#zeppelin over china

[lesbianchemicalplant]

But The Wind Rises declines to challenge mainstream Japanese society’s distortions and denials of its wartime atrocities. Worse, it echoes Japan’s morally dishonest stance that it was a victim, rather than a perpetrator, of a global war — a whitewashed version of history that the film now imports to every country where it plays. Consider the first scene. Jiro is a young boy; in his dreams, he heads for the skies in a wooden aircraft. A constellation of black dots appears above him, soon revealed to be a hangar’s worth of missiles and bombs. They dangle from a zeppelin embossed with the Iron Cross. The explosives fall on Jiro, reducing his plane to splinters. The rest of the film is suffused with this fear of German aggression, and it’s an ethically mendacious choice of a bogeyman on Miyazaki’s part. In The Wind Rises, the alliance between Germany and Japan — the original Axis of Evil — is conveniently forgotten, as scene after scene shows the Japanese bombarded by Teutonic suspicion, condescension, and hostility. Reframing the Japanese as the victims of Nazi racism deflects attention from the heinousness of the Japanese Imperial Army. But Miyazaki’s elevation of his own countrymen as morally loftier to the Nazis is only credible when the viewer forgets (or is unaware) that the Japanese military justified killing 30 million people across Asia with its own ideology of ethnic superiority. The Wind Rises continues this blame evasion throughout, evincing an ideal of pacifism while positioning Japan as the target of Chinese and American assault. We see Japanese planes downed by a Chinese foe in a mid-film reverie — a shockingly insensitive image given that Japan was invading China during this time, not the other way around. Later, an American bomber floats above a graveyard of burned-out aircraft over the defeated Japanese empire. In contrast, no Japanese pilot is ever seen shooting at an enemy, even though Jiro’s most famous invention, the Zero plane, was designed and used solely for military purposes. The consequences of his work — that is, corpses — are likewise absent. In the film, Jiro never expresses sympathy for the people his people killed. His grief is strictly reserved for the deaths of his planes. His preference to mourn his Zeros, rather than the planes’ victims, illustrates his soft-handed callousness. The bloodlessness of the film contributes to its whitewashing of an incredibly bloody history. No surprise, then, that The Wind Rises has already created an uproar among South Koreans (who haven't yet seen the film),  arguably the biggest recipients of Japan’s 40-year colonial cruelty (1905-1945). The Wind Rises’ specious pose of self-victimization will and should disgust the living survivors and their descendants in the myriad other countries Japan invaded during World War II: China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia; the list goes on. It’s hard to believe that, were The Wind Rises set in an interwar Germany and focused on an idealistic dreamer who just wanted to design the world’s most beautiful U-boat and didn’t care a whit about the concentration camps, it would receive a similarly adoring reception here in the U.S. (At the time of writing, the film enjoys a 82 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has appeared on several best-of-year lists.) One would hope that critics who aren’t suffering from Japan’s culture of mass delusion about its war crimes would take into consideration the warped version of history Miyazaki has to accommodate and, to a large extent, perpetuates.

(2013)

[tortoisesshells]

For the Writer's Would You Ever: is there an AU for Customs & Duties (or another work!) that you'd like to write but haven't gotten the chance to yet?

Writer's Would You Ever?

Yes, absolutely! There's a completely ludicrous F.allout 4 AU that I maintain makes a lot of sense: it's still Boston, there's still skullduggery, they're still accidentally-on-purpose ruining each other's lives. There's just ... vastly more lasers and radiation damage and mid-century pop than there is in the original version.

Under the cut, because. well. I want to maintain a modicum of decorum on this blog.

(The cliff notes version of FO4 is. uh. Well. Imagine a world where post WWII western powers went all in on nuclear power, and then that October 23rd 2077 the world ended when the US and China blasted each other and everyone else off the face of the earth in a single day of nuclear war. With me? okay. Boston, 2287: ambient radiation is down, the Minutemen are trying to come back from the brink of organizational extinction after the Quincy Massacre, a mysterious organization called the Institute is kidnapping Commonwealth residents and replacing them with synths (functionally, lab-grown humans, many of whom don't actually know they're synths) to an unknown purpose, a similarly secretive organization called the Railroad is breaking synths out of their captivity within the Institute, and the B.rotherhood of Steel (a quasi-hereditary (except when not) military organization descended from a rogue Army unit (it's a long story) that believes that all advanced technology is too dangerous for civilians to control and that they must, therefore, take control of it for the common good) has rocked up to Boston in a giant metal zeppelin named for Arthurian legend. I mention this because B.oS ranks, too, take their cues from Arthurian lore and chivalric orders. They tend to think that anyone or anything that's not human-born human is inherently dangerous and tend to shoot first and ask questions later.)

Nellie's still a widow, still has two kids and a total unwillingness to look her bereavement in the eye and make peace with it ... she just also has a two-headed cow named Aunt Abigail, a mostly-two-hundred year old fishing boat that's held together with duct tape and goodwill towards man, a mutually beneficial scavenging-for-repairs relationship with the robot crew of USS Constitution, and a new-to-her solar panel array which is promptly stolen requisitioned by the new-in-town B.oS. So begins her mutually antagonistic relationship with the asshole tin-can Paladin Norrington, which is not improved by the B.oS's (non-canonical) attempts to confiscate the moonshot rockets from the Constitution's crew, and the deteriorating relationship between the Brotherhood and the Commonwealth on the whole.

I have written a snippet here and there, but here's the longest, mostly coherent bit:

The next time  Paladin Norrington saw Elinor Treat was at Fort Independence, sitting against the massive stone walls with a minuteman's laser across her knees and her usual cap drawn down over her eyes. Training day, the General (another short, tired woman) had said, and the exhausted residents strewn about the courtyard certainly seemed to back that up. "Elinor," he said, a little uncertainly, and when she did not reply, he called her name again. "Oh, it's you," she said, cracking an eye. "I didn't recognize your voice without your helmet. Come to pay me, have you?" "No," he said, startled. "Disappointing." She closed her eyes again, looking like she'd fall asleep in a moment. Feeling like an idiot, he said he wasn't expecting to see her here, so he had nothing to pay her with. Elinor snorted, accidentally whacking herself in the face with the barrel of her gun, before coming sighing and grumbling to her feet. It wasn't an impressive sight, but she managed to convey a kind of understated menace, even when she had to crane her neck a bit to glare.

I will furthermore add my tags from one of those "the last character you wrote for in the last video game you played: how are they doing?" - D.anse is the in-game B.oS companion and, slight spoilers, his dogmatic adherence to protocol does not save him:

#i DO think you could swap jimothy for danse. i do think the arcs of ' man defined by his rank and military prowess gets fucking bodied; #by realizing the organization he serves objectively sucks and is going to be the actual death of him and furthermore; #is willing to let that organization do it because of Reasons. ' are actually pretty similar. #that said. the more important thing is jimothy encountering Rocket Powered USS Constitution and the Nautical Robots; #I think he would enjoy himself immensely. or die of apoplexy. either way. #customs and duties aus

[spishidden]

GASP. I LOVE ALIEN STAGE!!!!! (How good was Round 1?!✨🥺✨) I mean a tournament of musical artists pitted against each other with a dark twist??? I’m in bby.

Naturally I have a few questions about this AU:

- is it as high stakes as in Alien Stage for the losers of each round? Should we expect any of our beloved boys/cast to fall?

- Any ideas of what music each of the Mad Dogs (April included) would play, yet?

Thx so much for the question!!

AAA Alien Stage is waaaay to good to just be a web series. Make a full fledged anime I b e g

-

The Alien Stage in this is to determine who is the best of these kids at creating krang’s music. The winner gets to join the content factory. The losers won’t get killed on the spot like in the web series but joining the ranks of the krang music producers is the biggest and best opportunity anyone could strive for in this world.

Also, these kids know nothing else. They’ve been training their whole lives for this. If they fail, they’re kicked out and left on their own to survive. And with the pollution and horrible living conditions?? They’re gonna die real quick.

But after what Leo’s about to pull?? The stakes are about to get even higher. The revival of mystic power, whether intentional or not, gives hope of rebellion. And the krang are not happy about that.

There will be consequences.

-

Leo- Alt rock, pop rock. Plays guitar and can sing. He found our about rock when Donnie snuck in historical records he managed to find. He discovered Queen and Led Zeppelin then instantly fell in love

Raph- Favors ballads, has an amazing voice. Can play the electric and upright bass. Jazz was lost to time after the krang took over, but when Draxum and Splinter introduce it to him?? It’s all he’ll listen to and play

Donnie- Can sing, opts not to at first (for reasons). Instead he uses this custom synth he made filled with every plug in imaginable. Creates hardstop, breakcore, dubstep, he swims in obcure edm genres.

Mikey- He’s a wildcard. Can play so many instruments. Guitar, drums, piano, violin somehow. He excels at lyric writing. He writes BARS. Fire raps. Burns the house down.

April- Think mid 2000s to early 2010s disney channel. Synths, eurobeat inspo, dance pop tunes, things like that. I was listening to Calling All The Monsters by China Anne Mclain (cause spooky season) and went “Yup, this is April”

Splinter- 80s action movie star in canon? 80s singer in au.

Because of the krang, all their inner creativity was shunned and kept hidden. So when the turtles break free and realize that they can make whatever music they want?? The chaos (and quality) gets turned up to 100

I WELCOME ALL QUESTIONS. MAKE ME THINK

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.2

437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome. 626 – Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident. 706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an. 866 – Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army. 936 – King Henry the Fowler dies in his royal palace in Memleben. He is succeeded by his son Otto I, who becomes the ruler of East Francia. 963 – The Byzantine army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea. 1298 – The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg. 1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain. 1504 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode of Moldavia. 1555 – Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola. 1561 – Menas, emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz. 1582 – Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide. 1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place. 1644 – English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor. 1645 – Battle of Alford: Wars of the Three Kingdoms. 1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine. 1723 – Bach's Magnificat is first performed. 1776 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not adopted until July 4. 1816 – The French frigate Méduse strikes the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board have to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa. 1822 – Thirty-five slaves, including Denmark Vesey, are hanged in South Carolina after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion. 1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia. 1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and take over the slave ship Amistad. 1840 – A Ms  7.4 earthquake strikes present-day Turkey and Armenia; combined with the effects of an eruption on Mount Ararat, kills 10,000 people. 1853 – The Russian Army crosses the Prut river into the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia), providing the spark that will set off the Crimean War. 1864 – Dimitri Atanasescu founds the first Romanian school in the Balkans for the Aromanians in Trnovo, in the Ottoman Empire (now in North Macedonia). 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States. 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (who will die of complications from his wounds on September 19). 1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act. 1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London. 1900 – An airship designed and constructed by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany made its first flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen. 1900 – Jean Sibelius' Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. 1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany. 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm. 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight. 1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta. 1940 – The SS Arandora Star is sunk by U-47 in the North Atlantic with the loss of over 800 lives, mostly civilians. 1962 – The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas. 1964 – Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places. 1966 – France conducts its first nuclear weapon test in the Pacific, on Moruroa Atoll. 1976 – End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes the former South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam. 1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. 1986 – Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Syktyvkar Airport in Syktyvkar, in present-day Komi Republic, Russia, killing 54 people. 1988 – Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he consecrated were excommunicated by the Holy See. 1990 – In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca. 1994 – USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board. 1997 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis. 2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. 2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted. 2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. 2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. 2008 – Colombian conflict: Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC. 2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people. 2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx. 2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.

[caesarsaladinn]

Chinese balloon spotted over Montana… US catching up to China in surveillance zeppelin technology… there’s a joke about the Golden Age of Ballooning here somewhere

[the-firebird69]

Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (Live from Celebration Day) (Official Video)

And we can hear him and he's making jokes Hera and He saying Friday we see the ancient aliens and their Asian sorta So you should understand why he has an attitude probably not yet maybe when you see your first celestial. It's going down shortly and yeah there's a lot of pants peeing. You don't think he's walking around as a super intelligent person higher than a kite on nothing do you of course not it was plaguing Mac now he's horrified. And it says I don't know it takes me like a day to fly across that the short way in width and it's not laughing he says well get a better plane. I said I have to do all this just for three squared a day in a place to sleep and he's not happy and these people are idiots that they can't build anything you see.

-- Kashmir is an area in China well it's near China and it is between Pakistan and India but they're saying it's an entrance and they're fighting over for centuries didn't really know why they thought it was about each other's country. Ignorance is less. This case it borders on a humongous cavern that's under China and tons of people going there now because they're saying there's probably a shift there these people are missing an industrious and running it somehow. And they cannot believe what our son is saying. But he says is it's not as big as other places but OK and they're trying to get moving that's another great eye approaches in pyramid comes online on his planet. When he's bigger about 6 foot 4 he's gonna be impervious to things at times when he is radiated and we named him where the father and mother and from Russia and with love his mother and father and paternal grandmother and grandfather named him his name is Kalel And we sent him down there to help do the job. He is also the human hulk and he and he's really the first that you'll ever see it's true too and he is going to be gigantic. He will lift weights that you're lifting with one finger and be able to throw it clear across the county at just half size which really is about 9 foot. That's funny ohh ohh ohh ohh ohh Sasquatch is comparing size and saying 0 no now. But seriously this is a huge cavern and you're missing a few and the Max did not.

RED ALERT ALL TROOPS TO DUTY ALL CIVILIANS TO SHELTER IN PLACE ATTEMT TO FIND US SIGN ON.  WE NEED YOU TO TO BE SAFE.  TOGETHER YES

Thor FReya

right now all and all in here too

Olympus

[stackofstories]

Shotgun rider | chapter five

Ruqayyah graduated from Hogwarts on a Friday in June 1979.

The following Monday, she was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service. Like their American counterparts, the British clandestinely selected elite witches and wizards, operating discreetly to avoid detection by MACUSA and the Ministry of Magic. While the wizarding world believed in a separate coexistence, Muggles had no such qualms. They monitored magical individuals, deployed spies, and utilized their wixen people for covert operations.

This revelation didn't shock Ruqayyah. She had long learned this lesson in her home country of Sudan. The British and Americans were imperialistic powers, eager to expand their influence. She understood that given the opportunity, they would establish colonies through martial force if necessary.

Ruqayyah found a newspaper clipping from a deceased MI6 comrade, a squib codenamed Cynthia. Cynthia had been quoted: “Ashamed? Not the least, my superiors told me that the results of my work saved thousands of British and American lives... It involved me in situations from which 'respectable' women draw back – but mine was total commitment. Wars are not won by respectable methods.”

That small paragraph resonated with her. Ruqayyah wasn't noble or respectable; she wasn’t interested in saving countless American or British lives. Simply, she understood she was a Black witch surviving in a system responsible for atrocities and would inflict more horrors, and if she was meant to live in it, her best bet would be to ally herself with the strongest military power the world had ever known while navigating magical society.

For six months, Ruqayyah underwent intensive training, learning espionage tactics and mastering her magical abilities.

In December 1979, she received her first assignment: accompanying senior officials to China to gather intelligence on their relationship with Afghanistan. While the muggles talked business, she was meant to schmooze and get closer to the Chinese general and shake him down for all his information. In itself that wasn’t difficult, men were men across races; it was the erasing of his mind afterward, a delicate task requiring finesse if one wasn’t a natural legilimens.

And upon completion of her mission with no issues, Ruqayyah was christened with her operative name: Clytemnestra.

_

Ruqayyah approached the red door of the last cottage in Godric’s Hollow. The grass was neatly trimmed, and gold and red balloons adorned their front mailbox. She heard the distant murmur of chatter and music. Most of the guests were likely gathered in the back. Normally, Ruqayyah could have let herself in, but surprise visits had proven perilous lately. She pressed the doorbell, and James Potter's voice promptly responded.

"Who’s there? Reveal yourself," Potter's weighty voice echoed.

"It's Ruqayyah. We're here for the birthday party," she announced.

The door swung open to reveal James Potter, tall and slender in shorts and a faded Led Zeppelin t-shirt, his dark hair the usual mess.

"Um, hello. Thank you for coming," he greeted awkwardly.

"Save the pleasantries, Potter. We don’t need to pretend." Ruqayyah frowned, picking up Blaise and stepping inside. "Where's Lily?"

As she scanned the house, she noted the familiar signs of home: shoes neatly arranged near the door, moving photographs on the wall, and a chest of toys by the sofa. Lily emerged from the kitchen, balancing a tray of cucumber sandwiches and a baby.

"James, could you take Harry for a moment? I'll set these down and use the loo," Lily said, then halted abruptly, her almond eyes widening as she recognized Ruqayyah. "Ruqayyah!" she shrieked happily.

Lily rushed over, her long red hair trailing behind her, and enveloped Ruqayyah in a hug, their babies bumping together.

"Goodness!" Lily exclaimed, pulling back and adjusting Harry on her hip. "I thought you vanished after graduation. I've been sending you letters, I know you get them because the owl comes back empty. You missed my wedding, and--"

Her gaze shifted to Blaise, bright green eyes full of mischief and curiosity. "You've been busy."

"As have you," Ruqayyah replied dryly.

Lily laughed, dismissing the comment, then turned to Potter. "Why are you eavesdropping on our conversation? Make yourself useful, will you? Take Harry and, who's your little one?"

"Blaise," Ruqayyah answered.

"Right. Take Harry and Blaise out to the backyard with the others. No toy broomsticks or I’m skinning Prongs," Lily instructed sternly.

Ruqayyah reluctantly admired Potter's effortless juggling of two toddlers and a plate of sandwiches, his confident grin familiar to her. "Anything for you, Lils," he quipped.

Blaise's large mossy green eyes peered up at her from under his crown of curls. He remained calm despite Potter’s unfamiliarity and his being taken away from her. She wondered why that was. Could it be Blaise was accustomed to her absences, or perhaps he was just naturally self-contained? Ruqayyah suspected it was a bit of both.

"Blaise is the spitting image of you," Lily remarked as she guided them to the scarlet couch, settling herself down. "Just like Harry is with James. I carried him for nine months, and what do I have to show for it?" she joked, referring to Harry's striking resemblance to James.

His eyes, which had always been Lily’s best and most noticeable feature.

“Blaise is older than Harry, right?” Lily asked. “When’s his birthday?”

"November 2nd."

"And?" Lily leaned forward.

"And?" Ruqayyah prompted.

“You're really going to make me ask outright? I see an engagement and marriage ring on your finger. We all remember how hard you were to please at Hogwarts,” Lily said with a fond roll of her eyes.

"Because those toerags acted like they were doing me a favor by asking me out," Ruqayyah said. "I know my worth, and I won't apologize for it."

"Well, now I'm intrigued. Who's the lucky guy?" Lily pressed.

"Dux Faustus Zabini Magnus of Rome," Ruqayyah said blandly.

Lily's expression froze, her light eyebrows shooting up. "A Prince. So you're saying you married a bona fide Italian prince, and you're about as excited as I would be for a root canal?"

Ruqayyah snorted. "His title means little outside of Italy, or even in the Muggle world. And he's no Prince Charming. He's a cantankerous old man, half blind and half mad, and I'm his thirteenth wife. I'm the only one to give him an heir."

Lily's face betrayed her shock. "Thirteenth? What happened to the other twelve? Actually, never mind that. Why did you marry him? How did you even meet?"

"My parents arranged it," Ruqayyah explained. "I only have to endure him for a few more years, and then I get to choose my next husband."

"Endure?" Lily's indignation was palpable. "That's terrible. Marriage should be based on mutual love, understanding, and affection."

Lily embodied their House’s noble traits, standing up against injustices. Ruqayyah smiled. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Magnus leaves me alone, and I have the freedom to do as I please."

Lips pursed, Lily crossed her arms and leaned against the couch arm. “How does a princess spend most of her days? Playing socialite?”

“Close,” Ruqayyah replied. “I abhor hosting. There’s a lot of work involved, especially when you entertain such a diverse company as I do. I model for both Muggles and wizards.”

“Of course you do,” Lily remarked. “You’re stunning.”

“Don’t start,” Ruqayyah said, rolling her eyes. “Half of Hogwarts was in love with you, and the other half was infatuated with Black.”

“Well, I didn’t realize Hogwarts was the be-all and end-all of the world,” Lily said. “Anyway, it's good that you're modeling and not getting tangled up in another war. You left after you graduated. You were always smart.” She chewed on her nail, avoiding eye contact.

“It's not too late. You could set yourself up stateside and not have to live in fear. This isn't your fight,” Ruqayyah said.

Lily ripped her thumb from her mouth. “What do you mean?” she asked reproachfully. “Just because I'm Muggle-born doesn't mean I don't care.”

“It's not about caring,” Ruqayyah explained with an incredulous laugh. “You've always championed the underdog, but this isn't like standing up to a few schoolyard bullies. People are dying, and the Ministry is inept. If it were to fall--”

“It’s not.”

“If the Ministry were to fall, who do you think they’re going to go after first? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” Ruqayyah spoke cautiously, having heard the British Dark Lord's name was cursed, “has made promises he intends to keep. He plans to round up all the Muggle-borns, along with werewolves, vampires, giants--society's undesirables.”

Lily's complexion drained. “He’s claimed he won't spill magical blood.” The defense was faint.

“He won't kill you, but he'll squeeze you until there's nothing left,” Ruqayyah stated matter-of-factly. “You've already produced a healthy baby, and you know the pureblood fertility rate is declining every year.”

Lily shut her eyes. “Ruqayyah.”

Ruqayyah shifted closer on the couch until their knees touched. “I know you're afraid, and Potter and Black are probably righteously furious, and every day you have to make decisions and it gets harder to distinguish between right and wrong, but don't be naive. I’m not spouting conspiracies. Don’t think you're immune to all of this.”

“I've made my decision,” Lily said, opening her eyes. “There's no running away for me. I'm going to stay and fight until the end.”

...or die trying. Ruqayyah didn't recoil at the proclamation. She knew Lily was as headstrong and stubborn as they come; once she dug in her heels, there was no persuading her. It was one of the many qualities that endeared Ruqayyah to her.

“Well, I hope you're right. If this madness blows over, I accepted your birthday invitation in the hopes that Blaise might find a friend before he starts Hogwarts.”

“That would be adorable!” Lily took the bait returning an infectious grin. “Just imagine, our families joined together.”

"Not another one of your tales," Ruqayyah groaned. "Your baby just turned one." Few people knew Lily; they often assumed she was too studious for frivolity, but she was a romantic at heart. One of the first things she introduced Ruqayyah to was the concept of "Spirk" through her contributions to Muggle newsletters and magazines.

"It's not quite like that. Well, not exactly. I just think it would be wonderful to see our friendship passed down to our children and blossom into something more."

If her son preferred men, he could do much worse than a Potter, even if Ruqayyah didn't hold the highest opinion of its current patriarch. "I suppose we could discuss a marriage arrangement in the future," Ruqayyah said half joking and half considering. "Though you'll have to persuade Potter, naturally."

Lily laughed, dismissing the concern. "Don’t fret about James. If he knows what's good for him, it won't be a long argument." She rose from the couch, stretching. "I really should excuse myself. Why don't you join the party outside, Dorcas and McKinnon are here. Amina promised she swing by later. We can catch up more before you leave, yeah?"

_

Streetlights bled through the thin blinds. She reached for her cup repeatedly, a nasty brew of black coffee and nearly expired creamer. When she drank the last drop, she curled the cup to her chest, finding comfort in the receding warmth as she shivered in the muggy room.

Ruqayyah read the letter, then read it again. And then she read it again. It came on the heels of her son’s first letter, his dry observations regarding Hogwarts and his droll classes. He mentioned nothing about his Slytherin House. She should have noted that. His damning silence on the House of Snakes.

“Clytemnestra?”

Looking up from the letter, Ruqayyah met her partner, Operative Reed's concerned gaze. She had been in this game too long to be easily deceived.

“I have to go,” she stated, sniffing as she stuffed the letter and key into her jeans pocket.

“No, we're heading to the airport,” Reed insisted.

True, their flight was scheduled in less than four hours, carrying weapons and cash to the Contras camp in the Nicaraguan jungles--a standard operating procedure she had been involved in since the early '80s. Yet, she shook her head. “I'm not going to the airport. An emergency has come up.”

Reed took a deep breath. “This isn’t some civilian job. You don’t get sick leave when your country needs you--”

At any other time, Ruqayyah might have laughed at the audacity of the man. He bled red, white, and blue.

“I'm surge support,” Ruqayyah clarified. “My primary agency is SIS. If you have an issue with my decision, feel free to lodge a complaint. Until then, I'm leaving.”

She left Reed in the office and gathered her things. Once she was a safe distance away, Ruqayyah grasped the portkey, spoke the activating word, and suddenly vanished. In one moment, she was in muggy California, and in the next, she found herself amidst the cool Scottish hills, gazing at the sprawling silhouette of Hogwarts partially obscured by the morning mist.

“Ruqayyah,” came a familiar silky voice. Lily's queer fascist once friend, Severus Snape.

“Snape,” Ruqayyah acknowledged. He had come to her a decade earlier as an envoy from Voldemort inviting her to join their ranks. The Dark Lord had apparently been impressed by her. She rejected him. “Take me to my son.”

“First, you must compose yourself,” Snape began, but Ruqayyah cut him off.

“I am the epitome of temperance. However, I can't guarantee how long it will last. My patience wears thin the longer we delay. Take me to my son.”

Snape studied her face for a moment before turning on his heels and striding towards the castle, his black cloak trailing behind him. Ruqayyah matched his pace. Returning to Hogwarts grounds stirred up no feelings of nostalgia; instead, she was engulfed by a sense of guilt and anxiety, haunted by memories she had long buried.

How could she have sent her son here? She should have insisted on admission to Beauxbatons. There, he wouldn't be such an anomaly. Beauxbatons had a rich history of Black students, particularly those of African and Afro-Caribbean descent. There, her son would have had some semblance of safety. She had been naive.

They arrived at the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, where Madam Pomfrey bustled about, straightening bedsheets and fluffing pillows with her wand.

“Poppy,” Severus called out, “I’ve brought Mrs-- I heard you’ve remarried for the sixth time, Ruqayyah.”

“Mrs. Graves,” Ruqayyah said hastily, not in the mood for the usual ruminations on her marriages. “There's no need for introductions. As I recall, Madam Pomfrey has a memory like Ollivander. She never forgets a student she's treated.”

“He's right over here,” Madam Pomfrey responded, understanding Ruqayyah's urgency. She pointed to the furthest bed from the doors, with the curtains drawn. “I gave him a sleeping draught to calm his nerves last night. He was quite anxious, poor dear.”

Ruqayyah shot her a grateful glance and headed straight for the drawn curtains. Though she felt an urge to rip away the thin fabric, she took a moment to compose herself, to breathe. She needed to project calm and stability for her son.

Slowly, Ruqayyah drew back the curtain, the metal hooks clanking softly together. A wand pointed at her face, and green eyes locked onto hers. Lily's eyes.

"Who are you?" the boy asked coldly, coiling around her son like a snake protecting its clutch. "Go away," he hissed.

"Mr. Potter!" Madam Pomfrey shrieked, matching Snape's sharp retort. She gathered her wits first, her surprise shifting into a pinched scowl. "We discussed this last night. We are to leave Mr. Zabini alone while he recovers."

Potter lifted his chin, leveling each of them with a defiant stare, as if daring them to remove him forcefully--a mirror image of his father in his youth. "Blaise asked me to stay," Potter declared. "So I stayed."

Had he? Ruqayyah had always found her son remarkably self-contained. He rarely cried or exhibited clingy behavior.

"Cease this ridiculous posturing," Snape interjected. "Mr. Zabini does not need a sentinel. Go back to your dormitories, Mr. Potter."

"No," Potter insisted. "Not until Blaise wakes up."

"Five points deducted for cheek," Snape said, "And I wasn’t asking. The world doesn’t conform to your whims."

Potter showed no signs of being put out. If anything, he moved closer to her son, his wand still held firmly and poised, even though they were aware he knew only a handful of spells.

"Mr. Zabini is in trustworthy hands, Mr. Potter," Pomfrey tried to cajole. "He won’t be harmed."

Potter's thin lips tightened further. Though unspoken, it was clear he didn’t believe Pomfrey's assurance. Pomfrey exchanged a look with Snape, silently urging him to take charge.

Snape took a deep breath, likely preparing to issue further threats, but everyone froze when Blaise rolled over and sighed against Potter’s back. His nose wrinkled, and his lips curled in disgust. Ruqayyah recognized that look--it was the expression Blaise wore seconds before waking up, and he did just as she expected. Instead of the faint, startled cry Ruqayyah half-forgotten, he blinked dazed eyes at them all, murmuring, "Potter, give me space. You’re too bloody hot," before recognition dawned.

"Mamma!" he exclaimed, swinging upright. His dark skin shone as richly as the shores of Reynisfjara, a mirror to her own.

"Mamma?" Harry asked quietly. "She's your mother."

"Every day I'm continually amazed the Sorting Hat didn't put you in Ravenclaw, Potter. Truly a shocker."

"It's not that obvious," Potter replied shortly. "And she didn't say. I heard her say she's Mrs. Graves."

Blaise sighed, rubbing his eyes. "She's my mother, Potter. Why do you even have your wand out? Are you going to Wingardium Leviosa everyone?"

"I can see you're fine," Potter sighed. "You are fine, right?"

Blaise's eyes flicked to her, then back to Potter. She noticed how he pulled away slightly, straightening his nightshirt and trying to regain composure. "I don't need a nurse. I'm fine, Potter."

Potter slid off the bed, approaching her first. "It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Zabini, uh, Mrs. Graves."

She noted the lack of apology for pointing his wand in her face. "Nice to meet you as well, Harry," Ruqayyah replied. "Thank you for watching over my Blaise."

Harry nodded shortly, running off with a single glance back. Ruqayyah raised an eyebrow when she saw Blaise return the look. And then there were three.

"I need a moment alone with my son," Ruqayyah said.

[whatilistenedtoatwork]

From March 25th to March 27th, 2024

25-03-2024

CAB CALLOWAY & HIS ORCHESTRA “Cab Calloway 1934-1937”; THE SMALL FACES “Small Faces”; NADA SURF “If I Had A Hi-Fi”; STAN ROGERS “From Fresh Water”; THE CORAL “The Curse Of Love”; PEGGY LEE “Rendezvous With Peggy Lee”; FATS DOMINO “Be My Guest”; SLEEPY JOHN ESTES “Drop Down Mama”; SAM PRICE & HIS TEXAS BLUSICIANS”Sam Price 1942-1945”; SUZANNE VEGA “Nine Objects Of Desire”; CANDY CLAWS “Two Airships/Exploder Falls”; RY COODER “Borderline”; GUIDED BY VOICES “August By Cake”

26-03-2024

CLOSE LOBSTERS “Foxheads Stalk This Land”; LONNIE BROOKS “Reconsider Baby”; GUIDED BY VOICES “Zeppelin Over China”; PEGGY LEE “Things Are Swingin'”; EARL HINES & HIS ORCHESTRA “Earl Hines 1939-1940”; TEENAGE FANCLUB & JAD FAIR “Words Of Wisdom & Hope”; NADA SURF “The Proximity Effect”; BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO & ILS SONT PARTIS BAND “Turning Point”; PIXIES “Indie Cindy”; EELS “Electro-Shock Blues”; THE SPECIALS “Singles”; SUPER FURRY ANIMALS “Out Spaced”; THE BREEDERS “Head To Toe”; SEBADOH “Weed Forestin'”

27-03-2024

GRUFF RHYS “The Almond & The Seahorse”; SHOBALEADER ONE “d'Demonstrator”; ELLA FITZGERALD & DUKE ELLINGTON “Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book”; ENNIO MORRICONE “Il Mio Nome E' Nessuno”; THE ORB “Cydonia”; ZERO 7 “When It Falls”; GUIDED BY VOICES “Please Be Honest”; PIXIES “Vrendenburg, Ultrecht 25-09-1990”; NINE INCH NAILS “Still”; THE BALFA BROHERS “The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music, Volume II”

[brn1029]

On this date in music.

September 14th

2018 - Tony Bennett

Verve Records held a launch party at the Rainbow Room in New York City to celebrate the release of Tony Bennett and Diana Krall's album Love Is Here To Stay. After the duo performed their rendition of 'Fascinating Rhythm,' Guinness World Records adjudicator Alex Angert announced Bennett - who first recorded the tune under the stage name Joe Bari over 68 years earlier - was now the title holder for "the longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single."

2011 - Bob Dylan

It was reported that a Swedish Bob Dylan fan had been arrested for singing Bob Dylan songs outside his ex-girlfriends house. The love-sick man had also cobbled together a group of five other men to serve as vocal accompaniment for the late-night live performance, each of who donned hoodies with their hoods up. But soon after the man began to serenade his ex, who had previously taken out a restraining order against him, she called the police, leaving 50-year-old guitarist blowin in the wind. 'I had the idea that I'd play a Bob Dylan song for her,' the man told police. (No word on which song, unfortunately.)

2008 - Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson was one of the pilots who flew specially chartered flights after 85,000 tourists were stranded in the US, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe after Britain's third-largest tour operator went into administration. The singer, who had worked for the airline Astraeus for nine years, took up flying during a low point in his solo career after he quit the band in 1993.

1997 - Jimi Hendrix

Over 2000 fans watched Pete Townshend unveil a English Heritage Blue Plaque at 23 Brook Street, Mayfair London, to mark where Jimi Hendrix had lived in 1968-69. Hendrix was the first pop star to be awarded with the plaque.

1995 - The Beatles

The lyrics to The Beatles song 'Getting Better' hand-written by Paul McCartney sold for £161,000 at a Sotheby's auction in London.

1984 - David Bowie

David Bowie won Video of the year for 'China Girl' at the first MTV Video awards. The song co-written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop during their years in Berlin, first appeared on Pop's album The Idiot released in 1977.

1981 - The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones played a secret pre-tour warm-up show at the Sir Morgan's Cove club in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Billed as Little Boy Blue & The Cockroaches, a local radio station announced that the Stones were in town, resulting in the club being besieged by over 4,000 fans attempting to get into the 350-person venue. Police were drafted in to control the crowds, which resulted in eleven fans being arrested.

1974 - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton scored a US No.1 with his version of the Bob Marley song 'I Shot The Sheriff' which was first released in 1973 on The Wailers' album Burnin'. Clapton's version was included on his 1974 album 461 Ocean Boulevard.

1971 - Led Zeppelin

During a US tour Led Zeppelin appeared at Berkley Community Theatre, Berkley, California. Countless major acts have appeared here, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Van Morrison, The Kinks, Bruce Springsteen, Genesis, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Iggy Pop and David Bowie.

1968 - Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison's house in Nashville burnt down, his two eldest sons both died in the blaze. Orbison was on tour in the UK at the time of the accident.

1968 - Archies

The first episode of the comic strip 'The Archies' was aired on US TV. The recording group had contributions from Ron Dante, Andy Kim, Jeff Barry and others. Rock mogul, Don Kirshner (who also brought us The Monkees) was put in charge of the studio group. The following year The Archies started a eight-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Sugar Sugar,' becoming the longest running One Hit Wonder in the UK.

[xtruss]

One Man’s Quest to Revive the Great American Vacuum Tube

The prized retro audio components are mostly manufactured in Russia and China. Now, a small Georgia company is rebooting US production.

— Wired | March 28th, 2023 | Roy Furchgott

Courtesy Of Western Electric

ROSSVILLE, GEORGIA, ON the border with Tennessee, doesn’t look like a tech town. It’s the kind of place where homey restaurants promising succulent fried chicken and sweet tea are tucked among shuttered businesses and prosperous liquor stores. The cost of living is moderate, crime is high, politics are red, and the population has withered to 3,980.

But in the view of entrepreneur Charles Whitener, Rossville is the perfect place to stage a revival in US technology and manufacturing—albeit with a device that was cutting edge when the Ford Model A ruled the roads.

Whitener owns Western Electric, the last US manufacturer of vacuum tubes, those glass and metal bulbs that controlled current in electric circuits before the advent of the transistor made them largely obsolete. Tubes are still prized for high-end hi-fi equipment and by music gear companies such as Fender for their distinctive sound. But most of the world’s supply comes from manufacturers in Russia and China, which after the transistor era began in earnest in the 1960s helped sunset the US vacuum tube industry by driving down prices.

Whitener, a 69-year-old self-described inventor, vintage hi-fi collector, and Led Zeppelin fanatic, bought and revived AT&T’s shuttered vacuum tube business in 1995. The business has ticked along in the era of cheap overseas tubes primarily by serving the small market for vacuum tubes in premium hi-fi equipment with a model called the 300B, originally designed in 1938 to enable transoceanic phone calls.

Inspecting newly sealed vacuum tubes. Courtesy Of Western Electric

But recently US trade restrictions on Russia and China, over the former’s renewed invasion of Ukraine and the latter’s ideological disputes with Washington, have sent vacuum tube prices soaring. At one point in 2022, tubes that typically retailed for $10 were offered at prices over $100, says Daniel Liston Keller, who does public relations for recording industry clients. Although shipments of Russian tubes have resumed, prices remain high and the quality of overseas tubes has always been unreliable. “You have to buy 100 tubes to get 30 you like,” says Justin Norvell, an executive vice president at Fender. An affordable tube for a guitar preamp is now roughly $30, meaning the company can spend about $90 to get one tube that meets its standards.

Whitener has seized on the current moment of high prices as a chance to reinvigorate his company, the US tube industry, and even the idea of what a vacuum tube can be. Western Electric is currently working on a modernized tube design, an iteration of the all-but-obsolete technology fit for the 21st century. It’s an improved version of a tube called the 12AX7, which is common in guitar preamps and other music gear—a market Whitener estimates is more than 10 times the size of the premium hi-fi business and is today served almost wholly by overseas suppliers. The recently high prices create economic cover, he calculates, to make a better version in Rossville that can be more reliable, durable, and economical than existing designs, turning the US into a powerhouse of vacuum tube technology again.

Assembling vacuum tubes by hand in Western Electric’s factory in Rossville, Georgia. Courtesy Of Western Electric

That makes Western Electric an oddball member of the swelling movement to bring technology manufacturing back to the US, assuring the supply of crucial products, such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries, that are generally sourced overseas. The company is in the process of restructuring its factory floor with a combination of vintage and new machinery to turn out the modernized tubes, at the volumes Fender and other music companies need.

Whitener is a perfectionist. He aims to launch the 12AX7 this summer, but previous debuts have slipped. His factory is poised to make America the dominate source for audio vacuum tubes, improving the fortunes of Rossville, audiophiles, guitar heroes, domestic manufacturing, and Whitener himself—if he can just get the damn things out the door. “This landscape for the Russian tubes could change tomorrow,” he concedes. “It’s a Walmart world, and that’s a risk.”

How Hard Can It Be?

From the 1920s through the 1950s, the American vacuum tube industry thrived. RCA, General Electric, Raytheon, and other manufacturers competed to invent and manufacture more reliable tubes, which were needed to regulate current and boost the faint signals from analog microphones and instruments enough to drive speakers. But the arrival of transistors, then circuit boards, made tubes obsolete for most uses. American manufacturers couldn’t match prices from overseas. Factories closed. Engineers moved on.

Many musicians and audio obsessives stayed loyal to the tube but increasingly got them from outside the US. Russia and China became the leading suppliers, with companies such as Shuguang Electron Group cranking out tube designs established between the 1930s and 1950s, such as the 6L6 and EL34.

By the time Charles Whitener took a career break in 1990, the US did not make any consumer audio tubes. He thought about changing that after noticing a steady stream of ads in hi-fi magazines offering Western Electric 300Bs, a design from 1938 that was popular with audio enthusiasts. Whitener was looking for a new venture after using his experience in his father’s yarn factory to invent a quality control system for the fiber optics industry that he then sold. “I thought, how hard can it be to make these tubes?,” he says. “People are willing to pay $1200 to $1500 a pop for them.”

Predictably, it was harder than Whitener thought. It took him two years to persuade AT&T, which hadn’t made a tube since 1988 but still owned Western Electric, to license the brand and sell him its tube-manufacturing equipment. He set up shop in Western Electric’s former tube factory in Kansas City, Missouri, where the mothballed machines were stored.

After a fortuitous meeting with retired AT&T employees on a visit to Bell Labs, Whitener combed the northeast tracking down veterans of the storied facility, Sylvania, and RCA who knew the arcana of tube-making. When his factory started production of 300Bs in 1996, almost all of his 20 or so employees were tube-manufacturing veterans.

Western Electric was up and running again, but in 2003 AT&T sold the building. Whitener moved the company to Huntsville, Alabama, a NASA stronghold with skilled workers that was convenient for his tube contracts with the Department of Defense. In 2008, he moved the company to Rossville, Georgia. It was there that he began modernizing vacuum tube designs that are more than 70 years old.

Whitener’s team devised a way to apply an atom-thick layer of graphene to a vacuum tube’s anode to extend its lifespan by improving heat dissipation and reducing contaminating gases. Those enhanced tubes hit the market in 2020. Quality control—Whitener’s former field—became more automated, and he claims more than 90 percent of tubes now pass inspection off the line.

Western Electric sells pairs of 300Bs in a cherry wood presentation box with a certificate charting their performance characteristics and a generous five-year warranty—yours for $1,500. Copycat sets of 300Bs, offered at the same price, are sold with a 30-day warranty. Most tubes have a warranty of just 90 days.

Whitener has spent more than a decade preparing for Western Electric’s next act. In 2006, he won an auction for machinery and tooling needed to make 12AX7 tubes; the pieces had started life in Blackburn, England, but were then in Serbia. It took five years of legal battles with a competing bidder before the intervention of then-Tennessee senator Bob Corker and the US Embassy, Whitener says, gave him possession. (Corker, reached via a staffer, did not dispute Whitener’s characterization.)

Today that equipment is being installed on Whitener’s factory floor, along with additional machines shipped over from Slovakia in 2007. New machines that will automate processes like the hand-bending of wires needed to make 12AX7 tubes are being peppered in. All the while, Western Electric continues to produce 300Bs. Depending on the day of the week, the space may clickety-clack to the sound of a lathe winding molybdenum wire around side rods, or the ragged hiss of gas flames heating and sealing glass bulbs.

Very Pleasant Distortion

The promise of better sound is, like most things among high-fidelity fanatics, subject to vicious debate. Some hear vast differences between brands of tube, or even individual tubes of the same make and model. Others will tell you each tube is indistinguishable from the next. Most agree that tubes in general have a sound that transistors, circuit boards, and algorithms can only approximate, one often described as warm, rich, or even romantic.

“Tubes just distort things in a very pleasant way,” said Daniel Schlett, a sound engineer whose Brooklyn studio, Strange Weather, is known for the analog punch it gets from tube-powered mics, amps, consoles, and equalizers. Artists who have sought Schlett’s hallmark sound are as diverse as Ghostface Killah, Booker T. (of MGs fame), and The War on Drugs. “Tubes are part of the equation,” Schlett says. “It’s big and amplified, and it has the voodoo on it.”

A delicate 15-inch ribbon of nickel makes up the filament at the heart of Western Electric's current model, the 300B. Courtesy Of Western Electric

But voodoo is exactly the problem, say tube skeptics like Glenn Fricker, an engineer of 25 years who specializes in metal bands at Spectre Sound Studio in Ontario, Canada. He sometimes uses a 1966 amp with its original tubes, but he doubts expensive replacement tubes would improve the sound.

“As a kid we are led to believe there is some dark art in tubes which will inherently change the sound of your amp,” Fricker says. But when he devised an experiment using sound canceling to reveal the audible differences between tubes, all he uncovered was “a little clicking sound”—they were otherwise identical. He advises guitar slingers to skip the $1,300 vintage Telefunken “Diamond Bottom” 12AX7 online at Tube Depot for the $20 JJ brand from Slovakia. While Fricker is rooting for Western Electric, he says, “Are they going to sound any better than your dear, cheap JJs? No.”

Price spikes during the recent great tube panic suggest plenty of people still believe in the voodoo. That presents Whitener with an immense opportunity. He says he aims to launch Western Electric’s 12AX7, America’s first new tube in decades, this summer. After that he plans to add a string of additional models, versions of the 6L6, EL34, EL84 12 AT7, and 6V6 tubes—a lineup he calculates makes up almost 80 percent of the relevant music equipment, such as guitar and studio amps. If all goes to plan, the US could once again dominate vacuum tube manufacturing.

Whitener concedes that he’s taking a big risk. Russia looks determined to keep attacking Ukraine, keeping trade embargoes in place, and China-US relations remain tense. But the geopolitics of vacuum tubes could shift again. It’s unclear how loyal people might be to his US-made tubes.

Whitener hopes that even if international supply prices drop, customers will stick with Western Electric after having gotten a taste of the reliably durable tubes. “They are looking for a stable product they can count on,” he says. Schlett, the sound engineer, is hoping Whitener can deliver. “My advice is please, quality control, please, please, please,” he said. “I don’t want to throw out 70 percent of the $180 tubes I buy. That’s not OK.”

[kedamono-dreams]

did some math on GBV's currently released studio albums: the shortest in terms of tracklist length is their most recent, Tremblers and Goggles With Rank, with 10 songs on it. their longest tracklist albums are August by Cake and Zeppelin Over China, both with 32 tracks. Alien Lanes (probably my personal favorite) is in second place with 28. the mean tracklist length is 15 songs on 9 albums, and the average tracklist length is 16.513... tracks with Tonics and Twisted Chasers's original length, and 16.648... tracks with the CD release. There are 592 tracks total, and they make up about 25.25% of Pollard's total ASCAP credited songwriting work.

[bast38]

[sinceileftyoublog]

Guided By Voices Interview: A Conversation with Doug Gillard

Robert Pollard (left) and Doug Gillard (right); Guided By Voices perform “I Am A Tree” at SPACE in Evanston

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Journeyman Doug Gillard has been in Guided By Voices for 10 years, over 2 stints, for 12 official LP’s and other releases that no casual fan could keep track of. So, apart from Robert Pollard himself, I could think of no better person to analyze the creative process behind their recent crop of records, including two so far this year, Zeppelin Over China and EP compilation Warp and Woof, and a third coming, Sweating the Plague. More than ever, GBV seems to be a democracy, and not just because each member has gotten his turn at writing a few songs. From my conversation with Gillard over the phone last month from his home in Queens, I got the sense that as long as Pollard doesn’t have a clear idea for the song, he not only welcomes but relies on the others to help him complete it, even if he was the original writer. As for Gillard, he provides the backbone of the songs, something you don’t really notice but would if his contributions weren’t there, especially the horns and strings that supply dramatic flair or emotional weight. At any given live show, he’s the heart and soul of the band, whether doing backup vocals on the set mainstay that he wrote “I Am A Tree” or dishing Pete Townshend-esque riffs on the band’s Who worship.

Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity, wherein Gillard also talks about his favorite new GBV songs, upcoming band-related news, and other projects he’s recently worked on or is working on.

Since I Left You: You’ve said Zeppelin Over China is unlike anything the band has done before. What makes it unique within the GBV discography?

Doug Gillard: I think it’s just a little warmer and has a little more orchestration and is probably the most diverse record.

SILY: A song like “The Hearing Department” is certainly hazier than your average propulsive GBV track.

DG: Yeah, Bob wanted sort of a rumba beat for that in his notes. Sometimes he has notes. Some songs he doesn’t. When we do the music, a lot of times, we just have freedom to take a song somewhere we’re feeling at the time of recording. Other times, he has sort of a vision. It’s a mixed bag, which is great. We like doing both. On that one, given that beat and the chords, it sort of reminded me of an early Fleetwood Mac song--Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac.

SILY: On “Cobbler Ditches”, does he reference “Motor Away”?

DG: I think so, yeah.

SILY: You guys have so many songs, but having listened to a lot of them, I’ve never really picked that out before, where he’s referenced a previous song by title. It had to happen one of these days.

DG: I think it’s happened in the past, but I can’t be sure. There’s been a lot of records.

SILY: On this one, you did a lot of string and horn arrangements. That’s most notable on the singles and the ones you were playing before the album was out: “The Rally Boys” and “You Own the Night”. Where else did you add them in?

DG: They’re all over the record--“Vertiginous Rafts”, the last song on the record. Really, there are little parts of strings and horns on a lot of the songs on here. Sometimes, the strings are in the version of a Mellotron, but mostly, they’re not. Sometimes, they’re really subtle, too, added just to add a little bit of atmosphere.

SILY: Who plays them?

DG: I play them. I have an orchestra program, a MIDI program administered through a keyboard. There’s piano on there--key-related things.

SILY: I’ve seen how you adapted the first two live. Is it the same approach with the others? Are you even playing them?

DG: We will be playing more songs from the record. But when we play stuff live, we just kind of rock it out. I’m not concerned whether parts on the record aren’t in the song live. I really like seeing bands that play songs on the record different from how the record sounds.

SILY: Bob has said in past concerts that you’re the most instrumentally capable version of GBV ever even though the fans want the mistakes. But you achieve the balance between the record and live well. You still retain that rawness.

DG: Yeah, I think that’s true. Sometimes, I’ll try to play some of the string lines live on guitar if there’s room. I was doing that with “See My Field”. But it’s only because I hear them. I don’t have to play them. It wasn’t a request--just something I thought I would do.

SILY: Were the last songs you wrote for GBV the ones from “August By Cake” [Ed note: “Goodbye Note” and “Deflect/Project”]?

DG: No, there have been some B-sides to singles that band members have written that have come out. They haven’t been digitized, necessarily. They were vinyl-only and sold out quickly. One was called “Red Nose Speedway”...What was the other one called? I wrote one with Mark Shue. Kevin March wrote one that ended up on the B-side of a single and so did Bobby Bare.

SILY: You don’t play them live, do you?

DG: No, that’s correct.

SILY: Have you done the string and horn arrangements on other GBV albums before?

DG: Yeah. All the stuff that’s come out so far I have done a little bit, but on August By Cake really not much at all...some keyboards, maybe a string line here or there. How Do You Spell Heaven, a little bit. [Engineer] Travis [Harrison] did some string lines on August By Cake. And I did some arrangements on an ESP Ohio record which came out before August By Cake, which was Travis, myself, Mark Shue, and Bob.

SILY: Now that you’re back in the band, as of 2016, is “I Am A Tree” going to be in the set list for as long as you’re in the band?

DG: [laughs] I’m not sure. I would say probably so, but you can never be sure. There are a lot of songs in the can that Bob likes to rotate in and out of the set list. 

SILY: How does he or the band decide upon the set list on a night by night basis?

DG: Bob will have a master list that he re-sequences for every show. We’ll have a basic list for every tour, give or take some. Sometimes, he’ll get a whim or an epiphany and put something in mid-tour, which is always fine. But the sequence is different every night.

SILY: Do you have a favorite song on Zeppelin Over China or Warp and Woof?

DG: Wow...there are a lot of songs to choose from on both of those, and they’re all so damn good. Zeppelin Over China, I really don’t know what a favorite would be. Let’s see...looking at the list here...I really like “Where Have You Been All My Life” or maybe “Wrong Turn On” or “Jam Warsong”. There’s a ton, though. They all kind of have different purposes, different sounds. Warp and Woof, there are a lot of great little songs on there. I say little because they’re shorter. About two minutes or so. I think one of my favorites is “Angelic Weirdness”.

SILY: The two that are called out in terms of your contributions are the first and the final track, especially in terms of unique recording process. Didn’t you record “Bury the Mouse” in the van?

DG: Yeah, except for the drums. The drums were done first. We already had those, and we finished it on tour in the van. 

SILY: And “End it With Light” was at a soundcheck?

DG: Yeah, I did guitars at the soundcheck on that one. “Cool Jewels and Aprons” is another favorite from Warp and Woof. Oh, I forgot, the last song on 100 Dougs is mine. The instrumental. If you don’t have that actual EP, I can’t remember what sequence it’s in on Warp and Woof, but it’s called “It Will Never Be Simple”.

SILY: The third record you’re putting out this year is no longer called “Rise of the Ants,” right?

DG: That’s correct. It’s going to be called Sweating the Plague.

SILY: Are you able to talk a little about that one, whether your specific contributions, songwriting, and arrangements, or the feel for it in general?

DG: To me, there are similarities to Zeppelin Over China. There’s a little more hard rock on it, a little more of a 70′s rock feel to the songs, some “guitarmonies.” But there are some really nice ballads. It has the four ps that Bob talks about. [Ed note: pop, punk, prog, and psych] Lots of punk on it.

SILY: It’s been described as a little proggy.

DG: For sure. There are a couple prog songs.

SILY: Are there any more records on the horizon for you guys?

DG: There are some reissues this year because of album anniversaries. 

SILY: Bee Thousand?!?

DG: No. There’s always an anniversary of some album. Later this year, it’s the 20th anniversary of the release of Kid Marine, Robert Pollard solo, and of Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, which is a record I did with Bob. It was released under the name Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard, but it was the 4th one in the Fading Captain series of his records coming out around then. That has “Pop Zeus” on it and some other songs. That’s been remastered and it should be reissued in August. There may be a Cash Rivers collection coming out. I’m not sure about when that will be released.

SILY: You’re going to Europe for the first time in decades. Are you excited to play Primavera and the UK?

DG: Very much so, yeah.

SILY: When was the last time you were there with GBV?

DG: 2003, I’d say. We did a European tour and UK tour there.

SILY: Was that for Earthquake Glue?

DG: I believe so. It was either Universal Truths or Earthquake Glue. I think it was Earthquake Glue. I’ve been there a lot since with Nada Surf. I’m really excited to play there with Guided By Voices.

SILY: You contributed to the most recent Neko Case record. How did that experience come about?

DG: Neko had always liked my playing. When she was assembling songs for this record, she gave me a call, I went down to Tuscon, and I played a lot of tracks. I learned the songs. It was great.

SILY: I never realized that you were on The Hold Steady’s Stay Positive, too. I was looking at your credits and was like, “Woah, all these albums I’ve loved over the years!”

DG: Oh, yeah. I was friends with those guys at the time they were making that. I think I had just moved to New York, and they invited me to their session. Tad [Kubler] had me play the recurring riff on “Sequestered in Memphis”. That sort of Stones-y riff. That’s the only song I’m on, I think, but that was fun. They’re really good guys.

SILY: Any plans to come back to Chicago soon?

DG: I’m sure we will. We’re always around Chicago at least a couple times a year. Nothing that I know of just yet, but I’m positive something will happen in that area.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading that’s caught your attention?

DG: I listen to a lot of podcasts. Mark Riley from the BBC does a Bowie podcast, The A to Z of David Bowie. I’ve been listening to a lot of that. I’ve been checking out stuff here and there.

SILY: I don’t have anything else to ask you--is there anything I didn’t ask about you want to say?

DG: Let’s see...not sure. I’m producing a band called The Bye Bye Blackbirds. They’re a guitar pop band from the Bay Area. They’ve definitely been around for a while. They have ex-members of Game Theory, The Mr. T Experience. My friend Bradley [Skaught] is the songwriter of the band. He writes some good songs.

SILY: Anything else not GBV in your realm coming up?

DG: Not really too much. GBV’s been planning a busy year with recording and shows and tours coming up, so I’ve been kind of leaving things open for that. It will be busy playing shows for sure. Really nothing else right now.

SILY: Thanks again for your time, I really appreciate it. Congrats on the releases, and looking forward to hearing the next one!

DG: For sure!

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.20 (before 1945)

451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan. 1622 – The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years' War. 1631 – The Sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Barbary slave traders. 1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. 1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater. 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta. 1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States. 1787 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the 'United States'. 1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath. 1791 – King Louis XVI, disguised as a valet, and the French royal family attempt to flee Paris during the French Revolution. 1819 – The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail. 1837 – King William IV dies, and is succeeded by his niece, Victoria. 1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph. 1862 – Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated. 1863 – American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state. 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother. 1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened. 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China. 1900 – Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return. 1921 – Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike. 1926 – The 28th International Eucharistic Congress begins in Chicago, with over 250,000 spectators attending the opening procession. 1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp. 1943 – The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days. 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Avro Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". 1944 – World War II: During the Continuation War, the Soviet Union demands unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses. 1944 – The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.

[kickerofelves]

The Rally Boys -- Guided By Voices