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we-are-inevitable · 1 year

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ok so i was talking to @to-be-a-dreamer @tarantulas4davey and @carpe-diem-since-1899 about racetrack things the other day and i just thought i would dump some of those thoughts here bc i am So invested in this weird little guy

anyway i just ,, i have a lot of feelings abt jack passing the newsies onto racer once he ages out.

i feel like. charlie is the next choice, but charlie in my eyes is the same age as- if not older than- jack; if jack hadn’t been the leader of the newsboys, it definitely would have been charlie, but jack is the one who took the reins. (this age hc is mostly because of west endsies ngl.) anyway! moving on

jack and charlie have always been a team. charlie is definitely jack’s second in terms of always being there, but race is his second in terms of business- it only makes sense for race to take over when jack is gone, and i just,, i love the concept of race either not really wanting that or not really knowing how to handle that. i think, at his core, race is trying to hold onto whatever youth he has left. its why he’s always cracking jokes, despite how jaded and angry he is under the surface. he pretends not to care or else he’ll crack under the pressure, and when he cracks, it’s angry. it’s mean. his bark is as bad as his bite. so he puts on this front- this childish, snarky, comedic relief front- and he’s terrified of the implications of Being The Leader because he feels like he’ll no longer have that front to hold onto or hide behind. and it takes him a long time, i think, to realize that he doesn’t have to be exactly who Jack was- he can lead the newsboys how he sees fit, he doesn’t need to be a carbon copy of jack, because they’re fundamentally so different. and i think that is just very fun

but more on the anger, because i think it’s an interesting take that is very much represented in West Endsies- as @roideny and @jack-kellys have pointed out before:

i’m interested in the other newsies- especially albert, finch, and maybe spot- seeing that sadness and strain and anger that seems to be taking it’s place as his dominant trait. yeah. bc i think,, i think race is angry at his core, like i said. angry at his position in all of this. angry that jack left, that charlie followed, that davey was never staying in the first place, that spot still thinks of him as a kid instead of a new leader, that other burrough leaders don’t take him seriously because they know him as the jokester. angry that these kids are his kids now, and angry that his kids are still starving, still walking holes in their shoes, still shivering at night and still dying of sickness when the cold weather hits too hard. i want this race to be fucking pissed and i want everyone else to be caught off guard by it.

because, let’s be real, jack wasn’t the roughest leader. he was strong, and dependable, and not afraid to put kids in their place, but he’s still nurturing and parental. after years of being used to that, i think the newsies would struggle with Race for a while, especially as race tries to figure out his leadership style, and i think a lot of that would manifest in this anger that has been bubbling up under the surface for ages- the anger he never lets anyone see because he doesn’t want that.

race has spent anywhere from 5 to 10 years- depending on when you headcanon him to join the newsies- being the funny guy, the clown, the joker; if he’s going to earn respect, he’s going to have to take it from a few kids. lashing out and being brash- all for the sake of keeping everyone safe, of course- but he’s such a different leader than jack, and i think it would be SO fun to explore that more in post-canon works.

i feel like this post is a little disjointed and i may not be explaining things correctly, plus i haven’t actually seen west endsies yet! a lot of this is based on convos with the besties and i am just having brainrot. besties, feel free to jump in with any additions, and anyone reading this: feel free to send asks or talk in the tags <33

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kellyscowboy · 11 months

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outlaw jack kelly definitely has an "i am him" mentality about his nickname being 'Cowboy'

#like deadwood david #he gets that #he's literally cowboy #like i imagine him seing cowboy on his wanted posted and he's like 'fuck yeah i an THE cowboy ™️'#like you know plenty of deadwoods #but he is T H E cowboy #good for him #jack kelly #wild westies #newsies #˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ newsies // wild westies ❥

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goddammiteverythingstaken · 6 months

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everyday I wake up and am sad because I know I’ll never see newsies with the west end cast again

#Newsies #uksies #a small part of me hopes there’ll be a proshot #But I doubt it #AND I CANT EVEN FIND A BOOTLEG #GOD IF ANYONE KNOWS WHERE TO FIND A BOOTLEG #P L E A S E #david jacobs #jack kelly #ryan kopel #Michael Ahomka-Lindsay

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cantsayidont · 4 months

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Movies movies movies:

THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976): Disquieting, bloody psychological drama, directed by Matt Cimber (later the founder of G.L.O.W., and the basis for the "Sam Sylvia" character played by Marc Maron on the 2017–2019 G.L.O.W. TV series), about a disturbed young woman named Molly (Millie Perkins, wife of screenwriter Robert Thorn), whose horrifying history of childhood abuse causes her to sublimate sexual attraction into dissociative homicidal fits, when she isn't doting on her two young nephews or drinking herself into a haze. Vibes like an exploitation movie, but too arty and surreal to really qualify as one, and it doesn't ever feel quite like a horror movie despite the lurid subject matter; probably the closest comparison is Abel Ferrara's MS.45, with which it would make an apt double bill. Demands strong CWs for CSA and suicide, both of which are pretty rough, but it definitely makes an impression, perhaps most strikingly in the later scenes where Molly's seedy boss (Lonny Chapman) and bitchy coworker (Peggy Feury) begin to grasp how unhinged Molly has really become, leading to a disturbing finale. Too unsettling to easily recommend, hard to forget.

ALICE GOODBODY (1974): Lightweight, smutty exploitation movie, written, produced, and directed by Tom Scheuer, starring Sharon Kelly as a starstruck Hollywood waitress who loves old movies and movie stars (most of whom the people she meets in the industry have barely even heard of) and who is determined to get a small part in a new musical about Julius Caesar, even though it means sleeping with almost everyone in town. A kind of cheerful low-stakes sex comedy they don't make anymore: The situation is obviously sleazy, but not in any way that ever puts Alice in any particular jeopardy (she's in far more danger on set, where she keeps suffering different workplace accidents). The movie's central running joke is that the men whose favor she's supposed to be cultivating are at least as fixated on their own weird obsessions and neuroses as on sex, something Alice just has to sort of work around as best she can, which ends up making her sympathetic and even relatable. More likable than you'd think.

SPICE WORLD (1997): Delightfully dopey Girl Power homage to Richard Lester's A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, starring the Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant at his Richard E. Grantiest, and a cast of thousands. (Just picking out all the cameos and guest stars is half the fun.) This is what I think the Greta Gerwig BARBIE movie was going for: obviously a commercial product, and making no apologies for its mercantile ambitions, but self-aware enough and full of enough sly piss-taking to be thoroughly enjoyable even if you aren't in (or never had) a Spice Girls phase. Goes on a bit too long, but Grant's outfits alone are worth sticking it out for, and the bridge-jumping climax is very funny.

KALIFORNIA (1993): Mordant thriller starring a disconcertingly young-looking David Duchovny as Brian Kessler, a young writer who blows his advance for a new book about serial killers on an old convertible for him and his horny art photographer girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes, with disconcerting bangs) to drive across the country, photographing famous murder sites. Along the way, they pick up a couple of hitchhiking hicks, Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) and Adele Comers (Juliette Lewis), to help pay for gas, not realizing that Early is a paroled convict who's just murdered someone and has no qualms about dropping more bodies along the way. Tim Metcalfe's script (with obligatory '90s voiceover narration) scores some points early on in its depiction of Brian and Carrie's obvious classism and brittle middle-class hipster intellectualism, but the story ends up validating their prejudices rather than questioning them, which keeps the film from being entirely satisfying despite its effectiveness as a thriller. The cast is very good, with Pitt and Forbes the real standouts — Pitt plays Early as a man who draws no line between aw-shucks Southern congeniality and murderous rage, while Forbes makes Carrie's mix of ambition, appetite, and roiling intensity so vivid that you come away wondering what she's doing with Brian, who Duchovny plays as a somewhat gormless jackass. As for Lewis, suffice to say this would make an interesting double bill with NATURAL BORN KILLERS, released about a year later, where she plays a variation on the same damaged theme.

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movie-track01 · 4 months

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#ElleFanning and #NicoleKidman starrer series "MARGO's GOT MONEY TROUBLE" will be streaming on #AppleTV+

#DavidEKelly will be the showrunner and writer of the series

#elle fanning #david e kelly #nicole kidman

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constantlyonarollercoaster · 2 years

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Ben & Jessica

#art #illustration #drawing #artwork #artist #artists on tumblr #digitalpainting #tv series #nine perfect strangers #samara weaving #melvin gregg #ben chandler #jessica chandler #jonathan levine #john henry butterworth #liane moriarty #david e kelly #Spotify

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caloymalonzo · 1 year

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Just finished binging 'The Lincoln Lawyer' on Netflix and I have to say, it did not disappoint! With David E. Kelley at the helm as creator and writer, you know you're in for a gripping legal drama. The story is tense and the characters are incredibly well-written. If you're a fan of legal dramas, this is a must-watch.

#the lincoln lawyer #netflix #david e kelly

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dustedmagazine · 1 year

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Dust Volume 9, Number 1

The Beauty Pill

Every January, we grind the gears shifting from records that came out in the previous year to the ones that will come out in the current ones. It’s a rough transition, and lots of us have leftovers that deserve attention. We manage it, in part, with a late January Dust that clears out the backlog and allows us to focus on the new year. It’s not an iron clad rule. We will certainly cover a few more 2022s in the weeks to come, and there’s at least one 2023 in this batch (the estimable Dischord-era retrospective from the Beauty Pill, pictured above). But it’s a turning point, and we’re turning. Are you ready to turn with us?

Contributors include Tim Clarke, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Jonathan Shaw, Andrew Forrell, Ray Garratty and Patrick Masterson.

1 Mile North — The Sunken Nest (Mutual Skies)

The Sunken Nest by 1 Mile North

Jon Hills discreetly snuck out his latest album as 1 Mile North in mid-December, a notorious no-man’s-land for new releases. However, this is strangely fitting for The Sunken Nest, which possesses an understated majesty and rich melancholy that harks back to the first wave of post-rock artists who emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hills’ close attention to dynamics and tone extend to the assembly of the track list, where the individual song titles together form a poem: “Plunge forth / Into muted depths / Where light collapses into night / Exhale and sink / Find rest / Amidst the ship / Your sunken nest.” The opening run of songs works especially well. “Into muted depths” nails Labradford’s signature sound of glacial guitar traced out over pulsing electronics. “Where light collapses into night,” the album’s longest and most satisfying piece, builds patiently into a hard-earned crescendo that’s almost anthemic. And the guitars on “Exhale and sink” have a post-metal edge that threatens to build into a cathartic climax, but instead settles for tense slow burn.

Tim Clarke

Beauty Pill — Blue Period (Ernest Jenning)

Blue Period by Beauty Pill

The Beauty Pill hid its sharp edges in a dream pop sheen, but they were there all the same. In the early aughts, the band recorded a full-length and an EP for Dischord, setting off a thousand hot takes about whether they were or were not a Dischord band (since they didn’t sound very much like Fugazi). But I’d suggest that the Beauty Pill was as fierce and intense and off kilter in its way as Fugazi, and there was more punk in its croon than most people would admit. The sleek, harmonized chill of “the mule on the plane,” for instance, explodes subliminally with rupturing drum energy. “Terrible Things,” bristles with its bass lick’s muted ferocity. “such large portions!” overlays the most beautiful white noise guitar skree over its loping, narcotized vocals. The music itself incorporates both beauty and destruction—and that’s before you even get started on the words, which are sharp and devastating. Take for instance, the couple that introduces “Goodnight for Real” and encapsulates everything you need to know about difficult music and its fans: “There’s a band on stage tonight/every note they play turns its back to you/still you want to add them to the sad list of things/you’ve said yes to.” Or the dual verses from “Terrible Things,” that coolly observe David Chapman and Idi Amin (“And David chapman shakes and hovers in the shadows of the Dakota/ hearing voices one of which will never sing again when this is over”). The Beauty Pill’s output slowed—but didn’t entirely stop—when bandleader Chad Clark suffered a rare viral infection of the heart. They’ve had one more full-length (Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are) and two EPs since. But if you’re just getting going, this double LP is a reasonable place to start. It collects all the songs from both Dischord releases, the You Are Right to Be Afraid EP from 2003 and The Unsustainable Lifestyle from 2004, along with a smattering of unreleased alternates and demos.

Jennifer Kelly

Best Fern — Earth Then Air (Backwards/Youngbloods)

Earth Then Air by Best Fern

Nick Schoefield is a Montreal-based ambient artist last observed distilling electronic and synthethic sounds into radiant, crystal-pure abstractions. His 2021 solo album, Glass Gallery, tinted Reichian rhythmic explorations with the glowing prettiness of melody. Best Fern, Schoefield’s collaboration with the singer Alexia Avina, dips even further into pop idioms, draping airy vocal motifs over lattice-work electronics. “On and On,” the single, distills the sounds of stringed instrument and, maybe, banjo, into a blinking bank of luminous tones, then tips Avina’s voice over in cascading waves. It is cerebral yet inviting. “World Spins,” by contrast, is nearly unadulterated indie pop, framed in keyboard chords, but putting wispy vocals up front; it sounds a bit like the earliest iteration of the XX. But “Way Inside,” the other single pits a cyber-storm of tinkling sounds against piano and subtly altered vocals, the organic world abutting the theoretical one in a lovely, arresting way.

Jennifer Kelly

David Blue — Stories (Eremite)

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This 50th anniversary reissue of David Blue’s Stories is undeniably a labor of love. It also represents the acme of craft. The retro, flip back sleeve and dead quiet vinyl have been manufactured with the determination to getting details right that one expects from Eremite Records. But who’d have expected that the label would break a quarter century run of jazz-derived releases with a singer-songwriter LP that was originally issued on Asylum and was made by a guy who ran with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen? Love makes a body do strange things, but that’s how you know that it’s really love. Blue’s writing style is as exacting and precision-oriented as Eremite’s production technique. His lyrical details are stark, his delivery muted, and the production (slide guitar by Ry Cooder, vocals by Rita Coolidge, strings by Jack Niesche, etc.) frames each tale with exquisite understatement. His baritone singing is similarly just-right. There are really no flaws to explain why Stories was a commercial dud back in the day, except that maybe the portraits of losers and love affairs were a little too real for comfort.

Bill Meyer

Color As Time — Soma Schema (Adhyâropa)

soma schema by color as time

Color as Time is Joshua Stamper’s jazz-into-classical project, which filters the composer’s bright, lucid melodic aesthetic through the improvisational lens of a six-member ensemble. Soma Schema appears to be the group’s second album, following 2018’s This Light Use to be a Mountain, perhaps incorporating some of that disc’s earlier material—there is a track on this disc called “This Light Used to be a Mountain,” though not on the album by that name. The music here flows effortlessly between fusion-y jazz and pointillist classicism, with individual instruments sometimes taking different sides in the argument. In “close cover gently,” for instance, Paul Arbogast’s unmistakably swinging trombone solo winds through the starry twinkle of abstract electric keyboard; later a saxophone (played by Mike Cemprola) blows blearily, earthily through that same pristine, percussive background. The other long piece “with (con) turning (verse)” lets cool flute and saxophones wander through a radiant, 3 a.m. jazz club space. Sophisticated, fluid and hard to pin down.

Jennifer Kelly

Fucked Up — One Day (Merge Records)

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One Day is yet another high-concept release from Fucked Up. This time around, the band members each spent a maximum of 24 hours (that titular “one day”) on their contributions to recording the music. It’s an interesting idea, folding Fucked Up’s attraction to the Big Idea into its formal processes; it also ends up being a useful corrective measure to some of the more expansive excesses (and, frankly, bloat) that have marked the band’s recent records. This reviewer liked Dose Your Dreams and was charmed by some of the nuttier aspects of Year of the Horse. But it was a lot to process, and all the accumulating bagginess and sagginess left its unhappy mark on Oberon. By contrast, there’s a very appealing zip and straight-to-the-gut punch to some of the tracks on One Day. The title track has the big-hearted, maximum-volume appeal of Fucked Up at their best, and opener “Found” reminds you what it’s like to be in the room when the band is making its violent, joyous sound. Look out, folks. Fucked Up is writing rock songs again.

Jonathan Shaw

Glassine & Sam Haberman — Radial (Cached)

Radial by Glassine & Sam Haberman

Radial is an intriguing collaboration between Baltimore-based producer Danny Greenwald, who releases music under the moniker Glassine, and Sam Haberman, who plays drums in avant-rock instrumentalists Horse Lords. If you’re expecting a record that sounds anything like Horse Lords, however, you’re out of luck — Radial is a mostly placid, intimate record. Haberman sent field recordings and four-track experiments to Greenwald, which he manipulated into these impressionistic compositions, to which the duo then added textural overdubs. The resulting half-hour of music veers between malfunctioning electronica (“Up, Together, Reach”), throbbing ambient drone (“St. Pete”), clattering percussive workouts (“Brushes in Woodstock”), and what could almost pass as vaporwave (“Behind a Seatbelt”). Together, the eight tracks are pleasingly disorientating, especially on headphones.

Tim Clarke

Joy Anonymous — “Joy (God Only Knows)” (self-released)

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Right up until the last week of the year, if you’d said 2022’s best dance edit was Ploy’s remix of Khia’s “My Neck, My Back,” you’d have been right — but Christmas came right on time for those hip to London duo Joy Anonymous and you might want to have a rethink yourself after giving this a listen. Henry Counsell and Louis Curran’s accelerated treatment to a 1975 Betty Everett cover of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” was a favorite among those who saw them open for Fred again.. in recent months, and it’s easy to see why: Even twice removed from Brian Wilson’s original vision, “Joy (God Only Knows)” soars with life-affirming positivity and the kind of smile-inducing energy made for outdoor summer dance parties, illegal warehouse raves, your living room, the biggest rooms (as God might have it)… anywhere open arms and hearts seek to groove together, that is to say. If you’re feeling bitter and despondent, tired of an uncaring world and fed up with pretending like there’s any chance of salvaging something from all of this, fine, maybe you’re right — but for at least four minutes, Joy Anonymous will have you reconsidering. I speak, of course, from personal experience.

Patrick Masterson

Kraus — Fire! Water! Air! Kraus! (Soft Abuse)

Fire! Water! Air! Kraus! by Kraus

Kraus is an ultra-productive one-man band from New Zealand, and Fire! Water! Air! Kraus! stands out from his discography in two respects. You can get it on vinyl, unlike 14 other entries in his 19 album catalog. And it’s his first production of completely electronic music. While he doesn’t publish the specs, one suspects that he is working with a combination of analog and digital gear. The drum machine pops, synthetic squelches and fluttering fake flutes on “Gunther’s Button” all bring to mind a world where pushbutton telephones were spanking new technology. The bright resolution of the chimes on “Canal du Midi,” on the other hand, suggests higher-bit sampling rates that might come from the sort of cheap, high-powered contemporary gadgetry. Kraus likes tunes, but he lets them emerge from squirming nests of short loops. And while he likes machine sounds, his music is most attractive when it sounds like a heavy human hand is manually retarding or accelerating the spinning cogs.

Bill Meyer

Memoriam — Rise to Power (Reaper Entertaiment)

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It may be indicative of where metal finds itself that the first song on Memoriam’s Rise to Power is titled “Never Forget, Never Again (6 Million Dead).” Memoriam is not a war metal band, in subgeneric terms, but like singer Karl Willets’ old band Bolt Thrower, Memoriam expends a good deal of creative energy making war-themed death metal. And in our current cultural environment, if you’re going to record anthemic metal tunes titled “Total War” and “Annihilation’s Dawn,” it makes sense to lay down a marker indicating just where you stand on the Holocaust. That said — and done — Rise to Power is a satisfying record of sometimes doomy melo-death, written and played by a crew of dudes with serious heavy-music chops: bassist Frank Healy put in nearly two decades with Benediction and briefly played with Napalm Death; drummer Spikey Smith has seemingly played with everyone, from Killing Joke to the English Dogs to Conflict to (say what?) Morrissey. For anyone familiar with Bolt Thrower’s early records, Willets will have the most recognizable presence, and his gravelly growl suffuses these sometimes by-the-books songs with some gravitas and drama. The opening 12 minutes of the record are its best, most ruthlessly grand passage, sometimes recalling the tougher sounds of Planks or invoking a meatier version of At the Gates.

Jonathan Shaw

E Millar & Christof Kurzmann — Rare Entertainment (Mystery & Wonder)

rare entertainment by e millar and christof kurzmann

Entertainment and improvisation certainly coexist on a frequent basis, but when it comes to improvised music, the pairing is not a given. So, the title of the CDR, which contains a performance by Canadian clarinetist Elizabeth Millar and Austrian singer/electronician Christof Kurzmann may raise questions. If you’re wondering if this is a slice of Bennink/Breuker/Zorn action, the answer is no. Over the course of not quite 50 minutes on a June night in Montreal, they judiciously added layers of hum, rattle, hiss, chime and whine, only occasional letting themselves sound like they were actually playing anything. Every once in a while, Kurzmann gently croons in English, Spanish or German; hearing Tall Dwarfs’ “Think Small” bob in the slow-moving swirl is not exactly entertaining, but it’s definitely an emotional inflection point . So, gestures of overt entertainment are rare, but if you’re ready to indulge some existential pondering whilst settling into a state of uneasy immersion, this duo has your sound bath ready.

Bill Meyer

Ivan Nahem + ex->tension — Crawling Through Glass (Arguably)

Crawling Through Grass by Ivan Nahem + ex->tension

Ivan Nahem came up through NYC’s no wave/post-punk underground, playing a role in such bands as The Situations, Carnival Crash, Swans and, most recently, Ritual Tension with his brother Andrew. This new project is far more reserved and atmospheric than anything in his history and reflects, in part, his experiences with the meditative aspects of yoga. “The Exhaltation of Nothing,” a track which he wrote with his brother, stretches the dissonance and clangor of punk guitar into infinity, turning the sounds that these instruments make into drones that melt in glowing, serene pools. “51st St Savasana” floats lighter, airier tones over skittering vibrations, buried spoken word and isolated pings of acoustic guitar. This latter cut brings in collaborators from prior, more heated projects, Norman Westberg of Swans and Carnival Crash on guitar and Mark C. from Live Skull on keyboards and synths. The music remains unruffled, though not without drama, big swells of organ tone promising revelation but delivering mostly calm.

Jennifer Kelly

Sneeze Awfull — Exercise #1 (We Be Friends)

Exercise #1 by Sneeze Awfull

Pittsburgh trio Sneeze Awfull are collagists whose outsider DIY background belies the sophistication of their music. Beneath the spoken word samples, twitchy beats and electronic effects lies a collection of art pop songs that evoke the work of Arthur Russell and These New Puritans. Vocalist Hunter, cellist Ricki and JF on beats, samples and synthesizers use all the busyness of their overlays to enhance rather than disguise the poignancy at the heart of Exercise #1. On “qlip qlop” Hunter’s vocal floats above the beat of marching feet as Ricki plucks jazz inflected riffs on their cello, CF drops a sample of what sounds like a grey flannelled mansplainer “I can really tell you’ve lost a lot of weight/That’s good, I said”, a polyphony of voices follows, more in conversation than competition. Such juxtapositions are a feature of their work, moments of intense beauty rising above the thrum of the world, the tracks constructed like intricate nested boxes, that reveal new secrets with every listen.

Andrew Forell

Torben Snekkestad / Søren Kjærgaard — Another Way of the Heart (Trost)

Another Way of the Heart by Torben Snekkestad / Søren Kjærgaard

In the 1970s, ECM Records’ penchant for packaging audiophile instrumental performances within strikingly colored album sleeves earned the label an association as a purveyor of soundtracks for imaginary fjord vistas. Not only does Another Way of the Heart sound about a three o’clock twist of the reverb knob away from being a vintage ECM release, it was actually recorded on the Western Norwegian island of Giske, which is one ferry ride away from some cruise-worthy fjord views, with the express intent of evoking the regional vibe. Both pianist Kjærgaard and reeds/trumpet player Snekkestad rein in their more extroverted tendencies in order to favor long, breathy tones, reverberant keyboard gestures, and creeping tempos. Each track draws its title from the poetry of Torben Ulrich (yep, Lars’ dad), and the music lives up to names like “Wind and Floating Lines” and “Into Particles of Light.” This is not an album for all occasions, but if you’re ready to reflect, it may be the one you need.

Bill Meyer

Valee — VACABULAREE (Shell Company)

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A proper original and maybe even a creator of its own genre, Chicago MC Valee now makes properly boring and unoriginal music, the kind AI could make if all Valee’s lyrics were fed into it. White audiences who likes their rap chilly and not daring will love it. Last year, MC Valee made an album titled The TrAppiEst Elevator Music Ever!, but VACABULAREE elevator music in the worst sense.

Ray Garraty

Zaliva-D — Misbegotten Ballads (SVBKVLT Records)

孽儿谣 Misbegotten Ballads by Zaliva-D

The haunted soundscapes of Beijing based duo Li Chao and Aisin-Gioro Yuanjin speak to entrapment in tradition and the harsh lockdowns from which China only recently emerged. Mixing eastern and western music into a disquieting hybrid, Zaliva-D, offer no easy entry into their world. The tracks on Misbegotten Ballads fall somewhere between the blasted bastardized blues of Beefheart or Waits and traditional music injected with off-kilter beats, discordant machine music and the wordless wheedling lamentations of ancestral spirits. Built on distinctly Chinese rhythmic cadences and played at a uniformly deliberate pace, the duo’s music is at once aloof and strangely engaging. Club music at the end of a labyrinth of alleys for which no map exists. Arm yourself with a large ball of string and venture forth.

Andrew Forell

Tucker Zimmerman & Joshua Burkett — Tunnel Visions (Idea/Mystra)

Tunnel Visions is a collaboration between poet Tucker Zimmerman and acoustic guitarist Joshua Burkett. The former is a Californian long transplanted to Europe who has been making records you never heard of since the 1970s, the latter has pursued a similarly obscure course for a quarter century whilst running Mystery Train Records in Massachusetts. Neither is too concerned with getting things perfect, which makes them perfectly suited to each other. As Zimmerman raspingly rhymes about seasons, long-gone musicians and radios saying things you know they’d never really say, Burkett and a few of his old freak folk friends trace meandering string tracks with just the right amount of bounce and melancholy to keep you listening past the words into the darkness of a very late night. This one might take some looking to track down; at press time, the only sources were Midheaven Mailorder or Burkett’s shop.

Bill Meyer

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what-do-1000-swords-look-like · 1 year

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Note to Elwood:

This is not how you talk about someone when they're not present when you have "feelings" for them:

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What about that scene above is him being a gentleman?

And more importantly...

Beau has feelings for Jenny?

Girl, WHERE?

We've only ever seen Jenny's side of things.

Full disclosure, I haven't seen season 2, but Jenny is funny and very charismatic? That's what she and Beau have in common besides their confidence? I don't remember Jenny cracking any jokes in season 1 or season 3 thus far.

"But he doesn’t let Jenny in emotionally because he doesn’t want to be vulnerable to her." - what??? So him telling her in 2x18 that he followed his daughter and ex-wife to Montana wasn't him letting her in. Or him telling her and Cassie how he felt about missing out on Emily's life in 3x01 wasn't letting her in? Or even when he talks to her alone in 3x09 again about Emily?

LOL!!! Jenny isn't jealous of Cassie and Beau's friendship in a romantic way? Seriously? Then why the whole consistent teasing of Beau about Cassie, asking if he's jealous? Even in 3x09 when they're having their supposed big emotionally intimate convo without Cassie being there or having anything to do with it? Elwood, you lie like a rug.

"Beau’s been very, very guarded around Jenny about any emotional stuff in his life regarding his marriage." - yet again, I ask, how has he been guarded when in the very first episode he meets her, he talks about it? He may not have told her the reason why the marriage failed but he had no problem basically admitting that he was still in love with Carla in that first car ride. Not to mention Jenny is the first one to meet Carla and witness what happened there.

"When Jenny got to interview Carla, that was a real chess match, and what was being discussed was trying to figure out what makes Beau tick and what kind of woman would be with this guy Avery, who Jenny and Beau know is up to some dirt." - so you ADMIT that Jenny was doing that in this scene when just an episode later you have Jenny telling Cassie that she's going to respect his boundaries, give him some space, and let him tell her when he's ready? When she said the very same thing in 3x01 when Cassie tells her she can ask Beau? So she goes behind his back and gets the scoop from his ex-wife instead? Not a true romance does this make.

"Those are the cards we’ve been playing with in this relationship. I think it all goes towards earning those looks, earning any kind of physicality that may occur in the back half of the season, really earning it," - you may want to stick to playing checkers instead because your chess matches and card playing aren't working out; they're horrific. Because Beau suddenly doing a 180 in the mid-season finale doesn't feel earned, it feels extremely out of character, abrupt, and not making sense.

"and making the audience want to be there for it." - AH, his true goal, gotta get those numbers up and keep viewers for the ratings. My bad, I thought Elwood was a story teller, not a salesman.

So basically, he knows he fucked up, the show doesn't actually show this supposed build-up of a true romance of Beau and Jenny, so that's why we get:

A whole sales pitch in combination with a full explanation because it wasn't apparent how Beau felt during the entire season so far, and the interviewer even had to check that Jenny knew she was interested. Imagine, that had to be asked.

And once again, he's not doing this because it's right for the story or either character (it's not), he's doing it to give "the audience what they want". Fanservice, that's all it is. And while a lot of shows tend to swing this way in order to keep viewers (since streaming/COVID changed the game irrevocably), the writers do their best to try to make it make some sense in the story. We've seen both good and bad examples of both. This is definitely the latter.

Had they done some organic build-up between Beau and Jenny, and not had Jenny acting so out of character and being full on cocky to boot (I mean, "Jenny always gets her man"? Really?), then maybe I could see this making sense as far as the fanservice goes. But Jensen and Katheryn don't have romantic chemistry. This is what genuine chemistry looks like:

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He has way more chemistry with Angelique, Kylie, and Dedee. And for Beau to get into a romantic relationship with either Carla or Cassie makes way more sense for his story as well as theirs. With Denise not so much, but again, chemistry and it's cute.

So for this sudden Beau-has-been-returning-Jenny's-feelings-the-whole-time-he's-just-been-guarded-around-her to come out of nowhere is just beyond bad writing. Especially considering that Jenny already dealt with this issue (guy who isn't truly over his ex and she has to deal with it in the relationship) last season. With Travis, the very same guy Beau helped her to deal with in the very same episode she met him and says goodbye to her boyfriend, and lets him go to find his ex. The very SAME episode. That's. BAD. WRITING. And not good at all for Jenny's character development, because there is NO development. Here she is again, dealing with this same bullshit. And to top it all off, she's been acting like a teenager in some weird one-sided high school romance, being jealous (yes, Elwood, that's right, ROMANTICALLY jealous) of her best friend, trying to call dibs on a man that has shown NO interest in her whatsoever, to the point where even his ex-wife is noticing, and basically waiting him out because she's so confident she's going to get her man. (Yes, you wrote that, Elwood. YOU) Something the Jenny from Season 1 (and the few flashes I've seen of season 2) Jenny wouldn't have done, especially after having gone through this SAME thing last season.

So you have both female leads (and one hell of a strong female side character aka Carla) being reduced to devices to tell the romance story for fanservice, all revolving around a man...great job, Elwood. Great job.

And here's the thing, Jensen is doing his best to make the story work. And that's not speaking through an AA-haze, that's just speaking truth. It's most apparent in that 3x10 scene. While that moment came out of nowhere and felt extremely awkward, especially with Jenny's reaction, it only worked slightly because of him. He and Katheryn don't have romantic chemistry, not in these roles and in this story. So I think it's hilarious that fanboy Elwood who is clinging to Jensen and Reba like a crab with its claws, texts Jensen from the editing room (by Jensen's own admission from this most recent con), asking Jensen if he meant to play a take a certain way, then telling him it's brilliant and they're going to use it, and yet we still get:

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This scene (and ANOTHER Cassie mention) & this scene (where Beau is NOT jealous nor does he give a shit that Jenny is being hit on)

Where Beau very clearly isn't into Jenny or thinking of anything romantic happening between them. NO. ORGANIC. BUILD-UP.

Elwood had the opportunity to use different takes (for example, look at the 3x09 movie night scene again - Katheryn's coverage has Jensen looking at her; Jensen's coverage has him barely looking at her) to tell this story between them seamlessly and do a genuine build-up to have this payoff in 3x10. He didn't because his ego is telling him that he doesn't need to. And why? Because he believes his own hype and his goal isn't to tell a great story but to maintain ratings. That's it. So it's beyond hilarious to me that fanboy Elwood even texts Jensen from the editing room. Like dude, you have no excuse. This isn't on the editors or the writers or the actors; this is on you. Just you.

And the only time we get some genuine possibly romantic chemistry with Jensen and Katheryn? This scene - and why? Because they're not playing their roles. (which is a testament to their acting abilities btw)

Congratulations, Elwood. You sacrificed Cassie and Jenny, your two female leads, for ratings for this shit. Are you proud of yourself? (most likely you are but you shouldn't be)

I've seen some shitty showrunners in my time but wow, Elwood, you take the cake. I can see why there's talk about this season being this show's last. This is truly terrible writing. You may want to go back to just being on a writing team or to short novels, buddy. I feel like that's where your strength is, and leave the showrunning to the pros.

#big sky #anti beau x jenny #god it felt good to get this out #such shitty writing #i'd prefer d&d and jroth to this shit #bye bye big sky #you had the opportunity to be one of the greats #how is this a david e. kelly production #so bad #bigskyposts #i'm jumping off this ship before it crashes into the rocks #save yourselves #anti elwood reid #big sky critical

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