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blackkudos · 4 years

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Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks (born Bobby Dean Hooks, April 18, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and activist. He is most recognizable to the public for his more than 100 roles in films, television, and stage. Most famously, Hooks, along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, founded The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). The NEC is credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company, and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.

Biography

Early life

The youngest of five children, Hooks was born in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. to Mae Bertha (née Ward), a seamstress, and Edward Hooks who had moved from Rocky Mount, North Carolina with their four other children, Bernice, Caroleigh, Charles Edward "Charlie", and James Walter "Jimmy". Named Bobby Dean Hooks at birth, Robert was their first child born "up-north" and the first to be born in a hospital. His father, Edward, died in a work accident on the railroad in 1939.

Hooks attended Stevens Elementary School. In 1945, at the insistence of his sister Bernice who was doing community arts outreach for youngsters at Francis Junior High School, he performed the lead in his first play, The Pirates of Penzance, at the age of nine. From the ages of 6 to 12, Bobby Dean journeyed with his siblings to Lucama, North Carolina to work the tobacco fields for his uncle's sharecropping farm as a way to help earn money for the coming school year in D.C.

In 1954, just as Brown vs. Board of Education was being implemented in the north, he moved to Philadelphia to be with his mother, her second husband, and his half-sister, Safia Abdullah (née Sharon Dickerson). Hooks experienced his first integrated school experience at West Philadelphia High School. Hooks soon joined the drama club and began acting in plays by William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He was graduated in 1956, passing on a scholarship to Temple University in order to pursue a career as a stage actor at the Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre (alongside Charles Dierkop and Bruce Dern, with whom he second-acted plays doing their pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia) while working at Browning King, a men's tailor shop at Fourteenth and Chestnut streets.

Career

Having trained at the Bessie V. Smith School of Theatre in Philadelphia, and after seeing A Raisin in the Sun in its Philadelphia tryout in February 1959, Hooks moved to New York to pursue acting. In April 1960, as Bobby Dean Hooks, he made his Broadway debut in A Raisin in the Sun replacing Louis Gossett, Jr. who would be doing the film version. He then continued to do its national tour. He then stepped into the Broadway production of A Taste of Honey, replacing Billy Dee Williams; then repeating the same national tour trajectory as he had done for "Raisin..." the previous year. In early 1962 he next appeared as the lead in Jean Genet's The Blacks, replacing James Earl Jones as the male lead, leaving briefly that same year to appear on Broadway again in Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright before stepping back into the lead role in The Blacks in 1963. He then returned to Broadway, first in Ballad for Bimshire and then in the short-lived 1964 David Merrick revival of The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More (as a character created by Tennessee Williams for this revival) and starring Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter in his only stage performance. Immediately thereafter, in March 24, 1964 he originated the role of Clay in Amiri Baraka's Dutchman. With this play, on the advice of Roscoe Lee Brown, Hooks became known as, Robert Hooks. He also originated roles on the New York stage in Where's Daddy? for which he won the Theatre World Award and he was nominated for Best Male Lead in a Musical for Hallelujah Baby while he was simultaneously starring in David Susskind's N.Y.P.D.—the first African American lead on a television drama.

In 1968 Hooks was the host of the new public affairs television program, Like It Is.

Hooks was nominated for a Tony for his lead role in the musical, Hallelujah, Baby!, has received both the Pioneer Award and the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, and has been inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. He also won an Emmy for his PBS special, Voices of Our People.

Significant roles for which Hooks is known include Reeve Scott in Hurry Sundown (1967), Mr. T. in the blaxploitation film Trouble Man (1972), grandpa Gene Donovan in the comedy Seventeen Again (2000), and Fleet Admiral Morrow in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). He also appeared on television in an episode of the NBC crime drama series The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978 and portrayed Doctor Walcott in the 1980s television series Dynasty.

Activism

Arts and Culture

In 1964, as a result of a speaking engagement at the Chelsea Civil Rights Committee (then connected to the Hudson Guild Settlement House) he founded The Group Theatre Workshop (GTW), a tuition-free environment for disadvantaged urban teens who expressed a desire to explore acting. Among the instructors were Barbara Ann Teer, Frances Foster, Hal DeWindt, Lonne Elder III, and Ronnie Mack. Alumni include Antonio Fargas, Hattie Winston, and Daphne Maxwell Reid.

The Group Theatre Workshop was folded into the tuition-free training arm of the The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) founded in 1967 with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone with a $1.3 million grant from the Ford Foundation under the auspices of W. McNeil Lowry.

From 1969-1972, Hooks served as an original board member of Black Academy of Arts and Letters (BAAL) (located in New York) alongside C. Eric Lincoln, President; John O. Killens, Alvin F. Poussaint, and Charles White. Chartered by the State of New York, BAAL's mission was to bring together Black artists and scholars from around the world. Additional members included: Julian Adderley, Alvin Ailey, Margaret Walker, James Baldwin, Imamu Baraka, Romare Bearden, Harry Belafonte, Lerone Bennett, Arna Bontemps, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee Davis, St. Clair Drake, Ernest Dunbar, Katherine Dunham, Lonne Elder III, Duke Ellington, Alex Haley, Ruth Inge Hardison, Vertis Hayes, Chester Himes, Lena Horne, Jacob Lawrence, Elma Lewis, Henry Lewis, Paule Marshall, Donald McKayle, Arthur Mitchell, Frederick O’Neal, Gordon Parks, Sidney Poitier, Benjamin Quarles, Lloyd Richards, Lucille D. Roberts, and Nina Simone.

In response to the violence in his home town of Washington, D.C. in the wake of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, and aided by a small grant from the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, Hooks took a leave of absence from the Negro Ensemble Company to create The D.C. Black Repertory Company (DCBRC, 1970-1981). As Founder and Executive Director, the DCBRC was intended as a further exploration of the ability of the arts to create healing. The a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock was created and developed within its workshop process.

The Inner Voices (Lorton Prison arts training program, 1971) proved to be a result of the beneficial effect of the DCBRC in the D.C. area. In response to a direct plea from an inmate, Rhozier "Roach" Brown, who was serving a life sentence in Lorton, Hooks' D.C. Black Repertory Company structured the first prison-based arts program in the United States. While it is the norm now, it was then a revolutionary attempt at rehabilitation through the arts. Eventually The Inner Voices performed more than 500 times in other prisons, including a Christmas special entitled, "Holidays, Hollowdays." Due to Roach's work, President Gerald Ford commuted his sentence on Christmas Day, 1975.

His relocation to the West Coast redirected Hooks' approach to parity in the arts with his involvement with The Bay Area Multicultural Arts Initiative (1988) as a board member and grant facilitator-judge. Funded by monies from a unique coalition made up of the San Francisco Foundation (a community foundation); Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and The National Endowment for the Arts, the function of this organization was the funding of deserving local multicultural arts organizations.

In 1992, Hooks co-founded (with writer Lonne Elder III) Arts in Action. Located in South Central Los Angeles, this was a film and television training center established to guide individuals who aspired to careers in film production. It formulated strategies and training for securing entry-level jobs. Courses included: career development workshops; pre-production and production for film and television; creative problem solving in production management; directing for stage and screen—principles and practices; also the craft of assistant directors, script supervisor, technicians, wardrobe, make-up, etc.

The Negro Ensemble Company of Los Angeles (NEC-LA) (1994-1997) was created because so many New York members and original members had relocated to the west coast. Hooks, as founder and executive director enlisted alumni from his New York Negro Ensemble Company to serve as board members: Denise Nicholas, Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne, Richard Roundtree, Samuel L. Jackson. NEC-LA's goal was to be a new and innovative multi-ethnic cultural project that strived to achieve the community effectiveness and professional success of its parent organization.

Personal life

Hooks is the father of actor, television and film director Kevin Hooks. He married Lorrie Gay Marlow (actress, author, artist) on June 15, 2008. Previously, he was married to Yvonne Hickman and Rosie Lee Hooks.

Awards

1966 - Theatre World Award (1965–66 ) for "Where's Daddy?" (The Billy Rose Theatre)

1979 - American Black Achievement Award - Ebony Magazine

1982 - Emmy Award for Producing (1982) Voices of Our People: In Celebration of Black Poetry (KCET-TV/PBS)

1966 - Tony Nomination, Lead Role in a Musical for Hallelujah, Baby

1985 - Inducted into The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, recipient Oscar Micheaux Award (1985)

1986 - March 2nd declared Robert Hooks Day by the City of Los Angeles, Mayor Tom Bradley

1987 - Excellence in Advertising and Communications to Black Communities from CEBA (Excellence in Advertising and Communications to Black Communities)

2000 - Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa honorary degree, Bowie State University

2000 - May 25th declared Robert Hooks Day in Washington, D.C.

2005 - Beverly Hills/Hollywood Chapter NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement

2005 - Beverly Hills/Hollywood Chapter NAACP Trailblazer Award to the Negro Ensemble Company

2005 - Trailblazer Award – City of Los Angeles

2006 - The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL), Lifetime Achievement Award (Dallas)

2007 - The Black Theatre Alliance Awards / Lifetime Achievement Award

2015 - Living Legend Award (2015) National Black Theatre Festival

2018 - October 18th proclaimed Robert Hooks Day by Mayor Muriel Bowser, Washington, D.C.

2018 - Hooks is entered into The Congressional Record by the Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton, September 4, 2018, Vol. 164

2018 - Visionary Founder and Creator Award - D.C. Black Repertory Company on its 47th anniversary

Acting Credits

Film

Sweet Love, Bitter (1967) .... Keel Robinson

Hurry Sundown (1967) .... Reeve Scott

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970) .... Chicken

Carter's Army (1970) .... Lt. Edward Wallace

Trouble Man (1972) .... Mr. T

Aaron Loves Angela (1975) .... Beau

Airport '77 (1977) .... Eddie

Fast-Walking (1982) .... William Galliot

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) .... Admiral Morrow

Passenger 57 (1992) .... Dwight Henderson

Posse (1993) .... King David

Fled (1996) .... Lt. Clark

#04/18

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who-is-this-nerd · 4 years

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To Belong Somewhere

Chapter 1: The Heir Of Slytherin Ruins Harry’s Holidays

Most people consider the Christmas and New Year holidays to be the best, most joyful time of year. But the Boy-Who-Lived wouldn’t consider himself most people.

His parents had been murdered when he was barely a year old, and ever since he’d been living with his rich, spoiled relatives, The Dursleys-Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and their son, Dudley. They treated him like a servant. Or, worse than a servant-like a house elf, punishments included. If a job wasn’t done according to their idea of perfect, he was beaten senseless. If he got better marks than his cousin at school, he was thrown into his tiny cupboard, and forgotten as he bled half to death. In fact, If weren’t for his accidental magic, he supposed he would have died ages ago.

It was for this reason that Harry James Potter hated the holidays. Spending his entire childhood confined to the Dursley’s abuse-with exception of the hours of the day spent at Primary school, where he was bullied by all of the other kids who were scared of Dudley and his gang-ruined his entire outlook on anything that was supposed to be joyful and fun.

And then things changed for the better on his 11th birthday last year when a giant of a man with wild, curly brown hair and the tangled mess of a beard knocked down the front door. He could not believe it when he learned he was a Wizard, and on top of all that, he got to escape from the Dursleys for ten whole months out of the year!

His first year at the magic school he’d been invited to-Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-had been the best year of his entire life. He got to eat three full meals a day (at his relatives he was constantly denied meals), he got to learn without having to worry about being punished if he was better than Dudley (since of course, his cousin wasn’t a Wizard), and best of all, he made friends!

Not only that, but he recieved Christmas gifts from said friends at the Holiday the previous year. That Christmas had been the best of his life. He’d even been able to buy presents for those friends, which left him ecstatic beyond measure.

Now it was his second year, and the Holidays were fast approaching. As grim as things had been, with random students and even a ghost being Petrified, and everyone thinking he was the “Heir of Slytherin”, he was sure nothing could cheer him up more than a Christmas at the Hogwarts castle. Everything about it was glorious, from the inch of snow that always dusted the grounds on the first of December, to the beautiful holiday decorations that coated the school inside and out.

For the first time since the moment he’d won the House Cup for Gryffindor last year, he felt excited. Today, the school would be decked out in Christmas trees, holly wreaths, mistletoe, and they even had Menorahs set out for the jewish students who celebrate Hanakkah.

“Morning, Harry!” His best friend Ron Weasley said on that Thursday morning as Harry entered the Gryffindor common room from his dorm.

“Hey Ron! Where’s Hermione?” Harry asked ask they climbed through the Portrait hole and made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

“You didn’t hear?-Oh, wait,” He spoke quickly, realizing before Harry could answer. “You were in detention with Lockhart when it happened yesterday. Malfoy hexed her and she ended up needing to go to the Hospital wing.”

Harry winced. “He must have done something bad for her to have to stay there overnight.”

“Yeah. Bloody git.”

“I’m glad he’ll be going home for the holidays next week so I won’t have deal with him over Christmas.”

“And his goons will be gone too!” Ron fist pumped in the air.

“So I take it that means you’re not going home this year?”

“Nope. Mum and Dad are visiting Charlie in Romania again.”

Harry was going to respond, but he got distracted by the loud, excited chatter-no doubt about the upcoming holidays-that suddenly came from the Great Hall before them. The two boys made their way to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Neville, Dean, and Seamus, and across from Fred, George, their best mate, Lee Jordan, and Ginny.

“Ello Harry! Ickle Ronniekins.” George nodded his head once as he spoke to each boy.

“Shut up! You know I don’t like that nickname.”

The twins laughed.

George looked like he was about to speak, but then Professor Dumbledore stood up, and immediatley the Hall fell silent.

“Good morning to all!” He said in a cheerful

voice. “I admire each of you for for your bright spirits and positive attitude during this bleak and trying period! Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are halfway through their growing periods and we will be able to revive those who have been Petrified in a matter of months.”

Many of the subdued faces in the crowd brightend momentarily at his words.

“However,” He began, and it suddenly seemed as if the entire room was holding in one collective breath. “Due to the events that have transpired here at Hogwarts and have only seemed to have gotten worse in recent weeks, we as a staff feel as though it is for the best that all students go back to their homes for Christmas.”

Many different reactions played across the Great Hall at this news, creating utter chaos: some students cried out in voices that spewed utter nonsense, others widened their eyes. The Hufflepuffs (who were religously loyal to the school and always stayed over the Holidays) screamed their refusal to leave. The sports fanatic kids, like Wood, screamed, “First you cancel Quidditch, and now this?!” Harry saw a familliar young first year at the end of the table across from Ginny, repeatedly blinking her eyes open and shut, open and shut, and covered her ears as the noise level in the room grew steadly more deafening with each passing moment. As for Harry himself, he widened his eyes and paled considerably.

“Harry?!” Ron asked in alarm. “You okay? You’re white as a sheet!”

“Yeah...” Harry looked down. “Yeah, I-I’m fine.”

Ron schruntinized Harry as if he wasn’t so sure, but turned back to the old Headmaster as older wizard spoke again.

“We wish to take all caution that is necessary in protecting you, and because no learning is done during the holidays, we feel that this is how we must currently proceed. All parents have been informed of this. The Hogwarts train will be here on Monday morning to take you home.”

With that, he sat down.

It was at that moment, of course, that Hermione Granger flew into the Great Hall. Random heads looked up as the doors opened, but when they saw who it was they looked back down to their food, still protesting against going home for the holidays loudly.

“Madame Pomfrey just released me.” She said breathlessly when she found Harry and Ron. Then, hearing the vile protests and wails, she asked, “What did I miss?”

Harry and Ron took turns explaining, and at the end she immediately took a sheaf of parchment and a quill out of her bag, pushing away the plate in front of her.

“I know Professor Dumbledore said he wrote all the parents, but I want to write my parents with the news just in case he accidentally missed them.” She answered at the boys’ stares, not looking up.

A moment later, food appeared, and hundreds of owls flew into the Great Hall simultaneously. Distracted by letters from home or copies of that day’s Daily Prophet, the witches and wizards around the Great Hall slowly abandoned their cries about the holidays.

“Errol!” Ron cried out disgustedly, pulling four letters amd an old owl out of a bowl of porriage that sat in the center of the table.

“Who’s the letter from?”

“From Mum. She’s sent some for all of us, look...l Ron said, tossing two of the letters to Fred and George and one to Ginny, and held up another that said “Percy Weasley” in elegant cursive. “Where’s Percy?”

“Ickle Percy’s talking to Penelope Clearwater.” Fred snickered, taking the letter and passing it up to Percy, who was two seats away with the witch in question.

“He fancies her.” the other twin added, also sniggering.

Ron turned just a bit red turned to the letter from his mum.

A chime overhead sounded as Ron finished the letter, signalling that it was time for classes.

“Let’s go, we don’t want to be late for Professor Lockhart!” Hermione exclaimed, nearly knocking Ron from his seat as she rose too fast.

Harry and Ron rolled their eyes.

“It’s So obviosu that you fancy him, Hermione.”

She turned red. “Do not!” She criend defensivley.

Ron looked down at the books in her arms. “Then why are there little hearts by his name?”

She and Harry looked down at the books. Indeed, there were tiny hand-drawn pink hearts at the beginnings and ends of his name.

Her face went as pink as the hearts.

“Becasue-because...oh forget it, I’ll see you two in there!”

She ran away, and Harry and Ron laughed.

By the time they set themselves up in the Defense classroom, Hermione had stopped blushing, but still refused to talk to either of them.

“So Harry,” Ron began, “Looks like I’m going to Romania for Christmas. You’re invited too, of course, if you want to come.”

He opened his mouth intending to say yes, but then paused as a dark thought struck him.

“What if Voldemort finds me in Romania? Then Ron and his family-they’d all be in danger!” He thought.

“No, that’s okay.”

“But you hate living with those muggles!” Ron protested.

“Yeah, but Voldemort’s after me, remember? All of you guys would be in danger if he found me there.”

“If. Harry, that’s a BIG if.”

“I’m not willing to risk it, Ron.” He turned to Hermione on his other side, who had been listening quietly to the conversation. “I’m not changing my mind, so don’t try to talk me out of it. Besides, the Blood Wards at the Dursley’s that Dumbledore keeps talking about would keep me safe, remember?

Hermione, who decided they were worth speasking to again, opened her mouth to speak but closed it at Harry’s words as the rest of their class entered the room.

“Fine.” Ron muttered finally, and Lockhart entered the classroom moments later, ending their conversation once and for all.

The next day, the Golden Trio were headed to their last class of that week, and Harry was not looking forward to it. Potions was never fun, but adding the Slytherins and a Professor who loathed him to the mix and instead of being merely bad, it was terrible. He quietly sat down in a seat in the back row in the middle of Ron and Hermione.

“Mate, you okay? You haven’t spoken hardly at all since Dumbledore’s announcement this morning.”

“Yeah, I’m great.” He said tiredly.

Ron gave him a calculating look, but Snape swept into the room before he could say anything.

“WEASLEY! Five points from Gryffindor! Eyes to the front when I am in the classroom.”

Ron complied. “Git.” the redhead muttered

Snape tapped his wand to a chalkboard next to him.

“The instructions are on the board. You may begin.”

Potions went by agonizingly slow.

Still, thought Harry, he’d prefer to be here than the Dursleys. Having to spend a Christmas at the place he had never in his albeit short life considered home upset him. Until this morning, he believed he’d never have to spend a Christmas at the Dursley’s again. Now, all he had to look forward to for Christmas was a possibility of beatings and slaving Christmas day away over the stove.

A loud BOOM filled the room then, causing Harry to be pulled out of his thoughts to look for the source of the noise. His eyes landed on fellow Gryffindor Neville Longbottom’s cauldron, which was now melted, and both the pieces of the cauldron and Neville himself were covered in green goo.

“Idiot child!” Snape exclaimed, striding over. “Do you not know how to do ANYTHING?!” The unfinished green potion and liqified bits of the cauldron dissapeared from before the now trembling Gryffindor. “ZERO! Pack up and get out of my site!”

The young boy didn’t need to be told twice. He was packed up and out of the room faster than you could say quidditch.

Harry watched as the angry Potions Master stormed back to his seat.

Once class had finally ended-the way it usually did, with Snape declaring that Ron’s potion was “abysmal, as always”, informing Harry that he had gotten barely higher than a D (Dreadful) that day, and ignoring Hermione’s as always perfect potion-the three of them were among the first to leave the freezing and depressing classroom.

“What a git.” Ron grumbled. “Never catches his precious Slytherins doing anything wrong, but if anyone outside of his precious Snakes even look in the wrong direction, he’ll take away points!”

“Ron, calm down. The Slytherins didn’t even do anything today.”

“I doubt that’s true, Hermione. I wouldn’t put it past Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle or any of those other b-“

“Language, Ron!” Hermione warned.

-brats to have planted something in Neville’s cauldron!”

Harry laughed. “Even with Neville being as accident prone as he is? Come off it, mate.“

For the first time in a long time, he actually slept all night. Unfortunetly, that night was filled with nightmares, which consisted of Malfoy being his usual bully self, Uncle Vernon whipping him with a belt, Aunt Petunia verbally abusing him, and Dudley’s gang chasing him. The next morning, he somehow woke up more tired than he’d been the day before.

That saturday morning was spent doing homework by the Gryffindor fireplace and talking about the upcoming holidays with his friends. He didn’t mention the Dursleys, or why he was scared to go back. As long as Ron didn’t pester him into going with him instead of staying with his muggle relatives, he’d be fine.

“...Dumbledore’s annoucement yesterday at breakfast.” Hermione was saying, drawing Harry from his thoughts. “It will be quite lovely to see my parents again, of course, but I’ll miss you two quite terribly. I can’t believe they’re closing the school for the Holidays. You don’t think they’ll close it permanently because of people being Petrified, do you?”

“I hope not.” Harry muttered, so quiet that his friends only just barely heard him.

He imagined having to tell the Dursleys that the school

was closed permanently, and that he was back to staying there year-round. Yeah, he’d get a real good welcome home if that were to happen, he thought sarcastically, frowning.

“I wonder how we’d be able to continue learning magic, though, if that were to happen?” Ron pondered aloud.

“They might end up sending us to other Wizarding schools around the world, if that were to happen, of course.” Hermione answered absently as she worked on her Potions essay.

Harry scoffed. “Yeah, like my relatives would pay for an out of the country flight there and back every year.”

“Aren’t they, like...rich?” Hermione asked, genuinely confused.

He cursed silently. Of course Hermione would see through his words right away and be nosy about it. He’d have to be careful what he said for now on. “Well...yeah, but Dudley’s-my cousin’s-school tuition is apparentley extremely expensive. And you know how expensive flights are.” He shrugged, hoping it looked nonchalant and praying that his little white lies worked. He didn’t want to tell his friends the truth. It was too dark and he didn’t want to burden them.

Hermione studied him for what seemed like hours before speaking again. “I guess that makes sense.”

A brief silence passed between them before she broke it again only moments later. “I remember you saying that your relatives don’t like you, Harry-“

“The feeling is entirely mutual.” Harry muttered, too low for Hermione to hear.

“-and I know what you said about not wanting to us in danger, but...honestly Harry, I don’t care about that. Anyway, I wanted to offer-you’re welcome to come stay with me and my parents over the holidays.”

Ron smiled at Hermione, while Harry grimanced, and then masked it with a smile.

They were only trying to help, Harry reminded himself.

“Thanks, Hermione. But like I said before, I’m not willing to risk putting any of you in danger. I can’t afford to lose you guys, especially not to Volemort,” At the name, Ron whimpered but Harry ignored it, “and I’m not about to put you in harm’s way with me right there.”

“Okay, mate, but remember that you always have a place with us.” Ron sighed, and then they went back to their work in silence.

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eddycurrents · 5 years

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For the week of 22 July 2019

Quick Bits:

A Walk Through Hell #12 concludes what has been an excellent horror tale from Garth Ennis, Goran Sudžuka, Ive Svorcina, and Rob Steen with another trip into existential terror as we’re given a glimpse of what this is all about and what’s coming.

| Published by AfterShock

Action Comics #1013 keeps a lot of plates spinning as it works through elements of “Year of the Villain”, Event Leviathan, the ongoing Invisible Mafia story thread, and the Rose and Thorn revival. It’s kind of impressive as to how it remains entertaining and engrossing with as much going on.

| Published by DC Comics

Age of Conan: Bêlit #5 is another ending this week, as we finish off Bêlit’s coming of age origin story, as she confronts the Stygian priest and lays claim to her title of Queen of the Black Coast. Great art from Kate Niemczyk, Scott Hanna, Andrea Di Vito, and Jason Keith.

| Published by Marvel

Amazing Spider-Man #26 introduces us to the new Sinister Syndicate fully as they plan an attack on Boomerang. It’s kind of funny to see him still getting into trouble even now that he’s trying to stay legit. Great art from Kev Walker and Laura Martin.

| Published by Marvel

Ascender #4 gives us a few surprises in the fight between the vampires and the resistance. The grey washes, with mixes of red, from Dustin Nguyen on the vampire’s throneworld is very impressive.

| Published by Image

Batgirl #37 launches the new creative team of Cecil Castellucci, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Jordie Bellaire, and AndWorld Design with part one of “Oracle Rising”. There’s a nice battle with Killer Moth, emphasizing what some villains are doing in order to try to get noticed by Luthor to receive the offer, while playing up the expense that goes into crimefighting. Also, the Terrible Trio unleash something probably not too good.

| Published by DC Comics

Dark Red #5 concludes the first arc as Chip and Evie try to fight off an army of Nazi vampires. It’s good, with some nice funny moments. Great art from Corin Howell and Mark Englert.

| Published by AfterShock

Detective Comics #1008 is a straight-forward single issue story of Batman and Joker at the circus from Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Dave Baron, and Rob Leigh. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the extended arcs, even as it sets up a new threat in the “Year of the Villain” offering.

| Published by DC Comics

Dial H for Hero #5 gets a little meta as we dive into the Multiverse, the Heroverse, and the Bleed from Sam Humphries, Joe Quinones, Scott Hanna, Jordan Gibson, and Dave Sharpe. The use of breaking through panels, reproductions of old comics scenes, and a variation of styles just deliver phenomenal storytelling.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish #2 continues to fill in the backstory of the adventurers’ time with the White Sails, introducing us to the pitfalls that harried them, before giving more hints in the present of the nightmare that tore them apart. B. Dave Walters, Tess Fowler, Jay Fotos, and Neil Uyetake are delivering an entertaining fantasy tale here.

| Published by IDW

Fearless #1 is a new three-issue anthology mini-series spotlighting a number of the women of Marvel, both characters and creative talent. This first issue leads off with a continuing lead feature from Seanan McGuire, Claire Roe, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Janice Chiang, as Sue Richards, Carol Danvers, and Storm prepare to visit a girls camp as motivational speakers. There’s also an entertaining Mille the Model back-up from Leah Williams, Nina Vakueva, Rosenberg, and Chiang. And a very funny Jessica Jones story from the Captain Marvel team of Kelly Thompson, Carmen Carnero, Tamra Bonvillain, with Chiang. Though short, that last story is pretty much worth the price of the issue alone.

| Published by Marvel

Five Years #3 sees Tambi meet with Ivy and Julie to discuss that various nations around the world are dangerously developing Phi-alloy technology. Also a surprise appearance of people we thought were out. Great art as always from Terry Moore.

| Published by Abstract Studio

The Flash #75 delivers three stories for this extra-sized anniversary issue. The lead concludes the “Year One” arc. This is some of the best art that I have ever seen from Howard Porter, he and Hi-Fi just deliver amazing artwork here. There are also two back-ups, one hinting at things to come in the future for Barry and the other tying in to “Year of the Villain” as Captain Cold receives Luthor’s offer.

| Published by DC Comics

Guardians of the Galaxy #7 begins the second arc, “Faithless”, from Donny Cates, Cory Smith, David Curiel, and Cory Petit. It really introduces us to the new Universal Church of Truth as they take out an entire squadron of the Nova Corps and then worse things happen as the Guardians go off to investigate. I love the name for the Guardians’ new ship and that final page is one hell of a shock.

| Published by Marvel

History of the Marvel Universe #1 is an interesting project from Mark Waid, Javier Rodríguez, Álvaro López, and Joe Caramagna. It’s framed as Galactus telling Franklin Richards (at least I think that’s Franklin Richards) the history of the universe before it dies and the next is reborn. As expected, it’s dry facts, but it’s fascinating in how it’s comprehensively presented and the artwork from Rodríguez and López is jaw-dropping gorgeous. There are also annotations in the back to show where these events come from. It’s well put together and I highly recommended it to die-hard Marvel fans.

| Published by Marvel

Invisible Kingdom #5 concludes the first arc with an almost entirely one-sided battle between the Sun Dog and a Lux battleship. G. Willow Wilson, Christian Ward, and Sal Cipriano elevate the tension nicely through this issue and give a few surprises when everything seems grim and it looks like the end.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Killer Groove #3 wonderfully showcases one of Jackie’s cases as it intertwines with the music scene and criminal underworld. Ollie Masters, Eoin Marron, Jordie Bellaire, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are doing a nice job with this series of crafting one larger story out of many separate smaller tales.

| Published by AfterShock

Lazarus: Risen #2 is another dense read. The series has always been hefty, but this new format has elevated things further, doubling up comics content and adding a prose short story, the letters pages, and extra content like gaming material and the usual in-world advertisements. I’m loving it. Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Tyler Boss, Santi Arcas, Simon Bowland, Adam Christopher, and Crystal Frasier are definitely giving you your money’s worth and more here. Excellent comics content as the war between Carlyle and Morray/D’Souza heats up.

| Published by Image

Livewire #8 pits Amanda versus Jada for a final round. It’s still interesting how practically everyone is trying to portray Amanda’s actions as harmful and villainous. Great art from Kano.

| Published by Valiant

Martian Manhunter #7 sees J’onn and Diane uncover some of the results of the experiments that have been going on with the kidnapped and missing people, it’s horrifying. Incredible and haunting artwork in this one from Riley Rossmo and Ivan Plascencia.

| Published by DC Comics

Marvels: Epilogue is a short, but sweet, coda to the Marvels series from Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, John Roshell, and Richard Starkings. It spotlights events from X-Men #98 through the eyes of Phil Sheldon and his daughters, capturing some of the awe, wonder, and terror that Sheldon experienced during the main series. The book is filled out with an interview with Busiek and Ross on their experience with the series and what it’s like to look back on it 25 years later, as well as interviews with the editors who worked on the book.

| Published by Marvel

Middlewest #9 sets out a new quest for Abel as he comes across the Nowak people. Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos are continuing to make magic with this series. The art is beautiful and the story is endlessly captivating.

| Published by Image

Psi-Lords #2 continues to investigate these four captives, changed for whatever reason by the Psi-Lords, and the habitat of their prison. An interesting jail hierarchy of gangs is revealed and a bit of a memory of the four’s lives before being captured. Gorgeous art from Renato Guedes.

| Published by Valiant

Star Pig #1 is weird. Very weird. Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Gaston, Sebastian Cheng, and Shawn Lee give us the story of a kid on her way to space camp whose ship is struck and destroyed by an asteroid, saved by a space pig and a scavenger energy ball. It’s probably one of the more unique tales I’ve seen in a while.

| Published by IDW

Sword Master #1, like Aero before it, features two stories. In the first, Greg Pak adapts into English a tale from Shuizhu and Gunji of the titular hero, Lin Lie, and his quest to find his missing father. It’s an interesting start and the artwork from Gunji is gorgeous. The back up original story pairs Shang-Chi up with Lin in a story from Greg Pak, Ario Anindito, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Travis Lanham. It follows up on their appearance in the New Agents of Atlas tie-in to “War of the Realms” and presents an interesting antagonist on their trail.

| Published by Marvel

Valkyrie #1 is a wonderful debut from Jason Aaron, Al Ewing, CAFU, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Sabino. We get some continued supporting cast from Jane Foster’s time as Thor, although with a new status quo, and an interesting hook in trying to track down Dragonfang, the former Valkyrie’s sword. The art from CAFU and Aburtov is beautiful.

| Published by Marvel

Warlord of Mars Attacks #2 continues this crossover of John Carter and Mars Attacks. It’s interesting how it incorporates Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories as actual things in this world and explains how Mars as a dead planet and one as teeming with life as Barsoom could exist simultaneously.

| Published by Dynamite

The Weatherman Vol. 2 #2 gives us more of a look at the nightmare that has consumed Earth as the crew attempt to find the doctor who might be able to fix everything. It goes about as well as could be expected. The monster designs and execution from Nathan Fox and Moreno Dinisio are incredible.

| Published by Image

Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre #1 is another one-shot catching up on the wider world of Venom as we barrel headlong into Absolute Carnage. Cullen Bunn, Joshua Cassara, Alberto Alburquerque, Jay David Ramos, and Clayton Cowles give us a great story checking in with Andi Benton, the former Mania and occasional sidekick to Flash Thompson’s Venom.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Woman #75 continues “Return of the Amazons” from G. Willow Wilson, Xermanico, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau. This arc basically brings Wilson’s run around full circle to deal with some of the elements that kicked off her first issue as Diana faces off against Grail. Some really nice double page spreads with border art from Xermanico.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Archie #706, Archie vs. Predator 2 #1, Bone Parish #11, Books of Magic #10, Clue: Candlestick #3, Curse Words #23, Doctor Strange #16, Farmhand #10, Freedom Fighters #7, Grumble #8, House of X #1, Justice League Dark #13, Lumberjanes #64, Magic: The Gathering - Chandra #3, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #5, Marvel Action: Avengers #6, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #41, Night Moves #5, Redneck #22, Secret Warps: Arachknight Annual #1, Shuri #10, Star Trek: The Q Conflict #6, Star Wars #69, TMNT: The Rise of the TMNT - Sound Off #1, Tony Stark: Iron Man #14, The Wicked + The Divine #44

Recommended Collections: Black Panther - Book 7: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda Part 2, Go-Bots - Volume 1, Harrow County: Library Edition - Volume 3, House of Whispers - Volume 1: The Power Divided, James Bond: Origin - Volume 1, Lodger - Volume 1, Lumberjanes - Volume 12, Savage Sword of Conan - Volume 1: The Cult of Koga Thun, Self/Made, Star Wars Adventures - Volume 6: The Flight of the Falcon, Thor of Realms, William Gibson’s Alien 3

d. emerson eddy might well be a space lord.

#This Week in Comics

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friendeel9-blog · 5 years

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Dr. Lloyd's Sanitarium - 6-8 St. Nicholas Place

In 1884 John Fink commissioned architect Richard S. Rosenstock to design a commodious suburban home in the area that would later be dubbed Sugar Hill. The principal in the pork packing firm of John Fink & Son, his new residence would reflect his significant personal wealth. Rosenstock designed a three-story, freestanding residence in the trendy Queen Anne Style. Although his plans called for a "brown stone front dwelling," only the basement and first floor were faced in rough cut stone. The second floor was clad in brick and the top floor in wood. True to the Queen Anne style, the house featured a riot of angles, shapes, and colors. Dormers poked through the fanciful jerkinhead gables, and a corner tower clung to the two upper floors. A profusion of stained glass and scattered carvings delighted the eye. The cost of construction would be equal to about $924,000 today.

Carved portrait keystones and stained glass transoms survive at the northern corner.

Located at No. 8 St. Nicholas Place, on the northeast corner of 150th Street, Fink's stylish home and its bucolic hilltop location may have been a deciding factor in James A. Bailey's decision to built his imposing mansion on across the street, at No. 10. The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, on January 16, 1896, commented "One of handsomest residences on this avenue is that of John W. Fink, son of Commissioner Fink of railroad fame. It is situated o the northeast corner of One Hundred and Fiftieth street, and is a three-story ornate stone front building, having all the modern improvements."

The original entrance porch with its sideways stoop is evident in this early photo, as is the wonderful turret. Directly behind is the James A. Bailey house. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

An avid boater, Fink was active among the wealthy sportsmen of northern Manhattan. On May 29, 1888, for instance, The Evening World commented, "John W. Fink, of the Friendship Boat Club, is said to be the probable winner of the junior singles of the Harlem River regatta."

The construction date is worked into the elaborate carving on the first floor chimney back.

A delightful detail is Stein's continuing the gable level over the chambered rear corner.

That same year Fink sold the house, along with the vacant property extending east to Edgecomb Avenue, to real estate operator Charles E. Runk and his wife, Aurelia. Runk was also the treasurer of the Washington Heights Taxpayers' Association, and a partner in the Oneota Fertilizer and Chemical Co. The Runks' ownership would be short-lived. On March 9, 1891 they sold No. 8 to Sigmund Bergmann for $31,750, just over $900,000 today. Bergmann was a partner with Edward H. Johnson and Thomas Alva Edison in the Bergmann Electric & Gas Fixture Co.

Sigmund Bergmann was a partner with inventor Thomas A. Edison. Electrical Review and Western Electrician, December 21, 1912 (copyright expired)

Bergmann had left his native Germany in 1870 at the age of 21, already trained as an engineer. The Electrical Review and Western Electrician later explained "He was associated with Edison for several years and being imbued with the idea that he should turn his talents in a direction that would insure to him the greatest possible personal reward he established a business of his own." That move did not injure his friendship with Edison nor their businesses connections. His lifelong friend, Francis Jehl, later said "many of Edison's experiments were made in the Bergmann shop, while the phonograph was to a great extent developed with Bergmann's assistance." In 1893 Charles Runk sold the undeveloped eastern plot and at the same time removed the restrictive covenants John Fink had originally built into the deeds. It was a move that would have serious impact on No. 8 a few decades later. Simultaneously Jacob P. Baiter and his wife, Kate, began construction on their upscale residence next door at No. 6. Their architect, Theodore G. Stein, file plans on May 26 for a 25-foot wide, four story brick dwelling to cost $35,000 (or about $1 million today). Completed the following year, it could not have been more different than its neighbor.

Stein had turned to the more formal Renaissance Revival style with undeniable Romanesque Revival influences. He embellished the beige brick with terra cotta decorations and included a rounded bay at the second floor. The top floor took the form of a steep mansard, its gabled dormer ornamented with an intricate panel of tangled bows, wreaths and swags. Jacob Baiter was the East Coast manager of the Fleischmann Yeast Company, and so it is most likely not a coincidence that Max Fleischmann would soon live almost directly across the street at No. 400 West 149th Street. Yeast was an important part in the making of alcohol, and both men were involved, as well, in the Ridgewood Distillery, the Eastern Distilling Co., and the Somerset Distilling Co.

Originally a high sideways stoop led to the doorway.

Jacob and Kate had two sons, Charles William Grevell and Louis J. Baiter. Kate Baiter died in the house on October 26, 1898. Her funeral was held here three days later. Jacob's grief was rather short lived. The following year he married and transferred title to No. 6 to his new wife, Carrie. The Evening Post Record of Real Estate Sales listed the transaction as "gift." In 1909, the same year that Charles Baiter was married, Dr. Henry William Lloyd purchased No. 8. Charles Runk's removal of the deed restrictions allowed Lloyd to convert the house to The Audubon Sanitarium. Having a private hospital next door may have been too much for the Baiters, and in October 1911 they sold their home to Dr. Lloyd for $75,000. The Sun reported that he "will use it for his own occupancy." And, indeed, he did--for a few months. In 1912 he joined the two structures with a somewhat ungainly addition. A new entrance was established within the new portion.

In 1942 the former Baiter house still retained its stoop. via the Office for Metropolitan History

Things inside the upscale sanitarium did not always go smoothly, sometimes resulting in unwanted publicity. On March 18, 1912, for instance, The Sun reported on the investigation by Coroner Holzhauser and the police into "the death of Miss Alice Anderson in the sanitarium of Dr. Henry W. Lloyd at 8 St. Nicholas place early yesterday morning." The article carefully tip-toed around the fact that Alice, who was 30-years-old, had come for an abortion. According to Dr. Lloyd, she had already received a botched procedure and that he told her "that she probably would not survive the second operation." So certain was he that his patient would die, before starting the procedure he sent for a priest to hear her confession. Before she died she "told her three sisters who was responsible for her condition," said The Sun. Five months later a journalist from The Sun was back, this time at the request of Mrs. Sarah Harris. The 34-year-old, referred to as "the sufferer" by the newspaper, had been stricken with a "strange malady" three years earlier which paralyzed her from the neck down. Able to move only her head, she had lain in the same position the entire time. On August 31, 1912 the newspaper entitled its article "Woman Paralytic Begs State To End Her Life." In it Sarah pleaded "We have our Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which put out of their agony injured and sick animals, but human beings for whom medicine can do nothing are kept on in their torture. Why should this be?" Mrs. Harris did not get her wish and in 1915, when Dr. Lloyd hired architect George H. Hardway to enlarge the sanitarium, she was still a patient. The addition housed a "new maternity hospital," as described by The New York Times.

Close inspection reveals a winged, terra cotta rampant lion atop the gable. The stylized sunflower on the metal facing below is a familiar Queen Anne motif.

Dr. Lloyd's Audubon Sanitarium saw celebrated figures come and go. In 1917 the wife of preacher Billy Sunday received an emergency appendectomy. The operation removed a "strangulated tumor" as well. On May 20 The New York Times noted "Though deeply distressed by his wife's illness, Billy Sunday preached last night to 22,000 persons." The same operation was performed on Lucien Muratore, principal tenor of the Chicago Opera Company in February 1922. Newspapers carried updates on his condition for days. Dr. Henry W. Lloyd sold the properties in January 1925 to the Louis H. Low Syndicate. There were 100 rooms in the complex at the time. The new owners, according to The Times on January 24, had already leased it to the newly-formed Lloyd's Sanitarium, Inc. (headed by Dr. Victor Low) "who will continue the operation of same after extensive alterations and improvements." Architect Henry F. Schlumbohn, Jr. was called upon to update the hospital and dispensary. By 1935 the name had been changed to The Community Hospital. The admission fee was 35 cents and a "revisit fee" was a quarter. The clinic was gone by mid-century, when the mish-mash of buildings was operated as a 53-room hotel. As the neighborhood declined, so did the the property and by 1983 it was run by the city's welfare program as the Dawn Hotel, "housing formerly homeless families," according to The New York Times on August 25 that year.

The Dawn Hotel sat within what had become a gritty neighborhood. Late on the night of December 6 a man entered the lobby and got into an argument with the clerk. At around 1:00 on the morning he returned, armed with a pistol and, according to police, "shot the clerk in the chest and fled from the hotel."

As the Sugar Hill neighborhood improved in the 21st century, the Dawn Hotel did not. A New York Senate report in January 2017 on the State's "unclean, unsafe, dangerous temporary shelter system" awarded the Dawn Hotel the uncomplimentary title of No. 1 in the top ten hotel violators in the state. The facility was closed by 2018.

The once handsome houses have been sorely abused throughout their various connected uses. And yet glimpses of their former splendor still manage to seep through. photographs by the author

Source: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2019/07/dr-lloyds-sanitarium-6-8-st-nicholas.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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the-organizing-principle · 7 years

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‘Twin Peaks as Fugue’ Theory, Part 1: Who Is Margaret Lanterman?

Expanding on the theory I started to articulate in this post, I’ll focus now on what this might mean when viewed in light of specific characters and plot points. I’d like to start with Margaret Lanterman (The Log Lady), exploring what this particular character could represent if the theory that all of Twin Peaks was dreamed up by Dale Cooper/Richard holds true.

I think one of the biggest clues into this character can be found in the “Log Lady Intros,” a series of short vignettes written and directed by David Lynch for Bravo Network’s re-airing of the series in 1993. Consider that—for all intents and purposes—the show was over at this point; Lynch did not expect it to be revived. So this was probably his last chance to say whatever he might have felt was left unsaid after the season 2 finale, and with these vignettes he was able to add a kind of director’s commentary to each episode, however obliquely.

I’d like to look at the last Log Lady Intro, first:

"And now, an ending. Where there was once one, there are now two. Or were there always two? What is a reflection? A chance to see two? When there are chances for reflections, there can always be two--or more. Only when we are everywhere will there be just one. It has been a pleasure speaking to you." —Episode 29 / “Beyond Life and Death”

This line struck me as familiar: a few years later, Lynch would direct the film Lost Highway, in which a character known as “The Mystery Man” (Robert Blake) would have a spooky conversation with Bill Pullman’s character, Fred, wherein Fred learns that the man he’s speaking with is simultaneously in front of him and inside his house (the man hands Fred a phone, and Fred calls his house and speaks to the man, who answers). After failing to convince Fred that they’d met before, the man concludes the unsettling conversation with the line, “It’s been a pleasure talking to you.”

Lynch himself has confirmed that Lost Highway is a film about a character suffering a psychogenic fugue / what he describes as a “parallel identity crisis” (x). There is also evidence that Lynch considers Lost Highway and Twin Peaks as works that share some overlap in terms of the fictional universe they occupy. Furthermore, the Mystery Man character is widely believed to be a personification of Fred’s jealousy over his wife’s unfaithfulness (x).

Of course, these similar lines of dialogue aren’t obscure enough for it to qualify as direct evidence of a connection between the Mystery Man and Margaret Lanterman, but it was enough to draw my attention to a potential parallel even if it wasn’t intentional. The Mystery Man knows things that shouldn’t be known, especially by a “stranger.” Fred is afraid of him, and of his unsettling insight. Fred is trying to escape the truth of what he did. Meanwhile, Margaret also has preternatural insights. In the original series, I got the sense that Dale was wary of her whenever they were forced to interact. Remember the scene where Margaret first approaches him at the diner, with a message from her log? Dale seems distinctly uncomfortable, only humoring her at Harry’s nudging (unusual for Dale, who is normally so friendly). Why would the Log Lady make Dale nervous? If Dale/Richard is trying to escape a painful truth from his past via the conjured fantasy world of Twin Peaks, what might Margaret represent to him? In the same way that the Mystery Man personifies Fred’s secret, repressed jealousy, I think Margaret might personify Dale’s secret, repressed understanding of the illusory world he inhabits. Through Margaret, Dale receives coded hints about the true nature of this world.

We can find these hints all over the series, but they seem especially potent in the Log Lady Intros. Consider the very first one:

"Welcome to Twin Peaks. My name is Margaret Lanterman. I live in Twin Peaks. I am known as the Log Lady. There is a story behind that. There are many stories in Twin Peaks. Some of them are sad, some funny. Some of them are stories of madness, of violence. Some are ordinary. Yet they all have about them a sense of mystery – the mystery of life. Sometimes, the mystery of death. The mystery of the woods. The woods surrounding Twin Peaks. To introduce this story, let me just say it encompasses the all – it is beyond the "fire", though few would know that meaning. It is a story of many, but begins with one – and I knew her. The one leading to the many is Laura Palmer. Laura is the one."

I will go into more detail about Laura later, but for now, consider the theory that Laura is the central focus because she represents a distortion of Dale/Richard’s deepest pain and sorrow, repressed and kept secret from himself by his fractured psyche, likely originating out of some kind of trauma involving someone named Judy. Out of this trauma, Dale/Richard has invented an entire world to cope with his break from reality: the world of Twin Peaks, the “story of the many [various characters].” What is the obscure meaning of “fire” that the story of Twin Peaks is “beyond”? I believe that “fire” represents a catalyst; a force that can be destructive or cleansing; ultimately, the truth. In the context of the fugue theory, the “fire” Margaret refers to here might be the real-world incident that caused Dale/Richard to retreat into the fantasy world of Twin Peaks. More on this later.

Then there’s the intro to the third episode:

"There is a sadness in this world, for we are ignorant of many things. Yes – we are ignorant of many beautiful things. Things like the truth. So sadness in our ignorance is very real. The tears are real. What is this thing called a tear? There are even tiny ducts – tear ducts – to produce these tears should the sadness occur. Then the day when the sadness comes. Then we ask, 'Will the sadness that makes me cry, will the sadness that makes me cry my heart out, will it ever end?' The answer, of course, is yes. One day, the sadness will end."

Although this could be a reference to various characters’ sadness over not knowing the truth about what happened to Laura Palmer, it’s difficult to imagine how this particular truth could ever be considered “beautiful.” Neither would whatever unknown trauma Dale/Richard might have experienced prior to his retreat into Twin Peaks. So what “beautiful truth” is left to be sad about? I think Lynch is referring to a sense of understanding and acceptance that eventually follows a period of grief, even if it is only arrived at once a person has crossed over into a new awareness, beyond death. Remember, death is “just a change, not an end.” Although very esoteric, this message might indicate that Dale/Richard’s pain and sadness temporarily “ended” when he retreated into his fantasy world, but will never really end until he confronts the “beautiful truth” that is genuine understanding of his trauma and how it has affected him.

Now consider the fourth intro:

"Even the ones who laugh are sometimes caught without an answer. These creatures who introduce themselves, but we swear we have met them somewhere before, yes? Look in the mirror. What do you see? Is it a dream, or a nightmare? Are we being introduced against our will? Are they mirrors? I can see the smoke. I can smell the fire. The battle is drawing nigh."

Are the “creatures who introduce themselves” the various characters Dale encounters in Twin Peaks? Has he met them before, in that they are simulacra of people he has encountered in the ‘real world’ (i.e. the psychiatric institution, etc)? These characters could be mirroring real people, but they are products of a dream/nightmare in the world of Twin Peaks. Perhaps Dale/Richard can’t choose who enters this dream or what form they will take in here, and perhaps some are harder to obscure in the dream language than others, and their real selves slip through the cracks in small ways, causing stress on the fantasy’s foundation. Margaret is particularly savvy: she can see the “smoke” that indicates the “fire” of change: the fantasy can’t be maintained forever. The “battle” might refer to the struggle of his consciousness to keep the truth obscured in this unstable delusion.

This thread continues with the fifth intro:

"I play my part on life's stage. I tell what I can to form the perfect answer. But that answer cannot come before all are ready to hear, so I tell what I can to form the perfect answer. Sometimes my anger at the fire is evident. Sometimes it is not anger, really – it may appear as such, but could it be a clue? The fire I speak of is not a kind fire."

The fire is not kind: the truth hurts. Margaret’s apparent “anger at the fire” could indicate Dale’s unconscious frustration with his inability to face the truth. He’s not ready to hear it: not any of his various personifications are ready to hear that they don’t “exist” outside of his fantasy. The truth comes out in small clues that are made palatable to his psyche.

The fire thread picks up again in the intro to the twentieth episode:

"My husband died in a fire. No one can know my sorrow. My love is gone. Yet, I feel him near me. Sometimes I can almost see him. At night when the wind blows, I think of what he might have been. Again I wonder: why? When I see a fire, I feel my anger rising. This was not a friendly fire. This was not a forest fire. It was a fire in the woods. This is all I am permitted to say."

Again, we see secrecy surrounding the concept of “the fire” in “the woods.” Read on to see what I think “the woods” really is...

Now, intro to episode eight:

"Hello again. Can you see through a wall? Can you see through human skin? X-rays see through solid, or so-called solid objects. There are things in life that exist, yet our eyes cannot see them. Have you ever seen something startling that others cannot see? Why are some things kept from our vision? Is life a puzzle? I am filled with questions. Sometimes my questions are answered. In my heart, I can tell the answer is correct. I am my own judge. In a dream, are all the characters really you? Different aspects of you? Do answers come in dreams? One more thing. I grew up in the woods. I understand many things because of the woods. Trees standing together, growing alongside one another, providing so much. I chew pitch gum. On the outside – let's say, of the Ponderosa pine – sometimes pitch oozes out. Runny pitch is no good to chew. Hard, brittle pitch is no good. But in between these exists a firm, slightly crusted pitch with such a flavor. This is the pitch I chew."

I’m including this because it clearly speaks to my theory that all the characters in Twin Peaks are aspects of Dale/Richard’s dream/fugue state. Less clearly: if Margaret “grew up in the woods” and “understand[s] many things because of the woods,” the “woods” might represent the unconscious. Margaret is a link to Dale’s unconscious mind, hence her prescient understanding and Dale/Richard’s nervousness around her. He can only tolerate her veiled truths in specific doses, hence the “pitch” that is just right (neither too vague nor too direct).

Then, before episode twenty eight:

"A log is a portion of a tree. At the end of a crosscut log -- many of you know this -- there are rings. Each ring represents one year in the life of the tree. How long it takes to a grow a tree! I don't mind telling you some things. Many things, I mustn't say. Just notice that my fireplace is boarded up. There will never be a fire there. On the mantelpiece, in that jar, are some of the ashes of my husband. My log hears things I cannot hear. But my log tells me about the sounds, about the new words. Even though it has stopped growing larger, my log is aware."

Margaret’s fireplace is boarded up because her character is not permitted too close to “fire,” or the catalyzing force of truth. Her log is the conduit through which secrets from Dale/Richard’s unconscious mind pass; a method of limiting and regulating what breaks through Dale/Richard’s protective mental barriers. Margaret can help Dale/Richard, and he sometimes relies on her insight to solve problems in his dreamworld, but she can also harm him by revealing too much and breaking the illusion he wants to maintain. He doesn’t want to be completely divorced from his unconscious mind, but it contains repressed information that is dangerous to his illusory world.

Even more evidence! Episode nine:

"As above, so below. The human being finds himself, or herself, in the middle. There is as much space outside the human, proportionately, as inside. Stars, moons, and planets remind us of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Is there a bigger being walking with all the stars within? Does our thinking affect what goes on outside us, and what goes on inside us? I think it does. Where does creamed corn figure into the workings of the universe? What really is creamed corn? Is it a symbol for something else?"

This speaks further to my theory that the entire world of Twin Peaks could have been dreamed up by one man, i.e. Dale/Richard. His trauma has pervaded his mind, affecting his interior experience to the point that he has lost touch with reality. Creamed corn, we know, is a substance that represents “pain and sorrow”/”garmonbozia,” and is consumed by the lodge inhabitants (The Arm). We learn this in TP:FWWM. Why creamed corn, though? Maybe Lynch is just very creeped out by this food; also, maybe Dale/Richard has been fed creamed corn during his hospitalization, as this food would not be uncommon on a hospital menu. Maybe Dale/Richard hates it so much that his unconscious has incorporated it into his dream world as a particularly insidious substance.

Now, episode twelve:

"Sometimes nature plays tricks on us and we imagine we are something other than what we truly are. Is this a key to life in general? Or the case of the two-headed schizophrenic? Both heads thought the other was following itself. Finally, when one head wasn't looking, the other shot the other right between the eyes, and, of course, killed himself."

Is Dale/Richard “the two-headed schizophrenic”? This might seem like an allusion to Leland (who hadn’t been revealed as the killer yet at this point in the series), but Leland’s second head—i.e. BOB—was a separate entity, not just another “side” of Leland. BOB didn’t think “the other (Leland) was following [him]self.” Leland, unknowingly possessed by BOB, was unconscious of BOB’s presence. If the fugue theory holds up, then this Log Lady Intro could more accurately refer to Dale/Richard’s perception of himself as someone “other than what [he] truly [is],” and the projection of BOB (who he does, in fact, pursue, and who ultimately pursues him in return) as an externalized, evil force, could be Dale/Richard’s unconscious distancing himself from an internalized source of fear and pain. Remember, BOB is “with” Dale’s doppelganger, and the doppelganger is ultimately an aspect of Dale/Richard’s fractured psyche. Therefore BOB, however far removed, is ultimately part of Dale/Richard, too.

Without added commentary, let me share the following intro from episode thirteen, which should be self-explanatory now:

"Sometimes we want to hide from ourselves. We do not want to be us. It is too difficult to be us. It is at these times that we turn to drugs and alcohol or behavior to forget that we are ourselves. This is – of course – only a temporary solution to a problem which is going to keep returning, and sometimes these temporary solutions are worse for us than the original problem. Yes, it is a dilemma. Is there an answer? Of course there is. A wise person once said with a smile, the answer is within the question."

I swear I’m trying to skip over some of these but they just keep supporting my theory! Here’s the next one from episode fifteen:

"A poem as lovely as a tree. As the night wind blows, the boughs move to and fro; the rustling, the magic rustling that brings on the dark dream. The dream of suffering and pain; pain for the victim, pain for the inflicter of pain – a circle of pain, a circle of suffering. Woe to ones who behold the pale horse."

This has always been my favorite Log Lady Intro, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to think about the idea that Dale/Richard might be the “inflicter of pain” referenced here. Leland is an obvious alternative, and given the timing of this intro in the series, it probably does refer to Leland on the surface. But could there be a subtextual meaning, wherein the blowing “night wind” could mean dark, disruptive thoughts surfacing in Dale/Richard’s consciousness, and the “magic rustling” is the rearrangement of those thoughts into their distorted perversions, rendered psychically acceptable in the “dark dream” of Twin Peaks? Keep in mind that, although a fantasy world, Dale/Richard cannot control everything that happens in Twin Peaks; in fact, I think the whole series is about him gradually losing control over this unstable delusion.

From episode twenty three:

"A hotel. A nightstand. A drawer pull on the drawer. A drawer pull of a nightstand in the room of a hotel. What could possibly be happening on or in this drawer pull? How many drawer pulls exist in this world? Thousands, maybe millions? What is a drawer pull? This drawer pull - why is it featured so prominently in a life or in a death of one woman who was caught in a web of power? Can a victim of power end, in any way, connected to a drawer pull? How can this be?"

To me, this seems to emphasize the significance of the end of Josie’s arc as a literal “compartmentalization” of her character by her dreamer, Dale/Richard. Her story was spiraling out of control, and so the dreamer had her killed off and tidily packed away inside a drawer pull (the drawer being a symbol of a mental compartment). She wasn’t completely erased, though, as both Ben Horne and Pete saw her in various other wooden objects at the Great Northern in episode 27, and there was a cut scene from the finale wherein Dale was supposed to see her in the curtains of the lodge. I’ll have to go deeper into what Josie could represent in relation to Dale/Richard as the dreamer, later, but for now, consider the recurrence of Josie’s likeness in objects as a potential side effect of Dale/Richard’s compartmentalization; a kind of cognitive dissonance resulting from her erasure.

A big, self-described clue comes in the intro to episode twenty seven:

"There are clues everywhere, all around us. But the puzzle maker is clever. The clues, although surrounding us, are somehow mistaken for something else. And the something else, the wrong interpretation of the clues, we call our world. Our world is a magical smoke screen. How should we interpret the happy song of the meadowlark or the robust flavor of a wild strawberry?"

This significance of this vignette (in relation to the fugue theory) is so obvious that I wonder whether this was meant to be a big reveal on Lynch’s part... Does it even need to be explained? Out of context, it sounds like an esoteric rumination on the nature of reality. I think that this meaning could double as a direct reference to the world of Twin Peaks as a “magical smoke screen” for the harsh reality of Dale/Richard’s actual world.

...

That’s all on Margaret for now — stay tuned for more character / plot point analyses, which will hopefully be much shorter!

#twin peaks fugue theory #twin peaks #theory #analysis #the log lady #margaret lanterman #twin peaks: the return #twin peaks spoilers #david lynch #Dale Cooper #psychosis #fugue #explanation #lost highway #the mystery man #richard #josie packard #schizophrenia #log lady intro

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jsmulligan · 7 years

Text

Rebirth

Somewhere in what used to be the southern portion of the United States of America. 5 years prior to the events of the Destiny main campaign.

The air was still and stifling. Titan Claney Beamard stood watching as a small group of civilians loaded into a transport ship. Three days ago, the Tower had received a distress call from a small settlement in the area that had come under attack by a band of Fallen. These people had managed to eke out a living in the years after the Collapse, somehow avoiding notice of the alien scavengers. A Hunter had discovered the settlement years ago, and they had declined her offer of an escort to the Last City. They were determined to make it on their own, so the Hunter had wished them luck and left behind an emergency communication device. It seems as though their luck finally ran out.

Claney had been part of a strike team comprised of himself, another Titan named Iniko Tosia, and a Hunter named Jarus Corbin that had been sent to assist. They had barely arrived in time. As their ships screamed through the sky on approach, they saw the Fallen breach the ramshackle wall the settlers had built around their town. The humans had obviously put up quite a fight leading to the break in their defenses, as Claney could see a surprising number of Dreg and Vandal corpses scattered around the perimeter. Even at that moment, Dregs were dropping as they worked to pry at, and widen, the hole they had made. The townspeople had taken many casualties as well and it was clear they could not hold out much longer.

The three Guardian’s transmatted into the chaos. Claney dropped into the middle of the town’s defenses and immediately began taking heavy fire from the invading Fallen. Shields barely holding, he began firing his heavy machine gun into the breach. The resulting shrieks from the Fallen brought cheers from the harried defenders. The Hunter and the other Titan came down outside the city on the other side of the enemy force, presenting a second front for the Fallen to worry about.

The new arrival threw the Fallen into disarray, but it lasted only a few moments. A Captain in their ranks was able to rally its troops, regrouping away from the breach, using the wall to protect them from the more numerous defenders while turning to face the smaller force that had appeared outside. Vandals with wire rifles spread out in an attempted to flank the two Guardians, firing from multiple angles while Dregs attempted to find cover behind rocks and damaged vehicles to take potshots at them.

Iniko grinned inside her helmet and summoned a grenade. Throwing it as hard as she could, it sailed past the huddled Fallen, sticking to the town wall and blasting lightning back in the direction it had come. Several enemy fighters were thrown forward as the Arc energy lanced into them.

“Ha! How about that ‘nade?” she shouted to Jarus.

“Yes, yes, very nice. Now how about we kill the rest of them before celebrating.”

Jarus took aim with his sniper rifle, picking off several of the Vandals before having to take cover himself. Arc bolts peppers the trees, ground, and rubble around them. Iniko focused on the Dregs, trying to take them out as they leaned out of cover to shoot. A three round burst from her pulse rifle caught one Dreg in the head, puffs of ether escaping as it fell dead.

Claney emerged from the breach, now having switched to his scout rifle. It kicked in his hand as he fired several shots at nearby Fallen. This distracted them enough that Iniko was able to charge forward, closing the gap. The Captain shouted a warning to his Dregs, but he was too slow. Iniko leapt forward, gathering Arc light to her on the way down, slamming into the ground in the middle of the Fallen. The shockwave of her Fist of Havoc spread outward, lifting the Fallen caught within its range, flinging them aside as they died. Simultaneously, Jarus activated his Golden Gun, firing pure Solar light at the remaining Vandals, bringing them down.

The threat neutralized, the Guardians stepped back through the breach to aid the remaining population. There were cheers and thanks, of course, though it was also apparent that the display of power had also made some of the people wary of the three. Humans weren’t supposed to be able to summon lightning in their fists or magically producing flaming weapons. They had all heard stories, of course, but actually seeing it in action was a something different. Some of the unease lessened when Jarus removed his helmet, his dark skin and easy grin clearly as human as anyone else gathered there.

Over the next couple days, the Guardians had helped repair the town and the breach in the wall. The offer to move people to the Last City was made again, and this time many of the townspeople had decided to accept the offer to be relocated. A transport ship was called and arrived on the third day. For those that wanted to stay, the transport dropped off food stuffs and weapons.

The transport lifted into the air and turned east, beginning the long flight back to the Tower. Iniko left immediately after, while Jarus has to extract himself from a small crowd of women who seemed very sad to see him go. Claney prepared to join them in orbit, when a glint of light caught his eye. Something metallic was moving near the settlement wall.

Claney drew his weapon, a scout rifle he’d won in an Iron Banner event the previous year. Keeping an eye for any other motion, he cautiously approached the place that he had seen the flash. He relaxed suddenly when he discovered the source. It was a Ghost, flitting near the wall. It seemed be searching for something.

“Hello, little one,” he said, but the Ghost offered no response. Instead, it turned suddenly, swaying back and forth a few times, before darting away. Curious, Claney followed the small, star-shaped object as it crossed a field and disappeared into a stand of trees.

“Should I be jealous?” the voice of his Ghost, Elgan, questioned in his coms.

“Quiet, you,” the Titan replied, “I just want to see where it’s going.”

“A Ghost out here, alone? There’s only one thing it could be doing, trying to find its Guardian.”

“There are Fallen nearby. Not exactly a safe place to be poking around,” Claney said, glancing around.

“There are Fallen everywhere,” was the retort. “If I had stopped searching due to their patrols, you’d still be dead.”

As if on cue, a Fallen called from somewhere nearby. A hunting call. They’d seen something. Claney was willing to guess it was the Ghost. An electronic trill sounded from just further up in the trees. As quickly as he could move through the underbrush, Claney crashed his way forward, concerned for the fate of the little Ghost. The Traveler had produced the Ghosts with its dying breath, and they’d already lost so many. He’d die before he let the Fallen kill another one.

They came to a stop when they found the ruin of an old house, obviously abandoned for decades. Most of the structure had collapsed, and vegetation had over grown what remained. Something about this scene seemed to trigger a memory, a sudden feeling of familiarity, but Claney pushed it away. Light flickered inside, and Claney got a glimpse of the Ghost, it’s shell expanded, light emanating out of it, directed to something out of his field of view.

The Fallen called out again, closer now. Claney ducked into the ruin of the home just as the Ghost collapsed back in on itself and let out a worried sound. Looking at the ground, the Titan saw the body the Ghost had revived.

There lay a red-haired human girl, no older than 13 or 14. She was clothed in a body suit, but the Ghost had not given her armor, nor had it completed the revive process, as she was not breathing. Elgan materialized near Claney and scanned her.

“Why did you stop?” he asked the other Ghost.

“She’s too young,” the other Ghost replied in a masculine voice that sounded very young itself. “She can’t be a Guardian. What do I do?”

“You’ll finish reviving her before the Fallen find us, we’ll take her back to the Tower, and then figure it out from there,” Claney snapped. The Ghost bobbed up and down in the familiar nodding motion, then opened his shell again, bathing the figure in Light.

She coughed suddenly and sat upright, blue eyes darting around in panic. When they saw Claney, she screamed and scrambled back from him as quickly as she could before she collided with a wall. Her Ghost tried to move in to introduce itself, and she swatted it out of the air. Claney knelt down, bringing himself to her level in an attempt to appear less threatening. It did not work. Reaching around frantically, the girl grabbed a chunk of the crumbled wall and threw it at him.

“Okay, you need to quiet down and stop doing things like that,” the Titan said. Remembering Jarus and the townspeople, Claney scooted away from her and brought his hands to his helmet. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take my helmet off. Please don’t throw anything at my face.”

He removed the helmet and set it on the ground, revealing fair skin and close-cropped red hair, almost the same shade as hers. He tried giving the most reassuring smile that he could. The girl seemed to calm down a little, and she looked at him curiously.

“My name is Claney,” he said to her calmly and quietly, “Claney Beamard. I’m a Guardian from the Tower. I’m here to help you. I know things don’t make any sense to you at the moment, but they will soon. Right now, we need to think about getting out of here, otherwise some bad people are going to come. Will you come with me?”

Claney offered his hand to the girl, but she shook her head, pushing back against the wall as hard as she could. He sighed and lowered his head before grabbing his helmet and rising to his feet. Leaving the girl’s Ghost to try to calm her, he turned and walked through the crumbling doorway.

“I wouldn’t trust our luck enough to assume the Fallen didn’t hear that scream,” his Ghost said through internal coms. “We’re going to have to move very soon.”

“What, just transmat her with no warning, rush to get her to the Tower, and have a panicked teenage girl destroy my ship or throw things at me as I try to fly? I’ll pass.”

“We might not have much choice.”

The Titan sighed again and turned to reenter the building. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed an object flying through the air toward him. The shock grenade landed at his feet and he dove through the door quickly, rolling as he hit the ground, coming up to one knee and drawing his scout rifle in one smooth motion.

“Fallen!” Elgan announced unnecessarily.

Claney located a Dreg at the tree line, presumably the one who threw the grenade. One squeeze of the trigger and its head disappeared, leaving behind a puff of ether. Almost immediately, a squadron of Shanks appeared, firing arc blasts as they emerged. Claney took two quick steps to move closer to the girl. Concentrating on the Void, he flung out his arms, putting a Ward of Dawn up to cover the both of them.

“Ghost, get some armor on that kid,” he shouted. The Ghost bobbed again, quickly breaking down portions of the ruins and fabricating some basic armor around her. While it covered her, Claney stepped out of his bubble to return fire at the shanks. Each exploded in a shower of sparks and metal after a few shots. Emptying the clip at them, Claney started to reload when something hit him hard from behind.

While he had focused on the Shanks, two stealth Vandals had slipped around behind him. The nearest was bringing its swords down at his head as he turned to face them. He brought is scout rifle up quickly to block the cut. It deflected the blow, but shattered the rifle.

“Elgan, get me something else quickly!” Claney shouted to his Ghost. Dropping the broken weapon, he swung his fist, striking the Vandal in the side of its head. Tapping into the Void again, he swung once more, this time the contact released the energy, causing the Vandal to howl in pain as it disintegrated. Another scream sounded, and Claney looked to see the second Vandal advancing on the girl who was throwing anything she could get her hands on at the alien while crab-walking backward.

“I’ve got something,” Elgan said, and Claney held out his hand. A shotgun materialized in his hand and he brought it to bear quickly.

“Hey!” he yelled at the Vandal, drawing its attention before letting loose a stream of buckshot. Two close-range blasts took the second alien down. Claney turned to the girl and held out his hand again. This time she took it and he raised her to her feet, handing her the shotgun.

“We don’t have much time, so I’m going to say this quick. Whoever you were in your past life, I’m going to guess you weren’t a soldier like most Guardians. To be honest, I don’t think I was either. Regardless, your Ghost should have given you some basic knowledge in the revive process. Do you know how to use this gun?”

The girl nodded her head quickly, shifting the gun around in her hands to hold it properly. Arc bolts struck the structure around them or fizzled against the Titan’s Ward while he spoke.

“Good. Now, you see this bubble around us? It’s called a Ward of Dawn. It will stop any shots or anything they throw at you. You stay inside it. If one of them comes in, you shoot them. You’ll have five shots before you need to reload. These are ammo synths,” he held out some green and white objects. “Activating them creates ammo for the gun. I’ll leave some here if you need them. Elgan, give me another weapon and then call for the ship.”

The Titan held out his hand and his Ghost transmatted in an auto rifle. Giving the girl what he hoped was a reassuring pat on the arm, he stepped out of the Ward of Dawn to take on the rest of the Fallen force. The girl gripped the shotgun, watching intently as the armored man leapt into action. All around, the Fallen fell one by one, either shot by the auto rifle or taken out by a grenade. She saw several shots hit him as well, and he staggered, but never stopped moving until the last of the attackers was down.

“We need to get out of here before more of them show up. Will you come with me?” the Titan asked as he returned to her side and the Ward of Dawn winked out of existence. The girl nodded. Claney braced for the familiar feel of the transmat at it transported the two of them to his ship, a Phaeton class ship he had named Lost Days. Once aboard, he removed his helmet again. She watched him do it and then reached up, unfastening her own and removing it. There was still uncertainty behind her blue eyes, but most of the fear had faded.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

“Yes. Thank you,” she replied, glancing around at the cramped interior of the ship, eyes taking in every detail.

“Good. Like I said before, my name is Claney, and I am a Guardian. I’m going to take you somewhere safe, okay?”

“Okay,” she said with another nod.

“I know things are strange, and I bet you’ve probably noticed that your memory is fuzzy at best. Your Ghost, that little spiky guy floating right there, he’ll talk to you about what is happening while we fly to the Tower. Do you at least remember your name?”

“My name…” the girl thought for a moment, her face twisted in confusion. “My name… is Celeste.”

“Well, Celeste, it’s nice to meet you,” Claney stated, settling into the pilot seat of the ship. He set course for the Tower and began the long flight home.

Celeste settled in on the bunk toward the back, and her Ghost flittered over to her. Its shell twisting and turning as it thought about the best way to approach her. It had nearly figure out what to say when the girl took the initiative.

“Hello,” she said, reaching up a hand and tapping her finger against one of its edges. “So you’re a Ghost?”

“Hello, Guardian” it said in its soft, boyish voice, “yes, I am a Ghost. Your Ghost. I’ve been searching for you for a very long time. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. Now… tell me everything,” she said eagerly.

...

So this was my first “Tales We’ll Tell” entry, showing the first meeting of two of my OCs. I wrote it after the two characters ran into each other in my longer (eventually novel-length) fiction “A Not So Simple Patrol”.

Claney is my main. Celeste eventually becomes a Nightstalker. Jarus you may remember from his brief appearance in “Home Alone”.

Bit of a headcanon note: It is generally assumed Guardians don’t age. I am going with a “stop aging at physical maturity” premise simple because... well, just because. When it comes to non-dead humans, the whole “lifespans tripled” bit led me to thinking that aging slowed at that point, otherwise you’ve have 30 year old children. While there is nothing in-game to back me up, it’s something I decided to work with.

#Destiny #Destiny the game #fanfiction #Tales We'll Tell #OC's #Claney #Celeste

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spirit-science-blog · 3 years

Video

youtube

Imagine you’re on the operating table, you’ve been put into a state of deep sleep and have some kind of surgery. All of a sudden, there are some strange singing bowl-like sounds. You become aware of vibrations, and suddenly you’re up and about, standing in the room. Looking around, everything seems brighter...more vibrant, and full of life. You turn around to get a better look, and the next thing you know, you see yourself right in front of you, lying on the table. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Near-Death Experiences!

NDE’s are one of the more curious phenomena of our life experiences here on earth, much like psychedelics, they take us out of the mundane world and into something mystical. People who have survived encounters nearing death, or even those who have technically died and been revived, seem to share similar lucid experiences that relate to going beyond their physical body, into another world, a world of light. The whole “light at the end of the tunnel” and ‘life flashing before your eyes’ originated from psychiatric research on the subject way back in the 70s, but the truth is, there’s a tremendous mystery here, one that today… hasn’t been solved.

Stories of strange and mystical experiences surrounding NDE's are not anything new. As far back as the sixth century, A.D. people were fascinated by similar stories in Pope Gregory’s “Dialogues” of Jesters and businessmen visiting the Christian Hell after having accidents. Why the hell and not heaven? Maybe the Jesters told terrible jokes or the businessman made shady deals. Idk.

Either way, individuals who come back from these early NDEs report similar experiences to what is currently being studied today, such as meeting other-dimensional beings or lost loved ones, along with a feeling of permanent transformation.

If people were writing about this kind of stuff in the 6th Century, it seems that our interest in NDEs has stayed pretty constant. However, as usual, the scientific community had largely written off the events as hallucinations until the late last century. One of the enormous icebreakers for this shift in mindset was the experiences of a woman named Barbara Harris in 1975. Nowadays, Barbara is a therapist specializing in the study of NDEs, a successful author, and was on the faculty of Rutgers University's Institute on Alcohol and Drug Studies for 12 years. Now Barbara certainly had more than her fair share in terms of experience, having not one, but two, profound NDE in a SINGLE week.

In a nutshell, she was born with a bad case of scoliosis -a crooked spine that she struggled with throughout her life. But in 1975, it became too much for her, and she was admitted for surgery to correct it. After a 5 hour operation, she was left in a full-body cast, unable to move on her own. Two days after surgery, her life support system began to fail, and she found it difficult to breathe, she lost consciousness as the support staff ran in to help her. I imagine it probably happened in slo-mo as well.

So that night, Barbara woke up in the middle of the night, standing in the hallway. After worrying, the nurses would be mad at her for standing up....(yeah, STANDING up...) she made her way back to her room and noticed she was floating level with a speaker that she remembered to be mounted on the ceiling.

She looked down and saw herself lying on the circle bed, and as she looked at the woman in the bed, she was overcome with a profound “knowing” that the person there wasn’t the real her. As if her soul was identifying her ego and understanding this, she was overcome with a deep sense of peace.

Then, Barabara felt this connection with her deceased Grandmother and began to be transported away. She became overwhelmed with a feeling that what was happening to her was more real than anything she had experienced in her life up to that point. She said that as she gave in to this belief, she felt a tremendous toxic energy release from her, and simultaneously was beginning to relive every moment she had had with her grandmother in the 19 years they shared on Earth.

Barbara emphasizes that she didn’t just remember stuff - she was reliving each moment of her life she spent with her grandmother. At a talk she gave in 2015, she recalls spending dinner with her grandmother when she was only three years old, with stunning detail. Play clip. It’s like they were sharing memories! After this journey through her past, she witnessed what she could only describe as a tunnel, and saw a light glowing. She felt herself expanding, and moved towards a droning noise -sounding kind of like a singing bowl until suddenly she was back in her physical body again.

Now, we won’t go into the details here, but about a week later, it happened again. A complication with her bed left her unable to breathe, and she entered another NDE. Ironically, despite being an atheist her whole life, Barbara’s complete inability to describe this energy she felt led her to later refer to it only as God. She often still says that “It wasn’t an old man with a long white beard. And it took me a long time to use the word, God.”

She describes that she experienced her past at breakneck speed, and with all of this information coming to her about her life, it allowed her to transform her experiences of herself and her life from self-judgment into love. As she understood her life through the lens of love, a mantra appeared in her head, “no wonder.” No wonder she was the way she was. She understood entirely now the impact her mother’s drug addiction and her father’s absence had on her childhood and how it shaped who she was today so strongly. She understood profoundly how her own mother’s pain and neglect from her childhood shaped her into someone who didn’t know how to love. The full story is moving and profound, and we’ll link her writings in the description below.

Now, there is one more exciting thing here. Before she returned to her body, she found herself behind the nurse’s station, talking about her. She overheard them talk about the nurse on duty who had to be sent home after feeling responsible for Barbara’s incident. She also taught that they were planning on lying to her about how long she would have to spend in a body cast so that she wouldn’t be even more stressed out.

So naturally, when she returned to her body, she explained that she was in the halls during that conversation, and they, of course, didn’t believe her. Amused and slightly irritated, she told them to call her nurse, let her know she was okay, and not lie to her about how long she would be in the body cast. The nurses were well how you would react? *play reaction scene from Airbender*

Now you may be wondering why we spent so long going on about one woman’s case, Especially since NDEs are surprisingly common. But the truth is, Barbara Harris’s experiences invigorated public interest in the subject of near-death experiences. All of a sudden, people started becoming more interested in the stories of others who underwent NDE. What intrigued people aside from the prospect of life after death was similar themes in all the accounts. Leaving one's unconscious body, entering a beautiful, eternal glowing light or relaxing darkness seemed to be universal aspects of the experience. People commonly described the presence of an all-loving being or consciousness, giving them insights into their own lives.

Now, of course, this is humanity we’re talking about, and scientists are often rigidly skeptical, so formal research. Still, continually denying the entire idea, finally got the funding required nearly twenty years after Barbara’s experiences to produce collaborative research on the phenomenon and make some scientific insights. They couldn’t ignore the sheer number of claims without looking into it at least a little. So they hired this guy named the hap who kidnapped some people, killed them, and then revived them repeatedly in a secret basement and recorded their experiences… wait… hold on… Our hidden spirituality of the OA episode script must have gotten mixed up in here… Oops! Instead, this initial wave of research *that wasn’t illegal* was shared in a Psychology Today article entitled, Bright Lights, Big Mystery, and as always, you can find links to this in the sources of this video.

From this wave of research, it was discovered that 95% of the world’s cultures mentioned an NDE in some form… A crazy number to think about! Further, nearly seventeen percent of critically ill patients across nine countries are reported to have undergone an NDE. So NDE’s aren’t extremely rare; they are quite common. However, I suppose that it’s also quite paradigm-shattering, for if we globally took this seriously, Atheism might disappear entirely, and the fields of Science would never be the same…

One contributor to that research, Doctor Melvin Morse, examined thousands of NDEs' reports to learn more about them. What’s curious about Dr. Morse’s analysis is that despite having no way of proving anything that happened from people’s news, the reports he studied were so similar that he painted a picture of what a typical NDE might look like. From Independent reports, Morse found that “full-blown” NDEs share the nine following features:

A sense of being dead: the sudden awareness that one has had a 'fatal" accident or not survived an operation.

Peace and painlessness: a feeling that the ties that bind one to the world have been cut.

An out-of-body experience: the sensation peering down on one's body and perhaps seeing the doctors and nurses trying to resuscitate them.

Tunnel experience: the sense of moving up or through a narrow passageway.

Encountering beings of light or ‘glowing ones’ at the end of the tunnel.

The presence of a God-like or omnipotent figure or force of some kind.

Life review: being shown one's life by the being of light.

Reluctance to return: the feeling of being comfortable and surrounded by the Light often described as "pure love."

Personality transformation: a psychological change involving loss of the fear of death, higher spiritualism, a sense of "connectedness" with the Earth, and greater zest for life.

This was painting an exciting picture for scientists, but there was still some skepticism, and some questions: Was the cultural significance of an NDE shaping what experiences people were having? How do we know that people are actually having an NDE and not just exaggerating a dream or other dissociative experience? Is being near death necessary to undergo what is being reported as NDE?

If being near death wasn’t necessary to undergo the phenomenon, patients should report them even when they were never in mortal danger. A researcher named Dr. Stevenson located the medical records of forty patients who reported an NDE and found that more than half of them were never actually close to dying. This was starting to support the idea that the fear of death was sparking a purely psychological response.

But Stevenson wasn’t satisfied, and so he found a group of 58 people who reported NDEs, and like last time, 30 of whom had not been near death. He interviewed them and discovered something they couldn’t ignore: “A significantly greater number of patients who were actually near death reported elements of the core experience--including the bright light--than those who were not.” It seems that genuinely being near death IS necessary to encounter the established phenomena. Ironically, in the scientists' attempts to show the experience purely as an experience of the mind, they ended up showing the opposite….. At this point, someone probably got a raise… orrrrr was fired.

By this point, science has failed to do what it so often excels at: simplifying the world and squashing questions. In that failure lies so much wonder and curiosity that has paradigm-shattering consequences for all of us. Think about it; if this experience is universal across almost all of the cultures of the world, it breaks down religious ideas like “my heaven or God is the only one,” revealing a more unified understanding of what is quite possibly the afterlife, shared by all.

But it’s more than just a culture shock. Recall Barbara Harris’s story earlier, at one point, she was transported to the physical world but outside of her body, and heard information that was otherwise secret to her, bewildering the nurses with her knowledge when she awoke. This is so far out there, and Barbara’s story is not an isolated event.

Back in 2008, something known as the Awareness during Resuscitation Program, AWARE for short, followed 2,000 heart attack patients across the globe and studied the amount of NDE’s that occurred among survivors. Some of these survivors reported an out of body awareness, and for one of them, the perception was confirmed to be accurate by hospital staff. A similar study in 2001 looked at the same patient’s experience. The researchers stated that "it didn’t appear consistent with hallucinatory or illusory experiences, as the recollections were compatible with real and verifiable rather than imagined events." In a nutshell...somehow, these people are aware of the world around them, even sometimes past the range of their physical body, despite showing all the signs of being clinically dead. Now, we’re way past our time limit here, but this stuff is just so impressive. Before we wrap things up, there’s one more important thing I must share with you! Despite the recent studies seemingly acknowledging some kind of experience, helping to affirm their existence, ancient Buddhist Texts refer to the ability to enter a near-death experience without physical threat to the body through…..you guessed it….. meditation!

Of course, in learning this, people at the Journal of Mindfulness went on a 3-year study with monks from different Buddhist Schools and monitored them during meditations. Amazingly, the monks were seemingly able to plan ahead of time and even how the NDE would manifest. Researchers confirmed that meditation-induced NDEs produced the same long term mystical enhancement in a person’s life. If you want to read the studies, you’ll find a link to them on our website!

So… what do you think is going on? Even today, mainstream science believes that an NDE is simply a psychological phenomenon where the brain is reliving its memories. It’s a convenient explanation, but it does not explain the commonness of descriptive experiences or the knowledge of events that are so far removed from someone going through the experience. It also conveniently ignores the correct skills of the Monks.

Honestly, I feel the day that we, as a society, accept NDE’s, is the day that we make leaps forward in our understanding of life, death, and the nature of consciousness. But in the meantime, if you are someone who wants to make leaps ahead in your journey, consider checking out our Seven-Day Transformation - nearly guaranteed to help you radically transform your life in only one week! You’ll find links below, and I hope to see you there!

#spirituality #spirit science #mystery school #ascension #article

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ofoatd · 6 years

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Tomlinson's TV talent, Panic! At The Disco's plight to high heights & Fall Out Boy's 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs' Llama led rip off

Tomlinson's judging talent, Payne's premiering EP, One Direction's eight year 'History', Fall Out Boy's 'Thnks fr th Mmrs' lama led rip off and Panic! At The Disco's daredevil plight to high heights. One Fall Out At The Disco's fortuitous hiatus has halted, honing in on music happenings from Malik's sonically startling 'Sour Diesel' to Panic! At The Disco's pious 'Pray For The Wicked Tour’ trail. Coming back from a break like Twenty One Pilots' sabbatical suspension over One Direction's cry out for a comeback, One Fall Out At The Disco's reformed and restored, magnifying music most missed matters.

Louis Tomlinson the TV talent X Factor judge

Honing in on unblemished boyband harmonies to tearing up the table as a esteemed musical magistrate of the newly designed panel, Louis Tomlinson's lustrous leverage to the heritage of TV talent The X Factor, has been an burning notion put into motion years heretofore.

The 'Back To You' singer is going back to where his life full and long living career conspired into a spiral of One Direction domination, music mogul imprints, solo success and judging jobs upon cultured acquaintance of the panel position and being a ratings boosting figure boasted by philanthropist and public personality Simon Cowell, utilising the former boyband segments popularity purposefully to revive a dying British singing show which cultivated in collecting the worst ever final ratings in its 14 year stint, prioritising Tomlinson's tactile public marketability moreover that's the northerners notorious charismatic persona was a seamlessly shameful statement surrounding Cowell's integrity and intentions.

Whilst conference communications broke of the 26 year olds artist management role, speckles of scepticism surrounding Louis debut record release unofficially branded as LT1 fretted fans over his prioritisation of music over contest commitments with the solo singer suggesting the shows help not hindering covenant commenting "The album is still definitely my priority it doesn't change any release time me doing the show. Having come from the show it made sense to me to go on, I've always been interested in mentoring that's why I've done things in the past with my imprint label. It's something that has been on my mind".

Rolling up in a Mercedes-Benz company car stepping out from the suburbs of a renewed vintage esque Burberry check craze, the 'Just Like You' lead infiltrated into the SSE Arena Wembley situated adjacent to the worldwide wonder Wembley Stadium who hosted One Direction's three date term ‘Where We Are Tour’ in 2014. Sitting in the cushion stacked hot seat for the discovery arena auditions, cautiously crying over a returning contestant and being timidly confident within his critiques plus the stressful six chair challenge mentoring the boys bracket.

Tomlinson took time to spontaneously meet smiley faced fans fighting to stay in their seats subsequent to staff brutally blacklisting and barbarically banning fans from floor perspectives, reigniting former boyband memory flames and jettisoning James Grant Management Group and moving to Mark Gillespie and Matt Vines WMA Management after a two year time with the initial leading agency providers the Syco spin off label imprint individual is moving on, maximising his music mogul mind nostalgic to Plain White T's and Toms.

8 years of One Direction

Primary vanguards of 21st century boyband unprecedented hysteria, X Factor graduates One Direction have been masters of pop culture craft for an existing 8 years. Sitting on stairs to selling out stadiums, singing saccharine sugar coated bubblegum pop bops apropos to endless promises of partying all night, making malcontent 'Midnight Memories' stomping upon the streets of centralised London and mulling over fornoon favourite a.m conversations to a cultivation of a dedicated demographic of assured adolescents, placid parents and benevolent boyfriends of fangirl girlfriends growing and grasping mainstream music eminence, eventually evolving as one of the highest earning boyband in history eternity.

"#8YearsOfOneDirection where has the time gone!? Thank you so much to every single person who’s ever supported us. Big love!" tweets Tomlinson the 1/4 of One Direction bio beholder, taking time aside from audition allegiance alongside Liam Payne addressing the boyband as "Brothers" simultaneously splashing in the oceanic seas from the probably private yacht on Payne's sunny staycation, Niall Horan penning homage to "Amazing memories with the lads" and Harry Styles stating the fan support system saying "Thank you for all the love, thank you for all the support. Thank you for everything" signed off with his signature H dismissal.

Meanwhile the One Direction official outlet monotonously recalled lyricism from the 4 piece's repertoire, fan frenzy was a flurry when supposed superfan speculation sparked an outpouring in overwhelmed apocalypse of panic, pandemonium and perturb as dates for a post hiatus 2020 tour to represent and fly fifth album Made In A.M mellow ambience, the cliffhanger of an album left on the indefinite break of the 'Story Of My Life' singers surfaced upon ticketing sales service Ticketmaster's Australian December dates listings, deflecting the doubt of an unreleased 'Infinity' music video and playlists reputedly lead single 'Lucky' a potential promotional lead for a group reformation of raging proportions.

Fall Out Boy "Bishops Knife Trick" music video

A manic mayhem of memories of peculiar primates to a pity party of chaotic camelids. A lama tinged ode to 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs' Fall Out Boy's brand new animated animal endeavour 'Bishops Knife Trick' is one of the top rock selling record of this year, its MANIA's answer to Infinity On High's Kim Kardashian cameo curation.

Ticking off one less task on his comprehensively seventh studio album branded list, Pete Wentz writes off the music video of the Island Records/DCD2 recent record release penultimate track ahead of the Reading and Leeds Festival headline, homecoming Wrigley Field gig, mixing and mastering Lamamania plus renovating Folie à Deux's demo Lake Effect Kid extension, a symptomatic culmination to a MANIA era that has dished up a final frosty serving of demanding director Stump and unbeknownst animal oppression in 'Bishops Knife Trick'.

Trading in a monkey obstructed madhouse for a llama centric landscape, big boss Patrick Stump verbally browbeats working living organisms curious on curating a picture perfect Patrick paradise of fedora furry friend fashionistas and check mate chess games of a talentless wack llama ensemble. Overlaying a spat between the species, chillingly deep dark blues and animal like entrapment elevate writer Wentz' candidly confessional dealing, with dejected depression and evoked emotions of a mental mania battle of a disconnect of the ordinary world brought back to earth by the glow of the city of Chicago.

Getting a grip of reality and breaking out of the domesticated cage of a state of suppressed sadness, Stump soaringly sings subjected to sweeping sounds and climbing chimes of piano melodies amongst mid tempo strikes of the snare reinstall instrumental talent amongst a catalogue of crisis amid MANIA's repository recalling lyricism of "I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate/It doesn't wanna live in a cage/A feeling that I can't housebreak" hones in on the entertainment exploitation of llamas laundering away over musical instruments, seeking the idealistic project of Patrick's "film school" wonders.

Liam Payne First Time EP

Stripped back sounds, sultry lyric lines and smoothly tamed tones. Liam Payne's album filler EP First Time steps in for the September suspension of an inaugural record and steps up as a tetralogy of tracks, transforming the remixing maestro into a solo singing virtuoso. Post dropping a successful string of singles, collaborating with a cultivation of reputable recording artists in the realms of Migos' Quavo and Columbian crooner J Balvin, for radio friendly feats ‘Strip That Down’ and the flamboyantly bilingual bop 'Familiar'. Surrounding the latter's release, Payne hotly hyped up the anticipation of his fully fledged step out into the solo spotlight LP momentarily dulled by the determined decision to push back the records release, following in the footsteps of Fall Out Boy's belief battle with MANIA a setback suggestive of re-defining songs that feel so differently distanced as false representations of artistry with the 'Bedroom Floor' singer stating "I looked at some of the songs on my album which were done a while ago and they felt from another age. I'm determined for my debut album to truly represent me. In the meantime, this EP is a collection of songs that I'm really proud of" launching into the era of the EP First Time.

Title track 'First Time' fuses fragments of a "Familiar" fiery and fun filled tones picturing a Payne on the prowl to follow his feelings for an elusive female fabricate themselves throughout the thrill of the chase chronicle, a typical songwriting style the 25 year old adheres to. Exploring the realms of relationships over friendships besides production work from Di Genius' repertoire with Latin esque R&B influences simmering their way slowly throughout the monotonous platforms of the lead single, spiked by a pick up of vocal hooks and lyrical lulls of Payne's palatable projections and artist come label institutor French Montanas musky melodies.

Sophomore song 'Home With You' hones in on Liam's leap into the Urban and R&B region of music considerately comparable to fellow former One Direction division Zayn Malik's mellow material, with the sophisticated sleekness of 2010's electronic pulsating drum machine moments and stylistic vocal arrangement introducing the track as a nonchalant number, none the wiser to its upbeat metronome ticking chorus and lyrically expressive 3 liner pre-chorus "Too many cooks in the kitchen/Too many fools here listening/Why don't we find somewhere quiet". Quintessentially embodying the entire archetypal narrative, where spending the night away from "Yelling to you over music" clubs in homely comforts with a newly significant other are free from the eavesdropping ears of unbeknown fools.

Musically minimalistic ballad 'Depend On It' dabbles with a tender provoking genre palette Payne sonically is a solo stranger to, amongst an array of danceable discography destined for the fm radio waves. Worlds apart from the clichéd addictiveness of pop boyband ballads, a pleasant place in unforgotten memories Liam is persistent in revitalising to the present, as the singer was pictured seizing a sentimental embodiment of One Direction artwork adorning the original ensemble apace with Up All Night and Take Me Home songwriter Savan Kotecha esteemed for penning popular pieces by Ariana Grande and Britney Spears. Perpetual piano instrumentation pays homage to 'Home With You' minor chords transformed into a pivoting arrangement of piano melody interludes, lonesome towards the climax of the third track cohesive with the upper register of Payne's vocal expansion, expressing the love hate state of a relationship dialogued rendering "I'm not ready yet, there's still a thread left/If I could just hold on onto unravelling hope/Give it one last go, I don't know why, just need us to try" compromising the succinctly short track, yet the upmost stand out of the upbeat outnumbered EP.

Conclusively 'Slow' signifies a contradicted balance between saddened lyricism and sprightful production with a negative tinged track telling the tale of a cracking and crumbling connection, purposefully moral uplifting via mediums of a selective sense for sniffing out sounds that make 'Slow' electro melodies the core carvings the 'Get Low' vocalist craves to create a chart hit wonder. Recorded in the confines of the West London located Wendy House Production Studio's a place of musical residence One Direction inhabited in their 6 year indefinitely suspended career Liam Payne, levitated by a venerated troup of songwriters including The Ordinary Boys frontman Preston and Sylvester Sivertsen who posted a behind the scenes picture of the pair in 2016. 'Slow' lyricism is the utmost suggestive and scandalous story of breakdowns and breakups throughout the EP's entire narrative elaborating on "Got me pretending' you ain't done with us/It got me runnin' round the obvious" closing simplistically on "Let me down, let me down slow" with First Time featuring a collaboration, conventional characteristics and collection of charmingly cool crusades that lulls the listener on a trip down Payne's publicly pronounced past relationship at the different stages of love, lust, spats and separation, enhancing catchy rhythmic arrangements and an aura of perspectives of Payne's personal anecdotes.

Panic! At The Disco Reading & Leeds Festival 2018

Glistening glows of luminosity embossed with a scintillating showman style, Panic! At The Disco's co-headlining call crafted the shimmer, shine and sophistication of an otherwise damp, drunken and devil-may-care merrymaking weekender. Stemmed from a Saturday of female pop frontiers 'Strangers' singer Sigrid and Brit beauty Dua Lipa, Panic! At The Disco dazzled deftly with a type of timeless sumptuous sentimentality.

"To the old, and to the new/We dedicate this song to you" allures the retro soul sample of 'Silver Lining' as glitzy garmented and gold microphoned Brendon Urie bouncily bursts onto main stage Reading, to the rebellious satisfaction of young adults supposition supported by the bands backing of shifted member swaps, loosing Dallon Weekes who took to The Pit/The Lock Up stage showcasing 80's unearthed endeavour I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME and gaining bassist Nicole Row in March 2018 filling in for the female representation against a 14 year long male amassment.

Sounds of steampunk victorian picturesque imagery illuminated 'The Ballad Of Mona Lisa', with organically engineered vintage instrumentation of sinister patters of the piano and creeping pounds of the percussion, portray a dynamic duo of moral dilemmas in confident company with Urie's dark dingy lower register. Welcoming the colossal crowd to the land of Pretty Odd, a stellar song of festival festivities manifested itself in the fields of Richfield Reading chiming in with charming melodies, feeling so good with out of mind optimism side to side with spiritually earth endearing attitudes.

From the sprightly smiles of frontman Brendon Urie transitioning between latterly acquired additions "Dancing Is Not A Crime" and 'High Hopes' in which a faithful figure displays themselves amongst a sea of singing sinners to lasting setlist staples Queen's 1975 classic covering 'Bohemian Rhapsody' prescriptively performed for heritage act admiration. Transitionally taking on Too Weird Too Live, Too Rare Too Die's! triennial single 'Girls/Girls/Boys', pigmented pops of rainbow refractions, self proclaimed extravagant exclamation points and imposing iridescent sparkles lit the product ionised representation of the outright freedom of fondness for all orientations including + communities, a core creation for the efforts of the Highest Hopes Foundation set up in support for discriminated and disregarded segmentations of society.

Encore items illustrated a bouncing back and forth between the ever evolving dosages of conviction, carefree and ceremonious crusades from wickedly weekend worshipping 'Say Amen (Saturday Night)', sonically unambiguous crowd pleaser 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' to the confidentially conquering 'Victorious' as Urie confesses his state of euphoria before launching into the high intensity hit, highlighting the brightly belting pulsating vibrato vocals of the 31 year olds articulating "I've never been happier in my life and that's all because of you. You are important, you have an impact” illustrating an important imprint for a Saturday night of the retrieval of reminiscence and the making of matchless memories.

Fall Out Boy Reading & Leeds Festival 2018

Glaring in the glory of double zero’s rock reminiscence Reading and Leeds long timers Fall Out Boy headlined the main stage, showcasing a spectacle of sets reinforcing pop-rocks reputation amongst an evolutionary shift of a festival blurring the genre identity boundaries. From a Friday fronted by American rappers Post Malone and Travis Scott to the publicly prophesied secret set of Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy waved the white flag in sheer satisfaction far from the symbolism of surrender to be sitting as sixth time servers to the British bank holiday bash.

Smashing through a stellar setlist subjected to an in with the old out with the new Folie à Deux dash down wistful album avenue in affair to the forth records decade duty to the quartets discography, of the madness mantras of messed up romantics in 'Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes' to the misery mindset of selfish meanness throughout 'I Don’t Care' flippant middle finger montage deceased video platform Vine would have been pleasantly pleased witnessing.

Upbeat anthems from the post hiatus period 'Centuries' and 'My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)' tinged the dark dusk skies in bursts and bangs of a 5th of November celebratory serenade succumbed to the pyro below of Wentz' fire blasting bass, betrayed by its toned down display of 2016's flame eating females, with Wentz wise words of wisdom reflecting penchants of pure honesty rendering to the adolescent audience "They tell you along the way that you need to fit into a certain mould, but be you, do you as loud as you can, stay dangerous!”.

With the dimming down of danger, poised piano ballads 'Save Rock And Roll' alongside MANIA's bright beacon of artistic hope levitated from a lacklustre LP 'The Last Of The Real Ones' shone Stumps soulfully sonic singing before storming into a powerfully propelling galactic gathering of rip roaring bass grooves and glistening electrical guitars.

Long gone the lectures of wolves and dunking the basketball and long live the king of pop culture covers and ones for the mosh pit, Fall Out Boy's headlining slot staged the rightful return of Reading champions and pensive mmrs of a marked musical legacy.

Panic! At The Disco 'High Hopes' music video

Stranger setbacks, scaling skyscrapers and rooftop recitals. Panic! At The Disco's extortionately elevated vast visionary for 'High Hopes' holds back on self sceptical hesitancy and hones in on obtaining a dream like optimistic outlook.

Recently revealing eminently awaited European and UK Spring 2019 dates for the capacious continuation of the 'Pray For The Wicked Tour' that triumphantly teemed with death walks and wayward Amazing Beebo's, the trials and tribulations of Panic! At The Disco touring members dropping have surfaced, after the axing of touring musician Kenneth Harris subsequent to supported allegations of inappropriate misconduct between the 37 year old with of age and underage female fans soared. With speedy removal of Harris post the 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' songwriters high note hitting IHeartRadio Festival performance, a succinct 13 song set compromising of current core classics 'Say Amen (Saturday Night)' and 'High Hopes'.

Gazing up to the sky high structure situated amongst the neighbouring streets of Downtown Los Angeles, subsequent to a borderline civilian belabour painting battle to the trails, tribulations and setbacks Brendon Urie has unambiguously endeavoured under the Panic! At The Disco music moniker, the self confessed London west end wannabe supernormally sets upon scaling the side of a modernist American sky high complex congregating a confounded crowd on earths gravitational ground.

Pushing on with anew sense of captured power, purpose and perspective Brendon beckons down to the solid surface below, as a building bridge and prompting pre-chorus builds up to spur the singer on into "Stay up on that rise and never come down" simultaneously pushing the Panic! frontman on to prove the fallacious critics untrue chiming "They say it's all been done but they haven't seen the best of me/So I got one more run and it's gonna be a sight to see" speculating the singular ensemble spearheads longevity, concealed by the cohort Panic! At The Disco and comparatively not soloist Brendon Urie, with sixth studio album Pray For The Wicked being the band's "One more run" record.

After a fast flicker and fierce flashback of pedantic belief that Panic! has exhausted entire repertoires of musical material, a moment of dignified realisation of accomplishment, achievement and appreciation is alluded to from the expressions of 'High Hopes' own 'Hey Look Ma, I Made It" moment Brendon and backing band burst into a sonic celebration, categorically evoked out of emotions of opportunity, outlook and optimism.

Watch Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy's Reading and Leeds Festival Sets including the music video for 'Bishops Knife Trick' and ‘High Hopes’ plus listen to First Time by Liam Payne on all major music platforms here:

Fall Out Boy Bishops Knife Trick Music Video - YouTube

Panic! At The Disco Reading and Leeds 2018 - BBC

Fall Out Boy Reading and Leeds 2018 - BBC

Liam Payne First Time EP - Apple Music/iTunes

Liam Payne First Time EP - Spotify

Liam Payne First Time EP - Amazon

Liam Payne First Time EP - Google Play

Liam Payne First Time EP - Deezer

Liam Payne First Time EP - Tidal

Panic! At The Disc High Hopes Music Video - YouTube

(All photographic content curtesy of One Direction/Columbia Records/The X Factor (Instagram)/Capitol Records/Jake Chams/Panic! At The Disco/Elliott Ingham/Fall Out Boy)

#Louis Tomlinson #X Factor #One Direction #8 Years Of One Direction #Fall Out Boy #Bishops Knife Trick #Track Review #MANIA #Music #Liam Payne #First Time #EP Review #panic! at the disco #Pray For The Wicked #Reading and Leeds #High Hopes #Music Video Review

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