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scapegrace74-blog · 3 years

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Ginger Snap, Chapter 3

A/N And just like that, here’s another chapter of Ginger Snap. This one has no Chef!Jamie (at least not in person, but he is the invisible third presence in the room) but read it anyway! He’ll be back in the next chapter, I promise.

Previous chapters are best enjoyed on my Ao3 page, because I have a bad habit of going back and editing them after they’ve been posted.

I appraised my reflection in a plate glass window. Today was my thirtieth birthday. I’d spent most of the day at a fancy salon having assorted hairs waxed, plucked and uncoiled. Twenty minutes in the capricious October wind, and my sleek hairstyle was on the verge mutiny. I smoothed it down as best I could with my palms, mentally shrugged my shoulders, then entered the upscale restaurant.

“Happy birthday, darling.” Frank left a dry kiss on my cheek, careful to not mar my make-up, as he greeted me. “You look very beautiful with your hair straight like that.”

It was clear why Frank had chosen the Witchery for my birthday celebration. Nestled against Edinburgh Castle, it radiated history with its dark woods, tapestry-covered walls, burgundy banquettes and faux Tudor painted ceiling. Everywhere crystal and silverware reflected the bountiful candlelight. I pictured Jamie’s thick-soled work boots striding across the antique Persian carpets towards the kitchen and had to suppress a giggle.

Frank stood respectfully while the maître d’ pulled out my chair. He played the part of the genteel academic to a tee. Ten years’ my senior, he sported thick-framed glasses, a full head of dark hair and a trim figure that spoke more to abstemious habits than vigorous exercise. Still, he was wearing his best tailored suit and the tie I’d bought him for Christmas. I reminded myself that I was lucky to be in a relationship with a decent, courteous and dependable man who offered me the stability my tumultuous childhood had been sadly lacking.

We conversed quietly as we each perused the leather-bound menus, the noise of other diners a discrete background hum. Frank told me all about the history of the sixteenth century oak panels that lined the room, and I listened politely.

“It’s so refreshing to see an establishment buck the trend of those horrendous open-style kitchens,” he pronounced with a dramatic shudder.

“Oh, I don’t know. I rather enjoy watching the orchestrated chaos that goes into making my meal. It’s like dinner theatre,” I contradicted.

“Some things are better appreciated unseen, darling. It’s like that gaudy museum we visited in Paris. Ductwork and elevator shafts on display along with the art. It’s tremendously distracting, and not at all the point.”

He was referring to our visit to the Pompidou Centre the previous summer. I had found the juxtaposition of modern art and naked architecture fascinating. Frank much preferred the Louvre.

I was saved from having to defend my opinion by the arrival of our waiter. Using a well-manicured fingernail to indicate his choices, Frank ordered for us both.

“The lady will have your Grand Cru Mambourg. I’ll start with a Lagavullin 16, and proceed to the Chambolle-Musigny with my main course,” he said with conviction.

“Very good, sir.” The waiter collected the enormous wine menu and decamped, having failed to even look me in the eye. A little ember of resentment glowed in my belly.

“How did you know what wine to order when I haven’t told you what I’ve chosen as my main course?” I challenged once the waiter was out of earshot.

Frank looked perplexed, as though we were acting in a play and I’d suddenly said the wrong lines after countless perfect dress rehearsals.

“It’s your birthday, darling. You always get lobster for your birthday.”

I thought about this. He wasn’t wrong. I liked lobster. The first time we celebrated together in Boston, on my twenty-fifth birthday, it had felt like a sophisticated, grown-up choice. But I never intended for it to become my only option.

The rest of the meal passed without event. Frank was more animated than usual, reaching across the table to caress my hand twice and joking that his Angus steak tartare appetizer made him feel like a veritable red-blooded carnivore.

Once our plates were cleared Frank cleared his throat and squared his shoulders in a way that reminded me of the day he announced that we would be moving to Edinburgh. Now what? I wondered.

“Claire. Darling. I think you know how happy you make me, and how delighted I am that we’re building this new life together back in the UK. Your thirtieth birthday is such a special occasion, and I think it’s fitting that we mark it with something momentous.”

He reached across the table and took my left hand in his right. His skin was cool and dry against my oddly numb palm. I considered whether I might be going into cardiac arrest. My heart felt untethered in my chest, leaping towards my throat and then plunging into my gut. I concentrated on taking short, sipping breaths so that I didn’t regurgitate lobster all over the pristine white table linens.

Frank continued, unaware of my turmoil. “I’d like us to be married within the year. That way, our children will be born before you enter the high-risk years. A late-spring wedding sounds lovely, don’t you think?”

He looked at me expectantly, so it must be my turn to speak. The problem was I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

“I’m sorry, are you asking me to marry you?” I managed to ask around my stomach, which had joined my heart in my throat.

Frank chuckled. “Of course I am, darling. Isn’t this what we always planned?”

Strictly speaking, it was what Frank had always planned. He’d certainly never made any secret of the fact that matrimony and a family were what he saw in our future. So why was I blind-sided? It felt as though I had been driving a practical four-door sedan with an excellent crash test rating at highway speed, only to suddenly realize that nothing happened when I pumped the brakes.

I said the next thing that came into my malfunctioning brain.

“What about my licensing exams?”

“There really won’t be time, darling. Planning a wedding is a full-time job in itself, from what I hear. We need to get moving if we’re to have two children. You aren’t getting any younger, you know.”

I nodded weakly as though this made some kind of sense. Frank took the gesture as silent acceptance of his hyper-practical proposal, clapping his hands together in delight in a way that made me jump.

“Marvelous. Now, I know that you’re very particular about jewelry, so I thought it best that we shop for a ring together. But I wouldn’t dream of celebrating your special day without giving you something tangible. Happy birthday, Claire.”

He pulled an envelope from his inside jacket pocket and slid it across the table. My fingers trembled and twitched as I tried to open the seal. Inside was a certificate printed with a familiar logo. I looked at Frank in shock. How did he know?

“I know how much you want to learn to cook. This place has an excellent reputation, despite their ridiculous name. They offer group lessons, but only at their location in Leith. I suppose the rent is cheaper there, but clearly that was out of the question. Fortunately, I was able to arrange something more suitable with the owner, so you’ll be learning at home from a private chef!”

At that moment our waiter reappeared carrying a bowl of dark, rich-looking pudding. As he placed it on the table in front of me, the spicy vapours of whisky assaulted my nose. With a flourish, the waiter extracted a long-handled lighter and ignited the liquor. Through the ensuing burst of purple flame, Frank’s familiar features transformed into something far more sinister.

#my writing #outlander #ginger snap

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infernalmachette · 5 years

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Games in their Context

Settling Catan, The weight of context.

This paticular issue in board games is complex, because the initial intent of the creator of Settlers of Catan, Klaus Teuber do not seem to be malicious at all. He simply was playing and enjoying playing, play testing with his family and creating a elegant beautiful peice of gaming. However through a slightly more modern lense it is slightly unsettling that the indigenous people of Catan exist in a ghost space in the original game. Loring-Albright’s edition, First Nations of Catan does provide a elegant solution to the problem by implementing them as a player through the tribe token. It does look like she wanted to keep with the games initial peaceful intentions too by making the peice mostly passive, but I feel like the militant mechanic has a lot of potential. Contextually both parties enjoyed the game immensely and I think it’s important to enjoy the games within the context you create for them and the context you exist in. Which brings me to the next reading’s points “The Euro Game as Heterotopia”

Hetrotopia - To see one’s self

There’s something special about euro board games in their naive choice to discard violence and heavy themes, they discard most other personal themes with them. Some people take this on a surface level and are disgusted by the impersonal nature of the abstract games, feeling alienated by the lack of simulation, like Tom Vasel and his opinion on Vasco da Gama. Vasel isn’t necessarily playing the game incorrectly by not making his own theme and story with the parts he’s been given, but there is a way he could enjoy it more. Devin Wilson talks about Michel Foucault’s theory on mirrored identity. How if we can see past the unreality of our “mirrored” selves we have a opportunity to shape the world beyond that. Wilson talks about taking issue with the initial implied theme that The Castle of Burgundy seems to have, that animals are property to be eaten or used for their wool, their milk. He’s a vegan (wait don’t run away he’s making a good point) and doesn’t think we should use animals for ANYTHING that involves taking their lives or parts of them from them. So the idea of animals just being commodities doesn’t sit well with him. Instead of throwing up his hands and deciding he just didn’t like the game like Vasel would, he decided to adapt its meaning. Wilson chose to view the animals as companions, and the game suddenly became a whole lot more palatable.

Context matters and maybe the initial themes and meaning of games initially might be unpalatable, but we can choose how we play them.

For me personally, this is a thing I recognise a lot in my own gaming. I’m not usually very conscious of it, but the way I act in minecraft is a example. In minecraft my playstyle is to put down my roots, settle, and spend an extensive amount of time building. I can focus for a long long time on tedious tasks in minecraft, whether that be building roofs or digging out the foundations. There are rare occasions where I stop building, usually it’s to go on a big material gathering mission. The other task I’ll do is explore caves. I can spend hours upon hours wandering and collecting every bit of ore. Minecraft is reflective of the fact that I can do mindless tasks, if I like my environment and motivation enough.

Please touch the art - Interactive art and its humanistic beauty

Something that I find really stunning and beautiful about Connected worlds is kinda generic in relation to interactive art. Its interactive. That might be a cop out answer but the thing is is I adore the fact that the audience gets to live and exist with the art, touch it, feel like they’re affecting it. I think it’s wonderful to make art so accessible, so human so present. The cold distance that portraits behind glass has can be demoralizing, so to have this bright colourful island of interactive joy is beautiful. I especially like the aspect of it really encouraging children in paticular, making it playful and engaging them. This can foster a love of art throughout their lives, and that’s invaluable.

E-sports and gaming addiction - Modern horror

This video was a little scary I’ll admit. Something seems dystopian to me about the idea that Korean young people will spend endless hours playing in PC bangs, to the point where they never actually leave. I can understand the group who likes to play in them because it’s a quieter activity than clubbing though. The e-sport players, are different again. On one hand you can have positive opportunities for poorer Koreans to make a name for themselves.

Video gaming is a relatively accessible thing because of the PC bangs, so it’s easy for rags to riches stories to happen. On the other hand there is the darker side that can affect any person playing in E-sports, of any nation. The match fixing, a dangerous thing in Korea. It is a thing that exists in other physical sports, like soccer or cricket.

However I don’t know if we should only compare physical sports and E-sports. I feel like it would be valuable to compare E-sports to competitive chess. In a lot of situations the games are specifically strategic, not unlike chess. It’s also always held over a sit down game. E-sports does however reflect physical sports through its teamwork, and the massive dramatic stadiums for spectators. There’s a lot of mixture between the two actually, perhaps it could be held as a stepping stone between chess and soccer as entertainment play.

#ARDN611 #week two #game theory

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cclkestis · 6 years

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Tag game!

I was tagged by @connorshero & @wiredhawkes <3

Edit: more recently tagged by the lovely @drmsqnc - thank you for tagging me ahh hello!! <3

Last

Drink: Water.

Phone Call: My mum yesterday.

Text: To my friend: “I WILL FITE YOU”

Song: Sober Up by AJR

Time You Cried: Last night/very early this morning.

Ever

Dated someone twice: Listen, I’ve not even made it as far as once yet.

Kissed someone and regretted it: Nope.

Been cheated on: No.

Lost someone special: My granddad.

Been depressed: Yes.

Gotten drunk and thrown up: The upside of not really drinking - no.

Favorite colors: Blue, burgundy, purple.

In the last year you have

Made new friends: Yes!! And I love them all!.

Fallen out of love: Not with a person, but with certain other things yes.

Laughed until you cried: Yes, gods yes.

Found out someone was talking about: Yes.

Met someone who changed you: Those friends I made!!

Found out who your friends are: Ehhh, possibly.

Kissed someone on your Facebook friends list: No.

General

How many of your Facebook friends do you know irl: If internet friends count as irl, then all of them, if not, then most of them..

Do you have any pets: Two guinea pigs!

Do you want to change your name: No.

What did you do for your last birthday: It was my 21st so we had a lot of family and friends round to the house for a party! And I’m going to the local comic con in September with friends as a late celebration.

What were you doing at midnight last night: Talking to @peachydroids about her story, plotting with @finding-jericho, answering asks, and just generally procrastinating on writing.

What is something you can’t wait for: Tuesday - my cousin has been away for the last two months and she’s coming over to stay for a few days. I’m gonna make her play DBH and drag her down into this pit with me >:D

What are you listening to right now: The movie “RED” because my parents have it on.

Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yes, and he’s one of my favourite people to talk to.

Something that gets on your nerves: Lots of little things, but always tumblr and other sites underlining anything I write with red squiggly lines because I don’t spell them the American way.

Most visited website: Tumblr, of course.

Hair color: Light brown.

Long or short hair: Long.

Do you have a crush on someone: Not at the moment.

What do you like about yourself: My ability to get on with almost anyone I talk to.

Want any piercings: Nope.

Blood type: A positive.

Nicknames: I don’t really have any nicknames from non-internet friends/family, but online I get Lau, Deviant, Dev, Newt - mostly based on usernames I’ve had on other sites!

Relationship status: The singlest pringle arount.

Zodiac: Leo.

Pronouns: She/her.

Favorite tv shows: Castle, The Musketeers, Arrow, The Flash, Strictly Come Dancing, Nailed It

Tattoos: None.

right or left handed: Right.

Ever had surgery: No.

Piercings or ear piercings: None.

Sport: Archery, ballroom & latin dancing.

Vacation: I’ve been abroad a few times, Florida was my favourite.

More general

Eating: Chocolate m&ms because apparently I don’t want to sleep tonight.

Drinking: Water.

About to watch: Probably something on YouTube?

Waiting for: Inspiration to strike.

Want: Discord to finish updating.

Get Married: Someday, yes.

Career: University Student.

Which is better

Hugs or kisses

Lips or eyes

Shorter or taller

Older or younger (me being younger)

Nice arms or stomach

Hookup or relationship

Troublemaker or hesitant

Have you ever

Kiss a stranger: No.

Drunk hard liquor: No.

Lost glasses: Only temporarily? I have a bad habit of putting them down and forgetting where I’ve left them.

Turned someone down: No.

Sex on first date: No.

Broken someone’s heart: Not that I’m aware of.

Had your heart broken: No.

Been arrested: No.

Cried when someone died: Yes.

Fallen for a friend: H a h a, y e s.

Do you believe in

Yourself: Depends on the day..

Miracles: Sometimes.

Love at first sight: I’m not opposed to the idea.

Santa Clause: When I was younger.

Kiss on the first date: Maybe?

Angels: Depends.

Others

Best friend’s name: Non-internet - Chloe and Danielle. Online, it’s Heather (or leesi) @finding-jericho

Eye color: Brown.

Favorite movie: There are far too many, and it changes with my mood!

Favorite actors: Uuuh Eddie Redmayne, Bryan Dechart, almost all of the Marvel cast, Nathan Fillion, Emma Watson.

Tagging: @finding-jericho @the-darklings @wecanbe-heroes @writinginstability @deviantsupporter @peachydroids @ilikecheesecakeforbreakfast @shadows-echoes @connorfixinghistie

#tag game #tagged #answered #about me

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sussex-nature-lover · 3 years

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Tuesday 27th April 2021

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. Part 1

Visit date Friday 23rd April 2021

I’ve got very specific favourite spots in the gardens, starting with the entrance, which is beyond the office where you check in.

The gardeners usually place a sample of flowers you’ll see as you enjoy one garden room after another and in non-Covid times, produce a sheet of notes. This time we have a slate plaque with a quote from Vita.

This time of year, the blooms couldn’t be more up my street and I’ve put more photos on my supplementary pages as I have so many. I’ll also do a separate page on the White Garden, the Moat and the Herb Garden later in the week.

FLORA PHOTOS HERE

When we visited last Friday, the stiff breeze was keeping the flag flying briskly, but it was a very pleasant day in the sunshine.

Before the entry to the gardens is the old working part of the farm with the oast house and the barn, which is where the café (takeaway only at the moment, but there are seats outside) and the shop are located.

The extensive vegetable and fruit gardens are beyond this barn and you can enjoy lovely long views.

We didn’t see a huge amount of birds, but for the first time we managed to sit on the big bench in the Rose Garden. As it happened we didn’t linger because it was in the shade of the high, curved wall, and was a bit too chilly. We did get two little visitors though, who were hopping around the wires. After longing for Goldfinch and being frustrated at not photographing them last year, now we seem to see them all the time!

The old walls really do add something special to this garden, the one above, behind the bench has climbing rose and is covered in a massive purple Clematis later in the year - when it’s in full bloom it’s absolutely spectacular.

I also really enjoy looking beyond, outside of the garden through the windows in the wall and this set of gates. I absolutely love them, along with the big pots and the pergola in the White Garden, I think the old stone and brick and the iron work are my absolute favourite features here.

The archways, gateways, gaps in walls and hedges, all lead the eye to enjoy different types of garden and frame special views beyond.

The Rose Garden. The plant supports are all homemade from natural branches. Some are cube shaped and some are arches.

The Orchard - blossom and some Daffodils still flowering.

I’ve chosen this photograph for blog header of the week.

I was really patient and managed to get a fair few photos of the gardens without other visitors featuring in them. This is quite a feat.

The Long Moat Walk area seen from the Cottage Garden. It’s usually a very popular stretch to perambulate, but it’s roped off at the moment.

The view from a bench. It must’ve been a much quieter day than the norm, because we got the chance to sit and admire here too and even saw a non-ticketed visitor. It’s been my week for wildlife when I wasn’t anticipating the encounter.

The Cottage Garden has really grown on me over the years - absolutely no pun intended. I’m extremely fond of soft lemon colours, but here there’s a deep and vibrant theme, with colours from dark burgundy, acid yellow, all shades of orange and greens. The pots and this chair on the doorstep of the South Cottage make for a lovely spot in the sunshine too - it looks very inviting.

Although the garden is colour themed, sometimes intruders take up a position quite naturally and have been left to thrive.

We’ll be visiting each month if we can and you’ll see the beds absolutely bursting with form and colours as things progress through the season.

The tulips in the big pot are lagging behind the ones in the ground and behind most of the other pots too come to that.

Photo from last year.

I think I’m developing a new appreciation of Tulips too.

Bingo! To get a picture of the Lime Walk without other visitors is a first for me. The leaves are just starting to come out on the trees. It won’t be long now before the area’s transformed, but the Spring planting is very pretty indeed (see detail on the other page on the link above)

The Nuttery

I thought the only verdigris pot was in the Cottage Garden but we found another one looking into the Erechtheum. These Tulips are purple. We were just a tad early to see their display.

I have no idea how long that part of the garden has been named Erechtheum by the way. It was replanted a few years back and I recall some tall Cypress trees, but we’ve never been when it’s been open, you just peep through from the White Garden, and to me, it seems to have rather stalled - same really as Delos, the newest project, which I really don’t care for at all. It seems so out of place, particularly as this garden ‘room’ includes the ancient Priest House. I don’t find the concept particularly attractive in this setting and as with Vita and Harold’s original attempt at the same, many of the plantings are starting to fail and the shingle paths are bare in places and showing wear...although I suppose that’s relatively authentic. Looking at an old, original photo (see outside links below) perhaps the pair liked to look out at a scene reminding them of one of their favourite places?

Whilst I agree that the former garden here was nothing too special and new ideas shouldn’t be off limits, apart from the aesthetics I find I object on the basis that a small fortune has been invested to basically fight against nature and type. It’s particularly incongruous at a time when championing local is a major theme. It feels a bit like demanding a big English fry up from a coastal café on the Med...people do it, but it’s not for me. I’d like to have seen another colour themed garden, or more woodland or wildflowers. It worked well as a shady spot from the heat of Summer and a natural type pond, or even a fountain, plus more benches could’ve been lovely.

You can read more about this Sissinghurst project HERE

For an alternative viewpoint do look at the below links.

Here is the Dan Pearson (garden architect commissioned for this work) Studio blog and a Gardens Trust blog.

I have to say, in both of those entries, the Delos garden looks far better than it did last week. We’ll give it another go when we return next month.

My own Delos photographs on a grey day, 7th September 2020 - oddly it looks better here than it does now it’s officially complete and open this year

EDIT

Link Here to my Moat blog and the Herb Garden is on this page on 29th April.

#famous gardens Sissinghurst Vita Sackville West garden photography nature

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thevampirecat · 7 years

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Rules: you must answer these 85 statements and tag 20 whoever you’d like!!

I was tagged by @goddamnitkastle and @kteague

Tagging: anyone who wants to do it and putting this monster under the cut

The Last …

1. drink: mango juice (I love mango juice)

2. phone call: My BFF who made it sound like it was going to be a terribly ominous call and it ended up just being a chat about shoes.

3. text message: A reminder from my vet that my cat has an appointment today.

4. song you listened to: You won’t be mine by Matchbox 20. This is good. Matchbox 20 means I am writing.

5. time you cried: Two weeks ago when I ended up talking about my Joey cat and I got really choked up about him. I’m not convinced I am ever going to get over him.

Have you ever …

6. dated someone twice: Nope.

7. kissed someone and regretted it: Yep. A lot of very bad decisions were made when I was in university. VERY BAD.

8. been cheated on: Yes

9. lost someone special: Yes.

10. been depressed: Yes - throw some suicide ideation in there too.

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: Indeed

Favorite Colors…

12. Teal

13. Navy

14. Burgundy

In The Last Year Have You…

15. made new friends: Yes. My colleague found my AO3 account - it could have gone one of two ways. It went the right way. And then of course some great people online as well.

16. fallen out of love: Nope.

17. laughed until you cried: Yes I know I have but I can’t remember why.

18. found out someone was talking about you: Yeah sure, these things happen when you work in an office and deal with clients.

19. met someone who changed you: Yes, but I was on the way to that change anyway. It was more like I just got validation.

20. found out who your friends are: No. I know who my friends are.

21. kissed someone on your facebook list: Mr Vampire Cat is a FB friend. We have done lots of kissing.

General

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: Most of them

23. do you have any pets: two cats: Nemo and Georgie

24. do you want to change your name: No. I never liked my name but now I am actually pretty cool with it. Nothing wrong with Melanie.

25. what did you do for your last birthday: Husband took me to ALL the places he wanted to eat. He ate and ate and ate and then ended up lying on the bed wailing that he felt bad.

26. what time did you wake up: 6am this morning because husband needed to get to the airport. Usually 7am.

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: trying to write my fic.

28. name something you can’t wait for: End of year holiday. The Punisher. My September deadline to be over.

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: A few years ago - we don’t live in the same country.

31. what are you listening to right now: Animal Cops Houston

32. have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Probably, but he obviously didn’t make an impression.

33. something that is getting on your nerves: filming spoilers of literally anything, including things I have no investment in.

34. most visited website: Tumblr and a feminist blog.

35. hair color: Blond

36. long or short hair: medium

37. do you have a crush on someone: Frank Castle.

38. what do you like about yourself: I can write and I do it as best I can. I’m a good friend and a good pet owner. I’m not afraid to be silly and try new things.

39. piercings: Just ears

40. blood type: No clue. Red.

41. nickname: Ugh. Not really. People call me Mel if they don’t know me well (which seems backwards but hey)

42. relationship status: boring old married lady

43. zodiac: Taurus

44. pronouns: She/her

45. favorite tv show: This changes daily. Some of my favourites include Bates Motel, Daredevil, Homeland, Broadchurch, The Leftovers, 12 Monkeys

46. tattoos: None

47. right or left handed: right-handed

48. surgery: Yep, wisdom teeth removal

49. piercing: we spoke about this already

50. sport: Lol. Channel surfing.

51. vacation: Nothing planned, but we’ve been talking Salzburg or possible Copenhagen.

52. pair of trainers: Yep, a pair from Geox which saved my fucking life when we were in Rome. I was honestly crying before I got them.

More General

53. eating: a spinach and ricotta wrap casserole thing

54. drinking: That mango juice we spoke about earlier.

55. i’m about to: go to bed

56. waiting for: Husband to come home.

57. want: so many things. To move to the continent, to have a place to live and a decent job for both of us.

58. get married: Been there, done that.

59. career: yeah, media, publishing, editing. Not something I would recommend.

60. hugs or kisses: Both

61. lips or eyes: Eyes! But I like lips too!

62. shorter or taller: Taller

63. older or younger: Older.

64. nice arms or nice stomach: Arms. My hubs has nice arms.

65. hook up or relationship: Relationship

66. troublemaker or hesitant: Depends. I do believe there is a very big place in my life for silliness.

67. kissed a stranger: Yes. University. Bad decisions.

68. drank hard liquor: Yep Yep

69. lost glasses/contact lenses: No, but I almost lost my glasses in Disneyland. I caught them in midair while I was on the Temple of Doom ride.

70. turned someone down: Yes. A few people.

71. sex on the first date: Meh. I haven’t, but that wasn’t really like a rule or anything.

72. broken someone’s heart: I doubt it.

73. had your heart broken: Yes.

74. been arrested: No.

75. cried when someone died: Not even a question,

76. fallen for a friend: Yes, reader I married him.

Do You Believe In …

77. yourself: Hmmmm...

78. miracles: No.

79. love at first sight: No.

80. santa claus: Why are you asking this???

81. kiss on the first date: Yes

82. angels: No.

Other

83. current best friends’ names: Nope. My BFF has a unique name. She’d be super easy to find.

84. eye color: Blue

85. favorite movie: This is an impossible thing to answer. Anything I put here will be different in an hour.

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maris-sol · 7 years

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I was tagged by the sweet @raesberri ❤ Name: Marissol Nickname: My family calls me Sol Gender: Cis Female Star Sign: Aquarius Height: 5′7″ Sexual Orientation: bissexual Hogwarts / Ilvermorny House: Literally just went to Pottermore to find out I'm a Ravenclaw and a Thunderbird Favourite Colour: Burgundy Average Hours of Sleep: Unfortunately, no matter what time I go to sleep, I always wake up early because my room is too light so I end up sleeping 4 hours :B Cat/Dog Person: I love all animals but I have something special for cats. Favorite Fictional Characters: Eleven, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Mr. Clarke, Karen Wheeler, Rosa Diaz, Gina Linetti, Amy Santiago, Captain Holt, Karen Page, Frank Castle, Foggy Nelson, Wilson Fisk, James Wesley and Vanessa Marianna (Fisk) Number of Blankets I Sleep with: one Favorite Singer/band: Beyoncé, A-HA, Skrillex, Shakira, Duran Duran, idk this is so hard because since Tokio Hotel (I was obsessed with them lmao) I don't really get attached to bands or singers. But I like pretty much everything. I also like Ivete Sangalo, Calypso and Calcinha Preta (😂😂😂 cadê os BR??) and if I had Marisa Monte's voice I'd never shut up (I highly recommend looking her up) Dream Trip: I have no idea, I just want to go alone and meet new people. Dream Job: Teacher. Really. I want to be the teacher I needed when I was younger. When was this blog created: July 2016, a few days before I watched Stranger Things for the first time (I was "avaquariana). I had another blog for 5 years but I was starting to worry too much about what I reblogged because there were people that know me irl following me. So I created this one and I was like "I'm free! I'm gonna reblog what I want!!! Even NSFW!!!!!!!!!" but then I watched Stranger Things and started gaining followers because of Stranger Things and literally had to "clean" my whole new blog asdfghjkl When did your blog reach its peak: I gained 1k followers in September. It only happened because I was one of the first Stranger Things blogs, when I came here it was possible to scroll till the end of the Stranger Things tag in 3 minutes. When the fandom started to grow and actual good blogs with awesome edits came up I stopped gaining so many followers, which is very good because l definitely don't deserve the amount I have I tag @theamiableanachronism @valbirch @thejennybean17 @aliensarereal @shitsnavi and there are a lot more people tag and if you weren't tagged but wanna do it anyway please do and tag me so I can see

#did this on my phone #I hope it comes out okay

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mastcomm · 4 years

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‘Before Sunrise’: The Making of an Indie Classic

No one knew how “Before Sunrise” would end. In addition to leaving the audience on a cliffhanger — would the visiting American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and the French student Céline (Julie Delpy) meet again after one night of passionate conversation on the streets of Vienna? — the filmmakers themselves were at a loss until the last minute.

“We shot in chronological order and worked on the script every weekend throughout the shoot,” the director and co-writer Richard Linklater said. “We went pretty far into this thinking they weren’t going to plan to meet again, and the night before, we were up until 3 in the morning rewriting the final scene.”

Made for just $2.5 million, “Before Sunrise” opened the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and formed a collaborative partnership between Linklater, Hawke and Delpy that led to two sequels, “Before Sunset” (2004) and “Before Midnight” (2013), and decades of friendship.

In honor of the first film’s 25th anniversary, I interviewed the stars and creators about making the unconventional indie romance. Here are edited excerpts from those conversations.

The idea for the movie came to Linklater during a night spent with a woman he met in a Philadelphia toy store in 1989. Years later, he would learn she had died in a motorcycle accident just before “Before Sunrise” began filming.

RICHARD LINKLATER This girl was flirting with me while I waited for my sister [to finish shopping], so I wrote a little note like, “Hey, I’m in town for one night if you want to hang out.” Somewhere in the night I said to her, “I want to make a film about this. Just this feeling.” That’s really all it was trying to ever capture — that rush of meeting someone and that undercurrent of flirtation and romance.

In 1993, he asked the actress Kim Krizan, who had appeared in his Texas-set films “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused,” if she would help write the screenplay.

KIM KRIZAN (co-writer) I’d never written a script before, but he’d read my master’s thesis on Anaïs Nin and thought I could write.

LINKLATER In my previous films, I felt the male view overwhelmed. So my absolute goal was to have a strong female perspective. Kim was the kind of person you’d run into and within 30 seconds you’re talking about something substantial. I liked that.

KRIZAN We were thinking about the direction it could go, and I said, Well, I’ve met really interesting people traveling on trains in Europe. I’d had fantastic conversations where I knew I’d never see them again. Things tend to happen in the space of a day in Linklater stories, so that instantly created a structure.

LINKLATER It was a wonderful collaboration over an intense 11 days, but I always knew the process would eventually include the two actors. So I was upfront that this was a template of a script, and it was going to be deepened later.

Linklater considered a version set in America, but funding and an interest from Castle Rock Entertainment allowed them to shoot abroad.

LINKLATER On one hand, the movie could be set anywhere. I thought, if I don’t have any money, there’s a train station in San Antonio and we could do this close to home. But I ended up going to the Vienna film festival with “Dazed” and found out they had some European subsidy money. And then Martin Shafer read the script and was like, “Hey, this could be good.”

MARTIN SHAFER (a co-founder of Castle Rock Entertainment) The script came to me and it was very short. I think only about 35 pages. It had a lot of dialogue but was more of a blueprint. It was so different from the so-called romantic comedies of the time, which were often very contrived, and it had such a naturalistic feel to it.

It took a bicoastal casting call and more than six months to find the perfect leads.

LINKLATER That was the biggest casting choice imaginable. It wasn’t clear if it was going to be a European male and American female [or vice versa]. In the first draft, we named the characters Chris and Terry because both are kind of genderless. It was that open.

JUDY HENDERSON (casting director) I kept all the Polaroids because so many of the people who auditioned are superstars today. We saw Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston, before she was on “Friends.”

LINKLATER Anthony Rapp invited me to see a play he was in with Ethan Hawke in New York. I had never met Ethan, but at that moment, he was the biggest star in his age range. I ended up at a bar with him after the play.

ETHAN HAWKE (Jesse) We hung out until 4 a.m. After that, Rick sent me the script, and I thought he was offering me the part. I was really excited and had all these questions, and I realized after talking to my agents that he was not offering — he was asking me to audition with about 10,000 other people.

LINKLATER Julie was the second actor I met on the first day of our big L.A. casting session. I remember liking her, and her résumé was impressive. She’d worked all over Europe. She was just getting started in the U.S., but she immediately went to the top of the list.

JULIE DELPY (Céline) I like the idea of people meeting over one night and falling in love. Linklater clearly stated that he wanted the actors involved in the writing, and I liked that. It wasn’t just a part.

HENDERSON In the end, it came down to two women and two men: Ethan, Julie, Michael Vartan [“Never Been Kissed”] and Sadie Frost [“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”]. I think they went with Julie because she was wonderful, and they thought the French accent gave a definite feeling that Jesse was meeting someone who was not from his world. And with Michael and Ethan, it was a tough choice because they were both really good. You could almost toss a coin.

LINKLATER I was looking for two creative partners. I wasn’t looking for just two pretty faces.

HENDERSON Ethan and Julie had a chemistry that was electric and charming at the same time.

HAWKE Meeting Julie was like meeting a character from a novel, like Anna Karenina or something. She’s a very deep person. I’d never felt so American and so dumb in my life.

DELPY He was like a puppy, so young and sweet. He hates that, but really he had a beautiful naïve quality about him. I mean naïve in a good way, naïve but very smart at the same time.

Delpy, Hawke and Linklater headed to Vienna for a three-week intensive workshop ahead of the summer 1994 shoot and continued revising the script throughout 25 days of filming.

HAWKE Revising is way too mild of a word. Rick wanted to make a movie about living in the moment. And to do that we were all going to have to live in the moment together to create the movie. For every scene in there, we wrote, like, 17 that didn’t make the cut.

DELPY It was intense, and a lot of my personal feelings went into it. I was an extremely romantic person, very pure and full of dreams. The writing was very organic. The guys would listen to me as I was really the only woman in the room, especially when we got to Vienna.

LINKLATER To this day, they don’t really get the credit as actors because everybody thinks they’re improvising.

HAWKE It didn’t piss me off [that there wasn’t a discussion to credit them as writers]. It felt like such a grand adventure. I used to joke there were times when Julie and I didn’t want credit because we were so sure it was going to be so bad.

Regular trains were used to film Jesse and Céline’s meet-cute, as well as Céline’s send-off in the closing scene.

LINKLATER It was hell. We rode the trains from Vienna to Salzburg and back for three days to get the beginning scene and the shots out the windows. You’re good when the train reaches a certain speed, but if it’s jumping around, you’re screwed.

HAWKE My stepfather had given me this burgundy turtleneck, and I was in love with it. I don’t know why. And then I just immediately regretted it because it was really hot. What idiot thinks they look good in a turtleneck in summer in Vienna?

LINKLATER The very last shot of the movie, when Julie walks onto the train, we had that timed to the second and we got one chance to do it. It was like, the train’s going to leave here at 8:37:30. I’m going to say action at 8:20. She’s going to get on a non-moving train. And then when she gets to her seat, the train is going to be moving. It was tense, but we rehearsed the hell out of it and it worked.

DELPY It was insanely hot. I had not slept in days because we shot [mostly] at night. I remember being miserable. It was the end of the shoot, and I felt I was never going to see Rick and Ethan again.

When the pair almost kiss while listening to Kath Bloom’s “Come Here” in the record store booth, Delpy and Hawke’s reactions were authentic.

LINKLATER That’s the only time I withheld anything from the cast. The lyrics were in the script, but they had never actually heard the song. So you can see them really listening because they’d never heard that yearning, creaky thing in Kath Bloom’s voice that’s so moving.

HAWKE It’s probably my single favorite take of anything I’ve been involved with.

DELPY That was really special. It was like magic — each time I felt Ethan looking away, I would look at him and vice versa. I almost fell in love with him right there, but then Rick said cut.

Jesse and Céline’s first kiss takes place on Vienna’s Prater Ferris wheel at sunset, but was difficult in more ways than one.

LINKLATER We tried to shoot it at sunset, but they would only stop the Ferris wheel for 10 minutes, and then we’d have to go around and do it again. We had three different light levels by the time we finished. So we went back a week later and reshot that in the morning when they let us stop it for an hour. When you see their first kiss, that was shot in the a.m.

HAWKE Julie is afraid of heights. Try making out with somebody who’s absolutely petrified. It was challenging, and I don’t think she was terribly impressed — she’d been with a lot more interesting men than me.

DELPY I’ve never been on [a Ferris wheel] since. When you act, you have to get over your fears constantly. I’m also shy with men, and I had to kiss someone who was a friend at this point. It was scary.

HAWKE I remember laughing a lot because Julie just kept making fun of me, “That’s the look you give girls? You’ve got to do better than that!”

Linklater intentionally left several elements of the film up to the audience’s imagination, namely did Jesse and Céline have sex?

LINKLATER Technically, you could see it any way you want. If you look closely, she’s dressed a little differently. So if you really do the math, you go O.K., that dress had to come off to get that shirt off. Something happened. I think all the hints are there.

“Before Sunrise” made only $5.9 million worldwide, but they had created something that would outweigh the box-office receipts.

LINKLATER Ethan was the Gen X actor after “Reality Bites” and I was the Gen X director, and we didn’t really deliver a Gen X film. There’s no pop-culture references, no hipster types. You pay the price at the time, but now I’m kind of proud you can go to Vienna and have a “Before Sunrise” walking tour right next to a “Third Man” walking tour.

DELPY After the third film, now people think of me as Céline, and it’s sometimes hard to get out of this “ideal” woman role. Some people hate me for even trying to do anything different. It’s a bit frustrating.

Last year, Delpy said she was paid about a tenth of what Hawke made on “Before Sunrise” and didn’t achieve equal pay until “Before Midnight.” (She wouldn’t comment on the subject in our interview.) Linklater issued a lengthy statement in response, noting that “nobody was getting paid much at all.”

LINKLATER I got paid a lot less than I had on [“Dazed”]. Ethan, at the height of his popularity, took a huge pay cut. I won’t go as far as to say the film would not have happened without him, but it wouldn’t have happened in the same way.

HAWKE It was kind of a wake-up call for me after “Before Sunrise.” When it’s a young man who’s got ideas and wants to be a filmmaker and write — [people] find that really interesting. But a lot of men are really intimidated when that’s coming from a young female voice. Julie has always been one of the most remarkable film minds I’ve ever come in contact with, bar none. It’s amazing how much I just learned about how gender has played a part in defining and limiting her experience. The “Before” trilogy is a bad example of pay gap because nobody got paid. I have no idea what Julie got paid or what I got paid. On those movies none of us were doing it for the money.

After 25 years, the bygone era of “Before Sunrise” has taken on new meaning for the actors.

DELPY I was so young and vulnerable. I wish I could travel in time and tell Julie then to not self-destruct so much with anxiety and insecurity. Tell her to take care of herself. “Before Sunrise” is a very romantic film, and somehow I never had that romantic, dreamy encounter in my life. Movies are magic a bit, life isn’t.

HAWKE My daughter [the actress Maya Hawke] decided to watch the movie with some of her friends, and there was a certain envy they had for a time where you didn’t have email. Life insisted that you live in the moment more. There’s something about always being digitally present that allows you to not be present, and part of what Jesse and Céline try to do in that movie is actually be present with each other.

Every nine years, there’s been a sequel. But it’s unlikely a fourth film, if it happens, would arrive on schedule.

HAWKE There was a feeling I had in my gut when we finished “Before Midnight” that I’d never had before, which was that we were done. “Sunrise, “Sunset,” “Midnight” is one work in its own strange way. That doesn’t mean there won’t be another work, like an epilogue. I would be curious about an “After” series, about something where you really deal with the second half of your life.

LINKLATER Maybe we’ll wait until they’re in their 80s and do a comic remake of “Amour,” where one euthanizes the other in old age. I’m not ruling that out.

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biofunmy · 4 years