#redemption! dancing in the nude! music!

[judithchopsley]

made an Eilistraean drow ancients paladin/swords bard and i think she is the nicest possible character ive ever played. i have the option to be achingly sweet in almost every dialogue this RULES

ive never been a dick in this game, but the Ultimate Goody Two-Shoes arc is in full swing

[perryavenue]

Hollywood on Netflix

Hopefully not too late to the party. Sharing my thoughts about Hollywood on Netflix. Putting them below the cut for those of you who haven’t yet seen all seven episodes. Long post, don’t judge me!

I loved it! Hollywood was the perfect escape while being confined at home. All the 1940s glamour, beautiful clothes, great cars, cool music, and pretty people. Plus the underbelly of homophobia, racism, sexism, blackmail, bullying and harassment. I have quibbles with a few things (explained below), but there’s so much in Hollywood that’s really, really good.

Let’s start with the “goods”

Number one on my list was the ensemble acting. Unlike ACS Versace, were Darren had the lead and the story was built around Cuanan and his murders, in Hollywood, no single person carries the weight of the story.  Instead, there are something like ten actors who have roles of similar size. My faves were Joe Mantello as Dick Samuels, Dylan McDermott as Ernie West, Jeremy Pope as Archie Coleman and Jim Parsons as Henry Willson. They were given such great material to work with! I think there could be an Emmy race between Dylan McDermott and Jim Parsons.  I don’t mean to slight Patti LuPone as Avis Amberg and Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid, because they were excellent. There were so many good performances across the board!

Number two was the great chemistry among the actors. Darren, Jeremy and David just clicked in their scenes together as Raymond, Archie and Jack.  I was completely sold on the relationship between Darren and Laura Harrier as Raymond and Camille, too. Speaking of Laura, how many saw her in Spike Lee’s BlackKKlansman? She was terrific in that film, and totally unrecognizable.

Next is my list of “Um, what just happened?”

Some of these may be why Hollywood got mixed reviews, but although my eyebrows went up a time or two (or three) I still LOVED the series.

Number one on this list was the one actor/role that just did not click for me. It’s Jake Picking as Rock Hudson. A number of people have mentioned it. I don’t know if the problem was his acting, the direction he was given, or both, but TBH, there were moments when it was painful to watch him.  In the last episode, he tells Henry how badly Henry traumatized him, but I never felt we really got to see it (except for possibly Henry’s Isadora Duncan dance). I just wasn’t able to convince myself that the character was believable.

Number two was Henry’s redemption arc in the final episode. He was apologizing to Rock, and seeking Rock’s forgiveness. I can understand how being in therapy can include the need to apologize to those you’ve harmed. But although my problem might have been more with Jake Picking’s acting (because Jim Parsons was incredible) I had trouble buying what Henry was selling in that scene.

Number three was the decision by Jack, Raymond, Archie and Rock to pimp themselves out so they could raise the $25,000 to pay back the “Meg” budget overrun. Then Jack declines, leaving only three to get it done. I decided to do the math. That’s a LOT of sexual trysts if you base it on three guys taking in either $100 or at best $200 a pop. Ernie was right to tell them no, call in some pros, and generously make up the rest with his own funds. Maybe the shark didn’t quite jump at that plot line, but I saw it circling.

Number four was the request by the photographer to take nude pictures of Camille and Jack. Jack says “yes,” but Camille’s response is ambiguous. Should we assume that she declined? I kept thinking of the harm those pictures did to actors trying to get ahead in their careers. It’s a piece of plot that was left dangling.

Number five was the Oscar ceremony. So many nominations and SO many wins! Fun to watch, but kinda over the top, maybe? Also, Camille was able to claim her front row orchestra seat, yet Anna May Wong ended up in the balcony? What was that about?

Last is my list of “loves”

Right at the top is the Darren of it all. He wasn’t the only reason I watched Hollywood, because the subject matter and the fact it was a Ryan Murphy production had plenty of pull. Darren was great as Raymond. He nailed Raymond’s ambition, his naivety and inexperience as a newbie director, his romanticism and his passion. Plus, the guy should wear those wide brim hats all the time. He wasn’t the lead, but he was great in a supporting role. Just one question… the publicity still of Darren with the thin mustache was used multiple times, yet we never saw a mustache during the series. What was up with that?

Second on this list was the curmudgeonly film editor, Harry Golden, who took no shit from anyone and hid a spare copy of “Meg” when all the others were burned. That was William Frederick Knight, an actor I’ve never heard of before, and he had the best lines in the series. Hands down!

Number three was “Meg,” the film within the series. Just when I thought it was going forward, something completely unexpected would happen. It kept me on my toes. “Meg” had more lives than a cat!

Number four was the closing credit, “The Beginning.” Bring me season 2 ASAP!!

Seven episodes of transactional sex, ambition, and overcoming adversity to follow your dreams.   Worked for me!

[drunkenraccoons]

Top 248 Songs

1. Mary Jane’s Last Dance - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

2. Cowgirl in the Sand - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

3. Caught in the Hustle - Immortal Technique

4. Hand in My Pocket - Alanis Morissette

5. Pulse - Ani DiFranco

6. Dogs - Pink Floyd

7. When the Music’s Over - The Doors

8. Eet - Regina Spektor

9. Providence - Ani DiFranco

10. Change Your Mind - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

11. It’s Good to Be King [Live Anthology] - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

12. Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan

13. Pigs - Pink Floyd

14. We R Who We R - Kesha

15. No Title - Ten Years After

16. Ribs - Lorde

17. Guns, Bitches, Brawls & Bottles - GG Allin

18. 2 On - Tinashe

19. The She - The Breeders

20. Raining Blood - Slayer

21. Cortez the Killer - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

22. Since I’ve Been Loving You - Led Zeppelin

23. Like a Hurricane [Weld] - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

24. Angie - The Rolling Stones

25. Darkness Darkness - Robert Plant

26. Nuthin but a ‘G’ Thang - Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg

27. Wake Up Time - Tom Petty

28. Complicated - Avril Lavigne

29. Det som Engang Var - Burzum

30. Ride the Lightning - Metallica

31. Cloud Blood - Ani DiFranco

32. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright - Bob Dylan

33. The Next Episode - Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg

34. Ghost of the Gang - Indigo Girls

35. New Ways to Fly - Garth Brooks

36. Bleed the Freak - Alice In Chains

37. Walls (No. 3) - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

38. Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

39. Sister Morphine - Rolling Stones

40. Serpentine - Ani DiFranco

41. Oedipus - Regina Spektor

42. LA Woman - The Doors

43. My Journey to the Stars - Burzum

44. Addicted - DJ Clay

45. The Final Cut - Pink Floyd

46. The Wrong Thing to Do - Mudcrutch

47. Soft Shoulder - Ani DiFranco

48. Simple Twist of Fate - Bob Dylan

49. Like an Inca - Neil Young

50. Jesus’ Todd - Burzum

51. Limehouse - The Breeders

52. Untouchable - Taylor Swift

53. Turn it Off - Paramore

54. The Last Supper - Jesus Christ Superstar

55. None Shall Pass - Aesop Rock

56. November Hotel (Live) - Mad Season

57. Signs of Age - Jake Holmes

58. Will to Love - Neil Young

59. Seek & Destroy - Metallica

60. I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes [Recorded Live] - Ten Years After

61. Tik Tok (Untold Remix) - Kesha

62. Forever & Always (Piano Version) - Taylor Swift

63. You Don’t Know How it Feels [Mojo 2010] - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

64. Dilate - Ani DiFranco

65. Rockin’ in the Free World - Neil Young

66. Breakdown [Live Anthology] - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

67. Two Suns in the Sunset - Pink Floyd

68. What’s Been Going On? - Amos Lee

69. There is a Light that Never Goes Out - Becca Stevens Band

70. Almost Cut my Hair - CSNY

71. What’s Up? - 4 Non Blondes

72. There Was Never a Moment When Evil Was Real - Non

73. Only God Can Judge Me - Tupac

74. Benighted - Opeth

75. Cliff - Lapsley

76. Tired Eyes - Neil Young

77. Forgot About Dre - Dr. Dre & Eminem

78. Time - Pink Floyd

79. Lost on You - LP

80. If it Makes You Happy - Sheryl Crow

81. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani

82. Cause of Death - Immortal Technique

83. Two-Headed Boy pt 2 - Neutral Milk Hotel

84. No Quarter [Song Remains the Same] - Led Zeppelin

85. Rockets - Cat Power

86. Out of Range- Ani DiFranco

87. Dumb - Nirvana

88. Sins of My Youth - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

89. All Weekend Long - Jack & Jack

90. Break My Body - Pixies

91. Thrasher - Neil Young

92. Closer (R3hab Remix) - The Chainsmokers

93. In the Kingdom Where Everything Dies, The Sky is Mort - Cryptopsy

94. Dead Flowers - Rolling Stones

95. Pavlov’s Daughter - Regina Spektor

96. Morgen Roede - Burzum

97. Suicide Note part 2 - Pantera

98. God Am - Alice In Chains

99. Five to One - The Doors

100. Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks

101. Careful - Paramore

102. Seasons in the Abyss - Slayer

103. Fearless - Hypocrisy

104. Through My Sails - Neil Young

105. Long Gone Day - Mad Season

106. Dance With the Devil - Immortal Technique

107. The Outside - Taylor Swift

108. Crazy Kids - Kesha

109. Opened - The Breeders

110. We Die Young - Alice In Chains

111. Somedays - Regina Spektor

112. Masters of War - Bob Dylan

113. War - Burzum

114. The Nile Song - Pink Floyd

115. A Woman in Love [Live Anthology] - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

116. Misfits - Neil Young

117. Down By the River - Low & Dirty Three

118. High Hopes - Pink Floyd

119. Paper Planes - MIA

120. Night Moves - Bob Seger

121. I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb Remix) - Mike Posner

122. No Sleep - Wiz Khalifa

123. Still Don’t Give a Fuck - Eminem

124. Long, Long Time Ago - Javier Navarrete

125. You are Not Bliss, You Are Not Free - Nekrasov

126. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter - Nirvana

127. I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here - David Crosby

128. Party and Bullshit - Notorious B.I.G.

129. Bandit - Neil Young

130. Beast of Burden - Rolling Stones

131. Painter - Lapsley

132. Redemption Song - Bob Marley

133. Shine On You Crazy Diamond part one - Pink Floyd

134. Gotta Serve Somebody - Bob Dylan

135. In the Light [Demo version] - Led Zeppelin

136. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix Experience

137. When I Die - GG Allin

138. Pints of Guinness Make You Strong - Against Me!

139. Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd

140. The Old Laughing Lady [Canterburry House] - Neil Young

141. Strength Beyond Strength - Pantera

142. You Know You’re Right - Nirvana

143. Five Years - David Bowie

144. Because the Night - Patti Smith Group

145. Crawling Back to You - Tom Petty

146. Northern Star - Hole

147. Long Live - Taylor Swift

148. Trying to find a Balance - Atmosphere

149. Southern Man - Neil Young

150. Party By Myself - Cooper Phillip

151. Christmas in the Sand - Colbie Callait

152. Cool for the Summer - Demi Lovato

153. Sentimental Tune - Tegan & Sara

154. Jump in the Fire - Metallica

155. Chains - Torres

156. Willing to Fight [Living in Clip] - Ani DiFranco

157. Tuff Ghost - The Unicorns

158. Of a Lifetime - Journey

159. Heaven on Their Minds - Jesus Christ Superstar

160. Obnoxious - Immortal Technique

161. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen

162. Witching Hour - xxyyxx

163. Wolves - Garth Brooks

164. Carry On/Questions - CSNY

165. Levitate Me - Pixies

166. Rotten Apple - Alice In Chains

167. Summer in the City - Regina Spektor

168. It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleedin’) - Bob Dylan

169. King’s Highway [Mojo 2010] - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

170. Heartbreaker [How the West Was Won] - Led Zeppelin

171. Meet Rhonda - Douglas Pipes

172. Out on the Weekend - Neil Young

173. Near Dark - Burial

174. Aud Layne Sayne - Jimi Hendrix

175. Back of My Hand - Rolling Stones

176. Blank Space - Taylor Swift

177. Cymbaline - Pink Floyd

178. Animal (Billboard Remix) - Kesha

179. 4:41 AM (Sexual Revolution) - Roger Waters

180. Wild Horses [Stripped] - Rolling Stones

181. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

182. Have a Cigar - Pink Floyd

183. Cradle and All - Ani DiFranco

184. I Should Have Known It - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

185. King of Carrot Flowers pt 1 - Neutral Milk Hotel

186. Hard Sun - Eddie Vedder

187. Fuckin’ Up [Weld] - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

188. The River - Bruce Springsteen

189. Maria Maria - Santana

190. Wake Up - Wiz Khalifa

191. Meander - Pedestrian Deposit

192. 4+20 - Stephen Stills

193. Buzzcut Season - Lorde

194. Going to California - Led Zeppelin

195. Rock Music - Pixies

196. Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen

197. Legalize It - MaZe

198. Warrior - Kesha

199. Never Been - Logic

200. Weakness - Opeth

201. Glass House (Turkey Tamale Remix) - Ani DiFranco

202. Joining You - Alanis Morissette

203. Black Queen [CSNY 1974] - CSNY

204. Falling Short - Lapsley

205. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley

206. Mr. Rager - Kid Cudi

207. Drive By - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

208. Holla at Me - Tupac

209. Fossil Record - White Suns

210. Overlap - Ani DiFranco

211. We Multiply - AIDS Wolf

212. Soak up the Sun - Sheryl Crow

213. Heart of the Sunrise - Yes

214. Cowgirl in the Sand [Massey Hall] - Neil Young

215. Wake Up - Mad Season

216. Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

217. The Con - Tegan & Sara

218. Teardrops on My Guitar (Pop Mix) - Taylor Swift

219. On the Radio - Regina Spektor

220. Nude as the News - Cat Power

221. The Gunner’s Dream - Pink Floyd

222. Fate to Fatal - Breeders

223. Red Strokes - Garth Brooks

224. Point of no Return - Immortal Technique

225. Break on Through - The Doors

226. I’m Alive - Helloween

227. Blackened - Metallica

228. Immigrant Song [How the West Was Won] - Led Zeppelin

229. Luna - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

230. Anyday - Ani DiFranco

231. Sweet Virginia - Rolling Stones

232. I Know Places - Ryan Adams

233. Carrionshine - Cryptopsy

234. Money Becomes King - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

235. Laugh, I Nearly Died - Rolling Stones

236. Keilohesten - Burzum

237. Down by the River - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

238. Revolution is My Name - Pantera

239. D-7 - Nirvana

240. Dead - Pixies

241. Misery Business - Paramore

242. Burden - Opeth

243. Enter Sandman - Metallica

244. Clash With Reality - Pantera

245. Die Young - Kesha

246. Frogs - Alice In Chains

247. The Ghost Song - The Doors

248. Visions of Johanna - Bob Dylan

[caveartfair]

Art History’s Iconic Depictions of Dreams, from the Renaissance to Surrealism

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, A Eunuch’s Dream, 1874. Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“When we fall asleep, where do we go?” This was the question looming over the long line of teenage girls who recently waited impatiently outside the Billie Eilish merch pop-up in Chinatown. The pop star didn’t invent this question. Philosophers, poets, and psychoanalysts have rhapsodized about the answer for centuries. It’s visual artists, though, who have, again and again, sought to show the impossible—to imagine, in pictures of sleeping subjects, the unseen places we go when we dream. From Godly visions to fantasies to nightmares, the representations of dreams in art have drastically changed since the Middle Ages.

Nicolas Dipre, The dream of Jacob, ca. 1500. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Georges de la Tour, Dream of St. Joseph, ca. 1600. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

In the Renaissance, as artists and Humanists turned to the writings and art of antiquity, they discovered the ancient philosophers like Hippocrates and Aristotle had been tantalized by the subject of dreams. The 15th-century Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino, in particular, took up the task of interpreting the meaning of dreams. His concept of vacatio animae posits that while sleeping, the soul can be freed from the corporeal restraints of the body and achieve a higher, spiritual state.

In art, this spiritual state often took the form of a dozing soul caught in a religious moral dilemma. But dreams also allowed Renaissance artists to heroize the creative imagination and play with sensual, pagan scenes. The Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto’s Sleeping Apollo and the Muses with Fame (ca. 1549) shows the naked deity napping in an idyllic glade. An angel flying overhead surveys the heaps of discarded clothes and musical instruments, while in the distance, the Muses—reveric stand-ins for the creative imagination—perform an uninhibited dance.

Ary de Vois, Jacob’s Dream, 1660–80. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.

Yet it was the Biblical dream—a communication from God—that artists were most often called upon to represent. The Old Testament stories of Jacob’s ladder and Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream were popular subjects. In both narratives, their dreams become important catalysts for change.

The dream of Jacob (ca. 1500), an oil-on-panel work by Nicolas Dipre, foregrounds Jacob, dressed ethereally in white, reclining outdoors with his head resting on a rock. His prophetic dream, in which angels mount a ladder to heaven, appears tangibly in the landscape behind his enclave. Jacob’s eyes may be closed, but his sight, the painting suggests, is clear.

Divine visions remained a popular challenge for centuries of Western artists, who imbued the well-worn stories with ulterior meanings. Ary de Vois’s version of Jacob’s dream (1660–80) is pointedly sensual. Jacob, nude save for a strategically placed bit of cloth, languorously stretches out on a patch of grass, his idealized body on full display. The ladder and angels appear far in the background, a decidedly less prominent focus of the picture compared with Dipre’s work. Here, Jacob’s vision from God is nearly ecstatic, offering pleasure to the sleeping figure much like Bernini’s famously erotic St. Teresa in Ecstasy (1647–52).

Followers of Hieronymous Bosch, The Vision of Tundale, ca. 1520–30. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The stuff of nightmares was of little interest to the Italian or French Renaissance artists, who favored neo-Platonic ideals of beauty—until they encountered the disturbing fantasies of northern painters like Hieronymus Bosch. The Vision of Tundale (ca. 1520–30), attributed to Bosch’s followers, is a typically hallucinatory, “Boschian” scene. Inspired by the medieval poem “The Vision of Knight Tondal,” in which an errant knight dreams of his moral redemption after a vision of Hell, the painting depicts a spectacular and grotesque hellscape populated by monstrous creatures and graphic details. The work also takes on the idea of the nightmare as a phenomenon that is visited upon the living as a warning to repent for.Indeed, in the lower left-hand corner, the sleeping sinner Tondal is seen experiencing the nightmare firsthand.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, No. 43 from Los Caprichos (The Caprices), 1796-1798. Francisco de Goya Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Although the strictures of morality remain intact in The Vision of Tondal, when we slumber, the picture seems to suggest, reason sleeps too. Enlightenment-era artists made political statements about the irrationality exemplified by the nightmare. Francisco de Goya’s The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) from his biting “Los Caprichos” series, employs the bad dream to criticize contemporary Spanish society, particularly pre-Enlightenment practices and superstitions the artist felt held the country back from modernizing. The central figure’s apparently peaceful sleep is interrupted, for the viewer at least, by the predatory creatures—associated, in Spanish folklore, with evil—that besiege him. Without the Enlightenment value of Reason, Goya forcefully asserts, evil wins.

The Nightmare, 1781. Henry Fuseli The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit

Henry Fuseli’s famous Nightmare (1781) from around the same time would seem to suggest a similar narrative but is unusual in that it lacks a moral component, or even a literary, biblical, or art-historical precedent. The invented scene shows a woman in white stretched across her bed. A frightening incubus figure crouches on her chest while a horse with flared nostrils pokes its dark head out from behind a curtain. The work’s mysterious intentions and frightening imagery shocked audiences when it debuted, and seems to fall less in line with the “Age of Reason” than the ideals of Romanticism, in which European art and literature began to place value not on moral logic but emotion and spirituality. Some scholars today see the work as a prefiguration of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories; Freud reportedly had a reproduction of the painting in his Vienna apartment.

Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897. Photo by VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images

Before Freud, however, in the 19th century, artists involved with the Symbolist movement developed novel means to express subjective psychological and spiritual realities through the landscape of dreams. Their subject matter features heady mixes of fantasy, eroticism, the occult, and death, often to puzzling effect. What is the meaning behind Henri Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy (1897)? Is the lion that licks the sleeping woman’s face a product of her dream or a terror of reality? Is the woman really sleeping in the desert at all, or is the whole picture a dream?

When Freud did publish his theories on dreams and the unconscious, the effect on art was immediate. In the 20th century, dreams became primary source material for the Surrealists, who sought to transcend the constraints of rationality—and the oppressive societal rules that had led mankind to the First World War. The unconscious became a creative tool that contained unexpected meanings and a window onto one’s secret, inner self.

Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking up, 1944. Salvador Dalí Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Salvador Dalí interpreted dreams in his paintings in myriad ways, but it’s his 1944 work Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking, that takes on both the act of dreaming and its results in the same picture. The artist’s wife and muse, Gala, sleeps nude on a rock formation coming out of the sea. Gala’s dream manifests in the top half of the canvas, where two tigers and a rifle leap toward the resting figure from the mouth of a fish, which in turn emerges from a bursting pomegranate. As the title suggests, the onslaught of the dream will wake her moments later.

When we fall asleep, where do we go? Dalí, the Surrealists, and their artistic forebears understood the interpretive possibility of dreams as avenues for self-exploration. More importantly, they took full advantage of that question, relishing the creative freedom of the imaginative dreamscape.

from Artsy News

[impressivepress]

The rich Russian who patroned Picasso, made Matisse

After being trapped behind the Iron Curtain, Russia’s Shchukin collection, including works by Picasso and Matisse, is back in Paris for a blockbuster show.

Few experiences can rival the chromatic jolt, the wave of beauty that engulfs one on entering the Matisse room at the Icons of Modern Art exhibition at the LVMH Foundation in Paris.

Sergei Shchukin’s magnificent collection of Impressionist, post-Impressionist and early modern art was virtually imprisoned behind the iron curtain for most of the 20th century. After the collection was nationalised by Lenin in 1918, Shchukin’s role was obscured by Soviet authorities. In 1948, Stalin split the collection between the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage in Saint-Petersburg.

Today, the collection is such a source of national pride that President Vladimir Putin wanted to inaugurate the exhibition, but he cancelled his visit to Paris over French condemnation of the Russian bombardment of Aleppo.

“The works we’ve brought together here left France more than a century ago,” says Anne Baldassari, the former director of the Picasso museum and commissioner of the LVMH exhibition. “For decades, they were practically banned from being shown, for ideological reasons, as ‘bourgeois art’. The collection couldn’t be seen, because of the geographical and ideological distance. That’s why, to this day, the Shchukin collection remains legendary.”

Russian museums have lent elements of the collection since the 1990s, but not on this scale. “There were important works that could not travel, because they were so damaged on the journey to Siberia for safe-keeping during the second World War,” says Baldassari. “But the essence of the collection is here. Even in Russia, they were never reunited, because they belonged to two great museums in competition with each other.”

Shchukin, a textile millionaire, purchased 275 canvases, including 50 Picassos, 38 Matisses and 13 Monets, between 1898 and 1914. He spirited them off to Moscow, sometimes with the paint still wet. Most have not been seen in the west since.

The art critic Yakov Tugenhold described Shchukin’s Trubetskoy Palace in 1914 “with those pale green wall hangings and the pink ceiling and the cherry-coloured carpet on the wooden floor, amidst which Matisse’s raspberry and emerald colours begin to brightly and joyously glow”.

Matisse’s colours still glow, more than a century later. Pink Studio, commissioned by Shchukin in 1911, was restored by the Pushkin Museum in preparation for the journey to Paris. The painter’s studio was obviously a happy place, with its pink floor, lavender striped walls, nude sculptures and paintings and view onto a verdant garden.

Harmony in Red, also commissioned by Shchukin for his home, faces it.  Shchukin wanted the background to be blue, to complement the Gauguins in his dining room. But much as he needed Shchukin’s custom, Matisse insisted the painting had to be red.

The earliest Monet purchased by Shchukin was Luncheon on the Grass (1866), Monet’s prim response to Manet’s eponymous, scandal-provoking canvas. It was painted out of doors, a basic tenet of the then nascent Impressionist movement. Only fragments of the finished painting survived, so the study purchased by Shchukin is the sole record of the original.

Shchukin’s Monets span the great Impressionist’s career. The last canvas he purchased, Seagulls, River Thames, Houses of Parliament (1904) is quintessential Monet, with gulls barely suggested in misty mauve light, before a ghost-like Westminster. There are even water lilies in the foreground.

In 1898, Shchukin visited an exhibition at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris, centred on Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?. The title painting was already sold, but Shchukin bought up as many Gauguins as he could. He hung them on his dining room wall in the form of an iconostasis – the screens bearing icons that separate altar from nave in Orthodox churches.

Shchukin was a member of the “Old Believers,” who broke off from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century, in protest at reforms. Though long persecuted, the Old Believers were prominent among wealthy industrialist families. As a devout Old Believer, Shchukin was troubled by nude paintings. He attempted unsuccessfully to persuade Matisse to clothe the figures in The Dance and Music, which he commissioned for his Trubetskoy Palace.

Shchukin made an exception for the exotic primitivism of Gauguin. Aha Oe Feii? (What? Are You Jealous?), painted in Tahiti in 1892, shows naked Tahitian girls, lolling on a beach or riverbank, discussing their conquests.

Shchukin forced himself to buy paintings he didn’t like, says Baldassari. “Each painting is a trial for Shchukin. He doesn’t buy them out of pleasure or desire . . . He is fighting his own taste, motivated by his own resistance, a sort of negative compass . . . He believes profoundly in the artists, and trusts them more than himself. He says of Picasso: ‘I don’t like his work, but Picasso is right and I am wrong.’”

Shchukin had met the American brother and sister collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein at Vollard’s. The Steins introduced him to Matisse, and Matisse introduced him to Picasso. He purchased his Three Women (1907-08), a landmark cubist painting, from the Steins at the time of their “divorce”.

Three Women is the counterpart to Demoiselles d’Avignon, which belongs to MoMa in New York. Both paintings were ridiculed. “The Demoiselles remain figurative in a way,” says Baldassari. “There’s a still life, an almost traditional feminine allegory. . . but Three Women was extremely daring for the time; a world-changer.”

Shchukin is often assumed to have collected art as a consolation. His eldest son drowned in the Moskva river in 1905. His wife then died of cancer. Stricken with a brain disease that caused terrible migraines, a second son took his own life in 1910, on the anniversary of his mother’s death. And Shchukin’s brother Ivan committed suicide in Paris.

Shchukin’s collection was half constituted before the succession of tragedies. But, Baldassari notes, “the way he collected changed. He had nothing left in life and felt profoundly guilty. The collection became his sole objective, was a form of redemption.”

Shchukin opened his home to the public, as a modern art museum, from 1908. Young Russian artists, including Malevich, Kliun, Rodchenko and Goncharova became regular visitors. “They pushed him to go farther,” Baldassari says. “They made fun of Shchukin, because he stammered and made speeches . . . It amused them that an industrialist tried to explain art to them . . . He bought Matisse and Picasso to enliven the debate. There was a real dialogue between them.”

Shchukin had decided to leave Russia before the Bolshevik revolution. He remarried and fathered a little girl, Irina. Legend has it that her doll was stuffed with diamonds when the family left for western Europe.

In 1922, Shchukin and his new family settled in a comfortable Paris apartment, with servants. Perhaps because he associated art with grief and mourning, Shchukin had nothing more to do with painters or dealers.

Yet his influence remains immeasurable. As one of the first patrons of Matisse and Picasso, he transformed their lives.

The Paris exhibition has prompted the directors of the Hermitage and Pushkin museums to ask the Russian government to restore Trubetskoy Palace, long used as a government ministry. They want to organise a rotating, permanent exhibition of Shchukin’s collection, in its original home. If the plan comes to fruition, it will be another triumph of art over history.

Sergei Shchukin, the life:

1854 – Sergei Shchukin is born in Moscow to a wealthy, textile-trading family.

1898 – Shchukin buys his first painting in Paris. By 1914, he will have amassed 275 Impressionist, post-Impressionist and modernist canvases.

1908 - Shchukin transforms his Moscow home, the Trubetskoy Palace, into a public museum which is frequented by Russian avant-garde painters.

1918 – Lenin nationalises the Shchukin collection. Shchukin goes into exile, first in Weimar, Germany, then in France, where he dies in 1936, age 81. His heirs evaluate the collection of which they were dispossessed at €10bn.

1941 – Nazi Germany attacks Russia. The Shchukin collection is hastily packed and transported by train to Novosibirsk, Siberia, until the end of the war. Some paintings are badly damaged.

1948 – Stalin divides the Shchukin collection between the Pushkin museum in Moscow and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.

1956 – Three years after Stalin’s death, a Picasso retrospective at the Pushkin and Hermitage museums begins the rehabilitation of “bourgeois” art.

October 22nd, 2016-February 20th, 2017 – For the first time in more than a century, the best paintings of Shchukin’s collection are reunited in the West, at the Icons of Modern Art exhibition at LVMH Foundation in Paris.

~ Lara Marlowe · Sat, Oct 18, 2016.

[they-are-there-upon-his-head]

Hi, I just really need to talk about modern AU great Comet hcs Please love me

an unprompted ask?? for me??? this is the content I signed up for

so yeah i’m just gonna make a big ass list of headcanons lemme know what you think,,, i love modern au so much so this is also a long post beware!!!

these are random as hell but are heavy on the Andrierre, which is good and bad because I love this ship but also I haven’t read War and Peace so some of the Andrey headcanons might be dead wrong

and of course feel free to correct and/or add on to this list! I’d love to hear what you guys have to say about this and I’m always up for talking about Great Comet

so let’s begin

 Anatole is a picky picky picky eater, he’ll only eat very specific things like That One All-Natural Organic Overpriced Brand Of Mac ‘N’ Cheese™

9 times out of 10 Helene is going to or drinking Starbucks

Dolokhov will eat ANYTHING but he still ends up going to Taco Bell way too often

he drinks too much Mountain Dew

Pierre keeps his shirt on at the beach/when swimming

he only leaves the house to walk to the local convenience store and buy snacks, and the liquor store to buy booze

Marya loves couponing

Dolokhov prides himself on his cool sneakers

Sonya plays the ukulele

she wears a lot of scarves and flannel and loves autumn

Andrey owns a lot of soft gray sweaters

Mary has a really old ipod nano that has like ten songs on it but she listens to it and dances while she cleans in the morning when her father is asleep

Helene wears athletic wear (track pants, cool sneakers, etc) for the aesthetic but isn’t much of a fan of working out

Andrey goes for a run every morning

Natasha uses the dog filter on Snapchat way too much

Balaga wears a weed hat and weed socks

there’s a 99% chance Anatole has texted “send nudes” in the last 12 hours

Pierre has a lot of t-shirts with random bands on them

Marya loves strong coffee

Natasha and Sonya share a room that’s decorated with fairy lights

Andrey works a bunch of jobs and has really weird hours

lucky for him, Pierre never sleeps

so they often go to the local diner together at 3am and get milkshakes and cheese fries

Pierre fucking loves cheese fries

Sonya had a weeb phase

Dolokhov is still in the tail end of his emo phase tbh

Anatole secretly loves Buzzfeed quizzes

Balaga is an uber driver

Sonya watches a lot of Food Network and HGTV

Natasha loves The Bachelor

Dolokhov watches roast videos

Pierre once watched vine compilations for 13 hours straight

somehow word got around that Dolokhov secretly has an embarrassing tattoo (something along the lines of “I love my mom,” perhaps?) but when confronted about it he turned bright red and vehemently denied its existence

Helene wears those Aesthetic™ shirts with random French words on them from like Forever 21 or something

Dolokhov wears Timberlands and track pants and snapback hats

he also wears his socks pulled up high like your friendly neighborhood fuckboy

Natasha has worn the same pair of Uggs for a long time

Balaga unironically wears Crocs (often paired with his weed socks and oversized denim cutoffs)

Dolokhov takes snowball fights very seriously

Andrey can drive but he hates doing it

he bikes to work and around the city

Mary also hates driving, but that’s because she’s deathly afraid of it

Pierre bought contacts but never uses them, he just wears his glasses instead

Dolokhov is really into sports, both watching them and playing them

his favorites are soccer and basketball

he forces Anatole and Helene to watch some games with him and they hate it

they just rate the players’ attractiveness instead and end up talking and wolf-whistling over all the commentary

Dolokhov is annoyed by it at first, but always ends up joining in and marveling at the muscles on these guys! look at those fucking biceps

Natasha visits Pierre once in awhile and brings some gifts and food (usually baked goods that her and Sonya make)

they just sorta hang out and talk and eat, sometimes Pierre makes tea for them and they have a little tea party

Pierre’s very awkward but Natasha is good at diffusing the awkwardness, mostly by talking a lot about nothing

one time she convinced him to let her paint his nails and honestly??? Pierre kinda liked it

he wanted to tell Andrey about it but Andrey still doesn’t seem ready to talk about Natasha

Pierre’s ok with it though, he’ll give it time. Andrey will come around eventually.

Mary swears by medicinal teas and herbs for almost every ailment

she also collects flowers and dries them and hangs them in her room

Dolokhov does parkour

Balaga runs a meme account

Marya has everything you could ever need in her purse, including napkins, Advil, hand sanitizer, wet wipes, tampons, pepper spray, tweezers, Beyonce’s entire discography, the whole city of Moscow, etc

Pierre has a lot of books on the French Revolution

one Valentine’s Day, Andrey got Pierre a locket with Napoleon’s face in it and Pierre was so confused until he opened it and he just looked so pained while Andrey laughed

honestly Pierre thinks it was actually really fucking clever and it’s kinda sweet that Andrey noticed how into the French Revolution he was

also, he had never seen Andrey laugh as hard as he did in that moment and that made it all worth it

Pierre’s favorite TV show is Gravity Falls, though Ancient Aliens is a close second

he also watches reruns of Jeopardy a lot and is surprisingly good at it

sometimes Andrey will watch it with him; Pierre gets all the history stuff and Andrey gets more of the pop culture questions

Helene listens to Lana Del Rey, Dolokhov has a soft spot for twenty one pilots, and Anatole is always a slut for some Britney

Pierre listens to Radiohead and other depressing existential indie/alternative rock

Natasha is a sucker for a good love song, Broadway musicals, or any happy boppy pop song tbh

Sonya loves folk music and anything with string instruments

Andrey is partial to some good 90s grunge rock (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Weezer, etc)

Marya listens to pop music of the 70s and 80s music, stuff of the “good old days”

boy oh boy can she GET DOWN to Dancing Queen

Mary thoroughly enjoys Christian rock

Andrey secretly loves to dance, he’s one of those people that just kind of loses himself in the music and is just completely in the zone while dancing

honestly??? Pierre’s jealous because 1. how do you relax while there are people around you and 2. how the hell does Andrey still look cool

Pierre is either too self-conscious to dance or he just kind of nods his head to the beat, that’s all he’ll do

(unless he’s alone in which case it’s WILD)

Dolokhov’s dancing is basically just jumping with some fancy footwork once in awhile

Anatole and Helene twerk. c’mon of course they do

one time Natasha tried to teach herself how to twerk and Marya walked in and grounded her for a week

Pierre thinks The Shawshank Redemption is the pinnacle of cinema and will fight anyone who thinks otherwise

Natasha sings in the shower

Anatole loves chick flicks and has a crush on Ryan Gosling

he forces Dolokhov to watch shitty romcoms with him as revenge for Dolokhov forcing him to watch sports

but I mean they’re all curled up on the couch with their arms around each other and Anatole’s crying and Dolokhov’s laughing at him and they’re eating ice cream and takeout from the one place that Anatole actually likes and it’s just them because Helene’s knows that this is just Too Much™ so she left and she’s basically the voice of reason in their friend group and it’s really quite the experience

Pierre was in a really shitty cover band in college

Balaga is always high

Sonya loves oversized sweaters and leggings

Dolokhov has his ears pierced

Helene has a nose ring

not a day goes by when Anatole doesn’t quote Mean Girls

Mary owns a lot of those wooden blocks with random little quotes on them (you know the ones – they’re in any given Marshalls and dearly beloved by suburban wine moms), like “Be happy” and “Jesus loves you” and “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy chocolate”

one of Andrey’s many jobs is waiting tables at Applebee’s. Pierre has visited him there a couple times and boy did Andrey look dead inside

the only reason Andrey works so many jobs is so he can afford his own place because his father is a piece of shit

Pierre offered to help with the financial aspect of it but Andrey wouldn’t let him pay for it

still, Andrey ends up sleeping over Pierre’s a lot, not that Pierre minds

Old Prince Bolkonsky exclusively watches FOX news and he yells at the TV a lot

he eats the same thing for lunch every day: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which he makes Mary prepare

fun fact: Mary is allergic to peanuts

Sonya works at an ice cream parlor and brings home desserts for Natasha and Marya

Marya loves chocolate ice cream, Natasha prefers vanilla with rainbow sprinkles

Sonya is a butter pecan kind of girl, if we’re getting into it (and we are)

Anatole likes French vanilla (it has to be French), Helene likes coffee, and Dolokhov is partial to death by chocolate (or something similar)

Bolkonsky has to have peanut butter ice cream, Mary likes strawberry

Andrey prefers sorbet, but if he had to pick, he’d go with pistachio

Pierre’s favorite is cookie dough

Balaga probably found a way to make weed ice cream tbh

Mary loves scrapbooking

Sonya writes fanfic

she loves to read and wishes she lived in a Barnes & Noble

Andrey and Pierre play video games together and they’ve gotten really good at it

neither one of them likes intense fighting games but they do really like Mario Kart

Andrey plays as Yoshi and Pierre plays as Bowser

Pierre tried to teach Natasha how to play but she kept falling off cliffs

her favorite character is Princess Peach

her and Sonya dressed up as Peach and Daisy for Halloween once and it was really cute

Pierre has worn the same black hoodie for two years

Natasha runs an aesthetic blog

she also writes poetry on said blog

one of Andrey’s coworkers keeps accidentally calling him Andrew and it makes Andrey so irritated

the Kuragins can’t swim

Dolokhov tried to teach them but it didn’t work because Helene’s bikini kept falling down and Anatole wouldn’t go under water because it would ruin his hair

if Andrey goes over Pierre’s during the day, he’ll help him clean the house because Pierre has no motivation to do so

about once a month Marya will stop by and remark how disgusting the house is and before Pierre can even defend himself the whole house has been vacuumed, the windows are washed, the laundry’s done, the clothes are folded, the shelves are dusted, the bathroom’s scrubbed, the beds are made, and there’s fresh flowers on the kitchen table

then they hang out and complain about people to each other and it’s a grand old time

Pierre’s really grateful to Marya, but she refuses to take a compliment

let’s be real though, she relishes in watching Pierre keep saying nice things about her because she keeps denying them and he feels obligated to make her agree

Pierre has a shitty Toyota Corolla from the early 90s that has no AC and is being held together by duct tape and he’s afraid to drive it but too attached to sell it

Sonya has a folder on her laptop that’s just pictures of Tegan And Sara. that’s it

Marya doesn’t know how to whisper

Pierre loves the movie theater but will only go if Andrey or Natasha go with him

after the whole Anatole Fiasco™ Natasha and Sonya blocked Helene on Instagram so she kept making fake accounts until they accepted one of the follow requests

Andrey takes Halloween very seriously

Pierre bites his nails

Helene taught Anatole how to do makeup and now he won’t stop contouring

Anatole takes an obnoxious amount of selfies

Sonya’s wardrobe is almost exclusively from Target

Pierre spends an embarrassing amount of time on Wikipedia

Marya had a flip phone up until a couple months ago when Natasha and Sonya convinced her to get an iPhone

Marya hates it because she doesn’t know how to use it and it makes her feel stupid

but Natasha’s teaching her how to use it and it’s kind of growing on her, it’s just so practical and functional and now she has a pretty red case for it that matches her nails and

Marya goes and gets her nails and hair done every couple of weeks, it’s her mandatory “treat yo’ self” ritual

Anatole pretty much only wears pastel colors

Dolokhov pretty much only wears black (or very very very dark gray)

he has a black jean jacket decorated with lots of pins that he wears all the time

there’s a skull pin and one that says “Jesus hates me” and a Blink-182 one and an Obama one and a gay flag one and an eggplant emoji one and one that says “I love my boyfriend” and it’s fucking iconic

his favorite shirt to wear it with is his Batman shirt

Dolokhov likes DC better than Marvel, Pierre’s the other way around (is that what the duel was fought over??? lmao)

Anatole doesn’t care but he thinks RDJ is hot

Andrey likes both and doesn’t understand why everyone’s so angry about it

Helene has an extensive collection of bralettes

Natasha hates pants and only wears skirts or dresses

Sonya doesn’t think she’s very good at drawing or painting but she still does it anyway because it makes her really happy

Pierre once said “love you” while talking on the phone with Andrey and he didn’t know what to do so he just PANICKED and chucked his phone across the room but he forgot to hang up and it turns out Andrey didn’t even hear what he said after all

ehhh hopefully this is pretty good? it was fun to make and made me laugh while writing it but let me know what you think!! and please add on to this post, i need more modern au headcanons hhhhhh

[blogger360ncislarules]

The CW's sci-fi adventure series, Pandora, might've slipped under your radar when its first season premiered in the summer of 2019.

Since then, its high-octane exploits, ambitious story elements, and drop-dead gorgeous cast have attracted an enthusiastic following among viewers looking for entertaining escapism.

With the Season One finale ending with almost as many questions as answers, Season Two, premiering on October 4, promises even more of its trademark complex relationship shenanigans while the team tries to save the universe. No biggie.

Joining Jax, the titular "Pandora", and her established Scooby gang members, Xander and Ralen, are her new roommate Zazie and a surprise (and not exactly welcome) blast from the past, Jett.

Actors Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis and Akshay Kumar spoke with TV Fanatic via Zoom from their on-location shoot in Sofia, Bulgaria and were incredibly open and enthusiastic about their experiences as the newcomers to the cast.

Making a scripted television program during the time of COVID is a wholly new experience for everyone.

Production on Season Two began in Bulgaria on July 24, 2020. Nicole and Akshay flew out from the UK around that date and had to quarantine for four days before being tested and allowed on set.

Throughout the production, everyone who wasn't on camera was masked and anyone new joining them from the UK or US had to quarantine upon arrival. COVID testing was done twice a week.

At the time of our interview, they only had four days of shooting left on the season.

Shooting ten episodes in two months is, in Akshay's words, "MADNESS" and made for a tight-knit core cast and crew who worked extremely hard, grateful for the opportunity to continue to do their jobs.

"Knowing that we're lucky enough to work in a time like this," observed Akshay,"To be able to work abroad and be treated so well and do our jobs in a time when most people we know don't have any work. It really has hyped up the gratitude of working and the joy of working."

As the newest regulars to the show, Nicole and Akshay felt extremely included and appreciated by the cast members returning from Season One.

Asked if Quintana, Dench, or Radcliffe have taken on a leadership role on set, they both felt that all three stars had contributed to the positive morale and energy of the show.

"They've been incredibly welcoming," Akshay asserted,"And not just to us, as series regulars, but to any guest stars we've had for an episode. They've been incredibly welcoming and you just make friends. Every new episode, you make a new friend. Priscilla, Ben, Olly, they're just very much steering that Good Vibes Only sort of feeling."

Nicole agreed. "The Good Vibes Fam. But not only just them. I think everyone from Season One -- Noah (Huntley) and Vikash (Bhai) -- just everyone who came back from Season One has been super welcoming to all of the NOOBS -- me! It feels so much like a family, it's crazy how much I feel we all get along. It's wonderful."

Speaking about their characters, Nicole and Akshay were both excited for audiences to learn about Zazie and Jett who start out the season as a new-ish romantic duo.

In a small-world twist, the actors discovered when they met and started working together in Bulgaria that they actually lived only twenty-five minutes away from each other in East London.

Nicole came into the Pandora-verse initially a total novice. After booking the role for Season 2, she went back an binged the first season for research. As Pandora Season 1 didn't even air in the UK until lockdown began this year, she really hit the ground running.

Zazie, being completely new to the show, is a wild card. She takes the place (literally, since she's Jax's roommate) of Delaney Pilar who decided at the end of Season One to hang out with Atria Nine on Adar rather than return to the Fleet Academy.

Asked how Zazie contrasts with Delaney who came from an extremely privileged background and had been implanted with a huge amount of tech, allowing her brain to access and hack -- and, unfortunately, made her vulnerable to being hacked by -- the datastream, Nicole was affectionate about her character's personality.

"I would say she is just a really bubbly, cool, fun 'chick'! She just wants to be liked. She wants some friends. She is a bit of a bookworm but she's not super smart so she does have to study, I feel, a bit more than everyone else."

But what's her superpower? Nicole was cagily vague about what's in store for Zazie.

"There are some twists and turns in her storyline. There will be some things that you find out. But, all in all, she's very wholesome, I would say."

On the initial similarity between Zazie and last season's character, Atria Nine, in that they both exude an aura of sunshiney optimism, Nicole could see how the characters compare that way but felt that Zazie brings a bit more spunk to the party.

"And there's more spunk to come," Akshay promised. "An abundance of spunk."

While Zazie begins the season based in the Academy, enmeshed in the day-to-day interactions between characters, she does get roped into the space adventures too.

"As the season goes on, she takes a much more active role in that saving the universe plotline."

Akshay, in contrast, had a bit more experience with life at the Earth Command Fleet Academy, having guest starred on an episode in Season 1 before being tapped to return as a series regular this season.

Jett was not one of the good guys when he appeared on Pandora Season 1 Episode 6.

After Delaney's implants were hacked while she slept, resulting in her walking into the packed Academy lounge completely naked, Jett made it his business to post holo-nudes of her all over the datastream as retaliation for a romantic rejection.

As he became a lead suspect in the hacker investigation, it was revealed that his reputation as a tech-head was a sham.

When Jett makes his entrance on the Season 2 premiere, he is met with understandable hostility from Jax and Ralen.

Despite his contrite apology and promise to do better, his behaviour throughout the episode doesn't do a whole lot to redeem the character.

(Total disclosure: I might've described the character as a total ass off the top of the interview.)

"He thinks he's doing great," Akshay revealed,"but he's really not. He's just digging his own grave."

While it's clearly going to be a steep uphill climb for the character to prove himself trustworthy, Akshay explained his approach.

"When Mark Altman, our showrunner, wanted me back, I thought that the only way that Jett could come back was on a sort of path to redemption but he couldn't come back as this sort of born-again saint. I thought he would try to redeem himself in the only way he knows how.

"For me, it would be kind of weird if he came back as like a brand-new character with a brand new set of ethics. His foundational personality traits -- his flirtiness, ["cheeky, charming behavior" interjected Nicole] -- which can be read as very douchy, I totally agree."

Akshay paused to think on it for moment and added,"That's probably more me than Jett, to be honest."

LOL.

"He is still on this path to redemption and he does get better at redeeming himself, I will say that. He doesn't start very well but he's trying.

"You know, in school, when you try so hard to get someone to like you and you end up just shooting yourself in the foot? That's very much Jett for the first few episodes.

"He grows. He becomes a bit more balanced. He doesn't lose his humor or his cheek which is really nice. We just get to know more about him and why he is the way he is.'

Looking at Season 2 as a long arc, Nicole and Akshay see the show finding its footing as more of a cohesive space adventure.

"I think this season leans more into the sci-fi side of it, the adventure, the high stakes, the heavy action," Nicole confirmed, then qualified it a bit. "But, again, there are romantic scenes and romantic storylines but I definitely feel like they've leaned a lot more into the action of it."

"The action and the bigger threat," Akshay added. "The looming threat that we learned about in Season 1. I think that's definitely much more present. That's definitely more at the forefront, especially of Jax and Xander's characters [decisions].

"What's really great is the emphasis on relationships between characters which is a huge plus. The constant evolution between characters such as Ralen and Jett and where that goes, then Xander and Jax, Zazie and Jett, Zazie and Jax.

"There's so many different webs that intertwine so much more, in a much more human fashion. Friendships are made and broken, then new, unlikely friendships are made.

"All the while, they're all working towards [confronting] the big enemy, the looming threat. So I think that's definitely much more grounded."

Nicole comes to acting from an extensive dance background and while we won't get to see Zazie trot out those skills on-screen this season, she dreams of being able to represent both her natural and nurtured background one day.

"I've always wanted to be able to play a role that kind of represents where I come from, my heritage. Maybe a role that is a Latina. That would be amazing. Just because I feel like I've never really cast in that direction.

"So it would be amazing to play someone of my heritage and 'rep' the heritage. Or as a part of a musical. That would be great."

Wrapping the two wishlist items together, I suggested something like In the Heights, which garnered an enthusiastic response as it's one of her favorite shows.

Akshay's professional credits include roles on films like Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi and regular roles on TV series, The Halcyon and Devs. His heart lies with the action-oriented, stunt-heavy roles.

"I love stunt sequences and I wish I had more of that on this show. I get a real kick out of any sort of role that allows me to just feel like a kid again. And for me, the select sequences I have on this show just blow my mind. The amount of fun I have."

Recalling he had recently watched John Wick 3: Parabellum, he expressed his desire to be Keanu Reeves in that role.

"Anything that's teetering on the dangerous and you-may-die sort of edge. I'm a bit Tom Cruise-y like that.... yeah, I could be the British-Indian Tom Cruise. Let's go for that."

For both Nicole and Akshay, the experience of being part of the Pandora family has been nothing short of wonderful.

"It's a dream!" Nicole sang out without hesitation when I asked for their feelings about the show.

"Honestly," Akshay professed,"It's been such a great ride. Everyone here is so lovely, and everyone works so hard."

"It's been such an amazing experience," Nicole added,"I personally feel like I've learned so much being out here and everyone is just beautiful, so lovely, and the crew is wonderful. The cast is really wonderful. All the directors we've worked with. Our D.O.P., Max, and Mark and Steve. Just everyone."

Pandora Season 2 premieres TONIGHT, Sunday, October 4, at 8/7c on The CW.

[tranquilitybasehotelcasino]

honorable mentions: quotes that didnt make it into my recent "the signs as" post

but wAS THE DOCTOR NOrMAN BATES????? good evening, you dirty homestuck lmo i lunch what are you, a chump welcome to your tape i nominate cordy for bucket duty PENNSYLVANIAAAAAA you got me. i am a cute polyamorous fuck thats allergic to spice "Yahtzee" said Dave. "Oppan Gangnam Style," her brain said approvingly. "Bruh," said Terezi. 🐴esist "i ship it" bb said blankly. the score is now Cordy 826, Jacob Asshole. welcome to scenic Screwup City, population Allison Keith "fuck up", see under "shut the" at least we have memes to dull the pain of existence i once had a dream that the kid who played rico in hannah montana went to our school im allison, from gym class im karina, from hell imagine if all babies sounded like Cr1tikal i think i convinced my moms friend to name her son eridan gay love! bee communism, and robot communism for that matter, sleepless in seattle 2: electric boogaloo yknow i dont think nebraska exists ava and emma are pyromaniacs, more at 11 dont you >:3c at me young man how did you know chess the musical was a musical about chess i hate shakespeare but ive alrready sold my soul to the bard *someone sends me a video of a furry convention* this is cyberbullying okay ive wanted to do this for a while but guys i gotta come out to you im a communist and a lesbian but more importantly a communist "disgusting" beef cheek bernie will pierce me DIE COMMIE FUCKER kisses smorch is a valid fantroll name i sweater god sounds like something a daddy dom would say amelia have you ever heard of a wild concept called church and the redemption of sin my entire body is in tangible pain!!! n'y'all welcome to hellmurder island ill be your concierge LEEEEEEEEROY NJENKINS hatsune malfoy maybe the REAL horcruxes were the friends we made along the way *soccer mom voice* sorry marlene, you arent daddy material pumpkin party in sea hitler's water apocalypse: the real straight agenda I HAVE WEAK THUMBS, LIZZIE my name. is will SHAW. *accidentally flushed my pad down the toilet* well this has gone completely fucking pear shaped, looks like theres no other way outta it. youre going to have to decapitate m no but listen have you ever actually played russian roulette dave strider, hatsune miku, and vlad the impaler walk into a bar, brandon you chicken fried fuck chapter one; old man megido and the freezer of doom STEALING MY PHONE WONT CHANGE YOUR INCESTUOUS FEELINGS ANDREW *blasting metal crusher* fuck me mettaton hey cordy what happens if i snort pop rocks "you die" shit really fuck you and fuck your dog biscuits!! young man, are you suggesting we blackmail batman i identify as an anime character, i promise i am pikachu in my heart im a fucking winner! a winner!!!! oh shit its sans undertale OH SHIT ITS JOHN HOMESTUCK O H S H I T I T S D I P P E R G R A V I T Y F A L L S No Archive Warnings Apply: Aradia Megido/Aradia Megido fucking mc escher YOUVE MURDERED US BOTH, YOU SON OF A BITCH, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU *loudly humming megalovania* "please" sbear ov juddice shes fuckinh whispering the lyrics to funkytown in my ear *ievan polkka blasting* taste THIS rainbow! goddammit janet b-buddy? *dani california blasting* listen. have you ever seen 2001: a space odyssey? "no" okay watch it and tell me being in love with hal 9000 is wrong i warned you about the stairs bro, i told you dog IT JUST KEEPS HAPPENING ELLLLLLECTRIC LEMONNNNNNN *screaming* MARQUISE SPINNERET MINDFANG eat me, lizzie millican! mushroom dance, mushroom dance, whatever could it mean? "it means youve lived a life of sin" *loud and squeakily* aND EVERY TIME WE ToUC H— DOES ANYONE HAVE THE VIDEO OF ME SWALLOWING RUBBER "nah" ha! youre broke! why is beetlejuice mossy WRONG CHAT WRONG CHAT i am the left brain, i am the left brain work very hard till my inevitable death brain you got a job to do, you better do it right and the right way is with the left brains might I L I K E O R E O S A N D P U S S Y welcome to antisocials anonymous *angrily* tHIS is why youre nEVER GONNA BE STAGE MANAGER *someone sneezes* shut the fuck up your blood is like a venetian delicacy also send nudes DIDNT MEAN TO SEND THAT THOSE ARE MY MINECRAFT PANTIES YOU SON OF A BITCH we should all go to comic con as homeless people with aids "no, annick" ITS BETTER THAN UNDERTALE im so sorry mr strizzle "lance lance revolution" please watch less voltron im pretty sure thats called cystic fibrosis Annick DuChateau has changed her name to 4 Entire DQ Blizzards in a Trench Coat on the count of three everyone kinkshame karina thats gay charlotte!!!! thats gay!!!! "and his memes arent funny" HEY NOW babbay pullmd close rin the backerseart of yowizr rofetr WHERE ARE MY HEADPHONES IM GONNA TAKE BLEACH SHOTS i cant believe brandons a directioner "i cant believe jacks emo" cry me a table, linda *groping an undertale body pillow* kama sutra, siena *singing off key* oNE RinG to RULE THem aLL soak me in your finest milks daddy who is our messiah? ... mrs d'angelo (our science teacher) *brandishing a plastic horseshoe* take it back, fuckboy i hate the library. everyone hates the library. you know what? heres your three dollars. ill see you in hell every time you speak, i hear the sound it makes when pac-man dies rey picks up kylo and dunks him in the trash. fucking obliterated are you a parking ticket? the future terrifies me if you cant put an end to moffat's shit writing you cant put an end of my life cake. stick it in your hoo-hah POLICE PUT THE CUMMIES ON THE GROUND oh you love homestuck? name five of his albums your room has posters with the dead eyes of Cameron Diaz boring through the souls of all who enter--- sollux feels trapped in a hell of "Wheels on the Bus" holy shit is that kurt cobain "yahtzee" said dave "ahem. undertale" then im gonna pull out my dads bigass bowling ball like "this is 1/800 the mass of vy canis majoris" only dumbfucks play magic the gathering in his free time, reginald enjoys BODY SLAMMING CIVILIANS WITH HIS WHEELCHAIR YES EGGSY blondie screeches to a halt, another comrade fallen meggers preggers THE HOT WINGS AVA THE HOT WINGS lizzie dont name your kid onomatopoeia annick youre a running joke in my household i can cut fabric lady but if you wanna see a super special skill i can cut human flesh you kids with your understuck and hometale im extra homosexual, but im in love with him. god bless that man. his laugh is my text tone bellybutton fetish KARINA ITS FIVE AM

[guacnroll]

that 100 question jawn

Yeah so @starsburnouttoo tagged me in this like a month or two ago and I typed it up and never posted it so here it is.  My bad.

1. DO YOU SLEEP WITH YOUR CLOSET DOORS OPEN OR CLOSED?

Closed.  I always thought some kind of monster was in there as a kid. Now it’s out of habit.

2. DO YOU TAKE THE SHAMPOOS AND CONDITIONER BOTTLES FROM HOTELS?

Why?  That’s just more shit to pack and potential spillage to clean up later.

3. DO YOU SLEEP WITH YOUR SHEETS TUCKED IN OR OUT?

Sheets tucked in.  You know, like a normal person.

4. HAVE YOU STOLEN A STREET SIGN BEFORE?

I haven’t, but I would and I will.

5. DO YOU LIKE TO USE POST-IT NOTES?

I just use the memo app on my phone.

6. DO YOU CUT OUT COUPONS BUT THEN NEVER USE THEM?

I don’t use coupons unless I need them, so nah.

7. WOULD YOU RATHER BE ATTACKED BY A BIG BEAR OR A SWARM OF BEES?

Swarm of bees, because they could probably be dealt with easier.  Smoke or some shit.  Worse comes to worse, there’s a better chance of survival with a swarm of bees.

8. DO YOU HAVE FRECKLES?

I don’t think I’ve known any full Filipino with freckles.

9. DO YOU ALWAYS SMILE FOR PICTURES?

Lmao barely.

10. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?

Getting interrupted while tal-

11. DO YOU EVER COUNT YOUR STEPS WHEN YOU WALK?

There’s an app for that, bruh.  Count calories.

12. HAVE YOU PEED IN THE WOODS?

I went backpacking in the mountains for a week for a class, so yeah.

13. HAVE YOU EVER POOPED IN THE WOODS?

A week.  At least we had toilet paper.

14. DO YOU EVER DANCE EVEN IF THERES NO MUSIC PLAYING?

Why would I do that? I’m not even a good dancer in general.

15. DO YOU CHEW YOUR PENS AND PENCILS?

I used to.  Not anymore.

16. HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU SLEPT WITH THIS WEEK?

Do engineering textbooks count as people?

17. WHAT SIZE IS YOUR BED?

Twin because that’s what the apartment provided.

18. WHAT IS YOUR SONG OF THE WEEK?

Suede – NxWorries

19. IS IT OK FOR GUYS TO WEAR PINK?

Why would it not be okay?

20. DO YOU STILL WATCH CARTOONS?

Listen man, there’s so much anime out there, and with that Steven Universe shit coming out, damn. Speaking of which when is Koe no Katachi and Kimi no Na wa getting subbed this needs to be a thing also back to Steven Universe what’s Cartoon Network doing like are they trying to lower rati-

21. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE?

If I don’t like a movie I’ll just stop watching it.  The worst movie I remember having to watch all the way through is the second Percy Jackson movie, and I only watched it because my little sister wanted to watch it.

22. WHERE WOULD YOU BURY HIDDEN TREASURE IF YOU HAD SOME?

I’d probably take a long drive somewhere, and find a nice secluded area.  Then I’d bury it there, and record the geo coordinates somewhere.

23. WHAT DO YOU DRINK WITH DINNER?

It depends on what I’m eating man.  You gotta match the drink to the food, bruh.

24. WHAT DO YOU DIP A CHICKEN NUGGET IN?

Chick-fil-a sauce, Polynesian sauce, BBQ, ketchup, honey mustard.

25. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?

Filipino food’s da bomb.com.

26. WHAT MOVIES COULD YOU WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND STILL LOVE?

Any Studio Ghibli movie, probably.  Or, you know, Shawshank Redemption.  Maybe Clerks? Idk.

27. LAST PERSON YOU KISSED/KISSED YOU?

Someone at a New Year’s Eve party.

28. WERE YOU EVER A BOY/GIRL SCOUT?

Luh mao.  Nah.

29. WOULD YOU EVER STRIP OR POSE NUDE IN A MAGAZINE?

Yall are funny.

30. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WROTE A LETTER TO SOMEONE ON PAPER?

I dunno, like, sixth grade? Yall ever heard of e-mail?  Game changer, man.

31. CAN YOU CHANGE THE OIL ON A CAR?

I drive.  I better know.

32. EVER GOTTEN A SPEEDING TICKET?

Nah.

33. EVER RAN OUT OF GAS?

I try to make sure that doesn’t happen.

34. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF SANDWICH?

Either chicken parm or pulled pork.

35. BEST THING TO EAT FOR BREAKFAST?

I was talking to a few of other Filipino friends earlier.  Bacon, eggs, and rice seems to be a staple in Filipino, or at least, Fil-Am culture.  Idk if that’s just an Asian thing or a Filipino thing, tho.

36. WHAT IS YOUR USUAL BEDTIME?

Electrical Engineering major and late working hours dictate between 12-3 AM.

37. ARE YOU LAZY?

Despite all the work I piled onto myself, I still find time to take naps.  So yeah.

38. WHEN YOU WERE A KID, WHAT DID YOU DRESS UP AS FOR HALLOWEEN?

Astronaut, Harry Potter, the usual.

39. WHAT IS YOUR CHINESE ASTROLOGICAL SIGN?

Year of the ox.

40. HOW MANY LANGUAGES CAN YOU SPEAK?

My parents tried teaching me Tagalog as a kid but apparently my bitchass was like “Speak English I’m an ungrateful brat hahahah.”  I know a few words but other than that, nah.

 And English.  But that’s a given.

41. DO YOU HAVE ANY MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS?

Nah.

42. WHICH ARE BETTER: LEGOS OR LINCOLN LOGS?

Better question: who would answer Lincoln Logs?

43. ARE YOU STUBBORN?

Only on something that really matters to me.  So like “drop this class it’s getting in the way of your grades,” I’ll be like “nah.” Other than that prolly not.

44. WHO IS BETTER: LENO OR LETTERMAN?

I don’t watch a lot of late night talk shows, and those guys are like before my generation, bro.

45. EVER WATCH SOAP OPERAS?

My sister told me to watch this K-Drama called Goblin and that’s basically a soap.

46. ARE YOU AFRAID OF HEIGHTS?

If there’s no railing then yeah.

47. DO YOU SING IN THE CAR?

Not unless I’m the only one in the car honestly.

48. DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER?

Lmao nah.

49. DO YOU DANCE IN THE CAR?

Only when I’m with close friends or alone.

50. EVER USED A GUN?

Yeah.  It was pretty fun ngl.

51. LAST TIME YOU GOT A PORTRAIT TAKEN BY A PHOTOGRAPHER?

Last year.

52. DO YOU THINK MUSICALS ARE CHEESY?

[has flashbacks of high school pit band]

53. IS CHRISTMAS STRESSFUL?

The most stressful part of Christmas is my mom bringing us to Church for like 3 hours.

54. EVER EAT A PIEROGI?

They’re pretty good.

55. FAVORITE TYPE OF FRUIT PIE?

Apple, probably.

56. OCCUPATIONS YOU WANTED TO BE WHEN YOU WERE A KID?

Musician, author, scientist, somebody famous with lots of hoes and money, idk.

57. DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

My friend claims he talks to ghost and I’m inclined to believe him tbh.

58. EVER HAVE A DEJA-VU FEELING?

Yeah, a bunch.

59. DO YOU TAKE A VITAMIN DAILY?

Nah.

60. DO YOU WEAR SLIPPERS?

Don’t touch my chinelas cuh

61. DO YOU WEAR A BATH ROBE?

Nah.

62. WHAT DO YOU WEAR TO BED?

Sweatpants, t-shirt.   The basics.

63. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONCERT?

Kanye West, floor tickets, TLOP PSU 2016 heh heh

64. WALMART, TARGET, OR KMART?

Target bruh

65. NIKE OR ADIDAS?

I have a pair of Adidas sweatpants so like Adidas I guess

66. CHEETOS OR FRITOS?

Cheetos if I had to choose.

67. PEANUTS OR SUNFLOWER SEEDS?

I hate peanuts.

68. EVER HEAR OF THE GROUP TRES BIEN?

Ohhh you tryna go there? You think just because you know one obscure band means you’re all that but I bet you don’t even listen to prog rock you hipster piec-

69. EVER TAKE DANCE LESSONS?

I should.

70. IS THERE A PROFESSION YOU PICTURE YOUR FUTURE SPOUSE DOING?

Nah.  But the dream girl is probably Yuja Wang, so if you’re classically trained in any instrument then you’re probably an 8/10 in my book already.

71. CAN YOU CURL YOUR TONGUE?

Nah I got dem recessive genes bruh.

72. EVER WON A SPELLING BEE?

Like, once.  In third grade.  It wasn’t a huge thing.

73. HAVE YOU EVER CRIED BECAUSE YOU WERE SO HAPPY?

The only time that would’ve happened in my life is when my sister was born.

74. OWN ANY RECORD ALBUMS?

I got a vinyl of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band b/c y not ya feel

75. OWN A RECORD PLAYER?

I’ll probably buy one. Eventually.

76. DO YOU REGULARLY BURN INCENSE?

The only thing I burn regularly is dat broccoli heh

77. EVER BEEN IN LOVE?

Yeah, that’s like a thing most people do.

78. WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN CONCERT?

I’mma see Chance the Rapper soon, but other than that, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Isaiah Rashad, and I’d like to hear Yuja Wang perform some Prokofiev or Rachmaninoff or something.

79. WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU SAW?

Kanye West lol

80. HOT TEA OR COLD TEA?

Hot tea preferably.

81. TEA OR COFFEE?

I like both, but given my life I’ve been drinking a lot of coffee to stay awake recently.

82. SUGAR COOKIES OR SNICKERDOODLES?

Idk.

83. CAN YOU SWIM WELL?

I know how to swim, I guess.

84. CAN YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH WITHOUT HOLDING YOUR NOSE?

Who can’t?..

85. ARE YOU PATIENT?

I wouldn’t be able to be an engineer if I wasn’t :^)

86. DJ OR BAND AT A WEDDING?

I’ll figure it out when I’m at that point.

87. EVER WON A CONTEST?

Does winning a music scholarship for my high school count.

88. HAVE YOU EVER HAD PLASTIC SURGERY?

Nah.

89. WHICH ARE BETTER: BLACK OR GREEN OLIVES?

I’m not, like, an olive expert man.

90. CAN YOU KNIT OR CROCHET?

Nah.

91. BEST ROOM FOR A FIREPLACE?

The living room I guess.

92. DO YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED?

Yeah sure.

93. IF MARRIED, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MARRIED?

Nah.

94. WHO WAS YOUR HIGH SCHOOL CRUSH?

There was some cute bassist in the pit band in my junior year.  I prolly could’ve asked her out, but like she was a senior going to college so I didn’t really see a real reason at that point.

95. DO YOU CRY AND THROW A FIT UNTIL YOU GET YOUR OWN WAY?

No because I try to be better than that.

96. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Nah.

97. DO YOU WANT KIDS?

Sure.

98. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?

Idk, blue, maroon.

99. DO YOU MISS ANYONE RIGHT NOW?

I’m at home rn so nah.

100. WHO ARE YOU GOING TO TAG TO DO THIS VIDEO NEXT?

Is this a video?  This isn’t a video.

@katie-be-happy @bluebrry  What’s up yooo

[culturallybarren-blog]

Cultural Picks #1

1. JAY-Z: 4:44

With Jay’s last newsworthy moment being his name dragged over every media platform over cheating on Beyonce (and by extension, the #beyhive), the drop of his thirteenth album, 4:44, is all the more important. This was a rare project from an artist who’s taken a backseat in the industry, preferring to appear courtside at Brooklyn Nets games and in Tidal promos. The businessman turned a business, man, and this week had an opportunity to speak for himself through what he knows best: his music.

And boy does he do it well. In a Hip Hop world where Kendrick Lamar stands as the voice of his generation, the industry has missed the voice of an older head. No-ID, who produced the entire album, makes the best out of Nina Simone samples that haven’t already been iconically used by Kanye West.

The first two tracks say it all. Kill Jay-Z’s ego, address the Solange elevator incident, address the Beyonce cheating via men who’ve cheated Ciara and Halle Berry, address the voice that he still has in the culture. 

And now onto the second track. Onto what the music is about. This is an album about how Black America can progress in an unjust system through supporting black businesses, through financial stability. Sound boring? Not with Jay-Z’s humour, his delivery, his word-play. 

 (You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit.)

The next line, playing on Jewish stereotypes,  was seen as problematic. This is a Jay-Z concerned about collective survival, collective success.

“You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it”

This is an album about responsibility. Personal and Collective.

“Financial Freedom my only hope”.

Best tracks: Kill Jay Z, The Story of O.J, Family Feud (feat. Beyonce), Legacy

2. Rob Kardashian and Black Chyna

Seriously, what the fuck is going on. We all knew this was going to end terribly. For those out of the loop:

Act 1: Rob Kardashian is the fourth member of Destiny’s Child. Yes, there was a fourth member of Destiny’s Child. He’s someone who’s had his own very public struggles with depression and his weight. It’s a public nature that unfortunately comes with that last name and the Machiavellian matriarch Kris Jenner. 

In swoops Black Chyna, a former stripper who has her own connections with the Kardashian clan via being the baby momma of Tyga, Kylie Jenner’s ex. 

Rob and Chyna ‘fall in love’, they get married. The other Kardashians get upset about it because they all know what’s coming. Rob gives no fucks. We begin to believe that maybe they’re an odd couple who have genuinely found love and redemption. 

In Act 2, it all falls to pieces as Rob and Chyna cheat on each other. Rob continues buying Chyna everything under the sun in an attempt to bring her back, whilst Chyna sends him videos of herself in bed with other men. 

In Act 2.5, Rob posts all of this–including her nudes–on Instagram, which as we all know, is a dick move. Kris Jenner tells him to stop. He says no. The Instagram powers that be suspend his account. Apart from this being a really shitty way of dealing with a really shitty situation, he’s now going to be sued over revenge porn laws. 

In Act 2.75, keep your eyes peeled for more of Black Chyna and her lawyer on nationwide morning television.

By the time we reach Act 3, we can expect a huge out of court settlement, some intriguing (but probably staged) Keeping Up with the Kardashians episodes and Rob and Chyna’s child caught in the middle of it all.

It’s a sad situation. Everybody knew that Chyna was taking advantage of a sad soul with a rich name. And Rob has somehow still ended up with less sympathy than he began this whole ordeal with.

3. HAIM - Something To Tell You

HAIM have somehow managed to make a second album with a sound similar to their first that still sounds fresh. It’s an album with more lyrical maturity than their ridiculously catchy debut. 

Expect Migos levels of discussion over who the most important HAIM sister is. Will Danielle Haim reach Quavo levels of featuring on literally every pop song from every forgotten One Direction member? Is Este Haim the Takeoff of HAIM– underappreciated but central? Will any of them be left off a hit record for a Lil Uzi feature? Find out next episode on Dragon Ball Z.

Check out their dorky white dance moves that manage to come off.