im OLD NOW!!!! even if im only about 2 in tumblr years, i im still getting up there
had to draw myself w the blorbos as a little brifthday gift (treat yourse;f....)
Jane Sheldon singing The Galaxy Beneath Me from ANTARCTICA by Mary Finsterer at Sydney Festival 2023 with Sydney Chamber Opera & Asko|Schönberg.
[full recording]
A woman in 19th century clothing lies motionless suspended in midair on a small stage filled with fog and lit with red light. The huge proscenium fills with words from an account of a flood.
Peaceful, pensive music plays while a voice whispers and the light slowly turns blue.
The woman sings. Her voice is very clear, with little vibrato - like a Baroque or Early singer. The melody begins plainly. Besides the movement of her mouth, she remains completely motionless.
"Solitude, true solitude; the night black; horizons melt sky and sea. Somewhere... solitude."
A few small ornaments are added to the melody - grace notes.
"Milky Way smeared over all, oh shatter of stars crashing in vastness. Far from the lights of home."
A different melody without ornaments, but more movement and wide intervals.
"Oh see - there is no soul awake to see the shimmer of the night sky hanging in the water; the multitude of lights swimming."
Now many simple ornaments on a melody with a lot of movement.
"Tumble of starlight down among us to sleep in our darkness. Solitude."
Now many difficult ornaments - complex mordents and runs - turn a simple melody into an acrobatic show with a strong sense of movement. Her tone remains clear and pensive, and she is still perfectly motionless in midair. The proscenium finally fills with text.
"Underfoot, underdeck, a million tiny creatures! Underspace, a galaxy beneath- beneath me."
The singer and the orchestra slowly fade out, and a pure, piercing tone rings out then fades.
It came down to the wire, but NCIS: Hawai’i ultimately didn’t make the cut for next season at CBS. The news comes days before the network is set to announce its fall schedule on May 2 and before the Season 3 finale of Hawai’i is scheduled to air on May 6. According to sources, the episode was not meant to be a series finale and includes a tease for what was to come but fans won’t be left reeling by a major cliffhanger.
The cancellation is not a complete shocker since, as Deadline has been reporting, NCIS: Hawai’i was on the bubble. Still, the outcome is surprising since I hear an effort was made to extend the drama’s run for at least an abbreviated fourth and final season, with producers agreeing to a massive budget cut and open to other concessions in order to keep the show going.
Hawai’i, the first series in the NCIS franchise with a female lead, Vanessa Lachey, is now the first series in the franchise not to get a proper sendoff after a brief run compared to its predecessors NCIS, renewed for a 22nd season, NCIS: Los Angeles (14 seasons) and NCIS: New Orleans (7). It is unclear whether series producer CBS Studios would shop the drama but there are no obvious buyers, with Paramount+ already stocked up with two NCIS original series, Sydney and the Tony and Ziva spinoff.
Attracting sizable viewership on a linear network is quite a challenge, so it is not common these days for a network to let go of the #12 most watched non-sports program on broadcast that averages 7.8 million linear viewers (most current) and 10M in Live+35 multi-platform viewing.
That is what CBS is doing with the cancellation of NCIS: Hawai’i, which added some star power and NCIS continuity this season with NCIS: Los Angeles‘ LL Cool J who has been in every episode.
It comes on the heels of Top 25 series So Help Me Todd and CSI: Vegas getting the axe last Friday. As I noted in the CBS Renewal Status Report earlier this month, the network was going to have to make some painful cancellation decisions, getting rid of shows other networks would’ve been happy to renew.
The series, as well as So Help Me Todd and CSI: Vegas, ultimately became a casualty of a strong schedule, a cost-management drive and overall uncertainty at the parent company Paramount Global, which is in the process of being sold.
Even before CBS’ lineup, delayed by the strikes, launched with the Super Bowl, the network already had committed to five new scripted series for next season, dramas Matlock, Watson and NCIS: Origins and comedies Poppa’s House and a Young Sheldon spinoff, with renewal conversations on NCIS: Sydney also well underway.
Then CBS’ originals returned, exceeding expectations, with the network claiming the top 16 most watched shows of its premiere week and 14 of the top 20 non-sports programs overall this midseason in Nielsen most current linear viewership.
With no obvious weaklings, Blue Bloods getting a final run next season and S.W.A.T. surprisingly uncanceled, the network had to cut deep in purging its slate to make room for the additions.
Just a year ago, a renewal for Hawai’i would’ve been a no-brainer: it’s part of a storied franchise with solid rating and crossover potential with the mothership series that yielded big ratings in January 2023. But now, CBS already has three other NCIS series already locked for next season: the original series, renewed for Season 22, Sydney, returning for a second season, and the upcoming Young Gibbs prequel NCIS: Origins. There is also the Tony & Ziva NCIS spinoff series greenlighted by Paramount+, making for a crowded NCIS field.
With strong multi-platform performance, as NCIS: Hawai’i ranked above several CBS dramas that have been renewed, including FBI: Most Wanted, FBI: International and S.W.A.T., it probably came down to money.
Even with the proposed budget cuts, NCIS: Hawai’i was still going to be expensive. Its long-term prospects were unclear — whether it would become a big global hit and moneymaker like its franchise predecessors. With CBS’ parent company focused on its short-term balance sheet as it prepares to sell, a corporate decision was made not to take a chance and find out.
In NCIS: Hawai’i, Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor Jane Tennant (Lachey) and her team balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security and the mysteries of the island itself.
Alex Tarrant, Noah Mills, Jason Antoon, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Tori Anderson and Kian Talan also star. Matt Bosack, Jan Nash, Christopher Silber and Larry Teng served as executive producers.
In a recent Deadline interview, CBS Studios President David Stapf spoke about how “wholly unique” Hawai’i is while also being part of the franchise as the first NCIS series with a female lead, Lachey, and with its Hawai’i locale. “We were just coming off Hawaii Five-0, a very successful show,” he said of the spinoff’s origins. “People love that setting, it plays well over the globe.”
Do you think there's a chance a streaming service will pick ncis:h? I've signed the petition but do we dare to hope? I'm tired of this happening all the time. I just dont understand. It was doing fine in ratings and it's a part of a franchise that keeps getting more spin offs? How that makes sense? Do you know the ratings compared with the others ncis shows? Sorry im asking you but im not from usa and i have no idea how american netwoks work. So sad rn.
okay SO i am also not from the us but have done this dance before sooooo:
1) from what i’ve heard, they were planning to move either another ncis show (i think sydney?) or another cbs show to paramount plus - which they now are no longer doing. in theory yes, this opens up the possibility for ncishi to move over there; in practice, i’m not holding my breath, as typically that negotiation would happen before a cancellation announcement
2) how does it make sense? the honest answer is that it doesn’t. like, it really doesn’t. it’s been holding steady at sixth of 14 cbs shows in the ratings (which is a brilliant number, ensures it’s profitable, and is also impressive for a procedural that’s still relatively new). it’s been beating a LOT of other crime procedurals in viewership and viewer retention, and reviewers have been singing its praises. i think this is why it feels so much as if it’s because they just view this show as less valuable (socially and economically) than their usual white guy cop shows; it’s very difficult to argue that your profitable, successful show is too expensive when you’re flying cast and crews across - or, potentially, internationally to - australia, to continue a less-highly-rated show with no issue.
3) as far as ratings go - ncis hawai’i episodes were pulling in as many as 10 million viewers last year (s2 e10 came in with 10.5 mil, as per variety telecast viewership reports) which has it going toe to toe with the core ncis (seems to pull approx. 8-10mil per episode, via hollywood reporter). for the 18-49 demographic across us series, ncis hawaii is ranking at #13 of #21 as per tvseriesfinale.com - this is significantly above ncis sydney (renewed, #15), and elsbeth (#19, renewed), two other cbs shows, one of which in particular is incredibly expensive. crucially, ncishi has actually increased its viewership, which is VERY difficult to do on a year to year basis. its up by 4.18% among 18 to 49 year olds - for comparison the core NCIS is down 0.83% and fbi international - a competing show - is down by 3.73%. bear in mind that even a single percentage point represents hundreds of thousands of viewers.
i also want to point out that ranking at #13 isn’t strictly representative of viewer numbers, it’s about percentage of viewers that are within that core age bracket. the neighbourhood is ranking at #6, but only pulling in 4.8 million viewers - ncishi is at #13, and pulling in 5.2 million. ncishi pulls in over half a million more viewers than four shows ranked above it in that chart.
so essentially - it doesn’t make sense. from any perspective. it doesn’t make sense from a business perspective (ncis sydney is more expensive to produce and brings in approx. 200k less viewers than ncishi, and ncishi crew had already agreed to a shortened, budget-restrained final season), it doesn’t make sense for a ratings perspective (it continues to outperform many of cbs’ own shows, including ones that have been renewed), it doesn’t make sense from a social perspective (people are loving it, even outside of our fandom spaces).
objectively, it’s a really, really bad move by cbs. i also thought being part of a franchise would be a kind of safety net - fool me once, i guess. all the evidence suggests that they just don’t care enough about ncishi, especially when they’ve got their bullshit white guy ncis origins show, a young sheldon spinoff (?? who asked?) and a plethora of other cookie-cutter shows they can just keep going with. and we can make a pretty educated guess as to why, when the main things that set ncishi apart from the other ncis shows are its diversity and character dynamics
(edit: it was pointed out that people aren’t being flown to sydney from the us, which is true, and bad phrasing on my part - but many are flown across australia at seemingly similar costs to mainland us/hawai’i flights, and i believe not all of the leads are based in australia either, so i’ve updated that bit for clarity. apologies!)
READ THE YOUNG SHELDON X CHNT FIC WITH MY FREIND AND SHE WAS SHELDON AND I WAS SYDNEY AND WE READ IT WRONG AND THOUGHT JEDIDIAH GOT SHOT BY SHELDON FOR 20 MINUTES....
At the Foundling Museum they have displays listing some of the new names given to the Foundlings when they arrived.
I was struck by how many of these were literary, historical or fanciful - a projection of the donors' fantasies on children - was this a kind thing to do or treating children a bit like naming a puppy? What did it mean to go through life saddled with the name Oliver Cromwell or William Shakespeare?
Names included:
Historical: Julius Caesar; Edward Plantagenet; Lambert Simnel; Edmund Ironside; Henry Agincourt; Emma Plantagenet
Tudor: Charles Brandon; Catherine Parr; Walter Raleigh; Francis Drake
Civil War: Oliver & Richard Cromwell; Edward Montagu; William Chillingworth
17thc/18th: Gilbert Sheldon; William Orange; Billy Culloden
Admirals: Admiral Benbow and Coram Benbow; Cloudesley Shovel
Literary: Robin Hood; Tom Jones and his love Sophia Western; Geoffrey Chaucer; Phillip Sydney; Alexander Pope; Nahum Tate; Samuel Johnson; William Shakespeare
Artists: Michael Angel; Inigo Jones; William Hogarth (possibly a bit confusing given his association with the hospital?); Anthony Vandyke; Peter Paul Reuben; Christopher Wren; Godfrey Kneller; Mary Addison; Richard Steel; John Dryden
Scientists: Francis Bacon; Edmund Halley
Virtues: Hopegood Helpless (a bit of puritanism coming in there perhaps?); Diana Thrifty; Prudence Friendly
Birds: Mary Dodo; Mary Swallow; Deborah Lark
Interesting to see one John Doe on the list as well - I thought this was a later, American thing.
Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, William Redfield, Brad Dourif, Sydney Lassick, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Vincent Schiavelli, Scatman Crothers. Screenplay: Laurence Hauben, Bo Goldman, based on a novel by Ken Kesey. Cinematography: Haskell Wexler. Production design: Paul Sylbert. Film editing: Sheldon Kahn, Lynzee Klingman. Music: Jack Nitzsche.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is beginning to show its age, as any 48-year-old movie must. It no longer exhibits the freshness that won it acclaim as a masterpiece and raked in the five "major" Academy Awards: picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay -- only the second picture in history to do that: The first was It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934), and only one other picture, The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991), has subsequently accomplished that feat. Today, however, One Flew has the look of a skillfully directed but somewhat predictable melodrama; its tragic edge has been blunted by familiarity. In treating the material, director Forman goes for straightforward storytelling, without showing us something new or personal as an auteur. And as time has passed, some of the elements of the source, Ken Kesey's novel, that screenwriters Laurence Hauben and Bo Goldman took pains to mitigate -- namely the countercultural glibness and antifeminism -- have begun to show through. It's harder today to wholeheartedly cheer on the raw, anarchic antiauthoritarianism of McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) or to accept as a given the unmitigated villainy of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). We want our protagonists and antagonists to be a little more complicated than the film allows them to be. There are still many who think it a great film, but if it is, I think it's largely because it's the perfect showcase for a great talent -- Nicholson's -- supported by an extraordinary ensemble that includes a shockingly young-looking Danny DeVito, Scatman Crothers, Sydney Lassick, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson, and a touchingly vulnerable Brad Dourif.