#i hope my jon art evokes this

[amy-issen]

ok so here it is!! i spent the last week solely making and listening to this playlist like i was POSSESED because this ship is lovely and deserved a nice playlist!  if anyone wants to know why i picked each song, i’m going to ramble about it extensively in the read more, so check that out if you want! hope you enjoy it! also thanks again to @birbwell​ for letting me use her art for the cover!

i divided this playlist in a few sections so let’s start with the first one (section one: first meeting/pining) i. in the rain - joe hisaishi i wanted to start with a short instrumental track to set the mood, and i looooove howl’s moving castle score, so i had to pick this one! the fact that it has rain in the title also helps to reference how their relationship began! ii. with every breath i take - frank sinatra “every breath that I take is a prayer that i’ll make you mine” my sister is a big sinatra/jazz fan (and also a yakuza fan) so she helped me with picking a few of the songs here! this one is very romantic, elegant and beautiful and i thought it fit the mood (and it’s what i think tachibana listens to in his free time lmao).

iii. gold rush - taylor swift “what must it be like to grow up that beautiful? with your hair falling into place like dominoes my mind turns your life into folklore i can't dare to dream about you anymore” this one is my FAVORITE song on this playlist, and one of the first i picked because this song just fits them like a glove. it’s basically pining 101, and i love that what taylor said this song is about “daydreaming about someone then snapping out of it.” i feel like the first part could be from tachibana’s perspective and the second one from kiryu’s (also giving a bit of a glimpse into the future, with the mention of a coastal town they’ll never find together) iv. first love/late spring - mitski “so please, hurry, leave me, i can't breathe please don't say you love me mune ga hachikire-sōde (my heart seems like it’s going to burst)” this one was another song i picked very early on because i love mitski, and i needed to include her here. i just wanted something to symbolize the trust that tachibana and kiryu have to share to work together, and the feelings that emerge from it, if that makes any sense. i don’t think this has a specific perspective, because i feel like this could work from both kiryu’s and tachibana’s (mostly kiryu though) v. real estate - adam melchor “every time I wonder how i'd carry on without you i'm runnin' out of real estate tryna make all the right moves i don't wanna hesitate i would bet the house on you “ do you UNDERSTAND how satisfying it was to find a song named real estate for them?? come ooon. ok that’s not all of my reasoning for it but it’s like. most of it, lmao another song i felt was about trust and feelings. (also a bit of a glimpse into the future, because i’m sad) vi. i get a kick out of you - ella fitzgerald “i get no kick from champagne mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all so tell me why should it be true that i get a kick out of you?” another one my sister recommended. i originally was gonna go with sinatra’s version of this, but i love this one and it just wouldn’t leave my brain. again, one from mostly tachibana’s perspective, get this man to sing this on karaoke night right now. vii. like real people do - hozier  “i will not ask you where you came from i would not ask and neither would you honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips we could just kiss like real people do” this is one of my all time favorites from hozier and, again, it just fit perfectly. tachibana and kiryu have both lived some very... troubled lives so far, and while they’re depending on this trust they have in eachother, none of them really care to know about what they’ve done or who they are. this is mostly from kiryu’s perspective, specially with this metaphor of being rescued/dug up from the earth with the whole being found in the rain and saved by tachibana and his poor driving skills. viii. delicate - taylor swift “this ain't for the best my reputation's never been worse, so you must like me for me... we can't make any promises now, can we, babe? but you can make me a drink” y’all are going to have to forgive me for picking TWO taylor swift songs but COME OOOON this is another one that i picked early on because i could draw so many parallels between the lyrics and things that they both said in that car scene on chapter 9 (mostly tachibana though) and i kept harassing my sister with screenshots to prove my point and i’m gonna do it again

ANYWAYS i’ve made my case, and now we enter the second section of the playlist at last ( section 2: actual romantic/fluffy songs because this is a ship playlist) i. good old-fashioned lover boy - queen “dining at the ritz we'll meet at nine (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 o'clock) precisely i will pay the bill, you taste the wine driving back in style in my saloon will do quite nicely just take me back to yours that will be fine” is this a bit of a cliché? yes. did i want to include it because it’s very cute and i’d like to imagine kiryu and tachibana having a nice date night with no people trying to kill them all the time? also yes. i love this song.

ii. stay with me/mayonaka no door - miki matsuraba “you in your gray jacket with that oh-so-familiar coffee stain just as you always are the two of us reflect in the window display stay with me knocking on midnight's door i beg you not to go home tonight” (translated lyrics) is anyone not obsessed with this song lately? this is the only song here i’m blaming tiktok for making me listen to it lol. in any way, this song is deceptive because it sounds really happy but is actually quite melancholic. i thought it fit their relationship well, and it seemed like a good addition to the playlist with it’s 80′s city pop vibes.

iii. on melancholy hill - gorillaz (covered by matt forbes) “just looking out on the day of another dream where you can't get what you want, but you can get me so let's set out to sea, love 'cause you are my medicine when you're close to me" this is a gorillaz song but i went with this cover because it fit the feeling of the playlist a little better. another song that i just love very deeply and i thought fit the sentiment of kiryu being like “hey i know we have Big problems and you’re very sad in the moment but i’m here for you” iv. (i love you) for sentimental reasons - nat king cole "i think of you every morning dream of you every night darling, i'm never lonely whenever you are in sight" surprisingly, not one that my sister recommended, but one i found for myself while looking for quiet  romantic songs. i feel like this is tachibana's reply to kiryu being there for him and helping him. plus, idk i just wanted to imagine them slow dancing to this. v. positions - ariana grande (covered by travis atreo) "perfect, perfect you're too good to be true but I get tired of runnin', fuck it now, i’m runnin' with you" i picked this cover because i felt like using ariana's one would be a little goofy for this section lmao, but i really like this song and how it's about commitment and doing everything to make a relationship work. i just wanted to throw some sexy vibes before this playlist delved into depressing stuff. also if you telling me tachibana wouldn't absolute body a tiktok set to this song you're lying to yourself. (section 3: oh no this is getting sad) i. forever - labrinth "i'll live forever" i love everything labrinth makes, the euphoria soundtrack lives in my mind rent free and this is my favorite one. this barely has any lyrics so, again, mostly a track i picked for its intrumentals and feeling overall. mostly preparing you for the sad stuff ahead. ii. hong kong - gorillaz "you swallow me i'm a pill on your tongue here on the nineteenth floor the neon lights make me calm" this is my favorite gorillaz song, by FAR, and i think it's introspective vibe really fits tachibana's character. not really a song about relationship but i really wanted to include it because it's just such a GORGEOUS song. iii. fragments - severon another instrumental track! this one i stole from a playlist my sister made for a fic i wrote last year. again. sad vibes. iv. sign of the times - harry styles (covered by LANY) "remember everything will be alright we can meet again somewhere somewhere far away from here" i loved the synth-y vibe this cover had, while still keeping this song's sad "our lives are dangerous and i'm about to die" vibes. i mostly wanted to evoke the vibe from the scene where tachibana agrees to go with lao gui after kiryu gets shot. just really sad all around. v. so close - jon mclaughlin "we're so close to reaching that famous happy end almost believing this one's not pretend let's go on dreaming though we know we are so close, so close, and still so far" me? picking a song from disney's enchanted??? for a playlist??? it's more likely than you think. idk this song just gives me that vibe of being so close to being happy and together, almost reminiscing and wondering what could have been. but it just... won't happen. vi. as the world caves in - matt maltese "yes, it's you i welcome death with as the world, as the world caves in" oops, yes, i had to go there. just couldn't resist including this song, and i feel like it's really self-explanatory. vii. places we won't walk - bruno major "neon lights shine bold and bright buildings grow to dizzy heights people come alive at night in places we won't walk" again, i feel like this song speaks for itself. a bit of a meditation on kiryu's perspective on things that could have happened, things they would have done, that kiryu will just have to do alone from now on. viii. carry me out - mitski "i drive when it rains at night, when it rains, i drive and the headlight spirits they lead me down the styx so black it shines and carry me out carry me out"

possibly the saddest and the most powerful song in this playlist, because i just had to put a mitski song again. the image of kiryu carrying tachibana's body is just constantly in my mind when i listen to this, but i could also see this song being from the perspective of tachibana's spirit. ix. arms tonite - mother mother "i died in your arms tonight i slipped through into the afterlife it was nice" lmao this felt a bit like a cruel joke to include, but i didn't want this playlist to end TOO depressingly. it's a nod to tachibana dying in kiryu's arms, sure, but also it's romantic and possibly a little hopeful (tachibana lives au!!! orpheus and eurydice au!!! fuck it, idk!!)  xi. everybody wants to rule the world - tears for fears "there's a room where the light won't find you holding hands while the walls come tumbling down when they do, i'll be right behind you so glad we've almost made it so sad they had to fade it everybody wants to rule the world" not a recommendation from my sister, but it is her favorite song, and she was happy that i included it. another 80's bop with sad lyrics! i feel like this is a lovely summary of their story together and it feels like a nice little bow to wrap up the playlist.  i hope you enjoyed my long ass explanations! i might add songs later (or make an entire second playlist altogether for the fic i'm writing rn, but let's not get ahead of ourselves)

#tachikiryu #yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #kazuma kiryu #tetsu tachibana #playlist #audio #THIS IS SUCH A LONG POST I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE ALL THIS ARRRRGH #praying this shows up in the tags lmao

[wwfagseg]

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[pocketvenuslux]

Perfumes for the end of the world (part one)

I don’t know about you, but this February feels like it’s bringing on more Judgement Day vibes than Valentines. As such, I thought it’d be more fitting to write about apocalyptic perfumes than romantic ones. Skip to this link if you’d rather read a previous year’s post about unusual rosy perfumes, otherwise, read on. 

Apocalypse by Thomson & Craighead. I’ve never smelled this perfume, but when you search for various synonyms of “end of the world” and perfume, this one consistently gets top hits. Conceived by two visual artists, Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead, Apocalypse was as much an art installation as it was a commercial product selling for £300 plus VAT. The nose was Euan McCall who took olfactory cues from the 1611 King James Bible, including “thunder, blood, rocks of the mountains, incense, wormwood, rod of iron, creatures of the sea, hail and fire, animal horns, flesh burned with fire, brimstone and a grievous sore.” According to Nell Frizzell in an article for The Guardian, “the experience of smelling armageddon was deeply unsettling. The initial whiff – a sort of musky, dank, almost-sexy tang – quickly gave way to something probably best described as digestive... There was a sharp mineral blast that seemed to coat the back of my throat and stick to my fingers. Eight hours later, the smell of end times was still clinging to my coat pocket, knuckles, hair and nails like a shadow.”

Armageddon by Elena Montesinos is another artistic and dystopic creation that uses notes of “smoky gunpowder, burning tyres and rainy battlefields.” Ms. Montesinos appears to be a Swiss multimedia artist and curator.

La Fin Du Monde by Etat Libre d’Orange is a much friendlier take on the end days. Like earlier Etat Libres, it features one unusual niche-y note: popcorn. In this case, the popcorn kernels are a little burnt, but one is hardly bothered given the intensity of the rest of the scent which is painfully synthetic. Like a joke that has lost its cleverness in its heavy handed delivery.

Eleventh Hour by Byredo is unsurprizingly, the easiest wear. Rather than your typical fire and brimstone, Eleventh Hour has a more hopeful, if not pretentious vision evoking Buddha and Benjamin in “a journey to the end of Time, the last perfume on Earth.“ It’s impossible to live up to this kind of hype and Eleventh Hour doesn’t bother trying. With a safe notes pyramid of Bergamot, Ban Timmur, Rum, Carrot Seeds, Wild Fig, Tonka Bean, and Cashmere Woods, we find the end of the world is entirely forgettable.

After the Flood by Apoteker Tepe. Alas, I only cottoned onto this house after it had shut down. While I was able to attain the amazingly rich and smoky Holy Mountain, all other AT samples were sold out at Twisted Lily so I can only rely on my memory of a friend who had more foresight than me recounting After the Flood as a weird dank basement smell. The notes for this one sound fantastic and are Violet leaf, Water lily, Mushroom, Patchouli, Vetiver, Cardamom, Wet earth.

Stay tuned for part two where I’ll list perfumes that actually remind me of the end of the world...

Painting: John Martin, The Great Day of His Wrath

#end of the world #apocalypse #armageddon #la fin du monde #eleventh hour #after the flood #thomson & craighead #elena montesinos #etat libre d'orange #byredo #apoteker tepe

[shemakesmusic-uk]

This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

Bayleigh Cheek

Dallas native Bayleigh Cheek began her love affair with music at an early age thanks to her immersive upbringing. Both parents were in the music scene, exposing her to a variety of sounds ranging from psychedelic and folk to progressive rock and new wave. Some of her personal music influences include Patti Smith, P.J. Harvey, Radiohead, and Angel Olsen. Those influences led to the creation of her EP, Immortals, that was self-released in early 2020 which brought her DOMA nominations for Best New Artist and Best EP. Her latest single is ‘Release Me’. "This song is about what it means to realize you've believed a lie, or false identity of yourself, and the process of becoming free from it and knowing the truth,” explains Bayleigh. “Growing up listening to a range of genres, from psychedelic and folk to progressive rock and new wave, ‘Release Me’ opened my eyes to the world of synths and everything electronics can provide to create a whole new universe of sound. Taking something seemingly fun and cheerful on the outside, and revealing something deeper on the inside. Before I started writing my upcoming debut album, I decided to be more vulnerable, honest and raw. I've hidden behind surrealism, which is still a big part of my art and always will be, but in light of the pandemic, I felt I needed to really let myself be open and not hide anymore. I'm becoming the person I've always wanted to become, and art will always be there as gentle reminders." Listen below.

Bayleigh Cheek · Release Me

Cozy Slippers

Cozy Slippers have released their first new music since 2019’s single ‘A Million Pieces’ b/w ‘Will You Disappear?’ (Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten) and the band’s tour of the United Kingdom. Like everyone else, the Seattle indie band had to adapt to the challenges of 2020 and beyond. ‘When Will When Come?’ is the first release to come from a year’s worth of home recordings done by the band. “We started from scratch. We didn’t have any gear and hadn’t really thought about recording ourselves before. It was so great to escape the stressful outside world for a while by recording and meeting on Zoom to put it all together,” explains vocalist and bassist Sarah Engel. While the band couldn’t be in the same room at the same time, they made use of samples from their prior recordings in order to stamp their sound and personality on the song. “We did whatever we could to get this thing recorded. Some of the vocals I recorded into my phone while sitting alone in my car or late at night when everybody else was asleep. It was a challenge to find space to be creative and alone time to make the recording happen during the past year,” remembers drummer and vocalist Barbara Barrilleaux. The track was mixed by Dylan Wall (Versing, Great Grandpa, and High Sunn).  Lyrically, ‘When Will When Come?’ is a plea from one person to another to embrace life’s messy possibilities -- to live before it is too late. Instead of participating in their own life, the subject of the song stares out a window and fantasizes about pink flamingos.  “I remember the first time I heard Sarah singing the lyrics. I thought the idea of somebody daydreaming about traveling to see flamingos was weirdly sad. Flamingos look cool, but the world has a lot of other things I’d want to see before a bunch of birds. It seemed poignant to have such a relatively small wish and still be unwilling to make it reality,” recalls guitarist Steven Skelton. Listen below.

Cozy Slippers · When Will When Come?

Everstill

New York-based alternative rock band Everstill have released ‘In Your Dreams,’ their first single off their debut album, Longing. Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sara Aridi (vocals, bass, guitars, keys) weaves her melodic guitars and haunting vocal harmonies with percussionist Luca Bertaglia’s pulsating drums to evoke sounds that are at once melancholic and euphoric. The group draws from disparate influences and genres including grunge, indie rock, jazz, metal, folk and more. ‘In Your Dreams,’ recalls artists like Warpaint, Wolf Alice and Chelsea Wolfe. Aridi wrote the song — something of a seductive plea to an unknowing crush — in 2015. A year later she met Bertaglia while playing in an alt-prog band, and the pair reconnected in early 2020 to bring her songs to life. They found themselves working on their debut album during the pandemic. Listen to ‘In Your Dreams’ below.

Everstill · In Your Dreams

No Lore

No Lore is unlike any other indie alt-pop duo. It all started when Manila-based visual artist Tita Halaman decided to make music out of her paintings and poetry with her brother Jerald. As an artist, she wants to elevate her audience’s experience by expounding the message of her paintings through the art of words and sound. No Lore’s goal is to continuously release a new song with a painting every month and to publish a book out of it. The band name No Lore comes from the concept of having no formal studies in visual art, music, and poetry. Both Tita Halaman and Jerald are self-taught and everything is D.I.Y. from ideation to audio and video production. New single ‘With Little Light’ is “a song about courage,” explains Tita. “I believe there is no such thing as complete darkness to a soul that thrives to seek for “light” everywhere. With all that’s happening these days, I hope that we can still see hope no matter how little it may seem. Hope prevails if we believe. I’m a visual artist here in the Philippines and my signature style is writing poems at the back of my paintings,” she continues of her creative process. “On top of that, me and my brother Jerald are also into music - we’ve been playing together and learning different instruments since we were kids. No Lore is our attempt to create a layered expression of our emotions. I’d say our songs are my art and poetry, but in sonic form. Every song is inspired by a specific painting of mine and the latter serves as the former’s cover art.” Listen to ‘With Little Light’ below.

Another Nguyen

Ngoc-Anh is a Vietnamese German independent artist from Berlin performing under the name Another Nguyen. She has just released her new single ‘My Friend’ which was entirely written, produced, mixed and mastered by women. She says of the song: “I wrote this song after a friend of mine opened up to me that her long-term partner was physically abusive towards her. Hearing her story was shocking because I had always perceived them as a very happy couple. With this song I want to tell my friend and anyone who has experienced intimate partner violence that "I see you" and "You are not alone". Listen below.

ANOTHER NGUYEN · My Friend

Noni A.

‘20s’ is the new single from the Berlin-based artist Noni A. Written in her bedroom and turned into a chill pop production by her brother, ‘20s’ talks about the aspects in your twenties that happen in the background but are not often addressed. 21-year-old singer-songwriter Noni A was born and raised in Prague in a German-Greek household. In 2020 Noni A. released her debut single ‘Losing Game’, an acoustic pop ballad. Currently based in Berlin, Noni dives into a different sonic direction in her new music. Inspired by the sound of Jeremy Zucker, Audrey Mika and Quinn XCII, Noni A. blends emotionally honest and unreserved lyrics with a clean and minimalist chill pop production. With her new single ‘20s’, Noni A. takes a new sonic direction. '20s' dives into the chill pop scene, including lo-fi elements, more samples, underlined by a strong beat. "I walked into my kitchen one evening and had absolutely no motivation to clean it,” says Noni A. “Apparently when you’re 20 that becomes a regular activity (cheers to my mom for letting me live blissfully unaware of this and cleaning up my stuff too). This realisation of my day-to-day life as a 20-something-year-old turned into the inspiration of '20s'. This song talks about all those things that everyone experiences in their twenties that happen in the background of our lives: moving out of your hometown, adjusting to life on your own, procrastinating (if you say you don't procrastinate, stop lying) and learning how to use your washing machine (in my opinion a straight-up mystery)." Listen below.

Noni A. · NONI A - 20s

Chrissie Huntley

One of Bristol’s most promising new artists, Chrissie Huntley has released her brand new single, ‘Supposed to Be’. Huntley decided to use the time granted by national lockdowns to her advantage. Collaborating with musicians across the globe and transforming her closet into a home studio, Chrissie has spent the past year equipping herself with a brand new body of work to return to the stage with later in 2021. ‘Supposed to Be’ is the first of a series of single releases set for release this year, and is one that the Brit School graduate holds close to her heart: “‘Supposed to Be’ is one of the first songs I ever wrote when I was a teenager and I just got dumped by the guy who I thought was supposed to be “the one”. I think we’ve all been in that position where you know that it’s over, but you just want to hold on and pretend just a little while longer…” Recorded in Bristol with upcoming songwriter and producer Laurence Fazakerley Buglass, the track demonstrates why Chrissie’s effortless vocals have had such an effect on her audience to date. Working with rising producers Jon Will, Gabriel Gifford (Harvey Causon, Maya Law, Lucy Lu) and Peter Beckmann (Gregory Porter, Laura Mvula, Marie Dahlstrom) to bring the song to life; ‘Supposed to Be’ is the perfect balance of collective ingenuity, creativity and talent...  mixed with the exposed, emotional honesty that comes with having your heart broken. “... It’s a very vulnerable track I suppose. It was very raw at the time of writing and I never had any intention of releasing it- it was more like a therapy to me than anything else. But, seven years later and here we are! Releasing this as an introduction to my new sound seemed like the perfect fit, as it holds the part of me that first turned to music at a time where I was struggling, which went on to become the entire premise of my musical journey..." Listen below.

Karen Harding

Weaving enchanting melodies straight from the heart, Karen Harding crafts, intimate heartfelt tracks that help us become ones with ourselves. The kind of one-to-one soul conversations that dig deep into our hearts and wake emotions once thought long gone. She specializes in helping people shed away their insecurities and finally feel again in a special moment of true authenticity. Drawing from a lifetime of experience, the Melbourne-based singer crafts bittersweet melodies that move and inspire. She gorgeously crafts an entire experience with every timeless track she creates. The emerging singer has just  released her debut track ‘I Didn’t Realise’. The heartbreak ballad talks on the struggle of an earth shatteringly painful breakup in a way so intimate it feels like we’re right there with her. It’s a reflective song that navigates us through every raw emotion during the healing process; from processing the pain to finally coming to terms with what’s happened. Truly a breath-taking journey that will leave you with a deep sense of wonder. The song was passionately penned in the peak of Covid-19 on a piano she played growing up. Like much of her music it came to her very organically. She had the chords already laid out and the words just flowed out of her soul naturally. It wasn’t created with the intention of being turned into a record. Rather it was a simple moment of self-expression based on the way she currently felt. The result is something deeply authentic that’s oozing in originality. She worked with acclaimed producer Josh Hennessy of Pivotal Music to bring the project to life. He helped add the magic to this simplistic yet innovative piano and vocal track. Listen below.

KarenHarding · I Didn't Realise

#submission saturday #bayleigh cheek #cozy slippers #everstill #no lore #another nguyen #noni a. #chrissie huntley #karen harding

[donheisenberg]

Deadwood The Movie Review

“Our Father which art in Heaven..” “Let him fucking stay there”

12 years. That is the length of time between the initial commissioning of a Deadwood film and it actually airing. In that time its cast went on to populate just about every great TV show of the last ten years, its creator David Milch has had various projects fail for reasons as varied as low ratings to equine welfare, only to then be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. So often in pop culture these long, attritional tales of production end in disappointment. Whether its Axl Rose and Chinese Democracy or Terry Gilliam and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, these mythical projects can’t help but underwhelm and are sometimes better left mythical.

Not fucking Deadwood.

While flawed, Deadwood: The Movie never disappoints and immediately feels necessary in a way that these kinds of continuations/revivals so rarely do. It is interesting to me that Deadwood the Movie came out the same year as El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Unquestionably two of the greatest dramas ever aired Breaking Bad and Deadwood; I think fundamentally only one of these films works.

I’ve already written a review of El Camino which you can read so I won’t rehash my thoughts on that too much but suffice to say while I mostly found it harmless it never for me justified its existence. Breaking Bad had ended conclusively on its own terms, in a very satisfying way. Deadwood on the other hand ended in very different circumstances, with a cancellation that neither side wanted, but as a result of some confusion happened anyway.

This is not to say I didn’t have some reservations about Deadwood coming back though. While the final episode of its original run was clearly never designed to be a final episode and therefore is quite unsatisfying in many ways, one truth of filmmaking and certainly television is the most important shot is the last one. Series finales are almost all defined by their closing moments and final image and Deadwood’s is an all-timer. Al scrubbing the blood left by murdering the prostitute made to look like Trixie says everything Deadwood ever had to say. History is the agreed upon lie. And there are bloody and tragic consequences to maintaining that lie that men like Al are left to clean up.

Milch would struggle to come up with a moment that encapsulates the rich themes of his masterpiece as well as that one to close this film on, but he comes mighty close with those final lines of dialogue quoted above.

One of the other key differences between El Camino and this is the ways in which this film does acknowledge the passage of time. While the former starts immediately after the final moments of Breaking Bad, Deadwood: The Movie takes places almost in real time, 10 years after the finale. In its tone and dialogue it acknowledges this passage of time throughout.

Yet in another way it feels very much like a condensed version of what season 4 of Deadwood would have been, had that cancellation never happened. The conflict with Hearst continues to drive proceedings as it was always planned to do. Of course certain problems come with this condensed nature. Certain plotlines, like Harry joining Hearst’s side, or the arrival of the new prostitute working at the saloon don’t feel truly explored and certain characters don’t maybe get the screen-time we would have hoped for, but that’s to be expected.

Even with this passage of time, it feels like Deadwood. Having said this I would say that there is a subtle difference of emphasis from Al to Seth. While Olyphant was always the first credited in the show’s title sequence it always felt like Al was the true protagonist of Deadwood’s original run. It’s part of the reason, despite Deadwood being his best show; I’ll always see Olyphant as Justified’s Raylan Givens before I see him as Seth Bullock. Al was always the breakout character and face of the show but this film is really more about Bullock and that’s not a bad thing.

Olyphant, a bit like contemporary prestige TV hunk Jon Hamm, has carved out a bit of niche playing douche-y versions of himself in sitcoms (mostly in cameo appearances) since the conclusion of Justified. So watching this film was a nice reminder of what a fantastic dramatic actor Olyphant is and has been for many years.

His screen-time with Ian McShane remains totally electric and a highlight of the film but I think just as much as the film is about Al’s deterioration it’s about Seth’s journey too. Bullock arrived into Deadwood to establish some law in this most lawless of places. This film is about him trying to maintain those values in the face of Hearst. In the film’s climatic moments when Seth is dragging Hearst handcuffed to the station Deadwood civilians grab a hold of Hearst and begin beating him to death. For a moment Bullock stops and almost allows the thing he has fought against for so long to happen, because he like most of Deadwood would probably like to see Hearst dead, but when he sees his wife Martha run away, he stops it.

The scene between him and Sam, singing together as the latter is in bed recovering subtly evokes the death of Bullock’s son in season two of the show and is an incredibly powerful moment and a rare one where we see him breakdown. In his final moments he returns to his wife and announces “I’m home.” As he kisses her it feels a triumphant moment but is it just another agreed upon lie? While the film isn’t able to explore it to the level it would maybe have liked to, the connection between Bullock and Alma is there for all to see, including Martha. Bullock has no real choice though but to live with the decision he made years ago to be with Martha, particularly now that they have a family again.

Fittingly we end with Al and those defiant final words. And it’s that writing by Milch that has always really elevated this show above so much else. With or without Alzheimer’s, writers much better than myself could spend millions of hours in front of keyboard typing before they got close to writing a line with lyricism, meaning and poetic profanity Milch laces every piece of dialogue with.  

There are some fairly obvious holes to be picked here. Much as it feels a bit like what season 4 of Deadwood would have been, you could also argue it feels slightly like a rehash of the final few episodes, with one of Deadwood’s more likable inhabitants being murdered by Hearst and with Al and Bullock trying to deal with Hearst’s wanting Trixie dead. Having Trixie reveal herself to still be alive to Hearst also feels a bit cheap and more generally you could argue that this film does not do a whole lot to actually resolve a lot of the loose threads left by the series finale. But honestly I don’t really care. Having those characters, those performances by McShane, Weigert and Olyphant and those words of Milch on our screens again is more than enough for me.

A-

#deadwood #deadwood movie #Timothy Olyphant #ian mcshane

[sanguisviscera]

Hard Things Call

HARD THINGS CALL

An ARTIST, solus.  They should be dressed in over-sized bib overalls with paint/chalk/marker splatters all over their clothes and skin.  The space is littered with artwork on huge tablet paper, assorted craft projects that look like they were made artists of various abilities, from grade school kids through professionals.  There should be huge amounts of art supplies scattered about on various tables and on the floor.  Around this chaotic looking mess is an easel, center, upon which is a magnificent artistic representation of the actor as a small child holding a box of crayons in one hand with a single crayon in the other, upheld as if about to draw.  The representation evokes a sense of childhood joy and innocence.

ARTIST stands and regards the representation for a moment before turning to us.

ARTIST I am all that is left

There were many of us

Smeared with the color of dreaming

We would change the world

(re: the Artistic Representation) I wanted to capture that moment

The first time I held hope

Light in my eyes, tools of change in my hand

I was not always alone

There were others

Scattered here and over there

Hope and change everywhere

They said they would be back

Left their crayons and finger paints

Piles of paper and tubing

Here: the misshapen crown Lily Brown made

She broke all the rules

Make a mess of things

Here: Kahns sword of paper maché

A rebel too was Kahn

Cutting through bullshit

A maker of paths

Over here: Jon’s landscape of sunshine and grass

A true dreamer he, vision of natural beauty

Future untarnished by excess and greed

There: Emily’s magic wand of blown glass

Perhaps the most extreme was she

Determined to reshape the world

Where we could live our dreams

All this collects dust

They said they would be back

There was a kind of sound perhaps

To me it was a dreadful knocking

They said

Do you hear?

Perhaps I did but

I was too busy dreaming

That business of hope and change

Who has time for listening

To the sounds of distant things

So focused was I on the present

But they heard it

Far off there in the distance

A knocking, iron on steel

I hear it now too

One by one 

These dreamers, these rebels

Put down their tools

To take up hard things

I looked up and saw

No one here at all

Perhaps that hurt most of all

We dreamed dreams together

We told stories

Of the death of kings

Battles we would fight

Against our enemies

And Love dreams

Visions of a future

Our future

Shaped by our own hands

This was not it

None of this looked like—

Look at all the dust

I thought this was our forever place

Fighting battles and telling stories

But in the end paper crowns and magic wands

Cannot feed a starving face

I have to answer 

The hard things call

(re: the Artistic Representation) This is the best that I can do

I captured it

That moment I first held hope

Look at the light in the eyes, those fresh tools in my hand

They said they would be back

I am tired of being alone

It is time

Love is not enough

When there is no one left to believe

I believed once

You can see it there

ARTIST exits. Slow fade out on Artistic Representation.

END OF PLAY

#31plays31days #sanguisviscera #theater #plays

[your-dietician]

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/entertainment-heat-wave-is-coming-this-summer-what-to-watch-for-entertainment/

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

Remember 2019, when hot girl summer became a motto for living with confidence?

Well, with life getting closer to normal and vaccines nudging the pandemic into — fingers crossed — the rear-view mirror, 2021’s entertainment calendar for the next few months has a similar mood.

Call it a hot everything summer.

Blockbuster movies are returning to theaters. Live concerts are set to resume. Television and streaming shows are back to being a nice part of the mix, not a sole entertainment lifeline. And with travel heating up again, beach books can actually be read on a faraway beach.

To navigate this soaring heat index for fun, here is a list of recommendations that are sunny, breezy, steaming and sizzling. You get the idea.

Hot Jeff Daniels summer

Michigan’s resident acting great always keeps it real — remember his plaid dad shirt at February’s virtual Golden Globes? His latest project evokes his home state’s ethos of blue-collar endurance. “American Rust,” a nine-episode series premiering Sept. 12 on Showtime, stars Daniels as the police chief of a Rust-Belt Pennsylvania town who is feeling “ticked off and kind of jumpy” when a murder investigation tests his loyalties. If the preview looks a bit like HBO’s gritty “Mare of Easttown,” that’s a very good thing.

Hot goofy summer

In real life, metro Detroit native Tim Robinson could be a calm, collected guy. But as a sketch comedian, he’s made an art form out of wildly overreacting to life’s little embarrassments. “I Think You Should Leave,” his mini-masterpiece Netflix show, is back July 6 with a second season. Besides brilliantly making himself the butt of the jokes, Robinson always remembers his hometown friends. Let’s hope for repeat appearances by his pals like “Detroiters” co-star Sam Richardson and Troy’s own Oscar nominee, Steven Yeun.

Hot retro Motor City summer

The Detroit of the mid-1950s comes alive in director Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move,” available July 1 on HBO Max. The crime drama starring Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm and more is about some low-level criminals given a simple assignment that draws them into a mystery that stretches to the heights of the automotive industry’s power structure. The film was shot last year in Detroit under strict COVID-19 safety measures, because Soderbergh, who filmed 1998’s “Out of Sight” here, would accept no other city as a substitute.

Hot road trip summer

Six years ago, a young waitress from Detroit created a viral Twitter thread about a bizarre journey she took to Florida with a new friend to do some freelance stripping. It was as compelling as a novel and as vivid as a movie. Cut to June 30 when “Zola” hits theaters starring Taylour Page and Riley Keough. It’s a comedy and a thriller that defies expectations and makes J-Lo’s “Hustlers” seem mild. Director Janicza Bravo and screenplay co-writer Jeremy O. Harris have created a raunchy adventure that still respects A’Ziah (Zola) King as a strong woman and original writing voice.

Hot action dad summer

Yes, Matt Damon is now old enough to play a Liam Neeson-esque outraged father out for justice. In “Stillwater,” Damon is a worker for an Oklahoma oil rig who must travel to France to try and clear his daughter (Abigail Breslin) of murder charges. Think “Taken,” if it were a serious drama directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy of “Spotlight” fame. It comes out July 30, just in time to make Damon’s fans from his “Good Will Hunting” days feel ancient.

Hot reboot summer

It has been almost a decade since “Gossip Girl” ended its run, which is way too long to be without fashion tips from impossibly beautiful rich kids. The newly reimagined “Gossip Girl” on HBO Max arrives July 8 with some notable improvements, like the inclusiveness of its cast of newcomers. But it’s bringing back the original narrator, Kristen Bell (who grew up in Huntington Woods), as the voice of the title character with the hidden identity.

Hot sweating summer

Sweating is a bodily function, but what exactly is it all about? “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration,” out July 13, will explore the biology, history and marketing behind the moisture that makes us glow (to use a polite term). It covers everything from the role of stress in sweat to deodorant research that involves people who can sniff out, literally, the effectiveness of a product. Since the New York Times recommended the book as one of its 24 summer reads, you know that author Sarah Everts did sweat the details.

Hot Olympic star summer

The 2021 Tokyo Games, which run July 23-Aug. 8, will feature the world’s best gymnast, Simone Biles. She still enjoys competing, but quarantining gave her some time to improve her work-life balance, as she told Glamour for its June cover story (which comes with a dazzling photo spread of Biles). “Before I would only focus on the gym. But me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym. Now it’s like everything’s coming together.” For the 24-year-old GOAT, the sky — or, maybe, gravity — is the limit.

Hot variety show summer

“What percentage of white women do you hate? And there is a right answer.” That was among the questions posed by internet sensation Ziwe to her first guest, Fran Lebowitz, on the current Showtime series that carries her name. Combining interviews, sketches and music, “Ziwe” deploys comedy to illuminate America’s awkwardness on issues of race and politics. The results are hilarious, so find out about Ziwe now before her next project arrives, a scam-themed comedy for Amazon called “The Nigerian Princess.”

Hot ice road summer

Take the driving skills of the reality series “Ice Road Truckers” and add one stoic dose of Liam Neeson and you’ve got “The Ice Road,” which premiered Friday on Hulu. The adventure flick involves a collapse in a diamond mine, the miners trapped inside and the man (Neeson) who’s willing to steer his ginormous rig over frozen water to attempt a rescue mission. Crank up the AC temporarily!

Hot kindness summer

There is a better way to be a human being, and he shares a name with an Apple TV+ series. “Ted Lasso,” the fish-out-of-water sitcom about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who’s drafted to lead a British soccer team returns for a second season on July 23 —the date that Lasso fans will resume their efforts to be more empathetic and encouraging, just like Ted. Only there’s a new sports psychologist for AFC Richmond who seems impervious to Ted’s charms and home-baked biscuits. She doesn’t like Ted? We’re gobsmacked!

Hot podcast summer

When Michael Che guested on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” recently, his segment was interrupted repeatedly by Dave Chappelle, who kept plugging his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast available on Luminary. What Chappelle was selling is worth the listening. “The Midnight Miracle” brings him together with his co-hosts, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, and his famous friends from the comedy world and beyond for funny and though-provoking conversations interspersed with music. If you were a fly on the wall of Chappelle’s home, this is what you might hear.

Hot series finale summer

The last 10 episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” start airing Aug. 12 on NBC, a too-short goodbye to one of the most underrated comedies in TV history. You can give all the glory to “The Office,” but the detectives of the Nine-Nine could go toe to toe with Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch in terms of quirkiness, humanity and office romances and bromances. It’s hard to pick a favorite dynamic among the characters, but the irritated father-incorrigible son vibes between Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) and Det. Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) are sublime.

Hot musical comedy summer

Keegan-Michael Key and “Saturday Night Live’s” Cecily Strong lead a star-studded cast in “Schmigadoon!,” an AppleTV+ series premiering July 16 that magically transports a backpacking couple to a land of 1940s musicals. Until Broadway reopens in September, this parody love letter to the power of musical theater should do nicely. And the premiere episode’s song “Corn Pudding”? Catchy!

Hot nostalgia tour

Hall & Oates are criss-crossing the nation with enough 1980s hits —”Maneater,” “Kiss on My List,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “You Make My Dreams Come True,” etc. — to make you want to trade your mom jeans for spandex leggings. As if they weren’t enough top-40 goodness, their opening acts are Squeeze, still pouring a cup of “Black Coffee in Bed” all these years later, and K.T. Tunstall, whose “Suddenly I See” is immortalized as the anthem of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Hot all-female, all-Muslim punk band summer

A British import now airing on the NBC streaming spinoff Peacock, “We Are Lady Parts” would be notable alone for defying stereotypes about Muslim women. But this sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim aspiring rock band is a gem of both representation and laughs, thanks to characters like Amina, a shy doctoral candidate in microbiology whose complaints about a guy she calls “Bashir with the good beard” inspires a song.

Hot documentary summer

While Woodstock has become synonymous with epic music gatherings, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 is finally about to get the pop-culture recognition it deserves. “Summer of Soul: (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” directed by the Roots drummer Questlove, will hit theaters and Hulu on July 2. It chronicles a mostly forgotten event that drew superstars like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Fifth Dimension, Sly & the Family Stone and B.B. King. Using his vast knowledge of music, archival footage and interviews with performers and those who attended, Questlove has created a history lesson that’s also the best concert you’ve never seen before.

Hot Marvel summer

Once you’re all caught up with the summer streaming sensation “Loki” on Disney+, please turn your attention to two new films. “Black Widow,” the long-awaited star turn for Scarlett Johansson’s former KGB assassin Natasha Romanoff, makes its debut July 9. It’s followed by “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for Sept. 3 and starring Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”) as the martial arts master of the title. All brought to you by the corporate global entertainment domination machine that is Marvel.

Hot biopic summer

“Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson, arrives Aug. 13 at theaters, nearly three years to the day the world lost the Queen of Soul. Although Cynthia Erivo gave a fine performance earlier this year as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha” on the National Geographic network, the odds are good that Hudson, chosen by Franklin herself for the part, will be the definitive screen Aretha.

Hot fiction summer

Terry McMillan calls “The Other Black Girl” essential reading. Entertainment Weekly describes it as “‘The Devil Wears Prada’ meets ‘Get Out,’ with a little bit of ‘Black Mirror’ thrown in.” This debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris mixes office politics with suspense in its story of Nella Rogers, an editorial assistant who’s the only Black staffer at a noted publishing company. When Hazel, a new Black employee, is hired, things seem to be improving. But then Nella starts receiving ominous unsigned notes. Sounds like yet another reason to keep working from home.

Hot slow dance summer

After nearly four months on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, “Leave the Door Open” remains the song most likely to provoke a quiet storm on the dance floor. The hit single from Silk Sonic (aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) may sound like a cover of a long-lost ‘70s classic R&B tune, but it’s a contemporary song that can make you forget the humidity long enough for “kissing, cuddling, rose petals in the bathtub, girl, lets jump in.”

———

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[cathygeha]

LIBERATION THROUGH HEARING 

RICHARD RUSSELL

 2 APRIL 2020 | HARDBACK, EBOOK, AUDIO | £20 | White Rabbit

A spiritual journey through music by the Mercury Prize nominated musician and the man behind some of the world’s biggest recording artists including Adele, Dizzee Rascal and The Prodigy

For almost 30 years as a musician, producer, label boss and talent conductor at XL Recordings, Richard Russell has discovered, shaped and nurtured the artists who have rewritten the musical dictionary of the 21st century, artists like The Prodigy, Adele, M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal and Giggs. Growing up in north London in thrall to the raw energy of 80s US hip hop, Russell emerged as one part of rave outfit Kicks Like A Mule in 1991 at a moment when new technology enabled a truly punk spirit on the fledgling dance scene. Initially identified in the early 90s with breakbeat and hardcore before embracing a broader musical aesthetic, Russell’s stewardship of the label was always uncompromising and open to radical influences rather than conventional business decisions.

Released in April 2020 via White Rabbit, Liberation Through Hearing sees Richard Russell telling the remarkable story of XL Recordings and their three decades on the frontline of innovation in music; the eclectic chorus of artists who came to define the label’s unique aesthetic, and Russell’s own story; his highs and lows steering the fortunes of an independent label in a rapidly changing industry, his celebrated production work with Bobby Womack and Gil Scott-Heron on their late-career masterpieces and his own development as an artist as Everything Is Recorded.

Always searching for news sounds and new truths, Liberation Through Hearing is a portrait of a man who believes in the spiritual power of music to change reality. It is also the story of a record label that refused to be categorised by genre and in the process cut an idiosyncratic groove which was often underground in feel but mainstream in impact.

RICHARD RUSSELL SAID: ‘Writing this book was an opportunity for me to reflect on the last few decades. I hope people will get something from it. I’ve tried not to compromise in anything I’ve done, and that includes writing Liberation Through Hearing.’

LEE BRACKSTONE SAID: ‘To have any understanding of the music that has soundtracked the past three decades you need to read this book. Liberation Through Hearing documents Richard Russell’s investment in the great artists who defined rap, rave and all its infinite tributaries with a piercing honesty.’

EXCERPT

PRELUDE 1

SALFORD, 17 APRIL 2019

It’s an overcast early spring afternoon. I’m in a recording studio on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Manchester. I’ve been here for an hour. It would have been hard to locate but I was collected at Manchester Piccadilly by a professional who had researched the destination and got us here easily. He used to drive Keith Flint during The Prodigy’s UK tours, and having picked me up we spent the short journey reminiscing about Keith, who passed away less than a month ago, at the age of forty-nine.

I arrive in a sombre mood. There are three musicians here. A man known as CASisDEAD has just arrived from a stopover in Nottingham. He is the most idiosyncratic, articulate and fluent British rap lyricist I have heard since Dizzee Rascal emerged from Bow E3 in 2002. CAS’s themes are typically the underbelly of street life, drug sales and sex work. In the first really classic song he has made, ‘Pat Earrings’, he tells the apparently heartfelt and melancholy story of his ill-fated relationship with a prostitute. At the conclusion of the song, he finds she has continued to see clients despite telling him she has stopped. ‘Heartbroken, I’m at wits’ end / She’s never accepted by my friends / That’s cool ’cause I never liked them’. The narrator is bereft.

As is often the case with those who make disturbing art he seems a person of integrity. Those in the public eye who go out of their way to seem benevolent, the supposedly squeaky-clean ones, are the ones to beware of. Nasty pretends to be nice, and vice versa. CAS has his face covered at all times when in public. Oscar Wilde said, ‘Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.’ CAS has a taste for the analogue synthesiser sounds of the 1980s, music that soundtracked my youth and was popular around the time he was born.

I have programmed my Roland TR-808 drum machine in order to echo the feeling of the year that the machine was first released: 1980.

This item is my favourite material possession. Its sounds and groove have been enjoying a renaissance in popularity since the James Brown samples of classic East Coast hip-hop made way for the more electronic palette that was being used by rap artists from the South. Its distinct sonic character is still a crucial part of the hip-hop production landscape.

Drums are only part of the story. In creating music for this session, I have enlisted someone who not only has the ability to craft unforgettable melodies but owns a collection of the vintage analogue synthesisers necessary to sonically execute this job properly. He sits behind one of these while his daughter Missy and his best friend Remi potter around. His name is Damon Albarn and, as frontman of Blur, mastermind behind virtual band Gorillaz and all-round musical polymath, he has scaled every imaginable height of creative and commercial success.

Damon and I are both fortunate to have benefited enough from our musical endeavours to each have our own first-class recording facilities in west London. We are in this particular location because of the third musician. We want him to record a hook for the song and this is where he wished to do it. He possesses a deep, deep soul voice that evokes not just the specific time we wish to reference, the mid-eighties, but the theme CAS wants to explore in this song, which is intended for his debut album, for release on XL Recordings.

This theme is the ephemeral nature of fame. The song is to be called ‘Everything’s For Sale’. It may become a worldwide hit. Or it may never be released, or even completed. At this formative stage of the creative process uncertainty is a given.

This third musician’s name is Alexander O’Neal, and he is a sixty-fiveyear-old former Prince associate from Natchez, Mississippi, by way of Minneapolis, where he was the original lead singer for The Time, before making three solo albums with legendarily great production and writing duo, and fellow Prince acolytes, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. These albums were quite successful in the US, but in the UK he became a huge crossover pop star, scoring Top 10 singles with his songs ‘Criticise’, ‘If You Were Here Tonight’, and his duet with Cherrelle, ‘Saturday Love’. His second album, Hearsay, went triple platinum in the UK, and he sold out three consecutive nights at Wembley Arena.

His appetites were always legendary. Along with most other eighties success stories, his star faded through the nineties. With each new decade music changes irrevocably and only a tiny number of musicians can transcend the decade they found fame in. In recent times Alexander has appeared on reality TV programmes Just the Two of Us, Wife Swap and Celebrity Big Brother.

When CAS gave me a list of the eighties voices he wished to try to feature on his album, I knew that Alexander O’Neal was the one to pursue. My guess was that we would find him in LA, perhaps living near the airport, but it turns out he lives in Manchester.

We’re here to capture the voice of this weathered soul survivor, and prior to the session he has been supplied with a map in the form of a recording, a guide version of the song that Damon, CAS and I made in London. Our preparation and planning have been exemplary and, while I have experienced enough ‘best laid plans’ scenarios to know that nothing is ever guaranteed, an hour into the session we have a heartbreakingly soulful performance from Alexander O’Neal on our hard drive. CAS says to me that it is important to absorb moments like this. I agree. I have had many of them but they always feel dreamlike. Alexander says he needs to buy a bed, inexplicably, and with that he is gone

ABOUT RICHARD RUSSELL

Richard Russell (b. 1971) is a British record producer, musician and the owner of the British record label XL Recordings. He has nurtured and guided some of the most influential recording artists of our time including Adele, Dizzee Rascal, The Prodigy, M.I.A. and Giggs. As a producer and musician, Russell has made albums with the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn and Ibeyi and most recently launched his own artist project Everything Is Recorded, whose self-titled debut album was nominated for the 2018 Mercury Music Prize.

ABOUT XL RECORDINGS

XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989. Widely regarded as one of the most influential labels, XL releases on average just six albums a year and has worked with artists such as Adele, Arca, Beck, Dizzee Rascal, FKA twigs, Gil Scott-Heron, Giggs, The Horrors, Jai Paul, Jungle, Kamasi Washington, King Krule, M.I.A., Nines, The Prodigy, Peaches, Radiohead, Sampha, SBTRKT, Sigur Rós, Tyler, the Creator, Vampire Weekend, The White Stripes, and The xx.

ABOUT WHITE RABBIT

White Rabbit is a new imprint published by former Faber Social impresario Lee Brackstone launching in April 2020. In its inaugural year of 2020, White Rabbit will publish twelve titles by music industry legends like Carl Cox, Richard Russell, Mark Lanegan, Annie Nightingale, Chris Frantz and Jehnny Beth of Savages amongst others. Dedicated to publishing the most innovative books and voices in music and literature, Brackstone aims to build on the uniquely successful publishing he was responsible for at Faber Social with authors like The Beastie Boys, Viv Albertine and Jon Savage. Brackstone’s titles for his Orion imprint indicate the range and personality of a list that will encompass memoir, history, fiction, translation, illustrated books and high-spec limited editions.

ABOUT THE ORION PUBLISHING GROUP

Where every story matters.

The Orion Publishing Group is one of the UK’s leading publishers.  Our mission is to bring the best publishing to the greatest variety of people. Open, agile, passionate and innovative – we believe that everyone will find something they love at Orion. Founded in 1991, the Orion Publishing Group today publishes under seven main imprints: Gollancz, the UK’s No1 science fiction and fantasy imprint; Orion Fiction, a heartland for brilliant commercial fiction; Orion Spring, home of wellbeing and health titles written by passionate celebrities and world-renowned experts; Seven Dials, for the very best commercial non-fiction, beautifully designed and produced; Trapeze for commercial fiction and non-fiction books that start conversations; White Rabbit, dedicated to publishing the most innovative books and voices in music and literature; and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, one of the most prestigious and dynamic literary imprints in British and international publishing.  

The Orion Publishing Group is part of Hachette UK which is a leading UK trade publishing group.

#Richard Russell #midas public relations

[playitbyear-laz]

003

Something I’ve been trying to focus on lately is making sure that everything I do is done with intention. Its easy for us to get caught up in figuring out our grand “purpose”, when in fact purpose can be found in every moment as long as we do things purposely. At one point, I thought my purpose in life was A&R’ing the biggest albums at a record label. At another, I obsessed over making mixes & DJ’ing parties. Right now, I see my purpose existing in the space between those two ideas - curating playlists the same way I would an album or a mix, in which the order of the tracks is intentional & flow is created. I hope my intentions for these playlists are being illustrated clearly and will move you, the listener, in a meaningful way.

                                          much love, laz. 

                                     PLAY IT BY EAR 003   

                                           curated by laz

                            Spotify Apple Music SoundCloud

Penthouse Serenade (When We’re Alone) - Nat King Cole

WHERE: IG Story - N8 Mandreza (@n8mandreza)

WHY: I love the pacing of this song as well as the light strum of the guitar but when the track incorporates all of the instruments together, words that come to mind immediately are ‘sweet’ & ‘romantic’.

More Than You Know - Morii Morii

WHERE: Morri Morii is a side project from an artist that I’ve given a lot of praise to in the past, Brandt Orange. 

WHY: This track flows effortlessly between two different feelings - the verses are ballad-like while the hook has an upbeat dance element to it that I Iove. I also love the way the vocals are layered on top of one another towards the end of the track as well as Matt’s incredible vocals during that section. 

Electric - Wizkid feat. London

WHERE: Soulection Radio Show #439

WHY: I think it’s fair to say afrobeat & dancehall is the next wave in pop music, if not already there. This track is everything I love about the genre - the deep rhythms, instruments I’m not used to hearing, etc.,. I also love the idea of love being ‘electric’.

New Place - Ian Ewing

WHERE: One of my go-to people for great conversation about anything music related is my friend Jon Antonio (@jonnntonio). He’s one of the best curators I know & also pretty much taught me how to DJ. This track was featured on his ‘love in slow motion’ mix, which you should definitely check out along with all his other mixes.  

WHY: This song evokes the sensation of moving into unfamiliar territory, yet still feeling comfortable and safe. One of the Youtube comments recommends speeding this up 1.25x, which I did and its fire as well. 

Tú - Maye

WHERE: IG Story - Abey Abu-Ali (@djhabibeats) 

WHY: Maye’s vocals are sweet & pleasant. This song makes me feel like I’m floating and has a dreamlike quality -  who wouldn’t love that. 

For Real - Amel Larrieux

WHERE: Also from Jon Antonio’s ‘love in slow motion’ mix, but he uses the IAMNOBODI edit, which is also fire. By the way, ‘love in slow motion vol. 2′ dropped today as well, so definitely click the link to his SoundCloud page above to check it out. 

WHY: Obviously I have a spot in my heart for some good 90s R&B. This song particularly captures the feelings of completeness that you get when you find someone you love. 

Peace of Mind - PARTYNEXTDOOR

WHERE: I gotta admit, I slept on PND’s discography for a loooong time. I was into a couple of tracks here and there but it wasn’t until some of my coworkers were chatting passionately about his albums over lunch one day that I really decided to tap into all of his albums front to back.

WHY: Party successfully utilizes like 3 different flows on this song, one of which in the hook seems like a nod to Young Thug. In ‘002′ I featured another great song with the same title by a group called Hablot Brown. Both songs (lyrically-speaking) allude to the same points/feelings, but this one approaches it through a dark & moody lens instead.  

over and over - sky

WHERE: Came across a random ‘study’ playlist on YouTube and this track was on it. 

WHY: This song reminds me of what I love about artists like Sabrina Claudio, H.E.R., Alina Baraz, etc., in that they emote infatuation in a way that I would almost describe as intense, yet gentle at the same time. I think a lot of my favorite art provides for that type of subtle contrast. 

If you want to listen to all the music from past weeks:                        

Spotify Apple Music SoundCloud

Instagram: @kev.laz

[marvelsthunderbolts]

Thunderbolts #10 Review

Here it is! Thunderbolts #10, Part 1 of Return of the Masters, 20th Anniversary issue, return of Jolt, all in one!

First off, I love that they credited Busiek, Bagley, AND Hanna for their story right on the cover. That’s class. Inkers often get ignored. Now the letters page says these guys were the original T-bolts team, but Vince Russell actually inked most of the first 12 issues. Hanna contributed to issue 12, and took over for an extended run starting with issue 13. Still great to see him back.

Now, as for the issue itself, it would be an understatement to say I loved it. The story by Busiek, Bags, and Hanna (with colours by Yackey, who appears to have approached Bagley’s art differently than he normally colours Malin’s) being a prologue instead of a backup excited me right away. It was a great way to open the issue, and effectively built up suspense leading into the main story, as well as answering a few questions that would have stood out had it not been included at all. And then the main story, by Jim Zub, Jon Malin, and Matt Yackey, was also fantastic. Super tense and dramatic, evoking many questions and emotions, really investing the reader in seeing what happens next.

If you want even more of a prologue to the issue, and where Zemo has been and how he came to be here, check out Steve Rogers: Captain America #11, which came out last week.

More details and pictures from Thunderbolts #10 below, but beware - SPOILERS!

This is the top half of page 1. Page freakin’ 1. It’s so awesome. I plan to keep an eye on Bagley’s original art dealer’s website in hopes these pages go on sale there. They’re so gorgeous. I love the work Yackey did with the colours here, too - the greens and purples especially stand out.

Erik decided to ignore Fixer’s directions and play Candy Crush, which allowed the Masters of Evil, 2017, to track him and the rest of the T-bolts down. Great team shot, here, and it’s so cool to see so many familiar Masters. The Wrecking Crew from T-bolts #1 (1997), Tiger Shark, Klaw, and Man-Killer from Crimson Cowl’s Masters of Evil, and Whiplash showed up briefly during the whole Civil War story between T-bolts #100 and 109. I wonder who chose the team members - Zub or Busiek? Or maybe they collaborated on it.

This page just rocks. I couldn’t not share it. That lightning bolt behind Atlas. The right-to-left direction of action, implying pushing back. The overlayed sound effect “WHRAM”, and the way Atlas’s “big ol’ “NO THANKS!”” pops right out of the word bubble, showing off just how big it is.

This is such a great full-circle moment for Atlas, too. One of the defining moments of his villainous career was when, as Goliath, he led the Masters of Evil in beating Hercules into a coma during the takeover of Avengers Mansion (the “Under Siege” story). Now, he’s in Hercules’s place, taking virtually the same beating.

And then we get this page. My favourite page in an issue with lots of competition, but Jolt was the character that really connected me to T-bolts, 20 years ago, and it is so good to see her back. She looks great here, too. I like this combination of her electrical form and classic costume more than her all-blue electrical form from the Counter Earth stories.

This is a good-looking page, too, but I feel like it takes away from Zemo’s entrance in the main story. Bagley is still one of the best Zemo artists out there, and I like this costume, save for one detail - what’s with the belt-cape? Crotch-drapery? Whatever-you-call-it-flapping-in-the-breeze-in-front-of-his-pants?

And as we get into the main story, this is a fun page to start things off. I love the back-and-forth between Abe and Melissa, and Mel’s costume looks weird without her harness and belt and such. Malin’s facial expressions are also getting pretty entertaining as the series goes on, and he’s great at making Karla look somewhat dark and disturbed, which is a different take on her, more in line with her personality.

Bucky gets suckered outside with Erik’s cell phone, and comes face-to-face with the Masters. Who drew it better, Malin or Bagley? I think Man-Killer looks a little too big here, but Klaw looks totally awesome. I love the energy glowing in his eyes.

I had to include this whole page because of those killer expressions in the bottom panel, but this is the entrance I was talking about for Zemo. This should be the definitive picture of him. If Marvel still printed handbooks, this is the picture they should use. So good. So bad.

And as Zemo tries to manipulate the T-bolts into working with him again, Bucky kicks ass and gets his ass kicked. This is a great sequence, reading like a fast-paced action scene with a Zemo voiceover. The storytelling and posing of the Bucky parts is fantastic.

Zemo is such a good villain. Jim Zub is doing such a good job writing him. This is classic, T-bolts Zemo. “Choose,” he says, knowing full well that he is not giving them a choice. “Control hope, and you control all.” (Thunderbolts #10, 1997).

Melissa’s response is also perfect. I would love an uncensored version of this.

And this is the last page I’ll share here. Such a great culmination of the established relationship between Bucky and Kobik so far, bringing us back to the end of issue 3, when she offered to fix everything and he said “No.” A lot of the T-bolts also seem to have problems with a self-deprecating mentality, with both Bucky and Atlas in this issue thinking about how all they do is mess everything up. Hopefully it’s something they can get past. Hopefully Jolt will help. Hopefully the next issue is out soon.

So, tl;dr - So good. So so good.

#thunderbolts #Marvel Comics #Jim Zub #jon malin #Kurt Busiek #Mark Bagley #review #bucky #Bucky Barnes #Winter Soldier #Atlas #jolt #kobik #baron zemo #Masters of Evil

[connorrenwick]

Where I Work: Catherine Bailey of Heath Ceramics

A lot has changed since Heath Ceramics co-founder Catherine Bailey appeared on the Clever podcast earlier this year. A complete shift in how and where she works was necessary, as it has been for many people around the world. Instead of staying put at home, she moved to her property in West Marin, California in March to set up a simpler life and work existence in two vintage trailers. Despite its picturesque waterside location, Bailey finds herself more productive than ever having less distractions popping up throughout the day. For this month’s Where I Work, Heath creative director Catherine Bailey fills us all in on the business in the time of a pandemic, where she’s working, and how she’s getting it all done.

What’s your studio/work environment like?

So much is shifting, and just like everything else changing, and so has my work environment. My work requires me to meet with many different people at Heath. I look at physical objects, glazes, and products that must be seen and held to understand. A small but favorite part of my work is exploring my own ideas through painting and drawing, but most of my work is communicating with co-workers, through physical and digital conversations. Before Covid-19, I spent much of my work day in different meeting rooms and offices. My office, complete with our dog Ponch, was where I started and ended the day, and sometimes got some emails done. All creative work happened at home, in my office, or at the dining table, depending on the light and my mood.

Since March, when any of us who could work at home did so, I changed homes. I have been spending most of my time working out of a trailer in West Marin. I find this environment gives me perspective, helps me focus, and I can free my head to be creative here. It’s a simpler place, on the water, and in-between doing my work, I’m able to be outside. In this surrounding, we have several different spaces that work for us. We’ve got two trailers, a 1948 and a 1951 Spartanette, and we built a large deck to connect them. I work in one and sleep in the other. There’s also a cottage that’s in need of renovation (not just to make it prettier, but most would consider it a tear down shack) and can function as another space that I can work in. There’s also a picnic table where I can work outside. I’m happiest outside, and in this set up, I’m constantly outdoors, going between one space and the other. My family is often here as well, and the trailers allow us to be in separate contained spaces when we need to focus on our work independently.

How is your space organized/arranged?

I have my digital workspace set up in our 1948 Spartanette trailer. As makeshift as it is, it’s one of the most successful spaces I’ve worked in. The trailer has a built-in table, and I work on an old Aalto stool. I never work straight for more than 45 minutes. I need to get up, stretch, leave the trailer, and step outside. Getting outside so often gives me perspective, the small windows in the trailer create the perfect light for screen work, and since the space is independent, no one is passing through or distracting me. I’m so efficient in getting things done! I’ll also move locations a lot. I take video calls in the work trailer or sometimes in the cottage. Work in the evening can extend into the sleeping trailer. The trailers don’t have lots of storage space built in, so I don’t have years of accumulated stuff in this current work space, which feels freeing.

How long have you been in this space? Where did you work before that?

I’ve been working this way as much as I can since late March. I go into our Sausalito Factory to see and discuss samples, but other than that, I am doing all my work at the trailers.

If you could change something about your workspace, what would it be?

I really miss large work tables that foster collaboration and discussion!

Is there an office pet?

Ponch – as is Jon and Ponch… think 1980’s TV, Eric Estrada… he’s the best trailer office dog. In the regular office, he has a “jumping on people” problem.

Do you require music in the background? If so, who are some favorites?

I listen to a lot of audio books if I’m doing work that doesn’t require writing, most recently Utopia for Realists and The Nordic Theory of Everything. For music Rosanne Cash and Wilson Pickett have been on my playlist this month.

How do you record ideas?

Notebook with specific organization. A 6×6 notebook with heavy paper and a .005 felt tip.

Do you have an inspiration board? What’s on it right now?

I do inspiration documents in Google slides, that are specific to projects.

What is your typical work style?

It’s more haphazard than I’d like it to be. So much of my job is to support others and help them move forward. I’m constantly getting distracted by new fires to help put out, and it doesn’t allow me to often get into the flow of work that I find satisfying. Working out of the trailer is helping me be more focused when I dig into a project. Every day is different. Especially working an hour away from Heath, I have to plan trips into Sausalito or San Francisco in advance. What I love about working here is the weight and rhythm of nature – it is hitting me in the face all day and giving me a sense of rhythm that I never have had in my work life before. Two tides go out every day. Certain birds seem to have rhythm’s that I’m beginning to notice. I have a greater awareness of the connection of where the sun and shadows are to the time of day. It sounds strange, but it helps me organize my day and have more perspective as I wade through some of the most difficult conversations and decisions that are coming up at this time when so much certainty has disappeared.

What is your creative process and/or creative workflow like? Does it change every project or do you keep it the same?

There is consistency in my approach. I always try to look outside for what I know well for inspiration.

What kind of art/design/objects might you have scattered about the space?

The trailers themself are wonderful self-contained design objects, so being able to live in and around them is thought provoking and fulfilling. The exteriors are sheet aluminum and the interiors are made of wood. Walls, floors, ceilings. Lots of ⅛” ply. It’s a lightweight object for what it is, with materials that feel solid on the outside and warm on the inside. The lighting in the 1951 trailer is original and perfect, better than in my house. It’s sort of nice to be in this little bubble of nice design without having to add much, there’s not much space for art or additional objects, other than a few vintage paint-by-numbers paintings that I found at a garage sale years ago, and some ceramics from our studio.

What tool(s) do you most enjoy using in the design process?

Watercolors, they force you to be loose and I find that helpful at the beginning part of the process.

Let’s talk about how you’re wired. Tell us about your tech arsenal/devices.

Nothing terribly unique, I have a MacBook Pro, but working on presentations and photo editing on my huge iMac monitor is a dream.

What design software do you use, if any, and for what?

Not much! I do a lot of photo editing in Lightroom, and some drawing in Illustrator, but other than that, it’s all in Google – lots of Google slides to share inspiration, ideas, plans, and schedules. Especially now when we’re not meeting in person, finding ways of sharing and organizing is important. By taking photos of sketches, or mocking up super rough photos or ideas and collecting them in these documents, the work can be shared and others can contribute.

Personally, I love working on ideas for environments using Sketch Up, I build sloppy models, but they can serve as immersive napkin sketches.

What’s on your desk right now?

Some color explorations for the winter seasonal collection and my little notebook.

Is there a favorite project/piece you’ve worked on?

The Chez Panisse dinnerware we did with Alice Waters is one of my favorite projects. We recently re-released it with new glazes, and I am really happy with the end result and the collaboration. The dinnerware shapes pull from tradition, but are modern, relevant, and functional and the glazes are uniquely Heath. With this project, we are able to support the Edible School Yard. This organization was started by Alice Waters to create and sustain organic gardens in public school’s curriculum, culture, and food programs. The project felt successful on many levels.

Tell us about a current project you’re working on. What was the inspiration behind it?

This is a tough question to answer honestly at this moment. This year has been so hard, so many of the projects we’ve worked on and dreamed about have been delayed or cancelled. We were doing some beautiful work with Alabama Chain, which was going to come out this summer. That was postponed, our team and our factory is smaller due to Covid-19, and this all has an impact on the creative work that is the heart of Heath, and everyone at Heath. Our lead designer, and most of our product development team, was on temporary leave when it was time to decide if we would be able to do a new collection for Winter. Our studio director, Tung Chang, and I decided we would tackle it. We were also in the unfortunate position to have to lay off part of our team, so there were mountains of unknowns. We plowed forward, and are excited about the collection’s inspiration: Hope and Love. The feelings that those words evoke are the season, and override the normal inspirations and filters of winter. We just photographed it, so I cannot show the final result, but these are some of our tests and samples – look for it in October.

Do you have anything in your home that you’ve designed/created?

I designed the interior of my home, as well as this whole trailer indoor-outdoor work life situation that I’m now living in. The space has a bigger vision than these two trailers and the platform connecting them, but being forced to live in an uncompleted vision has made me ask questions about what is necessary and what is enough. There is a certain amount of perfection and detail in design that can sometimes make things better, but not always, and it should be questioned.

To shop Heath Ceramics products, visit heathceramics.com. If you’re looking for more tabletop ideas, visit the Design Milk Shop here!

via http://design-milk.com/

from WordPress https://connorrenwickblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/28/where-i-work-catherine-bailey-of-heath-ceramics/

#Uncategorized

[lindyhunt]

The Most Stylish Films of 2018

Last year, the fashionable film that people couldn’t stop raving about was Phantom Thread. Makes sense, given that the film is literally about a fashion designer. There are sumptuous silks aplenty, not to mention antique lace, tailored skirt suits and too many elaborate gowns to count. This year, though, the Most Stylish Film mantle could belong to any number of films whose premise has nothing to do with fashion, yet there’s style oozing out of every frame. Here’s our pick of the films whose sharp curatorial eye and strong sense of fashion made them a delight to behold in 2018.

The Favourite The costume designer for this period film is Sandy Powell, the Oscar winner behind the looks of films like Shakespeare in Love, Carol and Gangs of New York. She’s likely to add another nom to her name with her latest film, The Favourite, which stars Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone as the three leads. The 18th century absurdist drama about Queen Anne and the women jostling for power in her court provides the perfect setting for Powell to flex her style muscles, because rather than skewing to historical accuracy, the film’s director Yorgos Lanthimos wanted the film’s costumes to reflect the wicked humour and dark comedy driving the film.

Rather than the over-the-top gowns and pastel frills of the 1700s, Powell decided to embrace a black and white colour palette in order to create a “punk rock” version of the royal court. From repurposed denim for the servants to black laser-cut vinyl and cotton for the court costumes to a dramatic ermine-covered formal robe for the Queen, each look is full of personality.

“Normally I do spend a lot of time on colour. I love colour,” Powell tells Vulture. “But it was quite nice to do something that was different. So because it was black I had to really look into different textures and also things that would light. That sort of worked terribly well within the story and within the settings, and economically actually we had very, very limited funds and time. So there wouldn’t have been time to have done court costumes as they would have been.”

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The Favourite In select theaters November 23

A post shared by The Favourite (@thefavouritemovie) on Sep 4, 2018 at 5:46am PDT

Colette

Over the course of her lifetime, early 20th century French writer Colette lived many lives. Her journey from innocent young girl in the countryside to iconoclastic writer in Paris is a fascinating one, made even more compelling by the fact that she comes into her own as a gender nonconformist during an era when a woman wearing trousers was unthinkable. Costume designer Andrea Flesch used clothes to mirror Colette’s evolution in this biopic about her life starring Keira Knightley.

“What’s special in her character is that she always finds her way to be unique and modern. I feel her wardrobe reflects her independent, sensitive, pure personality, which breaks through the strict rules of fashion at the turn of the century,” Flesch tells Variety.

Flesch poured over archival photographs, paintings and the period fashions of the time to create the costumes, many of which were actually vintage and restored at the Museum of Applied Arts in Hungary.

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Breaking new ground. Breaking convention. Breaking free. #Colette Get tickets: Link in bio.

A post shared by Colette (@colettemovie) on Sep 25, 2018 at 9:04am PDT

Black Panther

Costume designer Ruth E Carter has two Oscar nominations to her name—for Amistad and Malcolm X—and has worked on over 40 films, but Black Panther was an experience like none other. The biggest source of inspiration, she tells Forbes, was in “bring[ing] ancient Africa to the foreground in a way that’s never been seen before in cinema.” Featuring an all African and African-American cast, the film depicts a fictional country known as Wakanda, telling the story of its rich history through vibrant colours, traditional crafts and ancient tribal designs.

“I selected things from indigenous tribes and implemented them in a futuristic model,” Ruth E Carter tells British Vogue. “Because the culture that [director] Ryan Coogler created is unique, I could combine elements of many African tribes – including the colour red, the triangle shape, neck rings and beadwork – without worrying about cultural appropriation.”

“The chevron marks on the armour of the all-female warrior clan known as the Dora Milaje, for example, mimic the sacred geometry and imagery found in African artwork,” explains the Vogue piece. “The stacked beadwork suggests the wearer’s marital status, and the tiny talismans on the fighter’s front tabard—a fertility doll, a piece of jade or amethyst perhaps—are symbolic of the wearer’s skill set and spirituality.”

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Wakanda awaits. Watch hours of bonus footage and more from Marvel Studios’ #BlackPanther on Digital, @Movies.Anywhere, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD today: [link in bio]

A post shared by Black Panther (@blackpanther) on May 25, 2018 at 9:05am PDT

Suspiria

Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up to last year’s runaway hit Call Me By Your Name takes place in a world far, far away from a sun-drenched village in Italy. Suspiria, a remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 cult classic about a dance academy in Germany, is dark and unsettling, its pall of terror amplified by the costumes.

“We made dresses out of real human hair extensions,” the film’s costume designer, Giulia Piersanti, tells Vogue. “They were all draped by hand onto a ribbon cage-like structure to keep the body free for movement and emphasize the bareness of the body, as well. Each piece was different in shape and colour and they were all inspired by Grecian, Madame Grès–esque draping.”

The film’s 1970s setting is evoked through dramatic caftans, printed pussy-bow blouses, midi skirts and patchwork cloaks, inspired by old issues of a West German fashion magazine that Piersanti found on eBay. “Neither Luca nor I wanted colour to be a prominent element in the costumes, but from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to make my own prints for the film,” she tells Dazed. “I was really interested in the works of artists I admire, like Louise Bourgeois and Rebecca Horn, who both use the female body as a tool. I used archetypes of the female body in a series of 70s-style graphic prints, which were then used to make blouses and skirts and dresses.”

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Best not to keep Madame Blanc waiting. #Suspiria

A post shared by Suspiria (@suspiriamovie) on Oct 19, 2018 at 1:00pm PDT

If Beale Street Could Talk Walking out of this film and back into the real world feels like you’ve just put a sepia filter over your eyes. After the deep colours and visual richness of Beale Street, everything else sort of pales in comparison. The colour language of the film is an important element of the story, and one that reflects the original text the film is based on—a James Baldwin novel.

“He gave us the colour. He is so descriptive of colour of the clothing in the book,” costumer designer Caroline Eselin-Schaefer tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Wherever James Baldwin is descriptive of clothing in the book, we wanted to honour it.”

Deep red, blue, yellow and green hues saturate the film, which is set in 1970s New York. Fonny, the male protagonist, wears a red and black checked jacket, while the mother of Tish, the female protagonist, wears a green summer dress, just as described in the novel. But when it came to Tish herself, there wasn’t much to go on. “He’s not really descriptive of Tish,” Eselin-Schaefer says. “We took artistic license with Tish and to show her sort of innocence and purity.”

One of Tish’s standout looks is the cream cape she wears on a date with Fonny. “That cape, to me, was the essence of optimism.… I just think it made her ‘angelic” to signify the hope of their new relationship.” As the story takes a tragic turn, so too does Tish’s style, the optimistic hues of her clothing replaced by darker, more sombre shades.

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Tomorrow. #BealeStreet

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Crazy Rich Asians

When Cartier is considered “too common” for Singapore’s wealthiest women, you know you’ve got to raise the style stakes way, way high. And it’s precisely what costume designer Mary E Vogt did to depict the OTT lavish lifestyle at the centre of Crazy Rich Asians. They turned instead, to Hong Kong–based bespoke jeweller Carnet, several of whose pieces were featured in the film, alongside dresses from labels like Missoni, Ralph Lauren and Dior.

Director Jon M. Chu advised Vogt to refer to classic fairytales like The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella as a starting point. “And a Wong Kar-wai movie, which is not a fairy tale, that he really loves: In the Mood for Love,” Vogt tells Vulture. “That movie was very influential on this film because of the colours.”

Vogt was also careful to incorporate pieces from local Asian designers, such as Dubai-based Michael Cinco and Kuala Lampur-based Carven Ong.

“Even though the people in Singapore wear a lot of high-end Western clothing, you want to mix in the local culture. That was really really beautiful,” Vogt tells Fashionista.

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So excited for @crazyrichasians to finally open in China next week! Love this new Chinese poster too ❤️ #crazyrichasians

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Ocean’s 8 This film has not one, not two but eight female characters with distinct styles of their own, from Sandra Bullock’s sleek sophisticate to Cate Blanchett’s rock ‘n’ roller to Rihanna’s Rastafarian. Plus, the plot line revolves around the “fashion Oscars” aka fashion’s biggest night aka the Met Gala, so suffice it to say, fashion plays a big role in this film.

“We couldn’t go to Macy’s and buy these dresses, it would never have looked real!,” costume designer Sarah Edwards tells British Vogue. “We had to have access to authentic designer gowns.”

They got access. And then some. Prada! Givenchy! Valentino! Burberry! Even if it wasn’t starring eight of the most sensational women in Hollywood, the film would still be a visual delight.

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Game on. #Oceans8 – Get tickets: link on page

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Sorry to Bother You This surreal quasi-sci-fi film demanded strong costumes to convey its political, social and cultural themes, and costume designer Deirdra Govan was up to the challenge.

Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson and Armie Hammer, the satirical comedy tells a complex tale of capitalism, racism and systemic oppression. At one point, Hammer wears an equestrian jacket with a sarong and a riding crop while Stanfield’s outfits range from sober beige and brown sweaters to dapper suits in hues like mauve and green, but the sartorial star of the film is undoubtedly Thompson, who plays a provocative artist named Detroit. Her outfit choices include earrings that read “Kill Kill Kill” and “Murder Murder Murder” and t-shirts spelling out slogans like “The Future is Female Ejaculation.”

“What I loved about the way [Riley] wrote Detroit is that she’s so clear about who she was and what she was doing,” Govan tells The Cut. “I definitely am a product of being here in Brooklyn and part of the afro-chic, Afropunk movement. I wanted to bring a little of that punk funk to Detroit and also let her be experimental, let her paintings speak not only on the walls or in her performance art but also in her clothing.”

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Sundance here we come! #SorryToBotherYou — shirt by @feedmyfeelings via @otherwild

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[oselatra]

2018 Best of Arkansas editors' picks

Exotic sodas, cool relief in July, sweet treats on the cheap and more.

Best multicultural experience on the cheap

My wife loves to cook different curries, so we occasionally find ourselves at Indian Grocers, Mr. Chen's or other Little Rock Asian markets in search of certain ingredients not typically available at the neighborhood Kroger. While there, I invariably am drawn toward the beverage coolers. I don't usually drink sodas, but I lived for a year in Japan and grew fond of its delightful array of canned drinks (with names like "Sparkling Beatnik" and "Pocari Sweat"), and I just can't help myself when confronted with strange beverages from faraway lands featuring a flavor profile fundamentally different from what we usually imbibe. For example, Jeera Masala and Bisleri Spyci (both from India) seem made for people who thought the fundamental problem with New Coke was the lack of an overpowering cumin taste. And if you like your beverages with a little bit of chew, there's Grass Jelly Drink (Taiwan), which comes in an array of flavors from banana to lychee and contains little cubes of grass jelly, a tapioca-like substance. In a similar vein, the Hemani company of Thailand produces several varieties of basil seed drinks that have the consistency of loose Jello with little crunchy seeds held in suspension; my current favorite is lemon mint, but you can also buy rose-flavored. And if you need something to quench your thirst after mowing the lawn under the hot sun, try Yeo's White Gourd Drink (Malaysia), which tastes like a crisp cucumber crossed with caramel.

But let me reassure the less adventurous that there is plenty for you, too, to sample. Quice Ice Cream Soda (Pakistan) is a pleasant variant of the classic cream soda, full-bodied and delightfully sweet, while Sosyo (India) proves an odd little fruit drink just crying out for a shot of rum.

However, even my expansive cosmopolitanism fails when confronted with Bird's Nest Nice Look Drink (Taiwan), the main ingredients of which are water, white fungus, rock sugar and bird's nest. The nest in question is made by Southeast Asian swifts from solidified saliva, so you get bird spit and fungus, all in one little can! The actual experience of drinking it is nowhere near worth the bragging rights, I am sorry to report, for it tastes rather like a mushroom just sneezed into your mouth. But aside from that one, I highly recommend going out and embracing the unknown at $1.50 a can — it's a small price to pay for a glimpse into the other side of the world.

— Guy Lancaster Best escape from Interstate 40 homogeneity

It's probably hard for the youngsters who have never known Northwest Arkansas as anything but the hurly-burly of rampant capitalism and rampant highway ramps to fathom, but the now-sleepy section of U.S. Highway 71 in the region was once the main conduit between that part of Arkansas and the rest of the world.

This section of 71 is the road to get into a literal and metaphoric lower gear — not as low as the steep, serpentine Pig Trail, but getting there. After you hit the antique stores and do the Tony Alamo trail in Alma, head north and make a pickup (or drop off) at the vacuum cleaner hospital. See Winslow — birthplace of writer Douglas C. Jones and forever the home of the Squirrels! Stop for a Mountainburger at Mountainburg's Dairy Dream; it's a loose mix of ground beef with onion and mustard, and a favorite in Crawford County and beyond since the 1950s. Get a milkshake and sit for a spell on the newly renovated patio behind the restaurant and ponder the vistas ... and is that a large, live pig roaming in someone's front yard? Yes, it is a large, live pig.

Other areas just have the skeletal stone remains of attractions like restaurants, tourist courts and artists' galleries slowly becoming kudzu sculpture, but remain just as compelling to sightseers as they were decades ago. (Brentwood in Crawford County — a once-happening burg?) There are breathtaking views of the valleys and peaks of the Boston Mountains throughout. Once you get into the ever-connecting hub of Springdale/Fayetteville/Bentonville, it's a fascinating glimpse of what were once the faces of these older parts of towns. Travelers can take U.S. 71 all the way to Canada. We hope someone we know will do this soon and take us along for the ride.

— Stephen Koch Best venue for emerging artists

Young Arkansas artists whose obvious talent could still use a boost in the public arena have an invaluable leg up: The Thea Foundation's The Art Department, a quarterly showcase of art in all its forms. The foundation, at 401 Main St. in North Little Rock, supports Arkansas schoolchildren with its scholarships for high school students, its Arkansas A+ Schools that weave the arts into the fabric of academic work, and providing music programs and art supplies. With The Art Department, the foundation has brought high-quality work in a wide variety of styles and embodying social and cultural messages. Over the past five years, The Art Department series has shown a spotlight on the gender-focused works of Lyon College art professor Carly Dahl and the abstract, pattern-heavy work of her husband, gallery director Dustyn Bork; Emily Wood's paintings of friends and family; John Harlan Norris' fantasy depictions of people as occupations; Jon Rogers' landscapes; Guy Bell's levitating pyramid. It's shown Michael Church's surreal collages, Sandra Sells' wood assemblages and video art, Kat Wilson's "Habitat" photographs of people in their homes, Michael Shaeffer's images of drag queens, illustrator Chad Maupin's pulp-fiction-inspired printmaking. Coming up: "The Mind Unveiled," an exhibition of works by painter and printmaker Carmen Alexandria Thompson that address mental illness. In her artist's statement, Thompson writes, the work "seeks to unveil, expose and open up a discussion for everyone about the beauty and tragic workings of the human mind." Like all Art Department shows, the Friday, Aug. 3, opening reception will feature heavy hors d'oeuvres, an open beer and wine bar and a chance to win a work of art by the featured artist. Tickets are $10.

— Leslie Newell Peacock Best culinary bargain

Mike's Place at 5501 Asher Ave. is an outpost for Vietnamese food, which is good in its own right. The bun (rice vermicelli) enlivened with bean sprouts, a fried pork egg roll and bits of pig skin, once doused with fish sauce and a dash of squirt bottle hoisin, is interesting, crunchy and filling. But here's the thing: There's a one-line item on the appetizer list that is Little Rock's single best food bargain. It's the banh mih thit, or the Vietnamese sandwich. No slice of pate here. You choose beef, pork or chicken; each comes dipped in a sticky sauce. The meat is dressed with crunchy fresh and pickled vegetables, plenty of fresh cilantro and slices of fresh hot peppers (watch out!). They stuff a torpedo-shaped bun that is served hot and crusty. They call it an appetizer, but it's easily a lunch. And it costs THREE DOLLARS. That's right. THREE DOLLARS.

— Max Brantley Best place to pair an egg roll with a milkshake

For the past few years, Park Avenue (aka "Uptown," aka "Highway 7") in Hot Springs has been attempting an upswing. There's a dope neighborhood community garden, the much-lauded Deluca's Pizzeria and the crisp, clean Cottage Courts tourist court, which looks freshly sprung from a time machine. The Hot Springy Dingy costume shop at 409 Park Ave. keeps it comfortingly weird. But our nation has learned that the path to righteousness isn't a straight line, and there are still pockets of Park Avenue that are ripe for renovation — former Bohemia Restaurant, we're looking at you ... with increasingly misty eyes.

But stalwart amongst the comings and goings in this funky cool section of the Spa City is the tidy and tiny Bailey's Dairy Treat, 510 Park Ave., with its distinctive neon ice cream cone serving as a beacon to those who not only tolerate lactose, but revel in it.

Every Arkansas community needs at least one of these — an ice cream and burger drive-up, hopefully from the Truman era, but at least strongly evoking the days of sock hops and cult of personality radio DJs. (Lucky Hot Springs has an embarrassment of creamy riches in this arena, with Mamoo's ParadICE Cream and a Kilwin's on Bathhouse Row nearby, crosstown rivals King Kone on Malvern Avenue and Frosty Treat on Grand Avenue, and with bougie Dolce Gelato and Scoops "Yes We Really Make It Here" Ice Cream holding frozen court on the other end of Highway 7.)

Bailey's mixes up its menu from the standard dairy bar fare with offerings of fried rice and egg rolls and the like, and they are a refreshing off-script surprise. But if you're here, you're here for shakes, ice cream or burgers, probably in that order, and that's where Bailey's shines brightest. Long may you anchor Park Avenue, Bailey's Dairy Treat.

— Stephen Koch Best non-museum museum

The only place that has issued me a handwritten IOU this century sits on Grand Avenue in Hot Springs, just south of historic Bathhouse Row and the Hot Springs Farmers Market. Google Maps calls it Young's Trading Center Inc., but the business name printed in Durango Western font across the old general store-style façade — Young's Trading Post — gives a much more accurate indicator of what lies within. James Henry, the 83-year-old patriarch of the antique palace, sat in a rocking chair at the open-air entrance last Saturday, occasionally chiming in as his daughter (and Young's co-owner), Karrie Jackson, regaled a few curious visitors about the history of the place.

Jackson pulled out a color photo she says was taken sometime between 1952 and 1955. In it, a surlier twentysomething Henry stands in front of the very same storefront, dressed in a striped linen shirt and dark blue jeans with the cuffs rolled up, with what appears to be a red pencil tucked behind his ear. Beside him are his parents, Willie Matilda and Jim Henry. James, as it turns out, had gone to California to work in the logging fields for three months or so when he was called back to help run the new family business, a store the Henrys had acquired from Monroe Young, whose family was sort of a big deal in mid-20th century Hot Springs. "One set of brothers were in the law," Jackson said, "and the other set of brothers were in the moonshine business." Before their ownership, as a photo with "October 1940" scrawled on the back reveals, it was a fruit and vegetable stand, with the same corrugated tin facade.

Now, it's a labyrinthian warehouse with every square foot of its walls lined with old farm tools and wicker baskets and light fixtures and cookbooks and oil cans. Metal box fans circulate air through the corners and wooden rafters, and there's a loft full of antique furniture up a staircase with a preemptive "Watch Your Step" sign at the top.

It's more likely to smell of WD-40 than Old English — a sort of agrarian counterpart to the strain of antique shops lined with lace and chandeliers. It's a place people tend to recommend when you've searched everywhere else and still can't find a replacement for the broken ceramic radiant on your old gas space heater, or when you want to outfit your workshed with some vintage tin beer signs. It's also good for picking up slightly dusty things you weren't looking for in the first place, which could include, but are not limited to: a maroon-and-gold footstool with the Lake Hamilton Gray Wolf mascot where your feet should rest; a briefcase bar lined in coral satin straight out of a "Mad Men" episode, with its rocks glasses still in their plastic packaging; a 1920s enamel gas range by Laurel; an oversized tin sign advertising Salem menthols ("Menthol Fresh!"); a pegboard full of swing locks and cabinet hinges; a vinyl record titled "Good Times with The Happy Goodmans" next to an Oak Ridge Boys cover album subtitled "Songs We Wish We'd Recorded First" and a Ray Charles LP called "Country and Western Meets Rhythm and Blues"; cast iron skillets in all shapes and sizes; drawers of mismatched silver flatware; hacksaws; old-school stand mixers; blank Scotch-brand VHS tapes; ceramic beer steins from Pabst's and Budweiser's classier days; brass doorknobs; pedestal sinks; snow shovels; birdhouses; birdcages; a Royal typewriter from the Roosevelt era; a rack of glass soda bottles; china cabinets; a "Legend of the Lone Ranger" tin lunchbox; a tiny beige Panasonic TV with an earphone jack; empty cans of every sort of salve, remedy and household cleaner imaginable (something called "$1,000.00 Guaranteed Moth Killer," for one); myriad lampshades and wrenches; washboards; an elaborate hinged octagonal jewelry box made of popsicle sticks; box fans from the days when box fans weren't plastic; and at least a hundred items whose original intended function eludes me. One of these items, I'm certain, is the perfect purchase to make with that lingering $7.50 IOU burning a hole in my pocket, and Young's is a perfectly fine place to get lost in, realizing that you've whittled away your afternoon muttering "Look at this" and "What is it?" to yourself at turns for a few more quarter hours than you'd planned.

— Stephanie Smittle Best summertime sweet treats under $3

There comes a time in the peak of every Arkansas summer when the heat's oppression feels historic: Lethargy sets in, the body humors are overwhelmed by choler and sweat, and even the best conversationalists are reduced to nonstop complaining about the temperature.

Treats of the sweet and frozen persuasion are the best salvation I've found for the proverbial dog days, and Little Rock has some pretty damn good ones. Here are my top three, all found at stellar local establishments, all quick, all easy to take on the road:

Paletas La Michoacana from Del Campo a la Ciudad

I was a paletas naysayer for some years, mostly because they're usually sold at top-dollar by people who don't speak Spanish and at a smaller-than-appropriate serving size for adults.

Enter Del Campo a la Ciudad, a taqueria mercado on South University with countless festive and culinary treasures — delightful paletas de hielo o crema (ice or cream), crispy chicharrón (fried pork belly) and an immaculate piñata display.

The paletas with a cream base are where it's at, particularly those de coco (coconut), arroz con leche (rice pudding), café (coffee), fresa (strawberry) and mango (mango). They are exceptionally rich and velvety, with some notable chunks of fruit or nuts of cookies dispersed throughout. Take the coconut paleta. Something about an opaque white popsicle is just plain satisfying, and the shredded coconut flakes are a welcome addition.

Del Campo a la Ciudad, at 6500 S. University Ave., is open 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Frozen lemonade from Shark's

Sharks Fish & Chicken is a chain with a down-home feel and delicious food: Each franchise is locally owned and has specialty menu items, striking real-life shark photography, a bold teal and yellow color scheme, signature lemon-pepper dust (ask for it on everything!), and a brilliant condiment caddy that I give thanks for every time I set foot inside.

The frozen lemonade is of premium quality, and because there's a new Shark's popping up every which way in this town, they are easy to acquire. People tend to have views on ice, and they know what they like — I've heard the term "soft ice" uttered affectionately on many occasions. The frozen part of the drink is exceptionally cold, and the iciness falls somewhere on the spectrum between margarita and snow cone; it's somehow both crunchy and soft, and there's an unexpected delight that comes when the lemonade concentrates at the base of the cup. Last I asked about flavors, I was told each brick and mortar has its own selection (all have classic lemonade, my favorite), including Orange Tang, Pink Lemonade, Cherry Lemonade, Grape, Green Apple, Strawberry and Fruit Punch. I have yet to make this pairing, but I believe any aforementioned frozen drink would pair well with clear liquor.

Shark's Fish & Chicken is open 10 a.m. until 11 p.m. or midnight every day of the week at all of its locations in Central Arkansas.

Sugarcane Coke float from K. Hall and Sons

K. Hall and Sons holds a special place in the heart of the Little Rock community for a host of wonderful reasons. For me, it's a nostalgic spot, reminding me of my days of cutting class at Central High School to pick up a fried chicken to-go box and a bottle of Orange Fanta. K. Hall hosts a legendary Seafood Saturday during the hot months of the year with shrimp, lobster, crawfish and a line of customers around the block. And, for those who know where to look, it sells soft-serve homemade vanilla ice cream in Styrofoam cups.

Slide open the door on the glass-top freezer near the checkout and reach for the unmarked Styrofoam; it looks like a coffee cup with a pull-back drinking tab. The homemade ice cream somehow maintains its softness, even after being immersed in a deep freezer. I recommend purchasing a bottle of sugarcane sweetened Coca-Cola from the ice bath, consuming about half that vanilla cup, then pouring your soda inside the cup (may I suggest creating a few shallow caverns with your spoon for easier saturation?). What results is a coke float of the highest order, one that both quenches my thirst and brings me back to what it felt like to skip school looking for treats.

K. Hall & Sons Produce, at 1900 Wright Ave., is open 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sunday.

—Rachael Borne´ Best non-sexy way to be in the dark with strangers

High church and hot yoga are for the devout. And, while the net serenity yielded is, no doubt, commensurate to your 90-minute investment in mindfulness, sometimes you have more like ... 17 minutes. Tops. And an affinity for sleeping in on Sunday mornings. And perhaps a commitment to the idea of divinity that vacillates between lukewarm and "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual, you know what I mean?" So, for the rest of us, there's the weekly Compline service at Christ Episcopal Church — a quarter-hour of sung prayers, short readings and silences, intoned by candlelight every Sunday at 6:45 p.m. in a 179-year-old church downtown. If you're looking to get right with the universe, and feel like that's better accomplished with psalm than with pranayama, pull up a pew (or a kneeler) at the corner of Scott Street and Capitol Avenue every now and again.

— Stephanie Smittle The best county for cool relief

Last week, some old friends who used to live in Arkansas but now live in New Jersey came for a visit with their kids. It's somehow remained light jacket weather at night in New Jersey and our friends came off the plane in long sleeve shirts and hoodies to 100 degrees. We spent several days talking about frying an egg on the sidewalk. Then we did one of the few things you can do outdoors in Arkansas in July and feel cool, even cold sometimes: We drove to Stone County and plopped our butts into the Sylamore, the mostly spring-fed creek that originates somewhere in the Ozark Mountains. The water was so cold that, even though I'd been cursing the sticky triple-digit heat for weeks, it took me a few minutes of hemming and hawing before I let anything above my knees get wet. It was also crystal clear; you could watch little bream nibbling at your toes. Swimming kept us occupied for the bulk of three days, but on our way home we made the obligatory visit to check in on the stalactites and stalagmites and bats of Blanchard Springs Cavern, where it was a blissful 57 degrees.

— Lindsey Millar Best pizza night shortcut

I can cook, but I can't bake. Whether that's due to some misunderstanding of the craft or some unnamable necrosis of the spirit infecting my being, I'm not sure. I've just never had success with yeast. My attempts at homemade bread or pizza always end up as airless and dead as the surface of the moon.

So, I was pleased to make the discovery recently that Vino's sells fresh pizza dough at a bargain rate. For $3, you can get a double-fist-sized portion of dough, equivalent to a large pizza. It comes ensconced in the same plastic clamshell used to package a calzone or a salad — flour-dusted and pregnant with possibilities, like some great ghostly mushroom harvested from a distant, malt-scented forest.

I like Vino's pizza. But honestly, I like what I've made at home from their dough quite a bit more — maybe from simple pride of ownership or maybe because I get to use exactly the ingredients I want. I suggest jalapeno escabeche (homemade, if possible), a little chorizo from Farm Girl Meats and a modest layer of shredded cheddar. Or, if you can get past the perversity of turning on the oven in August, a summertime Margherita with fresh Arkansas tomatoes and front-yard basil. It's life-affirming even for those of us dead at heart.

— Benjamin Hardy Best local spat

In September 2017, the Eureka Springs Independent reported that six box elder trees in the quaint, quirky mountainside town's North Main Music Park had been vandalized. Well, sort of. The vibrant crochet coverings that decorated the tree trunks — created by crochet artist Gina Gallina for the city's "Art of Crochet" Festival — had disappeared. Rumors circulated. Conjectures flew. Letters to the editor were written. Dendrological hypotheses about whether yarn-wrapped trees are more susceptible to disease and stunted growth were formed and discussed. The breathability of yarn was called into question. "If I find out who they are, and I catch 'em," Gallina said in a radio segment on KUAF-FM, 91.3, "I'm gonna make 'em learn how to crochet!" Would that social divisions in Little Rock could be woven of such stuff.

— Stephanie Smittle Best Little Rock collection

Earlier this summer, an anonymous local started the Instagram account @letterrockarkansas to document the wonderful and varied typography found around town. It's an essential follow for those who enjoy design ephemera or simply delight in trying to figure out where they've seen that type. Favorites include the massive wooden "Club Jimmy" sign, once wired with 255 lightbulbs, but knocked down by a storm long ago, that leans against the side of Jimmy Doyle's Country Club off Interstate 40; a modernist Church of Christ sign with a letter missing that reads "Church O Christ" with the caption "All out of F's"; and the chunky, hand-painted drop-shadow Sims Bar-B-Que sign outside the Barrow Road location.

— Lindsey Millar Best collection of business cards

Foster's Garage, the classic, no-frills body shop mainstay at 409 W. Eighth St., has been collecting the business cards of patrons and vendors apparently since the Eisenhower administration. They're contained within the span of an arm's-length corkboard on the wall in the garage's unceremonious lobby, and the card collection is augmented so gradually and delicately that each card is gingerly tucked into the folds of the cards that preceded it; our own tiny, greasy, secular version of the Wailing Wall.

— Stephanie Smittle Best political protest

Look, when you manage to piss off Willie Nelson — the unofficial ambassador of stoner serenity and goodwill toward men — your path is surely strewn with hubris and folly. The 85-year-old played a June 29 set at Verizon Arena — the finale to an Outlaw Music Festival that began at 4:30 p.m. that Friday — and included a rendition of his 1986 release "Living in the Promiseland." The song, sung as a trio with Nelson and his two sons, is a bittersweet anthem of an America that, theoretically, anyway, counts Lazarus' "New Colossus" as part of its ethos: "Give us your tired and weak/And we will make them strong/Bring us your foreign songs/And we will sing along." And, performed at such a crucial juncture of the family separation crisis at the nation's southern border, it read as a blistering indictment of our broken immigration policy.

— Stephanie Smittle Best return

After a long hiatus, David Jukes, one of Little Rock's greatest — and least heralded — singer/songwriters, dropped two EPs under his Magic Cropdusters moniker this summer. "Snowfall" collects songs Jukes recorded with Jeff Matika (Green Day) playing bass and Max Recordings head honcho Burt Taggart (Big Cats) playing drums in the mid-2000s in a Denton, Texas, studio owned by Matt Pence (Centro-Matic). Joe Cripps, the Little Rock native and famed percussionist, helped pay for an album from the sessions and to distribute it. When Cripps went missing in 2016 (he still hasn't been found), the record fell into limbo. "Snowfall" represents a scaled-down version of that album. It's five songs, many familiar to longtime Cropduster fans, like "Hey Wonder," "England" and "Marry Them for Free." The other EP, "Woodstock," was recorded more recently in Woodstock, N.Y., at a studio owned by Jukes' former bandmate in The Gunbunnies, Chris Maxwell. There's a cryptic beauty to Jukes' lyrics that emerges after repeated listens. That's easy to do because his warble and general pop sensibilities will have you immediately bopping along. The records, via Max Recordings, are available for purchase at maxrecordings.com, and on streaming platforms.

— Lindsey Millar Best, no, actually, the only music festival worth attending

The whole experience of attending a big music festival feels like participation in an overwrought performance art piece on the pitfalls of consumerism. You're looking for a special experience, a fun time, a little reward for your weeks of toil. You pay way too much money to gain entrance to a gated community that promises unique access to an array of precious goods — the bands and artists you adore — and spend hours of extra labor finagling the logistics. It'll all be worth it, though — because just look at that lineup.

You wind your way through an acre of security and get stamped with the imprimatur of elite access. Then, once inside, plot twist, YOU'RE the ones trapped in a borderline humanitarian crisis. It's hot, it's crowded, everything smells like a urinal cake. Induced scarcity jacks up the price of basic commodities (bottled water, kebabs) and you grow to loathe the hordes of fellow sweaty mammals jostling for limited resources. You retreat inward mentally, become beady-eyed and narrow-minded, jealously protect the pitiful patch of turf you've staked out in front of whatever beer-branded stage is presenting whatever performer you've come to see. You damn well better see them up close, and you damn well better enjoy yourself after all this trouble, because you paid for it with your own money, goddammit.

Then there's Valley of the Vapors, the antithesis of all that.

VoV, in case you haven't heard, is a five-day nonprofit-run festival in Hot Springs that captures bands as they travel to and from SXSW in Austin, allowing it to attract a fantastic spread of under-recognized national and international talent. This spring, a day pass was $10. The music is mostly to be found at one of two venerable venues in town, Low Key Arts — the driving force behind VoV — and Maxine's. There are also a few "secret shows" that pop up in unexpected places. Around 4 p.m. on a rainy Sunday this March, about two dozen of us crammed into a Waffle House on Central Avenue to watch a goofily too-cool-for-school Brooklyn rocker named Zuli churn out swaggering guitar riffs, occasionally using a sugar dispenser as a slide. Later, at Low Key Arts, I was treated to a succession of artists playing everything from country to bouncy indie pop to gloomy, Eels-esque bedroom ballads on a tiny electric keyboard. Some of it was good, some of it was not and at least two acts were genuinely terrific.

What makes VoV truly special, though, is the miracle of your fellow concertgoers: You don't despise them. There's just something about being crammed into a big festival that breeds contempt. At Valley of the Vapors, that sour note of impersonal hostility turns to one of, well, actual community. It's an all-ages affair, so you'll see teenagers, a handful of families, older folks. You're in it together, and you're there to hear music you'll probably never get the chance to hear again. What could be better than that?

— Benjamin Hardy

2018 Best of Arkansas editors' picks

#2018 Best of Arkansas editors' picks

[miamibeerscene]

Little City Brewing Approaches 1 Year Anniversary in Raleigh

Raleigh’s Little City Brewing celebrates one year this fall. (Credit: Local Icon Hospitality)

September 5, 2017

With so many entrepreneurs aspiring to start up a brewery throughout the nation, it never hurts to talk with someone who candidly discloses their successes, trials and tribulations after the first year of operation.

Local Icon Hospitality owner Jon Seelbinder has worked in the hospitality business for almost two decades and has become an enterprising restaurateur while living in Raleigh, North Carolina. However, he admits that owning a brewery is on an entirely different level.

(READ: 5 Epic Craft Beer Road Trips)

After opening the doors of Little City Brewing + Provisions Co. last October—a stylish brewpub based in Raleigh’s burgeoning Glenwood South neighborhood complete with a cocktail program, seven-barrel system and minimalist-meets-chic décor—Seelbinder, 38, shares his experience in this CraftBeer.com Full Pour. Get your notepad out.

Jon Seelbinder says opening a brewery is a whole different level than opening a restaurant. (Credit: Local Icon Hospitality)

Q: Starting with the basics, where are you from originally, where did you go to school and what brought you to Raleigh?

Jon Seelbinder: I’m North Carolina born and raised. I moved to Colorado for school and spent four years there, where I fell in love with beer and skiing. I went to North Carolina State University, majoring in Industrial Engineering and minoring in Business Management. I moved back to North Carolina in 1999, putting roots in Raleigh.

Q: And now you are a successful entrepreneur with Little City becoming your latest project. Discuss the transition to the brewing side and the differences.

Jon: I have worked in and around the hospitality industry for almost 20 years—from restaurants, bars and nightclubs, to managing music artists and producing events. In addition to Little City Brewing, I own three restaurants, a speakeasy and a DJ bar. Opening Little City was certainly a shift. The biggest challenge was being blindsided by the timeline. Time became very stressful and very expensive. If a beer gets stuck in tanks, you are taking a hit monetarily every day that beer continues to sit. Not only are you losing out on revenue from selling that beer, but you are also losing time on the next batch, too. It’s a tricky game. Tweaking and learning our system is super important.

Another curve for us was learning to write down and record everything. Recipes, processes, hiccups, successes … record it all! There’s a saying that brewing and distilling is an ‘exact art and a vague science.’ We have worked very hard to get our recipes and processes dialed in, and we have learned that we will need to continue doing so.

(READ: 7 Breweries Worth a Detour)

Q: You also had some work experience outside of the hospitality industry. How has this helped you with operating Little City?

Jon: Outside of the hospitality industry, I also sold medical devices for a bit and worked as an engineer. The manufacturing side of my engineering degree helps me understand the process and logistics very well in a way that feels completely natural. My brief sales experience has allowed for a very comfortable placement of beer into our local marketplace. While our distribution is very limited at the moment, I hope that sales experience will help when we expand our footprint. I have a ton of fun putting on the beer salesman hat!

Q: To stand out from the other breweries throughout Raleigh, what was your strategy to create some individuality regarding the concept, décor and menu?

Jon: Our aesthetic is a bit different than some breweries. We set out to provide a polished space that evokes a certain feeling to our guests. We are setting up Little City as a brewpub right out of the gate. We will be finishing a kitchen and introducing a chef-inspired food program very soon.

At the end of the day though, our number one goal is to make great beer. We want our beer to possess a delicious drinkability while still being dynamic in our development. With so many options in Raleigh, we must be dedicated to the craft and be willing to take the necessary steps toward holding ourselves to a high standard.

(LEARN: CraftBeer.com Beer & Food Course)

Q: You were a homebrewer prior to making the jump to Little City. What is like working with commercial equipment?

Jon: I started homebrewing in 1999. I have made a very close connection between cooking, making cocktails and brewing beer throughout the years. Delicious flavors, quality ingredients, preparation directions and recipes all play into all of those things. Good food, good beer and good cocktails all require an understanding of flavor combinations.

With that, scaling up to a big system makes some parts of the brewing process a lot easier, and it’s exciting to work on a bigger system. Scaling recipes and trying to nail them can be stressful. If something goes wrong, we are dumping a lot of money down the drain. As far as brewing on a smaller scale, I do miss the ease and comfort of simply brewing for fun, but I don’t miss catching grief from my girlfriend for taking up half the garage to conduct my magical operations. [Laughing.]

Q: Now you will be celebrating Little City’s first anniversary in October. What other challenges have you endured and what are some of the lessons you will be taking into year two? 

Jon says quality and consistency is at the top of the brewery’s priority list. (Credit: Local Icon Hospitality)

Jon: There have been so many challenges and learning curves that we are still figuring out. Having our own beer on tap is a big deal and time can be such a hard thing to overcome. Between the time it takes to actually brew the beer to then keg the beer, we find ourselves in a time crunch to do the process all over again before we sell out of product.

The biggest lesson is to be disciplined in the way of patience, consistency and the message we send to our guests. We have to baseline some standard beer selections before we start rotating new stuff in and out. We have to tweak and perfect those things and have a consistent product that people keep coming back for.

We have also decided to keep our distribution as close to home as possible for now. We don’t need to stretch across the state quite yet. We want to serve as much beer as possible in our four walls. If we get caught up in the shuffle of a turn-and-burn operation, our brand could get lost. We will hold for now and play that game once we are a bit more established.

(BEER TRAVEL: Beercation Destination: Charleston)

Q: What are some other challenges internally?

Jon: Attention to detail and consistent quality. Environments and factors can change all the time. We want to continue to improve our quality every day and make sure that the tanks work correctly, the humidity is just right, the water is the same and that yeast works like it is supposed to. All of these factors can be extremely challenging.

Q: Let’s talk about your beer. How do you come up with the names, what styles do you craft, and what are the most popular?

Jon: Naming beers can be tough! At first, we wanted to have some very approachable and recognizable styles. This includes ambers, stouts, IPAs, hefeweizens and kölschs. After establishing those styles, we started getting creative with blending flavors like lavender, grapefruit, lemon, coffee, strawberry, vanilla and basil to name a few. All of our beers are ales due to the size of our fermentation space. Ales carry the best timeline for our model. We have done some barrel-aging, which was dynamite, and will be moving into a sour program soon.

As far as the most popular, our coffee kölsch has been a huge hit. We take a generous amount of coffee that we source locally from Larry’s Coffee and brew it with our already dynamite kölsch recipe. The result is a beer that is lighter in color and not nearly as heavy as your typical dark coffee beers. Folks are super surprised once they taste it, and it seems to please a very broad demographic of beer drinkers. We can’t keep it on tap – it moves!

Q: Discuss Raleigh’s craft beer scene.

Jon: Growing, hip, delicious, supportive, quality focused and relevant. There are approximately 40 breweries in Wake County alone with so many great players in the game. We admire our brewing community. Everyone has been super helpful. We have brewed together. They have helped us with lending keg washer time and provided advice when we needed it the most.

While the community is supportive, the approach is still very competitive. The top breweries are striving every day to make really good beer while creating dynamite brands. The game is strong and I think the majority of us believe that you can never have too much good beer! I believe Raleigh breweries will continue to be major players in the beer game.

(READ: Great American Beer Bars 2017)

“We know we are creating something special and that’s what we want to focus on — keeping it special and hoping that people fall in love with us.” Jon Seelbinder

Q: What are your future plans for the brewery?

Jon: Taking our time and really getting our beer right—I mean very right—focusing on quality and consistency. We want to focus on drinkability and not be afraid to blaze into the unknown to create really epic stuff. From there, we will start to implement an awesome food program and figure out how we want to expand our beer brand. We know we are creating something special and that’s what we want to focus on — keeping it special and hoping that people fall in love with us.

Q: Last, what American craft and independent breweries do you have a lot of respect for and why?

Jon: There are so many great breweries locally and around the country that I could mention. 3 Floyds Brewing Co. is undoubtedly an amazing brewery that does some really special beers year after year. Sierra Nevada has paved such a major path for all craft breweries. Some others include Trophy Brewing, Deep River Brewing, Bond Brothers Beer Company, Brewery Bhavana, Lonerider Brewing Company, and on and on and on. There is a serious amount of great beer currently being brewed in North Carolina.

Dennis Malcolm Byron (aka Ale Sharpton)Author Website

Dennis Malcolm Byron, a.k.a. Ale Sharpton, is a world-renowned beer authority, award-winning journalist, blogger (AleSharpton.com), photographer, event host and gourmand. He has contributed to more than 20 magazines and numerous websites, and passionately travels the globe to cover what he terms the world’s best beverage. Although a native New Yorker and alumnus of Cornell University, he proudly calls Atlanta his home. Globetrot with him on Twitter and Instagram. Read more by this author

The post Little City Brewing Approaches 1 Year Anniversary in Raleigh appeared first on Miami Beer Scene.

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[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Sci-Fi Films that Question What It Means to Be Human

Still from Holy Motors (2012), France/Germany, written and directed by Leos Carax (courtesy of Photofest)

When the summer months drive city dwellers toward beaches, lakes, and mountains, multiplexes attempt to keep them indoors by providing a different kind of escape: transporting viewers to distant worlds populated by wondrous creatures in Hollywood’s loudest, most expensive blockbusters. New York City’s repertory cinemas similarly engage audiences during these months with more intelligent science fiction, challenging the mind in addition to the senses. While the summer science fiction series is a common repertory staple, MoMA’s Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction stands apart from the rest with its interest in the uncommon.

“I was hoping at one point to do a science fiction series in which I wouldn’t have to show 2001: A Space Odyssey,” jokes curator Josh Siegel. “I have nothing against it, but when you go through the usual suspects, you’re not left with much room for the less-known films.”

To achieve his goal of showcasing the buried gems of science fiction cinema, Siegel developed three criteria for work featured in Future Imperfect. First, characters could not travel through space. Second, the movies could not feature alien invasions or monsters. Finally, the films needed a present or near-present setting.

These guidelines helped Siegel shine a spotlight on films that question what it means to be human. He started with a list of 900 films and eventually whittled it down to the 60 plus offerings featured in the series, where classics from auteurs like Darren Aronofsky (Pi) and Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) stand side-by-side with blockbusters (Minority Report, Groundhog Day), indie milestones (Derek Jarman’s Jubilee), and foreign favorites (Battle Royale, Los cronocrímines.)

In a recent phone call, Siegel discussed the series of cerebral escapism at its August midpoint.

Still from Battle Royale aka Batoru rowaiaru (2000), Japan, directed by Kinji Fukasaku (courtesy of Photofest)

Jon Hogan: The series features blockbusters as well as avant-garde film and video art; what are some of the areas where these two categories of films differ most starkly in their projections of possible futures, and what are some elements about which they’re surprisingly in agreement?

Josh Siegel: In some ways, I don’t differentiate between the two. I think of films as good or less good. You’re either a visionary or you’re not. You can be a visionary working with no money, or you can be a visionary working with a lot of money.

JH: The selection for the series is international, representing 22 countries including the United States, the Soviet Union, China, India, Cameroon, Mexico, and more. What geographic trends stand out in the films’ portrayals of alternate dimensions?

JS: Certainly some have political roots. Obviously Kafkaesque, dystopic visions of the future lend themselves well to people living under Communism in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Invasión from Argentina is an allegory of life in ‘68, which was of course fraught with peril. It’s evident in quite a few Argentine films of the time, some of which were made by actors who were disappeared soon after. This is anticipating Argentina’s entrance into that dark period. Films like the wonderful Afronauts are a sendup of the way in which African countries were pawns in a Cold War game. It’s an inventive approach to their invisibility.

Still from A Scanner Darkly (2006), USA, directed by Richard Linklater (courtesy of Photofest)

JH: The series features several animated selections like Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and A Scanner Darkly. The most crucial benefit of animation is its blank canvas, lending the ability to make any event — no matter its unlikeliness — occur in a realistic context. How do these films take advantage of the limitless possibilities that animation allows?

JS: One of the compelling things about Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly is that he found in animation a kind of analogue to the trippy, hallucinatory experience of Philip K Dick’s writing. In the case of Ghost in the Shell 2, it makes possible social and political critiques by being a “mere” animated film.

Still from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), Japan, directed by Mamoru Oshii, (courtesy of Production I.G.)

JH: CGI is the type of animation most common in modern science fiction films. My favorite piece in the series is Leos Carax’s Holy Motors. It’s a feature-length celebration of what can be accomplished without CGI, from Denis Lavant’s fluid acrobatics to the detailed makeup effects that help him embody different characters. What do you see as the benefits and detractions of using CGI in science fiction films?

JS: If you think of a filmmaker like Herzog who doesn’t use any special effects in his films but can still evoke what it is to be in the middle of a desert encountering a mirage, I don’t think you need CG to elicit the same kind of experience. Having said that, obviously there are certain things you need CG for. It would be hard to do Ex Machina without the use of some CG effects. They eschewed CG effects in the sense of using green screen, but they did a lot in post-production. It’s a little hard to convey what a humanoid or an android looks like without CG without it looking campy. Campy can have a virtue; that’s one of the joys of [The Craven Sluck director Mike] Kuchar for example. But it does seem to me that CG is a tool like any other in filmmaking. It has its uses and its abuses.

Still from The Crazies (Code Name: Trixie) (1973), USA, written and directed by George A. Romero (courtesy of Photofest)

JH: It’s interesting to see The Crazies in the series, as it is a lesser-known film of a recently deceased legend: George Romero. How did this film expand on his legacy as a zombie maestro?

JS: As it happens, we worked closely with George on the restoration of Night of the Living Dead that we just premiered several months ago. So it’s a little bittersweet for us because we had the opportunity to get to know him better and really convey to him how much we admire and cherish his film. I had already planned to show The Crazies for precisely the reason you had mentioned. Obviously, George Romero has the blessing and curse of being associated with one genre when in fact he was a kind of scathing observer of American life [and] went way beyond the zombie genre.

JH: In a series focusing on alternate visions of the here and now, which film do you think best captures the current moment? I lean toward Strange Days, which was a revelation to rewatch months back.

JS: I could argue that any of these films is relevant to our present day predicaments. Given that I just read an article the other day that the potency of human sperm has plummeted over the last 40 years, I thought of this film It’s Great to be Alive, one of the early Fox nitrate films from 1931 [sic]. It’s kind of a “Last Man on Earth” story. All of the men have succumbed to a plague called “masculitis.” There’s only one man standing, and — of course — every woman wants a piece of him. It’s a kind of wacky pre-Code comedy from Fox.

Still from Los cronocrímenes (Timescrimes) (2008), Spain, directed by Nacho Vigalondo

JH: Do you have a personal favorite in the series, or something you’re especially excited to share with the public?

JS: It’s impossible for me to say. All of these films excite me in some way or another. I think that Fassbinder’s World on a Wire is an epic film for many reasons, not least of which is its 1970s decor. I have a particular fondness for Polish cinema, so I gravitate toward Andrzej Wajda’s film. It has a wonderful kind of sardonic humor that we know from Polish cinema. These are all films I’d like to watch repeatedly.

Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction runs at the Museum of Modern Art (11 W 53rd St, Midtown West, Manhattan) until August 31.

The post Sci-Fi Films that Question What It Means to Be Human appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[doctorwhonews]

The Third Doctor - #2 - The Heralds Of Destruction Part Two

Latest Review: Writer - Paul Cornell Artist - Christopher Jones Colorist - Hi-Fi Letters  - Richard Starkings + Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt (Alastair Lethbidge Stewart - Created By Mervyn Haisman + Henry Lincoln, appearing courtesy of Candy Jar Books -- with thanks to Hannah Haisman, Henry Lincoln, and Andy Frankham-Allen)  Editor - John Freeman Assistant Editors - Jessica Burton + Amoona Saohin Senior Designer - Andrew Leung Published October 12th 2016, TITAN COMICS The Third Doctor and Jo return to the lab in UNIT HQ, where the TARDIS Is housed, and discover an unexpected visitor - none other than the Doctor's last incarnation, complete with a dark mop of hair and chequered trousers. Jo is delighted to see the other Doctor who was so kind to her during their ordeal in Omega's universe. The 'of-his-time' Doctor, however, was hoping such an exceptional event, and one needing him to cross his own time stream, would indeed remain rare. But the Second Doctor, in typically buoyant mood, assures his friends that he was again sent by the Time Lords, and in this case to help with the robotic entities threatening Earth. Some of UNIT's forces are holding the invaders at bay with a makeshift, passable force field. Suddenly the Brigadier, overseeing the defences, is visited by a 'General Mayhew' who is coming across just a little more familiar than he should. Lethbridge-Stewart quickly unmasks the visitor, as none other than the Master. But is the evil renegade Time Lord to blame for the events that are occurring? As the two Doctors try to solve the mystery of the 'micro machines', Miss Grant is suddenly attacked by the specimen that was retrieved. This forces the incumbent Doctor into having to perform a Gallifreyan mind meld and visit the inner psyche of Jo to both save her, and perhaps find a solution to the crisis at hand... --- Paul Cornell continues to tell a story that is fun, amusing, and not entirely predictable, and yet there is homage aplenty to the much-loved Jon Pertwee era of the 'Classic' TV show. The interplay of the Pertwee/ Troughton Doctors is hard to get wrong by even the weakest writer. In the hands of Cornell, this is thus a big plus point in a comic book teeming with positive attributes. Of particular interest, is the way that these two regenerations of the title hero show their concern and affection for Jo Grant, in markedly different fashions. The Third Doctor is the protective patriarch, whilst his predecessor is the genial, funny uncle. Also well done is the Second Doctor's keenness to one day change his appearance, and be acquainted with Jo properly. This is a nice echo of a scene towards the end of The Three Doctors, where the 'present'  Doctor acknowledges how he used to be rather "sweet". The actual main threat of the 'Heralds' does slow to a crawl, after the perils of Issue One. However, given there are three more instalments in the mini-series to follow, this is more than acceptable. Art from Christopher Jones remains at a high level, and is both authentic in evoking the many stories of the Third Doctor and UNIT, but also having its own confident style. I enjoyed the way the Master's disguise was all too obvious on several occasions. This surely is a knowing homage to when either the Master removed the mock-up 'face' of someone he was impersonating, or (more memorably) when a character he was able to hypnotise had the false face of the bearded renegade Time Lord. And Cornell is clever enough to have this apparent joke turned on its head, in an action scene which really needs to be read/seen to be appreciated properly, and which is my personal highlight of a sterling second instalment in the mini series. The main characters of the (early 1970s) TV shows really feel just as we knew and loved them. Any newcomers will want to see some of the Pertwee stories based on the vitality of the players in this story. And the art stands on its own feet such that many readers will want to come back to look at the comic, just for its visual dimensions. Hi-Fi has made many of these Titan comics breathe full life, but deserves particular praise for the final product of this mini-series. --- BONUS FEATURES: Two separate pages at the latter end of the comic book show Jones' pencils at an earlier stage before the colour process took hold. One is devoted to the Master and the Brigadier, and the other for the Two Doctors and Jo.                                                                                                                     There are also main/alternate cover variants for both the current issue, and the upcoming one as well. Issue Two also has full page cover variants separately.  http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2017/01/the_third_doctor_2_the_heralds_of_destruction_part_.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

#COMIC #THIRD DOCTOR #SECOND DOCTOR #TITAN COMICS #UNIT