#the loveless (1981)

[rogerckeller]

Willem Dafoe as a Fifties Era biker in The Loveless.

[soupy-sez]

The Loveless (1981)

[degenderates]

I want to be him I want to fuck him I want to be fucked by him (Willem Dafoe in The Loveless (1981))

[querelleofbros]

[hazzbean]

the loveless

1981

[apicturespeaks]

The Loveless, Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Loveless (Kathryn Bigelow, 1981).

[troyandabedsnewapartment]

YOURS, JUST THE WORD AND I WILL BE THERE.

1. letters to felice, frank kafka | 2. strangers, ethel cain | 3. overture (1992), helen frankenthaler | 4. desperation sits heavy on my tongue, a.m | 5. against the loveless world: a novel, susan abulhawa | 6. a green thought in a green scale (1981), helen frankenthaler | 7. wife, mitski | 8. ruth 1:16 | 9. lush spring (1975), helen frankenthaler | 10. no exit, jean-paul sartre

[lostinpleasantview]

The Altos are one of the founding families of Pleasantview, and their roots in the region stretch back to when the area was previously known as Sunset Valley. Despite this, fifty years have passed since the pinnacle of their political and economic dominance.

Gone are the days of Vita Alto, matriarch of the Alto Family who served as chairwoman of the National Center Party who dominated SimNation politics for nearly sixty years; her storied political career included a forty years within SimNation's Congress, where she served as a congresswoman and senator. Her political career culminated in a stint as Ambassador of Salvadorada, where she played a decisive role in brokering a peace agreement that ended the Salvadoradan Civil War and began Salvadorada's transition to democracy. (Less discussed are Vita's political failures—her three failed primary campaigns to become the Center Party's presidential candidate in 1960, 1968, and 1972; or her financial and material support for the anti-communist Salvadoran Officer's Movement in the 1950s, which helped lead to the troubles in Salvadorada that she later "solved").

If Vita stood as a behemoth, then fewer still recall her husband Nick Alto, patriarch of the Alto family who served as head of Alto Industries—a sprawling business and industrial conglomerate founded by Vita's forebears. Nick's heading of the company allowed Vita to remain above the fray and focused on her political career—though millions in federal funds and subsidies still trickled towards Alto Industries.

Aside from their legal endeavors, there were also their illegal ones: Vita was heiress not only to a legal business empire, but an illegal one as well: the Alto Crime Family, an old-school mob racket. Vita and Nick's years were the golden era for the Alto's... yet it all floundered through the lack of an heir.

Vita and Nick had a daughter, Holly. Holly was everything that her parents were not: sensitive, artistic, and certainly with no taste, acumen, or ambition for a career in politics, business, or even heading the family's sprawling criminal enterprises. By 1980, things were slowing down: Vita's storied political career had come to an en following her tenure as ambassador, and there were rumors of federal regulators preparing to investigate Alto Industries for labor violations. Rather than allow their hard work to be squandered, Vita and Nick arranged that their daughter should marry one of the Alto Family's highest ranking Capos, a man known as Damien.

Shortly after Holly and Damien's wedding, Damien was formally recognized by Vita and Nick as the future successor of the Alto Crime Family. This recognition was finalized when Damien was added to the Alto Family Trust, which in 1980 had funds in excess to 200 Million Simoleons. With the faith placed in him, Damien immediately turned against his in-laws... or so the story goes. Both Vita and Nick died in a very suspicious car-crash in 1981, leaving Damien in control of the Alto crime syndicate. Alto Industries elected an interim CEO—who soon found himself ensnared in a series of corruption scandals and federal indictments, which wrecked the company's valuation—by 1989 Alto Industries would file for bankruptcy. Black Monday in 1989 proved a shock to the Alto's wealth, and the Alto Family Trust lost nearly 100 Million in value.

Holly, though trapped in a loveless marriage, was freed by the death of her parents. Her husband provided liberal funding for her music career, and by the late 1980s Holly Alto would be a household name in SimNation as one of the nation's most famous pop stars. Her tours earned millions; in the midst of her busy musical career, Holly gave birth to twin girls: Venice and Verona. Holly's marriage entered a rocky phase in the late 80s; rumors of divorce were squashed when Holly discovered that Damien would be able to claim a portion of the Alto Trust for himself.

Damien was assassinated in 1991 by faction of disgruntled members within the Alto Crime Family. His death tore the Alto's illicit business empire to shreds, with squabbling factions competing for turf and territory. A moderate faction looked to Holly to take the reigns of the criminal enterprise, but she resolutely refused—allowing the faction still loyal to her family name to be governed by a series of well-meaning but ultimately hapless deputies. Holly and her daughters continued to receive payouts from the family's criminal enterprises throughout the 90s, but these ceased by 2002. Holly found herself forced to sustain her lifestyle and expenses through the family trust, as well as through whatever income she could generate through her musical career, which entered a slump by the mid-2000s. By 2005, SimPop magazine declared Holly a has-been; by 2015, the online blogosphere branded Holly a flop after a poorly advised stadium tour in Salvadorada was marred by technical difficulties, poor performances, and protests.

Family troubles also carried into the next generation: Venice and Verona were complete opposites, and though they were friends in childhood, they drifted apart as teenagers. This distance became venomous when both girls attended Sim State University: both ended up placed upon Academic Probation. Though Verona succeeded in getting her grades together and graduating with decent grades, Venice ended up flunking out. Both of Holly's daughters have now returned home to the nest, Villa Alto—as Holly grapples with severe financial issues that threaten to send the family from their luxurious manse into the poorhouse.

Venice continues to shop and spend like there is there no tomorrow, and dreams of an entertainment career of her own... as an actress. Verona, meanwhile, has recently picked up a gig as a Physic Phone Pal... though a group of cadres affiliated with the Alto Crime Family who remain loyal to the family have reached out to her, clamoring for her to take her rightful spot as her father's heir.

Can Holly keep her squabbling daughters together and keep a roof over their head? Will Venice strike big and win in the fame games? And what about Verona? Will she embark on her own path, or will the tug of the past pull her in another direction?

[teabooksandsweets]

Hi! I’ve started reading Brideshead Revisited—mostly because you seem to really like it and recommend it a lot! I like to annotate books and take notes; are there any themes you particularly like about it and recommend looking out for?

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....!!!

THE FLAME IS LIT IN THE CHAPEL

My dear friend, the flame is lit in the chapel!

Themes I like. Themes I – like? Everything. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps both. (Do I seem to like it? It is my favourite book in the world. I am not sure if I can say that I like it, but boy! does it belong to me. I wonder if it likes me – as far as a book could like a person. If it does, then in a David Eliot sort of way [by the way, if you have trouble with the ending of this book or see it as a sad ending, I recommend to you the novel The Bird in the Tree], inflicting pain as a good surgeon does.

A few notes in the beginning: it's an incredibly beautiful novel. In every way. And not only the first part, as some would like to claim, reducing it to a "dark-light academia fluffy gay-ish romance with strawberrries" and suchlike. All three parts, and the Prologue and Epilogue, are beautiful, important, and (though in some ways different) interconnected. If you want to watch an adaptation, go for the 1981 series, which is brilliant. Avoid the 2008 film, which is horrid.

Themes that stick out to me in particular – that simply happen to (come to mind to) me:

The flame is lit in the chapel (and Brideshead still standing) (and all that in the Age of Hooper)

Every single thing Cordelia says. Pay good attention to everything Cordelia says, especially later on!

The inexorable call of the Church, the inevietable pursuit of and by and through God

Love and all that is Good of it (and all the pain it can bring)

Choosing the Right thing against all odds, against all desires, against all expectations

Finding, having, and in some ways losing (yet somehow never truly losing) a home, as an outsider who is perhaps even more at home than everyone else, and coming back, physically, and spiritually, even when it is lost, when times have changed, when that place – and that sort of place – does not exist anymore, because its essence will never leave you (Sic transit gloria mundi)

Being a Catholic in the Diaspora – Being an imperfect Catholic in the Diaspora! (oh how much more perfect and pious and pure Catholics are expected to be in non-Catholic environments!) – Belonging to a deeply paradoxial culture, and truly belonging to the paradox more than to any plain and simple conventionality

More universal than that: being different at the same time as being not different at all, being different in the sense that the same life is experienced with a different sort of light; belonging (and not) and then elsewhere (and not that either)

~beautiful ideas~

The ultimate Paradox that Charles found what will truly be his way through those who appear more wayward than anyone else (and perhaps just because of that!)

SEBASTIAN [contra mundum]

Vocations, what Cordelia says about Vocations!

Friendship, loyalty, and when it's just that that goes wrong

SEBASTIAN

(Do not underestimate Julia. And do not judge Lady Marchmain too quickly)

The war, "the Age of Hooper", and the Time That Was

"homeless, childless, middle-aged, loveless"

EVERYTHING

I teared up writing this, but I also know that this list is incomplete and unbalanced, because I am not currently concentrating properly on the matter. I will come back to this if something else occurs to me, if you don't mind. In any case, it is a sublime book – and there is so much to it! I sincerely recommend to pay good attention, to all sorts of little bits! And to be open, to each and every one character, and part and chapter.

Oh, and let's not forget Aloysius! Not a theme but a Very Important Character.

And I would still also like to say that, though the setting of this book might appear distant and antiquated to a reader (I have read enough reviews to know that this is a common opinion) that everything this book is about is still (and, in a way again, these last few years) very, very relevant. (I do not think that contemporary relevance is a necessecity for an old book, but nevertheless it does simply happen to be so with this one.)

Oh, I do so love this book. (And I am so incredibly glad that my posts about it made you all the more interested!)

[tragantia]

Well I didn't know I needed unhinged necrophiliac binman Bill Paxton in my life, but here we are 🤷🏻‍♀️ @slushi-chan

On a different note, if you guys haven't seen The Loveless (1981) yet and you love Near Dark, do yourselves a favour and watch it! Obsessed with this film and its soundtrack, currently going through a Robert Gordon phase @rock-n-macabre I know I already told you but ahhhhh I'm obsessed

[jgroffdaily]

CRITIC’S PICK

Review: ‘Merrily We Roll Along,’ Finally Found in the Dark - Jesse Green

Jonathan Groff, supported by Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, is thrillingly fierce in the first convincing revival of the cult flop Sondheim musical.

Jonathan Groff’s central performance in “Merrily We Roll Along” at the Hudson Theater is “unmissable” and helping to give “the show the hard shell it lacked,” our critic writes. Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

[Excerpts]

But with the opening of its first Broadway revival, after 42 years in the wilderness and the death of Sondheim in 2021, “Merrily” is no longer lost. Maria Friedman’s unsparing direction and a thrillingly fierce central performance by Jonathan Groff have given the show the hard shell it lacked. Now heartbreaking in the poignant sense only, “Merrily” has been found in the dark.

The contrast between the pleasures that music can provide and the damage obvious in Frank’s demeanor immediately frames what follows as a solo psychodrama. Yes, Charley Kringas, who writes the words, and their friend Mary Flynn, a novelist turned theater critic, are there throughout, trying to encourage his better angels and corral his worse ones. But despite high-wattage, laser-focused performances by Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, they have no effect on him; they are clearly Frank’s pawns, willing or otherwise.

How he destroys Mary, and nearly Charley as well, not without their assistance, is revealed as the musical’s formerly absent spine. In the first scene, a 1976 party for “Darkness Before Dawn,” a hack hit movie Frank has produced now that he no longer writes music, Mary is dispatched with barely a blink, or drunkenly dispatches herself.

In the next scene, as Charley enumerates Frank’s misplaced priorities in a 1973 television interview — Radcliff handles the song “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” superbly — Groff’s coldblooded rage is terrifying. Collateral damage along the way includes Frank’s first wife, Beth (Katie Rose Clarke); his second, Gussie (Krystal Joy Brown); his probable third, Meg (Talia Simone Robinson); his producer, Joe (Reg Rogers); and even his adorable young son. Who but a monster would betray such a punim?

“Merrily” is thus no longer, as it seemed in 1981, the story of the gradual, almost inevitable dimming of youth’s sweet illusions but rather the story of their falsity in the first place. Frank is only devoted to Mary and Charley when he doesn’t have access to anyone more useful. To think he turned into that monster is a mistake: He always was one, as Sondheim clearly understood. “That’s what everyone does,” Mary sings once the three-way friendship has collapsed. “Blames the way it is/on the way it was/On the way it never ever was.”

If in seeking to sweeten the main story it still leans too heavily on thin satire for laughs — morning news shows, Hollywood sycophancy — the trajectories for the secondary characters, especially Beth and Gussie, who are now more than cannon fodder, at last make some sense.

In this production, though, it wouldn’t matter much if they didn’t. Radcliffe’s wit and modesty, combined with Mendez’s zing and luster, provide perfect settings for what is now (as it has never been previously) the inarguably central performance. Groff, always a compelling actor, here steps up to an unmissable one. With his immense charisma turned in on itself, he seems to sweat emotion: ambition, disappointment and, most frighteningly, a terrible frozen disgust.

I don’t know whether that’s what Furth intended, but Sondheim is brutally clear about the insidiousness of great talent. In Frank, it eats everything it can find, eventually including itself. “Who says ‘Lonely at the top’?” he sings amid the end-stage cynicism of his loveless Bel Air party. “I say, ‘Let it never stop.’”

What a strange and daring thing for the great and greatly missed Sondheim to dramatize, and for Friedman to forefront. I’d call it heartbreaking if the result weren’t finally such a palpable hit.

[daggerzine]

MY FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2023! (lists in no particular order....well, sort of)

MY 20 FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2023  

Anna Hillburg- Tired Girls (Speakeasy Studios)

RVG- Brain Worms (fire) 

The Tubs- Dead Meat (Trouble in Mind) 

Seablite- Lemon Lights (Mt St Mtn)

The Reds, Pinks & Purples- The Town That Cursed Your Name (Slumberland)

Lewsberg- Out and About (12XU)

Melenas- Ahora (Trouble in Mind)

Blues Lawyer- All in Good Time (Dark Entries) 

Colored Lights- S/T (Bobo Integral)

Doe St- Stepping Stones (Legless) 

Guardian Singles- Feed Me To The Doves (Trouble in Mind) 

Corvair - Bound To Be (WIAIWYA)

The Garment District- Flowers Telegraphed To All Parts of the World (HHBTM)

Royal Ottawa- Carcosa (self released)

Tough Age- Waiting here (Bobo Integral)

Soft Science- Lines (Shelflife)

The Midnight Sailors- S/T (self released)

Robert Forster- The Candle and the Flame (Tapete) 

Civic – Taken By Force (ATO) 

Sumos- Surfacing (Meritorio) 

WAIT….HERE’S 20 MORE!

Connie Lovatt- Coconut Mirror (Enchante’)

En Attendant Ana- Principia (Trouble in Mind) 

Withered Hand- How to Love (Reveal) 

The High Water Marks- Your Next Wolf (Minty Fresh)

The Feelies- Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground (Bar-None)

Connections- Cool Change (Trouble in Mind) 

The Ex Bats- Song Machine  (Goner)

The Photocopies- Top of the Pops (Ultra Modern)

Amanda Brown- Eight Guitars (Lillipilli) 

Arthur Alexander- …Steppin’ Out!  (Big Stir Records)

Eyelids- A Colossal Waste of Lights ((Jealous Butcher) 

Panic Pocket- Mad Half Hour (Skep Wax)

Yo La Tengo- This Stupid World (Matador)

Swansea Sound- Twentieth Century (Skep Wax)

Kevin Robertson- Magic Spells Abound (Futureman)  

Super 8- Hoopla (The Beautiful Music) 

The Radio Fields- Dos and Dont’s (Subjangle)

Joe McAlinden- Where The Clouds Go Swimming (self -released)

The Black Watch- Future Strangers (ATOM) 

Rob I Miller- Companion Piece (Vacant Stare)

….AND HERE’S 10 MORE

The Lost Days- In the Store (Speakeasy Studios) 

Life Strike- Peak Dystopia (Bobo Integral)

Belle & Sebastian- Late Developers (Matador)

Lauds- Imitation Life (Fort Lowell) 

The Hepburns- Only the Hours (Lavender Sweep) 

Lomma- Torrey Pines (self released)

C.O.F.F.I.N.- Australia Stops (Goner)

Special Friend- Wait Until the Flames Come Rushing In (Skep Wax)

Burning Ferns- World of the Wars (Country Mile)

Wojtek the Bear- Second Place on Purpose (Last Night From Glasgow)

I ALSO REALLY LIKED ALBUMS BY:  Diners, Moving Targets, Bill Orcutt, Skull Practitioners, the Suncharms, Divine Horsemen, The Flashcubes, Hurry, Teenage Fanclub, Lydia Loveless, The Make Three, Shana Cleveland, The Ekphrastics, Ryan Allen, Fruit Bats, Nicole Yun, Dippers, Lost Film, Tony Jay, Cindy, Class, The Clientele, Lemon Twigs, Sweeping Promises, The National Honor Society, The Whiffs, Infinite River, Silver Biplanes, Jason Isbell, The Cuticles, Mudhoney, Alex Lahey, Crocodiles, Peter Hall, Cherry Fez, The Angles, Scott Gagner, Mainland Break, Christian Kjellvander, Sick Thoughts, Grand Drifter, The Motifs, The Sunshine Convention, The 1981, Roy Moller, Youth Valley, Soft Covers, Deadlights, The Smashing Times, The Spires, Helen Love, Motorbike, Silverstiles, Water Damage, Uni Boys, The Royal Arctic Institute, Gina Birch, Gee Tee, etc.

MY  10 FAVORITE REISSUES OF 2023 

The Chills- Brave Words (Fire)

The Replacements- Tim (Sire)

The Ocean Blue- Davy Jones Locker (Korda)

Wild Carnation- Tricycle (Delmore) 

Neutral Milk Hotel- The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel (Merge)

Das Damen- 1986- Keeps Me Wild (Dromedary)

Heavenly -Le Jardin de Heavenly (Skep Wax) 

The Verlaines- Bird Dog (Schoolkids Records) 

The Toms- S/T (Feel It) 

Celibate Rifles  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Bang!)

MY 15 FAVORITE EPS OF 2023 

Lightheaded- Good Good Grief (Slumberland)

Minor Threat-  Out of Step outtakes (Dischord)

The Cucumbers- Old Shoes (self released)

The Reds, Pinks & Purples- Unloveable Losers (digital) 

The Vapour Trails- On a Beautiful Day (Futureman)

Blues Lawyer- Sight Gags on the Radio (Dark Entries)

Deary- S/T (Sonic Cathedral)

The Wends- Better Will (WWNBB) 

Te Vista- S/T  (Cripes) 

Red Sleeping Beauty- From Sarah With Love (Matinee)

Letting Up Despite Great Faults- Crumble (S/T) 

The Prize- Wrong Side Of Town   (Anti Fade) 

Touch Girl Apple Blossom- S/T (self released)

Galore- Blush (Paisley Shirt) 

Lost Tapes- Crossing Towns (Shelflife)

MY 5 FAVORITE COLLECTIONS OF 2023 

The Particles- 1980’s Bubblegum (Chapter Music)

Primal Scream- Reverberations (Travelling in Time) (Acid Jazz/XTRM/Young Tiki)

The Shapiros- Gone by Fall: the Collected Works of (World of Echo) 

Dot Dash- 16 Again (Country Mile)

Comet Gain- The Misfit Jukebox (Tapete) 

Eric "Eggman" Eggleson's favorite records of 2023!

A Colossal Waste Of Light - Eyelids

Aeterna - Vinyl Williams

Away From The Castle – Video Age

Babydoll – Rat Columns

Bananasugarfire – Golden Apples

Careless By The Coast - Marvin Powell

Cartwheel - Hotline TNT

Colored Lights

Compact Trauma – Ulrika Spacek

Continue As A Guest – The New Pornographers

Disenchanter - Alaska Reid

EP IV – Yumi Zouma

Flowers Telegraphed To All Parts Of The World – The Garment District

Henry St. - The Tallest Man On Earth

Hindsight is 50/50 – Ghost Woman

I Held The Shape While I Could – Bodywash

Javelin – Sufjan Stevens

Left Hand - Becca Mancari

Life and Life Only - The Heavy Heavy

Love as Projection – Frankie  Rose

May Cause Dizzy Ness - The Musical Chairs

My Entire Life – SUSTO

Pearlies – Emma Anderson

Perennial - Woods

Pictures – Dean Owens

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) - Yves Tumor

Prize - Rozi Plain

Radio Red – Laura Groves

So Soon Now – Trillion

Strange Loops and Outer Psyche – Andy Bell

Suntub – ML Buch

The Greater Wings - Julie Byrne

The Natural Lines

The Queen Is Not Dead – Spiritual Front

the record – boygenius

The Sunshine Convention

The Twits - bar Italia

This Candle Is For You - Spearmint

Waiting Here – Tough Age

We Live In Strange Times – Ian M Bailey

When Horses Would Run - Being Dead

[saintsenara]

atramentum bellatrix lestrange/lord voldemort teen | 1.9k words

when he ruled in majesty she would buy him an ermine-trimmed mantle, in byzantine purple with pearls at the throat. he would not wear it, but he would laugh - his soft laugh, the one you knew he actually meant - and kiss her without commanding her otherwise, and they would roll upon it like he was justinian - tyrannical and pious - and she was theodora - wanton and capricious - and they were actually in love. 

two lovers pass a halloween afternoon.

this piece was written for week eight of @ladiesofhpfest, on the theme of villainous vixens [you can find the masterlist for this week's fics here].

it's my second piece for this fest [the first - death (eaters) in paradise - is here] on one of my favourite ships: bellamort. i am obsessed with them, and the tragedy and - in my opinion - tenderness bound up in their canonical relationship.

author's notes under the cut

indeed, this piece is - sort of - the serious version of death (eaters) in paradise. both examine the same key theme - that voldemort is the only man of bellatrix's acquaintance who allows her to transcend the extremely restrictive gender roles which dictate the lives of magical women, particularly pureblood ones, and, therefore, the only man of her acquaintance who comes even vaguely close to offering her a notion of equality in his treatment of her. which, given that they are technically master and servant, is really saying something...

equally, both pieces examine the complexity of bellatrix's relationship with sex - and, in particular, the fact that she sees sex, pleasure, and her relationship with her own body as separate from the duty to wife- and mother-hood which she chafes against. this is also a theme i have drawn out in my writing on narcissa - such as in my piece other women and of purer blood.

here, bellatrix is thinking, morbidly, of how passion and desire is bound up with the fact that she is a murderer; how sex and death are linked for her; and how she is in love with a man who makes her feel alive, and who offers her something much more tangible than her loveless marriage, but who is not truly alive himself.

and yet, her love for him is still authentic. that voldemort retains the habits of his working-class upbringing is a recurring motif in my writing, with his tendency to take attic bedrooms - something he is not particularly upset by if his minions take as insulting - a particular feature of this. that bellatrix finds something more real in her thirteenth-best bed [i know that the question of whether shakespeare bequeathing anne hathaway his second-best bed was insulting or not is contentious - i'm choosing to interpret it as romantic] than she does in the sumptuous furnishings of the decaying manor house she inherited as a bride.

i've always wondered how bellatrix felt about voldemort's apparent death in 1981 - certainly, she must be suitably blindsided by it to lose all sense and attack the longbottoms [an attack which is not only morally bad but also just plain clumsy, and seemingly quite far removed from how the voldemort of the first war liked to conduct his operations], but she is also convinced at her trial that voldemort will rise again.

atramentum is sort of adjacent to that wondering, as bellatrix and voldemort spend what will be their last afternoon for fifteen years together, as rain pours down.

[snowbanshee]

First meeting with Lazard, Director of SOLDIER.

Zack: My dream is to become a hero!

Lazard: Unattainable dreams are the best kind!

-------

Sephiroth: I'm here to serve ShinRa to the best of my abilities!

Lazard: Awww. That makes one of us.

------

Genesis: Say, Director, which version of Loveless is your favourite?

Lazard: the 1981 porn parody.

Genesis: You did not just say that.

-------

Lazard: so you really avoid using your sword to protect it?

Angeal: Yes, Sir!

Lazard, under his breath: hopefully, it doesn't apply to your other sword.

Angeal: What??

[augustheir]

The Loveless (1981) dir. Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery, DP Doyle Smith