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sebstanseabass · 4 years ago

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Afterglow (A Bucky Barnes AU fan fiction) - Chapter 4

Previous chapter links:

Afterglow chapters

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

CHAPTER FOUR

The cab ride towards the White Wolf was much faster and louder than you anticipated. The cab driver's blaring music from the radio was so loud it felt like you were inside a rave. You and Bucky had to yell over the music for you to talk about what has been happening in your lives for the past few months. You couldn't summarize everything in a five-minute cab ride. So far, these were just some milestones you both gathered (well, more of his): while Bucky was in different parts of the world (Greece, Macau, Amsterdam, Monaco, Aruba) managing interrelation business and hosting nightly parties and whatnots, you were just in New York tending to drunkards (and that includes Peter sometimes) and taking photos of whatever products that come your way.

At that moment, you saw your life pass by in black and white, while Bucky's in color -- just a parade of rainbows trailing behind him wherever he goes.

Yet he still found the things you did interesting.

You wondered what the word interesting meant to him. Of course, you didn't bother asking him that. Perhaps he just felt sorry and wanted to make you feel good.

The moment you got out of the cab, you guys took a deep breath, thankful that that awful ride was over. The music floated away as the cab sped up in the streets.

"What a dick." Bucky commented, watching the cab race through the streets. Any more speed, the cab would've flown in the air.

"I know." You snorted. "God, that was an awful ride. I felt like I was at a frat party."

"Funny. You don't look like someone who would go to one." He joked.

"I went once." You defended. "With Parker."

Bucky raised his eyebrows at you and stared. Blue eyes piercing right through you in disbelief. "Okay." You sighed. "I picked his drunk ass up at that party. But I really have been to a party with Parker." You left out that detail of you and Peter making out at that party. That was just between you and Peter and you wouldn't want to include his stepbrother in it. Or perhaps Bucky knew about it. You did just found out they talk to each other almost every night. But as you told Bucky about that party, you received no reaction whatsoever which meant he knew nothing. You felt good about that.

You and Bucky stood in front of the White Wolf, trying to shake out the ringing in your ears. Stupid cab ride. Why you couldn't just walk here was because of Bucky. Apparently, he was still a bit hungover. You wondered what would take him to get fully sober.

You stared at the wolf headstone once more, admiring it for the second time today.

"I commissioned an artist for that." Bucky spoke, poking his finger on his right ear. "Just found him on the subway one day. He was selling some sculptures he's made. Asked him if he could make me one and ta-da!"

"It is beautiful."

"I have others he has made inside." With this, Bucky started to walk towards the inside of his hotel.

The uniformed man greeted you on the steps. You sent him a knowing smile once his eyes landed on yours. He smiled back as you introduced yourselves to each other.

"Is she still in my room?" Bucky asked the uniformed man who you now know goes by the name Leonard.

"Yes, sir." He replied. "She said she'd -- "

"I know what she said." Bucky groaned, remembering what you'd told him earlier. "I'll call you from up there if anything goes wrong, okay Leonard?"

"Yes, sir. I'll be on alert."

You watched the exchange in utter fascination. It was like watching something straight out of an action movie: "I'll be on high alert" "I'll tell you when the coast is clear" "Roger that" "I'll call you when something goes wrong"

The only thing was, this wasn't some action movie though Bucky did have a plan. You just never knew about it until you got in the elevators.

"Here's the plan." He started. "We go in holding hands, I'll introduce you as my girlfriend. Maybe fiancé! When she sees you, tell her you're my fiancé and when she tells you that she slept with me, I'm going to deny and you're going to believe me because as my fiancé, you deeply love me and believe everything I say."

"Ew, it's like I'm a sub."

"Wow, you're a dom?"

"I can be." You winked at him.

"Huh, I honestly thought you're a virgin. You know, that type of 'never been kissed, never been loved' type."

In your head, you started singing the rest of the song. "I'm an angel in the streets and devil in the sheets, Bucky." You joked which he took seriously seeing it on the look on his face. "Anyway, your plan?"

"Right! She'd yell and go nuts until she gives up and then leaves the hotel -- "

"Then we get married and let Peter pay for our honeymoon!" You finished for him with a sarcastic smile on your face.

He smirked. "I like the way you think, Aria. But I don't think Peter's gonna want that."

"What do you mean?"

"W-well, he's not gonna afford it is what I meant."

"You're probably right." You gave him a low chuckle. "You're rich. Pay for our honeymoon." You joked.

"As soon as we get this bitch out of here, yes I will, doll." He scrunched his nose up and winked at you right before the elevator doors opened. Swiftly, Bucky grabbed your hand and intertwined your fingers. "Let's do this."

Hand in hand, you stepped out of the elevator. What stood in front of you was the same woman from earlier this morning. Body still clinging to Bucky's shirt. Faint red lipstick still smeared on some parts outside her lips. Blonde hair still disheveled. If you didn't know any better she was just here in the penthouse, waiting, not moving even a single inch.

You put your hand on Bucky's arm, hiding a faint expression of how big it felt against your skin. "Honey, who is this?"

"I-I don't know!"

The unnamed woman managed to step forward, looking Bucky in the eyes. "What do you mean you don't know? We slept last night!" Then, she looked at you. "Who the hell are you?"

"His fiancé." There was a sly smug tone in your voice. Even on your face.

"Fiancé? He didn't tell me anything about a fucking fiancé!"

"What the hell are you saying?" Bucky yelled. His grip tightened on your hand. "I've never even met you! How did you get in here?"

"We spent the night together, what the hell, Bucky!" She bellowed like a monster, then her voice softened. "I-I told you I love you."

"You're crazy."

"Call security." You said. "Now, Bucky!"

While Bucky grabbed for his phone, the woman pleaded, still trying to convince you that she slept with your fake fiancé. "If he says he doesn't know you," you responded, "then I believe him." Bucky slipped away from you, probably calling Leonard from downstairs. He gave you a knowing look, as if ushering you to unleash some kind of hell on his one-night stand. "You need to go, lady, if you don't want to be banned in every hotel here in New York. Yes, my fiancé can do that. So better get your ass out of here or -- "

"Okay, okay!" She held up her hands, giving up. "I'm out of here! Jesus fucking Christ -- " She mumbled more under her breath as she took of Bucky's clothes, revealing a white tank top underneath. She picked up her heels that were scattered on the living room: one shoe on the couch, the other near a foot of a small table. Picked up some pair of jeans on the carpet before stepping inside the elevator.

"I wish you luck in your fucking marriage." She said, tone filled with rage. Then, she proceeded to flip Bucky one last time before she disappeared behind the elevator doors, eyes boring into Bucky's.

"Okay, she's going down. Tell her to never come here again. Thanks, Lenny." Bucky dropped the phone call and gave you a smile. "And thank you for your performance."

You bowed, like how actors bow after a play ends, and flashed him a smile. "Why, thank you."

"Thanks to you I'm never gonna see that woman again in my life."

You turned your back on him, seeing the place for the first time without a tainted image of the woman. A line of little sculptures near every wall (perhaps the ones he commissioned from that subway artist). Family photos, albums and trophies took up a whole cabinet. You shifted your gaze towards the living room where a nice brown couch sits on top of a beige rug, which faced a huge flat screen television. Two pairs of love seats sat across from each other. A glass table set in the middle. On the back wall was a photograph of Bucky which took the whole space. He wore a neat, well-pressed grey suit, sitting on what seemed like a throne inside a home office, one leg stretched outwards and one leg just resting normally on the floor. He had this head tilt on one side, right hand under his chin, blue eyes looking directly at the camera. On its floor were stacks of magazines, and papers.

Even you couldn't deny how good Bucky looked in the photo but the photograph itself? You knew you could do better than that.

You turned around and found Bucky nowhere. "Bucky?"

He then emerged from what seemed like a kitchen because he was carrying loads of food and trod towards where you were and placed everything on the coffee table. "Yeah?"

"If I wasn't here, what would've you done?"

He shrugged, and opened a yogurt. "Probably stay in your apartment forever."

"Wow," you sat on the couch, watching him devour the food on the table, "seems like you've planned everything out."

"Seems like it, yeah."

"Do you always do this, Bucky?"

"What do you mean?"

"Have sex with girls, then make up a lie to get them out of your life."

"Oh, that was the first time." He replied. "Those three words really freaked me out. I've never heard that come from someone besides my family. Never even told anyone I've loved them, again, except my family."

You nodded in response and looked around the penthouse some more, admiring some paintings, big and small, on the walls. Perhaps some were real, perhaps some were just school ofs. On your right, was a draped curtain covering a whole glass wall that overlooked New York city. Bucky clicked some button somewhere which let the curtains open, letting some of the New York sun inside. From here, one could see the whole view of New York. All its pleasure, glory, grime, and lowliness.

Oh, the things you would give to live in a place like this. If you wanted to take in the beauty of New York, you had to climb up on the fire exit towards the rooftop. And the view from up there wasn't as pretty as this one. All the pretty spots were behind million dollar skyscrapers.

You looked at Bucky once more who leaned against the love seat, then closed his eyes. That same fuzzy image, which you thought you had buried at the back of my mind, resurfaced.

"Bucky?"

He shot straight up. "Yeah?"

"Have we... met each other before?"

A frown formed on his face, his blue eyes meeting yours, his gaze intense; as if he was trying to put a finger on something, on you. But then he gave up, telling you perhaps you'd just seen him somewhere here in New York the last time he was here, bumped into him. Something like that.

You agreed. Maybe that was it.

Again, you pushed that image at the back of your mind, hoping it would never come up while Bucky was still here.

You were about to ask Bucky how long he was planning to stay in New York before partying in every country outside America when your phone rang.

It was Steve. You picked it up immediately. "Hey, Steve. Is everything okay?"

Bucky shot his head towards you, perhaps wondering who this Steve was.

"Hey." He replied. His voice was groggy, like he just woke up. "There's been some misunderstanding with the shipments. They thought I said drop them in the morning. Long story short, the shipments are just outside the pub's door."

"What? They can't do that!"

"They have a lot of deliveries today so they had to. I told them to wait for you but those are impatient bastards. New shipment boys."

You cursed then stood up. "I'm actually not in the apartment right now. I'm somewhere else. Not important. I'm on my way."

"Get there fast, Aria."

"I will, don't worry. Bye, Steve."

Once you got off the phone, you told Bucky the whole situation.

"Let's go then!" He said with much enthusiasm. "Those drinks are no good sitting out there. How else am I going to make you the best drink you'll ever have, darling?"

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes smut #bucky x y/n #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes au #bucky barnes story #fan fic #fan fiction #bucky barnes fan fiction #thank u so much 4 all the support ily all #chapter 4 yay

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bisansastarks · 5 years ago

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”I could further explain on how it's important the moon motif was brought up again for the final time (in the most flagrantly romantic way Donna pulled no punches) and how that relates to the double meaning” PLEASE DO!!!

So i just drank a very heavy beer HERE GOES NOTHING.

The moon motif is actually cleverly brought up before we even know what it is. The chapter that introduces Boris is titled Badr Al Dine which Boris explains when he meets Theo (in a rambling omg cute boy is talking to me let me word vomit everything interesting I know, way) was his muslim name which means Moon of Faith. Cool, you think and move the fuck on with your life bc seriously this kid is RAMBLING.

Then we have Theo actually introduce or explain the motif that Donna is utilitizing herE. Theo, at the heart of the story is a boy who desperately misses his mom. He’s in Vegas, basically an orphan for all that Larry does (FUCK LARRY FOR LIFE) and thinks about something Audrey said. She said when she was in Kansas she used to get homesick and she would look at the moon because she knows the people she loved would be looking up at the same moon.

Donna Tartt, flagrantly holding all our hands bc WE WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE IS PUTTING DOWN, then has Boris who is sleeping in the bed next to him wake up and Theo asks him rather inanely is the moon the same in Indonesia? To which Boris responds, of course it is stupid. The moon is the same everywhere.

Theo and Boris continue to hang out in the moonlight while avoiding talking about their feelings. Theo even has a “false moon” moment with Pippa when he goes to New York. He describes sitting outside with her and looking at the moon and having great long talks and how connected to her he felt….and then when they went inside they felt like strangers once more. Yeah, Donna isn’t subtle with her moon motif and I love her for that.

The moon is knowing you’re apart from someone but they’re still intrinsically your home, your safe place to weather the storm. It is NOT just being in the same place.

The moon pops up again when Boris and Theo are in Amsterdam and it’s the most ominous moon mention. Which makes sense because they are headed for doom. Their relationship Is also at their rockiest. They’ve been separated for a decade and the painting stands between them. Is the moon still the moon? Are they still the same boys clinging to each other like cast aways ?

Of course Theo gets his answer when Boris, a character defined by his will to survive, is ready to lay down his life on the off chance that Theo and the painting can escape. And Theo, oh Theo, once a sweet kid who adopted a dog bc Xandra abused it, and cleaned Boris’ cuts, kills a man to protect Boris. HE ALSO DOESN’T ONCE CONSIDER THE PAINTING. The painting he obsessed over worse than his oxys. The painting that represented both his trauma and his love for his mother.

So we have two characters who still have not had a goddamn conversation and we’re being told this through Theo’s repression manuscript lense, but they’ve realized in this moment what they would do for each other. And how can someone not be integral to who you are, your home, your safe place, the goddamn moon, after all of that.

So finally (tipsy Angela rambles excuse me) we get to the Antwerp loft. Again I must remind you of two things. 1. Donna Tartt is not anti drug. 2. We are limited to the scope of Theo writing this through his repression.

Theyr’e watching a movie just like Las Vegas, and it’s It’s A Wonderful Life. What scene does Donna have Theo describe? ANY iconic scene in the movie? NO OF COURSE IT”S A ROMANTIC MOMENT ABOUT THE MOON. Here is the dialogue.

George: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary.Mary: I’ll take it. Then what?George: Well, then you could swallow it, and it’d all dissolve, see? And the moonbeams shoot out of your fingers and your toes, and the ends of your hair… Am I talking too much?Old Man: Yes! Why don’t you kiss her instead of talking her to death?George: How’s that?Old Man: Why don’t you kiss her instead of talking her to death?George: Want me to kiss her, huh?Old Man: Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people!

So we have Theo and Boris in their apartment avoiding their feelings as per usual (Theo: do I really have to say it?. DO I REALLY HAVE TO TELL YOU I DON’T WANT YOU TO DIE?) and we have the characters in the movie who are kind of arguing in a bantery way and George says “That’s a pretty good idea, I’ll give you the moon.” And what does Mary say?

I’LL TAKE IT.

It’s about giving and receiving. They both know now what they mean to each other. They’re talking around each other but they know each other. They know the other’s heart. ALSO DONNA, pls, in It’s a Wonderful Life a character tells them they should stop talking and kiss……god I love her.

So, they’re watching this movie about the moon and how the characters should just shut up and kiss, and they’re talking about Boris’ drug use. Now I fundamentally disagree this is Theo AT ALL separating himself from Boris. I want these kids to be healthier but Theo is not anti drug yall. HE doesn’t want boris to use needles. FULL STOP. Theo uses pills because he wants control and he finds it safer. Boris uses a needle because he’s always craved oblivion. But either way, Theo would like him to tone it down.

But we also know Theo partly agrees with him. HE SAYS SO. In a rambly somewhat pretentious end monologue, about how like Boris he believes in chasing the holy rage calling your name. About how sometimes you want things deemed bad, by society, and you cannot hide from your true nature.

What true nature? Being a drug addict? Is Donna Tartt’s ultimate thesis do drugs? NO. This book is about love and how it can save us. Our love of art and how it makes it immortal. And our love of each other and how it can save two trauma ridden boys being blown around by a storm.

So, on my deathbed I will crave it. I’ll give you the moon.

(if you liked my ramblings and would like to be more in your feelings about these boys and the moon listen to this song and read this amazing fic I feel like I fever dreamed)

#boreo meta #boreo #the goldfinch meta #my writing #WHEW OKAY BACK TO DRINKING DONT YALL SLEEP ON THIS I STG

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daisy-rivers · 5 years ago

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Kettling

MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin just explained kettling to his viewers, referring to it as a “controversial police tactic,” and once again, I got the eerie feeling that I had predicted the future.

Chapter 26 of I Like You a Lot is “Shouting in the Square,” about a protest march in Times Square that turns violent. I wrote it in the late summer or early fall of 2017, and now it feels like I’m watching it on the news. I’m posting the whole chapter here today. For those of you who haven’t read my fanfics on AO3, it’s a Hamilton fic, modern AU, set mostly at Columbia University in New York City. George King has become President; his police force is referred to as the “Greaters.” Alexander Hamilton is one of several student leaders of the resistance group called the Movement (there are mentions of TJ, Ethan, Ben, Nat, Frank, and Tony; maybe you can figure out who they are) at various colleges who are protesting against King’s unfair and oppressive tactics. Everyone in this chapter (except the very minor characters Alice, Vincenzo, and Monica) was actually a participant in the American Revolution, although not all of them appear in the musical. The Marquis de Lafayette goes by Gil in my stories, and he’s a pre-med student.

This excerpt begins a couple of paragraphs into the chapter. If you want to read the rest of the story, it’s here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11194281/chapters/24997485

By noon the next day, they had a plan in place. The protest was starting in forty-eight hours. Alex had applied for a protest permit, but they were going to march whether they got a permit or not. Angelica and Eliza were staying in the city to participate. Tony had returned to Philadelphia and Ben and Nat to New Haven to organize protests there, and they got confirmation that TJ, Frank, Ethan, and the others were doing the same. John designed flyers, and he and Herc gave them out on and off campus. There seemed to be more interest that there had been in the first protest, but also a new wariness about the increased and militarized police presence.

The day before the protest was to take place, Alex got word that the permit had been denied. He wasn’t surprised.

“Oh, well,” he shrugged. “This is where civil disobedience kicks in.”

He made sure that everyone was aware that they’d been refused permission, so that they could make their choice about whether to participate. It didn’t look like many planned to back out.

“One protest won’t change a law, no matter how well it goes,” he reminded the others over coffee, “but if they see that a majority of citizens oppose King’s actions, some members of Congress may grow a spine and stand up to him.”

“Especially if there are protests in a dozen or more cities,” John added optimistically.

“Just remember,” Alex continued, “that the protest isn’t permitted. We could be arrested for disturbing the peace. If we get separated and you do get arrested, call me. We’ve got some guys at Legal Aid who can help, and we’ve got some money if we need it – not a lot, though, so don’t all of you get arrested at once.”

It was a feeble attempt at a joke, but they smiled anyway.

“Dad’s not going to like it if we get arrested,” Angelica said to her sister.

Eliza nodded. “Maybe he won’t find out.”

“Let’s hope.”

* * * * *

The protest march was to start at the campus and go south on Amsterdam Avenue to Broadway and then on to Times Square, where they would meet up with more protestors from other organizations. At the same time, in other cities, there would be marches in the largest public spaces. They were planned for maximum visibility and maximum publicity. All Movement leaders were emphasizing the concept of peaceful protest.

“If anything gets out of hand,” Alex reminded them all early in the morning, “it won’t be because we started it.”

Unlike last time, they weren’t all gathering at Alex and John’s apartment because there were just too many of them. They were going to assemble on Amsterdam Avenue, and once there was a crowd there, start walking.

It was no surprise that there were dozens of police officers – Greaters – in evidence.

“Let’s see your permit,” one of them demanded as the protestors began to gather. Alex had prepped everybody for this.

“Joanna has it,” he told the officer politely. “She’ll be here in a minute.”

The Greater was irritated, but apparently wasn’t aware that no permit had been issued. He began asking random women if they were Joanna, and people were responding with helpful information like, “She’s just up the block there,” or “She’s wearing a bright red sweater. You can’t miss her.” That all generated some confusion, and then someone else, as planned, told the Greater that it wasn’t Joanna who had the permit, it was Orlando, giving a description of Orlando to make it even more complicated. Greaters continued to search for Joanna and Orlando while the rest of the crowd began to move south.

“You think they’ll find Joanna?” John asked Alex, trying not to laugh.

“Nah, I think she and Orlando were on their way to JFK to catch a plane.”

“You sure there’s no Joanna or Orlando in this crowd?” Herc asked, looking around. There were a lot of participants he didn’t recognize.

“As sure as I can be,” Alex said. “I asked everybody I could think of, and nobody knew anyone with those names. Worst case scenario, the Greaters find some poor guy named Orlando and question him, but he won’t have any connection to us.”

“That’s pretty heartless,” Deb told him, disapproval in her voice. “It sounds like you don’t care if some guy gets hassled, as long as we don’t know him.”

“Not quite,” Alex told her. “I care a little less, though, if it doesn’t put our group at risk. Besides, anybody protesting today knows there’s a chance of getting harassed.”

As if on cue, a police car turned sideways across Amsterdam Avenue to block their way.

“Keep walking,” Alex called out, and the word was passed along. There were two Greaters in the car, but dozens, maybe hundreds, of marchers, and they kept walking. The police officers glared, but didn’t take any action.

“It doesn’t look to me like they have any real plan to deal with us,” John said to Alex. “Are we supposed to be intimidated by their presence?”

“Probably. Remember that most of these Greaters are new hires, and I doubt if they’ve had a lot of training yet. We’ll just keep walking.”

The marchers carried signs with a variety of messages. Many said, “Repeal the Smith Act;” others called for re-opening the national parks. Quite a few had the words Have, Hope, Deplo inside a red circle with a bar across it. Holding the signs and banners high, they continued marching south, and more people joined in. It was beginning to look as if King’s most recent actions were finally getting the attention it would take to bring real change. Alex turned around, walking backwards for a few steps. Herc and Johan were behind him, and he caught a glimpse of Eliza’s bright blue scarf farther back, but he couldn’t see Gil or Patty or any of the others. He felt a small twinge of anxiety, but reminded himself that they were all adults and knew what was expected of them. He turned back to John, “Don’t get too far from me, okay?”

John smiled. “I’ll hold your hand if you want.”

Alex took him up on it. “We might as well piss the Greaters off for that too.”

A few blocks later, a group of protestors from a local church joined them. They were singing a song Alex didn’t recognize. He quickened his pace to catch up with them and approached a guy with an Afro, glasses and a clerical collar. “What are you singing?” he asked.

The guy grinned at him. “Old civil rights protest song I learned from my granddad,” he said. “Seems like everything old is new again, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I do. I’m Alex, by the way. We’re with Students for a Progressive Government.”

The clergyman held out his hand. “Tim Dwight – the Reverend Timothy Dwight, if you want the whole thing, but most people call me Tim, and the kids call me Rev.”

“Your grandfather marched in the civil rights movement?”

“Yeah, but he was a kid himself at the time. My great-grandfather, now, he was the one fighting that fight. He died before I was born, but according to Granddad, he marched with some of the greatest.”

“So you come by this naturally?”

Tim shook his head. “I don’t think any sane person comes by fighting the powers that be naturally. It’s always a struggle, but we have to stand up for the truth and for our rights.”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re doing this,” Alex agreed. “Glad to make your acquaintance. Can I get your number? Maybe we can coordinate some activities?”

“Sure.” Tim took Alex’s proffered phone and tapped in his information. “Let’s hope we can get some attention, get some changes made.” He turned to some members of his congregation who were close by. “This guy’s Alex,” he said. “We’re going to teach him a song.”

It wasn’t long before dozens more of the marchers had joined in the old protest song that Tim was leading in a call-and-response. By the time they reached Broadway, they were singing “Ain’t gonna let George King turn me around, turn me around, turn me around,” and there were police cars on the street, forcing the marchers up onto the sidewalks and slowing them down. Alex was still holding John’s hand, but he had no idea where Herc and Johan had gotten to. He kept looking over his shoulder.

John yanked on his hand. “They’re fine,” he said.

“Yeah.” Alex was a little embarrassed. “It’s just … damn, there must be hundreds of people here.”

“Probably thousands. That’s good, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He looked back again. “Why aren’t they giving us more trouble?”

“Like you said, most of them are new, don’t know much …”

“Yeah, I …” Alex, barely five foot nine, couldn’t see more than a few feet in any direction. “It doesn’t feel right. I wish I’d told everybody to stay together.” I should have set up checkpoints so we’d know where everybody was. I should have arranged a meeting place after the march. I should at least have told everybody to text me every hour or so. He pulled John with him into an alcove by a shoe store. “I’m going to call Angelica.”

Angelica didn’t answer.

“She’s probably got her phone in her purse and didn’t hear it,” John said sensibly. “It’s noisy.” He was right. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were singing and chanting, and practically everybody was talking.

Alex texted Angelica: Where are you? Is Eliza w you?

“She’ll get back to you,” John told him.

Alex shoved his phone back in his pocket. They were almost at Times Square, and it seemed like the noise level was increasing. He could feel the excitement running through the crowd as they got closer to their destination. There would be media coverage there, reporters looking for statements. He was ready if anyone wanted to hear from him. He’d rehearsed some words in his head, just in case they were needed. He smiled at John and held his hand tighter, and John gave him a grin, his eyes sparkling. “Let’s give ’em hell, mi amor.”

At first the high-pitched noise seemed like more shouting, but within seconds, they realized that they were hearing screams.

“What the fuck?” Alex muttered, starting to run. The crowd was so dense that it was hard to make any headway, and it didn’t take long for him to grasp that there were people running toward him, away from Times Square. Some of them were coughing and choking or holding their shirts over their faces.

“Tear gas,” John said angrily.

They kept going, weaving their way between those going in the opposite direction. There was more than screaming coming from up ahead now. As they came to the northern end of Times Square they heard the crashing of breaking glass and saw some of the marchers picking up anything they could to throw through windows.

“Shit!” Alex yelled. “What are they doing?” He ran forward, John with him, trying to get to a small group that seemed to have brought their own rocks and broken bricks to throw. “What’s the matter with you? This is supposed to be a peaceful protest. Leave the stores alone.”

“Fuck you!” a dirty guy with a straggly beard told him. “I’m not leaving till I use up all my bricks.”

“What are you talking about?” Alex grabbed the guy by the arm. “Why the hell did you bring bricks anyway?”

The bearded guy squinted at him, as if trying to focus. “I didn’t bring them. Cop gave them to me. I’m getting ten bucks a brick.”

“A cop gave them to you?”

“Yeah.” He let fly another one through the glass door of a candy store. “Over there.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of 48th Street. “You can get some too.”

Alex did a quick assessment of the rock-throwers and concluded that many of them were probably homeless, desperate to make a little money. Before he had time to say anything, John leaned in and spoke to him. “The tear gas is coming from the south end of the square. Looks like they’re moving in.”

“Fucking Greaters were giving out rocks for people to throw, making us look bad.”

John nodded. “We should move back or we’re going to get hit with the tear gas.”

“Where the fuck is everybody? I haven’t seen a single person I know in an hour.”

John shrugged, trying to pull Alex away from what was evidently a coordinated line of Greaters moving from south to north. Alex’s eyes were starting to burn. He looked over his shoulder to see that the bearded guy and his buddies were gone. He thought fast, then pulled John with him. “Come on.” He kicked out the rest of the broken glass in the candy store door, then climbed through.

John followed, muttering, “You’re fucking nuts.”

“I want to see what’s going on,” Alex said. He found a vantage point several feet inside the store. One of the windows was still intact, so they had at least partial protection from the tear gas but could see most of what was happening in the square.

Tear gas canisters were flying through the air, and people were running in all directions to try to get away. For a minute Alex couldn’t understand why they didn’t turn around and go back north as they had been doing when he and John first got to the square, but then he saw that another line of Greaters had formed at the northern end of the square, so the marchers were trapped. He felt suddenly cold.

“It’s kettling,” he whispered to John. “They trap people, and then yell at them to disperse and they can’t. Then they can arrest them for not following orders.”

There were three or four Greaters in front of the store, their backs to it so they could face the crowd. They weren’t planning to arrest people. It was worse than that.

“They look pretty dangerous to me,” one of them yelled to another, his tone mocking. “What do you think?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” his friend called back. “I definitely fear for my life. I bet some of them have guns.”

Without warning, the Greaters started firing into the trapped crowd of people already disabled by the tear gas. The sounds of the shots and the screams of the wounded echoed off the tall buildings surrounding the square so that it seemed the shots were coming from all directions at once. Alex lunged forward to run out, but John tackled him and held him down.

“They’ll kill you,” John whispered, his hand over Alex’s mouth.

Alex’s eyes met John’s, as horrified as he was. He gave a quick nod of acquiescence, and John let him up. They inched closer to the window.

“Not too many,” someone who seemed to be a senior officer was shouting.

The first Greater who had spoken looked at his commander and grinned. “Just a couple more?”

The commander shrugged, and then let out a scream as a shot shattered his kneecap.

“Gun! Gun!” the first Greater yelled, this time with real fear in his voice. The next shot took him down in exactly the same way, and the two Greaters lay on the sidewalk screaming in agony. The others fired randomly a few times because the echoes made it impossible to know where the shots were coming from, and then they heard another officer shouting, “Cease fire! Fall back!”

The remaining Greaters ran, leaving their wounded colleagues sobbing and writhing on the ground. Within minutes all of them except the two wounded ones were gone. The tear gas had mostly dissipated, so people in the square were trying to help one another. Alex and John joined them, putting pressure on bullet wounds, helping hand out water bottles that people were grabbing from stores with broken windows. A few yards away, Alex saw Tim Dwight, his shirt covered with blood, doing the same thing.

“Yo, Rev!” he called. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” the pastor responded. “How bad is it?”

“Don’t know yet.” Alex handed a bottle of water to a young woman who was shaking and sobbing but appeared to be uninjured, then jogged over to Tim. “Have you seen any dead?” he asked quietly.

Tim shook his head. “They mostly fired over the crowd. Not all, mind you. They wanted to hit some, but they could have slaughtered all of us. They want us terrified more than they want us dead.”

“It’s working,” Alex said, surveying the crowd. “Did you see where the other shots came from? The ones that hit the Greaters over there?”

“No idea,” Tim said. “Are they badly injured?”

“They’re not going to die,” Alex said, “but any hope they had of playing football is gone. Whoever it was got them both right in the kneecap.”

Tim’s eyebrows went up. “Really? A sniper?”

Alex gasped.

“What?” Tim asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Nothing,” Alex said, looking around slowly. “I didn’t say anything.”

The first ambulance arrived a few minutes later, and they did what they could to help. Tim estimated about fifteen protestors shot, two or three fairly seriously, but it looked like they would all survive. John was translating for a young man whose girlfriend had been shot. “Vine a estar con Mónica. Dónde la llevan? No soy americano. No hablo ingles.” The kid was in tears, and deeply grateful to find someone he could communicate with. John got the hospital information for him and told him how to get there.

He had just turned around to see if there was something else he could do when he heard his name, and saw Eliza racing across the square, sobbing. She threw herself at him, grabbing his shoulders. “Where’s Alex? Is Alex here?”

“He’s okay,” John told her, holding her tight. “He’s around here somewhere.” He looked over her head and saw Angelica, then Herc and Johan.

“What the fuck happened here?” Herc asked, his face grim. “We got cut off just north of the square.”

“Thank God you did,” Alex said, stepping up to join them. He held out his arms to Eliza, and she fell into them, sobbing on his shoulder.

Angelica, a few feet behind her sister, looked from Eliza and Alex to John.

“C’mere,” John said to her softly, holding out his hand. Angelica let John pull her in. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “We’re all okay.” He felt her nod, then felt the warm tears on his neck. He kissed her hair. “We’re all okay, you understand me?”

She nodded again, then pulled back, wiping her eyes with her hand like a little kid.

Alex kept his arm around Eliza and asked, “Do you know where Gil and Deb are? Or Patty?”

Nobody did, but the good news was that they weren’t among the wounded in the square. Alex called Tim Dwight over and introduced him. He was gathering together the remainder of his congregation. One of them, a kid of about fifteen, had been grazed by a bullet to his upper arm, but had refused to go to a hospital.

“If you think I’m getting in a car, even an ambulance, with any of them, think again,” declared the kid, whose name was Danny. “My mom can take care of this.”

Tim didn’t argue. Another one of his people, Alice, had twisted her ankle badly and needed help to walk. John went back into the candy store and got ice out of their freezer, wrapped it in Eliza’s scarf and tied it to Alice’s ankle. “Do you need a ride home?” he asked.

“I was going to get the bus,” she said uncertainly, looking from John to Tim.

“Are the streets open?” Tim asked.

Herc and Johan took off to check and came back to report that while Times Square itself remained closed off by police barricades, the surrounding streets were open to traffic.

“Let’s get you a cab,” John said to Alice.

She shook her head. “I don’t … I can’t …”

“I got it,” he told her, smiling. He and Herc half carried her out of the square and flagged down a cab, and John handed the driver a wad of cash that included a tip large enough to take his entire family out to dinner. The driver promised in return to be sure that Alice got safely into her apartment. She was still thanking them when the cab pulled away.

“She’s a third-grade teacher,” Tim was saying to Alex. “She says she wants to set an example for her students.”

“Good people,” Alex nodded. “Everybody here today was good people, marching for justice.” He told Tim about the group who had evidently been paid to throw rocks and break windows and about what he had heard the Greaters say before the shooting started.

“They planned to shoot all along, then,” Tim said.

“That’s what it sounded like.” Alex looked over to where the wounded Greaters had lain until they were picked up by an ambulance, and then his gaze circled the area, looking for places where a sniper might have been concealed. They were literally countless, the square surrounded by multiple-story buildings. It couldn’t have been on the same side as the Greaters, though, because they were shot from the front. On the opposite side, there was a hotel as well as four or five office buildings.

“Where do you think?” Tim asked, understanding what Alex was looking for.

“Impossible to figure out. I just wonder who would have guessed that there would be shooting.”

“I’m sure whoever it was thinks they were helping. Thinks they’re on our side, I mean.”

“I have no doubt of it,” Alex agreed.

“We don’t want to encourage violence, though,” Tim continued.

Alex was silent for a minute, then he looked Tim in the eye. “We’re on the same side, Rev,” he said, “but I don’t know that we’re going to be taking the same road. I promise you that I don’t encourage needless violence, but I won’t lie and say we won’t shoot back. This is the beginning of a war, and we’re going to be fighting.”

Tim nodded and held out his hand. “Like you say, different roads. I’ll be praying for you all, no matter what. Call me any time.”

Alex gripped his hand. “I will. You’ll hear from me.”

Tim gathered up the remaining stragglers from his congregation and they headed out of the square.

There weren’t many people left in the blocked-off area. The ones still there were those who had been badly overcome by the tear gas or who were still shaky and tearful. Alex and his friends made phone calls for some whose phones had died or been dropped and crushed in the melee, made sure everyone had water, and then Herc said, “We ought to go home. We don’t want to be the last people here when the Greaters come to re-open the square.”

“Good point,” Alex agreed. “Let’s go.”

It was a long walk back to campus, and they spent most of it trying to contact Gil, Deb, Patty, and the others. John got through to Mark, who told him Patty and Deb were safe at Betsy’s. Nate Pendleton and Joe Allicocke had actually been in the square when the shooting started, but had been able to duck into an alleyway, where they were lucky enough to find a restaurant worker who opened a back door to them. They went through the kitchen of Zaide’s Deli and out the front door onto 8th Avenue, and from there back to campus. Angelica finally got a text back from Gil who said he had been separated from Deb in the crowd and had still been well north of the square when he heard gunshots. Alex made sure that everyone got the message to meet at his and John’s apartment at six. They had a lot to talk about.

* * * * *

“Someday,” John said, “we’re going to get tired of pizza, and Vincenzo’s will go out of business.”

“I think we’re good for a few years yet,” Herc told him, helping himself to another slice. “How old is Vincenzo, anyway?”

John shrugged. “I think he’s got to be in his sixties. Talks about immigrating as a kid with his parents back in the day.”

“We ought to be able to get him to retirement age then,” Herc said. “After that we can worry about ordering something besides pizza.”

Alex boosted himself up onto the counter and tapped it with a spoon to get everybody’s attention. John and Herc sat back down on the floor with their pizza and prepared to listen.

“You all know the basic facts of what happened today, so I’m not going to recap that, and most of you watched the evening news a few minutes ago. What did you think?”

“It was bullshit,” Johan said through a mouthful of pizza. He took a gulp of soda and continued. “We know there was nobody in the crowd who drew weapons on the Greaters. They fired first.”

“Do any of you know anybody who talked to a reporter?” Angelica asked. “I expected to find Times Square full of journalists and satellite trucks, but there were none there. How did they keep them from getting access? That big a demonstration is news, so where was the press?”

Alex tapped a note into his phone. “Okay, that’s something we need to find out. I’ve heard from Ben and Frank, and they say the same thing was true in Connecticut and Charleston – no press on the scene at all.”

“What does Tony say?” Eliza inquired.

“I haven’t heard from him yet, and neither has Ben. I’m getting a little concerned.”

Gil was on the far side of the living room, sitting on the floor in front of Deb’s chair, his head leaning on her knees. He sat up straight now. “Was there shooting at every protest?”

Alex nodded. “Some places worse, some not as bad. There was one dead in Boston, and two in critical condition. Only half a dozen or so injuries in Charleston. Every other place was somewhere in between.”

“And were any Greaters shot or otherwise injured in any of these other cities?” Gil pursued.

Alex gave a little snort of laughter and shook his head slowly from side to side. “Not that I’ve heard, unless it was in Philly. Tony’s the only one nobody’s talked to yet.”

“So here there was at least some actual résistance,” Gil said, his accent so pronounced that the final word was in French.

“Yeah, you might put it that way,” Alex responded.

“Any ideas about who the sniper was?” Joe Allicocke asked.

“Not a clue,” Alex said blandly.

“Whoever it was, they were damned good,” Johan put in. “Kneecapped both of those bastards from God only knows what distance.”

“Yep, definitely a good shot,” Alex agreed. “Okay, the next thing …” he broke off impatiently as his phone rang, pulling it out of his pocket and checking the screen. “Alex Hamilton,” he said, and then, “Yeah … yeah … shit, is he okay? How many others hurt? Listen, let me ask you something, was there any press coverage? Okay … yeah, keep me posted.” He put his phone down and looked up. “That was a guy named Will Hays. He’s part of Tony’s group. Tony was shot today.” He waved his hands as everybody exclaimed at once. “He’s okay. He was hit in the thigh; they had to dig the bullet out, but it missed the bone, so it could have been a lot worse. He’s home now, and the biggest problem according to Will is that he’s pissed as hell. They’re trying to make him get some rest, so Will’s handling the calls.” He turned to Patty. “Can you text Nat with an update of what I just said? I told Will I’d let the Yale guys know.”

Patty pulled out her phone and started texting, and Alex tried to remember what he’d been about to say. “Okay, I want to be sure we get some connections in the press, because the narrative we saw on tonight’s news was not at all what really happened. Second, we need to talk to as many people as we can, both those who marched with us and those who didn’t. How many of them would do it again? Obviously, the Greaters meant to intimidate us. I want to know how far they succeeded.”

They finished up with an agreement to meet in Betsy’s conference room in a week and share information. As everybody was leaving, Alex approached Gil. “Tu peux rester cinq minutes?” he asked. “Je veux te parler.”

Gil nodded. Eliza and Angelica were still staying at Deb’s so he gave his girlfriend a quick kiss and stepped back into the apartment. John and Herc were still there, curious.

“You want us to leave?” John asked.

Alex sighed. “I hate to say it, but yeah. It’s for your own good.”

“Fine,” John said, waving him off. “Herc and I are going to Scoopy’s to get ice cream. I’m not bringing any back for you.”

“Fuck you,” Alex told him calmly.

John leaned back into the doorway and batted his eyelashes. “Any time, mi amor.” Alex heard them laughing as they went down the stairs.

Alex looked up at Gil. “Was it you?”

“Was what me?” Gil asked, his face blank.

“Don’t get cute.”

Gil smiled but stayed silent.

Alex tried another tack. “If I check the guns at Betsy’s, will they all be there?”

“I’m very sure they will.”

“Will any of them show evidence of being recently fired?”

“No.”

“No? None of them was recently fired?”

“That’s not what I said.”

Alex ran his hand over his face. “Fuck, Gil, did you take a gun out today?”

Gil stared over Alex’s head at the picture of the angel on the wall. “If I had, I would not tell you,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because then you would know, and you would have to act on the knowledge. You would have to consult with Ben and Tony and all those other people and make rules and policies about gun use. It would be time-consuming and unnecessary.”

“So you think any of us should be able to get one of the guns and use it whenever we want?”

Gil considered for a minute, then nodded. “Yes, I think that is the simplest policy. Either we are trustworthy or we are not.”

Alex chewed on his lip. He could see Gil’s point, but he knew the rest of the Movement wouldn’t agree with him. After a few minutes, he threw up his hands. “Okay. I know nothing – nothing except that I’m sure to regret this.”

“I don’t think so,” Gil said.

Alex smiled. “You’re damned good. Hell of a shot, twice no less.”

Gil allowed himself to look a little cocky. “Yes. I understand that snipers have very good hand-eye coordination, like surgeons.”

“So a good sniper might, under other circumstances, make a good surgeon?”

Gil shrugged. “A time to kill and a time to heal.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “You quoting the Bible? I thought you were an atheist.”

“I am, but they made me study the Bible when I was a child.” His eyes went back to the angel picture. “Sometimes there is good advice in the Bible, even for an atheist.”

#i like you a lot #Provoke Outrage AU #hamilton fanfic #alexander hamilton #John Laurens #eliza schuyler #angelica schuyler #gilbert du motier marquis de lafayette #hercules mulligan

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rimbaux · 5 years ago

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Tagged by @brisingr-iettauthr , aka my beloved husband, and @thewhatgay , how kind thank u!!!!

Rules: answer 21 questions and tag 21 people u want to know better!

Tagging: @notorioushiphopcrew @shhhhyoursister @theyellowcurtains @mynameisnotthepoint @saveitforthesongs @carterhaughwood but honestly just whoever sees this and feels like it

Nickname: i dont think i have one actually, except for my mum that calls me spatz or spätzlein or KIND which,,,, ye (i answer calling her MUTTER obv)

Zodiac sign: scorpio (reading the horoscope makes me feel depressed)

Height: like 167 cm, more or less? Blue, once we meet im gonna flex so HARD about those 3 cm i have on u, u dont even knOw

Hogwarts House: pottermore said gryffindor but i always wanted to be a ravenclaw (NO its NOT bc i was in love with luna lovegood reading the books) (shut up)

Last thing I googled: "netflix show woman who dies every day again" i couldnt remember what russian doll is called. google, no matter the extreme precision of my wording, was remarkably unhelpful

Fave musicians: ooof so many,,, sufjan stevens, hozier, ry x, keaton henson, marika hackman, tom rosenthal, annenmaykantereit, cosmo sheldrake, käptn peng, i cani, soley, angus and julia stone, adna, milky chance, serafyn, frittenbude, agnes obel, robot koch, crywolf, beach house, mooryc, sohn..... Just sooo many more

Song stuck in my head: ozean by annenmaykantereit thanks @blue, but also nothing else by angus and julia stone bc,,,, its been in there since druck season 3 ended

Following: 563

Followers: 1776 (who are yall?? Thank u?? )

Do u get asks? Sometimes and it gives me a thrill to be perceived every time, thank u for it, dear anons, its quite pleasant!!

Amount of sleep: hhh 5-6-7 usually? Sometimes i reach 8 but its,,, utopic

What are u wearing? A jumper i theoretically share with a friend but practically hoard to myself, woolen socks and sweatpants

Dream job: Writer and illustrator and researcher for university but,,, sigh. who knows what this life has in mind for me really

Dream trip: my years old dream is hiking through scandinavia, just going from norway to finnland with a tent and a lovely companion (blue) but also that one hiking trip to scotland (with again. blue) ANd i really need to get back to iceland. Some day in the future i really want to move to berlin. I also would love to see PRAGUE, hamburg, amsterdam, new york and copenhagen one day. And maybe somewhere in india! Or nepal! And egypt too and turkey and peru... and more and more and more

Instruments: i learned how to play the guitar and the flute in middleschool but i sucked so bad that the teacher told me and another student to just " silently imitate" playing it at the concert at the end of the year. We said fuck it and played it (badly) anyway

Languages: english, italian and german. I can understand a bit of spanish and make myself understood in it, i once taught myself a littttttle norwegian and i can read a very little french. But all these are very generous. Also latin and ancient greek, theoretically.

10 fav songs: (they will just always remain in the top ones)

Fourth of july-sufjan stevens

Take me to church-hozier

Dorian-agnes obel

Wolves-phosphorescent

Saving us a riot-phoria

My heart goes bum bum bum-crywank

Dont panic-coldplay

Sweat- ry x

White winter hymnal-fleet foxes

This is a Royal Cheese Fest but honestly, blue's voice. its the most beautiful and lovely and calming and just.. best sound

Random fact: i am CONVINCED (even if only half the people i told this to believed me) that i once saw a wolf in the woods near our house. It looked so calm and beautiful, a little ghostly. Also, just chilling.

My aesthetic: uhhhh a queer yearning mess that wants to go to the cold sea and talk to birds and dance in the moonlight?

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bthenoise · 6 years ago

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Northlane Drop Huge Announcements Revealing New Album, New Single and US Tour

Well, talk about a huge day for progressive metalcore outfit Northlane. Where should we even start? Not only did the band release a new single, a new music video and announce a new album but the Australian outfit has also revealed a new US tour.

Hitting the states in support of their forthcoming album Alien (due out August 2nd via UNFD), Northlane will be touring alongside Erra, Currents and Crystal Lake starting August 14th in San Francisco.

As for their heavy new synth-driven single titled “Bloodline,” frontman Marcus Bridge says: "'Bloodline' was one of the first songs that came about in the writing process for the album. When we were trying to decide what we wanted to write about, we decided early on that we wanted to keep the album pretty personal. I wanted to tell the stories of my upbringing and the ups and downs that come along with that."

Bridge went on to add, “[‘Bloodline’] talks about that idea of growing up in a broken home despite all odds and what might be expected of someone who grows up like that. You are able to be what people think of you and break out of that spiral, that terrible world. For me, that's a mix of telling the story simple, but then it also tells some parts of my story in really fine detail. For example, the second verse goes into a lot of moments that I actually remember growing up and these landmarks — all these things I remember seeing. This song is a perfect way to sum up the album and also be the first toe in the water to be able to tell this story."

Opening up about the band’s new video directed by Jason Eshraghian, Bridge says: "It was a pretty clear choice to work with Jason, who has done all our videos since I've joined the band. We've grown as a band together with Jason. He understands the stories we’re trying to tell through our videos. When it came down to the more personal subject, I don't think it would have been possible to do it with someone we hadn't worked with before because I don't know if I would have felt comfortable having someone that we hadn't worked with before telling this story and someone that doesn't really know me and know how I want to tell this story.”

“Jason delivered again, and this video is one of my favorite videos that I have ever done,” Bridge continued. “It goes into some fine detail once again about that environment of growing up around parents who use drugs, violent parents and all that stuff that a lot of people do deal with that maybe don't feel comfortable talking about. This video is going to make you feel pretty uncomfortable, but I think it's a story that isn't really told often enough."

For your first taste of Northlane’s highly anticipated album Alien, be sure to look below. Afterward, for album pre-orders, head here.

youtube

ALIEN TRACK LISTING:

01) "Details Matter" 02) "Bloodline" 03) "4D" 04) "Talking Heads" 05) "Freefall" 06) "Jinn" 07) "Eclipse" 08) "Rift" 09) "Paradigm" 10) "Vultures" 11) "Sleepless"

TOUR DATES:

8/14 — San Francisco, CA — Slim's 8/16 — Seattle, WA — El Corazon 8/17 — Vancouver, BC — Bitmore Cabaret 8/18 — Portland, OR — Bossanova Ballroom 8/20 — Salt Lake City, UT — The Complex 8/21 — Denver, CO — Marquis Theater 8/23 — Minneapolis, MN — Amsterdam 8/24 — Chicago, IL — Bottom Lounge 8/25 — Detroit, MI — The Shelter 8/27 — Cleveland, OH — Beachland Ballroom 8/28 — Pittsburgh, PA — Rex Theater 8/29 — Toronto, ON — Mod Club 8/30 — Montreal, QC — Fairmount 8/31 — Boston, MA — Brighton Music Hall 9/01 — New York, NY — Gramercy Theater 9/03 — Philadelphia, PA — The Foundry 9/04 — Baltimore, MD — Soundstage 9/05 — Greensboro, NC — Blind Tiger 9/06 — Atlanta, GA — Masquerade 9/07 — Tampa, FL — Orpheum 9/09 — Houston, TX — White Oak Music Hall 9/10 — Dallas, TX — Gas Monkey 9/11 — San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger 9/13 — Mesa, AZ — Nile Theater 9/14 — Anaheim, CA — Chain Reaction 9/15 — Los Angeles, CA — Teragram Ballroom

#Northlane #UNFD #Alien

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steenpaal · 6 years ago

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Fame (2009 film) - Wikipedia

Fame is a 2009 American musical drama film and a loose remake of the 1980 film of the same name. It was directed by Kevin Tancharoen and written by Allison Burnett. It was released on September 25, 2009 in the US, Canada, Ireland, and the UK. The film follows talented high school students attending The High School of Performing Arts in New York City (known today as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School), where students get specialized training that often leads to success in the entertainment industry. Exterior shots of the Performing Arts school are of the Professional Performing Arts School or PPAS on West 48th Street and not the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School on 100 Amsterdam Avenue behind the Lincoln Center.

Debbie Allen, who portrays the school principal Angela Simms, is the only person to appear in the original movie, the subsequent television show (in the 1980 film and the series she played role of dance teacher Lydia Grant), and this production.

Auditions

During the opening scenes in auditions and orientation, it is told that in 1936, New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia founded the High School of Music & Art in order to provide a facility where the most gifted and talented public school students of New York City could pursue their talents in art or music, while also completing a full academic program of instruction. In 1948, the School of Performing Arts (P.A.) was created to provide training in performance skills to students who wished to prepare for professional careers in dance, music or drama.

Freshman year

Students learn on the first day of classes that their teachers expect them to know everything. In dance class, the teacher Ms. Kraft is worried about Kevin's dancing, but is easily impressed by Alice.

In acting class, Jenny feels uncomfortable to let loose and be crazy like everyone else. In music class, Mr. Cranston gives Victor pointers, while Denise plays the music perfectly on the piano.

In the lunchroom, everyone practices their major and they all get up and dance ('This Is My Life'), while Denise and Malik escape the madness and they talk to each other, Denise saying that her uptight and conservative parents thinks that the school is "people sitting around, practicing cello all day", and that they would die if they saw this. Malik reveals that his mother doesn't even know that he is coming to the school because she works three jobs and would never notice.

Just before freshman year ends, it shows Malik at his apartment, his mother finding his report card, making it clear that he goes to Performing Arts. She is angry but he continues to go to the school. The year closes after she goes to work and leaves Malik standing alone.

Sophomore year

As the new school year begins, it shows the dancers all practicing in a circle, but once it is Kevin's turn, he is out-shined and is forced to go back in his original spot.

In music class, Victor is having trouble sticking to the right music, and adds his own spin on whatever he is playing, which doesn't sit well with Mr. Cranston.

In theater class, Malik talks about his dead sister, Ayanna, causing Mr. Dowd to ask questions that he refuses to answer. Malik then leaves, stating that he's going to be famous, no matter what anyone else says.

Meanwhile, Denise is playing her classical piano, but then starts to sing, assuming she is alone. ('Out Here on My Own') When she leaves, it is revealed to the audience that Malik was watching the whole time. He brings her to Victor and convinces her to sing for the album that they are producing. She agrees to it, as long as her strict father doesn't find out.

At a Halloween party, Malik plays the song, but says the vocals are "anonymous", upsetting Denise, which confuses Malik. Later, Joy is in Central Park drinking beer. She gets up and does a rap, vomiting at the end of it. Neil captures this in his documentary and presents it to the class. Marco asks Jenny out on a date (though not for the first time). She agrees to go with him to dinner at his father's restaurant, where she convinces him to play a song and sing on the piano. He does ('Try'), and she gives him a money tip. The sophomore year ends with them kissing.

Junior year

Joy has another audition, but is annoyed, because the other girls competing against her always seem to get the part. Neil says that he is meeting with a producer for a short, independent film he wrote and hopes to direct himself.

Meanwhile, Marco and Jenny go to a party, where Jenny sees a guy named Andy Matthews, a former P.A. student who claims to be a professional actor and known player. He tells her that he can have her meet with his agent, and the naive Jenny gives him her cell phone number. Marco leaves, having seen the last part, and Jenny runs out after him. They have a minor fight, but she promises that she will never talk to Andy again, and they go back to her house.

Victor, Malik, and Denise meet with a man from a record company, who says that their demo is interesting, and he will play it at the next meeting and get back to them. Victor and Malik are overjoyed, but Denise is still hesitant. At the next meeting, the producer tells them that Denise is the reason he was interested in their music. He tries to persuade her to stay.

Joy tells Jenny and Neil that she got a part-time acting job on 'Sesame Street' and is very excited about it. Ms. Rowan, the voice teacher, takes some of the students to a karaoke bar where she ends up singing as well. Jenny goes to meet Andy despite what she said to Marco. When she arrives, Andy tells her the director is out sick. He comes onto her, but she stops him and angrily leaves. She tells Marco, and he asks if Andy tried anything, saying that he knew this would happen and that if fame was really that important to her then he hopes she gets the job. He then leaves her sobbing his name on a rooftop.

Neil tries to get his equipment for the movie, but when he tries to find his producer, he is discovered to be gone, along with the $5,000.

Senior year

Kevin (Paul McGill) has a meeting with Ms. Kraft, the dance teacher, because he asked her to write him a letter of recommendation. She says she can not write him the letter, because she believes he is not talented enough to become a professional dancer. Meanwhile, as they talk, Alice is dancing to ('Black and Gold') practicing her jazz piece. This conversation with Ms. Kraft causes him to attempt suicide by stepping in front of a subway car. Joy, Rosie, and Jenny are there to stop him.

Victor is told by his girlfriend, Alice, that she is going on a world tour next week. He asks if she will visit him, but she says that after P.A. couples usually go their separate ways.

Joy drops out of school before graduation because she is working on 'Sesame Street' full-time now and her grades have suffered.

Malik talks with Mr. Dowd about his father, which leads to Mr. Dowd telling him about breaking down his walls. Victor, Malik and Denise put on a hip-hop concert at a club at which her parents are at, but Denise told them it was classical jazz because of her father's wishes for her to pursue classical piano and not vocals. Despite this, she defies her father and goes on anyway and wins over her mother during the performance. Marco, along with Neil, Joy, and Rosie, is there to watch but when he sees Jenny come in, he says he has to go. Jenny stops him from leaving, saying that she's been thinking a lot about him, and that it kills her that she hurt him.

Later, during the concert, he puts his arms around her and they smile at each other. When Denise leaves with her parents, her father is outraged and tells her that he is pulling her out of P.A., even though she is about to graduate. Her mom stops him and says that if Denise wants to sing, she should sing.

Graduation

Before graduation, Jenny gives a speech about success to the graduating class, saying that she felt it when she was in the school. Kevin tells Joy that he is moving back to Iowa (following the advice Ms. Kraft gave to him), and that he is going to be "the best god damn dance teacher there ever was". During the graduation performance, everybody participates ('Hold Your Dream'), with Denise as the main singer. It ends with all the characters following graduating (except Joy and Alice).

The main cast is featured on the official website.[2]

Students

Teachers and staff

Other characters

Release

Critical response

The film has received generally unfavorable reviews from critics.[4]Rotten Tomatoes reported that 25% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 116 reviews with an average score of 4.4/10.[5] The site's consensus, states: "Fame is ultimately undone by its choppy editing, its incomplete characterizations, and its apparent desire to appeal to the High School Musical generation."[5] Based on 26 critical reviews sampled by Metacritic, it gave an average score of 39% for the film.[4] On At the Movies, Michael Phillips gave the film a "See It" while A.O. Scott gave the film a "Skip It".[6]

Box office

The film opened at third place behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the newly released Surrogates with approximately $10,011,682.[7] The film has grossed $22,455,510 domestically and $50,930,003 in the foreign market with an international gross of $73,385,513, making it a moderate box office success.[8]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on August 25, 2009. It features a blend of American standards and new pieces, written specifically for the movie. Included from the original film are the piano ballad "Out Here on My Own" and the title theme "Fame" (both sung by Irene Cara for the 1980 original film).[9] There's a version of the theme song with a verse by Collins Pennie, but didn't make the album, although it was included in The Radio Mixes EP of the song[10] and there was made a music video for it to promote the film.[11]

Track listing

"Welcome to P.A." – Raney Shockne

"Fame" – Naturi Naughton

"Big Things" – Anjulie

"Ordinary People" – Asher Book

"This Is My Life" – Hopsin, Ak'Sent, Tynisha Keli & Donte "Burger" Winston

"Out Here on My Own – Naturi Naughton

"Street Hustlin'" – Raney Shockne feat. Stella Moon

"You'll Find a Way" (Switch & Sinden Remix) – Santigold

"Can't Hide from Love" – Naturi Naughton & Collins Pennie

"Black & Gold" – Sam Sparro

"Back to Back" – Collins Pennie feat. Ashleigh Haney

"I Put a Spell on You" – Raney Shockne feat. Eddie Wakes

"Get On the Floor" – Naturi Naughton & Collins Pennie

"Try" – Asher Book

"You Took Advantage of Me" – Megan Mullally

"Too Many Women" (Damon Elliott Remix) – Rachael Sage

"Someone to Watch Over Me" – Asher Book

"You Made Me Love You" – Raney Shockne feat. Oren Waters

"Hold Your Dream" – Kay Panabaker, Asher Book & Naturi Naughton

Additionally, a More Music From Fame[12] and two solo albums by Naturi Naughton and Collins Pennie titled Fame Presents Naturi Naughton as Denise: Didn't I Tell You?[13] and Fame Presents Collins Pennie as Malik: Best Believe That[14] were released in February 2010.

References

^ Fame at Box Office Mojo

^ "Full Cast". Official fame website. MGM Studios.

^ Ebert, Roger. "Fame Review". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved September 27, 2009.

^ a b "Fame (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved September 27, 2009.

^ a b "Fame Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved September 27, 2009.

^ Phillips, Michael; Scott, A.O. (September 26, 2009). "Fame Movie Review". BV Entertainment.com. Retrieved September 28, 2009.[permanent dead link]

^ "Weekend Box Office Results for September 25–27, 2009". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 27, 2009.

^ "Fame (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 13, 2010.

^ "Fame (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Various Artists". iTunes. Retrieved January 3, 2014.

^ "Fame - The Radio Mixes - EP by Naturi Naughton". iTunes. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

^ "FAME Theme Song Naturi Naughton & Collins Pennie". YouTube. September 17, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2013.

^ "Fame (More Music from the Motion Picture) by Various Artists". iTunes. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

^ "Fame Presents Naturi Naughton As Denise: Didn't I Tell You? by Naturi Naughton". iTunes. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

^ "Fame presents Collins Pennie as Malik: Best Believe That by Collins Pennie". iTunes. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

^ "Pandora Archive" (PDF). August 23, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2012.

^ "Austriancharts.at – Soundtrack – Fame %5b2009%5d" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ "Ultratop.be – Soundtrack – Fame %5b2009%5d" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ "Lescharts.com – Soundtrack – Fame %5b2009%5d". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ "Officialcharts.de – Soundtrack – Fame %5b2009%5d". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ "Charts.org.nz – Soundtrack – Fame %5b2009%5d". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ "Swisscharts.com – Soundtrack – Fame %5b2009%5d". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ "Official Compilations Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 18, 2014.

^ a b c "Fame [Lakeshore Soundtrack] - Original Soundtrack | Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved February 25, 2016.

External links

0 notes

hellyeahdelain · 8 years ago

Link

Delain is certainly a hard-working band! In addition to putting out new albums every two years, they constantly tour around the world to the delight of their fans. They recently celebrated a huge milestone in their career with their 10th Anniversary Concert in Amsterdam last December and have been heavily touring last year’s new album “Moonbathers”. I caught up with the band during their first headlining North American tour and had a chance to chat with keyboardist, composer, and band founder, Martijn Westerholt. We had a chance to discuss the current tour, their Anniversary show, new music, and future plans. Here is how it went:

Afternoiz: This is Joe Prostredny with Afternoiz and I’m here with Martijn of Delain! How are you doing today?

Martijn: Good! Yeah! This is our fifth show or sixth one and we’re getting into the structure and the groove so yeah, it’s good!

Afternoiz: Every time I’ve interviewed one of you guys in the past… at least once a year for the past few years, I’ve asked the same question every time. “When are you going to headline in North America?” But I don’t have to ask it this time because you’re finally doing it!

Martijn: Yep! We’re doing it!

Afternoiz: We’re here in Baltimore, which is one of the earlier dates of the tour. How is the tour going so far?

Martijn: Good! Because you never know until you go on tour… bands go with the crew and the whole production thing. It has been heavy I have to say, to get everything, the production on the road. The vibe is really good but it’s just a lot of work. We have to get into the groove of that and get everything structured and I think now we’re getting there so, yeah, it’s good!

Afternoiz: For a lot of North American fans, except for some of the crazier ones like me that fly over the Atlantic, this is their first chance to see you perform a longer set… unlike your spoiled European fans who get that all the time. What has the fan feedback been? I know it’s only been a few shows so far.

Martijn: Good! And it’s actually what you said people are finally (getting) a longer set. They never hear you play this song or that song and now we can do it and that’s great. I think there’s taste for more, so to say.

Afternoiz: It’s the first time all six of you have been here… at the same time?

Martijn: Yeah! At first we didn’t have six band members, but five. And then we got a substitute for the one then we got a substitute for the other and now we’re all here, finally!

Afternoiz: Finally! And you’re sharing the stage with HammerFall! How have they been to work with?

Martijn: Yeah! They are fantastic; they are great guys. They are really relaxed. And it’s a lot of drinking together I guess. With Swedish people means you really have to watch out (laughs).

Afternoiz: Really! (laughs) In my experience… with Dutch people you have to watch out too!

Martijn: Really? I think the Dutch people are more screwed in that regard. (laughs) But it’s good and nice people and the cooperation goes really well.

Afternoiz: The last time I did an interview with you guys, you were on your last North American tour which was about a year ago. You were touring the newest album, ‘Moonbathers’, but it hadn’t been released yet. We had the EP, ‘Lunar Prelude’, but fans had not heard the entire album yet. But you’ve been touring the album a lot in the last year. What’s the fan reception of the album?

Martijn: Really good! I think it’s one of the best actually. Normally we play a lot of songs off of ‘Moonbathers’ and before this album release it was always a collection of songs from this album or songs from that album and the album we released it wasn’t even so much many songs played and with this album it is. A lot of these songs are normally played live which is a good sign I think. We select the songs in accordance to how people react or respond to it, like a balance in the set list. And that goes with this album exceptionally well, actually.

Afternoiz: Does it get hard after you’ve been touring, and you have a lot of albums now, to let go of some of the earlier songs that were real popular?… your signature songs? Do you have to let them go because you’ve got to get the newer ones in?

Martijn: No, it’s not a “Kill your darling” situation. It’s actually the other way around. It gets easier and easier to get a really good balance in your set list and in your live show because some songs are better in this place of a set list or some songs are better in that place… in terms of buildup because that it what you want. You want to build up your set with a good balance and interaction etcetera. And the more material you have to build with the easier it gets.

Afternoiz: This current tour is a pretty big one, twenty-three cities, if I’m not mistaken!

Martijn: Twenty-three cities, yeah… I think that’s right.

Afternoiz: Is there any place you’re really looking forward to hitting?

Martijn: I like to do west because it’s nice and warm…

Afternoiz: (laughs)… not like rainy New York?

Martijn: No… because we have plenty of that in the Netherlands… but of course I just like to tour the states. Also here in Baltimore and also New York. And there’s an extra bonus appeal to me when we come to California and Arizona. My girlfriend is from Arizona so I’m also there privately a lot. But all places have their charm I think.

Afternoiz: You had a day off yesterday… actually, I think you spent three days in New York, right?

Martijn: Actually, yesterday we did Baltimore and before that we did New York City and New Jersey. We took a cab to the city to downtown Manhattan which is great always. Yeah, it was cool!

Afternoiz: Anything special you like to do on your days off?

Martijn: Well, this is not going to entertain people by saying this, but I love my hotel! Netflix and some nice food on the side and just do nothing. Couple of emails perhaps. But rest.

Afternoiz: Rest is important! Other than New York City on Monday, the last time I saw you was at the 10th anniversary show at Paradiso in Amsterdam in December. From the perspective of an audience member, I thought it was phenomenal! Over the top and one of the best shows I’ve seen your guys do. And I’ve seen a lot! Maybe not as many as some, but…

Martijn: (laughs) Yes, you’re an expert!

Afternoiz: How did you guys feel like it went?

Martijn: It was very special. The vibe was very special. After the show I was actually very pissed off because a lot of stuff we’d planned didn’t work out. We had far more confetti moments planned for example. Light moments which didn’t work and I didn’t like that because it was a DVD so it’s about what people see and not only what people hear. You come to watch a band, you don’t come to listen to a band, you come to watch a band. And in that regard I also didn’t like the attitude of the venue because we were not allowed to do anything and they made problems out of everything. I wanted to use this system; this backdrop which falls down but I couldn’t because “the roof would fall down” and that kind of stuff. This is the last time we will do that venue. Although the vibe was great and the fans were phenomenal and everybody had fun so I also count my blessings. But for the next anniversary, I want to redo it (laughs)!

Afternoiz: That would be the fifteen year or the twenty?

Martijn: Yeah, both (laughs)!

Afternoiz: I saw you guys briefly before the anniversary show at the VIP birthday party and you guys are always very friendly at meet and greets. But you guys seemed more nervous… distracted…

Martijn: Yeah, we were totally overstretched and I actually didn’t have time for this VIP… but of course you have to when you promise people that. And on top also there the venue screwed up by opening the doors for the normal crowd [before the VIP fans were let in]… which we fixed by offering everybody [the opportunity] to watch at a sound check [at a future show]… so some people went to another show and saw our sound check and even walked on stage while we played.

Afternoiz: That’s a great experience!

Martijn: Yeah! Because fans are so important. Because of them we can do this and we are here. But we were really, really on edge there.

Afternoiz: Well, that’s understandable.

Martijn: Yeah, it was a very important show… the most important show… thus far.

Afternoiz: You’ll be releasing a DVD of the show. How far along is that?

Martijn: We will release this summer so actually it’s worked on right now. I was a little bit nervous because of course we are on tour right now and there’s almost nothing you can do. It’s a totally different animal being on tour than making an album or a DVD. But the plan is to finish it in June and then release it somewhere in August or September. That’s the plan, yeah.

Afternoiz: Is it just going to be the show or will there be extras thrown in?

Martijn: Extras as well. We’re going to do a lot of stuff on there.

Afternoiz: Any hints or do we have to wait?

Martijn: We’re working on a small documentary bonus thing and videos and that kind of stuff that we’re going to put on there as well. Just a collection of ten years of Delain.

Afternoiz: You have another special series of shows coming up at the end of the year, ‘Danse Macabre’. What can you tell us about that? Obviously, it’s heavily featuring Marco Hietala from Nightwish because he’s right there in the center of all of you on the posters.

Martijn: Yeah, together with us, you’re right. We got a lot of requests from fans asking if Marco could join us… also here in the states…but it’s difficult because he has his own schedule and to fly him over to the states, yeah that’s ridiculous and of course not possible. But he has a sabbatical year this year, so I called him and said hey, what about doing a couple of shows with us and make it kind of a mini tour and make it a special thing together. Because a combination of Marco and Delain is a unique combination so that’s when we made up this tour with six shows and we’re going to do special songs. It’s meant to be a very, very special mini tour. Both in production and in songs we play and of course having Marco on stage with us.

Afternoiz: I, unfortunately, am going to have to miss that tour…

Martijn: Oh… too bad!

Afternoiz: Yeah, I know!… It’s terrible!

Martijn: It will not be the last time we perform with Marco, so…

Afternoiz: What else do you have planned for 2017?

Martijn: We’re going to do a couple festivals. Last year, it was really rush hour when it came to festival season, but this year we’re speeding down a little bit in that regard because we have a new album to make but we will still do a couple festivals. We’ll do Summer Breeze which is a big one in Europe and we’ll do Greenfield, a big one in Switzerland, and a couple others. So, we will do some festivals, yeah.

Afternoiz: And you’re headlining the Female Metal Event in Eindhoven, right?

Martijn: Yes! FemMe Fest, exactly!

Afternoiz: … in September. Now that one I will be at!

Martijn: Ah! OK, good!

Afternoiz: You mentioned you’ll be working on Delain’s next album already this summer?

Martijn: Yeah. We have to because if we were to start working on it next year, then we’re talking 2019/2020 for a new release and that’s just too far away. So this is why we have to get into it because writing music and the other band members are getting more involved and we have to develop that. So yeah, working on new stuff!

Afternoiz: Does the writing process flow from one album to the next? Or do you take a mental break when one album is done?

Martijn: We take a mental break. I was feeling… (make hand motions)

Afternoiz: Wound up?

Martijn: Yeah, exactly! All the juice is out and you have to recharge again to write new music. So…

Afternoiz: Well sadly our time is coming to an end, but I’m really looking forward to seeing you onstage tonight. Do you have any final words for your fans?

Martijn: Yeah! Especially for the American ones here that we feel very supported. We’ve got a fan who is driving our bus, our Nightliner, Ken. And Chip, another fan, he helps us with storing our American equipment. American fans are so dedicated and it’s incredible!

Afternoiz: We gotta keep you coming back! (laughs)

Martijn: We will! We will for sure.

#Delain #interview

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itsyagirlsatan · 6 years ago

Text

Copycat: I remember some like this one has 3 people "I spent the summer in Italy" "Yeah well One time I drank 16 beers by myself" "Haaa Well I ate a battery" "Why?" "Well I was scared" "Of what?" "If not eating a battery" Oh and "Oh how many years old are you?" "I'm 5" "Wow What's your favorite animal" "A platypus fucker" "Uh oh looks like little girl made an oopsy She said a naughty word I'm sorry but this is a children's show you little cu" and it gets cut off Oh and this one with music in the background I think it went like Do you believe in love or something anyways But the 2 people talking went like this "Uh how many drugs are you on?" "Literally all of them" "How are you even alive?" There's also the color introduction thing

Fangirl: Or that song clip it goes "Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it I can't say I guess people liked it better that way" There's just so many ideas

Pretend (BBIEAL rp)

*Copycat, Drama Queen and Fangirl are on stage just acting their favorite parts in different things they like*

Drama Queen: See that’s the thing about you plastics you think everybpdy is in love with you when actually everybody hates you

Fangirl: You made me like this It was your idea for me to pretend to be plastic

Drama Queen: Body is not pretend You’re as plastic as they come…..line

Copycat: *Hands her one of the scripts*

*After several tries Fangirl and Drama Queen ended up switching roles without realizing it yet*

Fangirl: See that’s the thing about you plastics you think everybody is in love with you when actually everybody hates you

Drama Queen: You made me like this it was your idea for me to pretend to be plastic

Fangirl: Body is not pretend…..wait we switched roles

Copycat: Just go with the flow redo that line

Fangirl: Body is not pretend You’re as plastic as they come you think your…..I can’t say the word I’m trying

Dangerous: I’ll fo that role if it’s that hard acting is not hard I had to spy on people before and I fooled them

*Fangirl showed Dangerous the lines she had to do*

Dangerous: Here’s a thing with you plastics You think everybody is in love with you when actually everybody hates you

Drama Queen: You made me like this it was your idea for me to pretend to be plastic

*Drama Queen and Fangirl switched roles so Fangirl has a chance to act that part since she would be included because that part only 3 people in total and there’s 4 of them*

Dangerous: Body is not pretend You’re as plastic as they come You think your shit don’t stink You think the rest of us is dumb I hate Regina’s guts but here’s a thing you don’t comprehend At Least she has the guts to not pretend to be my FRIEND

Fangirl:…..Janis

Dangerous: NO IT’S FIIIIINEEEEE REALLY FIIIIINEEEEEEEEE WE’LL BE FIIIIIIIIINEEEEEE

Copycat: And I want my pink shirt

Drama Queen: You did really good Dangerous I’m impressed

Dangerous: Thank you

Fangirl: I didn’t expect you to do so well You remembered all the lines Normally we would have some slip ups especially since you just learned the lines

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micaramel · 5 years ago

Link

Artist: Lydia Ourahmane

Venue: The Wattis Institute, San Fransisco

Exhibition Title: صرخة شمسية Solar Cry

Date: February 6 – March 28, 2020

Curated By: Anthony Huberman

Organized By: Diego Villalobos

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Video:

Lydia Ourahmane at The Wattis Institute, Solar Cry, installation excerpt, 02:13

Images courtesy of the artist and The Wattis Institute, San Fransisco

Press Release:

Initially, I wanted to write this in the form of a chant or a hymn. Or by scatting, like Ella Fitzgerald singing over a drum solo, doht dee duht boh duht dee … bahp m deel yuyl doo ee. It would be a text spoken in tongues. But then, I feel my pocket vibrate and ding and see that I received a text message from Lydia. It’s a picture of a 6,000 year old Cyprus tree, along with a message:

I finally worked out what faith is.

Part of me wants to stop right here. I’ve already said everything that needs to be said about this exhibition: it’s made of wordless speech and sounds, vibrating onto bodies, with a message from the artist about the Long Tail of the sacred.

The only way to respond to her message, I reasoned, was not to. Not via text, at least. The topic of faith is far too big, too old, and too loaded to get into, but in a broad and abstract sense, perhaps it’s what we need when we come face to face with the unintelligible. It’s what rushes to the rescue when we jump into a void, preventing the vertigo that comes with having no points of reference. It’s when belief becomes a basis and form of understanding—which can be comforting but also dangerous. Religion, for example, is one way to organize faith or belief around a certain set of principles and rituals. But beyond whichever ideas or explanations our beliefs might provide us, they are also experiences. Something happens to the body.

Lydia Ourahmane is interested in how belief is registered on the body, in the ways it is made material. Even if belief is a mental state, she asks, does it also have physical repercussions? How does faith or belief materialize, as it rushes through bodies? Does it leave a mark of where it’s been? And does it linger in empty buildings, like an echo, long after believers have left? What types of human belief systems has that Cyprus tree witnessed?

The title of her exhibition, صرخة شمسية Solar Cry, is borrowed from a short text by Georges Bataille where he describes the sun as the most abstract of all objects because it’s impossible to look at. As such, he claims, it represents all that is elevated and out of reach—the sacred. It turns out that Bataille also used many other words to describe the sacred: impossible, inner experience, absence of God, peak experience, rapturous self–loss, altered state, silence. If faith is what we turn to when faced with the unintelligible, the sacred is that sense of suspension that happens right before we do so. Religion might be there to provide answers, as is logic, science, morality, and so on, but the sacred is the stunned interrogation itself, the negative space that precedes and envelops all of those explanations. It can’t be performed because it’s always already there, and it can only ever be witnessed, never obtained. It’s experienced as a lack, an absence, a short pause, a skip in the record, and it reveals all the noise that is the human experience.

Alain Badiou talks about an inaesthetics, about inserting a lack into an instance of plenitude, I write back.

A Solar Cry, then, is one where silence is sovereign. It’s a cry that thickens all the interruptions and the intervals between sounds—the suspended part of the beat that makes the rhythm. It’s the gaps that open up between the grooves. With this exhibition, Ourahmane harvests the space’s past and present silences, making them ready for visitors to witness. She creates a context where some of those sacred cries might be felt, even for a short moment, and where they can leave traces behind as they pass by.

Another ding and vibration. I want to create a context that produces the potential for a miracle.

The artist’s own past has left its traces on her, obviously. For her, faith and belief contain the experience of war. She was born in Algeria, to parents who were active members of a Christian minority, and grew up near Oran, in a commune–like safe house her family ran. It was a place that welcomed fellow believers and recent converts, giving them a place to be together. At the same time, this act of gathering made them exposed and vulnerable to extremists who were fighting an authoritarian government in a brutal civil war that would last over a decade, with countless killed. In that context, to believe meant putting your body, your life, and your children’s lives in danger—as a member of a persecuted minority. Belief became a contestation of social, political, and military pressures, which squeezed those bodies into a vice, limiting or preventing their freedom of speech and movement. By necessity, people learned to live within the negative spaces. Even after the war ended, in 2002, the state prohibited any form of public gathering and it was only recently, in 2019, that the people began claiming physical space and occupying the streets.

Living through all of this has taught Ourahmane about different forms of escape and departure. She has learned to recognize, trust, and even foster the experience of negative space—the unintelligible, the impossible, the absence of God, rapturous self–loss, silence, the sacred. This can’t be articulated or arrived at via language or images because miracles are never ideas, at least not initially. They are always felt. They are material, like a bullet that hits a wall just inches away, or like an apple falling on Newton’s head.

Ding. Bzzz. This time, it’s a link to a PDF of “Who Touched Me?,” where Fred Moten tells Wu Tsang that all we are are instruments.

صرخة شمسية Solar Cry is an orchestra. In the main gallery, an opera singer sings with herself. There is speech but no words, as if a voice had been liberated from language and allowed to remain closer to breath, or as if a breath had been stopped before it could become language. Stacking the voices on top of each other creates a thickness, where what counts is their materiality, their weight in the room. The recordings can’t possibly be in synch, and yet, as they pile on top of each other, over time, they might find each other and open up small moments of synchronicity and resonance, like secret lovers.

Bzzzding. I’m interested in how it’s possible to speak something into existence.

A few months before the exhibition, Ourahmane traveled to Tassili N’Ajjer,a plateau of rock valleys and formations in the Algerian Sahara desert, on the border with Libya and Mali, where 15,000 cave paintings date back 12,000 years. The experience of the desert, much like that of the sacred, cannot be articulated via language but can only be witnessed. Like the sacred, the desert is too big to see. Like the ocean, it, too, is inhospitable to humankind. It swallows presence. She went there to listen to its absence and to record its silence.

What she heard was the loud voicelessness of all that had passed through there. The cave paintings told the story of how the plateau was once full of people and lush with green. She learned that the area had once been a route for trade between Algeria and Niger, where fathers would sell their sons for the price of three kilos of salt—as the story goes. Today, people go there with metal detectors and search the sand for lost gold. Tassili N’Ajjer is also home to the Tuareg people, who inherited the knowledge of how to handle its harsh conditions. Ourahmane took a photograph of a Cyprus tree that somehow survives it all.

She embeds her experience into the gallery walls. Inspired by the marks still visible on the rocks after thousands of years—ones made by bodies who have defied being forgotten—she etches into the building, tagging a surface behind the gallery walls, and leaves behind a sign that will outlast the exhibition’s presence, like an echo. She installs transducer speakers (usually used for sound therapy) inside another wall, and her sub–decibel recordings of the desert make it vibrate with thousands of years of silence. Because one way to transmit the impossible scale of the desert—and the impossible scale of faith,belief, or the miraculous—is to give weight to its emptiness, to thicken its absences. The beat becomes the buzz, Fred tells Wu.

Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzzz. I had set it to vibrate–only. A last one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQvcGVhJ334, a lecture by Hypatia Vourloumis in Amsterdam — We synchronize our tempos to find a rhythm through which the urge to live is expressed collectively. In this way, we set the world in motion, where poets can become the timekeepers of revolution.

Listening impacts the body. It implicates and enlists the body. Without being mediated by language, logic, or anything else, it touches the body and makes it move. As visitors to this exhibition, we vibrate together, like a chorus of instruments. Sounds and silences become pressure points, in a choreography of repetitions, for bodies to come up against the potential for something unintelligible.

by Anthony Huberman

Lydia Ourahmane (b. 1992, Saïda, Algeria) lives and works in Algiers.She received her B.F.A. from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2014 and has exhibited her work in group exhibitions such as Manifesta 12 (Palermo, Italy, 2018), Songs for Sabotage, the New Museum Triennial (New York, 2018), and the 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017), among others. Chisenhale presented her solo show The you in us in 2018. CCA Wattis Institute’s exhibition is the first solo museum exhibition of her work in the United States.

Link: Lydia Ourahmane at The Wattis Institute

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/2JHuaFm

#micaramel

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noiseartists · 5 years ago

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DAY & DREAM (USA): Shoegaze duo extraordinaire

Day & Dream is a Shoegaze / Indie band from Ashville in North Carolina. They propose a clever and finely chiseled music, full of clever musical twists.

I listened to their album several times, and while the make up seems, at first listen, quite standard, they cleverly included unexpected sounds, like the jazz keyboard on ‘With Every Breath You Die’, and tinkered happily with the genre’s sound and dynamics. Every listen will uncover new layers … not a common occurrence.

I like the first song and its title: ‘So it begins’ (a sentence that I use often) and its Dream Pop atmosphere, totally unlike the rest of the album, almost like an inside Joke. When ‘Night lights’ starts with a Cure-like bassline, the band display what will be listened to in the album: intricate musical layers bordering on the lo-fi, Abby’s beautiful high-pitched voice, slight dissonance that avoid an ‘easy-listening’ song, feet-taping melodies. And from there you visit various music landscape, all superbly painted.

Needless to say I love this album. Follow me to discover the band with the presentation of their music, an interview and more. You will not be disappointed.

DAY & DREAM’s MUSIC

The band’s music work to date is:

2019: With Every Breath You Die, Album; Fading Summer, EP; Hidden Cinema, Single; Chrysalis, Single

2018: Nocturnal Creatures

Here are some of the songs we love:

Abby and Peter, the band members, give us some insight in their music:

Abby: The first thing ever released was the single “Nocturnal Creatures” which is about moving to Asheville from Brooklyn.

Peter: The title of our first album “With Every Breath You Die” was a phrase we heard a homeless man yelling on the street when we lived in New York City. He kept screaming it over and over and we both found it super profound. And true. Good reminder to live in the now and choose what makes you happy, even if it’s hard or scary.

Abby: Then there’s “Fading Summer” which has two new songs and our latest single “Hidden Cinema.” All three of these have more of a lounge/lo-fi vibe with electronic drum beats.

You can find a great review by Mountainsx.com of their album, ‘With Every Breath You Die’, HERE

DAY & DREAM’S INTERVIEW

Who are the group members?

Peter: The core of our band is Abby and myself. We are married and write everything.

Abby: Some shows we play as a duo with an old Ipod. We also play as a full 4-piece band with drums and our buddy Erik on bass.

We have played with a lot of musicians in Asheville and other cities, trying to accommodate everyone’s schedule and adjust for the type of show we are playing. When we started, I think we were dead set on permanent members, but it’s been more realistic this way.

How did you meet?

Abby: Two words - vegan brunch.

Peter: I met Abby in NYC about seven years ago. Later on, we moved to Asheville, NC and met musicians from good ‘ol Craigslist.

How did you come up with your name?

Abby: We had lots of other contenders, but this one felt right. Peter is a morning person, and I am a night owl.

Peter: “Daydream” it’s a common word, we broke it apart and rejoined with an ampersand. Our lives have a polarity to it, yet, we’re joined together by music.

Peter is the day; morning person, grounded and sunny, while Abby is the dream; head in the clouds and dark. Abby came up with the name, at first I wasn’t thrilled about it, but the more I thought about it, I found it to be an accurate representation of us and the music.

What is your music about?

Abby: All sorts of things, diary entries of our life. “First in Flight” is about starting this band, “Nightlights” is about falling in love and losing sense of time and priorities, “Sleepscreaming” is about Peter’s bad dream experiences. “Outside” is an unreleased song about our dog, Zeppi.

We have a lot of material about family, friends/frenemies, and their internal struggles. I do a lot of Stream of Consciousness writing, and sometimes take lyrics from that. I’m also super inspired by children’s books.

What are your goals as an artist artistically/commercially?

Peter: We all have day jobs. It would be amazing to do the band full time and make a living off of it.

Abby: We’d really love to tour/open for one of our favorite bands, and play internationally. It’d be fun to have our music licensed for a commercial or show, and to play a nighttime talk show. That would be the moment we feel we’ve made it. Really, just knowing people enjoy our songs and artistry, that truly does mean the most.

What are you trying to avoid as a band?

Peter: Musical cliches. We try to be different and put our own twist on everything.

Abby: Band drama, drugs, rock n roll. Before a show, we’re not getting smashed. I’m usually doing yoga or in a sauna, and after a show I’m usually eager to go home to snuggle our dog and drink a cup of tea. Grandma rock n roll style for me.

Why do you make the music you make? Is it in you? Is it your environment?

Peter: We both have overactive imaginations. I can’t stop playing guitar and writing songs. Abby is constantly playing piano and singing. It’s totally inside us.

Abby: It can’t be stopped. Music runs deep in my Filipino family, and always comes out in me even when I try to suppress it.

What inspires you for the music or for the Lyrics?

Abby: Nature, travels, life, death, love, pain, humor, all of it - the sweet and salty.

Peter: Sometimes I genuinely don’t know where my ideas come from, they can pop into my head out of nowhere. Other times, I have meditated and slowly ideas and inspiration show up that way. Usually, when I go for a walk or drive, the environment I’m in will present ideas too.

Tell us what you are looking when trying to achieve your sounds. Do you experiment a lot or have a clear idea of what you want?

Peter: We have a lot of material in the bank. For this last album, it became more about which songs from our song bank do we include on the lineup. I personally like many genres of music, but we wanted to keep it focused. That’s why we had our scope be Indie-Rock, Shoegaze and Dream Pop.

Abby: There is a lot of compromise, especially because our musical tastes and backgrounds are so different. We are pretty harsh critics to one another, but I think it’s a good thing for the end result.

Explain your songwriting process.

Peter: It always starts with the music. I’ll spend time contrasting chords and notes together and see where it goes. Usually I’ll flesh that out into a segment -- like a chorus or verse -- once I have enough segments, it’s like assembling pieces to a puzzle. Then, a song is about to be born if all the pieces fit.

Abby will sometimes help with arrangements and deliver a nice melody. We typically write stream-of-conscious style lyrics, and generally prefer to keep the meaning vague.

Abby: Lots of time on the upright piano - lyrics on napkins, books, or jotted on my phone and computer. I’m constantly jotting lines to future songs in random places. Lyrics/melody are pretty quick if I write the music, can be much longer process and challenging if I’m putting lyrics/melody on music Peter wrote.

Describe your palette of sound.

Abby: A favorite fuzzy blanket after a long walk in the forest.

Peter: Lots of reverb. Mainly the vocals, keys and guitar are the most effects heavy. Otherwise the bass and drums are always dry. Abby has switched from Nord to the Mellotron for a more dialed in retro sound, while I love pedals, and use a lot of reverb, distortion, delay, super chorus and flanger.

Who would you want as a dream producer, and why?

Peter: Probably, Nigel Godrich. He’s just produced so many incredible acts that I respect. I think he would easily get our sound too.

Abby: Bjork for her epic elf wisdom!

If you could guest on someone else’s album, who would it be and why? What would you play?

Abby: I’m a huge fan of Melody’s Echo Chamber, Cornelius, Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, Munya, Yumi Zouma, and Jay Som. I’ll contribute in any way they’d have me, backup vocals, tambourine, cowbell, piano.

Peter: Guitar for King Krule. I think I could write a bunch of great riffs for that band. It would also be loads of fun to play guitar in Hum, sometimes you just want to rock out to something low and heavy.

What musical skills would you like to acquire or get better at?

Peter - cello, drums and piano.

Abby - guitar & bass

Is there a band that if they didn’t exist you wouldn’t be making the music you make?

Peter: Would be Nirvana or David Bowie.

What are some places around the world that you hope to play with your band?

Abby: Paris, London, Milan, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Canada, Australia, & New Zealand.

Peter: The same. Would also add Mexico City, São Paulo, Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid and Barcelona.

When is the next album/EP due?

Abby: We just released “Hidden Cinema” and have lots of music videos we are working on. We plan on recording some new songs in the spring.

Some artists you recommend.

Abby: A newer band I like is L I P S (England). Also: Say Sue Me, Sweet Trip, The White Shoes and Couples Company, Ducktails, Kikagaku Moyo, Painted Zeros, Men I Trust, Sugar Candy Mountain, No Vacation.

Peter: NIIGHTS, Tape Waves, Toledo, Tennis System, Donny Benét, Palehound, Julia Shapiro, Turnover, RINCS, Lacing, Jay Som

Anything else you want your fans to know?

Abby: We love you!

DAY & DREAM ON THE NET

Their music: Spotify, Bandcamp

Their website: dayanddreamband.com

Their Social Media: Facebook, Instragram Their latest video:

#Day and Dream #Shoegaze #usa

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travelguy4444 · 6 years ago

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32 Random Facts About Me

Updated: 02/13/2019 | February 13th, 2019

A few weeks ago I mentioned that this year I wanted to make the website more personal.

Back in 2011, I wrote this post featuring some personal facts about my life. It was a window into non-travel me. Well, that was a loooooong time ago. Life changes. People change.

So I thought one way to make this website more personal was to resurrect this long forgotten post and share a window into the current non-travel me.

So let’s kick off 2011 2019 with some random facts about me and my life:

1. I hate flying. I love airports, lounges, and elite status, but the act of flying makes me sick. I don’t like heights and any turbulence makes me think the plane is about to crash. I’m not a good flier. (Ironic considering how often I fly!)

2. When I was younger, I was obsessed with Pinky and the Brain. I even had a T-shirt collection. I also had one of those bowl haircuts, but I prefer to forget about that fact.

3. I never traveled independently until I went to Costa Rica at age 23. My travel experiences up until then were a series of road trips with my parents and a drunken weekend in Montréal when I was 19. (I also never went west of the Mississippi until I was 25.)

4. When I was younger, I wanted to be an archaeologist because of Indiana Jones.

5. I got really bad food poisoning when I was in Costa Rica. It was so bad that I had to be hospitalized for three days and put on a morphine drip.

6. I went to college to be a high school history teacher. I’m still technically certified to teach high school history.

7. I am a really good cook. I don’t cook much on the road because I hate how hostel kitchens aren’t fully stocked and everyone crowds them at the same time, but once in a while, I like to cook a massive meal for my fellow travelers.

8. I used to be a vegetarian. After reading Fast Food Nation, I decided to give up meat and was a vegetarian for four years. It wasn’t eating meat I was against, but rather industrial farming and the chemicals/antibiotics in the meat that I didn’t like. I gave up vegetarianism when I started to travel.

9. I think it’s rude to turn down food in other cultures. If you go to a village in Mongolia and you are given food, it’s insulting to refuse. “Sorry, your traditional and heartfelt cooking doesn’t go with my dietary needs.” It’s culturally insensitive. But that’s a rant for another post.

10. I’m a huge fan of soul, Motown, blues, and jazz. It’s way better than any of the pop music out there.

11. If I could ever pick what time period I could live in, I’d pick 1920s Prohibition America. I think that would be an exciting time to live in. But maybe I’ve just read The Great Gatsby too much.

12. Speaking of Gatsby, I learned to swing dance so I could throw myself a Gatsby-themed birthday party. I did it for three years in a row. They were epic birthday parties.

12. I am intensely political. After travel, politics is my second love. I live and breathe politics, and it is the only news I keep up with while traveling. I am always ready to discuss and debate the world any time of the day and with anyone, no matter how well I know them.

13. I co-own a hostel in Austin, Texas called HK Austin. You should come stay there!

14. I don’t have a burning desire to visit most Middle Eastern countries. There are parts I want to / have visited (Dubai, Jordan, Israel, Qatar, Oman) but, as a whole, the area is low on my list of places to visit.

15. People always ask will I do this forever? My answer: I don’t know. Forever is a long time. I’d like to travel for the next few years, but who can say what the future holds and where it will take us? For now, I’m enjoying the ride and see no reason to hang up my backpack just yet.

16. I’ve been to over 30 Dave Matthews Band concerts. I’m a super fan.

17. I’m a Japanophile. I love everything about the culture: the food, the history, the etiquette, the landscape, the architecture — all of it. I would eat sushi every day if I could.

18. I’m a workaholic. Maybe because I grew up in New England, I have the Puritan work ethic, and if I don’t have work to do, I think something is wrong and create work for myself. Idle hands are the Devil’s playground!

19. I decided to travel after meeting five backpackers in a shared taxi while on vacation in Thailand. I was so amazed at what they were doing that the next day I decided to quit my job. They were two Australians, a Canadian, and a Belgian couple. They changed the course of my life and have no idea.

20. I’m an unabashed Taylor Swift fan. Not only do I think she’s an incredible businesswoman and marketer, but I also love her cheesy pop songs.

21. I’m also a huge fan of Sia. Incredible songstress and writer.

22. I don’t play any sports nor know anything about them. I couldn’t think of anything more boring than going to a sporting event. In fact, I once fell asleep at a hockey match.

23. I don’t drink coffee. It tastes like shit to me. And I don’t want to put added sugar or milk (or soy milk) in my cup of joe. Drinks should be able to stand on their own! Nothing is going to change my opinion on this. I’ve tried for years to acquire a taste for it. It’s just not going to happen.

24. I drink tea. Lots of it. Especially green tea. That’s my drink of choice!

25. My alcoholic drink of choice is an old fashioned. A few years ago, a few friends turned me onto whiskey and I’ve been obsessed since. I judge a bar by the quality of the old fashioneds they serve.

26. One day, I’d like to learn how to garden. I want to grow my own food. I love cooking and think it’s a logical step!

27. I used to be a professional poker player. I funded a lot of my original trip with poker winnings and lived in Amsterdam for a few months playing “professionally” at the casino in the city.

28. I don’t eat sweets. Maybe once a year I’ll have a cookie or brownie but, for the most part, I don’t do desserts or sweets as I don’t like all the sugar.

29. I have a new book coming out in July (you can pre-order it now!). It’s about my ten years on the road. More details next month!

30. When I’m working, I’ll often play one song on repeat over and over again. It helps me focus because it ends up just being white noise. As I write this post, I’ve been listening to Sweet Annie by Zach Brown Band on repeat for the last two hours.

31. I don’t have a favorite color. I have two. Blue and green!

32. In 2019, I want to take up more hobbies. I want to swing dance more, learn French, take some cooking classes, and try to learn how to play the piano. If I do two of those things, I’ll consider it a successful year.

***

There you have it! Some fun facts about me. Now, you’re turn. Tell me about yourself in the comments below.

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The post 32 Random Facts About Me appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

source https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/20-random-facts-about-me/

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joshuamshea84 · 6 years ago