#exists. unlike CLIVE’S

[nutcraxker]

Barnabas is actually a cool character (at least for me) I mean, see how he's a king but at the same time he's the most loyal servant of Ultima? Yes. How he's a human but he doesn't have faith in them. How he actually dislikes human's condition right now—same as Clive—but he seeks different way to solve it? (extreme even) How he actually has his own will but he hates others? This one is complicated but you get this. He hates how humanity is now more corrupted and he then proceeds to follow Ultima's way to rebuild the world (without blight and mostly will, anything to be alive) he doesn't realize, his whole endeavour won't be real without his will. Yes he's more a puppet than a human being but I believe, for him to reach the whole thing that he have now needs a whole damn portion of will. Even after he nearly meets his end, he still trying his best to fulfill Ultima's job that he has given to him. That require not just loyalty, but will, and ambition too. Even though of course that's perhaps Ultima's doing, his will surely has its own portion to make it comes true.

Also, cool thing is that he has always been consistent throughout the game. Even though Clive's words are actually make a lot of sense than Ultima's words, he's not easily convinced to throw away everything he did for his master. He been a menace and will always be a menace. Moreover, he has a cool armor. That's a big plus point.

Another thing that I like about him is that he's just bored about everything so when Clive fights him, he's very exhilarated, excited, animated, elated, moved. Imagine everyday, you have to deal with annoying people (his allies) and nothing interesting. But finally, this guy (Clive) comes out and fights him and Clive is almost as strong as him? No wonder if Barnabas is happy. I guess just let him be

(edited some things but mostly they're still the same)

#barnabas ffxvi #barnabas tharmr #final fantasy #ffxvi #ffxvi spoilers #I WILL and ALWAYS ramble about him no matter what #because he's actually important to the dynamics #he just hates how human changed to this like Clive but his ways are way more extreme #He feels like humanity doesn't deserve a second chance and he believes that humanity is nothing without Ultima #While the fact is... humanity is actually capable of change and of course without the existence of that 'god' they still can do anything #Good thing is yeah Clive managed to change the world like Barnabas wanted #change humanity I suppose #but they still have will unlike what Barnabas wanted #So it's actually a 50/50 solution for both of the characters hahaha #This dude tbh didn't have to go all out for a fourhanded alien but #yeah I guess it's up to him

[pheita]

👀 New WIP 👀

Yes new wip, @pen-of-roses , this is also for you @dreaminggoblin-yells. Sorry for the delayed answer, I took a spontaneous nap lol

As mentioned before, the title will be Palingenesis. It's Greek and means re-creation or rebirth in a more philosophical or theological sense, which makes kinda sense since the basis of the whole story is everything repeating itself over and over again, millennia of history in a cycle of life or pre-destined path of faith. How you see it depends on you.

Yet, there will be variations, small but still existent. Little wiggle rooms of things not important to the greater path, that have no influence to the final outcome.

The protagonists are the twin sisters Alya and Enid, princesses and one of them destined to be the future queen by the decree of the Whisper of Life, some mysterious entity residing on the continent and deciding the fate of the people since the dawn of time. With the crown being passed down matrilineal, their older brother Clive had no right to it from the start and made it his job to ensure his sisters' safety.

Here starts the first variations. Who will become queen changes every cycle. One time it is Alya, the next time Enid. The other always ends up shunned out of the palace by the family and thrown into the streets where she has to make herself a name, finds an unlikely ally that will also be their love until the one in the shadows sets something in motion that ends this cycle and starts the new one.

The story starts when both are the Whisper of Life, ready to hear who will be queen and for the first time have a flicker of memory of the previous cycles.

The next chapter will deepen it, the flicker turns into a constant deja vu for both through the rest of their life since they stood in front of the Whisper of Life.

From the third chapter on, Alya and Enid are both fully aware of what is going on and try to make a sense of it, handle the knowledge of things that come, find the variations and fixed events, with one single goal: prevent the restart of a new cycle. Break out of this never-ending repeat of millennia of history to always end at the same moment.

They don't know if this is possible, but if it is possible to remember they had been through all this before, why shouldn't it be possible to break free from this fate as well?

#writblr #pheita answers #new wip

[snakegorl212006]

What happens when your hurt

========Clive + jill==============

-depending on how bad or what happen -if you hurt yourself like you scrap your ankle because you’re not paying attention -jill will scold you a little while clive is carrying you to the infirmary to get it quickly patched up -if someone else hurt you(like you just came from a battle) -they would be even more concern and probably ban you for leaving by yourself for a while -if the perpetrator is still out there and yall happen to come across them,expect some side eyeing -not at you but at the person that harmed you -now if they mortality wounded you(like near death) -clive would definitely have some words but his blade will do the talking -there’s a good chance that the enemy who hurt you would live if put up against clive -not so much with jill -surprisingly,or not, jill would suggest to kill them or put them in a near death position like they did for you

=======Joshua + jote=============

-It’s unlikely you would get hurt for Jote and joshua would do there best to prevent you from using your blade -but if push dose come to shove and you do get hurt by someone, I don’t think they’ll seek revenge -they care most about you being alive and mostly unscaved -joshua would heal all of your injuries and make sure you don’t have any more -jote would scold you for taking the fight on your own and express GREAT concern for your well being -no they wouldn't punish the enemy themselves but, they’ll do their best to black mail the person and humiliate them -jote knows her way around the archives and joshua is fantastic connections -there social life could be CRUSHED if they really tried

====Cid===============

-acts calm on the inside, probably fuming on the outside -although it doesn't take all of his mental strength to not find the guy and choke this person for hurting you -but he needs to make sure you’re alright -similar to Jote and joshua, he’s also more focus on your own well being then the enemy -he needs to know where you’re hurting and figure out if he has the connections,tools, or resources to help you -I don’t see him as the man to hold a grudge but he would be more weary of you leaving by yourself tho

====Benedikta============

-If you hurt yourself then she probably wouldn't care too much -if someone injured you then good chances there dead or being hunted by this women -she will not let this crime go unpunished -those who have harmed you WILL suffer the consequences -she may not hunt them to the ends of the earth but if you just happen to point them out on the streets one day, they’ll be gone the next

======Dion + terence==============

-Terence would be the one who treats your wounds 99.9% of the time -he had to take care of Dion so he’s most reliably in terms of taking care if injuries -Dion would check up on you making sure you’re ok and Terence is helping you as he should -now let's say you get hurt by someone else -Dion is fuming -he’s asking questions on who hurt you, where were you, How did this happen and Who in the world did this to you -Terence is acts calm on the inside, probably fuming on the outside pt2 -unlike dion ,who kinda just explodes, Terence will be asking if you are ok and treat your injuries -dion would order some dragoons to find the perpetrator as if they’re capable of hurting you at random who knows what would happen to someone else. -once found, this person will be trial and punished accordingly -I would say after this incident you would have more protection in place so this wouldn't happen again

=====Barnabas + Sleipnir============

-dead -who ever hurt you is gone -there family is 100% also gone -it don’t matter if it’s emotional or physical damage barnabas takes any harm to you seriously -so who ever put you in harms way no longer exist in this world -oh and you will know what happened -after the deed is done Sleipnir would tell you the news about this person being dead while barnabas gives you all the details -”trust and believe, my raven none shall harm your feathers”

====Hugo============

-also dead and most likely buried -unlike barnabas, he wouldn't show you the person’s dead corpse unless you want to -i also think he would do it in secret -he just want you to be happy and not see the more cruel side of him -your his precious gem and he doesn't want you to crack any time soon over trivial matters -he would only warn the family of the person who harmed you by presenting the dead person in front of the family

#ff16 x reader #final fantasy 16 x reader #jill warrick x reader #clive rosfield x reader #joshua rosfield x reader #jote x reader #cidolfus telamon x reader #benedikta harman x reader #hugo kupka x reader #barnabas tharmr x reader #sleipnir harbard x reader #terence x reader #dion lesage x reader #ff16 #final fantasy 16

[ryo-maybe]

The XV collab quest was just as short as the XVI one but in that approximate span:

It made me care about Noctis as a character enough that I was genuinely interested in learning what his deal was. I have no clue what Clive is supposed to be beside "dude with a sword and a tragic past".

It deigned to mention Noctis' party members, whereas if I didn't already know about her, I wouldn't have had any idea Jill exists. Unlike the dog, apparently

It had the WONDERFUL camping scene, which by itself lent the questline a kind of warmth that the XVI one - you know, the one that culminates in a battle with and between Ifrit(s) - completely lacked.

It had CID

Like damn Squeenix, you sure somehow made a better sales pitch for the botched unfinished nearly a decade old game than the one that supposedly should have been a contributing factor to people getting a ps5

#busting it down textual style

[synthient]

I was poking around for copies of the Matrix comics last night. And I stumbled across what I didn't actually recognize at first as the publisher's website. I figured "biblionaut dot org" was just some kind of abebooks clone

The comics were originally published by Burlyman - a publishing company owned by the Wachowski sisters. It was only really ever used to print Matrix tie-ins (the art book, etc)*, plus one original Wachowskis comic about Frankenstein defending Roe v Wade or something

*[edit I lied. The artbook was Warner Bros, Newmarket, & something called "Redpill Productions." So just the Matrix comics, Frankenstein, and "v for vendetta script to screen"]

So what's Biblionaut? Some new company that bought Burlyman?

If you look at the website, it's laid out like Burlyman is supposed to be one header or imprint under a larger Biblionaut umbrella. But the Burlyman stuff - Matrix + Frankenstein - is literally all that's on there.

The bottom of the page links to an insta account. "We sell books," and the url for burlymanentertainment dot com. Which does still exist, with formatting straight out of 2004

(This is an unedited screenshot of what it looks like on mobile btw)

The site's been updated to include the latest reprints/20th anniversary editions, while keeping it's neocities-core aesthetic (unlike the original whatisthematrix dot com, which tragically reroutes to a bland warner bros shop). All the "buy online" links lead back to Biblionaut.

So, my best guess: Biblionaut is just Burlyman, renamed and rebranded.

But it's interesting, looking at the general "we sell books" tagline. "Also the home of Burlyman." The site layout that seems designed for other imprints to be added. The move away from a niche Coen brothers/wrestling joke, and toward a more universal, professional-sounding publishing house name.

Are the Wachowskis planning to...actually use their publishing company for something? Maybe platform some other people's work?

According to Wayback machine, the site has existed in this form for about 2 years - right around the time Resurrections came out. So if there are any plans, they don't seem that pressing.

But given that the Wachowskis' creative career started with showing up on Clive Barker's porch and begging to write for the Clive Barker Presents comic line, it would kind of be full circle

#the matrix #the special interest may extend to this mini research product. but the real question: #will it extend to me seeking out 'frankenstein defends roe v wade' at some point. do even i have limits

[phoenix-flamed]

Surprise, surprise -- sure enough, the gears are turning in my head again. I had an awesome and in-depth conversation with @creatrix-mea earlier, which have inspired several headcanons I plan to write. But I'll start with one for now.

This is based on personal perception of the bedroom scene between Anabella and Elwin. When Elwin tries to reassure Anabella that Joshua will be alright on their trip because Clive will be there to protect him, and he mentions how skilled of a soldier Clive is, his wife gives him a skeptical look. She brings up that Clive was rejected by Phoenix to be the next Dominant of the Eikon, and that he's nothing but an ordinary man like any other.

Elwin defends Clive by pointing out that he, too, is just an ordinary man, rather than a Dominant. Even his position as Archduke is only temporary until Joshua comes of age to take over as ruler. Anabella, in return, tries to soothe her husband by insisting that he is wrong; he isn't an ordinary man, he is Archduke and his father's firstborn son, and that all is in its right place.

OKAY, SO. Anabella's words are likely intended to be praise and an ego boost for Elwin -- and on a surface level, it is. But on a deeper level, and based solely on that scene, it in my opinion actually highlights something interesting. Elwin has no value or worth as himself. His worth is tied directly to his designated roles/purposes in life, which are to rule until Phoenix's Dominant can take the throne in his stead, because he is meant to be nothing more than a placeholder ruler; and to sire the next Dominant of Phoenix, who ends up being Joshua.

That's it. He as a person doesn't matter, technically speaking.

This, also in my opinion, is a mirror of Clive's situation as well, and Anabella's views of him. Clive was supposed to have been Phoenix's Dominant. That was supposed to be his purpose in life, the very reason that he was born to begin with. But because he was "rejected" by Phoenix, he has failed in his singular purpose of existing, and thus is worthless in his mother's eyes.

Elwin, too, is not a Dominant. He is an ordinary man, just like Clive. But in my opinion, the only reason Anabella likely does not view him as worthless as well is because unlike Clive, Elwin has not "failed" in his specific roles in life, these primary purposes of his very existence. He, as his father's firstborn son, sits on the throne until Joshua comes of age, and he has indeed sired Joshua, aka the next Dominant of Phoenix.

#Headcanons #thank you Krissy for giving me much to think about #I have many feelings

[deusmater]

𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀'𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄: 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀

𝐈. 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄. Her relationship with her son is dominated by pain and anxiety, which she takes out on him. As far as Anabella is concerned, he is a failure and a stain on her family's name after the Phoenix rejected him. While she does see him as her son, she rejects him all the same and treats him more like a bastard than the true-born first son he actually is. He is the reason for all the slander and abuse she and her reputation received by the nobility, and in response, Anabella distances herself from motherhood and blames Clive for what happened. In her mind, it is easier to tell herself that he is Elwin's son and not hers than to face his failure and the failure she projects on herself. His existence is shameful for her and her legacy as a daughter of Phoenix Gate. For the most part, Anabella ignores him and does not talk to her son if she does not have to—and even then, she remains distant and cold. Because of her insistence and Elwin's wish to give Clive an easier life away from the traps of nobility and the court, he was removed from succession and instead made a Shield, which placates Anabella to some extent. The most pressing question regarding Clive is: Why were mother and son rejected by the Phoenix? Later, she grows more frustrated with him and his activities as Cid, and orders the culling to get back at him.

𝐈𝐈. 𝐉𝐎𝐒𝐇𝐔𝐀. Unlike her relationship with Clive, her relationship with Joshua is affectionate and doting, despite the strictness with which she raises him. Joshua is her darling boy and her entire world. She loves him more than anything. Throughout his first ten years of his life, she shelters him from his responsibilities as the dominant of the Phoenix regarding politics and everything it entails. In fact, she lets him out of her sight very rarely and fetches him pretty quickly every time he escapes—a trait Anabella reminds her of herself at times. The fact that he is sickly and weak only strengthens the bond she feels for her son, and she wishes, he would have only a tenth of Clive's strength. Due to his weak condition and the comments by the nobility, Anabella fears the nobles will eventually stop supporting Joshua and install another family as the monarchs of the duchy. Her fear for his future in Rosaria brings Anabella to the conclusion that she has to betray the duchy and hand it to the empire. To ensure a long and safe life for Joshua, Anabella is willing to sacrifice everything. When she loses him during the Night of Flames, she grieves him heavily and searches for him for five years before accepting his death more or less.

𝐈𝐈𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐖𝐈𝐍. Elwin is her husband, for better or worse, as they do not see eye to eye in most instances. She could have made a worse match, certainly, but at the same time, it could have been way better as well. In her eyes, Elwin is too compassionate and too soft with the nobility and the common folk alike, which leads to him being taken advantage of and not taken seriously by the seven high houses. Due to his vision for the future contradicting the will of the high houses at seemingly every turn, he is struggling against them, and it pulls Anabella into the conflict as well. While Clive's existence is the reason for the abuse she receives by the high houses in the first place, Anabella also blames Elwin for not protecting her—even though their relationship is not close enough for her to open up about it in the first place. On the front, they appear somewhat unified, with Anabella as his supporter at court, but behind closed doors, they have no love for each other and are on neutral terms at best. Her issues with Clive do the rest to strain their relationship further, as Elwin becomes rather tired of their endless discussions over Clive or her swaddling of Joshua.

𝐈𝐕. 𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐎𝐍. Before Byron has to move to Port Isolde and the birth of Joshua, she and Byron are somewhat close. In many instances, she is more cordial with him than with her own husband because he manages to make her drop her facade at least a bit and let her personality shine. She sees him as a friend, even though it was more initiated by Byron than by her, who is a shy young girl at the time she arrives at Rosalith Castle for the first time. After Joshua's birth and her growing anger with Clive, the two distance themselves from each other as they start arguing more and more. Anabella partly grieves the friendship, as it makes her lonelier than she already is. Their past friendship is also the reason she lets him live after she takes over Rosaria and hands it to the Imperials. She turns a blind eye to his activities to a certain point—her heart is still weak when it comes to him.

𝐕. 𝐉𝐈𝐋𝐋. Anabella is incredibly torn when it comes to Jill, and it shows in the way she treats the girl. On one hand, Jill is a mongrel and a savage to her, who has no place among nobility and will never be a proper lady since she is a base born on all Rosarian accounts. After Elwin brings her to Rosalith, it falls to Anabella to raise Jill, regardless of her own feelings on the matter. And she originally did not want to be in charge of that task at all. But on the other hand, she is in some way a surrogate for the daughter who cannot be with her, and Anabella scolds Jill for being reckless or not up to standard. Here and there, she mothers her and then reverts to being strict and distant, if she even addresses her in the first place. Since Anabella is responsible for raising Jill, she is also involved when she is supposed to be betrothed to someone—and Anabella is willing to find a good match for her. Not only social status but also on a personal basis. However, she leaves Jill behind, when she herself flees to Sanbreque in order to escape the invasion of the Iron Kingdom and spends no further thought on her.

#( anabella. ) #( headcanons. )

[tempest-toss]

Missing Missing Missing

The board sat in one of the Archives' many corners. It was a newer board, with fresh cork, to be a better replacement for what was previously used. Unlike some of the other boards this one was all confined to a specific subject matter.

Malia Suchin. Age 20. Brunshire Student.

Clive Brown. Age 62. Farmer

Himitsu Etsumi. Age 22. Brunshire Student

Spark Rawls. Age 42. Electrician and Single Father.

Oliver Fishbach. Age 18. Errand Boy.

These missing peoples weren't new, but rather some of the more recognizable from the board. Two back to back disappearances in rural Kansas and the other three were connected to Brunshire.

The board had all of their missing posters litterered around the board, each pinned along the different states and countries of the world. Some posters had begun to deteriorate with age, and some had X marks to signify that they had ceased to exist.

One hated to look at this board. It angered her that the Foundation was always stuck one step behind, meanwhile Ringleader Regina kept on kidnapping innocent children, adults, elderly, and animals to add to the Troupe of Shadows. They've only been able to get close twice, resulting in rescuing three individuals at the cost of two of their top agents becoming permanent clowns.

One approaches the board and pins a new one. Jessica Kimes. Age 38. Hairdresser. Last known location was her home in Ontario. Maybe she can be the lucky few that escape, One muses, but alas, hope for that is extremely thin. Especially as long as Regina's cruel hands are controlling the strings.

#lost memento #Troupe of Shadows #One #Archivist #lore bits

[nostalgiaknight]

First post of the new year and its something I was sketching on the side for a bit

Read more cause it’s definitely going to be a long.

Same story of, Giovanni ends up getting caught by another World’s Arceus after the events of Team Rainbow Rocket. Just like with the LA plot, Arceus was content with just keeping his soul locked away especially since it was so distorted from constant wormhole jumping that being sent to any world would literally be a death sentence. 

Gets the fun news that ‘Two scientists in Paldea are building time machines and it’s already affecting Paldea, what are we going to do?’. 

Well Arceus already has a family of heroes they go to bother when something goes wrong. In fact, the last hero, Rei, who had took care of the Cyrus problem had recently moved to Paldea to continue his work as a researcher. Fantastic, that’ll help with one scientist, but what about the other? The reason why Rei was a hero was because he took over for Akari because he wasn’t going to let a teen save the world. He certainly wouldn’t agree to it now. 

So without permission they just copy pastes Rei’s body and shoves Giovanni’s soul in. Tosses him over to Rei and now Rei has a ‘twin brother’ that never existed until now. Great. 

The story would essentially be Rei and Sakaki both working as researchers at the school and also double as I guess dorm parents. Rei takes care of and helps the Naranja Students (Nemona and Akari) and Sakaki takes care of and helps the Uva Students (Arven and Penny). 

Lots of shenanigans occur, Sakaki does the gym challenge (Arceus said it was mandatory for heroes and Rei didn’t want to), Rei takes care of the Herba Mystica (so he could get up close to the titans), and they both work together for team star (both try very hard not to laugh at Clive whenever he shows up).

Sakaki also does some additional research on the side because, unlike his original world, some of the dangerous events seemed to have no happened yet.  So he’s trying to adapt to this new world and potentially find out the state of this worlds Team Rocket…and if its possible to take over. 

Spoilers, found family wins and he’s mad about it. 

Also here are their teams because, Rei managed to convince Sakaki to do this. He probably only agreed because Rei would be annoying about it otherwise. 

Sakaki’s Team 

Sprigatito ==> Meowscarada - 

Charcadet ==> Ceruledge 

Eevee ==> Espeon 

Wooper ==> Clodsire

Meowth ==> Persian

Miraidon 

Rei’s Team 

Sprigatito ==> Meowscarada 

Charcadet ==> Armarouge

Eevee ==> Umbreon

Wooper ==> Quagsire 

Meowth ==> Perrserker

Koraidon

The legendaries are not their actual sixth, but I can’t think of another matchy one for them. If I think of one I’ll update this later lol. 

#pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon rei #pokemon giovanni #pokemon nemona #pokemon penny #pokemon arven #pokemon akari #I’m still working on the Legends Arceus story #and I want to actually complete it #But this is something fun that I think of on the side #and it’s mostly a slice of life thing

[evita-shelby]

Anything.

Part 1 : Grace

A be careful what you wish for where Tommy’s three main love interests accidentally wish to be with him

Gif by @nofckingfighting

“I’d give anything to be with him.” The woman said to her companion.

“Anything?” the Russian Duchess said with a curious look.

“Anything.”

That same afternoon Grace gets a call she had never expected.

She had come early to their hotel room, Clive had gone out with some friends and she was relieved to have time to think how she will tell him the baby isn’t his.

He had gone out celebrating the good news, he was hoping for a boy, but sweet Clive said he wouldn’t mind a girl.

She is going to hell, if it exists anyways.

“Is this Mrs. Clive Macmillan?” it is the voice she last expected to hear.

“What did you do to him?” she asked. She didn’t love Clive, but she’d kill Campbell if he had hurt him anyways.

“Nothing of the sort, I am a man of honor, Mrs. Macmillan, unlike some people we know.” Her former mentor had said.

He had no honor.

Thomas had more honor in his little finger than Campbell had in his entire body.

“I call to tell you that your husband is dead.”

“No, it can’t be.” She said in disbelief. “How did he die?”

Thomas wouldn’t murder him, would he?

He was a killer and a criminal, even if he was leaving all that behind, habits like that aren’t easy to break.

“Motorcar accident. He was driving far too fast and crashed against a wall.” Her father’s former friend answered her question in an almost bored voice.

And that is how it happened.

Two years later, after her mourning period has ended and Thomas agreed to say the boy was Clive’s for the sake of their reputation she marries him.

In front of her family that hates him and in front of his family that hates her.

She should’ve known they would never be happy.

It was not her destiny to be so.

The morning after the wedding it appears in the mirror.

30.

The blonde woman tries to rub it off, but the thing won’t leave.

Must be some bad joke her beloved in laws cooked up.

They hate her.

Ada told her she wished she had never come back.

Esme spat in her face and told her to never come near her family.

Polly told her no one would ever forgive her for the things she had done.

Linda laughed and told her she gave her a month before Tommy went back to Lizzie’s bed.

“Do you like it, Mrs. Shelby?” her name drips with sarcasm from Tatiana Petrovna’s lips.

“What is this, how are you here?’ she asks the Russian who had appeared out of thin air in her boudoir.

“I will tell you a little secret.” She whispered. “I am not human, well, my body is, but the soul inside of it isn’t.” she giggled quietly.

A fairy?

“No, not that, but it does sound niece. No, Grace, I am a demon.” She smiled revealing fangs in the mirror’s reflection.

“What does this mean?” she asked the wish granting demon.

Had Grace sold her soul, or Charlie’s for this?

“You said you’d do anything to marry Thomas Shelby. Well, your wish was my command and now you are his wife. There is one little caveat, I am not strong enough to make it last forever, so one month is all you have.” She said as casually as if she had bought a different colored dress and not as if she was explaining the terms of this heinous thing Grace did in the name of love.

“I will die next month?”

“Yes, and because I do hate inpuntiuality, I made the mirrors remind you so. Isn’t this nice, Mrs. Shelby?” the demoness asked with a girlish smile.

She has twenty-seven days.

She spends the first three thinking it is all a nightmare and tries everything to wake up.

Grace can’t even enjoy her short honeymoon because of it.

And whenever she tries to tell Tommy about it, her mouth seals up and Tatiana appears to laugh at her.

“I have not gotten here by being stupid, darling.”

In the end, Grace decides to seek help.

“My god, you people will do anything for a man.” Polly shook her head but agreed to help her anyways. “To be clear, I am not doing this for you.”

Had Grace been the woman she was the day of her wedding, she likely would’ve thought the witch woman to be unfair and unreasonable and hating her because Tommy loved her.

This Grace doesn’t care if Polly Gray hates her.

This Grace cares more about not leaving her baby son an orphan.

Together, they hunt down some cousin or aunt of hers, a traveller named Bethany Boswell.

“Stupid woman, you have damned yourself to hell over a fucking man!” the witch said as she cleansed her vardo of the evil she claims is emanating from Grace.

“Is there a way to undo it?” the blonde asked from the threshold. She was not permitted to even touch the painted wood.

“You will still go to hell, girl. You made a deal with one of Satan’s best and there is no way for you to go back on it. The best you can do is die on your terms and enjoy what little time you have left.” Boswell said and asked her how many days she has left.

“Fifteen days.” The blonde answered as she looks at her cracked compact mirror.

And she takes the woman’s advice, what else could she do now?

In those fifteen days she has left, Grace decides to devote herself to leaving this world with no loose ends.

She begins with apologizing to Daniel Owen’s widow, a woman who forgives her and hugs her tearfully and asks her to thank Tommy for how generous he is with his money.

She apologizes to Clive’s mother who calls her a whore and tells her she should’ve been the one to die. The old woman doesn’t know she’s getting her wish, and Grace bites her tongue and hangs up when the woman begins telling her how much she hates her.

“Did you know my husband is dead because of you?” Ada is holding back her tears, her fists and her pain even as she makes Grace see the consequences of her actions five years ago.

“Did you know I told Tommy he was making the biggest mistake of his life marrying you? Did you know what he answered, Grace?” her sister-in-law continues, and Grace knows what she will say, but it still hurts when Ada says it outloud.

“He said that he was marrying you out of duty, that the Grace he loved doesn’t exist and that it was because of Charlie that he would do right by you.”

Grace knew the truth, both she and Tommy denied it all they could, but it didn’t make it stop being the truth.

Whatever romance they had in 1919 had died in the long absence.

What remained was lust, nostalgia and a stupid hope that they could have that back.

But the thing is, they were strangers. Even after two years together, with letters and phone calls and dates and living together, they were still strangers.

Grace had never felt herself so unloved until Thomas tried to sell an empty ‘I love you’ with sex or a sweet caress.

There was no substance to them, no matter how much they tried, it never came.

“I’ll never forgive you, Grace. You are the reason Freddie couldn’t survive the Influenza. Had you had any fucking compassion in your twisted stone heart you would have lied and told Campbell you didn’t know where he’d be.” This time Ada lets the tears fall.

This time Grace feels guilt for something she has done.

She has her will updated on day twenty, she would’ve had it sooner, but the lawyers were too busy.

She leaves half of her things to Charlie, the rest to a foundation she only said yes to because Tommy is just so passionate about helping the poor.

Grace couldn’t even admit to him that she doesn’t care about helping people, especially people so beneath her.

But it is her selfishness that has damned her, and maybe this good deed will lessen her punishment.

Tommy comes home that night with a sapphire necklace. A beautiful and luxurious gift he is using to hide the fact that he doesn’t love her and that she doesn’t love him.

If they had had more time, maybe they could have, but it will never be.

It is day twenty-five when Tatiana calls on her.

“I will make you a new deal, little rabbit. If he forgives you for what you did, and I mean truly forgive you, I won’t come get you.” The duchess stirs her tea and looks at her expectantly.

It could be a trap.

But what if it isn’t?

“I accept your deal.” Grace offers her hand to shake on it.

“Oh, I knew you’d accept it. I know you’d do anything to be with him.” She bats her eyes as she mocks the woman who sold her soul to the devil for a man.

Grace has three days left when she finally works up the courage to tell him.

“I need to tell you something.” The blonde brings him to the couch in their bedroom and prays he will forgive her.

“What’s wrong, love?” he asks concerned. She dislikes how easily it was for him to lie like that. To tell her he loves her when all they are is two strangers who have a child together and got married because she thought this was what she wanted.

Grace now knows she was never supposed to be the society wife her mother raised her to be.

If she has a chance to live, she thinks she will retake her previous career and have a life with purpose again.

That was her new wish.

Freedom.

“The day my husband died, I met someone and they changed my life.” She begins and he interrupts.

“Are you saying the boy isn’t mine?” he asks voicing that nagging suspicion both had about Charlie’s parentage.

It would always be there. The dates hadn’t added up and there had always been that question if it had been her dead husband who truly fatherd the toddler asleep in his crib.

Both men looked similar, had similar coloring and even worse, she had been intimate with both men that same week.

“No, it isn’t that, Tom.” Shw shook her head and almost faltered. “That day I told someone that I wished I could be with you as husband and wife, and she asked if I would do anything for it to come true.”

It sounds like she is confessing to murder and before he interrupts her again she tells him the only part that matters. “I didn’t know it until the day after the wedding, but I sold my soul for you.”

“You’ve been talking to Polly too much, haven’t you?” He doesn’t believe her.

Who would?

Even she didn’t believe it until she realized that the number on the mirrors were a countdown to her death date.

“Only because I thought she could help me undo it. I knew you didn’t want to be with me and a wish granting demon made this happen.” The blonde gestured to the room around them. A room where people who appear to love each other wake up every morning with regret.

“I am so sorry, Thomas.”

Her last apology.

And just like his sister, Grace knows hell will freeze over before he forgives her.

He had never accepted her apology for fucking him over in 1919.

Never even brought it up because even he knew Grace felt no guilt for doing her job.

That is until the Russian Demon made her see herself in the mirror and know only her little son will cry because his loved one is dead.

She spends every minute of the next two days waiting for him to come back from the woods.

That night he left the house without saying anything. Just took his black horse, some food and a several bottles of whiskey and left.

Today is her last day.

“Promise me you will take care of them.” Grace makes Polly swear it.

While she could never love Thomas like a lover like she did in 1919, she still felt something like it. A sense of companionship, friendship, but slightly deeper because of the boy they have together, but there is no trust.

He could never trust her again and that was something Grace realized too late.

She had lost him in 1919, but she was too selfish and stupid to realize that and move on.

And now she was damned to hell for a love that never returned.

“I will.” The older woman says genuinely. “Don’t drown yourself, his mother went that way and he has never coped with it.”

Grace didn’t know that.

In fact, everything she knows about her husband was because Polly or someone else told her.

Had this marriage been destined to last, this would have been an even worse one than her first.

On February 5th, Grace calls on the demon who owns her soul.

“You said you hated impunctuality, your grace.” The blonde accepts the tea graciously and counts down the minutes.

It had been early afternoon when they met. She guessed it would be at that time she’d die.

“I can make the exception for the sake of chaos, my true love.” She shrugged.

A deal was a deal.

But Grace has decided she wants to feel the rush of killing the bad guy one last time.

“I won’t die, little rabbit.” The demon smirked.

“Doesn’t matter.” Grace aims her small handgun at the demon in front of her and fires it.

She is dead, the bullet hits Tatiana just as her guards shoot her in vengeance.

Grace wonders how hell feels like.

“Anything?” Tatiana Petrovna asked bemused.

It is February 5th, 1922.

Grace is still and while her body doesn’t show it, she feels as if she has been forcefully struck back inside clothes she is having trouble getting used to.

“I suppose not. He isn’t worth it, but I suppose you already knew that.”

#tommy shelby x grace burgess #grace burgess #grace shelby #thomas shelby x grace burgess #tommy x grace

[silver-wield]

Definitely not a question but I wanna fan girl here.

OMGGGGG I heard Yoshi-P is a huge fan of Tifa? LMAOOOOO no wonder that private chat convo example between Cloud flirting with Tifa existed on FF14. There's a reason I liked this guy ahahaha, he's a no nonsense type I see, straight to business. Imagine if Yoshi-P produced part 3 OMFG, that guy will definitely not hold back on those two like he didn't with Clive and Jill (yeah yeah I know it's unlikely but I'm willing to sell my soul for it to happen just as long as they're not holding back on Cloti because I'm so sick and tired of it already, I'm so greedy and pissed to a point that I'd want to see the most epic marriage event for Cloti lol, spice it up more to a 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯!!!!!!!). Im not asking for half but MORE for Cloud and Tifa's lifestream and HW event ...and more!!! 😂 🥹🙏🤞and I don't care lol I'm gonna hope part 3 becomes rated M!!!!!!!

As you can see I'm shamelessly desperate at this point lol. Pls don't judge me ahahaha (._.) ( l: ) ( .-. ) ( :l ) (._.) ↻

He is, and has added so many parallels to them in ffxvi it's not even funny. I lost count 🤣

Honestly, I can't see Nomura and co upping the rating just for a sex scene.

Sex falls under "suggestive themes" and this is what ERSB has to say about it: Mild provocative references or materials.

Very helpful 😑

And the M rating isn't much clearer. I guess it comes down to the rating board at the time whether something will pass or not. I'd assume Remake is gonna stay T because they wanna grab the teen market and then ffxvi will draw in the older teens which is what SE had planned by making Remake a bridge between old and new, with XVI being the first new numbered title for the next generation of FF gamers.

As someone playing both, I gotta say they nailed it. If I only played remake I'd wanna play more FF and then get into XVI and maybe see what the older games are like.

As for the hw scene, we've seen how the devs can handle an outdoor romantic event despite all the years of idiots going off about "Cloud fucked Tifa on some rocks hurpaderp" so I expect we'll get some tasteful avoidance angles of long grasses and clasped hands, but more than enough to imply Cloud and Tifa convey their feelings without words 🤭

#final fantasy xvi #ffxvi #ff16 #final fantasy 16 #clive/jill #final fantasy 7 remake #ff7r #ffviir #cloud strife #final fantasy 7r #final fantasy viir #cloti #tifa lockhart

[j4m3s-b4k3r]

Benign Violations

Plato's "superiority theory" of comedy says that people find humour in misfortunes, because of the joy & relief of being in a better situation. Freud’s "release theory" posits that laughter is the cathartic explosion of nervous energy. The "incongruity theory” says that an inconsistency between expectation and reality causes laughter. A recent theory is the “benign violation hypothesis” - that humour happens when a person simultaneously recognises both that a norm has been violated and the violation is not upsetting.

Robin Williams offers bum-wad to The Thinker at SF Legion of Honour.

Other theories explain laughter from an evolutionary perspective. Laughter occurs in every society, and some form of it is displayed by other social animals too. Primates tickle each other and make huffing sounds approximating human laughter, and even rats seem to giggle when tickled. Researchers studying dolphins have noticed that they make distinctive calls when play-fighting. Concluding that the sound signals when a potentially anxious situation is actually non-threatening. Psychologists theorise that this is the reason human laughter may have first developed too. “Only joking..”

Animals certainly play, and exhibit obvious pleasure in doing so. They clearly understand FUN but do animals have a sense of FUNNY? Of irony? Of the ridiculous, or the absurd? Our neighbourhood crows certainly seem to laugh as they tease our downstairs neighbour’s cat. Plato's crows, enjoying their superiority..

A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing. - Clive James

Some see comedy & laughter as a downplaying of the seriousness of an issue, but I do not see it that way. I laugh, not because I do not grasp the gravity of the situation, but precisely because I do. To me, laughter and sorrow walk hand in hand. Plato thought that tragedy is funny when it happens to someone else, but we often find humour in our own misfortune too, given enough time. That embarrassing wedding day, terrible vacation, or car breakdown in the middle of nowhere was nightmarish in real time, but is often served as a funny anecdote much later. Our misfortune is funnier seen in the rearview mirror, when there is balance between how bad a thing is and how distant it is. 

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but comedy in long-shot. - Charlie Chaplin 

We're all participating in an ongoing tragicomedy every day of our lives, where tears can be of joy or sadness, and quite often both at the same time. Is laughter the best medicine? Well not really, in terms of fixing things. No amount of laughter will mend your broken leg or cure your bowel cancer. But it might make the malady more bearable. Humour has certainly helped me through some absolutely terrible times. In a sense, all humour is gallows humour in that it helps us deal with the inherent ridiculousness of our existence. Of mortality.

It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is. - Jack Lemmon

Humour can be used to illuminate, especially in crazy times, when the grotesque becomes normalised. If the King is strutting around with no clothes, the person pointing it out is more likely to be a clown than a journalist. 

For me, comedy starts as a spew, a kind of explosion, and then you sculpt it from there, if at all. It comes out of a deeper, darker side. Maybe it comes from anger, because I'm outraged by cruel absurdities, the hypocrisy that exists everywhere, even within yourself, where it's hardest to see.- Robin Williams

Humans are helpless when they hatch, unlike puppies or foals that gambol about as soon as they are born. We are not yet fully cooked, and need to ferment or prove a little after coming out of the oven. I’ve never found newborns to have the appeal that most people instantly feel, but as soon as they laugh, I feel the baking process is done >DING!< and a human is viewable to me there. Long before we humans can walk, talk or think rationally, we can LAUGH. 

The secret source of humour itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humour in heaven. - Mark Twain

It is fascinating how soon after a human is born, while still not understanding anything about the world yet, the baby already has a sense of humour, and can laugh. And what a sound. Is there anything so infectiously funny as a wee baby cracking itself up? But what amuses the laughing baby so? 

Sausages are just funny. I don't know why. I can't explain it. - Phoebe Waller-Bridge

If humour comes from the unexpected and/or benign violation, how can a baby develop a sense of such things after only 3 months? I think a big part of laughter is the simple joy of connection with others - Peek-a-BOO! Giggle!

Laughter is the closest distance between two people. - Victor Borge

The order in which human faculties unveil themselves is telling; THINKING critically at 84 months, TALKING at 36 months, WALKING at 18 months, but HUMOUR is there almost at the dawn of human life, at 3 months. SMILING at 6 weeks. It's as if Mother Nature realised that you can get by without motor skills, critical thinking, or language, but you’ll need a sense of humour, and right from the start, if you're to cope with living a human life.

I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry. - Cat Stevens

#humour #comedy #laughter #essay #comedians #sorrow #joy #joy and sadness

[adamwatchesmovies]

Sahara (2005)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

On paper, Sahara sounds like a slam dunk. It’s Indiana Jones meets James Bond with big stars like Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz and armed with a budget to make all the stunt-filled adventure come to life. In practice, it’s devoid of any joy or excitement. Director Breck Eisner makes 124 minutes feel so much longer than two hours.

In 1865, the ironclad CSS Texas disappeared with the last of the Confederacy’s treasury gold. In present day, Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) has finally found a clue to its final resting place: Mali. With his longtime bud and fellow treasure-hunter Al Giordino (Steve Zahn), he investigates. Along the way, the meet WHO doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz) as she investigates a mysterious plague she fears will soon ravage the country.

Based on the novel by Clive Cussler, this film adaptation tries to do too much. Sahara is essentially two movies slammed together. The first is a swashbuckling adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones. Boat chases, car chases, fist fights, impromptu survival techniques in the desert and a long-lost treasure? There’s no mistaking it. The other movie has an inconspicuous, beautiful doctor embroiled in a plot that begins as a threat to Africa but could endanger the whole world and includes a solar-powered laser beam, a mad dictator and businessmen devoid of morals. The problem is that these two plots exist independently and are not well blended. In one scene, Dirk and Al are dodging entire clips’ worth of bullets with big smiles while coming up with crazy ways to take down the villains on their tail by blowing up their own boat. In the next, a single bullet is treated with enough gravitas to give you a headache.

Also problematic are the actors. Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz are talented actors. Here? they’re awful. They’re even worse together. They have no chemistry whatsoever, which makes their plots feel even more akin to a mix of oil and water. You know they’re going to fall in love from the beginning but you’ll believe a metal boat from the American Civil War will make it across the ocean on no rations before you’ll believe that romance.

From the unfunny humor meant to endear you to the characters to the action scenes that prove the actors couldn’t throw a decent punch if their lives depended on it, Sahara suffers from major problems. It also gets the little things wrong. When Commander Rudi Gunn (Rain Wilson) approaches the United States Embassy for help, he's warned it’s unlikely aid will arrive in time because “No one gives a shit about Africa”. They're not wrong. Even this movie doesn't care about Mali or its people because moments later, we learn the thing that’s gruesomely killing en-masse will soon spread to the entire world. So it wasn’t enough that Mali would become the world's biggest graveyard; the entire human race has to be at risk? Yikes.

Then, there’s the climax. This is one of those movies where the villains must have the greatest employee benefits package of all time because the baddie's top bodyguard decides to get into a fistfight on top of a building that’s rigged to explode in a few minutes. How was he going to get out of there once he got the job done?

I can give a movie slack and accept a preposterous story but you’ve got to give me something in return. When your actors have no chemistry between them, the bad guys are completely forgettable, the humour falls flat on its face, the action scenes are badly shot & choreographed and none of what you see is interesting, you want to find some way to entertain yourself, perhaps by having some laughs at the film’s expense. You'd think it'd be easy when the Los Angeles Times listed this film as one of the most expensive flops of all time but you'd be wrong. Sahara is too dull to provide any form of entertainment. (Full-screen version on DVD, January 29, 2021)

#Sahara #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #breck Eisner #James V. Hart #Thomas Dean Donnelly #Joshua Oppenheimer #John C. Richards #Matthew McConaughey #Steve Zahn #Penelope Cruz #Lambert Wilson #Glynn Turman #Rainn Wilson #Delroy Lindo #William H. Macy #2005 movies #2005 films

[valistheanshield]

@waloed-steed sent : 🕯️ The Diary of Clive || Accepting

The page begins in a neat, well-written script, almost as if it's a scientific entry on the man in question.

"Slepnir of House Harbard is...unlike any creature I have ever met. To find out his true nature was a surprise, I assumed any creature summoned from an Eikon would be mindless, much like how Chirada and Suparna were from Garuda. They attacked on command and did little else without one. Yet, here is Slepnir, the steed of Odin, with a mind of his own, and individual habits that I did not think Barnabas would instill in his minion.

"Perhaps most striking, is the distance that can be put between the two. Odin could be leagues away, and yet Slepnir will remain, doing so as he pleases. Is he an extension of Odin? Or are they parts of a whole? Joshua seems to think of him as an Egi, though I find him too intelligent for such a thing. Could it be that as a long-standing summon, he grew and adapted to the world around him? Barnabas could have summoned him and allowed him to continue existing for nigh on forty years now, ever since he became king.

"Whatever the case may be, Slepnir is a challenging foe, a literal one-man army, though that might be pushing the phrase too far. The ability for multiple Slepnir to exist at once raises many questions, ones I don't know the answer to. Perhaps the only one who could, would be Barnabas Tharmr himself, and Founders know he won't be willing to talk."

#waloedsteed #𝕄𝕚𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕀𝕟 𝕋𝕦𝕣𝕟; (askbox) #[Here is your actual post xD] #FFXVI Spoilers

[maiyascifihorror]

Candyman #1 vs. Candyman #2

I recently watched the two Candyman movies back-to-back.  For anyone who loved the first movie, the second movie builds upon it but goes much deeper.  I prefer the second one, by a lot. What this exercise really showed me was how horror is really a matter of perspective. 

The first Candyman movie was based on a Clive Barker short story called “The Forbidden,” which takes place in a housing project in the UK.  In the 1992 film version the housing project became racialized, set in the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago.  The 1992 film, written and directed by Bernard Rose, is horror as seen through the white gaze.  Though the race of the monster in the short story is seemingly white, in the movie the monster is a Black man, who is apparently a manifestation of the housing project.  For a white person what could be more horrific than a slum, filled with garbage and thugs? It is almost as though the existence of poor Black people by itself constitutes the horror in the film. But if that isn’t enough, this environment has produced a strong, ultra-violent black man who can be summoned, like a demon, and who is pursuing a white woman, purring seductively, "BE MY VICTIM."  There are all sorts of problematic racist tropes in this set-up, and at many points the film doesn’t even make sense.  Why is the monster stalking Black people in the projects when he is driven by his history of being lynched by racist white people, after having an interracial relationship with a white woman (the horror!).  But even with the annoying racist tropes - Black people as thugs and gang bangers who commit senseless violence, single welfare mom, Black best friend, poor people living like animals – some Black people liked the film anyway because it portrayed a powerful, Black man with agency, out to get revenge.  For the first time, Black people saw Black life in a horror movie.  Well, sort of. White people’s fantasies of Black life.

Jordan Peele remade Candyman with a Black sensibility.  As producer and co-writer of the script, he collaborated with the Black director, Nia DaCosta, to create something much smarter than the original.  Now the themes are consistent with the Black lived experience.  Themes of gentrification, fear of police, of Black people being required to commodify their “Blackness” for white consumption are present, as well as an intelligent treatment of mental illness, fear of losing one’s sense of self, and the fear of not being able to escape one’s dark past. Most powerfully rendered is the theme of Black lives Matter and modern day lynchings connecting with the historical past. And now we see how perspective plays an important role in how a viewer receives this film.  Unlike the first film, in this second version of Candyman the “Black monster” doesn’t attack his own people. He targets the people who, over time and space, through psychic and physical torture and racism, made him, and by extension, made all Black people. By the end of the film Candyman may be a figure of horror for white racists, or even white people in general, but not for Black people.  For Black people, Candyman is an avenging angel.  Where is the horror in that?

[highjust]

Kenny g songbird

I found myself wondering how utterly surreal it must feel to sell so many records and make so much money (Gorelick, incredibly, was also one of the first investors in Starbucks, and has suggested that he helped invent the Frappuccino) and still have a chorus of bespectacled scholars calling you a huge loser. Gorelick has been called many things in the course of his career, but he does not appear burdened by other people’s opinions, making him an unlikely role model for the digital era, in which opinions are so plentiful as to be debilitating. It’s a sound that appears to have no relationship whatsoever to what I think of as jazz, yet it is somehow still “jazz,” or maybe jazz-adjacent-jazz that has been left in a creek bed for a million years, smoothed to oblivion. Close your eyes, play a few seconds, and see what you conjure: a Sandals Resort, an eighties romance film, the time you sat despairingly in a plastic chair for an hour and thirty-five minutes, waiting to see a tax accountant. “Artists now, they come out-there’s no platform to sell a lot of records.”) “Songbird” is quintessential Kenny G: sentimental, slick, uncomplicated, sort of grossly romantic and smooth as hell. (Without discounting his own striving, Gorelick understands the circumstances that allowed for such numbers: “I was super lucky, lucky that I happened to be an artist at the time period when people were buying albums and cassettes and CDs,” he says. Kenny G would eventually sell more than seventy-five million albums worldwide. Not long after that appearance, Kenny G’s fourth album, “Duotones,” went platinum, and “ Songbird” reached No. When Kenny G was booked on “The Tonight Show,” in 1986, he opted to play the instrumental “Songbird,” which features only Gorelick’s gentle, gooey sax-and lots of it. But Gorelick felt certain that he could break through simply as a saxophonist. producer and performer Kashif, who added creamy, polished vocals to Kenny G’s melodies. “It was dawning on me that, although he was a soloist in what was a jazz band, that his primary appeal would really be pop.” At first, Davis paired Gorelick with the R. “He had a very natural gift of relating to the audience,” Davis says. He firmly believed that Gorelick could have a viable career as a solo artist. “There was Kenny, standing up and doing his magic,” Davis recalls, in the film. Gorelick signed to Arista Records in 1982, after the label founder and pop- soothsayer Clive Davis saw him perform with the Jeff Lorber Group. In the film’s opening moments, as Gorelick warms up onstage, Lane asks him how he’s feeling. Has this approach worked for Kenny G? Well, yes and no. “If that means sitting here for twelve hours and not eating or drinking, I’ll do it,” he tells Lane. “I started reading books, I started asking questions.” He also wants to be the best interviewee in the world. I don’t know, Kenny-love your children deeply and unconditionally? (He has two children from his second marriage, to the fashion designer Lyndie Benson.) “I’m going to start studying it,” he recalls thinking. “How am I going to become the best father the world has ever seen?” he wonders, after his sons are born. “Listening to Kenny G” shows Gorelick applying this idea-that he can satiate his perfectionism through obsessive study-to all facets of his existence, even the soft and instinctive ones, such as parenthood. But that music was never heartfelt for me. . . . “The John Coltrane, the Charlie Parker-their technique was phenomenal. . . . In one scene, he’s asked to sign a wall at his old high school, where he proceeds to fret for a few minutes before finally deciding on “Go for what you love and practice, practice, practice.” Yet who among us thinks only of practice while listening to, say, Sonny Rollins or Dexter Gordon? When the talk-show host Charlie Rose asked Gorelick if he was influenced by any of the great saxophonists-beloved legends of jazz, his supposed spiritual forefathers-he demurred. We are treated to footage of him meticulously preparing an apple pie, meticulously laundering a pair of white pants, meticulously tweaking his golf swing, and meticulously tooting his horn. Throughout the film, Gorelick frequently reminds viewers that he prizes hard work and discipline above all. He scrambles to course-correct: “I guess, for me, when I listen to music, I think about the musicians, and I just think about what it takes to make that music, and how much they had to practice and how good they had to be.” As he says it, Kenny G-born Kenneth Gorelick, in Seattle, in 1956-seems to realize that this was maybe not the most prudent thing to admit. “I don’t know if I love music that much,” the saxophonist Kenny G gamely admits in “ Listening to Kenny G,” a new documentary directed by Penny Lane that premièred last week on HBO.

#Kenny g songbird