#jon is my favorite part of this like rip to michael but i like the way jon came out <3

[peitalo]

finally got around to finishing this mag101 comic i sketched out a few months ago!!transcript:

#went to sannikov land w my boss and all i got was my who torn bloody from my what 💔💔 #the magnus archives #tma #aauugeyywgehhg fuck tags uh #mag101 #michael shelley #michael distortion #jonathan sims #gertrude robinson #jon is my favorite part of this like rip to michael but i like the way jon came out <3 #OH MY ART TAG #peitart #i think this is the first time i’ve ever watermarked smth. life is crazy<3 #the way i drew the map makes it look like a restaurant kids menu #body horror #eye strain #scopophobia #hitting post at 2 am. passing out immediately

[perseffable]

hello lgbtq community, here are my tma fancasts! sorry most of them are American, I don't watch much British television rip

Jonathan Sims- Danny Pudi, Avi Nash, Michael Greyeyes

so I haven't picked one yet, but starting with Danny Pudi, I think he could really bring out Jon's social ineptness and his prickliness to others. i also think since he's very good with comedy and jon isn't very talkative, he could 1. bring some great physical comedy and 2. really emphasize Jon's emotions via his body language

next up, Avi Nash! ive only seen him in the walking dead, but i think he was really strong in his connections to others especially Dante and Michonne. he could really bring some great chemistry with elias after it's revealed elias is evil, same with helen. i think he'd also show Jon's empathy toward people who have lost someone

finally! Michael greyeyes! i doubt anybody else knows who he is, but he's plains cree canadian and he was on fear the walking dead. i haven't watched anything else with him in it, but in fear he was a very strong leader, who sometimes went a little too far but had a good sense of loyalty to his tribe. he played a very good anti-hero, and I believe he'd be very adept at playing jon. also he definitely has that thousand mile stare that jon totally has lmao

Martin Blackwood- Cooper Andrews

I think you can see a pattern.... yes i am a big walking dead fan. anyway cooper andrews was also in Shazam! and his character in twd are both very comedic, but from various little scenes in twd, he seems like he could be a lot more quiet and lonesome and a lot more like martin

Elias Bouchard- David Morrissey

(finally somebody british lol) i think david morrissey is an incredible actor and a phenomenal villain! he does a lot of research for his roles, so he'd definitely be a very thorough elias and i think he'd drop some very subtle but amazing hints about elias' motives and actions

Timothy Stoker- Manny Jacinto

ah my favorite, Tim! im not exactly sure why Manny Jacinto speaks to me as Tim, but in the good place he's very emotional and i think he'd bring out some of the great emotional Tim moments, especially with the season 3 finale

Sasha James- Tirya Sircar, Karen David

Tirya Sircar had a small role in the good place where she played a demon (that parts unrelated) but her character was very knowledgeable and kind (until she was revealed to be a demon lol) somewhat similar to Sasha. she's also a slightly more comedic actress which is also essential for Sasha

honestly the more I think about, the more im leaning toward karen David (Canadian British!) who plays a former nuclear physicist on fear the walking dead. her character is jaded but still friendly and willing to help others. she puts the greater good above herself, and I believe she'd really fit sasha

Georgie Barker- Pearl Mackie

a British actress, known for doctor who, pearl mackie is excellent all around. she plays romance and friendships well, and i think she'd be a wonderful georgie

Melanie King- Aubrey Plaza

ah yes, the lovely aubrey plaza! as we all know, Melanie has some... violent tendencies and she can be quite temperamental, both things aubrey plaza excels at

there's a 10 image limit, so i can't put photos of my daisy fancasts, but a quick google search should remedy that for everybody lol

Alice "Daisy" Tonner- Louise Brealey, Kim Dickens

Kim Dickens is another actress from fear the walking dead, where she plays a mother who would do anything for her children and sometimes pushes the limit, which daisy does fairly often. dickens would really allow daisy to struggle with doing right versus wrong and succumbing to the hunt

Louise Brealey was molly hooper in sherlock, which is honestly a far cry from daisy's character, but there's something about her where I think she'd excel at playing a troubled and violent cop that struggles with her humanity

i don't have a fancast for basira really, so that's the only main character i believe im missing. i might do another one of these for other minor characters such as gertrude, gerry, and helen but we'll see. anyway lmk your thoughts on my fancasts!

#the magnus archives #the magnus institute #tma #jonathan sims #magnuspod #martin blackwood #tma fancast #rusty quill

[smallestclowninthecircus]

Season 4 notes

Ep 121: mmmm tape recorder turning on without them knowing goes brrr. AAAhjhdsjfhjdf "do you mind if i call you jon" its like "can i call you elias?" is this the dream guy with the tendrils? who wants to bet the boat is captained by peter lukas? big man if it killed yall how are you still here. oh boy the tape is doin that thing. who do we think it is? did he wake up? hmm. ep 122: lol jon. 6 months!?!? bruh quit movin big man. he just Knows things sometimes you know how it is. nah b/c i can relate to feeling like other ppl/ things arent real, thats the biggest mood BUT i think it is kinda pretentious to entertain the idea that youre the only Real person. If you dont see a body dont believe it. i'll hold out hope for a bit. theres not a new archivist is there? surely i wouldve heard about that. oh god peter what changes did you make. ep 123: web development. hope its about spiders. she blames him. bruh why. if they hadnt done anything the world would've ended piss off melanie. why are ppl acting like he chose to be in a coma for 6 months. we know this they just appear. no longer "head archivist of the magnus institute, london" now he's just "the archivist" covered in spiders? cuz ik the spider has to do with controlling what youre doing and all this stuff but i cant think of how this connects to that. ep 124: ugh vertigo. is michael crew an old man? oooh. fairchild. how did he know it was martin? hmm. GRR I LOST MY NOTES AGAIN. FROM EPISODE 125 - part of 131. ep 131: bruh he's so hard to understand big man ur voice is so low. Jared Hotworth. the boneturner. "the ones i helped find their proper bodies" name a better top surgeon? our favorite trans ally? ep 132: woo field trip into the coffin! static lol. he says "chill out im just poppin in for a quick recall mission" is the rib thing actually gonna work? bruh it feels so odd and contrived but he's an odd man with some odd powers so idk. rip that archivist ayyy statement time. voices? recordings? are those tape recorders? was it the tape recorders? did they pull him back? i hope so b/c if the rib thing actually worked im gonna be so disappointed. ep 133: predicting the lonely? tundra. like the lukases. hmm. sanikova! like sanikov land. so its the hunt? i suppose? yeah. so daisy's clearly rejecting the hunt, which makes sense cuz she doesnt seem to like the entities that much. wait so are we just not gonna talk abt all the tapes playing on the ground?? no? ep 134: not an archival assistant anymore? Adelard Decker (or however you spell it) i recognize that name. 15th power. i was right there are 15. the extinction? im trying to remember what ive heard. oooh spooky. no i gotta be real i dont understand this fear but i'll believe you that its a thing. ew lukas is so squealy. lukas can turn invisible? oh boy. oooh martin put the tape recorders there. lol lukas is worried he's gonna be an avatar of the eye. ep 135: yoo its the third Daedalus statement! maxwell rayner (reiner? reigner?) i dont know who that is but ik its somebody. is he the cult leader guy? church of the divine host? 4 people?? what? did they kidnap somebody and keep them up there?? oh dear jon are you dying? did he try to See or Know or whatever? why does everyone call basira detective lol. ep 136: he was the one from the spider movie that ate ppl right? the special effects artist? is it annabelle cane? "its a joke jon" lol. hmm they wanted to record the therapy session with melanie? i wonder who that is. i almost wanna guess annabelle cane but im not sure. ep 137: this is the one! he went to the other place and read the war statement but it wasnt the one she took. not the music again. sounds like the slaughter. who the heck is eric lol. "the watcher's crown" like the crown of eyes we saw in the piccrew ep 138: oh boy Robert Smirk time. is that elias? as unhelpful as usual. if new powers can be "born" can others die out? did jonah magnus wear the watchers crown? maybe they were born from our fear or maybe our fears were born from them. ceaseless watcher does ceaselessly watch so. idk what you want

big man. yeah jonah for sure did something. ep 139: agnes!! lol that one dude threw off all their plans thats so funny. BUT this does tell us something. the tree in the backyard of the hilltop house? not made by her. it going down didnt kill agnes. im guessing gertrude tied agnes to the house using the tree? u good jon? cuz every time you try to Know smth intentionally it seems like it causes you great pain. how come he can do it accidentally with no problem but the second he wants to know smth of plot relevance he gets a headache or whatever ep 140: lol pagan exultation. classic. "oh thats my rib" lmaoo. ppl are always so mad at jon and his Eye powers except when it benefits them. they're like "oh you shouldnt do that its not right" and then all of a sudden they want to know something and its all "oh cmon jon its the only way" ep 142: oh god jon what did you do. its interesting she's giving her statement in the way that they do when jon Asks. did he see her in the Coffin? and so he's following her? ok cmon jon you're supposed to let them come to you. lmao ikr martin. "start to hear the blood" "suure." lmao ep 143: lol that awkward moment when gertrude is already dead. big J if you die im gonna kill you. bruh. ayo helen? i guess it worked? ep 144: lol this reminds me of that one edgar allan poe story where he kills the old dude with the weird eye. spooky music stuff. lol thats my favorite symptom of a heart attack its hilarious. so its smth abt the location probably? bro i feel like you should write down the numbers idk. 162830165049 564846474827. seems like the distortion? like the kinda thing that causes you to go crazy because of the numbers. oh boy is it the extinction again. bro what?? im?? his dad just died and he's like eh. martin dont be mean. he's being all lonely again. big man ur pushing ppl away. oh god its fucking squealy boy. ep 145: that almost sounds like breekon/hope... Arthur? agnes. aah was he from the lightless flame cult. a tree. lol he's just ranting rn. hehehe fuck landlords amirite. yay someone tells jon outright to go to therapy. now do it big man. ep 146: oh great! the distortion! i'm making a spiral themed building in mc right now! jon maybe accept you did a bad? nah this goes back to what i said before. they're fine with him compelling ppl when its convenient for them but otherwise its "no jon you cant, youre a monster jon" the tapes didnt turn on. i spose that means its not important? i agree with daisy, this seems unecessarily dangerous. ep 147: is that a tape? the first tape? well that went better than i expected tbh. BAHAKJASHDJKF she did the "can i call you jon" like nikola says "elias, can i call you elias?" damn annabelle is such a girlboss. oh! the one thing from the picrew. its been a while since ive connected smth to that. lol all the other avatars always talk abt their patron so lovingly and the jon just. absolutely hates the eye. ep 148: lol thats the most elias thing. "i just like the way it sounds" ep 149: did he disappear? bruhh. ur lonely powers are popping off i guess. oops i accidentally deleted my notes for 150 - 152 ep 153: thats the cult right? yeah. it doesnt sound like the church of the divine host? idk. if it is the church of the divine host then they worship the dark right? so is the eleventh the dark star or wtvr? it almost sounds like the corruption b/c of the oil or grease or whatever. oh dear what happened. oh its the hunters. theyre so annyoing. not an "it" he has a name. he's a person. is this a page from the skin book? ep 154: oh shit this is gerry's dad! oh shit he quit! oh dear god. jon don't you do it. haha martin. yeahhhh... is he gonna tell the others? cuz you know theyre gonna get mad if he doesnt. oh also picrew connection! the bandages over the eyes? yeah thats this im guessing. ep 155: oh good he told them. oh my god what did you do. lol i have no mouth and i must scream. nah you get none of my sympathy you're straight up murdering ppl. its like the desolation, destroying lives to sustain your own. ok but taking their statements doesnt

kill them. oh... bye melanie. ep 156: lmao imagine if the tape recorder spoke back. oh boy decker! i swear we got a statement from him already. oh god mirrors scary. They're gonna eat the body arent they. Yup... sounds like the flesh or the slaughter, but I'm not sure. Could be the extinction for sure. Smth at the center! Like Helen mentioned. God Peter you dick. Ep 157: peter's just so :/ another decker statement i see. a statement about the corruption? hmm. maybe its not abt the corruption. the extinction. lol pandemics. topical. John Amherst. helen? lol i can hear admiral purring in the background. oh cmon helen dont be like that. im trying real hard to like you but you make it so difficult. ep 158: did they fucking free the stranger? im gonna lose it. you absolute dumbass. im sorry who is that? jonah magnus? my guy. peter. you absolute dickhead. that's elias. (im p sure i had this spoiled for me that elias is jonah) oh dear this is her death. god peter you prick. i hope this is a pop off martin moment and not a "martin you idiot" moment. i hope the hunters kill the stranger entity. or she kills them. furry daisy pop off! yeah fuck you peter martin can make his own decisions. you know that clip from Twisted where jafar says "ok what the fuck was that" martin D: ok like i know its gonna work but still D: D: ep 159: peter you bitchboy. because if im alone i cant hurt anyone else. imnotgonnacryimnotgonnacryimnotgonnacry do it do it do it do it. pop off jon. ok its a pretty good idea for a ritual i gotta be honest. she didnt even have to blow it up lol. oh dear that was certainly a noise. "he gets you" did he not have jon already? he's back! our boy is back! awwww thats so cute. ep 160: oh right this is the thing in the safe house. i love him. "obviously im going to tell you if i see any good cows" martin my beloved <3 :)) oh boy who is this. fuckin. people. jonah you dick. gahh. you can tell he's trying to resist so hard lol. ohh. hehe keep an *eye* on him. altho if the extinction is a real thing he needs to be marked by that right? lol he sounds so intense im sorry- i want martin to just burst in and be like "look at this cow i saw!" its so dramatic and for why.

#tma notes #tma

[localspaceangel]

Ufff alrighty I finished listening to tma 187, get ready for some rambly thoughts!

So um. First of all i'm really mad that i accidantly spoiled myself that helen was going to die in this ep...tho at the same time its really funny bc the expact same thing happend to me with tma 101 ahsbkashbx

Admitedly I was really afraid. Like it or not i've grown attached to helen and even tho i knew it'll very likely happend, its still pretty hard to let go u know? (plus she's been one of the only mood-cheering things about this season, god now its gonna be a terribly sad nightmare isn't it)

Even tho after thinking about it it makes sense, the fact that helen didn't actually have any big plan was pretty suprising for me. With the way she was acting with jon and martin, i thought what could happend is she would take advantage of martins trust and take him hostage, threating jon to kill him if he doesnt do what she wants (now that i think about it, my idea didn't make that much sense, and again, not really having a plan is much more in-character for the distortion). I thought this would result in an epic tm confrontation between jon and helen, and that it would end in a satysfing way. THAT is honestly what i wanted the most- if she was going to die, then it should be a satyafing conclusion to her character as a whole, considering how she became a pretty important part of the story.

...now, am i satysfied? i wasn't 100% sure at first, but i think yes, and the main reason is that she was killed by basically being tricked to lie. I was really hoping that that would be the case, cuz come one, a monster that twists the truth and hides it under illusions being manipulated themselfs, esentially getting the taste of their own medecine? god lord that is so. fucking. good!!!

Now, ngl, i will very much miss helen (not like i was simping for her or anything 😳) - both her and michael were fascinating and just plain fun characters i could talk about for hours, and i've grown attached to her, basically selling the point of her being an awfull manipulator even more huh? xd

Ontro some other stuff, tho this will be brief:

- Jons and Helens chemistry was always one of my favorites tbh, and them just. passive-agressively talking was a Joy to listen to

- Jons reaction to the victim touching him really hurts when you realise how much touch-based trauma, or heck, trauma in generall this man has faced (also helen immidietly calling him a monster for that? fuck youuuuu)

- Gotta love the sound design of this ep, like My god. Helens voice going from being near, to seemingly comming from everywhere to even sounding like its on a radio?? Fucking hell that's good!! Also just the creeks and shifts of the hotel, the music and the laughter...*chefs kiss*

- The image of the whole hell hotel crumbling once helen is killed is So Cool and i'm kinda hopeing someone will animate it someday

- Lol also Martin basically accidantly skipping all this for some lonely self-care time? good for him honestly

That is mostly it i think... if theres one thing im not the fan of is. the kinda random-feeling part of og helen turning out to be conservative?? like, i get it, it proves the point that we never even knew her much i could've hated her if we did, but also ahhhh helen u dissapointed me here >:-(

all in all...rip to helen And the distortion as a whole...you were a rlly important character and a really fun and interesting on at that, go have fun in the monster hell 🙏

#blablabla #dont rb #the magnus archives #tma #the magnus archives spoilers #tma spoilers #tma s5 #tma season 5 #tma 187 #mag 187 #pretty much all my thought are under the cut so i dont think theres much reason for me talking in the tags lol

[achieveandhunt]

live typing extra life 2019

warning: this a fucking LONG post. if you plan on reading it all, godspeed.

i typed all of this as it was happening on stream so this gets progressively less coherent as i grow more sleep deprived. prepare yourselves. i may or may not go off topic at some points

larry vehemently vomiting pure malic acid. we’re off to a great start

what the fuck the soggy ass popcorn in that ranch jesus christ

lindsay in the song from AH the musical. i love her so much

jeremy going YAAAAAAY after someone eats a cursed oreo

matt getting AGGRESSIVELY kissed by larry

“this kiss this kiss” before geoff and jack kiss

geoff “i’m from alabama” ramsey

THIS FUCKING RANCH SEGMENT HAS ME GAGGING

jeremy “the alcohol demon the whiskey goblin” dooley

alfredo “you wont believe what the white people did today” diaz

DUSK BOYS DUSK BOYS DUSK BOYS GET THAT DICK ESSENCE

wait why does it sound like wonderwall

they look like characters from the matrix

the speaking parts. make my teeth hurt

in conclusion: they weren’t kidding abt the tight pants 

okay everyone get ready for eric soundboard spamming YEAH BABEY

“hi i’m from broadcast and i don’t want to be here” they represent themselves well

also, let’s take a second to appreciate broadcast here!! they have a really tough job and don’t get a ton of credit. lots of love to all of broadcast!!! you guys are awesome

i am: foreseeing problems with this eric sound board

which one is eric?? will the real eric please stand up?? was the real eric the one we found along the way??

“i’m... just really worried that i won’t ever find love-” “i really don’t care”

WHY DO THEY HAVE THAT ON THE SOUNDBOARD (what does that apply to? whatever it is you’re thinking of, but mostly “daddy wants some”)

ooh someone’s about to get a fReE tongue piercing from a pineapple

god dammit i went to the bathroom for thirty seconds and now they’re eating chad’s chest hair

owie the shock collar and belly slap look painful, but drinking natty light from a shoe? that’s a true punishment

“and this roast was brought to you by meundies”

ah yes what better way is there to end a segment than people throwing up

“man action” oh no

THROBERT MULVEINY

K A R B is blind in T W O of her eyes

“my last name is cottagecheese”

I HAVE A PIECE OF METAL SHOVED UP MY A S S 

chris has somehow managed to lose 23 years of age and roughly 412 pounds

“just open throat like baby bird” who the fuck is writing this and why is it jeremy

jon. jon you’re breathing in adam’s ass fumes

a summary of this segment: ass and cottage cheese

BARB IS HERE I REPEAT BARB IS HERE

“to fitness” -starts choking-

final fitness coach: tad, here to workout your issues so they can beat you into submission

“will you buy my wet” well i don’t see that on the raffle items

we’re back folks & i’m loving this walk around segment

moonball wall and gavin&michael will soon be reunited can we get an F in the chat

jeremy getting a borderlands tattoo is very on brand

what’s extra life without a little satan

“starvation army, putting lead back into paint, increasing childhood obesity” people in chat: TAKE MY MONEY

chris “i’m doing a different hole” demarais

ah yes. the game we all play in hell: twister

nobody edit chris getting mustard shot down his throat. i’m scarred enough from the original clip

oh fuck. oh god. the mayo. oh god what the fuck is up with the misuse of condiments this year

this just in: a human soul costs roughly $12,700

D̷̯͑̆̈́͝Õ̸̲͎̥̬͈̬̙͕̲G̸̢̧̠͉͚̙̲̙̓̔̀̇S̷̥̀́͆̈́̇̀ ̶̣̞̗͚̬̭̖̦͇̈́̎̈́̿̓̈́͆̒̋D̷̙̟̩̫͉̺̐̊̚Ö̶̥́̋́̓ͅĜ̵̞̌͋̏̉̌̕͝͝S̵̤̹̣̫̮̻͛̍̑̕͝͝ ̷̧̨̞̙̥̟̜͍̉̍̑̏̇̀̾D̴̻̮̩̯͓͉̖͎̘͐̒͋̓̉͝ͅỎ̶̰͓̳̥͑̅͛͊̒͐͊͘̚G̵̩̻̦̥̠̃̔Ş̶̹͚̩̱͖̀͆͘ ̸̢̢͇̻͔̗̺̼͖̱̏̾̔̚D̴̨̨̫̙̃̾̋̾̆̓̓Ớ̷̡͓͎͊G̶̱̣̣̰̝̖̰̗̓͐̐̊͋̀͊̀̕͝Ş̷̩̺̬̖͙̺̟͗̈́͒͗̀̑́́̕͠ ̷̡͈̼̲͈̳̫̺̝̈́̋͌͗̒ͅD̸̨̬̞̪̗̘̄̑͆̿̈́͘͠͝O̸̡̡͇͕̻͎͍͉̅̌͗̄͌̑̉̔͂̎Ḡ̸͙̟̪̞̬̬͕͐̈̏S̶̝̪̼̮̠̜̭̳͖̘̑

urine: to help with aerodynamics

jon: maya, speak! maya: *the smallest arwoo*

today’s mvp: any dog. pick one. no matter which you pick, you’re right

how the fuck did blaine change back from satan so quickly

barb as a cat is... my new sleep paralysis demon

blaine: barbara speak! barbara: climate change is real

#dogsforkids

this just in: extra life killed my wifi

we’re back & kdin is in the business of killing people with spice. she is the spice queen

queue six thousand well-timed 1337 donations

HOLY SHIT THAT’S COLIN FROM WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY

hmm “questionable liquids” is very... questionable

trevor: oh there’s four of them! we all get to join in the Fuckkkk

“what’s your favorite kind of candy” “any meat”

i like pickles and i would rather rip my eyebrows off than drink the juice so i feel for trevor

the only thing worse than drinking apple cider vinegar is shooting it out of your nose

“can you feel the love tonight” “i used to and that’s the problem”

“flubs every word man” damn, really missed the chance to say captain hair

jeremy not being able to intentionally flub his words is so fucking funny

OK BOOMER 

wow i can feel my blood pressure spike just watching these shots

Xavier Woods is here and he wants to know if it’s Christmas

miles doesn’t know what a question is

WHERE’S YOUR HAIR

oh no. oh no helping hands is next. everyone clear a splash zone

CHEF MIKE CHEF MIKE CHEF MIKE

miles bossing around chef mike is priceless

“you leave that fucking dough on the floor”

“you wanna slam your hands down on the table” *pizza sauce goes flying everywhere*

HOEDOWN HOEDOWN HOEDOWN jesus why do i keep doing that

“If Colin Mochrie is listening, I’ll see you here next year” OH FUCK YEAH

--- this is when i take a break so my soul can return to my body (aka i have work to turn in. college will never not be a pain in my ass) ---

oh god dammit i missed all of Always Open. fuck college who needs a medical degree

so... we have some very interesting things happening in family feud and i’m not sure if i like any of them

hmm. is now the time to get drunk

oily twist feels very... ominous

what do you mean you don’t remember gandalf having a taser in lord of the rings?

someone in the chat said “big stupid sleeping thing is what my parents called me in high school”

i think i’m blacking out what’s going on i don’t remember the past two hours

ah yes. voldemort and snape having a talk show together sounds exactly like something J.K. Rowling would make a spinoff book or show or porno of

can we just talk about how much shit chris has been doing this year? what a guy. what a dude

“coldy with voldy” actually means getting knocked the fuck out cold because you only got three hours of sleep last night and you don’t want to miss chef mike and lindsay cooking

this snape poem is summarized by one phrase: “that was terrible sit the fuck down” (sorry chris)

“let’s destroy a weasley” enter chad

fucking called it

“you smell poor” i need a caffeine drip

heh the wheel spins are at 69 heh nice

i’m a grown ass woman

welcome to a section called: we torture chad for your entertainment

“who wants us to kill weasley?” *massive cheers from the audience*

“wait weasley step away from the wideshot so i can masturbate to this later”

“i’m not gonna rub my eye mom”

oh they’re really gonna kill chad on stream huh

i felt that chest slap in my soul

i think i felt my own ribs crack

oh fucking

tumblr deleted my thoughts on the fanfic section

alright. fine. brief summary: my teeth are burning

my mom lindsay is on next and i’m so excited but i’m nearing the point of loopiness so things will go downhill dramatically from here

this is my fucking fourth extra life, you would think i’d be smart enough to sleep the night before

LINDSAY LINDSAY LINDSAY THAT’S MY MOM

JEREMY JEREMY JERE- wait a second... did jeremy get taller

oH CHEF MIKE CHEF MIKE CHEF MIKE

i hope Xavier comes back next year because he’s funny as fuck

m y a t t

oh god the mcdonald’s shade i’m rolling

lindsay “who’s the chef here” jones

chef mike mentioned mayo and i involuntarily gagged

chef mike clowning the big mac. i’m crying

he made the right choice with ryan bc i’ve seen his cooking stream(s) and it’s nothing if not great content

i heARD A MICHAEL JONES

“lindsay you haven’t done anything but warm up cookies so far” “yeah and?? you’re welcome”

you know that classic snack. slightly warm oreos

JEREMY THE LIQUOR GOBLIN DOOLEY IS BACK

oh god him screeching across set is making me cry laughing

why does it remind me of trevor’s voice cracks in the one minecraft ep where they’re singing the lion king

the biggest spoon for the smallest shot glass

i just realized we’re not even halfway through yet and i’m scared for the length of this list i’m gonna end up falling asleep involuntarily at some point

lindsay no your teeth are going to errode from that shot in your mouth

well timed leet donation #1829495

this gorden ramsey bit is so fucking good

jack: what do you think of the arugala? matt: i don’t even know what you said

iT’s NoT jUsT tWo CoOkIeS miCHeAL

jeremy and michael just chillin amidst the choas is exactly my demeanor at any party i’ve ever been to

lindsay scores: ryan = 7 because diet coke, matt = still eating lindsay’s meal so it’s a 10, xavier = also still eating it so it’s an 8. total: 25

“deep fry everything but a remote control”

chef mike scores: ryan = 9 for no death, matt = greens are present, words were said, score is 8. xavier = Gourmet Mcdonald’s, food is edible, score is 8. total: 25

oh fuck it’s a tie

now they fight to the death. death = doing as many shots as possible

i think we’re all going to need liver transplants after tonight

no jesus please don’t vomit oh goD oh fUc k please- oh thank god

okay i’m making a part two this is too much

#extra life 2019 #i’m going for full 24 hours this year #rooster teeth #achievement hunter #jeremy dooley #michael jones #lindsay jones #jack pattillo #geoff ramsey #gavin free #ryan haywood #matt bragg #alfredo diaz #trevor collins #fiona nova #i regret everything in my life that has led to this moment

[absolute-lithops-emotion]

because my brain works the way it works, whenever I get into something I immediately shift into crossover mode, so I was thinking, tma and dghda

Dirk Gently characters in the Magnus Archives universe is just way too sad to think about, but tma characters in the Dirk Gently universe on the other hand!

Imagine:

When Jon is a kid, he encounters something dangerous and supernatural, like in canon, and like in canon he can only stand there and watch. But then it keeps happening. He keeps running into these terrible things happening to other people, and there’s never anything he can do to help, and he remembers all these things perfectly.

Then one day, a man comes to his grandmother’s house. Says he’s from the Magnus Institute, and he knows about this kind of thing. Says he can teach Jon about it, if he comes back to the Institute with him. So of course Jon goes, and when they get there Elias (because that’s the man’s name, of course) leaves Jon with a tape recorder while he “takes care of some paperwork” and suggests that Jon might feel better if he puts his stories to tape. So Jon does, and almost immediately, the awfully present memories begin to fade into something more… ordinary.

Jon lives at the institute, and Elias tells him about his powers, about the Universe and being connected to something bigger, and at first Jon finds it comforting. But as he gets older he begins to realize… that Elias isn’t going to teach him control, isn’t going to tell him that he can do more than just observe. That maybe he can’t do anything more than observe. Maybe that just isn’t what he’s for. Well, that’s fine.

So when Jon’s an adult, Elias sends him out of the Institute to record specific weird stuff, although he usually ends up getting sidetracked and kidnapped a lot before he’s able to get back. And he does go back, every time, because, you know, emotional manipulation. BUT THEN he meets Martin. Martin’s connected with something weird somehow, maybe as it turns out A Lot of weird things, but he doesn’t seem to be actually Involved with any of them. And Jon… keeps running into him??? So Jon is like, obviously this is a Suspicious Figure, in need of Further Investigation. And completely fails to realize that he just has a crush on the guy.

This story is called “New Children of the Old God” of course

More disjointed thoughts about this AU under the cut!

I haven’t figured out exactly what what Jon’s deal is as an Agent of the Universe but he’s probably something like a memory backup system? The stuff he gets drawn to involves other people like him and sticky causal situations, and a lot of the time (increasingly often??) situations where Holistics/the Universe aren’t working the way they’re supposed to and things are going wrong. So Jon observes these events and their fallout and records them in a tangible form that can be referred back to later by other people in case something like this happens again.

And he is ONLY supposed to observe, NOT help or interfere. That would corrupt the data! So as long as he stays out of it, he is very very hard to injure, since he does have to be in close proximity to dangerous situations. But there are times when he can’t help but try to help instead of just observe and he usually ends up horribly injured. Elias berates him for doing this, under the guise of being worried for Jon’s safety, but really he just doesn’t want The Mission to be compromised and he wants Jon to do what he says. Because he’s horrible.

In that vein, Elias has set himself up as this kind of Father Figure Mentor and he absolutely ruffles Jon’s hair a lot.

I also haven’t figured out Jon’s exact attitude towards the whole situation at the start of the story but, much like in canon, I think he’s in heavy Denial Mode. He can’t deny that he has powers or that supernatural stuff exists, but he absolutely is framing it as a power that he has, that comes from him, because he doesn’t want to believe that he’s just being pulled around by the Universe and if he doesn’t acknowledge it it’s not real right??? This is just his Job, and he’s going to be a Professional and Do His Job. Which, does require him to act like an insensitive jerk about other people being in danger, But Hey. (Also this attitude probably interferes with him doing his job effectively BUT HEY)

Oh and he does have the whole “compel people to tell the truth” thing. As well as the “sometimes you just Know Stuff” thing, not that it’s very helpful in actually piecing things together. Jon has the general background awareness of the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, but not much more in that vein

There are two options for the Institute that I have to decide between. One, every Holistic went through there, like with Blackwing, and just some of them have “graduated” and live somewhere else now or just aren’t affiliated with them anymore. Two, the Institute has only ever had a few Holistics because… they don’t have a military budget lol. I’m leaning towards the second one, because of that and also some other stuff that I’ll get to.

So, the people who I know are at the Institute (in a similar position that the Holistics were at Blackwing): Jon, Gerry, Annabel, formerly Michael Shelley but not anymore. Might be more? I sure don’t know.

Annabel’s deal is the easiest to talk about so I’ll do that first. She’s actually pretty similar to Dirk, minus the detective thing -- she makes sure people and things are where they’re Supposed To Be, doing what they’re Supposed To Do.

She doesn’t do anything as unsubtle as command or compel people, instead she usually has a very good hunch for just what to casually mention or suggest in order to make them have the idea themselves. But she might also be able to control people by whispering to them while they’re asleep, mostly because I think it would be hilarious if she used this power to make Jon do dumb stuff and walk into things when they were kids. I mean, all of this is really subject to change given that we know jack shit about Annabel in canon.

Annabel is also the one who really Gets, like, what they are and what they do and what that means. She is just the kind of person who can fundamentally vibe with the idea that they are really just being pulled around by the Universe for its own designs and they don’t get a say in the matter.

So Michael is hard to figure out because fractals mean something totally different in these two canons. So do I give him a connection to the Backstage of Reality Mandelbrot dealie? Because here’s the thing I’m gonna go on like, a million tangents here but hey everything’s connected right

(Also something I have to figure out is which parts do I take from Michael Shelley and which parts do I take from Michael Spiralentity because we know the latter AN LOT better than the former so like, but on the other hand.... You see what I mean?)

Whatever Michael’s deal is, at some point he gets betrayed or finds out something and completely breaks from the institute and also starts trying to fuck up the Universe. At some point he meets Helen and I guess it’s sort of like a Bart and Ken situation?? Anyway and then at some point the Universe gets Fed Up with Michael’s shenanigans and forcibly rips his powers out of him and gives them to Helen.

But then I was thinking, maybe give the Mandelbrot Powers to Gerry, because I could not for the life of me figure out anything else, and also he has the biggest Hero Of Another Story energy, and also like I said fractals mean something different in the Dirk Gently universe.

But then, like, multiple people can have pararibulitis at once in canon so maybe it’s a moot point! Maybe they can both have Mandelbrot Powers who knows

Anyway

So they all live at the Institute together but they are fairly isolated and don’t see each other much until they’re like, older teens

Also I have to mention at this point: this fic is Jonmartin but! it might also!! be Jongerry!!! Because I’m nothing if not a sucker for “Gerry was Jon’s celebrity crush” and in this case they are actually living in the same building and Jon has absolutely run into Gerry doing inexplicable and slightly concerning Mission-related things in odd corners in the middle of the night, and also keeps hearing all these stories about him, AND THEN, he finally is old enough that Elias lets him go on Missions with the other Holistics his age and he gets to go on one with Gerry and he’s like okay be cool be cool be cool and he psyches himself out so much that he ends up saying something really insensitive and he’s like I Can Never Talk To Him Again, cause he’s a teenager. But, you know, they end up working together often and by the time the story starts they’re actually on pretty good terms. But then Jon’s in denial and Gerry has some complicated feelings about the Institute and he doesn’t really like what they’re doing, and those attitudes clash Bad sometimes.

Martin is also very jealous of the Holistics that Jon grew up with cause like, they grew up together, they probably understand Jon better than he ever will, right? And he’s jealous of Gerry especially but then he deals with his issues and gets over it and then polyamory can happen.

(It goes without saying that Jon is oblivious to ALL of this for a Very Long Time)

I don’t know who came up with “Holistic” but it probably wasn’t Jon, that being said this will not stop him from using it when people point out that he doesn’t actually know what an archivist does. It’s an instant Get Out Of Jail Free card. He can just answer anything with “Well, that’s because I’m a Holistic Archivist”

Jon is Elias’s Favorite but literally no one except him actually cares about that because Gertrude Robinson is also there and she’s just objectively so much cooler.

I’m not sure if Gertrude is Holistic or not? She might be, given her very “for the greater good” attitude that seems to be shared with the Universe (could she be… a Holistic Arsonist). But unlike Jon and his gang she is on pretty much the same level as Elias or at least he wants her to think that.

Dekker might be there too? But he’s definitely not Holistic, he’s a regular guy who just happens to be really badass.

(Much like the Holistic Gang, there might also be other adults there but I haven’t figured that out yet (I mean they’re all adults but some of them weren’t always if that makes sense))

The Deal With Elias: Obviously some kind of body-swapping happened there, there’s body-swapping in Dirk Gently already I have to take advantage of this precedent. Here’s the basic idea that I have currently: Elias Bouchard is kind of a loser. Okay, a big loser. But then one day he encounters something. Something weird. Something that makes him latch on to the idea that there might be Something Bigger. And the Bouchard family is a bit like the Spring family -- they aren’t Holistic or anything like that, but they have seen/done some weird shit, and they do have Resources. Resources Elias can use to, eventually (or maybe not eventually? perhaps even accidentally? definitely accidentally), look into the very Backstage of Reality itself. Resources that would be very useful to Jonah Magnus, who’s been waiting back there for a Very Long Time. Here’s the thing -- Elias Bouchard wanted to play a part in something bigger than himself. To be Important, in a cosmic sense. And Now He Is.

Also, og!Elias absolutely ran into/maybe worked with Gertrude Robinson before The Thing happened, solely because I n e e d to give them Riggins’ and Friedkin’s conversations. Can you imagine

So here’s the thing. I have no clue what Jonah Magnus’s intentions or motivations are in this AU! A possibility: he, like Michael, is Against the Universe, except he’s pretending not to be and in fact might have slightly manipulated Michael into trying to break the Universe? And maybe, when Michael is Replaced By Helen, he also gets taken to the Backstage of Reality (or maybe he was there when it happened and now he has no way to get out) where he meets! none other than og!Elias. I just think that would be fun. But on the other hand why was Jonah Magnus there in the first place? I don’t know, we didn’t get the chance to learn anything about the place before the show was cancelled, so

Another possible plot point: What The Fuck Is Up With Hill Top Road??? Seriously that house is the most Dirk Gently shit in the whole podcast. I mean, I really wouldn’t want to write about it until we learn what the canonical deal with it is but then I definitely for sure will not be finished with this fic by the time we do learn that so

#the magnus archives #dghda #this has a potential audience of like... two

[tomdayastuff]

I think one of my favorite scenes in the first movie, in huge part because it was a superhero movie and it required no powers to be an awesome scene was the scene in the car with Michael Keaton. Would you say there’s something kind of equivalent to that, like anything you’ve read in the script or shot already where you’re like “Alright wow this is suspense time, no super powers,” or anything like that?

HOLLAND: There’s a scene in this film where audiences will feel like they’ve been punched in the face. Even filming it, I remember walking out and then watching it again on the monitors and asking Jon like, “Are you sure that’s okay?” And he’s like, “No, it’s not, people are going to hate this scene.” But it really … Got it’s pretty crazy, and it’s very similar in the way that it’s very tense, and it sort of rips the rug from underneath your feet and it’s pretty awesome.

#tom holland #spider-man far from home

[whythehellnaut]

Why’s Lion King (2019) review

I watched my favorite animated movie, the original Lion King a couple of days ago to prepare to see the remake so I could compare the two, and I have to say the original is my preferred version by far, by a rather disappointing margin.  I can respect what Disney was trying to do with this remake, and I certainly enjoyed myself and can give praise where it's due, but there's so much that doesn't work in this as a result of going live action.  I can say that what does work best is the visuals.  I honestly can't tell that these aren't live action animals.  They move realistically and every hair on their bodies can be seen swaying with their body motion.  If anything can beat Alita: Battle Angel for the best Visual Effects Oscar, it's this.  But, in spending all of their time and effort on this, they seem to have skimped or gotten lazy on a lot of other areas.The main complaint I've heard, which came about during the trailers, is that the characters don't emote enough.  In trying to be realistic instead of cartoonish, Disney forgot that actual animals provide more facial expressions than what they show in this movie.  This complaint is true, and a major fault in the film, but the problem actually goes further than that.  Sometimes the mouths don't sync well with the voices or their movements don't match the actors' tone of voice.  Zazu will say something in a panic, but will continue bobbing his head around in the same way that he does when he is calm, like nothing is wrong, almost as if they were real animals filmed by nature documentarians and then hastily given voiceovers from actors who weren't seeing who they were portraying.  Sometimes they will recreate a scene where a character takes less action than in the original.  For example, in the animated film, when Mufasa asks to speak with Simba alone to scold him, Simba's eyes go wide and he crouches down in fear, as a real cat would.  In the new version, he doesn't even move.  I don't understand why they would spend so much time animating these characters to be realistic, then cheap out and exclude a very basic, yet still realistic motion.  This is only one example.  It's aggravating how static they are over the course of the movie when the characters and even backgrounds were always dynamic in the original, which made it the masterpiece it was.The performances aren't even particularly good.  Donald Glover seems bland and generic for the most part, leaving no impression that Matthew Broderick didn't leave first.  JD McCrary as young Simba sounds like she's reading directly off a script for the first time, always either overacting or underacting like she doesn't know the context.  John Oliver is funny in his delivery, and a good choice for Zazu, but seems to have been directed to only mimic his comedic voice he uses in Last Week Tonight, which is a pundit show much different from a movie.  It ultimately doesn't fit, and feels very awkward, but I blame director Jon Favreau more than Oliver.  Beyonce has about ten lines in total as adult Nala, and makes it clear she was only cast to sing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"  Chiwetel Ejiofor sounds good as Scar, but in the iconic line from one of my favorite scenes in the original (and in cinema in general), where Jeremy Irons dramatically whispers "Long live the king," and tosses Mufasa off the cliff, Ejiofor botches it and makes it sound, again, like he's reading off a script, resulting in an underwhelming death scene, both due to Scar's voice, and his lazily animated movement.  Seth Rogen is fine as Pumbaa, but all I can hear is Seth Rogen playing himself, as usual.  Even James Earl Jones, the same actor who played Mufasa in the original, sounds tired and less emotional than he previously did, either due to age or bad directing.  The only performance I enjoyed more than the original is Billy Eichner as Timon.  He is less exaggerated than Nathan Lane but perfectly pulls off the personality and updates the humor of the movie with his performances that almost sound like well made adlibs.  He is the best part of this movie, in my opinion.The third big problem I have is that almost nothing has changed.  75% of it is a shot-for-shot, line-for-line remake, which is especially noticeable having seen both movies within days of each other.  This makes the poor performances all the more aggravating because they literally just had to mimic the original and call it a day, and still couldn't come close to matching that.  Some of the shots are neat, impressive homages, like in Circle of Life, but it can get boring when so much is exactly the same but with less emotion and movement.  Even the background music and instrumentals, while I expected them to be similar, often seem ripped straight from the original.  Circle of Life, I am quite certain, is the same exact song recorded in 1994, but with a new vocalist.  That's sad if they couldn't be bothered to remake even that.But what has changed, and how much of it is good?  As I mentioned with Timon, the humor is updated.  The silly puns were expanded on to make funny quips, sometimes poking fun at the original, the live bait scene is genuinely laughable without the hula dance, as they reference another Disney movie and a hilarious way, and the In the Heat of the Night reference is replaced with an "I hate bullies," exchange, which is more appropriate and relevant now.  The musical numbers are dumbed down.  I Can't Wait to be King is no longer presented like a colorful art exhibition, but instead a stroll through the watering hole, and Be Prepared is limited to the final verse that Jim Cummings sang in Irons' place, and excludes the geysers and goosestepping, for example.  The chemistry between the hyenas has changed, with Shenzi now a regal leader with a little more dynamic with Nala, but Bonzai and Ed are now replaced with nameless Hyenas played my Keegan Michael Key and Eric Andre who bicker about personal space, which can occasionally be funny, but they rarely bounce off of Shenzi or even interact with Scar.  About half an hour of run time has been added with mostly needless filler.  Some of it is good, like showing the turmoil the lionesses go through under Scar and the Hyenas' rule, better explaining what went wrong, and a fun scene showing how Rafiki discovers Simba is alive, but lots of it is pointless nature show style shots, like spending three minutes following the mouse that Scar tries to eat in the intro.  As I said, I can respect that they tried to go for a nature show inspired look, and some shots do work, but it mostly brings down what should have been a great movie.Reviewing a remake is difficult because you have to take into account whether the movie is good when you ignore the original.  In this case, it's alright, but the original is such a classic that almost everyone in the country has seen it.  It's freakin' Lion King.  I can't help but spend most of my time comparing the two versions.  Overall, I believe the first is far, far superior, but I think many will appreciate the new look, and some may even prefer it.  However, my final verdict is that watching the original at home or at a rerelease (which seems to happen fairly often with such a stellar work of art) is a better time to spend an evening.

#movie review #lion king #the lion king

[xxkellsvixen19xx]

Forget Me Not Jim Mason x Reader 50 First Dates AU Pt 7

@michael-langdon-appreciation

February had given way to May and long-weekend fair and picnic was nearly perfect. Local ranchers and farmers were done enough of the spring planting to take a moment and actually relax. The rest of Palos Verdes that could shut down for part of the day did, and the weather usually cooperated.

It was one of Y/N's favorite community events. Like hibernating animals crawling from their dens to discover the world had become shiny and fresh all over again. She was more like a bloated balloon than a thin blade of spring grass. The baby was taking up more and more room in the bulkhead that had become her stomach, but her changing body didn’t bother her too much. The kid needed room to grow, yet the timing for her due date meant she wouldn’t be hauling a huge belly around all hot, sweaty summer long.

Or maybe best of all? Jim didn’t seem to mind one bit. He'd been attentive and caring, and oh-my-gawd intensely involved for the last three months.

She'd been surprised when her interest in sex hadn’t decreased as her girth widened, but maybe the nonstop caresses and massages had something to do with that. He'd all but moved in with her. Fixed the damages caused by Rick then they'd both set out to ignore the other man. The restraining order had been a sad but necessary step.

Jim paced beside her, his fingers linked through hers as they strolled the fairgrounds, the scent of buttery popcorn and new-mown grass mixing into a sort of holiday-themed perfume.

"Move over, dude." Medina shoved her way between them, linking her hands over both their elbows. "I take it we won't be attempting any ride records on the Zipper this year, hey, Y/N?"

Oh, lord, no. "I can only imagine what that would do to the kid. If you want to challenge your stomach, sweet-talk someone else into riding with you."

Medina squeezed her arm. "Perfect. That's what I hoped you'd say." She stepped forward, boldly tugging Jim with her. "Hey."

He resisted her takeover. "Not me."

Y/N laughed. "Go on if you want to. I'll wander for a bit."

"Nope. I'm here with you,” Jim insisted. His eyes lit with mischief. "Hey, Alex. You still scared of heights?"

Her brother sauntered into view, corndog in one hand, burger in the other. "You smoke something funny over here? I'm not afraid of heights."

"Good to hear." Jim darted a quick glance at Y/N. "Then you can take Medina on the Zipper."

Medina dug her fingers into Jim’s side briefly, and Y/N attempted not to laugh out loud. She joined him in the tease, complete seriousness in her voice. "That’s a good idea. I usually ride with her, but this year the poor girl is simply lost without me."

"With friends like you two, who needs enemies?" Medina muttered. Then she turned her bright smile on Viserys. "So, whad'ya say? Shall we go flip ourselves around and show the teenagers how it's done?"

Alex gave them a dirty look before gesturing Medina ahead of him toward the fair rides set up in the corner of the grounds. Y/N and Jim managed to wait until the other two were out of hearing range before bursting into laughter. "That was sheer brilliance," Y/N praised him.

Jim caught her fingers in his. “Alex likes her. I don't know what his problem is."

“Medina's a bit ...exuberant at times. Bet they'll figure it out eventually." Y/N got sidetracked by the sight of an art display. "Come on, I want to look closer at this." One of the locals who had an art studio had displays of her work set up on easels, and Y/N slipped in closer to chat with Sandy for a while. The other woman had far more experience, with an art show or two under her belt. Y/N loved that there were people she could turn to for help as her new interests continued to grow.

Jim let her go, striding over to the next tent where a group of guys had gathered to shoot the breeze.

Sandy smiled. "Hey, good to see you again. Name is Sandy if you've lost it."

Y/N accepted a brief hug. "You're so lovely. Also, thank you for not saying,‘haven’t you had that baby yet?' People should have to give me a quarter every time they mutter that phrase."

"You're not ready to pop," Sandy teased.

"Four weeks left." Y/N admired the painting in front of her, with two cowboys sitting easily on the backs of their horses. "Your work is amazing."

The woman grinned harder. "I have great inspiration." They both turned without a word to stare across the yard. Y/N took a moment to admire Sandy’s men, Rolando and Jack, but her gaze moved quickly to Jim. "I'll say. I think I need to suggest another practice session of nude sketches. To work on my anatomy lines."

Sandy chuckled. "Dirty girl. I knew I liked you for a reason." They exchanged smiles then visited for a bit longer before Y/N wandered off. Jim was still busy talking to his friends, so she waited outside the cookhouse and chatted with the ladies there. Familiar faces-at times names eluded her, but her problem didn't bother her nearly so much anymore.

The people who mattered knew how to help her, and the people who didn't know, she got around. Life had changed a lot since the previous fall. The kid rolling awkwardly inside her was only part of it as elbows or knees dug into her bladder at the most inopportune moments.

It was bigger things. She was more confident than she used to be. More determined to do what was right for her and the baby. More in tune with the man who had come into her life in a powerful way.

HE WATCHED HER. All the time Jim laughed and joked with his friends, he kept an eye on Y/N. Loving the moments where she smiled in response to a comment, her entire face shining with happiness and joy. He got to see her like that more often these days, and her enthusiasm thrilled him.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder. "You're obsessed with my sister," Chad poked.

"Not even going to deny it."

Chad grumbled. "No fun to tease you anymore. You're all Y/N all the time."

"Tease Adrian instead," Danny suggested. "He's got a cop on his tail. One more ticket, bro, and she’s going to impound your bike and slap your ass in jail for a couple nights."

Adrian didn't answer, just eyed Eli as she strolled through the crowd patrolling the fairgrounds, her uniform far more wrinkled than usual. Jim wondered briefly if something was going on he wasn't aware of.

He'd been so focused on Y/N and his conversation that he almost missed it. A familiar face popped out briefly from behind the corner of the cookhouse. "Was that Rick?" he snapped.

Chad twirled. "Where? He's not supposed to be anywhere near Y/N."

There was no one there. "I'm seeing things," Jim mumbled. Only he still left the tent, glancing around closely. He passed Alex and Medina returning from the rides.

Medina's cheeks flushed from excitement. She slowed as he passed her. "Jim? What's up?"

He ignored her, pacing forward. Fucker. It was Rick, now leaning on the outside of the cookhouse and staring intently at Y/N. The expression on Rick’s face suggested his attention wasn’t a good thing.

"Oh my God, that’s Rick." Medina slapped Jim on the shoulder rapidly a dozen times, her voice shaking as she ran along beside him. "What's he doing here? What's he doing?"

Jim wasn’t going to wait for something bad to happen. He stormed across the clearing between tents, headed straight for the troublemaker. He grabbed Rick by the back of the shirt and jerked him off his feet. "What the hell? You're not welcome here."

Rick scrambled to free himself from Jim's grip, seams shredding as he broke free and stumbled into the crowd. He used the people around him to pull himself upright and whirl toward Jon. "Bastard,” he snarled. "You think you’re so much better than me, but you're the biggest loser here. A liar and a killer, and you don't deserve to be with someone like Y/N."

Jim lifted his fists and widened his stance. Rick wanted a fight? Bring it on. Medina slipped into his peripheral vision, standing well back from them both. "Jim. I called the police and they'll be"

"Police? Why the fuck did you do that for?" Panic streaked across Rick’s face, and he surged forward, only this time toward Y/N, one hand raised threateningly in the air.

“Y/N watch out," Medina shouted.

Jim lost it. He threw himself in front of Y/N as a protective wall, and Rick bounced off him. "Back off," Jim warned.

Rick exploded, punishing Jim with a flurry of fists. He wrapped an arm around Jim and jolted forward, the two of them staggering into the crowd as people screamed and attempted to run away. Y/N cried out, his name escaping her in pained gasp. The sound barreled through him, a terrifying echo from his past when he'd been too late to make a difference.

Jim went numb. Y/N. He had to protect Y/N.

Rick wasn’t supposed to be here, not this close to Y/N, but the man obviously didn't care about the law. Jim ignored the fist smashing against his face, instead pushed forward and did his best to move Rick farther from his target. Pain ignored, the shimmer of stars floating past his eyes ignored. All that mattered was keeping Y/N safe.

Around them people continued to shout, but Jim didn't stop. Didn't stop until he was on the ground, and even then he clutched Rick tightly, refusing to allow the man to escape. He didn’t swing his fists-didn't attack. Just held on and took the assault as he kept Rick away from Y/N.

"Jim, you ass, let him go," Chad shouted from somewhere close by.

The shouting and noise seemed to be dropping, but the adrenaline racing through him kept his grip firm. "No, he'll hurt Y/N."

"No one is going to hurt Y/N." Chad’s big hands pushed down on his shoulders. "Jeez, man. The PVPD are right here. Let him go so they don’t rip off his arms."

Jim relaxed. Rick was lifted off him, rapidly pulled to his feet and away from where Jim remained on the ground.

Chad offered a hand and pulled him upright, bracing him for a moment as everything spun. Jim's eyes wouldn't focus for a minute, and he blinked hard. “Y/N. Where's Y/N?" he demanded.

"Settle down,” Chad ordered. "She’s over there."

Jim whipped his head to check she was okay, nearly falling over he moved so fast. "Thank God, you're safe. You okay?"

Her face had gone white, and her hands were draped protectively around her belly. She nodded, leaning against Medina as her friend pulled her into a hug.

A few feet away Eli stood guarding a handcuffed Rick. Her partner Trace stood beside Jim, while other PVPD worked to calm the crowd. "I’ll be back in a minute." Eli spoke softly.

"Jim, don’t leave before we talk to you, understand?"

Jim nodded, and Eli turned to lead Rick to the police car.

Trace interrupted her departure. "Wait. I hate to do this in light of what just happened, but I have no choice." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a long envelope, passing it to Jim.

This wasn’t the time. "I need to see Y/N," Jim protested. Trace forced the paper into his hand. "Read it, now,” he ordered.

"You had it coming," Rick gloated. "Stay away from my woman, Mason."

Oh shit. That couldn't be good. Jim ripped the top off the envelope and frantically opened the paper. The words made no sense, though. "This... This can't be right."

He had to be seeing things.

"What is it?" Y/N asked, stepping closer.

Trace held up a hand, undeniable reluctance twisting his expression. "I'm sorry, Y/N. You can’t come any closer than that, I'm afraid."

Jim held the papers to Chad. "Did Rick hit me harder than I thought? How can this be legal?"

It was Trace who answered. "They were delivered this morning."

"It's for your own safety, Y/N." Rick had put on the act again; all calm and mature, as if he hadn't just tried to attack her. "For our baby."

Trace motioned to Eli. "Take him away, I'll deal with this."

Everyone fell silent as a laughing Rick was guided off the fairgrounds, Eli's firm grip on his shoulder.

Jim's gaze met Y/N's-her panic and upset so clear he nearly ignored everyone around them and stomped across the space separating them, papers be damned. "Jim? What's going on?" she asked.

Chad walked over to give his sister the papers, wrapping an arm around her. The expression on Y/N’s face as she read them scared him more than the sight of Rick stalking her had.

"It's a restraining order against Jim," Trace explained to Y/N. "Using Jim's history, Rick went in front of a judge and filed a complaint. He said he had concerns that you and your baby might be in danger, especially if it’s discovered that the baby is actually his."

"That’s bullshit,” Medina snapped. "How can Rick  get a restraining order on Jim? That’s up to Y/N, not anyone else."

Trace shook his head. "Except in special circumstances. Here in PV, this is a civil-court matter. If there's a reasonable belief that a claim is valid, exceptions can be made. The judge agreed there was a possibility of danger considering Jim was involved in a violent incident as a youth."

"Violent incident ...? He was trying to save his mom." Y/N shook the papers. "This is wrong, and the only reason Rick did it was to control me and hurt Jim."

Trace sighed. “There’s nothing I can do. Jim can go in front of a judge to protest, but until it's overruled, the order stands until the baby is born and the paternity test is complete."

Chad was back by Jim’s side, offering support. Jim rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder, the world swirling between pain and frustration.

Fear still shone in Y/N's eyes, and Jim felt it to his very soul. "I can't be with Y/N?"

"I’m sorry, no. No contact over the phone or Internet either. No communication. It’s a full restriction, and if you break it, you can be arrested."

Jim wanted to shout in rage even though that was the worst possible idea at the moment. Fury against Rick shot through him like living flames, but his hands were tied.

He was trapped.

Across from him, Y/N faced Trace. "I need to talk to you for a minute." The PVPD looked confused, but he nodded. "Go on." She spoke clearly, her voice the only sound as everyone around them hushed to silence once more. “Rick  went too far. I'm going to do everything possible to make sure he gets no contact with my baby, even if he is the biological dad. He's dangerous."

Sweet relief poured through Jim. Her voice quivered for a second, those beautiful eyes of hers filling with tears, but she still lifted her chin and continued. "Tell Jim not to break the order. Contact the judge to see if he can get it lifted, but if he can't, I want him to wait it out. It's only for a little while. It sucks and it's wrong, and if Rick were still here I'd be the first one to knock him on his ass for doing this to us, but it's not worth going to jail for. I'll be fine, and within a month we'll be past this and we'll go on with our lives."

Such strength and power in her small frame, Jim was nearly overwhelmed by the display. "Hey, Trace?" he called. The PVPD turned his way. "Yes?"

Jim followed Y/N’s lead. "Tell Y/N I’m going to do everything I can."

"I know ..." she answered, not looking away from Trace. He shook his head. "Guys, you have to stop this. It's time to move on."

They faced each other across the distance that before had seemed like nothing but was now as large a barrier as the Narrow Sea. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she gazed sorrowfully one final time before walking toward the parking lot.

Jim's soul crumbled into dust. "How could this happen?" he whispered. "It's not right, to leave her all alone. I wanted to protect her. I need to protect her ..."

The murmur of voices rose as Medina stepped to his side. She laid her hand on his arm. "I'll go with her. I know it's not what you really want, but somehow we'll get through this."

"Go-” he urged.

Medina quick-stepped across the field to rejoin Y/N, slipping an arm around her. Y/N leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder, and they walked slowly, disappearing from sight around the corner.

All the happiness and joy Jim had finally allowed himself to grasp slipped away like ashes being blown from an abandoned fire pit.

#jim mason #tribes of palos verdes #fan fiction

[afspfsjklf]

BASICS 

name: michael jon carter

alias: booster gold

age / birthday: -421/34 // december 29th, 2442

gender / pronouns: cis man // he/him

sexuality: bisexual

team affiliation: the justice league

earth of origin / source material: like, 90% new earth, 10% prime earth

faceclaim: aaron tveit

occupation: businessman (ceo of booster gold international)

identity status: public

positive traits: amiable, diligent, gregarious, jovial, respectful, self-sacrificing.

negative traits: arrogant, easily distracted, forgetful, impulsive, overconfident, self-doubting (those are conflicting personality traits, and yet.... a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.)

where was your character during the invasion?: he was having a _grand_ disagreement with rip hunter over whether or not the invasion was supposed to be a part of the timeline. _it was_, but booster, being the impulsive man he is, still took some of the equipment to travel back and try to stop it before it began. he was almost killed in the process and, in the future of his altered timeline, he realized he fucked it all up. so then rip had to help him undo things, dammit booster.

what are they doing now?: biding his time and trying not to fuck up the time stream anymore, no matter how many things he thinks don’t line up. he’s following rip’s protocol and just protecting the earth when it needs it as the greatest superhero the world will never know.

how has the invasion and superheroes being public figures changed their life?: it hasn’t! hell, his first move when he got to the 21st century was to save the president and become famous! of course, that had to be undone, but he had his taste of fame. he’s still largely enjoying the limelight that superheroes are in now, but he’s seen what that can do to people.... aka, what that can do to him.

any canon divergencies: well! travelled to the 21st century instead of the 20th, but that’s all i can think of _for sure_ as of right now!

ABILITIES / POWERS 

like many gothamites, he has no inherent powers. but what he does have? cool gadgets from the future! -legion flight ring: you can probably gather what it does: this gadget helps him fly. -powersuit: arguably the most important of the gadgets he stole from the space museum before traveling back in time to gotham, this provides him with: --- enhanced durability --- super strength --- forcefield generation --- time-travel circuitry: OBVIOUSLY VERY IMPORTANT TO A GUY WHO HAS MANY MISSIONS THAT TAKE PLACE IN THE TIME STREAM --- gauntlets ( blasters ) --- enhanced vision --- enhanced hearing -skeets: my favorite of them all - and probably his too. skeets is a cute little drone who came along for the ride to the 21st century. he provides companionship, advice, security, and is pretty small - can fly places booster can’t and report back to him. -time sphere: belongs to rip hunter, but he uses it often to enter the stream. -also i can’t get over that his ‘prime earth’ wiki lists ‘Mental Illness’ as his weakness that KILLED ME ALFKHOAIELJSDK

CONNECTIONS 

-ted kord: he ain’t here yet i’m just manifesting -selina kyle:  -pyro: chaos buddies -rip hunter: boss but also son who i’m manifesting <3 -goldstar: sister who i’m manifesting <3

HEADCANONS 

- 110% has adhd. i can write an essay on this. - his canon birthday makes him a capricorn, which i can believe. but he’s def sag rising.

THREAD TRACKER 

tbd!

OTHER INSPIRATION 

-my sister’s ex-boyfriend. big himbo. (thought bermuda shorts were a brand and said he was going to buy the company with his beanie baby money, used to say “living bicuriously” instead of “living vicariously,” referred to audio books as “reading books with your ears,” etc. but also gave her many flowers and drank his respect women juice. only broke up with him because things were getting too serious too quickly.) -favorite quotes: -- “living down to expectations!” - his motto with ted kord -- “disgraced and desperate, michael jon carter of the 25th century traveled into the past to recapture his fame and glory. accompanied by his security droid, skeets, michael failed miserably due to his pride, ego and arrogance. but unknown to anyone, that's all changed now. michael protects all of time and space from evil exploitation as the greatest hero history will never know... BOOSTER GOLD ☆” (intro to his 2007 comic series) -- “you put a STARRO in a JAR? HOW are we RELATED?”

[smallestclowninthecircus]

Tma season 2 notes baybeee

I made myself take several breaks so I could give my frie d who is listening to it at the same time as me a chance to catch up. Honestly just posting them so I have them saved somewhere but whatever.

ep 41: real graham wrote keep watching before he was replaced. Jon feels like he's being watched. But they werent replaced by things related to the eye. It's the web that's on the box that replaces them. Endless hallways and doors to nowhere. I bet nicholas will have ideas what entity this relates to. If it even does. They're like the tunnels in the one with the builder guy. Tunnels closing in etc. Also like the cave diving one. He's assuming it's just one

ep 42: so 100 gecs? (IM SORRY I LIKE 100 GECS BUT LMAO) so there's some entity related to music right? There's the piper episode and the 27 w/ the calliope. Ah yes, this season is gonna be the season of Paranoid!Jon

ep 43: section 31? fucking books. god no. smashed lights? cult lady did that. covered the lights too. she mentioned a spooky clown doll. thats not random.

ep 44: is this that same circus that got mentioned before? it is! the pipe organ! pop off organ! pipe off! mouth on the stomach! yes! mouths in unusual places my beloved!

ep 45: antiques! like that one ep!

ep 46: every time books get mentioned i sigh. hhh sus smells. it got brighter. I get the vibes occasionally that the dark and the eye are sorta at odds with eachother. GRRR BARK BARK LEITNER. ayyy ex altiora. entity go brr. which entity do we thing it is? my guess is The Dark. The book buyer's name is Mike. He has scars? Electricity? The childhood friend of the guy who got it later on perhaps? The Vast? its formatted like an entity idk. This happened before the other one. He got trapped in the wood carving. a win for the web lol spiders go brr

ep 47: did i hear spiral? ITS THE NOT THING FROM THE EPISODE WITH NOT GRAHAM "it didnt move, it shifted" is like the exact same sentence as before. ay john's starting to remember. the laughing woah thats weird. is "michael" one of the entities? "you make it seem like theres a war" supports my theory that theres a struggle between a couple of the entities. I said i thought it was the eye and the dark i believe but im not sure. its whatever entity michael is vs the worms? what did nicholas say the worms were again? The Corruption? still dont know which one michael is tho.

Had to take a break after that episode. smth about the quality of michael's voice makes me feel like im gonna slip into one of those states where it feels like nothing is real, so i got a nice cold glass of water.

ep 48: jesus ok this one's kidna corny. you're telling me love made the crowd go away come on now. Ur losing it big J. also shouldnt it be more sus that "sasha" is so unaffected by the worm incident/ finding of gertrude's body

ep 49: haven't we heard hector's name before? oh is he the crime guy? fucking jared... so it's a throat? chompa chompa. (it's just a little bit hot) the good part about these episodes is that we know whoever's telling the story isn't gonna die. even if it's a close call, they're not dead. hotworth? ok not jared keay. it bothers me how theres so many repeated names, can they not come up with other names? "sasha"'s computer is breaking... sus. Elias our favorite weed man! jon ur so paranoid lmao

ep 50: robert smirk, at it again. this is like that one episode with the old dude who locked his door. who said idle beforehand? was it smirk? fingertips. thats so weird lmao. bahahah tim

ep 51: simon fairchild. im sure jon will mention the name at the end i cant remember where we've heard it. this is just like the cavediving episode. a hand? there was a hand in the last one right? the scalpel! and an eye thing. she's trying to throw them off.

ep 52: thats the guy from before! with the hearts! god i hate this guy writing the statement hh. lights blowing, and brackish water. we know how this ends but its still tense. rainer? reigner? rain man. we've seen him before

ep 53: pls not a leitner. oh boy mans scratched out his eyes. rip skelly. why would gertrude have had this statement off the books? jon stabbed himself?? bruh im? big man are you okay

ep 54: cockney boys! ayy its our favorite delivery men. she cut out their eyes. she knew that the eye was a thing?

ep 55: oily residue like the retirement home!

ep 56: worms? no. spiders?? bruhh. aaah yelling :(( aww martin anyways yeah i called it about paranoid!jon he needs to take a nap and drink some hot chocolate and calm down for once please

ep 57: just remembered, i think theres an entity called The Lonely?? This feels pretty lonely idk. fairchild, lukas/ lucas, some spooky place in norway idk. "sasha" knew he was recordinig hmm suspicious cmon jon figure it out. Sasha and tom. hm sus. for records sake i feel liek i should note here that I did have it spoiled to me simply that that's not sasha, but thats really all. i assumed it was like the thing that happened to graham in S1

ep 58: i feel like i recognize the name eustice (?) wick. someone please tell me im not just watching jon's descent into madness over the course of this podcast. im hoping it isnt so but, (and pardon the dsmp reference) im getting real wilbur vibes from this one.

ep 59: oh dear ok account from the fielding house. swirling designs? Spiral time? oh boyy. oh wait! 6 inch hole in the middle! is it not a spiderweb type design on the table? thats what i had assumed but that description sounds more like a spiral thing. cobwebs is a Web thing. ayy nicholas was right! the box goes in the table! the place that she kissed him was burning. Raymond is an avatar of The Web and agnes is the burning one. Lightless Flame! Why did she save him? i guess she was against this guy eating ppl or wtvr but why was she at the halfway house then? I think she's like michael.

ep 60: the eye go brr

ep 61: breacon and hope once again. tom. sasha's boyfriend. vampires sleep in coffins. the guy just walking in seems similar to the mind control of the vampires

ep 62: bones! its that one leitner. is this mother keay? the mom of gerard? this is what happened to her right? her skin was found on hooks? oh yeah thats what i thought the pages are made of skin. yeesh. The End!! sounds like an entity. phrased like one, and i think i remember it. are the people trapped in the pages? or... kept?

ep 63: eaten by the darkness! cavediving episode! (just like eaten by the sky) did my brain make up one called The Vast? it feels like it should be one, and all these episodes have some similar description about their feelings when they do whatever chosen hobby they have. ok now this one kinda feels like the dark. lights going out and all that. ok so not really a The Vast thing, its more of a Dark thing. feckin smirk gah.

ep 64: dice! the death guy! the death game thing! the person tricked somebody else into becoming death and then they were immortal? but if the egyptians wanted to kill him or punish him or whatever couldnt they just kill him? it worked in the end when he had the person giving the statement stab him, that did the job and actually killed him

ep 65: finally jon is actually acknowledging something is wrong.

So we know Mary Keay was revived most likely with the book by gerard.

Gertrude was way more aware of the entities than Jon. mary keay referenced The End openly and she cut the eyes out of her magazines and all that which makes me think she was aware of The Eye

ep 66: please not buried alive pleeaase not buried alive. lukas of the tundra? didnt we hear the name lukas before? she wanted it to be difficult to find important files because that way bad people couldnt find them?

ep 67: agnes... the girl in the hilltop house? agnes poppin off!! he's really not gonna question how she knew where he lived?? oh no D: the tree. were they the ones working on the house? aww they kissi- OH DEAR. why did she kiss him? it seemed like she cared about him? also she could kiss that other dude on the cheek and he was fine, but maybe it was cuz she was younger? lightless flame go brrrrr.

ep 68: oh god books. yup its bitchboy leitner. mans said "this seems supernatural, its a werd book!" bruuh.

ep 69: heh nice. aw cmon jon listen to martin. gahhh spiders. is that the class we heard about in the other doctor one with the teeth apple? some kind of psych class? oh dear. fucking spiders. aaaah. web do be goin brr. it's like the girl in the homeless shelter! who made the guy leave and she took his bed.

ep 70: is this gonna be the book that mary keay had? Most likely a leitner no matter what. Oh boy latin. Why did it start in latin then become old English? I'm guessing people put them in the book? He cant burn it. Phrophecies go brr. He says eh it's a decade in the future it's fine. Its gonna have changed. Ayy called it. Just accept it, it's a magic book. His death is getting closer. Leitner didnt make them but just collected them? Gertrude burned the book! She burned them down there so no one would know.

ep 71: oh boy tunnels. Our favorite thing /s. is The Buried a thing? Idk this seems pretty buried. Oh dear he's trapped here isnt he. "Not enough space to move, never enough to breathe" is that from the computer episode? With the guy who uploaded his consciousness? Somebody living down there. Hmmmm. Guesses: tom, sasha's boyfriend. Gertrude herself? (Though I doubt it)

ep 72: sweeney todd moment. Meat. The slaughter? Idk we'll see what the supernatural part is. Meat is meat. Similar to the slaughterhouse episode. Is it fucking Jared I swear to God it better not be. Hooligan teenagers, you know how it is. Meat is me lmao. Is the kid gonna be in the freezer. Ok that's good. OWW. Oddly textured candles. Made from people? Human fat or smth? Tom from the meat processing plant!

ep 73: outer bay shipping. Bet it's a subset of breacon and hope delivery. The Dark go brrr. Uh oh mans is gonna die. Leo or whatever. Cult ppl go brr. The people's church of the divine host. Who is the divine host? Is it reigner or whatever his name is? I dont think Jon can quit tbh. Probably an anonymous tip but from who?? One of the entities?

ep 74: fucking teeth hhh. I dont know which entity is related to teeth. Spiral. Isnt the spiral an entity. It feels like it could be related to many things idk. Yeah this sounds like the spiral. Heart attack at 29? Jesus... michael! That's kinda what I was thinking. Sasha goin in the tunnels. Hmm sus. They move the floor. Wack. Bet its tom.

ep 75: Man with a lightning scar. Has one of the leitner books. The childhood friend of the one who first introduced us to leitner. Oh my god that sounds terrifying. Michael crew.

ep 76: scalpel? Hmm spooky. NotSasha... think jon think.

ep 77: another double! NotThem, The Stranger. Not related to the table?

ep 78: what was that at the beginning? Question mark?? Oh boy more NotThem. Decker... what is the deal with the table. Does it contain the creature? Fucking Michael. Bitchboi himself.

ep 79: yes pop off martin. Ugh fucking Michael just leave man. I hate that dude. New person. Hmm. No idea who it is.

ep 80: shitener himself! Ok sir tell us the entities. Ayy The Spiral. Ok we know what that one is. The Eye is the beholding! Oooh. The Stranger. Did elias just kill leitner? Popping off honestly.

#Neptune tma notes

[missmudpie]

On Cliffhangers: Ones that Work, and Ones that Drive You Over the Edge

Wednesday night was a long night of TV watching in the Mudpie Household.  In addition to the Season Finales of Arrow and The 100, it was also the two-hour finale of Survivor.  Needless to say, it was hard to get out of bed Thursday morning.

Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about Arrow and The 100 - things that I liked, things I didn’t, but mainly I’ve been mulling over their endings.  Both ended with cliffhangers.  Both ended with the fate of the vast majority of the cast unknown and in peril, with the central protagonist facing the world alone, save for the company of a child.  And yet, only one really worked for me. 

And that was The 100.  

For the past two days, I’ve been thinking a lot about these endings, about cliffhangers in general and, more specifically, ones from other shows that I’ve really liked.  I’ve mentioned several times that writing is how I process things, so here we go - Cliffhangers: When they work, and Why the don’t.

(Warning: spoilers for Arrow, The 100, The Hunger Games, The West Wing, Battlestar Galactica, Alias, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy ahead.)

First things first - What is a cliffhanger?  TV Tropes defines it as:

A Cliffhanger ends [...] with some or all of the main characters in peril of some kind and the audience is made to wait for the outcome. [...] Typically the longer the viewer is made to wait, the larger the seeming peril. Indeed, this can be a Downer Ending to the part just finished — although many apparent perils and catastrophes are not as serious as they appear. It is a rare Cliffhanger that will cut back simply to watch 'em fall.

Which we all pretty much knew, right?  We all know this; it’s part of the common language of media and stories.  Small ones occur every episode, usually right before a commercial break.  Larger ones, with greater and graver consequences, occur at the end of the season.

But I wanted to start here because I wanted to be exact about the type of cliffhanger I’m discussing here.  Every show has to end its season with some type of tease, some thread left unresolved or the start of a new problem, to keep viewers invested during the long hiatus.  But not all of these are what I would call true cliffhangers.  One of the best ways I can think to explain this difference is to look beyond TV.  The Hunger Games (the novel) ends with (SPOILERS) Katniss and Peeta returning home to District 12.  This chapter of their story has ended, but the book ends with the feeling that there’s more to tell - specifically, what will the ramifications of their defiant win be?  It completely wraps up the main thread of the book (surviving the Games) while hinting at what is to come next.  To me, this isn’t a cliffhanger.  Catching Fire, the second book in the series, however, does.  Again, SPOILERS - In CF, Katniss wakes up to discover she’s been extracted from the Games by a burgeoning rebellion, her home has been bombed out of existence, and several of her friends - including Peeta - are now being held hostage by the Capital.  

This isn’t the ending of a chapter.  This is a gut punch.  When I read the first book, I was intrigued but able to wait a few days before starting the next book.  When I finished Catching Fire, I immediately started Mockingjay - at 11pm.

That’s what a cliffhanger is to me.  It’s an almost visceral reaction to what you’ve just seen or read.  There is no peace, no easing of the tension.  A cliffhanger leaves you with a knot in your stomach, and the only way to ease that feeling is by getting your grubby hands on the next book or episode immediately.

For this reason, I don’t classify some of my favorite season finales as cliffhangers.  They successfully end the main narrative thread of the season, and end with intriguing set-up for the next season, but there’s not that, again, visceral gimme gimme feeling.  Probably the greatest example of this is Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Season Five finale, The Gift.  This is, of course, the one in which Buffy dies to save her sister, her friends, and the world.  It’s a beautiful, tragic ending that somehow isn’t undercut by the fact that we all knew Buffy was returning next season (albeit on a different network).  (Unpopular Buffy opinion: Sometimes I wish Buffy had ended with Season Five, not because I hated the next two seasons, but because the ending of The Gift was such a beautiful moment that did cleanly wrap up Buffy’s narrative - even if it did end in death.) . Season Five ends with our heroine dead and buried - but it’s not a cliffhanger, for me.  It’s the ending of a chapter of her story, but it is, again, a clean ending.  Likewise, I’m not sure I would classify the Season Two Finale, Becoming: Part 2 (my other favorite episode) as a cliffhanger, because it, again, cleanly ends a chapter of Buffy’s story (Angel is sent to a demon world, moments after regaining his soul) while hinting at a new story arc (just where is Buffy going on that bus, and how will she return).

Alias knew well how to deliver the kind of gut-punch finales I associate with cliffhangers, from Season One’s “Mom?” to Season Four’s “My name isn’t Michael Vaughn.”  But nothing could top Season Two’s The Telling.  After a brutal fight against her dead roommate’s secret doppelganger (”Francie doesn’t like coffee ice cream.”), Sydney passes out - only to wake up on the streets of Hong Kong.  Her boyfriend, Vaughn, comes to help - only to reveal he’s married, and Sydney has been missing for two years.  It’s the kind of WTF time-jump moment JJ Abrams would use again in the Season Three Finale of Lost, Through the Looking Glass, in which it’s revealed that the bizzaro flashbacks we’ve been seeing throughout the episode are really flashforwards, and that at least some of the castaways have made it off the Island.  

Both Lost and Alias’ cliffhangers work because they raise more questions the more you think about it.  Where has Sydney been?  How did Vaughn move on so quickly?  Where are the rest of the castaways?  How, why and when were some rescued?  Those who binged these series have it easy.  These episodes were followed by interminable summers for those of us who watched live.

These and other cliffhangers ended with the fate, whether past or present, of the protagonist uncertain, but alive.  Others put the actual life of the protagonist or other main character in jeopardy and doubt (See: Battlestar Galactica’s Season One, Kobol’s Last Gleaming Part 2, in which Adama is shot point-blank by an activated Boomer; Game of Thrones’ Season Five, Mother’s Mercy, in which we end on Jon Snow bleeding out in the, well, snow.).  For some shows, though, leaving the fate of just one character unknown isn’t enough.  For these shows, nothing less than putting the entire main cast in danger will do.  I’ve always referred to this as pulling a Moldavian Wedding, but TV Trope has another name for it: the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger, so named for the final scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which our heroes find themselves surrounded by the Bolivian Army and decide to shoot their way out.  The odds are insurmountable, yet the action ends before we know if they lived or died (spoiler: they died).  In the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger, the majority of the cast is stuck in a situation - be it a shoot-out, a plane crash, or massive explosion - that puts all their lives at risk.

The tension in the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger comes from wondering who lived and who died.  And it’s the answer to that question, in my mind, that determines whether the cliffhanger is successful or not.  You need to trust that the writers and the show will follow through with the promise made that not all of the characters you care about are going to make it out alive.  I repeat: not all of the characters that you care about are going to make it out alive.  If the show doesn’t follow through with that promise, it can feel like a cop-out.

That’s exactly what happened in Dynasty’s fifth season finale, Royal Wedding.  This is the Moldavian Wedding I referred to earlier.  In it, most of the cast was gathered at the wedding of the Moldavian prince, when revolutionaries stormed in and opened fire.  The season ended with everyone wondering who was still alive.  The answer: Everyone.  Okay, not everyone - a boyfriend and a girlfriend died, but no one from the main cast.  That’s not good storytelling; that’s a cop-out.

You can contrast this with The West Wing’s Season One finale, What Kind of Day This Has Been, in which gunmen open fire on the President as he’s exiting an event.  We hear the shots, we see various characters go down, and the episode ends with Secret Service shouting, “Who’s been hit?  Who’s been hit?”

When we return in the Season Two premiere, In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, it almost seems like we’re headed into cop-out territory - Bartlet is safe in the car, his daughter Zoey is puking in another car but fine, Leo is accounted for, Sam and CJ are alive and well at the scene.  And then the President starts slurring his words and bleeding from the mouth, and a gunshot wound is discovered - right about the time Toby finds Josh slumped against a low wall with a bullet to the chest.  Both eventually recover, although Josh has PTSD that is addressed over the next few seasons, and all the uninjured characters deal with survivor’s guilt in their own way.

This Bolivian Army Cliffhanger works, unlike Dynasty’s, because it’s revealed that there were actual stakes involved.  True, no one died, but The West Wing wasn’t a show about people dying (until the end of Season Two; RIP Mrs. Landingham).  The answer to the question, “Who’s been hit?” was two of our beloved main characters - two people we cared about - the event was not forgotten in the next episode, but instead impacted and changed these characters in real and lasting ways.  In this, it’s comparable to the Season Eight Finale of Grey’s Anatomy, Flight, in which a large hunk of the main cast is in a plane crash.  Lexie dies, and the fate of everyone else is unknown until the Season Nine premiere, Going, Going Gone, which occurs after a time jump and reveals everyone is still alive, except - Christina has moved to Minnesota and can’t get on a plane because of her PTSD, Derek’s hand hasn’t recovered yet, affecting his ability to do surgery, Arizona had to have her leg amputated, and Mark has been in a coma this whole time and is taken off life-support by episode’s end.  Once again, characters we cared about were affected and changed in ways that will carry through throughout the rest of the series.

Which now, finally, brings me to the Season Finale of Arrow, Lian Yu, which is almost a textbook definition of the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger to the point that, when it happened, I literally said to my husband, “This is the Moldavian Wedding all over again.”  (And to which he responded, “Can we watch Survivor now?”) . And it just didn’t work for me, at all.

For the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger to work, you need to have a deep emotional bond with the characters involved, and this is where Arrow first falters.  

The Arrowverse has some great examples of fathers’ love for their children - biological, foster or found.  Joe West is the epitome of this, loving Iris (the child he raised from birth), Barry (the child he fostered) and Wally (the child he discovered as a young adult) equally and fiercely.  When Wally was introduced as Joe’s son, I had no trouble understanding and relating to Joe’s instant love for that boy, because the show has already showed us exactly the type of father Joe was.  Likewise on Supergirl, it was easy to see the depth of affection J’onn J’onzz has for Kara and Alex; the three form a found family unit and will do anything to keep each other safe.  My point is, if either of these men were in Oliver’s shoes, with one of their kids in danger, I would have been in tears.

With William, honestly - I couldn’t find it in me to care.  Because William is still a plot point at this point.  We have not seen Oliver be a father, although we got a glimpse of it Wednesday night.  But I don’t know William, and he’s tainted by his parents’ lies.  I don’t yet care about William, so the choice Oliver had to make did not resonate on an emotional level.

Likewise, there are a number of characters on Lian Yu who I like, but whose deaths would not devastate me - namely, Curtis, Dinah and Rene.  Again, I don’t have anything against them; they’re fine as supporting players, but not essential to my Arrow-viewing pleasure.  And if them leaving meant no more side storylines about custody hearings or talking over the smartest person in the entire Arrowverse, if their death meant more screentime for a certain former Army Ranger - then yeah, I’m good with their deaths.

There needs to be tension in the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger, and there just isn’t any here.  There needs to be faith that the show won’t cop out and save everyone, and I just don’t have that here.  Look, Arrow has a problem with the followthrough.  It kills off its central hero and then brings him back with penicillin tea.  Hell, Arrow already pulled a Bolivian Army Cliffhanger back in Season Three, This is Your Sword.  Remember the episode ending with everyone in the cast dying in a prison cell?  Remember the reveal that they survived because Malcolm had secretly inoculated them with handshakes, and then Barry pulled a Deus Ex Machina and flashed them all back to Staring City?  Because I do, and I have little faith that Arrow is going to offer up a better explanation for why everyone survived here.

Again, the characters you care about have to be in danger.  We know Felicity, Diggle and Thea are not going to get killed off-screen (or even on-screen), so there’s no tension there.  Lance could die, but I really doubt he goes like this; I think if he goes, he gets a hero’s death and a goodbye scene with Oliver.  Malcolm died off-screen, but come on - he’ll be back midway through Season Seven.  Slade could go, having redeemed himself, and while I would be sad to see him go, it would be a fitting end to his character.  I don’t see how the show kills Nyssa.  That just leaves the Newbies and Samantha, and honestly Samantha’s death would anger me the most because 1) It would mean Oliver becomes insta-dad and I don’t see how the show adjusts to having a preteen around full time and 2) it would mean they killed of the reddest of red shirts instead of someone with a stronger connection to the audience.  

Of course, no one has to die for the Bolivian Army Cliffhanger to be successful; see, again, The West Wing.  But the event does have to change them; it needs to continue to affect them.  And since Arrow is a show with penicillin tea and micro-implants, I have trouble believing that this won’t be forgotten by 5x05.  And that, for me, is why the Arrow finale didn’t quite stick the landing.

The characters you care about have to be in danger, and since I know my faves are safe, there’s no tension, just anger that the show thinks I’m dumb enough to spend my summer worrying about Digg and Felicity’s fates.

Meanwhile, The 100 finished its fourth season with probably its best episode to date, an almost-in-real-time race against the Death Wave to get the remaining Delinquents (and a couple Grounders) launched into space, where they planned to spend the next five years surviving on reclaimed water and algae until it was safe to return to Earth.  The other half of the cast was safe, for the moment, in an underground bunker, where the 1200 people had enough oxygen and resources to last five years.

Of course, just about everything went wrong in getting the Delinquents back into space.  Clarke had to sacrifice herself; Bellamy, in a moment that echoed the Season One Finale, had to decide to launch without her.  The episode ends with Bellamy, Raven and the rest having made it to the Ark, safe for the moment, while Clarke seemingly succumbs to radiation.

Except - that’s not how the episode ends.

Instead we jump six years and seven days into the future.  Clarke is alive, the Earth has recovered - and she hasn’t heard from anyone else since Praimfaya.

Again, as with Arrow, the fate of the vast majority of the cast is unknown.  And yet I’m not angry about this like I am with Arrow.  Unlike Arrow, I care about pretty much every character on The 100, and so any of those deaths are not going to feel like a red-shirt cop-out; they’re going to matter.  By doing a six-year time jump, the show has also changed the question.  It’s not so much Who has survived, but rather How and Why have they survived?  And the Hows and Whys give way to even more questions.  What has life been like on the Arc with only seven people?  What about life in the Bunker?  If 1200 could survive for five years, what does it mean that they’ve been down there for six?  Have babies been born?  Has the Bunker resorted to the draconian measures of the first Arc, or have the learned?  When we left, these people were all teenagers; now, they’re in their mid-twenties, and Bellamy is close to 30; how has that changed them?  

Oh, yes - And what the frak is that mining ship doing there???

This was a true cliffhanger, a visceral feeling, a gut punch.  What the hell happens next?  Why isn’t January already?

A good cliffhanger leaves you wanting, nay, needing the next installment now.  You need to know if Adama will make it, you need to know who among the President’s Men and Women were shot, you need to know how and why your people survived a second apocalypse.  It leaves you in suspense.  

Both Arrow and The 100 ended their seasons on a cliffhanger, but only the latter succeeded.

#Arrow #The 100 #Arrow spoilers #The 100 spoilers

[kalinara]

Ask thing - T U X Z

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Unlike most people, I still believe that Rip Hunter was born in the future, rather than the past.  I think that something happened when Michael was five years old that led to him being marooned in the past and struggling to survive.  Until then though, he was raised by his father: Michael Jon Carter.  :-)

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Rip Hunter, obviously.  I enjoy his complexity.  He’s a flawed man and he’s made a lot of questionable decisions.  But he’s also very very human.  There are lines that he can’t or won’t cross, even now, and I find him very compelling for it.

Luke Skywalker.  Luke Skywalker is a magic barbarian farmer from the ass-end of the universe who, in his first time off planet, managed to blow up the death star, and only got more awesome from there.  He saved the universe through the power of Love and a flattering black ensemble.  I find it hilarious to imagine how the rest of the rebellion must have reacted to Luke on a regular basis.  Because objectively speaking, that dude is bananas.

Guy Gardner: because he’s a dick, but he’s a dick with a purpose.  In his own weird way, he’s one of the kindest, most supportive characters in the DCU.  He’s also a raging asshole.  It’s a fun dichotomy.

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Okay, this is embarrassing, but I’m a big fan of the unwilling witness trope.  Basically when characters end up, through mindscape or time travel, or long lost footage, or other ridiculous shenanigans, getting a first eye glimpse at important parts of one another’s lives.

I also like anything with long lost parents, children, or siblings.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

I can’t just ramble on command!  Well, okay, I totally can.

One lingering question I’ve always had when it comes to the Time Masters on Legends of Tomorrow: what happens to the recruits that don’t make the cut as Time Masters?

I mean, statistically speaking, there ought to be a few.  Unless the Time Masters used the Oculus to make sure they ONLY picked people who would successfully grow up to be Time Masters.  That’s always possible, I suppose.  

But if not, what do they do with them?  Do they get cut loose, like Miranda was?  Or was Miranda a special case?  (After all, they needed her to be in place to get killed by Vandal Savage…)

I feel like there is no chance that the answer to this question would be a good and happy one.  

Edited:  Somehow, I forgot to add my third character!  See above.

#lenniefrost

[jaygilbert-blog]

COFFEE TALK [with Michael Kauffman]

“I’ve worked in music and technology during my career, largely in sales, marketing, and PR roles. I love to connect artists and companies with fans and customers -- and have been doing that in tech (YouTube on the marketing team and at Google via corporate communications), at start-ups like RightsFlow (a rights management and licensing company acquired by Google), and earlier in my career at labels and distribution companies like UMG, Verve, BMG, and Windham Hill.”

Q: What are a few of your favorite “industry moments?”

I loved spending time on the road with artists earlier in my career. While at Windham Hill in the mid-90’s, I joined Keola Beamer, Ledward Kaapana, and a few other Hawaiian slack key guitar icons on a series of dates up the eastern seaboard. It was one of the first times I spent a lot of time with a band who I had limited prior knowledge about. Pre-internet days. Not only did I fall in love with that music, but I got to introduce the band and crew to PA-breakfast-fave scrapple while eating at the Melrose Diner in Philadelphia. While at Verve, we arranged for the amazingly gifted vocalist Al Jarreau (RIP Al) to host the Music Biz Annual Conference Awards Dinner one year concurrent with his new release. Al arrived in San Antonio with a serious bout of the flu, and we didn’t know whether he’d be able to speak, let alone take the stage. But after a few hours of sweating it out, focused rest, home-brewed tea, and a mind-over-matter attitude, Al took the microphone and blew everyone away with his grace, wit, and charm.

I was fortunate during those years at Verve to work with a top-notch sales team (Tony Pellegrino, Jon Vanhala, Lisa Hopkins, Mark Callaghan, Jeff Lusis, Kim Smith, Missy Iredell), self-branded “The Jazz Pack”. We adopted a song-and-dance approach to many of our sales presentations and had a blast singing-while-selling our releases (I like to say that we were the last of the singin’ sales guys). Flashback to Los Angeles in 2001. The Universal Music and Video Distribution Conference was being held at the Century Plaza Hotel, and we were scheduled, along with all the other UMG labels, to present our upcoming releases to our friends at distribution. Instead of a generic video presentation, we opted to host an awards show called “The Tommy’s” (named for our beloved label Chairman Tommy LiPuma, industry icon, producer, and true music maker) packed with curated categories, spoof videos, and actual live performances highlighting our artists and releases.

The opening song-and-dance number involved us wearing Adidas tear-away track suits worn over tuxedos, doing a bit of choreographed dancing along with a backup crew consisting of the XFL’s LA Xtreme cheerleading squad. It culminated with Tommy himself being led through the curtains of the stage and down to his front-row seat amidst a rousing standing ovation (Tommy’s entrance is ~4:29 in this YouTube videohttps://youtu.be/Y09IwrNHO8Q). Furthermore, there was also an ice sculpture of Tommy, a raucous afterparty, the USC Fighting Trojan Marching Band performing "Tequila", balloons falling from the ceiling, and hundreds of customized Tommy bobbleheads that were presented to all in attendance. I vividly remember Tommy saying to me right before we stepped onto the stage: “Mikey! What's going on here babe?!” Most fun I ever had in a sales presentation. What a cool experience to work with that team and Tommy.

Another highlight happened at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City in early 2014: I spearheaded the music integration at our YouTube on Main Street pop-up experience. It was one of the more stressful planning periods I’ve endured — late nights, intense conversations, negotiations to book acts, and everything in between — but the effort was ultimately rewarded with goose-bump-inducing performances from Damon Albarn (“There’s no way we can fit a string quartet and a large keyboard on that small stage.”), Venus And The Moon (who asked me to rehearse with them in the parking garage), Carina Round, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Sleeping At Last, Matthew Perryman Jones and Kate Tucker (many artists via a Paste partnership — thanks Josh Jackson), and a few roof-raising late-nite DJ sets from Young Guru, Neon Indian, and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy -- who's agent phoned me on the day of his set to tell me he was stuck in Chicago due to snow. He arrived just in time to walk on the stage and start spinning records! It all came together and was magical. Plus so many other highlights: a post-dinner celebratory “toast” with Cheap Trick in Chicago, dinner in the Sinatra room at Patsy’s in NYC with Jamie Cullum, and of course live experiences like The Subdudes at Tipitina’s in New Orleans.

Q: If you were to make a playlist of the songs that are part of your DNA, the comfort food that you keep coming back to, that never fail to move and inspire you, what would those tracks be?

It would have to be a playlist of playlists… how many songs do I get?

Can I have 20 - 25? I love the Great American Songbook: Frank, Ella, Billie, Dean, Sammy, Tony, Dinah, along with Miles, Coltrane, Bird, Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Basie, and all the jazz masters.   Here's a happy hour playlist assembled by Ken Druker, our head of catalog while I was at Verve. He curated this “Jazz Pack Supertunes” compilation for our crew back in the late 90’s: Frank Sinatra & Count Basie - Come Fly With Me Dean Martin - Ain't That A Kick In The Head Buddy Greco - Around The World Bobby Darin - More Sammy Davis, Jr. - Hey There Jack Jones - You'd Better Love Me Count Basie - All Of Me Frank Sinatra - That's Life Eartha Kitt - C'est Si Bon Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual Perez Prado - Mambo No. 8 Wayne Newton - Danke Shoen Bobby Darin - Hello Dolly Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme - This Could Be The Start Of Something Big Buddy Greco - She Loves Me Vic Damone - The Song Is You Al Martino - Speak Softly Love Nino Rota - The Godfather Waltz Dean Martin - Return To Me Johnny Mathis - Chances Are Sammy Davis Jr. - I've Gotta Be Me Frank Sinatra - The Way You Look Tonight Marilyn Monroe - Happy Birthday Mr. President (on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/michaeljoel/playlist/1mNOucMihzZ38hMLv2ptNB)

Q: Are there any artists that never really made it, that came across your desk, that you wish people could hear and embrace?

Action Figure Party comes immediately to mind (a group spearheaded by Greg Kirsten, founder of Geggy Tah, who over the past decade has become a Grammy-award winning producer of Sia, Beck, Kelly Clarkson, Ellie Goulding, Pink, the Shins, Tegan and Sara, Lily Allen), signed to Verve at the time by Bud Harner, our ultra-cool A&R rep. “Everybody Ready” now playing: https://youtu.be/Xud_KlHlqr0

Q: Who was your mentor? Why? Early in my career in advertising: Jim Coudal, the creative director at Weber, Cohn & Riley gave me a shot as a copywriter and helped me craft a voice for headlines and copy. Chris Balla and Bob Garbarini at BMG (now Sony) who provided the freedom and the guidelines to teach me how to think about music marketing. Pat Berry, my boss at Windham Hill (now running the Six Degrees label), who taught me pretty much everything I know about sales, much of it based on always framing decisions with what’s best for the artist. Also from the Windham Hill timeframe, Dave Morrell, who spearheaded AAA/non-comm promotion at our High Street imprint, is a dear friend and mentor who taught me how to love stories and to leave people with a smile. Dave has been releasing his memoirs — and they are a hoot! Horse-Doggin’: Volume 1 is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Horse-Doggin-Dave-Morrell-Archives-Vol-ebook/dp/B00IZLEFQ6/ref=la_B00LG1S4P0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491231314&sr=1-1 and 1974 - The Promotion Man - Volume 2 is here: https://www.amazon.com/1974-Promotion-York-Morrell-Archives-ebook/dp/B015YV11M0/ref=la_B00IZQHCE8_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491231441&sr=1-3. Read up. Plus Bob Schneiders at UMVD taught me the ropes as for retail sales when I started at GRP, and also showed me the importance of connection via common passions solidified with personalized outreach. And the host of other sales and marketing execs who guided me through the years: Ben Kline, Pat Monaco, Bob Anderson, Tony Camardo, Linda Finke, Saul Shapiro, Mike Davis, Cliff O'Sullivan, Mark Flaherty, Marc Zimet, Anthony Ellis, Rob Santos, Nell Mulderry, (can't forget you) Jay Gilbert, the Jazz Pack (Jon, Tony, Lisa, Jeff, Mark)... it takes a village obviously.

Patrick Sullivan (CEO / Co-Founder at RightsFlow) mentored me through his leadership to win against the odds through smart-thinking and a tireless work effort, while Scott Sellwood (our Head of Biz Affairs at RightsFlow, and Publisher Relationships at YouTube) inspired me with his brain, musical abilities, and tenacious commitment to finding common sense solutions. And finally Tommy LiPuma, of course, our Chairman at GRP and Verve, who taught me how to pursue quality in music, art, wine and life. A legendary music leader, visionary and Hall of Fame human being with a legacy of music and joy rooted in the artists, colleagues, employees and millions of ears and hearts that he inspired. A few of use traveled to Cleveland last year to celebrate his 80th. So glad we did. It was a night of stellar performances: Diana Krall, Dr. John, Al Jarreau, Leon Russell (RIP)… followed by the afterparty back at the Ritz-Carlton, drinking amazing wine while listening and laughing into the wee small hours to the many, many stories filling the room. Music biz stories for the ages. Tommy stories. So fortunate and thankful. Smart, passionate, creative mentors who rocked my world.

Q: What’s the best part of your job? Helping and listening (to people and to music). Anytime I can generate a creative conversation with an artist, a company or a colleague, and help them think about their audience and how best to share + super-serve + connect, it’s a good day.

That, and getting together with friends and colleagues for lots of happy hours and live music. Ketel martini, up. Ice cold. Olives.

[arce-elliot]

Magnus Archives - First Impressions (176-200)

Well, I’ve done it. We’ve reached the end of the (hill top) road. This has been a wild ride for sure! For those of you that have been following along: goodbye, I’m sorry, and good luck.

EP 176 (Blood Ties): - "the fear of your pack turning their claws on you" well Jon you've got some experience with that - oh fuck where's Martin oh thank goodness he's just sitting far away - T R E V O R you old bastard how are ya - aw julia :c - AYYYYYYY B A S I R A! EP 177 (Wonderland): - Oh lord here we fucking go time for Dr. Gaslight - poor Martin just wants everyone to get along for five seconds - Jon: for the love of fuck lemme hug my boyfriend - oh lord Basira you picked a great one to listen in on - oh fuck he's not like, acting this out on Basira because she's in the room is he? there usually aren't other noises - THAT FUCKING LAUGH, DISGUSTING - "everyone legitimately DOES hate you" haha jonny funny joke when does this stop actually - even Martin's losing his patience w/ Helen oh dear EP 178 (The Processing Line): - oh flesh nice - hmm this is...hm. don't like this one - Jon says ACAB EP 179 (Accomplice): - oh wait this is kind of sweet I love me some found family - oh Daisy :c - Aww Jon misses his friend :c - NO DON'T SPLIT UP AGAIN GDI EP 180 (Moving On): - Martin: why are you running - YESSSS THE I SPY SCENE - oh boys please dont be stupid - AYYY ANNABELLE - AYYYYYYYY MIKHAIL! - mikhail: y'all fuckin smell lmao EP 181 (Ignorance): - THEY SLEPT FOR 3 DAYS LMAO - Jon you both "work" for the eye stfu - "i have no secrets to hide" that smells like bullshit Mr. Salesa - sorry Jon you're a muggle now - Mikhail is LITERALLY just vibing - Martin's about to smite his first avatar: Annabelle Cane - Ooooh don't like how Jon was getting fuzzy at the end bit there, Annabelle what are you doin EP 182 (Wellbeing): - sinister hospital, my favorite soap opera - wow! hate this! - you KNOW it's bad when JON is saying "good lord" - this just sounds like corona prep tbh, 8 sets of gloves minimum - OH WAIT ARE THESE THE STUDENTS FROM ANATOMY CLASS - poor Breekon I feel bad :c EP 183 (Monument): - OH SHIT MARTIN DOMAIN? - this feels more like Michael's domain the way Jon's describing it - awwww these boys EP 184 (Like Ants): - oh cool ants - you know that one scene in the 4th Indiana Jones? yeah taht - LMAO IS JON MAKING A FUCKING AVATAR???? CAN HE DO THAT??? - Jon: Level...Up? - "i dont feel right" you were being eaten by ANTS EP 185 (Locked In): - this being the first pre-show warning is interesting, it's definitely warranted but i think that Dr. David needed one as well in retrospect - oh we're starting w/ the statement? fun - one of us, one of us, one of us - o o f Martin time to make choices - Martin: "well I don't know- oh you insulted Jon? okay rot in hell" EP 186 (Quiet): - Ah Shit Martin Domain Time - OH TWO MARTINS, SWEET - Martin's personal hell: tea that he doesn't like - "Are we gonna have to kill Jon?" OOPS- - g o d this is so sad EP 187 (Checking Out): - Helen! Helen! Helen! - are they flirting? this feels flirty - i ADORE this music - somebody help this poor lady good lord - rip Helen :c EP 188 (Centre of Attention): - I always feeeeeel like somebody's waaaatchin' meeeeeee - The 18th fear: Bad Roommate EP 189 (Peers): - okay we're in London now show me my GIRLS - "The Great Archivist, Master of All He Surveys" PFFFFFF - "Eldritch Popularity Contest" Martin is all bangers today - Martin has had ENOUGH - MY GIIIIIIIRLS!!!!! EP 190 (Scavengers): - Jon: okay yeah whatever but where's the Admiral - aww Melanie and Martin finally getting to chat - ARUN OH MY GOD EP 191 (What We Lose): - JON SLEEPS WITH HIS EYES OPEN, HORRID - awww someone get Georgie her cat :C EP 192 (An Appointment): - Jon: says some creepy shit Martin: uh yeah that - poor Rosie damn - Elias: Level Up! EP 193 (A Stern Look): - Martin: Jon stop fantasizing about being the Pupil or I'm gonna get fussy - OH SHIT OG!ELIAS TIME - I FORGOT OG!ELIAS WAS A STONER LMAOOOO - smart guy who's lazy and has daddy issues? well shit Mr. Sims I demand royalties this instant because OG!Elias is based on me - oh poor Elias this is horrid EP 194 (Parting): - no not again boys stop fighting - oh eye? on your shoulder? - OH IT'S A WHOLE PERSON EW - Martin is such avatar catnip, Jon leaves him for 5 fucking minutes and Annabelle is like GIMME - plot twist all the avatars want Martin to work with him he's just too damn smart EP 195 (Adrift): - *water noises* - ah yes, a vast statement - *more water noises* - OH HEY BASIRA - god I missed no-nonsense Basira that didn't hate Jon EP 196 (This Old House): - Hill Top Road! Hill Top Road! - ah yes, Martin sassing avatars everywhere he goes - fun history lesson - can't believe Martin can't become a Web Avatar because he loves Jon too much, the Web is homophobic EP 197 (Connected): - "you get Martin to safety" oh yeah because Martin will just go willingly lmao - more mind games with the Web, love to see it - what a foolproof plan, I'm SURE this will work EP 198 (Precipice): - "couldn't have made a statement BEFORE we got on the ladder?" big child on a roadtrip energy - scary don't fall statement oooooh - Oh no the other survivors :C - nice little reunion we love to see it EP 199 (Seeing It Through): - clever title lmao - Melanie: you do NOT get to be god I forbid it - g o d Jonathan don't be so pissy - love this one-on-one interactions, feels very Day Before The End EP 200 (Last Words): - HERE WE GO BITCHES - Oh gdi Jonathan why you gotta do everything your damn self - Jonathan this isn't the p l a n - KILL THIS FOOL - Oopsie Jon it's Pupil Time - OH ROSIE I FORGOT ABOUT HER OOPS - Ah yes, one final statement - god my boys :c - oh I swore up and down I wouldn't cry, damn it all

#magnus archives #tma #the magnus archives

[chestnutpost]

‘Wrecking Crew’ Drummer Hal Blaine, Who Played On Rock’s Biggest Hits, Has Died

This post was originally published on this site

Hal Blaine, who kept the beat as the drummer in the iconic group of session musicians popularly known as the Wrecking Crew, has died.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who played on about 40 No. 1 singles and roughly 150 Top 10 tunes, was 90.  

The Associated Press reported that he died of natural causes at his home in California. 

Blaine performed on dozens of beloved albums, including the Beach Boys’ masterwork “Pet Sounds.” He also worked with Elvis Presley, Sonny & Cher, The Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds, as well as both Frank and Nancy Sinatra, just to name a few.

In many cases, Blaine and fellow members of the Wrecking Crew recorded on other bands’ tracks without fans ever knowing it. 

“We were the original Milli Vanillis,” Blaine cracked in a 2001 interview with The Hartford Courant. “I replaced almost 200 drummers in groups and bands when they used me in the studio.”

Blaine’s drumming was also a key part of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, including the instantly recognizable opening beat of “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes: 

He performed on several Elvis hits, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and played drums in the studio for the TV broadcast popularly known as “The ’68 Comeback Special.” 

Blaine also played on an Elvis song that became a hit twice. “A Little Less Conversation” hit Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1968 as part of the soundtrack to the film “Live a Little, Love a Little.” A 2002 remix by Junkie XL also cracked the Hot 100.    

Blaine, born in Massachusetts in 1929, started drumming at the age of 7, making his own sticks from the backrests of kitchen chairs, The Washington Post noted in a 1987 profile. 

He toured with various musicians after serving in Korea, then became a session musician in the early years of rock, even though studio execs dismissed it as “loud, filthy, unsophisticated music,” he told the Post. 

“I told them to get with it, it was the new sound,” he said. 

Blaine told Music Radar in 2011 that working with so many luminaries ― and on so many hits ― didn’t seem so unusual at the time:  

“Funny thing is, we had no idea that what we were doing was groundbreaking or revolutionary. Doing a TV show in the morning, a Beach Boys track or a Phil Spector session in the afternoon, then working with Frank Sinatra or Simon & Garfunkel after that ― that was normal to us. We were working musicians, playing great music. We got the job done, and we made a hell of a lot of money doing it.”

Blaine was married and divorced five times, according to Variety. AP said he is survived by daughter Michelle and seven grandchildren. 

Musicians and fans alike honored Blaine on social media: 

I’m so sad, I don’t know what to say. Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words. Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success – he was the greatest drummer ever. We also laughed an awful lot. Love, Brian pic.twitter.com/vLOX3RIKc6

— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) March 11, 2019

God bless Hal Blaine peace and love to all his family Goodbye Hal an incredible musician. 😎✌️🌟❤��☮️

— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) March 12, 2019

A tremendous loss. I was fortunate enough to record with him one time; the same session I met @benchten. Farewell Hal Blaine, and thanks for the great music. https://t.co/H5eH0A6VoM

— rosanne cash (@rosannecash) March 12, 2019

Today I regrettably have to say goodbye to Hal, and thank him for the magic he put on all our Ronettes recordings… and so many others throughout his incredible career. Thank you Hal. Love forever, Ronnie

— Ronnie Spector (@RonnieSpectorGS) March 12, 2019

25 Months ago Hal Blaine and I made music for the last time together at the NAMM Convention. https://t.co/ua8p7U1zh9

— Ronnie Spector (@RonnieSpectorGS) March 12, 2019

Our condolences to the family of #HalBlaine, drummer extraordinaire in the Wrecking Crew who played on many Beach Boys tracks, including “Good Vibrations,” “I Get Around,” “Help Me, Rhonda” & more. Love and mercy x https://t.co/SV3SCnWZ9j

— The Beach Boys (@TheBeachBoys) March 11, 2019

I am deeply saddened about the passing of drummer, Hal Blaine. Hal played drums on the soundtrack of our lives for many of us… Worth reading: An Interview with Hal Blaine | Modern Drummer Magazine https://t.co/1FWoi0bOw2

— Micky Dolenz (@TheMickyDolenz1) March 12, 2019

R.I.P. Hal Blaine, the phenomenal drummer of The Wrecking Crew who probably played on half of the hit records of🙁🙏🥁 the 60’s.

— Eric Carmen (@RealEricCarmen) March 12, 2019

Oh man. The greatest. Eric is right. He is half our history. I just got a joke in the mail from him like a month ago. RIP brother. https://t.co/fOnKOVJsM6

— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) March 12, 2019

Hal Blaine is indescribable. His contributions to rock and soul music is as sacred as it gets. RIP https://t.co/dNhsDGyNpQ

— Michael Des Barres (@MDesbarres) March 12, 2019

Legendary…Such a loss…such an unbelievable career…Thank You, Mr Blaine…XX

Drumming legend Hal Blaine dies at age 90 https://t.co/TEQm1MnQlD

— David Coverdale (@davidcoverdale) March 12, 2019

RIP Hal Blaine. There will never be another… Google the hits he played on !!

— Steve Lukather (@stevelukather) March 11, 2019

Rest In Peace Hal Blaine… One of the greatest drummers of all time. If you have listened to music you have heard his wonderful drumming. pic.twitter.com/wkycjgY5qe

— Joe Bonamassa (Official) (@JBONAMASSA) March 12, 2019

Saddenned to learn of Hal Blaine’s passing today. As a member of the Wrecking Crew with Glen, Hal played on “Galveston,” “Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife,” and “Where’s The Playground Susie” to name a few. RIP Hal. https://t.co/1YlpLK9T8j pic.twitter.com/z7xmAGO8jM

— Glen Campbell (@GlenCampbell) March 12, 2019

Whether you know it or not, #HalBlaine is one of your favorite drummers. So glad we got to honor Hal with a @RecordingAcad Lifetime Achievement Award last year with the help of @HerbAlpert. If you loved The Wrecking Crew like I did, you feel little wrecked today. #RIPHalBlaine pic.twitter.com/HHv1pncCNP

— David Wild (@Wildaboutmusic) March 11, 2019

You definitely know the music….even if you weren’t familiar with his name. Soundtrack of a generation! R.I.P. #HalBlaine

— The Fixx (@FixxOnline) March 12, 2019

RIP Hal Blaine. Him talking about recording the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” is, of course, fascinating. https://t.co/vYVpn1t3KB

— Annie Zaleski (@anniezaleski) March 11, 2019

Hal Blaine, Session Drummer on Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds,’ Dead at 90 – Rolling Stone https://t.co/RoZmij16bt

— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) March 12, 2019

RIP Hal Blaine. Trust me, you loved his work.

— J. Elvis Weinstein (@JElvisWeinstein) March 11, 2019

RIP the great Hal Blaine, who played on every single great song from the 1960s you can think of. He played on everything from “Pet Sounds” to the 1974 Roxy “Rocky Horror” cast album. pic.twitter.com/Sk27K4iCKH

— Andy Ross (@ThatAndyRoss) March 11, 2019

RIP Hal Blaine, who your favorite drummers stole from shamelessly & yet never came close

— Caryn Rose (@carynrose) March 11, 2019

More importantly, Hal Blaine was the most influential, important, and omnipresent drummer no one’s ever heard of and a true master. RIP.

— Nathaniel Friedman (@freedarko) March 11, 2019

For what I’m into Hal Blaine was probably the greatest drummer of all time. In ’93 I mailed him my copy of his autobiography in hopes he’d sign it. He sent it back so fast it made my head spin. A genuine good guy. This is my favorite performance of his: https://t.co/KOg34xyODG

— Jon Wurster (@jonwurster) March 11, 2019

An anonymous session player who will be remembered forever. Rest In Peace, Hal Blaine. https://t.co/9Mj6eVh8Tf

— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) March 11, 2019

RIP Hal Blaine, 90

The session drummer who played on the defining songs of generations.

Be My Baby Good Vibrations Mr. Tambourine Eve of Destruction Monday Monday Mrs Robinson Bridge Over Troubled Water Let the Sunshine In Strangers in the Night Help Me Rhonda The Boxer pic.twitter.com/EHYQVlTPwq

— Rhett Bartlett (@dialmformovies) March 11, 2019

The post ‘Wrecking Crew’ Drummer Hal Blaine, Who Played On Rock’s Biggest Hits, Has Died appeared first on The Chestnut Post.

from The Chestnut Post https://thechestnutpost.com/news/wrecking-crew-drummer-hal-blaine-who-played-on-rocks-biggest-hits-has-died/