#i love the way jon ended the q&a and stuff but. why is it a question

[thislovintime]

Clips from 1997 and 2006.

Q: “Why did you get into the music business?” Peter Tork: “Approval. Respect. Love. Girls.” - Beachwood Confidential, 1995 (x)

* * *

"What I was working towards was to be in a group. When the Beatles hit, where were all the folkies going to go? But I also wanted to be a folk music performer. A lot of what I did was hanging out, feeling for the first time that I was part of the scene, walking down the street and seeing people I knew, doing a little flirting." - Peter Tork, Bringing It All Back Home: 25 Years of American Music at Folk City (1986) (x)

* * *

"Dear Peter, I hope this doesn’t sound stupid. It’s something I’ve always wanted to know. Why do rock stars get all the women? I figured you would know. Even my sister likes you a lot and she doesn’t really like anyone very much. She says hi, btw. I was thinking of becoming an architect but that doesn’t seem to get the girls excited. Should I learn to play guitar? Thanks bro,  Jon L."

"Dear Jon, Thanks for asking. I’ve never wondered the same thing; I’ve been too busy trying to get the women by being a pop star so I’ve never had time to stop and tell on the roses, as it were. But since it all came up lo, these many years ago, I’ve actually given the matter some thought. Here’s some of what I’ve come up with: For one thing, those of us who got into show business did so IN ORDER to get attention. This is sometimes an outgrowth of a conviction in childhood that people didn’t much care about us, or even notice us. We determined that if we could get the millions (or, say, dozens) to love us, then it wouldn’t matter that we weren’t much regarded on an individual basis in our youth. For some of us, it worked. Unfortunately, it has its drawbacks. You don’t get to know these ahead of time, so I’m going to tell you. One of them is, that the girls we do get mostly want us for the show we put on. By that, I don’t mean only the stuff that goes on onstage, but the way we present ourselves when we meet someone. I have a ready stock of funny stories and sly ways to hook a girl in, but in the end, that’s what she goes for, and when it comes time for me to be myself, she’s always kind of shocked. […] Check it out: architecture is a deeply satisfying career and you’re going to find a relationship that suits you if you’ll only let it happen and what you do for a living will be only one measure of your true value in the eyes of a worthy, intelligent, supportive woman. Good luck, Peter” - Ask Peter Tork, The Daily Panic, 2008 (x)

* * *

"In spite of all his clowning, Peter was a rather serious chap. […] Peter was a loud, powerful singer (I used to call him a romp’em, stomp’em type of singer), while I was a soft ballad singer. He had enormous stage presence and I had very little. He played the banjo, I played the guitar. […] He was restless and intense, while I was calm. He loved to be with a lot of people all of the time, whereas I liked to be completely alone some of the time. And last, but not least, Peter Tork had quite a way with the girls." - Bruce Farwell, 16’s The Monkees: Here We Are (1967) (x)

* * *

“Next to his music, girls interested Peter Tork more than anything else in the whole wide world. He loved them all — and most of them loved him. Peter wasn’t tall, dark or handsome, but he made up for his liabilities with his great warmth, enthusiasm and sense of humor. He was also basically a very kind and giving person. He just had a way of making people happy even when he was broke, freezing cold and there were no prospects for work in the future. That Pied Piper-ish quality Peter had attracted girls of all shapes and sizes. He had many brief romances and a couple of very serious ones, and even today Peter is still good friends with almost every girl he knew, dated, or fell in love with during his Greenwich Village days.” - Lance Wakely, 16, March 1967

* * *

“Peter was great for the chicks of the village… they queued up to see him and talk to him. But eventually he had an offer to join the Phoenix Singers, who were short of a guy to play banjo AND guitar. And if you still have any doubts about whether he really does play, and play well, then the thing to do is ask the management behind the Phoenix Singers. Even without the Monkees, there is little doubt that the amiable Peter would have mae the grade in the music business. When, eventually, Peter went to the West Coast, to California, he wasn’t kept waiting long for fame. Within two months he was auditioned and accepted for the Monkees. Behind him was a mass of previous girlfriends but, unlike many blokes, Peter has the knack of staying on very friendly terms with girls even after he’s stopped going out with them.” - Record Mirror, February 25, 1967

* * *

“...Inside his dressing room, he towels the sweat from [his] head, takes out a guitar, pulls up a chair and starts singing ME a song. [...] He DIPS me, yes, like a dance dip, asks me permission and then kisses ME chastely on my cheek!... [...] Months later, when I returned back to earth, I received a three page letter from Peter Tork (remember, he asked me for my address before the dip) which was just beautiful, poetry mixed with kindness, which is how I choose to this day to describe him as a human.”:

“I heard this on the radio!

‘TODAY at 4pm, THE MONKEES will be appearing at RECORD WORLD!’

I looked at a map to see where Record World was located (yes, I had a map in my glove compartment) and plotted and within seconds, turned the car in the opposite direction of Georgetown and hightailed to some mall in Virginia. The line to meet the Monkees was surprisingly huge. It wrapped all the way around the mall twice. Anxious to make it back to campus for the first night of my senior year, which we all know is the BEST night of the year, I became anxious the line was too long and The Monkees would leave before they got to me. I needed to come up with a plan, stepping off the line, I found myself moments later in Sharper Image, purchasing a small tape recorder.

With tape recorder in hand, I marched myself up to the security guard outside the RECORD WORLD where all four of the Monkees were signing records.

‘I’m here from the Georgetown University newspaper, The Hoya. I wasn’t even sure if that was the title of our school newspaper…a lucky guess.

‘I’m hoping to get a quick interview with the guys.’

‘Sure, right this way.’

WOW!  That was easy.

They let me cut the line and stand RIGHT behind the Monkees while they continued to sign records. Me looking out at a sea of other Monkee lunatics, just like me!

OMG!!!  I had NO questions, I had no way of handling being this close to the four guys that I spent my entire pubescent life fantasizing about marrying, dancing or at least camping!

‘Hello.’ Micky Dolenz says to me!!! and I go numb. I got nothing.  

I look over to Peter Tork, who asks me my name and when I say Mary, Davy Jones chimes in and says, ‘Ah, Mary Mary.’


WHAT!!!!????  Smelling salts please?? (Actually, true story, Lara did really pass out once when she met Davy Jones at a book signing!)

I stumbled my way through the interview, holding up the tiny tape recorder every time I asked a question. Thankfully they never caught on that the tape recorder didn’t even have batteries in it or that I had not actually pushed any of the buttons to start or stop recording. I just moved it from my mouth to their face, like a child playing make-believe.

I kindly say thank you and tear up. The security guard ushers me away from the table but right before I was about to steal a tuft of [Micky]’s hair, Peter Tork looks at me and said, ‘write your phone number down here.’

In a Monkees haze, I write it and then, I’m quickly whisked away by security.

I cried the entire 3-hour car ride back to DC, happy tears, and this was before cell phones, so I had no one to call and scream the news. Just me, alone, reliving how I had just pulled off a Monkees miracle.

When I arrived back to my senior year house, all my pals were wondering why I was so late and informed me I had thirty minutes to get dressed because we were all heading out for the BIG first night back at school. The night you waited all summer long for, so you could show off how great you looked to your biggest crush.

I threw down my bag, jumped in the shower and was interupted by my roommate telling me that I had a phone call.

Wet from the shower, I grabbed the call.

‘Hi.  This is the Monkees Tour Manager.  Peter Tork asked me to leave two tickets for you at the Will Call for tonight’s show.  It starts at 8pm.’

I looked at the clock…it was 6pm….the concert was two hours away, back to where I had just left the scene of my delicious deception.

I HAD TO GO!

I started down my list of roommates to come with me, one at a time, rejection, followed with ‘YOU’RE NUTS!!’

Finally, I bribed my most beautiful and most fun pal Emily to join me. I think the bribe was, I’ll pay all your bar tabs the entire first semester if you drive to Virginia with me.  If you saw how we drank back then, this was a generous offer.

She agreed to join me, but made me promise we could be back by midnight as to not miss out on the first night back to school.

‘Done!’

And there we were, back in my car, heading two hours south, right back to where I just come from.

We arrived at the concert hall and Emily (my personal timekeeper) reminded me. ‘You have two hours…that’s it.’

We had great seats and a bunch of songs in, a roadie came and plucked us from our seats to go backstage. WHAT!

There was an intermission or maybe it was the moment between the last song and the encore, but all I remember what that it was fast and there was a lot of scrambling.

This was the first ‘backstage’ I had ever seen.  A minute in, Peter Tork comes over to ME!?  Says, ‘I’m so glad you made it’ and invites ME!? into his dressing room.

I look at Emily, who somehow understands just how big a deal this was to me and grants me, sternly, ‘10 minutes!!’

Inside his dressing room, he towels the sweat from [his] head, takes out a guitar, pulls up a chair and starts singing ME a song.  

The 13-year old girl in me dreamt about this moment for years and now it was right in front of me. My very own little concert with Peter.

‘2 minutes!’ An announcement comes up on a loud speaker, but the perfect amount of time for him to put down his guitar, change his shirt, tell me that I was a very special person (something about my aura), asks me to write down my address in a small book AND then………

He DIPS me, yes, like a dance dip, asks me permission and then kisses ME chastely on my cheek!

The door opens, Emily is now [tapping] her feet and thwarting off flirtatious talk by Davy Jones (with something I remember as subtle as ‘FUCK OFF!’)

‘You’re done!’ She tells me sternly.

I was, forever.  Forever change, just like Marcia Brady was when Davy Jones kissed her on her cheek.

The whole ride home we laughed at the idea that we were ‘groupies’ and I tried to downplay to her how UNBELIEVABLE and SUREAL the whole moment was. Like I had manifested a dream.

Later that night, back with other people my own age, back to what we all deemed very important…shots and dancing, I was still reliving every moment of what happened that magical day, wishing I had a phone to call Lara (she’d never believe it) or that that there was a special Monkees hotline that I could call to discuss ‘my feelings.’

‘What is that!?’ My friend Chudney asked me mid dance to Franki Valli’s Oh What A Night, pointing to a small foam ball peeking perfectly outside the middle of my bra. I looked down, reached in and just started laughing.

Peter’s microphone fob (or whatever the furry thing is at the tip of the microphone) must have fallen into my shirt during our torrid dip.

This was sure to go into the Smithsonian of my life.  

Months later, when I returned back to earth, I received a three page letter from Peter Tork (remember, he asked me for my address before the dip) which was just beautiful, poetry mixed with kindness, which is how I choose to this day to describe him as a human.

Yes I was 22 and he was 52, yes this moment would be fully frowned upon today, but it was my moment, willingly and open heartedly.  I willed myself backstage and into that dressing room and I’m grateful for that his real sweetness and this (I’m hoping you find benign and funny) story.

Yesterday when I heard of Peter’s passing, I danced with my daughter (even dipped her a few times) and then expressed gratitude to Peter and The Monkees for keeping me innocent, for keeping me weird and for keeping me alive with possibilities of real love – the kind you get from a song, or a glance or a sweet cheek kiss.” - Mary Giuliani, thriveglobal dot com, February 2019

#Peter Tork #Tork quotes #Tork videos #The Monkees #Monkees #1960s #1970s #1980s #1990s #2000s #2010s #early 1960s #'beautiful poetry mixed with kindness' #Monkees fans #long read #Tork fan recollections #1997 #2006 #Ask Peter Tork #Beachwood Confidential Newsletter #Bringing It All Back Home: 25 Years of American Music at Folk City #can you queue it

[the-lightless-flame]

ok i promised @bornetoblood so here is the web!agnes headcanon

this takes a bit of explaination so ill go into how it would work and then ill talk about why i like it

(also obviously this is just based on my interpretation of agnes and her story, if u have a different interpretation of her thats fine!! i just love my funny messiah woman and want to see her happy)

this became very long so the essay is under the cut

ANYWAy so the 'how':

jonny said in the season 4 q+a that one could probably sever their connection with the desolation via a completely selfless sacrifice.

agnes' suicide probably fits this description; the in-canon explanation (from what agnes told arthur) is so that the lightless flame could eventually try the scorched earth again with another messiah.

i dont fully believe what arthur said, and its definitely possible that she was just telling him what he wanted to hear. in that case, her making the decision to once and for all stop herself from being able to bring about the scorched earth probably counts as a selfless act as well, cause even if the scorched earth was never actually going to work, she didnt know that.

the first option doeshave a certain irony to it imo, but it doesnt really fit with how i see her at this point, as i think at this point shes not that loyal to the lightless flame (see: jack barnabus). it doesnt really matter to the headcanon tho, all that matters is that agnes committed a selfless act.

doing this disconnected her from the lightless flame, but in doing so she could have potentially connected to another entity.

all that's really required for becoming an avatar is choice, but physical and metaphysical death is encouraged; agnes is experiencing both (physical is obvious, and metaphysical as the death of her as messiah of the desolation).

imo the web is the obvious choice. she already has a connection with it through gertrude and hilltop road, and a lot of agnes' story is about the ways the lightless flame controlled and groomed her, as well as how her final weeks were when she finally managed to get some kind of control over her life (even if that control is her own death). basically, since control is a big theme in agnes' story, and taking control is the prominent feeling that led to her death, i dont think creating a connection to the embodiment of control is such a reach.

so agnes goes through something similar to jon's coma. maybe the lightless flame thinks shes dead, maybe they realise she isnt connected to the desolation anymore and leave her alone.

from there, agnes just does whatever. probably tries not to do anything too notable. she burns emma harvey's house with gertrude obviously, and she does need to feed her power but i dont think she'd do anything thatd get in a statement.

ok so thats how i think it could happen. now why i like it:

first, i dont really like agnes having died. it works fine as an ending to her story as a part of the show at large i guess, and it doesnt really matter to me in that sense. but for her as a character, i think her ending just makes her generic tragic character and thats not really my kind of thing. idk, like i said im not mad about it being her ending or anything, theres definitely a lot to be said for how her living under the lightless flame couldve led to that decision, but its not really what i want for her.

there is also how it relates to the queer reading of her story, but i talked about that earlier.

also i want her to be happy. leave me alone.

second, i really like the idea of agnes having a semi-normal life. she still has web stuff, but its mostly just subtle stuff (we know there are a lot of spooks that arent reported to the institute, and i think what she does is probably that). gertrude tracks her down at some point to help killing emma harvey, but that it.

the web probably doesnt need her to do anything major, cause thats what annabelle's for and shes only a few years away from being an avatar.

in the eyepocalypse she probably tries not to make things too bad for people in her domain, as much as thats a thing she can actually do.

third, iirc it means that every web avatar thats dead was killed by another web avatar. and i think thats fun. obviously she wouldnt have been a web avatar for raymond, but she probably wouldve been marked and thats enough for me.

i like the imagery of the web keeping people only until theyve become obsolete, i imagine it probably wouldnt want to keep people around once theyve done what it needed them to do. also spider imagery.

fourth, agnes did not get NEARLY enough opportunity to be gay. like she probably fucked jude for at least a while but there is. no way that relationship was healthy. (i could talk a lot more about that but this is already too long)

idk who with. i like gertrudeagnes conceptually but i also like them only having met once. they probably did fuck tho.

i saw a fic earlier that shipped her and annabelle and i havent read it yet but that sounds fun.

idk maybe she just finds a normal, non-aligned girlfriend. thats probably the best option. anyway let her be gay

ok thats it the essay is done. i probably forgot stuff but ill just talk about it later. again this is just my headcanon, u might interpret her different to me and thats fine! the whole point of her story is we dont know that much about what shes really like so theres a lot thats just up to personal opinion.

if for some ungodly reason u read all of this then why??? (i just checked its at like a thousand words wtf) but also tysm i probably wont have children but if i do u are now entitled to my firstborn.

this is too long im going to stop talking now bye

#ill probably write fanfiction about this at some point #i think about it a lot #i have very little motivation rn and i have like five other things i want to write #but ill probably do it eventually #tma #the magnus archives #tma headcanon #agnes montague #web!agnes #agnesblogging #the web #cw suicide mention

[notexactlyrocketscience]

I’ve finished MAG 199 and I’m now terrified of listening to 200. Help. 😔

(No one asked me, but I’ve seen this question floating around r/TheMagnusArchives and have been there myself, so I thought I’d put my full week of obsessive post-Magnus melancholia to some use!)

🚨 mild spoiler warning if you don’t know the nature of the ending of The Magnus Archives! 🚨

I was really upset (crying on and off) for a whole week after I finished MAG 200. But it was really a very beautifully made episode with gorgeous soundscapes and phenomenal voice acting, and I'm so glad I finished it soon after listening to 199. (I had been considering putting it off because I was aware the ending would be ambiguous at best.)

These are some things that helped me get through the grief of finishing a beautiful piece of media, and the feelings of loss, heartbreak and frustration about the ambiguous ending for a fictional queer couple I really care about:

I slowly worked my way through all the extra content with the cast! (Q&As, Retrospectives, MAG Fluff, and Gaming, available on Spotify! Plus the The Magnus Protocol Kickstarter streams and Fan-requested JMart reads.) It a) brought me back to the real world and b) reminded me that TMA is a gorgeous complete piece of art and that's something to really celebrate.

I spent some time putting together my own, realistic interpretation of why the ending is absolutely perfect and the best possible scenario! (May have absently but extensively pondered on wholesome post-canon headcanons.)

I ranted on Tumblr. A lot.

I made a melancholic, heartfelt, angsty playlist that (to me) feels like a conversation between Jon and Martin. It starts loud and winds down gently to soft, vulnerable and introspective. I was initially hesitant to listen to any music after I finished TMA because I feared that the emotions would end me. I caved in the end, and curated mine really carefully. It gives I’m depressed but in love and it was painful to listen to but also so therapeutic. Not the kind of playlist I usually put together, but I was shocked to realise how much I can relate to it.

I made a manically big Pinterest board of Tumblr memes and fanart with good vibes! It’s actually easier to find the best stuff over there than it is through Tumblr’s search function.

I made a YouTube playlist of my favourite uplifting, cute and comedic fanmade animatics and clip athologies.

Lastly, I would highly recommend planning on some sort of similarly fun media that you can jump into when you feel ready! It makes it easier to move on and gain perspective. (After Banana Fish, I plunged myself into a bunch of other LGBTQ+ anime and it really helped!)

I think danmei in particular (achillean Chinese webnovels, often high fantasy) is somehow uniquely similar to TMA through the intricate world-building and plot, good fillers that interconnect, lengthy serialisation, wholesome vibes, and pining romance. The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is a great one to start with, and is available in print at bookstores now! (I picked up The Husky and His White Cat Shizun.)

#tma #the magnus archives #jonmartin #jmart #tma s5 #tma s5 spoilers #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #alexander j newall #gay #bi #lgbtq+ #magnus pod #the mag pod #mag pod #the magnus pod #the magnus protocol #the magnus scrotocol #mlm #achillean #biromantic #ace #banana fish #asexual #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the husky and his white cat shizun #danmei #playlist #queer #horror

[bellysoupset]

i’m really curious about wendy and her backstory!! here are some q’s but if there’s anything else that’s been big and important in her life, i’d love to know! i’m not sure if i’m remembering correctly, but i think both her parents are doctors and her family is relatively wealthy. does she have a good relationship with her parents? does she have any siblings or extended family that she’s close to? what was her childhood like? did she begin to transition as a teenager or is that something more recent? is she medically transitioning? why does she want to be a doctor? what does she want her life to be like in 10 years?

Oh my! The big questions!

Under the cut because it got a little long:

Wendy's parents are both doctors yes, from NYC. Her father, Sheldon, is an anesthesiologist and her mother, Lydia, is a dermatologist, who has since branched out and opened 3 different clinics. She grew up in the upper east side, wealthy yes, but not "fuck you money" such as Luke and Jonah. Wendy always knew it was expected of her to take up on the family business.

Her parents are quite formal and distant, she was raised by nannies, and they call each other by full names. Her parents haven't been in love for the longest time, but they don't divorce because of appearances... Their worry about "sppearances" got in the way of Wendy's transition and self discovery.

She came out to her parents as trans when she was a 14 and it was met with a lot of reluctance and dismissed. Eventually, by the time she was almost 16, her mental health deteriorated bad enough that her parents "conceded". As you can see by "conceded" I mean they "allowed" her to transition, very far from being happy and supportive. Wendy is very bitter about this, rightfully so.

She started medically transitioning at 17, but took her a while to feel happy in her own skin. Med school far from home (she initially was a student in UPenn) definitely helped her. Her parents took so long to even stop deadnaming her, it was freeing going to Penn and never having to deal with that, for a change.

After finishing her undergrad program, Wendy chose to do her residency in the guys university (which is techinically in Maine, but idk USA geography so please don't quote me in anything "maine"), so she meets Jon in her first year of internship in the hospital.

I don't have a plan for Wen's future, just like I don't have one for any of the characters, I'm mostly vibing and letting them go where the story takes them. But if you aske Wendy, right now, she'd say she wants to be a neurologist, mostly because she's very interested in all the concussion cases that end up in her hands, since they have a quite active football team.

She didn't chose to be a doctor, it was always expected of her and she's got a natural talent for it, so she quite enjoys it! But if you ask her what she wanted to work with as a kid and something she still really likes doing on the side it's interior design! Decorating! Even fashion too, but mostly house stuff! She's got a very acute sense of style, one some people mind find tacky, and she absolutely splurges in house decor.

#myocs #wendy marshall #I often think of polly pocket when writing wendy lol

[autistic-paul]

Sometimes I think about how TGWDLM has an ambiguous ending until you think about it or dive into the behind the scenes content. Paul is infected by the time Inevitable happens, there’s no doubt in my mind. 

How would he know those songs is the first question, of course. He wasn’t there for Show Stopping Number, and I don’t think he’d know it well enough even if he was there in the back waiting for his chance to rescue Emma and Ted. How would he know any of those songs well enough to pull that off on the fly? Besides, it’s canon that the hive likes to mess with its victims. The way Alice tried to break Bill in Not Your Seed. Why wouldn’t Paul try to destroy Emma by giving her false hope and singing about how he chose this?

Then... What’s his motivation? You expect me to believe he’d try to pretend to be one of them as the world falls apart, as he has to watch Emma die right in front of him? They’re surrounded, I can’t imagine he’d think he could get her out. What would the point be? It’s a hivemind, they’d figure it out real fast, anyway. There’s no point. 

There’s Jon tweeting “Don’t the eyes give it away?” and I’m positive he’s referring to that last shot right at the apotheosis is upon us, which... Yeah, those are the eyes of someone faking it, sure. 

The script isn’t canon (Though, god, I wish it was, I have an unhealthy fixation on the slime) but... If anything, it proves the ending wasn’t originally going to leave you questioning if Paul was faking it. 

Then there’s the commentary, where Nick straight up says yeah, he’s dead, the hive took over the whole planet. Last nail in the coffin, for me. He’s infected, and was always intended to be.

#tgwdlm #starkid #jon matteson #nick lang #mine #i don't really know why it was ever played up so much tbh #i love the way jon ended the q&a and stuff but. why is it a question #i dunno maybe i'm missing something #i kinda feel similarly to bf #if tgwdlm is ambiguous but not #because you know everyone dies #then black friday is maybe the same #dead dead dead #on another note #i'm working from memory here but i have an encyclopedic memory of jon things #he tweeted that nick intended it to be ambiguous but jon made his choice when he played paul #anyway it was not very good at being ambiguous in my mind and i think jon chose Dead

[backofthebookshelf]

That post I reblogged earlier reminded me that I need to yell about how much I adore Jon Archivist Sims not just as an asexual character but as an asexual horror narrator, because asexuality in horror is usually something that makes me cringe.

Not that there's much asexuality, as a sexual orientation, in horror; like everywhere else it's pretty rare to see it depicted at all. But there are tropes, and just like good writers often write neurodivergent characters without realizing it, they sometimes write asexual characters without realizing it, it's just that people think of sex as foundational to the human experience and therefore something universally meaningful to discuss in horror, and therefore deviations get...weird.

There's the "too busy/too good for relationships" trope that @bananonbinary mentioned, which Vivian Sobchak calls the "virginal astronaut" trope -- which derives from the horrible combined mess of "logic is masculine, emotion is feminine," "sex must be heterosexual and therefore a story with no women can't be about sex," and "sex and emotions are inextricable." Literally every one of those concepts can and should and has been deconstructed by queer horror, but it hasn't made them go away (particularly if, like me, you like 19th century ghost stories a lot).

But so much of horror is about the body, and so much of thinking about bodies is about sex. There's a whole sub-genre of plant horror - from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Annihilation, not to mention that totally unnecessary scene in the first Evil Dead movie - and so much of that particular kind of body horror is about asexual reproduction. It's not just "what if there was no reason to have sex" but that the lack of a need for sex is the way you can tell that someone is no longer human.

There's also a whole thread of Frankenstein criticism that treats asexual reproduction as the central problem of the novel (which I think is dramatically missing the point) that I found massively triggering to stumble across. The whole reason Victor Frankenstein fails is because he won't have sex with a woman? Great, love to know that sexual relationships are the be-all and end-all of human success. (Again, not the point of the novel, if you haven't read Frankenstein please don't let this ruin it for you.)

Honestly, weirdly enough, I think the only time I don't find a character who's passively depicted as asexual in horror fiction to be alienating is...in Lovecraft stories. Horrific, I know, Lovecraft had every bigotry known to humanity turned up to twelve, except I suspect he actually was sex-repulsed and asexual and so the lack of sex or sexual relationships in his stories seem more like a natural consequence of it just not being something he cared about than as a way to prove that his characters were above messy human emotions or that they were somehow broken or less than human. Trust me, I loathe the fact that Lovecraft is apparently decent ace rep, but...there we are.

But to bring this back to TMA -- especially to start with, Jon is a horror narrator very much modeled on the 19th and early 20th century "researcher accidentally eaten by the thing he's researching" story form. (Not just Lovecraft, but Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Conan Doyle, M.R. James - TMA is named after an M.R. James story, even.) (Actually look at the assistants' surnames and that's a pretty good catalog of the inspirations; even Dracula is an epistolary novel featuring a narrator who's accidentally consumed by something he thought he was apart from, although asexual it is not.) And most of those narrators are asexual, of the "virginal astronaut" type, because of the tropes of the day (and because of the stereotypes of academics).

Then through the course of the series Jon becomes a more modern type of horror protagonist, turning into a monster himself, and the series begins to question heavily what it means to be human and where the lines between human and monster are drawn. And the longer this goes on, the more monstrous Jon becomes in his physical dependence on statements and his uncanny healing abilities and his literal return from the dead -- the more human he becomes, too, making better connections with people, reaching out to offer help or even just sympathy, prioritizing his relationships with other people over his own research or his need to not become a mystery.

And I think that's why his asexuality hits so good: the story prioritizes the emotional parts of human connections even while it's diving into the monstrous transformation stuff that so often uses lack of sexual interest as a shorthand to demonstrate that the person isn't fully human anymore. (And not even just romantic connections, although Jon and Martin's relationship is a lynchpin of the series; you've also got Jon repairing his relationship with Melanie, his complex relationship with Daisy, his ongoing struggle to relate to Basira.) TMA isn't just deconstructing what it means to be human, it's also completely removed sexuality from that calculation. There are lots of things that make a person more or less human, by a wide variety of definitions of "human," but sexuality is not one of them.

I'm not sure how much of this was intentional; I definitely assumed that the reason Jon was asexual was because of that tradition of cosmic horror and ghost story narrators, updated for a modern queer audience, and the comments Jonny has made in q&as and elsewhere seem to support that. But this is a great example of what happens when something is written thoughtfully and with care taken to consider implications, rather than defaulting to easy cultural shorthands. And it's also an illustration of the usefulness of queer as an umbrella term -- queer fiction by definition has to sidestep a lot of those cultural shorthands, and the more of those you can deconstruct, the more you're able to create something that includes everyone.

#the magnus archives #asexuality #horror #ace things #cw aphobia #tma spoilers

[radiosandrecordings]

I wrote a big long post, and I’m not quite sure what my point is and also it’s 2am so by the end it’s pretty much nonsensical but I just wanted to get some feelings out in words, it’s more of a For Me thing really but idk, someone else might feel similar so: 

Been thinking about Stuff recently and as I am want to do with every thought that rattles through my hollow little head, I’ve tried sifting it through a jmart lens. This originally came from a discussion I was having yesterday about how the fan base has changed a lot since jmart became canon, especially in terms of new people listening. But it was more in the context of it... I think there’s a tendency when people listen, specifically ones who came because they’ve seen fan art or they heard ‘omg canon gays!’ (It’s really becoming the new Night Vale and I have Thoughts on that but that’s for a separate post) to listen through the show as a means to get to them being ‘a canon couple’. 

And I suppose there’s a route I could go down here where I talk about how that’s kinda derisive to the show to treat this whole complex story as only a vehicle to get you to the concept of boys kissing, but to me it’s more like... I mean ‘fandoms’ as they are now, really do have a tendency to put an emphasis on romance as the main thing to be focused on, even in media where it isn’t found, that’s old hat. But I Don’t Like That. I mean, obviously I love romance stuff, I read as many fluffy jmart fics with 0 bearing on canon as the next person, I’ve been writing those since season 3 when we had no idea this was coming, when it was still ‘the dinghy’ to a lot of people.

But the whole kind of overview of it is reductive not just to the show but to other forms of relationships I think? Again this isn’t TMA exclusive, this is a common thing, I’m just filtering through one specific thing here. One of my favourite quotes from Jonny was from the S4 Q&A, when he was explaining why Daisy and Basira aren’t a romantic couple, which is a whole OTHER thing and people’s ignoring of his whole logic for that has made me kind of prickly against the ship now, but that’s another topic. Anyway, he says “So, with each relationship within the series there is a specific thing that I’m trying to explore. A specific dynamic that I feel is- is the core of the relationship in something that I am really interested in exploring.” And I adore seeing TMA through this lens. With each character Jon meets, trying to figure out what it is that their specific dynamic with him is supposed to convey. How the whole show is about how people interact with each other and that’s why to me when you boil Jon down to his only relationship being his romantic one is just feels off. 

Like I adore jmart, I truly do, and I get why they’re the most common. Romance is easy and fun to write about, and they’re the two main characters, they’re the ones we lock onto because we spend so much time with them. But if you sat me down and told me to make a list of my favourite dynamics in TMA, personally I would have them ranked third. I would rather talk about Jon and Georgie all day firstly, and then after that Jon and Gerry. Maybe there’s not as much to say for those two dynamics as their is for jmart due to the sheer amount of jmart interaction and content we have in canon, but I think the dynamics that are being explored there are more appealing to me personally to look at. 

Another thing is this notion that relationships only really start when they’re agreed upon to be a reciprocated romantic partnership, and I think that’s something often missed when people rush forward to get to S5 and see them act all coupley. This idea that their interactions only matter if they’re in service to a ship. I don’t think people ignore them interacting before that, but more that people have a tendency to hone in on the parts they think they can point at and go ‘See, see, that’s where he has a crush on him!’. As if their dynamic wasn’t interesting in itself before it became romantic, and only holds worth once they have feelings for each other in a romantic manner rather than simply caring about each other, or even how they might not care at the start. Like, if you are friends with someone for five years, and then get a crush on them for one year, and then start dating, you have had a relationship with this person for six years but the one year of your feelings being romantic doesn’t change the five years to be un-platonic, you were just friends then even if feelings came later. 

Side note -  Obviously the romance gives it obvious appeal and reason for acclaim because if you come to TMA from out of an audio drama sphere, you are likely starving for healthy gay content and so of course you want to focus on that bit of rep. But there’s better media for that, audio is full of it, just because TMA is the popular show doesn’t mean it’s what you’re looking for if you genuinely don’t like horror or the story it’s telling and are only there for the romance. You can shop around a bit until you find the story you want, I promise you it’s out there if you go looking.

Back from the side note - I think what I mean to say is. This is probably me venting my frustration at allonormativity a little in pushing romance as The Superior Dynamic and all other relationships a character has as side notes. Though obviously there’s the caveat that Martin is Jon’s most important relationship to him, hell he called him his reason! But maybe I’m just a little frustrated at their romance being treated as a crux of the show instead of one important thread in a whole woven tapestry of themes and relationships. Again this isn’t dunking on anyone for making fluffy content because I will be sitting here gobbling that up, it’s just more of a... Vent at the way relationships are viewed in general? A bit of a “Funny, you criticise the prioritising of romantic relationships over all other kinds but yet you partake in the writing of non-relevant fluff fics!” I know, but there’s absolutely a place for them because they’re Good I think I just feel like they shouldn’t be the overwhelm if that makes sense? Even some of the stuff I’ve said here now that I look back doesn’t even really apply to jmart specifically so it’s more just. throwing my thoughts at a wall and using jmart to understand some of it I guess. 

#My Post #I am unsure what im saying really. i need sleep perhaps #when i read this tomorrow it'll be NONSENSE wont it

[jackoshadows]

What are your thoughts on Jon-Bran-Tyrion & their relationship in TWoW & ADoS?

I have read that in GRRM original-idea [?] Jon was to rival Tyrion [because of their love over Arya] as well as Bran for the sake of Northern Power [& Arya apparently too, but not in the same sense??]

[No idea what Bran & Tyrion's relationship was suppose to/could look like, don't think GRRM has mention smth]

That being said, I can get behind Tyrion vs Jon, alright. But Jon vs Bran? How is that suppose to look like/work?

Even if we ignore that they think of each other fondly & miss each other, and that I don't see a reason why this would change all of a sudden... Or that Jon will likely gain the support of the North in TWoW, since he rather fit the "perfect image of an Lord", since he is a able-bodied, traditional [swords-] man, grown & proven as Leader/Lord Commander, has the same education as Robb did, is the eldest Son of Eddard, etc....

[Although I guess Lords like Manderly could prefer Rickon, so they can grap power as his custodian/regents? And the whole being-dead-but-not-anymore-&-what-about-the-oaths thing could be a little tricky & stuff😅] while Bran will likely remain longer behind the Wall, won't be able to rally allies & bannermen [Althouse I have read the speculation of Bran, The Blizzard and The Battle of Ice, my main concern is again the pacing:where Bran's plot seems on overdrive, while Jon's & all those around & in Winterfell are on hold in order for Bran to come back. It's the same problem for me with all those "speculations" about Dany & arriving way to early in Westeros] ...

But the thing that makes it so unbelievable for me is: the fricking age gap?! Put aside their feelings for each other, who is more likely to gain poltical support & all of that, Bran will be like 11 & Jon 18-19? Like... a rivalry between a elementary school student & a high school graduate? 😂🙊

I think for certain that there will be some kind of conflict between Jon and Tyrion. Them shaking hands on the Wall and calling each other friends is foreshadowing a friends to enemies arc, IMO.

As for Jon and Bran, it's hard to see this happening, but I am not ruling out the possibility - meaning that I won't be surprised if it happens. As you mentioned, a Jon/Bran rivalry/bitter estrangement was one of the major parts of the story in the original outline.

By the end of A Game of Thrones,------------------------------------- ---------------------------------g--------------- onto the iron throne with a bit----------------premature death, Bran sits free.--Yet his seat is hardly a comfortable one. In the North, Jon Snow is his bitter enemy. Beyond the narrow sea, Daenerys Stormborn prepares her invasion and on the far side of the Wall, the others are watching with cold dead eyes and gathering their strength.

Can this still happen? I think so. I have always said that GRRM likes his themes of dysfunctional families, conflict among family members and the human heart in conflict with itself and again, I don't see why the Starks should be the exception.

But I think it is a mistake to generalize about “the Westerlings,”  just as it would be to generalize about “the Lannisters.” Members of the same family have very different characters, desires, and ways of   looking at the world… and there are secrets within families as well.

GRRM SSM, May 01, 2001

The reason Sansa even exists as a character in the first place is because he wanted family conflict among the Starks.

Arya was one of the first characters created. Sansa came about as a total opposite b/c too many of the Stark family members were getting along and families aren’t like that.

Why would Jon and Bran have a rivalry? That I cannot speculate on, yet. We still have a lot of story to cover. But in the next book, my speculation is that both Jon and Bran would have changed a lot.

Bran is the current Lord of Winterfell/Heir to the North/Robb's Heir and King in the North. Robb's decree legitimizing Jon Stark could be a possible issue between them.

GRRM has said that death and resurrection changes a person and Jon is going to be spending time in a wolf. A resurrected Jon Snow coming back more wolfish and more hungry. Remember this?

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger … he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought. - Jon, ASoS

GRRM ties in his desire for Winterfell to a deep hunger that then connects to Ghost - his hunger for Winterfell intermingling with Ghost's hunger...

Remember the kings in the North of yore, like Ice Eyes. I doubt Jon Stark is going to hold back much. He's going to be doing some really messed up stuff.

Meanwhile, Bran's heavily involved in the magical stuff beyond the wall. Has connections to Bloodraven, the Children of the forest, can influence timelines (Hodor), unearth past truths and will be one of the most powerful greenseers. Blood sacrifice and human sacrifice is a big part of the dark magic of the north. Maybe they fight over how to defeat the Others? I think Bran's connection to the children of the forest is how they win again this time around - and his relationship with Jon suffers because of that?

Bran ends up King on the Iron Throne and Jon Snow ends up in the lands beyond the wall - just the opposite of what we would expect for these two characters considering where they are now and what we know of them (R+L=J) etc. How does this happen?

Anyways, according to GRRM, TWoW is a very dark book and if there is a Jon-Bran rivalry, we may see the seeds of it being planted in this book.

There are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I’m writing,” he said during a Q&A at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, according to Entertainment Weekly. “It is called The Winds of Winter, and I’ve been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places.”

This is why I find all the Dark!Dany stuff slightly hilarious. Is Dany going to do things that go against the Geneva conventions (lol) in the next book? Yeah, I think so. She is going to come back from her sojourn at Vaes Dothrak and be like I have had it with these effing slavers and go all Aegon the Conqueror on them (About time I say, she should have done it a while ago). But I am pretty damn sure most of our characters are going to become darker in the next book. Tyrion is already on a downward spiral, Jon will surely go on a rampage against the Boltons, Bran most probably eating Jojen paste over there and learning dark magic, getting taught by Bloodraven, Sansa participating in the slow poisoning of her little cousin in the Vale and have you read Arya's Mercy chapter? That stuff is dark.

As for the rest, I think we should ignore the age gap like GRRM is planning on doing ( GRRM sees his young people as adults anyway - "Arya has the experiences of a 40 year old, If a 12 year old has to conquer the world then so be it" etc.) and I do think he will include some time gaps in the next two books allowing for travel etc. I am pretty sure Arya will end the books at 14.

Bran, Dany and Arya's plots have to be in overdrive in the next book out of necessity. Bran has to advance a lot in his plot, be used to build up the Others as a big threat, give us more info about the Children, Bloodraven, what is actually happening, Hodor etc. - there's just so much stuff here that GRRM has to write. Same with Dany. Dany has to wind up in Meereen, land in Westeros and start her campaign. Same with Arya. I think that's why they will get the most chapters, and time in the next book.

#Jon Snow #Bran Stark #TWoW speculation #ADoS speculation #asoiaf

[prettyoddfever]

reasons why I loved this Live 105 morning show:

Spencer cut his own hair the day before & it looked fine!

the guys had to wake up super early in the middle of the NRWC tour & were exhausted (they were in Pacific Time too). Brendon’s voice sounded all tired/groggy for the first few lines... and was kind of a mess in general ha.

JWalk shared that he & Brendon sang their way through the Aladdin soundtrack together the first time they met.

most of the Q&A stuff was the same old tired questions, but Bden seemed like he was returning to normal & was happier so it was just fun to watch them talk.

SPENCER GOT TO JOIN IN! sometimes he sat & watched acoustic sets or didn’t even show up.

the never-ending spinal tap references haha

Bden’s wearing the scarf that a fan in the book club knit for him (it was originally for Jon but he had taken Ryan’s so they all kind of switched).

Jon Walker smelled like Christmas.... and then every fangirl went and bought out Bath & Body Work’s supply of “sensual amber” to go with their vanilla deodorant lol 

#Nothingrhymeswithcircus

[yellowocaballero]

how exactly is jon antagonist coded tho (if u wanna talk about it idk)

I mean, he did end the world! That’s a thing that happened!

Jajklsdf the podcast is basically the story of how one guy loses his humanity, gains eldritch powers, and then ends the world. He spends Season 1 very hostile, Season 2 in a paranoia-fueled mental breakdown where he stalks his coworkers to their homes, Season 3 rapidly gaining more and more evil powers, and Season 4 hunting people down and feeding off them. 

He’s not actually the antagonist, obviously - becoming a monster and ending the world wasn’t his fault, or his choice. He consistently makes the choice not to hurt people, to reduce the amount of harm he’s doing - but he’s in a terrible situation, and sometimes in a terrible situation you have to pick between bad and worse options. In his coma, he could either choose to die or he could choose to wake up a monster, and he chose to wake up. But from the outside, to the people around him, the people who are more ‘traditionally’ heroic - like, say, Tim or Daisy - Jon is absolutely the villain who needs to be put down before he hurts anyone else.

Jon is the villain of a lot of people’s stories. I’d say that in a more conventional story, he’s the sympathetic lancer to the big bad who you think is the most evil person ever in S1, but as time goes on you see that the big bad is controlling him and that the big bad’s the real evil as there’s a power creep. In Jon’s own story, however, he is a victim. In TMA, he is a victim - which is probably the most objectively correct way to view it. 

Still, this is another fun thing to mess around with, and I really enjoy making Jon the ‘antagonist’ in a lot of my stuff for this reason. Human Relations is basically the story of the hero realizing that the villain is more complicated than she thought, that maybe the villain and the victim is the same, and trying to untangle those threads as she fights her own encroaching inhumanity. BBC also played very heavily with Jon as the villain, and him embracing that role in order for him to get what he wanted - his friends alive and safe. TCF has a Jon who is the intrepid detective hero of his own story and the villain of absolutely EVERYBODY else’s, and contrasting him against the YA Protagonist kids and the objectively heroic Sasha James (there’s a lot of messing around with role in that story, which is why I played with the intrepid noir detective thing so much). MATDB has him actually absolutely act as the narrative villain, who was driven to that point by the crime of loving and caring too much. It’s fun!

Thanks for the q!

#jon's the bad guy in almost everything i write just because that's how the narrative of TMA tends to treat him #and also because i enjoy writing amoral monstrous people who eventually make the decision to be good people! #my writing

[aboutcaseyaffleck]

Actor Casey Affleck Reflects On The Past And 'The World To Come'

The last time I saw Casey Affleck was after an 8:30 a.m. Sundance Film Festival screening of “Manchester by the Sea,” which left my colleagues and I so emotionally drained we were pretty much useless for the rest of the day. Affleck finds this very funny. “Oh man, that’s awesome,” he laughs. “That was a tough screening. At Sundance I’m usually just going to sleep at 8 a.m.” We’re talking on the phone a few days after the festival’s virtual premiere of his latest movie, “The World to Come,” which made its Sundance debut last month under very different circumstances. “It’s so strange doing these things sitting in front of your computer,” he sighs.

Directed by Mona Fastvold, “The World to Come” is a powerful period piece about a forbidden love affair between pioneer women played by Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby, set in upstate New York during the early months of 1856. Affleck produced the picture, in which he plays a supporting role as Waterston’s uncomprehending husband, and he did his best to soldier through a crowded Zoom Q&A after the Sundance screening, with results pleasant enough, but nonetheless missing that in-person festival magic. “I used to love going to film festivals and talking to journalists and seeing all the movies and talking to other filmmakers,” he laments. “Sitting here alone in a little office in my house is such a drag. But it was nice to know that the movie was getting seen, at least.”

While big brother Ben plays Batman in studio pictures, Casey has exhibited a restless independent streak ever since he was a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. (Our ninth-grade classes competed against each other in the Mass. High School Drama Guild Competition. His won, perhaps unsurprisingly.) A longtime friend of the Brattle Theatre and former creative advisor for the Independent Film Festival Boston, the younger Affleck has always seemed more at home in indies. Not a lot of actors would follow an Oscar-winning role in “Manchester by the Sea” with a microbudget art film like “A Ghost Story.” But then his internalized, minimalist acting style is often at odds with the concerns of contemporary blockbusters. There’s a weird dissonance watching something like Disney’s hokey Chatham sea adventure “The Finest Hours,” with Affleck going full Montgomery Clift while surrounded by CGI silliness.

“The World to Come” is the most ambitious project yet from Affleck’s Sea Change Media, which partnered with Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon’s legendary NYC indie institution Killer Films for the arduous production that began with a conversation between Affleck and novelist Ron Hansen nearly a decade ago. “When I did ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ I got to know Ron Hansen, just because I loved the book so much. Ron has a very unique talent for writing 19th century language. He’s just from another era. I asked him if he had something he wanted to work on together, and I thought he would send me one of his things. Instead, he sent me this story by Jim Shepard. It was beautiful. I said, why don’t you and Jim write the script? And they took about six years, but it came together beautifully. Good things come to those who wait, I guess.”

The film eventually shot in Romania with a break built into the schedule to accommodate the changing seasons that are so crucial to the movie’s rugged, outdoor textures. “We were way out in Transylvania, out in the mountains,” Affleck explains. “We were just in some valley and they built a couple of farmhouses. I like being far away in a new place. It makes you feel outside of your life. And I love working in weather. There are so many aspects of moviemaking that are artificial, but when there’s extreme weather, it’s real. I did this Disney movie about a boat rescue, and it was, like, December in friggin’ Quincy and they were just soaking us with water every single take. There’s not a lot that you have to quote-unquote act. You’re just standing there, teeth-chattering, shivering, just being.” This reminds me of the scene in “Manchester” when he and Lucas Hedges have an argument walking in the blistering cold and can’t remember where they parked. “I forgot about that one,” he laughs.

I’d never say so on the phone, but I consider Affleck’s performance as Lee Chandler in “Manchester by the Sea” among the finest I’ve seen in my 22 years of reviewing films, worthy of discussion alongside Brando’s Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront” in its aching, inchoate longing. Lee holds his grief somewhere very private and dear, as if to begin to forgive himself would be an act of betrayal. The movie nails a gruff, emotional constipation popular among men of a certain stripe, especially in New England. (My mother offered my favorite review of the film: “Why don’t they just talk to each other? Jesus, this is like watching you and your father.”) Words don’t come easily to most of Affleck’s movie characters, but he chafes at the description of them as inarticulate. “It’s funny, I find the characters in ‘Manchester’ to be sometimes very articulate,” he argues. “There’s misunderstandings, but they end up communicating what’s inside.”

“The World to Come” is rife with such mixed signals and miscommunications, about which co-star Katherine Waterston raved during the Zoom Q&A after the Sundance screening. “It was so much fun to play the scenes with Casey,” she said. “A lot of these scenes are written as dances, where somebody tries to reach out and engage and they’re misunderstood. Inarticulacy is a very interesting thing to see in film. The failed attempts. Failed communications. It’s actually fun to play those things. You don’t know what the other person’s going to throw at you. It keeps it really alive on set. Mona and I felt if we had the money we could have kept shooting this thing for months, because the scenes were so much fun to explore.”

Affleck agrees. “When Katherine’s character writes in her journal or she starts talking to Vanessa, they have this beautiful, expressive way of speaking to each other,” he enthuses, whereas his character “says what he’s gotta say in as few words as possible. He’s very brusque and curt, which I enjoyed. The way that he talks is the communication equivalent when he gives her a birthday gift of sardines and a tin of raisins.”

Indeed, her increasingly florid diary entries — originally intended as a ledger to keep track of the farm’s monthly expenses — become the heartbeat of the film, providing an emotional release otherwise suppressed by the rigid formality of the era and the ugly drudgery of day-to-day farm life. “The World to Come” is ultimately a movie about the need to share our stories, and how through telling them we make sense of ourselves. As producer Koffler explains in the press notes, “Part of the film’s vision is to dramatize a very basic human impulse: to create, to connect, to say ‘I was here, and I mattered.’”

This has become a recurring theme in Affleck’s recent work. In 2019, he wrote, directed and starred in “Light of My Life,” a little-seen but strikingly tense post-apocalyptic road movie about a father and daughter hiding out in the wilderness after a pandemic has wiped out most of the women in the world. The film begins with Affleck telling the little girl a bedtime story that runs almost 13 minutes and sneakily sets up the movie’s major themes. Then in last month’s well-acted but regrettably soggy “Our Friend,” he starred as real-life journalist Matthew Teague, whose soul-baring Esquire story about his wife’s struggle with cancer became a national phenomenon.

“Matt Teague wrote that article and then wanted it made into a movie as his way of processing everything that had happened,” the actor elaborates. “You transform pain into other things as you go through life. That was all him working through it. I like stories about storytellers and I like stories within stories. Obviously, I wrote and directed a movie that starts with a 12-minute bedtime story. I love that. I know that other people don’t love it as much as I do, so I have to be careful about it.”

That kind of love led to last summer’s “Stories From Tomorrow,” a project initiated during lockdown by Affleck and his schoolteacher mom Christine, encouraging children to send in poems and short stories to be read on social media by celebrities like Matt Damon and Jon Hamm, as well as his “The World to Come” co-stars Waterston and Kirby. “That was something I started out at the very beginning of the quarantine as a small project to encourage kids to write creatively, because I know it can be a great way of processing anxiety and working through feelings that you aren’t really talking about or aren’t aware that you’re having. It wasn’t something I thought would go on forever; once the kids are back in school that ought to be where they should be doing all that kind of work. But while they were sitting at home, I thought it would be a good way to get their attention off the awful news and into something more imaginative. And I also got a chance to read all these super-cool stories! Really creative stuff that kids sent from all around the world.”

Finally, as a Boston publication it would be dereliction of duty not to mention the hysterical Dunkin Donuts commercial parody from when Affleck hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2016, so dead-on in its depiction of a local 'regulah customah' that on one of my critics’ poll ballots that year I tried to nominate the sketch for Best Documentary. Alas, the performer shoots down a pet theory I’ve been hanging onto ever since, that the dirtbag Boston guy in the Bruins hat is secretly a grown-up version of Affleck’s scene stealing, bug-swallowing Morgan from “Good Will Hunting.”

“I hadn’t thought about that, dude. That’s really funny. It never crossed my mind." He pauses before confiding, "I wasn’t that great on SNL… I just wasn’t all that funny on the skits, because it’s live and you’re reading the cue cards and it was my first time. But when we went to make that little pre-recorded short film of the Dunkin’ Donuts ad, I really felt like that was my wheelhouse there. I could’ve played that character in a movie. I could have gone to work and played him every single day, and I would have had a blast. That was really fun to do. I would love to do another one of those. That would be funny to see that character again.”

I bet that guy’s got some stories.

“The World To Come” is now in theaters and will be available via video on demand Tuesday, March 2.

[source]

#casey affleck #the world to come #quote #photo #movies

[tabloidtoc]

People, September 28

Cover: A Killer in the Woods and a Teen’s Brave Escape 

Page 3: Chatter -- Demi Lovato on getting engaged to Max Ehrich after four months together, John Legend joking about expecting a third child with his wife Chrissy Teigen, Kelly Clarkson on moving on after filing for divorce in June, Keith Urban on wife Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry on struggling to get roles after her 2002 Oscar win, Jennifer Garner responding to a commenter who’d asked if she was pregnant on Instagram 

Page 4: 5 Things We’re Talking About This Week -- Golden Girls gets an all-Black reimagining, Rick Moranis makes a comeback for an ad with Ryan Reynolds, Keeping Up with the Kardashians goes kaput, Franzia introduces a boxed-wine backpack 

Page 6: Contents 

Page 8: StarTracks -- Naomi Osaka won the U.S. Open final and sported face masks honoring Black people who have been victims of racial violence 

Page 9: Mariah Carey styling daughter Monroe’s hair, Shakira showed off a bikini she designed, Kate Hudson wore a cute cat face mask while she did some shopping at Palisades Village 

Page 10: Stars’ Best Friends -- Dua Lipa and Anwar Hadid walked their new pup Dexter in West Hollywood, Dennis Quaid was all smiles when he met a rescue pup on the set of Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family, Hugh Jackman strolled through N.Y.C. with his dogs Allegra and Dali, Ryan Reynolds wished his dog a happy birthday, PLEASE ADOPT, DON’T SHOP 

Page 11: Tom Brady’s first game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in New Orleans, Russell Dickerson and wife Kailey welcomes their first child Remington Edward, Bethenny Frankel during a surf lesson in the Hamptons 

Page 12: Royals Back Out & About -- Camilla Duchess of Cornwall visited the Medical Detection Dogs training center where trials are underway to determine if dogs can detect COVID-19, newlywed Princess Beatrice stepped out for a shopping trip in London as her husband waited in the car nearby, Prince William attended a Police Service of Northern Ireland Wellbeing Volunteer Training course in Belfast 

Page 15: Scoop -- Katie Holmes’ hot new romance with Emilio Vitolo Jr. 

Page 16: When they announced their split The Bachelor’s Colton Underwood and Cassie Randolph said they’d remain friends but that is decidedly not the case -- Cassie was granted a restraining order against Colton claiming he showed up unannounced outside her Southern California home and placed a tracking device on her car

Page 17: Tyra Banks takes charge on Dancing with the Stars 

Page 18: Heart Monitor -- Lily Allen and David Harbour just married, Justin and Hailey Bieber happy anniversary, Jacob Elordi and Kaia Gerber new couple

Page 20: Tenet’s John David Washington on fame and family and a bold new movie, Baby Boom -- Alec and Hilaria Baldwin, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester 

Page 21: Kate Gosselin accuses Jon Gosselin of abuse 

Page 22: Passages, Why I Care -- after losing her brother to leukemia when they were kids Cindy Crawford is raising awareness about pediatric cancer 

Page 23: Diana Rigg 1938-2020 

Page 24: Stories to make you smile 

Page 27: People Picks -- Ratched 

Page 28: Micky Guyton -- Bridges, Q&A with Chris Messina

Page 29: Blackbird, Unpregnant 

Page 30: The Devil All the Time, Long Way Up 

Page 31: Antebellum 

Page 32: Books 

Page 34: Cover Story -- Terror in the Woods -- Jack Gershman and his dad Ari were off-roading in a California forest when they stopped to get their bearings and a stranger opened fire -- Ari was murdered and Jack escaped into the wilderness running for his life 

Page 40: Willie Nelson and his sister Bobbie Nelson -- she’s still my closest friend -- in a new book the country star and his sibling and longtime musical collaborator look back on their tragedies and triumphs 

Page 45: Regina King -- all hail the king! -- the winner of 3 Emmys and an Oscar just directed her first film and is loving every minute of being on top 

Page 48: Tragedy on the West Coast -- it’s like the end of the world -- unprecedented wildfires in California and Oregon and Washington turn millions of acres into ash forcing thousands to flee and choking the region with toxic smoke 

Page 52: Pauly Shore -- still crazy after all these years -- the ‘90s comedy star survived a career implosion and coped with private grief and now at 52 he’s ready to be his goofy self again 

Page 56: Lady Gaga and her mom Cynthia Germanotta -- how we healed our relationship -- the star and her mother’s new book Channel Kindness was inspired by their own journey from trauma to understanding 

Page 58: Gabourey Sidibe -- you’re lucky to have me -- the actress is feeling some serious swagger these days with a new movie and a live-in love and a blessed career turn 

Page 60: The Home Edit founders Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer -- building an empire organizing stars’ stuff -- two Nashville moms had the idea that getting rid of clutter could be fun and pretty and now they’re celebrity gurus and TV stars 

Page 65: The It Gets Better Project: 10 Years Later -- I learned how to really live -- as a closeted LGBTQ teen Lark Doolan contemplated taking his own life and now as an openly trans man he reflects on the video series that helped him find hope 

Page 68: Kim Cattrall -- finding joy in letting go -- the former Sex and the City star is back on TV with a hot new show and ready to move on from the past 

Page 70: Coronavirus in America -- back to school -- as the pandemic continues to claim lives parents and students and teachers and administrators around the nation share their hopes and fears for this strange new school year 

Page 74: Country singer Lauren Alaina -- single and stronger than ever -- following two painful breakups the country star is embracing independence after healing her heart 

Page 76: The Fall family survival guide 

Page 81: Melanie Griffith -- what my life’s really like -- the actress opens up about finding balance and staying friends with her exes and managing all this group texting 

Page 82: Style -- it’s time to update your underwear drawer 

Page 87: Second Look -- Evan Rachel Wood and Gina Rodriguez in Kajillionaire 

Page 88: One Last Thing -- Ziggy Marley -- the Grammy winner and dad of seven is releasing a new kids’ album

#tabloid toc #tabloidtoc #jack gershman #willie nelson #bobbie nelson #regina king #pauly shore #lady gaga #gabourey sidibe #get organized with the home edit #joanna teplin #clea shearer #the it gets better project #lark doolan #kim cattrall #coronavirus #lauren alaina #melanie griffith #ziggy marley #katie holmes #emilio vitolo jr. #colton underwood #cassie randolph #tyra banks #john david washington #kate gosselin #jon gosselin #cindy crawford #diana rigg #chris messina

[echo-inthevoid]

Season 2 q&a and overall reaction

Jonny stealing everyone's names XD 

Is martin going to be ok!? I also need to know! 

He said no;-; 

ok ya, no one's gonna be ok. 

Ya, he must do sooo much research. 

Ya, except for "fatigue" lol.

Eyyy the mechanisms!! 

What's the red string brigade? Ok, I guess a group of fans theorizing about stuff. 

Oh ok so someone else did martins poetry. Ooh, there's more martin poetry out there! *grabby hands*

Ok ya, Alex clarifying that Jon isn't stupid he just makes poor decisions. Probably if he'd paused and thought about it (like I did lol, I had to go do some stuff in the middle of that ep and thought about it a whole bunch lol) instead of immediately going out and buying an axe and further isolating himself and panicking immediately he probably would have figured it out. This is why it's bad to panic in a crisis guys. 

Eyyy! Jonny's parents voiced Gertrude and Leitner! That's so cool. 

XD Jonny grumbling about having to work with his parents. 

Hmm, I hadn't really thought of Gertrude being like a mother figure in the story? She just seems very cut-throat I guess from what Leitner said. Idk so far I've been very suspicious of her. Especially since that one statement where her photo burned a whole bunch of people or something. She just seems very shady... 

Alex chortling over Jonny's pain. XD

Side note, Every time there's a q&a I just can't stop noticing Jonny's voice going in and out of archivist range? Like most of the time I'm just listening along and then he'll say a sentence a bit grumblier and my brains immediately like "ARCHIVIST! That's THE ARCHIVIST!!" 

Martin would be the last one alive in Friday the 13th! It's official! 

(Is it bad that this gives me hope)

Jon likes Nonfiction, documentaries, and probably collects something just a little bit weird. *writes down for use in potential fics* 

also while im at it I remember jon saying he dislikes coffee at one point,  and so many people have him liking coffee in their fics! This has been your daily reminder of that fact because ever since then it keeps bugging me lol. (But also do whatever u want.)

Alex's spluttering sounds so much like Martin.

Yes!! I want to hear jon sing!! Yes! Musical Episode When!!?

Ah yes yes yes! All the characters are so unique!!? How does he do it!! 

Ya, it being in audio format sometimes makes it hard to understand what's happening in the live-action bits. (Live-action is the wrong word but u know what I mean.)

Oh ok ya, how he mentioned he got a pipe was quite clever I didn't realize that that's why he mentioned it at all. 

Ooh, there's a manga where there's something similar to Michael? I'll have to look that up later...

XD Alex and Jonny arguing about apples. 

Ok, so all the statements we're hearing ARE for reals. I kinda assumed but good to have it confirmed.

They used to hang out together!!? Work function curry nights!! ;-; 

Ya Ya! Who made the leitners!?

"You are assuming a book needs to be written" ...ok then. (but it has to have been created somehow??? Did they just spring fully formed from the powers? why? And why take the form of books?)

Alex's mischievous laugh about whether jon has friends *trembles in fear*

Yes!! Micheal is so good! I'm so happy they love him too! Yesyes! His laugh! 

Ah Yes!! Mary kaey was so creepy! 

XD yes yes yes fatigue was written on zero sleep, I knew it! 

Akskdjdkd I love them so much. Also, I've looked up Michaels voice actor luke booys and he does some other horrory type sketches n stuff and I kiiinda want to do a little animatic with some of those but it's Michael like annoying some poor soul lost in his halls... I think that'd be fun. I wonder if anyone's done that yet? If so someone send me the links I neeeed iiitt :3

Season 2 summary:

Uuuuu ya so this season was really good. I kinda listened to it in bursts of about ten episodes every couple weeks and then have been saving up the reactions to post later so these are usually going up about a week or so after I actually listened to the episode just FYI. 

I also do have a lot of spoilers cause I can't keep myself away from fanfic and people don't always tag for spoilers and I kiiinda wana know what's coming beforehand anyway? Idk it's hard man I get very stressed about what might happen and then also listening to too much at a time is too spooky for my poor little heart so I gotta read the less spooky fanfic to fulfill the hyperfixation you see. (If anyone has fanfic with spoilers only up to season 2 that'd be great btw) 

Anyway, I try not to take spoiler type stuff into account unless I'm just so sure of it I can't really not acknowledge that I know about it. 

Also, can I just talk about Michael for a minute?? Cause he's such a unique character? And I guess maybe there are other characters like him but I haven't ever seen one -tho to be fair tma is only like the third horror thing I've ever really got into (the other two are the SCP Foundation in its various forms and Little Nightmares. Hence why I keep making reference to SCP it's really the only thing I know similar to this.) But he's such a cool concept!!? Like someTHING that still has a personality? He's so not human? Like I get what he says but also I don't really? Idk im pretty sure he's an avatar right? Right?? Idk if that means he was a person at some point? But all this to say that he is probably the most inhuman character I've come across so far and I'm trying to figure out what it is about him that's so "other" to me? Like... I don't really know what Micheal's deal is? he seems to want to be sort of a neutral mischief-maker but also it seems like he keeps getting invested. But also I just love the way he talks about himself. Like he's a monster that has a personality and is fully intelligent but isn't just evil but isn't neutral either and certainly isn't benevolent. Like he's so complex and just,,,, the idea of a "thing" that's got a personality?? I love it? Kind of like dryads or spirits of things? Like the idea that after a long time things gain personality just by existing? Not that that's what Michael is necessarily? but that same sort of concept applies to him I think. Like the way he IS the maze and wants to help but wants to just watch but wants to kill them all. He's just so interestinggggggg. (And another vision of what jon could become?)

 also "es Mentiras" is a beautiful name 💕

So are him and not-Sasha avatars? Not-Sasha also seems completely inhuman and I was under the impression that avatars were (or used to be) human? Or are they like personifications of their power? Do all the powers have personifications of themselves. not-Sasha seems even less human than Michael? Like she seems to just really genuinely enjoy causing fear? Tho I guess we didn't really get to hear a lot of her. She just seemed kinda gleefully angry most of the time we heard from her. Was she... Human once!???

Anyway. Also, can I just talk about leitners line about jon belonging to the eye!!? Just..*chefs kiss* hnnnngg I need more jon grappling with that. I just need more everyone dealing with the fallout post all of the finallies ok? I still need more of jon angsting over his worms scars and stuff and now I also need jon freaking out about belonging to a fear god power thing. 

Also Martin! Is Martin ok? He sure did a lot of yelling which he doesn't usually? Look I love him and he actually thinks before he acts (unlike SOME people *looks at jon*) and he writes poetry and it is pretty good poetry ok!! And he cares about everyone and just wants a happy ending and aaaaa😭

Petition to get some statements from Martin's pov tho? I mean that's not gonna happen cause Jon's the archivist but I want more martin pov!! Maybe we can get some of his poem tapes??? Pls????? 

I feel so bad for Tim. It sounds like he's kinda fallen into despair.

Also Elias!!? Is showing his spooky side!!? He can control cameras and beat a man to death with a pipe!!? This is his "place of powerr"!!? I am afeared!!? At least jon knows he shouldn't trust him now. Oh jeez, I wonder if jon will listen back to the tape and know what happened. Thhhatsss rough. Oh dear, I hope he doesn't feel guilty cause Leitner did keep trying to hurry him and now everyone thinks it was him. Even martin thinks he did it? Wich like I kinda want to hear more of his thoughts on that? How much does he believe that jon did it? Tim certainly seems pretty certain but he's a bit biased and cynical right now so. 

And they were in the maze for DAYS? 

Now I need martin recovering from being stuck with Tim in Michaels maze for days being angry and worried and hungry etc... Dksjdksa knowing jon could be dying RIGHT NOW and there's nothing he can do. Please someone give me the fic links if this exists!! I've already written like 5 drabbles based entirely on spoilers/other fics (which I'll probably post (w/ links to their inspirations) once I'm caught up and can make sure I'm not just completely demolishing cannon lol. 

Leitner didn't even scream or yell or anything when he was murdered. Literally the chillest dude ever. F

Overall super great, Elias is terrifying, let's dive into the next season!!! I've got 2 seasons to finish in like, less than 2 or so weeks(?) if I wana be caught up by season 5 hhhh,,,

Better get started I guess. 

#tma #tma lb #tma liveblog #liveblogging #tma season 2 #season 2 #season 2 q&a #season 2 finale #the magnus archives

[onestowatch]

Conjuring the Magic of Youth, bloody white Opens Up About the“first time” [Premiere + Q&A]

Photos: Brighton Galvan

As we grow older, the memories of our youth begin to fade and with it, our recollection of what it was like to experience the peaks and valleys of life for the first time. Yet through music, we can relive those experiences and re-remember the exact feelings associated with most formative moments of our youth.

For 20-year-old, artist, songwriter, producer and mixing & mastering engineer bloody white, the trials and tribulations of youth are sitting at his doorstop, much of which are still packaged by the unknown. The Santa Barbara-based wunderkind began tinkering with beats at age 11, moving on to write fully crafted songs in his teens. Self-taught in his childhood bedroom, bloody is a rarity in the music industry, as he not only writes and performs his music, but produces, mixes and masters his work as well.

Cutting through the noise with break out single “tongue tied” earlier this year, bloody’s unique blend of anti-pop, punk, electronic and lo-fi hip hop allows for an active listening experience, one that is both intriguing and magically captivating. Fresh on the horizon with new music just around the corner, bloody releases the next single “first time” off his debut EP you’d walk right over me, due Sept. 9. 

A song chronicling his first intimate experience with a girl he truly loved, bloody outlines the profound impact the encounter made on him musing, "First time, / I could hardly move / It’s like the first time / And I don’t know what to do / And you just pause time, And you lose yourself inside my breath.”  

Sonically he plays with an amalgamation of sounds and the juxtaposition of heavy and light percussion, mirroring the vulnerable yet explosive sentiment attached to his experience. Highly emotive in his vocal performance, bloody reminds us all of what it’s like to express love for the first time. Accompanied by home-video stylized video, edited by Jay Seba, bloody creates a distinct feeling of nostalgia, featuring moments captured from his everyday life during this very unique period in his life.  

We had the chance to catch up with bloody white on a range of subjects from his first experiences with music to the grappling with mental health, a subject that has become the crux of his upcoming debut. Read on below…

Ones to Watch: Where does your story with music begin?

bloody white: I’ve been listening to music since before I can remember, just hearing whatever my parents put on. But I really started to get into music when I got my first laptop and pirated as much Coldplay, Deadmau5, and Daft Punk as my hard drive could hold. I got really into EDM when Dubstep became a meme back in 2011-2012 and that set me on a path to learning production.  But it wasn’t until later that I began to write lyrics and sing over my instrumentals.

Where do you see that story ending?

I really don’t think it’ll ever end.  Even if in the future i’m not making as much music, I’ll always be a fan of other artists.  

What is your favorite and least favorite part of the solo creation process?  

My favorite part would have to be building the instrumental from the ground up.  To me, nothing really comes close to getting lost in the creation of an instrumental. My least favorite part is definitely mixing/mastering.  It just isn’t as creatively fulfilling as the earlier stages of the song creation, but maybe i just need to learn to be more patient.

You can only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what is it?

That’s a really good question. If i absolutely had to pick, it’d be ‘The Definition’ by Jon Bellion

What was the inspiration behind your newest single “first time”?  

The inspiration came from me reflecting on the first time I had sex with a girl that i was in love with, and how drastically different it felt from any other personal experience up to that point.  I’ve had a lot of firsts in my life so far, but that one was unlike anything else.

Tell us about the making of the song’s home-made visual companion and what the significance of going the home-video style was for you?  

The process was pretty laid back: just bringing a camera with me whenever I went out for a couple months and capturing as much of myself and my friends as I could before it got annoying.  As far as the home-video style, I just really like how tape camera footage looks aesthetically and of course there’s also a comforting nostalgic element to it as well. 

Your debut EP ‘you’d walk right over me‘ covers such subjects as suicidal thoughts and addiction. Can you tell us about your personal experience with mental health?    

Yeah, I mean I’ve struggled with bouts of pretty severe OCD since I was a kid and was never really sure what was causing them. And by the time I got into high school I was totally consumed with obsessive thoughts and strange compulsions, which made everyday life quite tedious and difficult.  I would have panic attacks multiple times a day and have trouble focusing on anything but my thoughts.  My four years in high school were pretty rough because of that, but having been through all of that, I was slowly able to start recognizing useless thought patterns and dig myself out of the hole I was in. So, thankfully i’m in a much much better place than i was several years ago.

Can you tell us about a time of significant pain in your life that transformed into strength?  

I think all of high school was pretty difficult due to my mental illness and self destructive behaviors, but if i hadn’t gone through any of that I don’t think I’d be able to understand myself or relate to people the way i do now.

If you could give the younger you one piece of advice, what would that be?

Don’t be a dick to yourself.

Who are your Ones to Watch?  

There’s this dude I found on Soundcloud that goes by JKuch who’s been putting out some really innovative stuff.  I don’t know what genre he’d fit in to but that’s probably part of why I like him so much.  Great voice, insane production and overall just makes killer tracks. And if you’re just looking for some grimy beats there’s this guy that goes by Yojas. on soundcloud.  Dude makes some of the craziest hip hop/trap beats I’ve ever heard. Highly recommend.  

Check out the video for “first time” below! 

#bloody white #first time #pop #alt #electronic #interview

[sasharacket]

Thoughts on the relisten.

We need to stop woobifying Martin. I love him as much as the next person but dude was a passive aggressive, jealous little shit to people that definitely did not deserve it. It's entertaining and understandable, and absolutely delightful when certain bastards deserve it, but he is not as soft as we make him out to be and I need fic of the cutting edges. (I would like to make it clear that I live for soft fic. Just, I'll take sharp fic recommendations if you have them)

God, every single interaction between Jon and Georgie in her flat is gold. Jon instantly getting irritated on her behalf when she told him he didn't need to leave for her date is gold.

"Prove it" "What would you never willingly tell me?" "Your accent sounds fake as hell"

The 180° of Melanie's "god guys this job is fine and I'm staying, I'm not even going to try to leave" to "I'm going to murder this bastard for keeping me here" is fascinating.

Jon's sassing Jude will always be a highlight. "Yes, I understand, you could easily kill me, I'm at your mercy, blah blah blah"

I appreciate the official transcripts, but [MUFFLED FEELINGS] does not describe how vehement and clearly "fuck you" it is

Ah yes, the episode where I went from "ooooh Elias is an evil bastard I love him" to "Elias is an evil bastard and I would kill him myself"

....did they just imply that Julia listens to The Archers too? Cause "Hunters all listen to the same soap opera" is very funny.

Julia and Trevor's gentle ribbing of each other is so good.

111, the episode where the yelling officially caught my attention and made me start listening.

I'm just so sad that we only got one episode with Gerard snarking. I'd listen to an offshoot with his running around messing shit up. "I'm not their bloody Monster Manual"

Forgot the context of "like colors, but if colors hated me" I know it's going punch me in the gut and end terribly, it's still a funny show.

Jon's actively trying not to ask Tim questions and choosing to trust folks has been talked about before but it is still such good character development.

I know it's part of being a VA, but the ability to telegraph enough emotion with just your voice to conjure mental pictures of facial expressions is fascinating. Also, Jonny's flustered stutter is amazing.

I listened to 118 the first time while doing the dishes and basically dancing around the kitchen. It was great the first time and is great the third time too. I know earlier drops are WAY healthier for the crew, but I really miss evening drops. Getting to scramble to finish supper so I could listen while cleaning up.

Ok, relistening to the Q&As while I'm at it and the bit about needing to trust the show not to curve ball into uncomfortable/unsafe topics is EXACTLY why I thought I hated horror and now love this show (tbf, I listen to a ton of horror that I didn't realize it was horror because I felt safe)

"There hasn't been an Alex" there was and she died.

I want to be Georgie Barker when I grow up.

I'd be pretty mentally unsound myself if I had the shit beaten out of me 13 times in what? 2 years?

Ooooh! The clay episode that came out immediately after I finished a pottery clay and wigged me the fuck out at the timing.

The sound design when Jon says "Stop." in Heavy Goods? Amazing. The ....hum? leading up to it and then the high pitched whine after is just good stuff.

Ok, pandemic messed with my ability to think about this doc, so I just missed half a season.

Listened to Movement of the Heavens 4 days ago, then got a little over bouncy about Flamsteed in the Isaac Newton bio of A Brief History of Time tonight (tldr: Newton was a garbage man). I know it was pulled from fact, but recognizing names is always fun.

Concrete Jungle is still probably my favorite statement giver.

Why does Helen have Michael's laugh? Not the echo, that's the Spiral, but the little sigh at the end is Michael's. Before being taken. Kudos to Imogen for replicating it perfectly, but why is it a thing?

#i've been relistening since feb #with a schedule to finish 160 on tuesday and the trailer on wednesday right before the ep drops

[starwarshyperdrive]

I’m concerned about the Star Wars canon

I’ve always been a huge Star Wars fan but didn't follow the old EU (extended universe) because it was too convoluted and well.. a bunch of gobbledygook (granted there were some good bits in it, who doesn’t love the Thrawn trilogy even though he is pretty much a different character now), so I actually welcomed the new canon. Start over with a clean slate and make sure everything is connected, makes sense and feels Star Warsy. So far the story group has done a decent job, even though there were some questionable bits and pieces. As hardcore Star Wars fan and apologist I can force myself to get behind a lot of things and I was cool with the Bendu somehow, but the Clone Wars Mortis arc, as well as space whales and the world between worlds really rubbed me the wrong way. A lot of people are celebrating Dave Filoni as savior of the true Star Wars spirit and he is certainly an inspired artist and nice guy but I once again have to wonder whether or not some of the comic bookish stuff REALLY fits the Star Wars universe. Yeah I know ‘it’s a huge universe bla bla’ but do we really have to accept everything?

Someone recently described hardcore fans (such as myself) as a ‘cult’ and Star Wars Celebration to a religious ceremony and if I’m being honest and self-reflective I can’t really argue against it, but that’s also why you always need to check yourself and not just ‘swallow’ everything without questioning it. Keep a critical eye. Things like time travel and other super hero stuff ( I haven’t seen any of the recent Marvel or DC movies) have no place in Star Wars. Of course Star Wars is for everyone, but does that then also mean we need a Star Wars romcom, a Star Wars coming of age movie ..or ..?  I don’t know..porn? Leave that to fan fiction. 

Star Wars was always more about mythology, some sort of buddhist Excalibur and I am seriously concerned that at some point the ‘people in charge’ will forget that and it will become a shallow bubble gum entertainment focus on ‘what is selling at the moment’. A good example are - again - all the super hero movies picking up on trends. I don’t want a Thor Ragnarok Star Wars movie with a Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. Don’t make everything the same. Keep Star Wars unique. Keep ‘that Star Wars tone’.

‘XY doesn’t UNDERSTAND Star Wars’ is an overused and abused phrase and in so many ways pointless as there are many facets to Star Wars especially now that we have generations of fans who grew up with the prequels, the Clone Wars, Rebels or even Resistance - I should point out that I actually liked Resistance because it’s not tempering with the mythology - but the lore has been laid out in the original trilogy and everything needs to acknowledge that. We cannot have some Terminator-franchise kind of disaster a la ‘Ezra traveled back in time and actually was there with Yoda on Dagobah’ or what not. 

By now it’s common knowledge that - despite what they say - there has been no overall plan for the sequel trilogy, which is quite concerning and feeding into my concerns that it’s all downhill from here (after The Rise of Skywalker and the Mandalorian or course). I know a lot of people who vehemently defended The Last Jedi when it came out, mostly as a reaction to all the stupid hate it got for the wrong reasons and I am one of them myself, but most of them are admitting now that there is something off about the movie. It is written into a corner and not picking up on the clues given in The Force Awakens. It has some amazing scenes and I will keep defending it, but there are some scenes that just don’t feel right and leave a bad aftertaste. I frequently rewatch all the movies and besides Attack of the Clones it’s the only one where I think ‘Now I have to endure THAT bit again’. I go to a lot of Q&A and it’s interesting to see how people who have worked on the movie feel the same. Even if you 100% loved it and it’s your favorite movie ever, let’s be honest - the humor is completely out of place. Fart jokes in The Phantom Menace > Your Mom jokes. And it’s just too long. Of course we all want MORE Star Wars, but where does it end. Would you go and see a 6h movie? If you are a good filmmaker you should be able to say what you want to say in the same about of time as the other movies. But that’s just my personal 2 cents. It just felt like someone who was hellbent on doing his own thing for the sake of doing his own thing and not for the sake of the story. Don’t get me wrong. It was a great idea to (spoiler alert) kill off Snoke that casually, so the movie has redeeming qualities that save it for me. Then again, as a Star Wars fan I WANT to like it. I still watched it 13 times or so. I was in the room for the trailer reveal at SWCO. I want to take ownership and be part of the hardcore fan community, but they shouldn't bank too much on it. I still want a good movie. I’m not gonna be meek and mild about something contradicting the core mythology. Ryan Johnson is allegedly still doing his trilogy and then there is the Benioff and Weiss trilogy. They didn’t exactly do a great job wrapping up Game of Thrones and left fans in awe about how the show ended and have not really proven that they can handle a franchise well either. Will all off them have free rein and just go to town on a Star Wars story as they please? Am I the only one who finds this a bit odd?!

I trust JJ Abrams to do the right thing and I hope my trust is not misplaced. I think the allegations of The Force Awakens being a A New Hope reboot are misplaced as there are also a lot of similarities to The Phantom Menace, so.. if you’re a fan you know what comes next.. ‘it rhymes, it’s like poetry’. So it makes sense. So I think ‘he gets it’..

My main concern in the new canon overall. I made an effort to get all the publications of the new canon, but the books and comics already started to get weird again. Star Wars always had a slight alien but yet familiar vibe and some stories feature people smoking cigars, drinking coffee in the morning and doing other stuff never depicted in Star Wars before. How long until someone gets a Star Wars burger at Star Wars McDonalds or orders Star Wars pizza while watching Star Wars HoloNetflix. I’m sorry. That’s ridiculous. It’s not automatically Star Wars just because you use Star Wars terminology like death sticks or Nerf steaks. Watch the movies and make an effort.

 And now the novelizations of the movies are apparently not considered ‘hard canon’ anymore because the authors didn’t know the direction the next movies are going, so the clues and hints may be completely useless. So why do I force myself through some really not very good books then (others are great, no generalization here)? That’s quite alarming. Wasn’t the entire reason they got a story group to avoid that? What’s with all the loose ends?  That's also why I think they will shy away from using canon characters in the movies (for the most part). Its easier to have a self contained canon universe where you can introduce Purge Troopers in a comic and then have them in a video game. I once read an interview with one of the Star Wars authors who invented a character and then got told ‘give him that name / make him this person’ instead of having this particular character in mind from the start. This is how you lose consistency. I’m well aware that over hundreds and thousands of years that’s EXACTLY how ancient history was written, which is why there are flood legends all over the world and why Jesus and Mithras are pretty much the same person, but they DID NOT HAVE A STORY GROUP and ancient mythology hasn’t been written over a course of a few years.

At the same time it’s interesting how there seem to be purists who are very determined to bring that original Star Wars vibe back. Like Jon Favreau with The Mandalorian. And like I said earlier about Resistance. Its so much easier to do that if you stay away from the mythology. It’s really tricky and so much could go wrong. The stuff introduced in Rogue One like Guardians of the Whills and the temple of Kyber is a perfect example how it’s done. Some of the stuff in the Clone Wars and Rebels is the complete opposite, so I’m really curious to see how Dave Filonis involvement in The Mandalorian pans out. He is really great with stuff like Mandalorians, Clones and I even came to accept Ashoka after reading the book and seeing her all grown up as Fulcrum, but I’m very skeptical when it comes to his ‘mystical side of the force’ interpretations.

In conclusion I know that I sound like a preacher and George Lucas repeatedly stated it’s ‘just for 10 year old kids’ but tell that to all the dead Bothans.

Please just don’t ruin Star Wars.

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