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dominickeating-source · 5 days

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Unbelievable!!!!!: Interview: Dominic Keating

In Unbelievable!!!!!, Dominic Keating plays Hacky – a name that seems very appropriate when you see his character in action. The sci-fi parody stars Snoop Dog alongside a host of familiar Star Trek faces from across the franchise. The movie gets its online premiere on 1 August, and Paul Simpson chatted with the former Star Trek Enterprise actor during lockdown…

How did you get to hear of Unbelievable!!!!!?

I think BarBara Luna [who played Lt. Marleau in the classic Trek episode Mirror Mirror] contacted me first.

I watched BarBara as a tender 9 year old. I nagged my dad rotten to get one of the first colour TVs in our street in Leicester to watch Star Trek in colour. It was one of those multi-broadcast TVs, it had a louvred door, looked like an aircraft hangar. It was the size of a coffin almost. These chiffon clad ladies were my first foray into erotica! BarBara and I had known each other from early on in the convention days – she reached out first. I think I was busy the first time they wanted to use me for something and then everybody else I knew did it and I felt a bit left out, so that’s when I reached out and got to meet Angelique [Fawcette] and realised it was her producing and her husband [Steven L. Fawcette] directing. They found a nice little cameo for me and happy to join. I’m going to be in a movie with Snoop Dog. Word! What a feat to get Snoop Dog to do this!

And you’re working with Captain Kirk Stillwood – the puppet…

I’ve done some things – I’ve worked with chimps and I’ve worked with puppets. I did a campaign where I got to work with a chimp; I was the Hollywood manager of a chimp!

Yes, I worked with the mannequin – it was a lot of fun actually. I only had a day’s work on it, literally a spit and a cough. It was lovely to be there. We all know each other from the conventions. I’ve been doing them for 20 years – I was the first out of the gate on our cast. The rest of my cast were all a bit sniffy about it to begin with until I drove my Porsche 911 onto the lot, paid for by conventions that first year. God bless those fans, man! I never stopped thanking them. We’ve all known each other for many a year – and to actually be on set with each other as actors was a lot of fun and a real treat.

So it was nice to work with everyone again – Casey [Biggs] particularly. I’ve known him, he’s a dear lovey love, and Max [Grodenchik] too, a great scene partner.

Have you kept up with the latest Star Treks?

Discovery and Picard? I haven’t. I don’t have [CBS All Access]. I was meant to go to the premiere of Discovery here at the Cinerama Dome, but sadly one of my cats died that very day, and frankly the idea of putting on a happy face wasn’t in my wheelhouse that night. Jason Isaacs and I go way back – we started out with the same agent in London 35 years ago. I know it’s gone down well.

I know originally it was going to be Bryan Fuller, and I know him of old. I thought I might get a good guest star or recurring role; he loved me, but then he and his writing partner parted ways, and he went on to do another show.

My first memory of Enterprise is going on set very early September 2001, and everyone talking about the plans – and then 9/11 happened.

It changed the show entirely. What is our relevance? I’d been here quite a while at that stage. I wasn’t a citizen, still a Green Card holder, but just to be immersed and to be in an American working environment, I never felt more American.

Very happy days at Paramount on the show. Scott [Bakula] was an amazing family leader – we couldn’t have hoped for a nicer man at the helm. He made those years joyous, frankly. I miss it.

It was a terrible shame we didn’t get to do our full stint, which I think we were well worthy of, certainly by the time Manny took over running the show in Season 4. No disrespect to Brannon, but he’d done this for sixteen years – he was tired out. I remember reading Manny’s first script in the Xindi arc, which was our riposte to 9/11, and thinking, “That’s good, who wrote this?” I phoned up the writers and asked to speak to Manny Coto! He’s gone on to bigger and bigger things. We were certainly worthy of another couple if not the whole seven years, but unfortunately the network was tanking and there were bigger things afoot than the success of our show. There was talk of going to Vancouver to shoot but Scott had two small children.

Marina came and did our last episode with Jonathan Frakes to a lot of people’s consternation – I had no idea that Scott was so affronted by that last episode until we all did the 10 year reunion at CBS for the release of the Blu-rays and we all had a big interview. It all came out in that that it really ticked him off. By that stage we’d known we were cancelled for about six, seven weeks if not longer, and I was over the shock of it. I won’t say that I think that the device to get those two into our episode was a bit clunky, but that said one of my favourite days’ shooting was doing the galley scene with Jonathan Frakes. He’s hilarious.

I’d always known he was funny – there’s a story I often tell. We’d gone over to Birmingham to do a big British convention. I went into the green room and there were all these young hotshots, cheeked and ab-ed actors, all flown in from their hot shot shows in Toronto and Vancouver and all were waxing on about how great things were… I was remembering how it used to be when it was me. They petered out and went back to their signing tables so there just me sitting alone there finishing my sandwich. There was this rustling underneath the trestle table on the other side of the room, and Jonathan Frakes popped his head up from where he’d obviously been having a nap, or trying to, and he saw me and went, “Hey, Dom, how are you? Are all those *********s gone now?” He’s a real actor’s actor. I had a great time working with him.

What else are you up to at the moment, apart from staying in for lockdown?

I’ve got a film I’ve been promoting, The Host, which sort of got a release virtually. It’s a psychological horror movie set in London and Amsterdam. I’ve been doing some voiceover work for Blizzard, God bless – I did quite a lot of voices for them for World of Warcraft. I have another voiceover on Tom Hanks’ new movie, Greyhound – I play the captain of the English battleship in this flotilla chasing U-boats. You never see me unfortunately but it’s my voice, but a mate of mine told me I’m in it quite a lot, and referred to quite a lot too! I got to work with Tom – he was in the room when we recorded, and what a lovely chap he is. Shortly after that he got COVID!

The worldwide online premiere of Unbelievable!!!!!! is 1 August – tickets for the all-day event can be purchased today (31 July) here

Thanks to David Roberson & Ian Spelling for their assistance in arranging this interview.

Source: scifibulletin.com, published 31 July 2020.

#dominic keating #the keating cult

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alvallah · 1 month

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I am so sick of all the hate in the world. How does one go on?

Mr. Rogers* once talked about how when he was a small boy he would see very scary and frightful things on the news:

My mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers —so many caring people in this world.

Behind every tragedy, and every pain, and every loss, you will always find someone helping. For every slur hurled there is a kind compliment gently given; for every hateful bully there is a patient loving friend; for every person suffering indignity there is someone raising another up; for every victim beaten or shamed there is someone helping with healing hands; for every life lost there is another being saved.

I’m not sure 100% what specific thing triggered this thought anon, because there so many tragedies big and small in our world, and especially lately we’re bombarded with imageries of hatred and abhorrent cruelty. But I think your disgust with this state of affairs is proof that hatred isn’t all there is. You’re grieving because you know that you and everyone else deserves better, and that comes from a place of compassion. For as long as there has been hatred there has also been love. And where you don’t see it in action, you are the love waiting to happen.

*For those who don’t know him, Mr. Fred Rogers hosted a revolutionary American children’s TV show called Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood where he taught children how to be loving human beings, how to handle tough human emotions, and how to cope with life’s trials. Even as an adult his songs and lessons make me cry and make me reevaluate my approach to life’s hardships. Highly recommend watching his show, the documentary about his life, or reading his kids stuff.

#asks

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idv-news-boi · 1 year

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Pssst Pins! How did you come up with the idea for Laurence? Was there any goofy previous designs for him?

// How Laurence was Made //

// Aaaahhhh well, it all started with a newspaper of 1920’s that I accidentally bumped into from an American newspaper record book at my U.S. History classroom- (what a coincidence,,,) I liked the vibes and how it somehow brings such an old-fashioned aesthetic,,, plus the vibes from the Roaring Twenties,,, so I included it and mix it with my Dyanthus’ futuristic style… Creating the aesthetic what I come up to be for the silly News Reporter I eventually came up.

// Laurence was originally going to be a newspaper boy with a very humble position,,, but after seeing those many reporters on Tv traveling a lot, even making reports in the middle of a dangerous event or even bloopers occurring at such bizarre scenes,,,, and then there’s Charlie Chaplin behavior/ih. I seem to find the idea of a Dyanthus News Reporter who travels around Dyanthus and even worldwide very appealing! Along with adding a News Department Crew in the world, not just the duo!

// Laurence’s name was definitely based on the capitalized letter abbreviations of LG (a Tv brand). It’s supposed to stand for “Life is Good”, but I humanized the name by making it more common name. “Laurence” is from English-French origin meaning “man from Laurentum” or “bright one, shining one”. Meanwhile, “Godfrey” is from Germanic words meaning “god” and “peace”. (Fun fact// Godfrey is Laurence’s bio father last name, Carmine is the bio mother last name which means “song” of Latin Origin)

// Laurence in Dyanthus,,,, is mostly known as “Lawrence Godfrey Carmine Dyanthus”, include the clan name Dyanthus after his complete name showing that he’s a resident there. His codename is “Journo”, you might expect some sneaky letters and messages that include this name~ ^^

// His color-scheme, I always thought of him to be ravenette with cold blue eyes, but that’s when he was human. In Dyanthus, I decided to make him almost blue that I accidentally make him resemble as Tw1tter’s color scheme,,,, Blue hair, one yellow eye, and one baby blue eye covered by a futuristic visor monocle.

// In his old design he used to have a funny big top hat… I accidentally made him too Mad Hatter British though, it was intended to almost resemble Uncle Sam’s hat,,, showing a bit of Capitalism influence on him/ih

// Hair and eye color, even clothing-accessories style would change depending what world is. In idv, I got a bit inspired by Aph America’s color scheme and the “too much energy” personality it has— but Lau’s glasses are actually purple and the hair has a curved hair strand and the hair structure is,,, yeah much more different than Alfred’s. And Laurence is a bit more patient and less obnoxious like eating food while talking for example,,, hehe/ih

// Once again, I accidentally kinda made him wear an English style suit when I intended to make him look like an American radio host from the 20s— yet I still love this design so I’m still going to keep it that way.

// Picture below is the newest appearance of Laurence in his Dyanthus outfit. I replaced the hat yet barely changed much on the suit and the color scheme. Unlike idv Lau, this one is much more… serious, and a bit different. Still a golden retriever in certain occasions/ih

#idv oc #identity v oc #identity v #idv oc ask blog #idv ocs #idv askblog #idv #// ask #// lore #news reporter // laurence godfrey

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walker-extended-universe · 10 months

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You're Gonna Go Far Kid

Relationship(s): August Walker/Sadie Yoo

Tags/Warnings: Rockstar AU, Interviews, Television, Secret Relationships, Introspection

Summary: August waits in the wings while Sadie gives her first TV interview

Written for AU-gust Day 25: Rockstar AU

Taglist (if you would like to be added, please let me know!): @theladywyn, @ihavepointysticks, @klaatu51, @itsjessiegirl1, @neptunium134

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“Welcome back to the Morning Review. Please give a warm welcome to our new guest: Sadie Yoo!”

Sadie stepped out from behind the curtain, waving to the crowd as she crossed the stage to sit next to the talk show host’s desk. August watched from behind the scenes, a proud smile on his face.

Sadie’s career had really been taking off lately thanks to a few recent hit singles. She’d already had a community of fans on the indie country scene but thanks to the remake of “You’ll Have to Catch Me First” and the release of other songs including “Daddy Was A Bank Robber” and “Goodby Mama”, she’d been receiving very tempting offers from big record labels. She’d finally picked one to go with, which was why she was doing this interview. It was the big announcement of her new deal and her first concert tour.

August glanced away from the stage when he heard his uncle’s voice pitch up in volume. “That is not what she signed up for- and I know exactly what she signed up for. Her contract clearly states control over her costumes for the tour and those designs you emailed this morning are not from her list of picks. Care to explain that to me?”

August smiled and turned his attention back to the interview. Uncle Liam had offered to be Sadie’s representation until she got a real agent and he’d taken to the role like a duck to water. He’d taken temporary leave from the horse rescue to help with Sadie’s tour. August did feel a little bad about poaching him but Stella seemed to have things under control with a little help from their grandparents.

Besides, it was no one’s fault that August’s puppy eyes and Sadie’s pout were a deadly combination.

“It is such a pleasure to have you on the show, Sadie. And it sure wasn’t easy getting you on the schedule. Talking to your agent, it seemed like there was a lot of stiff competition for your time.”

Sadie smirked. “Well, what can I say? You aren’t the only ones trying to make a few bucks off me.”

August chuckled. That biting humor was part of how Sadie got big in the first place. A video of her improving a song about a patron at the Side Step that wasn’t taking “No” for an answer from her or any of the other women went viral on TikTok and they’d been lucky to catch it early and link it back to Sadie’s account. From there, people found her music and her fanbase grew exponentially.

“Haha, there’s that trademark sass. You don’t exactly fit the mold with that attitude- not in your genre of music. Most country singers go the Southern Hospitality route.”

Sadie shrugged. “Well, I’m not like most country singers. I mean, I’m half Asian, I actually speak a little of my native tongue, I don’t wear flashy cowboy boots just for show, and my music is about actual struggles faced by me and other Americans and not just licking Lady Liberty’s boots like every other country singer since 2005.”

“I can’t argue with that. And that’s what makes your music resonate with people. I mean, your music is catchy, sure, but your lyrics have real soul in them. And that’s a rarity in this day and age.”

“You bet it is. And I take pride in that. It’s like- If I’m going to sing something, it’s going to be real. I don’t want to have to worry about an AI chatbot replacing my songwriter in five years.”

“Your songwriter? I thought you wrote all your songs.”

“I do,” Sadie said. “But I don’t do it alone. I couldn’t. If I just wrote down whatever was on my mind and tried to turn it into a song, it’d just… It’d be too raw. It wouldn’t sound good. And, okay, yeah, I went viral because of an improv song but, 1) We’ve all felt that way about a creep so obviously people connected to it, and 2) that was the exception, not the rule. I’m not ashamed to say I have someone help me make the final product of my songs. I need someone to bounce lyrics off of and give me new ideas or tell me when mine are stupid. “Daddy Was A Bank Robber” wouldn’t be the same if it’d just been me writing it.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a musical genius on your team.”

Sadie laughed. “Oh, god, don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll never let it go.”

“Oh, it’s a ‘he’?”

“Oh, don’t do that,” Sadie groaned. “Yes, I’m a woman that works with men. It’s a male dominated industry, how can I not be! It’s the 21st century, people! Can we quit assuming that every man and woman that work in close proximity are a bad accident away from kissing?!”

August winced. And that was why he was backstage instead of up there with her. Not that many people wanted to interview a songwriter, but still. They were more co-artists than anything else and he’d played onstage with her on multiple occasions. Sadie had initially wanted them to be a double-act. They were partners in music and in life. But the labels had just wanted Sadie and Liam had plenty of examples of romantic musical duos that ended up falling apart because of fan behavior. So, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Sadie was single and August was just a part of the team. He was lucky he’d gotten a backstage pass, honestly.

“Honestly, though,” Sadie said, bringing the interview back on track, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without my team. I know it’s just me on stage and it’s my name on the merch and all that but…. It’s not just me. It’s my agent, my writer, my family…. I’m here because of them. And I’m taking them with me on my nation-wide tour this summer!”

August smiled when the studio audience cheered. She was so good at that; he honestly couldn’t be prouder of her.

#walker #walker fic #walker fanfic #au #rockstar au #august/sadie #my writing #my fic

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 9 months

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Another Chortle headline roundup, and this one is... look, maybe the arts have had a good go, and don't need to happen anymore. Maybe we can all take a step back and ask ourselves how many bits of written or spoken word the world actually needs. (This does not apply to the new Garth Marenghi book, Matthew Holness should feel free to do his thing into eternity, if he likes).

I did enjoy this, further down the page, though:

Because it says:

American talk-show hosts including John Oliver and Stephen Colbert have launched a podcast to support Hollywood’s striking writers. The broadcast rivals, who have been off air for four months, joined forces for the Spotify series to raise money for their crew. Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers are also involved in the project, named Strike Force Five.

So, is that a correct estimation they've made of British audiences, assuming they've definitely heard of John Oliver and Stephen Colbert, but the other three can be afterthoughts that you may or may not have heard of? Congratulations, John! You're finally famous in Britain! If you'd only you'd managed that 15 years ago, maybe you wouldn't have had to leave.

I haven't listened to any of this podcast yet. I have downloaded both episodes so far, with the thought that maybe I'll skim them at some point. I have to balance my desire to hear John Oliver talk with my lack of desire to hear those other four guys talk. Not that I hate any of them or anything, I'm just not at all interested in them and I don't really want to listen to a whole hour of four guys I don't care about and John Oliver. (with Colbert as a bit of an exception, I did love The Colbert Report as a teenager and watched it every night for years, but I haven't followed or wanted to follow anything he's done since). I have even less of a need to listen to the episodes because of the great recaps @lastweeksshirttonight has been doing. Those recaps are all I really want from this podcast - a summary of what happened in general, with a significant focus on John Oliver's contributions. So I probably don't have to listen to any of them myself now, I can just read that.

I have to say, looking at those five names in a row - I know they're all self-aware about this, and pointing it out is nothing new, and people talk about it all the time, but still, putting them all together as Strike Force Five really drives home how much late night TV in America is run by five straight white men, two of whom look like the same person and also have the same name. They couldn't have invited, like, Trevor Noah or Samantha Bee? Yes I realize both of them stopped doing the late-night job in 2022 and therefore don't have shows that are currently on strike, but still, recent enough, and going with a bit of tokenism might have been slightly better than just having the five as they are in this case. (I also realize that a whole lot of my favourite comedy things involve groups of straight white men, but in my defense, those are mostly from the 00s, and we're theoretically supposed to have more diversity in 2023, right?)

Also, it's been a while now but I don't think I've mentioned in a post yet that the brief, beautiful, never-actually-really-realistic-but-it-looked-slightly-possible-for-a-moment-there dream of John Oliver on Taskmaster is dead. He's announced new shows that conflict with the recording dates. He said he was doing those shows to make more money to keep paying his writers while they strike, which of course is the main reason for his whole stand-up tour, and is also the stated reason for this podcast. Which I guess is a good thing for me to remember, when I was making my post about how he's doing stand-up even though he doesn't need the money because he likes having work to do so maybe he'll do Taskmaster for the same reason. I suppose I could have taken a slightly broader view and remembered things like the large numbers of show staff who are not John Oliver rich and who need support, and doing stand-up in the US will do a lot more to solve that problem than flying to England to do Taskmaster, so, okay, fine, I guess John Oliver's making reasonable choices here. I guess if I try to be less myopic, I can remember that people's livelihoods are more important than having John Oliver on Taskmaster.

Anyway. The point is, get it together Chrotle.

God, does the world ever not fucking need any of those things.

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darkerthanblack-666 · 1 year

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Re: ESC 2024 hosting because of ABBA: I’ve got THOUGHTS even tho I’m just an American (don’t get me started on American Song Contest that needs to die we have 57 of those WHY DO WE NEED THAT ONE) lol. The thought are as follows: I get that it’s ~tradition~ for the winner to host next year’s contest (afaik it’s not like written in the rules, right??) but like… had they just been HONEST and said “Sweden is going to host ESC 2024 regardless of winner for ABBA’s 50th anniversary” I really think everyone would’ve been like “ok that’s fine get on with the show, whoever wins can host 2025 or have a separate event” but instead (this may just be the American in me who sees corruption everywhere lol) I fully believe Sweden paid a lot of money to get the jury to make them the winner (or otherwise somehow rigged it) and because of that, whether you like her or not, Loreen’s “win” will always seem suspect and luckily it seems like the juries are bearing the brunt of the nasty reactions, not Loreen (whether you like her or not, nobody deserves to be shat on for what the juries did), she’s always gonna have those allegations over her. Do I think Finland should’ve won with that popular vote count? Yes. Do I think Loreen had anything to do with Sweden actually winning? Not really. I really hope whoever’s in charge gets their shit together before next year and change rules to have it actually be fair (ie, if you won once you can’t compete again, abolish the juries and have the popular vote win, etc) because it was FUN this year with unique acts (for the most part lol) and then Sweden ruined it and soured the whole thing for everyone INCLUDING THE PERFORMERS and that makes me sad. It’s supposed to be fun. You’re not supposed to go home hoping your country doesn’t hate you.

Listen, even before the Swedish national selections I've been reading wank to Loreen. I didn't know who she was, because I don't watch Eurovision religiously (metalheads in general think that Eurovision is crap and this year we all were proven it is crap indeed). I heard her song and didn't even remember it for the first time, I totally spaced out when I watched the video. It's nothing special. But everyone was treating it like the highest form of art.

They kept saying she's going to win the national selections, and then the whole contest. I think someone created that hype around her on purpose. So many viewers thought the song was something exceptional, while it isn't. I personally think they pulled her out of her sleeve and created the hype to win it. Because the same strategy was used with Blanka in Poland. Promoting the song on TV, then in multiple countries, etc.

Sometimes shady tactics are not necessary to get high score in televote, it's simply marketing and I can easily see it in both cases here (but ofc Blanka didn't get that many points from the jury, because Poland is not one of the jury pets and we always do better at televote).

The jury votes, I'll leave it to your own interpretation. Whether it was marketing (the bookmaker odds overhyped Sweden to the ridiculous degree as well, it could also be a marketing strategy), or if they were paid. Who knows? There is no proof for anything, but to me the blatant promotion of the song was pretty clear.

To me Loreen is no one special and because of this whole hype around her I just can't look at her, I avoid everything related to her, and didn't even want to look at her performance. I'm not the person to send someone hate, however. I just avoid what I dislike. I love Käärijä, so all my attention goes to him. Indeed, Sweden ruined it all, because without them even the televote could be different. Many people mass voted for Finland trying to beat Sweden (they were probably tired of the whole promotion of this song, too). I think Käärijä would still win the televote without Sweden playing dirty, but without such a huge advantage. Would Loreen be 2nd though? I'm not so sure. Every person I talk to, says that the song is nothing special.

Next year I'm definitely not going to vote. When there's a good song, I'll just stream that artist on Spotify and support them on social media. This year we were proven that even great artists can score very little points, so this whole Eurovision ranking is for bragging rights only. Nothing else than that. Just being there is good for every artist, because they get huge exposure.

So it really doesn't matter if we vote for them or not. It only matters if they go there. That's it.

#.asks

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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Sam and Max Telltale Retrospective: Save the World: Situation: Comedy (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy frelance police and welcome back to my monthly look at Sam and Max's telltale adventures. Last month we delt with annoying child stars who i'm apparently stuck with every chapter for the next. TWO. GAMES, less annoying child star mind control schemes, David Lynch esque dream sequences, and comitting some police brutality. What could top that? Well a lot of things, as this time we deal with a talk show host holding her staff hostage and the only way to stop her? 15 minutes of fame and a mild electrocution of course! So join me as Sam and Max use questionable cakes, game rigging and feces to make their way to stardom under the cut

So first off just a heads up for those reading this all at once as I intend to put out a post with links to every one of the reviews once this game is finished in june, the format's changed a bit. Culture Shock was my first game review, and an adventure game at that and I overfocused on my play experince as was like a text let's play, when it makes more sense for my format to do it like my other reviews; I.e. a plot summary. I'll still interject my personal experinces and what not, the review wouldn't be nearly as fun without it, this will just make it more orderly and only really means events won't be in the EXACT order I did them sometimes, as it's often easier to just cover all of a section at once instead of come back to it when you can sovle the puzzle as intended. z Our heroes get their usual call from the Chief and I was delighted to find that the "I got it gag" is back baby! I thought they just werne't doing it but it was simply absent from episode one since getting the phone back was the tutorial poster. In this case Sam just shoots Max with the salad spinner.

Our case this time is Myra, a popular daytime tv host, has been holding her audience hostage.I'm not entirely sure who she's parodying. I get it's part Opra as the funniest part of this is she keeps giving her audience more and more stuff Oprah style for hours on end, but I can't tell where the motherly no nonsense part of it comes from as Oprah seemed less confrentational and didn't relaly seem to get into "old woman yells at cloud rants". And unlike the former child star explotation boom of the 2000's, this is something you really need to specifically know what hteir talking about.

That's a theme with Situation: Comedy as the parodies are a bit more direct, it's just the other ones, which we'll get to, I have a better frame of refrence for, and even years on long after things like American Idol and Who Wants To Be A Millionare stopped being relevant, the jokes themselves are strong enough to carry it like Myra.

Before we can go get her, our team has to check in on our recurring cast. Sybil is running a weekly world news type deal, naturally important for later, and Bosco is.. british. This is the start of a running gag with Bosco taking on a new gimmick each episode to escape whoever he thinks is following him this week. While we'll have to buy his voice modulator later, we find out for once his paranoia is justified as Jimmy Two Teeth and a friend have been pretending to be "Skinbodies".. .i..e shaving themselves and stealing shaving cream to continue this brutal cycle

The resulting chase is.. frustrating as the puzzle's solution is maddingely hard to figure out and once again it was my old friend guide that had the solution: you have to guide the skinboddies to the middle of the street and let them fall down a manhole.. a manhole you can't see clearly and is only marked by a construction sign. Now this may just be playing on switch: the smaller screen may of hid it.. but given once I was told it was a manhole I looked for it closely and coudln't find it till I was told about the sign, I somehow doubt it. Either way we get the shaving cream.

This comes in handy at the studio, as we meet the Director, the mvp of this chapter, a very tired woman whose frustrated by most of her crew being held hostage and does most of the work. To get in we have to do an audition of old yeller and i'm proud for relalizing the solution: simply get the shaving cream, use it to pretend to be rabid and get shot by max

With that gunshot wound, the duo's audtion is succesful and they land a part on Midtown Cowboys, a sitcom about two cowboys trying to make it in new york city. it sounds like a sitcom you could find now for free on crackle. Turns out this is one of three things our hero need to do to get to Myra: She requires a recording contract, a tv show and a scandal, which sounds like a LOT , but the 2000's were a wild west of people hungry for fame kids and getting those three things was way easier back then. I mean they gave Kevin Federline all of those things. And if you don't know who that is.. good your a happier human being than I.

So we have to shoot it and I love a new addition to the cast for this: Philo Pennyworth, a british classically trained actor.. who is essentially playign Don Knotts on camera. THe contrast is just great. The bit itself is fantastic as you have to figure out what to do to make the scene, the cowboys hiding the cow in thei rapartment work and the responses are gold, as usual. The only frustrating part is the chain is LONG, and has no conversational checkpoints so you have ot take it from the top EVERY time. Eventually I went to the guide not because I coudln't figure out the puzzle entirely but just because it was so freaking long. And in fairness "feed the cow's feces to your landlord" is not a solution I would've pegged. Maybe three's company had John Ritter trick Don Knotts into eating shit once an episode. I do'nt know. The take works, you get the video and it's on to another tv show that while not helping the demo reel, wil lhelp later.. and it's easily the best part of this chapter: Cookin Without Looking, a bachelor cooking show.. which is really an excuse for Sam and Max to put any amoutn of ungodly things my faviorites being roofing shingles, sulfiric acid, uranium pellets, abestos pellets and dried dingo kidneys. It's pure chaos and you'd better belivie I went thorugh every ingredient avaliable and while my messy recipie meant the cake ended up crazy, I still had a cake.

Next is who is never going to be a millionare? With the host trapped inside the Director brought in a sub: totally not elron hubbard stand in hugh bliss, who can change his color at will

He can be blue, red, or even green, the last we need for the tabolids so our heroes snap a pick. As for who this weirdo is , picture if pops from regular show founded sceientogy and you have him pegged. I was proud to figure out both the Hugh puzzles myself: I used an earlier hint ot make sure he was green, and figured out I just needed to swap his cue card son the show with impossibly hard questions with Peepers lyrics to his songs, giving us the easy question of "Am I blue?" which naturally dpeends on what Hue you have Hugh, but is still a softball. IT's a fun puzzle and with that we have the million dollars for the voice modulator.. if in foodstamps since the last guy who didit also got the million and their a tad short…

Which Bosco is forced to take as he didn't ask for it in american dollars.

So with that we have our final challenge: Embarassing Idol. Can't imagine what their making fun of but Max becomes a judge, as he was desgined for so Sam needs to win. The judges are… Specs.. and Whizzer. Okay not too bad.. so who are we competting against?

YUP THIS MUMMY'S CURSE IS BACK. The good news is he apparently isn't in the next episode.. the bad news is he SINGS HERE. Something a certain SOMEONE paying for this review didn't warn me about

I have to wow the judges. Specs once again proves himself to be the only one I don't hate as he's fair, he just wants a high note. Whizzer.. somehow out annoys a singing peepers. Which medically shoudn't be popular but he refuses to budge his vote, and it took looking at the guide to realize I needed to get rid of him. The good news is that means I can punish him for his hubris, so Sam feeds him the cake.. and since that does nothing to him, we have to slather it in ketchup, so he has a violent allergy attack

So with that annoyance peepers looses on national television, Whizzer is trapped in the bathroom, and i'm at peace having once again gotten my vengance on the little shits.

With that there's one test left: Myra herself. This puzzle takes some doing but the interview itself is a lot of fun, so it's not too frustrating and it's ismple once you knwo it: get her to spil lher water, then invite over bessie the cow, accusing her of being part of your hugh bliss polycule, and when moira pulls the mic to her

She's freed, her audience is freed and our work here is done. The lingering part though is WHY she was brainwashed, which we don't know.. we only know something called the toy mafia did it, which we'll see next month

Situation Comedy is a massive step up. The Soda Poppers are used better, the puzzles are more intuitive, and the writing is at it's best. Cooking without Looking would be worth it alone. The first chapter wasn't bad but this one's far better paced, with it's mostly open ended nature fitting better than the more linear with one or two paths first chapter, but working better where it is: the first chapter eases you into how this kind of game works if you haven' tplayed a ton of adventure games. This chapter lets you look. A really good time and while I recommended buying the game already on the strength of chapter one it bears repeating: if you haven't played this game do and then meet me back here next month as our heroes deal with the mole the mob and the meatball.

#sam and max #telltale games #skunkape games #sam #max #sybil panemik #bosco #it's me bosco #myra #video games #adventure games

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cyborg-alchemist · 2 years

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Hey Cy this is kind of long so come back to it when you have a spare moment.

Eight years ago I'm at a 4 year university majoring in American Sign Language interpreting. I became really good at communicating in ASL, but I was quite bad at interpreting it back into English. At the end of that particular spring semester, one of my professors spends a lecture talking about technology that benefits the Deaf. Not technology that enables the Deaf to hear (as is typically assumed), but more on technology that help the Deaf communicate despite the inability to hear: texting on cellphones, teletyping companies that make phone calls possible, webcams, and, eventually, manual prosthetics.

A one handed person can still communicate with ASL. A one armed person has more challenges to face but still very doable. Fingers are, as one can imagine, incredibly important for signed languages. He tells us about two of his past clients and what it was like to be their interpreter. Then he shows us different videos online of various prosthetics from wooden (and eventually plastic) non-moving prosthetics used for the majority of human history, and mimicking the limited mobility in one of his arms to show us how much communication could improve. We saw videos of the various stages of movable hand prosthetics that, while were not designed with ASL communication in mind, could still work in various ways to aid communication. There's so much more to mention about class that day, but by the time we came to the variety of prosthetics with movable digits (and then prehensile digits) that, on top of their intended use to provide better manual ability to those with missing limbs, hands, or fingers, could also provide better aid in communication with signed languages for those that needed it, the topic of cost came to the forefront of the conversation.

The only video that I distinctly remember from class that day, that I have now remembered off and on randomly for the last eight years, was of a particular organization taking part in a technology conference championing methods of affordable (advanced?) prosthetics that had taken place a few months prior to that class. In the video after an introduction to the company on stage they invited a 19-year-old without fingers on their left hand to demonstrate a slip-on prosthetic that the teenager themself designed with their father (despite living on opposite coasts no less). A prosthetic enabling a simple and strong grasp was strapped on and immediately functioned without extra readjustment or help from the host or the spokesperson of the demonstrating company. It was such a quick moment from attachment to function that the audience was immediately on their feet. Something that surely would cost anyone well over $20k was built at home with $50 in raw materials. At the end of the video my interpreting professor made a comment about how excited he was when he was putting together these links to come across that video, showing us how much extra information could be more easily related just by having a grasping hand with fingertips and a thumb, and how it being able to be built with consumer available tools. He moved on to other more electronically complicated prosthetics, but multiple times a year for the last eight years any time I see a robotic hand in fictional TV, or a YouTube video showing the manual dexterity in the robotics they're creating, or something like that one video of the "$120 million robotic hand controlled by thoughts" I think of that teenager walking up on stage and bringing the audience to their feet and the host having to settle them down.

I did not become an interpreter, and I've legitimately only been harassing you with my NDE jobs because you're the first welder I've come across that uses Tumblr in my 9+ years of being on this godforsaken website (if I did come across a blog who was a welder before now it was not apparent). I had no idea I had been making my submissions to the ponytailed engineer that lives rent free in my head. It's been a long time since that conference, a lot of things can happen in 8 years, do you still work with that prosthetics company at all? Considering your shop stories it doesn't sound like it. Were any of those goals of providing accessible prosthetics realized?

Oh hey! it looks like we've come full circle. Yes, that was definitely me. You're probably talking about my Intel talk? That was pretty early in my 3D printed prosthetics... career? I've always been suspicious of any device that uses over $100 in electronics... or any electronics at all, for that matter.

These days, I rarely use my prosthetics, mostly because I haven't gotten around to one strong or durable enough to use in the ironworks. I have one hand with all the fingers ripped out, for whenever I get the chance to TIG weld. all the TIG wire I've used is about the same diameter as my tendon lines.

I am... off and on in contact with e-Nable, but I've always kind of fought with them about making their designs too fiddly, not strong enough. There were some university students who were very excited to test out their heat resistant material on a new hand for me, but that hasn't moved forward.

There's a strong part of me that wants to build a simple hand out of leather and steel, that I can weld tools or simple jigs to as needed. I'm thinking something that goes all the way up my arm, possibly with a shelf for carrying shit, and basically an excavator claw on the end.

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ear-worthy · 1 year

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Taboo Science Podcast: Where No Science Has Gone Before

Have you ever noticed that when TV goes large, podcasting goes small? TV wants to do a nature show? It's a wide-angle view of all animals, usually narrated by David Attenborough. Need a space show? How about something with Neil DeGrasse Tyson about the entire cosmos?

By contrast, podcasting goes small. It burrows into a topic small in stature but not insignificant. Podcasting has shows about specific dolphin species, an entire podcast about the planet Jupiter, and, instead of a sports show about all sports, how about a podcast about one owner of one basketball team -- James Dolan of the NBA's New York Knicks? Check out Reign Of Error.

Here is the marketing pitch from Taboo Science: "Taboo Science is a podcast that answers the questions you’re not allowed to ask. It’s hosted by Ashley Hamer, a science writer and podcaster. Every episode dives into a different societal taboo to understand the science that makes it tick, the reasons we don’t talk about it, and the impact that has on society at large. Why don’t we eat people? Why are my swear words different than my parents’? And what makes porn, porn? It’s science class if science class had one of those anonymous question boxes. It’s Taboo Science."

Ashley Hamer is a writer, podcaster, and science communicator in Chicago. She is the creator of Taboo Science and the former host and content lead of the science podcast Curiosity Daily.

When Hamer and Corey Gough co-host Curiosity Daily in the pre-COVID days, I thought they had solid hosting chemistry and brought a certain spontaneous wit to the show. The show has gone through several iterations of hosts, in search, I believe, of that special Hamer-Gough sauce.

Hamer flying solo on Taboo Science is in complete control of the hosting cockpit. She's funny, smart, and a strong interviewer with a flair for the dramatic.

Hamer has interviewed the likes of Sean Carroll, Carl Zimmer, and Alan Alda, written and hosted a number of widely viewed science videos, appeared on several leading science podcasts, and spoken on stages everywhere from C2E2 and New York Comic Con to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, Washington.

Ashley Hamer is also a professional saxophonist, a Boston-qualified marathon runner, a new mom, and a cat person. Talk about your diversity of skills. I have questions. Can she play the saxophone while running a marathon? Is the cat jealous of the new baby? How does she have time to do a podcast?

The podcast began in September 2020, and it didn't pull any punches in its first several episodes. Topics included pornography, profanity, cannibalism, penises, and vaginas. I can just sense the uptight people who are organizing bans.

Some of my favorite episodes include the March 25, 2021, one on Marriage with Stephanie Coontz. For those who crow about traditional marriage, you should listen to Coontz talk about the history of marriage as a business transaction instead of a bond created from love.

A recent episode about Asexuality was a learning experience and fascinating and, of course, I can never pass up an episode on poop with Bryon Nelson. Here, Hamer breaks out internet-sourced euphemisms for poop while Nelson explains how for centuries people used "night soil" (poop) for fertilizer.

If you, as a listener, are into your science being serious stuff with people with PhDs speaking in solemn tones, Taboo Science is not for you.

But if enjoy a beaker full of fun with your science lesson, and don't mind your poop being referred to you as "butt nuggets," then Taboo Science is for you.

#podcast #podcasting #science

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thesassywallflower · 3 years

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Top 10 Feel Good TV Shows...or at least in my opinion...today...

Because sometimes you need to take a break from the news, true crime docs, and cult shows...or maybe that’s just me.

1. The Great British Baking Show/Off: To those of you who haven’t watched, I can hear you saying, but Manda, how can a competition show be “Feel Good”? My friends, this one is. You start with a lovely tent equipped with all the kitchen accessories your heart could desire, plunk it on a GORGEOUS British estate, add contestants who are actually decent human beings that willingly help out their fellow bakers when they need it, sprinkle in two judges who know what they’re talking about, and top it all off with two hilarious hosts (Mel and Sue will forever own my heart, but Noel has wheedled his way in there too) who encourage the contestants with pep talks, baking innuendos/puns and plenty of hugs. That’s how it’s Feel Good.

2. Miranda: A sitcom about an awkward, hilarious woman in her late 30′s who’s actually a normal human being aka she has cellulite, struggles to find clothes that fit, gets completely flustered at the thought of dating/*whispers*sex and loves to eat. Throw in some goofball side characters, Tom Ellis aka Lucifer himself as the main love interest and you have a show that’s “What I call...such fun!”

3. The Golden Girls: What can I say it’s a classic?! “Lanai!” “Shady Pines,Ma!” “Back in St. Olaf...” “Picture it. Sicily 1920...” “Mr. Burt Reynolds...” If you haven’t watched, just do. You won’t regret it, I swear. Plus the 1980′s aesthetic alone is worth the watch. ;) P.S. I’m just a Rose wishing she was a Sophia.

4. The Lizzie Benne Diaries: Teeeeechnically not a tv show because it’s a web series, but it’s close enough. Basically it’s if our girl Lizzie Bennet lived in 2013 and had her own vlog. So good and so funny. Each episode is only 2-5 minutes long so it’s super easy to binge. (Also I LIVE for that moment when we finally meet Darcy.)

5. The Vicar of Dibley: I’ve sung the praises of this show on many a Tag Game, but I’m doing it again! A smart, hysterical vicar comes to a small village in the English countryside and completely shakes up the villagers lives because...SPOILERS...the vicar is a woman *GASP*

(Also American TV/Movie industry? How about y’all actually be brave for once and make a show about a plus sized woman getting the hot guy in the end too? And not make it the butt of a sick, cruel joke? That’d be greaaaaaat.)

6. Derry Girls: Five teens try navigate life at an all girls Catholic school while living in Northern Ireland right at the tail end of The Troubles. I know. I know. It sounds like it wouldn’t be Feel Good at all, and while there are moments that are heart wrenching, it’s wickedly funny and ridiculous with some truly tender scenes. Plus it has a killer 90′s soundtrack.

7. Pushing Daisies: Whimsical sets, colorful retro costumes, delicious pies, crime solving, and Lee Pace as the sweetest, woobiest baker who also happens to be a necromancer. What more could you want? (Just please don’t yell at me because there’s only two seasons.)

8. The IT Crowd: This show is just pure British comedy gold. If these three IT techs can’t make you laugh at least once, I really don’t know what will. It’s ridiculously quotable and the scenes with Moss and Roy at the football match is one of the best moments in tv history in my humble opinion.

9. Sanditon: Think a Bridgerton that you can watch with your mom. It’s all about the lives and loves of the Parker family set in a picturesque seaside town. Two warnings though. 1. You will fall in love with Sydney Parker. (JOOOOOIN MEEEEE) and 2. So far there’s only one season and those evil showrunners ended it on the worst sort of emotional cliffhangers.

10. Anne With An E: Okay yes, they took a looooooot of liberties with the original story, but I still feel that everything that we loved about the OG Anne is still there. You’ll still want to visit PEI as soon as possible, and you’ll still wish you had a Gilbert, Diana, Marilla and Matthew of your very own.

So there you go! Please feel free to let me know what some of your favs are!

#manda stuff #gbbo #great british bake off #miranda #the golden girls #the lizzie bennet diaries #the vicar of dibley #derry girls #pushing daisies #the it crowd #sanditon #anne with an e

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sassyfrassboss · 2 years

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I am an American. The statements by the people on the View do not represent the majority of Americans. They represent the view of a few women who like to create tirades on current issues to keep their jobs. However, before I attach an intelligent response to their histrionics, remember this. Their hosts have made disturbing comments about the Jewish people. That is an example of their philosophy. So No, we do not support the View presenters as they only represent their sponsors. Boycott them.

Oh I know...

YEARS ago, my mom would watch The View from time to time when she was home from work. That was back in the Barbara Walters and Hasselback (sp?) era. Back then it was a decent show. Now it just seems to have gone down hill faster than Clark on an oiled up sled in Christmas Vacation.

So I had no idea about Whoopi actually changing her name to Goldberg because of her "Jewish heritage" that she somehow totally forgot about when she made her atrocious comments.

What amazes me is that Joy Behar IS Jewish and I thought she was a practicing Jew. I cannot believe she didn't flip out when those comments were made. I don't care what religion you are, but I would have walked off the stage after that. One of the WORST atrocities in history and it being downplayed like that was something I will never forget.

Plus, these women are talking about how "misinformation" is awful and whatnot, but here they are, talking about a subject they know nothing about, other than what they learned from a fictional TV show. Yet they feel that their opinions matter and people should listen to them.

If they were men, what do you think would happen? That's what I think about.

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waitimcomingtoo · 4 years

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Captains Orders

Pairing: Peter Parker x venom!reader

Synopsis: a series of scenes following a Captain American fan through the events of finding out Peters secret, losing him, and reuniting

Masterlist

Finding out

“You never know what’s out there. Be ready for anything. That includes an extra pair of underwear in your child’s backpack. Lucky for them, I have my own brand.” Captain America, clad in his old fashioned uniform, held up a pair of underwear on your TV screen. Being as a big of a fan as you were, you tended to leave on his old commercials when they came on.

“I don’t know about the underwear, but I’ll take your advice on being ready for anything.” You smiled as you turned the TV off and climbed out the window that lead to your fire escape.

“Ready?” Venom’s metallic voice filled your ears and you nodded.

“Ready.” You confirmed and jumped off the terrace. You shot a black tendril at a nearby building to anchor yourself as you swung through the streets of New York.

Like you usually did, you encountered Spiderman while you were out on patrol. No matter how many times you explained to him that you only hurt bad guys, he always came after you to try and stop you. In turn, you sent him away with a few broken bones and a couple bruises to keep him at bay. When he approached you on this particular night, you and Venom were in no mood for the usual banter. Venom picked him and and hurled him against a wall before he had a chance to speak.

“Woah woah woah, what did I do? I haven’t even said anything yet.” Spider-mans youthful voice came from behind his mask as he rubbed his head.

“Leave us alone. You have been a thorn in our side since we started patrolling the streets.” Venom growled. “Don’t make us hurt you. We would have no problem crushing a pesky bug.”

“Crushing seems a bit extreme.” Spiderman insisted as he stood up. “Perhaps we could compromise on a simple smush.”

His sarcasm only angered you further, making you charge at him. Spider-Man skillfully slid under you and shot a few webs at your feet, cashing you to fall and roll along the pavement. You angrily ripped his webs off of you, causing Spider-Man to let out a surprised squeak.

“No ones ever broken out of my webs on their own before.” He gulped.

“No one gonna get through chance again.” You threatened as you lunged towards him. As much as you hated to admit it, Spiderman always put up a good fight. For every time you threw him against a building and knocked the wind out of him, he got in a few punches or wiped you off your feet. Growing tired of the nightly routine you had with him, you decided tonight was the last time. You shot a tendril at Spiderman, pulling him towards you at full speed and punching him in the face when he got close enough. This disoriented him enough where you could grab him by the neck and hold him up, grinning wickedly as he struggled to breathe.

You pulled his mask off at the same time he yanked Venom off of you. You immediately looked to Venom, who was laying on the floor, unharmed. You only looked back at Spiderman when you heard him making gawking sounds. Your eyes traveled up his red and blue suit until they landed on the face of your best friend. His jaw was dropped and eyes wide, and your face quickly did the same. You both pointed a finger at each other and froze, now knowing what to do or when. Venom crawled to you and bonded with you but stayed inside as you stared at Peter. Finally, you broke out into a laugh.

“Yo!” You laughed in happy surprise.

“Dude, no way.” Peter looked you up and down, unable to process what he was seeing.

“You’re Spider-Man? The Spider-Man?” You whispered so it wouldn’t catch anyone’s unwanted attention.

“And I take it you’re Venom?” Peter said as he nodded.

“We’re Venom, but yes.” You corrected as Venom rested on your shoulder. “What are the odds?”

“This has never happened before. There are no odds!” Peter exclaimed.

“I can’t believe I’ve been beating the life out of my best friend every night and I had no idea.” You scratched your head in amazement, suddenly feeling guilty about all the bruises and scratches you’d seen on Peter that you now knew you gave him.

“I can’t believe it either.” Peter remarked “Especially since you still ask me to open jars for you.”

“Venom can open jars. I can’t.” You informed him.

“So you’re two different people?” He tilted his head to the side.

“Yes, in one body. Two minds, two personalities.” You listed.

“One love.” Venom spoke up.

“Okay, Venom.” You laughed and patted her head. “What about you? If you have all these crazy abilities, why aren’t you the captain of every sports team by now? You’d crush all those meat heads.”

“If I couldn’t play those sports before I was bitten, I can’t play them after. It’s not fair to everyone else.” Peter told you his philosophy.

“Bitten?” You asked.

“Radioactive spider.” He confirmed. “And you?”

“Symbiote from another planet.” You pointed to the sky.

“Symbiote? So you guys are a host and parasite situation?” Peter couldn’t keep from geeking out a little.

“We don’t like that word. We call it a buddy system. Cause we’re buddies.” You shrugged with a happy smile.

Infinity War

You were at home, eating a big bowl of Cheerio and getting left on delivered by Peter when a rather large space ship pulled up to your window. You dropped your spoon into your bowl in shock and stopped chewing as a bridge extended from the ship onto your fire escape.

“Hey space balls, think you can do something for me?” Tonys voice came from the ship, though you didn’t see anyone inside except a pilot.

“Yeah, sure.” You nodded slowly. “What is it?”

“I need you to help me with something. Get on the ship. And bring your little monster friend.” Tony continued. You swallowed your mouthful of Cheerios and blinked a few times to snap back into focus.

“Sir, I can’t get on that ship.” You said apologetically.

“Why not?” Tony asked.

“Stranger danger.” You said weakly.

“Listen Space Jam, there is a much more imminent danger at hand than the stranger steering the jet. Get on it, or die. Simple really.” Tony quipped.

“Okay.” You nodded confidently and got up. “Should I bring a jacket or-“

“Get on the jet!” He interrupted.

“All right! I’m going, I’m going.” You blew out a nervous breath and walked onto your fire escape. The jet was hovering outside your terrace and you contemplated what to do. Mr. Stark needed you, yes. But you were not equipped to fight the battles he was typically caught in. You could let him down in a big way if you went, and a bigger way if you stayed. The TV caught your attention and you saw one of Captain America’s informercials playing. They were usually dumb and pandered mostly to kids, but you admired him and often found yourself tuning in to what he was saying.

“Go out there and be brave.” Captain America saluted on your screen. Your face lit up in a smile and you stood up straighter.

“Captains orders.” You saluted the TV and ran to board the jet.

Wakanda

The space dog stalked up to Cap, pinning him against a tree with nowhere to go. When the dog was about to pounce, Cap put his arms over his face to protect himself. Just when the dog was about to get to him, you dropped down it front of him. You punched the dog out of the way and turned to asses Cap.

“Hey, you okay?” You asked. Before he could answer, another dog came running at you. You shot a black tendril at a tree, yanked it from the ground, and used it as a bat to ward off the remaining dogs. Once the area was clear, you turned to Steve and pushed him higher against the tree for support. You shot a web at his shield and handed it to him as he watched in admirable confusion.

“Yeah, just locked the wind out of me. Where’d you come from?” He asked as he looked you up and down, not recognizing the giant white spider symbol on your suit.

“Mr. Stark sent for us and flew us down here. We haven’t fought too many people before but he thought we could help.” You explained as you pressed a firm palm against the gash on his thigh, covering the wound with your black goo. When you took your hand away, the gash was gone. Steve watched you in awe as you did the same to other cuts of his.

“Right.” He nodded as he began to watch your face instead.

“Have you seen my friend Peter? He’s my age and kinda short, but if you ask him he’ll tell you he’s average height and I’m like yeah, average height of a woman.” You nervously talked as you healed a cut on Steve’s forehead. “He was supposed to text me when he got to MOMA but he never did.”

“I haven’t seen him.” Cap shook his head, watching you heal a scrape on his elbow.

“Shoot. He better not be here. It’s not safe.” You fretted as you looked up and saw the raging battle all around you. “If you’re okay to keep fighting, we’re gonna go find him.” You looked him over to make sure he was okay to leave.

“You can’t go alone. Thanos will be here any minute. You should stick by me if you’re an inexperienced fighter.” Cap insisted, grabbing your arm so you wouldn’t leave.

“Trust me Captain, I’m never alone.” You smiled gratefully at him for showing concern for you.

“Who are you?” Steve asked in wonder, still not having figured it out.

“Well, my name is Y/n, but we,” you said before turning around and catching an alien about to attack, throwing it across the woods, “we are Venom.”

You turned up to leave, only getting a few paces away before you heard his voice.

“Hey.” Steve shouted after you. You turned to look at him and he smirked.

“You mind giving me a ride?” He asked.

“Hop on.” You smiled. You turned into Venom and let Cap climb on to your back.

“Run as fast as you can.” He commanded.

“Captains orders.” You said as you took off towards the battlefield.

In the battle

You and Venom were punching as many space dogs as you could when a large axe landed a few feet away from you. You went to pick it up to swing it at the dogs, but found it impossibly heavy and unable to be moved.

“Why can’t I lift this?” You called out as you tugged on the handle. Thor ran up to you and picked up the axe with ease, using it to send a wave of lighting towards the advancing group of dogs.

“Because you’re not worthy.” Thor said smugly as he cut an alien in half.

“Why am I not worthy?” You asked as you punched a space dog and sent it flying. “Because I eat people?”

“You eat people?” Steve and Thor said in unison, making your face redden in embarrassment.

Endgame

You sat next to Scott as Steve and Tony argued, quietly looking around to admire the cabin he had moved in to. Peters face flashed among the ones lost in the snap, making you grimace and wipe a stray tear.

“We gotta do this, Tony. I lost Bucky.” You heard Steve plead.

“Who the hell is Bonkey?” You whispered to Scott.

“Some girl I think.” Scott whispered back as he munched on a pop tart. He saw the distraught look on your face as you stared at the montage of people dusted and offered you half of it.

“No. Not happening. It’s over. We lost. I gotta shave.” Tony shut down Steve’s idea of looking for Thanos.

“Please Mr. Stark.” You stood up and everyone looked at you. Your legs trembled as you walked towards your mentor. “Please. We’re the only people with the power to fix this. How can we not?”

“Look, Rocky Horror, I’d love to bring everyone back as much as the next guy. But there is no protocol for this. We have no idea what could happen if we snapped again.” Tony reasoned with you.

“But we know exactly what will happen if we don’t.” You countered. You and Tony stared at each other for a moment. He couldn’t deny that every time he looked at you, he saw the empty space by your side that Peter used to take up. He looked at his feet and sighed.

“Give me five days. If you don’t hear from me, the Time Jinx-“ Tony began.

“Time Heist.” Scott corrected.

“Time to go Eff yourself.” Tony snapped. “If you don’t hear from me, it’s off. Sound fair?”

“Thank you.” You nodded and ran to him to hug him. “Thank you so much.”

“Thanks for sticking up for me back there.” Steve looked at you in the rear view mirror as you drove home from Tony’s cabin.

“I can’t say it wasn’t for selfish reasons.” You shrugged. “I need people back too. For the first time in my life, I’m all alone.”

“Who are you doing this for?” Steve asked you.

“Peter Parker. My best friend in the whole world.” You smiled sadly. You did your best not to think about the fact that he was gone.

“I’m doing this for my best friend too.” Steve told you with a kind smile.

“Right. Bucket.” You remembered.

“Bucky.” He corrected.

“Bucky.” You repeated.

The snap

“I have to do it.” You interrupted the argument over who would be the one to snap after being quiet since Clint broke the news about Nat. “It has to be me.”

“Not now, the adults are talking.” Tony tried to dismiss you but you didn’t let him.

“I’m serious. I lost Venom in the last snap. That means I’m the only one hear who isn’t enhanced in some way. That makes me expendable.”

“No. It’s going to be me.” Thor shook his head.

“Wrong, Lebowski. It’s going to be me.” Tony told him.

“It can’t be either of you.” You insisted. “If Thor does it and dies, we lose our best fighter. If Mr. Stark does it and dies, we lose Iron Man and the only person here who can make another gauntlet. It has to be me.”

“No.” Tony said firmly. “I’m not about to let a child kill herself for this.”

“Nat just gave her life for this.” You raised your voice at him. “Are we gonna come this far to only come this far? You know I’m right. You know I’m expendable. It has to be me.”

“We don’t trade lives.” Steve said, looking at you with his Steele blue eyes from across the room.

“We don’t have the luxury of morals right now.” You told him. “Trillions of people died. You can afford to lose one more to bring the rest back.”

“No.” Tony snapped. “It’s out of the-“

“Let her do it.” Thor cut him off.

“What?” Tony looked at him with anger.

“She’s right, Stark.” Thor said solemnly. “It’s a horrible fate but it’s true. When Thanos comes, and he will, we’re gonna need every fighter we have. It has to be her.”

Tony stared at him for a long time before his face softened as he realized he was right. Without looking at you, he handed you the gauntlet. You gingerly took it, your heart racing as everyone took precautions, stepping away from you and putting shields up. You looked to Steve for comfort and he gave you a somber salute.

“You better come back from this.” He told you with a pleading look in his eyes. You smiled softly at him and saluted.

“Captains orders.”

Thanos comes to earth

Right as you got out from under the rubble of the Avengers tower you saw Thanos beating up Steve. His shield was in pieces so you grabbed the nearest item to you and ran to his aid. You stepped between him and Thanos and planted your feet.

“Don’t touch him!” You cried as you swung a baseball bat in front of you.

“Is that a baseball bat? Did you seriously show up to this fight with a baseball bat?” Steve asked from the ground.

“Hello, trying to save your life here.” You shot back at him.

“Sorry. Carry on.” Steve said.

“Give it up.” Thanos sneered. “There’s no use fighting anymore. I’ve done what I had to do and I’ll do it again.”

“No. I will never stop fighting.” You heaved. “You took everything from me. Until there is no air left in my chest, I will never stop fighting.”

One swift kick the head and you were knocked to the ground. You saw stars for a moment rad your head spun. A tall man with long brown hair came into your sight and stood over you.

“Hey, get up.” He held out his hand for you to grab.

“Jesus?!” You gasped, thinking you were dead.

“No.” He sighed as if he got that a lot. “My name is Bucky. You gotta get up.”

“Bonky!” You cheered, grabbing his cold, metal hand and standing up. You immediately heard an explosion to your left and an array of screaming from your right. You and Bucky looked at each other and nodded before running opposite ways towards the sounds.

You ran towards the yelling and looked around for anyone you could help, even though you were still without Venom and pretty much defenseless. Ebony Maw saw you looking vulnerable and floated over to you.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing in the middle of a battlefield? Don’t you know there’s a war going on?” He said as he approached you.

“Really?” You stopped to ask. “I thought this was a Febreeze commercial.”

“Just for that, I’ve decided to terminate you.” He began to make rocks around you float and threw them at you. You were hit in the arm and began to ran until you were knocked over by a boulder.

“No, wait.” You help up your left arm to protect your face as Ebony piles rocks on you, all with just the flick of his finger. Your right arm was still out of commission after snapping, so you didn’t have much of a defense system. He dropped more rocks onto you until you were gasping for breath and could barely speak.

You could see Cap in the distance, just out of earshot. You opened your mouth to speak, to call out to him, but no words came out. It was like every nightmare you’d had as a kid when you lost your voice and couldn’t cry out for help. Hot tears fell out of the corner of yours eyes in frustration as you tried to scream, yell, talk, anything. Instead of words, blood spilled over your lips, filling your mouth with a metallic taste.

“Help! I need help! Cap!” You tried to scream but it came out as a hushed whisper.

“He’s not coming.” Ebony said as he began to pile rocks closer to your face.

“Cap! Mr. Stark! Please! Can anybody hear me?” You wheezed.

“I’m afraid no one can hear you, my child.” Ebony Maw said as he dropped a rock onto your head, silencing you. “Not anymore.”

He turned around and began to float away when he heard the sound of rocks tumbling and moving. He turned back to where he left you and no longer saw you under the pile. As soon as he turned back around, he was met with Venom towering over him.

“We heard.” Venom snarled before biting Ebonys head clean off.

“Nice work.” Steve’s voice came from behind you and startled you. You turned back into yourself and faced him. “I was just on my way to help you, but it looks like you got it handled.”

“Thanks. I had help, though.” You said and Venom slid into your hand, as if to hold it.

“You find your friend yet?” He asked you.

“Not yet. I met Bucket, by the way.” You said as you brushed some debris off your suit.

“He told me.” Steve smiled. “Go find your guy. I’ll cover you.”

“Captains orders.” You saluted him and turned into Venom before running off.

The reunion

“I got this! I got this! I don’t got this!” Peter realized in fear as space dogs piled onto his faster than he could fight them off. He instinctively threw his hands over his face and curled himself into a ball. Thanks to his high tech iron spider suit, he barely felt the blows from the bad guys. It wasn’t until he felt himself being thrown onto his back that he began to worry. An alien with sword for a hand tilted Peters chin up with the edge of his blade. Peter felt fear rise in his throat, not knowing how to use his suit yet and not being able to put his mask up to protect his neck.

“Help! Someone help!” He shouted, but it fell on deaf ears. No one heard.

“Someone, please! Can anybody hear me?” Peter cried. Like a hand coming down into Peters open grave to pull him out, he heard a voice.

“We got you.”

The alien on top of Peter was knocked off in a blur of black. Peter scrambled to sit up and looked in the direction of his savior. He tried to catch his breath as he watched Venom ripping the alien to shreds like it was made of paper.

“Venom?” Peter panted, making you snap up to look at Peter. You slowly got off the alien, still in Venom form, and began to run towards Peter. You melted back into yourself as you ran, tears streaming down your face as your legs carried you. Imagine My Tears are Becoming the Sea as you run towards each other. You meet Peter in the middle and throw your good arm around him, tangling your fingers in hair at the back of his head as pressing him as close to you as possible. You dry heaved a few minutes as the scent of your best friends shampoo filled your nostrils for the first time in five years. Hot tears of joy poured from your eyes when you felt him rubbing your back for comfort. You pressed a kiss to his temple, before saying screw it and kissing every inch of his face and neck that you could reach as he laughed. You pulled back and kept your left hand on his face as your right arm hung limply at your side. Your thumb stoked his cheek as you took in your best friends face.

“Is this a trick?” You whispered, searching his face for comfort.

“It’s not a trick.” Peter shook his head with a childish smile, loving all the affection he was getting from you.

“What if it is? What if I wake up and this is just a dream?” Your voice broke. “I can’t take it if it’s fake.”

“It’s not a dream. It’s real. I’m real.” Peter assured you as he took your hand and pressed your fingers against his neck. “You can feel my pulse, yeah?”

“Yeah. I can feel it.” You nodded as you felt the rhythm of his heartbeat under your fingertips.

“Then I’m real.” Peter said gently, making your lip tremble and rendering you unable to speak.

“What happened to your arm?” Peter asked when he caught sight of your right arm, still red and sizzling from the snap.

“Oh, um…dragons.” You said the first lie that came to your head. “It was a fire breathing dragon.”

“Wow, really?” Peter looked at you in amazement. “Did it hurt?”

You broke into a smile at seeing your best friend excited again after so many years of not seeing him at all. His eyes lit up just like you remembered.

“No. It didn’t hurt.” You lied through a genuine smile. “I’m all right.”

“I missed you, Y/n.” Peter said suddenly. “It’s only been a few hours for me, but I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” You said through your tears.

“I had a few hours to think when I was in the soul stone and ran out of questions to ask Dr. Strange.” Peter began, looking nervous for the first time. “I think we’ve been wasting a lot of time.”

“What do you mean?” You asked him.

“I love you.” Peter said firmly. “I have for years. For whatever love is at my age, that’s how I feel. I know I’m 18 and you’re 22, but Knives Chau was 17 and Scott Pilgrim was 23 when they dated so I just-“

You cut Peter off by pulling him into a kiss using your one good hand, feeling a sob rise in the back of your throat when he kissed you back. You pulled away and rested your forehead against his, only feeling him in the middle of a battlefield.

“I love you too.”

Funeral

You stood apart from the crowd after Pepper sent Tony’s memorial into the water, watching from a distance while fumbling with the bottom of your dress. You watched Peter talk with the other Avengers, a newfound sadness in his eyes as he once again put the “e” in “dad”. You sighed as you watched him, feeling a guilt you didn’t know to explain. You told Mr. Stark the snap would kill him, and he did it anyway. Feeling uncomfortably hot all the sudden, you attempted to pull your hair into a ponytail. Ever since your arm had to be amputated from snapping, little tasks like doing your hair seemed impossible. Hot tears of frustration filled your eyes as you struggled to get all your hair into the ponytail. Right as you were about to give up, you felt someone’s hands take the hair tie from you and gather your hair into a ponytail. They secured the hair tie around your hair and stood beside you, all without saying a word.

“Thank you.” You said quietly as you touched the ponytail, surprised to find it was well done.

“It’s all right.” Bucky nodded as he stared off at the lake. “I owe you one.”

“Who told you?” You asked him, feeling a sharp pain where your elbow used to be.

“Someone had to snap their fingers and you’re the only missing an arm. I took a wild guess.” Bucky smiled half heartedly. You folded your lips into a line as the pain worsened in your phantom limb.

“Are you gonna tell anyone?” You asked in a hushed voice. You hadn’t told anyone that you were the one who snapped. It seemed almost insulting to speak of it since the very same action had killed Tony. It made you sick to your stomach to know both of you had snapped but you were the one to survive and attend his funeral.

“I take it seriously when people risk their lives for mine. I’ll keep your secret.” Bucky assured you. You stared at him for a moment as tears filled your eyes until you brushed your sleeve up to look at the remainder of you arm. It had to be taken off right below the shoulder, so all you were left with was an immobile nub. You looked back at Bucky and saw him silently staring at your residual limb with a look of understanding.

“Does it always hurt this bad?” You whispered, never having vocalized your pain from losing your arm before. Bucky sighed sympathetically and slowly looked up at you.

“The pain gets easier with time.” He told you. “Mine still hurts when it rains or snows.”

You nodded at his words and looked at your residual limb again, pain evident on your face. Bucky could see you struggling with your new body and remembered how hard it was for him when he first lost his own arm.

“You think it’s ugly.” He spoke, making you look at him. “I thought my stump was ugly too. It’s not, though. Steve told me what happened before Thanos came back. You snapped thinking you were going die. You risked your life for us, and you haven’t even met most of us.”

“Someone had to do it.” You mumbled, not wanting to take the credit.

“But you made sure that someone was you. I think that’s beautiful.” Bucky shrugged, and a small smile appeared on your face. “So don’t look at it like its ugly. It’s not ugly.”

“Thanks, Buggy.” You said softly, looking at your stump in a new light.

“Bucky.” he corrected.

“Thanks Bucky.” You repeated.

“Well, Steve sent me over here to get you, so I can’t leave empty handed. He wants you to meet the rest of the Avengers.”

You looked at the group Peter was in and let out a nervous breath before looking back at Bucky.

“Okay.” You agreed. “Captains Orders.”

Tag List 🏷

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cyclogenesis · 3 years

Note

i have to tell you that the second i saw cal and ash on that mountain getaway a couple weeks ago, i thought about how desperately i would love a sequel to your turks & caicos fic set during that trip. (this is not a request, i promise, i just wanted to tell you bc that is one of my fav fics of all time)

Aw anon!! 🥺 Gosh I hadn't even thought about that when I was in my feelings about the mountain getaway pictures, which is wild because I am just remembering now that I started a fic after the honeymoon comment initially happened (like, very soon after, because @elliebirdthings was at that show and told me about it and we were freaking out haha), before we knew that they went to Turks & Caicos, and I had them taking that trip to a cabin in Maine.

Just for kicks, because this message made me smile and I love you for that, here's the beginning of that fic. It's unfinished obviously (not even any kissing!), but there's some nice stuff in there I think. This fic was going to be titled A whole fucking lifetime of this after the American Pleasure Club album which was a title I should have kept, goddammit. Also randomly in here I have them driving to the cabin while listening to My Bloody Valentine, who Ashton later called out as one of his main influences for Superbloom.

1600 words of unfinished Cashton under the cut! 😘

The day after the last meeting about the promo schedule the dressing room conversation turns, as it does, to plans for the break. It’s a month out, but they’ve to a man developed a fetish for planning their free time carefully as soon as the schedule’s set. Planning things makes Ashton feel like a grown-up. He likes renting cars. Sometimes he scrolls through AirBnB for hours just to see what’s out there.

“I’m going straight back, we got Dodgers tickets,” Michael says.

“I remember when you used to say ‘we’ and it meant you and me,” Calum says. He wiggles a little from where he’s snuggled against Michael on the couch like he wants to get away, but of course Michael doesn’t let him. Ashton thinks he probably wasn’t really trying.

“Aw, you’ll always be my first love,” Michael tells him, squeezing Calum to him more tightly. “You wanna make out just for old times sake?”

“I do not,” says Calum, but he lets Michael give him a big kiss on the forehead, his face squinching up happily.

“I just wanna get away for a bit, no work or social media or anything,” says Ashton, ignoring their tomfoolery. “A little cabin by a lake somewhere.”

“Oh yeah?” Luke says. “Where are you and Cal going this time?”

“Maine,” Calum says, at the same time as Ashton says, “Why would you assume we’re going somewhere together?”

A small silence falls over the room.

With dignity, Ashton says, “Calum and I are going to Maine.”

“Just get out in front of it this time,” Michael advises. “Let everyone know it’s another honeymoon. Take control of the narrative.”

“How many times can you go on a honeymoon before you have to acknowledge that you’re married?” Luke asks nobody in particular.

“It’s a bro trip,” Ashton says firmly. “For bros.”

“It’s very bromantic,” Luke says. “It’s okay, I’m not hurt I wasn’t invited. I love going back to LA and jerking off alone.”

“It’s nice that we’ve all got plans,” Calum says. He’s settled peacefully back against Michael, Michael absently petting his hair.

“It’s not a honeymoon,” Ashton insists.

Whatever, Ashton called it what he called it, okay? Might as well control the narrative.

Over drinks at the bar after their last show Calum asks, “Where would you want to go on your honeymoon, anyway? Somewhere new?”

Ashton pokes at the ice in his cocktail with his straw. Aren’t they supposed to not be using straws anymore because of the ocean or whatever? Ashton loves the ocean, it’s very important to him. Also this cocktail sucks. “Can I try your drink?” he asks. “I don’t love mine.” Calum has something with ginger in it, and bubbles. Calum slides his obligingly over, and Ashton passes his own over to be fair.

“I like yours better,” Calum says after a sip. “You wanna trade?”

Sometimes Ashton does believe in soulmates. “Yes, thank you.” He takes a long drink. “It would be nice to spend more time in Italy. Not one of the tourist-y parts though, somewhere quiet. Up north, maybe, one of the smaller towns.” He tries to picture what it would be like: olive groves, blue skies, stone churches. An old villa with lemon trees and a view of the hills. He’s so used to traveling with the band or just with Calum that it’s hard to picture anyone else there with him. They’re all as prone as anyone to get swept up with girls to the exclusion of most everything else, but Ashton can’t really imagine a future without seeing Calum all the time, without talking to him every day. Maybe he and Calum could just get married around the same time and they could all go on a honeymoon together.

“Yeah, that’d be pretty nice,” Calum says, looking wistful. Ashton wants to take a picture of him, capture the way a curl rests against his temple, how the blue neon lights behind the bar hit the glitter he let Ashton smear on his cheekbones before the show. They made a no social media pledge for this trip but Ashton’s bringing his camera anyway. He has to keep in practice, doesn’t he? Anyway, it’s important to capture these memories.

“Maybe we should just go,” Ashton tells him. “Why not? Who knows how long it could take for me to fool someone into living with this forever?” He sucks down the last of his drink, feeling sorry for himself now. What if he falls in love and she moves in and Calum stops coming over in the morning to walk to their favorite coffee shop together, and stops picking Ashton up so they can go hike Runyon, and stops bringing Duke over like he owns the damn place and doesn’t care about the dog hair that Ashton has to hoover off his couch pillows? That would be terrible. Worst of all, what if it was Ashton that suddenly wanted those things to stop?

“I’ll live with you forever,” Calum says, too busy flagging down the bartender to intuit Ashton’s emotional crisis. He gestures to Ashton’s empty drink. “Another one of those, right?” His own is still half full. Maybe he didn’t really like Ashton’s better after all.

“Yeah, thanks man,” Ashton sighs.

Calum bumps his knee against Ashton’s, the barstool squeaking beneath him. “Ash, you’re gonna find somebody if that’s what you want. Anyone would be the luckiest person alive to be with you. Maybe we could do Italy after the tour wraps, we’ll finish in Spain so it won’t be far.”

The thought cheers Ashton a bit; that’s a decent amount of time to get on AirBnB and see what he can find that’s available. It’ll be nice to have something to look forward to, Italian sunshine and limoncello and the quiet.

“Mike and Luke will definitely give us shit though about planning another honeymoon while we’re still on this one,” Calum says.

“Let ‘em,” says Ashton.

It’s not a long flight but it’s a bit of a drive from there to get to the cabin. But Calum said he wanted something remote and quiet, so it’s worth the wait, the drive in the dark. There’s moonlight, anyway, and Calum took the wheel, getting them the rest of the way there in their little silver Prius rental. He puts on My Bloody Valentine and sings along, low and comforting to listen to after so many days straight of playing, of promo. Halfway through the trip Ashton thinks he sees a shooting star, maybe thought he dreamed it until he felt Calum’s soft nudge of knuckles against his arm, heard his quiet, “You see that, bro?”

The way gets bumpy, thick with trees, dark and hard to navigate once they turn off the main road. At the end of it all there’s the cabin, looming in the dark, lights left on for them and the key exactly where it’s supposed to be. It’s past one a.m. but they still give the place a wander, stopping at the largest bedroom facing the lake. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows Ashton sees trees, darkness, the black glitter of water under starlight. Calum asks, “You want this one?”

Ashton looks further and just sees more darkness. “It’s kind of unnerving at night,” he says. “Anyone could be out there.” The other bedroom has smaller windows, but the point stands. “Do you wanna just watch TV or something in here and then decide?”

“If we get axe murdered here I hope our ghosts come back and leave a one star review,” Calum says, but he’s already shrugging his duffel off his shoulders and kicking off his shoes.

The host left them a bottle of pinot grigio so Ashton pours up a few glasses while Calum strips down to his boxers and gets in bed. The boxers have cartoon pugs all over them. “I can’t believe that’s the lingerie you’re wearing for our honeymoon,” Ashton says, handing him a glass. “I also can’t believe those boxers even exist.”

Calum raises it to him in a salute and takes a sip. “These boxers are fantastic, but I guess if you want me to take them off…” he trails off, eyebrow raised, thumb hooked in the waistband pushing them down past his hipbone, then further until Ashton can see the crease of his thigh.

“No, no,” Ashton says hurriedly, “I’m just saying, what’s wrong with a nice pair of footie pajamas? Keeps you warm. Keeps you modest.” Nevertheless he shucks his own clothes except for his own (very grown-up, perfectly normal, in a flattering shade of dark green) boxers and joins Calum in bed. Calum’s already stopped paying attention to him, too busy trying to figure out how to work the remote. He finally gets the screen to flash on, and Ashton stays quiet, sipping his wine while Calum flips channels, finally landing on something in black and white. Cary Grant comes on screen but Ashton still isn’t sure what movie it is; Calum seems interested enough, setting the remote down between them, so he doesn’t complain. The wine goes down easy and Ashton does too after not too long.

He rolls onto his side and sees that Calum’s eyes are already closed. It doesn’t look like he’s asleep yet; it always takes him a bit, leaving him in a dozy stage for about ten minutes during which he might respond crankily to any communication or with adorable mumbling affection. Ashton turns the sound down and says, as quietly as he can, “TV off?” Calum’s eyes don’t open, but he nods a little. “Okay. You want me to go sleep in the other room?”

Calum moves then, a sleepy shift of his body, fumbling a hand up and blindly patting the sheet until he makes contact with Ashton’s hand on the remote and squeezes it, links their fingers together like he can’t quite figure out how to make it work. It feels nice. “’S’okay,” he murmurs. “Stay here.”

Ashton didn’t feel like getting up anyway.

#asks #anonymous #cashton #my fic #5sos #extremely hurtful btw to look at my 5sos unfinished fic folder #1k of lashton living together #2k of cashton h/c #2k of ot4 #4k of mashton that was going to become ot4 #6k of calum/ashton/luke which is the one i'm probably most mad about it bc there's so much good stuff in there #rip my sweet children you were fun while you lasted #OH MY GOD and the almost 5k of michael/luke in an au where 5sos were a queercore band #i am sorry stories!! i wanted better for all of you!!!!!

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celestialmazer · 3 years

Text

Julie Mehretu, Hineni (E. 3:4), 2018. Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle; gift of George Economou, 2019. © Julie Mehretu. Photography:Tom Powel Imaging

Julie Mehretu, Mind-Wind Field Drawings (quarantine studio, d.h.) #1, 2019-2020. Private collection, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery New York/Paris. © Julie Mehretu. Photography courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery

Julie Mehretu, Mogamma (A Painting in Four Parts) Part 1, 2012. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. © Julie Mehretu. Photography: White Cube, Ben Westoby

Julie Mehretu, Conjured Parts (eye), Ferguson, 2016. The Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles. © Julie Mehretu. Photography: Cathy Carver

Julie Mehretu, Migration Direction Map (large), 1996. Private collection. © Julie Mehretu. Photography: Tom Powel Imaging

At home with artist Julie Mehretu

CAMILLE OKHIO - 25 MAR 2021

Julie Mehretu speaks with the joy and conviction of someone who has had the freedom to investigate all their interests. Curiosity has led her to the myriad topics, objects and moments that inform her work, among them cartography, archaeology, the birth of civilisation and mycology. Since the 1990s, her practice has expanded outwardly in all directions like a spider web. A lack of understanding and preconceived notions among reviewers have often led to her work being flattened – simplified so that it is easily digestible – but in reality, her work is far from a simplistic investigation of any one topic. It encompasses multitudes.

The artist’s recent paintings are mostly large scale, but her early works on paper (often created with multiple layers – one sheet of Mylar on top of another) are as small as a six-inch square. The works often comprise innumerable minuscule markings – tremendous force and knowledge communicated through delicate inkings and streaks. Their layers reveal, rather than obfuscate. And though Mehretu’s creative process springs from a desire to understand herself better, the work itself is in no way autobiographical.

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the tails of a continental rejection of colonialism, and raised there, then in Michigan, Mehretu has a flexible and full-hearted understanding of home. It is not one physical place, but many, all holding equal importance. On 25 March, Mehretu will present her first major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with works spanning 1996 to 2019. The institution is an important one for Mehretu, as it played host to several pivotal shows in her youth.

Her exhibition has served as an impetus for Mehretu to look back at her already prolific career, observing and organising the thoughts, questions and answers she has put forth for over two decades. The six years it took to bring this exhibition together proved an incredibly valuable time of reflection, fatefully dovetailing with a year of quarantine.

Wallpaper*: Where are you as we speak?

Julie Mehretu: I’m in my studio on 26th Street, right on the West Side Highway. I’ve worked here for 11 years.

W*: Are there any artists, writers or thinkers that have had a meaningful impact on you?

JM: I don’t know how to answer that because there are literally so many! It’s constantly changing. Right now, Kara Walker, David Hammons, William Pope.L, and younger artists like Jason Moran (who has made amazing work around abstraction). There are so many artists that have been informative and important to me: Frank Bowling, Jack Whitten, Caravaggio.

I also look at a lot of prehistoric work, from as far back as 60,000 years ago, as well as cave paintings from 6th century China and early prehistoric drawings in the caves of Australia.

W*: What’s the most interesting thing you have read, watched or listened to recently?

JM: For the last few weeks I’ve been immersed in Steve McQueen films. I’ve been bingeing on lovers rock music. And a TV show that really moved me was [Michaela Cole’s] I May Destroy You. It’s difficult, but it was really well done and powerful.

Ocean Vuong’s novel On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous is amazing. The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is a really incredible book too – she studies this mushroom that became a delicacy in Japan in the 7th century. It started growing in deforested areas – it’s in these places destroyed by human beings that these mushrooms survive. [I find it interesting] that this mushroom grows on the edge of precarity and destruction. Like with Black folks, there is a constant aspect of insisting on yourself and reinventing yourself in the midst of constant effort of destruction.

W*: What was the first piece of art you remember seeing? How did you feel about it?

JM: One of the first times I remember being moved by a work of art was looking through my mother’s Rembrandt book. We brought so few things back from Ethiopia and that was one of them. [Particularly] Rembrandt’s The Sacrifice of Isaac. That story is so intense. I was so moved by the light and the skin and the way the paint made light and skin.

W*: Do you travel? If so, what does travel afford you, and what have you missed about it during Covid-19?

JM: I travel a lot, but I haven’t travelled this year. There has been this amazing sense of suspension and a pause in that. I miss travelling, but going to look at art, watching films, reading novels and listening to music is the way I travel now. For instance, I’ve been listening to Afro-Peruvian music and now I want to go to Peru.

Before I know it we will be back in this fast-paced, zooming-around environment – there is something I want to savour by staying here, now, in this time and absorbing as much as I can.

W*: You are said to have a vast collection of objects and images. Walk me through your collection – what areas, materials, makers and things have the largest presence and why?

JM: When you enter our home there is this long hallway. Framed along the wall we have around 20 fluorescent Daniel Joseph Martinez block-printed posters he made with words – almost poems. Our kids grew up reading those. One says ‘Sometimes I can’t breathe’ and another one says ‘Don’t work’, while some are really long.

We also have a great Paul Pfeiffer photograph of one from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse series. We have a group of Richard Tuttle etchings right over our dining table. We have an amazing David Hammons body print as well, and my kids’ work is all over the house.

W*: As the daughter of immigrants and an immigrant yourself – how do you conceptualise home and how do you create it?

JM: There were a lot of times I felt very transient – as a student and a young adult, going in and out of school and residency programmes. It always came back to music and food. There are certain flavours, foods, music, smells that you take wherever you go. Also as a mother, I’m building a home for my children. Home becomes something else because of them. They are the core of home now.

W* How has motherhood affected your practice?

JM: I became much more productive when I had kids for several reasons – one is that I felt a lot of pressure to make [work] in the time I wasn’t with them, which of course is unsustainable. A large part of making is not making – thinking and searching.

When I got to work I could get into it much more quickly. Kids grow and change so fast, you feel time is passing so you need to use it. I wasn’t going to stop working, that’s for sure. All women who are pushing in their lives make that choice.

W*: What is your favourite myth and why does it hold importance for you?

JM: Right now I’m reading Greek myths to my ten-year-old. We’ve read them before, but he wanted to read them again. I still read to him at night even though he’s a voracious reader himself.

The myths I remember the most are myths I’ve come across in visual works. Titian’s Diana and Actaeon – I know that myth so well because of his painting. Bernini’s mesmerising sculpture of Apollo and Daphne I saw in Rome, where her body becomes a tree. The leaves are so delicately carved into the marble, it’s a work of incredible beauty. I’ve been considering this deconstructionist approach to mythology. Storytelling becomes this place to interrogate propositions, which is what I think mythology does.

W*: Have you experienced a flattening of your work?

JM: I’m always concerned with flattening and pigeonholing. That is something that happens to artists like us all the time. When I first was working and showing there was a bit of that happening with my work. It was put into the space of cartography or an architectural analysis of it. It was said to be autobiographical work.

The art world tries to consume. There is this desire to flatten and the desire for Black artists to be a reflection of their experience. I don’t think any artist is like that at all. In reality, none of us are flat. We all contain multitudes and are complicated – that has always been the core of the Black radical tradition.

#julie mehretu #art #abstract art #abstract #mark making #history #geography #nature

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