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brawltogethernow · 3 years

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I suppose the next step then is "BBC Merlin but it's SpideyTorch"

Oh my god. TEACHER, TEACHER, SHE’S TARGETING ME okay okay uh.

Peter, secret warlock, goes to Camelot with his mother figure, May, who does not know about the warlock thing because it kicked in when he was a teenager and they both strategically decline to tell each other things. Gaius is Reed, who was the court sorcerer and is now the court scientist. (He’s not an old man except spiritually where he has been a senile professor since he was 19.) He literally didn’t change anything he was doing, considering science and magic as different points on one spectrum anyway-- No. That’s Doom’s schtick. DOOM was the court sorcerer, and was fired. He is upset about it. Reed is just a science guy but worked extensively with Victor, so he’s kind of useful, but not as useful as Peter was hoping.

I know very little about Sue and Johnny’s dad except that he’s a supervillain who...faked his death, revealed himself, and then died for real like 12 hours later? Did he also fake his wife’s death at some point? Would he do a mad king magic ban thing? Idk but for plot purposes we’ll say yes. They conveniently already share Arthur’s dead mom syndrome. Maybe their aunt whose name is different depending on what issue you’re reading is also here just to convolute the court drama. Wait no didn’t Arthur have a shady uncle show up after like five seasons. She.

Peter is very talented at finicky, specific magical formulas. (Reed: :) )But in practice he really prefers to just slam out a big wave of power, and if that doesn’t solve the problem, repeat until it does. (Reed: :( ) He gives this a go at the beginning of sorting out any problem, like restarting your glitching computer, and if it doesn’t work the problem is complicated enough to be an episode plot.

So obviously I’m still gonna do secret identity shit? Peter saves the young prince and heir’s life and is rewarded with a second job; he only came here for job reasons and you’re all lucky he doesn’t turn down paying jobs otherwise he’d be having some words with the king. Peter also accidentally becomes a masked vigilante out in the town. His very existence is illegal because he’s obviously doing magic! They keep sending his boss out to hunt him down, and their eyes are always locking dramatically and shit in brief silent stare-offs from opposite ends of the street in thunder storms at sunset until Johnny’s horse rears and breaks the eye contact causing Peter to snap out of it and flee. You know how it is.

Sue is older than Johnny and thus older than the magic ban, so she responded to it by going “:) That’s nice, Dad” and socking away a bunch of books before they could go on the fire, and now she’s just a sorceress on the dl. This is approx. a first season finale reveal, because her real superpower is being able to keep her mouth the hell shut. I literally cannot with how nobody in Merlin ever exchanges information, so shortly after Peter and Reed learn this they exchange secrets, like sane people, which opens up their resources a bit.

That said Sue is an extra legitimate royal, not the Morgana equivalent. Maybe Gwen should be Gwen, especially since I have thought Gwen/Johnny/Peter has potential since reading Spider-Man/Fantastic Four (which if you read an earlier ask, I recommend if you want to see new art of Gwen being mean in hair clips). But Peter/Gwen and Merlin/Freya are like...same energy except the latter wasn’t as well done. And Merlin’s Guinevere honestly more reminds me of Betty. Morgana--

(wheeze)

(cough)

Okay I thought this trying to reconcile as much of the cast as possible and I now can’t unthink it so. The king’s ward is Dorrie Evans. Yes she goes nebulously sapphic evil witch queen. Sure she was an unpleasant teenager and readers hate her, but you know what, I’ll simp, whatever. Let Dorrie poison some people. In a cape. This feels natural to me. Also Betty Brant and Dorrie Evans???? Betty/Dorrie vibes???? I guess!!!!

So like. The thing where Arthur gets mystically whammied by love potions once a month, except also Johnny’s normal relationship-anticipating giddiness happening organically mixed in, the part before he actually starts dating someone and becomes immediately depressed. Peter is in the bg sarcastically dismissing magical incidents saying he can’t even tell the difference, and Reed is like 😬 Please Check Anyway. Peter’s not, haha, Peter’s not jealous, Johnny is just an idiot, and, okay maybe Peter is a little jealous! But it doesn’t matter because the prince is going to marry some noble and--

Reed: Prince Johnathan is a bit like a little brother to me, so Please Stop Telling Me About Your Problems.

Reed/Sue is reciprocated but on permanent hold for class reasons. Spideytorch is in the same boat except they’re also stupid and working it out by dating their way through the whole country, except Peter is actually into that and Johnny is not.

The dragon is...Ezekiel?????? That’s the right level of wise wry mentor who’s very shady and will kill you, so he’s a dragon now. And when he tells Peter he’s the (other) chosen one, Peter full stop doesn’t believe him. This disbelief goes on extensively. Peter is not a fate-oriented person. Johnny would love to hear about the fate thing, but no one will tell him.

Literally I’m just going to add more chronologically unmoored medievalish shit to Merlin now to cram more of the cast in. There’s some kind of town crier/herald outfit, and Jonah is their boss. He’s just out in the road yelling sometimes even though he can delegate that. The buglers otherwise known as Bugle staff named Peter’s vigilante persona the Spider, which was supposed to sound menacing but is in practice also cool. This is out-of-universe fairly equivalent to Merlin’s real name as a neat two-syllable animal word and possible title. In-universe maybe I’d elbow out Emrys and just use this. Merlin is already very servants-don’t-work-like-that, so Betty just also has two jobs for no reason so she can knock elbows with them.

MJ is the court jester and knows absolutely everything, which is a dramatic mid-game reveal that isn’t exactly foreshadowed so much as always possible while carefully obscured from the viewer (the reader). Before this she’s already a Wise Fool, Shakespeare-ways archetype character, it’s just not clear how much. She is the most important character in Homestuck Merlin Spider.

Every ship is real for at least 30 seconds. Most of the extended FF cast are either magical antagonists or weird nobles.

Ben????? (Grimm, I mean. Ben Parker is dead. Ben Reilly is a recurring episodic plot.) This show was painfully formulaic and would simply not keep someone with any version of his deal in the main cast, but he’s a full quarter of the FF so. A magical accident approximated his rock body deal. Maybe specifically tying him to ~the magic of the land~. And then, uh. Wandering the country is too satellite-like. Hiding out in a forbidden castle wing is interesting but doesn’t do him justice. So I guess it’s a come and go semivoluntary transformation thing that’s kept secret? Rock werewolf. Were-rock. Good opportunity to fake out like you’re going to do a monster of the week plot, and then he contributes to the tension to abolish the magic ban.

Knights?? Wyatt is there from the beginning, being tall and reassuring (holding a sword edition). Not sure how him or his immediate ancestors got to Europe and then ended up this involved with the local nobility, but it was probably exciting. And Flash, or he’s an early addition. Either way he’s from the same village as Peter and is approximately White’s Kay, except directed at the wizard instead of the future king, and otherwise you can completely superimpose their comic dynamic including the fanboying over the secret identity angle, which is entertainingly seditious. ...Others. I don’t know enough FF characters for this. I’ve accidentally implied the eventual addition of Bennet Brant, but his evil sorcerer of the week energy is very strong, so maybe not. Randy eventually because I already implied the Robertsons and can see it.

This is so long, covers nothing, and explains none of the namechecks. Using both these characters’ franchises in one fusion is too much stuff. I keep not talking about the core relationship because it’s just. Like That. I don’t feel like I need to elaborate on the Merthur dynamic, even transposed on a different ship. It’s Just Like That.

#merlin #spiderman #fantastic four #spideytorch #bbc merlin #spidey #ff #marvel #phoenixyfriend #asks answered

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pennylanefics · 4 years

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Soft Alphabet - Johnathan “Dells” Dellamonica

a/n: i love doing these :) should i continue with barone and palacco?? anyone want those?

•••

A - Affection (how do they show affection)

dells shows his affection with touch. he usually doesn’t have a way with words, so he does so with his actions. he’ll press kisses to your hand while he’s holding it, or nuzzle your hair with his nose while cuddling. when you’re out in public, he will rest a hand on your back or waist and just pull you close to him.

B - Balance (how do they balance you, work/school/life?)

since you’re friends with ty, you three hang out a lot together. dells always tries to bring you and invite you to games so you can see one another, and honestly, he spends more time with you than he does with his family. which you got onto him for, but he admitted that he loves you so much he never wants to be away from you.

C - Cuddles (do they enjoy cuddling? what positions?)

he is tHE BEST CUDDLER IN THE WORLD, change my mind. he will snuggle up with you at night or while watching a movie. his arms will wrap around you and hold you close to his body, one of his hands coming to rest on your head as he softly strokes your hair and forehead, keeping you against his chest.

D - Date (what was your first date?)

your first date was bowling. since dells wanted you to be happy, he asked if you wanted to go somewhere specific. so you suggest bowling, having not gone in a while. he picks you up in his shitty, taped together car, but the ride there is filled with singing along to the radio and getting to know one another. at the bowling alley, dells tries hard to mess with you to try and make you lose, and you do the same. you two have a great time goofing off, eating pizza, and in the end, you win.

E - Excited (how excited do they get when they see you/are with you?)

dells tries not to show it, but he secretly gets so excited when he sees you at his games. he doesn’t want his teammates making fun of him being so whipped for you. so, he’ll sneak away while they are batting and find you. that’s when he gets all excited, a huge smile on his face, kissing you eagerly.

F - Fighting (what happens when you fight)

fights with dells are always unexpected and loud. he can get really angry at random times, over the smallest of things. so when this does happen, you quickly try to deflate the argument before it gets worse, but sometimes, that doesn’t work. he’ll just keep yelling and screaming nonsense, just to get his pent up anger out on you. after he’s calmed down, he hates what he’s done and immediately regrets it.

G - Gorgeous (pet names. what do they like to call you? what do they like to be called?)

he sticks to some pretty basic names, like babe, sweetheart, darling. he’s a simple guy, names don’t need to be complex. he’ll usually say one of these instead of your name, really. as for him, he says he hates when you call him pet names, but he loves it, deep down. you call him dells, obviously, but also shortened versions of his real name, his full last name, or stuff like babe, honey, sweetie.

H - Hi (first time meeting)

you are fotch’s sister, so you come to their games often. you were at the snack stand during one game, getting some food, when dells steps in and pays for your things, saying that it’s the least he can do for you sitting out here, in the heat, watching them lose. he has no idea you’re his teammate’s sister, though. you two talk for a few minutes, waiting for your food before he sees the opposing team strike out one of his teammates. he apologizes and runs back to the dugout. afterwards, you meet up with them, and when dells finds out that you’re fotch’s sister, he’s a little shocked and worried, but happy to know that you’ll be around more.

I - Insecure (what they do when you’re feeling insecure/vice versa)

he usually doesn’t know what to do, really. since he’s not good with words, he sometimes has no clue how to comfort you and make you feel better. so, once more, he’ll do so with his touch, rubbing your back and playing with your hair, listing the things he loves about you, going on and on, just getting his thoughts out, not really thinking about what he’s saying. he just spews out any thought about you that comes to his mind, trying his best to make you feel better.

J - Jealousy (do they get jealous? how do they react to you being jealous)

he gets more possessive than jealous. like if he sees some guy attempting to flirt with you, he’ll get a bit territorial, grabbing onto you and kissing you deeply, making sure the other guy knows that you are his. when you get jealous, though, he loves to tease you about it. he’ll smirk and continue making jokes about it, making you a little upset. but he’s quick to reassure you that he loves you and he’s just messing around. then, he of course fucks you to show that he’s all yours and no one else’s.

K - Kisses (where do they like to kiss you/how often?)

dells loves kissing your cheek. if he’s not up for a lot of pda at a game, he’ll settle for cheek and nose kisses, loving how they make you blush and smile. the way you scrunch your nose up when he presses a kiss to either spot makes his heart melt.

L - Love (when was the first time they said i love you or realized it?)

he says it kind of early in the relationship. when dells feels something, he feels is strongly. whether that’s anger, sadness, or love. he realizes he’s fallen for you when he watches you and ty together, chatting and laughing with one another. seeing you get along with his brother made him happy. later that night, you two are cuddled up on the couch, watching tv, when he tells you he loves you for the first time. you’re a bit taken back, but kiss him sweetly and tell him the same.

M- Moving in (when do you decide to move in together)

he asks you to move in with him about a year and a half into your relationship. he never had much money to begin with, so before you two settled down and got a place together, he wanted to make sure he had a stable job, was doing well with baseball, and had enough money and then some for a few months of rent. he spent the entire time looking at places that he knew you would like. and when the time finally came, he brought it up, and you had no second guessing because you love him so much and couldn’t wait to be with him 24/7.

N - Newborn (their reaction to starting a family)

dells mentioned during a nighttime deep conversation that he wanted to wait to have kids, until he was in his late 20s. you were fine with this, knowing he had a lot on his plate and his future was sort of uncertain right now. years pass from that conversation and that’s when he brings up having a family. he is now a successful baseball player with a steady income, so he thought the timing was perfect. and throughout your entire pregnancy, dells was so supportive, caring, and loving. his hands basically never left your bump, he loved it so much.

O - Open (how open you are with one another)

you tell dells everything because you’re comfortable with him and trust him enough. him, on the other hand, isn’t the best at being open. he struggles to admit when he’s feeling down and sometimes says he doesn’t want to bother you with his problems. but, you assure him that he’s safe with you and he can tell you whatever. then, that same night, you two cuddle up with one another while he tells you anything he wants to, making the first step towards an open relationship with one another.

P - Panic (how you calm them down when they’re scared/anxious/angry/vice versa)

he sometimes doesn’t know what to do, but after having a talk with his brother and/or teammates, he knew exactly what to do when you had an anxiety or panic attack. he grabs your cheeks and forces you to look at him, making you say different things you can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. he does this until your breathing calms down and you’re better. then, he’ll give you endless cuddles, making sure you’re okay for the rest of the night.

Q - Question (what you do when they come to you for help)

dells tries to solve his own problems most of the time. he tries to keep you out of his stressful situations as much as possible, as to not worry you, but there are times where he breaks and has no idea how to deal with some situations. so, you two will sit together and go over solutions that are possible and you try the best you can with whatever he needs.

R - Recovery (how they/you help them after an injury)

dells is super sweet and caring when you get hurt, whatever injury it is. it could be a paper cut and he would be worrying and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. he hates seeing you hurt, so when you do get hurt, he’s right there beside you, tending to whatever wound you have, cleaning it thoroughly, and bandaging it up neatly.

S - Solution (how they resolve fights)

he will just hug you. he’ll find you, wherever you’re at, and just pull you into his arms, giving you a huge bear hug. he’ll rub your back and allow you to cry if you need to, and he’ll stay in that position for however long you want. he only pulls away when he feels you do so, and after that, he grabs your cheeks, wipes your tears away, and apologizes profusely, telling you that he loves you and he never wants to hurt you like this again. he even starts crying himself, hearing your broken sobs and feeling your shaking body, broken because of him.

T - Touch (when they need/want your touch, what will they do? how often?)

he usually comes to you after a rather tough game. he will just collapse in your arms and sigh until you realize what he wants. you’ll soothingly rub his sore back, shoulders, and arm until he feels well enough to get up. if he’s up for it, he’ll tell you what happened during the game while you continue to stroke his back and comfort him.

U - Up ( waking up with them)

waking up with dells is honestly heaven. the sunlight hitting his face, making his green eyes appear even brighter. his short hair will be messy and all over the place while his beard seems more prickly. if he’s up before you, he allows you to sleep in. but after some time, he gets bored of being alone, so he will press kisses all over your face to slowly wake you up. a huge smile appears on his face as your eyes open, seeing him hovering above you.

V - Vacation (where they travel with you)

to celebrate your sixth month anniversary, he takes you to disney world in florida. you mentioned how badly you wanted to go, so once he had time in his schedule, he booked plane tickets, a nice resort hotel, and tickets to the theme park. he surprised you a couple days before your anniversary, telling you that you’d be leaving the following day. when you arrived in florida, dells was nothing but sweet and loving. he had nothing to stress about, no games, no family worries, he was solely focused on making you happy and making sure you had a great time. to finish your anniversary off, you two watched fireworks above the castle, sharing sweet kisses and i love you’s.

W - Wedding (how they propose/where you get married/honeymoon)

he proposes in a really laid-back way. you two were laying in bed one night, just talking, and the topic of futures comes up. you mention how you would love to get married, have a baby, have a couple pets as well. dells looks a bit distracted the rest of the time, once that topic passes. as you’re telling him about something your friend showed you, he just cuts you off and asks you to marry him. you are shocked but he admits that he’s been thinking about it for a while. he gets up and retrieves the ring he bought, showing it to you and asking again. you begin to cry and say yes over and over again as he slides the ring onto your finger.

X - X-factor (what about you captivated them?)

how laid-back you are. dells is the same way, so it was nice finding a girl he could relate to in that way. he was happy that you weren’t expecting some huge, fancy, expensive first date and would rather go bowling, how you are okay with messing around with him on the field and getting dirt all over you, everything like that.

Y - Yawning (how they act when they’re tired)

he will snuggle up next to you, begging to be in your arms, even if you’re not tired. he’ll nuzzle his face into your neck as your arms wrap around him, his beard scratching against your skin. he’ll just stay there, breathing softly as he relaxes after a hectic day, enjoying the feeling of being close to you.

Z - Zzzz (how you fall asleep together)

dells refuses to fall asleep without you in his arms. holding you close to him comforts him and allows him to relax and fall asleep, so whenever he can, his arms are wrapped around you, hugging you to his body and breathing into your neck or hair. he just loves holding you.

#tyler hoechlin #undrafted #dells #johnathan dellamonica #tyler hoechlin imagine #imagines #fanfiction #fanfic

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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 4 years

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Bioshock Rebirth Timeline

This is a timeline of an AU I’ve had been developing for a long time now. I wanted to get this out there before I got on vacation. Where I’ll will be only able to use my phone to go on Tumblr. Be warned a long introduction.

Bioshock Rebirth is an AU that’s actually a reimagining of the Bioshock series. Basically a reboot of the series. But also in a strange way it’s a, “What If” scenario. The origins of this AU were quite strange and it became this one thing. Where I have admitted I went too far with how deep it was going. There was this passion and me trying to develop it(Such as imagining how it would work as a video game. Even though this is my story). Including I made some stories for it. Along with an ages chart of a lot of characters.

During development I was trying to understand what made Bioshock well Bioshock. Yet make something that seem plausible despite how I considered it insane in it’s early stages.

I’ve been so nervous and shy to share it with the Bioshock community on Tumblr. Because it’s complex, and I’m concerned of what the reactions would be to it. Especially some parts I feel like became quite dark. With this AU I have used elements and characters from the first three games. But the timeline is mainly mostly like Bioshock 1, 2, and taking things from the novel. Despite what some reactions were to that novel.

I looked into the timeline before Infinite made things more messy.

One of the origins for Rebirth it’s supposed to be a more hopeful version of Infinite. A contrast to that game’s ideals and whatever else. Including a weird way to explain how this timeline existed. Because of the incontinences and errors in Bioshock Infinite’s, “Burial At Sea” and the events of Infinite did something to the multiverse. Mainly in a way that despite how Ken Levine tried to erase Bioshock 2 out of canon. Basically, “Burial At Sea” destroyed the timeline and in a way caused a ripple. Thus resulting in a new timeline that is a neighbor to the main universe. A, “Reborn” version of the timeline. Where Rapture was created way later. When the Cold War was still going on.

But this, “Reborn” timeline was made into a more linear timeline. Where characters, and some events were reborn into a new reality. Meaning nearly every character from the first three games were, “Reborn” into one linear timeline. Where the floating city of Columbia isn’t a thing.

While that doesn’t make sense and it’s weird. What’s amazing that during development, some of my Bioshock jokes...became literal. Such as the, “Burial At Sea was a mistake” line. Yet I could say another funny reason was two entities fought over the universe of Bioshock. One being Ken and the other being GeekGem. But I don’t wanna get into that.

I guess you say I feel glad to see many Bioshock fans don’t like Burial At Sea(Especially Bioshock 2 fans) and how Ken wrote it along how he approached Infinite. Glad to see I’m not the only one. In a silly way....Rebirth is a middle finger to Ken trying to rework the timeline. Along with other reasons that it’s amazing I went so deep into this. Basically in retaliation to Burial At Sea, Rebirth was born.

I wanna thank my good friend @pikablob for encouraging me to share this. Because he was the first person where I revealed this in it’s early development stage. But there is one person I really wanna thank but they wish to remain anonymous. A person who had given me ideas and even asked if I could mention them. I am eternally grateful for them helping me develop ideas. Especially to hear from another Bioshock fan who didn’t like BAS and who seemed passionate about the series. Yet they were glad to see I was passionate about the games.

I’ve been concerned with how people would view this and may hate it. But overtime I feel like I made a, “Love Letter” to the Bioshock franchise. Despite some directions I went with. I really like these games, the characters, and this world they live in. Where I really tried to keep them in character as much as possible, how these characters would make sense in this timeline, thinking about the criticisms of Infinite, and other things.

I will admit before making this introduction. One character I wanted to include was Charles Milton Porter from Minerva’s Den. I decided to look into his story and the DLC’s story on the Bioshock wiki. Because this DLC was beloved by the community and I wanted to keep that character and his story intact. But I just wanna post this because I’m done keeping it as a draft. Yet I feel like wanna say compared to this main universe counterpart. Porter is most likely okay. So don’t worry about him. He’s probably still around and fine.

Be warned of spoilers from the Bioshock saga. Including as I am going to reveal the twist behind a character named Archie Wynand. Who’s creation and development process was a weird one. I’m sorry if there are some errors. Was fixing up some stuff before posting this.

1981: Rapture is first established on November 5th 1981. While the rest of the construction of the city is finished in late 1986. Rapture was made to escape the surface especially the affects of the Cold War going on between America and Russia. To make a utopia for the world’s greatest minds and artists.

1983: Earlier that year, Brigid Tenenbaum is welcomed to Rapture because of her status as, “The Wonder Child”. ADAM is finally discovered through the slugs by Brigid. But because of injecting a sample into a volunteer named Annabelle Dewitt, Annabelle dies giving birth and Elizabeth/Anna is born. The girl was unusually healthy that Andrew Ryan convinced a grieving Booker Dewitt to give his kid away for a better life. When in reality Andrew saw something in the girl. Along with Yi Suchong.

During one night, enraged by the loss of his wife. Booker invades Brigid’s apartment, tying and gagging her up with the intention to kill her. Accusing her of killing his wife. But he relents after seeing the woman cry and realizes violence isn’t gonna solve anything.

After this, Booker leaves Rapture without anyone noticing. Later down the line joining the CIA. But during his work in the CIA, being affected by the loss of his wife and giving away his daughter. Booker becomes some what of a apathic psychopath. Which creates a terrible reputation for himself.

Because of what happened with Annabelle, Brigid is turned away from many research facilities. But Frank Fontaine saw the value of her discovery and agreed to fund her research. Including during this, he and Tenenbaum are made aware of Elizabeth’s existence to study her growing up. Including later the Lutece Twins. Mainly to help study the girl. The reason Fontaine also involved with Tenenbaum because she was his employer.

During this process. Brigid gives Elizabeth the last name of Comstock. Because Ryan would feel disgusted if the girl shared the same last name as him.

1986: During the 80′s and 90′s. Elizabeth is placed into a building and her existence is kept a secret. Yet in 1986 when nearing a closing teleporter made by the twins. Her pinky finger is severed.

After this, because of her blood and what happened with the tear. She was able to gain the power to open tears. But because of this incident, her prison becomes less loose and more strict. Such as the twins creating a device to control the use of her powers. During this time, Yi Suchong creates the, “Proto Daddy” to keep her company as her guardian. Which Elizabeth nicknamed him, “Bluto”.

Elizabeth is kept as a secret in case for the possibility in case he hopes it never happens. If Rapture were to fall and soon taken over. Whether it be the, “Parasites” or someone else. Elizabeth is his secret weapon. If she were to be revealed now, Rapture as a society might collapse. Showcasing his lines of, “No gods or kings, only man” as just something he went against.

But in the tower, they keep her there and watch her as she grows up. With Andrew not calling her it instead of her, and Suchong studying her as well.

1988: Elizabeth was the inspiration for the Little Sisters. Which results in Frank Fontaine starting the Little Sisters orphanage.

Elizabeth is basically the, "Proto-Sister" of the Little Sisters.

1995: The UK’s Royal Navy deep sea diver, Sergeant Johnathan Gunnar AKA Johnny Topside finds Rapture by mistake but is captured. He is presumed dead by his government. Johnny is given the freedom to live unless he lives in Rapture which he does. Mainly due to his career as a diver. Now helping as a construction worker to keep the city from falling apart.

Eleanor Lamb is born to Sofia Lamb. Because of during one therapy session she got, ‘acquainted’ with a patient, and had sex while drunk. Sofia refuses to speak about it. Yet she finally has a daughter for her own purposes. The father is unknown at this point.

Because of this and the increase of the Rapture possibly being discovered. Andrew personally sets out to find a someone that has the skills but does not seem to care about anyone else. He finds Booker Dewitt who is now a ex CIA operative due to his increasing rage and violence over the years. The American government thought he was a disgrace.

Andrew see’s this as a opportunity and gives Booker some what of a 2nd chance. To be Andrew’s personal soldier. In case things go south where he may want Booker to take care of any problematic people who apposed Rapture.

Booker became Andrew Ryan’s personal Grim Reaper. With Andrew allowing him to wear a skull mask that looked like the jaws of an Angler Fish. To showcase fear to any of his enemies.

1997 to 1998: Jasmine becomes pregnant by Andrew Ryan. After discovering from the audio recordings of a surveillance device planted in Jasmine’s room. Using Tenenbaum as an intermediary, Fontaine offered to pay Jolene a large sum of money in exchange for the fetus of her unborn child, which he planned to nurture to become his "Ace In The Hole" in his schemes against Ryan. Brigid, Yi, and others were tasked with developing a young Jack Ryan.

The Alpha Big Daddy series is soon made. Inspired by the, “Proto Daddy”. To protect the Little Sisters from getting attacked from people who used ADAM too much. Who were called the Splicers.

Yi Suchong and Gil Alexander were involved in the making of the Alpha series.

Johnny Topside discovers the process about Jack. Including what Frank planned to use the child for.

Johnny risks his own life and future to give the boy a life. Fighting against Frank’s forces and even Andrew’s own men as they think he’s gone against Rapture. Even one time assaulting Yi once to rescue Jack from him.

Due to Brigid’s feeling regret of what she did to the Little Sisters. She secretly helps Johnny by making sure the, “Would you kindly” phrase doesn’t work or any other functions Frank would of used. Including to stop the sped up aging. This was done in a secret safehouse she would use later on. While a pair of twins secretly smuggle Jack out of Rapture. With giving the boy a new name Archie Wynand, a high school diploma, birth certificate, lots of money, and new memories showcasing that he had loving parents who disappeared in the ocean. To make sure he never wonders about Rapture. But also to make sure he is set for life.

The chain tattoos are covered up some how. During this time Jack was only 1 but physically 19 due to the experiments performed on him. Again feeling sympathy over the child and not wanting this to be his fate. Despite never raising a child before.

Johnny also tried to make sure nothing would lead back to Jasmine being Jack’s mother. Worried the woman would get killed if Andrew found out.

But after he is smuggled out by these twins, Johnny is caught. Angered by this, Frank tells Andrew that Johnny was gonna expose Rapture to the whole world. That Johnny finally lost it.

As punishment, Johnny is turned into an Alpha series Big Daddy named Subject Delta. Where his Plasmid testing and more is done by Sinclair.

Afterwards Andrew Ryan soon discovers what Frank was trying to cover up. That he was gonna use his own seed to turn against him. Including when he discovered Frank wanted to sell ADAM to the surface and would smuggle it.

This resulted in one last shootout which left Frank dead. Along with Andrew ordering Booker to show Frank no mercy. Many others thought Frank was dead. But it was all a set up for Frank to disguise himself as a new person named Atlas.

Surprisingly the concept of Atlas was also inspired by Johnny Topside himself. Despite Atlas would be of Irish decent and other things.

During late 1998, Atlas would soon start becoming a public figure to the poorer citizens of Rapture. Posing as a fisherman, proletariat hero, and a family man. To act as a humble freedom fighter to who would stand up to Ryan and his colleagues. Along with the bonus that Atlas was originally in the Irish Army for some time.

But because of what Johnny Topside did. Frank’s original, “Ace In The Hole” was gone. His original plan that was so perfect was ruined. His personal slave was lost and broken now. Now things have to start over.

Yet there was one last thing he could of used. Something he knew for a long time. Elizabeth, if he could use her for his own purposes. She was born with ADAM in her, and able to create these tears. He would become unstoppable. But now he has to take it slow and steady.

Because of her new found heart after what she did to the Little Sisters. Yet this also caused Frank to fire her earlier. Brigid wanted to help rescue the Little Sisters. Yet after her renunciation of the Little Sister orphanage. She was called a madwoman by the public and hid from the public eye.

She secretly has a safe house for any rescued Little Sisters. Which she has also made a living space for herself. Because living in her apartment would be considered too dangerous. But also because of her new found heart and living with the guilt for many years. Brigid feels responsible for Elizabeth’s predicament. Wanting to save and take care of her like she was with her little ones. Despite she can’t get to that tower now considering how well guarded she is. Along with Brigid’s reputation was destroyed at the time.

Throughout 1998 and to 2002. Because thinking his parents were gone. Archie was a loner and an introvert. He had no family to live with. Yet it was because of Johnny’s kindness and the memory that his thought to be dead parents left an lasting impact on him. Making Archie a tender and genuine kind person.

Archie joined the 75th Ranger Regiment in respect of his father and to help people in need. He joined in late 1998. Passing his testing and training with unseen excellence than other people. This was because of what the testing did to him as a child.

Because Frank wanted Jack to become the ultimate killing machine. To make sure when the time came, Jack would of been ready to take on Rapture when he activated him. Thus in a way making Jack some what of a living weapon.

Something that even his commanders were so shocked at his excellence that they questioned if he was human. With some of them being strangely terrified that he never showed attitude, never showed off, or anything that a normal rookie would of done. Nearly everyone treated with him respect despite their disbelief that any human can train like that.

When joining the US Army Rangers, this enhanced Archie’s status as a weapon. Thus making him even more of a force of nature. Reserving his extreme emotions but not becoming emotionless. At the age of 21, he became a sergeant.

Because of Johnny, Jack now as Archie became more than Frank would of ever done for him.

Archie became a force of nature. Unbreakable, raw, incorruptible, loyal to a fault, and unyielding. What was supposed to be a sleeper agent became a legitimate super soldier.

Yet despite all that. Archie was an outcast.

Despite Brigid trying to make sure his original programming didn’t work. If, “Would you kindly” was said to him. His head would start hurting. Almost like a migraine or headache. If the phrase was said more. His mindset would start getting worse. Starting to remember things and being confused of what’s going on.

Seeing things such as faces, including Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine, and other things.

The, “Code Yellow” command was still intact. Yet more raw now if it was mentioned. Because Yi and Fontaine only knew about it.

1998 to 2001: Atlas begins to start giving the poorer citizens of Rapture a voice. The tensions between the social classes begin to rise. Including with ADAM becoming more of a problem now due to addiction. Especially with later down the line Ryan nationalizing Fontaine Futuristics. Which causes Bill to resign. But afterwards, Atlas convinces Bill to join his rebellion in secret.

2000 to 2001: Sofia Lamb was arrested after Ryan finds out she is a Collectivist and spreading her beliefs to people in Rapture. Eleanor Lamb was put in the care of Grace Holloway. But after finding out Stanley Poole was a spy for Andrew Ryan. He had Eleanor kidnapped and turned into a Little Sister. She spent time in the Little Sister Orphanage and was under the care of Dr. Gil Alexander. She is later paired with Subject Delta. They form the first pair bond between Little Sister and Big Daddy.

Over time the pair bond between the Alpha series and Little Sisters worked too well. If a Little Sister were to die. The remaining Alpha Big Daddy would be left to be aggressive. Because of this, it was decided to go for a more generic, but versatile route for the protectors for the Little Sisters.

Which results in the creations of other Big Daddies such as the Bouncer and Rosie models. That were still construction workers. But now having to protect a Little Sister. The pairing process was different. With now adopting being a thing.

But also during this time. Sinclair started to realize the error of his ways and tried to better himself. Especially with Rapture slowly falling apart.

Charles Milton Porter is framed by Reed Wahl with a recording of Porter siding with Atlas. Porter comes up with a back up plan if he were to become a Big Daddy and manages to message Brigid before being taken away. Who was the only person Brigid could safely come into contact with because they are good friends.

2002: On New Year’s Eve, Atlas leads an attack that starts the Rapture Civil War. Which also scars Diane who after some time joins Atlas and his cause. Including Daisy Fitzroy joins as well. Becoming in a way Atlas’s 2nd in command.

Yet also during this, Sofia Lamb a month earlier escapes prison during an uprising. To finally get Eleanor away from Delta. Which she succeeds in doing so. Yet during this, Sofia discovers the original WYK plans and the experiments of speeding up a child's age. Which she plans to use on Eleanor and any Little Sisters she may catch. But for what she thinks is the common good.

But during this because he no longer has Jack. Frank no longer has a back up plan. Andrew is winning this civil war. The city is slowly falling apart. While some areas are still populated. Other parts of the city have gone dark. Making them a paradise for Splicers. Despite some Splicers and others would get into more better areas.

In June 2002, Atlas becomes desperate that he decides to make a distress call to the surface. His plan is to trick anyone that would come into helping him into rescuing Elizabeth and taking over Rapture. With making false promises to call the US government to take in Andrew Ryan and anything else.

In Georgia, the Army Rangers get the distress call and are deployed quickly. When their aircraft gets near the location. They are confused it’s in the middle of the ocean but there’s a mysterious lighthouse.

Seeing this, Andrew fires down the aircraft using a special heat seeking missile that can be fired from the city. This causes the aircraft to crash and there is only one survivor.

Surprisingly for Atlas and others by chance. That survivor was his original, “Ace In The Hole” Jack. Now known as Sergeant Archie Wynand.

The story of Bioshock Rebirth happens. Which results in Archie finding out who he really is. Along with other things. Leading up to Archie killing a half ADAM powered Atlas/Frank Fontaine by stabbing him in the chest with a syringe to suck the ADAM out of him. Then hanging him from a roof. Ultimately killing Effectively ending the Rapture Civil War once and for all.

During this, Sofia’s influence becomes stronger. With, “The Rapture Family” slowly rising in power and to make Eleanor, “The People’s Daughter”. As of now because of the sped up aging, Eleanor is 17 years old.

After the events of Bioshock Rebirth. The Vox Populi are formed. A reformation of what Atlas had done.

Two months later in August 2002.

Rapture is in a better state. With the Vox trying to make it in a better place to live in. With a community that would help each other. But Andrew Ryan has gone into hiding and is nowhere to be found. While the Vox led by Daisy Fitzroy and Bill Mcdonagh try to capture and find certain people in Rapture to emprison them. Such as Yi Suchong, Booker Dewitt, Sander Cohen, and whoever else considered to be a criminal that doesn’t wanna change.

Including during these events, Subject Delta is brought back to life by Eleanor through the help of the Little Sisters. With also Eleanor contacting Brigid to help aid in undoing the psychological conditioning imprinted imprinted in Delta’s mind when he was a Big Daddy. The plan works well and Delta meets Brigid and others.

Soon, Sofia does a hostile takeover a Rapture. With, “The Rapture Family” and the, “Vox Populi” going to war. But the Big Sisters turn the tide of it. With the Vox’s secret weapons being Sgt. Archie Wynand, Elizabeth Comstock, and Subject Delta.

Sofia demonizes Delta but also calling Archie, “The Demon Of Rapture” because of his actions and his own birth. Because most people in Rapture know of his existence as, “The Prodigal Son”. Sofia worries Archie may influence Eleanor. But realizes later on, it’s Delta she needs to worry about.

Sofia has the support of Grace Holloway(Who then joins the Vox after realizing who Archie really is and seeing Delta isn’t a monster), Stanley Poole, Gil Alexander(Who is now possibly Alex The Great), but also Ava Tate. A seductive woman who made propaganda films for Andrew Ryan. Along with being one of Sander Cohen’s colleagues. But also Sofia’s right hand woman.

But because of Sofia’s hostile takeover. Because of the old programming. Archie starts seeing hallucinations of Atlas using his Irish accent. Haunting the young man and trying to get him to certain things. Such as killing Suchong and Sofia Lamb when he shouldn’t. Or other things that weren’t exactly right.

This is because the PTSD is finally catching up to Archie.

During this because Little Sisters were running low. A Big Sister was able to go to the sister and take some girls away from the surface. Which leads a man named Mark Meltzer to search for his daughter. But also the surface possibly may try to search for Rapture. Considering now little girls who going missing.

After a exhausting journey to get Eleanor back. Because of Delta’s kindness to not kill but save the Big Sisters. When they sense him being in danger after Sofia suffocates Eleanor. They come back and attack Sofia’s base of operations. Saving Elizabeth, Brigid, Daisy, other Little Sisters, Archie, Delta, and Eleanor.

Even after everything she’s done and Rapture being almost revealed to the surface. Eleanor lets Sofia live so can begin a long road of redemption. Despite how others may look at it differently. Delta lives, and Archie with the help of Elizabeth, Brigid, and even Eleanor and Delta. The Atlas hallucination that has been haunting him is gone that week is gone.

A week after the events. They manage to find Subject Sigma and help him get back the Thinker from Reed Wahl. With Subject Sigma finding out he was Charles Milton Porter and later on letting go of his late wife Pearl. With Porter being turned back to normal. While Delta is a tricky situation.

It is likely afterwards. Despite helping Rapture becoming a livable place again. Archie and others may of gone back to the surface for a while. But they can visit Rapture still.

But during the ending part of the Rapture Family vs the Vox Populi. Ava Tate had escaped to the surface. While Stanley Poole was later killed by Booker Dewitt.

#bioshock #bioshock rebirth #bioshock au #archie wynand

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81scorp · 4 years

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Consctructive criticism: Man of steel

(Originally posted as an editorial on Deviantart May 1, 2015. It has not been changed from how I originally wrote it.)

With Superman Returns not being the success Warner Bros hoped for, no more sequels that take place in the Superman universe that Richard Donner created have been made since. But since a reboot worked for the old Dark Knight it could work just as well for the big, blue, flying boy scout.Superman`s movie franchise got a reboot in a movie directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S Goyer. The result was... a little bit divisive. Some loved it, some hated it but never the less it made money, enough to greenlight a sequel... or rather: a bigger, shared movie universe. Not unlike what they were doing over at Marvel.Personally I kinda, sorta liked it, at least more than Superman returns. But, like I mentioned in my "More thoughts on Frozen" Editorial where I briefly talked about Avatar, I can see it`s flaws. Otherwise it wouldn`t have ended up here.

Where did it go wrong and how could it have been better?

The S stands for SPOILERS

The colour saturation

With the failure of Green Lantern and the success of The Dark Knight trilogy, the film makers came to the conclusion that future DC movies has to be more "Dark and Serious". Just because it worked for Batman it doesn`t necessarily mean that it would work just as well for their other characters. The tone of the story differs a tiny bit from Batman`s because Superman`s image of a beacon of hope rather than justice lurking in the shadows is heavily ingrained in the public`s perception of him. That left the film makers with one thing left to "darkify": The colours of the movie. A little bit more colour wouldn`t have hurt.

The shaky cam

Usually I don`t care (much) about this, but in this case I noticed it while watching the movie for the first time and it bothered me a little. Less of the shaky cam please.

Johnathan Kent`s advice to young Clark

Young Clark: "What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?"

Jonathan Kent: "Maybe." He`s not saying "Yes! You should`ve let them die!" So he`s technically not giving him bad advice, but he`s technically not giving him good advice either.

He should have focused on teaching Clark to have a low profile. That doesn`t have to mean that he shouldn`t help. He can still help as long as he does it in secret. So instead he could have said."If you`re gonna keep doing this, try not to get seen. Think before you act."Then he could pause and then add: "But at least your heart was in the right place." If it was my hypothetical kid from another planet with great powers who did something good and heroic I`d want the discussion to end on a positive note to give him the feeling that technically he did not do a bad thing.

Johnathan Kent`s death

Yes, I get that he did not want Clark to expose himself, but still. He died not because Clark couldn`t save him but because he wouldn`t let him. How about: Jonathan dies from a sickness. Yes it is similar to the Donner version but the difference is that in this version it doesn`t happen as suddenly and Clark gets time to say goodbye to his dad on his death-bed. Jonathan can remind him about the "Think before you act" bit, and say something about how he will change the world.

Lois telling Superman about her mindprobing

Movies are a visual medium and there`s a rule called "show don`t tell". Telling through pictures is a more universal language. Instead of Lois telling Superman what she went through they could have showed it in some way. From what I remember we saw what was going on in Superman`s head when they probed him but not what was going on on the outside. Here`s what they could have done: After we have seen Superman`s little nightmare landscape we could see what is going on outside his body as Zod`s voice keeps talking about how he`s gonna revive Krypton. We see him lying in an alien chair with a mindprobing helmet on and his face twitches as if he`s having a nightmare. Move the camera a bit to the right and we see Lois lying in an alien chair going through the same thing. Cut to: close up of Lois`s face, then cut to: inside Lois`s mind: pretty much the same thing we saw in Superman`s head. Cut to: close up of Superman`s face, then we go back inside Superman`s mind.

Yes, I said "lying in a chair". The correct word is "sitting", but I imagine them as kind of like dentist chairs...evil dentist chairs.

Zod showing Superman all that nightmarish landscape

Besides that it would "look cool for the trailer", what reason is there for Zod to scare Superman with that nightmare-landscape? Shouldn`t he try to make Superman trust him and see him as a friend?

How about: Supes is shown what Krypton looked like before it blew up.

Zod: "Behold Kal-El, this what Krypton once was, and what it can be again." Clark wonders what would happen to the people of earth. Zod uses the cold, empathyless logic that "simpler civilizations will have to make way for the more advanced ones."

"Krypton had it`s chance"

I get where they were going with this but still, it sounded a bit too cruel. This would have sounded better: "Krypton should not live at the expense of Earth!"

Saying it like that would make it open for the interpretation that he does want to see Krypton resurrected, (just not at any cost).

The level of destruction

They could have toned it down a bit. Some say: "But this is what realistically would happen if someone with Superman`s powers were to have a big fight." Someone with Superman`s powers yes. But how about someone with Superman`s mentality?

Yes: most of the destruction was caused by the terraforming machine, but when that destruction was over and it was just Superman and Zod they still plowed through a few buildings.

Let`s forget that it`s Superman. Someone with concern for human life and the ability to strategize, at least a little bit (which Superman is fully capable of doing), should try to direct the fight away from heavily populated areas. Yes, Zod would try to use this weakness and direct the fight back to said populated areas, but Superman would still do his best to keep the fight in safe/safer places.

Plus: The "Think before you act" lesson from his father could come back to play a part here.

"But he was new at this, he was learning to be a Superhero." We saw earlier in the movie that he had been doing this for a couple of years, so he would have gotten the hang of (most of) it by the time he donned the cape." It`s the first time he fights other super-powered Kryptonians." I can`t argue that much with this statement, even Supes has limits. On this point the fault is not on Superman as a character but rather the filmmakers who wrote him into a corner and made sure that there was no other way out than to destroy almost more than half of Metropolis. They seem to suffer from a "darker-and-more-action-is-always-better" perception. Not all DCCU movies have to be the Dark Knight.

On the fence: Jenny

First I thought that she had a last name, and that it was Olsen. So I thought she was a genderbent Jimmy Olsen. But last time I checked (on imdb) she didn`t have a last name. Could she be an original character created for the movie? I`m OK with that. But I want to talk about what I feel about if they were to change Jimmy`s gender.

This makes me feel like the film makers haven`t bothered to check the comics that the movies are based on. Not because of the change, but some seem to think that there are only four people working on the Daily Planet: Clark, Lois, Perry and Jimmy. The majority of the people that I mentioned are male so I agree that there could be at least one more woman. But instead of changing one of the characters they could just pick one from the comics. How about Catherine Grant? Or Alice the intern? And if you`re looking for a black character, how about Ron Troupe?

Sorry for being a purist, but I feel that if you want to add a little diversity, look for a character that has what you are looking for in the source material before changing one or some of the other characters.

That`s why I hope that we in future DCCU movies get to see Maggie Sawyer and/or Renee Montoya.How do I feel about Perry White? Well, he`s played by Laurence Fishburne. So I`m good.

On the fence: Superman killing Zod

When I heard about it at first I thought "Oh come on! Superman doesn`t kill!" But then again, he could be pushed to a point where he would have no other option. Then I thought "If he`s gonna kill someone he should at least feel bad about it." And he did, so I guess I`m OK with it. But still, the way they did that scene made me feel like there was more that could be done before they went in for the kill. Technically, Superman could have just knocked him unconscious. And then there`s the film makers`s explanation: "He needs to kill so he learns that it`s wrong to kill." I haven`t killed anyone and I know it`s wrong to kill.

I think the real explanation is: He needs to kill because the movie needs to be dark, because DCCU movies needs to be dark to be good, because it worked for the Batman reboot. The thing is: Nolan`s Batman had a little thought put into it. Man of Steel`s darkness didn`t have much thought behind it.

A light-hearted, silly and campy movie with a bad script is a movie with a bad script. A dark, gritty and serious movie with a bad script is still a movie with a bad script.

If I were to change this, here`s what I would do: Zod and Superman are flying around, fighting each other. The spaceship (that was sent far away thanks to Clark`s babyship`s warp drive) is still on earth. Superman punches Zod so hard that he is knocked back onboard his ship. The warp drive is activated and Zod and his friends are warped to God knows where.I also want to point out that I´m not too crazy about when they kill characters that have played an important part and/or has been in the comicbook a long time. That`s why I`m a bit critical not only to Zod`s death but Prof: Emil Hamilton`s as well. (Though he may not be dead.)

Yes, there are other things wrong with this movie. But if you did the changes that are mentioned here, I personally wouldn`t care about those other things

I want to finish with two things that, while they aren`t constructive criticism, are at least Superman related.

Joe Quesada`s reason for not liking Man of Steel

“As a comic book fan, I wanted to love that movie so much,” said Quesada. “I wanted to love it so much, and I didn’t love it so much. Again, there are little things here and there that you could pick at and things like that, but I just think at the end of the day, Zod was the hero of the movie to me.”

Interesting defenition of a hero you have there.

“He wanted to save his race, and Superman didn’t let him."

Oh poor Zod, all he wanted to do was to rebuild his planet at the cost of billions of lives on an already inhabited one. It`s not like there were any other Earth-like planets in the solar system, suitable for terraforming, like Mars or Venus. No. Clearly Superman was the bigger badguy here.

“I was in the mood to watch that Superman movie, and afterwards I was just angry,” said Quesada.

Well, I, and many others, felt similar after reading One More Day so I guess that makes things even.

In defense of the Clark Kent disguise

I`m sure many of us has questioned that no one can recognize Superman in his Clark Kent disguise just because he wears a pair of glasses. However, here are some examples from real life:

An author who interviewed Marilyn Monroe later wrote of an incident that occurred when they were walking down the street talking. The author was confused that, although they were in plain sight, no one seemed to recognize her. Monroe then said, "Do you want to see her?" She changed her posture, walk and way she was speaking to what she used in the movies and suddenly people saw Marilyn Monroe, movie star and sex symbol, and reacted accordingly. Shakira, a famous singer, managed to spend an entire summer at UCLA posing as a normal person. She went by her middle name and dressed up in a cap and pants. The fact that it hit the news after she was done with the classes proved how effective her disguise was. Comedian Groucho Marx painted on his famous mustache with grease paint for most of his career. He was surprised to find a large crowd of fans who had gathered to see him at a train station completely ignored him when he got off the train. Realizing what had happened, he ducked into his car and smeared on a grease paint mustache, and was instantly recognized. So you see, real people are pretty stupid too. ^_^

#superman #man of steel #dc comics #dceu #constructive #criticism #editorial #81scorp

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hunnywrites · 5 years

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Arcade Dreams: Chapter Eight

Summary: There’s a new girl working at the Palace Arcade and Hawkins’ Family Video. Billy can’t stand her, and the feeling is mutual. No matter what everyone else seems to think.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/OFC

A/N: Sorry I didn’t get this up sooner! We’ve been getting ready for the hurricane!

“Alright, Teddi. You gotta tell me your address so I can take you home.”

Teddi scoffed. “Why? So you can stalk me some more?” she snapped, crossing her arms firmly and dramatically across her chest.

Billy’s hand slightly clenched around the steering wheel. If Teddi was stubborn on a normal day, she was at least five times more stubborn when she was drunk. “Larsson, I’m not fucking around here…” he warned.

Teddi sighed loudly and sunk in her seat. She leaned over and rested her head against the window, watching the trees pass by in a blur. “I don’t wanna go home.”

Billy looked over at her. He grabbed the shoulder of her coat and pulled her upright before looking out the window made her blow chunks all over his car. “And why not?” he asked. He knew, or at least he had an idea, but he was still a little curious about whether his suspicions were correct.

“If my dad knows I was out this late and sees how shit faced I am he’ll kill me. Like literally kill me. Fucking prick. You know I used to do this all the time back home? Yeah. I went to parties like...all the time. And I used to smoke because I thought it made me look cool, and I was actually popular until I moved to...this.” she waved her hands at the bland scenery that was passing them.

Billy admittedly had sort of a hard time imagining that. Maybe New York was different. Teddi was more like that girl Samantha in his Biology class, Johnathan Byers and that chick Robin (who he was also pretty sure was a lesbian because he had tried putting the moves on her during lunch once and she had laughed so hard milk came out of her nose); weird and very not cool. But he smirked over at her anyways. “Is that right? What happened?”

“I moved to Hawkins and I died inside,” they both laughed. Teddi studied him for a moment. “Is all this part of you trying to be nice? Like with the beer?”

Billy shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know...I guess.”

“Well, how come you wanna be nice all of the sudden?”

“I don’t know,” he huffed. He supposed he could give her the long version. Complete with Max almost chopping his dick off. But he figured Teddi was a little too drunk to take any of that in. “I guess...ever since we moved here I’ve sorta been…”

“The worst?” Teddi finished for him with raised eyebrows.

“Yeah. I’ve got a lot of shit going on and-”

“I’ve got a lot of shit too. But I learned to stop being such a jerk to everyone.”

“Yeah? Well, you’re sure as hell a pain in the ass.” he argued. He didn’t know why Teddi drove him up the wall the way that she did. Maybe it was because he knew she was right. He hated it when other people were right about him.

Teddi crossed her arms and glared over at him. “...What’s your zodiac sign?” she asked suddenly.

Billy shot her that look again. That one that like she had sprouted another head. “My what?”

“Your zodiac sign! You know, with the stars and all…” Billy only blinked. Teddi huffed. “When is your birthday?”

“...November 28th.”

Teddi groaned. “A Sagittarius.” she said curtly.

Billy didn’t know why, but he felt offended by her tone. He looked over at her with an annoyed and expectant look. “And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. It just explains a lot. Do you know what time you were born? Or in what city?” she hadn’t even noticed that Billy was looking at her like she had gone absolutely insane.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know any of that? And what does it explain, weird girl? What the hell is a Sagittarius?” Teddi didn’t answer him. She just sat there with her arms crossed and looking like she was going through some weird girl rolodex in her head.

Suddenly she perked up. “Ooo! That means we’re sister signs! I’m a Gemini!” as if Billy was supposed to have any idea what that meant.

“Gemini? Sister signs? Larsson, what the hell are you talking about?” he asked incredulously.

Teddi rolled her eyes. “It means that we’re like super compatible...huh. Wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“Compatible like...in bed compatible?” he asked, a smirk teasing at his lips. Teddi only scoffed at the question.

“Like compatible in general. Yin and Yang...I guess that makes sense. I’m like super chill and you’re basically the hulk,” she laughed. Billy was going to throw a smart ass response her way, but before he could Teddi reached over and snatched the cigarette that was between his lips. He let out a huff to show his distaste, but Teddi ignored it. She let out a loud groan as she took a drag of the cigarette. “Christ, I missed these things.”

Billy found himself chuckling. If someone had told him a week ago that he would be giving Teddi Larsson a ride home while she rambled on about zodiac signs and sharing a cigarette with him, he would have told them they were crazy. Yet there he was, taking his cigarette back from her after she handed it back to him with a happy, content look on her face.

“What’s funny?” she asked, smiling over at him.

Billy shook his head. “Nothing. This night has just taken a really weird turn.” that little part of him wished that this could be how things always were. Sure, he probably hadn’t had a friend that was a girl since the third grade, but he could see himself being friends with Teddi. If they could both get past that animosity that was always there. Well, more like if he could learn to control his temper a little more was more like it.

He turned onto his street, slowing the Camaro down so that the engine wouldn’t wake anyone at home and let his dad know that he’d been out so late. He had missed his curfew by about two hours, but with Susan around now she and Neil held Billy to an honor system when it came to him going out. Teddi didn’t look as confused as he expected her to be as he pulled up to the curb.

“You uh...said you didn’t want to go home so…” he didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t want Teddi to know that he had figured out her secret. He would play it off as her refusing to tell him her address. If he let on that he was onto Teddi, there was a chance she would start to ask questions and soon she would be onto his secret.

Teddi looked over at Billy’s house with narrowed eyes before looking back at him. “This is your house?” she asked.

“Yeah...look, I’m not like putting the moves on you or anything. Trust me. You can crash in Max’s room. I just figured…” he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Teddi gave him a tired smile. “No, it’s...this is nice.” she nodded.

Billy flinched a little. He hated that his first reaction to someone telling him he’d done something nice was wanting to make some sort of biting remark. He swallowed the nasty comment and only shrugged. He shut the Camaro off and climbed out, rushing over to the other side as Teddi nearly fell out onto the street. She was giggling loudly as she tried to get herself upright.

“Christ, Larsson,” he muttered as he helped her stand. “You have to shut up, okay? If anyone hears you we’ll both be dead.” he snapped.

Teddi pretended to zip her lips before letting out a small giggle. Billy rolled his eyes and pulled her along. But he didn’t go to the front door. He led her around to the side of his house to what Teddi assumed must have been his bedroom window. She leaned up against the wall to try to keep her balance while he expertly slid the window open. Wordlessly he bent down, his fingers intertwined to give her a boost up.

She wondered briefly just how many other girls he’d done this with before stepping into his hands and sliding clumsily into his room. It was a weird angle. If she wasn’t careful she’d land down on his stereo instead of the foot of his bed. Teddi wiggled through the window and aimed herself for Billy’s bed as best as her drunk mind would allow.

She landed with a soft thud and groaned. Billy was in almost immediately after her. It was obvious that he had done this more than a few times. Teddi waved him away when he tried to help her stand.

Billy’s room was...exactly what she had imagined. Not that she had spent a lot of time thinking about it. It was more or less as messy as she’d expect it to be. And it had that sort of “I don’t give a shit” attitude in the way he had decorated it that was very Billy. It smelled almost overwhelmingly like him. Cigarettes, his cologne and spearmint. His cologne had this really warm, woody smell to it. Sort of like a bonfire with a hint of something fresh and earthy. It gave Teddi this comfy sort of feeling whenever she smelled it and she briefly wondered if Billy had chosen the scent because it reminded him of back home. Teddi shook the idea away and looked further around his room. She rolled her eyes when she spotted the poster of Shauna Grant hanging on the wall. There were a lot of cassette tapes. Nearly anywhere Teddi looked there was a stack of tapes or vinyls along with a crushed beer can or two and an ashtray full of cigarette butts.

Of course there where all of his weights and workout gear, that definitely didn’t surprise her. What did surprise her were the two neon boxes on a shelf in front of her. “Excuse me,” she hissed, reaching up on her toes in order to reach them. “These are Atari games!”

Billy shushed her, shooting a dirty look in her direction. “So what?” he asked. He snatched the two games out of her hands and reached over her to set them back on the shelf.

Teddi swallowed nervously as Billy’s chest bumped into hers momentarily before she took a step back. She shook her head and fixed an angry look up at him. “You can’t call me a geek when you’re a geek.”

Billy rolled his eyes. “Everyone plays video games, Larsson. Now stop going through my shit. Unless you wanna sleep in here tonight. That’s more than alright with me…” he smirked down at her.

Teddi rolled her eyes dramatically. “Don’t make me puke, Hargrove.” Billy only chuckled, taking Teddi by the arm and sneaking out of his room and down the hall. He nudged Max’s door open, quickly pulling Teddi in before shutting the door behind them and turning on the light.

Two heads popped up from the bed. Max blinked wildly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. El watched Teddi and Billy with such a blank expression that Teddi suspected that El was positive she was only dreaming. “Billy? What the hell?” Max asked with a yawn.

“I need a favor.” he began.

Teddi cut off whatever he was going to say next with a loud gasp. “Oh my gosh, Max, the sleepover!” she squealed. “Look, I didn’t miss it after all!”

Billy slapped a hand over Teddi’s mouth and shot a glare in her direction. “I told you, Teddi. Be quiet.”

“Drunk.” El whispered to Max as she watched Billy attempt to keep Teddi under control.

Max raised her eyebrows and nodded. “She’s trashed. Jesus, Billy, what did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything,” he snapped. “Heather Holloway and about a dozen jello shots did this. Look, she won’t tell me where she lives and I don’t know what else to do with her. Just let her crash in here and make sure she doesn’t choke on her own vomit.” he helped Teddi over to the edge of Max’s bed so she could sit.

Max and El both shot each other a few confused looks as they watched the pair. Billy struggled to keep Teddi still as he pulled her puffy coat and boots off. Teddi kept complaining, each time Billy hissing out a “stay still” before Teddi would pout and listen before the whole thing started again. Max didn’t think she’d ever seen someone look so inconvenienced by being nice to someone before. And what was even more confusing to her was the fact that Billy had nearly gone out of his way to put himself in this position.

“Did he do that?” El asked Max quietly, nodding towards Teddi’s bruised eye.

Max shook her head. “She said she slipped on ice or something. It’s been like that for a few days.” she explained as El watched Teddi carefully.

Billy tossed Teddi’s coat and shoes aside and stood, jabbing a finger in Max’s direction. “Make sure she doesn’t wake anyone up, alright? I’ll take her back to her car in the morning. And neither of you tell anyone about this, got it?”

“Whatever, Billy. Just get out of my room already.” Max hopped out of bed and nearly shoved her older brother out of her room. He shot a slightly worried glance in Teddi’s direction before glaring down at Max. He jerked away from her and disappeared down the hall to his own room. Max shut her door again and let out a heavy sigh. Teddi was lying on her back, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

“...You guys wanna play truth or dare or something?” she asked, her voice slightly slurring.

Max and El both stifled giggles. “Teddi, it’s a little late for that. I think you need to get some sleep...what are you doing with Billy anyways?” Max asked as she got back into bed.

“My date totally ditched me. And Billy said he’s trying to be nice...did you know that he’s a Sagittarius?”

El frowned. “What’s a Sagittarius?” she asked.

Teddi sat up quickly and turned to face the two girls. “What’s a Sagittarius?” she repeated, her jaw dropped. “You guys don’t know about zodiac signs either?” the two girls shook their heads. “God, what is wrong with this town? Okay, forget about truth or dare. I have like...loads to teach you. It’ll totally blow your minds.”

Teddi turned to face Max and El, crossing her legs. Max hopped out of bed once again before muttering “wait, wait, wait!” before disappearing for a few moments. She returned with a bowl of popcorn and three cans of coke. The three settled in and Teddi launched into her zodiac lesson. Maybe her night wouldn’t be such a bust after all. Getting drunk with Heather and teaching two twelve year olds about their zodiac traits at two in the morning way more fun than anything she would’ve done hanging out with some idiot on the soccer team. Hanging out with Billy hadn’t been so bad either. It was too bad she probably wouldn’t remember most of it in the morning.

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove x oc

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disappearingground · 5 years

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The Jenny Lewis Experience

The New York Times July 24, 2014

A version of this article appears in print on July 27, 2014, Page 18 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: The Jenny Lewis Experience.

By Jeff Himmelman

“They’d put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on,” Jenny Lewis said. We were sitting in a restaurant in Laurel Canyon, not far from her home, and she was describing her early childhood with parents who made their living performing as an itinerant Sonny-and-Cher-style lounge act called Love’s Way. “We lived in hotels,” she said. “My sister and I, they would just keep us in the hotel room, and they’d go down and play.” When Lewis was born in 1976, her parents were doing a stand at the Sands. They split up when she was 3, and her mother — herself the daughter of a dancer and a vaudeville performer — took Jenny and her sister to Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley, where she worked as a waitress and struggled to keep her family afloat. “We were on welfare,” Lewis said, before describing the day their fortunes changed, when an agent picked young Jenny out of a crowd at her preschool. “I think mostly because I was a redhead,” she said. “And I was a weird little kid, a weird little tomboy.”

She soon landed her first commercial, for Jell-O, and came under the wing of Iris Burton, an eminent children’s agent who represented River and Joaquin Phoenix and Fred Savage. Lewis started working steadily in commercials, television (“The Golden Girls,” “Growing Pains,” “Mr. Belvedere”) and film (“The Wizard,” “Troop Beverly Hills,” “Pleasantville”), living the surreal and somewhat communal life of a child star in the ‘80s. She spent her days being tutored on set and her evenings at places like Alphy’s Soda Pop Club in Hollywood, which catered exclusively to kids in the industry. At a party there when Lewis was 10, the actor Corey Haim handed her a cassette tape with Run-D.M.C. on one side and the Beastie Boys on the other. “There have been a couple of cassette tapes that have changed my life,” she said, “and that was the first one” — the tape that got her hooked on hip-hop, which eventually led her to songwriting.

I asked Lewis when she first fully realized the role she played in her family, the depth of their dependence on her. “Eight years old,” she said. “I remember the moment. That’s a pretty big thing for a kid to realize. And I remember the power in that.” By the time she was 14 or 15, with nobody to answer to, she could be as wild as she liked as long as she showed up to work and hit her marks. “I was up for it, honestly,” she said. “I loved the work and I loved the people, and it kind of prepped me for what I do now.”

What Lewis does now, the music she makes, is hard to characterize. She is often compared with Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris, and there is a kind of timelessness to the way she writes and sings. But the throwback stuff doesn’t quite capture her. Among some music fans — including many other well-known musicians — Lewis is considered a kind of indie goddess, a stylish performer who defies genre and salts her songs with a sly and off-kilter intelligence. Her first band, Rilo Kiley, signed a major-label deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2005; her first side project, the Postal Service, led by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, sold more than a million copies of its debut; and she has released two well-received solo records since then. Next week, she will release a third, “The Voyager,” her first solo effort in six years. It has been a battle to get it out. Among other things, she has dealt with the death of her father, writer’s block and bouts of insomnia so severe and debilitating that she said they left her almost unable to function for nearly two years.

You’d never guess that from meeting her, though. She talks like a true child of L.A. — the “bro"s and “dude"s flow freely, without affectation — and her go-to traveling costume is a vintage Adidas track suit, Adidas shell-top sneakers and, on the day I first met her, hot-pink lipstick and oversize sunglasses. She lives with her longtime boyfriend and collaborator, the musician Johnathan Rice, up a long canyon road in the hills that separate the San Fernando Valley from downtown Los Angeles. Her house (called “Mint Chip” for its brown-and-light-green exterior) is set into the hillside, looking out over a ravine. There is a rehearsal space with a drum kit, a P.A. and some vintage gear, an old piano in the living room and a vinyl edition of James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” propped up beside the fireplace. Beyond the small pool in the back yard there’s a windowed gazebo that Rice uses as his songwriting space. Whatever you are imagining of the California light and the laid-back lifestyle: yes.

Historically, nearby Laurel Canyon has been synonymous with a certain kind of lush ‘60s acoustic-and-multipart-harmony sound, but Lewis’s musical roots spring from the ‘90s and the smart indie rock of Elliott Smith and Pavement. When she was 20 or so, her acting career wasn’t where she wanted it to be, and she saw that she needed to make a change. “I was the best friend,” she said. “I was the friend, forever. I wanted the big, juicy roles, and they didn’t come to me.” (She read for the part of Bunny in the Coen brothers’ film “The Big Lebowski,” for one, but didn’t get it.) She had known Blake Sennett, another former child actor, since she was 17, and they began writing together and eventually formed Rilo Kiley.

She and Sennett dated and broke up and kept playing together. The relationship was always fraught (Gibbard remembers Lewis screaming at Sennett over the phone during the first Postal Service tour), but Lewis said it gave her the confidence she needed to become a real songwriter. “Through my partnership with Blake, I found a voice within myself that I didn’t know I had,” she said. “It sounds kind of cheesy, but I figured out who I was.” From the first lines of the first song on Rilo Kiley’s debut record, a track called “Go Ahead,” you can hear the DNA of the musician Lewis has become nearly 15 years later — a floating, distinct voice, an unpredictable melody, a wryly subverted rhyme.

The link between songwriting and autobiography is a tantalizing but tenuous one, and Lewis prefers to preserve as much mystery as she can. But she affirms that she has never written anything more personal than “Better Son/Daughter,” one of the strongest tracks off Rilo Kiley’s second record, “The Execution of All Things.” The song is about waking up in the morning and being unable to open your eyes or get out of bed: “And your mother’s still calling you, insane and high/Swearing it’s different this time.” Eventually it opens into an anthem of wounded fortitude, the kind you can imagine cars full of young women screaming along to. The actress Anne Hathaway, one of Lewis’s close friends, told me that she still turns to that song whenever she’s struggling. “It’s become almost like a prayer,” she said.

Outside whatever veiled references she makes in her music, Lewis doesn’t talk much about her mother. She acknowledged that it was a “difficult relationship” and that she didn’t have a “traditional upbringing,” but that was about it. At one point, I referred to a report in The Boston Globe in 1992, when Lewis was 16, noting that she owned a house in Sherman Oaks and a townhouse in North Hollywood. “We lost all of that,” she said, with a blankness I hadn’t seen from her before. I asked her why. “We just lost ‘em,” she said. “I achieved a lot as a child, I supported my family, but in the end we lost it all.”

In 2004, Rilo Kiley toured with Coldplay, but Lewis was still scraping by, living in a small apartment in Silver Lake with an Iranian rockabilly musician she found on Craigslist. In her bedroom, when she wasn’t on tour, she wrote the songs that would become “Rabbit Fur Coat,” her first solo record. The idea for it came from Conor Oberst, the songwriter (also known as the frontman of Bright Eyes) who helped form Saddle Creek Records, which had put out “The Execution of All Things.” “I encouraged her,” Oberst told me. “You know, why don’t you step away from this thing that is obviously causing you a lot of distress and make a record on your own?” Sennett had already made a solo record, which upset Lewis. “I was so jealous if someone else got Blake’s musical attention,” she told me. “I was shattered by it.” She made “Rabbit Fur Coat,” she said, in part to prove that “I can do it too on my own — I don’t need you.”

The songs on “Rabbit Fur Coat” are ethereal and haunted, rooted in deep Southern and gospel-inflected melodic traditions. On the record’s title track, Lewis’s lyrics again invite comparison with her family life:

Let’s move ahead 20 years, shall we? She was waitressing on welfare, we were living in the valley A lady says to my ma, “You treat your girl as your spouse You can live in a mansion house.”

And so we did, and I became a hundred-thousand-dollar kid . . . But I’m not bitter about it I’ve packed up my things and let them have at it And the fortune faded, as fortunes often do And so did that mansion house

Where my ma is now, I don’t know She was living in her car, I was living on the road And I hear she’s putting stuff up her nose . . .

After the record was done, Lewis went on tour with Rilo Kiley. When the band played the Showbox in Seattle in 2005, Gibbard picked her up after sound check. They’d become friends during the Postal Service tour a few years earlier. As they drove around in Gibbard’s car, Lewis played the new songs for him. “I just remember, all hyperbole aside, being completely blown away,” Gibbard said. “It was undoubtedly the best thing that she had done.” The press shared Gibbard’s reaction, and Lewis got more attention on her own than Rilo Kiley had ever gotten as a band. “Everything was so easy for the first time,” she said. “It just unfolded so naturally. And then going out on the road and touring was the most fun I’ve ever had on tour. There was no tension for the first time.” Rilo Kiley would put out one more record, but it soon became clear that it would be their last.

“I want to show you something,” Lewis said. We were talking in her kitchen about her second solo release, “Acid Tongue,” which she recorded over three weeks in 2008 at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. The record had a bunch of special guests on it — Elvis Costello, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes — but the most meaningful one was Lewis’s dad, who died in 2010. In the living room, she pointed out a glass vitrine on top of the piano that held one of her father’s chromatic bass harmonicas. Before the “Acid Tongue” sessions, she hadn’t spoken to her father in years, but she felt comfortable enough with the musical family she had created around her — Rilo Kiley’s drummer, Jason Boesel; Johnathan Rice; some other musicians from the Laurel Canyon set — that she thought she could handle having him around. He played on the track “Jack Killed Mom,” and the reunion helped Lewis forgive him for leaving the family all those years ago. “He was playing lounges in Alaska,” Lewis said of when she tracked him down and asked him to play on the album. “That’s why I never saw him. It was not a malicious thing. My dad was a savant. He never drove a car, he never had a bank account,” she said. “I don’t even know if he realized that he wasn’t around, you know? I think he was just playing his gigs, trying to make a living.”

“Acid Tongue” was also a step toward recording everything all at once, live, to an analog tape machine — instead of in pieces to a computer. It’s a process that Lewis has developed a devotion to, and one that the songwriter and producer Ryan Adams would push to an extreme on “The Voyager.” (After “Acid Tongue,” Lewis and Rice released “I’m Having Fun Now” in 2010, an underrated duo record that failed to get the kind of traction they hoped for.) For the last few years, Lewis had been sitting on many of the songs that would make up “The Voyager,” battling insomnia and struggling to get them down. She ran into Adams in Los Angeles and told him she had some songs she was working on, and he invited her to come by his studio, Pax-Am, on the Sunset Strip. She played a few of the tunes for him on her acoustic guitar.

‘My dad was a savant,’ Lewis said. ‘He never drove a car, he never had a bank account. I don’t even know if he realized that he wasn’t around, you know?’

“My initial impression was there were some really minimal but necessary things that had to happen,” Adams told me. “I could tell that she had sat with them a little too long.” (Lewis agrees: “I was like: ‘Dude, go for it. Help me.’ ”) On the first song that they worked on together, “She’s Not Me,” they changed the key to relax Lewis’s voice, and then Adams and his production partner, Mike Viola, strapped on electric guitars and rolled through the full song, three times, with Lewis playing and singing live with a backing band. Adams pronounced the track finished for the time being and said they would move on, without even listening back to what they’d done. “For Jenny, revisionism wouldn’t have worked,” Adams said. “The version she would play on the couch in the control room, we would just stand there, like, ‘Wow, this is classic songwriting.’ Every time. So that was sort of my mission. How do we get an ‘unmind’ vibe here and then go back later and look at these beautiful raw takes and just splash a little bit of watercolor on them.” Lewis ended up recording the bulk of the record with Adams over 10 days. (She worked on the single, “Just One of the Guys,” separately with Beck before she and Adams went into the studio together.)

“The Voyager” is an older and more direct record than her previous two. Her characters are still drinking and doing blow and cheating on each other, but there is a kind of weariness to it all. One line in particular has caught the early attention of some of her many female fans, during the bridge of “Just One of the Guys”: “There’s only one difference between you and me/When I look at myself all I can see/I’m just another lady without a baby.” She has been hesitant to acknowledge what that line specifically means to her. “I wanted to communicate some very basic things,” she told me, without saying what they were. She was already starting to regret having talked about some of her other struggles while making the record, including open discussion of the insomnia that plagued her. “Now everyone’s asking me about insomnia, which I’m terrified is going to happen to me again,” she said. “You can’t think about it too much, and everyone’s asking me about it, and I’m like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ But, [expletive], am I not going to get to sleep again?” You could hear the fear in her voice. “It’s my fault for putting it out there,” she said.

The video for “Just One of the Guys,” which got more than a million views in its first 24 hours online, was made with the actresses (and Lewis’s friends) Anne Hathaway, Brie Larson, Kristen Stewart and Tennessee Thomas. It’s an entertaining video, part Robert Palmer, part Beastie Boys, with the women spending half the time playing a sleek female backing band and then switching into male roles, clowning around in Lewis-inspired Adidas track suits and fake mustaches. Lewis, as herself, holds up a positive pregnancy test, to which Lewis-in-drag-and-fake-goatee responds, “It’s not [expletive] mine.” When she gets to the “just another lady without a baby” line, she smiles at the camera and then dances. It’s a house of mirrors, a romp through emotionally treacherous terrain.

When I visited Lewis in June, she and Rice (she calls him “Rico”) showed me an early cut of the video in the bedroom of their house, with Lewis calling out “bra shot” whenever we caught a glimpse of her cleavage. Driving down the hill toward dinner later, we got to talking, if somewhat obliquely, about the expectations of her female fans and the sexuality that is inseparable from who she is and the music she makes. She didn’t like to talk about feminism, she said, and in particular the trend of women criticizing one another for not being feminist enough: “What does it matter what I think of Lana Del Rey?” In the months before the release of “The Voyager,” Lewis has taken to wearing airbrushed suits for her live shows, rather than the sexier get-ups she used to wear onstage; she has said she feels “androgynous” these days and wants her costume to reflect that. But not always. As we made our way down the ravine, she told a story about the day President Obama came to visit a compound not far from Mint Chip. She wanted to go out for a run, but a Secret Service member stopped her and told her she needed an ID if she wanted to get back through the security cordon. “I was like, ‘Dude, I’m wearing short shorts,’ ” Lewis said. " ‘You’ll remember me.’ ”

After recording and touring mostly with men in the early days, Lewis now consistently seeks out women for her band and even tried to put together an all-female crew for the “Just One of the Guys” video, which she also directed. She said her desire to work largely with women was a response to the dissolution of her relationship with her mom. “The more I surround myself with women, the easier it is to reconcile my past in a way.” It seems to be serving a kind of psychic need, to replace the female relationship that once dominated her life with a kind of surrogate family of her choosing, a family that has stood behind her through the struggles of the last few years.

“I’m happy to see her making records,” Beck told me. “I just feel like music needs her. It needs someone doing what she’s doing. She’s got a special voice, as a writer, and then as a musician. She’s this great combination of so many things.” Conor Oberst shares that view, describing Lewis as one of the most important songwriters and performers in contemporary music. “Go see her play,” Oberst said. “Because we should all feel lucky to be around while she’s doing her magic.”

On a night in early June, at a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, Lewis had her magic all lined up and ready to go. Backstage, she was relaxed, joking with her band and casually doing her makeup in the mirror on the wall. Just before show time, one band member disappeared, but Lewis was unperturbed. “It’s O.K.,” she said with a smile when he showed up, apologizing, just as they were about to go on. “You made it!” She took a sip of red wine out of a plastic cup and then walked up the steps to the stage.

‘I just feel like music needs her,’ Beck said. ‘It needs someone doing what she’s doing. She’s got a special voice, as a writer, and then as a musician.’

To watch Lewis perform live is to understand what Beck and Oberst and other musicians admire in her. “She turns into this other person on stage,” Gibbard said, “this unbelievably powerful performer” — and it’s true. Lewis is both a natural and a pro. Throughout the night, she had big middle-aged guys and teenage girls — “teeny little chickens,” as she called them later — singing along to every word. During the encore, Lewis sang the ballad “Acid Tongue” accompanied only by her acoustic guitar and the rest of her band grouped around a microphone behind her. “To be lonely is a habit,” Lewis sang, her voice ringing out in the near-silent room, “like smoking or taking drugs, and I’ve quit them both. . . . " The audience and her band belted along with her as she finished the line: “But man was it rough.”

It was one of those lovely moments you hope for in live music, when everything in the room connects. But it was also a kind of emblem of where Lewis has been and of where she is now. She has overcome all kinds of obstacles to get here, often with great style, but it hasn’t always been pretty. Whatever demons stole her sleep for these last few years, they’ve surely been with her forever, in one form or another. But they are also what gives such depth and soul to what she does. “I’m not looking for a cure,” Lewis sang, and as she stood in the spotlight at the 9:30 Club, nobody there would have thought she needed one.

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 5 years

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The Legend of Frosty the Snowman REVIEW:

Hello there everybody. My name is JoyofCrimeArt and welcome to the third review in my month long "Deviant-cember." special event. If you where here last time you would of seen my review of the 1992 holiday specials "Frosty Returns." But as I said at the end of that review, we're not done with Frosty the Snowman just yet. Because there's not just one, but two Frosty the Snowman sequels that came out after the fact that weren't created by Rankin-Bass. One was "Frosty Returns" and the other was 2005's "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman." which we are going to talk about today!

"The Legend of Frosty the Snowman," as previously stated, was a 2005 special direct to DVD special created by Classic Media and Studio B productions, and was designed to be a "broad strokes reboot." of Frosty the Snowman. Other then that, there's not much history behind this special other then the fact that they use to show this all the time on Cartoon Network when I was younger. How does this special hold up to the other entries in the Frosty mythos? Well, let's dive in and find out. The special opens up in the dark and creepy attic of an old man... ...Not the best place to start. All jokes aside, this is where we meet our celebrity narrator, this time played by Burt Reynolds. He introduces us to the story, just like all of the past narrators have done in these specials, and he has an advantage over Johnathan Winters because he is not a scary gremlin man. So points to this special right off the back. The special starts with a series of chained up crates being magically opened, with Frosty the Snowman's hat locked inside. The hat, free from it's shackles, flies out the window. The narrator tells us that Frosty the Snowman always goes where he is needed. We then get to see our main character of the special, Tommy Tinkerton, (played by Kaith Soucie.) Tommy, and his brother Charlie, are woken up by there father Mr. Tinkerton, and told to get ready for school. Now might be a good time to talk about these three characters. Tommy, our main character, is rather bland. Now granted the main kid characters in all of the Frosty special where bland, with Holly from "Frosty Returns." being the closest to not bland, but still not quite making it. So Tommy being the boring "generic kid" character isn't really that much of a surprise. Tommy's brother, Charlie, on the other hand I actually kinda like. He's the stereotypical "big brother bully" character but with the added twist of, rather than being a delinquent he's actually a of a stickler for the rules, which is an interesting combination of traits that you don't see that much of in characters. It gives him a bit of depth, or at least by Frosty the Snowman standards, which is not much. And then we have Tommy's dad, Mr. Tinkerton. He is the mayor of the town (called Evergreen) and also one of the whitest humans to ever white. This is appropriate because he is voiced by Tom Kenny, who is also one of the whitest people to ever white. This guy is a control freak, to a cartoonish extent. Granted, that's obviously the point of the character, and it's used for comedy, but still. It's a bit insane. He goes outside to inspect the city, I guess, and he goes to make sure that the sun rises at exactly six am. (Which by the way is frickin' earily for the sun to rise in winter.) He licks a sidewalk (to test how clean it is.) And then he "convinces." a flower to be in bloom despite it being winter. This Mayor is frickin' nutty to say the least. He then goes back inside his house to "inspect." his family before the kids go off to school. Now I know this is all suppose to be played for laughs, and Tom Kenny's voice does make it much harder to find this scene terrifying, but all I'm saying was that if you put these scenes and played them off a little different it would come off as a LOT more cultish. It kinda comes off like that one dystopian future run by Ned Flanders in the fifth Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode.

(Look at those eyes. Those are eyes of true fear.) Mr. Tinkerton inspects his kids and they they go off in there single file line off to school. The narrator tells us that the kids in this town never stepped out of line, unless it was on accident. Then as there walking they all slip on some ice, causing a massive chain reaction causeing Tommy to knock over a mailbox, which makes a car swerve into a fire hydrant. The fire hydrant burst releasing a massive flood of water that instantly freezes, causing the kids to slip more until they crash into city hall. And do you want to know what the messed up thing is? The special heavily implies that it was FROSTY who did this. Because right as Tommy is getting up after crashing into the wall of city hall, he see's the hat fly by and land on the school statue. And this special establishes that in this incarnation Frosty can use magic without being built, because the hat itself is sapient and magical in it's own right. And Frosty's consensus is held there. What the heck Frosty, what did you do all of that for? To show them about non conformity by forcing them out of there line? I mean yeah, you did that, but you also nearly killed these kids! And what about that guy driving the car? He easily could of died, and now he has to ride the bus everyday to work! Frosty is just a being of pure Chaos!

FRICKIN' REK'D SON! (Part Deuce!) Tommy goes and talks to his nerdy black best friend, Walter. (Cause you have to have a nerdy black best friend. "Danny Phantom" taught me so.) And talks about how he's going to ask out his crush, Sara, out. Walter teases Tommy, saying that he says that everyday by Tommy tells him that "There's something different about today." Tommy makes it to school where he sees the flying hat again, and tries to tell the school principal, Principal Pankley, about it. Unfortunately for Tommy the head fly's off before the principal can see it, and he yells at Tommy telling him to get to class. In the classroom we see that things are just as strict and cultish as they are outside. It seems that Principal Pankley is just as strict and uptight as Tommy's dad is, only he's a lot meaner about it. He also seems to stalk the classrooms watching the students just to make sure that the students are acting in line. Shouldn't he have like, paperwork to do, or something? Tommy once again see's the Frosty hat, this time outside the school window. But since hes in class there isn't much he can do about it. The school day ends Tommy tries to talk to his crush, Sara, but he strikes out. We then cut to Tommy's house at dinner time where Tommy and his brother compete in an...table etiquette themed game show? WTF! (Which, by the way, stands for "What the Frosty." in this context.")

So yeah, just in case we haven't drove home the point that Mr. Tinkerton is a frickin' maniac, this scene is here to reiterate that this guy likes rules. Tommy's brother Charlie dominates the game and Mr. Tinkerton ends up giving him a number one pin for winning. While this scene is...dumb, it does sort of serve a point. Shocking, I know, but hear me out. This scene shows, in a kinda subtle way, that Mr. Tinkerton as a lot more in common with Charles than he does with Tommy, showing a bit of a parental favoritism. I wish the special dove more into this, but sadly it does not. After dinner, Tommy is seen looking out the window and the hat appears to him one more time. This time Frosty shows off one of his many new superpowers. This version of Frosty can create an astral projection of himself, cause why the heck not, am I right? I mean if Elsa can use her ice powers to somehow make herself a dress in "Frozen" then I don't see why Frosty can't use his ice powers to make an astral projection of himself. Tommy see's the astral snowman beckoning to him, but Tommy tells Frosty that he can't go outside because he's scared of getting in trouble and disappointing his father. This is very different from the most realistic response of "OH MY GOD! THAT FLYING HAT CREATED AN ASTRAL IMAGE OF A SNOWMAN OUTSIDE MY WINDOW! WHAT THE ACTUAL F#&K!" But I guess somethings never change with these specials. (I swear I think the traffic cop is the only one who ANY of the Frosty specials to actually react to Frosty!)

So the hats like "Ugh, whatever, screw this kid." and flies off to find a kid who's more willing to be a main character! So Frosty's hat flies over to Tommy's best friend Walter's house instead. We see a bit into Walter's home life. We see that Walter is a very nervous child with a very loud and demanding mother, who Walter is kind of afraid of. Walter see's Frosty's hat tap on his window and...wait, what the heck is wrong with that map behind Walter?

(So is that weird land mass in the lower right hand corner suppose to be Australia? Or is this confirming that this special actual exist after some kind of nuclear Armageddon ravages the land and ends up reshaping the continents #CARTOONCONSPIRACY) Anyway Walter opens the window and grabs on the hat, only for the hat to fly off with Walter holding on to the hat. Taking Walter flying over the city. Tommy see's this and opens the window asking where Walter is going. Walter response that he doesn't know. Tommy then proceeds to do nothing to help his friend and is nowhere to be seen for the rest of the scene. Man between Tommy and Holly I think there might just be a tradition of the main character of Frosty specials to be massive jerks to there friends. So after Frosty kidnaps this child he then proceeds to bring him to the middle of the forest. #happyholidays. Walter admits that the flight across the city was fun a proceeds to put the hat on a snowman, thus reviving Frosty the Snowman, this time played by Bill Fagerbakke. In case you don't know Bill Fagerbakke is the voice actor of Patrick Star in "Spongebob Squarepants" and his voice really works for Frosty in this special (Though it can get a bit grating when he yells, though luckily that's not that big of a problem here because Frosty actually whispers a lot of his lines in this special.) As typical at this point Walter only seems slightly surprised to see a talking snowman. Though to be fair he did just fly across the city riding a hat, so by comparison I guess this isn't really that out of the ordinary. So Frosty shows Walter about all the fun one can have in the snow when there not to concerned about rules and safety and the like. They have a snowball fight, the race down a hill, Frosty makes it snow (Showing off more of his reality warping Godlike powers.) And then Frosty walks Walter home. Walter talks about how he's scared to go inside, because he's scared of how his mother is going to react. Frosty ask why Walter would be scared of his own Mom, and asks if Walter's mom is some kind of hairy monster or something. Walter tells Frosty that his mom is just a normal lady and Frosty wonders why Walter would be scared of a normal lady. This gives Walter the bravery to go inside his house. This is what I really like about this iteration of Frosty. He manages to combine both the dim witted nature of the original Rankin-Bass Frosty with the wisdom and insight of the "Frosty Returns" version of Frosty. He comes off as an idiot, but he actual ends up having some sage advice for the kids, weather on accident or on purpose. In fact, do you want to know what this version of Frosty the Snowman reminds me of? A better version of "Uncle Grandpa." Think about it for a second. He's a magical entity who shows up out of nowhere who only interacts with kids, and takes them on adventures where they learn about themselves while also acting kind of like an idiot. It's a pretty apt comparison! I remember at one point the creator of Uncle Grandpa said this during an interview with the website Cartoon Brew about the character of Uncle Grandpa.

He talks about how at the end of the day you don't know if Uncle Grandpa is an idiot or if it's all really planned. The thing is though, is that when you watch "Uncle Grandpa" it's made pretty frickin' clear that he's an idiot. We see him when he's not with kids and he acts like an idiot there to. However, I feel like this version of Frosty fits this description better. It is kept vague. There is a bit of mystery around Frosty, and how much he knows. You really don't know if his advice comes from genuine wisdom, or ignorance or both, and that's what I really like about this version of him. So Walter walks inside and when his mother asks him where he was, he just says that he was "out having fun." and walks off. This disobedience causes his mother to faint. The next day Walter goes to school and, because he stayed out after curfew, is considered "the bad boy." of the school and everybody takes noticed. Including Principal Pankley and Tommy's dad. And because Walter stayed up past curfew, Principal Pankley decides to give him detention, which is...way beyond his jurisdiction. A principal can't punish a student for something they did after school. Also why is Tommy's dad here? He's the mayor! While he may have some kind of ability to punish Walter for breaking curfew he has no power to punish him in the school. Evergreen seems to be pretty much a dictatorship where the mayor and the principal have the power to do whatever the heck they want. During lunch Charlie ends up threatening Walter, warning him that if he keeps up this delinquency he'll be sorry. Unfortunately Charlie pounds the table, knocking Walter's food off it, and the food lands all over the principal and Charlie ends up getting detention too. Mr. Tinkerton ends up removing Charlies number one pin. Mr. Tinkerton and Principal Pankley ask Walter where he was the following night and Walter tells them that he was hanging out with a talking snowman. Mr. Tinkerton has a weird reaction to this, but Principal Pankley just says that that's nonsense. While all of this is going on, Tommy tries to stalk er, I mean "follow" Sara into the forest so he can tell her how he feels about her. But unfortunately for Tommy, he chickens out yet again. We see that Sara is building a model city out of snow in the forest because she dreams of being an urban planner. But her mom does not want her to become an urban planner, because even urban development is to much fun for the people of this town. But then, for like the ten billionth time in this special so far, Tommy see's Frosty's hat. Only this time he actually decides to chase the hat down. The hat ends up flying into the local library. Tommy runs around trying to find the hat only to trip on a secret lose panel in the library, leading to some kind of secret passage way. Okay, now here is when things get a bit confusing. Even though we just saw the hat fly into the library we immediately see a fully formed Frosty outside the school window. (Which by the way how is he fully formed. Who built him the body this time? Did the hat just fly all the way back to where he left his body before showing up?) Charlie and Walter see him and leave detention through BECAUSE THERE'S NO TEACHER WATCHING THEM! (like I know they locked the door, but they where still able to leave the room through some off screen other door I guess!) and they go outside to go see Frosty. They goof around and Charlie begins to warm up to Frosty. Then we cut right back to Tommy, meaning either this special is telling events out of order or that the scene with Walter and Charlie took place in exactly zero seconds. He's still at the top of the stairs that he started descending in the last scene! He goes down the stares through the secret tunnel in the library where we see Frosty's hat again! This leaves only three options, either A.) The scene with Walter and Charlie takes place after this scene, and the specials telling these events out of order. (Which the special gives no other hints of.) B.) Frosty entered the library (in hat form.) Then left the library and met up with Charles and Walter (in snowman form) and then came back to the library (in hat form again.) all in the span of time it would take Tommy to walk down the steps. Which would be like a couple minutes at MOST! Or C.) THERE ARE TWO FROSTY'S #CARTOONCONSPIRACYAGAIN! Anyway Tommy ends up finding a comic book in this library. This comic book happens to be a comic book ABOUT Frosty the Snowman, telling of his origins! (D-Don't ask why. Just roll with it.) We learn of the story of a small little boy who is the son of a magician (a magician who you may recognize if you've seen the original Frosty the Snowman, though they change his name.) This kid grew up never believing in magic since, being the son of a magician, knew how all the tricks where done. This was until he ended up putting his father's hat onto a snowman, and the snowman came to life. But after his first meeting with the snowman was unable to find Frosty ever again, and assumed he made it up. It's a cute re-imaging of the origin story all things considered. Though in some ways it does seems like a bit of a self insert fanfiction, replacing Karen with this new kid. But whatever, it's neat. But then Mr. Tinkerton enters the library and the librarian informs him that his son is here. Tommy quickly runs out of the secret basement and meeting up with his father. Mr. Tinkerton tells Tommy that he needs to rely on Tommy to help him keep order, and tell him if any more mischief comes up. He also tells Tommy that all of his rules are there to make sure that people don't have any unrealistic expectations when it comes to things like magic. Mr. Tinkerton gives Tommy the number one pin and gives him a hug. It's a nice scene that puts Tommy in the situation where he has to pick between his father's acceptance and what is actually the right thing to do. (Also I think the voice acting really sells it. This special might not be that "good" but it does have some great voice talent.) That following night we see Sara, working on her piano scales, which she does not seem to find much enjoyment in. She tells her mother this, but she does not seem to care. That, or course, is when Frosty shows up. Sara mentions that nobody seems to listen to her and Frosty says it might be because she's talking to loudly. Because to paraphrase Frosty "The quieter you talk, the more attention you have to pay just to hear what your saying." See, this is what I like about this version of Frosty. He has this air of wisdom to him. It's a good lesson, as the loudest people aren't necessarily the ones who you should be listening to. Sara says she wants to learn how to ice skate and Frosty obliges. He demonstrates more of his Godlike powers my making THE FRICKIN' MOON SHINE ON THEM, MAKING IT THERE OWN PERSONAL SPOTLIGHT! (Why can Frosty control the moon? This goes way beyond the power of ice and snow. Also Frosty vs Elsa "Death Battle" please.)

(Or maybe Frosty is just trying to activate his Oozaru Form.) The next day at school it seems that all of Tommy's friends have turned against him because, now that he has Mayor Tinkertons number one pin, they believe him to be the enemy. Tommy mentions that Frosty's powers steam from his hat and walks off, unsure if he should chose his friends or his father to follow (even though his friends are kinda being jerks here, in all honesty.) That night Tommy walks into his family room to see his mother scrap booking when he see's a photo of the boy from the comic book. It turns out that the boy from the comic book, the one who originally created Frosty was none other than...Tommy's father.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvcoly2i-3M

(Except, y'know, it was pretty dang obvious.) The next morning Mr. Tinkerton goes outside to do his inspection and nobody is listening to him. The sun refuses to rise at 6 am (rising at 6:01 instead. Which I think is less a sign of disobedience and more just a sign of the season changing.) and nobody is following the rules. Even the adults, for some reason. Even though later we see that the adults are just as upset about the disobedience as Mr. Tinkerton is.

(Here's something my older brother pointed out. This special is basically "Footloose with Frosty." It's Frostloose!) Anyway this mild chaos makes Mr. Tinkerton spiral even further into his madness. Principal Pankley goes up to him and tells Mr. Tinkerton that he does not have what it takes to quell this rebellion, and so Principal Pankley decides to take matters into his own hands. Pankley ends up seeing Frosty while he was spying on the kids playing in the woods. (Which sounds a lot more eff'd up now that I right that sentence down.) and decides to take action. You see throughout the special Walter has been getting progressively more and more jealous of the other kids for stealing his time with Frosty, to the point to where he kinda becomes that clingy girlfriend type who always wants you to themselves. Principal Pankley see's this and tell's Walter that if he wants to have some time with Frosty all by himself he should go after dark when there less people around, and Principal Pankley agrees to chaperone the excursion since it's set after curfew. Walter ends up agreeing to the arrangement, even though this entire special has made it really clear that Principal Pankley is even more of a rule freak than Mr. Tinkerton is, and has made it pretty clear that he would never do something this nice to anybody ever. Then, in case things weren't out there enough Principal Pankley decides to basically just, declare himself mayor of the town, in order to more efficiently take down the menace of Frosty the Snowman. Y'know I don't think a snowman running around is really worthy of bring out this kind of marshal law. And of course everybody in the town just kinda rolls with it, because why wouldn't they.

That night Tommy is reading the comic book, trying to looks for some kind of a solution when suddenly some more pages of the story are magically reveled to him. The books shows that the reason that Frosty never returned to Mr. Tinkerton as a kid was because another, jealous child had found the hat and locked it up. And that kid happened to be Principal Pankley! And the comic also reveled that Walter was at the lake with Principal Pankley right now. Thanks magic comic book for waiting this long give give Tommy the answers he needed. If you just had all your pages from the start maybe we could of avoided this, but no, you had to wait till the very last minute give us all the information we needed, because you wanted to be dramatic! Also how come Frosty waited this long to leave the trunk that Principal Pankley locked him up in? I mean he just kinda broke out of the box at the beginning of the special. It's not like anyone let him out. Why did it take twenty years to escape? But whatever. We see that Walter is out in the middle of the woods...at night..with Principal Pankely...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgJYTeBynqA

And Walter is skating with Frosty. (Principal Pankley is hiding behind a tree so Frosty doesn't see him.) But while there skating the thin ice breaks and Frosty ends up falling into the water. What would of happened if the ice didn't break? This plan isn't very thought out at all. After Frosty melts Principal Pankley grabs the hat and leaves laughing. Later all the kids have noticed that Frosty stopped showing up, and everybody assumes that it was Tommy who got rid of him. The think this on the ground that Tommy never spent any time with him, he has Mr. Tinkerton's number one pin, and he would have the knowledge on how to destroy him because he mentioned knowing his origin earlier. Principal Pankley begins to revel in his new found power. But Tommy decides that he has stop being scared and do whats right and save Frosty! He get's Walter to confess to his accidental role in Frosty's destruction and the hatch a plan to bring him back. He shows the comic to all the other kids and gets back to there good graces and then they storm to school to retrieve Frosty's hat. (Which is just in a frickin' glass case in the middle of the school where everyone can see it. Cause that'll stop the hat that broke out of like six chained up trunks.) Principal Pankley chases the kids back to the frozen pond where they engage in a snow themed chase and snowball fight that is way less epic then the specials says it is. Everyone in town hears the commotion (because the glass case had an alarm.) and goes to the pond as well. The kids rebuild Frosty the F#&k Boi and all the adults see Frosty for themselves, including Mr. Tinkerton. He and Frosty reconnects and Tommy gives the pin back to his father. Frosty ends up hitting Walter's mother and an entire snowball fight with all the kids and adults break out as all the adults learn the error of there ways. As for Principal Pankley...

(Okay that doesn't happen, but let me have my version dang it!) And the special reveals the shock twist. That Tommy ends up growing up to become...Burt Reynolds! Er, I mean the narrator. The narrator is a grown up Tommy. I like the twist, making the narrator have more of a point then just being some random guest star. Though it is a bit weird that the narrator isn't some kind of horrid uncanny valley version of Bruce Willis. It just feels like it's breaking Frosty tradition. Oh, and we learn that Tommy ended up marring Sara, and I definitely...don't care. Oh and what happens to Frosty? Um...In don't know. They never really say what happens to him once the winter ends. Also they never really say what happens to Principal Pankley. I guess he's still the principal? And will continue to make life for the student miserable at school? I dunno, who cares? The special is over now. So that was "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman." is it any good? Well, probably not, but it has some good parts. The voice cast is pretty good, including Burt Reynolds, who has a really good voice that adds a lot of gravitas to the narrator. (Also Bert Reybnolds sings, which is probably something that you won't here in Dukes of Hazard.) The animation is okay, kinda generic looking but they kinda make up for it by having a lot of nice colors, with lots of blues and whites. Also I really like this version of Frosty. I don't know if I like him more or less than the "Frosty Returns" version of him (as Bill Fagerbakke loud and oafish sounding voice he gives Frosty can get a bit grating at times, like I said previously, but It's prety good for like 90-95 percent of the film) I still think the voice is a perfect fit for what there doing with this version of Frosty, there are just a couple of times where it sounds a bit to much like Patrick Star yelling. (By the way, I like how this special has Bill Fagerbakke still being friends with Tom Kenny.) I love the idea of Frosty being this world traveler and I think this special does a good job combing elements from both the original and the "Frosty Returns" incarnation. It's a good reboot even if it's not the best story. Unfortunately the film has a lot of problems to. Most of the kids are fairly generic. Charlie and Walter are kinda interesting but Sara and Tommy are both rather bland. Tommy has a good conflict in the story, and a good arc, but outside of that he's just a generic kid. And there love story felt very tacked on, like I think they only speak to each other a couple of times in the whole movie and they don't have any chemistry. We don't get a reason on why Tommy likes her other than "cause I'm the main character and she's the token girls so I guess we're suppose to be together! Also the story is pretty dumb and full of plot holes. They go to cartoonish lengths to show how uptight the adults are but it doesn't come off as funny. It's just another 'fight the establishment." story that we've seen many times before. Also Principal Pankley, while having some goofy and amusing moments is nowhere near as fun of a villain as Mr. Hinkle or Mr. Twitchell. Also this special is sixty six minutes long and it can be a bit of a drag by the end. They probably could of cut it down to forty four if they cut out some of the more filler-y scenes. So do I recommend this special? Well, it depends on who you are. I think you can tell by reading this review if it's something that would be up your alley or not. It's dumb, cheesy and kind of bland but there are some creative elements in it that might warrant you checking it out. It available on Netflix and on DVD if you are interested. So I hoped you liked my review. It's a bit longer than I was expecting but what are you going to do? Have you seen "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman?" and if you did what do you think of it. Tell me in the comments. I think discussion is a great way to never fall into a echo chamber so I'd love to start a discussion. Where does it rank with the other Frosty special? And what are some of your favorite Christmas specials that not that many people talk about? Do you have any ideas for things for me to review in the future? Leave all of that or any other thoughts in the comments down bellow and feel free to fav and follow if you liked the review. As you can hopefully see I put a lot of thought and time into so I would be very appreciative. I'll be back next Friday for the finale of "Deviant-cember." with the "2016 year in REVIEW!" Hopefully see you guys then and have a great holiday. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.)

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sublimegentlemanalpaca · 7 years

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(SPOILERS) BEHOLD! The Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. Those known, guessed at, and so on. Enjoy

ELDER CARETAKERS GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH: British Cleric. The first Caretaker of the Geographica. Known for The History of the Kings of Britain. His portrait is present in the Pygmalion Gallery, but is unfinished meaning he can not step through. WACE: Norman Poet. Best known for Roman de Brut and other poetic works. He has no portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery on account of being a Fiction. This set a precedent so other Fictions would not be recruited as Caretakers (Herman Melville ) or Mystorians (Sir Walter Scott). CHRETIN DE TROYES: A French Poet. Known for his works relating to Arthurian legends, and for originating the character of Lancelot. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. 28 year gap... ROGER BACON: English Philosopher and Francescian Friar. Aka Doctor Mirabilis. Best known probably for his work with Automatons among other things. Has no Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery on account of living as The Tin Man (no actual relation to the character from Oz as far as I know) so he is sort of a Cyborg I think? Died when holding off a Lloigor (A fallen Star specifically) in the ruins of Parlon so the other Companions could escape through a door from the Keep of Time. DANTE ALIGHIERI: Italian Poet. Known best for the Divine Comedy, mostly the Inferno. Was a Canidate to replace Dee as the Prime Caretaker. Had a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. Unfortunately he remained outside of Tamerlane House after the Seven day time limit and Perished while visiting the Underneath. GEOFFREY CHAUCER: English Poet. Like Dante legitimized the use of his native language’s vernacular. Best known for the Canterbury Tales. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. Holds the title of Senior Caretaker, and is in charge of hazing new members of the Caretakers Emeritus. Has some dealings with Imaginary and Fictional Islands. Gap of 15 years between their death and birth. ? SIR THOMAS MALORY : English writer. Best known for writing Le’ Morte D’Arthur. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. Is dirtier in appearance than expected. LEONARDO DAVINCI: Italian Inventor and Painter. Known for works such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. Also made a Time Traveling Treadmill that no ordinary human can use. Is said to have plagerized Roger Bacon. Is also quite pompous....was apparently chosen by Chaucer ? 8 year Gap. DOCTOR JOHN DEE: Known as the CHRONOGRAPHER OF LOST TIMES and as THE SCHOLAR: English Alchemist, Astrologer, Navigator, Hermetic Philosopher, and Advisor. Perhaps best known as an Royal Adviser to Queen Elizabeth part of her Intelligencia. Originated and took the position of Prime Caretaker. The first Caretaker to go rogue. Stole the Geographica but was unsuccessful in keeping it. Went on to found the Imperial Cartological Society (I.C.S) Under Queen Elizabeth the First. This organization was a cover for Dee’s Personal Cabal (Dee’s Cabal, or just The Cabal) which worked in service of the Ecthroi. The Cabal’s go to bring the world, the universe, and all of creation to ‘Perfect Order’. Dee’s personal goal of becoming Master of all Creation. Following Dee’s treachery, it was decided that there should be Three Caretakers to deal with such a potential problem in the future. The First Trio was as follows. TYCHO BRAHE: Danish Astronomer, Alchemist, and part time Duelist. Known for his Astronomical observations, and false nose. Caveo Principia alongside De Cervantes and Spenser. Mentored Johannes Kepler. Has a Painting in the Pygmalion Gallery. Is not on good terms with Don Quixote Is known to steal things and hide them in the boat house near Tamerlane House. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES: Spanish writer. Best known for writing Don Quixote. Caveo Secundus. Went on a quest with Quixote, and his fellow Caretakers Brahe and Spenser to retrieve the Stolen Geographica. Succeeded. Is on good terms with the Knight. Has a painting in The Pygmalion Gallery. EDMUND SPENSER: English Writer. Best known for the Faerie Queen. Participated in the quest to retrieve the Stolen Geographica. Caveo Tertius (perhaps switch him with Brahe?). On good terms with Quixote. The Trio follow them included: JOHANNES KEPLER: German Mathematician, Astronomer, and Astrologer. Best known for his laws of a Planetary Motion. Caveo Principia alongside Shakespeare and Marlowe. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Do I need to introduce him? Alright. English Playwright, Poet, and Actor (?). Best known for his plays, Sonnets and Poems...really good. Caveo Secundus. Has pretended to be dumber than he is to avoid the pressure of living up to people’s expectations of him (Poor Will). Part of this act was always suggesting someone should be Flogged. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. Planned and Built Shakespeare’s Bridge as a new way of Crossing the Frontier. Also built a Zigurat to travel back into Deep Time. Ended inspiring the construction of a lot of Pyramids. CHRISTOPHER (Kit) MARLOWE: A contemporary of Shakespeare’s. Best known for Doctor Faustus, and also known for the problematic Jew of Malta. Defected to the ICS. His last known location was trapped on some Fictional Island ( which is different than an imaginary one, according to Chaucer). Made a Tulpa .No Portrait. Following those three. CYRANO DE BERGERAC: French novelist, playwright, and duelist. Most well known for a play about him. Caveo Principia.Defected to the ICS. Stuck on either a Commet, or the Moon. JOHN MILTON: English writer, best known for Paradise Lost. Caveo Secundus. Defected to ICS. Last seen somewhere in the Underworld. Unsure and Unkown (UaU). Probably CHARLES COYPEAU d’ASSOUCY? A French Musician and Burlesque Poet . From what I found he was a Contemporary of DeBergeracs (one writer claiming they were lovers) but became bitter rivals later on. Whatever the case, d’Assoucy as Caveo Tertius, Failed in his Duties as a Caretaker and his Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery is turned over. After them. Three unkowns. Possibly CHARLES PERAULT: French writer and compiler of French Fairytales such as Beauty and the Beast. Caveo Principia. Ultimately Failed in his Duties as a Caretaker, leaving his portrait to be turned over. JOHN DRYDEN: English Playwright during the Restoration. England’s first Poet Laurette. Caveo Secundus. Failed in his duties as a Caretaker. OLE CHRISTENSEN RØMER: Danish Atronomer. First Quantitative measurements of the Speed of Lightz Caveo Tertius. Ultimately failed in his Duties. As such his portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery is turned over. Next DANIEL DEFOE: English writer, best known for Robinson Crusoe( I’m pretty sure). Caveo Principia. Actually a Spy for the ICS, and Dee’s Cabal. Was a Tulpa, killed by Smaranth, then brought back as a Painting. Retrieved by the Cabal so he might reveal the location of the lost Prince Coal. Is away from Tamerlane House Past the limit of Seven Days and Perishes on Easter Island. JOHNATHAN SWIFT: English writer, best known for Guliver’s Travels. Caveo Secundus. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. UaU. Possibly CARLO GOLDINI? Italian Playwright. Caveo Tertius Failed in his Duties as a Caretaker . You know the drill. Following Defore and Swift JOHAN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE: German Writer, Philosopher, and Statesman. Perhaps best known for his version of Faust, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and other works. Caveo Principia. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. UaU possibly, Pierre Beaumarchais: French Polymath. Notably Playwright, watchmaker, and arms dealer. Best known for writing the play the Barber of Seville and it’s sequels. Caveo Secundus. My headcanon is he tried to sell his own reproductions of the Anabias( spelling?) Machines. Ultimately failed as a Caretaker, and has his Portrait turned over. UaU. Possibly Antonio Salieri the Venetian Composer, or possibly Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...take your pick. Following under Von Goethe. WILLIAM BLAKE: English Poet and Painter. Caveo Principia. Began the Portraits for the Pygmalion Gallery before Basil Hallward. The ‘Second Greatest Betrayer of the Caretakers ‘. Thought to have defected to the ICS and died in a river of gold. Then thought to be working for Dee’s Cabal. In actuality, Blake has six (formerly seven ) Tulpas of himself. Is loyal to Verne and is in fact the leader of the Mystorians. As such, he may be addressed as Doctor Blake. WILLIAM COLERIDGE: English Poet , best known for Kublai Khan. Defected to the ICS. Last seen in the ruins of Xanadu past the End of the world at Terminus. Offered a chance to leave by Stellan Sigurdsson. He declines, thinking if he stays the ruins will eventually return to their Former glory. WASHINGTON IRVING: American Writer. Perhaps best known the Sleepy Hollow. Caveo Tertius, eventually Caveo Principia after Blake and Coleridge defect. JAKOB GRIMM: Along with his brother Wilhelm, Jakob compiled around 200 or more German Fairytales. He and his brother also produced the first Dictionary. Was an eventual replacement for William Blake, taking on the role of Caveo Secundus. Lived long enough to help train Hans Christian Andersen (Seriously Jakob lived a freaking long time). Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. Has likely had plenty of experience with situations found in the Tales he and his brother collected. Forced to act as a spy for the Shadow King to keep his brother alive, with the skin on his back ( showing a map to the Nameless Isles) ripped from his back. Dead? FRANZ SCHUBERT: Austrian Composer. Perhaps best known for The Unfinished Symphony. Among other works( not really familiar with Schubert). Replacement for Coleridge, taking the position of Caveo Tertius. The second most Supernaturally inclined of the Caretakers (second only to Poe). Knows quite a bit about the Echthroi. May be able to banish demons and similar entities through his music. Next we have Hearts on Fire, or the Romantic Trio. MARY WALLSTONECRAFT ( latter Shelley): English writer, best known for Frankenstein. Caveo Principia. Had wonderful adventures with Percey and George. Saved George Gordon’s Portrait from being completely Burned. PERCEY SHELLEY: English Poet. Best known for Ozymandius? Caveo Secundus. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. Tried to burn George Gordon’s Portrait. George Gordon/Lord Byron: English Poet, writter, and Nobleman. Best known for Don Juan, and laying out the Byronic Hero. Defected to the ICS, but did not have a Tulpa. His portrait was almost Burned away. Following a reconciliation between the Caretakers and the remaining members of the ICS, Byron had been put on Probation, with other to follow no doubt. Is the butt of just about everyone’s jokes. EDGAR ALLAN POE.: American Writer and Poet. Best known for his poems and Horror short stories. Not as well known for his Humor based short stories. Following George Gordon’s treachery, Poe immediately stepped in to take on the Role of acting Caveo Tertius. Has no Portrait in The Pygmalion Gallery as he is still alive and it’s his house. Poe is the Enigmatic Master of Tamerlane House( which is one of the best places ever) having his own room. Likely let the Caretakers have use of it prior to taking on the Identity of Poe. Poe is revealed later on to have been the Wizard Prospero, and long before then he was (is) the Biblical Cain. The First Murderer. Poe is also noted to be the Arch Imago of the Archipelago.( which I still have some difficulty understanding). Later when he is outed he thinks on taking the Name Cronus. I still refer to him as Poe for simplicity’s sake, and because I find it to be cooler for one reason or another. One other note regarding Poe is that it’s Stated that he is the Leader of The Caretakers Emerti (The Reclusive Leader of the Caretakers Emeriti DoW page 29) Following Hearts on Fire and Poe ALEXANDRE DUMAS PERE: French Writer. Best known for the Three Musketeers series, Count of Monte Cristo and other Works. Caveo Principia with Hawthorne and Andersen. Baker for Tamerlane House. Mentored his Son Alexandre Dumas Fils NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: American Writer, perhaps best known for the Scarlet Letter and Rapicini’s Daughter (who it turns out is a Mesenger). Caveo Secundus. Head of Security at Tamerlane House. One of the most Badass among the Caretakers. Expert and Hand to Hand Combat. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN: Danish Writer, best known for his Art Fairytales such as the Little Mermaid or the Ugly Duckling. Caveo Tertius. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery Following Dumas, Hawthorne, and Andersen. CHARLES DICKENS: English Writer, best known for his novels such as Oliver Twist or the Christmas Carol. Caveo Principia alongside Dumas fills and Twain. Trained Magwich, Richard Francis Burton (the eventual face of the ICS) and eventually trained Jules Verne. ALEXANDRE DUMAS fils: French Writer and Playwright. Defected to the ICS. Believed to be dead. MARK TWAIN (-aka SAMUEL CLEMENS). American Writer, best known for the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Caveo Tertius. Has had experience with Time Travel. A friend to Mesenger Hank Morgan. A friend in life to Cabal member Nikola Tesla. Father to Joe Clemens (aka Injuin Joe or Harry Billy)? Has probably been to the Underneath? Knows how and when to fire a pistol ( to defend a lady’s honor, or to silence a bunch of braying Jack Asses). Then we have Travel Buddies. JULES VERNE: The Frenchman, The Prime Caretaker. French Writer known for his Sci Fi and Adventure Stories. Took on the role of Prime Caretaker. Was thought to be a Tulpa but in fact has been alive. Raises Goats as a hobby. Keeps his own skull from another timeline on his desk. Gives up his soul to serve as the Load bearing stone of the Keep of Time. PROFESSOR STELLAN SIGURDSSON: A Norwegian or Icelandic man who in his earlier days was quite the adventurer. In his later years he became a Professional Philogist and Linguist. Might be the model for some of Verne’s Adventurers. Taught Jamie and later John. Was a personal friend of the Goblin King (who’s name escapes me). His primary death is what brings John Jack and Charles together. Later on he helps lead an Expedition with Don Quixote, The Grail Child Rose Dyson, the Badger Uncas, and the Clockwork Owl Archimedes passed the edge of the world at Terminus to find Madoc and repair the Sword of Aneas. Unfortunately he is a painting. The journey takes more than a Seven Days and perishes on the way back. He perished standing up with the help of Quixote, who told him he (Stellan) would have a place in a hall of Heroes. He was also able to finish a book John recently published at the time. H.G. “Bert” Wells: The Far Traveler. British Writer. Best known for his various Science fiction works. Caveo Tertius. An Anomoly as he is an H.G. Wells that time traveled while the other H.G.Wells (Herb) is just being H.G.Wells (and a Mystorian). Came from the future with his daughter Aven who’d eventually become captain of the Indigo Dragon. Accompanied Stellan on many Adventures, and was also a friend of the Goblin King. Joined Rose Dyson, Laura Glue( I’m pretty sure? Correct me if I’m wrong) Charles Williams, Edmond McGee, Archimedes, Fred (I think? )and Richard Francis Burton on a quest to find The lost prince Coal. He eventually died when Prime H.G. Wells’ Prime Time ends. Herb moves on, While Bert gets a Painting in the Pygmalion Gallery. Thanks to some shenanigans on Verne’s part, they are also able to get a Painting of Verne’s wife Weena. Resigned and defected. J.M. ‘Jammie’ Barie. English writer and Playwright best known for Peter Pan. Caveo Principia. The first and so far only Caretaker to resign from the position. That said he did not join the ICS, Cabal, or any other opposing organization. Was friends with Peter Pan until they had a falling out. He has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery along with other allies such as Oscar Wilde. HARRY HOUDINI (Erich Weiss): Austro-Hungarian Born American Magician and Stunt performer. The Magician. Caveo Secundus, defected to the ICS and was chased around the world by Samaranth when he tried to reveal the Archipelago of Dreams with Arthur Connan Doyle. Knows some actual magic and is quite proficient in it. SIR ARTHUR CONNAN DOYLE: The Detective. Caveo Tertius. Defected to the ICS See Houdini...later with Houdini and Burton they join forces with the Caretakers. He and Houdini also become apprentice Goat herds. Helping with Verne’s goats. The Caretakers of Prophecy J.R.R. Tolkien: John, Ron, Tollers. The Prime Caretaker. English writer, best known for...I don’t think he needs much of an introduction. Caveo Principia. Eventually takes over the role of Prime Caretaker from Verne. Expert in Languages, and some combat. He eventually ascends and becomes a freakin Dragon along with his wife Edith. C.S. “Jack” Lewis: English Writer, best known for the Chronicles of Narnia. Caveo Secundus. Has a Portrait in the Pygmalion Gallery eventually. Has had dealings with Giants at some point probably. Charles Williams: The Third. British Writer best kno...known for.....uh.... known for Burning down the Keep of Time. He also has written some rather good books including All Hallows’ Eve and War in Heaven. Caveo Tertius. Friend to all animals (especially Badgers), and a Master of Stealth. Also has a fair understanding of other dimensions. An alternate timeline version of him is responsible for burning the Library of Alexandria. He had made a Tulpa, and as such is still able to do feild work for the Caretakers. After John Jack and Charles. FRED THE BADGER (last name)? Grandson of Tummuler, son of Uncas, and Aprentice to Charles Williams. Once a member of the Royal Animal Rescue Squad. Is really supposed to be Caveo Principia but once he had two other Caretakers with him, he decided to take the role of Caveo Tertius like Charles. MADELINE Le’ENGLE: American Writer, best known for the Wrinkle in Time series. The Chronos and Kairos books and others. Caveo Secundus Apprenticed by Jack. Ray Bradbury: American Writer. Best known for his various Science fiction and dystopian works. Apprenticed Under John Present Caretakers? JAMES A. OWEN: American Writer and Ilustrator. Best known for the Star child Comic series, and the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica book series. Caveo Principia. UaU. Possibly Robin Hobb, Robin McKinley, or Susan Cooper. I’m not sure which...Also, Ursula K LeGuin. Or Robert Holdstock as others have suggested. Just remembered Cinda Williams Chima, and Cornelia Funke. They all seem like they’d work really well. I can’t determine who. Leaning towards Chima and Funke. UaU. Would think maybe Pratchett but I think in this context he’d be a Fiction. That said.”, NEIL GAIMAN: English Writer. Best known for his Fantasy books like Stardust, American Gods, his comic Sandman, and his book Coraline. And done. Make corrections if you like. But there it is. Nearly two months, and just now nearly three hours. It is done! Done to the best of my ability...but done all the same! Make of it what you will. The format isn’t staying how I type it. The Spaces aren’t showing up. Damn. Well that’s for tomorrow. Now for bed.

#Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica #Caretakers Emeritus #it’s done! It’s God damned 1:00!am

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geek-gem · 7 years

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Man Of Steel Review

Why yes I'm making a review. I'm gonna keep this professional and have been thinking of also copying this to DeviantArt. So if your reading this on DeviantArt so yeah man. But yeah I've decided to watch this film now. It's been years since I've seen it fully. Back in 2013 in theaters. Yeah I'm gonna do an intro a bit explaining what's going on. Also I've been wanting to make more detailed and professional reviews for some time. I'm just saying I really focused on this film a bit along with that I was pacing back and forth when the credits were rolling trying to gather my thoughts. Now I'll say this. For some time I've been rethinking and I honestly like Zack Snyder who's the director of this film. Including the upcoming Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice which I'll watch soon. Also in November Justice League but cause of events of why he was replaced. To be honest and I won't get into that part of why he left. Yet it saddened me quite a bit. Including that week was really depressing. It made me rethink a bit about how I felt about his DC films. I was fine with Man Of Steel and think it could improve upon. While BVS I had troubles with. So with the extended cut now available. Really I've been rethinking. Including stupid silly shit like to be perfectly honest I feel like a younger Zack Snyder. Also the fact I've even considered him just imagine him making a Sonic movie, or Godzilla film, even Transformers but I feel I don't wanna mention that stupid movie franchise. Because compared to Michael Bay. I feel with Zack Snyder the man has ideas, he wants to tell a good story, he tries. But at times the way they are presented aren't the best. Including I like his style of film making. But I agree he's more of a visual director then a story teller. Also I've been a bit off set about Disney and Marvel Studios with their MCU. Nothing against them they've made good and great films. Yet I feel with DC they are going with a direction I like and also some risks. Yes some Marvel films are dark with some stuff I'm not saying it's all jokes. But just I like what the DCEU or DC cinematic universe for trying to be different. Also I've been taking a liking to DC quite a bit. Along with the silly fact I'm angry being like fuck you Disney for cancelling Wander Over Yonder. Seriously great show deserves more seasons, fine Save WOY shit. But yeah I'm sorry if this has been long. Yet I've been wanting to give these films a retry. Are they as good or whatever when I'm thinking about them. Let's find out. Man Of Steel. To be honest I'm gonna say I liked it. In a way maybe I like it a lot man. Including such as the themes that the film focuses on in parts about the idea of choice, and becoming what you want to be, and what you can greater be. I'm gonna spoil stuff in this. Be warned because I'm gonna spoil some major parts of the story. Including about critics. Mainly throughout the maybe first two half's of the film. With the focus on the themes of wanting to be something greater, becoming your own person, making your own choices. Along with well striving to be better and this being the focus of Clark Kent Kal-El aka Superman. The last half I did like. Yet honestly the themes are still there. Including with Zod mentioning of how he is. Yet it kind of becomes a different thing. But it's still enjoyable. In fact as the movie goes on. It's a bit slow, and I was really trying to focus. But yeah slow at the start but as the movie goes on it becomes better and more entertaining. Honestly their are some nice sweet moments I liked before well it got a bit more intense. Even between some parts. What I mean is moments where it's Clark with his family. During certain parts such as with his mother. Which I find to be some nice parts that bring up emotion a bit. They are just these quiet moments I like. I'll talk about some of the characters. Such as Henry Cavill as Clark Kent Kal-El aka Superman. While being a bit more serious. I honestly like him. Despite not being able to work with a whole lot. He does give a good performance. Along with the story about him trying to find out who he really is and him being an outcast. The way he's reacting I feel is reasonable. Including asking questions. Also the fact like people have said when talking about this film when defending it. It's a less experienced Superman. We watch him go on this journey of self discovering and him trying to help save the planet. Including I honestly seem to like the scene with him going to the church for advice. Really I like this version. Also seriously I like Superman I'm not the biggest fan. But I feel this Superman is one I think we can go along with. Including the idea and this may have been done before about him feeling like an outcast and wanting to feel like where he belongs. Along with doing the right thing. I feel Henry Cavill can be a great Superman. If you give him more material. Really I see potential. For this it was just the start. I like what I saw. Now for Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I felt she did a good job. Including just I'm not the biggest fan of Lois Lane. Really what she worked with again I think she does a good job. Along with some moments like people have mentioned she's tired of people's shit. The girl can take care of herself. But now about her chemistry with Henry Cavill. Really I don't mind them. Including at times I feel they can work well with each other. But again like I said with Henry Cavill, they don't work with much more. I feel they could of done better. But I feel their relationship was okay. But I feel it could be better. So okay I wanna talk about Michael Shannon as General Zod. Now being honest I like the kind of villains where do you understand their reasons. Yet also the ones where they think they are the heroes. Well with Zod's case being breed to be a leader and save his planet. Really I feel he shines throughout the movie. Along with his lines what he says Michael Shannon does a good job with what he's given. I'm guessing he's maybe my most favorite of all the actors in this movie. I'm not saying the others are bad. I feel Zod really shines. Including how far he's able to go to get his goals. Theirs the other ones. Theirs Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Kevin Costner as Johnathan Kent, Lawrence Fishbourne as Perry White, and Russell Crowe as Jor-El. Not gonna name the other ones I remember one name best Christopher Meloni. The other ones are difficult. Also the woman who plays Faoroa sorry Superman fans if I got that wrong. They are do such a great job. Really everyone in their roles did a good job. Along with what they worked with. Some stood out and really I liked them all. They contribute to the story and work well. Didn't mind any of them. Now I'm gonna talk about the action. Honestly the action is really kick ass. The way it's portrayed just how all the Kryptonian's are fighting. It's really awesome. Including it kind of feels rough. Just watching it. Including as the movie goes on. Yet I'm gonna mention this. People have mentioned this too, the camera zoom ups. I don't know if they wanted zoom up for detail. Because I'm thinking maybe that's why. Zooming up to see details up close and at certain times I'm okay with it. Yet at times I'm bothered a bit by it thinking if it was nessacry. Because it just bothersome. It's just that one thing at times that bothered me as the film went on. At times I was okay with, other times I felt like I didn't like it cause it's well bothersome. Now the score. Even during the credit the score by Hans Zimmer is fantastic. It goes with each part. Including it's powerful. Along with during some scenes even the last half of the movie mainly the terraforming part. I started to feel a bit emotional. Some shit like my eyes felt watery a bit. I was really trying to get very invested. Because just really the score does a good job capturing the scenes of what they are. They go really good. It just it sucks Hans Zimmer after Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice heard that he's done making music for comic book films. Because he does a damn good job. Now about well I wanna mention this. The tone and really I'm fine with being a bit more serious. About how would humanity react to a being like Superman. It does work, yet I'm gonna warn you. Throughout a lot of the film it's very serious. Or mainly serious but not that tense. Basically your waiting for a certain moment to come up. I don't mind it. Yet I don't feel like just I like that they are being different from Marvel. Also I freakin loved Wonder Woman that film was amazing it kicked ass. But at times during Man Of Steel you just wanna hope this is my opinion I guess hope something happens. Yet it moments like I said the sweet moments with Clark's family I like. Because it kind of takes a break from the serious story and well takes a break. Also some silly moments or not much. But as the movie gets going it gets more exciting. Such as the fight scenes. I don't mind it. Maybe it's just me I hoped for some more stuff happening. Also I really wanna talk about the ending. Not the exact ending but the part where people were surprised by what happened. The part where Superman kills Zod. Including yeah the Metropolis fight. Again the less experienced Superman and he tried. Also he saved the world. Really it's all cool working and kick ass and was invested in a bit. Mainly of being invested of how the fight was going and how it was showcasing both characters including the talking. But Superman killing Zod. I'm gonna say this I don't mind it. Even from what I heard Christopher Nolan during the making of this film said to Zack to not kill Zod yet Zack decided to do this anyway. But I'm gonna say this I like this risk. Yet how it's portrayed is why I'm okay with it. Including with DC wanting to be different from Marvel and this is quite a risk. The idea of Superman having to do this. Because it gives the idea that not everything can be solved so easily. Such as Jonathan Kent talking about maybe letting the bus full of kids drown but Clark's saves them cause he thinks it's the right thing. It's difficult to find the answer. Including when your son is basically a God like being with these powers. With the idea of Superman killing Zod is something I'm okay with. Because if handled right. Including with the destruction of Metropolis you can have some great character development. The idea they Superman is haunted by this. That he basically killed last of his mind. Also like what Angry Joe said during his review with Nostalgia Critic, Zod basically won. By basically making Superman do something he never wanted to do. Including to set up this concept that people have said your actions have consequences. Something we can learn from and hope we can make a better tomorrow or some shit. I'm fine with the choice. Yet here's why I'm bothered by..........the next scene. I was hoping their would be maybe some time to adjust to it, but no littertly a couple of seconds after that scene. It's legit just Superman acting like nothing happened. It's the scene where he takes down a drone and the funny moment yet I agree with the girl who's a captain says he's hot. Along with Superman telling the general he doesn't wanna be found. The way it's portrayed. I'm bothered by this cause it's a legit few seconds. Really I feel if they had more time and this idea may sound like bullshit even a deleted scene but that doesn't exist. Where it shows Superman actually dealing with the aftermath of what he's just done. Including the destruction of Metropolis. With him then trying to get through it and even some scenes of him helping to restore Metropolis. Yet that might miss up a bit what happens in the next film. But it's an idea I got from a YouTube comment. Also showcasing I'm gonna help the best I can despite everything that happened. Just the way it appears all of a sudden. I honestly like the scene and okay with it. But I feel it's wasted of the aftermath. It's mainly the other thing I have a problem with. Well I feel like their isn't much to say. Also gonna use tags man. Well got that done put Superman twice ha sorry. Yet yeah I'm gonna use the stars rating. I'm gonna rate this movie 4 stars. I liked the movie. Honestly I feel it's a nice start to this DCEU and I feel Warner Bros should of really had that in mind instead of what I heard a trilogy. They should of had a plan for this to be in a DCEU. But I'm glad they are at least sticking with it man. The film gets more exciting as it goes on, everyone does a good job, and it has moments that shine, great action, a great score. Yet it I feel it could of been a bit better. Including with the writing. Did I give oh yeah ha I did four stars man. I'm thinking of watching it well Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice the ultimate edition on Blu Ray like I watched this on Blu Ray on my PS4. Also during the first half of the movie two updates like Lego Marvel's Avengers finished downloading yes bought that game, and Outlast 2 updates. So hoped to enjoy the review.

#superman #dc #dceu #man of steel #batman v superman

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disappearingground · 5 years

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Q&A: Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice

SPIN July 16, 2010

The Rilo Kiley singer and her Scot troubadour boyfriend, aka Jenny & Johnny, discuss their upcoming album.

By William Goodman

Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis and Scottish singer-songwriter Johnathan Rice, a couple for five years, know how to have a good time: They go on shopping sprees at estate sales, watch Jacques Cousteau films, and take long drives up the California coast in their vintage station wagons. It’s only fitting, then, that their debut album as Jenny & Johnny is called I’m Having Fun Now (out August 31).

Like its name implies, the record is a tasty pop confection: The first single, “Scissor Runner,” is a breezy power-pop duet about catching a red-eye flight home to see a lover (something these two know a lot about), while “Big Wave” is a surf-rock jam with Lewis cooing over a frothy chorus of guitar reverb.

From their Los Angeles home, the duo dished about recording I’m Having Fun Now with Bright Eyes whiz Mike Mogis, their upcoming fall tour, and who would win in a tag-team wrestling match: Jenny & Johnny, She & Him, Matt & Kim, or Sonny & Cher.

Hey guys! How’s it going? Johnathan Rice: Great. Jenny’s on her way to pick up another phone. Jenny Lewis: Hello!

Wow. I’m impressed that you have two landlines in your house. JR: You’d be even more impressed if you saw the actual phones. JL: They’re rotary phones. I’m obsessed with old rotary phones. It started about three years ago with a beautiful peach-colored rotary phone that has a terrible crackle. I also have one really cool black rotary phone. But they’re really frustrating if you’re dealing with an automated service, like Time Warner Cable, because you can’t really participate. Where are all the people, man? Where they’d go?

Tell me how your new album came together. JR: We’ve been writing songs together since 2005. JL: Proximity led us to writing together. Johnathan would be working on a song in the living room and I’d be in the kitchen doing the dishes, so I’d sing along. We started singing together first and then writing together. With this particular batch of tunes we wanted to go into the studio with my friend Pierre* de Reeder [from Rilo Kiley] and record some demos. After seven days in the studio we’re like, “Whoa this is really fun. We’re playing all these instruments and having a great time, maybe we should take these songs out to Omaha and finish them up with Mike Mogis.” JR: Mike built a studio in Omaha and kept telling us, “I’d love to give you guys some studio time. Come see the new place.” Nebraska is kind of the center of our musical universe. I made my first record there. Jenny made her records there and we both worked with Mike. It’s a good excuse to spend some time with some our best friends. So we drove my station wagon from L.A. to Omaha.

I understand you two have an obsession with station wagons. JL: [Laughs] It’s true. There are actually two versions of Johnathan’s car. Two cars. They’re both station wagons, both a turquoise blue color. I didn’t have a car for many years living in L.A. and I drove the Rilo Kiley van around. I can parallel park pretty well — I’m a great driver. Finally I bought this shitty Ford, but Jonathan needed to buy a car so we went to an estate sale near our house. There was a 1977 Mazda station wagon for sale for $850 and we knew that Johnathan had to buy it. On the back of the car was a bumper sticker that said, “I’m having fun now.” We drove it around for a bit, but Jonathan ended up selling it to his friend. His friend got a bunch of tickets and the car was impounded and crushed into a cube. Cut to a couple months ago. We were driving around as we often do, and there was another turquoise station wagon for sale on the side of the road for $950. We knew at that point, having lost the other one, that we needed to buy the car and re-live the fantasy. We remade the bumper sticker and it became the title of our album!

Do you guys ever name your cars? JL: Yeah, the shitty ford. JR: We call it “The Salad.” JL: I bought it after Hurricane Katrina. I think it was one of those Katrina cars that was underwater and re-sold on e-Bay. JR: That’s a pretty controversial theory. But it certainly smells weird. JL: It’s a little mildew-y. It was definitely underwater at some point. JR: It could have been Lake Tahoe. JL: It could have been at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Oh! We don’t know if this is true or not, but Jacques Cousteau may have dove to the bottom of Lake Tahoe before he passed away. Apparently he said, “The world is not ready for what’s at the bottom of Lake Tahoe.” There’s something terrible down there. JR: They say that because it such a mob town, and Al Capone and all these guys were vacationing there and investing in the casinos, that all the bodies from their hits, or murders, were dumped into the lake. Because it’s one of the deepest lakes in the United States and at the bottom it’s extremely cold, the rumor is that Cousteau saw a perfectly preserved army of the dead.

You two have been writing together for years, but how old are these particular songs? JR: They’re puppies. There’s a song on the record “Slave Driver” that’s only five months old. It was written just before we mastered the record. JL: Most of the songs were written together. A couple of them have been lying around for a while, like “Switchblade.” But others are just toddlers.

Your website promises darker themes on the album. JR: Well, there’s no death metal or anything. JL: But lyrically there are some darker themes on the record. But as hard as I try to sound tough and dark, I still sound cute. JR: Think of this record as like cooking a Thanksgiving turkey. You either want the white meat or dark meat. Actually, maybe I shouldn’t have called this album a turkey. JL: How about a Tofurky? JR: It’s definitely not a Tofurky.

What are some of the lyrical themes? JR: Snakes. JL: Lots of Ouroboros, it’s that image of the snake eating it’s own tail. You’ve seen it a million times. JR: We really like that image. There’s so many definitions of what it represents. To us, it represents unity and satisfaction because the snake is eating it’s own tail it can never be hungry and never want for anything. But I’m curious: does the snake ever run out itself to eat? Maybe not. JL: Well, the people that lived in this house before us were in their 90s and I’ve found that I have more in common with them than I do my peers. They left behind a lot of stuff, like a creepy old key with a skeleton key. I wonder what that goes to? But on the bookshelf was a book about Ouroboros and it sparked a bunch of strange dreams, which lead to a bunch of songs. JR: We both found ourselves dreaming about snakes, and then we’d be hiking in the mountains in L.A. and we would see a bunch of snakes on the trail.

Do you guys share vocals on each song? JR: Yep. JL: When we first went into the studio our best friend Morgan said, “You guys aren’t singing together enough.” So we really over-compensated when we went out to Omaha. JR: We wanted Jenny & Johnny to be a new band, so it had to sound different. Both vocals are front and center. We’re trying to make a new character almost. JL: Even with the band name, Jenny & Johnny, we wanted there to be a very distinct male and female presence.

Can we expect more music in the future, or is this a one-off project? JR: We didn’t put any thought into this record before we made it. [Laughs] What do we do next? It could be anything. JL: We don’t have any expectations. The songs that we write will determine what we do next. I’m working on a batch of songs and so is Johnathan, so we’ll see what happens.

Does writing, recording, and touring together ever put a strain on your relationship? JR: Our relationship was born out of traveling and touring. This album marks the most time either one of us have spent in the same place over the course of our entire relationship. We’ve toured all over the world together — it seems pretty normal to us. JL: It’s the best of both worlds!

You guys are touring this fall. What can fans expect live? JR: Two of our friends are going to join us. Jason Boesel, who played in Rilo Kiley and has played with both of us for years, and Tod Adrian Wisenbaker on guitar from Whispertown 2000, an L.A. band. JL: He’s a cool ass guitar player. JR: We’ll be opening for Pavement and Belle and Sebastian. JL: And Superchunk!

Pavement is one of your guys’ favorite bands! JR: Yeah, we’re not even going pretend to play it cool. JL: We’re going to play it super nerdy. I’ve never seen them live so I’m really looking forward to it. I love Wowee Zowee. That was the first Pavement record I bought. JR: I like Terror Twilight.

Who would win a tag team battle: Jenny & Johnny, She & Him, Matt & Kim, or Sonny & Cher? JR: Whew. I don’t know. Jenny and I and Zooey [Deschanel] and Ben [Gibbard] have dinner dates together all the time, so that’s a hard one. But I guess that’s not She and Him, that’s She & Ben. JL: Our answer is definitely She & Ben.

#publication: spin #album: i'm having fun now #band: jenny and johnny #year: 2010 #mention: recording process #mention: album title #lyrics: snakes #mention: home

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disappearingground · 5 years

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Jenny Lewis Is Still Figuring It Out

The Cut March 19, 2019

The singer-songwriter’s new album follows a major breakup and her mother’s death.

By Gabriella Paiella

“I feel like I’m living the Laurel Canyon version of the movie Big,” Jenny Lewis says, as she fires up her pinball machine and puts on a hot pink trucker cap that reads “BEST FRIENDS” in black lettering.

The comparison to the 1988 Tom Hanks film — in which a seventh-grader wakes up one day in the body of a 30-year-old man — feels apt when it comes to her décor. Her house, affectionately nicknamed “Mint Chip” for its brown and green exterior, has a full drum kit and a pink girl’s bike (a recent eBay purchase) set up in the entryway to the living room. She’s projecting The Adventures of Mark Twain, an obscure claymation fantasy film from the ’80s, onto a blank white wall. Across from the pinball machine, in her guest room, hangs a oversized promotional cutout for The Wizard, featuring Lewis’s beaming 13-year-old face next to Fred Savage — her thick, red bangs unchanged in the 30 years since the movie came out.

The distinct vibe of kids’ clubhouse–meets–bachelorette pad is most pronounced on her bedroom walls, which a friend recently convinced Lewis to paint a pale, blush pink. The 43-year-old singer-songwriter was so pleased with the color — Benjamin Moore Teacup Rose 2170-50 — that she plans to use it as her stage backdrop when she hits the road this spring to promote On the Line, her fourth solo album.

Lewis has spent decades in the public eye, or at least in its peripheral vision. Her child-actor days gave way to a musical career in 1998, when she formed the band Rilo Kiley alongside fellow former child actor (and then-boyfriend) Blake Sennett. The couple broke up, but the band stayed together, making a handful of moody, memorable records. As Rilo Kiley’s front woman, she sang with an assertive candor, revealing her deepest vulnerabilities around sex and heartbreak and familial relationships through soaring, irresistible power-pop choruses. Her personal style, comprised of vintage baby-doll dresses and an array of rompers, landed on the enviable side of mid-aughts twee. She reclaimed elements of a male-dominated rock scene and made them accessible for openhearted young women. Lewis released her first solo album, the country-tinged Rabbit Fur Coat, in 2006, giving her credibility with millennial indie fans as a stand-alone artist.

Her influence from that era is best summed up by the actress Kristen Stewart, a paragon of blasé self-presentation, who told James Corden that Lewis was the one celebrity she was most nervous to meet. “I couldn’t breathe,” Stewart said of her now-friend. “I literally just completely caved in front of her.” Lewis is touched by this sort of sentiment from early fans, women who heard her music, she says, “just at the perfect age.” It’s an intense fandom, if limited to a certain demographic.

“I get recognized at Whole Foods,” she concedes. “A lot.”

Lewis has always maintained an outward image of alluring self-sufficiency, repeatedly reinventing herself — from child star to alternative front woman to thriving solo act. Now, the indie rocker is figuring out what this new version of independence looks like. Inside her charmed house, underneath her cheerful exterior, she’s working through a heavier chapter in life. That bedroom paint color, the one that she likes so much that she’s hauling it with her across the country, was introduced after her boyfriend of 12 years, musician Johnathan Rice, moved out. Shortly after her breakup, she was dealt another seismic blow: Her long-estranged mother, who frequently appeared in Lewis’s songs, died of liver cancer.

As far as cathartic albums go, On the Line is pretty upbeat. It has a more robust and straightforward rock sound than her previous work, but still hews to her signature style of combining gentle melodies and syrupy, shining vocals with accounts of darkness and desperation, all topped off with a reckless shrug. The new songs are thrillingly unfettered. On one track, she sings about getting “wired on Red Bull and Hennessy,” on another, she sits “in a black Corvette, getting head in the shadows.” Today we’re in for a far more wholesome, laid-back scene: On Lewis’s suggestion, we’re going for a nature hike.

As the two of us trudge up the dusty canyon trail near her house, I’m struck by how much Jenny Lewis looks like Jenny Lewis, even when she’s hiking. Her trademark long red hair is set in soft waves, and her bangs — the bangs that launched a thousand trims — are swept slightly to the side. Before I have the chance to mention it, she calls herself out for wearing “truly the weirdest hiking outfit.” Her tight, ’70s-era burgundy track pants, John and Yoko T-shirt, snug navy fleece, and electric blue sneakers are decidedly out of place among the slew of sweatpants and practical Merrell boots. A miniature gold pot-leaf necklace that she bought on tour dangles at the collar of her T-shirt. Lewis loves weed. “I didn’t smoke weed for two weeks, which was really good,” she tells me. “And then, I did smoke weed. Honestly, I prefer being stoned.” A typical day for her involves waking up around 8:30 a.m., going for a hike or to yoga class, getting some work done, and then getting stoned and playing music, before she settles in to FaceTime her friends, whom she’s leaned on heavily during these past few years. (I’ve caught Lewis in the afternoon, so, do the math.)

Lewis typically divides her time between Los Angeles and Nashville, but took off for the East Village in 2016 to crash with one of those friends — the musician Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent — after her breakup with Rice. The separation wasn’t dramatic or antagonistic, but after more than a decade the relationship had run its course. “It’s a trip coming out of that,” she tells me. “I was with someone for the second half of my 20s and my entire 30s, so to reemerge in a dating context … ” Lewis trails off, before clarifying that she’s not in any sort of rush to end her relatively new singlehood. She tells me she refuses to get on Raya, the preferred dating app for celebrities, mostly because she doesn’t feel like making the required video for her profile (which is actually just a slideshow of photos set to music). On her last album, 2014’s The Voyager, she sang teasingly about her biological clock and being “just another lady without a baby”; but as we amble along, she admits that she’s experienced a pull toward motherhood. Still, she’s leaving that up to fate, too. “There is this biological pressure that I have felt. Certainly it’s on my mind,” Lewis says matter-of-factly. “I’m not going to freeze my eggs, which is something that I’ve had a lot of talks about with a lot of friends. That’s just not my style. So, I guess we’ll see what happens.”

Right around the time she was reevaluating her feelings about partnership and parenthood, Lewis had to start dealing with other heavy family matters — the kind that make you think deeply about your choices around partnership and parenthood. “People wonder why you take so much time between records,” she says of the five-year lapse since The Voyager. “It’s like, people fucking die.” We stop to sit at a small outdoor amphitheater nestled in a shaded area off the hiking trail, where she tells me about her mother’s death.

Lewis had been more or less estranged from her parents, who were also musicians, since she was 16. Her father left the family when she was a toddler, but with the support of Rice and other musician friends, Lewis invited him to play harmonica on her 2008 album Acid Tongue. Their reconciliation happened shortly before he died in 2010. Her relationship with her mother, who raised her, was more complicated. In 2014, she told the New York Times that her family had lost all the money she earned from her acting career; her songs about mother figures frequently reference drug abuse and mental illness. (She recently revealed to Rolling Stone that her mother was a heroin addict.) They weren’t in contact for years, but Lewis says that her mother was her biggest fan. “She really got me. And that’s why we couldn’t be together, because it was just not healthy for me,” Lewis reflects, tearing up slightly. “It was not a good thing. She thought every song was about her.” This new album does devote a soulful, slow-burning song to “a mother-and-child emergency” in a hospital, which ends “under a cool white sheet.”

By the time Lewis found out about her mother’s liver cancer, it was terminal. She wouldn’t describe their reunion and reconciliation as giving her closure but, rather, “open-sure.” Lewis spent the last two months of her mother’s life visiting her at the hospital every day, until she passed in October 2017. “I would bring a smoothie that I made from home, like a health smoothie. And my sister would bring a Slurpee,” she tells me. “And we’d have a fight about it.” Whose beverage triumphed?

“The Slurpee won, duh! No one wants a stinking smoothie if they’re dying!”

Finding herself alone for the first time in years, Lewis says she’s “really open to experiences and adventure.” She’s comfortable talking about her parents, in a way she never was when they were still alive. She’s traveling more than she ever has — Lewis eagerly shares stories about a solo trip to watch Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner box in Vegas, about meeting a Catholic priest backstage at a Grateful Dead concert in New York City and a voodoo priest who spit rum in her eyeballs while she was on mushrooms in Haiti.

She’s experimenting with a sexier look onstage, replacing her 2014 tour wardrobe of rainbow, Nudie Cohn–esque suits with tight jumpsuits and ample cleavage. “I wanted to wear things that were a little more body-conscious,” she explains. “I feel like I’ve always covered up.” And she’s collaborating with people she hasn’t worked with before, including heavy hitters like Ringo Starr, who plays drums on On the Line. (The album also features contributions from Ryan Adams, whom several women accused of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct, including sending explicit texts to an underage fan. This news broke a few weeks after our hike, and when asked for comment, Lewis sent me the same statement she’d tweeted days after the news: “I am deeply troubled by Ryan Adams’s alleged behavior. Although he and I had a working professional relationship, I stand in solidarity with the women who have come forward.”)

All this openness has been healing and even a little transcendent. The night before our meeting, there was a much-anticipated lunar eclipse of the year’s first full moon — the Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse. Lewis tells me earnestly that it was important for her to look at the moon that night, to take in something that felt bigger than herself. “You see something like that and it’s just like, some force outside of yourself that illuminates the unknown factor,” she says, sitting cross-legged in the empty amphitheater. “Because when you see someone pass — or your parents, which, we all go through that — it’s a beautiful mystery. It’s such a psychedelic experience. And I guess you don’t know how that feels until you know how that feels.” And how, exactly, did that feel? “It’s a trip, man. A fucking trip.”

#publication: the cut #album: on the line #year: 2019 #mention: mother's death #mention: rilo kiley #person: kristen stewart #person: johnathan rice #mention: breakup #mention: hospital #mention: father #mention: boxing #song: little white dove

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