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ferusaurelius · 4 years

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Nihlus Fic Headcanons

My latest fic, The husbandry of victory is blood (on AO3), is basically a Nihlus Kryik and Mass Effect mercenary/batarian culture headcanon backstory where @expertmakodriver reacted by asking me to ... please translate w/e I was on about.

So here it is! The English translation of my Nihlus Kryik worldbuilding art project.

In reality, this type of character sketch is something I would normally keep private. But since we need more Nihlus content, both it and the headcanon basis are all public and free to use and/or transform as you see fit without attribution.

Please, I’m begging anyone who might want to use any of these ideas in whole or in part: write it and save me from having to do it myself. You do not need to credit me, but I would appreciate a link to your work so I can promote it! :)

Tfw you actually need to annotate your own fic...

Long post - everything is under the cut!

Organized by the order each element is referenced in the fic, with the divided sections labeled as [NUMBER] on the left.

Edited 5/28/2021 because I forgot some things.

[Title] “The husbandry of victory is blood” - Taken from “Sparta Says No” by A.E. Stallings. I actually thought about using this as an alternative title for another fic, but I figured this background sketch for Nihlus more aligned with the themes. I strongly suggest you go and read the poem without taking my word for the following interpretation: the contrast between growth and destruction, and civilization built through conquest or through agriculture. I enjoy the high-level commentary on society. The metaphorical encounter between farming and war is something I wanted to bring to my work, and I wanted the title to color the tone of the epigraph from Virgil’s Georgics. On a more personal level -- my grandfather joined the military in part to seek out opportunities he wouldn’t have had if he’d stayed on a farm, and I decided to draw on that experience for Nihlus.

[Epigraph] - Virgil, Georgics Book I (tr. H. R. Fairclough) - I picked a public domain translation of the poem and went hunting around for a line that had juxtaposed farming and war imagery. It’s a fairly common classical motif! Wars often stopped and started based on the seasonal harvest and the necessity of feeding the community and supplying the troops. You can’t fight a war and gather in wheat at the same time. Digging up the weapons pf the dead in farm fields is a powerful image. My take on Nihlus draws on the tension between fighting and negotiation that I also connect to the symbolic opposition between agriculture and warfare. The Georgics are also just really neat.

[1] Half-face markings - I could write a whole headcanon post on turian colony markings and how mercenary modifications fit in with them (and I will at some point). You’ll see in this fic that I regularly use terms for how much ‘real estate’ the colony markings cover. My HC is that there are variations of colony markings that can be worn as minimalist (smallest critical details), half-face (upper or lower, may include simple full-face designs without a lot of paint), full-face (both, usually more elaborate), and full-crest (what it sounds like on the tin). These are all just different styles and up to personal preference, though there are a few cultural connotations or stereotypes about people who choose which version. Plus I felt really bad for people who might have super-complicated full versions of markings and wanted to give them something more aesthetically lightweight that would have the same meaning.

[1] Batarian trader patois - An evolving lingua franca with many dialects. Nihlus is uncannily fluent at the one spoken in the Terminus, which is mutually intelligible with the dialect spoken in the Attican Traverse. This is a language without a formal codex that sounds a little strange even to batarians born into the Hegemony. Since batarians have been around and in contact with the Citadel and council races for ~1000 years longer than turians (true if the timeline on the wiki is correct, but I haven’t done the backdating myself), I HC that batarians have a more refined and developed spacer and trading culture. Traders and smugglers are infamous for liking to be beyond Hegemony control and when their government withdrew from Council space, they just kept up with business as usual. Many of them have a shared religion based on debate and argument over the meaning of the Pillars of Strength and the way to live an honorable life.

[1] Terminus languages - They exist, both with and without formal linguistic codexes available to ordinary citizens of Council space.

[1] Hierarchy basic - The common turian colonial language spoken in Hierarchy space. Nihlus was born outside turian space, so he had to learn it from his parents and from educational videos. While he has only a vague accent, certain words and phrases he uses come off as very strange to turians who were raised in Hierarchy space.

[1] Draughts - A popular ancient board game dating back to before the Romans. Pieces move by sliding on the board or jumping over each other to capture. I originally wanted to use river stones as a metaphor, but Nihlus at that age had never seen naturally flowing water. I figure everyone has a version of a capturing/marker/stones sort of game.

[1] Amma and appa - Batarian words for grandmother and grandfather. Nihlus is a bit of a ‘surprise’ baby for his parents. This nice older smuggler couple are longtime associates of the mercenary group and, while they have never done fighting themselves and have no children of their own, they are friends of his mother and father and are absolutely delighted to “adopt” him. He is their smol spikey grandson, they teach him to speak and act like a proper young batarian, and anyone who argues with them about how exactly he is related will end up on the wrong side of an airlock.

[1] Vatar - A canon planet in the Mass Effect universe with a cold and inhospitable environment, located a short relay hop away from Omega (“downtown”) in the Terminus Systems. Mercenary groups have outposts dug into the surface. I rolled with it.

[1] Falx - The turian name of the mercenary group Nihlus is born into. A falx is both a Roman entrenching tool and also the most overhyped Dacian curved blade weapon you’ll see in ancient art and literature. In essence? The word has been used to refer to both weapons and farming tools for a very long time. The group is a batarian-lead mercenary company with a very long history of turian cooperation, which enjoys stable political ties to other such batarian splinter groups. Traders and smugglers often form the links between them. The batarian word for members of this same group translates as “harvesters” or “reapers.” HAHA. And you thought this was a no-Reapers AU…

[1] Truce customs - A batarian mercenary outpost thing. If you’re friendly and in mechanical distress, or if you have something to trade, it’s not unusual to head to a known group of mercenaries and ask for truce on tightbeam broadcast to get someone to meet you or actively flag your ship with their ident codes (aka: make you temporarily register in local space as belonging to their ‘fleet’). This is usually for medical essentials, emergency mechanical trouble, and also serves as an informal way for Terminus merchants and traders to make a living without having to worry about being boarded every time they deliver the groceries. It’s considered a grave breach of etiquette to violate truce terms and those who do are hunted down as examples to the rest. Truce terms make “ordinary life” possible for outposts that are otherwise on the edge of traveled space.

[1] Trade-cloth - A canon quarian cultural object. Mentioned in the the fandom wiki and probably part of a quarian codex somewhere. Intricately patterned cloth is common on the Migrant Fleet, but the personal cloths are seldom given to outsiders. Nihlus’s gift is one used in trade, but displays a pattern with more ‘friendly’ cultural connotations than something that would be sold and mass-produced in a shop. It was made special for him by his childhood quarian friends. It’s something that it would be appropriate for him to wear like a scarf on formal occasions when he’s dealing with quarians, or when he’s invited to quarian parties or festivals.

[1] Colony crescents / Falx sickles - Yeah there’s some repetition here, but it’s mostly to contrast the two. I HC that Nihlus’s base colony markings are already curved. “Sickles” are embellishments which add a cutting or combative edgeline in some places and very overt stylized weaponry to standard colony markings. They are additions or alterations that are unique to mercenary groups and may read as “flamboyant” or “aggressive” because they are noticeably different in appearance to Hierarchy turians. This is more or less on purpose, and is a bit on the taboo side. One does not wear these additions or draw their markings in these styles without genuinely belonging to one of these groups -- the patterns are not easy to reproduce correctly or in the right places, and they are generally a source of stigma in Hierarchy basic training.

[1] Sand-bath - How you clean a turian when water is scarce and everyone has to share it.

[2] Draw and fire from retention - The shooting-sports specific term for “shooting from the hip.” Kinda. This breakdown of a scene from Collateral, one of my all-time favorite Michael Mann films, will give you an idea. All of the referenced gun techniques are also more or less real, and lining up your body posture so that it helps with aiming and putting the rounds where you want them to go is a real thing. Nihlus has a great deal of practice in shooting as self-defense and was training alongside professionals from a young age. Going to the range is one of his hobbies (but not mine, I’m lame and that’s loud).

[2] Triginta Petra - A canon Mass Effect world that is a dustball home to hardscrabble turian farmers. Kavala Kryik’s family were some of the first colonists and they’ve been scratching a living from the surface since she was nine years old. They are very proud of this fact, since it gave them opportunities they wouldn’t have had on their native Oma Ker (also a canon turian world).

[2] Laskaris - Nihlus’s mother’s original family name. Kavala Laskaris. While I don’t have any particular headcanon about whether or not turians do the whole ‘changing surname’ thing when they marry or pair off or whatever, Kavala really liked both the alliteration and the overall aesthetic. Joked with Inaros Kryik, her husband and Nihlus’s father, that she only married him for his pretty colony markings.

[2] Lupulin - Literally, hop acids and the essential oils that you get from ‘hoppy’ beer. A direct reference to hops (Humulus lupulus) and brewing, because why not? Actually is a mild sedative and produces a bit of a chemical high.

[2] Stiletto - A pistol from Haliat armory (turian weapons manufacturer).

[2] Blooded sickles - Worn only by mercenaries who are full / fighting members of Falx or their direct allies. Batarians have their own culturally-coded marks, some of which have been adopted and/or adapted by their turian members as embellishments to colony markings. I HC that newer “commercial” groups like the Blue Suns and Nyreen’s Talons, without a shared cultural background, are imitating this style of marking rather than the other way around. Merc-born turians with old-style batarian trade connections tend to recognize each other through these symbols, which are used most often outside of Council space (i.e. the Terminus Systems and the Attican Traverse).

[2] Pillars of Strength - Canon batarian religious artifact. I treat them as a text or a particular philosophy that values free will and independent action as the signifiers of ‘strength.’ While I don’t have a fleshed out or specific HC for what the ‘tenets’ are, I do know that slave implants are treated as anathema.

[3] Struthious - A reference to Earth ostriches. Some kind of chicken-like prey animal that turians like to cook and eat. Mostly because the thought of Nihlus running around like a chicken to entertain his sisters made me laugh.

[4] Cutter - Bigger than a personal clipper and better armed, with living space for a crew. They come in various sizes and are smaller than frigates.

[4] Cup of mourning - A turian funerary ritual. On Taetrus, performed with a distinctive form of dark ale. Different colony groups have different cultural traditions.

[4] Thalia, Tomyris, and Traian - Nihlus’s three turian siblings. Thalia and Tomyris are his younger twin sisters. Traian is the youngest and his baby brother. While they’re only hinted at in this fic, I do plan to make some references to them in the Air Needing Light arc at some point. There’s also a chance they’ll get their own short!fic appearances.

[4] Hierarchy military grants - A HC pool of money that the Council races put up to fund large-scale basic training for anyone (turian or another client race) completing compulsory citizen service.

[5] Talons and suns - Generic references to other symbols that are common incorporations for mercenary groups. I HC that these were adopted and color-coded by the Blue Suns and the Talons rather than conceptually created by them!

[5] Fuck the cause, we’ll die for a drink! - Profane versions of the turian Hierarchy anthem are popular drinking songs among the merc-born. If it’s a patriotic and well-known song, you can pretty much guarantee turian mercenaries have parodied it. Awkward for colony-born squadmates who find these renditions hilarious and catchy—but also a little horrifying.

[6] Optio Sideris, 85th Atrax Legion, Fifth Cohort Operations Section - A one-off turian Blackwatch OC I may bring back in another fic at some point because I ended up liking her. The Hierarchy military organization borrows from the HCs I use for the Air Needing Light AU: 85th Atrax Legion is a joint special forces organizing legion made up of six cohorts. The 5th Cohort is informally known as Blackwatch, while the “Operations Section” is a generic term used by intelligence operators. Optio is a mid-tier leadership rank.

[6] Batarian body language - Batarian language and manners are highly dependent on physical cues according to the Mass Effect canon. I took this one step further with a HC that Nihlus is essentially a native speaker of turian-adapted gestures that translate successfully into batarian social patterns. This physical vocabulary is most refined and most present in culturally batarian mercenary and trading groups with a strong history of turian association and recruitment. While older turians can learn and approximate the gestures, they are best learned and absorbed in childhood. Nihlus “speaks” a form of gestural batarian that places him as a native of the Terminus Systems.

[6] Interrogating batarian prisoners - No torture involved! Optio Sideris trains Nihlus in a more practical form of intelligence gathering that involves building rapport, establishing trust, and remaining consistent. Even pirates or smugglers who would not normally give information to a Hierarchy patrol flotilla can be convinced to—if not speak—occasionally offer hints about the locations and activity of slavers. Nihlus is notable for actually being conversant in traditional batarian moral interpretations of the Pillars of Strength, as well as being able to walk the fine cultural line between guarded respect and abject deference.

[6] Merc Red - Nihlus’s batarian nickname among the patrol flotilla’s prisoners. A sign of individual respect, since it contains no profanity and is just blandly descriptive.

[7] Broken weapons - A traditional sign of thanks between two non-allied mercenary groups when one has agreed to truce terms. Mostly symbolic.

[7] Tattoos - The permanent marking method of choice when turians are full-grown and have developed a strong preference for the color and personal style of their colony markings. Nihlus decides on a complex ‘full-crest’ Taetran colony pattern embellished with Falx blood sickles. This is more or less him being loud and proud about both his colony origins and his mercenary background, as well as putting them on an even footing by tattooing the entire pattern: mercenary symbols and all.

#mass effect #nihlus kryik #my headcanons #my writing #air-needing-light #long post #fanfiction #nihlus kryik headcanons

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vespiiqueen · 4 years

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List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last 10 people who reblogged something from you (if you want !! 💛💖)

Wow I rambled a lot with this but i can't add cuts bc I'm on mobile rn DHSISHSJ sorry :"))))

1. Ik Ik "haha how cringe are you" of me to say, but honestly? Homestuck. Homestuck helped me in a time of need and when i so desperately wanted something to latch onto. Finally, I caved into my friends telling me to read it-- and it's been a blast!! The epilogues / hs^2 make me feel kinda sad though, because so much of what I loved about the original was yeeted through the nine circles of hell and into the trash. I love Y/ffany's (I call her Yippi tho) design, the art is really pretty at times, Harry is a major dork, I LIVE for seeing Vrissy bc honestly?? Her design is 10/10, very early 2000s emo style and I also live for that. Tavros is cute and a nerd and I think that's swell!

But in terms of story and how any of this happens, it makes me sad to see it happen. If Vriska could return as Vrissy, why not OTHER beta trolls? Where's my Eridan fish man, writers?? Give me the boy or perish by my fury.

2. Also super "haha how cringe are you" but,,, murder cats (Warriors), esp the early 2005-2015 amvs and stuff. I remember watching Flightfootwarrior's "I Will Not Bow" Scourge amv for HOurs and having no clue what was happening, but all these edgy kitties were KITTIES! It's introduced me to a lot of music I still listen to to this very day (Imagine Dragons, Young/the entirety of Hollywood Undead, Breaking Benjamin). And yknow what?? This new arc is absolute chaos, but in the good way.

I'm an "OG Fan". I prefer the first arc, The Prophecies Begin, to almost any of the other arcs. I just could never get into the other arcs-- not to say I haven't read them, I HAVE and the Fire Scene was probably one of my favorite moments beside grumpy Jaypaw, god complex Lionblaze, and fear the gods Hollypaw. I thought the build-up for it was SUPER satisfying. Gray Wing is my baby and I fully embellish in the Gray Wing is Silverpelt theory.

This new arc is definitely something new for the universe. While I didn't read aVoS (but I may do that if i can find the files for it), and so I don't know the major events of it other than what I've seen M.A.P.'s (Multi-Animator Projects, for clarification,,, bc unfortunately that term is also something disgusting). There's fucking cat possession and all the Clans questioning their belief system, yo. Shit be on fire.

Also the Imposter is 100% Ashfur, that's canon now, yeah??? Also im sorry but fuck Root x Bristle that's the dumbest shit I have ever seen. Give me Root x Shadow or face the wrath of my dragon plushies.

RiverClan is my Clan and my gov assigned warrior name is Fireshell 🌟🌟

3. As much as I hate the author,,,,, Harry Potter. It's been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can never really remember why, but I've always just loved it- the movies, the books, the extra little merch that would pop up in my local Walmart. Of course my favorite character is Draco Malfoy. I could go on and on and ON about how I think his character arc was SHIT and JKR didn't have the balls to make him a confident gay man that was always implied through the text (at least, my lesbian ass thought it was implied but i may just be projecting, idk). I could ramble about Draco for HOURS and what I think his character SHOULD have been and how his parents are horrible (more specifically, Lucius bc Narcissa [?] Actually showed a few good moments), and a child should never have to pay for their parents sins.

Oh noo, Draco's a villain because he's a victim of major abuse and peer pressure? He's a villain because a literal child can be horrible and they'll always always always stay as a horrible little fiend?? Fuck that. He's a child.

Unlike manchild grease pan Snape, who was a racist piece of shit and shouldn't have became a fucking school teacher but it's okay because he was ~~~in love~~~. No, fuck you, he was a creep. James Potter n Co may have been a little posh bitch to you, Snape, but that's no fucking excuse to continue to bluntly be a little cunt all the way into adulthood. You're an adult who flatly changed your PATRONUS to imitate Lily's. You have no excuse. And Harry went and named his child after you LIKE JESUS CHRIST, DID RON'S SISTER NOT HAVE A SAY IN THE NAMES TOO?????

I also fully adore the idea that Muggles can run into Hogwarts and their patronus can 100% be a made up, fantasy creature. Imagine you learn the patronus spell and suddenly fucking ARCEUS comes from your wand. Imagine learning the spell and CHTULU (i did not spell that right but im so tired) comes from your wand-- an entire ass fucking Lovecraftian, Eldrith horror is just the embodiment of you. What if it was a fucking Homestuck character like Vriska? How fucking METAL would that be?? Hskajssowjjsjs get on it fandom.

4. Hee hee very evident by my url but Pokemon is another major thing of mine. While vespiquen isn't my favorite (that title goes to Hydreigon), it is definitely up there!

I've ALWAYS enjoyed the idea of Pokemon. You run around, training up these fight monsters and collecting them. I remember playing my sister's Ruby version on her flip-up Gameboy. I couldn't even read but I ran around catching god only knows how many of the same pokemon wherever she was. Apparently, I had fought for hours in the same area and leveled her Blaziken up to lvl 50 something and left her lvl 30s in the dust LMAO.

I got my first game when it was Pearl/Diamond. It was Pearl, and it still holds a very fond place in my heart. I could barely read, I could barely write-- I had named my Turtwig something along the lines of "MmorpHy" and my player boy "ZbsibJ". Yes I remember the names slightly. I really didn't get far-- I barely got to the first gym but I was just so happy to play it.

I eventually lost the game, as a 5 year old would do, but I can still vividly remember what was happening when the game arrived. I had just came back from the dentist and was quite tired from fighting the dentist bc I was super scared. Mom suddenly handed me a box and said it was mine-- my overseas (at that time) dad had bought me Pearl and my sister Diamond, because I lost my shit about it when he visited one time.

Well, tdlr, I played it for about five minutes while struggling to stay awake against the loopy gas they made me take. I fell asleep listening to Twinleaf Town's soundtrack. Every time I play a rom of Pearl and I get to where the player's house fades in and I hear that first tune of the song, I get a huge smile on my face and cry-- as.. Weird as it sounds.

A few years later, I had gotten Pokemon Black bc I liked Reshiram on the cover. Now, this one I could actually READ when playing, but I don't remember a lot of things about it. I probably lost this one too, as a 8/9 year old would do. I DO remember, I chose Snivy and my sister chose Tepig (hrmm there's a theme here of grass/fire goin on......) and vibing to the music. I was so amazed by the sprites moving, I just kept getting into encounters to see the sprites move (oh boy, no one tell younger 7-9 y/o me about Zelda......oh wait....)

Playing Pokemon NOW, as a 17 year old """gifted""" chick, I stil have very fond memories. I recently beat Pokemon Black again and GOD the OTS SLAPS. I fucking adore the soundtrack-- the track that plays when you battle a trainer, the low health dings being turned into a legit song that also slaps, the battle! gym leader themes-- and oh my gOd, the legendary theme is amazing? It really tells you just how glorious these pokemon are supposed to be. It's not intimidating like Groudon/Kyroge/Rayquaza's themes. It's not action packed like Palkia/Dialga's is, it's not filled with tension like Giratina/Arceus's is-- but it radiates the GLORY that the beasts portray. And I live for that. (Also, Kyurem's version is my favorite because it glitches in the beginning and that's rly cool)

P/D/P and BW/BW2's stories, imo, are some of the greatest ones. Yeahhh, US/USUM's is cool and I haven't played XY nor SwSh-- but the ones I can find memorable are PDP and BW/BW2. I love N. I love Barry. They're my sons. Ghetsis is fucking terrifying, Cyrus needs a hug. Giratina scared the piss out of me when I was younger, which was NOT helped by Giratina and The Sky Warrior.

I think my favorite movies are the gen 4 ones. The Rise of Darkrai having a tear-jerking theme for such a mysterious pokemon (i still tear up when i hear Ocarion), Giratina being spiteful is a mood and Shaymin was cute, Arceus being angry is also a mood. Yeah, Pokemon 4Ever made me cry my eyes out over Celebi, Mewtwo Returns made me again cry because Mewtwo accepting who he is, I remember how vastly different the BW movies are-

I just. I have a lot of memories with the series, even if Gamefreak and Nintendo kinda do the series dirty a lot (your top-grossing thing and you made That monstrosity for the Switch? How dare you.). It's comforting to be stressed and pull up my roms for the games and to play them. Mystery Dungeon is incredibly fun to play, Pokemon Ranger is really fun with the concept (Shadows of Almia continues to kick my ass to this very day and FUCK the Jungle Relic, I hate the Water Challenge fucking gyarados bullshit). I remember the pokemon I got for MD (I got Time, my sis got Darkness) was Mudkip, if that is any help.

I love my little fictional pixel monsters.

5. Yup, someone told tiny 7-9 y/o me about console games. The legend of Zelda. My first Zelda game was Twilight Princess on the Wii and BOY did I play the fucking SHIT out of that game.

Honestly, looking back and looking at playthroughs now-- I still love TP. Twilight Princess is still one of my top favorite Zelda games-- yes, even after playing OoT, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, the anniversary four swords edition for the DS where you could play by yourself (Nintendo pls bring that back, I don't have friends to play it with ;-;), Phantom Hourglass- ect.

Something about Twilight Princess grabbed me by the head and yeeted me into the world. I can remember playing it for hours with little to no breaks. I, a tiny 9 y/o, had gotten the hang of the controllers and managed to get past the tutorial quite easily. And then, I was launched into the game and I wasn't stopping for NOTHING. Mom and Dad would have to force me to save and get off to go and eat dinner. THAT sucked.

I had done everything on my own up until the first temple, the forest temple. Not where/when you saved the dumb kid, but when you were saving the spirit's light. Theeeeeeennn I got stuck on the fucking Forest Temple for deadass six months straight. I'd play for hours, running around in circles, unable to figure out where to go, and because I didn't grasp the temple's purpose of being that way- I'd get angry and get off. It wasn't until dad looked up a walkthrough and talked me through what I was supposed to do that I learned how to get through temples.

I had gotten to the last little fight with Ganondorf before the Wii broke and i could no longer play. Despite the Wii being broke and we got rid of it, I was ADAMANT on keeping the game, and I kept that game for YEARS. It was an original copy out of a sealed box, and I eventually lost it when I left it accidentally at my now ex-friend's house.

She had a Wii and I went "hey I have a Wii game!" And I brought my Zelda over. Worst fucking choice of my goddamn life. Mom called me to come home and said I couldn't sleep over like the original plan was, and that was it. My ex-friend stashed my Zelda and I never saw it again. And, even if I wanted to-- I couldn't get it back, which makes me upset. We had a BAD falling out. She likely doesn't even remember it's there, or sold it to the local game junkie kid who buys ALL games.

But I still love the game. Midna was amazing, and I loved how snarky she was and she has a very cute design! The game's OST is fucking phenomenal. Midna's Desperate Hour makes me cry bc goddamn it really sells how serious that situation is. I love Hyrule Field's theme in this game. I love the Twilight Realm's song. Zant was fucking hilariously scary. Ganondorf's design in this game scared the piss out of me when I was younger.

Midna and this game's Link and Zelda are def my favorites. Yeah yeah, Sheik is cool and all I Guess but dhsushwishs Midna holds the special place in my heart. She was totally my gay awakening BUT

For other game antagonists, I adore Ghirahim-- let's go you funky little queer-coded villain. Skull Kid was great, I love the entire dynamic of him. Prankster lost soul stumbles upon Majora's Mask and the mask makes him act out due to powers-- which, I actually took very heavy inspiration from for one of my OCs. The moon falling to Hyrule was a fucking terrifying looming threat.

But the game series holds a place, and I've yet to be able to play BoTW-- although, I'm fairly certain I'll like it. The playthroughs I've watched of it are all fairly decent! I just. Gotta save up enough money to buy it haha.

Dang guess I gotta go watch a Twilight Princess playthrough again.

Honorable Mentions:

Avatar: the Last Airbender, specifically Book 3

my OCs definitely make me happy, they're my children and I'd ramble A LOT longer if given the chance WHEEZE

My friends, but I didn't add them here bc it's more fictional stuff, I presume

Baking. I love to bake cupcakes.

Painting is fun. I'm an artist and goddammit im going to use painting as an excuse to make a mess.

Fire. I rly like fire, down to a pyromaniac level. However, i hate the fires that happened to my home town, the Great Smokey Fires of 2016-- THAT pissed me off. How dare you burn mountain landscapes to the ground. Perish.

History. I'm a history nerd.

I'm also a science nerd.

But fuck math, I cannot comprehend math to save my life.

For some reason, I rly like learning how the human body works??? like did you know, organs are actually sticky when touched by a bare hand?? Did you?? How fucking cool is that.

Bakugan. I love Bakugan, esp the DS game. I love my Darkus Leonidas. Give me back the online world, you peasants-- I want my Darkus Dragonoid. (Also fuck all my friends from when I was in kindergarten- my theory that Alice was Masquerade was somewhat correct.)

#admin ace #admin ace speaks #communistvriska #inbox tag #homestuck #warrior cats #harry potter #pokemon #legend of zelda

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smokeybrandreviews · 4 years

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Smokey brand Movie Reviews: Full Shares

I have one helluva backlog of films to work through but, between those and other distractions, i am having just the dickens of a time getting through them. I’ve started Uncut Gems three different times but the tension, man, it stresses me out way too much. I have to take breaks in between and just forget about where i left off so i need to start over. I have to say, though, the twenty to thirty minutes i have seen is absolutely excellent. In the meantime, while i muster enough nerve to actually finish that film, i wanted to revisit one of my all-time favorites. Way back when i first saw this movie, it gave me the same intense, stressed out, panic i feel watching Gems. Alien changed the way that I interacted with film and, to this day, it’s one of maybe a handful of movies to ever illicit true fear from me. I saw it, for the first time as a young kid of maybe six or seven, in a late night showing on TV and i remember even the broadcast edit spazzing me the f*ck out. Imagine my apprehension seeing the theatrical cut fr the first time a few years later. As i got older and learned to appreciate the moving parts of film individually, i came to love Alien even more. Not only is it actually terrifying. it’s one of the best built movies i have ever seen and carries the template for bad-ass film like a badge of honor. Cats say the sequel, which i’ll get to in a later review, is better than the first, but i wholeheartedly disagree. This movie is easily top three all-time for me and here’s why. I have to tell you from the outset, this movie is perfect in my opinion. There are no flaw so don’t expect any negative, just me gushing about the excellence within.

The Outstanding

The very best aspect of this movie is easily Sigourney Weaver’s portrayal as Ellen Ripley. My goodness, was this character absolutely amazing. When people think of Ripley, they often remember Cameron’s version of her from Aliens. To most people, Ripley is that chick, strapped down in a power loader, calling the Queen Xenomorph a b*tch to her face. That is, undeniably, iconic. Ellen Ripley solidified the template for strong, female, lead with that scene. But Ripley didn’t start out that way. She had to earn that title and it began with her battle for survival in the original Alien. Ripley began as an undermined, kind of by-the-book, Warrant Office, just trying to get back in time for her daughter’s eleventh birthday. Over the course of two hours, we watched Ripley evolve into the absolute unit that she is known for and the nuanced portrayal of that evolution by Weaver shows us the harrowing journey with an almost visceral vulnerability. Ellen Ripley is not a character, she is a person. You feel for this woman and her struggle. You root for her. You gasp when she fails. You want her to survive. To get attached to a film character so completely is testimony to the excellence of that actor’s performance and Sigourney Weaver turns one in for the ages. Not bad for a twenty-year-old’s second film appearance, first speaking role.

You can’t speak about Alien without the iconic imagery provided by the nightmares of H.R. Giger’s art. The raw, horrifyingly sexual, disgustingly organic, yet wholly bizarre vestiges of the LV-426 hive were incredible. That initial pan of the fossilized Space Jockey fused to his pilot’s seat can’t help but inspire very real awe. I imagine seeing that reveal on an Imax screen and it is absolutely riveting. More so, entering into the hive itself, wit all those corridors woven from steel and flesh, leading into the pitfall trap full of the waiting, legitimately alien eggs illicit a feeling of primal terror. Those things are nothing like anything terrestrial. They are just familiar enough to inspire curiosity from the audience but uncanny enough to trigger apprehension. Absolutely brilliant but the true genius, the source of constant panic, belongs to the adult xenomorph, itself.

Big Chap, as the production team called it, was a miracle of effects work. The suit was custom built to fit the near seven foot frame of Bolaji Badejo but it was his physicality that lent an organic presence to the techno-organic monstrosity. That original Xenomorpgh was wildly terrifying to me. Even at my young age, i weathered Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees, with rather stoic aplomb but the Xenomorph sent me into a panic. I had legitimate nightmares about this thing which had never happened before. Giger had created a creature of such instinctual terror that you has no choice by to fear it and that sh*t is amazing.

I touched on how excellent Ellen Ripley was as a character, giving well deserved credit to Weaver’s portrayal but, like all classic characters in storytelling, Ripley began on the page. The writing for Alien is some of the best i have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Every character, every scene, every aspect, of this story is tight. Dan O’Bannon deserves all credit for this classic script. He wrote a story filled with characters and suspense, never identifying male of female unless absolutely necessary. I miss when films were films and not soapboxes for gender politics. It’s amazing how timeless and iconic characters can become when you’re not trying to push a goddamn agenda.

Now, O’Bannon’s script is excellent but it took a true visionary to bring it to life. Ridley Scott was that creative. Alien was Scott’s second directorial effort and he was able to craft a visual narrative far beyond what his tangible experience would dictate. Scott is a true visionary. The way he saw O’Bannon’s script was incredible. I mean, the vistas of the Derelict Ship, the sanitized halls of the Nostromo, that whole retro-futuristic look, the abject terror and repugnant reversal of sexuality with the Alien; All of that is Scott. O’Bannon gave this man one helluva blueprint but Scott built a goddamn monument of cinema in his own right.

The sound design in this film is absolutely classic. The hisses from the alien, the clacking of the computers, that harrowing voice from MOTHER during the adrenaline packed climax; Every sound, echo, pitch, and clank is perfectly administered to embellish the hellish visuals onscreen. I’ll never forget the first time seeing Brett’s death scene. The subtle sway of chains giving way to the impactful sound of those water droplets hitting his face, lulling you into a false sense of security, only to see the Xenomorph puncture his skull. That mixture of screams and rattling chains was haunting, brilliant use of sound for a horror set piece and testament to it’s voracity.

I spoke at length about Sigourney Weaver’s casting and performance but literally everyone is outstanding in this film. being an original script, not based on any existing media, you had an open template to create these characters. In a sense, casting for this type of project is even more tantamount than building a cinematic adaption of a novel or comic. This film is going to be known for these characters, for this world, going forward and Alien nailed this sh*t. Aside from Weaver’s star-turning performance as Ripley, John Hurt turned in a rather endearing outing as Kane, the first victim of the Xenomorpgh. Tom Skerritt was probably the biggest name in the film so everyone thoight that his character Dallas would be the lone survivor. Nope. Veronica Cartwright’s Lambert was woefully unraveled, specially during the Chestburster scene and Ian Holm’s Ash is easily unnerving his uncanny valley-esque performance. Harry Dean Stanton’s Brett was a man of few words but my second favorite performance in this entire film belongs to Yaphet Kotto. His portrayal as the aggressive, outspoken, incredibly loyal, Parker, endures to this day. These characters are all incredibly written and skillfully performed, bringing characters to life that will endure through time.

This movie came out in 1979, man! It is four decades old an can still give anything created today, even with out advances in effects work and film techniques, a run for it’s money. That is testament to the deft hand and expert precision in the construction of this movie. It’s rare that a film can be so timeless and it’s easily the first i have ever seen to capture that high mark. There are others like that; Jurassic Park, Twelve Angry Men, Jaws, The Godfather, To kill a Mockingbird, Star Wars, but even those classics show chinks in the armor. Not Alien. That Retro-futuristic design is absolutely timeless and fits in with any era of cinema.

The world Alien created was ripe for elaboration. The franchise, alone, produced three sequels; Each an amazing look at different film styles, directorial vision, and cinematic genre. Aliens is arguably one of the greatest sequels ever and has a completely different tone that the first. Some would ay it’ even better than the first. I wouldn’t but others do. There have been books, comics, games, and so much more based on this world. Alien: Isolation is easily the best game ever made based on the franchise and it stars that eleven-year-old daughter turned adult woman, Amanda Ripley, in a similar situation as her mother. Let me tell you, bad-assery must run in the family because Amanda was just as dope as her mom during her own gauntlet. And just like her ma’s adventure, Amanda’s outing stressed me out to no end. I loved the Earth War comic growing up and the introduction of Ripley 8 was something special. She was kind of ridiculous in the fourth film, Alien; resurrection but the comics did 8 much better justice. Speaking of artificial constructs, i would be remiss if i didn’t mention the absolutely charming android Xenomorph, Norbert, and his predecessor, Jeri, but my favorite hybrid is definitely Eloise. That’s not to mention the excellent stories with in the Aliens versus Predator mythos. I’m not going to get too heavy into that lore but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more amazing, female protagonist, outside of Ripley, than Machiko Noguchi; The human Japanese woman, blooded by the Elite Leader Yautja, Broken Tusk, given the title of Little Knife by the space-faring Predators. Ma is a f*cking machine and it’s a crime AvP ignored her story for what we eventually got in cinemas. Hell, there are even aspect of the Prometheus portion of this universe that i like, even though i don’t particularly like the film, itself. Elden is a dope character with a ton of potential for the overall lore going forward. There is so much excellent material in the Aliens expanded universe; Characters, concepts, worlds and more. The expansive nature and reverence for this universe rivals that of Star Wars, none of which could be possible without the inspired execution of the original Alien film.

The Verdict

What can i say? Alien is a goddamn masterpiece. From the second those titles slowly manifest to the exploration of LV-426, to the claustrophobic panic of the Nostromo, to Ripley’s triumphant yet uncertain fate in the end, i absolutely adore every aspect of this movie. Everything about this movie is deliberate and amazing. The performances are all excellent, everyone does an exceptional job. The set design is gorgeous and in the case of the alien hive within the Space Jockey’s ship, disgustingly beautiful. Giger’s art as perfect for this film but his design for Big Chap, the original Xenomorph design, was absolutely unnerving. The first time i saw it onscreen, i was both enthralled and horrified. To see the massive beast, in the few glimpses you got between some of the most excellent lighting ever captured on film, was incredible. There are shortcomings, sure, all films have them but i don’t believe them to be a negative. The pacing can be a little dragging at times but it’s absolutely necessary to build atmosphere. I thrive on slow burn films like The VVitch or Blade Runner 2049 and it was Alien that taught me patience in film can be a virtue. I cannot praise this film enough. For me, Alien is as close to perfect as can be. This easily gets my highest recommendation. If you’ve never seen Alien and appreciate sheer psychological terror, beautiful sets, brilliant direction, awe inspiring shots, and some of the best sound design ever captured on film, you’ll love this movie.

#Alien #Alien 1979 #Xenomorph #Ripley #Ellen Ripley #Smokey brand Movie Reviews

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darlingnisi · 6 years

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Celebration Day 4 : VIP Edition

Part 3 here!

FDeluxe Panel

St Paul Peterson Eric Leeds Susannah Melvoin Jellybean Johnson

This was an interesting panel. The vibe was kind of interesting? I know people are adults, lol, but kind of a good bit of cursing here...and it kind of...went to a place toward the end? But we’ll get to it :

Paul Peterson Origin Story

18 years old. Gets phone call from Bobby Z. (They’re related but not by blood through marriage)

Walked in and played once in audition. Jellybean took him under his wing

Called back the next day and Prince was there.

The Wrecka Stow joke was done on him as part of his initiation before it was in Under the Cherry Moon

Susannah Melvoin

Had known P for a while

Lived in West Hollywood with Wendy and Lisa. The doors of the house were saloon doors so nobody had any privacy.

Prince would come over and spend the night on the couch sometimes

Susannah had first singing gig with Quincy Jones. Sang with Siedah Garrett, Kevin Dorsey, and others. Her audition with Q was singing “Until You Come Back to Me” (Aretha Franklin)

Played demo for Prince. P says “Awww that was adorable”.

Asked to join The Family

She was 18 he was 25.

She says it took 2 weeks to track The Family album

Eric Leeds

P called him for a name for a song he was writing “Purple Pain? Purple Plane?” Eric, “Maybe Purple Rain?”

Brother of Alan Leeds P’s tour manager

Atlanta Bliss and Eric are from Pittsburgh. They moved to Atlanta and shared a house

Eric was considering a career change at the time after touring with high profile acts, got a call from Alan saying P needed a sax player

Eric had no interest and wasn’t into P, but needed a gig.

Had no illusions or exceptions about the experience or Prince. Got along because he came to work.

On the Making of the Family album

The Family album was made when Purple Rain was coming out

They generally worked on their parts separately. Eric didn’t even meet the rest of the band for several months after he added his parts

Peterson had to really study P’s demos. He thought it would be easy. David Z and Jellybean had to coach him a lot to get the inflections right going line by line

They had rehearsals for a year and exactly one gig.

St Paul dipped after getting a deal with A&M records...left the camp “hence P’s ‘PAUL PUNK OF THE MONTH” chants during Parade tour

Last time he saw P was during a party for LP Music in the NPG music room (LP Music is an Eric Leeds band). P gave him a big hug.

On what happened to The Family

The Family was never signed to a label. Their deal wasn’t with WB it was a production deal with Prince.

Prince was in France and wasn’t around to manage so things fell through the cracks

Not having a contract made their relationship “adversarial with P” “Prince wanted to pay as little as possible and they want as much as possible as artists”

WB didn’t know how to handle them because they were not WB artists.

Resided in no man’s land and Prince got the proceeds.

On Fdeluxe

Sheila E called to do an alumni concert at the forum it went well. After, they were invited to play a Questlove Grammy party.

Taped a Fdeluxe album in Susannah’s garage.

Annnd the panel got weird around this time...

Susannah and Eric began riffing on each other. There was cursing? Susannah said the riffing was okay because she used to date Eric? Eric made some suggestive jokes for a while? I honestly wasn’t writing any of this down because I was like...

When they came around again, Susannah mentioned she was the one who connected Clare Fischer to P as he was cool with her father.

MPLS Early Years

Gayle Chapman Dez Dickerson Dr Fink Bobby Z

Gayle Origin Story

Her friends played her P’s album thinking she’d like it

She was listening to “For You” on her own one day and she heard a voice that said “In order for Prince to tour, he’s going to need a band” it scared her as she was alone in her apartment

She called Chazz and asked if he knew Prince. He said he was his cousin and was looking for band members. Set her up with an audition.

Went to house on France ave and jammed with them

Got the call 3 months later to join

Dez Dickerson Origin Story

His little sister had For You. Was “young and arrogant” and thought he could do better.

Answered call in local paper and auditioned at Del’s Tire mart

Jammed for 15 minutes, didn’t take a solo until asked and didn’t show off, falling back into the groove. P walked him out and asked him what he noted as mature questions. (He didn’t embellish more than this, but he does have a book that details this out well if you want to check it out).

Matt Fink Origin Story

His and Bobby Z’s mom did fundraisers for Mt Sinai when they were kids

Bobby played a demo for Fink one day. Fink “who’s the band?” Bobby “it’s one guy he plays all the instruments” Fink *scooby doo sound*

He bugged Bobby for an audition and got one

On their early look

A lot of jokes, lol

“We were soul searching”

“Looked like an explosion in a soup kitchen”

“A lot of spandex and gold”

“Looked like 6 people who had never met each other”

Other stories

The Rebels was the first side project by P. If I Love You Tonight was originally recorded by Gayle. P told her to cry to get the emotion out of her while singing. The other guys also mooned her because pranksters.

Gayle got her hair “braided and beaded” before coming out to film shows in LA to promote the Prince album. The label immediately took her to get her hair done after. She got no sleep as they finished with her at 5am and she was due to the venue at 10am. “I looked like a white Donna Summer”

During the Midnight Special taping, the staff was “smashed”

For the Dick Clark show, Prince was on antihistamines and had a hard time talking after dancing and such

Told the story about Prince and Dez having an interview with Jon Bream and Bobby losing it over the lack of condiments “There’s no mayonnaise...” and it escalated including a flipped table and an almost flipped couch with Jon Bream sitting on it. P and Dez calmly continued the interview talking about serious topics with straight faces.

First time at First Avenue was to promote Dirty Mind. It was still Sams at the time. They finally connected to a local white audience with that show.

P drove a Jeep at one point

P had jokes on his answering machine that he would rotate. An example “Get off the phone you punk mother [machine beep]

Recounts wheelchair story of P being wheeled to the middle of busy foot traffic, sitting quietly, then slowly falling out of the chair. Sometimes people would help him back in the chair...he’d never say anything and play it straight.

Note : This panel was probably my favorite one. I’d heard most of the stories before, but so glad they spent time on the pre-revolution band. Just missed Andre being there...

Concert Screening Montreal 2015

Rooocked it!!!!

Setlist for the curious

F Deluxe Concert

This was very funky...but this was an odd choice to close out Celebration. Most of the crowd sat during most of this show...appreciate Susannah’s body rolls though! They were inspiring!

Set list

High Fashion Gaslight Sanctified Screams of Passion Nothing Compares 2 U “Come Go with me” lyric River Run Dry Desire Lover Drummers and Healers "Songs going down around the world” lyric Mutiny

And that was it! There was a thanks from Wally and he shouted out Purple Underground, Rodney Fitzgerald, and Michael Dean (Yay Prince Podcast) in a kind of awkward way that thanked them for the opportunity and we were on our way. (I imagine that what was kind of confusing to people who didn’t know who those people were but...)

And so concluded Celebration 2018!

#prince celebration 2018 #purple homecoming 2018

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doctortdesigns · 6 years

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Looks like we are starting to hit the season of fall fashions! Simplicity has just announced their Pre-Fall collection, and I’ll be posting about Butterick’s Early Fall collection tomorrow as well! Fall fashions tend to be my favorite, but, if I’m being honest, I’m not the most excited with these new releases. Perhaps my feelings will change as I write this review (as they sometimes do), but as of right now, I’m holding out for the August Burda before I get really excited about fall fashions this year. Regardless, there is a lot to look at in this release, so let’s get started:

8686 – 1940s Vintage dress. I tend to like 40s fashions, but this is one of those styles that really is too cute/sweet/girly for me to picture myself wearing. I think the vintage lovers will enjoy this dress – it has lots of great features and style lines, but I think this is also one of those styles that looks distinctly vintage, and isn’t necessarily as translatable to someone who enjoys doing a “sneaky vintage” modern wardrobe.

8687 – This shirt dress, on the other hand, feel very modern. Also perhaps slightly scandalous? I definitely get a “wearing my man’s oversized shirt as a robe after I get out of bed” vibe from this. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I think it may limit the versatility of this as a wardrobe piece. I do like the asymmetric hem and the wrap style, but, there is definitely a vibe I get from this piece that I don’t know if I’d be comfortable wearing in public. Maybe a belt would change that feel for me? Styling could change this look a lot I think… Feel free to completely disagree with me in the comments on this one – I feel like this could be a super popular design, since it is one of the more unique looks in this release.

8688 – This dress has some nice options, between the sleeve styles and the skirt styles. I don’t know that I need to add it to my collection – I’ve got some knit dress patterns from back when I very first started sewing that are pretty similar – but I like this dress. Looks like it would be great as an outfit base for those fall days when you need to transition between layers and no layers.

8689 – This style of tunic really isn’t anything new, but I do think Simplicity did a nice job of styling and presentation. Another pass for me, but I would be excited to see other sewing bloggers make this one up.

8690 – Mimi G. Style. I’m going to say that this dress looks adorable on Mimi! But, again, this is a case where I know it isn’t something I’d wear myself, so it’s going to be a pass from a personal standpoint. It is super cute though – the proportions of the sleeves are great in relation to the whole dress.

8691 – Sew Chic dress. This is clearly a vintage inspired look. I like it, especially the short sleeved version, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got several vintage re-releases that are quite similar. Another style that I find to be cute, but not special enough to warrant a spot in the stash.

8692 – 1950s Vintage blouse pattern. I do like the shape of these blouses: fitted, but not overly so. I’m not a big fan of zippers on the back of a top, but for views A-C it is pretty unavoidable with such a high neckline.

8693 – This asymmetric top looks like a button front shirt got halfway put on backwards to me. I do like the simpler versions (as a one-shoulder 80s-inspired sweater I’m all about this pattern!), but I’m really not a fan of the view that Simplicity used for the model photo – it just looks ill fitting and sloppy.

8694 – At this point there really is nothing left to say about these loose tops with sleeve details, except, look, another one! This one does have dolman sleeves, so I guess that’s a new-ish variation to this style? Really, though, at this point there are so many, just pick one.

8695 – 1930s Vintage sleeve patterns. Do I want this to use on modern sewing pattern? No. Do I want this for part of my costume/cosplay pattern stash so I can study the drafting on these sleeve variants? You better believe it.

8696 – I prefer my cardigans with less volume and more length, but this does look rather cozy.

8697 – The square boyfriend blazer really isn’t a look that works for me, so I’ll avoid this pattern for myself, but I do like the single and double breasted options here, as well as the collar variants.

8698 – I know it’s a drawstring pant, but it’s a drawstring pant with stripes and pockets and I like it.

8699 – I also rather like this skirt as well. I think I perhaps already have more than enough wrap pencil skirts in my Burda stash, but this one pattern seems to have a lot of variety, even though the pattern tweaks are pretty minimal between views.

8700 – Pattern Hacking. I’ve been thinking I want a more casual jacket for fall, but something about the proportions of this one just aren’t doing it for me.

8701 – Pattern Hacking. Somehow switching out pockets doesn’t seem like much of a “hack,” but what do I know? I do like the silhouette and overall look of these, but, again, very similar to other styles I’ve got in the stash already.

8702 – Mimi G. Style. This tracksuit is pretty cute and very 80s. I’s not be interested in the drop-crotch pants at all, but I do like the jacket, and the slim-legged pants are cute for a fall work-out look.

8703 – This was a pattern that initially I just skipped over (it’s a plain yellow top and leggings), but, actually, those other tops with the stomach gathers are pretty cute! I don’t know if this will make it onto my wishlist, but it is a definite maybe.

8704 – Love these pull over tops! The raglan sleeve and length look great for exercising is colder weather. Plus, lots of cool pockets for exercising with devices.

8705 – This man’s version somehow doesn’t read as exciting as the woman’s pattern, but the sleeve pouch for a phone or iPod is pretty great.

8706 – Baby Gear. Not much to say about baby clothes, but the layers look practical.

8707 – I’ve been toying with the idea of a lace cardigan for a while, and this is exactly what I wanted. Love this! Totally going into my stash until I can locate the perfect lace fabric for this endeavor.

8708 – These girls dress are pretty generic, but also pretty cute for fall.

8709 – Gertrude Made bags. I don’t love the aesthetic of the bags in the photos, but from the line drawing, these are totally bags I would use. I do wish it was drafted for a zip closure, but I suppose that is something one could find a way to add?

8710 – These large travel duffle bags are also not depicted in a color scheme I’d enjoy, but I do love how practical the bags are, plus they fit over the handle of a rolly suitcase! So cleaver. I’d be curious to see how the inside is drafted (pockets???), but I think this might be on my list, since it seems my travel schedule is upping in the next year or so.

8711 – Madalynne. The bra does not look supportive enough for anyone outside of the A/B range, and why would you want to add butt ruffles to your underwear? I mean, really? At least from the standpoint of wearing underwear under clothes in any case. I was going to ponder the butt ruffle as an analog to a tail feather and the implications that could have in mating rituals, but I shall refrain.

8712 – Aprons. Pretty simple, not too exciting, but could be good if you want to make a “mommy and me” sort of look. The aprons loop pretty practical, if not overly embellished – nice pockets and full coverage.

8713 -Hats! These are actually pretty cool, and really practical styles for costuming. Love how much variety comes in a single pattern too.

8714 – Love the historical doll clothes. So cute.

8715 – Ok, I want, nay, NEED this dragon in my life! How stinking cute is this? And, I mean, let’s be real – I need at least three of them. That’s right – NEED.

8716 – These bears are cute, but they aren’t dragons.

8717 – More aprons. I find the other style to be more pragmatic.

8718 – I’m sure the internet will tell me if I’m wrong, but I really feel like this is supposed to be a Rey/Daenerys mash up of costume pieces? Lots of great pieces in here for the cosplayers out there.

8719 – I’m less excited by this… I don’t know what to call it? Generic sexy fantasy style pattern? I feel like all of these pieces have been recombined from pre-existing patterns.

8720 – Good job on picking up that it is the 25th anniversary of Hocus Pocus! I’m not even sure Disney has grasped that yet… I’ve not seen crazy heavy advertising about re-release special editions or anything. In regards to the pattern, I do wish these Sanderson sisters were a bit more detailed in the designs, but, bravo to Simplicity for winning at the cultural relevance game.

8721 – One should never pass by a good cape pattern. The hood shape looks really great, and the cape is nice and full.

8722 – Once again, I’m sure the internet will inform me, but I’m not quite sure which franchise Simplicity is referencing here? There are certainly shows I watch where jumpsuits are “the look” but this pattern is much baggier and less fitted than the styles used in those shows. The tan one is a very Ghostbusters vibe, but I’m not sure if that is the reference I’m supposed to be picking up on here?

8724 – Kids Star Wars/Superhero costumes. Really versatile, and really cute.

8725 – Nice to see Ariel added to the Disney Princess lineup.

8726 – Super generic kids costumes.

8727 – More generic kids costumes.

8728 – Cool way to do a mermaid tail in this pattern.

8729 – Kids capes, because, capes!

5628 – Jiffy pattern re-release. This literally is a piece of fabric folded in half, with two partial seams, and a neck opening. Pass.

9192 – Men’s vintage ties are kinda cool. Not the massively wide one, but the skinny tie or bow tie could be useful.

And that’s it! On the whole my top picks for this release really are in the craft/costume/cosplay realm. Not too much new or exciting in the main release. There is a lot of stuff I found “cute” but not much I felt needed to be added to the collection. What do you all think? See anything that is going to kick-start your fall sewing? Or are we waiting for the bigger releases coming later next month? Feel free to discuss in the comments!

Simplicity Patterns Pre-Fall 2018 #sewing #patterns #Simplicity #SimplicityPatterns #prefall #fallsewing Looks like we are starting to hit the season of fall fashions! Simplicity has just announced their…

#pattern #sewing #Simplicity

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thorne93 · 7 years

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Old Flame, New Problems (Part 11)

Prompt: You’re in a serious relationship with Sebastian Stan, when news from your first love informs you that he’s now single and in need of a friend. Will your old flame burn out or will the flames get fanned and consume you?

Word Count: 4104

Warning: language, angst, fighting (verbal), cheating, drama

Notes: This idea came to me when news hit about Hayden and Rachel splitting. Of course I’m sad that a long time relationship such as theirs is ending, but it also means he’s single sooo…Also, no hate towards Rachel. I don’t know her, don’t know what really happened between them, etc. It’s a fic and in no way reflects what I think of either of them or their precious daughter ^.^

Beta’d by my #1 gal @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

Forever Tags: @capsmuscles @cocosierra94 @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @harleyquinnandscarletwitch @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @myparadise1982sand @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @marvelloushamilton @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @hardcollectionworldtrash @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaeling

Sebastian Stan Tag: @nedthegay @lostinspace33 @alwayshave-faith @elleatrixlestrange @buenostardissherlock @lenawiinchester @the-red-world-of-jess-chibi @memory-of-a-goldfish @mellsstark

Old Flame Tag: @blackwidow-romanoff @seargantbcky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You’d been out running errands all afternoon. You weren’t much in the mood for writing, no inspiration had really hit so you cleaned the apartment, took Spinee for a walk, then after you grabbed a sandwich at home, you set out on shopping and other errands. You’d gotten groceries, household items, and some nice decor. You grabbed new curtains, a few pillows, and shopped bedroom furniture for fun.

Late in the afternoon you arrived home, arms full of stuff, to behold a surprising sight.

The door fell open, exposing a floor full of colorful rose petals, every furniture surface covered with crystal vases of all colors, shapes, sizes, and embellishments of red, pink, white, peach colored roses, with Sebastian standing in the middle of it all.

You nearly dropped everything in your hands. Instead, you slowly moved over the sea of petals to the kitchen, dropping all the goods on the floor before standing up and taking the scene in. Your eyes carried over the colors, the effort, the vases, all of it. Until they finally went to Sebastian's face who was beaming with joy and pride.

“Seb, oh my god, what’s all this for?” you questioned, perplexed.

“The other day was just the celebratory dinner. Tonight is the real gift. I’ve got the whole evening planned. We have chocolate, your favorite wine, I bought some chick flicks on Amazon…” he stated, starting to gesture to the coffee table that was set up.

A smile graced your face for a moment before it fell.

“Seb, this is really sweet and nice and so thoughtful but...I already have plans,” you said, trying to ease the blow.

“You do?” he questioned. “Well, okay, no big deal. We’ll just go out then. Let me put all the food away and--”

“Uh, no,” you interjected, stopping him in his tracks. “It’s with Hayden...alone…” The two of you had made up within twenty four hours. You didn’t tell him you’d figured out why he was acting that way and you didn’t hold it against him. You just put it in the past and asked if he had wanted to go out, the two of you chose tonight for drinks and maybe dinner.

He stood up and looked at you. “So cancel,” he instructed. “Come on, Y/N, I went through a lot of trouble to do this for us, for you...Can’t you two go out another night?”

You chewed your lip for a minute. You sighed and finally nodded.

“Yeah, sure,” you said. You whipped out your phone and sent him a text telling him that you couldn’t make it tonight and you’d shoot for another night.

“Thank you,” he said before rushing over and grabbing your hand and pulling you over to the couch and showing you all the treats and gifts.

You felt bad for not being overjoyed by this. Any girl would be jumping up and down and squealing and attacking Seb with kisses, but you had really wanted to see Hayden. You were looking forward to tonight, to talking about the Stephen King news, to talking about his film, to getting to see him before he probably had to wrap up shooting here, seeing as Thanksgiving was coming up.

You and Sebastian were going to go to your house for the holidays, if nothing stopped him. It’d be the second time they’d ever met. Even if something kept him here, you were going to go home anyway. You hadn’t seen them except for a couple days back when you visited for your brother’s birthday and you really missed them.

Throughout the night, you tried to get into the spirit, be attentive, joyful, romantic, but you just couldn’t. You felt bad for cancelling on Hayden and you felt bad for wanting to be with Hayden after what Sebastian had set up for you two. But you couldn’t help it. You couldn’t help the fact that you missed him, that you wanted to see him a few more times before he had to leave.

After three movies and light snacking of chocolate covered strawberries, wine, and fruit, Sebastian got up and started to grab his phone.

“I was thinking of ordering in. I was going to cook, but this all took so long. So do you want pizza or take out or do you want to go pick something up?” he asked,

“Whatever you want,” you said, apathy in your voice.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, walking back around to the couch.

You got up and went to the kitchen to grab some water. “Yeah, I’m fine,” you assured, not even half heartedly.

Sebastian sighed and gripped his phone hard.

“Is this about cancelling with Hayden?” he questioned.

You merely shrugged as you started to go back to the couch.

“Fine, if spending a romantic night in with me is so god damn hard, then just go meet up with him,” he spat as he got angry instantly.

You sighed. “I can’t help it,” you answered, still sounding uninterested. “I wanted to see him before he left. He’s all alone, he’s freshly heartbroken, in a city he doesn’t live in. Is it so bad to want to see my friend?” you asked, your tone getting firmer with more anger for every word you spoke.

“Yes, Y/N, it is! If it was any other night, I wouldn’t care, you know I wouldn’t. But I go through hours of setup, ordering stuff, getting the house looking like this and you’re too upset about your ex to even give a shit.”

“Do you want a gold medal for finally acting like a real boyfriend?” you snapped before you could even think. You wanted to suck the words back in as soon as they left your mouth. His face faltered in pain. “I’m sorry,” you offered. “I didn’t mean that.”

“No, I think you did. I get it. No matter what I do, I’ll never compare to the great Hayden Christensen who bought you first editions and shit. Excuse me,” he said in a mocking tone as he threw up his hands.

“That’s not what this is about. I love what you did for me!” you said. “I just want to see my friend and be there for him! You and I can do this any night! But he’s only in town a few more weeks. I like how you choose the one night we’re going to hang out to do this,” you accused.

“I didn’t fucking know you had plans,” he countered.

“No, you didn’t, but it’s just funny that only lately with Hayden coming around do you seem to pay attention to me. Does it take someone threatening our relationship for you to give a shit about me?” you asked, your blood pressure rising as the two of you stood there, a screaming match ensuing.

“Oh, so he is threatening it!” he responded, his hands in the air.

You shook your head and sighed. “No! That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just...I wanted to be there for my friend is all. He’s heartbroken and lonely.”

“I can’t believe this. You bitch because I’m away too much and not giving you attention, and now that I do, you’d rather hang out with your ex. Jesus. I’m done fucking trying.”

“Seb,” you tried. You knew he was upset, he had every right to be, but he also had to see that it was important for you to be with your friend before he left, he was also still struggling with Rachel, whether he wanted to admit it or talk about it or not. “I’m just saying, we can do this any night but Hayden...He’s alone right now, and I wanted to be there for him. That’s all.”

“So go be with him!” he shouted right as your phone rang.

You rolled your eyes and pulled it out of your pocket, wondering who the hell was bothering you right now so late at night.

Speak of the devil.

“Who is it?” Seb demanded.

“Hayden, but I can talk to him later--” you started, ready to ignore the call and slide it back in your pocket.

“No, go ahead. You’re so worried about him,” he countered with a sneer.

You rolled your eyes and answered.

“Hayden, now really isn’t a good time,” you started, ready to just end the call but he interrupted.

“Y/N? Y/N? Oh god, Y/N, what have I done?” he nearly wailed.

Oh fuck. He was drunk...and crying...great.

“Hayden, where are you?” you asked, concern in your voice.

“Does it matter? Does it even matter any more? My god...I can really fuck up anything, can’t I? Why? Why would this happen?” he said, prattling on and on, hiccuping once or twice. You’d only seen him this drunk before and that was on a New Year's Eve party.

“Are you at the hotel or are you out?” you demanded in a harsher voice.

“I’m out, out in this great, wide city,” he said, sounding as if he were on something. You rolled your eyes. This is just what you fucking needed right now.

“How much have you had to drink?” you wondered as your boyfriend stared at you with disbelieving rage. Seb was fuming, you knew that. His jaw was set and his eyes were steely on yours.

“I don’t really know. Let’s see… I had five drinks at the bar...Or was it seven? Maybe ten. I don’t know...then, they closed for a private party so I went to the liquor store. Got about...3 bottles...2 of em ar gone now though.”

“Jesus Christ. Okay, can you tell me where you are?” you asked.

“On the sidewalk.”

Stifling a sigh and pinching the bridge of your nose, you slowly said, “No, I need a street, a store, a landmark. Come on, Hay.”

“Uh....The Crestmont Hotel,” he answered.

“Okay, don’t move, I’m coming to get you,” you informed before you hung up.

“What?” Seb asked you in total disbelief. “We’re in the middle of an argument and you’re gonna go see your drunk ex?”

“He’s hurting, Sebastian,” you informed. “He doesn’t get drunk, ever. Okay? Something must’ve happened. I can’t just let him wander into traffic or be alone.”

You were racing around grabbing your purse, keys, and jacket.

“Then I’m going with you,” he stated.

“Don’t trust me?” you asked, irritation in your voice.

“To help you,” he remarked, softly. “You shouldn’t be trying to wrangle in a drunk dude by yourself.”

You nodded and the two of you left the apartment, heading to the hotel. Jumping in a taxi, the two of you were sitting far apart. Neither of you wanted to discuss the ugliness that had just unfolded, but you knew eventually you’d need to address it.

Sebastian was fair to be hurt, but so were you. You had plans with a friend you may not get to see a lot of. It was a little irritating that now that you and Hayden could hang out more Sebastian seemed to constantly have something planned. Maybe he really was just being a good boyfriend and trying to make up for his mistakes, or maybe he was subconsciously doing things to keep you away from him, either way, it’d been nearly two weeks since you’d seen Hayden last.

Finally, you reached the hotel, and you two jumped out, but there was no Hayden in sight.

“Son of a bitch, where did he go?” you mused, your hands in your hair as you looked around in the night, hoping the headlights would illuminate him somewhere.

“Oh, you mean you don’t have a tracker on him?” Seb asked.

“Not now, Seb, please? I just want to help get him home.”

The two of you looked around until Sebastian suddenly said, “That him?”

Your eyes followed his pointing finger to a man across the street who was walking along the sidewalk, trying to put one foot in front of the other as if he were on a tightrope, stumbling into traffic as cars flew by honking.

“Oh, shit,” you said under your breath. You got to the edge of the sidewalk and looked both ways.

“What are you doing?” Sebastian asked. “You aren’t going to run out in traffic--” But you did. As soon as you saw a clearing, you ran through the cars, weaving around them, and nearly getting hit once yourself, all the while Seb shouting your name.

The moment you reached him, his ankle twisted as he tried to balance on the edge of the sidewalk, his arms flailing as his body toppled toward the oncoming cars. Without thinking, you grabbed his jacket and yanked, sending him flying onto the pavement of the wide sidewalk, with you landing half on top of him. His shoulder and back took the brunt of the fall.

“Ugh, I’m gonna feel that in the morning, huh?” he asked with a laugh. You got up and tried to lift him up.

“Come on, Hayden, get up,” you pleaded as you pulled on his arm, but he was dead weight like a sack of potatoes. “Ugh,” you groaned as he fell back into a pile on the ground. Just then, Sebastian reached you, jogging up to you two.

“God damn it, Y/N, you scared the fuck out of me,” he growled. “Are you okay?”

You slightly dismissed him. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“Alright, come on, princess,” Seb said as he reached down to pick Hayden up easily, propping him up with one arm over his shoulder.

“I’m fine!” Hayden suddenly burst out, trying to get away from the two of you, pushing Sebastian away. Sebastian gave you an annoyed face and you offered an apologetic expression and shrug.

“Hay...please...let us take you home,” you begged as he started to stumble around, bottle still in hand.

“I need bed,” he slurred.

You rolled your eyes. “Yes, and we’ll take you to bed,” you said. “Come on,” you tried again, taking his arm and putting it over your shoulders and guiding him as Seb followed suit. Now, he was leaning on both of you, failing to properly pick up his feet.

You hailed a taxi and got in, Sebastian pushing the drunkard in beside you, then him on the outside. You gave them the hotel he was staying at and you two were off as Hayden struggled to keep his eyes open. His head rolled to Sebastian’s shoulder and he groaned.

“Get off me, man,” Seb mumbled, pushing him off of him so that his head now rolled to your shoulder.

“Thanks, now I’ll have drool on me,” you said with a laugh. One of your quirks was that in the most tense moments in life, you would always laugh. Like when things are dire, intense, sad, upsetting...The most odd thing will make you giggle or chuckle, when everyone else in the room is stone cold silent. You never understood that. Just like now, Hayden being drunk off his ass was hilarious, save for the fact that it was probably due to heartbreak and that he almost got killed but it was still funny.

Sebastian gave you a bitch face. To which you gave your own.

“Oh, lighten up. You have to admit this is funny,” you offered.

“No, nothing is funny about chasing your ex all over New York because he’s got some issues. We were in the middle of a fight about him taking your time away from me and look where the hell we’re at,” he barked in a harsh whisper as he leaned over the body between you.

“Sebastian,” you tried, ready to make amends and apologize, but to also talk so he saw it your way.

“Save it. I’m not discussing this over your unconscious love affair…” he snapped, turning to face the window, his hand resting on his mouth, his elbow on the edge of the window sill.

This wasn’t good. Sebastian and you arguing, fighting, bickering, was one thing. When Sebastian shut down was when he was beyond irate. When he shut down, it meant he wasn’t in the mood to hear your side or salvage anything.

The three of you pulled up in front of the hotel. You got out, then Seb got out and hauled the drunk Hayden with him. You rounded over and started to walk him inside the hotel but he was starting to become dead weight again. You stepped out in front of the two of them while Seb continued to keep him upright. Hayden was going in and out of consciousness, but finally you slapped his face a little bit, tiny, small, repetitive slaps until he woke up fully.

“Wake up,” you snapped.

He jolted awake and stared at you. “Hey, Y/N, when did you get here?” he asked with a goofy ass grin.

“Stay awake for me for like two more minutes, okay?”

He yawned, the mixture of tobacco and alcohol strong on his breath. “Yeah, kay, anything for you.”

The three of you stumbled your way into the elevator, where Hayden was propped into the corner. At one point he jolted awake as if he had a nightmare.

“Woah. Where am I? Sebastian?” he slurred as his eyes landed on him. “What the hell are you doing in my room?” he demanded in a drunken question, more question than malice in his voice.

“Jesus. You picked a real winner, Y/N,” Sebastian mumbled.

“Lay off,” you ordered in a low tone.

“Yeah, man, lay off, it’s not her fault you’re a dick,” Hayden said in a slurred, grumbling voice from behind the two of you as he stumbled all around.

Finally, the elevator doors opened and you drug him to the hotel room. As soon as you got there, you realized you needed the room key. Hesitating for half a second, you went to reach for his pockets and fish around for a key card.

“Hey!” Seb said, giving you a “what the fuck” look.

You frowned. “Do you wanna shove your hand in his pockets?” you offered, sarcastically, knowing damned well Seb wouldn’t want to fondle around on Hayden. With a final look from your eyes, you went back to the task, dipping your hand inside his warm jean pocket, both the front, then finally you found the key on the back, swiped it in the door, and opened.

You two led him to the closest bed and your intention was to gently place him. Seb just let him go and collapse face first onto the comforter.

“Sebastian,” you sighed, a touch of annoyance in your tone. Seb just shrugged and started to walk around his hotel room, looking for what you weren’t sure, but he was taking in the scene nonchalantly, as if strolling around a girlfriend’s bedroom for the first time. You worked on getting Hayden’s shoes off and socks. He wasn’t moving, and if you didn’t know he was just passed out from being drunk, you would’ve been alarmed.

“I’m going to go make one of those coffee cup things,” you informed as you slipped into the bathroom, turned on the little in-house coffee maker, filled it with the water and grounds, and set it to work. You could’ve gone back out since it would take a few minutes to brew, but you honestly didn’t want to face another look from Sebastian, so you quietly stayed inside.

When it was done, you poured a cup and came back into the room, setting the cup on the nightstand before sitting beside Hayden’s sleeping form. You tried to gently pat him awake. “Hey, hey, sweetie?” you softly said. Part of you was still aware Sebastian was in the room, and maybe you shouldn’t call your ex endearing names, but right now your number one priority was to make sure he didn’t get a hangover, and that he felt okay. So the nurturing side of you kicked in and Seb would just have to deal with you being extra sweet.

“Hay...Wake up, dude,” you encouraged, shaking him a little harder till he finally stirred.

“Wha--Where--?” and he fell back asleep.

“Help me get him up,” you requested to Seb.

Seb rolled his eyes, but walked over to the bed anyway and helped roll him on his back, then pulled him up towards the pillows, where you sat back down, smacking Hayden.

“Get up,” you ordered, firm but gentle.

Finally, he half-assed woke up.

“Drink this,” you commanded, handing him coffee. He took a few sips. “Now, keep drinking that. I’m gonna get you water and crackers.” You got up, grabbed your wallet, and went to go downstairs to grab some snacks and bottled water. Seb was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, staring Hayden down who barely had his eyes open.

“Don’t kill each other while I’m gone,” you pleaded in an exhausted tone. “I’ll be right back.”

You disappeared out the door and it left the two men alone. Sebastian couldn’t stand Hayden, he had told you to invite him along for your sake, but truth was, they felt the same way about each other.

“I’m sorry,” Hayden muttered, still slurring his words.

“What?” Sebastian snapped as if he’d only been paying half attention to anything.

“I’m sorry...For the party...What I said...That was dickish...And I’m sorly,” he said, his words failing to be properly enunciated. “I just miss her, that’s all….I miss em all…” he quietly said, still slunk down on the bed, his coffee barely in his hand. Sebastian noticed it tipping and ran over to take the cup so the hot contents didn’t spill onto Hayden’s pants.

He placed the cup on the nightstand and sat on the opposite bed as Hayden seemed to slip back into sleep.

“No hard feelings, man,” he whispered, praying that he couldn’t hear his response.

“You love her?” Hayden asked with a sleepy voice, his eyes still closed.

“Yeah,” he answered softly.

“Me too,” he agreed. “Z’too bad...Huh? Us loving her….S’hard on her…” he slurred, still with his eyes closed.

Sebastian gave a half smile and nodded, even though the drunken companion couldn’t see it.

Neither of them said anything more until you got back in the room.

“I got water, peanuts, advil, and peanut butter crackers,” you announced before tossing it all on the nightstand.

You worked more with Hayden, trying to wake him up, feed him, get him to drink at least half the water bottle. The entire time, Sebastian couldn’t help the jealous and hurt that cocooned around him. You were so gentle and patient and slow with him. Never getting frustrated at him that he wasn’t staying awake or drinking properly. If it was him, you’d probably just toss him on the bed and leave to go write. But you were different around Hayden...And he didn’t like that. He wanted to be the one to bring out your best qualities. Instead, you were gingerly patting up water that had spilled on his chest, lightly carding fingers into his hair to make sure he felt okay, making sure he stayed awake to get food in him.

The scene was enough to rip Sebastian’s heart out. It wasn’t like you’d never been that way with him, you had looked after him when he was sick too, but it seemed like you were burdened with it, as if it were a chore. You seemed to enjoy to be around Hayden though, taking care of him, and that’s what hurt.

Finally, you were done trying to take care of him, and he slumped over onto the bed and you let him sleep. You got up, grabbed your purse, left the advil out with the water on the night stand, and gestured with your head for Sebastian to follow you.

“Maybe we should stay with him?” you offered, worried for him.

“For what?” he responded, confused and incredulous.

“Well he’s...drunk...and alone?”

“He’s an adult, Y/N,” Sebastian snapped in a tired and irritated tone. “He’s just drunk. He’s not a baby in a hot car.”

“You don’t think he’ll hurt himself?” you asked.

“No. I think he’ll be asleep for hours and when he wakes up he won’t want to move. Speaking of sleep, it’s been a long night, can we just go home?”

“Yeah,” you lightly said. You turned out the lights in his room, made sure his key cards were on the nightstand, and the two of you left.

#old flame new problems #Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan fic #sebastian stan x reader #hayden christensen #hayden christensen fic #hayden christensen x reader

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smokeybrand · 4 years

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Smokey brand Movie Reviews: Full Shares

The Outstanding

The Verdict

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drewkatchen · 7 years

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Chris on his back patio | June 2017 | Jersey City, NJ | Pentax 67

Because my interview with Chris Leo involved a nice bottle of wine on a pretty damn nice summer day, our discussion meandered and maybe went longer than we initially expected, a fact that led to a hasty conclusion and us speeding off on bikes -- him on his and me on his wife’s -- to his work at the last minute.

Also, Chris is as generous in conversation as he is in his lyrics, and he’s willing to let things drift to wherever they may go for as long as they go.

What follows is the second portion of our talk, which is concerned mostly with his band The Van Pelt, a musical group that began performing initially in 1993 and disbanded in 1997 after releasing two full-length albums on an independent record label. Chris played guitar and sang, and Brian Maryansky, Neil O'Brien and Sean Greene performed with him. Also, this interview is very much in the spirit of the way interviews run long in fanzines, with very little editing and condensing so as to offer the reader an accurate, non-embellished portrait of either their favorite band or a band they wanted to know more about or a band they know absolutely nothing about. Those are the interviews I grew up reading, whether they were in Maximum Rocknroll, HeartattaCk or a million other zines. That transparency is also in the interest of letting the artist’s thoughts run in their full and proper context. So a majority of this discussion below is as we had it, with very light doctoring for cohesion. I hope you enjoy it.

The Van Pelt have had several reunions, which first began in 2009, and they will continue this month with a small string of live performances. Go see them.

You can read the first portion of our chat HERE.

Thanks for inviting me over again. How has your day been so far?

I’m a little overworked. There’s the coordinating with wineries, how to get my wine from Italy to here. Then there’s the distribution part. I only import from Italy. Then there’s all these companies that I distribute wine from, but I don’t import their wine. That’s during the day. And then I have to find new people to sell it to and then I have to get it to those people. So I’m also the delivery man.

When do you sleep?

I don’t sleep much because at night I go and I’m doing this wine bar in Downtown Jersey City. The problem with New Jersey is it’s not for outside thinkers. It’s a place to breed outside thinkers that then get the fuck out of here. It’s a great place to create expats.

Well, let’s flip the record a bit as it were, because this is also partially based on what you’re doing with music.

At this moment, Charlie the dog interrupts the proceedings for a few moments. But it’s cool because he’s stopped barking and now he’s being friendly.

Is he young, how old is he?

He’s actually almost seven. We’ve had him for three years. He was in the pound for three years and he was on the streets of Los Angeles for a year. That’s why he’s all tough guy.

Did you get him in Los Angeles?

Yeah, we got evicted because of him barking like crazy.

I believe it. So what year did The Van Pelt begin?

I think we began in the fall of 1993 or in the spring of 1994. It’s hard to say because there were many iterations of the band. I started out on bass.

Did you?

Yeah. And we made these two albums, and the second album -- which was our more popular album – we had issues with the mastering. So, not only did we want to get it back in print and we wanted it remastered for our own sake. And so we did.

Is it more fun for you talking about wine or the band?

There’s definitely more joy in wine. Music isn’t pure joy. Music is pain. But also amazing. I also like talking about music because it’s so hard for me to articulate.

You’ve remastered these records again because you want them to sound better. But you’re also doing what you don’t like to do, which is play shows. Why are you doing that?

Except that I feel like I’m in a cover band.

Oh, that makes sense. But does that fact make it any easier?

Yeah, because now I’m singing the songs of this pretty cool kid from twenty years ago. And I’m playing a part; I’m trying to get into his mindset. One common theme of the band is disillusionment with the left, this civil war amongst Democrats and progressives in America.

What left are you talking about?

I’m talking about an eighteen-year-old’s idea of the left. I’m talking about an eighteen-year-old who is coming from an all-boys Catholic high school who created his idea of the left and was dying to leave this and find my people in the Lower East Side. The huge mistake I made was that to me the left meant open dialogue and the right meant closed dialogue. Where I really wanted to go was where you could sit at a bar or table with anybody and you could throw out any topic. What I found was the left was not about open dialogue. It was ‘The right believes ABC; we believe XYZ.’ And I didn’t think that was the way it was going to be. I thought it was going to be ‘The right believes ABC, and we believe everything else.’

So, lyrically that is what the band represents to you now? When you look back on it that’s how you see what you were doing?

Partially. In the sense that it’s one of the themes I’m excited to revisit because I think it’s so relevant now with the Democratic Party not see what was really coming with the progressives and Bernie Sanders.

The other thing I like revisiting is Chris Leo apriori optimist versus Chris Leo the empirical optimist. These things have changed quite a bit, but I love playing the role of the apriori guy. For example, if I was kind of hip to Monsanto when I was nineteen or twenty, I would have thought it was way cooler than I think it is now. I would have thought this idea of fucking with nature down to the bare bones is the coolest idea ever. ‘That’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re part of nature. If we don’t admit we’re part of nature then we don’t really understand nature. We’re part of nature and us fucking with it is the coolest thing ever.’ That’s Chris Leo the apriori optimist in the nineties. Let’s take this to the extreme; let’s take on nature. Yes, so many times we’ve done this we’ve failed miserably but let’s keep doing it. Chris Leo the empirical optimist now, twenty years later…if Monsanto had this little lab in Nebraska where they did all the same things and they live streamed it to us and said ‘Hey, we’re going to make this crazy square tomato and we’re going to feed it to dogs for twenty years and see what happens and we’re going to do all these other experiments but inside this hyper-controlled environment. But that’s not what Monsanto does, so therefore now I will get on board with the left of the early nineties and the left now and march against Monsanto.

You did write a lot about food in your songs. Hang on, let’s see what did I write down in my notebook? Here are some examples: An unseasoned meal, before the meat turns toxic in our tubes, feed me bread, lychee pits, gathering bread for your plate, more apple pie than I’ve ever been.

I guess I’ve been heading down the food and beverage path forever. And with The Lapse I had ‘Buffet.’ [’Buffet’ is a song from the 2000 album ‘Heaven Ain’t Happen’ where Leo proclaims ‘We make meals out of condiments.’]

I’m assuming you like to eat even though you’re very thin. Damn you.

I do like to eat.

What else was on your mind then?

Sex. Love. Politics, yes. Mortality always.

Even at that age?

ALWAYS. I always think about it.

Do you see yourself as a musician, songwriter, arranger? What do you see yourself as?

I’m not a performer. I’m terrible. I’d like to believe I’m a musician, but again, I feel like there’s this reciprocity that comes with being a musician, and I can’t say that I’m a musician. I don’t feel confident saying I’m a musician, but I like playing music.

What is your relationship with music like now?

It’s starting to find a real nice sweet spot, 43 years deep into my life. When I was making music with The Van Pelt and even The Lapse, sometimes I was just a little too close to it to appreciate it in its fullness, particularly with The Lapse. I almost became less of a fan boy than I was before I started playing music. I was just too deep in it. Too heady with it. Then, after the Vague Angels [Leo’s band from the aughts], I stopped playing music entirely. So, I haven’t written anything new for eight years or so. And the first year was amazing. I became more of a listener in every sense of the word, and not just with music, but with wine too. It was so helpful. I had this burst of interest in music, just as a listener. I was a super fanboy.

Of what?

I was just sucking everything up. At the time, I was living in Italy, and I was trying really hard to find good Italian music. I was really digging deep into Italian music. But then my music muscle atrophied. Not playing music, I realized that all these other things I was investing my interest in co-opted my brain. It was this really weak music muscle. Then I would go years picking up one or two bands a year.

What were the genres that you began liking as you got older?

I’ve always loved pop and dance. In the eighties, they used to call me a poseur because when I would write band names on my shoes, I would have like R.E.M., Erasure and Cover Girls. Kids would be like ‘You can’t put Cover Girls next to R.E.M.’

Who were the Cover Girls?

You don’t remember them?

I know the Weather Girls and Mary Jane Girls.

[Chris sings to me] Show me, show me you really love me. Actions speak louder than words.

Is it freestyle?

Yes, I love freestyle. We should do a freestyle night. [Chris frequently has friends and patrons play music on the bar’s sound system]

Oh, you know more than I do about freestyle.

We can get people to help us out. So, this is also during the glory years of 120 Minutes, so I was just discovering late-era Wire, but listening to Silent Morning. It’s always been a thread in my life, dance music and freestyle and pop.

I would get that listening to The Van Pelt.

Ha. Ok, remove yourself from the situation a bit. You gotta know what you do, and that’s not always what you listen to. I just don’t do certain things. There’s plenty of music I just don’t do. With The Van Pelt, I was hyper-restrained and I loved it. When we broke up I didn’t want to do anything restrained. I wasn’t feeling restrained. Now I’m stoked to do a lot of that. I wanted to explode because I was just so sick of the punk environment being so sterile. Music is supposed to make you abandon all inhibitions; music is supposed to take you from, if you walked in sad and watched a happy band then you leave happy or if you walk in happy and watch a sad band, then you leave sad. You’re supposed to lose it, and punk was so not about losing it.

Can you contextualize for me what The Van Pelt were? What world did you fit into?

So, we had two albums. The first album was a real fanboy album.

What does that mean?

Like young kids who are sucking up as much music as possible.

What were you sucking up?

Everything from Seam to Gastr Del Sol to Kraftwerk to whatever cassette was really cheap on tour at a gas station in Kansas, which might have been Procol Harum, and who knew they had other songs? So, absolutely everything. But we were all in agreement that we wanted to make anthems, we really wanted to kick out the jams. And this is a contextual thing because nineties New York were not about bands. That was for the rest of America. You had Jon Spencer and Sonic Youth and you had bands like that but they were in a whole mega league; they were not DIY. We would have aspired to their sales and notoriety but we were DIY [do-it-yourself or independent] through and through, to a fault.

That’s one of the reasons sometimes people would call us emo. Your choices were to go indie and work the 21-and-up circuit playing all these bars and you have a booking agent and everything is pretty legit. Or continue with DIY and do the 18-and-up circuit or play anyone’s basement anywhere and also play bars but book it yourself and hop in the van, make everything happen the way you want it to happen and just because you’re doing it that way, they want to call you emo because that was the predominant DIY genre at the time.

So you don’t feel like you fit into that or you were that?

I don’t feel like we fit into that at all. What, you do?

I don’t know, maybe a little bit.

Maybe a little bit, sure. But not exclusively. We just wanted to make music. The second album was after a bunch of lineup changes; we’d just finished college. There was a huge blizzard in New York. We’d all just broken up with our girlfriends, so that was really pure. That one was like ‘This is what’s happening. No one is going to like it, but this is what’s happening. And it’s a bummer and this music sucks.’ Of course, that’s the record people like. So, who were we? We were just kids figuring out who we were.

Were you punk? Did you think of yourselves as punk then or no?

No. We thought of ourselves as DIY.

What’s the difference?

Punk has constraints.

So does DIY by its definition, no?

There’s no aesthetic or sonic restraints.

Oh, I see, I see. Where were you playing and who were you playing with? Who were your peers at the time?

We were playing at Brownies on Avenue A and 11th Street all the time.

RIP. [Brownies, an East Village rock/punk/indie club, closed in 2002].

I know, RIP. We never played Brooklyn. There was nothing there. Where else were we playing?

Did you ever play in New Jersey?

We played a Knights of Columbus in Wallington on the Passaic River, which was great. We would play colleges. We played The Cooler, all the time.

Who were you playing with? You were playing with emo bands, I’m guessing, even though you were not.

If we weren’t the booking agent. If it was a bill we booked, we would play with one of my brothers’ bands, Chisel or Radio Saturn. We’d play with Garden Variety. We played with Dahlia Seed. Their new band is playing with us in D.C.

Promise Ring? Texas is the Reason?

We didn’t play with Texas too much. We were all friends, but we didn’t cross with them much musically.

This isn’t the first time The Van Pelt has reunited. How do you feel about it now?

Great. This is basically the third time.

What made you reunite the first time in 2009?

Because an old friend of ours from Austin was like ‘Hey, I’m putting together a nineties bill for SXSW this year, please play.’

The Van Pelt perform in June 2009 at Coco 66 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Had you entertained the idea before that?

It never really crossed my mind, honestly. No one even asked us, really. So, we all agreed to do it, and it was really cool. But it was a year after I stopped playing music.

Didn’t you write a novel in there somewhere, too?

I wrote five.

Didn’t you write five novels in there somewhere, too?

So, we did it. My relationship with music in general was weird. It was more about meeting these guys that I shared so much with back in the day. But when bands break up, it’s like breaking up with a girlfriend; it’s never perfect.

So you had no real misgivings about reforming?

I did. But for me on that tour, I had misgivings about playing music and playing Van Pelt music, but I wanted to play with those guys. I wanted to get back on track and bury every and any hatchet that could possibly be still hanging out there for no good reason. And we succeeded in that. Sonically the theme wasn’t clear to me in my head.

Does it fit sonically with who you are now or what you’re interested in?

That’s one of the things I love in revisiting these songs; some of it really does.

Would you listen to that now as a man your age?

The second album yes. The first album not so much, but I have fun playing those songs. And some of them we’ve kind of done adult contemporary style and we’ll be doing some of them that way for these shows. The point is, that was really cool in 2009, but it didn’t bring everything together in my mind that I was hoping it would. So then, we release what was supposed to be our third album, and in doing so we get offered to play this huge festival in England. It was one of the ATP festivals [Jabberwocky, 2014]. By that point everything is cool between The Van Pelt guys, thematically everything is settled in my head. We go and play these shows, and it was fucking amazing. We were really good.

The beauty of your vocal style is that your speaking voice doesn’t change that much.

It’s a little deeper now.

With the exception of maybe ‘We Are the Heathens’, you can kinda do most of it, right?

I can do most of it better.

I assume your upper register is gone though.

Yeah, it’s gone. I think sometimes it sounds better now though. So musically those shows were great and it was super fun. So then, the record label that releases that was like ‘Ok cool, that was a success. Let’s re-master and release your first two records. But you gotta play more shows.’ And we said, ‘Ok, cool.’ So, in the sense of like, do I need to keep revisiting old Van Pelt songs? No, I don’t. But, when we were rehearsing in 2012 and playing old songs, it was really hard to not write new songs.

So you’ve written new songs.

Yes, and we’re going to play some of those.

What do they sound like?

I dunno. We’ve only written three so far. We all have these little pieces we’re tinkering with.

So you have songs that are now five years old?

No, basically in 2012, in between playing old songs we would tinker with stuff and a song would come together and then we’d say ‘Oh fuck, we can’t do this right now. We gotta get back on track with relearning these old songs but my god it would be so much fun to flesh this out.’ So then, that’s the way we rationalize these new shows. So, now let’s spend some time fleshing these things out.

What percentage of the set will be new material?

Maybe we’ll throw in one or two for the shows. And hopefully we’ll have a new album in 2018.

You’re kind of like Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy. Every decade you do something.

Maybe. I love playing with those guys.

Do you find it bizarre the music you were doing then can live beyond its initial time?

No, because back in that time I was digging deep into the racks looking for stuff from twenty years earlier, and it fit the context of that time.

What were the primary sources? Sonic Youth, Velvets, Galaxie 500?

I didn’t listen to Sonic Youth much, only because that was such the sound of the time you almost didn’t need to listen to it. I didn’t listen to it a lot, but yes, I love Sonic Youth.

With the first record, we really wanted to make anthems because we were living in this time where the guitar players were no longer making anthems. And there weren’t many guitar players. They were all going the route of the deejay. So, it was like all the guitar players are getting weird as fuck, and we liked it. But we wanted to give a go at making an album of anthems.

I was listening to a lot of the Dustdevils. An interesting thing, we discovered a lot of bands by who people said they imagined we were listening to. People would say we must have listened to a lot of Bedhead, and we said no. And then we’d go listen to Bedhead. And even The Fall. I didn’t listen to The Fall until everyone said we sounded like The Fall. Which could bring us to Parquet Courts.

How do they relate to you?

You don’t think they sound like us?

Ooh, yes. I do.

So many people are like ‘Are you going to sue them or what?’

They seem very knowledgeable in what they’re doing. I think they’re very steeped in music history. [Full disclosure: I once saw Andrew Savage at a DS-13 show in Brooklyn wearing a Turning Point shirt. The Hi-Impact Turning Point shirt. That is fairly legit to me. I also like them a lot, probably because they remind me of The Van Pelt.]

Maybe that’s the case, and if it is, then they should give us a shout out. If it’s not the case, the world is so weird that I can believe it not being the case. Anyhow, I love it. I do love them.

You kind of got me inebriated. Who else were your influences?

Eric B. & Rakim were a huge influence, to the idea of speaking and saying intelligent things and putting it to a repeating riff.

Can you estimate how many shows you played when you were around?

It had to be over a hundred. We were just talking about this.

Did you enjoy being in a band?

Everything about it except the actual show. That part I wasn’t so into. Traveling, late-night drives, post-sound check hanging out at the bar during happy hour when no one’s there. A sticky, stinky bar. I loved that stuff. Meeting people from all around the world. I loved being in a band and touring.

When it comes to the music and the recording, was the intention to have the music serve your voice? To me, the music is behind you on the recordings.

I rarely write the lyrics with the music; I can’t do that. I’ll have a bank of lyrics. Even right now I have tons. That’s constant. When we start to tinker with a song, I’ll think about what lyrics will fit with the mood of the song.

Do you care what people take from your lyrics? Do people ask you what your lyrics mean?

I do get asked from time to time. I hope people take something from them. When people usually ask me, I like to say in the least snarky way possible, if I could articulate them in another way, then I wouldn’t have made lyrics out of them. This is the art form. It’s not a redundant art form. The reason poetry and lyrics exist is because it fills an articulation gap.

Did you put a lot of emphasis on them at the time or are they quick musings?

No, I sweat them out. To write lyrics for The Van Pelt, I would get on my bike, and I would have pen and paper, and I would loop Manhattan. I would go from Wall Street all the way up to Hell Gate Bridge [near Astoria, Queens]. And anytime something would come together, I would stop and write it down.

Do you recall ever having people really wanting to know exactly what you meant? Punk commonly demands black and white lyrical subject matter. How did you deal with it?

Yes. I probably dealt with it poorly, but I don’t remember. It can’t fit into a perfect dialogue; if it could, it wouldn’t be music or lyrics. It’s not regular dialogue, it’s an art. For example, when I go to a museum, I want to take the lengthy explanations off the wall and throw it in the trash. I hate the idea of a little placard telling me what a painting is supposed to resemble. I want to look at the painting and enjoy it, period.

Sultans of Sentiment…this is a Dire Straits thing?

No, it came from Twin Peaks. By the way, one of the things you asked before, I don’t think I answered it fully. What do I want from these shows? I really hope we can reach a few kids. That would make me so happy. Like if the version of us that was flipping through records at Kim’s in the early nineties, just finding obscure shit from 20 years earlier, if that kid finds us and we’re part of some thread.

Is The Van Pelt considered obscure now?

I think we’re super obscure, no? We don’t make any lists of bands of the early nineties.

Hmm. Did I not ask you anything? Oh, I know, are your lyrics about any real-lived events?

Yes. ‘Do the Lovers Still Meet at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial?’ I was dating a girl who was half-Irish and half-Chinese and her Irish dad died, and her Chinese mother remarried a Chinese guy and they lived in Taiwan. And so I went to Taiwan a couple times during college, and I was not ready for the culture shock at all. It was really a lot for a kid in his twenties to take. Sometimes I would just need a break from the family and all the cultural things I just couldn’t accept, so we would meet at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. It’s a huge giant white-and-blue pagoda, and old people would do ballroom dancing outside of it. And we would meet there, and we’d go out to clubs there and escape the madness of the culture clash that eventually proved to be too much for us. Eventually I left Taiwan with her prematurely on one visit, and I had a big argument with her family. I said ‘I’m done with this; I’m taking her out of the country. I’m done with this.’ It was just a huge battle. Pretty intense times.

Well, I’m glad I asked that. Ok, we’ve talked forever. Let’s end it. Thanks Chris.

#chris leo #the van pelt #the lapse #PENTAX67 #pentax #Tri-X 400 #new jersey #Jersey City

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