#we love our coal mining jobs
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Howdy! Ringin' in from a recently Ex-asteroid-mining colony somewhere in the Long Rim: Not gonna say where exactly just in case. Saw somebody else talkin' bad about one of your... Pattern-Groups? An' I figured "Well, hey; I'll throw in my two Manna."
It was a Kobold; We loaded the code for one into a mining mech when the two-faced snakes (not sayin' who they were with: Hush-Hush-N'-All-That-Shale) that had hired on all of our families on for the place ages ago tried to wreck it for reparations, since the asteroids were running out of anything they wanted to sell. Looked like homemade sin while it was... changin' and all, but it wound up being a massive help for me an' mine, lemme tell ya!
They sent in a bunch of hired-on pirates to tear the place apart: I'm guessin' to deflect any suspicion and make it easier to claim reparations. We managed to catch a few in the frenzy and got the information out of 'em about who hired them for the job. As you can guess it, it was those money-grubbin' bastards that had dragged all of the miner's into the colony.
Still, thanks to some quick thinkin', a few rigged-up explosives, some repurposed mining gear, and a helluva lot of polymer from that mech, we fought 'em off and got word out to enough people that the bad press would'a "ruined their name" apparently, and the sheer backlash would've ripped the place t' bits.
You'd expect it all to get buried (an' us with it), but somehow, we hit a lucky strike: The rest of the pirates were told we'd be an easy target and got pissed at the snakes when we weren't, so they up and quit, and then the higher-ups of those miserable misers raked those bastards over the coals and threw out the lot of 'em! After the debris settled, we've got collective ownership of the colony as "reparations" from the higher-ups. Personally, I think they didn't want to risk a potential uprising so far from home, so they cut their losses, turned tail, an' went to lick their wounds.
Either way, we're free!
We couldn't do it without your mechs-n'-tech, y'all. Things are finally lookin' up where we're at. As for what we'll do from here? Don't quite know, myself. Some of us think we'll try an' make the place a trading-hub: Others wanna make a rest-stop for people to stop fer a bowl of home-made cookin' and a warm bed that ain't in a ship.
Whatever we do from here? We're doing it as everyone ough't'be: as Free People.
- Signed, One Very Happy Heavy-Equipment Operator.
we love to see it!!!! congrats on the freedom our friend causes like that are what the kobold was made for
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body horror and erotic writing under cut. also its long
I'd been living on my own for seven months. When I'd left my old job, my boyfriend split to find someone who could stand on her own two legs. I had to move, sell some old things to keep myself afloat. This new place was nice but it felt like a prison. I think I could hear water splashing around inside the walls when it rained. I was on the second floor of a block of apartments in the siren song part of town, right next to the highway. Rain would soak the concrete of the hall outside my place.
Thunder strikes and takes out my power for a minute or so. Before I can find a battery powered lantern, the lights come back on and someone is knocking at my door. Through the peephole I see who it is... she looks better than when I had last seen her. I crack the door open and ask what she's doing here. "Just wanted to see how you were, I was just in the area," that velvet voice, like honey down my ears I thought I would never hear again. I lie to her that things have been good, and offer her to come in to recover from the rain. She shook her umbrella to relieve it of some rain and placed it beside the door. As she steps into the light of my home, her raincoat seems to glow. She looks plainly angelic.
She slips off the coat and speaks again, "I've heard murmmers of what you've been up to," she takes off her boots and sits upright in a recliner by the couch. I sink into the couch and she gives me a smile warmer than sun, "I'm sorry to hear about your partner, and your having to move. I had always worried about you, but you seem to have things handled nicely now." She puts one leg over the other and leans into the armrest, placing her slim chin in her hands. "Do you have tea? Coffee?" I tell her I have a kettle stowed away somewhere in a cabinet, and I'd be happy to make some tea if she would also have some. "Lovely," she says. Lovely. Her gaze sends fire to my heart, keeping an eye contact with me that bores through to the back of my skull.
I find the kettle above the fridge and grab a couple tea bags. As I click on a burner, she makes a small commotion behind me, some sliding and thumping. "I've been promoted. Not a big bump in pay, but it comes with good benefits." The kettle breathes gently. "I can put in a good word for you, probably get you hired for some position higher than when we worked together," now she's in the kitchen with me and she leans against the counter into my field of view as I look for the right mugs. I tell her I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting any guests. She picks a mug for herself, one with a fox painted on it. "It's alright, I didn't exactly announce my visit." She pauses for a moment, looking into her empty cup before placing a teabag fully into it. "Besides, I like to see people as they are, not how they present. I realize that sounds odd."
By now the kettle is screaming. She goes to turn off the heat the same time I do, bumping me before laying her palm over the back of my hand. The stove clicks off, and she puts her other hand on my waist, turning me to face her. "You don't talk much, that's alright, you can just listen. I want you, I want you to love life, I want your life to be good. I've already convinced my supervisors, you'll have a job as long as you accept the interview." She removes her hand from my waist and pours the kettle into our cups. I don't know what to say, my guts feel like hot coals. She leans back against the counter and stares into me as she blows into her cup.
"It's rather out of the way, we'd have to take a plane... And I'd be remiss to let you go without me." She steeps her teabag, which reminds me my hands are on fire around my mug. "Let me get that for you," She sets down hers and deftly takes up mine, setting them side by side on the counter. She takes my hands in hers and looks into me. "You're burning up." I am. "Your ears are red." They are. I want to be hers.
She releases my hands and wraps her arms around me, pressing our bodies together. She moves in for a kiss and I can't think. As my eyes drift closed she keeps hers open, running her fingers through my hair. She pulls away. "Let's see your bed." I tell her we should see my bed. "Sounds lovely."
She drops me into my sheets and unbuttons my shirt, running her hands up my neck, keeping herself clothed, keeping me held down. "You're gorgeous" She tells me. I'm gorgeous. "Your skin is so soft." My skin is lovely. "I want to feel all of you." Sounds lovely. All I can do is pant, my higher brain function completely consumed by her. My peripheral vision turns to fog, all I see is her. "I want you. I want all of you," She pulls off my bra, snapping the hooks around the back and places a hand under one of my breasts. "I need all of you," she says as she pushes Her hand into me, between my ribs, molding my skin like clay, bone like plastic. It doesn't hurt. She wouldn't hurt me. "That's right, I love you.
I feel myself warp. I feel bones inside me break painlessly, lovingly. She now has two hands inside me, pulling apart my ribcage, exposing my innards to the open air. "You're beautiful," She tells me as Her smile seems to split Her face in two. I love Her. She loves me. She stares into me, She places two thumbs on my neck and pulls me apart. I love Her. She slips a hand up into my throat, and I feel Her nails scrape against me. She drags them back down me, and for just a moment I feel pain. My mind numbs again. Her clothes seem to melt into Her. She intertwines our fingers, and I feel my skin meld with Hers. A chill runs down my body. I love Her. "Give me everything." I will give Her everything. She runs a nail down my stomach, freeing more of me to Her. She opens Her mouth, and skin tears along Her middle, revealing shards of bone and ribs placed along like teeth, and I see into Her and it seems to go on for miles. She's raw, She's real. She's gorgeous.
She places an especially thin hand flat on my face and I feel Her fingers fuse with my flesh, Her bones and nails melting into my skull. My vision fades completely. She's taken my eyes, taken them into Herself. I love Her. I feel my skull soften, turn to rubber, and pull itself apart into Her. The meat of my head rubs against my brain, and everything starts to hurt, everything starts to burn with pain, searing unbearable. I don't love her. Oh my god I don't even know her, fuck, she's torturing me, she's consuming me, I had a whole life and I'm giving it to Her, and She's gorgeous. I love Her. My limbs are stick thin. She pulls me into Her, skin scraping against those jagged teeth inside Her. I'm going to become a part of Her. I'm going to give all of myself to Her, become Her. Become Her. I love Her. I love you.
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What’s Lost is Found
Ch.5: The Hound
Other Chapters
Screech thundered down the line, coal cars from the Henaint mines stretched behind her, and Avon's mid-day train in front of her. The strain of constantly starting the long train was hard work even for an engine of her size...
Screech loved it. The feeling of hard work stretching her cylinders and motion, of actually being challenged as she took the weight of both trains. Avon had initially tried to pull her share of the weight until she saw Screech happily panting after the first run. She had rolled her eyes and grumbled something about crazy mainline engines that Screech didn't quite catch. The next run Avon had just pulled enough to keep her weight off the train and let Screech do the work.
The climb to Din failed to slow the train. Screech whistled in gleeful challenge, the passengers shuddering at the feeling of the sound twisting around their minds.
The sound startled the birds from the vibrant green treetops around them, and the sky was filled with fowl and smoke.
They plunged into the tunnel, Avon's answering whistle echoing along its length even as they burst through onto the viaduct. Hikers in the valley below stopped to take in the sight of the two engines racing atop the stone arches.
They reached Din early, stopping at the points to uncouple Screech and her train, allowing Avon to continue to the station while Screech shunted the coal trucks into their sidings.
Once their trains had been sorted the two were parked at the shed while their crews took their lunch break in the crew hut.
For a moment all was quiet. Avon sighed happily in the shade of the shed. Screech took the chance to unfurl herself without risking her human crew, the shadows and light twisting around her in a nauseating kaleidoscope of angled and colors, tendrils sprouted and lay on the ground around her like Medusa's mane, and her eyes glowed as brightly as the sun above them. The two, engine and beast, had almost dozed off before a commotion erupted behind the shed.
Mali came skidding around the corner, clutching something to her chest, snarling and yapping coming from behind her.
Before either engine could react she had leaped onto Screech's running-board and pressed herself against the eldritch engine.
Her pursuer rounded the corner, only to come face to face with Screech. The mongrel stared down the eldritch behemoth before it, matted fur standing in end at the sight as countless tendrils rose into the air, ready to strike.
"I would suggest you hunt elsewhere," Gwyllgi suggested mildly, the ground shaking under the restrained power of her voice.
Unfortunately, the mutt had less sense than grooming and chose to growl at the shadow before it.
Screech's eyebrow twitched before she stretched a tendril toward"s the mongrel.
Flick
***
Bowrooooooooo...
The town of Din looked up to see a mangy hound flying north towards the sea as if thrown by a giant.
***
Far away on the Cronk and Harwick Narrow-gauge Railway...
"And how would you care for a dog?" Sapphire asked amusedly. The quarry Hunslet was basking in the sun before her next train.
"Our crews could feed and water it." The 2-6-4 across from her bounced excitedly as she shunted the wagons of hay together.
Jenning stirred lazily next to Sapphire, "It's not your crew's job to care for your pet."
"Further," Sapphire continued before Leek could answer, "where would you even find a dog?"
The large tank engine pouted, "I'm sure I could find one."
Sapphire snorted, "I'll make you a deal Leeks," the 2-6-4 perked up. "If a stray dog finds its way to the sheds, we'll ask our crews if you can keep it."
"Deal!"
Jennings rolled her eyes, "here we go again."
Sapphire smirked and whispered to Jennings, "Unless one falls from the sky, there's no way a stray dog makes it to the shed without a child claiming it."
The 0-4-0 considered a moment before nodding in agreement, "Fair enough."
Leeks tilted her head, "what's that noise."
The engines all listened.
A sound could barely be heard in the distance, growing louder quickly.
"AaarrrrrrooooooooooooooOOOOO!"
Crash!
A black shape hurtled from the heavens, smashing into the line of hay wagons. Hay and wood flew everywhere as the object plowed through the wagons, finally slamming to a stop against the back wall of the last truck before Leeks.
Silence reigned in the yard for a long moment. Leeks had flinched back from the impact, closing her eyes against the rain of hay and splinters. She slowly opened her eyes, peering cautiously at the back form in the wagon before her. The shape groaned, raising a matted head drunkenly.
"Aroo?"
"A dog!" She exclaimed, her safety valves lifting in excitement. "The Lady sent me a dog!"
"Are we even sure that's a dig and not a bloody gremlin!" Screech swore.
"Gremlin. Yes, that's their name! Who's a good gremlin!"
The mongrel managed to tiredly wag its tail under the hay.
Sapphire flinched back from the glare from Jennings's direction.
***
Screech collapsed herself back into hiding, grimacing at the nosebleed Mali had already developed.
Mali slowly uncurled from her position on Screech's footplate, her hand clasped around something.
Freda and Gwyn came around the corner followed by Avon's crew, drawn by the commotion.
"Mali dear are you alright?" Freda asked, pulling out a rag to wipe at the nosebleed.
"Yes Miss Freda," Mali said, wincing as the blood was scrubbed away. "I lept onto Screech's running board to get away from a dog and she was unfurled..."
"Be grateful that was all that happened Little Thief." Screech warned, "Had you looked too closely you could have been driven mad."
"Well, I had to save her!"
'Who is this her,' the whisper sighed.
When Screech repeated the question, Mali opened her hands.
Mew?
A small soot-covered kitten pressed itself into the girl's hands, staring at Screech apprehensively.
"A kitten!" Avon exclaimed delightedly.
"I saw the dog chasing her," Mali explained, "I just grabbed her and ran."
The kitten stared at the eldritch behemoth unblinking.
The giant snorted. "It has far too much attitude for something its size," she said, tapping the kitten's nose with a tendril.
The kitten hissed and swatted at the tendril.
Screech chuckled, the sound rumbling through the ground beneath them.
"It's certainly unafraid of you." Freda laughed. She began rubbing the kitten under its chin, causing it to pur, struggling to maintain its starring contest with
Screech.
Screech gave the engine equivalent of a shrug, "Animals seem to see more of me than humans. Their simpler minds are better at accepting my existence without crumbling. She most likely already has a far better idea of what I truly look like than you do."
"One would think that would make her more afraid of you," Gwyn observed.
"It's a cat," Screech stated dryly. "The only thing they hold in awe is food."
#Uman and Dim#Uman and Din Railway#ttte fanfic#rws fanfic#fanfic release#eldritch train#eldritch engine#U&D#U&DR#engines that go bump in the night#no animals were harmed in the making of this fic#Cronk and Harwick#Cronk and Harwick Railway
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Published: 11 May 2024
Rebus launches on Friday 17 May. All episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am, with episode one airing on BBC Scotland on Friday 17 May at 10pm and on BBC One on Saturday 18 May at 9:25pm.
Based on the best-selling books by Ian Rankin, Rebus reimagines the iconic character John Rebus (Richard Rankin) as a younger Detective Sergeant, drawn into a violent criminal conflict that turns personal.
Shaken after a violent encounter with gangster Ger Cafferty, Edinburgh detective John Rebus finds himself at a psychological crossroads. At odds with a job increasingly driven by corporate technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter’s life by his ex-wife’s wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer. In a time of divisive politics and national discord, Rebus’ broke, ex-soldier brother Michael desperately crosses the line to provide for his family, and Rebus begins to wonder if the law still has meaning, or if everyone is reverting to an older set of rules? And if so, why shouldn’t Rebus do so too?
EJ
Interview with Ian Rankin (Author & Executive Producer)
Gregory Burke, Ian Rankin and Stuart Bowman on the set of Rebus
How does the new series differ from your novels?
In the new incarnation, there's a fascinating focus on Rebus and his brother. There have been characters and situations in the books where I felt that in retrospect I didn't do enough with them. Rebus’ brother was a really interesting character in the books, and eventually I just let him go, and he never returned. During our various conversations early on, Greg Burke zoned in on that almost blood brothers thing or that Jekyll & Hyde thing where you can have two brothers who are close to each other, who love each other, but potentially can destroy each other. I just thought that was a really interesting route that Greg chose for the series to follow. He takes us into the Jekyll & Hyde nature of Edinburgh.
Why is Gregory the perfect person to adapt your novels for the screen?
I've known Greg for years. I'm a huge fan of his work on stage and on screen. When he was persuaded to take this on - and he took a bit of persuading because he had a lot on his plate at the time – I was delighted. He comes from the same place as me. We grew up four miles apart, which is where Rebus comes from. We never knew each other back then, but his very first play was called Gagarin Way. Gagarin Way is a real street in a little village called Lumphinnans, which I used to go through every day on my way to school. Just as soon as I saw the phrase Gagarin Way, I thought, “Oh my god, this guy obviously comes from the same part of the world as me,” so I sought him out.
Did you discover that you had a lot in common?
Absolutely. We've got the same working-class roots, we've got the same sense of Fife being a very close-knit place, a very tribal place, a place that had a lot of pride, a lot of industry, a lot of coal mining - most of my family came from coal fields. But that industry went and a lot of the pride then dissipated and people felt neglected. So Rebus and his brother have all of that in their DNA, and I think a lot of that comes out in the series. His brother still lives in Fife, he's not done as well for himself as Rebus has. He lives in a fairly scuzzy part of Fife, but he is trying to make a better life for himself, scratching a living as best he can. And there's Rebus who, as a detective, is on a pretty good salary. We’ve put him in a street where he can actually walk out of his front door and see Edinburgh Castle, which is a bit of a cheat. That's not where he stays in the books! But in the TV version, if he looks to his left, he can see the castle. So we get lots of lovely establishing shots.
Are you pleased with Gregory’s adaptation?
Very. I think long term fans will get a shock because they're seeing young Rebus. Richard Rankin is not in his 70s or his 60s or his 50s, so they're getting the quite macho Rebus from the early books, but set in contemporary times. We get the strength of Rebus as a quite a gung-ho cop, but set against contemporary issues, contemporary politics and contemporary problems that people have. At its best, a crime novel is a political novel insofar as it deals with the reasons why crime happens. A lot of the time it’s to do with people being stuck in a rut. They see no way out that is legal, and their life crumbles around them. So they turn to drugs and drink and that leads them to some very dark places. I think Gregory was interested in tackling some of those issues, and it works really well.
What further themes does Gregory address in Rebus?
There is great richness and complexity in his writing. He is also fascinated by the male ego. He's really interested in what normative masculinity does to men, and how it can twist them, and how it can cause them to do terrible things. That's been a theme that I think runs through quite a lot of his work: this notion of very strong, macho men, and that macho-ness isn't always good for them - in fact, it's never good for them. You've got that in the relationship between Rebus and his brother. When we first meet them in episode one, they are having a punch-up in the living room. That says quite a lot about not only your relationship but also your background.
What do you think Richard adds to the title role?
Oh, he's terrific. I mean, you can't take your eyes off him. He's incredibly charismatic on screen. You're absolutely gripped by him. He's a lovely guy when you meet him but he completely inhabits the character. Rebus is attractive to women and attractive to men – you get all of that with Richard. Men are going to love watching him and women are going to love watching him. He just throws himself into it.
Why do you think the Rebus novels have struck such a chord all over the world?
The author is possibly the last person to know the answer to that question! I think Rebus is an engaging and complex character. He's charismatic, unlike his creator! But also we watch him age more or less in real time. So if you're a fan of the series, the Rebus you are reading about now is not the Rebus you were reading about 10 or 20 years ago. In the books he’s gone from being 40 years old, to being retired in poor health and getting on for 70. So it’s a very different world that he inhabits now. He’s no longer a serving police officer. He’s just a guy who wants to feel useful and wants to feel that he still has some skills as a detective, if only the world would allow him to use those skills. The world has changed around him and he has become a museum piece.
Why does the character of Rebus chime with people so much?
Rebus is dark, brooding and slightly dangerous and edgy. He’s someone people would like to meet for a short time. The books allow them to meet him for a short time, but I don’t think you’d want to hang out for too long. I mean, if he bumped into me, I’m sure we wouldn’t have much of a conversation before he got bored of me and wandered off. He’d be much more interested in the drink than he would be in the person who was talking to him. I think he also feels real to people, partly because he inhabits what is more or less a real city. He drinks in real bars, he worked in a real police station, he lives in a real street. You can actually trace his peregrinations around the city. Fans do come to the city looking for Rebus’s Edinburgh, and it’s there waiting for them.
How does Rebus develop over this series?
While being a big macho cop, he realises that doesn’t mean he can operate in the world as well as he could if he were less like that. So he’s surrounded by cops who are younger, more touchy feely, liberal and college educated. His way of doing things is different and doesn’t always work. It isn’t always the best way to go about it. So there’s a lot of lessons being learned by him during the course of the six episodes.
How would you sum up this drama?
It has really good storytelling and great acting. It’s also a very physical piece of work. A lot of crime stories on television these days are interested in forensics, or they’re interested in the crime scene or whatever. This is really about what the job of being a cop does to you. Does it coarsen you? Does it mean you live an uglier life because of the job you do? Being a cop makes you very wary of the people around you and of relationships. You’re always mistrusting people or thinking they’re out to do something to you or get the better of you or get something over on you. So it harks back in some ways to the kind of classic macho crime stories that a lot of us grew up with. But at the same time, it’s got all the modernity you could ask for.
Interview with Gregory Burke (Writer & Executive Producer)
Gregory Burke and Richard Rankin on the set of Rebus
What drew you to Rebus?
The number one thing was Ian asking me. I’ve known Ian for quite a while now. He claims the first time we ever met was when he was making a documentary for German television about the Edinburgh Festival with Alan Cumming. You can’t make this stuff up! Ian says he came to the Traverse Theatre very late one night and interviewed me and John Tiffany on the stage, but I have no recollection of it. I guess that sums up the festival really! So he reckons that was about 20 years ago. We have a lot in common. Our hometown villages are very near each other in Fife, so he’d always said that if Rebus was going to be done again on TV, he would ask me if I could do it. I was delighted to take it on.
Did you feel a strong link with Rebus, then?
Definitely. Rebus is not just a Scottish character; he is actually a character who is a Fifer who lives and works in Edinburgh. My background is the same. He’s from a mining background, and my grandparents on one side were all from those mining towns and villages. So the background of the character felt really close to me. Rebus inhabits the same kind of psychological landscape and has had the same upbringing as me. This is a detective drama, but at the same time, I thought, “Rebus is a character that I can use to write about Scotland in the way I want to write about Scotland. He has similar type of upbringing and background to me”. So it felt like it would be daft not to do it. That’s what drew me in the most.
In what other ways did you feel connected to Rebus?
His kind of character is very recognisable to me. I am a little bit that way myself. There’s a Scottish word – “thrawn” – which means you make life as difficult as possible for yourself. Things could probably be a lot easier for you, but you have that kind of personality which is drawn to not taking the easiest road. That’s one of the things that Rebus does. The detective who goes against the grain is a trope of TV detectives. But at the same time, it is something that is quite recognisable to me, not just in terms of the institutional world of Scotland, but in Scotland generally. People have that kind of contrary nature where they can’t help but make their life more difficult than it should be. That was one of the things I liked in this character.
Would it also be fair to describe Rebus as a divided soul?
Yes. That schism, where people are two things at once, runs through the literature of Edinburgh. A lot of the great Edinburgh novels are about the divided self. Jekyll & Hyde is obviously the most famous one. The character of Rebus has a bit of that in him. He does have that kind of divided self, but also a divisive personality. So another thing that was really a big draw for me was getting to write something set in Edinburgh with that continuum of literature almost flowing through it.
Can you amplify the idea of Rebus’ duality?
As a policeman, it is his job to uphold the law. But he’s also a person who is willing to go beyond the law and to do things where the end justifies the means. I kept saying to people when we were making the drama, it’s about rules and laws. The laws are the things in our society that were imposed at a certain period of time. They create a framework, and we have to live within it. Whereas the rules are the eternal rules of human existence, which are based on emotion. If somebody hurts you, you hurt them back. That framework of legality makes life better for people, and it will remove the emotion from situations because chaos is on the other side of that. But at the same time, people react to things in an emotional way – of course they do – and people take revenge and do all these things. So all these things are still there in this society, but the law and the police are both suppressing them. Rebus occasionally has to show that he understands the rules. He knows that criminals live by the rules and that sometimes those criminals need to be reminded that the police know the rules as well as the law.
Rebus is the sort of character which the institution of the police still needs, he’s one of those characters who’s probably a little bit of a dinosaur in his world, but they still need the guy who criminals can be scared of. It’s not for his own gain. It’s not about corruption. It’s about his very moralistic view of corruption. He actually has a very Presbyterian worldview.
Did you make a lot of changes from the original novels?
Yes. The great advantage was, the first thing Ian said to me was, “You can do anything you want.” As soon as I came up with the brother storyline and what he was going to be doing, Ian immediately said, “I love that. I missed a trick with that in the books.” He was supportive of me all the way, and he really just let me get on with it. Whenever I needed any help about story points, I would just send him scripts, and he would come back to me and say, “Well, what about this?” He knows how everything operates in that world. But it never felt like he was hanging over me or anything like that. It was just always was very, very easy to go to him with things. It was great.
Why do you think Richard works so well in the title role?
I’ve known Richard since Black Watch, which would be about 2008. He was in it for three years. He’s a terrific actor. First, he brings an audience because Outlander is such a massively popular show. Secondly, his performance is absolutely fantastic. There’s a specific tone to my writing. There’s quite a lot of humour in it, and Richard really gets that.
Edinburgh is another character in the drama, isn’t it?
Yes. Wherever you go in Edinburgh, you get those iconic locations. Anybody who knows the city knows how photogenic it is. It’s beautiful and Gothic. You have the wonderful light on the Firth of Forth and the amazing skies. But it is also this divided city. The rationality of the New Town during the Enlightenment is right next to the medieval Old Town and all that debauchery and vice that went on there. It looks really cinematic and dramatic on film.
What do you think the takeaway will be from this drama?
I hope it reflects Scotland as it really is. The drama feels like it’s real, and it is scary, and it’s got humour in it, and it’s got high stakes. Also, I hope it doesn’t feel too procedural. We have really concentrated as much as possible on the characters and on their family and their internal life, rather than feeling like we’re just making a procedural drama. Obviously, there are procedural elements to it, but probably for me that’s the least interesting part of it. I’m much more interested in the characters. So I hope it feels like a very characterful drama.
Interview with Richard Rankin (John Rebus)
Richard Rankin as John Rebus (Image: Mark Mainz/Eleventh Hour Films)
You have played a few cops before, haven’t you?
Yes, a few times now in one form or another. I thought I had sufficiently explored this archetype… and then Rebus came along.
Why did you make an exception for Rebus, then?
Rebus is an iconic character in Scottish literature and television. It already has such a huge following. That aside, it was within the first ten pages of episode one that had me absolutely hooked. I could tell Greggory Burke was doing something new and exciting with this. It felt real, it felt dark, and it felt charged.
So you instantly knew that Rebus was not going to be the same as other detective dramas?
Absolutely. You would imagine a procedural cop show. It’s not. It’s very much a character drama. I knew it was going to be different because we had Greg writing it, Niall MacCormick directing it, and an incredible Director of Photography in Julio Biccari. That combination and chemistry alone is going to guarantee something special.
What other elements grabbed you from the start?
The style and the aesthetic of how Niall wanted it shot were all brilliant. Dark; cinematic; gritty. It felt like something we were missing on our screens. Additionally, Greg and I shared a passion for it to be as authentic as possible to the place. We wanted these characters to be from a very real Edinburgh and a very real Fife.
The novels are immensely popular, aren’t they?
Ian Rankin’s books have got such an enormous fan base. Whenever the series comes up people are always very excited about the prospect of seeing one of their most beloved detectives come back to the screen. Ian Rankin has sold over thirty million copies of Rebus and it’s been translated into at least thirty six languages so it’s an absolute privilege to have been given the honour of bringing Rebus to life again.
What is particularly strong about this adaptation?
Ian Rankin said to Greg Burke, ‘Take Rebus and do what you want with it’. That’s already incredibly intriguing. Exciting even. Great source material amplified by Greg’s almost uncensored and very honest approach reboots the character in a way that is thrilling for TV.
What makes Greg’s scripts so good?
Everything in Greg’s writing has a beating heart. His connection to the character and the material gives him an incredible comprehension of the world he’s writing. His rare ability for dark humour and his observant social commentary brings so much depth and colour. Every character has a voice. A real purpose. So much so, that each actor took immense pride and ownership in their roles. I think that really shines through in the individual performances.
How did you approach your version of Rebus?
I started with the language, the accent and the dialect were important to get right. So vocal coaching was a regular thing. I also took to the source to gain an understanding of what made Rebus ‘Rebus’. There were significant things that stood out for me. His military career for one. I felt this should be incorporated more into his base psychology. Even though it might not be written in our script, he was successful in his SAS selection. He’s a military man. I started with the question, ‘how does this inform the character?’
The job really takes a toll on Rebus, doesn’t it?
Yes. It’s the law of diminishing returns for him. It’s not just the job, it’s life for Rebus. Greg explains this well, he uses the Scottish word ‘thrawn’ to describe someone who makes life as difficult as possible for themselves. A martyr to his own cause. Frequently faced with easier choices, Rebus will take the difficult path. As for the job, Rebus has the potential and aptitude to be a great detective, and in a lot of ways he is, but he gets in his own way often deliberately, often self-destructively.
What do you hope that people take away from the drama?
I hope people take out of it what we put in. The entire ensemble of cast and crew are immensely talented individuals who all brought their A-game to the series. I think that really shows. I hope audiences will develop an appetite for more, so that we can bring another series their way further down the line. I really hope that people will fall in love with Rebus in the same way that we have.
Interview with Brian Ferguson (Michael Rebus)
Brian Ferguson as Michael and Richard Rankin as John Rebus
What made you so eager to be involved with Rebus?
When I read the first two scripts, it was very clear immediately how good they were. I thought they were fantastically written and a really new take on Rebus. They felt very contemporary and really honoured the books, whilst being something totally different. I knew that director Niall MacCormick was on board as director for episodes one, two and three, and I was lucky enough to work with Niall on The Victim. He’s as good as they come really, in terms of a director. So really, it was very easy to say yes!
As you said, this is a new take on Rebus. Is it the contemporary setting that that makes it so fresh?
Yes. I think it's only when you read it that you realise, “Gosh, it was 20 years ago that we last had Rebus on our screens and just how much has changed in those 20 years.” The gap is getting bigger between the very rich and the rest of us. This shows how difficult that is for the majority of people who are living with the cost-of-living crisis. So you've got these really, really pressing issues that are absolutely part of the story and of these characters’ lives. That all feels very, very contemporary.
Talk us through your character.
I play Michael Rebus, John Rebus’ older brother by about three years. This Michael is quite different from the Michael in the books. He is married and he has two teenage boys. In the last couple of years, he's come out the army after 22 years. He and his wife try and set up a business just at the time of COVID and the pandemic, and then the cost of living crisis hits and the business fails. They've put everything into it. They've remortgaged and all of that. So when we meet them, they're in a pretty desperate situation. They've moved back from Edinburgh to Fife, almost to the street that Michael grew up in. They live in a very cramped, very rundown flat. Michael is a man of real honour, a real family man. His priority really is that his family are OK. I think you get this a lot with men; their sense of honour comes from how they're able to look after their family. And when we meet Michael, he is a man who is not able to do that. The family are really, really up against it. They can't get enough work, the business has failed, and they don't have enough money to make ends meet.
How would you characterise the relationship between the brothers?
I would say that they have quite an antagonistic relationship, I think this is very familiar, particularly among working-class men. The only way that brothers know how to express their love for each other is through aggression. We sense that there's a real love there, but they have no idea how to communicate that to each other really.
How does the relationship between the brothers develop over the series?
Michael comes to need his brother more as the series goes on, mostly in a professional capacity, as he gets involved in some unfamiliar territory. John actually initiates it, but then it gets out of control. However, I think through that what we see actually is that the brothers become closer. What really bonds them is this discussion that runs through the series about the difference between the laws and the rules. The laws are set down. The police are there to enforce the law, and when you go to court, that's all about the law. But actually, I think there's something underneath the laws, particularly in these kinds of working-class communities, which is an older set of rules. That’s what brings the brothers together. It’s about an eye for an eye and a really basic set of tribal rules. The brothers become closer because actually when it comes to it they both believe in these older rules.
Did you know Richard before?
Yes. A few years ago, we did a short job together on a play, just for a few days. But my wife knew Richard quite well. So going in, I didn't know him that well, but my wife had told me a lot of good things about him. Over the course of the job, I have to say that, as I got to know him, I was just more and more impressed by him. I have a real respect and admiration for him as an actor and as a person. The way that he goes about it is brilliant. I loved watching him work. I think he's fantastic. He's always bringing something different to each take. He has a real sense of play about the work. Particularly in something like this, I think that will be really refreshing because so much of it is quite serious and quite dark. Richard has got a natural humour and enjoyment and warmth that he brings to it.
Did you have to work to develop that brotherly relationship, then?
Funnily enough, in the last project we did together, we played antagonistic brothers as well! So there's obviously something there. Clearly, it’s a dynamic that Richard and I settle into quite easily. But the heart and the warmth that Richard brings is something that certainly through the series allowed us to find the more nuanced details of their relationship. It also enabled us to discover the care that they actually have for each other. And that felt genuine between us as well. It was a real treat.
Interview with Lucie Shorthouse (Siobhan Clarke)
Lucie Shorthouse as Siobhan Clarke
What attracted you to this production?
I love crime detective dramas. I also love the fact that everyone has heard of Sir Ian Rankin’s novels and that the Rebus novels stretch back for so long. So to be part of something like that was fantastic. Before the audition, they gave me two episodes that I could read. I was really tired and I thought, “Let me just read like a bit of one just to get a flavour and then I'll read the rest tomorrow morning.” But I couldn't put them down - to the point where I got annoyed at the end of episode two. I thought, “I need to get this job. If I don't, I won't find out what happens!”
Can you set up your character for us?
Siobhan is new to her position as Detective Constable. She has come up through the accelerated pathway scheme. For people like Rebus, who came via the more traditional route, it's seen as the easy way. So Siobhan has to prove herself, not only because she’s on the accelerated leadership pathway, but also because she’s a woman in what is still a very male-centric institution. She is a mixed-race woman, which may be a barrier as well.
How does Siobhan fare at first?
She's been put with Rebus who obviously takes no prisoners, so she's got her work cut out. But I also think she's a great match for him. She's not willing to back down from him but she's also inspired by him. If she is going to learn from anyone in this job and if she is going to accelerate, then Rebus is the right mentor to put her with. She’s really young and hungry for the job and she's very curious, too. I think she surprises herself by how much she starts to really love the job.
How would you characterise her relationship with Rebus?
They're seemingly very different in terms of attitudes, approaches, and who they are in life but they work very, very well together. She's someone who challenges Rebus in certain things as well. She is slightly intimidated by him, but not willing to compromise the integrity of her job.
How does their partnership evolve?
In episode one, Rebus and Siobhan first meet and then they go on a bit of a rollercoaster and experience some friction and fracture but they learn to really work together. It’s like one of those love-hate, eye-roll relationships. It’s like a family thing where you think, “I love you, but I don't like you. I would do anything for you, but oh my God, you're annoying!" It was fun to explore that through the episodes.
How did you find it working with Richard?
He’s just great and we’re both clowns on set. What’s really good about Richard is that he can be so silly off camera, then when the camera is switched on, straightaway, he can just absolutely get into it and be fantastic. He’s really fun to be around, really charismatic, and a great leader as well. As you're making it, a certain approach comes from the top, and I think Richard’s attitude filtered down, and that's what made the job so great. That was largely down to him setting a precedent for everybody. Richard is also really open to trying new things. I couldn't have asked for a better on-screen partner, we just got on very easily. I can't wait for people to see him in this role.
What do you love about Edinburgh?
From the days of being there at The Fringe, I know there's something really hopeful about the city. It supports creatives, just in its very essence. It's a site of exploration for any creative or actor and you feel fully supported by it. You realise how rare that is actually. It's just beautiful, I love that city.
What did you love most about doing this job?
The camaraderie. Everybody on the job was so sound, so great, so up for it, but did everything with so much humour and warmth. It was honestly such a dreamy job!
Interview with Amy Manson (Rhona Moncrieffe)
Amy Manson as Rhona Moncrieffe
What was the attraction of this project?
I really loved the script. Gregory is an actor's writer. This script to me read almost like a high-octane thriller or a whodunit. I was really just excited to find out what happened at the end. But it's not your straightforward police procedural drama, and that's what I loved about it. It’s just brilliant TV drama.
Was Gregory available to be consulted during the shoot?
Yes. He was there for us if we needed to text him with any thoughts. He was such a great collaborator with all of us. Some storylines changed because he was able to listen to how we felt about the work. Neshla Caplan (plays Chrissie Rebus) and myself were able to talk to him about the women and what they represent within this. Gregory was there for us from the outset, which just elevated performance and relationships both on and off screen.
Gregory has written a superb character in Rhona, hasn’t he?
Absolutely. I needed to understand my character’s purpose within Rebus, and I found joy in the fact that Rhona wasn't sidelined as a woman. I also really wanted to understand why she and Rebus split up. I was just excited to explore that relationship because I also felt on reading it that it wasn't completely over.
Why do you think Rhona and Rebus broke up?
I would say, like in so many marriages, one partner put work before the love of their partner. I think that's what it boils down to. Rhona is a very empathetic and loving woman and always puts her family first. That's where she was at loggerheads with Rebus because he didn’t always put the family first. To protect herself and their daughter, she chose to step away from the relationship but that doesn't mean that she feels nothing for him. There’s still an element of her admiring who he is and what he does and what he stands for and the fact that he always seeks justice in the weird and wonderful ways that only Rebus can do.
Where do you think their relationship is now?
I think at the beginning of this series, Rhona is intent on keeping a solid family dynamic. So that means that she is just intent on getting her ex-husband and her new husband to get along for the sake of her child. Rebus irks her at times just because he is who he is. But at the same time, he's her daughter's father, and Rhona’s core value system is family. She’ll do anything to make that work.
How would you describe Rhona?
She's the glue that holds everything together. She is the honest soul within all of this. She's the one that Rebus, you would hope, would listen to above anyone else. She's empathetic and loving, but strong willed. Her core value is that she'll do anything to protect her family.
Did you enjoy filming back in Scotland?
I did. I loved it. Every time there's an opportunity to film here, I'll grasp it tightly with both hands. It always feels like coming home.
The series shows a bleak side of Edinburgh which may not be familiar to everyone, doesn’t it?
Definitely. The underbelly of Edinburgh is the backdrop of the whole show. There's a dark side of Edinburgh that we see in this that I don't think has been seen on screen before. I think viewers are going to be shocked by that and by what we've captured in all its essence. To be honest, I was shocked by it, especially when I read the scripts. The drama shows the other side of the city, and not the Edinburgh that I see as a tourist when I visit.
Why do you think that Ian Rankin’s books have captivated readers all over the world?
He captures the essence of people. I think people relate to his books because of the character of Rebus, who is as flawed as the next human. He cuts corners. He's unethical in his approach. He's always crossing lines. But his quest for justice is what's so compelling and exciting about the books. He's wanting to take down the bad guys, but sometimes he has to become the bad guy to do that. We all make some mistakes in life, and we're all held accountable for things. I think that's what's so relatable about Sir Ian Rankin's books.
How did you find it working with this cast?
It’s been amazing. Richard is incredible. I don't think I've ever seen him do something as dynamic, eloquent and hard hitting as what viewers are going to see him do with Rebus. But all the cast were a joy. They are so wonderful. We all got on so well as a cast, there was no ego. That tone is set from the top – i.e. Richard. I really do hold every single member of this cast in high esteem.
Interview with Stuart Bowman (Ger Cafferty)
Stuart Bowman as Ger Cafferty
What was the appeal of working on Rebus?
I hadn’t read the books, but when I read Greg Burke’s script, it was just tremendous. I knew Greg's work, and I was delighted to be working with a television writer who was rooted in the theatre because I spent 30 years in the theatre before I began my television career. So there was something about the writing that was familiar for that reason. I think that's because of the grey areas that tend to be more easily explored in theatre than on television. Greg does that deftly. It doesn't feel like homework at all. Then I started reading the books and found the same thing: the attention to detail in the characters that Sir Ian Rankin has, as well the joy he takes in it. There also seems to be a shared sense of humour between Greg and Ian.
So the script immediately struck a chord with you?
Yes. The critic Joyce McMillan once wrote about a play I was in, and it stuck with me because it was a lovely thing to say. She said I had a connection with the text, and I absolutely did. Something in the text just resonated with me and that's what I felt when I read Greg's great script. When I started reading the books, there was also real resonance. I lived in Edinburgh for a few years, and there was something very, very familiar about the city that they were both writing about. Also, they are both Fifers and I’m a Fifer. So all three of us had a similar relationship with Edinburgh. We were not from the place. We were detached from it, but still had a love for Edinburgh. All of that was resonating in me as I was reading the TV scripts and the books. I’m now on book number eight, and I've still not stopped!
You really have become a fan, then?
Completely. I love the character and I love the world that Ian has created. It’s really unusual that even once you've started filming, you carry on doing your research with the source material. But it's not work. I'm enjoying the books enormously.
What do you particularly love about Rebus?
The world is complex. The characters are neither good nor bad. Ian and Greg are not trying to tell us that the world is ordered. They are not trying to reassure the audience that the world is a simple place. He's treating us as grown-ups. We are able to make our own decisions about the characters we're seeing. So your imagination gets to do an awful lot more work in these books and this television series.
Could you outline your character for us?
On the face of it, he’s a gangster, or a baddie, or Rebus’ nemesis. But I think above all what Cafferty is, is somebody who makes the world work the way he wants it to work. He has the force of personality and the wit and intelligence to succeed; in fact, there are very few times in his life where he hasn't been able to do that. Throughout the course of this drama, we see moments where that is stretched and that's when it becomes really interesting. That's why his relationship with Rebus is so fascinating. Rebus can push him. He's of a similar vein, and makes the world work for him, too. So they both recognise that way of being in the world. They also enjoy being in the company of this other person because they don't encounter people who are able to match them in that way very often.
Can you expand on the relationship between Cafferty and Rebus?
They have juicy encounters straightaway. Without giving anything away, from the outset we see the complexity of their relationship and their love for one another and their hatred for one another. There's a morality that they're questioning throughout everything that they do. In many ways, I think Cafferty is clearer about his morality than Rebus is and is more comfortable with the choices he's made.
Drama
Ian Rankin and the cast of Rebus on what to expect on the new incarnation of the best-selling novels - “there's a fascinating focus on Rebus and his brother”
Iconic character John Rebus is reimagined as a younger Detective Sergeant, played by Richard Rankin, in the brand new series
BBC Media Centre
Posted 11th May 2024
The series previously starred John Hannah and Ken Stott. Two very different approaches to the character. You will enjoy them both, although Ken Stott is probably the favourite by a whisper!
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Leverage Season 3, Episode 10, The Underground Job, Audio Commentary Transcript
Marc: Hi, I'm Marc Roskin, Director of The Underground Job.
John: I'm John Rogers, Executive Producer.
Chris: I'm Chris Downey, Executive Producer. And I guess standing in for our two writers.
John: Yes, Melissa Glenn and Jessica Rieder are unfortunately unable to do the commentary. However Chris developed this episode with them so he will catch-
Chris: I'm gonna be both of them.
John: He's gonna be both of them. He's wearing a pretty little smock dress just to commemorate that. Great episode, a ton of fun, and very relevant. Of course it is inspired by the- one of the many disasters, mine disasters in America.
Chris: Yes.
John: And it was a little shocking when we started doing research on how easily safety- you can flaunt the safety regulations in this industry.
Chris: Yeah, I- you know, Jessica and Melissa are great at really digging in on a subject.
John: Yup.
Chris: It all started season one when they did the Two Horse Job, and we sent them into the world of horse racing, they befriended a jockey.
John: They went and lived at the- yeah at the stables for a week. Right.
Chris: And I believe they befriended a coal miner for this one.
John: Yes, they called the coal miner and got- all that banter from the opening scene is directly from him. Marc, how the hell did you do that?
Marc: We dug a hole in the side. We had a black up- a black in the back so it's just the entrance, just the side of a hill.
John: So the entrance was built on the side of a hill?
Marc: Yeah, it’s all fake. We had a CG explosion there, we did have a little propane mortar just to give us something to start with.
John: Well that's actually a good point, is what do you need- I know you guys do that all the time is to have like a little starter explosion. Is that to map the light? or what is that for?
Marc: Yeah, it’s to give the artist something to start with. And this time, you know, Dean just wanted it bigger, bigger, bigger. It's also a little more costly to use gas when you do explosions. You know, it’s more permitting,, so we used propane and then we just enhance it. But unfortunately that day we had a nice rainy day to open with.
Chris: Yeah, it sure gave nice atmosphere.
Marc: Nice, yeah.
John: Yeah.
Marc: Yeah, and they gave us full use of all the mining equipment like the skids and dump trucks; it was great.
Chris: Now Marc, did you look at- were there any movies, or any influences that you had when you were going into this episode and knew you were gonna do coal mining? Anything sort of interior?
Marc: Yeah, it was- well at first it was just looking at pictures, you know, with our production designer. And just going through what type of coal mines do exist, and how are we gonna create one with our frankenstein set which is used in numerous episodes?
Chris: Right.
John: That is over on- if you've been on the tour seen Con Con on the DVD you know that's over on studio E; that’s our other sound stage and it has been a hospital, it has been FBI offices, it’s been-
Chris: The vaults.
Marc: Antiquities rooms.
John: Antiquities vaults.
Marc: You name it.
John: Yes exactly and this time we turned it into a mine for this one.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Because apparently you can't bring equipment down into a real mine.
[Laughter]
Chris: And I have to say Marc, I know I said this before, but this to me is my favorite of your episodes. I thought this was a really cinematic-
Marc: Oh, thank you.
John: Really? Oh interesting.
Chris: Yeah, I mean, you know. I liked this even more than Tap Out and that’s saying a hell of a lot. I thought this came out fantastic.
Marc: What I loved about this, you know, after shooting and editing it, there’s no fat to this episode.
John: Yeah.
Marc: I mean the girls did such a great job writing it, we had such a good production quality, and our guest stars were fantastic.
John: Yeah. There is an acting moment Bruce Davison does later which is generally one of my favorite acting moments in the whole series, all three seasons up to this point.
Marc: And Annie Fitzgerald playing Deborah Pierce. Everything just clicked, and you just never felt like “is this scene gonna make it?”
John: Yeah.
Chris: Right.
Marc: Because every scene was important, and there was a little bit of everything for everybody.
John: No, good- a couple good con elements. And this actually was also born of- you finally got your Mission Impossible episode. Like you're ‘trapped in a subway’ episode.
Chris: Well we did a little bit, and the other thing is, you know, we talk about classic cons and you know, now that we're done season three, one of the all time classic cons in history is salting a mine. And it, you know, typically was done during the gold rush where, you know, people would put gold dust in a, you know, a prospectors pan and sell the worthless land.
John: With- with a shotgun.
Chris: Or salt the, you know, an empty hole, yeah with a shotgun. And the challenge here was how do we contemporize it? And more importantly, since we were starting with the premise of a mine owner, how do you find a way to sell a mine owner his own mine? How do you salt a mine he already owns?
Marc: Right.
Chris: So that became, you know, a big challenge. But I love that we’re able to do one of these classic cons that we've never done before.
Marc: Yeah. Well what's also great about this, and you'll see as the episode goes on, every cast member has something to do in the con, and no one is just sitting in a control room.
John: Yeah.
Chris: Right.
Marc: You see Gina and Aldis get to play a part here. You know, Tim follows right in. Christian with the relationship with the boy who lost his father. And Beth as well, when she has to befriend Deborah Pierce.
John: Two bad guys. Two bad guys always give you a lot to do-
Marc: Yeah.
John: But plotting it's a nightmare.
[Laughter]
Marc: Right.
John: Because, you know, you have to come up- these episodes already burn two or three cons or heists an episode, you have to double that when you have two bad guys.
Chris: And you have to make them really distinctive and different.
John: Yeah.
Chris: I mean this may sound-
John: We actually struggled with this; we didn't originally have two in this.
Chris: We didn't really have two, yeah. But I think that one of the real research stories we had, there was some element to the two.
Marc: Yeah.
John: Well, yeah the idea that the way that these mine guys dodge having to pay for all these improvements is just keeping stuff tied up in the appeals process.
Chris: Right.
John: And that led us to, you know, who could help him in that situation? And Citizens United had just gone through, so the whole idea that you could, through a shell company, donate pretty much anything you wanted through a PAC-
Chris: Right.
John: -to a candidate without worry about the individual donation limit was just- that was great.
Chris: Yeah.
John: And some people said we got a little wrong. We don’t- we didn't quite explain what this guy was doing properly, which was putting it through a PAC.
Marc: Right.
John: And we actually had a fairly- we won't say who it was, but we had a guy who could viably run for president’s lawyer on the phone, and he-
Chris: During the research for episode one.
John: Episode one, exactly.
Chris: 301.
John: And he took us through the whole difference between campaign fund and PAC. And took us through the rigorous ways the government makes sure you cannot cheat in a campaign fund, and how PACs are basically giant slush funds.
[Laughter]
John: That you can do anything with. This was a lovely sequence, by the way.
Marc: Yeah, these are nice moments when Sophie gets to coach Parker.
Chris: And then look, I love the con character that Parker came up with here. It was sort of a very nice, specific sort of southern belle.
Marc: Right.
Chris: Eager intern, who didn't need the money but just was willing to do whatever it took to work for the candidate.
John: I mean yeah, some of that was in the script, but a lot of it was Beth landing it.
Chris: Yes.
John: Landing that. You know, finding that voice and- yeah. And also, nobody quite writes Parker like the wonder twins. I mean, they really nailed the whole not quite understanding-
Marc: They really do.
John: Parker not quite understanding the goal of the grift, and why she's bad at it.
Marc: And the other thing that the wonder twins are great at, and sometimes it's complicated when you're shooting, but when you see the finished product, their flashbacks are very intricate.
John: Yeah.
Marc: But they really hit home during the story. And all of their episodes are really gifted with the flashbacks.
John: Yeah. No, they've done- yeah this one- they all fly, what are we saying.
[Laughter]
John: They are all bears to break, they've all got four plot lines and- yeah. It's not exactly just find a body in Central Park and then move on and figure out who killed them.
Marc: But it was great, that little notepad that she had as Sophie plays here and pays off at the end.
John: Yeah, exactly. And introducing her in the mirror, nice idea. Whose idea- did you come up with that?
Marc: Well yeah, I mean- it was scripted that she's rehearsing in a mirror, so we just played into that a bit.
John: Oh, I did not remember that. No, coming up with that shot, that was nice.
Marc: And this is the building that was used on many times, the city hall building in downtown Portland.
Chris: Oh, yes.
John: Portland always doing their best to make us feel welcome. We actually kick the mayor out for this. Is that- wait this is the mayor's office from the season finale!
Marc: Exactly, it was Richard Klein’s office.
John: Season 2 finale.
Chris: Oh it is, boy that's pretty good.
John: Yeah.
Chris: People are paying attention at home.
John: We stared at that for a long time. I recognized that bookshelf.
Marc: This was a fun scene.
John: No, she does a great job. And it's kinda- been kinda fun, I mean it's tricky because Beth is such a charming person.
Marc: Right.
John: It's been fun having her play Parker as someone who's bad at it. But you can look at the arc of her grifting abilities, and she'll never be good at it, but she's gotten better. You know what I mean? She's worked through it, yeah.
Chris: Yeah, there's totally an arc to it. And, you know, as the show goes into season 3 and 4 and beyond, I mean, it's credible to the audience that she will get better and better in her limited way.
John: She'll always have a fatal flaw, you know.
Chris: Yes.
Marc: Yeah.
John: She always never has some little thing. But this was great, shooting- now how'd you light this? How'd you get the spotlight to do the lighting there?
Marc: This was Dave, Dave Connell and Neil. They gave the rocks an overall blue feeling, and then we just wanted to have as many, you know, source lights with headlamps, or hanging lamps, or oil lanterns, just to break it up a bit. And this young kid, Colton Lasater, did such a great job, and this arc really, really pays off.
Chris: Yeah, I mean-
Marc: Gives some weight to the episode.
Chris: Yeah in the story breaking process, you know, we’re always looking at which character in the con gets over invested in it. And sometimes that plays out comedically, and sometimes it plays out dramatically.
John: Yeah.
Chris: And you know, seemed to make sense that the one character that would have a personal connection to mining would be Eliot. And you know, we sort of established his protective nature of young people in the show.
John: Around kids, yeah. No, this is nice also the- and the frustrated look, thats-
Marc: Right.
John: This was nice, this was a nice- and they did make a lot of progress this year but it was good to kinda reset that they’ll never be really comfortable with them no matter how long they work together.
Marc: Right.
John: Too much talking!
[Laughter]
John: And a kicky little wrap on Hardison there, that's a nice scarf. Yeah, I'm trying to remember how we came up with what was in the mine? Was that just- that was the girls?
Chris: Which one?
Marc: The coltan? The girls came up with the coltan?
Chris: No, I’ll take a little credit. We actually- Alana Binker, our casting agent, is very good friends with a woman who’s an activist who wrote a book about the Congo. And I wish I remembered the name of her- her name and the name of the book, but it's a book that's out right now. And we were talking about what's going on in the Congo, and the- not just conflict diamonds but there's conflict minerals that are tied up in these horrible abuses. And one of them is coltan, which is this element that- a metal that is used in every microchip cell phone in the world.
Marc: Right.
Chris: And it sorta made sense that if you were going to try and con a coal miner into believing that there was something valuable in his mine, you would want to take him out of his comfort zone.
John: Yes.
Chris: So his comfort zone is coal.
Marc: Right.
Chris: So let’s convince him that there's this thing that's valuable that's sort of exotic. And that's where coltan came in and it also makes sense that if there was a domestic source of coltan, it would make sense for the audience that this would be something that an American company would want.
Marc: Right.
John: Yeah, and the- I'm sorry, I was distracted for a moment from the giant faux bows on the front of both of those outfits.
Marc: They’re fantastic.
Chris: Sorry, my long rant about coltan.
John: No, I was just saying Nadine Haders did another great job, and it's like those dresses are perfect and not over the top, but yeah.
Chris: Yeah.
John: No, that's the thing when we talk about - you never know what's gonna pay off on the show. That's one of the reasons that we have writing stuff. You never know who read what that's just gonna toss in-
Chris: Yeah!
Marc: Look at all that red, white, and blue.
John: Yup. And your great fake mine there. So is that just a frame?
Marc: It- we built it in. So it goes back about thirty feet. So in that opening scene when we had all the miners coming in and out we were able to get the camera back and see some distance.
Chris: That’s great. But it's an actual mine? I mean-
Marc: No, it's a rock quarry.
Chris: It's a rock quarry, ok.
Marc: It’s a rock quarry, we just dug into a side. This is an actual mobile trailer that we had dragged out and set up there. And then just dressed it. This is actually the Carver Cafe, which is from Twilight so when we were shooting this scene, and had all our production gear, all these people came because they thought we were filming.
[Laughter]
John: They thought we were filming Twilight.
Chris: Oh that's not a good thing.
Marc: I think Gina is fantastic in this scene.
John: Yeah, well I actually- this is one of my favorite American accents that she does before the con is revealed.
Marc: Right.
John: And then when she flips, it’s just perfect. It reminds me a little of the pilot, actually, the Nigerian scam. The voice she does.
Marc: And Tim was really influential in blocking of this. He really helped out a lot. And then they just went for it.
Chris: Bruce Davison is so great.
John: I know it's really- it is one of those guys where it's like, ‘And you don't have an oscar, why?’ You know?
Marc: Right.
John: He just had great performance after great performance.
Marc: Yup.
John: And he just grounds them. I mean, this is really tricky. We wanted to take this episode fairly seriously because, you know, the mine thing is serious. You know, you don't want to seem like you're making light of people's tragedies, so you need someone who can play a villain but would be utterly grounded. And Bruce was available, and he's a friend of the company, and he's great.
Marc: He's fantastic.
John: I mean, he's charming as hell, you believe him, you believe in the relationship with Pierce. No, it’s- big win on this one with Bruce Davison.
Chris: Yeah.
John: And again, also making sure he seems reasonable. The villain is never a villain in his own head.
Chris: Right.
John: He's just a man trying to, you know, make a dime, or do a good thing, and he really conveys that.
Marc: Here's Gina saving me an insert, as she did in the previous shot with the card.
[Laughter]
Marc: Thank you, Gina.
John: Thank you.
Chris: Those of you budding filmmakers saving an insert is hours-
John: Well that's usually a second unit guy's problem but, yeah. Yes, that is a big deal. And now- and by the way, because we're a con and heist based show we do a lot of inserts on screens and information to make sure everyones tracking everything. Most shows do not do the number of inserts we do, in any way, shape, or form.
Marc: That's correct.
John: No, they just- the actor waves an object past the screen and tells you what's on it and you just move on. We're full service here. Look, and I love watching this with the sound off because just watching Bruce sorta modulate his performance. You can tell confrontational, then amused, then, you know. When you cut back to him here you'll start to see him get hooked in, but he's never boring, you know, he's never not making a great choice.
Marc: And I love using Gina in these scenes. And the twins use her well cause even in Double Blind with Michael O'Keefe, was the Gina mano y mano.
John: Yeah.
Marc: That sets it up.
John: And you know, trying to touch the hair, that's a lovely bit.
[Laughter]
John: Yeah, I mean it's interesting, you think at some point you'll get bored of just having these scenes where Sophie seduces the mark. No. As long as the mark’s always different and the con’s always different, it's a little competence porn. It's like watching Parker break into a safe; you’re never tired of it.
Marc: Right.
John: Or I'm never tired of it.
Chris: No? And you know here you get, you know, two grifts going on simultaneously that have a different tone to them.
John: Yes.
Chris: And yeah, I mean it's true, there's so many threads to this story, inside the mine, you know.
John: Yeah, it's three storylines. And then, you know, this great little bit about politics. I mean, Pierce doesn't see herself as a bad person. Pierce is a politician. I mean, you know, there's interesting stuff now they're trying to talk about campaign reform, and they can't get it off the ground because even though everyone who runs for office hates raising money, they're better at it than everybody else so why give up that advantage, you know?
Chris: Yeah.
John: And this is the- oh burying paperwork on a busy person's desk. This was- we had originally a much more complicated bit for this that wound up going away. The bit with the box.
Marc: Right.
John: Yeah. Turns out just sliding stuff into people’s piles is a lot easier.
Chris: Yeah.
John: And that's it, like watching Bruce there, he's not furtive. You know, this spiking a competitor is just something you do, this is part of his work day, may as well be on his iCal.
[Laughter]
John: And down.
Chris: There it goes.
Marc: Buried.
Chris: And by the way, I think you certainly buy that a busy attorney general has a desk full of paperwork.
John: Yes.
Marc: Absolutely.
Chris: I don’t think there’s any stretch there.
John: Who is he calling on this?
Marc: Gina.
John: Oh there you go, Gina. Going back to Gina. God, this one just flies.
Marc: Yeah.
John: Gina looks great in this one, by the way.
Chris: Yeah.
John: I love that trench coat. That's just- yeah.
Marc: There's just no fat in this episode, it just really moves.
John: The-
Marc: And a lot of different locations.
John: Yeah. And I'm trying to remember what- besides salting the mine there's another classic con we reference in here and I cannot remember for the life of me. Yeah, cause we wound up having to stack this one pretty deep.
Chris: Well it kinda, you know, by the end it becomes a gaslight.
John: Yes! That's right. Oh we're always trying to do the gaslight episode; we can never do it so we spot welded it in.
Chris: Yeah, yeah it is a little bit. The not the- we may be burning it by saying it right now, but, you know, the classic Mission Impossible in the fallout shelter.
John: Yes!
Marc: Right.
Chris: That's the fallout shelter episode.
John: You’ve woken up and everyone’s in like the tattered clothes.
[Laughter]
John: You know, charcoal on their face, this is the end of the world. I think they look through a periscope? The periscope that shows them the post apocalyptic earth. And it's not cool gamer world post-apocalyptic earth either, it's very depressing.
Chris: And by the way, a very simple way to show a test here.
Marc: That’s right.
Chris: Test tube and the colored water.
Marc: Scrape, scrape. Colored water.
John: Yeah it's pretty- everyone knows what green is.
Chris: Yeah.
John: But again, this is another thing that shows you this research gives you a story. Trying to figure out how you salt the coltan, the girls had done so much research they found out that's what you do to keep the dust down, you know, they had a full file.
Chris: Right.
John: Of, you know, just the life of the mine. And then we dove in there for the story ideas.
Chris: Boy that mine looks great.
John: Yeah.
Chris: Really, I mean-
John: They built that how fast? Two, three days?
Marc: You know, like every show episode they don’t get many days.
John: Well sometimes you get a little more time on B because we’re over on A, but yeah.
Chris: And that, you know, credit to Paul Bernard, our line producer, too.
John: Yeah, cause it was getting hairy by this point.
Chris: Well no, but I think just when we- you know, sometimes when we’re in the writers room and discussing things, you know, we’ll spike stories early in the process if we think there's no way we can do it, and he right off the bat, we said “We wanna do a coal mining episode.” He said “Oh, you know, it’s just like Eight Legged Freaks.” Which is a movie the company made.
Marc: Which I think we had more set than they did almost. I mean-
Chris: Really?
John: Oh really?
Marc: Becca, our production designer, and Randall just gave us so much with turns and chambers and then we, you know, we used one little tunnel just- and we just changed the background a bit.
John: Well that's the great thing about that, that frankenstein set is built to be corridors. So as long as you put another right hand in it, you have no idea where you are.
Marc: Yeah, they give us more than we ask for. And this, Dave just lit beautifully.
John: Yeah, this is gorgeous.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Half a million bucks. It is amazing- it’s always amazing to me when you get down to local politics how little money it takes-
Chris: Yeah.
John: To swing these races.
Chris: Well you had that great line about how much it costs to buy a senate seat. Less than a house in-
John: It's blown now because of the mega millionaires who ran this year. But at the time it was the average senate campaign cost 8 million dollars.
Chris: Right.
John: And the average house in sort of the ritzy section of Beacon Hills is 10 million.
Chris: Right, yeah.
John: Yeah, buy a Senate seat cheaper than you buy a house.
Chris: I also like- is this where we set up the lunch pail?
John: Yes.
Chris: That's another great little moment.
John: Great little character beat.
Marc: Yeah.
John: Great little physical artifact. If there's any- yeah. If anyone's reading- pardon me, if anyone’s listening to these and they're thinking about trying to do television or anything. It's tricky, you can fall into words very quickly, and then- just remember it's a visual medium. Using props, using physical objects to link storylines is crucial. It- also because the audience doesn't have to process it, they recognize it.
Chris: And it helped in a story point later because then he sees-
John: He knew where he was.
Chris: Knows he's in there when he sees the lunch pail.
Marc: That’s right.
Chris: And I think the idea here, that his dad had been in the explosion, I think was kinda late to the writing process.
John: Yes it was. Yeah, we were trying to figure out how to link him, and then I think we were just going over the dialogue and the act was already written, which was the kid’s birthday party. And wound up making it that kid.
Marc: But it also- it was- put it well cause it gave Eliot a little stinger.
Chris: Yes.
John: Yeah. There's a lot- and also the thing I like about this, too- and we try to lock on this - Eliot’s not gonna send this kid to Harvard.
Chris: Right.
John: You know, it’s make your life a little bit better, that's all you can do.
Marc: Right.
John: Conceivably, you know. We try to do that a lot, it’s like give people the next thing up.
Chris: And we are not saying that- we don't make a statement that coal mining is bad and we need to bring organic farming to this community.
Marc: Right.
Chris: I think it's pretty set early on, coal mining is how they make their living and they just want it to be safe.
John: And that was important, when the girls called the- they’re women now, we should stop calling them girls even though they are our baby writers. When the young women, when the wonder twins, called their coal mining source that was a big concern of his, you know.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Everyone makes us look bad and they're like “No, we're gonna show it's a valuable part of the American economy; somebody has to do it.”
Chris: Oh, they’re so great.
John: Oh I love this scene! Love this scene so much. Because they're playing the sexual subtext here and the audience doesn't know it yet.
Marc: Right, no.
John: You know, and that's a little flirty look. I mean, you know, it makes sense when you go back and watch the second time.
Chris: What do I know Annie Fitzgerald from? I feel like is she- I mean, boy Bruce Davison-
John: Yeah.
Chris: Did a ton of stuff.
John: She's done a lot of television. I mean, you know, American television has its own sort of, you know, it’s like British theater in the 40s, it has its own collection of just really great actors who are kinda kicking around from show to show.
Marc: Yeah.
John: Oh that’s it. The beat where he goes, ‘Here we go’, and then dials the phone. What was that? That was a- we couldn't have scripted that in a million years. It was just really- a great moment of duplicity, and just that you saw the moment where he decided to do it.
Marc: Right.
John: And it was kind of almost sexual, it was just a weird choice.
[Laughter]
John: Oh great, in the elevator!
Marc: In the elevator! We went for it.
John: Nice.
Chris: That’s great.
John: Moving background.
Chris: Yeah, could've been a little static shot.
Marc: All in the city hall building, and Gary got in there with her, did a couple runs.
John: He’s pretty close to her, yeah; you have to be close to her. I think also this was the original act break. I think we cut out on this.
Marc: I think so.
John: Yeah.
Chris: I think there was a little trim here, yeah.
John: Yeah, there was another- the first scene in the next act is the act break or something like that. Cause I remember that- I remember- this is, you know, also people don't know, not only do you have to do the number of acts that the network asks you to do- they have to be certain lengths.
Chris: Yeah.
John: And so we have a traditionally short fourth act. And so you have to- sometimes we shoot the show and it's like oh that not where that commercial’s gonna go, and you have to jigger it a little bit.
Chris: Another tricky story point here was because we knew that we were salting the mine, and then we were gonna ultimately trap them in the mine and do our gaslighting. The question- the challenge was, how are we gonna get him in his own mine-
John: Right.
Chris: -at that moment when he's already decided to blow it up?
Marc: Right.
Chris: You know, that was a bit of a tricky writing and plotting that we-
John: We originally had him call and tell him that he won Yankee tickets, that he could collect at his own mine.
[Laughter]
Chris: Exactly.
Marc: This is a great location that we never shot at. It was like a private club-
John: Is this the golf club from Tap Out?
Marc: No, it’s a private club in downtown Portland. And it's been there for years, and they just gave us so much free rein in the place.
John: Gorgeous. Oh and picking them up on the stairs and bringing them down.
Chris: That’s great.
John: That's a nice shot Marc.
Marc: This is nice to see both of them in the con playing their parts.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Which we don’t- again, just because we're very new at having Parker's character do the grift, we haven't really had a chance to do before.
Marc: Right.
John: And that also there's- if you go back in third season and watch the Parker-Sophie scenes, that when there's just the two of them and you compare them to the first and second season, you can see that evolution. And you can actually see that comfortable emotional vibe that they've set up. You know, from a writing standpoint Parker is the happiest that Sophie’s back.
Chris: Right.
John: Yeah.
Chris: No, no, I mean, it's a pairing that we don't do enough.
John: Yeah.
Chris: The two of them. Because I guess story-wise-
John: They have different skill sets.
Chris: Yeah, yeah exactly. She's usually, you know, dangling from a building.
John: Rigged up. Yeah, exactly.
Chris: But it just occurred to me that this is another party scene that is similar to the one in Double Blind.
John: Yes.
[Laughter]
John: We all have- there's only so-
Chris: Champagne flute party scene.
John: There's only so many places to put- you know, if we oppress the man, the man hangs out in champagne parties, you know!
[Laughter]
John: That's where he hangs out, that's where you gotta go.
Marc: Yeah.
Chris: That was another thing, too, with this episode in sort of conceiving it, was to give it a, at least in a political setting, give you kinda an upscale, rarified world that you could juxtapose with the grittiness of the mine.
Marc: Mine, yeah.
Chris: Rich swells, as we like to say.
John: Rich swells. Lush, rich swells.
[Laughter]
John: 1920s types. Also late to the party, the fact the attorney general is a woman.
Chris: Yeah. Well part of-
John: That was- we started with a woman because we were like, we haven't had a female villain for a while, and there's a whole rash of- when we did research, for whatever reason attorney general is a big, sort of, upscale position as female politicians enter the race.
Chris: Yeah, that's true.
John: It tends to be- a lot of them are female in America.
Chris: But as a practical matter, also, you know, it’s hard when you have two bad guys that are- sort of have equal weight.
Marc: Right.
Chris: You don't want the audience to be confused. You don't want two guys that look similar and the audience is saying, “Wait a minute, is that the mine owner, or is that the attorney general?”
John: Yeah.
Chris: If you quickly decide that it's two genders, then you're pretty safe.
John: And then we had them sleeping together.
Chris: Yeah, and then that opened that up as a storyline.
John: When we talk about it, it makes it sound really chaotic how we write these things, but actually it's a well-oiled machine.
[Laughter]
Marc: Well-oiled. But it's also- when you shoot these scenes, you have to shoot both sides of the conversation twice.
John: Yeah.
Marc: I mean, here we were at the party, we were in the mine, we were in the van. So you really do it- and you have to pay attention to so many things of how you shot that scene, which way was Hardison looking, which was Eliot looking.
John: Yeah, then again that's something we do that not every show on earth does.
Marc: Yes.
John: I mean we actually match eyelines across locations.
Marc: Right.
John: That's crazy.
Chris: Right. Well, but it helps, right?
John: It makes a difference when you have three people on intercoms.
Chris: Now how do you keep that- I mean, do you keep that straight Marc?
John: That’s Suzie.
Chris: Do you have a pad or-?
Marc: I mean there are times that I will do it and there are times I won’t, but yeah, Suzanne will keep a score.
Chris: Keep score.
John: That's our script supervisor, and you know, we’ve talked about this job before, that's the person who keeps track of every shot and all the continuity on set.
Marc: Yes.
Chris: No, I think it makes a big difference. I mean, you wanna get- when people are in different locations you wanna get- feel like they’re talking to each other.
John: Yeah. We tend to intercut simultaneously more than other shows do, so we kinda-
Chris: I like them when they're walking in different directions, too. I like when one’s walking downstairs and one’s walking upstairs; I like all that stuff.
John: I like motion. I like to see things moving on the screen. No, lovely scene, lovely little screw you scene between Annie and Gina.
Marc: Yes.
John: The ever present American flag pins. Always amuses me.
[Laughter]
Marc: Always good to have those.
John: Yup.
Chris: Oh!
John: That’s a great shot.
Chris: What a great shot!
Marc: Oh yeah.
Chris: What a fantastic- these are some of the things that just make- that's a cinematic shot right there.
Marc: Yeah.
John: And it gives you depth, real depth.
Chris: Yeah!
John: I mean, look how far back on set you can see.
Marc: All those practical lights.
John: Yeah, and now this makes it look huge because he looks like he's in a different location.
Marc: Right.
John: Yeah, and this was the- this was a variation of the reveal the con bit. This was like the implied double-cross. It’s-
Chris: Right.
John: We’re deep into con world at this point.
[Laughter]
Marc: These guys did such a great job with this.
John: Yeah.
Marc: Tim- I mean, Tim was all over this scene.
John: Yeah. He plays- well this is the character he kinda enjoys the most, is this kinda surly asshole, is really the only way to say it.
Chris: Yeah.
John: And he'll be the first to admit that's what the character is.
Marc: Yeah.
John: But yeah. It's a little Jimmy Joe Meeker.
[Laughter]
John: It's a little- you can go back to the Rockford touchstone.
Marc: There's the lunchbox he saw.
Chris: There's the lunchbox!
John: Oh shit now I've gotta go kick somebody’s ass with a pickaxe.
[Laughter]
John: He might not be thinking that but, you know.
Chris: We make a contract with the audience. I feel like when we send Eliot into the mine, I feel like the audience says, “When is he gonna fight a guy with a pickaxe?”
John: Yes.
Chris: And if you don't give them that, I feel like we've broken our contract.
John: We have not necessarily delivered that which we promised to deliver. And that was- there is the card- the various cards on the wall of things Eliot hasn't fought with.
[Laughter]
Marc: Right.
John: That was fun. And the in the King George-
Chris: Bowling trophy? No, he's fought with a bowling trophy.
John: King George: belt fu. Belt fu is something I've been wanting to do for a while.
Chris: Oh look at that!
Marc: This was fun to do.
Chris: That was great.
John: So how'd you do that?
Marc: Air mortars. The guys pretty much took their own fall.
John: Wait, that's Bruce and Tim?
Marc: Well we had stunt guys do it, and then they would- then they took a crack at it. And that rock pile, we had some come down and then Mark Franco and company added more rocks.
Chris: He's our special effects-.
Marc: To really establish that they are closed off.
John: Yeah.
Marc: But this is great. I mean, these guys just got down and dirty and wanted to play it. You know Tim was ready to play it down and dirty. It was great.
John: And also this was- I remember this was a bear. I was working on that other episode and came in and you guys were wrestling what this was. We don't usually lie to the audience this blatantly.
Chris: Yeah.
John: We have to- and that was the trick, we dont lie to the audience, so how do you write these scenes so that they are concerned because they've lost contact with Nate, but you can read it as concern for the fact that the mine has collapsed?
Chris: They’re in a collapsed mine.
John: Super- I remember long conversations about that.
Chris: Yes.
Marc: This is just another- the same hallway that we just redressed with some other things.
John: Put a minecart in.
Marc: And changed the background just to give us new locations.
John: And- yeah.
Chris: Oh that's great.
John: That's another great shot, look at that.
Chris: Look at that shot.
John: And then- did you- are those digital? No, you stacked those.
Marc: Those are stacked foam, yeah.
John: It’s- yeah, the two- you’re looking at two great actors just having an enormous amount of fun with these scenes.
Marc: Yeah.
Chris: Now you're waiting for him to do math. How much air is there in here?
John: And I'd actually prepped that movie, remember?
Chris: That's right! That's right.
John: I had prepared to direct a movie that wound up not going, but one of the conciets was two guys trapped in a safe. And I had to do the math on cubic air. And so that was again, that's why you have writing staff, you never know who's got a note in their notepad. Yeah, and then all this, the tone of the confrontation scene went up and down a lot.
Marc: Right.
John: Yeah, how crazy would she get. And then when Annie really plays it in control, which is great.
Marc: Well, that's like Parker’s so naive about it. And Sophie totally gets it and uses it to her advantage in the con.
John: Yeah, just like a knife. Just twisting it in. That was also another thing, the- how they had not heard that before. I forget what we were talking about. We were talking about the fact that they just have people whose job it is to go through wire taps. Just the hours and hours and hours of wire taps. But when you were a lawyer you had done some of that.
Chris: Oh, sure.
John: Because they regularly recorded phone calls in these places.
Chris: Oh, in brokerage houses. Phones are always recorded, and those are all kept.
John: Yeah. Somebody has to actually go through that stuff. The great Bourne fade.
Chris: It might've been- there was a good disappear here. I feel like in some early version she decked her.
[Laughter]
John: Yeah, I think we had that originally and then were like eh, is it a punch? Is it a- and then Gina doesn't really punch.
Chris: She doesn't really punch.
John: In the season finale she hits somebody with a champagne bottle. But that's good. That gives her an edge.
Marc: Yeah. This guy was great, he was a local actor. Geno Romo. And he wanted to do his own stunts.
John: Oh, that's great.
Marc: And he tried out with Kevin, and he was great! Because Kevin said, ‘he's not trying to impress me.’ You know what I mean?
Chris: Right, right.
Marc: Cause that's when actors get hurt.
John: Yeah.
Marc: And he worked with Christian, and I said “Christian are you up for it?” He said, “Yeah, he's got skills; it's gonna be a great fight.” So-
Chris: Now how long-
Marc: So we had two actors, we had Christian and Gino doing their actual fight.
Chris: Now how long did it take to film the pickaxe part? I know it was done in pieces, right?
Marc: It was done in pieces, so probably half a day over all.
Chris: Wow.
John: And then the oxygen saturation stuff is from, again, the research. You know, being able to talk. And that's the other thing, and Chris, you're always on about this cause you used to be a journalist. If you're writing your spec script or writing your movie or whatever. Just call people!
Chris: Yeah!
John: Just cold call them. Nine times out of ten they love to talk about their job.
Chris: People- no matter- rule of thumb, no matter what people say I hate my job, they love talking about it.
John: Yeah.
Chris: And here we go, now he’s just got a bat.
John: Now he's lost the- that's actually a lesson-
Chris: Oh I love that shot, too.
Marc: Yeah that's a good commercial break.
[Laughter]
John: I think was the commercial break intended-
Marc: Yeah.
John: And then when you actually like timed it out- that's a 13 minute act four, we can't do that. Yeah. That's not gonna work. And here we are now trapped in the classic science fiction story, The Cold Equations.
[Laughter]
John: Other people might phrase it differently, but I always go to The Cold Equations.
Chris: And just he's so great at just- you totally buy all the things he says here.
John: Yeah.
Chris: Cause he sees his life ending. He's just got that fatalististic vibe to it and then he's just able to turn it on. Turn on the menace.
John: Well, and that's the Nate character. It's important, it's always tricky when you're trying to get these confessorial scenes. If you ask another character a question, and they give you the answer, that is boring. And they wouldn't fall for that.
Marc: Right.
John: If you argue with them, and you get exposition as refutation, it feels organic.
Chris: Yeah.
John: You know what I mean? That was also- that was tricky, too, hitting him with the board.
Marc: Yes.
John: Cause outline- we did a reset. That's right, I forgot we did a reset at the end of this. Just to-
Chris: You know, sometimes people were getting a sandwich and they missed it. You gotta make sure they understand what's going on.
John: I like a reset!
Chris: I like it.
John: Here's the thing, I think it was also we didn't want to- if we're gonna cut back to this, you didn't want to think that Bruce Davidson is in the other part of the mine beating Nate to death. Like, just taking the two by four to him.
[Laughter]
Chris: Yes.
John: I think that was also- that was, originally we had him strangling him. And it was like, well why wouldn’t you just not stop strangling him?
[Laughter]
John: Like oh, oh yeah.
Chris: Right how do you con somebody-
John: Into not strangling you. Yeah. that's no, hit him, hit him with the board. This is great. This is of course the scene in the The Lathe of Heaven where he is imagined- he has dreamt that he is a lathe- that's really obscure.
[Laughter]
John: It's like eight people who are gonna get the Lathe of Heaven reference.
Chris: I'll take Ursula K Le Guin for 200.
John: Take Bruce Davidson's minis series when he was 20 something for five hundred, Alex.
Marc: That's a great shot by Gary Camp.
John: That's a beautiful shot.
Marc: A little 360 steadicam.
John: Where the hell- wait where's the crew? What the-
Marc: They're hidden!
John: They're hidden. We do- when we do those 360s we hide behind trees and trucks.
Chris: Yeah, that's right.
Marc: Another great flashback sequence that the girls wrote-
Chris: Oh! Look at that!
Marc: This was cool. That was Gary running through the whole mine, so that's actually the full length of the set from beginning to end.
[Laughter]
John: That's great. Oh man, I did not know that. Oh yes, and Eliot screwing with Hardison.
Marc: Yeah.
John: A lot of fun.
Chris: And you know, I think-
John: And to see the little look he gives just for a second before he does it.
Chris: That’s great. Yeah. And to make sure showing you don't need a giant bomb in a mine. A mine is-
John: A mine is a bomb waiting to happen.
Chris: It's a bomb waiting to happen.
Marc: Right.
John: Now that- remember, I worked on the natural gas pipeline-
Chris: That’s right.
John: When I quit university. And yes the ever present threat of just blowing up sometimes. No, this was- oh and this was the header. Yeah, the flashbacks in this one are tough.
Marc: Yes.
John: There's a lot of story in these flashbacks.
Marc: You really gotta wrap your head around these when you're shooting them.
John: We’ll try to give you easier ones for next year, there you go.
Marc: Perfect.
John: Do the ones in real time where there's no flashbacks. Like Rashomon, something easy like that.
[Laughter]
Marc: Right, yeah.
John: Yeah.
Marc: There's the X of course, that we set up.
John: Oh yeah. And it was interesting, too. You do a lot of this in post. The flashbacks have to have different luts on them. They have to have different lights- different color schemes so you understand you're not happening concurrently and they happen in the story.
Marc: Right.
John: No, this is a nested flashback.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Yeah, this- he actually changed locations in the flashback, this is tricky.
Marc: Oh, yeah.
John: We’re in three different places. And both light comedic exposition and dramatic ‘you're gonna die’ exposition. Aldis Hodge does it all.
Chris: Yeah.
Marc: That's right.
John: He conveys urgency.
Marc: Our M.A.S.H. speaker.
Chris: And here's your undoing. Oh that's great!
John: Oh the zoom around.
Chris: Great zoom around too!
Marc: Give them a little something.
John: Yeah. And then push in, do you do a push?
Marc: I think that was done in post.
John: There you go. There's the push.
Marc: There it is.
John: Yeah, the world’s just kinda closing in on her. We don't mention-
Marc: And this of course, now we're back in the car.
John: Yeah. What, like four minutes later? I don't always like-
Chris: Yeah, wow that's right, they've been in the car for a while!
John: This is like a four minute flashback.
Chris: What's the deal? Is the battery running out? Did they leave the lights on?
John: No, remember Inception! Time is different in your dreams! So, you know, you have more time in the flashback.
Marc: Always good.
Chris: What a great gloat!
Marc: The make them suffer look!
John: Yup.
Chris: Look at all the different looks we got on this gloat.
John: The villain must suffer, we must have the gloat. Disdain.
[Laughter]
John: Rage.
Marc: Another flashback.
John: And now! We do a flashback in the gloats! Oh my god! This is brutal! God, no this one is tough. I can't believe we pulled this one off. Yeah, and the whole- and again this was crucial, you know, how you move money around and just spook her into hiding it.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Yeah, no- and that's a big thing is that it all boils down to Irene Adler, really. You just have to scare somebody and they'll give up the information that you need. Move it somewhere safe. Yeah, multiple gloats. And also a little victory moment for Parker.
Marc: Yes.
Chris: Yeah.
John: Very nice. Very nice the- you know, she's learned a new job skill.
Marc: That's right.
John: Won't be using it all the time, but yeah.
Chris: Tomorrow's women. That's right, a little- just a little throwaway line seemed like the thing to sell her con.
John: Her character.
Chris: Now this is something we never do on this show. I remember this was like a late addition to the script, just a little character-y moment here.
John: Yeah.
Chris: And it's great. I mean it’s, you know, in a show this packed and busy to find a little time for this.
John: That's what I said in the Rashomon commentary, I love watching them just hang out in the bar cause that's what they talk to each other like when they're not on the job.
Marc: Right.
John: This is- the vast amount of Hardison/Parker interactions actually sound like this.
[Laughter]
Chris: Right.
John: You know, when they're not doing urgent stuff, you know.
Chris: Yeah, ‘smells like bubbles.’
John: She's kinda spaced and he's trying to figure out the hell- smells like bubbles, yeah. And the- touch the chin a bit.
[Laughter]
John: That was great. And it all rides on his reaction there.
Marc: This scene was great.
John: Yeah. Well he plays it with the right amount of betrayal.
Marc: Yeah.
John: It's like what? Clark, you're Superman?
Marc: It’s very-
Chris: Yeah.
Marc: Gary giving us a 180.
John: Yeah. Just land into it rather than pop into the cut. No, it's nice. It- this was a great location.
Marc: Oh, yeah.
John: This is the rock quarry?
Marc: Yeah, same place.
Chris: Is it raining right there?
Marc: No, this-
John: Man it rained a lot during this episode.
Marc: It rained a lot. But when we first set up that mobile trailer, we actually had to pump out the surrounding area cause it was about a foot of water.
Chris: Wow.
John: And camera-
Marc: But they were great!
John: Camera and power cords don't really-
Marc: The rock quarry, they were giving us all- ‘you want this tractor?’ They'd move things, they gave us everything we needed.
John: Well it was like in The Three Days of the Hunter.
Marc: Yeah.
John: The national guard- the reserve, pardon me, the state reserve guys they really gave us everything we could possibly want.
Marc: Exactly.
John: And hence we were able to bring filthy Hollywood money to their state. It’s a great relationship.
Marc: And it was in close proximity.
John: Yeah. Really nice.
Chris: And now we get-
Marc: This is our little closer with Timothy Whitcomb and Tim and Christian.
Chris: Now due to the miracle of receivership were able to-
John: Oh receiver- sweet receivership.
[Laughter]
Chris: We were able to both make our victim whole again, our client, and actually bestow the title in some way to the- instrument of their acting.
John: I learned more about corporate bankruptcy on this job than I could possibly ever want to know.
[Laughter]
John: Various and sundry conditions and states wherein, and yeah.
Chris: No, but I think it's also a result of research and-
John: Yeah, it's based on that company- down in Central America, the auto company. The guys who took over their own plant.
Chris: Yes.
Marc: Yeah.
John: Yeah. Evidently doable. Not always heard of-
Marc: Yeah.
John: But, you know. The stories where the workers take over the means of production? Not a big play in America.
[Laughter]
Marc: This we graded darker in here, cause this was shot on one of the clearer days.
John: So you had to match the rest of the rain.
Marc: But of course we did the exterior-
John: And it's raining.
Marc: And it's raining. This is the shot where Dean goes, “how come you get all this moving gear?”
Chris: Oh, I know, look at that!
Marc: Mine is back.
John: And pull up to reveal the mine! Oh.
Marc: People are back to work.
Chris: And a perfect, you know, we started it on the mine, there's people coming in and out and exploding, and now they're going into a safe mine.
John: That's American work right there.
Chris: Beautiful bookend.
John: That's America at work.
Chris: Beautiful piece of work.
John: I think you’re our most patriotic director, Marc.
Marc: I am.
John: More shows should hire you to combat the liberal agenda.
[Laughter]
Marc: Amen.
John: That was Underground Job, stay tuned for a lot of great episodes and Marc Roskin thank you so much for giving us this episode. It was great.
Chris: So great.
Marc: Thank you, my pleasure.
#Leverage#Leverage TNT#Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts#Audio Commentary#Transcripts#Parker#Alec Hardison#Elliot Spencer#Nate Ford#Sophie Devereaux#Season 3#Episode 10#Season 3 Episode 10#The Underground Job
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if you’re down for another long ramble: tell us about your current fave book or a book you think everyone should read :)
Everybody says "don't judge a book by its cover," but I will freely admit, when The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson came up on my Scribd recommendations, the first thing that drew me in were the boots worn by the model on the cover.
I mean. Look at those sweet boots. Look at this Pinterest-perfect cottagecore ensemble. Look at that exquisitely weathered pair of books wrapped in sisal twine. You can almost smell those books. That "old book" smell. You know the smell I'm talking about.
Anyway, once I dug past my lizard brain's "o wao pretty picture" reaction, I saw that Dolly Parton named it as her favorite read of the year in 2021. I don't usually put much stock in celebrity endorsements in and of themselves, but I think we can all agree that, if any celebrity out there has generally and universally-applicable good taste, it's Dolly Parton. So, I started reading.
I loved it from the first few pages. The story centers on a young woman, Cussy May Carter, who lives with her coal-mining father in the Appalachian mountains of east Kentucky. In the wake of her mother's death, her father risking his job (and his life) to unionize his fellow miners, and her social unfitness for marriage due to her blue skin--more on that later--Cussy May takes a job with the Pack Horse Library Project. The project was part of the job-creating initiatives of the Works Progress Administration, a federal agency established by FDR as part of the Second New Deal to create jobs for unemployed Americans (particularly those with little or no formal education) working on public works projects.
For Cussy May, that job entails riding her mule into the most remote parts of the mountains to deliver books, newspapers, periodicals, and sometimes academic schooling materials to communities with limited access to these resources. Cussy May comes from a family carrying a rare recessive gene that causes the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, which gives her skin a distinctive blue tint. She faces considerable ostracism and discrimination because of this.
So basically, we have a poor, socially ostracized woman with a rare disease telling the story of how she finds community and a more profound sense of identity and meaning in her life by increasing accessibility of information and enrichment to other poor, sick, and/or disabled people scratching and crawling their way through life after the Great Depression trying to survive and maybe even thrive. For me, that alone checks an impressive amount of boxes of "stuff I find interesting." Add in the story of her father, a heroic UNIONIZER (y'all know how much I love unions) risking his life and health and basically everything he has for the cause of a better environment and better treatment for his colleagues? You sold me. SOLD. ME.
I've always gravitated towards woman-centered historical fiction (shout-out to my girl Samantha Parkington and the OG American Girls historical fiction series), but I was surprised at how much actual American history I became aware of for the first time because of this book. The Pack Horse Librarian Project was a REAL THING that people REALLY DID and I'm genuinely angry that I didn't learn about it in school--not even in AP US History, where my best friend and I did an in-depth project on the New Deal. Thinking back on it, though, our textbooks presented us with a very shallow (and frankly, classist and imperialist) understanding of the history of the American economy, and what it meant to have a healthy or progressive economy. Their metrics were based on the rich white people in the major cities--not the poor blue people in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
Oh yeah, and the blue people of Kentucky were also real--and I suppose technically they still are, since methemoglobinemia still exists, but we now have a better (and less prejudiced) understanding of the condition and how to treat it effectively. But again, these are not things that we covered in our bougie-adjacent northern Westchester education.
One thing that I particularly appreciated about this story was that it focused on a woman having and fulfilling an industrious purpose in her life that had nothing to do with pursuing or prioritizing a romantic or sexual relationship. There is an excellent love story interweaved, but it's not The Point Of The Thing, and the author also doesn't do that annoying virtue-signaling thing of hitting you over the head with the fact that the love story is not The Point Of The Thing.
Sidebar: It's honestly incredible (and annoying) how rare it is for adult-oriented literature to deprioritize (if not exclude) romantic/sexual story arcs for adult women. That may be one reason why, when people ask me about my favorite books, the ones that come to mind first are the iconic YA classics we read in middle school (e.g. The Giver) that traumatized the butterfly clips right out of our hair--but like, in a good way.
Anyway, I won't give any more of it away, but I honestly can't think of any reason why the majority of the types of people who follow me here wouldn't enjoy the heck outta this book. I mean, we all love stories that champion accessibility and education and community and overcoming systemic oppression and prejudice, right?
Or, if nothing else, we all love a sweet pair of boots.
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OK. So hear me out ...
I'm sure I'm late to the game on this, but I have an idea that I'd like to pitch to Dean Devlin/John Rogers that I'm sure they've heard a hundred times by now.
You know how there's a Korean version of Leverage? If not, there is. See here to learn more. (Don't feel bad if you didn't know. I just learned about it this month.) Well, I think a lot of Leverage fans like myself would love to watch the Korean version, but probably don't know how to access it ... legally.
With that in mind, what if there were more versions of Leverage from around the globe, but they're in the form of the "Leverage International" concept and fans of the original series (and all subsequent series) can watch them on Amazon's Freevee service like you can watch Leverage: Redemption now?
Each spinoff/office would simply be a branch of the company as it exists today. So a spinoff or version of the show in South Africa, would be the South African office. A spinoff in India would be the Indian branch of the company. And so on and so forth.
Of course, all the shows would be slightly different because their teams are different, they're dealing with local and national problems related to corruption that may be specific to their part of the world, and the humor/stories would mirror the sensibilities of each nation.
And with each show, Leverage fans can tune into Amazon's Freevee and watch the shows from around the world. There's also the possibility for crossovers -- not just from our original cast, but among the other casts as well.
So I'm sure I'm not the first to have this idea, but I want to say that I'm not just interested in this concept as a fan of the show. I like this concept because as I've recently gone back and re-watched episodes of the original series, I'm also remembering all of the corruption, scandals and news stories that inspired the show and what was going on in the country/world at that time.
Some of those scandals have been forgotten due to the constant chaos of today; others are only referenced from time to time. But each one shined a light on a major sociopolitical or cultural issue that deserves to be talked about even more and exposed. And not just the major news stories like the Monsanto-inspired one (The Hot Potato Job - s4e5), the coal mining-inspired one (The Underground Job - s3e10) or the private prison-inspired one (The Jailhouse Job - s3e1). But also the small town corruption stories like we saw in The Grave Danger Job (s4e7) or The Studio Job (s3e6).
Imagine an international series franchise that shines a light on the ill deeds of the rich and powerful in every country where there's a Leverage spinoff?
And fans of the show can watch those spinoffs and learn about the problems those nations face, perhaps recognizing how many of our rich and powerful villains are alike across the world -- but also exposing how we can see these schemes and corrupt folks for who they are in our own backyard. Maybe even going so far as to encourage more of us to get involved in pushing back against these broken systems that often protect them.
Yes, I know I'm putting way too much responsibility on a fictional wishful-thinking TV series. But from a storytelling point-of-view, it would be glorious to see the franchise grow even more beyond U.S. borders and to share with the world all of the various ways that people are marginalized all across the planet. I've always said that people are far more alike than they are different, and that goes for villains as much as it goes for heroes.
What do you think Leverage fans? Would you be interested in watching other countries' versions of Leverage (or what's happening in the Leverage offices in [insert nation here]) on an affordable or free streaming platform?
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Dr Who: The Green Death
I rewatched this serial on 20 February 2023. It’s one that I have seen quite a few times because of how often it was repeated where and when I grew up.
We start with a coal mine in South Wales facing industrial trouble, and environmental protests. There’s a mystery, too, when a miner dies, his body glowing green. The Brigadier is summoned to protect Global Chemicals, while Jo is determined to protest against them. The Brigadier offers her a ride, even though she’s technically breaching her employment contract.
The Doctor, resplendent in green velvet and frills, is utterly determined to get to Metebelis 3, the blue planet. He makes it, amazingly, and unsurprisingly it’s a dangerous place. He manages to get back to UNIT HQ with a blue crystal, and he’s relieved to be called to South Wales. On arrival, he gets straight into the thriller plot.
The serial is often mentioned in response to tiresome folk who decry Dr Who in the 2020s for being “woke”, aka progressive, when it didn’t used to be. (The original meaning of “woke” isn’t quite what’s attacked, quelle surprise. Not the place to go into it here, mind.) It does wear its green — ahem — credentials on its sleeves, but it’s far from the first to do so. Planet of Giants depicted the impact of poorly tested insecticides on our heroes and wider ecology.
The Green Death is also not the first Dr Who serial to feature a megalomaniac computer (Dr Who truly did anticipate techbros and the destruction they are wreaking on the world), or mind control gubbins, or a dystopian corporation with tentacles in government and pretentious to enslave the world. No surprise that Global Chemicals is full of white men in suits. Contrast them to Professor Jones and his chums.
It’s also the serial in which we farewell Jo Grant, played by the simply lovely Katy Manning, who falls in love with Professor Cliff Jones and decides to leave the Doctor and her job with UNIT. In that sense, it harks back to Susan falling in love with David Campbell and deciding to leave the Doctor. I might have a little something in my eye with those last scenes…
A fitting conclusion to the tenth season of Dr Who, which included three Doctors, the Master, moar Time Lords, Daleks, Ogrons, Thals, and UNIT.
Onward!
#doctor who#jo grant#katy manning#the green death#giant maggots#unit#boss like a boss#professor jones
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The day the (reggae) music died : 1981 : Bob Marley, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Matumbi
“Bob Marley has died!” I exclaimed. Having switched on the car radio before starting the engine, one of Marley’s songs was playing on John Peel’s ‘BBC Radio One’ ten-to-midnight show. I knew immediately what that meant. Peel was a longtime reggae fan, though I had not heard him play a Marley track for years. There was no need to await Peel’s voice announcing the sad news. I had read that Marley was ill but had not understood the terminal gravity of his health.
Peterlee town centre was dark and desolate at that late hour. I had walked to my little Datsun car across a dark, empty car park adjacent to the office block of Peterlee Development Corporation, accompanied by my girlfriend who was employed there on a one-year government job creation scheme. We had attended a poetry reading organised by Peterlee Community Arts in the building, an event she had learnt of from her marketing work. It was my first poetry reading. Only around a dozen of us were present, everyone else at least twice our age. But what we heard was no ordinary poetry.
Linton Kwesi Johnson had coined his work ‘dub poetry’ in 1976 and already published three anthologies and four vinyl albums, voicing his experiences as a Jamaican whose parents had migrated to Britain in 1962. Peterlee new town seemed an unlikely venue for a ‘dub poet’, a deprived coal mining region with no discernible black population, but working class Tyneside poet Keith Armstrong had organised this event as part of his community work there to foster residents’ creative writing. Johnson read some of his excellent poems and answered the group’s polite questions. It was an intimate, quiet evening of reflection.
Due to my enthusiasm for reggae, I was familiar with Johnson’s record albums as one strand of the outpouring of diverse innovation that Britain’s homegrown reggae artists had been pioneering since the early 1970’s. Alongside ‘dub poetry’ (poems set to reggae), there was ‘lovers rock’ (soulful reggae with love themes sung mostly by teenage girls), UK ‘roots reggae’ (documenting the Black British experience) and a distinctly British version of ‘dub’ (radical mixes using studio effects). One name that was playing a significant writing/producing role spanning all these sub-genres was Dennis Bovell, alias ‘Blackbeard’, of the British group ‘Matumbi’. His monumental contributions to British reggae are too often understated.
Until then, there had been plenty of reggae produced in British studios and released by UK record labels such as ‘Melodisc’, ‘Pama’ and ‘Trojan’, but most efforts had been either a rather clunky imitation of Jamaican reggae (for example, Millie’s 1964 UK hit ‘My Boy Lollipop’ [Fontana TE 17425]) or performed by ‘dinner & dance’-style UK groups such as ‘The Marvels’. I admit to having neglected Matumbi upon hearing their initial 1973 releases, cover versions of ‘Kool & The Gang’s ‘Funky Stuff’ [Horse HOSS 39] and ‘Hot Chocolate’s ‘Brother Louie' [GG 4540]. It was not until their 1976 song ‘After Tonight’ [Safari SF 1112] and the self-released 12-inch single ‘Music In The Air’/’Guide Us’ [Matumbi Music Corp MA 0004] that my interest was piqued as a result of the group’s creative ability to seamlessly bridge the ‘lovers rock’, ‘roots reggae’ and ‘dub’ styles. Both sides of the latter disc remain one of my favourite UK reggae recordings (sadly, these particular mixes have not been reissued).
In 1978, Matumbi performed at Dunelm House and, after attending the gig, it was my responsibility as deputy president of Durham Students’ Union to sit in my office with the band, counting out the cash to pay their contracted fee. They were on tour to promote their first album ‘Seven Seals’ self-produced for multinational ‘EMI Records’ [Harvest SHSP 4090]. It included new mixes of the aforementioned 12-inch single plus their theme for BBC television drama ‘Empire Road’, the first UK series to be written, acted and directed predominantly by black artists. Sensing my interest in reggae, the group invited me to join them for an after-gig chat, so I drove to their motel several miles down South Road and we sat in its bar for a thoroughly enjoyable few hours discussing music.
As part of my manic obsession with the nascent ‘dub’ reggae genre, I had bought albums between 1976 and 1978 credited to ‘4th Street Orchestra’ entitled ‘Ah Who Seh? Go Deh!’ [Rama RM 001], ‘Leggo! Ah Fi We Dis’ [Rama RM 002], ‘Yuh Learn!’ [Rama RMLP 006] and ‘Scientific Higher Ranking Dubb’ [sic, Rama RM 004]. They were sold in blank white sleeves with handwritten marker-pen titles and red, gold and green record labels to make them look similar to Jamaican-pressed dub albums of that era. However, it was self-evident that most tracks were dub mixes of existing UK recordings by Matumbi backing various performers, engineered and produced by Bovell for licensing to small UK labels. I also had bought and worn two of their little lapel badges, one inscribed ‘AH WHO SEH?’, the other ‘GO DEH!’, from a London record stall. During our conversation in the bar, Bovell expressed surprise that I owned these limited-pressing albums, and even more surprise that I recognised Matumbi as behind them. They remain prime examples of UK dub.
It was Bovell who had produced Linton Kwesi Johnson’s albums, and it was Matumbi who had provided the music. Alongside a young generation of British roots reggae bands such as ‘Aswad’ and ‘Steel Pulse’, Johnson’s poetry similarly tackled contemporary social and political issues with direct, straightforward commentaries. It was a new style of British reggae, an echo of recordings by American collective ‘The Last Poets’ whose conscious poems/raps had been set to music (sometimes by ‘Kool & The Gang’) since 1970, and whose couplets had occasionally been integrated into recordings by Jamaican DJ ‘Big Youth’ in the 1970’s. Of course, MC’s (‘Masters of Ceremonies’) had been talking over (‘toasting’) records at ‘dances’ in Jamaica since the 1960’s, proof that the evolution of ‘rap’ owed as much to the island’s sound system culture as it did to 1970’s New York house parties.
In Peterlee, Johnson read his poems to the audience without music, his usual performance style. It was fascinating to hear his words without any accompaniment. For me, the dub version of Johnson’s shocking 1979 poem ‘Sonny’s Lettah’ (retitled ‘Iron Bar Dub’ on ‘LKJ In Dub’ [Island ILPS 9650]) is brilliantly effective precisely when the music is mixed out to leave his line “Me couldn’t stand up there and do nothin’” hanging in silence. Sadly, memories of Johnson’s performance that night were suddenly eclipsed by the news of Marley’s death. I drove the eight miles to our Sherburn Village home in stunned silence. I was sad and shocked. It was only then that his sudden loss made me realise how much Marley had meant to me.
Despite having listened to reggae since the late 1960’s, I admittedly arrived late to Bob Marley’s music. Though I had heard many of his singles previously, it was not until his 1974 album ‘Natty Dread’ [Island ILPS 9281] that I understood his genius. At that time, I was feeling under a lot of personal pressure which I tried to relieve by listening to this record every day for the next two years. At home, my father had run off, leaving our family in grave financial difficulties. At school, I was struggling with its inflexibility, not permitted to take two mathematics A-levels, not allowed to mix arts and science A-levels, not encouraged to apply to Cambridge University. Back in my first year at that school, I had been awarded three school prizes. However, once my parents separated and then divorced, I was never given a further prize and the headmaster’s comments in my termly school reports became strangely negative, regardless of my results.
Feeling increasingly like an unwanted ‘outsider’ at grammar school, Marley’s lyrics connected with me and helped keep my head above encroaching waters rising in both my home and school lives. I knew I was struggling and needed encouragement from some source, any source, to continue. For me, that came from Marley’s music. While my classmates were mostly listening to ‘progressive rock’ albums with zany song titles (such as Genesis’ ‘I Know What I Like In Your Wardrobe’), I was absorbed by reggae and soul music that spoke about the daily struggle to merely survive the tribulations of life. After ‘Natty Dread’, I rushed out to buy every new Marley release.
During the months following Marley’s death, I was absorbed by sadness. It felt like the ‘final straw’. The previous year, I had landed a ‘dream job’, my first permanent employment, overhauling the music playlist for Metro Radio. Then, after successfully turning around that station’s fortunes, I had unexpectedly been made redundant. I was now unemployed and my every job application had been rejected. That experience had followed four years at Durham University which had turned out to be a wholly inappropriate choice as it was colonised by 90%+ of students having arrived from private schools funded by posh families. I felt like ‘a fish out of water’. I loved studying, I loved learning, I desired a fulfilling academic life at university … but it had proven nigh on impossible at Durham.
“This is what I need
This is where I want to be
But I know that this will never be mine”
Months later, my girlfriend awoke one morning and told me matter-of-factly that she was going to move out and live alone. She offered no explanation. We had neither disagreed nor argued. We had been sharing a room for three years, initially as students in a horribly austere miners’ cottage in Meadowfield whose rooms had no electrical sockets, requiring cables to be run from each room’s centre ceiling light-fitment. Now we were in a better rented cottage in Sherburn, though it had no phone, no gas and no television. Her bombshell announcement could not have come at a more vulnerable time for me. I had already felt rejected by most of my university peers and then by my first employer. At school previously, I had passed the Cambridge University entrance exam but had been rejected by every college. At Durham, I had stood for election as editor of the student newspaper, but its posh incumbent had recommended a rival with less journalistic experience. A decade earlier, my father had deserted me and his family, and now the person I loved the most had done the same.
I just could not seem to navigate a successful path amidst the world of middle- and upper-class contemporaries into which I had been unwittingly thrown, first at grammar school, then at Durham, and now in my personal life too. Most of those years, I felt that circumstances had forced me to focus on nothing more than survival, whilst my privileged contemporaries seemed able to pursue and fulfil their ambitions with considerable ease. I had to remind myself that I had been born in a council house and had attended state schools, initially on a council estate. My girlfriend had not. I had imagined such differences mattered not in modern Britain. I had believed that any ‘socio-economic’ gap between us could be bridged by a mutual feeling called ‘love’. I now began to wonder if I had been mistaken. I felt very much marooned and alone. My twenty-three-year-old life was in tatters.
Fast forward to 1984. I had still not secured a further job in radio. I was invited to Liverpool for a weekend stay in my former girlfriend’s flat. We visited the cathedral and attended a performance at the Everyman Theatre. It felt awkward. I never saw her again. It had taken me months to get over the impact of Bob Marley’s death. It took me considerably longer to get over my girlfriend ending our relationship.
“That clumsy goodbye kiss could fool me
But looking back over my shoulder
You’re happy without me”
#Bob Marley#career#commercial radio#Durham University#Grant Goddard#lovers rock#Metro Radio#music#Peterlee#Peterlee Community Arts#radio#radio station#reggae#Sherburn#Strode's School#student
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God's Calloused Hands 🌍
My father worked the mines and after every shift he'd return with a new callous on his hands,
He worked a job that showed no love to the Earth,
But it still remains,
For billions of years and they have screamed the end of it for years but beneath the smoke-filled skies, it's beauty is still what we compare our lover's faces to.
How many calluses does one have to bend existence into being?
Not just existence but pansies and daisies,
Skies painted with a different hue everytime a furnace that could burn other furnaces alive sets,
That's still a euphemism too.
Hands that gently formed something that could feel, our hearts too are bigger than any galaxy with all it's clusters of stars,
And still we wish on them too,
Who knew greater of love? With preference
To set a banquet of food,
Even in the Congo, where 26 million people go to bed with their stomach empty, they still have gold in their landscapes,
We tried burning it all down, by erecting streetlights kept on by coal mines,
And extracting precious metals to post peace signs,
But the calluses on God's hands are a momento of every living thing's vital signs
What has such resilience to survive the countless wars, the soil absorbing oceans of blood,
But still not have the stench of death?
But life breathes everytime a tree is planted, a baby is born, everytime we see dawn,
And everytime we feel love when we mourn
God's calloused hands are a protest for our living and our loving,
If this fact were a prayer, we'd all in our hearts say "amen"
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i met my boyfriend over a year ago in the hot hot hot western summer. we went back and forth with each other - first i was convinced he was too obsessed with me when i still craved independence, then he knew i loved him when he wasn't yet ready to be loved - but eventually and perhaps only through the threat of one leaving the other (what a horrible birthday that was for me) we came to acknowledge that our love was yes, True, and yes, Real, and yes, Capable. it only took six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve months. two thousands miles. five jobs between us (eight if freelance counts). i went from bangs to no bangs to back again. we let ourselves fall in love fully, though silently, and those cool waves of adoration lapped at us all spring and summer long, until the cool evenings crept in and he finally said it out loud - oh iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou - and i knew i was done for. he is just it, so handsome, so hilarious, sees right through me, lets me live my life as i wish and is there whenever i want to come home, knows when i'm glad, hears my smile through a phone call, hooks his ankle on mine in that big white bed so we are always linked together even if we turn away, lets me worship at his altar, calls me beautiful and looks at me like he has never seen anyone like me, builds me a space in his home, opens himself day by day (if slowly) to the idea of permanence. i love love love him, Big Love, selfless, i would walk on coals, missing him is like an open wound salted over and over and over. every night i am not next to him feels like a night incomplete.
#sorry i havent seen him for the longest time we have ever gone without seeing each other since we met :o#including when he moved a month before i did because he caved and bought a plane ticket back to help me move :o#and also things are different now he used to be my freakish situationship i didnt even know what things would be like when i moved#and let us not forget he did not refer to me as his gf until 10 months in did not tell me he loved me until a year passed#but now i have keys to his place and he is in my dreams every night and i cant believe i ever loved anyone else#but i get to see him in 36 hours...slay :)
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An Update to Dad’s Story
Dad was born in Galicia, a province sandwiched between Poland and Ukraine. In 1894 when he was born it was ruled by Austria-Hungary, but I remember him saying that its governance regularly switched from Austria-Hungary to Poland to "Ukrainia". Dad proudly called himself Ukrainian and let no one call him anything else! He was born the youngest of three brothers. I do not know the Cyrillic spelling of our last name. A letter, that Betty still has I believe, spells Segen in anglicized text as “Sygin.” And just recently I have been made aware of a man named Petro Siegin who arrived at Ellis Island in 1910 on a German ship named the Blucher.
Upon the death of his parents, the farm on which Dad grew up was left to either the oldest brother or the two older brothers. Dad was 16 in 1910 when he decided to emigrate from his home to the New World. Certainly the impending Bolshevik Revolution may have influenced them and the potato famine that is famous in Irish History was also felt on the European mainland and made prospects in Eastern Europe difficult.
Our recollections about a young uncle vary. Either he was already in America or he immigrated with Peter. I do not remember the young Uncle’s name or I was never told it. As a child I was not very curious about Dad’s younger years and regret now not asking more questions.
Accordingly, Dad hitchhiked (?) or walked (?) to Hamburg, Germany. Once there, he stowed away on a Passenger Ship headed for New York, which I now believe was the Blucher. It did not take long for him to be discovered and he was forced to work for his passage. Upon landing at Ellis Island, Dad went through the usual screenings and was allowed to remain in the United States because he listed an uncle in Belsano, PA, named Faranc. He attended classes at Ellis Island and they were able to teach him enough English so that he could read at a third grade level. He had the primer that they used; I still have it.
Once he was released from Ellis Island, he took a job with a coal mining company. I remember him saying that the companies set up recruiting booths on the dock where immigrants disembarked after being in Ellis Island. He told me and my sisters that he had friends or relatives in Johnstown Pennsylvania, but the manifest of the Blucher indicates that he was headed to Belsano, PA. We have a picture of a woman who we do not know with Dad from those early years. Perhaps a relative but unfortunately, she remains nameless. And we never traveled to Pennsylvania to visit any relatives.
Dad enjoyed Pennsylvania. He told me a story of having a day off and walking the countryside with a friend. When they got hungry, they stopped at a farm and asked the farmer’s wife if she would hard boil eggs for them….several dozen hard boiled eggs! That with beer and they were in 7th heaven….until their gastrointestinal tracts rebelled later!
I believe he stayed in Pennsylvania until he contracted tuberculosis and was sent to the Montgomery County Sanitarium in upstate New York. I wish I had asked him more questions. The 1920 Census lists him as living there. The doctors were not positive about his prognosis and gave him less than a year to live. He told me that it was here that he developed a stooped posture which he blamed on a spinal tap. Having found Petro Siegin on the Blucher manifest, I am skeptical now about this. The manifest lists him as 5’5” tall which is the same height listed for him much later.
As fate would have it, Mom was working at the Sanitarium as a cook. I do not remember a story about them meeting, falling in love and getting married (again, the lack of an inquiring mind on my part!). But my sister Betty tells me that they met because Dad was washing dishes to pay for his room and board. So they were married and moved to a small house, signing an agreement with Mr. and Mrs. Mina Van Epps, the original Patroon family in the area, to purchase the parcel. One story I remember is that Dad said that when they first moved to the “farm”, coffee would freeze on the kitchen table before it could be drunk.
Dad lived a long life here in the United States. He desired more than anything else to become a citizen of the US. But for whatever reason, he could not enroll in naturalization classes and his story was that he "had no papers" and was considered an illegal alien. It so happened that in 1948 when Tom Dewey was campaigning for President, sister Betty was working for Marion Bennett at a prestigious restaurant in Amsterdam called the Tower Inn. The restaurant was an old imposing Victorian mansion…with a tower as its name implies and a porticoed front entrance. It also so happened that Marion Bennett was very active in the Republican Party and was a friend of Thomas Dewey. One day, she asked Betty whether Betty’s parents were going to vote for Mr. Dewey. Betty said that her mother was but her father could not vote because he was not a citizen. Marion was appalled…”doesn’t he WANT to be a citizen?” she asked. Betty said “Oh, he very much would like to be a citizen but he came into the US without papers and therefore can’t go through the naturalization process.” Marion humphed and said “I can handle this” and quickly called “Tom” and told him that there was a man who would vote for him but he was not a citizen and could not become a citizen because he had come to the US without papers. Tom said that was no problem and wrote a letter of recommendation which opened doors previously shut and allowed my father to become a naturalized citizen, something which my father cherished.
In 1965 or so, my parents' health had deteriorated and my sister offered them the opportunity to live with her in Arizona. In 1973, I got the call and immediately booked a flight for Phoenix. I got to visit him several times in the hospital. My last visit was the day before I was to fly back to Connecticut. Betty and I sat and chitchatted with him for a while and then when conversation seemed to be failing us, Dad said. “This is the last time we will see each other.” I used the usual line, “Don’t be silly, you will be well in no time.” “No” he said,” I won’t. “ I held his hand and said my goodbye. That was the last time I spoke with him.
He had lived with the sequelae of tuberculosis and black lung disease (COPD). I remember Betty telling me that one day while dad was gardening (something he enjoyed greatly) a neighbor saw him keel over and lay motionless on the ground. Horrified at the thought that Dad was having a heart attack, the neighbor ran over to him and was about to run to call the paramedics. Dad waved his hand and caught his breath enough to say that he was fine. This was his way of dealing with the shortness of breath….just keel over, lie down for a while and his breath would return. He seemed to make the best of this …as he did with most things in life.
He died in 1973 and is buried in Arizona.
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Stop Dreaming! The Impossible Has Already Happened
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, our future is not anything like the past, even the very recent past of a month or two ago. Our economy, our priorities, our perceptions are not what they were years ago. Things that were supposed to be unstoppable stopped, and things that were supposed to be impossible have already happened.
We now have reached a crossroads, we have emerged from what we assumed was normality, things have suddenly overturned. One of our main tasks is now, to understand this moment, what it might require of us, and what it might make possible. A disaster changes the world and our view of it. Our focus and what matters shift. What is weak will break, what is strong will hold and what was hidden is now emerging.
People change as our priorities are shifting
Disasters, either natural, climatic, economic, social, or political are allowing us to see with new clarity the systems in which we are immersed as they change around us. The first lesson a disaster teaches is that everything is connected: disasters begin suddenly and never really end; in a crisis, the powerful often try to seize more power. Those who benefit most from the shattered status quo are often more focused on preserving or re-establishing it than protecting human life. Disaster scholars use the term “Elite Panic” to describe the ways that elites react when they assume that ordinary people will behave badly. When elites describe “Panic” and “Looting” in the streets, these are usually misnomers for ordinary people doing what they need to do to survive or care for others. Such elites often prioritize profit and property over human life and community.
Historically, there have always been titans of industry who prized the lifeless thing that is profit over living beings, who paid bribes to operate unhindered, worked children to death or put laborers in mortal danger in sweatshops and coal mines. There were also those who pressed on with fossil fuel extraction and burning despite what they knew, or refused to know, about climate change.
One of the primary uses of wealth has always been to buy your way out of the common fate or, at least, it has come with a belief that you can disassociate from society at large. While the rich are often conservative, conservatives more often align with the rich, whatever their economic status. The idea that everything is connected is an affront to conservatives who cherish a macho every-man-for-himself frontier fantasy. If everything is connected, then the consequences of every choice and act and word must be examined, which we see as love in action and they see as impingement upon absolute freedom, freedom being another word for absolutely no limits on the pursuit of self-interest.
Ultimately, a significant portion of conservatives and corporate leaders regard science as an annoyance that they can refuse to recognize. Some insist they can choose whatever rules and facts they want, as though these too are just free-market commodities to pick and choose from or remake according to one’s whims.
This denial of science and critical thinking among ultraconservatives now haunts the world response to the coronavirus crisis. Our rulers are showing little willingness to recognize the ominous possibilities of the pandemic. They are failing in their most important job and denying that failure is a major focus for them. While it may be inevitable that the pandemic will result in a world economic crash, it is also turning into an opportunity for authoritarian power grabs, a reminder that the largest problems are still political, and so are their solutions.
The storm will clear
When this storm will clear, we may see where we were and where we should go in a new light. We may feel free to pursue change in ways that seemed impossible while the ice of the status quo was locked up. We may have a profoundly different sense of ourselves, our communities, our systems of production, our economic and political systems and even our future.
For many of us, what has changed most immediately is only spatial. Since the Covid 19 pandemic, We have stayed home and away from contact with others. We have withdrawn from schools, workplaces, conferences, vacations, gyms, errands, parties, bars, clubs, churches, mosques, synagogues, from the busyness and bustle of everyday life. We have withdrawn from each other to protect each other. Although staying put is hard, maybe we will be reluctant to resume our rushing about, and something of the stillness now upon us will stay with us. We may rethink the wisdom of having much of our medicine and medical equipment made on other continents. We may also rethink the precarious just-in-time supply chains.
A new awareness of how each of us belongs to the whole and depends on it may strengthen the case for meaningful climate, social, economic, and political action. Perhaps this will be the moment that we recognize that there is enough food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and education for all and, that access to these things should not depend on what job you do and whether you earn enough money. Perhaps the pandemic is also making the case, for those who were not already convinced, for universal healthcare and basic income. In the aftermath of disaster, a change of consciousness and priorities are powerful forces.
Often the most significant consequences of disasters are not immediate or direct. We are only in the early stages of recovering from the Covid-19 disaster, and surprisingly enough, we are also in a strange stillness. May the best among us, the most visionary, the most inclusive, be the imaginal cells. The outcome of disasters is not foreordained. It is a conflict.
But this is also a time of depth for those spending more time at home and more time alone, looking outward at this unanticipated world. It is too soon to know what will emerge from this emergency, but not too soon to start looking for chances to help decide it.
It is, I believe, what many of us are prepared to do.
Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.
Systemic Strategic Planning / Regulatory Compliance / Crisis & Reputation Management
Skype: jmdlive
Phone: 1. 613.539.1793
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.jmdlive.info/
Michel Ouellette / J. Michael Dennis is a Former Attorney, a Trial Scientist, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech.
Follow JMDlive on:
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Mastodon, Tumblr, JMDlive.com, Instagram and JMD Systemics,
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Mounty jack and elizabedth
#MOUNTY JACK AND ELIZABEDTH SERIES#
“That, right there – you saying that, that means the world to me.” After more rationalization of her fears, she tells Jack she’d never want to change who he is. It’s his job not to fear what may happen. Jack follows that with a fierce championing of his work, explaining how careful he is. It was like my whole world was in slow motion.” She recalls seeing one of Jack’s recent arrests point a gun at him, explaining, “When I saw that man point that gun at you. She cannot take the fact that someday, his job might take him away from her. She believes she knows why she is pulling away from Jack. It’s not that they want one another to be someone else or that they come from opposite social backgrounds. Elizabeth eventually gets right down to what she believes is hindering them in their relationship. This puts an end to their conversation for a while. With disbelief tinging his voice, Jack returns, “You’ve got that backwards.” “Truth is,” he says, “It feels like you’re a different person when you’re in Hamilton.” After a pause, he finishes, “I’m not sure you know who you are yet.”Īfter an angry outburst from Elizabeth over Jack sounding like her strict father, Elizabeth dejectedly observes, “You just won’t accept me for who I am.” Jack hasn’t quite made his point about their differing worlds. “This isn’t about pleasing my father,” Elizabeth replies back. “I didn’t want to become someone I’m not just to please your father.” “Then what did you mean when you said when you said we come from two different worlds?” She continues, trying to find out why they are struggling. “No, I never said that,” he quickly replies. She continues, “But you resent who I am and where I’m from.” “You used to like that about me,” she comments back. Taking Abigail’s advice to heart, Elizabeth tries to keep the conversation going when Jack remarks on Elizabeth being headstrong. A fire is started and chit-chat about the storm raging takes place. They set up camp, taking shelter from the storm without much conversation. Jack has matches and upon discovering this, Elizabeth pertly asks, “Well, would you please go and get them?” Miffed at Jack for his lack of belief in her capabilities, once they reach the mine, Elizabeth sets about making a fire by rubbing two sticks together. He follows her forcing them to take shelter from the storm in the old mine. This leads the pair to stubbornly set out to find the dog when Elizabeth feels pressured to prove her worth to Jack as more than merely a “parlor educated” woman. That is until a storm begins to whip up and Elizabeth accidentally loses Jack’s dog, Rip. Upon their return to Hope Valley, things are strained and despite advice from Elizabeth’s friend and mentor, Abigail, every attempt they make to reconcile goes array. But it’s a season two finale moment that is featured today.įollowing a trip to Hamilton (her hometown), Elizabeth and Jack discover the drastic differences in their lives. A first dance, flirty banter, or their first kiss were all anticipated moments. It’s this relationship that is the emphasis of the oscillating stories that crop up. Despite opposition from her family and returns of past loves, their growing affection for one another is evident. There she meets Mountie Jack Thornton, a man opposite her upbringing in every way. Despite the scripts pairing off multiple couples and even breaking our hearts, the primary romance fans root for is that of its leading couple.Įlizabeth Thatcher left her cultured upbringing to accept a teaching position at the remote outpost, Coal Valley (later renamed Hope Valley). Season two recently wrapped and aired to more rave reviews.
#MOUNTY JACK AND ELIZABEDTH SERIES#
(It’s even gained a Twitter following where fans meet using the hashtag, “hearties.”) The show is based off the series of Canadian West novels by Janette Oke and appeals to those who enjoy wholesome family entertainment, but also sweet romance. Hallmark Channel’s period drama, When Calls the Heart has earned an ardent following since its premiere back in spring of 2014. THE EPISODE: With All My Heart, Season Two Episode Seven SHOW SPOILERS THE MOMENT: Elizabeth and Jack get to the heart of the reason why their relationship is encountering such rocky waters, and exchange “I love you’s.” THE PAIRING: Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow) and Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing) THE SHOW: When Calls the Heart (Hallmark)
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Garrison nd
#Garrison nd full#
#Garrison nd professional#
We hope our website leads you to the people and places that have us “Hooked on Garrison.” We invite and welcome you to share our experience and enjoy our enthusiasm. We hope our website leads you to the people and places that have us Hooked on Garrison.
#Garrison nd full#
Garrison offers all the amenities to make it home: a picturesque location, unbelievable recreation right out your back door, and the comforts of a full service business district & medical services nearby. Garrison offers all the amenities to make it home: a picturesque location, unbelievable recreation right out your back door, and the comforts of a full service business district & medical services nearby. Special events reward enthusiasts with great memories and growing friendships. Year-round recreation opportunities keep area sportsmen enjoying the current season and looking forward to the next. With multiple shipping locations throughout GARRISON, ND, its easy to find reliable shipping services no matter where you. Garrison schools, churches, and organizations remain strong threads in the basic of community life.
#Garrison nd professional#
Our retail, service, and professional businesses offer personal care by experienced and friendly personnel. From our expansive inventory of quality used cars, trucks, and SUVs, to our friendly and knowledgeable sales staff, your experience is sure to be the best (701) 463-2440. Whether you’re returning to Garrison, North Dakota for a summer visit, considering a chance to come fish or hunt, or thinking about finding a new home, this is a community that comes together to meet your expectations. This all takes time and money but we all love the job that we do.Hooked on Garrison? You bet- and with good reason! We rectify our certifications every two years nationally and with the State of ND. On, a category F3 tornado 24. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 11.3 miles away from the Garrison city center caused between 5000 and 50,000 in damages. We train countless hours to achieve our certifications and numerous hours of continuing education to keep up with the ever changing evidence based Best Practices. Tornado activity: Garrison-area historical tornado activity is slightly below North Dakota state average.It is 54 smaller than the overall U.S. We strive to provide the best care we can to everyone we serve. This Years Theme- Caring for our Communities- For us, this means we could not provide this service without the support from our local communities. View yesterdays hourly data View current weather conditions. During EMS week, please give a shout out, high five or thank you to your local EMS providers when you see them. We want to thank all EMS providers but especially the ones on our ambulance crew. Call (701)-463-2226 or get in touch using the form on this page to learn more about the senior health care options available at our Garrison, ND, community. Fishing, camping, boating and history are all found within the park. One of Garrisons biggest draws is Fort Stevenson State Park, just south of town on the shore of Lake Sakakawea. It is the former location of the Truax-Taer Mine. One of Garrison's biggest draws is Fort Stevenson State Park, just south of town on the shore of Lake Sakakawea. The site showcases a piece of Garrisons early coal mining history and is maintained as Custer Mine Interpretive Site. NAEMT (National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians) partners with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to lead annual EMS Week activities. The site showcases a piece of Garrison's early coal mining history and is maintained as Custer Mine Interpretive Site. (E mergency Medical Services) practitioners and the important work they do in our nation's communities. View listing photos, review sales history, and use our detailed real estate filters to find the perfect place. This was put into place by President Gerald Ford in 1974 to celebrate EMS. Zillow has 63 homes for sale in Garrison ND.
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How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
Life insurance provides financial protection to your loved ones in the event of your passing.
Though not the easiest topic to think about, life insurance is essential in making sure those who are financially dependent on you are taken care of.
Some factors that determine life insurance premium
You may have heard that the cost of a life insurance policy is steep, but it can actually be much more affordable than you think. Below, we break down some of the various factors that influence its price tag.
Most people overestimate how much life insurance costs. According to LIMRA's 2017 Insurance Barometer Study, individuals estimated that a $250,000 level-term life insurance policy would cost around $500 for a 30-year-old individual in good health, which was more than three times the actual cost.
There are a number of factors that influence how life insurance premiums are determined, including the type of insurance, the amount and length of coverage, as well as your risk rating. Your age and family health history will also be taken into account, as well as certain habits, such as whether or not you use tobacco or drink alcohol excessively.
Policy type
When you are thinking about what kind of coverage to get, you will encounter term and permanent life insurance policies. Both allow you to select an amount of coverage in exchange for your premium payments over the life of the policy, and provide payment to your beneficiaries if you pass away while the policy is in force.
The difference is that coverage with a term policy lasts only for a specific time period (such as 10 or 20 years) with no cash value accumulation. These policies are often cheaper than permanent policies, which can earn cash value and remain in existence as long as you pay your required premiums on time.
Your age
Age is another factor that affects your premium. The older you are, the more likely your life insurance premium will be higher. This is due, in part, to a greater chance of a decline in health or likelihood of passing away.
Your health
How healthy you are is one of the most important factors in calculating the premiums for your life insurance. The good news? You can play a role in your health by eating well and exercising regularly. The healthier you are, the cheaper your insurance will be. However, pre-existing health issues can drive up the price of life insurance significantly.
Your gender
In most cases, men pay higher life insurance premiums, partly because studies indicate that women live longer than men.
Your job
What you do for a living can also affect what you'll pay for life insurance. Jobs that involve high-risk situations, such as coal mining, tend to involve higher premiums over someone working in a physically safer, less risky position such as a bank.
Your hobbies and habits
When determining how much life insurance costs, certain habits and activities will be taken into account. That includes participation in risky sports or other kinds of adventures. Using tobacco products, excessive alcohol use or a DUI violation are all factors that will drive up life insurance premiums.
Ways to make life insurance more affordable
While some factors may be out of your control, such as your medical history, the good news is that there are a few proactive steps you can take to make life insurance more affordable.
Stop smoking
Smokers pay much higher life insurance rates. If you can stop smoking, you will not just improve your health, but you can avoid paying higher smoker rates, as well.
Improve your health
By focusing on eating healthy foods, exercising regularly and seeing a general practitioner, you can improve your overall health and potentially reduce your life insurance premiums.
Significant life changes
Our life circumstances change as we age. When your children are grown and out of the house, for example, you might not need as much life insurance as you once did, so decreasing your coverage on an existing policy might make a lot of sense. It's always a good idea to check in on your policy every so often, especially if you've had a major life event, such as the birth of a child or the loss of a spouse.
Remember - while premiums for life insurance can vary, you won't know what yours will be until you shop around for options or work with a life insurance agent who can offer you a quote based on your needs.
Learn more about life insurance and the policies available to you, or begin by asking yourself these five important questions if you're curious how much life insurance coverage you might need.
SOURCE: https://www.protective.com/learn/how-much-does-life-insurance-cost
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