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lostcauses-noregrets · 5 years

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Ten Years

As of this month I’ve been writing fan fiction for ten years. I was going to mark the occasion but of course I missed the actual date and it went by before I noticed :}

I posted my first fic on 10th December 2009 just a month after the beta of Archive Of Our Own launched. It was a real leap in the dark for me as I’d only started reading fan fiction a few months previously and I hadn’t written any kind of fiction since leaving school twenty years previously. Added to which, I was writing for the Hornblower fandom, a decade after the tv show first aired, and although the book side of the fandom was still active, the tv fandom had been dead for years. The fic was called Grey to Black and it was essentially a short gap fill fic. I cross-posted it on Livejournal, which was where the fandom had previously been active, and was astonished to get incredibly supportive feedback and comments from the book fans, which in turn led to one of the few active tv series fans contacting me, and shortly afterwards we set up a new LJ fan com, which ran for years. Ten years later, we’re still in touch and we’re meeting up for Christmas drinks later in the week.

In the ten years since posting Grey to Black I’ve posted 106 fics on AO3 and probably another couple of dozen on LJ. And in all that time I’ve only ever written for two pairings in two fandoms; HH/AK (2009 – 2015) and Eruri (2015 – present). My last Hornblower fic was the aptly named The Anniversary, posted on LJ in January 2015 and my first Eruri fic was Written On His Skin posted in November 2015.

Writing fiction has been an unexpected joy for me. I really love writing and the support and feedback of other fans is a continual source of delight. Unfortunately I am terrible at answering comments on AO3, for which I feel endlessly guilty, but I can tell you that I appreciate each and every one more than I can say. Fandom has also led me to meet some of the most amazing people from all over the world, many of whom have become very dear friends in real life.

I haven’t had so much time for writing fic over the last six months or so, just due to the usual pressures of work and life and such, but I still try to write whenever I can and it means the world to me. The last fic I posted was a tiny little smutty Eruri drabble called Super Quick, but I’ve made a start on the next chapter of HMS Maria and I have another tiny ficlet open on my desktop right now too.

I have no idea whether I’ll keep writing for another ten years, but for now I’d just like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who has ever liked, commented on, or reblogged any of my fics, or even just quietly read and enjoyed them. You’re the Best ♡ Happy Christmas all!

#writing #fan fic #eruri #hornblower

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midnight-scrivener · 7 years

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Question Thing

I got tagged by both @mieliikki and @scienceoftheidiot, so boy oh boy do I have some questions to answer! Here goes: (And this is going under a cut because it got waaay longer than I meant it to.)

1. Favourite historical era?

Geesh... I love ‘em all, but probably The Napoleonic Wars. After all, that’s where we get Age of Sail from!

2. Favourite landmark?

Probably Fingal’s Cave or Cenote do Ojos. I love sea caves.

3. How many languages do you speak?

Just the one, unfortunately. But I’m learning Welsh! and I can do all kinds of accents and dialects.

4. Which scene from your favourite show stands out to you the most?

Oh no, I have to pick?? Maybe... okay. (Spoilers incoming, if you haven’t seen it yet) In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Five, the episode called Fool for Love. When Buffy has Spike out behind the Bronze and she’s interrogating him about how he killed Nikkie Wood. And the camera keeps flashing between him and Buffy and him and Nikkie and there’s this incredible sense of tension and danger and you remember for a second what kind of a man he was before they put that stupid chip in his head and you can just see him getting off on the idea of all the pain and the slayers’ collective death wish. Buffy ends up rejecting him when he confesses his feelings for her, and he goes home with murder on his mind. But when he hunts her down, shotgun in hand, he finds her shattered with the news of her mother’s illness, and he suddenly can’t bring himself to do it anymore. The episode closes with them just sitting side by side silently. It’s foreshadowing of their soon to unfold (unhealthy) relationship. Because they’re both so deeply scarred and broken that, even though they fundamentally abhor each other to start , they need each other because no one close to them can fully grasp the trauma that they’ve been struggling with. It’s also a really nice example of how ultimately Buffy’s strength and resilience is such that even when she’s feeling just so lost and helpless, she still can bring out the best in everyone around her without even knowing she’s doing it. (and that went on way too long, but that’s what it is)

5. Favourite mythological creature?

Selkie! They’re so beautiful and mysterious.

6. If you could master one skill what would it be?

Gene Kelley-style Tap Dance!

7. Favourite genre of music?

Anything a little weird! I guess based on what I’ve been listening to recently though it would have to be Spooky Folk.

8. Who is your greatest inspiration?

Tie between David Bowie and Robin Williams. They’ve both taught me so much about self-love and artistic discovery and bringing other people joy through art and performance that I legitimately don’t know what I would be doing today if it weren’t for them.

9. City or countryside?

I adore the countryside, but if it’s a city like Savannah Georgia then I’ll have to go with city. With the cobbled streets and dead end alleys and pirate smuggling houses, so chock full of ghosts and ghouls and local legends that the air just thrums with its own special spirit. The ever present lap of water and ships the size of apartment complexes cruising nonchalantly by like the behemoths of a dystopian maritime realm. Where the magical and manufactured meld together into a surreal in between world where peaches are always in season and you can see weird shadows out of the corner of your eye in your favorite coffee shop. The bronze statues on plinths in the square seem to just slightly shift positions sometimes and every once in a while wear a chagrined expression like a teenager whose parents have just caught them sneaking back home when they weren’t supposed to be out. I love those sorts of cities.

10. If you could relive one past memory what would it be?

Mmm. Probably cliff diving in Costa Rica. It was like nothing I’ve ever done before or since.

11. Are you religious?

Kind of? I’m a Christian, but I’ve had nothing but lousy experiences with the Church as a whole, so I tend to veer sharply away from anything organized. I prefer to just study on my own.

What is the last thing you cooked ? A really yummy chicken casserole and some fresh veggies!

What would you name your pet if you had a new one ? if he was a boy, then Merry, but if she was a girl, then Saoirse (Seersha).

What do you think about cryptids ? I. Love. Cryptids. There’s just something fascinating to me about the idea that there’s still more out there than we know!

Artist or just enjoying the art, do you prefer traditional or digital ? Artist! I’ve been using digital more recently. I think it’s a little more challenging than traditional, but you have unlimited colors and there’s less setup time.

Favourite super-heros ? Deary me. Thank goodness for that plural. Daredevil, Constantine, Lucifer, Rudy from Misfits (he counts shh) Deadpool, Spiderman, and the list goes on

Last show you watched ? Doctor Who! The season four finale, with the Daleks and the DoctorDonna.

If you could visit any new country, which one ? Probably Wales. It’s so pretty!

Which type of tea ? Chai Tea

What is your Hogwarts house ? Slytherin!!

Where are you from ? The swampy, perpetually liminal lands of the Southern US.

C’est une bonne situation, ça, scribe ? ... Yes? I feel like google mistranslated it or some context was lost or something lol.

Okay, my questions!

1. Favorite Villains?

2. Favorite Folk Story?

3. If you could choose to live in any fictional story, what would it be and why?

4. Hornblower or the Aubreyad?

5. Colin Firth or Matthew Macfadyen?

6. Most embarassing childhood fact (that you feel comfortable sharing with god and everybody)?

7. Favorite series that was cancelled too soon?

8. Favorite books that the movie/tv show screwed up?

9. Have you ever seen a movie you preferred to the book? What was it?

10. Favorite obscure, under the radar band?

11. Steampunk or Dieselpunk?

and I tag (sorry for the repeats BUT): @scienceoftheidiot @mieliikki @rebelside @heymoon9 @isaannart @scribbledhandwrite @savageinkspillage @corpyburd @soot-and-snide @lasimo74allmyworld @ktpal15

#personal #my stuff #tag meme

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olderthannetfic · 8 years

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Escapade 2017 Con Report

I gave @rhaegalks a lift, came home, and flopped on my bed for a few hours. It turns out that a gross head cold plus a ton of parties plus the hotel’s alarm going off at like 7am is not good for my ability to be upright and functional. Zzzzz.

This year, we were in a new and fabulous hotel. Let’s hope we can afford it next year too. (Check out Escapade’s crowdfunding campaign.) The rooms are big, with an excellent fold-out couch in the outer room and two TVs: it’s the perfect set up for room parties.

Not that I had any of those this year. I was too busy helping with the Friday night dance party and hosting the Saturday night after party in the con suite. I would have thought that the hotel’s layout made sound travel, but we had no security issues, so I guess the sound proofing is better than I thought or we just weren’t that loud.

Booze and food:

What? You don’t think those are the most important parts of a party?

The hotel has happy hour every day. All the ehhh wine or basic mixed drinks you can cram down from 5:30 to 7:30. I didn’t eat at the hotel restaurant; reportedly, the burgers were dry. The old hotel is just across the street, and its restaurant is very good, if overpriced. I brought some real food for the con suite. I wish I’d been able to do more. Maybe next year, a few more of us can bring entree type offerings. I love how BASCon let you just eat lunch out of the con suite to keep things cheap. (RIP, BASCon. ;__;)

Friday, there were three specialty cocktails served by the hotel bartender. Vodka (ew), more vodka (ew), and a specialty margarita (pretty good for a bar at a hotel event). The hors d’oeuvres were great: little egg rolls and beef skewers.

Saturday, a bunch of us went out for swanky Mexican a short drive away. (The con is in the cultural wasteland that surrounds LAX, so the options are mostly bad chains, plus terrible Mexican, better Mexican, and swanky Mexican. Not so much with the variety. There’s a Greek place I’ve still never been to.) I had duck molé and regaled @t-cupsandtime with my many lolwhut fandom adventures. (Yes, I talked about myself all through dinner. Why do you ask? ;D)

Later, after the vid show, I hosted the after party in the con suite, where I set up a bar to serve a variety of lovely cocktails, each a different color. (Predictably, I got caught up dealing with tech issues in another room, so people just drank all the vodka and poured themselves whatever they felt like, but I did have a cool cocktail menu in theory!)

We also watched a few vids and, more importantly, I was able to inflict Always Crashing in the Same Car on a whole roomful of fans. Come dwell with me in terrible kinky porn land, friends!

My cocktail offerings were:

Negroni - in honor of Killa always eying my sugar death bomb drinks with alarm

Moonlight - in honor of Joi McMillon’s gushing at Visible Artists over the editing process on Moonlight (you fangirl, you!)

Amaretto Sour - because I had a lot of home-grown lemons

Grasshopper - because SUGAR DEATH BOMB

China Blue - no, not that vodka bullshit in a martini glass: the tropical weirdness with lychee liqueur, blue curaçao, and grapefruit juice

White Russian - can’t go wrong with the Dude

Penguin - frothy, pink, and full of gin--in honor of Escapade’s mascot, gay penguins

Vids

This year, there was just a vidding 101 panel (which I did not attend) and vid review (which I did). The Friday dance party was my playlist, which you can see on Tumblr here. It wasn’t as OT3-y as I wanted, but it worked great as a dance playlist.

I’ll mention again that I started my vid search based on the fandoms on people’s profiles on the Escapade website. 90% of you didn’t fill anything out, so I didn’t look for your fandoms. Just saying! The dance party also takes suggestions, both for fandoms and for specific vids. Suggest early; suggest often!

I did a lot of my vid hunting on AO3. Unlike Tumblr or Youtube, you can search it properly for just things that are fanvids or just for fanvids in specific fandoms, and you can find things that were posted longer ago than last week.

The Saturday vidshow is the big one where vidders premiere their vids for a rapt audience as opposed to a bunch of loud drunk people... unless you’re in the loud room, in which case, it’s still a bunch of loud drunk people. This year, it was a little underwhelming. While the vids were all excellent--maybe even better than in other years--they were also heavily drawn from last Festivids and last VividCon. As often happens, many of them were rather heavy. For the dance party, I chose based on music, even if the only copy of a vid I had was grabbed from Youtube and full of pixilation. The real vidshow tries to keep image quality higher, and that makes finding vids much harder: most vidders don’t think in terms of HQ files that will look good on a projector. I think that’s a pity because, while our numbers at Escapade are small, we’re a very dedicated audience. Make pretty HQ versions, vidders! Let us love you! And post to AO3! Let us find you!

Panels!

Lots of meta and recs panels for me this year. I ran a panel on films about fandom: the problematic ones that exist, the ones we’d like to see, and my grad school thesis that I’d like you to donate to when the indiegogo goes up.

I also ran The Fannish Dating Game, the panel where you pimp your fandom by being a bachelorette and answering our lovely contestant’s questions. Certain People having failed with McHale’s Navy last year were determined to drag everyone into Barney Miller this year. When I was a contestant, the three options turned out to be The Eagle, Master and Commander, and Cardcaptor Sakura--all fandoms I used to be in. Heh. I think I’m due for a turn back through Hornblower, to be honest, but maybe another Age of Sail frenzy will follow.

The Kids Are Not the Problem: I know I attended this, but I can’t remember a thing about it other than who the mods were... Doh.

Home on the Web: This was a panel about what’s missing in Tumblr or other alternatives today and where we should go. The discussion circled around the idea that there needs to be a fannish-run social media site and that we need a good backup/download tool for Tumblr lest it go away some day. I don’t think we really discussed what’s wrong with Dreamwidth: many things are great about it, but it lacks some of the audiovisual aspects that I’ve grown to love elsewhere. One thing that came up again and again for me is that some of the requested things exist or could exist, but we either aren’t making use of tools we should, like filling out our AO3 profiles or using AO3′s bookmarks feature, or we don’t know where to find the good fuckyeah tumblrs and other replacements for fannish newsletters. In my opinion, everyone should go ahead and invest time in tumblr even if its economic model is unsustainable, but we should figure out how to back it up ASAP. Everyone should also go have the threaded discussions they want to in AO3 fic comments.

Let’s Collab! New Forms of Collective Fan Creativity: I couldn’t make it to this since it conflicted with Home on the Web. I’d love to know how it was.

How to Threesome: We played with posable dolls and nattered about what kinds of sex we like in OT3 fic and whether or not it’s similar to what makes sense in real life. (Answer: of course it’s not. It’s exactly like two-person couples in erotica and romance in that there’s lots of Souls As One simultaneous shit and much less realistic sex where one person takes a lot longer than another.)

The Slash Book: This is really cool. There’s talk of a slash book that combines fan and academic perspectives.

OT3 for Me: Another panel of OT3 squee. (It’s Escapade 27, so the theme is OT3s.) We all wanted more canons with OT3s and other poly arrangements. What year is this again? Surely, there should be more in self-published ebooks at least by now? Lots of us talked about shipping teams together: buddy cops = OTP, Leverage = 2+3, MCU = team orgy.

It’s Canon, but is it slash? I proposed this but didn’t run it, so it spent a lot of time on the meta question of what defines slash. I was more interested in the question of whether pro m/m is scratching the same itches and what’s good. We concluded that it theoretically could, but the vast majority of it doesn’t because it’s just not good enough at setting up the iddy character dynamics before it gets to the fucking. Give us buddy cops and superhero-supervillain feuds before they bump uglies, please!

You’re Totally Welcome on my Lawn, but I Wish You Wouldn’t Pee on the Grass: Not, as it happens, my panel. Anyone have a panel review?

We’re All Going to Hell: Obviously an amazing panel full of all of My People. Now where are my noncon xeno recs?

Wank: It’s Coming from Inside the Fandom: We tried to define both ‘wank’ and ‘The Discourse’ and never really settled on anything, but we did get to explain His Wife, A Horse to the unwary. Muahahahaha!

#escapade 2017 #con report

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essaysonmedia-blog · 8 years

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Galavant

I’ve had the opportunity to introduce quite a few people to Galavant, and a common question upon first viewing is, “This was on TV?” That reaction highlights both why the show succeeds and why it failed to get a wider audience while it aired. Galavant is so unlike any other show on TV that it’s difficult to give it a genre. It’s a musical fantasy adventure…sitcom? It draws heavily from Monty Python, but it isn’t the farce that Holy Grail was. So let’s take a look at what made Galavant so fantastic and unique.

Galavant’s most obvious and delightful strength is its music. Alan Menken, the show’s composer (and the genius behind the music of The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, and Aladdin), is a melodic Midas. The show is almost wasteful with how many catchy tunes it unpacks each episode. “Will My Day Ever Come” has an urgency and a longing to it that almost ignores how funny the lyrics are. (And this is to say nothing of the main Galavant theme from Season 1, or the main theme from Season 2.) Menken’s gift is similar to John Williams, who also seems like and endless fount of unforgettable melodies.

More often than not, the lyrics are pretty great as well. “Build a New Tomorrow,” for example, is so hilarious that it’s easy to miss what a good parody it is. Towards the end of the number, when the village enumerates everyone who’s excluded from voting, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that these were actual requirements for the American voting public:

“The landed and the wealthy and the pious and the healthy and the straight ones and the pale ones and we only mean the male ones. If you’re all of the above, then you’re okay!”

In addition to being really funny, it’s more insightful and subtle commentary than even the “Dennis the Peasant” routine from Holy Grail (which is the obvious inspiration behind the song).

(If the show has one rotten apple, it’s “Different Kind of Princess.” They lyrics are utterly uninspired, and I get the sense that Menken—wizard though he is—has never heard a rock song.)

Galavant is a show where you love everyone and want everyone to succeed, even the villains. Timothy Omundson’s unfolding of Richard’s endearing nature is so gradual that it takes a while to realize how desperately we want Richard to be happy. Karen David is the show’s most extraordinary singer. Luke Youngblood (of Harry Potter and Community fame) brings boundless charisma. It took me a few episodes to realize that the outrageous villain/event planner, Wormwood, was played by Robert Lindsay, who is also the dignified Admiral Sir Edward Pellew in Horatio Hornblower. And who knew that Sophie McShera (Daisy from Downton Abbey) had such pipes?

The cameos are a blast as well. Weird Al, Hugh Bonneville, Ricky Gervais all add to the joyful romp of the show. If there’s one thing that defines the mood of Galavant, it’s that the cast and writers seem to be having so much fun. It feels as though they snuck onto the studio lot after hours and decided to just have at it. There’s a kind of glee in their performance like they can’t believe they’re getting away with making this show. Hence the comment I kept hearing from my friends and family as they started watching Galavant:

“This was on TV?”

#Galvant #tv

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phooll123 · 4 years

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New top story from Time: Beastie Boys Story Tells It Like It Was—But You Can’t Help Missing Yauch

If you were around and into music circa 1987, your feelings about the Beastie Boys may have depended on your tolerance for obnoxious, sexist, hard-partying dude bros. That’s how they presented themselves as performers, and that’s largely the fan base they attracted. Which is not to say women didn’t sometimes love them—their pimply machismo was its own kind of rascally energy. Plus, they were just kids, being ridiculous. Sample lyric: “Girls! To do the dishes/Girls! To clean up my room/Girls! To do the laundry/Girls! And in the bathroom/Girls! That’s all I really want is girls.” Going all schoolmarm on them was a waste of energy.

Thank God, though, they didn’t go on that way forever: The follow-up to the Beasties’ 1986 hit album License to Ill was 1989 Paul’s Boutique, a much better, more adventurous work that sold many fewer copies, though it’s now considered a modern classic. In Beastie Boys Story—which airs on Apple TV+ beginning April 24—surviving members Adam Horowitz and Michael Diamond (a.k.a. Ad-Rock and Mike D) take to the stage, turning the Beasties’ story into an oral history, enhanced with sound and video clips, concert footage and general archival stuff. Adam Yauch, known as MCA, was both the founder of the group and guy whose vision helped hold it together for more than 20 years; he died in 2012, from parotid cancer, and though he’s present in spirit in Beastie Boys Story, you can’t help feeling that the whole thing would be a lot more fun, and smarter, if he were around. Horowitz and Diamond seem to feel that way too. At times their reflections have a settin’ on the front porch wistfulness, a mood that hits almost all hell-raisers at some point. There are moments when Beastie Boys Story has the aura of a heavy sigh, laden with the knowledge that the skateboard long ago skidded off the half pipe.

Still, if you’ve ever felt even a scrap of affection for the band, Beastie Boys Story has its charms. In 2018 Horowitz and Diamond released a book detailing the group’s history—it was called, with typical forthrightness, Beastie Boys Book—and devised a stage show to promote it. Beastie Boys Story, directed by longtime Beasties collaborator Spike Jonze, is a revised version of that show, filmed at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Horowitz and Diamond, looking more hip dad than hip hop in their chinos and zip-up jackets, relay the story from day one, describing themselves, circa the early 1980s, as hardcore-obsessed New York City high schoolers whose lives revolved around Bad Brains, Misfits and Circle Jerks concerts. It was at one of these shows that Diamond and Horowitz met Yauch. Around this point in the film, two vintage photographs flash on the screen: One shows Yauch at 16, looking tough yet adorable in a thrift-shop raincoat, its lapels dotted with home-made badges; in the other, there’s a rat perched on his head.

Beastie Boys Story covers both the high and the many low points of the band’s career. They started out as an intensely amateur hardcore band before being transformed, by producer and Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, into a novelty: A trio of white rappers barely out of high school. Horowitz and Diamond explain that the Beasties started writing songs and raps as a goof, starting out with dumb phrases that they’d use to try to crack each other up. (The song that put them on the map with New York DJs was the kooky-raucous “Cooky Puss,” an ode to a particular style of Carvel ice-cream cake advertised on television.) They also liked to make fun of drunken white frat-boy types—until, when they were given the chance to open for Madonna on tour, they decided their strategy for getting noticed was to, as Diamond puts it, be “as rude and as awful as possible on-stage.” They went from being guys who made fun of party bros “to actually being those dudes,” he says.

After months of grueling touring—and partying—the group took a breather, eventually breaking with Simmons and regrouping in Los Angeles to try something new. From there, they continued to reinvent themselves, gradually, as they became full-fledged adults. Onstage, Diamond and Horowitz reckon with some of their brattier material. Diamond tells a story about how around the time of the band’s fifth album, Hello Nasty (1998), a journalist was grilling Horowitz about his claim that the band had grown up over the years, reminding him of how long it took for the Beasties to finally shed their sexist vibe. As Diamond recalls, Horowitz said, “I’d rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever.”

The Beasties had to change, and Beastie Boys Story charts that long, winding trek. Yauch was always the Beastie with the wildest ideas and the most effortless talent: When the trio decided they needed to become real musicians who could actually play instruments, Yauch picked up the double bass as if it were nothing. After visiting Tibet, he became involved in the Tibetan independence movement, organizing the Tibetan Freedom Concert, a series of festivals whose proceeds were used to support the cause. A clip from one of the events shows him greeting young monks in training one by one, clasping their hands in his, his face radiating pure joy. As Diamond puts it in the movie’s press notes, “Yauch made everything more interesting.”

Maybe that’s why, even though Yauch feels present in spirit, his physical absence burrows a hole in Beastie Boys Story. In 2004 I was assigned by the New York Times to review the Beasties’ video for “Ch-Check It Out.” I liked the song; I thought the video, directed by Yauch’s alter ego Nathanial Hornblower, was lame. A month after the review ran, the Times received a letter from Hornblower himself, which began like this:

To the Editor:

I had the great pleasure of reading your unsolicited critique of the ”Ch-Check It Out” music video [”Licensed to Stand Still” by Stephanie Zacharek, May 16]. It took some time to get to me, as it had to be curried (sp?) on goatback through the fjords of my homeland, the Oppenzell. And in the process the goat died, and then I had to give the mailman one of my goats, so remember, you owe me a goat.

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

In concluding, ”Ch-Check It Out” is the always best music film and you will be realizing this too far passing. As ever I now wrap my dead goat carcass in the soiled New York Times—and you are not forgetting to buy me a replacement! Please send that one more goat to me now!

Watching Beastie Boys Story reminded me of the genius of that crazy, not to mention 100 percent correct, letter. Horowitz and Diamond all but come out and say that Yauch was the best of them—the guy who first brought them together and then held them together, always coming up with new ideas they never would have dreamed of. He’s the missing ingredient from this documentary, as Horowitz and Diamond know all too well.

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

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viralnewstime · 4 years

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To the Editor:

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

#Blogger

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newstechreviews · 4 years

Link

To the Editor:

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

#Blogger

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itsfinancethings · 4 years

Link

To the Editor:

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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otisoverturf · 5 years

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Darts – The Albums 1977-81 – Album Review

Darts – The Albums 1977-81

7T’s

4CD/DL

Released 21st June 2019

Boxset containing everything Darts recorded for Magnet Records in the band’s halcyon days including number 2 hits Come Back My Love, The Boy From New York City and It’s Raining……LTW’s Ian Canty looks at almost forgotten chart powerhouse of the late 1970s….

People sometimes make the mistake of retrospectively grouping Darts with Glam Rock & Roll revivalists like Mud and Showaddywaddy, but they were in truth miles different. There was nothing really like Darts. Rhythm and Blues crate diggers before the term was invented, they furnished themselves with obscure R&B gems from the 50s instead of just reviving tried and tested 50s Rock hit singles. Crucially they gave them a pure shot of energy which was all their own. Added to that there was the fact that instead of the drape uniforms, their thrift shop chic meant they looked more like they had met in at a bus stop (just like the Kilburns did).

This band of interesting personalities formed in 1976, with bass singer Den Hegarty and Griff Fender recruiting fellow vocalists Rita Ray and Bob Fish (who had previously been with Mickey Jupp’s band). On the musical side bass player Thump Thompson, guitarist George Currie and John Dummer on drums all came in from the latter’s own band, with saxophonist Horatio Hornblower (real name Nigel Trubridge, writer of a majority of Darts’ self-penned material) and Hammy Howell on piano completeing the line up. Hegarty, Fender, Ray and Hornblower had all previously been part of Rocky Sharpe And The Razors (Sharpe have some success with the backing of the Replays).

A nine piece band with four singers, they had more than enough musical muscle, energy and vocal finesse to apply to any given situation that occurred in their own compositions, as well as those choice cover selections. Their lives shows were manic, theatrical and full of ribald humour and even a young Johnny Rotten was espied checking them out in 1977 (Kate Bush also attended a Darts’ gig, despite keeping the band off the Number One spot with Wuthering Heights). Later on they were an undoubted influence on the main Two Tone bands. For example Madness were fans and certainly approached their frantic stage show in a manner akin to Darts. The Specials and future Magnet label mates Bad Manners employed a similar all-action approach in concert to them as well.

The glowing reputation they rapidly gained in concert meant they were snapped up by the aforementioned Magnet Record label. Their debut single, a mash-up of Daddy Cool and The Girl Can’t Help it, steamed all the way up into the Top Ten. It worked as the perfect introduction to the band – Daddy Cool was an old Doo Wop b-side, Darts musically gave it a fast workout and Hegarty’s mugging on Little Richard’s The Girl Can’t Help It was priceless. It was quick, witty and fun and deservedly started the band on a long run of chart success in the UK.

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Coming out at roughly the same time as the single, the self-titled first album generally pleased most fans of their high-octane live act and provided another smart hit in the guise of Come Back My Love, the first of three number two singles in a row. Not merely appealing to the Teddy Boy revival (in fact they were not well-received by that fraternity, as Griff states in the sleevenote that accompanies this boxset), Darts played alongside New Wave acts (and I’ve been told they featured in the Sounds New Wave chart at one point) and their sheer energy and exuberance helped them pick up fans from all sides.

On this first LP Young Blood is powered along by some decidedly sleazy sax and a great vocal from Rita, it has a real swagger to it. Darts were always a ruder proposition than they first seemed and could pen a punchy piece of R&B like the memorable Shotgun. Years before the bloody Flying Pickets, they did some fine Doo Wop acapella on Sometime Lately and showed that away from raw Blues they could also handle pretty sounding 50s Pop expertly, like on another cool band original Bells In My Heart.

It made sense that the LP went out on a real highlight of their live set, another concoction of songs which featured I’m Mad, Fancy Man, Framed, Trouble and Riot In Cell Block No.9, all put together in a maniac/comic style. It was a show-stopping end to what was a very good first Darts LP. The bonus tracks on this disc are the single version of Come Back My Love which has a shorter vocal intro and raucous semi-instrumental b-side Naff Off.

Though the debut was good, the best was to come on second LP Everyone Plays Darts. Probably their most satisfying record, it brought together all the flash and flair that made the band so special. From the word go it is excellent, a non-stop cavalcade of fun that was as smart as it was entertaining. Rita’s velvety voice works wonderfully on big hit The Boy From New York City, an irresistible vocal performance which shot up the charts and kicks off Everyone Plays Darts.

This record was in a way the perfect music for 1978 – a bit more retro than the Rezillos (in fact Make It could almost be them), but matching their sense of fun and scattershot musical thump. Honey Love has an exotic rhythm with the band camping it up marvellously and Hegarty milks the comedy value of My Friend’s Wife for all it is worth. Another hit was the sublime It’s Raining, a Griff Fender song that showed Darts not to be confused with mere tribute acts that had to rely on covers for singles.

Howell showcases his piano skills on the Hammy’s Boogie (don’t run away, it isn’t Jools Holland!) and Late For Work is another comic ace from Den’s playbook. This is why Everyone Plays Darts is so entertaining – they can skilful navigate from a comedy number like that to heavenly Doo Wop on Late Last Night or killer R&B or dirty Soul strut in I Gotta Go Home – but it is still all recognisably Darts and everything they try here is pulled off with a real flourish. Everyone Plays Darts is just a great record.

Along with single versions of tracks on the LP we get both sides of the Don’t Let It Fade Away single (another Top 20 hit) and Messing Shoe Blues as bonus tracks – only Den Hegarty could get away with a Blues Rocker about stepping in dogshit! After this album a big-selling compilation entitled The Amazing Darts was issued before their third LP proper Dart Attack.

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Before the next album Darts were dealt a blow when founder Den Hegarty announced he was leaving to look after his terminally ill father. Later he would have a minor hit with the song Voodoo Voodoo and appear on the Clash album Sandinista, as well as hosting a few TV series including Saturday morning institution Tiswas. He was replaced by Kenny Andrews, who made his debut on Duke Of Earl single and Dart Attack LP. He was a more than adequate replacement vocally, but the album does miss some of the comic insanity Den specialised in. Duke Of Earl was a faithful rendition of a quite well-known song, not their usual modus operandi. Maybe this was Darts steadying the ship in the wake of Den’s exit?

The album is solid enough and contained two more minor hit singles in the guise of Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love and a version of Jackie Wilson’s Reet Petite. Curiously it has four songs that begin with the word Don’t – perhaps an unconscious message that all was not well as their run of hits appeared to be tailing off? Putting such speculation aside, Can’t Get Enough Of You Love surely deserved a better fate as a single than just brushing the Top 50 – it is elegant and catchy Pop with a 50s feel and even commences with a sitar sound, a first for Darts.

Don’t Look Back Now was another more or less straight Pop winner and the beaty and brassy Goodbye Brenda has a touch of the Beach Boys in its vocal arrangement. Cool Jerk may have been a bit of an obvious choice for a cover, but it does recall the band’s mad live energy. There isn’t much wrong with Dart Attack, but I suppose as trends changed and we approached the 80s with synths moved in perhaps there wasn’t a place for the band in the UK record buying public’s heart anymore.

The bonus tracks appended to this disc however are excellent and surprising. Both the self-penned Get It single (with a touch of Time Is Tight in the intro) and flipside How Many Nights are fine efforts, which deservedly returned them to the upper reaches of the singles chart. But the real eye openers for me are the other two bonuses. I Have It My Way is an out-and-out Steve Marriott music hall job, complete with banjo and riotous ending featuring Police sirens, barking dogs, wild threats and various other mayhem! When you thought Darts couldn’t pull anything out of the hat you didn’t expect, they do this. The final song Sing Out The Old, Bring In The New is marked “album outtake”, but seems to me more like a projected Christmas single that never was, complete with Wizzard-style kids chorus. It stayed in the vaults, a shame as I reckon it would have been a yuletide smash.

By the time of the final album featured here Darts Across America in 1981 (only released in the US), fashions had changed and the band’s chart career had drawn to a close. Though a Rockabilly revival was just hitting the UK courtesy of the Stray Cats, that was never what Darts were about. Perhaps they aimed this record at the US thinking that was the home of R&B and might take the band to its heart? It never paid off, but Darts Across America isn’t a bad record at all.

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The album’s big single, a revival of the Four Seasons’ Lets Hang On, had got the band back on Top Of The Pops and in the UK Top 20 in the early part of 1980, but again choosing such a well known song signalled all was not rosy in the Darts’ camp. Follow up Peaches And Cream barely made the Top 75, which was a shame as if it was released in 1978 it would have surely breached the Top 10, but times had moved on. A double A side pairing which featured a new take of Sh-Boom (originally on the debut album) and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas felt like the band were getting desperate. So much for the singles.

For this album Darts focussed more on their Soul side, which was at times very good, but lost a little of the R&B toughness and crazed havoc that informed what they did so well. Speedo nicely re-introduces back a bit of the comic fun they were known for and the quick strut/mash up of Joe Tex’s Show Me and Berry Gordy’s Do You Love Me authentically recaptures the classic Darts style of old. Only percussion accompanies acapella singing on False Alarm (bonus track Green For Go is structurally similar) and Sad And Lonely is a more than decent ballad, but overall it struggles to make the impact of the previous three LPs

Bonus tracks include both sides of the Jump Children Jump single, the first Darts’ 7″ to miss the charts entirely. But the hook for hardcore Darts fans may well be the last five bonuses, from the projected Frantic Attack album of 1980 that remained unreleased. They generally show Darts moving towards the Soul direction of Darts Across America, with Rita Ray working wonders on Holland Dozier Holland’s Feelin’. But the best efforts for me are bright sax instrumental Tight Lines and the Doo Wop Reggae (!) of Hey Jo Girl, which isn’t actually that far in sound from the Tow Tone bands they inspired in the first place….

To put it very simply, Darts were just extremely good at what they did. Their full on and fun approach yielded twelve hits singles and three top 20 LPs over the four year period this boxset covers, making them clearly one of the biggest bands in the country during 77/78/79. They were in the business of effortlessly supplying that joyful rush that only great Pop Music can only provide. For a few years they really had a magic touch.

Darts still play the occasional gig and you can put your shirt on it still being the wildest show in town. Above all Darts richly deserve a bit of respect (and this boxset), it was plain to see they were one of the finest Pop outfits the late 70s spawned. Hopefully this set will help people see how good they really were. They rarely put a foot wrong and constructed a steady stream of cool grooves that were imbued with one thing a lot of bands think they offer but few really do – tune into the pure fun of Darts right here.

Darts are on Facebook here

All words by Ian Canty – see his author profile here

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jb-blaq · 6 years

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Ideal Teams: Titans Show

So San Diego Comic-con has passed. There was lots of exciting news and even more exciting trailers, particularly with dc for once. It seems like everyone is a lot more excited than Aquaman and Shazam when they were just the week before. But with all good must come bad and even though DC had a lot of good looking things this SDCC they also had what must have been the biggest blunder. I think it's safe to say that almost nobody is seriously looking forward to they are Titans show anymore. There's a lot of reasons why from being yet another gritty reboot in an era where people are sick of them, to the clunky writing that was presented and from a visual perspective, the show looks awful. It's clear that they're not working with a very high budget and that should be fine Titans shouldn’t require that big a budget depending on which members they choose to use so let's take a look at the lineup.

... Oh. It's the cartoon. Again. Don't get me wrong I love to Teen Titans cartoon and these characters and I understand why they did it the cartoon lineup has become the most recognizable version of this team. Even though the show is technically called The Titans, who do have their own separate identity from the Teen Titans, you do want to peak the interest of people who grew up with the cartoon. My problem is not only are these characters more associated with Teen Titans than just Titans but all these characters require a higher budget than a tv shows going to get especially one that's on an untested streaming platform like this one is. So for this ideal teams, we're going to be making a more faithful and budget-friendly Titans team.

Robin (Dick Grayson) Now fuck Batmans aside Dick Grayson is a no-brainer. He's the team's original leader the most iconic Robin even though most of the Robin attributes the people associate with him come from other Robins. Having him struggle to form his own identity separate from Batman with it coalescing at the end of the season with him becoming Nightwing is a storyline that everybody's wanted to seeing live action for a long time.

Speedy (Roy Harper) Roy is my pick to be the second-in-command at least at the start of the season. He and Dick Grayson of always had a really fun rivalry very similar to Bruce and Ollie's or what I feel is a more apt comparison Hawkeye and Captain America's. Seems like archers have a knack for bumping heads against leaders. Besides the rivalry, Roy has tons of story potential as you can tackle his infamous battle with heroin, his long unrequited crush for another character on this list, and in later seasons you could adapt his unusual relationship with Cheshire. A note from me I would make a change to Roy's backstory instead of making him the son of a rich white family who was adopted by a Native American tribe I would just make him native American. Roy’s backstory doesn't matter too much any way it would be a good chance to give a young native American actor work, and it allows you to get rid of the bizarre cultural appropriation aspect of the character that Iron Fist had to deal with when it came out.

(Side Note: Yes I know iron fist was originally white in the comics. That's not particularly relevant to the people who are criticizing the choice to make him white in the show. I'm not going to state where I stand on that here, I'm just trying to avoid a bunch of replies trying to fact-check me on something I already know.)

Aqualad (Garth) Now a lot of people would suggest we just replace Garth with Kaldur as he's become the far more popular character but I would argue against that for a couple of reasons. One reason is this hypothetical version of the Titan show would be being released on dc streaming service which when it comes to original programming is airing with The Titans and the third season of Young Justice. The Kaldur version of Aqualad is a main character on that show and well Dick Grayson also is there's a lot of different ways to tackle Dick as a character since he's been around so long. The Kaldur version of Aqualad is pretty much only defined by his appearance on young justice so having him on another team show running on the same platform where one is directly taking inspiration for a character from another would be kind of a mess. Another reason is as you have probably picked up on by now I am going for the original Titans lineup from the 60s which Garth was a founding member of. And another is Garth is a really underrated character often made the butt of jokes for his connection with Aquaman in his admittedly silly name. But the character has a fun and not too expensive power set basically being a Waterbender and you can do a really sweet romance with him and his future wife to be Dolphin. I think it's time for Garth to have his moment in the sun.

Troia (Donna Troy) It's a shame most people don't know about Donna Troy, the original wonder girl has been an absolutely vital member of The Titans over the years. One of the reasons you might not have heard of her is that Donna has a famously confusing origin story with it being retconned numerous times. In my hypothetical version of the show figuring out her origin story would be the main plot of the first season. Not only because that would allow for a lot of great character work to be done but her trying to learn her true origins could contribute to an overall theme of self-discovery that you could play up throughout the whole season. Her powers are very low budget with her basically having the same moveset as Diana. Her aloof nature could lead to comedy when it comes to Roy’s crush on her which is always been cute. She's a fun and confident character who also lens herself too dark and brooding storylines which lead to well-rounded characters. Also, it would be very refreshing to have your team powerhouse be the female.

Kid Flash (Wally West) And finishing the original fab five is wally west. I'd also go with the original version of wally west for similar reasons to why I chose Garth to be our Aqualad. The Flash CW show is already doing the black Wally West and like Kaldur this version of Wally West is so new that the show is really defining just as much of the character as the comics are, so it's best to just let that version of Wally West develop in that show separately and not trying copy of character that's already being worked on elsewhere. And the original version of Wally West is not only one of the most important Titans but one of the most important characters in dc is whole continuity. But for being such an important character he has made shockingly little appearances outside of the comics and even when he has it's either him already as the Flash like in the justice league animated show or he's so minor that it's hard to even remember that he was there like in the Teen Titans cartoon. But to see the full journey from Flash fanboy turns sidekick, too confident superhero in his own right, to having to take the mantle of Flash and balances time between The Titans and the justice league it would be amazing to see the full journey. And like Dick Grayson I don't think it's too much of a problem that Young Justice and the show would be using the same version of Wally cuz there are so many different ways to you handle Wally story.

Okay so we covered the original 5 and that's what I would make the team for the start of the show. Though besides the original team and the cartoon, Titans are actually known for having larger than average team sizes. So I would have members join over the course of the season who would those be? Well, I've come up with a few candidates.

Bumblebee (Karen Beecher) Now while Bumblebee is not an original member she has been with the team since their original run. She was their first tech genius. She has a sharp tongue in a sharper mind. A generally fun character and very progressive for the time that she was created in. I could see her becoming a huge fan favorite if more people were made aware of her. She's also been in a very long-standing relationship with…

Vox/Guardian/Herald (Malcom Duncan) Mal Duncan another long-standing Titans character. Mel's just your average guys smart but not a genius, powerful but not god like I think if he were put on this show it would be a great opportunity to expand his character more. What Mal is most known for is identity swapping he's most commonly remembered as Guardian his original one, but he's had the identities Herald, Hornblower, and my personal favorite Vox. He's had many different powers but in my mind, the one that gives him the most purpose is as a teleporter. Mal certainly isn't the most exciting character to add but I think having a solid normal person who doesn't have that much baggage on the team would provide a nice center for the team.

Flamebird (Bette Kane) Bettie Kane has always been a fun character who hasn't gotten nearly enough love and I think it would be a good opportunity to give it to her here. She was the first Batgirl sidekick to both Batwomen at one point in time cousin to one niece to another, it's slightly confusing. I would forget about her ever being Batgirl in this show and just make her the former sidekick of Kate Kane her cousin. Her biggest inspiration for being a superhero was Robin who she has a crush on even after she becomes a hero. I think adding another non-powered member of the team is a good idea. She can provide a good will they won't they romance element with Robin. Also, her connection to Bruce's family could further influence Dick in his choice to step away from Being Robin. This is just a fun character that I would need to add to a show like this.

Well, that was my pitch for Titans. I hope you enjoyed some of the ideas I threw around. And even though I made fun of it I do sincerely hope that the actual Titans show that they are making is good, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Please favorite and reblog.

Check me out on twitter:

https://twitter.com/jrebest

Continue the conversation on my discord:

https://discord.gg/CEEXaBr

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phooll123 · 4 years

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To the Editor:

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

#News Updates #New top story from Time: Beastie Boys Story Tells It Like It Was—But You Can’t Help Mi

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phooll123 · 4 years

Text

New top story from Time: Beastie Boys Story Tells It Like It Was—But You Can’t Help Missing Yauch

To the Editor:

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2VMapCi

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itsfinancethings · 4 years

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April 20, 2020 at 09:35PM

To the Editor:

The letter went on to detail the numerous ways in which Hornblower’s work would stand the test of time, despite the opinion of the “so-call New York Times smarties,” and ended thus:

And I’m sorry I never got to send that goat.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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