#can’t wait to see you in your acting debut george

[mamusiq]

Rock Legend Ronnie Spector Recalls Her Close Friendship (and Almost Romance!) with John Lennon

Rock and roll legend Ronnie Spector reflects on the time she turned down one of the Beatles — and her friendship with the Rolling Stones

By Jordan Runtagh November 30, 2018

In addition to her title as the original Queen of Rock and Roll, Ronnie Spector enjoys an undisputed status as one of the ’60s greatest heartthrobs. Fronting the legendary Ronettes in her signature sky-high beehive and stylish pencil skirt, the cat-eyed siren bewitched millions, including some of the most famous artists of her generation. Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie were among those who vied for her affections, but few were as besotted as John Lennon.

The pair met in January 1964 when the Ronettes toured England soon after their pop masterpiece “Be My Baby” became a global smash. The Beatles, barely a year into their own superstardom, counted themselves as huge fans and wanted to be introduced. “They had seen us on Sunday Night at the London Palladium and they said, ‘We have got to meet these girls with the black long hair and slits up the side,'” Spector, 75, tells PEOPLE.

Both groups were invited to a show business party at a glitzy London townhouse. Despite the fact that Lennon was married and Spector was linked to her producer (and future husband) Phil Spector, that didn’t stop the Beatle from making a move. “John took me into a room to show me the beautiful lights over London,” she remembered. “I said, ‘Wow, it’s so beautiful.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, you are.’”

He tried to steer her to a nearby bed, but her heart remained with her boyfriend back home. “I was young then, and I was seeing Phil. I didn’t want to kiss other guys and stuff,” she explains. “I just dug my feet into the carpet, ‘We gotta go downstairs, John!’”

Lennon, however, took the romantic rejection in stride. “He said, ‘Okay, I guess I lost on that one!'” Spector recalls.

The incident failed to damage their friendship. Lennon would act as Spector’s official guide whenever the Ronettes came to London. “He was so nice and polite,” she told PEOPLE in a 2017 interview. “He’d take me to clubs, and he took me to Carnaby Street to get all the t-shirts. We didn’t know what was in London, so John was all, ‘Don’t worry, Ronnie: I will take you.’ And then at night they’d take us to clubs. I remember one night I was with John and he said, ‘Ronnie, sing a little bit of “Be My Baby” in my ear.’ So I went, [full-voiced] ‘Be my little baby!’ And he almost passed out. I can’t sing low, I had to go all out. It blew his mind.”

Once, the duo arranged a double dinner date with Spector’s sister — and fellow Ronette — Estelle Bennett and George Harrison. It seemed like a great idea until the sisters’ mom accidentally crashed it.

“My mother toured with us everywhere. John and George were picking us up at the hotel to take us to dinner. They were so nice and polite, they said, ‘Mrs. Bennett, would you like to go to dinner with us?’ And my mother said, ‘Sure, let me get my purse!’ I almost had a heart attack! We were just at the age where we wanted to go out and have fun, and here’s Mom with us!? No no no. But we didn’t know how to say that. So we took her to dinner like good little girls, and of course John and George were so polite: ‘Ok, Mrs. Bennett, we’ll wait for you to get your purse.’ And I’m looking at them: ‘We wanna see England without mom!'”

The Beatles and the Ronettes would remain close, with the Fabs inviting them on their 1966 world tour. Years later, they released her solo debut on their own label, Apple Records. Though her producer/then-husband Phil wanted to credit it to “Veronica” (her given name), the band suggested her affectionate nickname. “The Beatles named me Ronnie Spector,” she says now. “It was really the Beatles that said, ‘Veronica just doesn’t sound right on your records. Everybody knows her as Ronnie.'”

Spector would repay the favor years later with English Heart, her 2016 album that pays tribute to British Invasion-era bands. In addition to recording a track by the Beatles, she also gave a nod to her onetime backing band, the Rolling Stones. She particularly hit it off with the band’s guitarist, Keith Richards.

“He and I weren’t dating but we would go out after the show to Wimpy Bars to have hamburgers,” she says of the time. “We didn’t think about drinking — you had soda backstage! Everything back then was so innocent.”

Lennon was murdered in 1980, but Spector’s friendship with Richards continues to endure. “He lives like 15 minutes from me now in Connecticut. So I see him quite a bit,” she says. When the Ronettes were welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, it was Richards who had the honor of inducting them.

RELATED: Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes Spread Some Holiday Cheer with the ‘Best Christmas Party Ever’

https://people.com/music/ronnie-spector-john-lennon-friendship/

[gayenerd]

I just realized I didn’t post that 2007 Rolling Stone article I posted about here. 

Billie Joe Armstrong

The Green Day leader talks Bush, Britney and being a middle-aged punk for our 40th anniversary.

DAVID FRICKE

Posted Nov 01, 2007 8:19 AM

You have two young sons. What kind of America will they inherit?

This war has to finish before something new blossoms. There's no draft — that's why none of the kids give a shit. They'd rather watch videos on YouTube. It's hard to tell what's next — there is so much information out there with no power to it. Everything is in transition, including our government. Next year, it's someone else in the White House. There's no way to define anything. It's Generation Zero. But you gotta start at zero to get to something.

Is there anyone now running for president who gives you hope for the future?

Barack Obama, but it's a bit early to tell if this is the guy I like. I get sick of the religious-figure thing. People don't question their rulers, these political figures, just as they don't question their ministers and priests. They're not going to question George Bush, especially if he goes around talking about God — "I'm going to let God decide this for me. He's going to give me the answer." The fear of God keeps people silent.

When did you first vote in a presidential election?

In 1992. I was twenty. I voted for Clinton.

Did you feel like you made a difference?

Yeah. The Eighties sucked. There was so much bullshit that went along with that decade. I felt like Clinton was a fresh face with fresh ideas. There were times when he was dropping bombs, and I'm thinking, "What the fuck are you doing?" But he became a target. We have this puritanical vision of what a leader is supposed to be, and that's what makes us the biggest hypocrites in the world. We got so inside this guy's sexual habits. Now we have a president going around, killing in the name of what? In the name of nothing.

What did you accomplish with your 2004 anti-Bush album, "American Idiot"? He was re-elected anyway, and the war in Iraq is still going on.

I found a voice. There may have been people disenfranchised by it. People have a hard time with that kind of writing: "Why are you preaching to me?" It does sound preachy, a bit. I'm a musician, and I want to say positive things. If it's about self-indulgent depression or overthrowing the government, it's gotta come from my heart. And when you say "Fuck George W. Bush" in a packed arena in Texas, that's an accomplishment, because you're saying it to the unconverted.

Do you think selling nearly 6 million copies of that album might have an effect on the 2008 election? A kid who bought it at fifteen will be voting age next year.

I hope so. I made it to give people a reason to think for themselves. It was supposed to be a catalyst. Maybe that's one reason why it's difficult for me to write about politics now. A lot of things on that record are still relevant. It's like we have this monarchy in politics — the passing of the baton between the Clintons and the Bushes. That's frightening. What needs to happen is a complete change, a person coming from the outside with a new perspective on all the fucked-up problems we have.

How would you describe the state of pop culture?

People want blood. They want to see other people thrown to the lions. Do audiences want rock stars? I can't tell. You have information coming at you from so many areas — YouTube, the Internet, tabloids. Watching Britney Spears the other night [on the MTV Video Music Awards] was like watching a public execution. How could the people at MTV, the people around her, not know this girl was fucked up? People came in expecting a train wreck, and they got more than they bargained for.

She was a willing conspirator. She didn't say no.

She is a manufactured child. She has come up through this Disney perspective, thinking that all life is about is to be the most ridiculous star you could be. But it's also about what we look at as entertainment — watching somebody go through that.

How do you decide what your children can see on TV or the Internet? As a dad, even a punk-rock dad, that can make you conservative in your choices.

I want to protect them from garbage. It's not necessarily the sex and drugs. It's bad drugs and bad sex, the violence you see on television and in the news. I want to protect them from being desensitized. I want them to realize this is real life, not a video game.

The main thing I want them to have is a good education, because that's something I never had. Get smart. Educate yourself as much as you can, and get as much out of it, even if the teacher is an asshole.

Do you regret dropping out of high school?

Life in high school sucks. I bucked the system. I also got lucky. My wife has a degree in sociology, and there are conversations she has — I don't have a fucking clue what they're talking about. College — I could have learned from that.

But I was the last of six kids. At that point, my mother was fifty-eight, and she threw up her hands — "I'm through with this parenting thing." Also, I could not handle authority figures. But I wouldn't say I'm an authority figure for my kids. I provide guidelines, not rules.

What is it like being a middle-aged punk? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

It's about the energy you bring with you, the pulse inside your head. I want to get older. I don't want to be twenty-one again. Screw that. My twenties were a difficult time — where my band was at, getting married, having a child. I remember walking out of a gig in Chicago, past these screaming kids. There were these punks, real ones, sitting outside our tour bus. One girl had a forty-ouncer, and she goes, "Billie Joe, come drink with us." I said, "I can't, I've got my family on the bus." She goes, "Well, fuck you then." I get on the bus, and my wife says, "Did that bitch just tell you to fuck off? I'm gonna kick her ass right now." I'm holding her back, while my child is naked, jumping on the couch: "Hi, Daddy!" That was my whole life right there — screaming kids, punks telling me to fuck off, my wife getting pissed, my naked son waiting to get into his pajamas.

There's nothing wrong with being twenty-one. It's the lessons you learn. At thirty, you think, "Why did I worry so much about this shit?" When I hit forty, I'll say the same thing: "Why did I worry about this shit in my thirties?"

What have you learned about yourself?

There is more to life than trying to find your way through self-destruction or throwing yourself into the fire all the time. Nihilism in punk rock can be a cliché. I need to give myself more room to breathe, to allow my thoughts to catch up with the rest of me.

Before Dookie, I wasn't married and I didn't have kids. I had a guitar, a bag of clothes and a four-track recorder. There are ways you don't want to change. You don't want to lose your spark. But I need silence more than I did before. I need to get away from the static and noise, whereas before, I thrived on it.

Are you ready for the end of the music business? The technology and its effect on sales have changed dramatically since Green Days' debut EP — on vinyl — in 1989.

Technology now and the way people put out records — everything comes at you so fast, you don't know what you're investigating. You can't identify with it — at least I can't. With American Idiot, we made a conscious effort to give people an experience they could remember for the rest of their lives. It wasn't just the content. It was the artwork, the three acts — the way you could read it all like someone's story.

Is music simply not important to young people now the way it was to you as a kid?

People get addicted to garbage they don't need. At shows, they gotta talk on their phones to their friend who's in the next aisle. I was watching this documentary on Jeff Tweedy of Wilco [Sunken Treasure]. He was playing acoustic, and he ends up screaming at the audience: "Your fucking conversation can wait. I'm up here singing a song — get involved." He wasn't being an asshole. He was like, "Leave your bullshit behind. Let's celebrate what's happening now."

We need music, and we need it good. I took it very seriously. There's a side of me where music will always send chills up my spine, make me cry, make me want to get up and do Pete Townshend windmills. In a lot of ways, I was in a minority when I was young. There are people who go, "Oh, that's a snappy tune." I listen to it and go, "That's the greatest fucking song ever. That is the song I want played at my funeral."

Now that you've brought it up, what song do you want played at your funeral?

It keeps changing. "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie. "In My Life," by the Beatles. "Love," by John Lennon.

Those are all reflective ballads, not punk.

I disagree. They are all honest in their reflection. The punk bands I liked were the ones who didn't fall into clichés — the Clash, the Ramones. The Ramones wrote beautiful love songs. They also invented punk rock. I'd have to add "Blitzkrieg Bop" to the list.

What is the future of punk rock? Will it still be a voice of rebellion in twenty years?

It's categorized in so many different ways. You've got the MySpace punks. But there is always the subculture of it — the rats in the walls, pounding the pavement and booking their own live shows. It comes down to the people who are willing to do something different from everybody else.

You are in a different, platinum-album world now. What makes you so sure that spirit survives?

I'm going on faith — because I was there. Gilman Street [the Berkeley, California, club where Green Day played early shows] is still around. And that's a hard task, because there is no bar — it's a nonprofit cooperative. It's like a commune — this feeling of bucking the system together, surviving and thriving on art. Punk, as an underground, pushes for the generation gap. As soon as you're twenty-five years old, there's a group of sixteen-year-olds coming to kick your ass. And you have to pass the torch on. It's a trip to have seen it happen so many times. It gives me goose bumps — punk is something that survives on its own.

[cxhnow]

Growing Up With Chloe x Halle

The Bailey sisters on why they didn’t switch up overnight — the world just caught up to their speed.

On their 2018 debut album The Kids Are Alright and on Freeform’s Grown-ish, a 19- and 17-year-old Chloe and Halle Bailey sang “Watch out world, I’m grown now.” So you’ll have to forgive them for acting out a little on their new sophomore record — they warned us. While Ungodly Hour might sound like a pivot to the grown ‘n’ sexy side of R&B similar to plenty of their peers, trading TKAA’s colorful doodles for chrome angel wings and skin-tight latex, they’re really just living the same truths they preached up and down TKAA: Own your insecurities, work hard, don’t get distracted by drama. “When we created this album, we said, Okay, we want to show all the different sides and layers of us,” Chloe tells me, sitting side by side with her sister, over Zoom from their family home in Los Angeles. “We don’t just want to show this one side. A lot of people still think we’re teenagers.”

Now 22 and 20, the former child stars are ready to explore the topics they’ve been singing about since they were kids making covers on YouTube, the ones that landed them a record deal with music royalty before they were old enough to vote. The new album calls out former flings, seethes with jealousy, and apologizes when necessary. Lyrics like “It’s four o’clock / you sendin’ me too many pictures of your …” and “No drama, no baby mamas” immediately started dating rumors online, roping in their Grown-ish co-star Diggy Simmons. While most fans are having fun with it, those a little, um, outside of the Baileys’ age demographic are still struggling (try to get through this Breakfast Club questioning without cringing). In case you missed it: They no longer have to change Beyoncé lyrics from “You showed your ass” to “You showed your butt” — on “Do It,” they proudly sing “I’m a bad girl, shake a li’l ass.” Alongside all the perks of growing up, the album makes sure to normalize the struggles, too.

When the coronavirus pandemic sent Halle home to L.A. from The Little Mermaid rehearsals in London, their house (complete with mom, dad, and younger brother, Branson) became their album rollout headquarters. One of the few albums to not be pushed due to the coronavirus, Ungodly Hour was originally planned for June 5, but the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and far too many others across the country, created a moment that Chloe and Halle felt they couldn’t ignore. They pushed the album one week, to June 12, and continued to use their platform to share petitions, funds, and awareness, while also personally signing petitions and making donations. As both an escape and work, they’ve been focusing their energy on the album, diving into elaborate DIY remote performances and mashing up songs, but making sure to leave Sundays for rest. After a busy weekend tearing up the BET Awards and Global Citizen virtual stages, channeling Aaliyah in one performance and going full rock and roll in the other, they’ll be back on Instagram Live this Thursday for Ungodly Hour Tea Time, where they often chill out in Snuggies, try to remember what day of quarantine it is, and update their supporters on their lives.

How has it been, emotionally, to have to sing and dance while all of this turmoil is happening? Halle Bailey: Emotionally, what’s keeping us afloat is music and feeling better through the art. I think that’s why we love music so much because even though we create it and we sing it, we use it as our healer, too. Everything going on really makes you reflect. But we’re young black women, this hasn’t been anything new to us. Our community has known about this for a very long time, and it’s constantly upsetting. But what I’m appreciating about technology and social media is that our voices can’t be silenced anymore. And the things that they used to try to hide, they can’t any longer. We’re seeing these injustices happen over video, and [so is] the rest of the world who’s usually ignorant to the racism that’s been underlying in this community. They’re seeing it and they’re upset as well. So it’s good because change can only happen when we’re all working towards a common goal. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this.

I feel like every time we have one of these moments where everyone is just mourning so publicly in such a communal way, there’s also music that uplifts us. Talk me through deciding to postpone the album.

HB:  During the height of the George Floyd protests, emotionally, we just were not right to release a project. Our little brother and our father — when we see a video of George Floyd getting killed in the street, we think that could be them tomorrow. And we wanted to shine the light on what needs to be seen. That George Floyd video, Breonna Taylor, all of the other brothers and sisters that we have lost to police brutality — that is what needed to be at the forefront and what still needs to be at the forefront.

And when The Kids Are Alright came out that was right around March for Our Lives, the Women’s March was happening. How does this moment compare for you?

Chloe Bailey: Wow, now that I’m thinking about it, this time, it feels a bit more like change is really going to happen. Around The Kids Are Alright, we went to the March for Our Lives and we were around that incredible energy; it was really positive and uplifting because we were all banding together. But for some reason, this time right now … I feel like we have the entire world’s attention. Actual change is going to come out of what’s been happening. So, it feels the same but different, right?

HB: Yeah, I definitely think this one feels more massive. Feels like, Okay, maybe we’re getting somewhere this time. Maybe it won’t just go away a week after all of this is over, you know?

In the early stages of Ungodly Hour, did you go in wanting it to be something that showcased your maturity? Or did that come out as you were going with it?

HB: We absolutely knew that we wanted it to showcase our growth, the evolution of us into young women. Because I feel like The Kids Are Alright was very much us finding ourselves and that project took three years to make. So with that length, you can kind of go through and see like, Oh, wow, they must have been really shifting through and figuring out what’s wrong and what’s right. So, for this project, it was like, Yes, we are here. We are now grown women. I’m 20. My sister’s about to be 22 this week.

CB: Hey!

HB: So we took that and we were just like, Let’s show who we’ve become. And let’s show the side of us that people don’t see whether it’s the naughtier side of us or the insecure side of us, or the part that picks every single thing apart about ourselves out. We wanted to show all the layers of us as young women, once you kind of know who you are, but also you’re still learning.

You’ll never be a finished product.

CB: Never, constantly evolving. And that’s the goal.

There have always been glimpses at your boss-bitch attitudes, hints of it in your music and on Grown-ish. Do you ever get the sense that you’re waiting for the industry and fans to sort of open their eyes and catch up to where you’re at?

CB: I’m not gonna lie, there are some moments. And I remember when we were even creating this album we were putting a certain pressure on ourselves. Because we were thinking, What do we want the world to hear from us? What do we think the world wants us to sound like? What would make people become more receptive to us? I remember we were creating for, like, one to two months in that mind-set, and we were creating some of the worst music we ever have.

HB: Yeah, it was. It was trash.

CB: It was because we weren’t creating from our hearts. We weren’t being honest with ourselves, and as a musician, you gotta be vulnerable and share that true part of yourself or the music isn’t going to be very good. Once we threw that out the window and said, You know what, let’s create a good body of art, the album continued to write itself. But that main lesson for us was never change yourself; the world will catch up to you when it’s ready. I feel like they’re kinda ready now for this project. It’s older and more mature than The Kids Are Alright because we’re older and more mature than who we were when we created that.

In making a more vulnerable album, were you nervous about expanding your image in that way? Was there anything that you debated not including or things that didn’t make the cut?

HB: Wow, so, I will say that our parents kind of had a hard time … well, not a hard time, but just like opening their eyes to the fact that, Okay, these are the topics that we’ve decided to talk about. This is what’s happening. It was really fun for us to watch them. I completely understand how they feel because, you know, we’ve been just little babies to them and now we’re growing and they’re hearing [about] certain things that we’ve been through, or that we just wrote in the music. They have been like, “Oh, okay, so that’s that.”

Fans tweet collabs at you all the time, but what’s your actual approach to choosing who you work with? (Ungodly Hour features just two major collaborations: Swae Lee on “Catch Up” and the title track with Disclosure.)

CB: Definitely we have to be fans of them, number one. Even though we make music, we are such big music fans and music lovers. Two, we have to feel like the person can sonically fit the song. We don’t want to throw just anyone on a song just because they have a big name, which is really cool too. It’s really great to get big features. But it’s so funny because we have a big wish list of who we hear on which songs and some people bite, some people don’t. It’s always fun to see what the end result will be. And I know we’ll start putting out remixes and stuff soon, which will be fun.

HB: It’s very interesting because it’s hard during the creative process. You kind of have to open yourself up to somebody you do not know when you make music; it’s a part of your heart that you’re sharing. So, it’s a very intimate thing to do with a stranger. Which is why with my sister it’s really easy. But when it comes to us working with new people, we gravitate towards the ones who have very open spirits and souls, nice people.

Chloe, would you ever produce for other artists?

CB: Absolutely, 1,000 percent. That would be so much fun. I would be getting out of my comfort zone, because the only person who I can comfortably produce in front of is my sister and blast it loud over the speakers. Whenever we have other sessions with other producers and we’re collaborating, I’ll put my headphones in, I won’t blast it on the aux with theirs. I have my little computer on my lap because I like using weird sounds and samples and chopping them up in a weird way. Sometimes it’s trial and error, so I don’t want people to hear my mistakes.

HB: She’s amazing and she should just blast it everywhere she goes, okay?

CB: I would definitely love, love, love to do that.

Yes, we want to hear you everywhere! So, when shelter in place started, you guys very flawlessly transitioned to doing these home covers and incredible remote performances. What’s the process of coming up with these concepts, especially the more elaborate ones?

HB: Oh my gosh, it’s really just a bunch of play. When we’re coming up with concepts, our creative director Andrew Makadsi is really amazing at seeing our vision for the songs before we actually perform them live. It’s been really interesting and exciting to have new songs to play with. But as far as the covers, you know, those are easy. We can do those in our sleep; we just love singing other people’s songs.

How long does it take to pull together a remote performance like the Today show one for example?

CB: Our amazing creative director came up with that and it took him a day. He just kept sending us a bunch of references and photo ideas he thought of and we picked the backdrop we wanted. The song arrangement, because we always like to switch it up every time, takes —

HB: Like a day.

CB: It takes us like ten minutes to arrange the songs. But then we took some of the choreography [by Kendra Bracy and Ashanti Ledon] that we learned during the music video shoot, and we added new choreography ourselves for the Today show performance. We were like on the floor and stuff — we did that the night before we filmed it. That took us like 30 minutes because we wanted to make sure the moves weren’t awkward because we’re not choreographers, so we would prop up our iPhone and that would be our little dance-studio mirror.

You guys are really doing it by yourselves in quarantine. So, what’s the tennis court situation? Has that always been there?

HB: Yeah, it has actually, we just haven’t really used it. I mean, we’ve been where we live for about two years now. We never really thought to use it until quarantine happened ‘cause we always go somewhere else to shoot performances. That’s been a beautiful evolution — using what we have. We feel so blessed to just be able to do what we love and also do it somewhere nice.

The tennis court performances have been life-giving.

CB: It’s been so useful, from the at-home photo shoots we have to do and then the performances, like I’m so grateful. We don’t actually know how to play tennis, but there are basketball hoops on each side so our little brother Branson’s usually out there. So, when we do have to do these things, I feel bad because he’s always out there shooting hoops, but he’s like, “Okay, you can have it for two hours …” [x]

[creativity-is-rebellion]

Top 10 Favourite Books I Have Read (So Far)

As a writer myself, I can’t help but look back at the novels that have shaped the sort of writer I have become today, and helped me find my own unique voice. A good novel captivates, puts it’s twists in all the right places, and makes you think about the story long after you have finished reading it. It makes you contemplate what it is to be human. It hits you hard and leaves a lasting impression. I thought I could share a few of them with all of you. Without further ado, here goes:

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (1873)

It's a story as old as time; someone, bored with their life, risks it all to have an affair; but this one is special for a number of reasons. First, it serves as a commentary about 19th century upper-class Russia, a time when it wasn't necessarily scandalous to have an affair, but it was scandalous to leave your husband or wife because of it. Many people conducted their affairs in secret, but the passion Anna felt for Vronsky spilled over into her everyday life, and because she had suppressed feeling any kind of emotion for so long, the passion she felt was obsessive and all-consuming, even though in the end it sours and she blames Vronsky for her fall from grace, which is so devastating (she is cut off from seeing her son Seroyzha that she had with Count Alexei Karenin) that in the end she ends her life. It is made all the more ironic that the novel starts with her convincing Dolly, her sister-in-law, to stay with her two-timing brother, Stepan, as “family is all that matters.” The elements of the complexity of families is also makes this tale so unique. Secondly, it could be argued that Anna is not the protagonist of the story at all, but that Levin is, because his upward trajectory is juxtaposed with Anna's fall from grace. He starts off an awkward and gruff loner, and moves toward being a content and happy family man, with a wife Kitty whom he truly loves. His skepticism and malcontent drifts away as the novel wears on. It is said that Levin is actually a representation of Tolstoy himself, but the book was actually a labor of guilt for cheating on his own wife. The novel ends with a broken-hearted Vronsky enlisting for a battle that he hopes not to come back from alive. I love how rich and evolved each character we are introduced to is. As I also have a love affair with Mother Russia myself ever since I studied Russian history in high school, this novel is truly my favorite classic.

On Writing, Stephen King (2000)

This book is the most straightforward account of what it is like to be a writer from one of the great (if not greatest) modern novelists of our time. It also offers invaluable advice to aspiring and new writers who are looking to hone their craft, but without the flowery, navel-gazing musings so often found in books of a similar ilk. King's real-life descriptions of his struggles with addiction, his pre-writer life, the early days of his success, and his recovery after a horrific accident where he nearly lost his life are related back to his craft so masterfully, and, as such , I cannot recommend this book more to those who are either interested in the mechanisms behind being a writer, or want to be writers themselves. It also serves as a great book to refer back to after you become a writer to make sure you don't get bogged down in common writing mistakes that inadvertently make your work clunky or uninteresting. To paraphrase, King states, to become a writer, talent is essential, but if you don't have the right toolbox to use when writing your masterpiece, its going to look sloppy. King's toolkit, which he elaborates on in his book, is guaranteed to prevent this from happening.

The Virgin Suicides, Jeffery Eugenides (1993)

I read this novel after I saw the movie of the same name, which was Sofia Coppola's directorial debut. Like most book-to-movie adaptations, this novel contains slight deviations and more character development than the movie, but is still a deeply fascinating examination of both the psyche of the Lisbon sisters, the minds of the neighborhood boys who were obsessed with them, the paranoia of suburbia, parental oppression, and neighborhood carelessness. I remember that this movie came out when I was 16, but we had to wait until it came out on DVD to see it, because, as the movie dealt with teenage suicide, and the place I lived at at the time had one of the highest youth suicide rates in the state, it was banned in local cinemas. The most interesting character in both the book and the movie was 14-year-old Lux ​​Lisbon, primarily because of her rebelliousness toward her parents' overbearing protectiveness (mostly from her mother, but the spineless dad is definitely an enabler) which borders on abuse. This is perfectly juxtaposed with her inherent need to be an ordinary teenage girl in an abnormal household, and the oppression of this need leading to unbridled promiscuity. The accounting of the Lisbon sisters' story in both the movie and the novel, however, is unreliable, as it is never told from the point-of-view of the sisters themselves, but from the grown-up versions of the neighborhood boys who we were in love with them, and continued to be so after their deaths. The passing of the Lisbon sisters left a lasting impression on each of the boys, and still haunts them in the present. Decay in both the novel and the movie in the form of the diseased neighborhood trees and the decline of the local auto industry, are used as both foreshadowing of worst things to come, as well as an allegory of the Lisbon's family life. Finally, the accountability of the neighborhood and neighbors, and their willingness to turn a blind eye as to what was happening in the Lisbon household is also examined. Their fleeting, off-the-cuff and detached observations, as well as the (mostly) silent monitoring of the girls by the boys, is an excellent example of the damaging consequences of the bystander effect, which all to often leads to disastrous ends. the accountability of the neighborhood and neighbors, and their willingness to turn a blind eye as to what was happening in the Lisbon household is also examined. Their fleeting, off-the-cuff and detached observations, as well as the (mostly) silent monitoring of the girls by the boys, is an excellent example of the damaging consequences of the bystander effect, which all to often leads to disastrous ends. the accountability of the neighborhood and neighbors, and their willingness to turn a blind eye as to what was happening in the Lisbon household is also examined. Their fleeting, off-the-cuff and detached observations, as well as the (mostly) silent monitoring of the girls by the boys, is an excellent example of the damaging consequences of the bystander effect, which all to often leads to disastrous ends.

Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin (1831)

As opposed to the entry above, I read the novel before I saw the movie, which did a pretty good job, considering the novel was written entirely in prose. 230-odd pages of verse penned by one of the greatest Russian poets of the 19th century may seem like a big ask to read, but I can assure you, it is entirely worth it. It tells the tale of an uppity lothario named Eugene Onegin, who, bored with St. Petersburg society, decide to move to his recently-deceased uncle's country estate. This move ultimately leads to Onegin leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, including ruining a woman's reputation, killing her fiance after he challenges Onegin to a duel to defend her honor, and spurning the advances of local provincial beauty Tatiana. Onegin then flees back to St. Petersburg, and after several years, crosses paths once again with Tatiana, Who is now married to a high-ranking general and is a permanent fixture of the St. Petersburg high-society set. When Tatiana shows a grace she never possessed before, and treats him with a cold distain whenever they cross paths, Onegin decides that he loves her, and pursues her doggedly, leading to a show-down between the two would-be lovers, but not in the way you would think. His chance at redemption is alt for nought. Although Tatiana admits her love for Onegin, she also tells him that she would never betray her now-husband to be with him. It is a scintillating slow-burn of a tale of love, loss and propriety in a way that can only be recounted by Pushkin. Interestingly, Pushkin himself was fatally wounded in 1837 after he challenged his brother-in-law, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthes, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment, to a duel, as he had attempted to seduce the poet's wife, Natalia Pushkina. In some cases, life really does imitate art.

The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak (2005)

I like the voyeuristic feel of this novel, even if this sounds a little strange. The special interest that Death himself takes in the main character, Liesel Meminger (who is The Book Thief in question) is perfectly juxtaposed over the horrors of living in WW2 Germany. It’s a charming story, recounted by Death himself, all the way up to the main character’s death many years later. It gives us special insights into all the characters and they way they think and act, with no-holds-barred. A unique and truly good read.

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (1939)

This is hands-down the best noir detective novel ever written, a point I regrettably missed when I first had to read it for Advanced English in Year 11 at school. It has all of the grit expected of the genre and follows Chandler’s mainlining private detective Philip Marlowe, who is hired by a rich family to deal with a blackmailer, Arthur Geiger. His life takes an unexpected turn as he pursues the case and Arthur is found dead.It is both a good detective mystery and a perfect layout for a by-the-numbers look at how this genre should be written. Cool side fact: The Big Sleep is a euphemism for dying.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Series, Stieg Larsson

Lisbeth Salander is still the best kick-arse anti-heroine around, a fact that is evident from her character being re-imagined by David Lagercrantz in further novels in the Millenium series after Steig Larsson’s untimely death. At the time these novels came out, I remember everyone on the beach reading a copy, and I especially enjoy the first entry in this series, which explores a missing woman, the demise and rise of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, the back-story and growth of Lisbeth Salander, female sex-trafficking, and feminist themes. On top of being a missing-person story, it is also a murder mystery, and has an awesome twist at the novel’s denouement. A thrilling, wild-ride of a read.I think I especially enjoyed it because I like reading novels situated around serial killers. That’s all I’ll say. Read the book.

We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver (2003)

This book is just brutal and a no-holds-barred look at whether killers are born or made.It is told by Eva Khatchadourian in a series of letters to her husband, Franklin, which discuss their son, Kevin, and his behaviour growing up, as well as her reactions to said behaviour, which ultimately lead to a thrilling, if unnerving, conclusion. 

IT, Stephen King (1985)

Although it is a gigantic read at 1,128 pages, IT is worth every page. Stephen King's novel about a demonic, otherworldly entity that preys and feasts on the children of Derry, Maine every 27-odd years is a masterpiece second only to his equally weighty saga The Stand. It tells the story of childhood friendship, and the strength one can have when standing together with friends. It is a perfect tale of good triumphing over evil, which is a familiar theme in King’s books which tends to get overlooked in favour of the more horror-like elements. Be warned, it does jump back-and-forth in time, and there are a few awkward parts of the book that the movie thankfully skipped, but they don’t really feel out of place in the novel. This “clown” will give you nightmares, but the ultimate triumph of The Loser’s Club is worth hanging in for.

The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)

I've gotta admit, the ending was unsatisfying, but is probably a more realistic account of what usually happens in unsolved cases such as Susie Salmon's. There is a karmic vibe, and at least the killer is disposed of in an unceremoniously undignified way. It’s ultimately a tale of how grief can keep you stuck, and how acceptance is part of moving on. Totally skip the movie and just read the book.

I just realised, all but one of these books has been made into a movie, whether it be a box-office hit or Indie, which I suppose really just attests to how good they are. I’ll be back with another top 10 favourite books soon no doubt. See you on the flip-side.

[echoes-of-realities]

I'll keep you warm (underneath the christmas lights)

* * *

[ao3] // [Fanfiction]

be my fire in the cold (and I’ll be waiting by the mistletoe: [Tumblr] // [ao3] // [Fanfiction]

Summary: Santana hates being in the audience of anything because she wants to be backstage managing the show instead of just watching it. She hates it even more when it’s a show that she used to run.

One-shot in the be my fire in the cold (and I’ll be your mistletoe) universe.

Notes: The final editing of the last chapter of the leather jacket fic has been going uhhhhhh let’s say Slow read: impossible atm because of writer’s block for the final scene because I want it to be perfect lol so instead I thought I’d do a small Christmas thing instead.

Trying to cure writer’s block for one fic by writing another? In my writing process? It’s more likely than you think.

Title from “Keep You Warm” by Sam Tsui and Kina Grannis.

Santana decided that she hates sitting in the audience of anything—movies, shows, speeches, you name it—when she was really young. After falling in love with stage managing when she was eighteen, she quickly figured out it’s because she wants to be backstage managing the show herself.

Looking back on her childhood, a lot of things suddenly clicked for her—kind of like when she realized she was very definitely really, really gay and looked back on her pre-teen years and realized exactly how many crushes she had actually had on girls throughout middle school. Her mom used to take her to Columbus whenever they had a little extra cash, treating herself and her daughter to whatever musical or play or dance troupe happened to be touring through Ohio that year, and she used to love and hate those mother-daughter outings in equal measure. She loved spending time with her mom, but she hated the shows itself. She would never have told her mom it, because she hated upsetting her mom more than anything in the world, but she found it near impossible to actually sit through those shows, because she was always impatient and annoyed—realizing it was because she wanted to be the one in control of the show was so relieving because she could finally explain to her mom why she was always hyperactive as soon as the theatre went dark and the show lights went on.

Her mom, of course, had suspected that her daughter was just impatient and desperate to be a part of the show somehow, because mom’s are like that, and took her daughter squirming and sighing throughout the entirety of every single show they saw together in stride—it was good that Maribel Lopez had the patience of a saint and years of experience as a nurse exerting restraint, because whoever was unlucky enough to sit on Santana’s other side had difficulty containing their annoyance at the fidgeting teenager beside them.

She hates sitting in the audience even more when it’s a show that she used to run; especially because she spent nearly twelve hours every single day for a whole month last year running the show she’s currently watching. And she’s even more impatient and desperate to head backstage for this particular show then she is when it comes to a show she hasn’t stage managed before.

In other words, it’s basically torture for her to sit in the audience and forcefully resist the urge to jump up and sneak backstage to take over the show, but she doesn’t really think that Quinn would appreciate that, considering that this is her first run as the production stage manager and not just an assistant.

But Santana knows too much about the behind the scenes of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker to be content just watching from the sidelines, and if her neighbours’ annoyed glares are anything to go by, her twitchiness is more than a little obvious and definitely more than a little annoying.

Thankfully, the show is well into the second act by now, which means there’s just the Waltz of Flowers, the re-entrance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier, the Finale, and the bows left, and then Santana can stop jiggling her foot up and down in the audience and annoying her seat-mates. She’s always been the type of person who has to be doing something, and watching a show when she could be managing it instead is just frustrating in a million ways.

It feels like she blinks and the cast are coming out to take their bows, and then—finally—all the audience members start filing out of the theatre. Santana grabs the bouquet of flowers hidden under her seat and checks them to make sure they aren’t crushed too badly; it’s not like she has a very good reputation for having pristine flowers because something always ends up happening—whether a freak rainstorm or an uneven sidewalk or a drunk on the subway getting too close—but she’d like the bouquet to look like they hadn’t gone through a garburator for once in her life.

A couple of the stems are bent in a way that looks like one of her seat-mates stepped on them, but other than that, the flowers are actually in decent shape, which is a little surprising.

She weaves her way impatiently through the crowd of shuffling audience members still blinking blearily in the too bright house lights after over two hours spent in the dark. She knows this theatre like the back of her hand, so it doesn’t take her long before she finds her way to the back of the theatre. Even though it’s been a year since she ran this show, she’s still a familiar face around the theatre, and security barely gives her a second glance before waving her backstage.

She waves greetings to some of the cast members who were recast this year, avoids the sound guys like they have the plague, and stops to playfully make fun of how Quinn’s running the show, before she finds her way back to the principal hallway. She follows the familiar sound of banging to the end of the hallway, dodging around racks of costumes and props and half-dressed cast members, before she reaches the door she’s looking for.

The door is slightly ajar, so she pokes her head through the crack and almost laughs out loud at the sigh that greets her—the Sugar Plum Fair is half dressed in her bodysuit and a pair of old, ratty sweats that Santana is almost positive were buried in the bottom of the hamper this morning, and her blonde hair is still pinned up but her tiara is tossed haphazardly on the dresser beside a couple of dirty makeup wipes.

She’s smacking her ballet shoes against the wall with a candy cane sticking out of her mouth, and Santana takes a moment to smile at the nostalgia of it all, before she clears her throat.

The Sugar Plum Fairy glances up with a focused furrow to her brow, one that immediately clears into surprised delight. “Santana!” she gasps around the candy cane dangling from her lips, blue eyes sparkling above scrunched up cheeks, “What are you doing here?”

Santana grins, and her chest still spasms and flutters like it did the very first time she met those blue eyes. “You didn’t think I’d miss your last show of the year?” she teases as she steps halfway into the room, keeping her back in the doorway to try and keep the bouquet hidden.

Brittany rolls her eyes and carelessly tosses her ballet shoes on the coffee table that Santana’s ate countless lunches and suppers at, crossing the room to greet Santana with a quick peck around the candy cane in her mouth, leaving a sticky line of mint across Santana’s cheek. Santana wants to be annoyed, because she hates sticky candy, but Brittany’s smiling at her and her eyes are surprised and happy and she can’t bring herself to feel even the tiniest bit annoyed. “I know you didn’t want to,” Brittany says, “but you kind of have a show to run at the same time as this one, Ms. I-Made-My-Broadway-Debut-As-Production-Stage-Manager-At-Twenty-Seven.”

Santana just shrugs nonchalantly. “I’m sure they can survive one show with Zizes at the helm.”

Brittany narrows her eyes and puts her hands on her hips, which stretches her bodysuit distractingly tight across her torso, and it takes Brittany clearing her throat a couple of times before Santana’s eyes snap back up to hers—she’s a little self-satisfied, which kind of defeats her attempt at a reprimanding look. “Please tell me you didn’t waste a sick day on watching a show you’ve already seen a billion times before.”

Santana’s grin widens and she shrugs a little. “Who’s to say I didn’t book this day off months in advance because I knew it’d be your last show.”

“I wasn’t even cast months in advance,” Brittany scolds, but there’s a tiny, pleased smile playing at her lips that she can’t quite bite back.

“Maybe I just believe in my girlfriend a whole lot,” Santana shoots back, and before Brittany can even open her mouth to continue their bickering, Santana produces the bouquet of flowers from behind her back and offers them to Brittany.

Santana can actually see the way that Brittany practically melts, all retorts dying on her tongue as she slowly takes the bouquet from Santana with glowing eyes. “You can’t buy my love, you know,” she teases softly, and Santana doesn’t bother hiding the way she basically preens like a parrot seeing their reflection in a mirror at the smile on Brittany’s face and the love glowing in her eyes.

“They’re the best flowers I’ve ever gotten you,” Santana says proudly.

Brittany laughs a little in the middle of sniffing them, accidentally pressing a couple flowers into her lips at the motion. “Only three broken stems,” she acknowledges with a wide smile, “That’s a new record.”

Santana grins and rises up on her toes expectantly, grinning when Brittany playfully rolls her eyes as she takes the candy cane out of her mouth and ducks down to kiss her, soft and sweet and slow.

Brittany pulls back achingly slowly, and Santana kind of wishes this moment could last forever, even though she gets to kiss Brittany like this every single day. “I should get changed and then we can get out of here,” she says, her minty-sweet breath fanning across Santana’s slightly dazed face.

Santana blinks a couple times before blushing under Brittany’s knowing smirk. She closes the door with her hip and busies herself with her phone while Brittany quickly strips out of her bodysuit and into her comfy clothes—it’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, but she knows that if she so much as glances at Brittany, her plans for the evening are going to fly right out of her head because Brittany is beautiful and distracting and basically impossible to resist.

Brittany appears beside her barely five minutes later, her candy cane back in her mouth and Santana’s favourite scarf wrapped around her neck, her blonde hair loose and flowing over her shoulders as she zips her jacket up. “Ready to go?”

Santana nods absently and steps out into the hallway, waiting for Brittany to grab the bouquet of flowers off the coffee table and lock her dressing room door before they head down the hallway. Brittany bites into her candy cane and crunches it loudly, and Santana can’t help the tiny smile on her face, because even though she usually finds it annoying when people chew hard candies, she finds everything Brittany does endearing and amusing.

They wave goodbyes and wish Merry Christmases to everyone they pass on their way to the back exit of the theatre, skipping the crowd of people probably still lingering at the front entrance. The cold wind sweeps right through them with a swirl of snowflakes as they step outside, causing them to both shiver and huddle together as they make the trek back to Santana’s apartment, where Brittany’s been spending so much time at, that Santana’s not sure if her girlfriend can even call the apartment she used to share with Mercedes hers anymore. It had gotten lonely, Brittany had admitted, once Mercedes moved in with Sam back in September, and Santana had hinted at the fact that her apartment—which was a little closer to the theatres they both worked at—had more than enough room for the two of them. They’d been quietly intending to move in together without actually saying anything aloud since then, but Brittany’s lease won’t be up until January, so Brittany’s mostly just been using her apartment as a storage space while all her clothes and toiletries and important things are slowly accumulating at Santana’s apartment over the course of the past couple months.

Brittany’s eyelashes are dusted with snowflakes and her lips and cheeks and ears are more red than usual against the freezing wind and Santana’s never been more in love in her entire life.

Brittany doesn’t say anything when Santana silently tugs her to a stop just to kiss her, but she looks a little bit windswept and a whole lot adoring when she pulls away and they continue on their way. And, when Santana pulls her into a chaotic grocery store, she still doesn’t say anything about it, even when she smiles wide and bright and happy when she recognizes the ingredients for cinnamon buns and World Famous Pierce Hot Chocolate and movie snacks.

They make it home around five thirty, the heat from Santana’s apartment nearly painful on their frozen thighs as they kick off their boots by the mat and hang their jackets on the coat rack. Santana disappears with the groceries and Brittany’s bouquet of flowers while Brittany is still struggling to escape from her scarf, and by the time she hangs up all of her winter gear, Santana is standing in the entrance to the rest of her apartment with a shy smile on her face. Brittany blinks in confusion before slowly stepping forward to take her girlfriend’s outstretched hand and allows her to pull them both through the kitchen and into the living room.

Brittany gasps at the sight before them, and some of the nerves in Santana’s stomach ease into proud delight at the wonder on Brittany’s face. She turns to admire her work, and can’t help smiling a little bit too, knowing that all her rushing around that morning after Brittany left for the theatre was worth it.

The living room is lit only by Christmas lights and the Home Alone title screen on the television and the fairy lights around the bookshelf and the quickly fading winter sun shining weakly in through the window, the kitchen and hall lights flicked off to give the apartment a soft glow. The tree in the corner was the result of Mercedes and Sam’s help; they left Manhattan yesterday to go spend time with family for Christmas, and they had offered their tree to Santana for the rest of the holidays, knowing that Santana was planning on surprising Brittany with a decorated apartment for Christmas Eve. It had been hiding in Santana’s spare closet until this morning after Brittany left for her show, and while Santana’s decorating skills leave something to be desired, it does its job of brightening the living room with a Christmasy glow. The tinsel and glittery trees on the windowsill are courtesy of Mike and Tina, who had answered Santana’s desperate plea for help sometime around eleven with fond eye rolls and no small amount of teasing. The rest of the living room—Christmas patterned blankets and the cookies on the coffee table and the small singing stuffies on the back of the couch and the small stack of presents under the tree—are all Santana though, and she surveys the living room with pride swirling in her stomach.

Brittany turns to Santana with eyes that sparkle in the dim glow of the Christmas decorations, and Santana’s stomach swoops a little at the love that sparkles in her favourite blue eyes.

“I know we’re still not all that into Christmas,” Santana explains, only a little bit bashful under Brittany’s adoring gaze, “and we’ve both been so busy with our shows lately that we haven’t really had time to do anything festive or anything. But I figured we should still get into the spirit at least a little bit, since we have new traditions and everything.”

Santana doesn’t even have time to give Brittany a smile before her girlfriend is cupping her jaw and kissing her fiercely, and Santana can do little more than wrap her arms around Brittany’s waist and kiss her back. Brittany’s mouth is warm and desperate on hers, but her hands are tender and still cold from outside against the sides of her neck, and it’s kind of a little perfect.

“So I take it you like it,” Santana gasps when Brittany finally relents in kissing her, just long enough that Santana can breathe again.

Brittany laughs and kisses Santana repeatedly, a series of quick pecks where she does that thing where she wants to talk and kiss at the same time and just ends up mumbling everything into Santana’s mouth. “Obviously, you giant dork.”

Santana giggles against Brittany and tightens her arms around her girlfriend, nuzzling their noses together and smiling when Brittany’s hands finally slide from her jaw to around her shoulders, tugging her into a tight embrace. “Good,” Santana sighs contently, “because I kind of really liked the new traditions we made last year.”

“That’s cause you got lucky at the end of them,” Brittany snorts against Santana’s hair, giggling and squirming away from Santana when she pinches her hips in retaliation.

“I wasn’t the only one who got lucky that night,” Santana sniffs haughtily, “And if you keep talking like that, you definitely won’t be this year.”

“Please—” Santana can’t see her girlfriend’s face, but she just knows that Brittany is rolling her eyes right now, “—as if you can resist me.”

Santana doesn’t argue that statement, because they both know Brittany’s one-hundred percent correct. “Come on,” she says instead, “we gotta get started on Home Alone so we have time to have supper and make hot chocolate and watch all the other movies and do other stuff like bakin—”

“Mmm,” Brittany interrupts with a hum as she finally pulls away from Santana and starts heading towards the living room, “Am I stuff?”

Santana’s been dating Brittany for a year by now, and it’s not like she’s a stranger to sex with her girlfriend, but she still can’t help the heat she feels rising in her cheeks. Brittany coos teasingly and playfully pokes at Santana’s dimples, even as she smirks and waggles her eyebrows in a suggestive leer. Santana swats at Brittany’s hand and ducks her head, but it does nothing to hide her blush.

Brittany just laughs at her girlfriend’s embarrassed grumbling as Santana throws herself grumpily down on the far end of the couch, shamelessly cuddling up to Santana under the blanket despite Santana’s protests—though, it’s not like Santana is putting up much of a fight considering she immediately sinks into Brittany’s embrace.

The snow continues to fall outside the window, but Santana’s apartment is warm and cozy and the lights from the Christmas tree and the television and the fairy lights on the bookshelf cast the living room in a soft glow. Santana’s pretty positive that she’s going to be doing this for every single Christmas Eve for the rest of her life and, even if she won the lottery or never had to work again or something else that most people dream of when regular life gets too damn depressing, she can’t imagine ever being happier than she is right now.

“Hey,” Brittany says suddenly as Kevin is in the middle of grocery shopping by himself for the first time, and Santana really should know that something’s up by the way her girlfriend tries to bite down on her smirk, “Are we watching Gremlins after this?”

Santana seriously considers suffocating Brittany with the blanket they’re cuddling under, but instead settles on beating her with a pillow, neither of them able to contain their bright laughter as they squirm around on the couch in a one-sided pillow fight.

When 11:11 comes around after supper and hot chocolate and even more movies (including—at least for Santana—the dreaded Gremlins), neither of them are even awake to make a wish like last year, the title screen song for How The Grinch Stole Christmas playing through it’s seventh repeat.

Honestly, it’s completely fine that they miss their new tradition of making a wish at 11:11 on Christmas Eve, because neither of them have anything else they could ever want for anymore, since they already have each other.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to shemakesmusic@hotmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

With What Eyes

With What Eyes are duo Phoebe and Callista, an indie-pop act formed at Oxford University by two English girls who have been friends since childhood. Harmonising down the school corridors as soprano and alto, playing for the orchestra as clarinetist and violinist, and trumping their peers in Battle of the Bands, they had a very collaborative musical upbringing which they were determined to continue after they arrived at our academic focused University. They started out on the Oxford and London open mic scene with a simple folky sound infused with classical and choral influences from their school days. Today, piano and harmony continue to be the foundation of their music, yet their style has developed substantially over the last year. With What Eyes’ EP Coral Moon debuts these poppier inclinations. Written, recorded and produced by just the two of them, they are always endeavouring to stretch ther sound and add instrumental and electronic depth to their music. ‘Dragonfly’, Coral Moon’s lead single, was picked up by BBC Introducing and aired by the BBC with an artists profile. “Our focus is on creating sensitive, thoughtful lyrical pop with eclectic production choices, flirting with multiple genres whilst remaining distinctly 'With What Eyes’,” the duo say. “We are entirely self-sufficient, writing, recording and producing everything ourselves. The song ‘Dragonfly’ is about dancing by yourself, and being at one with nature - something we’ve been doing a lot of since the UK’s lockdown.” Listen below.

With What Eyes · Dragonfly

V!V

On October 2 emerging Chicago based recording artist Viv Badynee aka V!V kindly graced our eardrums with the release of her new single ‘Sun x Moon.’ Speaking about ‘Sun x Moon,’ a song Viv wrote in collaboration with her producer CBVB (who happens to be her dad), she explains, “It’s essentially about two people that just can’t figure out how to connect (social media be damned!). Or maybe it’s just one person that can’t seem to figure it out. The first lyric I came up with while I was in the shower became the chorus. I was feeling excited for an upcoming date that never happened due to, let’s say ‘a miscommunication’. I started singing a little rhyme comparing us to the sun and moon and how hard he was to reach. I thought to myself, ‘damn, it’s like I need to wait for an eclipse to make this happen!’ Thus a song was born.” The track is a deft mix of Alt-R&B leaning pop with blissed out bedroom beats contrasted by darker distorted elements that’d make Tyler, the Creator proud. Listen below.

V!V · Sun x Moon

Sister Echo

Sister Echo grew up in Essex, and went on to live in London for ten years. She played open mic nights every week and did as much music stuff as she could. “Eventually I had to get a boring adult job and music took a major backseat,” she says. “I just recently moved back to my family home in Essex during this crazy pandemic and have re found my passion and desire to write and record! So, I’m making an e.p in my bedroom and I feel like a teenager again... it’s great haha. I love grunge and soul and trip- hop. I’m obsessed with singers and anyone who puts their balls into a song. I’m especially obsessed with powerful women and their voices.” Sister Echo’s latest single is ‘Tokyo Konveni’. She explains: “The song stems from the idea of control in a relationship. Not in a negative way, more just an exploration of control, and the way society assumes men should be one way and women another. It’s a playful look at one part of the relationship being in total control. I wanted the words to paint a picture which is why I talk about watching me dance and move. It’s just a vibe you know!” Listen below.

Eunice Keitan

Eunice Keitan's soulful voice makes a big impression on listeners. Both her international upbringing and her eclectic music background show in this Canadian singer-songwriter's work which mixes R&B/Acoustic Soul and World Folk influences. While traveling and moving often with her family in simple circumstances throughout her childhood, Eunice noticed the everyday people and their often harsh realities, struggles which impacted her perception of social issues at play in the lives of people around the world. That impact surfaces in the themes of many of her songs, where she explores mental health, social inequality and social change. The songwriter's latest offering, ‘Standing With You’ is an uplifting anthem of hope and solidarity that makes a bold and moving statement for a better future of true justice and equality. Eunice expains: "Five days after the death of George Floyd, during the emotional protests and social unrest that followed, I began writing my new single, ‘Standing With You.’ During this period, I read a pamphlet that was circulated immediately after the lynching of Emmett Till. It felt eerily like it was written yesterday and got me thinking. I began asking a lot of questions about what really needs to happen so that we can stop repeating this same cycle of hate and injustice over and over. The seeds of what would become ‘Standing With You’ were sown as I considered these issues. The message of this song is one of empathy and solidarity. It is a promise to do better and the hope that if we can move forward together as one, we can see real changes."

Eunice Keitan · Standing With You

LORE CITY

Lore City is an American art rock duo formed in 2011 and currently based in Portland, Oregon. Band members include Laura Mariposa Williams (vocals, keyboard, guitar) and Eric Angelo Bessel (percussion, keyboard, guitar). They met in 2003 as peers in the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Reconnecting years later, Laura and Eric formed Lore City in 2011 and married shortly after that. Alchemical Task is the third studio album from the Art Rock duo. It’s been six years since their last release, Kill Your Dreams, and subsequent move to Portland, Oregon. The band’s sound combines elements of Psych Rock, Post-Rock, and Dream Pop. Listen to the album below.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: Best Darth Maul Moments from The Clone Wars and Beyond

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This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

Since his debut in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul has demanded the attention of Star Wars fans everywhere. In 1999, Maul looked unlike any villain that had come before in the saga, and the movie’s high-energy lightsaber duel is still one of the most memorable parts of the Prequel Trilogy. It’s unfortunate, then, that Maul was originally created by George Lucas as a one-off character, present only to re-establish the threat of the Sith. 

But you can’t keep a good character down. Maul returned in The Clone Wars season 4 to introduce even more chaos to the galaxy. Infamously unkillable, his obsession with killing Obi-Wan Kenobi and reuniting with Palpatine kept him going for much of the galactic conflict and well after the rise of the Empire.

Maul has been a Sith apprentice, a ranting hermit, and a powerful crime lord throughout his strange and storied life. Maul failed to become a Sith Master, as Palpatine tossed him to the side once his role in Anakin Skywalker’s story was over, but Maul never stopped trying to clamber to the top. As you’ll see in The Clone Wars season 7 and the Rebels animated series, Maul will fight until the very end to get what he wants.

Stream your Star Wars favorites on Disney+ with a FREE TRIAL, on us!

As we say goodbye once again to one of Star Wars‘ greatest villains, let’s take a look back at the former Sith’s best moments from The Clone Wars, Rebels, the comics, and beyond.

Duel of the Fates

The Phantom Menace is not a perfect movie, but the two-on-one lightsaber duel in the third act is a great example of the kind of action and physical storytelling that makes Star Wars such an effective and enduring movie franchise. Maul is a nearly voiceless demon dogging the heels of the good guys for most of the film, his powers obscured until he finally reveals himself on Naboo. For the audience watching this duel on the big screen, this was the first chance to see a full-fledged Jedi of legend dueling a Sith Lord.

Actor Ray Park was hired primarily for his ability to do the stunts and fight work. Choreographed by Nick Gillard, the lightsaber fight was acrobatic and wide-ranging, mixing in more melee than had been possible in the Original Trilogy. The climactic duel also introduced the double-bladed lightsaber to the Star Wars galaxy. The weapon and the character would be inseparable in fans’ minds for years to come.

Maul’s Return

How do you revive a character who has been cut in half? Just as in the world of comic books, Star Wars offers plenty of options. Since the Original Trilogy, Star Wars has made it common practice to rebuild mortally wounded and horribly mutilated villains, shaping them into a whole new threat. In 2012, The Clone Wars confirmed that there was more to Maul’s story than The Phantom Menace. Season 4 episode “Brothers” opens with the horror movie atmosphere of the scrapyard on planet Lotho Minor, where Maul has been living since his defeat on Naboo.

He fashions himself a new, arachnid-like body out of trash, and it fits the frightening philosophy of the Sith as well as Maul’s gruesome fate. Spider legs twitch and stab, allowing Maul to climb around his trash-filled cave. Maul has become a hybrid of person and machine, human and animal. He doesn’t keep the spider legs for long, only for a few episodes, but it’s one of the most dramatic changes to his look, and a frightening new possibility when it comes to what cyborgs in Star Wars can become. Spider Maul will haunt your dreams.

Rematch with Obi-Wan 

Obi-Wan Kenobi is skeptical when he hears Maul is back from the dead. But their confrontation is certainly real. After his surprise return in “Brothers,” Maul beelines for Obi-Wan in the next episode, suitably titled “Revenge.” This is the first chance to see the Sith’s rebuilt legs in action. It also shows Maul’s ruthlessness, as he destroys an innocent settlement just to draw Obi-Wan to his location. With the help of Savage Opress, his newfound brother, Maul captures Obi-Wan and kicks off a couple of action-heavy episodes that re-establishes Maul as a force to be reckoned with.

The Shadow Collective

Try as he might, Maul can’t get back into Sidious’ good graces, so he throws the Star Wars villain version of a tantrum: he forms a gang. With the help of the Mandalorians, he goes on a killing spree in season 5 to take out rival criminal organizations in the name of his new Shadow Collective. It’s a sequence of slaughters where there are no good guys.

Maul uses his Force powers, intimidation, and overwhelming force to destroy or intimidate the Black Sun gang, the Pyke gang, and the Hutts, including Jabba himself, into joining him. Maul is back on top.

Taking Over Mandalore  

After recruiting a group of rogue Mandalorian warriors known as Death Watch to his side, Maul has bigger ambitions: to take over the entire planet of Mandalore. In season 5’s “The Lawless,” he slaughters the planet’s reigning leader, Duchess Satine Kryze, as well as the leader of Death Watch, and claims the symbolic weapon of Mandalore, the Darksaber, for himself.

It’s a visually striking episode, with much of the action set inside the Mandalorian throne room. The Darksaber is also the perfect example of silly Star Wars lore taken to the extreme. It also, somehow, works, even when it returns in live-action in The Mandalorian. 

Duel Against Darth Sidious 

Much of Maul’s story in The Clone Wars is about a student who wants to return to the teacher who discarded him. But Sidious isn’t going to accept him back so easily. “The Lawless” also features a duel between three dark side users: Maul, Darth Sidious, and Savage. This is a three-way clash of red lightsabers, ranging up and down the edifices of Mandalore. It’s one of many examples of The Clone Wars‘ elevated Star Wars action, and it’s one of the series’ most exciting sequences.

There are no good guys here, but someone has to win: Sidious kills Savage and defeats Maul, sparing his former apprentice so that he may feel the sting of rejection for the rest of his life. This is the reunion Star Wars fans had been waiting for since Maul’s return and it goes about how you’d expect.

Facing Grievous 

The Son of Dathomir comic was adapted from unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars, so it’s closely linked to the events on Mandalore. It also features the entire rogues’ gallery of Prequel era villains, pitting Maul, Sidious, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Mother Talzin against one another. The fight between Maul and Grievous, in particular, is the stuff of fantasy “What If” scenarios and it’s a visual delight, even if it happens off-screen. 

Read more

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Star Wars: 10 Darth Maul Facts You Might Not Know

By Megan Crouse

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress Story You Never Saw

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The Siege of Mandalore

One of the most hotly-anticipated conflicts of The Clone Wars did not disappoint. The Siege of Mandalore, which shows how the Republic took the Mandalorian homeworld back from Maul, features a lightsaber duel between the former Sith and ex-Jedi Ahsoka Tano. Though both have left their old orders behind, they bring all the acrobatics and Force powers one could want from a Star Wars fight.

This duel in Mandalore’s throne room and high above its capital city is an amazing use of setting, as Maul and Ahsoka climb up the rafters of one of Mandalore’s domed cities and balance themselves on thin beams. The fight also feels mythic, the two characters’ viewpoints clashing as much as their lightsabers. 

The episode “The Phantom Apprentice,” in particular, shows that, despite being banished from the Sith, Maul is still one step ahead of the Jedi in terms of Palpatine’s grand plan. In fact, Maul instigates the Republic invasion in order to lure Anakin to the planet and stop him from becoming Sidious’ new apprentice — something he’s already seen in a vision before the Jedi even begin to suspect that Palpatine might be an agent of the dark side.

Maul’s Solo Cameo

Solo: A Star Wars Story spends plenty of time with the galaxy’s underworld. Throughout the movie, Han Solo and Qi’Ra tangle with rogues, thieves, smugglers, con men, and drifters, all leading to a big standoff with Dryden Vos, the leader of criminal organization Crimson Dawn. But Vos isn’t the true villain pulling the strings of the movie.

A big reveal is left for the end: Maul has been in charge of the criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn all this time, manipulating others the way Palpatine manipulated him. Maul doesn’t do a lot in Solo, appearing just for a few minutes to make Qi’Ra his new lieutenant, but he does ignite his lightsaber, showing he’s a step above most of the enemies the group has faced so far by virtue of his Sith legacy. 

Maul’s Epic Death

Even though it seemed like he could survive anything, Maul had to die eventually. Luckily, the team behind Star Wars Rebels knew how to make Maul’s ending something truly amazing.

Maul has spent decades seeking revenge against his old Jedi enemy, while Obi-Wan has gone into hiding to protect Luke Skywalker, finding peace and coming to terms with the tragedy in his own life. The episode “Twin Suns” shows the final confrontation between Maul and Obi-Wan.

Although not a true adaptation, “Twin Suns” is loosely inspired by “Old Wounds,” a non-canon comic from the speculative comic series Visionaries. That comic, which was written and drawn by Aaron McBride, is also a great Maul moment unto itself, with a vivid lightsaber battle and the threat of Maul possibly discovering a very young Luke Skywalker. It gets to the heart of why Maul works as a frightening villain: a demonic-looking Sith with the drive to keep hunting you, even if you cut him in half. 

“Twin Suns” chooses to go a more contemplative route than “Old Wounds.” While the basic setup is the same (Maul finds an older Obi-Wan on Tatooine), the lightsaber duel isn’t the focus in “Twin Suns.” Instead, one of the best Maul moments is actually an Obi-Wan moment. Their lightsaber duel is just one move, both of them considering their options but it’s Obi-Wan who actually finds the inner strength to carry it out.

In the end, Obi-Wan kills Maul, but also shows him pity, telling a truth that comforts both of them: Luke Skywalker, the one to bring balance to the Force, is still alive. Obi-Wan has escaped the cycle of revenge and ambition Maul has been stuck in his entire life, and he’s closer to the Force for it. It’s also a stunning farewell fit for a fan-favorite character like Maul.

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[asdamagicbiscuits]

Theatre Highlights 2019

My Top 11 Theatre Highlights and Moments of 2019 (in no particular order other than roughly chronological.)

Let's get stuck in!

Panto at the Palladium

So my first theatre trip of the year saw me head off to Panto land at the Palladium to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was great to see Danielle Hope on stage again and she was the perfect Snow White. Massive shoutout to Simeon Dyer who was ace as one of the Dwarfs in the show, it’s not everyday you get to see your pal on stage in their West End Debut, he did a brilliant job. The Palladium always delivers fantastic Pantos and I’m excited to see what their next one is!

Book Of Mormon

So Book Of Mormon was again one of those shows I wasn’t rushing to see, that is until Luke George went into the company. I had heard a lot of things about it and I was worried as I had been told if you get easily offended that I wouldn’t like it. I saw it and loved it. It was nuts and very tongue in cheek humour. Turn It Off is one of my favourite numbers in the show, the company are fantastic in it! Tom Xander as Elder Cunningham is pure magic. No other way I can describe his performance. He’s so cheeky and mischievous, the PERFECT Cunningham. Paired with Dom Simpson as Elder Price they are a dream team. You and Me (but mostly me) is such a joy to watch. It was also so lovely to watch Luke and see him on stage again. He is as brilliant as ever!! The Book of Mormon is playing at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London’s West End and it’s also on tour too!!!

Cursed Child - Year Three

I think I said this in last years post but Cursed Child combines two of my biggest loves Harry Potter and Theatre. The Year Three company were exceptional and I saw a huge array of covers. Martin Johnson, Danny Dalton, April Hughes, Jordan Bamford, Leah Haile and Susan Lawson Reynolds. I can remember all the shows when I got to see them and the little details of their performances. Also as #KeepTheSecrets is over I’m gonna talk about April as Delphi. I ADORE April as Delphi. Like hands down my favourite interpretation of the role. Delphi is so sweet and then BAMN. That switch is flicked and her true intentions come out but even then April brought such a warmth to her that I found myself really sympathising with Delphi. She’s just a very misunderstood character and I just wanted to give her a hug. On the other side April’s interpretation of Myrtle is ICONIC!!! That giggle she does in the moment after Scorpius ask if everything’s going to be okay? And Albus replies going of course it is. Pure brilliance!! Also I have to mention the fact I FINALLY got to see James McGregor as Draco. It happened gang. I don’t know how I managed to get to see him three times, still blows my mind as I was worried I wouldn’t get to see him once but I did. It actually happened. ‘Twas beyond brilliant in every sense of the word and well worth the wait, exceptional performances!

Shitfaced Shakespeare

Another fantastic season for those boozey Bard loving beans! The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet in London and Midsummer Nights Dream on tour. It’s always a joy to see them perform on stage. For those of you who read last years Highlights I can confirm that I broke the curse. I got to see Saul Marron Compère THREE times!!! He also was the drinker for the show of Midsummer I saw in my hometown on the tour. It was lovely to revisit my first show I saw them do, plenty of laughs and so much fun! Bring on next season for more Shakespeare, laughs and most importantly - booze! 😜 haha

Venice Preserved/The Provoked Wife

Now my theatre highlights wouldn’t be complete without me seeing a show Natalie Dew was in. This year I got to see her in Venice Preserved and The Provoked Wife both at the RSC in Shakespeare land (Stratford Upon Avon). Both shows were absolutely fantastic and I gotta mention Sarah Twombly who really stood out in The Provoked Wife as Mademoiselle, stunning performance! I adored Venice Preserved so much I saw it twice! It was gritty, edgy and the whole production value was fantastic! It was also so good to see Nat in such a different role, it’s not everyday you get to see your stagey fav play a dominatrix. She was so badass, strong and the moment at the end of the play with the look the gave another character, I’m getting chills just thinking about it. Perfection!

Edinburgh Fringe

Each year my trip to Ed Fringe just gets better and better and this year was no different. I managed two trips this year and saw a whole host of different shows which were all incredible and I got meet some lovely people, both leafleting and chatting to a few of the actors before the show. I’ll leave a link to my Ed Fringe post so if anyone wants to check out what I saw give it a read - here. Massive shoutout to the Bodily Functions gang as they were super lovely, Friendsical cast, David Colvin was so lovely too, the Shitfaced Shakespeare and Showtime lot. I could go on. But I’m buzzing to see what Ed Fringe 2020 will bring!

The Indian Queen

When in France, go to the Opera? So this still links with theatre but I want to talk about Pierrefonds, it’s my blog so I can do what I want 😜. Firstly BIG shoutout to my friend Sej, the only person mad enough to agree to go to France with me to visit a castle and to see an Opera. So firstly Pierrefonds. I still can’t believe I got to visit the castle where they filmed Merlin. It’s been on my Bucket list for many years now so thrilled I finally got to tick it off. It’s a gorgeous place in the cutest little village ever, genuinely would move there if there was more theatre. 100% will be going back again and would recommend to anyone about going. I had a great time! The other part of my trip saw me go and watch my very first Opera, The Indian Queen! The Opera House in Lille is stunning, so so beautiful. Now I can’t comment on what happened at the beginning as I was raging at the subtitles being in French, it wasn’t until it was 10/15 minutes in that I realised it was all sung and spoken in English. (yep. I am that dumb and yes it took me that long 🙈) I loved how they had the screens move around in the background with the opera on. It had been prefilmed and all the actors were in costume whereas the actors were all in blacks performing it in front of the screens live. As a first venture into the world of Opera, wasn’t what I was expecting at all but I really loved it. It was also so great to see James McGregor on stage again too!! He’s very good!!

Fiddler On The Roof

Wow. Just wow. I was completely blown away by Fiddler On The Roof, the set was gorgeous and how the company went through the auditorium felt so natural. You really felt like you were in Anatevka and part of the community. The whole company were phenomenal!! Andy Nyman as Tevye delivered one of the best performances I have ever seen from any West End Lead. His vocals and comic timing were on point!!! Maria Friedman as Golde played really well opposite Andy’s Tevye, they are a formidable duo. I’m so happy I was able to see them on together. Molly Osbourne as Tzietel and Joshua Gannon as Motel really stood out, stunning performances. Hands down the best show I saw this year without a doubt and I wish I could go back in time and relive it!!

Mary Poppins

Now Mary Poppins is so very dear to me. The movie is an absolute classic, a timeless piece but I had never seen it live on stage before. I had my tickets booked since January when they went on sale and it did not disappoint when I finally got to see it in November. Charlie Stemp was a brilliantly charming Bert and Zizi Strallen was, excuse the pun, ‘Practically Perfect in every way’ as Mary. I sobbed my way through the show and when Zizi flew up over the audience at the end of the show I was in bits. The best way I can describe it is when you love something so much and your just full of nostalgia and emotion and that’s how it came out. Step In Time, Feed The Birds And Practically Perfect were all highlights for me. I have so much love for the whole company for delivering a phenomenal show and I can’t WAIT to return to Cherry Tree Lane once again next year. Although hopefully I will be able to get through the show without crying next time. Haha. Mary Poppins is currently playing at The Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End.

Dear Evan Hansen

Now I had to be the only person in theatreland who wasn’t rushing to get tickets or proper hyped for it. It was one of those shows for me which I was like - I’ll see it eventually but I’ll let the rush of people pass and I’ll go when it’s all died down. Then the cast got announced and I was okay. I need to see it and I need to see it in previews as I need to see Rupert Young on stage again. Thankfully one of my best friends Johanna was desperate to see it when she was over in November and she managed to sort us tickets. (Thanks Chummy. You’re the best. Love you) It generally was such a phenomenal experience, the audience was so quiet and the only sounds you could hear were the quiet sniffs of people crying. You could hear a pin drop and I don’t believe I will ever experience anything like that ever again. That’s great Anne but why has it made it into your highlights? Don’t worry. I’m getting to that gang 😜 haha. The whole cast were phenomenal. Sam Tutty was flawless as Evan, I connected immediately with him. I was sold and invested from the beginning. The fact there is only 8 people on stage for the whole show blows my mind. Like WHAT?! Outstanding performances from all. In particular Mr Rupert Young as Larry. Now the only thing I knew about the show was that You Will Be Found closes the first act. That’s all I knew, didn’t read up on it or listen to the soundtrack before hand. I went in completely blind! Now You Will Be Found starts and I can hear people crying and I’m sat there thinking. This is great. I haven’t cried at this. Brilliant. The thing which broke me and had me sobbing was when Rupert Young broke down and cried during You Will Be Found. That is what got me and I can relate so much to it. How I view it is that Larry has delayed grief and that happened to me personally so it really struck a chord with me. I’m basically a convert and this is a piece of theatre everyone needs to see and I can see it running for a very long time in London. Dear Evan Hansen is playing at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End and if you haven’t already, GO BUY A TICKET!!

Rage But Hope

I was very lucky to be able to catch this show at Ed Fringe this year so I was thrilled I was able to make it in to see it again during its London run in November. I stand by everything I said before and it was fantastic to see the development of the piece, which is a current and important issue we all should focus on. The whole company delivers stunning performances and I adored the addition of Matt’s characters monologue. I felt it tied together what he said in a conversation with James earlier in the piece and it gave much more depth to his character. The Layla’s List monologue remained one of my favourite moments in the play and goes to show the importance younger generations have and that they are far wiser than their years suggest so not to under estimate them. Let’s preserve this world for many more generations to come. The writing is stunning and hats off to Stephanie Martin for an incredibly well written play. The scene at the end of the play was new for the London run and I felt it really hammered home the message. Tell the truth. Act Now!

So that pretty much wraps up 2019’s Theatre and what a year it was.

2020 - a New Year, a New Decade and I can confirm a lot more Theatre adventures.

Thanks for reading, make sure to come back next year for my 8th Theatre Highlights (that is MAD!!) to find out what I got up to!

Until next time, cheerio!

[daresplaining]

Iron Fist Season 2 Teaser Analysis

    The Marvel gods have answered our prayers-- we are getting Iron Fist Season 2 next! This makes sense for every possible reason: it directly follows up on Danny and Colleen’s appearances in Luke Cage Season 2 and Misty’s leap between the two shows, and it allows for all of the original Netflix shows to get second seasons before moving on to phase three. (The Punisher came late, so we’ll accept its second season coming after Daredevil’s third.) Danny’s story this season will be partly informed by Matt’s sacrifice, so it makes sense to tell it before Matt reappears. Plus, these characters are on the cusp of so many exciting things that waiting any longer for the second season would have been pure torture. Matt can stay “dead” for a little bit longer. He’ll be fine.  

    With that in mind, the Iron Fist panel at SDCC did its job perfectly, by giving us a lot of information... but also not much. It revealed that the show will air on September 7th, in keeping with the new schedule of three months between releases. It confirmed last year’s announcement that Misty will be taking her rightful place in the Iron Fist world (she debuted in Danny’s introductory series in the comics, and has been an Iron Fist character for most of her existence, so it’s about time!). It revealed that we will be getting a Steel Serpent plotline-- which we’d assumed, but is still really, really exciting. It revealed that Alice Eve will be playing-- of all people-- Typhoid Mary, who is a Daredevil character! And it revealed that Danny will be taking to the streets of New York for the first time as a real superhero. 

    This last revelation is the focus of the first teaser, which-- like most teasers-- gives us barely any information. But we’re still going to geek out about it. 

    It wouldn’t be a Marvel/Netflix trailer without an aerial shot of Manhattan... 

    The badassery of this teaser is offset by how adorable and non-threatening Danny’s shoes are-- which completely, 100% fits the Iron Fist tradition. 

    One detail we’ve always loved about Danny is that unlike many of Marvel’s street-level characters, he’s not really a NYC superhero (and we’ve discussed this before, but I’m going to discuss it again, because that’s how much it fascinates me). His primary city will always be K’un-Lun, and though he spends most of his time on Earth, K’un-Lun is where his heart lies. Even in modern comics, after all this time, he views his trips to K’un-Lun as journeys home. Thus, he has a very complicated relationship with New York City. He ends up stuck there under painful circumstances and has no choice but to try to build a life for himself there. In early Iron Fist comics an extreme distinction was made between the Iron Fist and Danny Rand identities; eight issues pass before we even see him take off his mask for the first time.

Danny: “For the past decade, I have been little more than a living weapon-- the pride of K’un Lun. Your world holds nothing but bitter memories for me and yet I cannot return to K’un Lun for nine years. The one man who knew how to enter the city at other than the appointed times... is dead.”

Lee: “What of the man named Daniel Rand, Iron Fist? Surely the world offers him something.”

Danny: “And who is this Daniel Rand, professor? I’ve never taken the time to find out, I fear.”

Colleen: “[...] Maybe it’s time you took off your mask and started finding out about that Rand fella. You might like him.”

Marvel Premiere #22 by Tony Isabella, Arvell Jones, and George Rouses

    This huge separation between Danny’s identities is a quirk of his very early appearances, and as later comics have dug deeper into his childhood in K’un-Lun, it has become diminished within the standard Iron Fist continuity. But the fact remains that Danny’s connection to NYC (as represented here by his Daniel Rand identity) is basically nonexistent when he first arrives on Earth, and is something that he builds up slowly over time. He finds a certain amount of appeal in New York City, mostly through the close friendships he forms there, but as the years pass he still feels like an outsider, caught between two worlds, longing to return to K’un-Lun. (Eventually, his relationship with K’un-Lun becomes complicated too... but that’s a topic for another post.) He becomes a New York hero out of necessity. 

    In the Netflix shows, we have witnessed the same process. Danny comes to New York in pursuit of what turns out to be revenge. He struggles through tremendous identity issues-- he tries to rediscover who he is as Danny Rand, and then as Iron Fist, and then tries to find a way to reconcile these separate identities. Then, when he tries to return home (with Colleen! We need to mention how cool that is), he discovers that something has happened to K’un-Lun. That mystery has informed all of his subsequent plotlines. He is convinced that K’un-Lun has been destroyed, and the burden of that perceived failure haunts him. However, in The Defenders the Hand seem to imply that the city is still there, and by Luke Cage Season 2 Danny seems to have reached that same conclusion, for reasons that remain unclear. We are desperate to find out the truth, because it’s such a mystery, and such an important part of Danny’s story. More to the point-- we need K’un-Lun to still be around. It has been destroyed several times in the comics, and it always comes back, but we need it in this story. It’s a great setting that needs to be explored further, and Danny’s role as the Iron Fist in K’un-Lun and his relationships there are hugely important. It sounds like we will be getting a lot of flashbacks to his childhood and training, particularly focused around his relationship with Davos, but we're hoping for some present-day K’un-Lun too. Returning to the city would allow him to redeem himself for his perceived failures, it would give him the opportunity for further training (as he has not yet reached his full potential as an Immortal Weapon), and it is-- or should be-- a necessary part of his finally coming full circle and cementing his role and identity as the Iron Fist (which would ideally result in his getting the costume too!). 

     But either way, what matters here is that Danny has, at least for the moment, adopted NYC as a new city to protect. In The Defenders, after his perceived failure, he latches on to New York as a second chance; he failed K’un-Lun, but he won’t fail this other city. This mission is cemented by Matt’s final words to him. As the Iron Fist on Earth, Danny needs a purpose and sense of direction, and Matt’s plea for him to protect New York gives him that. This ties into another facet of Danny that we love, which we’ve talked about before: his status as a “professional hero”. He’s not a superhero in the traditional sense, and this season we’re going to see him figuring out that career path. 

    The teaser centers around Danny interrupting what is either a standard back-alley mugging or some kind of gang violence. In the comics, Danny’s first big act as a superhero on the streets of New York is combatting the Golden Tigers, a Chinatown-based gang run by a mob boss named Robert Hao, a.k.a. Chaka. 

Danny: “--And if Chaka wants to know what’s happened to this month’s drug shipment, you tell him Iron Fist happened! And you tell him that this is only the beginning! I’m going to take his empire apart, bit by slimy bit-- until there’s nothing left! And then I’m going to take Chaka apart the same way!”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #10 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Bonnie Wilford

    Danny works with A.D.A. Bill Hao (Chaka’s brother) and Colleen and Misty to take the gang down. He gets framed for murder (...again) partway through, but all-in-all, it’s not a bad superhero debut. If this season will be bringing in this type of street-level crimefighting, it’s possible the Golden Tigers could make an appearance. An orange tiger symbol has even appeared in some of the promotional material:

    (More on this image later...)

    During their SDCC appearances, the cast and crew spent a lot of time discussing this season’s stunt choreography. The new stunt coordinator, Clayton Barber, who also worked on Black Panther, explained that he was going for a “punk rock”, old-school kung fu vibe, and cited Jackie Chan’s work as a primary influence. The cast described being pushed to their physical limits (Alice Eve was apparently instructed to “change [her] relationship with pain” for her fights as Typhoid Mary), resulting in most of this season’s stunt-work being performed by the actors themselves. 

    So first of all... that sounds freaking hardcore, and kudos to everyone involved. We can’t wait to see all of this hard work in action. We loved the fights in Season 1, and if they’re going to be even better in Season 2, then whooo boy, we’re ready! And that’s as it should be. Iron Fist is a martial arts franchise moreso than any of the other shows, and so its fights should be the most technically impressive. Just this small taste of Danny kicking butt in the teaser has us really excited. 

    In the comics, early-on, Danny tried to have a secret identity for the sake of convenience. It’s never been as much of a thing for him as it has been for, say, Matt Murdock, and he hasn’t had an actual secret identity for a while now. But in this universe, he’s clearly not even bothering. While Iron Fist isn’t a big name in the NYC hero/villain world yet, in Luke Cage Season 2 we learned that Danny is starting to develop a reputation. Turk recognizes him on sight and mentions hearing about his run-in with the Triads. Clearly, that reputation will be growing significantly in this season of Iron Fist, and we’re eager to see how it will mesh with his already well-known civilian identity (which also isn’t nearly as much of a thing in the comics). “Rand Enterprises Co-Chair Has Magical Kung Fu Powers” sounds like a great headline, and Karen can have it for free. 

    Though of course, we’re expecting Danny to have his costume by the end of the season.

    This is a new logo! We liked last season’s a bit better-- it was more dynamic, and this one seems a little sparse. But it reflects differences in this season’s themes/tone, and it’s neat to see that kind of thing integrated into the show’s branding (we'd love for the other shows to do this too). While last’s season’s logo invoked K’un-Lun in its coloring, the background snow/sparks/smoke motif, the typeface, and the integration of the Shou-Lao symbol into the words themselves, this one is much starker, colder, utilitarian. It invokes New York City. One detail we particularly like is the fact that the “O” is still a stylized, extremely minimalist translation of the Shou-Lao symbol.   

    One last note: the Iron Fist Twitter account has been posting daily images of storefronts. These, along with the new logo and the neon motif used in the promos at SDCC, tie into the theme of Danny operating on the streets of New York. But more importantly, they’re accompanied by phrases that are most likely episode titles. Last season, the episodes were named after kung fu techniques (both real and comics-based). This season, they’re going right back to the source material and using the titles of various Iron Fist-relevant issues! "The Fury of Iron Fist”, for instance, is the title of Marvel Premiere #15-- Danny’s introductory issue, and “The City’s Not For Burning” from earlier in the post is Iron Fist vol. 1 #3. We’ll make a comprehensive post either here or on our Iron Fist blog (probably both) once all of the titles have been revealed. 

    The fact that they started flinging out episode titles within hours of releasing the very first teaser suggests an accelerated promotional schedule-- which makes sense, because September 7th is only six-and-a-half weeks away! It can’t come soon enough for us; we’ve been counting the days since Season 1′s cliffhanger ending, and everything we’ve heard so far about Season 2 sounds amazing. 

[greensparty]

Talking with Harrison Whitford

Last week I got to see Noah Gundersen in concert at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA. The opening act was Harrison Whitford. If you don’t know him yet, you’re going to soon. The singer-songwriter took the stage just him and his guitar. His brand of indie-folk reminded me a lot of Elliot Smith. I got to interview Mr. Whitford via email after that show. 

Harrison Whitford performing at The Sinclair, Sept. 2018

First and foremost, my son (who is almost 3) is named Harrison. Nice to meet and talk to another Harrison!

Thanks, man! I think it’s a good name. It’s a strong name. It has legs. Though I can take no credit for it.

At your show at The Sinclair the other night, you mentioned that you were born in Brookline, MA. Even though you are closely connected to Nashville, is it really special for you to perform in MA?

Not particularly. I was born in Brookline and grew up 40 minutes south of Boston until I was 9, and then I lived in New York City with my mom before relocating to Nashville towards the end of high school. Now I live in Los Angeles and it feels weird that I ever lived in Nashville because it doesn’t necessarily feel like home to me. I like being by the sea. Maybe that comes from growing up on the east coast. Shows are also so variegated: on one hand, where I am dictates how a show will go and on another it may be totally irrelevant. I don’t know what the formula is for a good or special show, if I did I’d be incredibly satisfied all of the time, which I’m not.

In addition to opening for Noah Gundersen on this tour, you also joined him to perform select songs during these shows. How did this tour and collaboration come about?

Noah asked me to open for him after doing a tour with him whilst playing with my friend Phoebe Bridgers. He just liked my record and my guitar playing. It’s literally that simple, it always is. And also we have a fucking great time hanging out, that helps.

Harrison, his dad Brad and brother Graham in 2008 (courtesy wire image)

Your brother Graham is the guitarist for Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown (who I saw back in 2012). Your father Brad is the guitarist with Whitford / St. Holmes (who I saw in 2015) as well as some other band. I have to ask, what is in the water in the Whitford home that has so many talented guitarists in your family tree?

Good question, I’m searching for an answer everyday because I’m constantly at odds with my own playing. My dad and my brother Graham were vital in showing me key elements of being a guitarist. One of the first things my dad had me do when I started playing was to map out the fretboard, which is important for developing an intimacy with the instrument. As far as what’s in the water, I’m not sure, I suppose just a deep shared love of the guitar.

Who are your Top 5 Guitarists of All-Time?

I can’t do just five, here are the ones that come to mind immediately: Jeff Beck, Bill Frisell, Adam Levy, George Harrison, Blake Mills, Jimi Hendrix, Hubert Sumlin, Marc Ribot, Jon Brion, Tony Berg, John Lennon, Neil Young, Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Derek Trucks, BB King, Bob Dylan, Albert King, Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Page, Ali Farka Toure, Ry Cooder, Daniel Lanois, Alex Labrie...to name a few...

Afraid of Everything album cover

Earlier this year you released your debut album Afraid of Everything. I was disappointed at the merch booth to see there wasn't a physical copy of it for sale. Will there be a vinyl or CD release?

There will be eventually. It’s hard to print CD’s and Vinyl at this juncture as I’m not making a ton of money on the road but making enough to pay rent and get by. When there are some, I’ll be sure to send you both and as well have them available on the internet.

This tour with Noah Gundersen is going into November. What's next for you?

After this there’s a tour with Phoebe Bridgers that lasts all of November, then time off. I’m just going to be still for a minute and explore. Set up my 4 track recorders and just experiment for a while, until I have to leave again.

For info on Harrison Whitford: https://soundcloud.com/harrison-whitford

[thesportssoundoff]

“I ain’t sayin’ it’s Gaethje and friends but....” The UFC in Lincoln, Nebraska preview

Joey

August 19th

Enjoy your UFC break? Hope you went out, saw the world, watched some MMA I hope, maybe dabbled in some boxing perhaps? Plenty of football and Big 3 basketball to take in too. Don't forget yourself some EPL action as well!  Whatever you did and whatever you found pleasure in; the UFC is back with a card from Lincoln, Nebraska of all places that's....weird. Ya know how the UFC has those events with damn good undercards and then no main event that'll draw viewers? This is a big like the opposite really. Justin Gaethje vs James Vick is a tremendous lightweight fight; a test to see how far Gaethje has fallen after two concussive damaging losses to Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez while testing if James Vick is finally ready to sit at the big boys table of 155 lbs. The problem is once you skip through that; you have a collection of average to good fights without one true defining co-main event. For the BRIEFEST period of time, we were told that Deiveson Figuerido vs John Moraga would be our co-main event. That changed in late July seemingly as the co-main event was THEN going to be Alexa Grasso vs Angela Hill. THAT then changed to what we have now as it'll be Andre Fili vs Michael Johnson in our co-main event of the evening.  The rest of the card isn't BAD but teeters on four tiers; good but kinda pointless, an prelim level action fight, poor matchmaking/spotlight matchmaking and lastly  and perhaps more interestingly "Who would ever care about this on any level?"  There's some good here but nothing is really going to stand out or be remembered 24 hours from now. NOW that's not to say you can't enjoy it! This is just sort of like a popcorn MMA event; it's a JCVD movie at 5 PM on a Sunday. You're going to watch it----but you're not going to remember it tomorrow. Chances are you might not even remember it six hours from the end of the main event so indulge in it while you can. Think of it as a chance to watch some MMA on a Saturday night after three weekends of nothing.

Fights: 13

Debuts:

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Al Iaquinta OUT, James Vick IN vs Justin Gaethje/Alexa Grasso OUT, Courtney Casey IN vs Angela Hill/Antonio Braga Neto OUT, Markus Perez IN vs Andrew Sanchez)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 8 (Justin Gaethje, Courtney Casey, John Moraga, Eryk Anders, Michael Johnson, Jake Ellenberger, Mickey Gall, Joanne Calderwood)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 8 (Justin Gaethje, Michael Johnson, Jake Ellenberger, Courtney Casey, Bryan Barberena, Andrew Sanchez, George Sullivan, Kalindra Faria)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 5 (Andre Fili, James Vick, Warlley Alves, Drew Dober, Rani Yahya)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 28- 22 (Folks better thank James Vick for Anthony Smith-ing this card out of the doldroms. Remove his 5-1 and this show is a 23-21 which is scaaaaaary close to unacceptable)

Justin Gaethje- 1-2 James Vick- 5-1 Michael Johnson- 1-3 Andre Fili- 3-2 Angela Hill- 3-2 Courtney Casey- 3-3 Jake Ellenberger- 1-4 Bryan Barberena- 3-2 Deiveson Figuerido- 3-0 John Moraga- 3-2 Eryk Anders- 2-1 Tim Williams- 0-1

Divisional Breakdown:

Welterweight- 3 Middleweight- 2 Bantamweight-2 Lightweight- 2 Flyweight-1 Women's Flyweight- 1 Women's Strawweight- 1

Too High Up- Jake Ellenberger vs Bryan Barberena

I hate to do this to Jake Ellenberger in his hometown. The fact of the matter is I think Ellenberger has only been prelim bait like once in his UFC career since about 2014 or so and that was for a Fox card. He's clearly a valued name by the UFC (and probably by more fans than we'd like to admit). That said he's 1-4 in his last five fights and there's really no point in doing this to the guy on the main card. Barberena is a good style for him (Ellenberger's TDD still seems pretty solid) and I don't think this is the WORST fight for him ever but let's be fair; this is not main card worthy. It's here because Jake's a hometown dude and because the only other alternatives are "the little guys". Could also call out Angela Hill/Courtney Casey or Tim Williams/Eryk Anders but it'd be unfair to move Angela Hill from co-main to prelims due to an opponent change and Eryk Anders is getting a showcase matchup to rebound him from that Machida loss.

Too Low- Iuri Alcantara vs Cory Sandhagen

THIS fight has serious good fight potential in it. You know how we talk about 135 lbs developing into one of MMA's best divisions? Well this is one of those fights that helps build you some depth and test you some prospects. Sandhagen was a short notice signing who beat the shit out of Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders Series signee (sorta) Austin Arnett who IMO is one of those AAAA fighters who is too good for the regionals but noway near good enough for the UFC. This is a much tougher test for Sandhagen whose losses prior to the UFC was to professional prospect killer Jamall Emmers. Now he faces Iuri Alcantara who is probably not good enough to be anything more than a tremendous prospect tester and veteran smashing machine. If Sandhagen's "got it" then chances are this fight will be a lot of fun because his style meshes up well with the style that brings the best out of Alcantara. We're talking forward pressure, funky movement and some offensive versatility for Alcantara's power counters early.

Stat Monitor for 2018: Debuting Fighters (Current number: 20-26):  

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 21-11): Courtney Casey, Andrew Sanchez and James Vick

Second Fight (Current number: 31-24): Cory Sandhagen and Tim Williams

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 15-26):  Joanna Calderwood and Jon Tuck

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 22-19):  Deiveson Figuerido

Keeping An Eye On But Not Really:

The UFC Win Check Test The records of fighters who have 4 or more UFC fights (or three full calendar years in the organization) but 0 wins against people still in the UFC:  Luke Sanders, Jon Tuck, Joanne Calderwood

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Gonna get this out of the way first; Jake Ellenberger is on the show because he's from the area and is a big draw there. Ticket sales were poor out the gate so Ellenberger wound up popping on. That's it and that's all there is to it, okay?

2- Who has more to gain here in the main event? I think it's easy as to "Who has more to lose?" because a James Vick win means that Justin Gaethje PROBABLY got flattened in his third straight fight which, in turn, means that we're looking at an obvious tragic combustion of one of the greatest action fighters of all time. Now having said that, what does Gaethje really gain from a win? He beats a top 10 guy (Vick should be ranked in the top 10 by now and if not, I'm gonna be floored) but not one of the elite names. He gets a win but it's not the kind of win that will carry any sort of casual clout because casuals don't even know who James Vick is really. At this point, it's JUST a win on a show. It's a filler W. On the other hand, James Vick beating Justin Gathje will be big in theory but I wonder how many "Alvarez/Poirier did it first!" type comments will accompany it. I wonder if people will take a loss for Gaethje as more about what Justin has lost than what James Vick has gained.

3- People like to act as though Tony Ferguson had a unique road to the top of the 155 lb scene. James Vick had to beat Nick Hein, Polo Reyes, Joe Duffy, FRANCISCO TRINALDO and Jake Matthews-----and then had to wait for an injury to get his first UFC main event. It's a very loaded division that pities nobody.

4- Did Demetrious Johnson losing cement Deiveson Figuerido vs John Moraga getting knocked down a peg to the middle of the main card?

5- Does Lyoto Machida get a big snazzy Bellator contract if Eryk Anders snoozes through the fifth round of a close fight in enemy territory?

6- Speaking of Anders, he and Markus Perez on the same card reminds me of the vibe I had recently; Perez vs Anders is going to be one of those fights five years from now that we'll all agree happened too soon. Both guys were a bit too raw and Anders was just too damn strong for Perez. Expect both guys to show out in Nebraska and expect them to be familiar faces at 185 lbs. The UFC pushed Anders away from a fight with Paulo Costa for a reason.

7- Maybe I'm an idiot (yeah, I know) but I'm not off the Courtney Casey bandwagon just yet. She still shows so many brief tactical snafus that I'm just hoping experience will breed a better more polished version of a fighter who has tremendous offensive potential at range and in the clinch. I'm HOPING for the best while acknowledging the worst. Angela Hill is going to be a fine test for her.

8- Mickey Gall is officially in the "Okay now what?" stage of his UFC run which is kind of a problem. He's in the embryonic stage of developing his skills but he's at the point where "rush him!" will collide with "He's not ready!" repeatedly. I bet his trainers don't even have a real solid grasp of what he is and what he'll do on a fight to fight basis. To this point Mickey Gall is 3-1 in the organization but his wins are over 1) a  photographer, 2) a pro wrestler and 3) MMA's favorite golden retriever in Sage Northcutt. The last is a credible win but Sage is one of those guys who is also sort of still in a developmental embryonic stage. Against Randy Brown in November, Mickey was pretty much outclassed minus a tremendous sweep in the second round. Brown is a competent average-ish WW who will give most people some trouble so it's not a big surprise. It still showed how far Gall has to go but also how hard it is for a 170 lb prospect to really get major work in. Put it this way, there's basically three levels at 170 lbs:

A: The Top Of The Division- Mostly wrestlers/grapplers backed with power in their hands with big time experience who aren't the most exciting guys but know how to push a pace, know how to pace themselves and despite the increasing age, they're on a different level compared to their contemporaries. Guys like Woodley, Usman, RDA, Covington, Till, Maia, Lawler, Leon Edwards, Wonderboy, DHK and the like.

B: The Action Fighter Center- Everybody here has flaws but they all hit really hard or have tremendous cardio. They're too flawed to take the next step in their respective careers but you can count on them to throw down and will probably beat each other/most prospects up en route to ascending up the rankings. Think of it as a nesting doll situation with spinning kicks. Guys like Alan Jouban, Mike Perry, Donald Cerrone, Ponz, Gunnar Nelson, Ben Saunders, Zaleski, Lyman Good, Frank Camacho, Matt Brown, Cowboy Oliveira and Niko Price. Basically this is where the spirit of 170 lbs lives on.

C: A mess. It's either an aging dumpster fire where you gain nothing if you win and look bad if you lose or some dude nobody has ever heard of who is 2-2 in the UFC living on the prelims. Mostly guys who have had long careers up until this point and are just trying to hold onto something for one last final run. Most of the dudes in this area are journeymen types who have so much experience that they can absolutely upset a dude based just on having seen it all and done it all.

There are no prospects at 170 outside of Gall and Northcutt so Mickey's forced to try and live dangerously in Group C knowing full well he's not ready for Group B. George Sullivan is your Group C guy; he's almost 40, he's had six UFC fights since 2014, he hits really hard and his experience level/vet savvy alone should make him a heavy favorite. It's a risky fight for Gall but this is basically what happens when you're a "prospect" at 170 lbs. No free rides.

9- James Krause vs Warlley Alves is a really interesting fight to me as Alves continues to try and chase himself back into "Hey this guy is really good" category. He blasted out Sultan Aliev in May and Krause is a similar dude to Aliev in that he's another Group C welterweight where the risk kind of outweighs the reward. Alves really needs to find himself a spot somewhere because "Colby Covington will make him a draw out of spite."

10- Drew Dober is fighting at 155 lbs again after California told him not to. They apparently cleared him to try it but....man I wish we could just get out of the "bigger at a lower weight class" issue. It's not conducive to healthy long term MMA.

11- Has any fighter had a more precipitous decline in terms of relevance than Joanne Calderwood?

12- If we're in the ESPN era, this is on ESPN+ right? How many Nebraska type cards a month would you need for it to be worth your $4.99?

Three Under Pressure

1- Justin Gaethje

The weird thing about Justin Gaethje is that his losses are basically just his wins stylistically except he doesn't land the flurry to end it all. He stalks, takes damage, kills your lead leg, eventually finds home for sharp combinations, wears you down and then eventually finishes you when you're hurt, tired and broken. He couldn't break Alvarez (although Eddie was honest that his leg was done) and he couldn't break Dustin Poirier either in time before Poirier shut him off with a fantastic combination. Gaethje hasn't been figured out because the book's been the same the whole time. The difference is instead of wailing away with Luis Palomino or someone of that ilk, he fought two of the top 5 LWs in the universe. The question becomes whether Vick is in that class or whether Gaethje is truly finally broken. A lot will be revealed win or lose here.

2- Deiveson Figuerido

Demetrious Johnson will eventually get a title rematch but until that happens, Figuerido and the rest of the "little guys" at 125 lbs have to view every opportunity on TV to try and make good on what should be a truly legitimate chance to stand out. Moraga is a former title contender with some clout on the best run of his career (since the MM fight) and now Figuerido, arguably Brazil's best young chance for a title contender below 145 lbs, has to try and get the name win on his record. I'm still not sure how good Deiveson is or where his upside truly rests but this fight will tell us everything.

3- Eryk Anders

Anders tried to do JUST enough to beat a dude in his hometown in a main event where he didn't do much to begin with and paid the price. The only way to right that is to come out hot and get a quick W over a dude who is there to get stomped on in theory.

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- James Vick vs Justin Gaethje

2- Michael Johnson vs Andre Fili

3- Iuri Alcantara vs Cory Sandhagen

4- John Moraga vs Deiveson Figuerido

5- Courtney Casey vs Angela Hill

[doubajenrecords]

#promotional #media Half King is played in the upcoming film Washington's Armor, Vol. 1: “The Journey”, by Slim Khezri. 

 ---- Hey Slim, 

 If you could tell the audience one thing about you… what would you want them to know? 

 What's the one thing I want people to know about me? Just one thing? I've been in show business since 1989, made my radio and television debut in 1991, this is a very difficult question looking back on three decades, but it's an interesting one nevertheless. Well, everyone knows that achieving your dreams is difficult, but no one should ever be discouraged. It might sound cliché, but I'd say the first thing that comes to mind looking back is believing in yourself no matter what, confidence and determination. You have a vision, a dream, research it well, prepare for it well and go for it, that's my life and career in a nutshell. When I started my singing and acting career in Europe, none of my friends and family believed in me, let alone going to Hollywood, no one, but that didn’t stop me. I persevered and now, 32 years later, after working on over a hundred films, tv shows, performing on nearly thousand live shows around the world, here I am still doing what I love with the same passion and fire that's been burning in me fiercely since I was 16 or so. Never, ever, give up and always stick to your goals. Aside from that, there's more to me than meets the eye, people often get surprised when they find out I'm actually a very good cook, knowledgeable in world history & international political affairs, an arts collector and speak 5 languages, ha! 

 As for "Washington's Armor", it was such a pleasure working at Capernaum Studios with director Tammy Cox Lane. I’m honored to play Tanacharison, aka. the Half King which I've never heard of before this film, who by the way had a huge impact on George Washington's early story, and for bringing single handedly the Seven Years' War to America. I hope my portrayal did justice to bring this historical figure to life. Being part of "Washington's Armor" production was a fantastic experience for me, working with some of the best and talented people in the area, who put their heart, sweat and tears into it. I wanna also thank Casting director Roni Hummel (of Roni Hummel Productions) for bringing me into this unforgettable journey. I can’t wait for everybody to see the finished product. It's going to be spectacular. 

 www.washingtonsarmor.com 

#WashingtonsArmor #GeorgeWashington #PreserveAmericanHistory #SlimKhezri #SupportPatriotism #CapernaumStudios #History #Educational #Film #Movie #Actor #ActorsLife #AmericanHistory

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 12/11/20 - MINARI, THE MIDNIGHT SKY, LET THEM ALL TALK, WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, PARALLEL, WANDER DARKLY and More!

Honestly, I almost didn’t write a column this week for reasons I’ll probably be ranting about for a few more months, but the long and short of it is that I’ve now been writing movie reviews for 19 years, as well as writing a weekly column through most of that time, and I’m kind of sick of working my ass off, usually for very little money, and just not getting anything out of it.

This mainly came as I crossed 200 reviews for the year a few weeks back. As I was preparing to write this week’s column, Rotten Tomatoes, where most of my reviews have been available as FREE content for the past 17 years, decided to upgrade a number of critics to be “Top Critics”… but not yours truly. I have a lot more to say about this but don’t want to waste any more of my time or anger right now. I will be wrapping this column up and taking some time off for a month in January and deciding whether I want to keep wasting my time every week for no money and little feedback. It really just isn’t worth it anymore.

Fortunately, I saw a few good movies this week, and more than a few bad, so let’s start with one of the good ones, shall we?

This week’s “Featured Flick” is Lee Isaac Chung’s MINARI (A24), which like Nomadland last week will get some sort of virtual cinema release in New York and L.A., presumably that can be seen across the country. It will then get its official release on February 12, 2021.

The movie stars Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead as Jacob, a Korean father who brings his family to an Arkansas house in the middle of nowhere in the ‘80s, hoping to start a farm. His wife Monica (Yeri Han) is not happy with this decision but their kids Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim) try to adjust to the new life. Things aren’t going well but then Monica’s mother Soonja (Yuh-jung Youn) shows up, that just adds more pressure on Jacob, and the kids, especially David, who hates the quirky older woman who acts nothing like a grandmother.

I’d been hearing about Minari going all the way back to its debut at Sundance, and though I remained skeptical, I finally saw it a few months ago an again over the weekend, and it’s one of my favorite films of the year, probably Top 5. To me, it’s somewhat in the vein of The Farewell, my number 1 movie of 2019, vs. the Oscar Best Picture winner, Parasite. It’s a very personal story for Chung who based some of the experiences on his own childhood, which once again proves the adage that if you’re going to write a movie, make it personal since that’s the most likely to connect with others. (Not always true, but it was great advice when I was given it.)

It takes a little time to understand why Minari is so beloved, since Chung takes an interesting approach where we see various scenes that don’t necessarily seem to tie into some sort of plot. Characters like Will Patton’s ultra-religious zealot who seems to be a bit lost when Jacob takes him on to help with his farm. Otherwise, we see various character interactions as things get tenser and tenser between Jacob and Monica, who are fighting all the time. Although the drama does get intense at times, there’s a lot of joyful and fun moments, particularly those involving the wacky grandmother and her dysfunctional relationship with her grandson. I also enjoyed the relationship between the two kids where Anne is always protective of her younger brother, who has some sort of heart illness. 

It's a beautiful movie with an equally gorgeous score, but it’s really in the last 20 minutes or so when we start to see where Chung has been going with all these seemingly disparate elements, which builds up to a wonderful ending. Yeun is terrific, and the fact he reminded me of my own father -- we’re neither Korean nor have I ever been to Arkansas -- shows why his subdued performance is so effective. Overall, the film proves that however many awful things life might throw at you, your family can always fix things. I love that message, and I hope others will find and love this as well.

After its one week in virtual cinema, Minari will get an expanded theatrical release starting February 12… hopefully, New York City theaters will be open by then and I can see it in a theater.

Film at Lincoln Center in New York also is starting its 49th annual “New Directors/New Films” series, which was delayed from March, although being virtual, the movies in it can also be viewed nationwide for the first time. I feel like a lot of movies that were scheduled to play ND/NF ended up being released already but there should be some interesting things in there.

George Clooney’s latest film THE MIDNIGHT SKY is based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, in which he plays Augustine, a scientist dying on his own at the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic, who has to warn a group of astronauts returning to earth that it’s no longer safe for them to return.

Clooney has made a lot of good and great movies over the years, so that I’m one of those people anxiously ≠waiting for him to make something great again after the disappointment of Suburbicon. Midnight Sky is definitely one step forward and a few steps back, as it’s impossible not to think of previous Clooney movies like Solaris and Gravity, as well as The Martian and Passengers and Ad Astra. Yes, we somehow have gotten to the point where every year there’s some sort of space movie, and while Midnight Sky at its best is better than Solaris or Ad Astra (sorry, but I was not a fan), there’s enough that’s so quizzical and confounding I’m not sure people will be able to follow what’s going on.

Much of the first half of the movie involves Clooney’s Augustine alone at the Artic base interacting with a little girl (Caoillin Springall) who is completely silent. If it’s ever explained what the girl represents, I must have missed it. There are also flashbacks to Augustine’s earlier career as a scientist and explorer played by a somewhat only semi-impressive Clooney kinda look-alike in Ethan Peck.

The best moments of the movie involve the crew of astronauts on the spaceship Ether, including Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, who are in a relationship, Demián Bichir, Kyle Chandler and Tiffany Boone, as they deal with various issues. This is really where comparisons to Gravity and The Martian are earned, but that’s such a mighty quintet of actors that these sections are far more interesting than sullen bearded Clooney with his young ward. The production design and visual FX in these portions of the film are also quite impressive.

The Midnight Sky throws a lot at the viewer but then tries too hard to be quizzical and enigmatic about how all of it ties together until the very end. I feel that some of Clooney’s more mainstream fans will be quite confounded and possibly even disappointed. The Midnight Sky is Clooney taking a swing and only partially connecting, and it might require multiple viewings to feel like it’s a worthy addition to his filmography.

Either way, The Midnight Sky will open theatrically in select cities this week and then be on Netflix on December 23, just in time for depressing everyone on Christmas!

Also hitting Netflix streaming this week is Ryan Murphy’s musical THE PROM, which I reviewed last week. It’s great, I loved it, and can’t wait to watch it again!

Next up is Clooney’s pal Steven Soderbergh, whose new movie LET THEM ALL TALK, will premiere on HBO Max this Thursday, December 10. It stars Meryl Streep as renowned writer Alice who is called to England to receive a prestigious literary award. Since she doesn’t fly, she’s booked on a cross-Atlantic trip on the Queen Mary II ship. Alice decides to bring her old friend Roberta (Candice Bergen)—whom hasn’t spoken to her in three decades--and Susan (Dianne Wiest) as well as her nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges) to serve as her assistant so she can focus on her writing. Little does she know that her young agent Karen (Gemma Chan) is also on the ship hoping to find out what Alice is writing about with the help of Tyler, who is quite smitten with her.  

I’m not sure where to begin with one of week’s films that I probably had the highest expectations and ended up leaving me with the most utter disappointment. I wasn’t really that crazy about last year’s The Laundromat, and I’ve generally found Soderbergh’s work to be hit or miss over the last few years. I loved his thriller Unsanefor instance, and the Magic Mike movies were fun. This one, written by author Deborah Eisenberg, is just plain boring for most of it, offering nothing particularly interesting or insightful, as it’s basically another movie where Streep is playing a character who moans about how difficult her life is and how much better everyone else has it. I mean, if I wanted that shit, I’d spend more time on Twitter than I already do. And then there’s Hedges, one of my favorite young actors over the past few years, who seems to have fallen into a niche playing

In fact, my favorite aspect of the film was Gemma Chan, who plays a character with far more depth and dimension than normal, although much of her role is just to spy on Alice and fend of the subtle advances by the much younger Tyler. The two actors have some fun scenes together, far more lively than anything involving the older actresses, but you always know where it’s going. It’s kind of awkward and painful to watch Hedges bomb so hard. (At least he fared better playing a similar role in French Exit, but in that one, his love interest was Danielle Macdonald.)

The movie looks good with Soderbergh handling his own camera duties and cinematography as usual, and it’s scored with the same hipster jazz he might have used in one of his Ocean movies, but the movie just goes on and on and on, and it hs one of the most “what the fuck?” moments you’ll see this year.

If you can imagine one of The Trip movies without any of the laughs or the delicious food porn…but on a ship, that’s basically what you end up with. More than once while watching Soderbergh’s movie, I was ready to abandon ship.

And from pretty bad, we go to much, MUCH worse. Do you know what thyme it is? It’s WILD MOUNTAIN THYME!!!

John Patrick Shanley adapts his own play Outside Mullingar into a film that will be released in theaters and On Demand by Bleeker Street this Friday, and believe me, its biggest problems isn’t some of the awful Irish accents on display, but they certainly don’t help. Emily Blunt plays Rosemary and Jamie Dornan is Anthony, childhood friends who live down the street from each other in their Irish farming community. When they grow up, Rosemary’s father dies leaving her with a plot of land that forces Anthony and his father Tony (Christopher Walken) to have to use a gate to get to their home. Remember this gate, because it’s going to be mentioned so much over the course of the movie, you’ll wonder why the movie wasn’t called “Wild Mountain Gate.” (It’s actually named after a song that Blunt’s character sings for no apparent reason.)

First, you’ll have to get past the odd choice of the very non-Irish Walken in a key role as the dead narrator of the story with that aforementioned horrid accent. It won’t take long for you to start scratching your head how a noted playwright like Shanley could write such a horrible screenplay. Soon after, you’ll wonder how he convinced someone to finance making it into a movie. I’m normally a pretty big fan of Blunt, but this movie and role might be one of her biggest missteps as an actor to date. As a child, Rosemary was told by her father that she was the White Swan in Swan Lake, so of course that will lead to

It’s not long before Jon Hamm shows up as one of Anthony’s distant relatives who also has interest in Rosemary’s plot of land – nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Pretty soon we’re thrust into awkward love triangle rom-com that falls somewhere between Leap Year and The Holiday. Not exactly something you’d expect from the filmmaker behind the drama Doubt that produced multiple Oscar nominations for the cast, eh?

Instead, Shanley ends up trying to foist the… I don’t want to call it chemistry. What is the exact opposite of chemistry? Between Blunt and Dorman with one long boring conversation after another. At one point, they’re having a romantic chat about suicide, the next Anthony is telling Rosemary that he thinks he’s a honeybee. I mean, what the holy fuck?

Honestly, the whole thing is just grueling to watch, because you wonder how so much talent could falter so badly, particularly Shanley? Even the recent Shane MacGowan doc was a far more romantic take on Irish farming than this could ever possibly be.

One of the nicer surprises of the week is the sci-fi thriller PARALLEL (Vertical), which will be in theaters and On Demand this Friday, and it’s likely to be missed by a lot of people who would enjoy it. Directed by Isaac Ezban from a screenplay by Scott Blaszak, it follows four young people working in the tech sector of Seattle who discover a mirror in a hidden section of the house they’re renting that apparently allows them to experience other dimensions and other versions of their lives. Soon, they’re experimenting with different ways they can make money and achieve fame, although not all of them are cool about how they’re doing it.

Although Parallel opens like a home invasion thriller featuring the great Kathleen Quinlan, we soon learn that it’s a red herring before we meet the quartet of young entepreneurs working on a parking app with an almost impossible deadline. When they find the mirror that leads into an alternative dimension, they immediately start to experiment with figuring out what is happening exactly, and once they do, they realize they can make money by stealing from “alts” i.e. other versions of themselves. Soon, their success starts driving them insane with a desire for even more money and power.

Ezban’s movie benefits from a talented mostly unknown cast, including Martin Wallstrom and Mark O’Brien as boisterous alpha males. Georgia King’s artist Leena is far more than a love interest, although she does become an obsession for one of them eventually – and man, does she remind me of a young Reese Witherspoon. British actor Aml Ameen plays Devin, whose father committed suicide after being accused of corruption, and he’s also wary of some of the activities his friends get up to. There’s also the quartet’s main competitor Seth who gets suspicious of their success as they start producing all sorts of incredible technical inventions.

Parallel is a pretty twisted sci-fi movie that in some way reminded me of the ‘90s thriller Flatliners and even Primer a little bit, but the mirror aspect to it also will draw comparisons to Oculus, one of Mike Flanagan’s cool earlier movies. It doesn’t take long for the twists to start flying at the viewer, and once they do, your mind will be boggled and not necessarily in a bad way. I wouldn’t want to even begin sharing some of the crazy places where the film goes, but even gore fans won’t be disappointed by some of it.

It’s a real shame this terrific movie has floundered without distribution or deserved attention for so long, because there’s absolutely no question in my mind that Jason Blum should be talking to Ezban and Blaszk about doing something together. Parallel is the type of quality high-concept thriller Blumhouse thrives upon.

Another nice surprise this week was Ekwa Msangi’s FAREWELL AMOR (IFC Films), which debuted at Sundance earlier this year and barely got any attention, which is a real shame. It’s expanded from her earlier short, and it’s about an Angolan immigrant named Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), who is reunited with his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson) after 17 years. As they share a small New York apartment, Walter and Esther try to rekindle their romance while Sylvia tries to adjust to an American school.

Msangi’s film opens at Newark airport where the small family is reunited, Walter not having seen either wife or daughter in a decade and a half. He’s working as a cab driver, and he’s ready to rekindle the old flame and meet his daughter who was only a baby when he moved to the States. (Little does Esther know that Walter was in a relationship with another woman, a nurse who isn’t too happy about having to leave Walter’s life.)

One of the things Msangi does to keep things interesting is that she splits the film into three sections, one for each character that focuses specifically on them, and the story gets infinitely interesting as we learn more about each of them. Walter is somewhat at odds with doing the right thing by his wife and daughter, who is wanting to explore her love of dance that her ultra-religious mother forebids. For some reason, I thought Sylvia’s section would be the most interesting as she deals with the trials of being a teenager, but then Esther’s section shows her to be a far more layered character we might have assumed earlier. She also befriends a neighbor woman played by Joie Lee that helps her expand. The thing is that all three are clearly good people, and you never feel as if one is doing something bad in relation to the others.

Farewell Amor is a quiet but beautiful film that explores an immigrant story in a far different way than we’ve seen before. It’s a discovery film, and I hope people will not just presume it won’t hold their interest. It’s a wonderfully relatable human story, similar to Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor.

Sienna Miller and Diego Luna star in Tara Miele’s psychological drama WANDER DARKLY (Lionsgate), playing Adrienne and Matteo, a couple who recently had a baby. After they get into a horrible car accident while arguing, they end up revisiting the highs and lows of their relationship as Adrienne believes either she or Matteo or both are dead.

This is a surprisingly stranger film than I expected, delving into the supernatural not quite in the way as something like Wes Craven’s Serpent and the Rainbow or Jacob’s Ladder, but having a few elements in common. Although I haven’t seen Miele’s other films, this one feels very much like something Drake Doremus might have made to the point where I’m not sure I could say I fully understood what was happening from one moment to the next. The film seems to be exploring a couple’s relationship through a horrible tragedy but does in a strange way.

With the emotional performances by the two leads being enhanced by an amazing score by Alex Weston (who also scored The Farewell last year), Wander Darkly is more than anything, a performance piece with a decent script and further proof Miller continues to be one of the most underrated actresses working today. Despite those great performances, the movie’s strange premise might be too metaphysical and intense in execution for everyone to be along for the entire ride. In that sense, I probably liked last week’s Black Bear just slightly more.

I reviewed Steve McQueen’s ALEX WHEATLE (Amazon Prime Video) in last week’s column, and that will hit Amazon Prime this Friday, but I think I’m going to save Education, the last film in his “Small Axe Anthology” for next week’s column.  I was also hoping to review Tom Moore and Ross Stewart’s WOLFWALKERS (Apple+) this week, since it premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, but I just couldn’t get to it. Story of my life.

I’m not sure if I could tell you how many of the Ip Man movies I’ve seen over the past 12 or so years, many of which I saw at the New York Asian Film Festival, but Ip Man is indeed back after last year’s Ip Man: The Finale, but that’s because IP MAN: KUNG FU MASTER (Magnet/Magnolia Pictures) is part of the spin-off prologue series starring Dennis (Yu-Hang) To, who looked enough like a younger Donnie Yen to start a whole sub-franchise. This one is directed by Liming Li, who is also directing a Young Ip Man: Crisis Time prequel movie that presumably stars someone younger than both Yen and To. Got it?

Okay, maybe this needs a little more explaining, although the nice thing about Kung Fu Master is that it works perfectly fine as a stand-alone in case you’ve never seen any of the other movies. This one takes place in the ‘40s as Man is a police captain in Foshan, dealing with the ever-present gang known as The Axes.  He’s framed for murder when the leader of the gang dies in prison, and his daughter, Miss Qingchuan (Wanliruo Xin), wanting revenge as she takes over the gang. Ip Man has other issues like being disgraced as a police officer and then the arrival of the Japanese army who have their own agenda. Ip Man ends up donning a mask to become the Black Knight to fight crime in another way.

I make no bones about my love of martial arts films when they’re not stupid or hoaky and sadly, the Donnie Yen franchise was getting by last year’s so-called “finale.” Kung Fu Master starts out with an amazing action scene of To fighting off what seems like hundred of axe-wielding gangsters, and it barely lets up, constantly throwing interesting and thoroughly entertaining fights at the viewer. Eventually, there’s a bounty on Ip Man’s head with whoever kills becoming leader of the Axes, but he has other issues, like his wife giving birth to their baby boy, just as the police chief and force shows up to arrest him. Cutting quickly between childbirth and kung fu action is just one of the interesting things Director Li does to make his Ip Man debut.

The resemblance between Dennis To and Donnie Yen is more than just facial as his wushu techniques are equally impressive, and sure, there’s a few more dramatic moments between Ip Man and his wife, but it’s Xin’s Miss Qingchuan who ends up being more of a formidable counter to To in just about every way, including a few fight scenes where axes are flying through the air.

Ip Man Kung Fu Master is fairly short, less than 90 minutes, but it still feels long because it feels like it finds a good ending, and then tacks on an epilogue and then another one. There were times I thought it might end on a cliffhanger to set up Ip Man’s inevitable next movie. The abundance of evil antagonists Ip Man must fight in this one tends to become a bit much, but it’s hard not to be thrilled by the martial arts on display and Li’s terrifically stylish visuals that keeps the movie interesting.

Ip Man Kung Fu Master will be available digitally Friday through a variety of platforms.

Filmmaker Adam Egypt Mortimer, who released Daniel Isn’t Real last year, returns with ARCHENEMY (RLJEfilms), starring Joe Manganiello as Max Fist, who claims to be a hero from another dimension that fell to earth. He ends up spending time with a teen brother and sister, Hamster (Skylan Brooks) and Indigo (Zelee Griggs) who want to clean the streets of the local drug syndicate, led by The Manager (Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). It’s a strange and quirky dark superhero movie that includes appearances by the likes of Paul Scheer and Amy Seimetz, and though I ran out of time to review, I do have an interview with Mortimer at Below the Line.

Time to get to some docs, and there are definitely some you’ll want to check out, although I don’t have as much time to write that much about them, and some of them I wasn’t able to watch yet.

Another great doc out of the September festival circuit is Ryan White’s ASSASSINS (Greenwich Entertainment), which follows the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother to North Korean leader Kim Jon-un in 2017 at a busy airport in Malaysia by two young women. Although the two women had never met before, they were jointly charged with attacking the North Korean ex-pat with a lethal nerve gas called VX but White’s investigation takes him all over South-East Asia trying to get answers to how the two women were tricked into committing the assassination. This is a pretty masterful display of doc filmmaking by White, not just in the sense of the way the story is paced and edited like a good political thriller, but it’s one that keeps the viewer invested even as the last act deals with the trial of the two young women and the bond that forms between them.

I’ll have more about this film over on Below the Line sometime very soon, but it hits theaters and virtual cinema this Friday and then it will be on PVOD on January 15

I saw Seamus Murphy’s doc PJ HARVEY: A DOG CALLED MONEY way back in March when it was supposed to open at New York’s Film Forum, but it’s finally getting a virtual cinema release there. Murphy travelled across Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington DC with singer/songwriter PJ Harvey as she prepared material for her 2015 album, The Hope Six Million Project, which she produced with Flood and John Parish as an installation at Somerset House where people can walk by and view the recording process.  This is an amazing doc that allows you into the process of writing for an amazing recording artist who has given Murphy and the viewer unprecedented access into her creativity. I had fully lost track of Harvey over the years, even though I was a huge fan of hers when she first hit these shores – in fact, I saw her play a concert where Radiohead opened for her… and there as another band (Gallon Drunk) after them! Because of that, I wasn’t familiar with the album, but I just love good music docs, especially ones that take us behind the scenes of a talented artist, and Murphy has created quite a fascinating film even outside the recording studio, whether it’s following Harvey around (narrated by her own poetic observations) but also with commentary by others they encounter. I found the Washington DC segments particularly interesting, since that’s the one place where I’ve spent the most time.  An absolutely fantastic doc whether you’re a fan of Harvey’s or not.

Also playing in the Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema this week is Thomas Balmés’ SING ME A SONG, the filmmaker’s second doc set in the Himalayan village of Bhutan that’s been isolated for centuries. He returns to update on Peyangki, the 8-year-old Buddhist monk from his 2014 film Happiness, now a teenager who has fallen under the sway of technology including pop music and smartphone games, as he begins a WeChat romance with a young singer, which makes him consider leaving the monastery.

Also premiering on Netflix this Friday is Jim Stern and Fernando Villena’s doc GIVING VOICE, tying into the streaming premiere of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom next week. It follows six student actors auditioning for the August Wilson Monologue Competition, which brings thousands of students from twelve U.S. cities together to perform the Pulitzer Prize winner’s work.

Joshua Faudem’s doc THE LAST SERMON (Gravitas Ventures/Will Kennan) follows the director and Jack Baxter as they follow 14 years after making their 2004 documentary Blues by the Beach, in which the two ended up in a terrorist attack by British Nationals on Mike’s Place, a bar next door to the National Embassy on Tel Aviv. This event sends Baxter and Faudem across Europe to refugee camps and mosques in order to understand the essence of Islam and the truth about the international terrorists that almost killed them.

Drew Barrymore plays a dual role in THE STAND-IN (Saban Films), directed by Jamie Babbitt (But I’m a Cheerleader). While under normal circumstances, Wild Mountain Thyme would have been the dog of the week, then this movie came along. Yikes. Barrymore plays Candy Black, a comedy star best known for her pratfalls in bad movies (ala Melissa McCarthy). She also plays Paula, Candy’s much sweeter and almost identical stand-in. Candy is a nightmare to work with and after a fall from grace, she holes herself up in her Long Island Estate for five years, while Paula’s own fortunes falter without having that work. I’m sure you can figure out where it goes from there.

Yes, folks, we have what is now one of the worst iterations of a Tale of Two Cities not made by Barrymore’s frequent co-star Adam Sandler, although there are times where you wonder if she is actually playing a version of Sandler with Candy. Eventually, either Candy or Paula or both decide that Paula can take Candy’s place in her attempt to return to work, but the results are just far worse than The Hottie or the Nottie, as Paula also stands in for Candy on dates with the man she’s fallen in love with online through their love of woodworking. (I didn’t make that up.) You almost always know where it’s going and can’t help but groan when you’re right.

Basically, there’s one Drew that’s glammed-down and the other talking in an annoying wispy voice, so there really isn’t getting away from the awfulness even for a second.The thing is that, like the worst comedies, The Stand In is not funny, and it’s sad to see a decent director like Babbitt being dragged into this one. It’s just a terrible overused premise that’s executed quite poorly. Not only that, but the movie also co-stars TJ Miller, who has fallen so far from grace himself, that it’s shocking to see him in another movie.

Besides guaranteeing Barrymore a double-dose Razzie nomination, The Stand In also leaves her with cow shit on her face, much like her character.

Movies I just didn’t have time to get to this week:

Funny Boy (Array/Netflix) Gunda (NEON) Safety (Disney+) Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (HBO Max) 40 Years a Prisoner (HBO Docs) Through the Night (Longshot Factory) To the Ends of the Earth (KimStim) Rompan Todo: The History of Rock in Latin America (Netflix) The Wilds (Prime Video) Nasrin (Virgil Films) Finding Ying Yin

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[brokehorrorfan]

Best New Horror Movies on Netflix: Autumn 2017

There's an overwhelming amount of horror movies to sift through on Netflix, so I've decided to take out some of the legwork by compiling a list of the season's best new genre titles on Netflix's instant streaming service.

Please feel free to leave a comment with any I may have missed and share your thoughts on any of the films you watch. You can also peruse past installments of Best New Horror Moves on Netflix for more suggestions.

1. The Void

Not afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve, The Void is a fun amalgam of genre favorites such as The Thing, Hellraiser, Prince of Darkness, The Beyond, and Assault on Precinct 13, along with a healthy dose of H.P. Lovecraft for good measure. The '80s inspiration is furthered by a plethora of practical effects and a pulsating, John Carpenter-esque synthesizer score. Set in the most understaffed hospital since Halloween 2, a small group of people fight to survive against Lovecraftian monsters and cultists. A lot of the plot points are familiar, but the astonishing effects are more than enough to make it feel fresh and exciting.

2. The Transfiguration

Like a modern take on George A. Romero's Martin, The Transfiguration is a subversive vampire film. It's also an urban coming-of-age tale with social commentary. The plot concerns an adolescent boy (Eric Ruffin, The Good Wife) who is a practicing vampire in New York City. Not just an avid watcher of horror films - although he name-checks plenty of them - he partakes in murder to drink blood. He begins to question his outlook on life when he befriends a girl who's also an outcast (Chloe Levine, The Defenders). Although largely a somber, dramatic film, there are a couple of truly shocking moments. Due to how raw and real it feels, this one will stick with you.

3. The Devil's Candy

Written and directed by Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones), The Devil's Candy combines elements of haunted house, demonic possession, and home invasion movies, all with a lean toward heavy metal music. It follows a struggling artist (a nearly unrecognizable Ethan Embry, Can’t Hardly Wait), his wife (Shiri Appleby, Roswell), and their teenage daughter (Kiara Glasco, Map to the Stars) as they move into a new home. Meanwhile, the house's disturbed former resident (the great Pruitt Taylor Vince, Constantine) returns, and he takes a liking to the young girl. It's akin to a 1970s slow-burner with modern sensibilities. The restrained approach allows the audience to become more invested in the characters, building toward an unpredictable and emotionally draining final act. Read my full review of the film here.

4. A Dark Song

A Dark Song is an engrossing slow-burn horror film predominantly told with two actors in one location. The story involves a grieving woman (Catherine Walker, Ferocious Planet) who seeks the aid of an unstable cultist (Steve Oram, Sightseers) to perform an elaborate ritual that allows you to ask a guardian angel for a favor. She wants her deceased child back, but this is far from a Pet Sematary retread. It's all about the build-up, with some genuinely creepy moments along the way before it culminates in a tense finale. Irish writer-director Liam Gavin makes a powerful debut anchored by strong performances.

5. What Happened to Monday

What Happened to Monday is set in the not too distant future, when a strict one-child policy is enforced in an effort to preserve the planet. Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) stars as septuplets, who hide from the government by sharing a life; each one only goes out during the day of the week for which they’re named. When Monday disappears, the other six siblings must track her down before someone else does. Rapace wonderfully diversifies the seven parts, and it's quite impressive to see them all seamlessly interacting with one another in the same shot. Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) plays the girls' grandfather who raised them, while Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction) is the head of the agency stripping families of their children. Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) directs some superb action sequences in this sci-fi mystery thriller.

6. American Fable

American Fable is true to its name, often playing out like something of a dark fairy tale in the country’s heartland, but its fantastical elements largely take a backseat to a rural drama with mystery/thriller elements. Writer-director Anne Hamilton, who got her start as an intern on Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, makes a dynamic feature debut. Set in the 1980s, the story revolves around Gitty (Peyton Kennedy, Odd Squad), an 11-year-old girl with an affinity for storytelling. She finds herself in a real-life fairy tale upon discovering a man (Richard Schiff, The West Wing) imprisoned in a silo on her family's struggling farm. The picture is an admirable American complement to Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth; not only are their stories thematically analogous, but they also share a similar horned creature. Read my full review of the film here.

7. Here Alone

Here Alone is a zombie movie in which the zombies are almost never on screen - and that's not a bad thing. It depicts the hardships Ann (Lucy Walters, Power) must endure and the elaborate precautions she must take in order to survive, weaving between two different points in time: early in the apocalypse with her husband (Shane West, A Walk to Remember) and their baby, and the present when she befriends a fellow survivor (Adam David Thompson, Mozart in the Jungle) and his teenage daughter. Director Rod Blackhurst (Amanda Knox) delivers a subtle, dramatic character piece with shades of The Walking Dead by crafting dynamic characters backed by engaging performances.

8. Little Evil

Tucker and Dale vs Evil writer-director Eli Craig returns to horror-comedy with Little Evil. Having perfected his deadpan delivery on Parks and Recreation, Adam Scott makes awkward an artform as a man who believes his new wife's (Evangeline Lilly, Lost) 6-year-old son is the literal Antrichrist. The supporting cast, underutilized as they may be, is also great, including Bridget Everett (Patti Cakes), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption), Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs Evil), Donald Faison (Scrubs), and Sally Field (Forrest Gump), who is Craig's mother. The most obvious influence is The Omen - it's even name-dropped in the movie - but there are also references to the likes of Poltergeist, Ghostbusters, Children of the Corn, Rosemary's Baby, Child's Play, and The Shining. It's not always laugh-out-loud funny, but it remains entertaining throughout.

9. Patchwork

Patchwork is like a modern take on Frankenhooker with a dash of Re-Animator for good measure. It may not be as masterful a blend of horror and comedy as those '80s classics, but it's delightfully absurd just the same. It also offers a bit of social commentary, namely regarding the issues modern dating women face. Three girls - stuck up Jennifer (Tory Stolper), naive Ellie (Tracey Fairaway, Hellraiser: Revelations), and weird Madeline (Maria Blasucci) - are murdered, sewn together, and brought back to life by a mad scientist. They must learn to coexist in the same body in order to exact revenge. Cleverly conceived by director Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls), the girls are portrayed as one Frankenstein-ed creature in some shots and as three individual women in others.

10. Death Note

While purists decry the changes that Death Note made from the popular Japanese manga on which it's based, those with an open mind (or, like me, unfamiliar with the source material) ought to enjoy this Netflix original film. A book labeled Death Note literally falls from the sky to the feet of Light (Nat Wolff, Paper Towns), granting the high school student the power to take the life of anyone whose name he writes inside. Quickly realizing its power without fully recognizing the responsibility, Light dishes out vigilante justice remotely, killing criminals and becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Also mixed up in it are Light's love interest (Margaret Qualley, The Leftovers), his detective father (Shea Whigham, American Hustle), a mysterious man trying to catch him (Lakeith Stanfield, Get Out), and Ryuk (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man), the monstrous keeper of the book. There's a definite sense that the story has been condensed, things may have been lost in translation, and the fast pacing takes away from the weight of the situation. It may not be a highlight of his filmography, but director Adam Wingard (Blair Witch, You’re Next) delivers a fun, stylish movie with some gory, Rube Goldbergian deaths a la Final Destination.

Bonus: Castlevania: Season 1

Castlevania is a Netflix original animated series based on the classic Konami video game series. Season 1 consists of only four episodes totaling around 90 minutes, resembling more of an anime film than a show, but it ends without a conclusion to the story. Thankfully, a second season is already in the works. Following the murder of his wife, Dracula summons a scourge of goblins to destroy the region of Wallachia and dismember every person along the way. Trevor Belmont, the last in an infamous family excommunicated for dealing in black magic while slaying monsters, leads the charge to bring down the legendary vampire. It's heavy on exposition, but each episode contains a couple of big action scenes to hold viewers over through the abundance of dialogue. Adult language, violence, and gore are on full display, looking great in old-school-style animation. The series is written by comic book scribe Warren Ellis (Red) and stars the voice talents of Richard Armitage (The Hobbit), James Callis (Battlestar Galactica), and Graham McTavish (Preacher).

[tweefunk]

2017 Local & EP Roundup

Title says it all. Here are my favorite local MN area releases and various other EPs of 2017. List is in alphabetical order. Sorry I can’t write an essay about everything, but all y’all’s stuff is sicc.

Blacc.KLagoon x w e s t k o r e a: Baby Boy EP This collab EP showcases one of the more interesting new projects to come from the MN DIY scene. This EP owes its influence rrespectively to the jazz-rap of the early 90′s, the vibed-out party jams of early Outkast, and the staunchly political lyricism of Kendrick Lamar. I’m very interested to see where this duo goes from here, especially as they continue to hone their sound and become true innovators upon the precedent of those who came before them. This is one to watch.

Boy Pablo: Roy Pablo EP This sub-20-minute indie pop masterpiece is one of the most slept-on of the year. Boy Pablo is an 18-year old from Norway with sense of melody and composition that would the envy of people half his age. Roy Pablo finds the sweet spot between Mac DeMarco and The War on Drugs, losing the affected apathy of the former, and the inescapable pretension of the latter. Don’t sleep.

Double Grave: New Year’s Daydream Formerly known as Ego Death, Double Grave put out an excellent mini-album this year which seamlessly meshes the amplifier worship of Starflyer 59 with the prettier moments of post-punk, resulting in a noisy, but nonetheless beautiful project. 

Since learning of this band, Jeremy Warden has become one of my favorite guitarists in the scene, and his melodic lines steal the show here. In many cases, his warped, glide-stummed leads provide the real hooks. It’s easy to lose yourself in the sonic wormhole, but it’s a trip well-worth taking. Shoegaze meets immediacy.

Hippo Campus: Warm Glow EP Minnesota’s favorite exports followed up this year’s full-length Landmark with a far more progressive digital-only release. Their boyish pop charm remains intact, but this time they put their considerable instrumental chops to use and create something really special. If a twinkle band went pop, this is what you might get, and I’m all about it.

Inconsistent: Acting Cool EP This one has had a permanent place in my CD changer (shut up, I’m old) since its release. I probably jam it at least once a week in the morning when I’m getting dressed for work. 

Isaac Luedtke gives a lyrical masterclass in radical honesty in his graphic tales of depression and anxiety. As I said before, I’m old, but not so old that I don’t remember vividly what felt like to be 17 and have no idea where you belong or what you’re going to do with your life. It’s a specific type of suburban angst, but one that never really leaves. The causes of existential consternation may change, but the effects always linger. Acting Cool is frankly the most concentrated dose of whup-ass I’ve seen from a local band in a while. If this were a full-length effort, it would likely have made my AOTY list.

Look for these cats to blow up in 2018.

Less Than Jake: Sound The Alarm EP Ska rules and I’ll fight you on that. LTJ has always had strong EP releases and this one is no exception. You might not expect a third-wave ska band in its 25th year of existence to have any particularly profound thoughts on aging, but here we are.

“Welcome to my Life” seems like a direct response to their 2003 hit “The Science of Selling Yourself Short,” right down to its white-boy reggae lilt. Roger Lima’s decade-older narrator finds himself in far more apologetic mood. Years of binging, worrying too much about the future, and taking the people who love you for granted can leave you with a lifetime of missed memories, failed relationships, and self-inflicted loneliness. Instead of defiance and an acceptance of mediocrity, we’re trying to save whatever’s left.

Another song that seems unfortunately timely is “Bomb Drop.” While the band likely meant it as an allegory for the inevitability of age and irrelevance, in Trump’s America it seems all too literal. We’re just watching the clock, waiting for the bomb to drop. 

Naive Sense: [Self-Titled] EP RIP. They were too good for this world. Hands down the best hardcore band I’ve ever seen in my life. Their shows will be the stuff of legend. I shit-talk hardcore as a genre quite a bit, but Naive Sense proved that the medium can still be powerfully sublime when combined with a timely, vital message and musicians with a desire to push sonic boundaries.

I have no words. Listen for yourself and weep if you never got to witness it. They were more than a band, they were the pure voice of light and hope in human form. 

Oftener: Lavender EP The solo project of Nate Gurrola, vocalist of the now-defunct Ridgewood, Lavender marks a return after nearly two years of silence. What we have here is a collection acoustic ballads that feature some of his strongest vocal work and arrangements that refuse to be pigeonholed. Describing Lavender as acoustic shoegaze seems like a cop-out, and labeling it emo seems like an insult. There’s a lot more going on here than sad-boy whining.

Oftener has recently expanded to a full band, and will be releasing another EP as such next month. Having seen this configuration live, I’m confident that this will bring another layer to the sound and make them a band to watch moving forward.

Township: Impact Bliss Another band leaving us too soon, Township announced their impending breakup this spring, so make sure you catch a show if they make it to your area one more time.

Impact Bliss is a beautiful, textured homage to shoegaze. While Double Grave resides in the poppier, more accessible end of the spectrum, Township aren’t afraid to take their audience down long swirling rabbit holes with massive dynamic shifts to throw the listener off-balance. 

This record is best enjoyed in a dark room, slightly high at 2am, and loud. Township have shot for the ethereal majesty of Souvlaki and Loveless, and come damn close to their mark. It’s that good.

VIN: S/T EP Debut release by a new band with former member of Infinite Me and Familiar Theme features some of the most deceptively straight forward rock you’ll find in the local DIY scene. But make no mistake, this is prog all the way.

Bassist Nicholas Culliton and drummer Jacob Scully are particular standouts here. Culliton creates arpeggiated, harmonized lines where a lesser musician would just be happy to drone a root note, or just mirror the bass drum. By playing like a third guitarist, he gives the band a far thicker sound without overpowering the primary melodic elements. Scully on the other hand is a rudimental monster with the musical sense to use his chops as a complement to the music, rather than an excuse to show off.

Weathered: Misnomer EP These guys have made massive improvements to both their production and compositions since their last time out. Arrangements are fussed over and far more intricate than the emo genre is usually blessed with. In particular, the rhythm section of Christian Rassmussen and Alec Panchyshyn are a two-man wrecking crew from the moment “Better For Me” kicks into second gear, and the latter subtle touch with the sticks and some lovely color to the proceedings.

The production is also a big star here in that it imbues the music with enough clarity to be a pleasant listen, but leaves the edges just rough enough to leave some nervous intensity around the band. This newfound clarity and crispness suits Weathered well.

With another album on the way in 2018, Weathered is poised to be the Minnesota DIY scene’s next big export. Misnomer isn’t just good for a local band, it’s good for anybody.

Wretch: BANGERZ  It’s kinda like if DFA1979 weren’t edgelords and ripped way harder. This is another great local that we lost in their prime. RIP.

If you couldn’t infer from the quip above, Wretch is (was?) a drum and bass combo but with a wicked front-person whose lyrics manage to speak incisive truth to the scourge of modern beauty standards (among other subjects) while still being darkly hilarious. It doesn’t read like a sermon, but rather a brilliantly dance-able stand-up routine that would George Carlin proud. 

No, none of that is intended as a backhanded compliment. Comedy is one of the most powerful tools we have for expression. BANGERZ is one the most fun releases of the year, and also one of the most thought-provoking.

[wsmith215]

How ‘Curtis’ Tackled the Coronavirus in a Newspaper Comic

Curtis © 2020 King Features Syndicate Inc., World Rights Reserved/Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast

In the closing weeks of March, comics pages in daily newspapers were oblivious. People were still making plans. There were parties. When animals talked, as animals in comics do, they said nothing about quarantines.

One of the first voices to speak of the new normal belonged to Barry Taylor Wilkins, the younger of two brothers in Ray Billingsley’s long-running strip “Curtis.” It was on Monday, March 30, and we see Barry and Curtis’ mother, Diane Wilkins, squeezing hand sanitizer on her boys’ hands.

“Why do I have to put this stuff on my hands, Mommy?” asks Barry.

In “Curtis,” it is common for such questions to have both simple and complex answers. Since debuting the strip in 1988, Billingsley has mixed lighthearted gags with occasionally stark portrayals of the Wilkins, a middle-class African-American family, and their larger community of family, friends, barbers, and teachers. In “Curtis,” realism sneaks up on you: the family’s third-floor apartment can feel cramped; the father, Greg Wilkins, is uninspired by his job; and young brothers Barry and Curtis have real stresses, like fear of guns in school.

On this day, Curtis tells his brother the sanitizer is to clean his fingers before picking his nose. But we know the real reason. So does Diane. The boys don’t. But that will change.

Little Nemo Was the Most Beautiful Comic Strip Ever Drawn

At four panels a day, time moves slowly in a daily comic, even when events in other newspaper pages move alarmingly fast. As March finally gave way to April, the Wilkins family were seen adapting to their little corner of the pandemic. There are jokes about home-schooling and cabin fever. Greg tries to cheer his sons up with a theatrical display of pancake-making, flipping them with a juggler’s flare. “I try my best to shield my boys,” Greg will say to Diane. “And that is why I love you always,” thinks Diane.

Curtis © 2020 King Features Syndicate Inc., World Rights Reserved

Then, in the middle of breakfast, the Wilkins’ lives change again. Curtis receives a phone call. He walks back into the kitchen, dazed. His stack of pancakes is still waiting for him, untouched.

Story continues

“It’s our teacher, Mrs. Nelson,” Curtis says. “She tested positive for coronavirus.” 

Curtis © 2020 King Features Syndicate Inc., World Rights Reserved

“I don’t want to start much trouble, but sometimes I can’t help myself,” Ray Billingsley told me in a recent phone interview from his home in Stanford, Connecticut, where he has been hunkered down with his basset hound, Biscuit. “It’s the artist in me.”

Ray Billingsley, the author of Curtis

Courtesy Ray Billingsley

Although a few new comics starring people of color have debuted in recent years, “Curtis” remains one of the few daily syndicated strips centered around black characters. Billingsley sees himself following in the tradition of Morrie Turner’s “Wee Pals” and Ted Shearer’s “Quincy”—and also Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks,” but with a difference. “‘Boondocks’ was in your face, and he didn’t care how much,” Billingsley said. “The rest of us, we have to walk a tightrope.”

Billingsley tested that tightrope when the Wilkins family noticed that Barry was slipping milk out of the house. They thought he was feeding a cat but followed him and found instead an abandoned baby. In another strip, Diane miscarried after being assaulted at an ATM. “Nobody was expecting a miscarriage in ‘Curtis,’” Billingsley said.

One of the slyest moments in “Curtis” happened when the Wilkins family and friends were invited to Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead’s house, as part of a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the comic strip “Blondie.” They took a wrong turn and ended up in Mary Worth’s neighborhood. There, they discovered how fast police response time can be in a different part of town.

Billingsley often pushes against his six-week deadline to allow him the chance to comment on current events. Yet the experience of drawing “Curtis” during COVID-19 feels different than anything he has done before. “This one I’m going by instinct. I said, ‘It’s time to do it right now.’ I kept seeing that nobody was addressing this.”

Curtis © 2020 King Features Syndicate Inc., World Rights Reserved

I asked if he felt a special weight in his decision to have a character contract the illness. “Actually, I’ve been feeling the weight of this entire story,” he said. “I have to really get into what everyone was feeling. We’re talking about a core of four people and how it’s really affecting them as a unit. I’m not showing anyone else. It’s just about this family right now.”

“This has been one of the harder ones to draw. I had the flapjack party going on and I knew something was going to come up. When Curtis comes into the room, it hit me then, too. It made me depressed. I do it to myself. They’re so much from the heart that they can hurt me first. If I’m hit on an emotional level, I’m pretty sure other people will be too.”

People don’t usually die on the funny pages. It’s only possible in what’s called a “continuity” strip, one in which a narrative might stretch over many days or weeks. After all, Beetle Bailey can get beaten to a pulp and spring back up the next day, and nobody questions it. “In Beetle’s world, it doesn’t matter who’s president, or what kind of disease is going around,” laughed Billingsley, who counted the late “Beetle Bailey” creator Mort Walker among his friends.

The first major character to die in comics was Mary Gold, who in 1929 contracted a mysterious illness in the comic strip “The Gumps.” Since then, deaths have remained rare. In 2004, it came for the elderly Phyllis Blossom Wallet in “Gasoline Alley.” Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” has featured several deaths, most controversially that of Andy Lippincott, who died of AIDS in 1990. Letters from readers poured in after the death of the family dog Farley in Lynn Johnston’s “For Better or For Worse.”

You didn’t see any death scenes in the comics page during the so-called Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. Comics scholar Jared Gardner began searching through hundred-year-old newspapers for any comics that dealt with the outbreak and was surprised by how little he found. “Lots of words, lots of typing, but not lots of drawing,” Gardner said, speaking via Zoom from his home in Columbus, Ohio, where he serves as director of Popular Culture Studies at Ohio State University.

Public Domain

Gardner put what he did find on his website “Drawing Blood,” which is dedicated to comics and medicine. There is a single Bud Fisher “Mutt and Jeff” comic with the punchline “I went home last night and opened the window and in flew Enza.” A few comics discuss wearing masks and avoiding crowds. Some subscribe to the xenophobia suggested by the misnamed “Spanish flu.” Others lightly mock it, as in George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat,” in which Krazy dreams of a Spanish bullfight and wakes up the next morning with the flu, which “may or may not disprove the ‘germ’ theory,” as Herriman wryly notes.  

Public Domain

Gardner suspects that the oversized cultural influence of comic strips in 1918 might be why there were so few mentions of the flu. Cartoonists and their bosses knew they were being watched. As John M. Barry wrote in his history The Great Influenza, the Sedition Act promised jail time for anyone who dared “print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the government of the United States.” This even extended to “pessimistic stories,” and the trial of leftist cartoonist Art Young for violating the Espionage Act had proven that the government reach might extend to cartoonists.

It might have just been that most cartoonists didn’t think people wanted to see the flu in the funnies. Still, the few that did address it have a lesson to teach us. “It must have felt like the end of the world for these folks as surely as this time does for us,” Gardner said. “It can feel unprecedented and apocalyptic, but looking at comics from a hundred years ago reminds us that they got through it.”

The first widely syndicated newspaper comic to address COVID-19 was Bill Hinds’ “Tank McNamara,” a sports-themed strip that had to contend with the sudden absence of professional sports. “Curtis” followed shortly after. Cartoonist Stephan Pastis often makes himself a character in his smart and acerbic “Pearls Before Swine”; he drew his first coronavirus comics as if he were stranded with nothing but pencil and notepaper, playing off his real-life situation of being out of the country when the United States starting limiting travel. Meanwhile, a heartbreaking series in Darrin Bell’s “Candorville” tackled social isolation by showing full-panel cityscapes from throughout the world. The same thought arises in different languages from each house and apartment: “I am all alone.”

Argentinian cartoonist Ricardo Siri, whose comic “Macanudo” is published in English under his pen name “Liniers,” says the strip was born out of time of social and economic crisis in Argentina. “My way of being punk was to be optimistic,” he said, talking to me by phone from his current home in Vermont, where he teaches at Dartmouth College. His coronavirus-themed work has been delicate and hopeful, often turning to the natural world for inspiration. In one full-panel strip, a girl and cat sit together, watching a butterfly make its way across a grassy field. The caption reads: “Taking care of each other will also be contagious.”

“I feel like when people are drowning, you can either throw them a life vest or an anvil,” Siri said. “Every now and then I allow myself to be angry in the strip, or pessimistic, or nihilistic. But I think the reason the comics page first existed, from the Pulitzer and Hearst years, is to give people something so they don’t jump out the window.”

In a sense, the visual representation of COVID-19 is itself a cartoon—a multi-colored illustration of a spike protein-studded ball created by Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (By contrast, Gardner notes that cartoonists in 1918 often used mosquitoes to represent the flu, due to the insects’ past association with sickness and death.) Eckert told The New York Times they were tasked with creating “an identity” for the coronavirus. But it took cartoonist Mark Tatulli to turn their image into a full-blown character. In Tatulli’s wincingly funny “Lio,” the Coronavirus might laugh menacingly or wait quietly in a doorway. In one chilling comic, it sits on the couch, watching the news. “It’s always weird seeing yourself on TV, ya know?” it says to a child.

To Gardner, these novel approaches to the novel coronavirus are a sign of hope for comics themselves. “If you want a media that can talk about it right now, and both comfort and educate, what does it better?” he said. “There’s social media, which is evil, and there are comics. It’s a moment where the comic strip, editorial cartooning, and web comics can talk about stuff as it’s happening, and they can build space for community in the moment—which is part of why comics and cartooning became so important in the first place.”

Added Gardner, “There’s a tone, a kind of intimacy, that the comic strip can capture that is really needed. I’m grateful for it.”

The most intimate moment in the current run of “Curtis” comes when Greg Wilkins is explaining to his son that because of social distancing, he can’t visit Mrs. Nelson in the hospital. Curtis pumps his fist and says, “Awwww, she’ll be all right!—Mrs. Nelson is a tough ol’ lady.” 

Greg smiles and holds his son. He praises him for his positive attitude. What he doesn’t see—but what is clearly visible to readers—is that Curtis is crying.

I told Billingsley that this devotion of a student to a teacher reminded me of a series in Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts,” when Linus is watching his beloved teacher Miss Othmar during a teacher’s strike, and she falls down with exhaustion.

“Remember, only Linus was close to Miss Othmar,” says Billingsley. “Lucy wasn’t. It can be a very special bond between a student and a certain teacher.”

In fact, he said, Mrs. Nelson was the name of his own third-grade teacher. “I didn’t have the best home life, growing up. I had a father who was very strict. It got to the point where I looked forward to going to school, because I was away from my father. I was one of those weird kids who was good friends with the principal.

“Mrs. Nelson was the first person who told my parents I had a career in artwork. She encouraged me, and from that time on I kept drawing.

“So when Curtis put his head behind his father, I quietly cried to myself, because I knew I was going to do this.”

Since that moment, there have been jokes in “Curtis” about Curtis saying that he’s bored and being handed a mop and bucket, and of Greg admitting to his son that he misses “being at work complaining about being at work.” But Billingsley said he’ll be returning to the story about Mrs. Nelson. He doesn’t know exactly when. Just like when it started, he said, he’ll be going by instinct.

“When it’s time to wrap this story up, I’ll know it.”

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