#the gloria scott part two

[wyrcan]

watson being so upset at the weight that hunter has on victor and his dad that he raises his voice in a stroke unit and even cussing >>>>

#literally feel the anger in him #need to scream somewhere because of this #mans is about to CRACK #and i LOVE IT #sorry i’m just obsessed with that scene 😭 #sherlock and co #sherlock & co #the gloria scott #the gloria scott part two

[contact-guy]

watson's sketchbook

helloooo this is a MASTER POST of my Sherlock Holmes annotations, aka shitpost doodles of my favorite parts with occasional headcanons. I will pin this so it's available and update it as I go because this feels like it's becoming a full series, god help me.

I'm reading the stories in the order they occurred (according to Baring-Gould, who I am currently arm wrestling in the astral plane over how many wives Watson had) so that's how I will present them!

EDIT: decided to draw them in the order that makes sense to me, Baring-Gould you’re too silly

EDIT 2: this is basically a webcomic at this point, with ongoing continuity and a romantic storyline that can be enjoyed if you read in order. I did not intend this, but I have Sherlock Holmes disease and there's only one cure (doing this)

A Study in Scarlet 🩸

The Speckled Band 🐍

The Resident Patient 🩺

The Noble Bachelor 👰

The Second Stain 📮

The Reigate Squires 📝

The Dancing Men 👯‍♂️

Silver Blaze 🏇🏻

The Six Napoleons ⚫️

The Red Circle 🕯️🪟

The Greek Interpreter 🩹

Mycroft Interlude 🎩

The Beryl Coronet 🥪

The Yellow Face 🙂

The Hound of the Baskervilles 🐺

-Part One

-Part Two

-Part Three

-Part Four

-Part Five

-Part Six

-Part Seven

The Gloria Scott ⚓️

The Valley of Fear 🏰

-Part One

-Part Two

Shoscombe Old Place 🎣

Charles Augustus Milverton 💌

-Part One

-Part Two

-Part Three

-Part Four

#sherlock holmes #john watson #acd holmes #acd canon #my art #watsons sketchbook

[solangelo-is-godsdam-kjut]

i'm sORRY??!!?!?!

the new episode was such a rollercoaster omg THE TALK BETWEEN JOHN AND SHERLOCK WAS SO HEARTBREAKING AND GOOD AND IT LITERALLY MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME!! THE WAY JOHN WAS SO VULNERABLE AND SHERLOCK WAS SO VULNERABLE AND THE WAY IT PERFECTLY DEPICTED SHERLOCK'S THOUGHT PROCESS AND AHHHH I CAN'T! I LITERALLY CAN'T!! SKSKDKAKD AHHHHH

so ahm... let me take a short breath and calm down for a sec. as I said before. this episode was so soft. in like every angle. today's part as well as the whole Gloria Scott episode. we learned so much about both John's and especially Sherlock's inner world and thoughts and their motivations. not only through them having that deep, emotional conversation but also with all the other interactions they had with Victor and Mariana and the others. plus everything Victor tells about Sherlock from when he was younger. and the domestic scenes???? like I could start screaming again ksksjkdkna

also narrative wise it is done so perfectly. if you look at the episode as a whole, it is framed by two almost identical scenes of John and Mariana. and even tho they seem so random, they actually reference different aspects and moments of the episode. the orchids are thread that spans through the whole story. and that they take one home at the end is also just cute.

also the cliffhanger was top tier. the build up and everything. it was so perfect. it also perfectly emulates the short story feeling of ACD Sherlock Holmes in press.

just all in all it was such a wunderful episode and continues the trend of every episode being better than the previous one (tho I'm not sure how this one can be topped). I can't wait for next week

#also I purposefully left out all of the autism because holy shit that will be a whole other rant #the gloria scott #sherlock & co #sherlock and co #sherlock and co. #sherlock holmes #john watson

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Five Fics Friday: April 12/24

Happy Friday everyone!! Hope you all had a great week, and are looking forward to reading the fics I've picked for y'all this week! Happy reading! Cheers!!!

RECENT MFLs

Unfinished Business by Calais_Reno (T, 5,782 w., 1 Ch. || Post-TRF / Reunion, Grief / Mourning, Hallucinations, Ghosts, Love Confessions) – Why John hit Sherlock. Part 18 of Many Happy Returns

Closure by S_IRIS (E, 5,906+ w., 3/35 Ch. || Alternate Universe || WiP || Viclock then Eventual Johnlock, Falling in Love, Horror, Case Fic, Adventure of the Gloria Scott Adaptation, Emotional / Psychological Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Angst with Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Sherlock in Denial) – After a brush with death, Sherlock is convinced by Victor to recover in their country house and give their crumbling marriage one last chance. But the retreat turns into a nightmare when Sherlock starts to feel a malevolent presence in the house and finds no one believing him except the son of the missing groundskeeper.

The Upper Hand by orphan_account (E, 5,922 w., 1 Ch. || First Time, Kissing, Angst, Riding Crop) – Two silly buggers and a riding crop. What can possibly go wrong? With added ice cream. [TRANSLATIONS: 中文-普通话國語]

Spiders and Flies by cheshirecat101(M, 11,986 w., 1 Ch. || Dark Characters AU || Johnlock & Johniarty, Serial Killers, Aftermath of Torture, Minor Violence, Psychological Trauma, Nightmares, John's PTSD, Kidnaping, Depression, Developing Relationship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort) – Jim Moriarty is a serial killer, and John is the victim that got away. Seventeen years later, and all signs point to Jim being back, on the hunt for John once again.

The Adventure of The Reluctant Docent by mydogwatson(T, 23,544 w., 1 Ch. || Alternate First Meeting AU || Case Fic, Drama and Romance, London) – Someone is killing the docents of London. Sherlock is on the case when he meets a very interesting docent.

#five fics friday #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs

[glitter-at-the-panic]

Finally catching up on Sherlock &Co. And currently I'm 11 minutes into part two of 'The Gloria Scott'.

My live Johnlock shipper reaction:

No Johnlock for me again, it seems

#sherlock & co #sherlock and co #johnlock #sherlock holmes #johnk watson #john watson #sherlock & co podcast #no childhood otp for me🥲

[derpylittlenico]

the following brought to you by Shower Thoughts tm tm tm

a "whump but not actually" not-fic? fic idea? whatever.

...

ok, so.

we know stiles is a pending accident on long legs. this isn't a secret.

but what if some member of the pack (maybe a mother henning Scott? or curious Allison? hell, maybe goddamn Isaac being a nosy bitch) accidentally catches a glimpse of a shirtless Stiles, and. just. bruises. bruises all over. from nip to goddamn hip.

cue...whoever...losing their shit via mass text to everyone else in the pack, because??? je m'fuhkin escuse? thu fucc??

I mean they are understandably Worried, bc those are so not lacrosse bruises. they would have seen that shit happen, and definitely heard about it too, because Stiles is unafraid to whine loudly, at great volume...well, unless he's actually hurt. so the fact that he's said nothing?

they are totally having guilt spirals, wondering is Grumpy Brows was right about wolves being too rough to be safe around humans, and is that why didn't he say anything??? bc he's spiteful and didn't want have to admit maybe Derek was right? bc omg, he'd totally not mention deep tissue bruising just to spite Derek.

(cue lots of Scott hand wringing and worried frowns. maybe even Derek staring melodramatically out of windows too dusty for even him to see out of bc he's Like That)

only?

......yeah, no, that's not what's going on, at all.

bc, see, Stiles is friends with the ladies from the Jungle. They are his best bitches, and he's learned not to bitch about a few minor bruises after hanging around people who routinely put on staggeringly tight compression tights and five inch high heels. Never mind the plucking and waxing.

It only took one Amateur Drag Night for him to learn to "suck it up, buttercup."

but anyway. they are his besties from other people's testes, and so drag his happy ass into shenanigans as often as possible.

...which includes pole classes at the local rec center, Thurs afternoons and every other Sunday evening.

and yeah, the bribe of free food following a two hour Lady Guhgah boogy sesh in short shorts is a nice bribe, but he doesn't really need to be bribed to hang out with them. They're a fuhkin blast to hang out with, and have some Stories.

(and also don't ignore him when he asks if they think he could be attractive to gay guys)

and ofc, though he only came for the good music and better company, he'd still put his entire ass into it and get really good at it. bc, as the queens have taught him, if he's not serving absolute cunt when the opportunity arises, why even bother.

but before all that, while he's still learning?

he'd bruise.

a lot. like? a lot a lot a lot.

bc the thing tv and movies don't tell you about pole dancing is that part of the trick is training your skin to kinda...stick? suction on? to the pole like Cameron Diaz stuck to the car windshield in That One Scene in The Counselor.

(but he doesn't talk about that movie. or that scene. bc some things just need to be forgotten.)

tl, dr?

in those early days, while he was still clenching more than clinging, in between getting dumped on his dump-truck, he admittedly looks like he's been PvPing the Hulk for funsies. Or picking fights with Creepy Grandpa Argent. Or just, like, generally slamming himself into walls.

so yeah.

"whump but not," bc the pack is scrambling to find a way to have an intervention over Stiles hiding injuries, bc he forgot to mention he and Jizz Taylor and Gloria Hole and Bicurious Georgia have decided to learn pole technique alongside Natalie Martin, a few bikers from the local biker bar, and Stiles' 55 yr old neighbor.

#teen wolf meta #stiles stilinski #the jungle drag queens (teen wolf) #brotp queelinski #the mchale pack #not fic #i wanted to make this stargent or steter bc i am trash but it got away from me #i g it can be there if you squint

[stephensmithuk]

The Five Orange Pips

ACD likes a shipwreck, doesn't he?

I will leave discussions about the Ku Klux Klan to those with more knowledge on the subject.

A mendicant is someone who generally takes a vow of poverty and relies on charity to survive - such as a wandering preacher. In Christianity, this was often done in deliberate imitation of the Apostles, who were told to rely on others (and by extension God) for their needs. Mendicants having a luxurious club would be a tad hypocritical.

We have two barques referenced here. To repeat my comment from "The Gloria Scott": a bark - or barque - is a type of sailing ship with three or more masts - the first two masts have square sails, the one at the back had them aligned with the hull. They were fast ships that needed a relatively small crew.

The UK's position on the Gulf Stream may keep the place from getting very cold in winter, but it also leaves us open to big storms.

Pince-nez glasses were very popular in this time period.

The area around Horsham does indeed have pretty clay-ey soil that's good for growing crops.

Horsham is a market and commuter town 31 miles from London.

Cheating at cards was apparently the worst thing a gentleman could do. In Ian Fleming's novels, two of the villains are immediately clearly wrong-uns as they're rich guys who feel the need to cheat.

Being "sent to Coventry" is a British expression for being ostracised. Joseph appears to have sent himself to the West Midlands town.

Pondicherry, now called Puducherry, was in fact a French enclave on the south-eastern coast of India and was not in fact transferred to Indian control until 1954.

"London E." was one of the postal divisions of the city at the time - it remains as the E postcode area, split into 22 districts, including two specially for Natwest and News International. Yep, Murdoch has his own postcode.

PC Cook is rather off his normal beat. H Division covered Whitechapel and had, a few years prior to this story coming out, failed to catch Jack the Ripper.

The Embankment here refers to the Victoria Embankment, a road and pedestrian avenue built by the river as part of a land reclamation project earlier in the century. It had the side effect of permanently ending any hope of Frost Fairs - the river now flows too fast to freeze.

I believe this story takes place pretty much entirely in Baker Street.

Lloyd's refers to Lloyd's of London, a very long running maritime insurance marketplace, who also underwrite a bunch of other insurance policies, including film stars' legs. They keep comprehensive records of ship movements for this purposes.

Gravesend is a town in Kent near what is now the M25 and would be a good place to spot a ship before the Thames Estuary widens out - beyond that, you might easily miss a ship in poor visibility from the few communities beyond it.

The transatlantic telegraph cables were firmly in operation by this point. Their successor cables form the backbone of the modern Internet.

Mail was generally transported on the fastest ships i.e. the ocean liners; so you'd be talking around a week to cross the Atlantic at this point. A sailing ship would be looking at three times as long.

Sliced bread - i.e. bread that came pre-sliced when you bought it - was not a thing until 1928.

Please note that those who wish to post orange pips to the United States today will require a permit from the US Department of Agriculture.

#letters from watson #the five orange pips #sherlock holmes #arthur conan doyle

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - Jan. 1

The Gloria Scott, Part 1

What an absurdly cute New Years card! Speaking of the New Year, I'm sure Watson and his lifelong compatriot will be happy to know that all of their stories are now in the public domain for everyone to use as they wish. Hopefully they can derive some satisfaction from that fact.

So the mystery of the Gloria Scott: why did this message strike Justice of the Peace Trevor dead when he read it?

And people say Watson's the more relatable one.

This sounds straight out of a sitcom or romantic comedy where two wildly different but lonely people meet and form an unlikely relationship.

Also, Holmes apparently went to chapel. I don't think he's ever been shown to be that religious, so I wonder if this is more of a school thing than a personal one.

So by the time he was in college, Sherlock's observational skills had already been fairly developed. He doesn't say in today's letter what he was studying in college, other than that it was a subject quite distinct from his peers, so I'm curious as to what it could be.

If I had to guess, I'm going to say he was studying criminology or the history of crime. Maybe some sort of forensic topic, if those sorts of fields of study existed back then. I think it has to be related to crime in some capacity, right?

Is Sherlock referring to the condition known as Cauliflower ears?

Now that's interesting. It makes me curious what Sherlock's life would've been like had he not decided to become a detective.

Watson, you tease! I'll be reading these letters regardless, there's no need to leave us on a cliffhanger! Ah well, I look forward to hearing about this incident then.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

#letters from watson #arthur conan doyle #the gloria scott #sherlock holmes #victor trevor #john h watson #liveblogging sherlock holmes

[oldfashionedbooklove]

Random notes while reading Sherlock Holmes according to @skyriderwednesday, part 1: The “Gloria Scott”

- Love the bit of mischief in Holmes just handing over the coded message with a “so a guy died of terror when he saw this” and fully anticipating Watson’s confusion.

- I also love how very Holmes-ish it is that he just casually decides to talk about his first case one winter night after Watson tried to pry it from him for probably two or three years.

- “I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my rooms and working out my own little methods of thought, so that I never mixed much with the men of my year.” Do I spy a bit of regret in there?? Anyways, reading of Holmes’ youth makes me a little sad for him. He’s so alone. I think that’s what makes Watson so attractive to him—Watson is just there no matter what and that’s a rarity for Holmes…

- Sherlock going to chapel is one of the very few instances where we see religion in his life. I find it interesting that while in The Valley of Fear he implies Watson is ludicrously mistaken in suggesting Holmes has a Bible about him, yet in several later stories (ex. The Naval Treaty) Holmes makes remarks indicating he has thought deeply about Providence and religion.

- I find it deeply amusing that Holmes made one of his few friends because a dog attacked him. Why has no one added that scene to a film yet?

- Trevor actually sounds similar to what young, uninjured Watson would have been to me??

- Honestly the J.P. sounds like such a fascinating and interesting man.

- I’m quite curious what Holmes went to study in college, and what he was picturing in his mind for his life before he decided to become an investigator. I’m also curious what first got him started on “those habits of observation and inference which I had already formed into a system.” He must have had an interesting youth.

- It always annoys me how absurdly SIMPLE Holmes’ deductions are 😂 why can’t I master them myself?!

- This story actually shows a lot of sensitivity and tact on the part of Holmes!

- I wonder what Holmes was planning with his life if he went to college just to dabble around… and where his parents were. I’m inclined to think he was an orphan young.

- Jack Prendergast is a fascinating guy but the mate of the Gloria Scott is even better. I’d love to know more about him!!

#sherlock fandom #sherlock holmes #the gloria scott

[ultraviolet-ink]

I’m so happy to find another HomuMiko shipper on here! You seem to adore them. Since you’re writing the long fic based on the Sherlock stories, can I presume you read those too? I got into them thanks to Letters from Watson, a “raring by email” thing. It was a very strange and good coincidence that I got into Ace Attorney and Sherlock at the same time because it turns out I really enjoy the mystery genre. 💖

HomuMiko really lives rent free in my brain and I love it! To answer your question, yep! I've read the stories countless times, ever since I was 13! The Great Mouse Detective really got me interested in mysteries when I was a kid and I was really big into BBC!Sherlock pre-hiatus (Now my favorite adaptation is the Granada series staring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and David Burke (Adventures) and Edward Hardwicke (Return-Memoirs) as Watson). I even got to go to the Sherlock Holmes museum in London on a school trip once (and yes, it has 17 steps!!). When I finished DGS, I really fell back in love with Sherlockania, especially with the little easter eggs that were put in the game from VR to the napoleon bust, to even the notes pinned to the mantle by knife and persian slipper! And that's just in 221b alone, there's a TON outside of that humble flat. I even own a deerstalker, lol! I love LFW so much, it's such a creative way to share the stories with people, especially since a lot of the canon were short stories that were published periodically! It's very victorian, and I can't help but feel a little kinship with a reader from well over 100 years ago (though, luckily, I can read Empty House right after Final Problem rather than wait 10 years in uncertainty lol) I believe Takushu is a big fan of Holmes/the canon too, and I can definitely see the influence in the way that the games he was part of are like that (especially Ghost Trick, which is very good!!) I'm glad that you're enjoying the stories, they really are brilliant, and I love how they've inspired other authors/artists ever since (Sorry ACD, if you didn't want me to love that duo so much, they shouldn't have been so endearing XD) If you're looking for a modern retelling of the stories, I cannot recommend Sherlock and Co. enough! I absolutely love John's style of narration, as well as his dynamic with Sherlock and their secretary/manager, Marianna! I think my favorite in the series so far has to be The Adventure of the Gloria Scott, though the Solitary Cyclist is a close second (especially in part two, but I won't spoil it! ;) ). It's a podcast, but I believe they upload the episodes on youtube as well!

#ask #sherlock holmes #seriously though I love Sherlock and Co #Marianna is definitely my favorite character and I love her actress' voice #especially when she speaks spanish!

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson, Catching Up

The Musgrave Ritual part 1 and 2: The fun bits

- Sometime in the decade between Study in Scarlet (1880-1881) and the frame story for The Musgrave Ritual, Holmes’ household habits have changed. During Study, he’s trying very hard to be the ideal roommate, now he keeps his correspondence stabbed to the mantel and has shot some new decorations into their wall. Based on the fact that The Sign of The Four, which we may or may not skip, was published in 1890, Watson and Holmes are (probably) not living together full time at the time of this story’s publication. Most likely Watson wrote this story several years before it’s publication in The Strand (probable: this was the eighteenth Holmes short story published, and The Strand had only started publishing them in 1891). - On the other hand, a change in Holmes’ household habits and Watson moving in briefly to help could correlate with a rough time for Holmes in his canonical battles with depression and drugs. I’ll likely have more conclusions about this possible event as we analyze all the other cases published during this period. 

- The framing device for Gloria Scott and the framing device for Musgrave are both Holmes and Watson kicking around the (disastrous) living room on a winter evening. Possibly the two tales were related to Watson within a very short period, one where Watson needed some ready fodder for his monthly submission to The Strand.  - Holmes lived near the British Museum when he was first trying to start a career. No conclusions here, I just think it’s a good idea if you’re going to impulsively study anything that seems relevant.  - Musgrave is yet another classmate with a limited social circle. Not as lonely as Victor Trevor, but seen as a bit stuck up (or shy: Holmes is seeing the best in his old classmates) during their school days. He’s doing all right socially (and economically via the family’s fortune) right now but he still approaches Holmes when things start to look a little scandalous within his household. - Musgrave’s first reaction to seeing somebody wandering the house at night, as an insomniac in a house with about twelve other people living in it, is to think “It must be a burglar!” and grab an antique axe. You really have to wonder what he would have done if it was one of the maids making a cup of tea or a footman borrowing a book instead of his butler snooping in a locked cabinet of family documents.  - Snooping through your employer’s documents in the middle of the night isn’t great but employment for servants during this period was pretty precarious. Because of letters of recommendation and servants at a country house generally being local people with very few other grand country houses nearby to apply for jobs at, you could definitely have your livelihood destroyed over a minor mistake or misunderstanding with your employer. Even if, like Musgrave and Brunton, you’ve watched your current employer grow up.

- On the other hand, Victorian nobility appears to have understood that human beings get sick and should generally recover instead of going to work during that time. I can’t quite tell if Rachel Howells is supposed to have been ill for the whole month after Brunton jilted her, and “brain fever” covers a lot of potential diagnoses (depression? Anxiety? Unrelated illness that happens to coincide and isn’t immediately obvious as something else?) - Generally speaking I’m not going to get into the internal racism / classism notes on people coming from formerly independent countries within the United Kingdom, especially when compared with an English Lord. I don’t have the expertise or the time. Just note that Rachel Howells having an “excitable Welsh Temperament” is supposed to be a clue. - The Musgrave Ritual scavenger Hunt Guide. I have always loved this scavenger hunt guide and I used to attempt to make similar ones and try to force my neighbors to solve them. It did not go well, overall, and I might have been bad at it.   - Victorians, lacking chemical analysis for their historical papers, (at least, chemical analysis that wouldn’t destroy the whole thing) dated them by spelling trends. - Hurlstone Manor does not appear to be a real place. (West Sussex, however, is.) The oldest homes in West Sussex that I can google appear to date to the Elizabethan era (1558-1603), some time before the reign of King Charles from 1625 to 1649. Obviously if “Musgrave’s” name was altered to prevent embarrassment, the name of his family’s seat would be as well.  - This story tricked me, at age twelve, into thinking that trigonometry would be fun.

#Letters From Watson #trigonometry was NOT fun #spoilers #assorted context

[jabbage]

#Letters from Watson #lettersfromwatson

[stararise]

woke up to TWO emails since i somehow missed part 2's email, whoops. gloria scott part 2:

a cringing manner... so he was cringing all the time?

did... did mr. trevor run back to the house, take a drink of brandy, then run back lmao

pov your college friend's dad gets dead drunk after being visited by an old friend

oh no, poor trevor :( his dad!

we now have holmes telling watson what trevor said that his father said lol

i like that holmes figures the code out via trial and error. i suppose there weren't any clues to what the code actually was so it was the only way to solve it, but it's just very relatable haha

ooh ominous!

#star says #letters from watson #sherlock holmes #idk how i missed it? #must have accidentally dismissed the notification #oh well. time to read part 3

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A GOP candidate in Oklahoma is getting attention for comments he made several years ago when he justified the death penalty by stoning for gay people. When asked recently about it, he didn’t disavow his previous comments.

Scott Esk, 56, is running in the Republican primary runoff election tomorrow [today, 8/23,] for a seat in the state house, and local media is bringing up some extreme comments he made in the past. He’s not handling them well.

In 2013, Esk was commenting in a Facebook conversation about the Pope saying that he couldn’t judge gay people. Esk posted some Bible quotations, including the part of Romans 1 where the Bible says that a long list of people who sinned is “worthy of death.”

Another person asked him: “So, just to be clear, you think we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)?”

Esk responded: “I think we would be totally in the right to do it… Ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.”

A year later, a journalist asked him about those comments. He said it was “totally just” to kill gay people.

“What I will tell you right now is that that was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God,” he said at the time. “And in that time, there was, it was, totally just came directly from God.”

After those comments, he put out a long video where he claimed he “sets the record straight.” In those videos, he claimed he has “compassion on anybody in the grips of an insidious addiction, such as homosexuality.”

“Any Christian should be in the position to say that this is sin or this is good. If we don’t make that distinction, we’re not going to help people,” he said in the first video published in 2015.

In the another video, which was from earlier this year, Esk called a local TV news report on his comments a “hit piece on the fact that I had an opinion against homosexuality.”

“Well, does that make me a homophobe? Maybe some people think it does,” he said. “But as far as I and many of the people, the voters of House District A7 are concerned, it simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.”

He said that he is not in favor of “expanding the death penalty in Oklahoma for homosexuality,” he just wants everyone to know that gay people are so offensive to his god that his religion wants them dead.

“The fact is, that it’s much more offensive knowing what obscene things homosexuals do with each other than it is for somebody to hold the view that it is indecent,” he said in the second video.

Now that the runoff election is tomorrow [today, 8/23], The Oklahoman asked Esk about those comments to see if his opinion has changed at all.

He refused to do an interview and pointed The Oklahoman to the two videos.

“I’ve stood up for what is right in the past, and I intend to in the future and I am right now,” he stated. “That’s got me in trouble. The media are not my friends, as far as I’m concerned.”

Earlier today [Yesterday], Esk posted a video to his YouTube channel entitled “Scott Esk sets the record straight for the 3rd time,” in which he calls The Oklahoman piece and a piece by News 4 “hit pieces” and says that the media is against him because they want his opponent Gloria Banister to win.

He also responded to being fired from his job as a data manager in 2011 because he was arrested after he allegedly threatened and harassed the leadership of his church. In the video, he calls those church leaders “snakes” and makes some opaque references to the divorce and custody battle he was going through at the time.

Whoever wins the primary tomorrow will run against the Democratic winner in November. The seat is currently held by state Rep. Collin Walke (D), who is retiring.

#us politics #news #lgbtq nation #2022 #2022 midterms #2022 elections #Oklahoma #Scott Esk #the bible #organized religion #religions #conservative christianity #radical christianity #religious hypocrisy #tw homophobia #republican homophobia #fuck homophobia #The Oklahoman #Gloria Banister #Rep. Collin Walke #video #Vimeo

[altmusicposting]

Heroes or Cons? Breaking down 21st Century Breakdown

Released on May 15th, 2009, 21st Century Breakdown was Green Day's 8th Studio album, and proof that they had no intention of slowing down or shutting up anytime soon. An 18 track album full of (mostly) under 5-minute bangers that carry a combination of Green Day's tried and true socio-political criticism and their more recent story-driven angle, this disc deserved way more credit than it got.

Unfairly overshadowed by and nearly always discussed in the context of the band's previous album, American Idiot, especially now that we are more than a decade out from its release, Breakdown doesn't get the opportunity to stand on its own, the way it absolutely can. While the concept-album, rock opera style angle was inspired by its predecessor, Breakdown does plenty on its own to differentiate itself and thus I will be speaking in the context of Idiot no further.

Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield describes the overarching concept of the album as "a Seventies-style epic, telling the story of two young punk lovers [Christian and Gloria, songs according to Rolling Stone] on the run in the wreckage of post-Bush America," who take care of each other because "no one else will." Included and beyond this are themes of technology, stagnation, complacency, disenchantment, hope, and defiance. This can be heard throughout the album through literal means, like the scratchy radio and technical glitch sounds, and both literally and figuratively through Green Day's iconic biting lyricism. As Alternative Press's Scott Heisel says, "Armstrong [front-man, singer, and guitarist] isn't afraid to spit out exactly what he's thinking."

Many of the band's fans cite this album or songs from it as favorites despite its relative underdog status. However, it was not as well received by some critics, like Pitchfork's Jess Harvell, who can, in the nicest way possible, fuck off. How could anyone who listened to songs like East Jesus Nowhere and Peacemaker call Green Day's efforts here "pompous and dumb"? With lyrics like "Don't test me/second guess me/protest me you will disappear," and one of my personal favorites of all time "this is a stand-off/a molotov cocktail/on the house," it should be more than clear that Green Day has by no means lost their desire or ability to speak their mind and revolt. Furthermore, the specific references like the name drop of Beretta (an arms dealership used for private, police, and military supply), nuclear disputes, climate change, and more show they are not just spewing generalist political outrage. There is nothing empty or hollow to suggest that Green Day is merely trying to recreate previous successes.

One concession I will make is that there are a few areas where the typical up-front message is detoured to further the "plot" of the characters, as in Last Night on Earth, and that can be a bit confusing. The main thing I suppose, is that there is a lot happening all at once, which can be hard to follow. Even still, this is one of the things I personally enjoy about the album. It makes it fun to listen through and to more than once, and putting the disparate parts together forces you to be an active listener.

What creases me about this review though, almost more so than the ignorance in regards to the album's finer points, is that Harvell makes snide comments about each of the band members and their musical/artistic prowess in turn. Criticisms of this kind always bother me a bit because, while it's fine to have a negative opinion of something, particularly when it comes to art, that's not necessarily a reason to insult the artist who created it. Furthermore, despite a proclaimed love of the band, and punk and alternative music in general, Harvell seems to focus on the simplicity and repetition of the musical techniques, phrases, and chord progressions used in this album and by the band in general. Not only is this claim at least partially baseless, given the diversity in instruments (including strings, tympani, and piano), tempos, time signatures(4/4 to 7/4), and moods of these songs, but also ignores the fundamental punk idea that its anyone's game. Yes, much of Green Day's music relies heavily on a few power chords, but its accessible. Which I think, is the point. You don't have to be a musical genius, you just have to say something, and say it loud.

I mean, just listen to !Viva La Gloria! and ?Viva La Gloria? [Little Girl] and tell me you don't get excited by the tempo changes, genre mixing, and impassioned lyrics.

For further proof that Harvell's claims that Green Day are just concerned with "reinforcing their own stature," or "could shit this stuff out in their sleep," are false, one need only turn to the source. In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, Billie Joe Armstrong described the aftereffects of leaving the record as akin to post-partum depression. Could this have been a publicity stunt? Sure, I guess. Though I am more inclined to believe it was perhaps exaggerated, but genuine.

One other commonly critiqued part of the album is the Song Know Your Enemy, which appears early on (track 3), and in all honesty does not have much substance. Alternative Press calls it more of "an interstitial piece than a stand-alone song," which I can understand. In all honesty, it has never been a favorite of mine, but I still believe there is a place for it in the track list and in the genre. It serves as a call to the classic angry, repetitive, head-bangy short songs of the "Clash-sized bootboy chants," as Sheffield puts it.

Another critique I have, is with the choice to include the n-word in the lyrics of the second to last track, American Eulogy: Mass Hysteria/Modern World. It is not the first time the band has done this, and though it is (in this case) used as something the martyr, who is described as a compulsive liar, says to insight more chaos and hysteria, it's use by a non-black individual has always made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Given the band (and Billie in particular)'s political activism and stances outside of their music, I find its use especially confusing.

My final issue with the album is that there appears to be little to no songs from the perspective of Gloria. This is disappointing because I love that the songs switch perspectives between in the story (through Christian's eyes), and a narrative third party (Billie/Green Day). This shifting makes the absence of Gloria's perspective in all but Murder City all the more apparent. Whether this absence is for any particular reason, i.e. the band wanted to mainly draw parallels between Christian and Billie, or not, it is still frustrating to have the female "main character" largely as an observed/addressed party rather than an active story-teller.

To return to positives for the end here, the individual songs throughout this album provide some of my favorite examples of high-energy socio-political commentary. For its part, the album as a whole employs fantastic transitions between tracks, with the ending of one leading seamlessly into the next, and so I highly recommend listening to this album all the way through.

#music #rock music #punk #punk music #green day #my thoughts #my writing #album review #alternative

[bound2happin-blog]

My Legal Battle with my Family and their Co-horts / Co-conspirators (184):

Before I continue with explaining this soap-opera (but completely true) of a story, I want to post the four sets of continuing interrogatories that I served my parents, Leonard Sumter Jr. and Gloria Sumter, with as part of a diversity jurisdction lawsuit, codified as 28 USC 1332, I filed on 4-25-16 against Leonard Sumter Jr., Gloria Sumter, Creighton Hussey and David Scott. I am posting these now so that there is a complete record of all of these interrogatories as there is still the threat of this evidence being destroyed. (And there is not just the threat of but I have literally been threatened that they would do this.)

There are four (4) sets of continuing interrogatories of which I served my parents that they answered under oath. The first two sets I posted in my previous two (2) posts, Post No 183 and post No 182, and the remaining one (1) set to be posted immediately in my next post. For your understanding, a continuing interrogatory is equivalent to deposing someone on the witness stand.