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rivahisu107 · 3 years

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The Unresolved Baby Subplot Chapter 3: Children and Forests

As the Corps returns to Paradis amidst the turmoil that Eren has now placed the island in, there are so many questions about the situation that the rest of the Corps are asking about Eren and if he can be trusted or if it would be better to give his Titan to somebody else.

Meanwhile, Levi begins his month long stay in the Chateau D’Forest of Giant Trees with Zeke, where he so badly wants to fulfill his vow to Erwin but can’t for various reasons, more reasons than the readers may see upon first glance because of how tightly the dialogue is written.

And for some extra comparison, I am going to be incorporating some scenes from the anime adaptation to compare and contrast. It’s easier to see where things will be going in the final part unless there really are going to be some big changes, but artistic detail matters. Without further ado, let’s delve into the next chapter of this (conspiracy) theory of an unresolved plotline!

The first leg of the journey to the forest is by military carriage through streets full of people celebrating the victory of Eren Jaeger in Liberio, but they can’t see how ignorant they are according to Zeke. Levi is not impressed to have to be working with Zeke to maintain island security- he can’t stop glaring at him! He’s not too keen on this “secret plan” either, but he’s more than willing to listen. Remember, Hange has been desperately looking for solutions all this time as well. And it’s not really helping that the Queen is pregnant, so she’s not able to take on the Beast Titan in her condition, which Levi is to blame for as well.

Anyways, after a change of clothes, they arrive at their destination. Oh, what’s this, our second conversation involving children?

“So, you’re worried about those brats?”

What’s with that look, Zeke? Are you so embarrassed about your miscalculation that you have to remind Levi of his? This is going to be a long month in the forest if they can’t even outright mention the reason they have been brought together. Hmm, and Zeke ironically wants to bring Gabi and Falco “into the forest”.

Compare this to the anime. This very line has been cut, but Levi is even more pissed than he is in the manga. We’ll see a lot of that.

Nothing much here to say, except how interesting that like Historia, Levi is having to sit face to face with the rock throwing bully from not long ago. I like the sun/moon motifs in the anime, by the way. The sun was always with Historia, but the moon with Levi was an added detail.

Jump to a month later- ten months into the pregnancy according to the timeline-, and this is one of the many times Levi is asking Zeke about Ragako village and why he did what he did. Why, he had to prove his loyalty to Marley despite how horrific the bloodshed was. Levi shouldn’t be so judgmental; he shouldn’t assume what others are thinking. He must not have been popular with the ladies.

Wait. What? We were just talking about the ethics of slaughtering people to prove yourself loyal to someone or something. What does Levi’s love life have to do with this? Well, we now know that he was popular at one time. Just enough. Oh dear. He really doesn’t want to talk about this with “worrying about those brats”.

The anime in both the sub and dub has perfect line delivery. Plus he looks extra embarrassed and can’t even look at Zeke when answering the question.

Levi can’t do anything about when Zeke and Eren can do their “experiment”, it’s not his call. For once, they aren’t at each other’s necks because they agree that they are “running out of time”. The broader picture is that the world is going to strike back some time. But with that kind of look on his face, why else could Levi be worried about running out of time? Hold that thought.

Uh oh. Darius Zackley has been assassinated, and they can’t really trust Eren anymore because Zeke could be controlling him. But no, Levi’s Survey Corps idealism is getting the better of him. He put his trust in Eren many times before, so how could this farce be happening? So his idea is not to feed Eren to somebody else but instead to feed Zeke to a Jaegerist. And then, here comes the panel that I believe has been the simultaneously most taken out of context, misunderstood, and overlooked panel in this whole mystery. And it is also the key to resolving the plotline as picture perfect proof.

There are so many people who take this panel to mean, based on the dialogue, that

1. Levi is a cruel bastard who is more than happy to slaughter Historia.

2. Levi is relaying false information that was told secondhand about Historia’s due date- which has NOT been helped by Chapter 134 taking place just days later in story. It is more than high time to debunk all of this.

If you read Chapter 2 of my theory, we saw that back in Marley, Levi was absolutely heartbroken about diplomacy being more difficult to pursue than it seemed. Hange never wanted to sacrifice Historia either. They have been trying everything to find a peaceful solution that doesn’t involve the Rumbling or using Historia. It’s a messed up situation for sure, and there are few options due to Eren’s actions in Liberio left.

But remember, Historia was the one who said at the Hizuru meeting that she would take on the Beast Titan if needed for the survival of the island, and she reiterated this to Eren outright in Chapter 130 of the manga. So, it was ultimately her choice, her freedom to choose. Let’s break down the dialogue.

“Then, if Historia’s prepared like she says she is, we’ll feed the Titan to her next.”

Notice the language I highlighted. Levi is trying to do this on Historia’s terms- her words to him back in Uprising must still bite him to this day- in fact, she repeated his words of “there’s no need to run or fight” back to EREN. Only IF she is ready to take on the Titan. This sure doesn’t sound like somebody who wants to turn her by force, ready or not.

“We just need to wait a few months for her to give birth.”

See? Levi does not want to hurt a pregnant woman and her child- his child as well. Of course, when discussing this point about the pregnancy timing with others, I have had so many come back at me with, “Levi can’t be the father he got the timing wrong”.

Sigh. Duh. Of course he's giving the wrong due date. He’s not going to give the REAL DUE DATE, which is ANY DAY NOW. He’s buying her all the time he can. And do you think he’s going to give away the fact that he’s the father of this child who shouldn’t even be happening to two messengers of the top brass? What do you think would happen if he did?

Yes, that’s right. Levi is willing to compromise national security so Historia and their child don’t suffer during the Titanizing process even if she is willing to take on the Titan when she’s ready after giving birth. And I just want to point out a great irony. Those who think Eren is the father because he doesn’t want to turn Historia and her children into Titans believe he is doing a great favor by bursting out and getting angry every time this is brought up. But he disregards Historia’s own feelings twice. Does this sound like somebody who really cares about what the other wants?

And here, I want to do an artistic analysis. This is another big one where us readers have missed the forest for the trees. We focus so much on the dialogue that we ignore the picture. I couldn’t believe it when I actually looked for the first time. The way Historia is drawn made my jaw drop. She looks like a perfect, glowing angel from the most high key maternity shoot ever done in the mind of Levi, who himself is cleaned up and all glowy as well, not to mention that this is the first time since Chapter 69 at this point that he had a slight smile on his face. Why would Isayama make this artistic decision? Levi never has any moments where he thinks about Erwin like this in his mind, or Hange. Let’s compare this to two instances where Isayama has drawn couples in the manga.

See? They are all pretty and cleaned up. There is no other reason why Levi would be thinking about Historia in this manner. Nobody else in the story, not Eren nor the farmer, has any moment where they think about Historia like this. In fact, it’s the only time we see her during her pregnancy that she looks vaguely at peace.

Hold the phone. Levi snaps back from his fantasy because the messengers cannot believe how illogical and stupid his idea is. If they don’t feed Zeke to another with royal blood, the island is screwed! And they may lose Historia to birthing complications!

Er... are you okay there, Levi? You look terrified of birthing complications.

And they don’t sound too confident in your plan of “just strike back”. You have absolutely no resources to do so in your position. And here, we need to compare this to the anime.

Unfortunately, the dialogue surrounding Historia and the “few months” comment is cut- but that’s only a sign that something truly did happen ten months ago. And look at the way that the production compensated. Instead of talking about making sure Pixis gets his shit together, there is this added dialogue that makes Levi sound even angrier.

He’s not talking about ripping off Zeke’s limbs here. He’s talking about ripping off Pixis’ limbs! If any of the original manga stuff was animated, it would have been a huge giveaway.

A month has passed already- uh oh; time is running out- but Levi, while keeping the government plan in mind, is desperate to fulfill his vow to Erwin. Along with whatever was just going on in his mind, he is deeply distracted and wants to give his comrades’ deaths meaning. Unfortunately, he is repeating his same mistake as at the banquet and not paying attention to those he is supposed to be watching, and the wine plan goes into action.

Zeke didn’t think he would be willing to slaughter his way through his comrades, but Levi succeeds and gets to him. It’s cruel, but Levi had to prove his loyalty to his nation- including Historia. If he lets Zeke get to her, she and their child are done for.

There is this other bit of dialogue too.

They were your downfall. Zeke is talking about the global scale conflict about to happen. But what else could this mean for the panel we read in Chapter 112? Levi thought he could work a way around to protect Paradis without sacrificing Historia and their child, but nope. They've managed to screw up national security.

Levi tortures Zeke on a cart ride out of the forest to bring him to be fed to another Titan. Levi is not going easy on him. And then we see Zeke's tragic backstory and how he came to support euthanasia via Tom Ksaver.

Note here. This is some M6 text that has never properly been revisited. I wonder why it was emphasized.

Anyways, Levi learns of this secret plan, and he sure is pissed. It's what Zeke shouts next that triggers him into wanting to further torture him. It's Levi's fault that this child is going to be born into a cruel world, but he can't be against children being born. He helped set up an orphanage with Historia, by the Walls! There has to be a way to get children out of the forest of violence while letting them still exist.

Sadly, that will never happen in this story, and these two will never properly reconcile.

And uh, the animators snuck in a subliminal message here. Levi ended up losing a pair of fingers, but fortunately not a pair of something else!

...

Here, I want to address a possible objection by comparing the "saved those children" comment with Levi and the moment Eren in Paths runs to stop Ymir from euthanasia to disprove I am reading too much into this.

This scene is a common argument used on Team Eren to prove he is having an emotional reaction to euthanasia because he is thinking about Historia and supposedly his child. No.

Eren was already well aware of Zeke's plan; he pretended to go along with it! Eren had his own plan because of the memories from Ymir received from touching Historia. His real intention was the Rumbling. Why? Because he wanted to protect life on the island and nowhere else. So of course he doesn't want euthanasia. The reason he panics is because Ymir has started moving forward to listen to the royal-blooded Zeke's command. But Eren is able to reach her in time because she wanted a connection to the world this whole time, something he gave her, something Zeke could never do because of his worldview.

Compare to Levi when he learns of the plan in context of the current arc. He had no idea what this plan was, unlike Eren, so he could not expect Zeke to say this.

One may argue that Levi is thinking of his slain comrades and just wants to torture Zeke more and be the hero. But he already chopped Zeke up in the forest and in the cart. So, why would bringing up children trigger Levi? Unless we had a scene of Levi listening to a conversation by two comrades about their families at home in the pages prior, there is no other reason than the idea that he himself is bringing a child into the cruel world.

...

As Levi’s life hangs in the balance for at least ten chapters, next chapter will take a turn and focus on another unresolved mystery of Titan lore that ties into our theory: the Ackerman clan. And it will be featuring Yelena, Dina Fritz, and the scarf moment.

#attack on titan #rivahisu #unresolved baby plot #unresolved plotlines

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razberryyum · 5 years

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 11

(spoilers for everything MDZS/Untamed)

[covers MDZS chapters 51 and 52]

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰+🐰+ 🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰+🐰🐰+🐰🐰🐰

I’m frankly surprised Wuji didn’t start playing as soon as Wei Ying turned around and saw Lan Zhan walking towards him. They even slo-moed the scene to further stress the romanticism of the moment so it was rather odd that Team CQL would let this chance to WangXian things up get away from them, especially considering the fact that since Wei Ying spent most of the episode thinking about Lan Zhan, that would’ve been completely appropriate.

Wei Ying insistently saying Lan Zhan’s name to get his attention, even though he was being totally ignored, always makes me think of an image, which I’m going to share now, despite the fact that I’m pretty much opening myself up to humiliation due to my shamefully lack of artistic talent:

I wish this was actually drawn by a right-handed 3 year old using their left-hand, but unfortunately that truly is the extent of my drawing abilities, which is obviously less than nonexistent. I hope the spirit of what I’m trying to convey still comes through since I think the dynamics between Wei Ying, Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng are applicable for pretty much the entire episode.

Thinking from Jiang Cheng’s point of view, he’s probably both annoyed and befuddled by how obsessed Wei Ying seems to be with Lan Zhan. Of course he couldn’t understand the greater significance behind Wei Ying’s focus—how could he, when even Wei Ying didn’t understand at this point—but I can imagine him replaying these events years later, after all that’s happened, and only becoming even more angry and bitter at Wei Ying for already choosing Lan Zhan over his own family this early on. I mean, Wei Ying almost followed Lan Zhan to Cloud Recesses because he was concerned for his safety before he even spared a thought about his own sect and family’s safety. It's a good thing Jiang Cheng was still in his loving, brotherly phase during this time, otherwise Wei Ying would’ve more than deserved his ire. Actually, considering how much Jiang Cheng warned Wei Ying against acting out and doing something rash that would negatively impact their sect, I can’t blame him for the anger he felt later on when Wei Ying did exactly what he, and even his father, told him not to do.

Even though we didn’t see Lan Zhan reciprocating Wei Ying’s obsessiveness in return, I did love the fact that he utilized Wei Ying’s talisman to get away from Wen Xu since that was yet another indication of how much he appreciated Wei Ying’s abilities. I guess he might have gotten the talisman when they were trying to subdue the dancing goddess in Dafan Mountain. This will be the first time he’s kept Wei Ying’s talisman, and even though he was forced to use it, I love that the second time he kept one, he actually treasured it like a precious keepsake and only used it because Wei Ying was once again by his side. It serves as a nice marker of progression of their relationship.

Jiang Cheng Appreciation Time

It hurt my heart all over again that we will never get to see this kind of interaction between these two brothers any more, I actually got teary-eyed watching it tonight, especially with how adorable Wei Ying was being. I really love their brotherhood before everything went to hell because it’s just so...loving and unselfish, and I give Jiang Cheng a lot of credit for that. If he were a lesser person, he could have easily been an abusive brother to Wei Ying, taking full advantage of his status as the heir of Yunmeng Jiang sect to make Wei Ying’s life as difficult as possible. I know Shijie helped a lot in smoothing their relationship in the beginning, but it is also a testament to Jiang Cheng’s sweet nature that he could even be coaxed into opening his heart to this orphan his father brought home, especially when rumors of his true parentage started floating around...mostly thanks to his own mom.

I still wince when I watch this scene where Madame Yu basically cuts down her own son out of vindictiveness towards Wei Ying. I love Madame Yu, I really do, but wow do I not admire her parenting skills. Wei Ying almost nonchalant attitude to her rant was a good indication of how common her dressing down was, that he was able to even develop an immunity towards it. Jiang Cheng’s reaction broke my heart though. So did Shijie‘s: her non-stop peeling of those lotus seeds were clearly an indication of just how stressed she was by the situation. But since Jiang Cheng bore the brunt of his mom’s criticism, my heart bled for him more. Yet, despite having lived his whole life being told he will never be as good as Wei Ying, he still loved him like a brother and even admired him, as exemplified by this scene:

Instead of being jealous of Wei Ying being able to hit the target when he failed and the accolades he received from their sect disciples as a result, Jiang Cheng looked downright proud of his brother, as if Wei Wuxian’s success was his own. If I didn’t love Jiang Cheng before, I sure as hell loved him after this moment. It really showed how big of a heart Jiang Cheng has, how decent a person he is, and just how wonderful a brother he is (despite his constant nagging and disapproval), and it also made me so much sadder about what happened to their relationship and Jiang Cheng as a person later on. I really mourn the loss of his sweetness and magnanimity.

Madame Yu Appreciation Time

I’ve talked about how much I love Madame Yu before, and despite how brutal she is towards her family, I still love her. I loved her the moment she shot that glare of death at her husband. Him looking away and down like a properly whipped man just made me love and admire her even more. Again, I don’t approve of her parenting methods, I would not want her as my mom, but otherwise, she is just fucking awesome in my book. She is also beautiful. Makes me wish Jiang Fengmian was more of a match for her aesthetically-speaking, since he definitely was in the donghua. I wish they didn’t go older with him in the live action since the actress herself (Zhang Jingtong) is actually only a couple of years older than Xiao Zhan. I guess this version of JFM just hadn’t developed his cultivation level enough to retain his youthful appearance.

Liu Haikuan Appreciation Time

Any opportunity I get to show Big Brother some love, I will take it, although in this instance I would actually like direct that love and appreciation towards actor Liu Haikuan specifically for his heart-wrenching performance in the scene where he begged Uncle Lan to leave Cloud Recesses to preserve his life. I totally felt his desperation and fear for his uncle, and how completely unwilling he was to leave him and Cloud Recesses behind. Some actors can’t even produce a single droplet of moisture even when a scene is calling for them to cry their eyes out, yet Liu Haikuan drops those tears even when he doesn’t need to since they were hardly noticeable. I just love his performance.

Lan Zhan Appreciation Time

Technically I probably don’t need to set aside a specific section to appreciate Lan Zhan since I appreciate him all the time already, but since I wasn’t sure where to stick this moment, I decided to put it here. I don’t say it enough but I truly love the way he floats down to the ground; he looks like an angel descending upon the Earth.

Ex-BFFs

I really cannot wait for The Fatal Journey’s release because I am dying to find out how Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao went from this to what they become sixteen years later. I know Nie Mingjue is the reason, but the journey to that point is what fascinates me, so although I love Wen Ning and Sizhui and I do look forward to their movie, I must confess that I am most excited about the Nie brothers and JGY’s saga. January cannot come soon enough.

A Questionable Picturesque Setting

I love the way both Lotus Pier and Nightless City looked, so much so that I wish such places existed so I can go visit them one day. While I’m sure there are probably places in China that resemble Lotus Pier (or can be dressed up to look like it more or less), I doubt anything like Nightless City exists because it doesn’t even really make sense as a residence. Who in their right mind would build their stronghold on a volcano? And I guess an active one at that considering the lava running down all the surrounding mountains. Maybe that’s why Wen Ruohan looks so sweaty all the time. Since this part of Nightless City is obviously different from the section we saw during the Sunshot Campaign and Wei Ying’s final stand later on, I have to wonder just how freaking big is this place. And where was Wen Chao appearing from since there’s no building nearby? Is there some underground tunnel where he popped up from? I didn’t see any openings during the long pan up those steps. And also, for a sect known for its sun motif, I didn’t see even ONE sun printed on any of those banners. I wish they kept the original design; Nightless City made more sense in the donghua’s version of the place.

Overall Episode Rating: 8 Lil Apples out of 10

Disclaimer: The Untamed would not be possible without Mo Dao Zu Shi and Mo Xiang Tong Xiu-laozi. I mean no disrespect whatsoever with my humble comparisons between the novel and the live action, even when I sometimes favor the changes in the show. All hail MDZS and MXTX-laozi always and forever!

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tricksterpale · 5 years

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Llwyr and Denzel: Beautiful

Here’s a little excerpt/teaser from our Oasis story I’m writing with @condiscum <3

The Western exit of the hidden caverns the group called home truly exemplified why they called the place “the Oasis”. It was easy to believe, when they first reached the little building in the plateau that bordered the Salt Flats, that there was nothing beyond it but more endless desert. What a shock it had been when Denzel stumbled upon a second mouth to the cave system. At the time, he had simply been wandering, exploring the progression of half-furnished abandoned rooms in search of a proper place to build a workshop. But, intrigued, he had followed what looked to be natural light through the tunnels and wound up staring, open mouthed, at what he found there.

There was water. Greenery. Palm trees taller than he had ever seen. Green grass on the dunes, a clear blue sky and even clearer blue water. For some time, he simply sat there, watching the moas catch fish. Taking it all in.

Denzel had hardly been back there since he’d found it. He couldn’t find the right mind to appreciate it in full, so he had no desire to wander down half an hour of cavern rooms to see it again. However, since he had been with Llwyr, it was the only place he wanted to be. He wanted to share it with him. To explore the one sparkling fragment of true beauty in the sandy brandscarred wasteland with the person who made that wasteland feel bearable on its own.

So, now he sat with his back up against a palm, shoeless feet kicking swirls of sand in the crystal clear lagoon, Llwyr at his side, and together they watched the sun slowly descend.

Llwyr had just been cross-hatching the shadows in the sandstone boulders of his sketch, glancing up every now again to refresh his eyes. It was nearly finished now. Which was just as well. The sun was getting low on the horizon. He wouldn’t be able to continue with the light changing so rapidly.

He leaned back and brushed the shavings from the page absently, “The sun’s nearly set.” he said, “I’m losing my light.”

“Right.” Denzel agreed. He pulled his feet out of the water, curled his knees up to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. He let himself fall the few inches to his left until he was leaning against Llwyr, staring at the sketchbook in his lap.

“It’s nice.” He said. “What else you got in there?”

Llwyr’s indigo skin was lit at once in a red glow, “Erm…” he began somewhat awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, “This and that…You know. Things I found to be…”

He hesitated and looked down upon Denzel, “…beautiful.”

Denzel nodded even with the side of his face pressed against Llwyr’s arm. He uncurled now, reaching for the book.

“Well, I showed you mine, now you show me yours.” he said plainly, referring to the lagoon where they were sitting. If he had shared what he found most beautiful in the desert, it was only fair that Llwyr did too.

Llwyr seemed to grip the edges of his sketchbook more tightly a moment, unsure. Again, with that red glow in the creases of his bark. Up until recently, his love of Denzel had been a thing he tended to in private and held close to the chest. But who was he to deny Denzel’s request? After all, he was right.

He released his grip and lifted it into Denzel’s waiting hand.

Sitting up straighter and leaning over the book with full focus, Denzel slowly paged through.

Llwyr truly was a skilled artist. He was capable of taking even the most ordinary object and rendering it on paper in a way that made it unforgettable. While Denzel could fabricate machines from scrap, they were generally unembellished and certainly not built for aesthetic. Llwyr, on the other hand, would carve intricate detail into his physical creations. He would turn bits of log into items that were sculpture by design, yet functional in form. Whether with a pencil or chisel he would show others the world as he saw it. The ordinary became the extraordinary. The simple became the beautiful.

There were several pages of designs and patterns accompanied by drafted suggestions of their application in wood. One page that was nothing but variations of a simple floral motif, starting with a still life of the original bloom itself. Denzel thumbed to the next page, eager to see what would be depicted there only to have his heart stop.

It was him.

Him, Denzel, looking up and out of the page, staring right back.

And it wasn’t the only one. There were at least half a dozen pages in with the rest that were nothing but gestures and portraits of him. Little candid half-smiles, turning around. Denzel’s eyes, over and over, as though trying to capture them just right. Strong lighting from the side as he appeared to brush the leaves off of his forehead. Even one where he was working on a project, laser focused. His tongue was sticking out a bit.

Denzel blinked, glowing more luminously by the second as he simply beheld what was in his lap.

Things he found beautiful?

He, Denzel, was beautiful?

He didn’t know what to say, but at some point he forced himself to resume breathing. He could neither close the book nor turn the page at this point, so he just sat there, stunned and trying to process.

“You-” he stammered, finally. “I… Wow.”

Llwyr had been watching Denzel thumb through the pages with a sort of anxious anticipation. Inevitably, Denzel encountered the first page of sketches featuring himself and had paused just as Llwyr’s heart stopped. These were deeply intimate and up until now, they had been completely private. His own little oasis, just as the one they sat by. It felt then like he’d been exposed and laid bare before Denzel. His most cherished musings bled out onto the page, now on display for Denzel to see.

In a way, it was a relief. It was no longer his little secret to carry.

In another way, it was…

Well, his glow hadn’t dimmed since Denzel first reached for the book.

“Yeah…” he finally said, hands clutching his thighs tightly.

When Denzel finally found the wherewithal to look back over to Llwyr, he noticed that Llwyr was glowing just brightly as he was himself. Despite the growing realization that Llwyr must have been waiting for his reaction, even afraid of some sort of rejection, Denzel still couldn’t quite believe what was happening.

“You think… I’m… beautiful?” He asked hesitantly.

Llwyr blinked a few times. Of course Denzel was beautiful. How could that even be a question? It was plain as day for anyone to see.

The hesitation in Denzel’s voice as he had asked was telling. It left Llwyr wondering when and why Denzel had stopped believing anything but.

That would change, he thought. That had to change.

“Most ardently….” Llwyr said, looking down upon Denzel, “Yes.”

After a moment, he continued, “In ways I can only seem to scratch the surface of in these drawings.”

Somehow, the green across Denzel’s cheeks flushed even brighter, creeping up even his ears. He looked back down at his knees for a moment with a small smile.

“Thank you.” he murmured, then playfully added “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Llwyr smiled, “Thank you.” he said. He reached around behind Denzel and ran his fingers through his leaves.

#sylvari #sylvari art #gw2 sylvari #guild wars 2 sylvari #gw2 writing #Please appreciate my sons being adorable together #they love each other so much #I can hardly stand it

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northlandian · 5 years

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Final Thoughts

So this is it.

Endgame is 1000% complete. The premiere was last night, and in less than 48 hours, it will be released to the public. Well, at least for me, in about...

(Yes, I have a countdown on my phone that’s been set up since last year that goes until Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 6:00pm)

I wanted to make a post about my predictions. Something I could come back to, so I could see if I was right or wrong. I remember doing that last year with some of my favourite fan artists and laughing at their prospective situations that turned out to be true.

But you see, the truth is... I have absolutely no idea what to expect. And that's not just a cheap copout of me saying "It's a Marvel movie, therefore anything can happen". We know nothing. Literally nothing. The trailers are compilations of repetitive clips revealing nothing past the first 20 minutes of a 3-hour 2-minute movie. We don't even know the films true plot.

Is there a time jump? Do they time travel? Why are they splitting up into teams, seeing how well that proved to work last time? How is Scott saved? Tony and Nebula? And what is their plan?

I don't know. I really don't. All any of us can do is take shots in the dark. RDJ said it himself that it is near impossible to predict what's going to happen.

So that got me thinking about something I've considered pretty much since the debut of the first trailer...this movie is unpredictable...but there are some assumptions we've been making that we are assuming as a fact are going to happen.

But then there are also moments that I believe deserve to happen. Story arcs that need to be completed. Endings certain characters deserve.

So, drawn-out intros aside, here are my final thoughts on this movie.

Tony

Tony is an enigma. I've made a post in the past discussing why he might actually not die based on the chess motif and the necessity to save him as the "King", despite the fact that death is what we'd all expect. I'll be honest, when the first trailer came out, I thought to myself, "Wow. They're really trying to prep us for the heartbreak by shoving this foreshadowing down our throats.”

Obviously, this is based on the first half of the first trailer, with him adrift in space. I thought that maybe Captain Marvel would be the one to save him, or maybe Pepper in her rescue armour that was seen a couple months ago from a set photo. But how would they know where he was?

But after the second trailer debuted, I think I'm going to make the assumption that it is, in fact, Nebula, with her spare bodily robotic parts, who saves the two of them and brings them back to earth. I'm also going to assume that the scene from the trailers of Steve and the rest looking up at the night sky outside the compound (if that scene is even real) is them seeing Tony and Nebula arriving back to earth. Though I have considered the possibility of the space ship recording scene actually taking place at the end of the move...which would suck. But I'm also going to assume, based on the third trailer and clips that followed of Steve and Tony together, that they actually do reunite, in the present time.

Of course, this does not excuse him from the possibility of dying at all. And he very well could. But then, another thought crossed my mind. In Infinity War, the first time we see Tony on screen is with Pepper, discussing their wedding and possible children. See...why would they foreshadow that if they were to never make reference of it again? Sure, there's a possibility of a time jump with perhaps a wedding and maybe kid squeezed in there. After all, the whole vibe we're given from the second trailer is the question of where the world is supposed to go from the tragedy endured, and how some move on (then Steve of course says "but not us" but anyways). But that's only with the off chance that there is a time jump, and it seems kind of off in the first place. So assuming the foreshadowing wasn't for no reason, I'd like to think that there's a chance he lives long enough to retire and have a kid.

Tony and Pepper mentioning a kid isn't the only foreshadowing given for his survival, though. There was one line from Avengers that always stuck with me, and sort of got overshadowed by Tony's narcissistic but hilarious description of himself ("Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."). It comes when Steve is criticizing Tony's character and motivation. He says:

"You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

To which Tony immediately responds:

"I think I would just cut the wire."

Time and time again, Tony has proven Steve wrong, the first obviously being when he flew through the wormhole in the same movie. But what if this is his play in this one too? To be presented with a one-or-the-other choice for who can be saved, but manages to do both? Alternatively, this could also play out to the opposite of our favour; maybe Tony does finally just crawl over the wire for someone. For example, I've pictured a scenario where they do indeed go back in time to retrieve the stones before Thanos does. It's a plausible situation, considering we know nothing of their plan. But when it comes time to retrieve the soul stone, it's Tony who decides to make the sacrifice. Maybe he argues over it with Steve, who would want to finish what he started with Red Skull and complete the fate he was given 70 years ago, but ultimately Tony forces him to comply to what he wants, which is to finally make the ultimate sacrifice.

(And for the record, if either of those situations plays out, I'm suing Marvel for emotional distress)

But there's one other option, and it's based on a line spoken by Tony in the trailer that really stuck out to me. It was when he was leaving his message to Pepper in the second trailer, and it's where he says:

"I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one."

At first thought, I thought it may be like a "Surprise, honey! I'm not dead, and I've returned to earth to help defeat that giant grape!" sort of thing. And maybe it is. But I've also considered the possibility of Tony tricking someone or something. Perhaps tricking those into thinking he was dead. He did do it in Iron Man 3. But then again...who knows.

Sidenote: That's the end of my first thought and everything on Tony, and I have, like, *at least* twelve more to go. I was not expecting this to be this huge. Whoops.

Steve

It is so hard to get a read on what the hell is happening with this damn character. On one hand, Chris Evans has been talking for the longest time as if we all already know that his characters dead, with the way he speaks about his wrap-up with Marvel in general. But then there are people like the Russo's who say they have things in store that we don't know about yet. Like what?? Who do we believe? Are they just trying to cover up his obviousness? Or are we, again, making predictions that we shouldn't because this movie is actually so unpredictable??

Obviously, I don't know what's going to happen. What I will say is, I know what the fanbase expects, and that's for him to die. But again, just like in Tony's case, if that's one of the top expected outcomes, isn't it less likely going to happen?

Personally, I'm in favour of one specific theory many fans have contemplated and considered. The theory is that Steve, whether it be a result of the plot or by choice, goes back in time to the '40s, and that's where he lives out the rest of his life. He has his dance with Peggy, something foreshadowed so many times, including in the trailers, and they end up living together happily, and he endures the life he always wanted before going in the ice - that is how he phrased it at the end of Age of Ultron. So yes, he would most likely be "dead" in the present day from old age, as would Peggy (since she had already died in Civil War), but he would live out the life he always wanted.

OR - and I just thought of this now, literally as I'm writing - get this. He goes back to live in the '40s. But in present day, he's still alive, just very old. The Avengers (or whoever's left) go to see him by the end of the movie, maybe even during the after credits. And...it's Stan Lee. He is Steve Rogers. His final cameo.

(This seems highly unlikely, but the thought amused me. I also can't remember if the super soldier serum allows you to age properly in normal circumstances, but I don't wanna look it up at the risk of running into spoilers. Oh well, unresearched theory is unresearched.)

Thor

Don't get me wrong, I am still very much in the mindset of:

But if I'm being completely honest, yes, Thor, just like every other O6, the God of Thunder known by humans for his immortality, has a chance of not making it. With talks of a Thor 4 with dir. Taika Waititi, it seems unlikely, but the chance is still there. And it did get me thinking...

Loki telling him before his death, "The sun will shine on us again"...did he mean in Valhalla? I have had the thought of Thor possibly biting it, but then a scene where we see him there, reuniting with Loki, Heimdall, Frigga...even Odin. His loved ones. The ones he thought he could not go on without, finally being together again, him being happy in the afterlife.

It's a sucky thought, but a possible one.

Loki

Soooo...here we are. I'm not going over my whole freaking theory again, but I stand by what I wrote. Including the portion with the disclaimer where I established that I could be totally wrong.

But a possibility I also totally support is one where he is brought back with time travel. Why would he have a poster if he doesn't make a reappearance? What that reappearance is, I have no idea. Maybe, just like the comics, he does purposely bring the Avengers together in New York. Or maybe it's something heartfelt at the end, where time has rolled back, and it's immediately following Ragnarok. Thor is aware of the reverse, and everything that's happened, and Loki saunters into the dressing room again and makes the comment on Thor's eyepatch, but Thor is just so happy to see him, that he just hugs him, as it was foreshadowed in Ragnarok, and all is well, and they live happily ever after in Norway on Earth ruling Asgard together...

Idk. Just a thought.

A Cinematic Parallel

So this was just something I noticed when comparing the Infinity War and Endgame trailers.

So remember in the Infinity War trailer, where we see Tony just sitting with his hands folded over and we were like "huh wonder why they're covered in dirt", and then it turned out it was cause Peter just died, and it was his dust, and we all had a good laugh/cry when looking back on it.

Well...you know that moment in the Endgame trailer when Steve is covered in what looks to be sweat and dirt and he tightens his shield around his arm or something, and looks to be in extreme anguish over...something?

Well... I think that's our one glimpse at the end, just as Tony's was in the Infinity War trailer. I think someone just died in that moment.

That's literally it for that.

Death

We don't know who's going to die. We don't. And we don't know how. But that fact that the Russo's, Paul Rudd, and Chris Evans have been openly joking about character deaths is a definite indicator that whoever and however they go is not going to be mainstream. Like, I don't think it's going to be a Loki-type death, or the Tony-almost-death, where the character is just too overpowered by Thanos, or whoever else, and they die as a result. It's going to be complex. Or a decision the character makes that is self-sacrificing. Or something similar to the Steve time travel theory. But whatever it is, it is likely incredibly hard to guess.

Time Travel

The theories of time travel that have been circulating since the debut of Ant-Man and the Wasp are still just that - theories. I'll be honest, I'm still not 100% sure how the quantum realm can possibly assist them, other than getting them stuck in a time vortex. And even still, the operators of said quantum realm machine are dusted. That's all we have to go off of; that, obvious hair and suit changes throughout the trailers and set photos, and, of course, the fact that there are limited options as to how they can actually succeed at this point.

The Suits

Honestly, I just included this section to make fun of their new suits some more. They are so freaking ugly, it's hilarious. I remember when the photos of them were first leaked, everyone laughed and said it was too ugly to be real, yet HERE WE ARE.

So you can imagine how hard I laughed when I saw the second trailer for the first time, and how conflicted I was over how cool their "walk" was, but how gross the suits were.

Some actual memes I saved before the official release of the suits:

Bonus: Something I saved literally last November. And we're about to find out in less than two days...God, I'm not ready.

Prospective Scenes

There were a couple of scenes other than those I've already listed that would be incredibly satisfying to see.

Firstly, Tony and Pepper's wedding.

I always pictured it as the after credits scene. A final symbol of rest, retirement, and relaxation for Tony. And everyone's there, too. The rest of the O6, but also Peter and May, Happy, Rhodey, Sam, Wanda, the Guardians, T'Challa, Shuri, and their friends, Bucky, Dr. Strange (both reluctantly), Wong (of course), and the rest of their friends and (remaining) family. Everyone's watching as the shot is on them. And standing behind them, telling Tony he may kiss the bride, is the minister - Stan Lee. His final cameo.

(Or at least the one I originally had in mind).

The perfect ending for the perfect character arc. And oh, how unlikely it is to happen.

I'm also curious to know, now that it's confirmed, how the story will reintroduce Valkyrie, who happens to be one of my favourite characters, and also who may have escaped with her (hopefully with one of my other favourite characters...).

But there is a scene which we know for a fact is going to happen, and may have gotten a glimpse of during the final trailer, with the shot of Rocket and Nebula sitting somberly and holding hands. It's Rocket finding out that the other Guardian's didn't survive. Since separating from the other Guardians in Infinity War, Rocket did not know of their outcome, and there was no one to relay the message. That...is going to be heartbreaking to watch. Especially after seeing Rocket's character development in GOTG 2.

Prospective Dialogue

Just like certain scenes, there are lines that would be amazing to hear from specific characters.

The first, and probably most popular and obvious, is, of course:

"Avengers Assemble"

If Cap doesn't finally deliver this line with so much passion in this goddamned movie...

But then there was also a line of my personal preference that I really wanted to be heard in the movie, especially if it was said by either Tony, or Steve, or both of them to Thanos. And it's...:

"Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

Which is why I was SO HYPED BUT ANNOYED when I heard it in the trailer because so much of that content isn't going to make it into the movie.

I guess we'll see.

The Stones

So a common...what would you call it...theme, I guess? I've noticed is the correlation between the Avengers and the infinity stones. There are, of course, the six original Avengers left, and six stones. Each Avenger happens to almost perfectly fit into the representation of each stone.

Thor is the Space Stone - Probably most obvious. The Tesseract came from his family, and he has done space travel all his life.

Steve is the Time Stone - As he is "the man out of time".

Banner is the Mind Stone - A scientific genius, yet can't control his own mind.

Barton is the Reality Stone - He conceals his reality - his family - from the rest of his life and his world.

Natasha is the Power Stone - Often viewed as the weak link, even by allies (ie. Scott in Civil War), yet probably one of the strongest and most powerful team members, both physically, and mentally.

And finally - Tony is the Soul Stone - The godfather and soul of the team.

I don't know what this means for Endgame, if it means anything at all. It was just something I noticed.

Fate

There is one last theme I've come to notice throughout the original six, and it's the fact that each of them had their fate severely altered, almost unnaturally, to end up where they are in Endgame.

Tony, of course, almost died in a cave after being kidnapped by terrorists. He only built the Mark 1 suit to escape, and nearly died in the process of that. If he did not go to Afghanistan for the weapons presentation, not only would he not be Iron Man, but he would not be with Pepper, and he would still be manufacturing weapons - or worse, Obidiah would've had him killed another way.

Steve, of course, was selected to be the test subject of the super soldier serum, but that's not what altered his fate. He was destined for that for his grit and determination alone. His fate was altered when he survived something he shouldn't have - When he came out of the ice alive. None - and I mean none - of the events within the Avengers, SHIELD, or anything could have happened if he had died as he was supposed to.

With Bruce, you'd think I would refer to his gamma experiment in general, but that's not it either. That was also destined, similar to Steve's experiment. His is mentioned more briefly in Avengers, and it's the fact that he tried to kill himself. His attempt backfired, as he says he immediately transformed into the Hulk and thus, survived. But his intent was there, and if not for the quick reflexes and will to live of the Hulk (something that was NOT demonstrated in Infinity War, mind you), he would be gone.

Clint's and Natasha's basically go hand-in-hand. In Avengers, we find out that Clint was sent to kill Natasha, as she was part of the KGB. Natasha, in return, would have to try and kill Clint, not that it would have been different from any other enemy of theirs at the time. But because Clint made the call to try and reason with her and get her to turn, they both came out alive rather than the false dichotomy of a situation that would have left at least one of them dead.

And finally, there's Thor. His is a bit trickier to pinpoint because although he's been in death-defying situations, it's unclear if he's ever come close to death like a mortal would. But it's Thor who actually describes this fate that got me thinking about this theme in the first place, as he tells Rocket in Infinity War:

"You know, I'm 1500 years old. I've killed twice as many enemies as that, and every one of them would have rather killed me, but none succeeded. I'm only alive because fate wants me alive."

Fate wants him alive. And apparently it wants the other five alive as well. Otherwise, three of them would be dust, based on probability of the snap. But all six of them remain.

Again, I have no idea what this means for Endgame. I'm just pointing out what I believe to be significant.

Wow, so those are a lot more thoughts than I thought I'd have...this took about 3 hours to write, lol. So I think I'm going to leave it at that, and find out what happens on Thursday. I am in no way ready for it to all be over. And I've never been so terrified to watch a movie. And I've never had to consider that this might be the final 48 hours of a characters life.

This is going to be big. And I can't wait. But goddamn I am so scared.

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ber-bonfamille-lyons · 5 years

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Made You A Mixtape: September 2015

@simba-lyons

Happy Three Year Anniversary to Simber!!!!! To celebrate, the following playlist is the first playlist that Berlioz made Simba. Yes, that’s right, I have tried to recreate what it would have been here, which means that these songs reflect three criteria:

1. They came out in 2015 or before 2015 and would be on Berlioz’s radar 2. They remind Berlioz of Simba, and so they are mostly cheerful and a bit funky and are Big Sounds 3. Lowkey Berlioz is in love with Simba and these songs are telling him if he would just PAY ATTENTION. This is most obvious in the fact that Ber put two of his fave songs ever on this playlist-- Eskimo Kiss and Wood. They are both on this like massive playlist that he gives people for like Songs That Sound Like Ber’s Soul so yes!

So this is not a ship soundtrack as much as it is a Simba Soundtrack or a Simba-as-he-sounds-to-Berlioz-in-September Soundtrack. <333 The following descriptions are all basically incoherent, so I apologize.

Out of the Blue- Prides

Hear you come, my heart's only drummer I've been holding out for your symphony The air in my lungs is like thunder And I can't fight what you've made of me.

This is a Big Sound Song and a good way to open the mixtape in Berlioz’s opinion. He’d talk to Simba about the scratchy guitar that rumbles under like thunder, those drums, and that persistent, driving synth. And when he’s talking about those sounds, what he’s really saying is basically what the lyrics are saying honestly, like-- this song “text paints” very well, as in, it uses a storm metaphor for a lot of it and builds a storm with its instrumentation by creating a very heavy sonic atmosphere, like with all those layers and booming drums-- wow i really do sound probably how Berlioz sounded when really what he was saying is “You’re like thunder to me” and that’s really romantic and super embarrassing

Shut Up And Dance- Walk the Moon

A backless dress and some beat up sneaks My discotheque Juliet, teenage dream I felt it in my chest since she looked at me I knew we were bound to be together Bound to be together

GOD this CHEESY 80s dance guitar powerhouse of a jam!! I feel like i don’t even need to describe how this is such a Simba song in every single way and why Berlioz would think of Simba at once. But yeah, I mean: the sheer joy of it, not to mention that honestly Simba is the discotheque juliet teenage dream in this song who is grabbing Berlioz and telling him to dance. But yeah, I mean it’s so over the top in like every single way. Like Simba.

On the Regular- Shamir

Hi, hi, howdy, howdy, hi, hi! While everyone is minus, you could call me multiply Just so you know, yes, yes, I'm that guy You could get five fingers and I'm not waving "hi" Guess I'm never-ending, you could call me pi But really, how long till the world realize?

Kay so Shamir is a HELLA Simba artist and this song has a lot of these kooky sound samples that Berlioz really loves, especially when it comes to Simba. I want to say that tapping noise is a cowbell? Super fun and funky. And of course, lyrics wise, this song is brimming with confidence and attitude which is definitely how Berlioz saw Simba at first. (He still sees that, but of course this song I think, more than others, really reflects the beginnings of their relationship because obviously Ber knew nothing about the drinking and depression etc.) So yeah, Berlioz literally thinks Simba’s “regular” is this cool, funky, ridiculous guy and including this on the song would be conveying that impression, while also being like “Hey Simba, you should check out Shamir if you don’t know him because his sound is You.”

Oh Girl You’re the Devil - Mika

And I said follow me Whoever you want to be Don't care where you where you go As long as you stay with me

This is another song along the same lines of “On the Regular”-- very groovy, playful, with some fun quirky sounds and structures that just evoke Simba musically more so than lyrical content. But it’s definitely a song that Berlioz would think Simba would like and find fun to dance to/sing along to. And I mean honestly: this entire album is Simba. Me and Berlioz really struggled with which song to put on here. In addition, this was one of Mika’s more personal albums when it came to his sexuality and including Mika on here and probably writing “Please listen to all of No Place in Heaven” in the margins of the notes included with this playlist was Berlioz subtly talking about his own sexuality to Simba.

Bite Down- Bastille/HAIM

You’ve got your claws buried deep Bite down, bite down into me Bite down, bite down into me You better sink your teeth before I disappear Bite down, bite down into me

Ah yes, another “I’m very into you please make out with my face” subliminal message (is it subliminal?? Is it?) Here’s why this is a Simba song-- because its carnal and aggressive and Big. I do body rolls during the pre-chorus anyone else just me?? And the shifts from chorus to verse to post-chorus is so jarring, it just grabs your attention and keeps your attention, which is probably what Berlioz would point out to Simba. And that’s a very Simba thing too, at least a Simba thing according to Berlioz. Also, I personally love the irony considering this song foreshadows the back and forth that Simber will go through in the winter.

Love Me Anyway-The Mowglis

Oh, you know I love you But no, I am not a saint Oh, I make stupid mistakes But you love me anyway Oh, I forgot your birthday And yeah, I show up late Oh, I'll get it right someday 'Cause you love me anyway

So The Mowglis are a very Berlioz band and this album was probably something Berlioz was definitely listening to. The sing-a-long chorusy stuff is VERY Simba-sound as well as the lyrical content just being so very Simba. I like to think that even though Ber and Simba were very much getting to know each other, this chorus still makes a lot of sense since Simba would show up late and forget all these little things-- but obviously, he has such a big heart and always came across as so sincere to Berlioz. It’s a song Berlioz would maybe learn how to play on guitar and think to himself “Hey I bet Simba would really like this song!”

Eskimo Kiss- the Kooks

Oh lonely bones I'm coming through the sun And our lives have just begun Oh lonely bones I'm coming through the sun And our lives have just begun

As I mentioned above this is literally the biggest fucking tell that Berlioz has a big ol fat crush on Simba. This is one of his favorite songs, ever. This was not even a little bit new, it came out in 2011, and yet Berlioz listened to this song and to lyrics like “She's like a rose without a thorn/She's like the sunflower/That never looks back at the sun” and his first thought was “Simba.” He’d probably say some bullshit about how he just liked the lyrics because they were nice and it seemed like the kinda cheerful thing Simba would like. But it was bullshit and what he was really saying was lets please eskimo kiss under the bar rn because you make me feel both sunshiny like this first half of the song and achey and tender like this second part of the song, so, like, how i imagine how love feels like. That was the inner monologue there. And really, the shift in this song from the upbeat jangly acoustic to that tender part emulates Simba’s two sides, because he is very capable of being a gentle honeybun sweetie pie.

Smile - The Royal Concept

I've got to dress sharp, you know I will Give you what it takes cause I'm not Gonna be outdone By those beautiful fakes In your halo, there's gotta be gold I've got you waitin' on I'll step on a grenade so you Can see I'm the bomb

And here we are back at that interesting mix of Berlioz finding some funky songs for Simba but also songs that speak to Berlioz’s perception of Simba’s characters in subtle ways/songs that Ber really wants Simba to be into so they can talk about it! So musically wise, you’ve got a lot of the same elements as previous songs here, lots of powerful guitar and some layered vocals and a pretty groovy tempo. Basically this is an alt rock song that makes you want to dance, and that’s the perfect place where Songs-that-sound-like-Simba live (there aren’t a lot of straight pop songs on this mix as you might have noticed.) But then of course, it’s all about this guy trying to go out of his way to make a girl smile (he “carries sorrow” and will “step on a grenade” for her etc) and if that isn’t the most Simba thing. What i like is this is one of those lowkey sad songs that sounds super upbeat and happy too-- which is also a Simba thing, and I like to think Ber would pick up on those vibes. He’d definitely notice Simba trying to make others happy. And I mean.................. who else was making Berlioz smile............

Shine- Years and Years

I was biting my tongue I was trying to hide (Ooh oh oh oh, ooh oh oh ooh) I'll forget what I've done I'll be redefined

Okay, I admit: this song is really not about Simba at all, this one is Berlioz trying to tell Simba he likes him by putting this song on this mixtape and look I am not responsible for Simba not getting that.

Okay but more seriously: shine/sun/light etc are all motifs that reoccur for Berlioz when it comes to Simba, and have for Simber in general. Years and Years debuted the summer before Ber met Simba and was, again, this openly queer artist who Berlioz was definitely listening to a lot of, so it makes a lot of since that he’d go into their album and put a song on there, hoping Simba would get into them so they’d have this kind of shared connection. He picked Shine because of all the songs, Shine is the most optimistic and romantic, so naturally he thought: Simba. And again, there’s this lowkey thread of Berlioz using music to address his sexuality without actually talking about it.

By My Side- Great Good Fine Ok

Baby when I come to get you I'm all I find Every time I go to come back to see it's not my time Any time you think something is on my mind I'll tell you when it's all about you, I need you by my side

So Great Good Fine Ok is like the contemporary BeeGees, and their velvety falsetto and solid dance beats were Berlioz’s Jam in 2015. Seriously, go back and look, I reblogged all their stuff. ANYWAY, so this song really hits all three of the criteria as I talked about above-- this is a band that Berlioz was SUPER excited about and he wanted Simba to like. Sound-wise, totally upbeat and those trumpets in the end!!! scream Simba, which was basically what Berlioz said to him. He’s always associated brass with Simba, that’s just like, a general known fact. He said “The ending with the trumpets really reminded me of you.” And the translation for that is “Please be my boyfriend.” And of course lyrically, this is about someone pining over another… and that’s really not a Simba mood but it is a Ber one.

Indian Summer- Jai Wolf

It would not be a Berlioz mixtape without at least one instrumental song or something. And this one! This one! If you noticed, Berlioz organized this playlist so it shifted toward more techno/dance music in the second half and part of that was to BUILD to this song right here, his musical climax if you will. Everything about this song screams Simba to him and I honestly do not have a developed enough vocabulary for music to talk about how that works. Maybe it’s just the scope of the song-- and that it has that very BIG scope and it goes from soft, chime-like sounds to exploding outward in these huuuge moments that are Cinematic as heck. It’s beautiful and soft while also powerful and strong (and that’s simba for u, those four things). It sounds like adventure, like starlight, like camping? And he thinks Simba would like all those things and was probalby like “Oh he’ll like running to this song.”

man anyone having serious simba feelings at this point just me or

Wood- Rostam

Sunlight on your eyelids You were sleeping Ah ah, ah ah ah Sunlight on your back You were dreaming

And following a climax, you must have your falling action and resolution. Berlioz decided to end softly and tenderly with another one of his all time favorites, therefore revealing that he associates Simba with all of his favourite sounds-- all the plucky violin and bongo drum and flute. Plus, it describes sleeping with your lover. That’s it. That’s the whole song. And that’s what Berlioz wants: cat naps in the sun with his sunshine boy.

He wouldn’t have said that obviously, he would have been like, this “cool percussion bro.”

But we all know what he meant.

#simber #im sobbin r u sobbing #also like this is a simba playlist #i SWEAR it is #noT a Simber oNE but #idk jury is out on if i can tag this as a bdrptask or not i really tried lol

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shortend · 7 years

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Comic Script Prompt: Batgirl of Burnside

My Overwatch script got at least one artist working on it from what I can tell. One is more than the zero that I was expecting, so after what I consider to be a successful first attempt at this I’m gonna give it another go. I only read a few volumes of Batgirl from Stewart, Fletcher, and Tarr, and while I understand there were some controversies regarding certain villains, it was still stylish and entertaining. That being said, I only read a few volumes and have NO IDEA what’s going on in current continuity, other than what I hear about Frankie Charles apparently being dropped which is what inspired me to write this script... last year. I forgot it was even here. But I’m not worried about this script fitting into any sort of canon, are you? Good. We’re here for fun. You know what’s fun? Batgirl. Let’s have fun. THE RULES: For those who are new to illustrating comics: the rules are simple. Read the whole ten-page script. Outline and illustrate based on how you feel the story is best told. The panel counts and even the descriptions of the panels are only suggestions. The writer’s job is to give you the story to tell. Therefore you are the story teller. It’s only polite to stick to the dialog as closely as possible, but most writers can’t even draw stick figures, so the layout of the actual comic falls to your expertise. Go get ‘em. I would love to see as many takes on this script as possible, so I would be grateful to those who are willing to share this script in order for it to be seen by artists far and wide. I would appreciate writing credits, of course, but the rest of your work is yours to do with as you please. I also ask that you PLEASE TAG ME if you post your illustrations on tumblr so that I can ooh and awe. If you’re looking to get into comic book illustration, or are just bored and need something to mess around with before your own inspiration takes over and leads you to make your own art: this is as good a place as any to start. This goes to writers too. Do not be afraid to post fan scripts online. Everyone needs practice, and it could lead to exciting collaborations. Feel free to share any questions or comments. Thank you. PAGE ONE (Six Panels) Panel 1. Interior warehouse. Batgirl, clad in her ever-stylish bat-themed ensemble, and Operator, clad in a hoodie and several multi-purpose cybernetic enhancements including bulky gauntlets, backpack that converts into a small robot, and ever-important leg braces, lurk in the foreground behind some industrial barrels as they watch Killer Frost command her henchmen. I know Frost's kind of an independent homicidal maniac nutjob who don't need no hench-man, but this is only a comic prompt so mind your biscuits. BATGIRL: I think we finally found Killer Frost's lair. OPERATOR: What gave it away? The freezing cold or the fact that she's literally right in front of us? BATGIRL: Don't question the super sleuth.

Panel 2. Operator wraps her arms around herself to stay warm and restrain her shivering from drawing unwanted attention. Batgirl pulls a stick of lip balm out of her utility belt.

OPERATOR: Man, it's so friggin' cold my lips are chapped. BATGIRL: Here, I have something for that. Panel 3. Close up. Operator holds the closed stick of lip balm in front of her face and scowls at it and its patented bat motif. Panel 4. Batgirl looks concerned. BATGIRL: What? Panel 5. Close up. Operator continues to scowl, only this time it's directed forward at the camera. Panel 6. Batgirl lowers her head and fidgets nervously. BATGIRL: Never mind. Your eyes say it all. PAGE TWO (Five Panels) Panel 1. Operator applies the balm and raises an eyebrow to Batgirl, who simply shrugs. OPERATOR: Does Bat-MAN carry around a tube of lip balm too, or just Bat-GIRL? BATGIRL: Presumably? I guess? Why not? Panel 2. Imagined scenario. Exterior. Gotham City. The Batman looms atop a gargoyle and surveys his city with a brooding scowl. Such is the severity of his brooding scowl that it can easily be conveyed through his brooding cowl, which is itself designed to convey both brooding and scowling because it is a mask and the whole point of a mask is to hide your face regardless of its expression. BATMAN (Caption): “Somewhere, even now, Scarecrow is preparing his most recent batch of fear toxin.” BATMAN (Caption): “Any slip up on my part could cost thousands of lives.” BATMAN (Caption): “No time to be distracted by trivial aches and pains.” Panel 3. Extreme close-up profile view of Batman's gritted teeth as he juts his jaw forward and applies lip balm to his lower lip. BATMAN (Caption): “Thankfully...” BATMAN (Caption): “I came prepared.” Panel 4. Low angle of Batman leaping from the gargoyle with his cape flared out dramatically behind him as lightning strikes in the distance. His lips have a distinctly glossy sheen. BATMAN (Caption): “I am the night.” BATMAN (Caption): “Woosh!” Panel 5. Back to Batgirl stroking her chin in thought. OPERATOR: Really? The Batman says, “Woosh?” BATGIRL: I think? But only in his head. PAGE THREE (Four Panels) Panel 1. Batgirl and Operator turn face to face with their backs to the camera. Between them, in the background, Killer Frost looks over her shoulders and is surprised to see two figures lurking in the shadows. Wow, ladies, it's time to step up your lurking game. BATGIRL: Point is: You're not questioning the lip balm anymore. OPERATOR: I assume his sparkles too. BATGIRL: We all have our vices. OPERATOR: Superman doesn't have vices. He's Superman. BATGIRL: Uh, duh-hoy. Yeah, he does. Panel 2. Imagined scenario. Exterior. Batman crouches atop a building, ever the picture of disgruntled vigilantism, as Superman hovers in the air beside him with his arms folded. They both look out over the city. SUPERMAN: Hi there, Bruce. BATMAN: Clark. SUPERMAN: Chilly tonight, isn't it? Panel 3. Batman hands Superman his lip balm from off panel. BATMAN (OP): Here. SUPERMAN: Thank you. Panel 4. Same angle as Panel 2, except Superman hovers with one arm akimbo, as the hip Metropolisian likes to call having one hand on his hip, which is hip, and the other applying lip balm to his perfectly honed alien lips, which might be less hip. SUPERMAN: You know, my Kryptonian blood and Earth's yellow sun grant me resistance to chapped lips. SUPERMAN: I do, however, appreciate the cherry flavor and glossy sheen. BATMAN: Totes. PAGE FOUR (Four Panels) Panel 1. Operator gives a skeptical look. OPERATOR: Hold up. Batman's name is “Bruce?” Panel 2. Batgirl nervously rubs the back of her head with one hand and waves dismissively with the other at the easily dismissed notion of The Batman having a perfectly normal civilian name. BATGIRL: No! What!? Ha ha! No! BATGIRL: I just thought it would be funny to give them funny normal funny civilian names. Panel 3. Killer Frost strikes a dramatic pointing pose as she orders her hench-peeps to advance on the intruders. BATGIRL (OP): His name would obviously be “Battholomew Manchild” anyway. I mean, get real. KILLER FROST: Intruders! Get them! Panel 4. Batgirl and Operator bound over the barrels to bop some bad-guy noggins. Operator's gauntlets slide over her hands and form something along the lines of metal boxing gloves. BATGIRL: Wow. Really? OPERATOR: “Get them?” Uhh, cliché much?” PAGE FIVE (Five Panels) Panel 1. Batgirl and Operator bop and ka-pow the various hench-folk with ease and flair while Killer Frost gets angry and defensive. KILLER FROST: Hey! It's not my fault! It's a hench-people thing! KILLER FROST: They're trained to follow certain key phrases, like “Don't let them escape!” and “Take her to my chambers!” Panel 2. Wide angle of the skirmish as Batgirl and Operator dispatch the minions of darkness through the use of fisticuffs. One hench-individual comes up behind Operator, seemingly unnoticed. BATGIRL: I guess their handbook hasn't been updated in a while. BATGIRL: You can still order them to get you an “Iced Tea”, right? Huh? OPERATOR: Don't make puns. Don't be that girl. Panel 3. Batgirl notices Operator's encroaching assailant preparing to grab her from behind and gets ready to throw a batarang to intercept. BATGIRL: Who are you who are so adverse to base comedy? Panel 4. Operator raises her fist without looking and strikes the hench-being behind her in the nose with what has come to be known as the “Batman Punch,” seemingly validating her coming claim. OPERATOR: I'm Batman. Panel 5. Killer Frost prepares to engage in an assault of her own. KILLER FROST: You're not Batman... PAGE SIX (Five Panels) Panel 1. Killer Frost unleashes a freeze blast that Batgirl and Operator narrowly dodge. I say narrowly because that incites tension. Tension is important to action scenes. I can action scene. I can action scene real good. You don't know me. You don't know what I've been through. KILLER FROST (Burst): You're a dork! Panel 2. Operator takes a knee and fires off a small projectile. OPERATOR: Body Snatcher. SFX: Ptunk! Panel 3. Shot of the projectile streaking through the air. Panel 4. Same angle as the projectile expands into a net, or whatever sort of binding contraption you deem to be more “creative” as you kids like to say. You with your newfangled “Stylizes” and your “Welcome Tablettes.” In my day we had rock walls and our own blood. That was how we made comics. Panel 5. Killer Frost shoots the “body snatcher” out of the air. That's what she thinks of your imagination. What're you gonna do about it? KILLER FROST: Nope! Boring! PAGE SEVEN (Three Panels)

Panel 1. Operator's gauntlets take on a decidedly more “energy canon” appearance as matter-sucking vortexes begin to manifest. OPERATOR: H.G. Wells!* SFX: Voormvoormvoorm! CAPTION: *Hyper Gravity Wells. Not to be confused with iconic sci-fi writers. Panel 2. Killer Frost loses her balance as she struggles against the powerful current of pseudo-science pulling at her from off-panel. SFX:Voormvoormvoormvoorm! KILLER FROST: What the $#&%? Panel 3. Batgirl delivers a leaping kick to Killer Frost's noggin BATGIRL: Calling out my attack!* SFX: Boot! CAPTION: *Not to be confused with a good idea. PAGE EIGHT (Five Panels) Panel 1. Batgirl and Operator stand side-by side. Batgirl playfully jabs Operator in the shoulder as Operator adjusts her equipment. BATGIRL: Way to suck, Operator. OPERATOR: I'm serious about the puns. End them, or I will. Panel 2. Killer Frost nurses her aching head as she tries to prop herself up on the floor. KILLER FROST: You really think a kick to the head is gonna stop Killer Frost? Panel 3. Batgirl and Operator exchange knowing looks.

BATGIRL: Sedation? OPERATOR: Sedation. Panel 4. Close up from behind. Operator turns her head over her shoulder and talks to the device on her back, causing it to boot up. OPERATOR: Sic her, Rossum. ROSSUM: *Berp* *Wrrr* Panel 5. Operator’s backpack, now Rossum the Universal Robot, springs into the air above Operator. ROSSUM: *Keerp* *Zzzzt* PAGE NINE (Four Panels) Panel 1. Rossum drops like a sack of robot on top of Killer Frost and pins her to the ground. KILLER FROST: Ooph! Get off me! KILLER FROST: Don't you touch me! Panel 2. Close up on Rossum as a little nozzle comes into view. KILLER FROST (OP): What're you doing? Don't you do it! Panel 3. Rossum emits a colorful fog into Killer Frost's face, causing her to blink sleepily. KILLER FROST: Don't you--! ROSSUM: Blorp! Panel 4. Same angle as Killer Frost loses consciousness and drops her head to the ground. PAGE TEN (Six Panels) Panel 1.

BATGIRL: I had no idea you were such a sci-fi dork. OPERATOR: I, like many a prolific genius before me, have been burdened with an overabundance of time to sit on my butt. OPERATOR: Fiction helps. Panel 2. Operator starts to lose balance as her legs give out. BATGIRL: I'd call that a pretty satisfying field test though. Good work. OPERATOR: They're Qadir's designs. They just need my signature programming to work. Panel 3. Operator falls to her hands and knees in pain. OPERATOR: Aaaaaaand, maybe a better power supply. BATGIRL: Oh no! Are you okay!? Panel 4. Operator stares at the ground in front of her in frustration over her apparent weakness as Rossum scurries back up her back. OPERATOR: I can reroute Rossum's power to the braces. This is too much gear to carry on my own in my... OPERATOR: You know... condition. OPERATOR (Whisper): I swear I'm not a liability. Panel 5. Batgirl leans over and places her hand on her friend's shoulder to comfort her. BATGIRL: I never said you were. We'll get you home and figure out an energy solution. Panel 6. Batgirl stands up and looks over the mess of the warehouse. BATGIRL: Right after we figure out what Killer Frost was up to. CAPTION: To never be concluded!

#Batgirl #batgirl of burnside #comics #comic scripts #art prompt #art #illustration #webcomics #art challenge #DC comics #comic prompt #Operator #Frankie Charles #Battholomew Manchild #Batman #Superman #fanfic #fan fiction

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rachaelburkeme2 · 5 years

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Kris Lemsalu...again! Because I have a massive art crush!

Meet Kris Lemsalu, the Eccentrically Costumed Artist Who Will ‘Give Birth to a World of Shamanic Force’ at the Venice Biennale

Lemsalu will team up with friends, including the artist Sarah Lucas, to create her own world on a Venetian island.

Kate Brown, January 16, 2019

The first time I meet artist Kris Lemsalu, she is wearing a Medusa-like piece of rubber headgear, makeup reminiscent of a Russian nesting doll, and a vibrantly-colored old pantsuit that once belonged to a Bolivian witch.

You might not know exactly what she looks like, because her likeness is constantly shifting. But you know her when you see her. The same goes for her practice, which is a meandering blend of performance, ceramic sculptures, and theatrical multimedia installations.

The Estonian artist’s introduction to American audiences came in the form of a performance at Frieze New York back in 2015, when she lay prone inside a 220-pound ceramic turtle shell for hours on end. Her limbs dangled out from the massive sculpture while she lay face down on a waterbed. It was a fitting debut: for Lemsalu, the lines between her own body and her art, found objects and performance, as well as fantasy and reality, are all extremely blurry.

Kris Lemsalu’s Whole Alone II performance and installation at Frieze New York 2015. Courtesy Temnikova & Kasela and Piibe Kolka.

But whether in regalia or hiding under a tortoise shell, just a few years ago, Lemsalu was little known beyond a few privileged art circles in continental Europe. But in a tired-out art world, Lemsalu’s mixture of fantasy is like an imaginative antidote. To quote LA-based art critic and curator Andrew Berardini in his reflection on Lemsalu’s work: “In the middle of the thrum and cacophany of industry trading, of flashy luxury goods mixed with authentic heart songs all for a price, who wouldn’t want to turtle?”

Last year, the sculptor-as-performance-artist presented back-to-back solo shows at the historic Vienna Secession and at the new Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London. In 2017, she blew audiences away with a live performance that melded sculpture, video, and sound at Performa in New York and then at the David Roberts Foundation in London.

Soon, Lemsalu will welcome an ever wider audience into her fairytale storybook. She is currently preparing to represent Estonia at the Venice Biennale, which opens May 11.

Performa 2017. Photo: Paula Court

All in the Family

Lemsalu is keeping the particulars of her Venice project under wraps. But as usual, she will be doing things on her own time and in her own way. While her previous works’ major thematic was death, for “BIRTH V” in Italy, the inception of life will be the Lemsalu’s wide-open, awe-inducing topic for Lemsalu. (though her press release points out that death is never far away— it “wears a carnival mask in Venice anyway”).

She has dispensed with the tradition of inviting a local curator to organize the presentation, instead opting to assemble an international troupe of friends to help build the show, including artist Sarah Lucas and art critic Andrew Berardini. Irene Campolmi, a Copenhagen-based curator, and Tamara Luuk, an old friend and contemporary art curator at Tallinn Art Hall, will also be by her side, as well as musicians.

“It becomes more and more about the people I am working with, and about how we work together and build a family structure,” Lemsalu tells me over Skype from her home in Tallinn. She is sitting beside a fireplace, occasionally stoking it. Estonia, one of the more northern countries in Europe, experiences radical extremes of darkness and light. (Around the time we spoke this winter, the sun had risen just before 9:30 a.m. and was setting shortly after 3 p.m.)

Lemsalu’s global network of friends, whom she calls family, are something of a remedy to the remoteness of Tallinn. They also provide a tether for an artist whose work seems to exist in a fantasy world. A few times a year, she brings friends and members of her local production team to Hiiumaa, an Estonian island where she produces her impressive porcelain ceramics.

For Lemsalu, the sparse island is a special place. She fires her ceramics inside an old wood-fired kiln in a workshop that only operates during the spring and summer. Each person she brings along does an eight-hour shift, chopping wood and warming the kiln up from zero to around 2370 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 1,300 Celcius).

Kris Lemsalu Keys Open Doors at Secession in Vienna. Photo: Maximilian Anelli-Monti. Courtesy of the artist and Temnikova & Kasela Gallery.

The time-intensive firing process is part of what keeps Lemsalu coming back to this place. “You are there alone mostly, and I always take the night shift from midnight to morning,” she says. “I experience the light changing, the time passing.”

Appropriately, her Venice presentation will also take place on an island—Giudecca, one of the remote masses that surrounds the floating city. This marks the first year the Estonian pavilion has been held there, inside an old woodworking shop that is still family-run. It’s a short boat ride away from Venice, but especially during the frenzied opening days, it feels like it is a world apart.

Goldsmiths CCA. Photo: Mark Blower.

Costume as Armor

Growing up in post-Soviet Tallinn, Lemsalu started dressing up at 15, in the early 2000s, when she began going to an Estonian factory rave, a kind of Eastern European twist on Studio 54.

“There was a secret upstairs room where often one or two artists would curate a topic, a dress code, fashion shows, or performances,” she recalls. “And I began developing a character there where I felt there was room to play. But I don’t take myself seriously. It’s much more fun to dress up. I can choose whatever character.”

She went on to study ceramics and design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine arts in Copenhagen, and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her sculptures and environments often include animal pelts, clothing, and food arranged around her impressively large scale ceramic objects. And just as she becomes a character within her art, her installations often feature headless or floating bodies, or made-up creatures.

Years after she first put on a costume, Lemsalu continues to approach dressing up as an opportunity to tell a story or create a life. She originally discovered the Bolivian witch outfit she had on when we first met buried under textiles at a thrift store. She imagines its original witch owner chewing on coca leaves as she wore it, with green saliva dripping down his chin and onto his front.

When she encounters an object like this, Lemsalu says, she feels a powerful urge to preserve it. “I fear that if I get rid of such things, the memory of this person will disappear,” she says. She doesn’t feel particularly proud of this sentimentality, so she wears the objects around to avoid becoming a “hoarder.”

Similarly, the artist feels protective of the sculptures she makes, which she occasionally embodies or interacts with. “Sometimes a work just needs the presence of my body in order to continue living alone afterwards,” she tells me about her performances. “It’s some kind of encouragement for them or an initiation. They will continue living without me.”

It’s tempting to connect her interest in storytelling and preserved histories to her upbringing in a country whose history before it gained independence in 1991 is easily fascinating to the Western world. But Lemsalu isn’t interested in a biographical interpretation of her work. “I am always kind of escaping from labels,” she says. “I have roots and, even though I would like to be this intergalactic traveler, of course there are major influences through how I grew up.”

Goldsmiths CCA. Photo: Mark Blower.

Looking to the Future

Like her costumes, Lemsalu’s art pulls you in with its exuberant, wild colors, and curious forms—and then it leaves you feeling a little uneasy. At her Goldsmiths exhibition at their new CCA, a mess of legs kick out from underneath a bright pink duvet and crawl across the walls. In another room, rainbow bodies soar overhead and dive into a pool surrounded by a pastel quilts.

But as you look closer, that pool, filled with murky liquid, begins to feel more ominous. In another room, birds hold up empty clothes, from a soiled wedding dress to a safety jacket. Lifeboats, helmets, parachutes, and sleeping bags are recurring motifs, calling to mind the escalating crisis over migration worldwide. It’s as if Lemsalu is trying to create a shelter for her characters, to give them safe passage into another world.

I ask if her clothes also serve as protective armor for her own growing presence in the art world. She seems to agree. “I don’t know when it will all disgust me to the point that I will make teacups, and be happy with that,” she says. “I am trying to just put everything into what I am doing now and get good people on board. I will run with my idealism until it runs out.”

#Activating Space Research (Week 2 - 7)#Installation (week 5-7)

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komagome-soko · 5 years

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「その先へ -beyond the reasons」

"その先へ -beyond the reasons"

稲田翔平 / 岩永忠すけ / O JUN / 大田黒衣美 / 大庭大介 / 奥村雄樹 / 川角岳大 / 國宗浩之 / KOURYOU / 杉戸洋 / 田幡浩一 / 西村有 / 長谷川繁 / 櫃田珠実 / 松田修 / 村瀬恭子

2019年3月8日 (金) - 3月31 (日) 水 - 土12:00 - 19:00 / 日12:00 - 17:00　月・火休廊会場：駒込倉庫 Komagome SOKO (東京都豊島区駒込2-14-2)

同時開催櫃田伸也 "罪なき理性 -blame not on reasons "会場：KAYOKOYUKI

"beyond the reasons"

SHOHEI INADA / TADASUKE IWANAGA / O JUN / EMI OTAGURO / DAISUKE OHBA / YUKI OKUMURA / GAKUDAI KAWASUMI /HIROYUKI KUNIMUNE / KOURYOU / HIROSHI SUGITO / KOUICHI TABATA / YU NISHIMURA / SHIGERU HASEGAWA /TAMAMI HITSUDA / OSAMU MATSUDA / KYOKO MURASE

March 8 - 31, 2019 Wed. - Sat.12:00 - 19:00 / Sun 12:00 - 17:00 Closed on Mon. and Tuesdays. at Komagome SOKO

held at the same time with　Hitusuda Nobuya "blame not on reasons"　 at KAYOKO YUKI (the same building)

このたびKAYOKOYUKIでは、3月8日(金)から31日(日)まで、櫃田伸也の個展「罪なき理性 - blame not on reasons」を開催します。それにあわせ、隣接するKomagome SOKOでは、櫃田と関わりのある作家16名によるグループ展「その先へ -beyond the reasons」を開催します。

罪なき理性 - blame not on reasons｜KAYOKOYUKI

　櫃田伸也(ひつだ・のぶや)は1941年東京都大田区生まれ。東京藝術大学大学院を修了後、NHK美術部勤務を経て、愛知県立芸術大学および東京藝術大学で教鞭を取りました。これまで安井賞(1985)、損保ジャパン東郷青児美術館記念大賞(2011)など数多くの賞を受賞し、作品は東京国立近代美術館、東京都現代美術館などに収蔵されています。

　櫃田は、安保闘争の真っただ中に東京藝術大学で学生生活を過ごしました。首席で卒業を果たした櫃田でしたが、突然その筆を置き、テレビ局の制作現場に身を置きます。そして72年ころから再び作品の発表をはじめ、「何より私の目や身体から出発する」(*1)絵画を目指すべく、次第に独自の道を切り拓いていきます。

　制作の出発点とするのは、空き地、水路、フェンス、コンクリートの壁、植物など、ごくありふれた身の周りの風景です。とくに櫃田にとって、幼少期を過ごした多摩川土手の斜面や広場は、いまだに重要な風景のひとつだといいます(*2)。まだ東京に地面の土が露出していた時期から、道がコンクリートで覆われその上にビルが建ち並ぶまで、とにかく街を歩き回って「見ること」を積み重ねた経験は、櫃田の絵画の原点と言えるでしょう。

　画面のなかに消失点を定めず、視線を分割する斜線のあいだを風が吹き抜けるような絵画。櫃田は、風景を計測可能で自明なモチーフとして扱うのではなく、断片的に知覚され「通り過ぎる」あるいは「通り過ぎた」ものとして、様々な場所や時間のブリコラージュによって描こうとしています。対象を見ている時間だけでなく、まさに櫃田自身の経験や生活を通して遠近法は組み替えられ、空間の質自体が変容したひとつの画面が立ちあがるのです。

その先へ - beyond the reasons｜Komagome SOKO

　櫃田は、画家として高い評価を得る一方で、教育者としての功績も計り知れません。今からちょうど10年前、愛知県美術館と名古屋市美術館の2館で「放課後のはらっぱ」展(2009)が開催されました。この展覧会は、いまや国内外の現代アートシーンで目覚ましい活躍を見せる奈良美智、杉戸洋、長谷川繁、村瀬恭子をはじめとする愛知での教え子たちとの影響関係を取り上げるものでした。

　愛知を離れた後、櫃田は2001年から09年まで母校の東京藝術大学で教授を務めました。本展「その先へ」では、主に東京で櫃田に教えを受けた、あるいは何らかの接点を持ったアーティストたちの新作と初期作品を織り交ぜて紹介します。それぞれの作品の立ち上がり方に共通するテーマや脈絡はありません。彼らは一見すると櫃田の影響を感じさせないほど、独自の表現方法に基づいて制作を続けています。また必ずしも、愛知・長久手のような「はらっぱ」で生活や制作の環境を共有していたわけでもありません。しかし、どこかのタイミングで櫃田と出会い、櫃田の一言やふるまいに少なからず刺激を受け、それが現在の表現に反映されています。

　あるインタヴューで櫃田は「最終的には自分自身になるということが、表現すること」(*3)と答えています。ひとりの人間として孤独と向き合いながら生き、表現するこうした姿勢こそが、作家たちに影響を与えたに違いありません。過去と現在が交差し、異なるフィールドから立ち上がる軌跡が輻輳する会場は、幾重にも時間を超えて重ねられた櫃田の線や色面と共鳴することでしょう。それは混沌とした時代を生きる鑑賞者達を「その先へ」誘うひとつの風景となるのではないでしょうか。

いちトリエンナーレ実行委員会、2009年)*1 小西信之「櫃田伸也―風景の導くままに」(『放課後のはらっぱー櫃田伸也とその教え子たち』あ

*2 児島やよい「通り過ぎた風景、はらっぱを渡る風櫃田伸也とその作品について」(『櫃田伸也展通り過ぎた風景』損保ジャパン美術財団、2011年) *3 林央子によるインタビュー「暮らしの風景(9)櫃田伸也絵を描く―画家であり、教育者」(『暮らしの手帖』2010年2・3月号、暮しの手帖社)

本展示のお問い合わせ先 :

KAYOKOYUKI

[email protected]

TEL:

+81(0)3-6873-6306

KAYOKOYUKI is pleased to announce Nobuya Hitsuda’s solo exhibition, titled blame not on reasons, from the 8th to the 31st of March, 2019. Held in conjunction with this is a group exhibition titled beyond the reasons at the adjacent Komagome SOKO, presenting works by 16 artists, each of whom has developed a unique relation with Hitsuda.

Nobuya Hitsuda: blame not on reasons at KAYOKOYUKI

Nobuya Hitsuda was born in Ota Ward, Tokyo, 1941. After completing the Master’s program at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, and then working for the art department of Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) for a short while, the artist taught for many years as a faculty member of Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts and Tokyo University of the Arts. He has been awarded numerous prizes including the Yasui Award (1985) and the Seiji Togo Memorial Museum Grand Prix Award (2011). His work is represented in the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others.

It was in the height of the students’ movement opposing Anpo (the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan), when Hitsuda was an oil painting student at Tokyo University of the Arts. Despite having graduated as the top student, Hitsuda, after completing the Master’s program, suddenly quit painting, and started working at the TV station, where he put himself right in the middle of production processes of its programs. Around 1972, Hitsuda resumed his exhibition activities, gradually cutting out a new path with his unique body of work, aiming at creating paintings that depart “from my own eyes or body” (*1).

Banal sceneries of everyday, such as those characterized by a vacant lot, a water channel, fences, concrete walls, plants, and so on, have served as points of departure for his painterly investigation. Particularly, inclined or flat fields along the Tama River, around which the artist spent a lot of time in his childhood, have remained very important landscapes to date (*2). Over all, the origin of his paintings is what he gained from his accumulated experience of “looking” at things in transformation while walking through Tokyo’s urban environment as it developed, from the period in which much of the city’s ground was still made up of exposed soil to the point it began to be paved with concrete and a row of buildings were constructed over it one after another.

A composition without a fixed vanishing point but with a series of diagonal lines that segment the viewer’s gaze, between which breezes seem to be continually blowing through all across the canvas. The motif of each of such paintings Hitsuda creates is a landscape, but he approaches it not as a self-evident entity that is measurable, but as something that is perceivable only fragmentarily — something that “passes by” or is “passed by.” In order to depict its essence, he takes the form of bricolage, juxtaposing different places and temporalities. It is not just through his act of looking at his object but also through his own past experiences and ongoing everyday life that various perspectives of landscapes are recomposed on his painting, enabling a composition where the quality of spatiality itself has transformed.

beyond the reasons at Komagome SOKO

While critically acclaimed as a prominent painter, Hitsuda has also achieved a great deal as a teacher, which cannot be overestimated. 10 years ago, an exhibition focusing on this was held across two museums: Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art and the Nagoya City Museum. Titled In the Little Playground: Hitsuda Nobuya and his surrounding students, the show was intended to present respective relations of reciprocal influences between Hitsuda and some of his former students in Aichi who had been active in both the domestic and international contemporary art scenes, such as Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito, Shigeru Hasegawa, and Kyoko Murase.

After leaving Aichi, Hitsuda took up a professorship at his alma mater, Tokyo University of the Arts, from 2001 to 2009. On view in the exhibition beyond the reasons are a selection of both new and early works by artists who were taught by Hitsuda or had certain contact with him while he was back in Tokyo. There are no shared themes or contexts in terms of how each of the participating artists formulates their piece. In other words, there are no apparent influences from Hitsuda in their works; they have pursued their respective practices based on their own creative methodologies. In the case of Aichi, the area of Nagakute, where the university is located, served as a common “playground” where everyone shared their living conditions and artistic environments, but in Tokyo, there was not necessarily such a place for the artists. Nevertheless, they all met Hitsuda at some point in the course of their artistic development, and were inspired by his words or actions, which their current practices indeed reflect in their respective ways.

Hitsuda remarked in an interview: “Ultimately, to pursue one’s practice is to become oneself” (*3). As he leads his life, Hitsuda negotiates with his own solitude, and creates paintings directly out of that process. Nothing but such attitude of his is the very thing that has been influential for those artists. The space of Komagome SOKO, hosting intersections of the past and the present and convergences of trajectories from different fields, will surely resonate with the lines and colored fields that Hitsuda has painted layer by layer over time, presenting a landscape that invites each of the viewers, who are living in this chaotic time, to “go beyond.”

*1 Nobuyuki Konishi, "Hitsuda Nobuya: Leading Straight to the Landscape," in In the Little Playground: Hitsuda Nobuya and his surrounding students (Aichi: Aichi Triennale Organizing Committee, 2009). *2 Yayoi Kojima, “Tōrisugita Fūkei, Harappa wo Wataru Kaze, Hitsuda Nobuya to Sono Sakuhin ni Tsuite,” in Nobuya Hitsuda: Scenes Passed by (Tokyo: Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art, 2011). *3 Nakako Hayashi, “Kurashi no Fūkei 9, Hitsuda Nobuya: E wo Kaku — Gaka deari, Kyōikusha” in Kurashi no Techo(February/March 2010). contact : KAYOKOYUKI [email protected] TEL: +81(0)3-6873-6306

#exhibition

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 6 years

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Top 7 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OPs

With JoJo's Bizarre Adventure part 5: Vento Aureo episode 2 on the way we've got the new OP, Fighting Gold, to look forward to. To celebrate, I've decided to rank my favourite JoJo's OPs so far. This isn't an objective list, just my opinion, hope you have fun.

1. Sono Chi no Kioku

The best of the best. Sono Chi no Kioku is an exciting song that features all the artists from the previous three OPs, Sono Chi no Sadame, Bloody Stream and Stand Proud. Listen closely and you'll hear plenty of engrish in this OP, it's pretty unrecognisable though.

Visually, Sono Chi no Kioku is stunning, and it's filled with foreshadowing/hints and symbolism. I feel like it does this better than every other OP, which is partially why I put it at the top. Sono Chi no Sadame, for example, takes a very direct approach in telling the story of Phantom Blood, which is fine but means the OP is much less dense than Sono Chi no Kioku.

Also like, 1,000+ points for the sound effects version where DIO uses The World during the climax of the OP. So fucking cool.

2. BLOODY STREAM

Easily the strongest OP musically, BLOODY STREAM is a funky and upbeat song that fits JoJo's incredibly well despite being very different instrumentally and tonally than most other JoJo's OPs.

I like BLOODY STREAM's flashy and psychedelic visuals, the colourful silhouettes being in stark contrast to the extremely detailed 3D models that appear later in the OP. There's plenty of symbolism and easter eggs to find in the OP, but I feel it lacks in comparison to it's predecessor in terms of telling the story. It's mostly a personal thing - but that's something I value quite a lot in these OPs for sure.

3. Sono Chi no Sadame

Sono Chi no Sadame is the first JoJo's OP and yet starts at the end, showing the JoJo's protagonists in reverse chronological order starting with Jolyne and ending with Jonathan. I really like how this OP incorporates the manga panels into its visuals and I especially like how the entire OP takes place within the Joestar mansion.

This OP is very straightforward in how it tells the story of Phantom Blood, not using symbolism to hint at a character's future but rather outright showing key scenes from the part. And you know what? It works.

Musically, I don't have much to comment. This OP is fucking awesome and has a very "anime song" vibe. JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJO!

4. Great Days

Great Days is a much more peaceful song than all other JoJo's OPs, it's still energetic but the vocals are a lot softer. A LOT of engrish mixed in here. This song's a blast.

For the final episode, the "Units Version" of Great Days was used. This is a version of the song performed by the group JO☆UNITED, made up of the vocalists from all the anime's opening themes. This version of the song is my favourite, and it's really cool to see how the different vocalists go together.

Great Days is an interesting OP visually. It's fairly basic in any storytelling it does, but it does make great use of visual motifs throughout. The shots of/from the sky are very pretty, which contrasts the dark tone of the shots that relate to Kira's new life in Kosaku Kawajiri's family.

And, of course, I can't talk about Great Days without covering the Bites the Dust version. Put simply, this is really fucking cool and it expands upon the idea that Sono Chi no Kioku played with in the sound effects version. We get to hear another verse of the song, and the visuals are pretty wild - it's not just a reverse version of the OP.

5. STAND PROUD

STAND PROUD is a fun one, it's an OP that gets me excited every time, even if the episode ahead is just "Jotaro punches the sun".

This OP really captures the travelling aspect of Stardust Crusaders, with numerous shots of the quintet walking with the setting changing around them.

I really like the shots that focus more on the Joestar heritage, such as at the beginning and end where we see the Joestars that came before Jotaro, and the shot near the middle where the camera descends down a family tree (or vine, I guess) back to Jotaro.

6. chase

Lots of people don't like chase as a song, but I'm not one of those people. I've always enjoyed chase, even if it doesn't necessarily match the tone of the other OPs or, really, the part itself. I've always felt it was introduced too early, actually.

Visually, chase is pretty awesome. It's fully 2D, much like the other Diamond is Unbreakable OPs, but I think it looks a lot better than the others. The colour pallet is washed out and dark, which matches the tone. I think chase does a much better job of storytelling than Great Days and Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town, too.

7. Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town

The worst of the best doesn't mean Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town is bad but, put simply, it's sort of disappointing. It's a good song, but the visuals are incredibly boring. While the shots themselves have vibrant colours and nice composition, the movement is so minimal that it's really a bore for me.

I don't really have much else to say, it's just kind of disappointing.

@meme-emperor submitted this to me for some reason but sure I'll share his opinions with y'all

#jojo #submission #submissions #i don't know which tag to use #hence both #11.10.18

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afutureinnoise · 7 years

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DAVID BOWIE, PART 1 BY DAN WRECK

Photo: David Bowie, by Masayoshi Sukita

BOWIE #1 - DEATH

Anything you write could be your epitaph, as an artist.

If you're fortunate enough to have an audience, then the last public proclamations you utter are both eulogy and epitaph: imbued with whatever poignancy the audience wants to put into them. Whatever we want to read into it we can and we will because greedy consumers all, the customer is always right. It's sad and inhumane but when you've made yourself a product what else can you expect?

It feels tawdry to even discuss this, but seems obligatory: he managed to keep his cancer from the media right up until the end. He'd "withdrawn from public life", as the saying goes albeit a very extraordinary withdrawal from public life where he still released albums, appeared in music videos and gave his blessing to the huge Sound and Vision exhibition which exhibited many of his personal effects and revelled in his past.

It's the kind of sleight of hand withdrawal from public life you'd expect from a man who, it is easy to forget now, came out as gay in 1972 on the front pages of the music press. This at a time when no one was really coming out: still a very brave thing to do. Not something you did just to get a slot on Ellen to plug your book. He later adjusted it to being bisexual (which would still be brave now given how many idiots don’t believe bisexuality exists), then told everyone he was straight when he was expedient for him to do so (in 1982 conveniently distancing himself from the gays when he wanted to be even bigger) then quietly years down the line came back out again when it was safe to do so.

This is also a man who once upon a time gave the gossip magazine HELLO! magazine an exclusive, having them cover his wedding to Iman. In September 2000, the birth of his daughter also merited a HELLO! exclusive. This is the kind of thing we bitch at footballer's wives for doing. So let's not pretend he was a shy and retiring man as we shake our heads and bemoan the circling ghouls and grief culture even as we lap it up. But just as it was his right to make his personal life a matter of public record, it was his right to make the end of it private and shared only with his close friends. Remember, he owed us nothing and gave us a lot.

POSSIBLE EPITAPHS #1 and #2 - I CAN'T GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY / LAZARUS

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I Can't Give Everything Away.

A title that both makes a mockery of my point before about how he was as much of a media tart as anyone else and agrees with it. Depending on where you lay the emphasis.There's a well known critical theory of the death of the author which basically says that we, as the readers of a given text decide what it is about and all interpretations are equally valid. It's not one I subscribe to but it's an interesting thought, especially after the literal death of an author.

I Can't Give Everything Away is a beautiful song with motifs from the rest of his back catalogue sprinkled through it: a touch of New Career In A New Town in the harmonica intro, something of Thursday's Child about the vocal melody, hints of Black Tie White Noise in the arrangement. The vocal delivery, though, is purely Blackstar. It's not just a homage, it's the Sound & Vision exhibit in the form of a song. What a performance it is, too. When I first listened to Blackstar five times in a row, before the author was dead, I welled up hearing it then too. There's so much joy and yearning he fits into the repetitions of the title. Then biography bleeds into it and the repetitions of the word "Away" are the ascension of a soul.

“Look up here, I’m in heaven”

The same way that Jhonn Balance's repetitions of "It just is" at the end of Going Up from his own accidental epitaph Ape Of Naples say a lot in very little, it's all in the delivery and the space between the words. I mention Balance partly because he's one of the few artists I love and respect as much as Bowie, and someone I feel a close connection to despite never having met (maybe on the next bardo) and partly because of the very Coil looking black sun appearing very prominently in the Blackstar cover art and the video for this song. He must have known: this isn't the SS variant of the black sun you see used by right-wing morons who underestimate and wilfully misunderstand the power of this imagery. It's not a sun wheel. It's a black sun. The brightest of all Blackstars.

Of course Bowie was no stranger to using, dwelling on and disseminating the kind of occult imagery which has been misappropriated by incompetent, bigoted idiots at different points in history. There's been a thread of it running through most of his career: from the first verse of Quicksand's references to Crowley's Golden Dawn and “Himmler's sacred realm” to the magickal undertones running through 1.Outside that he unfortunately dilutes by couching in references to piss artists like the then contemporary Brit School of artists. Most explicitly, though, he was pre-occupied with these themes around the time of Station to Station and in the Lazarus video we get a more explicit link to Bowie past in the same outfit from the Station to Station back cover.

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In the Bowie's Last Five Years documentary we hear that he found out it was, very likely, going to be terminal as he shot the video for Lazarus. Once again life and art merge and make something that was already moving into something heartbreaking. First I'm going to focus on the video before I get to the song itself.

If you're reading this I'm 95% sure you've seen the video a few times but there are two things which're particularly moving about it when art meets life so unfortunately this will at first seem like I’m just describing things for the sake of it.

The first is the joy and release with which he sings, bedbound but levitating.

The second is is the moment where, before, vanishing off into the cupboard, he looks up with pantomime worry before scribbling down some notes. He is shaking as he writes them as if battling to get these last thoughts, they're struggling to come and he laughs with relief before finally putting pen to paper and getting these last ideas out before the inevitable.

The thing about writing your own pitaph is that, well, presumably you're still alive after you've written it and you can't stop there. Having put that to rest, as an artist, you move onto something else. There's always something else ahead, something which could be bigger and better and brighter until one day well there just isn't. You need to finish it now you've started even if it looks impossible because you can't just stop mid-stream or mid-word. But about when the full stop arrives before you do? Unthinkable. Before you're interrupted, before it's time to put your pen down the heart screams "But wait there's more."

Now onto the song itself. Another one of his many beautiful vocal performances but with a vulnerability you never usually heard from the man. The grain of the voice, the way you can almost hear his throat muscles teeth and tongue as he sings "I was living like a king", the k sound in "like" rattling with phlegm and the dying rasp of "king". It's hard to know when to be frail when you've lived as a king. In fact, even more than a king. Bowie was almost a construct. At points in this song we're hearing the man David Jones.

POSSIBLE EPITAPH #3 - THE NEXT DAY

The Next Day as a whole really plays with the idea of the ageing artist talking about mortality and despite the fact that it isn't as good an album as Blackstar everyone would've reacted the same way if he'd died just before or just after releasing The Next Day. For one it’s the first Bowie album not to display his face (even as distorted as it appears on 1.Outside it's still him, it’s just him after he worked out how to play with filters in Photoshop). We get an iconic image from his past with his face obscured by the title as if to say "The Next Day won't include my face" (good at this ascribing pointless significance to things which don't mean anything of the sort aren't I? Pitchfork should give me a ring. Or The Sun.).

The Next Day is rife with references to death, ageing, disease and dementia. The title track built around the refrain "Here I am not quite dying" and a chant of "And the next day and the next day" redolent of Macbeth's final "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow". As on parts of Blackstar he spends a lot of time looking back, more explicitly than on Blackstar in fact, particularly on the first single Where Are We Now, a lovely sorrowful song full of space and ache in a way he tried to do on Hours but didn't really manage. It was accompanied by a video of our ageless hero starting to look, well, look his age. On You Feel So Lonely You Could Die, which isn't a great song in my opinion, after talking about seeing a former foe's hanging body, he leaves us with that iconic Five Years drumbeat echoing out into nowhere. The album closer Heat bears a remarkable similarity to The Motel from 1.Outside and thus also to Scott Walker's Climate of Hunter or one of his songs off Night Flights. A great track, and another example of the great man not insulting his audience's intelligence / giving us something to go seek out and read (the Mishima references) but as epitaphs go not one worthy of the great man. The Next Day is an enjoyable album but fairly underwhelming once you got over the excitement of Bowie doing an album for the first time in a decade which was obviously something.

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What really impressed me as a gesture was The Stars (Are Out Tonight) and particularly the accompanying video where Bowie and Tilda Swinton are a married couple and Andreja Pejic is in it being impossibly beautiful as Andreja Pejic is prone to being. After going back in in the 80's one of the things he did in this cycle was remind us queers he was one of us and he still cared. That he did so while at the same time skewering the same celebrity culture he fed into by uneasily straddling the boundary of Celeb and Celebrant is the sort of having your cake and eating it too genius we miss him for.

It’s also worth dwelling on how confrontationally gender-skewing the video (directed by Floria Sigismondi) is in a way you see from few artists as prominent as him even in this day and age: aside from the aforementioned inspired choice of Pejic, casting Iselin Steiro as a young Bowie is a master-stroke as is Tilda Swinton as Bowie’s wife: perfect. His video wife is the only person in the world who looks like him. It’s just a feast of androgyny.

POSSIBLE EPITAPH #4 - BRING ME THE DISCO KING

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The closing track on Reality, pre-hiatus and pre-heart attack. Again a very youthful looking and sounding Bowie but for a long time it looked like it was going to be the last thing we saw or heard from him (apart from Little Fat Man in Extras of course which I'm sure some earnest journalist would've managed to contort themselves into calling a "dying man's final joke" or something).

A rolling, roiling jazz song with Mike Garson's piano playing the perfect foil. Full of intimations of doom undercut with an almost Zen resignation. An album closer opening with the words "You promised me the ending would be clear" and containing the line "Soon there be'll nothing left of me, nothing left to release". For a while it looked like there wouldn't be and that he'd settled into being human at last. Just like Damiel in Wings of Desire, an angel who walked among us who gave it all up in favour of beauty you can only really appreciate if all things are finite. Wistful reminiscences of his past "killing time in the 70s" from a man who it was often said was resistant to looking back but you'd be forgiven for thinking (if you believed the critics that is) that he did nothing but.

Of course, as beautiful and sepulchral as the song is, it was written as far back (maybe further, this isn't Pushing Ahead of The Dame I'm not quite that good a writer or Bowie scholar) as Black Tie White Noise and an attempt was made at recording it in the Earthling sessions. It may be an epitaph but one there had been multiple drafts of. Still, it doesn't matter when you write it it just matters when you put it out and there's a certain grandeur given to something by it having been pored over for so long. To think of another great songwriter who died in 2016, Leonard Cohen, you don't think You Want It Darker or Treaty were just off the cuff from the man who spent years writing and honing Hallelujah, do you? No. Until it is written in stone an epitaph can undergo many revisions and be replaced by others, this to be replaced with The Next Day the way Heathen was replaced with this.

POSSIBLE EPITAPH #5 - HEATHEN (THE RAYS)

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Yes, I know it would've been shocking for him to go at this age, especially considering how healthy and youthful he looked at the time (he was in his mid 50s, obviously a young age but looking even younger) but for the purpose of this exercise imagine he did. It would’ve been sad but he never would have had to meet Ricky Gervais. Imagine that the title track from Heathen is the last new song you hear from him. Mournful skeins of effects drenched guitar, a distant tribal throb then the man himself enters the picture.

"Steel on the skyline, sky made of glass"

A voice frozen with existential horror, glazed eyes fixed forward, the horror of Colonel Kurtz or anyone who has seen death and truly looked at it without flinching or looking away. A vision of their own death, maybe. All of our deaths. A man singing to his God or to the concept of death itself. Maybe to the angel he sang of as a younger man in Look Back In Anger on Lodger. Maybe the angel who renounced immortality knowing what comes next. Rhetorical questions.

“Is there a reason?”

"Have I stared too long?".

Then maybe he's singing to life itself:

"You say you'll leave me

When the sun's full

And the rays high

I can see it now

I can feel it die"

The way he sings these last few words and the wordless phrases after it, full of anguish and loss, is chilling even knowing he lived for a while after it. If he hadn't, it would've been his epitaph and it would've been a beautiful one, the Berlin synth atmospherics twinkling away, rays of cold electronic light in the short instrumental outro which fades out and ends as suddenly as....well, life. It can end at any moment you know (you know, you know).

Speaking on the song itself in an interview he describes the writing process as some kind of traumatic epiphany:

"In the distance a car was driving slowly past the reservoir and these words were just streaming out and there were tears running down my face. But I couldn't stop, they just flew out. It's an odd feeling, like something else is guiding you, although forcing your hand is more like it."

Some people talked about the remarkable synchronicity between him writing these songs pre-9/11 and the tragic events of that day but really, is there? Any more than there's synchronicity between any songs mentioning death and a skyline and 9/11? We feel this because he's a voice we look up to, saying these words, and we have decided that's what they mean. In the same way that if he had died after making Heathen it would have been a vision of his premature death. Funny phrase that. Either all deaths are premature or none are. We make the pieces fit and create our own context. Just to make my point.....

POSSIBLE EPITAPH #6 - ROCK AND ROLL SUICIDE

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I'm not suggesting he committed suicide in this alternate past but what if Ziggy really had been it? What if he'd fallen silent after that. Knowing the man's love of being the centre of attention unlikely but what if?

Imagine you're a gay teenager in 1972. Something integral to your very being, the way you are has been illegal up until 5 years ago. Things are going to be shit for you in a very different way to the way they are now: although nowadays if you happen to have been born queer you're still four times more likely to kill yourself but that's okay because if you survive long enough to grow up you can get married now so get over it, faggot. Maybe Bowie / Ziggy would've been a ray of light when you saw him and realised that you couldn't be all bad because maybe the coolest and most beautiful man you'd ever seen was the same as you. He was obviously totemic for queer people of that generation. Dockers in Liverpool saying they'd give Bowie one oblivious or uncaring of the fact that was a bloke they were talking about because it's not a matter of gay or straight or bisexual: fancying early 70s Bowie is just a matter of common sense.

"Oh no love you're not alone"

If that's all he'd done, if he'd told us all he was gay, left us with Ziggy and then when he announced "This is the last show I will ever play" he'd kept to his word then he'd still have been more than a footnote in history. It's all context.

Everything that came later, his pathetic attempt at "going back in" the same way dear old Lou did when he sang Women on The Blue Mask, none of this matters now and it definitely didn't matter to the confused queer kid in a small town in 1972 who for once saw someone who moved the way they'd like to move. None of this shit had happened and even when it did it didn’t retroactively undo all the good he’d done for you. Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes that's better than a million It Gets Better PSAs from straight actors who think that the approval of someone a million miles away with millions of pounds means anything to someone who is getting it from all corners, inside and outside of the home. Than a million pro LGBT statements from politicians who work in education ignoring the fact that sometimes it's not just the pupils who're bullying you because they reckon you were born wrong. These words, so easy for them to say and so hard for them to believe.

“If I could only make you care” is the crucial line. There're no false promises, it's just "Gimme your hands 'cos you're wonderful" as Mick Ronson's guitar wails an echo of the words "Give me your hands". It's a romantic idea but maybe this saved someone. Maybe that’s the most fitting epitaph of all. If you can touch the lives of people you’ve never met and they feel something real when you die then you must have done something right. Being someone’s hero, that means the world.

#david bowie #by dan wreck

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caveartfair · 6 years

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The Strange and Stunning Results of Artist-Directed Music Videos

Music videos, of course, have always involved artistry, from Michael Jackson’s epic mini-movie for “Thriller” in 1983 to Björk’s 2004 video for “Triumph of a Heart,” which famously features a love affair with a human-sized cat.

But something undeniably odd and inspiring can happen when visual artists who don’t normally work within the medium try their hands at it. Here, we look at 15 clips that showcase the beauty, inventiveness, and occasional disaster that can result when artists step outside of their comfort zones and collaborate with musicians.

Jon Rafman for Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Sticky Drama” (2015)

This clip for Oneohtrix Point Never opens slow and strange—imagine the gravitas of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan transposed onto a lo-fi battle between cosplaying adolescents—and it only gets wilder from there. Jon Rafman is an artist known for his mastery of digital animation effects, creating grotesque universes that bend the rules of logic and physics (and traverse the uncanny valley). For one series, he creates creepy CGI renditions of his own dreams—consider him a 21st-century Surrealist with superior software.

“Sticky Drama,” from the 2015 Oneohtrix Point Never album Garden of Delete, is a viciously attention-deficit mix of robotic pop and sheer electronic noise. To accompany it, Rafman chose to go mostly live-action. A vast army of child actors stage their own brutal war, replete with ultra-violent battle scenes and a surplus of green slime (a mood board for this video would likely include both Game of Thrones and Nickelodeon’s Double Dare). A feature film’s worth of epic drama is crammed into less than six frenetic minutes.

David LaChapelle for Blink-182’s “Feeling This” (2003)

How best to conjure the snotty, rebellious energy that made Blink-182 one of the enduring names of pop-punk? David LaChapelle chose to film in a defunct L.A. jail, but don’t expect a treatise on the importance of prison reform here. Instead, the photographer (who has also directed clips for Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, and many others) presents a sort of horny penitentiary stocked with nubile young things who are sick and tired of institutional conformity. As in Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” these oppressed prisoners don’t need no education—but in this case, they will fight for their right to hump each other during visiting hours.

We see a classroom full of fed-up boys and girls overtaking their fascistic teacher, climbing on their desks in what reads like a punk-rock riff on that climactic scene in Dead Poets Society. That turns into a full-blown riot; a jailbreak; what might be an outtake from a Victoria’s Secret commercial; and a rowdy concert on the roof, where Blink-182 gets anthemic within the safety of a barbed-wire enclosure.

Marco Brambilla for Kanye West’s “Power” (2010)

Clocking in at under two minutes, this slim, supremely dramatic video feels more like the trailer for an action movie starring Kanye West. We see the rapper draped in chains, standing still as a painterly scene comes to life (with half-naked women featured prominently). The general mood—epic surrealism with a dash of kitsch—is in keeping with Marco Brambilla’s other video work. Anyone who has ever stayed at The Standard in New York, or visited its bars, has likely seen his Civilisation (Megaplex) (2008), a Boschian dream that screens in the hotel’s elevators.

But if the video for “Power” manages to jam a lot of bombast into a short space, West’s 2010 short film for “Runaway” (with art direction from artist Vanessa Beecroft) would prove as expansive as his ego. Stretching to nearly 35 minutes, it includes a massive explosion, a fireworks display, a marching band, and an extended ballet performance, among other things.

Alex Da Corte for St. Vincent’s “New York” (2017)

This lush video is a decadent indulgence in color and pattern, from baby-blue blinds to leopard-print tights, a cherry-red shoe telephone, and acres of bodega flowers. St. Vincent’s Annie Clark deadpans through an ode to lost romance in New York City, with cameos from some famous city sculptures—Tony Rosenthal’s Alamo cube in Astor Place; Forrest Myers’s The Wall on West Houston at Broadway—as well as studio installations that recall Alex Da Corte’s own irreverent, Instagram-friendly practice. Despite various absurdities—a random swan; a microphone stand surmounted by what appears to be burning kale—the overall effect is both seductive and eerily moving.

Ryan McGinley for Sigur Rós’s “Varúð” (2012)

Atmospheric Icelandic band Sigur Rós—famous for singing in a made-up language—tapped 12 creatives to direct short films to accompany their 2012 album Valtari. Ryan McGinley has earned well-deserved acclaim for a photographic practice that celebrates the nostalgic glow of youth; here, he crafts what he called his “poem to New York City.”

The camera tracks a young woman—wearing nothing more than a gold wig, an oversized T-shirt, and underwear—as she skips barefoot through the metropolis. (Editor’s note: Always wear shoes when skipping in Lower Manhattan.) The footage is shot from a great distance, as if captured by an eye-in-the-sky satellite. At certain points, the woman keeps dreamily moving, even though her surroundings—pedestrians on the High Line, yellow cabs—have frozen in place. The video is something of a woozier, romantic counterpart to James Nares’s short film Street (2011), which likewise skewed the way we see New York’s everyday foot traffic.

Damien Hirst for Blur’s “Country House” (1995)

Damien Hirst won the Turner Prize in 1995, another step on the ladder to international fame for the British artist. But that same year, he also directed this doozy of a music video for the pop quartet Blur, which truly needs to be seen to be believed. It opens with four blokes in a shabby apartment playing a board game called Escape from the Rat Race; the game soon explodes into a surreal reality, one that is decorated with giant skulls and populated by people riding pigs and taking cheeky bubble baths.

The cheeseball factor is off the charts here—Hirst would have made a stellar mid-’90s maestro of beer commercials. Rather than waxing poetic, the artist also shows himself to be a shockingly literal thinker, directly illustrating many of the lyrics: When Damon Albarn sings “He’s reading Balzac and knocking back Prozac,” we get a demonstration of…exactly that. The video’s protagonist is a rich everyman who seems plucked from one of René Magritte’s bowler-hat paintings, and there’s enough cleavage and sophomoric sexual hijinks to satisfy even the most avid fan of the Naked Gun franchise.

Pipilotti Rist’s “I’m a Victim of This Song” (1995)

Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist is known for her immersive video environments celebrating color and nature, offsetting any earnest New Age vibes with a healthy dose of irreverence. (Her work indirectly entered the popular imagination after the motifs in a 1997 piece were liberally borrowed by Beyonce in 2016.) The original video for this Chris Isaak song “Wicked Game” was directed by David Lynch in 1990; Rist completely altered the effect with her version, which is almost painfully vulnerable, with helium-high missed notes that devolve into a sort of desperate shrieking.

Meanwhile, the grainy video itself seems almost entirely arbitrary, with scenes of rolling clouds, vintage photographs, and random strangers sitting in a restaurant. Rist’s brittle rendition of “Wicked Game” poses a thorny question: Is the song itself the thing plucking brutally at our heartstrings? And would any random collage of footage have the same effects, given the proper soundtrack?

Robert Longo for Megadeth’s “Peace Sells” (1986)

Robert Longo, a member of the “Pictures Generation” who is best known for his hyperrealistic graphite drawings, teamed up with Megadeth for this clip in 1986, and what a hot metal mess it is. Full of flickering, strobe-like cuts and found footage of war and riots, it hiccups between the goofy and the graphic. Fist-pumping fans are interspersed with images of bombed buildings; a man falling down the stairs; a burning Constitution; statues of the Buddha; and several extreme close-ups of singer Dave Mustaine’s oral cavity. (Things slow down around the two-minute mark, when Longo himself seems to grow bored of yet another interminable, noodling guitar solo.)

Fast forward three decades, and everyone involved with this has aged quite differently. Longo is still a sought-after artist dedicated to capturing our fraught political moment; Megadeth’s Mustaine has been a guest on Infowars and has fondly trafficked in any number of conspiracy theories.

Tony Oursler for David Bowie’s “Where Are We Now?” (2013)

American artist Tony Oursler brings his video-sculpture techniques to bear on this bittersweet anthem from his friend, the late David Bowie. “There’s a theme of looking back and moving forward to ‘Where Are We Now?’, of abandoning things and carrying things forward,” Oursler said at the time. Watching this clip now, in the wake of Bowie’s 2016 death, is almost pleasantly crushing; if your eyes aren’t watering at the 3:30 mark, there might be something wrong with you.

The video is also a marvel in terms of how it achieved heightened emotional effects with limited means. We see a static tableaux in the artist’s studio: a few props (an empty wine bottle; a giant sculptural ear) along with a large screen, upon which grainy footage from Berlin and elsewhere is projected. The focal point is a lumpy doll with two projected faces of Bowie and the painter Jacqueline Humphries, Oursler’s wife. Bowie sings while Humphries stares placidly ahead—at one point, she licks her lips, poised as if to sing, but that moment never comes. “As long as there’s sun,” Bowie intones, his words floating before him. “As long as there’s me. As long as there’s you.”

Harmony Korine for Sonic Youth’s “Sunday” (1998)

Harmony Korine got his start in 1995 as the screenwriter for Larry Clark’s brutal teen drama Kids, and has since gone on to produce an unpredictable oeuvre, from Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) to Spring Breakers (2012). He’s also a visual artist, showing on occasion with blue-chip powerhouse Gagosian—and despite any urge to accuse him of dilettantism, Korine’s painting practice is both sincere and impressive.

This video for a track off Sonic Youth’s 1998 album A Thousand Leaves puts the viewer in an aggressively uncomfortable place. As it opens, we see a young Macaulay Culkin staring drowsily into a mirror, redolent of an Elizabeth Peyton painting. Wearing Hugh Hefner-worthy pajamas, he begins making out, in slo-mo, with a young woman.

Korine cuts to equally slow, dreamy footage of a young ballerina practicing her moves in a dingy apartment, and then cuts to a scene of the Home Alone child star headbanging over dueling banjos with Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore. Culkin pulls off the rockstar vibe better here than he would in the later phase of his career, when he earned internet disbelief for The Pizza Underground, a cover band that repurposed Velvet Underground songs with lyrics about…pizza.

Ebony Hoorn for Lost Under Heaven’s “Bunny’s Blues” (2018)

This sinister, P.J. Harvey-inflected track comes with a seductive, lurid video directed by the band’s frontwoman, Ebony Hoorn—a recent art-school graduate from Amsterdam. Incorporating both a striptease, a magic ritual, and a murder, the clip nods to director David Lynch, the 1976 film Carrie, and the saturated color palette of Italian horror icon Dario Argento (an admitted influence of the artist-musician).

The germ of “Bunny’s Blues” came from a performance project Hoorn launched in the Netherlands in 2015. “I created this character Bunny Blue while writing my thesis,” she told Artsy. “I started dressing up and going to empty bars and cafés in Amsterdam, exploring the tremendous amount of freedom experienced without the mundane expectations regarding your identity.” That led her to explore virtual reality and online identities as presenting other sides of the self. “Bunny, for me, is like a research tool,” she continued. “It allows me to look with fresh, new eyes. It sets me apart from myself.”

Make sure to keep watching until the bitter end, where a blood-drenched Bunny flaunts the head of a man she’s just decapitated with a scythe—a visual rhyme with any number of paintings of Judith and Holofernes.

Jimmy Joe Roche for Dan Deacon’s “The Crystal Cat” (2007)

Jimmy Joe Roche and Dan Deacon both cut their teeth as part of the Baltimore-based art collective Wham City. They’ve collaborated on longer, more conceptual projects—like Ultimate Reality, a 2007 film that appropriates footage from Arnold Schwarzenegger films—but this bite-sized video is an easier place to start.

Roche’s aesthetic for this clip mirrors motifs that reappear in his own drawings, paintings, and sculptures, with endless Rorschach-like patterns in psychedelic colors. Deacon, clad in an unglamorous grey sweatshirt, presides over a cast of characters seemingly plucked from amateur public-access television. The parade of flickering neon mandalas builds to an almost unbearable climax that might permanently alter your brain chemistry.

Allison Schulnik for Grizzly Bear’s “Ready, Able” (2009)

Allison Schulnik, a Los Angeles-based artist, goes overboard when she paints, applying impossibly thick layers of oil to create her depictions of cats, clowns, flowers, and landscapes. That handmade tactility carries over into her claymation work for the indie band Grizzly Bear.

In this video, creatures with gaping eyes and mouths are constantly evolving, melting, turning inside out, or being sucked into ominous spacecrafts. The aesthetic is purposefully rough and lovingly handmade. “You go into this zone, there’s nothing like it,” Schulnik toldL.A. Weekly, discussing her very labor-intensive process. “You’re in a little black room all by yourself…alone in the dark for hours and hours in this little mini-world that you created and have complete control over. It’s complete escapism. I love it. And when you see the result, it’s magic.”

Wolfgang Tillmans for Powell’s “Freezer” (2017)

Wolfgang Tillmans loves to buck convention—he’s notorious for installing his gorgeous and poetic images of male anatomy, fruit, landscapes, and countless other subjects in inventive, unprecious ways. It makes sense that Powell tapped the photographer to direct one of his videos: “Oscar Powell’s music is often deemed difficult,” Pitchfork once surmised, and Tillmans accompanied this track with an equally difficult, occasionally maddening video.

Scenes of exceedingly mundane things—a pot threatening to boil over; leaves gently blowing in a breeze—are intercut with a slideshow of still photographs of military members and riot cops. The quiet, restrained pace of the clip is at odds with the electronic song’s insistent, thumping beat, and the video itself almost seems like a parody of a stereotypical art film in which nothing of substance occurs. Still, one can’t help but appreciate the brazen disregard for the clichés and conventions of the form. Don’t expect to see it on MTV anytime soon.

Kara Walker and Ari Marcopoulos for Santigold’s “Banshee” (2016)

Ari Marcopoulos, a photographer known for his casually evocative portraits, teamed up with Kara Walker for this hard-to-classify video. While Walker is synonymous with cut-paper silhouette works that spotlight the horrors of America’s racist past, here, she contributed shadow puppets that gyrate and cavort in a comparatively lighthearted way. This freewheeling dance party is preceded by an incongruous black-and-white segment, in which we see Santigold sitting on a city sidewalk holding a sign that reads “Will Work For Blood.”

It might not add up into one cohesive whole, but the energy and enthusiasm that went into the shoot is palpable. “We decided to just all get together in the studio with the puppets, a bunch of lights, and just have a good time and made decisions as we went,” Marcopoulos told the New York Times. “It was a total team effort. My son Ethan was the cameraman and Kara’s daughter [was] the stills photographer.”

from Artsy News

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