is madams prime reason for existing. She is the most important person to ever exist, is perfect and everyone loves her, they should, she’s perfection. Got a bit of news for you madam, YOU ARE NONE OF THOSE THINGS!!!!

a Belgrave secret

Sherlock and John discover that a case of blackmail is more than just a threat to topple the monarchy. Sherlock: Season 2, Episode 1.“A Scandal in Belgravia” Love Benedict Cumberbath! Fabulous series!

The episode depicts Sherlock Holmes confrontation with a dominatrix who has compromising photos taken with a female member of the royal family. The photos along with other valuable information which makes a target for various political factions. Belgravia is a district on London adjacent to the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Not really a secret whooops!

Not really a secret any longer that she really is not a member of the BRF.Rarely have l seen HRH used in the media, now DOS, until today. It’s mostly been mm. Oh l felt sick for that lovely lady who curtsied her, sickening.

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you so much dear PG! We are honoured….as sick as you feel…you still think of us all, we love you PG!😊💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Sep 13th, 2019

———————-

58.

💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON … a stream of unconsciousness … “feed the hungry”…… “AND THE CROWD WENT …home”…… “when is she auooooof to Africa”?…… shares drop at M&S. …… 🎼 “ all in all it’s just another”🎼……… “matter of fact, it’s all dark”……… “not Christmas, not bloody ever”!!…… “Little Lottie, a lovable rebel that one”…… “the monarchy is secured”. … “an adventure playground, no your highness’ no! an adventure PARK”

a stream of unconsciousness

The capsule collection was the goddesses contribution to solving all the women’s seeking employment problem if you’re a person in very limited size range, enjoy black clothes, mostly, England is not New York where everyone wears black all the time. A bag that costs more than any item, and if truth be told she was determined to have that bag in the collection because a similar one she herself had donated, was rejected by a woman that she was attempting to ‘style’ for her job interview. Yes folks, that’s how vindictive things are, instead of a reasonably priced non-leather, thought she was vegan, but l digress, handbag not a weekend bag, would have been a much better and certainly more affordable option to purchase. She just has no consciousness , sense of awareness if you will, beyond herself, she really doesn’t. The greatest evidence beyond many things we observe about her, was the ‘speech’ she gave yesterday, in between constantly playing with her hair/wig, so unprofessional and gross, she mentioned herself ALOT, l read 38 times in a five or six minute verbal ramble. This is madness, umpire narcissistic madness!

“feed the hungry”

Well, this could be about charity and assisting or donating time, money or food. This is reference madam’s quick escape from the no crowd show up yesterday, except those invited. Must have been a humiliation but l don’t know if she has that level of self awareness or emotion. But her quick getaway excuse was feeding time. Not my baby, my precious or for goodness sake even little Archie or a pet name as most mums have. Every single thing about this woman is strange, not normal, bizarre and selfish.

“AND THE CROWD WENT …home”

😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣MM ANON, you’re so cheeky. Yes the massive, enormous invisible crowd that waited to see madam yesterday, which necessitated a slew of policemen on motorbikes standing by lest the invisible crowd got out of hand. She stayed about and hour and left for”feeding time at the old corral “. If it weren’t so pathetically wasteful, reverse racism, it is actually quite hilarious.

“when is she auooooof to Africa”?

I am laughing because auooooof sounds like a howl when you say it and since it’s not only Friday the 13 th but full moon as well, l think MM ANON is , along with asking a legitimate question, she is giving us a good belly laugh. THANK YOU MM ANON AUOOOOF! 🐺 🐺 🐺 🐺😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

shares drop at M&S.

Marks & Spencer, for those who don’t is a major British multinational retailer that specialises in selling high quality clothing, home products and food products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. M&S has been in financial difficulties awhile now and is to be demoted from the FTSE 100, Financial Times Stock Exchange for the first time in the latest sign of the declining fortunes of the retailer, which was a founding member of the leading City share index.

🎼 “ all in all it’s just another”🎼

Brick in the wall…..l remember this intensely from Pink Floyd album, The Wall! Grade ten l think, we were so scandalous😂😂😂, the line we don’t need no education we don’t need no thought control, we changed that line to birth control😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂oh we were rebels🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🙃😁. Pink Floyd, by the way ,fantastic album, Dark Side of the Moon, another moon reference MM ANON! 🌕

Each and every time we see madam, it’s another piece of craziness, self aggrandizement, selfishness and all the while looking a mess. Her hair, which could have been in a high ponytail or braid or a hair and for goodness sakes, on a windy, the amount of time she spent fussing her hair was distracting, unprofessional and quite gross. Designer or off the rack, nothing ever fits right. She look exceptionally square shaped yesterday, l do believe SpongeMeg is her stylist! At least for yesterday!! Everything she does, is another brick in the wall of information gathering, and in building legal cases(cases).

“matter of fact, it’s all dark”

MM ANON, you must love Pink Floyd! MM ANON you have done your research to tie in the riddle with the full moon tonight 🌕. Dark side of the moon, lots of existential and scientific talk about this, it’s all dark, no only one side faces earth and the other the sun etc etc. However, we are referencing madam not Pink Floyd now. Everything she does, most of the things she has ever done are dark, selfish, a lot of vile, vulgar things and who knows what else. She present with an aura of “be wary”. Reading or listening to her “speeches” always self-focused. Nothing dude for humanitarian reasons, fauxmanitarian.

“not Christmas, not bloody ever”!

PP raging at the idea this charade will continue and they will have to have madam with them for Christmas

I can only imagine his anger and frustration!!

“Little Lottie, a lovable rebel that one”

This is referencing our beloved Princess Charlotte. Her nickname was Lottie in preschool, l think that is ever so sweet. She definitely has a mind of her own. One of my favourite memories is the day of Prince Louis’ Christening, as they walked out of the Chapel, she told the photographers assembled there for the photos for the press “YOU’RE NOT COMING!” I still chuckle at that. I look so forward to watching her grow up.

“the monarchy is secured”

With D AND D Cornwall, but ESPECIALLY long term the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who are such sound individuals will be excellent when times comes for William to be King and Catherine Queen. They have a beautiful family, the children are being so well raised as well rounded individuals. The Monarchy is safely secured, God willing, for several generations.

“an adventure playground, no your highness’ no! an adventure PARK”

Catherine and the team did a superb garden for the Chelsea flower show. It was beautiful and lovely watching the Cambridge children playing there. The Duchess of Cambridge surprised guests as she joined Mary Berry, of The Great British Baking Show and her books fame, at the Back to Nature festival at RHS Wisley in Woking on Tuesday morning, September 10, 2019. Kate, 37, returned to work as she opened the new site, which has been inspired by the original design she created with Adam White and Andree Davies for the Chelsea Flower Show in May. The Back to Nature Garden includes features from the original garden at RHS Chelsea, including the hollow log and boulders from the waterfall, as well as the wildflower meadow, hidden burrow and rolling hill from RHS Hampton.

Both Kate and Mary joined children on a ride in a trailer pulled by a tractor through the grounds to the site of a Back to Nature Garden Festival taking place at Wisley until September 15. New elements include a “bouncing forest”, where visitors can jump on trampolines surrounded by trees, two treehouses, linked via a walkway with slides, and a living willow pod. The garden at RHS Wisley will be a permanent feature for children and families to enjoy. The project for Kate has been part of her work on early years and how spending time outdoors can benefit young children. The Duchess even brought along her own children to play in the Back To Nature Garden before its grand opening this summer. The Cambridges released rare footage of Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, four, and one-year-old Prince Louis helping their mum to collect moss, leaves and twigs to decorate the garden.

The DOC is marvellous, anything she puts herself into , succeeds, what a blessing she is to us all. She and William, have given us so willingly entry into their family life, appropriately. We love them for it because we absolutely love each of their children uniquely!💜💜💜

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Wonderful! I am always in awe of you both! Fantastic! Much appreciated PG, especially when you are feeling poorly! Prayers for you our dear PG! God Bless you!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Sep 13th, 2019

———————-

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ongshat · 5 years ago

Text

For a comprehensive list of most of my print work (not including magazine articles) see this list on Goodreads.

All my works dedicated to the memory of my dearly departed friends: The members of The Formless Ocean Group – Nina Graboi, Elizabeth Gips, Paddy Long, Betsy Herbert, and Robert Anton Wilson. Also to my departed friends: Dave, DW Cooper, Dr. Hyatt (Alan) and humdog.

PAST WORK

Beats In Time: A Literary Generation’s Legacy (Chapter 12 is my interview with Diane DiPrima) also to be included in Conversations with Diane di Prima to be published by the University Press of Mississippi, in 2021/22.

Transmedia: Who Invited the Lobsters Anyway?

Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat by Michael Kinsell – While clearly this is a book about my transmedia project it also includes a lot of things that I wrote as examples, so I include it here. Metamodernism, anyone?

Rebels and Devils: The Psychology of Liberation edited by Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D. introduced by S. Jason Black foreword by Nicholas Tharcher contributions by William S. Burroughs Joseph C. Lisiewski, Ph.D. Timothy Leary Ph.D., Robert Anton Wilson, Austin Osman Spare, Genesis P-Orridge, Aleister Crowley, Joseph Matheny, Peter J. Carroll, Israel Regardie, Jack Parsons, Phil Hine, Osho, and many others

Black Book Omega: CIRQUE APOKLYPSIS by Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D. Joseph Matheny, Nick Pell, Calvin Iwema, Wes Unruh, Antero Alli (more info here)

Contributor YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts (more info here)

Introduction to The Art of Memetics Aside: When I posted about this book on Greylodge, Seth Godin references the post as a good example of “How to write like a blogger“ This made me happy. 😉

Contributor/Editor:This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming with Dave Szulborski (Excerpt here )I edited and contributed to : “This Is Not a Game” which was included in the annual Tween market report that went to marketing executives worldwide in the toy, gaming and youth market industries. Also, I appeared as myself/in character, in person, in the “Catching the Wish” ARG by Dave.

Third Realm (The Yellow King) Written and executed by me, produced in conjunction with Foolish People http://www.argn.com/2009/10/puzzles_for_the_apocalyps

4P2 My first foray into the True Crime arena. Formula: Just put up a single, spooky web page, that purports to be a recruitment drive for an organization whose actual existence is speculative at best and at worst is fiction presented as fact or paranoid, hysterical hand-waving in the interest of selling books and you will get all kinds of reactions. In all fairness, I think the theories mentioned read as good fantasy crime fiction and this was a conceptual attempt at that very thing. Apparently, it succeeded. The unnerving side of this was the equal amount of applications I received asking to join (Really? Join a group of underground serial killers? Really?) or outright death threats by people who really believe in such things. (Someone summed it up pretty well in this article from The Fenris Wolf)

the-fenriswolf-iss-no-4-pp-87-116 PDF Excerpt

El Centro & OMEGA This was a ARG/Transmedia style story with occult/horror/conspiracy elements, started in 2004 and ended in 2006. It utilized Web, print (booklet), radio, phone trees, theater and news wire services. [A version of the doughnut shop scene from this story was used in Amsterdam production of Terra: Extremitas by Foolish People.] This project was done in collaboration my late friend Dave Szulborski. There’s a LOOOOOONG story about this project. So long in fact that it will take up at least three chapters in an future book.

Contributor: What Would Bill Hicks Say with Ben Mack, Amelia the Great and Soft Skull Press (along with Jeff Danziger and Martyn Turner; writers Neal Pollack, Robert Newman, and A.L. Kennedy; and Thom Yorke of Radiohead and others…)

Contributor: 2004-2005 Exquisite Language project for the 2004 ELfest and collected in the Spring 2005 issue of of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly. NOW AVAILABLE AT POWELLS.COM

Introduction, afterward and editing for Poker Without Cards– First Edition. I orchestrated the first release campaign for this book, with the main character becoming “real”on the Internet for a while. After the first few months I turned it over to the author. (statement regarding this work here)

GALT’S ARK: The Black Symphony, First and Second Movements Produced by Cthulhu The Players: Joseph Matheny, Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D., Father Daniel Suders & Nicholas Tharcher Illustrated by S. Jason Black, Jonathan Sellers, Weirdpixie & MobiusFrame

THE BLACK BOOK Volume III, Part I

THE BLACK BOOK Volume III, Part II

(The Black Books are considered the workbooks for The Psychopath’s Bible, which I wrote an infamous jacket blurb for.)

The Incunabula: Ong’s Hat Project [ Reviews | Interviews, etc. | Wikipedia | History] This was a ARG/Transmedia style story started in 1988 and ended in 2001. It utilized zines, BBS, early Internet, Web, CD ROM, CD Audio, DVD, print (book, graphic novel and magazine), radio, phone trees, fax, and news wire services. I gained and leveraged exposure in both the mainstream and alternative media to distribute over 2 million copies of CD ROM, ebook and print versions of the story combined. Story elements from Ong’s Hat were also included in the EA Game, Majestic which unfortunately ended prematurely due to 9/11. It was the subject of a full 4 hour show on Coast to Coast AM, been the subject of an article on the Weekly World News and been covered on many radio shows world wide, books, newspapers, magazines, etc. Links to media here.

Description: “…a bizarre Internet phenomenon: an “immersive” online experience—part mystery, part game, part who knows what—known as both the Incunabula Papers and Ong’s Hat. The Incunabula Papers/Ong’s Hat was, or is, a “many-threaded, open-ended interactive narrative” that ”weds an alternate history of chaos science and consciousness studies to conspiracy theories, parallel dimensions, and claims that computer-mediated environments can serve as magical tools…. the documents provoked a widespread “immersive legend-trip” in the late 1990s. Via Web forums, participants investigated the documents—manifestos—which spun up descriptions of brilliant but suppressed discoveries relating to paths that certain scientists had forged into alternate realities. Soon, those haunted dimensions existed in the minds and fantasies of Ong’s Hat’s many participants. That was evident as they responded to the original postings by uploading their own—all manner of reflections and artifacts: personal anecdotes, audio recordings, and videos—to augment what became “a really immersive world, and it was vast”. – The Chronicle of Higher Education—-

“Ong’s Hat was more of an experiment in transmedia storytelling than what we would now consider to be an ARG but its DNA – the concept of telling a story across various platforms and new media- is evident in every alternate reality game that came after.” – Games Magazine 2013

Though Ong’s Hat may not have set out to be an ARG, the methods by which the author interacted with participants and used different platforms to build and spread its legend has been reflected in later games. –Know Your Meme

The Incunabula Papers are arguably the first immersive online legend complex that introduced readers to a host of content, including what religious historian Robert Ellwood has called the “alternative reality tradition. – Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat

As a companion piece to understanding some of the history of the transmedia work that centered around Ong”s Hat you may also want to read Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat, reviewed here.

The Incunabula Papers CDROM was recently included in the BNF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) digital art collection.

Game Over? (currently re-vamping this for re-release)…but if you just HAVE to have it now, someone is selling one for $900 over here. 😛

What Really Happened at Ong’s Hat?

The Incunabula Papers (CD ROM) Free ebook versions here

Incunabula: The Graphic Novel Free ebook version here

Why DVD? (B and N Digital Bestseller)

A booklet published in April-99

Over 100,000 in circulation to date

Available from booksellers nationwide in October reprinted by:

DVD Creation Magazine

Videography Magazine

(printed copy sent out with each issue – July,1999)

Video Systems magazine

and many others

Convergence 2000 (B and N Digital Bestseller) Free ebook version here

Covert Culture Sourcebook

Earth Dance 2000 (Video and DVD)

The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog

Transmedia Litany (with Genesis P’Orridge)

Thee psychick bible

esoterrorist (publisher)

My idea for an Exquisite Corpse jacket blurb using faxes. (WSB missed inclusion by a day). Used on Esoterrist

Banishing Ritual (cover) with Illusion of Safety (audio here)

The Last Book

Also contributed a few articles to Bob and Arlen Wilson’s Trajectories.

A write up I did about my old friend Rob Brezsny for disinfo.com

Interview that I did with with Beat poet and author Diane DiPrima

Nina Graboi Interview, bOING bOING, Number 8 (written under my nom de plume: Michael Kelly)

I’ve contributed articles to AlwaysOn and Adotas. I’ve contributed book, music, and movie reviews to Gnosis and Magical Blend in the past as well as the old Boing-Boing print magazine and Fringeware Review. Note, in the interest of full disclosure, I’d sometimes contribute more than one article or review to a single publication and to avoid the appearance of saturation, I’d use the pen name: Michael Kelly for some of the articles.

Writing For a comprehensive list of most of my print work (not including magazine articles) see this list on Goodreads…

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ruminativerabbi · 3 years ago

Text

9/11 Twenty Years On

There are days that come to serve as historical pivot-points to the extent that it feels reasonable to refer to divide the history of the nation with respect to them into time-before and time-after. April 15, 1865, the day Abraham Lincoln died, feels that way to me. So does December 7, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor. And so too does November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Others, I’m sure, will have their own dates to add. (What is true on the national level is also true on the personal, of course: which of us would not add in his or her wedding date as one of those pivot-point dates or the date on which any of us became parents for the first time? But I speak here of the nation, not of its individual citizens.) And I think most Americans would agree that September 11, 2001, is in that category as well—and not just because something horrific occurred on that date, but because it has transcended its own news cycle and become part of our national culture. There are no college students (except maybe older, “returning” students) who remember 9/11 personally: the freshman and sophomores were born after that awful day and the juniors and seniors were babies or toddlers in 2001. And yet there is no newspaper or website in the nation that feels obliged to explain what it means when it references 9/11 without mentioning the year or the events of that day. Everybody just knows. That is, I suppose, what it means for a day to serve as a pivot-point in history: everybody, including people born after the fact, know precisely what is being referenced without any further explanation needed.

This Shabbat marks the twentieth anniversary of that horrific day. Like all of you, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news that an airplane had crashed into the North Tower. (It was a quarter to six in the morning in California, but I’m an early riser and always check a few news websites before I get down to my day’s work.) And I remember too that stomach-turning moment just twenty minutes later when the second airplane crashed into the South Tower and it suddenly became obvious that we were dealing not with a single tragic aviation accident that had just happened, but rather with a fully intentional act of violent barbarism intended to kill as many random Americans as possible at once as a way of making some sort of perverse political statement. By the time most Californians were waking up, the third plane had crashed into the Pentagon and no one knew what might not happen next. In retrospect, it seems odd that we took our kids to school that morning as though it were a normal school day—but we did and then we went right back home to watch CNN and try to understand what was going on.

So much has been written about that day and its aftermath that I won’t attempt to say something new or to share some insight that no one but myself has had over these last two decades. Instead, and with the full understanding that this Saturday is the yahrtzeit of almost three thousand innocents whose lives were cut short by an act of insane savagery, I would like to offer an image from the past that has comforted me over these years…and particularly once we moved from California to New York just a year after 9/11 and settled into our new home not twenty-five miles from the ruins of the World Trade Center buildings in lower Manhattan.

The image derives from one of Walt Whitman’s most famous poems. The poet, originally from Huntington but by 1883 a veteran Brooklynite, is looking out at Lower Manhattan from his perch in Brooklyn Heights. He takes note of the ongoing effort to build the Brooklyn Bridge (which was completed later that same year, the year of my maternal grandmother’s birth), then shifts his gaze and focuses instead on the ferry boats that in his day brought commuters back and forth from Manhattan to Brooklyn all day long for all the years before any bridge linked Long Island to Manhattan. (And there were a lot of them, too: the first grant for a commercial ferry linking Brooklyn and Manhattan was issued by the New Amsterdam authorities to one Cornelis Dircksen in 1642, a cool 241 years before the Brooklyn Bridge was built. For more details, click here.) But this is a nineteenth-century image I’m trying to conjure up, not a seventeenth-century one. And by Whitman’s day the ferry is a real thing, a regular part of New York life, something ordinary and banal. Yet, as the poet looks out at the harbor, he is struck by the timelessness of the scene before his eyes, by the simultaneous in-history and outside-of-history aspects to the scene before his eyes, by the ability of the city to transcend the life of its own citizens. The poem is wistful and sober; for me, it as if the poet had some sort of preternatural ability to see the Towers absent, then present, then absent again as he somehow understood something of what would one day happen to the vista stretched out before his eyes as he gazed across New York Harbor on a sunny day in the 1880s.

The poem is called “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and is about the strange way people live within time and outside it, each of us living a life bounded by the dates of fortunate birth and inexorable death but also living in a world in which life transcends the lives of the living, thus making each living soul part of a grand scheme of history that exists independently of the details of their own lives. And then the poet looks (at least in my mind’s eye) directly at the patch of ground on which the World Trade Center will one day rise and somehow sees growth and loss, tragedy and rebirth, a city that both is its inhabitants but which also exists independently of them:

It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,

I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,

Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,

Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,

Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d,

Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,

Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.

And in that idea—that the city, and by extension the nation, somehow both exist anchored in time but also fully capable of transcending time, and thus capable also of surviving even the most horrific disasters and tragedies because those events are by definition time-bound whereas the nation is specifically not—within that single idea lies, at least for me, some comfort as I think back to that September two decades ago and seek some kind of context for thinking about our terrible losses on that terrible day.

Sitting in the warm sunlight, Whitman saw darkness in Lower Manhattan across the bay and felt a prophetic frisson of looming disaster:

It is not you alone the dark patches fall,

The dark threw its dark patches down upon me also,

The best I had done seem’d to me blank and suspicious.

My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre?

Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil.

The man was a poet, not a prophet. He certainly couldn’t have imagined the World Trade Center buildings. (The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, the nation’s first “skyscraper,” opened just three years before Whitman wrote “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and was all of ten stories tall.) Yet the evil that would befall so many in that spot was somehow palpable to the poet as he sat in the warm light of a Brooklyn afternoon and gazed out at the site on which one day the WTC would stand, developing his sense that cities and nations truly do exist outside of time and can therefore flourish and grow even despite the evil that befalls them. In that thought, lie the seeds of comfort for a stricken city and a stricken nation.

There’s also something deeply Jewish about this line of thinking. The eternal people isn’t eternal, after all, because individual men and women live forever, but because they live their lives as individuals but also as part of a collective whole that transcends the details of their lives: that is what the prophet meant when he used the phrase am olam to describe the Jewish people and it’s what we mean today when we talk about the weird paradox that, despite everything, the most powerful of our enemies (the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisitors, the Cossacks, the Nazis, the Soviets) have vanished from the stage of world history and the Jewish people has somehow remained. And the same is true of our American nation, that it exists independent of its citizens and that it endures regardless of what happens to any of us. The thousands who died in Iraq and Afghanistan are certainly in that category, but so are the dead of 9/11: individuals whose lives were cruelly cut short, but who live on in the idea of a nation that transcends the life stories of its citizens and exists in its own right. May their memory be a blessing for us all! And may they all—the dead in the airplanes and on the ground in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania—may they all rest in peace.

#9/11 #Walt Whitman #Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

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papermoonloveslucy · 6 years ago

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BOB HOPE'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH LUCY

September 23, 1989

Produced & Directed by Ellen Brown

Written by Robert L. Mills, Martha Bolton, Jeffrey Barron

Lucille Ball (Archival Footage) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in April 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes.

TRIBUTES BY

Bob Hope (Himself, Host) was born Lesley Townes Hope in England in 1903. During his extensive career in virtually all forms of media he received five honorary Academy Awards. In 1945 Desi Arnaz was the orchestra leader on Bob Hope’s radio show. Ball and Hope did four films together. He appeared as himself on the season 6 opener of “I Love Lucy.” He did a brief cameo in a 1964 episode of “The Lucy Show.” When Lucille Ball moved to NBC in 1980, Hope appeared on her welcome special. He died in 2003 at age 100.

George Burns (Himself) was born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City in January 1896. He married Gracie Allen in 1926 and the two formed an act (Burns and Allen) that toured in vaudeville. They had their own hit show “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” first on radio then on CBS TV from 1950 to 1958, airing concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” He appeared as himself on “The Lucy Show” (S5;E1) in 1966 as well as doing a cameo on “Lucy and Jack Benny's Biography” (HL S3;E11) in 1970. After Allen’s death in 1964, Burns reinvented himself as a solo act. In 1976 he won an Oscar for playing one of The Sunshine Boys. He was also known for playing the title role in Oh, God! (1978) and its 1984 sequel Oh, God! You Devil. Burns and Ball appeared on many TV variety and award shows together. He died at the age of 100.

Danny Thomas (Himself) was born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz in 1912. His screen career began in 1947 but he was most famous for appearing on television in the long-running show “Make Room for Daddy” (1953-64), which was shot at Desilu Studios. When the series moved from ABC to CBS in 1957, Thomas and the cast starred in a rare TV cross-over with “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” titled “Lucy Makes Room for Danny.” In return, Lucy and Desi turned up on Thomas’s show. Fifteen years later, Lucy and Danny did yet another cross-over when Lucy Carter of “Here’s Lucy” appeared on “Make Room for Granddaddy.” In addition, Thomas also played an aging artist on a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Thomas is fondly remembered for founding St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He is also father to actress Marlo Thomas. He died in 1999.

Betty White (Herself) was born in 1922 and has the longest career of any female entertainer. She is probably best known as Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls” and Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Although White and Ball never acted together, the two appeared several times on “Password,” one of Lucy's favorite game shows. It was originally hosted by White's husband, Alan Ludden. She last shared the “Password” panel with Lucy in November 1988, just six months before Ball's death.

Kirk Cameron (Himself) was the star of ABC's hit show “Growing Pains.” He appeared with Lucille Ball on three other Bob Hope specials from 1986 to 1988.

Les Brown and His Band of Renown (Orchestra) were the musical guests on the 1956 “The Bob Hope Chevy Show” that satirized “I Love Lucy” with Hope playing Ricky Ricardo.

John Harlan (Announcer)

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE

Doris Singleton (as Doris from “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” ~ December 9, 1973)

Gary Morton (as Himself from “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” ~ December 9, 1973)

Bobby Jellison (as a Gangster from “The Bob Hope Show” ~September 24, 1962)

Desi Arnaz (as Fred Mertz from “The Bob Hope Chevy Show” ~ October 6, 1956)

Vivian Vance (as Ethel Mertz from “The Bob Hope Chevy Show” ~ October 6, 1956)

William Frawley (as Captain Blystone from “The Bob Hope Chevy Show” ~ October 6, 1956)

Vitto Scotti (as Carlo from The Facts of Life)

Peter Leeds (as Thompson from The Facts of Life)

Joe Ploski (as Man at Drive-In from The Facts of Life)

Mary Jane Saunders (as Martha Jane Smith from Sorrowful Jones)

This special aired on a Saturday evening at 10pm, traditionally a difficult time for television programs. Luckily, its lead-in was the season 5 premiere of the phenomenally successful “The Golden Girls” (also featuring Betty White) which led the evening with a 23.5 share. “Bob Hope's Love Affair With Lucy” came in second, with a respectable 19.3. It was up against College Football on ABC. Because the special was 90 minutes and started on the half hour, its competition on CBS was the last half hour of “Tour of Duty” (season 3 premiere) and the series premiere of “Saturday Night With Connie Chung.”

Because this special aired on NBC, no scenes from any of Lucille Ball's CBS sitcoms (or “Life with Lucy” on ABC) were included. Kirk Cameron was an ABC star, but worked on several of Hope's NBC specials. Although Betty White never acted with Lucille Ball, the pair enjoyed an off-stage friendship. White also was a perfect tie-in to keep “The Golden Girls” fans tuned after the sitcom's season opener. Although Burns and Thomas both worked on screen with Lucy, no clips of their collaborations were used. Also conspicuously missing is Gale Gordon, who was part of Lucille Ball's career since her days on radio.

[For more information about the clips, click on the hyperlinks, where available.]

BOB HOPE

The special opens with a montage of clips of Lucille Ball's entrances on Bob Hope's specials, underscored by the “I Love Lucy Theme.” After a quick commercial break, Bob Hope enters to the sounds of his theme song “Thanks for the Memory.”

Hope: “Lucy handled the media and television like she handled everything else, with grace and style and a richness of color that didn't need any help from the peacock.”

The ‘peacock’ Hope is referring to is the NBC logo. Lucille Ball left CBS for NBC in 1980, but the move resulted in only one TV special (“Lucy Moves To NBC”), one failed pilot (“Bungle Abbey”) and multiple appearances on Bob Hope's specials.

The first clip in the 90-minute tribute is from “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” (December 9, 1973). Ball and Hope play themselves in a sketch about a misunderstanding surrounding an expensive ring he's bought for his wife, but sent to Lucy's home for safe keeping. Naturally, Lucy thinks it's for her. The clip features appearances by long-time Lucy character actress Doris Singleton and Lucy's husband Gary Morton.

DANNY THOMAS

Danny Thomas calls Lucy his 'landlady' because “Make Room for Daddy” was shot at Desilu Studios. He tells a funny anecdote from when Ball appeared on his short-lived sitcom “The Practice” in 1976.

Thomas: “When I worked on her show, she did most of the directing. And when she did my show... she did most of the directing.”

Thomas talks about of their working relationship. He says that despite their great friendship, Lucy would not divulge her age, even to him.

In a voice over, Bob Hope introduces a black and white clip of a sketch from “The Bob Hope Show” (October 24, 1962). In it Lucy plays a District Attorney and Bob a gangster named Bugsy Hope. The 1962 clip edits out a bit that was frighteningly prescient. A spray of gunfire comes through the window and Lucy remarks “Just what I wanted, a Jackie Kennedy hairdo.” Considering the tragic events of November 1963, this clearly could not be aired in 1989. Another change involves music royalties: in the original, Lucy makes her entrance into Bugsy's flat to the tune of David Rose's “The Stripper” (released in 1962) but in 1989 it is replace by a similar sounding piece of music.

Bugsy Hope: “I don't usually go for flatfeet, but the rest of you kind of makes up for it.” DA Lucy: “I don't usually go for hoods, but you could use one.”

In the sketch, Hope makes Lucy laugh and drop character several times, a rarity for Ball.

KIRK CAMERON

Kirk Cameron (who had just turned 18) says that the first time he met Lucille Ball on a May 1987 Bob Hope show at an Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. On a subsequent Hope special, Lucy needed a stand-in to take a pie in the face and chose Cameron. He was unsure if it was an honor or payback for making her wait outside her dressing room to meet him the year before.

Cameron: “I think that I speak for a lot of people my age when I say that I love Lucy.”

The next clip is the satire of “I Love Lucy” featuring the entire original cast (plus Hope and Tommy the trained seal). In “The Bob Hope Chevy Show” (October 6, 1956), Hope introduces the sketch as himself wondering what it would be like if he had married Lucy instead of Desi. It is presented in its original black and white, although it was later colorized for a video release. Not coincidentally, five days earlier the sixth and final season of “I Love Lucy” began airing with “Lucy and Bob Hope” (S6;E1).

GEORGE BURNS

George Burns affectionately recalls how Lucy was in show business 24 hours a day. He says that he was married to a comedienne (Gracie Fields) but she couldn’t have been more different than Lucy.

Burns: “Lucy was all of show business wrapped up in this charming lady.”

He remembers an appearance with Lucy when they sang “Lazy” by Irving Berlin. He sings a few bars. Burns says that he's booked to play the Palladium in London when he turns 100. Although he did live to 100, his health declined at age 98 and this booking never came to pass.

Bob's voice over introduces a couple of scenes from The Facts of Life, a black and white film that Hope and Ball did for United Artists in 1960. In the scene Larry (Hope) and Kitty (Lucy) are on a fishing boat remembering old times when they realized they went to the same high school together. In the second clip, Kitty and Larry realize they can't play cards without their glasses, but they can't kiss with them on either. Finally, Larry and Kitty are kissing at the drive-in when they are spotted by the local dry cleaner. Lucy had just finished playing Lucy Ricardo, with the final episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” airing in April 1960.

BETTY WHITE

To the accompaniment of “Thank You for Being a Friend” Golden Girl Betty White is introduced. She lists three-word TV titles of the '50s, “Our Miss Brooks,” “I Married Joan,” “Life with Elizabeth,” “Father Knows Best,” and “I Love Lucy.” White remembers that she shot her second series “Date With the Angels” at Desilu Studios and that is where she first met Lucy.

White: “I can still see her. Tall and built and she had a navy blue dress on with white polka dots and this hair that made it look like her head was on fire.”

White credits Lucille Ball with filming comedy using the three camera system and a studio audience. White's mother Tess and Lucy's mother Dede were great friends. Betty recalls the last time she saw Lucy, a week before she went into the hospital. She says she can still recall Lucy's deep and abundant laughter that night. White let's the audience know that they shoot “The Golden Girls” at the old Desilu lot.

Bob's voice introduces a clip from the film Fancy Pants (1950) with Bob Hope as Humphrey the butler and Lucy as Agatha, the daughter of the man he works for. This movie was made just before Lucille Ball got pregnant with her daughter Lucie, and before “I Love Lucy” was in development. At the time, Ball was starring on radio in “My Favorite Husband.”

Next is a dramatic scene from Sorrowful Jones, a film Hope and Ball did in 1949. Ball played Gladys and Hope was Sorrowful (aka Humphrey).

A clip from “Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC” (May 16, 1988) has Lucy singing “Comedy Ain't No Joke” by Cy Coleman and James Lipton.

This leads directly into Lucy as Sophie Tucker singing “Some of These Days” from “Bob Hope's All Star Comedy Tribute to Vaudeville” (May 25, 1977).

Lucy and Bob sing “I Remember It Well” by Frederick Loewe from “Bob Hope's High-Flying Birthday Extravaganza” (May 25, 1987). The song (originally from the film Gigi) has special lyrics with references to their legendary partnership including Fancy Pants and Facts of Life.

Finally, a clip of Lucy and Bob's last appearance together at the 61st Annual Academy Awards telecast (March 29, 1989). This was also Lucille Ball’s last public appearance.

In his final remarks, Hope works in mentions of two of Lucy's most memorable comedy bits from “I Love Lucy”: “Hollywood at Last!” (S4;E16) and “Lucy's Italian Movie” (S5;E23).

Hope: “Whether her nose caught fire or she was stomping grapes, Lucy got us all to laugh. Thanks Lucille, for making life a ball.”

The closing credits appear over stills of Lucy and Bob on TV, some of which were not included in the special.

This Date in Lucy History – September 23rd

“Mod, Mod Lucy” (HL S1;E1) – September 23, 1974

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