#the picture is not from that show its from a show in minneapolis so i like it. ok anyways | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jimmyflemion · 4 months ago

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Well Done

Well, 4 everyone paying attention,

we’ve served up :

Rare

Medium-Rare

Medium

Medium-Well

& 2day

07/07/2024

Well-Done

U learn. U practice. U rehearse.

U get dressed up. U take the stage.

U play your best. U give it your all.

U bow. U thank . U reflect. U put your best heart forward. The new album “Well-Done” has been released from its cage 2day. Its sounds can be relished on Sunshiny Spotify, Tittilating I Tunes, Angelic Amazon Music, Dynamite Deezer & all the other pleasing, pleasant, dignified, digitalized world leaders in sonic excellence. & as always my heartfelt thanx & love goes out 2 my brother Dennis 2day.

Love,

Jimmy

Hell Patrol - 2000-12-08 North Star Bar, Philadelphia PA

Dennis & I drove down 2 The Smashing Pumpkins rehearsal space in June of 1999 where they were either rehearsing or recording. In their work area on a desk were 2 sheets of paper. They were projected song titles 4 songs being pitched 2 b in 2 different motion pictures for Billy Corgan 2 write. When Billy was asked about these ideas, he stated wasn’t interested in the idea or projects. Dennis said 2 Billy, Jimmy will write those songs. The next day after coming home on June 15, 1999, I wrote “Eat Me Alive” & “Hell Patrol”. The demo version on “Damaged Goods/Sinned In Reverse” is myself on acoustic guitar with distortion & this 1 live features the whole band IC (in control) & Double OC (out of control).

Written by Jimmy Flemion 06/15/1999

Negro On Fire - 2001-01-20 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis MN

3rd time attempted was a charm playing & scoring 2 a warm 7th Street crowd basking in a wonderful winter wonderland weather wind chill of minus 7.

Written by Dennis Flemion 11/06/2000

Enter I - 2001-03-30 The Five Spot, Philadelphia PA

This show was moved 2 a different venue at the last minute. It was a nightclub with velvet-lined booths & beaded curtains on the top floor of a building. There was an R&B dance party after the show & every one needed 2 exit quickly. The building burned down a few years later. The white van broke down 4 good on the way 2 this show. As the van was being towed away, I said 2 the van in Bob Uecker’s words, “Goodbye old friend”. Original demo was written as a slow ballad. Thinking of songs 4 inclusion on “Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise”, Dennis liked the song but knew we could use another rocker & suggested we sped it up uptempo. Speed it up we did & 2 & a half weeks before the album’s release we debuted the sped up stylized version at 7th Street Entry. 3 days prior 2 this show on 03/27/2001 we played The Skinny in Portland, Maine. We met Bebe Buelle who attended the show & I believe that is what influenced Dennis introduction at this show 2, “Send this out 2 Liv Tyler’s lips”.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 06/26/1990

Going To California - 2001-04-05 40 Watt Club, Athens GA

Closing time at the club, we had been given the 2 minute warning by the club, 2 minutes more 2 play as it was curfew. I dropped my Univox 2 D tuning, Brian “Beezer” Hill, followed suit & we did a 1 time, 1 night only version of “Going To California”. Growing up, I’m gonna put it out there but I did worship Led Zeppelin. To the point where I bought $40 bootleg albums recorded in the back row where I had to crank the stereo to 10 to hear anything & Dennis would awaken in the morning 2 1 of these & tell me 2 turn it off. Loved Jimmy Page’s guitar playing, thought it was just so advanced, couldn’t figure out how the hell does he play like that. Dennis would try & help me by recording & playing back “Heartbreaker” at half speed 4 me to decipher. When I lived in Austin, Texas I was at HEB, the local grocery store & I was walking in & I said 2 myself is that him, & I could tell 1 guy outside had the same thought & I didn’t say hi, I guess I was awestruck but it was, u guess ed it or u didn’t, Robert Plant. I remember Kevn Kinney ( a Milwaukee native) from The Prosecutors & Drivin’ & Cryin’ was at this show & afterwards went on about how great “Going To California” was. Was nice of him 2 say.

Written by Jimmy Page & Robert Plant

Enjoy - 2001-09-28 The Knitting Factory, New York NY

Brian “Beezer” Hill was 2 play bass 4 this show but his flight was cancelled post 9/11. Ben Lee filled in on bass as we ran over some songs at his apartment before the show. This is the last song of the evening I play solo on acoustic. Unbeknownst to the audience Dennis was chatting with Ben Lee offstage, backstage behind the curtain during the song & then stops talking 2 Ben long enough with his microphone 2 add his backing harmonies.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 09/05/1995

La, Da, Da, Da, La, Da, Da, Dee, La, Da, Da, Dum, Dum - 2001-09-29 Middle East, Cambridge.

Josh Silverman was recruited on bass 4 this show at Johnny Busher’s urging & ended up adding a 2nd acoustic guitar on this song, a rare occurrence. Josh had thought he had failed the audition but was asked to join on bass 4 future shows. An enthusiastic crowd member Britany, requested this song, the only time performed live & was given a close up seat smack dab right next 2 me on stage.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 04/04/1987

She Loves You - 2001-11-09 Khyber Pass, Philadelphia PA

The sound man shut off the sound system & ended the show early because he had better things 2 do. He had thought Dennis had insulted him earlier in the show, when he was really talking 2 me. A girl yells out, “I love u”, a guy then responds, “She loves u”, prompting Dennis 2 get the, “She Loves You” train rolling.

Written by John Winston Ono Lennon & James Paul McCartney

Copyright Capitol Cmg Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Songtrust Ave, Sony / ATV Music Publishing LLC, Tunecore Inc.

Whisper - 2001-11-29 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis MN

Just so happens Britney Spears was just a whisper away, performing down the street this night. I begin playing the opening riff before throwing in some funk flavored rhythms & mention 2 Dennis, it’s like he’s playing with Ike Turner which prompts later in the set a cover of “Proud Mary”, which in turn prompts a drunk Billie Jean King doppelgänger 2 take off her top & take the Tina Turner vocal, which prompted me 2 take the Ike Turner backing vocal.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 12/30/1996

New York Shitty - 2002-01-12 Bowery Ballroom, New York NY

Headlining gig with The Moldy Peaches opening & The Strokes in attendance in the balcony. 2nd show after 9/11 so Dennis sings his rewritten, reworked lyrics & poetry 2 suit the song, the city & the aftermath.

Written by Dennis Flemion 06/06/1999

Come With Me - 2002-01-24 Southgate House, Newport KY

Only show ever in Newport KY, an 1866 church turned over 2 rock music, good lord. Part of the ending, u will recognize as “Come W/ Me ll”from “Damaged Goods / Sinned In Reverse” where Dennis moves over from drums 2 keyboards.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 09/02/1999

(ASCAP)

I’ve Got Drugs - 2002-01-31 Echo Lounge, Atlanta GA

4 the live version we added the exciting instrumental passage walk down chord progression that resurfaces on “Love Me Anymore ll” off of “Damaged Goods/ Sinned In Reverse”.

Written by Dennis Flemion & Jimmy Flemion 08/16/1986

Devil Blues - 2002-04-13 Cactus Club, Milwaukee WI

Previously, the night before we opened 4 zany Zwan in chic Chicago. This night the crowd was denied an encore unknowingly courtesy of a noise complaint.

This is the version that would have possibly been the version on “Damaged Goods / Sinned In Reverse” unless we could have matched the electricity by giving it a shot recording in Dennis’ home basement.

Written by Dennis Flemion 01/01/2001

The Rubble & The Priest - 2002-12-20 Knitting Factory, New York NY

Festive NYC Christmas show & as luck would have it I was sporting a rare full beard, full on. Enthusiastic clapping from start to finish inspiring an inspired performance.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 11/03/1991

Fuck Off - 2003-05-14 Launchpad, Albuquerque NM

The only show in old or New Mexico. The finger picking version.

Written in a state of confusion, sadness & loneliness, opting 2 take the low road in song 2 heal the heart.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 02/04/1986

Homos - 2003-05-16 Knitting Factory, Los Angeles CA

A rare welcoming rendering with Dennis providing keyboard theatrics 4 punctuation & exclamation!

Written by Jimmy Flemion 08/16/1986

Where’s Jerry Lewis? -2003-11-13 Village Tavern, Mount Pleasant SC

Unexpectedly successful & heavily attended show in a Charleston suburb. A non-descriptive sports bar ill-fitted 4 a rock show with no stage. A moving keyboard deluxe rendition guaranteed 4 u & friends alike 2 get the search party out 4 Jerry Lewis.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 08/16/1986

A Holy Story - 2004-01-29 Blind Pig, Ann Arbor MI

Good but sparsely attended show because of a snowstorm that blew in. A drunken fan in the room provided much amusement & banter with Dennis. Some confused college students walked out in disgust at the start of this track. Legendary club where Nirvana & Pearl Jam cut their teeth in their early days. Autobiographical tale composed under composure by yours truly, evoking feelings of love, guilt, shame & regret with the sincere vocal melody continuously attempting 2 climb out of the quicksand all the time captured with a look of a Milwaukee buck in headlights.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 02/20/1989

Follow The Yellow Brick Road - 2004-03-06 Gabe's Oasis, Iowa City IA

Ginormous gathering. Johnny Busher’s last show on bass.

Instrumental “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” follows “Follow The Yellow Brick Road”.

Written by Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg

Magical - 2004-05-22 Lime Spider, Akron OH

C Major/ A minor / F Major/ G Major, the majestic, magnetic, 50’s chord progression that will send u through the roof catapulting u into another world. A magical song slated 4, “Damaged Goods / Sinned In Reverse” that only Dennis could conceive, create, imagine, prescribe, deliver & gift. As a former megalomaniac, my favorite line from the audience during the breakdown is, “Best band ever”.

Written by Dennis Flemion 03/05/2004

Stargirl - 2006-04-22 Cactus Club, Milwaukee WI

The buildup, the strumming, the drumming, the dynamics, drama fills the air, & here it is the final Milwaukee, Wisconsin hometown song ever performed by The Frogs.

Written by Jimmy Flemion 09/27/1994

Bass Players :

Brian “Beezer” Hill

Tracks : (01-04)

Josh Silverman

Tracks (07-15)

Additional Acoustic Guitar

Track (06)

Johnny Busher

Tracks (16, 19)

Jay Tiller

Track (20)

Remixed by Johnny Busher with assistance from Kelly Kerr

#jimmyflemion #dennisflemion #thefrogs #welldone #spotify

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ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive · 2 years ago

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from ‘Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ by Kim Cooper, 2005

transcript:

On May 3, they played in Minneapolis at the Seventh Street Entry, finally giving Jason Norvein Wachtelhausen a chance to see the band that had wormed its way into his and his friends’ consciousness. Jason lived in a loft with a bunch of people, one of whom had “Song Against Sex” on a mix tape. They became collectively obsessed withthe song, and would play it like a sort of theme song whenever they were going out. Someone finally bought On Avery Island and they loved that, too. Jason remembers, “we spent so much time talking about those guys and wondering about them. Like, what could some guys who could create music like this—this real and untouched by pretension and seemingly unaffected by any desire to succeed as musicians—be like? And we sort of formed this image of the band and all kind of agreed on what they must look like. We’d never seen a picture of them. It all sounds so much like something teenage girls would have done in the fifties and sixties now that I look back on it. I mean, I’m a black guy covered in tattoos and, all stereotypes aside, it’s even hard for me to imagine myself sitting around with my friends fantasizing about what some dudes in a rock group look like.” When Jason, who ended up being the only member of his Neutral Milk Hotel fan club to attend, got down to the gig, he saw some scruffy looking characters hanging around outside and thought, “‘Wow, if this band has even made these dirty fuckers get their shit together enough to come see the show, they are really reaching out to the masses.’ And then it turned out that the dirty fuckers were the band. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. These guys were so far from what we had imagined the band would be like and that just made them like five hundred times cooler.”

#Neutral Milk Hotel #Jeff Mangum #Julian Koster #Jeremy Barnes #Scott Spillane #quotes #1997 #Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea #Kim Cooper #2005

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xltribe · 3 months ago

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XL's Featured Tribesmen Of The Week Courtland Pickens 1. What are your biggest fashion obstacles? Finding clothes that fit. I don't consider myself big & tall, I'm just big! So I always have to find myself buying clothes, then taking them to my tailor. 2. Where are you from and what are biggest fashion trends in your city? I'm from Minneapolis, MN. There really aren't big trends here. If I had to choice, I'd say scarfs since its so cold here. 3. Tell us about your biggest fashion nightmare and if it came true do explain. (attach a picture if you can) Biggest fashion nightmare: I call it getting dressed in the dark! Years ago when I had to be at work by 6 am (I'm not a morning person) let's just say what I thought was black was navy blue!!! I didn't notice until I got to my class, of course, my students let me know while laughing! 4. What are some of your biggest style inspirations? Color blocking, mixing patterns. I love trying new things. 5.Where do you see yourself in five years and what do you see yourself doing? Well, I'm a singer, so my music career taking off, all while being a notable iconic big guy with amazing style! 6.What do you feel is missing in fashion for the men of size? Variety, more fashion forward stores! www.courtlandpickens.com Courtland Pickens On Facebook, YouTube, Instagram & Twitter We are look for plus size men with style who want to show it off. Every week Im looking to feature a new guy. If you think thats you click on the link below and submit your pictures a little bit about yourself. http://xltribe.com/featured-tribes-men/

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alexanderoftirragen · 1 year ago

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today has been so good 🥰💕🎶 didnt do much birding with my friend, instead we caught up which was really nice… we have been texting a lot and i dont really like to text so i was happy to get to talk to her face to face! then i had my first volunteer shift, which was a shadow shift with an experienced volunteer, and i had such a great time! the other volunteer was pretty young, i would guess late 20s, and super friendly + we had a lot in common so in between greeting visitors i had such a pleasant time chatting with her :) it was also really fun to greet the visitors; the wildflower garden is such a special place and people experience it in so many different ways but always with a lot of joy… one visitor was showing his friend all the places he had grown up in after being away from minneapolis for a long time, and this was his first time back the garden since he was a kid—he was so delighted by all of the changes! and its showy ladys slipper peak bloom so it was sweet they got to see that. afterward the other volunteer and i walked to and through the quaking bog, then we split and i walked home. as i was walking home i was taking pictures of whats blooming in the little prairie planting and a runner went past and said “taking pictures for the seek app?” 😂 i was not but i did say “you got me!” lol. then i got home and showered + washed my hair and it started raining and now im sitting on my porch smoking a little bit with lunch :)

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cyarskj1899 · 2 years ago

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Documentary

Boys in Blue: a high school football team grapples with race, police and violence

Andrew Lawrence

@by_drewSat 7 Jan 2023 02.11 EST

When George Floyd was unlawfully killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, the moment hit home with Peter Berg. Before the 58-year-old New Yorker turned Angeleno was a distinguished film-maker, Berg was a theater major at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota. He had long had fond memories of that late-80s heyday – back when the Twin Cities were famous for compassion, low crime rates and artistic revolution.

It was a special time. “Purple Rain had just come out,” Berg recalls. “There was a famous nightclub in Minneapolis called First Avenue. We would go there twice a week and see Prince, the Time or Alexander O’Neal. There was this diverse musical phenomenon happening when I was there, and my memories are of people getting along really well – Black, white, Hispanic, Vietnamese. It was very disorienting to see George Floyd brutally killed in a place I remember so differently.”

Keen to understand why and how the Twin Cities community changed, Berg found himself looking for answers in sports, a comfort zone he’s made his own like few in Hollywood – turning high school football bestseller Friday Night Lights into a mammoth on-screen franchise, producing and acting in the HBO dramedy Ballers and launching ESPN’s 30 for 30 docuseries with a look back on the NHL trade that sent hockey great Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles. When Berg read a New York Times article about a Minneapolis high school set in the shadow where Floyd was killed that had a football team coached by cops, he knew that was where he had to be. “I sensed that there was something unique and special going on in the community.”

Under his Film 45 production company label, he marshaled a film crew to spend the 2021 season embedding at Minneapolis North. Unsurprisingly, the school community – with its hard scars from neighborhood and police violence – was suspicious of the cameras at first. Bit by bit, Berg & crew had to win them over. “We spoke to Black and white police officers coaching at the high school, spoke to the families, spoke to the kids and said, ‘Look, our goal was to go in there and observe what is happening and try and create a little bit of separation from the binary opinions that are surrounding these issues.’ We have no idea how it’s going to end.’”

The result is Boys in Blue, a four-part series that debuts this week on Showtime in the US. And at first glance, it’s tough not to miss the visual and tonal echoes to Netflix’s Last Chance U. But where that docuseries homes in on the fallen football stars seeking redemption in junior college and the week-to-week prospects of their team, Boys in Blue’s focus is much broader. It not only places those personal stories within the context of a crime-addled city at the center of the defund movement, the individual characters are vastly more textured.

The players are virtually babies, the core contributors just high school sophomores – forced to grow up too fast; the most tender moments are the ones when they can just be kids. The coaches wear two uniforms, and the professional one makes some kids fundamentally uncomfortable. While the Twin Cities’ liberal white protesters grapple with police in the streets and call for their abolition, Minneapolis North players fret for their coaches’ safety and job security on the sideline. If a ballot measure that proposes to replace the police with a more nuanced public safety department passes, Minneapolis North’s coaches would be forced to find new jobs that might not offer the same flexibility for football.

Anchoring the series is the relationship between offensive coordinator Rick Plunkett and quarterback Deshaun Hill Jr – one, a Minneapolis beat cop; the other, an incredibly police-dubious 15-year-old who’s lost loved ones to violence of all stripes. It’s a layer of complexity beyond the typical play designer-triggerman dynamic, and it makes their journey to develop trust in each other that much more compelling. But once Hill discovers that Adams isn’t that much different from him, a neighborhood kid who went into policing to actually serve and protect, Hill comes around. And once they’re on the same page, Minneapolis North rounds into a scoring juggernaut with a real chance at playing in a state championship in the home stadium of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings before college scouts.

Boys in Blue could easily have tipped into Dick Wolf-grade copaganda. But by maintaining focus on the complete story and withholding judgment all the while, Berg paints the fullest picture of the defund debate yet‚ one that makes it nearly impossible not to have empathy for all sides – even the white assistant coach who grudgingly winds up at the center of his viral video moment with a Black bus rider. “It’s certainly not our goal to tell people what to think,” Berg says. “I don’t believe there are sides in this particular story. There is just what there is.”

But the biggest gut punch comes in episode 4, when Hill is killed by random gunfire while leaving school on an icy February day. The documentary was in the midst of its final shooting week. The night before Berg’s crew had filmed him out on a date with his girlfriend, dreaming about their futures, debating whether to kiss on camera. His teammates and coaches knew it was Hill the moment they saw a shot of the walking boot on his left foot, the byproduct of late-season injury.

The man charged with Hill’s killing – ruled second-degree murder – is expected to go on trial this month. “It obviously traumatized us involved in making the show and re-traumatized people in the community,” says Berg, choking up. “George Floyd was the inciting incident for us coming down there. And then here we are, nine months later, having a memorial for Deshaun in the same auditorium where George Floyd’s memorial was.

“I’ve made scripted films about Navy Seals, police officers and rig workers who have died. I’ve met with their families and gone through the process of trying to respectfully tell their stories. But I’ve never been through anything like this.”

Hill was such a loss – a reticently sweet soul, an honor roll student and NFL aspirant who was just starting to draw recruiting attention from major colleges. Without him, Berg wrestled with how to complete the series. Ultimately, he wound up screening rough cuts for members of the Minnesota North community before delivering a final product to Showtime. It’s an ending Berg never could have imagined – harsh and yet deeply poignant. “There’s no playbook for processing the grief that comes when a 15-year-old boy who hasn’t even begun to hit the prime of his life is just brutally murdered in a nonsensical manner,” Berg says. “I told the crew, ‘It’s gonna take a lot of time, it’s gonna hurt and those emotions had to be honored.’

“But for anyone who’s open to taking a look at the doc, it’s also beautiful to see Deshaun Hill in all of his glory – laughing, scoring touchdowns, kissing his girlfriend, loving his sisters. It’s one of the odd, unpredictable opportunities that documentary film-making gives you to touch something special.”

Boys in Blue is airing on Showtime in the US with a UK release to be announced

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kaleidoscopeminds · 2 years ago

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Hi! I sent you and molly an ask after the uk leg of the tour asking for your luke outfit rankings. I would like to extend the same invitation now that tour is over. So, top 10 luke fits of the take my hand tour?

omg hello welcome back!!! thank u for thinking of us again and for giving @burstingsunrise and i a fun luke project in a difficult week 🥰 this took me too long and i’m still not entirely happy with it but lets go lets go

a non-definitive ranking of luke’s take my hand tour looks:

before i start i would like to give an honourable mention to what really tops my list, which is the ripped shirt and suit from the first banquet show, the first time i saw luke in the flesh. however as this was technically not part of the tour i have removed him from this discussion.

1. blue suit and tank top (minneapolis)

do i even need to explain myself here. i don’t think i do. its so small on him. yum yum munch bite lick.

2. the beloved suit and vest (too many cities to list. pictured: concord)

the way this became luke’s fav and all of ours too 🥰 i’ll never forget the day he took the jacket off for the first time and i gave myself a headache from simply looking at images of a man and screaming my head off alone in my flat. also look at him here in his jazzy sneakers

3. rainbow crop top and grey trousers (austin)

otherwise known as molly’s luke. i’m calling it a crop top because that’s what it is. how dare he look so cute in this image in his tiny tiny shirt. and then he did this. the trousers were nice too 😌

4. blue patterned top and grey trousers (phoenix)

another very small almost sheer shirt that showed off a lot of his body (we see the theme here we all see it), a companion to austin almost. watch this if you need any more convincing. look how beautiful he is here

5. stripy sweater and purple trousers (plymouth)

a little bit of my own show bias here that this has remained this high up but it has such a hold on me look how slutty and cozy he is 🥺

6. black long sleeve and check trousers (dallas)

such a deceptively demure outfit, but he looked uhhh very nice in it! please see here for added movement. cozy. slutty.

7. red suit (multiple locations. pictured: milan)

this colour on him is stunning stunning and there were so many beautiful pics of it. the white t shirt under this one was also very small.

8. grey suit and gold shirt (berlin)

this might be a bit of a curveball BUT this suit was gorgggg and he looked so very 🥴 after he took the jacket off. pls see here. he also wore this whole ensemble with converse i truly love him so deeply.

9. grey suit pink shirt (new york)

this is purely because its pink i’m sorry. look at him all sweaty tho. his chest. yum.

10. purple suit (london)

my first proper show of the tour and it was so special and he wore his special suit and i got to tell molly about it

#ask #anon #i'm exhausted #the commentary got away from me a bit i'll admit #luke #i would also like to mention the chicago shirt #the little stripy atlanta one with the funny belt #and the tiny tiny padova tank top #amen

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vfdarkness · 3 years ago

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AVFD Script - S2EP03 The Forgotten Man

[[Intro]]

You’re at a bus stop and your bus is late.

Finally, it pulls up, you step aboard, and for a brief moment…

the driver’s facial features - their eyes, nose, mouth are in all the wrong places.

As you stare, their face quickly rearranges itself to appear more normal. More human.

The door closes. There’s no one else in the vehicle.

You need my help.

[[AVFD intro music kicks in]]

This is A Voice From Darkness.

[[AVFD intro music fades out]]

Hello, this is Dr. Malcolm Ryder, parapsychologist, here to help you with all problems paranormal, supernatural, and otherworldly. And we have a wonderful show planned for tonight. There’s two national alerts for the state of Florida - one for the panhandle, and another for the everglades. After we go over these we’ll explore one of the strangest roadside attractions in American history. And of course we’ll finish our show with the phone lines open so you, our listeners, can call-in. But first, let's get to our national alerts

[[National Alerts music starts]]

A sinkhole has appeared in the middle of Kelson Ave in Marianna, Florida. The hole’s depth is currently unknown however twenty feet down, stone carvings of faces appear. The carvings continue for as far down as anyone can tell. Each is unique yet is made to grotesquely express either the emotion of fear or that of delight. A spelunker descended into the hole to gather information about its depth. Two hours into his descent contact was lost and he was pulled out. When he resurfaced he was said to be in a daze. He removed his harness and immediately jumped back into the hole. Please be careful while driving on Kelson, Ave in Marianna, Florida.

Our second national alert is for the Florida Everglades. The Singing has returned to the wetlands. All those in the area are advised to wear hearing protection for at least the next 72 hours or until otherwise instructed. The source of The Singing is unknown but is said to compel all who hear it to walk into the wetlands and be devoured by the creatures there-in. Again, please wear hearing protection if you’re within earshot of the Florida Everglades.

And that’s all we have for national alerts this evening.

[[NA music fades out]]

Next up we have Today In Odd America, where we’ll discuss a manifestation that once haunted every corner of this land. And afterwards we’ll open the phone-lines.

[[Today In Odd America]]

Today in Odd America we find ourselves across the highways of our country. Forty four years ago today marks the last known visit to a roadside attraction commonly called The House of Narcissus. No physical evidence of this place exists. It was never found in the same location twice - yet hundreds of oral testimonies swear to its existence. Tonight I will cobble together disparate accounts from those who claim to have toured the fabled roadside museum. My hope is this will paint you a picture of what the experience was like for those who wound up touring a space dedicated completely to themselves.

“I was driving down Route 8,” Maise Bridges stated to the Columbus Dispatch in 1955. “It was late and dark. No other cars were on the road. Then I saw it - a billboard illuminated by a single dim light that read: Know Thyself, Next Exit. No other words. But next to them, taking up the entirety of the right side was a painted picture - of me. Unmistakably me. Done in a sort of… Norman Rockwell style I suppose. I just… What was I supposed to do? Of course I took the next exit.”

All descriptions of The House of Narcissus begin this way. A strange billboard on a lonely road, mere seconds to decide to take the exit or not. Oddly, there are few confirmed cases of those who saw the billboard and kept driving. It’s impossible to say if that says something overall about human nature or merely the people The House chose to manifest for.

“I was overwhelmed when I first drove up to the house,” Curtis Johnson said to the Louisville Times in 1948. “I’m not ashamed to admit it, but I might have cried a bit. I mean the place was just, just magnificent. Out there, in the middle of this grassy field, in the middle of nowhere there’s this small piece of heaven, you know? I didn’t feel like I was about to tour some cheap-o roadside scam where they show you a mannequin in a five dollar gorilla suit and tell you it’s Bigfoot. I felt like I was home. Of course I rushed right outta my car up to the door. Why wouldn’t I? I was home.”

Descriptions of the museum are typically left vague. Abstract. At least when describing the exterior. Visitors will speak of the joy they felt upon seeing the house. Often they’ll say a sense of nostalgia or homecoming overwhelmed them. However no one was ever able to give a single concrete detail of what The House looked like. How many stories were there? What color was the siding? What the house looks like remains a mystery to this day. But there’s much agreement about its interior. At least in some respects.

“There’re no employees, no turnstyle to go through, nothing like a museum or roadside attraction typically has. You just go in the front door, and you’re suddenly there - in the first room. It’s filled with photographs along the walls. They were all of my family, friends, neighbors, teachers, former classmates, folks from my church, employers, co-workers. People I might have talked to only once in passing. None of these were photos I took or remember anyone else ever taking. None are in any photo album I own,” said Judge Michael Harvester in 1972, when he called into the KIRT radio station of Olympia, Washington.

The Photo Gallery is always the first room visitors find themselves in. Under each photo is a brass plaque, on which a single sentence is etched: the last words said by whomever is touring the house to the person featured in the photograph.

Even this first room can be disarming to a visitor. As Judge Harvester said: “You don’t realize how many people you speak to, thinking you’ll do so again, but then never do. It adds up over a life. It really does. I didn’t look at all the pictures, or read all the plaques. I had to stop after awhile. I saw one in particular… the last words I said to an old neighbor of mine, lived a few houses away from the place I bought right after law school. Me, him, and some of the guys down the block would get together to play poker twice a month. Last thing I said to him, ‘I’ll see you in a few weeks.’ I don’t remember what happened after that. I guess the poker game fell apart. I don’t think either of us moved, I don’t remember us getting into any fights. But I never spoke to him again. And that’s just one example. People like to call that first room the photo gallery, and that makes sense, I guess. But that’s not what it is. It’s a monument. A monument to lost relationships.”

Most visitors to The House expressed regret coming there at all after visiting this first room. Unfortunately, the way they entered disappears after entry - replaced by a wall filled with photographs. Once you enter, The House forces you to continue through the rooms. That is, if you wish to leave.

“The second room was a full scale replica of my childhood home,” said Sara Lopez to the San Diego Tribune in 1966. “All five rooms of our house back on Balboa Avenue. “I went through the cabinets in the kitchen. The dishes… they were identical to ones we had. There were these little hand drawn designs on them. They’re abstract, hard to describe, but the plates in that museum. They matched perfectly how I remembered them. It was impossible.” Most statements regarding the second room share similar amazement at the level of detail on even the most insignificant items - stains on the carpet, entryways scuffed and dirty from children’s shoes. “What really got me about the second room, “Sara Lopez said, “were the smells. The kitchen had this overwhelming odor of garlic and cumin, spices my mother put in everything. The carpet near the entryway smelled like wet dog. Our lab, Daisy, would run through our neighbors sprinkler then come inside, right to that patch of carpet, and roll around. Little things like that, I’d forgotten about completely. Hadn’t thought of in years, but suddenly a million memories came rushing back to me.”

The average visitor reported spending somewhere between four to five hours in The House of Narcissus. There were outliers of course, in both directions. Some, after seeing the photo gallery, ran through the other rooms without lingering. Others claimed to have spent days and only left when they were near dehydration.

There are dozens of other rooms in The House. Too many to go over tonight. But I’ll end by stating what’s in the only obligatory room, the last room. The room with the only way out.

At the very end of a long hallway is a plain wooden door with a small sign above that reads: What if…

Inside is a small movie theatre. There’s a single red cushioned seat in the room with the perfect view of a small screen. To the right of the screen is a door with an exit sign above. The door will not open unless the visitor sits down in the chair and watches, truly watches and listens, to the film that plays in that small theatre.

“On the day of what was supposed to be my wedding I called my best friend - my bridesmaid. I cried and I gave her the awful job of telling my husband-to-be I’d changed my mind,” said Tonya Blanton to the Sante Fe Dispatch in 1958. “I was living in Minneapolis at the time. Born there, was to be married there, figured I’d die there eventually too. I don’t know what overcame me. But I got in my car and drove. Found myself in New Mexico and started a new life. My parents were furious. And I never spoke to the man who was to be my husband ever again. He sent me a letter when I’d settled in Santa Fe. I wasn’t brave enough to open it. But in that last room. In that last room of that awful house - a film played. It showed what my life would have been had I stayed in Minneapolis. I won’t… I won’t say what all I saw. What all I missed out on. All I’ll say is I know I made the wrong choice. I’ve thought about that every single day since visiting that terrible place.”

Tonya Blanton is not a unique case. Chicago journalist Studs Terkel in his book The American Road: An Oral History devoted a chapter to The House of Narcissus. He conducted over twenty interviews with those who'd toured the roadside wonder. When asked if they could change places and live the life they saw in that last room - would they? Every person he interviewed said they would.

The House of Narcissus only existed for some sixty odd years. The last known visit occurred in 1977, outside of Spring Green, Wisconsin. “People say I must’ve burned the place down or something,” Buddy Palmer, the last recognized visitor, said to the Madison Gazette in 1980. “I didn’t, I swear,” he went on, “but if I had some matches and kerosene on me, would I of? Sure thing. No one should ever be forced to watch the movie that plays in that last room. I’ll think of that picture the rest of my life. I’ll know I messed up early on and I’m not living my best, happiest life. You know how hard it is to get out of the bed in the morning with that hanging over you? Sometimes that movie plays in my dreams. I usually gotta call in sick to work the next day when it does. I just can’t stop thinking about it. The rest of the place too… it’s just... Just too much.”

For those of you listening to this while driving alone, rest assured, you’re unlikely to see a billboard with your own face staring back at you and the words: Know Thyself, Next Exit. But in the rare chance such an event occurs, please consider my advice: don’t take that exit. Just keep driving. There are some truths about ourselves perhaps better left unexplored.

And now back to our main show.

[[TIOA music fades out]]

ACT II

RYDER

And we're back and we already have a caller on the line. Why don't you tell us your name and the nature of your supernatural problem.

RENE

Hello, Malcolm. I was wondering if we'd ever get the chance to speak again.

RYDER

(uncertain)

I don't recognize your voice. Have you called into the show before?

RENE

A few times, yes. And we met once or twice in person.

A beat.

RYDER

Who is this?

RENE

My name is Rene Dupont. And though I've explained this to you before, I will kindly do so again. I exist with a peculiar condition. People can rarely retain memories of me. Not in any form. As this conversation gets to a certain point, I'll begin to vanish from your mind as well as most of your listeners. If you try to write down anything about me during this call, you'll likely only produce gibberish or the vaguest of details.

RYDER

I've read case studies of similar situations. There was a man in Utah-

RENE

(interrupts)

Yes, yes.

Nathaniel Cotwell who lived in a small town that couldn't create new memories of him past the age of eight. And so as an adult they'd still treat him as if he were a young boy. You studied him and Sarah Pullman of Butte, Montana who went missing one night in the woods. When she found her way home again, her family had completely forgotten her.

A beat.

RENE

The few times we've spoken, you've wished to demonstrate knowledge of people who've existed with Memory-related ailments and those are your two most common examples.

RYDER

It seems we have spoken before. Mr. Dupont-

RENE

Please, call me Rene. No need for formalities. We're old acquaintances after all.

RYDER

Yes. Of course. And why have you called into the show tonight, Rene?

RENE

There's been a man following me. Repeatedly.

A beat.

RYDER

(realizing what he means)

And of course that's a difficult task to accomplish, as it's so hard to remember you.

RENE

You're correct. I am Anonymity Incarnate. But there's a man in a grey suit who seems to have found my scent. A further detail about him: he's missing one of his fingers. I'll let you guess which.

RYDER

Why is The Traveling Salesman after you?

RENE

I called you in search of an answer to that very question.

RYDER

In all likelihood he wishes to strike a deal with you. That's why he seeks anyone out. That, or to kill them.

RENE

Let's assume the former for the moment: what sort of deal would he want to make with me?

RYDER

I have no idea. Perhaps he needs information from someone. But he doesn't want this person to know they've given their secrets up. I imagine with your talent that's something you'd be good at.

RENE

Before the wall was destroyed in '89 I was employed on both sides doing something akin to what you just suggested.

A beat.

RYDER

Then that might be what he wants. Or perhaps something more... metaphysical.

RENE

Such as?

RYDER

Your ability to be forgotten. Julian already has some power over memory, but not that.

RENE

Could he really take that from me?

RYDER

Not take. Trade. The Salesman doesn't steal, Rene, but his deals are often one-sided, exploitive, as he'll neglect to tell you pertent information before you agree.

RENE

So he wouldn't really be taking something from me so much as he'd be giving me the gift of being able to be remembered.

A beat.

RYDER

That's a dangerous way of viewing such a deal.

RENE

Dangerous for you, perhaps, but of great advantage to me.

RYDER

It would be dangerous for the whole country for The Traveling Salesman to be easily forgotten. One of the few weapons we have against him are the memories of devastation he's brought about by the deals he's made. The only reason anyone ever turns him down is because his reputation precedes him. Take that away-

RENE

(interrupts)

I have the means and resources to go to many other countries. Julian Holloway can have this one.

RYDER

You'd potentially sacrifice hundreds of millions of people to-

RENE

(interrupts)

To be remembered. And yes, I would. This "talent" of mine came to me when I was young. For most my life I've been unable to have a meaningful relationship with another human being.

To even have an extended conversation. What's my name?

RYDER

Rene...

Malcolm searches his mind for the surname.

RYDER

Rene Dupont.

RENE

You're close to forgetting already, Malcolm Ryder.

A beat.

RENE

If I made a deal with your friend for him to take this power away, you'd never even know.

RYDER

The Traveling Salesman is not my friend.

RENE

If your former friend might help me where no one else could before, including yourself, then I would take him up on his offer.

RYDER

That is if he even wants to help you. He could be searching for you, as I already said, to kill you.

RENE

And why would that be his objective?

RYDER

There are limitations to his power. I don't fully know what they are, but I know they exist.

RENE

Again I ask, why would this necessitate him wanting me dead?

RYDER

Because you possess power in one of his realms - Memory and Dream. And if you have more power than he does, and if he can't use you, or your power, towards his own ends, he'll want you dead. You're a liability otherwise.

A beat.

RENE

You're bluffing. Trying to stoke fear in me so I stay away from him. So I can't make a deal. If what you said was true, your friend Charlotte Price would be dead.

RYDER

Charlotte has found ways to take care of herself. She's forged alliances with things even Julian fears. Have you done the same?

A beat.

RENE

What you're telling me is that I need leverage before I allow Julian Holloway to try and offer a deal to me.

RYDER

That's not what I'm saying at all. Under no circumstances should you attempt to make any deal with him.

RENE

That's not what I took away from this conversation. Thank you so much, Malcolm. As always, you've been helpful.

RYDER

No, wait-

Dial tone.

A long pause.

RYDER

There was someone on the line just now. I swear there was.

I have notes I made, most are illegible which isn't like me. Of what I can read: Shadow, Mirror, Flesh, Spirit, and Dream. I tried to write Memory but it seems my hand was unable to. Odd...

A beat.

RYDER

I think we'll end the show there tonight. I'd like to play back the recording of the past several minutes. See if I can see what I'm missing.

A beat.

RYDER

But if you're experiencing anything supernatural, paranormal, or otherworldly, please feel free to call in next time on A Voice From Darkness.

[[AVFD outro music fades in and out.]]

#a voice from darkness #avfd #malcolm ryder #rene dupont

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years ago

Text

NEW LIFE IN LUCY

July 20, 1952

By WILL JONES, Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer

WITH HER SECOND BABY on the way and her second career in its peak, Lucille Ball is busy trying to make the facts of real life jibe with the facts of TV life.

The complications are going to affect all fans of the nation's No. 1 TV star - particularly those in Minneapolis.

Her pregnancy may delay the return of her TV program, "I Love Lucy," to the air this fall, for one thing.

And it has already meant, for sure, that she won't be in Minneapolis for the Aquatennial. (1)

"I Love Lucy," now off the air for the summer, is supposed to resume Sept. 8. Miss Ball and her husband and co-star, Desi Arnaz, are trying to stall the starting date until sometime in October. (2)

Exactly what good that will do when her baby isn't due until January is one of those facts of TV life that will take some explaining. Miss Ball explained a few things to me in Hollywood last week, and I'll try to pass them long.

Movie studios have been known to speed up shooting schedules of single pictures to accommodate motherhood. But Miss Ball can't shoot 39 films (3) in a hurry, before her condition begins to show. It already shows.

BY THE TIME I had my talk with Miss Ball, the full Impact of the news had already hit her and her organization; They already had decided - with kibitzing from the Columbia Broadcasting System, the sponsor, and other interested parties - one big point:

Miss Ball's unborn child, come winter, is going to have to be part of the act.

They were in the midst of working out some of the details. Scripts for all of next season's "I Love Lucy" programs already had been outlined when Miss Ball discovered her condition. The outlines have been set aside, and the writers have been told to think up some funny new slapstick routines for an enceinte heroine.

Fortunately, "I Love Lucy" is a Mr.-and-Mrs. program. Its family comedy, while often outlandish, has been accepted by its fans as still being pretty true-to-life.

There should be enough funny situations involving expectant couples to keep the subject from getting tiresome.

IMPENDING PARENTHOOD isn't a new subject for comedy, but there has been little of it on TV, there hasn't been much on radio and it's been rare in the movies.

And there's never been an expectant mother quite like Miss Ball.

Even if it were possible to hide her condition - other actresses have accomplished it with the aid of special costuming, trick lighting and such devices as keeping partially hidden behind furniture and bushes - Miss Ball would be against it.

"If I turned up one week suddenly standing still behind some camouflage, it wouldn't be me," she said. "It'd be a fraud. I've got to move around."

Miss Ball had just come from a visit to her doctor when I saw her at her orange ranch in the San Fernando valley, about an hour's drive from Hollywood. (4) She had been discussing her condition with CBS executives, as well as with her doctor, on the same visit to town.

"The doctor told me the baby's going to come a little earlier than we expected," she said. "He says about Jan. 15. (5) He also told me I could work as long as I feel all right.

"At first we thought I might have to quit work in October. Now I don't know."

WORKING BEFORE the cameras while with child isn't entirely a new experience for Miss Ball. She was pregnant when she made the "I Love Lucy" audition film that won her and Arnaz their present contract with the network and sponsor.

But her year-old daughter, Lucie Desiree, was born before she had to go on the air with the new series.

Five of this fall's programs are already filmed. ("I Love Lucy" normally is shot five weeks before it goes on the air, so Miss Ball and Arnaz were five programs ahead before they started their summer vacation.) (6) They plan to resume shooting in a week or so. That will put them 10 programs ahead by Sept. 8, the date they're scheduled to return.

If they get to postpone the program a month they'll have a 14-week backlog of films by the time it starts. Some of the best of last year's programs will be rerun during the weeks Miss Ball won't be able to work. (7) Just how much of a part the baby will play in "I Love Lucy" after it arrives is matter that hasn't been decided.

"I ASKED THAT QUESTION down at CBS this afternoon, and all I got was blank stares," said Miss Ball.

"I'm sure we won't have a situation involving the baby every week, though."

"You could have a funny baby sitter for a character," put in a her publicity man, Ken Morgan who also is her brother-in-law. "You could build a very funny program around a funny baby sitter."

"I'm sure we could," said Miss Ball. She glared at him with mock ferocity: "And what do I do while the baby sitter is being funny?"

Arnaz, a real-life rumba bandleader, plays a rumba bandleader named Ricky Ricardo on "I Love Lucy." The plots usually Involve the wacky things that happen when his wife, Lucy, tries too hard to help him get ahead.

Although the names have been changed, and the Amazes' private life isn't anything like the Ricardos'. TV life, followers still associate the performers closely with the roles.

As long as they're forced to bring one child Into their TV world, I wondered If they might not try to get their TV life in line with their private life.

"That's another question I asked at CBS this afternoon," said Miss Ball. "They didn't have an answer for that, either, "Everybody's been on vacation. We haven't even had a chance to sit down and talk these things over yet."

THEY'VE TALKED over a few things, of course. Miss Ball showed me an "I Love Lucy" baby - a doll set with clothes, feeding equipment, soap, gadgets, etc. - that has been put together by a toy manufacturer in anticipation of the event. The set includes a letter about the baby from Lucy and Ricky. (8)

"It blows bubbles, wets its pants, everything," said Miss Ball proudly. She also played a record, "There's a Brand New Baby at Our House." ("...she's changed our happy house to a home..."), sung by Desi. He wrote the music when Lucie was born. A friend, Eddie Maxwell, wrote the words. (9)

Desi hasn't made any records for a long time, so nothing much happened with the tune. The recording companies are after him again since the success of "I Love Lucy," however, and "Brand New Baby" may be his first new record. (10)

The sudden success of "I Love Lucy" - in one season, it topped Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle and Red Skelton (11) in all popularity ratings - has left the Amazes amazed.

I was sitting in Morgan's office when he got the news that "Lucy" had hit a rating of 70 - an unheard-of-high figure in one of the TV popularity-rating surveys.

Arnaz came into the office at that moment Morgan told him the news.

ARNAZ LOOKED WORRIED. "You're kidding," he said.

"That crazy Cuban is scared," confided Morgan after Arnaz had left the office. "He doesn't know what to make of all this. He thinks of all those people tuning in, and he worries."

In 20 years as a movie star, Miss Ball never had the acclaim she's had in one year on television.

"People stop me on the street and talk to me now," she said. "That never happened when I was in movies. I was in Ohrbach's this afternoon, and I had to ride up and down four times In the elevator just listening to people tell me about the show.

"The only time people In the street bothered to talk to me before was when I made ‘The Big Street.' (12) But It was nothing like what's happened In the past year. And Desi and I are the two most grateful people in the world.

"You have no Idea what It's meant to us. We're real hams, you know."

BESIDES GLORY, "I Love Lucy" also has meant shorter hours and a happy home life for Mr. and Mrs. Arnaz. Before TV, Lucille had to get up at 5:30 or 6 every morning to go to the studio. She didn't get home until 7 or 7:30 p.m. and she was exhausted. If Desi wasn't on the road with his band, she had to go to a nightclub to be with him In the evening.

Their marriage almost broke up because of the schedule. Lucille once filed for divorce, but never followed through. (13) In the movies, Miss Ball had to work five or six long days a week. Now she puts in four eight-hour days.

Arnaz, who Is president of their company, Desilu Productions, has to attend to production and business matters in addition to his acting. That usually means a 10- or 12-hour day for him. But he, too, insists on a three-day week-end.

"We don't think about the show we don't even mention it from Friday night to Tuesday morning," said Miss Ball. "They wanted me to look at the scripts a week ahead, so they'd have more time to work on the clothes. I design all my own. But I wouldn't even do that, for fear I'd start worrying about next week's show over the week-end."

AS VICE PRESIDENT of Desilu productions, Miss Ball gets a chair on the set with "Veep" printed on back. Occasionally she signs some papers. "But may I say that I don't know what I'm looking at?" she said.

Desilu now is producing the TV version of "Our Miss Brooks," starring Eve Arden, which will go on the air this fall. (14) As executive producer, Arnaz has had to be on hand during much of the "Miss Brooks" filming this summer.

"But all I hafta do," said Miss Ball, "is go over and pat Brooksie on the shoulder now and then and ask her where she got those clothes. She comes in with some wonderful things."

"Our Miss Brooks" is being filmed exactly the same way as "I Love Lucy." It's a combination of movies, TV and summer stock, a system worked out by Desilu.

The Amazes are especially proud of it because, before they started, everybody told them it wouldn't work. Nobody figured a couple of actors could run a complex producing organization.

They film their shows in an independent movie studio that was all but abandoned before they moved in. (15) Now the place is bustling with other TV people, including Burns and Allen, who are copying the Desilu system.

BLEACHER SEATS for 300 people were built into one side of the sound stage. Part of one wall was cut out to make a street entrance for the audience. A small sign, “Desilu Playhouse," hung on a wrought-iron support outside, adds to the summer-stock atmosphere.

The schedule goes roughly like this: Tuesday is devoted to learning the script, which al ways runs more than 40 pages. Miss. Ball sketches her clothes and gives the designs to the dressmaker.

There are rehearsals Wednesday. The program is rehearsed straight through, like a play. Thursday there's a full dress rehearsal, with cameras and lights. There's a bull session afterwards, with the writers present, to weed out the weak spots.

When the program started audiences were invited to the dress rehearsals, but Lucille and Desi found they got all worked up and gave better performances Thursday night than they did on Friday, when the program is actually filmed.

NOW THEY RELY on the laughs of the crew on Thursday nights to tell them what to keep in and what to change.

Three movie cameras, moving in and out among the actors like TV cameras, record the Friday night performance. The program is played straight through, the only stops being for costume changes. The audience is allowed to whoop it up as much as it wants. Audience laughter is recorded and used in the final soundtrack.

The photographer, Karl Freund, a roly-poly man with a thick German accent, was all but retired when Miss Ball asked trim to film their show. She liked the way he had photographed her at MGM. ("We fought like cats and dogs, but when it came off on the screen, I never looked lovelier.")

He spent a week in New York studying TV methods, decided everybody there was all wet, and dreamed up his own system. (Freund was the first Hollywood cameraman ever to move a camera during a scene, mounting it on a rubber-tired arrangement known as a dolly. Without his invention "I Love Lucy" now would take two or three times as long to shoot. Many inventions now incorporated in Hollywood studio cameras are his, too.)

ARNAZ' STUDIO CHAIR has "Prez" painted on back. (When Freund wants him, however, he Just yells for "Young man with old face!" Arnaz' black hair is shot with gray that doesn't show on TV.)

William Frawley and Vivian Vance, the character actors who play the couple next door, have special chairs, too. Frawley's is labeled "William Frawley, Boy Actor." Miss Vance's label is "Vivian Vance, Girl Actress." Their work is admired so much around Desilu that they got a raise before they ever asked for it.

"I don't know how long they're signed up for," said Miss Ball, "but by God if it isn't for a long time, I'll have to speak to Desi." There's a sign in the Desilu rehearsal hall: "anyone that enjoys work can have a hell of a good time in this institution." Everybody, apparently, does.

There's a board with names of the cast members painted on it. There are gold stars stuck behind the names. Anybody who gets off a good crack, goofs, or otherwise relieves the tension that, comes with the hard work gets a gold star.

ON SHOW NIGHTS, Arnaz, cook and gourmet, serves everybody in the crew a big dinner in the rehearsal hall. The Amazes have a bungalow on the lot in which they live during the day. The living room is decorated with water colors of and oil paintings by Miss Ball, who goes in for landscapes when she paints. (16)

There's also a large dressing room and a bright yellow kitchen. They stayed there over night during Los Angeles' floods a few months ago, (17) but otherwise they go home to the ranch every night.

"I hate to get up in the morning in the same place I'm going to work all day," said Miss Ball.

An extra project is under way at the Desilu studios this summer. The TV show has caused so much talk that people in non-TV areas have demanded to see what all the conversation is about.

Three of the best "Lucy" programs from last season have been selected for showing in theaters in areas not yet reached by TV. They're being tied together with a story about a couple who have trouble getting tickets to the program. (18) (That's a real problem. Handling tickets got to be such a headache that Desilu turned over ticket distribution to CBS. Now the people at Desilu often can't get their friends in.)

The "I Love Lucy" feature movie is being put together by Ed Sedgwick, a director who used to make some of Miss Ball's movie comedies. I've never considered Lucille a comedienne." Sedgwick told me. "She's a comic. There's a difference."

SUCCESS OF "I Love Lucy" has opened the way for all kinds of other sidelines. Desi wears smoking jacket. Tailors want him to spearhead a campaign to revive the smoking jacket. Other clothing men spotted the narrow lapels on all his suits, and want him to endorse Desi Arnaz narrow lapels. (19)

Manufacturers want Miss Ball's clothing designs. There's a line of Lucille Ball blouses being readied. Now, of course they're talking maternity dresses, too. (20)

Another outfit is ready to put out Desi Arnaz bongo drums. (21) "Ethel" (Vivian Vance) wore an old-fashioned kitchen garment known as a swirl on one program. Now there's, a merchandising tie-up for "I Love Lucy" swirls. (22)

Even before word got around about Miss Ball's upcoming maternity, doll manufacturers were proposing deals. So there's going to be a red-headed Lucille Ball doll. (23)

Since one-third of the pro grams fans are figured to be small fry, the doll is expected to be a popular item. Morgan, a native of Devil’s Lake, N.D. looks after most of such details. And then there's talk of an "I Love Lucy" radio program. Miss Ball was on the air with "My Favorite Husband" a few seasons ago, but radio acting is a new experience for Desi.

THERE'S A POSSIBILITY the sound tracks of old TV programs may be used for a new radio program, with some narration to fill in what the audience can't see. (24)

So, with all the success, has come more and more yearning to get away from on week-ends.

The Amazes figure they see enough of each other during the week. So, although they're homebodies, they do quite a bit of getting away from each other on week-ends.

Miss Ball usually sticks to the ranch, a quiet, five-acre place lush with vegetation. The orange groves are there because they look nice. "You know, I've never eaten one of our oranges," said Miss Ball. "I tasted one once, and it was so sour I couldn't finish it. We get our oranges at the market."

They have a deal with the Sunkist people, who tend the crop, harvest it and keep the place in shape in exchange for the oranges.

Arnaz, who has a mania for fishing, spends all or part of every week-end on his 35-foot fishing boat. He doesn't shave when he's fishing. He was away on the boat when I visited the ranch.

MISS BALL was out back, in a cluttered yard she calls "the farmer's market," sitting in a wooden lawn chair. She looked tired. Her face, in the evening light and against her shocking-pink hair, looked paler than it probably was. Her mother, Mrs. Desiree Ball, was looking after Lucie, who was toddling around the edge of the swimming pool. Three frisky spaniels bounded up to meet me.

Miss Ball called them away sharply. "They stink," she said. While we talked, she watched nervously to see that they didn't knock the baby into the pool.

Presently Mrs. Ball said good-by, and headed for the house with Lucie. "Tell Ethel I want a demitasse!" Miss Ball called after her. "And tell her I want it to get rid of the garlic she put in the meat!" (25)

After she settled down with the coffee, she said: "There's one thing I really like about television. I don't have to worry about glamor any more. Well, my hair is still combed. But I don't have to worry if it isn't."

From her chair, she started conducting a visual tour of the place, pointing out behind her an overgrown shelter with lawn furniture Inside. ("It's some kind of a Cuban hut that Desi built. I think they call it a bohio.") She pointed, too, to a huge outdoor fireplace. ("Desi built that, too. But we found out it's too far from the house. We don't use It any more.")

Across the swimming pool she pointed out a strange lath structure, also built by Desi. "We never found out what he had in mind," she said. "We've never used it for anything."

We walked across the lawn to inspect one of Arnaz' more practical bits of carpentry: a place they call a bathhouse, which is really a huge cottage used for parties. It has a long rumpus room, finished in dark pine, with a film projection room at one end, and a behind-the-bar kitchen that's exclusively Desi's. It's fitted with a large, black, old-fashioned gas oven, another barbecue and outsize copper utensils.

Miss Ball peered suspiciously into a huge copper kettle on the stove. "Desi uses this for soup, she said. "He spent three years getting the recipe from Antoine's." (26)

When Arnaz cooks, he always makes a large mess. He never cleans it up.

"I enjoy spoiling my husband," said Miss Ball, "and he enjoys spoiling me. I don't expect him to clean up." She thought a moment. "I don't know what he doesn't expect of me."

She pointed out a mounted marlin of which he's proud, some built-in seats he designed and constructed, and then led the way to the house. It was dark outside now.

"Be careful," she said. “There are wires on these trees, and people are always falling down."

INSIDE THE HOUSE, in a long tile-floored room facing the yard, we came across a third barbecue.

“Desi isn't happy unless he has a barbecue at his fingertips," she said. Another thing the Amazes are well supplied with is TV sets. They have four, including the one in the bathhouse.

"We always watch our show," she said, "usually with friends. Monday is our canasta night. Sometime we're over at the Charlie Ruggleses, sometimes at the Dean Martins. (27) Wherever we are, we stop for a half hour to watch."

We took a fast walk through the house. "It won't take you long to see this place," said Miss Ball, leading the way through the long early-American living room, the bedroom, Desi's study, Desi's dressing room, and then down a long corridor, past an enclosed patio, to the nursery wing.

"Desi built this, too," she said. "We keep a carpenter here full time to help him. Since we started the show, Desi hasn't had any time for building, but we still keep the carpenter busy."

THE NURSERY - a three-room affair designed to accommodate two children - cost more than the house itself. The center room Is a gleaming-white, clinical-looking place Miss Ball calls "the laboratory."

It's loaded with sterilizing equipment, kitchen equipment and laundry equipment. The Amazes keep a nurse, as well as a maid-cook and the carpenter. Desi's mother and Mrs. Ball both live nearby, and look in frequently, so Lucie gets plenty of attention when her parents are at the studio.

Miss Ball has taken her to the studio for visits, but never takes her in for a day when she's working. Arnaz's band appears on one out of about every four "Lucy" programs. It's pretty much the same one he started with in Florida. He formed it after he broke away from Xavier Cugat in the '30s.

The band doesn't travel or make public appearances any more, but the musicians are as glad that Arnaz has settled down as he is. They have a family life now, too.

They work around Hollywood, playing at the movie and recording studios and at various clubs. And they're always on call when they're needed for "Lucy."

Miss Ball and Arnaz planned to come to the Aquatennlal on the way to New York for a series of magazine interviews. One of the things that had convinced them was a two-page wire from Arthur Godfrey singing the praises of Minnesota and of Cedric Adams, who would have been their host.

WHEN THEY found out about the baby, they still planned to come. Then Miss Ball's doctor ordered her not to. He ruled out the New York interviews, too. They went to Sun Valley instead, for a rest, but cut their visit short when they found themselves the center of attention from other guests. (28)

The act they planned to do here was one they had to dream up in order to prove to CBS that they could do "I Love Lucy." Before the program started, one of the big objections they got went like this: "Nobody will believe that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are husband and wife."

Arnaz had a simple answer: "We are." But nobody paid much attention to him.

The two made a theater tour with a Mr.-and-Mrs. routine, just to see if audiences would accept them that way. It clicked. That's what made CBS decide to go along with their first notions about TV.

# # #

FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) The Minneapolis Aquatennial is an annual outdoor event held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the third full week of July. Originating in 1940, the Minneapolis Aquatennial celebrates the city's famous lakes, rivers, and streams.

(2) Instead of September 8th, the second season of “I Love Lucy” began on September 15, 1952, not in October as was first considered. It kicked off with the now iconic “Job Switching” (aka Candy Factory episode), which had been filmed in late May 1952, before this article was published.

(3) Although season one of “I Love Lucy” had produced 35 episodes (the most of any “Lucy” sitcom), season two only clocked in with 31 new episodes. If their original goal was 39, they were 8 short.

(4) Before her Beverly Hills mansion, Lucy’s dream house was in the San Fernando Valley. Desilu Ranch, as it was called, was a ranch-style home on five acres at the intersection of Devonshire Street and Corbin Avenue in Chatsworth. The home was demolished in the mid-1970s to make way for subdivision development.

(5) Lucille Ball gave birth on January 19, 1953. Because it was a Caesarean birth, Ball had some leeway with the date. Naturally, she opted for a Monday so that her real son and her TV son could be born on the same day, making television history in the process.

(6) The five shows that were already ‘in the can’ for Fall 1952 were: "The Anniversary Present" (filmed May 9, 1952), “The Handcuffs” (filmed May 16, 1952), “The Operetta” (filmed May 23, 1952), “Job Switching” (filmed May 30, 1952), and “The Saxophone” (filmed June 6, 1952). Although “Job Switching” was filmed fourth of these five, everyone knew it was a knock-out hit, and it was aired as the season 2 premiere. This explains why the photos that accompany this article are glimpses from two as-of-then unaired episodes: “The Anniversary Present” and “The Operetta.”

(7) Desilu also came up with Flashback Intros (filmed without Lucille Ball) to introduce repeated episodes. Fred, Ethel, and Ricky would open the show with a “remember the time...” premise and then a repeat episode would be aired. These were not included in the syndication prints, but some have turned up as DVD extras.

(8) The ‘I Love Lucy’ baby doll was a big seller for Christmas 1952. The doll’s gender was deliberately kept vague until after the birth of Little Ricky in January 1953, after which a new infant doll branded “Little Ricky” was released. There was also a Little Ricky puppet baby doll.

(9) “There's A Brand New Baby (at Our House)” was first sung on “I Love Lucy” in “Sales Resistance” (ILL S2;E17), the first flashback episode after Lucy went into the hospital to have the baby. The lyricist Eddie Maxwell was the real-life husband of Eve Whitney from “The Charm School” (ILL S3;E15).

(10) After the above episode aired on July 26, 1953, announcer Johnny Jacobs promoted that the song (he calls “The Baby Song”) was available on Columbia Records (a division of CBS, naturally) with the “I Love Lucy” theme song on the flip side.

(11) Arthur Godfrey’s show “Talent Scouts” was “Lucy’s” lead-in on Monday nights. Godfrey himself promoted the show, asking viewers to ‘stay tuned.’ Red Skelton had a variety show on CBS, competing with NBC’s “Ed Sullivan” on Sunday nights. Milton Berle hosted “Texaco Star Theatre” on NBC, another variety program. If Monday nights belonged to Lucy, Tuesday nights were owned by Uncle Miltie. All three performers guest-starred on “Lucy” sitcoms. The above 1953 TV Guide cover makes it clear who is top of the TV totem pole. Red Skelton is not depicted.

(12) The Big Street was released in August 1942. If people were stopping Lucy on the street, it may have been to compliment her performance in what was her favorite film. They may have also been curious about performing in a wheelchair.

(13) Lucille filed for divorce from Desi twice. The first time was in September 1944, citing infidelity and incompatibility. Ball returned to him before the interlocutory decree became final, nullifying the divorce. The second divorce, in April 1960, stuck.

(14) “Our Miss Brooks” had been a big hit on radio starring Eve Arden and Gale Gordon, who would repeat their roles on television. Although not formally produced by Desilu, it was produced at the same studio and used many of the same actors (Gordon, Richard Crenna, Mary Jane Croft, Frank Nelson) that would appear on “I Love Lucy,” including, in one episode, Desi Arnaz. The show started one year after “Lucy” and ran one year shorter.

(15) General Service Studios was located at 1040 North Los Palmas Avenue, in Hollywood. It started life as a movie studio in 1919, and was variously known as American Zoetrope, Hollywood Center Studios, and now, Sunset Las Palmas Studios. Desilu outgrew the location in 1953, and moved to larger digs known then as Ren-Mar, now Red Studios.

(16) Not much is known about Lucille Ball’s painting pastime. We know that she signed her paintings ‘Balzac’.

(17) From January 13 to 18, 1952 heavy rains hit the Southern California area. On January 18 alone, 3.17” of rain fell in Los Angeles in a 24-hour period. The storm was responsible for eight deaths due to flooding in Los Angeles.

(18) The “I Love Lucy” Movie consisted of three episodes edited together: “The Benefit” (ILL S1;E13), “Breaking the Lease” (ILL S1;E18) and “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E19). New scenes were filmed to help connect the three episodes into one cohesive whole. Also, new wraparound segments were filmed. The opening segment shows the studio audience filing in for the filming. Desi Arnaz welcomes the audience and introduces the cast as he typically did before every filming. In the closing segment, Arnaz thanks the audience and Lucille Ball and the cast take their final bows. The film was given one preview before it was shelved. It may have been pressure from MGM, who had their own “Lucy” movie in the works, The Long, Long Trailer, or it may have been felt that the film diluted the television programs value. Either way, it was Lucy and Desi’s final call to shelve the project. It has since been released on DVD.

(19 & 20) Merchandising was a big part of selling “I Love Lucy” to the public. When actual items were not mass marketed, patterns for the items were available. Advance had the license for “I Love Lucy” patterns.

(21) The Desi Arnaz Conga Drum (not Bongo drum) was made in 1952 by A & A American Metal Toy Company of Brooklyn, New York. It was nineteen inches high. It is one of the rarest of the original “I Love Lucy” collectibles valued at $2,000 to $5,000!

(22) Swirl was a brand of house dress that often buttoned up the back, had pockets, and a tie belt. Vivian Vance wore several designs by Swirl on the show, including one of her famous arrow Swirls advertised in magazines and newspapers.

(23) Long before Mattel made their Lucy Barbie, there was a Lucy Ricardo rag doll. The doll had orange hair, blue eyes, bow lips, and an apron with heart-shaped pockets, just like Lucy. It was given away by their sponsor Philip Morris in 1953.

(24) On February 27, 1952, a sample the “I Love Lucy” radio show was produced, but it never aired. This was created by editing the soundtrack of the television episode “Breaking the Lease”, with added Arnaz narration (in character as Ricky Ricardo).

(25) It sounds as though, quite coincidentally, Lucille Ball’s Chatsworth cook / maid was named Ethel! Either that, or Ball is joking.

(26) Antoine’s Restaurant was also mentioned in Eleanor Harris’s 1954 book The Real Story of Lucille Ball.

(27) Charles Ruggles (1886-1970) was a character actor who appeared in over a hundred films. Like Lucille Ball, he made the transition to television with a series called “The Ruggles” (1949-52). He was married to Marion LaBarba. Dean Martin (1916-95) was a singer and comic actor. He appeared as himself on “The Lucy Show,” in one of Ball’s favorite episodes. From 1949 to 1973 he was married to Jeanne Biegger, who appeared as herself on the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Fashion Show.”

(28) Sun Valley, Idaho, was a favorite getaway location of the Arnaz family. It is a is a resort city where tourists enjoy ice skating, golfing, hiking, trail riding, cycling, tennis and (of course) skiing. The world’s first chair lift was erected in Sun Valley in 1936. Lucy and Desi set a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in Sun Valley, and even went on location to film.

#Lucille Ball #Desi Arnaz #Chatsworth #I Love Lucy #1952

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nitewrighter · 4 years ago

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The internet and America are both so weird because like... the president tweets something straight up fascist and horrific: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” like its a fun punchy campaign slogan and not... fucking horrific. And then every fiber in my body tenses up like “You gotta do something! You gotta throw a molotov! You’ve gotta put on a mask and hurry to protest sites with gallons of milk in each hand!” and then I just look outside and... it’s just a quiet California suburb out there. It’s a temperate evening, dead-quiet with quarantine. All of this is happening in a 3+ hour plane flight to Minneapolis and it’s not like you can fucking travel right now with COVID so you’re just stuck... fizzing with outrage and it’s like “What do I do? Society is already so fucking performative that I don’t know how to articulate my rage. I want this anger to do something. I want it to go out there and make a change, because when it’s stuck inside me, it’s just.. bouncing off all the walls of my interior uselessly.”

When I was a little kid, I remember my second grade science book had these two photos, illustrating the difference between physical change and chemical change. It showed a picture of an ice cube melting and a match burning.

“A physical change is when matter moves from one state to another” said the caption labeling the ice cube.

“A chemical change is when a new substance is formed from a chemical reaction (such as burning)” said the caption labeling the matchstick.

What my 8 year old self gathered was that, you can re-freeze an ice cube but you can’t un-burn something.

Policing as an institution in the US has always been changing physical states. It started as slave catchers and “anti-indian constables.” It literally formed as a bedrock of the institutions of colonialism and slavery. We have watched this ice cube melt and reform over the decades, all the while militarism being laced into it like cyanide. This is not a case where we need physical change, where we need policing in a different form--we need chemical change. We need to burn this shit away and make something new. We need to abandon the prison industrial complex because it’s clearly being used to create a class of non-voters easily exploited as union-undermining scab labor.

I really wish I could end this with a joke and laugh and play this off like “oh I’m so edgy and funny” but... I can’t. Because the world around me is rotting and burning but all that’s outside my window is a quiet California suburb and all I fucking have is a laptop to scream into.

Protesters, please wear masks--not just to avoid spreading Covid, but also because social media is spreading photos of you, and you know the police will be combing through that shit when they’re sifting through the ashes tomorrow morning. Protect yourselves. Protect your loved ones. I’m scared as fuck and I’m angry as fuck and you have my support.

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keepingupwithlinmanuel · 4 years ago

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Lin-Manuel Miranda: I’ve been writing in lockdown

In his head, Lin-Manuel Miranda has an alternative timeline of what he would be doing right now. The 40-year-old would have recently finished filming his directorial debut, for one, the Netflix adaption of the Broadway musical Tick, Tick... Boom!, which survived just ten days of shooting before everything shut down. Right now, he says, he should be in the edit.

Instead, he’s on a Zoom call, talking to GQ from his home about a filmed version of Hamilton, which wasn’t due out for another year, and he’s apologising for the fact that it doesn’t say “Lin-Manuel Miranda” on his screen, but “Lin-Sebastian’s dad”, as it “defaults to the time I did a parent-teacher conference”.

...

So, Hamilton is coming to Disney+, which is incredibly exciting – and a year earlier than planned. Talk me through how that decision was made.

We realised pretty early, even when the show was off Broadway, this is going to be a tough ticket. And we sort of realised there’s value in capturing what it feels like in the theatre with this company. And the three days we shot this film was the week before the principals started to leave. We all left the following Friday. So it’s the best rehearsed cast maybe in the history of movies – we were performing and what we’d spent a year doing. When lockdown happened we had around 75 per cent of it – enough of an original, a rough cut, to be able to sell it to Disney and partner with Disney. We didn’t have a final edit. We didn't have a sound mix, which in a musical is pretty important. But once it became clear there was not going to be any theatre for the foreseeable future, we all kind of pivoted and said, “Oh, this is actually an opportunity to remind people of the power of theatre when there is none.” And so we got to editing and then it just became like racing. We turned in the final cut, like, two weeks ago.

How do you feel generally about the future for Broadway? Are you optimistic that it’s going to bounce back?

I’m optimistic. I’m not optimistic about any kind of timeline. Like I don’t know what theatre looks like on the other side of this, particularly in the absence of a vaccine. One of the books I've been reading during this lockdown is Will In The World, the biography of Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt. And I read it because I wanted to know what did Shakespeare do when the plague shut down the houses? Because there was that sort of meme going around, you know, “He wrote King Lear, what the fuck are you doing?” It’s not entirely accurate. He did write some sonnets. Those are pretty good. But it's, you know, that uncertainty. When we make our calling where people gather, it’s a real one. And what I'm encouraged by is honestly the fact that given that there are no shows right now, it’s actually a time to tackle some of the more systemic issues with our theatre we need to talk about. How to get an audience for Hamilton that is as diverse as the cast on stage. We're in talks, just for ourselves in this moment – at a time where we're talking about systemic racism in the United States – on how to make backstage look more like on-stage; how to address some of the inequities when it comes to black folks and people of colour in the theatre industry. It’s still so predominantly white backstage and at the top, so I think we're seeing people getting their houses in order because there's time to do it and no one has the excuse that we're very busy programming our season. So I can only speak for the Hamilton company, but we are hoping that when we come back, we come back into a world where we're addressing some of these issues and we're having the tough conversations.

...

Yourself and Hamilton are natural kind of bedfellows with the Black Lives Matter movement. But you did take a bit of criticism for not maybe speaking out early enough? Was that just an oversight?

Yeah, absolutely. And I called it a moral failure. And I stand by that, you know. I had been tweeting about Black Lives Matter since 2015. I remember us rehearsing “My Shot” for the first time when we heard the there was an acquittal for the police officers who murdered Eric Garner and how heavy that felt in the room and how we cried in the room. But for some reason, the moral blind spot is not bringing Hamilton and its social channels as a brand in alliance with that earlier. And so, you know, I think we're making up for lost time in that regard. And you're right, there are natural bedfellows. We are a company made up of black and brown actors who reckon with the origins of our country every night on stage.

...

Something that always stays in my head is when you hosted SNL just before the 2016 presidential election and you sang at a picture of Trump in the corridor “Never gonna be president”, which was so funny at the time but is hard to watch now. How do you look back on that?

The night before we'd heard the Access Hollywood tapes. I don't think we've ever heard such vulgarity from a presidential candidate full stop. The fact that that was not career ending, I don't know what that says. But whatever it says ain't good. But, you know, it is unprecedented that a moment like that happened. And still millions of people said, “This is our guy.”

How are you feeling about the upcoming election?

I am feeling… I don't know. I'm feeling uncertain, as everyone else is. I think people are certainly energised. I think there is a lot of… I think a lot of what you're seeing in the streets and in the world is the country really loudly saying, “This guy does not speak for us” and “The integrity of our voting system is more important than ever.” And that's a big concern of mine. But I have no doubts that the majority of this country does not believe that this president speaks for them. It's just a matter of that being reflected in the voting booth or in the mail and voting situation that we will probably find ourselves in. We've seen there's no bottom. There's no bottom to the guy's actions. I feel positive that more people are speaking out. I feel positive seeing that the overwhelming majority of these protests have been powerful and peaceful and, like, with masks and people handing out sanitisers… I've seen the peaceful protests myself in my own neighbourhood. And none of that changes unless we actually dismantle the systems that set them up. You know, it has to be followed – the lip service has to be followed up by meaningful change. I'm encouraged when I see that Minneapolis is looking to reallocate those police funds to the community. I'm encouraged when I see action. It’s very easy to tweet, but much harder to dismantle these inequities.

...

I guess everyone would want to know if you’re working on another stage show. Any ideas in the locker for that?

Yeah, but I can't tell you. I mean, it's weird, because I kind of messed it up because Hamilton had such a public birth, right? Like, I didn't know the Obamas would call and say, “Do you have anything about America and can you perform it at this podium?” But I did. And so that that was the most public writing I've ever done, because I kind of showed everyone the ultrasound in 2009 and then I didn't finish it until 2015. So I can't write that way again, because the scrutiny on me is so much greater now. And, you know, the best idea to kill an impulse is to talk about it. But, yes, I'm writing some new things that I think would work nicely in the theatre and I have some time to do it.

OK, so without asking you to give the game away, can I ask how far you are through the writing process for it?

I'm writing the first three or four songs, which I'll rewrite once I find out what it's really about. You know, because you start thinking you know what it's about and then if you get lucky in a place, it starts to tell you what it's about. And you go, “Oh, shit, I thought I was writing it for this reason, but I'm really writing it for this reason.” So I'm writing the initial impulse songs right now and it'll tell me how much I did.

#lin manuel miranda #GQ #representation #hamilton #politics and advocacy #hamilfilm #unnamed new theatrical project #unnamed disney project #interviews

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toomanystoriessolittletime · 5 years ago

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Getting away with it (4/?)

Summary: August Walker was dead. At least that’s what people believed for almost 2 years. When the CIA found reason to believe that he was alive they made it their top priority to find him. Including sending one of their best female agents to recruit his twin brother. Walter Marshall.

Pairing: August Walker x Reader (Walker) + Walter Marshall x Reader (Walker)

Warnings: some mentions of NSFW moments

Wordcount: 2.691

Masterlist

Part 1 >> Part 2 >> Part 3

Taglist:

@ladyreapermc / @theolsdalova / @greenmanalishi / @itsmydreamlifethings / @palaiasaurus64 / @celestial-vomit / @penwieldingdreamer/ @notyourtypicalrose / @babypink224221 / @fanficsrusz / @solariumss / @starlite13 / @ly–canthrope / @mytbel0st / @oddsnendsfanfics / @ravenpuff02 / @sofiebstar / @chamomilebottom / @keiva1000 / @agniavateira / @peaceinourtime82 / @dearlybelovedluke / @vania-marie / @wildwavehc / @fcgrizi / @mary-ann84 / @ayamenimthiriel / @radaofrivia / @ohjules / @omgkatinka / @xceafh / @diehadess / @watermeloncavill / @modernscarlett / @p3nny4urth0ught5

@its-jb86 / @singeramg / @mrrightismrreeves / @mis-lil-red (I can’t tag you guys. Sorry)

“Are we there yet?” Evie asked. Walker rolled her eyes.

“You asked that 20 seconds ago Buttercup.” Walker drove her car through the familiar neighbourhood. For a split second her gaze lingered on the house at the end of the road, the house August and her used to live in, before she sighed and took the street to her right.

“Are we there yet?” Evie asked. Walker couldn’t help but giggle as she looked into the rearview mirror and saw her daughter cheekily grin at her.

“Home or Grandma?” Walker asked, seeing Evie’s eyes light up.

“Grandma pleaaaaase.”

„Did you enjoy your little getaway?” Walker's mother Hanna asked as Evie let go of her. Walker smiled as she looked after her daughter who was running to the garden to find her grandpa.

“It was nice.” She smiled at her mother before she hugged her tightly.

“Did you meet him?” Hanna asked whispering. Walker nodded.

“Are you okay?”

“Getting there. Somehow I think we are going to see a lot more of him in the future.” Walker parted from her mother's arms, finding her concerned face looking at her.

“He’s the complete opposite of him.” Walker said.

“I hope so.”

“He was almost as shocked as me when I told him what exactly had happened.”

“You think he’s going to help you?” Hanna asked. Walter was sitting on the patio across from her, watching Evie play with George, her dad.

“I am not sure. I do think that he is going to keep in contact.” She took a sip of her ice tea.

“Did Evie say something?” Hanna asked.

“Not really. But I think she kinda recognized his voice. He sounds exactly like him.” Walker sucked her bottom lip in.

“What do you say to us taking Evie for the night? I think you need some time alone, don’t you think?” Hanna asked.

“That would be lovely. Thank you mom.”

2 weeks later, unknown location

August sat on the bed of his shabby hotel room. He wasn’t used to hiding in such places. But by now the CIA would have found out that he was still alive, and eyes would be everywhere out looking for him. That’s why he changed locations every couple of days until he was at his final hiding spot. A cabin, deep in the woods.

He would hide there until the final plan finally was set into motion. It took almost two years for him to reactivate his contacts. He changed his appearance. Now with a full beard and brown contact lenses, he looked just like a regular guy. But he wasn’t. August Walker was one of the most wanted men on the planet. And here he was, looking at crappy pictures of his wife dancing with another man.

Her dark hair was longer, a happy smile on her face he only had only seen on the rare pictures he had received since his death, when she was together with Evie. A part of August still wondered if she misses him as much as he did miss her. He never thought he was capable of love. Real love. The love that didn’t let him sleep at night if he wasn’t sure Walker was safe. Before her, he had another woman every other day. Using them for his, and his pleasure only, sometimes breaking them just for the sight of the fear in their eyes.

But not with Walker. Walker had been different from the beginning.

6 years ago, CIA offices New York

Posing undercover as a newlywed couple was such a cliché. August fought the urge to roll his eyes. Why did he agree to this in the first place? Not that he had a choice. His temper had… gotten the best of him at his last case, ending with him killing the suspect he had just been instructed to interrogate. He didn’t even realize at first that he had killed him, his hands so tight around the bastards neck as he had forced the answers out.

Shaking his head sighing he leaned with his back against the wall of the office of his superior.

“You and Agent Lorner will be undercover for at least three months, beginning in 5 days. The house is being set up at the moment.” Erika Sloane, his new superior explained.

“And where is this Agent Lorner I am supposed to be married to for at least three months?” August asked annoyed. There was a knock on the door, followed by the door opening. A young woman stepped in. August didn’t even know what he noticed first. Her rust red hair that almost reached her hips. Her hesitant smile as she turned and spoke to Sloane, completely ignoring him. Or her deep green eyes as she turned towards him, looking him up and down before she reached out her hand to him.

“So we will be married from next week on, hm?” She asked. August blinked at her before his brain seemed to catch up with what she was saying. The corners of his lips turned upwards, giving her small smile as he took her hand to shake it, noticing how soft her skin was.

“Apparently.” He huffed, still fascinated as he looked at her. A little grin on her lips, she winked at him, before she turned around, leaving him looking after her as she spoke to Sloane.

An hour and a new identity later they both found themselves outside Sloanes office.

“So… I guess I will see you next week, fake husband.” She teased. August looked down at her, wondering what it was about her that made him feel like he was standing on top of a mountain, looking down, excitement flowing through his body. He caught himself staring at her lips as she spoke, wondering what they felt like on top of his.

Shaking his head at the thought he sighed. His phone vibrated in his pocket, showing a message from one of his usual girls, asking where he was.

“You are probably busy. I’ll see you next week.” He heard her say. He put his phone away, shaking his head.

“Why… Why don’t we go out for lunch? Get to know each other a bit? I know we have each others files, but if we are to be newlyweds, we would know everything about one another.”

“Smart idea, Agent Walker.” She grinned, making August breathe out relieved. Why was he like this? What was it about this woman that made him want to get to know her and not just fuck her. The thought never even crossed his mind until now and he could feel his body react as he imagined how it would feel to sink into her, having her look at him as he pushed her over the edge over and over again, his name on her lips. Swallowing he tried to shake off the thoughts, thinking about anything but her body under his as he felt his cock twitch.

“Well… I would say Chinese but I think you are more of a burger and fries kind of girl.” He grinned, making her laugh.

“It’s almost as IF we were married.” She grinned and turned around. Looking over her shoulder she called.

“Come on, Walker. I’m hungry.”

August was trying to not see the look on Walkers face on the photos. He always kept wondering if she would have moved on from him. She probably had. After all she was just like all the other woman on this planet. That’s at least what he talked himself into thinking. A year ago he had gone back to having young girls, breaking them, just because he wanted to feel something. But nothing, no one, could ever reach the high he felt when he was fucking Walker hard. One of his hands holding her wrists on her back while his other hand wrapped around her throat, squeezing, until she almost passed out while his cock was buried deep inside of her. He used to joke when people told him, sex was different if he really loved someone. But sex with Walker was like a drug for him. Something that was hard living without. But for the greater good, a better world for his child, it was something he would do gladly.

Closing his eyes he reached into his pants, finding his hard cock. He kept looking at the pictures of his wife in the arms of another man as he slowly began to rub his cock. Wondering if one day he was able to bury himself deep inside of her tight pussy again.

Meanwhile in Langley, Virginia

“Evie! Get your unicorn. Grandma’s gonna be here any minute!” Walker called up the stairs. It was another saturday night. And her mother had offered to take Evie for the night so she had a couple of hours to herself. The last time Evie was at her parent’s place was after she had been back from Minneapolis. And against all odds Walker had been out at a bar and actually had some fun. Dancing with one of her old school friends, forgetting about everything for just a couple of hours. She actually felt like a woman for these hours, enjoying the hands of her friend on her hips, knowing he would never go further. She didn’t have a penis after all. Grinning to herself she shook her head as she pulled the wine out of the fridge. Tonight she would spend in front of the TV, watching reruns of Grey’s Anatomy, pretending to be a usual woman.

The doorbell rang. There was still no sign of Evie. Shaking her head she walked over to the door, opening it for what would be her mother, when the smile on her lips died as she found someone else standing outside.

“Marshall…” She whispered surprised. For a split second she thought it was August, but the way he was smiling at her was different. She couldn’t even pinpoint how. She just knew.

“Sorry to just show up unannounced…” He said.

“Oh no. It’s no problem. Just wasn’t counting on anyone apart from my mom showing up tonight.” Walker said. She saw his car stand behind hers in the driveway.

“Would you like to come in?” She asked.

“I don’t even know why I’m here.” He shook his head.

“Well… Think about it while you wait inside. It’s getting cold.” Walker smiled. He chuckled exhausted as he stepped in.

“Thank you.” He said as Walker closed the door.

“Mommy I can’t find my…” Evie walked down the stairs, her words swallowed by her happy shriek.

“Mr. Policeman!” She almost ran down the stairs making Walker and Marshall look at each other surprised before Evie hugged his legs.

“Woah Evie. Hello there.” Marshall said chuckling.

“I told everyone in kindergarten I know a real policeman.” She looked up.

“Did you now?” Walker asked. Evie nodded at her. She didn’t even know Evie had been talking about Marshall. Yes she had asked a couple of questions on their way back home, but that was about it.

“Do you have a gun?” Evie asked.

“I do.” Marshall answered

“Wow.” Evie wondered before she untangled from his legs and ran back upstairs.

“I did not see that coming.” Walker said surprised, making Marshall chuckle. The doorbell rang again.

“That will be my mother. She’s picking up Evie”

“Oh… Should I…?” He gestured back to the living room.

“Oh… No. It’s okay. I told her about you.”

Walker opened the door, hugging her mother who gasped as she looked behind her.

“That’s….” She whispered.

“That’s Walter, Mom.” Walker whispered back. Hanna looked at her, then back again to Marshall. Slowly she walked closer.

Marshall was standing a little helpless in the middle of the hallway as Hanna stopped in front of him.

“Yeah. He looks different.” Hanna said before she reached her hand out to him.

“I’m Hanna.”

“Nice to meet you Hanna.” Marshall shook her hand.

When Evie and her mother were gone, Walker ordered dinner for both Marshall and her.

“So… what owes me the pleasure of your company?” Walker asked as they were sitting on her patio.

“I kept thinking about what to do. And after doing some research and talking to some colleagues I made the decision to join the CIA if they can answer all of my questions. We have to stop him. Even more so after what I found out.”

“What did you find out? I told you everything about him and his intention to buy plutonium.”

“You did. But I kept digging about him after you left. I don’t know if you know all of what I found.”

“What did you find?” She asked. Marshall reached for a folder, keeping it in his hands.

“I looked into his past. It’s… Reading all of this… He was a monster.” Marshall whispered.

“Show me.” Walker swallowed. Slowly she took the folder, opening it.

The next minutes were filled with silence as Walker read. And read. He breathing seemed to quicken, her bottom lip sucked in between her teeth as Marshall waited for her reaction. Ever since they parted that night he couldn’t help the admiration he felt for her. He had never met a stronger woman than her. Dealing with all of his with a little child to take care of? He couldn’t even imagine how scary it must be for her that her egomaniac of a husband was back from the dead. That was what made him think about taking the CIA offer in the first place. Something inside of him couldn’t bear the thought of her getting hurt once again. He looked at her emotionless face as she read the file, watched the pictures. It was gruesome. The way August seemed to go through the world before they met. How he left women broken and used, sometimes bruised after he had his fill. None of them ever getting through with legal action against him, because he scared them so much, they were afraid of their life. How he had been a suspect in an FBI investigation almost 4 years ago, that had been shut down by Sloane. When Walker finally looked up at him, her eyes were filled with tears.

“I knew that he was a monster but…” She shook her head, closing the file.

“Has he ever….” Marshall asked quietly. She shook her head.

“Yeah he was rough. But he never…. It’s like he was a completely different person…. I….” She folded her hands over her eyes, but Marshall could see the tears running down her cheeks. Slowly he got closer to her, hearing her silent sobs.

Walker couldn’t believe that the man she just had read about, the man who had abused the woman in the pictures she had just seen, was supposed to be the same man who had killed spiders for her in the middle of the night. The man she had loved so much, she lost herself in him. The man who took a part from her away when he tried to fuck over the whole planet. Never in her life had she felt so weak and defeated. Everytime she thought she had seen the worst in the man she used to share a life with, another thing was added that seemed to break her even more.

She didn’t even flinch when she felt Marshalls hand on her upper arm before he slowly pulled his arms around her and hugged her, letting her cry against his shoulder. It was the first time in many years she felt safe enough to be vulnerable.

Walker didn’t know how long she sat there in his embrace, silently crying. Inhaling deep she looked up at him, finding nothing but pure concern in his eyes.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

“For making you cry?” He asked.

“For showing me this. I have to make him pay. Not only for what he did to me, but for all the things he…” She looked up and shook her head.

“We will make him pay.” Marshall said. Nodding at him she sighed relieved.

“Yes. We will make him pay.”

#fanfic #fanfiction #henry cavill #walter marshall #august walker #august walker x reader #walter marshall x reader

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therucrap · 4 years ago

Text

RPDR 13 Episode 1 RuCrap

Hello dear internet! I just started a new page for my first ever RPDR RuCrap so please share and follow and I’ll continue if they catch on! Hope you enjoy!

The lucky 13th season of RuPaul’s Trauma Spectacular launches with the promise of “all new surprises” and a brand new twist that will leave you wondering how you ever sat through a boring old premiere with a coherent intro, climax, and conclusion when you could be enduring a dizzying hour and a half of WOW presents Happy Death Day 3: Covid Edition!

We open up on the trusty trauma center - I mean Werk Room - and the first to enter is NYC’s “Dominican Doll” and human drag lingo See ‘N Say Kandy Muse in an elaborate bejeweled patchwork jean mini dress and MATCHING DENIM BOOMBOX and she immediately informs us that we may know her from the now former Haus of Aja which was recently deconstructed like the pair of Wranglers that Kandy is wearing as fingerless gloves. Kandy is no longer alone in VIP because the befeathered Joey Jay arrives and half-heartedly delivers her intro line. “Filler queen!” We discover that Kandy is likely going to provide our Greek chorus confessional this season and all in a soft smoky eye when she informs us uncultured swine that Joey is wearing the cheapest variety of feather - chicken. Kandy didn’t construct an entire outfit from the remnants section of a Joanne Fabrics and not learn a thing or two about quality, sweetie! Joey is determined to beat viewers to the punchline and immediately clucks around branding herself as “basic” and “filler.” Joey is from the city of Phoenix (and possibly the online University as well) but she’s here to rise like a chicken!

Thunder mysteriously rumbles as RuPaul appears on the digitally enhanced Werk room TV but what could this be?! For all you newbies this is one of the several instances in every season where Ru mixes things up and gives us what we really want: a twist that is equal parts confusing, fucks up the natural order of the competition, and is ultimately unfulfilling! Come on season 13, let’s put a bunch of queer people through even more turmoil in a pandemic! Ru has a surprise but they’ll have to head to the mainstage to get the full story that they’ll be recounting to a mental health professional later!

We’re merely four minutes in and here comes Ru down the runway dressed like a glitterdot jellyfish! Our tour guide on Trauma Island introduces us to the main panel of judges for the season - Disco Morticia Addams and the two human Trapper Keepers who are now separated by glass because for the first time in Drag Race herstory we’re in the middle of a international health crisis, mawma!

Now let’s get down to trauma! Ru explains that the queens will be pairing off to lipsync unexpectedly as they enter! What could possibly go wrong? Well if you’re hoping that someone comes in wearing blades on their feet well just stick around because I have quite the treat for you! Our Dungaree Diva and the Chicken Feather Filler hit the Mainstage looking as confused as Shangela researching CDC protocol on her way to Puerto Vallarta last week. The judges interview our test subjects and immediately bring up the Haus of Aja and Kandy clarifies that she’s now an esteemed member of The Doll Haus along with last season’s ever-gorgeous Dahlia Sinn. I personally prefer not to say that Dahlia was eliminated first but instead that she was season 12’s brocco-leading lady! (Writer’s note: if you’re thinking “there’s a drag show called The Doll Haus in my hometown... is it THAT Doll Haus?!” No, there’s a drag show called The Doll Haus in almost every city in America but now, like with the former Sharon Needles, Kim Chis, and Penny Trations of the world, this one’s been on TV and alas, the others must now rename themselves)! Joey also charms the judges with her plucky demeanor and it’s already time to lipsync feather they like it or not!

Gay anthem Call Me Maybe by Canadian legend Carley Rae Jepson begins and Kandy immediately pushes a fake button on her DENIM BOOMBOX to start the party. Honestly... crown her right there on the spot. We will ALWAYS give points for prop work and the Carrot Top of the Bronx does not disappoint. Both are energetic but it’s The Dutchess of Denim who wins by infusing humor and our feathered friend is given “the Porkchop” but before we can even wrap our head around what this means for the state of the competition we snap back to the Werk Room to meet our next unsuspecting victims!

Now dear reader, this is the part where I’m just going to cut the shit. The set-up they’re selling us is that the losers of these premiere lipsyncs will be eliminated from the show but they are obviously not about to Porkchop half of the cast on day one so just stick with me while we suspend disbelief and go on RuPaul’s Totally Twisted Trauma Adventure as she convinces 6 gay people who just spent upwards of $10,000 on clothing, jewelry, and hair and then meticulously packed it into regulation suitcases to travel here during a pandemic after probably not making any money for the last four months (this was filmed in July) that they are going home on day one! This herstory-making twist, like so many before it, exemplifies the show’s worst qualities: a lack of empathy for its contestants, an underestimation of viewer intelligence and ability to decode heavy-handed editing witchery, and its love for completely dismantling its own format every year for the sake of drama. Whatever keeps the Emmy’s coming, baby! When you’re on the other side of one of these twists you usually feel like you just finished your morning coffee only to find out that the barista gave you decaf. Your mind will be blown when it’s happening but the payoff is usually at the expense of the show’s own legitimacy. With that said... this is the punishment we come to gleefully endure every year and we’re not here to complain, we’re here to watch gay people break down, dammit!

It’s deja Ru all over again as we snap back to the Werk Room where Chicago’s Denali walks in on ice skates and immediately ruins any chance of a deposit return for the bumpy, rented roll-out vinyl floors and declares “Let me break the ice!” She’s wearing the expensive feathers that Joey Jay didn’t spring for. Denali might not be the first ice skater on Drag Race but she’s the one I didn’t watch shit on a dick on Twitter last week so let’s give credit where it’s due. Ugh I wish Trinity the Tuck could block THAT from my memory! Next up is Atlanta’s Lala Ri whose white blazer, body suit, and unteased hair is immediately called basic by an icy Denali in confessional. Denali is confident but we know something that she doesn’t and Lala is wearing a sensible dancing ankle boot not two blades on her feet so let’s see how this turns out!

The lipsync song is “When I Grow Up” by Nicole Scherzinger and her assistants who were accidentally given microphones a few times! Denali struggles to conceal her wayward nipples during some ambitious dance moves and all while in skates but Lala gives us a good old fashioned drag performance and a big finale split unbothered by an elaborate costume and ultimately ices Denali who signs off with “Feeling icy, feeling spicy!” Asking these queens to lipsync upon entering is one thing but asking them to improvise their exit lines 10 minutes in is just cruel!

Denali heads backstage devastated where SURPRISE... Joey Jay is sitting alone in a sad room made of plywood walls featuring a bunch of pictures of first eliminated queens, an ominous “Porkchop Loading Dock” sign, and some cocktail tables with no cocktails (how dreadful).

Before we get the full picture and God for bid our bearings on Mr Charles’ Wild Ride let’s leave this plywood hellscape and jump back into the familiar comfort of the Werk Room’s pixelated neon pink faux brick walls where LA’s modelesque Symone stomps in wearing a dress made of tiny Polaroids of herself. She’s stylish, her energy is fresh, and she’s clearly one to watch. Then dear reader life as we know it changes. A breeze comes through the room and God herself blesses us when living legend and matriarch of the Iman dynasty Tamisha Iman from Atlanta arrives in a pointy-shouldered red power suit and proclaims to us simple townsfolk “Holler at me, I know you know me. Holler at me, I know you know me. Tamisha is here!” The sea parts, the crops are replenished, and all war stops on Earth. On stage Tamisha reveals that she’s been doing drag for 30 years (which seems like a long time to us mere mortals) and that she was originally cast last season but was diagnosed with colon cancer two days later and had to stay home for chemo. The lipsync gods wisely choose The Pleasure Principle by Janet Jackson and Tamisha gives us exact Janet arm choreo while Simone is sultry yet commanding as she shakes her Polaroids. The judges determine that Simone was picture perfect and American hero Tamisha Iman is sent to Porkchop’s Shipping Crate of Horrors to join the nest with the fancy feather option and the chicken feather option.

We begrudgingly crawl back onto RuPaul’s ever-circling carousel of doom and plop back into the workroom where accomplished LA celebrity makeup artist GottMik stomps in wearing a wacky toile dress and a full face of white makeup declaring that it’s “Time to crash the system!” GottMik is Drag Race’s first trans man contestant (and first knowingly cast trans contestant at all) for which we cheer excitedly and then immediately look at our watches because that took too long. Next up Minneapolis’s towering Utica wriggles in with a sneeze and declares “She’s sickening!” which is just the pandemic humor I came here for! Contaminate me, mom! This gay scarecrow is wearing a series of crazy patterns and a big strawberry on her head and the two of them appear to be from the same traveling circus. These two Big Comfy Couch characters slink over to the main stage where Utica explains that her cranial statement fruit symbolizes tackling obstacles because she used to be allergic to strawberries as a kid but she grew out of it. In RuPaul’s heavy universe of heart wrenching struggles that contain chronic illness and societal rejection, Utica’s animated world that suffers only of outgrown childhood strawberry problems is a welcome one. These two lanky rag dolls will be lipsyncing to Rumors by her majesty Lady Lohan of Mykonos and the vibe is instantly wacky. I wouldn’t say that either of them are the next Kennedy Davenport but they did complement each other well on the invisible obstacle course they were both miming through. Utica’s hair flops over her eye, there’s galloping and floor humping, GottMik does a split, there’s elbows and knees aplenty, and all that’s missing is dancing poodles. The judges are tickled by the kookiness of both of these human windsocks but Gotmikk snatches the win. Neither of these two are going to win So You Think You Can Dance but luckily this is RuPaul’s So You Think You Can Trauma so we’re in luck!

Our homosexual Groundhog Day continues back in the Werk Room where we meet NYC’s Rosé who gets the Brita treatment where she’s presented as a legendary New York queen and then the editors quickly get to work making her look delusional. She’s accomplished, confident, and Drag Race’s favorite personality type to dismantle and then trick into returning to All-Stars for a redemption only to dismantle again. Rosé’s fresh-faced foil Olivia Lux enters and lights up the place right away in a velvet pink and yellow gown. She’s a humble NYC newby who has competed in shows hosted by the established Rosé and we already know what’s about to happen here. The lipsync is Exes and Oh’s by Elle King which which was a choice. Olivia strips off her gown to reveal a bodysuit so she can really articulate and Rosé does the world’s least exciting split that looked like me trying unsuccessfully separate wooden chopsticks. Olivia triumphs and Rosé fizzles as she heads to the It Didn’t Werk Room aka Porkchop’s sparsely decorated storage closet to be with the other Have Nots.

We’re almost to the finish line and we limp, slightly disoriented, back to the Werk Room where we meet Tina Burner, another NYC theater kid with the confidence of a thousand Patti LuPones who is dressed like a Ronald McDonald firefighter. What she lacks in nuance she makes up for in nonstop fire puns. Next Chicago’s glamorous Kahmora Hall saunters in glowing and is clearly unimpressed with Tina’s constant Joan Rivers impression but maintains a full pageant smile. No choice but to stan. Our final queen is the refreshingly optimistic Elliott with 2 T’s who busts in wearing a bolero jacket, some red pants from the store, and a short pink wig that screams “Sorry I’m late! Here’s my flash drive! I can go on whenever!” Elliott dances in sing-talking her entrance line like the TGIFriday’s server she is: “I’m the queen you want to see. Elliot with two T’s. Okay! Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh! Okay!” Elliot is a dancer from Las Vegas and has the unhinged camp counselor energy of someone with snacks in her purse at all times.

On the Mainstage Tina cycles through the last of her introductory fire puns and tells the judges she was in a boy band which honestly tracks. Tina and Rosé share a similar NYC gotta-get-a-gimmick energy but for some reason production has decided to give Rosé the womp womp edit and Tina the superstar edit. The song is Lady Marmalade because we haven’t been though enough and Kahmora serves subdued sexy glamour, Elliott does the splits, and Tina bobs and weaves between the two with full play-to-the-back-row comedy queen energy. Tina extinguishes the dreams of the other two and RuPaul sends the final two losers to the chokey.

The worst is over (we think) and our frazzled cast of hopefuls finally gets to know eachother in their two very different groups. The winning queens in the Werk Room are celebrating and as blissfully unaware of the doom around them as Miss Vanjie and Silky Ganache at a Puerto Vallarta circuit party during a pandemic. Over in Porkchop’s Junk Drawer the camera looms unnecessarily close to the crestfallen losers’ now disheveled wigs and sweat drenched makeup. Ru’s voice bellows over the speaker to tell this motley crew to get out and then as the last bit of light leaves their weary eyes she checks back in to tell them that she wasn’t serious! Oh good! Finally a moment of mercy for these once hopeful queens on their first day of RuPaul’s Wipeout! She then reveals that the full twist is that she is only going to send one home but they have to vote amongst the group of losers to decide who it is! Yes, that’s correct! This group of broken queens who just met and mostly have never seen eachother perform will now be expected to turn on eachother and give up their last bit of dignity to either grovel or just straight up fight with eachother! This must be what the Donner Party’s last night looked like. The queens look around broken and wounded but still hungry, their eyes barely open, their lacefronts only partially attached to their heads, and start deciding which of their own is about to get consumed. Her highness Tamisha Iman reminds them "Well, I'm the only black girl so don't vote me off” and just like that we are TO BE CONTINUED!

Thus concludes our first headspinning episode that despite being reliably frustrating has once again sucked us in and against our better judgement entertained us to the fullest! As for our 13 queens- you can use code HERSTORY on Talkspace while relaying tonite’s events to a sickening liscensed therapist!

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shannendoherty-fans · 4 years ago

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People, September 9th 1991

High School Confidential

By Tom Gliatto and Michael Alexander.

Photos by Mark Sennett.

Beverly Hills, 90210 Gets Its Heat from a Dangerously Cute Cast of TV's Hottest New Stars CONFIDENTIAL MEMO: FROM: The Vice Principal TO: The Faculty, High School U.S.A. I'm sure I don't need to remind you what happened when we didn't prepare for Bart Simpson last fall. The school was flooded with rude, antieducational T-shirts. Some cows were had. Well, as a new school year gets under way, I believe we face another daunting challenge: Brace yourselves for Beverly Hills, 90210. That's the Fox drama about unworldly twin teens Brandon and Brenda Walsh (played by Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty), recent transferees from Minneapolis to the Hills of Beverly. There they struggle to assimilate into the fast-lane lifestyle of West Beverly Hills High School, where the kids come equipped with BMWs, call waiting and designer surfboards. In the process, the teens examine their emerging identities and the problems that adolescents everywhere face.

The show languished in the Nielsen ratings against Thursday powerhouse Cheers last year. But Fox had no replacement, so it stayed. While we were on summer vacation, new 90210 episodes began airing, and the show landed in the Top 20, becoming the most popular show among teenagers. To some extent, I take responsibility for having ignored 90210. I made the mistake of reading newspaper critics instead of my daughter's diary, and so I believed, as Howard Rosenberg sniffed in the Los Angeles Times, that the show was merely a "ZIP code for stereotypes and stock characters." Little did I know that this show would mesmerize teens by doing emotionally realistic shows that involved adolescent rebellion, alcoholic; parents, a breast-cancer scare and plenty of worrisome teen sex. "Most shows for adolescents," says 90210 creator Darren Star, "seem like they are written by 50-year-olds who think teenagers behave like 7-year-olds."

It also doesn't hurt that the show's male stars, Priestley and Luke Perry (who plays brooding loner Dylan McKay), are "to die for," as my daughter puts it. These two have each been receiving about 1,500 fan letters a week. So be vigilant: Surely some of these will be written by our students...during class! And I'm afraid that 90210 is only going to get bigger with our kids, if producer Aaron Spelling is to be believed. "I thought The Mod Squad and Charlie's Angels got a lot of publicity in their heyday," says Spelling, whose company produced those shows, "but it doesn't compare to this. It's crazy. We have merchandising coming out of our ears"—a complete line of T-shirts, beach towels, notebooks, etc. "And now these actors can't walk down the street!"

Or even streak through malls. You probably saw those alarming news reports about a frenzied mob of 10,000 fans that stampeded Perry when he appeared at a south Florida mall last month. "It's a little scary," says Perry. Scarier is the amount of time students will waste this fall discussing Luke. And Jason. And who is sexier. I provide some information on the two. Jason Priestley, 22, plays Brandon Walsh, a model of thoughtful level-headedness. In real life, however, the brown-haired, blue-eyed star, who started acting in commercials at age 4 and played an orphan on that very nice NBC sitcom Sister Kate, is no Oliver Twist. He likes dirt bikes, bungee jumping and is a chain-smoker (just about the whole cast puffs it up—but not on-camera). Vancouver-born Priestley likes to hang out in Las Vegas. As for his real romantic life, he was reportedly dating actress Robin (Doogie Howser, M.D.) Lively last spring, but it seems likely that now he is too busy for such dalliance;. He must be on the set 14 hours a day, five days a week. To avoid ever-present fans, Priestley says, "I look different from my character when I'm just walking around. I don't shave, I don't dress like Brandon."

On the show, 26-year-old Luke Perry (Brenda Walsh's boyfriend, Dylan) sports a leather jacket, dagger sideburns and a squint that spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e. Although he grew up and graduated from high school in Fredericktown, Ohio, he seems to have attended James Dean wise-guy classes. Perry, who played country-boy Ned Bates on the ABC soap Loving, entertains the 90210 cast by strutting around bare-chested making jokes. Does he have a girlfriend? "No. You know how I can get in touch with Linda Hamilton?" What kind of music does he listen to? "Tom Jones is awesome." Are he and Priestley ever mistaken for each other? "He's mistaken for me on his good days." And 90210, he says, is "the best show on television, except for Jeopardy!" We should act quickly, faculty, when we see any signs that Beverly Hills, 90210 is disrupting normal student activity.

How abnormal might things get? Consider: "It's almost like there are cults," says Brian Austin Green, 18, the North Hollywood High grad who plays the cutely dweeby David Silver. "Girls go to school the day after the show, and they actually become these characters. They say, 'Okay, today I want to be Dylan, you can be Brenda, you can be Brandon.' " Needless to say, students caught pretending to be TV characters should be brought directly to my office for detention. But you know, it might not be a bad thing if our students could show some of the good sense that the 90210ers display in coping with the pressures of fame and fortune. Jennie Garth, 19, who plays the very sexy, very blond, very snotty Kelly Taylor, is particularly admirable. The youngest of seven children, she grew up on a farm near Champaign, Ill., until her schoolteacher parents moved to Phoenix when she was 13. "Living in a small town and coming from a very tight and close family instilled a lot of standards that I need to live up to," says Garth, who just bought a home in Sherman Oaks. She also recently supplied her parents with the down payment for their new home, setting a splendid example for today's youth.

According to a tabloid that someone left in the faculty lounge, Memphis-raised Shannen Doherty, 20, a veteran of such wonderful shows as Little House: A New Beginning, is the only cast member to be accused of behaving like "a spoiled brat" on the set. But she maintains she is no such thing. "I think everybody gets in a bad mood," Shannen says. "You do not work 16-hour days and not start feeling it. But I have never thrown a tantrum. I've gotten upset on the set, but it's never been just to be a bitch. You have to stand up for yourself in this business. That was something I was told when I was 12 years old and working with Michael Landon."

As with about half the cast members, Doherty is in a relationship—in her case, a real-estate developer with whom she's exchanged commitment rings. "You really have to date a while before you decide if this is the person you want to marry," she says with Brenda-like candor. Almost sounds like the relationship could be a future 90210 plot. "The problems of young people have accelerated," says Aaron Spelling, "and so have their feelings and thoughts." The show, he says, has kept pace: Even with their Clearasil-perfect complexions and plump allowances, the students at Beverly Hills have encountered their share of problems. "We had the guts to make Luke Perry be a member of AA," says Spelling. "We had Jason, our star, drinking and driving. That's reality."

And, apparently, the adulatory fan mail often includes a sad dose of that reality. "I got a letter the other day from a girl who mentioned the show we did on parental drug abuse," says Perry in a rare moment of seriousness. "She wrote about catching her father freebasing in the basement. I get letters like that all the time, from people all over the country." Gabrielle Carteris (at age 30, she's 90210's oldest cast-kid), who plays Andrea Zuckerman, the bright student who comes from the wrong side of Rodeo Drive, remembers an encouraging close encounter in a grocery store. "One girl came up to me after we'd done the breast-cancer show," says Carteris. "She said, 'I went home with all my friends and we checked our breasts for lumps.' "

In conclusion: Maybe I didn't need to write this memo. Maybe things won't be that bad, even if every locker in every corridor has a picture of Jason, Luke, Shannen or Jennie in it. Perhaps our dear little school is more like West Beverly Hills High—at least the TV version—than I thought. That's what Ian Ziering, 27, thinks too. "The reality on the show pretty much mirrors the way life is all over, in terms of teenagers," says New Jersey—bred Ziering, who once did Fruit of the Loom underwear ads and now plays 90210's curly-headed jock, Steve Sanders. "There's a mystique about Beverly Hills. But that's not what keeps people tuning in. The show could have been Montana E-I-E-I-O." By the way, should any student pronounce his name "eee-an," correct him or her, please. It's "eye-an."

-- WHEN BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 PREMIERED last October, Highlights, the student newspaper at Beverly Hills High, ran articles mocking the school's TV counterpart, West Beverly Hills High. "They said that the show was a joke," says Jenny Brandt, 14, a sophomore at the 1,900-student school. But as the story lines improved and Jason Priestley and Luke Perry became stars, the jokes stopped, and Brandt found herself, like many of her pals, glued to the set on Thursday nights from 9 to 10 P.M. "No phone calls allowed," says Brandt. "Except during commercials." Hope Levy, a 17-year-old senior, has taken fandom a step further with her friends. "We have little handmade cards," she says, speaking from her mom's car phone. "They say you're a member of Club 90210." While some kids think the show treats them as snobby stereotypes, most agree with sophomore Jordan Rynes when he says, "It's like a soap opera for teens. The shows dealing with drinking and drugs are the most real—adults don't realize how accurate it is."

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cyarskj1899 · 2 years ago

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Boys in Blue: a high school football team grapples with race, police and violence

Director Peter Berg followed a Minneapolis team in the wake of George Floyd’s killing for a revealing and knotty new docuseries

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Boys in Blue: a high school football team grapples with race, police and violence

i.guim.co.uk

Andrew Lawrence

@by_drewSat 7 Jan 2023 02.11 EST

YouTube

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i.guim.co.uk

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Boys in Blue is airing on Showtime in the US with a UK release to be announced

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