#{ patrick horne — thread }

[gothwives]

it still caused him to cringe internally, hearing his first name come out of her mouth like that, as if it was the most casual thing in the world. he'd never been the biggest stickler for formalities and conventions, but their intimate relationship combined with how personal it felt to be on a first name basis just tipped him over the edge. "because i know you. you seem sweet, but you're trouble." that's exactly what had enticed patrick in the first place, fascinated by her duality and finding himself desperate to uncover more. by the time he'd come to his senses and realized he was in too deep, it was too late to just back out. "y'know what? if that's what you think it takes, go for it. knock yourself out." she was testing him, that much was clear, but he wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of being so blatantly jealous. still, he couldn't help the way his jaw clenched. "you deserve to be worshipped by your audience, sash... don't settle." giving her such encouragement was foolish at best, clearly feeding her ego rather than putting distance between them, and still, he couldn't lie. his fingertips gently danced across her thigh as she complained, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "amy did a better job at fulfilling the prompt on that particular assignment. don't go comparing yourself to your classmates, you know grading is subjective. i've had students flunk my course and go on to be bestsellers..."

' what makes you think i'm after anything at all , patrick ? maybe i just like this little troubled look on your face . ' won't admit how much satisfaction she finds in knowing she could ruin him in a second , the power almost as alluring as the man himself . ' bet he'd do me a favor then , hm ? perhaps the only way for me to be graded fairly is if i screw all my professors instead . you know , for balance . ' says it so nonchalantly , as if words weren't aimed right at his ego , as if eyes weren't searching his features for a glimpse of anger , possessiveness . what can she do ? she simply likes her men just as obsessed with her as she is with them . ' ah , yes , the fragile male ego . guess it's a good thing i don't need their validation , don't you think ? i'm quite fine with the fact that you just admitted you think i'm brilliant . ' pride can be heard in her tone , lips stretching in the sweetest of smiles as tips of slim fingers brush gently through his hair . ' makes me think you're actually lowering my grade just because we're fucking . you graded amy higher and we both know she's nowhere near brilliant . '

[magnusmodig]

╰┈➤  headcanon prompts / @valeriius / accepting !

[ 🎵 ] is there a specific song or songs you associate with your muse? why is that?

||. there are a couple! (my thor playlist is 11.5 hrs long...) but if i had to narrow it down to three, i'd choose his two themes from his first movie, and one non-OST track.

In Thor (2011) Thor has two themes. They're named as follows:

"Sons of Odin"

"Earth to Asgard"

Both songs perfectly encapsulate who Thor is as a person, a prince and a hero. Sons of Odin features strings (primarily cello and violin), with touches of brass and fierce percussion. The horns and percussion are pretty standard instrumentations for 'heroic' characters, but what I've always thought was absolutely incredible about Thor's two themes is that the trumpet and percussion beats, while prevalent and proud (as a prince of a space-viking society would be expected to be!), actually take second fiddle to the strings. Specifically the cello/violin duo. (I could go on for days about how the violin tends to uplift either the cello or the horns, similarly to how Loki fits into place at Thor's side and helps him keep stable for days but it's true. It's just as much Loki and the Asgardian Royal Family's theme as it is simply Thor's.)

"Earth to Asgard" is equally as noble, quiet and regal, starting with the absolutely iconic synth beat mixed in with mysterious violins, and those instruments leading into the warrior-esque drums that all build into the final melody shared between horns (thor's heroism) and strings (thor's heart). It's absolutely stunning, the work that Patrick Doyle did. He really makes Earth to Asgard really FEEL like a sovereign, cosmic alien is looking at earth and falling in love. It's the perfect love theme for Fosterson, and I adore it for that.

In short: both of his actual two themes encapsulate Thor's noble, strong personality absolutely PERFECTLY. There couldn't have been a better composer to create his themes. And Dark World's Thor, Son of Odin only elaborates on what was already there, so while that's an honorary mention, the first two definitely deserve the praise more.

Otherwise! I tend to relate Thor to the song on his sidebar. It's called "Zephyrus" by The Oh Hellos. There are a lot of songs by The Oh Hellos that catch my eye for Thor, but that one in particular captures his more poetic musings, the way he tends to compartmentalize his thoughts into metaphors and sentiments that seem almost tragically poetic.

The calm and homeliness of the banjo and the bass capture how soft he is. How king and selfless. Many of the lyrics have a wonderful, tentative optimism and hope that linger within it. It's beautiful. just like him!

Are we not threaded by the same weave of the wind? Terra firma and unparted sea? Whether by accident or fortune You and I, we are matter and it matters. I want to spin something out of nothing Lead to gold, spring to winter Story from moted sky The way they encourage one another To push high, touch the sunlight, against their tender leaves They'll be full grown before we know it And I breathe, so does she We are breathing.

[ ❌ ] is there something your muse struggles with that they might never overcome? what is it? why do they have so much trouble with it?

Oh I think there's PLENTY of things that Thor struggles with. His compounding grief over the many losses he's suffered, his slowly decaying trust in the good of the world and where he fits into it, his incredibly deep-woven insecurities concerning whether or not he's a good man who is worthy... He's got a lot of hang-ups just about Loki letting go from the Bifrost in Thor (2011) ...it came so out of left-field for him.

Ultimately, while there are plenty of ways those things all combine and feed into one another, the absolute biggest struggle Thor is troubled by is the notion that love does not have to be earned. it never did, and should never have been posed as such.

Whether that means "earning" the love of his parents, Odin and Frigga, earning their time, their patience, their pride.... Or earning the respect and loyalties of his people, his knights, his personal band of warriors as their comrade, their prince and their future king... Or earning Loki's love as his brother, or a place in the Avengers, or a place at Jane's side.

Thor has ALWAYS struggled with the notion that what he does is good enough. and by proxy: that THOR is good enough, as he is, with no strings attached, no walls up or performances to put on. That he is worth love, and can be loved even if he can give nothing to the people around him. When he's finally burnt out and spent, that he can still be held and that can be enough.

and so when he was told:

you are unworthy of these realms! you are unworthy of your title!

you are unworthy!

...of the loved ones you have betrayed.

....well let's just say that he took that incredibly personally.

[the1312daysofchristmas]

I think that one lyric in I'm like a lawyer is referencing a honeymoon suite, like a hotel room, but I'm not sure and I could be wrong

ok. okay so we have some interpretations, and it could be that this is a line with Layers (akin to the humble ogre) so lets just get this little conspiracy board out and straighten these threads out ok

setting: in a honeymoon - could be this because theres the whole through line of ioh being kind of a performance, especially with the canned applause at the ends, and the "now press repeat" and it slots into the fame reading as "we are performing a happy couple" but "if i woke up next to you" still confuses me in this reading. cuz like... what ABOUT if they woke up next to them. maybe "if i woke up in bed with you" like if i found myself with you i guess id play the part??? maybe?

setting in a honeymoon (suite) - same as above i think but like with the added context of honeymoons suites being expensive meaning someone paid for it and they found themselves there lying side by side so it eas like a set up

(sun)setting in a honeymoon - i like the energy on this, and this evokes imagery of "even the sun sets in paradise" and has a nice sun and moon dichotomy, the happy moments are ending, the honeymoon phase is over but. wheres the sun? like in the lyrics. where is the sun????

in a setting honeymoon - this is my little tinfoil hat moment. it has the same vibe as the former but a different way of saying it.

setting on a honey moon - what if it were all a dream. a quirk of the keyboard and nothing more. what if none of this even mattered. what if all of it did. what if i raised this to pete wentz and he laughed and said it was a typo. what then? what would i do? die probably.

not part of the list but what the fuck is "a sour bottle baby girl" like theres at least one comma there but where. is it (sour bottle) baby girl. is it (sour bottle baby) girl. is it sour (bottle baby) girl. which of these words are adjectives? are they all adjectives? are none of them? is baby girl a pet name? a subject? i feel like this is just a clang association that pete wrote down in the midst of a breakdown as any bipolar bitch with a pen would do (i say this as a bipolar bitch who has had a pen) and patrick was like "yeah that fits" and now here i am poking those words with a stick and hoping to god they do something. i am but a jester. a little clown with my jingly jangly bells. a silly little fool. what a fitting end to the harlequins pride, to be flattend upon his ass and honk his little horn sadly as the colours fade and he becomes naught but a frowning pierrot. i am in shambles. what does that mean.

in conclusion: @ahomeboyslife please respond

[tabloidtoc]

Globe, June 1

Cover: Prince Andrew broke and facing eviction 

Page 2: Up Front & Personal (to my knowledge, none of these pics are taken from Instagram) -- Ashley Greene, Patrick Schwarzenegger on an elliptical bike, Ariel Winter holding tennis balls and a bandage on her thumb after a kitchen mishap 

Page 3: Ryan Phillippe on a jog, Mena Suvari and husband Michael Hope load up the car, Chris Pratt lugs around a pillow while out with son Jack 

Page 4: Rose McGowan has accused Bill Maher of making a crude comment to her about his manhood when she appeared on his show Politically Incorrect more than 20 years ago, Courteney Cox is longing for beau Johnny McDaid during lockdown and she’s begging him to make her a bride when they finally reunite 

Page 5: Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan is spilling his guts on how he won and lost the love of his life ex-wife Linda Kozlowski in his new memoir 

Page 6: Brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been secretly murdered by his blood-thirsty sis Kim Yo-jong and replaced with a body double 

Page 7: Televangelist Jim Bakker who recently got into hot water for hawking a bogus cure for coronavirus has been felled by a stroke 

Page 8: Cover Story -- Prince Andrew’s money meltdown -- $15M blackmail payout in Jeffrey Epstein scandal put him in the poor house and now has heaped new humiliation on Britain’s royal family after being sued for welching on an $8.2 million mortgage and hit with charges he plundered $440,000 from a charity 

Page 10: Meghan Markle hates her funky feet -- a cameraman who says he shot her before she was known as Prince Harry’s squeeze claims her difficult reputation preceded her and says she demanded pricey champagne and brought an entourage and laid down strict rules that included not shooting her terrible tootsies which have unsightly scars on them possibly to repair ugly bunions, Prince Harry sold his prized hunting rifles under the guise of pleasing wife Meghan Markle because the animal-loving duchess is known for her dislike of the royal’s beloved blood sports but the secret $60,000 sale of the guns was made to keep the cash-strapped couple afloat -- please don’t go hunting 

Page 11: Kelly Ripa’s suspicious husband Mark Consuelos once faked a flower delivery to catch her cheating in the early days of their marriage, Gwyneth Paltrow’s hoity-toity boutique Goop in London was targeted by vandals who dumped a stinky pile of manure on its doorstep 

Page 12: Celebrity Buzz -- Sarah Silverman (picture), Ricky Gervais and Padma Lakshmi and The People’s Court Judge Marilyn Milian are quarantining with the help of fine wine and other lofty libations, Joe Giudice is plugging sex toys, Jerry Seinfeld’s wife Jessica Seinfeld says he yells all the time instead of talking in a normal voice and Jerry says it’s something comedians do, quirky clotheshorse Diane Keaton has finally cleaned out her stuffed closet tossing beloved threads and shoes and tattered fashion memories into large garbage bags 

Page 13: Arnold Schwarzenegger (picture), Adam Sandler (picture), Hilary Duff (picture), after years of making moolah plugging acne products Justin Bieber now oozes praise for wife Hailey Baldwin and her savvy skin tricks for zapping away his zits 

Page 14: Kesha keeps her famous derriere in silky smooth shape with pampering treatments and uses sheet beauty masks on her behind and admits it’s a huge asset having longtime beau Brad Ashenfelter around for gratifying applications, Zooey Deschanel’s very public romance with new boyfriend Property Brothers reality star Jonathan Scott has sparked backlash from wisecrackers, Fashion Verdict -- Garcelle Beauvais 3/10, Brittany Snow 5/10, Juliette Binoche 9/10, Penelope Cruz 4/10 

Page 16: Ambitious Michelle Obama wanted a high-flying career not kids and is angry at husband Barack Obama after he persuaded her into birthing and raising their two daughters as he climbed to the presidency 

Page 17: Ariana Grande and her mom have been granted a five-year restraining order to keep an obsessed fan at bay after the smitten stalked showed up unannounced at her L.A. estate 

Page 19: 10 Things You Don’t Know About Patrick Stewart, Chip Gaines nearly talked his way out of a second date with future wife Joanna Gaines who was less than impressed by his motormouth 

Page 20: True Crime 

Page 23: Rob Kardashian is freaking out over his fading finances and is hitting up his famous family for handouts but big sis Kim Kardashian and her billionaire husband Kanye West and the rest of the clan are done bailing out the 33-year-old and even his mom Kris Jenner is sick of writing check after check only to see Rob waste every dime on his terrible lifestyle -- he’s been begging them for cash but they’ve told him to get out there and earn it himself 

Page 24: The Miseries They Took to the Grave -- Roy Horn, Jerry Stiller, Little Richard 

Page 26: Health Report 

Page 30: Brad Pitt is being wooed to appear in the new Jackass movie which will begin filming in July -- Brad’s known Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass team for years and his one famous on-camera stunt for the TV series where he helped fake his own kidnapping is one of the favorite things he’s ever done in show business, Queen guitarist Brian May is in relentless pain after ripping his gluteus maximus to shreds while gardening, Robert De Niro wants to portray Andrew Cuomo in a movie and New York’s governor couldn’t be more pleased because he’s a big fan of the star 

Page 34: Kelly Clarkson is tightening the purse strings by listing two of her three mega mansions for sale and more changes are coming because she’s being very sensible about her finances and making adjustments that reflect where the world is today, new Monopoly game is based on the TV series Breaking Bad and player tokens include a gas mask and an acid vat and hotels are superlabs 

Page 38: Real Life 

Page 40: Hugh Laurie is going daffy during isolation and pals fear he’s headed for a major meltdown -- he’s been climbing the walls at his country mansion near London and pushing everyone away, Dakota Johnson has struggled with depression and anxiety for at least 15 years and says she’s learned to find it beautiful because she feels the world 

Page 44: Straight Talk -- Don’t blubber about Adele’s fat-fighting 

Page 45: The death curse that haunted tragic Anna Nicole Smith has struck again -- her former lover Mark Hatten was gunned down in broad daylight 

Page 47: Hollywood Flashback -- Sissy Spacek in Carrie, Bizarre But True 

[gothwives]

when it came to family functions, patrick tried to steer clear if at all possible. his brother and sister were the ones you could count on to show up for every sunday dinner and labor day weekend trip to the hamptons, while the oldest of the horne siblings was more than content to keep to himself, finding what little joy he could amidst the life he'd built with the stuck up woman his parents had talked him into marrying over a decade ago. in an unpredictable move on his brother's part, he'd been distant the past several months as he began courting a woman he'd met without the influence of their family, only popping back up to announce their engagement, which sent a shockwave through the whole horne clan. the ensuing engagement party was one event patrick felt he had no choice but to attend, if for nothing else, than to support his brother through what was certain to be a rocky weekend. a little more than an hour into the party, he'd found himself reaching his limit, sneaking away for some much needed peace and quiet— and a place to indulge in hard liquor without the judgmental stares of his wife and parents. he was lurking in the corner by the makeshift bar, nursing a glass of pricy vintage scotch when the woman of the hour burst through the doors, grumbling about his aunt and making herself at home immediately. "i'm guessing no one told you dad's study was off limits..." this was the first time patrick had really gotten to speak to the woman, beside their initial introductions, but already he found her candid nature amusing. it was a side of her he'd never have been privy to, had she not assumed she was alone. "but by all means, do continue. i've never been the biggest fan of the old bat, anyway... y'know, she always used to call me weasel boy? she's probably even more senile now than she was then, so don't take it to heart."

open ;; based dianna james ;; 26-30 — eldest daughter syndrome, golden child, perfectionist

Dianna had thought she knew what it meant to grow up with money — until she met her now fiancé and his richer-than-god old money. And as much as she thought she knew about how to navigate within the company of the filthy rich, she could still see it in all their gazes and forced smiles: She did not belong. It didn't matter that this was her engagement party with her fiancé ( she knew she shouldn't have let them throw it at his family's manor ) she was an outsider. And she needed a goddamn minute. The blonde excused herself for the powder room and then kept right on walking to slip into the dark and empty study down the hall. "If Aunt Mary calls me a country girl one more time, I swear to Christ —" she huffed, flopping into a chair as the sheer weight of being surrounded by those people lifted from her shoulders. It was a moment before she realized she wasn't actually alone. "Oh!" she gasped when her eyes adjusted to the shadows to see her future brother-in-law. "Sorry, I — I didn't know anyone was in here."

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

✰ BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018 ✰

✰✰✰✰✰ 6th ANNIVERSARY  ✰✰✰✰✰

Neil Morris, speaking to Alan Lomax in 1959:

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

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

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

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

It’s time to feast from 2018′s Grapevine That Is Never Pruned with 123 (+ 162 more) of the BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018!

A prefatory note: The Best Reasons campaigns of our first five years endured critiques from far and wide about too many damn records listed.  Well...we can no longer countenance such reproach.  Every single one of these nuggets is an essential thread in the tapestry of 2018′s combustible sonic arts!  We here at FRR stand for ecumenicism and as such, consider the breadth of our listening parameters: Feeding Tube Records issued 74 items in 2018 (!), Clean Feed released about 80, and Astral Spirits about 30...that’s a lot potential gold in those three labels alone. Sure, it’s too much for any one person to absorb, but still... 

We all know that some combination of easy access to home studio tools, world wide web streaming, social media delirium, legacy record industry collapse, and artistic resistance to creeping authoritarianism has (somewhat paradoxically) unleashed a tidal wave of idiosyncratically great music during the past decade, so it should come as no surprise that such a list as this would contain nearly 300 essential items. Yea, it seems nearly everything gets recorded and released these days (especially the zonked improv/collagist /noise/outer limits realm), but whether or not we listen to such items as frequently as we consumed Exile On Main Street or Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy back in the day is irrelevant...the time is now, and as far as wild sounds from the outer dimensions goes, now has unprecedented bounty...listen heartily, for tomorrow, who knows?

(...all long playing records unless otherwise noted...also, the list was made complete with links, but grrr they don’t show up, so point your browser as they used to say and happy hunting!)

✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

✰ ROSALI  Trouble Anyway (Scissor Tail) ✰

✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

✰ BRIDGET HAYDEN  Pure Touch Only From Now On, They Said So (Early Music, Sweden) ✰

✰ YUZO IWATA Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze) ✰

✰ L$D FUNDRAISER  Witness Disco (CocoMuse, New Zealand) ✰

✰ MAXINE FUNKE  Silk (Feeding Tube) + Eternity 7” (I Dischi Del Barone, Sweden) ✰

✰ LONG HOTS  Monday Night Raw cassette (self-released) ✰

✰ BASIC HUMAN  Cassette (Meatspin, Australia) ✰

✰ LOOSE-Y CRUNCHÉ Unruly Top  cassette (Altered States, Australia) ✰

✰ ETHERS  Ethers (Trouble In Mind) ✰ 

✰ UNHOLY TWO  The Pleasure To End All Pleasures (12XU)

✰ ZAÏMPH  Rhizomatic Gaze 2LP (Drawing Room) ✰

✰ ALLISON COTTON  All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre (Feeding Tube) ✰

✰ CONSTANT MONGREL  Living In Excellence (Anti Fade, Australia / LVEUM, U.K.) ✰ 

✰ OTHERWORLD  (aka Kay Logan) Mad Wee Light  cassette (Kit, UK) ✰

✰ DUSK  Dusk (Don Giovanni)  & “The Pain Of Loneliness (Goes On And On)” 7″ (Dirtnap) ✰

✰ WENDY EISENBERG  Its Shape Is Your Touch (VDSQ) ✰

✰ THALIA ZEDEK BAND Fighting Season (Thrill Jockey) ✰

✰ EN ATTENDANT ANA  Lost And Found (Trouble In Mind) ✰

✰ MARK MORGAN  Department of Heraldry (Open Mouth) ✰

✰ MORE KLEMENTINES More Klementines (Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube)✰

✰ PATOIS COUNSELORS Proper Release (ever/never) ✰

✰ ANNE GUTHRIE Brass Orchids (Students Of Decay)

✰ STEFAN CHRISTENSEN  City Code (Knotwilg, Belgium) & Two Live cassette (The Loki Label)

✰ BB & The BLIPS  Shame Job (Thrilling Living)

✰ SAMARA LUBELSKI / BILL NACE Samara Lubelski/Bill Nice (Relative Pitch)

✰ The SEDIMENT CLUB  Stucco Thieves (Wharf Cat)

✰ BEAT DETECTIVES  Rhythms & Edits Volume 1 cassette (Altered States, Australia)

✰ The COWBOYS Live At Tony’s Garage  7″ ep (Feel It) & The Cowboys [3rd Album] (HoZac - 2017)

✰ SUSANA SANTOS SILVA  All the Rivers – Live at Panteão Nacional  cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

 ✰ DIRE WOLVES Paradisiacal Mind  (Feeding Tube/Cardinal Fuzz, U.K.)

✰ SPECIAL INTEREST/S Spiraling  (Raw Sugar)

✰ JANUSZEWSKI & SZLAZAK Split cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ NYLEX  Nylex cassette (Tenth Court, Australia)

✰ CHARALAMBIDES  Tom And Christina Carter 2 LP (Drawing Room)

✰ CHRISTINA KUBISCH/ANNEA LOCKWOOD The Secret Life Of The Inaudible 2 cd (Gruenrekorder, Germany)

✰  HEAVY METAL Heavy Metal ep 7″ (Total Punk)

✰  LUJIACHI  Invisible Hands cassette (Altered States, Australia)

✰  OBNOX Templo del Sonido (Astral Spirits/Monofonus Press)

✰  PINEAPPLE RNR  Pineapple Rik N Roll 7″ (Lumpy)

✰  WILLIAM PARKER Voices Fall From The Sky 3 cd (AUM Fidelity)

✰  RON JONS SURF SHOP  Ron Jons Surf Shop Sampler cassette (Ron Jons Surf Shop)

✰ LUCY MILLER Lion's Heart : Demos & Early Recordings cd-r (Soleils Bleus, France)

✰ BLUE CHEMISE  Daughters Of Time (Students Of Decay) 

✰ EKIN FIL Maps (Helen Scarsdale) & “Windblow”  download (Longform Editions, Australia)

✰ COUNTER INTUITS Vietnamese Lighter 7″ (Total Punk)

✰ CHRONOPHAGE  (Minneapolis) Prolog For Tomorrow (Cleta Petra)

✰ HOBBS-WHITE DUO Hobbs-White Duo at Whitechapel Gallery, 10 June 1973H download (EMC, UK)

✰ CHRONOPHAGE (Austin) Give Chance A Peace download (self-released)

✰ CIA DEBUTANTE  Waves (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ WEEPING BONG BAND  Weeping Bong Band (Feeding Tube)

✰  COOLIES/The FUTURIANS Coolies/The Futurians split cassette (Uniform, New Zealand)

✰ QUIETUS Volume Four (ever/never)

✰ New Centre Of The Universe (Anti Fade, Australia)

✰ LISA CAMERON/SANDY EWEN  See Creatures cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ BRUTAL BIRTHDAY “Commotion” + 2 7” (Total Punk)

✰ DE PONTI/MORETTI Before We Were Foam We Were Unbridled Waves cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

✰ DAVID NANCE GROUP  Peaced And Slightly Pulverized (Trouble In Mind)

✰ CRAMMM  Crammm cassette (Brainplan) &  Live 2018 (Brainplan)

✰ NERVE BEATS Nerve Beats (Fine Concepts)

✰ WILLIE LANE  Known Quantity reissue (Feeding Tube)

✰ The WAY AHEAD Bells, Ghosts And Other Saints cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

✰ BADSKIN  Where Was I  (Brierfield Flood Press, Australia)

✰ The ANCIENTS Frozen Aisle (Tenth Court, Australia)

✰ METTE RASMUSSIN & CHRIS CORSANO A View Of The Moon (From The Sun) cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

✰ SYLVIE COURVOISIER TRIO  D’Agala cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

✰ MOSQUITOES Drip Water Hollow Out Stone (ever/never)

✰ CHARLOTTE HUG Son-Icon Music: Orchestra And Choral Works cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

✰ RUSS WATERHOUSE  Amaro cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

✰ RICHARD PAPIERCUTS  Twisting The Night 12″ (ever/never)

✰ The COOL GREENHOUSE  “London”/“The End Of The World” 7” (Market Square Recordings, Spain)

✰ SANDY EWEN & CHASE GARDNER Transfusion cd (Marginal Frequency)

✰ AMEEL BRECHT  Polygraph Heartbeat (Kraak, Belgium)

✰ SUCCHIAMO Mani In Fuoco (Antinote, France)

✰ PORTRON PORTRON LOPEZ De Colère Et D'Envie (PoiL, France)

✰ TOM SMITH & MARK MORGAN Bones Sound Shipwreck cd (KSV, Germany)

✰ CIVIC New Vietnam 12″ (Anti Fade, Australia) & Those Who Know 7″ (Famous Class)

✰ CARLO GIUSTINO Non Uscire cassette (No Rent)

✰ DONALD MCPHERSON & TETUZI AKIYAMA The Kitchen Tapes, Volume 1 cassette (God In The Music, New Zealand)

✰ HORNE & HOLT Wires (Self-Sabotage)

✰ WOLKOROTS Don Treppenwitz cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

 ✰SAVAK  Beg Your Pardon (Ernest Jenning Record Co.) 

✰ The BALKANYS The Balkanys  (Toddi Records/Another Records, France)

✰ ANTELOPER Kudu cassette (International Anthem Recording Company)

✰ CLAIRE POTTER & BRIDGET HAYDEN’S I Am Come From A Place) cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

✰ LAURA LUNA CASTILLO Laminaires (Genot, Czech Republic)

✰ RST  Spectra  (\\NULL|ZØNE//)

✰ TORI KUDO ガラ刑GALAKEI  2 LP (bruit direct disques, France) 

✰ SIGNE DAHLGREEN  Kunki Snuk cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ PIOUS FAULTS  Old Thread  (Feel It)

✰ MELFI  Four Concerns  cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ The EX  27 Passports (Ex Records, Netherlands)

✰ J.H. GURAJ Steadfast On Our Sand (Boring Machines, Italy)

✰ KUZU Hiljaisuus (Astral Spirits)

✰ WUSSY  What Heaven Is Like (Shake It)

✰ BORZOI  A Prayer For War (12XU)

✰ RAYS  You Can Get There From Here (Trouble In Mind)

✰ DELPHINE DORA  Eudaimon (three:four, Switzerland)

✰ LAKE MARY & M. SAGE  Lupine Deluxe cassette (Patient Sounds (Intl))

✰ ART GRAY NOIZZ QUINTET  “A Call To You”/”Won’t you Say It To My Face” 7″ (Robelion Music)

✰ VANILLA POPPERS I Like Your Band 7″ ep (Feel It)

✰ SOURDURE L’Espròva (Les Disques du Festival Permanent/Pagans, France)

✰ LOGARDECAY (Leslie García and Paloma López) FRGL cassette (Umor Rex, Mexico) 

✰ DE KLUMB  Con Pimiento cassette (U-Bac, Germany)

✰ MIDWIFE  Prayer Hands cassette (Antiquated Future)

✰ SALAD BOYS  This Is Glue (Trouble In Mind)

✰ RAMBLE TAMBLE Outlaw Overtones cassette (Eiderdown)

✰ ABBY LEE TEE  Imaginary Friends I cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ INGRID LAUBROCK Contemporary Chaos Practices / Two Works For Orchestra With Soloists cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

✰ PATRICK SHIROISHI  Sparrow's Tongue cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

✰ FIA FIELL  All In The Same Room cassette (Nice Music, Australia)

✰ PREENING  Nice Dice 7″ ep (Fine Concepts) & Greasetrap Frisbee 7″ (ever/never)

✰ SABASABA  SabaSaba (Maple Death, U.K)

✰ HEADROOM/DIRE WOLVES Split (Pome Pome Tones/Centripetal Force)

✰ APOLOGIST  Houston  cassette (No Rent)

✰ The SITUATIONS  The Day After The Night Before cassette (Melted Ice Cream, NZ)

✰ WONDERFULS  Voices Like Rain cassette (Round Bale Recordings)

✰ TASHI DORJI & TYLER DAMON  Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis (Family Vineyard) & Soft Berm cassette (Magnetic South)

NAUJAWANAN BAIDAR  Volume 1 cassette (Radio KHIYABAN, Netherlands)

LOUIS MINUS II  Je Voudrais Juste Dormir Pour Toujours cassette (Econore, Germany)

The OPAWA 45s Silver Screen Guitar cassette (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand)

MT ACCORD Postcards From A Dream cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

JONÁŠ GRUSKA Žaburina (LOM, Slovakia)

CHICALOYOH  Jaune Colère (213 Records, France)

MAMITRI YULITH EXPRESS YONAGUNISAN  Yulith  2 LP (bruit direct disques, France)

AONGHIS MCENVOY & TRISTAN CLUTTERBUCK  Duos cassette  (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK) 

IE Pone cassette (Moon Glyph)

MARILYN CRISPELL/TANYA KALMANOVITC/RICHARD TEITELBAUM  Dream Libretto (Leo, U.K.)

E  Negative World (Thrill Jockey) 

Wound 2 lp (Carbon Records)

DOMINIQUE VACCARO Close Distances cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

RIÑA  Aqui No Eres Nadie 7″ ep (Thrilling Living)

GÜNTER BABY SOMMER & TILL BRÖNNER  Baby’s Party cd (Intakt, Switzerland) 

TRISTAN MAGNETIC  Tristan Magnetique  triple cassette box (Otomatik Muziek, Germany)

FAMOUS LOGS IN HISTORY Famous Logs In History cassette (Fuzzy Warbles) 

LUKE STEWART’s Works For Upright Bass And Amplifier  cassette (Astral Spirits)

RADIANT FUTUR  Overdriven Youth download (Get Busy!, Russia)

LÄRMSCHUTZ TAFELMUSIK SEPTET  Vierte Tafelmusik  cassette (Katuktu Collective)

TERRESTIALS  Terrestials 12″ (Heel Turn)

ALEX CRISPIN Open Submission cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

MAAVIN Sunday Drive EP download (Get Busy!, Russia)

CHARLOTTE HUG & LUCAS NIGGLI  Fulguratio cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

NAMELESS FRAMES Already Inside + 3 10″ (Super Secret Records)

GÜNTER SCHLIENZ  Liederbuch cassette (Muzan Editions, Japan)

SCRAP BRAIN Scrap Brain (Thrilling Living)

WURLD SERIES Stately and Befrothed cassette (Melted Ice Cream, NZ)

ENDURANCE Celestial Governors cassette (Tymbal Tapes)

BRABRABRA  Lagooona 7″ ep (Kitchen Leg, Germany)

DAN MELCHIOR  ‘The Folksinger’ (Swashbuckling Hobo, Australia)

JEN KUTLER  Worth cassette (Never Anything)

Field Recordings from the Sahel cassette (Sahel Sounds)

MONNONE ALONE Cut Knuckle 7” (Lost And Lonesome Recording Co., Australia)

ANDREW BARKER & DANIEL CARTER Polyhedron cassette (Astral Spirits)

YVES MALONE  Aced (2014) cassette (Baked Tapes)

JOHN HOEGBERG  Motion Detecting Songs cassette (Ehse)

CHAOSOPHY  Who Are These People And What Do They Believe In cd (Discordian/Liquen Record, Spain)

ARIAN SHAFIEE A Scarlet Fail  (VDSQ) & Beauty Tuning (Hausu Mountain) 

AKIRA SAKATA & CHIKAMORACHI with MASAHIKO SATOH Proton Pump cd (Family Vineyard) 

LEA BERTUCCI  Metal Aether (NNA)

BIG SUPERMARKET 1800 (Hobbies Galore, Australia)

GARCIA PEOPLES  Cosmic Cash (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

R.M.F.C. Hive cassette (Slime Street, Australia)  

BIKINI COPS Three 7” (Drunken Sailor, U.K.)

MUYASSAR KURDI & NICHOLAS JOZWIAK Intersections & Variations cassette (Astral Spirts)

P WITS Blonde On Blonde  double cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

FOLD Aegean Sea 12” (AUS, UK)

TASHI DORJI & DAVID GRUBBA  Fixed Entrance Derivatives cassette (Sky Lantern)

WET PISS Wet Piss cassette (Dumpster Tapes)

TIM & THE BOYS Growing (Meatspin, Australia)

DINO SPILUTTINI  Forever cassette (No Rent)

NEGATIVE NANCIES You Do You download (CocMuse, New Zealand)

MISSING PAGES  “Long Way Down” 7″ (12XU) 

SUNWATCHERS II & Illegal Moves 12” (both Trouble In Mind)

EYES NINETY Glaucoma Chameleon (Swashbuckling Hobo, Australia) 

PATRICIA KOKETT  Diabel 12” (Knekelhuis, Netherlands)

GEE TEE  Gee Tee cassette (Slime Street, Australia) 

C. WORTH  A Farther Sea cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

OREN AMBARCHI/KONRAD SPRENGER/PHILLIP SOLLMANN  Panama/Suez 12” (Ostgut Ton, Germany)

REX WONDERFUL & THE SILK SHEETS  Ego Death cassette (Tenth Court, Australia)

SARAH DAVACHI Gave In Rest  (Ba Da Bing) & Let Night Come On Bells End The Day (Recital)

PELVI$$  Pelvi$$ cassette (Fuzzy Warbles)

JEFF TOBIAS  Completely Phantom cassette (Baked Tapes)

BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO  Brace Up! (Palilalia)

DONKEY BUGS  Ancient Chinese Secrets (Lumpy)

MOUNTAIN MOVERS  Pink Sky (Trouble In Mind) &  New Jam 12″ (C/Site)

MAbH  cinjusti cassette (Tymbal Tapes)

Bad Taste Vol. II - Another Collection Of Sounds From The NZ Underground cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)  

TERRY I’m Terry  (Upset! The Rhythm, UK)

NYZ  RLD GLD ET AL cassette (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK)

THEE OPEN SEX White Horses (Sophomore Lounge)

DRUNK MUMS  Denim & Leather, Together Forever cassette (Slime Street, Australia)

JONES JONES [OCHS/DRESSER/TARASOV] A Jones In Time Saves Nine download (self-released)

IVAN THE TOLERABLE & FRIENDS Autodidact 10″ (Ack! Ack! Ack!, U.K.) 

DANIEL CARTER / WILLIAM PARKER / MATTHEW SHIPP Seraphic Light cd (AUM Fidelity)

PURPUR SPYTT Nitpick 7″ ep (POUeT! Schallplatten, France)

BLOWDRYER  Blowdryer cassette (self-released)

CHARNEL GROUND  Charnel Ground (12XU)

KAJA DRAKSER / PETTER ELDH / CHRISTIAN LILLINGER  Punkt​.​Vrt​.​Plastik cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

DRY CLEANING Sweet Princess cassette (self-released, U.K.) 

ELKHORN Lion Fish cassette (Eiderdown)

ROMAIN BAUDOIN  Bestiari (Pagans/In Situ, France)

SUNWATCHERS AND EUGENE CHADBOURNE 3 Characters 2 LP (Amish) 

FRANCIS PLAGNE Moss Trumpet (Penultimate Press, U.K. )  

SHITTY LIFE  Switch Off Your Head (self-released, Italy)

SICK LLAMA Stage Poison double cassette (unifactor)

ROCKET 808 “Digital Billboards”/“Mystery Train” 7” (12XU)

JON COLLIN What Is Thunder cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

CONCRETE LAWN Demo cassette (Urge, Australia)

BLANK REALM  Last Seen (Hobbies Galore, Australia)

DJ OVERDOSE  DJ Overdose 12” (L.I.E.S.)

LUDWIG BERGER & VERONIKA EHRENSPERGER  The Capacity Of Things To Act cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

BRANDY Laugh Track (Monofonus Press)

PETER EVANS/ AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ/BARRY GUY  Free Radicals cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

LES HALLES  Zonda cassette (Not Not Fun)

SAMARA LUBELSKI  Flickers At The Station (Drawing Room) 

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

YLAYALI  Pumpkin Patch cassette (self-released)

DEAF WISH  Lithium Zion (Sub Pop)

ROSE THOMAS BANNISTER  Ambition cd (self-released)

MIDDEX No Home (Polytechnic Youth, UK) 

SEI A  Phase EP (Aus Music, U.K.) 

KALI MALONE Cast Of Mind (Hollow Ground, Switzerland) & Organ Dirges 2016-2017 cassette (Ascetic House) 

GERRIT HATCHER Parables For The Tenor cassette (Astral Spirits)

The 1902 Syntropic Seasonal 5 cd-r comp (Wist Rec, Ireland)

The LENTILS  My Pillow Lava (Complete Trilogy)  double cassette (unread)

SCY2E*GLOCHIDS*NURSE BETTY  Weird Ear's Fantastic Voyage (Autumn East Coast Tour) comp (Weird Ear)

the SHIFTERS  Have A Cunning Plan (Trouble In Mind)

CÉCILE CAPOZZO TRIO Sub Rosa cd (Ayler Records, France)

PROJET DE VIE  Vol. #1 EP cassette  ([Equilibre Fragile], France)

JAX DELUCA  Organs In The Wind cassette (ACR, U.K.)

LUCY CLICHÉ Cliché’s Principle (Fleisch, Germany)

JANO DOE( aka KATARÍNA GATIALOVÁ)  Duranzie cassette Genot Centre, Czech Republic)

KOMARE Komare cassette (Round Bale Recordings) 

COLLATE Liminal Concerns (self-released)

AREK GULBENKOGLU  A gift like a hollow vessel (Penultinate Press, UK)

BASIC HOUSE & WANDA GROUP  No Sympathy  (Opal Tapes, U.K.)

MANUEL TROLLER Vanishing Point (three: four, Switzerland)

STEPH RICHARDS/VINNY GOLIA/BERT TURETZKY Trio Music  cd (pfmentum) 

HEART OF SNAKE  Heart Of Snake cassette (Maple Death, U.K.)

SCHWEBEN Sketches Of Plains cassette (Otomatik Muziek, Germany)

GENEVA SKEEN  A Parallel Array Of Horses download (Room40, Australia)

IKUI DOKI  Ikui Doki  (Ayler, France)

CHARLES BARABÉ  De La Fragilité cassette (Astral Spirits)

MIDNIGHT MINES  Invisible Insurrection Of A Million Minds (The Loki Label) & Stations 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone, Sweden) 

DELACAVE  Window Has No Glass (POUeT! Schallplatten, France)

MARY LATTIMORE & MEG BAIRD  Ghost Forests cd (Three Lobed Recordings)

M/M  I Know You Are Thinking I've Said This All Before cassette (Czaska, U.K.)

The ATTACHMENTS  II cassette (self-released)

TYSHAWN SOREY  Pillars 3 cd (Firehouse 12)

JOËLLE LÉANDRE  Strings Garden 3 cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

STONE WITCHES  Machine Efficient cassette (Slime Street, Australia)

CARA STACEY & CAMILO ÁNGELES Ceder  (Kit, U.K)

DIRE WOLVES (JUST EXACTLY PERFECT SISTERS BAND) One For The Heads cassette (Baked Tapes) & Earthquake Country cassette (Sky Lantern) & Shootout At The Dildo Factory (Eiderdown) 142

(this is a pic of DIRE WOLVES with their eyes closed)

GEN POP II  7″ ep (Feel It)

ANGLES 3  Parede (Clean Feed, Portugal)

FRANK HURRICANE Holy Mountain Coffee tour cassette (self-released)

CARROM  Prehistories cassette (self-released, Canada)

PARSNIP Feeling Small 7″ (Anti Fade, Australia)

ÁINE O’DWYER / GRAHAM LAMBKIN Green Ways 2 cd (erstwhile)

Longform Editions digital series, particularly: EKIN FIL “Windblow”, MARJA AHTI “Entering A Cloud” and STEAM VENT “Swells”

CLINTON GREEN Setting For The Iliad CD-R (Frustration Jazz, Australia)  

PETER EVANS & BARRY GUY Syllogistic Moments cd (Maya Recordings, Swizterland)

ETRAN DE L’AÏR  No. 1 (Sahel Sounds)

ALIEN NOSEJOB Various Fads & Technological Achievements (Anti Fade, Australia)

J.C. SATÀN Centaur Desire  (Born Bad, France)

NAGUAL & STEFAN CHRISTENSEN Third 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone, Sweden)

EXEK  Ahead Of Two Thoughts (W.25th)  &  A Casual Assembly  12″ (W.25th)

ARUÁN ORTIZ TRIO’s Live in Zurich (Intakt, Switzerland)

MIA DYBERG TRIO Ticket! (Clean Feed, Portugal)

LA DANTA Alpeis Καράκας cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

WEAK SIGNAL LP1 cassette (Reality Delay)

DISTANT STARS The Way Things Work cassette (Detonic, Australia)Field Recordings from the Sahel

MUDHONEY Digital Garbage (Sub Pop)

ROB NOTES & RYAN LEE CROSBY  Modal Improvisations on 34 Strings cassette (Cabin Floor Esoterica)

...all those LOKI LABEL boots...

[thepermanentrainpress]

EMILY BEST: A STORM CAME THROUGH

A Storm Came Through – Emily Best Release Date: March 13th, 2020

Track Listing:

1. Bridges and Cars 2. One Step 3. Heartbeat 4. Freight Train 5. The Wake 6. A Storm Came Through

Emily Best sets off into uncharted waters in A Storm Came Through.

Her debut album is a marvelous musical medley that combines old-time Americana, contemporary jazz, avant-pop and orchestral folk. It’s unlike anything I’ve heard before.

Drawing inspiration from Sir Elton John and Patrick Watson, the music is experimental and bold. But at the same time, it feels minimal–effortless. A testament to Best’s skill as a composer. She arranged and wrote the album by herself.

A Storm Came Through features prominent members of Canada’s diverse music scene. JUNO Award-winning guitarist Tony Wilson (Pugs and Crows) worked on the album. Paul Rigby (Neko Case), Sally Zori (Aretha Franklin/Desirée Dawson), Dominic Conway (Malleus Trio), Elisa Thorn (Gentle Party/The Giving Shapes), Alison Gorman (Dan Mangan/Queer as Funk), Chris Rzepa (The Gentle Infidels), Thomas D'Hoore (Tiny Havoc), Stephen Lyons (Fond of Tigers) and Joshua Zubot (Joshua Zubot/Patrick Watson) also contributed to the project.

“Bridges and Cars” is a gentle introduction to Best’s unorthodox style. At first, you are surrounded by quaint jazz-pop melodies. But as the string instruments appear, you are steered into sadness.

“Water rushing in / It’s weighing me down”

The song then shifts pace again, foreshadowing a technique used throughout the album. Pedal steel and drums swell as an electric guitar glides in. The tone becomes more uplifting. It feels like acceptance. When you allow unfortunate circumstances to transform you into someone stronger and wiser.

“Bridges get over, boats take us farther”

“One Step” breaks the chain of control with spunky stops. It’s all about finding the inner strength to know what’s best for you. Even as you battle forces that would love to keep you dependent on them.

Best’s vocals feel vintage. It has the same appeal as cursive writing—elegant and rare. Saxophone and trumpet flare fun textures; an example of the asymmetry of contemporary jazz.

“I don’t know why you treat me like a new invention / Terrified of my ascension”

“Heartbeat” is the eye of the storm. Time stands still as cascades of harp and somber strings spin around you. Calmness crashes into you, as you are aware of everything and undisturbed by it all.

Country-soul infuses with pop-jazz in “Freight Train.” Layered melodies with a hint of southern twang give the song a nostalgic feel. Tender lyrics weave their thread through your heart.

“I wanted you to try and keep me there in your life”

“The Wake” is modern musical art—abstract and swanky. Intricate rhythms prance around, as different instruments fade in and out of the frame.

Lively horns and dynamic guitar come together in an energized romp driven forward by daring drums. Best’s peaceful, crystalline voice sings of anger and betrayal.

“In the wake of all these setbacks / I wanted to shake you off”

The last song of the record is a beautiful ballad. A song so catchy that I cannot stop singing it to myself and everyone around me, much to their annoyance.

“A Storm Came Through” is a slow burn. It builds up and falls down in waves. The musical complexity is there but it’s understated—softer. From the strings, to the horns, drums, keys and vocals; the synergy between all the instruments is magnificent. You are drowning in emotion and heartache, only to surface and take a deep breath of peace.

This is a song Dolly Parton would release if she was a multi-instrumental jazz-pop artist.

They say some people are not born. Rather, they are made by the storms they walk through. Emily Best’s storm is one of endearing vulnerability and lush orchestration.

“When the storm came through it carried me to you”

Written by: Jenna Keeble

A Storm Came Through by Emily Best

[accessible-tumbling]

[image description one: tumblr tags by user Vanillaspit. They read: #this was like when I had a severe trauma on Christmas Day n I was in telling the family their mum was gna die #all whilst wearing tinsel wreath bauble earrings looool #nursing

Image description two: a group of tumblr tags. User soupcans: #s/o to when i did full corpse paint whilst working in the ER. really smart choice ! definitely didnt have any bad side affects !. User Nicomrade: #prev… User Soupcans again: #I KNOWWWWWW IT WAS FUCKING TERRIBLE. IT WAS SO SO SO BAD I JUST LOVE HALLOWEEN SO MUCH

Image description three: tags by user sheathandshear reading: #Halloween costumes are strictly regulated in my dept after An Incident involving Minnie Mouse doing chest compressions #adventures in nursing.

Image description four: tags by user screaming-weevil reading: #note to self #wear simple costumes you can easily remove when stuff like this comes up #< prev tags but imagine your doctor takes off their cat ears to give you your terminal diagnosis.

Image description five: tags by user brownheadedcowbird reading: #if you've never seen morticia addams doing cpr... do you even work in healthcare.

Image description six: tags by user tikkun-halev reading: #i work in a hospital... today i was like 'i hope nobody says anything about my festive ghostface t-shirt' #and promptly turned a corner to find someone wearing a giant inflatable patrick star costume.

Image description seven: tags by three different users. User meowingatthesea: #saw a tweet yesterday from a pediatrician saying 'before you judge your pediatrician for not being costumed or in the Halloween spirit #know that they might have once had to do chest compressions while wearing a santa hat with jingle bells' #and yeah.... #i get why they have no costume. User highempressofdirt: #and that is why at my clinic anyone who wears a costume has to have a change of clothes #specifically for something like this. User sameensass: #in a hospital thats just a blood bottle.

Image description eight: a screenshot of a Reddit thread in the Emergency Medicine subreddit. User MDBabyMama: Costumes in the ER. Thoughts on staff (RNs, techs, etc) wearing Halloween costumes while working. Setting is a rural Level 1 trauma center. Professional? Unprofessional? Curious what you all think. User doctor_B: I used to wear costumes on Halloween. Then I had to tell someone that he had cancer while dressed as batman. Now I wear a silly hat or something that can come off for serious business.

Image description nine: a reblog by tumblr user beneathhergaze reading: I once had to give detailed vasectomy aftercare instructions to a very devout Catholic man (who'd already been feeling unspeakably Capital-G Guilty for wanting the vasectomy in the first place and I think was straight-up already planning to do penance after he was healed but iirc the number of kids was approaching double digits at that point and he and his wife had just Fucking Had It). It was also Halloween and I was dressed as a demon/devil-type creature. A cute one, certainly, but one all the same, horns and all. Between processing his emotions about the vasectomy and handling the fact that I had to use an interpreter (meaning it was awkward and took twice as long), I doubt he heard a word any of us said. If his eyes had gotten any wider from staring at me I think they'd have simply fallen out of his head. Anyway, I stopped wearing costumes to work after that.

Image description ten: tags by user sovaharbor reading: #i remember being like 13 or 14 and at my GI doctor for an appointment like right before halloween #he told me i needed an endoscopy/colonoscopy done while dressed as gru and i started SOBBINGGGG #so gru had to comfort me and tell me i would not be awake with cameras going down my throat and up my butt.

End ID]

I’ve told this story ten thousand times and I will tell it for the ten thousandth and first: whenever I think about wearing a costume to work on Halloween, I remember the time I saw a doctor breaking what must have been devastating news to a sobbing patient while the doc was dressed as a ketchup bottle.

[hennyjolzen]

The Horned Witches by Geoffrey Palmer and Noel Lloyd

There was once an old woman who lived with her only daughter in a cottage at the foot of a mountain in County Tipperary.

Pegeen, the daughter, was soon to be married to Patrick Ennis form the other side of the mountain. He was a well-to-do farmer, so the old woman wanted Pegeen to have a trousseau that would be the envy of all the neighbors, and would show that the folk on their side of the mountain were as good as those on the other.

Night after night, after Pegeen had gone to bed, she sat by the dying fire, stitching away at bridal gown, veil, tablecloths, towels, sheets, and napkins, until her head ached and her eyes were sore.

When the wedding was only a week away and there was still much to be done, the old woman grew anxious for fear things would not be ready on the day. She stayed up later than ever, hardly able to see her needle and thread, so faint was the glimmer from the last few embers on the hearth. "I wish there was somebody to help me," she thought. "I could not bear the disgrace if everything is not ready."

Suddenly there was a knock at the cottage door, and a voice called, "Open, open!"

"Who can that be at this early hour?" the old woman asked herself, and felt nervous as she called in a quavering voice, "Who is there?"

"I am the Witch of the One Horn," was the answer.

Thinking she had not heard aright and that one of the neighbors needed help, the old woman hobbled to the door and opened it.  Standing on the threshold, tall and lean in the moonlight, and wrapped in a long black cloak, was a woman she had never seen before.

"What do you want of me?" Pegeen's mother began, but the stranger pushed past her and strode into the room. She went straight to a chair by the fire, took up a needle and thread, and began to hem a tablecloth with hasty, jerky movements. Not a word did she speak, and it was not until the old woman had returned to her own seat and taken up her needle that she noticed, growing out of the stranger's forehead, a short, curved horn.

"The Witch of the One Horn," she thought, and a stab of fear went through her. "Has she come to help me, or has she another purpose?" And her fingers shook.

The witch finished the tablecloth in a miraculously short time and took up another piece of material. She spoke for the first time, as if to herself. "Where are the women? They are very late."

Immediately there was another knock at the door, and a voice called, "Open, open!"

The old woman glanced timidly at her companion, wondering whether or not to answer the call, but the witch was bent over her work, so she opened the door.

Standing on the threshold was another woman, even taller and leaner than the first, and covered from head to foot in black. She took no notice of the old woman, but went straight into the room and took a seat next to her sister witch. She picked up a needle and thread and began to hem a sheet. She did not speak, and when the old woman had reached her own seat she noticed that the newcomer had two horns growing out of her forehead.

In the silence that followed, the old woman thought the beating of her heart must be as loud as the ticking of a grandfather clock, but the Witch of the One Horn and the Witch of the Two Horns continued to stitch away, their needles stabbing like lightning at the fine linen.

Suddenly the second witch said, "Where are the other women? There is still much work to do." She was answered by a knock on the door and the same peremptory call.

And so the knocks went on, and each time Pegeen's mother, not daring to ignore the knocks, answered the door, another witch strode in and took a seat. Each witch had one more horn than the one before, and when the last one had entered and taken up her sewing the old woman counted twelve short, curved horns growing from her forehead.

The old woman did not know what to do. She saw the pile of tablecloths, sheets, and towels grow, but even the knowledge that everything would be ready for the wedding did not comfort her. The flickering light played on the ugly faces and spare forms of her twelve visitors, and the horns on their foreheads glowed with a strange, luminous light. "Will they go when they have finished their tasks?" she wondered. "Should I offer them some refreshment? Surely they will go away when morning comes . . ."

Her sewing grew slower, the stitches longer and more uneven. She saw to her dismay that she had made a crooked hem on Pegeen's new petticoat. It would all have to be ripped out and done again. She sighed and reached for her scissors.

At that moment the twelve witches began to sing a wordless tune that was full of an eerie, haunting horror, making the old woman's skin to prickle and her hair to rise. "What next?" she thought. "What evil thing is about to happen?"

She tried to get up, to call out, but found she could do neither. She was bound to her chair, enclosed in a spell that the song had woven. A thin, swirling mist crept into the room and made everything hazy. Through the mist the witches seemed to dissolve, then become solid again, fading and growing until the old woman's head swam.

The Witch of the One Horn swayed toward her in the strange gloom. Her eyes, glowing like rubies, glared into the old woman's. "Old woman," she crooned, "rise and make us a cake. We have worked hard and long, and we are hungry."

"Make us a cake. We are hungry," came a whisper from the others.

As if in a dream, the old woman got up. She groped her way to the shelf where she kept her pots and pans, and tried to lift down a mixing bowl. But it seemed to be stuck to the shelf and she could not move it. She tried to get another, then another, but none of them would come away. She let her hands fall helplessly to her sides and turned to the witches. "Will they kill me for disobeying?" she thought dully.

The Witch of the Twelve Horns got up and advanced toward her. From her eyes flashed a fire as green as emeralds. "Old woman," she hissed, "take a sieve to the well and bring water in it to mix with the flour to make the cake."

"Take a sieve to the well," the others sighed.

There was as sieve hanging from a nail near the door. Blindly the old woman reached out for it, took it down, and somehow found herself outside the cottage and dragging herself to the well at the bottom of the garden.

There the nightmare continued. Every time she drew water into the sieve, it poured through the holes and splashed on the ground. "I will never do it," the old woman panted. "I will never get the cake made, and they will kill me." She threw down the sieve, sat by the well, and wept bitterly.

A low, clear voice pierced her misery. It floated up from the depths of the well and fell on her ears like a cool balm. "Take some yellow clay and some  moss," it said, "and bind them together. Then put it round the sieve and the sieve will hold water."

Still in a trance, the old woman stumbled to her feet and saw that on one side of the well was a patch of wet clay and on the other side a bed of soft moss. She gathered a handful of each, mixed them together, and plastered the sieve with the sticky mixture. Then she drew some water and was overjoyed to find that this time it did not dribble away. "Thank yo," she whispered to the well.

Then the voice came again, bubbling up as sweet and cool as a mountain spring. "Do what I say and all will be well. When you get to the door, stand on the threshold and cry out in a loud voice, 'The mountain is on fire and the sky is blood-red!' Do this three times, then stand to one side.

Carefully holding the sieve so that the water did not spill, the old woman returned to her cottage. She put the sieve on the ground, opened the door, and, her voice cracking with anxious hope, called out, "The mountain is on fire and the sky is blood-red!"

She waited. Nothing happened, but the silence in the room quivered into life. She called again, and waited. The silence stirred as though a multitude of little things were on the move. When she had called out the words for the third time, she moved away from the open door.

From inside the cottage came a terrible cry, as if beasts had been made angry by desperate wounds. Out rushed the twelve witches, and the air shivered and splintered with their wild lamentations and piercing shrieks. They rose form the ground like giant bats, their black cloaks flapping, and they soared up into the night sky, twisting and turning in their frantic desire to get back to their home on the mountain before it was devoured by fire.

The old woman watched them getting smaller and smaller, until they became black dots and finally disappeared. As soon as they had gone, the dawn broke and birds began to sing.

The old woman's heart was full of thankfulness. Before going inside, she turned back to the well. "Thank you, oh thank you, spirit of the well," she murmured. "You have saved me from the terrible horned women."

The spirit of the well spoke again, warningly. "The witches will come back when they find that the mountain is not on fire. If they enter your house a second time, you and your daughter will never be seen alive again. You must prepare your home against their enchantment. Listen, this is what you must do. . . ."

The old woman nodded as she listened to the soft, bubbling words. Then she went back to the cottage, her eyes bright with resolve, her step firm with courage.

She took water from the sieve and sprinkled it over the doorstep. When she got inside she saw a cake, dark reddish-brown and unappetizing to look at, on the table. "They didn't even wait for me to come back with the water," she said to herself. "They were greedy as well as wicked. But thanks to the spirit of the well I know what is in that cake."

She broke it into pieces, kept one in her hand and threw the others into the hearth, where they sizzled for a moment, then shriveled up into hard black lumps. She went up the twisting stairs to the tiny room where her daughter slept, and bent over the still form in the narrow bed.

Pegeen's hair spread over the pillow like a fan of black lace. Her face was as white as the pillow she lay on; her lips were bloodless. One blue-veined hand rested on the counterpane. The old woman smoothed the girl's brow. "I would have thought you dead," she whispered, "if the spirit had not told me how the witches took your blood to mix with flour for their cake. Here is your life back again, dear daughter." And she touched the girl's lips with the piece of cake.

Pegeen stirred and sighed. The color flowed back into her cheeks, the red into her lips. When the old woman saw that she was sleeping normally, she gave a sigh of happiness and tiptoed out of the room.

Downstairs, she closed the door and made it secure with a great crossbeam fastened between the jambs. Then, sitting by the hearth, she took up her sewing and waited.

A sound like a hurricane battering against the stout walls of the cottage told her that the twelve witches had returned. There was such a banging and a shouting, such a bawling and a screaming, that she thought the walls would cave in. The door shuddered under the onslaught, the windows rattled, the very foundations trembled.

"Open, open!" the witches screeched. "Vengeance, vengeance!" they howled.

The old woman waited behind the barred door, her hands clasped, her breathing tremulous, her body shrinking into the shadows.

Then a single voice rose above the hubbub. "Open, open, well water!"

The water that had been sprinkled on the doorstep made a murmuring answer. "I cannot open--I am scattered on the step and on the ground, and I cannot open for you."

A second voice jarred the air. "Open, open, wood and beam!"

The door, straining against the crossbeam, grunted, "I cannot open--a beam is fixed between my jambs, and I cannot open for you."

Then all twelve voices rose in a menacing roar. "Open, open, cake that we have made and mingled with blood!"

From the hearth came a sighing reply. "I cannot open--I am broken and burned, and my blood is back in the sleeping girl. I cannot open for you."

The noise dissolved into a long drawn-out moan, and the witches started to wring their hands and curse the spirit of the well that had wrecked their plans and saved the lives of the old woman and her daughter. But when they realized that nothing they could do would have any effect on the magic stronger than theirs, they flew away in a rage.

So the valley was left in peace, and the wedding preparations were able to go forward without fear of interruption. Pegeen married her Patrick, and all the guests were amazed at the great quantity of exquisitely sewn dresses and linen on display. "How did you manage to do so much in such a short time?" they asked.

But the old woman only smiled and said, "Oh, I had a little help toward the end. . . ."

1

1If you are interested in reading a more authentic ethnographic version of this Irish tale, I have included it below. It appears in John O’Donovan, The Tribes and Territories of Ancient Ossory, Comprising the . . . Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, volume 1 (1849-51). (Dublin: John O’Daly, 1853), 342-344.

[alexanderwrites]

Thoughts Roundup - Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 10

“Laura Is The One”

After the wild, nuts-to-the-wall freakout that was Part 8, Parts 9 & 10 have returned us to a more conventional mode of storytelling - it should be noted that “conventional” is used here very loosely, and that by episodic TV standards, these episodes are still pretty nuts-to-the-wall. Maybe part 8 pushed its nuts THROUGH the wall whereas 9 & 10 just gently press the nuts up against the wall. Maybe I should drop this analogy altogether and get into what was a slow, ruminative but intensely powerful hour of TV. (Also - I didn’t do a write up last week because i’m stupid and forgot).

. The violence against women in this episode can’t be ignored. It’s right there, front and centre. We start with Horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE Richard Horne being his horrible self and killing (or at least brutally attacking, she seemed to still be breathing) a witness to his earlier hit and run, before we move on to Amanda Seyfried’s Becky, who is viciously attacked by her ALSO HORRIBLE boyfriend. The trifecta is completed when Richard heads to his Grandma’s for a vicious, intrusive robbery. There is commentary on violence towards women here: when Robert Knepper’s Rodney is accidentally swatted in the face by Candie, it leaves a small mark, but no harm is really done. She is beside herself the rest of the scene, wailing and crying and overridden with guilt and fear. She feels genuine sorrow - contrast this with Richard’s nonchalance towards his violence against women and we start to get a look at how disparately different victims of violence are treated. 

The violence on display is as much about our perception of gender roles and their function within narratives as it is about highlighting how HORRIBLE these characters are. Having said that, it would be nice to see more female characters with a little more agency in the foreground. I do wish we had some more diversity when it came to leading women in the show (not to mention the almost non-existence of women of colour in the show) to counter-balance the violence against them. I believe the characters ARE there, but due to the unimaginably huge roster of characters, a lot of them are shuffled to the back. It’s a shame because you know what? I could watch an entire hour of Jane Adams’ Constance. She’s such a charmingly funny and unique character, and every time she turns up I hope she’ll get more than a few lines. Diane is similarly fascinating, but because of the narrative structure (and this and last week’s revelations), she’s being kept at arm’s length. A great character again, but I hope she isn’t absent in future episodes like she was tonight. Luckily we have Janey-E (Naomi Watts is just the greatest of all time and I won’t hear any arguments against it) as a prominent character, and she is a fascinatingly complex one, as she swings from being weirdly performative to achingly sincere. It’s easy to list a whole bunch of other great female characters, but I suppose what I wish is that they were more central to the plot in a positive way. Twin Peaks couldn’t be Twin Peaks without violence. It’s one of the things that the show is fundamentally about, and furthermore, how we react to, or DON’T react to that violence. But I don’t know that we need three scenes of it in one episode to highlight that. Then again, discomfort was probably the intent. We’re meant to feel like something deeply wrong is happening, and if that’s the intention then this episode succeeded. 

. I talked about that more than I expected, so moving on! Nadine got the moment of the night for me when her Silent Drape Runner store was revealed. Get it, girl!! I adore Nadine, the absolute weirdo. I dearly, dearly hope we get more of her over the next 8 episodes. It’s almost impossible to see how she could tie in to the central story which is a shame because she’s one of the most fun people to watch on the show. 

. The scenes with Cooper were a mix of hilarious and tragic, as they tend to be. It is both understandable and unfathomable how Janey-E could find him attractive - on the one hand, the doctor’s scene reveals how scarily in shape he is. No one’s blaming her for checking him out. On the other hand....come on. You’re attracted to the guy who drinks coffee like it’s a sippy cup of ribena? It’s a funny notion, but also a little sad because it makes you realise how starved for warmth and affection she probably is, as anyone would be. Him, too. Their sex scene is initially pretty funny because of Kyle Maclachlan’s fucking expressions (literally). Man, he has proven himself to have adept comic skills this year - as well as pretty much every other acting skill known to the profession. But as they lie together afterwards, it feels poignant again. It’s another reminder of how close yet far away our Coop is, and as much as I want him to find himself, I want Janey-E to be happy and find herself, too. She’s been put through some shit, having unwittingly married a non-human doppelganger manufactured by an evil entity who has escaped from another dimension. That’s a lot for one person. Plus she’s named Janey-E. How unlucky can one person be?

. I sort of liked the stuff with Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper. They give a couple of very intense and solid performances, but the problem for me was that it’s another complex storyline being introduced so deep into the series. If it’s one that lasts a few episodes - fine. But i’d almost like to see their part wrapped up - or advanced dramatically - by next week, mainly because there are more interesting threads the one these two linger on. I want more Doppelcoop. I want the Bookhouse Boys heading to the black lodge. I want more Patrick Fischler rather than the guys he gives orders to. It’s hard to judge from episode to episode which assortment of characters you’ll get, and it’s starting to feel like this series’ logline should’ve adapted an existing catchphrase: “Twin Peaks is like a box of Gormonbozias: You never know what creamed corn nightmare you’re gonna get”. I personally am happy with whatever assortment we get, but getting Belushi and Knepper’s characters is like getting a pretty nice plain milk chocolate when I could be getting a delicious hazelnut deluxe. It’s not bad at all, just...perfectly fine. 

. When it comes to Diane and her relationship with Doppelcoop, i’m utterly intrigued and utterly uninterested in guessing where it’ll go. There will be a million theories floating out there about how and why they’re in contact, but i’d rather just watch the story play out rather than guess ahead. It’s a very cool development though, and Cole’s vision of Laura at the door was completely disarming and haunting. Again, I don’t really want to guess ahead at how Laura will play into the following episodes, but we know she will. That’s enough for me. I’ve been browsing the Twin Peaks reddit lately (I know...I know) and i’ve gotta admit i’m waring very thin from it. Not EVERYTHING is a thing, guys. I’m beginning to think all the fan theories are detracting from the story, when really i’d rather just experience the ride. We can’t outsmart Frost and Lynch and they’ll tell us what they want and in the manner they want to. And anyway, more interesting than a tenuous “it’s all set in another dimension and i have proof!” theory is something that put maybe the biggest smile on my face yet: ALBERT ON A DATE!!! With CONSTANCE!! How utterly delightful. I guess he’s got over his love of Harry Truman, then. 

. I really thought we were going to get Audrey this episode, as we inch closer and closer towards her through her horrible bastard son. Seeing more of Johnny this season has been a surprise, but from what happens to him tonight, not a pleasant one. It is fully heartbreaking watching him try to wriggle out of his restraints to rescue his Mum, and a pretty solid metaphor for so many of the male characters on the show: When a woman is being hurt, the men are impotent to help. For Johnny, it’s understandable that he can’t, the poor guy. But for the other men? It’s not that they can’t, it’s that they won’t. Harry Dean Stanton’s Carl plays a lovely old folk song outside his trailer, looking briefly torn up when he sees a mug go flying through a trailer window, the sound of a furious male voice growling from inside. Does he go and intervene? He doesn’t. And he’s a ‘good guy’, right? I re-watched Blue Velvet again yesterday, and was blown away by how full of shit Jeffery Beaumont’s good-guy image is. Like Carl, when he sees Dorothy’s attack, he doesn’t step in. He just watches. This seems to be a recurring theme with Lynch: those who see violence against women stand by and allow it to happen. And there ARE Carls everywhere, who’d rather say “That’s sad but not my business” than stand up and help. What happens to the Woman who witnesses evil (ie Richard’s hit and run) and tries to report it? She’s destroyed by a Man. God, it’s heartbreaking. The layers of commentary get deeper even as I write this, and I realise things about this episode I hadn’t thought of. I think part 10 is the most troubling and divisive, yet most fiercely critical yet. 

. And then, we get a surprise I truly wasn’t expecting: more of The Log Lady. Maybe the most iconic, important and wise character on the entire show, leading us onwards through the dark night. God bless the log lady, and god bless Catherine Coulson. Every word she speaks is fraught with such pain and feeling, and it’d be a fucking sin for us to not cherish every word of it. I found myself listening to her words just as Hawk does - with eyes almost closed, in utter silence, revering them and their power. At the centre of this Season, underneath it all, the real heroes are Hawk and The Log Lady. It is so nice, so utterly refreshing to have such a pure moment of goodness and beauty, and for it to be between a Woman written with true agency and a Native American Man who has risen to protect his town - two beautiful souls who are stepping in to save the day that the white dudes have repeatedly fucked right up. It’s a gorgeous scene, and it segues into a road house performance that is easily my favourite of the year so far. Rebekah Del Rio’s performance of No Stars (No surprises, it was co-written by David Lynch) is haunting and it feels like a turning point for the series - from here on in, the darkness in the woods around Twin Peaks is out in full force. Perhaps this is why the episode is so aggressive. I left this terrific episode feeling unsettled and troubled - and that’s exactly how we’re supposed to feel. There’s a bad moon rising over Twin Peaks. 

“But in these days the glow is dying. What will be in the darkness that remains?”

[2700fstreet]

CLASSICAL / 2018-2019

IMANI WINDS

STUDENT GUIDE

PERFORMANCE / DEMONSTRATION

Brandon Patrick George, flute Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe Mark Dover, clarinet Jeff Scott, French horn Monica Ellis, bassoon

School Show: January 31

So, What’s Going On?

When you watch five woodwind musicians walk onto a stage, what do you expect?

Perhaps the lilting sounds of composers like Haydn or Schubert?

Maybe the serious, complex music of Beethoven? Or how about the rhythms of African and Latin American music?

If so, it might be hard for you to imagine classical music merging with music that finds its roots in African, Latin American, and even Native American cultures.

So let’s challenge that perception with a performance by Imani Winds, a group of adventurous and passionate instrumentalists. Playing music identified as classical, jazz, contemporary, and everything in-between, Imani Winds bring a boldness to the music they play, bridging the musical gap across countries, generations, and styles. When Imani Winds takes the stage, they rock the house.

First, the basics. What’s a woodwind quintet?

The instruments in a woodwind quintet include a flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn. In woodwind instruments, air travels into a tube and vibrates either by being blown into a hole or across a vibrating reed. On flutes, air is blown across the opening of its mouth, producing sound. On reed instruments, like the clarinet, the air vibrates against a reed on the mouthpiece. Some reed instruments, like an oboe and bassoon, have two reeds, which air vibrates between. In these five instruments, pitch is controlled by covering finger holes or pressing keys that change the length of the tube. Although most woodwinds were originally made from wood—hence their name—they can be made from a variety of materials today, including plastic and metal.

Check out an overview of the woodwind family, and see pictures of the instruments.

But wait!

You might have noticed the quintet includes a French horn, a brass instrument that is played by buzzing into a mouthpiece. The horn is unique in its ability to blend its mellow sound with woodwind instruments and still retain the power of a brass instrument. Because of this, many composers began writing it into classical chamber—or small group—music.

So, where does “world music”—music that isn’t classified as traditional classical music or popular music—come in?

This term “world music” is derived from folk traditions of places that are typically outside of the European-American tradition. Imani Winds, formed in 1997, focuses on representing cultures, composers, and music originating from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Native American Indian tribes. And the result? Well, these rhythms, tones, and overall sounds can seem unusual to ears used to hearing Western music.

During the performance, Imani Winds will open and close the concert with compositions by its members along with selections from contemporary composers under the theme of “Old Made New.”

Who’s Who

Credit: Pierre Lidar

Imani Winds is one of the most successful and unique chamber music ensembles in the United States. Since its beginning, the quartet has taken a unique path, inserting culturally collaborative repertoire into its performances. The group’s name “Imani” means “faith” in the African language Swahili, emphasizing their connection between the dispersion of African music and the classical music traditionally played in chamber music.

Before they head out on stage, let’s meet the individual musicians:

Brandon Patrick George – flute Toyin Spellman-Diaz - oboe Mark Dover - clarinet Monica Ellis - bassoon Jeff Scott – horn

Listen to an Introduction to Imani Winds (2009):

Check This Out…

During the performance/demonstration “Old Made New,” the music will include:

Startin’ Sumthin’ by Jeff Scott (b. 1967)

Written by the group’s French horn player, this piece is a modern take on 1890s ragtime. Listen for the syncopated rhythm common in ragtime music. What about it sounds “ragged”? How does this music inspire you to move? Also note times of silence. There are moments in the beginning and towards the end when there's no sound at all, but the energy of the music is still very present.

Watch Imani Winds play Startin’ Sumthin’:

Want to learn more about ragtime?:

Quintet for Winds by John Harbison (b. 1938)

This piece has many movements, each of which displays a different characteristic that allows the quintet and individual instruments to shine. Can you find a common thread among them? Listen for the fourth movement—“Scherzo”—where notes are “passed” between the flute, clarinet, and bassoon. Can you catch where the melody leaves one instrument and is picked up by another?

Intrada

Intermezzo

Romanza

Scherzo

Finale

Listen to the entire piece played by the Harbison Wind Quintet:

La Nouvelle Orleans by Lalo Shifrin (b. 1932)

This piece reflects its composer’s jazz and Latin American roots. The title means “New Orleans,” the city considered the birthplace of jazz. This piece is a take on a traditional “jazz funeral march;” not solemn, but rather a celebration of the dearly departed. Listen for the gradual accelerando (speeding up) over the course of the piece, building towards an ending that reflects the New Orleans jazz Second Line brass band tradition. (The “second line” are the people who follow the band in the procession.) What gives the end its big band, jazzy feel?

Listen to Imani Winds play Schifrin’s La Nouvelle Orleans:

2.6 Pentadactyl by Henry Threadgill (b. 1944)

What does this title even mean?! Honestly, we’re not sure. What we do know is that Imani Winds commissioned this Pulitzer prize-winning composer to write this experimental, provocative piece as part of their mission to feature diverse jazz artists in their body of work. Listen for how each instrument intertwines with one another. Can you decipher which one is which?

The Light is the Same by Reena Esmail (b. 1983)

Based on a poem from the mystic poet Rumi, the piece is written with two scales traditionally used in Indian music. Imani Winds commissioned the piece, which is a picturesque work celebrating the idea that, though we have different beliefs, we all look up and see the same stars at night. Listen for the melody created by the first scale, ominous and sparse, at the beginning of the piece. Can you hear the piccolo and French horn playing a duet before the exciting, syncopated ending?

Learn more about Esmail at her composer site.

Tzigane by Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)

Written by a former Imani Winds flutist, this piece combines a celebration of the Romani (or gypsy) culture with Middle Eastern styles. Like jazz, the composition is written with the intention that the musicians take liberties and play with passion. The piece represents high energy and has beautiful solos that whirl to a frenzied ending. Listen for the driving rhythm behind the melody and watch for the “Low A extension” that bassoonist Monica Ellis inserts into the instrument in order to play a lower note than the bassoon can typically play.

Listen to Tzigane:

Think About This…

Imani Winds say it represents “the future of wind music and all it can be.” In what ways is the future of music related to its past? How is it different? What role do you think music fulfills in a changing world?

Part of the mission of this quintet is to bridge the gap between more traditional sounds and world music. What new sounds do you hear when listening to their music? How do the new sounds compare to what you think of as “classical” music? How do they compare to music you listen to most often? Are they similar at all?

A woodwind quintet has a surprisingly “full” sound for so few instruments. Just for fun, listen to this arrangement of The Incredibles movie theme by a woodwind quintet. How do these five instruments compare to the theme you’re used to hearing from the movie?

Take Action: Bridge the Gap

Imani Wind’s mission is to bridge the gap between old and new, traditional and progressive, classical and folk. This can be seen in their repertoire selections, compositions, and even the way they talk about their music. By bridging the gap, music becomes more accessible and more connected.

How can you bridge the gap in your art? Perhaps you meld the old and the new—maybe you perform jazz standards in new ways, or use Picasso as an inspiration in a modern artistic interpretation. Or maybe you combine two art forms to create something all your own. Think about a way to share how you will bridge the gap with family and friends.

Explore More

Go even deeper with the Imani Winds Extras.

You’re ready to hear Imani Winds.

-

Writer: Tori Friedrich

Content Editor: Lisa Resnick

Logistics Coordination: Katherine Huseman

Producer and Program Manager: Tiffany A. Bryant

-

David M. Rubenstein Chairman

Deborah F. Rutter President

Mario R. Rossero Senior Vice President Education

The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts are supported by generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund, and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas.

Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.

Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

© 2019 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

[holyfunnyhistoryherring]

[ID: screen shots from twitter.

Image 1: John Arnold "2 guys and a bulldozer on site to dislodge a ship stuck in the Suez Canal." The tweet has an attached photo of a bulldozer digging the shore next to a boat that makes it look tiny.

Image 2: the photo with the bulldozer from before but it is higher quality.

Image 3: Michael Sheetz "You may make mistakes, but at least they are usually not 'we can see your mistake from space' bad". An an attached article with the headline from cnbc "Satellite imagery shows mega container ship blocking Egypt's Suez ...". And a birds view photo of the stuck boat.

Image 4: The Higgs Boatswain "Good news for today: whatever happens, at least you're not the guy who got his boat stuck in the Suez Canal and broke maritime shipping"

Image 5: jurdle @/jurndan "Oopsie! I accidentally blocked the Suez Canal with my luscious round ass"

Image 6: Patrick Monahan @/pattymo "Day 2 of sitting behind the ship stuck in the Suez Canal, just laying on the horn. 'Come on!'"

Image 7: hunter_hhhh @/hunter_hhhh "I'm incredibly obsessed with the Suez Canal story and I'm even more obsessed with the fact that the driver of the ship drew two penises by drifting the boat and then went and crashed it into the canal". There are two maps attached, showing the route of the boat. In the first one the boat to took several loops that together look like a penis. In the second one it shows the route leading straight to the canal.

Image 8: flglmn @/flglmn "it's probably very unpleasant and embarrassing to block the Suez Canal by accident but imagine how powerful you would feel if you did it on purpose". And another tweet. amil @/amil "I'm sooooo stressed out for the persondriving that stuck Suez Canal boat. Imagine the entire world watching you park your car? Humiliating stuff"

Image 9: a thread by Acting like 1NastyNut since 2018 @/neonwario "What's going on in the Suez Canal: A Thread 1/n

A boat got sideways 2/2"

End image description.]

a collection of my favorite tweets regarding the Ever Given in the Suez Canal

[sincerelybluevase]

Fanfic Friday: Rainy Road

@inspoartist asked me to write about what should have happened on the misty-road scene, but I feel as if so much has already been written about that scene by so many writers more capable than I that I feel I could not add anything meaningful to it. So, instead I wrote a fic that explores what could have happened if the misty-road scene had been a rainy-road scene instead. Enjoy!

“And I’m coming back to Poplar.” Her words kept bouncing around Patrick’s head as he drove towards the sanatorium. He gripped the steering wheel of his MG with such force that his knuckles turned a ghastly white.

“I’m on my way to catch the bus.” Was the woman mad? She could not, she should not travel thirty miles by public transport. In fact, Patrick wasn’t even sure whether she should come back to Poplar at all, at least for a while. The air there was thick and vile. Sometimes, he had trouble breathing there himself, and his lungs had not been scarred by a debilitating illness.

Of course, it did not mean that he did not long for her. His heart had beaten away madly in his chest when he heard her breathy voice on the other side of the line; he wanted nothing more but to find her, wrap her in his arms, hug her to his chest and never let go. 

“There are procedures to be gone through.” He could not remember the last time words had impacted him so much. The last few months Patrick had forced himself to be patient, to show restraint. He had tried to pack away every sliver of hope to prevent them from becoming razor-sharp fragments that would dig into his heart when she would decide that her love for Another was greater than her feelings for him. Still, when the night was darkest and the house gripped by an almost super-natural stillness he found his thoughts wandering towards her time and time again. He tried to be selfless, to give her all the time and space she needed to make up her mind, but could not deny that his deepest wish was to be allowed to love her openly. Sometimes, he had vicious nightmares in which the TB had hollowed her out, feeding away on her till she could no longer cling to life. He would awake bathed in sweat, reaching out to the other side of the bed. His mind, blurred by the fog of dreams, expected to find her there. When his fingers encountered only cold sheets he could not stop himself from weeping.

He had to find her.

“Does Sister Bernadette know that we’re coming to pick her up?” asked Timothy. Patrick had almost forgotten that his son sat in the car with him.

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. Timothy frowned.

“How do you know she’ll still be at the san-sana…”

“Sanatorium.”

“That. How do you know she’ll still be there when we arrive?” Patrick’s gut clenched.

“I don’t.” They were silent for a while.

“Dad, I think it is going to rain. Isn’t that dangerous for Sister Bernadette, with her being ill?” Timothy asked. Nausea crawled up Patrick’s throat.

Oh God no…

“Let’s pray she’s still there,” he muttered. He refused to let his mind be taken hostage by the twisted thoughts lurking in the back of his mind.

She should have taken greater care when she boarded the bus; maybe she would not have gotten lost then. She had been too consumed by her own thoughts to pay much attention to anything. She had hardly felt the autumn wind nipping at her through her thin coat, had hardly noticed the curious looks her fellow passengers gave her clothes. She had known that her suitcases were old and battered, that her purse had been water-stained and old-fashioned, but she could not care. Shelagh had been too giddy to pay heed to anything apart from the thought that she was going home.

To him.

She had told Sister Julienne that she was not sure where her home was, or ought to be. She still wasn’t, but she had hope. His friendly voice and the soft rhythm of his speech had fortified her. She felt as if an invisible thread tied them together, now pulling them closer and closer till she would be in his arms.

It was only when she heard names of bus stops she could not remember reading that she had realised that she had not boarded the bus that would take her home. Shelagh had done the only thing she could think of: gather her belongings and get off at the next stop. She had reasoned that the proper course was to walk back to the sanatorium- surely the distance was manageable- and take the right bus from there.

Unfortunately, she had not taken the weather into account. A thick mist lay on the land like a downy blanket, obscuring everything more than a few feet away. Still, she would not be defeated by such little things as the wrong bus and a bit of fog. She had battled worse demons, and conquered them. The idea of Doctor Turner had given a spring to her step as she walked along the dreary country road. The mist would be her veil, the pearls of moisture beading her hair her crown, the forlorn stalks of grain her bouquet.  

I’m coming home.

“Stay in the car,” Patrick commanded as he flung the door open and almost sprinted towards the sanatorium. He didn’t have to look to know that Timothy rolled his eyes at him.

No one was waiting for him outside the sanatorium, but then again, the weather was very cold and autumnal. He shivered as the wind tugged on the lapels of his coat, plastering multi-coloured leaves against his trousers.

He pushed the door open and briskly walked to the reception. The woman behind the desk gave him a disapproving look from behind her horn-rimmed spectacles.

“I’m looking for Sister Bernadette,” Patrick said.

“Good morning to you,” the woman said stiffly.

“Good morning. Now, Sister Bernadette, she’s a nun. She was discharged today. I’m coming to collect her.” “And you are?”

“Doctor Turner. Her GP.” Her future husband, if she’s willing, he mentally added. The woman pursed her lips and looked over the stack of papers in front of her. She started to flick through them with what Patrick felt was intentional slowness. He resisted the urge to grab the papers and look through them himself. Instead, he drummed with his fingers on the desk, unable to hide his annoyance. If she wasn’t here, he had no time to lose.

“Could you hurry, please? It is of vital importance that I find Sister Bernadette,” he pleaded.

“You mean the little nun? Though she was dressed into something other than her habit this morning.” He spun around as a blonde nurse with a friendly smile approached him.

“Yes.”

“If you’ve come to visit her, I’m afraid you are too late: she was discharged this morning.” “I know. I’ve come to pick her up, give her a lift home,” Patrick said. The nurse knit her brow.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” she mumbled, looking him over as if he was hiding something from her.

“Why’s that?”

“She left for the bus over an hour ago. It was the strangest thing; I thought she was a nun, but she wore normal clothes when she left, though they were dreadfully old fashioned. I don’t think she knew you would come to collect her. I advised her to stay, said we could call a cab for her because of the bad weather, but she insisted. She seemed to be in a hurry.”

“Thank you!” Patrick didn’t wait for her reply, but spun around and ran back to the car.

“And?” Timothy asked. “She isn’t here,” Patrick answered. As he started the car a fat raindrop landed on the windshield, splitting in a dozen tiny droplets.  

Oh God.

Shelagh had somehow imagined that she and Doctor Turner were linked, that there was a compass inside her heart that pointed to him. It would restore her to him and only him. Now, she had to admit to herself that this compass, like her sense of direction, was faulty. She had been walking for what seemed like hours, and the sanatorium was nowhere in sight. In fact, there was nothing here that seemed even remotely familiar.

Her shoes had started to pinch and her suitcases felt rather heavier than before. Still, she had trusted herself well enough until the rain had started.

She had told herself that she had imagined the first few drops. They were simply the kisses of the mist sliding along her cheeks. However, she could no longer deny that the weather had taken a turn for the worse when the soft drops of drizzle became larger, colder, harder.

Shelagh put down her suitcases and looked up to the sky. The rain stung her cheeks.

“Dear Lord, no,” she whispered as the mist scattered around her, fleeing for the onslaught of bad weather.

“Damn her Scottish stubbornness, damn her selflessness, trying not to be a burden on anyone, damn it all…” Patrick muttered as they drove along what seemed to be endless winding country lanes.

“You are not allowed to say ‘damn’,” Timothy remarked. Patrick made a guttural noise in reply. The windshield wipers flung aside the rain as it pelted their car. There had been moments when he found their smooth movement soothing. Now, they just inspired agitation.

“Dad, what will happen if Sister Bernadette is caught out in this bad weather?” Timothy whispered after a few minutes of silence. Patrick rubbed his eyes.

“Hopefully she has a raincoat and an umbrella with her, and she’ll only get a bit cold,” he answered. He refused to entertain any other thought. The knot in his gut twisted and coiled and tightened.

“There is something there,” Timothy said, and pointed to a speedily increasing dot in the distance.

“It could be anything,” Patrick said, not daring to hope.

“But we’ve not seen another person till now,” Timothy rightfully pointed out. The dot took on colour and shape as it came ever nearer. Soon, it became apparent that it was a lonely figure, walking through the rain.

“Dad, it is a woman. She’s in the wrong clothes, but I think it might be her!” Timothy exclaimed, almost bouncing off his chair in his enthusiasm. Patrick swallowed. There was an audible click in his throat. His eyes weren’t as sharp as those of his son. He daren’t hope, yet he must.

This is what hell must be like, Shelagh thought as she trudged on. She had lost all sense of time; for all she knew, she could have been walking for days.

Her feet hurt. She had stumbled a few times, once falling and scraping her hands bloody. At least the rain washed the blood away.

Her hands hurt, both from the grazes and the cold. She had trouble feeling her fingertips, clinging to the slippery suitcases. She knew that she could not pick them up again, were she to put them down.

Her head hurt. It was a blunt pain, a throbbing pain that matched the fluttering of her heart. Not even the cool rain on her forehead could alleviate the burning inside her skull.

Her lungs hurt the worst, though. Every breath was agony. Pain flared in her chest. She wondered how she could feel so cold even though her lungs were clearly on fire.

This is your punishment for your arrogance, she thought. She should have listened to the doctors. Instead, she disregarded their advice, going out even though the weather promised to be inclement. Like she had disregarded the subtle symptoms her body had send her to show her that she was ill. She had endangered her patients by being so stubborn, never mind that she had not yet been contagious.

Arrogance, vanity, gluttony. Sin.

Would she be forced to walk this god-forsaken road forever, with only desolate fields with brittle stalks empty of grain as her companions? She had not seen a single soul since she left the bus stop.

Yes, this was hell, being forced to walk along a never-ending road, thirsting for solace she could only find in the arms of another human being.

Tears mingled with the rain.

“I don’t think I can take much more,” she whispered to the sky. Her words didn’t soar, but got beaten down into the mud as the rain increased in vehemence. She stumbled, putting down her suitcase to prevent herself from falling, then tripping over it as her momentum did not allow her to stop. The other suitcase sprang open and vomited her habit and wimple on the road. Her stockings ripped. Mud splashed over her skirt and coat, peppering the soaked fabric with dark stains. She sat down, too tired to get up, letting the rain wash over her. The droplets might as well have been little bullets; every single one stung. Iron fists squeezed her lungs shut till her breathing came in short, wheezing gasps. She shut her eyes.

The lonely figure stumbled, tripped over the suitcases she was carrying, then fell. She didn’t get up. Patrick didn’t know whether he wanted this to be the woman he loved with all his heart, or just another person he didn’t know, lost in the rain.

“Dad, it is her!” Timothy shouted and pointed to the navy habit that had fallen out of her suitcase. Patrick felt his heart clench painfully. He flung the door of the car open. Timothy made to leave the car as well.

“Stay here!” “But, dad…” “Do as I say!” he barked, the depth of his anguish making the words sound harsher than he intended. The rain was icy and made him shudder, even though he wore several layers and a thick coat. Patrick ran towards the still figure of Sister Bernadette.

Only she’s dressed like an ordinary woman, he thought as he knelt beside her. She had her eyes closed. Strands of her hair had escaped the intricate knot she had made and lay plastered against the marble of her face. Patrick wanted nothing more than to touch her, but now he feared what his fingertips would feel. Her breaths came in short, laboured gasps.

“Sister?” She didn’t respond.

“Sister Bernadette?” He felt her forehead. Her skin was clammy and hot to the touch.

Oh God no…

“Sister Bernadette, you need to get out of the rain. You’re burning up.” Panic laced his words and pumped through his veins. He took his coat off and threw it around her. She opened her eyes.

“Are you really here?” she whispered.

“Of course.”

“It seems to me I’ve been on this road forever, thinking you were here when you weren’t.” Her eyes were fever-bright. Patrick pulled her against him, cradling her in his arms. He hardly even felt how his clothes got soaked; all his attention was on her icy hands and the shivers that trailed through her body. She felt fragile and strangely ethereal.

“I came to the sanatorium, but they told me you had left. I thought you would take the bus.” “I got on the wrong one.” She laughed. It was a throaty sound that made all the hairs in his neck rise.

“You stubborn Scot, walking without a coat in the rain,” Patrick whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She started to sob.

“I’m so, so sorry. And I’m so, so tired.” Patrick rocked her, making soft sounds in the back of his throat.

“Don’t apologise.”

“I didn’t want to be a burden,” she whispered. Her breathing came in high, squeaky gasps now.

“How could you ever be a burden to me? I’ve longed for you with all my heart.” “You don’t even know my name.” She placed her hand on his chest. He placed his hand over hers, feeling the bones under her skin.

“No,” he agreed. She smiled a little.

“It’s Shelagh.” “Patrick.”

“There. We’ve made a start,” Shelagh said. She smiled again, a beatific smile that made her seem more ethereal than ever as her breathing stopped.

“Shelagh?” She didn’t respond.

“Shelagh?!” Patrick clutched her tighter, pressing her against his chest and cradling her head with his hand.

“Shelagh, darling?” A sob threaded through his desperate calling of her name, over and over again, as the rain ceased its merciless pounding.

Patrick shot up and nearly toppled out of the bed. His breathing was very fast, his pyjamas and hair plastered to his skin. “Shelagh?” He felt for her, but the space next to him in the bed was empty.

“Shelagh?” Panic laced his words. He scrambled out of the bed, eyes wild and wide with worry. Where could she be? She couldn’t be gone, she had to be here, she… “Patrick?” She stood on the threshold of their room, eyes small with sleep, honey-blonde hair delightfully mushed. Patrick exhaled the biggest breath he had ever held. With three big steps he was with her and hugged her to him with such force that they nearly fell over. He pressed his nose in her hair, inhaling her scent, letting it comfort him. Tears pricked behind his eyes.

“Patrick, is everything alright?” Her hands wound around his chest.

“I dreamed that you were gone, and then I woke up and you weren’t there.” “I’m sorry. I had a nightmare, too. I got up to drink a wee bit of water,” she admitted. Patrick couldn’t help himself; tears ran along his cheeks and sobs racked his body.

“I dreamed you were dead,” he managed to get out between strangled gasps. Shelagh rubbed circles on his back.

“I’m not dead. I’m here, where I belong,” she whispered. She held him tightly and hummed a lullaby whilst his grief subsided. Exhausted, he sat down on the bed, still holding his wife as if he intended to never let her go.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a burden.” “Don’t apologise, you silly man. How could you ever be a burden?” She threaded her hand through his hair and placed a soft kiss first on one eyelid, then the other. Patrick didn’t release her even as they laid themselves down on the bed. He was still afraid of her disappearing, of waking up again and finding that his nightmare had become his reality. Shelagh’s steady breathing reassured him a little.

“Did you say you had a nightmare, too?” he whispered.

“It’s not important. I hardly remember what it was, really. I just know it seemed as if I walked on an endless road, never quite arriving where I was supposed to be,” Shelagh explained.

“That sounds awful.” “I woke up in the end, and when I saw you, I felt as if I was exactly where I was meant to be. Now, we should really try to get a bit more sleep.” Patrick smiled.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Patrick closed his eyes. This time, the only words bouncing around in his skull where those he wanted to hear: I felt as if I was exactly where I was meant to be.

  I have no idea what I’m going to write for next week. @kienova66 did a great fanfic of twenty ways how Patrick and Shelagh could’ve had their first kiss. I might try to write something similar. feel free to send this uninspired  chick some prompts, though!

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON: PENS WIN IN OT OVER PACK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Adam Johnson’s penalty shot goal at 1:47 of overtime allowed the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to pull out a 4-3 win before a season-best XL Center crowd of 7,438. The situation presented itself when the Wolf Pack’s Nick Ebert fell down near the left-wing boards at the blue line and the Penguins Adam Johnson picked up the loose puck and was off to the races. Vinni Lettieri makes a valiant effort to get back as he shot but clearly interfered with Johnson who was awarded the rarest play of all--an overtime penalty shot. Johnson went in on Adam Huska decided to go with a forehand to backhand move and slipped his ninth of the season past him at 1:47. “Something about this building we’ve been playing pretty good in it. Adam hasn’t had a lot of luck in shootouts, so it was nice to see him get that. His speed is dynamic and when you get a break like that you got to make the most of it and he did,” said Wilkes Barre head coach Mike Vellucci. The Pack’s bench boss Kris Knoblauch couldn’t dispute the call. “A penalty shot was the right call. It was a tough way to end a game.” The penalty shot was the 43rd against Hartford, but the first one in overtime in 23 years. The Wolf Pack had a great chance to start the third period on the powerplay and only managed two shots. The powerplay was 0-4 and the opportunity was there just let them slip through. “When you need that powerplay goal it just disappoints you when you don’t score, but we did bounce back and we fought back,” said Knoblauch. The Wolf Pack had the chance and it was the Penguin who got the goal. After the penalty expired Cole Cassels started a rush up ice fed Adam Johnson as they crossed into Wolf Pack territory and he, in turn, slipped a short pass over to Kevin Roy, who in one motion ripped his 11th goal far side on Huska at 3:31 that allowed Wilkes Barre/Scranton to slip ahead 3-2. Cassels picked up his second point to make the play happen has been gaining more ice time with the Penguins and making it count. “He’s a good kid and a good player,” remarked Vellucci “The last few years they didn’t let him be an offensive guy. He really is a 200-foot game guy and he has really good hands as you saw on the first goal and getting that play started you see, he’s a smart player as well The Wolf Pack fought through the defensive maze of Wilkes Barre to tie the game at three overcoming their third deficit of the night and breathed life into the possible late-game theatrics trying to win the game. Steve Fogarty getting the puck up to Nick Ebert who spotted an open Vitali Kravtsov surging to the middle threaded the pass between two players to send the Russian in on a breakaway, Kravtsov put on the afterburner saw ex-Pack goalie Dustin Tokarski feet were locked up and zipped his fifth goal of the season five-hole to tie the gamer at three at 10:39. The Wolf Pack had two solid chances late, no better one with 1:32 left with Vinni Lettieri in close wide open, but  Tokarski made the save. “We did a lot of good things tonight. We were just fighting it too much at times,” remarked a clearly frustrated Lettieri knowing he had a golden opportunity. The Pack’s Patrick Newell had a grade-A chance searching out and forcing a turnover and then taking the puck turning and firing through a screen, that Tokarski blocked blindly with his blocker with 4:20 left that fell at his feet, but the Pack couldn’t get at the loose puck. The first three to five minutes of the second period was wild and wooly. The Wolf Pack tied at 45 seconds as Vinni Lettieri curling off left-wing half wall got the play started sending a diagonal cross-ice pass to Vincent LoVerde who then took his pass finding an open Danny O’ Regan at the left side of the Penguins net O’ Regan partially fanned on the shot, but the net was wide open for the puck to slide over the goal line before Tokarksi could dive over and pull it back for his 11th of the season. The Penguins answered back as the defense combo last week that got the better of the Wolf Pack did so again. Pierre Olivier-Joseph zipped it over to Jon Lizotte who put a perfect low shot that rookie Ryan Scarfo, playing just his fourth game on recall from Wheeling (ECHL) perfectly redirected past Adam Huska at 2:16. The Wolf Pack on the penalty kill tried to stay back as Danny O ‘Regan burst down the right-wing with a semi-breakaway. He cut across the net caught a hook/slash from Derek Warsofsky lost control of the puck and Tim Gettinger was there took a shot and the goal horn was inadvertently sounded and immediately waved off, but the Wolf Pack got a powerplay out of it, but the Wolf Pack couldn’t connect. The Penguins scored first as John Nyberg from left point let a good low slapper go and Cole Cassels who lost a goal here last time got credit for this one again on a deflection in front for his seventh of the season at 11:16. It was ironic that the son of former Whaler Andrew  Cassels would score the first goal on Hartford Heritage Hockey Night. The Wolf Pack tied it two-on-one of the stranger goals of the season. The Penguins Olivier-Joseph was forced into coughing up the puck with checking along the right-wing boards. Vitali Kravtsov got the loose puck on the right-wing sent a pass to Darren Raddysh, drifting to the left side who let a rocket go that missed the net, but went right to Lettieri. From behind the goal line, he put the puck back toward the net and it went off Tokarski’s left leg and into the net for his team-best 23rd goal with 37.3 seconds left. That gave the Wolf Pack the momentum back before the period ended. “Anything can happen around the net, You’re always taught you just have to shoot when the goalie isn’t expecting it,” commented Lettieri scoring just his second goal in the last seven games. The Wolf Pack in the first period had four shots in the first five minutes and then just four in the final 15 of action as the two teams had a very close-to-the-vest period. The Wolf Pack best chances came from Ty Ronning and Brandon Crawley had two shots on net. The Penguins countered in their five other shots with Riley Barber just acquired from Laval with a right drive stop by Huska and late Sam Miletic had strong bids turned aside. NOTES: “Obviously, we wanted to win, but we just have to leave it behind us and get ready for tomorrow,” said Lettieri. The next home is next Sunday, March 1st at 3 PM against Providence. The penalty shot was Huska’s third he has faced and the third he was scored upon. In fact, the last five penalty shots by opponents have all been successful. The other goalies have to faced three include Jeff Malcolm, Steve Valiquette, Johan Holmquist, and Brandon Halverson had four. The most, Chad Johnson had six tossed his way in his Wolf Pack career. LINES: Fogarty-Kravtsov-Beleskey Jones-Newell-Gettinger O’Regan-Lettieri-Gropp McBride-Dmowski-Ronning Hajek-Raddysh Ebert-Geersten Crawley-LoVerde SCRATCHES: Boo Nieves - Upper body injury - Out indefinitely (He skated in practice the last few days for the first time in more than a week) Yegor Rykov - Healthy (Sixth time in the last eight games) Jake Elmer - Healthy Gabriel Fontaine - Shoulder Surgery - Season-ending NOTES: The ceremonial puck drop was two ex-Pack players, Stefan Cherneski and a big surprise, John Tripp. Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the game. #25 Jake Taylor (Head coach Lakeville, MN HS), #44 Ryan Hollweg (retired), a pair of #7’s Drew Bannister (head coach in San Antonio) and a retired Lee Sorochan. #9 Nigel “Burger King “ Dawes (Avtomobilst Yaketerinburg Russia-KHL), #30 Ryan Haggerty (Springfield), #29 Ryan Cuthbert, who played just 25 games, #19 Benoit Dusablon (retired) whose linemate was John Tripp. UCONN Huskies on the strength of Sasha Payusov’s hat trick routed Boston University 6-1 in Boston Saturday night. The Huskies now are in fourth place in Hockey East one point behind third-place Maine who involved with scoreless overtime duel with Maine. UCONN closes out the regular season next weekend with a home and home with UMASS-Amherst. Fans are encouraged to wear white shirts next Friday is senior night in the regular season home finale. Ex-Pack Dan DeSalvo signed a PTO deal with the Chicago Wolves. Ex-Sound Tiger goalie Kevin Poulin signed a PTO deal with the Los Angeles Kings. Read the full article

[londontheatre]

Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions today announce casting for their major new production of Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie, opening on London’s South Bank this October. Catherine Steadman, best known for her role as Mabel Fox in Downton Abbey and nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance in Oppenheimer will play the role of Romaine, while rising star Jack McMullen, whose recent work includes hard-hitting TV drama Little Boy Blue, Waterloo Road and Noel Clarke’s Brotherhood, will play Leonard Vole. David Yelland (The Crown, Foyle’s War) will play Sir Wilfrid Robarts, Philip Franks (Art, Noises Off) will play Mr Myers, Patrick Godfrey (Half Life, Mr Turner) will play Sir Justice Wainwright and Roger Ringrose (Broadchurch, Mr Selfridge) will be playing Mr Mayhew. The cast will also include Richard Attlee, Elliot Balchin, Alexandra Guelff, Miranda Horn, Jon House, Jules Melvin, Hywel Simons and Alex Stedman.

Directed by Lucy Bailey (Comus, The Graduate, Titus Andronicus), this gripping tale of justice, passion and betrayal will open in The Chamber, a magnificent court room setting inside London County Hall. The audience will find themselves thrillingly placed in the thick of the action in this spectacular location.

Leonard Vole is accused of murdering a widow to inherit her wealth. The stakes are high. Will Leonard survive the shocking witness testimony? Will he be able to convince the jury of his innocence and escape the hangman’s noose?

Witness for the Prosecution will run from 6 October – 11 March with Press Night on 23 October. The production will be designed by William Dudley, with lighting by Chris Davey and sound design by Mic Pool.

[See image gallery at http://ift.tt/1FpwFUw]

  CAST

RICHARD ATTLEE – CARTER/ DR WYATT Richard is best known for playing Kenton in The Archers on Radio 4. His theatre credits include: Sleuth (Watermill Newbury), The Way of the World (Sheffield Crucible), Arthur and George (Birmingham Rep), Calendar Girls (Noel Coward Theatre), Macbeth, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe), Present Laughter (Theatre Royal Bath) and War and Peace (Shared Experience). He has toured internationally with the English Shakespeare Company and the Kosh and worked in Rep at York, Chester and Exeter. T.V and Film credits include: My Mad Fat Diary, Silent Witness, Midsomer Murders, The I.T. Crowd, My Week with Marilyn, Topsy-Turvy and Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie.

ELLIOT BALCHIN – CLERK OF THE COURT Elliot’s recent stage credits include Kenneth Branagh’s production of Macbeth (Manchester International Festival/ Park Avenue Armory, New York) and The Judas Kiss (Chichester Festival Theatre / Theatre Royal Bath/ Hampstead Theatre/ Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto and BAM, New York). Recent film credits include Journey’s End. Elliot was a member of the BAFTA credited ITV Junior Television Workshop at the age of 9, working alongside the likes of Samantha Morton, Toby Kebble, Vicky Mclure and Jack O’Connor. Early credits include The Spidermen (National Theatre), feature film The Tulse Luper Suitcase directed by Peter Greenway and on TV The Bill and Casualty.

PHILIP FRANKS – MR MYERS QC Philip’s recent theatre credits include Art, Noises Off and Journey’s End (all West End), Murder in the Cathedral (Temple Church, London), Flare Path, Breaking the Code, The Winslow Boy, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes and The Rocky Horror Show (all UK tours). Philip spent ten years with the RSC, in London, Stratford, on tour and in New York. His TV credits include The Darling Buds of May, Heartbeat, Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, Absolutely Fabulous, Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders. Film work includes Finding Neverland and The Phantom Thread. Concert performances include The Soldier’s Tale, Silverlake, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, King Arthur.

Philip is also an award winning theatre director, his productions include Private Lives, The Heiress (both National Theatre), Nicholas Nickleby Parts One and Two, Taking Sides, Collaboration, The Duchess of Malfi, Dear Lupin (all West End), The Comedy of Errors (Regents Park Open Air Theatre) and four of the Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre). He was an associate director at Chichester Festival where credits include Twelfth Night, The Deep Blue Sea, The Master Builder and Separate Tables.

PATRICK GODFREY – SIR JUSTICE WAINWRIGHT Patrick most recently appeared in Half Life (Theatre Royal Bath). He has performed extensively with the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe. Stage credits include Cause Celebre and The Iceman Cometh (Old Vic), Master Builder, Enemies, Galileo and The Iceman Cometh (all Almeida Theatre), The Crucible (Regent’s Park Open Air), Lying Kind, Life Price and Inside Out (Royal Court) and The Importance Of Being Earnest (Birmingham Rep/ Old Vic). Productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company include Barbarians, Romeo And Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor and Cymbeline. West End credits include School for Scandal, Wild Oats and The Important of Being Earnest. On Broadway he has performed in the RSC’s Nicholas Nickleby, The Iceman Cometh, Brooklyn Academy, Summerfolk and Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Patrick’s many TV appearances include Da Vinci’s Demons, Fallen Angel, The Falklands Play, Bramwell, A Dance To The Music Of Time, Dandelion Dead, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Shadow Of The Noose, Pericles; Prince of Tyre, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and Hobson’s Choice. Film credits include Breathe (to be released), Mr Turner, Final Prayer, Les Miserables, Dimensions, The Duchess, Oliver Twist, The Importance Of Being Earnest, The Count Of Monte Cristo, Ever After, Remains Of The Day, A Room With A View, Heat and Dust and Morris.

ALEXANDRA GUELFF – GRETA / MS CLEGG Alexandra’s theatre includes Gaslight (Royal & Derngate), Ghosts (Trafalgar Studios) and The Busy Body (Southwark Playhouse). On television she has appeared in Call The Midwife, Law & Order, Eastenders, Obsession and Dark Matters. Her film credits include Brimstone.

MIRANDA HORN – GIRL Miranda has recently finished playing the role of Dollie in British Feature film The 12. Prior to this she played the joint lead in the short film Pillow Talk, which was nominated for several awards. This is Miranda’s professional stage debut.

JON HOUSE – WARDER Jon’s previous work for the stage includes Hamlet (Cockpit Theatre) and The Last Lycoon (Above the Arts Theatre). His appearances for TV and film include BBC detective drama River, Bronson and the Oscar-nominated Bollywood epic Lagaan. Jon has also written the screenplay and soundtrack, directed and performed in the television pilot, Elvis Jones.

JACK MCMULLEN – LEONARD VOLE Jack’s multiple TV credits include Little Boy Blue, Maigret, Together, Common, Fast Freddie, Waterloo Road, Moving On, The Street, The Bill, The Forgotten Fallen, Grange Hill and Brookside. On stage, he most recently appeared in Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air). Further theatre work includes Kill Me Now (Park Theatre), Fathers and Sons (Donmar Warehouse), Carthage (Finborough Theatre) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (York Theatre Royal). For film, his work includes Brotherhood, The Marker, Urban Hymn, The Hatching, The Knife That Killed Me, The Lie is Dead and Seamonsters.

JULES MELVIN – JANET MACKENZIE Jules’ numerous theatre credits include In Lambeth, The Broken Heart and The Rape of Tamar (Lyric Hammersmith), A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Augustine’s Oak, The Taming of the Shrew, an all-female Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles and Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe), Ursula, The House of Correction and I Saw Myself (The Wrestling School), The Devil is an Ass and Faust Parts One and Two (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Rose Tattoo (National Theatre), Private Lives (Hampstead Theatre), An Inspector Calls (English Theatre, Frankfurt) and Gabriel (UK Tour). TV credits include The Bill and Casualty.

ROGER RINGROSE – MR MAYHEW Roger’s recent theatre credits include Untold Stories (Newbury Watermill), Each His Own Wilderness (The Orange Tree Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest and Travesties (Birmingham Rep). Other credits includes The Picture (Salisbury Playhouse), The Tempest (York Theatre Royal), Burnt by the Sun, Never So Good (The National Theatre), The Duel (Lyric Hammersmith), Henry VI Part 3 (Shakespeare’s Globe) and King Lear (Barbican Theatre). TV credits include Outlander, Berlin Station, Tina and Bobby, Call the Midwife, Mr Selfridge, The Musketeers, The Hour, Silent Witness and Spooks. Film work includes Stan and Ollie, Love/Loss and The Rookery.

CATHERINE STEADMAN – ROMAINE Catherine is most well-known from her role as Mabel Lane Fox in ITV’s Downton Abbey. She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress at the Olivier Awards for her role in Oppenheimer (Royal Shakespeare Company/ West End). Further theatre work includes She Stoops to Conquer (Theatre Royal Bath), That Face (West End), Numbers (Royal Court), Babooshka (Pleasance) and The Glory of Living (BAC). More widely her TV credits include Bucket, Fearless, Midsomer Murders, Tutankhamun, Trying Again, Fresh Meat, Breathless, Quirke, Lewis, Plastic Gangsters, An Old Fashioned Christmas, Law & Order, Missing, The Tudors, The Inbetweeners, Doctors, Holby City, Mansfield Park and The Bill. Film work includes Astral, About Time, Lena, Cold Water, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Dust and Princess Kaiulani.

ALEX STEDMAN – POLICEMAN/ PLAIN CLOTHES DETECTIVE Alex was most recently on stage in Pink Mist (Bristol Old Vic/ Bush Theatre/ UK Tour). Other theatre credits include Layla’s Room (Theatre Centre), The Passenger Project (Box Clever), Silent Dance, Boom! (Bush Theatre), Henry Walker and the Wheel of Death (Roughhouse Theatre), Tangled Minds (Roughhouse Theatre), The Snow Goose (Theatre West) and If You Really Love Me (Company of Angels). He has also worked on a number of rehearsed readings at The Tobacco Factory. On TV Alex has appeared in Skins and Casualty. He is also a writer and has had his work performed at Theatre 503 and The Theatre Royal Plymouth as part of the Plymouth Fringe Festival.

HYWEL SIMONS – INSPECTOR HEARNE Hywel’s numerous recent theatre credits include Hay Fever (Royal Lyceum/ Citizens Theatre), Betrayal (Citizens Theatre), Noises Off (Mercury Theatre), Enquirer and A Doll’s House (National Theatre of Scotland), The Passion of Port Talbot (National Theatre Wales), Red Bud (Royal Court), Money (Shunt), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Royal & Derngate) and Dangerous Liasons (New Vic). He is well known for his role as Sgt. Craig Gilmore on The Bill. Further TV appearances include Poldark, Casualty, and Doctors. Film credits include Enigma, Shakespeare in Love and Wilde.

DAVID YELLAND – SIR WILFRID ROBARTS David has previously been directed by Lucy Bailey in Uncle Vanya (The Print Room). He most recently appeared on stage in All Our Children (Jermyn Street Theatre). His other extensive theatre credits include Phaedra, Britannica, Hamlet, John Gabriel Borkman, The Shoe Maker’s Holiday, Summer and Major Barbara (all National Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (Globe Theatre), Taken At Midnight (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End), A Marvellous Year for Plums, Time and the Conways and The Circle (all Chichester Festival Theatre), Nicholas Nickleby (Chichester Festival Theatre, West End), An Ideal Husband (Gate Theatre), Henry IV Parts 1&2 (Theatre Royal Bath/ Tour), Mrs Warren’s Profession (Theatre Royal Bath, West End), The Rules of the Game, The Jew of Malta (Almeida Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Old Vic) and Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse). For the Peter Hall Company credits include An Ideal Husband (West End/ Broadway), Waste, The Seagull and King Lear (Old Vic), The Misanthrope and Major Barbara (West End), Cuckoos (Gate Theatre/ Barbican) and As You Like It (Theatre Royal Bath/ US Tour). Other West End credits include Deathtrap, The Deep Blue Sea, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Richard III and God Only Knows.

Among his many TV appearances are the title role in David Copperfield and Rumpole of the Bailey. More recently he has appeared in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Line of Beauty, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The Crown, Reg and Endeavour. Film credits include Happy End, Hunter Killer, Coriolanus, Private Peaceful and The Prince of Wales in Chariots of Fire.

AGATHA CHRISTIE LIMITED Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) has been managing the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie’s works around the world since 1955, working with the best talents in film, television, publishing, stage and on digital platforms to ensure that Christie’s work continues to reach new audiences in innovative ways and to the highest standard. The company is managed by Christie’s great grandson James Prichard.

November 2017 will see the release of 20th Century Fox’s feature film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s acclaimed mystery, Murder on the Orient Express. The film will be directed by five-time Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh, who will also star as Poirot. Branagh helms an all-star cast that includes Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Olivia Colman, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley, Tom Bateman, Derek Jacobi, Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr, Sergei Polunin and Lucy Boynton.

ACL’s recent television projects include the critically-acclaimed BBC One adaptations of And Then There Were None (Aidan Turner, Charles Dance, Sam Neill) and The Witness for the Prosecution (Toby Jones, Andrea Riseborough, Kim Cattrall), both produced by Agatha Christie Ltd alongside Mammoth Screen, with screenplays from Sarah Phelps (Great Expectations, The Casual Vacancy). The latest adaptation, Ordeal By Innocence, is currently in production.

Globally, ACL works closely with leading screen production companies to deliver territory-specific adaptations. Notable productions include the popular French series Les Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie produced by Escazal, and Japanese adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express from Fuji TV (winner of the Tokyo Grand Prix drama award) and the forthcoming And Then There Were None from TV Asahi. Further projects are in development in Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America.

In 2016 literary projects included the global publication of the new Hercule Poirot novel Closed Casket, the second continuation novel from bestselling crime writer Sophie Hannah, published in more than 30 languages and distributed in over 100 territories. Sophie will shortly begin work on two more Poirot novels for publication in 2018 and 2020.

LISTINGS Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions present Witness for the Prosecution By Agatha Christie Directed by Lucy Bailey Designed by William Dudley Lighting Design by Chris Davey Sound Design by Mic Pool

London County Hall The Chamber, County Hall, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 7PB 6 October 2017 – 11 March 2018 Press Night 23 October, 7pm

http://ift.tt/2uG9VOZ LondonTheatre1.com

[lynda-in-muenchen]

Hallo zusammen!

I’m getting settled after Patrick’s and my bike tour (from Münich to Venice), so I thought I’d post a few photos from our trip.

Here we are getting started on our journey with an airy bridge over the Isar River in Münich. There was a heat wave when we started, and EVERYONE in the city was down at the river trying to stay cool, some by (ahem) eschewing any sort of bathing costume.... Those little blobs on the gridwire are locks; the Pont Neuf tradition seems to have spread from Paris.

The Münich-to-Venice bike route is mostly reclaimed train railbeds, and so you spend a lot of time riding either gently uphill or downhill through forests. 

That forest picture is a bit misleading, though; it was NOT cool. It was probably 88F with about 75% humidity as all of Europe was in a heat wave. We stopped as often as we could for shade, cold radlers (beer/lemonade mixes) and eisschokolade, pictured here with its very happy consumer.

So, you can imagine how happy we were to arrive at our first night’s destination: Tegernsee, a beautiful town and lake about 40 miles south of Münich. We jumped in the lake about 5 minutes after pulling up on our bike. This was the view from our room at the Seehotel Luitpold, a nice lakeside establishment with good food (especially the in-season pfefferlingen mushrooms and saibling [lake trout]) and friendly staff. No air conditioning--very few hotels in the mountains have it--but we were up on the top floor and caught a nice breeze off the lake. Also highly recommended: the Tegernseer Bräustüberl, which had the best pretzels we’ve had and good Augustiner beer.

I don’t pretend to have a deep understanding of Bayerischer culture, but it’s clear they’re extraordinarily proud of their heritage, as evidenced by this guy, who is rocking lederhosen on an average Thursday, keeps his centuries-old landhaus immaculate down to its overflowing windowboxes, and maintains not only a giant Bayerischer maypole out front, but also this antique wayfarer’s drinking fountain with St. Christopher on top (patron saint of travelers). Everyone we met in Bayern was really friendly.

I wish we had gotten a picture of the Bayerischer in his full beard and feathered cap who was diligently emptying into his little cart the trash in the bins along the trail along the Weißach river. The trail is lovingly maintained by locals and features frequent benches and picnic tables like these, which are designed (we think) to be usable in the winter by Nordic skiiers as well as by bikers and hikers in the summers.

Border control between Germany and Austria on the bike route.... I can attest it’s a lot more intense on the train coming back through. Even though they’re very polite, Austrian police are still intimidating with their dour expressions and dark uniforms with the double-headed Austrian eagle screaming from the shoulder.

I spent a lot of time in hedges on the trailside trying to find ripe raspberries and blackberries. These were some of the better ones, just outside Achenkirch.

Tirol (the Alps between Germany and Italy, roughly) comes across to the outsider as devoutly Catholic. Everywhere along our route--which followed train routes, which in turn followed ancient trading routes for salt and other commodities--there were beautifully maintained shrines to saints, apostles, and the Holy Family. A few were as large as this one at Achenkirch, but most were much smaller, some the size of mailboxes, and no two were exactly alike.

Achensee is a stunning lake. We took advantage of a nice tailwind here and watched kitesurfers plying their craft out on the water.

Our second night was in Stans in Austria, at the foot of the famous Wolfsklamm (Wolf’s gorge). Catwalks thread past a series of waterfalls, pale and milky with glacial runoff, to the ethereal Georgenberg monastery high on a cliff above the gorge.

It was still REALLY hot. So, after a ridiculously steep climb out of Innsbruck to the town of Vills, I was pretty excited to see another Tirolean water fountain.

Though I initially questioned our sanity in riding Brenner Pass from Innsbruck instead of taking the train for that leg, it ended up being one of my favorite days of the tour because as we contoured (ever upward) along the Alpine foothills of the Ellbögen, we got to see a real slice of Tirolean life--shops with goatskins and horns spilling out the front door, farmhouses perched on impossible slopes, young people bolting out of cars reverberating with techno to buy cigarettes at corner stores, silver-haired ladies in crown braids hanging laundry, and farmers raking grass for bailing. You would not believe how steep this slope was that this farmer drove his bailer down (that’s his wife in the background raking the grass into neat rows for the bailer). We wondered why they were working so frantically to get the hay baled...and hey, wasn’t it getting a bit darker overhead?....

This photo is from a day later, basically the next time we could get the camera out again as a series of epic thunderstorms washed away the heatwave across the Alps. We weren’t ever in danger, but boy were we wet.... We wouldn’t appreciate the full impact of the storms until a few days later. In the meantime, we crossed from Austria into Italy, whizzed by a goatherd sheltering from the rain in an old train platform with his goats, warmed up very gratefully in the sauna at the fabulous Steindl Boutique Hotel in Sterzing/Vipiteno, had a great dinner at Vincenz, saw folks dressed in traditional trachten for the Firefighter festivals in several villages, ate our first pizza of the trip (but by no means our last) in Franzensfeste/Fortezza, and caught this picture of Ehrenburg Castle coming out of the stormclouds.

We spent two nights in Bruneck/Brunico, a Southern Tyrolean town that is the jumping-off point for a lot of adventure sports. It’s also the location of two sites of the Messner Mountain Museum, Ripa in Castle Bruneck, which has the theme of People, and Corones (above), which has the theme of Walls. We rode the tram to the top of the Cronplatz to visit Corones and were blown away by our first views of the Dolomites. We loved Bruneck and would definitely come back for mountain biking, climbing, and eating/drinking at Rienzbräu and Gänseliesl. Südtirol is in Italy but is nearly 70% German-speaking; that gives you a hint that things have been...tense in times past. From what I could pick up, the Italians think the Tiroleans are get more resources than they deserve to help preserve their culture, and the Tiroleans are resentful of Italian incursion into their ancestral “heimat.” But both groups seem to agree that pizza is awesome.

It was a bit of a detour from our route to Cortina d’Ampezzo, but I had to see this Venetian Sawmill in Oberolang designed by Leonardo da Vinci. There were once 60 of these water-powered sawmills in the Olang valley, and this one was still running in the 1950s. It’s recently been restored using the original joinery and techniques.

Wow, fabulous, right? We were getting ready to head down that valley from Toblach, conquer our last pass and coast down to Cortina, when....

Washout! Several, actually, the result of landslides from the torrential rains a few days before. A chic engineer in yellow chiffon and pearls shouted over the bullodozers pushing cow-sized rocks off the road behind her to suggest we try the “little path” on the other side of Toblach lake. And so Patrick was able to realize his dream of mountain-biking on a tandem. Fortunately, it only lasted for a few miles before we were able to rejoin our regularly scheduled path and reward ourselves with blueberries and cream at the top of the pass at Cimabanche. I should mention here that a tandem bicycle is a great personality test. We ran into (not literally) many people who had never seen one before. First, their jaws would hang open, and then one of two things would happen: (a) their whole face would light up like a kid’s, or (b) they would look apprehensive, as if they weren’t entirely sure a tandem bicycle didn’t pose some kind of existential threat. You can tell a lot about how people see the world from a spontaneous response like that.

This is Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Aspen (or Vail, if you prefer) of the Italian Alps. It’s something else. I did not know, for instance, that they made lederhosen in Daisy-Duke-length, nor that sleek young mothers would sport them without a whiff of irony while pushing strollers past the windows of Céline and Louis Vuitton boutique. But I learn something new every day. It was impossible to be grouchy about any of it; everyone was so beautiful and so happy. I would dare you not to smile at the children that ran in semi-feral packs around the piazza every evening while their parents sipped aperol spritzes. Next time, though, we’d skip the circus for some smaller villages down the path like San Vito or Valles di Cadore.

I want to live in this house. Can you see the dog begging for breakfast on the front stoop? I mean, come on, now.

I would also live here, in Asolo. Backing up a bit: We coasted down from Cortina to Conegliano and had an unforgettable dinner at A Casa de Giorgio, thanks to a recommendation from our concierge at the outstanding (I’m not kidding) Best Western Canon d’Oro. Conegliano is the epicenter of the prosecco-making region, and they’re dedicated: you know that when a bottle of prosecco shows up next to the coffee and juice in your breakfast buffet. This is where we learned about our favorite Bike Touring Energy Supplement (aside from a pretzel and a radler): prosecco and potato chips. They just bring the chips to you if you order a prosecco. Best thing ever. At Osteria Ultima Spiaggia in Nervesa della Battaglia, we got two glasses of great prosecco, a bowl of potato chips, and four little bruschette for 5€; the cheapest heaven imaginable on a muggy morning. But on to Asolo: It sits on the last of a little sawtoothed series of hills called the Colli Asolani. It has not one but two castles, one of them belonging to the Cyprian queen Caterina Cornaro, (who is giving a LOT of side-eye in her portrait by Titian on this Wikipedia page, but you’ll see when you read the page that she had ample reasons). Robert Browning bought a villa in Asolo on the Via Canova the year Elizabeth Barrett Browning died. It’s been turned into a hotel, so you, too, can console yourself gazing out from the garden at the Villa degli Armeni with its neoclassical frame of Italian cypress and its undulating foothills dotted with grazing sheep.

I fell in love with the work of the modernist architect Carlo Scarpa on this trip. Patrick discovered that we were going to be close to his most famous work, the Tomba Brion, and so that’s why we detoured from the Münich-to-Venice path to visit Asolo and the tomb (where these pics were taken). We also bumped into several of his works in Venice, where he grew up. I highly recommend checking out this NYTimes piece on him.

We made it! After 10 days (8 riding days) we rolled into Venice on a sticky Saturday afternoon. We’d been amply warned to stay away from the city in August--that’s when it’s both hottest and most crowded with tourists. But we managed to have a great time, thanks mostly to staying out of the way in an Airbnb in Santa Croce (with air conditioning!) and avoiding the most touristy stuff. A highlight was a baccaro (stand-up appetizer-and-drinks bar) crawl in Castello including cichetti at Baccarando della Calle d’Ourso and gelato at Uso; another was amazing seafood and gypsy jazz at Il Paradiso Perduto in Cannaregio. I love Venice. It stubbornly frustrates any attempt to understand it as a whole, and since that’s exactly the problem I’m working on with climate-change images right now (which picture climate as a whole but disable local people and governments from taking effective action), I found this visit very intellectually stimulating--particularly just having seen Scarpa’s work, which similarly resists comprehension and encourages dwelling. It’s no accident he grew up in Venice.

The Biennale was in town, and we saw some amazing exhibitions by Tehching Hsieh and Stephen Chambers. We also saw the one above, The Wreck of the Unbelievable by Damien Hirst, and it was a split decision. It’s monumental, spanning two of François Pinault’s villas, and it took 10 years to make, so that’s a lot of hype right there. Patrick hated it, finding it pretentious and derivative. Since it’s satirical, I gave it a little more credit for launching a critique of class and consumerism in the art-collection world. But we both felt like this lady in the picture, who’s thinking, “How did they get a three-storey headless faux-bronze demon in here, and what am I supposed to get out of it?”

OK, last one. We finished our trip in Verona because of complicated train shenanigans. This is the Giardino Giusti, which was on every Grand Tour checklist from the 17th to the 19th centuries: English diarist John Evelyn loved the parterres, and Goethe had a favorite cypress. The monstrous face in the belvedere, on which we’re standing, used to belch fire and smoke “to the amazement and dismay of visitors.” It was scorching in Verona, so we didn’t spend too much time exploring, and we skipped all the Romeo & Juliet stuff, but we did picnic by the Roman arena, which was built in AD 30 and could seat all 40,000 citizens.

I promise I’ll post some actual pictures of Münich next time :)