#OH WAIT-all of you is a grand friendship song in this context!!

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Summer Movie Preview: From Black Widow to The Suicide Squad and Beyond

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The summer movie season has returned. Finally. Once something we all just took for granted, like handshakes and indoor dining, a summertime season stuffed with pricy Hollywood blockbusters and cinematic escapism suddenly feels like a long lost friend. But, rest assured, the summer movie season is genuinely and truly here. It’s maybe a little later than normal, yet it’s still in time for Memorial Day in the States.

This is of course happy news since many of the big screen events of this year have been 12 months or more in the offing. A Quiet Place Part II was supposed to open two Marches ago, and In the Heights is opening almost an exact year to the day from its original release. They’re here now, as is an impressive assortment of new films. There are genre fans’ long lost superhero spectacles, with Black Widow and The Suicide Squad leading the pack (and Shang-Chi closing out the season unusually late in time for Labor Day weekend), and there are also horror movies like The Conjuring 3 and M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, aforementioned musicals, family adventures in Jungle Cruise, psychedelic Arthurian legends via The Green Knight, and a few legitimately original projects like Stillwater and Reminiscence. Imagine that!

So sit back, put your feet in the pool, or up by the grill pit, and toast with us the summer movie’s resurrection.

A Quiet Place Part II

May 28 (June 3 in the UK)

Fourteen months after its original release date, the first movie delayed by the pandemic is finally coming to theaters for Memorial Day weekend. And despite what some critics say (even our own), most of us would argue it’s worth the wait. As a movie about a family enduring after a global crisis that has left their lives in tatters, and marred by personal tragedy, A Quiet Place Part II hits differently in 2021 than it would have a year ago. And it’s undeniably optimistic view of humanity feels like a warm balm now.

But beyond the meta context, writer-director John Krasinski (flying solo as screenwriter this time) has engineered a series of intelligent and highly suspenseful set pieces which puts Millicent Simmonds’ Regan front and center. Also buoyed by subtle and affecting work by Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy, here as a neighbor they knew a few years and a lifetime ago, this is one worth dipping your toe back into cinema for, especially if you liked the first movie.

Cruella

May 28

We’ll admit it, we had the same initial skepticism you’re probably feeling about a Cruella de Vil origin story set in punk rock’s 1970s London. But put your cynicism aside, Disney’s Cruella is a decadent blast and the rarest of things: a live-action Disney remake that both honors its source material and does something creative with it. Neither a soulless scene-by-scene remake of a better animated film, or a lazy Maleficent like re-imagining, Cruella more often than not rocks, thanks in large part to its lead performance by Emma Stone.

Also a producer on the picture, Stone takes on the role of Cruella de Vil like it’ll be on an awards reel and absolutely flaunts the character’s madness and devilish charm. She also finds an excellent sparring partner via Emma Thompson, young Cruella’s very own Miranda Priestly. Once these two start their verbal battle at the end of the first act, the movie is elevated into an electric period comedy (with plenty of heavy handed period music). It’s a pseudo-thriller for all ages, enjoying some very sharp elbows for a kids movie.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

June 4 (May 26 in the UK)

The latest big-screen adventure for real-life ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) sees the two drawn into the unusual case of the first ever U.S. murder trial where the defendant claimed he was innocent because he was possessed by a demon. This is the eighth movie in The Conjuring expanded universe—director Michael Chaves has already made a foray into this supernatural world with The Curse of La Llorona—and as with all the main Conjuring films, the hook is that it’s (very loosely) based on a true case that the Warrens were involved with.

Peter Safran and James Wan are back on board as producers, although with this being the first time Wan isn’t directing one of the main Ed and Lorraine investigations, we’re a little cautious about this return to the haunted museum.

In the Heights

June 11 (June 18 in the UK)

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Tony award winning musical is getting the proper big screen treatment in In the Heights. A full-fledged movie musical—as opposed to a taped series of performances, a la Disney+’s Hamilton—In the Heights is like a sweet summer drink (or Piragua) and love letter to the Latino community of New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood.

Read more

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Best Movie Musicals of the 21st Century

By David Crow

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and the Perils of Taking on a Real Life Murder

By Rosie Fletcher

Closer in spirit to the feel-good summertime joy of Grease than the narratively complex Hamilton, this is perfect multiplex escapism (which will also be on HBO Max if you’re so inclined). Directed by Crazy Rich Asians’ Jon M. Chu, In the Heights has a euphoric sense of movement and dance as it transfers Miranda’s hybrid blend of freestyle rap, salsa rhythm, and Caribbean musical cues to the actual city blocks the show was written about. On one of those corners lives Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), a bodega owner with big dreams. He’s about to have the summer of his life. You might too.

Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard

June 16 (June 21 in the UK)

You know Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is a throwback when even its trailer brings back the “trailer voice.” But then the appeal of the 2017 B-action comedy, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, was its very throwback nature: a violent, raunchy R-rated buddy comedy that starred Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, who exchanged quips as much as bullets between some genuinely entertaining stunts.

Hopefully the sequel can also be as much lowbrow fun as it doubles down on the premise, with Reynolds’ Michael Bryce now guarding Samla Hayek’s Sonia, the wife of Jackson’s Darius. All three are on a road trip through Italy as they’re chased by Antonio Banderas in what is sure to be a series of bloody, explosive set pieces. Probably a few “motherf***ers” will be dropped too.

Luca

June 18

Pixar Studios’ hit rate is frankly incredible. With each new film seemingly comes a catchy song, an Oscar nomination, and a flood of tears from anyone with a heart—and there’s no reason to believe that its next offering will be any different. Luca is a coming-of-age tale set on the Italian Riviera about a pair of young lads who become best friends and have a terrific summer getting into adventures in the sun. The slight catch is that they’re both sea monsters.

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How Luca Became the First Pixar Movie Made at Home

By Don Kaye

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Pixar, Italian Style: Why Luca is Set in 1950s Italy

By Don Kaye

This is the feature directorial debut of Enrico Casarosa, who says the movie is a celebration of friendship with nods to the work of Federico Fellini and Hayao Miyazaki. The writers are Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones—Andrews is new to Pixar but has experience with coming-of-agers, having penned Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, while Jones co-wrote Soul. Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Grazer voice the young boys (sea monsters)—13-year-old Luca and his older teenager friend Alberto—with Maya Rudolph as Luca’s sea monster mom. After a year of lockdown, this could be the summer movie we all need.

F9

June 25

You better start firing up the grill, because the Fast and Furious crew is finally ready to have another summer barbecue. And this time, it’s not only the folks whom Dom Toretto calls “mi familia” in attendance. The big new addition to F9 is 

John Cena as Jakob Toretto. As the long-lost little brother we didn’t know Vin Diesel’s Dom had, Jakob is revealed to be a superspy, assassin, and performance driver working for Dom’s arch-nemesis, Cypher (Charlize Theron). Everything the Family does together, Jakob does alone, as a one-man wrecking crew, and he’s coming in hot.

Fans will probably be happier, though, to see Sung Kang back as Han Seoul-Oh, the wheelman who was murdered in Fast & Furious 6, and then pretty much forgotten in The Fate of the Furious when his killer got invited to the cookout. It’s an injustice that brought veteran series director Justin Lin back to  the franchise to resurrect the dead. So it’s safe to assume he won’t be asking Cypher to bring the potato salad.

The Forever Purge

July 2 (July 16 in the UK)

We know what you’re thinking: Didn’t The Purge: Election Year end the Purge forever? That or “are they really still making these?” The answer to both questions is yes. Nevertheless, here we are with The Forever Purge, a movie which asks what happens if Purgers just, you know, committed extravagant holiday crime on the other 364 days of the year? You get what is hopefully the grand finale of this increasingly tired concept.

The Tomorrow War

July 2

Hear me out: What if it’s like The Terminator but in reverse? That had to be the pitch for this one, right? In The Tomorrow War, instead of evil cyborgs time traveling to the past to kill our future savior, soldiers from the future time travel to the past to enlist our current best warrior and take him to a world on the brink 30 years from now.

It’s a crazy premise, and the kind of high-concept popcorn that one imagines Chris Pratt excels at. Hence Pratt’s casting as Dan, one of the best soldiers of the early 21st century who’ll go into the future to stop an alien invasion. The supporting cast, which includes Oscar winner J.K. Simmons and Yvonne Strahovski, Betty Gilpin, and Sam Richardson, is also nothing to sneeze at.

Black Widow

July 9

The idea of making a Black Widow movie has been around since long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe first lifted into the sky on Tony Stark’s repulsors. The character has been onscreen for more than a decade now, and Marvel Studios has for too long danced around making a solo Widow, at least in part due to the machinations of Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter.

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Movies

How Black Widow Could Build The MCU’s Future

By Kayti Burt

Movies

Upcoming Marvel Movies Release Dates: MCU Phase 4 Schedule, Cast, and Story Details

By Mike Cecchini and 1 other

But the standalone Black Widow adventure is here at last, and it now serves as a sort-of coda to the story of Natasha Romanoff, since we already know her tragic fate in Avengers: Endgame. Directed by Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome, Lore), the movie will spell out how Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) kept herself busy between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, primarily with a trip home to Russia to clear some of that red from her ledger.

There, she will reunite with figures from her dark past, including fellow Red Room alumnus Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Russian would-be superhero Alexei Shostakov, aka the Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), another survivor of the Black Widow program and a maternal figure to Natasha and Yelena.

It’s a chance to say goodbye to Nat and see Johansson as the beloved Avengers one more time. But this being Marvel, we suspect that the studio has a few tricks up its sleeve and in this movie about the future of Phase 4.

Space Jam: A New Legacy

July 16

In the annals of synergistic branding, Space Jam: A New Legacy might be one for the record books. A sequel to an older millennials’ 1990s touchstones—the thoroughly mediocre Michael Jordan meets Bugs Bunny movie, Space Jam—this sequel sees LeBron James now trapped in Looney Tunes world… but wait, there’s more! Instead of only charmingly interacting with WB’s classic stable of cartoon characters, King James will also be in the larger “WB universe” where the studio will resurrect from the dead every property they own the copyright to, from MGM’s classic 1939 The Wizard of Oz to, uh, the murderous rapists in A Clockwork Orange.

… yay for easter eggs?

Old

July 23

Though he might be accused of being a little bit hit-and-miss in the past, the release of a new M. Night Shyamalan movie should always be cause for celebration. Especially one with such a deeply creepy premise. Based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, Old sees a family on vacation discover that the beach they are on causes them to age extremely rapidly and live out their entire lives in a day.

This is surely perfect fodder for Shyamalan, who does high-concept horror like no one else. The cast is absolute quality, featuring Gael García Bernal, Hereditary’s Alex Wolff, Jo Jo Rabbit’s Thomasin McKenzie, Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps, Little Women’s Eliza Scanlen, and many more. The trailer is pleasingly disturbing too as children become teenagers, a young woman is suddenly full-term pregnant, and adults seem to be decaying in front of their own eyes. Harrowing in the best possible way.

Snake Eyes

July 23 (August 20 in the UK)

Snake Eyes will finally bring us the origin story of the G.I. Joe franchise’s most iconic and beloved member. Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) stars in the title role, with Warrior’s Andrew Koji as his nemesis—conflicted baddie (and similar fan fave) Storm Shadow. Expect a tale heavy on martial arts badassery, especially with The Raid’s Iko Uwais on board as the pair’s ninja master. Samara Weaving will play G.I. Joe staple Scarlett after her breakout a few years ago in Ready or Not, while Úrsula Corberó has been cast as Cobra’s Baroness. Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Red) directs.

Jungle Cruise

July 30

Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra is best known for making slightly dodgy actioners starring Liam Neeson (Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night) and half-decent horror movies (Orphan, The Shallows), so exactly which direction this family adventure based on a theme park ride will take remains to be seen.

Borrowing a page and premise from Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen (1951), Jungle Cruise stars the ever-charismatic Dwayne Johnson as a riverboat captain taking Emily Blunt’s scientist and her brother (Jack Whitehall) to visit the fabled Tree of Life in the early 20th century. Like the ride, the gang will have to watch out for wild animals along the way.

Unlike the ride, they’re competing with a German expedition team who are heading for the same goal. A solid supporting cast (Jesse Plemons, Édgar Ramírez, Paul Giamatti, Andy Nyman) and a script with rewrites by Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) might mean Disney has another hit on its hands. Either way, a lovely boat trip with The Rock should be diverting at worst.

The Green Knight

July 30 (August 6 in the UK)

There have been several major Hollywood reimaginings of Arthurian legends in the 21st century. And every one of them has been thoroughly rotten for one reason or another. Luckily, David Lowery’s The Green Knight looks poised to break the trend with a trippy, but twistedly faithful, interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Dev Patel stars as Sir Gawain, a chivalrous knight in King Arthur’s court who takes up the challenge of the mysterious Green Knight (The Witch’s Ralph Ineson under mountains of makeup): He’ll swing a blow and risk receiving a returning strike in a year’s time. Gawain attempts to cheat the devil by cutting his head clean off, yet when the Green Knight lifts his severed head from Camelot’s floors, things start to get weird. As clearly one of A24’s biggest visual fever dreams to date, this is one we’re highly anticipating.

Stillwater

July 30 (August 6 in the UK)

The Oscar winning-writer director behind Spotlight, Tom McCarthy, returns to the big screen with a fictional story that feels awfully similar to real world events. In this film, Matt Damon plays Bill, a proud father who saw his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) go abroad to study in France. After she’s accused of murdering her roommate by local authorities, the deeply Southern and deeply Oklahoman father must travel to a foreign land to try and prove his daughter’s innocence.

It obviously has some parallels with the Amanda Knox story but it also looks like a potentially hard hitting original drama with a talented cast. Fingers crossed.

The Suicide Squad

August 6 (July 30 in the UK)

You might have seen a Suicide Squad movie in the past, but you’ve never seen James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. With a liberating R-rating and an old school vision from the Guardians of the Galaxy director—who likens this to 1960s war capers, such as The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare—this Suicide Squad is absolutely stacked with talented actors wallowing in DC weirdness. One of the key players in this is Polka-Dot Man, another is a walking, talking Great White Shark, voiced by Sylvester Stallone. The villain is a Godzilla-sized starfish from space!

Read more

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Margot Robbie Wants Poison Ivy to Join Harley Quinn in the DCEU

By Kayti Burt

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By David Crow

So like it’s namesake, there’s probably a lot of characters who aren’t going to pull through this one. Even so, we can rest easy knowing that Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn will be as winsome than ever, and the likes of Idris Elba and John Cena will add some dynamic gravitas to the eccentric DC Extended Universe.

Free Guy

August 13

Perhaps pitched as The Truman Show for the video game age, Free Guy stars Ryan Reynolds as an easygoing, happy-go-lucky “Guy” who discovers… he’s a video game NPC living inside the equivalent of a Grand Theft Auto video game. This might explain why the bank he works at keeps getting robbed all the time. But as a virtual sprite who’s developed sentiency, he just might be able to win over enough gamers to not shoot him, and make love not war.

It’s an amusing premise, and hopefully director Shawn Levy can bring to it the same level of charm he achieved with the very first Night at the Museum movie.

Respect

August 13 (September 10 in the UK)

Before her passing in 2018, Aretha Franklin gave her blessing to Jennifer Hudson to play the Queen of Soul. Now that musical biopic is here with Hudson hitting the same high notes of the legend who sang such standards as “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Think,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and of course “Respect.”

The film comes with a lot of expectation and a lot of pedigree, with Forest Whitaker and Audra McDonald in the cast. Most of all though, it comes with that rich musical library, which will surely take center stage. And if movies like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman have taught us anything, it’s that moviegoers love when you play the hits.

Reminiscence

August 20 (August 18 in the UK)

Lisa Joy is one of the most exciting voices on television today. One-half of the creative team behind Westworld, Joy steps into her own with her directorial debut (and as the solo writer) in Reminiscence, a science fiction film with a reliably knotty premise.

Hugh Jackman plays Nick Bannister, a man who lives in a dystopian future where the oceans have risen and the cities are crumbling. In a declining Miami, he sells a risky new technology that allows you to relive your past (and possibly change it, at least fancifully?). But when he discovers the lost love of his life (Rebecca Ferguson) is cropping up in other peoples’ memories, which seem to implicate her in a murder, well… things are bound to start getting weird. We don’t know a whole lot more, but we cannot wait to find out more.

Candyman

August 27

Announced back in 2018, this spiritual sequel to Bernard Rose’s 1992 original is one of the most exciting and anticipated movies on the calendar. Produced by Jordan Peele and directed by Nia DaCosta, the film takes place in the present day and about a decade after Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing projects have been torn down. Watchmen’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays an up-and-coming visual artist who moves to the now-gentrified area with his partner and is inspired by the legend of Candyman, an apparition with a hook for a hand, to create new work about the subject. But in doing so, he risks unleashing a dark history and a new wave of violence.

Tony Todd, the star of the original movie, will also reprise his role in a reboot that aims to inspire fear for only the right reasons.

The Beatles: Get Back

August 27

Director Peter Jackson thinks folks have a poisoned idea about the Beatles in their final days. Often portrayed as divided and antagonistic toward one another during the recordings of their last albums, particularly Let It Be (which was their penultimate studio recording and final release), Jackson insists this misconception is influenced by Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary named after the album.

So, after going through the reams of footage Lindsay-Hogg shot but didn’t use, Jackson has crafted this new documentary about the album’s recording which is intended to paint a fuller (and more feel-good) portrait of the band which changed the world. Plus, the music’s going to be great… 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

September 3

The greatest fighter in Marvel history finally hits the big screen with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Simu Liu (Kim’s Convenience) takes on the title role of a character destined for a bright future in the MCU. Marvel fans might note that the “Ten Rings” of the title is the same organization that first appeared all the way back in Iron Man, and Tony Leung will finally bring their villainous leader, The Mandarin, to life. Awkwafina of The Farewell and Crazy Rich Asians fame also stars. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12), this should deliver martial arts action unlike anything we’ve seen so far in the MCU.

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The Story Behind Every Song On Will Butler’s New Album Generations

Will Butler has a lot on his mind. It has, after all, been five years since his solo debut, Policy. A lot can happen in half a decade, and a lot has happened in this past half-decade — much of it quite dire. Butler was in his early 30s when Policy came out, and now he’s closing in on 40. He’s a husband and father. And he’s shaken by the state of the world, the idea of being an artist and a soon-to-be middle-aged man striving to guide his family through the chaos.

At least, that’s how it comes across through much of Generations, his sophomore outing that arrives today. Generations is a big, sprawling title by nature, and the album in turn grapples with all kinds of big picture anxieties. Mass shootings, the overarching darkness and anxiety of our time, trying to reckon with our surroundings but the system overload that occurs all too easily in the wake of it. Then there are more intimate songs, too, tales drawn from personal lives as people plug along just trying to navigate a tumultuous era.

Butler is, of course, no stranger to crafting music that seeks to parse the cultural moment and how it impacts in our daily lives. Ever since Arcade Fire ascended to true arena-rock status on The Suburbs 10 years ago, they have embarked on projects that explicitly try to make sense of our surroundings. (Not that their earlier work was bereft of heavy concepts — far from it — but Reflektor and Everything Now turned more of a specific eye towards contemporary ills and trials.) But as one voice amongst many in Arcade Fire, there is a cinematic scope to whatever Butler’s playing into there.

On Generations, he engages with a lot of similar concerns but all in his own voice — often yelping, desperate, frustrated then just trying to catch a breath. Butler leans on his trusty Korg MS-20 throughout Generations, often giving the album a synth-y indie backdrop that allows him to try on a few different selves. There are a handful of surging choruses, “la-la” refrains batting back against the darkness, slinking grooves maybe allowing someone the idea of brief physical release amidst ongoing strife.

Ahead of Generations’ arrival, Butler sent us some thoughts on the album, running from inspiration between the individual tracks to little details about the arrangement and composition of different songs. Now that you can hear the album for yourself, check it out and read along with Butler’s comments below.

1. “Outta Here”

I think this is the simplest song on the record. Just, like, get me out of here. Get me fucking out of here. I’m so tired of being here. No, I don’t have another answer, and I don’t expect anything to be better anywhere else. But, please, I would like to leave here.

I can play plenty of instruments, and can make interesting sounds on them, but kinda the only instrument I’m good at is a synth called the Korg MS-20. That’s the first sound on the record. It makes most of the bass you hear on the record. It’s a very aggressive, loud, versatile machine, and I wanted to start the record with it cause I’m good at playing it and it makes me happy.

2. “Bethlehem”

This song partly springs from “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats:​ “What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Like a lot of folks, I woke up after the election in 2016 mad and sad and scared and exhausted. This song is born of that emotion.

My bandmates Jenny Shore, Julie Shore, and Sara Dobbs sing the bridge, and it’s a corrective to my (appropriate?) freaking out — this isn’t the apocalypse. You’re misquoting Yeats. Get your fucking head on straight. History has not ruptured — this shit we’re in is contiguous with the shit we’ve been dealing with for a long, long time. But still, we sometimes do need an apocalyptic vision to make change. Even if it’s technically wrong. I dunno. It’s an ongoing conversation.

There’s a lot of interplay with backing vocals on this record — sometimes the narrator is the asshole, sometimes the backing vocals are the asshole. Sometimes they’re just trying their best to figure out the world. This song starts that conversation.

3. “Close My Eyes”

I tried to make these lyrics a straightforward and honest description of an emotion I feel often: “I’m tired of waiting for a better day. But I’m scared and I’m lazy and nothing’s gonna change.” Kind of a sad song. Trying to tap into some Smokey Robinson/Motown feeling — “I’ve got to dance to keep from crying.”

There’s a lot of Mellotron on this record, and a lot of MS-20. This song has a bunch of Mellotron strings/choirs processed through the MS-20. It’s a trick I started doing on the Arcade Fire song “Sprawl II,” and I love how it sounds and I try to do it on every song if I can.

4. “I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know”

This makes a pair with “Close My Eyes” — shit is obviously fucked, but “I don’t know what I don’t know what I don’t know what I can do.” I’m not a proponent of the attitude! Just trying to describe it, as I often feel it. In my head, I know some things that I can do — my wife Jenny, for instance, works really hard to get state legislatures out of Republican control. Cause it’s all these weirdo state legislative chambers that have enormous power over law enforcement, and civil rights, and Medicaid, and everything.

The image in the last verse was drawn from the protests in Ferguson in 2015: “Watch the bullets and the beaters as they move through the streets — grab your sister’s kids — hide next to the fire station…” It’s been horrifically disheartening to see the police riot across America as their power has been challenged. I’ve got a little seed of hope that we might change things, but, man, dark times.

More MS-20 bass on this one, chained to the drum machine. This one is supposed to be insanely bass heavy — if it comes on in a car, the windows should be rattling, and you should be asking, “What the heck is going on here?” Trying for a contemporary hip-hop bass sound but in a way less spare context. First song with woodwinds — rhythmic stuff and freaky squeals by Stuart Bogie and Matt Bauder.

5. “Surrender”

This song is masquerading as a love song, but it’s more about friendship. About the confusion that comes as people change: Didn’t you use to have a different ideal? Didn’t we have the same ideal at some point? Which of us changed? How did the world change? Relationships that we sometimes wish we could let go of, but that are stuck within us forever.

It’s also about trying to break from the first-person view of the world. “What can I do? What difference can I make?” It’s not about some singular effort — you have to give yourself over to another power. Give over to people who have gone before who’ve already built something — you don’t have to build something new! The world doesn’t always need a new idea, it doesn’t always need a new personality. What can you do with whatever power and money you’ve got? Surrender it over to something that’s already made. And then the song ends with an apology: I’m sorry I’ve been talking all night. Just talk talk talking, all night. Shut up, Will.

Going for “wall of sound” on this one — bass guitar and bass synth and double tracked piano bass plus another piano plus Mellotron piano. The “orchestra” is about a dozen different synth and Mellotron tracks individually detuned. And then run through additional processing.

6. “Hide It Away”

This song is about secrets. Both on an intimate, heartbreaking level — friends’ miscarriages, friends’ immigration status, shitty affairs coming to light — and on a grand, horrible level: New York lifting the statute of limitations on child abuse prosecutions, all the #MeToo reporting. There’s nothing you can do when your secret is revealed. Like, what can you do? You just have to let the response wash over you. If you’ve done something horrible, god-willing, you’ll have to pay for it in some way. If it’s something not horrible, but people will hate you anyway, goddammit, I wish there were some way to protect you.

This song has the least poetic line on the record, a real clunker: “It’s just money and power, money and power might set them free.” But it’s a clunky, shitty concept — the most surefire protection is being rich and knowing powerful people. But even then, shit just might come out. Even after you’re long dead.

Came from a 30-second guitar sample I recorded while messing around at the end of trying to track a different song. I liked the chords, looped them to make a demo. And the song was born from there. This is the one song I play drums on. Snare is chained to the MS-20, trying to play every frequency the ear can hear at the same time on some of those big hits.

7. “Hard Times”

[Laughs] I sat down and tried to write a Spotify charting electro-hit, and this is what came out: “Kill the rich, salt the earth.” Oh well. Written way before COVID-19, but my 8-year-old son turned to me this spring and asked, “Did you write the song ‘Hard Times’ about now, because we’re living through hard times?” No, I didn’t.

In Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, the narrator is a real son-of-a-bitch—contrarian, useless. Mad at the strong confident people who think they’ve got it figured out. And they don’t! And neither does the narrator — but he knows he doesn’t, and he at times yearns for some higher answer, and he’s funny, and too clever, but still knows he’s a piece of shit. I read Notes From Underground in high school and kinda forgot how it shaped my worldview until I sat down with it a couple years ago. The bridge on this song is basically smushed up quotes from Notes From Underground.

I was asking Shiftee, who mixed the record, if there are any vocal plug-ins I should be playing around with. He pointed me toward Little AlterBoy, which is basically a digital recreation of the kind of pedal the Knife use, for instance, on their vocal sound. It can shift the timbre/character of a voice without changing the pitch. Or change pitch without changing character. Very fun! Very much all over this track. Tried to make the bridge sound like a Sylvester song.

8. “Promised”

Another friend song masquerading as a love song. I’ve met a handful of extraordinary people in my life, who stopped doing extraordinary work because life is hard and it sucks. People who — I mean, it’s a lottery and random and who cares — could be great writers or artists, who kind of just disappeared. And it’s heartbreaking and frustrating. I don’t blame them. Maybe they weren’t made for this world. Maybe it’s just random. Maybe they’ll do amazing work in their 60s!

We tracked this song before it was written. Julie and Miles came over and we made up a structure and did a bunch of takes, found a groove. Which I then hacked up into what it is now! The bed tracks are lovely and loose. Maybe I’ll put out a jammier version of this song at some point. The other big synth on this record is the Oberheim OB-8, and that’s the bass on this one (triple tracked along with some MS-20).

9. “Not Gonna Die”

This song is about terrorism, and the response to terrorism. I wrote it a couple weeks after the Bataclan shooting in Paris in 2015. For some reason, a couple weeks after the shooting, I was in midtown Manhattan. I must have been Christmas shopping. I had to pop into the Sephora on 5th Avenue to pick up something specific — I think for my wife or her sister. I don’t remember. But I remember walking in, and the store was really crowded, and for just a split second I got really scared about what would happen if someone brought out a gun and started shooting up the crowd. And then I got so fucking mad at the people that made me feel that emotion. Like, I’m not gonna fucking die in the midtown Sephora, you fucking pieces of shit. Thanks for putting that thought in my head.

BUT ALSO, fuck all the fucking pieces of shit who are like, “We can’t accept refugees — what if they’re terrorists?” FUCK OFF. Some fucking terrified family driven from their home by a war isn’t going to kill me. Or anyone. Fuck off. Some woman from Central America fleeing from her husband who threatened to kill her isn’t going to fucking bomb Times Square. You fucking pieces of shit.

In November/December 2015, the Republican primary had already started — Trump had announced in June. And every single one of those pieces of shit running for president were talking about securing our borders, and keeping poor people out, and trying to justify it by security talk. FUCK OFF. You pieces of shit. Fuck right off. Anyway. Sorry for cursing.

I kind of think of the outro of this song as an angry “Everyday People.” Everyday people aren’t going to kill me. Lots of great saxes on this track from Matt Bauder and Stuart Bogie.

The intro of the song we recorded loud, full band, which I then ran through the MS-20 and filtered down till it was just a bass heart-pulse, and re-recorded solo piano and voice over that.

10. “Fine”

I kind of think that “Outta Here” to “Not Gonna Die” comprise the record, and “Fine” operates as the afterword and the prologue rolled into one. An author’s note, maybe. It was kind of inspired by high-period Kanye: I wanted to talk about something important in a profane, sometimes horribly stupid way, but have it be honest and ultimately transcendent.

In the song, I talk semi-accurately about where I come from. My mom’s dad was a guitar player who led bands throughout the ’30s and ’40s. In post-war LA, he had a band with Charles Mingus as the bass player. Charles Mingus! One of the greatest geniuses in all of American history. But this was the ’40s, and in order to travel with the band, to go in the same entrances, to eat dinner at the same table, he had to wear a Hawaiian shirt and everybody had to pretend he was Hawaiian. Because nobody was sure how racist they were supposed to be against Hawaiians.

Part of the reason I’m a musician is that my great-grandfather was a musician, and his kids were musicians, and their kids were musicians, and their kids are musicians. Part of the reason is vast generations of people working to make their kids’ lives better, down to my life. Part of the reason is that neither government nor mob has decided to destroy my family’s lives, wealth, and property for the last couple hundred years. I tried to write a song about that?

Generations is out now via Merge. Purchase it here.

https://www.stereogum.com/2098946/will-butler-generations-song-meanings/franchises/interview/footnotes-interview/

[pilferingapples]

For the ask meme poetry smash for ship and Bahorel for character if they have not been asked?

Aaaah this one will definitely have to be under the cut XD

Bahorel!!

How I feel about this character:

TARGETED, ATTACKED, SINGLED OUT. :P

I love the way he’s introduced right up in the context of state violence and civil unrest and then his intro just saunters on cheerfully into Wacky Fun but then veers back into Social Uprisings-I have a Lot Of Feelings about that kind of Chaotic Joy combo  and this post is already so long but AUGH, MY FEELINGS. 

And aside from All My Emotions about him as a character in the story, he and Prouvaire were what really got me to look into French Romanticism in particular and now I’ve got a major Life Interest and all this metacanon overlaying the fictional character and the whole dang novel  so it’s a  whole This Character Changed My Life thing now?!? 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character:

more Romantically than romantically, really, but you know it’s Prouvaire XD  ..and also I’m open to being sold on about any pairing for him, really, depending on how it’s written-- he’s not a very picket-fence-domestic character to me so there’s no big contradiction there :P

(This also includes the Laughing Mistress- I like a lot of versions of her, but not every one, and she’s a character fans pretty much have to make their own, so! it’s not a thing I can say I *always* enjoy reading)

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

his instant Avatars of Paris Unite!! bond with Gavroche, of course :D 

My unpopular opinion about this character:

He’s not replaceable or graftable onto the other Amis in any way that works with any sort of detailed adaptation!  He’s got a specific character and a specific role and it’s important,  dang it, there’s a whole dialogue about the role of street violence in the ideal of the revolution in there and  how it gets cyclical and put him in your adaptations and give him his scenes, you cowards  **shakes fist**

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Wow it’s great that after the uprising he took on Gavroche as his Apprentice Hellraiser and went on to long weird successful career as a civil activist /organizer, what a good story ;__; 

Favorite friendship for this character:

Leaving aside the two people Already Named, I’ve got So Many Feelings and Ideas about his friendship with Enjolras? They’re so wildly different (and Bahorel knows it!)  and so intense in ways that are actively contradictory but they obviously work well together and love each other and that is fascinating to me! 

My crossover ship:

Well now that Fixa’s mentioned it I’m never going to be able to not  think of him with Porthos, being Terrible Carousing Combat Nightmares together XD

002 Shipping  Questions

Poetry Smash

When I started shipping them:

agh geez, I don’t even remember Not?  When I first read the book, maybe?!? I know they’re in some of my very earliest fanart (and if anyone reblogs it I will DELETE IT oh gad the Shame but still...it’s a Record...)  Even before I knew The Backstory, I recognized them as having , potentially, one of my Favorite Ship Dynamics, so I was sunk early on XDAnd then I found out about the Metacanon and My Life Was Changed Forever.

My thoughts:

I don’t see this pair as ever fitting into the “ settle down”  pattern ever, at all. Not just in the sense that I don’t think they’re a Permanent Lifebonded Monogamy kind of pairing (though I very very much don’t; I can see them going through phases of being intensely Together and phases where they don’t see each other for weeks outside of gatherings with other friends and they’re always open to New/ Other Grand Romances, it’s all good, they Follow Their Passions) , but  in the sense that I don’t think they’re a  calming  force on each other at all. There is no Reasonable One in this relationship--they run on a “ Yes, and”  basis. Like:“ We should go to the top of Notre Dame in the night, so we can see the city under the stars.” “ Yes! And we can recite some of the grand combat from Hugo’s novel when we do!” “ Yes and! we should take a great banner proclaiming the endurance of the Republic and hang it for all to see!” “ Yes! and--”  

At no point will either of them even consider saying “ wait, but--”, it’s just constant amplification until they wake up three days later going “what omnibus hit me and where did I get a llama”  and that’s essential to how they Work as a pair, romantically or otherwise 

What makes me happy about them:

Hijinks! Emotional soul-baring! Cheerful but serious fascinations with Death (the Ultimate Betrothal!) !  

What makes me sad about them:

DO YOU REMEMBER OUR SWEET LIFE **sobs forever**(does this question even need to be answered in this fandom, really)

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Nuh-uh-uh, listen, SOME fancy people might be so very buried in fanfic for their pairing that they can be all picky, but me? this? there are like five people who write anything for it EVER and I Love Them For It, maybe we have some different interpretations!  maybe they do settings or stories I wouldn’t write if I could write! But they’re singing a version of My Song even if it’s in a different key and I just vastly appreciate it *__*

Things I look for in fanfic:

...ex...istence... A Lot Of Feelings , displayed very openlyAlso both of them being coequal Partners in Havoc, action and emotion-wise , in their own way.

My wishlist:

i always love Magical Realism or Fantasy-tinted AUs with these two?  And i love it when someone can write into their heads a bit and it feels Real And Right--that’s too subjective for me to name Specific Things but I know it when I see it and I am always Elated. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Oh, I don’t think of them as “ ending up with”  each other, or anyone? Neither of them is a very...Ending Up With kind of person. I never think of them as a permanent, exclusive kind of thing, and I have zero problem with people writing them having other lovers or even spouses; it’s easy for me to imagine them still wandering happily into and out of each others’ paths forever regardless of whatever else is going on. 

...Anyone who’s gonna be with either of them long-term needs to be totally onboard with The Romanticist Soul, though,or their life will be hellllllll, gad, imagine trying to live with that kind of Energy when you don’t share it?!? 

My happily ever after for them:

 a young but thriving Republic , where there’s room for Weirdo Artists and their movements to develop without censors and arrests , and a large house somewhere in Paris with friends and people wanting to argue with them going in and out all the time. Everyone’s Fine and all the duels end in comedic misadventure, IT’S FINE EVERYONE IS FINE.

[altaruwusmolboiz]

Five Friends:

Yay, Mark angst!

For context, this fanfiction does not take place in the same universe as my other fanfictions.

Mark had five friends.

First, there was Matthew. Well, Mark wished he was more of a friend, but that’s a wish that is not to be disclosed to anyone else.

Then there’s Luke. Mark would tutor him in French and Science, and Luke would let Mark be sensitive.

Juan. They would tease each other, but they were there for each other through times of hardships.

Once least, Abraham. The only one, the only person, that he’s out to.

But, he had one more friend.

John.

Mark loved his friends, some romantically, but he loved how John would be friends with him. Because most kids like him would run away from him like he has the cheese touch every time he walks near them.

But John just liked him for him. They were friends despite it.

So, Mark had five friends. Until one day, while he was rehearsing with his friends, when John walked in, stern and silent. Lights were beaming on Mark, and it was so bright that he couldn’t see the audience coming. He couldn’t see John coming.

“Be! Yeah!” Mark sang, pitch perfect.

He ended the with pointing up at the sky, but something was different this time, and heavily breathing. He was working on that note ever since he first done that song. His voice might crack, or he might have to let go of the note, or he’d get distracted by Matthew and lose track of what he was doing. Not this time.

He heard slow clapping, before the other Boyz could respond.

It was John. Wearing the leather jacket Mark bought him for a Birthday.

“Nice performance, Mark.”

Mark blushes. He’s not used to compliments from anyone out of the band, not even him.

“But, I’m gonna have to talk to you alone. Meet me in the lobby of this theater.” John kicks open the door and leaves Mark. Must’ve expected him to follow.

“Hmm, I wonder what this is about.” Mark says, walking off the stage. “I’ll be right back, if that’s alright with you.” He looks at Matthew as he says that.

“Wait, Mark, we didn’t get to compliment you!” Matthew extends his arm for Mark to go in.

“You did so well!” Abraham agrees. “I wrote this song specifically because I knew you’d nail it.”

He winks at Mark, knowing fully well how this song was written for Mark’s personal experience as well, just disguised, although not intricately, as a Catholic song so the band can get away with performing it.

Luke gives him a fist bump. Juan gives him a high five.

“Thank, you guys.”

Nothing can ruin Mark’s day. He’s flying, skipping around, ready to hear John.

“John?”

Mark looked around. Of course, John turned off the lights. He has the tendency to make grand entrances, and he didn’t expect today to be much different.

“Where are the lights here? Man, it took me long enough to even get to the stage.” Said a voice that sounds suspiciously like John’s.

So, it wasn’t a grand entrance.

“Oh, I know where they are.”

Mark runs to the top right corner of the room and switches the lights on. Seeing John’s face was a treat.

“Hey.”

“We need to talk about this.”

John takes out a note. “What is it?”

The piece of paper was pink, and had the following words on it.

Matthew, I love you. And, I hope you love me back. I don’t know how you would. I mean, it’s a sin, isn’t it? Love the sinner, hate the sin. Love me, if it’s in your ability to do so. Please, you don’t have to. I just don’t want this to affect our relationship in any way. You’re my best friend, and I’ve loved you since the dawn of time.

Sincerely, Mark

[SIDE NOTE: I don’t have a last name for Mark, so I just used S. Mark doesn’t have a canon last name.]

Mark felt himself getting sweaty, even without the lights on, knowing the note was from him.

Well, it wasn’t meant for Matthew’s eyes, actually. After Mark came out to Abraham (A lot of crying and a lot of hugging), he gave him the piece of paper and asked him to write about his feelings. He didn’t even ask to see it once he’s done writing it, just wanting Mark to write it and get his emotions out. It wasn’t for anyone’s eyes but his own.

“Mark, I can’t believe you.” John crumpled up the paper and threw it into the small trash bin, as Mark felt his heart was being thrown with it. “I knew you were weird, but I stuck through it all. I wanted to be friends with you, Mark, but you ruined it.”

“By…by…having feelings?” Mark could feel his temperature rising, and not in the same way it does when he’s with Matthew. This can’t be happening now.

Mark just wanted one normal friendship.

“Don’t you get it? Not just feelings, Mark. Those type of feelings.” John’s expression remained anger.

Why should he be angry? Maybe because his friend ditched him.

“Don’t you even think of telling me you have those type of feelings for me.” He rolled his eyes.

“No… that isn’t true at all…this is a different Mark—”

John put his lips to his mouth. “They were right about you. Oh, and your voice? So annoying.” John ruffled his hair, and everyone knows how much Mark hates that. “It looks better that way.”

John was about to walk out the door, but stopped without turning back at the weak boy who’s frantically putting his hair back where it was.

“I can’t believe I was ever friends with you.” He said, leaving.

“Wait, but…love the sinner, hate the sin, right?”

Mark could feel himself tumbling to the ground.

“I’d do anything to be friends with you. Anything.”

Crying is weak. John told him that.

“Mark! Are you okay?”

Next thing Mark knew, Abraham had his arms around him.

“Abraham, I’m sorry.”

“You need a ride home?” Luke asked. “We could end rehearsal early today.”

“Mark, what is this about?” A voice asked. Mark knows better than anyone that the voice belongs to Matthew.

The boys were in the van, but Luke wasn’t driving it. They were just in there, trying to calm Mark down. The van smelled of cardboard, and there’s no way they could get any silence, but it’s home. And Mark wouldn’t want to be anywhere else at the particular moment. Here with the only friends he has.

“Mark, I’m so sorry. I saw the sheet of paper I had you write on. I should have warned you. I was just so excited about your solo and all—”

Mark signaled on his arm for Abraham to stop. “No, it’s not your fault. Besides, I deserved the reality check. I was too sensitive. I deserve to be told that…I’m still a sinner.”

“Sinner? You’re no sinner.” Matthew put his arm on Mark’s shoulder. “Mark, I think I know what’s going on.”

“You do?”

“We all do.”

Matthew elbowed Juan after he said that, but Mark didn’t mind. He didn’t mind as much as he thought he would

“Look, if someone is going to treat you like that, they don’t deserve you.”

“Can I be honest? I have always had a bad feeling about John. No offense, and I’m sure you’ve had good moments together, but he doesn’t care about you for who you are.” Matthew told him. “We have the better John. Well, not John, but close enough.”

Matthew gestures to Juan while saying it, who points at himself and nods in agreement. Mark couldn’t help but giggling.

“No one deserves you, Mark.” Luke agrees. “John doesn’t. I don’t.”

“I don’t deserve you, Luke.” Mark responds. “What hurt the most was when he attacked my voice.” He admits.

“What was he listening to? Because it’s certainly not what I was listening to.” Matthew says.

A unanimous agreement comes from the four boys in front of Mark.

“He doesn’t deserve your voice. Or your hair. Or your attention to detail.”

Mark playfully punches Matthew with the last three words.

“You’re amazing, Mark. Don’t let this guy tell you otherwise.

Mark silently nods, and looks down.

“Repeat it.” Abraham demanded.

“What?”

“How amazing you are.” Juan said.

“Because I’m not unlocking this van until you agree.” Luke said.

“Fine. I’m amazing.”

No response.

“Louder.” Luke pleaded.

“I’m amazing?”

“Not bad, but be more confident!” Luke exclaimed.

“I’M AMAZING!” And, Mark was feeling amazing. Thank god to these boys.

“Attaboy!” Juan put his hand up to give Mark a high five, and he did. Maybe a bit too hard, and his hands were a bit sweaty.

Turns out, Mark still has five friends.

Matthew!

Luke!

Juan!

Abraham!

And Mark!

Personally, Mark thinks Mark is better than John anyways.

[2700fstreet]

OPERA / 2017-2018

DON CARLO

OPEN REHEARSAL

Washington National Opera

Music by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille Du Locle Translated into Italian by Achille de Lauzières and Angelo Zanardini Based on Friedrich von Schiller’s dramatic work Don Carlos

So, What’s Going On?

Spain, the mid-sixteenth century.

Our hero, Don Carlo isn’t doing well. The infante (een-FAHN-teh, basically a Spanish word for “prince”) can’t get along with his father, King Filippo II (fee-LEEP-poh), and, to top it off, Carlo has no real royal responsibilities to keep him busy.

Oh, and did we mention he’s in love with his stepmother?

Filippo had promised Carlo a beautiful French bride named Elisabetta (eh-leez-ah-BEHT-tah), but, at the last minute, the king swept in and married her himself. Not cool. Nope, definitely not cool.

Enter Rodrigo (ro-DREE-goh), a nobleman and Carlo’s best friend. Rodrigo tries to cheer Carlo up by getting him involved in a political cause (nothing says “distraction” like a revolution). Spanish-occupied Flanders, (present-day Belgium) Rodrigo explains, is badly oppressed and needs a leader ASAP. Having a lot of free time on his hands, Carlo agrees to act as “savior” to the Flemish (i.e., the folks from Flanders). Got it so far?

But there’s a catch. He’ll need his stepmom’s permission.

Rodrigo fires Carlo up for a Flemish fight.

Take a listen… In one of opera’s most famous duets, Rodrigo and Don Carlo take a vow of friendship and promise to work together to achieve freedom for Flanders. Listen for the sounds of the brass instruments, symbolizing war and aggression, as well as royalty.

Back to the story…

Rodrigo arranges a meeting between Carlo and Elisabetta, telling the queen her heartbroken stepson needs a favor. But one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, the Princess of Eboli (EHB-oh-lee), overhears and takes Carlo’s heartbreak completely out of context—she thinks Carlo might be in love with her.

At the meeting set up by Rodrigo, Carlo tells Elisabetta he’s dying of love.

In other palace news, the king is highly suspicious of Elisabetta’s relationship with Carlo. He summons Rodrigo and asks him to spy on Carlo and Elisabetta’s extracurricular activities. Rodrigo unwisely uses this moment to plead for Flanders, claiming the king is applying unnecessary force to maintain peace in the Flemish territories. Though slightly moved, Filippo warns Rodrigo his rebellious ways may get him into trouble with the Spanish Inquisition (…bet you weren’t expecting that).

Sometime later, Carlo receives a mysterious letter. Thinking Elisabetta wishes to see him, he waits for her in a romantic spot, and she promptly arrives wearing a veil for cover.

(Yeah, just kidding: It’s not really Elisabetta, but Eboli in disguise.)

Carlo whispers sweet nothings to “Elisabetta,” but when the mix-up comes to light, he tries to take back his professions of love. The damage is done, however—Eboli figures out Carlo’s words were meant for someone else…and that the “someone else” must be the queen.

Rodrigo rushes in. Believing Eboli will go straight to the king for revenge, he asks Carlo to hand over any incriminating evidence pertaining to Flanders.

Eboli plots vengeance against Carlo for (accidentally) playing with her heart.

But tensions between Filippo and Carlo are about to boil over anyway. At an auto-da-fé (an execution led by the Inquisition and overseen by the king), Carlo interrupts the ceremony by bringing some Flemish citizens before Filippo to call the king out and beg for royal mercy. Things get heated, and Carlo draws his sword. Horrified by this treasonous act, Filippo calls for someone to arrest his son. To everyone’s surprise, Rodrigo steps forward and leads Carlo to jail.

A private family feud is put on public display.

Take a listen… In his aria, “Ella giammai m’amò” (“She never loved me”), Filippo contemplates the sad state of his marriage. Listen for the sorrowful string music, which repeats incessantly as if to reflect Filippo’s relentless thoughts.

Filippo wants Carlo out of the way (like…completely out of the way), so the king appeals to the Grand Inquisitor to ask if the holy man will pardon Filippo for ordering Carlo’s execution. Convinced the uprising of the Protestant-leaning Flemish—and not Carlo—is the real threat to Spain and to the Catholic Church, the Inquisitor slyly suggests Filippo may be absolved if he hands over the traitorous Rodrigo in exchange. Yikes.

The Grand Inquisitor offers a terrible bargain: Religious blessing in exchange for Rodrigo’s demise.

Take a listen… In this intentionally frightening scene, the Grand Inquisitor’s deep and forceful voice, along with the quivering strings and percussion, remind the audience (and Filippo) that the church wields power in sixteenth-century Spain.

Suddenly, Elisabetta bursts in claiming she’s been robbed. She asks her husband to take action against the culprit, but Filippo quickly admits to the crime himself. He then confronts Elisabetta about a portrait of Carlo she keeps hidden in her stolen jewelry box. Elisabetta maintains her innocence, however. She may love Carlo, but she’s never been unfaithful.

And yet here’s a twist: Filippo has.

Filippo tries to shame Elisabetta.

While comforting the queen after Filippo’s accusation, Eboli confesses she’s been having an affair with the king and that jealousy (for both Carlo and Filippo) led her to steal Elisabetta’s box and throw some serious shade at the queen. Shocked, Elisabetta orders Eboli to head to a convent. Eboli searches for a way to make things right—and finds one. She stumbles onto Carlo’s death warrant and resolves to intervene before it’s too late.

Take a listen… Eboli curses her own vanity for inspiring her to betray her queen in the aria “O don fatale” (“Oh fatal gift”). Check out how the mezzo-soprano uses both high and low notes to convey her sense of frustration and despair in the musical sample below. Also: Listen for the outbursts from the trumpets, trombones, and horns at the opening. Can you tell things have gotten pretty serious?

But can Eboli alert Carlo in time? Can Rodrigo escape the watchful eye of the Inquisition? And, most importantly, will Elisabetta and Carlo be allowed to ride off into the Spanish sunset?

Who’s Who

(Italian version of the original Spanish names listed; English version names in parentheses)

Don Carlo (Don Carlos) infante of Spain (tenor—the highest male voice) Filippo (King Philip II) Carlo’s father and king of Spain (bass—the lowest male voice) Elisabetta (Elizabeth of Valois) queen of Spain (soprano—the highest female voice) The Princess of Eboli (known as “Eboli”) (mezzo-soprano—a middle-range female voice) Rodrigo marquis of Posa and Carlo’s friend (baritone—a middle-range male voice) The Grand Inquisitor (bass)

Good to Know

You’ve heard of the Spanish Inquisition before, right? No?

Okay, well, just in case you haven’t, you might want to keep in mind that the Spanish Inquisition was a Catholic branch of the Spanish government whose task was to find and “question” anyone who wasn’t loyal to the Catholic church, particularly Jews and Protestants. These “interviews” were often literal torture, as the Spanish monarchy was known to use the Inquisition as an excuse to enslave innocents in order to get free labor.

Now that you’re familiar with the Inquisition: Did you know King Philip II, his wife Elizabeth, his son Carlos, and the Princess of Eboli were also real? Philip II was a sixteenth-century Spanish monarch who did indeed marry a French woman (Elizabeth of Valois) whom he had initially intended for his son. Turns out Philip and Elizabeth actually had a reportedly happy marriage, and the love story between Elizabeth and her stepson was invented by writer Friedrich von Schiller in the eighteenth century and exploited by Verdi in the nineteenth century for maximum dramatic impact.

The Princess of Eboli was likewise a genuine attendant at court and the wife of King Philip’s right-hand man. Rodrigo, however, never actually existed; he’s more of an ideal representation of compassion and progressive thinking created by Schiller at a time when the Enlightenment ideals of reason and rationality swept across Europe.

And Carlos? Sadly the historical Carlos wasn’t quite the romantic hero he is in the opera. Rowdy, and unpredictable, the real-life Carlos was decidedly not in love with his stepmom. Yet, as in the opera, Carlos wasn’t given much power by his father and eventually grew fed up with life in Spain. The infante then demanded control over Flanders, which was being ruled by a brutal cardinal of the Catholic Inquisition.

Just like in the opera, Flanders was a place of political (and religious) unrest in the mid-sixteenth century. Absorbed into Spain’s considerable empire via a political marriage, Flanders was somewhat content to be ruled by Philip’s father, Charles V, who had been born in Flanders and was well respected there. Things changed when Philip assumed the throne, however: Philip was more Catholic than his father and the new king had no trouble sending clerical and military forces to keep the Protestant-friendly Flemish in line—often using violent methods of persuasion.

Philip ultimately deemed his son unfit to serve as ambassador to such an unstable region and had Carlos put in jail to prevent a political catastrophe (thanks, dad). Carlos died while under arrest, but the Flemish controversy continued, and uprisings followed soon after.

Check This Out…

Don Carlo features many melodies that repeat themselves to help the audience recall a particular scene or emotion from earlier in the story. Listen up for tunes that come back to haunt these characters again and again (especially the themes from Carlo and Rodrigo’s Act I duet, Carlo’s first lovesick solo, and the choir of horns that opens the opera).

Though Carlo is the title character, all the leading roles in the opera are given at least one aria (solo song) in which to express their feelings, and each character has their own unique musical and vocal style. Can you identify some of the ways in which Verdi gives each character his or her own spin? Is there a type of note (high, low, stretched out, cut short, etc.) or rhythm (slow, fast, galloping, etc.) that sticks out as being a specific character’s “signature sound”?

The finale of Don Carlo is notoriously open-ended, leaving much of the interpretation up to the performers and production team. Pay close attention during those final moments. What do you think the director and designers of this particular version wanted the audience to believe about the characters’ fates? Do you feel this explanation of the ending is correct? What do you think actually went down in the Spanish court?

Verdi wanted to immerse his audience in the culture and atmosphere of his operas. One of the ways he achieved this effect in Don Carlo was to include music that plays just off stage, giving the illusion of “surround sound” and extending the action of Don Carlo beyond the borders of the proscenium. Listen for the organ, church bells, brass band, choirs, and solo soprano voice coming from the wings of the theater. Do these help you feel like you’re at the heart of the story?

Think About This…

The dialogue between Filippo and the Grand Inquisitor—which was purposely added to the original story by Verdi and his librettists—includes some heavy musical clues regarding the evil subtext of the scene. In fact, Verdi uses ominous-sounding instruments to make it abundantly clear that some devilish plots are being hatched. What instruments stick out for you in this moment? What do you think Verdi’s position was regarding organized religion? What do you think he felt about monarchies like the one in Spain?

Eboli sings a song about a woman who hides her appearance and discovers a terrible secret. And…surprise! Later in the opera, the princess herself actually wears a veil and uncovers something about Don Carlo she wishes she hadn’t. Do you think the creators were making a specific point about disguises or about women who mask their identity?

Don Carlo is a mixture of big, crowded scenes for huge choruses and smaller, more intimate moments for four people or fewer. This contrast between public life and personal drama is something that continues to fascinate audiences in the twenty-first century. Can you name some recent films or TV shows in which the private struggles of a handful of characters are set against the backdrop of an overarching story that packs an epic and/or historical punch (hint: think The Crown or Game of Thrones minus the dragons)? Do they parallel Don Carlo in some way? Why do you think viewers are still drawn to these types of dramas?

Filippo, though tyrannical and misguided, is ultimately portrayed as a sad and lonely figure in the opera—thanks in large part to Verdi’s sympathetic music and also to the made-up love triangle between Filippo, his son, and his wife. Do you think Filippo’s desperate attempts to govern the lives of his family and his subjects are a response to his own feelings of helplessness? How do you think the other characters handle forces beyond their control (e.g., love, war, religious duty, honor, etc.)? Do you think anyone in the opera is more successful than Filippo at facing down these seemingly insurmountable challenges?

Take Action

As hinted above, the private actions in Don Carlo often have public consequences. Toward the end of the opera, Rodrigo, whose personal loyalties to the king and to Carlo are severely tested, ultimately chooses a path he feels will do the most good for the most people. In his beautiful final aria, he considers the type of legacy he wants to leave behind and asks that Carlo never forget him and never abandon the Flemish people. “Non ti scordar’” (“Do not forget”), he sings.

Take some time to think about how your own personal actions can affect public discourse or change. Research a group of people facing adversity like those in the Flemish territories mentioned in the opera (this could be a group you consider yourself a part of and/or strongly identify with, or it could also be a community you simply wish to help). Next, come up with a plan to spread the word and jumpstart a campaign to make a positive difference. Concerned for the people devastated by recent hurricanes, fires, and other natural disasters? Organize an afterschool meeting to educate your fellow students and to brainstorm fundraising ideas. Want to throw your support behind victims of abuse in a foreign nation? Set up a crowdsourced relief fund and ask family and friends to donate.

Want a wider audience for your social justice campaign? Use social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or tumblr to get people talking about your cause and to post news and pictures of outreach events. If you decide to post, let us know by using the hashtag #donotforget.

Explore More

Go even deeper with the Don Carlo Extras.

–

Major support for WNO is provided by Jacqueline Badger Mars.

David M. Rubenstein is the Presenting Underwriter of WNO.

WNO acknowledges the longstanding generosity of Life Chairman Mrs. Eugene B. Casey.

WNO's Presenting Sponsor

Don Carlo is a production of the Clarice Smith Opera Series.

Additional support for Don Carlo is provided by The Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts.

The Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program is made possible through the generous support of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, with additional funding provided by Judy and Billy Cox, Robert and Lynn Downing, Carl M. Freeman Foundation, Virginia McGehee Friend, Susan Carmel Lehrman, John & Mary Lee Malcolm, Michael F. and Noémi K. Neidorff and The Centene Charitable Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey P. Pohanka,  Dr. Arthur and Mrs. Robin Sagoskin, Mr. Alan J. Savada and Mr. Will Stevenson, Dr. and Mrs. Guillermo Schultz, Mr. and Mrs. Michael R. Sonnenreich, Washington National Opera Council, and The Women’s Committee of Washington National Opera.

This performance is made possible by the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.

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

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

[shirtlesssammy]

The Future: How’s Everyone Doing? Did Everyone Survive? Recap

Then:

To reiterate: Worried husband is worried. Also, Dagon, blah, blah, blah.

Now:

Kelly appears to be in far less posh accommodations than last we saw her. Dirty and chained to an old cot in the basement of an undisclosed location, she at least is getting round the clock care from Nurse Ratchet Dagon. Dagon reminds Kelly that she can do what she wants but the nephilim will destroy her, and the world. Before Dagon leaves Kelly alone again, she suggests Kelly “take a bath.” So, um, Kelly does. And she brings along a nice straight-edge. 1) that was kind of a weird voice-over, and B) that’s a lot of blood for someone we know isn’t going to die.

SAM IN THE LIBRARY MONTAGE ALERT

These 25 seconds are my Sam Jam. Dean finds his savant brother in the war room with a clearer picture about nephilim and how much time they have before they need to find Kelly. “I think she’ll be giving birth around May 18th.” All the Lolz and eye rollz. How Very Convenient that’s the same day as the season finale.

ABSENT HUSBAND ALERT

Yes, Dean, tell us more about how you’re pissed at your “friend” for disappearing for a couple months. Please, you’re pretty angry and we all believe you. Agggghhhh, Cas heard Dean’s “messages”. Like, his actual phone messages? Or his “it’s 2 am and I can’t sleep so I’m gonna pray to you messages?” Well, Dean is too pissed to even talk, so he storms off to his bedroom.

In his bedroom, he’s busy running some crazy tracking programs on his computer, when there’s a knock on his door. I swear I’ve read this fanfic before. Oh wait,

I did.

It’s Cas. He just stopped by to return a mix tape Dean had made him. A. MIX. TAPE. When I was 13, a boy made me a mix tape. I couldn’t give myself hope that it meant anything more than friendship. 20 years later, I confirmed that my 13 year old self was stupid. CAS, YOU ARE BEING STUPID. 

DEAN MADE CAS A MIX TAPE. Like, how is that not romantic? Like, I’m not a dude, but is that something dudes do for each other in the digital age? (And think about it, Cas doesn’t trust computers. Dean thought of that and went through the effort of making an analog gift.)

Anyway, I could go on all day and all summer hiatus about this.

Dean decides to at least open up a little to Cas. He can barely talk, but he makes it clear to Cas that he can’t just disappear like he did. “We were worried. That’s not ok.” Cas apologizes but confesses that he feels like he’s always failing. He failed to find them when they were in prison. He failed to find Kelly. Dean counters that they’re all in the same boat. They also had a chance at Kelly and lost her. Sam is determined to find a way to save Kelly before the baby is born. Cas wonders, if they can’t find her in time, if they can kill an innocent. “We will find a better way,” Dean insists. Team Free Will! Dean leaves his room before they kiss and make up. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, Dagon goes to check on Kelly, and finds a tub of blood ---and a perfectly healthy Kelly. It seems the nephilim wants to live.

Later in the library, Sam asks Dean about tracking the nephilim. That question leads Sam to wonder about extracting the angel grace from the nephilim, thus leaving it a perfectly normal baby. Kelly and her baby could both live. “Hot damn.” They have a plan. Dean runs to get Cas!

CAS HAS A ROOM ALERT

Dean knocks on Cas’s door, but no one answers. In fact, the room is empty. Cas is gone. 1) Cas has a room, confirmed. B) Oh, Dean Bean.

Dagon and Kelly are having a heart to heart about Kelly’s miraculous non-death. Kelly seems to have renewed faith in her demon spawn.

Cas did indeed ditch the Brothers Winchester. He also stole the Colt. He meets Kelvin and hands over the Colt. 

They’ve got 2 bullets and a give-em-hell attitude for killing Dagon and Kelly. Dean calls, but Cas doesn’t answer. Castiel. Smh. Cas makes it perfectly clear to Kelvin that he’s not working for the angels. “I’m doing this for the Winchesters. I stole the Colt to keep them out of this mission and to keep them safe from Dagon. And I will kill this girl so Sam and Dean don’t have to.” Can’t say that he didn’t pick up anything from Dean over the past 9 years. He’ll do anything to protect his family. Even when it’s the wrong way.

Dagon is busy watching her game shows when the angels sneak into the house. Dagon kind of has the jump on them --in the sense that she was totally ready and completely kicks their butts. Cas kinda wastes a bullet, but in his defense, I don’t think he’s ever used a gun before. (Natasha: he used a shotgun during the apocalypse.) Kelvin tells Cas to go find Kelly while he battles Dagon. Welp, I liked you Kelvin.

Cas finds Kelly in the basement.

Dean is back to silent treatment with Cas so he makes Sam call him, but Sam has no luck. Sam wonders how Cas grabbed the Colt from the safe in the first place. It seems that Dean was keeping it under his pillow.

Dean: I say we find him and we kick his feathered ass.

Sam: Cas wouldn’t have taken the Colt if he wasn’t going up against something big.

Dean: Ok, I say we find him, figure out what’s going on, then we kick his feathered ass.

Man Dean, you’re really focusing on Cas’s feathered ass.

Cas is currently on the run. He couldn’t complete his mission of killing Kelly, so he absconded with her instead. Kelly thanks Cas for not killing her, but he doesn’t want her thanks. He, once again, thinks that he failed at a mission. CAAASSS. Stop. You fight your humanity, but it’s a good thing.

Dagon has a little mental meeting with Lucifer. Luci isn’t too happy that Castiel has his child-to-be. And the end of their convo reveals that Dagon has Kelvin hostage.

Cas and Kelly meanwhile are still on the run. Cas tells Kelly that he’s getting orders from Joshua in heaven.  He couldn’t kill her before, but he can now bring her to heaven. Her life, and her baby’s life, will end as soon as they pass through the portal. (Me: squirrels away information for later.) Kelly refuses. Cas pleads with her that this is the only way to stop this very powerful human-archangel hybrid. Kelly seems to have faith in this all powerful being - nothing is born evil. (Dude, it will kill you no matter what else it does with the universe….ain’t no good coming for you in this scenario.) Cas’s very bad day continues when his truck won’t start.

Dagon tortures Kelvin for information on Cas's location. “WWCD,” she whispers. “What would Castiel do?”

Cas ushers Kelly into the hotel room while he googles “how to fix a truck.” (Cas, you adorable sunflower.) Kelly admits that she tried to kill herself – she died – and then her child saved her. Cas is astonished. That explains the pulse of power they felt in Heaven. Kelly promises that her child is good because he saved her. “It was a miracle,” she said, ecstatic. “Maybe it's part of some plan.”

Cas immediately protests. “I used to believe in a plan. But everyone is just winging it.” There's no grand blueprint. (Trust him, he met God. Not impressed.) “You were just there,” he tells her about how she came to be impregnated by Lucifer. And I have to pause here because all season Kelly has been sort of blah oatmeal, referred to by all parties as a container and having very little agency of her own. It's been hard to argue with that which was super gross given parallels between Kelly-as-container and political narratives which argue that a woman's body IS ultimately just a container. It's such a relief to get some personality in this episode – even if it is highly suspect given the nature of her child and resurrection. In any other context I'd be unimpressed, but the fact that she's arguing back is Such. A. Relief.

Cas sighs. Kelly still maintains that her child will be good for the world. Cas argues that she's going to die anyway. I'm going to imagine this next section as a song. Hum along with me, kids:

Cas: Who will care for him when you're gone?

Chorus: Cas-ti-el, Cas-ti-el!

Cas: Who is strong enough to protect him?

Chorus: Cas-ti-el, Cas-ti-el!

Cas: Who can keep him on the righteous path?

Chorus: Castiel can!

Cas feels the baby kicking and smiles. Kelly's eyes turn yellow and she has a vision of the playground to Heaven, Cas threatening somebody in order to protect her.

There's a knock on the door. It's the Winchesters! “Yeah, that's mine,” Dean says looking at Cas - I mean, the Colt in Cas's hand. Heh. This is immediately followed by Dean slamming Cas into a wall so.... brb just going to be sitting over here giggling.

Anyway, Dean and Cas have a heart to heart. And by “heart to heart” I mean they don't talk about anything at all because interrupting!Sam asks about Kelly.

Turns out the Winchesters have trust issues and Sam lojacked Cas's phone while he was flirting for the Colt in Dean's bedroom. Cas explains that he tried to use the Colt to kill Dagon and failed (cue Charlie Brown frown) and he's hiding out in a hotel because his truck broke down. He explains that he just tried to keep the Winchesters safe. Bullshit, they counter. They explain their grace extraction theory as an alternative to death by sandbox. (A sentence I never thought I’d type.) Kelly absolutely refuses to consider grace extraction – his powers are what make her baby special. Hmmm, oh dear. They all agree to get in the Impala and head to a hideout.

The car is locked (for the first time ever?) (Boris: Cas should have just shattered the window like Henry did) and Dean chucks Cas the keys while Sam and Dean hold their usual to-the-side conversation about the episode's plot. Kelly climbs into the driver's seat and takes off like a bat outta Hell, squealing tires and everything. She's headed for the sandbox, if Cas would be so kind as to tell her where it is. She tells Cas that her baby chose him and told her to go along with his plan and he would be born.

“I am not someone that you should put your faith in,” Cas protests. (Me: hugs Cas so TIGHT.)

Oh yeah? Kelly counters. Well, “before this I was a cut rate political flak in an embarrassingly unprofessional relationship with my boss. I don't know why it's me or you. But I know we're destined for something great.”

Back at the hotel, I don't know what's pissing off Dean more. Cas and Kelly going AWOL again or that he's got to fix Cas's truck. Dean speculates that Cas is so desperate for a win he can't see straight. And, I mean, he's not wrong.

Cas and Kelly arrive at the sandbox, Cas the one who's hesitating. The portal lights up and Joshua appears. Just when we're protesting that Joshua is now played by a white dude he explodes. So...I see what you did there, show.

Dagon waves away Joshua dust and taunts Cas and Kelly. Cas steps in front of her. Who's ready to rumble? Dagon immediately starts kicking Cas's ass which is when the Winchesters arrive. Sam unloads a clip in Dagon which only serves to piss her off and she smacks Sam across the playground. Dean pulls out the one-bullet superweapon and Dagon smokes out then wrenches the gun from Dean's hand. “Time to take this off the board,” she says.

NOOOOO, yell Dean and fans of the Colt everywhere.

Cas stumbles up to Kelly and begs her to run. In response, she holds his hand which, as Dagon notes, is “adorbs.” Kelly's eyes glow yellow and yellow energy zaps into Cas. His eyes glow yellow and, fueled by the power of superbaby, he grabs Dagon's smiting hand and torches the Prince of Hell.

It's a miracle!

Sam and Dean approach warily, asking what happened. It was Cas and the baby, baby! Cas ever so gently heals Dean's broken arm.

“I've been so lost,” says Cas. “I'm not lost anymore. This child must be born with all of his power.” Ruh roh. “I have faith,” Cas says just so we know something's really wrong. The Winchesters need to trust him, Cas tells them right before he zaps them straight into sleepytown. (Dean’s soft “don’t” before Cas knocks him out just slays me.) Cas and Kelly head off to his truck (thanks for fixing it, Dean-o!) Kelly asks Cas what her baby showed him. “The future,” Cas replies vaguely.

The truck peels away, leaving the Winchesters passed out in the playground. Peace out, bitches.

Boris: Where to begin with this? People have been paralleling this season with season 6, and this episode was a non-stop, flashing lights recall of season 6. Cas once again goes behind the Winchesters for the greater good, to keep them out of trouble, to not bother them with his failings. I couldn’t help but see flashes of Godstiel at the end, right? He’s all powered up, and completely brainwashed for a cause. I would think meeting God would jade you a little, Cas, but I guess hopped up on nephilim mojo will change a guy. Cas is still in one more episode, but I feel like we’re going to be left with serious doubt about the state of Team Free Will by the time May 18th rolls around. Dean and Sam (especially Dean) have made it very clear that Cas belongs with them. I think that Cas is confused about what it means to be an equal with the Winchesters --his whole existence has been to lead or serve or follow orders. He keeps fighting against that free will that comes natural to him. He feels the need to serve and protect the brothers, at great cost to everyone all the time! But once he learns that a true partnership is a give and take, maybe then he’ll give up this constant cycle of misguided actions. CAS!!

WWQD? What Would Quotes Do?

Where the hell have you been and why have you ignored our phone calls?

It's a gift. You keep those.

I needed to come back here with a win for you.

Yes, dumbass, we.

I'll be there right by his side to nurture him, love him, help him to kill everything. You know, like a mother should.

Lucifer – he's just breaking toys.

You're not our babysitter, Cas.

There are kinks, yes.

[liesonthefloordramatically]

Yuri on Ice fic recs (part one)

People keep asking me for YOI fic recs and I’m tired of copying and pasting the same links over and over, so here we go.

Under a cut because this is lengthy.

As you can probably guess, my fanfic interests are pretty much: character and/or relationship studies, Victor and Yuuri within the context of their larger support networks (friendship! family!), and exploration of issues that the show only touches upon (multilingualism, for example, *coughpleasewritemoremultilingualficsoIdon’thavetocough*).

Without further ado:

around you the world is greener by kevystel

Phichit’s eyes go wide. ‘You guys don’t celebrate your anniversary?’

‘We don’t have an anniversary?’ says Yuuri. ‘I mean, I’m not really sure when we started dating?’

‘Get him a T-shirt,’ Leo suggests. ‘Custom-made. “If lost, return to Yuuri.”’

Yuuri goes to St. Petersburg and still has anxiety but has a top-notch support network.  Lovely character and relationship study.  Ft. Russian skater friends and Phichit being excellent.

sight of the sun by cityboys

It also feels apt, to be revisiting the same places and seeing them anew with Yuuri by his side. It’s not too different from anything else that Victor had reevaluated since Yuuri had walked into his life—it’s exactly the way skating had felt different, since Yuuri, the way even the littlest things, from sleeping alone to eating alone, have all felt different now that he’s tasted what it’s like to do them with Yuuri, to experience them with Yuuri.

Honeymoon fic with a lot of introspection from Victor.  Really beautiful writing style and a lovely character and relationship study.  Ft. Phichit as best friend.

if music be the blood of love by teaforest

The Yuuri Katsuki he saw at the Grand Prix is only a measure in a bar, a simple whole note in the midst of tremolo. The Yuuri Katsuki in the video is a page of a concerto, a loose leaf aloft on an updraft of air, and Victor desperately wants to know the rest of his song.

Technically has been jossed (since it was written pre-episode 10), but it’s too well-written not to include.  Victor and Yuuri’s relationship through the metaphor of music.  Also has a sequel, to those who still wander, about Victor and Yuuri and their relationships with dogs, which will probably make you cry.

Story About You by heartsinhay

Victor thought about the cold liquid being replaced by a lover’s caress. He knew not how it felt to have a lover care for him, truly, and be cared for in return. All he had known was empty pleasure. Empty… like his life!

Technically a WIP, but the first chapter stands alone.  Victor and Yuuri secretly write RPF about themselves.  I laughed so hard I cried.

Victor Effing Nikiforov by shysweetthing

“Are you okay?” Victor asked. “You seem a little subdued. Jet lag?”

Yuuri looked over at him. “Uh… Well…”

Victor’s face changed subtly. “Oh. It’s me. I’m babbling too much. That’s it, right? I’m babbling. Oh, God, you have no idea—my rinkmates make fun of me all the time, I’m a nervous babbler, I have been kicking myself for the last months for not getting your number, but of course if we’d been exchanging SNS this whole time I wouldn’t be so nervous.”

The night was going from strange to surreal. “You’re nervous?” Yuuri squinted at Victor. “Why are you nervous? You’re Victor fucking Nikiforov.”

AU in which Yuuri manages to make it to Worlds but still doesn’t remember the banquet.  Sweet and funny.  Ft. skater friends being amazing.

specks of silver in the evening sky by winchilsea

Viktor blames it on Yuuri. It’s probably not a newly discovered instinct on Viktor’s part so much as an innate ability on Yuuri’s part. Something about Yuuri makes people want to take care of him. That’s it. That’s all it is.

Probably.

4k of Victor taking care of Yuuri.  I died a little, but it’s okay.

your love is my turning page by cityboys

“He’ll be okay,” Mari says, and the words come so abruptly it startles Victor. Her voice has gotten even quieter. She’s always been quiet, selective in her passions may it be Yurio or an actual band member. The Katsuki siblings were both more subdued than their parents, in retrospect, especially in situations like this, but she’s audibly and visibly somber right now, stubbing her cigarette in the holder on their table. “Don’t you think?”

Victor’s POV for episode 9.  Lovely character study as well as an exploration of Victor’s relationship with the people of Hasetsu.  Ft. the Katsukis and Minako being A+.

on top of the world by springsoldier

Yuuri’s sixteen when his powers manifest. It’s both a complete surprise and something he feels like he’s been waiting for all his life.  

The superhero AU you didn’t know you needed.  Ft. technopath!Phichit and Chris, the supervillain art thief whose costume is a mask and underwear.

[dentalrecordsmusic]

Album Review: Mover Shaker - “Another Truck Stop”

Words by Ari Jindracek

I don’t have the longest history with Mover Shaker, but I do have a history. I was introduced to their first album, Michigania, by a friend in 2018, when I was already too late to see the band on tour. I wouldn’t say that I followed their career from there--that implies something more than liking their tweets from time to time--but they stayed a bright light on my radar. When they started posting promotional pictures and singles for a new album, this meant that I was ecstatic. I had, therefore, been anticipating Another Truck Stop since it was announced. I wasn’t confident enough to ask for an advance stream from the band, though, so I, like other fans, was left waiting, biting my nails, until November 21st, when the full album would drop. When I woke up the morning of the release and started listening at around six in the morning, I had expectations, but it didn’t even take me a full song until I was already texting the friend who had first introduced me to Mover Shaker, hoping I wasn’t the only one who was hearing this. I adore Another Truck Stop. The effusiveness of this review is more limited by my vocabulary than it is by my feelings for the album. It tells story after story, just as full of vitality as it is of deathwishes, and I’m drawn in, every time, to listen intently, lest I miss something important.

When the first shimmering note of “Latchkey” disappears into the second, a roar of bassy thunder, Another Truck Stop is already underway, and it starts strong. “Latchkey” feels like it goes on for much longer than its 2:12 runtime, purely because of all the variation that happens. The needle moves between slow, tiptoeing guitar and rumbling, heavy moments, usually hovering somewhere in between. Bassist Ryan Shea is turned up loud and spends quite a lot of time as the focal point of the song, underpinning the whole thing like the sound of the earth under the band’s feet. The lyrics, like the lyrics on the rest of the album, are firmly rooted in simple parts of life (a dog barking at the door, sleeping too late), the pains of social interaction (casual misgendering from someone presumed a friend, but needing to be polite about it), and a complicated relationship with death and dying. It is, for me, at least, intensely relatable. “Latchkey” ends in almost the exact way it began, a warm synthesizer that spirals out like it’s being sucked up into an alien spacecraft.

“Service Provider,” the first of the album’s two singles, opens with a masterful guitar showpiece, with parts entwined with each other in such a way that I can’t quite choose which one I want to focus on more. It clocks in at over twice the length of “Latchkey,” and its length works in its favor, lending space for more instrumental work. The bass is springy and fun, the drums roll and bubble up through the verses, and at the end of the two-part choruses, the guitars of Gabriel Miller and Jack Parsons play around each other like a pair of deer on a rainy morning. The lyrics are less hurt than those of “Latchkey” and more plaintive, desperate, for the song’s subject to return the love it demonstrates, or at least text back to prove that they didn’t die on the road (whenever I listen to this song, I think of my mother, who always wants to make sure I get home safe, even if I’m just coming home from work). The breakdown that lasts for about a minute at the end of the song feels like it’s going out of control, spinning out and crashing on a slippery highway, before surprising me, every time, by softening again and ending on synthesizers that lift the words up. Another surprise is the sudden launch into “Midwest Amnesiac Blues”, the album’s other single (if the quiet “oh shit” in the beginning is any indication, the band was just as surprised as I was). 

“Midwest Amnesiac Blues” is similar in approach to “Latchkey”--shorter, but somehow seeming to match “Service Provider” in size, with guitars that shriek out unexpected chords in surround sound and a near-constant clashing of cymbals. The dynamics drop out for the second verse, which leads into a heroic guitar feature, then a series of moments when various instruments drop out and it’s just the lead vocal and either a guitar or bass. It’s full of lyrics that feel like they would be best experienced in a packed room: “who needs friends with meds like these” and “if you kill yourself I’ll kill you” are evocative of feelings a lot of Mover Shaker’s audience are likely to relate to. The latter of these lyrics also feels like an answer to “I don’t wanna die but I feel like I might” from “Latchkey,” and like part of a conversation that continues throughout the record. I am continually thrown for a loop that “Midwest Amnesiac Blues” and “Service Provider” were released in opposite orders as a duo of singles and on the actual album, but I think that, in context, “Service Provider” is best placed between the two shorter songs, so that each piece feels like it carries equal weight.

“Vilify” is worlds away from any of the other songs on the record, not so much lyrically as in the sound. The slow pace set by the steady hi-hat taps and the lazy synth and bass is glacial compared to “Midwest Amnesiac Blues,” and the effect of the song is like that of a rainy day that is so cold it should be snowing. Part of that is the mentions of rain and cold in the lyrics, but part is the way the sound is stripped to bare branches and remains that way for much of the song. The way that the sound blooms at the end of the first part, though, is very early-spring, the first crocuses shoving their brazen heads through the snow. The Icarus allusion at the end of the second is less of a bloom and more of a terrified, melting scream that, nevertheless, matches tone with the floral sound that came before it. Each of these moments feels like the end of the song, but is not--the end only comes when the decision is made not to bother singing for no one. The lyrics are deeply fatalistic, touching on feelings of persecution, hopelessness, loss of friendships, and, again, death, in a complicated “And I feel like I wanna die / But I don’t wanna die” way. The lyrics blend with the sound well, creating a song that feels like standing outside, waiting for a bus away from an old friend’s house, in the pouring rain. 

The mood of “Honeydew / House of Youth” is much harder to pin down, partially because the song has multiple arcs, partially because it’s a veritable symphony. To me, it feels like there are three separate pieces of the song. “Honeydew,” the first section, is grounded in physical descriptions of lost love, like dahlias and the persistent green stain of copper jewelry on a lover’s hand. “House of Youth,” in the middle of the song, is less grounded--it feels more like a burst of catharsis that peaks with the whole band, and certainly everyone they play the song to live, chanting “I’m burning down this house of youth” to the tune of guitars like fire sirens. The chorus, however, feels like a world all its own, between the two named pieces. It is both grounded (Sparklhaus, for the record, appears to be a Michigan venue for house shows) and allegorical. The thing tying all three pieces together is mentions of dancing, which, as said in the chorus, is, essentially, the act of being alive. Describing “Honeydew / House of Youth” doesn’t do it justice; it’s a puzzle I’m still trying to figure out. 

While I’m still thinking, the deep drums and haunting grand piano of “Amnesia Queen” roll in. With a line from “Midwest Amnesiac Blues” borrowed as a title, “Amnesia Queen” is the song from Another Truck Stop that is the most focused on death; the chorus is out-and-out suicidal, backed by a shrill guitar that seems to be crying out in pain. The words are all about a broken, painful relationship--“The way that you’ve been treating me cuts just like a knife / to my throat while I cry” is brutal. The relationship seems characterized by insincere apologies and repeated emotional harm, and it feels like the singer(s) are at the bottom of a well trying to plead for a way out, or about to step off a ledge, waiting for a reason to take a step back. It’s almost painful, in that context, how beautiful the piano is, how much the slow, steady drums and sustained bass tones make the song feel like a ballad. 

After the piano has petered out and the only thing left is the space after a hit of a drum, it feels like the narrative fishtails out, does a 180-degree turn, and burns rubber speeding away into “The Children Want Their Nicotine.” If there was ever a tonal shift in the history of humanity, this is it. While “Amnesia Queen”’s lyrics are always easy to understand, it took me a play or two to realize that “The Children Want Their Nicotine” had lyrics under the roiling hellfire of guitar, bass, and rotting feedback. While the lyrics of the first quatrain are just as self-loathing as those of “Amnesia Queen,” the desire for love sets it apart. The last half of the bite-size song, the screams of “I’ve got a gun / I shoot it for fun,” are terrifying with the explosion of sound at their back. The album’s narrative then swerves, again, into “Put Me to Sleep,” which feels like an 80s dance song that was far ahead of its time and then got lost for a few decades. Everything about “Put Me to Sleep” feels like a party song: the glittery synths, the bouncy bass riffs, and the simple, catchy chorus. The ascending guitar riff before the second verse begins is masterful and keeps the party rolling. The song, from the first beat through every instrumental break and the last strum of the bass, is electrically-charged, neon-lit, and it makes it hard to stop moving. If dancing is living, as in “Honeydew / House of Youth,” “Put Me to Sleep” drags tired listeners back into the limelight of life.

“We Can Go to the Landfill Together” didn’t start out as my favorite song as the album, but has taken the spot and is holding tightly to it. Part of that is Parsons’ lyrics: they’re beautiful, poetic, unexpected. The entire first verse is a masterpiece, and “from coast to coast I still believe a song can change the world” hits me in the same part of my heart where I hold songs that I loved so much I designed tattoos around them, the part that derives a lot of the hope that gets me through the day from music. The carousel-like twirl of the synthesizers and bass at the beginning draw listeners in toward the words, and the guitar part similarly reels listeners in during the chorus. The bridge of the song is aptly named, in this case: the first two lines are repeated twice, one in the slower tone of the song’s first half, and then, speeding up to highway speeds, signaling a headlong plunge into the outro. The outro starts with slow and peaceful instrumentals, but the drums really drive the charge, swiftly rolling, on and on, out of control down the hill. The line “Michigania / can’t cure what ails ya” (referencing the band’s first album) keeps sticking in my head. “We Can Go to the Landfill Together” pulls a lot of the work of the album together, and the rising action culminates in a clatter as the eighteen-wheeler comes to a full stop. “Another Truck Stop,” the last song, feels like a coda, a conclusion, and I keep listening to it, despite its simplicity, for how genuine it feels. The instrumentals are simple--the Sheas, it seems, are busy wishing they were dead, and don’t come in until the last half of the short song--and feel more acoustic than anything else. The song is a lullaby for the touring band. It’s not a bow tied around all of it, the thoughts of death, the messed-up friendships, the love not felt and the pain received; that’s too much of a tangled wreck to put a bow on. There is, however, a sense of hope, just because there’s something on the horizon: a gig, a crowd of friends, and yet another truck stop.

It’s been remarkably hard for me to write about Another Truck Stop, not because I didn’t put in the time with it, and certainly not because I don’t like it. As a matter of fact, I have no idea how long it will be until the universe tosses me another album I love this strongly. I know that I didn’t do it justice. There’s just so much that I can’t put words to in the instrumentals, in the way the lyrics hit me right over my heart, in the way it feels to listen, like spotting a blue-gray stormcloud on the horizon, sitting in the passenger seat on a drive through golden fields of dead cornstalks on the way to a place I’ve never been and where I don’t know what to expect. The only thing I expected of Another Truck Stop was that it would be good. It met and exceeded that benchmark. I’m holding my breath, counting down the days until I get to see it live, and I know that I’m going to listen to it dozens more times in those days. It’s going to take me some time to tire of this album. I kind of hope I never do.

Listen to Another Truck Stop on Bandcamp.

You can find Ari Jindracek still screaming about this album on Twitter.

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Subscribe to the DRM YouTube channel.

[mrwilliamcharley]

A Trip To The Forest : Electric Forest 2018 [Review]

To many, Electric Forest is much more than a music festival. Within 10 minutes of arriving to the camp grounds, you will find festival-goers meeting for the first time, hugging, and beginning a friendship that very well might end on Monday morning when you’re packing up to go home. This is just part of the beauty of Electric Forest.

For the second year in a row, Electric Forest called Sherwood Forest home for two weekends in a row. Just like last year, the lineups were mostly similar with each weekend having their own set of unique acts.

Unlike last year, Weekend 2 sold more tickets than weekend 1. During the day weekend 2 had to deal with temperatures close to 95 degrees but that didn’t stop music hungry fans from celebrating at their favorite music festival. The weather finally changed sunday afternoon when a storm caused an evacuation of the venue. Festival goers were instructed to go to their cars for the time being 0 but just as the storm came fast, it left fast and people were ready to party.

Electric Forest MVPs

There is no clear definition for my Electric Forest MVP. It can come from a variety of different aspects. context, sets played, and did they live the forest motto?

Louis The Child

It was almost impossible keeping track of how many sets Louis The Child actually played across the two weekends. When they weren’t playing Sherwood Court or Ranch Arena, these two young producers were constantly looking for renegade sets to play throughout campsites, VIP sets and even the This Song is Sick secret set weekend 1. It was like a wonderful game of “Where in the world is Louis The Child” and if you won, you got to see an awesome set.

JAUZ

After a certain incident that led to an artist being taken off the lineup, everyone was wondering who would be taking his spot. With pretty big shoes to fill, Jauz was up to the challenge. When he was first announced, people were worried that he wouldn’t be able to match the heaviness of the artist he was replacing…and oh boy were they wrong. Jauz performed on the bass rush stage both weekends and left fans hungry for more at the end of his set. It’s never easy replacing an artist on a lineup, but Jauz proved why he was the perfect artist to do it. Not to mention a couple of renegade sets and a “Jauz and Friends” off the deep-end set in VIP weekend 2. Well done, Jauz.

The Set That Fed Off The Crowd’s Energy The Best 

(I know, that’s a mouthful)

Marian Hill

I wasn’t sure how Marian Hill’s pop forward sound would translate to an environment like Electric Forest – but to my satisfaction, it worked perfectly. For the first few songs of their second weekend set it felt like they were just performing songs – as they got comfortable with the crowd an pulled the crowd into the performance – the energy inside Jubilee Tent could be felt from Indiana. They had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand, and if you didn’t know the words you wish you did by the end of this set.

Best Late Night Sets In The Forest

Every stage at Electric Forest has something special about it – but there is a certain magic to witnessing sets at The Forest Stage or The Observatory. You are surrounded by trees, and the forest lights up with beautiful production and a certain all-inclusive magic that is only found deep within the forest.

DROELOE

DROELOE were tasked with closing The Forest Stage on Friday night of weekend 2 and what a fantastic way to end the night it was. They played through their collection of songs from The Bitbird imprint while injecting absolute heaters that could be found at any self-respecting house party. It was sweaty, it was fun, and DROELOE was thriving up on that tiny stage.

Medasin

Medasin was one of my most anticipated acts of the weekend. His originals and track selection are the perfect soundtrack to a place like Electric Forest and I am so glad I was right. His closing set at The Observatory on Saturday night was absolutely packed from front to back. Everyone had the same vibe, and were frothing at the mouth for more songs from Medasin when his set ended a bit after 3 am. He sat on the edge of beats and bangers throughout the entirety of his set – a perfect combination for a set at 2 am.

The Best Set You Probably Weren’t at

ZHU (Blacklizt Set)

Sunday Night’s schedule featured a ‘Special Guest’ at the Grand Antique Trading Post, a small stage deep within the forest at 11:30 pm. Around Saturday afternoon I caught wind that it was going to be a special ‘Blacklizt’ set from Zhu, just shortly after his main set at The Ranch Arena. If you don’t know what Blacklizt sets are, it gives Zhu a chance to flex his DJ skills and show a deeper side of house music – and it was incredible. The small, intimate crowd were there from start to finish even after Zhu came on stage a half hour late. The small house-hungry crowd was on the same wave length for the entire 90 minute set and gave Zhu a chance to showw off his deeper side. What a forest memory.

The Best Weather Assists

I want to preface by saying that these sets would have been just as incredible without the help of the weather, but these circumstances helped make their sets that much more special.

Lane 8

Lane 8 was definitely in a position to succeed. He had a full two hours to showcase his beautiful take on melodic, progressive house from 11 pm – 1 am. His set was more than a collection of songs, it was a journey. If you turned away from the stage and looked up you were greeted by an incredible display from mother nature. Heat lightning lit up the sky and rivaled the stage production. The crowd was split – half in tranced by Lane 8’s theatrics on stage and the other half glued to the sky’s supplementary light show.

Manic Focus

Because of the storm and evacuation later in the day, Manic Focus’s set was changed from 6pm at The Ranch Arena to a 1 am set at Sherwood Court – across the forest from Bassnectar’s set. In all my years of going to Electric Forest, I have never seen a crowd that big at Sherwood Court that into the music. The later it got, the more the crowd grew as they journeyed on over from Bassnectar’s set. Manic Focus could not be more appreciative of the crowd and blasted through a set with his band worthy of the new set time. What an incredible turn of events.

Honorable Mention

Elohim

It was hard for me to find a category for Elohim – but I just knew I had to highlight her performance. I had no idea what to expect from an Elohim set. The singer/songwriter fresh off her second album took to the pitch black stage and took the crowd on a musical experience completely different from anything else. Think Sleigh Bells combined with Tune Yards combined with Purity Ring. Her solo set featured all of her incredible songs, along with exclusive remixes. People danced, people sang along, and more importantly, people connected. Elohim’s sound was a perfect fit for Electric Forest, and I can’t wait for her to come back.

'A Trip To The Forest : Electric Forest 2018 [Review]

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