dentdinamo

[wiredalienvampire]

I love sad women would recommend

[leelee120000]

Looking Back On: Fall Out Boy, “Folie à Deux”

April 12, 2020

“Folie à Deux” came out when I was eight years old. Fall Out Boy (FOB) was a band I enjoyed but it wasn’t my favorite yet. That didn’t occur until 2010 when I got my first laptop and suddenly had access to play any music I wanted. After countless times listening, I came to think of it as one of the most musically intricate and well-developed albums FOB has ever produced. However, “Folie à Deux” didn’t sell well and ultimately contributed to FOB’s hiatus.

There is a plot in “Folie à Deux,” however, it is very hidden and not really understood without the additional “Fall Out Toy Works” comics, which was published in ‘09 and continued into ‘13. The comics are mostly unknown by many which makes talking about them all the more fun. 

“Fall Out Toy Works” was created by Pete Wentz of FOB, Darren Romanelli and Nathan Cabrera. It is written by Brett Lewis and illustrated by members of Imaginary Friends Studios. The story is a cyberpunk tale set in futuristic LA centered around a gynoid (female android) named Tiffany, the Toymaker’s perfect creation. Think “Pinocchio” meets “Pygmalion.” 

Baron is the main antagonist and his company controls the production of pretty much everything in Los Angeles, even the weather but he has no control over his relationships. He asks the Toymaker to create a robot wife for him, named Tiffany. Talking about the story any farther without spoiling the ending is hard.

The trade paperback and webcomic version both had the final page of issue 5 removed, which changed the entire tone of the ending. (It is relatively easy to find online, though.) There are so many things that the comics explain, even the meaning of the album’s cover art: the bear is a boy robot named Crybaby.

To promote “Folie à Deux,” the whole label of Decaydance Records artists did a mixtape of demos and custom songs called “Welcome to the New Administration.” The promotional campaign began on Aug. 18, 2008, when Decaydance’s website was supposedly hacked by a shady group called “Citizens For Our Betterment.”

The link led to the group’s website which was red, white and blue. Links on the page were blocked needing specific IP addresses to work. The Decaydance site was normal the following day. 

The Citizens for Our Betterment web page was updated every day, many posts referring to Nov. 4, the same day as the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The locked links were gradually opened and by Aug. 24, one link led to a page saying “FOB – The Return – November Four” in large big bold letters.

This caused some fans to believe that Fall Out Boy would release their new album on Nov. 4. Others theorized that this was another one of Pete’s attempts to raise political awareness as he previously held a rally for then U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama. Members of FOB members are publicly democrats. 

Many bands from the Fueled by Ramen label posted on MySpace that same day with the title “Welcome to the New Administration.” Every post contained the word ten. On Aug. 25, the Citizens for Our Betterment website was redirected to the band’s Friends or Enemies page. On which was an image of a voting booth and ballots with the names of several Decaydance artists. 

By clicking on each individual ballot, there was an audio clip from the band reading past posts on the Citizens for Our Betterment website. A mixtape was then made available for download. Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUZKSsP8Sdo

As for the album itself, the album “Folie à Deux” itself is perfectly gapless as every song fades into the next. It starts with a hidden track called “Lullabye.” It’s a charming track featuring just acoustic guitar and Patrick singing. “Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes” is the first official song. The hook goes: “I’m a loose bolt of a complete machine. What a match, I’m half doomed and you’re semi-sweet.” These lines set the tone of the album with industrial elements and dark storytelling. The world of the Toymaker and how it intertwines with the music. 

“I Don’t Care” kicks off with a classic rock tone, and the accompanying music video is zany and weird. Gilby Clarke from Guns N’ Roses starts the video by saying, “what the hell happened to rock and roll? Eyeliner? Energy drinks? And no guitar solos? I’ve taken sh*ts with bigger rock stars than them!”

The video is filled with miscellaneous sights. There’s the infamous spaghetti cat clip, band members dressed as nuns, Joe flashing people – and it ends with everyone removing a mask and being a different rock star. Clarke himself reveals himself being Sarah Palin in the end, winks.

It’s an all-round weird video. A reminder that ‘08 was a different time, but all and all it fit into the political climate.

Next on the album is “She’s My Winona,” named after actress Winona Ryder. It is a true bop and a slower-paced song with the chorus of “hell or glory, I don’t want anything in between. Then came a baby boy with long eyelashes. And daddy said ‘you gotta show the world the thunder’.”  

This is followed by “America’s Suitehearts” with its nightmare carnival aesthetic that really adds to the story of the album and causes a lot of the nonsense to make sense. 

“Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet,” in which the beat goes hard but the lyrics go harder, follows. It’s a song blatantly about infidelity within a relationship. Considering Pete Wentz’s divorce, it’s safe to assume that this was somewhat based in reality. 

The music video is labeled as “A Weekend At Pete Rose’s,” and is on the old FriendsOrEnemies YouTube channel. In it, Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith carry Pete’s dead body around the city. 

“The (Shipped) Gold Standard” is a sad masterpiece about fearing loving another person. This was written before gay marriage was legalized and at a time where the LGBT+ community found safety within emo music and the Fall Out Boy fan base because FOB supported them. 

“(Coffee’s For Closers)” is a song about lost faith, and it hits hard especially with its placement behind “The (Shipped) Gold Standard”. 

“What A Catch, Donnie” has a music video and it’s an odd, nostalgic chronicle of the band’s (at the time of the video’s creation) seven-year history. Filled with memorabilia for other music videos, the video shows Patrick saving his fellow bandmates, as well as Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith. The end of the song includes lines from Fall Out Boy’s most iconic songs at the time. 

“27” jumps the pace back up to fast rock and fades into (all songs fade, but this is the best fade on the record) my favorite song on the album, “Tiffany Blews.” The song makes almost no sense at all lyrically but musically it slaps. The best explanation I can give is that it’s about a hot girl. Lil Wayne has a spoken section that is my favorite part. “Not the boy I was, the boy I am is just venting – venting. Dear gravity, you held me down in this starless city.” It’s such a perfect moment of breath in a nonstop album.

Next is “w.a.m.s.,” which is an acronym that has never had a confirmed meaning. But, the bass in it is so good, and the ending’s stripped vocals are as well! 

“20 Dollar Nose Bleed” is about drug abuse. It includes vocals from Brendon Urie and ends with a creepy poem by Pete Wentz. “It’s not me, it’s you, actually, it’s the taxidermy of you and me / Untie the balloons from around my neck and ground me / I’m just a racehorse on the track, send me back to the glue factory…”

“West Coast Smoker” has the futuristic synth sound that ties the whole album together and that sound is on full display. The vocals pulsing with the music is almost spiritual. I’m skipping the remixes and acoustic versions off of the deluxe version. Instead, I’m hopping over to the bonus tracks. 

“Pavlove” is criminally underrated, and such a good song. The heavy rock cover of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” is also wonderful.

I love this album because every song in it is amazing – it goes without saying, “Folie à Deux” is my favorite album by my favorite band. 

LeAnne McPherson

[denimbex1986]

'What do you get when you put the star of the best film of 2023 and the co-lead of one of the best films of 2024 on screen together at the same time? No, it's not the set up for a strangely specific cinephile joke, but rather a hamfisted way of saying that Past Lives' Greta Lee and All Of Us Strangers' Andrew Scott are making a movie together. Per Deadline's reporting, the dynamite acting duo have signed up to lead sci-fi romance My Notes On Mars, the English-language debut of Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát (Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time).

Lili Horvát has written the script for this one herself, with the film set to shoot early next year between Budapest and Vienna. And whilst further casting details remain under wraps for the time being, we do have a curiosity piquing description of the plot from Deadline's piece. It reads as follows: "[My Notes On Mars] centers on Margot (Lee), a brilliant young scientist with a troubled marriage, who disappears inexplicably while hiking with her husband Sam (Scott) and a group of friends. A few weeks later, she miraculously reappears the day of her own memorial service. Margot is clearly not the same as before the accident. Nevertheless, Sam sees his wife’s miraculous reappearance as a second chance."

In a statement accompanying the movie's announcement, Horvát — who has previously said her follow-up to 2020's Preparations... would be a contemporary take on Pygmalion — describes her latest as “a story about the labyrinthine human psyche, about the ever-changing faces of love." She goes on to note how she's “particularly drawn to characters who dare to make surprising, unconventional choices in both their private and professional lives,” drawing a line of comparison between her new film's leads and the parts they play. “I feel that this is true for Greta and Andrew as well. It is an incredible honor for me that I can accompany them on the journey of creating Margot and Sam Fogel.”

With Horvát behind the camera and two of the most exciting actors working today in front of it, we've no notes so far for My Notes On Mars beyond "this sounds amazing!" and "please inject it into our eyeballs ASAP!" Although, if Lili's taking alternative title suggestions, how about Past Lives Of Us Strangers? No? Fine... we'll stick to the day job.'

[jonfucius]

Great Star Trek Rewatch - The Original Series S3

Originally posted on Twitter 2 December 2020 - 8 January 2021

Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3 is up next in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. As with ENT, DSC, STX, and TOS Seasons 1-2, mini-reviews will document my progress.

Spock’s Brain: Where is brain?! Definitely not in this episode. The camp factor is off the scales, but in terms of actual quality as a Trek episode, it’s pretty bad. McCoy’s struggle to rejoin Spock’s brain is tense, but this is a portent of Season 3’s overall quality. 1/10

The Enterprise Incident: A thrilling spy adventure, with my second-favorite Romulan commander, this is probably Season 3’s best episode. Nimoy’s performance makes you think Spock has actually turned. 9/10

The Paradise Syndrome: The Preservers are a great concept, but hoo boy is the rest of the episode problematic (to say the least). Miramanee’s death is saddening. 3/10

And the Children Shall Lead: Somehow worse than “Spock’s Brain,” this episode is painful to watch. 0/10

Is There in Truth No Beauty?: The Medusans are another great TOS creation, and the Miranda Jones twist is fantastic. Aside from Nimoy's performance as Kollos, this is another mundane entry. 7/10

Spectre of the Gun: Matt Jeffries’ greatest “guest” set design, the surreal Tombstone is an iconic setting for a great sci-fi twist on a legendary Wild West event. A little reminiscent of “Arena” or “The Corbomite Maneuver,” with now-obvious influences on TNG’s “The Royale.” 8/10

Day of the Dove: TOS gives us a third iconic Klingon in the form of the late Michael Ansara’s Kang, and the only TOS female Klingon. I feel like the writer was maybe trying to comment on US-USSR relations, but couldn’t quite make it work, but it’s still a decent S3 entry. 7/10

For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky: Kelley has rarely been better, and the malevolent AI is really just an overbearing guardian. The denouement is deus ex machina, but it’s still a decent plot. 6/10

The Tholian Web: Who knew a TOS S3 episode was going to have such lasting repercussions decades after airing? “The Tholian Web” is as consequential to later shows as “Mirror, Mirror,” even crossing with the latter thanks to ENT and DSC. 9/10

Plato’s Stepchildren: Kirk telling Alexander that size, shape, or color has no bearing on a person’s worth is astoundingly progressive for the 1960s. Sadly, the rest of the episode is a waste. 3/10

Wink of an Eye: The Scalosians’ affliction is compelling, but there’s not enough plot here to justify the runtime. The concept of an accelerated lifetime is done better decades later on VOY’s superb “Blink of an Eye.” 4/10

The Empath: About as close to a 60s-70s psychological horror story as TOS ever got, this is a solid episode that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the later series. 7/10

Elaan of Troyius: combining Helen of Troy with Pygmalion probably sounded good on paper, but it unfortunately amplifies the inherent weaknesses and sexism of both stories. Two points for France Nuyen’s performance. 2/10

Whom Gods Destroy: Mental illness is tricky to depict and this episode fails spectacularly. Marta’s death scene is incredibly cruel. I’ll give credit, however, to the late Steve Ihnat. He deftly portrayed two different mental states with subtle changes not often seen in TOS. 3/10

Let That Be Your Battlefield: Everyone praises this episode for its blunt examination of racism, especially for a 1968/9 production. But it’s a little dated in terms of storytelling craft. The chase scene goes on a little long, but using footage from WWII is a deft touch. 7/10

The Mark of Gideon: Yeah, the plot hole of an overpopulated society building a 1:1 replica of a 288m starship is silly. And the overpopulation/Typhoid Mary story line is somewhat problematic. But the initial mystery is intriguing. 4/10

That Which Survives: Losira may be for y’all, but this episode ain’t exactly for me. I’ll give the series partial credit for introducing an Indian character (yet played by a white woman). Losira’s story is another classic example of the Trek trope of subverting the villain. 5/10

The Lights of Zetar: Season 3 has a ton of body possession stories, and hardly any of them are worth a damn. This does give us the inspiration for the essential Memory Alpha wiki, but it’s otherwise another forgettable S3 entry. 5/10

Requiem for Methuselah: This story is done far more eloquently (and poignantly) with Lal and Data in TNG. The concept of Flint is fascinating, but it’s otherwise dull. 4/10

The Way to Eden: I’d rather be a Herbert than watch this one again. The anti-counterculture criticism comes across as parody, rather than insightful commentary. We don’t reach. 1/10

The Cloud Minders: Worker’s rights and the class struggle are the main thrust of this episode. Droxine’s costume is iconic, and I appreciate giving Spock another shot at romance. But it’s just another “meh” entry. 6/10

The Savage Curtain: There’s a lot of banal discussion and halfhearted stunts before we get to the thesis: evil runs when good people go to war. Hmm, sounds like something out of another sci-fi franchise 🤔. 3/10

All Our Yesterdays: If only TOS had ended on this one. Spock must confront his emotions, and has a romance, while Kirk has to solve the problem; a nice inversion of the usual TOS structure. Pour one out for Zarabeth, dead 5000 years before we meet her. 8/10

Turnabout Intruder: Shatner and Sandra Smith do excellent work playing each other’s characters. That being said: if I can’t say anything else nice, I won’t say anything at all, other than what a shame it is TOS had to end on this one. 2/10

And with that, Season 3 of TOS, and the series itself, comes to an end in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. Final score: 4.75/10. Highest score(s): “The Enterprise Incident,” “The Tholian Web.” Lowest score(s): “And the Children Shall Lead.”

TOS overall score across 3 seasons and 80 episodes: 6.32/10

[mogwai-movie-house]

A Film A Year

Going through an old hard drive today I found this almost-completed list from 2015 in which I'd set myself the task of choosing a single film for each year of the preceding hundred. It was interesting to see in what ways my tastes had changed and just how many more films I'd discovered and fallen in love with in the meantime.

Anyways, I thought I'd finish it off and update it to the present: I very much tried to keep it to just one film per year, but the competition some years was just too high so they've had to share joint first places:

1915 A Night In The Show 1916 The Vagabond 1917 Easy Street 1918 A Dog's Life 1919 Sunnyside 1920 One Week 1921 The Kid 1922 Dr Mabuse, The Gambler 1923 Safety Last / Why Worry? 1924 Sherlock Jr / The Last Laugh 1925 The Gold Rush 1926 The General 1927 Sunrise / Seventh Heaven 1928 The Last Command / Steamboat Jr. / The Man Who Laughs / The Passion of Joan of Arc 1929 The Love Parade / Un Chien Andalou / Lucky Star 1930 All Quiet On The Western Front 1931 City Lights/ The Smiling Lieutenant 1932 Horse Feathers / Love Me Tonight 1933 Duck Soup / The Invisible Man 1934 It Happened One Night 1935 The 39 Steps 1936 My Man Godfrey 1937 Nothing Sacred 1938 Adventures Of Robin Hood / Pygmalion 1939 The Cat And The Canary / The Wizard of Oz / The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1940 His Girl Friday / Pinocchio 1941 Citizen Kane / The Maltese Falcon / Dumbo / Sullivan's Travels 1942 Casablanca 1943 Le Corbeau 1944 Arsenic & Old Lace 1945 Les Enfants du Paradis / And Then There Were None 1946 A Matter of Life and Death 1947 Black Narcissus 1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1949 The Third Man / Kind Hearts & Coronets 1950 Sunset Blvd. / La Ronde 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire 1952 Singin' In The Rain / Le Plaisir 1953 Calamity Jane 1954 Hobson's Choice 1955 The Night Of The Hunter /The Ladykillers 1956 The Searchers 1957 The Seventh Seal 1958 Vertigo 1959 North By Northwest / Ballad of A Soldier 1960 Psycho / The Virgin Spring / Two Women 1961 Breakfast At Tiffanys 1962 Le Doulos 1963 The Great Escape / The Birds 1964 Onibaba 1965 For A Few Dollars More 1966 Blow Up 1967 Le Samourai / Cool Hand Luke 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey 1969 Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid 1970 Le Cercle Rouge 1971 Get Carter / Harold & Maude 1972 The Godfather 1973 Don't Look Now 1974 The Godfather Part II / Chinatown 1975 Jaws / The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1976 Network 1977 Star Wars / Annie Hall 1978 Halloween / Superman 1979 Apocalypse Now / Alien / Life Of Brian / Manhattan 1980 Stardust Memories / Raging Bull 1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark 1982 Blade Runner / The Thing 1983 The Dead Zone / Zelig 1984 Ghostbusters / The Terminator / Blood Simple 1985 Back To The Future 1986 Hannah & Her Sisters / The Fly 1987 Withnail & I / Wings of Desire 1988 Dangerous Liaisons 1989 Crimes & Misdemeanors / Dead Poets Society 1990 Goodfellas 1991 The Silence of The Lambs / Terminator 2 1992 Reservoir Dogs / The Player 1993 Schindler's List / Groundhog Day 1994 Pulp Fiction 1995 Se7en / Casino / The Usual Suspects 1996 Fargo 1997 LA Confidential / Grosse Point Blank / Boogie Nights 1998 The Truman Show / Happiness / Buffalo '66 1999 American Beauty / Magnolia / Being John Malkovich / Fight Club 2000 Memento 2001 Mulholland Drive / The Royal Tennenbaums / The Piano Teacher 2002 Adaptation / The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2003 Lost In Translation 2004 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind / The Life Aquatic 2005 Me & You & Everyone We Know 2006 The Prestige / Perfume 2007 No Country For Old Men / There Will Be Blood 2008 The Dark Knight / Let The Right One In / Tropic Thunder 2009 Cold Souls / Up / Zombieland 2010 I Saw The Devil / The Ghost Writer 2011 The Hidden Face 2012 The Avengers 2013 Her 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel / The Winter Soldier 2015 The Survivalist / The Lobster 2016 Like Crazy 2017 Coco 2018 Deadpool 2 2019 The Irishman 2020 Kajillionaire 2021 The French Dispatch 2022 The Banshees of Inisherin

[steelbluehome]

"Stan eases into the role, suggesting the young Trump without venturing into an SNL-like impersonation. He captures him precisely and believably throughout"

The Deadline Report

‘The Apprentice’ Review: Sebastian Stan And Jeremy Strong Soar As Young Donald Trump And His Ruthless Mentor Roy Cohn In Devilish Origin Story – Cannes Film Festival (click for article)

Pete Hammond

May 20, 2024 10:00AM PDT

But the political Trump is not in Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi‘s compelling film, which instead zeroes in on a specific period of Trump’s life in the early ’70s when he was in his 20s and struggling to make a name for himself in the world of real estate in New York City. But it isn’t just about him — it is equally focused on his unique relationship with his lawyer, the notorious Roy Cohn, often referred to as vicious, cruel, ruthless and sadistic, a take-no-prisoners cutthroat attorney who would win at any cost. The filmmakers have cited movies like Midnight Cowboy, Frankenstein and Barry Lyndon as partial inspirations for their approach, the latter about an 18th century social climber who stands for nothing himself.

Don’t be confused about the title The Apprentice. This is not a movie version of the NBC reality TV series in any way, but instead a smart, sharp and surprising origin story of the man who hosted it. In this case the actual “apprentice” is Donald Trump, infamous real estate developer, former President of the United States and current presumed GOP nominee for 2024.

Trump and Cohn would become an odd couple, helping each other achieve their end goals at the time. That is the story of The Apprentice, which had its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday and still has its U.S. distribution rights for sale.

Will it sell, and will it be released before November’s election? We shall see, but this is not a hit job on Trump, and actually considering the 77-year-old we see today at MAGA rallies and dozing off in courtrooms defending his indictments on various charges including starting an insurrection to overturn the 2020 election. Instead, it presents a person somewhat driven but awkward, a man striving for the approval of a tough-love father, unsure but determined to succeed and even oddly charming at times. Yes, I said that. Cohn, responsible for helping Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s reprehensible anti-communist crusade in the ’50s as well as putting away convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, was the man pulling the strings — until he wasn’t. Think of it as a twisted Pygmalion with Cohn tutoring and training Trump the way Henry Higgins did with Eliza Dolittle.

“Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Trump once uttered after a tirade about a current lawyer he was unhappy with. Cohn (Jeremy Strong) was his first fixer, and basically adopted the uneasy Trump (Sebastian Stan) upon spotting him looking nervous and alone in the exclusive NYC club Trump weaseled himself into. He took him under his wing and drilled into him the three golden rules he lived by, which considering the Trump of today are prophetic to say the least. Rule 1: Attack. Attack. Attack. Rule 2: Admit nothing. Deny everything. Rule 3: Always claim victory and never admit defeat.

The latter was the one Cohn emphasized above all as the most important thing to remember. He also told Trump no one likes a loser. “Everyone wants to suck a winner’s cock,” he tells Trump, who convinced his cold-hearted father Fred Trump (Martin Donovan) that they needed a lawyer like Cohn to take on a case the DOJ had launched over their housing developments (after being indicted for discriminating against Black tenants). In his own inimitable way he got the government to settle with no fines, thus endearing him to Donald. “You have to be willing to do anything to anyone in order to win,” Cohn says.

The lawyer even dresses his mentee, who was born in Queens; not exactly the right breeding ground. “Is this gonna be a guy from Flushing or 5th Avenue?” he asks, getting an affirmative on the latter. He then puts him on the phone with a New York Times society columnist, and the result is a puff piece comparing his looks to Robert Redford and marking him as an up-and-comer. One of the key Cohn lessons is always chase the press, be in the newspapers every day.

Trump started moving up the ladder, with Cohn bringing him to a party with Rupert Murdoch, George Steinbrenner and others, cheekily (and now ironically in hindsight) telling him, “If you’re indicted, you’re invited.” Cohn himself had been in major legal hot water for tax evasion and also handled shady underworld characters, but he knew how to help Trump’s dreams of finishing Trump Tower come to fruition, essentially rigging a planning commission meeting to get $160 million tax abatement for which Trump was begging.

Separately, he introduced him to a friend, Roger Stone (Mark Rendall), whose “specialty” is dirty tricks and who touts candidate Ronald Reagan’s campaign slogan “let’s make America great again” (a slogan Trump would later steal as his own when he ran for president). And when the top of the still unfinished first-ever all-concrete hotel in NYC is set on fire, Cohn brings Trump to a meeting with some of his mob clients who deliver Trump a come-to-Jesus moment demanding the “f*cking concrete guy” gets paid. Trump is shown already as being notorious for not paying his construction workers.

The film shows his darker side, that scene included, as he is changing, becoming more ruthless himself — even to Cohn, by double crossing his lawyer whose partner has contracted AIDS and needed help in getting a room at the Hyatt; Trump reluctantly agreed but later sent him a bill. Soon Cohn himself contracts AIDS, but they make up when Trump comes to his birthday celebration with a gift of “diamond” cufflinks that say “Trump” on each one. Ivana later tells Roy they were fake.

The personal side of Trump is also on display here as he endlessly pursues Ivana (Maria Bakalova) for a date and after several turndowns finally wears her out. They marry, after she at first refuses to sign the absurd pre-nup Cohn had drawn up (she later does), and it is quite the social occasion. She becomes his partner in the garish design of Trump Tower. They have kids, but even before Trump Tower is completed he has set his eye on the casinos in Atlantic City, convincing Cohn he knows what he is doing (they all later went bankrupt). The marriage also went downhill, with the unfaithful Trump admitting to Ivana he was no longer attracted to her after she initially seemed to be in the mood for some lovemaking. She lashes out, calling him fat, ugly, bald, and orange-faced. A physical encounter ensues in which they have intense sex on the floor. Whether or not it was consensual is questionable at best and likely to be controversial, especially in light of sexual assault accusations and the E. Jean Carroll suit which he lost. Public knowledge of these lawsuits (not in the film) could paint the viewer’s opinion. It appears violent though.

This exceptionally well-researched first screenplay by Gabriel Sherman, who had profiled Trump for various publications and thought the Trump-Cohn story would make a good movie, has turned out a tale that is essentially a Faustian deal between the two. Although they have both been described as monsters in different circles, they are really given an empathetic treatment here, at least in part, and at least in an attempt to show us what led to historical change in America, and what may well continue in a story whose end has yet to be written.

Trump has never seemed so, well, human, as his own early years show a man trying desperately for his father’s approval while at the same time trying to come out from under his shadow. Progressively the two-hour film shows him doing just that, but also losing some of that humanity in the process. I wouldn’t describe the portrait as flattering, but it is not a hatchet job — perhaps part of the reason is a foreign director who didn’t even know Trump before he came down those stairs to announce his presidential bid in 2015. The goal is to show the makings of that man, not who he would later become – no matter what your opinion of that man is. I have a feeling his base of voters, the ones he dug up from under a rock, might look at these early years and give their approval, warts and all. Ironically though the first image in the film is that of Richard Nixon swearing “I am not a crook.” What the filmmakers’ intention with that choice is certainly intriguing.

Special notice to Sean Samsom’s seamless hair, makeup and prosthetics work here which never brings attention to itself.

Stan eases into the role, suggesting the young Trump without venturing into an SNL-like impersonation. He captures him precisely and believably throughout. Cohn has been portrayed in other projects like Al Pacino did in Angels In America, but Strong is ideal casting, going all in and delivering a three-dimensional portrait of this complicated man. Bakalova is excellent in her few scenes, as is Donovan as father Fred who early on tries to explain he is not racist. “How can I be racist when I have a Black chauffeur?” he asks at the dinner table while berating his sons. Charlie Carrick as Trump’s older brother Fred Jr. is also very fine, showing a man who just couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations. Scenes between the two siblings show Donald has at least some empathy.

Producers are Daniel Bekerman, Jacob Jarek, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde, Louis Tisne and Abbasi.

Title: The Apprentice

Festival: Cannes (Competition)

Director: Ali Abbasi

Screenwriter: Gabriel Sherman

Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Charlie Carrick, Mark Rendall

Sales agent: Rocket Science

Running time: 2 hr

[shit-talk-turner]

Alexandra said his response wasn't enthusiastic. That doesn't mean he was rude. Just honest // If the songs on her second album were inspired by him like some speculate, and he regretted what he did with Alexandra, it also makes sense that he could have a cool or distant response to seeing himself portrayed as "handsome dictator of my crimes" and all the other stuff in her lyrics. I am super curious about the timing of her and Louise's albums though, that may have also had an effect on Alex. The Archer came out in January 2020 and Louise's album came out in April 2020, but I'm sure they were both working on them for some time before release, and maybe Alexandra sent Alex early demos and things. Did Alex feel upset or like he wanted to try again but better with Louise? Did he want to show Alexandra he'd moved on? Or did he get guilty that he was doing it again and that's why he stopped being involved after making the music videos? Don't forget he used the same "company" for both of them and people have pointed out how similar Louise and Alexandra looked at the time especially with the vintage style she used to have. It almost has like Pygmalion vibes or the old Gainsbourg Birkin thing where the man creates his dream woman (ick).

but Alexandra’s 2020 album didn’t include Alex’s input at all. Thats why we think it’s totally her perspective on their relationship (if at all)

[milafm2002]

Books and Music Part 3 ( VC Andrews Edition )

I'm Back With Part 4 of Arc 1 Seeds Of Yesterday Enjoy

Would've Could’ve Should’ve - Taylor Swift ( Midnights ) 2022

Sugar For The Pill  - Slowdive ( Slowdive ) 2017

Alarm Call - Bjork ( Homogenic ) 1997

Sacrilege - Yeah Yeah Yeahs ( Mosquito ) 2013

Bratt - Haley Bonar ( Bratt ) 2018

Crystalized - The XX ( XX) 2009

Je Me Perds - Blood Red Shoes ( In The To Voices ) 2012

Poster Of A Girl - Metric ( live It Out ) 2005

Prayer Remembered - Slowdive ( Everything is Alive ) 2023

Play Dead - Bjork ( Debut ) 1993

Talk Show Host - Radiohead ( The Bends ) 1995

Step on Me - The Cardigans ( First Band On The Moon ) 1996

Deadcrush - Alt J ( Relaxer ) 2017

Navy Light - Labyrinth Ear ( OAK EP ) 2010

Hands Away - Interpol ( Turn On The Bright Lights ) 2002

Calculation Theme - Metric ( Old World Underground Where Are You Now? ) 2004

To Watch ( Demo ) - Slowdive ( Pygmalion ) 1995

My Tears Ricochet - Taylor Swift ( Folklore ) 2020

Karma Police - Radiohead ( OK Computer ) 1997

Austere - The Joy Formidable  ( the Big Roar ) 2011

Nearer - Blood Red Shoes ( Get Tragic ) 2019

Scatterbrain - Radiohead ( Hail To The Theif ) 2003

Souvlaki Space Station - Slowdive ( Souvlaki ) 1993

The Undoing - Interpol ( Interpol ) 2010

Stay tuned for the final Part Of Arc One Garden of Shadows

[thefoolsprocession]

It’s sad that I can’t listen to Burn Pygmalion anymore. Every time I try my find flashes back to the 2020 lockdowns cause that’s ALL I would listen to back then lmao

[jaspers47]

I watched 154 movies in 2022

Five Stars

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022) Bergman Island (2021) Blonde Crazy (1931) Blow-Up (1966) Cryptozoo (2021) Decision to Leave (2022) Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Glass Onion (2022) The Hunger (1983) It Came from Hollywood (1982) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022) Minari (2020) Mona Lisa (1986) Never Let Me Go (2010) Night on Earth (1991) Nope (2022) Pearl (2022) Tár (2022) Turning Red (2022) Wolfwalkers (2020) The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Four Stars

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) Black Swan (2010) Blackmail (1929) Bullet Train (2022) Captain Blood (1935) Christmas in Connecticut (1945) CODA (2021) Confess, Fletch (2022) Doctor Sleep (2019) Dune (2021) Encanto (2021) The Fabelmans (2022) The Firemen's Ball (1967) First Blood (1982) Five Came Back (1939) Flee (2021) Gentleman's Agreement (1947) Gilda (1946) The Gospel of Eureka (2018) Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) Harvey (1950) House/Hausu (1977) The Hustler (1961) Hustlers (2019) Kajillionaire (2020) The Killing (1956) Kimi (2022) Kiss of Death (1947) The Menu (2022) Moonwalker (1988) The Mouse That Roared (1959) My Dinner with Andre (1981) The Northman (2022) Parallel Mothers (2021) The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) Predator (1987) Prey (2022) The Punk Singer (2013) Quatermass II/Enemy From Space (1957) Relaxer (2018) Saint Maud (2019) The Seven-Ups (1973) Thelma (2017) Watcher (2022) We're All Going to the World's Fair (2022) Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) X (2022)

Three and a Half Stars

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022) The Booksellers (2019) Blade II (2002) Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul (2022) Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) My Name is Julia Ross (1945) Onibaba (1964) The Party (1968) Pygmalion (1938) The Quatermass Xperiment/The Creeping Unknown (1955) The Song Remains the Same (1976) Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) Wendell & Wild (2022) Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

Three Stars

Amistad (1997) The Bank Dick (1940) The Batman (2022) Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Cries and Whispers (1972) Crimes of the Future (2022) Drive My Car (2021) The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) Emily the Criminal (2022) The Funhouse (1981) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Inland Empire (2006) Jennifer's Body (2009) Jubilee (1978) Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982) Life of Pi (2012) Linda Linda Linda (2005) Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) Lucy and Desi (2022) Nobody (2021) Opening Night (1977) Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story (2020) Repeat Performance (1947) See How They Run (2022) Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) Strawberry Mansion (2022) Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021) The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) A Woman is a Woman (1961) Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) White Zombie (1932) WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

Two and a Half Stars

Babylon (2022) Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020) Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2017) Thunderball (1965)

Two Stars

Doctor Mordrid (1992) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Enchanted (2007) Hardcore Henry (2015) The House (2022) My Fair Lady (1964) My Name is Emily (2015) The Princess (2022) Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) Rosaline (2022) Strange World (2022) Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Treasure of the Amazon (1985) Werewolves Within (2021) Willy's Wonderland (2021) Winnie the Pooh (2011)

One Star

Beyond Atlantis (1973) Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000 (1999) The Crawling Hand (1963) Daddy-O (1958) Demon Squad (1999) Hello Again (1987) Indestructible Man (1956) Munchie (1992) Operation Kid Brother (1967) The Rebel Set (1959) Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1969) Robot Jox 2: Robot Wars (1993) Shadow in the Cloud (2020) The She-Creature (1956)

[saint-starflicker]

20 Questions for Fanfic Writers

Yoinked from @spacecasehobbit who remembers the days when works on FanFiction.Net would get spammed with hate comments for having a non-canon m/m pairing in it because (so it was implied) that was aberrant and didn't belong in fanfiction...and now fanfiction hosting websites are known as the non-canon m/m websites. Online fandoms have progressed a short way in a strange direction, but we have progressed!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 8 public ones.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? Upwards of 100,000 words since 2020, but I'm not counting the hair fic that I took off my public works list for being too junior kid gloves and fluffy, or the backdated April Fools fic that I kept off my publics works list for being too gory and sexual (also secondhand embarrassment, warning for the real ones out there who can tolerate sex-and-violence content but implode when fictional characters get awkward in day-to-day interactions. You know my heart.) Also I'm not counting my fics from FF.Net or LiveJournal, during which I had creative constipation though so that's not a lot of words anyway, and that wasn't part of the question so moving on

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Bare and Fraternity, which currently have an active online fandom of fewer than 15 people combined. (Bare might skyrocket to maybe 38 active fans sometimes, maybe it's the summer.) I've dabbled in Babel and Dead Poets Society, because I'm in my Dark Academia era.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I only have 8 public fanfictions, so it's easier to say than none of the 3 Fraternity fanfictions made it to the top 5 in kudos. I am slowly working on what I expect to be the next three flop fics regardless.

5. Do you respond to comments? I do try to. Mostly I fail.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This is a tough one because I tend to write happy ever afters or mixed-bag ever afters, but not outright "farewell cruel world!" type endings usually. I would say Pygmalion Retold is the one, but I'll give honorable mention to have a cross to wear but the bolt reminds me because...it was supposed to end at chapter 6 though. While I liveblogged my process in the BAPO Discord and said "I can't keep them apart, they're too cute together" while experimenting with the seventh chapter...the central conflict* was one that still isn't worked through, that I knew when I started it wouldn't be worked through, and being cute together isn't conflict resolution.

* Peter never really forgave Jason for the plot of Bare, in this fic. Extradiegetically: it's been 25 years, maybe let's all forgive the teenager from 1999 for having internalized homophobia?? Jason's already dead what more apology do we want.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Speak Again, Bright Angel definitely. Let's get the Dark Academia gay boys out of school and into a space opera with giant mecha robot space ships that also shoot laser beams. The giant robots combine to make an even more giant-er robot. Changing the setting and genre to something as epic as that calls for epic victory or epic tragedy. I went for the former.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Probably, but not where I can find them. I got much more hate on my original fiction back in like 2007.

It's the internet, so there's gotta be a hater somewhere sometimes about really any goddamn thing for eyebrow-raisingly ulterior reasons that don't make sense or apply. I knit! There's knitting community drama! I paint watercolors, and some communities are yellow ochre exclusionists while mudslinging about the difference between granulation and flocculation. Human beings were not built to interact with each other or form communities.

9. Do you write smut? I have no qualms about writing explicit sex scenes. When the language to do that is either clinical or vulgar and I don't want to write like that, though, then I look for a Secret Third Thing and then maybe it's disqualified from smut because of that? Or maybe it isn't because it's still definitely obviously sex that they're doing. That's why I still don't know if I have written smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? Yes.

11. What's the wildest one you've written? It's in my drafts: a Fraternity crossover with Gregg Araki's road trip film The Living End and Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin. There's a prequel that I want to post the same time as the main story. The prequel is more complete than the main story because I was writing both parts at the same time, so it's not a prequel anymore.

I still would like to read Daniel Preston (Fraternity) and Farleigh Start (Saltburn) in a room together. Nothing smutty, I think they would just have a lot to talk about, such as what it's like being Black American demisexual/pansexual men written by white people. I want to read that but I don't want to be the one to write it. (But that wasn't the question.)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I was requested permission to translate, appropriately, my one contribution to the Babel fandom. 🥳 Of course I granted it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope! Never say never, but right now I know my process and a co-writer doesn't fit in it.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? I think I still have a soft spot for Naoto Shirogane and Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4, and Ruta Skadi with Serafina Pekkala with Lee Scoresby (but not Ruta Skadi with Lee Scoresby; she will kill and eat that rabbit) from the His Dark Materials trilogy book series, but right now Peter Simmonds and Jason McConnell are the most loyal and insistent patrons of the fanfiction café in my mind.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but you doubt you ever will? halp

16. What are your writing strengths?

This is funny to follow question 15 with but I usually know how to troubleshoot when I get stuck. I don't much like my writing style now, but after I'm done I still like that I turned a premise into a plot. I think plotting is my strength, although I have also gotten compliments on my dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Around the 18'000-word mark, if the story isn't finished yet, I lie down on the floor and throw a tantrum like a toddler because I want the story to be finished already so that I can do literally anything else with my life. I say that I get compliments on my dialogue, but I also know a major weakness I have is an over-reliance on dialogue. Finally, I post before I clear my mind enough to even self-edit, so very often I will re-read later and then edit a patch over a continuity error...which means that I know the iceberg-tip of my first-draft continuity errors. I have not mentioned my bog-standard sentence structuring and utterly potato punctuation use.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? It could happen.

19. First fandom you wrote for? The Book Series That Must Not Be Named, in pencil and lined notebook paper. I think the first one I posted online was for His Dark Materials, though.

20. Favorite fic you've written? I love them all equally.

[freaxs-blog]

Celebrating Mariusz Duda's Birthday with the Mesmerizing Lunatic Soul!

Today, we dive into the spellbinding world of #LunaticSoul, a progressive rock side-project crafted by Mariusz Duda, the visionary behind Riverside.

Founded in 2008, this musical venture was Mariusz's escape from the confines of rock, a canvas for him to explore uncharted territories.

Imagine a musical universe where genres intertwine seamlessly—progressive, ambient, oriental, and electronic—a rich tapestry painted by Duda himself.

With seven albums to date, Lunatic Soul is a journey of sonic exploration. The latest gem, "Through Shaded Woods," released on Nov 13, 2020, showcases a 'more folky' side, adding a new layer to the project's ever-evolving sound.

Mariusz Duda's creative vision for Lunatic Soul has given birth to a world where music transcends boundaries. It's a testament to his boundless talent!

"Pygmalion's Ladder" - A sonic journey that blurs the boundaries of reality and imagination, where ethereal melodies intertwine with profound emotions. The name itself, Pygmalion, draws inspiration from Greek mythology—a sculptor who fell deeply in love with a statue he created, Galatea, and with the help of the goddess Aphrodite, brought it to life. In much the same way, Mariusz Duda breathes life into his music, sculpting sounds that resonate with the depths of our souls

Let's wish Mariusz Duda a Happy Birthday and show our gratitude for this musical genius! Join the adventure into Lunatic Soul's captivating melodies!

Follow for more musical explorations and captivating stories! 🎶💫

[lastchancevillagegreen]

Last night I caught Bill Callahan at the Rose Bowl Tavern in Champaign as part of the Pygmalion Fest.  It was a fantastic, invigorating show.  The band was a four piece: lead guitar, drummer (with only two snares and quite often the drummer played one handed), lead guitar and saxophone.  There were moments with they sounded like an atonal free form jazz noise freakout, it was supremely blistering. 

The set list is seen above and here is where everything came from:

First Bird (Reality)

Everyway (Reality)

Bowevil (Reality)

Cowboy (Gold Record from 2020)

Pigeons (Gold Record from 2020)

Drainface (Reality)

Coyotes (Reality)

Keep Some Steady Friends Around (Rain On Lens from 2001)

Naked Souls (Reality)

Drover (Apocalypse from 2011)

Teenage Spaceship (Knock Knock from 1999)

Partition (Reality)

Planets (Reality)

[sinceileftyoublog]

Pygmalion Festival Preview: 9/24-9/26

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When it became clear in May that the beloved Champaign-Urbana festival Pygmalion wasn’t going to happen regularly, founder Seth Fein refused to simply do nothing. He also refused to settle for the same nostalgic, corporate-sponsored bullshit that other festivals have decided to do, usually a combination of “archival” material discoverable through a YouTube search and low-quality acoustic performances from basements. Instead, Fein took what he could from the more unusual aspects of the planned Pygmalion lineup and did what would have been unthinkable a year ago: curate a virtual festival with no live music. A mixture of timely roundtable discussions, podcasts, table readings, a hackathon, a virtual escape room, and a Zoom version of the festival’s Human Library (“checking out” a person to tell you a story), the pay-what-you-want festival will be unlike any other not only in Pygmalion’s history but in the history of streamed entertainment so far. The action kicks off today at 4 PM CST and runs through Saturday at midnight.

I spoke with Fein over the phone earlier this month to talk about this year’s festival: how it came to be, curating a socially conscious, diverse lineup, what he’s looking forward to, and the sustainability of the virtual festival model. Highlights for the weekend NOT mentioned in our conversation below include Dan Savage discussing the documentary film Jimmy in Saigon, Headlines We Would Have Written featuring writers from the newly-formed sports blog Defector, and as-yet-announced material with the likes of Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and Algiers’ Franklin James Fisher. Read on, catch the fest, and if you can, donate to the fest, with proceeds going to charities like UNCF and NIVA.

Since I Left You: At what point did you decide to go the route you did with Pygmalion?

Seth Fein: I’d say the middle of May is when my partner Patrick [Singer] and I had enough discussions with sponsors and enough discussions with people in our creative space where we were like, “You know what? I think we should do something.” I’m just not good at doing nothing. I don’t do well with idle time at all. Because it became apparent that our sponsors--not all, but most--were willing to continue to support what we do, we were like, “Let’s do it! Let’s use this as a laboratory to experiment to see what we can create inside of this fucked up moment.” It was pretty inspiring. It’s ironic for me personally because we’ve always resisted doing an online streaming component of Pygmalion. I’m kind of a purist, partially because of my age, partially because of my historical pedigree as a performer in a band. I never wanted to do streaming anything. Every year, we’d just reject companies that would come to us offering to set up cameras and sell tickets all over the world. They’d be like, “It’s no cost to you, you’re just gonna make money!” I’d be like, “Nah. I don’t wanna do that.” I kind of want to preserve the idea of the moment. When you’re there for a show, you want to be able to think back and say, “I was at that show! I was with people and had a human moment.” 

The pandemic has forced me out of that space, and I’m glad. I think that as we get older, we become stuck in particular identities, and nobody is immune to that. Now, I have friends in L.A. and in Tokyo who are like, “I can’t wait!” They get to be a part of it. My best friend from 1st grade is super excited about the programming, and he lives in Tokyo. He’d never in a million years be able to come to Pygmalion. This year he gets to be a part of it, so that’s pretty exciting.

SILY: You’re also finding a way to stand out among the livestreams. There are zero traditional livestreamed performances in this fest. How did you come up with the components of the fest this year?

SF: A combination of recognizing that I already had stream fatigue and Zoom fatigue, even in the middle of May. In order for this to be a compelling program, we were gonna have to create new content you wouldn’t be able to Google search, where you can be like, “Okay, I wanna see this band perform these songs,” which generally you can do, by and large. Almost every band with any amount of popularity has something you can watch, whether that’s free or you can purchase it. It’s available to you. We didn’t want to replicate anything that was available. 

The other thing that was different from getting baked, staying up late, wondering about my life, envisioning a new future, I really just felt like as a promoter, I’m always very conscientious about what my role is in an artist’s professional engagement. How and why am I earning my percentage of the money? In a traditional sense, there are a lot of reasons: setting up personnel to create the show, hiring the correct sound engineer to be able to run a professional show. There is value in a promoter. But in this particular moment, I’m not so sure I’m needed for a band who is struggling to do a streaming set. They can do that themselves and retain 100% of those profits, and I want them to. If we’re gonna come to artists, authors, or speakers, we’re going to want to present something curated that’s unique and interesting and an opportunity for them to do something they haven’t otherwise thought of. That’s where the programming is coming from: What can we do as promoters to create space for new and unique content that fans and the audience will be interested in?

SILY: What percentage of people taking part in this were on the original planned lineup for this year?

SF: Not a ton. When COVID struck, we weren’t that deep, although what we had was awesome. [laughs] We were in such a good position. We’ve been doing this for quite a long time--it’s one of the oldest events in the country of this kind. Since 2005. Some years are better than others. Some years you just get lucky. It’s never been bad, but some years don’t hit. This year was gonna be fucking great. The artists we had confirmed for live music, we tried to incorporate them in some sort of meaningful way. The one we retained and were able to pivot on was working with the cast of Napoleon Dynamite [for a table reading], which we thought was a fun event we could incorporate in the livestream. We love the movie, we think it’s a wonderful anti-hero tale that speaks to a lot of Middle America. We were able to pivot with them pretty quickly and get them to agree to do a virtual thing. Outside of that, we had to reconstruct the entire thing: the programming, the identity. It actually surprisingly took a lot more work than we thought it was going to. But again: idle time, no good.

SILY: You decided the direction to take in May. Later that month, there were protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd and an awakening among people who weren’t really paying attention before to structural racism. A lot of that conscientiousness seems to be reflected in the programming. To what extent were you reactive to the moment in planning the fest?

SF: We’ve been pretty thoughtful about how we’re programming for a number of years now. If you go back and look at the scope of the programming over the course of 15 years, you’ll see it start to shift around 2015, 2016 in particular, and then a better and more diverse direction in 2017. Part of the problem I personally had as the founder and programmer of Pygmalion early on is I’ve always been a really big believer in presenting what you know and love so that you’re not caught trying to be a poser. I don’t know that I’m always the best person to present hip hop, jazz, or country music. I do like that music, but I was always a British rock and indie rock kid. My favorite bands are XTC and Tears For Fears, Pink Floyd, INXS...Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins. That’s what I was into. The music my bands played reflected those, and when I became a promoter, I was interested in promoting that type of music. I was passionate about it, and I wanted to share that with people. 

At some point, you have to stop thinking of yourself and start thinking about your audience. That’s a growing problem, and it’s painful to recognize you haven’t done right by what you should have been doing. You take it, and instead of pouting about it, you change your program. We’ve been doing that pretty significantly over the past 3-4 years. [Independent of] the re-inspired Black Lives Matters movement, as sad as the circumstances surrounding it are, we were always going to be booking a diverse lineup. But it’s a stark reminder. You hate for these things to be on display because somebody’s life was lost and communities were broken. It feels helpless. How is this still fucking happening? What is stopping people from affecting change? There are answers to that, individually, personally inside of our company. 

Now, we feel pretty enlightened that our festival has promoters inside of a community like Champaign-Urbana, or anywhere, to create a diverse and broad array of art. That’s my and Patrick’s personal take. You become a better listener when you start pushing what people want to see instead of what you’re passionate about promoting. That’s part of the growing process, and I’m grateful for anybody who’s ever challenged me in the past to be like, “Yo. These bands are cool, but it’s too fucking white!” You listen, and you either pay attention and respond or are stuck in a cyclical act of denial, and I didn’t want to be in that place.

SILY: What’s cool about the program is that there are things that have existed in the livestream format before that people are familiar with--roundtable discussions, talks, readings--but there are a few things that jump out as unique, like the virtual escape room with Sudan Archives.

SF: It’s still being built. One of the things we wanted to do was create new content and be playful with our programming. How can we be presenters and offer our audience an opportunity to engage and interact in a way they wouldn’t normally do? We have a lot of talented people in Champaign-Urbana, despite being a small city, due to the University of Illinois being here. Two people [we know] who were videographers and also had jobs at the University of Illinois, creative people, said, “Fuck it,” quit their jobs, and became escape room designers. Their escape rooms are just phenomenal. They’re mind-bending. I suck at this stuff. Every time I go, I go with people far smarter than me because I’d lose every time. But I’m always amazed by all these intricate ways they’ve been able to build in these puzzle pieces. It’s crazy!

We approached [the escape room designers]. We receive a grant from a public arts program for the festival, and traditionally, you have to spend that money on artists and production inside downtown Urbana in order to stimulate the economy. This year with the pandemic, we’re not doing anything live because we fundamentally don’t believe we’re in the position to be doing that. In discussion with the commission, we asked, “How can we spend money on a virtual event but still honor the spirit of the agreement?” We proposed the idea that we would hire a local downtown Urbana business to work with us, and [the commission] thought it was a great idea. [The escape room designers] are able to do some live escape rooms, but it’s truncated, so they accepted our proposal.

Our idea was then: How do we incorporate a music element or an author or someone with a significant pedigree to be part of the game? I had been speaking with my friend Ali Hedrick, who is an amazing agent who has been doing it for 25 years, and she proposed Sudan Archives, who I was familiar with and really liked. The game designers incorporated her music and her instrument, the violin, into the game. While I can’t speak to the specifics yet, because I haven’t played the game, I have a lot of faith in the two of them as creators, and I expect it to be really unique and engaging. It’ll be a situation where 6 people play on Zoom on teams that are randomly put together, so you’re not friends with everyone. You kind of have to have a new experience and work together with people you may not know. There will be a human avatar that will do the escape room for you in these different locations. You’ll be instructing them what to do.

One of the things I’ve been having to come to terms with is that people who are behaving properly, which is to say that you’re not spreading the virus, you’re doing a lot of staying at home and engaging with people through your computers and your phones. The way we’re entertained is different right now, and it will forever be different. This just accelerates where we were going. Now, we have to find a new space for artistic output to enjoy our lives. This is something that people already into this type of stuff will enjoy. The fact that it’s free will make it more enjoyable. The fact that we have sponsorship to pay for the production of this game to be able to offer to it for people for no cost is very exciting, and you hope that people who are of enough means see that it’s a free thing and donate to the charities we’re hoping to raise money for.

SILY: As much as something like a virtual festival is the logical accelerated next step, it’s not a replacement or designed to replace the live festival experience. That said, The Human Library intrigued me. After a Guided By Voices livestream earlier this year, my girlfriend and I were calling out into the Zoom void to see if anybody random wanted to hang out virtually. The Human Library seems to be a nice replacement for what we were looking for, which is randomly bumping into someone you don’t know at a show or festival and hitting it off with them.

SF: The Human Library is such a unique project. We’ve done it for 5-6 years now and have of course done it live in the past. We work with the University of Illinois University Library, who is the local partner. If you’ve ever done it, you’re essentially checking out a book, but the book is a human being. The human being sits down with another human being, and they tell you a story. You can ask questions. Some are choose your own adventure, some are a little more direct, but you walk away with a story. It’s remarkably engaging. There are things that don’t lend themselves well to the virtual space at all, and there are things that do. I think that this is one of the things that does. If I was to tell you a story, we could jump on Zoom together, and provided you weren’t clicking around the internet while I’m talking, we could focus on our Zoom conversation. It’s gonna be a pretty intimate discussion. It’s just me and you with headphones on, looking at each other, through the screen. It provides a lot of opportunities for intimacy and human connection. When we first started analyzing, “What can we take from what we’ve done in the past and try to create a new space for it in the virtual realm?” that was a no-brainer. In the end, people have been telling each other a lot of stories over Zoom in the pandemic era. This is just an extension of that.

SILY: Is there something in the program you’re most excited for?

SF: Quite a bit. I’m a huge fan of Ilana Glazer. I think Broad City is the best sitcom of the last decade. I think what she’s doing with civic engagement right now is important. We were really grateful for the opportunity to book and confirm here and have her do a Generator, where she speaks with people inside of politics to inspire people to not sit this one out. This is a pretty important election. I’m pretty excited to have her present inside the work we’re doing. I’m also excited with what we’re doing with Worst Show Ever, which is gonna be two episodes, 7 guests, and a moderator, my new friend Nabil Ayers, who is a journalist and U.S. label manager at 4AD. He really liked the idea, and the two of us have been working on this for a couple months now and finally have our 7-person collection of artists, authors, and musicians to tell each other about the worst show [they’ve ever played]. We just got done this week doing a pre-filming interview with each of them, and there are some great stories. It’ll be fun to watch them interact and engage. I’m excited to see how that works out. I’m also very excited about the Minecraft Open Pit thing. I don’t play it, but my nephews do, and I know enough that it reminds me of video games from my childhood. They’re going to build an upside-down version of our arena in Champaign-Urbana, Assembly Hall, which is a remarkable piece of architecture that was designed by Max Abramovitz, who is a University of Illinois graduate but one of the more well-known architects of the 20th century. That will be fun to see the virtual space come together.

SILY: To what extent do you see this virtual festival as a sustainable model going forward, whether instead of or in conjunction with in-person festivals?

SF: I don’t totally know. I think eventually, the digital realm will supplant the live experience. I don’t know that I’m going to live to see it totally, but I definitely think there’s going to be a hybridization, and I definitely think there will be room for both. The idea that you live in a different part of a country or different part of the world and there’s something you want to see but can’t afford to get there to see it, I think that has quite a bit of potential. But I don’t see them as the same thing. I think it’s like how you eat food. You can eat this or that, it’s the same item, but it’s done in a different way and served in a different space. I think there will be room for both.

For us, personally, I’m going to always default to doing live events because I believe in the power of being together and having shared experiences. I think it’s the only way we find commonalities. Humans are social creatures. Even the most introverted person in the world generally needs people--just not a lot. I think there will always be innovation that provides opportunity for artists and presenters to try to create something out of nothing. The augmented and virtual reality will continue to develop and become more commonplace and be a piece of the market that’s not so foreign to most people. I think that will be accelerated even further. The idea of an iPod used to be so crazy. Within a few years, everybody had music on their phones. That’ll happen too with virtual reality as technology becomes more affordable and ubiquitous. I think there will be a lot of movement once that becomes more common, whereas right now, looking into a two-dimensional stream and watching a concert is one thing. Putting on virtual or augmented reality equipment and stepping inside a virtual space is probably a much more compelling and sensational opportunity for a person. My experiences with virtual reality have been mesmerizing, and we’re certainly fairly new as to where that goes. It could go in a lot of different directions. There will be room for people to capitalize in it. 

I’m always hungry to get back into live rock and hip hop on stage and letting people dance, hopefully finding themselves in trouble, but not too much trouble, if you know what I mean.

[gemlighter]

Full disclosure, I am a monster

[hbcsource]

Grounded with Louis Theroux, 2020

Louis Theroux: I texted him [Marcel Theroux] and I said "What d'you remember about Helena?" and he said: "She sat next to me in the choir, was very beautiful, dressed like a Pre-Raphaelite milkmaid."

Helena: [Laughs]

Louis: "Pretty rad for 1983, and blew everyone's mind when she played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, she was so good. Also, she was nice and approachable."

Helena: Aw, thank you.

Louis: So that was his recollection. Do you remember being in Pygmalion?

Helena: Yeah, it was great, cause I just walked straight into the part, I didn't even have to audition. There were no other women who wanted to act it. It was almost like "PLEASE will you play Eliza?" and I said "Yeah! It's a great part."