#this has been in my drafts for way too long but my vote is Joe

[rickallensbarefeet]

If Def Leppard got stuck in an elevator which one do yall thing would fart really bad and upset everybody

#this has been in my drafts for way too long but my vote is Joe #Rick and Steve would laugh it off but Phil and Sav would get mad lol

[burkymakar]

Hi my favorite athletic reader. If possible could you post anything important from Baughers new article on Gabe?

lol i feel so used. it's under the cut haha

Gabriel Landeskog rolled up to the Avalanche practice rink, a 19-year-old figuring he was heading into a meeting about the upcoming 2012-13 season. A potential lockout loomed, and he wondered if he and his teammates were about to get information on what would happen next.

But only one teammate was there when Landeskog got inside Family Sports Center in Centennial, Colo.: captain Milan Hejduk. Then-Colorado coach Joe Sacco was there, too. They wanted to speak to Landeskog privately.

At the time, Hejduk was entering his 14th season with Colorado. The veteran was the only player left from the Avalanche’s 2001 Stanley Cup team, and he knew his career was winding down. He was no longer a top forward on the team and didn’t feel it would be right to remain captain. Someone else needed to take the role, Landeskog remembers Hejduk telling him that day.

“And I think that person is you,” Hejduk said.

The young winger was caught off guard. He let out a stunned laugh. At the time, no permanent captain in league history had ever been named at so young an age. A tornado of emotions followed: shock, excitement and — naturally — nerves. He called his dad immediately after the conversation.

“You’ve got to this point being who you are,” Tony Landeskog told his son. “Don’t try to be somebody you’re not.”

That advice stuck with Landeskog, and from that day forward, his “C”-embroidered jersey has been a constant for the Avalanche. It was there through the promising years with Nathan MacKinnon, Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene, and it was there when that core fell apart. It was there through the pain of rebuilding, and it was there as the Avalanche emerged as a league power.

Now, its era in Denver could be coming to a close.

For the first time in his NHL career, Landeskog is a pending unrestricted free agent. And after a decade in Denver, he doesn’t know what’s coming next.

“The uncertainty is something I’ve never dealt with,” Landeskog says. “I’ve always known that come September, October, I’m going to pull on that Avs jersey.”

Landeskog has repeatedly said he wants to stay with Colorado, and the Avalanche want to bring him back. But with star defenseman Cale Makar set to receive a massive raise in restricted free agency and the Avalanche up against the salary cap, general manager Joe Sakic is facing tough decisions this offseason.

Landeskog wants long-term security. Currently, he’s in limbo.

“I can’t help but be honest with you that I’m a little bit disappointed that it’s gotten this far and it’s had to come to this point,” Landeskog says.

Now 28, Landeskog could be looking at his last chance to sign a major, multiyear contract. The Avalanche, meanwhile, must decide how much they are willing to spend — and for how many years — on a physical, two-way forward approaching 30.

Teams must submit protection lists Saturday for the July 21 Kraken expansion draft, and if Colorado doesn’t protect Landeskog, Seattle will have a window to bargain with him before free agency begins July 28. Landeskog’s reputation as a leader and production (52 points in 54 games this past season and 171 in 181 over the past three) will make him a popular target should he reach the open market. Teams like the Kraken, Blues, Kings, Flyers and Oilers jump out as potential suitors.

Talks between the Avalanche and their captain have increased in frequency in recent days, but the sides are still far away from an agreement, according to a league source.

“We’ll see what happens,” Landeskog says. “I’m still hopeful that we can agree on something and come to terms, but if it was up to me, I would have liked it to be done eight months ago, 10 months ago.”

In the nine seasons since Hejduk handed over the captaincy, Landeskog has gone from a green-but-mature up-and-comer to the calming presence on an elite team. He’s now a parent, one of the older players on the Avalanche and their unquestioned leader.

“It’s been a constant learning curve,” he says.

He’s grown, and he’s growing. The question is if that will continue with the Avalanche.

One day during his first season as captain, Landeskog stood in the Family Sports dressing room for a players-only meeting, taking note of teammates in their 30s, veterans who had spent more than a decade in the NHL. In only his second season, Landeskog could hear his voice shake.

“It probably was pretty laughable how nervous I was,” he says.

The Avalanche were in the midst of a rough stretch in what amounted to a season of rough stretches. Landeskog leaned on older players — Hejduk, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Paul Stastny, O’Reilly and Erik Johnson, to name a few — and one suggested a team meeting.

Landeskog doesn’t recall what he said that day, but he remembers the nerves — that quiver in his voice — and how the older players had his back. Others chimed in, and the team dissected what was going wrong.

Ultimately, the group was simply a transitioning team without enough talent to contend, and though Landeskog was captain that year, the team used a leadership-by-committee approach. Landeskog credits his teammates’ support for making the job easier, and Stastny remembers him being unafraid to ask questions.

Landeskog says he asked about everything from travel-day logistics to organizing team functions. The communication didn’t translate to on-ice success that year, as the team finished 16-25-7, but it laid the groundwork for how Landeskog still views his role as captain.

“That’s how leaders learn, too: They learn from other guys,” former teammate Greg Zanon says. “I think he was born for the job.”

Before giving Landeskog the “C,” Sacco and then-Avalanche general manager Greg Sherman both reached out to Hejduk, wanting to know what he’d think of the young Swede taking over the role. Landeskog, who had just won the Calder Trophy, hadn’t been a name on Hejduk’s radar for the captaincy because of his age, but the more he thought about the decision, the more it made sense.

So he voiced his approval for the player 17 years his junior.

“What can you say negative about Gabe?” Hejduk says today.

“It was only a matter of time,” Stastny adds. “If it was fast-tracked a year, I don’t think anyone really cared. Everyone knew it was coming.”

Still, Landeskog was nervous. He’d played in only 82 NHL games and was still trying to figure out the league himself. He didn’t know how his teammates would react to such a young captain. Part of him still thinks he might not have been ready.

Despite Landeskog’s concerns, the announcement went over well with the team. Duchene and winger David Jones tweeted their congratulations, and defenseman Ryan O’Byrne remembers liking the decision when he read the news on TSN’s website.

“The only conversations I had with teammates were, ‘Gabe’s the captain. That’s so great,’” O’Byrne remembers. “Why would we wait to give him the captaincy? There’s no reason to wait. He (was) ready. He’s just that type of person.”

“Even the older guys on the team looked up to him,” adds former Avalanche left winger Cody McLeod.

Landeskog’s makeup had begun earning praise from the second he arrived in North America from Sweden. He played major junior hockey for the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League and became the team’s first European-born captain. Sherman praised his confidence after drafting Landeskog second in 2011, saying he was mature beyond his years.

“It was like he was 30 years old already, the way he handled himself, the way he talked to us, talked to the media,” says Ryan O’Reilly, now the Blues captain and still a friend of Landeskog’s. “Everyone respected him right away. It’s rare. It’s why he was named captain so young.”

Adds Hejduk: “I had half the maturity Gabe had at 18.”

Shortly after learning he’d become captain, Landeskog came to the Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena) for a passing-of-the-torch ceremony. Hejduk presented his successor with a burgundy Avalanche sweater featuring a white “C,” and Landeskog pulled it over his white button-up shirt. The two shook hands and posed for cameras.

When Landeskog looks back at those pictures, he can’t help but notice how young he looks. His beard had yet to grow in, and he’d fashioned his hair — lighter than it is now — to be spiky in the front.

“I feel old when I look back at those pictures, because I was definitely a little kid standing there next to (Hejduk),” he says.

“The first year, year and a half, with him, if we went out for dinner, it was like he wasn’t even allowed to have a glass of wine or a beer,” says former Avalanche center John Mitchell, adding that Landeskog struggled to win poker games on team flights.

Landeskog, who has gone from too young to drink to now sponsored by Bud Light, believes he might have been too uptight early on in his captaincy. He’s learned to relax a bit more — that a season is long and sometimes the best approach is to focus on himself. He can’t expect others to work hard or play well if he’s not doing it himself.

The Avalanche’s decision to toss Landeskog into the fray as a teenage captain allowed him to learn the role before the team entered the win-now mode it is in currently. But Colorado’s progression hasn’t been linear. In 2016-17, the Avalanche finished last in the league by 21 points. Landeskog frequently had to face tough questions from reporters when he didn’t have answers.

“It definitely takes a toll on you when you have to do that,” he says. “But at the same time, I always knew that was part of the responsibility and part of the job. Playing in the NHL, being able to wear the ‘C’ in the NHL, it’s a dream not many people get to experience.”

And in 2017-18, tides began to shift for the Avalanche. MacKinnon had his first superstar-level season, finishing second in Hart Trophy voting, and Landeskog and winger Mikko Rantanen both scored more than 20 goals. The trio ascended to become arguably the best line in hockey, and smart drafting and savvy trades gave Colorado a deep defensive core, led by Makar, the Norris Trophy runner-up as a 22-year-old this past season.

As expectations have risen, the team and its captain are still searching for a deep playoff run. The pieces are in place, and the Avalanche reached the second round each of the past three seasons. But they haven’t broken through.

This past season, the Landeskog-captained Avalanche reached the regular-season pinnacle, winning the Presidents’ Trophy, given annually to the team with the best record in the league, and they were a consensus favorite to win the Stanley Cup entering the playoffs.

Landeskog dominated the Blues in a first-round sweep, igniting the Avalanche with a Gordie Howe hat trick (fight, assist, goal) in Game 1.

“He’s the captain for a reason,” Makar said after that game.

But Colorado faltered in its next postseason matchup, against Vegas, letting a 2-0 series lead slip away and losing in the second round for the third consecutive year. The most complete Avalanche team of Landeskog’s career couldn’t get over the hump.

“I’m proud of this group,” a dejected Landeskog said after the game. “I’m excited to be a part of this group. I love all the guys in there.”

And they love him, too. Ahead of the season, MacKinnon called him “the perfect captain,” and Avalanche coach Jared Bednar described the captain as their emotional leader, someone who drives them into the fight on a nightly basis.

“Usually those types of guys, top-three picks, are franchise players,” Hejduk says. “It seems like that’s the case with Gabe. I hope he’s going to finish his whole career with the Avalanche.”

That’s what Hejduk did, spending all 14 of his seasons with Colorado, but it’s not a common path in today’s NHL.

After 10 years with the Avalanche and nine as its captain, and with so much shared history, Landeskog could be the exception.

Since he was 19, it’s felt like he would be. But the coming weeks will show if that reality has shifted.

#askos #anon #the athletic #gabriel landeskog #colorado avalanche

[tainted-sentimientos]

Barack Obama’s DNC Speech

“Good evening, everybody. As you've seen by now, this isn't a normal convention. It's not a normal time. So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come.

I'm in Philadelphia, where our Constitution was drafted and signed. It wasn't a perfect document. It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and failed to guarantee women -- and even men who didn't own property -- the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this document was a North Star that would guide future generations; a system of representative government -- a democracy -- through which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who'd once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more just, more equal, and more free.

The one Constitutional office elected by all of the people is the presidency. So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us -- regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have -- or who we voted for.

But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for; fought for and died for.

I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

But he never did. For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.

Now, I know that in times as polarized as these, most of you have already made up your mind. But maybe you're still not sure which candidate you'll vote for -- or whether you'll vote at all. Maybe you're tired of the direction we're headed, but you can't see a better path yet, or you just don't know enough about the person who wants to lead us there.

So let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.

Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a brother. Joe and I came from different places and different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe's a man who learned -- early on -- to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: "No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody."

That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts -- that's who Joe is.

When he talks with someone who's lost her job, Joe remembers the night his father sat him down to say that he'd lost his.

When Joe listens to a parent who's trying to hold it all together right now, he does it as the single dad who took the train back to Wilmington each and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed.

When he meets with military families who've lost their hero, he does it as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.

For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president -- and he's got the character and the experience to make us a better country.

And in my friend Kamala Harris, he's chosen an ideal partner who's more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it's like to overcome barriers and who's made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream.

Along with the experience needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.

They'll get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores.

They'll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did ten years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down the votes to make it the law.

They'll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jumpstarted the longest stretch of job growth in history. And he sees this moment now not as a chance to get back to where we were, but to make long-overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody -- whether it's the waitress trying to raise a kid on her own, or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off, or the student figuring out how to pay for next semester's classes.

Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world -- and as we've learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting an example the world wants to follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism, poverty, and disease.

But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they actually care about every American. And they care deeply about this democracy.

They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.

They believe that no one -- including the president -- is above the law, and that no public official -- including the president -- should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.

They understand that in this democracy, the Commander-in-Chief doesn't use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren't "un-American" just because they disagree with you; that a free press isn't the "enemy" but the way we hold officials accountable; that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up.

None of this should be controversial. These shouldn't be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They're American principles. But at this moment, this president and those who enable him, have shown they don't believe in these things.

Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it back better. But here's the thing: no single American can fix this country alone. Not even a president. Democracy was never meant to be transactional -- you give me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability -- to embrace your own responsibility as citizens -- to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.

Because that's what at stake right now. Our democracy.

Look, I understand why many Americans are down on government. The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easy for special interests to stop progress. Believe me, I know. I understand why a white factory worker who's seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mother might feel like it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there's still a place for him here; why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, what's the point?

Well, here's the point: this president and those in power -- those who benefit from keeping things the way they are -- they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can't win you over with their policies. So they're hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn't matter. That's how they win. That's how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That's how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That's how a democracy withers, until it's no democracy at all.

We can't let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don't let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you're going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell your family and friends how they can vote too. Do what Americans have done for over two centuries when faced with even tougher times than this -- all those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice.

Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis. Some years ago, I sat down with John and the few remaining leaders of the early Civil Rights Movement. One of them told me he never imagined he'd walk into the White House and see a president who looked like his grandson. Then he told me that he'd looked it up, and it turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a jail cell, trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the South.

What we do echoes through the generations.

Whatever our backgrounds, we're all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.

If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words, in our founding documents, to life.

I've seen that same spirit rising these past few years. Folks of every age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that families wouldn't be separated. So that another classroom wouldn't get shot up. So that our kids won't grow up on an uninhabitable planet. Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Black Lives Matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism.

To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better -- in so many ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it's a given -- a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions.

You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient -- the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed.

That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up -- by pouring all our effort into these 76 days, and by voting like never before -- for Joe and Kamala, and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country we love stands for -- today and for all our days to come.

Stay safe. God bless.”

- Former President Barack Obama

To the decided:

To the undecided:

To the opposed:

#politics #usa politics #democratic national convention #dnc #dnc 2020 #dnc speech #barack obama #president barack obama #forever my president #john mulaney #kid gorgeous #ariel #the little mermaid #nicki minaj #stupid hoes #vote #vote 2020 #cnn

[back-and-totheleft]

“I’m not sure I’ve modified my thinking”

“It’s a strange place, England,” Oliver Stone informs me at the start of our Zoom call. “You’ve managed to make it worse than it was,” he says, speaking from his home in Los Angeles. “You’ve turned it into World War Two with your attitudes over there. The English love punishment, it’s part of their make-up.”

You sure know how to break the ice, Mr Stone. It’s a slightly galling accusation, given that he has hitched his wagon to Russia, hardly a paragon of enlightenment. The New York-born writer-director has never shied from ruffling feathers, though. Stone has taken on the American establishment to thrilling effect in his movies, from Platoon to Born on the Fourth of July, JFK to W, Salvador to Snowden, and still emerged with three Oscars. And he has admiringly interviewed a string of figures whose relations with Uncle Sam have rarely been cosy, including Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and Vladimir Putin. Those had more mixed receptions, as has his support for Julian Assange.

Yet at 74 he is still a thorn in the side of the military-industrial complex and is set to remain one for some time, having just had his second shot of Covid vaccine. This being Stone, he got his jab in Russia. A recent trial showed the Sputnik V vaccine he was given to have 92 per cent efficacy and he’s palpably delighted. Angry too, of course. “It’s strange how the US ignores that. It’s a strange bias they have against all things Russian,” he says. “I do believe it’s your best vaccine on the market, actually,” he adds, sounding weirdly Trump-like.

If his bullishness is still intact, Stone reveals a more vulnerable side in his recent memoir, Chasing the Light. The book, which he discusses in an online Q&A tonight, goes a long way to explaining his distrust of government, society and, well, pretty much everything. There are visceral accounts of him fighting in Vietnam, and fighting to get Salvador and Platoon made. “The war was lodged away in a compartment, and I made films about it,” he says. “Sometimes I have a dream that I’ve been drafted and sent back there.”

The crucial event in the book, though, is his parents’ divorce when he was 15. Stone realises now that his conservative Jewish-American father and glamorous French mother were ill-suited. Both had affairs. What really stung was the way he was told about their split: over the phone by a family friend while he was at boarding school. “It was very cold, very English,” he says. “I say English because everything about boarding school invokes the old England.” He’s really got it in for us today.

With no siblings, he says, “I had no family after that divorce. It was over. The three of us split up.” His world view stemmed from his parents being in denial about their incompatibility, he writes in the book: “Children like me are born out of that original lie. And nobody can ever be trusted again.”

That disillusionment took a few years to show itself. “All of a sudden, I just had a collapse,” Stone says. He had been admitted to Yale University but his father’s alma mater suddenly felt like part of the problem. He felt suicidal and sidestepped those thoughts by enlisting to fight in Vietnam, putting the choice of him dying into other hands.

The Stone in the book was described by one reviewer as his most sympathetic character. “It’s true probably because it’s a novel,” he says. Well, technically it’s an autobiography, but it’s a telling mistake. Fact and fiction can blur in his work, from the demonisation of Turks in Midnight Express (he wrote the screenplay) to the conspiracy theories in JFK.

Writing the book allowed him to put himself into the story, something he says he’s never been able to do in his films. He has tried. He wrote a screenplay, White Lies, in which a child of divorce repeats his parents’ mistakes, as Stone has. “I had two divorces in my life [from the Lebanese-born Najwa Sarkis and Elizabeth Burkit Cox, who worked as a “spiritual advisor” on his films] and I’m on my third marriage, which I’m very happy in.” He and Sun-jung Jung, who is from South Korea, have been together for more than 25 years. They have a grown-up daughter, Tara, and he has two sons, Sean and Michael, from his marriage to Cox.

White Lies is on ice for now. “It’s hard to get those kinds of things done,” Stone says wearily. Will he make another feature? It’s been documentaries recently, the last two on the Ukraine. “I don’t know. It’s a question of energy. In the old days, there would be a studio you’d have a relationship with, and they’d have to trust you to a certain degree. And that doesn’t exist any more.”

He thinks back to the big beasts of his early years. Alan Parker, who directed Midnight Express; John Daly, who produced Salvador and Platoon; Robert Bolt, who taught him about screenwriting. “Those three Englishmen had a lot to do with my successes,” he says. I think he feels bad about all the limey bashing. “John was a tough cockney, but I liked him a lot.” He liked him more than Parker, whom he describes as “cold” with a “serious chip on his shoulder.” He smiles. “Sure. Alan did a good job with Midnight Express, though.”

You wonder if Netflix could come to Stone’s rescue. They have given generous backing to big-name directors, from David Fincher to Martin Scorsese, Stone’s old tutor at NYU film school. Surely they would welcome him? “Well, that’s why you’re not in charge! Netflix is very engineering driven. Subject matter such as [White Lies] might register low on a demographic.”

Isn’t he also working on a JFK documentary, Destiny Betrayed? That could do better with the Netflix algorithms. “I’m having problems with that too. Americans were so concerned with Trump, I don’t know that they wanted to hear about some of the facts behind the Kennedy killing. They don’t recognise that there’s a connection between 1963 and now, that pretty much all the screws came loose when they did that in ’63.” He smiles. “I know you think I’m nuts.”

Well no, but you do wonder at his unwavering conviction that there was a conspiracy to murder Kennedy, probably involving the CIA. JFK is a big reason why a majority of Americans believe in a conspiracy and, according to Stone, led to the establishment of the Assassination Records Review Board, which he claims is “the only piece of legislation in this country that ever came out of a film.”

Yet several serious studies, including a 1,600-page book, Reclaiming History, by the former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. That book accused Stone of committing a “cultural crime” by distorting facts in JFK. “I feel like I’m in the dock with Bugliosi. I didn’t like his book at all,” Stone says. “Believe me, you cannot walk out of [his forthcoming documentary] and say Oswald did it alone. If you do, I think you’re on mushrooms.”

Stone knows whereof he speaks regarding psychedelics. On returning from Vietnam he was “a little bit radical” in his behaviour, he says: drugs, womanising, hellraising. He recently took LSD for the first time in years. “It was wonderful,” he says. He hallucinated that he was “moving from island to island on a little boat”.

What was radical in the Seventies can be problematic now. He has been accused of inappropriate behaviour by the model Carrie Stevens and the actresses Patricia Arquette and Melissa Gilbert. “As far as I know I never forced anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do,” he says. Has he modified the way he behaves around women? “Oh sure, no question.”

At the same time, he is disturbed by “the scolding going on, the shaming culture. I don’t agree with any of that. It’s like the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It scares the shit out of me. I do think the politically correct point of view will never be mine.”

He’s not a slavish follower of conspiracy theories — QAnon “sounds like nonsense”, he says, as was the theory that Donald Trump was “a Manchurian candidate for the Russians. That was a horrible thing to do and it hurt that presidency a lot. I’m not an admirer of Trump by any means, but he was picked on from day one.”

What does he make of Joe Biden? “I voted for him, not because I liked him, but as an alternative to Trump’s disasters. He’s got a far more merciful humanitarian side. But he also has a history of warmongering.” Fake news, he says, has “always happened”, in the east and west, on the left and the right. “I mean, back in the Cold War, the US was saying Russia was lying and Russia was saying the US was lying. Each one of these wars the US has been involved in was based on lies.”

It sounds as if Stone has been on the Russian Kool-Aid himself. He is making a documentary, A Bright Future, about climate change that advocates pursuing nuclear power in the short term, and has visited some Russian nuclear plants. They are “very state-of-the-art,” he says. “The US is not really pursuing the big plants, the way Russia and China are. I believe in renewables, but they’re not going to be able to handle the capacity when India and Africa and all these countries come online wanting electricity.”

Putin liked the interviews Stone did with him in 2017, he says. “I think they contributed to his election numbers.” Wasn’t he too easy on the Russian leader? “That’s what some say. But I got his ire up. I did ask him some tough questions about succession. ‘I think you should leave’ — that kind of stuff. The pressure that Russia is under from both England and the US is enormous,” he adds. “Unless you’re there I don’t know that you understand that. Because you take the English point of view, and they have been very anti-Soviet since 1920. You talk about fake news — I feel that way about MI5 and MI6.”

You can’t help but admire Stone’s conviction. If he’s modified his behaviour that’s probably a good thing, but as he says, “I’m not so sure I’ve modified my thinking. I express myself freely. I don’t want to feel muzzled.” Whatever you think of him, be grateful he hasn’t been.

-Ed Potton, “You talk about fake news. I feel that way about MI5 and MI6,” The Times of London, Feb 8 2021 [x]

#oliver stone #chasing the light #the times of london #ptsd #the vietnam war #russia #Trump #joe biden #politics #vaccine

[bananaofswifts]

Taylor Swift needs your approval. She always has. As an artist and a woman, she’s been conditioned to do the right thing since she was a child. To live for applause. To measure her worth in pats on the head. “My entire moral code is a need to be thought of as ‘good,’” the mega-famous musician confesses at the beginning of Lana Wilson’s “Miss Americana,” a safe but sincere and enormously winsome documentary about Swift’s long road to self-acceptance. And yet, for someone who’s “built their whole belief system on getting people to clap for you,” a single murmur in the crowd can be enough to tilt their world off its axis.

Absurd as it might sound to plebes like us, the Kanye incident at the 2009 VMAs was shattering for Swift. It pierced the thin veil of validation that she needed as a buffer between the diaristic intimacy of her writing and the global popularity of her records, and it precipitated a fraught period of her career where it felt as if the entire planet was trying to boo her off the stage.

Anyone who’s paid even a scintilla of attention to pop culture over the last 10 years already knows the words to this song: Every move Swift made was suddenly filtered through the most cynical lens that people could find. Every harmony became a scandal, every chorus became a coded message, and every attempt to rise above the fray only found Swift digging herself a deeper hole. The Grammys — an infallible awards show that has never had any problems whatsoever — didn’t even nominate the superstar’s hyper-reactive sixth album for the same prizes that her last record had won. Like so many people who powered their way into the public eye, Swift just wanted to be liked. And like so many people who have just wanted to be liked, Swift only trusted the people who made a bloodsport of denying her that satisfaction. “I became the person everyone wanted me to be,” Swift sighs, but when too many people wanted her to be too many things, her most reliable defense mechanism was soured into a recipe for self-loathing.

“Miss Americana” is made with the kind of conditional transparency that we’ve come to expect from authorized movies about famous musicians (Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga have all participated in similar documentaries for streaming platforms, to say nothing of glossy studio biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman”), and this confectionary portrait definitely functions as a sensational piece of PR. But the decision to hire Wilson — a dignified filmmaker whose “After Tiller” evinced both a deep concern for female agency and an uncompromising distaste for bullshit — suggests that Swift and her team weren’t wholly interested in propaganda. As Swift observes in the movie, powerful women are given the almost impossible task of being “strategic” but not “calculating,” and Wilson is so good at splitting the difference that some of her documentary’s most humanizing moments are beautiful for how they contradict Swift’s intention.

Private without being invasive, “Miss Americana” follows Swift almost everywhere she goes. Wilson walks Swift backstage, waits for her in her armored black Suburban, and sits across from her on the superstar’s private jet. Fans will lose their minds over the studio footage of Swift fumbling through rough drafts of their favorite songs. But certain things are off limits: Her actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn never shows his face to the camera, despite Swift giving a long soliloquy about her soul-completing need to call someone at the end of the night. And her mother’s breast cancer — which Swift explicitly sings about in the heartbreaking “Soon You’ll Get Better” — is only mentioned in passing.

Sometimes those redacted areas leave too much blank space for Wilson to paper over, but at other times they help narrow the movie down to the raw (and all too relatable) story of a girl who’s on the brink of 30 and still trying to find a sustainable measure of serenity. “Do you really care if the internet doesn’t like you today if your mom is sick from chemo?,” Swift asks the camera at one point. And in lesser hands, that moment would have settled as a rhetorical question from a beautiful and ridiculously powerful multi-millionaire who’s learning to delineate between the things she can control and the things she can’t. In the broader context of Wilson’s film however, that question doesn’t seem rhetorical at all. The answer is yes. You do always care. Selling out Madison Square Garden doesn’t stop you from feeling alone. Singing like you have nothing to lose doesn’t protect you from an eating disorder. The threat of losing your closest friend doesn’t inure you from the kindness of strangers.

The power of “Miss Americana” is in watching someone who stands astride the world gradually realize that her art is the only thing that she can control. If she can only hear the boos, it doesn’t matter how loudly the rest of the world is clapping, and so she might as well do what makes her feel good. Woke Swift, who rises like a phoenix from the ashes of the singer’s sexual assault trial, is an astonishing thing to see. By that point in the film, we fully appreciate how difficult it is for Swift to alienate any portion of her fanbase, though Wilson includes a heated debate between the articulate star and her overprotective dad for good measure. It’s a thrilling contrast to what happens a few minutes later, when months of careful preparation are poured into a single Instagram post (a hilarious moment that finds Swift and a publicist named Tree Paine swigging wine as they nervously jitter around the musician’s iPhone).

It’s truly enough to make you feel like an asshole for ever thinking that Swift was some kind of Aryan crypto-fascist, and not just a mega-famous young woman who didn’t yet love herself enough to be hated for her convictions. Some astonishingly high praise: Swift’s personal growth is so pure that it redeems the cringe-inducing poptimism of those first two “Lover” singles. By the time “Miss Americana” resolves as an unambiguous plea for young people to vote Trump out of office this fall — complete with a sweet new song to hammer the message home — it’s hard to fathom how people will find new ways to dislike Swift after this. They will (make no mistake, the internet always finds a way), but for now, Taylor Swift has done the right thing by ignoring what might happen if she did the “wrong” one. And she earns our approval.

Grade: B+

#taylor swift

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentaries: 3.13 - Thanks for the Memories.

Commentary with Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, Co-creators.

[I gotta say, this one is full of interesting stuff imo]

SE: “This episode in many way finally pays off on the first episode of the series” in terms of who the Colorado Kid is and what happened to him JD: “There were so many questions that we raised in the first two seasons that we were having trouble getting to,” because it’s hard to explain everything that’s going on in an episode with the case of the week and also to “find room to explain what brought Audrey here and what’s gone on in her past and all of that.” So we thought it “would be very satisfying if we could find a way to bring all that together” in terms of answering the questions about who the Colorado Kid is - questions that go back to the Stephen King novella - and bring that together with who Audrey is and “find a way to make a full season out of that.” SE: “And it’s interesting how far the show has come because in the beginning, the powers that be were a little reluctant for us to talk too much about the Colorado Kid, because they didn’t want to confuse the viewers. But then of course eventually it worked out that the viewers wanted to know what was happening” and so that became more important.

As Nathan and Duke are in Audrey’s apartment realising she’s gone, Sam talks about how he was on set for this, and some of it is on location and some on the set and watching it back he can never tell which is which. SE: “We actually re-wrote this scene on set;” where Duke hits Nathan. “That was a great moment that we came up with on set because it fixed all the logic.”

As Duke and Nathan talk on Audrey’s balcony, the red house on the hill in the background is the house from episode 3.03 - The Farmer.

JD: [Talks about how there are a lot of questions raised about Howard, but we don’t really know much about him yet.] “We were really dedicated to the idea of bringing Howard back in this episode, as the fairy man - the guy who stands between Audrey and her various lives, and shepherds that transition.” SE: At the start of this scene when he’s looking through the binoculars “talking about the birds is one of my favourite Howard moments and it’s really an element of Howard that we’ve been trying to do and it always seems to fall away” or it doesn’t work out. But it made it in here and [he jokes that] “what really pisses me off is that it was written by Matt McGuinness. He wrote it and I was like, ‘That’s genius” That’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do with this character for three seasons!’” JD: “It is good. And it’s good because we want him to be enigmatic; who knows what he is or what he does - but it’s very easy to take that to some kind of really arch, bad 60s sci-fi kind of place.” SE: “Morris, who plays Howard, is just like him; very calm and matter of fact. And it’s funny; Emily was pregnant when we were shooting this, but no one knew. The great thing about shooting in Nova Scotia is even when you’ve got this scene with two people just talking, you’ve got this crazy awesome barn in the background and the fire and everything - can you imagine if we shot that here in Los Angeles?” JD: “We’d probably need some kind of special air pollution permit just to have the fire. And it’s one of those things; the show does feel timeless and placeless in a way. It doesn’t feel like the modern, urban, consumed-by-electronics world.” SE: “Right. Even though every one of those actors goes right back” to their phones between takes.

JD: “There were so many details to figure out for this; we spent a lot of time working on this episode, there were a lot of drafts. And perhaps more importantly, even before we got to the stage of drafting scripts, there was a lot of time spent trying to make sure we found the right ideas to make all this work. Because it’s very complex; we’re trying to convey a lot of things that have been kicking around - either me and Sam in our heads or in the whole writers room - over the past several years. And, how do we get it on screen in a way that’s going to make sense to people and as part of a story that you want to watch on TV.” SE: “And I will say that whether or not we were successful in that is up to each viewer to decide.” JD: “I vote yes.” SE: “And for me, - Oh there goes another lighthouse. There is no more dangerous place than a lighthouse in Haven. Except maybe next to the drummer in Spinal Tap. - but, this is the 39th episode, so this is a big arc, and it worked. It ultimately paid off what I wanted and I think what you wanted …” JD: “Yep.” SE: “... it to pay off in the beginning. We didn’t know exactly how we were going to pay it off.” JD: “There’s new elements; things we never really predicted. But that’s part of the fun, rolling with the changes, and absorbing all the good ideas that come out of the writers room and the other people who collaborate on the show. It expanded the world in ways we never anticipated.”

[As we see Dwight walk up to Vince by his car (where Dave is in the trunk)]: SE: “This scene originally was a lot longer and really funny. Richard Donat is so funny and Adam Copeland was a great straight man. And then you have John Dunsworth in the trunk and when he pops out, originally it was longer and funnier. And behind this here was Adam’s girlfriend, Beth Phoenix, who is also a wrestler, and the thing with those two is it’s a contest not of who’s stronger (that’s close, but Adam’s got her in height), but who is nicer. They both beat people up for a living, or used to, and yet they’re both so nice; I don’t know how that works.” [As we see Audrey and Nathan talking to the waiter outside Haven Joe’s Bakery] “Oh there’s me!”

[As we see Arla looking after James in bed] SE: “Now this we shot on a practical set, meaning it actually exists, immediately behind the Haven Herald.” JD: “I was wondering if that was the back room of the Herald; it’s been various things over the years.” SE: “It has been in a lot of things. And this is the last scene we shot of the season. And it is just so satisfying that we managed in these episodes to take the Colorado Kid which was a mystery in the original novella that we read, and we took that and spun this entire series off of that guy.” JD: “Yep. Because we knew from the outset that he was Audrey’s son. And it was just a question of when we were going to reveal it and how it was going to come out. And it kept getting pushed further and further down the road.” SE: “The fact that Nathan was the father, that was a change. That was something that came out of the time travel episode.” JD: “Shall we reveal the original father?” SE: “No I don’t think we should.” JD: “Maybe we should keep that hidden.” SE: “Yeah, because that’s part of the larger mythology and that stays the same.” JD: “As satisfying as this is, 39 epsiodes to get here, there’s more to come.” SE: “With the mythology it is amazing how much we’ve revealed and it’s also amazing how much there is left to go.” SE: “Nick Parker, our writers assistant, has to remember all the drafts of the scripts; I don’t know how he does it. I can barely remember what happened in the final versions, especially the ones I write. My nephew was telling me about an episode he really liked and he had a question about it, and I actually said; ‘Let me get back to you; I’ll call the writer and find out if that was their intention in the scene.’ But - not only had I written it, but I wrote it solo, so it wasn’t even something I had written with Jim. But he was asking in the middle of the third season and I had written it in the middle of the first season” and I didn’t remember the details by then. JD: “Well and it’s funny because I would say there are scores if not hundreds of pages of potential episodes for every episode. There are so many ideas and plot lines and concepts and there are things that get set aside because they don’t work for us or for someone else, or because we can’t produce them or there’s some other obstacle to it working out. And by the time you’re done; how exactly it worked out and what exactly ended up on screen gets awfully fuzzy.” [in terms of remembering the details] JD: “And even when you have the final shooting draft [of the script]; just because it’s there doesn’t mean you’re going to get every moment. Or you get extra moments that just happen on the set; improvs or whatever. And then you get to the end and you’re editing and it changes again; you’ll drop things, or imply things that weren’t in the script.” SE: “Right; you can manufacture moments out of looks, or throw a line over someone’s back and suddenly, it’s a different scene.” JD: “If you were really responsible, you’d sit down and watch the final cut of every epsiode, to focus on it and lock it in your memory. The problem is that by the time it gets to the screen, I’m so tired of looking at it, and there are so many other episodes that are happening, that it’s hard to force myself to do it. And even then I’m not sure I’d remember. I think you just have to have good script co-ordinators, production assistants, writers assistants, to tell us exactly what’s happened.”

SE: “So Laura Vandervoort was great, and the thing that’s so great is; she’s obviously a beautiful woman, someone who has played beautiful women because that’s all she can play because she’s beautiful. I don’t mean to imply - I’m saying that any role she plays she will be beautiful in. But we scarred up her face and made her look terrible and she was totally into it and wanted it made worse. Those are the kind of actors you want; someone who’s game for anything.”

[Talking about the inside of the barn] SE: “That was great. And that really looked that way, it just wasn’t that long. We just extended the length of it digitally, but otherwise it looked exactly like that. It’s an old military barracks that is on the peninsula that the Grey Gull is on. And the production team decided it should be all white and they just spraypainted the crap out of it. And that’s one of the joys of shooting up there is we just have access to so many cool things.”

[As we see the flash of light that takes Audrey and Nathan from inside the barn to Sarah’s 1955 memory] SE: “That was a good effect right there. This moment, we always had; we always knew we were going to do this. Not from the very beginning when we conceived the series, but when we sat down in the room for this epsiode we knew that we were going to go back in time becasue that’s what the barn was about; it was about her identity.” JD: “We had a lot of ideas that we kicked around about exactly how to do this and what to see.” SE: “Well the one that we lost that I thought was cool was in the West, or the late 1800s, and Audrey Parker, or whatever her name would have been back then, screams up on a horse and she’s being chased. But that didn’t make the script.” JD: “And Emily is a big horse rider, so she was excited about that.” But it didn’t make it because of the production challenges of getting a horse up on set etc.

Both agree that the actors playing the young Vince and Dave look amazing; it was hard to cast for but in the end they look great.

SE: “Emily is so different when she’s playing Sarah. The energy off of her is just completely different.”

[As Howard comes out of the 1955 barn] SE: “I remember we had some discussions about his uniform. Of course we were just trying to duplicate the uniform that we saw in that era. And [once we’re back inside the barn] they wanted to put him in uniform here and we had to argue strongly for his suit, because that’s what he was in in the pilot and that’s what we wanted it to go back to. I’m not sure if it’s the same tie from the pilot but I wish it was. I think it probably is.”

[As Audrey and Nathan flashback to the 1955 beach] SE: “This scene we shot and it was one of those incredibly perfect Nova Scotian days in August or September.” JD: “Is that the Colorado Kid beach? Where the body was?” SE: “No, it’s not. It’s not far from where the inside of the barn was shot, not far from the Grey Gull.” SE: “And there’s Lucas and Emily, and they’re kissing, and I gotta tell you, just between you me and everyone who’s listening, I was very awkward during this part because these two are friends, and they had to go for it and it was really good, but these guys are good friends, they’re both married … they’re professionals, it’s more me being awkward than anything. And then we had major conversations in the room about this because I am a proponent of saying that Nathan is taking advantage of Sarah - he had superior knowledge coming into the situation and he took advantage of that. It’s manipulative and wierd.” JD: “I was on the other side of it because I felt like it was OK because he didn’t know if he was ever going to come back. So it’s, ‘Can I love this version of Audrey? Well she wants to love me and it’s still the same woman in there somewhere.’ And you could argue this stuff forever.” SE: “And we did. And while we’re arguing, we’re like ‘If we’re arguing this hard about it then it’s good.’ Because it’s grey and you can make your own decision. I mean of course, it’s Nathan, so everyone’s going to be like ‘No, he loved her and it was real, and she approached him’ because Sarah, it turns out, is a real vixen.”

[As Nathan meets James] SE: “This is a hugely powerful scene. This I think is one of my favourite moments of Lucas’s in the series. … the moment where he introduces himself, he just nailed the perfect blend of awkwardness that is Nathan but he’s also forthright; there are so many colours to Lucas Bryant. He’s not a ‘big’ actor - he can be, but in this role, he minds all the shades and I think it’s amazing.” JD: “Yeah, Lucas squeezes so much out of a role that was designed to be constrained. We wrote this very compressed, repressed character who didn’t even want to admit that what he had was a Trouble.”

SE: “I love these two [Audrey and Nathan] and they could tell each other, ‘A blue elephant just flew out of my nose and went out that window’, and they’d be like, ‘Really, which window?’” JD: “And it was so gratifying in the first season when we first started getting feedback from the fans, that our instinct was to do that with them. Instead of having the Mulder and Scully relationship of the constant sceptic and the deep believer and all that. I mean there is definitely an X-Files element to the show, but we felt like it’s ridiculous in this setting; if you’re going to live in this town, you very quickly have to know that there’s something going on. And if you’re not recognising that, you’re out of your flipping mind.” SE: “Exactly.” JD: “And it sort of opened up the next level of it, in terms of, how do you live with that, how do you live with the repurcussions of that stuff?”

[Outside the barn as the Guard have their guns trained on Duke] SE: “In this moment, I was on set and saw them getting ready and the guys pulled out these guns, and they were all like assault weapons. And I was like, ‘Woah where did these guys get assault weapons?’ Now, I’m sure they could get assault weapons pretty easily (it is America) but I was just like, these guys are not mercenaries; they’re not those guys. These guys are gonna pull out hunting rifles, pistols maybe.” JD: “More of a genuine militia.” SE: “Yeah. They’re not the guys who are planning for world war three. I mean you could argue it; it’s not a question of logic, for me it was just a question of tone.”

[As we are back with Nathan and Audrey inside the barn] SE: “This episode has so much plot stuff but it also has so much character stuff; it’s really a nice balance between the two.”

SE: “And what I liked about this and I thought worked well is that Howard is in control, but not completely in control because Audrey has to choose to go into the barn.” JD: “Yes; putting that limitation on it made him [Howard] not-God. And bringing in that aspect of free will and the questions of why does Audrey go away, why does she come back.”

SE: “Steve Lund who played the Colorado Kid did an amazing job. Because it was like ‘Hey Steve, we’d like you to show up and become the title character of the book this is based on, and it’s just going to be a few episodes but you’re hugely important.’ And by the way, we hired him for episode 3.04 I think where he’s on the beach, dead, and he has no lines. We flew him in all the way from Toronto; no lines. We had auditioned him and knew he could act of course, because we knew we were going to bring him back at the end of the season. And I thought he just nailed the role. And there are actors we’ve had on the show who did not nail the role, so it’s not true for everybody.”

SE: “Vince and Dave are characters that people have always asked us, what’s going on with them. And it’s an important question and we’ve definitely peeled back more and more.”

[As Audrey takes Arla into the barn] SE: “This is a great moment and we came up with this moment very early on” where the Troubles don’t work inside the barn. “And the make up was so good, we had a special guy we brought in just to do this make up on Laura, and he was really meticulous about it.” JD: “I hope everyone enjoyed this as the culmination because we worked so long and so hard in the room to make all these storylines come together for this.” SE: “We had pictures of the big grid that plotted all the plot lines coming together; I would love to post that except I’m afraid there’s something in there that’s still hidden” that we can’t reveal yet. [And then apparently in response to something said away from the microphones] “Oh it’ll be on the DVD set? Oh well there you go.”

[As Arla’s knife ends up in James] SE: “Considering how short this moment is, we shot it like 19 times. All the choreography where they fall on each other. And Emily’s doing all this stuff while pregnant, though it was very gentle.” JD: “Yeah, it looks rougher in the finished cut than when you’re shooting it.”

[As Nathan carries Arla’s body out of the barn] SE: And here is the part where one of my favourite moments that didn’t make it into the final edit. “Audrey is with her son, and it’s really their first moment together. Where they’re actually together and there’s no chase or conflict. And he’s dying. And she has this moment, and the thing Emily is just crazy-good at is putting all the emotion right on her face” and it still looks natural. “And after this moment, James is dead or dying, and she starts singing to him. I was on set and Emily improvised it; she just started singing to him and it was so beautiful and the whole crew were so quiet. I was completely moved; it was wonderful. But the episode ran really long so it didn’t make it in.”

SE: “So here’s the moment where Audrey has to make her decision and it’s good because it shows that she’s not going to let that [James’ death] happen to any of the men that are outside right now.” JD: “We spent days walking through the logic of which choices to make, and why. And you can argue for so many different reasons why she should stay or go, or favour Nathan or Duke or - everyone can take so many different positions about the things that are happening here.” SE: “Right. Well and we knew fairly quickly that Duke was going to say ‘You need to go’. But I remember we flipped it back and forth between these guys because you can make an argument that the selfish side of Duke could say ‘Screw everybody; do what’s best for yourself’. And so that’s why it’s almost better that he doesn’t.” JD: “And that’s why we went there, right? To have Duke saying ‘serve the greater good’.” SE: “Right. And it’s Nathan - who is always trying to serve the greater good - saying, ‘No, don’t go, screw everybody else.’ And why is he doing that? Because he loves her.” JD: “And I think that was our starting position and we walked through 20 evolutions of it how it could be different ways before getting back around to that, because of the character simplicity of that.” SE: “Knowing where we’re going to first see Audrey Parker in the first epsiode of season four, and coming out of this scene, it’s awesome I think. I’m very excited.” JD: “Yeah. I love playing the tradegy of this. This is the tragedy of her character; making this choice as different women, over and over again. For different reasons sometimes.” SE: “Right, but always coming to the same conclusion of: I have to go.”

JD: “I don’t remember when we settled on the idea of Howard being the barn, as a way to change the equation, but I really like that idea. It preserved a lot of very interesting things, by making them part of the same thing. And gave Nathan a way to make a second-order change to the situation that no one had every thought of before.” SE: “Yep. Look at that, the backlighting is perfect [as Audrey is saying goodbye to Duke]. This was a wonderful day. And of course here, we’re chasing the sun. Because everything looks fantastic, but the sun is going away and we had a lot to do. This day ended at night; we didn’t mean to but there was a lot to do.

[As Audrey is handing her gun to Duke] SE: “Now this is probably the hardest buy here; the idea that Duke was actually going to fire on Nathan. It was the best answer we could come up with as to why Nathan doesn’t go into the barn, but it’s like - come on; he’s not going to shoot him.” And “we call them frenemies but it is a real friendship; it’s a real love affair.” JD: “It’s very complicated.” SE: “It is complicated.” JD: “They’re more like brothers than friends.” SE: “Yeah.” JD: “They’re bound together somehow.” SE: “And that’s not a secret signal that they are brothers. We do know the history, just so you know. We understand - we have the origin story and how these two came to be doing what they’re doing. But we’re hopefully not going to reveal that until season seven. That would be my preferred time to do that.” JD: “I still have the secret master mythology file, that we sent to Stephen King to get approval.”

[As we see Nathan turn his gun on Howard] SE: “Now this is great. And we argued about this for about a minute, about whether Nathan would pull the trigger. Of course he would.”

[As the barn collapses] SE: This effect is great. “And it’s white, did everyone notice that it’s white just like the inside of the barn? Totally not planned.”

[About Nathan] JD: “The man who feels nothing is feeling everything right now.” SE: “Yeah. And that was night time as we filmed that; that was a digital cheat.”

#haven syfy #haven dvd commentaries #3.13 - thanks for the memories #sam and jim commentaries

[flowerfan2]

Bound To Be Together - Ch. 9

McDanno, M, A03 A continuous story of Season 9 codas exploring the bond between Steve and Danny as they grow even closer.

Chapter 9: 9.10

When Danny comes back from his trip to the mainland, Steve doesn’t meet him at the airport.  He isn’t sure he would be able to hold it together on the drive back with Danny and Grace, hearing all about the colleges Grace visited and her unbridled excitement for the future.  Seeing the pride in Danny’s eyes.  Not when Steve’s so strung out, so messed up.

But Steve knows when their flight lands.  Danny texts when he’s on his way over.  He’ll be here any minute.

Steve looks around his kitchen one more time, needing to make sure that there’s no trace of blood left behind, no glaring signs of the attack.  He hasn’t talked to Danny about it, although Steve knows Lou filled him in, once Danny was on his way back to the island already and the crisis was over.

He’s still glad he didn’t let Adam call Danny, even though Danny’s going to rip him a new one for it. At this point Steve probably won’t be able to feel it anyway.

With Joe’s last words, he had praised Steve for looking out for his people.  Steve’s going to take this as approval, from Joe at least, for his decision to keep Danny out of harm’s way this time.  He’ll take what he can get.

He can’t let himself think about whether they might have had better odds at the ranch if Danny had been there.  Because while that might be true, it also could have been Danny bleeding out on the floor, or with a fatal shot to the liver.  It might have been Danny that Steve said goodbye to on an empty field, with the sun painting pictures in the sky.

He can’t let himself think about it, but he’s thinking about it anyway, in whorls and circles and spirals that won’t let him rest.

 He hears the front door open and close, and sags with relief.

 “Hey, babe, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

 Strong arms wrap around his shoulders, and Steve digs his face into the thin fabric of Danny’s shirt. Steve’s thoughts quiet with Danny’s touch, and he wants to bury himself in him and never come out.

 “Kitchen’s floor’s not so comfortable.  How about we take this into the living room?”

 Steve doesn’t remember sliding to the floor.  But right now, he can’t be bothered to figure it out.  He lets Danny help him to his feet, and they stumble together to the couch, settling close, Steve clutching Danny’s shirt in his fists.

 “I’m so sorry about Joe,” Danny murmurs.  “So sorry. He was a good man.  I know how much he meant to you.”

 Steve starts to reply, and chokes on his words, swallowing them and rubbing his face against Danny’s chest.

 “For all his crazy, he was like a father to you.  You loved him, and he loved you too.”

 It’s like Danny can see straight into his heart, the wounded place still throbbing from his loss, and this makes Steve cry even harder.  Danny <i>knows</i> him.

 It’s what makes Joe’s death even worse, because Joe gave Steve the perfect opening to tell him about Danny, and Steve chickened out.  Steve’s falling apart, clinging to Danny like the proverbial lifeboat, counting on him to get him safely to shore.  But Steve is so used to hiding that he missed his chance to let Joe know that he isn’t alone.  Or to give Danny the credit he deserves.

 He’s not sure how to say any of this to Danny.  “I didn’t…” Steve starts.  “I should have…” But the tears are coming in earnest now, hard, wracking sobs, and he can’t get any words out.

 “Shh, it’s okay.  You’re okay.” Danny holds him and rubs his back, until Steve can finally catch his breath.

 “Danny, there’s something… I need to tell you something.”

 Danny sits back, and Steve can see now how wrecked he looks, too, dark circles under reddened eyes.    “Are you taking off again to an undisclosed location to be a target for armed thugs? Because if so, I really don’t want to hear it.”

 “No, I…”

 “Lou said you weren’t in any danger right now, that the Omar situation was under control.”

 “Yeah, as far as I know.”  Not in any more danger than usual, anyway.

 “Well then I vote we wait until morning, for…”  Danny lets out a long breath, and looks away from Steve, face drawn with exhaustion. “Well, for anything.  Especially talking.  Because I haven’t slept in a lot of hours, and I’m guessing you haven’t either.  And I don’t want to say anything I’ll regret.”

 Danny’s trying to tamp down his anger, Steve can tell, in the face of Steve’s abject sadness.  Steve gets it.  He’d be pissed, too, more than, if Danny had kept him in the dark about something that threatened his safety.  He figured at the time that Danny would get over it, but being face to face with Danny’s hurt and echoes of stale fear forces him to remember that there’s more than one way to lose him.

 But Danny’s still holding him, one arm around his shoulders, the other stroking restlessly down Steve’s uninjured arm.  He doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

 “You’ll stay?”  Steve asks.

 Danny’s shoulders slump, and he bumps his forehead tiredly against Steve’s.  “’Course I’m gonna stay, you goof.  Least then it’ll be two against one if some hired assassin comes crashing through your door.  Again.”

 Steve musters what little energy he has left and stands, clasping Danny’s hand as he goes.  They make it upstairs and strip to their boxers without ceremony, climbing under the covers and arranging themselves close, Danny curled protectively around Steve.

 It reminds Steve of the night after the sensory deprivation tank, except then they hadn’t acknowledged what they felt for each other.  Suddenly it’s important to mark the difference, and Steve turns over, cradling Danny’s jaw and pulling him in for a long, hard kiss.

 “Mmm,” Danny hums, pulling back just enough to breathe, while letting his lips slide over Steve’s. “Love you.”

 Danny says it so easily, so matter of factly.  Not lightly – Steve knows Danny would never say it lightly.  But like it’s normal, obvious.  Like it goes without saying.

 Not tonight, though. “I love you too, Danny.  I should say it more often.  I shouldn’t be afraid to say it.”

 Danny, tired as he is, pushes at Steve’s arm and raises an eyebrow at him.  “What’s that supposed to mean?  You say it all the time.”

 Shit, Steve thinks. Sleeping first would probably have been a better idea.

 “Not where anyone else can hear it.”

 Danny starts to argue with him – because Steve has said “I love you” to Danny dozens of times in front of the team.  But not since they’ve been together.  Not with the new meaning, the “I’m in love with you” meaning.  

 Danny flops over on to his back.  “I really don’t think we should talk about this right now, babe.”

 “But I-“

 “We knew we were going to have to deal with it.  Whether to tell anyone, what to tell them.  But honestly, I am so sick with worry right now, worried about how you’re dealing with losing Joe and international terrorists being after you and your whole goddamn Seal team dying on you,” Danny barely pauses to catch a breath, “and at the same time I’m so fucking angry at you for letting me keep gallivanting through the ivy leagues while it all went down…  I really don’t think I could do my best work right now.”  Danny’s still gazing up at the ceiling, but he hasn’t let go of Steve, one hand latched on to Steve’s wrist.

 “Danny, please…” Steve doesn’t even know what he’s trying to say, just that he needs this not to break them, for it not to be too much for Danny to handle.  For Danny to keep understanding.

 Danny turns and looks at Steve, and then gathers him up in his arms.  It feels so good, the strength of Danny’s muscles holding him tight, his stubbly face against his cheek.  It’s an escape right now, he knows it, but he can’t bring himself to turn it away.  

 “I promise you, Steve, we’re gonna work this out,” Danny says, low and intense.  “Whatever you’re thinking, whatever you’re freaking out about, we’ll work it out.  Together. Like every other time.  Okay?”

 “Okay.”

 *****

Sleep had come faster than Steve had thought it would, and when he finally rouses, it’s to bright sunlight coming through the window and the aroma of strong coffee.

 Danny isn’t in bed any longer, but the mug on the nightstand is steaming so he must have just left it for Steve.  Steve hauls himself upright, his body aching and sore, and sips at the coffee until it’s cool enough to drink it down.

 He can hear Danny downstairs, muttering to himself about something and clicking away on his laptop, so he heads into the bathroom and takes a long, hot shower.  He puts off assessing all his cuts and bruises – there’s nothing major, which is a miracle, really – and dries quickly.  He takes a few minutes to shave.  Maybe if he looks presentable enough, Danny will go easy on him.

 Finally, after pulling on shorts and a t-shirt, Steve pads downstairs.

 Danny’s at the table, nodding as he types.

 “Work?”  Steve asks.

 “No.  Grace sent me a draft of one of her college essays.  She doesn’t like it when Rachel proofreads them, says she’s too picky.  She just wants to me to let her know ‘if it’s okay.’”  Danny looks up at Steve.  “I have no idea what she wants me to do.”

 Steve laughs at Danny’s perplexed expression, and it feels good.  Danny isn’t lying in wait to ambush him with accusations or threats. He’s just up early, bringing him coffee and emailing with Grace.  Danny’s here for him, just like he said he’d be.

 “Can we talk now?” Steve asks.  There’s not going to be a better time.

 “Sure.”  Danny turns back to his computer for a moment to save his work.

 “Outside?”

 Danny nods, and they go out on to the lanai.  Steve keeps walking down to the edge of the water, until the waves lap over his feet. Danny follows him, hands in his pockets.

 “You’re doing my laundry,” Danny says conversationally, as he comes up to Steve and bumps their arms together.  The waves are soaking the hems of his jeans.  The fact that Danny isn’t protesting more says something about the progress of their relationship that Steve can’t parse right now.

 The sea is glinting in the early morning sun, and the air is already warm.  Steve curls his toes in the sand, feels the soft grit against his skin.

 “Joe’s been living in Nairobi.  Not consulting anymore.”

 Steve’s not looking at Danny, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees him tilt his head, listening.

 “He’s got – had – a girlfriend.  Zahra.” It feels important to say her name. “He told me-” Steve’s voice catches, and he swallows and goes on.  “He told me not to wait as long as he did to find someone.  Said he sat out too long, and I shouldn’t do the same thing.”

 Squaring his shoulders, he turns to face Danny.  “I should have told him, then, about you and me.  I didn’t.”

 Steve sees Danny take this in, turn it over in his head.  He thinks he can pinpoint the moment Danny decides how to respond.  But what Danny says couldn’t have surprised him more if he’d dove into the ocean and swam away like a mermaid.

 “Why?”

 “What?”

 “Why, exactly,” Danny says, moving in front of Steve and putting his hands on his forearms, “why <i>should</i> you have told him?”

 “’Cause it’s not fair to you.  It’s not… right.”

 Danny shakes his head a little, not satisfied with this.  “I’m not upset about that.  That doesn’t bother me, you know that.  That isn’t the issue.  Try again. Why isn’t it right?”

 “Because – it’s just wrong.” And Danny’s right, that’s not the only problem with Steve’s silence.  “Joe wants – wanted  - me to be happy.  I should have told him I was happy.”

 “Are you happy?”

 Steve’s chest clenches. “You know I am.”

 Danny nods, not arguing, a little smile reflecting how this thought could derail the conversation.  Danny does know, and fuck, if that doesn’t mean a lot.

 “You really think Joe didn’t know that?  That you’re in a good place?  That you’re living a good life?”  Danny asks.

 Steve thinks back on their conversations at the ranch, and at the end, by the ponderosa pine.  About Joe’s reassurance that Steve took care of his “people.”  And about an earlier conversation that day, where Joe got him talking about what was going on in his life, and Steve told him all about how he and Danny were famous comic book heroes now, about Charlie’s favorite bedtime story, about how Grace is sailing through high school.

 “I dunno.  Maybe.”

 “Would it make you feel better to tell him?”

 Steve looks at Danny like he’s nuts, but Danny is being serious.  “It’s too late.”

 “Is it?”  Danny reaches over and cups Steve’s cheek.  “You can tell him now.  Or not.  But there’s no ‘should’ in this, no right and wrong.  This – what we have-”  Danny motions between them, then grabs Steve’s hand, “this is ours.”

 Danny pulls Steve down for a kiss, one that leaves no room for doubt.  “We will tell people when and if we’re ready.  The fact that we haven’t done it yet doesn’t make it any less real. Does that work for you?  ‘Cause it works for me.”

 Steve feels something inside him release, something hurtful and worrisome float away on the waves, washed away by the force of Danny’s belief in him.  In them, together.  “Yeah, Danny. That works for me.”

 Steve wraps an arm around Danny’s shoulder, tugging him close, and looks out over the water.  It’s an entirely different view than sunset over the field by Joe’s land, but just like that was for Joe, this place is home for Steve.  With this man.  No matter who knows it.

#H50 #mcdanno #episode coda #9.10 #my fic

[kaitkerrigan]

RUN AWAY WITH ME : Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, California

It’s daunting to dive into a song that everyone knows. The “hit”. Will the song survive explication? Will explaining it will make it less good? I channel my inner fangirl, pretend I’m not myself (the person who ran through all of the various options of how the lyrics could play out, who knows all the other forks in the road of the lyric), and I realize the answer is “no”. So as the creator, I take a deep breath and say, ok, my tumbleweeds, you asked for it. 

Literally. I conducted a super formal poll this week on Twitter and over 200 people voted and 40% wanted to know more about “Run Away with Me”. Trust me, i was with the “Last Week’s Alcohol” camp. LWAers, I’m coming for you. 

I think the reason I feel hesitant about this song is because I feel like I’ve said all of it before. I’ve taught it in master classes. I’ve written countless emails to college seniors who have decided to use it for senior showcases. I’ve watched videos of senior showcase mashups like this pairing with “Prelude to an Angry Young Man” by Billy Joel to showcase a young man’s dancing abilities. 

“Run Away with Me” has been around the block. It’s had its fair share of interpretations. What could I possibly say that you don’t already know? 

ORIGIN

“Run Away with Me” was a song without a hook when it first appeared. I remember Brian playing a truly relentless melody on my aunt’s piano. The scansion was something like this: 

"Let me be your ride, let me be your home,  Let me be your favorite place We can make a life, we can find a road, we can drive like life is a race.  Texas in a car, Kansas on a bus,  long as it’s highway and us.  Throw away the key.   Run away with me.  

I found it exhausting - this relentless energy of someone who is determined to connect. It was catchy as hell but busy and unappealing when you put words on it. I put together some dummy lyrics (we learned about those in “Say the Word”) to prove that the music didn’t work as well with lyrics on it. (These are not those lyrics. I mocked these up from memory. The rhythm really was very catchy.)

Brian cleared it out. He asked if a version that went like this:

“DA da DA da DA da da DA”

felt any better. It did. And that’s how we found the scansion that ultimately became, 

“Let me be your ride out of town.  Let me be the place that you hide.” 

It did feel better. It felt doable. I didn’t have the same instinct that I had towards “Say the Word”. I didn’t hear the music and cry. But Brian knew that he’d hit something sticky and he was determined to find where this song fit in the show. He was determined it was for Adam. He thought it came late in the show - an 11 o’clock number. He knew nothing else. 

When we found the phrase “Run away with me” the song clicked in for me. I don’t remember a lot about the process of coming up with the hook but I remember a lot about writing the lyrics. 

I discovered Adam’s voice in writing this song, but it also felt like it already existed. There was something I always knew and loved about Adam. It was borne of watching boys in college who were in love with my supremely complicated and high strung female friends. It’s not to say they weren’t smart - some of them were very smart - but they weren’t molded the way my female friends were. I was surrounded by women who had chosen, at 18, to go to an all-women’s college. That requires a certain kind of cognition about the world around you. Many of these women dated men but were loud, proud feminists. They were grappling with their relationship with romance, with being “swept off your feet”, with the uneasy comfort of feeling protected by a boy who can’t protect you because you are too smart to believe that such protection exists.  

Writing Adam, and this song in particular, was an act of grieving for the kind of girl I would never be. I would never fall for easy romance like the kind a sweet boy like Adam would offer me. 

WHEN IN DOUBT, TAKE A SHOWER

I hit my first real flight of inspiration - a visit from Elizabeth Gilbert’s “genius” (if you haven’t watched her TED Talk, do) - as a lyricist in this song. You can also call it getting lucky. 

This song is the reason I believe in taking showers when you’re stuck. It’s a more concentrated formula of my general antidote for “writer’s block”, which is something I refuse to acknowledge. Acknowledging writer’s block is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Its existence is in your mind to begin with, so your conjuring of it confirms its existence. My mom calls it “gathering periods”. Everyone has times when they need take in culture, writing, inspiration. You can’t ONLY write. You won’t have anything to write about. Sometimes you have to breathe and take in other people’s creative output. 

That said, deadlines are deadlines and you’ve got to get your work done. Rather than say, “I’m spent / I’ll never write again”, you say, “I need a shower.” Or I need to vacuum. Or I need to go for a run (I should say this - I never say this). I had spent the morning chipping away at the chorus and the second verse of this song, when I stopped to take a shower. While I was washing my hair, I came up with the entire bridge - lyric and music and rhythm and everything. It appeared to me like a glorious all-inclusive vacation to Hawaii. 

I wrote it down, dripping water on my bedroom floor.  Sometimes you get lucky. 

TECHNICAL STUFF

Above is a little cheat sheet. If you ever want to sing this song and you don’t want to screw up the words, I suggest you look at it. Musical Theater singers don’t always think about song structure and that’s a shame. It’s a tool in your tool belt (like learning to read music - or at minimum learn how to fake it - I’ll save that soapbox for another day). Without understanding structure, you’re stuck memorizing a song from start to finish and you’re bound to screw it up. With song structure, you can look at the way it’s built and say, OH, look at the sections that are the same. Look at the ones that are different.

Most importantly, if you ever have to sing this song and you have a music stand - THIS IS TRUE WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE THE MUSIC IN FRONT OF YOU - write down on a piece of paper in massive letters: 

TEXAS ALABAMA MISSISSIPPI CALIFORNIA 

I cannot tell you the number of top-rate performers I’ve given this advice to. The ones who do it, never go up on lyrics. The ones who don’t ALWAYS DO. Trust me. It’s the least I can offer after not giving you a single bit of help in the lyric itself. It’s not alphabetical or even east-to-west. (My personal way of remembering is that Texas and California are easy to remember and the middle two are in alphabetical order. I’ll give a prize to someone who comes up with a good pneumonic - (Tell Adam M[?] C[?]??). It is just the worst. Don’t be proud. Be smart. WRITE IT DOWN. 

It’s not entirely my fault. In my first draft, the lyrics to each chorus were the same. You can thank Joe Church, Brian’s composition teacher (and my de facto composition teacher while Brian was at NYU), for the devilishly hard lyrics in the choruses. He pointed out (and I do think he was right) that the character needed to keep upping his ante over the course of the song. I think it’s one of the song’s great charms.  

I went back and looked at the chorus again and it’s a weird one. It’s not like looking at baby pictures. I’m not embarrassed by this song but could I make the decisions I made back then if I were writing lyrics for this now? Look at this crazy rhyme scheme! 

By “crazy rhyme scheme”, I mean almost-no-rhyme scheme; I mean barest possible minimum rhyme scheme. Please give me the pleasure of enumerating the rhymes for you: 

Kerouac / back and key / me. 

FIN.

How is that ok?? Why does that work?? I’ll tell you. It’s two-fold. 1. character. 2. proximity. 

1. Character 

Here I go again. Broken record. Write in character. 

Adam works in his dad’s tire shop. He’s not literary. He’s not “smart”. This doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. Emotionally, he’s swimming in the depths. He’s empathetic. He’s kind. He’s generous. He’s really just about everything a person could ask for but he’s not a brainiac. 

If you had the unabashed pleasure of seeing Jay Armstrong Johnson perform Adam in The Mad Ones, you know what a breath of fresh air Adam is. He has a beautiful soul, but he’s the butt of jokes. Sam loves him but she doesn’t take him particularly seriously. When he says “I’m not good with words”, it’s important that you believe him. He’s not. But he’s trying. He’s trying to meet her where she lives. He’s using her references. He’s speaking her language. He’s a foreigner in a foreign land. 

Making him a “rhymer” would be all kinds of wrong. He’s not witty. He tries to be. He says things like “Texas in the summer is cool”, which a Tumblr fan from Texas pointed out is just not true. But Adam’s nervous. He’s trying. He’s saying things that are lame. He can’t say “Texas in the summer is cool” four times over the course of the song, because he realizes that it’s not true as soon as it comes out of his mouth. It was a dumb joke. He has to try new tactics. His tactics aren’t working. 

In his perfect world, he would have sung “run away with me” once, and Sam would have said, “Ok” and they’d go. In a perfect world, he wouldn’t have to say anything. He would fix her flat tire. He would work hard to make her comfortable. But he’s living in the planet of Sam’s grief. Her empathy is turned off. She hadn’t thought of Adam and what he wanted or needed or how he was trying to connect to her in a long time. She’s whirling in the new information that he would be change what he wants (stability, to run his dad’s business) for her. She doesn’t know how to respond and so he’s left floundering in a sea of his own words. 

2. Proximity

Hot tip. If you want to make it ok that you’re not rhyming a lot, rhyme close together. I am getting so much mileage out of “Jack Kerouac, looking back”. After five lines of no rhyme, you get two rhymes 3 syllables apart. Internal rhymes make up for writing a character who isn’t clever. It allows the writer to still exert some control over the lyric, some order in the face of a character’s chaos. In terms of character, it gives a sense of someone gaining momentum. Adam’s finally gaining traction. After five statements that go nowhere - 

“Let me be your ride out of town. [new thought] Let me be the place that you hide. [new thought] We can make our lives on the go. [new thought] Run away with me. [new thought] Texas in the summer is cool. [ new thought] We’ll be on the road like Jack Kerouac looking back, Sam, you’re ready, let’s go anywhere. [building on that thought] Get the car packed and throw me the key. Run away with me.” 

The first rhyme (Kerouac / back) is an indicator that he’s heading somewhere. He’s finding some textual rhythm. By the end of the chorus, he’s managed to put together a bit of a thesis - a little serve and return (key / me). 

It gives him the courage to go on in spite of Sam’s silence. The whole song is about Sam’s silence. It’s about him getting so caught up in it in spite of her lack of response, trying to build a vision for what they could have together. You’ve been there, right? Those moments where it feels like if you just keep talking, you won’t have to face the possibility that you won’t be met halfway? 

Time and time again, I read comments on YouTube and elsewhere: “I wish my name was Sam. I’d run away with you.” It’s essential that Adam’s desire for Sam is genuine and romantic and that his enthusiasm is infectious. You have to want her to want to go. But in the context of the show, you have to know that it will never work. She will never be able to say yes to him. She doesn’t know that before the song begins but by the time it ends, his fate is sealed. This isn’t actually a song about romance. Not for Sam. For Sam, who we’ve spent the last 75 minutes examining, this moment is filled with dread. You’re watching someone you love say all the things that make it impossible for you to be together. 

I remember - after writing this song - having dinner with a guy I was dating. He wanted to take our relationship to the next stage and I met a simple question he asked me with silence and panic. He said “I just wanted you to say that we’d work out any of the problems.” I didn’t realize until he said it that I was creating hurdles for our relationship because I didn’t want to stay in the relationship but I also didn’t have the heart to tell him that I wasn’t thinking about forever. I was looking for my exit strategy. Just because you’re not right for each other doesn’t mean that you want to hurt the other person. 

Of course the irony is that that’s exactly how you hurt someone. Sam is a classic introvert. She keeps everything to herself. She processes in her head (that’s the whole show). The sequel to The Mad Ones would be a whole hell of a lot of uncomfortable silence-filled conversations with the ones she leaves behind. 

“ROMEO IS CALLING FOR JULIET”: A NAIL IN A COFFIN

You’re Adam. You’re not a brainiac. You say “Romeo is calling for Juliet” and you mean that you love her. You mean that she’s your soulmate. 

Now you’re Sam. You’re analytical and literal and literary. You hear “Romeo is calling for Juliet”. You hear that you’re star-crossed, that you’re doomed. 

Adam doesn’t know that when he says it but he feels the failure of his metaphor. All of his metaphors build a case against him. He talks about On the Road because Sam loves that book, because she romanticizes driving across the country, much like Sal does in On the Road. But Sal’s journey is solitary and obsessed not with Mary Lou (or any of the other women Sal sleeps with) but with Dean, his best friend. Sam is the same way. 

INGENUE

I think a lot about ingenues in the musicals I write. How could I not? It’s a huge trope in musical theater, more in than in any other genre. There are even vocal registers that feel more “ingenue”. I grew up in high school, college, and community theater playing ingenues. I was the daughter, the wife, the literal ingenue in City of Angels. 

I also identified with ingenues in movies. I liked them plucky but I always wanted them to get the guy - or, let’s be honest - I wanted the guy to get them. 

Now, I only write ingenues when I can turn the idea on its head. Sam is not an ingenue. The story begins when her naïveté has been lost. If we told this story from the perspective from the beginning of her senior year, she would be the ingenue, but we tell the story from her moment before her rebellion. We are chronicling her journey away from ingenue. 

Brian and I joked through the rehearsal process that our ingenue is actually Adam. But by definition #2, it’s pretty accurate. Ingenues are often only in the love plot of a musical. They generally have one great song in a show but someone else (a man traditionally) gets to be involved in the multi-plot of a show. Harold Hill pursues Marion, whose role is contained to her utility to his plot - his moral opposite, but Harold is involved in SEVERAL plots. Sarah has her dogmatic beliefs (also a moral opposite to Sky) but it’s Sky Masterson who transforms through his relationship with her and his connection to the gambling plot. Rosemary literally sings about how she will be happy to keep her husband’s dinner warm, while Finch climbs the ladder to success and falls in love in the most perfunctory way possible. (These are all shows that are structurally genius pieces of theater, by the way, they just suck when it comes feminine stereotypes.)

Adam is really happy with their static relationship. He doesn’t actually want anything else. He makes a big sacrifice by trying to imagine what Sam wants, and in order to pull her out of her grief, tries to give it to her. It’s an act of sacrifice and empathy. And he’s right. She does need to run away. Just not with him. And it takes him naming the idea for her to realize exactly what she needs. 

Do you see what I love Adam? I wonder if men who wrote female ingenues felt the same way? You’re creating an idealized version of what the other sex should be so that your flawed (read: interesting) protagonist can grapple with the world around them. The exciting thing about creating this character was the attempt to manipulate the audience enough so that the audience would love him as much as I do but feel how deeply wrong it would be for Sam to say yes.  

Miscellaneous Questions You Have Asked

Can I (a guy) pretend Sam is a boy and sing this song? 

Why not? The “wife” line is a little weirder but I can justify it. There are a couple other pop versions of lyrics that are more generic that might be useful to you if you go that route.

Why are there pop lyrics to this song? 

We love this song and we wanted more people to be able to cover it. The use of “Sam” in the lyric feels essential in the show. It makes the lyric feel more insistent. Out of context, it feels a little theatery. I like theater - don’t get me wrong - but the rest of the song doesn’t feel that way so it kind of takes you out of the song if you’re not listening in the context of the show. I like the pop lyrics to the song. You should feel free to use them anytime. Though, in an audition, I’d revert to the original lyrics. Immediacy / theatricality / insistence are your friend there. 

Why does Adam say “let me be the place that you hide”?  I got this question specifically from someone when I was soliciting questions. It must have been on Twitter because I can’t find it on Tumblr. I hope that the rest of this post helps illuminate the character broadly enough that this already feels clearer. It’s a problematic idea, isn’t it? It comes back to Adam offering comfort, offering protection, offering something that Sam might want but is ultimately wrong for her. 

Can I record “Run Away with Me”? 

Yes. Because it’s already been professionally recorded by us, by Josh Young, by Aaron Tveit, and Dwayne Britton (maybe others?), anyone can get the mechanical rights to record through Harry Fox. Huzzah! 

Why are there so many versions of the final riffs and release of “Run Away with Me”? 

When you get the chance to workshop a song as long as we have, you get to really hone what you want out of it. If you’re in doubt about whether or not you’re singing the most updated version, check out Ben Fankhauser’s version on Playbill. This is the one we went into production with in fall 2017. 

Can a girl sing “Run Away with Me”? 

Hell yeah. Carrie Manolakos covers it on our live album and it’s pretty sick, and here’s a new video of Emma Hunton’s take on it. You didn’t know how much you wanted this. 

#run away with me behind the lyrics the mad ones #run away with me #kerrigan lowdermilk #behind the lyrics #The mad ones #songwriting #lyric writing #musical theater #new musical theater #romeo and juliet #on the road #the unauthorized autobiography of samantha brown

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): We’re back with our third snake draft of 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, god help us all. Previous drafts can be found here and here. And remember, we’re trying to pick who’d win the nomination, although our picks tend to get less selective and more inventive(?) as the rounds wear on.

The rules are as follows: Six rounds, so between the four of us, 24 potential 2020 Democratic nominees. Let’s determine the order. (And yes, we really do write our names on slips of paper and pick randomly!) We’re going to have Geoffrey Skelley, our new elections analyst, announce today’s order. Welcome, Geoff!!

geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): The office is currently doing the draw.

Clare has first pick.

Geoff is second.

Sarah is third.

Nate is fourth.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): OMG what bullshit.

clare.malone: heh heh

geoffrey.skelley: There are many witnesses.

sarahf: OK, Clare, you’re up first! Take it away.

clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): Elizabeth Warren.

natesilver: Dammit.

geoffrey.skelley: Wow, that was my pick.

Stunning, I know.

clare.malone: My picks are gonna haunt your dreams, Nate.

sarahf: So she’s been popular in previous drafts, why is she your No. 1 now, Clare?

micah (Micah Cohen, managing editor): I’m really pissed I’m not participating in this draft.

clare.malone: Warren has captured the mood of the party for a long time as far as economic angst goes, she’s been a consistent and eager Trump antagonizer, and she’s gonna be raising mucho $$$$$$$$$$$

natesilver: She’s also seemed more candidate-y recently — like her weekend speech about Kavanaugh, which was nominally a speech for her Senate race, felt very much like something she could deliver in Iowa or New Hampshire.

clare.malone: Right, that speech is basically the reason we’re having this chat.

sarahf: For any readers that missed it, Warren said in a town hall this weekend in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that “after Nov. 6, I will take a hard look at running for president.” So yeah, definitely she seems like she’s considering running.

OK, Geoff, who’s your pick?

geoffrey.skelley: I’m going to go with Kamala Harris.

Tough call, was debating leading with a certain former vice president. But when I think about candidates who can put together winning coalitions, I think of candidates who could have a strong appeal to the Democratic Party’s African-American base.

sarahf: Betting markets seem to agree with you, Geoff.

geoffrey.skelley: Harris is also fresh and Democrats may be poised to go for a woman nominee again. Plus, Harris will have access to that California $$$$.

sarahf: And I’m going to continue the #2018yearofthewoman with my pick … Kirsten Gillibrand.

clare.malone: So, Sarah, a question for you on that one: Worried at all about the way that she has been screwed by some in the donor class?

sarahf: For sure. I also think her ties to Clinton are problematic for a 2020 run.

But I think she has a lot of experience going for her. She’s been in the Senate since 2009 and was in the House before that. Plus, she has some bipartisan appeal as well. Part of what we saw in 2016 I think had to do with the fact that both Trump and Clinton were deeply unpopular, which means I don’t think Clinton’s loss necessarily means that a woman like Warren, Harris or Gillibrand can’t win.

geoffrey.skelley: Gillibrand is probably the leading NY candidate, which ain’t nothing in a Democratic field.

sarahf: Nate, you’re up.

clare.malone: Nate’s gonna go with noted populist Democrat Jamie Dimon, I can feel it.

natesilver: OK, we’re going snake so I get two picks, right?

geoffrey.skelley: Yeah.

sarahf:

natesilver: I’m going with (4) Joe Biden, (5) Bernie Sanders.

OLD WHITE DUDES FTW

clare.malone: Bad pick.

natesilver: Which one?

clare.malone: Both.

All bad picks.

(For old times’ sake.)

natesilver: Joe Biden is LEADING in polls of Iowa.

And Bernie Sanders was the runner-up last time.

sarahf: I agree with Clare. How old is Biden?

clare.malone: I do actually think Biden’s a bad pick ultimately.

Biden is someone who’s going to probably look good to a general electorate, but I still wonder how his history with Anita Hill would play with a Democratic base in a primary.

geoffrey.skelley: I’m very down on Sanders — the moment’s passed, in my opinion. With someone like Warren running, I just don’t see it.

natesilver: Yeah, Warren running is a big negative for him. And his polls haven’t been great. It’s possible he benefited from being “not Hillary” in 2016, but now there are a lot of “not Hillaries.” But pretty good value at the No. 5 pick, IMO?

geoffrey.skelley: Yes.

clare.malone: He’s also someone who could be spun as too old, like Sarah said, or even not progressive enough for the moment. Again, this is for a Democratic primary.

natesilver: I just think … candidates’ fortunes will wax and wane, but Bernie is always going to have a built-in constituency.

geoffrey.skelley: No question that Sanders ran a good campaign — that “America” ad will live on forever.

geoffrey.skelley: Thinking about black voters, it’s possible that Biden can make an appeal among such voters if he’s facing white liberals like Warren and Sanders, which would help in South Carolina, for instance.

clare.malone: He’s an Upper Midwest/Pennsylvania candidate, and that’s what he’s billing himself as, I’d say.

But if Booker or Harris run, they would potentially neutralize a Biden advantage with black voters.

geoffrey.skelley: Exactly, Clare. If Harris or Booker are in, that weakens Biden’s case.

sarahf: OK, I think it’s time to move on to our No. 6 pick … Cory Booker.

clare.malone: He did some great grandstanding last week at the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings.

geoffrey.skelley: Every potential candidate has weaknesses, so Booker’s may be ties to Wall Street. But he’s good on the stump, safe to say.

sarahf: That said, I do think Booker is a very talented politician. He’s a great orator. And he’s really built a profile for himself as a #HellNo Democrat.

clare.malone: I think I’ve said this in previous drafts, but I find Booker to come off a bit gooberish in a way that could maybe grate during a campaign. He’s such the eager beaver. Of course, that might play very differently with an electorate that sees a candidate mostly through Facebook video feeds and so on.

Like, this dude has been running for president since he was mayor of Newark. It’s been a long time.

geoffrey.skelley: Hahaha, it’s so true.

Booker has been pegged as a potential presidential candidate since Day 1.

sarahf: OK, you’re up, Geoff.

geoffrey.skelley: Well, I think it’s time to shake things up.

BETO

sarahf: Oh my.

Clare, what do you think?

clare.malone: I think this.

But in all seriousness, I do think that if O’Rourke loses his Senate race, people will be trying to get him to run for president.

natesilver: That’s a predictable shake-up. I’m surprised he lasted this long.

geoffrey.skelley: I was just worried one of you would take him before it got back to me.

sarahf: We’re saving Jon Ossoff for later, Nate.

geoffrey.skelley: Funny thing is, if he were to upset Ted Cruz, that might reduce the chances he runs. Or at least, I’d be less likely to run for president if I’d just become a senator.

But if he comes close and generates all this coverage and Democratic enthusiasm as RFK 2.0 or something, I can see the attraction.

clare.malone: I think if he wins, he serves the Senate term.

All bets are off if he loses, because the next big Texas office doesn’t open up for a while.

natesilver: I guess his optimal scenario is that he loses like in a recount.

geoffrey.skelley: But President Trump might win re-election, so why not wait until 2024 if you’re O’Rourke in that case?

clare.malone: Ah, we’re getting to the dregs.

OK, I’m picking two, and one is Eric Holder. Pretty obvious reasons why: He’s a respected former attorney general who’s made voting rights a project, an African-American, and a close friend and ally of Obama, which would help in a campaign season. And God help me, but my other pick is Michael Avenatti, for no other reason than the world has gone mad and he’s on TV a lot.

sarahf: I was hoping someone would mention Avenatti!

clare.malone: Your wish is my command.

We needed to stir shit up here.

geoffrey.skelley: You just know the cable news channels won’t be able to resist covering him.

sarahf: I know mentioning him as a contender is very

, but i don’t think it’s unrealistic!

clare.malone: Me neither, that’s why I picked him

natesilver: On the one hand, Avenatti is very Trumpian, which doesn’t seem like it would be a very good sell in a party that hates Trump.

On the other hand, politics is becoming exponentially more annoying every day, and so that would be the best way to stick to the trend.

micah: OK, I’m butting in here on that Avenatti selection …

Clare …

Bad pick.

clare.malone: Which one, person-who’s-not-participating?

I THINK THEY’RE BOTH AMAZING PICKS

micah: Avenatti.

clare.malone: “A street fighter for Democracy,” etc. etc. The ads write themselves.

micah: Let’s not overlearn the lessons of 2016. After all, Democrats chose Hillary Clinton in 2016!!!

OK, I’m out.

Sorry, Sarah.

sarahf: What a note to leave on, Micah.

clare.malone: This is a low round pick. I doubt he will win, but I don’t doubt Avenatti will run.

sarahf: I think that’s solid. OK, Geoff, you’re up with the No. 10 pick.

geoffrey.skelley: Yeah, this is harder.

Let’s go with Amy Klobuchar.

Midwestern nice certainly would provide a contrast to the incumbent president.

clare.malone: Good pick.

geoffrey.skelley: And she got some very positive headlines out of the Kavanaugh hearing.

clare.malone: I debated picking her. I think the one thing about her is that her “brand” (ugh) won’t stick out as much in this year.

There are already a number of better-known women who will run.

And I think Biden’s probably taking up a lot of the Upper Midwestern voter appeal space.

But I think last week she was really impressive.

natesilver: Klobuchar is like as far as you can be from Trump, personality-wise. She’s the anti-Avenatti.

sarahf: OK, i’m going to piggyback off the Kavanaugh hearing publicity for Democrats and throw out Sen. Jeff Merkley, even if his lawsuit to stop the Kavanaugh vote was ill-advised.

He’s been considering running for a while and I think is another boring (but solid) possibility for Democrats come 2020 if it turns out the 2018 midterms aren’t as much of a progressive victory as expected.

We’ll be having a very different discussion if Andrew Gillum loses the governor’s in Florida or Kyrsten Sinema loses the Senate race in Arizona (even though they are very different candidates running for very different offices).

natesilver: Hmm … I think we’re rapidly running out of good candidates.

Or at least obvious ones.

sarahf: This is true, too.

clare.malone: JOHN KASICH

natesilver: Not your turn.

clare.malone: I know. Also, not a Democrat.

Which I think is at least a nominal requirement to get into this draft.

geoffrey.skelley: Michael Bloomberg would also like a word on that party ID question, maybe?

sarahf: But it is Nate’s turn! And he gets to pick two!

natesilver: I can’t believe I have to make two picks, I want to forfeit.

But let’s go with …

Uhhhhhh

clare.malone: Bad pick.

natesilver: Sherrod Brown and Oprah Winfrey.

Bad picks.

geoffrey.skelley: This is my first chat, but I recall Oprah made an appearance in the last one.

natesilver: I do think she’d be very formidable if she ran.

geoffrey.skelley: Resources, name recognition, appeals to an interesting cross-section of the country …

clare.malone: Oprah and The Rock make an appearance in every draft we do.

sarahf: What a ticket!

clare.malone: Yeah, Oprah would probably win.

geoffrey.skelley: I’ll be sure to take Dwayne later on.

sarahf: Ugh, so it’s back to me. Can we just do four rounds? (Apparently, we can’t. Nate says a snake draft has to be six rounds.)

OK, rapid fire!

She’s not going to run, but I’d like to see a Mazie Hirono ticket.

geoffrey.skelley: Why not two Hawaiian presidents?

sarahf: Indeed!

OK, Geoff. You’re up.

geoffrey.skelley: Hmm, one white male governor … but which one?

sarahf: I’m going to say Hickenlooper if you don’t.

geoffrey.skelley: I think I’ll go with — oh, there you go.

Yes, John Hickenlooper is my pick.

A little too think-tank-y, maybe.

But who knows, swing-state governor with a background as a brewery owner?

sarahf: Gotta get the craft beer vote and the yoga vote.

OK, Clare you’re bestowed the honor of two picks.

clare.malone: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, just to fulfill the prophecy, and … even though I don’t think she’s ever going to actually run, Michelle Obama because she, like Oprah, would also probably win.

sarahf: Obama/Oprah another interesting (although unlikely) ticket.

geoffrey.skelley: Because he’s seemingly interested, I’ll take Deval Patrick for Round 5, Pick 2.

Though if he does run, the New Hampshire primary is going to be a New England homer event with Warren and Sanders potentially in the running as well. But this could weaken New Hampshire’s importance.

sarahf: I think this is the point in the conversation is where we talk about John Delaney. So I’ll submit him as my option for this round, and unlike my previous pick, at least he’s running!

natesilver: OMG

sarahf: Who knows! He could have a better stump speech than Lincoln Chafee.

geoffrey.skelley: I haven’t heard Delaney talk about the metric system, so that’s a start.

natesilver: Why not just pick Martin O’Malley while you’re at it, at least he was governor of something.

clare.malone: And was in a band.

Is in a band.

natesilver: O’Rourke/O’Malley 2020.

geoffrey.skelley: But is “I’m bipartisan” the appeal that will work in the 2020 Democratic primary?

Count me a skeptic.

sarahf: OK, Nate. You get to pick two.

natesilver: My god, how much more of this.

I’ll take uhhhhhhhhhhhhh …

clare.malone: Will no one rid me of this troublesome snake draft?

natesilver: Eric Garcetti.

And the guy I always take, Doug Jones.

geoffrey.skelley: The Doug Jones Memorial Pick

natesilver: I think he’s more likely a VP than a top-of-the-ticket guy, but still …

clare.malone: He is facing a tough 2020 re-election fight as a Democrat in Alabama.

natesilver: Which might be a reason why he quits the Senate and runs for POTUS instead?

He was pretty outspoken against Kavanaugh.

Which doesn’t seem like a move you’d make if you’re focused on Alabama.

sarahf: OK, this is thankfully the LAST ROUND. And good news, Clare, you only have to pick one this time!

But I have to go first.

And I’m going to go out with Jay Inslee! I know, yet another exciting 2020 former-governor pick.

Plus, he’s recently said he’s not ruling out a 2020 run.

geoffrey.skelley: Western governors are actually a plentiful Democratic candidate grouping.

sarahf: OK, what’s your last pick, Geoff?

geoffrey.skelley: Well, the late rounds of drafts are where you pick sleepers.

So I’m going with someone who isn’t even elected yet but is currently running.

Andrew Gillum.

sarahf:

clare.malone: OK, me next?

sarahf: Yep, Clare. Take us home.

clare.malone: I’m going with Mitch Landrieu, who, correct me if I’m wrong, none of us picked earlier?

geoffrey.skelley: He’s all yours

clare.malone: White, Southern, progressive … yada, yada, yada.

geoffrey.skelley: I’d say the one name I expected but didn’t see was Steve Bullock.

natesilver: Some of these picks feel very 2024ish to me.

geoffrey.skelley: Gillum certainly could be if things go his way.

sarahf: So now we have to vote on this madness? Is that how this shakes out?

natesilver: I don’t even like my team this time, so I’m going to vote myself last to preserve my credibility.

sarahf: Here are our teams. Who wants to vote first?

2020 Democratic Primary Draft, October 2018

Round Clare Geoff Sarah Nate 1 Elizabeth Warren Kamala Harris Kirsten Gillibrand Joe Biden 2 Eric Holder Beto O’Rourke Cory Booker Bernie Sanders 3 Michael Avenatti Amy Klobuchar Jeff Merkley Sherrod Brown 4 Dwayne Johnson John Hickenlooper Mazie Hirono Oprah Winfrey 5 Michelle Obama Deval Patrick John Delaney Eric Garcetti 6 Mitch Landrieu Andrew Gillum Jay Inslee Doug Jones

natesilver: I like Geoff’s team.

clare.malone: I’ll rank ’em: Clare, Geoff, Sarah, Nate.

sarahf: I’d vote Clare, Geoff, myself and then Nate, I guess.

geoffrey.skelley: I’ll be that guy and vote for myself

clare.malone: Even more the #1 team, then.

sarahf: I think this means we have a tie between Clare’s team and Geoff’s team.

Quite the slate, y’all.

geoffrey.skelley: I think a late-primary debate between Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren would certainly be something to behold if the field were to ever shrink to two (who knows).

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

[news-monda]

[jennielim]

[news-sein]

[daveliuz]

[saraseo]

[ahouseoflies]

The Best Films of 2019, Part I

On one hand, I fear the direction of American cinema, and I feel more personally distracted from great art with each passing day. On the other hand, my viewing was up 5% from last year despite my belief that I’ve gotten choosier. I even approve of most of the films nominated for Best Picture. Are the offerings just top-heavy this year? Are my standards declining? Answering questions like those is part of why I present a paragraph or two on everything I see each year, though I can’t even imagine someone sitting down and reading all of this.

Full disclosure: I haven’t seen Just Mercy, Monos, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Good Boys, Frankie, For Sama, or An Elephant Sitting Still. The tiers, as always, are Garbage, Admirable Failures, Endearing Curiosities with Big Flaws, Pretty Good Movies, Good Movies, Great Movies, and Instant Classics. GARBAGE

129. Cold Pursuit (Hans Petter Moland)- A film professor of mine showed us Wings of Desire and City of Angels, its American remake, in order to show us how a film can technically cover a story while losing the essence that made it special. I can only hope that Hans Petter Moland's Norwegian original is better than his stab at an English language remake, which fails completely at balancing violence and comedy. The movie almost announces its own boredom with the protagonist as it shifts focus first to the villain and then to cops on the case, all of whom have artificial quirks to try to give them life where there isn't any. The Neeson character's journey toward revenge is empty, so the film drifts from him, but it doesn't have anything to say with the other characters either. 128. Domino (Brian De Palma)- Seeking revenge, a Libyan informant roughs up a potential terrorist by throwing him over a restaurant bar. Cut to two cops driving wordlessly. Cut to the Libyan guy dunking the other guy's head in boiling soup. That interruption spells out what the rest of the film does: De Palma could not be less interested in his replacement-level actor's shoddy policework, especially in the self-parody of the last twenty minutes. Any intensity the movie has comes from terrorists (or Guy Pearce over-salting a salad), and then the police drain the momentum. Just make a movie about terrorists, Brian! And, as I've urged you for years, get rid of Pino Donaggio. 127. Beach Bum (Harmony Korine)- Moondog, the spacey, Floridian hedonist poet at the center of the film, is supposed to be "brilliant" and "a good guy" at heart according to his daughter. But at the daughter's wedding, he shakes the hand of her fiance, whom he usually calls "limp-dick," and he says, "What's your name again?" The line got a laugh in my theater, but is it likely that he didn't know the name of his daughter's fiance? Especially if he's a good guy who doesn't hurt people on purpose? It's one example out of a thousand of Harmony Korine making the goofy decision instead of the one that would benefit character or story. I thought that Korine had taken a turn for the lucid with Spring Breakers, but he just isn't interested in making anything consistent enough for me. There's an hour of consequence-free episodes to follow, though I did cherish Jonah Hill's three improvised scenes, for which he tries a sort of Tennessee Williams voice. You can admire how audacious some of the choices are--describing Zac Efron wearing Jncos makes the film sound more fun than it is--but looking at the poster gives you about 70% of what you would get out of the long ninety-five minutes. Yes, McConaughey's shoes are funny, but what else have you got? 126. Fyre Fraud (Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nelson)- Half as good as the Netflix one. Please, by all means, explain to me what a millenial is again. 125. The Kitchen (Andrea Berloff)- One of my mentors stressed that Shakespeare worked in "cultural touchstones," truisms that weren't difficult to prove but served as a sandbox for all of the juicy stuff. So we all know that, say, too much ambition is a bad thing, but having that North Star at all times allows Shakespeare to ply his trade with character development and imagery and symbol. I know that The Kitchen isn't funny or cool or original, but it also doesn't really have an emotional or thematic core. It's a movie with neither the window dressing nor the window. I don't know what I'm getting at, but I watched the last five minutes twice to make sure that it actually was as anti-climactic and inert as I thought.

124. Climax (Gaspar Noe)- Ah, to be a provocateur who has made his best work already and took all of the wrong lessons from it. I don't envy Noe, who insists on formal rigor even when it adds nothing, who goes to greater, more desperate lengths to shock. A third of this film, embedded somewhere between the three openings, is gross young people talking, lewdly and clinically, about whom they want to bone. I thought I started watching French art movies to get away from locker rooms. 123. The Best of Enemies (Robin Bissell)- The supporting cast of Anne Heche, Wes Bentley, and John Gallagher Jr. avail themselves better than the finger-wagging, scenery-chewing leads, but that hardly matters in a movie this fundamentally broken. Apparently no one saw the problem with making a Ku Klux Klan president the dynamic hero of a school integration that he fought against, but that's how the story functions. He's the guy who casts the deciding vote and gives the speech at the end, but it's a bit anti-climactic for an audience that assumes, yeah, the White race is not morally superior to any other race. Congratulations on your realization, buddy. Long before that, Sam Rockwell’s character is inconsistent. Neither the Rockwell performance nor the Robin Bissell script can thread the needle between showing the heinous terrorist that a Klan member is and revealing the depth that foreshadows the character's change. The answer is to show the character being nice to his developmentally disabled son, which, again, doesn't get all the way there. That's cool that you love your own son, but, uh, that has nothing to do with the hatred that made you shoot up a girl's house because she has a Black boyfriend. Of course you can show these contradictions and changes in a character incrementally--lots of good movies have--but this one ain't going on the list. 122. The Intruder (Deon Taylor)- Probably the most two-star movie of the year. Prototypical in its two-starness. Instructive to me as far as what I give two stars. There’s a point of view error in the first twenty minutes that ruined it for me. ADMIRABLE FAILURES 121. Little (Tina Gordon Chism)- We're all good on body swap movies for a while. This one, otherwise undistinguished in its comedy or storytelling, is notable for just how specifically 2019 it might look in a time capsule: Here's a joke about transitioning as we're on our way to our job developing apps; there's a kid doing The Floss and talking to Alexa. Whoops! Bumped into a guy wearing a VR headset! 120. The Kid Who Would Be King (Joe Cornish)- I appreciate that somebody is still making movies for 9-10 year old boys, but I checked out hard and kind of just left this on until it was done. I don't like lore. Much less funny and urgent than Attack the Block, and it's crazy that this is the only project that came together for Joe Cornish in the intervening eight years. 119. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Michael Dougherty)- Exhausting and joyless in its large-scale destruction, Godzilla: King of the Monsters pitches everything at the same volume, and even the end of the world ends up not mattering as a result. Despite (or maybe because of) the presence of such great actors, the screenplay dilutes the characters by having three fighter pilots or three scientists when all the lines really could have been given to one of these interchangeable figures. That's first draft stuff, homie. Still, Kyle Chandler is kind of awesome as the weathered one shouting about how everyone else is playing God. He reminds me of Larry Fitzgerald toiling away with professionalism on teams that would never sniff the playoffs. 118. Blinded by the Light (Gurinder Chadha)- I made it about twenty minutes into this movie before flipping the switch and making fun of it relentlessly. It tries to strike the heart-on-sleeve authenticity that a Springsteen song does, but if The Boss never overwhelms you with language, almost every line of dialogue in this film spells out what the character is thinking. The overbearing father is especially intolerable: "What is this music? You need to get rid of distractions and focus on getting a good job so that you don't end up a taxi driver. Like me!" I'm only sort of paraphrasing. Blinded by the Light is too well-meaning to be offensive, but it's absurd in its spoon-feeding. LMK, ladies: On the third time that I have headphones in my ears during a conversation with you, and I start buttering you up with lyrics to "Jungleland," will you still love me? 117. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (David Leitch)- What a summer, huh? The go-for-broke final setpiece redeems the film somewhat, and Vanessa Kirby is a welcome addition to the universe. But Idris Elba's first line, responding to a question about who he is, is "Bad Guy," and the characterization doesn't go too much further. I feel as if I have honed the requisite disposition to enjoy a Fast and Furious movie, but that doesn't mean that the most cliched thing has to happen at the most cliched time in the most cliched way.

116. I Lost My Body (Jeremy Clapin)- Not for me ultimately. The film presents itself as above the tropes of cinematic romance but sure seems to circle around them. Clapin is willing to set up the pins of, say, "I'm actually the pizza delivery guy but have kept it a secret for a year," but he is unwilling to knock the pins down with anything resembling catharsis. I don't know if the French bowl, but feel free to substitute whatever kind of metaphor they might get offended by.

115. The Lion King (Jon Favreau)- I saw the original Lion King when I was ten: old enough to think that Disney movies were beneath me but young enough to know nothing about art or the world. And I remember the way that the songs transcended reality: "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" turning into a Busby Berkeley number, "Be Prepared" taking on an expressionist green tint. It was mass entertainment that was far from experimental, but I remember thinking, "Can you do that?" As an artistic experiment, this remake is kind of confounding, to the point that I don't know whether to classify it as an animated or live-action film. The final scene starts upside down, and your eye adjusts to the idea that you're looking at a reflection in a stream, but that stream is a Caleb Deschanel-aided, computer-generated reflection of a reality. However, I return to my original point: You're missing something if you think The Lion King is a better story if it's more realistic. Capably made as The Lion King 2019 is, no one is referencing 42nd Street. These Disney remakes just reference themselves. 114. Stuber (Michael Dowse)- The critical community has been pretty forgiving of Stuber; I guess because it's a type of studio film that used to be common but now is not. Judged on its own merits, however, it's labored. The screenplay circles around questions of masculinity, but not in a way that hasn't been done better in other recent comedies. Perhaps most disappointing of all, I've seen Iko Uwais and Bautista fight before, and it looked a whole lot cooler than the way they're sliced and diced here. The ending's sweet at least. 113. After the Wedding (Bart Freundlich)- Think of what Julianne Moore could have accomplished in the time it took in her career for her to shoot four crappy movies with her husband. This is the type of melodrama that makes more sense after all of the revelations have cleared the air, but that doesn't mean the preceding hour and a half was any more fun because of the aftermath. 112. The Goldfinch (John Crowley)- One day someone's going to figure out how to coherently adapt a Dickensian novel and actually do that thing Crowley is trying to do: condensing two hundred pages of back story into 1/8th of a page here or a line there. Somebody's going to be able to figure out the little moments that are important and the big moments that aren't. And you'll all be sorry. The movie is ultimately hampered by the bad ending of the novel, in which a person who isn't a mystery writer has to solve a mystery. Perfect casting for Luke Wilson though. He definitely looks like a whiskey-faced dad who would steal your social security number. 111. The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)- This movie is autobiographical. The protagonist has the same initials as Joanna Hogg, and she's attending film school at the same time Hogg did. But what a self-own it is for your hero, based on you, to be this inexpressive and restrained and deferential. The film is mostly about a cold romantic relationship--and I guess what the character learns through that experience--but when her beau's friend asks what she sees in him, she can't really say. Neither can the audience. I guess it's a skill to write a scene in which a family is having an argument that is so clenched-jaw reticent that the viewer can't even discern the topic of conversation for a few minutes, but it's not a skill I appreciate. 110. The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch)- Jim Jarmusch must be a very good friend.

109. Velvet Buzzsaw (Dan Gilroy)- If the film were funny, I wouldn't mind the lack of narrative drive. If the film had narrative drive, I wouldn't mind the lack of atmosphere--glaring for a film that circles around to horror eventually. If the film had more to say, I wouldn't mind how pedantically it says it. If the protagonist's change of heart made sense, then I wouldn't mind that his conversion apparently happens off-screen. At least most of the actors seem to be having fun. I wasn't. 108. It: Chapter Two (Andy Muschietti)- I started squirming in my seat during a sequence somewhere in the circuitous second hour. Bill sees his old bike in an antiques window, haggles with a Stephen King shopkeeper cameo, and finishes the scene on a triumphant note, believing that his old bike will ride like the wind. Cut to the bike falling apart on the road, deflating his pride with comedy. Cut to a flashback of him riding the bike with young Beverly, serene and warm. Cut to him riding the bike again with determination until he stops, terrified. Within fifteen seconds, the film jerks us into four divergent emotions at a whim. The overall tone felt just as arbitrary to me, and that's before we get to the always-unclear line between fantasy and reality. And this time, the flashbacks of each young character's encounters with Pennywise are less scary because we know they all live into the present. Andy Muschietti just does not have a light enough touch to make this movie work.The last forty-five minutes are interminable. But I had all the same gripes with the first chapter, so personal taste is a factor. 107. Trial by Fire (Edward Zwick)- Perfect example of a true story that could use some poetic justice. I don't want to give away anything that the first line of the imdb summary doesn't already, but this ending could have been much more satisfying by changing one or two lines. This is a movie that recreates, multiple times, babies burning alive, but the ending is somehow more punishing. It's also one of those films that should have just begun at the halfway point. If we can praise special effects when they're done well, then they should be fair game when they're this embarrassing. Zwick definitely put his flash drive into the Lifetime computers for fire.exe.

[flyingsassysaddles]

Top Secret: Delaware’s Clubs

(Inspired by @askaphmaine and their drawings because I love Maryland and the world always needs more Delaware in general) 

Classification: Top Secret clearance needed

Subject: State of Delaware

(Warning: the following names and descriptions of memberships and close clubs of the United States of America Representative State Congress may have been altered because D.C read this just as I was about to finish and now I have to make it sound like a goddamn legal document, because god forbid a state write anything that doesn't sound like Terms and Conditions contract. But I changed them anyway because screw D.C and I can do what I want.)

Alright, so you think Delaware is some backwater state who can’t tell right from left and is a weirdo who can’t tie his shoes? You can’t find Delaware on a map because he doesn’t sound important? Do you find it odd that sometimes Delaware refers to himself in the third person? Well, I’m here to clear up some of those stupid Yankee or redneck misconceptions and make you understand how great I truly am! And to do that, I’m going to give you a list of all the clubs and caucuses and whatnot that I’m a part of! Then you’ll see how awesome and genius I truly am and NO I’m not part of freaking Pennsylvania. That’s how you spell it right? I always forget.

Okay, let’s start!

The Chicken Duo:

Members: Me and Rhode Island

Purpose: I kinda forgot, but I think it’s mostly so Button (that’s my adorable blue hen that’s an absolute sweetheart) can have a friend. Rhode has a chicken too, but it doesn’t like to fight or anything, so we can’t have cockfights like in the good old days when it was legal. I think it was to counteract the Northern Cardinal Club that just grows more and more by the day (pick something original for god’s sake). And the Turkey Club, but all they do it make turkey puns.

The I-Don’t-Have-A-Single-Mountain Club:

Members: Me, Louisiana, Florida, D.C sometimes, Rhode Island, and Mississippi   

Purpose: No idea, but hey I’m in it! I’m number one cause I’m the most um, flat I guess? I ain’t got any mountains at all, and California keeps telling me that I’m going to be the first one to die in global warming. Yeah, I’ll make sure to say hi to Florida when that happens, Ms. Fake Nose.

The I-Was-Named-After-An-Old-White-Guy Troop:

Members: Georgia (the poor bastard), Me, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Jefferson when we’re feeling generous. Though we’ve been thinking about expanding it to old white ladies too because Maryland keeps nagging us and Maine is super scary when she wants to be, but then we have to change the name from old white guy to old white person, which I think makes it sound less funny.

Purpose: To talk smack about all the other states who got to be named after Native American words and just hang out I guess.

The I-Was-Technically-Named-After-A-River Club:

Members: Colorado (his name literally means red, how sucky is that?), Mississippi (duh),  and Me. They keep trying to throw me out because I’m part of the White Guy Naming club, but I was named after a river which in turn was named after an old white guy. So I fit in both, technically.

Purpose: We go fishing a lot, and basically talk about rivers and stuff. Though they keep throwing me overboard and bet how long I can swim before having to be pulled out. And they say conservatives and liberals don’t get along. God, I hate being short. Oh, and we smoke a ton of weed.

The Mason-Dixon Line States:

Members: Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Me. No, West Virginia and New Jersey don’t count. Though I’m not sure Pennsylvania does either, but we can’t throw him out cause then it would be just me and Maryland, and we both have like SUPER bad impulse control, so we’d probably end up dead or something. I’m pretty sure none of us want a repeat of the skateboarding goat incident (even though that was super funny and I got stupid rich from all the bets placed against the fact I could throw a goat into a lake and it could still ride a skateboard better than Alaska when he’s hungover).

Purpose: Argue about the Mason-Dixon line agreement, fight, talk smack about everyone, and wonder what side of the Civil War we should've been on (sorry, that’s just me and Maryland, PENNSYLVANIA has it all figured out). That’s about it. We also go to parties and stuff, but I try to avoid Pennsylvania like the plague because he never lets anything go and I practically see Maryland every day.

The Democratic State Caucus:

Members: I’m too lazy to list them all, but basically all the democrat states plus me.

Purpose: To vote against the Republican State Caucus and talk about how great it was when Obama was around. (I miss Joe Biden though, my one true awesome vice-president. Obama too I guess. But JOE was awesome. He was my senator for forever you know. I have him on speed dial cause he’s so awesome. Joe, Joe, Joe of the Jungle, watch out for that Republican filibuster, PLOP. I’m getting off track, aren’t I?)  

The I’ve-Been-A-Democrat-For-Forty-Years-And-I’m-Never-Going-To-Change Club:

Members: Me, Hawaii, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Rhode Island, Maine, wait, how many of us are there? Holy pajamas that’s a lot.Yeah, I’m not writing them all down. They have too much of an ego anyway.

Purpose: Just talk about how stupid Republicans are and where the country’s going. Basically, a group where you can talk about your opinions and stuff without being yelled at by Texas or the I’ve-Been-A-Republican-For-Forty-Years-And-I’m-Never-Going-To-Change club.

The Smaller-Side-Of-The-Spectrum States:

Members: Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Hawaii, and Me.

Purpose: “I am NOT short!” - All of us at once. That pretty much sums it up.

The I-Was-Once-Part-Of-Pennsylvania-Club:

Members: Delaware

Purpose: To talk about great Pennsylvania is and-  wait, how did this get here? This isn’t my handwriting. What even is this? The I-Was-Once-Part-Of- GODDAMNIT PENNSYLVANIA!

The No-Counties-Club:

Members: Me, Rhode Island, and Hawaii

Purpose: To complain about our counties and ignore the fact that they only have 5 and I only have 3. Yes, THREE! And they’re all annoying (please don’t let them know I said that).

The Tax Evasion Buddies:

Members: Nevada, Alaska, and me.

Purpose: “To find a legal team to make our laws better,” is what Nevada says, but not for me, no sir. Tax evasion makes me stupid rich, and where else are all the big companies going to go? DuPont and no-sales-tax for the win!

The Am-I-South-Or-North Trio

Members: West Virginia, Maryland, and me. W. Virginia keeps saying that he’s “Appalachian” or  Southern or whatever, but we’re not letting him leave cause then it’ll just be me and Maryland and again we both have like the WORST impulse control, and W. Virginia is the strictest guy I know so he has to balance us out or else bye bye humanity.

Purpose: To find comfort in the fact there are other states that feel like they don’t belong in the North/South dynamic in the Original Thirteen. Me and Maryland had it rough in the beginning, so we formed a club as a sort of “Middle” between the North and South, and once Western Virginia escaped from Virginia in the Civil War, we had three! So there’s that, I guess. Also it gets pretty lonely in the O13 if you aren’t a New Englander or a Southerner, so banding together helps. God, now I’m depressed.

The First-States:

Members: Just me and my awesomeness.

Purpose: To fulfill a dare that Maryland made that I wouldn’t make a club just for the First State (which I am) because I talked about it so much. Well in your face Mary Mary Quite Contrary, I actually did it! A club just for the First State, because I was the first person to sign the Constitution and I am NEVER letting that go. Ever. So screw the State Congress’s club rules, Delaware, the First State, gets what he wants baby. It also helps that I got all of the major lobbies on speed dial. Why? None of your damn business. *cough* tax evasion *cough*

Del-Mar-Va Trio:

Members: Virginia, Maryland, and Me.

Purpose: I don’t even know anymore. Maryland and Virginia fight like rabid dogs and they just never get along and I’m stuck in the middle of it and it’s just a huge soap opera. Last time I checked Maryland sent one of her crabs to tear up one of Virginia’s dresses and Virginia retaliated by making her foxhound follow Maryland around until she apologized, and as far as I know, that dog is still following her because Maryland’s as stubborn as a mule sometimes. I think we originally were trying to see if we could make a new state or something, unifying the whole Delmarva peninsula under one banner, but honestly, that scares me a bit. I mean, Virginia and Maryland have other territories than just the peninsula, but me? That peninsula is all I got. If we formed a new state, Delaware would cease to exist. And I’ve been through way too much crap to die in a sucky way like that. I’m going to go out in a blaze of glory with my state anthem screaming in the background with Maryland chucking crabs out of her crab-launcher and Pennsylvania screaming in terror behind me during the apocalypse or something. Now THAT is an awesome way to die.

(Executive Edit: This has been an informal draft sent to the Executive State Oversight Committee of the United States of America Representative State Congress in an attempt to “educate” the states on the committee, and to provide evidence that the state of Delaware was not, in fact, a main conspirator in the disastrous scandal now know as Skateboarding Goat-gate, and that this article proved his innocence. The trial overseen by the United States of America Representative State Congress has since found Delaware to be guilty. In turn, all of his previous writings have been confiscated and placed under high classification.  - Democratic leader of the United States of America Representative State Congress, the State of California. And I do not have a fake nose, you little shit.)

#this counts as a fic right? #then if so I have written something this week! #aph states #aph united states #aph delaware #aph maryland #hetalia #aph Pennsylvania #aph colorado #aph alaska #aph rhode island #aph d.c #aph louisana #aph mississpi #aph florida #you know what fuck it I'm not going to write them all down #classified #skate boarding goats #aph california #delaware #a made up congress #hetalia government stuff #that's all folks!