#remember the scenes they shot in Germany

[10underoot2]

What upsets me the most about all the bad writing is that Qot will be written off as something that started great but ended horribly. I have no hope . I don't think anything can save it now.

But this show has given us so many really good scenes. Scenes that made me cry....that made me fall in love....that made my heart ache. BaekHong really delivered and I wish, I WISH people watch it for just that cause they're an absolutely lovely character/relationship study. Some of their scenes have really been written and executed well. It's paining me to know all of that is going to be in vain.

Soooo I hope people say, Qot was poorly written but the acting, main leads and the relationship development/arc of the main couple might just be worth the watch.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

The Cranberries - Zombie 1994

"Zombie" is a protest song by Irish alternative rockband the Cranberries. It was written by the lead singer, Dolores O'Riordan, about the young victims of a bombing in Warrington, England, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was released on 19 September 1994 as the lead single from the Cranberries' second studio album, No Need to Argue. While the record label feared releasing a too controversial and politically charged song as a single, "Zombie" reached number 1 on the charts of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and Iceland, and spent nine consecutive weeks at number 1 on the French SNEP Top 100. It reached number 2 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40, where it stayed for eight weeks. The song did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart as it wasn't released as a single there, but it reached number 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. Listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J voted it number 1 on the 1994 Triple J Hottest 100 chart, and it won the Best Song Award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards.

The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, waged an armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland and unite the region with the Republic of Ireland. Republican and Unionist paramilitaries killed more than 3,500 people, many from thousands of bomb attacks. One of the bombings happened on 30 March 1993, as two IRA improvised explosive devices hidden in litter bins were detonated in a shopping street in Warrington, England. Two people; Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12, were killed in the attack. 56 people were injured. Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his shrapnel-inflicted injuries, and five days later, Parry lost his life in a hospital as a result of head injuries. O'Riordan decided to write a song that reflected upon the event and the children's deaths after visiting the town: "We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension." The song was re-popularised in 2023 after it was played after Ireland games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was picked up by fans of the Irish team, with videos of fans singing the song in chorus accumulating hundreds of thousands of views on social media. This offended other Irishmen, who identified it as an "anti-IRA" anthem, and said that that the lyrics failed to consider their experience during the Troubles.

The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, was filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the heart of the Troubles with real footage, and in Dublin. To record video footage of murals, children and British Army soldiers on patrol, he had a false pretext, with a cover story about making a documentary about the peace-keeping efforts in Ireland. Bayer stated that a shot in the video where an SA80 rifle is pointed directly at the camera is a suspicious British soldier asking him to leave, and that the IRA were keeping a close look at the shoot, given "the British Army come in with fake film crews, getting people on camera.” While "Zombie" received heavy rotation on MTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA, the music video was banned by the BBC because of its "violent images", and by the RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster. Instead, both the BBC and the RTÉ opted to broadcast an edited version focusing on footage of the band in a live performance, a version that the Cranberries essentially disowned. Despite their efforts to maintain the original video "out of view from the public", some of the initial footage prevailed, with scenes of children holding guns. In March 2003, on the eve of the outbreak of the Iraq War, the British Government and the Independent Television Commission issued a statement saying ITC's Programme Code would temporarily remove from broadcast songs and music videos featuring "sensitive material", including "Zombie". Numerous media groups complied with the decision to avoid "offending public feeling", along with MTV Europe. Since it violated the ITC guidelines, "Zombie" was placed on a blacklist of songs, targeting its official music video. The censorship was lifted once the war had ended. In April 2020, it became the first song by an Irish group to surpass one billion views on Youtube.

"Zombie" received a total of 91% yes votes!

[thebreakfastgenie]

Please help I have no idea where the 'bj owes Hawkeye $150' thing comes from 😩😩😩 I would like to be in on the joke

It's canon, anon!! Don't you remember??

Okay, okay.

It comes from the 1986 German dub of Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, also know as MASH Part 2. It's called that because it was released before most of the show was dubbed and aired in Germany and was therefore marketed as a sequel to the movie MASH (1970), with the tagline "those crazy medicine men are at it again!"

Yeah.

MASH Part 2 made a number of changes, most notably cutting the end of the bus scene that reveals the baby. That's right, in MASH Part 2, it really was a chicken. So in an effort to explain why Hawkeye had a breakdown absent the trauma that caused it in the original story, they imply he's just sort of generally stressed out, and one of the reasons is that Hawkeye and BJ don't really like each other.

The dialogue of BJ's visit is changed so that BJ compares the size of Erin's feet to a dollar bill, just so Hawkeye can say "that reminds me, you still owe me $150." No, this is not a German idiom. It's just so he can say the word "dollar."

There is never any explanation provided for why BJ owes Hawkeye this much money; $150 in 1953 money is roughly $1,708.58 in 2023 money, so this is isn't exactly pocket change.

Another thing that MASH Part 2 does I guess to justify marketing it as a comedy, is it adds a running bit where two unseen voices tell "jokes" over the P.A. loudspeaker. Most of them are not funny. But the final line in MASH Part 2, after the German BJ says his equivalent of "just in case, I left you a note," as the last shots of Hawkeye and BJ are rolling, is the P.A. loudspeaker guys saying "BJ got away without paying the $150!"

So not only is it bizarre, it's literally the last line in MASH (1986 German edition).

The expert on MASH Part 2 and the person responsible for discovering it is @genderqueer-klinger. Mack created English subtitles for the scene that includes both the first reference to the $150 BJ owes Hawkeye and the MASH Part 2 take on the chicken.

Welcome to the joke, anon!

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Puts out a new nice poem and then releases music video with assault scene in it during thia not so good for him times... Till really is something else.

what follows is my personal opinion, so feel free to disagree entirely:

With regards to the video i'm withholding judgment until i've seen the entire thing in context. Ofcourse the one scene they put in the teaser is there to provoke, and i'd say he succeeded. But remember Rammstein's Deutschland video when the one bit that was used as teaser was of the WWII prisoners and loads of people were ready to critique them of being insensitive (at best) (and i'm sure some still do), but in the context of the complete video i would say it was actually a real honest depiction of German history and showed a vital part of that (and even more interesting, it showed that people were inprisoned or killed for various reasons, which is the raw truth, although a truth that Germany has had a difficult time to come to terms with, and Rammstein hit the sore spot).

We know the dreadlock hairdo from photos Till's friend accidently (?) leaked at the time, and that was before the allegations stuff, but in theory it is possible that a video was shot at the time, but that it was reshot more recently to change the narrative (maybe as a reaction to the allegations), and unless we see the whole thing, we don't know the message it wants to convey.

The poem is interesting to me, because, apart from art being open to interpretation, and we don't have (and probably won't get) Till's own comment on what he intended with it. But at some points during the last months i may have had the feeling that Till wasn't bothered or had a 'FU' attitude to what happened. At the very least during the few bits i had seen from his tour (but as you may know, Till's imagery in his solowork is not my thing) he seemed to continue in the same vein as before and possibly provocatively announcing holding after-parties etc; again, it could be interpreted as a FU...

Well the poem, to me, shows that it does bother him, and that it gets to him. Maybe the fact that people again painted slogans somewhere in his neighbourhood recently, still not letting go of the allegations and now he got back to Berlin after the tour and saw it with his own eyes, was the proverbial 'final straw' that prompted him to write the poem... maybe he already made the poem months ago...don't know.

What is interesting to me too, is that the allegations stuff is often attributed to politically speaking 'left-wing' inclined people; and slogans that are used are usually targetted at 'right-wing' others. But we know for a fact that Rammstein as a whole and Till too are, well, officially political, but if we would *have* to 'label' them, it would be decidedly 'left-wing'. I've felt more than once, that actually the phrases used and actions done by the accusers (and their hangers-on) are going to extremes that actually tend to loop back towards the other end of the political spectrum. The accusations without proof, the cancel culture...isn't it really the same as silencing people because of their beliefs or way of life that happens in Right-wing society? If everything in life is a circle, if you go to the extreme left, don't you run the risk of unintentionally becoming extreme right yourself?

The phrase in the poem"Rot wird braun" (Red becomes brown) reminds me a lot of Left-wing (often represented with color red) turning into Right-wing (especially in 1930/1940's Germany the color of Right wing politics)...and although it is just my interpretation, i wouldn't be surprised if Till made that connection too.

Of all of Till's solowork, i appreciate his poetry the most, and this is no exception.

And the poem sparked my interest in the video more than before i read it, so it will be interesting to see the whole 🌺

[ww2yaoi]

THIS IS LONG AS FUCK LMAO IM SO SORRY IN ADVANCE I REALLY JUST STARTED YAPPING but i saw your post abt mota characters being underdeveloped compared to other hbo war shows and had some Thoughts

this is something i’ve heard mentioned on a couple reviews from historian guys on youtube and podcasts etc. i’m honestly not sure how much of it is intentional and how much of it is a result of weird pacing and writing decisions made due to budget cuts or episode numbers being reduced or whatever but it is something i thought was interesting:

basically the way the show treats its characters is kinda reflective of the way the air war itself was for the men involved: at first you’d would arrive on base and make close friends and develop rapport with each other a la buck bucky curt croz etc. but then the attrition sets in - someone like curt dies, more and more crews disappear, and on base it’s like they never existed. you get jaded. it becomes harder to get close to the new guys because you know they’re more than likely gonna be dead after the next mission, or you will be, and they’ll have to deal with losing you. this is kinda reflected in the scene after buck n bucky meet rosie. ‘when we go down they won’t remember us either’ etc.

the show kinda does this with the characters it introduces. u meet the main guys in the beginning and get sort of familiar with them, enough to be attached, and then curt fucking dies. if you aren’t well versed in the real history (like i wasn’t) then you have no damn idea who’s surviving to the end, and that makes you approach the remaining leads a little differently. when buck goes down you don’t really know if you’ll see him again. ‘they wouldn’t kill him it’s austin butler’ but they killed barry keoghan already soooo maybe they will? maybe bucky is the main lead now? it’s hard to know who’s safe to stay invested in.

and then obviously we follow bucky through his little romp through germany and then the stalag, (which is tense as fuck because WE DONT KNOW IF HES SAFE NARRATIVELY SPEAKING) but when it switches back to base there’s no mention of him or buck after the initial loss. like they never existed. we get rosie and croz, and a bunch of brand new crews who we mostly don’t recognize and who blend together so easily we have no idea if they survive or not because we don’t care and neither does the show. there is not space to care (diagetically if youre a pilot because you stop putting effort in to get acquainted w them just to lose someone again, and irl because the show stops putting effort in to distinguish them from each other).

guys we even sort of recognize or give a fuck about like nash die immediately. or (this one is kinda a stretch bc obviously their storyline getting forgotten about probably isn’t intentional but) with quinn and bailey when their plot gets dropped you can look at it like the guys on base who cared about them have also died or been shot down, so they’re no longer important to follow. and when buck returns to base in 9 who greets him? croz and rosie. almost nobody else who remembers him is still around. they either died or went to the stalag with him, or to other ones like it.

the show essentially ends up mirroring its characters: starting out with the promise of brotherhood and wartime camaraderie and friendship etc etc and then having it UTTERLY SHATTERED by the realities of the kind of war they are fighting.

it’s honestly fascinating to me. i’ve very rarely experienced a show with a supposedly ensemble cast at the start where the ensemble aspect kind of just gets destroyed and the characters are all killed or permanently split up partway through.

yeah that’s interesting and you have good points. I wasn’t really talking about their bonds with each other though, more so their individual character arcs and personality traits that were often shallow or not fleshed out entirely. I understand not having much of a supporting cast because these men were so expendable, but there were characters like macon and alex etc. who could’ve been given more to do. people have even argued (I don’t know if I entirely agree) that buck and bucky had shallow characterization as well. I think it’s good that you can find that kind of meaning in the show but I don’t think the show does that great of a job at hitting home these points and kind of just arrives there incidentally

then there’s the question of why even adapt this material if it’s not very well suited for a narrative story in the first place. and people can argue about that I’m not gonna touch it lol

but I see your point. I just don’t think the show was that intentional about the way it handled its character arcs. it feels more like things just falling by the wayside than intentional thematic choices

[meyerlansky]

man i love episode six, it does such a good job really making you feel bucky's complete despair and the height of the stakes, but three watches in, i cannot let go of how spectator-y the shots of the cattle car feel. they really could've left it at the soldier getting shot for running and the rest of them having to know that the corpse is in there with them instead of having the other train come through, with no connection to egan's storyline or emotional investment, just to give the soldiers an "oh shit nazis r evul" moment, and never have egan or the other POWs discuss or mention it again.

and it's not like the show overall is bad at addressing the Holocaust, even as a "background" event. it's not GREAT imo and there is SO much downplaying of rosie's jewishness as a driving factor of his characterization [including wrt "you don't cry about it, you just get the job done" but that's a whole other post about minority strain and sublimating one's experiences of oppression into practicality rather than processing] but his scenes in the camp and with the survivors in ep 9 are SO well done, without feeling like rubbernecking. even solly panicking on the march and "there are only americans in stalag luft iii" feel more tactful and well-integrated into the narrative than the cattle car shots.

idk, it just feels very "hey remember this is going on in the background! okay you can forget about it now, egan's sure gonna" in a way that feels much sloppier and more voyeuristic than other parts of the show that touch on the atrocities germany committed

[mariacallous]

One of Russia’s most famous 20th-century novels has returned to the Silver Screen. Infamously difficult to capture as a motion picture (more mystical observers even speak of a curse), Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” is back, reinterpreted by American-Russian filmmaker Michael Lockshin. The new movie stars Evgeny Tsyganov and Yulia Snigir in the titular roles and features German actor August Diehl (Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”) as the story’s demonic character Woland. Meduza reviews the controversy surrounding the film’s director and funding, the book’s cinematic history, and Lockshin’s adaptation.

The political controversy

Michael Lockshin’s “The Master and Margarita” averages an impressive 7.9/10 rating with more than 43,000 reviews at KinoPoisk and leads Russia’s box office in its opening week after earning 57.3 million rubles ($640,000) on its first day in theaters, but the director was making enemies before his film ever sold a single ticket. Self-described patriots denounce Lockshin as a Russophobe, a traitor, and a neoliberal besmircher of the intrepid Soviet secret police. They call him a hypocrite, too, in light of the fact that this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s classic was made (in 2021, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) with 800 million rubles ($8.9 million) from Russia’s Cinema Foundation, the state’s key funding agency for the domestic film industry. 

Lockshin, who now resides in the United States, declined to answer Meduza’s questions about the backlash in Russia, saying he’s not yet ready to comment on the situation. On Telegram, pro-war channels have circulated screenshots of Facebook posts that are now hidden from non-friends where Lockshin shared independent reporting about the war in Ukraine, wrote that he’s donated to Ukrainian organizations, warned that future generations of Russians will be paying reparations for the “tragedy they brought to Ukraine,” and compared the Putin regime to Nazism in Germany.

State propagandist Tigran Keosayan has advocated criminal charges against Lockshin, while Trofim Tatarenkov, a host on Russia’s state-run Sputnik radio (who admits that he hasn’t even seen Lockshin’s movie), called the filmmaker ��scum” and fondly remembered how such “enemies of the people” were shot during the Stalinist era.

Previous adaptations

In May 2016, poet and literary critic Lev Oborin wrote an essay for Meduza answering several “questions you’re too embarrassed to ask” about Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” including the most shameful of all: Can I just skip the book and watch a movie version instead? The short answer is, yes, you can always skip the book. In fact, unless you’re a student or some other kind of hostage, you can skip the movies, too. But since you asked, there are at least two previous screen adaptations of “The Master and Margarita” worth knowing about.

The better-liked version, at least until now, has been Yuri Kara’s 207-minute film, made in the mid-1990s but not released until August 2011. Meanwhile, in 2005, Vladimir Bortko created a miniseries for Russian television that was criticized for uneven casting and even worse special effects. Unfortunately for Bortko, the 10 episodes drew deeply unfavorable comparisons to his beloved 1988 adaptation of Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog.” 

It’s also tempting to contrast Bortko’s miniseries with Kara’s adaptation — particularly how the two portrayed one of the novel’s most visually scandalous scenes: Satan’s Grand Ball. Filmed almost a decade later and made for TV, the sequence in Bortko’s series “looks almost puritanical” compared to Kara’s film, noted Lev Oborin. In raw terms of nudity and violence, this assessment is hard to contest:

So, is Lockshin’s adaptation any good?

Anton Dolin (a prominent Russian film critic who might be best known to casual Internet users as the interviewer who provoked Ridley Scott into saying, “Sir, fuck you. Fuck you. Thank you very much. Fuck you, go fuck yourself.”) liked Lockshin’s adaptation quite a bit. In a review published by Meduza, Dolin writes that the film “manages to retain the sharpness of the original source, which mocks Soviet power, and at the same time offers the viewer an innovative perspective on a classic text.”

Dolin praises Lockshin’s “Hollywood flourishes” and his capacity to juggle the book’s “genre and intonation incompatibility,” which has plagued past interpretations. The new adaptation brings a “circus element” to the story without sacrificing the script’s “rigidity,” says Dolin, while also “condensing the vastness of Bulgakov's novel into a coherent and clear narrative.” (You’ve been warned, formalists.)

Lockshin’s film takes some liberties with Bulgakov’s classic. For example, in the novel, the Master character doesn’t emerge until the middle of the book, leaving the reader to wonder about the title. In the new film, however, the main plotline belongs to the love story between Margarita Nikolaevna (the unhappily married wife of a Soviet functionary) and a writer she calls the Master. According to Lockshin’s script (which he co-wrote with Roman Kantor), the secondary narrative involving Pontius Pilate’s trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth) is a play within the story written by the Master and pulled from production by Soviet censors after its opening performance. (In a feat of authenticity unprecedented in modern Russian cinema, the Jerusalem scenes, which comprise roughly 10 minutes of the film, are performed in Aramaic and Latin.) Meanwhile, all the adventures across Moscow involving Woland and his entourage are presented as figments of the Master’s imagination as he slowly loses his mind under state persecution.

As Lockshin has argued in comments promoting the movie, Dolin says Bulgakov’s novel enjoys heightened relevance in contemporary Russia, and the new film makes menacing villains of NKVD executioners while presenting even more revolting characters in the Soviet elites whose conformity and hypocrisy enabled the Stalinist regime.

Dolin praises the decision to cast August Diehl as Woland, the mysterious foreigner whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling in the novel. Diehl’s Woland “is a real find,” Dolin writes. The German actor plays the character as “an infernally sarcastic gentleman in black” who resembles Satan “more than the thoughtful, sad wisemen from various Russian interpretations of the same character.”

A cartoonishly scary foreigner, complete with a spooky German accent, Woland turns out to be the creation of the writer’s wounded mind, his alter ego, writes Dolin. The censorship and persecution the character faces in the film are a “chilling reproduction” of mechanisms that resonate more in Putinist than Stalinist Russia, Dolin argues, highlighting some lines that wink boldly at modern-day realities, including nods to Crimea, oil production, and military parades.

Lockshin’s adaptation also features a fantastical version of Moscow that recalls the visionary designs of artists in the Higher Art and Technical Studios, which flourished in the 1920s before crumbling under Stalinism. In this universe, Moscow completed the Palace of the Soviets, altering the skyline in a delirious finale that depicts the city ablaze. This scene, in particular, has upset several state propagandists.

Dolin notes that Margarita is absent from the story for much of the film, but she reappears in the final act as a heroine on her own narrative arc. In the character’s scenes as a witch and then a queen, Lockshin’s intentions and the meaning of the novel’s title finally become clear, says Dolin: 

It’s not the imagination of the writer that transforms the grim reality but exclusively the emotion that is capable of elevating you to the heavens, of burning cities, and punishing or pardoning with the mere force of thought. In the end, Lockshin’s film is not about Satan, not about Moscow, not about Pilate, and not about totalitarianism, censorship, or creativity, but about love. It alone makes a person invisible and free.

[thislovintime]

Photo 1 by Michael Ochs Archives; photo 2 from The Monkees Monthly; photos 3 & 4 by Chuck Boyd.

“[In the morning] you’ll find Micky and Davy performing an impromptu duet on ‘She,’ Peter catching 40 winks on a couch whole props are shoved around him and Mike answering the phone. The props and lighting set for a scene and the call goes out: ‘Okay, let’s have the first team in.’ Mike, Micky, Peter and Davy collectively assembled, the scene is shot, changes made and re-shot. The off-camera antics of the Monkees are roughly those you see on-screen, with lines tossed back and forth, ideas exchanged, opinions voiced and faces twisted into all sorts of contortions. […] In a corner about as far away from the confusion as it is possible to get, Mike and Peter with guitars in hand are going over the music they’re set to play in the next scene and Micky has claimed the couch for his turn at catching a few winks while he can. […] Lunch break over, the cast and crew re-assembles and the visitors grow in number as four or five different groups of fans are admitted onto the set. Davy and Peter sing ‘Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying’ for their visitors and Mama Cass pops her head in and is soon in the midst of conversation with Peter. And so it goes. Scenes are set up, shot, reshot and sent on their way to be printed.” - Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, February 11, 1967

“Of all the four Monkees, Peter’s ‘irreverence’ is perhaps the most articulate. His convictions seem deeper and stronger. And all of them, in his mind, properly reasoned out to unshakable conclusions. The son of a Connecticut college professor, Peter is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about classical and pop music. He composes, and plays four instruments fluently. He abandoned an earlier ambition to become an English teacher after flunking the courses twice. His mother, active in local Little Theater groups, introduced him to drama. ‘I don’t remember it,’ Peter said, ‘but when I was about four, with my parents in Germany, we went to a band concert. Nothing would quiet me until I had held the baton and led the band. ‘My parents were only-child type adults and their attitude when I was a baby and demanded attention, was, “Let him cry, he’ll get over it.” As a result I’ve always felt a slightly abnormal need for extra affection. Until I was twenty, my life was overwhelmed by the pressures of discipline. The informality of The Monkees and the popularity of the show satisfies me. ‘I’ll stay with The Monkees as long as I’m needed, as long as I’m wanted. We don’t agree on everything on or off the cameras, but as a group we get along.’" - article by Lou Larkin, Photoplay, September 1967 (read more in an older post)

[aphfanficwriters]

Every month we will pose a question and collate responses as a fun and informal little exercise in getting to know each other and spark discussion.

For Hetalia's 18th anniversary, we asked our writers:

“How did you first get into Hetalia?”

Beetroot / @council-of-beetroot: People had recommended it to me prior since I'm a geography nerd but I heard it was offensive. At one point I read a fanfic about Hetalia Lithuania and that piqued my interest. But then like six months, around March of 2022, later I recalled my sister talking about a funny scene from Hetalia. So I decided to look up Hetalia out of context on YouTube. I decided nothing could be more offensive than I was at 13 so I watched that and then knew I had to watch the show. I watched the show in a weekend. It was particularly funny to watch at the time because my best friends that year in highs were foreign exchange students from Germany and Japan. Anyway here I am now.

Angel / @billowingangel: I got into Hetalia around 2015 by reading x Reader fanfiction and I stumbled upon a Germany x Reader on DeviantArt and then I went down a rabbit hole of the Hetalia countries x readers. The x reader fanfiction comforted me immensely as I was struggling greatly at the time and that was probably the worst time of my life. Then I found other Hetalia fanfiction and fanart, and I then watched some of the episodes on YouTube. Since then Hetalia has been something of great comfort and nostalgia to me. Hetalia honestly means so much to me and there's been so many lovely people in this fandom that I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with 💗

Didi / @teaedon: Searched my country on deviantart, found Hetalia OCs comics. Watched the anime when it had just 1 or 2 seasons out (both 2009), and began to keep up with blog and page translations on Livejournal (did I understand English at the time? Barely lmao). Then jumped from Livejournal to Tumblr but because a funny-unrelated-to-Heta blog, but soon more than later I started following Hetalia blogs... Made my sideblog in 2015; I should have done that sooner, it's around that time that my actual main fandom was another for a while. Even with the manga hiatus ending in 2021 (also new anime season), I only fully returned in 2022. No fics until... 2023, omg (the deleted ff.net one from when I was in school doesn't count).

Tama / @delgumofics: Back in 2012 my sister suggested I check it out, said it was funny. I watched ep1 subbed and by the end I had a glassy look in my eyes, shut it off, and promptly forgot about it. Later on it was on Netflix so I gave the dub a shot and died laughing. I binged the whole original run in a couple days then started looking at fics.

Eru / @eruverse: I first learned of Hetalia around well 10 years ago, but couldn’t get properly into it. I alrd liked Vanya but that was that [...] I properly got into Hetalia after they released Indonesia, so it was just around 2021. Was immediately thrown into Netherlands/Indonesia, the beloved ship of Indonesian fandom, creating fanarts for them and brainrotting with other Indonesian fans. Good times! Ah, NLID… other Indonesia ships would simply not compare to the weight of history, emotional baggage, and all kinds of other baggage of this one ship. You should check it out, and being Indonesian I have the front seat for accessing juicy historical materials. Nobody in the fandom knows the special side of Netherlands that Indonesians do.

@folightening: Bought and watched the first season a long time ago, I think it was out of curiosity. I remember people talking about it at school and I recognized the name at the store so I got the first season to check out. Didn't do anything more with it until ~2 years ago I think? Watched it again on a whim, bought the series in a collection set, found where I could read it, got my writer's block shattered, and the rest is history.

Yukihitomi / @arthurhonda: This is actually a funny story. So it was back in 2011, and my friend recommended it to me because I like history and was a history kid. It also had nekotalia, and I love cats. Combine the two, and it was a good recomendation. Ironically, she said "don't get into the fandom." Clearly, I didn't listen.

Ash / Lutz: A friend told me the anime was really funny so we watched a few episodes of it when we were in high school. I was hooked and almost immediately started googling amecan fanart lmao

Prush / @proosh: I can't remember exactly but I think my discovery of it was connected to the old DeviantArt series Scandinavia and the World? But it was around 2011, I'm pretty sure, and I got into it via the dubbed parts uploaded to Youtube. It activated me like a sleeper agent, having already had an early interest in history, and I've been trapped in here ever since.

Lacy: I randomly found the series while I was reading some news. (Think it was back in 2013-14). Sort of got very obsessed with it and was joining groups left and right, bought fktons of merch for a lot of characters. (i just love them all crazy at that point of time) One of the groups i was in decided to hold some event and thats where i wrote my first fic. Then theres so much stupid drama i just withdrew eventually and kept to myself with just one ship. (At this point there was this one person who was writing with me). Then came the time when she left as well, so I did question at that point if i still want to stay in this fandom alone (and i did, because i just want to finish up my wips 🫠).

Mossman / @one-more-mossman: I don't remember exactly how I did get into Hetalia , but I checked out the date of my first Hetalia pfp and it's December of 2012. I remember being super into Ivan and putting him on all my pfps and telling my friends about him and being all mushy and stupid. I had pretty limited access to the internet at that time, and didn't speak any English, so I wasn't a part of the Hetalia fandom - neither the English speaking nor Russian. So I didn't know he was an unstoppable rape truck y'know. I was drawing him and just silently vibing with him. I got into the actual fandom about three years ago - was a lurker first, not interacting aside from leaving kudos/comments, then got into fic writing (for English speaking fandom, I thought it was more lively than the Russian one). Found wonderful people here. Happy to be here, glad to have people sharing my interests. (Notice there is not a single mention of liking history. I don't like it. I can't remember a single fact.)

WhiteWings / @smuttyandabsurd: Gosh everyone started so much later than me... Anyway back in 2007, my sister forwarded a random USUK fanart to me on deviantArt simply because "it's BL and you might like it." I binged the first season of the anime and was tickled enough to keep watching as further seasons came out. I was already casually interested in history - it was my second favourite school subject behind English lit - but after Hetalia? Yeah I was reading the densest modern history nonfictions around, hovering in the military history section of the library among random middle-aged men, and writing rapetruck smutfics with a ~historical~ flavour. Anyway, 17 years later, everything from the way I consume Hetalia and tangentially-related topics to my writing has had a dramatic evolution from my humble weeb-y beginnings, but I'm still in this dang ass fandom and I can't find the exit.

Sicily: I was into countryhumans and I came across it, and was like, pft I'm never going to like hetalia.., and now we are here

[best-movie-ever-tournament]

On one hand, the 1930 version is described as follow:

I don't watch a lot of war movies to begin with, but this one stuck out to me because the protagonist is German and the ending is tragic. The characters and setting take place in Germany and the German's side of things. Main character's name is Paul. His friends and him are naïve at the beginning of the movie and joined the war for the glory (their teacher advertised it to them) and they go. One by one they're all taken down and suffer some aspect of it. I don't remember what happens to whom, but I do remember one suffered phantom pain from a severed leg and he kept asking "Where's my leg?" or something of the like. Paul eventually goes back to his home and school and things are different. His teacher is still spewing war propaganda, so Paul warns the the current students not to join - he gets backlash. By the end he's in a battle and Paul sees a butterfly. The enemy is really aggressive but I think Paul was dissociating or something because I there were others soldiers or gunfire warning him to stay low. Paul reaches his arm out to the butterfly - that's literally all we see - and he gets shot and his arm goes still. It's tragic to me because even though the protagonist is German, he's still a soldier just like his enemies and it's the absolute fault of people of higher status that soldiers are in the position they're in. It's also one of the few movies where the protagonist dies.

On the other hand, the 2022 version is described as follow:

Based off the famous anti-war novel of the same name, it’s an absolutely brutal look at trench warfare during WWI. It deals with themes such as the futility of war, the humanity of soldiers on both sides, and how far removed the people in charge are from the realities of the battlefield. The scene that stuck with me the most was (spoilers) when the protagonist is trapped in a crater with an enemy soldier and he kills him, but breaks down as he has to stay and listen to him die and realizes that he’s just as terrified and human as him. Don’t watch it if you’re not in the mood to be absolutely gutted, but please do watch it at some point if you can handle it, because I think it’s a very important movie. It’s incredibly made, the writing, acting, cinematography, and soundtrack are all so good.

[poll runner note: also there's Daniel Brühl in it and while I try to keep a professional tone to that bracket, I'm a huge simp for him ever since I watched the Cloverfield Paradox]

[10underoot2]

Character Study - The chilling warmth of Haein

Haein is a really misunderstood character. She has dark humour. She cares immensely but doesn't show it very openly. She hides her feelings cause she doesn't like to be vulnerable. She's very quick to say things that protect her emotions and she bites with her words just to protect herself. But all of this assertive feistiness comes at a cost. People tend to misunderstand and write Hong Haein off as mean, rude, cold and difficult to live/work with.

Her personality and tendency to appear uncaring has a lot to do with the lack of warmth she received by her family especially her mother. When she meets Hyunwoo she's no different, she puts on no pretences. Over time she warms up to him and shows him her softer more vulnerable side - all of which I'm sure aided in him falling for her deeply. But then that damned chasm occurs, and Hyunwoo much like the rest of the world forgets Haein's soft heart and soul that live underneath the iron clad armour she wears. It hurts me when I think about the pain she experienced realising she's misunderstood even from the man who once showered her with unyielding love and warmth.

Some incidents of Hyunwoo misunderstanding her are so interesting:

- The scene where Haein requests/orders Hyunwoo to accompany her to the hospital.

I love that it was shot from both perspectives. In her mind she sounds extremely soft and worried. It was a request meant to be delivered that way. I'm sure Haein couldn't register what her tone was because her intention were so soft. Why would he reject my request, He's free I'm just asking him to accompany me? But Hyunwoo had just heard about the will. That paired up with the continuous blows he's received the past two years were too much for him to take a moment and understand that this is how she's always spoken.

-The rain scene after their Yongduri night stay (I hold the belief that Haein did indeed often wait up for him).

Haein says: 'I really wasn't waiting for you.' to which Hyunwoo replies 'I know better than anyone, you're not the kind of person who would wait up for me.' In the scene you can see Haein slightly taken aback and offended by that. Because she is the kind of person who waits up for him. Her offence seems so justified. Because why can't Hyunwoo of all people see the real her. When did he forget to understand her? It must be so hurtful for her to think Hyunwoo's forgotten how warm she was with him. I imagine she used to wait up for him before the miscarriage but here she's listening to her husband say she's not that kind of person. (That little scene where Haein sits on the sofa waiting but Hyunwoo chose not to ask her if she was okay is my evidence! There was a post on this as well a while ago!)

It's also evident in her desire to run a hand over his shoulder to remove the dampness there. Her screaming at him to hold the umbrella properly. But he's so oblivious and deaf to her love that it hurts to witness.

- The bar after their day at the Lavender field in Germany at their honeymoon

Haein smiles and says, she wasn't angry after he told her that he had noticed no one else and that his eyes were only on her. But Hyunwoo remembers her being angry for another two hours. This scene was such a small example of it. What if Haein's anger did immediately dissipate but Hyunwoo just interpreted it as her still being angry. I can't offer any evidence as we don't see this scene but their different accounts make me think what if she was just feeling down but he assumed it was a continuation of her anger.

There are so many other examples sprinkled throughout the show as well. I started off really disliking her character but I've grown to really appreciate it. Because once you see how warm Hong Haein is in love, you'll see just how fierce, loyal and undying her conviction and mind is. She'll show and tell you in the most beautiful ways just how much she cares without ever telling you she loves you. She's not cold, she's just misunderstood.

Unfortunately though, life isn't a drama. So when people like this do exist, they tend to be written off as cold, harsh, unlovable. Humans have the potential to be infinitely complex creatures which is why it's been so interesting to see Haein's multi faceated character these past 8 weeks.

Just an additional thought: I also love the difference between Haein and Hyunwoo's business ideologies. Haein is sharp, to the point, efficiency, money and loyalty oriented. While Hyunwoo is soft, caring, warm and people oriented.

We see Hyunwoo's ideology against his father in law. When the FIL wanted to stab his long serving employee it was unfathomable for Hyunwoo. Hyunwoo's ties with the past employees of Queens got him so much information and support. His logical request to the manager of maintenance to make it snow comes after a long, good relationship - it's pretty evident in that scene. I loved how the show displayed Hyunwoo's ability to make deep and good relationships and how it ended up helping them to get Queens back. It's a hugeee contrast to how things run in the Hong Family. It was very fresh to see him show from his actions 'You can be nice and still get the job done'.

But even Hae-in's contacts, though acquired differently, are just as instrumental. The employee she took a stand for, the juice guy and Secretary Na. None of them would call her warm or soft but they would sing her praises if you ever ask them. It's such an interesting parallel between their characters. It also goes to show Haein is a good person, she just tends to show it very selectively and rarely. I do think the 1 Trillion club made her think of only money and efficiency for a while, but I still do believe she had been doing good away from public eyes, changing people's lives - it's just that no one was there to witness or publicize them.

[ratstuckinamarble]

@a-dauntless-daffodil thanks for tagging me :)

tagging: it is apparently Tumblr tradition, so give it a shot! @sketch-the-spectre, @lulughoul, @cherry-purple, @just-someone-online, @crystal-clear-crystalline, @bluebelleisabelle, @sparklyaxolotlstudent, @m0nsterartgarage. Dauntless reminded us to stay hydrated so I'm telling you to eat smt. Don't be like me and wonder why things suddenly seem awful only to feel fine after fulfilling your basic needs.

Last song -> 'Raus aus meiner Haut' by OOMPH! It's either about a bi trans woman or a drag queen, the lyrics work with both interpretations and I couldn't figure out which one was intended. I have some notes but it's surprisingly progressive for 2012 Germany. Or 'another life' by mazie. I can't quite remember.

Currently reading -> Entangled life (a wonderful book about mushrooms) and Queer Little Nightmares, an anthology of monstrous fiction & poetry. Yes I bought it because I crave queer monsters in fiction. It's good so far, the first short story was about lesbian werewolves. There was a scene where the love interest left a sapphic book on her bed for the protagonist to find and while reading it she went "is this what's wrong with me?" and I was transported right back to being 14.

Currently watching -> Barbie life in the Dreamhouse, The Midnight Gospel and all the old mh movies (almost done with those now). I also watched Pan's Labyrinth today from a TOTALLY reputable website, yup. I thought it was a horror movie but not really? Still good though. I would have liked to see more of the actual fantasy aspects, especially the faun, but I'm glad I saw it.

Current obsession -> Queer monsters of any type. Gimme. Also Monster High, mushrooms, tiny things, stopmotion, horror.

I can never pick just one thing, can I.

[katalina27ua]

Перше інтерв'ю зі Стелланом Скарсґардом після виходу "Андора"

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take me back to the beginning. How was this character pitched to you?

STELLAN SKARSGÅRD: Tony Gilroy pitched it to me. He himself was a very great reason for me to take it. He pitched it and said he was going to make a story that is more real than the others. I know him and his writing, and every scene has an urgency to it. Every scene has a great tension to it. I got to read the first three or four episodes, so it was not a big question. And I said yes.

Luthen is a fascinating character. He's so driven and committed to the Rebel cause, at the expense of everything else in his life. What was it about him that you found interesting?

As an actor, it's interesting to play this guy who lives a double life and to make two different characters out of one. That was interesting for me, but he's interesting as well because he is extreme. He's like Che Guevara or the Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany or any terrorists, really. But also, as a revolutionary, he is like George Washington. So, he's got all those ingredients that make him very exciting. He has this conflict between doing the right thing and also being able to kill for the right thing.

You talked about how he lives this double life, and he really is a shape-shifter. We see him put on his wig, and he can suddenly become the shopkeeper from Coruscant. What interested you about the way he literally transforms?

Well, it was very funny. It's a great thing for an actor to do, to be able to play two characters at the same time. But I also love wigs! [Laughs] I think it's fantastic to put a wig on and be someone else.

One of my favorite moments in the season is that speech that Luthen gives, where he talks about why he does what he does. There's that incredible line about burning his life to make a sunrise he'll never see. What do you remember most from filming that scene?

I mean, of course I knew I had a speech that was very well written, and it was probably one of the best scenes in the season. And I worked on it. When we shot it, somehow I was tense. I think I said, "Let's go again, let's go again." I think I did it 10 times in a row, very fast, right on top of each other. 10 times, like "Go, go, go." And then it was good. Then, I was satisfied, and the director was satisfied.

Oh wow. It really is this intense moment.

Yeah, it was very intense.

I've spoken to Tony Gilroy and some of the cast, and they've all talked about the production design on Andor and how big the sets are. What was it like for you to walk around those sets and be in the Star Wars universe like that?

Well, I was very happy to be in that kind of Star Wars universe and not like in many films, where you're just in the world of green screens. Because it affects you physically when you have the set. You can't deny that. It was the same thing with the sets on Dune. They are physically there, these enormous sets, and you feel it in your body. You move differently. We had all of Ferrix built up as this city. It's very exciting.

Was there a day on set where you really felt like, "Oh my gosh, I'm in Star Wars?"

No, but I was happy that I had my own spaceship. I've lacked that in my career so far.

What's that like to get to pilot a spaceship? What's it like behind the controls?

[Laughs] You're like 10 years old when you sit down behind the controls. You become serious, and you turn the wheel and push the buttons and stuff. You become very silly, but it's very fun.

Tell me a little bit about working with Diego Luna on this. There are some really beautiful, intense scenes between the two of you.

He was also a reason for me to take the job. We met several years ago. We were supposed to do a film about football, but it didn't happen — not with us. It sort of broke down. So I've been waiting for him to do a film with me again. And I love the fellow. He's a true actor, and he's a true man.

I also love the scenes with you and Genevieve O'Reilly, where Mon Mothma comes to Luthen's shop. What do you remember most about filming those scenes with her?

I'm playing the Coruscant character there, which is much more flamboyant. But the first scene she entered, she came with this great limousine she has, flying in. She was much more sexy and beautiful, and she took over the space much more than I realized than she had ever done in the films. And then, of course, she has a great humor, so we had a lot of fun doing that.

There's a lot of really great actors that I met all the time there. It's so well cast. I had a lot of fun.

I know season 2 is in the works. How's that been going?

That's going great. I mean, Tony Gilroy has gone on strike, as of the first of May. He finished the scripts right on the day, and then he shut off the phone and disappeared into a picket line somewhere. So, we'll see. He claims that the [series] is director-proof and actor-proof, which means that it can't be destroyed. [Laughs] We'll see if it works.

Well, I can't wait to see what you guys have up your sleeves and where this story goes.

It'll be lovely. But I can't tell you, I'm afraid! [Laughs]

For more from Skarsgård, as well as exclusive interviews with Tony Gilroy, Diego Luna, and more, listen to EW's Star Wars podcast, Dagobah Dispatch.Lu

[kidakumajodevil]

Shadow of the Vampire Review

As a die-hard fan of both versions of Nosferatu (and the trailer for the latest rendition had me slobbering), I’m rather ashamed to admit I’d never seen Edmund Merhige’s 2000 Vampire Film, Shadow of the Vampire. I was aware of the fact that the movie is a “what if?” scenario; one that assumes the popular urban myth that Max Schreck (the eccentric actor who played Count Orlock in the original 1922 version) was actually a Vampire, is true. But for a reason I can’t really remember, I never had the urge to watch the film. Woe and behold, that turned out to be a grave mistake on my part, as Shadow of the Vampire is actually an amazing experience.

As I mentioned before, the movie follows the historical production of Nosferatu: starting in Germany, and then Czechoslovakia, when the crew begins filming on site. Our “hero” is F. W. Murnau (played fantastically by John Malkovich) : a tyrannical film director (which is quite removed from the real Murnau, who was by all accounts a demanding, yet fair leader) who does things like drug cats, and demeans his cast and crew with his barbed pretension. The man is immediately shown to be willing to do anything for his art…but the depths he’s willing to plunge into truly known until they begin filming at Orlok's Castle by night, and do the famous scene in which Gustav von Wangenheim (played by Eddie Izzard in a surprisingly short, yet rather hilarious role) ascends the ruin, and the mysterious “stage-actor” Max Schreck reveals himself from the shadows of a hallway, and beckons him inside with his bony finger, in an absolutely terrifying sequence. Immediately afterwards, members of the crew begin disappearing one by one. While I would be remiss not to mention the intriguing contemplations and criticisms of filmmaking that make up the film’s themes, to me “Schreck” completely eclipses everything else about the movie. Played by the legendary character-actor, William Dafoe, there’s a reason why he was nominated for an oscar: this is - in my opinion - his best performance bar none. His vampire absolutely oozes that existential dread of a forsaken immortal being; one so ancient he doesn't even have his memories anymore to comfort his loathsome existence. “There was a time when I fed from golden chalices.” And yet there’s also a glimmer of sarcasm and very dark humor present in his rotting cadaver (helped by Dafoe going absolutely ham with the role). He somehow manages to balance both being pathetically sympathetic and inhumanly monstrous (similar to Count Dracula’s depiction in Werner Herzog Nosferatu the Vampyre), the best type of blood-sucker in my opinion. And the absolute heart of the film.

Production wise, the movie is really good: the crew did an amazing job, sparing no expense (thanks Nicholas Cage!) transforming the sets into beautiful gothic scenery. The movie was filmed in Luxembourg, Germany; so the castle’s we see are real ones (though they sadly didn’t get to shoot some scenes at Orava Castle; the one used in the original Nosferatu), which add to the visual flair. We have shots of beautiful European landscape; silent movie studio sets; train stations; rurals towns; and, of course, crumbling fortresses. The gothic works; which also include a suitably atmospheric soundtrack, excellent performances by the entire cast, and a brilliant usage of light and shadow to enhance the delicious gothic ambiance. A +.

Ultimately, Shadow of the Vampire is absolutely worth watching (I'm kicking myself for not seeing it earlier; don't make my mistake). While William Dafoe's excellent depiction of the Nosferatu overshadows the rest of the movie; that movie is damn good in it's own right too. It made me think a lot of about the parasitic, undead nature of film-making that's actually inherent to the genre, and the atmosphere it presents itself is both chilling and delicious. It's joining the list of great Vampire movies I can binge endlessly. With no reservations, I give it my bloody recommendation.

[blueberrypancakesworld]

Hotd season 2 episode 1 - My rambling - Spoilers

Okay first of all I fell asleep fifteen minutes before the premiere that it was 3am in the morning (in Germany because of the time shift) but hey now I've watched it.

First of all it looks wonderful the shots, the dragons, the sets and the new characters are all just so wonderful looking and just so beautiful it's really an improvement on the first season as was said in the trailers and bts.

At first I was a bit confused that it started in the north and thought it was going to be Jacaerys landing with Vermax and seeing a bit more of Cregan and Jace but what we got was really really good. Not only does Jace come across more mature in his role but Cregan has so much weight on his shoulders and (I'm sure they're definitely bonding over this in some way or another for me) otherwise the North looked wonderful too plus seeing ice on Cregan a bonus point.

Okay after that with Daemon and Rhaenys (I think it came after that) it was so bitter and yet I thought you could see Daemon's pain well but Rhaenyas doing her best too. The first scene that made me cry though was Rhaenyra finding Arrax Lucerys' wing and bloody clothes it was just so compassionate and I felt so sorry for her.

Lord Corlys at the reef with his (I assume Bastad son Adam but I'm not sure) and him getting the sword from Luce and the grief and yet that assumption with his son was really good and the set looked so incredible.

Yes Alicent and Cole scared me when I first saw it (I mean grant you your sexual freedom my queen but not soo without foreshadowing) no they are cute in the idea of "the knight who courts the queen" but so I also feel like Cole is only half doing it out of love and other out of frustration and her command but maybe who knows. Also Alicent who later talks to her father and they both see eye to eye for a brief moment and how she still isn't seen as a full member of the council I feel sorry for her too.

Oh yes and then sweet Helaena sitting in her room her clothes are so beautiful and seeing Jahaera is really cute. I had hoped that Aegon would appear more as a father. The stroking of his daughter's head he tried to do it even when she didn't want to, well a start. What bothered me though was that he tried to understand his wife but still dismissed and ignored her. That showing off in front of maids when he talked about her fantasies or whatever wasn't nice Aegon.

It's really nice to see him being so intimate with his son and at least wanting to show him something (the scene with Tyland and the pony ride was just good) even if I had the feeling in between that he might have a little sadistic streak but oh well. Of course Aemond how could I forget him his scenes are wonderful (beautiful) and I liked how he gets along with Cole even though I think Aemond knows his mom and Cole are sleeping together or doesn't care.

Then Daemon and Rhaenyra coming back and laying their heads together was cute but I cried again at Jace and Rhaenyra's hug when his voice started to break and the beating it was so heartbreaking.

Of course the white wyrm still surprised me a little but Daemon's anger towards her was understandable and a little hot but that's not the point ;) Also him recognizing Rhaenyra from Syrax was a cute detail

His sneaking into King's Landing and his city guard being loyal to him (like in the books if I remember correctly yay) and still accepting him. Then blood and kese good acting choice too bad he kicked his dog and even though the scene was great (don't misunderstand i'm talking about acting etc) and sad tarumaic at the same time i really thought there would be something more to come.

Don't get me wrong I loved the way Helaena was trying to deal with her necklace and her fear and insecurity (not about her children) I thought about his plot hole as Maelor wasn't there yet but all good it worked out. What I thought was a bit strange was that they didn't do anything to the queen but that they just ignored her when she flew, well better that way.

Then Helaena traumatized and completely pulled into herself who just goes into the room with Alicent and Cole and holds Jahaera and then the end oh man I'm looking forward to the second episode and still have to process all of them but that was a great sad start.

[thislovintime]

On the set of “Art, For Monkees’ Sake” and “The Monkees’ Paw.”

“The way it began is, I had to be at the Columbia lot in Burbank at 1:00 a.m. The PHOTOPLAY editors wanted me to report on a weekend with The Monkees, I had agreed. What did I know? After all, I’m just a fat, fiftyish, fatherly writer. [...] I don’t know how many girls there were hiding out on the lot. I don’t know how they got past the guard or where they came from. But they were everywhere [trying to catch a glimpse of any and all Monkees]. During the day I had personally made contact with seventeen of the girls, all between fifteen and eighteen, all beguiled to the point of hysteria. [One girl, who told the journalist she was 17 years old, said, as she caught sight of Peter,] ‘Oh, God! There’s Peter! Oh, God! He is so much I want to scream.' [...] Of all the four Monkees, Peter’s ‘irreverence’ is perhaps the most articulate. His convictions seem deeper and stronger. And all of them, in his mind, properly reasoned out to unshakable conclusions. The son of a Connecticut college professor, Peter is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about classical and pop music. He composes, and plays four instruments fluently. He abandoned an earlier ambition to become an English teacher after flunking the courses twice. His mother, active in local Little Theater groups, introduced him to drama. ‘I don’t remember it,’ Peter said, ‘but when I was about four, with my parents in Germany, we went to a band concert. Nothing would quiet me until I had held the baton and led the band. ‘My parents were only-child type adults and their attitude when I was a baby and demanded attention, was, “Let him cry, he’ll get over it.” As a result I’ve always felt a slightly abnormal need for extra affection. Until I was twenty, my life was overwhelmed by the pressures of discipline. The informality of The Monkees and the popularity of the show satisfies me. ‘I’ll stay with The Monkees as long as I’m needed, as long as I’m wanted. We don’t agree on everything on or off the cameras, but as a group we get along.’ [...] ‘I was thinking recently of what I’d do if The Monkees ever dissolve. My first choice will be to try it as a solo folk-singer performer. And later, if I feel I’m substantial enough, I’ll try politics. I think in the very near future there will be an urgent need for government to represent the hopes and dreams of an entirely different generation.’ [For an almost might have been, see an older post about the commitee that aimed to get Peter elected as sheriff of Los Angeles County in the late '60s; and another look at the potential to run for office here.] Peter was then called for the last scene of the day. Suddenly it was all over. Mike hustled into his black GTO and roared off, out through the gate. Peter jumped into his GTO wheels and was gone. Micky and Davy practically dived into their GTO, screeched like mad around a corner and shot through the gate.” - Lou Larkin, Photoplay, September 1967