#which is me just riffing the video but for Neil

[jtl-fics]

I just saw the “Farmer Pain Scale” video again and have now imagined a sign that sits in Abby’s office.

I think Andrew asks for a copy of it for their professional team’s medical staff.

[campcampkirbykirbykirby]

Camp Camp Commentary Notes - Season 1, Episode 1: Escape from Camp Campbell

This is the first in a series of posts detailing the various nuggets of behind-the-scenes info found in the commentaries of the Camp Camp Seasons 1 and 2 Blu-Ray. I aim to cover both the writer commentary and cast & crew commentary of every episode in the set (except the holiday specials because they don't have commentaries GRRRR)

Writer’s Commentary

Writers went back to touch up this episode after completing the initial 10 episodes, before going on to the bonus 2 episodes that were greenlit following the positive reception

This episode went through about 12-14 drafts before it was finalized

Pilots are very hard because they both need to be very good and hook the audience so they will want to watch more, you have to juggle introducing all the necessary characters and telling a single solid story

Doubly so since this was the crew’s first shot at writing for an episodic series, all their other efforts had been story-driven up to that point

Irony in that the title of the first episode is about wanting to leave the camp (or show) entirely

Max and David’s dynamic is perfectly set up within 8 lines of dialogue

In older versions of the pilot, Mr. Campbell never showed up in person, only in the introductory video that was later repurposed into promotional material

Most of what was taken out of the pilot ended up being reused in some way, including the intro and the teaser trailer

One of the primary goals was to establish early on that this is not a kids show, like some people who saw the early promo material thought it was

This is why Max swears less than 40 seconds in, and why the rabbit gets swooped up by Timothy earlier (although I’d argue you could make that joke in a more family-friendly show)

First RT series produced in more of a writer’s room style akin to The Simpsons

The writers would come up with episode ideas, divy up who’d want what story, they’d write a first draft, come back to it, workshop the script several times, rinse and repeat until it devolved into Miles and Jordan doing final punch-ups and trimming

This pipeline allowed for lots of easter eggs and background details to be slipped in

Then they effectively do a table-read of the script which allows them to add more

Starting in Season 2, they started recording writer’s room conversations, so if something funny came up and they wanted to add it, they wouldn’t just have to go off of memory

Putting all the campers in the activities field doing their activities seemed like a good way to establish all of their respective camps.

Challenger II is Miles’ favorite visual gag (as of 2018, at least)

Working with Lee Eddy and Travis Willingham was great, Lee especially since they had previously worked with her for Red V.S. Blue

Travis was the first person who recorded for the show, as part of the aforementioned introductory video, and he was great at riffing and ad-lib

What exactly Camp Campbell was was foggy initially (whether or not it advertised that it was a camp of all camps), and the initial pilot didn’t explain it very well because they had built an internal understanding of what it was and didn’t do a very good job conveying it to the audience.

Mr. Campbell really likes the Quartermaster

Looking back on the first episodes is very interesting, especially when you have been working on the show for years at that point, for example, Max’s bond with Nikki hasn’t been established yet, so he has to ask why she’d help him.

Not enough time for the full theme song (hence why no intro), so they thought having Gwen interrupt it was funny

The scene where Max, Neil, and Nikki are running was seemingly the origin of Neil’s raptor arms (oh, excuse me, T-rex arms)

Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy was used as a reference for things like this because the Eds each had distinct walk cycles befitting their personality

First Day buttons were included so the campers would have a means to get away from the counselors

The music sting as the bus is driving away is a nod to the Back to the Future theme

Cast and Crew Commentary

Michael jokes about a sequel or prequel called “Max Max/Maximum Max”

The scream Miles did when David gets hit by the bus gets used quite a bit

The more Max’s parents push him away, the more he tries to cling to him, according to Maggie

Episode was supposedly recorded March 2016, ironically one of the last ones recorded

Recording for the series started November of 2015

Handheld camera movements in the mess hall scene were added by animator Gil Calceta

Lee Eddy was the only person who auditioned for Gwen, the crew saw it as perfect casting

Laserdisc player is not big enough for laserdisc

Campbell’s lazy wear (for lack of a better term) was only made for the one shot, though it would later comeback in Season 4

Michael initially auditioned for Camp Camp not really knowing what it was, and his script was just some typical Max phrases

Older episodes, Max was pitched up because Michael hadn’t quite perfected the voice yet

There was no helicopter assest created, it’s off screen and only implied by Campbell being pulled up by the ladder

The scene of Nikki throwing the button took 3 days to animate

The line “Go to bitch, jail” in the Camp Camp Rap Rap was an ad-lib/outtake

[invisibleicewands]

Staged's Anna Lundberg and Georgia Tennant: 'Scenes with all four of us usually involved alcohol'

Not many primetime TV hits are filmed by the show’s stars inside their own homes. However, 2020 wasn’t your average year. During the pandemic, productions were shut down and workarounds had to be found – otherwise the terrestrial schedules would have begun to look worryingly empty. Staged was the surprise comedy hit of the summer.

This playfully meta short-form sitcom, airing in snack-sized 15-minute episodes, found A-list actors Michael Sheen and David Tennant playing an exaggerated version of themselves, bickering and bantering as they tried to perfect a performance of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author over Zoom.

Having bonded while co-starring in Good Omens, Amazon’s TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel, Sheen, 51, and Tennant, 49, became best buddies in real life. In Staged, though, they’re comedically reframed as frenemies – warm, matey and collaborative, but with a cut-throat competitiveness lurking just below the surface. As they grew ever more hirsute and slobbish in lockdown, their virtual relationship became increasingly fraught.

It was soapily addictive and hilariously thespy, while giving a voyeuristic glimpse of their interior decor and domestic lives – with all the action viewed through their webcams.

Yet it was the supporting cast who lifted Staged to greatness,Their director Simon Evans, forced to dance around the pair’s fragile egos and piggy-in-the-middle of their feuds. Steely producer Jo, played by Nina Sosanya, forever breaking off from calls to bellow at her poor, put-upon PA. And especially the leading men’s long-suffering partners, both actors in real life, Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg.

Georgia Tennant comes from showbiz stock, as the child of Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson. At 36 she is an experienced actor and producer, who made her TV debut in Peak Practice aged 15. She met David on Doctor Who 2008, when she played the Timelord’s cloned daughter Jenny. Meanwhile, the Swedish Lundberg, 26, is at the start of her career. She left drama school in New York two years ago and Staged is her first big on-screen role.

Married for nine years, the Tennants have five children and live in west London. The Lundberg-Sheens have been together two years, have a baby daughter, Lyra, and live outside Port Talbot in south Wales. On screen and in real life, the women have become firm friends and frequent scene-stealers.

Staged proved so successful that it’s now back for a second series. We set up a video call with Tennant and Lundberg to discuss lockdown life, wine consumption, home schooling (those two may be related) and the blurry line between fact and fiction…

Was doing Staged a big decision, because it’s so personal and set in your homes? Georgia Tennant: We’d always been a very private couple. Staged was everything we’d never normally say yes to. Suddenly, our entire house is on TV and so is a version of the relationship we’d always kept private. But that’s the way to do it, I guess. Go to the other extreme. Just rip off the Band-Aid.

Anna Lundberg: Michael decided pretty quickly that we weren’t going to move around the house at all. All you see is the fireplace in our kitchen.

GT: We have five children, so it was just about which room was available.

AL: But it’s not the real us. It’s not a documentary.

GT: Although some people think it is.

Which fictional parts of the show do people mistake for reality? GT: People think I’m really a novelist because “Georgia” writes a novel in Staged. They’ve asked where they can buy my book. I should probably just write one now because I’ve done the marketing already.

AL: People worry about our elderly neighbour, who gets hospitalised in the show. She doesn’t actually exist in real life but people have approached Michael in Tesco’s, asking if she’s OK.

Michael and David squabble about who’s billed first in Staged. Does that reflect real life? AL: With Good Omens, Michael’s name was first for the US market and David’s was first for the British market. So those scenes riffed on that.

Should we call you Georgia and Anna, or Anna and Georgia? GT: Either. We’re super-laidback about these things.

AL: Unlike certain people.

How well did you know each other before Staged? GT: We barely knew each other. We’ve now forged a friendship by working on the show together.

AL: We’d met once, for about 20 minutes. We were both pregnant at the time – we had babies a month apart – so that was pretty much all we talked about.

Did you tidy up before filming? AL: We just had to keep one corner relatively tidy.

GT: I’m quite a tidy person, but I didn’t want to be one of those annoying Instagram people with perfect lives. So strangely, I had to add a bit of mess… dot a few toys around in the background. I didn’t want to be one of those insufferable people – even though, inherently, I am one of those people.

Was there much photobombing by children or pets? AL: In the first series, Lyra was still at an age where we could put her in a baby bouncer. Now that’s not working at all. She’s just everywhere. Me and Michael don’t have many scenes together in series two, because one of us is usually Lyra-wrangling.

GT: Our children aren’t remotely interested. They’re so unimpressed by us. There’s one scene where Doris, our five-year-old, comes in to fetch her iPad. She doesn’t even bother to glance at what we’re doing.

How was lockdown for you both? AL: I feel bad saying it, but it was actually good for us. We were lucky enough to be in a big house with a garden. For the first time since we met, we were in one place. We could just focus on Lyra . To see her grow over six months was incredible. She helped us keep a steady routine, too.

GT: Ours was similar. We never spend huge chunks of time together, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At least until David’s career goes to shit and he’s just sat at home. The flipside was the bleakness. Being in London, there were harrowing days when everything was silent but you’d just hear sirens going past, as a reminder that something awful was going on. So I veered between “This is wonderful” and “This is the worst thing that ever happened.”

And then there was home schooling… GT: Which was genuinely the worst thing that ever happened.

You’ve spent a lot of time on video calls, clearly. What are your top Zooming tips? GT: Raise your camera to eye level by balancing your laptop on a stack of books. And invest in a ring light.

AL: That’s why you look so much better. We just have our sad kitchen light overhead, which makes us look like one massive shiny forehead.

GT: Also, always have a good mug on the go [raises her cuppa to the camera and it’s a Michael Sheen mug]. Someone pranked David on the job he’s shooting at the moment by putting a Michael Sheen mug in his trailer. He brought it home and now I use it every morning. I’m magically drawn to drinking out of Michael.

There’s a running gag in series one about the copious empties in Michael’s recycling. Did you lean into lockdown boozing in real life? AL: Not really. We eased off when I was pregnant and after Lyra was born. We’d just have a glass of wine with dinner.

GT: Yes, definitely. I often reach for a glass of red in the show, which was basically just an excuse to continue drinking while we were filming: “I think my character would have wine and cake in this scene.” The time we started drinking would creep slightly earlier. “We’ve finished home schooling, it’s only 4pm, but hey…” We’ve scaled it back to just weekends now.

How did you go about creating your characters with the writer Simon Evans? AL: He based the dynamic between David and Michael on a podcast they did together. Our characters evolved as we went along.

GT: I was really kind and understanding in the first draft. I was like “I don’t want to play this, it’s no fun.” From the first few tweaks I made, Simon caught onto the vibe, took that and ran with it.

Did you struggle to keep a straight face at times? AL: Yes, especially the scenes with all four of us, when David and Michael start improvising.

GT: I was just drunk, so I have no recollection.

AL: Scenes with all four of us were normally filmed in the evening, because that’s when we could be child-free. Usually there was alcohol involved, which is a lot more fun.

GT: There’s a long scene in series two where we’re having a drink. During each take, we had to finish the glass. By the end, we were all properly gone. I was rewatching it yesterday and I was so pissed.

What else can you tell us about series two? GT: Everyone’s in limbo. Just as we think things are getting back to normal, we have to take three steps back again. Everyone’s dealing with that differently, shall we say.

AL: In series one, we were all in the same situation. By series two, we’re at different stages and in different emotional places.

GT: Hollywood comes calling, but things are never as simple as they seem.

There were some surprise big-name cameos in series one, with Samuel L Jackson and Dame Judi Dench suddenly Zooming in. Who can we expect this time around? AL: We can’t name names, but they’re very exciting.

GT: Because series one did so well, and there’s such goodwill towards the show, we’ve managed to get some extraordinary people involved. This show came from playing around just to pass the time in lockdown. It felt like a GCSE end-of-term project. So suddenly, when someone says: “Samuel L Jackson’s in”, it’s like: “What the fuck’s just happened?”

AL: It took things to the next level, which was a bit scary.

GT: It suddenly felt like: “Some people might actually watch this.”

How are David and Michael’s hair and beard situations this time? AL: We were in a toyshop the other day and Lyra walked up to these Harry Potter figurines, pointed at Hagrid and said: “Daddy!” So that explains where we’re at. After eight months of lockdown, it was quite full-on.

GT: David had a bob at one point. Turns out he’s got annoyingly excellent hair. Quite jealous. He’s also grown a slightly unpleasant moustache.

Is David still wearing his stinky hoodie? GT: I bought him that as a gift. It’s actually Paul Smith loungewear. In lockdown, he was living in it. It’s pretty classy, but he does manage to make it look quite shit.

[mastcomm]

Your Monday Briefing – The New York Times

Rising concern that coronavirus will slip world’s net

The number of reported coronavirus cases has risen to more than 68,500, with nearly 1,700 deaths, including a man in Taiwan with no history of travel to mainland China. Here’s the latest.

Though the rate of increase has slowed, there are new fears of global transmission after an 83-year-old American woman tested positive for the coronavirus in Malaysia. She was one of more than 1,000 passengers who left a cruise ship last week in Cambodia. Many went on to other destinations, including to airports in the U.S., the Netherlands and Australia.

Europe had its first fatality from the virus when an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in Paris, an official said on Saturday, the outbreak’s first fatality outside Asia. The man and his daughter are among 12 confirmed cases in France. European officials are scrambling to deal with the spread of the disease on the continent, where so far there have been 44 cases.

In Japan, some American passengers were evacuated from a cruise ship that now has 355 confirmed coronavirus cases. Canada and Hong Kong say they will also evacuate their nationals from the ship.

In China: Placing himself in the middle of questions about the government’s response, President Xi Jinping said in a newly released speech that he took charge of the outbreak in early January, nearly two weeks before he first spoke publicly about it and when the government was still saying human-to-human spread seemed unlikely.

Another angle: Although there are only a handful of known cases in the U.S., the outbreak has some Asian-Americans feeling an unnerving public scrutiny for just sneezing.

Unease at the Justice Department after Trump attacks

After a week of tumult, lawyers across the Justice Department said that they were left fearful about political interference after President Trump’s attacks on federal prosecutors and after Attorney General William Barr’s response to the attacks.

In a series of interviews, career prosecutors told The Times that they feared that Mr. Barr’s decision to give Roger Stone, the president’s longtime friend and former political adviser, a more lenient sentence after Mr. Trump weighed in on the case was undermining the department’s reputation for upholding the law without bias.

Though some were relieved that Mr. Barr had defended the department in a televised interview, others said that since taking office, the attorney general has devoted much of his authority to bolstering the president.

Related: More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Mr. Barr to step down over what they described in an open letter as his “interference in the fair administration of justice.”

Behind U.S.-Iran clash: months of misjudgments

A nine-month period that shook up the already tense relationship between Iran and the United States began with the Trump administration’s escalation of sanctions and ended with Washington and Tehran in a direct military confrontation.

Our reporters traced the path to last month’s violent standoff, finding a story of miscalculations by both sides.

What’s next? “The chess match continues,” our reporters write. The Senate tried to constrain Mr. Trump, voting last week to require that he seek congressional authorization before taking further military action against Iran. But the measure lacked the support needed to override a promised veto.

Another player: Once based in Iraq, a secretive group of celibate Iranian dissidents — the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Jihadists — gave our reporter a tour of their camp in Albania.

Adjusting to life in a fire-scarred Australia

The wildfires that ravaged the country are changing what it means to be Australian.

“In a land usually associated with relaxed optimism, anxiety and trauma have taken hold,” our Sydney bureau chief writes in an analysis. And summers are set to get only hotter and smokier, promising humming air filters and children kept indoors.

As Australians stumble toward new ways of work, leisure and life, our bureau chief asks, will a conservative government skeptical of climate change change course?

On the ground: Fires are still burning south and west of New South Wales. In total, tens of millions of acres have been incinerated.

If you have six minutes, this is worth it

Young Somalis step up

Somalia has endured three decades of crises, while the government struggles to provide even basic public services. So young Somalis have sprung into action, as volunteers.

A turning point came in 2017, when a truck bombing in Mogadishu killed 587 people and injured 316 others. Hundreds of volunteers, like Dr. Amina Abdulkadir Isack, above right, identified victims, launched social media campaigns to appeal for global attention and collected tens of thousands of dollars to help with ambulance services.

“It showed us we could do something to save lives,” she said.

Here’s what else is happening

U.S.-Europe relations: An annual security gathering in Munich over the weekend displayed the division and unease that have plagued the NATO alliance. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that “the West is winning,” and insisted that the Trump administration was not retreating from its alliances. But Emmanuel Macron, the French president, urged Europe to create its own policy toward Russia, not just through the lens of a growing cold war with America.

Paris elections: France’s health minister was named as a new candidate for mayor of Paris on Sunday after a frantic search to replace the original contender, who withdrew after a leak of explicit videos on social media.

Snapshot: Above, emergency workers rescued residents of Nantgarw, Wales, from flooding on Sunday. Britain was battered by severe weather for the second consecutive weekend, with more than half a month’s worth of rainfall falling in one day.

In memoriam: Barbara Remington, the illustrator whose covers for J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit” achieved mass-cult status, died at 90.

What we’re reading: This essay by the writer and critic Paraic O’Donnell in The Irish Times. Steven Erlanger, our diplomatic correspondent in Europe, describes it as a “moving, sometimes angry contemplation of a life slowly destroyed by M.S., bringing thoughts of how gardens are born in destruction, and how this progressive disease moves with the seasons.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Roasted salmon with fennel and lime is elegant and supremely simple.

Read: “Run Me to Earth,” by Paul Yoon, is a meditation on the devastating nature of war and displacement that begins under a hail of American firepower in war-torn 1960s Laos. It’s one of 10 new books we recommend.

Smarter Living: We have guidance on how to be a supportive partner during pregnancy (and beyond), which is good for everyone involved, including the baby.

And now for the Back Story on …

Russia’s radio reach

Last week we reported that Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government, is now broadcasting on three Kansas City-area radio stations. In a modern spin on propaganda, it focuses on sowing doubt about Western governments and institutions.

Neil MacFarquhar, our national correspondent who wrote the story, previously served as the Times bureau chief in Moscow. We talked with him in the following conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You wrote that one Sputnik station shares a frequency with a smaller jazz station in Kansas City. What’s it like to be listening to Charlie Parker one minute, and propaganda the next?

You get roughly, “This is Radio Sputnik, broadcasting live from Washington D.C., the capital of the divided states of America.”

The station that has the Sputnik frequency is fairly strong, while the station broadcasting jazz is relatively weak. If you’re by the more powerful transmitter, you get Radio Sputnik.

Is this kind of propaganda relatively unprecedented in U.S.-Russian relations?

It depends on your interpretation of “propaganda.” There have previously been radio broadcasts of foreign-owned and -financed radio stations into the United States.

But part of the change is the more sour mood between the two capitals. Under Putin, there has been a much more concerted effort to undermine Western institutions.

The Facebook campaigns focused on the 2016 election and other things we’ve heard about were direct attempts to influence specific groups of people, so it was more manipulative. This is much more subtle. It’s not old-school propaganda, it’s American hosts — before they got to Sputnik they were fairly down on the United States from the left or right — trying to paint the U.S. as damaged goods.

Is it jarring compared to other radio stations on the dial?

It’s talk radio, so they’re riffing off of headlines about impeachment, Kobe Bryant, coronavirus, that kind of thing. The bureau chief in Washington says they’d like to have a station in New York but the cost is bigger than their budget allows.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Jillian

Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the post-impeachment President Trump. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Alternate: Rock genre for The Strokes and The Shins (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • A. G. Sulzberger, the Times’s publisher, recently received an award from the New England First Amendment Coalition. Read his remarks.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/event/your-monday-briefing-the-new-york-times-15/

[this-is-for-the-record-blog]

Pearl Jam - Yield - Album Review

Yield is Pearl Jam’s fifth studio album that released in 1998. Pearl Jam are an alternative rock band that had quickly rose to fame in Seattle during the grunge explosion along side Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Melvins, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees and many more. At this point they have proven to be a real leading force among the Seattle grunge bands outlasting most of them and have proven to be a leading force and influence in the alternative rock genre, even if Pearl Jam refuses to admit or furthermore tries to diminish it. Due to the mainstream exposure after the bands acclaimed debut and follow up records, anxieties from the stardom and pressures of fame and expectations caused singer Eddie Vedder to take control of the bands artistic and political direction with writing songs that lashed out against the mainstream media. This created a lot of tension in the band that nearly ended the band a couple of times. “We were letting ourselves be too affected by all the pressure,” admits Ament. “Those things showed themselves in some of the songs we wrote and even some of the performances. We’d get passive-aggressive with each other instead of realizing we were all in this together.” This motivated the band’s refusal to produce any music videos, refusal to partake in any publicized interviews with any mainstream corporations and had been for the past 4 years, before the release of Vitalogy, on strike against Ticketmaster for their service fees, which downsized the bands touring schedule and concert venues. As the band approaches their fifth release here two of those things would come to an end. Pearl Jam began taking steps back towards the band that they were during Ten when things were more free spirited.

Yield took a bit more commercial approach with its glossy, professional production and releasing a music video for the first time in 6 years for the track “Do The Evolution”. The band wasnt featured however in the music video, but was rather an animated video portraying the various themes and subject matters involved in the songs message, co-directed by Todd McFarlane (of Spawn fame) and Kevin Altieri (Batman: The Animated Series). Pearl Jam also had decided to end its strike with Ticketmaster and bring their new record to their fans around the world with a full fledged and highly anticipated world tour. While former drummer Abbruzzese opposed the bands Ticketmaster strike because it cut back on touring, their return to major touring after the release of Yield had caused the bands recent drummer at the time Jack Irons to part ways with Pearl Jam. Jack Irons had been dealing with physical health issues as well as bipolar disorder. Irons was already having issues keeping up with the little amount of live shows Pearl Jam had been doing and Irons had already started a family unlike the others in the band. This made Yield to be the last record with Jack Irons forcing the band to search for another drummer.

Yield would also have a more structured song writing with a more collaborative effort, where for the first time each member is contributing not only music but lyrics as well. Vedder added, “Stone was writing music and lyrics. Jeff had music and lyrics. I had music and lyrics… we were able to team up, y’know. Have a partnership there and team up and write together on this one.” “I think the fact that everybody had so much input into the record, like everybody really got a little bit of their say on the record, and I think because of that, everybody feels like they’re an integral part of the band,” concluded bassist Jeff Ament. Its clear that since No Code the bands last record that Pearl Jams persistent efforts to reduce their presence in the mainstream has paid off, relieving a lot of anxiety and stress that was looming over the band for the past few years. Yield proves that the band is much more comfortable with being a little more accessible and having a little more fun with room to breathe which meant each band member, Eddie in particular, had been much more submissive in his thought process. Stone Gossard said “Being able to pull back from all that pressure helped give us the space to figure out our internal problems, within the band and within us as individuals. We gave each other some time off from each other. Actually, it’s like we broke up but still made records.”

Yield kicks off with a high energy heavy riffing track that was initially left off of No Code called “Brain of J”. Its similar to past opening tracks like Go from Vs. and Last Exit from Vitalogy. Most of Yield contains mostly cleaner guitar tones and acoustic instrumentation and experiments with lots of guitar effects and really draws inspiration from 60s and 70s rock bands like the Beatles like on the acoustic arpeggio ballad “All Those Yesterdays” which sounds similar to The Beatles songs “Dear Prudence” and “Yesterday” and the Kinks-ish “Pilate”. “Given To Fly” is a track that has a very pipe swelling and ocean phasing guitar lick played and written by Mike McCready that brings to mind Zeppelin’s “Going to California” just on an electric guitar. “Do The Evolution” has an garage rock sound and energy similar to The Stooges’ “Fun House” meets Zeppelin’s “Walter’s Walk”. This track has been stated by Eddie Vedder to be his favorite song from the band. Guitarist Stone Gossard really shines on this track with grungy tone and his killer enveloped solo lead part. The song also features a chanting choir of backing vocals from all the band members in one section. “Push Me, Pull Me” is an experimental, noisy, poetic, spoken word contemplating life and death with Eddie giving a performance similar to Jim Morrison and Nick Cave. The song reminds me of the Doors song “An American Prayer”

Other times the record has a very post punk and alternative indie rock sound similar to U2, Matthew Good Band and R.E.M. especially on the cry baby soaked “No Way” but also on “MFC” song that has Eddie playing an opening riff similar to “Rearviewmirror” and “Wishlist” a very simple yet moving subdued track that reminds me of “Survival” by Shudder to Think. With layers of cleaner twinkling guitars, the track features Eddie Vedder performing an Ebow solo at the end and Mike McCready performing his solo using a volume knob technique that mimics a weeping violin. Eddies twangy vocal delivery very similar to Neil Young. The song “Faithfull” has a chill verse and chunky chorus with a grungy jazz structure and drum beat. Again Eddie gives a very Neil Young influenced vocal delivery on this track. “Low Light” is a calm, waltzing ballad that features Jeff Ament, the writer of the tune, on an upright bass. The song also features some beautiful acoustic guitar. “In Hiding” is an interestingly written melody driven track that plays with timing, shifting in and out of half time that starts with 3 verses before breaking into the chorus and hook. The song was written by Eddie and Stone but seemed to take on a life of its own once every band member was introduced to the song. Drummer Jack Irons said, “I like “In Hiding” a lot…It’s like a band track. It sounds like five guys just played a track together and I think that’s pretty much what happened.“

Lyrically Yield covers many topics and themes of escapism, self exile, political corruption, contemplative thoughts on spirituality, with a few references to religion, ones personal hibernation, empathy, desires, and wishes. The song “Wishlist” is about the little things in life that mean the most that might often get taken for granted. The song is Eddie seeking some fulfillment when he humbly realizes hes lucky to be himself. “No Way” is about how people get too caught up being right fighters that they forget what matters in their life. This could be about the band yielding to Ticketmaster and the mainstream media in favor of the fans giving themselves some peace of mind. “MFC” is also lyrically similar to “Rearviewmirror” though less metaphorically about getting in a car and driving away from a problem and the track just before “Red Dot" is a percussive experimental track written by Jack Irons. An anti war sentiment that has some drum techniques heard on No Code. “Low Light” is a song about finding your way after being lost for so long. Its also about finding peace and solace even when things are dismal.

The message of just letting things go or be to free yourself from anxiety is pretty direct on a few songs. Many ideas lyrically and thematically were inspired by literature such as the song “Pilate” being inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita where Eddie sings of someone that compares himself to Pontius Pilate, who had a faithful dog, but lived a lonely and regretful life and longs for more. This songs message is very similar to “All Those Yesterdays”, which seems to be about rehabilitation, giving up everything or exiting an unhealthy situation to find your place. The records title and theme being influenced by the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn proposes the idea of yielding to the gods and nature to “save the world”. This idea comes through on most of the records themes but particularly on the songs “Do The Evolution”, the second politically driven song after “Brain of J.” on the record, told in third person about a self absorbed greedy individual possibly a politician who selfishly and carelessly continues to hurt and take from the earth and those living on it. Both songs express how the media and government has its grasp on how you think, what you observe and consume more than you may realize. “Given to Fly” also contains inspiration from Ishmael, a song about taking the high road and not allowing others negative energy to infect your positive energy or selfless virtue much like the tale of Jesus, which seems to be indirectly referenced. This is the second character to be used from the bible on the record with the first being Pontius Pilot who freed a serial killer and sentenced Jesus to be crucified. “Faithfull” was inspired by author and poet Charles Bukowski. The song seems to point out how religious people put all their faith in some sort of false testament and religion that has no heart instead of the focusing on the real faith in love and relationships. “For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” -Charles Bukowski. Bukowski also inspired the song “In Hiding” Bukowskie once said “I don’t hate [people]…I just feel better when they’re not around.” This song could possibly be about the bands self exiled mainstream inclusiveness and abandonment and the peace it brought them now.

Yields title seems to be a general theme for the band at the time as well. Each band member was Yielding to one another in the creative process and opinions and in particular singer Eddie Vedder, who had been calling the shots for the past few years prior, it symbolized refocusing on what truly matters and realizing what battles really need to be fought. Given the band’s collective harmony while recording Yield, it’s hard to write off their newfound philosophy as mere lip service. Regarding the title, McCready said, “I think the title Yield has to do with maybe being more comfortable within ourselves, with this band….we’re all a little bit older and a little more relaxed and maybe just kind of yielding to those anxieties and not trying to fight it so much…That’s what it kind of feels to me – yielding, letting something else happen and going with it.” Vedder said, “Let’s say that hypothetically speaking, the title does mean something…You can fight so much, and then you have to think, ‘What are the real battles?’ ‘What’s really important?’ You get to a certain point, and it’s really hard to remember what music is and to remember what drives you.” Two things the band yielded to with this record and that was their return to major touring that included Ticketmaster and made a return to some mainstream marketing on TV with a new music video and even had a commercial for the record. The band came to an understanding with one another as well as things they fought against. With Yield the band went with the wave rather than struggling so hard to go against it.

Yield is one of my top 5 favorite Pearl Jam records. The record offers some of the bands greatest writing. from catchy indie rock ballads to alt rock riffs and punk rock energizers. The band was out of its prime but more of a team than ever before and up to this point was most professionally produced record. No one instrument or player took most of the focus lead guitar, rhythm section, lyricism and vocals all had a place in each song. The band was moving at a steady pace with this record learning to slow down and the records sound really reflects that. Yield is sort of that breath of fresh air. Due to their absence from the mainstream spotlight, it is the first Pearl Jam record where they could create a record with a clear head and open heart. It definitely was at the time and arguably still is the bands most mature record to date. After the records release we would not only see a departure with drummer Jack Irons, recruiting Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron but also the departure of the bands primary producer Brendan O’Brian who had produced the bands records since Vs. A few songs were not included on Yield like “U”, “Whale Song” written and sung by Jack Irons, “Leatherman” a true story about an old drifter, the fuzzy harmonizing “Happy When Im Crying”, the experimental spoken word “Hymm” and the cover of 1960s “Last Kiss”. My favorite tracks are “Brain of J.”, “Faithfull”, “Given To Fly”, “Wishlist”, “Low Light” and “In Hiding” If you like Temple of the Dog, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, Candlebox, Led Zeppelin, Creed, The Beatles, Goodness, Stone Temple Pilots, Shudder To Think, Frank Black, Counting Crows, The Verve Pipe, R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, Fuel, The Doors, U2, Oasis, Mark Eitzel, Seven Mary Three, Foo Fighters, Eleven, Soul Asylum, Three Fish, The Buck Pets, The Stooges, Mother Love Bone, Blind Melon, Hootie and the Blowfish, Buffalo Tom, Mad Season, Brad, The Minus 5, or Tribe After Tribe you will love this record.

[mastcomm]

Your Monday Briefing – The New York Times

Rising concern that coronavirus will slip world’s net

The number of reported coronavirus cases has risen to more than 68,500, with nearly 1,700 deaths, including a man in Taiwan with no history of travel to mainland China. Here’s the latest.

Though the rate of increase has slowed, there are new fears of global transmission after an 83-year-old American woman tested positive for the coronavirus in Malaysia. She was one of more than 1,000 passengers who left a cruise ship last week in Cambodia. Many went on to other destinations, including to airports in the U.S., the Netherlands and Australia.

Europe had its first fatality from the virus when an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in Paris, an official said on Saturday, the outbreak’s first fatality outside Asia. The man and his daughter are among 12 confirmed cases in France. European officials are scrambling to deal with the spread of the disease on the continent, where so far there have been 44 cases.

In Japan, some American passengers were evacuated from a cruise ship that now has 355 confirmed coronavirus cases. Canada and Hong Kong say they will also evacuate their nationals from the ship.

In China: Placing himself in the middle of questions about the government’s response, President Xi Jinping said in a newly released speech that he took charge of the outbreak in early January, nearly two weeks before he first spoke publicly about it and when the government was still saying human-to-human spread seemed unlikely.

Another angle: Although there are only a handful of known cases in the U.S., the outbreak has some Asian-Americans feeling an unnerving public scrutiny for just sneezing.

Unease at the Justice Department after Trump attacks

After a week of tumult, lawyers across the Justice Department said that they were left fearful about political interference after President Trump’s attacks on federal prosecutors and after Attorney General William Barr’s response to the attacks.

In a series of interviews, career prosecutors told The Times that they feared that Mr. Barr’s decision to give Roger Stone, the president’s longtime friend and former political adviser, a more lenient sentence after Mr. Trump weighed in on the case was undermining the department’s reputation for upholding the law without bias.

Though some were relieved that Mr. Barr had defended the department in a televised interview, others said that since taking office, the attorney general has devoted much of his authority to bolstering the president.

Related: More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Mr. Barr to step down over what they described in an open letter as his “interference in the fair administration of justice.”

Behind U.S.-Iran clash: months of misjudgments

A nine-month period that shook up the already tense relationship between Iran and the United States began with the Trump administration’s escalation of sanctions and ended with Washington and Tehran in a direct military confrontation.

Our reporters traced the path to last month’s violent standoff, finding a story of miscalculations by both sides.

What’s next? “The chess match continues,” our reporters write. The Senate tried to constrain Mr. Trump, voting last week to require that he seek congressional authorization before taking further military action against Iran. But the measure lacked the support needed to override a promised veto.

Another player: Once based in Iraq, a secretive group of celibate Iranian dissidents — the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Jihadists — gave our reporter a tour of their camp in Albania.

Adjusting to life in a fire-scarred Australia

The wildfires that ravaged the country are changing what it means to be Australian.

“In a land usually associated with relaxed optimism, anxiety and trauma have taken hold,” our Sydney bureau chief writes in an analysis. And summers are set to get only hotter and smokier, promising humming air filters and children kept indoors.

As Australians stumble toward new ways of work, leisure and life, our bureau chief asks, will a conservative government skeptical of climate change change course?

On the ground: Fires are still burning south and west of New South Wales. In total, tens of millions of acres have been incinerated.

If you have six minutes, this is worth it

Young Somalis step up

Somalia has endured three decades of crises, while the government struggles to provide even basic public services. So young Somalis have sprung into action, as volunteers.

A turning point came in 2017, when a truck bombing in Mogadishu killed 587 people and injured 316 others. Hundreds of volunteers, like Dr. Amina Abdulkadir Isack, above right, identified victims, launched social media campaigns to appeal for global attention and collected tens of thousands of dollars to help with ambulance services.

“It showed us we could do something to save lives,” she said.

Here’s what else is happening

U.S.-Europe relations: An annual security gathering in Munich over the weekend displayed the division and unease that have plagued the NATO alliance. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that “the West is winning,” and insisted that the Trump administration was not retreating from its alliances. But Emmanuel Macron, the French president, urged Europe to create its own policy toward Russia, not just through the lens of a growing cold war with America.

Paris elections: France’s health minister was named as a new candidate for mayor of Paris on Sunday after a frantic search to replace the original contender, who withdrew after a leak of explicit videos on social media.

Snapshot: Above, emergency workers rescued residents of Nantgarw, Wales, from flooding on Sunday. Britain was battered by severe weather for the second consecutive weekend, with more than half a month’s worth of rainfall falling in one day.

In memoriam: Barbara Remington, the illustrator whose covers for J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit” achieved mass-cult status, died at 90.

What we’re reading: This essay by the writer and critic Paraic O’Donnell in The Irish Times. Steven Erlanger, our diplomatic correspondent in Europe, describes it as a “moving, sometimes angry contemplation of a life slowly destroyed by M.S., bringing thoughts of how gardens are born in destruction, and how this progressive disease moves with the seasons.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Roasted salmon with fennel and lime is elegant and supremely simple.

Read: “Run Me to Earth,” by Paul Yoon, is a meditation on the devastating nature of war and displacement that begins under a hail of American firepower in war-torn 1960s Laos. It’s one of 10 new books we recommend.

Smarter Living: We have guidance on how to be a supportive partner during pregnancy (and beyond), which is good for everyone involved, including the baby.

And now for the Back Story on …

Russia’s radio reach

Last week we reported that Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government, is now broadcasting on three Kansas City-area radio stations. In a modern spin on propaganda, it focuses on sowing doubt about Western governments and institutions.

Neil MacFarquhar, our national correspondent who wrote the story, previously served as the Times bureau chief in Moscow. We talked with him in the following conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You wrote that one Sputnik station shares a frequency with a smaller jazz station in Kansas City. What’s it like to be listening to Charlie Parker one minute, and propaganda the next?

You get roughly, “This is Radio Sputnik, broadcasting live from Washington D.C., the capital of the divided states of America.”

The station that has the Sputnik frequency is fairly strong, while the station broadcasting jazz is relatively weak. If you’re by the more powerful transmitter, you get Radio Sputnik.

Is this kind of propaganda relatively unprecedented in U.S.-Russian relations?

It depends on your interpretation of “propaganda.” There have previously been radio broadcasts of foreign-owned and -financed radio stations into the United States.

But part of the change is the more sour mood between the two capitals. Under Putin, there has been a much more concerted effort to undermine Western institutions.

The Facebook campaigns focused on the 2016 election and other things we’ve heard about were direct attempts to influence specific groups of people, so it was more manipulative. This is much more subtle. It’s not old-school propaganda, it’s American hosts — before they got to Sputnik they were fairly down on the United States from the left or right — trying to paint the U.S. as damaged goods.

Is it jarring compared to other radio stations on the dial?

It’s talk radio, so they’re riffing off of headlines about impeachment, Kobe Bryant, coronavirus, that kind of thing. The bureau chief in Washington says they’d like to have a station in New York but the cost is bigger than their budget allows.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Jillian

Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the post-impeachment President Trump. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Alternate: Rock genre for The Strokes and The Shins (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • A. G. Sulzberger, the Times’s publisher, recently received an award from the New England First Amendment Coalition. Read his remarks.

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