#wait until you find out elli and clara's ethnicities

[foegs]

⭐ !!

hello beloved electric-arc <3 the free choice here is horribly open ended but I think I want to talk about my thoughts behind some of the album and travel log previews from the chapter openers and closers in rallyfic

chapter 9: best case, worst case

[DR3 + VB77’s Mongol Rally ‘22 album]

[there’s a profile shot of arto kämänen in what looks like an industrial district, in direct sunlight. arto is parked and valtteri is sitting on the ground, leaning back against the side panel of the car. he’s wearing unlaced brown hiking boots, shorts, no shirt, and is drinking from an enamel mug. so my recent obsession is the musician puppet and particularly his instagram, so while I knew for a long time that I was going to set this chapter in the Baku port, the aesthetics of this particular shot are drawn from his own focus on transit/communication infrastructure/industry set against not-quite-blue skies etc. his music is also themed around nostalgia, capturing the moment to let it haunt you in the future, looking at the past and digging yourself out of memories, which is fitting for the work but also the albums specifically. 

please add a little wes anderson filter to your mental image here. my headcanoning is that daniel wears sneakers but valtteri often wears boots. also enamel mugs are a camping classic. 

on the other page, there’s a low-angle photo of a young man silhouetted against the sunset, his long hair caught in the warm light. he’s leaping into the air with an arm outstretched, fingers just centimetres from a frisbee. his features are indistinguishable in the dimming light. this is jacob, but we don’t know this until halfway through the chapter. he’s anishinaabe, so I did a fair bit of research though unfortunately didn’t find a lot of resources, but several articles I found discussed the cultural significance of braids/long hair for several nations, so this is a nod to that. 

frisbee subculture shamelessly borrowed from my favourite mongol rally team, ThereAndBactrian, whose two hour video is by far the best rally vlog I’ve watched in my research, in terms of team dynamics, cultural understanding, creative route, and interaction with locals

below that is a low-quality photo taken in pitch-dark, with the flash, of three guys and daniel sprawled on bedrolls laid on concrete. there’s an empty sleeping mat beside daniel, with valtteri’s blanket and two sweaters on it. one of the boys is propped up on an elbow and squinting at the camera, but doesn’t appear to be startled. the others are asleep.] not much commentary. this is just fun and I’m obsessed with bad photos taken at night which make their subjects look a little unhinged. the quilt goes everywhere by this point. I think travelling with pillows is a nightmare and usually end up sleeping with crumpled sweaters instead, soooo. big throwbacks to my touring days in performing arts, but I’ve actually never slept outdoors without a tent.

[VB’s TRAVEL LOG] - [there’s a started and abandoned game of dots and boxes filled with the letters j and d. an erratic line is drawn across the page and one of the d letters is smudged.] jonesy? jacob? dawson? daniel? either way, someone stole valtteri’s notebook, and it was seized back with a vengeance 😔

- 11 points on maple leafs? not the hockey team, but he is a habs fan. I think. that might have been PR. please purchase and consume dare brand maple cream cookies for the real rallyfic experience

- want to leave. it’s not europe but it still makes me feel [the last words are illegible] he can’t keysmash but he can be overcome with misery and revert to illiteracy....right

- dan needs a haircut as we see in the next chapter, valtteri got one. both of them are pretty scruffy on the face by now. I don’t know how daniel gets his haircut yet but we’ll figure it out