#sebastian might be modernized jeremy

[valleyfae]

are you literally my soulmate because it terrifies me how similar we are and our taste because fuck sebastian truly has a jeremy irons vibe and i NEED him to recreate that picture i need him to play the calm and collected yet jealous and protective and possessive older man i need him to play a dark threatening twisted father figure i need him to do more pretty coquettish movies to fulfill my thirst because i'm starving so much he truly has the old hollywood star vibes and i'm so sad because i need him to do more movies with that aesthetic 💔😞 it doesn't make it better that sebastian loves that era too i need dad to indulge us!!

i love your pinterest boards they're so pretty and organized oh my god

so sorry for sending u ten million asks

I just know you wouldn’t judge me for theoretically wanting ‘more recent’ Jeremy </3

I have spent so much fucking time on Pinterest it’s concerning… those are just two sections on my films board

Send me a million I love them!!! It makes me feel like I answer my ask and not just ignore my requests that I tell myself I’ll write

#fran's mail #it’s the hand rolled cigarettes #both him an jeremy are not afraid to do play certain characters despite what others say #sebs on his way to the four decades of amazing films and having an oscar emmy and tony #i just know seb will accomplish so much #even more than he already has #i need seb in a damage type movie 😂😐 #seb who has an affair with his sons fiance #the man who knows what he’s doing is wrong and crosses the line but he’s so infatuated and follows his heart #bro… dead ringers #i would flip out holy shit #FUCKINSGAINA REVERSAL OF FORTUNE #the best jeremy movie #the intricacy and brilliance of the way they preform immoral characters is fascinating and incredible #i never really connected that #how similar they are and the roles they play #they are what i wish more actors were #their talent is so rare and not just surface level #i think my love for the way jeremy acts subconsciously drew me towards sebastian #sebastian might be modernized jeremy #don’t ask why I’ve watched all of his movies… #i had no friends when i moved to the states so i spent middle and high school distracting myself with dark novels and films #a lot of those films and novels recommended by my teacher #like mine #my #mine #myyyy #i don’t wanna talk about it

[typewriter-worries]

Book recommendations please (if possible)

[im looking for dark academia-ish, morbid-ish]

Hello there!

Here's some that fit the mold, I think. Not all of these are my favorite, but you might love them so I don't want to discount them!

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio - This is a perfect book that'll get you in the "dark academia" mood.

If We Were Villains is a mystery novel set in a New England acting conservatory during the 1990s. After tragedy strikes the fourth year class, we watch their friend group (friends mainly by proximity, mind you) start to unravel.

Calling If We Were Villains a "cozy" mystery wouldn't give the book fair credit. While you can curl up under a blanket, a cup of cocoa and read it while the fall leaves start to fall; it's more of a book that'll leave you on the edge of year seat wanting more. 

You can read my full review here

Breaking Point by Alex Flinn: This is a book that I often describe as a "beginner's guide to dark academia" due to both the subject matter and the age of the main character.

While it's set in a high school, this is still a novel in which the main character is asked the question almost all questions in dark academia books are posed, "How far are you willing to go?"

All that said, at risk of spoilers, this may be one to check the trigger warnings for. It's a pretty dark book, especially for being targeted towards young adults.

You can read my full review here

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - This book is actually one of my favorite books of all times and deserves all the praise that has followed it since the year it was published.

Giovanni’s Room follows the story of David, a young man who’s fallen in love with both a young woman named Hella and another young man named Giovanni against the backdrop of 1950s Paris.

We read about, what some might call, a tumultuous love affair and a constant question of identity. Baldwin’s depiction of the internal struggle is masterful without being overtly extravagant.

While it's a slow-paced, shorter read; it'll leave an impression in the best possible way.

Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa - This book is a bit of a modern retelling of Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh, with a few, maybe even many, liberties taken.

It follows the senior year of three teenagers: Jeremy, Mina and Sebastian. Over the course of the book, you go through the coming of age story of each character. Jeremy coming to terms with his identity, Sebastian and his bouts of self destruction and Mina’s relationship with her mental health. 

What's fun about this book (at least to me), is that it's told in three different point of views. Jeremy's is first, Sebastian's is second, and Mira's is third.

That said, there is a pretty infamous scene that I didn't like, but can be skipped over without losing any of the plot (If you read the book, you'll know what it is immediately.)

You can read my full review here

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood - Much like Giovanni's Room, this a slow-paced short read that's heart wrenching.

It follows the life of George, a gay middle-aged professor living in southern California in the 1960s. We follow him as he processes the death of his late partner, actively still grieves and learns to deal with the concept of being alone, but not lonely.

While the book is very mundane, there's something so human about it, you can't wait to see what's to become of him.

Hope you enjoy the ones you choose to read; if you do, please let me know what you think!

#hope all's well in your world anon <3 #these are a few of my favorite things

[steelbluehome]

"Stan . . . is at his greatest whenever he taps into this marriage between a swollen superiority complex and paralyzing insecurity that make up the fabric of the reality TV star turned unlikely President of the United States"

The Playlist

The Apprentice’ Review: Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump? It Works! (click for article)

Rafa Sales Ross

May 20, 2024 3:22 pm

Five years ago, Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi broke out internationally with the Oscar-nominated “Border,” a thorny little beast of a fable about love, complicity, and guilt. His latest prods at some of the same themes, although the thorny little beast at the center of “The Apprentice” is far from a fictional creature of fables.

Abbasi’s newest chronicles the rise of former American president Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) through his relationship with lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Before diving into the fatidical first meeting between the two men, the director makes an important disclaimer about the film that is to come: the people you will see on-screen are real; their stories might have been fictionalized. Then, he cuts into a very factual piece of footage: Nixon’s infamous 1973 speech at the height of Watergate. The grainy tape shows the soon-to-be-fallen president sternly claiming: “I’m not a crook!”

This on-the-nose initial parallel brilliantly sets the tone for the two hours ahead, a ride that does away with subtlety without leaning into overexposition. Said ride begins in a swanky members-only club in New York, where the overconfident Cohn gravitates towards a meek, unsure Trump. He brings him under his wing, first offering to help get him out of a discrimination lawsuit filed against his family’s property development business and later stepping into a much more fatherly position. His advice ranged from Bribery 101 to the clauses that should be added to his pre-nuptial agreement.

The crucial decade separating that initial meeting and the tragic demise of the relationship between the two men encompasses many of the main tidbits we associate with the Trump of today, from his unstoppable quest to build a phallic-shaped empire at the heart of the Big Apple with his Trump Tower to his troubled marriage with Czech-American model turned socialite Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova). The cinematography follows this transition, going from the lush, grainy texture of ’70s film to the washed-out hues of ’80s camcorders.

When the project was first announced, many were skeptical of the idea of a biopic about one of the most contentious public figures of modern times starring a hunky Marvel alum and eyeing a big premiere at a glitzy film festival. While all these concerns remain true, especially given this is an election year in the US, Abbasi manages to thread the lines between tabloid fodder and veiled endorsement with great skill. There’s a running comic vein throughout the film that flirts with mockery while bypassing the pastiche, like when the camera catches a glimpse of an empty-brained Donald as he sits alone at the big boys’ table, with no big boys to play with or when the broad man bumps into the slim, cool Andy Warhol at a party he has no business being in, his ineptitude making him feel smaller and smaller while his ego begins showing the first signs of inflation.

Stan finds in Strong a great match. Abbasi’s latest sees the “Succession” actor play a Roy once more, although this time he is not as much the plagued victim of daddy issues as his benefiting perpetrator. The big, boisterous Roy of the early ’70s is much, much fun to watch, and when the larger-than-life scammer disguised as a prosecutor begins suffering the consequences of AIDS, Strong plays him with a pained reticence that is at once greatly moving and deeply effective in its understanding of how the illness affects the dynamics between the duo. Cohn was a closeted gay man for all professional intents but led a very open life with his younger partner, who also died from the complications of AIDS.

With “The Apprentice,” Stan continues his run of lining up weird, big-swing projects of the likes of “Fresh” and “A Different Man” to shake off the ghost of Bucky Barnes. The bet pays off. Stan plays Trump without an overreliance on the frazzled blonde wig and increasingly pronounced prosthetics. The actor is at his greatest whenever he taps into this marriage between a swollen superiority complex and paralyzing insecurity that make up the fabric of the reality TV star turned unlikely President of the United States.

Trump’s reaction to Cohn’s lifestyle is one of the most interesting (and formative) aspects of the evolution of the central relationship. While at first young Donald emulates Cohn in all major aspects of his life — from copying the prosecutor’s number plate to leaning more and more into the orange-hued pleasures of fake tan — Cohn’s frailing health nags at the mogul, not necessarily because it is a physical reminder of his mentor’s sexuality, but because it makes him look weak.

Weakness, of course, has no space in the life of Donald Trump. No longer the whining mentee of his much savvier friend and pumped to the nines with diet pills filled with amphetamines, Trump morphs into a delusional broken radio, one stuck on the audiobook for his best-selling business bible “The Art of the Deal.” There is, of course, a fear that a film like “The Apprentice” might pose a dangerous chance to endear this buffoon to audiences. Alas, the Trump at the center of Abbasi’s sleek satire is the same Trump already etched in the cultural consciousness — an incompetent, disloyal, criminal fool. That, one hopes, will only cater only to those already indoctrinated. [B+]

#the apprentice #sebastian stan #donald trump #jeremy strong #roy cohn #maria bakalova #ivana trump #ali abbasi #the apprentice review

[vermiculated]

mistakesville, @sea-changed

The Missing Page - Cat Sebastian

Death in the Stocks - Georgette Heyer

Crossed Skis - Carol Carnac

The Bone Key - Sarah Monette

Murder in the Mill-Race - ECR Lorac

Eileen - Ottessa Mosfegh

In a Lonely Place - Dorothy B Hughes

She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan

Rum Punch - Elmore Leonard

The Power of the Dog - Thomas Savage

52 Pickup - Elmore Leonard

The Girl Who Died - Ragnar Jonasson trans Victoria Cribb

what I did do is watch five seasons of Justified, I:

That's a lot of damage.

Not like Tim hasn't considered it before.

“Shit. I'm sorry.”

Tim's a heel. He should have kept his mouth shut and let Crowder unburden himself at his own leisure.

what I did do is watch five seasons of Justified, II:

“Not averse,” Raylan repeats, like drawing breath. Since he was last here and only saw one way out, Raylan really hasn’t thought about Boyd much. He was self-reliant, contained, and good in a crowd. He’d have friends, girls, guys who could show him a good time. No one needed to worry about Boyd, and he’d done well with it. Raylan only thinks about anything to worry about it; Boyd doesn’t need his worrying. And everything has worked out for Boyd: a job, a goofy modern car, the respect he’d wanted. Usually people had to be real fuckups to have anyone in Harlan remember their names: Boyd was practically famous for being a teacher, based on what Raylan had learned. “Yeah, since you got all,” Boyd waves a hand, “handsome, I thought I might not be averse.”

what I did do is watch five seasons of Justified, III, widows peak variation:

Bruce has been grey for decades: Jason’s finally caught up to him in the last year. He looks. Well. It’s like they used to be: Bruce solving crime, Jason keeping an eye on Bruce. Nothing about his appearance has ever really explained anything about who he is and it doesn’t now. The tip of his nose is a little blunted, maybe his ears stick out more. “I thought you would be interested. It’s from deep space, uninhabited.” Bruce holds out the ring on the flat of his palm, much in the same way he once described holding a sugar cube out to a horse.

ongoing Eighth House petty cruelties:

Jeremy is sharp-jawed, like a dog bred for hunting as depicted in a tapestry, bloodless features. Blue-gold, red into taupe, black fraying into grey. The thread decays over time, even under archival conditions. These are problems which admit no solutions: even death is not a victory over the grave. Owen would tear his heart out in the marketplace. At least it is identifiable on first pass: what’s a liver supposed to look like?

He could ask Ben. Ben wouldn’t know: Ben would let him check. He could be wrong, knowledgeably so; Ben lies with his body.

“Just me.”

comics moviefic which takes place in CONNECTICUT, Abe/John:

John's face is resolute, his profile picked out against the dark. His nose slopes like a wind-burnt massif.

“You asked for it?”

“I knew that Hellboy asked for me to leave; I asked to come back. My, uh, my sister-in-law, she's, well. Her brother's a deputy United States Attorney. It was a favor.”

Abe watches John. A connexion, they'd have said.

#voracker 2022 #books 2022 #objective correlative for their own bereft condition #the return of lobster johnson #you just have to fuck around #i know your dad and he wouldn't mind #i’m totally fine up for anything #punning on ‘well’

[guardmesherlock-rowan]

GMS characters as teachers in school

Hi! What would all the GMS characters be as teachers in schools? What subjects would they teach and how would they teach?

Sherlock Holmes

Subject: Chemistry

What their Class is like:  

Mostly TA ran, as this man can barely stay on course schedule.  Often he would be running in and throwing an experiment at the students and brainstorming why certain chemicals may have certain reactions, though it would mostly be him ranting at the students until he came to his own conclusion.  But be sure that would be on the test.

John Watson

Subject:  General Anatomy

What their Class is like:

Very attentive, his hours are almost always open, provided Sherlock hasn’t pulled him away, in which case he will send out an email warning his students of his absence.  Very lenient about late work, to the point some students may take advantage of it.  

James Moriarty

Subject: Algebra

What their Class is like:  

Never there, relies heavily on his TA.  But when he is there he’s very charming and seems to know a lot about his students when he is talking to them one on one.  

Mycroft Holmes

Subject: Foreign Politics [I took a class on this as well when I was in college]

What their Class is like:  

Very strict.  He doesn’t like repeating himself so will expect his students to take notes in whatever manner is better for them.  He will have strict office hours, but if a student emails him he is willing to set time aside to talk to them, but they have to approach him first.  

Jack Stillman

Subject: Anatomy

What their Class is like:

Visuals!  He comes across as very passionate about his subject, and his favorite days are working in the wet lab, but regular dissection days are alright too.  He teases his students a lot and seems to have a dark sense of humor.

Sebastian Moran

Subject: Physical Education

What their Class is like:

The class better be quiet so they can hear him.  Sebastian is the king of handout forms to help explain the subject.  But while he is quiet he appears quickly to a student’s side to assist if they’re fumbling or having trouble.

Jeremy Cassel

Subject: French

What their Class is like:

Bubbly, bright, might say sentences wrong just to see if his students catch the mistake and correct him.  He is dramatic and wants to make class as fun as possible.  

Hercule Poirot

Subject: Criminal Psychology

What their Class is like:

Quizzes, and quizzes, and more quizzes.  Trying to go back and forth and get his students to use what they’ve already learned to piece together new concepts, trying to help the pieces fall into place for the students.

Arthur Hastings

Subject: Computer Science

What their Class is like:

A lot of emails telling the students what their project is for the day.  A student can’t come to class?  No problem, they can easily follow along from home/dorm if they wanted.  He has no problem with late work being turned in as long as it’s done before grades are due at the end of the semester.  If a student wanted to put together projects that are based off of things they are passionate about he would be pleased, though he would not outwardly show it.

George Lestrade

Subject: Literature

What their Class is like:

A lot of quiet reading time while he caught up on grading or tried to get ahead on it.  It would seem messy, but he is doing his best to follow the lesson plan.  He would get excited to discuss with the students comparing the movie to the original book.  Or in the case of novelizations, the book to the movie.  He would definitely have more modern books on his course.  Possibly even ones that the class the semester before had recommended.

Mikah Hudson

Subject: Psychology

What their Class is like:

A lot of little projects in class, where he would challenge his students to try to find the answers before even going over the subject, that way he can build off of what they think they know.

Henry Jekyll

Subject: Bio Chem

What their Class is like:

Step by step.  He will also go through the example multiple times if necessary and walk around to assist the students.  His is a class a lot of students bring caffeine to as his even toned voice lures them to sleep.

Edward Hyde

Subject: Acting

What their Class is like:

He would heap on the praise for the students he could tell were trying their hardest, but would still give advice if he saw them missing out on an element they could be including in their scene.  He would also have special time to do staged fighting.  Very hands on and would greet his students in the hall.

‘Irene’

Subject: Acting

What their Class is like:

Diverse genres and scenes, switching up partners to watch people play off of each other.  A lot of improv as well.  She would want to see how well the students did in not just memorizing the lines and acting them out but trying to embody the characters.  

Erik Leroux

Subject: Music

What their Class is like:

Strict.  He would have worksheets regarding their practicing schedules and he would check them if a student wasn’t progressing as planned.  He would talk to the students sternly about expectations.  He comes across as being very prideful and sometimes accused of playing favorites but he will insist he is only giving extra attention to those who want it and he knows will use it. 

#Jack Stillman #James Moriarty #George Lestrade #John Watson #Sherlock Holmes #Hercule Poirot #Jeremy Cassel #Mycroft Holmes #Guard me Sherlock #submission #submission request #anonymous

[kdelarenta]

every piece of IF I've ever played

- a simple list to keep track of everything i've played, my main characters and their routes

finished 

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Book 1/2 

Amelia Winters - Nate, Mason

Josie Valentine - Mason

Edith Sinclair - Felix

Surina Burch - Adam  

The Shadow Society - Book 1 

Maxine Waldorf - Michael 

Rory Harrington - Love Triangle (R/A)

The Fog Knows Your Name 

Olivia Walsh - Rex

Fallen Hero : Rebirth

Vera Brown - Daniel

Keeper of the Sun and Moon 

Luna Peters - Kol, Leon 

Madison Reed - Cyrus

The Soul Stone War 

Cecelia -  Straasa

Valkyrie - Manerkol

Creme de la Creme

Katherine Duval - Max 

Monique Davenport - Blaise

180 Files: The Aegis Project 

Ava Coleman - Angel 

Mask Of The Plague Doctor

Lilith - might use her for something else*

Tally Ho

Joy Hartmann - Haze, Valentine

Breach

Lana Bautista - Gabriel

WIP

From The Shadows 

Marina Spencer - Daniel  

Supernaturals in New York

Gwen Darcy - Grey

Shepherds of Haven

Verena Hatche - Chase, Trouble

Secrets of Swatheford 

Charlie De Luca - Cas

Davina Patel - Mercado 

Wilhelmina 

Wilhelmina Murray - Jonathan 

Sentinel 

Mina Asano - Adrian 

The Golden Rose 

Arya - Hadrian 

Royal Affairs 

Beatrice -  Laurie

Speaker 

Josephine Clayton - Sebastian, Liam

Greenwarden 

Harper Ackerman - Marc 

KODAN 

Madison Reed - Dominic, Cyrus

Wayhaven Book 3 demo

TSSW Book 2 demo

Odessa Dating Games 

Isabella Ronin - Lyon 

Modern Citizens : Unmasked

Astrid Hayes - Finley

Mind Blind

Colette Wiseman - Gray, Glitch

Monsters of New Haven High 

Ruby Mephisto - Hunter 

Attollo

Rue Blanchard - using her for something else*

Remember you will die

Artemis - Dante

Virtue’s End

Nadia - Shea, Elexis

Conspiracy in Emerson

Theo(dora) Hawthorne - Rohan, Curt (?)

Amber Sparks - Gabe

Exiled from Court

Seraphina - Harry

Golden

Hazel Mcclaren - Kaidan

Tricksters

Penelope Kim - Erik

Into The Shadows

Faith Argent - R

The Lure Of The Gallows

Devorah Redding - Warren

OFNA

Nellie Whitlock - Jeremy

Just West Of Autumn Boulevard

Imogen Prescott - using her for something else*

The Spirited: Origins

Hyacinth Blaire Decker - Vargas (?)

Faith of Gods

Hypatia - Cian

Ace of Spades

Annette Griffin - James

When Twilight Strikes

MJ Evans - A

Body Count

Rosalie Yang - Charlie

Souls of Nothing

Valerie - Kyle

TE

Gemma

Fernweh Saga

Norah Bradshaw - Reese

CMI3M

Prudence - Jareth

College Tennis

Barbara Bobbie Friedman - ?

The Exile

Guinevere Acheron - Nikke

Amarantha - ???

Ear Candy

Camille Choi - Winslow

The Marriage Market

Agatha Hartcliffe - O Belmont

What Lovely Bones

Maya Fox - ?

Redwood

Amber Wright - Max

Disenchanted

Mallory Sanchez - Theo

Witches of Fengrowe

Charlotte Craft - C. Calloway

Beyond The Mist

Dawn - Cy

Slaughter Squad

Jules Ortega - The Host

Softly, Opulent

Yasmin - Aleks

Embers of Hope

Poppy Vesper - Creon

not cog

Scout : An Apocalypse Story 

Dexadora Park - Oliver

A Tale of Crowns 

Nîyaz Cezîrî - Dara 

Superstition

Camille Roe - Chris

Perfumare

Summer - Laurent

A6

Adaria Pegaasi - June

ASOS

Margaret Fairchild - Mateus

LOA

Fallon Harrington - Gabe

TPS

Tabitha Julivert - Clarke

#recs list for cog

[athela-3]

Day 4/7 of the A3! and You meme

If you can recast one play within the same troupe, which would it be?

(Is a mixed troupe play cheating? Well, I made the survey, so I hereby declare it legit. I’ll keep each role with someone from the same troupe as its original cast.)

Rationale under the cut. Buckle up, this is gonna get detailed.

Why Scarlet Mirror? Mostly because I’m a Sherlock Holmes fan, and have been for a great many years now. Also because, bias aside, I really wanna see...

Homare Arisugawa as Sherlock Holmes (original cast: Hisoka Mikage) I think Arisu has just that perfect switch between languid elegance and frenetic energy, and his particular sort of eccentricity—impeccable manners contrasted with surprising bluntness and all—makes him uniquely suited to play Holmes (that Act 1 moment when he rattles off everyone's psychological issues at 'em!). I can picture Arisu’s Holmes having that Jeremy Brett vibe: jumping over settees, significant glances at Watson, choking up at being complimented…

Kazunari Miyoshi as John Watson (original cast: Kumon Hyodo) While there’s something to be said for Watson’s earnest, ride-or-die attitude, I think Kazu’s spontaneity and cheerful acceptance will make an excellent foil for Arisu’s Holmes. And Watson’s supposed to be rather charming with the ladies; I’d pull citations here but that might be overkill, heh. It’s canon, aight? Aight. Where Arisu's Holmes is illuminating, Kazu's Watson is warming, and together they shine light on the mystery. And make no mistake: the Holmes-Watson dynamic is of paramount importance.

Itaru Chigasaki as James Moriarty (original cast: Chikage Utsuki) Given the option, I’d actually keep Chikage here, but in the interest of fairness Moriarty must also be recast. Ergo, Taruchi. He can carry Moriarty with a certain suave, cool-and-collected vibe that’ll work wonders; we don't know all that much about Moriarty in canon, so there's more leeway for Itaru to play around with. Should he indulge the dramatic villainy he wanted to do since The Clockwork Heart? Should you see him in a crown? Or perhaps refined understatement? I think the latter, for contrast.

Sakyo Furuichi as Sebastian Moran (original cast: Juza Hyodo) I considered putting Omi here before I realised: stoic badass who’s no stranger to dangerous work, but who’s also steeped deep in regret of how things might have been? Scarlet Mirror’s Moran would fit Sakyo like a glove, and we know he has no problem playing underling for people younger than him. He'll bring Moran to life because he's lived it himself, he knows what it's like. Again, we have plenty of leeway here, but I think Sakyo will bring a certain gravitas to the role.

Granted, this version of the play won’t focus as much on the “Mirror” part of the title; less fearful symmetry between nemeses and more... original flavour, I suppose. I’d probably go as ACD-like as Tsuzuru’s script would allow, put the Yin-Yang mirroring both between the duos and within them; arguably half the joy in the original stories come from the Holmes-Watson dynamic, and wouldn’t it be intriguing to see it reflected in Moriarty and Moran? Aww man, now I’m thinking of Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald. Think we can adapt that instead?? Ahem. Also, while I'd prefer to keep it Victorian, the pics I could get were modern, and that's also an option.

(Bonus: I didn’t intend for the bad guys to both be smoking, but apparently that happened. And Homare is pictured with the rose because, well, the rose monologue, mate. Can’t you just picture Arisu doing that??)

#a3! #a3! and you #ari's stuff #ari stans arisu 2k20 #ari also stans holmes #now watch me whip watch me geek out #hypothetical mankai

[missn11]

The Motives and Goals of Ming Xiao

One of the things I’ve had a hard time with when writing Ming Xiao is understanding her motives and goals for taking over LA.  Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines doesn’t do a great job of explaining Ming Xiao’s motives, in fact we hardly get to know her very well at all compared to some of the other main faction leaders such as Sebastian LaCroix or Nines Rodriguez, which is a shame, as without Ming Xiao’s role in the game things in the story wouldn’t be the same.  LaCroix is motivated to get the Ankaran sarcophagus in order to diablerize the supposed Ancient Kindred inside and thus finally gain the power to make LA truly his. Nines’ motive is to rid LA of the Camarilla, Sabbat and Kuei-jin, so the city can truly go back to being the Anarch Free State it was meant to be. Whilst Ming Xiao is shown to be a ruthless, powerful and untrustworthy woman, we still don’t get to perceive her motives and goals, as Troika either ran out of time and had to cut some things out or, more depressingly, didn’t think too much about it.  But perhaps the answers can found in the World of Darkness source books?

So, let’s ask some questions.

What is Ming Xiao’s Dharma?

Why did Ming Xiao bring her followers all the way from presumably China to Los Angeles?

Why did Ming Xiao revive the Tong, if her role is to serve the people of Chinatown?

Why did Ming Xiao agree to an alliance with Prince Sebastian LaCroix, her enemy?

Why did Ming Xiao end up breaking off her alliance with Prince Sebastian LaCroix and reveal the truth of who murdered Grout and the framing of Nines Rodriguez?

And Why did Ming Xiao betray the player character in the Kuei-jin ending?

 What is Ming Xiao’s Dharma?

While Ming Xiao’s Dharma is never stated on the Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines wiki, Ming Xiao’s Dharma is suspected to be the Song of Shadow, nicknamed Bone Flowers and, for a time, I thought so too. But that was before I got The Kindred of the East source book. Having read that book, I now disagree with the assessment that Ming Xiao is a Bone Flower, instead, I would argue that she fits more aptly The Way of the Resplendant Crane.

Disciples of the Way of the Resplendant Crane, in the long and short of it, know they died drenched in sin and see the world which they know as the Middle Kingdom suffering because of imperfection. They believe that if the world had better and more enlightened leaders, then it would be a better place. It’s often seen as a path of redemption. Those Kuei-jin brought back through the Second Breath recognize they were shameful in life and now seek to redeem themselves by helping save the Middle Kingdom from itself and preventing the Sixth Age, the coming of which they do not consider to be set in stone. By preventing the Sixth Age, the cycle could be brought back to the Age of Heaven.  As with most things in the World of Darkness, not every one of the Resplendant Cranes are on the same page and there are different views on how to save the Middle Kingdom.  For example, the Shining Ice Guardians, to quote directly from the source material, Kindred of the East:

Shining Ice Guardians recognize that the entire world cannot be saved. Things have gone too far out of balance; dead wood will have to be cut away. Most sages set their hopes on the redemption of the Golden Fields — of the Eastern lands and their peoples. The misery in the Orient has been caused by foreign invaders, from the Mongols to the Americans. These invaders carry disease like plague-dogs, and their sickness must be purged. If that requires a blood-cleansing, so be it. Heaven will deal with the dogs in its own way; the Kuei-jin have been sent back to make the Golden Fields pure again.

And the reason, I believe Ming Xiao is a Resplendant Crane, possibly of the Shining Ice Guardians’ path, is the fact that her goal is to kill or drive out the Kindred presence in Los Angeles. When the Malkavian Player mentions the Yama Kings and the coming of the Demon Emperor, Ming Xiao defiantly states that the Sixth Age has not yet come and quickly changes the subject.  The Sixth Age to some older Kuei-jin is inevitable and cannot be stopped or changed no matter what.  But as I have stated before, the Resplendant Cranes, do not believe that the Age of Sorrow is unavoidable and therefore it can be prevented.

The other reason I believe Ming Xiao to be a Resplendant Crane is based on her actions with regard to the Ankaran sarcophagus. Instead of opening it or using it for her own ends, Ming Xiao, in the Kuei-jin ending, personally oversees the sarcophagus being thrown into the Ocean, to sink deep-down to the bottom of the sea. Too bad she doesn’t realise that the sarcophagus wasn’t the real reason the city is awash with dread but rather the fact that Cain is driving around LA as a cabby! XD She also manages to get the key to the Ankaran sarcophagus immediately, to prevent some fool, i.e LaCroix for example, from opening it, possibly wreaking havoc and bringing about the Age of Sorrow.  

Of course, I could be wrong, and I do welcome anyone discussing with me why they might disagree with my assessment of Ming Xiao’s Dharma or pointing to any info the writers of VTMB might have said on the subject.

 Why did Ming Xiao bring her followers all the way from presumably China to Los Angeles?

Well, the reason Kuei-jin are even moving to the West to conquer Kindred territory is in the source material White Wolf provided. Long story short, it is to avenge the many humiliations Asia suffered through western colonialism, and it’s possible that many Kuei-jin, especially those of The Way of the Resplendant Crane blame the western Kindred for the ills of the world. Some might even think that the elimination of the Kindred and other western supernatural creatures is a way to prevent the Sixth Age or, as it’s better known in Kuei-jin culture, the Age of Sorrow.  Kindred might equate the of Age of Sorrow to Gehenna, however there are more Ages after the Sixth Age on the Wheel of Ages.

The Great Leap Outward, which is what this event is called, started on January 1st, 1998. However, not every Kuei-jin was on board and the project has faced much criticism, many saying that it’s a waste of resources and time and that it’s not the duty of the Kuei-jin to kill foreign supernatural creatures. The Sixth Age at the time of VTMB’s release was drawing near.  If you want to read more of the history of the Great Leap Outward, it can be found on the White Wolf Wiki or in the original VTM and Kuei-jin source books.

Now with that brief little history lesson out of the way, let’s answer the question of why Ming Xiao is here in Los Angeles. As I have said in the previous discussion with regard to Ming Xiao’s Dharma, I personally believe that like many Kuei-jin coming to America, her motive is to save the Middle Kingdom and prevent the Sixth Age, and taking over Los Angeles is her doing her bit towards that end.

Another thing we have to consider is that when Ming Xiao first arrived in LA in 2001 to take over the domain from the previous Ancestor, Monkey Trip Wu who had vanished, I very much doubt she was impressed with what the Anarchs had done with the city. At the time the crime rate was high so she probably saw the Anarch Free States as nothing more than childish gangland games and considered they were wasting the opportunity their new unlives had given them.  

 Why did Ming Xiao revive the Tong, if her role is to serve the people of Chinatown?

Well, we have an idea of the possible motivation Ming Xiao has and in theory it is a noble one.  She wants to save the world from doom and if she has to spill the blood of the western supernatural creatures to accomplish it, then fair enough.  But why fund the Tong, since their presence is causing harm to the people of Chinatown, her charges?  We have to remember Ming Xiao is also a ruthless woman and may have the belief that the ends justify the means, no matter how much damage is done to the people of Chinatown.  After all, once the Kindred are out of the city, she can make it all up by dismantling the Tong.  Remember Ming Xiao became an important figure to the community of Chinatown by funding and restoring the Temple of Golden Virtue and probably no doubt funded other local business that weren’t doing well in these modern Americacentric times.

Funding the Tong enables the Kuei-jin to have more men to help fight the Anarchs, brings more money to fund this war and possibly a constant supply of Chi through living mortal’s blood or breath provided through human trafficking.  And as the Second Breath is usually given to those who die violently or with much sin, it also creates more foot soldiers to build an army to fight the Anarchs. This might be a bit of a stretch, but I think this could be the reason Ming Xiao has funded the Tong,  she’s fighting a war with the Anarchs and she’ll do anything to win.  Possibly the reason Ming Xiao ends up having Wong Ho and his daughter killed is that he’s becoming a thorn in the Tong’s side.

 Why did Ming Xiao agree to an alliance with Prince Sebastian LaCroix, her enemy?

At the beginning of VTMB it’s been six years since the Kuei-jin first came into LA and the war between the Anarchs and the Kuei-jin has come to a standstill.  Despite dealing the Anarchs many heavy blows to the point that both the Camarilla and Sabbat were able to slip into LA and claim some territory, the Kuei-jin have also taken some damage and cannot afford to be careless. And despite the supposed death of Jeremy McNeil, Nines Rodriguez’s predecessor, leader of the LA Anarchs, the Anarchs remained strong and grew their ranks everyday due to Nines Rodriguez’s leadership.  So it would be prudent for Ming Xiao to rid of herself of this threat, but also, she needs the other Kindred factions off her back.

Thankfully, Ming Xiao just so happens to know a disgruntled Camarilla Prince that also wants Nines Rodriguez, the Anarchs and the Sabbat out of the way. We don’t know which one approached the other first, but Sebastian LaCroix must have heard of one of the Kuei-jin’s powers to be able to turn into anyone they want, which is the highest level of the Flesh Shintai discipline.

In exchange for keeping the Camarilla off the Kuei-jin’s back and the chance to get rid of Nines, Ming Xiao agrees to LaCroix’s plan to frame the Anarch leader for the murder of Alister Grout. Ming Xiao likely found out about LaCroix’s reason for wanting Grout dead through the many recordings in Grout’s mansion, despite the Malkavian Primogen not naming names. At some point there were plans to also rid LA of the ‘lesser’ factions- the Anarchs and the Sabbat but that plan probably got pushed to the wayside by LaCroix’s growing obsession with the Ankaran sarcophagus.

 And why did Ming Xiao end up breaking off her alliance with Prince Sebastian LaCroix and reveal the truth of who murdered Grout and the framing of Nines Rodriguez?  

By the time Ming Xiao reveals the truth to the player, she has suffered a number of setbacks; you’ve cut down the Tong’s leader and wreaked havoc on the whole organization, including the Fu Syndicate and have killed the Chang Brothers, her best agents. Plus, despite the blood hunt called on him, Nines is still at large and LaCroix has become completely obsessed with the Ankaran sarcophagus. Perhaps she fears or believes LaCroix will decide to turn on her and reveal who really murdered Grout. Everything for her is unravelling and by this point the player has proven to be an incredible ally worth having.

Ming Xiao reveals the truth to the player to make you turn against LaCroix and possibly encourage you to go and tell the Anarchs, which will lead to a war between the Anarchs and the Camarilla. However, then Ming Xiao goes and mentions that she has the key. I find her motivation for doing so on shaky ground, since it feels more like a ‘Come at me bro’ moment, which doesn’t seem the smartest thing for her to do. Or perhaps she knows that LaCroix cannot resist the opportunity to kill Nines rather than team up with him to kill the Kuei-jin together and since you’ve survived this long, surely you can handle whatever threat LaCroix will throw your way and then come crawling to her.

I can’t help but think that, like LaCroix’s later actions of a desperate man scrambling for any semblance of power, Ming Xiao’s actions at this point are of a woman losing control of the situation, thanks to the unexpected power of the player. Perhaps it was intended by the writers of VTMB for this to be the case and, unlike LaCroix, who’s barely keeping himself together, Ming Xiao is better at hiding her true emotions. The anger and rage Ming Xiao truly feels only spill out when you fight her in the other endings.

 And Why did Ming Xiao betray the player character in the Kuei-jin ending?

In the Kuei-jin ending the player has successfully defeated all of LaCroix’s men and The Sheriff, showing their unusually fast rate of power gain. After all, you’ve only been a vampire for two weeks at most, who knows how powerful you’ll be in a year or two. And Ming Xiao’s plans do not include you living amongst Kuei-jin, though there have been Kindred such as Salvador Garcia, a former ally of Jeremy McNeil who joined the Kuei-jin and didn’t get screwed over, though that was back in the old WOD canon and things might be different now.

However, to Ming Xiao, you are nothing but a threat that needs to be taken care of since she thinks that Nines Rodriguez is dead, as is LaCroix.  Little does she know that Nines is luckier than most… So, Ming Xiao straps the player to the Ankaran sarcophagus and dumps you and it in the ocean, perhaps believing she’s made the first step in preventing the Sixth Age.

 So, in conclusion, I believe that I’ve outlined what sort of motives and goals Ming Xiao has. She’s trying to help stop the Age of Sorrow through any means necessary, no matter the cost. Again, a noble goal, but one that does not include the rest of Kindred kind.

Thank you for reading my essay on Ming Xiao’s motives and goals and I hope you found it enlightening or at the very least interesting.  Any thoughts or criticism are very welcome.

#vampire the masquerade #Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines #VTMB #Ming Xiao #My writing #meta

[fallencrackships]

Requests Update

Alycia Debnam-Carey and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, father and daughter - Anon

Alexis Bledel as Rory and Tom Holland as Peter Parker (siblings) - mystic-scripture

Anna Kendrick and Alex O'Loughlin as Steve Mcgarrett - hawaiianohana31

Ana De Armas and Timothée Chalament - Anon

Ana De Armas and Andy Samberg - Anon

Ana De Armas and Penn Badgley - Anon

Ana De Armas and Danneel Ackles - Anon

Ana De Armas and Sebastian Stan - Anon

Ana De Armas and Ryan Gosling as Holland March (The Nice Guys) - Anon

Adelaide Kane and Alex O'Loughlin, married - martyredmotheraesthetics

Adelaide Kane as Mary (Lyah) and Bradley James as Arthur - lyah-malik

Adelaide Kane and Joel Kinnaman - Anon

Adelaide Kane and Summer Fontana with Jacob Tremblay - hope-andrea-marhall

Amber Heard and James McAvoy - Anon

Amber Heard (30 Days to Kill or Drive Angry) x James McAvoy (Wanted) - Anon

Amber Heard and Luke Evans- Anon

Anna Diop and Eddie Cibrian - Anon

Bailee Madison and David Mazouz, couple - Anon

Bailee Madison and Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, father and daughter - Anon

Blanca Suárez as Alba Romero (Cable Girls) and Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby (Peaky Blinders) - Anon

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers and Odette Anable - clary--jackson

Brie Larson and Jake Gyllenhal (not as superheroes) - Anon

Brit Marling and Pablo Schreiber - curlykoalas

Bella Thorne and Scarlett Byrne - Anon

Cody Christian and Colin O'Donoghue - Anon

Courtney Eaton and Dylan O'Brien - Anon

Chelsey Reist and Robbie Amell - Anon

Cara Delevinge (long hair) and Matthew Daddario - Anon

Crystal Reed and Charlie Rowe (older) as Partners - Anon

Crystal Reed (Not Gotham) , Dylan Bruce and Ben Affleck (Not Batman), love Triangle - Anon

Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge and Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus Lopez Arguello - multixxfandomxx

Chloe Bennet as daisy Johnson x Justin H. Min as ben hargreeves - Anon

Chloe Bennet and Mark Rufflo as spouses - Anon

Chloe Bennet and Sam Claflin - vweasley15

Chandler Riggs as Billy Kaplan/Wiccan and Issac Hempstead as Tommy Shepard/Speed, the sons of Wanda Maximoff. - Anon

Claire Holt and Sasha Pieterse - Anon

Danielle Campbell and Claire Holt as friends - iamgamidova

Danielle Rose Russell as the daughter of Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas (OUAT) - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell as a SHIELD Agent - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Dylan O'Brien - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Ksenia Solo as sisters - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell as the daughter of Chris Pratt and Angela Sarafyan - lxvelikelegends

Danielle Rose Russell and Marvels Cloak and Dagger cast - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Isaac Hempstead Wright - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and The Guardians of the Galaxy - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Erika Linder - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Herman Tommeraas - iamgamidova

Danielle Rose Russell and Hero Fiennes-Tiffen - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell as the daughter of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Tom Holland as Peter Parker, happy couple - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Tom Holland as Peter Parker, training - Anon

Danielle Rose Russell and Tom Holland - liebleu

Dianna Agron and Avan Jogia - Anon

Dove Cameron as Ruby Hale and Tom Holland as Peter Parker - Anon

Emma Mackey and Gregg Sulkin - Anon

Emmy Rossum and Stephen James - littlemisshiddleston

Emmy Rossum as Bilba Baggins (female Bilbo) and Richard Armitage as Thorin - Anon

Emilia Clarke as Dany and Luke Goss as Nuada - Anon

Emeraude Toubia and Margot Robbie as friends/roommates - anewchapterlove

Emeraude Toubia and James McAvoy - Anon

Emeraude Toubia and Jake Gyllenhal - Anon

Emma Watson and Joe Mazzello - Anon

Eliza Taylor as Clarke and Keith Allan as Murphy - Anon

Gender bent - Ellen Hollman (Saxa) as Hercules and either Ben Barnes or Avan Jogia as Meg - Anon

Ellie Bamber and Haley Lu Richardson as lovers - Anon

Ellie Bamber and Mark McKenna - Anon

Elizabeth Gillies (undercover) and Eric Dane (stalker) - Anon

Elizabeth Gillies and Skeet Ulrich- Anon

Elizabeth Gillies and Tyler Hoechlin - Anon

Freya Mavor and Alfred Enoch - Anon

Felicity Jones and Jeremy Sumpter (Adult) - justcalldibs

Gabrielle Wilde as Constance and Santiago Cabrera as Aramis - atinkerbellstuff

Gal Gadot and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - Anon

Giorgia Whigham and Callum Turner - Anon

Gemma Arterton and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Dracula or modern) - Anon

Holliday Grainger and Moon Ga Young - Anon

Hayley Atwell and Tom Ellis - songbirdsfallenembersandgolddust

Hayley Atwell and Henry Cavill - songbirdsfallenembersandgolddust

Halsey and Andre Hamann - happyhostforsymbiotes

Hayden Panettiere and Jude Law - Anon

Holland Roden and Hunter Parrish - themaravismari

Imogen Poots and Jake Gyllenhal - danielcvmbell

Ivana Baquero and TWD Cast (Rick, Carl, Glenn, Negan, Daryl, Maggie) - Anon

India Eisley and Sky Ferreira as enemies - ask-little-red-wolf

Jaimie Alexander and Rosario Dawson married - Anon

Jaimie Alexander as Jane and Norman Reedus as Daryl - Anon

Jessica Stroup and True Detective season 1 cast - Anon

Jenny Boyd (blonde) as the daughter of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts - Anon

Jenny Boyd as Lizzie and Tom Holland as Peter Parker - scrumptiousponyghostpeach

Jenny Boyd (Vikings Quest) and Aaron Jakubenko (Roman Empire or Shannara Chronicles) - elenacarinandherfandoms

Jenna Coleman and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy (Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows) - Anon

Jenna Coleman and Chris Wood - Anon

Kat Denning and Matt Bomer with Colin Ford as their son - Anon

Kiernan Shipka (Sabrina) and Jessica Lange (AHS Coven) - Anon

Kristen Stewart and Lee Pace - Anon

Kristen Stewart (Personal Shopper/Still Alice) and Michael Trevino - Anon

Kaylee Bryant as the daughter of Chris Wood - the-selfless-bash

Kaylee Bryant as Josie, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers her mentor and Tom Holland as Peter Parker as her best friend - Anon

Katie McGrath and Tom Hiddleston (medieval) - lady-crowned-with-stars

Katie McGrath and Grant Gustin with Bruce and Selina from Gotham as their twin children - Anon

Katie McGrath and Michael Fassbender? 1940-50s era (He was a soldier). - lady-crowned-with-stars

Kristine Froseth and Benjamin Wadsworth - Anon

Letitia Wright as Shuri and Tom Holland as Peter Parker, best friends au - Anon

Lily Collins as Clary Fray and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy - Anon

Lily Collins and Grant Gustin - Either lovers or stalker au - Anon

Lily Collins and Charles Melton "If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete, and I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for" - meaniebeaniecrackshipper

Lily James and Jessica Chastain - Anon

Lily James and Jessica Chastain - thesound-of-myvoice

Lili Reinhart and Daniel Sharman - Anon

Lili Reinhart and Tom Holland - youweremyworstx

Lili Reinhart and Tyler Posey - Anon

Lyndsy Fonseca and Keanu Reeves as John Wick - katrena7

Lyndsy Fonseca and criminal minds cast finding out she's Spencers sister not including Derek - lyah-malek

Lyndsy Fonseca and Luke Mitchell - lyah-malek x2

Lyndsy Fonseca and Harry Shum Jr as Magnus Bane - lyah-malek

Lyndsy Fonseca and Emilie Ullerup - lyah-malik

Lyndsy Fonseca and Katherine McNamara as Clary Fray - lyah-malik

Lyndsy Fonseca and Scott Caan as Danny Williams - lyah-malek

Lyndsy Fonseca and Alex O'Loughlin as Steve Mcgarrett - lyah-malek

Lyndsy Fonseca and Matthew Gray Gubler as Spencer Reid - lyah-malek

Lyndsy Fonseca and Matt Bomer as siblings - lyah-malek

Lyndsy Fonseca and Wilson Bethel - Anon

Lyndsy Fonseca and Robert Downey Jr as siblings - lyah-malek

Madelaine Petsch and Aaron Taylor Johnson - bambifatale

Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom and Kat Barrell as Nicole Haught as sisters - cherylishaught

Maisie Williams and Aaron Taylor Johnson as Pietro - strawberrycake-z

Maria Avgeropoulos and Harry Treadaway - novaleecarter

Margot Robbie as Annie and Ryan Gosling as K - Anon

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as a couple - Anon

Margot Robbie and Ryan Reynolds - nixiestyx

Maisie Richardson Sellers as Charlie and Paul Wesley - wicked-laugh

Maisie Richardson Sellers and Anna Diop as sisters/friends - wicked-laugh

Maisie Richardson Sellers and Jesse Lee Soffer - wicked-laugh

Marina Laswick and Brenton Thwaites - Anon

Melissa Benoist and Keanu Reeves - Anon

Melissa O'Neil as Lucy Chen and Samuel Caleb Hunt as Mouse - Anon

Melissa O'Neil from Dark Matters and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes - Anon

Melisa Asil Pamuk and Joseph Morgan as Klaus Mikaelson - Anon

Natalie Dormer and Richard Armitage - Anon

Nina Dobrev as Rose Hathaway and Blair Redford as Dimitri Belikov - posterofamyth

Olivia Wilde and Hugh Dancy - Anon

Olivia Wilde and Michael Fassbender, friends with benefits - Anon

Olivia Wilde and True Detective season 1 cast - Anon

Odette Annable and Sebastian Stan - alexwit1325

Odette Annable and Joseph Morgan as Klaus Mikaelson - alexwit1325

Phoebe Tonkin and Tom Ellis - beforewewerehopeless

Phoebe Tonkin and Keanu Reeves as Constantine - katrena7

Phoebe Tonkin as Hayley Marshal and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock - Anon

Rachel Weisz and Alyssa Milano - Anon

Rachel Weisz (The Mummy movies) and Tom Hiddleston - Anon

Rowan Blanchard as Cleo and Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus - Anon

Sasha Pieterse and Rachel Taylor - Anon

Scarlett Johansson (blonde) and Eric Dane - Anon

Shelley Hennig and Richard Armitage - Anon

Sophie Turner and Gavin leatherwood as Nicholas scratch - Anon

Sophie Turner and Hayden Christensen - feniah-394

Sophie Skelton and RJ King - Anon

Willa Fitzgerald and Lucas Till, couple - Anon

Phew! I'm hoping that's everyone.... If I've missed your request then just shoot me a message or if you want to stay anonymous then just shoot me another message Friday when I open 😊😊 as always thank you for your patience and support. I might get one or two done today but not sure. My muse tends to come and go, he's a fiesty little fucker who likes to come and go as he pleases!

#Crackships #Crossovers #Au #Wow #Requests

[fearsmagazine]

HOMEBOUND - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Brainstorm Media

SYNOPSIS:  A young woman, Holly, is traveling with her new husband to meet his estranged family for his daughter’s birthday. Upon arrival at the estate he finds his ex-wife is not home. A short time later he receives a text that she is away and will be back much later. As the day progresses the adults begin to wonder that she might be missing and, as their stay goes into the next day the children’s behavior becomes even stranger, more so towards Holly.

REVIEW: Sebastian Godwin’s HOMEBOUND  is a contemporary tale with traditional gothic elements that presents an atmosphere similar to Jack Clayton’s 1961 film “The Innocents,” based on Henry James’ "The Turn of the Screw."

The narrative presents Holly, Richard’s new wife, who is the outsider and clearly has been told little, if anything at all, by Richard about his ex and children. Richard is presented as a bit of a character whose dark side begins to present itself when they arrive and time passes. The older children present a closer relationship than they do with their younger sibling. They are on edge, and you can’t help but feel they are hiding something. Holly is the only one who acknowledges that something is wrong, as even Richard seems oblivious to the dark atmosphere in the house. The narrative presents an interesting character study, but it never presents a specific trigger as to why these events are transpiring. Clearly, there is no supernatural element present so we are to assume that there was some type of trauma that led to the situation. The tension builds to a climax where we are present with violence and a resolution that offers little explanation. We are left to assume there is some deeper psychological trauma, and possibly some of Richard’s passed on genetics are responsible for what transpires.

The film has an excellent location, a Victorian “cottage” in a rural setting with some, but many, modern comforts. The costumes are contemporary, but not lavish. The story takes place in this single location with some flashbacks. The cinematography adds a lot of atmosphere and creates this menacing under current. The editing keeps the tale moving along and holds the viewer’s interest. The framing of the shots also adds to the tension to the scenes.

This is an excellent ensemble cast. The family is simply creepy. They’re a contemporary Addams Family, without any of the satire. Raffiella Chapman and Lukas Rolfe create these brooding, dark characters. They are able to juxtapose a sense of innocence that is shrouded in a sinister mystery. Tom Goodman-Hill presents a character that has no business being a parent. There is a psychopathic element to his character that is terrifying. Caught up in this nightmare is Aisling Loftus as Holly. She comes across as Alice who has come to a Mad Hatters Tea Party that is darker than anything Lewis Carroll envisioned. She presents this emotional roller coaster ride that is as intense as it is frightening.

Sebastian Godwin weaves together a frightening feast that grates on the viewer's nerves as he builds to a climax that almost reaches an intensity as that of the “What’s in the Box” scene from “Se7en.” The director offers the viewer some resolution and leaves some to the imagination, empowering the film to linger in the viewer’s psyche beyond the end credits. It is a complex choreography between visuals, performances and the score. The story is not a totally original narrative, but Godwin presents contemporary characters and engages our emotions to take us on the ride. I fully enjoyed what he achieved here and am excited to see what he presents next. HOMEBOUND is well worth the viewing experience.

CAST: Aisling Loftus, Tom Goodman-Hill, Hattie Gotobed, Raffiella Chapman, and Lukas Rolfe CREW: Director/Screenplay - Sebastian Godwin; Producer - Hugo Godwin; Cinematographer - Sergi Vilanova Claudín; Score - Jeremy Warmsley; Editor - Rachel Durance; Production Designer - Zoe Payne; Costume Designer - Gabriela Yiaxis. OFFICIAL: www.brainmedia.com/films/homebound FACEBOOK: N.A. TWITTER: N.A. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/11JABJG9qrU RELEASE DATE: In Theaters and On Demand May 13th, 2022

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

#film review #movie review #homebound #homeboundmovie #brainstorm media #sebastian godwin #aisling loftus #tom goodman-hill #hattie gotobed #raffiella chapman #lukas rolfe #horror #thriller #mystery #joseph mauceri #joseph b mauceri

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Rest of the Weekend Warrior’s 2020 Top 25… and His Terrible 12 Movies!

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that my Top 10 has already appeared over at Below the Line, and you can either go there and read those first or start with the movies that fell just outside my top 10, including a few movies you might not have heard about.

Back at the very beginning of 2020, I made a private resolution that I would watch more screeners. This is because I had become quite legendary for publicists sending me screeners and me just not getting the time to watch them with all the running around I was doing to screenings. I will never make a resolution like that ever again. (In fact, if my 2021 resolution was to have more sex, I only really need to do it once.)

This year, I wrote (no joke) slightly under 300 reviews, which may be more than I wrote in the three years prior. Part of this was having extra time from not travelling around the city trying to get to screenings, but also, once I decided to transition my weekly box office column into a review column, I decided that I was gonna watch and review as many movies as I possibly could this year. I’m sure there are others who do this all the time, but man, I don’t know how you do it. There were days where I got so burnt out at staring at my laptop for 15 hours every day that I just had to stop.

Still, when you’re watching 300 movies in a single year, any movie that can get into my annual Top 25 (or even get an Honorable Mention) should feel somewhat honored.

Anyway, onto the second 15 movies in my Top 25 (click on the title for a link to each of my reviews!):

11. Herself (Amazon Prime Video) – One of my more recent viewings is this film directed by Phyllida Lloyd  (Mamma Mia!) and starring British actress Clare Dunne (who also co-wrote the script) as a mother of two young girls who got out of an abusive marriage with a man who still shares custody with her daughters. She wants to give her girls a place to live so she decides to build her own house on a plot of land given to her as a gift. It’s such a simple premise but Lloyd and Dunne have made a wonderful not-too-heavy drama that still slams you with its raw emotions.

12. Jungleland (IFC Films) – I really enjoyed Max Winkler’s earlier movie Ceremony, but this underground boxing drama about two brothers (Jack O’Connell, Charlie Hunnam) was also a solid crime-drama that follows them on a road trip to deliver a mob boss’ mistress (Jessica Barden) back to him on their way to a big match. Winker really outdid himself in terms of the storytelling and somehow managed to avoid most of the normal boxing movie cliches while allowing this to stand up to some of the greats.

13. Palm Springs (NEON/Hulu) – One of the first of this year’s Sundance movies that really connected with me, Max Barbakow’s sci-fi comedy starred Andy Samberg as a guy stuck at a horrible wedding who ends up in a Groundhog’s Day situation with the wonderful Christin Milioti was so much fun. Adding to the madness was JK Simmons as a guy who seems to be out to get Samberg’s character for reasons we don’t learn until much later. Such a brilliant and hilarious movie with so much great re-watch value.

14. Soul (Disney•Pixar) – The latest from the animation studio that seemingly can’t do wrong – but that depends on who you ask – follows jazz pianist Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx) who dies and ends up “The Great Beyond” desperate to get back to earth having just gotten his big break. Helping him (sort of) is a soul voiced by Tina Fey, and things don’t go quite as Joe helped. Co-written and co-directed by Kemp Powers, the film goes in a different direction from Docter’s last animated film, Inside Out, but still retaining some of the same metaphysical fabric that made that Oscar-winning animated film connect with adults just as much as with kids.

15. Mangrove (Amazon Prime Video) – The debate on whether Steve McQueen’s latest “Small Axe Anthology”  should be deemed a TV series or five separate movies continues to rage as Amazon decides to save the movie for the Emmies. At  two hours long, Mangrove is the closest of the series to being a  great stand-alone film, and frankly, I thought it was better than McQueen’s Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave. This told the true story of restaurant owner, Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), and how he’s persecuted by the racist local police in the late ‘60s, but when he teams with a local Black Panther activist (Black Panther’s Letitia Wright), a protest march turns into a tense court trial for a number of people involved in it.

16. I Will Make You Mine (Gravitas Ventures) – Actor Lynn Chen’s directorial debut was actually the third movie in a trilogy of indie films centered around musician/songwriter Goh Nakamura, who appeared in all three films. I watched this the first time thought it was just okay. When I realized it was part of a series of films, and I went back and watched the other two movies, I was completely blown away by what Chen did within this finale. With movies, you generally only have a limited time to explore its characters, but like Richard Linklater’s “Before” movies, this movie helped to really create depth in the characters by revisiting them. I was kind of shocked that I hadn’t seen the other movies – few critics have – and though only 18 other critics reviewed this one, the film is still 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, which should tell you how good it is.

17. Sylvie’s Love (Amazon Prime Video) – Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha starred in Eugene Ashe’s 50s-60s-set romantic drama about an early television producer and a jazz musician, following their relationship after a summer fling that ends with him leaving for Paris. Separated for years, she remarries and raise the child from her former lover, but then they reconnect and… well, you’ll have to watch it for yourself. It’s on Prime Video right now, so if you’re a subscriber, you have no reason not to. (And Erik Davis of Fandango had a great idea… watch this as a double feature with McQueen’s Lovers Rock from “Small Axe Anthology”!)

18. The Traitor (Sony Pictures Classics) – Last year’s Italian section for the Oscar International Film was a fantastic The Godfather-like crime-thriller, this one starring Pierfrancesco Favino as Tomassso Buscetta, a Palermo-based Casa Nostra family member responsible for the heroin trade in the ‘80s who flees to Brazil. It’s an amazing story showing that filmmaker Marco Bellochio did his research to create a movie that didn’t really get the critical love or attention it deserved.

19. Weathering With You (GKids) – And here is Japan’s selection for the Oscar International Film, a rare Anime film, this one by Your Name director Makoto Shinkai, this one more about a fantasy-romance about a young man who meets a young woman who can control the rain, which they turn into a lucrative business. I didn’t love it quite as much as Your Name, which was a truly inventive turn on the “body-switching” movie, but this also had some of the same characterizations that make Shinkai’s work so terrific, so it was impossible not to enjoy how it translated into his latest feature.

20. Lingua Franca (ARRAY Releasing/Netflix) – Trans filmmaker Isabel Sandoval’s film was released in the same weekend as another movie with a trans lead, Flavio Alves’ The Garden Left Behind. While they were both good, Sandoval wrote, directed and starred in her movie which was about her character Olivia having a romance with a guy surrounded by transphobic bros. Olivia is also trying to get her green card, and the immigrant aspect of the film really added a lot to what seemed like a deeply personal film.

21. The Outpost (Screen Media Films) – I’ve been a fan of Rod Lurie’s work for almost as long as I’ve been writing reviews. In fact, one of my very FIRST movie reviews was for his movie The Last Castle in 2001. I’ve also been fortunate to call him friend. I’ve watched Rod transition into quite a skilled television director, but I been waiting over ten years for him to make a movie as good as his amazing political thriller, Nothing but the Truth. Working from Jake Tapper’s non-fiction novel, Lurie created a full-on and unapologetic war movie as good as Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, Blackhawk Down or any other modern war film… but also a film as personal as any others released this year.

22. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix) – Aaron Sorkin’s second film as a director stepped things up, WAY up, as he decided to take on one of the more noted events that signified the famed “Summer of Love” of 1969, as a number of peaceful protesters were tried by the federal government for “inciting a riot.” The amazing cast included Eddie Redmayne, Sacha  Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen 2, Michal Keaton, Mark Rylance, Frank Langella, Jeremy Strong and many more. It was an abundance of acting riches and when you have such a fine wordsmith in screenwriter/playwright Sorkin, it’s hard to go wrong. The thing is that by the time I saw this, I had already seen Steve McQueen’s Mangrove, which in my opinion is a far superior version of a similar story from the same time period.

23. Words on Bathroom Walls (LD Entertainment/Roadside Attractions) – A movie I didn’t expect much from but totally fell in love with was this romantic drama starring Charlie Plummer as Adam Petrozelli, a young man sent to a Catholic School where he hopes to keep his schizophrenia a secret from his new classmates. The film co-starred Taylor Russell from Waves as Adam’s friend and love interest, who also gets worried about Adam’s erratic behavior whenever he goes off his meds. Adam’s condition was shown by the personalities he interacts with, played by Anna Sophia Robb, Devon Bostick and Lobo Sebastian, but the movie also stars the great Molly Parker as Adam’s mother and Walton Goggins as her live-in boyfriend. All of this adds up to a great coming-of-age film from Thor Freudenthal that also became one of the first couple movies since March to test out theatrical waters months after the pandemic shutdown.

24. Sputnik (IFC Midnight) – An amazing Russian sci-fi thriller from Egor Abramenko (remember that name!) that’s likely to be compared to Alien  but adds so much more depth by taking place in communist Russia during the ‘80s. It stars Pyotr Fyodorov as a cosmonaut who brought something back with him from space and Oksana Akinshina as the psychologist who has to figure what is happening. It starts quite, reminding you of the original Russian film Solaris, but by the end, it gets pretty insane. More than anything, it finds a way of doing something original within an overused sci-fi trope.

25. Parallel (Vertical Entertainment)  - Similarly, I had pretty low expectations for Isaac Ezban’s sci-fi/horror film about a group of Silicon Valley friends who discover a mirror that allows them to travel to and from alternate versions of their own dimension, which they use for criminal activities. Soon, some of them have gotten out of control with the power and money that this access gives them, but like Palm Springs, it’s a great take on another overused sci-fi trope that’s done so beautifully. (Warning: There have been a LOT of movies with this title in the last five years. Make sure you choose the right one!)

Honorary Mentions: The Prom (Netflix), Kindred (IFC Midnight), On the Rocks (A24/Apple TV+), Yellow Rose(Sony), Misbehaviour (Shout! Factory), Premature (IFC Films), Spontaneous (Paramount), The Climb (Sony Pictures Classics)

Oh, and as a reminder, here’s my top 10, this time with links to my reviews where applicable:

10. One Night in Miami.. (Amazon Prime Video) 9. Pieces of a Woman (Netflix) 8. Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime Video) 7. Mulan (Disney+) 6. Synchronic (Well GO USA) (Tied with Disney+’s Hamilton) 5. Nomadland (Searchlight Studios) 4. News of the World (Universal) 3. Minari (A24) 2. Corpus Christi 1. Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)

And some MORE DOCS I liked that didn’t make my Top 12 over at Below the Line:

13. Robin’s Wish (Vertical) 14. PJ Harvey: A Dog Called Money 15. 76 Days (MTV Documentaries) 16. Rebuilding Paradise (NatGeo) 17. The Fight (Magnolia) 18. Collective (Magnolia) 19. Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (Shout! Studios) 20. We Are Freestyle Love Supreme (Hulu) 21. My Name is Pedro (Sweet 180) 22. Crock of Gold: A Night with Shane MacGowan (Magnolia) 23. You Cannot Kill David Arquette (Super) 24. Feels Good Man 25. Suzi Q (Utopia Distribution)

The Terrible 12 of 2020!:

And it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for -- and the reason I guess most people are reading this -- so I apologize for making all five of you read through all the great movies and docs of 2020 before getting to the juicy stuff. Let’s get to it!

12. Superintelligence (HBO Max) – There was a time when I loved Melissa McCarthy – years before Bridesmaids – but her success after that film and her decision to keep making movies with husband/director Ben Falcone has only led to a few halfway decent comedies. (I didn’t think The Boss was that bad, but that’s cause it co-starred Kristen Bell.) So imagine if you’re one of the first big studio comedies to be dumped to Warner Media’s new streaming service, HBO Max, and that was almost SIX MONTHS BEFORE COVID HIT! How bad could a movie be to have that little support and confidence from the studio? Well, I found out that very thing, as I sat through this horrible movie that had McCarthy play another one of her usual “everywomen,” this one who encounters an Artificial Intelligence, voiced by James Corben, who has achieved sentience. Trying to learn what it is to be human, the AI starts giving McCarthy’s character everything she wants, including a relationship an old workmate, played by Bobby Canavale. The movie wasn’t very funny but it also branched into a rom-com plot that just didn’t suit either McCarthy or Canavale, so yes, quite an epic fail.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “'Superintelligence' is not a term I'd use for whoever greenlit this piece of crap.”

11. Hubie Halloween (Netflix) – I don’t think that Hubie Halloween was anywhere near Adam Sandler’s worst movies ever, and probably not even his worst for Netflix – although there have been some VERY bad ones. The problem is that any opportunity Sandler was given in this movie to show he can deliver something other than “more of the same” had him instead resorting to the physical humor that appealed to his fanbase. And yet, it wasn’t even the worst movie to come out that week it debuted on the streamer. (See below.)

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “A perfectly fine Netflix movie, not something I’d ever want to have to sit in a movie theater watching with others.”

10. Max Cloud – This sci-fi-action-comedy didn’t have a terrible premise – I mean, I enjoyed it in all three Jumanji movies --  but it was marred by being such a monumentally badly made movie that stars one of the one actors in the business, namely Scott Adkins. Set in 1990, Adkins plays the title character in a video game, in which a teen girl finds herself transported as a character. If you wondered what a Jumanji movie would look like in the hands of a completely incompetent cast and crew, well, here you go.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “Pretty awful, a bad faux video game movie that should have had its plug pulled.”

9. The Stand-In (Saban Films) – Not to be outdone by her frequent co-star Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore threw out all of the love she’s garnered from previous movies and her new talk show by playing dual roles of a raunchy comedy star best known for her pratfalls (so kind of a cross between Sandler and Melissa McCarthy?). Barrymore also played her nearly identical stand-in who didn’t get as much acclaim but gets to stand in for her famous lookalike when the latter goes on a bender and ends up hiding in her mansion for five years. Not sure why Barrymore thought this would be a good way to put her back on the movie screen, but yikes… one of her character’s big gimmicks is falling face first into a pile of horse shit – not funny and just plain gross.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “Guarantees Barrymore a double-dose Razzie nomination.”

8. The War with Grandpa (101 Studios) – For whatever reason, I decided not to review this Weinstein Co. cast-off family comedy starring Robert De Niro and Uma Thurman. Maybe that’s because I hated the movie so much I could barely get through it, and with a Friday review embargo, I just decided not to waste any more time thinking about it. So why didn’t it end up lower, you ask? I have no effin’ idea.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: N/A

7. Pearl – There have been some bad young adult romances over the past few years, and while I don’t think Bobby Roth’s is actually based on any existing book, it might as well have been, because it was very, very bad. It stars Larsen Thompson as a 15-year-old piano prodigy who is sent to live with her unemployed film director uncle, played by Anthony LaPaglia, who was so super-creepy in that role. I don’t remember much else, since I deliberately scrubbed my memory of this movie’s existence.  Little did I realize that I’d be watching an even WORSE version of this movie a few months later.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “LaPaglia is way too good an actor, who deserves better than this.”

6. Black Water: Abyss – Another movie I watched late in the week and just didn’t have time or bother to review. Honestly, I remember very little about this. I think it involves crocodiles? Who knows, who cares? Not me or anyone else I expect. Everything about this movie was pretty bad.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: N/A

5. The Turning (Universal) – Probably the biggest studio movie to wind up on this list, and possibly the only reason I didn’t review this was because I interviewed the director, Floria Sigismondi (The Runaways), who is generally a pretty awesome artist. But I love the original source material on which this is based and seeing how much better Netflix’s The Horror of Bly Manor was a few months later just made me a little sore that a movie starring the great Mackenzie Davis with Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince could end up with one of the lamest endings of a horror movie in recent memory.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: N/A

4. Butt Boy (Epic Pictures) – Tyler Cornack’s comedy-slash-thriller was my worst movie of the year for many, many months until the three movies below it reared their ugly heads. Still, this one is pretty ugly as it stars Conack himself as Chip Gutchel, a man who becomes obsessed after a proctology exam so that things just keep vanishing up his own asshole. Yeah, I think my RT quote is fairly apt.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “I wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy.”

3. Buddy Games (Saban Films/Paramount) – The fact that Josh Duhamel’s directorial debut came out the same week as Superintelligence yet ended up lower on this list is fairly telling. It involves Duhamel and a group of his friends taking part in ridiculous competitions for money, and shows what happens when these friends reunite five years later to throw another Buddy Game. It was just very low-brow and disgusting and a not particularly funny take on the Jackass movies. There was scene that almost made me stop watching.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “To call Buddy Games moronic, idiotic or even asinine, would be an insult to morons, idiots or asses, who are also likely the movie's target audience.“

2. Sno Babies (Better Noise Films) – This poorly-conceived “Afterschool Special” that follows a high school senior named Kristen (Katie Kelly) and her ever-growing drug addiction was almost like a young adult version of Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream if just about everything about the movie was bad from the writing to the acting to just really horrible images that no one would want to watch or be put through. If the film just followed Kelly’s character, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, but it’s a narrative that follows a bunch of characters including a couple wanting to have a baby… and when Kristen becomes pregnant due to her being on drugs, well, you can probably guess where it’s going. The only movie this year that had me literally yelling at my laptop like a lunatic.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “The people who made this movie should never be allowed to make another movie again.”

1. Dead Reckoning (Shout! Studios) – Scott Adkins makes his second appearance in the Terrible 12 with a movie in which he plays an Albanian terrorist. In fact, when I first heard about this movie and the fact it was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, the cinematographer/director behind Romeo is Bleeding and lots of trashy action flickers from the Aughts, it made me expect something in that vein. Instead, this is another young adult drama set in Nantucket with K.J. Apa from Riverdale playing Adkins’ brother who falls for a local teen lush, played by India Eisley, who proceeds to chug alcohol in every scene. Oh, her parents were killed in a terrorist act… coincidence? I think not. Eventually, we learn that Adkins’ character is planning a terrorist act by blowing up a boat on the 4th of July, and that’s maybe an hour or more into the movie. And yeah, there’s a number of action scenes awkwardly shoehorned into the story as well… Adkins’ fight with a nurse trying to help him was particularly hilarious. But the fact that the movie is being sold as “a thriller inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013” just makes the whole thing even more awkward and insulting. This one ends up in the “What on earth were they thinking, whoever financed this movie?” box.

Rotten Tomatoes Quote: “The only way to have any fun watching this disaster is to play a drinking game where you take a drink every time Eisley's character takes a drink.”

That’s it for this year…. Happy New Year and on to 2021!

#TheWeekendWarrior #EDsTerrible10 #EDsTop25 #Movies #Reviews

[lapsa-lapsa]

Rob James-Collier: Oh, You Handsome Devil!

As Downton Abbey's hot gay villain, Rob James-Collier finds love -- and redemption.

BY

AARON HICKLIN

THU, 2013-01-03 09:04

Photography by David Bailey

Styling by Julian Ganio

Last March, when The New Yorker’s Ian Crouch declared an “epidemic of Downton Abbey fever,” he wasn’t wrong. The show has been nothing short of a phenomenon, a runaway success for dowdy old PBS, far outpacing in ratings that other popular period drama, Mad Men. It’s a classic tale of love and fortune with a fundamental mystery at its core, namely: How can something this schlocky be this good? Maybe it has something to do with its formula, equal parts high class to high camp (yes, Dame Maggie Smith, we’re looking at you); or its bucolic English setting; or, more likely, its blatant appeal to our closeted hankering for a butler fully versed in the art of decanting vintage port. After all is said and done, who has not wished that they, too, could be in the position to declare, like the Dowager Countess with her imperious mix of disdain and perplexity, “What is a week-end?”

Indeed, what is a weekend without Downton Abbey to cozy up with on Sunday nights? And here it is, back again to keep winter from the door—season 3, and with it the Roaring Twenties to blow away the agony of war and the insult of rationing. Expect flappers and the Charleston, and a Marcel wave or two.

Let me come clean: I haven’t seen a preview of season 3 -- in my home that would be cheating; it’s what we still call appointment TV -- but I have it on great authority that this is the season in which that villainous gay footman-turned-valet, Thomas Barrow, experiences the tender love that his poor, neglected heart so craves and needs. It’s about time. His dalliance with the Duke of Crowborough in the opening episode of season 1 turned out to be a tease. He ended season 2 in the arms of the Dowager Countess, twirling around the dance floor at the Christmas party like a neuter content to spend his prime escorting ladies of a certain age to the ball.

We should have known that creator and writer Julian Fellowes would not disappoint. Season 3 is where it all changes for young Thomas. And for us, too. Although there clearly were gay men in Edwardian England, they’ve been in scant supply on television. There was, of course, Sebastian and Charles in Brideshead Revisited, whose “naughtiness [was] high on the catalogue of grave sins,” as Evelyn Waugh wrote, but they merely hinted at what happened when the lights were off. Thomas promises to go somewhat further. It’s what makes Downton Abbey feel, well, modern.

No one, of course, is more excited by this turn of events than Rob James-Collier, the actor who secured the role of Thomas with the understanding that it was a one-season deal. “My agent said, ‘Listen, you’ve got the part that everyone in town wants—he’s a villain, he’s a great role, the only bad thing is that he dies at the end of the first series,’ ” recalls James-Collier. But Thomas clicked with the audience, and his on-screen chemistry with his maid counterpart, O’Brien (a wonderfully surly Siobhan Finneran), was irresistible. “I gave it 110 percent, and after the first couple of episodes, Liz, the producer, came to me and said, ‘We want you to stay on. Will you?’ And I was, like, ‘Fuck, yeah.’ ”

We are in Bloomsbury, London, sitting in a tiny French patisserie hardly big enough to contain James-Collier’s boundless energy. When he walks in, he immediately begins by quoting lines from articles of mine that he’s found online. It’s discombobulating. Research is my job. At another point, he puts me on the phone with a friend summoned to serve as a character reference. I feel like a luckless audience member at a comedy show, plucked from the front row as a volunteer for a gag. When I accidentally insert a “Smith” into his surname (it’s that damn hyphenate), he is gleeful as hell. “Aaron has got my name wrong, and he’s now floundering, trying to think of it,” he dictates into my recorder.

That double-barreled name, incidentally, was not his choice. He grew up in Salford, near Manchester, as plain Rob Collier, and might have stayed that way had actors union Equity not intervened to avoid confusion with another Rob Collier. “I said, ‘Can I have Rob James Collier, and they said, ‘Yeah, if you hyphenate it,’ and I said, ‘Well, can I have Rob-James Collier?’ and they said -- and this is true -- ‘No, you have to hyphenate the James and the Collier.’ ” He wasn’t happy. In England, hyphenated surnames are for posh people. “I was, like, ‘That sounds like someone from the aristocracy, as if I’m being somebody I’m not.’ But they insisted,” he recalls ruefully. In Britain, still today, there’s little more disreputable than the man or woman who puts on the airs and graces of the upper class.

I went to school with boys like James-Collier. You probably did, too. They are the entertainers and comedians, who laugh at their own pratfalls. What they lack in confidence they make up for in banter. It’s no surprise to hear that James-Collier is the joker on set, and the one with the loudest mouth. “Most actors are really shy and insular creatures,” he explains. “I’ve just always been a dick.” He remembers his first day at acting class (he found it by consulting the Yellow Pages), and realizing that he’d liberated himself. “We were doing these warm-up exercises, running around doing crazy things with our voices, and, rather than feeling stupid, I just felt that I’d come home,” he says. He was working as a marketing assistant at the time, “listening to Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon -- great album, bad album to listen to if you’re in a rut, ticking away the hours that make up a dull day.” Watching Ricky Gervais’s masterwork, The Office, compounded his sense of futility. “It was my office,” he says. “I thought, I can’t do this for the rest of my life, surely?”

Oddly, that is the same dilemma facing Thomas Barrow, shackled to servitude as a footman at Downton Abbey, always looking for an opportunity to elevate his station in life -- and failing. His pitiful efforts to establish a black market in rationed goods during season 2 spoke volumes about the limitations confronting Britain’s working class in the Edwardian era. It’s moments like those that save Downton Abbey from being merely an exercise in sumptuous costume porn.

If you grew up in Britain, as I did, the world of Downton Abbey is a familiar one, conjured in an endless parade of finely wrought television shows, which we send across the oceans like telegraphs from our gilded past. Some of them, like 1981’s 11-hour miniseries, Brideshead Revisited, which introduced Jeremy Irons to the world, or 1995’s six-episode serialization of Pride and Prejudice, which did the same for Colin Firth, strike gold. Few, however, receive quite the rapturous reception of Downton Abbey. The reason, perhaps, is fairly simple: Although Downton wears the clothes (and production values) of quality drama, it has the soul of a soap opera. As my boyfriend likes to say, it’s very efficient, meaning that things happen at lightning speed. Resolutions come thick and swift, which is all part of the pleasure.

Fellowes himself takes credit for modernizing the format by borrowing his style from U.S. shows like The West Wing, but it’s also that the concerns of the show are discernibly our concerns, albeit in Edwardian costume. For James-Collier, “Downton Abbey is a workplace like any other. You’re going to get cliques of people who don’t like each other -- Thomas and O’Brien versus Bates and Anna -- and you’re going to get people who really love doing their jobs and people who are bitter and feel they’re just a number. It’s about relationships in the workplace environment, and people can identify with that because the same problems and political conflicts you have in work today were relevant back then.”

Coincidentally or otherwise, almost all the actors who play servants in Downton Abbey got their start in English soap operas -- gritty exercises in social realism, fully rooted in working-class culture. The oldest of those shows, Coronation Street -- set in Manchester -- has run continuously for 52 years, and nurtured generations of acting talent. James-Collier arrived on the series in 2006, as  “loveable rogue” Liam Connor, and stayed for two years before deciding he wanted to take on a different kind of challenge.

“It’s a great, brilliant show, but you have to make a decision,” he says. “I’m not knocking anyone for going that way [of soap operas] -- you can get security, and God knows we need that, but I think you’re limited then in terms of your options as an actor.” After Coronation Street, he was out of work for 15 months, waiting for the right thing to come along. “I watched people who had left these kinds of shows and had seen what happened,” he says. “So I knew you had to literally put the shutters down and just pray and hope that something would come along, and when the wolves were near the door, Downton Abbey came.”

James-Collier has joked that his character’s sexuality became so muted in season 2 that he called up Fellowes and asked, “Am I still gay?” Yes, it turns out. In season 3, we get to see Thomas outed in a powerful sequence of episodes that James-Collier considers the best acting of his career. “It’s the series where we really comes to grips with Thomas’s sexuality and the impact being gay must have had on him, in Edwardian times,” he says. “If you’re including a gay character, there’s an onus and responsibility to at least show what the impact of the time will be on him, and of him on that time. Thankfully we’ve done that, and I’m so proud that I’ve been used to tell that tale.”

A confrontation between Thomas and the butler, Mr. Carson, proves to be a high point, and one that confers uncommon dignity on the footman. “It’s a lovely, beautiful moment,” says James-Collier, clearly delighted by the opportunity to redeem his character. “If you were gay in those times, the fact that you’re even functioning, how you’re not completely fucked up by that, is beyond me.”

Although not gay in real life, he says he has empathy for misfits and outsiders, perhaps because of his own atypical route to acting. Even now it’s clear that he can’t quite believe that he’s earned his place as an actor. He recalls sitting opposite Maggie Smith during the first read-through (“a proper pinch-yourself moment”) and feeling that everything out of his mouth sounded like wooden splinters. It can’t be easy playing the least lovable character on the show. When she arrived on set, guest star Shirley MacLaine greeted him with the words, “It’s you -- the evil one! Why are you so evil?” The answers, apparently, are all in season 3. “With O’Brien and Thomas, you’ve got these two forces, and it’s a kind of paradox -- they work for this great house that keeps them off the streets and from starving, and yet they absolutely despise the system they’re in, because there’s no other option,” he says. “In a weird way Thomas wants to bring down the system, but if he did he’d be putting himself out of a job and a home.”

As he was talking, I remembered something: My own grandmother, now 92, had started her working life “in service” as they say, at the age of 14, still a child herself. That would have been in the 1930s -- the same era as Julian Fellowes other big country–house hit, Gosford Park, for which he won a best original screenplay Oscar in 2002. At the time my grandmother went into service, her father was ill and her mother was struggling to hold things together. “It was an awful wrench to leave my sisters and brothers at home, but it was one less pair of shoes under the table,” she explains when I ask about her experiences. My grandmother, a country girl, didn’t work in the big house (as one of her sisters did), but for a doctor’s family, where she was excruciatingly lonely.

“I think that’s the reason I got married so young -- to get out of it,” she says. “I did all the cooking and all the cleaning, and had one half day off a week, and a whole day off once a month.”

“No weekends, then?” I ask.

“Oh, there were no weekends,” she says, conjuring Maggie Smith’s glorious bafflement in season 1. It is to Downton Abbey’s credit that this stark double meaning isn’t entirely lost on the audience, or that the disparity between those upstairs and those downstairs isn’t varnished into oblivion. It’s left to us to imagine how people of O’Brien’s resourcefulness or Thomas’s ambition would fare in our own age, but one thing’s certain—they wouldn’t be spending their weekends polishing the silver.

https://www.out.com/entertainment/television/2013/01/03/rob-james-collier-downton-abbey

#robert james collier #thomas barrow #downton abbey #interview

[ericfruits]

Published 75 years ago, “Brideshead Revisited” set off a lasting cult

IN THE WEEKS after VE day, as British voters prepared to swap Winston Churchill for the Labour Party, the country’s fiction leapt into a radiant past. Published 75 years ago, at the end of May 1945, Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” offered not a Utopian vision of the future but a wistful dream of vanished faith and grace. In his seventh novel, a writer formerly known for mordant satire evoked—with a glamorous alloy of lyricism and rueful irony—a lost domain of “peace and love and beauty”, smashed by modernity, democracy and war.

At first glance, no story could have suited the progressive climate of 1945 worse than Waugh’s “sacred and profane memories of Captain Charles Ryder”, a middle-class, middlebrow artist turned lukewarm army officer. A chance billet sends Ryder back to the great house owned by the old, dysfunctional Catholic family who had bewitched him when he met Sebastian Flyte, its younger son, at Oxford in the 1920s. The levelling forces of the new age take the form of his junior officer, Hooper, whose outlook fuses practicality with the anti-aristocratic disdain shared, then and now, by many on both the British left and free-enterprise right.

To the romantic reactionary Waugh, the undignified future belonged to Hooper, with his trademark, cheery chirp of “Rightyoh”. “We possess nothing certainly except the past,” muses Ryder. With divine grace as his underlying theme and the time-encrusted splendours of the English Catholic elite as his frame, Waugh set out to give that past a last hurrah.

But this swansong heralded a strange rebirth. “Brideshead” sold very well—and critics adored it. “Most of the reviews have been adulatory except where they were embittered by class resentment,” Waugh wrote. Sceptics included Edmund Wilson of the New Yorker, who excoriated the “mere romantic fantasy” of this “Catholic tract” disfigured by “shameless and rampant” snobbery. Yet even he predicted a triumph—and the novel duly became a bestseller in America, too. Waugh affected to find the book’s success across the Atlantic “upsetting because I thought it in good taste before and now I know it can’t be”.

It turned out that an age of change loved escaping into faded glories. In a preface written in 1959, Waugh noted that amid the wartime austerity of 1944 it had been “impossible to foresee…the present cult of the English country house”, many of which had in the intervening years found salvation in tourism. Brideshead today would not be derelict, he speculated, but “open to trippers”, and better maintained than Lord Marchmain, its fictional master, ever managed. On the brink of the 1960s the author thought his book had been “a panegyric preached over an empty coffin”.

Still, Waugh, who died in 1966, might have been shocked by the next stage in this zombie afterlife. Directed by Charles Sturridge and Michael Lindsay-Hogg, with a star-strewn cast including Laurence Olivier, Anthony Andrews (pictured left) and Jeremy Irons (right), an 11-hour television adaptation of his novel began to air in Britain in October 1981. This lavish feast of nostalgia set off a national cult. Students and others mimicked the languid extravagance of doomed, drunken Sebastian, toting his teddy bear at Oxford, and his spoiled pals.

Smokestack industries were dying under Margaret Thatcher’s government; unemployment soared and inner cities rioted. But in many living rooms, the aristocracy was back in vogue. The fairy-tale nuptials of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer fed the mood. “We have really touched a nerve,” said Derek Granger, the producer of the series. After PBS broadcast it in America early in 1982, Bloomingdale’s in New York filled its windows with Flyte-style fashion. The Brideshead backwash lingered. In 1985 the National Gallery in Washington scored a hit with its “Treasure Houses of Britain” exhibition. David Cannadine, a British historian, denounced the “neonostalgic, pseudopastoral, manufactured world” on display in a critique headlined “Brideshead Re-Revisited”.

In Britain hardly any members of this new Flyte club actually belonged to the sparse upper classes. They came from the bourgeois middle and, after some play-acting at university, went back to it. For most, Brideshead mania left no lasting trace. For a fateful few, it did.

Teddy bears’ picnic

Waugh’s novel scoffs at the Bullingdon Club, a notorious Oxford drinking society, and its “cretinous porcine” hearties. The Bullingdon, though, revived in the TV show’s wake and recruited two future British prime ministers, Boris Johnson and David Cameron. More widely, a Flyte-flavoured pursuit of charm and panache spread across the gilded crust of British society. The novel’s waspish choric figure, the gay aesthete Anthony Blanche, warns Ryder against charm as “the great English blight” that “kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art.” But Brideshead chic promoted a genial, born-to-rule insouciance that elevated repartee above accomplishment, and cloaked the grubby business of winning and keeping power.

This tendency towards a kind of louche, showy entitlement did not begin with the drama. Yet according to David Kynaston, perhaps the pre-eminent historian of post-war Britain, “the TV adaptation did have some specific effect” on attitudes. He sums up the sentiments that “Brideshead” channelled: “No need any longer, despite all the Thatcher talk of meritocracy, to feel guilty about hereditary privilege. And OK to knock/despise the working class…An end, in short, to worthiness.”

The cult of the British country house, real and imaginary, lives on. The National Trust, a charity that looks after many of them, has 5.6m members, more than the population of Finland. “Downton Abbey”, one of Brideshead’s TV offspring, ran for six much-watched seasons. And even in Brexit-era Britain, a sense of entitlement, ironclad in charm, can still clear a path to the top of politics—witness Mr Johnson’s quip-fuelled and scandal-proof rise. For some, Waugh’s bittersweet elegy became a sort of handbook of patrician showmanship. As Ryder remarks when the noble house is reduced to a drab barracks: “The builders did not know the uses to which their work would descend.” ■

This article appeared in the Books & arts section of the print edition under the headline "The Flyte club"

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I decided not to add another page but link everything in a post so that mobile users have it easier (I am ALWAYS on mobile so as you might have guessed this is mostly for myself, but enjoy!!

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[thenamegarden]

The Name Garden: Q&A Monday

Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new week of baby names! Here are the anonymous questions that I received during the week. I hope the answers give you some naming inspiration; feel free to share your own answers in the comments below, and help others in the naming community out!

Do you have a question you’d like answered on The Name Garden Q&A Monday? Send it in here!

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Q: Which one of this names do you prefer: Noelle Lorena or Primrose/Primrosa Noelle? For a French-spanish family living in Spain?

A: I really like Primrose, and I want to go with it, but I’m not feeling the 2-2 syllable feel. The other two have a nicer flow to them! I haven’t actually heard of Primrosa before, but I think I like that. Primrosa Noelle. I feel like the -a ending will be more common in Spain, and therefore easier to go with. Noelle then brings that French sound into it. So Primrose Noelle is my choice.

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Q: Hello! I was wondering if you had some pretty middle name ideas for a baby girl named Celese? Thanks so much. I hope your new treatment plan helps you feel better with your RA! ❤

A: I’ve never heard of Celese! I’m assuming it’s pronounced se-LEES? Here are some middle names that mind sound nice with the name:

Celese Thalia

Celese Violet

Celese Annabella

Celese Jolene

Celese Annalee

Celese Isla

Celese Victoria

Celese Maya

Celese Phoebe

Celese Eve

Celese Opehlia

Celese Lillian

Celese Freya

Celese Adelaide

Celese Harmony

Celese Emilia

Celese Amelia

Celese Bridget

Celese Evelyn

Celese Rhina

Celese Daisy

Celese Autumn

Celese Fern

Celese Trinity

Celese Matilda

And thank you, I really appreciate it. I’m day one into chemotherapy, and haven’t felt any negative side effects yet, but I hear that might come tomorrow. Hopefully the pain will be reducing in 6-8 weeks though!

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Q: Hey I'm having my baby in July and for a girls name we have 'Harley Piper Scout H' and I love that. But for boys names we can only agree on liking the following - Tyler, Max, Jack. My partner hated my suggestions for Wyatt and Wesley and Milo and Coen and Arlo. My partner likes James and Ethan but I don't. Can you help suggest some boy names? I like slightly unusual names I don't want a totally common name. Thank you x

A: Hey there, and congratulations! You know, my taste in names feels like it sits right in between yours and your husbands, so I might be able to help you find a middle ground here! Here are some ideas:

Miles

Oliver

Charlie

Sebastian

Finn

Spencer

Rory

Patrick

Connor

Jeremy

Toby

Leo

Mason

Felix

Dylan

Austin

Noah

Cody

Logan

Evan

Cole

Owen

Rowan

Caleb

Isaac

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Q: I'm looking for a kind of dark yet believable first name for a boy with the surname "Hellgoth". Any ideas?

A: That is a tricky one, I feel like a lot of dark names will tip it over the edge of believable, so you do want to go fairly neutral (as I’m assuming it’s for a character). Here are some that may work, from very neutral, to bordering quite dark:

Blaise Hellgoth

Damon Hellgoth

Edgar Hellgoth

Damien Hellgoth

Dante Hellgoth

Bram Hellgoth

Victor Hellgoth

Kane Hellgoth

Orion Hellgoth

Maxim Hellgoth

Klaus Hellgoth

Dane Hellgoth

Desmond Hellgoth

Edwin Hellgoth

Stellan Hellgoth

Silas Hellgoth

Damius Hellgoth

Silvain Hellgoth

Oren Hellgoth

Pierce Hellgoth

Draven Hellgoth

Erik Hellgoth

Briar Hellgoth

Oleander Hellgoth

Sullen Hellgoth

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Q: Re: A sister for Sullivan. Thank you for your response! I really like the names Adelaide and Molly with Sullivan. To respond to your question about my style of names, I like names that I would consider to be quirky vintage. So for girls I like Clementine, Beatrix, Opal and others like this. I also like nature names like Iris and Flora. I don't know that these styles particularly fits with Sullivan... any more suggestions for me? Thank you for your help!

A: Hello again! I’m glad I could help you. Knowing your style does help a lot - I quite like those names too. I think the older names do fit with Sullivan, but since it’s been revived, there’s almost two styles it fits into - one is very vintage and classic, and the other is very modern and funky. So let’s see what we can do with the vintage and classic names!

Sullivan & Arabella

Sullivan & Camille

Sullivan & Poppy

Sullivan & Lillian

Sullivan & Roxanne

Sullivan & Estelle

Sullivan & Estella

Sullivan & Loretta

Sullivan & Matilda

Sullivan & Margaret

Sullivan & Rosalie

Sullivan & Olive

Sullivan & Esther

Sullivan & Lydia

Sullivan & Penelope

Sullivan & Irene

Sullivan & Louise

Sullivan & Caroline

Sullivan & Abigail

Sullivan & Kathryn

Sullivan & Imogen

Sullivan & Evangeline

Sullivan & Evelyn

Sullivan & Lucy

Sullivan & Rose

Sullivan & Alice

Sullivan & Gracie

Sullivan & Valerie

Sullivan & Daisy

Sullivan & Eleanor

Sullivan & Phoebe

Sullivan & Felicity

Sullivan & Ivy

Sullivan & Clara

Sullivan & Ruby

Sullivan & Theresa

Sullivan & Thelma

Sullivan & Ida

Sullivan & Hazel

Sullivan & Beatrice

Sullivan & Florence

Sullivan & Geneva

Sullivan & Martha

Sullivan & Lavender

Sullivan & Myrtle

Sullivan & Dahlia

Sullivan & Pearl

Sullivan & Joyce

Sullivan & Ruth

Sullivan & Rosa

Sullivan & Dorothy

I hope this helps!

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#names #baby names #questions #boys names #girls names #q and a

[itsworn]

Traditional Hot Rods—And Good Taste—Return to the 68th Grand National Roadster Show

“Dreadful,” “incoherent,” “baroque” … Detractors of “America’s Most Beautiful Roadster” (AMBR) competition were not exactly sparing venomous adjectives to describe the vehicles, which battled during the first decade of the century. Back then, judging revolved around the alterations performed on each entry, without much consideration for subjective criteria. It all changed in 2011, when judges were instructed to incorporate new guidelines, emphasizing the driving position, profile, proportions, rim/tire ratios, theme of the build, and more. Seen as controversial by some, this reform allowed smartly constructed and esthetically balanced entries (and not necessarily the most exotic or perfect) to stand a chance of winning the Grand National Roadster Show’s ultimate accolade. Here we are, seven years later with arguably one of the best selections of contestants to vie for the AMBR award. Tastefully done traditional/retro creations represent the bulk of the field; in fact, many would deserve being featured in Hot Rod Deluxe. We let you peruse through our pictures to discover a few of the nominees, as well as the ultimate champion, Bruce Wanta’s terrific ’36 Packard. His name will now grace the pedestal of the massive 9-plus-foot-tall AMBR trophy. Yet, the three-day event had much more to offer, thanks to the neatly organized seven halls, which welcomed no less than 50,000 visitors. One of our favorite spots remained the Suede Palace, solely dedicated to traditional hot rods and customs, with several vintage drag cars thrown in for good measure. When inaugurated in 2006, the old tin building gathered a handful of rat rods; but more than a decade later, they’ve disappeared, being replaced with nicely finished and painted vehicles built with taste and a deep appreciation for history. Concerts and an assortment of vendors/artists contributed to the “Palace’s” excellent vibe, too. Launched in 1950, the GNRS remains the “Oldest and Longest Running Indoor Car Show in the World.” Promoter John Buck and his crew have done a great job perpetuating the legacy of our hot rod forefathers—this extravaganza should be on every gearhead’s bucket list!

Ain’t no hot rod: Mixing Art Deco styling and custom car traits, Bruce Wanta’s ’36 Packard (with disappearing top) might not fit everybody’s definition of a hot rod. Yet, Troy Ladd and his crew at Hollywood Hot Rods managed to create an amazing coachbuilt, which wowed the crowd—and AMBR judges who declared it the 2017 winner. For motivation, Bruce selected a Lincoln V12 flathead hoped up with a Latham supercharger and Hogan heads.

Outta Muroc: Built by Stoker’s Hot Rod Factory, Bill Grant’s “Muroc Roadster” appeared to be right out of a Don Montgomery book. Bill’s roadster stood out in a sea of Deuces entered in the AMBR competition, as he based his project on a ’28 A equipped with a ’32 Model B engine, with an original Miller overhead conversion. The stock frame retains mega-detailed mechanical brakes.

’68 all over again: Inspired by the hot rods from the 1960s, Don Lindfors homebuilt his “Boss ’32” AMBR entry based on a ’32 Ford Roadster pickup shell made by Brookville, later painted by Pete Santini. Motivation comes courtesy of a Ford Boss 351 Cleveland V8, topped with four Weber 48IDA lookalikes—their bodies hide a modern fuel injection system.

Trick truck: The crew of Goolsby Customs (Alabama) brought a strong AMBR contender, this ’32 Ford roadster pickup dubbed “The Time Merchant.” We fell in love with its excellent proportions and metallic color. Owned by Matthew Gordon, the little truck runs a beautifully detailed Oldsmobile Rocket “88” with tri-carburetors.

Canadian contender: We counted at least half a dozen cars from Canada, with one of them competing for the AMBR award—Gord and Carolina Gray’s ’32 roadster. The British Columbian couple based their exercise on a Brookville body that sits on a Kiwi Konnection chassis, while H&H handled the flathead’s assembly. Low-mounted headlights and a tilted windshield contribute to the vehicle’s aggressive appearance.

FirePower Power: Dan Peterson commissioned Austin Speed Shop, Texas to build him the “Hill Country Flyer” in hopes of winning the AMBR honor. Fitted with a DuVall-style windshield and Rocket Racing rims, his ’32 roadster relies on a healthy, quad-carbed 392ci Chrysler Hemi.

Heavy metal: James Hetfield, lead vocalist of the band Metallica, owns several tasteful rods and customs. His latest endeavor involves “Blackjack,” a ’40s-styled ’32 Ford jalopy running a 296ci flathead V8 with desirable early speed equipment: Osiecki heads, Edelbrock hi-rise intake, Harman & Collins mag. The AMBR nominee also features a windshield chopped 1-3/4 inches, along with a Carson-style top.

Suede ’n’ paint: The fully detailed flathead mill fed by dual Strombergs equips Josh Candler’s ’35 Ford three-window coupe. Behind it sits Micah Hope’s ’55 Studebaker truck nicknamed “Lunatone,” dressed in metallic blue by Martin Kolor & Style. The round shapes of these Stud haulers lend themselves beautifully to a custom treatment, don’t they?

One of 50: Under the watchful eye of Alex “Axle” Idzardi since 2006, only about 50 cars are selected to be displayed in the Suede Palace—it has become quite an honor to be part of these happy few. Among them: Jeremy Jack of Napa in Northern California, who drove “Pinched Penny,” his heavily chopped ’55 Oldsmobile Rocket.

Best of Show: The Suede Palace has its own Best of Show, and this year’s mark of distinction went to Mike Thompson, a member of the Estranged Car Club based in Oregon. Barris Kustom Shop chopped his ’32 Ford three-window coupe in 1951, whilst Gaylord’s Kustom Tops handled the upholstery that same year. Two NHRA legends, Don Rackemann and Joe Pisano, owned it back in the late ’50s to early ’60s. The black paint has held well since its last respray in 1981.

Dry lake spirit: Rich Roberts has had a long history with hot rods, starting in high school with a Cadillac-powered ’29 Ford roadster—he lost his license for six months for racing too much. He has also been drag racing since the ’60s. Here is his latest project car, a dry lake–inspired ’32 Ford roadster complete with tonneau cover and a flathead V8 with four-carb induction. Rich won the Suede Palace’s “Best Hot Rod” trophy.

Electracutioner: That’s what Beatniks Koolsville Car Club member Roger Trawick calls his ’62 Buick Electra, which incidentally went home with the Suede Palace’s “Best Custom” award. The two-tone coupe, created by Dave Hitchinson at Von Hitch Customs, features simple alterations, including a body sans handles and a set of Astro Supreme wheels.

Whata find: “They are still out there,” as John and Don Coleman will confirm. The duo purchased their ’32 Ford five-window in September of last year—and it came with a cool story. The previous owner (then aged 16) purchased the coupe from a Fresno, California, used car lot in 1950. It was his first car and he drove it until 1967, when he parked it alongside a barn. He later moved it to a shed, where the Coleman’s found it.

Steele steel: Marcus Edell is the proud caretaker of this historic hot rod known as “The Fred Steele ’28 Ford Model A Tudor,” soon to be featured in Hot Rod Deluxe. Fred bought the vehicle in 1949, later chopping the top 6 inches and adapting a 283ci V8 purchased new from the local Chevrolet dealer in 1958. The paint dates to 1961.

Spiteful Canadian: Displayed with the Estranged Car Club, Brad Anderson’s “Spiteful Special” hails from British Columbia. The ’34 Ford five-window model moves quickly thanks to a flathead V8 with Made in Canada Ford heads, nicely polished. Dual Stromberg 97s handle the air and fuel supply.

Funny Buick: Recognized as The World’s only Buick-powered Buick Funny car, Bruce Bohen’s restored “Ingénue” made a lasting impression on the drag racing hobby back in the ’60s. It ran a best e.t. of 7.79 at 191 mph, fueled by an 8-71 supercharger-fed 430ci V8. Parked next to it: Sebastian Rey’s 331ci ’62 Studebaker Lark, soon to be unveiled in Hot Rod Deluxe.

The other ’32: Several racers used small Bantam bodies when building their AF/R dragsters. Among them, Boyd Penington’s “Smog Rat” fitted with a 354ci Chrysler Hemi, a record holder that covered the quarter-mile in 9.00 seconds at 170 mph circa 1962-1964. What you see here is a re-creation of Boyd’s ’32 model, courtesy of Ron and Shelly Penington, together with Lee and Alberta Denning.

Like a Rollin’ Stone: Raced all over the Southwest in the ’50s by Carl Stone from Dallas, Texas, the “Rollin’ Stone” ’32 Ford has been restored as it appeared in 1958, both in Hot Rod magazine and Rod & Custom. Under the hood lurks a ’57 Chevy 283ci hooked to a ’39 Ford transmission with Lincoln Zephyr gears. You can find out more about the roadster in our January 2014 issue.

Goin’ Like Heck: Larry Frees’ “Mr. Chevy” ’55 was one of the most talked about cars in Building 9, devoted to tri-Chevys. Van Heck (the original owner, builder, and driver) purchased the vehicle in 1964. Both the coupe and matching ’55 Chevrolet 4400 Series truck were wrecked in 1976 on the way home from a track. After sitting in storage untouched for years, they received an extensive restoration.

Tricky top: British Columbia is a hotbed of hot rodding activity, as exemplified by John Foxley’s ’32 three-window coupe called “Rad Rose.” The unique shape of the top, chopped 5.5 inches, comes from the combination of several Ford components: ’34 5W front roof section, ’33 two-door sedan rear roof section, ’34 four-door doors stretched 6 inches and ’34 windshield. Six 94s sit atop the 355ci ’70 GM block.

Five-week trash: Diana Branch’s colorful “Honey Dew” was assembled in just over a month with help from family (including husband Tom) and friends. Her cool A-V8 blends a ’29 Ford roadster body, ’32 frame, ’40 Ford flathead, ’39 Ford gearbox, and ’40 Ford rear end.

In memory of Pete: So-Cal Speed Shop’s Pete Chapouris passed away shortly before the GNRS, so it seemed appropriate to display two of his best-known hot Rods: “Limefire,” which graced the cover of Rod & Custom in December 1988, in addition to “The California Kid.” The latter appeared in the made-for-TV movie The California Kid, starring Martin Sheen. Jason Slover of Peculiar, Missouri, has been the owner of the ’34 coupe for years.

Shampoo delivery: Around 1952-1953, Joe Bailon crafted this Ford pickup for the owner of Betty Elizabeth Shampoo, hence it will always be remembered as the “Shampoo Truck.” It started life as a ’49 sedan, modified with a lift-off top and a windshield chopped 3 inches. Other alterations include a body sectioned 5 inches, reshaped wheel openings, and ’46 Olds bumpers. The Car Speed and Style cover star is now in the hands of Bob Dron.

Roth’s Ford: Remember the weathered ’56 Ford F-100 that adorned HRD’s latest cover (January 2017)? Here it is again in its new, freshly completed two-tone PPG livery. Dave Shuten and the team at Galpin Auto Sports did a spectacular job restoring Ed Roth’s former shop truck for collector Beau Boeckmann. Artists Robert Williams and Van Franco respectively handled the paint on the dash and tonneau cover.

Soaking up the sun: Besides the 500 vehicles displayed indoor, the GNRS offered a huge outside show as well. One of the nicest lineups involved this group of 1920s and 1930s entries, led by Louis Stands’ red 327ci ’27 Ford roadster. Next to it, check out Brett Miller’s ’31 Model A, as well as Matt Kimmel and Isaac Bowser’s channeled ’34 Ford coupe, equipped with a 331ci ’55 Cad V8.

Patina’d cousins: In the foreground, that’s Nathan Sutton’s ’32 Fordor, a partially resprayed family hauler, which still features a lot of its ancient paint. To the left, the rare European ’32 Tudor owned by Stephan Szantai—it still wears most of its original paint, plus lettering applied before 1955. Both rides were displayed in the Suede Palace, respectively in 2015 and 2016, though Nathan and Stephan elected to display them during Saturday’s Drive-In event this year.

The post Traditional Hot Rods—And Good Taste—Return to the 68th Grand National Roadster Show appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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