#it’s not the first time you’re reviving my 2015 era

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 7/10: Series 7

For me, 2012 and 2013 were some of the hardest years of high school for me. No, I wasn’t bullied, if that’s what you’re thinking. That first half of high school (from Year 7-9) is probably the most formative out of all the high school years, as that is where fundamental friendships are made, in my opinion. But instead of making friends, I was busy getting into the Doctor Who fandom, waiting for new episodes and ripping off old episodes to make stories while incorporating my original ideas into them, eventually forming and defining what would be known as my personal project.

Each series of Doctor Who in the modern era so far has remained confined to a single calendar year, but the Series 7 split saw it being spread over two years. While the Series 6 split was a creative decision on Moffat’s part, there are a few reasons why the Series 7 split happened; it was a creative decision on the BBC’s part, Steven Moffat wanted to leave as short a gap as possible between the end of the series and the 50th Anniversary, the BBC didn’t want Doctor Who’s coverage being overshadowed by the upcoming 2012 London Olympics (though if a series premiered in March/April it would have ended before the opening ceremony), the production team thought it would be nice to delay production on the series for a few months to allow the cast and crew some time to rest while also allowing Moffat (and Mark Gatiss) to focus on Sherlock, the list goes on.

Thanks to the 50th Anniversary, Series 7 and the 2013 Specials are another peak in the revived series history next to Series 4 and the 2013 Specials. To elaborate, let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 7.

1. Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver Review

Near the end of 2012, I bought an Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver toy from an ABC Shop (when those were still a thing) on a school shopping trip (believe it or not, in Years 7-9, the school took us out to a popular shopping centre for “Christmas shopping” but I think everyone else was just focused on hanging out and chilling - I don’t think they did it anymore when I got to Year 10). The intention was that I would bring it to swimming and athletics carnivals for a bit of fun on those days; even when the sonic screwdriver was changed in 2015 I did still get a final year of use out of it in Year 12 because I didn’t want to buy another sonic screwdriver for one year, not when I was just getting into Kamen Rider and tokusatsu.

The sonic screwdriver toy was the 2010 model from Character Options. It was able to extend itself with a touch of a button, though the spring-loaded action was a bit too strong, scaring people who were unfamiliar with the sonic screwdriver. The release button wasn’t that good either - it could extend itself if you flicked your wrist hard enough or sometimes when the red button is pressed, which can’t be good for it in the long run. When extended, the sound activation button wouldn’t work - you could press the red button under the flap on the bottom end of the screwdriver, or you could press the button in the space where the screwdriver extended, which despite looking a bit awkward, doesn’t seem to detract from the fun. There are two sonic noises at high and low pitches and there are two secret sounds that can be activated by pressing the button three or four times.

This model was rereleased in 2014 as the Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, with touch control or single-button versions available. Both versions improve the weaknesses of the previous model by either changing the activation button to a touch-based system or making it so that the sounds can be activated when fully extended, though the red button at the bottom is removed and replaced with a power core prop in the touch control version. I think the sonic screwdriver was only held like that once in Series 5 so it’s not that big of a loss. The touch control version doesn’t separate in two for the battery compartment, which has been moved to the white ceramic-like portion of the screwdriver. Some people may think it’s annoying but if you hold it with the release button facing up, you won’t notice it all that much.

Speaking of which, according to the comments of this video, the Eleventh Doctor has used his sonic screwdriver more than any other Doctor in the series. Also, considering how long this model was used (discounting times when it was replaced), the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver design has lasted the longest in the modern era, at least by virtue of continuous appearances. Overall, the sonic screwdriver design used by the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors in the 70’s and early 80’s has lasted the longest, even with slight modifications here and there.

2. Radical changes

Series 7 saw radical changes over the course of the series as a result of changes in production. The major change saw the production move from Upper Boat Studios to the newly constructed studios in Roath Lock. Apparently there was no way to preserve the TARDIS set for the move, so a new one ended up being designed and constructed, moving away from the organic feel of the RTD era to enhance the machine aspects of it, harking back to the classic series.

The darker appearance of the TARDIS console room also brought with it a new darker look for the Doctor, changing from a tweed jacket with braces/suspenders to a more proper purple frock coat with a waistcoat underneath, maintaining the bowtie. Towards the end of Series 6, the Doctor wore a green greatcoat in place of his tweed jacket. After briefly wearing a pair of glasses similar to the Tenth Doctor’s brainy specs that Rory would use to allow the Doctor to see through from the TARDIS in The Girl Who Waited, the Doctor would keep Amy’s round reading glasses. To be honest, I must say that I’m not a big fan of the Series 7 Part 2 look because it makes him look too mature and proper, kind of like the Tenth Doctor. Same with the round glasses as they look absolutely outdated. Apparently, Matt Smith wanted a purple coat at some point and there was a scheme on Moffat’s part for the Eleventh Doctor’s attire to evolve over time. My favourite look for the Eleventh Doctor would have to be the tweed costume look from Series 5. The longer and messyish combed-back hair also accentuates his chaoticness, which gradually stops working when his hair was made shorter in Series 6.

Before the 2011 Christmas Special premiered, it was announced that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill would be leaving the series during Series 7, having discussed their desire to wind down their tenures on the show earlier that year. The upcoming split in the series was a great opportunity to create a closing reunion arc for the Doctor, Amy and Rory; Amy and Rory’s time on the TARDIS ended at the end of The God Complex, but the Doctor’s reunion with them resulted in them becoming part-time companions, something which I’m not really a big fan of. I wrote about my thoughts on “the companion commitment” in my review of Series 13’s The Halloween Apocalypse:

Looking at the companion side of things, I tend to prefer having full-time companions who don’t seem to have many significant attachments or anchors, whether it be in the form of employment, family or even education. This is because if you have someone who is already making a life for themselves, you have to remember to go back and address those things, otherwise you make them look as if they’re shirking commitments to be the Doctor’s companion. Also, I don’t like the idea of the Doctor having to pick up and drop off a companion multiple times during the series.

Moffat wanted to make Series 7 comprise standalone stories instead of the arc-driven nature of Series 6, so there were no two-parters in this series. There was a story arc threaded through this series which I’ll get into later. Every episode in this series was created to be like a movie, from the differing genres to the movie-like posters created for each episode. In Part 1, the title sequence for each episode was different, with the Time Vortex and logo designs changing between each episode. A couple of fundamental changes made as well was the font used for the lead actors and episode titles along with the way the logo transitioned into the TARDIS at the end, which really lessened the impact of the title sequence used since The Eleventh Hour.

For Part 2, an entirely different title sequence was created which was rather reminiscent to the title sequences of the classic series, most notably with the reintroduction of adding the Doctor’s face. It’s a more epic and bombastic sequence that kind of fits the darker tone the series was trying to portray. I only wish that the sequence was used a bit more.

Nightmare in Silver introduced a sleeker and evolved Cyberman variant and overcame weaknesses such as their vulnerability to gold and the inability to convert non-human beings. It also saw the debut of the Cybermites as an evolution of Cybermats and the reintroduction of the Cyber-Planner.

3. The overlapping Amy and Rory timeline

In The Power of Three, Amy mentions to the Doctor that she and Rory have travelled with him for ten years, on and off. But what does that mean for Earth’s timeline and the Ponds after their final parting from the Doctor? See, with Amy and Rory being part-time companions, I wonder what year it actually is on Earth because it isn’t elaborated, potentially leading to more complications in the timeline when we move to Clara’s time as the Doctor’s companion. Let’s do some estimates and solve this mystery.

Between the Doctor dropping the Ponds off at their new home at the end of The God Complex and revisiting them at the end of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, two years would have passed for them, give or take a few months. The prequel mini-series Pond Life has the Doctor maintaining contact with the Ponds from April to August in what we’ll assume is the third year. Asylum of the Daleks needs to take place two years after Pond Life because before UK divorce law was changed in April 2022, a two-year separation period was required before applying for a divorce, so that would mean it would need to at least take place from August in the fifth year onwards. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship takes place 10 months after, so we’re looking at June in the sixth year. The Power of Three features The Year of the Slow Invasion, which starts and ends in July. The start of that episode is where Amy mentions “ten years”; whether she meant ten years since she met the Doctor or ten years since she and Rory were dropped off at their new home, though given what Amy tells the Doctor later in the episode about how she doesn’t know if she wants to continue travelling with the Doctor when they’ve already built a new life, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter.

So when does The Year of the Slow Invasion take place? Firstly, we can see that Amy and Rory were at the department store in Closing Time, so they would have had to have been dropped off at least before 19 April 2011. Considering the Doctor visited the Ponds at some point after April 2011 and when River told them how the Doctor survived, I think that their cameo scene would have to take place in either Christmas 2011 or 2012, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume the latter, meaning that the Doctor dropped them off sometime in 2010 (probably the day after their wedding, 27 June). This would give Amy enough time to establish her career and still allow for the Doctor’s “death date” while shying away from the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth. This would also explain why they weren’t dropped off in Leadworth because their past selves would presumably return there from time to time until Let’s Kill Hitler.

From there, Pond Life takes place from April to August 2013, Asylum of the Daleks would have to take place in August 2015, then Dinosaurs on a Spaceship should take place in June 2016. As such, the Year of the Slow Invasion could have started in any July from 2016 to 2020. Considering that Clara’s time on the TARDIS starts in 2013, I can safely say that she misses them enough in terms of location for there to be no paradoxes, but then The Day of the Doctor takes place in 2013, apparently, which takes Kate’s first meeting with the Doctor completely out of continuity.

A reference guide known as The Whoniverse puts The Year of the Slow Invasion from July 2012 to 2013 and the Doctor’s words in The Angels of Manhattan sets the present-day scenes of the episode in 2012, but that obviously doesn’t make sense given what we just learned. I mean, we could bring the timeline back four years (so that Amy and Rory were dropped off in 2006), but then they’d be living through the bulk of the RTD era’s stories. The latter could probably make sense if the Doctor travelled back in time though. I really wish Moffat kept track of the years instead of leaving everything ambiguous so that maybe we could have Clara’s time start five years later, but hey, that’s just me obsessing over little details.

Wait a minute, those episodes were written by Chris Chibnall? No matter the whole timeline is confusing. I suppose Moffat focusing on the 50th Anniversary meant that he didn’t have time to look over other writers’ scripts.

4. A Pond Farewell

The Angels of Manhattan marks the end of Amy and Rory’s time in the TARDIS, killing them off in the same story with no chance of survival through intervention. While having a picnic in 2012 New York, Rory is sent back in time to 1938 by baby Weeping Angels. Upon arriving, he encounters River Song, who had been pardoned from her crime of killing the Doctor due to him erasing or concealing every mention of himself (except on Earth) so that he essentially never existed.

Upon discovering what happened to Rory through the book Amy was reading that was actually written by River, the Doctor and Amy attempt to head to 1938, but they have difficulty landing without landing lights. After landing, River is grabbed by a Weeping Angel and is forced to break her arm in order to free herself. The Doctor discovers this and uses some of his regeneration energy to heal it. I’ll get back to it when we get to the Doctor’s regeneration.

Meanwhile, another baby Angel sends Rory to Winter Quay, an apartment building that the Angels are using as a battery farm. The Doctor, Amy and River follow him there and they discover an old Rory dying. They find the young Rory there as well and they inform him of what they just saw. Deciding to escape from the Angels, the group heads up to the roof. Rory decides to jump off the roof in an attempt to create a paradox and kill the Angels. Amy joins him as well and the ensuing paradox blows Winter Quay out of existence.

Amy and Rory end up in a graveyard with the Doctor and River. As they prepare to leave for the pub, Rory discovers his name on a gravestone and is immediately sent back to 1938 by a surviving Angel. With no way for the Doctor to retrieve Rory due to the paradoxes scrambling the timelines in New York, Amy allows herself to be sent back to the same time to be with Rory. River goes to write the book and send it to Amy to be published while also telling her to write an afterword for him. In the afterword, Amy tells the Doctor to tell her young self about the adventures awaiting her, which kind of ruins the story of her waiting for the Doctor that defined her whole arc but is still a beautiful ending nonetheless.

So how old were Amy and Rory when they were sent back to the past for good and what year did they pass away? Evidence from Series 5 and 6 shows that they were in the same year level at school, so they both would have had to have been born in 1989, making them around 21 years old when they got married. Rory says in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship that he is 31 years old, so if we take off six years to make him 25, that means that he and Amy would have been continuously travelling with the Doctor for four years until he dropped them off at their new home. Put on another year for The Year of the Slow Invasion and Amy and Rory would be 32 when they rejoined the Doctor.

The graves at the end of the episode state that Rory and Amy died at the ages of 82 and 87 respectively. Assuming that Rory and Amy were 32 when they were sent back, this means that they died in 1998 and 2003 respectively. Does that mean that they never got to greet their past selves in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood? Put the Year of the Slow Invasion in 2020-2021 (instead of 2016-17 at the earliest) and it could be a possible stretch without having to travel through time. This would make them 36 when they were sent back to 1938 and Amy would never get to experience the start of the 21st century for the second time, as Rory and her would die in 1992 and 1999.

In the online extra P.S., written by Chris Chibnall, Rory’s father, Brian, would receive a letter from an old man, who was revealed to be Anthony Brian Williams, Amy and Rory’s son that they adopted in 1946. A week after Amy and Rory left, Anthony met with Brian on his parents’ instructions to give him a letter explaining what happened to them. The scene was meant to be filmed as an DVD extra, but Mark Walliams, Brian’s actor, was unavailable, so the short was only released as a storyboard with narration from Arthur Darvill. It gives some closure to Brian’s involvement in the series and wraps Amy and Rory’s arc in a bow.

5. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 1

Imagine having a crush on someone. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character, then retcon that character’s history so that the person you’re having a crush on is involved with the character in times where it wouldn’t have been realistically possible for them to have met. Through recent reflection, this is the kind of vibe I got from Clara and the Impossible Girl arc. And why did I get this vibe from that arc? Because I did something like that in my personal project for Hiroki and Akari.

In Asylum of the Daleks, the Doctor, Amy and Rory are brought to the Parliament of the Daleks, where they are asked to save the Daleks by having them deactivate the shield of their Asylum so they can destroy it. During this, they are guided by someone named Oswin Oswald, who had been hiding out on the crashed starship Alaska for a year making souffles. Oswin refused to deactivate the shield until they came to rescue her. The Doctor proceeded to find Oswin, at which point he discovers that she had been fully converted into a Dalek instead of becoming their puppet. After the Doctor helps Oswin regain control of herself following her realisation, she lowers the shields and the Doctor leaves with Amy and Rory.

After losing Amy and Rory, the Doctor eventually decides to retire to Victorian London, where Madame Vastra, Jenny and a resurrected Strax, now known as the Paternoster Gang, tried to convince the Doctor to begin adventuring again. In the 2012 Christmas Special The Snowmen, the Doctor becomes intrigued when a barmaid named Clara brings attention to some sentient snow that makes snowmen by itself. As the Doctor continues to be indifferent to the situation, Clara manages to sneak onto his carriage, but when he fails to wipe Clara’s mind of their encounter using the memory worm thanks to Strax’s mishandling of it, Clara manages to get away and follow him to his TARDIS.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, Clara, acting as a governess, learns from Francesca Latimer that her family’s previous governess, who died a year prior from drowning in the garden pond. Clara goes to find the Doctor, but is taken to see Vastra, who gives her the one-word test and manages to convince the Doctor to investigate further. That night, after briefly confronting the snow form of the Great Intelligence in Simeon’s lab, the Doctor goes to the Latimer house and so does Simeon. The previous governess becomes animated in ice form and begins pursuing Clara and the Latimer children, but the Paternoster Gang arrives to back up the Doctor while he takes Clara up to the TARDIS in an attempt to get the Ice Governess away from Simeon. The Doctor shows Clara to the TARDIS and offers her a chance to become his companion, but the Ice Governess manages to follow them, dragging Clara out of the TARDIS and to her death.

Together with Vastra, the Doctor confronts Simeon one last time, revealing that the Great Intelligence is a reflection of Simeon since he was a child. Simeon is tricked into being bitten by the memory worm in an attempt to leave the Intelligence with nothing to mirror, but the Intelligence had evolved enough to be able to possess Simeon instead. The Intelligence attempts to freeze the Doctor, but then it is suddenly defeated thanks to the snow mirroring the Latimer family’s tears from Clara’s death as it approaches Christmas Day.

The Doctor, Vastra and Jenny went to Clara’s grave some time after. The Doctor notes that he never learnt Clara’s full name, Clara Oswin Oswald, but when he learns it and recognises Oswin’s name from the Dalek Asylum, he is inspired to end his retirement and find Clara again.

Apparently, during the development of this series in 2011, it was decided that the Victorian-era Clara would be the Doctor’s new companion (who was named Beryl at the time), but by late-January 2012, it was decided that Clara should come from modern-day Britain. Given the circumstances surrounding the loss of Amy and Rory (even stretching back to Donna maybe), the Impossible Girl arc was developed to inspire the Doctor to seek Clara out as his new companion, which we’ll cover next due to length.

6. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 2

Kicking off Series 7 Part 2 with The Bells of Saint John, while the Doctor was at a monastery in 1207, Clara was given a phone number by a woman in a shop and she ended up calling the Doctor, who immediately goes to find her. After having the door shut on him, the Doctor goes to change, but when he goes back, he finds Clara being uploaded to a cloud by a Spoonhead and interrupts it because she can be fully integrated. The Doctor decides to protect Clara from whoever tried to upload her, but when a plane attempts to do a Twin Falling Towers on them, they escape to the plane and the Doctor manages to save everyone on it.

The Doctor takes Clara to the next morning where the Doctor tries to track down the location but fails due to the security being too good, though Clara manages to do it after being partially uploaded to the cloud and being bestowed with genius computer skills. While doing so, a Spoonhead impersonating the Doctor manages to fully upload Clara. The Doctor heads to the Shard to confront the people responsible for the Spoonheads and get them to download Clara back into her body. The leader, Kizlet, says that they can’t because Clara has been fully integrated, but the Doctor reveals that he is on Clara’s computer, taking control of the Spoonhead impersonating him and using it to upload Kizlet. The Doctor gets the people to download the entire cloud before UNIT is called in to take control. Kizlet reports her failure to her benefactor, the Great Intelligence, and parts with her by having her restore the factory settings, wiping everyone’s minds of being under its influence.

The Doctor learns from Clara that she is acting as a nanny for the Maitland kids because their mother died a year ago while she was staying with them and she decided to return the favour by staying with them instead of leaving to travel. Clara decides to begin travelling with the Doctor, but on a part-time basis. The Series 7 Part 2 opener wasn’t bad, but I think it felt a bit rushed due to the length. If it was done as a New Year’s Special to compliment The Snowmen, it would have been a bit better in my opinion. The episode also introduced a new mystery of “the woman in the shop” which wouldn’t be addressed until the following series the year after, though even I thought Rose Tyler would have had something to do with it.

In The Name of the Doctor, Clara is called into a conference call by Vastra, who informs her, Jenny, Strax and River’s data ghost about the Doctor’s greatest secret being revealed. When they are attacked by Whispermen created by the Great Intelligence, River makes the Paternoster Gang wake up before they find themselves taken. Clara wakes up as well and she tells the Doctor what happened, which leads him to head to Trenzalore, the location of his grave, to save his friends.

As they make their way to Vastra, Jenny and Strax, the Doctor and Clara (guided by River) go through the secret entrance to the Doctor’s tomb, which is actually the dying TARDIS. As they walk through, Clara begins to remember the Doctor asking her about her apparent previous lives in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, but the Doctor gets her to run when the Whispermen close in on them. The Doctor and Clara meet with the Paternoster Gang to confront the Great Intelligence and they go into the Doctor’s tomb, which is the console room with a column of light instead of the usual time rotor and console. The column of light is the scar tissue of the Doctor’s eleven lives.

The Great Intelligence goes into the light, scattering himself across the Doctor’s timeline and rewriting his victories into defeats. With the Doctor in pain, the stars disappearing and Jenny and Strax disappearing as well, Clara decides to follow the Great Intelligence into the Doctor’s timeline, splitting herself into a million echoes to help save the Doctor across his eleven lives, including in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, and undoing the damage caused by the Great Intelligence.

With the Doctor recovered and Jenny and Strax restored, the Doctor goes into his own timeline to rescue Clara, but not before farewelling his invisible wife which he could somehow sense the presence of. He sends Clara her leaf in order to guide her to him so that he can leave with her, but as they do so, they encounter a previously unknown incarnation and it is there that we are told that we missed the point of “the Doctor’s name”, which is actually like a promise rather than his actual name. The unknown incarnation justifies his actions as being “without choice, in the name of peace and sanity”, but the Eleventh Doctor states that they were not “in the name of the Doctor.”

So how did the Impossible Girl arc vibes relate to my personal project? Long story short, I met this girl at the start of Year 7 and forgot to ask who her name was, fell in love with her at first sight and then after I learned who she was I got the brilliant idea to write her into my stories, then because those stories were also an outline of my personal life, I retconned my own past in them so that we would meet in the times before we would actually meet in real life. She was my Mystery Girl to Moffat’s Impossible Girl and that’s why I’m creeped out by this story arc in reflection, but I stand by my stories because of creative integrity.

The Series 7 Part 2 finale was pretty good, but considering what would come after, I’m disappointed Moffat never addressed the Valeyard’s origin or the Doctor’s actual name. People can say that “not knowing the Doctor’s name gives him a bit of mystery”, but the series has gone on for so long that I don’t care about the mystery and neither should you. Just enjoy the epicness of it like everyone else. Besides, anyone who follows my personal project knows that his name is Hiroki Ichigo (because he was born from him).

7. Chaos in Cardiff 7: Dolphins

There was Chaos in Cardiff before Series 12. Before we move onto the 2013 Specials, here’s a brief look at some production chaos during Series 7.

Caroline Skinner worked alongside Steven Moffat for the 2012 Christmas Special and the entirety of Series 7, but stepped down in March 2013. Bleeding Cool apparently reported that Skinner and Moffat had a “very public row” at a BBC event the month before, Moffat telling Skinner that she was “erased” from Doctor Who, but there’s nothing much apart from that.

Steven Berkoff, who played the Shakri hologram on The Power of Three, was apparently difficult to work with during production, refusing to do what he was told, deliberately ruining takes or throwing temper tantrums. Virtually all the footage shot with Berkoff was unusable, so what was in the episode was all they could cobble together along with some shots allegedly taken between takes. Apparently even filmed footage of Berkoff walking across the floor couldn’t be used either and at this point one has to wonder if his pants were down in those shots. Also, he was apparently supposed to be stabbed to death by Amy and Rory with syringes, but the BBC rejected it and they resorted to having the Doctor save the day with his sonic screwdriver once again.

In the US, the Series 7 Part 2 Blu-ray was shipped early to people who had pre-ordered it, which led the BBC to ask fans to keep the spoilers of the finale secret until the episode actually aired. Needless to say, they did and the BBC released this video of Matt Smith and David Tennant as thanks.

Moffat had a difficult time getting started with scripting The Day of the Doctor because of the complicated contract process. Initially, Jenna Coleman was the only actress contracted for it so Moffat potentially had to draft a version of the special with different actors playing the Doctors after the Doctor erased his own existence by walking into his own time stream. Luckily, however, Moffat managed to secure Matt Smith and David Tennant eventually. He did attempt to negotiate with Christopher Eccleston, but given his previous bad blood with the BBC and his stance on multi-Doctor stories, he naturally declined.

Moffat also attempted to get Paul McGann back as the Eighth Doctor, but it was probably vetoed by the BBC for some reason. Either that or Moffat actually couldn’t see Eight taking part in the Time War, which is a bullshit excuse when Big Finish (and the extended universe) is a thing. Although Moffat created the War Doctor and cast John Hurt in the role while negotiating contracts with Smith and Tennant, getting everything together six weeks before filming was due to start, the BBC somehow allowed Paul McGann to come back for a minisode that would see the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the War Doctor.

It is speculated that as a result, Steven Moffat was burned out from the experience and wanted to quit alongside Matt Smith when decided to leave after Series 7 instead of staying for another series, but the prospect of Peter Capaldi apparently renewed his enthusiasm and he ended up staying. Some people say that’s why the quality of the Capaldi era dropped as it went, but who really knows at this point?

8. The 50th Anniversary

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, was the thing that I was waiting all 2013 for. I, like many other fans, had to endure the six-month wait following The Name of the Doctor, but at least I had my personal project to pass the time. They screened a trailer at Comic Con 2013 in July, but it was never released to the public with even Steven Moffat requesting that it not be leaked online, so we didn’t actually get a teaser or a trailer until late in October. Then I had to go on a shitty school camp, but the good thing about it was that the night I came back (or the morning after), we got The Night of the Doctor, which featured the surprise return of Paul McGann. After failing to save a pilot named Cass, the Eighth Doctor’s body is recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and thanks to Ohila’s elixir (the novelisation says that it was just lemonade and dry ice which kind of ruins the impact of the scene, thank you Moffat) he regenerates into the War Doctor, deciding to abandon his name and the promise it represented.

The special itself was broadcast simultaneously around the world with a worldwide 3D premiere in cinemas as well because 3D was very much a thing back then, but after the special was filmed, the BBC announced that they were putting 3D programming “on hold” indefinitely. I remember getting up early on the Sunday morning to watch the episode live when it aired on ABC1 at 6:50 AM.

The main premise of the story has the War Doctor preparing to activate the Moment to destroy Gallifrey, though due to the interface developing a conscience, it appeared to him in the form of Rose Tyler (as the Bad Wolf) and showed him to his Tenth and Eleventh incarnations, the men he would become if he destroyed Gallifrey. During this, the three Doctors (and Clara) are embroiled in a Zygon conspiracy spanning 451 years, eventually ending in them making UNIT and the Zygons broker a peace treaty in the Black Archive.

Soon after, the War Doctor heads back and prepares to activate the Moment, but the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors arrive as well, ready to help him because for 400 years (frankly, it should have been 100 years shorter or the Doctor should be 100 years older given how old the Ninth and Tenth Doctors claimed to be when the revived series began), he resented that incarnation when he was the Doctor more than anyone else. The Moment shows the Doctors a vision of the last day of the Time War before showing them a vision of everyone coming out from the rubble the next morning.

This leads the Eleventh Doctor to get the idea to change his personal history by freezing Gallifrey into a pocket universe instead of destroying it. Together with all twelve previous incarnations and an early cameo from Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, the Doctor successfully saves Gallifrey and destroys the Daleks in their own crossfire, though due to the nature of this being a multi-Doctor adventure, the War and Tenth Doctors wouldn’t remember it until he eventually comes around to the Eleventh Doctor, meaning that Nine and Ten were free to continue believing that he destroyed Gallifrey and was the last of the Time Lords.

As some people have pointed out, The Day of the Doctor felt more like a celebration of the revived era rather than the classic era, but in all honesty, who cares? We’ve got David Tennant back, we’re finally addressing the Time War, we’ve got the Zygons and UNIT back, we’ve got archive footage of previous Doctors (along with surprise appearances from Peter Capaldi and Tom Baker) and we’ve finally addressed the source of the Tenth Doctor’s animosity towards Queen Elizabeth I. Besides, the classic era would get a decent celebration nine years later with the BBC Centenary Special, The Power of the Doctor. Well, not really, Peter Davison and Georgia Moffett created The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot featuring Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, John Barrowman and even RTD among those who didn’t appear in the special itself.

The End of Time showed that the Time Lords were just as bad as the Daleks during the Time War, but The Day of the Doctor showed the innocents caught in the crossfire and gave them hope when they needed it the most. The special broke records, with it being the most-watched episode of the series since the 2008 Christmas Special, The Next Doctor, and earned a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama, though BBC Entertainment carried it for most of the world because by that point, very few TV stations were willing to buy rights to air the series.

9. Back to the Pilot (and other specials)

In addition to The Day of the Doctor, another special, An Adventure in Space and Time, was produced and broadcast on BBC Two a couple of days before the anniversary. Written by Mark Gatiss and featuring David Bradley playing William Hartnell as the First Doctor during a time when Doctor Who began to make its mark on British culture. It covers the production of the first episodes, the creation of the Daleks as the first of the show’s iconic monsters and Hartnell’s reluctant decision to leave the series due to his failing health. The ending also features a surprise cameo from Matt Smith, beautifully signifying the future that the series would continue to experience in the 21st century.

Early in his career, Gatiss was interested in developing a TV movie chronicling the early days of the series that was well-documented in Doctor Who Magazine and other publications. He originally hoped that it could be made for the 40th Anniversary in 2003, but the BBC saw little potential in it. He revived the idea in 2010 to help bridge the transition between David Tennant and Matt Smith, however it was ultimately decided that it would be better as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, so the special ended up being commissioned in early 2012.

David Bradley, who had previously played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, was later invited back to play the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time and The Power of the Doctor while also reprising his role in Big Finish audios.

In addition to An Adventure in Space and Time, two other documentary specials were also produced and broadcast in the lead-up to the 50th Anniversary, namely The Science of Doctor Who, a lecture hosted by Brian Cox about the nature of space and time in relation to the series, and The Ultimate Guide, yet another similarly-named retrospective documentary, but about the series as a whole. Both specials contained skits featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor.

10. The Tenth Day, the Eleventh Hour and the Twelfth Night

With the Eleventh Doctor’s final episode looming, there were still some threads, particularly from Series 5 and 6, left to be resolved and as such, the 2013 Christmas Special, The Time of the Doctor, finally addresses the Siege of Trenzalore, the First Question and the Silence. The Doctor investigates a message being broadcast from a planet which is causing thousands of ships to approach it. Picking up Clara to help him, the Doctor meets with Tasha Lem of the Church of Papal Mainframe, who sends them both down to the planet to investigate.

The Doctor finds where the message is coming from; a remnant crack in the wall where someone is trying to break back in, the one thing he feared from The God Complex. Noting that the message was identified to be of Gallifreyan origin, the Doctor uses the Seal of the High Council (that he stole from the Master in The Five Doctors, thank God I somehow had the foresight to adapt this episode in my personal project) on Handles, his Cyberhead companion and he discovers that the message is a question being sent through all of space and time along with a truth field so that anyone within it wouldn’t be able to lie. The question is translated and the translation is immediately available to everyone orbiting the planet; “Doctor who?”

The Doctor tricks Clara into going home while Tasha speaks with the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the planet he is on is called Trenzalore and that if he gives his name, the Time Lords will return and the Time War will begin anew, so the Doctor decides to stay on Trenzalore and become its protector while Tasha dedicates the Church to ensure that the Doctor will not speak his name to the Time Lords, thereby making silence fall upon Trenzalore.

Over the course of the special we get answers to the remaining plot threads from Series 5 and 6; the Silents are actually genetically engineered confessional priests that allow people to forget what they said once they look away from them, the Kovarian Chapter broke away and orchestrated the events of Series 5 and 6, and the Doctor is actually in his final incarnation thanks to the War Doctor and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. Somehow, River using up all her regenerations to revive the Doctor in Let’s Kill Hitler didn’t give them to him, but I suppose doing so would have made things more confusing.

Eventually, we get to the point where the Doctor has been on Trenzalore for 900 years, with only the Daleks continuing the siege where others had retreated or burned. Tasha picks up Clara and takes her to him before the Daleks demand the Doctor’s surrender. As the Doctor resigns himself to his fate, Clara pleads with the Time Lords to help him, telling them that his name is the Doctor and that is all the name he needs. This leads them to close the crack and grant the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, allowing him to regenerate and destroy the last of the Daleks. The Doctor is restored to his youthful self again and says goodbye to Clara (with a cameo from Amy) before the regeneration finishes and the Twelfth Doctor makes his debut.

Some people say that The Time of the Doctor was rushed because of everything that happened during Series 7 plus Steven Moffat burning out, but I actually thought the episode was pretty good considering what we got. Apparently Trenzalore was meant to be explored in Series 8 but Matt Smith deciding to leave after Series 7 meant that Moffat had to wrap the story arc up quickly. I’ve already pitched the two-parter Festive Special for The Snowmen/The Bells of Saint John, so I’m happy with leaving The Time of the Doctor as a one-parter.

And so we come to the end of the Matt Smith era, the era that catapulted me deep into fanfiction writing and my personal project. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are probably the Takeru Satoh and Masaki Suda of Doctor Who due to them being featured in Hollywood films following their time on the series.

Series 7 was kind of a mixed bag for me particularly because of the split series format, but the series shows a stage of the show’s evolution thanks to all the changes happening during the production of this series. It started off as being a continuation of Series 6, then by the end it became a celebration of the show and its fans from not only eight years of the series’ revival, but fifty years of the show’s history.

This instalment took longer for me to write than I expected. Stay tuned for Part 8 as we enter the Capaldi era with my 10 takes on Series 8.

[whatiwillsay]

off topic - let’s talk about gaylena 👀

selena gomez is one of taylor’s oldest and bestest friends and given that she is in the 22 liner notes, a huge part of taylor’s life, and maybe fruity herself it seems like possibly we don’t talk about her here at the blog enough!

i don’t want to do a timeline of selena and taylor’s friendship - you can read more about that here, but they met back in the day when they were both dating jonas brothers and to me this idea of finding a real friendship in the midst of these contrived promances is pretty adorable.

ofc most of y’all think taylor is a fruit basket but i think there’s a good chance that selena is too!  i’m not saying she is for sure but y’all know me.  i’’m here to make a compelling case that everyone and their dog is gay so let’s gooooo! 

Part I - At least one fake rs!  

Selena “dated” Taylor Lautner in 2009 and he’s definitely gay.  Of course, that doesn’t mean she is, it could just be PR, but y’all know I gotta note everything!  We stan our fruity bffs dating the same gays 😍

Part II - Selena x cara delevingne

i feel like there’s a chance they met through taylor but everyone in that squad adjacent circle knows one another.  cara dated michelle rodriguez for the first half of 2014 and then got with annie clark in March 2015 but it feels like it’s possible something has gone on between her and Selena from summer 2014 - early 2015? ...maybe something casual on and off a bit?

August 2014 - Steamy pics surface in Saint-Tropez, France

Selena and and a freshly single Cara vacation together in part to celebrate Selena’s 22nd birthday.

They party together and look cozy!

Pictures such as this surface and spark rumors around the two:

Selena apparently loves the rumors and gushes about being shipped with Cara.

Quote:

You say Selena drag queens were the true measure of success for you. But isn’t it true that you’re not truly famous until you’ve been the subject of a gay rumor? And last year, the tabloids had a field day with photos of you and Cara Delevingne. I’ve made it!

How did you react to those rumors? Honestly, I loved it. I didn’t mind it. Especially because they weren’t talking about other people in my life for once, which was wonderful. Honestly, though, she’s incredible and very open and she just makes me open. She’s so fun and she’s just extremely adventurous, and sometimes I just want that in my life, so I didn’t mind it. I loved it.

Notice she doesn’t deny them?  Now of course she could just be being cool, if she freaked out about it that might be even weirder but hey, it’s still kind of interesting.

Then she admits to questioning her sexuality???

Have you ever questioned your sexuality? Oh, I think everybody does, no matter who they are. I do, yeah, of course. Absolutely. I think it’s healthy to gain a perspective on who you are deep down, question yourself and challenge yourself; it’s important to do that.

(Selena btw, this is cool and all, but not everybody questions their sexuality, maybe you’re just gay 👀)

November 1 - LACMA Art + Film Gala 

they even left the event together 👀

and they hung out earlier that day as well:

They were seen the next day partying for Kendall Jenner’s bday singing to her:

a few weeks later Cara tweets Selena’s lyrics!

In December 2014 they are travelling together in texas:

in january 2015 they get cozy at the golden globes together!

and they leave together again:

January 19th/20th a bunch of gay nonsense happens

They post this gay shit with matching shoes and linked fingers:

then they say this to one another:

Enty says they were hooking up!

then we don’t get any more content that i can find for about six months! perhaps they had a fling from summer 2014-jan 2015 and then it ends, Cara gets with Annie in March?  Then after half a year apart Selena and Cara resume a friendly relationship?  Perhaps!  Selena is seen with Justin a bit off and on during this time but this was in their Style/Heat Death Era imo (tbh i probably shouldn’t give a hetty pairing including Justin that designation 🤢but y’all get what I’m saying - it’s fully possible Selena was hooking up with both of them!

Now I’m not super familiar with Selena’s discography so y’all lmk if I’m missing anything major - lyric wise that point to her not being straight.

Selena’s album Revival that comes out after this relationship has a few songs with some vibes, even though I get the feeling a lot of it is probably about Justin, allow me to reach.  The title track could be translated as someone coming to terms with their sexuality (among other things):

I feel like I've awakened lately The chains around me are finally breaking I've been under self-restoration I've become my own salvation Showing up, no more hiding, hiding The light inside me is bursting, shining It's my, my, my time to butterfly

Good for you, imo, is too sexy to be about a man even if it’s not super queer lyrically it’s a vibe ok?

Me & My Girls might be a bestie anthem a la 22 (oh wait, no 22 was gay too) but I mean...could be about a girl gang of lesbians too!

And if we want it, we take it If we need money, we make it Nobody knows if we fake it You like to watch while we shake it I know we're making you thirsty You want us all in the worst way But you don't understand I don't need a man 

Quinn Fabray indeed!

Nobody feels probably like a retrospective on Justin 🙄but...there is a hint of sapphic craving in there!  Saying this particular lover loves them differently than everyone is a bit 👀 plus this stanza:

No oxygen, can barely breathe My darkest sin, you've raised release And it's all because of you, all because of you And I don't know what it is, but you've pulled me in No one compares, could ever begin To love me like you do And I wouldn't want them to

Is Perfect about some bitch Justin started dating?  Probably but bear with me here this song is actually pretty fucking gay.  Gay enough that I’m gonna add it to one of my gay playlists.  Could this song actually be about Cara moving on to Annie?

Ooh, and I bet she has it all Bet she's beautiful like you, like you And I bet she's got that touch Makes you fall in love, like you, like you

I can taste her lipstick and see her laying across your chest I can feel the distance every time you remember her fingertips Maybe I should be more like her Maybe I should be more like her I can taste her lipstick, it's like I'm kissing her, too And she's perfect And she's perfect

Part III - Selena x Julia Michaels

Julia Michaels is a singer/songwriter known for her song Issues.  I don’t know her sexuality but she at the least has gay vibes!  It seems they met around this time perhaps because Julia wrote on Revival.

They have a friendly enough friendship for a few years, liking one another’s posts on IG from time to time, posing for a photo a time or two and then they seem to get swept up into this very intense friendship in 2019.  They write some music together and Julia goes whole hog in promoting the shoe brand Selena is hawking this time 😭

2019 - The Superior Sapphic Jelena Timeline:

It starts, for some reason with a lot of shoe promotion:

chill, chill

more shoes

but more gayness?

this homo shit

ok...

Then we go into the REALLY GAY NOVEMBER OF 2019:

Then they perform together:

And...actually kiss...on the mouth on stage???

Sure it’s just a peck but still...if that were a guy people would say they were dating.  

Somehow kissing on the mouth isn’t the gayest thing these girls do over this period because these fucking dykes got matching tattoos.  I’ve read enough Larry blogs to know this actually means they’re secretly married.  All jokes aside this is fruity behavior. 

From their IG stories:

Selena gets Julia a very nice christmas gift:

Covid sets in and content drops off but god damn!  It’s possible they just had an intense friendship but if a man and a woman collabed on music together, kissed in public, and got matching tattoos everyone would say they were dating!

Selena, as far as I can find, didn’t have any public boyfriends around this time so who are some of these love songs about?

Rare comes out in January 2020 and perhaps has some gayish songs?

Don’t tell me why but boyfriend lowkey, has a gay vibe.  Don’t ask me to explain it but it’s just the musicality of it.

Crowded Room could be a love song for Julia?  (or by Julia for Selena, since they’re collaborators?)

Baby, it's just me and you Baby, it's just me and you Just us two Even in a crowded room Baby, it's just me and you, yeah

These are general gay vibes, our secret moments in a crowded room tease

It started polite, out on thin ice 'Til you came over to break it I threw you a line and you were mine

It would have started out polite between them, since they worked together for years before whatever 2019 was happened.  And throwing someone a line first of all makes Selena sound like the aggressor but also “throwing someone a line” could be a reference to writing songs together.

Yeah, I was afraid, but you made it safe I guess that is our combination Said you feel lost, well, so do I So won't you call me in the morning? I think that you should call me in the morning If you feel the same, 'cause

Lots of people are afraid at the beginning of a gay rs.  Treacherous tease 👀

In summation!

Selena does gay stuff like fantasizing ab kissing other women in her music, getting very touchy with famous dykes on vacay, hangs out with Taylor Swift, has chronic mental health issues, dated a jonas brother and a twilight gay, has admitted to questioning her sexuality, and loves being shipped with women.  Is she gay?  I don’t know!   But all she’s missing from her celesbian bingo card is a suspiciously intense friendship with a Glee Cast member! What do you guys think?  Selena fruity or just weird?

Edit to add: so apparently I missed an entire ship and Selena supposedly acted really gay all the time with her backup dancer Charity Baroni.  Exposing SMG has posted a lot about all that.

Also Selena has been cast in a gay role! edit to add: @bisluthq went and found this for me - julia is indeed a fruit queen

[purplebass]

Holograms

This is something new that I’ve written for @lucieblckthorn 💜 I know there are some good TLH/TDA time travel one shots out there, but I also wanted to write mine, so here it is. 

Ship/Characters: TLH gang, Kit Herondale, Ty Blackthorn, Mina Carstairs Rating: T Prompt: Kit, Ty and Mina find themselves in 1903 and meet the TLH gang

“Jamie? Matthew? Thomas?”

Christopher’s voice echoed through the stairs that led to the laboratory in the basement. James and Matthew were at the Institute, and they run downstairs to check on him once they heard him call for their help.

“Are you okay, Kit?” James asked, looking around the room that used to be Henry’s lab once upon a time. Relief filled him when he realized that there wasn’t anything on fire. “I thought you were hurt.”

Christopher shrugged and adjusted his glasses. His hand left a black mark on his cheek but he didn’t seem to care. “I’m good, thanks for asking. Don’t you notice something wrong?”

“It seems all in order to me,” Matthew commented with a smirk. “Considering that there are no broken chairs or tables or glass on the floor. That’s a new achievement for you, Kit.”

“Christopher is right, though,” James interjected, moving closer to the furthest wall in the room. “Someone has been through the portal.”

Both heads turned and examined the area James had just pointed out. “It’s true, Jamie. The portal has been activated. Was there an Enclave meeting or something that you know of?” Christopher wondered as he untied his protective jacket that he only used when he was in the lab.

“My parents are here. I’ve just seen papa, so I doubt it.”

“Then who could have…?” Matthew began, but then something caught his eyes in the portal. “By the angel, who is that?”

James and Christopher were as speechless as Matthew when a little girl who could have been around two strutted into the laboratory.

“James! It’s a baby!” Christopher said.

“We can see that,” Matthew remarked. “The problem is, who is she and what is she doing here?”

James ignored the two and walked to the little girl trying not to scare her. “Are you lost, little one?”

The girl was petite and had deep dark brown eyes and dark hair. She didn’t say anything, she just put her finger in her mouth and clutched on the teddy bear she was carrying.

“I think we should cross the portal and take her back,” Matthew offered.

“What? No. We can’t do that! What if we go somewhere and we can’t go back?” Kit said.

“Christopher is right. What if we cross the portal and it closes on us and we’re the ones who are stuck?” James noticed, trying to take the kid’s hand. The little girl gripped her hand around James’ really hard, then she looked up at him with adoration as if he was the most beautiful thing on Earth. “Oh, she trusts me,” he added.

“James, she seems to have a thing for you.”

“Gross,” Christopher commented.

Matthew glared at Kit and rolled his eyes. “My comment didn’t have a double meaning.”

“This is not the time to argue. Shall we take her to Lucie before I ask my parents how we should handle this?”

“I think it’s a great idea.”

James, Christopher and Matthew found Lucie in the training room with Cordelia.

“Do you want something, James?” Lucie asked as she tried to duck because Cordelia was aiming her sword at her.

“We have a guest,” Matthew said, but neither Cordelia nor Lucie stopped their practice fight to look at who the guest was.

“Would you please not ignore us, Luce?” James shouted to get her attention. The little girl held on his hand with such strength he thought she might not be human.

Lucie and her parabatai halted their movements and grabbed a towel from a bench nearby to wipe the sweat off their faces. It was Lucie who noticed the baby. “By the angel, Jamie!!! Where did you steal a child? Do you know that kidnapping a mundane is punishable by law?”

“Calm down, Lu,” James reprimanded his sister, who usually imagined the most creative scenarios when it came to their lives. “We did not kidnap this kid. We found her in the lab in the basement.”

“She’s adorable,” Cordelia commented, crossing the room to get closer to her. She lowered to her height so that they were at the same eye level. “What is your name, baby?”

Everyone in the training room waited for the girl to say something, anything. “Mi-mi, Na-na, Mi-mi,” the baby girl replied.

“She’s just blabbering nonsense,” Matthew concluded.

“Maybe she’s just shy, don’t you think?” Lucie noted, crossing her arms on her chest expectantly.

Matthew was about to reply to Lucie when two people barged inside of the training room and closed the door behind them. They hadn’t realized they weren’t alone.

“I told you to get that Magnus Bane to help us,” the blond guy said.

“He was having a vacation with his husband! And you know that we can’t use the damn portal just like that. We can’t do like that time we tried to revive…” said the second guy, who had a mop of black hair which reminded the people present in the room of somebody else.

“Who the heck are you?” asked the one with golden hair. He had a set of deep blue eyes, but that wasn’t the trait that Matthew, Christopher, Cordelia, Lucie and James noticed first.

Matthew advanced towards them. “What is that expression? Heck? What does it mean?”

“Math, that’s not the problem here,” James interjected. “Who are you?”

The two guys exchanged a glance and whispered something in each other’s ears before speaking. “Look, dude, you are in no position to ask the questions here. And why are you dressed as if you were in the Victorian era or something?”

“Edwardian, we’re in the Edwardian era,” Lucie corrected him.

“Are you kidding, right?” The guy with black hair wondered in astonishment, then tugged on the other guy’s jacked and pointed at the little girl next to James. “Your sister is here!”

“What the flying -! How did you come here, kiddo?” he said, running towards the baby girl and hugging her. She hugged him back but she still wouldn’t leave James’ hand. The teenager glared at James, but James grinned smugly at him.

“Now you’re going to tell us who you are, okay? And why are you here.”

“Speaking of, where are we? I mean, which year is this?” the other one asked.

They all seemed confused as they gazed at each other. “Could they be from the future?” Christopher wondered out loud. “It’s not impossible, you know? Uncle Henry and Magnus Bane created the portals, what if the shadowhunters who come after us shall create even greater things?”

Some of them nodded in agreement.

“Do you also know Magnus Bane?” Blond guy asked.

“He’s one of our allies and one of my parents’ old friends,” James explained. “Speaking of…”

The door of the training room opened to reveal James’ father William, who was holding some papers in his hand. He looked at the young girls and boys scattered around the wide space with skepticism, tilting his head when he focused on the strangers.

“I heard someone run and came to check. Is someone hurt?”

“We’re fine, mister Herondale. Thank you for your concern,” Cordelia offered.

“You’re William Herondale?” The blonde guy guessed.

Will examined the young boy from head to toe, frowning at his weird clothes. “That would be me.”

Blond guy turned to black-haired guy as if he had just remembered that he had something on the stove and had forgotten to turn it off. “It’s him, Ty. Him! What the heck, wait till I tell my-“

“I guess you’ve come here through the portal, haven’t you?” Will stopped their exchange.

“Yeah? We come from 2015. We activated it because we wanted to go back to a specific moment in the past because the book we’ve stolen from Magnus Bane’s house said so- “blond guy put a hand on Ty’s mouth.

“Would you shut up, Ty! He doesn’t need to know all of these things! And he’s the director of the London Institute, he will call the Clave and we’ll go to jail and we’ll lose our marks.”

“Stop being dramatic, Kit! Ugh!”

“Kit and Ty, huh? Shadowhunters from the future thanks to a portal. Interesting,” Will commented with a grin. “Shall we make an agreement? I’ll help you go back to 2015 or something – does the world live until then? Amazing! – but you have to promise me that you won’t do it again.”

“But my sister –“ Ty said, but stopped abruptly. His whole features darkened. Kit patted his shoulder and they looked at each other. A look of understanding and affection.

“Dude, we agree, uhm, William Herondale,” Kit said, offering his hand to him. “Agree handshake?”

“What? Ha, okay, Kit,” he agreed, and he and Kit shook hands. “Alright. I think I should call Magnus now, because what do I know about going back to the future, huh?”

Their moment was broken by a: “by the angel!” uttered by Cordelia, which made everyone turn towards her. “You’ll cut yourself, dear,” she told the baby, who was gripping her hands on Cortana’s handle but she still couldn’t hold it properly since she was not strong enough. They were sitting on a bench. “Cortana isn’t rejecting her,” she added, awed by the fact that her sword was not pushing the child away.

“Maybe because she is a child?” Lucie offered, but Cordelia shrugged.

Will stared at the little child with dark hair and dark brown eyes and smiled. He had just thought that the baby reminded him of someone, but he wouldn’t say out loud nor he would ask Kit and Ty whether his suspicion was true. He could hinder the future of these kids or he may just delude himself that she was… “It’s time to go, kids. Come with me. I’ll take the baby if you like.”

Kit and Ty agreed and they left the training room with Will holding the baby in his arms.

“Wait until I tell them,” Kit said to Ty, and at that, Will grinned again.

A few hours later, after Magnus Bane had come and blamed Will for not letting him sleep his beauty sleep since he was still adjusting to the London time zone, he was able to create an enchantment that would bring Kit, Ty and the little baby girl to their time.

“I don’t know if it will work, but it doesn’t hurt to try. I’m actually enthralled by this!”

“You just like that the future you are able to cast such magic,” Kit commented, at which Magnus glared at him.

“If the guys from the future are all so conceited and direct, I don’t know if I want to live forever.”

“Trust me, you do,” Kit winked, and Magnus had no idea of what he was talking about.

As Kit and Ty and the girl were about to cross the portal to hopefully get to their future, Tessa arrived to the basement.

“Will, bach, you’re here.”

“Tessa,” the guy named Kit murmured. Will shot him a glance and smiled like a fool, which made Kit uneasy.

“It’s time for you to go back or to go forward as you please,” Will urged them. “Your parents may be worried for you.”

“My parents are dead,” Ty said. “But his parents…”

Kit elbowed Ty. “Yes, yes, I agree. They’ll be super worried because me and my sister have disappeared. We better go. Ty?”

Ty rolled his eyes and grabbed Kit’s hand, then they turned one last time and crossed the portal and they were gone.

“Do you think they’ve made it?” Will asked Magnus.

Magnus shrugged, unbothered. “I guess only time will tell. By the way, I’m suing you for all the time you’ve made me lose all of these years, William.”

“Let’s say we believe you, Magnus,” Will smirked, then Magnus started climbing the stairs to leave the basement.

He and Tessa were alone now, and she was confused. “Who were those people?”

Will took her hands in his and he kissed both palms. “Just people from the future.”

“Just people from the future? I wonder who they were and why they ended up here,” Tessa said, squeezing her husband’s hand and leading him towards the stairs so they could leave.

Will smirked but tried not to appear too excited because of the recent events. “I wonder that too, but we shall never know. Ugh, I’m hungry, Tess. Aren’t you?”

“That’s why I went to look for you. Dinner has been ready for ages, Will.”

“You should have eaten without me. You shouldn’t starve because your silly husband is dealing with dudes from the future,” he said with a jovial tone.

Tessa’s face contorted in confusion again. “Dude… what?”

“I heard those fellas say it. No idea what it means.”

“Then you shouldn’t say it, Will. What if it’s a bad word?” Tessa admonished him with a smile, not entirely convinced that was a bad word in the future.

“I doubt it or I’m going through that portal to scold those two.”

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: a deeper dive into one of the most underrated early synth-pop acts. You’ve heard “Fade to Grey” by now, I’m sure, but this record is weirder and wilder than you might imagine! Find out more by watching the video or reading the transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be discussing one of the first opening salvos of the New Romantic movement: the 1980 self-titled debut album by Visage. You could be forgiven for assuming that Visage was the alias of a single person, presumably the dapper fellow all over their brand, but Visage were, indeed, a group!

That “face of the band” figure was Steve Strange, who was less of a musician and more of a tastemaker and aesthete, and the club promoter for London’s famous nightclub, The Blitz. The Blitz’s DJ, Rusty Egan, was also a percussionist, and had previously played in the punk band Rich Kids, where he became acquainted with Midge Ure. Famous for his many connections and skill at leveraging them, Egan put together a sort of dream team out of the many musicians he knew at the time: Ure, who’d been orphaned by the dissolution of Rich Kids, Billy Currie, one-time synthesist of Ultravox before their group split apart, and several members of Buzzcocks alumnus Howard Devoto’s band Magazine. A bit of a motley crew, for sure...but one can’t argue with the success Visage would achieve.

Music: “Fade to Grey”

“Fade to Grey” is surely one of the most iconic songs of early 80s synth-pop, and its music video pushed forth a bold new aesthetic for the new decade: sophisticated, futuristic, androgynous. While Steve Strange would consistently reject the “New Romantic” label for his own work, his influence on the scene was undeniable. “Fade to Grey” strikes a balance between being debonair and mysterious, with its ghostly vocal reverb, and being a straight-up club classic, with an absolutely massive synth riff. The inclusion of a French-language translation of the main lyrics gives it a lot of European panache, and may well have been one of the main factors propelling it to international success--“Fade to Grey” was actually an even bigger hit in markets like France and Germany than in Visage’s native UK. That aside, though, as is so often the case with these famous 80s songs, the rest of this album is not to be missed! If you’re looking for another song with a bit of a similar vibe to their famous hit, I think you can’t go wrong with its opening track and final single, also titled “Visage.”

Music: “Visage”

There’s something really satisfying about a track, artist, AND album all having the same name--the triple threat! Still, I think this album’s title track stands well enough on its own, with a soaring refrain that’s quite easy to sing along to. While this album doesn’t get quite as “baroque” as Ultravox would, on tracks like their famous hit “Vienna,” the dry piano used throughout this track really classes the place up. Thematically, the title track seems to assert the importance of fashion and style, as well as the importance of innovating in those fields--“New styles, new shapes, new modes.” While lots of electronic acts were fixated on the future, Visage were one of the first to center aesthetics to such a dramatic degree. Plenty of people, both at the time and more recently, would criticize New Romantic acts of the MTV era for being “style over substance,” as though their embrace of the parallel art form of fashion inherently made their music worse. I’ve never understood that criticism myself, since it’s perfectly possible to care about, or excel at, more than one creative pursuit at once. At any rate, the title track’s focus on novelty contrasts quite strikingly with the preceding single, “Mind of a Toy.”

Music: “Mind of a Toy”

“Mind of a Toy” is a surprisingly high-concept song in comparison to the album’s other singles, narrating the thoughts of a plaything that’s lost its lustre, and has been discarded in favour of newer and better diversions. It feels like a pointed criticism of the consumerist obsession with novelty, and a counterpoint to the apparent thesis of the title track. It’s perhaps also a sort of critique of the way popular music disposes of so many of its once-loved idols--who, like puppets, are often controlled by unseen outside forces. You’ll also find several tracks that push into more experimental territory on the album, to a degree that may be surprising if you’re only familiar with the big hit. The eerie, cinematic instrumental “The Steps” is perhaps the most striking example, and closing the album on this note is certainly a bold decision!

Music: “The Steps”

The album’s cover features Steve Strange dancing with a woman, in a starkly lit, greyscale composition that recalls early photography. In the background, we can see the shadows of several instrumental musicians--perhaps a nod to the composition of the band itself, in which the composers and instrumentalists happily hid behind the facade of Strange’s attention-grabbing persona. What’s perhaps most interesting about it is the fact that despite having a dance partner, Strange’s attention seems to be focused entirely on us, the viewers. He seems to meet our gaze, with a vigour and intensity that borders on confrontational.

Before “New Romantic” took such a strong hold as the term for this movement, one of the contenders for its name was “peacock punk.” I’ve always liked the way that alternative phrase communicates the brash, almost macho nature of its seemingly fey male frontmen, whose gender-bending style was often rooted in self-confidence that bordered on bravado. I think Steve Strange’s fixed gaze on the cover of this album embodies this principle of “peacocking,” and lavishing attention on one’s personal aesthetic in a daring, perhaps even aggressively counter-cultural manner. While a lot of this music, and its associated visual culture, has been dismissed as some sort of yuppie frippery, it takes some serious balls to transgress ideas about gender as much as the New Romantics did, and I’d say it’s pretty damn punk.

This album is, of course, self-titled, which I suppose could be seen as a sort of throwaway non-decision. But I think the use of “Visage” for the title calls attention to the idea their name represents. A “visage” is, literally, a face, but the connotation of the word is certainly a bit loftier and more refined than that. A visage is less likely to be an everyday face, and more likely to be a metaphorical or symbolic “face”--a front for something, a representation of some greater idea. While Strange and company couldn’t see the future, they of course ended up being the representative front for the coming wave of stylish, synthesiser-driven pop, even if they weren’t at the crest of it for too long.

After their debut, Visage would go on to release one more LP with their original line-up, 1982’s The Anvil. Less experimental, and more indebted to disco and dance music, The Anvil would produce two more charting singles, “Night Train” and “The Damned Don’t Cry,” though neither of them would reach the same heights of international success as “Fade to Grey.”

Music: “Night Train”

Later in the 1980s, Billy Currie and Midge Ure would become increasingly committed to their work with the re-formed Ultravox, and they left Steve Strange and Rusty Egan to continue the Visage project on their own. The two of them released one more album under the Visage name in 1984, but when that was panned, they went back to running the Blitz Club together.

In 2013, Steve Strange decided to return to making music, and revive the “Visage” name. While his untimely death in 2015 would cut this era short, Strange released one full album, and recorded enough material for a followup that it could be released posthumously. Though Strange is no longer with us, Rusty Egan has become quite keen on the idea of a Visage reunion of some sort in the past year or two, possibly involving Midge Ure, Billy Currie, and/or fellow New Romantic heartthrob Zaine Griff, who I think could fill Strange’s shoes better than just about anybody. It sounds quite promising, so we’ll have to stay tuned.

My favourite track from this album is “Tar,” which was actually released ahead of the album, in 1979, but failed to attract much notice. It was love at first listen for me, though--I love the way the chorus rises so triumphantly, only to fall back down into its screwy, glitchy synth hook. Besides that abrasive touch, the theme of the song is also a bit out there: it’s a somewhat patronizing number all about the repulsiveness of cigarette smoking. Perhaps now that fewer people are smokers, this premise will come across as less alienating than it did at the time! That’s all I’ve got for today, thanks for listening.

Outro: “Tar”

[postguiltypleasures]

The Magicians Finale - (over a year later)

I didn’t watch the first season of The Magicians as it aired in late 2015- 2016. I was already watching the roughly estimated maximum amount of television I could watch. I didn’t have the time to make for a new show. It debuted at the same time as The Expanse, and that looks like the “better” show. But I would soon realize that I liked The Magicians more.

While I was watching the first season, I attempted to go back and look at the writing from while it aired. This experience profoundly influenced how I felt about the controversial ending to the fourth season, and the fall out in the fandom.

The fourth season ended after Quentin Coldwater, ostensibly the show’s central character, dying while saving the world. In his orientation to the afterlife there is discussion about was this actually heroic or was it a manifestation of his depression and suicidal identification. The show doesn’t answer this directly, it just has Quentin experience how his friends are mourning him and feel how loved it was. People felt really betrayed by this. It was considered deeply irresponsible. I have already written about it here. In the aftermath, part of me thought back to those recaps and reviews of the first season and wondered “how did we get to place where we could feel so betrayed?” Because reviews from the then seemed certain that it was more problematic than it was. Take for example this recap from Vulture season one, where the writer, Hillary Kelly, wonders who this show is actually for? Or this AV Club recap of the first season finale where the writer Lisa Weidenfeld erroneously thinks that The Beast and Julia, both rape victims, are being set up to be the show’s main villains? And that Eliot’s forced marriage to Fen was potentially a straight washing.

The fact that the worries Weidenfeld put into writing didn’t pan out is probably part of the reason that the show’s reputation improved. It would also have characters within the show call out others’s sexism, racism, etc. which could feel like something of a corrective to a lot of pop culture out there. You might also have noticed that in Weidenfeld’s recap she makes a comparison between Julia and Willow-gets-addicted-to-magic-plot season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ads for the first season even looked like they wanted viewers to draw that comparison.

I remember from around the second season coming across a several articles declaring The Magicians a worthy successor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Emily VanDerWerff discussed it in her review of the second season. As one point she makes the statement that “The Magicians isn’t as politically subversive as Buffy”, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that might be less true than she assumed at the time. In an era of backlash against Buffy’s creator Joss Whedon, The Magicians could be comparatively more empathetic to its characters and had some pretty subversive plot points. But I haven’t watched an episode of Buffy since the early aughts, or The Magicians since it wrapped.

(VanDerWerff’s writing heavily influenced my own thoughts about thee show, which I previously wrote about here. I am also including links to her old podcast, I Think You’re Interesting and the interviews she did with novelist Lev Grossman and show runner Sera Gamble, though I should note those are from before she transitioned and under her dead name. Also I wanted to include that she included it in her best television of the 2010s article.)

In the articles I just linked to, you might also notice frequent comparisons to Game of Thrones. While the comparisons focus on the the vast difference in budget and how ubiquitous GoT was at the same time The Magicians aired, it is worth noting that both series are postmodern, deconstruction takes on their respective sub-genres. While GoT could use that to point out why surprising and awful things happened to their characters, The Magicians mostly had fewer horrible things happen to its characters. But the comparison might have influenced how post Quentin’s death people made a litany of those events/plot points to prove that any faith in the show was misplaced and it was a betrayer better left behind.

The after the fourth season I pulled back from discussing The Magicians online. I just couldn’t deal with other people’s anger. I was never really active in the fandom, but I did write about it here more than probably any other series since I started this blog. This may have given me a false impression about how the media ended up covering the show. While writing this I was planning an arc that would go something like, “at the start of the fourth season the media loved it and articles this one by Kathryn Van Arendonk at Vulture came out saying that they regretted stopping the show part way through season one. But the fan backlash to the finale was so harsh that even the show’s frequent champion, Emily VanDerWerff didn’t write about it at all for the fifth season.” She did write a positive review at the start of the fifth season. I even read it at the time. She didn’t write about the finale, and that disappointed me, which may have led me to mis-remember the earlier. (I did remember this round table discussion about the ascendency of fandom in which she discusses the show’s situation, and it might have also contributed to my misremembering.)

The AVClub had Weidenfeld write a review of the first episodes, but she no longer recapped the episodes as she had for the first four seasons. (Her review is generally about what is missing from the Quentin-less series) While preparing to write this I found out that Decider’s Anna Menta recapped through the third episode, despite being amongst those who felt betrayed by Quentin’s death and the lack of opportunity for Quentin and Eliot to explore their romance.

(I just want to take a moment to say a couple of things here. Firstly, I really believed the show runners when they said Quentin was dead and not coming back so I didn’t see the first couple of episodes as a tease that he might come back. When my grandfather who I was very close to died I would regularly have dreams that his death was incorrectly called and he’d come back. I saw those episodes as a version of that.)

This has been show I’ve written about the most in recent years. But as I was mostly ignoring both professional and fan writing about it for its final season, I only really got around to reading these now. I’m going to start with this post-finale interview with the producers, Sera Gamble, Henry Alonso Myers John McNamara, written by Vlada Gelman at TVLine. It isn’t really a lot of new information. It’s interesting to read about how being renewed or not affected their editing decisions in post production. They seem happy with it. At Entertainment Weekly, Chancellor Agard interviewed Gamble and McNamara. There is more talk about the connection between the final season of the tv show and the finale book of the trilogy, The Magicians Land. (As a viewer I was always pleased when they somehow brought in details from the books late in the season, whether it was big things for the arc like the World Seed page or details that only mattered for an episode like whales being magicians.) In the interview, they also talk about some of the wildest plot points. Gamble and McNamara also gave and interview to Adam Chitwood at Collider. Chitwood is the most enthusiastic about the show. The interview also confirms for those who want to know that Jason Ralph asked to be let go from the show, and that Julia’s pregnancy probably wouldn’t have happened if her actress Stella Maeve hadn’t gotten pregnant. Finally, in an I can’t believe I missed it example, at the New York Times, Jennifer Vineyard also interviewed Gamble and McNamera. This one starts pretty politically with how trying to save the citizens of Fillory unintentionally works as a metaphor for quarantine and how we don’t get through difficult periods of times because of individuals, instead it’s more of a collective. Then it somehow turns into a a thing about being in a mutual admiration society with William Shatner. I truly didn’t see this one coming.

So now I have to get to the actual reviews of the finale, with the caveat that I haven’t watched any of the series in over a year so it’s definitely not fresh in my mind. Over at The AVClub, re-capper Weidfeld is mostly mournful for the series, but also makes the point that when the characters grew up and stopped being so hurtful towards each other and themselves, it was less compelling. It kind of ties back to my “how did people think this was a show that wouldn’t hurt them” question from earlier, but with less interest in fans. I don’t remember if my feelings as it went on would have agreed with it, but it is partially why it was in good place to end the series. At io9, Beth Elderkin seemed to think the finale was rushed and the show deserved better. I don’t remember if I felt like the episode was rushed. But as I read through her recap, I realize that I’ve also forgotten a lot of the episode’s plot points. Over at The Mary Sue, Jessica Mason wrote a positive review highlighting aspects that pleased her as a fan who wanted good things for these characters.

Shortly after the finale Sarah Stankorb at The Atlantic recommend the series to COVID bound bingers. I was shocked to see this. I didn’t think anyone would be recommending it post season for backlash. (Earlier on an episode of Our Opinions Are Correct the hosts walked back what could have been a recommendation for the series, which disappointed me. I don’t remember which episode this was.) It’s a lovely overview of the whole series. I especially like how Stackorb addresses the way the show dealt with Julia’s assault (greatly improving on the source material). It made me wonder if the show will have a legacy, one worthy of celebration. I don’t hope for a revival, but if I had time to re-watch it, I might. And I am happy to read comicbooks building on the source material.

[letterboxd]

Life in Film: Ben Wheatley.

As Netflix goes gothic with a new Rebecca adaptation, director Ben Wheatley tells Jack Moulton about his favorite Hitchcock film, the teenagers who will save cinema, and a memorable experience with The Thing.

“The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it.” —Ben Wheatley

Winter’s coming, still no vaccine, the four walls of home are getting pretty samey… and what Netflix has decided we need right now is a lavish, gaslight-y psychological thriller about a clifftop manor filled with the personality of its dead mistress—and a revival of one of the best menaces in screen history. Bring on the ‘Mrs Danvers’ Hallowe’en costumes, because Rebecca is back.

In Ben Wheatley’s new film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s best-selling 1938 novel, scripted by Jane Goldman, Lily James plays an orphaned lady’s maid—a complete nobody, with no known first name—who catches the eye of the dashing, cashed-up Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer).

Very quickly, the young second Mrs de Winter is flung into the intimidating role of lady of Manderley, and into the shadow of de Winter’s late first wife, Rebecca. The whirlwind romance is over; the obsession has begun, and it’s hotly fuelled by Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas, perfectly cast).

Each adaptation of du Maurier’s story has its own quirks, and early Letterboxd reactions suggest viewers will experience varying levels of satisfaction with Wheatley’s, depending on how familiar they are with both the novel and earlier screen versions—most notably, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Best Picture winner, starring Laurence Olivier Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson.

Why would you follow Hitchcock? It’s been 80 years; Netflix is likely banking on an audience of Rebecca virgins (the same kind of studio calculation that worked for Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born). Plus, the new Rebecca is a Working Title affair; it has glamor, camp, Armie Hammer in a three-piece suit, the sunny South of France, sports cars, horses, the wild Cornish coast, Lily James in full dramatic heat, and—controversial!—a fresh twist on the denouement.

A big-budget thriller made for a streamer is Wheatley coming full circle, in a way: he made his name early on with viral internet capers and a blog (“Mr and Mrs Wheatley”) of shorts co-created with his wife and longtime collaborator, Amy Jump. Between then and now, they have gained fans for their well-received low-to-no budget thrillers, including High-Rise, Kill List and Free Fire (which also starred Hammer).

Over Zoom, Wheatley spoke to Letterboxd about the process of scaling up, the challenge of casting already-iconic characters, and being a year-round horror lover. [The Rebecca plot discussion may be spoilery to some. Wheatley is specifically talking about the du Maurier version, not his film.]

Armie Hammer and Ben Wheatley on the set of ‘Rebecca’.

Can you tell us how you overcame any concerns in adapting a famous novel that already has a very famous adaptation? How did you want to make a 1930s story relevant to modern audiences? Ben Wheatley: When you go back to the novel and look at how it works, you see it’s a very modern book. [Author Daphne du Maurier is] doing stuff that people are still picking up the pieces of now. It’s almost like the Rosetta Stone of thrillers—it tells you everything on how to put a thriller together. The genre jumping and Russian-doll nature of the structure is so delicious. When you look at the characters in the book, they’re still popping up in other stuff—there’s Mrs Danvers in all sorts of movies.

It remains fresh because of its boldness. Du Maurier is writing in a way that’s almost like a dare. She’s going, “right, okay, you like romantic fiction do you? I’ll write you romantic fiction; here’s Maxim de Winter, he’s a widower, he’s a good-looking guy, and owns a big house. Here’s a rags-to-riches, Cinderella-style girl. They’re going to fall in love. Then I’m going to ruin romantic fiction for you forever by making him into a murdering swine and implicating you in the murder because you’re so excited about a couple getting away with it!”

That’s the happy ending—Maxim doesn’t go to prison. How does that work? He’s pretty evil by the end. It’s so subtly done that you only see the trap of it after you finish reading the book. That’s clearly represented in Jane Goldman’s adaptation that couldn’t be done in 1940 because of the Hays Code. That whole element of the book is missing [in Hitchcock’s Rebecca]. But I do really like this style of storytelling in the 1930s and ’40s that is not winky, sarcastic, and cynical. It’s going, “here’s Entertainment with a big ‘E’. We’re going to take you on holiday, then we’re gonna scare you, then we’re gonna take you around these beautiful houses that you would never get a chance to go around, and we’re gonna show you these big emotions.”

After High-Rise, you ended up circling back to more contained types of films, whereas Rebecca is your lushest and largest production. How was scaling up for you? Free Fire does feel like a more contained film, but in many ways it was just as complicated and had the same budget as High-Rise, since it’s just in one space. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is literally a contained film, that’s right. What [the bigger budget] gave me was the chance to have a conversation where I say I want a hotel that’s full of people and no-one says you can’t have any people in it. You don’t have to shoot in a corner, so that scale is suddenly allowed.

Elisabeth Moss and Tom Hiddlestone in Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise’ (2015).

The other movies I did are seen as no-budget or, I don’t even know the word for how little money they are, and even though High-Rise and Free Fire were eight million dollars each, they’re still seen as ultra-low budget. This is the first film that I’ve done that’s just a standard Hollywood-style movie budget and it makes a massive difference. It gives you extra time to work. All the schemes you might have had to work out in order to cheat and get around faster, but now it’s fine, let’s only shoot two pages today. We can go out on the road and close down all of the south of France—don’t worry about all the holidaymakers screaming at you and getting cross! That side of it is great.

You had the challenge to cast iconic actors for iconic roles. What were you looking for in the casting? What points of reference did you give the actors? I don’t think we really talked about it, but [Armie Hammer] definitely didn’t watch the Hitchcock version. I can understand why he wouldn’t. There was no way he was going to accidentally mimic [Laurence] Olivier’s performance without seeing it and he just didn’t want to have the pressure of that. I think that’s quite right. It’s an 80-year-old film, it’s a beloved classic, and we’d be mad if we were trying to remake it. We’re not.

The thing about the shadow that the film cast is that it’s hard enough making stuff without thinking about other filmmakers. I’ve had this in the past where journalists ask me “what were your influences on the day?” and I wish I could say “it was a really complicated set of movies that the whole thing was based around”, but it’s not like that. When you watch documentaries about filmmakers screening loads of movies for their actors before they make something—it’s lovely, but it’s not something I’ve ever done.

The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it—“we’ll use this shot from 1952, that will really make this scene sing!”—then you’re in a world of pain. Basically, it’s my interpretation of the adaptation. The book is its own place, and for something like High-Rise, [screenwriter Amy Jump] has the nightmare of sitting down with 112 pages of blank paper and taking a novel and smashing it into a script. That’s the hard bit.

Armie Hammer and Lily James in ‘Rebecca’.

Current industry news is not so great—cinemas are facing bankruptcy, film festivals in the USA are mostly virtual, Disney is focusing on Disney+ only. How do you feel about a future where streaming dominates the market and the theatrical experience becomes, as we fear, an exclusive niche? Independent cinema was born out of very few movies. If you look at the history of Eraserhead—that film on its own almost created all of cult cinema programming. One movie can do that. It can create an audience that is replicated and becomes a whole industry. And that can happen again, but it needs those films to do that. They will come as things ebb and flow. The streamers will control the whole market and then one day someone will go “I don’t want to watch this stuff, I want to watch something else” and they’ll go make it.

It’s like The Matrix, it’s a repeating cycle. There’ll always be ‘the One’. There’s Barbara Loden in 1970 making Wanda, basically inventing American independent cinema. So I don’t worry massively about it. I know it’s awkward and awful for people to go bankrupt and the cinemas to close down, but in time they’ll re-open because people will wanna see stuff. The figures for cinemagoers were massive before Covid. Are you saying that people with money are not going to exploit that? Life will find a way. Remember that the cinema industry from the beginning is one that’s in a tailspin. Every year is a disaster and they’re going bust. But they survived the Spanish Flu, which is basically the same thing.

Two months ago, you quickly made a horror movie. We’re going to get a lot of these from filmmakers who just need to create something this year. What can you identify now about this inevitable next wave of micro-budget, micro-schedule pandemic-era cinema? I’ve always made micro-budget films so that side of it is not so crazy. There will be a lot of Zoom and people-locked-in-houses films but they won’t be so interesting. They’re more to-keep-you-sane kind of filmmaking which is absolutely fine. Where you should look for [the ‘pandemic-era’ films] is from the kids and young adults through 14 to 25 who’ve been the most affected by it. They will be the ones making the true movies about the pandemic which will be in like five years’ time.

People going through GCSEs and A-Levels [final high-school exams in England] will have had their social contracts thoroughly smashed by the government after society tells them that this is the most important thing you’re ever gonna do in your life. Then the next day the government tells them “actually, you’ve all passed”, then the next day they go “no, you’ve all failed”, and then “oh no, you’ve all passed”. It’s totally bizarre. Anyone who’s in university at the moment [is] thinking about how they’ve worked really hard to get to that position and now they’ve had it taken away from them. That type of schism in that group will make for a unique set of storytelling impetus. Much more interesting than from my perspective of being a middle-age bloke and having to stay in my house for a bit, which was alright. Their experience is extreme and that will change cinema.

Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers in ‘Rebecca’.

It’s time to probe into your taste in film. Firstly, three questions about Alfred Hitchcock: his best film, most underrated film, and most overrated film? It’s tricky, there’s a lot to choose from. I think Psycho is his best film because, much like Wanda, it was the invention of indie cinema. He took a TV crew to go and do a personal project and then completely redefined horror, and he did it in the same year as Peeping Tom.

There’s stuff I really like in Torn Curtain. Certainly the murder scene where they’re trying to stick the guy in the oven. It’s a gut-wrenching sequence. Overrated, I don’t know. It’s just a bit mean, isn’t it? Overrated by who? They’re all massively rated, aren’t they?

Which film made you want to become a filmmaker? The slightly uncool version of my answer is the first fifteen minutes of Dr. No before I got sent to bed. We used to watch movies on the telly when I was a kid, so movies would start at 7pm and I had to go to bed at 7:30pm. You would get to see the first half-hour and that would be it. The opening was really intriguing. I never actually saw a lot of these movies until I was much older.

The more grown-up answer is a film like Taxi Driver. It was the first time where I felt like I’d been transported in a way where there was an authorship to a film that I didn’t understand. It had done something to me that television and straightforward movies hadn’t done and made me feel very strange. It was something to do with the very, very intense mixture of sound, music and image and I started to understand that that was cinema.

What horror movie do you watch every Hallowe’en? I watch The Thing every year but I don’t tend to celebrate Hallowe’en, to be honest. I’m of an age where it wasn’t a big deal and was never particularly celebrated. I find it a bit like “what’s all this Hallowe’en about?”—horror films for me are for all year-round.

What’s a brilliant mindfuck movie that perhaps even cinephiles haven’t seen? What grade of cinephile are we talking? All of the work by Jan Švankmajer, maybe. Hard to Be a God is pretty mindfucky if you want a bit of that, but cinephiles should know about it. It’s pretty intense. Marketa Lazarová too.

‘Marketa Lazarová’ (1967) directed by František Vláčil.

What is the greatest screen romance that you totally fell head over heels for? I guess it’s Casablanca for me. That would be it.

Which coming-of-age film did you connect to the most as a teenager? [Pauses for effect] Scum.

Who is an exciting newcomer director we should keep our eyes on? God, I don’t know. I would say Jim Hosking but he’s older than me and he’s not a newcomer because he’s done two movies. So, that’s rubbish. He doesn’t count.

[Editor’s note: Hosking contributed to ABCs of Death 2 with the segment “G is for Grandad” while Wheatley contributed to The ABCs of Death with the segment “U is for Unearthed” and also executive produced the follow-up film.]

What was your best cinema experience? [Spoiler warning for The Thing.]

Oh, one that speaks in my mind is seeing The Thing at an all-nighter in the Scala at King’s Cross, and I was sitting right next to this drunk guy who was talking along to the screen. It was a packed cinema with about 300 people, and someone at the front told him “will you just shut up?” The guy says “I won’t shut up. You tell me to shut up again and I’ll spoil the whole film!” The whole audience goes “no, no, no!” and he went “it’s the black guy and the guy with the beard—everyone else dies!” That made me laugh so much.

Do you have a favorite film you’ve watched so far this year? Yeah, Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Related content

Classic Gothic Literature to Film—Jennifer Boddaert’s list

Ava’s Dark Romance list

Ben Wheatley’s Life in Film list

Follow Jack on Letterboxd

‘Rebecca’ is in select US theaters on October 17, and streaming on Netflix everywhere on October 21.

[sugarsourgoat]

All of the 90s (& 80s) Anime You Need To Fill Your Nostalgic Heart

There’s is no greater feeling than running into something that makes you remember a fun time in your life. For me, that is the 90s. Even though I didn’t experience a lot of the 90s, I still have those times where I feel like getting out some popcorn and indulging in the things that make me feel as though I am back in that time. One specific way for me to do that is through watching anime that came out in the 90s. 

The typical art styles of 90s anime are something I sometimes wish was still a feature in today’s animation. The haziness of the animations (mostly because of the lower quality resolution of televisions during that era) takes me back to a time when I was a child. 

In this post, I hope that you will find an anime with a story that will pique your interest, as well as help you feel as though you are back in the 90s (or the 80s because I couldn’t help myself). If you were born in the 2000s, then hopefully this list will help you understand why some of us began to love anime in the first place or will open you to anime you never heard of.

If you have any 90s (or older) anime recommendations, let me know! I’m always happy to watch some old anime. 

xx, Sai

1. Oniisama e

When 16-year-old Nanako Misonoo enters the prestigious all-girls Seiran Academy, she believes a bright future awaits her. Instead, the unlucky girl finds herself dragged into a web of deceit, misery, and jealousy. On top of that, she is chosen as the newest inductee of the Sorority, an elite group whose members are the envy of the entire school. Having none of the grace, wealth, or talent of the other members, Nanako quickly draws the ire of her jealous classmates—especially the fierce Aya Misaki. To cope with her increasingly difficult school life, Nanako recalls her days through letters to her former teacher, Takehiko Henmi, whom she affectionately calls "onii-sama" (big brother). She also finds comfort with her four closest friends: her childhood friend Tomoko Arikura, the sociable but erratic Mariko Shinobu, the troubled musician Rei Asaka, and the athletic tomboy Kaoru Orihara. An impassioned drama about the hardships of bullying, Oniisama e... chronicles a young girl's harsh life at her new school, as she endures cruel rumours, heartless classmates, and countless social trials.

Aired: Summer 1991

2. Angel’s Egg

In a desolate and dark world full of shadows, lives one little girl who seems to do nothing but collect water in jars and protect a large egg she carries everywhere. A mysterious man enters her life... and they discuss the world around them. 

Aired: Fall 1985

3. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

In a world filled with planes and airships, Sheeta is a young girl who has been kidnapped by government agents who seek her mysterious crystal amulet. While trapped aboard an airship, she finds herself without hope—that is, until the ship is raided by pirates. Taking advantage of the ensuing confusion, Sheeta manages to flee from her captors. Upon her escape, she meets Pazu, a boy who dreams of reaching the fabled flying castle, Laputa. The two decide to embark on a journey together to discover this castle in the sky. However, they soon find the government agents back on their trail, as they too are trying to reach Laputa for their own greedy purposes. Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa follows the soaring adventures of Sheeta and Pazu, all while they learn how dreams and dire circumstances can bring two people closer together.

Aired: Summer 1986

4. Sailor Moon

Usagi Tsukino is an average student and crybaby klutz who constantly scores low on her tests. Unexpectedly, her humdrum life is turned upside down when she saves a cat with a crescent moon on its head from danger. The cat, named Luna, later reveals that their meeting was not an accident: Usagi is destined to become Sailor Moon, a planetary guardian with the power to protect the Earth. Given a special brooch that allows her to transform, she must use her new powers to save the city from evil energy-stealing monsters sent by the malevolent Queen Beryl of the Dark Kingdom. But getting accustomed to her powers and fighting villains are not the only things she has to worry about. She must find the lost princess of the Moon Kingdom, the other Sailor Guardians, and the Legendary Silver Crystal in order to save the planet from destruction.

Aired: Spring 1992

5. Akira

In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after the nuking of the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists, and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural powers suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment's secrets.

Aired: Summer 1988

6. Burn up! 

To the unsuspecting eye Maki, Reimi and Yuka may not look like ace crime fighters, which might explain why they're stuck on traffic patrol instead of more "exciting" police duties. All that changes when Yuka gets herself kidnapped by a white slave organization run by a politically connected businessman who's got the rest of the police cowed. Now it's up to Maki and Reimi to don skin-tight battle armor, liberate a tank, and make sure that a certain slaver learns that when you play with fire, you're going to get your ass burned!

Aired: Winter 1991

7. Neon Genesis Evangelion

In the year 2015, the world stands on the brink of destruction. Humanity's last hope lies in the hands of Nerv, a special agency under the United Nations, and their Evangelions, giant machines capable of defeating the Angels who herald Earth's ruin. Gendou Ikari, head of the organization, seeks compatible pilots who can synchronize with the Evangelions and realize their true potential. Aiding in this defensive endeavor are talented personnel Misato Katsuragi, Head of Tactical Operations, and Ritsuko Akagi, Chief Scientist. Face to face with his father for the first time in years, 14-year-old Shinji Ikari's average life is irreversibly changed when he is whisked away into the depths of Nerv, and into a harrowing new destiny—he must become the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 with the fate of mankind on his shoulders. 

Aired: Fall 1995

8. Battle Angel Alita

Doc Ido, a doctor, and mechanic who lives and works in the hellish, post-apocalyptic "Scrapyard", finds the—miraculously preserved—remains of a female cyborg in a junk heap. After he revives and rebuilds her, the preternaturally strong, amnesiac "Gally" begins to forge a life for herself in a world where every day can bring a fight for life.

Aired: Spring 1993

That’s all for my nostalgia-giving anime list for now! If you have any suggestions for me on what anime I should watch send me a message! Let me know if you will/have seen any of these anime and what you think about them! Also, feel free to suggest topics you’d like to see from Sailure Artemis in the future (you can also submit posts).

See you next time!

[menswearmusings]

Change and Move Forward

Years ago when the online menswear movement was really swinging, the major focus of it was longevity: clothes that would last, not only because they were high quality but also because they were designed in a “classic” way that would age better. That movement coincided with a revival of interest in tailored clothing and the types of classic menswear associated with it (leather shoes, tailored outerwear, sweaters, etc.). That’s when I hitched a ride on the wagon, though I think it was just good timing that my interest in tailoring coincided with that Renaissance in the marketplace.

Of course, all of that about timeless classics is kind of bunk. First of all, tailoring will almost never look ‘timeless’ because it changes all the time—two vents, one vent, wide lapel, narrow lapel, low gorge, high gorge, blah blah blah. You can often tell what era a jacket is from by the fabric, lapels, and fit. I have very distinct negative associations with certain types of fabrics if they feel like they’re from a certain era. But also, if you’re into clothing, it’s unlikely that you will be content with simply buying something and wearing it for many more years. You’re always on the hunt for that next thing, that next “staple” or “grail.”

I’m no different than anyone else in that regard. I have things I want that I’ve told myself are needed in order to have a ‘complete wardrobe,’ and I’ve taken years to work down the priority list to where I am now. I just bought a topcoat, for instance, something I haven’t had for years. But besides trying to build a complete wardrobe, there’s the need to grow, to change, to mature, to learn, to move forward. Those things are healthy, particularly if you find some level of creative satisfaction in a clothing hobby. This is true especially within the larger framework of what types of clothes you even want to wear. Only looking backwards to a supposed golden age of menswear, and rigorously trying to recreate that will get boring and make you look like you’re wearing a costume at a certain point. Evolve, change and move forward as your tastes change.

I’m changing and evolving as I’m embracing a more casual aesthetic since I work at home, and also since I have a baby boy (nearly a toddler now), and also because I’ve got a great wardrobe of tailoring and am interested in expanding outwards. I’m still largely attracted to more refined pieces as opposed to rugged workwear-inspired pieces, but instead of a sport coat I find myself wearing a nice sweater or a field jacket. It feels more natural particularly when carrying a little one around.

The difference between the clothes I wore in Italy this year versus four years ago highlights my trying to expand my horizon for utility’s sake.

While I didn’t wear a sport coat every moment of every day on our trip to Italy in 2015, it was my default outfit.

Read more at Menswear Musings

[spamzineglasgow]

Bon Iver’s hauntological i,i (William Fleming)

Image Copyright: Bon Iver / Jagjaguwar 

In this essay, William Fleming takes a detailed look at bon iver’s new album, i,i: through acid communist hauntology to oedipal melancholia and the future’s cybernetic fracture. 

> This week I’ve been reading Mark Fisher and listening to Bon Iver’s new album on repeat so I combined the two.

-

> Mark Fisher, in his Ghosts of My Life (2014), laments the dearth of creativity in popular music after the turn of the century, the loss of experimentation and of hearing something New and Radical, and the persistent replication of past methods, sounds and images. Fisher was no Adorno though (I don’t think anyway?). His essays are emotive and developed from a deep desire for a compassionate politics; Ghosts evokes the pathos of his seminal Capitalist Realism (2009). One of the key themes associated with his work on pop culture, is the use of the Derridean term ‘Hauntology’: the haunted ontology of futures that never came to be, the spectral disturbance of time and place as the possibility of political becoming dissipates. As he details in Ghosts, Fisher initially used hauntology as a genre-defining term for music. He identified artists which were 'suffused with an overwhelming melancholy; and they were preoccupied with the way in which technology materialised memory', this results in us being made 'conscious of the playback systems’ and of ‘the difference between analogue and digital’, 'hovering' out of reach behind the media’. Fisher uses this conceptual framework to analyse a raft of musicians and their work but there is a consistent emphasis on the political narratives of class and race which shape these cultural offshoots.

> Despite being one of the biggest records of this summer – and thus perhaps a bit bait for me to discuss? – Bon Iver’s i,i bares all the hallmarks of the hauntological genre: melancholia, the clash of digital and analogue, anachronism, the suggestion of political solidarity, artistic experimentation.

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> First a confession: I first listened to Bon Iver because, in 2011, there was a girl on twitter I fancied who posted a video to Birdy’s Skinny Love. Birdy’s rendition is a wisp of a song, sad and grasping and completely lost on a shallow sixteen-year old and probably rightfully so. Failing to select the next song, I’m guessing Bon Iver’s original version played. For the first time I felt I’d discovered adult Sad Music. None of the ghd straightened, dip-died, angst-ridden emo tunes I’d gotten into a few years prior to impress my first girlfriend; or the one ballad acting as the penultimate track on one of the indie-rock albums from my older brother’s excessive collection. (- Does anyone know how to recycle these properly?). I would wallow in performative sadness playing immediately gratuitous and instantly gratifying XBOX games, quickly repeating the heartbeating guitar of Lump Sum on For Emma, Forever Ago or the wails of Holocene from Bon Iver, Bon Iver as I pined for my yet-to-be second girlfriend.

> I went off Bon Iver for a few years: these days, the quiet acoustic melancholia of these first two albums doesn’t fit with any aspirational sense of masculinity of mine. Being a man and being non-toxically emotional isn’t about listening to acoustic guitars and barely audible snares whilst you lie sulking in your room or on the drizzled walk to the library or job you hate. Instead it’s about communication, solidarity and empathy – ‘I’d be happy as hell, if you stayed for tea’. And so, when 22, A Million came out I was into it. Everyone thought it was a bit shit the first time few times they listened to it but this gave me cover to pretentiously purvey that they just didn’t get it and listen to it over and over. It was still the same anguished voice of Justin Vernon – but it was finally coming to life. Revived through stretched synthesizers, neologisms which made you question the contributors on A-Z Lyrics, and deconstructed bass. The piano riff on 33 “God” interrupted by alien helium-infused voices and the stammering, looping saxophone of 45 are still highlights. Listening now, 22, A Million initiated the hauntology of Bon Iver.

-

> At times, i,i feels like Bon Iver’s latest album is a playback of their first album, but one done through a signal sent by an analogue walkie-talkie found on the abandoned spaceship from Alien: Isolation – itself maybe the most harrowing video-game I’ve ever played, one which is played in constant anticipation of being found. Listen to the intermittent signal of Holyfields,: the bleeps and radio fuzz a beacon we sent out into space, only for it to sporadically and hauntingly talk back at us – a cultural SOS signal.  

> i,i is the same guitar riffs from albums one and two but cybernetically fractured through time. The same syncopated kick drum but ripped out from the mid noughties and dumped in a Iain M. Banks novel or an episode in Love, Death + Robots. Fisher, quoting Derrida, quoting Hamlet: ‘the time is out of joint’. In these time fractures, it’s not just the music’s original location which is torn into the future, but also objective fragments of past culture: the sax (Sh’Diah) and violin strings (Faith) torn from eras when politics and music were still intertwined.

> The first track on the album, Yi, is garbage. But it is orbital astro-garbage – a notable anthropocenic feedback loop! – sitting uncomfortably at the stratosphere of an album which explicitly reflects on ecological destruction. Yi’s inaudible conversation and the ‘Are you recording, Trevor?’ set it up as a soundcheck for the album too. Including a soundcheck evokes Vernon’s emphasis on the album as a performance piece in the accompanying mini-documentary Autumn. In the doc, Vernon mentions the problem of ‘How is it going to be played live?’. Immediately, we are forced to imagine i,i as more than just another album on Spotify.

> Yi bleeds into iMi, a psychedelic echo of a track built from interspersing a melancholic vocals/arpeggio combo and an encroaching synth/dub beat combo. We is similarly eclectic, digitalised vocals juxtaposing with endearing, major-key sax. Following is Holyfields,, perhaps the most alien but most beautiful song on the album.

-

> Hey, Ma is the headline single from the album. An ode to Vernon’s mother and a sense of the sunrise walk home after the summer party (I’ll try and avoid further seasonal references: the four albums are set up to represent the four seasons, i,i being autumn, but IMO this is pretty naff).

> There is a sense of time passing in Hey, Ma, a nostalgia for the yet to be – ‘Well you wanted it your whole life’ – but with this passing is a sense of desire – ‘I wanted all that mind, sugar / I want it all mine’ – and of becoming or evolving – ‘You’re back and forth with light’. Becoming is the famous Deleuzean postmodern motif; i.e. being is constantly flowing and reforming. Bon Iver’s becoming, however, is not a flow, but a hauntological wrench into the future state. The entire album feels as though you’re experiencing the tech-enhanced evolution of Bon Iver’s music. That skipping between soft indie and futuristic synth reminiscent of the OG Pokemon games when your Pokemon was evolving and it would flicker between its past and future states. But becoming is never complete. As Fisher highlights, ‘futuristic’ no longer refers to a time/space but is now merely an adjective. We’ll never hear the Bon Iver made entirely on digital tech.

> For Fisher, melancholia is a productive force of political resistance. He distances his ‘hauntological melancholia’ from that of Wendy Brown’s ‘left melancholia’ which ‘seems to exemplify the transition from desire (which in Lacanian terms is the desire to desire) to drive (an enjoyment of failure)’. Fisher’s melancholia, ‘by contrast, consists not in giving up on desire but in refusing to yield'. Under scrutiny, Bon Iver’s first two albums fail this melan-test – they are a spectacular, self-pitying self-indulgence. Self-pity as a common form of masochism. For Deleuze, thinking through Jung, thinking through Bergson (yeap, I know), masochism is always regressive, flipping the Oedipal on its head as a form of un-becoming.

> Is Vernon’s song to his mother a masochistic form of melancholia; a self-pitying reversal of the Oedipal? ‘I wanted a bath / “Tell the story or he goes”’; ‘Tall time to call your Ma / Hey Ma, hey Ma’. The type captured by Maggie Nelson in The Argonauts (2015) when reflecting on Ginsberg’s poem Kaddish, which is dripping in, in Nelson’s words, ‘misogynistic repulsion’. Or is Bon Iver’s a hauntological melancholia? One of stubborn resistance. The type of mother-son relationship photographed by Donald Weber in his response to Alison Sperling and Anna Volkmar’s conversation on the post-atomic (Kuntslicht, 39: 3/4). Weber’s photographs were taken over two years in Chernobyl. The, now fetishised, explosion in Chernobyl perhaps the example of the nuclear, a hauntological theme post-WWII, made material. The bursting of a political, biological and biopolitical reality which was never meant to be. Weber’s photo of a middle-aged man and his elderly mother is captioned: ‘Mothers sought to be photographed sitting close to their sons, in domestic scenes of proud companionability. Their eyes signal an unalterable communion. And more – elevation. A man’s mother transcends the material order, and rises easily above even the most squalid circumstances. It is the frank declaration of her biological supremacy: This is my child’. If it is this relationship captured in Hey, Ma, it may promise a spectre which can be made material. An artefact which can continue its evolution, its becoming. ‘Let me talk to em / Let me talk to ‘em all’.

> Finally, that Hey, Ma’s nostalgia is a culturally productive one is suggested by one of its more memorable lines: ‘I waited outside / I was tokin’ on dope / I hoped it all won’t go in a minute’. In Fisher’s posthumously published Unfinished Introduction to Acid Communism, he, when imagining the process of resistance and a new politics whilst citing Jefferson Cowie, writes 'these new kinds of workers – who “smoked dope, socialised interracially, and dreamed of a world in which work had some meaning” – wanted democratic control of both their workplace and their trade unions’. The curious, outdated use of ‘dope' in Vernon’s lyrics then mirrors Cowie’s use of 'dope', echoing Cowie’s nostalgia for a lost working-class culture of 1970s America. Fisher uses Cowie’s argument to piece together an acid communism, which I will return to, but this, surely consequential, similarity further constructs i,i as a contemporary hauntological album.  

-

> Following Hey, Ma comes the Sunday-school piano of U (Man Like). Raising an image of a crisply ironed, white America, like that depicted in Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone (2000), which acts as a reminder that nostalgia isn’t always productive. However, the nostalgia is continued with Naeem ‘Oh, my mind, our kids got bigger/ … / You take me out to pasture now’. Fisher asks ‘is hauntology, as many of its critics have maintained, simply a name for nostalgia?’. However, he argues that it is not a ‘formal nostalgia’ but one of solidarity and of a longing for the process of social improvement. Naeem, despite its nostalgia, continues the flickering between hope and despair. The joyful ‘More love / More love / More love’ and ‘I can hear, I can hear’; the anguished ‘I can hear crying’ and ‘What’s there to pontificate on now? / There’s someone in my head’. The latent and angelic child-like choir on Naeem another hauntological theme. As Fisher declares, ‘no doubt there comes a point when every generation starts pining for the artefacts of its childhood’. However, Vernon’s evoking of childhood is one perhaps linked to the, at times damaging, trope of ‘future generations’ in environmentalism. It is still a political longing though – ‘I’d Occupy that’. Occupy: that great post-2008 political uprising which dissipated into a mere exemplar in an undergraduate geography textbook.

> Next, Faith brings back the aliens from 33 “God” but this time, for attention, they’ve brought their clean guitar and slowly morph into the catholic choir we began to hear on Naeem. God died and, despite the sexy, liquidity of our modernity, we miss him.

> Marion momentarily brings us back from the cybernetically fractured semi-future. Back to the £3-coffee coffee-shop where you’re telling your friend that you think you and that girl will probably get back together but you need the time to be right. The hope is sucked back out; we’re back in capitalist realism and Arctic Monkey’s fourth (fifth?) album. Luckily, Salem restarts the signal to bring us back from our self-pity, dragging us to the obfuscation we were enjoying. Salem’s witches are still here and they’re pretty good at Ableton.

> Next, Sh’Diah grows from an autotuned prayer – ‘Just calm down (calm down) / And she’ll find time for the Lord’ - into a yearning saxophone riff/rift. But, alas, RABi, the album’s final song, returns us to a blues guitar and Vernon’s vocals. If the oscillation between past and future throughout i,i was a dialectic, the depressing outcome is ‘consumer capitalism’s model of ordinariness' (Fisher) of the neoliberal present. As in Fisher’s hauntology, the technologically-infused creativity of i,i is a lost future. Watching Vernon being interviewed feels like this. He’s got the Pacific-North-West hipster look: vegan but drives a V6 truck. Goes to the craft brewer’s bar and talks about that latest public health campaign to encourage men to talk about mental health over a pint but refrains from actually talking about depression. (Maybe serving beer in 2/3rd schooners means you never end up getting to the important part of the conversation?)

-

> But why does it matter? Because it’s about political and cultural (and creative) imagination. Fisher’s last big, and tragically but appropriately unfinished, philosophy is that of Acid Communism. Maybe there is a future !

> Fisher mourned not only the flattening of pop music, but also the ‘culture constellated around music (fashion, discourse, cover art)’. In contrast to a digital album which you never perceive in any physical manner, Bon Iver have emphasised various forms of art in their work, ensuring a communal creativity. There are multiple iterations of the album cover art on public posters and on social media. More excitingly though, is the collaboration with WHITEvoid, a Berlin-based sculpture group/company, which is discussed on Autumn. Prepared for live performances, WHITEvoid have constructed an ensemble of floating mirrors and kinetic lighting made from ‘space-age metal’ and motion tracking sensors. An artistic contribution as ethereal and tech-enhanced as the accompanying music and one which aestheticises our material sciences. The lighting provided by WHITEvoid in collaboration with the experimentation in sound system, similarly shown on Autumn, constructs the performance of i,i as an ongoing innovation and experimentation. The effort put into the upcoming live performances of i,i ensure that it is a music to be experienced not merely consumed. In another discussion on Autumn, Michael Brown, Bon Iver’s Artistic Director, says ‘you have to be in the moment with other people, you have to be able to know that the person next to you is having the same communal experience’.

> In Krisis (2018:2), Matt Colquhoun sees acid communism as a “project beyond the pleasure principle” (2) and of an “experimental” politics. If the sounds of i,i are hauntological, then the spectre it suggests is one of acid communism. The acid is provided by its accompanying artistic experimentation and the communism is its emphasis on the political and the communal.

~

Text: William Fleming

Published 30/8/19

[uhselena]

Les’ talk about it:

The anonworld thrived during an era where Tumblr itself was thriving. 2012 to 2015 (possibly even late 2011, making it like any other institution of four years). Who were we? Adolescences at best. Ranging from high school to higher education. So let’s say the average anon was 16 to 26 years old. This formating worked because we were all confused millennials with out-of-the ordinary mental disorders that lead us to the gateway of having the ability to give advice to those that were going through a difficult time. Wow, we actually had a job? Statistically proven, it is easier to share your problems with a stranger whether it is unbiased feedback, or it is someone who doesn’t have the capacity to judge you at full length. We took up a face of a celebrity to stay anonymous so people feel more free to express their distress from their personal lives. Were we professional psychiatrists? Hell no. But we sure as hell acted like it. Finding a common interest between us formed a society, and sadly more often than not that common ground was our personalized instability. Of course in every society comes a hierarchy.

We had the elites. The anons that everyone knew by their username as well as their actual first names. Talk about fimilarity. These were usually anons that created themes, and helped format the anonworld to become its best version it could have been. Then the second in command that were known because of their association to the elites. If you were in with them, you were in with majority of the anonworld. Hello yeah, I was one of them. I was controversial as hell, but the way I gave advice to those that asked for it was grade A, and that’s what helped me rise to popularity. During this time, a lot of the anons forgot why we started this community in the first place. They did their bit to post hotlines (suicide prevention, sexual abuse, emotional distress, etc.) on their blogs, but that’s as far as they commited. Only little of us stayed up throughout the night to calm a person down because they were contemplating to self harm or to end it all. Little of us actually published our expertise on what to do when you think a significant other is cheating on you, your parental figures not knowing your sexual orientation, the failing grade, the losing of your virginity, social constructs that bind us to ideologies that we never wanted to be bound to. This was a 911 operator job, or so it was.

And while we, for some reason got exhausted by the fake messages we recieved to get help (usually trolls), or figured that there was no reason to post advice because about 105+ other anons did it for us, we found comfort in ourselves to start relationships between us. Talk about Catfish central. Tinder? Hell na, it was ALL about Anonworld. I remember I got catfished once by another popular anon, and it was crazy. It wasn’t your Thanksgiving family dinner on here, it was Thanksgiving, Christmas and an Easter family reunion. But I also formed the best friendships on here that to this day I still keep in contact with. But we never talk about the anonworld. Yeah we mention it from time to time but it’s sort of a taboo now. A stigma surrounded by our cringy angst teenage years. So, why’d it all crash and burn?

Maturity at best? As we grew, we realized mental disabilities were too serious for us to even phantom an explanation of why someone feels a certain way. For ourselves, we no longer had the option to hide online as we became adults, and needed to find help and a supportive system in the real world. We grew up. Needed to get jobs, start a family (Like holy shit, I’m married!!!!), continue our education. Things were changing on Tumblr too, like any social media it goes through fluctuations of audience. But, why did the generation after us not succeed to rebuild what we worked so hard on?

No guidance? How do you rebuild something that was destroyed after the greatest succession? That’s like asking to rebuild the Ottoman Empire with a teaspoon. But every revision has another edition. The new generation failed because they believed following in our footsteps of just recreating emotionless relationships and fake friendships through gifs of celebrities were enough to keep the movement going. The new generation tried to revive the dead horse that’s been kicked too many times instead of investing it’s time on a new “horse”. This community was so broad, with so many possibilites. But creating new possibilites takes extreme effort, effort that sometimes we ourselves have never experienced. And nobody really wants to take that responsibility because there’s always the risk of failing.

Is this the end? Like the end END? I encourage you guys to push your limits to try something new. I come back on this tag every so often, and all I see is “I’m bored, someone talk to me!” Why? Why are you so important to form a conversation with? “Is there anyone even on here?” Make a reason for us to come back. And if not the OG cast, make a reason for new people to join the community.

Thank you guys for taking the time to read this. I still have a slither of hope in my heart that this isn’t the end. But I’ve been holding out for a long time. Rest in power Adam Evan, and everyone that has lost their lives through this community or were once a part of it. You’re always with us. 💝

[bountyofbeads]

Why El Paso and other recent attacks in the US are modern-day lynchings

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/17/us/lynchings-racism-new-era-blake/index.html

If you don't read anything else today READ THIS😭😭😭

Why El Paso and other recent attacks in the US are modern-day lynchings

By John Blake | Published August 19, 2019 | CNN | Posted August 19, 2019 |

(CNN) - Carol Anderson was scanning Twitter recently when she saw something that brought back a chilling memory.

Someone asked Latina women if they had changed the way they acted in public after a white man allegedly targeting Mexicans was arrested for gunning down 22 people in an El Paso Walmart. One woman said she no longer speaks Spanish when out alone, checks store exits and now feels like a marked person when among whites.

"The hate feels like a ball in my stomach, and a rope around my neck," the woman said.

For Anderson, the allusion to lynching wasn't just a metaphor. It was personal. She had an uncle who was almost lynched in the early 20th century for standing up to a white man in an Oklahoma store. She also is a historian who wrote about the lynching era in her book, "White Rage."

She says the white men who are driving a surge in white supremacist violence in places like El Paso today are sending the same message to nonwhite Americans that their counterparts did in the lynching era: You will never be safe wherever you go.

"The thing about the lynching era was the capriciousness of it -- no space was safe," says Anderson, an African-American studies professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

"Folks of color were never at ease.

You're looking all the time. You're wondering. Is this a place I can go? You could be walking down the street or in a store or you could be sitting on your front porch and you could get killed."

The term lynching evokes images of a bygone era: black men dangling grotesquely from trees, Southern whites posing proudly by charred bodies, Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit."

But Anderson and others warn that many of the same elements that spawned the lynching era are stirring once again in America. One commentator even described the El Paso shooter as "a lynch mob of one."

The result, Anderson says, is that more Americans -- Latinos, blacks, Muslims, Jews, anyone not seen as white enough -- are now experiencing the same fear of being murdered at random in public that their relatives faced during the lynching era.

"It is tiring. It is ridiculous. It is infuriating," she says.

Here are three parallels between the white supremacists of the lynching era -- roughly the late 19th century through the 1960s -- and today:

Both are driven by the same fear

There's a perception that lynch mobs were motivated by mindless violence. But they were primarily driven by fear.

White supremacists were afraid of losing their dominance and being replaced by blacks in positions of power throughout the South.

"It's a weapon of terror to say to the people you're attacking that you don't belong in the mainstream of our society, and we want you to stay back," says Gibson Stroupe, co-author of "Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time," a biography of the most famous anti-lynching crusader.

"You shouldn't have political rights, make demands on white people, and shouldn't have the same rights in courts."

One of the biggest fears of the lynching era revolved around sex -- white paranoia about black men doing to white women what white men had been doing to black women for years. White supremacists were obsessed with being replaced on a biological level and fixated on the notion of black men raping white women and creating a ''mongrel race."

Modern-day racists are also voicing fears about being replaced.

The white supremacists marching in Charlottesville in 2017 chanted, "You will not replace us,"and "Jews will not replace us." The Texas man suspected in the EL Paso shooting posted a document online saying he was "defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement."

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was recently criticized for saying Central America immigrants would "dilute and eventually eliminate or erase" what's distinct about American culture.

And the white supremacists of the lynching era were actually starting to be replaced -- at least briefly -- on a political level.

A dizzying set of reforms, called Reconstruction, briefly transformed the South after the Civil War. Newly freed slaves gained the right to vote, own property, and get elected to offices once reserved for white men. Two African-Americans were elected to the Senate in the late 19th century, and over 600 served in state legislatures and as judges and sheriffs.

Random racial terror was one of the ways white supremacists seized power.

White supremacists often went after people who were political leaders in a community: ministers, union organizers and people with wealth and property who could inspire others to demand their civil and economic rights, according to a report from the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit group behind the recent opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the victims of lynching.

"Each lynching sent messages to blacks: Do not register to vote. Do not apply for a white man's job, according to one essay on the Jim Crow era.

It was racial politics by other means -- like today, Anderson says.

When elected leaders suppress votes, engage in partisan gerrymandering or decimate unions, they are doing what white supremacists did during the lynching era: trying to keep nonwhites in a subordinate position, Anderson says.

"Most of the lynchings were about black people who didn't know 'their place,' '' Anderson says. "They didn't get off the sidewalk when a white person was walking toward them. They looked directly at a white person instead of (at) their feet. They didn't show the proper level of deference -- 'place' was absolutely essential."

Both use the same language to dehumanize their victims

Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who murdered nine people in 2015 in a Charleston, South Carolina church, said he did it because blacks are prone to violence and white people were "being murdered daily in the streets."

This is a common theme of white supremacy -- reducing nonwhites to a subhuman level through language.

It's why critics point out the dangers of commentators and politicians referring to an "invasion" by Central American immigrants. It's why people criticized President Trump for calling some Mexican immigrants "rapists." USA Today recently published a story examining the language Trump uses to describe immigrants -- terms like "predator," "killer," and "animal" -- at his rallies.

The white supremacists of the lynching era used similar language to describe blacks. But they also went after other victims: Latinos were lynched, as were Chinese laborers and Jews.

Black men were a fixation, though. They were described as brutes, animalistic, rapists. One writer described the typical black man as "a monstrous beast, crazed with lust."

An estimated 4,700 people were murdered by lynching between 1882 and 1968, according to the NAACP.

They weren't only hanged. They were also shot, tortured, burned alive or beaten to death by mobs.

Random racial terror is what defined lynchings -- not a noose.

The cruelty is still hard to comprehend. Lynch mobs mutilated bodies and collected body parts as souvenirs -- all while taking pictures of the corpses and sending them as postcards to friends.

Stroupe, though, understands some of that hatred. He once absorbed some of it. He grew in a white family in segregated Arkansas during the lynching era. Today he is a civil rights activist who leads anti-racism workshops and previously led an interracial church that was recognized by Time magazine and the Christian Science Monitor for its work against racism.

But he remembers how he was taught when he was young to think of nonwhites.

"My earlier memory was that people of dark skin were not human beings like us," he says. "I was inculcated with it. We felt like lynching was like killing a dog. I hate to say it that way. It wasn't like we thought we were killing another human being. I never participated in it but I understood that black people had to be put and kept in their place because they couldn't do life like we could."

Both are encouraged by the same type of political leaders

He was a racist in the White House whose words empowered white supremacists and enraged civil rights leaders.

We're talking, of course, about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States.

Wilson helped revive the Ku Klux Klan by praising one of the most racist movies ever made, "The Birth of a Nation." The film portrayed black lawmakers who came to power in the late 19th-century South as buffoonish, dim-witted men lusting after white women. The KKK was depicted as heroes.

"It's like writing history with lightning," he reportedly said of the film. "My only regret is that it is all so terribly true."

In celebrating the film Wilson endorsed its message "that black people were not able to have political power and needed white people to put them in their place," Stroupe says. "Like the President we have now, he sort of encouraged white supremacy."

Other politicians weren't much better. The NAACP and other groups spent decades urging federal lawmakers to pass anti-lynching laws. Congress debated more than 200 anti-lynching bills in the first half of the 20th century without passing any. Opponents of the bills often described them as an infringement on states' rights.

The Senate finally passed a law making lynching a federal crime -- last year.

Politicians then and now "feigned helplessness" when asked to stop white-supremacist violence or changed the subject, Anderson says.

"You had this crazy kind of both-siderism," she says. "So that when anti-lynching bills were coming through Congress, you would have Southern Democrats like James Byrnes out of South Carolina saying things like, 'Yeah what about murders in New York City? What about the violence in the North?' Stop me if this sounds familiar."

Today many Republican leaders have been criticized by those who say they enable white supremacist violence by refusing to confront race-based domestic terrorism or condemn Trump for his racist statements.

These white politicians are as morally bankrupt as overt racists because they know better but do nothing, Stroupe says.

"It's why Trump doesn't do it now -- that's where the votes are," he says. "Even if they didn't believe in white supremacy, they weren't going to lose votes over it."

The kind of America people want?

It's hard to imagine the random racial terror from the lynching era ever becoming routine again. But maybe it already has.

One former white nationalist told The Atlantic he is shocked to see the impact of racist thinking on American popular culture. And he said the worst is yet to come.

"I never thought we would have a social and political climate that really kind of brought it to the foreground," Christian Picciolini told an interviewer. "Because it's starting to seem less like a fringe ideology and more like a mainstream ideology."

In the past two years white supremacists have killed Muslim students in a North Carolina apartment, Jewish worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue and a South Asian man in a Kansas bar. And, of course, there's the recent shooting in El Paso. It's getting hard to keep up.

Anderson believes such violence will keep happening if Trump is re-elected.

"If he gets in power again it sends the signal that this is the kind of America that people wanted," she says.

If that kind of America sounds far-fetched, consider another tweet that showed up on the thread Anderson noticed. When a Latina woman was asked how her life changed after El Paso, she responded with two words: "Mississippi, Goddamn."

That's the name of a fiery protest song written during the lynching era by the black singer Nina Simone.

She sang:

Can't you see it

Can't you feel it

It's all in the air

I can't stand the pressure much longer...

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

We all gonna get it in due time

I don't belong here.

I don't belong there.

I've even stopped believing in prayer.

Simone wrote that song in part to protest the murder of four black girls by white supremacists in a Birmingham, Alabama, church. She wrote it in 1964, near the end of the lynching era.

Yet for many Americans who hear those words today, here is an awful thought:

She could have written that song yesterday.

[eggoreviews]

Fall Out Boy Albums RANKED!

I love me some fob so I thought as like a post to go with my previous one, I’m gonna rank all of their albums so far! These bois are one of my absolute favourite bands and i’m never really sure what era of their stuff I like more but here’s my hot take on a ranking boi. Also, this only contains all 7 of their main albums so like old EPs n stuff aren’t included.

Disclaimer: u probably won’t agree with this

7. Take This to Your Grave (2003)

I know this is pretty much already blasphemy, but I never really gelled with this album that well. Of course it’s not a bad album, I mean it’s Fall Out Boy, but it delves a lil too far into that area of emo rock that kind of sounds v similar to each other. So I listened to this one a good few times, but it’s unfortunately one that I couldn’t really get behind. 

Faves: Saturday

6. From Under the Cork Tree (2005)

This album is where the bois really made a mark and it’s still one I enjoy, but I really think they’ve improved with time and I tend to come back to this one a lot less often than others. Of course, the singles are still as strong as they were in 2005, as well as a couple of other songs, but this album’s unusually low ranking compared to others who would likely name this one their favourite is that I enjoyed their later stuff a lot more.

Faves: Sixteen Candles, the Stitches one

5. American Beauty/American Psycho (2015)

This album is probably their most heavily produced (which maybe lets it down in some respects) but is full of some very angry bops that I tend to listen to a lot and I v much enjoy the aesthetic and the tone of this album, which seems a lot more generally angry at the world rather than the rebellious sort of anger going on in Save Rock and Roll. While a lil overplayed now, this album is still hiding a few underrated gems that bring it up a little above Cork Tree, but it isn’t quite their best.

Faves: Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel In NYC), Uma Thurman, Favourite Record

4. Mania (2018)

Contrary to a lot of other peeps, I loved this album. You can tell they took a way more experimental approach to this album and it fully paid off. While this album is a bit too chaotic and overproduced at times, the important thing is that it was full of bops and this album is what 2018 needed tbh. 

Faves: Church, Sunshine Riptide, Heaven’s Gate, Bishop’s Knife Trick

3. Infinity On High (2007)

This album took what they were going for with Cork Tree and made it a million times better. With this one, they took a lil more of a punk rock approach rather than their usual emo and the result was an album full of consistently strong bops that kick you in the face. With unforgettable singles like This Ain’t A Scene and thnks fr th mmrs, and the underrated beautiful fave Golden, this album is one worth listening to in full.

Faves: I’ve Got All This Ringing, You’re Crashing, After Life of the Party, The Takeover, the Breaks Over

2. Save Rock and Roll (2013)

This album is what revived the bois and spelt the beginning of their new, very different sound. As soon as I heard this album for the first time, I immediately knew I loved it, from the new and interesting instrumental choices, the string of brilliant guest artists and the angry energy behind the whole thing that makes you want to stand up and rebel against something. Literally anything. I’m here for it.

Faves: The Phoenix, Just One Yesterday, The Mighty Fall, Where Did the Party Go

1. Folie a Deux (2008)

I honestly count this album as one of my favourite of all time. This one was the culmination of all their efforts so far; the cool ass metaphorical lyrics, the production, the instrumentals that shred all of my skin off, Pat’s soaring vocals that almost make me feel like I can sing when I join in with it. No matter how much I listen to it, I can’t seem to ever get sick of it.

Faves: 20 Dollar Nose Bleed, w.a.m.s, 27, West Coast Smoker, Headfirst Slide (ok basically the whole album)

There u go. Send in ur list if you’re a fan, I love talking about these bois. Have a fun weekend!

[newsfact]

How Tyler Matzek went from battling the yips to being the Braves’ top reliever

When Braves manager Brian Snitker came out to the mound to take the ball from Luke Jackson and hand it to Tyler Matzek on Saturday night, it felt as though the game — and perhaps the series — were hanging in the balance.

It was the top of the seventh inning, and after shutting down Dodgers hitters all night in Game 6 of the NLCS, Atlanta had given Los Angeles an opening. A leadoff double by Chris Taylor, a walk to Cody Bellinger and an RBI double by A.J. Pollock made it a 4-2 game. Suddenly, the Dodgers were a base hit away from tying the game with nobody out.

Enter Matzek. The flame-throwing southpaw struck out Albert Pujols, struck out Steven Souza Jr. and struck out Mookie Betts, stranding the tying run (Pollock) at second base and moving the Braves to six outs away from a World Series berth.

Matzek said after the game that he was hoping to at least strike out the first batter. He felt that if he could just get that first out, then he could afford to give up a sacrifice fly and potentially leave with the lead.

“Luke went in there, he struggled a bit, an unfortunate hit that went down the left-field line (Taylor’s double). He’s gotten me out of those situations plenty of times this season, so it was time for me to repay him,” Matzek said. “It was just being aggressive and doing it for Luke, trying to keep those runs from scoring for him.”

MORE: Dodgers vs. Braves final score, results

He wasn’t finished after that. Matzek pitched the eighth inning, too, striking out the first batter he faced before rolling a pair of groundouts in a 1-2-3 frame. He put the ball and the pennant in closer Will Smith’s hands.

After a 1-2-3 ninth by Smith, Matzek and the Braves were on their way to the World Series.

This was likely not a future many saw for Matzek a few years ago. Prior to the 2020 season, he hadn’t appeared in a big-league game since 2015. He had to work his way back from a case of the yips, toiling in the minors and independent leagues, before returning to the majors with the Braves.

First-round draft pick

Coming out of high school in Mission Viejo, Calif., Matzek was viewed as one of the top prep arms in the 2009 MLB Draft class.

Baseball America ranked him No. 9 overall in the class. The Rockies decided he would be their guy, taking him 11th overall.

He showed immediate promise in the minors. Matzek finished his first professional season with a 2.92 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 89 1/3 innings over 18 starts at low Single-A in 2010. His 62 walks were high, but that was to be expected from a high schooler still learning his craft. Baseball America listed him as No. 23 overall in its 2010 prospect rankings.

Matzek continued to fight with control issues in the minors, but he eventually made his MLB debut with Colorado in 2014. He pitched to a 6-11 record and 4.05 ERA in 117 2/3 innings, with 91 strikeouts and just 44 walks. He started 2015 in the big leagues and pitched to a 4.09 ERA in 22 innings, but he walked 19 and struck out just 15. He was sent back to the minors on May 8.

MORE: 2021 MLB playoff schedule

According to MLB.com, Matzek discovered over time that his issue was performance anxiety, commonly referred to in baseball as the yips.

“When you’re throwing it behind hitters and have no idea where the ball is going as a lefty, that’s usually a pretty good indicator something is wrong,” Matzek said in March 2020. “I feel comfortable now. I feel that is over with. I’m just ready to start this next chapter of my career.”

He was sent all the way down to short-season Single-A in June 2015. He had surgery at the end of the year and then pitched all of 2016 in the minors, owning a 6.75 ERA in 33 appearances — all in relief. He walked 33 batters in 26 2/3 innings. The Rockies cut him after the season.

Working his way back to the big leagues

Matzek latched on with two different organizations in hopes of reviving his career. He signed a minor league deal with the White Sox in 2017 but was released in March and did not play that season.

Matzek told The Denver Post that he nearly quit baseball as he tried to continue his career, and only his wife, Lauren, kept pushing him.

“In 2017, when I wasn’t getting picked up by anybody, I was back home in California, playing catch,” Matzek said. “Or rather, I was trying to play catch, throwing the ball all over the place. I basically told Lauren that I was done and that I was going to go back to school. I told her we were going to have to figure out the rest of our lives.”

Matzek said his wife told him that she believed in him and that he needed to keep trying to stay in the game. 

Matzek signed another minor league deal early in 2018 with the Mariners but again was cut before the season. 

He then signed with the Texas AirHogs of the independent American Association. He still struggled in 2018, but he also began to improve. He signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks in 2019 but was cut in May. He returned to the AirHogs on June 9.

MORE: Why Yordan Alvarez’s ALCS MVP performance shouldn’t come as a surprise

A conversation with AirHogs team president Billy Martin Jr. convinced Matzek to try a higher arm angle, according to The Denver Post.

Matzek said the change helped him to relax and that he began just to think about his pitching.

“That one little thing changed my command and my (velocity) — everything,” Matzek told the Post. “Then I just continued to throw, throw, throw. I think that got the yips out of me.”

The Braves purchased his contract on Aug. 15 and sent him to Double-A Mississippi before moving him up to Triple-A Gwinnett. Atlanta placed him on its Opening Day roster in 2020.

Braves’ relief ace

Matzek has made an impact in his return to the big leagues. 

In 2020, he pitched to a 2.79 ERA and a 1.92 FIP in 29 innings. He struck out 35.5 percent of opposing batters and — perhaps most importantly — only walked 8.3 percent.

Coming off the COVID-19-shortened season with renewed confidence, Matzek continued to dazzle in 2021, pitching to a 2.57 ERA in 63 innings with a 3.20 FIP. The strikeout rate still was sterling at 29.2 percent and his walk rate a bit higher, but still manageable, at 14 percent.

MORE: Eddie Rosario shines as latest Braves’ midseason acquisition to deliver

In 2021, only fellow southpaw A.J. Minter had a higher WAR in the regular season among Braves relievers, according to Fangraphs, and Matzek’s 1.92 win probability added of was the best on the team.

“He’s the reason we’re here. I mean, he just came up in all those clutch moments and, like, there’s just no describing,” NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario told MLB Network’s Heidi Watney through an interpreter after Game 6. “Every time we needed him he came up for us and he was the key for us out of the bullpen.”

So far this postseason, Matzek has pitched to a 1.74 ERA in 10 1/3 innings. He has allowed two runs on four hits and four walks with 17 strikeouts.

Saturday was the first time the 31-year-old Matzek pitched multiple innings this postseason, but he showed no issues pitching those scoreless frames and playing as crucial a role as anyone in getting Atlanta to the World Series.

Snitker said he remembered Matzek’s 2020 spring training when he was striking batters out but couldn’t remember his name. Now, not too many people will forget it.

“‘What was his name? He wasn’t on the list. Maybe we ought to bring this kid in here,'” Snitker said. “I have so much admiration for him, what he’s been through in his career. There’s another one, it hasn’t been easy for him, either, and he’s had to go back a bunch in order to come forward and how he’s handled all that just amazes me. Just the perseverance and everything this guy’s been through.”

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[usaghinanami99]

Answering some unasked Sera Myu questions

…I know, no one actually tagged me or asked to do this meme, but @sailorzakuro invited anyone who wants to take part in this challenge and I’m very eager to, so let’s start!

1) You are a Myu fan since…? Short answer: since 2012, aged 13. Long answer (beware, when I say long, I mean very long): you can find a fully detailed axplanation of how I got into Myu somewhere in this post, in the second reblog https://usaghinanami99.tumblr.com/post/170867407508/myucornerorg-usaghinanami99-myucornerorg

2) The first musical you saw? I always watch and read things in strict chronological order, so that was Gaiden. I think you can see how I went on.

3) Your favourite musical? OMG Eien Densetsu Kaiteban is the best musical ever, it’s got such a great soundtrack and the Senshuraku recording is especially touching!

4) Your favourite Sailor Moon actress? QUEEN ANZA FOR LIFE!!!!111!!1

5) Say one positive thing about every Moon actress. Anza: OMG QUEEN I mean: best singer, best actress, best everything… Should I really go on? Fumina: A nice singer and perfectly in-character for a post-manga Usaghi, very calm and compassed compared to others. Miyuki: If there is a queen in Myu (see before), then Miyuki is the princess, she’s so good at everything she does and I love her dearly… and of course I miss her so much! ;( She’s just so skilled that I think of her as a performer who would definitely deserve to be #1, if only there weren’t someone who is even better… this is without diminishing Miyuki’s ability at all! Plus, she’s the one who made me undestand that nasal voices aren’t necessarily terrible, quite the contrary with her case. Marina: WOW like was she really 12 when she started? I could think of many ways to praise her singing, but the most important thing I think about Marina is just “too good for her age” XD Satomi: I respect her very much because I think she’s the one Myu actress who improved awesomely during the course of time. I mean, I have to admit I’m not a fan of her singing and acting from LR through UNV, but when she returned in LMF she literally blew me away and I couldn’t believe she was the same person considering how much she improved. Hotaru: I can really see how she put her whole heart into her performance and that she loved it to death. I find her very relatable because she’s so fangirly she low-key reminds me of myself!

6) Is Sera Myu your favourite version of Sailor Moon? Er… actually, not at all ‘XD While I am absolutely convinced that the manga is the best version of the franchise and the first anime is the worst one, I’m much more torn apart among the other version… It is very hard for me to do a ranking, because I just can’t decide which I love more amongst Crystal, PGSM and Myu!

7) Who is your favourite cast member? ANZAANZAANZAANZAANZAANZAAAA…

8) Are your first favourites your actual favourites? Oh, yes! Anza, Ayako and Yuta have always been my Top 3 and will forever be. I have changed my mind over many actors, in the sense that I’ve come to like many whom I really didn’t care about at first view, but my best favourites will always stay the same

9) If you could say one sentence to your Myu favourite, what do you want to say to him/her? Nothing in particular, really. I’d rather have her sing Usaghi’s lines from Tabidachi for me to enjoy and worship!

10) Which Sailor Moon story do you want on stage? The manga stories which didn’t make it to the stage so far! I get that the short stories would be almost impossible to adapt, but between the Shining Princess’ Lover and the whole of Sailor V there is enough material to go on for at least three years! After that, they could start with some original material… maybe some story set during the Silver Millennium era?

11) Tell me your Top 3 underrated actors. 1: Tomoko Inami 2: Akiko Miyazawa 3: Miki Kawasaki

12) Give 3 actors new roles. Er… Does Anza as Cosmos count? Because, apart from that, I can’t really think of anything else: it’s because the actors I like have always been cast perfectly spot-on, while the ones I don’t… I’d rather have them have no parts at all XD

13) Combine classic and revival Myu: what does it look like? YES YES YES this is actually my greatest fantasy, I would kill to have a musical which combined the strong plotting and characterization of New Myu with the awesome soundtrack and casting of Old Myu

14) Revival Myu song you want in classic myu? Er… None? I’d rather have the exact opposite XD I mean, there are New Myu songs I do like, but they couldn’t ever even dream to compare to the work of goddess Akiko Kosaka.

15) Tell me an unpopular opinion you have about Myu. (Lightly whispering): I actually dislike Yuka Asami both in terms of singing and acting… I have tried to make myself like her to no avail. Now please don’t kill me! Apart from that, there are also some typical fan-favourites like Nao, Yuka and Chieko whom I love but are just number 2 for me because I think there’s someone even better than them… does this count as unpopular?

16) Ai no Starshine or Music of the Spheres? We hear the music of the spheeeeres… Speaking of New Myu songs I enjoy, this is definitely one of the best for me!

17) The Last Change or its XXI Century version? …Can I answer “both”? Lol, this is still another case of two things that are both so good it’s difficult to choose between them… I love both arrangements, Miyuki is QUEEN in both (yes, Marina is also good, but nowhere near her level IMO) and I am both into slow songs and upbeat ones. Actually, this reminds me very much of the issue I’ve got with Dolce Melodia (a song from the Italian dub of Mermaid Melody which you have to listen to NOW), where, after 11 long years, I still can’t understand if I prefer the original upbeat version or the more emotional carillon arrangement… But, while I am a sucker for both genres, slow love songs are definitely my cup of tea - in fact, my best favourite song in the whole freaking world is the main ballad theme from Beauty and the Beast. And while The Last Change is no love song, the original version has go tthis kind of feel to me, so that’s the one I’ll peek… but that’s been a very hard choice! XD

18) Cho Bi Uranus to Neptune or Harsh Saint Cry? Oh, this is much easier? While I do like both very much, the thing is that First Stage >>> everything else IMO ‘XD So it must be Cho Bi.

19) Is that something about Myu that annoys you? THE FREAKING UNRELEASED MATERIAL       I freaking want to have tapes of the four unreleased musicals so much that I’d die for them! Not to mention the reunion concert that Anza & Akiko made in 2015… Also yes, the speaking over the fankans. That’s pretty common, but there’s a reason if everyone is deeply pissed off by it. And the fact that some of the performances were only shown in snippets

20) What do you expect from the 2019 musical? A lot of things, lol. Actually this is getting pretty long, so if you’re really dying to read my opinion about this (I doubt it’s the case, but still), I’ve already made a complete list of my hopes on the purpose which you can find following the link up there.

21)  How important are dancing abilities of the actors for you? …I actually don’t even pay attention to them, and even if I did, I’m far too uncompetent for it to matter much for me. Sorry for the horrible answer ‘XD

22) Which Myu merchandise do you want? FREAKING VIDEOTAPES OF THE UNRELEASED MATERIAL Also official soundtracks for the New Myu and a more complete collection of the instrumental versions of all Myu songs

23) Are you sad that Luna and Artemis disappeared after Gaiden? You can bet on it! I’m also bitter for this because I was sure they would include them when La Reconquista was announced XD

24) An interesting (non-existing) HaruMichi couple? San’ae x Tomoko is my dream, what with them being the best Uranus and best Neptune for me? As for actually existing ones, my favourite is Shu x Sayaka.

25) Your favourite Moon x Tux couple? Anza x Yuta for eveeeer And I’ve also got this forbidden dream of seeing some Miyuki x Yu, I think they would be perfect together for some reason… sadly that’s not possible :(

26) Your favourite musical-only character? Kyaosu. You can beat me now. Also Space Knight, I wonder how it is possible that it didn’t come to my mind first. And yes, I have that sense of humour.

27) Which character would you play in a musical? …No one. I’m definitely not qualified enough to even dream of something like that XD But if I had to choose, than it would surely be my queen Usaghi

28) Something else you want to say about Sera Myu? Sera Myu is awesome, okay? I love it so much and it’s such an important part of my life and it gives me happiness when I’m feeling down and all those things… I sould probably stop now!

Now that this challenge is officially over for me, I tag @myucornerorg into doing it! :)

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When To Apply For College We all know stable and loving single-father or mother households. If you might be born into poverty and raised by an unmarried mother, you have a 50 p.c likelihood of remaining caught. The second nice energy of prolonged households is their socializing pressure. Multiple adults educate children right from wrong, tips on how to behave towards others, the way to be type. Usually behavior modifications earlier than we realize that a brand new cultural paradigm has emerged. In occasions of social transformation, they shift course—a number of at first, and then lots. Nobody notices for a while, but then ultimately folks start to recognize that a new sample, and a new set of values, has emerged. Don’t repeat tidbits you’ve already mentioned, although you can and may develop new angles of themes you’ve already established. If you’re having enjoyable writing it, likelihood is your admissions officer could have enjoyable reading it. USC faculty place an emphasis on interdisciplinary educational alternatives. Describe one thing exterior of your supposed academic focus about which you have an interest in studying. USC believes that one learns best when interacting with individuals of different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. All forms of inequality are merciless, but household inequality will be the cruelest. It damages the heart.You may be part of a solid family your self. The revival of the prolonged family has largely been driven by younger adults moving again home. In 2014, 35 p.c of American males ages 18 to 34 lived with their dad and mom. Without extended households, older Americans have additionally suffered. According to the AARP, 35 % of Americans over 45 say they are chronically lonely. Many older people are now “elder orphans,” with no shut relatives or friends to deal with them. In the unhealthy instance, the sentence may simply as simply apply to UCLA; without the bit about Los Angeles, the reasoning may even apply to any first rate school in existence. The second example works because it provides a useful resource distinctive to USC. Tell us a few time when you have been exposed to a new thought or when your beliefs were challenged by one other perspective. Please discuss the significance of the experience and its impact on you. Ideally, you wish to demonstrate how you made the most of this day without work and why the day off was essential. In 2015, I was invited to the home of a pair named Kathy and David, who had created an prolonged-family-like group in D.C. Some years earlier, Kathy and David had had a child in D.C. Public Schools who had a friend named James, who typically had nothing to eat and no place to stay, so that they instructed that he stick with them. That child had a good friend in related circumstances, and people friends had pals. By the time I joined them, roughly 25 youngsters had been having dinner each Thursday evening, and several of them were sleeping within the basement. With the school’s growing pool of candidates, and lowering rate of acceptance, the admissions numbers are undoubtedly tough. I joined the community and never left—they turned my chosen household. We have dinner together on Thursday nights, rejoice holidays collectively, and trip together. When a young woman in our group wanted a brand new kidney, David gave her one of his. For many people, the era of the nuclear household has been a catastrophe. For this essay, avoid selecting a word that’s usually self-explanatory or cliche. Example of this might be “happiness” or “love” because these phrases are often overused and the meaning can typically be inferred without a further story. You need to choose something that's each personally significant to you and something that is attached to a greater story. Improve your essay and impress admissions officers with our free Peer Essay Review.

[doomedandstoned]

Papa Paul’s Groovy Reviews!

Our resident retroist is back to finish the year with a hot handful of hits for the tune toking delight of Doomers and Stoners alike!   Give ear...

PAGAN ALTAR

The Room of Shadows by Pagan Altar (Official)

One of the many surprises wrought by the year 2017 was a new album from legendary English doomers PAGAN ALTAR, who fittingly saved their best for last. You may ask why I say "their last"? Well, sadly, their vocalist Terry Jones has passed away since recording this album. I say "fittingly," because everything the band had done to this day has been outstanding. The abstruse history of the band is a story in and of itself. I don't fully understand it, so I won't go too far down that rabbit trail. Suffice it to say, I've been following Pagan Altar from the moment their first album was pirated by an infamous bootlegger. I heard it was from the '70s, I heard it was from 1982. I always struggled with what to believe. One thing for sure, their official releases on shadow Kingdom Records are top notch and I recommend them to you highly, along with the rest of their catalog, which has (as the band's clippings rightly proclaim) influenced "a whole generation of doom-obsessed fanatics."

Pagan Altar are considered both a doom and NWOBHM band. I won't argue with either, as elements of both are surely alive in their music. What interests me most are the ever present elements of progressive hard rock strongly rooted in the band's genesis, circa 1978. Pagan Altar is often compared to Jethro Tull, owing to Terry's vocals sounding eerily similar at times to Ian Anderson and also to the boundary-pushing complexity of their songs. It is here, in 'The Room of Shadows' (2017 - Temple of Mystery Records), that those seeds of Jethro Tull sprout to life in a series of seven weird and wonderful creations. Truth be told, this is the kind of album I wished Jethro Tull recorded. I always wanted the band to be a mite heavier, overall (don't get me wrong, I loved them as they were). As I listen to The Room of Shadows, I can almost see Ian Anderson dancing around, flute in hand and posing on one leg, his knee held high. The only thing lacking is the flute! Pagan Altar achieve their progressive majesty with a happy marriage of guitar, bass, and drum.

Photo by Temple of Mystery

Apart from Jethro Tull, it's hard to find an apt comparison. At times, I hear hints of Tales of Creation era Candlemass, elements of Cirith Ungol in some of the heavier riffs, and plenty of Celtic folk music and poetry throughout, transporting the listener clear back to the early Renaissance. Such is the depth of writing and musicianship on display. If you only give this a casual listen, you will miss most of the album. The Room of Shadows should be -- nay, must be -- savored like a fine wine or, in my case, a deftly crafted beer. Let me tell you, friends, there are some meaty rifts just waiting for you to sink your teeth into (or your ears, as it were), but the riffs rightfully serve as foundation for the band's tell-tale melodies and harmonies, which are, as always, haunting.

Fans of newer bands like Beelzefuzz and Blues Funeral need to give Pagan Altar a spin. Maybe it's because the new Blues Funeral album was released just a day before this that I'm thinking of them. Though the two albums are separated by a span of 13 years, both conjure a similar vibe. You might say that Blues Funeral is America's belated answer to Britain's Pagan Altar. All comparisons aside, Pagan Altar's last record is a masterpiece, crowned with cover art that in a single frame so aptly pictures the artistic mood of the album and the band. I thought it might have been a repurposed painting from some classic English painting. No, this, as it so happens, is another stunning masterwork by Portland artist and doom metal musician Adam Burke.

One last note: the album was once slated for release under the title Never Quite Dead. Indeed, Pagan Altar's sound and legacy lives on, loud and proud, in The Room Full of Shadows.

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PANTANUM

Purple Blaze by Pantanum

Anyone in the mood for some Italian doom by way of South America? That's what we have with 'Purple Blaze' (2017), the latest EP from Curitiba, Brazil trio PANTANUM. Old farts like me will recognize this right away. The artwork confirms that this is, indeed, a tribute to legendary Italian doomer Paul Chain -- more specifically, a nod to his great album, 'Violet Art of Improvisation' (1989). Pantanum make a play on "violet" with the word "purple" and use a similar layout for the album art. It's a great to see a young band paying tribute to an old school legend, one that I'm sure is a new name for fans of doom who came here by way of bands like Sleep or Electric Wizard.

The two songs on the 7" are from the horror-style doom playbook the Italians were so famous for in the ‘80s and ‘90s. In fact, the 8-minute bonus track sounds like something you’d hear on a horror movie soundtrack, which is also the mood lit by Violet Art of Improvisation. If Pantanum got my attention with their first album, ‘Volume 1’ (2015), their follow-up EP has me all ears!

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THE SHELTER PEOPLE

The Shelter People -EP by The Shelter People

Fans of '70s acid rock are in for a real treat with this release. I give this a confidence rating of 100% on the authenticity scale for sounding like something from a lost FM radio transmission. THE SHELTER PEOPLE are from Tulsa, Oklahoma, but do a fine job of channeling the vibe of legendary blues-soaked acid rock bands from Japan, like Flower Travellin' Band, Blues Creation, Chinki Chen, Too Much, etc. I'm sure a good number of our readers don't know these bands I've mentioned, so a more accessible description of The Shelter People would be Black Sabbath meets Jimi Hendrix, heavy on the Jimi. This band is, in a word, tight -- excellent guitar work, riffs that are downright funky, and passionate vocals. This is the trip you're searching for.

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THE SONIC DAWN

Into the Long Night by The Sonic Dawn

I have to thank Billy for his allowing me to stretch what used to be normal strictly a stoner-doom webzine. I appreciate his wisdom and ability to see the correlation between the retro scene that was emerging a few years ago and that of the still evolving stoner-doom scene. I recognized this movement early on and have been feverishly documenting this return to roots movement ever since.

Fast-forward to present day and the retro sound is as fresh and vibrant as ever, with bands like Denmark's SONIC DAWN now carrying the baton. Their beauty of a record, 'Into The Long Night' (2017), landed #16 on the Doom Charts in April. I can't tell you how happy this made me. In all actuality, this isn't doom at all. No resemblance to Black Sabbath, no downtuned guitars, no thundering pounding of the drums. No, this is laid back, seventies-style psychedelic rock. The look, the feel, the attitude -- it's all there. Make no mistake, Sonic Dawn have captured something very special here, capturing the essence of the scene in psychedelic rhythms, swirling leads, and ethereal vocals. I personally find this music enjoyable in the early morning or late at night. If laid back psychedelia is normally your thing, consider that. This has probably been my most played album since its release.

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WATCHER'S GUARD

Watcher's Guard by Watcher's Guard

Riding over the hills of Glasgow, comes WATCHER'S GUARD armed with a doom-laden three song battering ram of a debut. I was blown away at first listen, so you can imagine there's some retro, old school, traditional doom action to be had here, with a slight touch of NWOBHM for good measure. Watcher's Guard are the doom masters. This EP covers just about every early subgenre of doom you can think of: biker doom, epic doom, slow doom, you name it. If you pinned me down to one band it most sounds like, I would have to say Revelation from Baltimore. But Watcher's guard is a bit more uptempo over all. The clear standout for me is track two, "The Ruiner." An epic just shy of 12 minutes long, this one is destined to be crowned a classic. It's easy to make the Candlemass comparison, but Watcher's Guard bring so much more to the table. The complexity of their songcraft, with psychedelic twists and turns, take you along for an heroic journey that runs you through the gauntlet of emotions. What will these four dark knights have instore for us in the future? Time and fate will tell. For now, the path to oblivion has been lit. Let's follow and enjoy the apocalyptic fireworks.

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WITCHERS CREED

Depths of the black void... by Witchers Creed

Earlier in the year, I introduced you to WITCHERS CREED, a doom-touched acid rock band from Katrineholm. We've been audience to the band's creative output with a pair two-trackers released months apart. With four superbly recorded songs to their name, I think have a pretty good read on the band now and have this suspicious feeling that they are trying to become my favorite band! That's no small statement, as you know how many killer bands I've reviewed and raved about in these pages over the years. Regulars know I am vigilantly scouring the globe in search of that authentic psychedelic sound that stole away my heart as a teenager and reporting on the unfolding saga of the retro revival in these pages. Witchers Creed are have been apparently drinking freely of the magical stream flowing through Sweden, from which springs one magical musical act after another. Nay, they are baptizing themselves in it. Even their instruments and gear bear the vintage stamp of the glory days.

I have been told I nailed down the Witchers Creed sound my review of their March release when I said they sounded like Mountain meets Sabbath meets your favorite underground seventies band. You can pick the loudest and heaviest of them, Witchers Creed is right up there with the best. They have perfected their craft with a powerful rhythm section, notable for its thundering basslines. The guitar leads are no less mind-blowing -- more than just short bursts, this soloing goes on and on, soaked with fuzz and venturing into Dave Chandler territory. You know, the master of feedback from Saint Vitus. These demented leads are brought sailing over the top by one groovy rhythm machine, accompanied by dual harmonized vocals. Imagine Leslie West of Mountain harmonizing with Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers with wild occult lyrics, when suddenly the music stops and you hear the words: "You're all doomed!" Now that you have a visual idea of this band's irresistible charm, it's time for you to get plugged in yourself and give it a listen.

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ZEREMONY

Soul of the Zeremony by Zeremony

We're down to the last lap of 2017 and, suitably, also at the last letter of the alphabet. I think I can count just about all the "Z" bands I know on two hands. To call ZEREMONY a grower is not quite adequate, more like instantly addictive. 'Soul of the Zeremony' (2017) blew me away first listen. Yet it keeps growing on me every listen .

Photo Credit: Umsonst-und-Draussen Festival/Würzburg

You may remember hearing them as the captsone to That Seventies Compilation, which I organized last year. I heaped high praise on the the authenticity of their sound when they released that wonderful organ-driven demo that same year. Two of those three songs were deemed worthy of joining the fold of seven in this album of obscure, dark, and heavy organ-driven rock. Zeremony fit right in with my treasured favs.

Hailing from Würzburg, Zeremony seem to bear the influence of the Krautrock scene, which was erupted in the late '60s and early '70s and remains a stylistic pillar to this day. One band I hear as I listen to Zeremony is a band called Irish Coffee, just a few doors down from Germany in Belgium. They are similar in the heavy use of organ and gruff vocals. For modern comparison, try Golden Grass or Siena Root.

Listen for "She Sang a Song To Me." It is gloomy, yet earnest number with a sing-along chorus that would have all the makings of a hit single in the seventies. I've been raving about authenticity a lot in this piece and bands like Zeremony are setting a very high bar.

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