#the jen dalton show

[thecrownnet]

The Crown: Stellar Cast

Photo: Buzzfeed Nov 14, 2022

Netflix just dropped Season 5 of The Crown... there's a brand new cast of actors playing the royals, continuing the show's tradition of recasting its major roles every two seasons.  ♚

Queen Elizaebeth II (Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton)

Prince Philip (Matt Smith, Tobias Menzies, and Jonathan Pryce)

Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby, Helena Bonham Carter, and Lesley Manville)

Peter Townsend (Ben Miles and Timothy Dalton)

Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon (Matthew GoodE and Ben Daniels)

Princess Diana (Emma Corrin and Elizabeth Debicki)

Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor and Dominic West)

Princess Anne (Erin Doherty and Claudia Harrison)

The Queen Mother (Victoria Hamilton, Marion Bailey, and Marcia Warren)

Lord Mountbatten (Greg Wise and Charles Dance)

Duke of Windsor (Alex Jennings and Derek Jacobi as Edward)

Duchess of Windsor (Lia Williams and Geraldine Chaplin)

Camilla Parker Bowles (Emerlad Fennell and Olivia williams)

Prince Andrews (Tom Byrne and James Murray)

Prince Edward (Angus Imrie and Sam Woolf)

Andrew Parker Bowles (Andrew Buchan and Daniel Flynn as Andrew)

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

any fics about kurt and blaine being in rival show choirs and any relationship between the two choirs is like against the rules, but they are secretly dating? thank you

Here are some rival show choirs, where they start to get feelings or date! ~Jen

The Funkification of Blaine Warblerby Esperanto 

When Rachel spies on the Warblers to scope out their competition for Sectionals, she is alarmed to discover how talented they are. Determined to get the edge for Sectionals, the New Directions decide to take a page out of Vocal Adrenaline’s playbook and pull off a “funkification” of their own that starts Kurt and Blaine off on entirely the wrong foot.

~~~~~

Sabotageby @chasingkerouacwrites

The NYADA Adam’s Apples know that the stiffest competition for Nationals this year will come from their very own neighbor, the NYU Vocal Effects. Kurt, a member of the Adam’s Apples, knows that the path to victory runs straight through Vocal Effects’ newest musical weapon – Blaine Anderson. Sure practice makes perfect, but sometimes a competition this important calls for a little… sabotage.

~~~~~

Lima/Heights Junction by @quizasvivamos​

Just as summer vacation is winding down, a fire leaves the kids of Lima Heights without a high school to return to. While necessary repairs are being made, its rival school McKinley High opens its doors to the students of the adjacent town. An inevitable clashing takes place, and tensions run high, but can they find a common ground to overcome their differences to survive this temporary hardship?

~~~~~

Like Birds Of A Featherby CoffeeAddict80/ @caramelcoffeeaddict

When Blaine Anderson met Kurt Hummel, he was surprised that his sister, Rachel Berry, had never mentioned her amazing - and gorgeous - best friend to him before. He was even more surprised to learn that Rachel had kept Blaine a secret from all of her friends as well.

Soon after their initial meeting, they learn that Dalton & McKinley will be facing-off against one another at Sectionals, forcing them to keep their rapidly growing friendship under-wraps until after the competition.

But what will Rachel have to say about all of this when she finds out?

~~~~~

The Walls Keep Our Secret by thesoundofmeaning

AU: Kurt Hummel is a member of the New Directions of McKinley HS and Blaine Anderson is a member of the Warblers of Dalton Academy. The schools’ show choirs have been feuding for years and it is a rule that members never associate with each other. But when Kurt and Blaine have a chance encounter that could change their lives forever, will they give all of that up for their groups?

[mermaidinthecity]

I Love You’s

I love you, family. Dad, because you are my biggest fan, and I’ll never get tired of the way you smile when I pick up a guitar and play. Mom, for being my best friend and most trusted companion, even in times when you were my only friend. That was just fine. Austin, my little brother, for being so much more brave than I ever hope to be. My aunt, Alison, for being such a beautiful person. My aunts, uncles, cousins, and relatives (even the ones I didn’t know I had) for making Thanksgiving something someone should write a book about. I love my mom and dads’ friends who have been so unbelievably supportive (and so unbelievably loud at my shows).

I love my friends. Abigail, I love you because you are my best friend in the entire world. Can’t wait to room together when we’re 65 and wrinkly and living in Minnesota. I love Ally, Kelsey, Kathryn, Jeff, Clay and all my awesome friends in Hendersonville. Britany Maack for being my first friend, I miss you!

I love everyone who helped put this album together. Scott Borchetta for believing in me and actually DOING something about it. Shake and bake, Radioman. This is how we roll. Nathan Chapman because he is the most amazing red-headed freckle-faced little producer in the world and I love your beautiful wife Stephanie. Thanks Nathan for gracing me with your first album. Liz Rose, you are my songwriting soulmate, and one of my dearest friends. Robert Ellis Orrall, you Rock! Nick for breaking your drumsticks on my songs, Tim for playing on my session ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, and everyone else who played on the album because you are THAT GOOD. Chad, for your amazing mullet (and engineering skills).

I love my record label. Jack Purcell, for your Minnesota accent. Mandy McCormack, for humoring me in my mailbox obsession. Rick Barker, because I learned everything I Know about radio in… nevermind. HAHA. Bobby Young, thanks for taking us shopping. Whitney Sutton, you are so organized and I love you for it. JZ, because of that adorable laugh/nose thing you do. Erik Powell, for being cool and pretty much a genius. Larry Hughes, you rock! Jamice Jennings, for being the sweetest ever. Kelly Rich, you are the wizard of Marketing! Jayme Austin for adding so much spirit to the label. Sandi Spika Borchetta, for being creative/brilliant/beautiful and buying me pretty things to wear. Penny Lazo, you are a crazy rock star. Andrew Kautz, if I ever walk into the label and you’re not there, I will not know what to do with myself. Natalie Kilgore, for your amazing sense of humor. Ray Pronto, for putting this Big Machine in motionnn.

I love the people who helped me get here. Arthur Buenahora, thank you for signing a FOURTEEN year old to a full writers publishing deal. I will never forget that. In fact, I love everyone at Sony Publishing. Pat Garet and Suzy Dalton for letting my little ten-year-old self open up for you. Harry Warner, for being such a gentleman and having my back at BMI. Frank Bell for being so brutally honest about my music from the time I was like 12, and so supportive of my career NOW. Andrew Orth for 14 years of great photos!! Paula Erickson for being the most stylish publicist in the world. Jody Williams, for listening to my rants about high school, and being such a dear friend and musicologist. HHS for supporting me 100%. Bob Taylor and Bob Borbonus at Taylor Guitars for believing in me and making perfection in the form of guitars. Mike Milom for being a genius and the best lawyer ever. Sarah, Ed, and Jim at GAC for taking such a vested interest in me, and PUTTING ME ON TV! CMT you’re awesome! Trey Fanjoy, because you are such a visionary and for directing an amazing video. Pete Fisher you are amazing. Rod Essig, for believing in me from the beginning and being so passionate about what you do. I Love Tim McGraw for making such inspiring music. I love Faith Hill for being the most graceful woman in the world. I love you, Jack Ingram. If at any point in my life, ever ever amount to being HALF as cool as you, I will throw myself a party. I LOVE RADIO because I haven’t met one person I don’t consider a friend. I love all of my myspace friends for taking such an active roll in what I do, I will never forget how you all rallied for me from the beginning.

I love everyone who’s inspired me to write a song, whether you know if or not. I love anyone who has ever turned the volume up when my song comes on the radio, anyone who has bought this album. Anyone who can sing along to my songs when I play them live. Anyone who’s ever requested my song on the radio, or even remembered my name. If you ever see me in public, I want to meet you. I will thank you myself. You have let me into your life, and I will never be able to thank you enough for that. I love YOU, and I love God for putting you in my life.

Love love love

-T-

PS: To all the boys who thought they would be cool and break my heart, guess what? Here are 14 songs written about you. HA.

— Taylor Swift (2006)

[cadybear420]

Masterlist of all my important Choices MCs (and their LIs). (NOTE: List is subject to frequent updates) OLD POST. The proper MC masterlist is here.

Unlinked and uncolored MCs do not have a sprite made for them yet.

You're welcome to ask me questions about any of these MCs! Yes, even the ones that I haven't fleshed out as much yet, it will help me build their characters better.

Anthology Profiles: AKA Singular Profile Braindump Posts for the Series that go through different MCs (eg. HSS, ILS, Untameable, RWB)

HSS: Jordan Price (Prime f!MC), Evie Ayana (OG f!MC), Cher Lee (HSS:CA f!MC)

ILS: Jo Hunter (Woods f!MC), Harper Addison Vance-Fisher (Beneath demigirl!MC), Cedric Zhao (Within m!MC)

MCs with Completed and Thorough Profiles

OG HSS f!MC: Evie Ayana (LI: Aiden Zhou)

MCs with Basic Simple Profiles

ILW m!MC: Cedric Zhao (LI: Jocelyn Wu, but also likes Amalia De Leon)

MCs for stories where I've completed playthroughs with their "official" story routes (links go to images of the MC sprite, profiles still pending)

ILITW f!MC: Jo Hunter (LI: Lucas Thomas, but also likes Andy Kang and Connor Green)

ILB genderfluid demigirl MC: Harper Addison Vance-Fisher (LI: either Tom Sato or Parker Shaw, most likely Tom)

BP f!MC: Cady Asshunter (LI: has trysts with all of them)

TNA f!MC: Eh IDC (LI: White Samuel Dalton)

MCs for stories where their specific story routes are in progress or need a replay (links go to images of the MC sprite, profiles still pending)

HSS Prime f!MC: Jordan Price (LI: ends up with Julian Castillo in OG HSS's prom)

HSS:CA f!MC: Cher Lee (LI: Ajay Bhandari) and her trans m!Twin Bear Lee

ES f!MC: Emilia Harris (LI: undecided)

TRR f!MC: Lew Asshunter (LI: East Asian Liam "Sexy Thicc Man" Rys)

BB trans f!MC Jasmine Yin (LI: White Adrian Raines, Kamilah Sayeed, and Jax Matsuo; can't decide which of them she becomes closest with though)

PM m!MC: [Name Still Pending] (LI: Black f!Hayden Young and Sloane Washington)

AME m!MC: [Name Still Pending] (LI: Probably MacKenzie Harris)

TH:M f!MC: Otto (LI: none, she's had and still somewhat has the hots for Ansel Crane and they have at least one hatefuck hookup)

MAH f!MC: Peggy Stone (LI: White Tyler Woods)

TPA f!MC: Jane Bond (LI: Agent Callum "Booty Galore" Grey, undecided which version)

DLS m!MC: Dick Ryder (LI: Hispanic Charlotte King, or rather "Peg" King)

MCs for stories where I haven't even started their "official" playthrough yet (links go to images of the MC sprite, profiles still pending)

OG HSS m!MC: Alan Parke (LI: either Emma Hawkins, Maria Flores, or both)

OG HSS f!MC: Violet Jones (LI: Michael Harrison)

ES m!MC: BJ Kingsley (LI: Estela Montoya)

PM f!MC: Penny (LI: Probably m!Hayden Young but I'm not sure)

AME f!MC: Jamie MacLeod (LI: Marries Jen Espinoza on the show, but her true love is Carson Stewart and she ends in a threeway poly relationship with them)

ROD f!MC: Adelaide Zhou (LI: Most probably Colt Kaneko)

TH:M m!MC: Bill (LI: Eris Huang)

LOA f!MC: Anjali Bhandari (LI: East Asian!Gabe Ricci, Aislinn Tanaka, and Joaquin Morales)

COP f!MC: Roslyn Rose (LI: m!Trystan Thorne, not sure which version)

MCs I have planned for stories I haven't even touched yet (links go to images of the MC sprite, profiles still pending)

TE f!MC: [Name Still Pending] (LI: Either Beckett Harrington or Griffin Langley)

Alpha m!MC: [Name Still Pending] (LI: East Asian f!Channing Lowe)

Alpha f!MC: Luna (LI: None, she is not interested in Channing and prefers to clap the cheeks of Asher and Markus)

[devinkarlson]

BRANDS WALK A MARKETING TIGHTROPE OVER POLITICAL CHASMS

 How do you win when marketing in the face of contentious political issues?

It may not be possible.

To understand the strangeness, and often void, of corporate political marketing, look at Nike and Coca-Cola. These are companies that say Purpose Moves Us and People Matter — and both have made politically correct “social responsibility” part of their brand marketing. Yet they have also reportedly been lobbying against a bill that would ban importation into the U.S. of products made in China with forced labor.

Notably, both the companies were listed in a 2020 report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China; the bipartisan group of lawmakers said these companies and others had ties to forced labor in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

In response to inquiries from Zenger News, Nike sent a link to a long statement that talked about its efforts to “assess potential forced labor risks related to employment of Uyghurs, or other ethnic minorities” in China.

However, it never addressed the report of lobbying about the bill.

Coca-Cola’s PR group sent an automated acknowledgment but did not further respond to questions about its lobbying over the forced labor restrictions.

It’s a tough spot for companies that present themselves as caring. Navigating politically and socially charged themes in marketing can be tricky and thorny.

The Super Bowl

During this year’s Super Bowl, for the first time since Anheuser-Bush devoted all its Super Bowl ads to introduce Bud Light in 1983, its Budweiser brand stayed on the sidelines.“[W]e must prioritize humanity and purpose,” read a company statement. The money that would have gone to the ad—about $5.5 million for a 30-second spot—went instead to the Ad Council and public awareness about Covid-19 vaccinations.

Bud had company in seeming to forego advertising opportunities during the game. Coca-Cola and Pepsi also skipped promoting their name brands. Why look like you’re frivolous with money when so many are out of work without extra cash for a six-pack?

Yet Anheuser-Bush still ran spots for Bud Light, Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, Michelob ULTRA, and Michelob ULTRA Organic Seltzer. Pepsi, meanwhile, sponsored the game’s half-time show. In the end, Metrics firm MediaRadar told Zenger about a quarter of Super Bowl ads were for the broadcaster, CBS, and its services, which was historically typical, meaning ad sales for the game were about normal.

Under Pressure

The Super Bowl was an example of the tightrope marketers currently walk. Politics has always been tricky to address. Now it seems unavoidable. Making things even trickier for marketers may be understanding the difference between politics and “politics.”

In 2019, one poll showed that 62% of adults surveyed either “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed with the idea that brands shouldn’t make statements about their politics in their ads. Nevertheless, there is pressure to be on the acceptable side of any issue.

“Small businesses will most likely decide not to engage,” said Jen Dalton, CEO and founder of Brand Mirror, a consulting firm based in Tysons Corner, Virginia. “But more and more, citizens and employees expect companies to say something.”

The pressure is like the gravitational pull for bigger companies, Dalton said. As for the something expected, it can vary wildly, depending on who’s asking.

The work of cognitive scientist George Lakoff and others opens a door here.

People have mental frameworks based on values. Messages with the right values can be accepted. Those with the wrong ones get kicked out. Forget showing the wrong values. Failure to show the right ones can leave a company high and dry. With customers on different sides of an issue, marketers can get cognitive dissonance.

Who do you try to please?

Tripped

Over the last few years, corporations have even gotten snagged when high-profile people linked to a company have weighed in on political topics.

“In 2017, one of the family members of LL Bean praised Trump and set up a problem for LL Bean,” said Kathleen Day, a business journalist and lecturer at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. LL Bean released a public letter, saying it was an individual, not a corporate view, she said. “The letter they sent to the public was really smart.”

On the other hand, Howard Schultz at Starbucks in 2015 “really meant well,” according to Day, when he instituted the program to write on their cups “Race Together.”

Many customers blew a gasket.

“It backfired because people [just] wanted a cup of coffee,” Day said.

Then there are the open maws of political parties, always hungry to be fed, and leaving many businesses feeling that they have to cooperate.

“Corporate America hates having to contribute political contributions,” Day said. “They love having influence, but they hate giving money. You have to contribute just to tread water because everyone’s contributing. And you have to contribute to both sides of the aisle equal to what your competitors do. And then it turns into a wash.”

Be Yourself

“Most people will perceive if you’re silent and you do nothing, that could mean you’re perceived as you’re out of touch or trying to play it safe, but in many situations, you should at least say something,” Dalton said.

Finding a way for a company to pull this off without pulling the rug out from underneath itself requires finesse.

“It really depends on brand identity,” said Kris Conesa, director of media strategy at marketing agency Roar Media. “I’m thinking of Patagonia. They have been champions of donating to causes that protect the environment.”

Patagonia took an active stance against the Trump administration on environmental and land management policies. “But that was consistent with their brand,” Conesa said. “It was transparent with how they did it in the past.”

In short, no one should have been surprised.

The more open a company is about its positions and beliefs, and the more transparent those beliefs are, the greater a chance of avoiding trouble among customers. Conversely, the more quiet, the louder the response when things come out in the open.

For example, the Publix grocery store chain took heat over reports that Julie Jenkins Francelli—daughter of the company’s founder and an heiress to the family fortune, and a large donor to Trump and conservative candidates—donated $300,000 to stage the Jan. 6 rally, which ultimately turned into a march for some of the attendees that then spawned the attack on the Capitol building.

The grocery chain issued a statement that said Fancelli was neither involved with company operations nor representative of the company.

Sometimes the only way to engage with the public is a two-word phrase: We’re sorry.

Yet turning off comments is a sign that the expected public response won’t be good. You may not be able to please all the people all the time – but sometimes all you can do as a company is to pacify many, all at once, and just hope that things will blow over. 

Source -  https://roarmedia.com/in-the-news/brands-walk-a-marketing-tightrope-over-political-chasms/ 

[sassysophiabush]

I am constantly and immensely grateful for the community of women in my life. Brilliant, creative, capable, supportive, funny, dynamic women. In watching them and they way they live their lives, in experiencing my own in the world, and in being someone who is honored to communicate with all of you here, and hear your stories and witness your lives? One thing is clear to me. We show up. Do our best. Give it our all. And we are, because of a system that wasn’t designed to benefit us, often made to work harder. Period. As our friends @argent said recently, “Women work, but the status quo doesn’t.” What do we mean by that? Over 2 million women have left the workforce since the start of the #pandemic. Even before #COVID-19 our economy was not built to support women —especially women of color. The data makes it clear: Women work, work, work but no the status quo doesn’t. Women take on more of the work of caring for children and the family. That data? Women spend seven more years on average performing more household work than men (SEVEN!? YEARS! TY for the info @melindafrenchgates) And according to a recent @nytimes piece, experts are saying that due to the pandemic, it will “take our women 10 years to get back” in the workplace. It’s simply not okay. So what’s the solution? There will need to be many — and we are looking at you policy makers! — but “many” also means we can get creative and each use our unique abilities to help out. Our friends @argent x @timesupnow x @linkedin are doing just that. They’ve created a platform to connect #jobseekers with #employers — centering the voices of women and those impacted — to build a more equitable and sustainable economy!! One that offers safe, fair, flexible, and dignified opportunities for ALL. Want to get involved? Join us as we get our communities #BackToWork AT argentwork.com/backtowork. #work #backtowork #letsgoladies #workingwomen 💙🧡❤️ *And be sure to check out what all of the wonderful humans in this slideshow have to say about the dignity of work, and community. I’m always honored to work with these incredible folks ✊

[thrakaboom]

only satisfied when i'm alone

a wild child / kyle gibney playlist (on @machudson's request)

Edmonton - The Rural Alberta Advantage

Cult of Personality - Living Color

Pure Comedy - Father John Misty

Drain the Blood - The Rural Alberta Advantage

Dead / Alive - The Rural Alberta Advantage

Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Cum on Feel the Noize - Quiet Riot

Wild Grin - The Rural Alberta Advantage

Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches

Rusty Cage - Johnny Cash

This is Love - Air Traffic Controller

Norse Truth - Against Me!

Gorehound - Harley Poe

Rabid - Dalton Deschain & the Travelling Show

Cream and Bastards Rise - Harvey Danger

My Leather, My Fur, My Nails - Stepdad

Aedes Aegypti - Holy Locust

Cats, Dogs, and Rats - Rare Americans

Barnes' Yard - The Rural Alberta Advantage

Hollow Man - Harley Poe

Cat People (feat. Marilyn Manson) - Shooter Jennings

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You a Killer - Rabbit Junk

CANADU - The Rural Alberta Advantage

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 13, The Future Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Marc: Hello, Marc Roskin, producer and director of this episode.

Amy: Hi, Amy Berg, supervising producer and co-writer of this episode.

John: John Rogers, executive producer.

Chris: Chris Downy, executive producer, and co-writer of the Future Job.

John: Uh, this, did this start out of the haunting episode? Is this how the psychic came about?

Amy: The origin of this? No, the um, no I don't think so. Psychic Job was—

John: Was that Dean's?

Amy: No, it was literally a card that was on my board at the beginning of the season, along with Three Days of the Hunter, and Two Live Crew Job, so this was essentially plucked from the well.

John: This was one of the ones that sat there, that sat there for a long time, she was great, what, uh...

Marc: Jen Taylor, local Seattle actress. She was wonderful.

John: But it was Dean who really dug in on this one, because he really liked the bad guy. He really said, you know, ‘I really wanna hammer the fake psychics.’

Amy: Yeah, and he was the one who, sort of, had the vision of, sort of, making this a Parker episode and, sort of, getting to delve deeper into her backstory a little bit.

Chris: And there's Luke Perry.

John: Luke Perry was fantastic.

Amy: He was great.

John: How did we wind up casting Luke Perry?

Chris: I think it was suggested by our casting folks, and I think it was the first one on his list, and he said, Luke Perry would be fantastic for this role. And we all, we were kind of like wow. You know, you didn't really think of him as- as an evil psychic.

Marc: I would leave my wife for Luke Perry. 

[All Laugh]

John: Luke Perry—uh, as a director, why don't you talk about working with Luke Perry, Marc?

Marc: He was wonderful. I mean, you can just really, when someone has that much experience working in television, I mean, it's amazing. He was on time, he never left set, he was always talking about character and would take any suggestions, you know, from me as a director, if you wanted to go another way, just let me know; he was just a dream to work with.

John: Now, what was the idea on this particular setting for the psychic, instead of like a formal office, or like, what was the set dec idea on this?

Marc: Well we wanted to have him working out of, like, a home type office, and actually we had to find something that we could build on the stage to work on.

John: Oh so that wasn't a location, that was-

Marc: No, that was just our basic, uh, hospital and Gina apartment set.

John: [Laughs] The Frankenset.

Marc: Shot on the same day as this day, on the stage, in our bar.

John: Okay, cool. Nice shot through the glass, by the way. I didn't know those taps worked. If I'd known those taps worked I would have been up north a lot more often.

Marc: They work. As soon as you request it, Eric Bates we'll start pumping a keg through them.

John: And this actor playing the brother—

Marc: Uh, Eric Riedman, he was great, too. I mean, he really, really clicked with Tim in this scene. They really worked well together.

John: And it was interesting. We were trying to figure out—we had a great victim, but ordinarily our victim has already had the thing done to them, but in the design of this, you needed the victim to sort of be in suspension.

Amy: Yeah, we needed a proxy. And uh, the brother was sort of a great emotional investment tool for us.

John: Yeah. And Portland actor, just a really, really great job. That was a good, 'I hate that guy moment', when we made her pregnant. And uh—

Chris: And taking her house.

John: Take her house, don't leave money on the table.

Amy: I guess we should point out that, uh, I named a lot of these characters - with the exception of Dalton Rand, Luke Perry's character - after the assistants on our show.

John: Oh, this one is the one where we used all the—

Amy: Yeah, it's Wilson, it's Nicholas, and Ryan, and—

Chris: I love that logo there, by the way, that went by.

John: Oh yeah, who designed that? The great Dalton Rand logo?

Chris: Oh they did a great job.

John: It was actually designed by Derek, right? Our computer graphics guy?

Marc: Yeah, Derek Frederickson in Chicago.

John: He banged it up for us. And it is amazing, this is another one where you could assume we are doing one or the other of any of the very sundry famous psychics, but really they all use the same cons.

Amy: Yeah, they really do.

John: And I’ll also say, Derren Brown was a big influence on this episode.

Amy: Yeah, I think you and I are maybe a little too obsessed with Derren Brown, and uh—

John: He is dreamy.

Amy: He's dreamy and he's sort of an—

John: And a powerful, commanding presence.

Amy: And he's an expert in NLP, which a lot of the stuff we talk about in this episode is, and he debunks a lot of psychics and mediums and things of that sort.

John: That's a really interesting way, too, by doing shows that make it look like he has those abilities.

Amy: And Apollo Robbins, our consultant, was helpful in, sort of, submitting some great terminology for us to use throughout.

John: Oh yeah, that's right, the cold reading terminology, yeah. Um, now this, where was this set?

Marc: This was an actual cable access station that they, again, just opened the doors for us. We didn't have to change any of the logos or the numbers, the people working the camera are the actual camera crew—

Chris: Wow, that's great.

Marc: —of this station, they were wonderful.

Amy: They absorbed us into their own productions.

Chris: Just like Three Days of the Hunter, this is another example of Portland opening its doors to us.

Marc: So all those monitors, they had up and running and feeding through our system as well, it was great.

John: Now did you take a look at any of the extant shows, in order to, sort of, see how this works?

Marc: Uh, I did, and a lot of it at first was just to see the set. And everybody—once you start looking at their sets—were like 'oh, maybe ours is a little too pretty.' [All Laugh] Some of them were just like two chairs and an easel, with something leaning against it.

John: 'I'm gonna sketch what your dead mother is saying.'

Marc: And then our construction crew, you know, built the risers, so we can have some depth with the audience. This was a fun scene. It wasn't supposed to be a physical scene, but Eliot and Lathrop turned it into one, so it was kinda fun.

Chris: I love when he gets mad here.

Amy: This was supposed to be a con, and then it turned into something altogether different.

John: He's just really annoyed at that dude up in his face. And you know what's interesting is we- it was a little weird developing this, because all the tricks that a lot of fake psychics use—not the real psychics, of course, with giant lawyers behind them, but the fake psychics use—are actually techniques we use in the cons, and so it was kind of this weirdly recursive thing. It's like, we're kind of exposing to the audience how they do this, but we do it every week.

Amy: Yeah, we're exposing ourselves as much as we're exposing Dalton Rand here.

John: And this is where he goes into cold reading. What was the—and it's interesting, cold reading is a fascinating subject, there's actually a couple great books that Apollo Robbins hunted up, and the idea that just by playing the numbers, just by playing the odds, any one of these guys can hit at about 80 to 85 percent success rate.

Amy: Yeah, it's act- it's basically asking a series of questions, and, sort of, gauging reactions to people without knowing anything about them in advance. Whereas hot reads or warm reads, as they’re sometimes called, are basically doing your homework beforehand, and getting research on the people you're about to meet with and, sort of, using that knowledge to, sort of, manipulate them.

Chris: The hot read is really more what our guy's doing, which is kinda how this thing broke down in the episode, was when we hijack and sort of take it over and hot read.

Amy: Yeah. Well we, the team basically underestimates Dalton here, and he surprises them.

John: They think that once they throw him, they'll get him, and he's able to cold read Parker. Which is also a big thing, not just in anchoring Parker's story into the episode, but the show always works when the nemesis is a bit more formidable.

Amy: Absolutely.

John: And it was kind of important, especially since Luke's kind of a really nice, he's got a nice guy vibe, it was kinda really important to start to hammer in on the fact that this guy is as good as they are. If he knew they were coming, this would be a very different game.

Amy: And I think Tim is great in this scene, because he's playing the audience, he's like, ‘Wait a minute, like, we were supposed to come in and sort of take over this guy, and he's sort of manipulating Parker, and surprising me in turn.’

John: Wow, look at Beth there. She is working.

Chris: Now, how'd you work with her on this when you went into this scene?

Marc: Um, it was interesting, because the scenes we shot first are the scenes later where it was really emotional in the Leverage apartment, where she really broke down, so she was already at that place once, and she just brought it right back, and I think Luke worked really well with her.

John: I also like that beat in the van where Jeri sort of chose, it was a very nice choice, where Aldis has got Hardison really pissed off, and Jeri's just admiring the craft. She's not as emotionally invested in the team, so she can kind of step back and admire this guy's chops.

Marc: And this scene was just such a great scene where all of our actors work so well together in, not only just rehearsing it, but getting Beth to a certain place, you know, where she should be, they were all really emotionally involved in this, and took a lot of time to rehearse—

John: Probably took twice as long as we usually do to shoot this stuff.

Amy: Well yeah, it was the characters being really protective of Parker, and the actors being really protective of Beth, it was really great.

Chris: Well I think it was actually, when it was written, more angry. You know what I mean? And I think seeing the dailies, it was, like, she took it to this incredibly vulnerable place that I don't think it really was on the page.

John: Also big credit to Dean Devlin, because he also had pushed that.

Marc: He did, he did. And this was a great scene, we have all the emotional arc with Beth, but as you guys were just explaining, in the script we explain the hot read and the cold read and we break it all down.

John: Yeah, and this is—again, we are always agonizing over how to explain this stuff, and having someone with a specific emotional response or attitude in the scenes makes a giant difference. And having it be Parker, who the audience is very very fond of, really helps, you know. We're now dumping an enormous amount of exposition on your plate, and you don't care.

Chris: Right, because it's—you know, we're seeing her in this really, just devastated place.

Marc: And we just found out a lot about her past that we didn't know about.

John: And he—I love that look up, just like, ‘Help me out here, I got nothing.’

Chris: Well the thing about it, and we'll talk about it when we get there, but the way she plays the scene at the end, with the brother, really was informed by all this, which was not at all on the page at all.

Marc: Right.

Chris: Like, when she hugs the victim's brother, and we'll get there, it's as if she's hugging her own brother.

John: And also it's interesting, because—oddly, it certainly wasn't intended, but it's just the way TV shows evolve—it helps, sort of, explain her relationship with Eliot and Hardison, you know. That's sort of how she fell into that rhythm, and that sort of proxy family—

Chris: It was not intended.

John: I would like to say, I'd like to say it was a sort of subconscious Alan Moore idea space.

Amy: Speak for yourself Chris, I totally did that on purpose.

John: Like two years ahead, like two years in advance?

Chris: Oh sure. That's what you're supposed to do on these commentaries—

Amy: Yes, many many years.

Chris: —you're supposed to go 'well, you see, I laid these—'

John: 'So this moment, two years earlier—'

Amy: Reason we're awesome, number 427.

John: But here's what's amazing is, we really, we're always like, in the show, could we possibly fool people with this? And then when you do this, this explanation scene, could you possibly fool anyone? They do! This is how they do it! We're not making any of this up.

Amy: No.

John: If anything, we're giving them better tech.

Amy: We're giving them ideas on how to be better at it.

Chris: And by the way, from a technical standpoint, these scenes were very difficult to shoot because we're going from monitors to action—

Amy: To flashbacks.

Chris: —to flashbacks, very hard.

Marc: And they're all green screens on the day we're shooting them.

John: Oh that's right, we didn't have the footage.

Amy: Nothing was on these monitors.

Marc: Nothing is on the monitors.

Amy: All we had was a nice bulletin board.

Marc: Yeah, we had a little bulletin board to show that they had the seating chart. And here, one of my favorite lines is coming up, it's just a great release valve, with all this tension, and, and her emotions—crying.

John: Yeah, you can see her turning, too. There's the sort of old Parker coming back, and the anger kind of building up in her face.

Amy: Yeah it's like, wait a minute...

Marc: And then this line from Eliot. 'Can we kill him?' 

[All Laugh]

Chris: I think that was you.

John: Yeah that was, I think that was me. Quite sure. ‘Yeah, alright [Laughs] absolutely.’ I like, and Chris played it just right too, like...

Chris: Just a shrug.

John: And it's interesting, 'cause, that actually was intentional in the back half of the season this year. We really want to remind people, Eliot Spencer used to kill people. I mean, because it's really easy, because Chris is very charming, and he's very funny... yeah he was not a pleasant human being by any stretch of the imagination. And every now and then, you lose it a little, you know what I mean? You lose track of it, because he's such a nice guy. And who's that?

Marc: That is Lana Veenker, our casting associate there in good old Portland.

Amy: How did that come about? [Laughs]

Marc: You know what? We were just reading people and all of a sudden I'm like, ‘Why don't you read?’ 'No no no, I won't. Okay, gimme thirty seconds.' All of a sudden she read and we were like, 'Done.'

John: Done. We're out.

Chris: Didn't we write some pages where they have a long passionate kiss here? 

[All Laugh]

John: Yes, we did. We did—actually we didn't write them, you know, they were faxed in, and I don't know where they came from.

Chris: Handwritten.

Amy: Yeah I think it was a Portland IP address, somehow.

John: Yeah, it was a little creepy, to tell you the truth. [Amy Laughs] Ah, no. And this, uh—you know, we need a new name for the assistant who's not a Busey.

Chris: Uh... Well, I mean...

John: Because we've had a couple.

Chris: Lackey? It’s kind of a lackey.

Amy: Do people know—have we explained—

John: We've explained the Busey's on both seasons.

Amy: Okay good.

John: Uh, yeah, he's not quite a lackey, he's more of a henchman.

Chris: Henchman, yeah.

John: For those of you building the characters in Savage Worlds, he would have one wild die. [Laughs]

Amy: Lackies don't have lines, henchmen do.

John: Ah, there you go, good point.

Marc: And this scene as well, the opening scene in this office was shot at like, one in the morning, twelve o'clock at night, Luke's first day—

John: [Laughs] Welcome to Leverage, Luke.

Marc: Yeah, exactly. And he just rocked it out.

Amy: Yeah, he's great.

John: He landed unctuous. It was a pity because it was one of those performances where in the middle you're like, ‘Oh man, I love when we find an actor and we want to bring them back— oh wait, he's a villain.’ This almost never happens with villains.

Marc: Yeah.

John: Drew was the exception, but he was a good guy villain.

Chris: I think he mentioned that he was a—he is a con man here, and that he could always have a twin brother.

[All Laugh]

Amy: Without the beard and mustache.

John: This is, uh, I actually showed up on set, I think this day, or the—I flew in...

Amy: This was my first day too.

John: Yeah, and we arrived and Marc was in the middle of planning the most insane thing ever.

Amy: Well, the thing is, I put this camera move in the script thinking and hoping maybe just to freak Marc out—with no expectation that he could possibly pull it off—as a joke!

John: Oh like the giant blue whale structure.

Amy: Yeah, yeah, as a friggin joke, and then like, he shows me this move, and, like, I nearly died.

Marc: I thought about it, and I was like, ‘Well, can we do it?’ And our First AD David Wechsler and New York AD goes, 'Do you want it?' I'm like, 'Yeah.' He goes, 'Then we could do it.'

John: Yeah, Wex stops traffic in New York; stopping traffic in Portland wasn't—'cause that's what happened, I showed up and I'm like, 'I'm going to the set' and they're like, 'I'm sorry sir, you can't go. They stopped traffic.' 'Well I know, but I'm a writer' 'No no, they're doing some sort of s—' I'm four blocks away! What the hell?’

Chris: By the way, Jeri Ryan here, fantastic look from Nadine—

Amy: Yeah.

John: And she's also got a great character going here—

Marc: She looks fantastic.

Chris: Got a great character.

John: This is a softer character than Jeri usually gets to play, even in the cons.

Marc: A little hippie-ish, yeah.

Chris: The hair was great. I mean really, they nailed this.

Amy: Well Luke even comments on it, “It’s a little on the nose, but [laughs] it works for you.”

John: But that’s the idea, to just kind of you know, not try to overthink it.

Amy: Yeah, it’s great.

John: And it was interesting, again, the—Jeri was great for us and she was really fantastic all year, but you know one thing she mentioned is, she got to play roles that nobody usually lets her play, even within the cons.

Amy: Yup.

John: And there’s another clue for you, where she spent the last—the time before her con career.

Marc: And here comes the shot.

Amy: I’m excited just thinking about it.

John: I’m a little giddy. Yeah, there you go.

Chris: Oh, around the corner!

John: Now that’s all done in camera, so what happens is you have to have everyone within view of that camera freeze. And then the camera man basically runs, we put a steadicam through and then we digitally speed it up.

Marc: Poor Gary Camp.

Amy: Gary Camp!

John: Poor Gary Camp.

Chris: Now that I thought about it, I bet you in the finale that’s what prompted Dean to do that shot with Sterling. 

John: Right.

Chris: I bet Dean was like, he saw this and he was like ‘Oh you wanna try and top me with that? Well come and watch this!’

[All Laugh]

John: ‘I start and stop it four times!’

Chris: ‘I gave you your chance!’

Marc: But I don’t know, if you play it back you can see we also put some digital birds that are stopped—

John: Seriously? Like, if you slow-mo it you can see?

Marc: Yes. If you slow-mo it you’ll see two pigeons in the middle and we pass right past them.

Amy: That’s awesome.

John: I like the fact that, again, they’ve electrified the table, and that Nate is on board with Parker. ‘Cause again, that’s one of those little hints that Nate’s… sadism, for lack of a better word? is really starting to overtake his good judgment.

Amy: Yes. He’s—yeah it’s, little by little he’s starting to sort of fall to pieces here and sort of turn to the dark side.

John: Well, what’s nice is we started with the arc with the hospital one with- with the sadism, and then, you know, we had to sort of lean back on it for Gina’s arc. And then when we came back it was nice, that was basically the thrust of the back episodes. This was a lot of fun coming up with what the possible fucking visions could be. Oh that’s… I’m sorry, I’m drinking. [Amy Laughs] They’re used to me swearing on these by now! This really is like making, building a puzzle backwards.

Marc: This was really clever writing, and then to have the ability to shoot it was so much fun.

Amy: Aw. Thank you Rosky.

John: Yeah. We try to keep you entertained up there, after all your—this was only your fourth?

Marc: Yes.

Amy: Fourth episode?

John: Fourth episode, with no notice.

Marc: Yeah.

Amy: How was this episode different from the other three you’ve done?

Marc: It was fun to be in different places, you know, just to new places in Portland. It was fun to have a guest star like Luke to work with. And I loved having the emotional hook with Parker, ‘cause my first episode I did in the first season was a Parker episode, it was the Stork Job.

Amy: Oh! This is like your Parker bookend basically. That’s great.

John: Also it was interesting, watching with the sound off, I didn’t realize that’s one of the longest villain character scenes we’ve ever had. Like just when he’s parked there at the chair and she runs the con on him. Luke was really, really great.

Amy: He’s not bad to look at. [John Laughs] That’s kinda my job since you’re all dudes. [Laugh]

John: Well you know, I can appreciate a nice piece of man flesh as much as the next person. What is in this?

[All Laugh]

Marc: And the coffee finally spills.

John: And did we do the driving stunt there? No the driving—yes, the driving stunt’s after this.

Chris: It’s after this, yeah.

Amy: Yeah, yeah it was, the first part of it yeah.

John: But we shot it that day.

Amy: With the amazing, highly maneuverable Hyundai Genesis.

John: Hyundai Genesis was great. If you’re gonna murder someone with a car, the Hyundai Genesis is the way to go.

Marc: This was another local actor, I mean he just has… what a great face for television.

John: You know what, he looks a little like the British actor Peter Mullan actually, the guy who was on The Fixer?

Amy: He does! Yeah he does.

John: It’s really, I’ll tell you what Portland gave us - good cops.

Marc: Yes.

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: Our cops up there, ‘cause we just look at the Bottle show, and the three guys who played the Boston cops in the background, they’re just grounded.

Amy: This guy smells cop. [Laughs]

Chris: If you’re a cop-looking guy living in LA and you wanna get some work...

Everyone: Move to Portland.

Amy: We’ll employ you!

Chris: Just go! You listen to this right now? Load up the car, get up there! There’s work for you, my friend.

John: After these commentaries come out, people are gonna be on buses. There’s gonna be, like, bus tours for actors. And this was a lot of fun, was coming up—this was actually, I think we’d had the fortune cookie con in something. What was the story? Remember? We’d had it on the board for a while. The fortune cookies, the substituting.

Amy: Oh dude, so long ago; I wish I had the answer to that.

John: A lot of the, I mean that’s the thing is, there’s actually in the writer’s room a board of stuff.

Amy: Yeah.

John: And some of the stuff has been around long enough that it’s like, I know there was a provenance.

Amy: I think there was a fortune cookie con card.

Chris: Mm, I don’t know if a whole… might have been a story beat; it wasn’t a whole con.

John: Not a whole con, it was a story beat, yeah. But the idea of substituting—

Chris: This is a great- Here we go; here it is. [Laughs]

Amy: Look at it shining in the sun, beautiful.

John: And that’s a great—what was the choice on the, like in the moment, in the script it just says, ‘He realizes.’ How did you decide to go to the slow-mo and..?

Marc: I wanted to do a slow-mo in the 360; the world’s kinda spinning on him and just the— 

Amy: The camera’s a great touch, too. I like it.

Marc: Yeah, well I wanted the can to just show the proximity of how close he was, how much he’s tempted fate.

John: This was also one of the sequences that—who cut this?

Marc: This was Sonny.

John: This was one of the sequences where Sonny Baskin really, really, really slammed it together because this is always tricky, figuring out how the flashbacks work. In what order, in what pace, at what exact moment in the scene. And I think in the script we played around with showing some of it upfront, and then—

Chris: How much of the dialogue to replay was kind of the trick.

John: Exactly, how much we make sure the audience is following.

Marc: And I don’t think some people were understanding, like, why I took so long to shoot that car sequence when he stepped out. That it does play later, and it does have to have different feels and looks to it.

Amy: There’s two parts to it, yeah.

John: And again, this is another one where you have to anticipate, this guy checks credit reports, we know he checked the victim’s credit report earlier, you know.

Chris: And another thing is, one of the hallmarks of our show is that when we create a character, we don’t always create powerful con characters. We create characters that have vulnerabilities that our bad guys can exploit. So here, we created a fake story of her having bad credit and being in debt for hospital bills.

John: Yeah it’s like Chris in the MMA one, Kane, he plays in a very power-negative position in that. Pretty much every variant of a con character you can possibly find.

Amy: José! The name on the cup.

John: And Chris is ridiculously delighted to be doing this at this point actually. [All Laugh]

Amy: How can you tell?!

John: I think he’s just enjoying stealing—driving a truck to tell the truth. And I love the idea that Hardison would do this and this is just what he does. He spends his weekends filling fortune cookies with fake messages. He does all the grunt work.

Marc: That’s a good shot.

John: That is a great shot. And we’re locked in. And this was also tricky, too, because again, because the victim had not been burned yet, essentially, and it was a preventative con. It’s not something we usually do, and trying to figure out how to accelerate this con, and what exactly Con A was, was really—it kicked our asses to tell you the truth.

Chris: The danger was really the tricky part, when to introduce the danger.

John: And now we knew we wanted to do the maestro Hardison beat in this script. Marc, you had a very specific reference for this whole bit, which was the radio announcer in Warriors right?

Marc: Yes. 

John: Though Hardison is basically being a geek hacker—what year was that, 1980… Walter Hill, The Warriors…

Marc: Late 70s.

Amy: ‘79, or something. Around there.

John: Basically Marc reached back, like 35 years, and found himself a really great filmic reference for her side.

Chris: Well the key here is, the writing of it was making sure to go quickly from one, to the next, to the next.

John: Boom, boom, boom.

Chris: Each piece of information feeds to her, and she synthesizes it and comes to a conclusion.

John: It also helps explain how good Tara is.

Chris: Yeah.

John: She’s gonna run this con character as she’s getting all this crap dumped into her ear.

Amy: She’s playing vulnerable to him, but sort of expert to us.

John: I also love that he’s just given up at this point. We had not told the set people to put the orange soda in the fridge, but they just filled it and it just stayed that way for the year. I love that Nate’s just given up.

Chris: Yeah, this is Hardison’s war zone. He’s gonna need to be armed.

Amy: Gummy frogs, always important.

John: Gummy frogs, a call back from the magician episode. And Aldis really dug in there, really great job. Oh that’s Ire!

Amy: That’s Ire!

John: Was our…

Chris: Camera intern?

John: Camera intern, yeah. And she does some acting, and she was fantastic. 

Amy: Her audition was fantastic, yeah.

John: Yeah, that was one of the ones where it was like, ‘Okay we’ll audition you.’ At the end of the audition, ‘Wow…you have a career in this.’ [Laughs] But she’s going into camera work. She’s gonna, believe back this year as one of our camera people...

Chris: Oh she’s gonna come back? Oh that’s great.

John: And why the choices on the lights in the- the blue? Just liked it? Just like the set of one color tone?

Marc: Yeah, just liked it. Dave had an idea about it, and it just worked real well.

John: And it stayed consistent through this setting. It’s a very nice contrast with the sort of warm orange and wood tones of like, Nate’s apartment. It helps track locations a lot easier.

Marc: And Beth freaked out a lot of people when she walked on set with that wig.

Amy: Many many people did not recognize her.

John: I know, that’s really odd, right?

Amy: It was fun.

John: It’s a great wig.

Amy: Yeah it is.

John: Hair and makeup did a great job with that, ‘cause you guys sent me the photos and I was like, ‘I have to shoot the season finale. Did they cut her freaking hair?’ No, great wig. And this is hot read, this is our crew doing hot reads on the fly, and it’s a lot like the Bottle show, where it’s like, you can’t do the wire in two hours. In theory, you can’t hot read someone simultaneously as you’re conning them. Well, you know.

Amy: Maybe you can if you’re Leverage!

John: You’ve got the little camera movements here, is that, you tried to track those or do you just assume that Camp and—?

Chris: Yeah, you’re making sure as you move in one direction on one, you move in the other direction on the other?

Marc: Uh, a little bit. We always wanna keep the sliders going, just pushing in at the appropriate moments especially when Ire- I mean she just did such a great performance, and did it in one take.

Amy: One take; it was one take.

Chris: And didn’t you say to her, ‘Save a little bit ‘cause you may need to do this again’?

Marc: Yeah. I said, I said, ‘Don’t let it all out so fast.’ And Luke was so great with her. Knowing that... He’s seen her pulling cable, and all of a sudden she’s in front and having to break down.

John: He was great with her. Now here’s the thing, most people don’t know what sliders are, why don’t you explain what sliders are? Most people know cameras move left and right but they, you know-

Marc: Sliders are what we have on our dollies and tripods that allow the camera head to move, I guess laterally, left and right, in a fluid movement. Just drifting, so always- the background’s moving just ever so slightly, so it never looks too stale or stagnant. There’s my Warrior shot!

John: And I notice you punched in, like closer, closer, til you land on it. It’s very nice. Also, I like the fact that the name of the National Transportation Safety Board—is that, that’s the name of Parker’s friend from… Peggy Milbank, is like the name that’s coming up, that’s Parker’s friend from the first season.

Amy: Yeah, it’s sort of like a little inside joke.

John: And Hardison, ‘Get the hell out of my way.’ It’s interesting, this is a big, kind of, Nate as guardian episode, and he’s not driving it. It’s one of the great episode examples of where Tim Hutton and Nate kind of just ground it, is kind of the center of it. There’s Wade.

Amy: Wade Williams, awesome actor. Perfect for this role.

John: I was wondering how he would play this reaction, because she’s, you know, he’s giving her a line of bullshit, and he’s gotta, he’s in front of everyone.

Amy: Yeah, he knows he’s on camera.

John: That reminds me of that guy who proposed to his girlfriend at the basketball game and she turned him down.

Everyone: Oh yeah!

Marc: Then the mascot walks him off.

John: Just put a- just end it. No, Wade was fantastic, he’d just come off Prison Break? Wasn’t he a guard on that?

Chris: And we had a long search for that part, too.

John: Yeah, we read a lot of guys. Well, because the original dialogue was somewhat baroque. [Laugh]

Amy: It was! It wasn’t exactly an easy thing to pull off, which is why we ended up casting it out of LA. It was just a really meaty part.

John: Nice fight coming up here, by the way. They actually banged the hell out of that van. You had to hammer a dent out, didn’t you?

Marc: Oh yeah. Yes we did. 

John: Just every now and then you bounce a stuntie off a van. Jeri mixing it up. Jeri was in there, yeah. Good hit! 

Marc: Our local stunt actors and Kevin Jackson choreographed this. 

Amy: The moment where he, sort of, notes the tattoo on the guy’s hand.

John: It’s a nice beat. It’s interesting, the Portland stunt guys really dug in. Because we did a lot more stunts and a lot more fights than four or five movies that have shot up there combined, and they really rallied. They were fantastic. And this was the—

Chris: But here’s where he has to synthesize everything. I mean, now, you know, is where he really steps forward.

John: Well this is really where he digs in on the mastermind thing. This is a good, ‘Let me get this straight’ scene. This is a nice- the ‘let me get this straight’ scene is where you just reset for the audience, you know, just reset the stakes, reset the plot.

Amy: Also known as ‘So you’re telling me.’

Chris: It’s a general rule of writing to show, not tell, and the exception to that rule is when the situation is either so absurd or entertaining that you get a second laugh on the retelling of it.

Amy: Just commenting on it.

John: ‘I wanna get this straight,’ yeah. And you can also hide it in planning, or when the characters don’t have enough information. But no, because the episode at this point—

Chris: There it is, I think she just said ‘so let me get this straight.’ 

[All Laugh]

John: ‘Cause this is the point where the episode becomes an entirely different episode, because the first con worked. Again, because that’s always the trick on these, like, in theory you don’t want something to just fall out of the sky and be wrong.

Amy: Well they basically had Dalton Rand in the bag, and then, a totally unexpected-

Everyone: It worked too well.

John: This was a lovely shot. Marc?

Chris: Oh, I love this.

Marc: This was, I wanted to try and get this in one steadicam shot and just show the energy and movement throughout. I mean we spent so much time in this apartment that it’s fun to try and mix it up again.

Chris: Oh here we go, and up the stairs!

John: Nice, how many takes was that?

Marc: I think we did it in about three or four takes.

Amy: That’s crazy.

Chris: That was it? Now that was planned as a one- or, or was that just the end of the day, we gotta get this shot?

Marc: No, that was planned. That was one shot I wanted to try and do that had a little more energy and fun to it. 

John: Marc’s lived at that set for a lot of shots, he wants to vary it up a little.

Amy: Time to mix it up. 

Marc: And this, this was an idea that Connell had. When he saw the location and the time we’re shooting at, he said, ‘Let’s establish their faces,’ and then just, she’s walking into darkness.

John: Just bump into silhouette.

Chris: And she’s in boots, so let’s pan out from them, so, let’s be honest.

Amy: That’s what boots are for.

Marc: This happened to be in the paper factory.

John: Is this the The Bottle Job paper factory?

Marc: Yes, it’s just the area that didn’t have paper. 

[All Laugh]

John: Now, yes, now we’re basically—yeah, there you go. He’s really digging in on this. ‘Come, come join me!’

Marc: And that was his idea, he said, ‘Get the lady a chair!’

John: This entire speech, I think I did drunk. 

Amy: This was me taking notes on a notepad when you were drunk in the writer’s room, reeling off this speech. 

Chris: It was a big debate about the- about what we- this guy, what was called in the writer’s room the evil scary guy.

John: Evil scary guy.

Chris: The appearance of evil scary guy. We typically don’t have dangerous villains appear late in episodes. Usually we’ve established them and so this was the idea that we were gonna have evil scary guy come at this point in the episode and you know, put everyone in mortal danger. And you went off in a very oddly baroque manner.

John: Yeah. I really—‘cause what I was doing was actually making fun of the idea. Because I was like, ‘Seriously guys, we’re gonna do this? Some guy’s gonna show up and go ‘Gentlemen, I have a problem!’’ And I basically did this speech with, like, a fistful of scotch, and Berg and Chris sat on the same side of the table and they both looked at me and went, ‘Yeah.’

Chris: ‘Yeah, yeah if you like that. That’s great.’

John: ‘Pretty much. Exactly like that. Thanks gentlemen. Debate’s over.’

Chris: ‘Debate’s done.’

John: ‘Debate’s done. That was entertaining, we all enjoyed it, therefore it is in the episode.’

Marc: This was fun to shoot; we had a circle track with, you know, two cameras and two separate dollies.

John: Wait, at the same time?

Marc: Yes.

Chris: Wow.

John: Oh, Jesus Murphy. So where is the circle track laid down, it’s on the outside of this beam?

Marc: On the outside of the beam, and yeah, just around everybody. 

John: Two sizes.

Marc: Yeah, two sizes. And then at one point towards the end we, you know, change direction, just to mix it up a bit. But it was fun to have this type of villain. In the beginning we’re dealing with someone who’s smart, looking at bank statements, and now we’re dealing with a guy with a gun and thugs, who spent time in upstate New York.

John: Yeah, and he really sold it. And also it- the rule is: the villain has to suffer. And interestingly enough, we started Darlton Rand’s suffering really early in this episode. His loss of power here is really, he has just a bad back two acts. And Luke played it very nicely. Like right here, where he’s trying to keep control.

Marc: Yeah, when he’s trying to keep control, and he’s still trying to sell the idea that he’s the psychic. 

John: Wade is terrifying. That was nice, picking up around here as she was dropping into it; that was very nicely done.

Marc: Yes, Gary Camp and Dave Connell.

Chris: Now how long did this take? Do you remember how many takes you did with this, with the circle track?

Marc: I think this scene, we… I believe we did it in just over an hour. Yeah, but it’s a lot of dialogue, and Wade did such a great job because, you know, he had to do it so many different times.

John: And there’s a lot of looks in this. There’s a lot of angles in this.

Amy: He just cracks me up.

John: Yeah, he does. He’s so happy. Yeah, you gotta bang them up from both sides, you’ve gotta pick him up talking to them. There’s no good way except a circle track to shoot that.

Marc: Yeah. I think that Jeri sells this really well in this scene.

John: She does. A little distressed, a little—

Marc: Yeah he’s walking in one direction, no, it’s not, this way. And it’s nice seeing, shooting over, oops, too early.

John: It’s always a little too early. A little too early.  Timing is a big part of the show. And yeah, fainting damsel never, never fails. 

Amy: Best stall ever.

John: Where was this? Was this, like, the storage unit place? Or this was on the road outside?

Marc: Uh, this wasn’t far from our sound stage.

John: Really? Really, we shot near the sound stage?

Chris: We got a lot of mileage within a couple hundred yards of our sound stage.

Amy: Clackamas.

John: Beautiful scenic Clackamas. And this actually, the fake registration idea came from Darwyn Cooke’s comic book adaptation of Parker. The Donald Westlake novel. In the opening of it, remember, he has the thing with Parker and—it’s one of my favorite starts to a novel, Parker’s walking into New York on the Brooklyn Bridge, like, but on the street? And people are—So what happens is, in the 1960s, he goes and gets his replacement driver’s license, and then he ages it. Because… and we spent a little time in the room like, what doesn’t have your picture on it? What can we age believably that, and, yeah that was where the idea came from. And then constructing this backwards to get the series of clues was- was a long afternoon.

Amy: Yeah, that was a tough—but then we broke this episode in one day, so it wasn’t that tough.

Marc: But I wasn’t allowed to break the window.

Amy: Oh that’s right, I remember that. Yeah, we had to, she had to jimmy it open.

Chris: ‘Cause that glass is expensive.

John: Breakaway glass is not cheap. Uh, there’s something creepily sexual about this exchange.

Chris: ‘Can I have your overalls?’

Amy: Yeah, and the look on Tim’s face, too.

John: Yeah, well I think that might not be the matching dialogue with that take, ‘cause I think it got a little dirty in that shot. Now this is a great location. I think we actually broke into a couple of storage units for this. People don’t mind, it’s Portland, they’re totally cool with us doing that. Good stall, and then we finally get Nate into a costume for the stall. Storage units, the anonymity of modern life is the key to Leverage. Storage units, cell phones, instant messaging, email, you know, I don’t think you could do this show in the 50s. And there you go, yeah.

Chris: Here he is.

Marc: Uh-oh. Gun, danger.

John: And, is that Dashiel Hammett or Raymond Chandler’s rule?

Amy: Yeah, Dashiel Hammett’s.

John: Dashiel Hammett. When in doubt, have a guy enter with a gun. And we actually have on the board in the writers room, ‘Man entering with gun > man exiting with gun.’ You have to understand, dude coming in… And Tim has an enormous amount of fun.

Chris: And this is his fumfering bureaucrat.

Marc: This was a fun shot to do. Craning up just to see, and then that’s the CG building that we added in the background.

Chris: That’s right, to set up the ending.

John: Yeah, in the original ending it was all done through remote camera, and then Dean suggested that we actually put it, attached it to it, and since cable access shows are shot in the middle of fricking nowhere, it actually worked out fine. And whenever- Oh, there you go.

Amy: Well I think Dean’s idea of that was just, sort of, to give our villain a bigger comeuppance, if he had to, sort of, face his victims...

John: Face-to-face. And that’s interesting ‘cause we always go like, you need the gloat, but you also need the suffering. And in the non-him-showing-up version, we had—

Amy: It was basically just the gloat, yeah. I mean he still ends in jail, but.

John: We have the people upset, but you know, you don’t get him looking them right in the eye.

Marc: Small spaces to work in. 

[All Laugh]

Chris: How was it like, shooting the storage locker?

Marc: It was a little tough.

Amy: I remember this day.

Marc: You know, it was a double, but we just made it look like one, so we had room to always just have the camera on one side.

Amy: Yeah, there was actually another storage locker that opened up right next to this, to the left, so we could have somewhere to switch the cameras.

John: So did you throw up like a half-wall over on that side, or is it just, stack some boxes to feel like-

Marc: We just stack some boxes and just move the camera, but you’ll notice the camera’s usually on that side, looking that direction.

Chris: And here’s where he’s really starting to lose it, ‘cause he does have an arc, from inexplicably baroque, to just completely losing it.

John: No, he totally sold this. There’s no doubt about it whatsoever. And you guys took what was a joke pitch and turned it into a real character. That was just me on a long drunken rant. I’m inexplicably baroque, in the room, often! 

Amy: This is, by the way, true. 

John: Yeah. And Luke, losing it. Really the whole confession, the whole begging; he really sold it.

Marc: And of course, you know, time constraints. His stuff was shot all at night, hers was all in the daytime.

Amy: Of course. That’s how it works.

John: Really? So looking at Luke, you were looking, you had night behind you looking out?

Marc: It was night.

Chris: Here we go.

John and Chris: Det cord. 

[All Laugh]

Amy: Det cord is great. 

Marc: Our friend for the back half of season uh—

Amy: Thank you MythBusters for det cord.

John: Thank you MythBusters for showing us how det cord worked and how effectively—

Amy: I think I pulled that from a YouTube video.

John: Yeah, well we started with Thermite, remember? ‘Cause I remember how it melted through the car and you were like, ‘No, that’s too huge’, and you found us some det cord.

Marc: Here I just wanted to have a shot of Eliot’s arms.

John: So here’s a little something for the ladies, as my wife says. And now, this is very flashback heavy, but it’s all in continuity. You did a nice job of making sure we’ve seen just enough of these that we never floated. ‘Cause sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh god, do we know exactly where we are in this flashback?’

Chris: I think we compressed a little of it in editing too. I think there was a little bit more and we kind of just moved it all.

Amy: Yeah, there’s a lot more here than…

John: Ah, the network is unhappy; they’re gonna go get one of these real psychics now, not a fake psychic like this.

Chris: And then we get to see our victim again, and our other victim.

John: The proxy victim. 

Amy: And the camera lady’s like, ‘I don’t wanna be part of this,’ backing out of the scene.

John: And the begging and the pleading. There you go. And there’s all the people who’ve been hurt. 

Chris: The man from Michigan. 

John: Did he stay in a hotel? Why is he still there? He got his reading yesterday. I don’t remember why he…

Chris: He wanted to come back; he had more to find out.

John: I guess so, I guess so.

Marc: This is always fun when you shoot things on two different days, that end, and that end.

Chris: Is Tim looking at a tennis ball, what do you do?

John: Is that like Jurassic Park? Or it’s like this tennis ball on a hockey stick is Chris’ hair. ‘Just track this.’

Chris: You just make sure your script supervisor takes good notes of uh...

John: Look at that, you’re shooting past the car! He’s in the car. 

Chris: Nice, I never would have known that.

John: Nicely done. And this is actually, you know what? The president of the network the other day mentioned how much he loves the scenes where they’re all there. Where the guy actually, like, sees the whole- the whole con.

Amy: The family gloat, as opposed to just the singular gloat.

Marc: That’s the way we pull off this show in seven days - cheating.

Amy: Cheating very cinematically.

John: I prefer to call it cable awareness.

Amy: Cable awareness? Nice.

Marc: Now I think this next scene in the bar is, I think, one of my favorite wrap-up scenes that I’ve got to direct.

Amy: It’s one of my favorite, too.

Marc: It was one of these days where it was- there were so many tears on set.

John: We were coming to the end, too; we were getting there. Everyone was kind of rung up and spun up.

Marc: But everyone just, you know, Tim and Jeri and Beth and everybody, our guest actors, everybody just came in so strong and it was great.

John: This speech, by the way, you can really tell Tim’s a dad. That’s really how he lands this speech, it’s like, yeah.

Chris: Well the story, it’s an interesting story because the little peanut butter bit, a very good friend, a writer friend, Steve O’Donnell, who is a long time Letterman writer, and he has a twin brother Mark O’Donnell—also a writer, wrote the book to Hairspray. And I remember talking to him one time about the closeness of the two of them, and he said that they’re so close, that if you laid out peanut butter, that somebody spread on different pieces of bread, he could pick out his brother’s peanut butter. And it always stuck with me that that is something that, when I was writing this scene, that there’s just things that you see in your child that you just recognize from yourself or your father, and it has nothing to do with what you did, it’s all biological. And that was really, it did a beautiful job with it.

John: Nice landing on that. And Jeri there, by the way, she’s got a little glisten going there; she got a little moist.

Chris: And here’s this moment that was not scripted at all. Well, not intended in the script, but just through the acting.

John: But that was nice. Jeri landed the arc. She kind of completed Tara’s arc through there. 

Chris: Yeah, she got it.

John: She had gone through all six episodes and she, you know, a lot of actors would come in and take up the space and say thanks for the job, but she really put in the work from [unintelligible].

Chris: There it is. I mean, that’s like...

John: I mean, she’s breaking your heart there.

Chris: She’s hugging her brother.

Marc: And I just gotta make sure that she makes that eye contact with Nate.

Chris: And it was all because that part about her brother was added after that scene was written, but she brought it together in this moment.

John: It’s a lovely beat. We have very, very good actors.

Marc: Then we release the valve and let you chuckle here.

Chris: Yes. We call it, in the comedy business, a treacle cutter.

John: A treacle cutter, yeah. And also Kane really lands these beats. He really- it goes from a smile, all the way to annoyed. He hits both of the crucial Eliot beats here. It’s the grin, and then, ‘I’m gonna kick your ass.’ He really hits all the bases on that one.

Chris: And we kind of end on her surrogate brother here.

John: Yeah. Who she may sleep with. Still haven’t decided that.

Amy: It’s a little incestual.

John: Yeah, you know, all television’s a little incestual. 

Chris: Oh they’re all...

John: What, they’re all sleeping together, is that what you meant? What’s going on up there?

Chris: No, that’s—Come on. It’s like Star Wars.

John: Oh there you go, that’s perfectly legit. Anything you want to say to the nice folks?

Amy: Thanks everybody.

Marc: Thank you. It was a great episode to work on. 

Chris: Thank you guys.

John: And actually thanks for David Wechsler, ‘cause he came in late and really helped us out on that. Really good job. And hopefully Luke Perry will be back. Less evil.

Chris: As his twin brother.

John: There you go.

Chris: Why not?

[tabloidtoc]

National Enquirer, November 16

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Jeffrey Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s nights with Prince Andrew and teen Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Page 2: Brad Pitt kicked married galpal Nicole Poturalski to the curb after getting flak from his ex Angelina Jolie -- Brad’s relationship with Nicole hit the skids after Brad decided he needed to shore up his image during his ongoing custody battle with Angie and his focus right now is to get his dad image back on track and give Angie no more ammo to fling back at him

Page 3: Tiger Woods’ romance with Erica Herman has gone off course over legal troubles and wedding pressure and bickering over where to live and Tiger is so fed up he’s considering ditching his nagging girlfriend in Florida and moving back to his native California -- Erica’s been pressuring him to put a ring on it ever since she moved into his Jupiter Island mansion and that’s something he just won’t do and she’s already taken over his household buying new furniture and remodeling the master bath and building a new closet and hiring a gourmet chef -- California is looking better and better to Tiger who only moved to Florida to play on its tough Bermuda grass which helped improve his swing but now Tiger’s ex Elin lives in Florida with their two kids 

Page 4: Miranda Lambert is scoffing at ex Blake Shelton’s newly announced engagement to Gwen Stefani and she’s convinced Blake’s third walk down the aisle has failure written all over it because she thinks Blake’s bad to the bone and this marriage will wind up being a total disaster and after the hell Blake put her through Miranda can’t imagine his life with Gwen would be any different, lifelong bachelor Simon Cowell has had a change of heart since his horrific August accident and he’s finally ready to tie the knot with baby mama Lauren Silverman -- after spinal surgery to repair his broken back the entertainment mogul feels lucky to be alive and walking and the one constant in his difficult rehab after surgery has been Lauren and he wants to pay her back with a ring 

Page 5: Train-wreck Wendy Williams’ wacky behavior has TV producers scrambling behind the scenes to find her replacement after her unhinged performance on a recent episode of her talk show where she slurred her words and rambled incoherently -- there had been a hope a chatfest helmed by Nick Cannon could be a safety net should the daytime diva who spent a stint in a sober living house last year not be able to continue hosting but plans for that were pushed back after the comic made anti-Semitic rants in a podcast -- they also tried Jerry O’Connell when Wendy was out for three weeks last year but he tanked with viewers -- Wendy’s a mess and it remains to be seen how long producers will be able to put up with her problems before they decide to pull the plug 

Page 6: Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo hinted that she may be making her final rounds -- Ellen who has starred on the show since 2005 and makes $20 million a year admitted she’s considering slipping out of her scrubs after the current season 17 but her departure could spell the end of the beloved series and show creator Shonda Rhimes has said it’s unlikely the show could continue without her but Ellen has also expressed her desire to spend more time with her husband and their three children

Page 7: Mariah Carey’s brother Morgan blasted her memoir as filled with lies and distortions and he’s considering legal action -- the book called Morgan and sister Alison her ex-brother and ex-sister and Mariah wrote Morgan had a long history of violence and when she was six he slammed their mother into a wall -- Mariah also wrote her siblings and mother were heartless in terms of dealing with her as a human being and once she got famous they started treating her like an ATM with a wig on but Morgan is fighting back and looking to hire a lawyer

Page 8: Reese Witherspoon’s marriage to Jim Toth is in the muck after the stunning collapse of his new business venture and tensions are mounting in the Hollywood power couple’s already troubled union now that the streaming service Quibi crumbled after less than six months leaving content acquisition president Jim out of work while Reese’s star continues to rise and there’s a real balance of power that’s been building up and that’s put a serious strain on the relationship -- living in quarantine added to the stress between them as Reese has been holed up with her two kids with ex Ryan Phillippe Ava and Deacon and her son Tennessee with Jim at the family’s ranch in Malibu

Page 9: Dementia patient Kenny Rogers cut his three adult children out of his $250 million will and now sources fear the late country legend could have been tricked into signing the document -- Kenny left everything to his 16-year-old twins sons with fifth wife Wanda and the will also stated it was his intent to specifically exclude his daughter Carole with his first wife and son Kenny Jr. with third wife and son Christopher with fourth wife and their issue as beneficiaries of his estate -- Kenny Sr. would never disown his own children according to the source especially since the singer’s son Kenny Jr. is incorrectly referred to Kenny Rogers III throughout the will -- the wording is not like Kenny Sr. and something is not right and his older kids are thinking about contesting the will 

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Kate McKinnon shot a Saturday Night live skit in NYC, Sophia Bush hit the road in L.A. with her co-pilot pup Maggie, pregnant Jinger Duggar Vuolo in Venice with daughter Felicity, Heidi Klum walking the streets in her native Germany, Snoop Dogg saluted young rappers as he accepted BET’s I Am Hip Hop award 

Page 11: Unwitting Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler once dabbled in the secret sex cult NXIVM -- the organization masqueraded as a self-help group but in 2017 it was exposed as a pyramid scheme for founder Keith Raniere who forced high-ranking female recruits to become his sex slaves -- in 2010 Jen and Gerry who were dating at the time wound up at one of the introductory seminars but they were turned off by the level of commitment expected and never returned -- they thought it was just a networking opportunity and had no idea what they were getting themselves into, cash-crunched Gwyneth Paltrow is facing hard times like everyone else and is looking to change her free-spending ways -- the belt-tightening caused by the coronavirus pandemic has even hit her lifestyle empire Goop causing her to shut down the London branch and make hard choices for the future -- Gwyneth may be worth $100 million but she and husband Brad Falchuk spend money like it’s going out of style on private jets they use on a whim and they own a fleet of fancy cars and pay steep salaries for staff who are at their beck and call 24/7 and it’s all draining their bank accounts -- they’re looking at making cuts across the board from personal trainers and chefs and drivers to the masseurs and beauticians who come to their house several times a week -- plus the couple believe it’s a bad look for them to be living so high on the hog when the rest of the world is suffering during the pandemic

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Angelina Jolie spent years developing her own version of the Hollywood classic Cleopatra and now she’s livid that Gal Gadot has stolen the Egyptian queen -- Angie’s dream was to play Cleopatra the role that made Elizabeth Taylor an icon and it was to be the part that won Angie an Academy Award for Best Actress and now that’s over thanks to Gal who will be playing the Queen of the Nile instead, after ABC scrapped plans to honor Regis Philbin with a prime-time tribute Jimmy Kimmel insisted on honoring Regis on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, MSNBC talking head Rachel Maddow is fleeing New York for her Massachusetts farm after hanging a $2.3 million price tag on her NYC pad but Rachel didn’t want potential buyers looking through all the personal stuff at her apartment so all the personal pictures and books and clothing and everything else was shipped out and replaced with staged furniture, Ariel Winter and her dog (picture) 

Page 13: Ailing Joni Mitchell opened up about how she’s still struggling to get back to her old self five years after a debilitating brain bleed -- after Joni was found unresponsive in her Bel-Air home in 2015 she said she was forced to relearn everyday tasks because the aneurysm took away her speech and her ability to walk and although she’s showing slow improvement she hasn’t been writing or playing the guitar or the piano, Randy Travis is defying all the odds as he plans the greatest comeback in country music history as he is making amazing progress after suffering a massive 2013 stroke that most believed would end his career forever and he was given just 1% chance of survival and even after he pulled through doctors believed he would be bedridden and unable to speak -- instead his grueling rehab efforts have miraculously put him on the road to realizing his dream of returning to the spotlight -- some of his motivation is financial; last year he sold his Nashville home and released his memoir which was fueled by his need to pay medical expenses after years of not being able to perform

Page 14: Hollywood Hookups -- Channing Tatum and Jessie J have split again, Cole Sprouse and Reina Silva dating, Kate Beckinsale and Goody Grace split 

Page 15: Ariana Grande is raising eyebrows with her raunchy new record Positions -- the former squeaky-clean Nickelodeon star who has been dating real estate agent Dalton Gomez spouted off X-rated odes to an unnamed lover on the LP, six months after sidelining her marriage to former quarterback Jay Cutler Kristin Cavallari admitted there are good days and bad days but insisted it’s been nice to be able to focus on herself and figure out who she is now and what she ultimately wants out of life, hotel heiress Kathy Hilton is joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as a friend of the main cast which includes her half-sister Kyle Richards

Page 16: Crime 

Page 17: On Drew Barrymore’s talk show a psychic guest channeled the spirit of one of the host’s former in-laws but the man in question is very much alive -- medium Anna Raimondi told Drew she sensed the aura of a judge causing Drew to burst into tears and named David a relative of her ex-husband Will Kopelman claiming he’d passed but Judge David Kopelman is alive and still going strong -- Will slammed Anna was a submental hack and said he was surprised that Drew chose to give oxygen to someone like that

Page 18: American Life 

Page 20: Cover Story -- Prince Andrew is desperate to quash explosive testimony by his pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein’s accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell but the socialite’s second secret deposition is torpedoing his return from royal exile -- after Ghislaine danced around details of her relationship with the disgraced Duke of York in testimony released a few weeks ago Andrew is sweating bullets about her second grilling under oath which contains details of their intimate friendship and nights with Epstein’s teen sex slave Virginia Roberts Giuffre 

Page 22: Don McLean viciously slammed ex-wife Patrisha Shnier as the worst person her ever knew but in their ongoing war of words she maintains he was abusive to her -- Don is still bitter over a 2016 domestic incident at their home in Maine that landed him behind bars and led to divorce after 30 years of marriage

Page 26: Matthew McConaughey confessed he nearly turned his back on Tinseltown to be a wildlife guide like late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin -- he made a splash in a string of blockbuster rom-coms in the ‘90s and ‘00s but he was eager to move on to meatier movies and even passed on a $14.5 million paycheck in 2010 to seek more substantial roles and the struggle left him considering other careers such as a wildlife guide, Jamie Foxx has been crushed by the death of his beloved sister DeOndra Dixon who was born with Down syndrome

Page 28: Good Catch -- Bachelor stars who are still up for grabs -- Jon Hamm, Owen Wilson, Drew Carey

Page 29: Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Seacrest, Matthew Perry, some stars seem to say I do at the drop of the hat -- Larry King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Bob Thornton 

Page 32: Olivia Munn was caught on camera flashing what looked like engagement bling on her left ring finger as she exited a gym following a morning workout in Los Angeles but she reportedly broke up with boyfriend Tucker Roberts last year leaving fans wondering who bought the stunning sparkler 

Page 36: Health Watch 

Page 42: Red Carpet -- Michelle Pfeiffer 

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Allison Janney on Mom 

Page 47: Odd List 

[nebulawritings]

Birthday Massage

This is pure, unabashed, indulgent smut, people. Re-write of The Nanny Affair Chapter Four. There is dialect and writing taken directly from the Choices app, which they own the content and characters of. MC is Anna. Enjoy! Written in the Second Person (like the app). First time I’ve written in that style.

Choices Stories You Play: The Nanny Affair

Pairing: F!MC (Anna) x M!Sam

Reading Time: ~ 5 minutes

Warning: Mature content. Buckets of it. If you’re not old enough, behave and don’t read.

__________________________________________________________

“Goodnight, everyone”. Fuming, not looking back, you return to your room and sit heavily on your bed, still unsure of what happened. You’re holding the massage bar you bought for Sam, having not put it down after trying to tidy a little, just before Sofia arrived. Huffing, you pull out your phone to text the one friend you know who’ll understand.

OMG Sofia is here –  Anna 

WAT!!! – Jenny

She dropped in unannounced during Sam’s bday dinner. She’s freaking terrible! You should’ve seen the way she was treating everyone. She LITERALLY called me the help – Anna

Gross. Wat did Sam say – Jenny

Nothing. – Anna

EXCUUUUUUUUSE ME?! – Jenny

He tried. But Sofia kept talking over him. Honestly, I think Sam was too shocked to do more – Anna

I hope so. Cuz otherwise. WTF – Jenny

I don’t know, Jen, there’s no way I can compete with that. She bought the boys Armani watches. ARMANI, JENNY, ARMANI– Anna

Listen, babe, u gotta sho him wat he’s missing out on. Remember the bar boy in Miami? – Jenny

OMG when are you going to stop using Miami guy against me?! – Anna

All I’m sayin is dat you worked harder for that, and he wasn’t a hot stuff multi-gajillionaire! Did Miami guy leave the gala with Lucy Street? Nuh uh, gurl, he left wit you – Jenny

You‘re halfway through responding when a knock on your door pries you away from the phone screen. If it’s Sofia with dry cleaning or something I swear I’m not accountable for my actions you think to yourself, before opening the door to find that Sam is standing in your doorway, shirt unbuttoned and chest bare, looking tired and dishevelled and yet, somehow, still incredibly sexy.

“Anna…”

“Sam, hey…Is everything okay?”. You’re surprised to see him at your door, and you try to push the thoughts of why he’s turned up, looking like that, to see you from your mind.

“Can we talk? Sofia is gone, and the boys are down for the night”.

At the mention of her name you feel anger bubbling up, and your expression hardens. “I was about to go to bed, actually”.

“It won’t take long. I need to apologize for what happened”.

Sam touches his neck tenderly and releases a heavy sigh. Your hands itch to help him relieve some of that tension, to stroke him, to touch him…His gaze meets yours, pleading with you.

“Please. I don’t like how we left things back there”.

Your resolve wavers, and your mind flicks back to the conversation you had with Jenny. To the small, delicate package folded neatly in your bathroom, an impulse buy when you’d been out with the boys earlier that you’d hoped would be an extra surprise for Sam, should the night have gone that way. It hadn’t, not with the entrance of Sofia, but she was gone now. After a lingering look, you step back and give Sam space to enter the room. You close the door behind him and turn, gasping softly when you find him surprisingly close.

“I’m so sorry, Anna. I never should’ve let Sofia talk to you that way. I should’ve been more insistent that she stop immediately, instead of trying to wait for an opening ”.

Sam reaches out and places his hands over your shoulders. You tense, wanting him to touch you and leave you alone all at once. “Sam…Why didn’t you stop her right away?”. You feel a little betrayed, although the goosepimples rising where his warm hands rest on your skin do nothing to hide your other feelings about him.

“I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the boys…But that’s no excuse. Especially since Sofia ended up doing that anyway” he replied, remorseful.

“She made me feel like I wasn’t even there, Sam”.

“I told her that was completely unacceptable as soon as I finished putting the boys to bed”.

Despite everything, a smile tugs at the corners of your mouth. Of course she didn’t put them to bed, wouldn’t want to break a nail. You try not to be too smug, although the thought of her wrestling them into bed makes it hard not to smile more. “Oh?” you say, trying to sound nonchalant, “Aunt Sofia didn’t want to do it?”.

Sam hesitates. “She…struggles with them. I decided to save us all an hour or two and take over”.

You meet Sam’s gaze, and feel yourself start to thaw a bit. His hands slip away from your shoulders, causing you to shiver as they go.  

“Sam…I forgive you”. You smile softly. “You make it hard to stay mad at you”.

“Good”.

Your expressions sours. “It’s not the same as an apology from her, though. Also, why isn’t Sofia here, talking to me herself? Is she too good to apologize to ‘the help’”. You make speech marks in the air, and Sam winces a little, clearly uncomfortable at you referring to yourself like that.

“I told her to go home. I just…”. He sighs. “I just wanted to enjoy what was left of my birthday. Everything had been so perfect…until she got here”.

You notice how he looks tense, as he rubs his shoulders with a pained expression. “I just got these knots out, and they’re already back”.

Your mind flicks to the massage bar, to the package wrapped up in your bathroom, and you make an instant decision. In the short time you’ve known him, you’ve seen Sam as a thoughtful, kind person who wants to make the world a better place; and someone like Sofia was not going to be anywhere near good enough for him. Or the boys. Aside from that, he was gorgeous; and Jenny was right. You knew how to play the game, and play it you would. “Maybe I can do something about that for you”. You move behind Sam and slip your palms over his shoulders, digging your thumbs into the tense muscles. He groans loudly, and you relish in the sound.

“Ohmygod…That feels…But you’ve already done more than enough, Anna”.

You smile, kneading harder. “Not as far as these knots are concerned”. Sam moans again and you shiver at the noise, resolve hardening with every passing moment. Your lips find his ear, speaking just above a whisper. “Tell me where it hurts”.

“A little higher. Almost – Ohhhh…”.

You dig your thumbs harder into his back, and you feel him melt into your touch. “You should get on the bed” you whisper into his ear boldly. You see Sam swallow, and he looks at you for a long moment before obeying. Your mind wanders, and you can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking. You watch Sam stretch out on the bed, facing away from you, and you smile. “I’ll be five minutes” you promise, “could you take your pants off?”. You slip into your ensuite before he could ask questions.

A little more than five minutes later and you emerge, Sam still facing away from you.

“You know” he muses, hearing the ensuite door open, “I think you’re one of the only people who’ve kept me waiting and I’m not…”. His voice trails off as he turns to look at you, and he swallows hard. “Anna…”.

You blush at the way he stares at you, but you stand firm. Slowly you move over to the bed, the white silk dressing gown you’re wearing not doing anything to hide the lacy, red bra and matching thong you’d changed into, nothing else covering you. You’d chosen the deep red to compliment your skin, and you looked killer, if you did say so yourself. Then again, by the look on Sam’s face, you didn’t need to tell yourself that he liked what he saw. “Would you like a massage, Mr Dalton?” you purred, licking your lower lip as you approached the edge of the bed, slipping the silken gown off painfully slowly.

“I…You-“

“Shhh” you whisper, smiling softly. You reach over to the massage bar and straddle his back, a warm wave of pleasure rippling through you as your bare skin touches his, pleasantly surprised that he’d obeyed, and was now only wearing his boxers (the shirt also discarded on the floor). You rub the bar over your hands, making them slick with the sweet-smelling oil, before you splay them on his shoulders. Sam groans immediately, and you bite your lip, mapping every contour of his toned back and shoulders; admiring the tanned skin on show.

“You feel…That feels…” he mutters, shifting and squirming under your touch as you move your hands lower, daring to slip beneath the material of his boxers, toying with his hips and butt. Sam inhales sharply, and you note his toes and fingers curling. “Ohhh…Christ, Anna…What are you doing to me”.

You shiver, the way his voice aches your name making a pool of excitement rise up within you. “Good things, I hope” you replied, bending down. Your breasts press against his back as you whisper in his ear. “Sam, I…” you couldn’t say anything else, as his lips caught your own in a passionate kiss. All thoughts of what you were going to say drifted away and you allow yourself to be pulled down, the room spinning as he flips you over; now looking down at you with hungry eyes. The way you watch them rake over your body makes you giddy, and you shift beneath him. “No fair” you mutter, placing your hands flat against his chest. “I wasn’t done”. You push back and Sam lets you, laughing a little as you settle on-top of him again, facing him this time.

“You look incredible” he muttered, daring to slide his hands over your body. “Is this part of my birthday gift?”. His voice is husky with want, his hands toying with your bra.

“It is” you reply, sliding down his front. “Now, let me show you how else I can work my hands”.

Sam inhales sharply and swears under his breath as you rub the front of his boxers, delighted at his obvious excitement. Slowly you pull them down, your face now next to his hips, and you gasp softly, feeling that desire building up in your core again as you looked upon him. “Why, Mr Dalton” you muttered, gently taking him in your hand, “you kept this quiet, didn’t you?”. You watch gleefully as he opened his mouth to respond, only for his reply to melt into a guttural groan, your hand now pumping his cock, thumb swiping over the head where a bead of pre-cum had appeared.

“Don’t stop” he pleads, “that feels so good…Don’t stop…”.

His voice and his words spur you on, your own anticipation building and building. You bend your head and lick the tip of his cock, a sudden gasp from Sam all the permission you need to take him into your mouth. You bob up and down, moaning around his girth, your mouth full and dripping with saliva and precum, dribbling down your chin. Unable to take it anymore, you slip a free hand underneath the lacy material of your thong, and you run gentle circles over your clit; moaning harder.

“Anna, I-I can’t-!” Sam groans, his hips bucking into your mouth. You moan louder, preparing for his release, when you suddenly find yourself being flipped over. You gasp as his fingers find your soaking core, and he starts to rub, desperately, making you squirm and cry out. “Sam!” you beg, melting under his ministrations. Your cries were smothered by a desperate, passionate kiss and you eagerly returned it, your tongue swiping over his as he positioned himself over you, all the while moving his fingers in just the right way to make you putty in his hands.

His eyes, dark and foggy with lust, found yours and you nod in answer to the silent question. You wrap your arms around his back, clinging onto him desperately as he slips inside you, groaning loudly as he pushes in, slowly, savouring it.

“Ohhhh God….Sam, please” you beg now, bucking your hips in time with his as he thrusts in and out of you, again and again, hitting that sweet spot oh so deep inside. You’ve never felt anything like it, stars already blinding your vision but still riding the high; building over and over. “Please…!”.

“I’m not…I don’t” he says, voice strained, shaking his head.

“It’s okay!” you promise desperately, tugging him close and being forever grateful that Jenny had talked you into getting an IUD. “You can trust me, I swear just – Don’t stop. It’s okay, please. I need you to..! Please, Sam!”.

His resolve wavers and his lips meet yours again in a crashing embrace. “Anna-!” he cries out, finally, pressing himself into you fully as he comes undone, thrusting and groaning as he finishes deep inside of you.

Your own orgasm follows soon after, and you shiver uncontrollably, writhing beneath him as your nails dig into his back, shaking as you desperately cling to eachother, each one of you moving and grinding in sheer bliss

You slowly come down from your high, although you stayed connected for a while, laying together and enjoying the comforting silence and comedown.

“I’m glad these walls are insulated for noise control” Sam mutters, absently mindedly playing with a strand of your hair. “I wouldn’t want you to stay quiet if that’s what’s in store…Your voice is so damn sexy”.

You laugh and slap his chest, before running your hands over the skin. “I take it this means your not mad or…Gunna chuck me out?”.

Sam sits back, stared deeply into your eyes. “I would never” he whispers gently, stroking your cheek. “But what this means I…I don’t know”.

You nod, understanding, and rest your head against him. “Can we just enjoy this?” you ask softly, as you feel his grip tighten around you.

“I would like nothing more” he replied.

You feel a gentle kiss on your head and you sigh, content, slowly drifting off to sleep in his arms.

[thecrownnet]

Emmy Awards 2023: FYC

“Netflix has just updated its FYC campaign site, giving us the full list of titles they’ve submitted and will campaign for in the forthcoming 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.” (whats-on-netflix) Netflix is submitting The Crown season 5 for the following categories.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION 

PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES - IMELDA STAUNTON AS QUEEN ELIZABETH II

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES - DOMINIC WEST AS PRINCE CHARLES

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES - ELIZABETH DEBICKI AS PRINCESS DIANA, and LESLEY MANVILLE AS PRINCESS MARGARET

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES - JONATHAN PRYCE AS PRINCE PHILIP, DUKE OF EDINBURGH, SALIM DAW AS MOHAMED AL FAYED, and JONNY LEE MILLER AS JOHN MAJOR

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES - CLAIRE FOY AS YOUNG QUEEN ELIZABETH II, VANESSA KIRBY AS YOUNG PRINCESS MARGARET, and NATASCHA MCELHONE AS PENNY KNATCHBULL

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES - ALEX JENNINGS AS DUKE OF WINDSOR, TIMOTHY DALTON AS PETER TOWNSEND, PRASANNA PUWANARAJAH AS MARTIN BASHIR, and KHALID ABDALLA  AS DODI FAYED

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES "IPATIEV HOUSE" CHRISTIAN SCHWOCHOW, "GUNPOWDER" ERIK RICHTER STRAND, "MOU MOU" ALEX GABASSI, and "ANNUS HORRIBILIS" MAY EL-TOUKHY

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES  "GUNPOWDER" PETER MORGAN

OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES ROBERT STERNE

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SERIES (ONE HOUR) "NO WOMAN’S LAND" BEN WILSON, and "MOU MOU" ADRIANO GOLDMAN (ASC)

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE) MARTIN PHIPPS

OUTSTANDING MUSIC SUPERVISION SARAH BRIDGE

OUTSTANDING PERIOD COSTUMES AMY ROBERTS, SIDONIE ROBERTS, CHRISTOF ROCHE-GORDON

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES "COUPLE 31" RICHARD GRAHAM, "MOU MOU" DANIEL GREENWAY, "IPATIEV HOUSE" SIMON BRASSE, and "GUNPOWDER" AMY HOUNSELL

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A NARRATIVE PERIOD OR FANTASY PROGRAM (ONE HOUR OR MORE) MARTIN CHILDS, MARK RAGGETT, ALISON HARVEY

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR) "GUNPOWDER" LEE WALPOLE (MPSE), IAIN EYRE, ANDY KENNEDY, SAOIRSE CHRISTOPHERSON, MATTHEW MEWETT, TOM STEWART, ANNA WRIGHT

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR) "MOU MOU" LEE WALPOLE (MPSE), MARTIN JENSEN, STUART HILLIKER (CAS), JAMES HARRIS

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SINGLE EPISODE BEN TURNER, REECE EWING

OUTSTANDING STUNT COORDINATION FOR A DRAMA SERIES, LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE ANDY BENNETT

*The Crown has received 63 Emmy Nominations and won 21 times for the past four seasons. Claire Foy won twice for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series - 2018, and Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series - 2021. The show won Outstanding Drama Series - 2021.

** June 15 - 26 Nominations-round voting

*** July 12 Nominations announced.

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

i love a longish fic where kurt and blaine are already dating and it’s set in high school. i don’t mind what story line, i’m just craving some established relationship in highschool please and thank you !!!!

Here are some that follow canon or adapt it, when they are based at McKinley, or together at Dalton. Try McKInley or Dalton!Klaine tabs also. ~JEn

The Architects of Life by misqueue

Follows the development of Kurt and Blaine’s relationship in the canon timeline from 3x05 “The First Time”.

~~~~~

Shiftings  by @chazzam  

The shift in their relationship didn’t come out of left field at all. Beneath the surface, things had been changing all along.  This fic describes what changed in Kurt ant Blaine’s relationship to make him realize that his feelings for Kurt were more than just friendship.  

~~~~~

Fade Into You by Lady Callista

Nine moments between Kurt and Blaine showing all the love, trust, and just plain adorableness that they’re known for. From before their first kiss until after their first time, enjoy these moments that somehow got misplaced or were just not appropriate for television.

~~~~~~

A Caution to the Birds (Blaine Big Bang)by xsaturated

“You didn’t transfer schools for a better education or a change of scenery, Blaine,” his father reminds him, not unkindly. “We sent you to Dalton so you would be safe.” Or the one where Blaine’s junior year at Dalton means a boyfriend who is now his competition, a family who are only ever predictable when it suits them, a transfer student with a penchant for stirring things up, meddling Warblers and the realization that the safe option may not always be the best one. A season three!AU.

~~~~

Start of season two onwards, so a build up to 2X16.

99 perspectives on a single love story by @spaceorphan18

The Story of Kurt and Blaine told through the eyes of everyone else but them. Each chapter is a different perspective in the ongoing tale of their love story.

~~~~~

Not already dating, but get together quickly:

Go Your Own Wayby zavocado

Kurt Hummel just wants to get through his Junior Year at McKinley in one piece. But when the new guy from Dalton Academy Reform School for Boys takes an alarming interest in him, he’s certain he’s going to be in for a wild ride. Badboy!Blaine, Klaine

~~~~~

[mysticalhearth]

K

The King and I - Brazil - 2010 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Tuca Andrada (Rei), Cláudia Netto (Anna Leonowens), Luciana Bueno (Lady Thiang), Bianca Tadini (Tumptim) The King and I - North Shore Music Theatre - September-October, 2011 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Kate Fisher (Anna Leonowens), Lorenzo Lamas (King of Siam), Lisa Yuen (Lady Thiang), Manna Nichols (Tuptim), Joshua Dela Cruz (Lun Tha), Ron Wisniski (Sir Edward Ramsey) NOTES: Proshot. Performed in the round, one camera on a tripod and sound patched in from the soundboard. The King and I - West End Revival - November 29, 2018 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Kelli O’Hara (Anna Leonowens), Ken Watanabe (King of Siam), Ruthie Ann Miles (Lady Thiang), Na-Young Jeon (Tuptim), Dean John-Wilson (Lun Tha), Edward Baker-Duly (Sir Edward Ramsey), Jon Chew (Prince Chulalongkorn), Edward Baker-Duly (Captain Orton), Billy Marlow (Louis Leonowens), Takao Osawa (Kralahome), William Michael Lee (Phra Alack) NOTES: Ruthie uses a walking stick throughout to aid her recovery from a previous car accident and loss of her two children. She gives an amazing performance. King Kong - Broadway - August 10, 2019 FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Christiani Pitts (Ann Darrow), Eric William Morris (Carl Denham), Erik Lochtefeld (Lumpy) NOTES: The full show, recorded from the rear orchestra on a phone. Most of the video is the August 10th recording but occasionally some promotional footage and the February 9th video are edited in to provide other views. The recording starts off with a lot of wandering, shakiness, and washout but gets better somewhat better as it goes on. Still not as good as an actual video filmed with a camera, but it exists. 1920x1080p, 4.29 GB. King Kong - Broadway - October, 2018 (Preview) (House-Cam's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (SD) CAST: Christiani Pitts (Ann Darrow), Eric William Morris (Carl Denham), Erik Lochtefeld (Lumpy), Harley Jay (Barman), Rory Donovan (Captain Engelhorn/Chief of Police), Jon Hoche (Voice of Kong) NOTES: Full stage shot with clear audio direct from soundboard. Kinky Boots - Broadway - March 15, 2013 (Preview) (Lanelle's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Stark Sands (Charlie Price), Billy Porter (Lola), Annaleigh Ashford (Lauren), Celina Carvajal (Nicola), Daniel Stewart Sherman (Don), Marcus Neville (George), Jonah Halperin (s/b Young Charlie), Marquise Neal (Young Lola) NOTES: Fun show with a pertinent (but not obtrusive) message, Billy Porter is just amazing. This is somewhat more obstructed than other shows because the person in front was leaning forward and moving a lot, so there's a head in some of the scenes. Some shakiness and wandering in between, particularly at the beginning, but otherwise a good video with nice closeups. Complete show including curtain call. A- Kinky Boots - Broadway - July 17, 2018 (NYCG8R's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: David Cook (Charlie Price), Stephane Duret (s/b Lola), Carrie St Louis (Lauren), Caroline Bowman (Nicola), Daniel Stewart Sherman (Don), Marcus Neville (George), Corey Mach (Harry), Eugene Barry-Hill (Simon Sr.), Stephen Berger (Mr. Price), Adinah Alexander (Milan Stage Manager), Cooper Lantz (Young Charlie), Jesús Del Orden (Young Lola) NOTES: Quite a few latecomers that walk in front but nothing too distracting; otherwise very well filmed HD video with clear picture and sound throughout; great video A Kinky Boots - Broadway - May-August, 2017 FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Brendon Urie (Charlie Price), J Harrison Ghee (Lola), Taylor Louderman (Lauren) NOTES: Starts at Sex is in the Heel Kinky Boots - First National Tour - April 17, 2016 (SJ Bernly's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Adam Kaplan (Charlie Price), J Harrison Ghee (Lola), Tiffany Engen (Lauren), Charissa Hogeland (Nicola), Aaron Walpole (Don), Jim J Bullock (George), Josh Tolle (Harry), Shawna M Hamic (Trish), Horace V Rogers (Simon Sr.), Tom Souhrada (Mr. Price), Zach Adkins (Richard Bailey), Patty Lohr (Pat), Annie Edgerton (Milan Stage Manager), Aidan Passaro (Young Charlie), Jomil Elijah Robinson (Young Lola) Kinky Boots - Netherlands Tour - October 27, 2019 FORMAT:  MOV (HD) CAST: Jonathan Demoor (Charlie Price), Naidjim Severina (Lola), Vajèn van den Bosch (Lauren), Linda Verstraten (Nicola), Dennis Willekens (Don), Paul Donkers (George), Jeroen Phaff (Mr. Price) Kinky Boots - Pre-Broadway/Chicago - November 4, 2012 (Closing Night) (SunsetBlvd79's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Stark Sands (Charlie Price), Billy Porter (Lola), Annaleigh Ashford (Lauren), Celina Carvajal (Nicola), Daniel Stewart Sherman (Don), Marcus Neville (George), Andy Kelso (Harry), Jennifer Perry (Trish), Tory Ross (Pat) NOTES: Another beautiful HD capture of the last performance in Chicago before Broadway, where it would go on to win the 2013 Tony. This performance has many changes from the other Chicago Dvd of the first performance. Includes the new song written towards the end of the Chicago run and many line changes. Also includes curtain speech by Stark! A+   Kinky Boots - UK Tour - December 26, 2018 (Matinee) (shoeroom's master) FORMAT:  MOV (HD) CAST: Joshua St Clair (u/s Charlie Price), Kayi Ushe (Lola), Paula Lane (Lauren), Helen Ternent (Nicola), Demitri Lampra (Don), Adam Price (George), Daniel Conway (u/s Harry), Niki Evans (Trish), Fred Smiley (Simon Sr.), Andy Watkins (Mr. Price), George Grayson (u/s Richard Bailey), Lizzie Bea (Pat), Mary Fox (Maggie), Shaun Dalton (Hooch), Alfie Parker (Mutt), Portia Harry (Gemma Louise), Scarlet Gabriel (Milan Stage Manager), John Dempsey (Referee), Connor Collins (Angel #1), Toyan Thomas-Brown (Angel #2), John Dempsey (Angel #3), Chileshé Mondelle (Angel #4), Joshua Lovell (Angel #5), Damon Gould (Angel #6) Kinky Boots - UK Tour - September, 2018 (hitmewithyourbethshot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Joel Harper-Jackson (Charlie Price), Callum Francis (Lola), Paula Lane (Lauren), Helen Ternent (Nicola), Demitri Lampra (Don), Adam Price (George), Joshua St Clair (Harry), Niki Evans (Trish), Fred Smiley (Simon Sr.), Andy Watkins (Mr. Price), Daniel Conway (Richard Bailey), Lizzie Bea (Pat), Scarlet Gabriel (Milan Stage Manager), Connor Collins (Angel #1), John Dempsey (Angel #2), Damon Gould (Angel #3), Joshua Lovell (Angel #4), Chileshé Mondelle (Angel #5), Toyan Thomas-Brown (Angel #6) Kinky Boots - West End - November 27, 2018 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Killian Donnelly (Charlie Price), Matt Henry (Lola), Natalie McQueen (Lauren), Cordelia Farnworth (Nicola), Sean Needham (Don), Antony Reed (George), Jordan Fox (Harry), Anna Stolli (Trish), Robert Grose (Simon Sr.), Graham Kent (Mr. Price), Jonathan Carlton (Richard Bailey), Rosie Glossop (Pat), Emma Odell (Milan Stage Manager), Charlie Underhill (Young Charlie), Temba Mliswa (Young Lola), Jak Allen-Anderson (Angel #1), Jed Berry (Angel #2), Louis Clarke-Clare (Angel #3), Daniel Downing (Angel #4), Jemal Felix (Angel #5), Jon Reynolds (Angel #6), Abbey Addams, Ben Jennings, Ben Larcombe, Christopher Parkinson, David Haydn, Fred Wilcox, Hannah Price, Jude Muir, Kayleb Rene-gray, Keith Higham, Momar Diagne, Olivia Winterflood, Rio Lewis, Robert Jones, Samson Wakayu, Suzie McAdam, Tom Scanlon NOTES: Pro-shot. Filmed live on stage at the Adelphi Theatre (London, England) and distributed commercially. Kiss Me, Kate - British Television Production - April 21, 1964 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Patricia Morison (Lilli Vanessi / Katharine), Howard Keel (Fred Graham / Petruchio), Isabelle Lucas (Hattie), Millicent Martin (Lois Lane / Bianca), Irving Davies (Bill Calhoun / Lucentio), Eric Barker (Harrison Howell), Danny Green (Gangster / First Man), Bill Owen (Gangster / Second Man) NOTES: This version was rewritten and abbreviated to fit within its 95-minute time slot. A little on the dark side, in black and white with a slight blue tinge, has producer’s counter numbers hard-coded on the screen in the upper third. This version of the show was produced for the launch of a new station in the UK. After months of preparing the launch of the new television station—with it’s brand-new 625 line resolution (until then UK TV’s had a resolution of 405 lines)—the night turned out to be a disaster. 50 minutes before the launch, a fire broke out at a local power station, cutting power to most of London but not the television station. They started the evening’s news show which was to be followed by this broadcast, but it soon became clear that there was no audience, and after a few minutes, the schedule was abandoned. The production was instead shown the next day. The date that’s superimposed on the video is April 20, 1964—the originally scheduled night. It is unclear if this is a fi Kiss Me, Kate - Third Broadway Revival - March, 2019 (NYCG8R's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Kelli O’Hara (Lilli Vanessi / Katharine), Will Chase (Fred Graham / Petruchio), Adrienne Walker (Hattie), James T Lane (Paul), Stephanie Styles (Lois Lane / Bianca), Corbin Bleu (Bill Calhoun / Lucentio), Mel Johnson Jr (Harry Trevor / Baptista), Terence Archie (Harrison Howell), John Pankow (Gangster / First Man), Lance Coadie Williams (Gangster / Second Man) Kruimeltje de musical - The Netherlands - 2012 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Joes Brauers (Kruimeltje)

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

✰ BEST OF THE BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2019 ✰        

It’s that time again: let’s feast from 2019′s Grapevine That Is Never Pruned with 21 (+ approximately 277 more) of the BEST OF THE BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2019!    ✰ 7th ANNIVERSARY ✰ 

<All long playing vinyl records unless otherwise noted...& many cassettes>

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ TOP 21 ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

✰ TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT  Sub-Language Trustees  (ever/never) ✰

✰ SAMANTHA RIOTT  Bloodletting download (self-released)

✰ PAULA GARCIA STONE  Undercurrent  cd (Linear Obsessional, UK) 

✰ POSSIBLE HUMANS  Everybody Split (Trouble In Mind)

✰ WILLIAM HENRY MEUNG cassette FMerror (chemical imbalance., Australia)

✰ LEILA BORDREUIL  Headflush  (Catch Wave Ltd)

✰ LEIGHTON CRAIG Diamond Eye (Bruit Direct Disques, France) 

✰ KNITTED ABYSS   Bad Lassies (Paradise Daily, Australia)

✰ WEAK SIGNAL  LP1  (Mag Mag)

✰ TOM OF ENGLAND  Sex Monk Blues (L.I.E.S.)

✰ DRY CLEANING  Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks & Sweet Princess LP (It’s OK, UK)

✰ 75 DOLLAR BILL  I Was Real  double LP (Thin Wrist Recordings) 

✰ DARK BLUE Victory Is Rated (12XU)

✰ KALI MALONE  The Sacrificial Code 3 cd (iDEAL Recordings, Sweden)

✰ SHABAZZ MYSTIK Chant D’Lâme (Off, Belgium)

✰ LONG HOTS Give And Take 7” (Third Man)

✰ AMIRTHA KIDAMBI & LEA BERTUCCI  Phase Eclipse cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ CHRIS BROKAW  End Of The Night (VDSQ)

✰ SPIRAL WAVE NOMADS Spiral Wave Nomads (Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube)

✰ HAMA Houmeissa (Sahel Sounds)

✰ YL HOOI  Untitled  cassette (Altered States Tapes, Australia)

JEANINES Jeanines (Slumberland)

ARTEFACTOS DE DOLOR  La Niña double LP (Pain Artifacts)

U-BAHN  U-Bahn  (Future Folklore, France)

MDOU MOCTAR Ilana: The Creator (Sahel Sounds)

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN The Upcoming Flame (bruit direct disques, France) 

TYSHAWN SOREY & MARILYN CRISPELL  The Adornment Of Time cd (Pi Recordings)

ALE HOP Apophenia (Buh Records, Peru)

TIM PANARETOS  Submergence cd-r (chemical imbalance., Australia) & Opposites End download (self-released, Australia)

KATE CARR City Of Bridges download (Longform Editions, Australia)

WRITHING SQUARES  Out Of The Ether (Trouble In Mind)

MY NORTH EYE  (My) North Eye (2011) cd-r  (Reverb Worship, France)

PINOCCHIO  Pinocchio ep (Toxic State)

BRIDGET HAYDEN Soil And Song cassette (Synchronise Witches, UK) [comes with Karen Dalton fanzine!]

The COWBOYS The Bottom Of A Rotten Flower  (Feel It Records)

OLUMPUS  Caucus & Surplus downloads (both stabbies, etc., New Zealand)

CHUCK CLEAVER  Send Aid (Shake It!)

JOSÉ DIAS  After Silence, Vol. 1. cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

KNIFE WIFE  Family Party cassette (Sister Polygon)

TRAMPOLINE TEAM  Trampoline Team (HoZac)

KATE CARR  Heatwave cassette (self-released, UK)

SEBASTIEN STH BISET  Islæd cd (Mnóad, Belgium)

PHAROAH CHROMIUM  Eros + Massacre  (Scum Yr Earth, France)

JOSEPH ALLRED Aspirant cassette (Garden Portal Tapes) & O, Meadowlark (Feeding Tube)

ANDREA BORGHI Tistre cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

MOPE GROOVES Desire (See My Friends Records)

JOSHUA ABRAMS & NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY  Mandatory Reality (Eremite)

SOFIE BIRCH  Island Alchemy cassette (Constellation Tatsu) 

VOYAGE DATA  Voyage Data cassette  (Econore, Germany)

JONNY COUCH  Mystery Man  (Damages Sofa)

FISCHERLE  Gmatwacz cassette (Czaszka, UK)

ROCKET 808  Rocket 808 (12XU)

LINDA TRIP  Sad Bangers cassette (Superdreamer) 

MATTHEW J. ROLIN  Matthew J. Rolin (Feeding Tube Records)

STEKKERDOOS  Kalendar cassette (No Rent)

IAN HAWGOOD  光 (Home Normal, Japan)

ÀLEX REVIRIEGO • DISCORDIAN STRING ENSEMBLE  Incerto For Doublebass And Strings download (Discordian, Spain)

JULIA KENT Temporal cd (The Leaf Label, UK)

NAPS  Better To Give cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

TERROR OF THE DEEP  The A-Team cassette (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand)

CLAIRE ROUSAY Friends cassette (Never Anything)

ANNA SUBIRIANA • POL PADRÓS • JOAN ANTONI PICH Brull’s Bet download (Discordian, Spain)

HAKOBUNE  A Fan, Strings, and Two Guitars cassette (Patient Sounds)

LORI GOLDSTON Things Opening (Second Editions, Germany)

The RESONARS  No Exit (Trouble In Mind)

MARCIA BASSETT • MANUEL MOTA • MARGARIDA GARCIA  Here They Rest Immobile (Yew)

URANIUM CLUB The Cosmo Cleaners: The Higher Calling Of Business Provocateurs (Fashionable Idiots/Static Shock, UK)

THE COOL GREENHOUSE  “Crap Cardboard Pet” 7” (Hidden Bay Records, France)

ROB NOYES “You Are Tired”/“Nightmare Study”  7” (Market Square Recordings, UK)

TOM LÖNNQVIST  Häviävän Pieni Osa (Guggenhavn Archive, Sweden)

GOTOBEDS  Debt Begins At 30 (Sub Pop)

GREG KELLEY/ROB NOYES  Greg Kelley/Rob Noyes split cassette (self-released)

DEAD SEA APES  The Free Territory  double LP (Feeding Tube Records) 

DRAGGS  Draggs cassette (Slime Street, Australia) 

SPRAY PAINT Into The Country (12XU)

SPF Paul’s McCartney 

2 CHEVRONS No Rules In Outta Space cassette (Albert’s Basement, Australia)

DARK TEA Dark Tea (Fire Talk)

TERRINE  Live At Home cassette (Econore, Germany)

The SNAKES  The Snakes (Anti Fade, Australia)

LIVE SKULL  Saturday Night Massacre  (Bronson Recordings, Italy)

ELKHORN  Sun Cycle/Elk Jam 2 LP (Feeding Tube)

MESSRS  Messrs 12” (Heel Turn Records)

VIRGINIA PLAIN  Strange Game (All Hands Electric)

JEN KUTLER  Dismbodied (EyeVee)

MOR AIR  Life Behind Glass cassette (Genot Centre, Czech Republic)

CIA DEBUTANTE  The Landlord (Siltbreeze)

JOSÉ DIAS  After Silence, Volume 1 cd (Celan Feed, Portugal)

LAURA LUNA CASTILLO  Folksonomies cassette (Cudighi Records)

THE GIRL IN TIMES NEW VIKING  The Girl In Times New Viking (The Fah-Q Catalog)

43 ODES  43 Odes cassette (Eiderdown)

OOF Vanity Plate cassette & EGO cassette  (both Fuzzy Warbles cassettes)

ORGUE AGNÈS A Une Gorge (three:four, Switzerland; Standard In-Fi - 2018)

MICHAEL MORLEY Heavens Idleness Awaits 2 LP (Thin Wrist Recordings)

CHRISTINA KUBISCH  Schall Und Klang cd (Fragment Factory, Germany)

HUNTED CREATURES Sleep Weed cassette (White Reeves Productions)

UNITED WATERS  Coma To Coma (Drawing Room Records)

JULIUS MENARD  Hr  cassette (Econore, Germany)

GEE TEE Chromo-Zone download (self/released, Australia)

AARON RUSSELL  Coral Music cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

9TH HOUSE  Planetary EP 12” (Hot Haus, UK) 

SCAN  Scan 7” ep (Drugfront)

The HECKS  My Star  (Trouble In Mind)

ALINA PETROVA & KIRA WEINSTEIN  Sad Ko cassette (Never Anything)

HIEROPHANTS  Spitting Out Moonlight (Anti Fade, Australia) 

NOTS  3  (Goner)

P WITS The Desire and Pursuit of The Whole cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

GOLDEN PELICANS Grinding For Gruel (12XU)

TOPDOWN DIALECTIC  Vol. 2 (Peak Oil)

M. SAGE  Catch A Blessing (Geographic North)

ECHO OHS  Wild Weeds 12” (1:12 Records, New Zealand)

CIVIC  Selling, Sucking, Blackmail Bribes 7"  (Total Punk)

WENDY EISENBERG & SHANE PARRISH  Nervous Systems (Verses) 

KNEELING IN PISS  Tour De Force cassette (The Fah-Q Catalog)

s.soo Tyman download (New York Haunted, Netherlands)    

WSCHÓD  Wschód cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

PREENING Gang Laughter (Digital Regress) 

CLARICE JENSEN  Drone Studies  cassette (Geographic North)

MARBLED EYE  Beat Sessions, Vol. 8 cassette (Shout Recordings)

STEVE MOORE  Steve Moore 12” (L.I.E.S)

The SELVA  Canícula Rosa cd (Clean Feed, Australia)

PROGRAM Show Me 12” (Anti Fade, Australia)

SLUMB PARTY Spending Money (Drunken Sailor, UK)

EUN-JUNG KIM & CHARLIE COLLINS  Shining Days cd (Linear Obsessional, UK)

NEON  Neon 12” (Square One Again)

CUCINA POVERA Zoom (Night School, Scotland)

PAULA SHOCRON & PABLO DÍAZ with GUILLERMO GREGORIO Díalogos cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

MY NORTH EYE / LE GOÛT ACIDE DES CONSERVATOURS  MNE • L / G / A / D / C split cassette ([Equilibre Fragile], France)

The WOOLEN MEN Human To Human (Dog’s Table)

PIERCE WARNECKE & LOUIS LAURAIN  

Phonotypic Plasticity cassette (Astral Spirits)

BIG QUIET Interesting Times (Unblinking Ear)

SEAN ALI • LEILA BORDREUIL • JOANNA MATTREY I Used to Sing So Lyrical cassette (Astral Spirits)

POWDER  Powder In Space cd (Beats In Space)

MUKQS Jaki Crush cassette (No Rent)

DENNIS GONZALEZ & DEREK ROGERS Certain Aspects cd (Marginal Frequency) 

PONT-À-MOUSSON Bye Bye Mirello! cassette (ABrecords, France)

AKI  ONDA  A Method To Its Messiness (Thalamos, Greece)

ALEXANDER  Untitled cassette (Garden Portal)

BRANDY  “Clown Pain”/“Rent Quest” 7” (Total Punk)

MAJOR STARS  Roots Of Confusion, Seeds Of Joy  (Drag City)

LORI GOLDSTON & JUDITH HAMANN Alloys cd (Marginal Frequency) 

PAINT THINNER The Sea Of Pulp (ŌBLĒK)

JEANS BEAST  Unearthly Gardens Of The New Gods cd-r (Econore, Germany) & Attrition cassette (self-releases, Germany)

SKULL PRACTITIONERS  Skull Practitioners 12” (In The Red)

UROCHROMES  Trope House (Wharf Cat)

LIVINGDOG & MIKE JOHNSON CRO$$ cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

HEADROOM  New Heaven 12” (ever/never)

JEFF HENDERSON  The Charming Clarinet download (III Records, NewZealand)

GRAHAM DUNNING & EDWARD LUCAS End Of A Cable cassette (tsss tapes, Italy)

VILDE CHAYE Demos cassette (Brainplan)

Heavy Space Records - Anthology Volumes I & II cassettes (Ikuisuus, Finland)

KYLE EYRE CLYD Eggshell cd (Yew)

NEUTRALS  Kebab Disco (Emotional Response)

FREDDIE DOUGGIE Freddie Douggie: Live on Juneteenth cassette (International Anthem)

AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ • WILLIAM PARKER • SUSIE IBARRA  One Night At The Joan Miró Foundation cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

HUGO MASSIEN  Dance Trax Vol. 21 (Unknown To The Unknown) 

RRILL BELL Vagabond Laws cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

GAMARDAH FUNGUS  Natural Storm cd (Hidden Vibes, Ukraine)

WAYNE ROGERS  The Air Below (Twisted Village)

UNKNOWN SENDER Unknown Sender  (Colonel Records) 

BLUES LAWYER  Something Different (Mt.St.Mtn) 

DURA  Reverberation Hymns cassette (Garden Portal)

JODIE LOWTHER  The Cat Collects download (self-released)

WOLKOROTS Dan Manialogism cassette (Magma Tones, Finland)  

CEREAL KILLER  The Beginning And End Of Cereal Killer (Anti Fade, Australia)

COLIN WEBSTER/MARK HOLUB Nadir (Raw Tonk, UK)

The CAVEMEN  Lowlife 7” EP (Slovenly) 

FRANCISCA GRIFFIN  The Spaces Between cd (CocoMuse, New Zealand)

ANDY HUMAN & THE REPTOIDS  “Psychic Sidekick” 7” (Total Punk)

SEI A Mode Static 12” (Aus Music, U.K.)

JOHN SAINT PELVYN  Improvisation 7.7.18 download (Southern Jukebox Music) 

REBEL SCUM The Descent cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia - 2018) 

S. ARAW TRIO XIII Activated Clown cassette (NNA Tapes)

FERRAN FAGES & VASCO TRILLA  Gestell cd (Raw Tonk, UK)

HUA LUN  Wanderlænd + 2 cassette (Katuktu Collective)

VIRVON VARVON  Mind Cancer cassette (Girlsville)

PHILIPP OTTERBACH  The Rest Is Bliss (Knekelhuis, Netherlands)

EDITRIX Talk To Me download (self-released)

PAVLOV’S PUSS  Comfort Food  (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand) 

NATHALIE STERN  Nerves And Skin cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

AKI TAKASE  Hokusai  cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

MOORDDROOM  Deep VR Edits bandcamp DL (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

EXEK Some Beautiful Species Left (Digital Regress)

CLAIRE BIRCHALL  “Dead Air” bandcamp DL (it, Australia)

JUDY & The JERKS  Bone Spur cassette (Earth Girl) & Music For Donuts ep  (Thrilling Living) 

POWER STEERING  Power Steering cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)  

RASMUS TIETCHENS  HOBOTPAHC cd-r (New York Haunted, Netherlands) 

UTINUTIN  Black Cat, Anyeurism, And Simian Politics download (no label)

GUY BIRKIN  Yemen Data Project cassette (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

LINUS VANDEWOLKEN  Het Vlier Een Hommel Op Aarde 10”x 2 (Okraïna, Belgium)

JOHN CHANTLER  Tomorrow Is Too Late  (Room40, Australia)

JENNIFER VANILLA  J.E.N.N.I.F.E.R. EP 12” (Beats In Space)

WOW  Come La Notte  (Maple Death, Italy)

KATE MOHANTY  Disappear Here  cassette (Friendship Tapes) 

ASTRO SOCIAL CLUB & GRUMBLING FUR  Plasma Splice Trifle (vhf)

SANR  Kesif cd (Flaming Pines, UK)

ANDREW TASSELMYER & PATRICK SPATZ  Interior Currents cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

AHMEDOU AHMED LOWLA Terrouzi cassette (Sahel Sounds)

SKRU  Count Zero cassette (Bedouin, UAE)

PUGILIST Blue 06 12” (Whities, UK)

ULAAN  KHOL  Collapsing Hymns cassette (Worstward) 

L.$.D. FUNDRAISER  No Peace Without Tranquility (no label, New Zealand)  

COCHONNE  Cochonne (self released)

LE POUFS À CORDES Le Poufs À Cordes cd (Pagans, France)

FRET!  A Vanity Spawned By Fear cassette (Cruel Nature, UK) 

UNWAR  Other People cd-r (Magma Tones, Finland)

WOJCIECH RUSIN  The Funnel (Akashic, Scotland)

SLEEPER AND SNAKE Junction And High (Aarght, Australia)

The OILIES Psychic Dog (Fruits & Flowers)

ELI KESZLER Empire 12” (Shelter Press, France)

HAIDER 10961 12” (Aus Music, UK)

FOSTER CARE El Abuso (Total Punk)

TORN HAWK Time Is A Scam 2x 12” (L.I.E.S.)

The LICE Nancy Spungen download (self-released)

DJ XNX  ATX  (Get Busy!, Russia)

SHITTY LIFE Vinyls Discography (Lo-Fo Lo-Life, Germany)

GONG GONG GONG  幽靈節奏 = Phantom Rhythm (Wharf Cat)

SARAH LOUISE  Nighttime Birds And. Opening Stars (Thrill Jockey)

MYRIAM BLEAU Lumens & Profits (Where To Now?, UK)

TV DUST  Forget (MyOwnPrivateRecords / Occult Gang, Italy)

PRIMORJE Reference Path  cassette (Thalamos, Greece)

JUNE CHIKUMA Ler Archives LP + 7” (Freedom To Spend)

dMyanche  Ergonomie cassette (Indian Redhead, France)

EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH Live (Sophomore Lounge)

VIV CORRINGHAM  Until I Learn The Language Of Mineral Vegetable  cassette (Linear Obsessional, UK)

JACOB WICK feel (Thin Wrist)

AMATEUR HOUR Framtiden Tillhör Inte Oss (Happiest Place, Sweden)

The FICTIVE FIVE  Anything Is Possible cd (Clean Feed, Portugal) 

DANKETSU 9  Towards A Walk In The Sun cd (Patient Sounds (intl))

IVAN THE TOLERABLE  Rations 2LP (Stolen Body, UK)

DANA  Glowing Auras And Black Money (Heel Turn)

NATE YOUNG  Volume 3: Dance Of The Weeping Babe 12” (Lower Floor)

SHOLTO DOBIE & MARK HARWOOD  The Blue Horse  cd (Penultimate Press, UK)

HEAVY METAL 4  (Statik Age Music, Germany)

WET TUNA  Water Weird (Three Lobed Recordings)

CARRAGEENAN Invisible Design cassette (Czaszka, UK)

PRIVATE ANARCHY  Central Planning  (Round Bale Recordings)  

HIDEO NAKASAKO  Texture Of Days cassette (Muzan Editions, Japan)

PRANA CRAFTER  Bodhi Cheetah’s Choice (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

PATRICK SHIROISHI & NOEL MEEK  Break Your Eyes cassette (Sploosh)

ANDY HUMAN & The REPTOIDS  Psychic Sidekick (Total Punk)

SLAG QUEENS  You Can’t Go Out Like That (Rough Skies Records, Australia)

ALIAS G Natural Love 12” (Unknown To The Unknown, UK)

NIVHEK  After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards The House cd (W.25th)

GARCIA PEOPLES Natural Facts (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

MARCO SERRATO/FRANCESCO COVARINO Bestemmia cd (Raw Tonk, UK)

HOUSEWIVES Twilight Splendour  (Blank Editions, UK)

CLOUDWATCHERS  Cloudwatchers cd (Unexplained Sounds Group, Italy)

CATHERINE LAMB Shade/Gradient  (Black Pollen Press -2018) 

UNITED BIBLE STUDIES  Porti Sepolti cassette (Sloow Tapes, Belgium)

ÚJ BÁLA Diacritical Marks And Angels cassette (Baba Vanga, Czech Republic)

STRENGTH N.I.A.  Do Televisions, Frankie Moore ritual cassette (Stength N.I.A., UK)

DAVID LIPTAK David Lipton: Dove Songs [Tony Arnold, soprano/Allison D’Amato, piano] cd

ANNĒE ZĒRO  La Coolitude (Indian Redhead, France)

MELENAS “Ya Me No Importa Si Tú Quieres”/“Si Tú Me Quieres” 7” (El Nebula Recordings, Spain)

WHIRLING HALL OF KNIVES  Knukke cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

PROTRUDERS  Poison Future (Feel It)

MOTHER JUNO  Commit cassette (popnihil)

LEFT HAND CUTS OFF THE RIGHT Purge cassette (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK)

CLAIRE ROUSAY  t4t  cassette (No Rent)

IQ+1  Conversaphone Plus (mappa, Slovenia)

BENOÎT PIOULARD & SEAN CURTIS PATRICK Avocationals (Bacon Sound) 

DELPHINE DORA  Dunkles Zu Sagen (self-released)

SOOT  Pockmarked With...Soot!  cassette (Eternal Soundcheck, Australia) 

DAN MELCHIOR BAND Negative Freedom (In The Red)

TÔLE FROIDE  Tôle Froide (Le Turc Mecanique, France - 2018)

AHMED AG KAEDY  Alkaline Kidal  (Sahel Sounds)

DUNNING & UNDERWOOD The Blow Vol. 5 cassette (Front & Follow, UK)

TAKAHIRO MUKAI Super Annoying cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

ANTONIO  High Voltage! cassette (Altered States Tapes, Australia) 

CUBE Decoy (W.25th)

The PLAINS  The Plains cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

KA BAIRD  Respires (Rvng Intl.) 

GINO & The GOONS  Do The Get Around (Drunken Sailor, UK)

VIVIEN LE FAY  Ecolalia  (Boring Machines, Italy)

DUKE  Uingizaji Hewa  (Nyege Nyege Tapes, Uganda)

ARIAN SHAFIEE  Arabic Voice cassette (unifactor)

MOUNT TROUT  Shelter Belt  cassette (Rough Skies, Australia)

OCEAN FLOOR  Vernalis cassette (Eiderdown)

CURRENT AFFAIRS “Buckle Up”/“World In Crisis” 7” (dotx3, Germany)

AARON SNOW  Instrumentals  ‘15-‘19  cassette (Surf Shop)

MELKINGS  Movement Music cassette (Regional Bears, UK)

DECIMUS  DECIMUS 6 (self-released)

SYLVIE COURVOISIER and MARK FELDMAN  Time Gone Out cd (Intakt, Switzerland) 

DANIEL HOLT Daniel Holt 12” (L.I.E.S.)

BEAT DETECTIVES  NYPD Records Volume 3: Nefertiti Abstract Movie cassette (NYPD Records)

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN & FRIENDS Unknown Fortune (C/Site)

DIRE WOLVES  Grow Towards The Light (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

FAMOUS LOGS IN HISTORY  Memories Of the Space Age cassette (Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes)

HAND & LEG Lust In Peace (Black Gladiator)

DEE DEE & The FUZZ COFFINS Three Golden Hits cassette (Earth Girl Tapes)

RAZORLEGS  Skip Skool cassette (Fadensonnen)

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2017

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2016

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2015

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIWS IN 2014

BEST REASON TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2013

Neil Morris, speaking to Alan Lomax in 1959:

“Well, when I was just a small boy, Old Uncle Milt Oldfield…Billy Oldfield, the Congressman from Arkansas for so long, it is his father. He and my father are awfully close friends. And they were discussing music. They were music teachers both of them.

“And uh, and they said, dad did and Uncle Milt sanctioned what he said, that MUSIC HAD NO END. That you could learn all the other guy [or girl] learned, and after you got that done they would then, something else would crop up. That uh, that you, that was the reason why that uh, music advanced. That’s why that you would get a better music in one generation maybe that is, uh, IT WOULD FIT THE TIMES IN WHICH THEY LIVED.”

[Lomax: “What about music on the grapevine?”]

“Welllll, they said that MUSIC GREW LIKE THE GRAPEVINE THAT IS NEVER PRUNED. That each year it’d…it’d put on a little bit more. That was what they said, now, about it. Any further questions?”’

[losille2000]

(via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0EnpbnkPuDglMJ7nc3jC4x?si=m9XAKvyjRA63VQbs_IAhNA)

This is the Mister America “soundtrack.” It has some general songs about America, but each state has at least 1 song related to it. 

For a full tracklist and to see which songs go to what state, see below the cut.

Songs about America:

“The Star Spangled Banner” National Anthem (F. Scott Key/Whitney Houston)

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (Traditional/United States Army Band and Chorus)

“America the Beautiful” (Ray Charles)

“Captain America March” (Hollywood Movie Theme Orchestra)

“Star Spangled Man” (The Star Spangled Singers/Captain America)

“Captain America” (Alan Silvestri) 

“American Patrol” (Glenn Miller/United States Air Force Band)

“The Stars and Stripes Forever” (John Philip Sousa/United States Marine Band)

“America” (Neil Diamond)

“Born in the U.S.A” (Bruce Springsteen)

“Hail to the Chief” (James Sanderson, composer/US Marine Band)

State Songs:

Alabama - “Sweet Home Alabama” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Alaska - “North to Alaska” (Johnny Horton)

Alaska - “The Alaska Song” (Lacy J. Dalton)

Arizona - “Take It Easy” (Eagles)

Arkansas - “Arkansas Traveler” (Harry Glenshaw)

Arkansas - “Arkansas Farmboy” (Glen Campbell)

California - “California Love” (2Pac, Roger, Dr. Dre)

California - “California Girls” (Beach Boys)

Colorado - “Rocky Mountain High” (John Denver)

Connecticut - “Yankee Doodle” (Traditional)

Connecticut - “Connecticut’s For Fucking” (Jesus H Christ and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse)

Delaware - “Delaware Slide” (George Thorogood & the Destroyers)

Delaware - “Delaware” (Perry Como)

Florida - “The Florida Song” (Ricky Sylvia)

Florida - “Miami” (Will Smith)

Georgia - “Midnight Train to Georgia” (Gladys Knight & the Pips)

Georgia - “Georgia on My Mind” (Michael Buble)

Hawaii - “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride” (from Lilo and Stitch)

Hawaii - “Ke Kali Nei Au/Hawaiian Wedding Song” (Makaha Sons & Friends)

Hawaii - “Over the Rainbow” (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole)

Hawaii - “What a Wonderful World” (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole)

Idaho - “Idaho” (Benny Goodman)

Illinois - “Sweet Home Chicago” (The Blues Brothers)

Indiana - “Going Back to Indiana” (The Jackson 5)

Iowa - “Iowa Stubborn” (from The Music Man)

Kansas - “Home on the Range” (Gene Autry)

Kentucky - “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys)

Louisiana - “Born on the Bayou” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

Louisiana - “House of the Rising Sun” (The Animals)

Maine - “Portland, Maine” (Tim McGraw)

Maryland - “Good Morning Baltimore” (from Hairspray)

Massachusetts - “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” (Dropkick Murphys)

Massachusetts - “The Devil Came Up to Boston” (Adam Ezra Group)

Michigan - “Detroit Rock City” (KISS)

Minnesota - “Rock n Roll is Alive! (And It Lives In Minneapolis” (Prince)

Mississippi - “Mississippi Queen” (Mountain)

Missouri - “Missouri Waltz” (Glenn Miller)

Montana - “Montana Lullaby” (Ken Overcast)

Nebraska - “Omaha” (Counting Crows)

Nevada - “Waking Up In Vegas” (Katy Perry)

Nevada - “Viva Las Vegas” (Elvis Presley)

New Hampshire - “New Hampshire” (Town Meeting)

New Jersey - “Jersey Girl” (Bruce Springsteen)

New Mexico - “Santa Fe” (from RENT)

New Mexico - “Taos, New Mexico” (Waylon Jennings)

New York - “Theme from New York, New York” (Frank Sinatra)

New York - “New York State of Mind” (Billy Joel)

North Carolina - “Wagon Wheel” (Old Crow Medicine Show)

North Dakota - “North Dakota” (Lyle Lovett)

Ohio - “Ohio” (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

Oklahoma - “Oklahoma!” (from Oklahoma!)

Oklahoma - “Oklahoma Sky” (Miranda Lambert)

Oregon - “Eugene Oregon” (Dolly Parton)

Pennsylvania - “Allentown” (Billy Joel)

Rhode Island - “Rhode Island is Famous for You” (Blossom Dearie)

South Carolina - “Just A Little Bit South of North Carolina” (Dean Martin)

South Carolina - “Hickory Wind” (The Byrds)

South Dakota - “South Dakota Morning” (Bee Gees)

South Dakota - “Big Foot” (Johnny Cash)

Tennessee- “Tennessee Whiskey” (Chris Stapleton)

Texas  - “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (Traditional/Mitch Miller)

Texas - “All my Ex’s Live In Texas” (George Strait)

Texas - “La Grange” (ZZ Top)

Utah - “Utah” (The Osmonds)

Vermont - “Moonlight in Vermont” (Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstong)

Virgina - “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” (from Hamilton)

Washington - “Come As You Are” (Nirvana)

West Virginia - “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (John Denver)

Wisconsin - “Green Bay, Wisconsin” (The Might Mighty Bosstones)

Wyoming - “Wyoming Wind” (Caitlin Canty)

Wyoming - “Cheyenne” (Cale Moon)

[jlf23tumble]

Whelp, it's the first full day of the time change, I'm drunk, Louis’s gone full sbb with tonight’s shirt, Robbie's just gone, Simon’s coming down from last night’s coke binge, and Lilo’s coming for my ass, so let's just cut to the chase on episode 20, shall we??? I’ll stop tagging poor @newleafover​ and@justlarried every single week because they're, like, YEAH, OKAY, JEN, WE FUCKING GET IT, lmao, but for everyone else who isn’t watching, come tell me why you aren’t because I’m baffled. If you love Louis, this is like a mainline drug hit straight to your heart; if you hate Simon, this is like a mainline drug hit straight to your heart. Simon’s a parody of his former self (he literally copies everything Louis does at this point, only terribly), and Louis literally owns this show, so do you have some sort of hatred for Dermot (if so, fuck off/do NOT interact)? I mean, look at this minx:

If you’re busy, I get it, but if not, educate me (privately or on anon) because I'm curious. I can’t track Simon’s decline linearly from previous years (he’s as irrelevant to me then as he is now), but here in front of us all, exhibiting the “duality of palpable envy and fake closeness” as @horsegirlharry​ puts it, the entire spectacle is FASCINATING, especially if you love Louis. Anyway, tonight is mostly filler, but just like leftover Halloween candy, we can keep on snacking until the next holiday, so shall we?

The sound was shitty last night for two (2) people (who, I might add, weren’t all that great regardless), so the fake judging was held off until tonight, which means we have to watch all of these performances AGAIN, and I’m drunk and I love you, so that’s a no from me.

Nile Rodgers is here for Robbie, and Simon stands up when he’s introduced to pretend that he isn’t a racist, but as usual, his read on the rest of the room is wrong, so it’s just as pathetic as anything else he normally does (I’d say take a sip every time he looks to Louis for guidance, but you’d be trashed at the 20-minute mark, so you’re welcome).

GOD, I hate Jimmy A so much, and me as both Louis’s facial tics when he has to applaud him (which, huh, line up exactly with how he looks when Simon calls him his buddy) and Dermot when he does this awkward side grab instead of his normal hug (Dermot’s like the cat who hisses at shitty people):

Liam is introduced as the X Factor’s very own, and really? REALLY? Because wow, he’s so much more than that, but I’m in the crowd screaming so loudly for Liam that it only serves to make Jimmy A’s performance seem extra stupid (tl/dr, he kills it):

If I were a giffer, I’d capture Dermot’s flirty leg kick as he says hello to Liam’s team, while Liam waves first to Louis and then to Nile, and godddd, I would kill a man to know what these three talked about in Ihbeetha. Somewhat related: I like learning that Dermot’s fave is Dalton (same), but come on Liam, Brendan??? Whut.

Time for the ridiculously fake final judging, and me as Dermot saying good luck to everyone while looking directly at Louis’s team. Even the editors make it clear for stupid people, I mean, choose your mentor:

FOR FUCKING ONCE, both Ayda and Louis’s teams are safe, so they share a ~moment that I can’t properly convey in full but that warmed my cold, dead heart to its very core:

And apparently, there is a god, so the shitty boy band is immediately out, woo hoo! My highlight is Dermot saying, “Guys, it is so, so difficult to come in to this show and get together as a group and try and gel in the time you've had,” and meanwhile all of us been knew that the biggest band in history actually did it, but let’s cut to Louis’s reaction when one of them says that it’s not the end for them (spoiler: it is):

(Weird sidebar: I have a furby that went fucking NUTS and started chattering away this week on Halloween but then again tonight when United 5/Vibe got kicked off…the spirits really do communicate with us!)

The final sing off is Acacia and Aaliyah vs. Molly, which, why? I get Molly, but A&A only get stronger week by week, and yet Danny’s still hanging on?? God, is this show racist. Anyway, I love that Louis’s the only one tracking A&A while they work the entire room, and how Dermot telegraphs Molly’s impending loss by introducing her with a somber, “Singing in what could be for the final time on the X Factor,” yep, WE GOT IT.

To nobody’s surprise (if they can track an edit), Molly’s out, and Simon tries to pretend that he’s Louis by taking responsibility for her shitty song choices (as he should because he IS responsible), but it’s very flat and insincere…her ouster is the only time that he’s actually physically near her (he never attended rehearsals, compared with comrade Louis’s who seemingly tirelessly canvased the rest of the house). In the flattest monotone, Simon announces, “I demahnd a recount,” and Dermot says, “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” as he tries to flood Molly with the physical reassurances she needs via hugs (Simon tries to chat with her in the background like Louis did with Armstrong a few weeks back, but no, it’s so off, fail):

Oof, what a predictable letdown, all in all (I need more Lilo content, goddammit), so until next week! Clink clink, bitches!