#Look I GET that they had to work with the existing pre-strike footage and try to cobble something around that

[twilight-deviant]

It DOES feel like waiting. Not just for absent characters from the original but as its own standalone show.

We're six episodes in, and it still somehow feels like the setup stage. What the original series understood that BA doesn't seem to is the importance of mini-bosses and completing individual arcs. The first six episodes of DD were satisfying because they handled the entire Russian subplot. (And it was good!) By the end of 1x06, we felt like we accomplished something by having that wrapped up. It gives the viewer a sense of progress while still building to the main boss. (We then worked on the personal storyline of Mrs. Cardenas and the climatic DD fight with Nobu that ended both arcs. So on.)

BA keeps introducing storyline after storyline after storyline, and the only one to be wrapped up is the self-contained bank robbery. Not only does it remove a sense that we're going anywhere, doing anything, but it becomes overwhelming. Every episode they add something new to keep track of while not finishing anything they already put on the table. All achievements are being pushed to the last two episodes, and all we can do is hope they somehow manage to stick that substantial landing. In the meantime, we have no sense of payoff, only waiting.

As much as I’m enjoying the snow, it still lowkey feels like waiting. Not even necessarily just for Matt officially coming back as daredevil, in the back my mind I’m still waiting for foggy and Karen. And we know Karen will come back so that’s something at least, but if foggy is really in actuality dead, then it’s always gonna feel like something is missing from this show and I have no idea if they’ll ever be able to get away from that tbh, no matter how good the writing is otherwise

[momentofmemory]

FICTOBER 2020 - day two

Prompt #2: “That’s the easy part.”

Fandom: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Characters: Ned Leeds, Peter Parker

Words: 1445

Author’s Note: set semi-immediately post FFH, Ned & Peter have a chat on the nature of friendship, and a bit of star wars meta along the way. Ned POV. for @friendofspidermannedleeds

>> the han dies alone

Spider-Man was Peter Parker.

It was a fact that could mean a lot of things to Ned, but all that really mattered now was that it meant something to the entire world.

He’d watched the stream in mounting horror, his phone already blowing up with group messages and twitter mentions, and he had to bite back a hysterical laugh when he got a string of Snaps from Flash—one of which included an invite to an interview, and the rest of which devolved into increasingly confusing profanity.

Ned let them roll in for another few precious seconds, then muted all notifications except from emergency contacts, stuffed a bunch of supplies into the extra backpack he kept for when Peter lost his, and ran the full two blocks east to Peter’s apartment.

It was, to be perfectly honest, an absurd guess. Peter could’ve gone anywhere, but Peter was also a creature of habit—and home was where Peter went when he wanted to feel safe.

Ned’s guess was rewarded when he pounded on the Parkers’ apartment door and was nearly decked in the face by a red-clad fist.

“Whoa, hey, it’s me!”

Peter’s fist fell away instantly, giving Ned his first real look at his friend.

He looked even worse than he’d feared; his normally high-key energy verging on something closer to manic.

“Ned? What are you doing here? It’s not safe—”

“I came for you, man.” Ned hefted his backpack into the air, sliding deftly past Peter and into the hall. “Fifteen hundred piece lego set, beef jerky, granola, and also that history assignment you left on the floor last night.”

Peter stared at him in utter confusion, then shook his head. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“Maybe, but it’s too late now. Where’s May?”

“She’s with Happy.” Peter followed Ned back into the bedroom. “They’re supposed to call when they know more.”

Good. If someone else was taking care of the world, then all Ned had to take care of was Peter.

______________________

"You should leave.”

“Yep.” Ned didn’t look up from his econ homework—It was at least the fourth time they’d had this conversation, and explaining opportunity cost to Mrs. Roessler seemed far more important. “Not going to.”

“Ned.”

“Peter. You said you were supposed to stay here until May or Happy texts. So that’s what we’re doing.”

Peter fell quiet for a moment, and Ned went on to the comparison sections for absolute advantage vs comparative advantage.

Then:

“It’s safer for me than it is for you.”

“And it’s safer for me when I’m with you.”

Something about that response seemed to rile Peter up specifically, as Ned could hear him shifting around on the bed. “And what about when the next axe crazy supervillain tries to use you as bait?”

“Then that’s the easy part,” Ned said with a shrug. “You rescue me.”

“Ned!” Peter tumbled off the top bunk, hair disheveled and looking absolutely scandalized. “This isn’t—this isn’t something to joke about—”

“I’m not joking.”

Peter frowned harder, and Ned momentarily stopped chewing his gum. He figured he was probably doing something cool like listening to his heartbeat or counting the beads of sweat on his forehead, so he didn’t want any chewing noises or motions to distract him.

Whatever Peter was looking for, he must not have found it. “Ned, just—just because you’re not joking doesn’t mean you’re serious. They could kill you to get at me.”

Ned sighed and put his homework down on the desk, resigning himself to another late assignment. It wasn’t like they were likely to have school tomorrow, anyway.

Discovering Spider-Man was on Midtown’s roll was sure to warrant at least one emergency “teacher work day” for the administration.

Peter was still looking at him, and the open fear on his face scared him more than he’d like to admit. Ned quickly pulled up YouTube on his laptop and started typing, just to give him something to do.

The second hand on the analogue clock ticked ominously.

Still no word from May.

“Look,” Ned said eventually, sliding another piece of gum out of his stash, “Han Solo was trying to leave the Rebellion when Vader captured him and Leia. He was out, and he still got used as bait.”

“That’s different,” Peter said. “Han was working with the Rebellion for months, and he was still there during the Hoth attack.”

Ned smacked his gum. “But Han himself wasn’t with the Rebellion. Or Luke.”

“But the Empire didn’t know that!”

“So what you’re saying is,” Ned said, “their current status didn’t matter because of their pre-existing relationship.”

Peter had nothing to say to that.

Ned returned his attention to the copyright infringement notice he’d written up. He’d managed to claim almost all of the footage from Mysterio’s reveal, and now anyone trying to repost it would be automatically taken down by the algorithm. It wouldn’t hold up in court, but all he needed was for it to ping YouTube’s three strike rule.

Hopefully that would buy them enough time to come up with a more permanent solution.

Ned heard Peter shift behind him, then launch himself back up onto the bunk bed and out of sight. 

More seconds.

“...Han got tortured,” Peter said, voice muffled. “And then locked in carbonite for months.”

Ned winced. It was a fair point.

“He got the girl, though. Think MJ’d let me kiss her?”

“Ned.”

“I’m kidding! Also I completely respect her both as your significant other and as an individual person, please don’t tell her I said that I don’t want to die.”

Something cracked loudly behind him, and by the time Ned spun the chair around Peter was looking morosely down at the splintered headboard between his hands.

“If you don’t want to die,” Peter said, and the anguish in his friend’s voice finally lowered Ned’s defenses, “then why won’t you just leave?”

Ned tapped his fingers uselessly against the base of his laptop, then abruptly closed the lid. Despite being Peter’s guy in the chair, this was the kind of thing that could only be handled in person.

“Scoot over,” he said, awkwardly clambering up onto the bed that could barely hold one of them, let alone both. But it had in the past, and he was confident it would again.

Peter shifted to the side of the wall to make room, all but squashing himself into the corner, and it was so spider-like Ned didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. He settled for another sigh, and watched the seconds on the clock on the wall tick by. 

It was only a matter of time before some excitable journalist—or worse—showed up at the Parker’s door, but they didn’t have anywhere else much safer until May or Happy called Peter back. He figured since they hadn’t, they were at least okay for now. 

He waited until the muscles in Peter’s arms unwound, and Peter had successfully peeled himself off the corner, to speak.

“We’ve been best friends for ages,” he said, slowly. Unable to hide his own fear from coloring his voice. “If I were going to avoid getting used to hurt you or whatever, I probably needed to stop being your friend like, before high school years ago.”

Peter flinches. “You don’t have to be part of this, we can make it look like a huge fight, or like you didn’t know—”

“Peter,” Ned pressed, “how would me knowing or not knowing make me any less of a target? If I told you to hate me, could you do it?”

“No!”

The words shot out of Peter’s mouth faster than he could fire his webshooters, but he only understood their significance once they were in the air. Peter stared down at his wrists, as if he could see them written there.

“…I just don’t want to lose anyone else,” he said.

“Trust me when I say I don’t want to be lost.” Ned shuddered, then shrugged. “The way I see it, yeah, Han dies eventually. But he also doesn’t die until the trio breaks up, right? Luke’s halfway across the galaxy and Leia’s not much better. So Han dies when he’s alone. Maybe because he’s alone.”

The corner of Peter’s lip quirked up; the closest thing to a smile Ned had gotten so far. “Weren’t Rey and Finn—”

“Literally let me have this for once I feel like I’m making a really good point.”

Peter snorted, and that definitely counted as a win. Ned knocked his shoulder against Peter’s.

“What d’you say. No going Solo?”

Peter bit his lip, still wrestling with the guilt. Then he nodded.

“No going solo.”

[the-gunslock]

Hiver 2 - Gunslock

This is the story of how I got this title months ago, and why I stuck with it.

At the dawn of a new day, Hiver and her two Hunter clanmates, Selene and Reyla, were off to seek their allies in the Tower Courtyard, joking the whole way. They are immortal, but they love to make every second count.

“…Hawthorne went ‘Dead Orbit?’ and I was like–”

“Gunslock.”

They heard someone shout. All of them got confused and tried to find the source of the call. Turns out it was two Hunters who were loitering near the railings, looking at Hiver’s fireteam. They approach them. Selene, although confused, decides whatever they have to do for the day is more important than these two.

“Uhm. Can we help you?” She asks in annoyance, hoping to get it over with soon.

“Yeah, this one Warlock here…she made a name for herself around her fellow Strike fireteams. You, as Hunters, oughta be ashamed of it.” One of the Hunters, an Awoken, replies to them, scratching his chin, voice full of venom.

“What does Gunslock even mean.” Hiver questions flatly.

“It means,” the second one steps up, replying beneath his rusty greenish Prodigal Mask, “that you’re doing a better job at being a Gunslinger than actual Gunslingers.”

Hiver’s hand unconsciously floats over her thigh where her cannon is stored.  “A… Gunslinger… Warlock?”

“Ya think just because you got a Cayde’s fancy Hand Cannon,” He points towards her replica of the Ace of Spades, “and can shoot some heads, it means you can try to step into our turf?” He asks, his body language smug and accusatory. It almost feels like a challenge.

“I’m better than them?” Hiver turns to her friends, puzzled. “…Am I better than you? I know I was revived a bit earlier, but…” Both shrug. Hiver turns back at the Hunter, eyebrow raised.

They trade looks, impatient. The Awoken one transmats on his white Floating Cowl helmet and makes a proposition. “How about a showdown, smartass? Braytech, Mars, one hour. Bring your best cannon.”

Hiver shrugs at this situation. “Sure, I think. Just gotta do our thing here at the Tower.”

The Hunters transmat away, into their ships. The clanmates go get their bounties and soon they’re also on their ships, on their merry way to Mars.

“An actual ‘standoff’. I thought these only existed in fiction.” Trinity, Hiver’s Ghost, comments, bobbing beside her in the ship’s cockpit.

“Something’s not right. They felt crooked to me.” Reyla states, thinking out loud. “These guys are weird. Hiver, be careful.”

Trinity looks at Hiver in worrying. “Do you girls mind watching my back?” The Warlock indulges, arms behind her seat’s headrest.

“Sure. I’ll keep them on the other side of my scope.” Reyla replies, loading her Long Shadow sniper.

“Selene?”

“I’ll do the best I can.” The other Hunter loads a clip into her Jade Rabbit scout rifle. “Joan,” she whispers to her own Ghost. “Patch through to Ana. Send that footage, tell her that this could be dangerous. Just in case.”

They exist Slipspace and quickly enters Mars’ orbit. The three guardians meet in front of the BrayTech Futurescape, right beside Rasputin’s Escalation Protocol pillar. Ana is looking on from inside her headquarters with her optic enhancements.

Hiver, laid back, left hand on her belt and right one near her thigh, is facing the first Guardian, the one with the Prodigal Mask. His stance was alert, almost predatory, and his gauntlets were crude, with metal crooked and bent in all directions; If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought it was just improvised armor. 

However, her miserable Crucible matches made her aware that these bent blades were a piece of Exotic armor – Shards of Galanor. On his leg, a black gun with green lights, one she didn’t immediately recognize.

But she had a hunch. One that gave the duel higher stakes if she was right.

Trinity was out of sight, playing an old, pre-Golden Age song. Intense, instrumental, said to be a theme of a famous movie about duels of old Hunters. Perched in the unused trains to the east, Reyla sat with her sniper at the ready. Peeking from around a corner, Selene was ready to run in at any sign of danger.

The Hunter’s companion was nowhere to be seen. Hiver’s Eye of Another World helmet highlighted an enemy behind her, so she could only assume it was him, and not some stray Hive Acolyte. Escalation Protocol was not active. It seems they went a great length to clear out the showdown area.

The music only got more intense as time went on, and the Hunter spoke.

“You shouldn’t get that close, lady.”

“I’m like ten meters away from you.” Hiver said, her hand begging to draw Ace at any moment.

“No.”

The other Hunter, using his crisp-white Sixth Coyote vest, has managed to quickly close the gap behind the Warlock, putting her in a full Nelson hold.

She can’t move.

He’ll probably break her shoulders or neck. She silently panics for a while, while her clanmates are listening in on the comms, trying to understand just what is going on.

The first Hunter takes some steps towards them and takes his gun, fiddling with it. “Looking for his cannon too, are ya? You do not know what you’re getting into by going after ‘every Hand Cannon that exists.’” He said, nodding at her leg where Ace was holstered. “Think you could convince that foolish rat with his little game at the Tower into turning a blind eye to your ‘collecting’? He prolly did.”

He twirls his bulky gun in his hand before turning it towards the Warlock’s head. It reeks of death.

“But we didn’t. You’re gonna have to get this one eventually. And when you do… you’re sealing the deal of who you really are… Dredgen.”

Trinity sends a sign to Reyla. At the same time she shoots the cannon out of the Hunter’s hand, Hiver unleashes a Thunderstrike out of her hands into her captor, who is staggered and lets her go. She elbows him in the face and notices the Prodigal Hunter leaping into the air, channeling Solar energy to his knives. The white-armored hunter behind her is trying to grab ahold of her again, this time with his knife in hand.

Selene jumps out of cover and manages to shoot his chest with Jade Rabbit and cause him to flinch, giving Hiver the chance to blink forward as the Prodigal Hunter launches his Blade Barrage, mistakenly hitting and killing his ally.

Mirroring Cayde’s performance in the Prison of Elders, Hiver uses her blink momentum to slide under the airborne hunter and shoot him in the chest and throat with Ace, causing him to lose all chance of a smooth landing and crashing near his friend, almost dead.

The Warlock catches her breath and examines the Prodigal’s gun as she walks past. She recognizes its luminescent, arcane smoke. The otherworldly fear that this one gun represented – just now pointed towards her.

Thorn.

It’s back. She didn’t even know.

She holsters Ace and walks up to their bodies. The first Hunter, who wore white armor themed after the Trials of the Nine, laid deceased and his body bled from where the Prodigal Hunter’s knives hit. The other wasn’t dead, but was choking and struggling to breathe.

“Shadow.” She said, her voice full of spite over almost ending all her lives to the hand of two insane, power-hungry vermin.

He coughs. “Yeah… So what?” He tries getting up, but simply doesn’t have the strength. “You think yourself a hero, like… like the Man with the Golden Gun?” He points towards his fallen Thorn. “D’you dare to use the Dark… if it meant you got what you wanted?”

Hiver remained silent. He continues. “You two… are just as foolish. We… we do. It’s… heh– incredible. Addicting. And… there’s…” wheeze “so many more. You think… you can out-shoot us all?”

Having enough of this man, Hiver plants a foot on his chest and puts one of Ace’s bullets through his head. She twirls it and puts it back on her leg. Even though she has that wish to grant herself – she doesn’t dare touch the Shadow’s Thorn. Her connection to the Light feels rotten by even coming near it.

Reyla and Selene are slowly coming to rendezvous, guns still in hand. Ana has contacted the Vanguard and is reporting the situation to them. Trinity pops out of transmat near Hiver’s chest. “You know, they are Guardians too. They can just come back after you if they have Ghosts.”

With that, the squad hears the characteristic summoning of a Golden Gun. They all look back to see the bandits’ Ghosts being destroyed in two fiery explosions, the last one shattering the corrupted cannon on the ground.

Looking around, they spot the source. A meddling Gunslinger, wearing battered, outdated armor. But he stood with pride, and it showed, even though his face was covered by his visor. And, under it, perhaps a layer of satisfaction.

“Warlock. Hunters.” He greeted. His voice was deep, almost guttural. She greeted back with a thankful nod.

“Hello.”

The Hunter eyed the ashen bullet-hole that his Golden Gun left on the ground where Thorn was. He quickly turned to the fireteam, and all he uttered was a slow, very clear “Nice work”.

The Fireteam was ready to leave it at that and go on with their day.

That is until the Gunslinger turned around to leave and, under the swooshing motion of his tattered cloak, the women spotted the glint of a golden hand cannon on his leg.

[jameswalkerphotographer]

Moving Image Evaluation.

The purpose of this brief was to create a moving image of 1 minute duration comprising at least three clips with at least three different camera movements.

I was actually quite looking forward to this brief, especially after the Stop Motion task. My evaluation for that one had been that if I wanted a video then I would just shoot a video. Among other research I had listened to a masterclass by documentary film maker Ken Burns which had whetted my appetite.

I was also contacted by a friend who is a professional film maker, predominantly for music videos. He asked to use my garden and one of our horses in a video he was making. It was interesting to watch a pro, actors and assistants at work even if it was for less than half an hour. The resultant footage was just a few seconds long.

The reality was for me that life got in the way to a much greater extent than planned. An outbreak of covid locally among the teenage population meant that I had to commit to a lot more as people isolated a s a precaution. Two more became ill with the after effects of their vaccinations so I lost a lot of time from the shooting plan.

I understand that the decision to copy an existing advertisement was intended to save time in pre production planning. The reality is that I spent so much time looking for a suitable ad that I could easily have written and shot something myself.

The end result for me was a rush job to try and emulate a McDonald’s ad that bore striking similarities to my stop motion submission. What had been an interesting task had become a chore that was eating away at time that I did not really have.

Having the storyboard helped keep track of where I was going but I deviated somewhat from that as opportunities presented themselves and more logical or more practical shots became apparent.

The production of the video was actually shot over two days with footage from both days being included. Some shots had not worked as well as I had liked while others were better than planned.

I found it difficult to get the footage off the camera and into any software for some reason. Adobe bridge simply refused to recognise that the footage was there. Rush did the same and only iMovie had any success.

I eventually created an over length video in iMovie and exported that to my daughter’s laptop as she has access to premier pro. She helped me set the edit up and I tried to get to grips with a new system. Fortunately it is reasonably intuitive and she was mostly on hand to assist with answers. This did however mean that I was not able to include the logo shot I had planned. Eventually time ran out and I had to go with what I had. I am certain that the quality of the work has suffered however I am reasonably happy with the result.

I was surprised how difficult it was to maintain focus and to move the camera smoothly. I always find it difficult to shoot using the screen at the back of the camera so almost never use it but use the eyepiece instead. That was clearly not a practical option for this task.

I have seen photographers and bloggers use a monopod on the SLR with a GoPro camera attached below to record video. As Go Pro cameras are increasingly used in professional TV production I believe that is the way to go should I need to shoot video in future. They are not of course a magic lantern but I think the software and image stabilisation are much better and they produce images of a quality at least equal to what is required for this brief.

[dstrachan]

DREAM WIFE 'SO WHEN YOU GONNA …. '

Dream Wife = Alice Go, Bella Podpadec and Rakel Mjöll, are back with their second album and as the title suggests, it is a record brimming with adrenaline and playful excitement.  Now I could go on and copy and paste the rest of their press release here but that would be extremely lazy, despite the fact that I fully agree with it. 

I haven't posted many album reviews recently because I felt that I was getting into a rather deep rut: right from the start I made a decision not to write negative reviews – artists and production teams for albums had clearly invested many hours along with copious amounts of blood sweat and tears to produce something that they believed in so what right had I to express my feelings simply because I hadn't liked the result?  My reasons for writing reviews was never about promoting my personal profile – only about seeking to help to highlight great musical talent in the hope of increasing their positive exposure, so I reckoned that if I hadn't been moved to write something positive it would be best to say nothing at all.  After all, I'm one of those who first heard Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' whilst working in the Edinburgh branch of Bruce's Record Shop in Rose Street, and along with other staff, wondered what the hell they were playing at – who on earth was going to want to listen to the ramblings of somebody having a bad trip?  Well we all what happened next back then in 1975!

So, with that principle established I began to realise that my reviews were becoming really quite formulaic and could pretty much be summed up as follows; “I really like this music – because I have listened to such a wide range of great music over the last half century some parts of some of the tracks evoke memories of other, previous musical gems; I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this album and would like to wish the artists all the best for the future and invite you to give them a fair hearing to find out whether or not you agree with my enthusiasm”.  Consequently I came to realise that any further reviews would be quite repetitive and I pretty much took a step back from reviewing, with any reviews essentially being restricted to reporting on gigs that I had enjoyed.  Given the devastating effect of the coronavirus on the live gig scene since March this year, opportunities for attending live gigs have disappeared.  Many excellent live stream performances have been available and I have enjoyed a number of these but haven't got round to trying to review these as yet, perhaps that is because logging on to watch a live stream doesn't come with the same additional experience - driving many miles, parking, perhaps having a meal before the gig, getting into the venue and then driving home doesn't really stack up against remaining at home, sitting by my laptop and clicking a link.  But many thanks to all who have impressed me during these live streams, including Nervous Twitch, Not Now Norman and especially Reely Jiggered whose weekly 'live on the drive' performances outside their house have been exceptionally inspiring given Fiona and Alison McNeil's wonderfully infectious enthusiasm.

So, after that preamble, back to Dream Wife and their second album 'So When You Gonna?'; well I write this on 1st August 2020 shortly after receiving my neon pink vinyl copy of the album, the day that I announced my August 'track of the month' selection as being the opening track 'Sports!'.  I have always been extremely impressed by these three exceptional humans and had intended to begin this post by referring back to my review of their debut album – but it turns out that any such review is entirely in my head as I can find no record of it!  So instead of a brief reference to a TFL P4 bus journey from Lewisham to Brixton, believing that to have already been detailed in my apparently non-existent review of their first album, I will have to explain more fully.

It was Saturday 15th September 2018 and my daughter and I were traveling from Lewisham to Brixton on a route P4 bus when somewhere en-route (possibly the Nunhead area, but my knowledge of London really isn't that good) two striking young women got on and sat beside each other, directly in front of us.  Although they didn't speak to each other I sensed a bit of mutual chemistry and they seemed to be very pre-occupied.  I did actually wonder if they might also be heading to the O2 Academy for the Garbage gig that we were heading for but thought no more of it, especially when they got off a few stops before us.  We then went for a truly enjoyable ramen meal in 'Nanban', Coldharbour Lane.  Later, in the venue I watched with amazement as the support band (until then we had known nothing about them) came on stage – the guitarist and bass player looked very familiar – they were the two who I remembered from the bus!  Bella and Alice were then joined by Rakel and we were subsequently enthralled by a truly exciting, energetic and inspired performance as we wallowed in our first experience of Dream Wife (the Garbage set was excellent and entralling too, but that's really not the focus of this review).  Later, in the wee small hours of the following Sunday morning, as I lay on the sofa bed in my daughter's flat, unable to get to sleep as I recalled the gig, I got on-line and ordered a copy of Dream Wife's album on blood spattered vinyl.  For my review of that amazing album please refer back to my intro regarding the repetitiveness of my reviews!

Dream Wife have always been outspoken about holding up other women and non-binary people in the creative industries, but these aren’t just words or sentiments.  With a gender divide in music production currently estimated at around ninety-five percent male to five percent female, the band are proud to have worked with an all-female recording team for 'So When You Gonna...', including producer and mixer Marta Salogni (Björk, Holly Herndon, FKA Twigs) engineer Grace Banks (David Wrench, Marika Hackman) and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Princess Nokia, Alex G, Beach House).

“It was a way of us practicing what we preach,” says Alice, “It felt like an honour to be able to deliver this baby with these three amazing midwives.” “Put your money where your mouth is!” adds Rakel, quoting the lyrics of “Sports!”

In the first week following its release, 'So When You Gonna...' was the only one in the UK top 20 chart that was not backed by a major label, in addition they were the only one band with an album entirely produced by a womxn.

As the band posted, “the ONLY band/musician in the top 20 that is not backed by a major label. The ONLY band/musician on that list who’s album was entirely produced by a womxn. Let alone had a whole team of womxn behind it.

Which is messed up... it’s 2020 ppl?”

In addition 'So When You Gonna...' was the album of the day at BBC Radio 6 Music for 7th July, and it was Rough Trade ‘s album of the month.

Around that time the band offered people a chance to win 'Bender', the loving member of their tour family; a customized silver Burns marquee which had played probably 300+ shows with the band and was a big part of the writing and recording of both their albums.  In the end Elina Lin was announced as the winner and she decided to gift the guitar to Girls Rock London – much respect to Elina :-)

So, after all that, what about the actual album that I'm supposed to me reviewing?  Well, it's truly a breath of fresh air.  The selection of eleven tracks is absolutely inspired, and pleasingly varied in content and style whilst simultaneously maintaining a coherent sound and identity.  I refer to my earlier comments about my overall approach to publishing album reviews, but will add that having seen the band's videos does help to add to my enjoyment of this album. Rakel's voice readily evokes images of her cheeky,  infectious smile, especially when during 'Sports!' she asks, “do you even play this sport”?  I was also extremely taken by the reerence to Kylie in 'Hold On Me', some more pretentious bands might have viewed such a reference as a step too far, but given the make up of my show playlists, I have absolutely no problem at all with this and applaud them for their honesty.  In addition the use of archive footage of much young band members for the 'Hasta La Vista' video is really quite inspired.

There are some tremendously high energy of tracks such as my 'track of the month' selection 'Sports!', the title track 'So When You Gonna …' and 'Hasta La Vista', and these are masterfully counterpointed with such intensely emotive ones such as 'Temporary', about miscarriage and 'After The Rain' with it's hauntingly intense vocals about abortion.   This album covers all bases and I genuinely believe that it deserves to be given a fair hearing.

In summary I truly feel that any future reviews should probably be more along the lines of. “if you like most of the music that I play in my radio shows, then please believe me when I say that you really should check out ….......”

One other spur for writing this and is that I have selected the album’s opening track, ‘Sports!’ as my ‘track of the month’ for August and am just about to give it its first play.  Perhaps in future I should aim to focus mainly on covering my 'track of the month selections which I am very pleased to play around half way through the second hour of every one of my shows.

Track listing:

1/ Sports!

2/ Hasta La Vista

3/ Homesick

4/ Validation

5/ Temporary

6/ U Do U

7/ RH RN

8/ Old Flame

9/ So When You Gonna

10/ Hold On Me

11/ After The Rain

[adriannabertie-blog]

Using The Full Dimension Front Printout

I’m positive so lots of you might be hoping that this entry can be about the behind the scenes of filming with the Guild. And you in all probability need me to divulge details about working with Felicia, like what she likes to eat on set, and the way typically does she sing? I guess I may get to all of that ultimately, however it is best to know me nicely sufficient by now to know that I am actually hung up on that "making things" part! I thought I would share with you among the processes I used to make the Guild product props. Every of the products utilized different strategies, so I’ll go through each one individually and provide you with an arsenal of methods to create Guild stuff of your own! The final six merchandise developed out of a sequence of conversations Felicia, producer Kim Evey, and that i had while planning the shoot, but several of the ideas cemented themselves in place relatively quickly.

The Vork Unbreakable Bank was one of them. The concept of a piggy financial institution where the money goes in but can’t come out appeared to suit Vork’s profile completely. And it was an excellent alternative to create a personality likeness, which I felt was an necessary part of the formula. I didn’t want any of the props to look like pre-existing items that logos or photographs have been adhered to. I needed every product to unmistakably be created for the guild. And aracelykellow4.wapdale.com what a greater way to start than a ¼ scale bust of Jeff Lewis! I was excited to begin with the Vork financial institution, principally because I actually benefit from the expressions Jeff makes in the present. I really needed to capture the power he puts into his character, and as quickly as Felicia gave me the go-ahead to make the commercials, that’s where I began. I’ve needed to sculpt many celebrities before, and i often begin by combing by magazines and photograph archives trying to get as many photos of them from as many angles as doable.

Front and profile are usually simple to find, however it’s the unusual angles that get you. And those are those you need probably the most to connect the dots and get an important likeness! Picture 001: We took dozens of footage, but I picked through them and assembled a fundamental chart of my favorites in Photoshop. I chose a entrance, left, proper, and again to start. Utilizing tips and the scaling device, I made sure that every one four views lined up perfectly and were the identical measurement. I printed the entire chart as a full page, then printed each view individually, scaled to the precise measurement I wanted the sculpture to be. Photo 01a: Utilizing the entrance printout as a guide, I created a simple armature using aluminum wire and a ball of foil. The foil takes up a bit of mass in the head, nevertheless it is generally just to offer stability for the clay.

Using a lot foil limits the amount you may cut again into your sculpture, utilizing too little or none at all could trigger the clay to slide down the wire and distort your completed product. 3. If you loved this post and you would like to obtain more info relating to https://Www.zentai-spandex.com/lycra-spandex/multi-color-zentai-suit/ (https://Www.zentai-spandex.com/) kindly take a look at the internet site. Some people desire a firmer clay, however I like the organic motion I get from this grade. Plus, it warms up faster and strikes smoother, so so long as I don’t knock it off the sculpting stand, it's going to stay in the form I need. I have 2 weeks to make six props, so I determine I can’t spend more than two days each on them. Tender, fast clay is in order! Photograph 02: Once there may be sufficient clay to symbolize the fundamental mass of a head, I draw a line down the center of the plain that may turn out to be the face. Utilizing the complete dimension entrance printout, I judged the spacing of Jeff’s eyes and dug out 2 holes for sockets. Picture 03: A superb trick to assist a portrait sculpture (or any sculpture with eyes, actually) go rapidly is to use rigid spheres for eyeballs.

You'll be able to all the time sculpt them in clay, however typically they modify form, size, and placement as you progress the clay around them. Through the use of BBs or marbles or whatever is the perfect measurement ball in your sculpt, you may at all times rely on them to be constant regardless of how much sculpting, sawing, or brushing you're doing to the sculpture. Simply be certain that they're the appropriate dimension. And remember that the eyeball is bigger than what the eyelids expose. Photograph 04: Place the spheres into the pinnacle. Be sure you don’t sink them too far again. I really ought to have taken a profile image here, as you will need to get the depth right as a lot as the space apart. Picture 05: Another reason why rigid spheres are helpful is because you should use them to set the balance of your sculpture. I used my 4-inch angle to ensure they have been set level into the pinnacle.