#tracy spacy

[finchers-ipad]

SE7EN FUN FACTS!! (SPOILER WARNING)

these are my favourite facts/little details about the production!!! a lot of them are from the dvd commentary, ‘David Fincher: Mindgames’ book and other random interviews i have consumed! :)

(thank you to @loosebonez for giving to an excuse to dump these and itch my brain!!)

- Fincher wanted to keep Kevin Spacy out of the marketing campaign for se7en so that his reveal would be all the more shocking, this included not having him in trailers, posters and even his name not being on the opening credits (and on letterboxd Spacey’s name isn’t at the top of the cast list like it normally would be for such a big role but it’s at the very bottom of the cast list, which is very cool and epic of letterboxd)

- (related) in the promotional material , the scene of John Doe’s phone call to Mills and Somerset is included, and because they were keeping Kevin Spacy out of the campaign, FINCHER DOES THE VOICE OF JOHN DOE WHICH IS SO FUCKING COOL!!

- Fincher wanted the film to be a “no colour, colour movie” and therefore kept the production and set design to a very gray/black/green colour pallet so that when colour is used it has impact and draws the audiences attention (seen most notably with the colour red for blood, Johns prison outfit being red to show he is a threat and stand out and the neon red cross over John Doe’s bed)

- Fincher was sent the wrong script when being asked to do the film, as there was multiple versions of the ending, and the ending he was supposed to be sent was one where Mills’s dog’s head is in the box at the end instead of Tracys head. it was in Brad Pitt’s contract that he would only do the film if it had the head in the box ending

- an extra in the back of the barbershop scene was drunk on set, and the extra sat in the chair was worried that he was going to cut him with a straight razor (which was real and not a prop because the props department ran out of them lmao)

- Clive Piercy and John Sabel, who designed John Doe’s diary’s spent 2 months and around $15000 (i found that number online but idk how accurate it is) to HANDWRITE a lot of the diary’s. obviously not all of them are hand written but the ones given close ups on camera and in the opening credits are. there are around 2000 notebooks. there is a special feature section on the dvd where you can listen to them explain how they created them and the ideas behind the information they put in them, it’s very interesting i highly recommend it :3

- in the back of the leather store scene, John Doe can be seen looking at Mills and Somerset through the window from the outside, he even has a limp like the guy working there mentioned. he has a limp because he cut his leg on a window when Mills was chasing him earlier in the film.

- se7en was heavily inspired by the neo-nior films of the 70’s such as ‘The French Connection’

- Andrew Kevin Walker (the scriptwriter) makes a cameo at the beginning of the film as the dead guy at the first crime scene before the opening credits

- Fincher and Arthur Max (production designer) wanted the city that the film is set to be nameless and unrecognisable, which lets the audience think that this type of crime can be going on in any city and all around them. they ensured the anonymity of the city by removing and changing street signs, creating police cars with their own unique design to the film. they also did no large establishing shots of the city, and if they did, they were shots of building exteriors and general unrecognisable images

-Fincher and Pitt both agreed that Mills is a selfish character, and should be presented as such. they amplified this by adding David and Tracey’s dogs last minute, to show that he is so selfish as to move these big dogs into a small city apartment

- there is a deleted scene of Somerset checking out a new house in the country side, which would have been at the beginning of the film and they really liked this cute little cottage that they filmed it at but it was RIGHT next to a maximum security prison so they had to put these massive barrels of hay in-front of the barbed wire to block the view of the prison 😭

- not a fact but the dvd commentary for se7en is available on spotify and it has the audio from the film too which is really cool (please listen to it just to hear how crazy Arthur Max’s voice is)

THANK YOU FOR READING MY INFO DUMP!!! i fucking love this film (if you couldn’t tell already) and i honestly probably have more facts but these are my favourites that come to mind!!! crazy film with silly guys that established Fincher as a director :) (sorry about any spelling mistakes) <3

#INFO DUMP #long post #se7en #se7en (1995) #david fincher #fincher #david mills #william somerset #brad pitt #morgan freeman #films

[huahsu]

YEAR OF WHAT HAPPENS ON EARTH STAYS ON EARTH

[longer version of what I contributed to the new yorker’s year-end package. you can read that here, and listen to the accompanying megamix the video team made! links to previous year’s lists at bottom.] I did not grow up going to church, and I am not a particularly religious person. A few days after the inauguration, I wandered into a nearby church and took a seat in the back pews. I’d gone there right after the election. There was some time for anyone with anything on their mind to stand up and speak. If you need others to pray for you, just let us know. A middle-aged black man in a leather jacket got up and began telling us about an argument he was having with a friend on Facebook. It was about the election, but it was actually about the intractability of racism. He was getting frustrated while describing it to us, in part because he seemed to value being the cool and level-headed one. Plus he was describing the kind of argument millions of people were having on the Internet. “I just hope he finds peace,” the guy said. He paused, then put his hands on his chest. “On a lighter note, today would have been Jimi Hendrix’s seventy-fourth birthday.” He opened up his leather jacket to show everyone his Hendrix t-shirt. “I just wanted to say that, because he was just awesome.” So I returned here, the day after marching through Manhattan with a poster that said “HOLD ON, BE STRONG.” I needed to be in a room that was powered by something other than hate--to be reminded of vision and purpose, even if they weren’t mine to claim. To listen to wisdom gleaned from a book I’ve never read, and pick and choose what I wanted. To hear others pour themselves into songs I never, ever sing along to. I wanted to steal their vibes.  Instead of a hymn, they passed out small pieces of paper with the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” This is not the type of church people come to for the music. The pianist started playing, and I remember thinking about how it felt like magic when I learned how to play those chords as a kid. I couldn’t believe we were doing this. We sang, tentatively at first, as though we could not believe these words in this space. Picture it: singing of “no heaven” and “no religion, too,” with humility and hope, inside a house of worship. It was like an admission that faith was inadequate. All we had was one another. “Imagine” is a song I’ve heard millions of times, the type of song that is so ubiquitous that we rarely bother scrutinizing its words, its vantage point, the possibility that someone wrote these words because he actually believed them. I sang along with a room of strangers, and we looked at one another, and, for the first time in months, I began to cry.   TWO LYRICS THAT REMINDED ME OF POLITICS EVEN IF THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS "Wrote this shit January 21″ “Take me back to November / Take me back to November” “I’M AN ANGRY TEENAGER” Novelist, “Street Politician” ONCE THEY START, I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE END Jim O’Rourke’s recently unearthed cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” Kanye’s sitcom-length remix of “Bed” THURSDAY NIGHTS ON NBC Ross from Friends’ very Madchester guitar-y Boiler Room set DJ Seinfeld, Time Spent Away from U Nino Man, Jadakiss and Styles P, “Friends”

IN ANOTHER YEAR FULL OF NIRVANA/KURT COBAIN REFERENCES (DID YOU SEE JAY:Z’S JACKET?) MY FAVORITE SONG, PROBABLY: this Trippie Redd snippet

SOME VERSIONS OF THE NINETIES THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK THE WAY GRUNGE ENNUI HAS, BUT WERE SO POSSIBILITY-RICH TO ME BACK THEN Kicking Giant, This Being the Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993 Helium, The Dirt of Luck/The Magic City LIKE MANY WHO LOVED “A STORM IN HEAVEN,” I OVERLOOKED THEM AT THE TIME Acetone, 1992-2001 A REALLY GOOD BOOK ABOUT ACETONE, LOS ANGELES, DREAMS OF GREATNESS Sam Sweet, Hadley Lee Lightcap WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS IN 1994, 2002 OR 2017 Big Thief, Capacity CREDIBLE AND DOPE EARLY NINETIES R&B HOMAGE, SAX AND ALL Joyce Wrice, “Good Morning” SPEAKING OF THE NINETIES, LEECH MADE A MIXTAPE OF JUST THE FLOATY/DREAMY PARTS TAKEN FROM CLASSIC GOOD LOOKING/MOVING SHADOW SINGLES Leech, “Just the Liquid” FOR THE COMEDOWN, DARK-ASS STUFF ASSEMBLED EXCLUSIVELY FROM SLIPKNOT SAMPLES Croww, Prosthetics NOSTALGIA, ULTRA (UK GARAGE/BASSLINE EDITION) tqd, ukg SUMMERTIME ‘SECOND SUMMER OF LOVE’ VIBE Opus III, “It’s a Fine Day (Burt Fox remix)” UNEXPECTED BURIAL SUMMERTIME VIBES Monic, “Deep Summer (Burial remix)” NO REISSUE OR  tk ANNIVERSARY TIE-IN, JUST SOME OLD SONGS I RE/DISCOVERED THIS YEAR Active Minds, “Hobson’s Choice” El-B, “El-Brand” Kamal Abdul Alim, “Brotherhood” Spiritualized in Reykjavik  U2, “Numb (Soul Assassins remix)” U2, “Mysterious Ways (Massive Attack remix)”

SAME, BUT TAIWANESE INDIE ROCK EDITION Chocolate Tiger, “Piecing Together” REISSUES, OR: PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WEIRD AND SPACY#, OBSESSED WITH NATURAL BEAUTY## # Planetary Peace, Synthesis # Pauline Anna Strom, Trans-Millennia Music ## Pep Llopis, Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonaut REISSUES, OR: WHEN I WAS A CHILD THERE WERE NO BETTER SONGS THAN THE ONES THAT PLAYED THROUGH TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE AND FOR SOME REASON THIS JOYOUS EP REMIND ME OF THAT SHEEN, THOSE HOOKS, THE PERFECT, THEATER-SIZED ECHO Om Alec Khaoli, Say You Love Me BEST ALBUM-LENGTH METAPHOR FOR THE CITY, ITS LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES Wiki, No Mountains In Manhattan SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE IT WAS DESCRIBED, JAMAICA VIA OUTER SPACE Equiknoxx, Colon Man I NEED TO GO OUT MORE Jex Opolis, “Mt. Belzoni” KH, “Question”

I LISTENED TO THIS ABOUT TEN TIMES, MY SENSE OF ENCHANTMENT GROWING AND GROWING EACH TIME, BEFORE REALIZING THERE WERE BARELY ANY DRUMS ON IT Mr. Mitch, Devout SERIOUSLY THE MR. MITCH ALBUM WAS REALLY MOVING AND FANTASTIC Mr. Mitch f/ Denai Moore, “Fate” CRAZY WISDOM MASTER Vince Staples, Big Fish Theory C’MON AND RAISE UP Rapsody f/ Kendrick, Lance Skiiwalker, “Power” SO ICEY Zomby, Mercury’s Rainbow ECHO PARTY Demen, Nektyr Evy Jane, “Give Me Love” THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Vic Mensa, The Autobiography DUNGEON FAMILY, EVEN IN DARKNESS Earthgang f/ J.I.D., “Meditate” FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY Lee Gamble, Mnestic Pressure Pessimist, s/t NOT SURE HOW THIS BECAME THE DIWALI OF 2017 BUT OKAY French Montana f/ Mariah, Rae Sremmurd, PNB Rock, Belly, Elephant Man, Vybz Kartel, J Balvin, NORE, Wizkid, “Unforgettable” HOW ARE THIS MANY PEOPLE ON A FOUR MINUTE SONG? GOOD VIDEO THOUGH A$AP Mob f/ A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Quavo, Lil Uzi Vert and Frank Ocean, “RAF” I LIKE IT WHEN FERG’S VOICE GETS ALL NAGGY Ferg, “Plain Jane” METRO BOOMIN MADE A BEAT THAT REMINDED ME OF RADIOHEAD Post Malone f/ Quavo, “Congratulations” THE MARIACHI VERSION IS PRETTY SWEET Brian Imanuel, “How I surprised Post Malone with a mariachi band” ”IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR LYRICS, IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO CRY, IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO THINK ABOUT LIFE...” JonWayne, Rap Album Two CORNBALL PIANOS AND THEN THAT SYNTH DRAGS, AND THEN THE DRUMS KICK Tee Grizzley, “First Day Out” “BUT WILD/WITH MY MONOTONE STYLE” 21 Savage, “Bankroll” Kodak Black, “Candy Paint” Rich Chigga, “Glow Like Dat” ANNUAL SPOT RESERVED FOR LA MUSICA DE HARRY FRAUD French Montana f/ Pharrell, “Bring Dem Things” WHEN LAETITIA SAYS HER OWN NAME ON “EMBERS” Vagabon, Infinite Worlds WHEN JESSIE LEANS INTO THE WORD “FUCK” Jessie Reyez, “Figures” THAT LIGHT MISTING, THAT CASUAL SPRITZ OF SYNTHS Lanark Artefax, “Touch Absence” A GOOD ANTI-DJT THING THAT CAME OUT EARLY THIS YEAR, WHICH FEELS LIKE EONS AGO Lushlife + friends, My Idols are Dead + My Enemies are in Power THE BABY, THE FLUTES, PIERRE’S OBNOXIOUSLY LONG TAG, THE JESSE LINGARD DANCE Playboi Carti, “Magnolia” ILLEST SHIT I SAW THIS YEAR, BABY-RELATED A child at a restaurant watching an iPad and an iPhone at the same damn time “[FREE] PLAYBOI CARTI TYPE BEAT” YBN Nahmir, “Rubbin off the Paint” GUNS N ROSES, BEFORE ONE OF THE WEIRDEST BEEFS OF THE YEAR Trippie Redd f/ 6IX9INE, “POLES1469″ SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO BELIEVE YOU CAN SING, AND DO IT WITH CONVICTION, AND I WILL LISTEN Trippie Redd, “Rack City/Love Scars 2″ ALL THE BACKGROUND NOISE/ECHOED-OUT ADLIBS MAKE THIS BlocBoy JB, “No Chorus Pt 10″ SMERZ HAS FUN DESPITE THE AWKWARD OF IT ALL Smerz on NTS IT SEEMS REALLY EASY TO MAKE A GOOD-SOUNDING SONG THESE DAYS Global Dan, “Off White” OF ALL THE DOPE SHIT THAT FUTURE APPEARED ON THIS YEAR, THE MOMENT I WILL REMEMBER IS That tiny pause before he sings “I need fresh air,” when he seems happy and content IS THAT A GEORGE MICHAEL SAMPLE? Mozzy, “Prayed for This” THE FIX C Struggs, “Go to Jesus” "IT’S COOL, BUT IT’S NOT...END ZONE” Lil Uzi Vert, “XO TOUR Llif3″ AN ALBUM BOOKENDED BY TOTALLY DIFFERENT KINDS OF COLIN KAEPERNICK/TAKE A KNEE REFERENCES Miguel, War and Leisure IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR Brockhampton, Saturation I-III SZA, Ctrl SPEAKING OF SZA: WHAT A GREAT TITLE, BESIDES IT BEING ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Kingdom, Tears in the Club THE KELELA ALBUM WAS LOVELY, AS ARE THESE Kelela x Bok Bok, Dub Me Apart A RANDOM YOUTUBE COVER THAT I ALSO LIKED, BECAUSE IT CAPTURED HOW MELODIC THE ORIGINAL ACTUALLY IS Kathleen Nguyen covering Kendrick and Zacari’s “Love.” DAMN. WAS GOOD Almost as good as “The Heart Part 4″ LIKE A DE LA SOUL ALBUM, SOMETHING THAT I KNOW I WILL CONTINUE ENJOYING/UNDERSTANDING ANEW FOR YEARS TO COME Tyler, the Creator, Flower Boy ”BLONDED RADIO” MADE ME JOIN APPLE MUSIC Frank Ocean, “Chanel” Frank Ocean, “Biking (solo)” Tyler and Frank, “Where This Flower Blooms” MACH HOMMY MAKES GOOD MUSIC THAT’S HARD TO ACCESS “x Earl Sweatshirt” EP ty Soundcloud IT’S A WEIRD TIME B/W THIS BEAT IS SO DEMENTED Tay-K, “The Race” PROBABLY MY FAVORITE PHARRELL BEAT Kap G f/ Pharrell, “Icha Gicha” MAYBE THE GREATEST MUSIC EVER MADE, REISSUED Pharoah Sanders

REMINDED ME OF PHAROAH, WHEN IT WASN’T REMINDING ME OF BON IVER Joseph Shabason, Aytche AND I ENJOYED AYTCHE FOR SIMILAR REASONS I LIKED ZONING OUT TO Tom Rogerson and Brian Eno, Finding Shore ANNUAL SLOT RESERVED FOR MUSIC I LOVED THAT FEATURED HARP Alice Coltrane, World Spirituality Classics Vol 1

SAME, BUT FOR HARP STUFF THAT ALSO SHOUTS OUT WAWA Mary Lattimore, Collected Pieces ANNUAL SLOT RESERVED FOR TASTEFUL VIBRAPHONE Jenifa Mayanja, “Warrior Strutt” YOU TRYING TO GET THE PIPE, TO PLAY IT, OF COURSE, AS PART OF AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPOSITION? Mary Jane Leach, Pipe Dreams THERE’S A MOMENT DURING THAT BAD BOY DOCUMENTARY CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP WHERE IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT EVERYONE WHO WORKS CLOSELY WITH DIDDY EVENTUALLY TURNS TO GOD, AND IT WAS LIKE THE STRANGE OBVERSE OF Jay Z et al, 4:44 footnotes 2016, BUT I SAT IN THE MET BREUER AND WATCHED THIS OVER AND OVER FOR ABOUT AN HOUR Arthur Jafa, “Love is the Message, The Message is Death” I WANT TO WATCH THE FULL FOUR HOURS OF THIS Dev Hynes talking to Philip Glass TRICKSTERY BUT KINDA MESMERIZING! Klein, Tommy Lolina, Lolita EP Hype Williams, Rainbow Edition “NOT ANOTHER GOT MORE SEOUL, UNLESS YOU KOREAN” (CHILLWAVE REMIX) Mogwaa, Deja Vu “THE TING GOES SKRRRAHH, PAP, PAP, KA-KA-KA/SKIDIKI-PAP-PAP, AND A PU-PU-PUDRRRR-BOOM/SKYA, DU-DU-KU-KU-DUN-DUN/POOM, POOM, YOU DON’ KNOW” Big Shaq, “Mans Not Hot” IBID., BUT “PERKY” Drake, More Life I WANTED TO LIKE THE WIZKID ALBUM MORE, BUT THIS WAS AWESOME Tiwa Savage f/ Wizkid and Spellz, “Ma Lo” LISTENED TO THIS QUITE A FEW TIMES SIMPLY BECAUSE ”BREAKING NEWS: WILD GOAT ON THE LOOSE” IS A WEIRD LINE Lancey Foux f/ AJ Tracey, Kojey Radical and Jevon, “Wild Goat” UNITED TIL I DIE BUT AJ TRACEY’S TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR KIT LAUNCH FREESTYLE HAD ME BUZZZZZZIN AJ Tracey, “False 9″ DIFFERENT TIME OF DAY, KINDA LEFT ME SPEECHLESS Grouper, “Children” Colleen, A Flame my love, a frequency Kara Lis Coverdale, Grafts Ryuichi Sakamoto, async LEFT RYUICHI SAKAMOTO ENVIOUS Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul FROM OMNI TRIO TO THIS, A PRETTY VISIONARY CAREER Robert Haigh, Creatures of the Deep A SONG THAT FEATURED TWO PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE PRETTY BIG IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS DJDS f/ Amber Mark and Marco McKinnis, “Trees on Fire” LIKE, THIS IS GREAT Amber Mark, “Lose My Cool” AWESOME YEAR FOR POTIONS Social Lovers, “Drop Me a Line” Boss, “Song for Gods” WHISKED ME BACK TO MEMORIES OF the enormous room Joakim, “Samurai” Calvin Harris f/ Frank Ocean and Migos, “Slide” Amp Fiddler, “I’m Feeling You” Chaos in the CBD, Accidental Meetings LIKE FALLING ASLEEP ON THE SUBWAY, OR A TRUCK HITTING A POTHOLE AND SPITTING OUT A RECORD COLLECTION, OR HEARING A NANOSECOND OF BRAND NUBIAN THROUGH SOMEONE’S HEADPHONES AS YOU PASS THEM ON THE STREET, IT’S A VIBE Standing on the Corner, Red Burns MIKE’S A SAVIOR Mike 1. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME THIS YEAR THINKING ABOUT THE STRENGTH, ELASTICITY, FRAGILITY, GRAIN OF THE HUMAN VOICE AND SOME OF THIS WAS TOTALLY NECESSARY AND SUBLIME Deep Throat Choir, Be Ok Diamanda Galas, All the Way Moses Sumney, Aromanticism 2. SO ACHINGLY GOOD AND INTIMATE, ESPECIALLY THAT FAINT CROAK IN THE FIRST CHORUS Rostam f/ Kelly Zutrau, “Half-Light” 3. OF COURSE THESE WORLD-MAKERS TOO Bjork, Utopia Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, The Kid Valerie June, “Astral Plane” 3a. A STRANGE PROPOSITION THAT I ENDED UP ADORING KAS covering Sade’s "By Your Side" THE BAY AREA IS JUST DIFFERENT Droop-E, Trillionaire Thoughts Lil B, Black Ken THE “BUILD YOU UP” VIDEO WAS FUN AND ALL BUT I’M REALLY GLAD THIS WASN’T THAT Kamiayah, Before I Wake THE BAY TO L.A. AND BACK AGAIN Mozzy f/ G Perico, “Blammatory” G Perico f/ Mozzy, “What’s Real” GYEAH MC Eiht, Which Way Iz West OUTRUN THE BEAT SOB x RBE, “Lane Changing 2″ BANDS THAT ALWAYS SOUND LIKE THEMSELVES, IN WAYS THAT I FIND COMFORTING the xx, I See You King Krule, The Ooz SAME AS ABOVE, MIDDLE-AGED DIVISION The Feelies, In Between Slowdive, “Star Roving” SOMEONE WHO SOUNDS LIKE NO ONE ELSE Jlin, Black Origami THE NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM Dreezy f/ 6LACK and Kodak Black, “Spar” I LOOKED UP EACH TIME THIS CAME ON THE SHUFFLE Shanti Celeste, “Loop One/Selector”

PROBABLY MY FAVORITE SONG GoldLink f/ Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy, “Crew” OR MAYBE Jorja Smith x Preditah, “On My Mind” THIS WAS SICK TOO GoldLink & Co. covering Outkast’s “Roses” MAYBE THE BEST SONG J Hus, “Did You See”

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER YEAR WHERE MY FAVORITE RELEASE WAS PROBABLY FROM YAEJI, THE “GLASSES FOGGING UP” LINE WAS VERY RELATABLE Yaeji, EP2 THE SONG OF THE SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER   I MEAN, IT’S WAYNE’S WORLD, WE JUST LIVE IN IT ### SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016 SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015

[tb5-heavenward]

talented amateurs (continued)

on we go.

continuing from here.

this one features a twist, but don’t worry, you’ll see it coming.

3 - moonlight and krav maga

She’s aware of the presence in her room well before he’s aware that she’s awake. The rhythm of her breathing doesn’t change, and she remains perfectly, convincingly still, waiting to see what will happen.

When a hand fumbles over her shoulder towards her face, even in spite of her razor sharp awareness, hardwired instinct kicks in, and Kayo seizes the wrist of the intruder, and performs some complicated feat of martial arts: weight versus leverage versus six years of krav maga—versus Gordon.

And she’s got Gordon pinned to the mattress with her knees bruising his biceps and her hand at her throat, before her brain catches up to her body and she recognizes the big brown eyes goggling up at her and realizes that he probably wasn’t looking for her.

Possibly she and Virgil shouldn’t have switched rooms, but the moonlight through the window of hers was going to keep her awake, she just knew it, and Virgil’s always so accommodating.

Possibly the first thing she says should be “Oops, sorry”, but it’s very late, and even if she’s wide awake, she’s still annoyed to have been woken up, as she peevishly informs her stunned and startled victim, “I’m pretty sure I’ve taught how to block that.”

“Not while I’m still half-drunk and looking for Virgil, you haven’t!”

Possibly that’s fair.

Kayo glances at the clock by her bedside and notes the time. “It’s quarter to three,” she scolds, and is aware that she’s still probably taking entirely the wrong tone for the situation. “What do you want with Virgil? Is something wrong?”

Gordon twists futilely against the expertly applied leverage of Kayo’s hundred and forty pounds of weight. “Yeah, you’re breaking my arms is what’s wrong!”

Kayo eases off and bounces a little as she sits back down on the opposite side of the bed, cross-legged in her proper set of cozy flannel pajamas, a wise choice in the drafty old manor. As an afterthought, she turns on the light. There are two doors into this particular guest room, one that leads out into the hallway, and the other adjoining another bedroom via a common bathroom. Gordon’s come through the bathroom door and left this open behind him, though he’s got to be chilly in a tank top and a pair of cropped yoga pants. With the light on, she notices that his hair is damp, freshly showered, its ends whorled into assorted curls and cowlicks, untamed by the usual palmful of hair gel. A little too late, she offers an apology, “Sorry. Get a bit twitchy sleeping in unfamiliar beds.”

“No kidding.” Gordon sits up and melodramatically massages his throat, glaring at her. “You are a maniac.”

“I’m head of security.”

“It’s Penelope’s house!”

Kayo shrugs. “And somebody snuck into my room and attempted to grab me. It’s a good thing I was prepared to deal with that.”

“It’s Virgil’s room!”

He’s got her there. She shrugs again, spreads her hands helplessly. “Well, I said I was sorry. What do you want with Virgil at a quarter to three in the morning?”

“None of your business,” Gordon mutters grumpily.

Possibly not, but he’s gone and got her curious now, and so she prods him in the ribs. “Head of security,” she reminds him. “Secrets are my business.”

Gordon glowers at her. “Not this secret.”

This is going to be entirely too easy. “Oh, so you do have a secret?”

There’s a moment of silence, to allow for the realization and he glares at her, as though it’s taken thumb screws and torture to get this out of him. He huffs indignantly. “So what if I do?”

“You’re terrible at keeping secrets.”

This is true, and Kayo can tell that Gordon knows it by the way his cheeks flush slightly, even as he protests, “I am not!”

Kayo’s nails aren’t manicured, but they’re neatly trimmed and filed and she makes a pointed show of examining them. “Well, presumably you were coming in here to tell it directly to Virgil, whatever it is.”

Gordon blinks at her. “…yeah, to Virgil. Everybody tells Virgil everything!”

Kayo shakes her head and offers some unsolicited advice, “I don’t tell Virgil anything, because everything I don’t hear from the rest of you, I hear secondhand from Virgil, because he’s a gossipy bastard.”

Gordon, by his own admission and by the eye Kayo had kept on the boys and the way they’d been drinking, is still fairly drunk. Kayo, being head of security and not particularly partial to alcohol anyway, is completely sober, hours away from the glass of champagne she’d had to toast Grandma Tracy’s birthday. As such, she can practically see the gears turning in Gordon’s head as he furrows his brow and narrows his eyes at her. “I don’t believe you,” he declares, eventually, either out of stubbornness or loyalty.

“Is there anyone else who would’ve been able to tell me that you were the one who left a bacon double cheeseburger to rot in the back of Scott’s car the summer before he left for college?”

There’s a scandalized gasp. “That was John!”

Kayo scoffs. “As though any bacon double cheeseburger in existence could possibly survive more than half a minute in John’s presence.”

This is relatively rudimentary detective work, and yet coming up on a decade since the offending incident occurred, apparently no one else had ever made that connection, John included. All the years he’s taken the blame for the incident are down to a remarkable degree of absentminded spaciness whenever he’s actually on Earth. Still, beyond that, there’s the fact that Gordon had told Virgil, and Virgil had told Kayo, and there’s no other way she could possibly know.

Defeated, Gordon scowls. “…that asshole.”

“Yeah, he can eat just about anything, it’s very unfair.”

“I meant Virgil.” He pauses. “John too, though, honestly. I hope he gets fat when he’s old. I’ll laugh.”

“Neither of them left a cheeseburger to rot for an entire semester in the back of Scott’s car.”

“Accidentally.”

Kayo waves a hand dismissively, because this is beside the point. “What I’m trying to say, though, is that you shouldn’t have told Virgil, because Virgil told me. If you had told me, I wouldn’t have told Virgil.”

Gordon cocks his head and squints at her. “Well, I didn’t know you, then.”

“Hypothetically, though. I’m just saying, Virgil’s not the place to go with secrets. That’d be me. Head of Security. I’m good with secrets. Kept my uncle a secret for nearly five whole years, didn’t I?”

“I guess.”

This is maybe not the best example to lead with, in terms of her trustworthiness, but Kayo presses doggedly on. It’s become a point of principle, now, that Gordon’s got a secret and she wants to know what it is. “So what happened?”

“I don’t wanna tell you.”

“What if I can guess?”

“You’re not gonna guess.”

“Bet I can.”

“Bet not.”

“If I can’t, how about I tell you a secret?”

Gordon scoffs. “What do I care about your dumb secrets?”

Kayo smiles, secure in the knowledge that she’s not going to be revealing anything of consequence to Gordon tonight. “Well, my last secret was that I’m a blood relative to a supervillain. And this one? You wouldn’t believe me even if I did tell you.”

Gordon shifts on the bed beside her, kicking the bedclothes down and burrowing beneath the blankets with a shiver. “How about if you can’t guess, then I get your bed? I’m freezing.”

“Virgil’s bed,” Kayo corrects primly. “…But okay. Yeah, sure. But if my nice warm bed is at stake, then you have to give me ten yes or no answers to ten relevant questions.”

“Three.”

“Five.”

“Sold.”

Kayo claps her hands together, brusque and businesslike. “Don’t get comfy,” she warns, and then starts in on her inquiry. “Is this a good secret?”

“Hell yeah.”

A very good secret. That’s a start.

“Is it something that happened recently?”

His enormous grin is a better and more immediate answer than his eventual, “Yup.”

Well, that one was a bit of a gimme, but Kayo’s feeling rather charitable. She narrows her eyes at Gordon, maintains the pretense of suspicion as she asks, “Is it a secret Virgil would’ve been surprised to hear?”

That one trips him up a bit and he seems to need to think about it for a minute. Even when he does start to answer, he still seems a little bit uncertain. “Y…hm. No, maybe n—hm. Well, but yea—hmm. Umm. Hm. Yes? Yes. Qualified yes.”

Kayo folds her arms. “You can’t have a qualified yes, unless you’re going to qualify it for me.”

Gordon, despite her warning not to do so, reclines against the heap of pillows mounded up against the headboard and rubs at his nose, as he clarifies, “He’d have been surprised about the how it happened, maybe, not so much that it did happen. I kinda. Uh. Kinda I told him it was gonna happen? Maybe. Sort of. Definitely he had a heads up. Tonight was gonna be, like, the night.”

“The night?” Kayo repeats, probing, and hoping he doesn’t notice that this is technically a question, and technically not of the yes or no variety.

Gordon gives her a pointed look to let her know she’s not getting away with it—but then answers anyway. “Yeah, like you know. The night. Yes or no. Do or die. I’m gonna be twenty-five in February, you know. Valentine’s day. That’s a whole quarter of a century. That’s a whole lotta Valentine’s Days.”

Kayo shrugs. Her twenty-fifth birthday is only two weeks after Gordon’s, and she hasn’t imbued it with nearly the same level of significance. Age is just a number. “So?”

“So, maybe I wanna spend the next quarter not being quite such a goddamn sucker, is what. Maybe I figured it’s time I grow the hell up, a bit, right?”

She shrugs again. “Sure, right.”

“Right.” Gordon pauses and squints at her, suddenly suspicious and admitting that he hasn’t really been keeping count, as he asks, “Is that five questions?”

Probably not technically. Kayo’s pretty sure she only needs one more, anyway. Really, everything else was just confirming an initial suspicion, based on the very particular way the bedside light hits Gordon’s jawline. “I think I have one more.”

“So hit me, Kay.”

“This big, quarter-century secret have anything in particular to do with the lipstick on your face?”

The smack is audible as Gordon’s hand flies to the side of his face, covering the mark of a shimmery pink lip print on his skin, glinting just-so in the light, bright and unsubtle and oh-so-obviously Penelope’s colour, when one knows what one’s looking at. Kayo doesn’t wear a lot of makeup, but she knows what she’s looking at. Slightly more telling is the way Gordon’s suddenly blushing, his brown eyes wide and still a little bright from the alcohol still in his system. “Is that still there?” he asks, a sort of vaguely startled whisper. He pulls his hand away from his face to check his palm, though he hasn’t even smeared the silvery little mark. “I did take a shower,” he tells her, almost apologetic.

“Yeah, well, you missed a spot.” But Kayo grins at him, reaches out to give his blanketed knees a shove. “But wait, though. So you kissed her?”

Gordon’s not usually shy about much, but there’s definitely something bashful about his smile, as he rubs at his jaw, glances at the palm of his hand again. “Yeah. Little bit. She started it, though.”

Kayo feels her grin widen slightly, in spite of herself, feels the ache of it in her cheeks. “Dude, nice.” She’s not entirely sure what Virgil would do in this situation, but for lack of anything better, she holds her hand up for a high five.

For the barest moment, Gordon seems taken aback—but he brightens immediately and sits up to return the gesture, a solid, exuberant smack of his palm against hers, and now he’s just absolutely beaming about it. “Yeah,” he says again, and Kayo can’t actually recall if she’s ever seen him quite this pleased. “Little bit.”

And she’s just as happy for him, too, and she pulls her knees up to her chest, wraps her arms around them. This is turning into a proper sleepover, though really she ought to be getting back to sleep, and so should Gordon. Still, she can’t quite help asking, “How was it?”

Gordon just drops himself back onto the pillows with a dreamy sigh. “Oh, man.”

Kayo permits herself a giggle, at that. “That good, huh?”

“Better.” He hums softly to himself, a tuneless little sound of absolute contentment, as his eyes fix on the coffered ceiling overhead. “I almost kinda don’t wanna go to sleep,” he says, though she can hear the yawn that wants to creep into his voice as he says it, “because what if I forget? What if I forget about how goddamn good it was—and it was goddamn perfect—or…or what if I forget about how it happened at all? Except it definitely happened, though. It’s just how I never would’ve figured that she’d kiss me. But she did! She totally did; she did that, that was her. Penny. Penelope.”

That must be the part that Virgil would’ve been surprised by, because even just by the way he says her name, it’s always been an open secret that Gordon might want to kiss Lady Penelope. That the reverse might be true—a tiny, wary little part of Kayo is made just slightly suspicious by the notion, something about it trips some hardwired “Head of Security” pathway, makes her worry about the thought of him being taken advantage of—but of course she’s not about to say anything. Not now, at least. “Well, if you want some more tangible proof, I’m pretty sure there’s a little bit of a lovebite on your collarbone, too.”

This is apparently not something Gordon had realized, though his fingertips go exactly and immediately to the slightly more permanent mark Penelope’s left on his skin, so apparently his prospective doubts about his memory are unfounded. If he was blushing before he’s absolutely crimson now. “Okay! Wow! Okay! Okay, so—so! That’s a thing. Guess that happened too! Oh man, I am never gonna get to sleep now. I’m just gonna lie awake all night.”

“Probably,” Kayo agrees solemnly, and then kicks Gordon’s knee gently from atop the blankets. “But as much as I’d like to braid hair and paint nails and talk about kissing, you should probably go lie awake all night in your own bed, Gordon.”

There’s a slightly embarrassed pause. “I think I accidentally locked myself out of my room when I had my shower.”

“Well, that certainly sounds like you.” Kayo kicks him again. “Good thing your room has two doors.” She points at the one that leads to the hallway. “Look, so does mine!”

Gordon whimpers melodramatically. “But it’s gonna be cold.”

Kayo smirks at him and gives him another solid kick. “Suck it up, loverboy.”

The blond groans in the way that other people groan, when he makes jokes, but he pushes back the blankets and heaves himself upright with a sigh. “I see what you did there.”

“Mmhm. Get out of my bed, or I’ll get you out myself, and if it comes to that, then the hickey will be the least of your bruises.”

“It’s not your bed, it’s Virgil’s bed,” Gordon grumbles, but he goes, though he rubs his hands up and down his arms as he does so, and lingers by the door out into the hallway. Kayo’s still sitting cross-legged on her bed, watching him, and she makes a little shooing motion as he hesitates. “Yeah, I’m going, I’m going…but…Kayo?”

“What, Gordon?”

“Thanks. For letting me tell somebody.” He flashes her another quick smile across the room, as his hand finds the door handle and he pushes it open a crack. “Don’t tell anybody else though, okay? I, um, I dunno how Penny would feel about that.”

Kayo smiles back and nods, mimics the action of locking her lips and throwing away the key. “I won’t repeat anything you’ve said,” she promises solemnly. “Head of security, remember. Very good at secrets. Cross my heart. Try and get some sleep. Long flight home after breakfast tomorrow.”

Gordon nods and mocks a little salute in response. “Thanks, Kay. G'night.”

“Good night, Gordon.”

The door—one of three, actually, in Virgil’s bedroom—closes softly behind him. Kayo remains sitting on her bed, cross-legged and listening intently, as his footsteps recede down the corridor. She strains her hearing against the sound of the wind outside and the creaks and moans of an old English house, but she doesn’t hear the sound of his door opening, further down the hallway.

The third door in her bedroom belongs to the closet, and there’s a soft knock from within. A moment later, Virgil pushes it open and steps out. Kayo tosses him the t-shirt he’d lost between the bed and the nightstand, before they’d been so rudely interrupted.

“Well!” he comments, tossing it over his shoulder as he makes his way back to bed. “That’s a development, hey?”

#talented amateurs #pen and ink #gordon tracy #kayo kyrano #some kind of creative doubt

[thephilosopheroftheboudoir]

Ahora Mazda

Spacy Tracy

#ahora mazda #krautrock

[invisibledon]

What’s in the Box

What’s in the box?

Even if you have not seen the movie Se7en, you probably know the line from the movie uttered, muttered, and screamed by Brad Pitt’s character Det. Mills, “what’s in the box”

Spoilers ahead, I know 1995, was over 20 years ago, but some people with an interest in seeing it may not have seen the movie.  For example, my son and his girlfriend had not seen the movie.  We watched it the other day, their first time seeing the movie, my, I don’t know, 30th time seeing the movie?  I’ve seen it more than once and less than 100 times.  Not the point.  What is in the box.

The movie is about a killer, acting out crimes based around the seven deadly sins.   Quickly they are Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Wrath and Envy.  

Each sin has a crime associated with it or so we are lead to believe.

There is some debate about the end of the movie, because what is in the box is never shown. Again, spoilers read no more if you want to watch this movie untainted.

Most people seem to think that Det. Mills’ wife’s head is in the box, which pushes him to commit the sin/crime of Wrath/Murder.

However, I’m not convinced that Tracy Mills’ (Gwyneth Paltrow) head is in the box.  

Det. Somerset (Morgan Freeman) does see the content of the box. Somerset knows things that only Tracy Mills knows and no one else.  She is pregnant.  She confides this to Somerset away from her husband.

John Doe, the killer (Kevin Spacy) shows up a few times in the film before you know he is the killer. John Doe knows who the investigating detectives are and taunts them.

The question mark for me comes with the sin/crime John Doe says he has committed, which is the sin of Envy, in that he longs for the life that Det. Mills and his wife have.   However, the sin of envy does not require a physical action, only a mental one, to want what others have.

After several crimes are shown, John Doe turns himself in and then promises he will confess and plead guilty to all the crimes if they go with him to find the last two bodies.   Prior to turning himself in, John Doe arranges for a package to be delivered to Det. Mills at this remote location at a specific time on a specific date.   Yeah, this is the box.  

Somerset cuts off the delivery driver, opens the box and then runs back to Mills 100 yards or more away.  During the time in which Mills and Somerset are apart, John Doe says to Mills, he cut off Tracy’s head.

However, because you never see the head, is she dead or not?

Envy does not require an action.  John Doe wants to die, but suicide is a sin so he cannot kill himself and he technically does not kill any of the other people, he puts them in positions to decide to live or die, kill or not kill, each placed in a test of their will.  Each person could have refused to do what they were doing and may or may not have died.  I don’t think John Doe would have killed any of the others and been frustrated by their determination not to commit the crimes.   The “victims” were all weaker in their will to resist their sins and committed them.  John Doe even lets Mills live when he could have killed him multiple times.

John Doe will not commit the crime of murder an unforgivable sin, and is avoiding suicide also an unforgivable sin.

There is no scenario where John Doe would not have died, he wants to die. How do you accomplish this without sinning and going to hell?  Make someone believe you are committing crimes and have them kill you.  

Which comes back to the test of will, Does Mills resist what he does not know to be true or does he act on his emotion and commit murder.  If the murder was unjustified it is likely to have a bigger impact, in that an innocent person was killed.

Tracy contemplates an abortion because the world is no place to raise a child. Somerset knows this, John Doe may have known this. Mills does not know about Tracy’s pregnancy until the set up.

My conclusion is that John Doe followed Tracy, after she had an abortion took the fetus and packaged it, maybe with a card that says Happy Father’s Day or something, and has it delivered to the remote location.    

Maybe is it her head in the box, but I have my doubts because John Doe really has only committed a few assaults, the other deaths were all suicides or murders by other people.  

Assaults are not hell worthy trespasses.  David Mills rots in prison a murderer, Tracy Mills mourns him and the life they could have had, John Somerset must live with the reality, as much as he hates the world around him, he does nothing to change it, even when he can.

What do you think was in the box?  

Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely 

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday 

Today’s title:  Line from the movie Se7en

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Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. 

Ciao,

 Invisible Don

 PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don

 Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015, Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards