#the very real possibility that a series like this may never see another commercial release. the guest star spots were enough for me to

[mariocki]

Horror icon Ingrid Pitt guest stars as enemy agent Elayna in The Adventurer: Double Exposure (1.20, ITC, 1973)

[aion-rsa]

15 Best PlayStation One RPGs Ever Made

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In our look at the best Super Nintendo RPGs ever, we mentioned that the SNES is arguably the greatest RPG console in video game history. Well, if there is a console that makes that discussion an argument, it would have to be the PlayStation One. 

With a lot of help from Square, Sony quickly established the PlayStation as not just the home of incredible RPG experiences but as a console that was capable of effectively convincing people who previously had no real interest in RPGs that they absolutely needed to devote 50+ hours of their life to the next gaming epic. That sudden rise in genre popularity inspired some of the industry’s greatest RPG developers to try to outdo each other creatively and commercially. 

The result was a classic collection of role-playing experiences that still rank comfortably among the absolute best ever made. With due respect to the 20+ other games that deserve to be on this list, these are the 15 best PS1 RPGs ever made. 

15. The Legend of Dragoon

The Legend of Dragoon’s legacy has only grown since the game’s late 1999 release, and it’s not hard to see why. While this game was initially criticized for not living up to the standards of some of the other PS1 RPGs we’ll soon be talking about, time has been kind to the various things this game does so very well.

The Legend of Dragoon makes up for its slow story with an incredible combat system that emphasizes an almost QTE-like mechanic that helps ensure you’re rarely simply watching a battle play out. This RPG’s character transformation mechanic is also one of those brilliant gameplay concepts that should have been copied many times since this game’s release. There’s also always been something special about the fact that Legend of Dragoon‘s ambitious CGI cutscenes ensured this epic spanned four PS1 discs. 

14. Wild Arms

Wild Arms is another one of those PS1 RPGs that were initially overshadowed by some of the all-time classic games it had to compete against, but the thing that stood out about this title at the time is the thing that still makes Wild Arms special to this day: its style. 

Wild Arms‘ blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and western design concepts shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does here. Developer Media.Vision deserves a lot of credit for ensuring this game’s ambitious world always felt cohesive and for finding some truly clever ways to subvert genre expectations through this title’s approach to exploration, combat, and puzzles. 

13. Breath of Fire III

The Breath Of Fire III vs. Breath of Fire IV debate will likely not be settled here, but the third entry in this series ultimately gets my nod due to the ways it so clearly raised the bar for this franchise and its genre competition. 

Breath of the Fire III’s 3D visuals and voice acting helped sell this game’s engaging story, while the game’s combat and wonderful cast of characters ensured you were constantly engaged and ready to see where this absolute gem was going to take you next. 

12. Front Mission 3

Front Mission 3 rewards players willing to put the time into its fairly complex mechanics and deep storyline with one of the best tactical RPGs of the era and one of the best mech games ever made. 

This game is rightfully remembered for its customization options and often punishing tactical gameplay but I don’t know if it gets enough love for its faction-driven narrative and the ways its visuals convey epic mech battles without relying on more traditional action gameplay. 

11. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The only reason this all-time great game isn’t higher on the particular list is that there are just other PS1 RPGs that better represent the genre and the kind of epic experiences we think of when we think of one of the best RPG platforms ever. 

Having said that, the way that Symphony of the Night incorporated RPG elements not only changed the franchise forever but eventually helped inspire developers everywhere to enhance their own action titles by utilizing role-playing mechanics. This is still one of the best blends of role-playing and action/adventure ever made.

10. Valkyrie Profile

Long before God of War took us on a journey through Norse mythology, Valkyrie Profile caught many PS1 gamers by surprise with its unique blend of Japanese design and a Norse narrative that tasks you with assembling the perfect party of heroes to assist you through Ragnarok.

Valkyrie Profile‘s true calling card, though, is its turn-based combat system that essentially assigns a button to each character in your party. Getting the most out of your party of heroes requires you to successfully assign each character the right actions at the right time in order to unleash powerful combo attacks. It’s complex, original, and a whole lot of fun. 

9. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete 

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete may have started off as a Sega Saturn title, but it’s hard not to ultimately remember this as a PS1 game due to the many ways that Sony’s first console allowed Lunar’s developers to share their full vision for this classic. 

It’s true that Lunar is an “old-school” JRPG in a lot of ways that might turn some people off, but when level grinding, party management, and methodical turn-based gameplay are done this well, it’s hard not to see this as one of the ultimate genre comfort zones. 

8. Star Ocean: The Second Story

It’s hard to talk about Star Ocean without eventually getting around to the fact that it has almost 90 possible endings, so let’s not bury the lede. What’s even more impressive than the game’s number of possible endings, though, is the fact that many of those endings are clever, logical, and, in their own ways, complete. 

Really, though, this game’s incredible number of possible conclusions just highlights the various ways this sci-fi/fantasy title makes you feel like every action you do truly matters and that anything can happen. I also have to pay respect to this game’s brilliant “private action” system: a unique mechanic that allows your party members to have their own adventures that ultimately contributes to some of the best sidequests in RPG history.

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Games

25 Best RPGs Ever Made

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Was Final Fantasy Really the First JRPG?

By Matthew Byrd

7. Xenogears

Xenogears features a fascinating blend of styles and mechanics that is quite appropriate considering the details of this game’s complicated development history (it started off as a pitch for Final Fantasy VII before briefly being designed as a Chrono Trigger sequel). Admittedly, there are times when you can tell this game is trying to find its creative voice and gameplay footing. 

Yet, all the concepts this RPG touches upon ultimately come together to form something wonderful and memorable. It features one of the best ATB combat systems ever, a complex and creative story, a lot of heart, great visuals, and a truly incredible soundtrack. Sure, the game struggles a bit in the second half, but it’s easy enough to overlook those shortcomings as the byproduct of ambition. 

6. Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII should be a victim of its own success. After all these years, all the praise, and all of the discussions, you would think we’d be at the point where the dreaded term “overrated” might linger just above this game’s legacy. 

That’s not the case, though. Maybe Final Fantasy VII was eventually surpassed, but it’s truly tragic to imagine what RPG gaming in the ‘90s and early 2000s would have been like if it wasn’t for this game. It alerted millions to the fact they loved video game RPGs, and it did it without sacrificing depth, quality, heart, or ambition. 

5. Final Fantasy Tactics

Considered by many at the time to be the best tactical RPG ever made, it has to be said that the most impressive thing about Final Fantasy Tactics is the fact that it’s still difficult to argue against this game’s claim to that title nearly 24 years after its release.

Final Fantasy Tactics‘ surprisingly accessible (yet still deep and rewarding) gameplay perfectly complements its colorful visuals, engaging character, and surprising story. I don’t know if it’s the best tactical RPG ever made, but it may always be seen as the standard in the eyes of many. 

4. Vagrant Story

It feels like people have been waiting for Vagrant Story to get the love it deserves ever since the game was released in 2000. While Vagrant Story absolutely has a cult following, it seems pretty clear at this point that it’s just never going to reach that level. It’s too difficult, too different, and it will probably never get the remaster it deserves. 

However, those who have played Vagrant Story know it was Square’s most mechanically ambitious and unique PlayStation RPG. From its stunning visuals to its deep combat and mature narrative, Vagrant Story has honestly aged better than all but a few of the games of this era. A game this different and innovative shouldn’t feel as complete and confident as it does. 

3. Chrono Cross

From the moment Chrono Cross was released, it feels like the first line about this game has been that it disappointed those who were expecting a direct follow-up to Chrono Trigger. Even when we learned that the Chrono Cross team never really saw this as a Chrono Trigger sequel, Chrono Cross still lived in the shadow of its all-time great predecessor.

Maybe there are ways that Chrono Cross would have been better off sticking closer to that SNES classic, but even at the time of its somewhat controversial release, many praised Chrono Cross for its innovative combat, weird and wonderful story, large cast of characters, music, visuals, and commitment to defying expectations at every turn. This shouldn’t be your first PS1 RPG, but it might be the one you end up remembering most fondly. 

2. Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX was essentially Square’s PS1 swan song. While the title’s return to the medieval fantasy style of classic FF games highlights the studio’s jovial mood at the time, the fact is that many people wondered if Square could recover from the controversial Final Fantasy VIII and produce an RPG that effectively ended their unbelievable run of hits in style. 

The fact they managed to do just that is an accomplishment that should never be overlooked. To this day, I struggle to think of even a handful of RPGs that challenge Final Fantasy IX’s charm, humor, and cast of characters while still providing a role-playing adventure that will feel rewarding to veterans and newcomers alike. This is an across-the-board triumph that delights and impresses in equal measure. 

1. Suikoden II

Suikoden II was pretty much “doomed to fail” from the start. It was released in the wake of Final Fantasy VIII’s massive debut, wasn’t widely distributed, and featured “retro” graphics that initially turned quite a few people off at the time of cinematic PS1 visuals. It didn’t help that its predecessor was a very good, but not great, RPG that also failed to find a wide audience. 

Yet, Suikoden II is quite simply one of the best games ever made regardless of genre. I would love to tell you about its nuanced and deep politically-driven narrative, varied combat system, minigames, world-building elements, and score, but how long can you really talk about Suikoden II without getting around to its cast of over 100 recruitable characters and the ways Konami managed to make each and every one of them (as well as their interactions with each other) among the best of their era? 

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I wouldn’t call this a perfect game, but at the same time, I’m struggling to think of a single thing I’d change about it. 

The post 15 Best PlayStation One RPGs Ever Made appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[meggannn]

thank god im not the only other asian girl who came to realize how weirdly orientalist atla/lok is.

i hope you don’t mind me using this ask as a springboard to get some of my thoughts down (i edited this once and that fucked up the read more, so i tried several times to put this behind a cut again but tumblr hates me so i guess now everyone has to read my beef ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

my friend said last night that ATLA is like the new harry potter with the way people talk about it and..... yknow she’s not entirely wrong.....

like, not to keep pulling this card, but ~as a half-asian~, i have been struggling with this show a lot over the past few months; before even the show came to netflix, i was seeing a resurgence of ATLA stan culture. the hype of the live-action series and the release of the kyoshi novels have also amplified this. i reblog posts because i do still enjoy it, but i have been abstaining from reblogging commentary that so obviously glorifies it.

part of this burst-bubble effect is my problem, because i strongly dislike how people talk about certain characters and ships (and i admit that frustration is seeping through what ATLA did right) and observing fandom favorites makes me think that a lot of points were missed: people love toph, but hate korra (even people who think they love korra only because she’s one half of korrasami, actually do hate korra lmfao); people love zuko but completely ignore aang; don’t get me started on the fandom’s embracing of korrasami/subsequent forgiving of the patronizing, disrespectful, borderline racist way bryke did it. that is fan behavior, and it all bothers me and is no doubt coloring my judgment of the actual show, but beyond that, i also do want people to realize and accept “wait a minute, plenty of the things we criticize other media for also exist in ATLA, and it shouldn’t be different just because this show is full of asians.”

part of me wants to — and does — celebrate that a pan-asian show, in which NO white characters and NO trace of western culture exists, was a critical and commercial success in 2005! and had full network support and resonated with kids of different backgrounds. i can appreciate and be happy of that. but “no western culture” doesn’t mean “no western influence”: it’s an asian fantasy world created by non-asians, so the staff still ultimately wrote a pretty western story. the treatment of the fire lord imperialist dynasty is the big one (iroh was a war criminal who only left the warfront because his actions affected him/his family but now he’s a old friendly Good Guy and never acknowledges the lives he’s ruined! everything is ok now that zuko is fire lord! not like his new friends will have any direct trauma or conflicting feelings with how he is now heading a nation that burned two out of three of their homelands to the ground and tried to burn the third too! now here are all our headcanons about katara/sokka being fire lord/lady, toph being a fire lord advisor, and aang being an air nation rep to the fire nation! perfect ending!!), but also the themes of a pretty straightforward good kids v evil conqueror story, watered-down concepts of buddhism/taoism/others for child consumption — some of these are not strictly bad things, but they don’t make it the best story in the world. they are not worth saying “stop watching x problematic cartoon, watch ATLA, the BEST cartoon with the BEST diversity!!!!”

side note, my friend looked it up last night and there was a total of one asian writer on the staff, May Chan, who according to wiki, just wrote the Boiling Rock episodes. (at this juncture i want to keep in mind that someone in the writer’s or developer’s room might be in my situation, possibly mixed race but white-passing in both face and name... it’d be hypocritical of me to not consider that possibility, but as far as i know that’s not the case, and in any respect i think it’s important to have visible diversity, not because i think mixed people don’t have anything to say or shouldn’t be counted, but in the sense that poc who don’t get the luxury of being white-passing should be allowed control of depicting people who look like them. but that’s another discussion.)

honestly, i can look over some aspects of this show because i still do enjoy it. i like the use of martial arts as a fantastical magic device because it was used consistently and clearly they did their research, even if it does kind represent this idea of Asia, the Land of Magic Powers; i don’t mind because not everyone has the magic powers, the magic powers are deconstructed, people without the magic powers are still treated respectfully, the magic powers are diverse, and they are treated both practically and spiritually (so not everyone, like sokka, has the same awe-inspiring respect of them, which is realistic characterization to this world, and though he’s sometimes portrayed as incorrect in his disbelief of the spiritual, he’s never portrayed as wrong for being practical and realistic). honestly, i don’t mind the oohs and aahs of these magic powers because i still think the magic powers are pretty fuckin cool; it’s likely we’ve all pretended to be a bender at some point lol. and as a kid, i didn’t mind that ATLA nations blended cultures; i thought it was fun to look up later and see which sorts of things were made up and which were influenced by real things (i liked that not a lot if it was made up). i don’t mind that Lake Laogai was named after a real, horrifying place, though i understand and completely respect that plenty of others find the name disturbing and tasteless.

that said, as an adult coming to ATLA for the first time, I would probably not go this hard for a show that blends a bunch of real ethnicities together in a hodgepodge of culture clashes, at least not one spearheaded by a white developer team. i would be less willing to ignore the northern air temple episode, where aang, victim of a genocide, forgives a bunch of strangers who disrespected and destroyed his home (including the guy who was NOW INVENTING WAR WEAPONS FOR THE VERY NATION THAT DESTROYED HIS PEOPLE). i can mostly look over these things because of nostalgia. but the way people outright stan the whole avatar series (including LOK but i won’t get into that right now) without acknowledging ATLA is, ultimately, still a story with a pretty western handling of its themes just with asian faces, is..... frustrating.

a new coworker of mine, also an asian woman who was too old to watch ATLA at the time it was airing, has said that the more she learns about ATLA as an adult the weirder she feels about it and less inclined she is to watch it, which makes me think that maybe i’m not crazy.

[androidgram0]

Grand Theft Auto 5 - 4 Ways to enhance Your Sequel

L.A. Noire is great. Really great, even. a way welcomed breath of fresh air to a medium that nearly never cares to require itself seriously. except for me? Personally? it is a teaser. A bone on which to gnaw while the most course is being prepared in some mystical laboratory where video games are birthed. That main course is grand larceny Auto 5. GTA3 was the primary game I played on the (incredible) PS2 console and, ever since, I've held video games to a better standard of quality. It knocked down all the walls of the traditional game (figuratively and literally) and pushed the bar for the 3rd person perspective and literally created the open world genre.

Flash forward to today. grand larceny Auto 4 has been out for quite 3 years and, despite the critical and commercial successes of Red Dead Redemption and now L.A. Noire, I find myself primed for subsequent GTA. albeit we should be another year or more faraway from it's actual release there still are the standard signs and rumors that it'd already be in development. And with E3 being right round the corner, I feel it'd be the proper time to mention the question: What do i would like from a replacement GTA?

Modern Multiplayer

There's nothing wrong with GTA4's multiplayer, so to talk . Competitive multiplayer was fair, fun and it worked. The free roam mode may be a dream come true for fans of the series. With or against online players, it enabled you to explore the rich detail of the planet and plan to achieve completely absurd and arbitrary goals, like "How many vehicles can we slot in this nutriment restaurant?" or "How long can we survive holed up during this bank against cops?" and therefore the fan favorite "How am i able to ruin what everyone else is trying to try to to by running them over?". Possibilities are, for lack of a less cliche description, endless. It's fun, but it isn't perfect. Matchmaking, and therefore the basic online UI, wasn't as intuitive because it might be and it could. Unlocking more appearance pieces was arcane and poorly explained (if at all).

So will GTAV's multiplayer be any different? in fact it'll . it'll probably adopt an equivalent infrastructure that made Red Dead Redemption's online a hit . But i feel letting it fall to the wayside may be a mistake. Grant that extra little bit of functionality. Let the creator of a free roam match dictate the principles of the planet dynamically and seemlessly. Allow them to summon all players to one location-- these simple added functions expedite the method to set-up those awesome moments. The money-for-appearance system shouldn't get away completely, it should just be overhauled. getting to a store to shop for hard-earned cash (via competitive multiplayer) on goods for there avatars appearance? People eat that stuff up. Each subsequent DLC release improved the multiplayer, but I could see the multiplayer being lost on those that didn't bother digging deep into it's possibilities. Remember those nifty multiplayer-centric trailers RDR got? Let's have a number of that.

Mission Variety

GTA's single-player is lost on those without a particular degree of patience. The core gameplay can get fairly repetitive: attend this location and kill so then , drive this person to the present place and avoid the inevitable encounter. More often than not, it's "blah blah and oh yeah, kill something". This wasn't the case for The Ballad of Gay Tony, however. The missions introduced were a number of the foremost inventive and theatric I've ever seen. This was because the story was shorter and more condensed. i feel I represent tons of individuals once I say we'd rather have a shorter, more memorable story than one that's longer and dragged out. Will this happen? Probably not. GTA is one among the most important Ip's within the industry and when people hand over their $59.99 they expect a particular amount of content-- an invisible threshold that justifies their purchase. So a more practical request could be to extend the archetypes of the missions that you simply run. rather than a 4 different mission variations with a special coat of paint.

Import/Export Garages

Import Export garages were a stimulating feature only present in GTA3. They were a kind of side mission that asked players to seek out and deliver cars from an inventory . Once all cars were delivered, the player then had access to any of the aforementioned vehicles by visiting the garage. it is a very simple concept that asks an arduous task for a reasonably cool reward. Why this feature never returned to any of the subsequent GTA's, i do not know. And why stop there? Enable import/export garages in free roam at the hosts discretion. Allowing players to manifest any car they please (with an inexpensive cool down) given they've completed the work to try to to so in single-player could leave some really fun and straightforward functionality during a free roam environment.

Relationship System (kinda)

Both GTA4 with it's quirky online dating service and therefore the Ballad of Gay Tony with it's redundant and useless "booty call" side-mission (if you'll call It that) have entertained the thought of a relationship system, but not even at a 'not gonna happen' spoof level (as many things are in GTA), but at A level that required some consideration. Now, I'm not suggesting that since GTA4 dipped it's toes into the dating sub-genre that it's successor have a full fledged relationship mode, but rather it include a kind of progressive affiliation leveling system with any sort of entity.

In GTA4 there have been many "put out, get back" instances-- this could be expanded upon. rather than doing 'x' amount of missions to receive one 'y' reward, mix alittle story in and make the reward less transparent. deem instance the tiny named quests during a game like Oblivion or Fallout 3. You join one so-and-so group/club/faction, do missions that effect it, get up the ranks and obtain access to it's resources. This almost spills over into the mission variety request, except for side-missions. Maybe, almost like Club Management in TBOGT, there might be no real end thereto , just a singular thanks to make money. to raised summarize, they're more elaborate side-missions.

For more info:-

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[daggerzine]

Other Music documentary (2019- directed by Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller)  review by Dina Hornreich

“It is harder to put together than to take apart.” A plain and not-so simple comment coming from the former Other Music Record Store co-owners, Josh Madell and Chris Vanderloo, who are prominently featured in the film, as these words underscore a scene in which their crew is dismantling their once hallowed CD sales racks in preparation for the store’s reluctant closure. OM used to herald as a beacon of hope in NYC’s bustling offbeat East Village neighborhood, a cultural hub known as St. Marks Place – not far from New York University. (If you asked any New Yorker for directions, they would enthusiastically tell you to simply “get off at the stop for Astor Place Station from the #6 or #4 [subway] train: you will see the gigantic cube immediately after exiting the station...can’t miss it!”)

The OM store opened its doors in 1996, and officially closed in 2016. Twenty years is a very good run for any kind of establishment such as this one, especially in the Big Apple – a fact that was not taken lightly by the two makers of this film who each were an employee and a regular customer at the establishment themselves! And like the store itself: the film is an endeavor for music nerds by music nerds. (And, obviously, this Dagger Zine review is no different.)

For creatively inclined weirdos like us, OM was a place of refuge. It was a major meta-musical mecca that happened to take the form of a retail outlet which is a very bold endeavor to consider: an unusual existence as a cultural outlet that strove to challenge our knowledge, expand our awareness, and promote the discovery of completely unknown (even uncomfortable) expressions. This mentality was not conducive whatsoever to the slick sales-driven experience one might come to expect upon shopping for any traditional kind of consumable commodities. And we certainly did not receive that kind of treatment while shopping there anyway!

OM’s purpose was contrary to basic principles of economics because it was run by artistic types who believed in a much higher purpose behind what they were selling: it was a community focused approach. In doing so, they completely confounded the basic notion that we were purchasing mere commercial products to be unloaded for profit (like toothpaste). The store’s very existence was a subversive act of culture jamming in and of itself. This information in conjunction with a solid awareness of the cut-throat and risky nature involved with doing any kind of enterprising endeavors in NYC is extremely pertinent. (I was once told that any restaurant in NYC would be far more successful if it were in another location simply because the competition alone would be considerably less stiff.)

Instead, they were offering something very unusual to their customers by incorporating some kind of pseudo-quasi-intellectual discourse using extraordinarily inventively stylistic fusions and/or varied often inconceivable sonic experiments to create such astute, pithy, and massively passionate descriptions that would be entirely ineffective as a sales strategy to the less tolerant/picky shoppers at the overpowering Tower Records across the street. The store had a unique energy that was entirely its own manifestation. Bin categories had mysterious names such as: in, then, decadanse, etc. that baffled even the artists whose own work was often filed underneath them, as evidenced by the hesitant testimony provided by indie rock luminary Dean Wareham (of the bands Galaxie 500 and Luna). In fact, these idiosyncratically descriptive insider taxonomies were typically used as a rite of passage upon orienting new store employees to OM’s unique aesthetic.  

The delectably raw live in-store performance footage of more acquired tastes, but definitely well-loved by those “in the know,” included bands who simply could not have thrived in the same ways at more conventional outlets: The Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Rapture, etc. The most delightfully peculiar act might have been delivered by a performer named Gary Wilson whose legendary appearance began with him surreptitiously entering the store while beneath a blanket and then (from behind the scenes, presumably) covering himself in talcum powder prior to seizing the stage with unabashedly alarming flamboyance – with only the playful tunes that would we expect to appropriately match that indelible image so gloriously!

And that was precisely the point: they were unequivocally rebelling against more conventional music consumption habits by offering an entirely different kind of taste-making experience that was kind of less palatable overall – and, in doing so, they even helped launch the careers of some important figures: Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, and Interpol. The description of the “consignment” process for emerging artists who managed to attain a place on their sanctified shelves seemed extraordinarily modest considering the scope and nature of the impact it offered. There was a lot of social currency behind the OM brand.

The inclusion of a parody skit starring Aziz Anzari and Andy Blitz (available here as well https://youtu.be/YN1mKiQbi4g), followed by the various customer testimonials (including actor and musician Jason Schwartzman), indicated that they may have exuded more than a hint of an unflatteringly, even off-putting, air of NYC hipster pretentiousness akin to that portrayed in the Nick Hornby book, Stephen Frears movie, and/or the new Hulu series (involving both Hornby and Frears): High Fidelity. However, there were clearly very good reasons for them to do this: They represented an extreme mishmash of strange characters who collectively embodied all the historically marginalized shapes, sizes, colors among other attributes that would not have been celebrated (or considered marketable) elsewhere. If they weren’t a little snooty, they probably would have been mocked entirely – as evidenced by an astute and pithy comment by a long-time store employee describing Animal Collective as appearing like a “sinister Fraggle Rock on acid.”

These artists never aspired to becoming real “rock stars” anyway – on the contrary, they embodied the antithesis of that concept. (A point made abundantly clear as they bookended the film with footage of ordinary musicians simply marching through the streets of NYC.) Literally, OM offered shelter to those of us who are able to truly appreciate the anthemic idea behind the phrase: “songs in the key of Z.” It was a place for gathering the outsiders among outsiders, in other words.

It is impossible to ignore various impressive personalities who made appearances throughout the film, in both large and small roles. This includes but is not limited to major NYC scene contributors such as Lizzy Goodman, author of the equally compelling and similarly themed book: Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock’n Roll in New York City 2001-2011. Footage in the film included key figures in influential bands including: TV on the Radio, Le Tigre, The National, Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (all of whom are also featured in Goodman’s book). You can also see glimpses of varied lesser known, yet supremely compelling figures of that era, including writers Kandia Krazy Horse and Geeta Dayal, and former store employees such as Lisa Garrett and Gerald Hammill.

These conversations take place until we eventually witness the demise of Tower across the street (and its many ilk of like-minded big box stores) which clearly signaled the ever-looming end for Vanderloo and Madell’s opus-like enterprise. A point that musician Stephin Merritt, best known for so many stellar masterpieces with his longest-running outfit, The Magnetic Fields, emphasizes upon casually observing the degrading presence of a fitness studio franchise that has since taken up residence in the spot that used to house Tower’s second floor. (I failed to try and restrain myself from recalling a new sense of irony from the lyrical lines that Merritt himself had written and recorded around 1991: “Why do we still live here.. In this repulsive town? All our friends are in New York.”)

There is also a bit of an underlying insinuation only apparent from random customer shots throughout the store regarding a possible impact from the Rough Trade Records shop that had recently opened in Brooklyn around the time of OM’s closing. This is exceedingly apparent to this biased writer herself who personally ventured out to that Williamsburg location last year for an in-store performance with NYU Punk Professor, Vivien Goldman, who had just published her own book Revenge of the She Punks. An event whose audience clearly included some members of the OM community featured in this film as I recall the store had heavily lauded her Resolutionary compilation album release prior to its official closing.

As the film successfully affirms the significance behind record store culture (especially in a global hub like NYC) which has long been hailed as a sacred gathering space for various misfits and weirdos who might find significantly less understanding and/or productive social outlets in other circumstances; its unavoidable bittersweet conclusion dramatically asserts how disappointing it is for us to witness the complete loss in their consistently tenuous financial viability as we are well into the digital information age – if not for the simple fact that paying for music (or any kind of intellectual property) is more commonly perceived as an anachronistic practice which is a clear and painful affront to all the prescient creative geniuses who are struggling to make an honest living off their work.

The film highlights the many multifaceted aspects that we fondly and endearingly associate with the appreciation of music that lies at the heart of the irrational fervor behind record collecting culture: the smell of the vinyl itself, the enormous visual impact around the artists’ choices for cover art, the substantial weight it possesses when we remove it from the sleeve, the delicacy necessary to handle vinyl so as to minimize any potential damage, its often very limited quantities as it is not cost-efficient to produce (the obscurity is intrinsically part of the exhilaration surrounding this “hunt”) among other substantial inconveniences that more or less confirm this as an unproductive – if not entirely illogical – endeavor overall!

Of course, it has always been very apparent to us that we were engaged in some insanely addictive bizarre kinds of quests that kept leading us to this absurd little locale in the first place – desperately trying to pacify some nebulous and insatiable deep cravings that we couldn’t always articulate… yet it always kept us coming back for more! As Mac McCaughan from the bands Superchunk and Portastic, as well as co-owner of Merge Records, astutely concludes: “They knew what you wanted before you knew.” (Of course, they did!)

The overarching and staunch message of this film is most apparent during the final closing scenes when we are eavesdropping on a conversation that the former co-owner, Josh Madell, is having with his young daughter about simply streaming the Hamilton Soundtrack on Spotify because the vinyl copy would have cost her $90 in the store. Perhaps even more ironic, of course, might be suggested by the very relevant context in which we find ourselves today: the annual Record Store Day celebratory event with which the film’s re-release was planned to coincide obviously could not happen. As a result, I was reluctantly watching it, albeit self-consciously, on my 13” laptop screen in my home office during the self-quarantine of COVID-19. Half the proceeds for the “tickets” were to be used to support one of my favorite local record shops here in Denver, CO, Twist and Shout, who may or may not be able to reopen as this pandemic situation evolves.

There are bigger questions to contemplate as the tide of change has only just begun in ways that only a tragedy, such as a worldwide pandemic, can facilitate for even the most obstinate luddites who have no choice but to incorporate regular use of digital formats in their daily habits – and we totally have, of course! This documentary remains as unequivocal evidence of the viability behind OM as it stood as an historic cultural hub that transcended the fundamental premise behind a commercial retail outlet. (Even though retail was once considered the only aspect of the industry where substantial money could be made. In fact, a measure of an artists’ success was often the number of albums they actually sold.) As its impact clearly exceeds its impressive years as a store-front operated business, it may also indicate a shortcoming in mainstream outlets who tend to ignore, silence, dismiss, and otherwise relegate the disempowered voices in our community – which, of course, are the major reasons that forced us to seek out these alternate forums in the first place.

The role of arts and culture for society is in fact to provide the very same opportunities that OM offered to us, which is (to reiterate that point from above) to provide an opportunity for discourse that challenges our knowledge, expands our awareness, and promotes the discovery of the completely unknown (even uncomfortable) expressions. These conversations give our lives meaning and force us to continually improve ourselves on many levels. While such commentaries could be considered an acquired taste or even an entirely esoteric endeavor, the crucial sensibilities they offer hold enormous potential for a world that honestly seems to need to hear from us… now more than ever!

If only we could find a better way to invite the integration of our perspectives into the bigger conversations? So that we can participate in the innovations for the changed world that will be waiting for us – and to ensure that it will be a more inclusive place for all of us. Which is perhaps what we ultimately (and so desperately) need, want, and deserve. The alternatives seem frighteningly Orwellian… at the risk of seeming a bit histrionic.

http://www.factorytwentyfive.com/other-music/?fbclid=IwAR3wtvtOKKC46YmfwjB6zv0wp5GMh4YBHFuWk0aLOti5m2NSs8PFChjrK4M

[kee-writestrashh]

Guns for Hire

Ramsay Bolton x Reader

ao3

Summary:  You are the wife to the Heir of the Red Kings, Ramsay Bolton. living the undercover life of a mob wife has its perks, and you love your husband. But you find out something that seems to unfold a series of unwanted events…

Chapter 55: Sigyn and Loki

You slowly wandered the halls of the house, not sure where you were going. Nor did you care. Misery and anger licked at your insides like a white hot fire.

You entered the den and found Liz sitting there watching one of her Sunday night shows.

You took a seat beside her, not looking at her as you stared at the television.

"Join us tonight on the news at ten as we bring you a new developing story. Multimillionaire Ramsay Bolton, a simple businessman or a violent crime boss?"

You tutted at the commercial, chest tight in anger. Liz gave your hand a small squeeze before she rose from the couch.

"Need anything from the kitchen?" She asked.

"No thank you." You replied curtly, still staring at the television.

You lost track if time as you sat there in numbness and self pity. All of this was so wrong. Ramsay being accused of the Stark murders. The only crimes against him that he had nothing to do with. Who was the rat? How could you find this person? Or was it a group of persons?

You sighed, pulling your feet up and tucking them under you, as you grabbed a throw pillow and buried your face in it. The silence of being alone was haunting. Liz had long since left to put Kaden to bed. But it was fine. You didn't want to be bothered by anyone or to see anyone.

What was Ramsay doing? Was he scheming and putting things together? Did he miss you? Was he possibly laying on his shit bunk thinking about you?

The tears were hot and steady as the slid down your cheeks. You gave a small jerk as your son awoke to do his usual nightly gymnastics practice. His movements were getting stronger, and more painful.

Now that you took the time to sit and feel and listen to your body, you ached all over. All of you felt heavy and tense. It reflected how your heart felt.

"(Y/n)?" Came Ben's voice.

You sniffed, wiping the tears away furiously, and turning to see Ben, and a man who must have been Skinner.

He looked like a lawyer. He had a haughty, lying, snake like air about him. Maybe he wasn't to be trusted either. Was there really anyone to trust?

You stood from your seat and met the men halfway across the room.

"(Y/n), this is Skinner. Skinner, Ramsay's wife, (y/n)." Ben said introducing you both.

Skinner held his hand out. You took it, noting how warm and unnaturally soft his skin was. You dropped the handshake quickly.

"A real pleasure, Mrs. Bolton." Skinner said with a cold smile.

He had a silky, oily voice that seemed to match his unemotional eyes.

"Please, (y/n) will do." You said, offering a polite smile.

"Mind if we talk over a few quick matters? I know it's getting late, but the sooner the board is set, the sooner this is over." Skinner said, glancing the room over.

"Yeah, sure. I've got nowhere else to be." You shrugged.

"Excellent." The man said, walking past you to take a seat on a sofa.

You and Ben followed. You resumed your seat on the couch and Ben sat beside you. No one spoke as Skinner pulled papers and a pen from the briefcase he had been holding.

"Now, the list of offenses is pretty extensive here. Honestly never seen the likes of it. Ranging from petty crimes all the way up to the Stark murders. We have established that Ramsay did not engage in any of these murders?" Skinner said, glancing between you and Ben.

"Right." Ben nodded.

"Where was Ramsay the night Ned Stark was gunned down?"

"With me. We had gone to the theater downtown. The Mockingbird. We met his father, Tywin Lannister, his children, Joffrey Baratheon, and the two youngest Tyrell's there. We stayed for most of the play and then Ramsay got bored. So we left. As we sat in the back of the limo at a stoplight, multiple cop cars flew past. As soon as we got home he got ready to shower and I turned the tv on to catch the news and that was how we discovered Ned Stark had been killed and his eldest daughter kidnapped." You said, recalling that night. It felt like a million years ago, now.

"What about the night Robb Stark and his mother and lover died?" Skinner asked.

"He was with me. Roose gave us a job. We were nowhere near where the Stark's were murdered." Ben said.

Skinner nodded. "These are the accusations we are most concerned with. The others, while they do pose a threat, are not seen as, um, important as murder in the eyes of the public. Now, what are we going to do?"

"Kind of thought that was why you are here." You said rather rudely.

Skinner chuckled, "No, no. I mean, how are we going to persuade the public Ramsay is innocent? The Stark's were a very loved family in the community."

"What is there to do?" You asked, brain feeling a bit slack and torpid.

"You. You are the key." Skinner said pointedly, giving you a long look.

"Rams told me that I..." You began.

Skinner held his hand up to stop you, "we have a press interview tomorrow. Play your part and it will help Ramsay's defense."

"I don't want to talk to anyone." You frowned.

Skinner tutted, "You will. The public will love you if you come at it the right way. Six months pregnant, husband thrown in jail after being roughed up by the police for crimes he didn't commit. While instead of relaxing and getting ready for the arrival of your first child, you are stressing, struggling,  and miserable with your husband in jail for no reason. It's damaging to your health and your child's health. It's a story the public will eat up. Ramsay is a charmer, and if you do your part, there will be an outcry for his release as soon as possible."

You stared at Skinner through narrowed eyes for a few moments and then sighed with a nod, "What time?"

"Three. At the courthouse." He replied almost immediately.

"Then, I will be there. What about my husband? Surely they can't keep him."

"I'm working on that. Just a simple matter of talking to the right people at the right time." Skinner said, scribbling down a few things on a notepad and returning his belongings to the briefcase.

"We will win, won't we?" You asked, hating the desperate tone in your voice.

"We will. There's nothing to hold up. I owe Ramsay. So, I will work all my magic and get him cleared. By the way, judge is signing the search warrant tomorrow, according to my sources. Make sure this place is clean. Now, if I could get those alibis I will get out of your hair for the night." Skinner said, rising from his seat.

Ben stood too, "Yeah, no problem."

"Until tomorrow then." Skinner said, nodding at you before he left with Ben.

You nodded back, watching them leave.

You sat in the silence a few moments longer before deciding maybe you would go to bed.

The hot water of the shower did nothing to wash away the muck of the day. You couldn't remember ever feeling so miserable. You didn't trust this lawyer. He was just as much of a rat as whoever set up Ramsay.

Moose looked at you through his big, brown eyes from the foot of the bed as you sat on the edge of the bed with a frustrated sigh. He whimpered. You looked around at him.

"Come here, mutt." You said gently.

Tail wagging he slowly belly crawled across the bedspread to you, burying his massive head under your arm.

You yawned and fell back into the bed as your phone rang. You frowned, sitting up, and swiping your phone from the bedside table: mom

You took a deep breath and answered, "hey mom."

"Baby, is everything okay? We just watched the news. What's going on?" your mother said, worry encasing every word she spoke.

"I wish I knew what to tell you, momma. But I'm kind of at a loss. Somebody set Ramsay up. Just like over that bank shit. Somebody is really gunnin' for him. Mom, I don't know what to do." You said, voice cracking as you spoke.

Your phone made a noise in your ear. You pulled it away to see a message.

[E: everything good? Saw the news.]

"Just stay strong baby. Pray about it. Do you need anything?"

"A hug honestly. I just want to cry and scream. Someone out there is dragging my last name through the mud and pointing fingers at my husband." You said, swallowing thickly.

Another ding:

[Olyvar: you okay?]

You wished people would leave you alone.

"I know it is easier said than done, but try not to stress it baby. It's not good for you. Especially right now. Take care of yourself and that baby. Everything will be okay. If you need anything at all let me know and I will be there. I love you baby."

"I love you too, momma." You sniffed, hanging up before she could say anymore.

[You: no. I'm not okay, E. I'm angry. I want answers and no one seems to have any.]

[You: guess I'm okay as I can be. Why didn't you call me today?]

You stared at your black phone screen for a few moments, deciding to wander to the kitchen and find something to eat to drown your misery.

You entered the kitchen to find Matt and Alyn at the table, fighting over a jar of salsa. They both looked tired and irritable.

"May I ask what you two are doing?" You asked, raising a brow at them as you opened a cabinet.

"I told the Kid I was finishing this jar and to get his own, but he doesn't want to open a new one." Alyn said, stabbing Matt on top of the hand with a chip.

"Where have y'all been all evening?" You asked, taking the jar from them, along with the bag of chips.

"Cleaning. You never realize how much illegal shit there is hidden, until you have to find it all and move it." Matt said, rubbing the top of his hand.

"So we're good? Nothing to find?" You asked, pouring the remaining contents of the jar into a bowl and setting it on the table.

"Nothing. Dogs won't hit anything either." Alyn said with a nod as you pulled an unopened salsa jar from the pantry.

"Good. Alyn, do you know Skinner?" You asked, setting the jar between you and Matt as you sat down.

"Oh yeah. Dick bag, but he's loyal to Ramsay." Alyn nodded sagely.

"Why?" You asked, fingering a chip.

"Not sure. Know Ramsay pulled some strings and helped him out of a real tight spot. But I don't know. Damon was the only one who knew."

You sighed, "I miss Damon. I feel like none of this would be happening if we hadn't lost him."

"It'll be alright. We will make it through. Always do. As you know, Ramsay should have a felony record, but as you also know, he does not. Just another rough day at the office." Alyn shrugged, opening his can of beer.

"So what do we do?" You asked.

"Well, you're the boss bitch. Already hashed out a very demanding job for us. So...?" Matt said, leaning back in his chair with a deep stretch.

"Boss bitch." You huffed, tasting how the words were in your mouth. It made you laugh. You, of all people.

"Well, I'm going to bed. I've a long day ahead of me tomorrow, apparently." Matt said, standing with a yawn.

"My city is being painted, yeah?" You called after him.

"Yes ma'am. It should make a big statement tomorrow morning." Matt called back as the door swung shut behind him.

×××

3 new text messages.

[Olyvar: sorry. Just kind of lost track of time. But I'm here if you need anything.]

[E: anything I can do to help? Maybe we could go to the range or something? Idk how being pregnant works, but if you're able to go shoot, we can. Or whatever. Maybe we can hang out and talk or something. We haven't done that in years.]

[Tyene: can you come by the shop? I want to know you're okay, and papa needs to speak with you.]

You rubbed your eyes and set your phone back down on the pillow beside you. Ramsay's pillow. You thought with deep sadness, the day before coming back to you.

A knock came on the door. Quiet and almost forbidding.

"Enter." You called, sitting up, stomach turning over sourly as you did so. A dull stabbing pain in your back.

The door slowly opened and Liz came in. Behind her a maid with a tray of breakfast.

Liz said nothing as she climbed up on the bed, sliding under the covers with you, grabbing up the remote and turning the TV on.

"What are you doing?" You asked through a rather dry mouth.

"Do you think I'm going to let you sit here alone and wallow in misery?" Liz said, flipping through channels.

You gave a small, grateful smile, sliding from the bed to go through your morning routine.

"What are you doing today?" Liz asked as you pulled your closet open.

"I have a doctors appointment and then I'm going to see Rams, and a press interview." You said with a small frown.

"This dress is very cute with your belly." Liz said, zipping the back as you munched toast and tried to decide what to do with your hair.

"I think I'm going to cut it off." You said, frowning at yourself in the mirror.

Liz glanced up at you and eyed your hair. She gave a small grin.

"Well, it's just hair. It will grow back. I'm a pretty firm believer in that." She said quietly.

You suddenly felt like a pile of shit for talking about hair. You sighed, set your toast down, turned to Liz, and gave her a tight hug.

She hugged you back just as tightly.

You sat at the vanity, flipping the switch to the blinding lights and pulled your makeup out. You frowned at yourself again. You were pale and sickly looking. Pregnancy really was not kind to you. You were slightly apprehensive for your appointment. You still weren't gaining weight as you should have been.

"So, girl talk. What's going on? Ben told me about the dinner last night. He says he's worried about you." Liz said, giving you a beady look that made her look like her mother.

"I dunno. I'm pissed. I have to find whoever did this. It makes no sense. None of it. But, I'm a woman. I had to make a statement because otherwise no one in that damn room would have taken me seriously because I have a fucking vagina. And honestly... I kind of enjoyed it. You should have seen the fear on their faces." You said, applying mascara.

"What's mother making for you?"

"I can't tell you. Not yet." You said apologetically.

"Well, it is none of my business, but as a fellow mob wife, and as your friend, I really think you need to slow down. You're putting Damon's health at risk with all your going. I don't want my surrogate nephew hurt. Nor you. And I know Ramsay doesn't want his wife and son in harm's way. It would tear him up. Especially when he can't do anything to stop you." Liz said, choosing her words carefully and staring down at her lap.

She was right, of course. But the course of action you had set into motion could not be undone now. It was going to be a domino effect and there was no stopping it. It all started with a bullet to the face and a severed pinky on your dining room table.

You cleared your throat, gave a sniff, and held your head high, "I know. I will not do anything to hurt my son, or myself. But I now have these men under my thumb. I'm not letting them go. Not until I can turn them back over to Rams."

You put your makeup away and slowly rose from the bench, a dull pain in your back again.

"Dinner?" Liz asked, exiting the room with you.

"I hope to be back by then. It's going to be a long day." You said, glancing down at your phone.

"I understand. Please be careful." She said, worry etched in the premature age lines on her beautiful face from her illness.

"Always." You said with a small smile, leaving her at the garage door.

"(Y/n)! Let me drive you!" Matt said, hurrying through the door after you.

"I'm perfectly capable of driving myself, Matthew." You said curtly.

"I know. But you're not to be alone. Not now that the whole city knows your husband is locked up. Makes you a target." Matt said, pulling his keys from his pocket.

You sighed, adjusting the strap of your purse, "fine."

"Where are we going?" Matt asked, opening the passenger door of his car for you.

"Hospital down town on the river front." You said with a small nod.

"Who are you?" You asked Matt after many moments of silence other than the radio.

"Uh... Matt?" He said, unsure.

"That I know. But who is Matt?" You said, watching the world pass by outside the window. Trees were blooming and the grass was turning plush and green as tiny flowers pushed their way through the ground.

"Dunno. Just a guy. A lucky one I guess. From rags to riches kind of story. Seventeen, stealing and selling drugs. Sleeping in a homeless shelter. Then along came Ramsay fucking Bolton." Matt shrugged, lighting a cigarette.

"I think this is where Rams would make a sarcastic remark about you being Cinderella. How's your mom?" You said with a small laugh.

"Alright I guess. Her and Alyn are a thing" -he made a face- "but she seems better. Got her set up with an apartment and got her a car. Thought maybe asking you to let her work at the bar to help her get back on her feet. Maybe if she has a stable income and life she'll be okay if something happens and I can't support her or whatever."

"Do you plan on something happening?" You asked, watching him out of the corner of your eye.

"No. But I can't rule it out. Not after Damon. That really drove it home to me that what we do is dangerous. I look up to all of them. Sure, they aren't great role models, but they all have their strengths. Work as a seamless team. When they are on form it's almost like they are gods. You should of seen it when we robbed the bank. It went so smooth. Everyone had their own job. There was no confusion about who should be doing what. And even more... when we aren't engaging in violent crimes... we are just one big, dysfunctional family. Yeah, they give me shit. But I love them. I do. All of you. You and Ramsay... Oh man."

You gave a small smile.

"You know, it wasn't until I got pregnant that I really knew my husband. We were like two strangers married and living together. But we never really saw one another. We both worked and were so busy. I'll be married to him for three years on Wednesday, and it's only been the last four or five months that I've actually got to know him."

"He's an interesting dude. He's funny. Wouldn't know he's so fucked up just by looking at him or having a single conversation with him." Matt said with a grin to himself as you passed the sign saying you were entering city limits.

"How are you and Tyene?" You asked, pulling a pack of gum from your purse and offering a piece to Matt.

He turned a brilliant shade of red and cleared his throat.

You grinned, "do you love her?"

"Yeah. She's the most amazing person ever." He said with a fond sigh.

"Are you going to ask her to marry you?" You asked, raising a brow.

His face fell slightly, "I don't think I can do that."

"Why not?"

"I can't take care of her the way she deserves. What if I'm gunned down tomorrow? I'm not sneaky or witty like Ramsay. I can't take care of Ty the way Ramsay takes care of you. I would love to, but I don't think I can. Besides, I don't think her parents like me very much. I don't want to put that kind of strain on her." He sighed.

"Let me give you some advice. Do it. Roose hates me and everything about me. But I love Ramsay. And I will continue to love him and give him everything I can, regardless of what Roose says. He can fuck off. He has done nothing but try to make Ramsay leave me, but I am still here. Other people's opinions don't matter." You said, staring back out the window. "Besides... I really enjoy planning weddings."

Matt chuckled and then gave a sigh, "maybe you're right. I guess we will just have to see."

"Well, give me until I have this baby at least. Give me a breather." You giggled.

"Deal." Matt grinned.

"Bet." You hummed, watching the cars passing by at the traffic light. You suddenly felt very tired and weak. You frowned. You still had so much day ahead of you. You hadn't even made it to your first destination yet. You toyed with the gum between you back teeth, hoping this wasn't a sign of how the rest of your day would go.

"You can wait here if you want. It shouldn't take me long. I don't think you want to sit in the waiting room while a bunch of pregnant women try to seduce you and those freckles." You grinned at Matt as he helped you from the car.

"I'm not supposed to let you out if my sight." Matt said, frowning at the prospect of being stuck in a waiting room full of pregnant women.

"Alright then, little brother. Let's do this." You said, pulling your wallet and phone from your purse and turning to the hospital entrance.

You and Matt sat in the corner furthest from the crowd, scrolling through your phones and occasionally smacking gum until your name was called.

You turned to Matt, "I won't tell if you'd rather just sit here instead of listening to my doctor bitch at me for being too skinny. I don't think I'm in any danger right here."

He frowned but gave a nod, "right."

You saw the eyes of many women watch you walk across the waiting room. Clearly curious at your last name. You held your head high and ignored them.

You went through the usual stand on a scale, piss in a cup routine, and heaved yourself up on the examination bed, waiting.

[You: don't think I'm up for shooting at the range, but maybe we can catch lunch? I'm in the city. Lots of shit to do. I could really use a hug from my baby brother.]

There was a knock on the door. You set your phone down as the doctor walked in. She gave you a small smile, and you gave a weak on back.

"How are we today?" She asked, looking down at the thin laptop she carried.

"Honestly or patient to doctor?" You asked, raising a brow, making her laugh.

"Honesty would be best. Especially looking at your vitals and such." She said, looking at you as though x-raying you.

You sighed, "I'm not doing okay. Physically or emotionally. I eat all kinds of things and I still can't gain weight. I feel horrible. My entire body hurts. I have a constant headache that refuses to leave. I'm tired. I keep having a stabbing pain in my lower back. I just want to hibernate for thirty years."

"I want to order an ultrasound this week. Your lack of weight gain is very concerning. We are now entering the last trimester and it seems that the baby is already wanting to be stubborn. We will take a listen to the heartbeat for now and hopefully see you back in a day or two so we can take a look at him." Doctor Mordane said, pulling the heart doppler from her white coat pocket.

You nodded, worry gripping you. "What happens if..." You said, not able to finish. You couldn't. You couldn't think of that.

"Well, we are at week twenty seven now. Lungs have developed and are working. However, we obviously do not want to have him so early, he still has plenty of time... But, should it come to that we have one of the best premiee units in the state. Our NICU is phenomenal. But, let's plan on keeping him in the oven until at least week thirty eight, if we can." The woman said with a serious nod.

"Let's hope." You said, throat tightening as you laid back on the table, shrugging your dress from your shoulders to give the doctor access to your belly.

You stared up at the ceiling, feeling an uncomfortable push in your belly as the doctor pushed the doppler into you. Finally the tiny heartbeat could be heard. But it was not as pronounced as the last time. It had been so strong and loud last time.

The doctor pushed firmer against your belly and you felt your son turn over, annoyed that someone had woken him up with the pushing and prodding.

He settled again slightly and the heartbeat came back, this time louder, making your panic subside some.

"His heartbeat sounds healthy. A bit slower than expected, but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. Like I said, we will have a better idea once we look at that ultrasound. Usually I would ask to start seeing you twice a month now that we are nearing the home stretch, but until we can figure out exactly what the baby is doing I would like to see you weekly. I want you to rest. I won't put you on bed rest yet, but keep your activities limited." Doctors Mordane said, replacing the medical instrument in her pocket and walking back to her computer to type down notes.

"Yes ma'am." You said, sitting up.

"By the way, good luck. I saw the news last night. I don't believe for a second your husband murdered any of the Stark's. I knew them very well. Whoever framed your husband will end up caught soon, I'm sure. Just try not to stress it too much."

You gave a weak smile at the doctor as you fixed your dress, "thank you."

You stood, waiting at the receptionist's desk as she looked at her computer screen.

"We can do Wednesday at two thirty?" She said, looking over her glasses at you.

"Sure. Not a problem." You said with a nod.

"Alrighty then, Mrs. Bolton. We will see you Wednesday." She said, writing the day and time on a card and handing it to you.

"Let's go, bro." You said to Matt, placing the card in your wallet and walking towards the exit.

You sat in the seat and looked down at your phone: new message

[E: actually not in the city today. Long story. Tomorrow? Or maybe I can come out to your place tonight?]

[You: please come by tonight. Love you!]

"Where to now?" Matt asked, glancing over at you.

"We are going to go pick up lunch and head over to see my girls. I need to speak with Oberyn." You said with a nod.

"What do you want to eat?" He asked.

"Surprise me. Take me to your favorite place." You shrugged, not caring what you ate at the moment.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yup."

×××

"I didn't expect you so early." Tyene said, giving you a hug as you and Matt walked into the salon.

"Had a doctor's appointment. Now for an early lunch and then waiting around to go see Rams. I'm not to be there until two. Then I have to meet with the lawyer and press at three." You sighed, throwing yourself down in a chair and opening the paper bag.

"How are you?" Obella asked, sitting at her table across from you.

"Fucking horrible. My doctor's appointment was shit. My husband is in jail on murder charges. Like the only murders he has absolutely nothing to do with. Go figure. I really don't like the lawyer. He makes me uncomfortable, but Ben and Alyn assure me he is alright. Owes Rams a favor or some shit.  I dunno, Bella. I'm just tired. Like, it was not supposed to be this way."

"You see all the new gang tags? Who are they? No one seems to know?" Tyene said, looking between you and Matt, who busied himself with his lunch, and handing Tyene hers.

You shrugged, "Dunno. Haven't paid much attention." You shrugged, finishing your food, "M'kay, Matt. Your hole in the wall was amazing. One of the best burgers I've ever eaten."

Matt gave a grin, "I told you. It's always the shit looking places."

"So, what does your father want with me?" You asked, balling up the empty paper bag.

"Stopping the drug runs until the heat is off." Oberyn said, entering the main shop floor.

You nodded, "Yes please. I don't want anyone else fucked in the ass over this. My house is about to be ransacked, and I don't want my pilots in trouble, nor you guys."

"Well you need to find a way to make it okay with your husband. It's a big blow to all of our pockets." Oberyn said, taking a seat beside you.

"He can get over it. I'll take the fall for it. I'm the Bolton in charge. My rules." You said, looking at your nails.

"Ty, Bella... I need my nails fixed and someone wax my legs. My belly is in the way. I've still got two hours until I go see Rams."

"I guess I will wait here. Don't want to get between you and Ramsay." Matt said, glancing around the parking lot. He gave a grin and nodded to the courthouse.

You followed his gaze and gave a small laugh as you watched a group of men working on scrubbing your tag off the wall.

"Right, I doubt they let me have too much time with him, and then I have the damn interview." You said, taking your gun and sliding it under the seat.

Matt scrambled out of the car and hurried around to your side to help you out. You placed your sunglasses on, holding your head high, walking past the press already gathering, through the door.

You stopped at the front desk beside Skinner. He gave you another cold smile.

"Ready to see your husband?" He asked.

You simply gave him a look as you took your glasses off. He chuckled, offering his arm.

You hugged Ramsay tight, swallowing the tears, never wanting to let go again. He encased you in an equally tight hug. He looked pale and disheveled.

"Rams, I miss you." You whispered through the tears.

"I know, baby girl. It'll be over soon." He whispered back, taking your ear lobe between his teeth and pulling you in closer.

You drew a sharp gasp, closing your eyes tight as he ran his tongue over your skin.

"I cannot wait to get home and fuck you stupid." He purred as you clutched at his back.

"I don't like Skinner." You whispered in his ear.

"Me either, but he owes me. He's a Boy. He will get me out." He whispered back, finally pulling away from you and pulling your chair out.

"How was the doctor?" He asked, watching you closely.

You sighed. "Shit. I have to get an ultrasound done on Wednesday. Doctor is already talking about premature birth."

Ramsay frowned, sucking his front teeth, but gave a nod.

"The house?"

"Way too fucking quiet." You said with another sigh.

Ramsay gave another nod, understanding your meaning that the house was clean.

"Are you good? You look rough?" You asked quietly, squeezing your husband's hand.

"Withdraws already it would seem. Been a long twenty four hours. I could go for a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes." He sighed, running his free hand over his face.

"Well, hurry up and come home." You said, giving a small smile.

He smirked, "But I just love my bunkmate so much. Fucking little cry baby bitch."

You sat there, hand laced in Ramsay's as you both answered Skinner's questions. Too soon an officer came to collect your husband.

"Our blades are sharp, baby girl." He said before giving you a final kiss.

"Well (y/n), ready to go enchant the press?" Skinner asked after a few moments silence.

You gave a small nod, stomach tightening in nerves, as he held the door for you.

Your heels echoed across the marble floor and too soon were you pushing out the door to be greeted by a crowd full of cameras and notepads.

"Mrs. Bolton! What can you tell us about this case?"

"Mrs. Bolton, is your husband innocent?"

"Mrs. Bolton, how do you feel about the treatment of your husband."

The noise and questions were annoying. It was pushing you over the edge as your heart beat painfully hard. You stood until the questions subsided.

"I am upset and angry about the events of the last twenty four hours. It is unjust and unfair. My husband is not involved with the murders or any of the other crimes the prosecution is trying to blame him for. My husband is just a businessman. We are not affiliated with gangs or mafias. I am very affronted by these accusations and having our name dragged through the mud. I only hope that the police are cooperative and help us apprehend the real culprit. We have enough to be getting on with, without the public thinking my loving husband is a murderer. The police have made this hard on both my husband and I, as we are trying to rebuild our business and get ready for the arrival of our first child. My family has been targeted by a person, or persons recently. My husband has been assaulted by officers and picked up on false charges already before this. I ask the public to please come forward with any information regarding the recent acts of violence in this beautiful city, to help clear my husband's name." You said, in a loud ringing voice.

Skinner helped you down the stairs and released you once you were back with Matt. The reporters following, clicking pictures and still asking questions as Matt shut the door for you.

"Well?" Matt asked, giving you a glance.

"I have a finger to collect." You shrugged.

[tinymixtapes]

Interview: Oliver Coates

Composer, producer, and cellist Oliver Coates recently released Shelley’s on Zenn-La, his third solo full-length and first on RVNG Intl. The album relies on a peculiar splicing of IDM, distilled pop, and faint folk that manifests a multicolored, amaranthine microcosm. Located on the fictional planet Zenn-La, it is home to an apocryphal amalgam of Shelley’s Laserdome, the fabled Stoke-on-Trent nightclub from the late 80s/early 90s, and a futuristic dance floor whose inhabitants are possessed by a perpetual, time-displaced dance to the sounds of early rave, electronica, and minimalism. Shelley’s on Zenn-La is both a synthesis of previous works and a departure in Coates’s diverse and fruitful career, his projects and collaborations almost too many to mention. In the realm of classical music, he is the primary cellist for the London Contemporary Orchestra and has worked with the likes of Laurie Spiegel and John Luther Adams. Outside of it, he has collaborated with Mica Levi on 2016 album Remain Calm and with Laurie Tompkins on 2018’s Ample Profanity; contributed to Radiohead, Laurel Halo, and Mark Fell records; and performed with Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Dean Blunt, Actress, and Genesis P-Orridge. He has also participated in the making of several film scores, including those for the masterful Under the Skin with Mica Levi and The Master and Phantom Thread with Jonny Greenwood. But on Shelley’s on Zenn-La, Coates is alone, acting as both a playful tinkerer and a studious composer. Coates builds the record’s song structures by challenging himself, looking for noises that sound gorgeous and meticulously incorporating curious segments into wider narratives. Tinkling FM synthesis and drum sequences composed in Renoise are contrasted and augmented by processed and transformed cello lines. Here, his trademark cello becomes another source of samples, equipotent with all other effects he employs. In a way, Coates creates his own all-encompassing instrumentarium of sounds, as idiosyncratic as the fictional world he explores and one that is only occasionally visited by Kathryn Williams’s enveloping flute, Chrysanthemum Bear’s ethereal vocal lines, and Malibu’s spoken word. We caught up with Coates to talk about Shelley’s on Zenn-La, among other things. --- Shelley’s on Zenn-La emanates a warm and welcoming feeling, a certain sense of optimism. Thanks! At the mastering stage, I asked for it not to be squeezed like commercial electronic music, so that we might preserve the internal dynamic balances as much as possible. I think coldness perceived in electronic music may partly be connected to listening fatigue, where pounding transients are all peaking at the same level and eliminate dynamic relationships between instrument groupings. I’m anti music feeling as if everything is brick wall limited. I don’t need the kick drum to shake anything. It connects back to the music: I have this background playing Bach cello suites where some of the best bass notes are imagined or implied rather than heard because there’s not so much scope for polyphony on a monophonic instrument. I sometimes like skeletal textures, where the listener is coaxed into imagining parts of the music image. More room for fantasy that way. The album and its title evoke a sort of British retrofuturism. It sounds bittersweet and melancholy, but ultimately optimistic. Like something that Sun Ra would have made had he been clubbing and raving in the late 80s and early 90s. Were you guided by a concept while working on the record? There was no concept, just having fun making tracks for RVNG. Towards the end, that title came to me. The tracks were describing the environment of this impossible space. I edited the album down into something tighter against that image, depicting a series of buildings, public pleasure activities like in Brave New World, and the topography of the outlying countryside and nature. The music also seems to be a personal reflection, a soundtrack devoted to certain places, London chiefly. Is this something you’ve consciously tried to achieve — using the music to capture and channel subjective impressions of certain areas, neighborhoods, and cities? Is it at all nostalgic? Perhaps. London is not that important to me culturally. It’s fun to be with your friends or singing in a choir or something. I see failure and friction and busy-ness for its own sake. The terror of being still. I wasn’t consciously describing anything when I was coming up with the music, more listening and seeing what happens. Shelley's on Zenn-La by Oliver Coates I sometimes like skeletal textures, where the listener is coaxed into imagining parts of the music image. More room for fantasy that way. Has your work with Lawrence Lek, which must have been impressionistic on some level, provided you with any guidance while constructing Shelley’s? I think Lawrence and I have always shared a similar fondness for the adoption of real spaces and transforming them into fantasy. In that context, does any of the day-to-day sociopolitical stuff seep into your work? Making a music LP, I hope to constitute an experience more than a takeaway message. My nature seems averse to tribal or ideological thinking. I’m more interested in friendship and family and effecting change through relationships. More interested in chatting about Beckett than Br_x_t. Shelley’s often reminds me of a contemporary (re)interpretation of the IDM/techno/dance scenes of the late 80s/early 90s. Were you chasing that particular sound? Nah, none of that first part rings true. I wasn’t reinterpreting or interpreting anything. I was guided by pleasure, which sounds a bit dodgy, but also giving myself mini-technical challenges such as two simultaneous bass lines (“A Church”), two imaginary drummers in different acoustics going crazy to one click track (“Cello Renoise”), wonky scales, and fake Gaelic folk music (“Charlev”). The album has a very distinct flow that feels quite deliberate. Yet, given some of your previous work, I can’t help but wonder whether any of its parts were improvised? Improvising is there, for sure. I have just enjoyed this twix bar a great deal. On this release, I edited it quite heavily. The residual ghosts of improvisation are sometimes what fascinate you; they somehow have higher authority over your conscious self. I might edit over and over, then go back 10 stages to find a set of performance actions you made when you weren’t remotely aware of what you were doing or what the shape was going to be — these always seem to be more compelling. Many of the tracks were much longer, and I was heading for double-album territory. I had a good chat with Matt [from RVNG] and decided to cut it into a manageable form. Eight hours of ambient cello patterns bouncing around in Pure Data can come later. Do you prefer working within improvised contexts like Remain Calm with Mica Levi or fully composed and premeditated? Changes all the time. I feel comfortable with certain people around, being in a room with certain people gives me a good amount of ideas that seem fresh. Sometimes I like the hard and fast decisions that have gone into composition, because they’ve been made painstakingly. Looking at your solo releases, there appears to be a progression in your approach to the cello. You use its unaltered sound on Towards the Blessed Islands and subvert it to produce unexpected sounds on Upstepping, while on Shelley’s you rely more on sound synthesis and electronic effects with the cello pushed back. That first solo record is an album of performances of music written by other people (David F/Hennessy, Laurence Crane, Larry Goves, Max de Wardener, Iannis X). I think the answer to this question lies in live performances that are centered around live cello performance. I play a New Age melodic sound with ambient synths, Romantic cello lines juxtaposed with aspects of digital music which I trigger and manipulate with my foot controller. I hope I can make more music for records in the future that is actually closer to my live stuff and more about nuanced live cello playing and computer music juxtaposed. More interested in chatting about Beckett than Br_x_t. In that sense, “Prairie” is somewhat of an outlier, with the cello its sole actor. Is there some kind of story behind this specific joyful cut? Years ago, I was approached to make music for an app about the Apollo 11 moon landings. The project got shelved, and I was left with some music I really liked, so I used this one. It was what this record needed. With your focus shifting to electronic music, do you still enjoy the performative aspects of interpreting someone else’s work as a cellist? Yes. Working with Larry Goves, Alexia Sloane, Laurel Halo — there are so many good composers out there. Has your background in classical music influenced your musical journey outside that specific realm? Realms, moving outside, journeys; I like all these connotations of physical play set against music. Classical Music functions a bit more like an industry. I don’t think it’s a type of music, for sure. There’s 800 years of notated music. I turn up on time because of my background in orchestral structures. As both a performer within LCO and someone who creates music using computers, how do these two aspects of your art relate? They both feel like second nature. My relationship with LCO has never been formalized; it’s nice and chill. Editing sound on the computer is about taste ultimately, same goes for how you play the cello. Your music appears in a constant state of flux, yet I wonder if there’s some other overarching theme in your work? There is, actually, but I’m holding it back for the time being — you can’t control things so much on the surface — but yes, there’s a backbone to the progression of each release. Tell me a bit about Ample Profanity with Laurie Tompkins. I’m aware that Tompkins has a very intense and unique creative process. As far as I know, this is the first time you’ve sung on a record, and your playing seems to be pushed even further than usual. We’re old friends, and Laurie T is a fine composer. His music is more extreme than mine (hence the shouting and so on at the start and the arrhythmia), but it’s fantastic to play in a live duo with him. He’s a subversive kind of performer, nuts skills he has, and I honestly don’t know where it comes from. By the way, I sang on track 1 of the first album, Towards the Blessed Islands, “The room is the resonator.” You’ve collaborated with a multitude of musicians from different scenes in different contexts. Do these collaborations affect your solo music? For example, certain elements of Shelley’s on Zenn-La’s sound seem to be hiding in pupal stage on cuts from Remain Calm. No overlap between RC and SOZ-L. Cello playing is there in both, but RC was a quick, fun, lo-fi thing. I can’t accurately say what has been transformative for me — meeting Genesis P-Orridge and improvising/underscoring her reading out Burroughs at Sophia Brous’s Dream Machine event in NYC taught me a lot, just on the unconscious level. Having moved to a fairly remote part of Scotland, are we going to hear more folk influences in your work? Perhaps for the first part. Scottish Gaelic music is very beautiful to me. http://j.mp/2CCRVNn

[paralleljulieverse]

Star!, the 1968 musical biopic of Gertrude Lawrence celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, signalled a substantial shift for the on-screen persona of Julie Andrews. Although the actress had tackled slightly ‘darker’ roles in some of her previous dramatic films –– notably, The Americanization of Emily (1964), Hawaii (1966) and Torn Curtain (1966) –– her star image in this era was primarily defined by the trio of hit screen musicals –– Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Together these family-friendly blockbusters cemented a popular ‘nice girl’ image humorously described by one commentator of the time as “Miss Sunshine of the Sixties” (Coleman, 118). 

The part of Gertrude Lawrence, by contrast, was no sunny musical ingenue. As depicted in Star!, she is an ambitious arriviste driven to theatrical and social success at all costs. A self-absorbed hedonist, Gertie drinks, swears, and leaves a trail of broken romances and –– perhaps, most subversive vis-à-vis the traditional Julie Andrews screen image –– abandoned children in her wake. Much of the film’s commercial underperformance has been attributed to the difficulty audiences of the time had in accepting Julie Andrews in such a radically atypical role (Kennedy, 154; Silverman, 131). Even the Dame herself subscribes to this theory, musing in retrospect that:

“It was a time of enormous change for me and for movies…And people then were not ready to accept me in an unsympathetic role like Gertrude Lawrence in Star!” (Anderson, 27).

Things weren’t possibly helped much by the film’s pre-release publicity campaign. The second of two films that Julie was contracted to make for Twentieth Century-Fox, Star! was initially announced in late 1964, before her first film, The Sound of Music was even in the can (Scheuer, V-15). By the time Star! was ready for production, The Sound of Music had become the highest grossing film of all time and Fox spared no expense in promoting their new big Julie Andrews musical. The studio assigned not one but two Publicity Directors to handle the film, Howard Newman and Mike Kaplan. Together they helmed what was described as “the biggest publicity barrage in Hollywood history” with countless media releases, photographs, interviews, and PR stories (Edwards). 

From the outset, Fox was quick to promote Star! as a reunion of the “dream team” behind The Sound of Music: star Julie Andrews, director Robert Wise and producer Saul Chaplin (”Movie Call Sheet,” IV-10).  “Julie Andrews…returns to singing and dancing in Star! with the same two movie makers who guided The Sound of Music,” trumpeted a widely syndicated press release to mark the start of shooting in early 1967. “If any picture is likely to match The Sound of Music in public popularity, it will be Star!” (Kaplan, B-10). As a purely attention-grabbing marketing strategy, it made sense to play up The Sound of Music connections, but it arguably served to foster false expectations that Star! was set to be another upbeat family musical. 

During the film’s long 18 month production, media articles started to hint that Star! marked a change of pace for Julie. However, the focus was largely on change at the level of visual style with Star! framed as little more than a cosmetic makeover for “our Julie”: 

“To play Gertrude Lawrence should give Julie Andrews a much deserved chance to prove what a charmer she is. On the screen Julie has been hidden under nun’s robes and missionary muumuus for the past two years…In Gertrude Lawrence’s chiffon and ostrich she should come alive as a glamorous woman instead of a wholesome girl” (Sheppard, D1).

Or again:

“In ‘Star!’ [Julie is] playing her first glamorous role, a musical comedy star based on the life of Gertrude Lawrence. Donald Brooks designed a $250,000 wardrobe for her, not including the $2,500,000 worth of real jewels supplied by Cartier’s in New York…It’s a chic and elegant Julie you’ll be seeing in ‘Star!’, singing more than two dozen songs by Noel Coward, Kurt Weil, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and other great composers” (Sherman, B-3).

The net effect of these widespread media reports was to present Star! as a variation on the classic Cinderella ‘makeover’ musical which had been central to Julie’s stardom from My Fair Lady to Thoroughly Modern Millie (Cantu 2015). Small point that Julie’s new character was possibly more Wicked Stepmother than Cinderella.

One of the most spectacular examples of the promotional framing of Star! as fairytale makeover is this lavish cover spread from the popular US weekly magazine, Look. Hitting the stands in mid-September 1967 –– nine months before Star!’s UK premiere and a full year before its US release –– the magazine spread is essentially a photographic panegyric to Julie as ‘glammed up’ princess with costume designer Donald Brooks cast in the the role of symbolic Fairy Godmother:

“At this point, Star! is only half-born…However, publicity on the Robert Wise production for 20th Century-Fox starts now, and its uproar will echo immediately through the world of fashion. Julie will wear 124 different costumes in Star! They are all glamorous, a word invented for the likes of Gertie Lawrence and captured now by designer Donald Brooks. For women who do not want to follow the hippie road or slick moon-blast to fashion, here is salvation” (Zill, 63).

In glossy full page shots by famed photographer, Cal Bernstein, Julie is showcased in some of Brook’s most lavish costumes, set against a series of fantasy backdrops courtesy of the Fox prop department: Julie as darling flapper, as ‘swellegant’ society lady, as landed gentry. It’s a stunning preview of "Julie’s Dazzling New Look” but it offers nary a hint about “Julie’s Acidic New Personality”!

On its release, reviews of Star! were sharply mixed. The film garnered more praise than is often remembered, but among the many brickbats, critics were quick to highlight the jarring disjunction between Julie’s received star image and her waspish new role. In a typical example, Renata Adler* of The New York Times wrote:  

“Miss Andrews, who plays Gertrude Lawrence, is not at her best in this one. There is some sort of clash between her special niceness and innocence and the attitude that the film, directed by Robert Wise (of ‘The Sound of Music’), has toward the star of ‘Private Lives’ and ‘The King and I’" (Adler, 21).

Could this type of response have been averted with a more careful pre-release framing of the film and its casting of Julie ‘against type’? Possibly, but then Star!’s problems were never limited to the film’s surprise revision of Julie’s ‘girl next door’ persona. Failure may be a proverbial orphan but in the case of Star! it most definitely had ‘multiple fathers.’ Some of the other factors operative in the film’s underperformance will likely be flagged in future posts but the Look magazine cover from 1967 provides a telling insight into one of them. The cover’s uneasy juxtaposition of Julie’s fantasy glamour makeover alongside headline allusions to the war in Vietnam and rising murder rates serves a symbolic snapshot of the rapidly brewing social tumult that would rise to engulf America and bedevil the reception of Star! and other big screen musicals of the era. 

Variously dubbed ‘the year that rocked the world’, 'the year of awakening’, ‘the year of revolt’, 1968 was nothing if not a watershed moment of profound social upheaval. As post-war baby boomers came of age and countercultural youth movements reached critical mass, “there occurred a spontaneous combustion of rebellious spirits around the world” united by “a sense of alienation from the established order and a profound distaste for authoritarianism in any form” (Kurlansky, xvii). In such a context, the complexion and tastes of movie audiences were, like the times, a-changin’ fast. Small youth-oriented and iconoclastic social realist films like The Graduate (1967) Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Easy Rider (1969) were the new order of the day and, almost overnight, big budget musicals like Star! were deemed woefully old-fashioned, even irrelevant.

In a remarkably hostile piece that is possibly more cultural symptomatology than actual film review, Robert Kotlowitz, resident critic for Harper’s magazine, took Star! to task for what he saw as the film’s reactionary obliviousness to America’s changing zeitgeist. The filmmakers, he writes, seem to:

“have simply strolled over to Hollywood’s immense fantasy bin –– in which slivers of our national psyche lie buried –– and casually plucked dozens of the gaudiest clichés from the dust and packaged them as a Technicolor extravaganza…[Star!] is less concerned with the biography of Gertrude Lawrence than with using the rags-to-riches, triumphs-and-heartaches outline of her story to define an extinct type of glamor, the ideal of an anti-serious and pre-pop generation…it’s impossible to imagine the John Lennon legend ever receiving this kind of treatment “ (169).

Not sure about John Lennon –– though fifty years after the fact, one would be hard pressed to claim his legend hasn’t been subject to its own forms of clichéd idealisation –– but Kotlowitz’s diatribe certainly gives a sense of the extent to which Star! suffered substantial fallout from the era’s rapidly transforming social climate. 

And, pace Kotlowitz’s testy dismissal of the film as “extinct glamor”, Star! possibly offers its own eloquent rejoinder when, in a spirited defence of Gertie’s mercurial eccentricities, Noël Coward grandly declaims: 

“I know she’s maddening, infuriating and impossible…but she’s also probably the most beautiful and entrancing creature ever to walk onto a stage. Glamour is a very overworked and quite indefinable word but I think the world could do with a little of her brand of it at the moment” (Fairchild, 142).

Five decades on, some of us are still entranced by the glamour of Star!…warts and all! ___________________________

Notes:

* It was widely reported that Renata Adler left the press screening of Star! early due to illness. The fact that she went ahead to file a negative, and dismissively short, review despite only having seen half the film prompted an outraged letter to the editor from Twentieth Century-Fox head, Daryl F. Zanuck. It was one of several gaffes that marked Adler’s brief but tempestuous tenure as resident film critic at The New York Times (Roberts, 181ff).

Sources:

Adler, Renata. “Screen: ‘Star!’ Arrives: Julie Andrews Featured in Movie at Rivoli.” The New York Times. 23 October 1968: 21.

Anderson, George. “Andrews Garned in New Image.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 23 March 1982: 27, 30.

Cantu, Maya. American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage: Imagining the Working Girl from Irene to Gypsy. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015.

Coleman, John. “Per Adua ad Julie.” New Statesman. 26 July 1968: 118.

Edwards, T.J. “The Saga of ‘Star!’”. Star! Special Edition LaserDisc. Beverley Hills, CA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1993.

Fairchild, William. Star! Unpublished screenplay. Final version: 26 January 1967. 

Kaplan, Mike. “Julie Andrews to Film ‘Star’.” The San Bernadino County Sun. 29 April 1967: B-10.

Kennedy, Matthew. Roadshow!: The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Kotlowitz, Robert. “Films: ‘Star!’, ‘Finian’s Rainbow’, ‘Hot Millions’.” Harper’s. Vol. 237. No. 1422, November 1968: 168-171.

Kurlansky, Mark. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World. New York: Random House, 2004.

“Movie Call Sheet.” The Los Angeles Times. 24 May 1965: IV-10.

Roberts, Jerry. The Complete History of American Film Criticism. Santa Monica: Santa Monica Press, 2010.

Scheuer, Philip. “Julie Andrews Just Right for Gertie.” The Los Angeles Times. 2 December 1964: V-15.

Sheppard, Eugenia. “Julie Will Play Gertrude Lawrence Role.” The Honolulu Advertiser. 7 November 1966: D1.

Sherman, Eddie. “’STAR’ Communique.” Honolulu Advertiser. 8 August 1967: B-3.

Silverman, Stephen M. The Fox That Got away: The Last Days of the Zanuck Dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. Seacusus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1988.

Zill, Jo Ahern. “Julie Plays Gertie.” Look. Vol. 31, no. 19. 19 September 1967: 63-68.

Copyright © Brett Farmer 2018

[buttonholedlife]

'No Fiat five hundred techno!': why digital popular music in Cork is actually coming off|Songs|The Guardian

"Messy in the best feasible way," claims Stopper producer Doubt of the epiphanic expertise he had in 2015 at a storage facility rave in Estate House, north Greater london. "It was actually definitely rested atmospheres. Surveillance-- although I failed to observe a lot of-- were actually sound, and there were massive sausages all evening. I will certainly never actually skilled just about anything like that in Ireland."

He remained in Greater london since of English producer NKC, among the inventors of the club noise referred to as tough drum, then only a Soundcloud tag. Uncertainty (genuine title Ollie McMorrow) and fellow citizens Tension (Dylan O'Mahony) and also Syn (Reneé Griffin) put together their personal tag, Flood, a year after their tough drum rendezvous in Greater london. After discovering, trying out as well as moseying with close friends in Cork, all it took was NKC's raucous parties to dissolve their cumulative obstacle.

Flooding and also an internet of various other producers in their 20s from the tiny Irish south-coast urban area-- Numbertheory, Lighght, Ellll and also Superfície-- are right now creating titles for on their own in European club popular music circles, with syncopated mutations of percussion-driven electronic songs. Although they're not all quickly organized together, the popular denominator is a primal drum-laden noise where rhythms tumble at breakneck velocity. The songs provides a lot of these youthful musicians a feeling of reason and also identity-- even when much of all of them are leaving Ireland for a new beginning, amid the sanitising of young people lifestyle as developers set waste to alternate venues, and a roaring casing dilemma, with taking off homelessness and the development of Dublin as one of the world's very most costly areas to reside in.

Cork has actually cracked new ground in Irish music prior to. In the 1980s, it was actually the unexpected property to a vibrant reggae culture, the cello-brandishing post-punk outfit 5 Go Down to the Sea, and Microdisney, the county's response to Fleetwood Macintosh. It was actually the bar Sir Henry's, founded in the overdue 70s, that opened up many in the county to club songs, specifically house. "Mam Henry's was ground zero," states Cork house songs pioneer Shane Johnson, that co-founded a night there called Sweat that drew in worldwide celebrities like Kerri Chandler, Cajmere and also Derrick Might. "Certainly not only for the club setting, however, for the nearby rock scene just before it."

Building on its own legacy, Jimmy Horgan, that runs local area file retail store Plugd along with Albert Twomey, has been a cornerstone of nonconforming music in Stopper, regularly holding the new kind of developers upstairs in the store's live space, a site got in touch with the Roundy. "The guy takes a genuine passion in every kind of popular music that's made as well as played in the urban area," producer James O'Connell, 25, that tape-records as Numbertheory, distinguishes me. "He's really for the lifestyle."

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Originally coming from Dublin, Horgan is self-effacing in his appraisal of the city's dynamic percussive songs setting: to him, it is actually the musicians'unrelenting creativity that has actually made it all achievable."Most likely the first pointer I obtained of the noise was when Superfície-- then going under the name Sexworker-- decreased in a few demonstrations of his monitors, maybe back in 2013 or even 2014,"Horgan bears in mind.

"Me and my associate were actually astounded."Parishes of these young musicians, typically in residences or even apartments, are where component of this Stopper drum act were born. McMorrow, whose dad and also grandfather were actually each drummers, points out:"Percussion has regularly been a huge component of my life."As well as at 14, O'Mahony came to enjoy performers such as Burial and also labels like Warp and also Hyperdub, and determined he might perform it, also, pirating manufacturing software program, messing all around with the features, and also investing the final two years at institution seeking to create one thing"from another location nice". While joining the exact same college training program, O'Mahony met Lion, that had been actually recording as Syn, and would certainly put up at her place after course. She introduced all of them all, consisting of O'Connell, to a collection of brand-new, eardrum-bursting audios coming from tags including Her Records, Fade to Mind, as well as Celestial Aircraft. Superfície, a Brazilian-Irish developer now located in Berlin, showed them kuduro, baile rut and batucada, while tensions of percussive songs promoted by labels such as Príncipe and also Naafi, widened their horizons additionally. Lighght, AKA Eamon Ivri, simply learnt about Flood--

"a real inspiration "-- via Soundcloud, randomly and belatedly, prior to he ever satisfied them, in spite of their distance as well as identical interests. Flood's very first launch, a fun nine-track collection, showed up in 2017, a year after they formed. They chose that they required a center for "effectively talking over ideas and blaring monitors as loud as possible"as well as discovered a little, private stockroom space in an industrial sphere ignoring Stopper's docklands. The duality in their music, in between the organic and also the mechanical, may in part be mapped back to this aspect. "There was actually a raw comparison in between the commercial, gray and also decaying storehouses and also the beautiful scenery out on to Cork harbour,"mentions Question. Ellll, Berlin-based techno alchemist Ellen King, says the internet as well as local hubs may certainly not have been the

only reasons that Cork surfaced as a breeding place for unusual club songs." Cork has been actually an incredibly house-focused area, and although I have actually never gotten in touch with that, percussive music coming out of the metropolitan area in the final couple of years experiences like a feedback to that attitude." Facebook Twitter Pinterest From the very first few seconds you mash participate in on a Flooding singular, or a hypnotic Ellll release, or even a stormlike go crazy loosie coming from Lighght, you listen to dispute and tumult. Percussion-wise, they take coming from audios from around the world. Pay attention to the drums and also you may think about Latin The United States or even Africa. Yet in some cases local designs sneak in: Numbertheory consisted of an example of sean nós, an Irish practice of haunting, melismatic singing; Syn's track Coy featured a sample of the bodhrán, an Irish drum produced along with goatskin; Lighght's outstanding 2019 cd, Gore-Tex in the Nightclub, Balenciaga Amongst the Hedges, utilizes the harp. Irishness is there certainly, even when it is actually merely sneaking. Stopper is actually known more popularly as"the rebel county", the end result of its own lengthy past of fierce protection and obstinate anxiety, primarily against English policy. A caricature of Cork individuals in Irish society-- perma-vexed and also precariously parochial, created well-known abroad by firebrand footballer Roy Keane as well as pop lifestyle phenomena like the TELEVISION series Youthful Criminals-- relatively includes some fact." It's a motto, however the entire rebel aesthetic that Cork has actually taken on definitely forms the urban area. You view landscapes of Che Guevara, recommendations to the Palestinian source,"states O'Connell, whose pummelling drums are actually typically gone along with through sludgy heavy-metal themes.

Many of these musicians don't understand Cork's medical self-mythologising, however. "I failed to delight in much of my young people, and also spent a bunch of my time as a teen in nearby drinking areas," claims Syn, 25, whose mama has worked as a nightclub DJ. "I remember begrudging Cork coming from a younger age due to the lack of tasks for young people in the area beyond acquiring fucked up."

& Facebook

Twitter Pinterest DIY rushing was the only means ahead in a tourism-oriented nation where, every pair of months, an accommodation seems to substitute a critical nightlife hub. The eventual members of Flood threw much of their own events since, as they see it, commercialised places prioritise step and double-vodka invoices over the sensory knowledge. Today, Syn helps run a queer night phoned CXNT in the Roundy, where throbbing, untrendy designs like hardgroove, gabber and donk masquerade the norm. As O'Connell puts it: "The significant nightclubs simply would like to hear EDM as well as monotonous, Heineken-sponsored, white-bread, Fiat five hundred techno."

In spite of their own inspiration, as well as the assistance of Plugd and various other venues, like Kino as well as the Town Hall, developers are actually compelled to look somewhere else for chances. The sounds being actually developed in Cork have actually been promoted through performers as well as DJs in the resources, at Dublin Digital Radio-- a shelter for Ireland's weirdest noises, where McMorrow still holds a monthly show contacted Hush-- in addition to stimulating collectives including Club Convenience.

Several proficient producers and creatives have, at the very least semi-permanently, gone overseas. Certified math wizzard O'Connell left behind just recently for Beijing, while Master and also Superfïcie have both relocated to Berlin. As it happens, McMorrow is actually occupied preparing himself for a transfer to Glasgow when we communicate, a typical quest for Irish creatives in current years. Rental fees are lower there, disorders for nightlife lifestyle are much less suffocating, and younger individuals are actually, in his perspective, alleviated better in Scotland than in his home nation.

"Unless you're anticipating forking out over half your fundamental revenue each month, you possibly won't have the ability to locate a location to reside in Stopper," he regrets. "I will enjoy nothing at all greater than to become able to remain in Cork, as well as perform what I love right here, but today it is actually simply not practical."

Financial barricades have actually not stopped the momentum of these musicians. "Whether it is actually a storehouse event with 30 inebriated individuals reviewed in to a dark, dingy area paying attention to industrial remixes of Princess or queen Super star, or enjoying the Roundy get become a partially nude sweatbox," O'Mahony claims of his long-lasting minds of the community-based micro-scene, "it's the important things that were actually created for, and also by, people like us that stand up out."

This content was originally published here.

[theteenagetrickster]

'No Fiat five hundred techno!': why electronic popular music in Stopper is putting off|Music|The Guardian

"Messy in the greatest possible technique," mentions Cork developer Uncertainty of the epiphanic knowledge he invited 2015 at a storehouse go crazy in Estate Property, north London. "It was really loosened up feelings. Safety and security-- although I really did not find several-- were actually audio, and also there were massive sausages all night. I 'd never really professional just about anything like that in Ireland."

He was actually in London as a result of English developer NKC, one of the makers of the club sound understood as tough drum, then merely a Soundcloud tag. Doubt (real name Ollie McMorrow) and also nationals Tension (Dylan O'Mahony) and also Syn (Reneé Griffin) put together their own label, Flooding, a year after their challenging drum one night stand in Greater london. After finding out, trying out and dawdling along with close friends in Cork, all it took was actually NKC's rambunctious parties to liquify their aggregate obstacle.

Flooding and also an internet of other producers in their 20s coming from the small Irish south-coast city-- Numbertheory, Lighght, Ellll and Superfície-- are now bring in names on their own in International group songs circles, along with syncopated mutations of percussion-driven digital music. Although they are actually not all conveniently grouped all together, the common measure is a primal drum-laden noise where rhythms roll at breakneck velocity. The songs offers most of these youthful performers a sense of purpose and also identification-- regardless of whether most of all of them are actually leaving behind Ireland for a new beginning, amid the sanitising of young people society as developers desolated different venues, and also a raging housing problems, with increasing being homeless as well as the appearance of Dublin as being one of the globe's most expensive metropolitan areas to live in.

Stopper has broken new ground in Irish music prior to. In the 1980s, it was the extremely unlikely property to a vibrant reggae scene, the cello-brandishing post-punk ensemble Five Decrease to the Sea, and also Microdisney, the county's solution to Fleetwood Mac. Yet it was actually the nightclub Sir Henry's, established in the late 70s, that opened up several in the area to nightclub music, especially property. "Sir Henry's was ground absolutely no," points out Stopper property songs trailblazer Shane Johnson, who co-founded a night there certainly phoned Sweat that brought in global stars including Kerri Chandler, Cajmere and also Derrick May. "Certainly not merely for the club setting, but also for the neighborhood rock scene prior to it."

Structure on its legacy, Jimmy Horgan, that manages nearby report outlet Plugd along with Albert Twomey, has been a cornerstone of nonconforming popular music in Stopper, frequently holding the brand-new kind of producers upstairs in the establishment's real-time space, a site phoned the Roundy. "The man takes a genuine rate of interest in every kind of songs that's created and also played in the metropolitan area," producer James O'Connell, 25, who documents as Numbertheory, distinguishes me. "He's absolutely for the lifestyle."

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Actually coming from Dublin, Horgan is unassuming in his evaluation of the city's vivid percussive popular music setting: to him, it is actually the artists'unrelenting imagination that has created it all achievable."Most likely the first hint I got of this noise was when Superfície-- then going under the title Sexworker-- came by a few trials of his keep tracks of, perhaps back in 2013 or even 2014,"Horgan keeps in mind.

"Me as well as my coworker were actually blown away."Members of these youthful performers, normally in properties or even apartments, are where portion of this Stopper drum act were actually birthed. McMorrow, whose papa and also gramps were each drummers, points out:"Percussion has always been actually a big aspect of my lifestyle."And at 14, O'Mahony happened to love performers like Burial and labels like Warp as well as Hyperdub, as well as decided he might perform it, also, pirating manufacturing program, messing about with the functionalities, and also spending the last 2 years at college trying to make one thing"from another location decent". While participating in the same university course, O'Mahony met Griffin, who had actually been actually capturing as Syn, as well as would hang at her area after class. She presented all of them all, consisting of O'Connell, to a collection of brand new, eardrum-bursting sounds from labels including Her Records, Discolor to Mind, and Sidereal Aircraft. Superfície, a Brazilian-Irish manufacturer now located in Berlin, presented them kuduro, baile funk as well as batucada, while tensions of percussive popular music promoted through labels like Príncipe and Naafi, increased their perspectives even more. Lighght, Also Known As Eamon Ivri, simply discovered Flooding--

"a real inspiration "-- by means of Soundcloud, aimlessly as well as belatedly, prior to he ever before met all of them, despite their proximity as well as similar rate of interests. Flooding's first release, a fun nine-track collection, showed up in 2017, a year after they developed. They determined that they needed a center for "properly talking over tips as well as roaring keep tracks of as loud as feasible"and located a small, secluded storage facility area in a commercial status forgeting Cork's docklands. The duality in their music, between the all natural and also the technical, can partially be traced back to this factor. "There was a bare comparison between the industrial, grey and worn out storage facilities and the lovely scenery out on Stopper port,"mentions Doubt. Ellll, Berlin-based techno sorcerer Ellen Master, claims the internet and nearby hubs may not have actually been actually the

only reasons why Cork became a reproduction ground for unique group music." Stopper has been actually an incredibly house-focused metropolitan area, and also although I have actually never associated with that, percussive music happening out of the city in the final couple of years seems like a reaction to that perspective." Facebook Twitter Pinterest From the 1st seconds you push use a Flooding singular, or even a hypnotic Ellll release, or even a stormlike rave loosie coming from Lighght, you listen to dispute and also tumult. Percussion-wise, they draw coming from sounds from around the world. Listen to the drums as well as you could think about Latin The United States or even Africa. Sometimes local area concepts sneak in: Numbertheory featured an example of sean nós, an Irish tradition of haunting, melismatic vocal; Syn's track Coy featured a sample of the bodhrán, an Irish drum helped make along with goatskin; Lighght's great 2019 cd, Gore-Tex in the Nightclub, Balenciaga Amongst the Bushes, makes usage of the harp. Irishness exists, regardless of whether it is actually simply snooping. Cork is known lovingly as"the rebel area", the outcome of its long record of fierce protection and also obstinate frustration, primarily against British guideline. A caricature of Cork people in Irish society-- perma-vexed and also dangerously parochial, made famous abroad through firebrand footballer Roy Keane as well as popular culture phenomena including the TELEVISION series Youthful Wrongdoers-- apparently contains some honest truth." It is actually a saying, yet the entire revolutionist aesthetic that Cork has actually taken on actually molds the urban area. You observe murals of Che Guevara, recommendations to the Palestinian trigger,"says O'Connell, whose pummelling drums are typically alonged with sludgy heavy-metal themes.

Most of these musicians do not pinpoint with Cork's medical self-mythologising. "I really did not take pleasure in a lot of my young people, and invested a bunch of my opportunity as a teen in local consuming spots," mentions Syn, 25, whose mom has operated as a club DJ. "I always remember begrudging Cork coming from a young age as a result of the shortage of tasks for young people in the area past acquiring fucked up."

& Facebook

Twitter Pinterest DIY rushing was the only method onward in a tourism-oriented nation where, every number of months, an accommodation seems to change a crucial night life hub. The eventual members of Flooding tossed much of their personal events since, as they see it, commercialised locations prioritise step and also double-vodka invoices over the physical adventure. Today, Syn helps run a queer night gotten in touch with CXNT in the Roundy, where throbbing, untrendy types like hardgroove, gabber and also donk masquerade the norm. As O'Connell places it: "The significant clubs merely would like to listen to EDM and mundane, Heineken-sponsored, white-bread, Fiat 500 techno."

Even with their very own inventiveness, as well as the support of Plugd and also various other places, such as Kino and the Community Hall, producers are actually required to look elsewhere for options. The sounds being actually developed in Cork have been actually championed by performers and DJs in the financing, at Dublin Digital Broadcast-- a haven for Ireland's weirdest audios, where McMorrow still holds a month to month program phoned Hush-- as well as fantastic collectives including Nightclub Convenience.

Lots of proficient manufacturers and creatives possess, a minimum of semi-permanently, gone overseas. Certified mathematician O'Connell left just recently for Beijing, while Master and also Superfïcie have actually both relocated to Berlin. As it happens, McMorrow is actually busy prepping themself for a transfer to Glasgow when we communicate, an usual journey for Irish creatives in the last few years. Rental fees are actually lesser there, ailments for nightlife lifestyle are less suffocating, and also youngsters are, in his scenery, managed a lot better in Scotland than in his house nation.

"Unless you're intending on expending over half your standard earnings every month, you most likely won't have the capacity to find a location to stay in Cork," he regrets. "I would certainly really love nothing at all more than to become able to keep in Stopper, as well as perform what I love here, yet straight today it's only certainly not feasible."

Financial barriers have not stopped the energy of these musicians, nevertheless. "Whether it's a storehouse gathering along with 30 intoxicated people crammed into a dark, drab room paying attention to industrial remixes of Princess Superstar, or checking out the Roundy acquire become a topless sweatbox," O'Mahony points out of his long-lasting minds of the community-based micro-scene, "it is actually the important things that were created for, and through, people like our company that stand apart."

This content was originally published here.

[oliveratlanta]

The 12 most Atlanta things that happened in Atlanta in 2019

Curbed Atlanta

From an interstate “cash storm” and Super Bowl-related controversies (again), to (another) rejection of mass transit

What a year it’s been for residential real estate, transportation, commercial development, and generally wild happenings in Atlanta. In terms of transition, 2019 felt like the year when momentum reached a tipping point, and many things residents knew would soon come finally began to materialize, or move in a direction that allows no turning back.

Then again, these worries and aspirations have come before. So before any major declarations are made about our long-awaited arrival as America’s greatest city ever, let’s take a minute and look back at the biggest things—or most Atlanta things—that happened in ATL since New Year’s Day 2019, and think about where we’re going from here.

An armored truck makes it rain on Interstate 285

YouTube

For Atlantans, it was a dream come true—and extreme test of willpower. On the evening of July 9, a Garda armored truck’s doors swung open and released more than $175,000 near Ashford-Dunwoody Road, in the Perimeter area. One man, Randrell Lewis, returned to authorities all $2,000 he says he picked up, even posing for a photo op with proud Dunwoody police afterward (and becoming a subject of some intense social media debate). Though it’s obviously illegal to take money that belongs to someone else, it left all of us who were unfortunately not there to “witness” the cash storm, wondering what our individual consciences would guide us to do. One guess: pull over.

“Beltline Kroger” debuts

Curbed Atlanta

The social Kroger patio, upon opening in October.

Some nostalgists will never call it anything but “Murder Kroger.” Others look at the brave new world signaled by the long-awaited opening of the 60,000-square-foot Atlanta Beltline location of America’s biggest grocery chain, situated between Ponce de Leon and North avenues, and see vibrant new life. It’s sleek and modern, with a glassy exterior to match the mixed-use development at 725 Ponce, a Starbucks inside,a “pub” offering tapped craft beer and flights of wine, an outdoor seating/sipping area with Eastside Trail pedestrian views, and a satellite of the beloved B’s Cracklin’ Barbecue, whose original Atlanta location burned down in March. It’s a new beginning for the questionably nicknamed store for sure, but it does leave one question: What good are all those Kroger Plus Card fuel points now?

The rise of Tyler Perry Studios

You’re entitled to your own opinion of Tyler Perry movies and the critical importance of Madea to the filmmaking craft. But you can’t deny that Perry finessed one of the greatest Ws in history by purchasing 330 acres of the former Fort McPherson U.S. Army base for $30 million in 2015.

Tyler Perry Studios

Soundstages at the studios, with downtown and Midtown Atlanta beyond.

With seemingly endless rolling hills, 12 giant sound stages, and plenty of historic buildings at his disposal, Perry went from successful filmmaker to legitimate Hollywood mogul, hosting a star-powered dedication gala attended by Oprah, Denzel Washington, Jay-Z and Beyonce, and many other elite figures in black cinema. And while it isn’t currently open for public tours (although that’s in the plans), we did get a retouched exit sign on SR 166 letting commuters know where to turn if they’re looking for one of the largest film production studios in America. Not to mention, a couple billboards from an enterprising young actress who clearly understood the power of location in advertising.

A ballyhooed Evander Holyfield statue goes missing

Hanlon Sculpture Studio

The chiseled likeness in question.

After almost two years of promises, it turns out the real deal on that Evander Holyfield statue intended to be erected downtown is TBD. The bronze version of the real-life-chiseled, Bowen Homes-raised boxer, universally beloved by Atlanta and proudly name-dropped in rap songs by André 3000, Snoop Dogg, and others, never made it to its intended place of permanence in front of the Flatiron Building, even though it cost nearly $100,000 to create. Who knows if the MIA effigy will end up there or anywhere other than where it’s currently being stored (if you see something, say something), but a representative from Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s office recently predicted it’ll be installed somewhere by year’s end.

ATL sports gonna ATL sport

Getty Images

The Bravos on October 9, in the process of losing Game Five of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals in historic fashion at SunTrust Park.

We’re used to it by now. Fans of Atlanta’s football, basketball, and baseball teams get hyped up listening to overly confident sports journalists, then watch as we get somewhere near the first round of elimination. Of course Atlanta United changed this narrative significantly with their MLS Cup victory (and decidedly Atlanta-centric choice of afterparty venue), which did a lot to justify the construction of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for residents who aren’t named Arthur Blank.

But this year we’re back to falling behind, and maybe it wouldn’t feel so bad if each team didn’t recently get a brand new facility in which to lose so predictably. That’s not to minimize the teams or question their willingness to play with winning in mind, but still. A new house is a new house, and the more we let folks come in our home before wiping their feet on the rug, so to speak, the less we’ll enjoy being in these places. Just ask any of the thousands of people not sitting in those stands on game days. That said, hometeam forever! Go ATL UTD! Go Hawks! Go Braves! Go Falcons! No really… go.

No Gwinnett MARTA

Back in March, it was hard for anyone hoping to see MARTA expand into Gwinnett County to not feel a little disheartened at the result of a consequential referendum. But 54 percent of voters rejected the addition of more transit, including heavy rail, in the northeast metro Atlanta county. While some voters claimed in news stories to be in favor of increasing public transportation options, the “no” votes ranged in reasoning from tax increase aversion to lack of comfort over total cost versus benefit. Whatever the case, the result is that a new MARTA station that would have been located just north of Doraville’s near Jimmy Carter Boulevard will not come to pass, at least in the immediate future. Is that a good or bad thing? Depends perhaps on your daily commute, but either way, it’s democracy, folks!

South Downtown announcements

CIM Group

The tentative, overarching vision for Gulch redevelopment Centennial Yards.

Once Atlantans collectively sobered up and realized Amazon wasn’t interested in our offer to move HQ2 to town (and perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing), the lower downtown area began to show true signs of widespread investment. It’s possible that so much hype around the possibility of Bezos and co. bringing the online retailer to Atlanta made folks realize they’d better come up with something. And now, with Underground Atlanta, the Gulch, and South Downtown ostensibly getting ready to undergo big changes, it appears that if Amazon’s decision did nothing else, it broke the inertia and analysis-paralysis that continued to keep Atlanta in the bottom tier of American cities whose downtown districts were living up to potential. Should even half the plans come to fruition, a wave of restaurants, retail, residential, and office spaces will result, lending an entire new experience in terms of walkability in the long-overlooked area. When it comes to big ideas, Atlanta excels, , Atlanand this is the epicenter of them right now.

A (very brief) pop-up bike lane

If you weren’t on your bicycle on 10th Street near Piedmont Park from October 21 to the 26th, you may have missed the chance to ride in a temporary, one-way, pop-up bike lane heading toward Peachtree Street. Not that no one noticed the bulky white and red plastic dividers usually signalling construction, or the increase in traffic resulting from making the lane inaccessible to automobiles, but in traditional Atlanta fashion, it certainly seemed to be over and done pretty quickly. There hasn’t been much said about the results of the test since it ended, although one might assume that some choice words were expressed by those whose passenger vehicle commute involved the already jammed corridor for those six days. At least we can assume it made e-scooter fans feel safer, while showing that the city is thinking about solutions to Atlanta’s infamous traffic problems and non-motorist protections. Maybe it’s more of a “see you later” than a goodbye to the idea, but either way, perhaps it’s another case of a good thing gone too soon.

Paris on Ponce fire

Those out of town during the Thanksgiving holiday had to learn from a distance that one of Atlanta’s most irreplaceable places, the exactly 100-year-old building that houses vintage furniture and decor shop Paris on Ponce, was badly burned in a two-alarm fire.

GoFundMe

While the damage was major—the roof and interior were most significantly affected, destroying a number of shops inside the warehouse space—the owners hope to rebuild and are asking for support from the community via a GoFundMe campaign. And with Atlanta’s history of being figuratively and literally lit, the good news is that no one was hurt and that there’s likely a future for the funky Ponce de Leon antique store.

Brian Littrell couldn’t have it that way (lol)

Freemanville Estate/FB

Scene of the alleged shenanigans.

It may not have shocked many people to learn that Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell (a.k.a. the nice one that parents probably would’ve trusted with their daughters the most) was living in a town like Milton. But it certainly shocked local authorities to learn that the Kentucky-born crooner was actually renting out the property—although it’s not even clear he owns it—to others looking to throw shindigs and soirees, which the huge mansion is not allowed to host due to Milton zoning laws. The drama has calmed down a bit since the initial crescendo of voices from the city, who denied Littrell’s request to receive a permit to host such events going forward, and then realized that when he wants something a certain way, he’s gonna go for it, or at least demand to be told why not.

A West End house asks $650K

If there was ever an example of how far the Beltline has strayed from any plan to be inclusive of all Atlantans, regardless of net worth or income, it’s been the arrival of housing prices in the historic area crossing the half-million-dollar mark. (Or in at least one case this past summer, WAY over that mark.) And these houses, while renovated to look very nice and located in close proximity to the Westside Trail, weren’t exactly so pricey until a couple years ago, when asks began creeping into $400,000 territory—and selling even higher—as more Atlantans began to realize that West End was a thing.

Curbed Atlanta

The Beltline’s Westside Trail.

Obviously opinions vary on what the true value should be for such a beautiful and convenient part of town, but what’s absolutely clear, at least to anyone who’s lived in the (currently) predominantly African-American community the past several decades, is that it certainly means change is coming. But with many of the homes staying on the market for several months, maybe things are on course for a correction? Only time, and public real estate listings, will tell.

Atlanta (the city) wins Super Bowl LIII

Curbed Atlanta

Centennial Olympic Park’s climbable, oversized Vince Lombardi Trophy and platform, where Welcome to Atlanta basically played on loop for a week.

Well, unlike a certain local sports team that won’t be named (again) in this story, Atlanta delivered a big victory in the Super Bowl. Looking back, it was a tremendous lift, and everything seemed to go exceptionally (if uncharacteristically) well, considering this is a city where less than two inches of snow can break civilization. VIPs were entertained, traffic did not melt down, MARTA operated as well as could be expected (pretty efficiently, actually), and security from downtown to the Vine City area kept everyone safe and in reasonably good spirits, depending on how your team performed.

There was, however, a pretty big story involving a West End building whose strangely timed demolition occurred on the Friday of Super Bowl Weekend, and it was not lost on Atlanta’s community of street artists that this building happened to feature a mural of Colin Kaepernick. In response, a team of creatives, led by the first mural’s creator, Fabian “Occasional Superstar” Williams, painted eight new ones in time for the “big game,” which made national news. All in all, it was a great showing of what Atlanta can do with big hosting responsibilities, and it bodes well as we look to the Final Four, World Cup, and other major sporting events to come.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2019/12/18/21026781/atlanta-2019-year-review-things-that-happened

[nancydsmithus]

Smashing Podcast Episode 1 With Andy Clarke: What Is Art Direction?

Smashing Podcast Episode 1 With Andy Clarke: What Is Art Direction?

Drew McLellan

2019-11-05T14:30:59+02:002019-11-05T16:06:22+00:00

The new Smashing Podcast is the perfect way to take a little bit of Smashing along with you on your morning commute, when working out at the gym, or just washing the dishes. We’ll be bringing you a new interview with a Smashing expert every two weeks, directly to your podcast player of choice. You can subscribe in your favorite app to get new episodes as soon as they’re ready, or just listen using the player below.

To get things off with a bang, we’re launching the first two episodes today. Each episode will be accompanied by a post (just like this one) with a full transcription of the interview here on Smashing Magazine.

In this inaugural episode, Drew McLellan talks to designer, author, and speaker Andy Clarke about Art Direction. What is it, and how can it be applied to our web design projects? We dig into the topic and see if we can get to the bottom of things.

Show Notes

We discuss Art Direction for the Web, a new book by Andy Clarke.

Andy’s Inspired Design Decisions series of articles can be found on Smashing Magazine, and are available first with your Smashing Membership.

We found some examples of the art direction involved in the Boddingtons Cream of Manchester campaign discussed in the episode.

You can follow Andy on Twitter where he is @Malarky or via his website Stuff & Nonsense.

Transcript

Drew: He’s a well known designer, public speaker and author of numerous influential web design articles and books and has recently released his new book, Art Direction for the Web, with Smashing Magazine. Along with his wife, Sue, he founded and runs a web design studio, Stuff and Nonsense, in North Wales where he consults with companies big and small all around the world. You may know of his passion for gorillas but did you know that as a school child he was Junior National Bassoon Champion for three years in a row. My Smashing friends, it’s Andy Clarke. Andy, how are you today?

Andy Clarke: Eee, I’m smashing, lad.

Drew: So, as I mentioned your new book, Art Direction for the Web, is now available but obviously this isn’t your first book. Hard Boiled Web Design, that I’m sure people will know, and way back in the day, Transcending CSS. When did the idea for this particular book come about?

Andy Clarke: This was an interesting one because, like you say, this is number four in terms of books. Sue had always said that she’d hunt down and kill anybody that asked me to write another one because I am such a bastard when I’m writing books. I’m just not a nice person to be around and so I kind of didn’t ever want to do another, kind of, major book after Hard Boiled. So my original plan was actually to write three little, we called them shots in the whole, kind of Hard Boiled theme. Three kind of little 80 to 100 page, little shots. In the kind of the style of, or the length of, A Book Apart type length. Art Direction was going to be the first one and when I started to get into it which was way back at the beginning of, I think it the beginning of 2018 when I started it.

Andy Clarke: The more and more I kind of got into it, the more I realized that this, there was no way this was going to be a short book. All the things I wanted to talk about were just never going to fit. So I kind of threw the whole three shots idea out of the window and we just concentrated on doing this one. So I suppose the idea for this one came actually quite a few years ago even before a lot of the stuff that I talk about in the book in terms of what we can do with design and what we can do with CSS and all that kind of stuff was even a possibility. But it’s been a long time coming this one, I think it’s the kind of spiritual successor to some of the other stuff that I’ve done in the past. That sounds a bit grandiose, doesn’t it?

Drew: No, not at all. I mean, like many people, I’ve come into this field of building stuff for the web without any real formal background in, well, I’m a developer. I don’t really have a formal background in programming. I’ve just sort of picked it up as I go along and I certainly don’t have a formal background in anything to do with design. I’m not really familiar with the terminology and the concepts and the, a formal training would instill, particularly in design. So for people like me, when we talk about art direction, what exactly is art direction?

Andy Clarke: That’s an almost impossible question to answer because it means so many kind of different things at different levels. But I’m going to give an example. Do you remember back in, I mean we’re talking 15-odd years ago now but do you remember the adverts? In fact, for the show notes I’ll send you some links. But do you remember, there was an ad campaign called “The Cream of Manchester” for Boddingtons Beer. One of the things that they did, there was some really funny TV commercials but one of the things that they did incredibly successfully was a whole series of graphics which went on posters and various other things which were a glass of Boddingtons beer with the incredibly creamy head, which was the most important part of Boddingtons Beer and they shaped the head into all kinds of different things. So it looked like an ice cream and it looked like a quiff and it looked like all kinds of stuff. And what that did was it told the story of what was important about Boddingtons Beer through the medium of design. So it didn’t necessarily just say Boddingtons has a very creamy head. What it did was it showed you that through the visuals but then with the, in combination with the words, you got this very, very clever idea about what Boddingtons Beer was all about. And that, in one level, is art direction.

Andy Clarke: Let me give you another example. I can’t remember which magazine it was, now it might have been Rolling Stone. I can’t remember exactly which magazine cover it was now but a couple of years ago there was a very famous magazine cover and it was a picture of Donald Trump and they’d taken the barcode which normally sits in the bottom left or bottom right hand corner of the cover of the magazine and they’d put it on his top lip and made him look like Hitler. That’s art direction. That’s using design to convey a message to tell a story, to communicate something to an audience but through design.

Andy Clarke: And when we think about applying those things to the web, it is exactly the same kind of purpose but what we’re doing is we’re using all of those aspects of design. We’re using a layout. We’re using typography. We’re using color choices. We’re using all of these kind of design ingredients to do whatever it is that we’re trying to do online. So we might be telling a story of…a story through an editorial magazine or a news story or we might be telling a story about why you should buy my brand of power drill rather than somebody else’s brand of power drill. And it extends even into user experience because we’re really thinking about what is somebody feeling at this point? How do we communicate with them? How do we try and cheer them up, try and cool down. Do we want to be kind of quirky and delightful or do we want to be sort of more serious and conservative. And all of those aspects of evoking an emotional response in somebody is art direction.

Drew: Like accessibility, we often say that that really is the responsibility of everyone in the team but then in practice there tends to be an accessibility expert who really knows their stuff and can sort of help everyone review their work and push things forward. Is it the same with art direction? Is it something that everybody in a team should be looking at? Or is it something you hire in a big bright art director like yourself to come in and tell everyone what they should be doing?

Andy Clarke: No, it is exactly the sort of thing that everybody should be paying attention to. Every decision that we make in terms of design is an opportunity to tell a story. And that can be a big story or it can be a tiny story. And even things, for example, the style and the wording of microcopy can help to tell the story. Now, what we really need is not just everybody kind of paying attention to what that message is but we also need to know what the message is to begin with.

Andy Clarke: And one of the things that I think has been lacking over the last however many years when we’ve been kind of evolving the web as a medium is we’ve kind of moved away from this idea of the web as either a kind of creative medium or as a great medium for storytelling. And that’s the kind of thing if you go to an ad agency, then you’re not going to walk far through the door before you fall over an art director. But that’s not something that you generally find, it’s not a job title that tends to happen at digital agencies. It’s just, you’ll find UX people and project managers and developers and all manner of different, in parentheses, product designers. But the overall thinking about what message are we trying to convey, how do we implement that through design? But then there’s that kind of, what you would think of as creative direction but it is slightly different. Where somebody is basically just checking that everything is on brand, is on message, is part of telling that story.

Drew: As a developer, if I want to start getting involved in the art direction of my projects, where on earth do I start? Is this something that I can learn or do you have to be born this way?

Andy Clarke: I can’t think about the way you were born. You’ve landed on your head. No, it is something that can be taught and it is something which takes practice. So you don’t need to have gone to art school or studied advertising or whatever. I never did. I didn’t even do a graphic design degree back in the ‘80s. I was a failed painter. But it’s the kind of thing where, I think it’s a change of kind of, mindset a little bit. In thinking about, it’s not just about the practical aspects of designing a website but it’s also the thinking about, “Well, what are we trying to do?”

Andy Clarke: So let me give you an example, right. So Smashing Magazine, I did some early conceptual work with them for the redesign that we see right now. And the way that we did that was to basically just host a bunch of workshops where we all got together and we sat around a big table for a week and we did this kind of three or four times where really what we were trying to do was to get to the bottom of what the Smashing message was. And how Smashing wanted to be perceived and that was basically a great big roundtable exercise which was basically designed to just get the Smashing guys, Vitaly and Markus and others, thinking about what the real purpose of Smashing was and how they were going use design to communicate the unique kind of personality and attributes of Smashing.

Andy Clarke: And to help that along, we did a load of, kind of early rough design stuff. And then from what they learnt, they then turned to Dan Mall and said, “Right, we’ve got these words, we’ve got these, call them design principles if you like, that we want to then pull out through the design. We want to be bright and bold. We want the experience turned up to eleven. We want to be quirky” and all these kind of words that had come out of our early design discussions. And then he would then produce designs that sort of fitted with that brief.

Andy Clarke: And the interesting thing about that if we relate this back to your question where you’re saying “Where do I get involved?”, it’s, is, if we were kicking off a project for Notist, for example. The very obvious thing is that it does some things. It hosts your slide decks. It adds your speaker profile or whatever but those are just, they’re the things that it does. But your aspirations for that product are much, much more than just the bunch of practical things that it does. So from a brand and from an art direction point of view, yes, you want to be designing a product which is streamlined and simple to use and reliable and all of the stuff that it, kind of goes with it. But there’s a bigger picture and I would be speaking to you about what that purpose really is. Is it to inspire other speakers to get onstage? Is it to share information more widely? Is it to make talks that happen at remote conferences much, much more visible to people wherever they are in the world. There’s obviously a bigger thing going on in here.

Andy Clarke: And then once we’ve kind of understood what those real, kind of, what our real purpose was, then we can think about how do we convey that message through the design. And that’s where a designer would come in with a creative brief and then we would look at, well, what typography style is going to convey that message? What kind of layout? What kind of color scheme? What kind of graphics are going to really tell that story because you can easily just say the world’s most popular slide deck sharing site as, what’s that nasty one? Not Speaker Deck, the other one. SlideShare. Dreadful, absolutely dreadful. What we would look to do is something like Notist if we consider an art direction point of view is to consider, how do you want people to feel when you’re using the product and how do you want them to feel when they’re making the decision to choose your product over somebody else’s. And that’s essentially what it boils down to.

Drew: So it’s very much about how the brand, in a sense, is embodied in every little detail and every part of the design, both the sort of visual design and the functional design. Would that be accurate to say?

Andy Clarke: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, and that should be the case with anything that we’re making. It’s why I get so disappointed when I see stuff which is not a gajillion miles away from framework default in terms of layout or button styles or type hierarchy or whatever it happens to be, all of these kind of design things. Because, to me that’s like completely missing the point of the design. Yeah, it might be a functional thing to use but does that make it nice?

Drew: So obviously modern websites are mostly spat out of a CMS into identical templates. So if kind of one of the jobs of art direction is to invoke this sort of emotional response to something on a page, can that be done through spitting out content into templates or can it be done by machine?

Andy Clarke: Well, if I had the solution to that problem, I’d be a very rich man because it is actually the problem that a massive amount of the web is struggling with. Whether it would be news outlets or magazine outlets or editorial or whatever. And it’s a question which comes up again and again and again. And actually the people that have really solved this problem best of all that I took to my knowledge it ProPublica who I talk quite a lot about in the book. And our old friend Rob Weychert basically designed the CMS implementation for ProPublica. And the way that they did it was that they said, “Right, okay, these are our foundations style, this is what the ProPublica website looks like and an article on that website looks like if I do nothing. This is what it is.” But obviously they want to be able to customize that in all kind of different ways whether it would be type or layout or color theme or anything else. What they did was very simply they just had a field in the CMS that they could inject custom CSS. And because they understood the cascade and they understood how CSS builds they would only then be able to overwrite certain things.

Andy Clarke: Now, not everybody’s going to want to go to the extent of custom designing articles in the way that ProPublica do. And they don’t art direct or over design everything. It is only these really kind of special pieces that they tend to do a really great art direction job on. But there are ways in which we can do this. One of the great, we always talk about separation of, or we used to talk about, it used to be the thing where we would separate content and structure and style and behavior. Now it seems like everybody piles everything into JavaScript but moving swiftly on. One of the things that you can do, is you can separate out the CSS logic. And as long as you don’t bake in the style of the page into the HTML, as long as you keep things flexible, you can then do an enormous amount, particularly when we’ve got things like CSS grid, flex box, which are kind of, almost like content independent in a way, and CSS variables.

Andy Clarke: So I’m working on site with a French football magazine which will hopefully be finished by the time this podcast goes out and that’s a question that we’re trying to solve right now. So what I’ve done over the last couple of weeks is I’ve designed probably about half a dozen different layout templates. Now, some pages are fixed. They’re never going to change, they’re never going to be wildly different. If you think about something like a league table or a list of results from a football Saturday then you’re not going to do an enormous amount with it. But when it comes to things like player profiles and team profiles and some of the more, kind of, involved content, what I’ve done is I’ve designed about half a dozen different layout combinations. All based on exactly the same CSS. And what I’m doing is I’m then extracting out certain things that, for want of a better word I’m calling themes. Just in terms of right, in this design, Design A, and I give them all names. I give, I’ve given the theme, I’ve named them after French football players. So if you want to, if you look at the Cantona design or Cantona theme, what do the headlines look like? What do the block quotes look like? What do the table headers look like? What do the buttons look like? There’s a specific style that goes into that theme which is independent of the layouts.

Andy Clarke: And the other thing which is independent of that theme is the six different color schemes that I’ve come up with. So basically by the end of the project, you’ll have a color layer, a theme layer and a layout layer that they are able then to kind of pick and choose. And that can be automated, it can be turned into toggle switches in the CMS or whatever it might happen to be. So there are ways of doing that.

Andy Clarke: Now that’s not a particularly kind of appropriate thing for, in terms of pure art direction but the same mechanics can then be used if we want to be saying right, “Well, we do want to customize this so let’s introduce these new fields.”

Drew: One of the examples in the book, quite early on of a, sort of art directed site is the UK government’s gov.uk site, which is excellent as a user of it. It’s a site I really enjoy using it but it’s not one that I would immediately think of as being art directed, in inverted commas. It’s not very visually rich. It’s quite sparse and not sparse in a minimalist way but sparse in a utilitarian way. Art direction doesn’t need to be flashy, I’m taking from that?

Andy Clarke: Well, I have spent years joking about gov.uk and I’ve always thought of gov.uk as being the website that design forgot. I’ve often said gov.uk, not known for its creative flair. And it was interesting, when I was doing a series of podcast interviews for the book, I was talking to Mark Porter, who used to be creative director at the Guardian. You can’t read a book about editorial design without Mark cropping up at some point. In fact, he’d be a great person for you to speak to on this podcast at some point to get a different perspective. And I was saying to Mark in our conversation, “Look, I can remember great art directed ad campaigns on TV, in magazines. We’ve talked about art direction in newspapers and print publications, etcetera, give me an example of what you think is great art direction on the web.” And I was absolutely stunned when Mark said, “Gov.uk.”

Andy Clarke: And it took a while to sink in but actually he was absolutely right because if art direction is about making people feel in a certain way then gov.uk does its job incredibly well. It doesn’t need to be flashy. It doesn’t need to be overly designed. It doesn’t need to push boundaries or do any of these things that you might associate with newfangled CSS grid webby stuff because it does what it does and it’s, the design is absolutely appropriate to, not only to the audience and what they want to do but also how gov.uk want people to feel when they’ve left the site. When you’ve gone on there and paid your car tax or looked up when your bin collection’s going to be or whether it’s safe to travel to Cameroon or…I leave that site reassured that I’ve been given the information that I was looking for in a thorough and professional way. I don’t think to myself, “Oh, is that site trustworthy?” And not just because its gov.uk but because the whole experience has just been designed to leave no unanswered questions in my brain.

Drew: Yes, it’s so, sort of simple. It gives you real confidence in the information you’ve found is correct or the process that you followed, there’s a very clear way through it so you feel like, “Yes, I’ve completed that successfully because it was unambiguous.”

Andy Clarke: Now, would I design certain things differently? You can bet your bottom dollar I would but would I want to think about improving typography? Yes. Would I want to get more granular in terms of typographic design so that we can improve the way that numerals look or dates look or tables of data look or whatever? Yes, absolutely there’s some things that I would look at there and say, “I want to improve the design of that aspect of gov.uk.” But in terms of the art direction, no, everything that they, that you see whether it’s intention or not in terms of, I don’t know whether there is an art director at gov.uk, but everything that you see just contributes to how people feel at the end of the experience and that’s good art direction.

Drew: The book itself is really beautiful. I’d seen the ebook version of it early on which is absolutely terrific and I recommend that. But then I had the pleasure of picking up an actual printed version and I really recommend the printed version even more. It’s, every sort of spread is as you’d expect, sort of custom designed and it’s just jampacked with loads of inspirational examples. And it’s so heavily illustrated, I mean there’s hardly a double page spread that’s all text. It’s all illustrated with stuff. It’s really great. To be honest, it’s not the sort of book, not knowing anything about art direction before our conversation, and before looking at, actually looking at the book. It’s something I wouldn’t have picked up thinking it was for me but once I started looking through it, I thought, “Yeah, this is really good.” Obviously, you’ve designed it, you’ve designed every spread by hand. What was that process like?

Andy Clarke: It was a lot of work. I mean, first of all, I just want to say an enormous thank you to my son, Alex, who actually typeset that entire book from start to finish. What we wanted to do when we set out to produce the book was to show off some inspiring stuff but we also wanted it to be incredibly relevant to people at various different stages or different areas or whatever. And Sue would be quite, sort of brutal with me and say, “Don’t forget to explain it this way. If somebody’s using Squarespace or Shopify or Bootstrap Grid or whatever, then you need to talk to those people as well.” So what I did was, I actually spent about three months designing a whole ton of different examples. And me being me, I had to kind of, everything had to be perfect. There had to be a theme so I kind of came up with this hard boiled based London gangster theme for an app and a website that kind of goes with it. And then everything kind of just spread on from there. What was interesting in terms of the actual design of all those examples was what you learn how to design in one part of the book you then learn how to build in another part of the book. So there is this kind of balance to it.

Andy Clarke: But then, so basically what would happen is, was that I came up with about half a dozen different layout scamps for the main body of the book. I was much, much more detailed on the, sort of the examples I didn’t design, some of the other examples from elsewhere on the web. But the general body of the book, I just did half a dozen, kind of just very simple box layout sketches. Alex would then interpret that and chapter by chapter we would then go through it. So literally every single page has been tweaked. And I haven’t done, I’ve never done a book that’s got, had that much attention to detail.

Drew: Yeah, it really shows and the end result is fantastic and I’ve been learning a lot from it. So something I always like to ask people. I’ve been learning about art direction, what have you been learning about lately? Is there anything in particular in your work and your projects that you’ve been learning and swatting up on?

Andy Clarke: Yeah. I’ve been really trying to get to grips with more advanced grid stuff. That’s something which I’ve been really trying to sort of push the boundaries of. And along with this kind of, because I’ve been experimenting with, “Here’s a great, here’s a quirky layout. How would we build that?” And along the way comes things like SVGs and making SVGs responsive and I actually learnt today that you can’t use the picture element with inline SVG. You have to use an IMG element if you want to swap one picture for another or one source for another in HTML. So my main, I’ve actually been going back to really just learn a hell of a lot more about code. I think that quite, you go through phases where there’s a huge amount to learn or it seems that way and there’s something new that you want to get to grips with. And then things kind of plateau out and you churn through the same stuff or you use the same patterns or the same kind of methodology for awhile and then there’s another spike. And I’m kind of in one of those spikes at the moment.

Drew: Obviously the book is available now. You’ve also been writing a series of articles for Smashing Magazine around some of the same sort of ideas, picking out some bits and bobs which we’ll link to in the show notes. But you’re also doing a webinar series, is that right?

Andy Clarke: Yeah, well, the articles in the webinar is all the same stuff so I called it Inspired Design Decisions. And it came about because I was actually in Magma Book Shop, which is a brilliant magazine book shop in London, before Christmas. I was with our friend, Al Power, and we were kind of thumbing through magazines and I was geeking out and going, “Oh, look at this beautiful quote. That layout looks amazing. Coo, I love the way that they’ve tied this image with the color of the text and blah, blah, blah.” And Al said, “Well, I’ve never really thought a bit like that. I’ve never really thought about lessons that we can learn from editorial design or magazine design or other things. And you just talk about it in ways that just make sense. You ought to write about this stuff.” So I don’t want to write another book at the moment because well, Sue would hunt down and kill anybody that asked me to. So the idea came about was, well, why not do a series of articles over the course of the year where I would touch on a particular topic and a particular piece of inspiration.

Andy Clarke: There’s three gone out now, so far. There’ll be four, maybe five by the time this podcast goes out. Each one is the webinar content with Q&A. Everybody that is a Smashing member also gets access to a really, really nicely designed PDF version of all of the articles and all the code that goes with it. And then what we do a month later is we’ll put that article out for free on the public Smashing Magazine website. And what we’ll do sometime next May, is we’ll collect all of those twelve articles together and we’ll re-edit them and get the continuity right and that’ll be another book that comes out, probably next April, May time.

Drew: That sounds great.

Andy Clarke: It’s a lot of fun.

Drew: If you, dear listener, would like to hear more from Andy, you can follow him on Twitter where he is @Malarkey and find examples of his work and hire him via his website, stuffandnonsense.co.uk. Art Direction for the Web is available now through Smashing at smashingmagazine.com/books and I commend it to you. Andy, do you have any parting words?

Andy Clarke: (Beep) to Brexit.

(dm, ra, il)

[christopherisonphotoblog]

CANON EOS R - A REAL WORLD REVIEW

If you’re a photographer, amateur or professional, you’ll be fully aware of the ‘mirrorless revolution’. Hey, you may even be a card carrying member of it. I’m not, not yet anyway…

I’ve been a Canon EOS user since 1995 when Canon took the world by storm, introducing the EOS-1 with a new lens mount and incredibly fast AF lenses. I remember at the time that it felt like they’d almost reinvented the wheel, infinitely refined it for sure.

As an editorial and now commercial photographer Canon cameras and lenses have served me extremely well ever since. Over recent months and years however, I’ve been glancing regularly back over my shoulder as competing camera makers have been introducing, developing and refining their mirrorless ranges as Canon appeared, at least, to be ignoring this evolution of the digital genre.

Finally, after ten years of mirrorless, Canon has woken up to the possibilities of mirrorless and is embracing the innovations in lens development made by the removal of the reflex mirror and the pentaprism.

THE DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Canon has always offered excellent and comprehensive professional support which is one reason why I have stayed with the brand and they have kindly leant me an EOS R body, vertical grip, two lenses and a mount adaptor. They are not paying me and I don’t feel beholden to them. I got my hands on the kit for purely selfish reasons, to see if it will help me provide a better product for my clients. Canon haven’t even requested a blog post from me, I do this in the hope that fellow pros considering the same move might be enlightened by what I’ve found out. But I must thank Canon for the no-strings loan 🙌🏻. For the record, this loan included an EOS R body, vertical grip, RF 50mm f1.2 L USM, an RF 24-105mm f4 L USM, a control ring mount adaptor EF-EOS R and a couple of batteries.

So, with that out of the way, here is my real-world, working pro’s review of the Canon EOS-R. (I should add here that this won’t be an exhaustive, in depth, techie review. More a practical one.)

So, IS mirrorless the future??

…is the question I’ve been pondering for about 12 months now. Is the grass greener on that side of the photographic fence?

THE ASSIGNMENT

I was commissioned by the Kennel Club to shoot Crufts this year, the premier, world famous dog show held in Birmingham, UK.

Now, I’ve not shot Crufts since 1993, back in my Leica film days (also called the R series coincidentally); so this was an exciting prospect. I packed my newly acquired kit and EOS 5D mark4 and EOS 5D mark3 and headed northward to the NEC.

OVERVIEW AND INITIAL THOUGHTS - (But not conclusions. Keep reading for those…)

I didn’t have long to familiarise myself with the camera before getting stuck in to the four day assignment, but I’d had a day playing with a pre-production model before the R was released to market and as a long-term Canon user I was able to follow my nose and manage the settings as per my 5D. This got me somewhere close to ready without much trouble. There were one or two hiccups, but Canon put me straight pdq. 💪🏻

One of my main concerns with mirrorless has been the electronic viewfinders. I tried a fuji about five years ago and knew instantly we would never be friends. However, EVF technology has come leaps and bounds in the intervening years and this one is impressive. I had fully expected this to be a barrier but instead I was able to work, almost, without thinking about it. 

In the hand, the camera isn’t too small but actually sits better in portrait orientation when the vertical grip is attached. There is more space if using an EF lens with the EF/RF mount adaptor fixed. I actually found this to be a benefit rather than an encumbrance.

An unexpected feature I instantly fell in love with was within the viewfinder. When shooting vertically, all the active, digital readings automatically migrate to the bottom of the viewfinder; fantastic for usability! (Unfortunately, the Canon manual doesn’t feature a picture of this and I didn’t want to steal one from another reviewer.)

I was intrigued by the silent shutter operation but initially was unable to activate it without consulting the manual - partial fail on my part but Canon do make you jump through a number of hoops in order to facilitate its use. Users must de-activate anti-flicker, activate one-shot, then switch to silent. Frustratingly, when an option is inactive and the user selects it you get a message that hints at why and then you have to hunt around to deactivate whatever is causing the problem. I think this information could have been more specific at times in order to speed up the problem solving pathway.

There are two control wheels on the top of the camera for index finger and thumb which are well positioned, the thumb one however turns the wrong way IMHO. The direction can be reversed but only as a pair, not independently of each other.

As someone who is constantly altering my af point locations, I really liked the ability to move the af point with my thumb on the back screen without taking my eye from the viewfinder, and to almost anywhere within the frame; only narrow strips up the left and right of the frame where off-limits. I did find that this facility sometimes dictated my composition of an image. Occasionally, when shooting in a rush (of course) I found the sensitivity of the contact lacking, but I’m open to this possibly being down to ‘operator error.’ 🤷🏼‍♂️

I found the zoom ring of the RF24-105mm f4L I’d been loaned was really quite stiff which caused instability during use. Also, it’s a very compact lens with the zoom close to the mount (difficult for us with big hands) and the fact that the zoom and focus rings are adjacent without any space between them at-all makes it all a bit fiddly. 

The manual function slide bar - what to say? 🤔 No comprendo just about covers it

I’ve always felt that no matter how much you study about your equipment, you only get a true understanding of its capabilities when the rubber hits the road. How does it rate in those pressure-cooker moments; well or under-par? Plot spoiler alert - this camera was both…

Firstly, and fundamentally, there were times when I thought the camera was switched on when, in fact it wasn’t! This may sound stupid but the top display continues to show the shooting mode the camera is set to even when switched off, exactly the same as when it’s gone to sleep while switched on - I found this confusing; when it’s off, it should appear to be off, no!?!

Furthermore, when it’s asleep and the user raises to camera to the eye, it takes a good three seconds from touching the shutter to actually activating/waking. There were times when I either thought there was a fault or I thought the camera was off (see above) resulting in me missing the picture.

Bringing back some positivity, I absolutely loved the exposure simulation in the evf, it saved me valuable time and offered me confidence in those pressured moments. I realised after the assignment that I’d shot the whole event in manual mode. I shoot manual often, but not 100% of the time. I put this down to this feature alone. Ironic though, that all this technology available facilitates shooting in manual.

As mentioned previously, I fully exploited using the thumb selection for the focus points, however… that function regularly went awry… I was wearing the R as a third body and because it was the lightest, I wore it necklace style. There were numerous occasions when I would lift the camera to me eye only to find the focus point way up in the top left of the frame…Aaaargh! More shots missed. I can only assume that my belly was selecting the af point while i shot with one of my other bodies. The af point can be re-centred by pressing the trash button but this is very awkward to hit quickly. I reprogrammed the star button to do the job. When using this method of focussing, a note appears briefly in the evf reminding you that the trash button has this function, even after assigning this function to a different button. I found this annoying to be told repeatedly and would have liked to switch these notifications off but I haven’t worked out how.

On a less techie note, I found the back caps for the lenses well engineered and snug fitting - a little too much actually. The EF lens back-caps can fit in two ways, but the RF only fits the one way and is very precise. Much of my Crufts was spent shooting in low light and so lining up the caps and changing lenses was an issue. If I buy an R I’ll certainly be pimping the caps with luminous stickers or paint spots to help me out. The red alignment marks on the lenses are also fairly minimalistic in comparison to the EF versions.

I had a gremlin in the body I was using. On several occasions the two control wheels locked up even thought he button lock wasn’t’t active. It was resolved by switching the camera off and back on only. This was annoying but I must say I do find the on/off switch satisfying and positive to operate.

AF AND LENSES

Generally, I found the AF pretty good but it did have major problems finding focus on dark and low contrast subjects. On several occasions with black dogs I literally gave up and had to use a 5D to get the picture - far from ideal! Bearing this in mind I wasn’t confident of using it for fast moving dogs, but I was proved wrong. The dogs competing in the Flyball competition were unbelievably fast (pic below), but largely, the R kept up, certainly better than the 5D.

I have a couple of tse lenses which I wanted to test with the R because optical viewfinders cause errors. Using them with the R was a revelation. When working in manual focus, the R offers the user an MF assist system. This took all the guess-work out of accurate manual focus...

The stiffness of the zoom ring on the 24-105mm continued to frustrate me throughout but on the up side it’s an excellent standard lens and sharp at both ends and across the frame.

Similarly, the RF 50mm is razor sharp, even wide open. What I was surprised about was the bokeh, or rather lack of it at f1.2. I preferred the optical qualities of my older 35 and 85 which brings me on to another reason for my interest in mirrorless - can I extend the life of my existing suite of lenses?? And the answer appears to be an emphatic Yes! Any Canon user who owns fast prime lenses (with max apertures above f2.8) will be aware of the front/back focussing problems going right back to the original EOS-1D 20 years ago. Well, I’m pleased to report that there are no such issues with the R; precise focussing, wide open on my existing EF lenses and no need to send them back to Elstree to get recalibrated to the bodies. Hurrah!!

Each day I was assigned to shoot some behind the scenes pictures with presenter Clare Balding in the Channel 4 studio on site. The R was perfect for this, the silent shutter working faultlessly and the processor dealing with the studio lights comfortably. On a separate occasion testing the shutter under fluorescent lights, I was left with horizontal stripes on the image, but I could see this clearly in the evf as I was shooting.

TOUCHSCREEN AND EVF

The screen is excellent. I did use it to select focus points with my thumb while shooting (I might have mentioned this already 😂) and occasionally felt it was slow to keep up and imprecise, but this could have been down to my lack of practice and poor implementation in those frantic moments. Time will tell on the this - the jury’s still out.

I persuaded security at the arena to allow me access into the catwalk. This is the roof space high above the arena out of bounds to the public. The articulating screen came in very handy when I was shooting top down. 

Holding the camera out over the side of the suspended walkway, I composed with the angled finder and fired via the Touch Shutter. This gave me a far better view than without either facility.

My only issues with the design is that the screen doesn’t open fully, so as to be in-line with the back of the camera, instead it is about two degrees off. This makes shooting as described above feel odd, as though you’re pointing the lens at the wrong spot or wrong angle.

I couldn’t help thinking that both the open screen and the door to the SD card slot were quite vulnerable to damage and could easily get broken. Longevity of the tools is always a concern, particularly for the non-studio based professionals. Over time, the kit needs to take a beating.

As I think i mentioned previously, I was reluctant about working with an evf. However, it is very good in the R and generally it’s not an obstacle to working. The only issue I had was the occasional lag when working quickly. When shooting, re-composing and/or zooming there is a noticeable ‘jumping’ of the rendered image which can be disconcerting and result in you being in the wrong place for the next shot because it makes the user think they’ve not zoomed enough or changed angle enough when, actually, you’ve overcompensated because you’ve been misled by the evf lag.

FLASH

I use Profoto A1 heads now, not Canon Speedlites and I only used them briefly on two occasions during the course of Crufts. They worked as well as they do on the 5D bodies. So no issues there.

WORKFLOW

The back of the camera lacks the now familiar joystick and thumb-wheels which I did miss. For instance - I will occasionally need to whizz back through the playback to show a client an image and this isn’t possible without the wheel on the R. Reviewing the images on the back of the camera with the direction keys was painfully slow, and flipping through via the touch-screen slower again. However, and this kind of illustrates the dichotomy of the R, I found reviewing images in the evf really useful, particularly as a wearer of spectacles rapidly approaching a bi-focal world!

In the fast version of my workflow, when I need to supply images to tight a deadline, I will tag images in camera in order to locate and edit them quickly. But, for some strange reason, the tags weren’t appearing in Photomechanic. I’ve yet to resolve this issue.

I edit mainly in Lightroom and I was surprised to discover the Adobe has not yet added lens correction profile support for the RF range of lenses. That said, images didn’t seem to need it. 

CONCLUSIONS

The EOS R is a very capable camera, but not the finished article yet. I think everyone including Canon accept that. It does sit alongside the DSLR bodies and I’d be happy to get this or the next iteration to complement my system set-up. It has capabilities beyond what a DSLR can do but also short comings.

Using the R is comparable to shooting via a highly refined, elevated live-view function on the back of a Canon DSLR. Because of this, it’s feels like ‘Digital Plus’ has arrived and traditionalists will probably not like its innovations I suspect.

Positives 

Attractively priced

Crisp images straight out of camera

It’s light-weight and nicely balanced in the hand

Vertically visible meter readings in the evf.

Very customisable

Familiar usability for existing EOS users

Exciting lens developments coming as a result of the new mount and loss of the mirror.

Accurate focusing with fast prime lenses without the need for calibrating. 

Negatives 

I didn’t take the time to try to understand the slide bar and as it doesn’t feature on the newer RP I wonder if Canon think it an innovation too far.

It can be frustratingly slow to react, particularly from sleep and some af functions.

Very customisable - almost too much choice and this causes occasional conflicts. Firmware updates will presumably resolve this.

A little compact in size for people with large hands

THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS - I HOPE IT’S BEEN USEFUL!

[tokupedia]

Kamen Rider 45th Anniversary File: Decade

2009

Sing it with me now..♬ Chan-Chan-Bara Chanbara! Chan-Bara-Bara Chanbara! Samurai Sentai Shinkenjā! Appare!♬  The 33rd Super Sentai authorized by the network! Shinkenger, Goes Forth!

RPM! GET IN GEAR! Power Rangers RPM hits the airwaves on the new Disney XD channel (formerly Jetix in the US). Decreed by Disney to be the final original Power Rangers series, the company wanted to be super cheap by pulling the plug on production and re-airing old episodes next year. The franchise would then get tossed out by the Mouse House after this harebrained scheme backfires.

Fresh Pretty Cure debuts, airing alongside Decade (and Double) and Shinkenger. This season attempts to expand the Pretty Cure brand beyond its young female demographic, which would prove successful next series...

So~(I Can Fly!) Hurry!~ (You Can Fly!) Miracles!~ (We Can Fly) DRAGON CHAAAAAAARGE!~  Tomica Hero: Rescue Fire, the sequel season to Rescue Force, debuts and... sadly is the final installment of the Tomica Hero series. Among the supporting cast for the show was the man, the myth, the legend, Hiroshi Fujioka!  Tomica Hero Explosively Completed its run in 2010.

Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger, the 15th Sentai Vs. series entry, is upgraded from a direct to video release to a feature film. It is the first Sentai crossover put on the silver screen since JAKQ vs. Gorenger in the 1970s. This marks the first time in history that Super Sentai has more than one film in a single year and would continue from here on out.

Victory Pose! Yatter! Yatter! Yatterman, the Tasunoko late 70s anime classic, gets a live action film adaptation courtesy of film director Takashii Miike.

Ishimori Pro declares 2009 to be the “Year of Cyborg 009″ because of the franchise’s 45th anniversary. The company does special events for the occasion, such as showcase Cyborg 009 concept art, animation cels and sketches from the private archives of Shotaro Ishinomori at areas such as Akihabara and the Ishinomori Manga Museum.

Lastly, Koichi Sakamoto of Power Rangers fame sits in the directors chair on several tokusatsu projects, including the Ultra Galaxy Movie and a few Kamen Rider movies.

(2009 was a busy year!)

Kamen Rider’s home network TV Asahi was celebrating 50 years of broadcasting and the number of main Kamen Riders in the Heisei Era had reached the milestone of 10 in total. To celebrate the two momentous occasions, TV-Asahi treated fans to not one, not two, but three Kamen Riders in a single year. The first was the non-canon Kamen Rider G, the later half of the year saw Kamen Rider W, and Kamen Rider Decade was right in the middle.

Decade brought forth tropes in super hero fiction with near limitless writing possibilities: The Multiverse and the reunified continuity trope. Not only was it now possible for a Kamen Rider to have a crossover with other Riders, but the series can go to other universes such as....

crossing over with its sister series Super Sentai!

For the first time ever on TV, Kamen Rider and Super Sentai had a team-up crossover special. While JAKQ vs. Gorenger in the 1970s mentioned Kamen Rider Amazon being part of a greater universe of heroes, this was never expanded upon any further other than a quick mention/cameo image.

Often comic book fans draw parallels of this show’s story to another...

Both serve a purpose, to unify all continuity back into one single linear pathway that audiences can follow. Thus the multiple variants of stories become one sole tale in one setting. That being said, unlike many who recommend Decade as a starting series, I would advise newcomers to hold off a little until they familiarize themselves with the Heisei era a little better, as otherwise the story elements may confuse them as they will have no frame of reference going in.

Heisei Kamen Rider up to this point allowed itself to avoid continuity ties by letting each series stand on its own aside from maybe Kuuga and Agito, but even that could be a stretch. Decade is where things began to merge back together, as after this series, Riders began interacting with one another on a regular basis in movies and direct to video films. Aside from a few teases of non-canon events like the Ryuki V-Cinema and the Den-O and Kiva Movie, Toei didn’t seem too interested in doing TV or film crossovers on a grander scale until this exact year.

So... what happened that may have changed their minds?

Oh yeah, THAT happened...Marvel made it known at the end of a little movie called Iron Man they were going to do BIG crossovers. So naturally, Toei possibly followed suit (with mixed results depending on who you ask). It is just speculation, but you have to admit it is odd timing given the franchise almost avoided crossovers entirely up to this point.

This show is also the last hurrah of Rainbow Zoukei as the costume designers, as their workload had grown to insane levels. RZ was doing Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, prop replacement parts for Power Rangers on top of various movies and TV commercials. In order to ease the burden, the company created a secondary studio based in Tama called Blend Master to divide the workload. Rainbow Zoukei does Super Sentai and new Metal Heroes costumes/replacements while Blend Master works on Kamen Rider from Double to the present day.

Another new addition to the franchise would be the introduction of Bandai’s Legend Rider gimmick for their Ganbaride arcade video game cabinets. Rider Cards were the primordial phase of this gimmick, utilizing the powers of past heroes in the show while being something Bandai could double up in profits on. Later iterations and Ganbarizng would incorporate the electronic collectible toy trinkets in combination with the trading cards. Another staple of this series was the introduction of the Rider lexicon term “Driver” for the belts (Get it? A belt is the driving force of the super powers of a Kamen Rider.)

The biggest thing this series did though was revive the Showa Riders presence in the franchise after a long absence from TV with a story arc about visiting the non-Heisei Rider worlds, with at least one of the originals physically appearing and returning to his role:

Tetsuo Kurata as Kohtaro Minami/Kamen Rider Black and Black RX! (Parallel universes thing, complicated to explain.)

Decade is a very divisive series, some love it for upping the stakes of conflict with the fate of reality itself hanging in the balance and a war between Riders of past and present series with a super powerful rider that had a cool belt voiced by radio personality Mark Okita.

On the opposite end of fandom, some hated it for undermining their favorite Riders with what some assessed to be a Marty Stu fanfic-y character who was almost super-invincible and ultimately served as a plot device.

On the upside to fans who dislike the show, at least we got a female Rider and a meme out of it...

ONORE DECADE!

Speaking of which...KAMEN RIDE: DECADE!

“The Destroyer of Worlds, Decade. What do those eyes see as he travels through many worlds?"

(Mr. Kadoya, circa 2014 in a crossover with Kamen Rider Wizard, lookin’ like a boss.)

Real Name: Tsukasa Kadoya

As a child, Tsukasa was often alone with his sister, but soon discovered she had the ability to create trans-dimensional gateways called Dimension Walls.

Tsukasa ran off into one of them one day and in his later years, came into contact with Dai-Shocker, a revived amalgamation of all the past villains the Kamen Riders had ever faced. They tricked him into playing the role of their Great Leader (which a teen Tsukasa thought was a “fun idea” at the time) and later offered him a new weapon to test out: The Decadriver. The belt device was the intense labor of Dai-Shocker scientists who HATED the Kamen Riders. The Decadriver could duplicate and surpass the powers of all Kamen Riders to obliterate them once and for all or use them as lifeless tools to enhance the Decade system. Tsukasa tested them out, but this ended badly for him as the overwhelming shock of crossing multiple universes all at once caused mental trauma that wiped his memories away. The Decadriver was somehow left hidden and abandoned in an unspecified alternate Earth.

Cut to 2009 and an amnesiac Tsukasa is on an Earth working as a photographer for the Hikari family. Natsumi Hikari is having strange nightmares about a figure who kills all the Kamen Riders in a great war, enveloped in a magenta light. Strange things then start happening as random unexplained catastrophes occur such as monsters appearing from silvery walls and people being randomly teleported to unfamiliar locations and slaughtered by more monsters.

As this happens, a familiar face appears to Tsukasa: Wataru Kurenai aka Kamen Rider Kiva who asks him where his “buckle and cards” are and that this “world will end if he doesn’t do something“. Tsukasa at first does not understand and is confused by all this, but Natsumi later finds the belt and gives it to him when she is being attacked by some Worms. Tsukasa transforms into a new Kamen Rider and then remembers how to fight, using the powers of past Kamen Riders to defeat waves of monsters effortlessly.

Once Wataru and the other Kamen Riders freeze the world in place with their combined powers to prevent further destruction, the veteran Rider explains to Tsukasa that the parallel worlds of Kamen Riders are merging due to an outside force and will destroy all of existence if it isn’t stopped.

To that end, Tsukasa as Kamen Rider Decade must go to the 9 Worlds and destroy the nine Kamen Riders of those worlds to preserve the Prime universe. Wataru laments that creation cannot come without destroying something and promises to hold the world in place for as long as he can with his comrades until Decade “fixes” the multiverse.

Decade ends up doing the exact opposite after befriending the Riders and connecting their stories. This at first did not sit well with the Prime Universe Kamen Riders and they attacked Decade to preserve their existence and those of their loved ones, thus the Rider War began.

But by being a destroyer and connecting with heroes, Decade did find a way eventually to save everyone. Tsukasa now spends his days traveling across space and time, exploring new parallel worlds and helping those in need in his own unique way.

(As many Rider Scouts will tell you: This one idea has massive fanfiction potential as Decade could have visited any number of universes of beloved franchises along his journey: Marvel, DC, Image, Transformers, Doctor Who, Star Trek etc.)

In one non-canon moment of a video game, an enemy called him the Destroyer of Worlds. Decade then casually responded that he is “retired” from that role. Even in Kamen Rider Taisen (*ugh*) any mention of this title seems to annoy/upset Tsukasa, as he feels he is beyond that part of his life.

Powers:

Decade can become invisible, make copies of himself, has expert markmanship and sword skill, enhanced strength and has the ability to travel across dimensions to parallel Earths.

Decade’s signature ability is for his Rider System to analyze an opponent and if it is a Kamen Rider, copy its data for Decade to assume the powers, weapons and forms himself in the form of Rider Cards. The Rider Cards can also upgrade/seize a Kamen Rider into a new form dubbed as a “Final Form Ride”, transforming them to act as a support such as a new power, a vehicle, a weapon or a device such as enhanced armor.

Decade himself can Final Form Ride into a giant sized version of the Decadriver for Kamen Rider J to wear and he assumes control of Kouji’s body as a giant sized Decade. Decade can obtain the power of Kamen Riders through cards in one of two ways, the first is the Magic of Friendship and the other is straight up beating them to near death and sealing the weakened Rider in a card in a manner somewhat similar to the Blade System with the Undead. Decade prefers option one, but in a rare instance used the second one as circumstances forced him to.

The Decadriver is also compatible with other card systems such as the Gosei Cards from the Goseigers and the Decadriver is shown it can utilize Super Sentai weapon Rider Cards.

Using some kind of construct projector somewhat akin to ZX’s Virtual Image Projection Unit, Decade can assume the form of ANY Kamen Rider. (As confirmed by recent toys, Decade can go up to Kamen Rider Drive currently. But Ghost and Ex-Aid are likely part of his card deck by now). Upon tinkering with it apparently, the Decadriver can holographically disguise itself as another Rider Belt (such as 1′s Typhoon) and through a voice modulator, Decade can fully impersonate a Kamen Rider for stealth/infiltration missions. This image projection is enhanced even further in Complete Form, as Kamen Riders in their ultimate forms appear on command and seemingly mimic Decade’s movements like a shadow for a double final form Rider Finisher.

In his more deadly Violent Emotion mode, Decade can obtain and use any power of a Kamen Rider automatically, even sometimes without the use of the cards and no form change needed. He is seemingly so powerful in this mode that almost no Kamen Rider can stop him and his Rider Kick pretty much becomes a human seeker missile (As shown when he chased down Skyrider in the air and kicked him, turning the airborne 8th Rider into a falling fireball.)  Complete Form can summon the powers of the Heisei Rider’s ultimate forms and utilize their Rider cards in those forms to enhance Complete form further.

Tsukasa as a human is bestowed with new skills in every world he visits to serve whatever purpose the multiverse needs him for. (Ex. knowing the Gurongi language)

Weaknesses:

Decade, much like the the future Gokaigers who would adopt his same power copy gimmick, is not all powerful on his own in base form and can be beaten in some instances. (Blade in King Form gave Decade quite the beatdown once with just one slash of his sword)  This is more to showcase that Decade on his own is neither stronger or weaker than any previous or succeeding Rider in base form and through the comradery of his fellow Riders sharing their strength with him, he can become the strongest of all of them.

His Rider Cards at first had a one use limit, it is uncertain if this still applies in some capacity. When the cards were used they would seal away the powers selected until they were activated again after gaining a Rider’s trust. Some universes disrupted or negated his power such as the World of Negatives, which rendered all his cards useless until he upgraded to Complete Form.

His Rider Belt is basically a big bullseye, as stabbing or damaging the Decadriver at close range will shut down the device and de-power Decade. Though if the first episode is any indication, dimension wall energy can automatically repair the belt. Still, like most modern belts which are not surgically attached to the Rider, Tsukasa could have the Decadriver knocked away from him or he could lose it.

The Decade system was designed to defeat Kamen Riders, thus other superheroes are immune to the copying of powers on some level. (though this does not guarantee opposing sides victory).

Kamen Riders sometimes had a bit of animosity towards Decade given his reputation and even after the Rider War, some view him akin to a Nuclear Option, as in someone who should only be called upon in a crisis or as an absolute last resort. Like Kuuga, Agito and Kiva, Decade has a dangerous side to the power he wields that could end all life..well..everywhere, especially if he succumbs to his darker impulses such as with using Violent Emotion mode.

Gear:

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Decadriver

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Rider_Cards

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Ride_Booker

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Machine_Decader

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Kamen_Terminal_K-Touch

Signature Finishers:

Dimension Blast: Using the Final Attack Ride: Decade Card, Decade uses the Ride Booker in Gun mode to fire a charged shot

Dimension Slash: Using the Final Attack Ride: Decade Card, Decade uses the Rider Booker in Sword Mode and executes an energy charged Rider slash.

Dimension Kick: Decade’s Rider Kick which is executed using the Final Attack Ride:Decade Card. Variants include the Enhanced Dimension Kick in Complete Form which utilizes the power of the 9 Heisei Riders in conjunction with his own power and the Final Dimension Kick which after using the FinalKamenAttackForm Ride Card, turns all the Kamen Riders into Kamen Ride cards that Decade flies through to enhance his kick to maximum power.

Enemies:

Dai-Shocker

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Dai-Shocker

Dai-Shocker is a supergroup of past Kamen Rider Villains from various parallel Earths who scour the multiverse to find like-minded individuals to convert/recruit into their army for one ultimate goal: Total conquest, subjugation and absolute rule of the entire multiverse and creation itself!

Out of all incarnations of Shocker, that is a pretty ambitious goal for evil and difficult considering that Kamen Riders exist on other worlds as well as other superheroes who stand in their way. Tsukasa was once their Great Leader, but turned against them and the organization had been crippled and splintered into various forms such as Super Shocker and Space Shocker, but manages to revive at least once.

Narutaki

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Narutaki

Nobody knows what his deal is, but he has a wide array of powers including the ability to create Dimension Walls, summon evil Kamen Riders or monsters and assumes the form of past Generals such as Colonel Zol of Shocker. He hates Decade for some reason and sees himself as a prophet of the Rider’s nature as a destroyer, warning other heroic Riders to try and stop him. He does flip-flop his allegiance at times.

Some fans have theorized he is an incarnation of the real Great Leader, while a still of the pre-production film shots of what would become Decade: Final Chapter gave a bombshell to his possible identity:

That pink camera is Tsukasa’s..so some speculate from this image that he is an older Tsukasa from an alternate reality.....

Sadly due to unknown legal issues and production delays, this plot was tossed out along with several other story ideas. So Narutaki’s identity and purpose for antagonizing Decade is never explained and his character was taken to a...very weird direction...

All we can say to those good stories and his identity not being told to us is...

ONORE DECADE!

Now we must go on the road to another Rider’s world.... til next time...

[kenro199x]

Godzilla Heritage

I am a Kickstarter backer and I just finished reading the email that was just sent. It’s a bummer. 

It really is.

*****

This will be a long announcement concerning the project’s status and future and I’ve tried to cover the situation as completely as possible. This announcement has been delayed for some time as we’ve been reorganizing and I’ve been working through a recent loss in the family. I’d like to thank backer and executive producer Tim Ryan for taking care of the page in the meantime. Please read through all the content of this post carefully, and if there are any questions that have not been answered, I will be happy to answer them.

After the teaser trailer was released last year we were contacted by Toho’s legal representation in the United States. There have been several months of dialogue with Toho’s representatives since then, with information being exchanged between us, the attorneys and to Toho in Japan. The process was concluded late last year, and with all the details finalized, it’s time to share where everything landed with our supporters and fans.  

The attorneys had become aware of the project after the teaser trailer and were looking to gather detailed information on the production and our intentions. The exchange was pleasant and cordial and we talked at length with the attorneys about the love we have for the character and reiterated to them that our intent was to simply produce Heritage as a 100% non-profit fan film funded and supported by fans.

The information was passed along to Toho and we were informed they appreciated our respect for the character and that the company’s intent was not to be punitive to fans; we were then presented with conditions that they wished us to abide by in balancing our desire to complete Heritage and Toho’s need to protect their intellectual property and avoid confusion in the market place.

The following conditions were discussed and presented: - The film will not have Godzilla in the title. - We would not make money from the film or commercially exploit it in any way. - We would not register the copyright in the film. - No physical copies can be made of the film in DVD, Blu-ray or any other format. - A specific disclaimer must be used after the title. - I will not create sequels to the fan film or produce/write/direct other Godzilla fan films. And finally: - The completed film will not be more than 50 minutes in length. - The total cost of production will not exceed $50,000. - We cannot raise any more funds from Kickstarter or other similar sites. - No version of the film or trailer for the film will be posted on YouTube or any other site where it can be viewed by the general public. - The film will only be made available for streaming through a secure online portal with access only to the backers who have financially backed the project.

Some of the conditions would be easy to adapt to. Others, we realized, would provide a greater challenge; such as the runtime and budget. Despite there always being a possibility of another crowdfunding campaign not reaching its goal, the real challenge is being unable to utilize Kickstarter to try and raise the funds to shoot the feature we had planned. It was also disappointing that we could not share new trailers or share the 20-minute preview freely.

We’ve reviewed the conditions carefully, and weighed accepting them against a possibility of having to stop working on the project or not being able to release anything after the years of hard work that have been poured into it by the cast, crew and backers. It was decided that the best way to finish the project in some capacity was to agree to the stipulations. The plan for Heritage moving forward: As private funding is the only way to raise money for the film if we were to move forward, we explored some options and reached out to contacts to see what we could do to. Understandably, most people are not willing to provide $50,000 without expecting a return. That’s not an option for a non-profit fan film. Because of this, it does not appear we’re going to be able to shoot an altered Heritage under the new guidelines as we had hoped.

Fortunately, we still have what we intended to be the 20-minute preview. Even though it was never intended to represent the final vision we had for Heritage, it can be edited into a short film and it is almost complete.

In keeping with the guidelines, we will be dropping the Godzilla name from the Heritage title and we will no longer release any trailers or footage of the film. We will still release photos and behind the scene content, there will also be forthcoming changes to the Facebook page.

Finally, after the short is finished in April, we will create a secure online method for backers view the film.

Concerning our Kickstarter Backers:

When we began developing this project, we knew that to deliver a film of the quality we were aiming for, we’d need the support of the fans and utilize a platform such as Kickstarter to get the required funds. It was very important to us that if we were going to ask anyone for their money that we be completely accountable for every dime of the funds we received from our Kickstarter backers. We understand there have been other fan-backed crowdfunding campaigns that have fallen through where the backers’ money has not been returned. That will not be the case here. Our backers put their hard-earned money into this project and their faith. Returning that faith by refunding them their costs is simply the right thing to do to, and I take full responsibility for doing that. This Kickstarter page will also be updated with any future announcements concerning refunds.

Here's a breakdown of what the plan is concerning refunds going forward: We are beginning a refund process with the company that did not complete the kaiju suits that were purchased.

Additionally, while working on Heritage, I was with a company that had a profit-sharing benefit. When I relocated during the summer of last year to be closer to the production and changed jobs, the process of receiving that amount began. Company policy being what it is, the payment may not be sent out until spring of 2018, but now that the company has finalized their figures for the year, I should receive a detailed packet including receipt dates in April and backers will be notified with further updates.

I wish we could return all the Kickstarter funds right away, but they will take some time. The good news at least, is that the costs are completely covered. Again, you made this possible, and it is my priority to return your money to you as quickly as I possibly can.

Please check the Kickstarter page whenever a notification is sent to your email concerning updates. You can contact me through the Kickstarter page, or personally at any time at greggraves@live.com if you have any questions or concerns.

Seven years working on this is a long time. A lot has happened, there have been countless ups and downs, and plenty to reflect on.

For many of us, the series goes far beyond political messages, the fun of the campier entries or its impact on popular culture. It means much more. And one of the best things about making this film has been sharing the “more” Godzilla means to many fans around the world with those of our cast and crew who had not been fans of the character and series. For me, Godzilla has been a huge part of my life since my father introduced me to the films when I was five years old. Godzilla was a bridge to people who became best friends and loved ones; he’s fond childhood memories and a Godzilla film is the last one I got to enjoy with my father before he passed away in 2015. Making Heritage only extended the impact the character has had on us.

We reconnected with old friends, met many new ones, and built new relationships. One of the driving forces behind our film took a job at a store with flexible hours to work on the project. That job is where he met his wife, and I had the privilege of being the best man at his wedding. In the same vein, one of our writers turned out to be the love of my life, and I get to wake up to her every day. We shared small hotel rooms, had skype meetings with a crewmembers oceans and continents away and one of our Kickstarter backers went from being a total stranger to an executive producer and close friend after a 3-hour phone conversation. Before we knew it he was flying across the country to be on set or was crashing on the couch. We all became a family. As corny as much of that may sound, Godzilla has had a profound impact on the lives of his fans and our cast and crew is no exception. We have a tremendous amount of respect for the series, and this project has always and simply been about paying tribute to the love we have for the character.

Heritage started with a single idea on a drive down the highway and is ending as short film crafted by a wonderful international group fans and artists and over 200 passionate Kickstarter backers and producers who gave their time, energy and funds to see it come to fruition. Some of us hadn’t even made a film before diving into Heritage. It’s been a collaborative labor of love built from scratch and a wild ride from start to finish. Thousands of fans and page likes, interviews and articles on kaiju websites and Facebook pages, nods on Dread Central; It’s even an honor to be recognized in a capacity by Toho. We appreciate all the passion that’s been poured into what we were trying to do over the years by the fans, whether it’s been praise or criticism. It’s been great to engage with people all over the world and share this experience with them.

I wish we could have shared the preview with everyone as we had planned, and more than that, finish the film as we had intended, but currently, there is not an avenue to do that. For now, at least, we can finish something for our backers. I sincerely apologize for any disappointment caused to the backers and those looking to contribute to the project through another crowdfunding campaign. Hopefully, we’ll be able to screen this at fan gatherings or conventions in the future.

I’d like to thank our executive producers/Kickstarter backers Cindy T., Cory C. and Tim Ryan for their huge moral and financial contributions and their understanding throughout the process, and moving forward. You are some of the most wonderful and generous people I’ve ever met; thank you for believing in this project. Thank you to our cast members Chris, Azumi, Colton, Misty and Tyler for the long hours and dedication. Thank you to Kyle Gilmore, our immensely talented DP and editor for your contributions and all the long plane flights to New York. It has been and will continue to be a pleasure working and learning from you in the future. Thank you to our immensely talented visual effects team of Aaron, Jessy and Christopher who worked miracles and long hours to create a ton of amazing effects and animated monsters. Thank you to our concept artists Joe and Elden who took the ideas we had on paper for the classic monsters we loved and brought them life with a fresh vision. Thank you to Marissa and Valerie for the wonderful work you did in turning a story into an amazing screenplay. Thank you to Chris M. for being a friend to myself, our crew and this project, your generosity, advice and help has been invaluable. Thank you to Rashaad for your contributions in helping to launch this monster movie to new levels and becoming a wonderful friend. And thank you to my brother Tim Schiefer, who was instrumental in turning an idea into an amazing story, who brought life into one of its most interesting characters and who has never been afraid to be completely honest with me, whether we agree on something or don't, and has always had my back regardless of the outcome. Finally, I’d like to thank the rest of the Kickstarter backers for their support and infinite patience. You helped make a life-long dream come true and you have my word that your contributions will be paid back in full and as quickly as possible.

Even though Heritage is perhaps reaching a stopping point, it is not the end. Too much time and effort has been put into this project to give up. As I said, we have assembled a wonderful group of people from all over the world, and though we may no longer be able to make a film with Godzilla in it, those people and the lessons we’ve learned throughout this project are quickly laying the foundations of an original film, and are creating the new creatures that will exist within it. On behalf of everyone on the cast and crew, thank you for everything…and stay tuned.

In a world of Gods and Monsters, there’s still a story to tell. - Greg Graves

[virginieboesus]

Top 7 PS2 RPGs You Probably Haven’t Played But Really Should

The PlayStation 2 had a tonne of role-playing games released on the console, just like its predecessor. However, also the same as what happened with the original PlayStation, these games were often overshadowed by the likes of Final Fantasy and other blockbuster RPGs. You can find my list of 7 original PlayStation RPGs that you need to play here, and for today, I wanted to give the same love and respect to those PS2 RPG hidden gems that went under the radar at the time because we were all focused on Yuna or Balthier.

So here is my list of the top 7 PS2 RPG hidden gems that you probably haven’t played, but you really should!

7. Shadow Hearts

Okay, so we are going to start this list off with one that is included because of how much I love it, but also one that won’t be for everyone. Shadow Hearts, the sequel to Koudelka, is a seriously dark and gory PS2 RPG. It starts off with the main character’s arm getting cut off by a demon. He then crushes the demon’s skull in his other hand and proceeds to reattach his arm once again. That one scene is a great example of how visceral and violent the storyline and events of Shadow Hearts is.

Because of this, a lot of people may be turned off from the game. However, it is a really good game with a unique combat system and truly memorable storyline. You’ll feel creeped out, disgusted and horrified, which is exactly what you are supposed to feel. If you can handle the gore, adult language and generally dark and depressing nature of the game, it is well worth your time!

6. Wild Arms 3

I recently did two RPG Retrospective videos on my YouTube channel covering Wild ARMS and Wild ARMS 2 for the original PlayStation. The series finally made the jump to being a PS2 RPG with Wild ARMS 3, continuing the Wild West visual and audio theme but actually involving it more in the plot as well. There is a scene on top of an old Western train that will forever be stuck in my memory. That, to me, is the sign of a good game – when it sticks in your mind.

Wild ARMS 3 wasn’t that successful commercially, just like the rest of the series, and that is a real shame. It’s a truly extraordinary PS2 RPG hidden gem that you really need to try if you haven’t already. The characters each have very distinct personalities, backstories and motivations, with a plot that is very well executed.

5. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Funnily enough, there is one Shin Megami Tensei spin-off series that I am sure most people reading this have played; Persona. However, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (or Lucifer’s Call in Europe) is a very different game. It starts off with your character going to Shibuya and witnesses the end of the World and Tokyo folding in on itself Inception-style to create a new, inside-out world. Oh, and you also get turned into a demon in the process.

From there, you have to fight your way through this new world to stop the big bad evil. Along the way, you can recruit enemy demons to join you, whilst also being able to fuse them as well. This adds a very “gotta catch ’em all” feeling to the game which adds to the depth as you try to get the strongest party possible. The Push Turn Battle System is also incredibly different from other games as your attacks can actually cause enemies to lose their turns, and they can do the same to you!

4. Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

Are you a fan of anime style RPGs? If so, then Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis could by the PS2 RPG hidden gem that you’ve been looking for. The game is a mix between a fantasy RPG and a school simulator, creating one of the more original takes on the RPG genre for the PlayStation 2. The anime style is both cute and well presented, and the general visual and audio for the game is top notch.

I used to own the game but, as with much of my old collection, it got lost years ago. Now the game can be quite hard to find, but if you can get your hands on it and you enjoy anime style RPGs, then you won’t regret it! Mana Khemia is almost the definition of a PS2 RPG hidden gem.

3. Rogue Galaxy

Interestingly enough, I didn’t know about Rogue Galaxy when the PS2 was still the most modern console. This action RPG well completely under the radar for me and I don’t even remember seeing it in the shops. It was released in 2007 in English-speaking regions and recieved largely positive reviews, yet I have never heard anyone ever talk about it. If that isn’t a PS2 RPG hidden gem, then I don’t know what is!

As the name suggests, Rogue Galaxy is a science fantasy RPG that features a plot revolving around saving the entire galaxy. That is a pretty big scope for the plot, but the game backs it up for the most part. It’s a really enjoyable RPG with a nice take on the action RPG formula, still utilising random encounters to find a happy middle ground between traditional JRPGs and action RPGs.

2. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

Now we come to one of my all-time favourite RPGs on the PS2, and my favourite in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise; Digital Devil Saga. As with Shadow Hearts, the storyline is really dark, featuring gangs fighting for dominance over a strange land, who get “infected” with “the hunger”. This basically means that they can turn into demons to help them fight, but must satiate the demon’s hunger by devouring the other gang member’s that they have killed. If they don’t feed like this, they will eventually go berserk and need to be put down.

The gameplay will be very familiar to anyone who has played a turn-based RPG before, but it is really the presentation and storyline that make Digital Devil Saga stand out as a PS2 RPG hidden gem. There is also a direct sequel, Digital Devil Saga 2, which picks up immediately after the first game, so I would suggest playing that as well to get full closure.

1. Radiata Stories

Another action RPG, Radiata Stories is a truly amazing game. Battles play out similar in fashion to the Star Ocean series, in that you are taken to a different battle screen and can then move around that battle screen. It also features a post-game extra dungeon and a New Game Plus option, giving strong replayability, which is something many RPGs don’t offer. There are also 176 recruitable NPCs, meaning that Radiata Stories verges on Suikoden-levels of character numbers!

Add to this a fun and exciting storyline, great RPG gameplay as well as a beautiful soundtrack, and you’ve got a true PS2 RPG hidden gem on your hands. Finding Radiata Stories in the wild seems to be rather difficult, as I haven’t seen it in any retro gaming shops or even at the retro game market events I have been too. But if you do manage to find it, you should definitely pick it up if you’re a fan of RPGs!

And That’s All Folks

So those were7 PS2 RPGs that you probably haven’t played, but really, you need to! These PS2 RPG hidden gems each stand out in their own way, be it through style, gameplay or storyline, and I’m certain that you’ll enjoy at least one of them, if not all of them.

Are there any PS2 RPG hidden gems you think need to get more awareness? Let me know in the comments below!

from More Design Curation https://www.16bitdad.com/top-7-ps2-rpgs-you-probably-havent-played-but-really-should/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=top-7-ps2-rpgs-you-probably-havent-played-but-really-should source https://smartstartblogging.tumblr.com/post/177713201340