#pip carter

[lgbtqmovierecs]

LGBTQ Movie of the Day:

Christopher and His Kind

Description:

The Berlin cabaret scene is in full swing when a young and wide-eyed Christopher Isherwood arrived in the city to stay with his close friend and occasional lover, the poet WH Auden. To Isherwood’s reserved English sensibility, the city’s thriving gay subculture is thrilling. However Christopher soon finds himself heartbroken after the failure of a hopeless love affair, and so sets out on a process of self-discovery.

Title: Christopher and His Kind

Genre: Romance, Drama

Age Rating: 15

Release Date: 2011

Relationships: MLM (Sub-plot)

Representation: Gay

Running Time: 1h 30m

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Language: English, German

Box Office: Unknown

Warnings: Nudity, sex, violence, profanity, homophobia, antisemitism, alcohol consumption, smoking, frightening & intense scenes

Starring: Matt Smith, Imogen Poots, Lindsay Duncan, Perry Millward, Toby Jones, Pip Carter, Alexander Dreymon, Faolan Morgan

Submitted by @dandandanny

[backjustforberena]

ANGELICA FANSHAWE AND JUDGE JEFFREYS, in "New Worlds 1x02" - requested by @unbeleveable

[iggyinuit]

URL: http://atagong.com/iggy/archives/2010/04/we-are-all-made-of-stars.html

[riverphoenixsgothwife]

final destination + random posts (part 1? if you guys are interested)

[tavoit]

Egyptologist Howard Carter has been portrayed on film by Pip Torrens

and Max Irons

Who did it better?

[seantealefan]

New portrait of Sean by Pip

[davidjhiggins]

Sword & Scandal, ed. J Manfred Weichsel

Weichsel gathers fantasy tales that accept that worlds filled with mighty-thewed heroes and unspeakable horrors are not magically free of passionate sex and unpleasant death. Continue reading Sword & Scandal, ed. J Manfred Weichsel

[archivequinn]

My Archive ─ Joseph Quinn Studio Photo Shoots 📸

2017 ✦ Nuit Magazine

2019 ✦ Glass Magazine ✦ The Rakish Gent Magazine

2020 ✦ Tatler Magazine

2021 ✦ By Phil Sharp

2022 ✦ Netflix Tudum ✦ By Pip ✦ Contents Magazine ✦ Esquire Magazine by Erik Carter ✦ WeareFlock by Phil Fisk ✦ Zegna ✦ 1883 Magazine ✦ Wonderland Magazine ✦ Esquire Singapore ✦ SID Magazine ✦ Wonderland Magazine (Gris Dior) ✦ GQ Spain ✦ GQ Spain Men Of The Year Awards ✦ GQ Men of the Year Portrait

2023 ✦ Wonderland Magazine (Gris Dior) ✦ Dior J'adore Exhibition (part 2) ✦ Vanity Fair Venezia ✦ Venice Italy ✦ Hoard - The Italian Rêve (behind the scenes) ✦ TimeOut (behind the scenes part 1 part 2) ✦ GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2023

2024 ✦ CinemaCon Breakthrough Performer of the Year Award ✦ Man About Town Magazine ✦ Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine ✦ GQ Hype ✦ A Quiet Place Day One Instagram ✦ Interview Magazine ✦ San Diego Comic-Con ✦ By Pip ✦ British Vouge ✦ L'Officiel Hommes ✦ British GQ - Gladiator II

[dumbass-duo-showdown]

Ahem ahem

After months of waiting!

I AM PRESENTING THE BRACKET FOR DUMBASS DUO SHOWDOWN!

CLICK FOR BETTER QUALITY!

The first 16 battles will happen at 8pm CET (gmt+1)!

Group 1!

Uhh btw some of these were put on one day accidentally

Roronoa Zoro & Monkey D. Luffy aka Zolu (one piece) vs Good times with Scar & Grian aka desert duo (hermitcraft)

Bill Preston & Ted Logan (bill & Ted’s excellent adventure) vs Jessie & James from team rocket (Pokémon)

Wayne & Raj (total drama) vs Denji & Power (chainsaw man)

Burton & Shawn (psych) vs Rosencrantz & guildenstern (hamlet & rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead)

Josuke Higashikata & Okuyasu Nijimura aka Josuyasu (JoJo’s bizarre adventure) vs Shouyo Hinata & Tobio Kageyama (Haikyuu!)

Isaac & Miria (Baccano) vs Jay Walker & Cole Brookstone/bucket aka Bruise (lego ninjago)

Ace & Deuce (twisted wonderland) vs Aang & Sokka (avatar: the last airbender)

Tommyinnit & Tubbo aka Clingyduo (dsmp) vs Shiver, Frye, & Bigman aka Deep Cut (splatoon)

Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) & Booster Gold (Michael Carter) aka boostle VS Mustard Lesbian and Ketchup Gay from this post

Mordecai & Rigby (regular show) vs Lindsay & Tyler (total drama)

Rui Kamishiro & Tsukasa Tenma aka Ruikasa (project sekai) vs Zuke & Mayday aka Bunk Bed Junction (no straight roads)

Ruffnut & Tuffnut Thorston (how to train your dragon) vs Jedediah & Octavius (night at the museum)

Merry & Pippin (lord of the rings) vs The Doctor & Donna (dr who)

Jedward (irish music history) vs Min-Gi Park & Ryan Akagi (infinity train)

Grif & Simmons (red vs blue) vs Beavis & Butthead (Beavis & butthead)

Bender & Fry (futurama) vs Porsche & Pete (kinnporsche)

GROUP 2

1/8-18:30 & 2/8 18:30

Kaz & Oliver (mighty med) vs Bobbi Morse & Lance Hunter aka Huntingbird (agents of S.H.I.E.L.D)

Henchman 21 & Henchman 24 (venture bros) vs Spongebob & Patrick (Spongebob Squarepants)

Galo Thymos & Lio Fotia (promare) vs Yusuke & Kuwabara (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Charlie Kelly & Mac (it is always sunny in Philadelphia) vs Donald, José & Panchito (the three Caballeros)

The Bros (the bro duet) vs Chai & 808 (hi-fi rush)

Markiplier & CrankGameplays aka Unus Annus vs Knockout & Starscream (transformers)

Caspar & Shez (fire emblem warriors: three hopes) vs Yukiko Amagi & Chie Satonaka aka Yukichie (persona 4)

Tk Strand & Evan Buck Buckley (911 on fox lonestar) vs Shane & Ryan (buzzfeed unsolved)

Ontario Pipping Plovers (birbs from canada) vs Kaminari Denki & Ashido Mina (My hero academia)

Rin Okumura & Kuro (blue exorcist) vs Adam Blampied & Sullivan Beau Brown (No barrels rolled)

Chip & Gillion aka Fish and Chips (just roll with it) vs Josuke Higashikata & Yasuho Hirose aka Yasugap (jojo's bizarre adventure)

Soldier & Demoman (team fortress 2) vs Cuphead & Mugman (the cuphead show)

Nott/Veth & Jester (critical role the mighty nein) vs Troy & Abed (community)

Walter White & Jessie Pinkman (breaking bad) vs Barbie & Ken (barbie life in a dreamhouse)

Cuddles & Toothy (happy tree friends) vs Heath Burns & Hoodude Voodoo (monster high)

Pete Wentz and Gabe Saporta (bandom) vs Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng & Nie Huaisang (MDZS/the untamed)

TAGS TO CHECK OUT!

#propaganda #dumbass duo showdown announcements #dumbass duo showdown update #round 1 #art gallery #polls

[guywrestlingaddiction]

That Wrestling Moment: Wrestling outside of your weightclass - Alexi Adamov v Denny Carter (bgeast.com)

You got to hand it to the fight in some guys.  Denny Carter is out muscled and out classed but he still wrestles above his weight.  To bad, the man he's up against is the 6'3" monster of muscle, Alexi Adamov.  

Alexi Adamov v Denny Carter (bgeast.com)

SPOILER ALERT: I highly recommend viewing this match in its entirety before reading this post.

The Backstory

Alexi enters the match dripping with contempt for the smaller wrestler.  There is no way this pip squeak can compare to him.  

Alexi: I don't think you're in my weightclass buddy. 

Alexi showing off that jobber crushing body of his. 

The Action

You know what they say - It's not about the size of the dog in the fight, it's about the ass kicking that small dog mounts on the bigger dog, or something like that anyway. 

To further the point, Alexi comments that he'll show Denny - "This is what a real man looks like". But the man takes it a bit too far and regrets it instantly. 

It takes a sec, but Alexi is not going to beat by some smaller wrestler.  All 6'3" of muscle will not be held down. 

Then, don't call it a comeback but Denny is on fire.  

The Moment 

This moment might've been an underdog story where little Denny puts down the mighty Alexi but this is not that moment.  No, today's moment is the lesson of what happens when you try to fight outside of your weight class... you get burned.  

Play time is over ...

So what have we learned today? Not everything is like the movies and as much as we all love to watch Alexi get his abs bashed there is something equally impressive about seeing the man absolutely devastate his opponent.  Maybe it's not so much about wrestling someone heavier or bigger than yourself but really it's about being foolish enough try and take on a wrestling god and failing.

[sparrow-in-the-field]

Chapter 4 of The Walk Home got me thinking about how it'd be cute if after the rough start, Don and the new cox end up becoming friends, and when Bobby finds out (obviously much later), he is a little bit jealous, which Don finds amusing because it is (obviously) purely platonic. Anyway here are two drabbles about that :> under the cut because they're a bit long (also don't read until you've read ch 4 unless you don't care about spoilers!)

Just for clarification: the new cox is an OC, not based on anyone from the movie or any real life people

Winter 1936

Don asked the rest of the crew to not tell the newbies why they were having a bonfire; a bit embarrassed over his panicked, near running away, he preferred they didn't know. None of them knew him that well, or about what had happened in Berlin, and it was too hard to explain. He'd rather they just think he was a quiet, somber guy, and leave it at that. The guys were understanding, and just told the newbies it was a crew bonding experience. They all bought it, except for maybe Carter, their new cox. The scrawny sophomore was quieter than Bobby had been, more reserved when he wasn't in the shell, and his wary glances over to Don during the idle chatter of the bonfire didn't go unnoticed by the stroke. Don had been taking issue with whatever cox Ulbrickson put in front of him the whole semester, and it all came to a head with Carter. The sophomore didn't tolerate Don's rebellion the way the other two Ulbrickson had tried putting the shell did. Carter didn't seem to care that Don was the Olympic champion stroke, he expected Don to listen to him, and he called Don out when he didn't. Don had snapped at him earlier in the day, and he now realized he owed the young boy an apology. When the fire had died down to mostly glowing embers, late enough in the night that the crew was ready for bed, all of them still chatting and laughing the way they had all night as they got up to leave, Don spoke up. "Carter," he said, causing everyone to freeze and stare at him. He could barely meet the boy's gaze in the dark of the night. "Can you stick around a minute?" The boy seemed tense, but he gave a short nod. "Sure." He sat back down, near Don, but not too close. He stared into the embers of the fire, and he didn't speak.

Don took in a breath, deciding to stare into the dying fire, too. "What do you know about Bobby Moch?"

The question must have been unexpected, because Carter turned his gaze to look at Don quizzically. "Your cox from last year?"

Don nodded.

Carter shrugged, gaze returning to the fire. "Just the same as what everybody knows. He's a coxing legend now, after leading you guys through Poughkeepsie and the Olympics. He was a genius when it came to strategy; rumor among coxes is Ulbrickson knew before he even had the Olympic crew together that Moch would be the cox, no matter what."

Don smiled, tried to fight down the ache in his chest that remembering Bobby too fondly would always cause. "That's true." He looked at the boy. "Anything else?"

Carter met Don's gaze, looking him over, seeming to bite his tongue. He finally took the bait, "I'd see him around sometimes last year, when I was a freshman. He—he didn't have a bird."

"Right," Don said. He waited a beat, the logs shifting in the firepit, the remnants of the wood still crackling. "Bob and I were in love."

It was the first time he had ever said it out loud; the guys seemed to understand, but he’d never said it in so many words to any of them. The only time he ever said it outright was to Pip in his dreams. But it was true, and feeling his voice sound out the words didn't make him waver; in a way, it felt reassuring, felt good, to really say it.

Carter looked over at him again. "You were dating?"

Don's lips downturned in a pout, and he shook his head. "It was complicated, since Bobby didn't have his bird. He left after Berlin, and asked to never see me again, because he doesn't want me to see him die. He's off somewhere in Europe now."

Carter drew in and exhaled a breath, shaking his head. "That's awful."

"Yeah," Don said quietly.

"It was kind of a jackass move, just ditching you like that."

Don couldn't help chuckling at the young cox’s bluntness. He picked at the blades of grass at his feet, chucking them towards the firepit. 

"Yeah, he could be a jackass sometimes," he said, not even pretending to hide his fondness. He hummed, turning to look at Carter. "It's been really hard having someone else in front of me besides Bob. The two of us, we had this...connection. It's not something I expect to ever have again with anyone else." Don took a beat, drawing in a breath. He looked down at his hands, but made sure to meet Carter’s gaze as he said, "But that doesn't mean I can't listen to what you say. It’s my job as stroke to do what you call, and I should trust your judgment. I'm sorry I've made my personal issues your problem, and I'm gonna try to do better from now on."

Carter studied him for a long moment before he nodded. "Thanks, Don. To be honest, having to fill Moch’s shoes—it’s been intimidating. I’ve been trying to hold my own, but hell, I’m supposed to boss around Olympic gold medalists? As a sophomore?”

The both of them laughed, and Don nudged him. “You’re doing better than the two juniors before you.”

“Really?”

“It’s why I got sent to Ulbrickson’s office today and not you to get replaced,” Don said with a huff, and then he stood up. “Come on, it’s getting cold with the fire out. Let’s go back to the house.”

The two walked across the lawn, Carter having to take double the steps to keep up with Don’s long strides.

“Hey, Don?” he spoke up after a beat.

“Yeah?”

“Did you really row in the Olympics with a terrible fever?”

Don chuckled. “Sure did.”

“Man. How did you do it? How’d you pull it off?”

“Honestly?” Don looked over at Carter, giving a smirk. “I have no fucking idea.”

Carter grinned. “So cool.”

Don huffed a laugh, and he gave the kid a playful shove as they continued back to the house.

Fall 1938

Don was excited to be back in Seattle; just last year, he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel comfortable with the idea of returning. But now, with Bobby back in his life, safe and permanently, he was happy to be back home.

He liked watching Bobby prepare for the next semester of rowing—freshman tryouts had just started, and even when he was back on the ship with Don after work, he’d be toiling over notes and ideas for the team.

“The returning crew gets in next week,” Bobby said when Don asked how it was going. He chuckled, “But that’s Al’s problem.”

Don laughed, too, but then a thought occurred to him, one that made him brighten with a smile. “Wait, I bet Carter’s still on the team! He’d be a senior this year. Oh man, I need to drop by practice sometime to see him.”

Bobby furrowed his brow, looking up from his notes. “Who’s Carter?”

“He coxed the boat after you,” Don said.

“Oh.” Bobby seemed to sulk, looking down at his notes with a pout as he muttered, “I didn’t know there was another cox in your life.”

Don nearly snorted a laugh. “We couldn’t exactly leave your seat empty after you left, Bob.”

Bobby hummed indignantly. He shut his notebook. “Was he as good as me?”

Don rolled his eyes. “Don’t be mean.”

Bobby stood up as he gave a coy smirk, shrugging with faux innocence. “It was just a question.” He stepped over to the counter, setting down his things. “So, you were…close, with this new cox?”

Don hummed, amused by Bobby’s jealousy. “We became pretty good friends, after a bit of a rough start.”

“I see. I’ll have to keep an eye out for him at practice, see if he’s any good.”

Don chuckled, standing up to follow Bobby to the counter. “He’s like four years younger than you, Bob—don’t bully a kid out of jealousy.”

“Jealous? Do I have something to be jealous of?” Bobby said, still playing up the feigned innocence.

“Not unless you’re going to be jealous of someone who feels like a little brother to me,” Don said with a smirk. He reached down, tucking his hand to hold Bobby’s chin, prompting him to meet his gaze. He spoke more sincerely, “You know no one’s ever come close to replacing you in the space you fill in my heart. They never could have—you never left it.”

Bobby’s eyes softened at the words, and he dropped the coy act for a moment, bringing his hands up to Don’s chest. “You’re my stroke. You always were.”

Don hummed fondly, placing a kiss to Bobby’s forehead before meeting his eyes again. “And you’re my cox, Bobby. Always.”

Bobby smiled, his eyes glistening a bit, before he reached up and kissed Don. When he pulled away, he arched a teasing brow. “But really—was he as good as me?”

Don laughed. He brought both of his hands up, holding Bobby’s face. “Let’s put it this way: there’s only one of you that I share an Olympic gold medal with.”

Bobby smirked, clearly happy with the answer. “That’s what I thought.”

Don hummed, leaning in to kiss him again.

[skyguywrites]

jas & pip | amita suman & freddy carter.

m/f. bet gone wrong. colleagues. dancers. blurred lines. he's a flirt/she can't stand him. she's got her walls up. "jazzy." he likes her more than he planned. she's still married/he's in love with somebody else. she lets her guard down/he hurts her. she's in danger/he blames himself. makeshift family. protecting each other's hearts.

[mariacallous]

If you were asked to guess which prestigious film-making duo had spent their career scratching around desperately for cash, trying to wriggle out of paying their cast and crew, ping-ponging between lovers, and having such blood-curdling bust-ups that their neighbours called the police, it might be some time before “Merchant Ivory” sprang to mind. But a new warts-and-all documentary about the Indian producer Ismail Merchant and the US director James Ivory makes it clear that the simmering passions in their films, such as the EM Forster trilogy of A Room With a View, Maurice and Howards End, were nothing compared to the scalding, volatile ones behind the camera.

From their initial meeting in New York in 1961 to Merchant’s death during surgery in 2005, the pair were as inseparable as their brand name, with its absence of any hyphen or ampersand, might suggest. Their output was always more eclectic than they got credit for. They began with a clutch of insightful Indian-set dramas including Shakespeare-Wallah, their 1965 study of a troupe of travelling actors, featuring a young, pixieish Felicity Kendal. From there, they moved on to Savages, a satire on civilisation and primitivism, and The Wild Party, a skewering of 1920s Hollywood excess that pipped Damien Chazelle’s Babylon to the post by nearly half a century.

It was in the 1980s and early 1990s, though, that Merchant Ivory became box-office titans, cornering the market in plush dramas about repressed Brits in period dress. Those literary adaptations launched the careers of Hugh Grant, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves and Julian Sands, and helped make stars of Emma Thompson and Daniel Day-Lewis. Most were scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who had been with them, on and off, since their 1963 debut The Householder; she even lived in the same apartment building in midtown New York. Many were scored by Richard Robbins, who was romantically involved with Merchant while also holding a candle for Bonham Carter. These films restored the costume drama to the position it had occupied during David Lean’s heyday. The roaring trade in Jane Austen adaptations might never have happened without them. You could even blame Merchant Ivory for Bridgerton.

Though the pictures were uniformly pretty, making them was often ugly. Money was always scarce. Asked where he would find the cash for the next movie, Merchant replied: “Wherever it is now.” After Jenny Beavan and John Bright won an Academy Award for the costumes in A Room With a View, he said:“I got you your Oscar. Why do I need to pay you?” As Ivory was painstakingly composing each shot, Merchant’s familiar, booming battle cry would ring out: “Shoot, Jim, shoot!”

Heat and Dust, starring Julie Christie, was especially fraught. Only 30 or 40% of the budget was in place by the time the cameras started rolling in India in 1982; Merchant would rise at dawn to steal the telegrams from the actors’ hotels so they didn’t know their agents were urging them to down tools. Interviewees in the documentary concede that the producer was a “conman” with a “bazaar mentality”. But he was also an incorrigible charmer who dispensed flattery by the bucketload, threw lavish picnics, and wangled entrées to magnificent temples and palaces. “You never went to bed without dreaming of ways to kill him,” says one friend, the journalist Anna Kythreotis. “But you couldn’t not love him.”

Stephen Soucy, who directed the documentary, doesn’t soft-pedal how wretched those sets could be. “Every film was a struggle,” he tells me. “People were not having a good time. Thompson had a huge fight with Ismail on Howards End because she’d been working for 13 days in a row, and he tried to cancel her weekend off. Gwyneth Paltrow hated every minute of making Jefferson in Paris. Hated it! Laura Linney was miserable on The City of Your Final Destination because the whole thing was a shitshow. But you watch the films and you see no sense of that.”

Soucy’s movie features archive TV clips of the duo bickering even in the midst of promoting a film. “Oh, they were authentic all right,” he says. “They clashed a lot.”The authenticity extended to their sexuality. The subject was not discussed publicly until after Ivory won an Oscar for writing Call Me By Your Name: “You have to remember that Ismail was an Indian citizen living in Bombay, with a deeply conservative Muslim family,” Ivory told me in 2018. But the pair were open to those who knew them. “I never had a sense of guilt,” Ivory says, pointing out that the crew on The Householder referred to him and Merchant as “Jack and Jill”.

Soucy had already begun filming his documentary when Ivory published a frank, fragmentary memoir, Solid Ivory, which dwells in phallocentric detail on his lovers before and during his relationship with Merchant, including the novelist Bruce Chatwin. It was that book which emboldened Soucy to ask questions on screen – including about “the crazy, complicated triangle of Jim, Ismail and Dick [Robbins]” – that he might not otherwise have broached.

The documentary is most valuable, though, in making a case for Ivory as an underrated advocate for gay representation. The Remains of the Day, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker-winning novel about a repressed butler, may be the duo’s masterpiece, but it was their gay love story Maurice that was their riskiest undertaking. Set in the early 20th century, its release in 1987 could scarcely have been timelier: it was the height of the Aids crisis, and only a few months before the Conservative government’s homophobic Section 28 became law.

“Ismail wasn’t as driven as Jim to make Maurice,” explains Soucy. “And Ruth was too busy to write it. But Jim’s dogged determination won the day. They’d had this global blockbuster with A Room With a View, and he knew it could be now or never. People would pull aside Paul Bradley, the associate producer, and say: ‘Why are they doing Maurice when they could be making anything?’ I give Jim so much credit for having the vision and tenacity to make sure the film got made.”

Merchant Ivory don’t usually figure in surveys of queer cinema, though they are part of its ecosystem, and not only because of Maurice. Ron Peck, who made the gay classic Nighthawks, was a crew member on The Bostonians. Andrew Haigh, director of All of Us Strangers, landed his first industry job as a poorly paid assistant in Merchant’s Soho office in the late 1990s; in Haigh’s 2011 breakthrough film Weekend, one character admits to freeze-framing the naked swimming scene in A Room With a View to enjoy “Rupert Graves’s juddering cock”. Merchant even offered a role in Savages to Holly Woodlawn, the transgender star of Andy Warhol’s Trash, only for her to decline because the fee was so low.

The position of Merchant Ivory at the pinnacle of British cinema couldn’t last for ever. Following the success of The Remains of the Day, which was nominated for eight Oscars, the brand faltered and fizzled. Their films had already been dismissed by the director Alan Parker as representing “the Laura Ashley school” of cinema. Gary Sinyor spoofed their oeuvre in the splendid pastiche Stiff Upper Lips (originally titled Period!), while Eric Idle was plotting his own send-up called The Remains of the Piano. The culture had moved on.

There was still an appetite for upper-middle-class British repression, but only if it was funny: Richard Curtis drew on some of Merchant Ivory’s repertory company of actors (Grant, Thompson, Simon Callow) for a run of hits beginning with Four Weddings and a Funeral, which took the poshos out of period dress and plonked them into romcoms.

The team itself was splintering. Merchant had begun directing his own projects. When he and Ivory did collaborate, the results were often unwieldy, lacking the stabilising literary foundation of their best work. “Films like Jefferson in Paris and Surviving Picasso didn’t come from these character-driven novels like Forster, James or Ishiguro,” notes Soucy. “Jefferson and Picasso were not figures that audiences warmed to.” Four years after Merchant’s death, Ivory’s solo project The City of Your Final Destination became mired in lawsuits, including one from Anthony Hopkins for unpaid earnings.

Soucy’s film, though, is a reminder of their glory days. It may also stoke interest in the movies among young queer audiences whose only connection to Ivory, now 95, is through Call Me By Your Name. “People walk up to Jim in the street to shake his hand and thank him for Maurice,” says Soucy. “But I also wanted to include the more dysfunctional side of how they were made. Hopefully it will be inspiring to young film-makers to see that great work can come out of chaos.”

[map-of-obsessions]

The Reappearance of Rachel Price - Review

*NOT SPOILER FREE*

So first of all, I loved this book so much. I was on page 45 at midday today, then 400 pages later, finished it at 9pm. Holly Jackson you have done it again. I was so hooked, I couldn't put it down. I loved the complexities of the story. It reminded me of some of my other favourites like Room (Emma Donoghue), The Leaving (Tara Altebrando), and, of course, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

The plot was amazingly twisty, full of layers and puzzles for me to try to figure out along the way. I found Bel to be a less likeable protagonist than Pippa, but I warmed up to her eventually, and I thought the gradual unpacking of her abandonment issues and trauma was brilliantly elaborated upon across the plot. (Side note: The car imagery went crazy hard, I loved how it boiled down to who really left her alone). She was an amazing unreliable narrator, the way she swayed my bias towards certain characters as the book went on was really impressive.

I loved Ash as a character, especially the continuous descriptions of his crazy outfits (he's so me), however I would have liked to see a little more of him as a person. He felt a little bit like a substitute to complete the pip-ravi murder duo dynamic. I also felt Carter's character was a little bit underdeveloped. I immediately saw elements of disordered eating in her character, with Shelly's continuous comments on her food, as well as the talk about her ballet as its notoriously an industry that fosters starving yourself in favour of 'looking good'. I thought this would become a more glaring issue, especially given Bel's ignoring her in favour of her problems with Rachel as the book went on, but I felt the payoff wasn't quite there.

I thought the framework of the true crime documentary was really interesting, but maybe not as necessary as the blurb/beginning chapters made it sound. As I got lost in the mystery, the importance of the filming dropped off the radar and I didn't really think it was needed.

Overall, I loved the book, it sucked me in and I couldn't focus on any of my actual work while I was thinking about it, but I didn't think it was quite at the level of the agggtm series, and was maybe a little bit too complicated. That being said, I loved the layers of the story!

[lserver362reviews]

This is a Valentines Day movie. "Don't hate me!/Your lips are full, your head is empty/This faded valentine is what you sent me" - The Sons of Thunder Chester "Chazz Darby" Ogilvie and Kayla, forever! Chazz does NOT put up with Rex calling her a bitch in the toy store after their first break up. He's such a softie for women. He's trying very very hard to live his dream, but with integrity. He explains to Ian the Shark at the station, "She's not like what you'd think. She's actually really cool and, well, I guess what it all comes down to is that we really care about each other and I screwed up. She's been there for me from the beginning. I think I let her down, but I still want us to be tight." You can tell they have a good time together from their cutesy message machine greeting. She does end up bringing him the tape and they both apologize to eachother. He later states, "What have I got? My guitar, my bike, and my woman. That's all I got in the world. And you keep kicking me out!-It's making me insane! I figure if I get a record contract, I can make it up to you. I'm doing this for you!" and then they profess their love for each other. It's the emotional heart of this film. This movie has the love of music, love for brotherhood, and it's about telling your partner your name is really Chester & you understand if they don't love you anymore. Plus Where else can you hear John Bender say, "super duper!"? I love Pip's meet-cute of getting hit in the face by a door by Suzzie and their ensuing romance, they just understand eachother. Even the swat leader, Carl Mace's weird martial troubles seem to be a driving force for his character and he talks with Beech about it during this hostage situation! Love is everywhere in this movie! Carter Burwell is a hero (for Twilight) and an icon (for this). This movie has such weird politics (incredibly invested in racism, ACAB, and displays how white people have a hard time engaging in their own obliviousness, but every insult is also super misogynistic) especially for a place where the logo of the station is the confederate flag. The performances in this movie are just great, Adam Sandler is so so funny, Brendan Fraser is so green and earnest, and Steve Buscemi is completely unhinged. I have a soft spot especially for David Arquette in this but really all the side characters are excellent. I am still scared of White Zombie. Happy Valentines Day!

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Baby Boomer Classics: Love Sixties 1985 Soul / Pop / R&B

Oh my, we've got a lovely slew of 60s soul and pop tunes on this one, folks. A few of these are surely eminent classics already, like Aretha Franklin's "Natural Woman," The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," and The Delfonics' "La-La," but as time continues to pass by, the rest of these seem to be fading away at much more rapid paces, I think. And that's an *extremely* undeserved status for some of 'em, especially.

Top of mind, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine," by The Walker Brothers, a full and dramatic UK-made baroque pop stunner from 1966 that just might be the single-greatest hit that Phil Spector never actually made. Frankie Valli was the first one to release a version of this song in '65, but then producers Johnny Franz and Ivor Raymonde applied a' Wall of Sound'-type treatment to it, and netted themselves a #1 in the UK and a #13 Stateside. Not something that you're bound to hear on your typical American oldies station, but this is such a beautiful and lush 60s hit nonetheless 🤩.

And immediately following that one is another absolutely brilliant cover, from one-hit wonder Oscar Toney, Jr., whose rendition of "For Your Precious Love," which had been previously made famous by Jerry Butler & The Impressions, earned him his only top-40 placement, with a peak at #23 in 1967 on the Billboard Hot 100. Toney spends the first half of this song in the form of spoken word monologue, and you might feel like he's wasting time, but then he launches with so much stirring, heartfelt, and emotional passion, that the only thing that you're left to conclude is that it was all definitely worth it in the end. It's not an obscure song, but for how good this one truly is, I still feel like it's a vastly underrated gem that deserves far more recognition than it's received over the years 💎.

So this comp of 60s love songs actually happens to be pretty boring and dry at the start with a few lame pop tunes, but once the compilers start to pour in the soul, it really transforms into a top-notch set of 60s hits. Another good one from this broad and eclectic Baby Boomer Classics series 👍.

Highlights:

James & Bobby Purify - "I'm Your Puppet" The Delfonics - "La-La (Means I Love You)" The Walker Brothers - "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" Oscar Toney, Jr. - "For Your Precious Love" Aretha Franklin - "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" Mel Carter - "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" Dionne Warwick - "Walk on By" The Shirelles - "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" Gladys Knight & the Pips - "Every Beat of My Heart"