#david from heathers

[david-the-great]

David’s POV

*David stood in front of his dressing room mirror, adjusting the custom-fit suit that accentuated his broad shoulders. It had been tailor-made, and adorned in gold accents that flowed against the silky deep olive green of the suit. He ran a comb through his immaculately styled hair, ensuring not a strand was out of place. He smirked at his reflection, his eyes reflecting a self-assuredness tinged with a hint of arrogance. He knew he looked devastatingly handsome, and he was sure everyone at the wedding would be envious of his fiancée for latching on to such a charming catch. Marcus had already visited him to give him a pep talk, the man had even slid David a small note with vows. Heather Chandler was in his debt, he was saving her from sin, and Marcus understood that. He understood David was too busy ensuring the girl stayed out of trouble than taking the time to write heartfelt vows. David would straighten his already straight tie, the silk sliding through his fingers with a satisfying swoosh. He checked his reflection once more, satisfied that his suit hugged his muscular frame in all the right places. A Rolex, a gift from his doting parents, gleamed on his wrist, adding to the image of success and privilege. He smirked once more, imagining the envy and admiration he would receive when he walked down the aisle to finally claim the beautiful blonde once and for all. He’d start to mumble to himself, popping off the lid of a glass whiskey bottle. Albeit he was under 21, they had luckily set the man up with a luxurious tray that included an assortment of liquors. It was the one thing he was grateful for at the entire wedding.*

“Dear lord.. I need a drink. I hope to god this goes well, she better not mess this up.. for her own sake.”

@therealheatherc

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dennis Goris :: @DennisGoris :: #DueProcess

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 17, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Apr 18, 2025

Today, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) posted a picture of himself with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whom the Trump administration says it sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador through “administrative error” but can’t get back, and wrote: “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”

While the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, apparently tried to stage a photo that would make it look as if the two men were enjoying a cocktail together, it seems clear that backing down and giving Senator Van Hollen access to Abrego Garcia is a significant shift from Bukele’s previous scorn for those trying to address the crisis of a man legally in the U.S. having been sent to prison in El Salvador without due process.

Bukele might be reassessing the distribution of power in the U.S.

According to Robert Jimison of the New York Times, who traveled to El Salvador with Senator Van Hollen, when a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he would move to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, Trump answered: “Well, I’m not involved. You’ll have to speak to the lawyers, the [Department of Justice].”

Today a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to stop Judge Paula Xinis’s order that it “take all available steps” to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. “as soon as possible.” Conservative Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote the order. Notably, it began with a compliment to Judge Xinis. “[W]e shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision,” he wrote.

Then Wilkinson turned his focus on the Trump administration. “It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter,” he wrote. “But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”

“The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.” The court noted that if the government is so sure of its position, then it should be confident in presenting its facts to a court of law.

Echoing the liberal justices on the Supreme Court, Wilkinson wrote: “If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?” He noted the reports that the administration is talking about doing just that.

“And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present,” he wrote, “and the Executive’s obligation to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ would lose its meaning.”

After Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s warning yesterday that Trump’s tariffs will have “significantly larger than anticipated…economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,” and his statement that the Fed would not cut interest rates immediately as it assesses the situation, Trump today began attacking Powell. Trump wrote on his social media site that Powell is “always TOO LATE AND WRONG.” His missive concluded: “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”

Firing Powell would inject yet more chaos into the economy, and the White House told reporters that Trump’s post “should not be seen as a threat to fire Powell.” Hedge fund founder Spencer Hakimian posted: “Cleanup of orange vomit on Aisle 3.”

There seems to be a change in the air.

Three days ago, on April 14, Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times wrote that the vibe is shifting against the right. Yesterday, former neocon and now fervent Trump critic and editor of The Bulwark Bill Kristol posted a photo of plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officers kidnapping Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, and commented: “Where does the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement go to get its apology.”

Today, in the New York Times, conservative David Brooks called for all those resisting what he called “a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men” to work together. He called for a “comprehensive national civic uprising” that would first stop Trump and then create “a long-term vision of a fairer society that is not just hard on Trump, but hard on the causes of Trumpism—one that offers a positive vision.”

Brooks is hardly the first to suggest that “this is what America needs right now.” But a conservative like Brooks not only arguing that “Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life,” but then quoting Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto to call for resistance to those shackles—“We have nothing to lose but our chains”—signals that a shift is underway.

That shift has apparently swept in New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who is generally a good barometer of the way today’s non-MAGA Republicans are thinking. In an interview today, he said: “[M]y feelings about not only Trump, but the administration, are falling like a boulder going into the Mariana Trench. So the memory of things that this administration has done, of which I approve, is drowning in the number of things that are, in my view, reckless, stupid, awful, un-American, hateful and bad—not just for the country, but also for the conservative movement.”

Stephens identified Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance’s bullying of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office as the event that turned him away from Trump. “America should never treat an ally that way, certainly not one who is bravely fighting a common enemy,” he said. Stephens also noted the meeting had “delighted” Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, who is now “emboldened…to press the war harder.”

We have been in a similar moment of shifting coalitions before.

In the 1850s, elite southern enslavers organized to take over the government and create an oligarchy that would make enslavement national. Northerners hadn’t been paying a great deal of attention to southern leaders’ slow accumulation of power and were shocked when Congress bowed to them and in 1854 passed a law that overturned the Missouri Compromise that had kept slavery out of the West. The establishment of slavery in the West would mean new slave states there would work with the southern slave states to outvote the North in Congress, and it would only be a question of time until they made slavery national. Soon, the Slave Power would own the country.

Northerners of all parties who disagreed with each other over issues of immigration, finance, and internal improvements—and even over the institution of slavery—came together to stand against the end of American democracy.

Four years later, in 1858, Democrat Stephen Douglas complained that those coming together to oppose the Democrats were a ragtag coalition whose members didn’t agree on much at all. Abraham Lincoln, who by then was speaking for the new party coalescing around that coalition, replied that Douglas “should remember that he took us by surprise—astounded us—by this measure. We were thunderstruck and stunned; and we reeled and fell in utter confusion. But we rose each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach—a scythe—a pitchfork—a chopping axe, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in the direction of the sound; and we are rapidly closing in upon him. He must not think to divert us from our purpose, by showing us that our drill, our dress, and our weapons, are not entirely perfect and uniform. When the storm shall be past, he shall find us still Americans; no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[salemoleander]

Untamed Beasts Trilogy webweave

Created as a gift for a friend in the MCYT Recursive Exchange 2025 @mcytrecursive, recursing the Untamed Beasts series by @whisperwritingstuff !

// Sources under readmore // Webweave on Ao3 //

What is a webweave? Previous art: Third Life | Void Falling | Attempt 33 | Limited Life | Nightingale | solving counting sheep | Hunger au | catching signals that sound in the dark

Panel 1 (Grian / nothing you can say): girl help textpost/ @wizardpotions ◆ Projections (Rome 2007) / Jenny Holzer ◆ Excerpt from Kitchen Hymns / Pádraig Ó Tuama via @beguines ◆ Schrodinger’s Wood / Maskull Lasserre ◆ Zittend mannelijk naakt, met geheven arm / David Humbert de Superville ◆ Leonids / Heather Danforth ◆ Every Teenagers #4 / everyteenagerforfree ◆ Neighborhood Watch sign / @hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard ◆ Excerpt from on Sunday mornings I dream of koi fish / Ahana Chakraborty ◆ Free Will radio buttons / @screenshotsofdespair ◆ Untitled (A gift for…) / Lois Van Baarle ◆ Plaque Series / Jenny Holzer via @requiem-on-water ◆ Excerpt from What Good is Heaven / Raye Hendrix via @geryone ◆ Excerpt from Unravel / Tolu Oloruntoba via @geryone ◆ Rays / Anastasia Trusova via @boycritter ◆ tiny cuts. / @dappermouth ◆ Untitled (that bright glaring moon) / @incendavery ◆ can we merge souls, or… / @cannibalchicken ◆ Amethyst scepters / @nouveaucrystals ◆ Excerpt from The Accident / Anne de Marcken via @luthienne ◆ sometimes when I’m reaping textpost / via @girlmostlikely

Panel 2 (Cub / walk with my legs): Plaques Series / Jenny Holzer via @requiem-on-water ◆ let’s do something unethical textpost / @probuccalfat ◆ Danger sign / @anthropophage (Deactivated) ◆ the frost / mitski via @wovi ◆ Excerpts from Hansel / Richard Siken via @aridante ◆ Untitled / Pep Carrió ◆ Untitled / @ghost-honeyy (Deactivated) ◆ The Shore / Barry McGlashan via @huariqueje ◆ two guys who sleep textpost / @byjove ◆ scared animal textpost / @iregularlyevadetaxes ◆ holding up a fictional guy tweet / caranthirs via @mossy-aro ◆ Excerpt from Dig / Bryan Borland via @geryone ◆ Untitled (Meet me here) / @hillhomed ◆ “Tortured” bubble from Tis Time for Torture, Princess / via @vforvalensa ◆ Whos side are you on chat screenshot / @theonionsound ◆ Scriptum V / Rima Day ◆ 20 Inflammatory Essays / Jenny Holzer ◆ love when a dynamic is like. textpost / @willowcrowned ◆ Their Third comic / @its-arson-time ◆ Same old mistakes sign / @mutant-what-not

Panel 3 (Scar / find yourself, let me find you): A good thing you can do textpost / @nohoperadio ◆ Collage of: Phenomenon / Remedios Varo /// Lovecraft in Brooklyn / The Mountain Goats / @mountainqoats ◆ The Best Thing About A Poem / Max Lavergne ◆ Pandemonium / Kim Jakobsson via @pankurios-templeovarts ◆ loving humiliating haunting worshipping gnawing diagram / @dostoyevsky-official ◆ eat one of you eventually textpost / @1-beadyeyes ◆ I’m not ashamed to say tweet / silicone_angel via unbotheredmuse (Deactivated) ◆ Untitled (Geryon was a monster) / @kitmillsdraws ◆ Exponatus / Konstantin Korobov via @antonio-m ◆ Etruscan ring ◆ Shibari study / @tegelsteg ◆ i’d devour you whole if you let me / @castletemprwine ◆ My roommates and I textpost / @solidseater ◆ ohhh big stretch textpost / ne0scythian ◆ The Big Comet / Antonio Tonelli via @myfairynuffstuff ◆ Redacted / Dale Dunning ◆ Excerpt from This is How You Lose the Time War / Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone via @metamorphesque ◆ Plaques Series / Jenny Holzer ◆ Pressure / @susitseart

[disaster-writer]

Teenage Dirtbag (Part 2/3)

Pairing: Rodrick Heffley x Reader

Summary: You and Rodrick Heffley grew up right next door to each other. You’re best friends and nothing could ever change that… at least that’s what you’ve always thought.

Word Count: 4.1k

A/N: I broke part 2 up into two so there will now be three parts to this fic

Part 1

“This is so weird,” Greg whispered to David and Rowley, both currently sitting on either side of him, all three of them crowded around the TV as Greg played Twisted Wizard “Are they still doing it?”

Rowley glanced behind him, “Yeah…” he answered uneasily, “Did something happen?”

"Not that I know of," David shrugged.

"Me neither."

All three of them turned around again, the sight sending a chill down their spines.

It should have been just like any other Saturday. Rodrick grounded as usual. You coming over to hang out with Rodrick despite his punishment. Greg and his friends playing video games. And both parents out with Manny.

Only it wasn't like any other Saturday. Because instead of choosing to hang out in Rodrick's room or torturing the kids (which tended to be your only hobbies you could think of when one of you was grounded), both you and Rodrick were sitting on either side of the couch, an entire cushion apart and stiff as a board. You guys weren't talking-- in fact Greg could have sworn you guys haven't even looked at each other since you showed up. All you two were doing was watching the video game as well. It was so out of character for you both that the boys were completely creeped out... they were starting to wish you two were all over each other like usual just to have that sense of normalcy... even if that meant hunting them down and beating on them or making fun of them.

It was your fault really. You thought you could just show up to the Heffley's and hang out with Rodrick, pretending that nothing happened last night.

Turns out a teenage boy can't just pretend that they didn't witness their best friend dancing around completely naked. And turns out you can't just pretend your best friend didn't see you in all your glory.

You played with the rings on your fingers, fidgeting to try and distract yourself from the elephant in the room. Should you bring it up and try to laugh it off? Try and carry on as if he saw nothing? Maybe a subtle joke about making sure your blinds were closed before getting changed?

Fuck-- nothing this mortifying has ever happened to you before. 

You and your friends were practically known for being too stupid to be embarrassed about anything. There was nothing that you guys ever did that kept you from showing your faces around school. Not the time that Rodrick made a complete fool of himself at Heather's Sweet 16 and still having the audacity to ask her out right after, not the time you and the rest of Löded Diper were hanging out backstage during an assembly and you told the guys you thought Mr. Andrews was hot without knowing that the overhead mic's were on and the entire assembly heard you, and not even the time you and the guys delivered a presentation high out of your fucking minds.

But for some reason, even though Rodrick was the only other person involved, you felt liked you'd never be able to live this down.

"Cool!" David exclaimed, "My mom just texted me that she can take all of us out for ice cream right now!"

"Really!?" Rowley shouted excitedly.

"Awesome! Let's go!" Greg said, pausing the game and throwing the controller on the ground as the boys then ran for the door and got their shoes on before running outside to meet your mom.

And now... that makes two.

You both continued to sit awkwardly, twiddling your thumbs and shifting in your seats.

You don't know how much time passed before Rodrick was the one to break the silence.

"So..." you pursed your lips, waiting for the bomb, "You never told me you had a tattoo on your hip."

At that you folded in on yourself, burying your face in your hands, "Let's not do this," you groaned out, words muffled by your hands. "It's too embarrassing."

"It wasn't that bad," Rodrick tried to offer.

"Yes it was. That was completely humiliating last night."

“It could’ve been worse.”

”Yeah? How?” You grumbled into your hands.

”I mean…” he trailed off, picking at a pink thread from his jeans, “You could… have the body of a sixty year old…”

You paused, “How would I— y’know what? Nevermind,” you stood up, “I’m gonna go. It’s too weird, maybe when we’ve both had some space—“

”No!” Rodrick grasped your wrist, stopping you short, “You don’t need to leave— I’m telling you it wasn’t that bad!”

You set your jaw, looking down at him. The sudden nervousness that radiated from him was palpable as he broke eye contact, glanced down at where his hand wrapped around your wrist and quickly let go.

”See! Right there!”

”Right there what!?” He yelled back, staring at his lap with a growing blush.

”This is weird and I’m going—“ 

Just as you took another step Rodrick shot up from his seat, “No it’s not! We just need to do something normal—once we hang out like normal we’ll forget all about it!”

”Like what?” You crossed your arms, looking at him skeptically.

”Like- like,” you watched as Rodrick frantically searched his brain for an idea, “We can go to the arcade!”

”You’re grounded dumbass,” you rolled your eyes.

”Susan’s not gonna be home for at least another three hours. We can go for two and be back and she’ll never know!”

You shifted on your feet, weighing your options. You could both get in trouble yes, but it did beat being bored at home or spending the next three hours in uncomfortable silence.

And you suppose he had a point. The event was still fresh and was just weighing heavily on your minds. Time would heal the awkward air and getting back into the swing of things would hopefully ease the awkwardness.

Pretty soon you’d both forget the entire thing even happened.

——

”What are you doing?”

Rodrick had pulled away so quickly from his blinds you would have thought they had burned him.

”Nothing you little shit— what are you doing in my room!” He had spat at Greg who stood awkwardly by his steps.

”Mom says dinner is ready— are you spying on (Y/N) or something?”

”No,” his voice cracked to which he quickly cleared, “Get out!” He scrambled to yank his shoe off which he had then chucked at his younger brother.

”Okay!” Greg yelled before stumbling down the stairs.

Rodrick Heffley was convinced that he was losing his mind. 

It had been five nights since he had witnessed you dancing around naked in your bedroom. 

In other words, it had been five nights checking to see if he could catch you dancing around naked again.

He couldn’t help it. He was a teenage boy that had never seen a girl naked that wasn’t in a magazine or online.

And until recently he didn’t even believe you had all those same… parts as the girls he stared at.

But you did. And he saw them. And he came to the fast realization that he wanted to see them again.

And gingerly, for the umpteenth time that night, he had stuck his fingers into his blinds and pulled it down to peak through them.

You were still sitting in bed in your Löded Diper t-shirt, trying to catch up on what he assumed to be late homework.

He had truly fooled himself into thinking things could go back to normal. You had always been one of the guys— an honorable member of Löded Diper, you were practically the manager at this point. You had both grown up together and probably spent more time with each other than with your own respective siblings. 

It’s been five days, he should be past this by now.

But he wasn’t.

Instead he started to notice all the things that made you a girl— an actual breathing girl that wanted to talk to him.

He had never noticed just how girlish your laugh was, it typically ended with a snort to which he would always scrunch his nose at but as it turned out the melodic laughter that preceded those snorts was actually quite… cute— in a way.

Even the simple gesture of you brushing your hair back behind your ear had made— what was the saying? Well, whatever it was it made him feel like moths were chewing at his stomach lining.

Or even—

“Rodrick!”

His blinds snapped shut upon removing his fingers, “I’m coming!” He called back in annoyance before stomping downstairs.

Making his way into the dining room, he found his family had already started eating without him— not that he really gave a shit. He wordlessly plopped down in his seat and picked up his fork.

He stabbed the meat on his plate and took a bite out of it, not bothering to cut it, instead opting to let the rest hang off the fork.

His mom had served chicken francese tonight.

Chicken francese was your favorite.

Rodrick grimaced— even chicken was making him think of you.

”What? You don’t like it?” Susan asked with a huff at Rodrick’s reaction.

”What? No—“

”No I don’t want to hear it. If you don’t like it that much then you might as well take it to (Y/N). At least she appreciates my cooking.”

“I can go over to (Y/N)’s? Even though I’m grounded?” He suddenly asked with a mouth full of food and an eagerness that was making Frank raise his eyebrow. He looked about ready to jump out of his seat and run out the front door.

“No!” Susan snapped, affronted, “Eat your dinner. And don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Rodrick seemed to deflate, picking up the fork he had dropped onto his plate and taking another bite.

A silence fell over the family, the sounds of metal scratching against ceramic and chewing filling the space.

That was until Frank cleared his throat, “So, uh, speaking of (Y/N)…” Rodrick’s head snapped up towards his father in terror, and he shifted nervously… there was no way he actually knew what had happened right? “You two seem closer…” he trailed off awkwardly.

Rodrick glanced at Greg who started snickering— did he know something? Did he tell their dad he had seen you naked? Or maybe that he caught him peeping on you through his blinds before?

He kicked him hard under the table, making the plates and cutlery rattle atop the table.

“Ow!” Greg cried.

”Rodrick!” Susan reprimanded.

”We’ve always been close,” Rodrick answered, ignoring his mom, “Everyone knows that,” he said with an awkward laugh.

”Yeah, but l mean recently—“

”Recently what? Nothing’s changed recently, everything’s the same,” he rambled, scratching the back of his ear with a blush he prayed no one saw.

”Okay, look,” Frank lowered his voice, leaning towards his son, “I wanted to have this conversation in private but your mother—“

”(Y/N) is like family so I think this should be discussed as a family.”

Rodrick’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening, he glanced at Greg who looked like it was Christmas morning.

”Are you and (Y/N) dating?” Susan asked.

Greg immediately started laughing.

”What? No—“ he looked back and forth between his parents, “It’s (Y/N)— that would be gross, y’know, ew—“ he spluttered, though not as convincingly as he would have a week ago.

”Are you sure?” Frank asked— he clearly wasn’t buying it. “Because your mother brought up a good point the other day. Did something happen between you two over the summer when you went on vacation with your friends?”

Okay, now he was confused.

”Huh?” 

“Because it’s okay if it did,” Susan interjected, “We all love (Y/N), right Greg?”

”Yeah, I guess,” he grumbled with a shrug, stabbing his own chicken.

”Nothing happened on vacation,” Rodrick answered honestly— why would they even think that?

”You’re sure?” Frank asked, “Because you two seem to be a lot closer since that trip.”

Rodrick had to disagree. Nothing happened on that trip. It was mainly spent at Ben’s family’s lake house where you all spent every night getting drunk and every morning hungover. And sure maybe he learned a lot about you and his other friends during that trip as everyone had loose lips due to the alcohol— and okay maybe there was that one really drunken night you and Rodrick ended up getting stuck in the bathroom because the door got jammed but neither of you could remember that night anyway, it was mostly the morning when you both woke up cuddling in the bathtub that—

Rodrick’s face flushed with the memory. 

And that had never happened before, but now the thought of you cuddled up to him with nothing more than a few layers of clothing separating the two of you…— and now he was thinking about you naked again.

Frank looked to Susan at his reaction. It seemed he was getting somewhere.

”Rodrick?” He questioned, trying to get his son to look at him.

His eyes snapped to his father’s as his mouth gaped like a fish, he suddenly shot out of his chair.

”God— what’s with the third degree! We’re just friends” He exclaimed, shrilly, grabbing his dinner and fork, “I plead the fifth!” He was then running back upstairs to his room, leaving his family in stunned silence.

Susan nodded, sure of herself now, “Frank, I think it’s time you had the talk with him—“

”Uh, can I go?” Greg asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

”No, finish your dinner.”

”But Rodrick left—“

”He’s going through a lot of emotions right now, you’ll understand when you’re his age,” she turned back to her husband.

”I’m pretty sure the school gives those talks now, honey,” Frank said uncomfortably.

”Yes, but it’s different when it’s coming from the parents. It might actually be best if we talked to her parents as well and sat the two of them down all together.”

Frank stared at his wife in utter shock… the ideas this woman comes up with…

* * * *

Rodrick ran upstairs, slamming his door shut before landing on his bed and shoveling the food on his plate into his mouth with a sneer as his parents words chirped endlessly in his head.

You and him have always been close, there was zero change in that after that trip. They were just delusional.

Just like there was zero change in your relationship after he saw you naked. Like yeah, maybe he did want to see you naked again but that wasn’t any indication that your relationship changed—

There was a tap at his window.

He dropped his plate on top of his bed, getting green beans and sauce all over his blankets, before practically stumbling over his own two feet to get the blinds up.

There you were, sitting on your roof with a handful of thumbs tacks that you used to throw at his window.

You jumped at his abruptness, hand already poised to throw another thumb tack.

He opened his window, “What?”

You ignored his odd behavior, he was always a weirdo anyways. 

“Bill invited us to go hang in his basement.”

”But I’m grounded.”

”So?” You scoffed.

”Right now? My family’s still up.”

”We can sneak out in like an hour then,” you rolled your eyes. “I’m going whether or not you’re coming.”

”Alright fine,” he hissed, “We can go in an hour.”

”Nice.”

After an hour of waiting and listening to his family get ready for bed from downstairs, Rodrick threw on a hoodie and slipped his sneakers on, and found himself climbing out of his window and onto the roof.

You hadn’t been far behind, not bothering to change out of your pajama shorts and Löded Diper t-shirt, instead adding your own sneakers and a zip up.

Rodrick climbed down the tree between your windows before you did, grabbing onto your waist and helping you down the rest of the way like he has many times before.

But his hands had never burned at the touch before.

”Okay, let’s go,” you said, grabbing onto his wrist and tugging him towards your car.

He stared at your hand wrapped around his wrist.

Have you two always touched this much?

His cheeks felt like they were on fire from all the blood rushing to his head.

Rushing into the car you slammed your doors shut and turned it on, before peeling out of the spot you were parked in in front of your house and down the street.

On the way to Bill’s you almost crashed twice, which was less than usual so you considered it a pretty decent drive.

Parking in front of Bill’s you went to the side door that led straight into the basement he lived in.

His parents must have been out because they always hated when he invited you guys over— something about Bill hanging out with high schoolers not being appropriate.

You skipped down the steps with Rodrick in tow.

”Hello losers!” You greeted, making the others say their own hello’s.

Ben lit up, “Hello, legs,” he said in awe, seeing your bare legs descend the steps before seeing the rest of you.

”Ew,” you rolled your eyes, jumping on Bill’s couch, kicking your feet up on the coffee table, reaching over for the open bag of chips by your feet.

Bill had been laying in his bed while Ben and Chris sat on the floor playing some card game.

Rodrick sat beside you, reaching a hand into the chip bag you offered him.

”So what are we doing?” Rodrick asked.

Bill shrugged, “Dunno. I was bored and my family’s out.”

”So you invited us to be bored with you?” You asked, raising a brow.

”Nooo,” he dragged out, “I invited you to entertain me.”

You rolled your eyes, standing back up and making your way to his mini fridge, “Got any beers?” You asked, pulling the door open. Your eyes lit up as they landed on his stash.

Turns out he only had beer. 

You took one out and cracked it open, you grabbed another and tossed it to Rodrick to which he fumbled with a couple times before catching it.

”You didn’t tell us you had beer,” Ben said excitedly, scrambling from his spot on the ground and grabbing the two beers for him and Chris you handed him.

”You saw me drinking for the last hour,” Bill furrowed his eyebrows.

”So how’s the grounding going?” Chris called over his shoulder, taking his drink from Ben as he sat back down.

You took a swig of your own, plopping back down besides Rodrick.

”Well I’m here right now so I’d say it’s going pretty great,” he muttered.

”Susan’s been micromanaging him all week,” you also answered, “So we probably only have about an hour before she goes to check on him.”

”That blows,” Bill said, “Hey,” he suddenly said, getting an idea, “Maybe you should try getting grounded less.”

”Yeah, I’ll work right on that.” 

The next fifteen minutes were filled with idle chit chat about the band and a couple parties that were coming up.

“Again?” Ben scoffed, throwing his cards down. “This is rigged,” He got up from his game.

”Or maybe you just suck,” Chris laughed, grinning as he won yet again, sprawling out on the floor as it seemed they were done for the night, but not before taking a drink of his beer.

Ben made his way over to you, squeezing himself in the tight space between you and the arm rest of the couch, throwing an arm around your shoulders.

You rolled your eyes, scooching over towards Rodrick a bit.

”Soooo,” Ben said, dragging the word out.

”Yesss,” you mimicked.

”I saw you talking to Heather Hills today, what was that about?”

”Oh that?” You scoffed, “I have to work with her on some stupid project. She was telling me I have to pull my own weight on it because she’s not risking a bad grade because ‘I don’t take shit seriously’ or whatever she said— but I don’t exactly see that Princess studying and working hard either so I don’t think she has any right talking to me like that. Glass stones, y’know.”

”Uh-huh,” Ben said, clearly ignoring your rant, “So you’ll be seeing and talking to her regularly?”

”I guess so, we’re working on it in class.”

”Any chance my name can come up in these talks?”

Oh right, that’s where this was going, cause every fucking male in this goddamn school had a hard on for the brat. 

“Slim to none,” you answered, “Besides, I promised Rodrick here,” you slapped his knee, making him jump at the touch to which you ignored, “That I’d wingman for him if the opportunity ever came up.”

”He doesn’t mind! Right Rodrick!” He leaned over you to look at his best friend. He didn’t respond, “Rodrick?” He followed Rodrick’s gaze right to your legs, “Hey! Are you staring at my girl!?”

You scoffed, pushing his head back, and moving away from him and towards Rodrick, “How are you already drunk? Knock it off with that ‘my girl’ crap.”

”He was staring at you! Why am I getting yelled at!?”

”I wasn’t staring!” Rodrick yelped, voice cracking a red blush covering his face.

You looked back and forth between the two boys before standing up, your mood souring, “I’m gonna go pee, both of you cool it with the testosterone or I’m leaving.” You grumbled, marching out of the basement and to the bathroom upstairs. The one in Bill’s room was disgusting.

“What’s up with you,” Ben asked, looking at Rodrick peculiarly, “Why the fuck are you so red?”

”God— it’s nothing,” he grunted, “It’s a sunburn.”

”Bullshit,” Chris called out, “You’re blushing!”

“Oh I see,” Bill said with a laugh, “He’s finally coming around to (Y/N). Don’t see her as one of the boys anymore, do ya?”

”Will all of you just shut up,” Rodrick snapped, “I don’t like her like that.”

”No one said anything about liking anybody.” 

“But now we’re all thinking you do,” Ben said, raising a brow before an idea popped in his head, shooting up from his seat and pointing an accusing finger at him, “Something happened between you two!” A wide grin stretched across his face.

Bill and Chris were sitting up now.

”I knew it!” Bill laughed, “You two follow each other around like dogs.”

”What happened?” Chris pressed.

Fuck, fuck, fuck— he knows he shouldn’t say anything—

“I saw her naked,” he blurted, his own mouth out of his control.

Well fuck—

Chris and Bill shot to their feet as well, with exclamations on all three of his friends lips.

“How!?”

”When!?”

”Did you have sex!?”

”She forgot to close her blinds a few nights ago.”

Why won’t he shut up.

He guessed it was only a matter of time he’d eventually explode with this information as it was getting harder and harder each day to put it behind him.

”Is she hot!?” Chris exclaimed.

All Rodrick could do was nod guiltily as he continued to divulge more and more information.

All of them cheered again, Ben and Chris practically tackling him as they clapped his back and ruffled his hair in praise.

”What was she doing? Getting changed?” 

“She came out of the shower and was dancing to whatever music she was listening to while looking for her pajamas.” Starting to grin slightly at the praise he was receiving.

Ben fell to his knees at that, “So you saw,” he swallowed, “Her,” he gestured to his chest area, “Jiggling?”

”Yeah,” he said breathlessly at the memory.

”Does she know?” Bill asked.

”We made direct eye contact.” 

”What’d she do?” Chris now asked.

”As soon as our eyes met we both kinda screamed and I ran out of my room. But we talked it over the next day and everything’s all good.”

”Everything was all good.”

All four guys snapped their sights towards the staircase where you stood with your arms crossed.

”Really Rodrick?” You scoffed, clearly hurt. “What the fuck?”

”(Y/N)!” He stood up now. “I— uh,” he struggled to find the words.

You looked to each of your ‘friends’. “You’re all fucking assholes. Especially you Rodrick, have fun walking home.” 

With that all four watched you climb the rest of the stairs before slamming the door shut behind you.

Rodrick groaned.

”Shit.”

————————————————————————

Part 3 Coming Soon…

————

Requests open

Taglist: @maggiecc @corpsebridenightamare @simpingforthe80s @werewolf-witchboy @brunnetteiwik @athenalive @exploringalaxiesfarfaraway @momokosthings

[drikari77]

One thing that always gets to me when watching Heathers (1988) is that we never really get to explore Heather Chandler as a character. She's a cruel bitch for most of her screentime, so one would be forgiven for assuming that's all there is to her, as do Veronica and JD.

But then there's the party at Remington University. Mind you, Heather is a high school junior (16 years of age). David is a college student.

Heather (pulling away from a kiss, looking like a frightened animal): "C'mon, David, shouldn't we get back to the party?"

David: "We will. It's just, you're so hot tonight. I can't control myself."

Heather is quiet for a few moments, then seemingly gives up and lets David guide her into blowing him.

Just a few shots later, we see Heather in the bathroom. She drinks a glass of water from the sink, staring into her reflection, before spitting at it angrily.

I feel like it's not too much of a stretch to interpret this as Heather being unhappy with herself.

I can't help but think that Veronica, when forging Heather's fake suicide note, was a lot closer to the truth than she might've thought:

Veronica and JD (impersonating Heather): "You might think what I've done was shocking. To me, though, suicide is the natural answer to the myriad of problems life has given me. People think just because you're beautiful and popular, life is easy and fun. No one understood I had feelings too. I die knowing no one knew the real me."

[sgtpeppers]

Paul McCartney & Memory Almost Full (2007): A Reconciliation of ‘Him’ and ‘Me’

"When you talk about Paul McCartney, I talk about the guy inside me, but you’re talking about him - the guy who goes onstage and makes records and stuff. And I think it’s just a way of preserving my sanity really, is thinking ‘I’m not really that, I’m just some little kid from Liverpool really. I didn’t do all that stuff. It’s a dream really and it’s gonna stop soon."

Paul McCartney, Flaming Pie Press Kit Interview, 1997

Thematically, Memory Almost Full is probably one of the easiest Paul albums to talk about, because it's not exactly subtle. It's there in the title, in the lyrics, and in the way Paul talks about it, but I think it's still worth pulling it apart a bit.

In short, it's album that looks to the past in an attempt to get to grips with it.

Paul often talks about needing some separation in his head from Paul the celebrity and Paul in private, but this album goes some way to reconciling those separate versions of himself, giving him a moment to step back and look back at his life and the effect on the man he's become, before swinging the camera in the opposite direction and asking what comes after that.

Secondly, there's a thread running through this album which is somewhat contradictory to the idea that he struggles to put all the pieces of himself together, one that describes a man who does know who he is, and in very confident in that and in his ability to make his own decisions.

This is a track by analysis of the album, examining lyrics as well as Paul's comments about the songs.

Background on the album:

Memory Almost Full began life in 2003 and was produced by David Kahne. The first batch of sessions were around the time that Paul and Heather's child was born, so it's easy to see already why Paul may have been in a reflective mood. The medley songs, as well You Tell Me, Only Mama Knows, and The End of The End were recorded then.

Paul then took a break to record Chaos and Creation In The Backyard which was released in 2005. Paul then returned to Memory Almost Full over 2006 and 2007, in the midst of his divorce with Heather. Again, like with the birth of a child, the ending of marriage is the sort of life changing event you'd expect to cause someone to start contemplating their past, present and future.

Track Analysis:

Dance Tonight:

Okay so starting off this track really isn't that deep, but it does have a sweet little story behind it:

At home, I started stomping around the kitchen, playing this little instrument, just enjoying myself. I sang, ‘Everybody gonna dance tonight’ and my little girl came running in and started dancing, so I fell in love with the song. In fact, I liked it so much I ran into the studio to record it, and stuck it on the album. It seemed like a good atmospheric opening.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

The interesting thing to note here is that he is starting off the album with a sense of 'now'. This is him, in the present, with one of his kids loving a song and rushing to the studio to record it. He starts off the album with 'this is where I'm at'.

Ever Present Past:

Which brings us nicely to the first track of the album that really kicks off this exploration of Paul's past and linking it to how things are in the present.

I don't want to do Paul a disservice here but this is one of those tracks where he says he doesn't read too much into it:

There’s no deep meaning in it. I think what happens with me is that I just write something and people read into it. I like that, because often you do things in a subliminal way and don’t realise what you’re doing.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

So I'm gonna do the reading into it for him, because it fits too well with the album to just ignore it. It is a song about this huge, unbelievable life he's lived that is impossible for him escape from, because no matter how much he wants to compartmentalise, his past is his.

Searching for the time that has gone so fast The time that I thought would last My ever present past

Ever Present Past Lyrics

There's a sense of it slipping away, of something being gone, and yet of it being still very present. I often get the sense Paul is someone who is constantly at odds with himself, and I think you get that here; a struggle between wanting to hold onto the past while also feeling that it's an overwhelming thing to accept is his.

And when you also look at the video, where Paul literally comes face to face with another version of himself, we return to that idea that he is most comfortable when he separates the performer 'him' to the private 'me', and playing into that idea of his duality.

In this song we also touch on this idea of Paul being very sure of himself, and this isn't him talking about himself now. This is him saying that he's always been one to walk his own path. We'll come back to this in a bit.

I wouldn't join in with the games that they were playing.

Ever Present Past Lyrics

See Your Sunshine:

That is pretty much an out-and-out love song for Heather. A lot of the album was done before, during and after our separation. I didn’t go back and take out any songs to do with her. That one was written during a good time with Heather. I don’t want to deny those times. When you’re going through a separation it’s always tempting to put all that behind you, but I don’t think that’s right.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Mirror, 2007

I love that Paul included this song rather than scrapping it. By the time the album came out him and Heather were in the midst of their divorce, which wouldn't be settled until the following year. It would have been easy to leave it, or to do the thing he's done with a lot of his love songs and say it's not really for any particular person, but instead he's clear that this was about a good time with Heather and despite everything else that happened, that's still important.

And so while the lyrics themselves don't add much to the theme, I think its inclusion makes it reflective, and it makes it a piece of his history that he is able to say is his and was an important part of his life.

Only Mama Knows:

This is one of Paul's story songs, and there's a few important things here even if again, the lyrics themselves aren't totally on theme.

I like to get into those imaginary stories, then follow them through and become that character. The lead character in this song is someone who was left by his mother, doesn’t know why she left him and doesn’t know if he’ll ever see his father’s face. It’s interesting because it takes you out of yourself. You can become an alter ego. It doesn’t have to be Paul McCartney singing it – it can be this other guy singing.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

Once I start writing about that I obviously come to it from my own perspective. I'm just acknowledging that the kid whose Mother left him has got more problems than the average person in life.

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

So first of all, this song is based on a real person, a friend of Paul's who was adopted as a baby after being left by his Mother. So I don't want to take away from that, but art and storytelling doesn't just have to come from one inspiration and as he also says, he comes at this from his own perspective. Therefore, it's hard not to tie in the fact that in a different way, he was 'left' by his Mother when she died and then there's also the fact that John has a remarkably similar story of being left by his parents as what's described in the song. In a round about way, I think this is Paul's nod back to those teenage years and sense of loss and grief which was prevalent in him and the people around him.

The other interesting thing to me is "You can become an alter ego. It doesn’t have to be Paul McCartney singing it – it can be this other guy singing". Again, Paul separating himself into two, taking the chance to stand in someone else's shoes, but specifically on a song that understandably may bring up difficult emotions for him.

You Tell Me:

Carrying on the darker mood of the album, we get to what producer David Kahne described as "maybe the saddest song he’s ever written" (x).

I started off just remembering summers: ‘Were we really there?’ ‘Was it real?’ Sometimes, for a lot of people, memories – particularly childhood memories – seem so golden and you think, ‘Did it really not rain all summer or am I just imagining the sunny bits?’

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

In You Tell Me Paul is repeatedly asking the person he's singing to to confirm that the way he remembers things it right, because it seems like it was too good to be true.

Were we there, was it real? Is it truly how I feel? Maybe You tell me

You Tell Me lyrics

It's melancholic and uncertain, there's so much doubt laced through the song and directly ties back to Ever Present Past and the idea that he's "searching" for his past, and that it went "too fast". Compared to a lot of the tracks on this album, it's stripped back with a huge feeling of vulnerability coming from Paul not even trusting himself that what happened, really happened.

Mr Bellamy:

Am I really gonna tie Mr Bellamy in with this whole thing? Yes I absolutely am because for me this is one of those songs that sums up that second thread I was talking about at the start - confident, knows exactly who he is Paul. "I wouldn't join in with the games that they were playing" Paul from EPP.

I wanted some lyrics that would poke in and out of the riff, so I began with, ‘I’m not coming down, no matter what you say, I like it up here.’ Sometimes I don’t actually know where I’m going, so then I look at just what that verse is, and in this case I got a picture of a guy sitting on top of a skyscraper and all the people in the street – the rescue team, the psychiatrist, the man with the megaphone shouting: ‘Don’t jump’ and the people shouting: ‘Jump’. So I fished around for a name and came up with Bellamy, which sounded like someone who might want to jump. And I just followed the story through. The end is like a pull back with a camera – there he is, little Bellamy sitting on the ledge, enjoying it up in the clouds.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

So Mr Bellamy tells the story of a man sitting up on a roof, with everyone below him panicking and telling him not to jump. The opening lyrics, repeated towards the end are:

I'm not coming down No matter what you do I like it up here Without you

My Bellamy Lyrics

My reading on this song is that it's not about someone who's actually going to jump, I've always felt more like Bellamy just wants to be left the fuck alone, for people to stop interfering so he can enjoy the view. He likes it up there.

This is very Paul to me. His decisions have always been his own, to the point where he has been labelled as 'controlling' by people who have worked with him, but I think the other side of that is that he can say with certainty that everything he's done is his and I think that's really important to him.

What this song does very well (apart from being fun because who doesn't love Paul doing silly voices) is contrast with the previous uncertainty about himself in You Tell Me. He's taken us from a place of needing external validation, to a place where he (or, yeah yeah whatever, 'Mr Bellamy') knows exactly what he wants to do and doesn't need to hear other people opinion's.

Gratitude:

So the mood starts shifting into more upbeat Paul here, but I do think there's a slightly odd contrast between the song and what Paul says about the song.

Before I looked this up I assumed this was a Heather song because it reads as someone looking back on a relationship that has ultimately gone wrong, but still being grateful for the good times (therefore, tying in with See Your Sunshine). Considering it was one of the later songs worked on, so Paul and Heather would have been separated by the time it was recorded, that makes sense to me. Also if we take a look at the lyrics, I think they very much allude to how Paul was feeling after Linda's death:

Well I was lonely I was living with a memory But my cold and lonely nights ended When you sheltered me

Gratitude lyrics

And then the relationship falls apart:

I should stop loving you Think what you put me through But I don't want to lock my heart away

Gratitude lyrics

But then we have what Paul's said about the song:

I’ve always had a couple of voices. Originally you’re just a kid at home, like everyone else, and then you start to dream of being a singer. My heroes then were rock ’n’ rollers, so my ballad voice was based on Elvis and the screamy voice was me trying to be Little Richard. I loved him so much. When I joined the Beatles, John used to like that and it’s stayed with me as something I enjoy doing – that gritty, souly voice. So on this track I was just thinking of how much there is to be grateful for in life, and I wanted to put that into song and use the gritty voice to do it with.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

It's one of his more vague answers, and maybe he just doesn't wanna talk about it which is fair enough. But to me the song seems to be directed at a person rather than life in general. Either way, we have Paul looking back on something and being grateful for it and the positive impact it had on him, rather than trying to separate himself from it.

What's also of note here, is the thing about wanting to do a song using his Little Richard voice, and how in talking about that he links back to The Beatles. We're getting more specific about where in Paul's past we're talking about now which means...

The Medley

There is a medley of 5 songs towards the end and that was purposefully retrospective. I thought this might be because I’m at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John and a lot of that was also looking back. It’s like me with ��Penny Lane’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ – I’m still up to the same tricks!

Paul McCartney, introducing Memory Almost Full, 2007

I hadn’t done that since Abbey Road and I thought it would be quite nice to flirt with that idea again. It just means it’s a slightly longer form. You’ve got to think, ‘What came before?’ ‘What statement are you going to make now?’ ‘How’s this going to lead on?’ It’s not that different from just sequencing an album, but you suddenly think of them as a suite of songs, and it’s interesting to write them in that way.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

So I think the entire album was built around this medley. As mentioned earlier, they were the first songs recorded and it seems he consciously went into it aiming to toy with that Abbey Road idea, another pointed link back The Beatles.

Vintage Clothes:

For me this is about my clothes from the Sixties and the fact that what’s out comes back – fashion going round in circles. I meet quite a few young guys in bands and a question they always ask is, ‘Did you keep the clothes?’ As a matter of fact I did. The Beatles had a tailor, Dougie Millings – he’s in a scene in A Hard Day’s Night. Instead of just going to get a suit as you did before, for a job interview or whatever, suddenly you were going to get epaulettes and fancy buttons, materials and linings. That to me is where the song is coming from. The message is: vintage clothes are great but don’t live in the past.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

So there's a very literal reading of him actually singing about old clothes and wearing them again (which he does!) but he does go a little bit deeper when talking about the song, with the idea of not "living in the past". I wonder if that's how he justifies trying to keep that separation in place sometimes, that it's for his own good because because dwelling on things that have happened won't change them, but I also think this lyric is significant:

A little worn A little torn Check the rack What went out is coming back

Vintage Clothes lyrics

He tells us that "fashion goes round in circles" but I also like a deeper meaning to this, something about your past catching up with you perhaps, which would tie in nicely with the rest of the album. But, even as a song that is literally about his old clothes, it sets the tone for the medley and and the following song, which I kinda think is the entire point of the album.

That Was Me:

Yes, Paul! It was! You really did all that! That Was Me takes us back to Liverpool and through The Beatles, and is the triumphant, proud acceptance that it was 'me', no long talking about Performer Paul in the third person.

All I had to do for this song was to think back. And immediately I go back to Liverpool, where there was a little place we could escape to, beautiful little woods where, come springtime, there would be these carpets of bluebells. It was a magical place. There’s something about me at the bus stop that’s a big part of my memories – going to school, coming home from school, going to the pictures, going to your friend’s house. So all of these things got in there. ‘The cellar’ is the Cavern, ‘Royal Iris’ is a ferry boat they had – they’d call them riverboat shuffles, and some of our earliest gigs were on them. So these are just exciting memories of mine, and I connected them.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

The same me that stands here now And when I think that all this stuff Can make a life, it's pretty hard to take it in That was me

That Was Me lyrics

So we're back to confidant Paul, Paul who knows who he is and is willing to point at The Beatles and say that was me no matter how unbelievable it all was. In classic Paul style though, the song is happy, upbeat, and a collection of what he calls "exciting" memories, rather than dwelling on the hard bits which I think he has much more difficulty doing.

Feet In The Clouds:

But talking of more difficult memories, we get to the song about his school days.

Because of the retrospective mood of this medley, it then goes back to school and teachers. I had a real motley bunch of teachers at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. Some of them were complete maniacs. Whereas I wrote about golden summers in You Tell Me, school was very dark and gloomy. The building itself wasn’t the lightest of places – it was built in 1825. This seemed to affect the attitude of the teachers. They were a dark bunch of people. So the song is like a therapy session for me.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

I love the concept of this song and the flipping round of the well known phrase "head in the clouds".

I've got my feet in the clouds Got my head on the ground

Feet In The Clouds lyrics

To me it goes back to that idea of Paul always walking his own path, even if it's not the normal one, he's not just subverting a well known saying but the literal imagery speaks of the same thing. His head is on the ground, giving the idea of his thoughts being 'grounded' but his feet are the ones doing their own thing, going where they're not supposed to. Getting him away from school perhaps, but also treading a path other people haven't walked which is exactly what he did. So it serves as a retrospective piece but also tying up that thread Paul does and has always known who he is and what he wants, no matter what other people were telling him.

House of Wax:

My personal favourite on the album, god I love this song and the mood it creates. On the first listen you may think... what's this got to do with this 'retrospective medley' Paul's talking about, but we actually get some surprisingly helpful insight from The Lyrics.

You get on a train of thought, and things just come in without you noticing. The poets are about “To set alight the incomplete / Remainders of the future’. I think that’s just a way of saying ‘to clarify things’.

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

I had this little idea that the ‘remainders of the future’ were sort of buried in the yard, just like hidden treasure. Meaning that we don’t know what’s going to happen.

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

So we've got these ideas of clarifying things, making them less confusing, combined with the future being unknowable. This is Poet Paul, and whilst I don't think this song needs to anything more than it is, knowing his intention with those lyrics does tie into the themes of trying realign with his past, and also of living a life where another crazy thing can be just around the corner...

The End Of The End:

For example, the fact Paul is going to die one day. I know, I don't want to think about it either. But Paul was certainly thinking about it and wrote a whole about what he hopes will happen, how he hopes he's remembered for the good times, for the songs and the stories and happy memories.

On the day that I die I'd like jokes to be told And stories of old To be rolled out like carpets That children have played on And laid on while listening To stories of old

The End Of The End lyrics

At the end of the end It's the start of a journey To a much better place And this wasn't bad So a much better place Would have to be special No need to be sad

The End Of The End lyrics

It's classic Paul taking a sad song and making it better. After an album of looking back on a life that's hard to grapple with and of relationships that have stopped working, Paul changes to the perspective from looking back to looking forward, and decides that hey, this has all been pretty good. And even when contemplating death, he brings in that classic Paul optimism - if this has been good, imagine how much better the next thing will be.

Nod Your Head:

And then, because it's Paul and he can't just end things there, he needs to bring the mood up again. There's not a huge amount to say for me personally, so I'll end with Paul's own words before I wrap things up:

Well, that End Of The End brought the party down, didn’t it? It was going to be the last track on the album, but we thought we couldn’t leave everyone going, ‘Oh God, I’m not going to listen to that again.’ So we had a little stompy rocker called Nod Your Head and we thought we’d let them off the hook. I think it’s good to talk about difficult subjects and then to get off it and just rock out. So that was the feel of making the album. Get some personal thoughts out (Gratitude, The End Of The End), talk about my childhood, talk about love, about beautiful memories. Try and get everything said, but with a feeling of optimism and enthusiasm. I thought if I could accomplish it all then that would be a good thing to do.

Paul McCartney, interview with The Daily Mail, 2008

The Title

Memory Almost Full is probably one of my favourite album names because it's so perfect. It's that imagery of a life well lived with lots of memories, but it was also a phrase Paul picked up from seeing it on his phone, which is a nice little link to his present day. Although, thankfully eighteen years later he's still cramming those memories in.

One extra little thing:

Some people mentioned that the album’s title, Memory Almost Full, is an anagram of “for my soulmate LLM” (the initials of Linda Louise McCartney). When asked if this was intentional, McCartney replied; “Some things are best left a mystery“. In an interview with Pitchfork Media, McCartney clarified, “I must say, someone told me [there is an anagram], and I think it’s a complete mystery, because it’s so complete. There does appear to be an anagram in the title. And it’s a mystery. It was not intentional.

(x)

Conclusion (yes, I'm stopping soon 😭)

To me, Memory Almost Full is thematically one of Paul's most cohesive albums, and he's being very transparent with what he's doing. I'm not saying he should all feel sorry for Paul because he's Too Famous, but I do think it's understandable that everything he's done is inconceivable in hindsight, and he finds it much easier to put those parts of his life in boxes.

It's a contradictory album in a lot of ways, but Paul has always been a bit contradictory, pulled between who he is and who he thinks other people want him to be, being very aware of the paths people are expected to take and then choosing to take his own. This is an album that speaks to that, that speaks to the kid in Liverpool with big dreams and those dreams being completely mindboggling when he got them, of a man who sometimes looks back and struggles to accept those things happened to him, and is at the same extremely proud of what he's achieved.

I guess my point is, if you haven't listened to the album yet, you should go and do that now.

And if you've made this far thank you and ily <3

[prince-toffee]

Mother and Son | Codexa and Orion Pax from Transformers (2019) | #43 | Lineart by Anna Malkova | Colours by David García Cruz and Heather Breckel | Lettering by Jake M. Wood

[storyadler]

Grishaverse characters and their favorite musicals:

Kaz: He says it’s Sweeney Todd, but it’s actually Heathers. His childhood favorite was the Newsies movie musical (which he prefers over the stage musical). He cried at Hadestown and his friends were nice enough not to point it out (much).

Inej: Hadestown. (She brought Kaz.) She also enjoys Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (minus the outdated language about Romani).

Jesper: His childhood favorite was The Wiz but now it’s Hamilton. He and Nina know all the words to La Vie Boheme from Rent, and he knows the lyrics to most of the rest of the show too. He prefers Lippa’s Wild Party.

Wylan: His favorite alternates between Next to Normal, The Light in the Piazza, and Sunday in the Park with George. He prefers La Chiusa’s Wild Party (what he calls “the good one”).

Nina: She genuinely loves Wicked. Matthias bought her and Zoya tickets to go see the movie in theatres together. She also enjoys Lucky Stiff, Six, Legally Blonde, and Chicago.

Matthias: He claims to not have a favorite and to not know many musicals. His favorites are actually The Sound of Music and Mama Mia.

The Darkling: The Phantom of the Opera (in the most red-flag way possible).

Alina: It alternates between Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Mal: West Side Story, but Sweeney Todd is second. He also loves Les Mis. The Sound of Music was his childhood favorite.

Genya: The German-language musical Elisabeth, but she also loves Beauty and the Beast and Into The Woods.

David: A tie between Sunday in the Park with George and Evita. He also adores The Drowsy Chaperone and Candide.

Zoya: Six, but she also enjoys The Scarlet Pimpernel and Sweeney Todd.

Nikolai: Hedwig and the Angry Inch is his all-time favorite, but other favorites include The Pirates of Penzance, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Footloose, and Back to the Future. (He loves musicals, though, so he knows and enjoys a lot of them. He and Zoya attend many Broadway shows and were at the opening of Death Becomes Her.)

…

Original post from Jackson’s Books and Music on Instagram, made in lieu of the recent Tony Award nominations.

From original poster:

Credit to Leigh Bardugo for these characters from Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising, Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, King of Scars, and Rule of Wolves!

Special thanks to all the friends who looked over and gave feedback on this list, including Morgan, Diyana, Meg, Sarah, Blair, and more!

[david-the-great]

Hey!

You’re uh- Chandler’s fiancé, correct?

*The boy would walk over, his hair perfectly slicked back, and his church clothes unwrinkled and perfect. He’d extend his hand for a firm handshake, an innocent and content smile placed upon his face.*

[ @countryclubkeith ]

*David’s face would be grim, expecting the boy to act aggressively towards him. When he was instead met with a polite smile, and a handshake, he took it.*

The name’s David Stephen’s, and yes I am. Why? Do you have a problem with it, punk?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Rowe

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 31, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 01, 2024

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has responded to news stories about his plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) by claiming his comments at the closed-door campaign event on Monday were taken out of context. But they weren’t. The tape is clear. Johnson said that Republicans want “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” Johnson laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

MAGA Utah senator Mike Lee reposted the video of Johnson and commented: “Kill Obamacare now[.]”

Trump today posted on social media that he never mentioned repealing the Affordable Care Act, “never even thought of such a thing.” But this was either a memory lapse or a lie, because in 2016 he ran on repealing the ACA and his 2016 platform called for “a full repeal of Obamacare.” Within hours of taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order weakening the law, and when the Republican-dominated House voted to repeal the law, Trump held a celebration in the Rose Garden and declared the ACA “essentially dead.” 

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) bucked Trump to protect the ACA then, and Trump began this year’s campaign with a promise to get rid of it before backing off. Even still, the vague promise in the 2024 platform to “increase Transparency, promote Choice and Competition, and expand access to new Affordable Healthcare” sounds a lot like Johnson’s promise to restore “the free market” to health care. 

While Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Trump today held a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state President Joe Biden won by almost 11 points in 2020 and that Democrats are likely to win in 2024. Trump had to hold the rally at a private airplane hangar after city officials refused to rent the Albuquerque Convention Center to the campaign because it still owes Albuquerque almost $445,000 from a similar rally in 2019.  

Once there, he made it clear he was trying to repair some of the damage caused by the extraordinary racism and sexism on display at his Sunday rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where a comedian called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” 

Courting offended voters, he said: “Don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here, OK? Look, I came here. We can be nice to each other, or we can talk turkey. I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.” That outreach might not be enough to bring back the voters lost after the Madison Square Garden event.

The campaign is seeing other weaknesses, as well. Meredith McGraw and Jessica Piper of Politico reported today that nearly half of the ballots already cast in Pennsylvania have come from voters over the age of 65, and although the numbers of registered older voters are divided evenly between the parties, registered Democrats have made up about 58% of Pennsylvania’s early votes, compared to 35% for Republicans. Those numbers might well simply reflect different approaches to mail-in ballots, but they also might explain why Trump is already claiming fraud in Pennsylvania. 

He is also seemingly nervous about Pennsylvania because women are voting there at a much higher rate than men in the early vote: 56% to 43%. And Democratic women are the biggest group of new voters in the state. New voters who were too young eight years ago to hear the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women, have been hearing it on TikTok lately, as younger users record their reactions to it and call out their older male relatives for voting for anyone who would talk as Trump did. 

“I moved on her, and I failed,” Trump says in the tape. “I’ll admit it. I did try and f*ck her…. I moved on her like a b*tch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p*ssy. You can do anything,” he said.

The Harris campaign and pro-Harris organizations leaned into the history of women’s suffrage today with videos highlighting those who fought so that women could vote and reiterating: “We are not going back.” To assist those women who might not feel safe letting their husbands know how they voted, women have been posting notes in women’s public bathrooms assuring other women that their vote is secret. A Democratic advertisement voiced by actress Julia Roberts powerfully makes the point that women do not have to tell their husbands how they vote.

Right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk have expressed alarm at the gender gap in voting. As well, there has been a right-wing backlash to the idea that women will vote for Harris while letting their husbands assume they’re voting for Trump.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who famously cheated on both of his first two wives, expressed dismay at the idea that a woman might need to keep her vote secret from her husband. “For them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption,” he said. “How do you run a country…saying wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives? I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?”

On the Fox News Channel’s The Five this morning, host Jesse Watters said that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair…. That violates the sanctity of our marriage.” Christian pastor Dale Partridge posted: “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial.” But, he added, “submission does have limits. A wife doesn’t need to submit to her husband in sin (in this case voting democrat).”

Tonight, at an event with right-wing host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump seemed to move beyond misogyny to murderous intent. He turned his increasingly violent rhetoric against former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has urged Republican women to vote against Trump. “She’s a radical war hawk,” he said, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”  

Carlson is friendly with authoritarian Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has undermined democracy in his own country and is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Today Orbán posted that he had “Just got off the phone with President [Trump]. I wished him the best of luck for next Tuesday. Only five days to go. Fingers crossed[.]“

Meanwhile, a lot more major endorsements for Harris have been coming in. 

Today basketball legend LeBron James released a powerful one-minute ad with clips of Trump’s many racist statements and drawing a straight line from him back to the most violent days of the civil rights movement. “HATE TAKES US BACK,” it says. In a post sharing the video, James wrote: “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!” James has 53 million followers on X. 

The Economist today endorsed Harris, warning that “a second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks.” Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg also posted on social media that he had voted for Harris “without hesitation,” and added that he hoped undecided voters would join him. “Trump is not fit for high office,” he wrote in a Bloomberg op-ed. He praised Harris’s positive vision and bipartisan outreach. 

Conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, titled: “My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say ‘Enough’ With Trump.” The former president is unfit for office, Luttig wrote. “When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy to him before, he betrayed us.” Luttig assured readers that “[t]here  could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate” Trump.

He reminded his fellow Republicans that they had always “proudly claimed they would be the first to put the country above all else when the time came. That time has come…. ​​All Americans, but especially Republicans, will live with their decision the rest of their lives.” “The choice for America next Tuesday,” Luttig wrote, “could not be clearer.”

Ever since Vice President Harris tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Democratic governors have been demonstrating their support for one of their own. Today, for Halloween, Democratic  governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Janet Mills of Maine, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey each dressed to match a photograph of Walz.

“No tricks this Halloween!” Whitmer posted. “Just dressing up as our friend [Tim Walz]—excited to elect him and [Kamala Harris]. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to vote: http://iwillvote.com[.]”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[johnathanthestupidpoet69]

songs for ships but i have the music taste of a 40yo man who takes song recs from his lesbian daughter

boys dont cry by the cure- grian to scar (sort of an apology for dl)

happy together by the turtels- skizzpluse (i saw a clip of them singing it together, so it's cannon)

bumper cars by sorry ghost- scarian as a whole

close to me by the cure- more desert duooooo

something by the beatles- jizzie

i will by the beatles- flower husbands, spefically scott to jim after he gets out in tl

stupid for you by waterparks- grumbo

build me up buttercup by the founations- mumbscarian

good old-fashioned lover boy by queen- scar to grian in the desert

kiss me by sixpence none the richer- treebark, so very treebark

shake it by metro station - hotguy and cuteguy

red wine supernova by chappel roan- redscape/ gembo (it's both)

heather by conan grey- something desert duo i fear

cupid's chokehold by gym class heros- scarian in dl

small time fish (big time pond) by sorry ghost- flower husbands

starman by david bowie- flower husbands (tl scott)

if i fell by the beatles- grumbo (mumbo to grian)

bad idea right? by olivia rodrigo- (wl scar about grian)

505 by artic monkeys - when i hear this song i get brought back to the desert so hard istg

creep by radiohead- grian to scar in the cactus ring

and thats my very desert duo playlist lol

-john out XD

[bikinibottomdayz]

NOVEMBER 10, 2024 RELEASE

All my videos can be found here, full release under the read more! If interested, please contact me at bikinibottomtrading@gmail.com!

This release includes: Romeo + Juliet, & Juliet (cast change), Death Becomes Her, Moulin Rouge! (Aaron + JoJo), Ragtime, Safety Not Guranteed

& JULIET October 27, 2024 (E) | Broadway | 4K MP4 (10.56GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Maya Boyd (Juliet), Alison Luff (Anne), Drew Gehling (Shakespeare), Megan Kane (u/s Nurse), Paulo Szot (Lance), Justin David Sullivan (May), Philippe Arroyo (Francois), Ben Jackson Walker (Romeo), Phil Colgan (s/w Crosse/Bathroom Attendant), Andrew Chappelle (Lord Capulet/Sly), Virgil Gadson (Augustine), Makai Hernandez (Richard), Najah Hetsberger (Lady Capulet/Nell), Joomin Hwang (Kempe), Khailah Johnson (Judith/Rosaline), Ava Noble (s/w Titania), Jasmine Raphael (Imogen), Matt Raffy (Gregory), Bex Robinson (Charion), Tiernan Tunniclffe (Eleanor/Benvolio) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of cast change performance! Final performance for Philippe, Justin, Ben, Phil, Andrew, Virgil, Megan, Jasmine, Matt, Bex, and Tiernan. Minor obstruction that blocks off some action on the right but is worked around well. Some moments of wandering and unfocusing. Includes curtain call and the post-show speech, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBPL3Y | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL MAY 2, 2025

DEATH BECOMES HER October 23, 2024 | Broadway (Previews) | 4K MP4 (10.07GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Megan Hilty (Madeline Ashton), Jennifer Simard (Helen Sharp), Christopher Sieber (Ernest Melville), Michelle T. Williams (Viola Van Horn), Marija Abney (Ensemble), Lauren Celentano (Ensemble), Sarita Colón (Ensemble), Kaleigh Cronin (Ensemble), Natalie Charle Ellis (Ensemble), Taurean Everett (Ensemble), Michael Graceffa (Ensemble), Neil Haskell (Ensemble), Kolton Krouse (Ensemble), Josh Lamon (Ensemble), Sarah Meahl (Ensemble), Ximone Rose (Ensemble), Sir Brock Warren (Ensemble), Bud Weber (Ensemble), Ryan Worsing (Ensemble), Warren Yang (Ensemble) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this show’s first preview! Minor head obstruction on the far left and on the bottom, doesn't block action except for a few moments. Some short blackouts scattered throughout the show because of people getting up and walking the aisles. Increased wandering / readjustment and unfocusing throughout. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBPwL6 | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL MAY 2, 2025

MOULIN ROUGE! October 2, 2024 (E) | Broadway | 4K MP4 (10.43GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Joanna "JoJo" Levesque (Satine), Aaron Tveit (Christian), Patrick Clanton (s/b Harold Zidler), David Harris (The Duke of Monroth), André Ward (Toulouse Lautrec), Alexander Gil Cruz (Santiago), Sophie Carmen-Jones (Nini), Nicci Claspell (Arabia), Jacqueline B. Arnold (La Chocolat), Jeigh Madjus (Baby Doll), Nick Martinez (Pierre), Giovanni Bonaventura (s/w Ensemble), Cameron Burke (s/w Ensemble), Aaron C. Finley (Ensemble), Bahiyah Hibah (Ensemble), Kamal Lado (Ensemble), Heather Makalani (Ensemble), Kaitlin Mesh (Ensemble), Jenn Stafford (Ensemble), Brooke Taylor (Ensemble), Alex Varcas (Ensemble), Frank Viveros (Ensemble), Cole Joseph Wachman (Ensemble), Michael Bryan Wang (s/w Ensemble), Jordan Wynn (Ensemble) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of the show’s 1500th performance! Three short blackouts, lasting 90 seconds near the end of “Sympathy for the Duke,” 30 seconds after “Nature Boy,” and 25 seconds after “Backstage Romance.” Action on the far left and on the walkway is somewhat obstructed. A railing is also visible and occasionally blocks off action but is usually unintrusive. Some wandering and unfocusing throughout. Includes curtain call, and encore, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBL7yf | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL MAY 2, 2025

RAGTIME November 3, 2024 (E) | Broadway | 4K MP4 (10.86GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Joshua Henry (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Caissie Levy (Mother), Brandon Uranowitz (Tateh), Nichelle Lewis (Sarah), Colin Donnell (Father), Ben Levi Ross (Mother’s Younger Brother), Matthew Lamb (Little Boy), Tabitha Lawing (Little Girl), Stephanie Styles (Evelyn Nesbit), Shaina Taub (Emma Goldman), John Clay III (Booker T. Washington), Todd Cyrus (Harry Houdini), Kai Latorre (Coalhouse Walker III), Nicholas Barrón, Briana Carlson-Goodman, Billy Cohen, Rheaume Crenshaw, Tanika Gibson, Olivia Hernandez (Kathleen), David Jennings, Marina Kondo, Jeff Kready (Henry Ford), Tiffany Mann (Sarah’s Friend), Morgan Marcell, Tom Nelis (Grandfather), Ramone Nelson, John Rapson (J.P. Morgan / Admiral Peary), Destinee Rea, Deandre Sevon, Kathy Voytko, Jacob Keith Watson (Willie Conklin), Alan Wiggins Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this very anticipated production! Minor head obstruction blocks off some action on the far left during the opening number but disappears for the rest of the show. Increased wandering and unfocusing throughout. Some washout on the wider shots. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBQEix | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL MAY 2, 2025

ROMEO + JULIET October, 2024 | Broadway | 4K MP4 (10.1GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Kit Connor (Romeo), Rachel Zegler (Juliet), Taheen Modak (Benvolio), Gabby Beans (Mercutio/Friar Laurence), Solá Fádìran (Lord Capulet/Lady Capulet), Tommy Dorfman (Tybalt/The Nurse), Daniel Velez (u/s Paris/Sampson/Peter), Nihar Duvvuri (Balthasar), Jasai Chase-Owens (Gregory), Daniel Bravo Hernández (Abraham) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this star-studded revival! Minor head obstruction that doesn’t block off anything. Action that takes place on the catwalk and on the far sides of the theatre (not on stage) are mostly uncaptured. One blackout in both acts lasting 40 seconds each. Some moments of wandering / readjustment and unfocusing. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBQ9bx | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL MAY 2, 2025

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED September 26, 2024 | BAM (Previews) | 4K MP4 (8.12GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Darius), Taylor Trensch (Kenneth), Pomme Koch (Jeff), Rohan Kymal (Arnau), Ashley Pérez Flanagan (Liz/Belinda/Others), John-Michael Lyles (Tristan/Others) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this world premiere musical! Increased moments of wandering / readjustment and unfocusing throughout. Includes curtain call, audio fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBKeEe | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL MAY 2, 2025

[awkwardjewishtheatrenerd]

"There's nothing wrong with being 40 unless you're acting 20! "

Sunset Boulevard December 2024 Second Broadway Revival- $17

Cast: Nicole Scherzinger (Norma Desmond), Tom Francis (Joe Gillis), Grace Hodgett-Young (Betty Schaefer), David Thaxton (Max Von Mayerling), Diego Andres Rodriguez (Artie Green), Hannah Yun Chamberlain (Young Norma/Patsy), Shavey Brown (Cecil B. DeMille/Finance Man/Stan), Tyler Davis (Sheldrake), Raúl Contreras (Finance Man/Frank), Drew Redington (Myron/Camera Operator/Jones), Cydney Clark (Joanna/Guard), Pierre Marais (Sammy), Maggie Likcani (Camera Operator/Katherine), Emma Lloyd (Mary/Heather), Justice Moore (Jean), Maggie Likani (s/w Lisa), Brandon Mel Borowsky (John), Giuseppe Bausilio (s/w Hog Eye), Sydney Jones (Dorothy), Olivia Lacie Andrews (Nancy)

Notes: MP4 format. Filmed in 4K from the left front mezzanine. Mix of wide shots and zooms. Obstruction on the right and sometimes bottom with downward camera wandering. Includes bows. NFS forever except through master and NFT through January 24, 2030.

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBWXRP

[dichenlachmandaily]

The trailer for Joe Baby (2024) is out. The action thriller just premiered at the Beverly Hills Film Festival on Thursday May 2nd.

Joe Baby (Dichen Lachman) is a private investigator searching for money that has been stolen from Heather Stanton (Willa Fitzgerald), only to find all roads lead to the mysterious death of her father, Walter Baby (Corin Nemec).

Directed By: Steven Brand Written By: Todd Samovitz Produced By: David Lipper, Robert A. Daly Jr. Cast: Dichen Lachman, Willa Fitzgerald, Corin Nemec, Harvey Keitel, Ron Perlman, Kenneth Choi, Dan Bakkedahl, Kelly Hu

[mulderscully]

i've seen people talking about how drastic the change between cooper and audrey's relationship in s2 is and realize people don't know the lore.

regardless of how you feel about their relationship, the intention that the writers had in s2 was for cooper to fall in love with audrey. eventually this was going to lead to an affair. they have said this multiple times. aside from who killed laura palmer, their most popular storyline was cooper/audrey and when abc pressured lynch and frost to reveal the killer early (which lead to the show's cancellation) they planned to lean on anticipation of the storyline to get them viewership. mark frost has said that they planned on five seasons for twin peaks.

in 1990 kyle maclachlan was dating lara flynn boyle who plays donna hayward, lara became upset that kyle had so much chemistry with sherilyn fenn (who was 25 in real life) so their entire relationship is axed. not only any romantic scenes, but ALL their scenes. after 2x12 kyle and sherilyn never share any direct scenes together. kyle did share that he felt cooper would not have a relationship with 18 year old audrey which i agree with but then they come in and essentially recast heather graham to play a 20 NUN, barely older than audrey herself, to be his love interest in audrey's place. everything that happened with annie at the end of s2 is a placeholder for audrey. and i'm certain it's why we do not see annie in the return but come to find that audrey has been in a somewhat similar situation to cooper for 25 years. it's fascinating to say people say they don't ship cooper and audrey because of the age gap - a very valid squick - but still like their relationship and miss it when it's gone. it shows how their dynamic was embedded into the show and it does say something about dale cooper as a character that this was the original storyline.

it shows how much a network like abc cut what david lynch and mark frost were trying to say at the knees and how cutting off two strong storylines bc of behind the scenes stuff and what execs think audiences want really harms a show as popular as twin peaks can be it's demise. if they hadn't pressured david lynch to reveal the killer early, then they could have carried that on to at least season 3 and do the timejump they planned and who knows how differently we would remember twin peaks now.

[vintagelasvegas]

Stratosphere, 1996-

Timeline of World Famous Million-Dollar Historic Gambling Museum, Vegas World, and Stratosphere.

VEGAS WORLD '79-'95

'74: Bob Stupak opens World Famous Million-Dollar Historic Gambling Museum and Casino. The casino is closed a month later, and the site is later used for Vegas World and Stratosphere.

'79: Vegas World opens 7/13/79 with a casino and 8-story tower.

'84: 24-floor tower opens.

'90: Stupak unveils “Vegas World Stratosphere Tower” plans in Feb. Conceived by Stupak, preliminary designs were done by AdArt’s Charles Barnard. The architect was Ned Baldwin.

'91: Groundbreaking ceremony (Stupak, J. Jones, S. Miller) on 11/5/91. Leeman Corp., contractor. Concrete pour Mar. ’92.

'93: Perini Building Co. takes over as contractor. Stratosphere Corp. formed, separate from Vegas World, Stupak as chairman. Fire on the tower construction site, 8/30/93. Grand Casinos Inc partners in Stratosphere Corp.

'94: Public stock sale. Height of the tower raised to 1,149 feet. Taylor Int’l takes over as contractor.

'95: Vegas World closed 2/1/95. Tower crane removed in Sep. Topped off via helicopter 11/4/95.

STRATOSPHERE '96-

'96: Stratosphere opens 4/30/96. Las Vegas City Council approves Stupak’s concept for King Kong mechanical ape ride in Feb., idea dropped by summer.

'97: Stratosphere Corp. files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection.

'98: Carl Icahn purchases the resort, has the remaining hotel rooms finished by 2001. Ownership transferred to Icahn’s American Casino & Ent. Properties (ACEP) in 2004.

'08: Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds buys ACEP & Stratosphere.

'12: Golden Ent. buys ACEP & Stratosphere.

Circa '90 rendering of the tower by Jack DuBois, AdArt, taken from Charles Barnard’s book The Magic Sign.

Circa '90 illustration by Jack Dubois & Nicolas Casella, AdArt. Illustration shared by Casper Wise.

Nick Casella “started his artistic career in Hollywood working on movies … Ultimately, he made it back to the SF Bay Area where he found work with Electrical Products Corp., which became Federal in 62, and then Ad Art in 78. Nick became the Art Director for Ad Art in the Bay Area.” - Heather David.

Stratosphere, day and night, c. 1996