monsivaisstuff

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Sydney's donut//fennel allergy

I love the magenta/red color on Syd's plates. Sprinkle it on, guys!

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Rounders and The bear

The other day I came across a post by @ago0112 where they compiled posters and their connections to The Bear universe. I had that in mind while watching episode 1 of season 2 — this is when the poster for Rounders appears, a 1998 film considered by many online to be one of the best of its genre. I rented it and watched it.

The original post already gives us some insight into how the movie ties into The Bear, but this one is meant to be a companion piece a few more details that stood out to me:

To contextualize a little, the plot focuses on Michael and his friend Worm, who go through various conflicts to pay a debt.

1. Michael is a driver

In the first few minutes of the film, we see him lose his entire tuition to a Russian mobster known as KGB. After that, he has to take a job driving a delivery truck to pay for school. This immediately reminded me of Syd and her job at UPS.

2. The magic theme

Michael shows up to a poker game where some of his professors are playing. He manages to read their hands, impressing them enough to land a possible internship. Later, at a bar, one of the professors invites him for a drink. Their conversation centers around the “magic”, Michael’s teacher questions him about how he knew everyone’s cards. The teacher asks if it’s some kind of magic. Michael denies that it is magic, he says: “I look at the cards, but I also watch the players' reactions...”

“Their faces tell you everything.”

The professor responds: “You look at the man. I never realized how much calculation was involved.”

This scene instantly reminded me of season 3 — the "magic montage", the card tricks, the idea that what’s hidden is in plain sight for those who know how to read the signs.

3. Inherited debt

Worm, Michael’s childhood friend (almost like a brother), gets out of prison but still owes money to KGB. Michael helps buy him time, but the only way to do that is by backing him. When they fail to pay the debt, Worm suggests running. Michael refuses.Worm disappears, and the debt automatically transfers to Michael — it’s the last we see of Worm.

4. Color palette

Rounders uses a strong red–blue tonal harmony, just like The Bear. You’ll also catch hints of purple, green, and yellow.Even the wardrobe has similar energy: sportswear, leather jackets, and printed shirts that reminded me of what Sweeps and Ebra wear.

5. The Bear

There’s a scene where Michael and Worm are at a poker game with a group of cops. Michael joins first, then Worm shows up. When Worm enters, one of the characters introduces him — and they call him "Bear." (The character says: "hey fellas," to which they respond, "hey Bear.")

Even more interesting: one of the cops at the table is played by the same actor who plays Tina’s husband.

6-“Baby, I'm a big star now” — as the movie ends and the credits begin to roll, “Baby, I’m a Big Star Now” by Counting Crows plays in the background. The same song is featured in The Bear 2x02 Pasta.

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SONGS FOR SYD/ CARMY

Sometimes while listening to my playlists, I come across a song that, in my opinion, is perfect for Syd/Carmy, so I decided to make a list of some of them. Here it goes:

1. "Get Involved" by Q-Tip & Raphael Saadiq — to me, this one is totally from Carmy’s point of view. The character in the song meets a girl with beautiful cornrows, feels attracted to her, and tries to connect with her.

Met this girl walking in the ghetto

Looking good but looking down

(What′s you say, come on by)

Said she needed inspiration

(What'd you say)

I said, ′Get yo shit cause we're goin uptown'

(Uptown baby, uptown, say what)

She was a dark-skinned girl with pretty cornrows (uh huh)

She was doin her best to try to hide her scars

(Say come on now, what you say now)

I don't really care

About that there, just get involved

Boy you, makin me feel, uh oh so real

Just get involved

2. "You Got It" by Roy Orbison — this one totally gives me Carmy vibes, a man who would give anything to his pretty-eyed girl:

Every time I look into your loving eyes

I see a love that money just can't buy

One look from you, I drift away

I pray that you are here to stay

Anything you want, you got it

Anything you need, you got it

3. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Ms. Lauryn Hill — I think this one needs no explanation.

Pardon the way that I stare

There's nothing else to compare

The sight of you leaves me weak

There are no words left to speak

But if you feel like I feel

Please, let me know that it's real

You're just too good to be true

Can't take my eyes off you

4. "Everything I Am Is Yours" by Villagers — I really love this one. It doesn't show an ideal love but rather an imperfect one. The guy wants to open up to the other person even though he knows he has "walls" and isn’t sure how he feels. He shows himself as vulnerable and flawed, but still wants to give himself fully.

It will always change

For everything I am is yours

Everything I am is yours

I find it hard to say

What's going on inside

Got these little walls

Couldn't break them if I tried

5. "Words" by F.R. David — For the character, it's hard to say what he feels with words, so he says “I love you” in the only language he knows: music. (Think Carmy giving clothes, restaurants, stars).

Well, I'm just a music man

Melodies are so far my best friend

But my words are coming out wrong, girl

I reveal my heart to you, and

Hope that you believe it′s true ′cause

Words don't come easy to me

How can I find a way to make you see I love you?

Words don′t come easy

That’s all for now. I have another one for Syd, but I think I’ll post it separately so this one doesn’t get too long.

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Ikea is Swedish, not Danish (Claire is Sweden, not Denmark)

At the beginning of episode 2x04, Chester advises Marcus not to mention Ikea while in Copenhagen. Chester mentions that Ikea is Swedish, not Danish, that this confusion bothers the people of Denmark, and that he learned it the hard way. I suppose people get confused about the origin of said store because Sweden and Denmark are Scandinavian countries, that is, they are part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, which is an area made up of three countries (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway), these two countries share cultural characteristics but ultimately are not the same.

This whole dialogue between Chester and Marcus reminds me of the metas talking about how Claire is a substitute for Syd. To me, the above is like the confusion between Denmark and Sweden, similar but not the same. Syd is linked to Noma and Danish design, therefore to Copenhagen/Denmark, while Claire is not. I'll just say Claire is Sweden, not Denmark.

By the way, the flags of the two countries are very similar, except one is red and the other blue, while Norway's is red with a blue cross. All of this makes me wonder if this is intentional.

Flag of Denmark (red) / Flag of Sweden (blue)

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Since I have some free time at work, I took advantage of it to use my architectural skills to make the FOH plan of The bear. I did it with what I could deduce from images. I don't really know if it's 100% correct.

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While watching The Nanny the chapter where Mrs. Sheffield dates someone who looks like Fran, I remembered something, Carmy needs Niles.

Niles: You see I should have used my oven mitt instead of this absurd substitute but I didn't realize I wanted my oven mitt until I saw together and then I understood that of course my oven mitt is exactly what I wanted, and goodnees gracious, it was under my nose entire time.

Mrs. Sheffield: Good, glad you found it!

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Some things about interior design

-The decorative painting that appears in season 2 with the phrase "mother" is located on the side wall of the bar space (which is the space where drinks are displayed and prepared, Donna / drinks)

- According to my little research on the internet: the Sydney Opera House is one of the great architectural works of Danish design.

- The "bear" wall, that is, I'm talking about the wall where the booths are located, for me is a key element in the FOH design. It stands out because it has a wood covering with huge grain (remember that the other walls are white). It also has warm lighting from bottom to top, which further reinforces its unique character. These grains could be a reference to the scratches of these animals, resembling the lines that sometimes appear in Carmy's panic attacks (I read about the lines that appear during panic attacks and the similarity to scratches in a meta; it clicked when I saw the wood on the wall)

- I found it curious how the decision was made to remove the false ceiling from the interior, that is, the false ceiling was eliminated, leaving the structural beams exposed, and the smooth finish of the walls was also eliminated, leaving the bricks with its imperfections exposed.On the other hand, leaving the materials exposed, just as they are, is a characteristic of the Danish style, which is characterized by the use of natural materials, wood, leather, among others, so this decision could be due to being in line with this design line chosen for The Bear.

- The use of cold/warm materials in FOH is in tune with the series' recurring theme of cold/warm, red/blue. To achieve this, warm-toned wood furniture was used, honey-colored booth upholstery, gold lamps and decorative accessories, warm lighting, and white paint on the walls. These elements together reinforce the idea of ​​a warm space. However, this warmth provided by the materials and lighting is combined with cool materials. In this case, the cool element is the floor, which appears to be polished concrete (concrete is considered a cool material in architecture and interior design). However, although warm and cold materials are combined in the design, the overall feel of the FOH environment is warm/homey, which is more noticeable when contrasted with Ever's design. At Ever we have a cooler material palette and a more experimental/futuristic atmosphere, its design is a bit more "square" that is, there are more linear elements, there are lattices based on wooden strips, linear lamps, walls with lines, a cold light, etc., while at The Bear we see more organic lines in the furniture, lamps and accessories, I want to assume that the food they serve is in tune with the interior design of both restaurants.

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María la curandera // Natalia Lafourcade

Appreciation post for this beautiful video

Cúrate, mi niña, con amor del más bonito y enciende el fuego

Entrega tus dolores que se vuelvan polvo y vengan nuevas flores

Heal yourself, my girl, with the most beautiful love and light the fire

Give your pains to dust and new flowers come

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Let me push you vs I can push you and you can push me

2x09 Syd and Marcus

3x02 Syd and Carmy

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The scenes between C (Calongero) and June from Bronx tale (1993) give me Sydcarmy vibes in the fic "Rules for dating a (fake) italian" by poor little greenie.

C: I'm Calongero

June: Who, what kind of name is that?

C: It's italian, but actually it's sicilian, my family is from Sicily

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I just realized, there is a girl with the same hairstyle as Syd in that episode, in the image where Tina has her back turned.

#sydcarmy

Why does Tina sing "Before the next teardrop falls" right in the chapter where Syd finds out that Carmy is spending time with Claire? Is it because it is a song in Spanish and English and it refers to Tina's Latin origin? Is it because Tina is going through a difficult time with her husband? I don't know, Rick.

The karaoke sequence happens in between two scenes of the triangle formed by Syd, Carmy, and Claire, the first is where Syd finds out from Natalie about Claire's existence and the second is where they meet in person. Did they decide to randomly put the karaoke scene right between these two scenes?

Let's remember that "Before the next teardrop falls" is a song that talks about watching your ex-partner start a new relationship, wishing him the best and reminding him that if it goes wrong you will be there. I choose to think that this song was chosen because it reflects Syd's feelings. during that chapter.

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RED AND BLUE HARMONY

PUNCH DRUNK LOVE/THE BEAR

A few days ago I saw Punch Drunk Love, a romantic comedy with Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, in the film the protagonists wear the colors red and blue, red is used for Lena and blue for Barry, both colors tell us about their personalities. Red is Lena, she has a more extroverted and lively personality. Let's also remember that red symbolizes love, fire and passion. While Barry is a melancholic, lonely, and introverted character, blue is the right choice to represent this character.

At the beginning of the film Barry wears a completely blue suit, tie and shirt, but as the romance with Lena progresses, the tie changes color, passing through yellow and purple, until reaching red, in the same way we see how Lena includes blue and white in his wardrobe. These two colors are also used in background objects, and lighting.

The use of color as a narrative support for the plot reminded me of the metas that mention that Syd and Carmy are assigned the color red and blue respectively, and I suppose so, since both Carmy and Syd wear these colors throughout the show, so as in Punch Drunk Love, the colors appear in the settings and lighting, even the secondary characters wear them, however I think Carmy and Claire have only worn blue so far, although Calire does appear with red lipstick in one of the chapters.

Barry's evolution regarding the color of his wardrobe leaves me wondering if Carmy will ever include some red detail in her wardrobe as a symbol that reflects the importance of the relationship with Syd (or he already uses it and I didn't realize, or is it the scrunchie?).

Apart from the use of color, the film has more similarities with The Bear, starting with the protagonists, Barry is a character who suffers from anxiety, which becomes complicated every time his family appears on the scene, this anxiety at certain moments transforms into anger, Barry is considered “weird” by his family, which reminds me of Carmy and their family dynamic. On the other hand we have Lena, a more active character, we can see this since she takes the initiative in their relationship, she fakes a chance meeting with Barry, later it is revealed to us that she planned the meeting, since Barry's sister shows her a photo and she likes it, so she decides she wants to meet him, this reminded me of Syd and the special place lie theory in the first meeting she has with Carmy. Throughout the movie we see how Lena's actions advance the plot, just like Syd in The Bear, I think there are other similarities but I don't have time to write them anymore, however, I recommend this movie, it's very nice, the music, images, characters, in general everything, excellent service 10/10.

Finally, I leave this quote that I found while searching for information about Punch Drunk Love:

"This choice of a warm palette reflects the drive of life that the relationship with Lena represents for Barry. As he states, it is the force of love that leads him to protect himself and resolve his conflicts."

Scene from Punch Drunk Love

Scene from The Bear 2x03

Note: I recently also saw Past Lives, a romantic drama, and I was surprised, the protagonists also wear red and blue.

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"The Kitchen" has just been released, a mexican-american film, I discovered this on a podcast and immediately ran to see the trailer. The caption on the trailer says "The Bear on steroids" with that phrase it convinced me, and I want to see it.

By the way, the director of this film made one of my favorite mexican films: Güeros, I hope "The Kitchen" is just as good.

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I hope You'll answer my question. Why the directors and the actors themselves always says that Syd and carmy's relationship Isn't meant to be romantic when from the very start they've hinted that way? The songs,the starigs, the pining, all of it was their work and we're not receiving a mixed message here cause the message is very clear atp. So do you think they are just trying to not give a spoiler?

I started watching the series a few months before the premiere of season 3, after finishing watching it I had the feeling that Carmy and Syd were the romantic couple of the series, but when looking for more information about this I found those interviews where it was denied that both could have a romantic relationship and it was just a relationship of colleagues, however to find out if I was crazy I recommended the series to several people, immediately when they finished watching it I asked them about Syd and Carmy, they answered yes, they liked each other, that answer made me believe that I had correctly interpreted the romantic vibes between them, I want to believe that it is as you say, the directors and actors hide that part so as not to reveal the background of the plot, is it that, or we are all misunderstanding the series 😭 😭

P.S. I've also seen/listened to tiktoks and podcasts of people who make content to criticize series and movies, I find it strange that they don't mention the romantic vibes of Carmy and Syd as an important part of the series, they even deny these vibes, this drives me a little crazy to be honest

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Why does Tina sing "Before the next teardrop falls" right in the chapter where Syd finds out that Carmy is spending time with Claire? Is it because it is a song in Spanish and English and it refers to Tina's Latin origin? Is it because Tina is going through a difficult time with her husband? I don't know, Rick.

The karaoke sequence happens in between two scenes of the triangle formed by Syd, Carmy, and Claire, the first is where Syd finds out from Natalie about Claire's existence and the second is where they meet in person. Did they decide to randomly put the karaoke scene right between these two scenes?

Let's remember that "Before the next teardrop falls" is a song that talks about watching your ex-partner start a new relationship, wishing him the best and reminding him that if it goes wrong you will be there. I choose to think that this song was chosen because it reflects Syd's feelings. during that chapter.

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The city as inspiration

One of my favorite episodes of season 2 is without a doubt 2x03, one of my favorite parts is where we see a little of Syd's creative process, I love how they present us with a superposition of images of food, architecture, and close-ups of Syd's face.

This superposition of images takes us into Syd's creative process, it shows us how Syd uses the architecture of the city as a composition element for his dish, since he is inspired by the shape of the buildings to give shape to what I assume they are ravioli. She plays with the organic shapes she observes in "The Marina City", and also tries with the orthogonal shapes of the more square elements that are around, whether buildings or windows, these two options Syd draws in her notebook.

However, in the end they show us a third option: a mixture of both: a ravioli with an orthogonal shape and wavy edges (although I no longer identify if this is the final option for the dish).

Following this theme of organic shapes and orthogonal shapes, I noticed that Syd in her famous green jacket wears organic shapes, while Carmy's iconic jacket is composed of orthogonal shapes, this wardrobe choice, I don't know if it is related to what I commented above, but I like to think so.

Another topic that I liked is the parallelism between the conception of a building and the creation of a dish, since we see details of the creation of Marina City: from sketches, interior plans, to photos of the construction process, These images contrast with the images referring to the creation of a dish, and the show combines these two during season 2: architecture and cuisine come together to give life to The Bear, a menu of chaos and a Danish style.

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Those ligths so hot and cold

While watching episode 3x07 in the opening minutes I found a conversation about lights that I thought was interesting to return to, this sequence to which I refer presents us with the Faks fixing the lamp that illuminates the table of the expo. This lamp is the one that breaks down in 3x02, in this chapter we have indications that there is something wrong with the light of the expo when the Faks join Richie, Syd and Carmy, that is where the lamp begins to hum and the Faks they realize this, later the lamp falls on the table while the team argues with Carmy about Claire.

Returning to chapter 3x07, while the Faks are checking the lamp they mention: "Those lights are so hot and cold", Neil complements his cousin's comment with - "I don't understand", Neil does not understand how it is possible that it still does not work when Ted had already fixed it, or at least that's what it seems, however it continues to fail.

Is this dialogue between the Faks about the "lights failing" telling us about how Carmy and Syd's relationship is during season 3?

In response to this, the lamp breaks down in 3x02, and in 3x07 they are trying to fix it again, since it continues to flicker, so I thought that if it could be that everything about the lamp tells us about sydcarmy's relationship, since when begins to fail, the attempt to fix it until the mention that they are cold and hot at the same time, in addition, the only lighting that is apparently broken is that of the expo, which is precisely Syd and Carmy's space.

On the other hand, remember that in 3x02 when the lamp falls, the relationship between both begins to deteriorate, since Carmy edits the menu without Syd, adding to this Carm arrives with the non-negotiables, while in 3x07 where they try to fix the lamp again, is where Carmy, Syd and Marcus talk about the legacy, and Carmy begins to think about his own, he mentions that he would like it to be without panic, and without anxiety, but for that he would have to filter out the bad and start being honest with everyone and everything, this chapter could be the turning point of the season, and how Carmy thinks about changing direction to fix the "lamp", I say this because in subsequent chapters to this one, that is, 3x09 "Apologies" and 3x10 "Ever" Carmy begins to take small actions to get out of the spiral in which he finds himself, Carmy tries to communicate with Syd again, asks her out, confronts chef David, even things begin to improve in general for everyone, In 3x07 we see Ebra receive help to serve the sandwich window, while in 3x08 there is an improvement in Natalie and Donna's relationship.

Note: There are other posts that mention that the lights may be a reference to Syd and Carmy, I don't remember all the authors and posts that refer to this topic, or maybe someone else already wrote about this post, If so, an apology.