#it's the only ship song to not be sung on tour in the history of ot btw | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

multimetaverse · 3 years

Text

HSMTMTS 2x12 Review

Second Chances was a lacklustre finale for an uneven season. Let’s dig in!

Earlier this week I re-watched S1 in preparation for the S2 finale and the contrast between the two seasons is jarring. In almost every way S2 has been worse and after seeing this finale I’m less optimistic that Tim will be able to fix the long list of things that have gone wrong. Tim has said in some of his interviews today that pretty much all of S2 was written before the pandemic and that they didn’t have to do as much re-writing as people might think due to the stringent safety measures Disney put in place. Of course, that removes an excuse for the bad writing we’ve seen so much of this season as according to Tim what we saw of S2 is largely what he envisioned minus big crowds and background dancers.

Across his many interviews today, the one consistent point is that Tim does not have any real plans for future seasons; things like Ricky’s endgame he hasn’t decided on and he can’t even guarantee the summer season the finale sets up due to the weather in Salt Lake. I do think a S3 is an almost certainty given the show’s popularity but I’ll take Tim at his word that he truly doesn’t know if they’ll be renewed since it seems to be a new Disney tradition to wait until seasons are done airing before making a renewal decision (the same thing happened for the popular and well received Mighty Ducks: Game Changers which got a silent renewal only after all of S1 aired). That being said as poor of a season finale as Second Chances is it is also a terrible potential series finale. In large part it goes back to his lack of planning, he wants to keep all options open but in doing so Tim is crippling the show’s ability to deliver any pay offs or tie up loose ends.

The one mostly well done plot line this season was Portwell which got a happy ending tonight as they canoned. The only good thing about the big brother angst was that it was so insane that it had to be addressed and sure enough it was and Gina got her first kiss with a guy she really liked. If Tim is to be believed the reason we didn’t get an on screen Portwell kiss was not because of their age difference or covid concerns but because he felt that everyone’s first kiss was different so he wanted it off screen so viewers could fill in the blanks themselves. Tim’s line of reasoning is profoundly stupid. Imagine if they had Jamie show up and he and Gina talked off screen and Tim tried to claim that because everyone has a different relationship with their own siblings that he wanted the audience to fill in the blanks as to how their conversation went!

Still we saw great character development on Gina and EJ’s part as both really grew from the people they were in S1. As Tim noted, EJ bringing Gina back in 1x10 was kind of the set up for this story line. The only thing missing was a brief Portwell scene sometime in eps 2x01-2x04 to set them up. The consistent development they got from 2x05-2x12 is unlike any other ship on the show; only Rini exceeds their development.

Unfortunately I don’t think that will last in S3 because Tim will always favour Ricky over EJ and if he wants to do Rina he’ll dispose of Portwell before doing so. I was surprised that they never bothered to have Ricky and Gina have a conversation about Gina’s S1 confession. It was a huge mistake to have Gina pine over Ricky for half the season and it was no surprise that Gina’s story line got instantly better once she stopped interacting with Ricky. Tim has made clear in interviews that he’s still interested in the possibility of Rina which makes his poor writing of them even more bizarre. What conclusions are the audience supposed to draw from the Rina story line this season? That Ricky never cared that much about Gina? That it’s totally fine for the show if they don’t interact for 6 eps in a row? That Gina has moved on? I’ve said before that a wiser man than Tim would recognize that doing both Portwell and Rina will do tremendous damage to the show and he should pick one and not do the other. Of course he’s not that smart but it is wild how he’s accidentally written their story line to make for a perfect end to Rina.

Second Chances was great and is the only part of the finale that would have been well suited to being part of a potential series finale.

The Rini closure was a sad inverse of their S1 opening night confession. They’ve fallen so far from being the it couple of the series and I fear Tim doesn’t actually know what to do with them now. He really needs to decide if he’s tearing down that treehouse for real.

The less said about the Valentine’s chocolates the better but at least Gina and Nini are cool again and Nini can explore her budding music career with Jamie’s help. Tim repeatedly said in interviews that the scripts about Nini’s music career were all written before Driver’s License came out and I think he understands that the audience is just going to see the show as copying from Olivia’s life.

The wildcats just deciding to drop out of the Menkies was a lame cop out. Tim has said he always meant for that to happen though they were originally going to compete at the Menkies then drop out (presumably that’s where we would have heard Lily singing Home). Somebody should have mentioned the $50 000 prize money which the East High theatre department could surely use after Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara burned it down (remember that story line that had no consequences?). And that NYU scholarship could have been life changing for one of them and yet no one even brought it up once this season.

I did like the twist that it was EJ and his dad who got Mazzara into Caltech. He’d be a fool not to take it but I’m glad he confessed to Miss Jenn. She’s had a really rough season and I hope she redeems herself in S3.

Howie was acting so weird tonight and last ep that I have a hard time believing he was really so awed by Kourtney’s talent rather than feeling guilty for helping to steal the harness. The harness is another useless plot device; there are no consequences for Lily stealing it, she’s not caught, East High pulls off another version of the transformation off screen, and then East High withdraws from the Menkies anyways. Doubtless the harness will eventually come up to serve Rily angst.

At least Lily was straightforward, I’ll give her that. She has such an odd way of speaking, almost child like. As awful as it is there is potential for a forbidden/secret romance story line with Rily. It really does not speak well to Ricky’s character that he’s so easily fallen for Lily’s act when he has no reason to trust her and she never apologized for making fun of Big Red during the auditions or making Ashlyn feel insecure during the dance off.

The one way in which S2 was drastically better to S1 was in regards to the Seblos story line. Clearly Joe being bumped up to regular made a big difference. We got the first same-sex kiss between two boys and the first love song sung by one boy to another in Disney history and that is a legacy to be proud of. Of course, there was still some Disney censorship such as Carlos and Seblos being unable to use the word gay in the same ep that focused on Carlos singing In a Heartbeat to Seb.

S1 of HSMTMTS had a clear direction, the wildcats would have to try and come together to stage High School Musical and Ricky and Nini would have to decide if they still had a future together while Gina and EJ had to work on being better versions of themselves. It was simple sure but it worked very well. There was a lot of heart but also a lot of humor and the show never took itself too seriously. What has S2 had? Beauty and the Beast was hardly the main focus of the cast or the writers and the central couple that S1 was built around is now broken up either for a long time or for good. There was a lot less of the meta moments that jokes that made S1 such a hit, for far too many eps this season the show took itself way too seriously. Hell even the lighting this season was darker than in S1.

Olivia Rodrigo’s team had complained in a recent article that Olivia wouldn’t be able to potentially tour until fall 2022 due to her contractual commitments which is a sign that they think a S3 is very likely though I wonder how late S3 filming would have to start to keep her occupied until late 2022. There’s no confirmation of this but I thought it might be worth keeping an eye on; a post on r/hsmtmts by someone who claims to have a source working on production says that the plan is for S3 to be a summer theatre camp possibly with Camp Rock renditions and the plan for S4 is to jump 6 months ahead to the final semester of senior year and end with Ricky, Nini, Big Red, and Kourtney graduating from East High. They also say that part of the delay in the S3 announcement is a conflict between Tim and Disney executives. Tim wants to move production to LA and film on sets as it’s easier and cheaper while the Disney execs still want some on location shooting in Salt Lake. Again this is all unconfirmed but if it pans out it will represent a major shift in the series.

Regardless if Tim wants the show to remain successful he needs start planning out what he wants to happen. He should not assume he’s getting more than 4 seasons. If the series gets a S3 but then is suddenly cancelled then how would he want all the main story lines to wrap up? And if they make it to S4 where does he see it ending? The graduation of the current juniors is a logical series ending point but if Tim wants to do something different he needs to start thinking of that now. I can’t say I’m excited anymore for S3 but I do really hope that Tim and his writers can turn things around and that will only happen if they recognize what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes.

Until next season Wildcats

#HSMTMTS #Portwell #Rini #Gina Porter #EJ Caswell #Ricky Bowen #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Kourtney Greene #lily #HSMTMTS Reviews

60 notes · View notes

eryiss · 3 years

Text

Ship: Freed x Laxus [Fraxus]

Rating: Teen

Alternate Links: Fanfiction, Archive of our Own

Request: Something based off the official Rockband Raijinshuu art.

Summary: Being a rockstar, Laxus had to endure far too many chat shows. Usually he would grin and bear it, let the pointlessness of it roll off his back, but not this time. He was alone, forced to keep his budding relationship with Freed secret, and done with it. Fucking done with it all! But he had a way to fix it, and all it would take was a little courage.

Notes: This was a request by @fuckyeahfraxus. Just a warning, it has a bit of homophobia near the end, but nothing too vicious. I hope you enjoy it.

The Life Of A Song

Fuck chat shows. Fuck their hosts. Fuck their producers. Fuck their directors. Fuck their too-hot lighting, their stupid uncomfortable sofas, their tiny changing room's, their cramped green rooms with too many camera, their always cheering audiences and their utter lack of anything interesting or unique. Fuck the whole damn thing.

But Laxus' opinions on the matter weren't important. What did matter was that he smiled, laughed, told anecdotes and sat in a way that showed off his thighs and crotch just enough so that his Twitter stans - what a shitty word - made him trend once it was over.

Still, fuck chat shows.

This particular show, Late With Jase, was one of the worst. The host was young, overly enthusiastic, and his name was Jason rather than Jase which pissed Laxus off more than it should. He'd somehow dragged an audience of Netflix only watchers back to mainstream, with a mix of meme crap that Laxus cringed at, and celebrity gossip that would make a tabloid envious. But the ratings were skyrocketing, celebrities who went there usually got a boost in sales of their latest projects, and Laxus' manager had insisted he take his turn.

It would have been fine, were he not alone. If Ever, Bix and Freed were with him, they could take the responsibility and he could fade into the background. They had been a band for years, and that was how they always dealt with interviews. But they weren't there, because according to their management, Laxus was the moneymaker and all they needed.

"So Laxus," Jason turned in his chair to look at him. "Let's talk about Thunderstruck. What a success that's been? You must be thrilled.”

"It's doing well, yeah," Laxus nodded. He wanted to cringe at his words.

"It's doing more than well. You can hardly escape it," Jason laughed, and the crowd laughed with him. Laxus chuckled, even though he didn't find it funny. "But this is the first song that you've written, isn't it? And it's one of the most popular you've had. Must feel good."

"Well, it wasn't just me," Laxus swallowed slightly. "Everything we make is collaborative. Freed worked with the lyrics a lot, and Ever composed it."

"They're your bass player and electric guitar player, right?"

"I wouldn't call them mine," Laxus mumbled slightly.

There was a beat of awkward silence, and Laxus relished it just a little. Jason recovered quickly, which was annoying, and flashed a happy smile. Laxus would have preferred the man to stew in the uncomfortable silence, it would be a fitting response to him being dismissive of the band's contributions, but perhaps it was a childish way to think of things.

"Well we'll be hearing the song live at the end of the show," Jason continued, and Laxus' eyebrow twitched. The rest of the band were in the damn building and yet were being treated like shit. "But let's talk a bit about how you came to write it. Heavy rock and love songs have a troubled history, and you managed to make a hit out of it."

"Just lucky I guess," He shrugged. "Got good people around me too."

"Don't be so modest," Jason dismissed. Laxus wasn't being modest; luck was the dominant factor in successful music and without the band, Laxus would be fucked. "So, take us back. Where did the idea start."

"Well, hard to pinpoint I guess," Laxus murmured. "But, I suppose it was at the end of our last tour."

——

Performing live was indescribable. It was an assault on all his senses, in the very best way.

Everything was exhilarating. The feeling of vibrations on the stage, the cheers, roars and singing from the crowd, the sweat running down his back, the roar of his voice cutting through his throat as he sang. It all flowed through him, removing any sense of doubt or self consciousness he might have. On stage, before a stadium of fans, he was Laxus Fucking Dreyar. King, God and Dragon. Nothing was better.

They were on their last song of the set, a roaring anthem that the crowd could sing along to. It was thrilling to hear a song he'd worked on sung by thousands. Freed's words were being screamed at them, with the passion and love of their fan base. It was indescribable.

"We are The Thunder God's Tribe," Laxus yelled into the microphone as the instrumental began. The crowd roared in response.

Freed, Ever and Bix held the crowd's attention, and Laxus looked over the gathered mass of thousands. They were all there for them, because they loved them and wanted to experience them in person. A loud roar of appreciation cut through the stadium as Bickslow finished a drum solo that always brought the house down. How he managed to do that night after night while never screwing it up was beyond Laxus, but it was incredible.

Laxus sang the final verse, putting his whole heart into the performance. It was the last show of the tour, the last time they'd sing in front of a crowd like this for two years. He loved songwriting, but this was the best part of his work. The crowd, the music, the experience.

God he would miss this. This high. This buzz.

The lights died around them as the song ended, plunging them into darkness as the crowd roared their appreciation. The four of them could still see their fans as they cheered and yelled, and they took a few moments to appreciate it. He would miss this.

As they were taken from the stage, the adrenaline didn't waver. Laxus could run a marathon, deadlift any weight, swim any ocean in those moments. It was pure euphoria.

Evergreen trailed off to her dressing room first, scraping her nails down her bodyguard's chest before dragging him in with her. They were no longer pretending they were simply platonic anymore; Bickslow walking in on them must have removed any hope they could keep their relationship a secret. Good for them; Ever worked hard and deserved a big man to fill her bed.

Bix's groupies appeared out of nowhere, two men and a woman. They clung to the drummers bare chest instantly, and he cackled as he was dragged away for a night of depravity and booze. Laxus grinned; the party boy really had hit his stride this year.

Glancing at Freed, he saw the man looking equally amused.

A shared moment of eye contact sent a pulse of heat through Laxus. They stared at one another for a moment, and Laxus found his eyes crawling over Freed's shirtless torso without shame before he could stop it. Hard muscle and flexing abs were fully shown, and the heat in Laxus' face settled down lower. The rush of the performance was still running through him and he knew he wasn't in his right mind, but dammit Freed looked fucking hot in that moment. Tousled, sweating, shirtless; who could fucking resist that?

Laxus had always known Freed was hot. They spent hours upon hours together, it couldn't be missed. But he'd never thought too hard about it. You didn't fuck your badnmates. You didn't fuck your male bandmate.

And if he weren't coursing with adrenaline and dunk off of the cheers, he might have stopped.

With a stride, he surged forward and wrapped a hand around the back of Freed's neck. He pulled the man against him, pressing their lips together in a passionate, needy, energetic kiss. Freed dragged him back, pushing himself against the wall and taking Laxus with him. Hands were roaming over his chest, and Laxus groaned as they slid lower.

"Wait," Laxus whispered, pulling apart. A string of spit hung between them, and Laxus felt a twisted form of delight at it.

"What?" Freed asked, and his husky voice ran down Laxus' spine.

"We better take it inside," Laxus murmured, and Freed grinned.

They snuck into the nearest changing room, locking the door behind them. It was only in the next morning, when Laxus' mind was focused on something other than mindless, unadulterated pleasure, that he began writing a song. That he felt the need to write in a way that he'd never felt before.

Because kissing Freed was music. A high unmatched by anything else, and one that Laxus would find himself addicted to.

——

"And how did it come about?" Jason probed. "You've never written before. Did you find your muse?"

He had. But Jason didn't get to know it. Not that their manager would let it happen.

"Well, you know how bands work. You tour, make an album, then tour with the album," Laxus shrugged, reaching for his glass of water. "Your mind goes into production mode, I guess. You see things a little different, put a little creative spin on the things happening around you. Something struck me and I started writing," He laughed, awkward. "Not that interesting, really."

Not the fake story he'd been told to say, anyway.

The audience didn't seem to care about how crap the anecdote actually was, and applauded his words for some reason. Jason forced out a laugh, as if his statement had been a self-deprecating joke rather than a simple fact. What he'd been told to say wasn't interesting.

"Well, maybe you weren't struck by some divine intervention, but whatever happened it certainly worked out well," Jason continued, and the small screen beside him showed the album cover. Laxus hated the cover, it was just him. Not the four of them. It should be the four of them, or none of them at all. "It shot to the top of the charts and seems like it'll be there for a long time. That must feel good."

"It's incredible," Laxus agreed, and it was.

"So talk us through the writing process," Jason promoted, grinning. "I can't imagine you hunched over a desk night after night?"

"Well, the first draft only took a couple hours, really," Laxus confessed, blushing a little. The lights would cover it, but it was still embarrassing. "But me and Freed spent a couple nights together, and it became what you've been hearing."

——

"You always this tried?" Laxus chuckled, placing a takeout cup of coffee beside Freed.

The bassist blinked slowly up at Laxus, removing his face from its resting place against his arm. He glanced towards the coffee he'd been given with a thankful smile. Laxus smiled a little as Freed sat up straight, running a hand through his loose hair and letting it flow over his shoulders. He had bags under his eyes and a yawn split open his lips.

Laxus found himself slightly transfixed by the sight of Freed picking up the coffee, bringing it to his lips and drinking it in large gulps. His throat bobbed, pale skin stretching and chords tightening.

"Better to be tired that not focused," Freed smirked a little as he placed his coffee down.

"I think me looking at you is exactly the kinds focus we need," He grinned, and Freed chuckled.

The two of them were writing alone. After a fair amount of hesitation, Laxus had shown Freed the draft lyrics he'd written, and Freed had instantly presented ideas on how to fine tune it. He hadn't been patronising - nor had he teased Laxus about the fact he'd written a damn love song about him - and instead decided to encourage and help him make it a hit. They'd spent three subsequent nights in their studio, completely alone, and Laxus was loving it.

He'd never written a song before. Words weren't his forte, at least not the writing of them, and he much preferred to show passion through performance. But hours of Freed and him in the studio, bouncing ideas off each other, was thrilling.

Laxus suspected any time alone with Freed would be thrilling now.

Walking behind Freed to get to his own seat, Laxus leant down and pressed a soft kiss atop his head. Freed made a small sound and leant back against his chair to get closer to Laxus. He chuckled, ruffling Freed's hair slightly as he sat beside him.

"You made any progress?" Laxus asked, stretching slightly. He didn't miss Freed's eyes roaming over his chest. "What were you saying about being distracted."

"Until you wear looser fitting clothes, you don't get to talk about me being distracted," Freed smirked.

"Maybe I'd agree to that if I didn't know how uncomfortable those jeans you're wearing are," Laxus smirked. "Flatters the ass but crushes the balls, right? Regretting it yet?"

Freed didn't answer, but blushed a little and Laxus cackled.

They quickly fell into step, working on the song again. They were focusing on the second verse, which Laxus had dubbed the catalyst chapter. It had initially been a torrent of ways to describe how explosive his kiss with Freed had been - though names were vague enough for nobody to know that. With Freed's help, it had turned into a well written lyrical explanation to the first flushes of a romance. The burning passion, the fire between the two people, the erotic rush that could ignite from a simple glance. Watching Freed write, Laxus had to hope he was writing about his own feelings for Laxus.

He also had to stop himself from jumping the man, because Freed knew how to write a hot song. A really hot song…

Taking his espresso and gulping it down, Laxus looked away from his lover. Perhaps if Freed were anyone else - if he weren't a guy, or if he weren't in the band - Laxus might have given in and kissed him. He wanted to, but couldn't,

Once they'd been signed, te band had been given a long speech about how you couldn't screw your bandmate by their manager, how it could ruin things and screw up the dynamic. When Laxus had discovered he was bi, and wanted to come out as such, multiple crisis meetings were held. Not only had Laxus not been allowed to speak about his sexuality, with the risk of his contract being terminated immediate held over him, but he'd also been forced to stage pictures with a woman so he looked to be dating.

There had been backlash even then. His fans were vicious to the poor model, many seemed angry at him for supposedly betraying them by dating someone, it was fucking insane, and Laxus hadn't known hot to take it, but it had scared him off relationships for years.

So, he couldn't date. Definitely couldn't date bandmates. Certainly couldn't date men.

And knowing that, he'd still come back to Freed. Slept with him after their tour, then in the hotel later that night, they'd even fumbled about in the tour bus to the airport when everyone else was sleeping. They'd been in dates - or as close to dates two famous men could get - and a week prior had sat down and talked. They didn't care about the rules, because their budding romance was too damn good.

Never let it be said Laxus kept things comfortable for himself.

"Stop that," Freed scolded.

"Stop what?" Laxus asked, looking from the song and towards Freed.

"Torturing yourself," Freed explained, taking Laxus' hand and stroking it. "It'll do you know good. Certainly not when we're trying trying to write a ballad about the two of us."

"Sorry," Laxus hunched.

"Don't be, I think about it too," Freed admitted, leaning towards Laxus and against him. "But drowning in what ifs and self doubt is hardly going to make things better. We might as well enjoy what we have while it's still between the two of us, and deal with the fallout should it present itself.”

"You're right," Laxus nodded, blinking himself back into focus. "Not sure I can write tonight, though. Not in the mood."

"You don't want to write sonnets about how much you want me? Should I be offended?" Freed smirked, and Laxus laughed. "Or perhaps should I see it as a challenge to refocus your attention."

A hand ran down Laxus' inner thigh, and his breath hitched slightly. "Really?"

"Well, the song needs to be finished eventually," Freed hummed a little. "The sooner the better, I'd say. So getting your mind back on me seems the only thing that makes sense,"

"Really," Laxus tried to make his voice sound seductive, but Freed's wandering hand made him crack slightly. "H-how d'you think you'd do that."

"Well, let's say that in five minutes you find yourself in the instrument store down the hall," Freed mused aloud. "And let's say you find me already there, and I happen to be kneeling there waiting for you. Well, we can hardly be blamed if we find ourselves distracted."

Laxus swallowed. "Here? You sure?”

"There's no one around," Freed shrugged far too nonchalantly, and then grinned a devilishly handsome grin. "And I must admit, making you come undone in here has been a fantasy of mine," His hand squeezed Laxus thigh, before he stood up, and all flirtation was gone. "I should find a guitar, we can hardly write without practice. Perhaps I'll see you in there."

And then he was gone, walking away with his ass hugged perfectly in his jeans. All doubts about his future with Freed disappeared, replaced by the uncomfortable tightness in his boxers.

He found himself grinning, and a few minutes later he found himself in the instrument room, panting and moaning.

——

"It was pretty normal," Laxus continued, not looking to Jason. "We wrote, we practiced, we rewrote."

"Keeping your secrets close to your chest, I see," Jason laughed. "Now, speaking of secrets, the rumours have been flying on Twitter about who this is written about."

"I hadn't heard about that," Laxus tried to dismiss the statement.

"I'm sure you haven't," Jason nodded almost patronisingly, clearly not believing him. It was fair, Laxus supposed. #WhoIsThunderstruck did trend for a week. "But you have to admit, a virgin songwriter making something so powerful on their first try, and in a song so distant from anything else you've ever made, does seem to suggest maybe you've found someone to inspire you."

"I'm around a lot of talented people," Laxus shrugged. "They know how to make a hit."

He was squirming now, and not because of Jason. Their manager was seating in the front row of the live audience, and a quick glance his way showed Laxus a glare. This was a topic he had to avoid, because his fans needed to think the song was about them. It was patronising, Laxus thought, but they'd found success with their manager for a reason.

"So," Jason continued. "Have you found yourself a special lady?"

And then something ridiculous happened. Laxus found himself furious.

Such a simple statement, so innocuous and normal for Laxus' life, had opened the floodgates for Laxus. Because why had he assumed it would be a woman? Why had he assumed he could ask a question like that? Why was Laxus in a position where he couldn't answer something so simple when he really fucking wanted to?

Every ridiculous injustice seemed to swarm over him at once. How was it fair he had to parade himself on shows like this, on his own despite how his band deserved as much love and respect as he did? How was it fair that he'd known he wanted to be with a man for five years, and he'd never allowed himself to indulge before Freed? How was it fair that he'd been forced to endure meeting after meeting about how 'stupid' he was being for hooking up with Freed? How was it fair that he couldn't go out for a fucking pizza with his boyfriend without starting a ridiculous internet scandal? It was all so bullshit.

"Nah," Laxus answered, leaning back in his chair. The anger gave way to confidence; every interview he'd been on edge, but not any more. "Not a girl."

"So nobody's tamed the dragon slayer then?"

"Not a girl," Laxus repeated. "A guy. I'm bi, and for the last couple months I've been dating Freed," There was silence, and Laxus grinned and turned to Jason. "Bet you wished you'd gotten him on stage with me now, huh?"

"You're…" Jason seemed at a loss for words.

"Screwing the bassist, yeah," Laxus laughed, exhilaration flooding through him. "Inevitable really. I've known I liked guys for five years, and there's a load of fan pages who talk about how hot Freed is, so it was bound to happen," He grinned, running a hand through his hair.

This felt so good. Fuck, he didn't know how much he needed to do this.

"So," Jason tried to recover. "Well, erm, we have r to go to break now. Maybe we'll talk about that when we get back, I really don't know."

The moment the cameras cut, people began approaching Laxus. His manager, his PR team, and most importantly, his band. Ever and Bix attempted to run interference on their management team, but the angry man and his cronies pushed through them with fury on their faces. Still, Freed met him first, and wordlessly grabbed Laxus by the collar and brought their lips together. It was more passionate and desperate than any of their kisses had been.

"I'm so proud of you," Freed whispered. "And we are definitely talking about how you know those fan sites exist."

"Who d'you think made 'em," Laxus grinned, and Freed laughed.

Their small, shared moment ended when a throaty cough cut through them. Their manager was looming over them, and Laxus met them with a cruel grin, knowing it was too late: that was the problem with live TV.

"Problem?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"What the hell were you thinking?" The manager snarled. "You just fucked all of us, do you understand that? How fucking selfish are you. You've ruined this album, you know that? You think your bandmates will forgive you?"

"Nothing to forgive," Bix said immediately.

"You're a dick for not letting him do it before," Evergreen agreed.

Their manager seemed to flounder for a moment, before narrowing his glare at Laxus again. "Do you think your fans will want to see that?" He growled again, voice getting louder now. "You think they'll still want you now they know that. Now they have to think about you being with… with him!" He motioned to Freed disparagingly. "They'll leave you. You've fucked yourselves, you know that."

Silence filled the soundstage, and their manager seethed. Laxus grinned, then looked past him towards the audience, half of whom had their phones pointed towards them.

"Since you're always talking about PR," Laxus smirked. "How d'you think you'll look once this hits Twitter?"

Their manager halted, then slowly turned. He turned sheet white, and it was brilliant.

"Oh, and in case you're worrying about your little threat to drop us if I came out, don't," Laxus smirked, though looked up to his band, who all nodded. "Yer fired, so fuck off."

#Fraxus #Freed Justine #laxus dreyar #freed x laxus #Fairy Tail #Fanfic #Writing #Request #One Shot #fuckyeahfraxus #Word Count 3.8k

14 notes · View notes

back-and-totheleft · 5 years

Text

The lost ‘Evita’

With Paramount again in default, Jerry Weintraub and Guy McElwaine of the Weintraub Entertainment Group -- with Oliver Stone and Meryl Streep in mind -- moved in and began attempts to buy the rights to "Evita" from the bigger and more established studio. By then, Stone had won the Oscar for directing "Platoon" and the same year had released his stark "Salvador" -- a film with some of the same frenetic Latin American overtones that might be put to good use in "Evita." Stigwood, who signed a three-year deal with the Weintraub group in March 1987, saw "Platoon" and became excited about Stone.

Paralleling the Hollywood developments were cataclysmic changes in Argentina, paving the way for filming the musical in the country where Eva Peron lived and died. When Stigwood first produced "Evita" on the London stage in 1978, copies of the Rice libretto were banned in Argentina . Several importers of the record were arrested and clapped into jail for sizable terms. RSO's Oakes recalls that when he phoned an agent in Argentina to discuss a Latin American recording of the musical, "at the first mention of the word 'Evita,' the man silenced me and left to call me on another telephone." Argentina was not in a mood for moderation. Stigwood recalls that "when 'Jesus Christ, Superstar,' (the first Webber-Rice opera) opened in Buenos Aires, they bombed the theater." In 1980, a cache of Broadway cast "Evita" albums were publicly burned in the Argentine capital. Then came the failed Argentine invasion of the Falklands in 1982, and the ouster of Argentina's the ruling military junta in December 1983. Under relaxed rules, a nostalgic wave of Peronism swept the long-repressed country. Though anyone found painting the name "Evita" on a wall could have been killed in the late '70s, banners bearing the picture of the idolized former first lady now blossomed again throughout the land. Not so coincidentally, MCA Records shipped 5,000 copies of the "Evita" score (featuring Patti LuPone) to stores in Buenos Aires. "I sent Oliver Stone and Bill Oakes on a location scouting expedition to Argentina last year," said Stigwood. "And it was wildly successful. The government opened up places which had been closed since Eva Peron died." The party even came back bearing a photo of Stone, hands outstretched, on the balcony from which Eva Peron had greeted huge crowds -- memorialized in the song "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." "Now the government wants that movie made," said WEG's McElwaine. "History has altered their view, and the resurgence of 'Peronism' favors us."

During the Stone tour, the government promised 100,000 troops as extras for the Nazi-like military crowd scenes that so typified the Peron years. And the film's budget will benefit, as well, from the favorable rate of currency. "We will be able to afford major scenes which would never be possible in other countries," said Oakes, who pointed out that to charter a private plane to Eva's birthplace only cost $250 round trip. "Her birthplace was a lonely spot on immense pampas," Stone recalled, "where she grew up and where I talked to people who still remembered her." But, having failed to film in Spain and later in Mexico, the production team is taking no chances. "We met with both factions in the upcoming election," said Oakes. "And we have guarantees that the project is welcome no matter who wins those contests this May." When Stone signed on just before that scounting trip, "Evita" remained uncast, though Stone was apparently already leaning toward Streep. Stigwood still thought Madonna might work out. "At Stone's first meeting with her, it looked like they might hit it off," he said. "But on the second meeting, it fell apart." RSO chalks the failure up to Madonna's "runaway ego." McElwaine said there was "a major difference of opinion about how the role was interpreted. That was it."

Meryl Streep was in the wings. "Oliver brought her in, and it was a 'great match,' " said McElwaine. At the same time, Patti LuPone, through her representative, the Gresh Agency, made one last bid for the part. "She would have died to play that part," said a spokesman. "But Stone said she was too old. But isn't it ironic: Patti is exactly the same age as Meryl Streep." "She may have 'died to play the part,' but she wouldn't make a screen test," said Stigwood. "Still, I have immense respect for her." To firm up the deal, Streep -- with Stone and the film's musical directors, went into a New York City recording studio and did preliminary dubbings of the score. The results, said Stigwood, were astounding: "She learned the entire score in a week. Not only can she sing, but she's sensational -- absolutely staggering." Streep's singing ability is perhaps her least known talent, though she sang in several New York productions -- "The Happy Time" among them. Her biography points out that she played Ado Annie in a high school production of "Oklahoma" and once wished to "become an opera star." That may be just as well. Stigwood confirmed that "Evita" on screen will remain essentially an opera -- with all dialogue sung -- save for a few spoken transitions.

-Peter H. Brown, "Desperately Seeking Evita," The Washington Post, March 5 1989 [x]

#oliver stone #evita #andrew lloyd webber #meryl streep

6 notes · View notes

ryanmeft · 6 years

Text

The Greatest Showman Movie Review

The Greatest Showman is a piece of complete fantasy, an almost total fabrication that gets two things exactly right: P.T. Barnum existed, and he created modern entertainment. The rest is smoke and mirrors, obscuring behind a modern narrative sheen what it doesn’t outright invent. Barnum would be proud. What matters isn’t that it’s accurate. What matters is it is a total blast with a genuinely moving message, the kind of thing that no longer entirely works in Disney films because they’ve driven it into the ground. Somehow, song-and-dance numbers about being yourself get a breath of fresh life injected when they’re sung by conjoined twins and bearded ladies.

The film, helmed by a first-time feature director name of Michael Gracey, takes the complex and sometimes dark and terrible stories of P.T. Barnum’s life and distills them into an archetype: the struggling visionary desperate to provide for his family. Hugh Jackman, that perennial audience favorite, dons the bright red jacket and top hat, but not at first. When the film begins, he’s nothing: a servant boy whose lady love’s father (an easily loathable Fredric Lehne) sneers at him when he later comes to take her away, announcing she’ll be back as soon as she tires of his lack of wealth.

She doesn’t and isn’t. Soon she’s grown and played by Michelle Williams, and they are dancing and singing with their two daughters on the soot-stained rooftops of mid-19th century New York. This is one of my favorite time periods in all of film or any other medium, suffused as it is with a Dickensian vibe of downtrodden-ness, a ripe canvas on which to paint any number of rags-to-riches stories. You might notice that Williams, as Charity, isn’t saddled with the easy cliche of most wife characters in these yarns. She neither constantly nags the perpetually struggling Barnum with reminders of their money woes, nor does she make dramatic speeches when his success and his head begin to swell. When one of the daughters asks for ballet shoes, their response could draw tears even in 2017 from anyone who ever had to spend an hour in the store trying to decide whether they could afford the tiniest luxury. (I was reminded of the personal recollection of someone I know, which I won’t share here). Barnum, who has been let go from a (fictional) job in shipping, is able to provide as a present instead a quickly invented gadget that puts on a light show.

Quickly inventing things, of course, became Barnum’s stock in trade. It isn’t an exaggeration to say he invented modern entertainment as we know it. What is a movie, after all, if not pure and total…humbug? And the even more modern video game has learned how to ensnare a person’s emotions with computer code in such a way that they will keep returning and paying for new hats. Barnum sought out the total outcasts of society, the ones who would have before been doomed to poverty, prejudice and early death, and made them stars. He brought in exotic animals and displayed them for the audiences of the cold New England coasts for the first time. He brought the idle whims of the aristocracy to the people.

He also made his performers to go on stage in cages, and can without a doubt be called a profiteering exploiter. The film portrays him as a philanthropist and early champion of what we would now consider rights for the differently-abled. His performers are his friends, and the ensemble cast includes dazzling performances by Sam Humphrey as the famous General Tom Thumb, Keala Settle as bearded lady Lettie Lutz, and Zendaya as black trapeze artist Annie Wheeler, whose race alone kept her off any earlier stages. The only time it is intimated that Barnum forgot they were human is during a period when he hires famous, respected singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) to tour the world and bring him the respect he craves from titans and queens (there is a wonderful exchange between Tom Thumb and none other than the Queen of England herself).

In reality, the man whose second-most-famous line was “There’s a sucker born every minute” was very, very in it for a buck, and while it can be fairly said that his performers lived much worse lives before he found them, that was hardly his intent. He didn’t use the term “freaks” affectionately.

What “The Greatest Showman” does is what “Moulin Rouge!” and the supremely underrated “Marie Antoinette” did: it helps to shine a light on a mostly forgotten period of history by modernizing it, and it mostly does this through music. The film opens with “The Greatest Show”, as rousing an intro as any musical has ever managed. Every song is good, but the standouts comprise the center section of the film. “This Is Me”, nominated for a Golden Globe and a safe bet for Oscar, features the under-valued Keala Settle leading Barnum’s army of “freaks” in a rousing celebration of being yourself. This theme has gotten tired but is given new life with the performance of an ensemble cast and a stellar visual production by an army of technical maestros far too extensive to list in a review. Rebecca Ferguson lends a perfect physical presence to Loren Allred’s vocal performance of “Never Enough”, a solo act that gives musical voice to Barnum’s escalating needs for adulation. My favorite number, visually and musically, is that of Zac Efron and Zendaya’s interracial love song, “Rewrite the Stars”, which explodes off the screen without the benefit of tons of props or multiple flashy costumes, and ought to puncture the stoicism of all but the most stubborn tough guys.

We can debate whether Barnum’s legacy was for good or ill; the film doesn’t even claim the often-laughable “Based on a True Story” appellation, so for me it’s not really important. I loved La la Land, and contend it only took so much flack when people thought it would out-Oscar Moonlight, and I loved The Greatest Showman for the same reason: it made me want to celebrate how awesome life is at the same time it got me weepy at how hard it can get. I don’t need accuracy. After all, I have a broom closet full of history books for that.

Verdict: Highly Recommended

#hugh jackman #zendaya #zac efron #keala settle #loren allred #rebecca ferguson #moulin rouge #marie antoinette #the greatest showman #musicals #movies #michelle williams #circus #p.t. barnum #animals

53 notes · View notes

grapevynerendezvous · 3 years

Photo

Great Songs of America - various artists

Side One

Ringing of the Liberty Bell

Mary Martin - America the Beautiful

Mitch Miller - The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Andre Kostelanetz - Medley: Anchors Aweigh Marines Hymn, The Caissons Go Rolling Along

Mitch Miller - Medley: Dixie, The Yellow Rose of Texas

Andre Kostelanetz - Stars & Stripes Forever

Mahalia Jackson - My Country ’Tis of Thee

Robert Goulet - The Star Spangled Banner Side Two

Theodore Bikel - Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd

The Brothers Four - The Rock Island Line

The New Christy Minstrels - The Cotton Pickers; Song

The Brothers Four - The Drillers’ Song

Norman Luboff Choir - Deep River

The New Christy Minstrels - Californio

Norman Luboff Choir - Bury Me Out On The Long Prairie

Percy Faith - Home On The Range

This was a companion album to The Best of ’66, Vol. 2. In effect they were a 2-for-1 selection through Columbia Record Club. Side one of the record features some of our national heritage songs including The Star Spangled Banner along with other tried and true songs of America. One special thing is that the record starts with the sound of the Liberty Bell being rung, which only occurred twice in the 20th century. In the notes it’s mentioned that The Civil War probably produced more songs than any other war in history. Some, such as The Battle Hymn of the Republic, were sung by both sides of The War Between the States. Dixie, which originated in and became popular in the 1850s, was generally attributed to Ohio-born Daniel Decatur Emmett who founded the first blackface minstrel troupe the Virginia Minstrels. Others have claimed credit, including in his lifetime. It was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln, but became the de facto anthem of the Confederate States of America.

I have occasionally found use for the Navy and Marine songs that are included in a medley on the album. Anchors Aweigh was especially useful when a new person started working at the human services agency where I was employed. A few of my work associates had found out he had retired as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy. Being the respectful group of people we were, as he came to work on his first day we displayed model ships and other items, while saluting and leaning side-to-side as Sam made his appearance. My part of this fun welcoming was to play Anchors Aweigh on my cassette player. Years later, when Sam again retired, this time from our department, he spoke about how special that moment was for him. Did my heart proud.

Side two was made up of some traditional folk music from various periods and occurrences in America’s history. True folk music indeed as most of the songs are about the people who worked hard throughout America’s growth. As was true on most of these type of label compilations the musicians were Columbia Record artists with the exception in the inclusion of Theodore Bikel performing a wonderful version of The Drinking Gourd. He was an Elektra Records artist, but Columbia got permission to include his performance on this record. I already enjoyed the New Christy Minstrels and I welcomed their inclusion on this album. As it turns out Randy Sparks, who formed the group in 1961, has lived much of the time in Calaveras County, where I lived for several years, and still own that house. I became aware of it when Randy’s daughter was a Miss Calaveras contestant at the county fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee which she ended up winning. Not long thereafter Randy began performing with a reformed New Christy Minstrels, which featured some the original members as well as very talented local musicians. They performed on tour as well as locally and I finally got to see them live a few times when they were in the area.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Great-Songs-Of-America/release/1484380

LP13

0 notes

dinamicus · 4 years

Text

Thursday’s Child https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/thursdays-child/

One summer day some ten years ago, I was helping to paint a house. On the boombox was Best of Bowie: a long, chronological march from the beachhead of “Space Oddity,” with most songs met by indifference and occasional hums. The caressing synthesizers of “Thursday’s Child” began, and as Bowie started crooning, a fellow painter stopped mid-swipe and looked over at the CD player.

“What happened to that guy?” he said.

We’d made it through “Dancing In the Street” with a few chuckles and “Under the God” without comment. But “Thursday’s Child,” on that hot afternoon, sounded awful: treacly, gaspy, wan; the limp expiration of a career. When heard as the close of a sequence that runs through “Rebel Rebel,” “Ashes to Ashes,” “Modern Love” and “The Hearts Filthy Lesson,” “Thursday’s Child” sounds like a man falling down in the street, a hasty end scene tacked onto an overlong Act V. “I’m done with the future: here’s a song for your grandmother.” Dies, borne off stage right.

Sure, any slow, fragile-sounding number could’ve gotten a raspberry that day from our collection of young and recently-young NYC snobs. It’s not as if “Thursday’s Child” is an ill-constructed or poorly-sung track: if anything, it’s one of the few Bowie compositions of the period sturdy enough to withstand being a cover, whether a trumpet solo or a busker’s guitar piece (solo electric guitar interpretation by Jake Reichbart here). Its verse melody, a dance of mild leaps and modest falls, suits a lyric crafted for common use. In the verses, an older man regrets the paths he’s taken; in the choruses, he dares to hope a new love can give his life meaning. It’s Bowie’s “September Song.”

But “Thursday’s Child” wasn’t hip; it didn’t offer any pretense that it was—it sat in a comfortable present tense and stewed on the past. It felt genteel and a bit shabby. After a few years of running across stages in his bottle imp incarnation, after his stabs at industrial and jungle, after all the interviews about Damien Hirst and body scarifications and Millennial doom and Internet-as-cultural-dynamite, Bowie suddenly turned up as the sad clown again. He’d dusted off his Buster Keaton suit and reclaimed the shadow bloodline of his “rock” one: the Bowie of “When I Live My Dream” and “As The World Falls Down,” the cabaret and mime Bowie, the “light entertainment” regional thespian, the bedsit saddo, the Mod who worshiped Judy Garland and Eartha Kitt (see below).

The singer of “Thursday’s Child” is another of the Pierrots he’d played since the Sixties: a perpetual loser at love, like the glum figure of his “Be My Wife” promo. Take the Mr. Pitiful tone of the opening verse—

All of my life I’ve tried so hard doing the best with what I had: nothing much happened all the same…

—with its most desperate emphases (“best,” “hope”) cued to gloomy B minor chords, while the verse’s circular structure strands the singer back where he started, on an augmented E major (“breaking my life in two”). You can take the song as a straight-faced lament, as a quietly over-the-top spoof of the same, or both (it is Bowie, after all).

And while the chorus offers a hope of release from the cycle, its alternation of F# majors (“falling”) and F# minors (“really got,” “my past”) suggest the hope’s rather thin. The repetitions of “throw me tomorrow” start to feel desperate; Bowie’s “everything’s falling into place!” is someone trying to hypnotize himself. It’s as if Bowie’s answering Joni Mitchell:

It’s got me hoping for the future And worrying about the past

Ours was the most exciting show that had hit London since the war…I was glad that I was born in a part of the world that had been so well protected, but I was also ashamed of my protection. I carried guilt inside for being a privileged character when the rest of the world was being destroyed.

Eartha Kitt, Thursday’s Child, 1956.

This song, I might point out, is not actually about Eartha Kitt.

Bowie, 1999.

He’d taken the song’s title from Eartha Kitt, Bowie said upon introducing “Thursday’s Child” on VH1 Storytellers. Writing the song, he’d recalled the paperback cover of her first autobiography (“it just kind of bubbled up the other month”). It had been an erotic memory of his youth (that and D.H. Lawrence, he said).* Using Kitt as a starting point suited Hours’ theme of a middle-aged assessment of lost youth, a 50-year-old flipping through a box of mold-speckled records shipped from his childhood home (Ray Charles’ “Lucky Old Sun” —a man stuck in the middle of life and envying death—also gets a nod).

The title also plays with an old prediction rhyme—“Thursday’s child has far to go” (another variant is “Thursday’s child is merry and glad”)—that had come out of the ground somewhere in medieval England. The rhyme was a popular corruption of court astrology: Thursday was considered a day of great fortune as it was under the sway of Jupiter, kingpin of gods. The Book of Knowledge, by one Erra Pater (1745), notes a “child born on Thursday shall arrive to Great Honour and Dignity” (By contrast, David Robert Jones was born on a Wednesday “full of woe”).**

So the refrain of “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday born, I was Thursday’s Child” was Bowie spading up his old occult interests, presenting them in anodyne forms: the little boxes tucked away on a newspaper’s comics page: horoscopes, birth stones, fortunes, lucky numbers (see “Seven”). It’s the “secret histories” of the Sixties reduced to syndicated copy; it’s another diminishing of unearthly power into ordinary life.

It’s also a clever way to cloud the lyric. What to make of the chorus kicker: “only for you I don’t regret/that I was Thursday’s child“? It’s at odds with the picture the singer’s painted so far: that he’s someone for whom little’s worked out, someone who’s estranged from everyday life yet firmly stuck within it (“He’s a teethgrinding, I’ll-get-this-job-done guy,” Bowie said of the narrator). (It’s also possible that, as Nicholas Pegg noted, Bowie’s referencing the VU’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties“: “For Thursday’s child is Sunday’s clown.“) But a Thursday’s child would be a lucky child: someone with pull, some who had far to go: a Kitt, or a Bowie.

Go back to Eartha Kitt for a moment. Born in South Carolina, she’d reinvented herself in the early Fifties as a nightclub goddess who’d seemingly flown in from the Continent; she played the seductress, the gold-digger with taste (“Santa Baby”) who captured men with her boxful of languages. She’d be cast in that role for the rest of her days: a life spent forever vamping. But what a role! As her biographer John L. Williams wrote of her performance of “Monotonous” in the film New Faces: Eartha is playing a character that’s almost unimaginable in reality [in 1954]: a black American woman who’s tasted all of the world’s delicacies and found them lacking…we wonder, who on earth is this woman? And how can she seem to be so indifferent to the laws and mores of her time? A question that could have been asked, with a gender change, about another performer in 1973.

So maybe the singer is someone like Kitt: not some teeth-grinding anonymous drone but a bright public figure, someone whose name everyone knows, someone to whom things seem have come easily. Doing the best with what I had becomes a modest boast; shuffling days and lonely nights are those of a stage life. Or maybe even the common life of an office drone is a stage life. Bowie had called himself “the Actor,” but in a way, we’re all actors.

Composed in Bermuda in late 1998, “Thursday’s Child” appears to have been mainly Bowie’s work, written on acoustic guitar. It was earmarked as a potential single, with a prominent role for backing singers. The question of who those should be became a bit contentious once Bowie and Gabrels were back in New York.

After toying with having Mark Plati’s six-year-old daughter sing the “Inchworm”-inspired “Monday, Tuesday..” line (she turned Bowie down! “she said she’d rather sing with her friends than with grown-ups,” Plati told David Buckley), Bowie thought of contacting the trio TLC. In 1999, they were arguably the premier female R&B vocal group of the decade. But they were tottering. Rife with personality and financial squabbles and having taken five years to cut their follow-up LP, they were about to be dethroned by Destiny’s Child.

Using TLC sat poorly with Gabrels, who thought it stunk of Bowie’s “New Jack Swing” moves in 1992: “Thursday’s Child” could be another potential Al B. Sure! fiasco. Gabrels had positioned himself as the house purist: some faint analogue in the Bowie camp to Steve Albini. He’d met Bowie during the nadir of Never Let Me Down and he saw it as his charge to keep Bowie honest and weird, to stop him from embarrassing himself by chasing trends after their sell-by date. During the making of ‘Hours’ Gabrels came to feel that his time with Bowie was over (we’ll get into this more in next week’s entry); his veto of TLC would be his last strategic win.

His alternative proposal had a touch of self-interest: he recommended a Boston friend, Holly Palmer, who Bowie auditioned via speakerphone (“let’s hear it with more vibrato now”). You could argue that Palmer’s vocals were just as time-stamped as any TLC vocals would have been: the Liz Fraser-inspired vocalese, the coffee-shop ambiance (a slightly edgier Dido). But Bowie liked what he heard and Palmer joined his touring band in 1999-2001.**

Another question was how far to take the production. David Buckley argued that the song was “crying out for strings,” and the various synthesizer fill-ins for woodwinds, strings and brass can make the song seem stuck in an embryonic state. Had Bowie held “Thursday’s Child” back for what he was calling the “Visconti album,” slated for 2000, it likely would’ve had a much grander production. Perhaps what kept “Thursday’s Child” from being a monstrous hit was that it hedged its bets too much.

The last piece was Walter Stern’s video. “Bowie,” with little makeup to mask his plus-fifty face, and his partner prepare for bed. They brush their teeth, she takes out her contacts (verrry slooowly). There’s a naturalist feel to counter the tasteful Wiliams Sonoma bedroom set: you hear Bowie cough, mumble and half-sing over the recorded track (taken from Elvis Costello’s “I Wanna Be Loved” video), and the plash of water in the sink. He looks in the mirror, transfixed by his aged but still beautiful face; he’s a veteran Narcissist. A twist of the glass and he sees younger versions of himself and his partner.

The mirror pair have the easy, arrogant confidence of youth; they stare at the older couple with the cold pity of what Bowie once called “the coming race.” They seem like beautiful wraiths. Bowie, seemingly infatuated with his younger self, does the Marx Brothers Duck Soup mirror game with him. The double plays along for a while, then stops, bored and disgusted with his older self. We passed upon the stair, Bowie had sung long ago, upon meeting another double. He’d been on his way up then, his life still mostly potential. This is the other end of the staircase: a man realizing that time has changed him, that the majority share of his life lies behind him now, that his younger self would’ve regarded the current him like some threadbare costume. Perhaps that was the right question to ask after all: What happened to that guy? He kisses his wife in his imagination, and so to bed....

0 notes

suckmycoxon · 7 years

Note

Hi :) could you give me a little background on omd? I don't know anything of the band except for a few songs, so maybe you could say your knowledge of the band and the members?

OH MY GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THRILLED I AM TO DO THIS

Let’s get to the band members first!

Andy McCluskey

Here’s the bossy one. As he puts it, he’s the butcherwho cuts off the raw materials of the song; the director who basically tellsPaul what to do, the one who sees the big picture, while Paul is the surgeonwho splices the details. He sings, plays bass, and writes the lyrics for mostof their songs. And he always dances madly, even in the recent years! For a58-year old guy with bad knees, he’s VERY energetic. So as you can see, he’sthe dominant one. Powerful, loud, cheerful, salty as fuck, thoroughly hatesrock ‘n’ roll, claims he hates cliché love songs but writes them anyway. I lovehim nonetheless

Paul Humphreys

THIS IS MY FAVORITE GUY OFF OMD. MY LOVE. MY HANDSOMEHAMSTER. HE’S CUTE ISN’T HE? Alright, so… he’s the keyboardist, the creativeand technical one. He’s the one who usually comes up with a melody and thenAndy directs how the song should turn out. He’s the one who does most of thesynth sounds! In the old days, he used to build his own “noise machine” bymessing with the circuits and such of old, broken radios. Don’t tell me that’snot badass. He also sings in a couple of OMD’s songs, most notably in“Electricity”, “Souvenir”, “(Forever) Live and Die”, and “Secret”.Personality-wise, he’s the complete opposite of Andy. He’s more quiet, shy,soft, and just lovely overall

Other members are MalcolmHolmes (the long-haired one in the picture above) who was the drummer from the beginning of the band until 2013. Inthat year, he had a cardiac arrest and temporarily died so he had to retire.From 2013 onwards, Stuart Kershaw tookthe drummer position. Another member is MartinCooper (the one with the blue shirt), the saxophonist/keyboardist/occasional bassist. He’s still with theband until now! Except when OMD broke up because he and Mal went along withPaul instead of Andy, but I’ll get to that later…

They embrace the “punk” attitude in terms of music. Youknow, making music as simple as possible. They always say this joke of “We’rethe punks of electronic. Punk plays with one chord, we play with one finger!”

Now, it’s history time. Let’s go back to the 70s

Andy and Paul had always been the hipsters of that era. Theylistened to electronic bands like Kraftwerk, Neu, La Dusseldorf (Kraftwerk,mostly) while their peers listened to prog rock. Andy was in a band and Paulwas the roadie. Despite always being in the same school, that was when theynoticed how they shared the similar interest towards Kraftwerk, so Andy quitthe band and formed his own with Paul that we now know as the pretentiouslynamed Orchestral Manoeuves in the Dark

They started off as a supporting band fo Joy Division inEric’s Club in Liverpool. They didn’t expect to have a longlasting career… theyreally thought it would be their first and last gig. They just wanted to provethemselves and their mates that they dared to go on stage doing somethingdifferent; doing weird electronic music, hence the odd band name. With such apretentious name, they wanted to show the audience how they were doingsomething different

And then they were offered a second gig in Manchester.That’s where they met Tony Wilson, and he signed them up to Factory Records.Then “Electricity” was recorded, and Tony sent it to various major labels, oneof which was Virgin Records, so they moved to Virgin. It was in 1979/1980 Ithink? And with their 1980 album, Organisation (their second one. Their firstone, the self-titled one, was released in the same year) – which they claim asbeing influenced by Joy Division, so this album is basically the child of JoyDivision and Kraftwerk – which included “Enola Gay”, they became well known.They got even bigger with the Architecture and Morality album, which has“Souvenir”, “Joan of Arc”, “Maid of Orleans”…

They commercially dropped dead with Dazzle Ships (1983). Itwas an experimental album, which I personally think sounds great, but probablynot acceptable enough at that time. Despite having quite successful hits like“Telegraph” and “Genetic Engineering”, that album almost single-handedly killedtheir career. So they took a safer path in their next album, Junk Culture(1984), embracing a more pop-ish sound. It can be heard on their catchy hitsfrom Junk Culture, like “Locomotion” and “Talking Loud and Clear”

Their 1985 album, Crush, was produced by Stephen Hague, whowas also the producer for New Order and Pet Shop Boys. They finally got intoUS’ charts with that album, I guess?? Regarding that album and that year, theyoften say something like “We were trying to break America, but America broke usinstead”, so I can’t be quite sure of what happened… commercially, it waspretty successful, I think… with singles like “Secret” and “La Femme Accident”

It was also in circa 1985 where their most notable song, “IfYou Leave”, was also made. Fun fact: they only wrote it in a day, because JohnHughes changed the ending suddenly and called them and said, “Hey, the song youwrote won’t fit to the new ending, could you write a new one?” right beforethey went on tour. The track that was initially going to be used in Pretty inPink, “Goddess of Love”, was later put on The Pacific Age (1986). Speaking ofwhich, that album has “(Forever) Live and Die”, which is a BANGER and is sungby my handsome hamster, Paul

Then they broke up sometime in late 80s. 1989, I think. Theyowed the company a lot of money, so they made a Best Of album. But even thatwasn’t enough. Their choice was either to make another new album (which canmake money, quite possibly, but due to their past experiences, they barely gotany money left because the touring expenses, royalties to their manager, etcwere so expensive) or to stop and just wait for the money to come from theirprevious albums’ royalties (I’m not really sure about this one, they’ve toldthe story a couple of times during interviews but I could never 100% understandthe story). This is where Andy and Paul went their separate ways. Andy chose tocarry on while Paul chose to stop. So Andy carried the name OMD alone (underhis stubbornness). A couple of years later, Paul, Martin, and Malcolm formedThe Listening Pool. Both were obscured by the new trend in 90s that was Britpopand such (Andy often implies that he blames Britpop for the obscurity ofelectronic bands and I loathe him for that smh I’m a Britpop hoe, fuck youAndy). Andy (as OMD) released 3 albums on that decade, tho. Later on, he formedAtomic Kitten

And then they were reunited in 2006/2007, because they wereasked to perform in a German TV. Then they thought, “Oh, people still like us.Maybe we could make music again.” And so they did… they released History ofModern in 2010, English Electric in 2013, and their latest record, ThePunishment of Luxury, was released a month ago! Unlike the 80s, they are nolonger pressured by their record company, so they’re really doing this purelyfor fun. By the way, their latest single off their latest record, “What Have WeDone”, is sung by Paul and it’s fucking glorious. You should listen to it ifyou haven’t

On a more personal note, I find it weird how they’re bothvery influential and infamous. I mean… they don’t only influence other synthpopbands, but also an alternative like Radiohead. I heard that “Fitter Happier” byRadiohead was influenced by “Genetic Engineering”, and now that I think aboutit, “Fitter Happier” does sound like something out of Dazzle Ships. I’ve been aRadiohead fan since 2011/2012 and yet I literally never heard of OMD until thisyear; not until I got to New Order and was getting more cultured regarding 80ssynthpop acts

Lastly, here are some trivia you might not want to know butsounds like fun to share:

Before realizing that they could be actual musicians, Andy wanted to be an archaeologist, while Paul wanted to be an electric engineer

Atomic Kitten was basically Karl Bartos’ (Kraftwerk) idea. Andy wanted to keep writing songs, but he wasn’t confident enough to perform the songs as OMD, so he thought of just handing them to someone else. Then Karl suggested that he should create a pop group where they would sing his songs. Andy thought, “What’s the most popular group nowadays? Oh, I know, 3-piece girls!”

In the recent years, OMD often have underwears thrown at them lmao. Especially during “(Forever) Live and Die”. Poor Paul having to deal with nasty fans (but honestly… I’d do the same). But sometimes they have hazardous shits thrown at them too. One time, Paul had his head hit by a glass bottle (I’LL FUCKING MURDER ANYONE WHO DID THAT. HOW DARE THEY HURT MY BABY). And Andy almost got decapitated when someone threw a metal tray aimed to his neck. Terrifying

Somehow, when they were touring, the bus they rode on resemble a group of terrorists’ bus, so they were surrounded by guns… and luckily, “Enola Gay” was already a big hit, so Andy just waved a magazine with their faces on it and said “’Enola Gay’! Pop stars! Not terrorists!” jesus Christ

There’s actually a version of “Souvenir” where it was sung by Andy. In 2015, Paul was hospitalized in New York, but he insisted that they should do this gig in Perth, so they did, only 3 of them… “Souvenir” was on the set, and Andy sang it. It was… okay, I guess. I’m so used to Paul’s soft voice singing that, so it’s kinda weird to hear Andy’s powerful voice singing it

…I’m sorry if you expected a shortsummary and get this re-writing of OMD’s Wikipedia page instead. I never realizedhow deep I am in their ass until I answered this message with a 1600-word essayabout OMD that was based on my memory alone. Good god

I’m awfully thrilled every time someonementions OMD-related to me, so don’t hesitate if you want to talk about them tome!!

#I rarely get any anon so I’m always delighted every time I get one #ESPECIALLY THIS ONE #the 1600-word part is not an exaggeration… I wrote this on word and it was literally more than 1600 words #which is why I took a long time to answer this… sorry!#also I made that gif especially for this anon

6 notes · View notes

buddhajeans · 7 years

Text

[st_horizontal_line]

A German band from the early 70’s changed the way music sound

[st_horizontal_line]

Kraftwerk was created in the German city Düsseldorf; the band formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, fronted by them until Schneider’s departure in 2008. Their signature is easily recognizable driving; repetitive rhythms with strong melodies, minimalist strictly electronic instruments, almost naïve lyrics simplified and at times sung through a vocoder of computer speech software. The harmonies are classical western; however, these simplified lyrics are conceptual and enormously strong future-oriented.

Description once exotic objects in our consumer culture that today are the most ordinary and important things surrounded with (similarities to pop art). In 1981 came the albums Computer Welt those lyrics singing about home computers, pocket calculators a conceptual work and vision of today’s world of computers. In 1986 came the albumElectric Café and again Kraftwerk lyrics are about the telephone, mobile phones, and a society builds upon electronic communication; still with the catchy melody laying on the top making their songs feel like any Beatles tunes sing along. Earlier work as the Autobahn (1974), Radioaktivität (1975) and Trans-Europe Expresss (1977) state a clear vision of the future, motorways, transportation, superfast trains, energy consumption etc.

No band has influenced pop culture more than Kraftwerk since the Beatles

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kraftwerk distinctive sound was revolutionary and has had a lasting effect across many genres of modern music. No other band has influenced pop culture more than Kraftwerk since the Beatles, their massive impact on the sound and music for an artist such as Moby, David Bowie, R.E.M., Daft Punk, Orchestral Maneuver’s in the Dark, Madonna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Missy Elliott and Fergie. It doesn’t stop their Techno music from Detroit would not have happened if it wasn’t the impact Kraftwerk had on ‘Belleville three’ (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson & Derrick May), who fused the repetitive melodies of Kraftwerk with funk rhythms. Hip Hop roots is no exception for their influence; Trans Europe Express and Numbers mixed in Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force, one of the earliest hip-hop/electro hits. Richard D James (Aphex Twin), Björk, Joy Division and New Order were heavily influenced by Kraftwerk. David Bowie’s “V-2 Schneider,” released as B-side to the “Heroes” single, features on the album “Heroes,” is a tribute to Florian Schneider. Furthermore, disco scene and later electronic music would not have been the same.

[st_horizontal_line]

Live at Tribal Gathering 1997

I have luckily seen the band play since the 80’s when I saw them at Rockefeller in Oslo, a 1000 capacity club, later the night. I even shared a few beers with Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider on an after a show in a club near the venue. In 1997, I saw them on the legendary dance festival Tribal Gathering in Luton outside London. The performance should be one of the key concerts in their history; club land was at its highest point commercially and that night all other bands stopped playing simply because every other musician wanted to experience the band. Kraftwerk has always cultivated their own style, whatever trend going on in pop culture they resisted making changes; their total anti-fashion statement should turn to the fashion statement. After a concert, I had seen the members walk out of a venue without even being recognized, with a small sack, jeans and a jacket they looked like the most ordinary people.

[st_horizontal_line]

The album The Man-Machine (German: Die Mensch Maschine), was released in 1978, and it is the album that created the fashion look this post is about. The album was recorded at their studio Kling Klang; however, due to the complexity of the recording, the album was mixed at Studio Rudas in Düsseldorf. The cover of the album produced in white, red and black and the design was highly inspired by the Russian artist El Lissitzky, and the moment named Suprematism. The cover shows the band members dressed in red shirts and black ties. Great website on Kraftwerk publications etc.

The Man Machine

The tune from the album Das Model or “The Model should become one of the most selling records in Kraftwerk history, and the song is also a classic tune for the dance floor. Many of Kraftwerk cover art designed by German multi-artist and painter Emil Schult, his unique signature style highlighting his role in pioneering the unique aesthetic that eventually came to represent not just Kraftwerk, but an entire style ethos of the period, copied and admired still today. Schult style can remind of Russian communist propaganda posters; however, on acid as many of his paintings shows a dream of space or even an urge to break out of the strict frame of the design.

On 21 November 2008, Kraftwerk officially confirmed Florian Schneider’s departure from the band; Floridan is one of the original members from the start. Kraftwerk has not only a pioneer electronic music but pushed the limits of music technology with some notable innovations, such as custom-built devices and self-made instruments. The Kling Klang studio has always been perceived as a complex music instrument as well as a sound laboratory; especially Florian Schneider developed a fascination for music technology, sponsored by computer brands as IBM and Sony. Donatella Versace used the theme of Kraftwerk “The Man-Machine” in their menswear line to create a contemporary spin. Alexandre Plokhov head of menswear at Versace, he ushered in a new skinny tailored silhouette. Lean black suits were worn with high-necked red shirts or T-shirts for a look that channeled the German band Kraftwerk.

Immortalized

Kraftwerk was immortalized when they were performing eight shows at the Museum of Modern Art April 10th through April 17th, 2012 and Tate Modern, the concert sold out so fast the ShowClix servers crashed. I guess almost every single artist was visiting MoMA or Tate Modern for one or more Kraftwerk concerts; from REM’s Michael Stipe, shipping scion Stavros Niarchos and curator Vito Schnabel, consisted mainly of male hipsters, art types and electronic enthusiasts in a series of concerts understood as “a visual and phonic feast. Kraftwerk finally released The Catalogue box set on 16 November 2009, a 12? LP-sized box set containing all eight mastered CDs in cardboard slipcases, as well as LP-sized booklets of photographs and artwork for each individual album.

KRAFTWERK MUSIC NON-STOP

[st_toggle][st_panel state=”” title=”SHORT BIOGRAPHY (CLICK AND OPEN)”]

WHO: Kraftwerk WHERE: Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany GENRES: Krautrock, avant-garde, EDM, experimental, synthpop ESTABLISHED: 1970 –present MEMBERS: Ralf Hütter – lead vocals, vocoder, synthesizers, keyboards, organ, drums, and percussion, guitar, bass guitar (1970–1971, 1971–present) Fritz Hilpert – electronic percussion, sound engineering (1987

SONGS ON MAN MACHINE

The Robots, Die Roboter

Spacelab

Metropolis

The Model, Das Modell

Neon Lights, Neonlicht

The Man-Machine, Die Mensch-Maschine

DISCOGRAPHY

Kraftwerk (1970)

Kraftwerk 2 (1972)

Ralf und Florian (1973)

Autobahn (1974)

Radioaktivität (1975)

Trans-Europe Express (1977)

Die Mensch-Maschine (1978)

Computerwelt (1981)

Electric Café (1986)

BANDS AND ARTISTS INFLUENCED BY KRAFTWERK

Moby

David Bowie

Daft Punk

Orchestral Maneuver’s in the Dark

Madonna

Jay-Z

Kanye West

Missy Elliott and Fergie

U2, Neon lights

Laibach’s

Uwe Schmidt Senor Coconut,

Dr. Alex Paterson the Orb

Afrika Bambaataa Planet Rock

Simple Minds, Neon lights

Ladytron

Yazoo

Depeche Mode

Franz Ferdinand

Coldplay, Talk

Official website of Kraftwerk www.kraftwerk.com

kraftwerk records for sale on recyclesound.com

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The Model Computer love Vinyl 7 Inch

Tribal Gathering CD compilation live

Radio-Aktivität LP vinyl

Man-Machine LP vinyl Fame

Tour de France Vinyl 12 inch

Expo remix 2×12 vinyl

Electric Cafe Vinyl Album

Das Model EP 12 vinyl

Showroom dummies EP 12 vinyl

The Mix 2xLP vinyl (German Version)

Expo2000 EP 12 vinyl

Showroom dummies Single 7 vinyl

Computer love Single 7 vinyl

The Model, Single 7 vinyl

Pocket calculator Single 7 yellow vinyl

Pocket calculator Single 7 vinyl

Die Roboter Single 7 vinyl

Kraftwerk changed music, youth culture and fashion A German band from the early 70’s changed the way music sound Kraftwerk was created in the German city Düsseldorf; the band formed by…

#Beatles #computer #disco #electronic music #electronica #Florian Schneider #Germany #Kraaftwerk #Man Machine Man #Pop culture #technology #tribal gathering

2 notes · View notes

finishinglinepress · 5 years

Text

FINISHING LINE PRESS FEATURED AUTHOR OF THE DAY:

Poet Rodney Torreson grew up on an Iowa farm, and his plainspoken yet mystical poems draw on the landscapes and traditions of the Midwest. He earned MFA from Western Michigan University, and his poetry collections include A Breathable Light (2002) and The Ripening of Pinstripes: Called Shots on the New York Yankees (1998).

The former poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Torreson has won the Seattle Review’s Bentley Prize, and his poems have been featured in former US poet laureate Ted Kooser’s syndicated newspaper column “American Life in Poetry.” Torreson lives in Grand Rapids, where he has taught creative writing at Immanuel St. James Lutheran School since 1978. In 2008, he created the online youth poetry journal Through the Third Eye. (Bio from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rodney-torreson)

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

THE JUKEBOX WAS THE JURY OF THEIR LOVE by Rodney Torreson

$19.99, Full-length, paper

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-jukebox-was-the-jury-of-their-love-by-rodney-torreson/

In his tour de force The Jukebox Was the Jury of Their Love, Rodney Torresondrives his “Corvair around town,/ trying to ride the potholes to glory.” This master of emotional balance has created, with the grace and intensity of a Clarence Clemons solo, an authentic and until now unrevealed American history — yours. Put away your long-saved Rolling Stone mags, your Lester Banks insights, your scholarly insistences that miss the mark. Rod hits it. Hits it? He gets it. And he lives it with a voice sung with the passionate ache and innocence of Janis, Brian, Kenny, Lulu, John, Paul, Tom, Van, Lucinda, Leonard, Mick, and Joni. Of Lucinda Williams he sings, “You could fill your voice to the brim/ or turn it over to adjust splendor/ or shape the rain, so it would come loping/ across our hearts, or make a lake squirm/ in your loneliness, suddenly mine, . . .” In a torrid of eccentrically uncommon knowledge Torreson astonishingly riffs together song lyrics, languishing offstage lives, the tempestuous and the timeless, the dissipation of appreciation, untimely deaths, the erosion of music authentically created into another American commodity, and the ubiquitous longing for what will never be. Torreson writes, “I’m there in raw applause.” Throughout poem after poem, you will be too. –Jack Ridl, author of Practicing to Walk Like a Heron, Losing Season, and Saint Peter and the Goldfinch

Reading the vivid poems in Rodney Torreson‘s The Jukebox Was the Jury of Their Love is like visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They not only reanimate the legendary performers—from the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Janis Joplin and Johnny Rivers—they bring back the places, the people, and the emotions intertwined with music that has defined an entire generation. Like the Beatles on their first American tour, this fine collection sings and will “find favor” near and far.

–Matthew Brennan, author of One Life and The House with the Mansard Roof and The Music of Exile

PREORDER SHIPS AUGUST 16, 2019, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-jukebox-was-the-jury-of-their-love-by-rodney-torreson/ #FLP #poetry #book

1 note · View note

i-traveller · 5 years

Text

Yorkey’s Knob marina

Sunday 24 February

We are on our way but are not stopping at Brisbane, Whitsunday Islands or Yorkey’s Knob we are told so a potential 4 days at sea instead of 3 ports of call.

Some people are not happy as the Whitsunday Islands are their sole purpose of coming on the cruise for the Great Barrier Reef.

A talk by Colin Hobbs on the history of flights from the U.K. to Australia was interesting.

The name “Qantas”, Australia’s air line, is actually formed of the initials of, Queensland and Northern Territories Airline Services.

A few brave sunbathers on a sea day

A female Australian singer who now lives in Christchurch, NZ, Ali Harper, sung many a female diva song for tonight’s entertainment.

Monday 25 February

The sun is out and we are able to enjoy the rays on our balcony before the usual sea day activities of talks food and drink.

Ashley Carruthers is tonight’s entertainment which is after some classical entertainment by a violist and cellist (an Austrian and an Australian).

Tuesday 26 February

Calmer sea now and few less clouds so a balcony stay for the morning but at 1 pm we are advised by the captain that we could now get into Yorkey’s Knob and if we do we won’t get into Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.

A decision may not be made until early tomorrow morning but the tours are being reinstated just in case.

So, what are we doing tomorrow – anyone’s guess. It means the Port Talk by the excellent Tours manager on Papua New Guinea may just have been somewhat pointless.

Tonight’s entertainment is by Ian Cooper, a violinist who played for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

He plays many pieces from different genres from classical to Irish and Bulgarian Folk using both his Acoustic Violin and a similar sized electric instrument that has a sound just like a Cello and is much, much easier to fit in an overhead locker on an aeroplane!

Wednesday 27 February

Rainbow outside Yorkey’s Knob

An unexpected day on land at Yorkey’s Knob, with a rainbow or two to welcome us. Manage to get a message to my cousin’s son, Dan who is able to meet us after our tour.

Sea still a bit choppy so we are tendered in by one of the local ferries, that are normally used by diving experiences, quite early in the day and we are met on land and coached to the base station of the Kuranda cable car ( Skyrail ) near Smithfield which appears to be a newish development of low rise houses with a few shops.

On the way up in the Cable car

Yorkey’s Knob is nothing to write home about in anything to see.

There is only the Boat Club, where we meet up with Dan later, and a convenience store with a few quite largish houses but it does have a list of which cruise ships are visiting.

No time to visit the gift shop at the Skyrail station as we are ushered into the queue for the next available cabin which holds 6.

A few of the cabins are upgraded with glass bottoms but these go up unoccupied.

Trees and trees everywhere

Soaring high above the foliage canopy we hear but do not see wildlife other than a few butterflies.

There are trees everywhere of so many different varieties. Whilst the cabin is enclosed, a window does open allowing some reflection free photos.

One of the tall trees

We alight at the Red station for a brief walk on the adjacent walkway highlighting the fact that many trees try to fight each other to get the sunlight.

Back on the cable car we cross now quite a large expanse of woodland before we get to Barron Falls Station, named after the nearby falls which are in full flow although a week ago were even more full of water – probably the edge of Storm Orma.

Next stop on the sky train is the end of the “line” at Kuranda and is adjacent to the railway line we saw on the way up. There was a tour on this as well but was sold out.

Picked up by coach, we only had a few minutes in Kuranda village itself, a sort of raging hippy type town but there was not enough time to explore the markets unfortunately as we had a butterfly sanctuary visit included.

Ulysses butterfly

The badge of the sanctuary is a bright blue butterfly, Ulysses, one of which we had seen from the cable cars on the way up but just could not get a decent photograph.

Sadly, there is only one pair in the Sanctuary and are difficult to breed so no photographs as this pair was, true to form, hiding somewhere for protection.

I did see another blue Ulysses outside but as it is one of the fastest flying butterflies I again couldn’t photograph it.

Absolutely loads of other butterflies here in an area as big as a medium sized back garden with many showing off their bright colours whilst eating the nectar of the plants or just basking in the sunlight.

Butterflies at Karumba Sanctuary

Back to Yorkey’s Knob, so called as it was named after a Yorkshire man and there is a small hillock nearby, sign in as a guest to the boat club with it’s array of moored vessels and meet up with Dan and his 5 month old daughter who after waking up did not moan at all.

Family

I hadn’t seen him since his grandmother’s funeral in about 1997 and has many of his parent’s features.

Dan and his wife, Helen, moved out from the U.K. a few years back not enjoying working for the NHS and Dan thinks they will stay in Australia.

They are going back for a couple of weeks in April to see his Mum and Dad, my cousin, and Helen’s parents.

Dan had to leave after an hour and a half to fetch his son, Dylan, from School so we make our our way back to the ship on by now quite a rough sea and decide not to have lunch but just afternoon tea which is shared with Dave and Sandra Padfield who have stayed on the ship.

Tea on board Arcadia with Dave & Sue Padfield

Very tired tonight and miss the Headliners, instead opting for an early night.

Now we are told we might be able to get into Rabul in Papua New Guinea for a couple of hours.

Cruise 2 – Yorkey’s Knob Sunday 24 February We are on our way but are not stopping at Brisbane, Whitsunday Islands or Yorkey’s Knob we are told so a potential 4 days at sea instead of 3 ports of call.

#Butterflies #Kuranda #Yorkey&039;s knob

0 notes