#probably my keyboard was set in Spanish and that's why it says a lot of de and one vas >

[targaros]

somehow my phone had a stroke (ghost tapping), unlocked itself, opened tumblr and wrote this.

this is canon for pebbles, considering the ask. after that he smited them. smoted. deathed them. killed them.

[dbstaches]

THIS CHARMING MAN

Dave Ball in Zigzag magazine, March 1984 issue - full article text bellow

Following our interview with Marc Almond in ZZ 3 we complete the set with Dave Ball. Paul Barney asked the questions, Linda Rowell* took the photographs.

Okay, you made me do it. I’ve turned it off. I’m talking about the new Soft Cell 12″ ‘Down In The Subway’. I want to flip it over but instead I shall leave the beefy brilliance of their version of Johnny Thunder’s ‘Born To Lose’ (hear it, buy it, you owe it to yourselves!) and tell you about an afternoon I spent in the company of Dave Ball in the living room of his London flat. Ushering me inside Dave smiles and proffers tea. It’s a small room, Dave’s keyboards standing majestically in the intimacy. My heart passes on secret information to my bladder and I have to make the first of my visits to the bathroom [DAMMIT] just when I wanted to be cool and collected.

Dave plays me the new and final Soft Cell album ‘Last Night In Sodom’ and it’s a breathtaking affair. Lots of drums, Marc’s voice reaching and winding its way down my back. ‘Meet Murder My Angel’ featuring Dave’s wife Gini Hewes on the most gorgeous backing vocals. ‘L'esqualita’ is seductive, inspired by New York club for transvestites where they mime to Spanish songs dressed obviously to suit such activity and another standout track is ‘The Best Way To Kill’. A relentless beat. (The title comes from a Sun headline where they asked their readers which method of capital punishment they preferred!) A lot faster than most of the previous album. It was recorded and mixed in five weeks at Britannia Row.

I love it madly but how do you feel? DAVE: “Of all the three Soft Cell albums, it's the one we're most satisfied with because we've been totally involved with it and had total control from start to finish. Rather than working with outside producer ... the ideas come purer.”

Weren't you happy with Mike Thorne's production then? DAVE: “I think we were at the time but he was more into making a name as a star producer. That's fair enough but not if you're a band and depending on someone else to help you get the sound you want. He was more into commercial safety if you like.”

How did you get that sound on ‘Numbers’? (To convey this I am forced to make a noise like a sick penguin, embarrassing!) DAVE: “I used a bass guitar going through an envelope generator. It's like a filter off a synthesiser. It's jus an effect pedal. I'll show you one. (Showing me the device.) Quite simple really. It's just a different context to hearing those sort of things.”

To digest these technical facts calls for a cigarette. Dave suggests a can of beer and whilst he is in the kitchen I'm off to the toilet again. The interview resumes.

Are you a shy person? DAVE: “I'm not shy like now but I am when in front of a lot of people. Marc's got something that really holds people's attention. He's more of a showman. I'm not interested in being a performer. I've never concentrated on it. I never needed to. I always relied on Marc.”

Were you unhappy with ‘In Strict Tempo’? DAVE: “I probably said something like I wasn't totally satisfied with it. It's not really meant to be thought as an album in that sense of being a collection of songs ... It wasn't released with intention of being a chart album. The ideas for new Soft Cell album were initially ideas I got from doing ‘In Strict Tempo’. It was testing ground. People try to read too much ... Like the track ‘Rednecks’. People actually thought I was being serious. The funnest thing is that people from America see the joke but English people don't seem to see it's a total pisstake of that area of America and the country music and the bigotry.”

A lot of tongue in cheek, isn't it? DAVE: “Of course ... Yeah, like on that tribal number, the voices on that are speak and spell.”

I thought it was you (why did I have to say that?) DAVE: “I think maybe I disguised the fact that it was a synthesiser and electronic too well. I just thought the idea of using one of them for a tribal chant was quite amusing!”

Did you get emotional doing the last Soft Cell gig at the Palais? DAVE: “No, I was more emotional doing the video for ‘Soul Inside’. Y'know tearing up the posters. That was the first point when it sunk in, ‘this is coming to an end’, but I don't feel upset about it because we're happy with what we're leaving behind.”

What is this film you've done the soundtrack for? DAVE: “It's called Decoder, a German film. I think they've completed it now. It's going to be shown at the German film festival and I think they'll dub it over in English so it will probably be shown at a few cinemas over here. Maybe just the ICA or bigger cinemas. It's also going to be released on video.” “The film is about muzac, the sort that's used in supermarkets and hamburger joints. Some of the music is by Neubauten, in fact Mufti is the star of the film and William Bouroughs and Christiane F are in it as well. Gen (Genesis P) makes a cameo appearance as an underground preacher. It's quite interesting. Mufti discovers a way of making anti-muzac so instead of pacifying people like muzac does, ot antogonises them and causes riots. I suppose it's very heavy and bleak, very German.”

Future plans? DAVE: “I'm writing a couple of things for Psychic TV to return the compliment for Gen appearing on my album and I'm supposed to be writing some material for Cristina (of Ze records). Do you know her?”

Sort of. DAVE: “I had a meeting with her and Michael Zikha in America late last year. Anybody who asks me if I'm interested in writing or contributing, if it sounds interesting, I do it. “I still want to have a main thing you could call it a group, but ot might end up as a just a couple of people and myself, but again it'll be different from Soft Cell.”

Are you still going to work with Alan Vega? DAVE: “I don't know about that anymore. We talked about it a year and a half ago and nothing happened. His attitude that came over in Zigzag ... I didn't like the way he made me feel guilty as if I owed him a favour. The only similarities between Soft Cell and Suicide was the fact that there were two people, one of them singing and the other playing a keyboard and they used a drum machine. But because we said in an early interview we really liked Suicide, people think they were a direct influence and we were trying to copy them but there's nothing similar at all. I wouldn't want to work with him because he feels I owe him something.”

Is there much unreleased stuff that might see the light in the wake of Soft Cell? DAVE: “There are loads of songs we did when we first started, but we'd never release those, they were just backroom demos. “I think everything we've recorded after this album comes out and the single will have been released. That's one reason why the album is a bit longer than normal. It's because we wanted to make sure everything came out. I hate the idea of leaving stuff unreleased because you never know a year later you might be doing something else and somebody decides to release something you didn't want out then ...”

... and you don't want out now. DAVE: “It's like what they're doing with John Lennon. He's an amazing bloke, still doing albums and he's dead. Pretty good that! “I find it sick. It would be alright if it was just released to make it available to the fans but they're not ... it's tasteless.”

We are both chainsmoking. I catch a glimpse of Sooty flickering away in silence on a small black and white telly in the corner. Dave plays me a really jazzy instrumental continuation of Soul Inside. It's wonderfully chaotic but since you're unlikely to ever hear it on with the interview.

Will you do anymore singing? DAVE: “You call that singing?”

Yeah. DAVE: “Possibly doing backing vocals.”

Don't you have any confidence in yourself as a singer? DAVE: “No, it's bad enough if I'm in the studio. I get embarrassed and nervous if it's just me and the microphone with an audience it would just be a joke.”

These questions must be really boring, maybe I should ask your favourite color. DAVE: (laughs) “It's blue.”

Have you got a strange sense of humour? DAVE: “I like black comedy ... Friday the 13th and stuff. I sit back and laugh at them, always the same plot. They know there's an axe murderer wandering around and the first thing they do is split up and go searching around the woods.”

Have you seen ‘The Thing’? DAVE: “I didn't find that funny. That made me feel quite sick.”

What time do you get up? DAVE: “Sometimes I get really lazy and don't get up 'till two in the afternoon and then I have phases of getting up early. I suppose on average between ten and twelve.”

Do you believe in witches? DAVE: “Yes, I believe in witchcraft, I'm quite interested in that. I've read books. I'm not a practising magician or anything ... Music is a form of magic.”

Are there any causes you feel sympathetic towards like CND? DAVE: “I'm sympathetic to the idea of nuclear disarmament and everything but I wouldn't go out and campaign. If everyone in the country said we don't want nuclear weapons it wouldn't make a scrap of difference because the government doesn't represent the people and big business are behind them. Money is more important to them than people.”

Do you have any phobias? DAVE: “Sometimes walking down Oxford Street if there are lots of people I get paranoid ... I don't like flying ...”

Do you mind if I use the bathroom again? DAVE: “No.”

— * Linda Rowell is actually Mick Mercer, main editor of the magazine at the time as well

[somekeepsakes]

German interview with Peter (May 20, 2019) on drugs, love and new beginnings

I noticed that another version of the interview with Peter which @koidivisions translated some weeks back has emerged. The newer, longer, and presumably full(?) version can be found here. I’m only adding the translation for the bits that were missing in the earlier version. Since there are quite a few of them, maybe some of you are interested in reading the entire thing.

cut cut cut and off you go

Why did Hamburg change you so much? I felt privileged that Johann Scheerer opened his door for me. He trusted me.

He said: "You may live in the apartment and use the studio." He gave me his house key at a time when not even my own family would have trusted me with a key. Yes, it was a wonderful time in Hamburg! It was a shame that there was such resentment between my management at that time and the people from Clouds Hill as, much to the dismay of my management, there was someone who trusted me; that I stayed in Germany, recorded music, and took more control.

Did you feel something close to freedom? Yes, I believe so, there were no paparazzi lurking around every corner. And doing spontaneous gigs in the Golem, this wickedly expensive place, was great. I loved it there.

For some people, you’re a gifted song poet, whereas others tend to associate you with your drug antics. Yes, they believe me to be a caricature. There are even people who are disappointed when they meet me and I’m not all fucked up. This is really sad. But, then, it used to be like that for a long time. There used to be all these negative stories about me that had a nasty pic of me attached to them all the time.

And on the few days where I was alright, they manipulated the picture, or took one of me sneezing. This really killed me. It inwardly killed me.

And everything went hand in hand… The police were obsessed with getting hold of me. They arrested me repeatedly. That made me feel as if I was a dangerous person or a threat to society. That was sheer insanity.

But you’re out of the woods now? That’d be wonderful. But addiction is an illness – a mental illness. It’s self-destructive…

How safe are you feeling right now? Difficult to say. I’m feeling safe. But if I think about it, I don’t actually know what feeling safe means. At least I don’t want to go back to where I was.

[Regarding Margate] But why did you buy a hotel there? Because it was so cheap, so incredibly cheap!

It was said to be the most rundown hotel in Kent or even in England. That’s not entirely fair. The Nigerian woman who ran it had a bad reputation because she used to kick people out of the hotel whenever they complained. But saying that it was the worst hotel… No, I went to one in Aberdeen once which was worse!

And you invested money in yours? Sure, the whole thing was Carl’s idea. He decided that The Libertines needed headquarters. He then found this old five-storey townhouse. He didn’t pay me for five festival gigs for he knows I’m prone to wasting money. The others saved their share. And now I’m one of six investors.

Our studio has already been finished, and the hotel is supposed to come about bit by bit. The liquor licence is also there already so that Carl is able to open a bar beneath the hotel. The bar is going to be called "Wasteland" like the book by T.S. Eliot who lived four doors away. His father owned a bed and breakfast in Margate 100 years ago.

It’s supposed to become something similar to Andy Warhol’s "Factory". The Margate version of it. Carl wants to gradually set it up in a way so that different artists will be able to live and work under the same roof.

You’re said to have started a company for that business. I’ve read that article, too. What a load of bollocks! It said that I was worth 5.3 million pounds – crazy! Carl was really angry when he read that since he’s the businessman among the two of us. I would be completely unfit for a thing like that.

[Regarding the cat incident] There’ve been worse stories about you. And still, you were angry about it? Sure, because it was this incident that brought paparazzi to my doorstep again. That was the first time in two years, prior to that, everything was peaceful. There were no negative stories about me. And even on this day, I was kind towards the photographers. But they didn’t like that.

They claimed that I stood there in the doorway laughing. It broke my heart cause I love animals. And I love cats.

Does the sea inspire you? Tremendously! Every morning when I step outside. The light is unbelievable and the dark, wild sea – it’s calling for me. Sometimes, that’s dangerous. I’d like to run naked into the sea.

But so far you haven’t answered the call? I will do so in summer. Due to their arctic background, my dogs are used to freezing temperatures. They can step into the water when it’s cold, and they love it. But it’s not as nice as it may sound for humans in Margate.

In what way? We get these weird weather fronts. Every ten years, über-storms are causing serious damage. Just last week, the roof of the huge Tesco market got blown away, just like that. The buildings can take a lot but there are also lots of tunnels beneath the bases of the houses which were constructed in old smuggler times. That’s why the whole thing is unstable and causes buildings to collapse. It really is a weird place, Margate.

[Regarding the Puta Madres album] It probably won’t make you rich. That’s the reason why Drew isn’t part of the band. He preferred to make money while touring with Liam Gallagher. But it’s not always about money even if I’m not less greedy than others.

But I also know what damage money can cause. I need to take care of myself so that I’m not going to suffer from tunnel vision and therefore miss the genuine things that inspired me at a time when I didn’t have any money. If we make any money with that, which would be great for us, we’re going to build our own studio.

You’ve recorded the album overlooking a fishing village in the municipality of Étretat in the Normandy. Why not in Margate? Because Carl insisted that the new studio would be Libertines only. So we went to France where the family of our keyboarder Katia lives. That was great because we were able to record the album within a few days. Just like the Beatles did with their first album: one microphone in the room, press record, play the songs, and go back home.

[Regarding Someone Else To Be] Why do you quote Oasis in this particular song? "Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock’n’roll band" has always been one of my favourite lines from a song. The warning it includes is probably justified.

[Regarding his stance on relationships] As complicated as Brexit? That is indeed complicated for the Puta Madres as so many nationalities come together in this band! We need to move freely, otherwise the knell will sound for us. But we’ll somehow find our way to France, Spain and Germany.

Where does the funny "Puta Madres" band name which literally translates as "goddamn mothers" come from by the way ? "Ah, it’s the puta madre!" – our drummer Rafa used to say that very often in the beginning when he referred to something positive as well as to something negative or something inbetween.

I didn’t really know what it meant but thought we might use that as our band name. Everyone says that in Spain and South America and it means "fucking hell".

It’s a casual curse word like "motherfuckers". It means everything and nothing. Technically speaking, it refers to the mother of a prostitute.

Do you speak Spanish? Sí. There’s a bit of German, a bit of Spanish, and a bit of French on the album.

How are your German skills? (in German) Not that good.

Do you have a favourite German word? Radiergummi! And I also like Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Methadon.

You presumably were given the latter as a substitute during rehab? Yeah, sure, horrible stuff. Sickly sweet. I call it the bad absinth.

Do you still think about Amy Winehouse? Yes, often. Constantly, actually. I met a girl called Jade Goldsworthy, an incredible singer. She reminds me so much of Amy. She hasn’t recorded anything yet, we’ve only met. But I’m planning to release something with her. We’re working on it. Amy would’ve loved her. I’m sure of that.

And The Libertines will continue as well? Of course, forever! Carl and I are stronger than ever.

Are you working on the new Libertines record at the moment? Yeah, but it was all a bit tragic. Ollie, The Prodigy’s guitarist, came round and wanted to help Carl and me with writing and producing. The next day, the news of Keith’s death – who was also a friend of Carl’s – broke. He committed suicide. The last thing Ollie texted Keith was a picture of my dogs as Keith was a fellow husky lover. And Keith replied saying how beautiful they were. And the next day, he hanged himself. We haven’t seen Ollie since.

How did you react to Flint’s death? I listened to all the old Prodigy records. There’s unbelievably good stuff among them, sometimes scaringly sinister.

Given the many deaths surrounding you, do you ask yourself why you’re still alive? No, I don’t think about that.

There are lots of discussions going on at the moment about whether it’s appropriate for radio stations to still play Michael Jackson songs or not. How do you see it: Should we separate an artist’s work from the artist? Wow – that’s a damn good question! His songs are being played every few seconds somewhere in the world. It’s amazing music, some of the best songs ever written. It’d be a fucked-up situation if he’s guilty… A part of me would die – a major part of my childhood. I loved his music.

Did you see the documentary? No, the film might have a significant impact on me – I can’t bring myself to watch it at the moment. I need to be careful with it, it’s too important. Michael Jackson used to be such an important factor in my life. It’s similar to Woody Allen: He’s a great filmmaker, he’s got a good sense of humour. It would annihilate so much culture if we didn’t separate an artist’s work from the private individual. But it’s tricky.

[deathsmallcaps]

please don't become a teacher

Sometimes I do wonder if I’m going down the wrong career path. But I’ve barely started college, and I can still change my mind. (Thank you for the concern though I appreciate it :) )

I’d like to become a middle school or freshman math teacher. Tweens and teens are dramatic, and I’m pretty sure they’ll exhaust me, but here’s why.

When I was in 8th grade (turned 14 that year for international people) I took Algebra 1. I was entering a new school in the middle of its set of grades, barely knew anyone, and a lot of the social/educational nuance was lost on me, due to having come from a private school with only 9 teenagers and limited resources. The worst was calculators.

Day one, I barely knew how to use those TI84 fuckers, and there wasn’t much explaining going on, because everyone else had learned the year before. And of course, being the extra little crap I was, I had saved up and gotten the more advanced, wrong model of calculator, so a small difference in the keyboard further confused me.

The teacher didn’t really seem to care. All through that year, I struggled, somehow making a c (about a 75). I think she was trying to pass me in a weird show of pity. But I didn’t pass (since it was considered a little early to take algebra in 8th grade, you had to get an 80 or more) and had to retake it the next year.

On the one hand, I felt ashamed. I was supposed to be the smart kid, and there were people and resources I could’ve reached out to to get help. On the other hand, I knew if I retook the class, I’d get a better grade and have a better base for my continuing math skills. So I was able to stop blaming myself and move on.

The next year, I had a different, extremely wonderful teacher. Did I get better grades? Certainly. Was it perhaps because I had a deeper background in the Algebra 1 course? Probably. But did Teacher 2 do an all around better job at connecting with her students and figuring out what they needed to learn? YES. And she inspired me.

Since then, I haven’t really gotten that many A’s in math class. But that’s on me and not studying or finishing my work enough. It wasn’t because of a lack of ability. And now I enjoy math. And I want to help other kids be ready for high school.

I don’t need them to like math. I just want to help them feel a little more control in their lives, and help them learn math in a way that is helpful for them.

My old teachers and my Mom say that sounds like I should be a Montessori teacher, and that if I get certified as one I’ll be even more desirable to public schools. So I’ll probably get certified along the line as well. Montessori teaching really does help young children, and while when I was introduced to it I feel like I was too old and in the wrong place to utilize the system, I hope I can implement it in such a way that can help older students.

I also want to be able to teach Spanish. Of course, I think languages are cool and being able to communicate with millions of more people is going to be a valuable skill, but I have other reasons. (The reason’s example I’m about to talk about really boosted this reason in my mind, but I kind of wanted to do it anyway)

About a year and a half ago, I was encouraged to help an ESL girl with her algebra homework, so she could improve in it and I could practice my Spanish. (My ability was even worse than now). All in all, I don’t think I was able to help her - my lack of vocabulary probably hindered the whole process and I don’t think I was able to get her to understand the true idea of x being a variable. Eventually, I lost her number when I got a new phone, and she never texted me, and I didn’t make a big effort in trying to get in contact with her. I was frustrated and she didn’t seem interested because I was frustrating her too.

But it made me think, again, of how kids can get left behind. I knew her math teacher was desperate to accommodate her, and really wanted to help, but he didn’t know any Spanish and she knew very little English. And we all know how easy it is to let our minds drift, even with visual explanations, when you don’t understand what the hell someone is saying. I do it all the time, and it’s not just because I can’t focus on someone speaking a lot of the time. (I’m pretty sure I have auditory processing issues but I’m undiagnosed but my uncle also has some so I’m pretty sure. My mom likes to point out that we both do a version of huh? What? Before answering a question)

So again, I want to help kids who were left behind in school. Almost certainly, that girl is going to passed along into harder and harder classes and then pushed out all together when she’s old enough. I hope that she’ll be able to get actually good math help between now and then, but if I, an English speaker with tons of resources at my feet, am unable to work through my own frustration to actually admit to myself I really do need help, I’m not sure how comfortable she’ll feel with reaching out.

Which is what I want to provide in my classroom. Maybe I’m planning to do too much, but ultimately, I’m going to try my best and see how it goes. Of course, that means I gotta survive college first!

Thanks for the long read!

[onestowatch]

How Los Retros Turned ‘70s Jazz Into Your New DIY Indie Obsession [Q&A]

Photo: Ross Harris

Los Retros is proof that the only thing you need to make a great record in the modern age is a living room, some instruments, and a fire under your ass. Mauri Tapia, the mastermind behind Los Retros, writes and records all of his music from his parents’ home in Oxnard, California (a city that has also served as an incubator for artists like Madlib and Anderson .Paak.) Despite the barebones setup, Tapia manages to create recordings that paint a vast expanse of sound and color.

For the last few years, Tapia has been touring with a recurring cast of individuals around Southern California, spreading the gospel of his music and recording yet more songs from Oxnard in between shows. With the release of Los Retros’ debut EP, Retrospect, on June 21 via Stones Throw Records, the public outside of the Golden State gets to experience Los Retros’ unique sound for the first time. 

It was Ones to Watch’s distinct pleasure to sit down with Mauri Tapia to talk DIY recording, sources of inspiration, and turning a ride to a show into a marriage.

OTW: When did you start writing music, and how did that evolve into Los Retros?

MT: Well, uh, I don’t actually write most of it down; I just kind of form it and do it, it’s all memorized. I didn’t have access to any recording software until I was about 15, and that’s when I started really recording audio for the first time. At first, I just tracked guitar, then eventually drums, and yeah it kind of developed from there.

OTW: Your music has a very distinct feel that blends American indie/pop with Latin elements. Who are some artists that influenced the development of your sound?

MT: My parents for a long time when I was a little kid would play a lot of Spanish rock bands, some of those were, like, Los Freddys, Los Terricolas, Los Ángeles Negros, and so on. I never really cared for the sound until I got older. You know, maturity. I think a lot of those songs were in my head, just thinking about them and remembering all those moments, and I was like, “Hey that sounds like something cool that I’d like to make.” So I took some of those songs as a sort of reference to what I started making. Some of the others, like two on the album are kind of influenced by this dude named Tonetta. The whole album is actually a twist on a lot of stuff I listen to – it is original, but definitely reflects what I was listening to at the time. I recorded the album two years ago, actually, and I just finally decided to release it.

OTW: You took the inspiration for your moniker from a Chilean band called Los Ángeles Negros that has been active since the 70s – can you dig into this connection a little deeper?

MT: Yeah. So our project actually used to be called what the album is called, Retrospect. That was the original name, but there was already a band with that name, and we didn’t want to get sued, you know? We thought, “Alright, let’s switch it up.” I wanted to keep Retro in there because that’s just something that, like, maintains with our whole reality. And I thought, I lot of those bands I grew up with have “Los” in their name, and in English the same for bands like The Strokes. Actually, somebody on my live channel mentioned the name Los Retros and I was like “You know what, that’s a pretty cool name,” so I just kept it and here we are.

OTW: With the DIY approach you take to recording your music, do you face any interesting challenges translating the pieces to a live show? How do you adapt your music for a live setting where you can’t play drums, guitar, and bass all at once?

MT: Well, like I mentioned I write – well, not write down but you know what I mean – come up with the tunes, you know, record them, mix them. When we perform I have several friends that play with me. My little brother plays with me now and my wife does too, actually. And my friend who’s been there since the beginning playing bass. I guess that’s what makes it Los Retros.

OTW: I want to congratulate you on your debut EP that just dropped last month, Retrospect. How did you choose the six songs that would be featured on the project? Did you take anything in particular into consideration when choosing the play order?

MT: Kinda. So me and Wolf, the founder of Stones Throw, we hang out every now and then and we would always change it up. We had a bunch of other songs that we thought about putting on the album but we just thought these ones were better. We never really talked much about the order, we sat down and picked it in maybe, I dunno, four or five minutes. We thought, well, let’s put “Last Day On Earth” at the end, because you know the “last day” implies the end. The first couple songs are all about my wife. But the truth is, I don’t think it really matters what order its in. We just kind of threw it together.

OTW: A lot of your songs involve complex chord structures, and I’m told that you play every instrument featured on each track. How did you go about learning all these instruments?

MT: I started playing guitar when I was eight. I eventually got my own guitar at 11, and really started getting better at it. My school had this after school program called Rock Band, and me and a friend would go there, and I just had access to so many more instruments there than I had at home. So I just played around with anything I could get my hands on. I picked up a bass and tried some bass lines, which is actually pretty similar to guitar. I eventually got on the drums around 8th grade. I didn’t get my own drum set ‘til about a year and a half ago, actually, but I’d always play whenever I was at school. Then three and a half years ago I got my first keyboard, some people on YouTube started sharing my music and all that. Around that time I started getting into a lot of old bands from the 70s, kinda started playing around with the chords they were using, and it all developed from there as I found my own sound.

OTW: What is your favorite story behind one of the tracks on Retrospect?

MT: Yeah, the song “Friends.” It’s about my wife. So long story short, I didn’t have a ride to show one day. I was kind of acquaintances with this girl, we had talked a little bit in the past, nothing too special. Then I invited her to one of my shows, and *laughs* I didn’t necessarily lie, but I said I didn’t really have a ride, since the car my drummer was taking was too packed with gear for me to fit. So she gave me a ride, and we ended up becoming friends for a pretty good while, you know, and there was definitely something there. So I wrote this song and figured I’d show it to her, and she’d have to do something about it, so… yeah, now we’re married.

Photo: Ross Harris

OTW: You’ve developed a devoted following in your native Southern California and have played shows all around the region. As your career continues to develop, where are some areas that you want to tour? Do you have any bucket list venues?

MT: Hmm, I don’t know, I haven’t really though about it. I just wanna go play places where people will watch me. If I had my choice I guess I’d like to play in Japan, I’ve always been interested in Japanese 70s funk stuff. Honestly, New York sounds cool, too. I’ve only left California once when I was about two years old. I went to Mexico. But now the laws are a little different regarding specific people and my parents can’t go back, and for me I’d rather visit with my parents than go by myself. I don’t really have any bucket list venues. Maybe some cool back yards – I like intimate shows, haha.

OTW: Assume next year you could support any artist on an international arena tour – who would you want to support and why?

MT: Well, if he could even still play, I’d say this dude Alain Mion. He was a composer for this soul-jazz band called Cortex from the 70s. He’s probably almost 80 though. Roy Ayers too, but I know he was just hospitalized, so that would be tough. Really any of those old funk guys, because that’s the sort of music I wanna be making. It’s a long shot but maybe George Clinton, though I know he’s retiring pretty soon.

OTW: Clearly you have the chops to do great things on your own – but if you had the opportunity to collaborate with any active artist, writer, or producer on a project, who would it be and what sort of project would you undertake?

MT: Well actually, I’m collaborating with one of the best right now, Steve Arrington. I wish I could give you more details on that project right now, but I can’t.

OTW: Who are your Ones to Watch?

MT: Huh, I don’t know, I listen to a lot of old music, haha. He’s not new, but I think people should know about Alan Hawkshaw. Brian Bennett, too. Oh, and Bill Evans. There you go.

[dontcallmecarrie]

Yes, pls! @Mexican!Maria and Tony. I love your fic ideas and would love to hear more about this particular one if you ever feel up to talking about it.

It’s not very obvious, per se, is the thing.

I mean, I’ll do the fic idea post when I have the time, but to clarify my approach to this sort of thing: I try to take one point of divergence and ride it out to the most logical [and/or entertaining] conclusion I can come up with. Elements of my own experiences also tend to show up in my writing, too. LTTR’s relationship breakdown between Maria and Howard was partially based off of stuff I’ve seen in real life [even if that was more of an accident than anything else], for instance, and in TWiFFON, Tony’s post-AoU breakdown was almost entirely based off of my dealing with migraines [fun].

However, for the most part, it’s small fries, background stuff, etc. 

The Mexican!Maria fic, on the other hand, is going to end up cribbing a lot more than that, for obvious reasons, and I’m pretty sure not every Mexican-American’s had the same experiences I’ve had, or family, so odds are it’ll come out wonky at times, especially when it comes to anything regarding culture. [Fun fact: LTTR!Maria’s not that different from what I’ve got in mind— culturally, at least, and ignoring the eldritch abominations. Plus blatant wish fulfillment.]

Tenatively naming this one All It Takes Is A Spark, but it has a lot of other stuff going on, too [as you can probably guess], so Tony’s background won’t come up as often as you might be expecting. 

That being said, there’s quite a few headcanons I have ready, so if you don’t mind spoilers for the fic idea, or not seeing it in said fic idea because it might not come up, then here goes:

Tony’s mother tongue isn’t English. It’s Spanish. Mexican Spanish, to be exact, and part of him’s not sure if he’s insulted or not whenever people look at him in surprise whenever he speaks it because he’s not shy about his heritage. 

Wait, no, definitely insulted. Because they assumed that because he didn’t fit into their stereotypes of what Mexicans looked like, that he wasn’t one? gtfo. 

Howard wasn’t surprised about the mother tongue thing, actually. A bit chagrined and annoyed because it served as a reminder of just how little presence he had in his son’s life, but not surprised. He did make sure to emphasize that his son had to learn English as soon as possible, though. 

On that note: Tony’s fiercely proud of his heritage, when it comes up. Nowadays, it’s an ‘everyone knows’ sort of thing, but before he had to be especially vocal about it because what is with people trying to erase it? He’s Mexican-American, he’ll repeat it until he’s blue in the face if he has to. 

Which he does, especially pre-internet. People love mentioning his latest patent, but he could count on one hand how many remembered to mention his being Mexican as well. 

Yes, it mattered, even if they didn’t get it. [Tony doesn’t have words for it, at first. It’s only later on he hears ‘representation matters’ and oh.]

Like, I cannot understate just how protective Tony is about it. He takes no shit whenever racism comes up. None.

And God help whoever makes any derogatory comments about Mexicans, because in every universe a pissed off Merchant of Death is someone to be feared, and this one’s no exception. 

RIP, Justin Hammer. 

aka you can guess part of why Tony has so much disdain for Hammer, in this AU: one of Tony’s earliest impressions of him was like in boarding school or something, and Hammer, having lived a very sheltered life with parents who ran in conservative circles, made the mistake of saying something within Tony’s earshot. [Thus the RIP: let’s just say Tony holds one hell of a grudge.]

Tony also knows a smattering of Nahuatl, too, growing up. Not much, not enough to have a conversation, or anything, just what his mom knew of it, but…it’s something. 

Years later, in a fit of spite borne of ignoring the Spanish teachers’ comments about his accent whenever it comes up, he makes a computer language with that as its base. With a matching keyboard, even if he had to do research for some of it because he couldn’t resist the idea of using Maya numerals when the thought came up. 

The looks on everyone’s faces was totally worth it. 

But for the most part, it doesn’t. have a very obvious effect on the storyline. 

Like, Tony still likes heavy metal. [That’s a universal constant.] 

It’s just that sometimes, late at night when he has the time, he sometimes puts on rancheras or baladas too, and remembers the stories his mom used to tell.

Tony’s still an atheist. 

It’s just that his mom wasn’t, and Tony got as far as confirmation to make her happy. He hasn’t set foot in a church in years, or touched a bible for even longer than that, but his patron saint is St. Jude Thaddeus [aka the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, there’s a reason Tony picked him], and he keeps the medallion his mom gave him in a safe place. 

And, twice a year, he’s especially quiet, and lights a candle in remembrance, and mutters a half-forgotten prayer to a God he doesn’t believe in. Out of habit, just like he’d learned from when his mom had done for his grandparents. 

Tony’s quietly proud of his having a strong tolerance for spicy food.

It doesn’t come up often, but there’s moments where he revels in it, like when he’s eating a whole habanero pepper and noticing that oops, that was caught on camera. […which may or may not have gone viral afterwards. Talk about a power move.]

Also, when the Avengers enter the picture, he and Bruce bond over curry, because it’s the only thing Clint won’t steal from the fridge and it’s not to Natasha’s or Thor’s taste. 

Tony doesn’t get sunburned. Sure, he does his best to put on sunscreen regardless, but whenever he’s caught off-guard he only needs to worry about weird tan lines rather having to bolt for aloe vera. 

…not sure what else to say, tbh. At least, not anything that wouldn’t be a major spoiler for the fic idea itself Again, not all of this might show up in the fic itself, these’re just what I’ve sketched out as going on behind the scenes.

[nomadsuggestions]

Tag Game

//I was tagged by the lovely @spideyboisuggestions, so I’m stealing their questions. Also, all mod answers are gonna be in italics

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better!

Nicknames: Stevie, Punk, Captain isn’t really a nickname but oh well, Steve, Big Guy //Lo, Loki, Lokan, Logna(pronounced like the end of balogna), Baby Bear(this is my father because he doesn’t understand what twinks are all my fave characters as a kid were bears(Funshine Bear, Winnie The Pooh, Big Bear In The Big Blue House, Baloo, Fozzie, etc.)

Gender: I think I’m a trans man but mod can’t keep my story straight(to be fair, I couldn’t keep it straight either ;) ) //Genderfluid, but my default is male so they/them and he/him pronouns work for me most days. They/them will always work though.

Zodiac: I’m a *looks up zodiac signs* cancer? I’m not sure I like that... But hey, Sam does tease me about being crabby *ba-dum-tsh* //Capricorn, but if I had born on time I’d be a Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp 

Height: 6′2″, nowadays //5′7″, I’m a tiny bitch

Time: Not sure what timezone we’re in at the moment but it looks like late morning? //4:20am ayeeee

Favorite bands/solo artists: I really love some of these newer bands, but Sam’s got me pretty hooked on Marvin Gaye. Nat plays a lot of stuff from Judas Priest, though, I gotta say I didn’t expect to love them as much as I do //AJR, A Great Big World, Bastille, Janelle Monáe, Home Free, Panic! At The Disco, and The 1975 for the most part

Song stuck in my head: Wanda was playing some remix of Bad At Love by Halsey on repeat earlier and now I’ve been humming it for hours //I keep bouncing between Boys by Charlie XCX and Recuerdame from Coco(the spanish version is better you can fight me on that)

Last movie I saw: I think it was Moonlight. Nat picked up a copy when we were in France last. We turned on the english subtitles for the others, and I’m not ashamed to say I cried more than once. //I think it was Doctor Strange with my buddies online, because they trapped me into it by reminding me about Chiwetel Ejiofor being fine as hell and Mads Mikkelson’s pretty geode eyes. I can’t stand Benedict Cumberbatch but I like Strange so it’s a love-hate relationship with that movie

Last show I watched: I think it was some random cartoon in Turkey, I couldn’t understand it but it was cute //Lmao it was Death Note because my weeb friend was offended I had never seen it. And now I’m attached to yet another dead fictional character lmao(I’m talking about L btw Light can choke)

Last thing I googled: I think it was “how to set up a video call” like two years ago //”finn wittrock” because I’m talking to a buddy about people who could play Gambit other than Taylor Kitsch and Channing Tatum

Other blogs: //just my main, @dmitri-logan

Do you get asks: Not so much since I turned anon off but I do get them and I love them! //I sometimes get asks on my main but not super often

Why I chose my username: Mostly because mod is a nerd and “likes my nomad run in the comics” or whatever that is supposed to me //I’m gonna stan Steve Rogers till my dying day, and I’m an AnCom(anarcho-communist) and Steve’s time as Nomad is basically his AnCom phase lmao)

Following: I just followed everyone on that Suggestion Blog masterpost because I apparently want to see the same post 10 million times over on my dash //Also a bunch of Check, Please!, Marvel, DC, and social justice blogs. Oh! And Kingsman

Average amount of sleep: Sleep? I don’t know about sleep, it’s summertime! Oh, Bucky called me. //Owner of the worst sleep schedule ever right here! I go between 16-30 hours without sleeping and then crash for 12-18 hours, and then repeat

Lucky number: 4, 18, and 10 //2, 22, and 4!

What I’m wearing: A t-shirt and my uniform pants //A longsleeve classic Marvel shirt, purple plaid pajama pants(say that 5 times fast), and teal slipper socks because even in my pjs I’m a confusing gay mess

Dream job: In another life, I probably would’ve been some kind of social worker? I’d say artist but I draw to relax, not to make money. //I’d love to be a cosmetologist or a baker, but neither of those are super sustainable careers. Maybe one day!

Dream trip: I’d like to take a trip back to the countrysides in France someday, but I’d also like to see Bucky enjoying the sun and ocean, maybe at a beach somewhere in Cote d’Ivoire of Morocco //Dream trip is prob a summer convention tour, if I ever had the money

Favorite food: My Ma’s beef stew, hands down. //This one chicken salad sandwich I had from a gelatto shop at Union Station when I went to DC in 8th grade. I almost cried when I looked them up a couple years later and found out they had to close down because they couldn’t afford the increased rent

Play an instrument: I tried to learn how to play the piano when I was a kid, but never had the hand-eye coordination or the ear for it. I’d like to try and learn again //I can somewhat play the piano and I was taught how to play keyboard percussion instruments in middle school band

Nationality: I’m American, but my parents were both first generation immigrants from Ireland //Sadly, I’m also American.

Favorite songs: There’s this one song my Ma used to sing a lot, and Bing Crosby did a version of it before I went under that I really loved. Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral //The Show Must Go On by Queen is a big fave of mine and is guaranteed to make me cry. Also I unironically love Ashes by Celine Dion okay fight me it’s an amazing song.

Tagging: @lokisuggestion @thor-suggestion @newrocketsuggestions @trans-peter-quill @whitewolfsuggestion @skinnystevesuggestion @steverogersuggestions @othercaptainamericasuggestion @ladylokisuggestions @jotun-loki-suggestions @gwenstacysuggestion @lady-sif-suggestions @lokisuggestionz @shurisuggestions @agentcartersuggestion @magneto-suggestion @kidlokisuggestions @kamala-khan-suggestions @godofstoriessuggestion @billykaplanwiccansuggestion

[sergeantsporks]

Ohoho, thanks very much! Okay, kiddos, let’s play a fun game called “how little of a social life does sporks have!”

How many works on Ao3 do you have?

Gonna take my old Ao3 with all of my vld fics out of the equation, on the one I’m using as of now, I have 37 fics

What’s your total Ao3 word count?

Alright, let’s get out the calculator.

269,038

...

...

Christ. I want you guys to shove this number in my face if I ever mope about how many words writing a novel is

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Voltron, Tales of Arcadia, The Owl House, my main ones. I dabbled (very badly) in Fullmetal Alchemist, Avatar the Last Airbender, and Avengers at some point, which takes us to 6 fandoms

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Do You Want the Knife You Left in My Back, or Can I Keep It?

Another Shot at Life

Whatever It Takes

How Long Has It Been

Adoption Papers

Sorry, Tales of Arcadia fandom, the owl house fandom has you beat in sheer numbers, I’m afraid.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I... try. I feel pretentious saying “you’re welcome” when someone says “thanks for writing this” and saying “thanks” feels impersonal when someone keyboard smashed for me (because not responding is so much more personal, I know). I DO respond if a question is asked, or if something funny is said because that’s easy. Short answer: I’m too awkward to respond like a normal person

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Nowhere Else to Go, for sure, killed off a literal child and then didn’t even give his grieving mother figure proper closure, just left her with her grief, have fun with that.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Christmas Spirit, for sure, that fic was nothing but fluff

Do you write crossovers? If yes, what’s the craziest thing you’ve written?

Not in general, no, but I DID do a voltron and avatar crossover, never finished it, though.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nah, not that I remember anyway.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

AbsoLUTELY not. Blech. (not to hate on anyone who does, you do you, I just do not like.)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, nope. I think I’d be flattered more than anything else.

I’d still murder anyone who tried, though.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Nope. I don’t really play well with others, not that I’m totally unwilling, but no one’s ever asked, and it’s not something I’ve ever really sought out. I’ve helped people edit/beta read before, though

What’s your favorite all time ship?

*leans into mic* none of them

Uhhhhhhh I’m not a big shipper, so, kinda hard to say.

I was pretty big into Zutara for a while I guess.

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

*grumbles*

Shattered. Freaking. Timelines. Good Lord. Could someone invent a thought-to-word machine?

What’s your writing strength?

a n g s t

I also think I’m pretty darn good at dialogue :)

What’s your writing weakness?

Setting. Who CARES what the trees look like, they’re in a forest, done. I need to work on it.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

I think it can work. I know I’ve done it for Voltron with Lance, and I’ve done it for Camila and Luz in Owl House fics. It can flow well, I don’t do a lot of it, mostly because I don’t SPEAK many other languages. I do know just a BIT of Spanish bc I hear it a lot, and that’s what I usually use. I think your readers should be able to follow the story whether they speak multiple languages or not, but also, different languages can spice things up!

What’s the first fandom you’ve written for?

Voltron

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Hrgh. For this particular ao3? Probably Can’t Make Me, but probably my favorite of all time was Blood and Genetics, a Voltron fic that I think was probably one of the best things I ever wrote.

No pressure, @honeyxmonkey​ @prismarts​ @gatelightingirlboss​ and anyone else

20 Questions: Writer’s Edition

I wasn’t really tagged for this, but I was tagged in this by @gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights and I thought it looked fun!

I’m sorry nothing is linked on here, I’m doing this on mobile and Struggling ™. My AO3 name is SunYiJie if you want to check me out!

How many works do you have on AO3?

20! And honestly even that number is a surprise. I feel like I never write ;;

What’s your total AO3 word count?

50,118 (25,000 of those comes from a fic where I only wrote a couple chapters)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

9 ish? Detective Conan/Magic Kaito, Young Justice, Sanders Sides, Miraculous Ladybug, Megamind, Luca, Kingdom Hearts, How to Train Your Dragon, Danny Phantom, and a couple miscellaneous fics based off Bullet in the Brain and other short stories.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Stuffed Pigs aren’t Good Therapy

Crying Akuma in Times of Crisis

The Element of Surprise

Encounters

Unexpected Phone Call

(The first three are MLB which is very active, and the second two are Detective Conan which very not)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Absolutely, though sometimes it takes me a bit. Someone wrote two beautiful comments on my Luca fics and i haven’t been able to respond to them yet bc they’re so unbelievably nice. Also whenever I get responses to my comments on other fics I get this huge rush so I try to give that to other people too.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Probably Lights Go Out, considering everything, but I have several fics basically written to ponder on/result in death so (How to be an Inanimate Object, Cake in the Road, You Had a Feeling It Would End Today, From Below) all make that list too.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Maybe The Men at the Table? Or Villian Capri-tiaSUN? Encounters? I don’t tend to really write many multi-chartered fics, and most of mine aren’t really happy, but these make me some of the happiest to read?

Send me away? Is Hurt/Comfort so it probably fits both of those categories

Do you write crossovers? If yes, what’s the craziest thing you’ve written?

Yes! Though most of mine never make it out of my WIP idea docs. Villian Capri-tiaSUN is a Megamind/Kingdom Hearts fic and I love it.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not unless you count the, ‘are you ever gonna finish this?’ comments. Which are, rough

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Don’t think so

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yep, several. Phandom Phight Club 2020 and Villain Capri-tiaSUN were with @taliaxlatia .We have another crack fic crossover planned but idk when that will happen

Stuffed Pigs aren’t Good Therapy was with @tharkflark1 and we sometimes come up with other head canons and fic ideas together too

I’m actually working with @summershantees on a Sanders Sides fic right now, though I’ve had to take a break from it for school-related reasons. I’m excited for it!

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Do Not ask me this. Let’s just go with it’s a lot and leave it there. I’ve been getting really into The Untamed rn so maybe Wei Wuxian/Lan WangJi atm

What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Ugh so many. Right now? Probably Stabbed Through the Heart (or Side as the Case May Be)

Love the concept I’m just lacking in motivation

Check out the ‘my unwritten aus’ tag for some of my other WIP concept ideas

What’s your writing strengths?

Ideas ideas ideas. Believe me I am never lacking in new ideas and headcanons to write about. It’s a problem

What’s your writing weaknesses?

Finishing my WIPs. Or fleshing them out. I write and plan out so much but I have a hard time just sitting down and writing them out in story form

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

Not a huge fan? I get it if it’s a meaning-laden nickname (like ‘aibou’) but it can be distracting, and if the reader happens to understand the language you write in, they get like, secret information and I feel bad leaving people out.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Young Justice, I actually started my first fanfiction in a magazine publishing/creative writing class back in like 9th? grade

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I think either The Men at the Table or Lights go out, which are Sanders Sides and Miraculous Ladybug, respectively,

Tagging (if you want to!):

I’ve already tagged a couple people above, but how about @starr-fall-knight-rise and @dragonfairy1231 too! And anyone else who wants to!

Also boosting my AO3/trope and fanfiction-related blog @recs-and-tropes , come say hi!

[wild-azure]

11 Questions

I got tagged by @not-actually-ur-sassygayfriend so here it goes!

Rules:

Copy the rules.

Answer the questions given to you

Create 11 more for the next person to answer; tag 11 people

Questions asked of me:

1. What other languages do you wish you knew? What other countries do you wish you could visit or live in?

That’s two questions Warren  ;P But anyway: I wish my Spanish was better, and I wish I knew Italian (because I love the sound of it) and sign language (it’d be practical). I’d like to live in Jamaica for a time and learn about my heritage more, and I’d like to visit England, Spain, and Italy. And Canada! I really want to visit Canada someday! ;P

2. What sport/art do you do for therapy?

I pace sometimes when I’m anxious, and I often put my emotions into my writing. It’s probably why I’m so inconsistent with my writing habits, because I have to wait for the right mood to be upon me sometimes ^^’

3. I’ve been asking this around a lot. What kind of hands do you have? Answer with a short story about a scar, callus, etc.

I like to think I have writer’s hands. They’re quick and nimble on a keyboard. I’m the fastest typer in my family, and if given the right pen or pencil, I take a lot of delight in writing (on a side note, my favorite pen currently is the Precise V5 rolling ball extra fine ink pen, which you can get at Target for like $5 for a pack of 3. They don’t look like much, but they’re beautiful to write with!). As for scars, I have a large scar on my right wrist that’s shaped sort of like a backwards letter “L” written in a bubble font. I’m actually really fond of the scar, and there is a small story behind it. I got it after school on the second-to-last day of fifth grade. A bunch of girls from my girl scout troop were racing in front of the school. I thought I’d be fastest if I ran on the grass. I ended up tripping in a pothole that was hidden under the grass and ended up falling onto the pavement. I scraped that wrist pretty bad, but I thought nothing of it. The scrape though became infected (or nearly infected? It wasn’t healing well and the surrounding skin was all white and puss-y, and the doctor did stress the possibility of infection. All I remember was worrying that my hand was going to be amputated). It eventually healed, but we had to clean it daily including pouring rubbing alcohol over it every night and letting it dry out unbandaged. I hated that part >.<

4. When you get involved with a story, what’s the most important thing to you? (Story? Character development? Setting? etc...)

I’d say description and detail. That can apply to all of those aspects, but I love stories that are so vivid with description that they just leap off the page at you. I like to immerse myself in the story, so the more descriptive and detailed, the better!

5. Boom. You have powers. Are they magic or science? What kind and why?

I was literally just thinking about this 2 days ago! Ok, so I would have the power to make myself look any way I want. My main thought for this is that I can make myself look tough and intimidating if I’m in a situation that would normally make me, a tiny, unimposing girl, feel unsafe and insecure, but let’s face it: I’m pretty much going to use this power to give myself a big, fluffy tail when I’m in the comfort of my own home!

6. Into the Beautiful Grim. It’s a painting by Mike Lim, a.k.a. Daarken. I get a lot of judgy looks when I say it’s one of my favorites before I explain the backstory behind the piece. Short version, it was the centerpiece of an auction to raise money for his wife’s cancer treatment. The woman in the frame is (supposedly?) his wife, and the blue wisps (butterflies? flowers?) are the unknown hopes in the future. Do you have a piece of work that you love and adore but have to explain the backstory to people when you show them?

I can’t really say so, no. :/

7. Look in the mirror or take a selfie. What’s your favorite thing about yourself in this image?

I’ve really started to love my natural hairstyle and my eyebrows within the last couple years. See, my family taught me to hate my hair and my brows because they think my hair is wild and under groomed (it’s not; it’s just really prone to being mussed by the wind, but it has lovely curls and volume) and my eyebrows are too thick (my family is notorious for really thick eyebrows, but they prefer thin eyebrows; I think they’re bold and eye-catching and just need a bit of cleaning around the edges to make them pop more). I’ve just really started to value my own natural features more, and everything I love about myself is something that my family hates.

8. As some people know, I get lost staring in people’s eyes. What color are your eyes, and what kind of story do they tell?

You know what color my eyes are! ;P But for the sake of people who don’t: they’re dark brown, and I like to imagine they tell a story of strength and self-reliance tempered through pain and fear.

9. Do you have a favorite quote? What is it? Does it remind you of a person or place? And would you consider getting a tattoo of it?

“If you are a dreamer come in If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer If youre a pretender com sit by my fire For we have some flax golden tales to spin Come in! Come in!” - Shel Silverstein

This quote is my favorite. It inspires me and makes me think of imagination and creativity, particularly when it comes to writing. For all that, I don’t think I would ever get a tattoo of it. I’m very reluctant to consider tattooing myself, though I find tattoos to be beautiful and admire them on others.

10. Go tell somebody who’s made a difference in your life that you love them. Post their response.

He’s my boyfriend, so of course he said he loves me back ;P

11. This might be feeding my ego, and you can just send an answer to me in an ask instead. What’s your favorite interaction with me or with somebody else here on this website?

I really loved all the times we went out together back in senior year. You helped me keep going at some of my lowest times.

My Questions for Others:

1. They say there’s two sides to every story, so what’s your side of the story of how we met?

2. What’s the most useful life hack that you’ve ever come across?

3. If you could make one fictional character real, who would you choose and why?

4. What song are you currently or most recently obsessed with? Bonus: what song makes you think of your OTP?

5. What is your favorite kind of weather? Why?

6. Brag a little! What’s an achievement you’re proud of?

7. What do you think is your best quality? What’s one quality you wish you could improve?

8. What’s the kindest thing someone’s ever done for you?

9. Think about the best fictional villain you’ve ever seen. What made them the best at being a villain?

10. Pick one of the questions I answered above to answer yourself!

11. Pick one of the questions I asked to ask me!

I tag:

@blackwaterbbq, @arianwen44, @blissfullyintoxicated, @not-actually-ur-sassygayfriend (yes I know you tagged me to begin with, so you don’t have to come up with more questions or tag anyone else ;P), and anyone else who would like to answer my questions!

[ttstranscripts]

Transcript of The Talk Show Episode 146

Title: “They Might Be Giants” with a Spanish Accent

Host: John Gruber

Special guests: Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi

Release date: 12 February 2016

Description: Very special guests Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi join the show. Topics include: the new features in Apple’s upcoming OS releases (iOS 9.3 and tvOS 9.2); why Apple is expanding its public beta program for OS releases; iTunes’s monolithic design; how personally involved Eddy and Craig are in using, testing, and installing beta software; the sad decline of Duke’s men’s basketball team; and more.

Some scoops too, including: the weekly number of iTunes and App Store transactions, an updated Apple Music subscriber count, peak iMessage traffic per second, and the number of iCloud account holders.

John Gruber: Ladies and gentlemen, your pal John Gruber here. This is a very special episode of The Talk Show. It is a different episode of The Talk Show as you’re about to find out, and so it is a different kind of sponsorship setup. I’m just going to tell you right here, this episode is exclusively brought to you by Meh.com.

[sponsor break: Meh.com]

And without any other further ado, ladies and gentlemen, The Talk Show.

This is going to be fun, we’ve got Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. Eddy, welcome to The Talk Show.

Eddy Cue: How are you doing?

Gruber: And returning to The Talk Show, which must mean I didn’t botch it up too badly, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering.

Craig Federighi: It’s a rare honor to be here, John.

Gruber: Here’s my question, this is the tough one. I want to know, now, Eddy, you’re a big sports fan. Has Steve Dowling sent you to, like, photography school for taking pictures after sporting events now, post-Super Bowl?

Cue: You know, I love that because you may know, Tim and I went to the Super Bowl together, and he’s a huge Broncos fan. So when they won the game, we were all excited, high-fiving each other, we went onto the field, he’s taking the photos. He’s so excited, he wanted to congratulate them and sent the picture out, and the next morning I wake up and I get to see all of those messages and tweets and everything else. And I thought it was great because it shows, you know, Tim is just like you and me, he’s a huge sports fan and was loving it, he loved that his team actually won the Super Bowl.

Gruber: That’s exactly what I thought. I thought it was like, Tim is a human being, and that’s a real sports fan’s photo. I thought it was goofy — the reaction that people had, to me it was just a happy moment. All right.

Cue: I’m hoping to have a few more for you this year, maybe another repeat for the Warriors, repeat Duke national championship, you know.

Gruber: I don’t know about the Duke one. I wasn’t going to mention Duke, Eddy!

Cue: [laughs] We’ve been wanting to talk to you for like three weeks, but I told Dowling there’s no way I’m going to talk to John right now because we’ve been losing games straight. So I’ve waited till we’ve won the last two games in a row, we’re hot, and I’m like, let’s get on the call now.

Gruber: My last sports-related suggestion to you is, just in case the Warriors keep it up, and just in case maybe WWDC sticks to the typical schedule, maybe you want to rehearse more and if you have extra tickets for a Warriors finals game, I know a guy who maybe could take them off your hands, just saying.

Cue: You’re on.

Gruber: Let’s get down to brass tacks here. One of the reasons that this is even happening is that Apple is talking about and telling its users a lot more about what is coming down the pipeline in software. And the best example of that is that there’s a big, it’s not even like a developer page, it’s a big product marketing page on what’s coming in iOS 9.3.

Federighi: Yeah. We have real feature-release here with 9.3. So we certainly wanted to talk about it, and we also wanted to get it out in public seeds. So many of you are running it, certainly all of us here are, and there’s a lot of really cool stuff we were able to do, and we didn’t want to wait all the way till WWDC to get it out.

Gruber: So I’m not imagining things that this is at least a subtle change away from keeping features as a sort of — new features that you want to promote in the OS as a monolithic, once a year at WWDC we’ll announce them, and once a year, a couple months later in the fall, we will release them, sort of schedule?

Federighi: Yeah, you know, a huge part of what we do with iOS over year is we’re really advancing the platform for developers. And you really can’t trickle out a big change for developers at the platform level continuously throughout the year. So that’s something what makes a ton of sense for us to advance it all at once, have a conference, get everyone early access to the SDK’s that they’re going to use, give them a chance to get their apps ready and take advantage of all the new capabilities and then get it out with the major OS.

But there are things that we can do that don’t have that characteristic, and if you look at the kind of features coming in 9.3 with our support for education, shared-use iPads in the classroom app, or the Night Shift feature, or some of the improvements we made to Photos or even Smart Keyboard handling on the iPad Pro. These are the things that we wanted to get out right away to everyone because we think everyone can enjoy them, and they aren’t the kind of things that really impact moving the platform forward for developers.

Gruber: Right, it’s not really developer changes, but there are definitely major features. One of my favorites is, for the Smart Keyboard, that when you’d go to Spotlight search, you can arrow-key down to the search results.

Federighi: Yeah, I know, you did helpfully note for us shortly after we shipped the iPad Pro that we missed one there. We missed more than one, let me say. And so we’ve been responding to all kind of great feedback we’ve gotten on the iPad Pro. We’re all excited about the device and so excited that people have really embraced it. But as we all use it more deeply, we’re all seeing things where we can improve a bunch of things including the keyboard support. So we’ve taken this opportunity in 9.3 to make some of those enhancements.

Gruber: That is an interesting thing. So one of the things is you guys actually are — and I say not just you, Craig and Eddy, but everybody on the executive leadership team — in addition to having these jobs that are very specific in terms of your responsibilities, you’re also users of the products that Apple makes.

Federighi: Oh yeah. That’s why we’re here, for sure. I mean, no one was more enthusiastic to get access to the inside of Apple and software than myself and Eddy, and certainly I am installing — I think I probably installed something like five hundred versions, I mean, literally it’s five hundred to thousand versions of OS X and iOS myself, every year. I have four Macs and four iPads and two phones, and I upgrade them all to the newest build pretty much every day. I think I did the math wrong, I think it’s like a hundred thousand versions of OS X and iOS I install, every year.

Cue: John, I’ve been doing this for more than thirty years. The way I started with this was bringing my Mac into the office for my first job and so working on a Mac for me was like a dream-come-true. I live on our products every day, I use all of our products every day, they are part of my life. My kids, my family — it’s great, we share that experience and we give each other feedback. It’s what we do.

Gruber: But so, Eddy, when you get, like, a new MacBook Pro or whatever you’re going to use, but you set it up yourself?

Cue: Oh, absolutely. First of all, hopefully, everyone can set it up themselves because that’s how we built it for. It’s really easy, I set it up, I transfer my content from my old MacBook, I just did a new iMac as a matter of fact. I actually bought it myself, I went in on the online store, I wanted to see what the experience was. I ordered it, checked all the mail, I wanted to see the mail, the notifications that came to my phone. And then installed it all.

Federighi: No joke, Eddy — seriously, most meetings I’m in with Eddy — at some point in the meeting, he breaks out one of his devices and starts upgrading it, mid-meeting. And then we’re able to get on-the-fly feedback on the new software during the meeting so it’s very helpful.

Gruber: I know it sounds like a trivial question, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to ask people like you. Because I can see it both ways where I know you guys are technically adept and have the background to do it, but on the other hand, as the senior vice presidents of a semi-large corporation, you don’t have to. If you wanted to have somebody set up your stuff for you, you could do it. So it’s always been curious to me, whether you guys go through it because you want to get that, like, what’s it like to be a real user experience, or do you take advantage of the fact that you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

Federighi: Oh yeah, it’s not just that, we’re both involved every day in the development of the software that’s being put together, and so we all want to run the latest thing that we were just in [?] review talking about. We want to get that feature that we talked about last week and start living on it, so we can start giving the team feedback on what we’re seeing. So it’s an integral part of how we develop here is that we all live on the software. And at the same time, probably like yourself, we’re all the tech support teams for our families and our parents and our in-laws. All my kids are running the betas all the time, so we get live feedback, helpful feedback from the whole family, non-stop. We’re immersed in the Apple universe of feedback.

Cue: John, let me give you an example of something — because this happens all the time for me. I’m using our products. So this weekend I was using Apple TV, I’ve got the new Apple TV, and by the way, which we should talk about, there’s a lot of great new features coming out with this, this is a major release of Apple TV. But I’m doing a purchase of a movie, and I’ve got family plan, Apple Music, the whole thing with everybody. And the message that comes up on the screen says, “Somebody from your family has already purchased this. Would you like to buy it again?” Pretty dumb message. And so it’s an example of — I got on there, and I’m talking to my team, why are we doing it this way. And it’s just a history thing of before there was family plan, it would ask you that question because it was single-user. Once you have a family plan, it should just download, it shouldn’t even bother to ask you. And so, we live, both Craig and I, that’s part of what we love doing, and so it’s great to be able to have an impact and change these things because we’re using them ourselves.

Gruber: That’s a perfect example. One of the questions I wanted to ask you was what was the last bug that you encountered yourself and that’s a good one, and it’s an interesting explanation. Just to clarify, what you’re saying is, it’s saying that the person who’s now in your family plan, who made that purchase earlier, made the purchase before there was a thing called the family plan, and therefore it did not automatically download it.

Cue: No, it wasn’t. They did make the purchase and they were part of the family plan. Originally, when we were doing this, there wasn’t a thing as family plan and it was designed just to ask you if you wanted to purchase again. When we did this software for family plan, we didn’t take into account that, we just said, oh, somebody already purchased it, and instead of just downloading it, we didn’t do that. But I want to give you, since you’ve said, I want to tell you a little bit how crazy Craig and I are about this stuff. And you said, what’s the latest because it just reminded me of this. I was installing a new version of OS X on my iMac, and it’s an unreleased version, couple of days ago. And I ran into a problem that I knew would be very difficult to recreate and this was about 7:30 at night, I’d just gotten home doing the update, and I called Craig up and I said, “Here’s the problem that I’ve got.” I was leaving the next day to Yuma, Arizona. By the way, I want to give a shout out to the kids and teachers out in Yuma, Arizona, that are using iPads — but I called Craig up, told him about the problem, said, “Look, I’m leaving tomorrow, I want you guys to look at this because I think it’s kind of weird, I don’t think it’s going to be easy to recreate.” He says, “Sure.” So I took the iMac, put in my car, drove to Craig’s house, gave him the iMac, came back home, went on my trip. Craig and the engineers looked at it, figured it out, and the next day I got the iMac back.

Gruber: It was sort of like preserving a crime scene.

Federighi: [laughs]

Cue: That’s right, except we found out at the end that no crime was committed because we fixed it.

Gruber: Right, but if you have a bug or just an edge case that you’re worried you can’t reproduce, you really do just want to freeze the computer right where it is and let the engineers start debugging.

Federighi: Yeah, absolutely. And it was helpful that Eddy was on the case on that one.

Gruber: That’s a really great story though. I love that he just drops it off at your house.

Cue: It’s good to know people.

Gruber: It’s interesting, but that’s exactly the sort of question I had is how involved do you guys get when you run into one of these little — it’s inevitable, nobody has ever written bug-free software, it’s the nature of software, but what do you guys do when you guys encounter it. Drive over to Craig’s house is the answer, I like that.

So before we forget, let’s go back and talk about what’s coming up in Apple TV. So right now it’s a beta, it’s TV OS 9.2. And it really is a major feature, just of the top of my head, Siri dictation for text entry and searching for apps. That’s something people started complaining about as soon as the new Apple TV shipped. That’s a big one.

Cue: Yeah, it’s huge. Look, when you get your Apple TV the first time, the first thing you got to do is enter your Apple ID and your password, and you’ve got Siri built into this remote, why not just tell it and spell it out instead of having to go through the typing mechanism of doing it. And so we wanted to do that right from the beginning. And then searching on the App Store — we added searching across movies, TV shows, Netflix and Hulu, we’ve added a bunch of new content providers like FX, you can search Disney Channel, we continue to add more, but obviously the App Store is a huge one. And so we’ve done that, we’ve added some languages: Spanish, French to that. We’ve added iCloud Photo Library full support so you can see all of your photos. And also one of the things that you’ve noticed if you’ve downloaded a lot of apps from the App Store, having folders now. So just like you have on iOS, you can have folders.

Gruber: Right, so you could just group together all your little arcade games, put them in an Arcade folder.

Cue: That’s right.

Gruber: Can you tell me — I know this is from the list, and this is how lazy I am in preparing for a very important talk show — one of the features is Conference Room Display Mode. What is that?

Cue: We had this in the original Apple TV and part of this is, if you know, most conference rooms from Wi-Fi connectivities and to the networks, you have private networks that are set up for the corporation, but then somebody comes in to present, and you don’t really want to let them into your private network from the company. And so we had this capability, and we wanted to add that to the Apple TV so that it would be easy for people to come in and present.

Gruber: Gotcha.

Federighi: We can also lock the display so that instead of showing you the latest top movies at the beginning of every meeting, it can just tell you that you can AirPlay to it so — we all stay on top of all the top films here at Apple when we start every meeting. But now we have an alternative.

Cue: That’s true.

Gruber: So it’s really Siri-wide, and this affects every platform, but the expansion to include new languages, obviously that is really super important to, let’s just say, people who speak Spanish, it’s really like a make-or-break feature. How difficult is that to do each language, to keep adding languages to Siri and to keep the level of quality of Siri’s recognition?

Cue: We have over 35 languages in Siri. Apple TV presents an actually interesting problem compared to just Siri itself in that, a lot of the things that you search for are not in the native language you’re speaking. So you’re actually, let’s say, speaking in Spanish, but you’re searching for an English title. And so Siri has to be aware that it’s actually able to speak multiple languages and understand when it is that it’s asking for a title vs. when it is that you’re actually giving a verb or a noun to it from that. And so it’s an interesting, challenging problem, which is why we’ve been adding languages to Siri, to Apple TV — we’re not quite at 35 that Siri has, but we’ll keep adding on. And it’s supporting that multi-language aspect of Siri that makes it even more fun for us to try to resolve.

Federighi: Yeah, our machine-learning teams at Apple and within the Siri team have done some remarkable work, and I know you’ve noticed some of the improvements to Siri’s both performance and its ability to recognize, but the core technology has improved so much that it’s really helped us get high accuracy when we take on all of these new languages. And some of these challenges, like, now we have to know not just that you’re speaking Spanish, but while you’re speaking Spanish, you’re talking about There Might Be Giants, but you’re pronouncing those words with the Spanish accent, and Siri needs to recognize that. These are the kind of things that a few years ago were just out of reach and now we have the core technology to do it and I think the experience with Siri has just taken some giant leaps forward.

Cue: By the way, at a huge scale, these are billions of requests that are coming every week to Siri.

Gruber: Across all the platforms?

Cue: That’s right.

Gruber: So in addition to that, here’s another one that’s added to TV OS 9.2 is sort of the old-school way of text entry, Bluetooth keyboard support. And it’s a little thing but it’s one of those things where the old Apple TV supported it, including at setup. So that you could set up, like, if you had the Apple Magic Keyboard, you could connect to it. And then the new Apple TV came out, and it didn’t have it, and everybody was — some people maybe were a little annoyed that everything they had to do with the new Apple TV in November was up-down-left-right to enter everything. Is this just an issue of, hey, it was a new version of TV OS, all new, integrating it with iOS, we just didn’t get to it by November, or was this a rethink like, hey, a lot of people are asking us for Bluetooth keyboard support, let’s go back and put it back in.

Cue: That’s a great question. In that case it was really simple, we were doing the new OS, and it’s something we wanted to get to, we knew it wasn’t the majority of customers, and so we felt like we could add it later, and we always planned it. And yes, I did get a few emails and a few tweets about it.

Federighi: You know, what’s just hilarious about this though is, we have a very vocal community as you know, and when we were getting this feedback, even actually before making the decision not to include it in the first release that the team had done the analysis based on our diagnostics and usage data, about how many customers use Bluetooth keyboard with their Apple TV every week, and they charted it out over time, and it’s a small rate relative to how people are using the built-in remote and so forth. But we noticed that that rate of use of the Bluetooth keyboard dropped to almost nothing during WWDC. And what this told us was, pretty much everyone is using it as a developer who’s going to WWDC or an Apple employee. Now, that didn’t stop all of them from writing Eddy when it was missing but just to give you the sense of kind of what’s going on underneath all that.

Gruber: [laughs] That is hilarious. I was going to say that I think it’s a hard sell across your family. Whether there’s one person in the family who’s technically adept, who wants to put a Bluetooth keyboard in the living room. I think it’s a hard sell family-wide to keep a keyboard in the living room.

Cue: And we do have something even a little bit better coming out in a few months, which is we have a new remote app. So that if you have your iPhone, you can use the keyboard on the iPhone to do that, and I think that certainly will get a lot more use.

Federighi: And more than that, I mean really the full Siri to your phone communicating with your TV, that’s a great upgrade to that app.

Gruber: Well, there’s a remote app for the iPhone now that you can connect to Apple TV.

Cue: There is. As Craig said, it only does the keyboard. The new remote app will do all of the capabilities that the existing new Apple TV remote does, like Siri.

Federighi: And like gestures, for instance. Because you have — obviously, the trackpad function of the remote can be done with your phone now too without remote. So it’s a really full replacement.

Gruber: Ooh, so I have a scoop here.

Federighi: There you go. You heard it here first!

Cue: You can’t broadcast this for three months.

Federighi: [laughs] Yeah.

Gruber: I think that’s going to actually make a lot of people very happy though. Would that work with some of the games, too? So that if there’s a two-player game that somebody could use their phone and have it be the slider and somebody else can use the remote?

Cue: Yes, that’s exactly — you can use the Apple TV remote for one person and their phone for the second person.

Gruber: Oh, that sounds great. Let’s move on and talk about something that — it almost feels like a Groundhog Day, and since it’s February, it actually is close to Groundhog Day — is that last year there were a couple of posts that came up early in the year about Apple having little tiny sort of death by a thousand paper cuts software problems across the board, and there was a lot of discussion about it, and it sort of culminated, at least for me, when Phil Schiller was on this show, at the live show at WWDC and we talked about it. And I thought Phil talked about it really openly. And then it seemed to fade away from the punditry discussion, and then last week Walt Mossberg had a column, and the headline was “Apple’s App Problem”. What do you guys say to this, just the general, nothing specific, let’s not get into any specific app, but the general idea that Apple’s software has declined in quality, let’s say, over the last five years?

Federighi: I would say first that there’s nothing we care about more, so it’s not just me and Eddy filing lots of radars and using our devices, but everyone who works here at Apple, we recognize, this is the single most important thing about what we do and what we come to work to do every day. So I take extremely seriously any time any of our customers says that they aren’t having the experience that they expected from us. And clearly, Walt’s article indicates that he is at the moment in that camp. I look at it and say, I know our core software quality has improved over the last five years, improved significantly. But the bar just keeps going up, and that’s a bar that we embrace, that is a challenge that — every year we realize the things we were good at last year and the techniques we were using to build the best software we can are not adequate for next year because the bar keeps going up. We have a billion active devices now, and if you think back to just nine years ago now with the iPhone, think back then of how you interfaced with technology and, comparatively, how narrowly each of us interfaced with technology, and now think about how integral your iPhone, your iPad, and still your Mac are to your life, how many hours a day — I mean, we see the usage metrics and year after year as our team builds a new phone and thinks, how big of a battery we should put in this phone, we have to go back to them and say, “Guys, actually, you’re going to have to up that a good bit because people are using their phones more than ever this year.” And we see that trend go up and up and up and people are doing more and more. And what this means is when you have a billion people running phones in every corner of their lives with all of these third-party apps in all these countries in all these languages that there are going to be issues, there are always issues, but now these issues are — you got plenty of people that can encounter one here and there and it gets amplified. And maybe I could ask you, I feel like if you go back five or ten years in just the nature of internet journalism and the press and how stories like this get communicated and amplified, it’s changed things a little bit as well. And so I think that plays into the element of why are we hearing about this again or why do we hear about it in the way we do. But I know we put just tremendous focus on improving our game every year.

Gruber: There’s a certain aspect to the basic idea that to me is a little bit more of a — not just me, I’m saying what I detect when I see people nodding their heads in agreement on Twitter and follow a post to say that — like Mossberg’s column last week — that it’s more of a gut feeling than anything that anybody can put their finger on and say, “Here’s this one thing that’s absolutely terrible.” And I know, just from talking with Phil last year and with what you’re saying now, that you guys have a lot of ways that you measure this stuff with real analytics from the diagnostics that people explicitly opt in to provide to you when they’re setting up devices.

Federighi: That’s right.

Gruber: And I sense it — you guys, you two are both optimistic, cheerful people but I can’t help but — I suspect and it’s not coming from your voices here on this show, but I just suspect in general that there is a sort of frustration within the walls at Apple that you guys have these numbers that say software quality is going up and then on the outside everybody is saying, “Wow, Apple software, their eye is off the ball.” Is that frustrating?

Cue: No, look, I think you said a few words that I would disagree with, you said “everybody”. I think the vast majority of our customers are quite happy with our products, and the feedback that they get, and they ask for help, and that’s why we’ve built things like Genius Bars, which have been very popular, why we’ve spent a great deal of money and effort on our Apple Care and support lines so when people need help — training, all of those things. So it’s not to say that we don’t have any bugs or that we don’t have any issues. Every piece of software does. We care deeply about it, which is why we do all of these different touchpoints, monitor them, look at them, make sure we’re addressing them. And at the same time as doing that, upping the game even more. Because part of upping the game is not just standing still and making the things that you have work, but making them even better, making them easier to use. Those are all the things we have to do at the same time.

Federighi: Apple customers deserve the best, and that’s absolutely what we’re signed up for. So if and when we hear people are having challenges, well, on the one hand, we’re frustrated, of course, to hear it overall characterized as this “quality is dropping overall” because we know that’s not true. But at the same time, there is certainly reality, if people are having these experiences, then there’s something we can improve, and I can tell you the number of meetings we have and have had even over the last few weeks where we’re constantly talking about how do we up the game because when you talk about a billion customers and you talk about the kind of upgrade rates we have. I mean, I think back to when we shipped Snow Leopard and how many people installed 10.6.0? Effectively no one. Approximately no one. In fact, we used to talk about, well, the upgrade rate to this OS will about match the sales of new Macs that have it installed. People just didn’t upgrade. And if they did upgrade, it’s like, why don’t we wait for 10.6.5 or something. Now, we release a piece of software and in a matter of couple of weeks we have, you know, coming up on 50% of our base running that piece of software. Hundreds of millions of people suddenly pounding on it, running a diversity of apps that just is unprecedented, and using it in these incredibly connected ways. And so, yeah, the bar is higher, and we will continue to adapt every year to meet that challenge.

Cue: And the scale, John, for this is truly amazing because of the usage that people, I mean, they rely on these for their lives. I’ll give you a couple points that — we peak out at 200,000 messages a second that are sent on Messages, for example. We do 750,000,000 transactions every week in our App Store, iTunes Store. We’ve done billions of dollars — now you’re talking about dollars for payments in Apple Pay. This is like, it’s a part of everyone’s lives and it’s great, we love this, this is the reason why we do what we do and we get up in the morning, we’re excited about coming in because we can do more. So, the scale of this is huge, huge.

Gruber: What was the number for messages? 200k for second at the peak?

Cue: That’s right.

Federighi: People got a lot to say apparently.

Gruber: Yeah, that was probably right at the moment in the first quarter of the Super Bowl when they overturned that catch, right?

Cue: [laughs] Yeah, for some reason it was really high from North Carolina, I don’t know what was the —

Gruber: But that is extraordinary. Eddy, that gets to a specific point, and this is clearly a ball that’s in your court, is that the general meme that Apple doesn’t do online services well, and that’s your responsibility. What do you say to that?

Cue: I think you go back to the things that we do really well. Some of that we earned, to be clear, right? Part of the reason we did that, many years ago, with Mobile Me or Maps, but we’ve corrected those, and you look at iCloud, we have 782,000,000 iCloud users. Some have multiple devices, which is why we have a billion devices. They upload billions of photos every single week, every single day. And you look at the scale of messages, you look at Apple Pay, you look at our stores, we run some of the largest services in the world, very successfully. You take a look at Maps, we’ve corrected more than a 2,500,000 customer feedback that we’ve gotten from customers directly to Maps that we’ve corrected and notified them back that we’ve fixed them. So the scale of this is huge, and I would compare it to any company out there.

Federighi: And the ramp is unbelievable. Consider when we launch a new release of iOS and OS X and the corresponding cloud services, how we go from effectively zero to unbelievable international scale literally overnight. It’s incredible, and the team has done that at a scale that is — I can’t think of another example of what happens when we turn the lights on on a new service like we do. And it generally goes off without a hitch.

Cue: The other thing I love is, we’re not harping our services as the brand of services and the thing, it’s the experience. So whether you’re typing in a note on your iPhone and it’s on your Mac, we’re not advertising this as Notes services or anything, we just want the experience to be — so a lot of these things are behind the things and they just work and it’s great for customers.

Gruber: Yeah, even iMessage is a good example of that. And I personally have — I don’t even know, I’m a big chunk of that 200,000 messages per second, I send a lot of messages and almost all of my messages are blue.

Federighi: [laughs]

Cue: You have good friends.

Federighi: Yes.

Cue: And smart ones.

Gruber: But if you just look at how many people are using iMessage and how many messages they’re sending, it compares very, very favorably to a lot of the independent messaging apps and services out there like WhatsApp and WeChat and things like that. And I feel like that’s one of those things that Apple doesn’t really get credit for is that they’ve got this messaging service with extraordinary number of users who are extraordinarily engaged with it, and it’s not really figured into what Apple does at all because you guys don’t really brand it that way, you’re just like, hey, just use this app and send your message to the person you know and it goes through.

Federighi: Yeah, I think that’s what’s great really about what we do, is we tie together the hardware, the software, and the services in a way that you aren’t thinking you’ve just used a cloud service necessarily when you bought your new iPhone and all your settings came back exactly the way you expected and so forth, or when we do a feature like Apple Pay, I mean, Apple Pay is a hardware feature, it’s a software feature, it’s a cloud feature, and it just works. And it’s a tremendous, complex undertaking, but the customer doesn’t have to think about any of those component pieces, they get an experience that hopefully delights them.

Gruber: I’ll give you a real quick anecdote — hopefully quick — I was on an airplane recently, and the plane took off and I got on the Wi-Fi, and online service from a different company — wasn’t an Apple thing, it was somebody else — gave me a warning that I couldn’t — it looked like I was signing in from an unusual location because it was — I don’t know where the plane Wi-Fi was saying it from — how do I want to verify that it’s really me? And the only options were to get a phone call or an SMS text message, which I can’t get because I’m 10,000 feet up in the air. And I showed it to the guy — my friend for the day sitting next to me on the plane who we’d spoken before the flight took off, and he was like, “Oh yeah, you can get text, I’m texting my wife right now.” And he was sending an iMessage. And I was just like, “Oh yeah, okay, I’ll do that”, because I didn’t want to explain. He thought he was solving my problem because he was just, “Oh, oh, it’s great, this is absolutely wonderful, I’m texting right now.” He didn’t really have to think about what he’s using to text, he’s just doing it.

Federighi: Yeah, I think it’s a fantastic example.

Gruber: So let’s shift from services to talk about a specific bit of software, which isn’t really about how it works but really sort of how it’s designed. And it’s iTunes on the desktop. And here is when I wanted to quote Walt. Here’s what Walt Mossberg wrote, “Apple’s iTunes program was once the envy of the world. A combined digital music store and player, it could also sync your iPod. And it worked on both Mac and Windows. It was reasonably fast and very sure-footed. Now, I dread opening the thing.” And that sort of damning and the thing that to me is more damning is that I don’t — I see a lot of people who agree with that, and I don’t see anybody who really disagrees with it.

Cue: Yeah, look, let’s go back to Walt’s thing specifically to address — which is his performance issues and that we’ve actually looked at, it had nothing to do with iTunes, but your question is still dead-on because it’s something we started about two years ago, thinking about what we wanted to do with iTunes. And let me walk you back with where it’s designed from and where I think it can go to. So, first of all, we designed it in a time when everybody was syncing directly via cable. So the things didn’t exist in the cloud, and having a centralized place where all of your content was there to sync was really key because it made it really easy to do, didn’t matter where the content was, you didn’t have to launch multiple apps, you didn’t have a separate app that made it really difficult to see, and so it worked really, really well. And by the way, given that we have a billion devices out there, there’s still hundreds of millions of people doing exactly that. When we went to Apple Music, we said, “Well, let’s see, we’re building a new service, why don’t we do it all in the cloud, Apple Music is all in the cloud, let’s do it that way.” And one of the things that we wanted to do that was different was, we didn’t want just the music that lived in the cloud, if you had music, whether it was a live performance by Bruce Springsteen, for example, which I just bought because I haven’t seen the new show and I’m a huge Bruce fan, how do I get that to the cloud? Well, in most of the services that are out there, there is no way to do that. Because it lives in iTunes, it lets you do that, and it’s very easy to upload that into the cloud, and then it exists on all of your devices. And so we decided that in the short term what we wanted to do is really make it so that when you’re in music in iTunes, all you see is music. And if you were doing a separate music app, it would really look a lot like iTunes when you’re in a music player because there’s only one area where you pick which media type you want to do. That’s not to say that we aren’t continuing, and we’ll continue to think about what’s the best way to architect the app, and whether it makes sense to make a separate app for some of the components that are in there or all of the components that are in there. But right now we think we’ve designed iTunes, and you’ll see, we’ve got a new refresh with the new version of OS X that’s coming out next month that makes it even easier to use in the music space.

Federighi: There’s a big responsibility in transitioning the experiences for a lot of these apps. These are so important to people, we see it every time we change them at all, and there were cases where — if you look at Photos where we did a really bold rethink of where Photos needed to go and how to transition it. And by and large I think that’s been well-received. And I personally love it. But you’ll hear people who say, “Hold on, there was a reason why I liked the way things used to be.” And people are pretty serious about their music and about their collection, and so I think we debate pretty heavily internally the right way to evolve these things. And we tend to err on the side of being pretty bold, but there’s a lot of responsibility. You get the other side of these stories, some of the people, when you talk about people nodding your head, if I look at some of the comments that come online when people say, “Yeah, Apple’s quality’s bad”, and someone will say, “Yeah, when they took away my iPhoto app and replaced it with Photos, I don’t like the new Photos app”, and that’s why they think Apple’s software quality is bad. Now, many of us would say, “Hold on, that’s exactly an example where Apple’s software quality is quite good, we delivered something faster, cleaner, simpler”, but someone’s going to say, “No, but it’s changed, and I was attached to it.” And so this is a tricky balancing act, and I think our customers give us a lot of responsibility to thoughtfully evolve their experiences, and we try to take that responsibility very seriously.

Gruber: I don’t think anybody would disagree that institutionally Apple, compared to any company you might compare it against, has been always more willing to push through changes. Whether you go back to the ’80s and say that the Macintosh debuted without any kind of command line at all, which was the only way anybody knew how to use a computer up until then. And they’re like, no, this is the right way. Another, almost canonical example of it was the 1998, original iMac shipping without a floppy disk, and nobody had ever — how could you have a personal computer without a floppy disk? Little things like that. Do you guys find though that it’s getting harder to do that now that you’re talking about having 700–800 million users? Is it harder because of that resistance, that natural part of humanity that just is resistant to change of any kind?

Cue: Sure. Of course, it’s harder. When you have more customers, those things are harder to do but at least for me, and I’ve been here when we were really small, and now we’re much larger, it hasn’t really changed. We’re still willing to push, we just have to make sure that what we think about the ways that people are using the product, and when we make the changes, that they’re not significant and we’re improving more than we’re actually taking away, that it’s the right thing to do, and you have to be a little more conscious of understanding all of the different ways in which customers use it. But you bet we’ve got to keep pushing because if you want to innovate, you’ve got to move, you can’t sit still with what you have.

Federighi: And that’s so strong internally. The base instinct of everyone here is, let’s do it, let’s do it the right way, if this is now the right way, forget the past, let’s do it the right way, and it’s a second thought then, well, hold on, what does that mean for the transition and taking our customers along with us on this. But it’s so integral to who we are and how people think here. Yeah, there’s more of an external — there is a larger customer base that we have responsibility for, but we know part of why they’re Apple customers is because that’s what they expect from us. We would be doing them a disservice if we stopped pushing.

Gruber: All right, let me make this specific comparison between two apps we’ve just been talking about, iTunes and Photos for Mac. In the digital hub era when the Mac was positioned — here’s our idea for the Mac, it’s your digital hub for all of these little devices like cameras and iPods that you have in your life. iPhoto was the Mac solution to photos, and iTunes was the Mac and Windows solution to music and then later media like TV shows and stuff. The new strategy is clearly iCloud-centric. You guys have been explicit about that since iCloud was announced on stage in 2011. And it didn’t come right away, it wasn’t like Photos for Mac came out immediately, but that was the answer, and last year was really that transition year. But the idea was, look, iPhoto was great for then, but now we’ve got this Photos app, which is truly just a peer to what you’ve got on your iOS devices, and it’s really designed for the modern age and the modern model. And iTunes and music haven’t really made that shift. Is that because music is different and because iTunes has different responsibilities, or is it because iTunes has to exist for Windows and iPhoto didn’t? Or is it something else?

Cue: No, look, I think you’re seeing music make that transition now, since last year when we introduced Apple Music. The truth is, music before that was very local, it really didn’t live in the cloud, and you moved your content by moving it to a device locally, and then the device was there, and then if you wanted to update that device, you brought it back. And it’s not just bringing a subscription service as I said, it’s about bringing all of your music, no matter how you acquired it, if it doesn’t exist in the subscription service, and you bought it yourself separately, or it’s available separately as a bootleg, all of the things that you consume with music — and we’re seeing that transition now, so for myself, I live in a world where my music is all in the cloud. And I think we’re going to see more and more customers — we just passed over 11 million Apple Music subscribers, and all of those people live in a world where music is in the cloud.

Gruber: So that’s a big number, 11 million Apple Music subscribers is a big number, and it’s only since — when did it come out of beta?

Cue: It came out in September, but we gave away the first three month for free so think about it as later in the year, October.

Gruber: And the growth rate is good on that?

Cue: We’ve been very pleased, it’s great. Just this past week we introduced it in Taiwan, and we also introduced it in Turkey, which has been great, we introduced a version for Android, our first Android application.

Federighi: That’s our second, we had Move to iOS.

Cue: That’s true, thank you. [laughs]

Federighi: Much loved app on the Android Play Store.

Gruber: Always a good source of humor is to go — it’s like going to read the Yelp reviews for your favorite local restaurant and seeing the people who don’t get it.

Cue: And one of the things we’ve learned, by the way, as we’ve gone to Apple Music is that we have to educate people — as much as all of us know about music subscriptions, when you go around the world, what does it mean to have access to all of the music in the world and what does that mean and how does that work, and that’s something that we’re doing a lot of work on right now. Because we noticed that a lot of times people just didn’t understand the concept, “What do you mean I pay 99, what do I get, how do I get it?”, all of those things. And that’s been a big part of moving the number and continuing to move the number forward.

Gruber: All right, before we wrap this up, there’s a topic I want to get to, and I guess it’s a little bit more in Craig’s side of the court, but I’ve got some good friends who if I don’t talk about this, I think they’re going to shoot me because I have the opportunity.

Federighi: Is this about a dynamic dispatch in Objective-C? I’m ready.

Gruber: [laughs] No! It’s about Radar. So Eddy mentioned that with Maps, Maps has a feature where if you see an error, you can report the error, and when it gets fixed, you get notified, and it says, “Hey, thank you for reporting that this road is not where it used to be or there’s a new road here, we have now fixed it.” What I hear a lot from my friends who are third-party developers is that sense that Radar is nearly a black hole, that you file your report, it goes in there and an awful lot of bugs, even ones that are submitted with examples, like, here, run this example code and it will prove that this is a bug in this new version of the OS. And then they just never hear anything about it. How can Radar get more like Apple Maps where it gives —

Cue: [laughs]

Gruber: I’m serious! I think the developers really — and I feel like it’s a — I don’t know what the opposite of the virtuous circle is, an invirtuous circle where developers, if they feel like it’s a black hole, they report fewer bugs because they feel like they’re wasting their time, and developers not reporting bugs is I’m sure not what you want.

Federighi: That’s for sure, yeah. Quite honestly, we’re not where we want to be with Radar as an externally facing tool. It’s the lifeblood of the organization in terms of how we manage our bugs and manage our releases, and I file tons of them and so does everyone who works here in software. But our external interface is not great, and a big part of that is, something we struggle with is how we sort out communicating about the issues that we fix because you may report an issue, we may dupe it to a bug that we’re working on fixing, we may fix that bug, maybe we fix it in iOS 10, maybe we fix it in something that’s probably going to go on iOS 9.3. You want to know that we’ve fixed it, we don’t necessarily right now have a great way to decide when we want to communicate to you that there’s a release that it’s getting fixed in, that we’re promising that the fix is going to happen. And so we fundamentally have a communication feedback problems that we need to sort out. I can tell you that the reports do get read, that they do influence what we do, but our backchannel communication needs some work, because we are reading them, we just don’t tell you what’s happening with them, and I understand absolutely the frustration of a lot of the developers who file those bugs.

Gruber: Do you agree that that sort of improving that — is sort of a point where the trickle down from that — where if you guys can improve the backchannel communication from Radar, it would influence lots of little bugs getting fixed that people are complaining about and address — it’s like a centralized place to address the widespread, entire user base widespread problem of, hey, this little thing is going wrong and I don’t understand why?

Federighi: I think it helps. We have other ways also that we’re getting a lot of great feedback, we did our first, as you know, public beta for iOS and a year ago the public beta for OS X and actually in that way brought over a million people into the program, and we did include in those a feedback assistant tool, which was meant as a Radar-like feedback tool, but one that the average person could use whether on iOS or OS X, and it automatically not only just gives us what the user types, but it automatically gives us a lot of additional diagnostics. They get prompted, and it says, “Is it okay if we sent this, this, and this back?” and gives us some really great actionable information about the issues they encounter, so that’s another great channel to find out about the issues people are running into. And this made a huge difference on the quality of our software. There are lots of different ways in which lots of different kinds of feedback we get, but something that’s very measurable, things like crash rate, and I can tell you, in the past, you’d see this seesaw pattern where a .0 release would come out and that would have a certain high crash rate, and then we would issue our software updates and that rate would go down. After doing a public beta here for iOS, our .0, 9.0 was better than any previous release of iOS 8. And those are the kind of systematic steps where we can get feedback from our users, both automatic and the kind of things where they write up an issue, and it helps us improve the product. So you’re going to see more and more of that from us, and we think it continues to pay off.

Gruber: Just to reiterate that, I just want to make sure I heard you correctly, you’re saying that when 9.0 came out, the release version, that the crash rate for apps was actually lower than the version of iOS 8, whatever the stable version of iOS 8 was that people were upgrading from?

Federighi: That’s right. Of our apps. Third-party apps are — I don’t actually have a number on that but that’s always a challenge. One thing honestly that can happen to us on quality is sometimes a third party will happen to ship an app about the same time we ship an OS update, and independent of that, that app starts crashing and that affects users — it’s always a challenge to cut through the noise, but we get pretty good analytics, and our numbers show that we’re on the right track there.

Gruber: Well, it’s about the time to wrap this up. I wanted to know that because you guys were — is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you wished I had, is there something that you guys wanted to talk about that we haven’t discussed?

Cue: Well, since this is an audio podcast and not a video one, I’m disappointed that you can’t see the purple shirt I’m wearing.

Federighi: He did really rise to the occasion, I don’t know if Eddy thought he was going to be on camera here, but he’s in full stage wear, it’s —

Gruber: You know, I thought about that just before we got on the air, I linked to a story The New York Times had about this amazing science that astronomers have done where they’ve measured as audio this gravitational wave that proves this thing Einstein predicted a hundred years ago that if two black holes collided, you’d be able to produce this gravity wave that you can hear. And I thought, wouldn’t that be great if we had a microphone that could produce a sound of Eddy’s shirt?

Cue: [laughs]

Federighi: A synesthetic experience. All the senses come alive when we see Eddy’s shirt.

Gruber: We just didn’t have enough time to set up the technology.

Federighi: [laughs] Maybe next time.

Gruber: This was great, I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.

Cue: I love it, John, I got one question for you though. Since we started with sports and it’s almost baseball season, give me your World Series prediction.

Gruber: Oh... I hate to say it, but I think the Cubs. Doesn’t seem like a good bet, but boy, the Cubs look good in the National League. And in the American League... Boy, I don’t know. I’ll just go out on the limb and say the New York Yankees.

Federighi: [laughs]

Cue: [laughs] That was for Phil. That’s great. You’ve got to remember though, it is an even year. And in even years the San Francisco Giants always win.

Gruber: That’s the weirdest little inexplicable — and they’ve kept the core together — I don’t understand that at all, I don’t know if they just party way too hard after they win a World Series and it tanks the whole next season or what. But that is the weirdest little mini-dynasty streak I’ve ever seen. So I don’t know that I’d want to bet against the Giants next year.

Cue: All right, well, it was great talking to you.

Gruber: Thank you, thank you both, Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, I really greatly appreciate the time.

Federighi: Thanks, John.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

INTERVIEW: Bea Garcia of Twist Helix

Firing on all cylinders, Newcastle’s Twist Helix are flexing their studio muscles as of late, as they pave the way for their upcoming 2020 album, Machinery. They kickstarted their 2020 by introducing their next LP with the single ‘Louder,’ an atmospheric synth-pop triumph that laid down the tone for the rest of the record. Now, 4 they’re releasing a brand-new single. ‘Frida Kahlo’.

Since bursting onto the scene 4 years ago, Bea Garcia (Synth, vocals), James Walker (Drums) and Matthew Barron (Bass) are renowned for their idiosyncratic mix of electronica and indie, which blends dramatic synths,with uplifting pop hooks and a soft Iberian lilt.

With arena-sized vocal chants that delve in and out of English and Spanish, you’re instantly drawn into 'Frida Kahlo'. Filled with intrigue from the outset, the single weaves in and out of pop, and new-wave influenced sections spurred on by giddy bouts of synthesizer and compelling jump-rope verses. Uplifting, hopeful and full of charisma, ‘Frida Kahlo’ showcases everything the band represent.

We had a chat with Bea all about the new single, what we can expect from the new album, quarantine life and much more. Read the full interview below.

Hi Bea! How are you? How have you been spending your time during this pandemic? How as it affected Twist Helix as a band?

"Hola She Makes Music! I’m good thank you, thanks for inviting me to chat about the new single!

"It’s been a really strange year to make music. The pandemic and the lockdown came at the worst possible moment for us, we’d just wrapped up our first tour dates of the year and were set to board a flight to Madrid when all of Spain was put under quarantine. So, we’ve had to improvise a bit, working digitally between two studios 1500 miles apart, it’s been a stressful experience but we’re so glad to have finished recording the new album!

"Other than that, I’ve just been locked in my flat playing countless hours of Rayman."

You recently released your new single 'Frida Kahlo'. What's the story behind the track? What does the song mean to you?

"'Frida Kahlo’ is one of those songs we could never quite finish. I had the idea for the synth lead about the time we were writing the Ouseburn album but could never quite make it fit into a song. Then last summer the group were invited to participate in a studio residency at Sage Gateshead; that time together to write with no pressures or deadlines in a space of our own really brought out the best in us. We spent the residency writing music and thinking about the relation between cultural production and cultural product and well, I don’t quite remember how it happened, but somehow the conversation turned to Frida Kahlo earrings."

'Frida Kahlo' and previous single 'Louder' are to feature on your upcoming new LP Machinery. What can you tell us about the record?

"The idea behind the album was that we would use this album to peer into the workings of the music industry, the literal workings of the machinery behind it. It’s a distillation of our own experiences, observations and our projected hopes and anxieties."

What were your musical influences for the LP? Who were you listening to around the time of writing it?

"Gosh I consume music voraciously, and I’m a total synth freak and it shows. There’s hints of everything from MGMT, The Naked and Famous, Ladytron, Gossip, Izal… It sounds weird writing it down, but being behind the keyboard the mind just sort of channels all these disparate parts into something whole."

How is Machinery different (or similar) to Ouseburn? Was the songwriting/recording process any different?

"There’s always a self-reflexive quality to our music and euphoric rush of feelings and sound. The big difference on Machinery is we’re feeling a lot less incumbered by expectations of what that sound is, we’re painting in much bolder strokes and that means rapping on some tracks, vapourwave inspired instrumentals and following synth punk tracks with brooding symphonic ballads."

Were there any other songs written during this period that didn’t make it onto the album, and if so, will you revisit them again in the future?

"Almost certainly and yes, probably, who knows. Honestly you never stop writing, even when a recording is finished and an album is released you don’t stop tinkering with it. That’s the fun of creating."

Which new artists/bands are you listening to right now? Anyone we should be checking out?

"We got the new Bugeye album through the post this morning which is just a superb collection of spikey disco-punk ferocity. We’ve also been touring a bit with a band from Leeds called Artio, and have loved hearing their EP Backbone, I won’t spoil the surprise too much, just think Alt-Rock meets Synth-Pop. Trust me you’ll love it."

With having a lot of time to reflect recently, if there was one thing you could change about the music world today, what would it be?

"Speaking as an artist signed to a European label and on behalf of the other two thirds of Twist Helix that as of this year will no longer be European citizens, we’d really like our freedom of movement back please."

You have been so busy and accomplished so many awesome things in the last four years. What would you say has been the biggest highlight for Twist Helix so far? And why?

"Honestly, for all the wonderful experiences we’ve had and places we’ve been I think just keeping the group going and having the determination to see through a third album is a huge achievement. We love making and performing our music and as long as there’s still a couple of crazy people who want to hear shouty happy unabashedly Spanglish synth pop, we’ll keep doing it."

Finally, what do you have planned now we're getting back to some sort of normality? I expect you're itching to get out on the road to tour the album following its release and when it is safe to do so?

"Absolutely and we’re over the moon that the majority of festival bookings we had this year have kept in touch and intend to honour the booking for 2021. That said, we’re not going to rush into it unless we can feel comfortable in doing so. We work closely with the venues and promoters that support us, and while this has been a difficult time for all involved, we’re behind them 100%. It’s not been talked about in the press but before the UK went into lockdown (or didn’t if you compare our version of it to say what happened elsewhere in Europe) many venues were showing the leadership our government lacked and closed their doors before the government so belatedly intervened. They did that to their expense because they put the wellbeing of their staff and their patrons ahead of profit. I’ve got nothing but respect for them."

Twist Helix · Frida Kahlo

Photo credit: Jay Dawson

[thecosydragon]

My latest blog post from the cosy dragon: Interview with Max Davine

An Interview with Max Davine, author of Mighty Mary, Off the Map, and other novels.

Max Davine was born in Victoria, Australia in 1989, to an eclectic mix of backgrounds. His father’s family had immigrated from Ireland during the Potato Famine, and are a mix of Irish, Norwegian and Spanish ancestry. His mother’s family escaped from Hungary, Austria and Germany during the Soviet takeover, and subsequent revolutions, after the Second World War. Members of his grandfather’s extended family fought both for the Nazis and for the partisans who rebelled against them. This unique lineage, and the rather unusual stories passed onto him by way of living relatives, informs both his writing and philosophical perspectives of history and where the world is headed.

Who is your favourite Dragon in literature?

Puff, the Magic Dragon. Such a simple yet beautiful story. It reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem Block City; that same sort of message and just delivered in such a profound and simple way.

I’m not going to be reviewing your newest novel, but from your other published novels, is there one that is your own personal favourite?

Aside from Mighty Mary, I would have to say Off The Map. It is probably the least known of my books and yet it means so much to me. I had it for thirteen years. Thirteen years of writing and rewriting. I had to make it seem like it was written in the year it was set. I guess the sales figures are an indication as to why you shouldn’t do it but I’m glad I did because there’s a real big piece of my life out there and maybe people will rediscover it one day.

Everyone has a ‘first novel’, even if many of them are a rough draft relegated to the bottom and back of your desk drawer (or your external harddrive!). Have you been able to reshape yours, or have you abandoned it for good?

Oh, the first one I wrote? Eek. No. There is no saving that. That’s dead and buried. Having said that, it did go through a few hundred incarnations over the years and I may yet try again, but for all intents and purposes it is as dead as the dodo.

Over the years, what would you say has improved significantly in your writing?

Everything. Every aspect of it. I look back on my old work and it’s like looking at myself learning to walk. There’s literally nothing that hasn’t been affected either by my continuing to study at University or by my acting lessons or just by the sheer amount of reading I do.

Some authors are able to pump out a novel a year and still be filled with inspiration. Is this the case for you, or do you like to let an idea percolate for a couple of years in order to get a beautiful novel?

It’s always different. After Dino Hunt was released I went quiet. There wasn’t much that grabbed me until about 2016 or ’17, about two years later when I started working on one I haven’t finished yet. Then I stopped that to write Mighty Mary and that took about a year to get right. And then there’s another big one, a real epic, that I’ve been working on about fifteen years. But this year has been productive. I’ve put down two first drafts this year and I’ve got one more to go. Then I’ll go back and do rewrites and whichever one strikes me as the best will be the one I publish next. The rest, it takes what it takes. One might be ready in six month, the other might take another decade. You never know. There are manuscripts I’ve never finished after years and years.

I have heard of writers that could only write in one place – then that cafe closed down and they could no longer write! Where do you find yourself writing most often, and on what medium (pen/paper or digital)?

It all starts with a pen and paper. But for proper drafting I go digital. I use a desktop computer with a big, thick keyboard because I break keyboards and that’s why I can’t use laptops. If you break the keyboard on a laptop, it’s goodnight, Charlie.

Before going on to hire an editor, most authors use beta-readers. How do you recruit your beta-readers, and choose an editor? Are you lucky enough to have loving family members who can read and comment on your novel?

I’m fortunate enough to be traditionally published by Tamarind Hill Press and they’ve got an amazing team of editors and cover artists. Jesse McGun worked with me on Mighty Mary and he was just fantastic and I love a cover designer who just tells me if my ideas aren’t going to work because I’ve had ones before who just went on and tried to bend to my wishes and it hasn’t come out too well.

I walk past bookshops and am drawn in by the smell of the books – ebooks simply don’t have the same attraction for me. Does this happen to you, and do you have a favourite bookshop? Or perhaps you are an e-reader fan… where do you source most of your material from?

The Strand in New York City is not only the greatest bookshop in the world, it is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s like Roald Dahl’s chocolate factory to me. I’d live there just to be close to it. I’ve never read an ebook but I guess they’d be handy while travelling. It does get challenging to carry an accumulation of books around on long trips, especially if you’re a backpacker! … my material comes from old photographs, mostly. Obviously there is that famous one of Mary, for example, but I love old pictures and that’s an Actor’s Lab thing. We were always taught to go to pictures of real life first for characters, then find them in that place. I still do that. Although it might be a painting or a statue or just being in a certain place and thinking wow, what happened here that we don’t know about?

I used to find myself buying books in only one genre (fantasy) before I started writing this blog. What is your favourite genre, and have your tastes changed over time?

I don’t have a specific genre to read. I write a lot of historical fiction, but I deviate into unconventional Sci-Fi or fantasy, but it’s always with real-world settings. I think our world is too fascinating to replicate in a Westeros or a Middle Earth. I mean, what for? A Song of Fire and Ice is an astonishing achievement but it’ll never be what the real War of the Roses was, for me. I appreciate and admire what Martin did with that very much, it’s just I couldn’t do it myself. I’d want the real thing. Having said that, one of my favorite authors is Robert E. Howard and I know Stephen King – among others – doesn’t like him but I wish he’d give the guy another chance! Yes, there are retrospective social issues to be found in his works and the works of Lovecraft but Howard’s prose was just dreamlike. Otherworldly in its visceral beauty.

Social media is a big thing, much to my disgust! I never have enough time myself to do what I feel is a good job. What do you do?

I have help. I manage it myself because who’s going to take pictures for me? But I do need to be kicked into doing it. It’s just not something that occurs to me during my day. I’ll be working or something, probably working, and get an email like your blog is due, you haven’t posted anything today, or whatever. I know it’s important. I’m very grateful I’m looked after in that sense.

Answering interview questions can often take a long time! Tell me, are you ever tempted to recycle your answers from one to the next?

No! Most of my interviews are in-person so I can’t do that anyway because I’d never remember what I’d said to the last interviewer.

from http://bit.ly/2F8heGU

[newstfionline]

How Scared Should People on the Border Be?

By Domingo Martinez, NY Times, March 31, 2017

BROWNSVILLE, TEX.--The news here on the border with Mexico travels fast.

Most of it is, in fact, “fake news”--conjecture and unverifiable gossip exchanged over “el Feisbuk,” which is what people here in the Rio Grande Valley call the social network. Instead of snapshots and emojis, it now disseminates warnings. People are frightened, and frightened people repeat things that frighten them more:

Stay at home tomorrow. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conducting raids in the kitchens.

Don’t send your kids to school on Wednesday. The border patrol is looking for kids with no papers.

Don’t drive down 802 on Fridays anymore.

There’s a checkpoint at the grocery store. They arrested 100 people last night at 10.

Who knows? Some of it might be true.

You can’t drive much farther south in Texas than Brownsville, a city separated from its Mexican neighbor by an iron fence, like an exclusive country club or drug dealer’s hacienda. It’s a border town, and one that has been suspiciously quiet while its future is bandied about in Washington by a president who equates “making America great again” to “getting the Mexicans out.”

Much of the Rio Grande Valley abuts the fence, which stretches some 650 miles and was built in 2006 for $7 billion. The fence has done little to deter smuggling. Drug cartels, being crafty criminals, get around it in any number of ways: tunnels, light aircraft, homemade submarines, even T-shirt cannons fired over the fence.

Smugglers of humans have adapted as well, using similar techniques (minus the T-shirt cannons). The main effect of making it harder to get across the border has been to create a greater need for coyotes--people, many of whom have ties to the cartels, who will help you cross for pay. This means even more trauma for migrants, including robbery, rape, ransoming and murder.

Many of those who make it across end up staying here, on the border, because there’s another checkpoint an hour and a half north, at Sarita.

There are two border towns in every border town. There’s the one I’ve recently discovered, which is deeply involved in local schools, has air conditioning and Wi-Fi, and drives comfortably appointed tanks that pass as cars. It has Snapchat for the kids who do their homework, all the cable in the world and so, so much food.

In this town, every Sunday is reason enough for barbecue, guacamole and limes picked fresh from the tree, squeezed right into your beer.

Then there is the other border town, where I was raised back in the 1970s. It lives directly behind the first. It avoids eye contact. It cooks in the kitchens and manicures your St. Augustine grass and is paid--not much--by the hour. Those people--not your criminals or rapists or “bad hombres”--are waiting and waiting to take a swipe at that golden lie of the “American dream” they endured thousands of treacherous miles worthy of a Tolkien novel to reach.

And while they wait, they work. Any work. They struggle through tertiary economies--reselling clothes, furniture or appliances at roadside stands, making tamales or tortillas in garages, setting up hair salons in living rooms (men’s cuts $7), cleaning houses and offices and schools, mowing, cutting, picking. They always work. The work is compulsory.

These two towns have lived side by side peacefully for generations. It’s like a tide meeting a shore, a pattern repeated naturally, with a telescoping logic: There’s the border in the border town, then the border town in Texas, then Texas in the United States, then the United States in the world. Now invert it: There’s the world, there’s America, there’s Texas, there’s the border town and finally, within the town, there’s still another world, waiting to get in.

Before I moved back to Brownsville in January, I’d spent 23 years in Seattle. Throughout last year’s election, I watched the news with the eyes of a West Coast liberal. As the veneer of social decorum paled and then vanished, we sat around being entertained by progressive news shows. Even after the confounding results of the election, we felt reassured and validated in our perception of the world, our ability to call out hypocrisy in institutions and governments, lawyers and hedge fund managers.

Then I came home. Now I see, up close, the impact that election could have on people I know who are very much in danger of losing everything.

They were burning the sugar cane when I came back. Slow-moving trucks with loud speakers drove around the fields calling out in Spanish that if anyone was hiding in there, it was best to get out: The fields were about to burn. It wasn’t a trick. No one was going to arrest you. Just get out.

The border was making a humanist accommodation. I wasn’t certain why, but this put a knot in my throat. I felt something akin to pride.

Lately there have been images on the evening news of gendarmes in ICE jackets knocking on doors, terrified children crying, portly Latin men in handcuffs, Border Patrol agents hydrating migrants in dirty ball caps before escorting them away for processing--the stuff of nightmares for the vulnerable.

Conversely, there are stories about the parasites on the side of “the peoples.” The immigration “lawyers” who convince non-English speakers to pay thousands of dollars earned $5 an hour for a sheet of paper with official-looking letterhead on it, convincing them that it will be enough “papeles” to ward off the most insistent of warrant knocks. A new kind of frontier snake oil.

When I first came back, I wanted to accompany my father on a trip across the border into Matamoros for a pharmacy run--his Medicare covered only so much of his prescriptions, and he could get triple the amount for the same price there.

Dad took a step back and looked at me: “¡Hombre, estas pendejo! ¡Te secuestraran en cuanto te vean!” You’re a goddamned idiot, he said. They’ll kidnap you the minute they see you.

He thinks I look like a “bolillo.” A white guy. Which is funny, because when my friends on the West Coast looked at me, I could tell they were envisioning a big floppy hat and crisscrossed bandoleers and fantastic revolvers.

What frustrates me most about this border town is how passively it awaits its sentence from the bolillos from afar. Marches and demonstrations, “Days Without an Immigrant,” they happen only in faraway cities. Not here. It bewildered me at first, and then I understood: Oh, yeah. Probably not the smartest thing for people here to do, drawing attention to themselves right at the border.

“Terrified of deportation? Let’s march and make ourselves known!”

Civil disobedience is the stuff of privilege, as alt-right keyboard cowboys love to point out on bulletin boards, because the people who really have something to lose don’t want to be publicly marked. Reports of people apprehended for immigration violations pollinate the news daily: a father arrested right after dropping his daughter off at school; a battered woman arrested in the courthouse where she had gone to seek protection from her violent boyfriend; an immigrant kept in a detention center despite having a brain tumor.

But is all this really a result of the new political climate? Or are we just hearing about it more, thanks to the hysteria propagated on el Feisbuk?

The Trump administration has said that the government will stop exempting “classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.” But no new laws have been passed. If you ask the Border Patrol and ICE, they say there have been no changes in policy down here at the border, or none that they’re willing to admit.

Some of the stock images we see on the news are from long before the last election, or instances in which warrants are being served after months of investigation. ICE does not actually have crack detectives who drink coffee outside a suspect’s mother’s house, waiting until he comes home for Christmas to nab him.

It might be months before the aftershocks of the new administration’s ministrations finally reach the frontier and we see the actual effect of its new policies.

But will the president’s dream of a new and bigger wall change anything down here? Very likely not. Tunnels will be dug deeper. Cannons aimed higher. Ladders built taller. Coyotes will charge more. And most of the people building the wall will be Hispanic. In fact, dozens of the companies bidding for the contract are owned by Hispanics. Racism and self-loathing aside, ethics are the stuff of the comfortable: Down here, work is work. The Guardian quoted a Puerto Rican businessman who voiced a fairly universal attitude toward the $25 billion project:

“I think the wall is a waste of time and money,” said Patrick Balcazar, the owner of San Diego Project Management. “For environmental reasons, it’s dumb. From an economic point of view, it’s dumb.” But he said: “If you want to put up a wall, I’m going to put up the best wall I can and I’m going to pay my people. My goal is to build a wall so I can make enough money so we can turn this thing around and tear down the wall again.”

Or quicker to the point: “We don’t see it as politics,” said Jorge Diaz, who manages De la Fuente Construction. “We just see it as work.”

For once, I’d like to hear something good come out of this part of the world, just to shake things up. The only news to come out of South Texas is framed in the superlative, and not positively: extraordinary poverty, profound rates of illiteracy, generations-deep nepotism, off-the-charts diabetes, casual civil-rights abuses, untreated wastewater in the Rio Grande, the mythical crossover border violence and the mosquitoes.

Lots to be proud of, really, when you reverse it, and consider them obstacles to overcome that make people, or a place, who they are. Perhaps that’s why the Rio Grande Valley has so many proud sons and daughters.

I’m a citizen, born in Brownsville; I have no personal reason to worry. But I do, now, carry my passport and another form of ID with me when I leave the house, as if this were Eastern Europe in the buildup to World War II. Why tempt fate? Down here, it used to be that your command of English could see you waltz through a traffic stop. There were times in the ‘80s when I was a teenager and my friends and I could hardly speak from drinking, and we’d still be allowed back across the border after a night in Matamoros. But those days are gone.

Now, whenever I see any uniformed personnel, I quietly activate my civil, American posture and prepare to level my voice out and stand guard over my father and his status as a naturalized citizen, if the need arises.

Which, again, is mealy-mouthed, knee-jerk liberal posturing, because in reality, his 71 years of experience here, his own adaptation to his environment, will see him through what’s next, as will this border, which has lived through wars and political mood swings and buffoons and bloviates before, without the help of el Feisbuk, or people like me.

Domingo Martinez is the author of the memoirs “The Boy Kings of Texas” and “My Heart Is a Drunken Compass.”