#urban escape

[pancakesandpopcorn]

In Delhi, every corner has a story to tell.

~ Ruskin Bond

Featured Places

Supreme Court Metro Station

National Gallery of Modern Art

India Gate

Lodhi Art District

Ichiban, Pandara Road

All credits go to my friend for clicking and editing these pictures.

Mujhe ghanta kucch nahi aata😭

[kristiaavril1985blog]

[artisanalpv]

Called a garden folly, although seems much more useful... reading area, meditation... escape

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Fire escapes made good sleeping porches for the New York poor, such as this one on 11th St., August 30, 1948.

Photo: Tom Gallagher for the NY Daily News

[redinthesea]

9 years ago on this date, Kasen made her first game debut with the release of the ULiL demo! Happy Kasenversary! I remember it like it was yesterday. 🥳

[nyandreasphotography]

Fire Escape (W22-9) - Chelsea, New York City by Andreas Komodromos

[forthepleasureofmylife]

Backyard N.Y.C.

Photo: Dieter Krehbiel

[escapedaudios]

I don't know when I'm actually gonna finally make this so I want to talk about Tusk and Chain, a traditional (third person) urban fantasy audio drama I've had in mind for a long time. It's told from the shifting perspective of an aging football star at the end of his drawn-out athletic career, and his estranged daughter. I'm just gonna give the synopsis so far. It's got big Bojack Horseman vibes. It takes place in an urban fantasy world with technology levels resembling the mid-1990s with a dash of magic thrown in. The entire soundtrack would be Fleetwood Mac songs, with characters named after Fleetwood Mac tracks and lyrics.

The story starts with Tusk, an orc, preparing to play his last season of football. While on the field, his theme song plays (Tusk) as he triumphantly carries the ball toward the end zone, only to suffer a life-changing injury on the way. He speaks to his manager, and makes a deal with him to play as soon as he recovers, counting on his Orcish endurance to come through. While gone, his younger rival takes his place a quarterback until he's ready to return. He exchanges harsh words with his rival, and leaves, arriving late to his own 40th birthday. While there, he zones out and realizes the people he's surrounded himself with are sycophants and practical strangers that didn't even notice he wasn't at his own birthday party. After he blows out his candles, a friend of his asks how it feels to be 40. He answers, "like nothing".

The perspective changes to his daughter, Chain, a teenage Orc raised by her divorced mother (Rhiannon) and human step-father (Mick) preparing to move on from high school to college. She's often asked about her famous father, but doesn't have anything to say about him. She gets an unexpected visit from Tusk, looking to re-connect with her before she goes off to college. They share some polite but shallow conversation, but things go sour when Tusk offers to make up for lost time by giving her a lavish 18th birthday, prompting her to emotionally unload on him when she reminds him that her 18th birthday already passed. She dismisses him, and he responds by calling her ungrateful, after all the money he put down for her to go to a prestigious private university.

She tells him she wanted a father, not a college fund, and they sit in silence. He apologizes and says he'd do things differently if he could go back, but that he can't. He tells her he ruined his relationship with her mother because he wanted to pursue his dream of being a star athlete, but that he regrets all of it. Chain then asks him why he gave her the name "Chain". Tusk responds by saying it's a traditional Orcish name, chains are sturdy, practical, and strong. She responds saying she always interpreted it another way; "Chains hold you down".

When Tusk returns home, he knocks over his football trophies, grabs a bottle of liquor, and gets belligerently drunk. He drives under the influence to Chain and Rhiannon's house to make a desperate plea with his daughter, but is met alone by Mick, who tells him to go home and that he's making an embarrassment of himself. Tusk responds by going on a racist rant about humans, asking how his ex-wife could downgrade so much after him. Mick threatens to cast a binding spell on Tusk, but before he can Tusk drunkenly stumbles and falls on his injured ankle while pacing around yelling at Mick.

Mick sternly reminds Tusk that he's more of a father to Chain than he ever was, then helps Tusk up and drives him home while Tusk slumps drunken and emotionally defeated in the passenger seat. He tells Tusk that he wont tell the tabloids about his disgraceful outburst if Tusk promises to stay the hell away from his house. Tusk reluctantly agrees, and goes home, passing out drunk on his couch.

The perspective returns to Chain, who's working hard at home on her university entrance exams. While studying, she overhears Mick telling Rhiannon about Tusk, and Chain proposes filing a restraining order against him. Chain intervenes, saying they won't have to take measures that far. Still uncomfortable with Tusk, she tells Mick that she'll talk to her father in private. Mick warns against it, thinking Tusk could be on the verge of going into a violent outburst, but Chain asserts herself as a now-adult 18-year-old woman and says she'll go anyway.

Chain goes through her old belongings, including memories and photos of herself as a young girl with her father. Among her belongings are little note cards she got for her seventh birthday, with promises from her father that he never had time to fulfill. She drives her mother's car to the city's football arena where Tusk is reluctantly training his future replacement. Ashamed to see his daughter, Tusk tries to avoid her until she hands him a faded note card promising "Junk food whenever I want without getting in trouble". She makes a point that a promise is a promise, no matter how old, and he agrees.

The two share an awkward lunch of burgers and fries, and Chain explains that she's here not because she wants to re-connect, claiming she's only there because she's just concerned about his unstable mental state. Tusk tells her he's in a bad state but "fuck it, that's just life". After a pause, Chain brings out the old cards, and they go over all the cards he never fulfilled. He laughs at how juvenile some of the promises are (Tea party with mom and dad, Dress-up day) and remarks that he doesn't really know what her interests are now that she's a senior in high school. She says she never really explored a lot of options and shut her self in, focusing on her studies and using movies and TV as her only indulgence. When he asks what she's majoring in, she says she's planning on majoring in structural engineering, but she picked that as a safe bet over her real dream of majoring in film.

They part ways, and Tusk goes to a shop that sells video recording and film editing equipment. The next day while Chain, Mick, and Rhiannon are gone at work and school, he delivers the equipment at Chain's doorstep with a note saying that just because he regretted following his dreams, she doesn't have to hide from hers. Chain holds the camera, feeling hopeful.

In the following episode, Chain has finished making her first short film with some friends from her high school. She gleefully shows Rhiannon the movie, and Mick walks past, asking how she could afford that video equipment. She tells Mick that it was a gift that Tusk brought over. Mick nods his head, and leaves to another room. Angered that Tusk returned to his house, he makes a phone call to a press associate and offers to tell the story of Tusk's previous drunken outburst, along with security tapes of the incident.

Later on, Chain meets with Tusk at the stadium and asks if he would help with one of her short films. Elated that his daughter is putting the camera to good use, he agrees, feeling optimistic for the first time in the story. His moment of happiness is cut short however, when a teammate of his shows him a tabloid magazine with images of him having his drunken outburst. His rival mocks him, asking him how he thinks that will affect his legacy now, remarking that he wonders if the coach will even let him play at all in his last season after that.

And then.... I don't know! I guess I'll have to finish the story some day.

[dykevanny]

had a really funny idea for an ask blog ft. Vanny and another plex employee oc,,

[vainaspaver]

momento almodovar by bereb!

[davetada]

Fire escape

Downtown, LA, CA

[themonsterundermystairs]

you ever get that feeling where you just want to run out and hide between some trees and become some sort of urban legend haunting the forest?

[allisonperryart]

Windows, fire escapes, and shadows... but make them italic! Couldn't decide whether to include the cat or not - what do you think? Thanks for looking, and stay tuned for the process video next week! 

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Fire escapes on Greenwich Street, 1940.

Photo: Andreas Feininger via the Center for Creative Photography

[nyandreasphotography]

Fire escape (brownstone mirror) in Chelsea - New York City by Andreas Komodromos