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Superman ‘86 to ‘99 Extra: Erica Durance Saskatoon Expo ‘22 Panel Transcript!

Art by @donsparrow

Our own Don Sparrow had the privilege of hosting a panel centered on Smallville’s Erica Durance during this year’s Saskatoon Expo and got to ask her about killing it as Lois Lane, Supergirl’s mom, and her many other projects. She, in return, got to receive the original inks for the awesome artwork by Don seen above, so it was win/win. Here’s a full transcript of the panel as transcribed by Don. Enjoy!

RELATED: Some years ago Don also got to interview his famous pal Tom Grummett, so here’s the link to that interview in you’ve never seen it.

VAGUELY RELATED: And speaking of Tom Grummett, check out our recent post about his return to Superman comics in the new Earth-One series (which was accidentally posted privately first, so it looks like not a lot of people saw it).

Don:

Hello Saskatoon Expo! How good does it feel to be back? It’s very exciting. My name is Don Sparrow and I am Saskatoon’s resident Superman expert, and therefore the host of this panel. How many Saving Hope fans do we have here?

(Some applause)

We’ve got a few. How many Supergirl fans do we have here?

(More applause)

A few more. And how many Smallville fans do we have here?

(Big applause)

We got a whole bunch. So, without further ado, let me introduce: Many fans know Erica Durance as Lois Lane from Smallville for which she starred for seven years on the show. Most recently, she was seen on the CW series Supergirl as Alura Zor-El. Erica was a producer and lead actress on CTV’s hit medical drama Saving Hope, playing the role of Dr. Alex Reid, for which she garnered Canadian Screen Award nominations in 2013 and 2017. Her many notable guest appearances include Harry’s Law, Charlie’s Angels remake, Stargate SG1, Andromeda and Tru Calling. Durance’s film credits include her tour-de-force performance as twin sisters in the Italian film Jemelle. She also starred in the Hallmark movie Wedding Planner Mystery. In 2011, Durance was nominated for a Saturn Award, and a Teen Choice Award for Best Actress for her work in Smallville. In 2012, Hello Canada Magazine listed her as one of Canada’s 50 most beautiful people, and Buddy TV ranked her #9 on its TV’s 100 Sexiest Women. Durance is a supporter of a very worthy cause, World Vision Canada and lives in Vancouver, B.C. with her husband and their three sons. Please give a warm Saskatoon welcome to Erica Durance!

(Applause)

Erica:

That’s quite a bio.

Don:

I read the whole thing.

Erica:

Well done.

Don:

Welcome here. So, I’m going to start off with a few questions, we also do have a microphone in the middle, which we’ll open up pretty quick here. So, welcome to Saskatoon.

Erica:

Thank you. Thank you for having me. First thing I want to say is: out in the audience today is my second mother, and her daughter Deanna, who is like my adopted younger sister. Now, Cathy—where are you?—there she is—is the reason that I act or sing at all. So, I was five years old looking for something to do with all of me, and my emotions, and I found Cathy, and I followed her around like a lost puppy, and then she decided to adopt me. So, she lives here in Saskatchewan, and I wanted to introduce her.

Don:

That is very exciting. (To Cathy) Well, thank you for giving us Erica Durance. We are thrilled.

(applause)

So we’re gonna get to some Smallville questions, but my wife—who is in the audience--and I are huge Hallmark movie fans. I’m not afraid to admit it, we love these movies. And we’ve noticed some of your post-Smallville roles have tended to be more wholesome family entertainment. We’re very excited about “Colour My World With Love” which looks really interesting. Is that an intentional direction you’ve gone in as an artist, or is it a reflection of being a parent? A bit of both?

Erica:

It’s a little bit of both. I want to put out things into the world that are positive, that families can join around, and watch together. And just takes a little bit of the load off of life, which is--in this world of information, where we get it just crammed down our throats all the time, and yes, we do need a sense of reality, and what’s actually going on, and all those kind of things—people desperately need stories that are hopeful, and kind, and well, and we know we can sit down and no worry about some kind of horrible thing happening (laughs). And so it was partially that, and partially the fact that it provides for me a way to take care of my two boys, and they’re still really young. They’re five and seven, and so these jobs are very short. We shoot all these movies in fifteen days so I’m able to stay at home, go out, do that, come back, and jump back into motherhood.

Don:

That’s excellent. And many are filmed in Canada as well, so that makes it easier.

Erica:

Yes.

Don:

Moving to Saving Hope: I’ve read that your family comes from a faith background, and thinking of Alex Reid being such an evidence-based, and just the facts sort of character, was that tension of medical procedural and supernatural drama, by the end of it, a challenge?

Erica:

Well, yes and no. I think it was really good for me to take on something where I would be challenged to think the opposite of the way I was taught, all growing up. And so I wanted to take a character that would basically just embrace only science, and learn about that way of life and way of thinking of things, and then slowly having to adjust to the fact that there may be something else out there. That we can believe in things, and that there is a higher power, there is something to believe in. Plus to be honest, I loved all the science, I loved all the doctor stuff. By the end I thought I was a doctor. (laughs) I got an honourary degree from the chief of surgery (laughs).

Don:

The jargon could be a mouthful, and you did very well with that.

Erica:

(laughs) Thanks.

Don:

Were you ready for that show to end? Are you ever ready? I know the life of an actor means every job is fairly temporary. Do you think there were places they could have gone with those characters?

Erica:

No, I think that show was ready to be wrapped up. I think that we wanted to end it a certain way, and we did and some people loved it, and some people didn’t love it. But it had finished its journey, and I certainly had as well in that particular character. And then practically, I was pregnant again. So I had both my sons while I was shooting that show, and it gave me a newfound appreciation for women that work and have their babies and try to do it all. So I was ready to enter that chapter of my life.

Don:

Excellent. So, Lois Lane. Perhaps your most famous role. How did you approach taking on such an iconic role? Did it help that you were playing a version of Lois that was less established? Or was it more pressure, not having that framework?

Erica:

No, it was absolutely my saving grace! (laughs) Because I could just say, you know what?—this is a whole new story we’re telling. It’s an origin story, so then most people…well, there were some people who had a problem with it, but you know, for me when I got it, it was such a surprise. You know, I’m this girl from Alberta, a small farm, I’m out in Vancouver just kind of trying, auditioning for things here and there. And then this opportunity presents itself. I remember telling this story a couple of times. I just said “you know, I’m not doing this, because they’re going to pick somebody from LA, it’s just the way it goes. And I don’t know if that attitude coming into the audition somehow had an opposite effect, but I felt like I just got swept away with it and all of a sudden I was just filming, and then you just go with the flow. And I depended so much on the creators of the show, and where they wanted to take her. Many, many people were upset that Lois was there early, because that’s not the mythology. But that filming still happened in a day and age where you could shut out some of the excess nonsense, right, so you’re not constantly inundated by opinions of everybody all over the world about what they want or don’t want. And yeah, I just took the stand that, well I’m sorry if you don’t like it—then don’t want it. You don’t have to watch me. (laughs)

Don:

Exactly.

Erica:

But I think I kind of wore them down through the years and then people seemed to kind of accept her.

Don:

Well I think that was what made Smallville so unique was the Clark Kent persona—the nerdy, bumbling Clark Kent persona—was an invention of Lois Lane. That had never been done before, and I just thought that was so cool, I just loved it.

But take me through the early days of that show, being introduced to that show. It’s a hit show and you’re playing one half of one of the best romances in fiction, and then in a very early scene, you’re dodging a naked guy in your car.

Erica:

Oh yeah! (laughs) Yeah, one of my first scenes was shooting that. And they do that to us all the time, when you’re filming. You end up doing what would be considered the most awkward scene. But I just embraced it because it would be awkward anyway and of course, what we show you guys we see is not all of what we see. It’s much more tame than what people think it is. But I have to say it was kind of embarrassing, right, because I had originally booked the background. I was an extras agent, so I had booked all of Tom’s photo doubles and all of that kind of stuff and all of a sudden I’m sitting in here and I’m working with the guy so that was (laughs) awkward, and so that kind of birthed the whole part of Lois that was neurotic and a little bit odd and everybody thinks it was a real choice, but it was me just trying to embrace the fact that here I was feeling like an imposter working on this show.

Don:

Very unique trial by fire.

Erica:

(laughs) I’d love to say that it was methodically thought out, but it really wasn’t.

Don:

“I demand that I dodge a naked guy in my first episode!”

Erica:

(Laughs)

Don:

One of the things that stuck out to me in your interpretation of Lois Lane was that it was quite egalitarian in the show’s treatment of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Not to get too in the woods, but there’s a great moment in an early episode where your character gets separated while you’re fighting some commando types, and you see the panic on Clark’s face, as he realizes he’s left you alone, and you must be in danger, because Lana was in danger every episode. And as he comes over the hill to check on you, and unlike Lana, we see that you’re handling these guys just fine—your kung fu moves—so is that fun to play? The damsel not in distress?

Erica:

Yes! (laughs) Yes, that’s why I liked it. Kristin’s character got a bad rap on that and if any of you have ever met her, or been at a convention you see that what a strong and independent wonderful woman she is. And one of her biggest frustrations was that she was in this space that she never could rescue herself. But we all realize that we are given those role and we’re meant to play them out and it’s part of the gig. And so, when people say “oh I love how you did Lois and she was so independent and amazing” I always say “and I thank you for that, but I also lucked in a role where they allowed me to do that”. And I really liked that I would pick up a script and one episode I would be doing lots of stunts, and be really feisty and then the next episode I would be the lady that needed help, and I would get to be vulnerable and all of those things and people wondered about that and they would ask me about the consistency of that. And I said, first of all if you knew me you’d know I am very contradictory and you never know which personality you’re going to get in the morning anyway. But human beings do contradict themselves, so you’re going to have her do that sometimes, and then the next time it’s going to be--you know--she’s going to be right back in his face again.

Don:

And sometimes you’re a vampire.

Erica:

And sometimes I’m a vampire, or—I think I was a zombie once, that one was really difficult. The one thing I will say, as the years went on, I would get a little bit lippy about it, was the fact that we’d be out in the middle of the night, usually fighting bad guys, it’s cold, I’m wearing heels and a very skimpy dress, and (Tom) comes out with his workboots, and about five layers of clothes on and he’s so comfortable, and I was like “Ok, wait a minute”. So I remember doing a couple of things like that which were taking it up even a notch, because I’m fighting, and I’m kicking, but I’m running up the stairs backwards wearing high heeled boots, right, and I pointed that out occasionally. And they didn’t care. (Laughs)

Don:

Well, we appreciated it, your sacrifice. I’ll ask one more and then maybe we’ll open it up to the floor for a bit.

Returning to the role of Lois Lane recently, in the Crisis storyline. Comic fans, particularly Superman fans, as you sort of hinted at, can be passionate about what they like, or don’t like. So a big decision like Clark giving up his powers in the wrap up there could be one of those divisive things. How did you feel about it, and what has the reaction been at these kind of shows?

Erica:

The reaction has been really really good. I think because it was a less is more scenario. And how do you insert them into that universe that already has a Lois and Clark? All those kinds of things. And beloved characters that, you know, are set in stone in a certain way in people’s minds. And so for the most part, people were really really excited about it. And anytime they asked Tom (Welling) about how he felt about it, he was so positive about the way he was portrayed, that he had wanted that, and I think people kind of fell along, into line with that, because it’s how he felt about it. He was fine. And I still got to bug him, which is nice. I had like four lines, and I still was in his face, which was great.

Don:

It was like a high school reunion.

Erica:

It was like “ah, Tom, you need it. Somebody’s gotta do this to you.”

Don:

And if people didn’t like it, it’s just an alternate Earth.

Erica:

Yeah, exactly. And, just switch the channel if you don’t like it.

Audience Member 1:

Hi, I’m Greg from Moose Jaw. I’m sure I speak for everyone here, but you certainly couldn’t have gotten to the show soon enough. You made the show, and I don’t care what anyone else says. You could have been there from season one, it would have been perfect.

Erica:

Oh, thank you. (applause)

Audience Member 1:

Just a question I had there, was there anyone that you enjoyed working with most, or any funny story you have with someone there? Just someone that you got along with, or developed a friendship with?

Erica:

Well, It would be really fun if I could make a joke and say ugh I hated everybody, but I was known as the one that was there that was always very keen to be there, with lots of energy and excitement and everybody else either had been there for a long time, or just had a different personality. I got to know Cassidy Freeman pretty well when she came in in the latter seasons. So Cassidy, and Laura (Vandervoort) and I, we hung out a lot. Kristin we kinda didn’t see each other too much. We’re actually much better friends now, after the show. We see each other quite a bit. I loved working with Justin Hartley. We laughed a lot. We were both the new people on the show at the time, and so we had a really great camaraderie. But yeah, I’d say working with Tom, because I did it so much. I was just lucky that we got on very very well. And our personalities matched. We understood each other, we had the same sense of how to work, and the way we wanted to work. It was really cool.

Don:

Excellent. While we wait for another question from the floor, I’ll ask another one here. I know you’re a busy actress, with a thriving career, so you don’t get as much downtime as you probably want, but what is your current binge watch, when you’re at home.

Erica:

I just finished watching Sanditon on PBS. I love PBS and British shows, so I just finished watching that one. Do you guys ever have that, too? Where you know you sit and watch lots of Netflix, and Amazon, but then somebody says “what’s your favorite” and you’re like completely blank. I know I finished watching a ton of stuff. Let me think about it. The name is gonna drop in when the panel is over and I’ll yell it out somewhere, but that’s one of them.

Audience Member Mike Fisher (head honcho for the convention):

Yeah, I can’t remember if I had a bigger crush on you or Justin when you both came on the show

Erica:

(laughs)

Mike Fisher:

You guys were such a breath of fresh air.

Erica:

I mean, you know what we did do, is we compared waists and I think his waistline was probably as thin as mine.

Mike Fisher:

I just don’t know if that guy is human.

Erica:

(laughs)

Mike Fisher:

He’s like an experiment from another planet.

Erica:

He is! He is.

Mike Fisher:

He is.

Erica:

He never slept, he ate doughnuts all the time.

Mike Fisher:

What?

Erica:

Yeah.

Mike Fisher:

That is so frustrating to hear.

Erica:

All the time. And I would be sitting there with a tuna cup, and I was like, “I hate you”.

Mike Fisher:

Yeah I know. I’ve seen Tom eat at conventions, and I’m like what is happening? These guys just get away with murder.

Erica:

They’re so lucky, they don’t seem to get old and wrinkly, or leathery. Everybody goes “Oh you look so handsome, you’ve really grown into yourself”

Mike Fisher:

Distinguished. When you get older, right, it’s “distinguished”.

Erica:

Distinguished yeah. I don’t get that.

Mike Fisher:

So, shoutout to Three Hills, shoutout to the prairies. I’m just wondering, when you move to Vancouver, when you’re doing work in LA, was there a part of you that felt like you weren’t going to fit there? Just where you grew up wasn’t a match for being in LA with the way you were raised?

Erica:

Absolutely!

Mike Fisher:

So how did you deal with that?

Erica:

(Laughs) How much time do you have? I really just tried to see it all with a bit of a sense of humour. I am who I am, I couldn’t be anybody other than who I am, and so you just take it or you leave it. But I tended to withdraw quite a bit. Especially in a new scenario, so that I could kind of observe the room, observe how everything works, and find my way to fit in. But I didn’t ever change who I was. They just either had to accept it, or not. But it’s a very foreign kind of world to be in. I still look for that revolving door to kick me right out the back. That they have in the saloon. Why am I still here? You can’t, and I don’t want to change who I am. But really, you can’t change that first blueprint of where you came from. And I’m proud of it.

Mike Fisher:

Thank goodness.

Erica:

(laughs)

Audience Member #3:

Hi, Mike from here in the city. My daughter wanted to say hi, because she’s super nervous. She wanted to ask a question but she’s super nervous. First I’m going to sing your praises, like everybody else, honestly since Margot Kidder, when you came to be Lois Lane, I have compared every other Lois to you since you made your first appearance, you were fantastic. Not just how you look, your act, everything was just perfect. So far no one’s come even close, to me, my personal opinion. I’d like to see a lot more of that. So to my question, when you came back many years later to play Lois again, with Tom on the crossover, and then plus doing your appearance on Supergirl, was it easy to get right back to that Lois role, and go into that kind of world again, or was it like riding a bike?

Erica:

It was like riding a bike. The thing about playing in Supergirl is that it just felt a little bit surreal. It was like that I was the adult in the group, and I was watching these kids. And it was some of the same sets, a lot of the same gags. It felt like it was home, but not quite. And you were there to do the support piece. It came around so quickly for me. I’d just had my son, and then they called and they said could you come and do this part, they had their other actress ended up going and doing other things, and so, it was just again, like most things in my life, I don’t plan for it, and I end up on set looking around going “Ok, so now I’m Alura, and I’m Supergirl’s mom”. As far as the Lois thing, it was really cool, and that’s how you know you’ve met people in your life, or people come across in your life that are just—it’s as if you’ve met them before. And that’s how it is with Tom and I. It was always like that. When we first met, it was really easy. We didn’t see each other for ten years, and I showed up on that set, and it was so easy, it was so nice, it was like coming back home again. So we had great laughs and a good time.

Don:

So shifting back to Hallmark for a moment, and Christmas Stars—a favourite around our house by the way. You got to sing!

Erica:

I did!

Don:

Was that something you’d love to do more of?

Erica:

I would love to. I’d love to do it in a way that wasn’t so rushed. Again it was very new for me, and I ended up showing up there and working with JT (Hodges), who is really great. He wrote the songs. And I got a cold. So I was basically singing the whole time with a cold—(turns to Kathy) Kathy—not in my register at all. Here’s my debut singing, and I’m doing alto, which I’m not an alto. Anyways, it was really fun, it was just something different. Originally, I wanted to be on Broadway, and do theatre, where I can mix it all up, and it would be spontaneous, and fresh every time, and so that was as close as I got to mixing some of the things I’d love to do

Don:

So far.

Erica:

So far! That’s a positive way to look at it.

Don:

Saskatoon doesn’t have an NHL team so you’re safer here than most cities.

Erica:

Kinda.

Don:

Kind of. Is there a hockey team you grew up cheering for, or cheer for now?

Erica:

Oh. I grew up cheering for the Calgary Flames. Because I’m from Alberta, and I was closest to Calgary, and I always felt like they were the underdogs. Because at that time—this is gonna age me—but the Oilers had Gretzky. And I was like “ughh, they win every time!” So I just had to cheer for Calgary, and there’s still that competition, every time I go to Alberta, if I’m in Edmonton or Calgary, boy those two do not like each other. Just some principle.

Don:

A little vocal.

Erica:

Yeah.

Don:

Is Tom Welling’s cartoon gonna happen? This cartoon Smallville he’s very excited about?

Erica:

Let me text him. (laughs) You know what? I’m always the last to the party. Whether it’s Smallville, or their thing. I think that it’s definitely in the works, but that’s as much as I know. And then they’ll call me and be like “are you gonna do this thing”. And I’ll say “yeah, sure, of course. I’m game”. I hope so. How fun would that be? I would love that. Yeah.

Don:

So we’ll do some rapid fire.

Erica:

Oh! Ok.

Don:

Pizza or tacos?

Erica:

Tacos.

Don:

Beatles or Stones?

Erica:

Stones. (pause) I feel like I’m being judged harshly (laughs)

Don:

No, those are both correct answers.

Erica:

Ok, ok, ok!

Audience Member #4:

Hi, Matthew from Saskatoon. Any thoughts of…(trails off)

Erica:

(helpfully) Any thoughts…

Audience Member #4:

Any chance of being in the Marvel cinematic universe?

Erica:

If they would answer my calls. (laughter) Nobody answers my calls! I don’t have the right number.

Don:

That is a good question. So if you could play—I mean we saw you sort of as Wonder Woman, on Smallville—so if you could play any other superhero who would you want to be?

Erica:

Other than Wonder Woman? I still want to be Wonder Woman. I still think she’s the best.

Don:

I think there’s a few people who would want to see you play Wonder Woman. (applause)

Erica:

I still think it would be fun. But I’m not gonna do anything now, because Gal (Gadot) is out there, so forget that. (laughter) Way too stressful. I could talk about the new Hallmark movie I just did.

Don:

Yes, please do.

Erica:

“Color My World With Love”

Don:

Yes! You were promoting this a bit on your Instagram, and it looks very interesting, so please do.

Erica:

Yeah. So it’s coming out on June 12th, and I got to play the mother of the lovely Lily D. Moore. And it is a story based on her love life, and her falling in love, and what I like what they’re doing with Hallmark right now is they’re trying to tell different types of love stories, and not just the basic “guy meets girl, they’re both of the same socio-economic status or whatever” there’s no levels, it’s just the one love story. Which is fine. But now they’re starting to do the love stories where, for example, just my love for my daughter, right? How do I raise my child? How do I let her go? How do I let her experience love and see the world through her eyes, and make mistakes, and fall in love, and get hurt? And all of those things, and so, yeah, it’s a good show.

Don:

And we don’t see performers that look like her (Moore has Down syndrome) on TV enough, and so I’m really excited to check that out, and I’m just excited to have Hallmark quality movies year round. Same with the mystery movies—they don’t have to be in a Christmas resort town—

Erica:

(laughs) We’ve done enough of those!

Don:

We like those.

Erica:

We laugh about it, too. We’re like “are we in a cherry orchard or an apple orchard, there’s always the red truck” but I like to watch them myself. There’s always that red truck in every movie!

Don:

I’ll have to add that to our Bingo sheet.

Erica:

(laughs)

Don:

We have a few entries on the bingo sheet.

Erica:

So you do like a Bingo game when you’re watching Hallmark?

Don:

Absolutely. Yes.

Erica:

That’s good. It’s safer than a drinking game.

Don:

(laughs) It’s safer than a drinking game! Exactly. The kids are in bed, we’re gonna—

Erica:

No, but I joke. They’re good movies, and they make people feel good, and lots of people gather around and watch them together.

Don:

Absolutely.

Erica:

(There is a gap in the questions from the audience) You’re all so polite. I love Canada.

Audience Member 1:

I wanted to give someone else a chance, but I definitely have more questions. I just wanted to hear a bit more about your auditioning process on Smallville, and stuff like that. How you got there, who was involved in getting you in, and what it was like, your first foray, I just like hearing origin stories.

Erica:

Oh, Ok. I just went through the regular audition process. You just go in, in Vancouver and you give it a go. I was actually brought down to LA before that, so I think I got Lois because I was brought down earlier, and I went in to audition for a show called Tarzan, and there was a very very well known director named David Nutter, who launched a lot of these shows—he actually launched Smallville—and he saw me in the audition room, and he brought me to LA to audition for his show, and that’s where I met Warner Brothers. And they signed me onto what’s called an exclusivity deal, which is—I would only do something for them. And that year I ended up doing Gramercy Park, which was a pilot for them, and so I kinda got on their radar. And as things happen—nothing happened. That is a lot of this business as well, you can shoot a ton of pilots and nothing goes. And we went a full year, and then the Lois character came out and I remember my manager was so excited, “oh four episodes, you get to play Lois, its gonna be amazing, you’re gonna go in for this” as I said, I didn’t want to do it. I was kinda pouting. So I went in to audition, and then what happens is they take you down to test, and so you go down to LA, and you go to the studio first, and you just go into this room—they make the process really stressful for the actor, as stressful as possible. And they all sit there and eat lunch and judge you, and you’re usually in a real like theatre, so they’re like in these riser chairs, and you come in, and do your audition. So you have to pass the studio first, and if the studio likes you, then you make it to the next round. So you’ll know right after, because they’ll basically say “kay, thanks, bye, go home” and then you’re with like four or five other girls, and then it slowly goes down. So then I went to the network, and then I waited and waited, and didn’t hear anything. And I was about to get on my plane to Vancouver, and that’s when my manager called and he goes “you’re playing Lois!” and I went “No way!” and I yelled really loud in the airport. And then what I didn’t realize—and I’ve told this story a ton—that was the Friday night, and then on the Saturday, I went to the studio to take pictures and do the whole deal, and I was just gonna meet Tom and say “hi”. And I was like Ok, cool, part of the team, I can do this. We were supposed to read a scene we were doing on Monday. I didn’t know if he didn’t like me, I would get fired! (laughs) So, and he’ll deny that to this day, but I know that it was the final hoop that I had to go through that if I didn’t meet his standards of not annoying, and not threatening, not making his life difficult—that I would not be working on Monday. So—phew—I’m glad I didn’t know that! And then I ended up working on Monday, and then had to shoot that scene where I saw him scantily clad, and that was awkward, because I barely knew him. And the rest of kind of history. And what was really great about Tom is that he understood what it was like to be part of a show with almost no experience, and so four years later, he meets this person that’s thrust into a rather large role, and in that way he took me under his wing, and he kinda showed me the ropes, and gave me hints, and helped me out with some things that I was awkward about. And I think that was kind of a basis for such a good friendship, and it helped with our work.

Audience Member 1:

Perfect, good to hear, I appreciate it.

Audience Member #5:

Thanks so much for joining us in Saskatoon.

Erica:

Thanks for having me.

Audience Member #5:

There was a question about Marvel Cinematic Universe, but is there a character or a franchise that you would love to be involved with in the future, or anything like that? That you can see, like, oh I want to be in a Star Wars movie, or something like that?

Erica:

How do I put this? As an actor, I’m game for anything, pretty much, that’s respectable. Like I’m at a point where I want to do stuff that I’m not ashamed of, and that I don’t want my kids to be embarrassed about what their mother is doing. But, you know I’ve never really had to project, and go, I’m gonna work toward this particular job, or that particular job. And I lucked into two jobs that lasted really long, and I’m getting jobs offered to me so to have the imagination to sit and go, of I’d love to go do this. I’d love to work again, steadily, but I really love series work. I don’t want to do really dark independent movies that depress me, and depress people that watch it. And sometimes, in certain acting circles, that will diminish me quite a but in their eyes. But I’ve gotten to a point in my life where if something is a little bit too dark, I just don’t want to be in that zone. So I am quite happy to play on a network TV show, like a procedural; little bit of crime, little bit of sci-fi. I’d like to bring sci-fi back into things because it makes it so much more fun. Because you can become other characters whilst being a detective or something. Maybe something fun like that.

Don:

Excellent.

Audience Member #6:

(Nervous) Hi. So have you ever considered like going into like voiceover animation, or would you prefer to just like stick to doing more live action, just out of curiosity.

Erica:

I would love to do voiceover, which is why I’m hoping that Tom (Welling) and Mike (Michael Rosenbaum)’s thing works, because then I could do that. You see how I’m just like, ugh, why pursue it if there’s other people who are gonna give me the job? No, honestly I would. And I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding, that it’s something that’s easy to get into. I find that you get onto a highway, or a certain road as an actor, and you’re in that space. And there’s many of us that would love to try those other things, but the opportunity isn’t always there. But I think it would be such an interesting way to use my craft and figure out how to make something come alive by just being in the studio, and rolling in there and doing that. And seeing what the wonderful artists could do with it. For sure.

Audience Member #6:

Yeah I hope it happens. Good luck.

Don:

So I think this will be the last question, the guy with the appropriate shirt (wearing a Superman t-shirt)

Audience Member #7:

Are you going to go on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast again soon. I watched it this morning

Erica:

Yes. He is relentless.

Don:

That’s a good word.

Erica:

No, we just did another one. We did one a year ago, and he keeps calling “are you gonna do it, are you gonna do it?” NO, I don’t want to do it, I don’t have anything to talk about, what am I gonna talk about? So there’s another one coming out, and I get quite nervous, and just texted him the other day, I was like “did I say something weird in our interview?” “No, it’s great.” It will come, and then you guys can judge it.

Audience Member #7:

Right on, awesome.

Don:

On behalf of Saskatoon Expo, and everybody here, and Superman fans everywhere, we just thank you for your body of work, and for coming here today, we have so appreciated all these answers and just your presence.

Erica:

Well thank you for having me, and for your lovely questions, I hope you guys have a really great weekend. Bye!

#superman #erica durance #smallville #saskatoon expo #don sparrow #supergirl #saving hope #hallmark channel #interviews

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yors-truly · 2 years

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YAY INTRO POST!!

Rewriting this because my first draft was super messy lol!

NOW, WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?

Hi, hello, and greetings! My codename is Tru (other things you can call me are Aster and Astro, and maybe Hue but I have an OC named Hue so I might get confuzzled). I am an afro-irish girl who currently goes by she/they pronouns, and I love love LOVE writing and illustrating (I do both traditional and digital art). Because I love those things so much, I decided to make this account, with my main/personal being @randomdidsomething (no longer active). Currently looking for some cool moots in the creative sphere, have you be a fellow writer, traditional/digital artist, screenwriter, animator, etc., or just a jack of all trades :)

NICE TO MEET YOU! WHAT DO YOU POST?

Very good question! As of now, this blog is just my journey in personal growth within the sphere of art and general creative works. I'm very passionate about my original stuff right now, and I'm currently working on an animated series called "Beyond Time and Space," which is a fantasy, portal world, coming of age adventure. More on that another day because I'm still trying to figure out how I can talk about it without going off the rails about why I love it so much :) In other words, expect most of my posts to also be w.i.p.s and fanart of that.

OKAY. UH, ANYTHING THAT INTERESTS YOU?

As said before, I'm very much into original art in general, but what type of art specifically piques my interest? A good old mix of fantasy and sci-fi is something I will always love to see, especially if they're together. Give me something about a techno-magic alliance and I will EAT THAT UP! Nothing is better than good old robots and wizards being pals :) (also anything featuring minority characters, like I'll lap that stuff up, buddy boy, yum yum)

My interests do tend to fluctuate, though. One moment I'll be into both, another moment just one, and the next I'll be into neither of them but rather the psychology of the human condition. It really just depends.

Fandom-wise, I'd generally consider myself multifandom, or just out of fandoms in general. Some would consider me part of the Disney sphere (or as I like to call it, "Gisnep"), others see me as a huge transformers fan (and don't get them wrong, I definitely am), but I actually haven't been indulging in those things for a VERY long while now (at least up until 2023). The only fandom I've been consistent with as of recent is the object show community, and that's only because my brother's in it.

HEY, THIS IS REALLY DRAGGING OUT. FINAL THOUGHTS BEFORE I ASK YOU POLITELY TO SHUT UP?

Sorry, sorry. I get that from my father.

To wrap this up, here are some other places you can find me...

My main account (as stated before): @randomdidsomething (no longer active)

My new YouTube channel, which covers the same purpose of this blog

You can find me on Twitter @/RandomDS1...

... on Instagram @/hue_ships...

... on Wattpad (I guess, I don't really post there anymore but I still use it) @/RandomWritesStuff

... on my fandom side blog @a-tru-fan

... and via the Beyond Time and Space blog, @lotus-btas

... as well as my tags!

art tag: #huesterdribbles

traditonal art tag: #huesterdribblesT

digital art tag: #huesterdribblesD

writing tag: #huesterwribbles

literally me talking out of my butt tag: #huestersvoid

reblogged stuff I like: #huestersfaves

Story tags:

#Beyond Time and Space

#BTaS wip

#BTaS art

#BTaS writing

-----

Alright, that's it! Thanks for reading and keep being creative! <3

If you have any questions regarding ANYTHING, like EVER, feel free to reach out!

#intro post #writeblr #artblr #writeblr intro #artblr intro #creative tumblr #blog intro

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fuckyeahtrucalling · 3 years

Photo

#Tru Calling #Eliza Dushku #Michael Trucco #Tru Davies #Nick Kelly #Tru x Nick #1x02 Putting Out Fires #Tru Calling Fan Art #Submission #~#celebrated-as-the-rebel-kind

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heroofthreefaces · 4 years

Photo

Preview panel only. Click here for full cartoon. Or see the on-site navigation tutorial. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. A cartoon linked at 10:00 Central US is new. A cartoon linked at 22:00 is from the archive. Thanks for reading.

[Image description: Preview panel for the cartoon at the link. Tru Davies of Tru Calling and the Doctor, eighth incarnation, of Doctor Who stand talking. Tru is saying, “If you don’t let me help you, you’ll die today.” Unfortunately there are not image descriptions at the main Hero Of Three Faces site. End description.]

#tru calling #doctor who #fan art #cartoons

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foreverdavidbyrne · 3 years

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David Byrne’s interview in NME magazine

In 1979, David Byrne predicted Netflix. “It’ll be as easy to hook your computer up to a central television bank as it is to get the week’s groceries,” he told NME’s Max Bell, sitting in a Paris hotel considering the implications of Talking Heads’ dystopian single ‘Life During Wartime’.

He predicted the Apple Watch in that interview too: “[People will] be surrounded by computers the size of wrist watches.” And he foresaw surveillance culture and data harvesting: “Government surveillance becomes inevitable because there’s this dilemma when you have an increase in information storage. A lot of it is for your convenience, but as more information gets on file, it’s bound to be misused.”

In fact, over 40 years ago, he predicted the entire modern-day experience, as if he instinctively knew what was coming. “We’ll be cushioned by amazing technological development,” he said, “but sitting on Salvation Army furniture.”

The 68-year-old Byrne says today, “You can’t say that you know,” chuckling down a Zoom link from his home in New York and belying his reputation for awkwardness by seeming giddily relieved to be talking to someone. “It’s crazy to set yourself up as some sort of prophet. But there’s plenty of people who have done well with books where they claim to predict what’s going on. I suppose sometimes it’s possible to let yourself imagine, ‘Okay – what if?’ This can evolve into something that exists, can evolve into something more substantial, cheaper – these kinds of things.”

It’s been a lifelong gift. Byrne turned up at CBGBs in 1975 with his art school band Talking Heads touting ‘Psycho Killer’, as if predicting the punk scene’s angular melodic evolution, new wave, before punk was even called punk. In 1980, Talking Heads assimilated African beats and textures into their seminal ‘Remain In Light’ album, foreshadowing ‘world music’ and modern music’s globalist melting pot, then used it to warn America of the dangers of consumerism, selfishness and the collapse of civilisation. Pioneering or propheteering, Byrne has been on the front-line of musical evolution for 45 years, collaborating with fellow visionaries from Brian Eno to St Vincent’s Annie Clark, constantly imagining, ‘What if?’

The live music lockdown has been a frustrating freeze frame, but Byrne was already leading the way into music’s new normal. Launched in 2018, the tour to support his 10th solo album, ‘American Utopia’, has now turned into a cinematic marvel courtesy of Spike Lee – the concert film was released in the UK this week. The original tour was acclaimed as a live music revolution. Using remote technology, Byrne was able to remove all of the traditional equipment clutter from the stage and allow his musicians and dancers, in uniform grey suits and barefoot, to roam around a stage lined with curtains of metal chains with their instruments strapped to them. A Marshally distanced gig, if you will.

“As the show was conceptually coming together, I realised that once we had a completely empty stage the rulebook has now been thrown out,” Byrne says. “Now we can go anywhere and do anything. This is completely liberating. It means that people like drummers, for example, who are usually relegated to the back shadows, can now come to the front – all those kinds of things – which changes the whole dynamic.”

With six performers making up an entire drum kit and Byrne meandering through the choreography trying to navigate a nonsensical world, the show was his most striking and original since he jerked and jived around a constructed-mid-gig band set-up in Jonathan Demme’s legendary 1984 Talking Heads live film Stop Making Sense.

The American Utopia show embarked on a Broadway run last year, where Byrne super-fan Spike Lee saw it twice and leapt at the chance of turning the spectacle into Byrne’s second revolutionary live film, dotted with his musings on the human condition to illuminate the crux of the songs: institutional racism, our lack of modern connection, the erosion of democracy and, on opener ‘Here’, a lecture-like tour of the human brain, Byrne holding aloft a scale model, trying to fathom, ‘How do I work this?’

“I didn’t know how much of a fan Spike was!” Byrne laughs today. “He’d even go, ‘Why don’t you do this song? Why don’t you add this song in’. We knew one another casually so I could text him and say, ‘I want you to come and see our show; I think that you might be interested in making a film of it’.”

Are the days of the traditional stage set-up numbered? “Yes, I think so,” he replies. “At least in theatres and concert halls the size that I would normally play, yes. The fact that we can get the music digitally [means] a performance has to be really of value. It has to be really something special, because that’s where the performers are getting their money and that’s what the audience is paying for. They’re not paying very much for streaming music, but they are paying quite a bit to go and see a performance, so the performance has to give them value for money… It has to be really something to see.”

How does David Byrne envisage the future possibilities of live performance?

“I’ve seen a lot of things that hip-hop artists have done – like the Kanye West show where he emerges on a platform that floats above the stage,” he says. “I’d seen one with Kendrick Lamar where it was pretty much just him on stage, an empty stage with just him on stage and a DJ, somebody with a laptop – that was it. I thought, ‘Wow’. Then he started doing things with huge projections behind. There are lots of ways to do this. I love the idea of working with a band, with live musicians. ‘How can I innovate in this kind of way?’ It’s maybe easier for a hip-hop musician who doesn’t have a band to figure out. The pressure is on to come up with new ways of doing this.”

In liberating his musicians from fixed, immovable positions, American Utopia also acts as a metaphor for freeing our minds from our own ingrained ways of thinking. As Byrne intersperses Talking Heads classics such as ‘Once In A Lifetime’, ‘I Zimbra’ and ‘Road To Nowhere’ with choice solo cuts and tracks from ‘American Utopia’, he also dots the show with musings on an array of post-millennial questions: the health of democracy; the rise of xenophobia and fascism; our increasing reliance on materialism and online communication; the climate change threat; the existential nightmare of the dating app; and, crucially, the distances all of these things put between us.

“The ‘likes’ and friends and connections and everything that the internet enables,” he argues, “even Zoom calls like this, they’re no substitute for really being with other people. Calling social networks ‘social’ is a bit of an exaggeration.”

Byrne closes the show with the suggestion that, rather than isolate behind our LCD barriers, we should try to reconnect with each other. In an age when social media has descended into all-out thought war and anyone can find concocted ‘facts’ to support anything they want to believe, is that realistic?

“I have a little bit of hope,” he says. “Not every day, but some days. I have hope that people will abandon a lot of social media, that they’ll realise how intentionally addictive it is, and they’re actually being used, and that they might enjoy actually being with other people rather than just constantly scrolling through their phone. So, I’m a little bit optimistic that people will, in some ways, use this technology a little bit less than they have.”

A key moment in American Utopia comes with Byrne’s cover of Janelle Monae’s ‘Hell You Talmbout’, a confrontational track shouting the names of African-Americans who have been killed by police or in racially motivated attacks – Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and far, far too many more. Does Byrne think the civil unrest in the wake of Floyd’s death and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement make a serious impact?

“We’ll see how long this continues,” he says, “but in projects that I’m working on – there’s a theatre project I’m working on in Denver, there’s the idea of bringing this show back to Broadway, there’s other projects – those issues came to the fore. Issues of diversity and inclusion and things like that, which were always there. Now they’re being taken more seriously. The producers and theatre owners realise that they can’t push those things aside, that they have to be included in the whole structure of how a show gets put together.”

“At least for now, that seems to be a big change. I see it in TV shows and other areas too. There’s a lot of tokenism, but there’s a lot of real opportunity and changed thinking as well.”

Elsewhere, he encourages his audience to register to vote, and had registration booths at the shows. He must have been pleased about the record turnout in the recent US election? “Yeah, the turnout was great. Now you just got to keep doing that. Gotta keep doing it at all the local elections, too. It was important for me not to endorse a political party or anything in the show but to say, ‘Listen, we can’t have a democracy if you don’t vote. You have to get out there and let your voice be heard and there’s lots of people trying to block it.’ We have to at least try.”

Will Trump’s loss help bring people together after four years with such a divisive influence in charge?

“Yes. I think for me Trump was not so much a shock; we knew who he is. He was around New York before that, in the reality show [The Apprentice], we knew what kind of character he was. What shocked me was how quickly the Republican party all fell into line behind him, behind this guy who’s obviously a racist, misogynist liar and everything else. But it’s kind of encouraging – although it’s taken four years and with some it’s only with the prospect of him being gone – that quite a few have been breaking ranks. There are some possibilities of bridge building being held out.”

But, he says, “It’s too early to celebrate,” concerned that Senate Majority Leader and fairweather Trump loyalist Mitch McConnell will use any Republican control of the Senate to block many of Biden’s policies from coming into effect. “[This] is what happened with Obama… I want to see real change happen. [Climate change] absolutely needs to be a priority. The clock had turned back over the last four years, so there’s a lot to be done. Whether there’s the willpower to do everything that needs to be done, it remains to be seen, but at least now it’s pointing in the right direction.”

How will he look back on the last four years? Byrne ponders. “I’m hoping that I look back at it as a near-miss.”

American Utopia is as much a personal journey as a dissection of modern ills. Ahead of ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’, Byrne admits to being a rather socially awkward type. He claims that a choir of Detroit teenagers, when singing the song for the accompanying video, had imbued the song with a far more welcoming message than his own rendition, which found him wracked with the fear that his visitors might never leave. How does someone like that deal with celebrity?

“In a certain way it’s a blessing,” Byrne grins, “because I don’t have to go up to people to talk to them – they sometimes come up to me. In other ways it’s a little bit awkward. Celebrity itself seems very superficial and I have to constantly remind myself that your character, your behaviour and the work that you do is what’s important – not how well known you are, not this thing of celebrity. I learned early on it’s pretty easy to get carried away. But it does have its advantages. I had Spike Lee’s phone number, so I could text him.”

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz’s recent book Remain In Love suggests that the more successful Byrne got early on, the more distant he became.

Byrne nods. “I haven’t read the book, but I know that as we became more successful I definitely used some of that to be able to work on other projects. I worked on a dance score with [American choreographer] Twyla Tharp and I worked on a theatre piece with [director] Robert Wilson – other kinds of things – [and] I started working on directing some of the band’s music videos. So I guess I spent less time just hanging out. As often happens with bands, you start off being all best friends and doing everything together and after a while that gets to be a bit much. Everybody develops their own friends and it’s like, ‘I have my own friends too’. Everybody starts to have their own lives.”

The future is far too enticing for David Byrne to consider revisiting the past. “I do live alone so sometimes it would get lonely”, he says of lockdown, but he’s been using his Covid downtime to cycle around undiscovered areas of New York and remain philosophical about the aftermath.

“We’ll see how long before the vaccine is in, before we return to being able to socialise,” he says, “but I’m also wondering, ‘How am I going to look at this year? Am I going to look at it as, “Oh yes, that’s the year that was to some extent taken away from our lives; our lives were put on pause?”’ We kept growing; we kept ageing; we keep eating, but it was almost like this barrier had been put up. It has been a period where, in a good way, it’s led us to question a lot of what we do. You get up in the morning and go, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I doing this for? What’s this about?’ Everything is questioned.”

Post-vaccine, he hopes to “travel a little bit” before looking into plans to bring the ‘American Utopia’ show back to Broadway, and possibly even to London if the financial aspects can be worked out. “Often when a show like that travels, the lead actors might travel,” Byrne explains, “but in this case it’s the entire cast that has to travel. So you’ve got a lot of hotel bills and all that kind of stuff. We wanted to do it. There might be a way, if we can figure that out.”

Once we all get our jab, will everyone come to recognise that, as Byrne sings on ‘American Utopia’s most inspiring track, ‘Every Day Is A Miracle’? “Optimistically, maybe,” he says. “There will be a lot of people who will just go, ‘Let’s get back to normal – get out to the bars, the clubs and discos’. That’s already been happening in New York; there’s been these underground parties where people just can’t help themselves. But after all this it’d be nice to think that people might reassess things a little bit.”

And with the algorithm as the new gatekeeper and technology beginning to subsume the sounds and consumption of music, what does the new wave Nostradamus foresee for rock in the coming decades? Will AIs soon be writing songs for other AIs to consume to inflate the numbers, cutting humanity out of the equation altogether?

“It seems like there’ll be a kind of factory,” Byrne predicts, “an AI factory of things like that, and of newspaper articles and all of this kind of stuff, and it will just exaggerate and duplicate human biases and weaknesses and stupidity. On the other hand, I was part of a panel a while back, and a guy told a story about how his listening habits were Afrofuturism and ambient music – those were his two favourite ways to go. The algorithm tried to find commonalities between the two so it could recommend things to him and he said it was hopeless. Everything it recommended was just horrible because it tried to find commonalities between these two very separate things. This just shows that we’re a little more eclectic than these machines would like to think.”

And in the distant future? Best prepare to welcome your new gloop overlords. Byrne isn’t concerned about The Singularity – the point at which machine intelligence supersedes ours and AI becomes God – but instead believes that future technologies will emulate microbial forms.

“I watched a documentary on slime moulds [a simple slimy organism] the other day,” he says, warming to his sticky theme. “Slime moulds are actually extremely intelligent for being a single-celled organism. They can build networks and bunches of them can communicate. They can learn, they have memories, they can do all these kinds of things that you wouldn’t expect a single-celled organism to be able to do.”

“I started thinking, ‘Well, is there a lesson there for AI and machine learning, of how all these emerging properties could be done with something as simple as a single cell?’ It’s all in there… when things interact, they become greater than the sum of their parts. I thought, okay, maybe the future of AI is not in imitating human brains, but imitating these other kinds of networks, these other kinds of intelligences. Forget about imitating human intelligence – there’s other kinds of intelligence out there, and that might be more fruitful. But I don’t know where that leads.”

His grin says he does know, that he has a vision of our icky soup-world future, but maybe the rest of the species isn’t yet advanced enough to handle it. But if we’re evolving towards disaster rather than utopia, we can trust David Byrne to give us plenty of warning.

December 18, 2020

#david byrne #talking heads #music #new wave #post-punk #art pop #avant funk #worldbeat #interview #nme magazine #2020

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shealynn88 · 3 years

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Fic Writer Questions

Tagged by @fandom-hoarder . Thanks so much!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

121

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

257,052 (over 20 years)

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Yuletide is responsible for most of the one-offs, my main fandoms are Supernatural and Veronica Mars. Otherwise, I’ve written for Angel, Blade, Bones, Buffy, Constantine, Daddy Long Legs, Dancing With the Stars, Dead Like Me, Dexter, Elektra, Firefly, Friday Night Lights, Good Omens, Grimm, Haven, Heroes, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Fault in Our Stars, The Guardian, Travelers, Tru Calling, Venom, iZombie

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Bottle of Red (Venom (Movie 2018)) (2060 words) - Anything Venom is way more popular than any of my other stuff. You Venom fans are THIRSTY. And I love you for it. :D The Little Death (Teen Wolf (TV)) (3058 words) - TW fans, ALSO thirsty, and I love YOU for it. I’m still not 100% with the characterization here, but I think it’s def. closer. The Light Will Guide You Home (Supernatural) (4622 words) Destiel - I’m really proud of this one - AU, tentacle creature Cas with feels, and it’s what got me into the original works anthology I’m in--Add Magic to Taste, with Duck Prints Press! What the Mark Demands (Supernatural) (1305 words) Wincest - one of my favorites, honestly. Pure smut, but there are feels. Paved With Good Intentions (Supernatural) (2837 words) Wincest - Soulless Sam still gives me happy chills, okay?

More questions answered below!

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed and I don’t, but I always, always, always treasure them!!

6) What’s the fic you’ve writtenb with the angstiest ending?

When Living is Another Kind of Dying (Supernatural/Heroes crossover)(767 words) - I love this one. It’s super old, I wrote it on LiveJournal. But it’s solid, it imagines a world where Dean goes to avenge Sam and gives Peter That Scar.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I mean, a huge number of my fics end happy. But I’ll say this because it’s also based on happy, sexy art and that’s awesome:

Adulting 101 (Supernatural) (2988 words) DCJ - A sweet AU where Dean meets Jimmy in Sioux Falls and then meets Cas and doesn’t know what to do...until he does.

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I think they’re all sort of equally crazy, probably? Here, have most of them:

Playing Dice in the Dark (Supernatural/Good Omens)(2927 words) Destiel - Dean and Cas are Crowley and Aziraphale. Follow them through the ages. There is some dark, torturey stuff handled in a lighter, Pratchett-y way.

Phoenix Out of Blood (Supernatural/Heroes) (7583 words) Gen - early season Sam and Dean meet 5 Years Later version of Claire Bennett and they go on the run. A lot of feels, historical Dean/Jo, honestly an underappreciated fic. :)

Of Squints and Vampires (Angel/Bones) (2653 words) Gen - a very old one and not fantastic, but still fun. A demon gets shipped to the Jeffersonian. I did this for a doppleganger group a million years ago.

Drown Out the Clamor of Silence (Buffy/Tru Calling) (2681 words) Harrison/Faith - I loved this one, so dark and weird! Harrison meets a girl who looks like his sister but isn’t, and it ends up being both traumatic and healing, somehow. Another one for the doppleganger group.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Ah, yes. I wrote my first dark Wincest, full of non-con on both sides (demon!Dean), and people had massive issues with my tagging of who topped and who bottomed, which I found hilarious since it was rape, all the way down, but apparently who puts what into who was the main source of anger. I don’t tag for topping and bottoming anymore.

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

So. Much. So much smut. I don’t know what kind? the smutty kind? Usually with feels?

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nah, I’m not that big.

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Once! It was a Veronica Mars fic, five million years ago.

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

I can’t. I just can’t. There are too many. Spuffy, Weever, Destiel, Wincest...anything trust based and a little fucked up is right up my alley.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Grimm Series - I started this, and loved it, but I lost track of the series. It was going to be fairy tale based, Juliette/Renaud and Nick/Monroe endgame. I love the beginning of it. Maybe I’ll get back to it, it was so fun, and honestly, pretty darn good.

16) What are your writing strengths?

I write a good sentence. I think I have good flow and good characterization for the most part. I’m solid when it comes to smut.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot. All the way, I’m terrible at plot and not great at pacing. BUT, I’m actively trying to improve and I think I am!

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Depending on the situation, either type it in the other language and have the response show what it meant, or type it in italics and then ‘he said in Russian’ or whatever. Is it right? I dunno. I don’t do it very often.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I wrote fanfic for a high school assignment for Farenheit 451, which I’m fairly certain was brilliant, and then the first time I knew what fanfic was and did it on purpose, it was for the TV show, Witchblade. It was so long ago, I think I posted it on a forum and I don’t know where it is anymore.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Can one choose a child? Gah. There are so many, honestly. If you get this far and want a rec, I’ll rec you one based on your interests, just send me an ask.

#ask game #navel gazing #this was fun

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jackdawyt · 4 years

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Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of my favourite games of all time. I love everything about this game, from the compelling hero’s journey, to the roster of lovable characters, to making the Inquisitor my very own unique protagonist. Few games compare to the experiences and tremendous moments that Inquisition provides, not to mention the Trespasser DLC which revealed the true intention of the game’s villain, and paved the story forward for future titles.

I think it’s rather telling how good this game is, considering we’re still talking about it nearly 6 years later after launch, discovering new theories and mysterious hidden deep within the lore. Heck, if Dragon Age: Inquisition was a mediocre experience, I don’t think I’d have a YouTube channel today with thousands of recurring views weekly talking about the game, and where the story is going to go since the events of Inquisition.

However, there is something critical that I feel is necessary to discuss regarding Dragon Age Inquisition’s original marketing demos and the expectations they set for the finished game.

Following up to the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition, I used to obsessively re-watch the first original gameplay demo shown at Pax Prime 2013. At the time the game was in its pre-alpha build, however, there were many impressive features and dynamics showing just a glimpse of what we’d come to expect once we got our hands on the game.

In retrospect, these promises were scrapped before the finished project released.

This post is not meant to be a negative outlook, poking holes at BioWare’s effort, but an investigation and critique into BioWare’s game design, more specifically, the cuts the developers made tackling Inquisition’s complicated release, and how they’ve learned since.

For the uninitiated, Dragon Age: Inquisition released in November, 2014, a month after the next generation of consoles launched. As the game was jammed in-between two gaming generations, it was designed to ship on both the previous generation of consoles (Xbox 360/PS3) and the current generation (XB1/PS4).

In order for the game to predominantly run on the lower spec consoles, many gameplay cuts, downgrades and setbacks were made to the final project.

I’m not talking about conceptual ideas in pre-production that were drafted for the game, like The Architect making a cameo appearance in a “Here Lies The Abyss” alternative twist, or the Hero of Ferelden, Hawke and The Inquisitor meeting up in a potential drafted prologue. Of course, there were plenty of ideas, concepts and story threads that were canned and reworked because the developers had better, and frankly more relevant plans for the game.

I’m talking about actual features and mechanics that were incorporated and designed into the vertical slice demo that was shown off to the fans at Pax Prime 2013, and then were removed later on just before launch.

I would like to point out that the gameplay I’m going to show was alpha footage, and the developers made sure we all understood that it could easily change, nobody lied to us. If anything, BioWare were so eager to show off the next Dragon Age game, that perhaps this was the biggest detriment to the project.

I’ll have the full Pax gameplay demo linked for those who want to watch it fully. But without further ado, I’m going to be revealing the Dragon Age: Inquisition we almost got.

Cut Content:

The demo starts with a significant cut, originally Dragon Age: Inquisition would’ve featured stunning party member cutscenes when entering new areas for the first time. We see Varric, Cassandra and Vivienne discussing how prepared they are since the Inquisition formed. Varric banters that he’s outnumbered by the ladies once again.

We can assume that these dynamic banter cutscenes based on your party members were replaced with Scout Harding’s area report.

The models and textures for the characters and armours look very different too. Cassandra has a more angled facial structure, like her original concept art. And, the Inquisitor’s armour and textures don’t even exist in the final game, I remember attempting to recreate this look, a thousand times over, however, no fabrics in the game have this orange texture.

Helmets also appear in conversations, which is a huge pet peeve of mine, I’m still upset to this day that we can’t see helmets in conversations and there’s no mod to fix it. However, they added this feature in Mass Effect: Andromeda, so maybe we’ll see it in the future.

In general, this demo showed that there was going to be a lot more cutscenes when entering new areas, in party banter, and for minor conversations with smaller characters.

Upon inspecting the gameplay, we can see the camera’s placement was significantly adjusted. The demo had a third-person feel, whereas the game ended up with a pulled back camera, probably to suite the tactical camera for combat. Fortunately, there are mods that actually fix this issue.

The UI has evolved since the demo, there used to be a Skyrim-esqe navigation compass that was replaced with a radar. And the party member icons are different, but that’s just nit-picking.

The combat is more or less the same, however, it does seem more reactive and heftier in the demo. Most likely because the camera is more zoomed into the action. There are some tweaks though, the enemies react more to the Inquisitor’s attacks, the stumble, flail and even run away, as opposed to just taking the damage and then attacking you back.

However, minor these cuts may seem to you; they did change the game a fair amount adding more immersion to the overall experience.

Even so, the most obvious and upsetting cut when watching this demo regards the entirety of Crestwood, the area has been dramatically reduced in the final game.

In this demo, the Inquisitor is given a conflict. One of the Inquisition’s soldiers asks the player how does the Inquisitor want to handle their armies' movements throughout the area.

The Inquisitor could send the Inquisition army to save the town of Crestwood.

They could lead the soldiers to tend to the nearby wounded.

Or they could bolster every solider to the Keep, leaving both the wounded and the town of Crestwood.

Each choice had a consequence, and both Mike Laidlaw and Mark Darrah spoke on having multiple ways to approach the situation. For instance, in the demo’s scenario the Inquisitor decides to leave the town while it’s under siege, instead, they find a secret entrance towards the Keep. Using Antivan Fire, they burn the invaders’ boats which would prevent them from escaping after their attack. The Inquisition take the Keep, and head back to the ransacked town filled with newly fresh corpses. A dynamic cutscene of Varric mourning the dead plays out, adding emotional impact and weight to the decision the Inquisitor just made.

And this was just a side questline...

The demo ends with the developers reiterated the tactical and dynamic approaches when showing the Inquisition taking over the Keep at The Western Approach.

According to Mark Darrah, you could weaken enemy defences by doing things like drawing out the troops or poisoning their wells.

Then, once you claimed the keep for yourself, you’d get a quest called ‘This Water Tastes Funny’, in which your Keep's well was poisoned and you’d have to go find fresh water.

The Keep’s themselves were originally designed to have a lot more influence and reactivity throughout the world. Once captured, the Inquisitor could choose a dynamic choice for the Keep’s overall goal, if you had enough Inquisition agents.

The Keep could be specialised based on the Inquisition’s advisors. You could choose to run your Keep as a Military outpost, boosting fortifications. It could be a Keep of espionage and secrets, for information gathering, or you could make it a Keep of connections and merchants for diplomatic purposes. Each different speciality had a different advantage and aesthetic to suit its purpose.

Adding more choices and roleplaying values for making the Inquisition your own army, having a say in what aspects it should grow in.

That sums up the majority of the cuts made since this demo. I will say it’s unfortunate seeing these unfinished features that shaped the game in a completely different direction, that inevitably couldn’t make it into the finished project.

But I think it’s wrong to pin the blame of this cut content on anyone because the developers were tackling a console generation shift, and they wanted everyone to have the opportunity to play the game without having to get a new console. Can you really blame them for that?

Perhaps many of these features may be designed into a future title since the developers wanted them so much in Inquisition? And speaking of the future title, at least the next Dragon Age game won’t be coming out in between a console generation, it is being designed strictly for next-gen, so there shouldn't be any console setbacks and limitations.

Even still, when Dragon Age 4 does eventually get a gameplay reveal, don’t set your expectations in stone based on that reveal. The finished project will look very different. These days gameplay previews aren’t always accurate, and that’s just a dilemma of the entire games industry, not just EA and BioWare.

Wrapping up on a positive note, BioWare have learned from this experience, and they’re approaching Dragon Age 4 with a “show, don’t tell” strategy. They will be proceeding with caution when marketing and revealing the next Dragon Age game, and that may play a part in why we haven't and won't see anything official for a while.

I don’t think I could end on a better note then the Narrative Director, John Epler’s message about Inquisition’s development. John said: “A good 90% of 'bad' decisions are, in fact, the best decision at the time. Game dev is all about making the best decision you can at the time, with the resources you have. A lot of stuff you thought was weird or awkward came down to a gut call of 'this is the best I can make this and I trust it's good enough'. Sometimes we're right, sometimes not.”

BioWare decided to make these cuts to Inquisition because they realised it was the right thing to do for the entire project, perhaps they felt they couldn’t deliver these features to their full capacity, or they wanted a change of direction. They believe these decisions were made for the greater good of the game, and I commend them for that.

Dragon Age Inquisition is an incredible RPG with tons of personality, that not many games can even mimic. Although the game had some minor setbacks with the fair amount of content that was cut, the game is just as amazing without those initial features.

Like I said, perhaps we’ll see these mechanics in the next game, if not, then at least it has been a learning experience for BioWare, that they can utilise for the development of Dragon Age 4.

In any regard, let me know your thoughts down below on this gameplay demo relating to the finished game, and don’t forget to check out my latest news update!

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daggerzine · 4 years

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You Gotta Lose? Hell, Some Of Us Ain’t Dead Yet by Mary Leary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0fz3FVBlOE

NRBQ has done so many amazing songs. I never thought much about “Roll Call,” from Tiddlywinks - for one thing, it has a lighter, almost Billy Joel sound that’s more about latter day Terry Adams style than what I think of as the classic Q. Yet just as Adams’ work has grown on me, this track has made its way into my consciousness. The lyrics speak to me more in 2020 than they did when Tiddlywinks was released in 1980, before the D.C.-area music scene had lost Robert Goldstein (Urban Verbs), Kevin MacDonald (brilliant visual artist and scene stalwart who helped me design and layout [The] Infiltrator), Danny Gatton disciple/guitar maverick Evan Johns, bassist Michael Maye from the original H-Bombs, Rick Dreyfuss (Half Japanese/Chumps/Shakemore), Libby Hatch and Michael Mariotte (Tru Fax and the Insaniacs), Sally Be/Berg - REM/Egoslavia/SHE/Robert Palmer), Nurses member Marc Halpern (heroin, 1982), Lorenzo (Pee- Wee) Jones (Tiny Desk Unit) and hybrid rocker Jim Altman (HIV, 1990s). Goldstein, Dreyfuss, Maye and MacDonald succumbed to cancer, while Evan Johns’ deterioration followed years of touring, hard drinking and pushing himself past the limit.

(Top to bottom: Tommy Keene, Kevin MacDonald, Susan Mumford)

Those named above have been joined by Tommy Keene (the Rage/the Razz/solo/Paul Westerberg/Matthew Sweet - cardiac arrest at the age of 59; 2017), TDU’s Susan Mumford (cancer, 2018), David Byers (Psychotics/H.R./Bad Brains), and Skip Groff (Yesterday and Today/ Limp Records/Dischord - seizure, 2019). This is just an imperfect/incomplete naming of D.C.-area losses - I’m sure journalists from other cities could make lists. A horde of New Wave and early alternative musicians have died within the past few years. Whether through the stress of hard living/poverty, substance abuse, cancer or Covid-19, we’re seeing artists pass much earlier than I, anyway, expected them to.

(Top to bottom: Fred "Freak” Smith, Michael Maye with Evan Johns, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs)

We’re already past the loss of all the original Ramones. All the Cramps less Poison Ivy. Joe Strummer. Robert Quine. Hilly Kristal. Lou Reed. As of July, 2020, since 2018 we’ve also lost Andy Gill, Ivan Kral, Genesis P-Orridge, Adam Schlesinger, Danny Mihm, Ric Ocasek, Daniel Johnston, Kim Shattuck, Lorna Doom, Mark Hollis, Keith Flint, Ranking Roger, Mark E. Smith, Glenn Branca, Randy Rampage, Hardy Fox, Pete Shelley, Matthew Seligman, Bill Rieflin, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider, Ian Dury, Benjamin Orr, Kirsty McColl and David Roback.

(Top to bottom: Sally Be/Berg, Ranking Roger, Danny Mihm)

Talking about the deaths of talented, gifted creatives is a helluva way to start a column. But here we are. Older performers don’t always get the attention afforded newer, so the rest of this piece shares and celebrates artists from the original New Wave/punk scenes who are still around and active. Many are from the D.C.-area cornucopia I know best, while others have just come to my attention, or seem especially noteworthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MED9_XK_JVQ

The Zeros’ Javier Escovedo has been steadily emitting tasty Americana-ish rock while occasionally dropping some Zeros sturm-’n’-drang - most recently with Munster Records single “In The Spotlight” and a track on Burger Records’ Quarantunes compilation. Quarantunes is a seven-album affair featuring 140 alternative/punk performers old and new, all of whom wrote songs between March-April 2020. A cursory listen to Volume 2 reveals the recorded version of a good night at a very wild bar, with Zeros still handily kicking ass of all ages.

https://velvetmonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/legacy-of-success?fbclid=IwAR0lJyS0YDE4e3o7LJiITEtw1lhBWMkUX47Vuag1Lf9fs2QozJJKD1lwkes

Velvet Monkeys/B.A.L.L. player and Sonic Youth/Teenage Fanclub producer Don Fleming reports, “We’ve put out new tracks ‘Theories of Rummanetics’ and ‘Legacy of Success.’ Jay has written a few ‘modules’ and Malcolm and I are having fun doing the music,” adding, “I play some electric six string on the new Rob Moss album - it’s fun to be on, with lots of guitar slingers from the DC daze.”

Yup, Rob Moss of Skin-Tight Skin has solicited contributions from Fleming and from Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys), along with a pile of talent including Stuart Casson (Psychotics/Dove/Meatmen), Franz Stahl (Foo Fighters/Scream), Billy Loosigian (Nervous Eaters, the Boom-Boom Band), Nels Cline (Wilco) and Saul Koll (the guy who made guitars for Henry Kaiser and Lee Ranaldo). The set is called We’ve Come Back To Rock ‘n’ Roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIB8a_0Q4c

Chumps/Workdogs/Jam Messengers player Rob Kennedy apparently has too much energy to throw in the towel - he’s kept recording, performing and making various sorts of lo-fi, DIY mischief that never loses that fresh, ‘70s feeling. Jam Messengers released Night And Day on vinyl in 2017. One of my fave Kennedy tracks, “A Low Down Dirty Shame” speaks to this moment as well as any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CRBEGVLE4

Former Tiny Desk Unit/Fuji’s Navy/Rhoda & the Bad Seeds members Bob Boilen, Kevin Lay, Michael Barron and Bob Harvey have released a new Danger Painters joint, Thank Speak Love This Record. Lay joked, “I have a voice made for Morse Code” before revealing his recent work with Rhoda and the Bad Seeds material, released June 30 as Live at Nightclub 9:30. Boilen continues to introduce artists both vital and obscure via Tiny Desk Concerts and All Songs Considered/NPR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ1GajwfB0

I’ve seen David Arnson play recently and can attest to his proclivity for unfettered growth via Insect Surfers, the instrumental group that originally had some trouble establishing cred. with younger D.C. punks. The Surfers’ most recent release was Living Fossils (2019). Arnson celebrated the band’s 40 years of existence with a European tour in 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SkIuWIZVkM

Jad Fair says, “Half Japanese will have a new album released in November on Fire Records.” Jad’s art was recently featured at the Hiromart Gallery/Tokyo, while David has created a Facebook page where fans can pick up his colorful images for, well, mere bags o’ shells, as far as we can see - https://www.facebook.com/David-Fair-Painting-107055447700859/

Despite health issues for several members, Bad Brains has collaborated with Element to make BB themed skate wear https://www.elementbrand.com/mens-collection-bad-brains/ and added some killer live tracks to its YouTube channel.

Former WGTB programmers John Paige and Steve Lorber have been presenting Rock Continuum on WOWD-LP FM 94.3 since 2017.

Mike Stax continues to give excellent motivation for hunting down a pair of Beatle boots - Munster released the Loons’ 7” EP, A Dream In Jade Green, last year. The latest issue of Ugly Things, said by Stax to be heavily focused on the Pretty Things’ Phil May, was reported in early July to be nearing publication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jSc7gEAv0

Razz (the) Documentary will tell the story of how an uncommonly combustible rock band - especially with the Bill Craig/Abaad Behram line-up - helped spread the Flamin’ Groovies gospel while throwing down oddly compelling originals and taking the two-guitar thing up several notches - the producers are purportedly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether anyone can ever recreate the experience of being in an altered state via obsessive, sometimes conversational repetition of certain chords, anchored by Ted Nicely rethinking just what can be done with a bass guitar, given girth by Doug Tull’s intuitive drumming; with Mike Reidy the heat-seeking missile somewhere near the center... well, I doubt it. ‘Cause at this point you’re feeling no pain and it’s not about drinking; there is no room for anything but water - the beer will be knocked over when you’re this busy matching David Arnson’s other-side-of-the-front-line’s leaps into joydum while PCP’d out yahoos from the sticks learn the hard way that hugging Marshall amps can lead to lifelong repercussions. There (in case nothing I want to say about [the] Razz makes it into the film) - I’ve said it.

Discussions among old friends have confirmed that I’m not alone in being happily surprised at this development - we never expected our actions - which led to the hardcore explosion that’s received a lot more attention... would ever make it into any history book. Yet coverage of many of the D.C.-area musicians featured in this piece also comes with Punk The Capitol, A History of D.C. Punk and Hardcore, 1976-1983. Spring 2021 is the projected date for streaming/DVD release.

Ivan Julian came back from a scary 2015 bout with cancer to do a show in New York in 2016. The cancer has returned. Friends have organized a GoFundMe to raise money for surgery and basic needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDB_3by-xkI

The Shakemore fest also refuses to fade, promising “eight hours of streaming steaming video” on August 1. Sounds will be provided by R. Stevie Moore, Velvet Monkeys, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Half Japanese, Johnny Spampinato, Weird Paul and the Chumps, among many, many others.

Despite having played at CBGB and other alternative venues in 1979, at the height of the New Wave, Gary Wilson’s work is so distinctive, he’s rarely been included with any musical genre other than the oft-vague “experimental” category. Folks were too unmoored by his visceral performances to get behind him. Wilson’s 14th album, Tormented, was released by Cleopatra in February.

Paul Collins recently published a book that he wrote with Chuck Nolan; I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk and Power Pop Trenches with the Nerves and the Beat (Hozac Books).

As “Heath,” Michael Layne Heath, a journalist who contributed to (the) Infiltrator and many other ‘zines, published My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed in May (Hat & Beard Press).

In April, X released its first album in 35 years; Alphabetland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1I-laItPI

As exciting for me as any of the above is Richard Hell with the Heartbreakers’ 2019 release of Yonkers Demo 1976. Hell’s “You Gotta Lose” is one of my picks for best punk/new wave singles of all time. The Heartbreakers version is, predictably, messier than the Robert Quine guitar-spiked classic. Its more excessive charms are growing on me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QnsysCN_A

This piece could go on and on - compiling it has been exhausting. The best part has been the response to my social media call for any info I didn’t have re: the D.C.-centric scene I left for New York in 1983. Musicians anxious to keep their compadres’ names alive have hammered that post with 138 comments to date. Urban Verbs percussionist Danny Frankel, who’s played with a colorful spread of artists including Beck, Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed, John Cale and k.d. Lang, made a point of being sure I knew about the passing of Marc Halpern, a source of obvious pain. People were worried I wouldn’t mention John Stabb (Government Issue - 2016), rockabilly player Billy Hancock (2018), Fred “Freak” Smith (Strange Boutique/Beefeater - murdered in Los Angeles, 2017), John Hansen (Slickee Boys - 2010), record store owner/Wasp Records starter/music supporter Bill Asp, Jimmy Barnett of The Killer Bees, and David Byers.

One of the hardest for me to write about is Chris Morse, whose 1984 passing from a drug overdose wrenched so many - I managed to get an obituary into, I think, The New York Rocker (that physical trek was part of a long-ago blur; a very hot day of traipsing over steaming concrete in a narrow-skirted dress to deliver the copy). Chris popped up in my dreams for years - one “visitation” pushed me to write a poem about it in the ‘90s. Morse, who played in Rhoda & The Bad Seeds and worked as a doorman at The Pyramid after moving to NYC in the early ‘80s, was on one of the Urban Verbs’ early flyers. I’m on another.

(Top to bottom: Me in an early Verbs flyer/photo shot at the Atlantis; Chris Morse on another Verbs flyer)

I ended up getting so burnt out on the responsibility of populating this sad roll call, I’ve started a memorial page for them all on Facebook. The nature of truly alternative music is such that many of its lights still fail to fill the pages of major publications. Many of these lights gave a great deal of their lives, if not everything, for the art they believed in. It’s good to remember them, and those heady early days. It’s good to enjoy what we still can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA3IfK76mmI

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scotianostra · 1 year

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Happy 48th Birthday Scottish actor Alec Newman, born November 27th 1974 in Glasgow.

He may not be a household name, nor has he been in any real blockbuster films, but Alec Newman has quietly made a name for himself with roles in some very good dramas on both sides of the Atlantic.

Alec’s dad was in the Sandy, was in The Chris McClure Section, and since 1973 has been the lead singer and guitarist in Marmalade, Alec’s brother, John James Newman competed in the 2012 season of The Voice UK. Newman considered a life as a football player before breaking his leg playing for Wokingham Town as a youth.

He started out acting with National Youth Theatre aged 16, before enrolling in The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Straight out of there he began cropping up in stage shows and impressing in guest appearances in TV shows like good old Taggart, of course, Heartbeat, Peak Practice and Dangerfield.

In the year 2000 he landed a leading part in Frank Herbert’s Dune a three-part based on the novel of the same name, this got him noticed in the US and guest roles in shows there included, Angel, Star Trek Enterprise and Tru Calling, Flitting between stay at home and in the states he has continued to appear in some of the top shows, at home and abroad. Outlander fans might remember him as Joseph Wemyss in Down the Rabbit hole two years ago.

Alec is probably best known at home for playing Headmaster Michael Byrne in Waterloo Road when the series decanted to Scotland. Judge, John Deed, Spooks, Call the Midwife and Casualty at home, 24 Live Another Day, Victor Frankenstein, Rogue and The Bastard Executioner among many others, as well as stage roles has kept Newman busy in a career spanning around 25 years. Add to that he has voiced numerous commercials, audio books documentaries and Video games.

Fans of Shetland might recognise him, he was in Series 6 as the local businessman Niven Guthrie.

More recently he turned up in the excellent crime drama Grace, and another Scottish crime drama, Karen Pirie.

Alec Newman married production co-ordinator Heather Stewart after meeting on the set of Waterloo Road. They were wed in Ayrshire in 2014 and have a daughter together.

#Scotland #scottish #actor #theatre #television #film #happy birhtday #glaswegian

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fuckyeahtrucalling · 3 years

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#Tru Calling #Eliza Dushku #Michael Trucco #Tru Davies #Nick Kelly #Tru x Nick #Tru Calling Fan Art #Tru Calling Wallpaper #1x02 Putting Out Fires

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heroofthreefaces · 5 years

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Preview panel only. Click here for full cartoon. Or see the on-site navigation tutorial. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Thanks for reading.

#tru calling #tagging the crossover franchise would give the joke away #fan art #cartoons

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travelguideworldtour-blog · 5 years

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12 Best Places in New York

Utilize our guide to the nyc attractions you are enjoyable guests or only need to play with tourist and re-visit places that are legendary. We’ve compiled our favourite beaches and areas on the planet, for example amazing parks, art museumsand super markets and historical places.

Historic Huguenot Street

Historical Huguenot Street can be currently a 10-acre National Historic Landmark District maintaining the 1677 Hudson Valley payoff of Huguenot families that settled into the location seeking spiritual liberty. The district houses a myriad of tourist attractions and keeps its historical personality that is 19th century, like seven and the 1717 Huguenot Church. A picnic grove is offered by A tourist centre and shows to the area of diverse collections, for example its own French, and Dutch settlers and native classes. Draws include several web sites, a copy Munsee native wigwam, and also a burial ground maintaining the remains of the oldest settlers of their region. Free tours of this historical district can be obtained for people showcasing background information to the milestones of the region.

New York Botanical Garden

The children program is closely tied directly to research workers. A highlight of this New York Botanical Garden may be your train series, where enthusiasts can take pleasure in trains. For people who have limited freedom, there can be a train readily available for traveling.

Even the New York Botanical Garden, located on 250 acres at the Bronx, comprises over a thousand plants in temperate, subtropical, and subtropical desert parts of earth. The gardens have been centered on give gardening classes and conservation and education to many ages, in addition to supplementary classes for adults at botanical example, botany, landscape gardening, and art therapy.

Hudson Beach Glass

Hudson Beach Glass is among the Hudson Valley’s premiere glasswork studios, Both owned and operated by Wendy and John Gilvey, Jennifer Smith, and Michael Benzer as 1987. As the provider’s key studio has been worked inside a remodeled ice hockey house, demonstration centre and its gallery remains available to the general public around Beacon’s Main Street in just a firehouse centre reachable via the Beacon metronorth rail channel. Presentations can be viewed by visitors and watch a selection of glass works made by studio designers, for example bits and home items which might be purchased via the art shop of the facility. Visitors may be involved in glass and glass blowing training courses, emphasizing processes like decoration blowing and glass bead manufacturing. Public events consist of participation from the yearly Second Saturday Beacon art of the city walk.

Farmers’ Museum

There are screens of fields and farming implements full of legacy livestock. Educational programs are offered for adults, also for families, school classes. For a minimal fee, visitors move on horsedrawn wagon rides or can ride the hands. The memorial has a lot of places where beverage and food are all available .

Even the Farmers’ Museum, at Cooperstown, New York, introduces people with a peek at village and rural life throughout the 19th century. A number of those items are offered in the gift shop of the museum or at the overall Store.

Empire State Building

Even in line at the lobby can be an adventure by it self, since the ceilings of the lobby are all wonders of art deco murals left in aluminum foliage and 24 karat gold. Even the 86th floor observation deck is more open, allowing individuals while the deck wraps round the construction to observe most of Manhattan. Even the floor observation deck has been included, and also on a transparent day visitors can view as much as eighty kilometers off. The construction has bathroom facilities, gift shops, and restaurants.

As it had been completed in 1931, the Empire State Building was a iconic nyc attraction. The Art Deco style building can be a vital appeal for visitors to this town that come to gaze from the observation decks in Manhattan.

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Sagamore Hill has been the house of American president Theodore”Teddy” Roosevelt at that time it had been developed in 1885 before his death in 1919. His family obtained vacations that were lengthy also Roosevelt purchased a broad tract of property and experienced this gorgeous Queen Anne structure if he had been twenty years-old.

He spent time and effort while in office, and also your house became famous as”The Summer White House.” Reservations are advised there’s also a visitor centre which has a museum.

Broadway

Broadway could be your primary theatre district in Manhattan, ny City. It really is home to professional theatres of 500 seats apiece.

Broadway shows are still an attraction for sailors and tourists; the season. Broadway includes a tradition of theatre, which peaked from the 1950s and 1960s with shows like Oklahoma and goes back to 1866! , West Side Story, and Fiddler on top drawing rave reviews and also a great number of theatergoers.

Old Westbury Gardens

Old Westbury Gardens delivers educational programming for school classes, kids adults and adults, and also its own grounds are host to summer pop theaters, outdoor music festivals, auto shows, and book signings. The New York State program is followed by educational programming for school classes, and it’s readily available for classes in the kindergarten.

Westbury House and Also old Westbury Gardens were property and Both the home of John Shaffer Phipps, Also a United States of America steel magnate, along with his wife and 4 children. The Charles II style house, high in art work and antiques, sits on 200 acres of woodlands, ponds, lakes, and orchards, that admired throughout an tour or is enjoyed.

Antique Boat Museum

Open until October, the Antique Boat Museum grounds are home to the Antique Boat Show and Auction, that attracts ship aficionados. Every year, a charity regatta is held by the Antique Boat Museum. With an superb gift shop, videos, along with also slideshows, the Antique Boat Museum can be a mustsee for boat fans.

Even the Antique Boat Museum sits Around 1,500 feet of St. Lawrence River Shore and has Got the largest collection of Classic Ships in United States. It’s a superb selection of classic canoes, a display that traces the growth of boat construction, also will be offering a peek at the foundation of angling around the St. Lawrence River.

Forest Hill Stadium

A portion of this West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, New York City has been constructed in 1923 and renovated to sponsor diverse events and tennis tournaments. The West Side Tennis Club is a tennis team together with 38 tennis courts together with bud court, clay-court, Har Tru, along with surfaces. Additionally, it comes with an Olympic-size pool. The arena has 14,000 chairs and hosts concerts in addition to ski events. Throughout its peak popularity, the scene was the place for festivals with such titles as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, and more. The scene was the place for its Forest Hills Music Festival.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Even the Metropolitan Museum of Art, called The Met, is at the center of New York City, plus it’s among the best and most most-visited galleries around the entire earth. The Met has two thousand pieces of art spanning and art is represented by it .

A number of its popular works involve musical instruments, antique arms and armor, photography, American and contemporary art, and European specialists, including pieces by Picasso, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya, El Greco, Delacroix, Degas, Renoir, Gaugin, Cezanne, and Monet. The memorial, which was available guided tours and educational programming and has created connections. The Cloisters is at Manhattan and it is really just a repository and exhibit place for sculpture, decorative arts, and design.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

A conservatory comprises a bonsai garden that is related. The Shakespeare Garden imitates a English cottage garden, and also the Cranford Rose Garden hosts over a million species of roses and comprises over plants. The Children’s Garden will be the earliest in the Earth, and it’s widely utilized by youngsters from the area to develop fresh fruit and veggies. You can find plants in blossom inside and outside all year round, and also the garden boasts extensive programming.

Even the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, that sits at the center of one of New York’s five boroughs, can be actually really just a joy to local visitors and residents. It’s famous for its Japanese Garden it comprises 2 dozen flowering rock lanterns, a Shinto shrine bridges, and even trees.

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