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madmandex-blog · 4 years

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Dexter Family Newsletter 2019

As I reflect back on our year, I can’t help but think of Charles Dickens and his classic line…..It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…...and how appropriate it might be to summarize our 2019.

It was the age of wisdom…….as in Kelsi completing her first year in grad school at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. If you didn’t know Kelsi and listened to her talk about school, you might think she is barely passing. If I had a nickel for every time Kelsi told me something like….That final exam did not go well; I did terrible….Only for me to later find out that she got something like a 107 on the test, well then I might have a lot of nickels to jingle in my pocket. Kelsi is getting all A’s as usual and well on her way to graduating in 2020 with a Masters in Speech Pathology. She is enjoying her classes and her clinical training, and has a great supervisor who is guiding her to be gainfully employed later in 2020, most likely in a school setting. Nic is also excelling at Rockhurst and working on his Doctorate in Physical Therapy. What impresses me most about Nic and Kelsi is that they indeed have wisdom in their respective areas of study. In other words, they really seem to know their shit. Meanwhile, Kaylee Jo is now in her sophomore year in high school where she obsesses about getting good grades, which she always does. Ava Jae is in 8th grade and doing well. Don’t tell anyone, but, I consider her my smartest kid.

It was the age of foolishness…….as in Mike spending countless hours managing and competing in a mere 7 fantasy football leagues, or in Mike completing his 42nd Old Chicago World Beer Tour. Along the way, I earned a leather lettermen jacket which Kelly just today told me that I looked like my Dad when wearing it. I took that as a compliment and proudly wore it about town where people looked at me in awe, as they often do, but, I digress. Mike also became a more well-rounded drinker in 2019. You see, I was lucky to get to spend a lot of time with my eldest daughter this summer who not only got me addicted to the Crime Junkies Podcast, but also too good wine. Credit is also due to the great Tackes family for showing me the redeeming virtues of drinking wine and now even whiskey. So don’t be surprised to see me knocking back a Red Cab or sipping a bourbon in a cool sophisticated fashion. If only, I had known about these things years ago…..what might have been, or perhaps not been, like 42 beer tours.

It was the epoch of belief……..in love and marriage as Kelsi became Mrs. Nic Arnone on August 10th in what turned out be an awesome ceremony and beautiful day for the two of them. When they were both working on details like what are we having for having for dessert a couple of days before the big day, I was frankly a little worried, but, as it turns out the two of them are master wedding planners. Everything was great from the venue, to the decorations, to the caterer, to the photographer, and most importantly…..to the bartender, backed by yours truly stocking the bar. Yes, we had an awesome reception and we were so blessed to have so many of you travel all the way to Kansas City to celebrate with us! In case you weren’t able to be there, rumor has it that there is video available of Mike’s fantastic wedding toast speech. Sure, there are critics like Kaylee and Ava who will say, it wasn’t all that, but, most of those at the reception gave me high fives for my performance…at least the ones who were drinking that is. Kelsi is most happy that as a Speech Therapist that I finally learned how to pronounce her new last name. For those of you who don’t know, you need to emphasize the last “e” in Arnone as it is an Italian name. After meeting Nic’s family, I finally believe he is indeed Italian, after I had long presumed he was Norwegian or Swedish given his fair skin, blue eyed, blonde hair good looks.

It was the epoch of incredulity…….and speaking of family heritage, Mike took the Ancestry DNA test in 2019. Upon arrival of the test kit, I was in great disbelief as to how hard it actually is to fill up a one ounce test tube with saliva. Trust me, it was challenging. As it turns out, I am 59% English, 33% Irish, 3% Swedish, 3% German, and 2% Norwegian, which makes me 110% Awesome, which I didn’t need a DNA test to know. So far, it is incredulous that I have not found any long lost rich relatives who want to connect with me, but, I will keep the hope. Speaking of incredulous, Ava will be in high school next year, while Kaylee will have her Driver’s License in as few as 17 more days! I for one can’t believe we all survived her driver’s training, which started in local parking lots and proceeded to hairpin turns, around tight corners, at the speed of light. Only A.J. Foyt could have pulled off some of the harrowing driving miracles that I witnessed at times this summer! But, we all survived, and with no dents in our vehicles! I joke (sort of); Kaylee is actually a very good driver and was even told that she best driver in her Driver’s Ed class. So you can feel safe when you see her drive by you in her 2007 BMW, which Drew gave to her as a Christmas present to her shrieking delight. This is now the 2nd time Drew has given a car to one of his sisters. I can only hope that he has another one to hand down to Ava in a few years. The good news for Ava is that Drew has said that his next car will be a Tesla.

Even more incredulous is that a once self-proclaimed liberal, who once carved a pumpkin in the likeness of then candidate Barack Obama is morphing into a conservative right before our very eyes. Yes, people are in a state of disbelief over these developments. While he does not yet host a show on Fox News, many have looked in disbelief at Mike as he shares his theories on the likes of capital punishment. Not to mention, the poor teachers of Dunlap who look to their email boxes in fear that they might receive another long diatribe from Mike on what is wrong with our educational system. Don’t worry, Mike still has a few liberal ideas and is still proud of President Obama. But, might we see a Trump carved pumpkin on Mike’s doorstep in 2020?

As a final point on incredulity, I bet you can’t believe how long this newsletter is as I can’t believe you are still reading it. Don’t worry, more good stuff is coming.

It was the season of light……for Nic and Kelsi who enjoyed an awesome honeymoon trip to Disney and the bright beaches of Ft. Lauderdale. Kelly and Ava also traveled to sunny Florida, with stops at Disney and the beaches of Tampa-St. Pete, while attending Ava’s Starquest World Dance Finals in Orlando. Ava and her dance teammates at MLSD continued to shine on the dance floor, while bringing home lots of trophies along the way. Ava and her DMS POMS teammates also brought home a trophy from the State Finals this year in the Jr. High Division. Ava is again on the DMS POMS team and also spending lots of time at the MLSD dance studio. We can’t wait to see her compete again in 2020, which will include her first ever solo performance. And, her latest dance project involves trying to teach her Dad how to dance in Tik Tok videos with her! These will surely go viral. Meanwhile, Ava is still Ava….always energetic, always wanting to do something, always wanting Starbucks, and always, always asking me for something or to do something. She is my constant season of light. In fact, I sometimes think of Ava as Carol Anne like from the Poltergeist movie. You see she has a life force that is hard to match and keeps me smiling, cursing, smiling, yelling smiling and speaking of yelling….. Kelly might occasionally yell at Ava (as she is this very minute!) and/or Kaylee for their continued inability and/or unwillingness to do seemingly simple things like throw a wrapper in the actual garbage can, maintain a room where you can actually see the floor, etc. Kelly is still Kelly, the straw that stirs our drink, the one who tries to keep us in check, and the one we, including our dogs can all rely on. Kelly continues to work with awesome kids, who happen to have a few special needs, at Dunlap Middle School. I likely have said this before, but, they, like us, are lucky to have her.

The season of light was also in full effect for Drew in 2019. Like most people do, he took a month vacation, this time in sunny South Africa, where he did things like go on a safari, dive into the ocean in a shark cage to see a Great White, see the great water falls of Victoria Falls, hang out in the desert of Namibia, and lounge on the beaches and climb the mountains of Cape Town. He also spent a month in Manhattan for work. Drew lives in the River North area of Chicago, where we all enjoy visiting him. Thanksgiving in Chicago was a highlight. In January, Drew has plans to visit Vietnam for a few weeks and make a stop at Boracay in the Philippines. Yes, it sucks to be Drew. He will also have extended work assignments in Boston and Washington, D.C., so stay tuned to his social media pages for amazing photographs and drone videos to document his journeys.

It was the season of darkness…….for both Mike and Kaylee, who unlike the rest of the family did not feel the sand under their toes of the warm sunshine upon their faces. The longest trip these two took in 2019 was to Rochester, Minnesota, in the midst of winter, to attend Kaylee’s Speedo Sectional Championship Meet. Despite the cold and snow, we both had fun. And in the hopes of coming out of the darkness, I admit to the world (and mostly Kelly) that I received a speeding ticket on the way home, while dodging potholes and trying to stay interested while driving the monotonous roadways of the northland. This has been a secret that only Kaylee and I have shared, with Kaylee often smiling and blurting out a whoo-whoo-police siren like sound anytime she felt it necessary to seek favor with me, while in the presence of my wife. So, Kelly, my beautiful, loving, forgiving wife, now you know and Kaylee, you have nothing to hold over my head any longer, at least for the time being.

It was the spring of hope…….for Kaylee and her commitment to the sport of swimming. She continues to love the sport, and work hard, and has renewed resolve to achieve her goals. She has a group of great friends on the team and is driven by Jersey Mike, her new coach, who yours truly worked hard to recruit to Peoria, along with the rest of it was the PAWW team. Kaylee made a tough decision to forgo her high school swim season in favor of making a greater training commitment. I was proud of her resolve in making this decision and remain proud of her in all aspects of what she does, and who she is, with the great exception of her sense of what a clean room is J.

It was the winter of despair…….as Kelly and Mike look around their house and dream of home improvements in 2020, while still wondering how we can pay for things like dance classes, swimming, and college. Kelly and Mike did close out the year by replacing our 20 year old kitchen appliances. Back to those kids who can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn with a wrapper, let alone a waste basket, we purchased a fancy new waste can in a last ditch effort to solve the problem. The new stainless steel trash can is our new pride and joy and opens automatically at the wave of the hand. While enjoying all this new technology, our dryer just went out, so back to Sherman’s we go! Speaking of technology, Kelly and Mike finished the year with a fun night in Chicago where a true life robot delivered “forgotten toothbrushes” to our room. In addition to home improvements in the New Year, more resolutions for Mike include meditation, yoga, and drinking more wine (but only the good stuff). I think all three of these can likely be done at the same time.

Yes, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times….Like all families, we had some challenges to deal with, but those were far outweighed by many blessings. I am very lucky to have an awesome wife, four awesome kids and new son-in-law, our two awesome dogs Tahyo and Isla, along with our awesome family and friends. We have had a wonderful Christmas as a family and look forward to a great 2020! Thank you and Merry New Year to you all! May God bless you in new ways in the New Year!

P.S. – I consider this a living document in that I will likely be asked to edit for omissions, inaccuracies, offenses to my beloved family members, or over the likely fact that I wrote some of the same exact words last year.

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musicdeejaysorceress · 5 years

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Sensual Woman CD from 2010-2012Music Nostalgia Post 1

A Compilation of My Music Playlists Compiled From Amazon Youtube Etc.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Sensual Woman CD from 2010-2012 Music Nostalgia Post 1As With My other posts, I am very thankful for all who visit andor view my online posts. Due to the time I need to allow myself to get ready for work, I have enough time to at least list the songs and I pledge to add further details on how I came to hear about a multiple number of these songs by Wednesday December 19, 2018 andor sooner. The Following is a playlist that I put together on a blank cd from the time period sometime from either late 2010 andor to 2012, what I do know for sure it that it was definitely sometime after December 2010 because of the feature of the Katy Perry song. One of the reasons I feel comfortable sharing on why I put together such nostalgic playlists are that as outrageous andor unconventional as it sounds, I have a feeling that both my present and future interests andor even possibly some unexpected occurences in my life that my intuition and higher self/soul are calling my attention to are hidden in clues pertaining to my music interest andor present andor future circumstances related in some way to my personal andor professional life (for instance some of the songs reminding me in some way of fun andor carefree times with my husband andor music reminding me of a cd, a writing idea andor something else that I derived benefit from later in the present andor future via either some music I bought with money from employment andor something else such as recognizing why I might have used some of these songs for fun in some of my creative writing freestyle fiction stories for instance (including more reasons etc), more of which I have faith that I am going to understand why I am following my creative intuition to post the Sensual Woman playlist within 2 to 5 years andor less from now. Due to the controversial nature of a multiple number of these songs, I am following my creative intuition to keep them recorded in some of my emails, on just my googleplus, tumblr, and wordpress feed for now

Monday December 10 2018

Sensual Woman CD 2010-2012 More details to be added later by Wednesday December 19, 2018 andor sooner

Lovergirl Teena Marie

Teeth Lady Gaga

Peacock Katy Perry

I Think I Love You by Balm (derived from the Trance Party Vol. 6 compilation mixed by the Happy Boys)

Untouched The Veronicas

Something Kinda Ooooh Girls Aloud

Sensitized Kylie Minogue-Sensitized by Kylie Minogue is a distinctive club song that I have to credit finding out about around late 2007/winter timeframe from her Kylie Minogue's X collection. I just wish that it would have enjoyed more popularity here in the U.S. I think that the song's novelty was maybe ahead of its time by 2 to 3 years and that maybe it would have been more widely known if it was released andor featured more once electronic dance music because more popular on more American radio stations post 2010.

Because the Night 10000 Maniacs

Gimme Some Love Gina G

Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover Sophie B Hawkins

Come Go With Me Expose

Self Control Laura Branigan

Sexual (Li Da Di) Amber

Possession Sarah Mclachlan

Irresistible The Corrs

Ride A White Horse Goldfrapp

Erotica Madonna

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Music Nostalgia Post 1

Music Nostalgia SectionTo my facebook and googleplus viewers; I appreciate all who take the time to look at my posts including my music nostalgia posts. I understand that the number of music nostalgia videos I have been sharing are multiple. However, I am following my creative intuition to finish what I started a few days ago to share some more music nostalgia posts from my 20s at least tonight for both present and future reference towards hidden creative interests through music that penetrate my soul that I also have faith/trust might uplift others as well. Additionally, I was going to finish up in sharing some more music nostalgic videos tonight because I am both intuitively and logically aware that I have some things that I must attend to around this time tomorrow evening. Now on to the remaining nostalgia music themed videos I intend to share tonight-This dreamy pop song that is Breathless by the Corrs is a joyful type of pop tune that I unexpectedly came across in 2001 when I was still stationed in Yokosuka Japan through a Grammy Awards 2001 music compilation that I purchased from a Navy Exchange. I like how the music creatively blends with the push the envelope type of vocals. For my googleplus and facebook sharing section-there is a fun music video to this song that seems to be an aviation component with the Corrs group singing with a plane featuring in the music video. Strangely enough I also started to listen to this song more often after I had been stationed at an aviation squadron in California from October 2003 until early 2005. Creative fiction storytelling idea; a tv andor movie commercial that shows the Breathless song by the Corrs by the year 2021 andor sooner.

I have to credit first hearing the Flip and Fill remix of Satellites by September around the 2008 timeframe from a music cd collection titled Trance Party Vol. 6 (a music collection that I purchased from a navy exchange in Mayport Florida around the 2006/2007 timeframe)by the time I was living in Norfolk Virginia. I always took this song to symbolize being careful to avoid comparing your progress to others to kind of be a best friend to yourself and just see the gift of another day as a chance to start another day. I am also reposting the comment I included about this song for a nostalgic music playlist post tonight that I am going to start on my googleplus, tumblr, and wordpress blogs.The Flip & Fill Remix Version of Satellites by September is beyond an incredible and healing song. Another version I have heard before is also fantastic to listen to. However,I enjoy listening to this version (Flip & Fill Remix) of Satellites by September as I find it very musically and spiritually therapeutic.Creative fiction storytelling idea; an uplifting spiritual book comes out by the year 2030 based on the message of the song Satellite by September.

Like It or Not by MadonnaMy sweet husband gifted me with the music collection of Confessions on the Dancefloor by Madonna sometime around the 2005/2006 timeframe when we were both living on the Mayport Florida base. Like it or Not by Madonna was one of the unique dance songs on that I took to right away. I still have yet to make out the full meaning of this song years later yet I am taking a wild intuitive guess that maybe it is a self confidence type of anthem.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a future fictional movie of female characters Mata Hari and Cleopatra inspired by the Like it or Not song that Madonna creates is released by the year 2040 andor sooner.

Around the World by AquaI admit that this festive and upbeat type of tune that is Around the World by Aqua seeped into my soul/spirit after I first heard this song around the summer/autumn 2001 from a music collection that I purchased from one of the liberty ports that I visited from my time in the navy. For my facebook, tumblr, googleplus, and tumblr-I admit that I wish that I could remember with great clarity which liberty port it was because I had seen India, Dubai, and Singapore among some of the multiple stops during that time yet I am guessing and thinking that I unexpectedly discovered this song through a music collection that I bought at a shopping mall in India. I remember for sure that it was a music collection from one of those 3 places (India, Dubai, or Singapore)even though I have also purchased music cd imports from Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong before as all three places carried music import collections from Europe.Creative storytelling idea; a food cooking show based andor inspired on the song Around the World by Aqua released sometime by the year 2029 andor sooner.

Things Can Only Get Better by Howard JonesI remember frequently hearing this song Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones on local radio around the 2006/2007 timeframe eerily when I would be truly making an effort to either listen to my intuition from within my soul andor see the good in what both the unexpected challenges of life and the unexpected good experiences in life were teaching me. I know it sounds strange yet it was as if my soul/spirit andor intuition was reminding me to always believe and expect that life circumstances could always get brighter andor even better than expected despite what was projected in current circumstances. I also take this song as a healing spiritual reminder to always see the glass half full through various life circumstances.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a theater play based on Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones released by the year 2039 andor sooner.I admit that I have to credit hearing this song

If You Only Knew by Shinedown via local Orlando Florida song around the 2009 timeframe. This band also has a multiple number of other good songs; Second Chance, State of My Head, Cut the Cord, Human Radio, and more. However, If You Only Knew by Shinedown shows the emotion of love in a creative and meaningful light.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a tv episode based on this song shown on tv by the year 2038 andor sooner.

Wherever You Are I Feel Love by LaavaI admit that I look at multiple online websites nowadays for news articles and to be informed andor entertained in some way (msn google yahoo Washington post Virginian Pilot and more). However, I admit to first hearing about this Wherever You Are I Feel Loved song by Laava online around the 2005/2006 timeframe through yahoo radio. I feel a colorful and mystical type of vibe with this dance/club love song.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a fictional movie, tv episode andor story on a long distance relationship, partnership, andor marriage that is released by the year 2042 andor sooner features this song as one of the songs on the music soundtrack.

I am lucky/fortunate to have first been exposed to a variation of this euphoric cheery energy song that is Come Into My Dream by Foggy via online around the 2005/2006 timeframe. For some unexpected reason, I started to enjoy this song even more around the 2008/2009 timeframe and to this day I get a joyful/take each day of life as a gift type of feeling when I hear this melody.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a futuristic movie, tv episode andor film based on andor related to/inspired by the Inception film except set in the year 2130 features this song Come Into My Dream by Foggy and is released by the year 2088 andor sooner.I always took this song Better Than Life by Ultrabeat to be about feeling good in life.

I admit that I became aware of the Better Than Life Ultrabeat song after hearing it on a Now Dance 2005 Vol. 1 music collection after purchasing it from Amazon UK around December 2008 (when I was residing in Norfolk Virginia).Creative fiction storytelling idea; a music festival themed after the Better Than Life message organized by the year 2035 andor sooner.

I truly wish that I could remember the exact music compilation where I first heard this music gem that is True Love Never Dies by Kelly Llorena and Flip & Fill around the 2005/2006 timeframe. What I do remember is that it was a UK music compilation and I took the sign to be a symbolism of enduring love. Regardless, I enjoy the festive and upbeat energy of this song.Creative fiction storytelling idea; an enduring love song playlist includes this song.

This appealing dance/pop/club tune that is Totally Addicted to Bass by Puretone is another tune that I first heard through a music compilation and I am fortunate to remember that I first heard this unique tune (Apollo 440 mix) via the Hits 52 music compilation (a UK import) by the 2005/2006 timeframe. Still, I am glad for whoever made Totally Addicted to Bass available on youtube in this version because it is closely related to the song I heard on Hits 52 and to this day I find this song entertaining to listen to.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a futuristic computer game that is released by the year 2058 andor sooner includes this song.

This song Sky by Sonique was a tune that I remember hearing around 2001 from a music compilation titled Passion that had an image of a heart inside a red/orange like colored background (I think was a UK music import) that I purchased from a liberty port that I visited when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan. Sky by Sonique also reminds me of a happy love song type of vibe that is similar to her other song It Feels So Good.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a song to be included in a happy love type of story andor playlist.

Babycakes by 3 of a Kind is a racy and innovative dance/club tune that I definitely first heard around December 2008/early 2009 via a UK music collection (Now Dance 2005 Vol. 1). I still have yet to make out the full meaning of this song over 9 years after first hearing the song. However, I have to admit that the theme of the group members mixing the theme of making desserts in the kitchen definitely adds a bold and creative music vibe.Creative fiction storytelling idea; Group members from 3 of a Kind combine the theme of the music video of their song Babycakes with a music collaboration with Katy Perry of Katy Perry’s Bon Appetit music video by the year 2028 andor sooner.

Black Coffee by All Saints is a romantic/pop tune that I definitely first heard by the 2005/2006 timeframe. I wish that I could remember the first music compilation that I actually first heard this song. Fortunately, this song brings back positive memories for me because fortunately my husband and I were becoming closer to each other in our marriage when I first heard this song. Even to this day, I still have yet to make out the full meaning of this song. However, I personally take Black Coffee by All Saints to be a cautionary tale to also treasure and appreciate the one you love and know stands by you through both challenging and good/blessed times (whether it is a spouse, friend andor family member) even though I’m intuitively aware that this song Black Coffee by All Saints probably symbolizes so much more in a meaningful way.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a happy love story or love movie that features this song as part of one of their themes that is released by the year 2050 andor sooner.

I admit that I am probably always going to associate this edgy song Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders to the Dr. Who Television series in a similar way that others do because that is one of my first memories of when I first heard this catchy pop/electro rock song around the 2005/2006 timeframe. My sweet husband had a significant influence on me watching the episode with him which is why I am probably going to always have a positive connection with this song regardless of the meaning of this song. I admit that I still have yet to make out the full meaning of this song. However on a positive note, the uniqueness of this song is always going to at least help remind me of one of my husband’s interests for at least the rest of my current earth lifetime (the Dr. Who tv show).Creative fiction storytelling idea; someone andor more than one person connected to the creation of this song Voodoo Child by the Rogue Traders discusses the full meaning of this song by the year 2039 andor sooner.

This song Insatiable by Darren Hayes is also another tune that I am glad is made available on youtube. I actually unexpectedly first heard this Insatiable song by Darren Hayes on television around the 2002 timeframe when I was staying at a hotel in Tokyo Japan (I think it was the New Sanno hotel). Nonetheless, the distinctive song has bold energy coupled with intense vocals and music that fits the mood of this underrated song. The music collection that this Insatiable song is on also has some other fun multiple songs included within the compilation.Creative fiction storytelling idea; Insatiable by Darren Hayes;a perfect song to go into a passionate love story andor passionate love playlist.

I like the electro and club vibe energy in this song Number 1 by Goldfrapp. I luckily first heard this song around the 2005/2006 via online.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a theater or stage play based on this song playing at some type of amusement park by the year 2050 andor sooner.

I am lucky fortunate to have heard Heaven by DJ Sammy feat. Do by the early 2000s either from a music collection andor online(somewhere between the 2002 to 2005 timeframe). Nonetheless, I enjoy this spiritually elevating type of dance/trance love song and on the bright side this song definitely makes me think of the blessing that is my husband of 14 years. I admit that hearing this song actually contributed to me also enjoy the Heaven version by Bryan Adams which makes it tricky for me to choose which version of Heaven I enjoy more.Creative fiction storytelling playlist; this song being part of a one of a kind/healing/enduring love playlist

I admit that I wish that I could remember if I first heard Live Your Life by T.I. feat Rihanna from either local Norfolk Virginia radio andor television though I do remember it was definitely by the late 2008/early 2009 timeframe. The music collaboration featuring T.I. and R.I. is both a daring and push the envelope type of ambition song with the subtle music melding from the part of the music beat from the Dragostea Din Ti song by O-Zone.Creative fiction storytelling idea; an airplane themed movie, tv episode andor book that features both the versions by T.I. and Rihanna and Ozone by the year 2041 andor sooner.

Let Me Blow Ya Mind by Eve feat. Gwen Stefani is definitely an amusing and motivational music collaboration song that appears to be a tune about persistence andor self confidence. I am definitely glad that I unintentionally discovered this song after hearing it on the Now That’s What I Call Music 7 Collection (US version that I purchased from a navy exchange in Yokosuka Japan by sometime around the 2001/2002 timeframe). The music video of Let Me Blow Ya Mind by Eve feat. Gwen Stefani is also entertaining to watch.Creative fiction storytelling idea; a movie andor tv episode pertaining to some type of house andor mansion party inspired by the music video is released by the year 2039 andor sooner.

I admit that Kylie Minogue is another musician that my loving husband had an influence in getting me to listen to her music more often after he and I unexpectedly met in 2002. By mid 2004, I started listening to Kylie Minogue’s music more often from my own free will with a multiple number of her hit songs-Red Blooded Woman, On a Night Like This, Chocolate, Come Into My World, I Believe In You, one of her greatest hits collections,songs from her other music collections such as 2007’s X and more. I first heard Love At First Sight either from a music collection andor from a cd that my husband was playing by around the 2002/2003 timeframe when we were both still living in Yokosuka Japan. Regardless of when I first heard this love song, I take Love at First Sight by Kylie Minogue to be a dance/club love song to be about a special andor destined love connection that transformed into a happy type of love story and she met this love at first sight person right when she least expected it (which I can relate as I unexpectedly met my husband when I least expected it). Anyhow, I’m guessing the lyrics of the music you were playing really blew my mind to symbolize maybe their romantic connection was further solidified either via shared/common music interests andor shared spiritual energy. Anyhow, I admit that Love At First Sight by Kylie Minogue also makes me think of my husband in a meaningful way(we’re destined to be together at least in our current earth lifetimes together type of vibe).Creative fiction storytelling idea; a multiple number of Kylie Minogue’s songs are made into plays by the year 2040 andor sooner.

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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Cocktail College: How to Make the Perfect Old Fashioned

This episode is sponsored by Knob Creek. The right bourbon can elevate your next cocktail into an experience worth savoring. So, look for a brand that doesn’t overlook the details and sets the standard for bourbon. That’s Knob Creek. It’s truly the real deal: an authentic, classic line of American whiskeys, with proofs ranging from 100 to 120. Knob Creek is aged longer to produce a full flavor experience as rich and deep as its history. With every drop, you notice the attention to detail Knob Creek puts into its bourbon. So, strive for a little more substance. Because, when you choose to go deeper, you’ll find so much more to appreciate.

In the first episode of “Cocktail College,” host Tim McKirdy speaks with Eric Alperin, co-owner of The Varnish in Los Angeles and killer cocktail maker. The two discuss how to tackle a cocktail with an easy ingredient list that’s easy to mess up: the Old Fashioned. Alperin tells all about how to craft a stellar Old Fashioned. His method involves great rock ice, the perfect dosage of bitters, and specially sized sugar cubes. In fact, Alperin even taught one of Hollywood’s biggest names how to craft an Old Fashioned, which resulted in an iconic cocktail creation film scene.

“Cocktail College” takes a deeper look at some of the classic cocktails we know and love. McKirdy takes us beyond the recipe, talking with America’s best bartenders to get their takes on how to make, and enjoy, the perfect drinks.

Tune in to learn how to make the perfect Old Fashioned.

LISTEN ONLINE

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OR CHECK OUT THE CONVERSATION HERE

Tim McKirdy: Hey, this is Tim McKirdy, and welcome to VinePair’s “Cocktail College,” a weekly deep dive into classic cocktails that goes beyond the recipe with America’s best bartenders. The Old Fashioned might not lay claim to the title of world’s oldest cocktail, but its influence on modern mixology, and its place in popular culture is unquestionable. Put simply, in today’s world, any bartender worth their salt has to have perfected the Old Fashioned. Today, we’re going to learn how to do that with Eric Alperin, best known as the co-owner of The Varnish in L.A., a bar he opened in 2009 with his mentor, the late Sasha Petraske. Beyond ingredients, ratios, and building techniques, we’re going to explore things like the importance of ice, the overlap of theater and mixology, and why this drink, more than any other, is so closely tied to the revival of cocktail culture. We’ll also hear from Eric about how he schooled one of Hollywood’s biggest names on how to make the Old Fashioned, which culminated in what is, perhaps, the best cocktail creation scene in cinematic history. Do you know which one we’re talking about? Buckle up, listener. We’re about to find out. Eric Alperin, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us.

Eric Alperin: Absolutely, Tim. Thanks for having me on this inaugural journey. I think this is No. 1, right?

T: This is No. 1. I’m looking forward to taking these first steps with you in the audio land.

E: We will bravely go together.

THE HISTORY OF THE OLD FASHIONED

T: I’m going to say, it’s a fairly daunting one out there for you. We’re going to talk about the Old Fashioned today. I think you can say what you want about this cocktail, but this is a very iconic drink and also emblematic of the progress we’ve made during the past 20 years in cocktail culture. So, we’re kicking off with that one. How do you feel about that today?

E: Well, I feel jittery but honored at the same time. What’s so interesting about this is that the Old Fashioned is the definition that was first communicated in the “Balance and Columbian Repository.” Those articles in 1806 in that little Hudson, N.Y., newsletter said that a cocktail was liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters. I started learning about classic cocktails after a few different bar jobs in New York City. I ended up with Sasha at Little Branch, and the Old Fashioned was one of the first I had to learn. It is so simple. Yet, just like a cappuccino, so many people mess it up. You have bitters, sugar, liquor like bourbon or rye, and a garnish. You think that’d be easy enough, but with all the space in between — the process of that — it’s really easy to serve up a train wreck. I’m honored yet confident that I can share with you my version.

T: That’s fantastic. I hope that the listeners will forgive me here, because you’ve really laid out the foundations wonderfully there. The Old Fashioned is the template for the original cocktail. I want to skip a lot of history. I know that a lot of modern mixology is about looking into the past. I do want to look into the past, but I don’t want to go that far back. I think for the purposes of this, I really want to talk about the era when you were starting, because I think that is where the modern Old Fashioned story begins. I’d love to hear about that. I wasn’t personally there in New York or L.A. at that time. So, I’d love to hear what it was actually like. How important was the Old Fashioned then? Is it as important as we see it today, with the hindsight of 20 years or so?

THE OLD FASHIONED’S ROLE IN THE COCKTAIL RENAISSANCE

E: Interestingly enough, the cocktail that first got me into this business was the Cosmopolitan. That’s because my first job was on the bleeding edge of Tribeca at a place called the Screening Room. In that whole area, because of Toby Cecchini and the Odeon, every cocktail list had a Cosmopolitan on it. I was slinging Cosmos for years at this place with sour mix from the gun, a splash of cranberry, and Absolut Citron. It was wonderful and atrocious.

T: What year are we talking about?

E: We’re talking around 1999 to 2002. I was slinging Cosmos like you wouldn’t believe. I worked at the Screening Room, I did a little nightclub bartending, I ended up at Lupa Osteria in New York and started working with amaros and stuff. It wasn’t until I got to Sasha Petraske’s Little Branch where I had my Kool-Aid moment. Some of my early lessons were about how to make and perfect the Old Fashioned. What I’m going to share with you today is not something that I invented or necessarily a process that I came up with on my own. It’s shared through many people that worked through the Milk & Honey family. New York, for me, was definitely a training ground for classic, from the ingredients we were using, the glassware, the specific sugar cubes, Domino Dots sugar cubes. We learned how to peel that orange peel, making sure there wasn’t too much pith on the bottom. We used block ice. It was very process-oriented. Again, that was my training ground in New York City. I moved to L.A. to open up a West Coast version of a Milk & Honey bar. That’s what Sasha and I had agreed to do. The Old Fashioned caught on like wildfire in Los Angeles. It became almost as popular as how the Cosmopolitan was ordered back in its heyday. You’d have men and women and people from all walks of life who were going out and ordering Old Fashioneds. It was just such an easy order to make over a bar. It always makes me laugh because at The Varnish, when we opened, it was one of the most popular drinks that we could track. We sold a lot of Old Fashioneds. It was the same thing at other bars.

T: Why do you think the Old Fashioned was so popular? I mean, I may have an idea. I think this came later, though, so I want to hear your opinion first. Why do you think the Old Fashioned did take off in that way?

E: I think there was so much glee around the idea of classic cocktails. At The Varnish, because of our process and the block ice that we used, people were just really turned on by a big rock of ice in their drink. Also, to be honest, an Old Fashioned doesn’t take that long to make. I think some people just caught on that they could get an Old Fashioned pretty quickly. What is yours? I’m very curious. What is your link?

T: I’ll tell you the one that I hear a lot that’s tied back to mixology. Mixology, I know there’s some derision there with that term and people don’t like it. That term actually dates back to the 19th century. I’ve written an article about this in VinePair before, a while ago. I just want to say, that word might make some people’s skin crawl a little bit hearing that word, but that is just as old as the Old Fashioned, almost.

E: I totally don’t disagree with you, Tim. I didn’t have such disdain as others did, but I think there was a period where it was being used in such a way where we thought, you just sound like an idiot. What are, mixologizing behind the bar? No. I think of it in two ways. I really don’t press this, but bartending is a craft. It’s a trade. It’s an honest trade. When you’re behind the bar, you are tending the bar. So, you are a bartender. Now, if you are on off hours or doing some R&D and trying to come up with different syrups and systems in the bar, I think then, you could think of that as mixology. But to me, when you’re bartending behind the bar, you’re a bartender.

TAKING THE OLD FASHIONED TO THE BIG SCREEN

T: Yeah. My background is in the kitchen and the molecular gastronomy wankers are not for me. Anyway, we do digress a little bit here. So, to bring us back on track. I think the link that gets made a lot is “Mad Men.”

E: Oh, sure.

T: It’s really interesting to me because you talked about the Cosmo. People talk about “Sex and the City,” but the Cosmo was huge before “Sex and the City.” With the Old Fashioned, to your timeline, I don’t think “Mad Men” aired until 2007 or something like that. But, that is the link that always gets made. This is why we’re having this conversation, because I think things get forgotten in time or we put events together that were actually more spread apart. I was interested to hear whether you would make that link.

E: I absolutely would. You’re right, I am in Tinseltown, so I completely agree. It kind of slipped my mind. You’re absolutely right that television and movies can take something and put it on a greater plane. You’re right, the Cosmo was around. People were drinking them. But, as soon as it ended up on “Sex in the City” or somebody saw Madonna drinking it, it took it to another level. In the world I was in, and opening The Varnish, that was a big step in celebrating classics, the Old Fashioned, block ice, and fresh ingredients. All that was super important to The Varnish, but there was also “Mad Men.” “Mad Men” was a big deal. I coached a couple actors, but primarily one actor, for a role in a film.

T: Can I stop you for a second? Before you say this, I think this deserves something of a bigger build up here. I will preface this by saying that I was on YouTube last night. I’m looking at the Old Fashioned that was made in “Mad Men.” It’s not a very good one. He’s using Overholt. That might be a product placement, and I’m sure that was a great drink. If you look back at it, you think, yeah, it was probably a good cocktail, but it wasn’t a brilliant one. Now, the Old Fashioned that you inspired is possibly one of the best cocktails I’ve seen made on the big screen. I think that you were about to go into that without doing it as much just justice as it deserved. Please, do carry on. I just wanted the listeners to know that you were just going to slip that in as if it was a side comment. This is a big deal.

E: Well, OK. Thanks, Tim. I can’t help but be humble in these situations because The Varnish did attract people from all walks of life. It also attracted a lot of Hollywood types. I’m really glad that, in this particular movie, it was well shot and well executed. I really have to give credit to the actor, who was a friend at the time. He would come to my bar with his pals and he asked me if I would help train him on two cocktails, because he had this movie coming up where he wanted to improv a scene where he’s making a cocktail for another actress. This was his acting idea. Coming from an acting background, I was like, “Dude, that’s so cool.” This guy is none other than Ryan Gosling. He used to live downtown, so he spent a lot of time in The Varnish haunt. It was pretty cool. The scene was all self-generated. It wasn’t in the script, from what I understand. He just wanted to learn how to make two cocktails. I taught him how to make an Old Fashioned and a Honeysuckle, which is a honey Daiquiri, because he was a fan of both of those cocktails. Here’s the thing. We did spend so much time on process. Not to get nerdy about being an actor, but he was so method about it. He just came in, and we did some stuff off-hours, and then a little bit during service when it was light, he would jump back there. He became friends with so much of the staff. He would either be watching the bartenders work or, when there was a moment, he would come back there, and he would make it himself. He just repeated it over and over and over again. We had a couple of sessions at his house where he had some of us over, and he would make drinks for everyone. I think the reason why it landed so well on the screen is because he was just a student. That was the experience with Ryan and the movie, which was “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” It was really special.

T: Go check it out. The scene is on YouTube. It’s a wonderful scene. If you haven’t seen the movie, I definitely recommend it to everyone.

E: It’s a sexy scene.

T: It’s really well shot. You mentioned that he was a friend. This is a slight detour here. I’ve read your book and I would urge people to go out there and read your book as well. I think it’s a really great approach and a different way of writing about drinks.

E: Oh, thanks, man.

T: I genuinely enjoyed it. I learned about your experience as an actor kind of, and I think you mentioned your time working with Sasha Petroskey. Acting came into the art of bartending and the way you set yourself up. So, it’s exactly the same thing that Ryan Gosling might have done, studying you guys. You guys were there every night. That’s your scene. That feels like that is part of the way that you approach your craft.

E: One hundred percent. I do come from a theater background. That’s what I went to college for. I believe that every night at the bar is live theater. The book is “Unvarnished.” Hospitality, bars, and restaurants are theaters. That has always been a North Star for me. It’s been a driving force. I do appreciate it, but I’m not a cocktail historian. I’m not nerding out. I’m a nerd in many ways, but I’m not a history nerd. I’m not about finding out how many variations there are on a particular recipe or a particular cocktail, how many recipe variations there are. It’s represented in the book, because there are these 115 cocktails every bartender must know before they start their first solo shift behind the bar. I am much more of a process, movement, how we care for our guests, how we execute drinks, kind of nerd. So much of that is rooted in my theater education. I’m glad you brought that up. All these details, to me, are very much rooted in theater.

T: I think it’s important with this drink in particular. The Old Fashioned has only a few ingredients, which means there’s little room to hide. You need to know how to make this drink. I think that’s why it also worked so well in that scene and also really took off in the early 2000s, as we’ve spoken about. To watch someone make that, if you’ve never had a proper cocktail made for you before, and to see those small actions carried out very intentionally, is related. I think that’s why it’s important that we’re speaking about these things, too, because let’s now dive into those components, but those external factors are all in the final drink, aren’t they? In the experience?

HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT OLD FASHIONED

E: Yeah, absolutely. I think consistency is so important in cocktails. I’ve always asked young bartenders who are trying to come up with the next modern classic, “Hey, guys, can you make 115 classic cocktails in “Unvarnished” 1,000 times over?” Through that process, there is so much attention to detail and creative moments to be had. It’s all the space in between these simple steps that are strung together. You can read a recipe. You’d be able to get all the ingredients you need. I think the narrative does intersperse into a lot of the “Unvarnished” stories, because it has memoir moments. It has moments about the ins and outs of being in the bar, the industry, and building bars. I think, though, with just a recipe, we miss so much of the breath and the space in between. Like, when you throw a sugar cube into that 9-ounce glass. Now, I’m going to walk you through the recipe for our Old Fashioned at The Varnish. You’ve got a 9-ounce glass. Nine ounces. That’s really important to us. Sure, you can use a larger glass if that’s all you have at home. For us, it’s about what will fit our particular rocks of ice. We have block ice and it’s 2.5 inches tall by a 1.75 inches width, and 1 inch wide and deep. We choose the glass specifically. Then, what is the sugar cube that we’re dropping in there? We’re dropping in a Domino Dot sugar cubes. Sasha was such an advocate of the right amount of sugar in an Old Fashioned. We always did it with sugar cubes. The way Domino Dot cuts the sugar loaf is smaller than what they do with a C&H sugar cube.

T: Interesting.

E: Now, I like Domino Dot and the amount of sugar in that particular cut of the sugar loaf compared to the C&H. So, I agree with Sasha and that’s what we do in house. Other places don’t. They use the C&H, and they’re a bit bigger. But, those details really matter. You throw in that sugar cube and hit it with Angostura bitters. We use a Japanese bitters bottle, because when you look at recipes, a lot of the time it doesn’t talk about how bitters come out of a traditional bitters bottle. It’s the same thing with knives in the kitchen, man. There’s a certain knife to cut fish. Otherwise you’re going to hack the meat up, right? The way you slice, the angle, whether you’re going long ways or short ways on the meat? It’s all so important. So, for us, Angostura bitters live in a Japanese bitters bottle. The way that Japanese bitters bottles are shaped is bulbous at the bottom and then it has this piston that the bitters fly through. They then go through this particular dasher. When you shoot out three dashes from a Japanese bitters bottle, that is one dash. Three dashes from a Japanese bitters bottle is one dash, if you can get it correctly, from an Angostura bottle. The thing about Angostura bottles is that, when it’s full and you do a dash, it’s too full. You didn’t get the right dash. Then, there’s a point in the bitters bottle where there’s enough air and enough liquid where you get the right dash. But, it can be really hazardous. If you don’t have enough bitters in the bottle and do a dash, then turn the bottle over, all of a sudden it creates too much force and you put too much bitters into the bottom of your glass. So, that’s why we use the Japanese bitters bottles for consistency in the dashing.

T: Three dashes on the Japanese is one traditional. What do you go for in your recipe?

E: We go for about eight. Eight to nine. That would be about a good, healthy 2.5 dashes. From there — I know this is an off-with-my-head moment — we were taught to do a bar spoon of club soda or seltzer. I use the disc bar spoon, that has disc at the bottom and twirls on the stem.

T: What’s that for?

E: Well, this is what I use it for. You can muddle with that disc. It’s perfect for making an Old Fashioned. I also think it’s for layering on top of drinks. But, for the Old Fashioned, you do a bar spoon of the seltzer or club soda. Of course, when you’re putting that onto the bar spoon, you always want to work away from the glass. So, if you screw it up or some spills over, it spills on the counter or in the well as opposed to into the drink. You get that bar spoon of club soda in there, then you flip over that spoon, and you use the disc to muddle the bitters, Domino Dot sugar cube, and the club soda into a paste. You don’t need to have a really big bar spoon of club soda, just enough to create a paste. I think that’s a really important part of the Old Fashioned. You get that into a paste. You don’t need to use a muddler. I think it’s so much more elegant to use the disced bar spoon.

T: To spin it around. Also, it’s one less step. We’re talking about these intentional actions. One less thing to clean. One less thing to pick up.

E: Exactly. Economy of movement. One less thing to clean. One less thing to pick up. You actually look pretty baller. I call that stuff micro-flair. It’s like, whoa, he just flipped it over and now he’s muddling. I’m a big fan of Nicolas Saint-Jean, the flair bartender. I find that to be so cool. I don’t think we’re getting great Old Fashioneds from that performance. But, still. I call a lot of the little stuff we do “micro-flair.” So, you muddle. Then, I usually put that disc bar spoon there on the side, off the rim of the glass, and then proceed to add my 2 ounces of bourbon. Traditionally, we use bourbon for our house Old Fashioned at The Varnish. There’s always a little bit of the paste that’s left on the bottom of the disc. I’ll put that in first, make sure to get that all off.

T: So you’re pouring that over there, again. These are the tips.

E: Yeah. Pouring it over again and making sure that the disc got hit with the booze, so that any remaining paste is back in the drink. I’ll stir that up without ice around three or four turns, just to agitate it and get it together. Then, we move on to our block ice. I know a lot of people are playing with freezing ice in their freezers, using silicone molds. That’s great. Sometimes, people are fortunate enough to live in a city that has an ice company. I have one in Los Angeles called Penny Pound Ice. We have a retail store that you can pick up block ice from. The important thing about this stuff is to make sure you’ve taken the block ice out of the freezer and let it come to temp. Then, you gently place it into the glass, using the same bar spoon. You want to put the same disc bar spoon, now with the spoon side to the end of the glass, like halfway on the glass. Place it so the stem is going across the top of the glass. You put the ice on there, and then you gently layer the ice in. It’s almost like you’re using a lever to get the ice in there so it doesn’t splash up. The reason you temp the ice is so that — when it goes into this room temperature solution of bourbon, bitters, sugar, and a touch of club soda — it doesn’t shatter. It’s much prettier if you have a rock of ice that hasn’t shattered.

T: There’s so much time spent in the preparation process to even get this thing completely clear. You don’t want it to immediately shatter or crack down the middle.

E: Tim, you just sounded like a chef. That’s the “respect your ingredients” approach. There is a whole lineage to when you, for example, pop open that oyster. It didn’t just show up here. There’s a family that’s harvesting oysters. They had to pick them, bag them, and get them sent to you. I love thinking about that in every ingredient I’m using. There’s so many hands that are part of the process to get it to you, to this moment. We’re not done with a drink yet, but we’re almost done. It’s for 15 seconds of customer contact, serving. There’s this whole lineage of time and people involved in each of those ingredients. At this point, we’ve got a really solid process, a great team, and an awesome factory. Some weeks we’re doing 80,000 individual units of ice.

T: Geez. This is another great part of “Unvarnished.” This is a part that I love because it reminds me of my chef days, the process, and how long that takes. Again, plugging the book here.

E: The “Cold As Ice” chapter? That was a lot of fun to write, but it was stressful because I’m not a food scientist. I understand using the ice, but my scientific knowledge was just a little more than basic. It’s a little nerve-racking when it comes to recipes and processes. When it came to recipes and process in ice, the story stuff I loved. That was its own challenge. But, when you’re going to put it into print — “this is how you do it and this is what it means” — it’s kind of stressful. You know it yourself, because you do it. But then there’s this feeling of, “Somebody’s going to stick it to me if I don’t get this right.” So, yeah. You want to make sure the ice is tempered, laid in the drink so it doesn’t splash any of the liquid up. Then, we do about seven or eight stirs. I usually go clockwise, right at the end there. I usually like to do a little lift. There’s that block of ice in there, so you get the spoon down to the bottom and do a little lift to lift the ice up and gently place it back down. Do that once or twice. Right at the end, I pull a little bit of the Old Fashioned liquid over the top of the ice, just to make it wet. Now, you’re on your garnishing part. In our house, that’s done with the bourbon Old Fashioned orange peel. I know that some houses will do rabbit ears of a lemon and an orange peel. I actually, historically, don’t know what the rule is. If we do a rye Old Fashioned at The Varnish, we’ll do rabbit ears, lemon, and orange peel. For me, I love to use a yolke peeler. It’s just the way my hands work. I don’t like the straight ones. In this industry, you’re always going to cut yourself on the peeler. My relationship with the straight peelers has never been good. I have so much more control over the yolke peeler. Control is important with the twist or peel, because you don’t want to get too much pith on the bottom of that peel. It can be challenging, because sometimes you don’t get the best oranges or the firmest oranges. When they’re not firm, they’re a little lazy, so you end up cutting into a lot of the pith. It’s in the book, but there’s such a great moment with Sasha that I always remember. He said, you want it to look like the bottom of a Band-Aid. I don’t know if that makes sense to anybody listening. If you get a peel just right, there’ll be some pith, obviously, but enough where there’s all these little dots from the peel, kind of the pores of the orange peel. You can see those pores through the little bit of pith, and it kind of looks like a Band-Aid.

T: If you’ll allow me to jump into chef mode again, that’s the beauty of an orange. If you get some horribly, sickly sweet orange juice, what you’re not getting in that orange juice is citrus oil. It’s the bitterness from the pith. You want those things because that’s what the whole orange is, right? It’s not just the sweet juice. I was thinking about that when you were describing it. So, I wanted to add that.

E: I love that. I think it’s so great that you come from a chef background, because these conversations, as they go on in future episodes, will be so much more dynamic. I think there’s a symbiosis between bartenders and chefs.

T: 100 percent.

E: One, for the simple fact of what Anthony Bourdain wrote, that the chef always wanted alcohol. So, you know, us bartenders always want food.

T: Bartenders always want better food than the family meal. I mean, who doesn’t?

E: Who doesn’t? We were “legal drug dealers” with all those bottles behind us. Yeah. It’s super, super important. It starts with making sure you have an orange that has the right firmness to it and getting a good relationship with the peeler. I like doing a long peel. A lot of people think of it like a feather. You express it over the top of the drink and rub the rim, which I do. I know there’s a lot of schools of thought that say you just need a little bit of oil, and that’s plenty. You just take that peel, twist it up a little bit, and then put it into the drink in between the side of the glass and the block of ice. Make it stand up like a long feather. The garnish is like the makeup on a beautiful woman. Some Italian bartender once told me that. I was like, that’s a really beautiful way to think about it. We drink with our eyes, so let’s not be lazy with our garnishes.

T: And when you’re expressing, are we talking inside the glass or outside the glass? Or, expressing over it, but when you’re rubbing on the glass?

E: Rubbing on the glass, just a little bit on the rim. Nothing crazy. I don’t go around and around and around by any means. Just a little dash on one side and the other, then I twist it up and put it in the side. It’s not excessive. I’m not rubbing this peel to death into the rim of the glass. Just a nice little touch, almost like how women put a little bit of perfume on each side of their neck. That’s how I think about putting a little bit of oil on each side of the glass.

T: I feel like Ryan Gosling right now. Just sitting here, taking it in.

E: Take it in, repeat, repeat, repeat. Truly, just to echo, that was the coolest part about that experience. Sure, it’s Ryan Gosling. It’s a Hollywood movie. But, I think the lesson to really take here is that he cared so much about executing it the right way, that he studied. He studied and he watched and he executed. He’d make little mistakes. We would correct him. It wasn’t just me. That’s the coolest part. The whole staff would give him little pointers here and there. We’re only talking about two cocktails, you know?

T: And it’s not a long scene as well.

E: No, it’s not a long scene. But, I really appreciated the time and attention he took for that. It just shows you that anybody that wants to make drinks needs to apply and put in that time.

THE BEST WHISKEY FOR THE OLD FASHIONED

T: That whole thing with the iceberg, the tip, and what’s below the sea and whatever. Anyway, we’re getting into motivational media rubbish here. I’m going to put my spirits and cocktail writer’s hat on for a minute here and ask you one follow-up question. This may be a preference thing, or this may be a technical thing that you’ve clearly thought about. You mentioned your standard go-to here is going to be bourbon. Feel free to list a brand or not. I think this is something that’s more modern, too, but when it comes to mash bill, what are you thinking about? Do you prefer a wheated? A high rye or anything else? Or, is it more, like, this is the bourbon that I use and I like it because it turns out this way,

E: I’m so open. Doing a rye Rittenhouse Old Fashioned can be a lot of fun. But, that’s a spicy meatball. When I really started getting into the nitty gritty of the process with Sasha and Milk & Honey over at Little Branch, we were using Elijah Craig bourbon. I actually, off hand, don’t know the exact mash bill on that. But, I’ve always been such a fan.

T: I believe that’s higher rye, but I’ve probably got that completely wrong. It’s definitely not a wheated bourbon. I might be wrong. If I am, please send hate mail to [email protected].

E: I won’t hold that against you. There’s always the internet for that. Elijah Craig is lovely, it’s beautiful, it’s affordable. It’s a great thing to have. It’s definitely a thing in bars that we need to be cost-conscious. We don’t want to be charging people through the nose for drinks, but there’s a lot that goes into making drinks. I’m a big fan of, and we’re using it a lot, Evan Williams Bonded. We did a head-to-head with Elijah Craig. We did a blind taste test. On a couple particular occasions, it was really a flop between Elijah Craig and Evan Williams Bonded.

T: You know those are the same mash bills.

E: There you go.

T: I think it’s just the proof there.

E: I think it was just the proof.

T: Just the proof. It changes for so many things, but with bonded, I find that 100 proof is really the sweet spot for me. That is the beauty of bourbon, where we are, and where we’ve come in this time since the early aughts, as we call them in the U.K. I’m not sure if that’s common here. But, since the early aughts, people care about these things now. The information is out there. It’s not always 100 percent confirmed, but there’s people that care so much about bourbon, you can look it up and find the one that works for you. Here’s the thing, too. Mash bills are only one thing. You’ve got your yeast, barrels, aging environment. Who knows exactly what it is? But, I think bourbon is in a very good place right now.

E: It’s like that lineage thing. There’s so many hands, people, and expertise that go into whiskey now — even more so than before. There’s so much attention on it. I have to say that I do agree with the higher proof, because an Old Fashioned, to me, is like a cigar. Right when you get it, it’s not in the zone completely. It needs a little time to get in there.

T: Once you hit that stride, my God.

E: It’s that relationship. That’s the thing. There’s a relationship with drinks. I think you and I probably drink our Old Fashioneds a little faster than, maybe, most people. Having the higher proof does allow that block ice to melt just a little bit faster and get into the pocket, as I’ll say, for premium enjoyment.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE OLD FASHIONED

T: What else about this drink? I think that’s been an incredible rundown of the way that you approach it. I don’t want to put words in your mouth. I feel like you’re of the camp that, this is the way that I approach it, people can have their own way. What’s more important is maybe why you’re thinking about each thing, right?

E: I’m a creature of habit. I love the process. I love consistency. I am kind of an old dullard or an old soul when it comes to how I build out the bar, how I do the mise en place, and the recipes that I’ve come to know and love. This is just what I do in my house. I’ve had numerous other Old Fashioneds, and they’re usually really good when you can see and sense real attention to process and detail. You’ve been to a bar where it feels like, “Man, this is sloppy.” It’s going to end up in the drink. There’s no two ways about it. Form and function do have a huge effect on results.

T: I could probably bring this up in any one of the episodes, but we’ve been talking a lot about food. I think this will appeal to you, so I want to share something, again from cooking. Here’s the context for it. I told you I was watching a lot of people make very bad Old Fashioneds on YouTube last night. One of the things that made me immediately go, oh, my God, that drink is going to taste terrible, was not even just looking at it, but hearing the ice in the glass with a liquid. I’m like, “No, that ice is already too melted.” Right? That’s going to be a very diluted drink. You can hear it. You don’t even need to look at it. It reminded me of the importance of sound and hearing in the kitchen. People never talk about that.

E: Oh my God. I love that you’re bringing this up, because it is. We all have a Spidey sense. There’s a sixth sense. I can walk into The Varnish and tell you the three things that might not be right — the lights, the music, the temperature. If somebody is shaking and their rock of ice exploded before the drink was actually fully shaken, it is sound. So much of it is sound. I hate when bartenders slam their tins at the top with another tin. Like, why are you doing that? Just use the palm of your hand. Sound is very important.

T: It’s so true. It tells you a lot about the bartender. I think that the more you sit at a bar, you pick these things up, too. You can learn the personality of your bartender. Does this guy care about the drink or does he care about what he looks like? Have we moved beyond micro-flair? It needs to be intentional.

E: For sure. Don’t shake pretty. Shake hard. Especially when young bartenders are learning how to use block ice, you need to be careful because you can hurt yourself if you don’t do it correctly. This is not a symposium on how to shake properly, but if you’re using block ice, you want the piston to be in the center of your body, so you have the most support. Bring your shoulder blades down, engage, and use your abs. That has a lot of intention. You can see it if a bartender is trying to be like, “Hey, look at me.” That gets really old really fast in my book. What’s really interesting is watching a bartender who is really in the zone and really paying attention to all the steps. What’s even more wild is, if you go to a certain bar a lot, you’ll watch a particular bartender realize he’s getting slaughtered tonight. That’s always really interesting for me to watch. That bartender could walk out. They could give away free beers and shots and say, “I’m not making drinks anymore.” Or, they can buckle down and figure out how to get out of the weeds. You can really see some real, organic behavior from those situations. Sometimes, somebody will just pop some ice in your glass, and you realize that’s really wet ice. That’s not going to make a good drink.

T: If they’re making the drink for me, then I’ve got my head in my hands. I’m like, “Oh my God.”

E: We know the bars and the moments where we should just order whiskey neat.

T: I think that’s up there with the best advice you’ve given out today.

E: I mean, I’ve got some more for you.

GETTING TO KNOW ERIC ALPERIN

T: Well, that’s actually a wonderful segue onto the final portion of this. This is going to be a recurring final portion of the podcast. We’ve gotten to learn a lot about the Old Fashioned with you. We’ve gotten to know a good amount about you, too. But, that might not always be the case when we’re interviewing folks for this. I think there’s definitely some more drinks out there that require more nerding out, as you say, in terms of ingredients or specs or whatnot. The last segment of the show is really to learn a little bit more about Eric Alperin, assuming “Unvarnished” didn’t exist. I’ve got some quick-fire questions to finish the show. I will say this again, and I kind of want to say it every time. This is inspired by a wonderful British radio show called “Desert Island Discs.” Listen to it. It’s incredible.

E: Oh, my God, I love this. “Desert Island Discs” is one of my favorites. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve laughed and cried listening to some of these. The one thing I’m going to say is that the first “Desert Island Discs” I listened to was Stephen Hawking. It was soul crushing, beautiful, mind blowing. It was heartbreaking, but amazing. So, yes. I’m so glad you were inspired by such a legacy of the show.

T: A couple of questions to get to know you. The first is, what would be the first bottle — whether it’s a brand or general category — that makes it onto one of your bar programs?

E: I’ve got three in my mind right now. I’m going to say Fords Gin, Evan Williams Bond, and Campari. Shit, maybe I should throw sweet vermouth in there so we can at least make a couple more cocktails.

T: I think with that, you’re pretty well set. Which ingredient or tool do you believe is the most undervalued in a bartender’s arsenal?

E: It’s interesting. As bartenders, we have these graded jiggers now that have from half an ounce all the way up to 2.5 ounces. It’s funny. I will keep a graded jigger in my dopp kit. It’ll be like: toothpaste, toothbrush, clippers, razor, jigger? What? It’s also important for me to have a half ounce, .75 ounce jigger for those small measurements. You don’t want to mess those up, especially with certain modifiers.

T: Third question. What’s the most important piece of advice you’ve received in this industry?

E: When building a bar, you’re going to work with people or vendors, that will only be two of these three qualities. They are: good, cheap, and fast. You’re only going to get two of those.

T: Hope that it’s good and fast.

E: Yeah. Or, good and cheap doesn’t hurt.

T: Good and cheap. All three of them are positive. Sorry. Of course. I’m sorry. I’m sitting here thinking , which is the odd one out? No, of course they’re all good.

E: You’ll never get all three.

T: Fair enough. Fourth question for you. If you could only visit one last bar in your life, what would it be?

E: It would be Dutch Kills in Long Island City.

T: I’m about one mile down the road from it and happen to know that they also care a hell of a lot about their ice, too.

E: They sure do. I love that place. I love the owner, too. Dear friend of mine.

T: And last question for you today, Eric. If you knew the next cocktail you drank was going to be your last, what would you order or make?

E: I’ve been asked a version of this question before. We all ask this of each other, what’s your desert island cocktail? What’s the last thing you’d want to have? It changes. It depends on the hour of the day or how I’m feeling. Today, I’m going to have to say that I’m at Dutch Kills, and I’m going to have Richard Boccato make me an American Trilogy. For those of you that are listening, if you don’t know, it’s a cocktail that Richard and Michael McIlroy came up with when they were at Milk & Honey. It’s an ounce of rye, an ounce of applejack brandy, one brown sugar cube, two dashes of orange bitters, a bar spoon of club soda, with an orange twist. So it’s very much an Old Fashioned variation.

T: And Eric, before we finish, because you have heard of “Desert Island Discs,” I’m going to allow you to also choose the record that you’re listening to at Dutch Kills while you’re enjoying this drink.

E: Oh my God. It’s “Violator” by Depeche Mode. That would be my “Desert Island Disc.” Really the whole album, with my desert island cocktail. Obviously, “Personal Jesus” is only one of many awesome songs on that album.

T: Well, Eric. Thank you so much. It’s been a wonderful conversation. A great way, I think, to kick things off. Thank you so much for taking the time.

E: Absolutely, Tim. I really appreciate you having me as the first guest. Here’s to clinking to many more episodes. Thanks, Tim.

T: Thank you.

If you enjoy listening to the show anywhere near as much as we enjoy making it, go ahead and hit subscribe, and please leave a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts — whether that’s Apple, Spotify, or Stitcher. And please tell your friends.

Now, for the credits. “Cocktail College” is recorded and produced in New York City by myself and Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director and all-around podcast guru. Of course, I want to give a huge shout out to everyone on the VinePair team. Too many awesome people to mention. They know who they are. I want to give some credit here to Danielle Grinberg, art director at VinePair, for designing the awesome show logo. And listen to that music. That’s a Darbi Cicci original. Finally, thank you, listener, for making it this far and for giving this whole thing a purpose. Until next time.

The article Cocktail College: How to Make the Perfect Old Fashioned appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/cocktail-college/complete-guide-old-fashioned-cocktail-recipe/

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lovebreunablog · 3 years

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Dakota Johnson Cosmetic Surgery

Like many of us, the 26-year-old actress has done her fair share of charm testing throughout the years-- particularly with her hair. She's played with different cuts (from bangs to bobs), structures (wavy and straight), and hair colors. Click for best site about plastic operation famous people!

With her blue eyes and all-natural brown hair, Dakota is a color chameleon that can pull off blonde, brunette, and red. However, it had not been till she committed to a rich brown with bangs for her breakout role in Fifty Shades of Grey that she began exhibiting actual star power. That's what happens when you toenail your Life Cut and Colour, folks!

That claimed ... I do believe she's likewise had some medical enhancement in the process. Let's have a look at her transformation, and I'll allow you to decide:

The year 2003

Would you have identified Dakota here? She was just 14 and sporting what I assume is her natural hair color, a cozy mid-brunette. Additionally, her natural nose! I believe she fine-tuned it later, yet maybe not her lips-- as you can see, the upper one was always quite full. Is any individual else obtaining a Jennifer Lawrence vibe? I think it's the lighter hair and the eyes.

The year 2004

Dakota started her blondification at age 15. It's amusing, the Youthful Hollywood event is still happening currently, 12 years later on, and also the celebs who go to are so hyper-groomed. Back then, it wasn't the instance-- Dakota's hair looks un-styled, she's not wearing much makeup, and it doesn't appear like a stylist was involved with her jewelry choices.

The year 2006

Two years later, Dakota also went blonder as well as obtained bangs. She likewise began dialing up the eye makeup (as you do, at age 17). You can truly see just how the tip of her nose made use of it to be much longer.

The year 2007

Surprise! Dakota had strawberry blonde hair at one point, and I LOVE it-- the shade looks extremely all-natural with her blue eyes and also freckles. This appearance is still on factor, thanks to the soft makeup, stained lips, long bangs, and beautiful wavy texture.

The year 2008

Alas, the red did not last lengthy. In 2008, Dakota cut it into a long split bob and went back to blonde. I don't discover it almost as flattering, neither do I like the hefty eye makeup on her. This does not have that trademark Dakota ease, you know?

The year 2010

Fast forward one more two years, as well as Dakota, was 21. She took her hair even blonder, expanded out the bob, and took on a fresher makeup scheme. By now, I think her nose has been tightened and the pointer reduced. (Perhaps this occurred as early as 2007, yet it's hard to tell from the side angles.) However, her lips do provide me a stop because the top one appears thinner than the other photos. Hmm ...

The year 2011

Occasionally, when you go blonde, you fall under the blonderexia catch. It's occurred to me, and also, I believe that's what happened to Dakota below. The blonde is even light for her complexion and washes her out. (Yet that's the essential things-- you lose perspective as well as want to be blonder as well as blonder and blonder.).

The year 2012

Dakota got to peak blondeness in 2012. She was 23 right here. The bangs are back; therefore, it is her all-natural straight texture-- it's just the color that does not collaborate with her skin tone. Notice her return to dark eyebrows, which frame her eyes nicely.

The year 2013

Wow! Going darker was a HUGE transformation for Dakota. All of a sudden, she looks fresher, younger, and 100 percent extra elegant. It makes her blue eyes pop (additionally thanks to the smoky-shimmery eye makeup) and flaunts her perfect skin tone. Her brows are much more developed-- a little fuller, wonderfully angled, as well as with the desirable "followers" at the internal corners. She has to've started collaborating with her A-list beauty group at this point! I'm merely unsure about her top lip. Boosted or au naturel?

The year 2014

This was Dakota's first significant red carpet occasion after being announced as the 'Fifty Shades' star. Lastly, she's arrived on her trademark style: bangs and lengthy brownish hair, often with Ombré, and sophisticated makeup. I like this because she appeared generic as a blonde, yet she truly shines as a redhead.

The year 2015

In 2015, Dakota was shooting How to Be Solitary, and I love her hair in that flick and this picture. It's a darker, extra-strong brownish and a shorter bob size; adorable. This visuals eye makeup is also super-creative and also strengthens her brand-new "awesome woman" condition on the red carpet. Once more, unsure what's occurring with her upper lip, it looks a lot larger than the lower one.

The year 2016

That brings us to 2016, and also Dakota's still obtained the darker brownish hair and bangs; she expanded out the length a little (well, actually, I believe it's extensions). Her charm appearance is improving as well as much better! There aren't enough starlets utilizing makeup to make creative, sophisticated means instead of the typical Kardashian-Esque contouring. I likewise locate it exceptionally rejuvenating to see a carefree all-natural hair structure instead of rigid, over-styled waves and also updos. Now, whether her nose or lips are natural is an additional tale ... but overall, I assume she looks fantastic.

The year 2017

In 2017, Dakota expanded out her bangs for a while, pinning them off her face ... I do not like it! With a freshly darker brunette color and also darkened eyebrows, it seems merely extreme. Well, the selection of gowns wasn't helping issues, either.

The year 2018

Now, this is a Dakota appearance I can support! Lastly, she recognized bangs did suit her and brought them back in a face-framing, Bardot-inspired drape design. Do you know what else always works for her? A red lip, fresh skin, as well as defined lashes-- absolutely nothing also "done." (Even if her lips and also nose have been tinkered with in other means!).

Conclusion

Like I always say, most celebs in Hollywood have had nose surgery. It's just the way it is-- a career decision. Dakota is no exception. It's clear from skimming these images that she has altered her nose ... and also assume the outcome did turn out fantastic.

As for her upper lip, I'm unsure! It does look quite full in the earlier shots, yet it seems to have blown up a lot more in much more current years. Plus, lip shots are the trendy thing to do nowadays-- so it would not stun me whatsoever if she were getting them.

Nonetheless, the adjustments I discover most intriguing here are the hair color ones. Numerous people (including me!) undergo the same procedure as Dakota before finding out our Life Colour. Typically, blonde is the initial quit-- but as you can see, it's not always the most effective option in any way.

I believe (I wish!) we may be seeing a trend far from cookie cutter bleached blonde. As Dakota demonstrates, there are so many other attractive hair colors, and also, it's everything about what flatters your complexion. So a person might provide recently's Before & After, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, that memo!

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efurujr · 6 years

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Tourmates Jhené Aiko & Willow Smith Discuss Mushrooms, Magic & Industry Misogyny With Billboard

On a hot late-October evening at a rustic-chic Sunset Strip restaurant, Jhené Aiko lifts and considers a truffle fry before nimbly popping it into her mouth. Next to her, Willow Smith grabs four and crams them all in at once, so engaged in a discussion with Aiko about fantastical art that she exclaims, mid-bite, “Magic is all around us!” Aiko nods: “I learned that on mushrooms.” Smith fervently nods back: “Mother Nature did it for a reason: ‘Here’s something to woke ya!’”

Starting Nov. 14, Smith will support Aiko on her North American Trip Tour, named after Aiko’s latest album (and its accompanying short film), a sprawling psychedelic R&B concept piece about overcoming grief that reached No. 1 on the Top R&B Albumschart. Willow’s surprise second LP, The 1st -- released on Halloween, which is also her birthday -- swirls proggy compositions with left-field folk and soul.

Together, Aiko and Smith seem to embody a new breed of modern hippie: Aiko, 29, a self-proclaimed “NPR girl” in a loose sky-blue frock, steeping her chamomile tea bag with guru-like calm, and Smith, 17, vibrating with energy, in bell-bottom jeans and a black tee that reads in white text, “Got consent?”

But despite their age gap -- and the fact that one woman has been a single mother for nine years and the other is, well, the teenage daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith -- Aiko and Smith have much more in common than an interest in the supernatural. Both were born, raised and home-schooled in Los Angeles. Both were signed as children and marketed to the mainstream -- Aiko as an adjunct member of R&B boy band B2K, and Smith as an actress (2007’s I Am Legend), then as a kiddie-pop star with 2010’s “Whip My Hair,” which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Then, with money and fame hanging in the balance, they each walked away. Aiko took about six years off before starting an alt-R&B solo career flexible enough to allow for esoteric side projects like Twenty88 -- her duo with boyfriend Big Sean, whose self-titled album Aiko has described as “combining stuff like robots and sex” -- and a forthcoming poetry book titled Trip. Willow returned in 2015 with avant-garde soul album ARDIPITHECUS, and often posts genre-flouting collaborations on SoundCloud and a now-defunct YouTube channel (“Frequencies by Willow”) with everyone from The Internet’s Syd to her brother Jaden.

As plates of pasta arrive, Aiko and Smith dive into a wide-ranging conversation, often completing each other’s sentences as they discuss their respective decisions to, as Smith puts it, “take control of not just my music, but my life -- if shit goes south, it’s my fault, but if it goes good, that’s mine too,” and affirming their vows as artists to, in Aiko’s words, “usher in new ways of thinking.”

You last toured together in 2014. Willow, you were 14. What was that like for you?

Willow Smith: Coming out of the “Whip My Hair” days, that was the first time I’d ever toured with artists I listen to [in addition to Aiko, Syd and SZA]. I’d started playing guitar, and that tour really solidified: “OK, I want to be a live musician, to have a music career, for real.” Being around people who were so confident and so set in their artistry was a huge step in the direction of understanding who I really am.

Jhené Aiko: We did that for each other. I’d never considered myself a performer, but now I’m super into how I present these songs. This time, I want to take the audience on a journey, have them feel what I went through -- I want them to think they’re tripping balls. People like Willow and me, we’re super connected to this music and our message. We really want to change the world.

Jhené, what made her right for that tour three years ago?

Aiko: It’s crazy because just following her career and social media, I felt connected to her, especially seeing her talk about being an indigo and a star seed. I saw so much of myself in her.

Smith: Yeah. I’ve followed your music from the beginning and always loved how angelic and sultry your voice is. So when I heard that you wanted me on, I was like, “Whoaaa!”

Wait, let’s rewind a second. What’s this “indigo” thing?

Aiko: So if you look up in the night sky and see this light that’s flashing colors, that’s Sirius. It’s a star system, and it looks like there’s a party going on. What I like to believe in my dreams and imagination is, there’s some of us on Earth that come from there, indigos and star seeds, who are hyper sensitive to feelings and seasons, and in tune with each other without even trying --

Smith: Or even knowing. I’ve read and experienced that many indigos struggle with addiction and heartbreaking circumstances because this reality is not familiar to them. The density of the third dimension is so heavy on their soul, and they yearn to be light, to be in the stars. So you can --

Aiko: Free yourself from the physical and just be pure energy. I started singing when I was really young too, and touring when I was 12, so those were things I would think about and wanted to talk about, but I was home-schooled, so I didn't have many friends on the same level.

Willow, you were home-schooled too, right?

Smith: All my life, except from age 12 to 13 when a family friend was like, “Come to school with me. I’ll help you out.” But I live in the mountains, away from the city, far from people. It was literally me and Jaden in nature hitting cactuses with sticks, so school was really overwhelming. I was that girl: backpack half open, running through the halls, stressed. So I got to see firsthand how it shapes your psyche -- like how you’re always looking for approval. That’s the hugest thing.

Aiko: I started home school in the middle of seventh grade. I loved schoolwork, but the social part was too much for me. I’m a hermit, still. My family goes out, and I’m like, “I’ll be home staring at the wall ’cause I like it.” The past couple years working on Trip, I’d go on road trips or to festivals by myself, meet other wanderers. That’s why we’re doing this tour -- we’re on that wavelength.

I get the sense that there’s something deeper than a big sis, little sis thing going on here...

Aiko: Willow’s a being that has been here before, obviously. I don’t get age. I mean, I have a 9-year-old daughter who has this pure knowledge, and I learn so much from her. I feel like this is my 20th life because from the first moment I can remember, I’ve been over the kid things.

Smith: Yeah, I understand. I don’t know what it is. I felt that way too.

Have you given any thought to how you might spend downtime together on this tour?

Aiko: I want to make music. I’ll have a studio on my bus, and she can come through with her guitar. I’ve also been doing a group meditation the day of a show. I’m reading The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, and he talks about setting your intention. Mine is to calm people, but I get really nervous onstage.

Smith: What I think is really going to happen on this tour is, like, a feminine energy super bomb. This tour is going to be so potently feminine it’s going to warm your heart.

You’re both into poetry and philosophy. What about a book exchange?

Aiko: A book club!

Smith: I have always wanted to be in a book club. My entry would be The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. It’s about these sisters who lived a long time ago and this tradition of when the women menstruated, they’d all go into the red tent together. They’d have these crazy conversations and spiritual ceremonies and shamanic experiences. It’s about female camaraderie in terrible times.

Aiko: Mine is Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. He’s a poet and monk from Vietnam. He tells beautiful stories to get across very simple messages. Like how people get agitated in traffic -- he teaches you to take each red light as a chance to breathe deeply.

I can see you two sharing music, too. Who’s an artist more people should know about?

Aiko: Michael Franks, a jazz artist from the ’70s. His voice is like butter, and his writing? So clever. I love jazz because of the range of emotion it can take you through in one track. I’m a fan of John Mayer for the same reason. For Trip, he came in with, like, 50 guitars, and for hours he was coming up with song ideas and melodies one after the other, nonstop.

Smith: Cameron Graves. He plays with Kamasi Washington, and his Planetary Princealbum is the epitome of each musician showing their uniqueness. Not a lot of my peers are open to music that doesn't have vocals.

Aiko: That’s my favorite. I think we should do a jazz album.

Smith: Let’s! Honestly, we can get a bunch of musicians in a room and just vibe out.

You were both signed young and could have followed very traditional career paths, but you took time off and came back to the business on your own terms. What was the moment you decided: “This is my own trip?”

Smith: When I said no to Annie [in 2013]. The script was written, we had paid people, the production was going to happen. A lot of people were putting pressure on me, and I was like, “I have to take the control.” That was scary, standing up to executives who were like, “What? We spent this amount of money. Mmm, you’re doing it.” And I was like, “No, I’m not going to. Sorry.”

Aiko: I was turning 16, and my label contract was up. Everyone assumed I was going to re-sign, but I knew that wasn't who I was going to be as an artist -- I wasn't satisfied singing songs other people wrote. Then when I was 20, I got pregnant. I became a waitress at a vegan cafe but was going through all these new things as a mom and wanted to make music about it. So I quit, and from then on, it was like, “No, this is my vision. You have absolutely nothing to do with this art.”

As young women of color in an industry that is hard on women and on people of color, where do you think that surge of confidence came from?

Smith: You have to see other black women doing them. That’s the only way. I went on tour with my mom when I was Jhené’s daughter’s age, and it was so empowering and beautiful.

Aiko: I never saw a distinction between a man and a woman. My grandparents and my mother were great examples of men and women, and they taught me equality. So I would fight with boys and wear my cousin’s clothes. I would do whatever I wanted, and that’s where I still stand today.

Smith: If you truly believe in equality, you know it up here. [Taps forehead.] It’s how you think. There’s a lot of women doing their thing, expressing themselves in ways I feel weren't possible before. At the same time, a lot of men still spit misogyny like it’s nothing. It’s a forever journey.

Women have been banding together lately to expose predators in the entertainment industry…

Smith: Yeah, and our president. Ahhhhhh! The creepiest dude of all!

Aiko: I’m pleased people are brave enough to come forward, because it encourages others. I’ve always been protected. My mom was my manager. Now my older sister is. Even when I’ve been in sketchy environments, someone always had my back. That’s important. In these stories these women are telling, there’s no real friends around. I have definitely experienced male ego...

Smith: And I’ve ran into situations with white men specifically who are like, “Black girls don’t usually look like you,” or, “Whoa, your hair is lying down. That’s crazy, you actually look pretty!”

What do you want the future of young women in art to look like?

Smith: I don’t want there to always be this stigma of the “female” artist. “Oh, what does it feel like to be a female doing something?” That hurts me.

Aiko: Because of that, a lot of young girls compare themselves to others. Growing up, people wanted me to do choreography. If it wasn't for a supportive mother, I would have been put in the same boot camp. You were born into your own lane -- don’t let anyone push you into theirs. I’m not going to stop evolving until I’m 80. Like, I want to go back to school for astrophysics.

Smith: The arts and the sciences! That’s my whole life. In the future, I think there’ll be a new kind of person who does both. Like... an imagineer!

Aiko: See? I mean, clearly, she’s in her own lane.

Written By Chris Martins / Photography By Nate Hoffman

#jhene aiko #willow smith #billboard #spirituality #interview #article #text #171109 #2017

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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The Weekend Warrior Jan. 24, 2020 – THE GENTLEMEN, THE TURNING, THE LAST FULL MEASURE

If you read last week’s column, you’ll already know that I’m no longer with The Beat, so I’ll more than likely be doing all of my box office stuff here for a while. I just won’t promise to write so much about each movie as I did in my Box Office Preview, because a.) I don’t have time, and b.) I’m not getting paid to write this. Sorry if that’s a bit too blatantly honest, but getting paid for my writing matters to me, especially having done it for 25 years.

Before I forget, tonight, Wednesday, January 22, I’m hosting a 30thanniversary screening of Brain Dead, the freaky thriller starring Bills Pullman and Paxton, Bud Cort and George Kennedy. If you’re looking to check out crazy mind-fuck of a movie from 1990, there are still a few tickets left.

Anyway, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t get paid for last week’s column cause I way, way, WAY underestimated the power of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to bring in audiences after 17 years since Bad Boys II. I thought the movie would make somewhere between $35 and 40 million over the four-day weekend, but it ended up making almost $60 million just over the three-day weekend, and $73 million for the four day, the second best after American Sniper. Obviously, Sony is already developing a fourth movie in the series and presumably they won’t wait another 18 years. Personally, I really liked Bad Boys for Life, as it was way better than Bad Boys II and it was a generally enjoyable and entertaining action-comedy.

Universal’s Dolittlealso did more than I predicted, but it wasn’t as vastly different, just closer to my original prediction last Wednesday before I thought I might be overestimating and lowered it. Waugh, Waugh…

Let’s get to this week…

The movie I’m most excited about this week is THE GENTLEMEN (STXfilms), which is Guy Ritchie’s return to ensemble crime comedy after his foray into large-scale Disney adaptations like Aladdin, which I quite liked, and his “Sherlock Holmes” movies, the first of which I also loved. Ritchie has a great cast for this one including Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant, Henry Golding (from Crazy Rich Asians and the underrated 2019 film Last Christmas), Michelle Dockery (from Downton Abbey) and one of my favorite character actors, Eddie Marsan! Honestly, I don’t know very much else about the movie (as I’m only seeing it on Monday night) but I loved what I saw at CinemaCon last year, and I’ve just been such a huge Ritchie fan going all the way back to Lock, Stock and Two Smokin’ Barrels. (Sadly, I wasn’t able to interview him for this movie due to my other part-time job, but you’ll get an actual review instead!) Also, I think the movie will do decently but probably not more than $10 million since STX is dropping it into around 2,000 theaters, which isn’t particularly wide.

Mini-Review: Back in the late ‘90s, when Guy Ritchie first made his big debut with Lock, Stock, he was coming on the tail end of a new breed of directors like Tarantino and Smith who proved that screenplay-driven ensemble movies could deliver big audiences. In the time since then, Tarantino has gotten bigger and bigger for that feat, while Ritchie has tried a lot of different things, including last year’s Aladdin.

It’s pretty exciting to see Ritchie returning to the world of crime and to jolly old England with the addition of a few Americans like Matthew McConaughey as mega-wealthy drugdealer Mickey Pearson, who has turned his upper-class connections quite literally into a farm industry. Mickey is ready to sell the business, hoping to get $400 million from Jeremy Strong’s interested investor.

The story is told through a framing sequence involving a strange character named Fletcher, played by Hugh Grant, having an extended conversation with Charlie Hunnam’s Ray, Mickey’s “fixer,” of sorts. It’s another fantastic performance by Grant that really allows him to push the envelope with a heavy cockney accent. Another great performance comes from Colin Farrell as the coach of a group of young and bratty MMA fighers who break into one of Mickey’s farms.

Using this storytelling method, Ritchie doesn’t give his entire hand away at once, instead revealing just what’s necessary to keep the viewer tuned in. The film features another witty script and it’s thoroughly entertaining, although it’s also somewhat confounding at times trying to keep track of all the characters and how they relate.

In that sense, The Gentlemen is slightly flawed, but it’s also a welcome return for Ritchie to do what he does best, and there’s no denying that there’s quite a bit to enjoy here. Rating: 7/10

The third horror movie of January (with another one next week!) is THE TURNING (Universal), a horror take on Henry James’ novel “The Turn of the Screw,” starring Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate), Finn Wolfhard (It) and the adorable Brooklynn Prince from The Florida Project. The basic premise involves a nanny played by Davis, who is brought to an enormous mansion to care for two kids. Once there, she is told by the kids that there are dark forces in the house, and she starts to believe them. I had a chance to speak to the film’s director, Floria Sigismondi, an amazing visual artist whose only previous feature film was The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart. The movie is also written by the Hayes Brothers, who wrote the original The Conjuring, and produced by Roy Lee (The Conjuring and It), so there’s quite a decent pedigree for this movie. I also conducted a great interview with Ms. Sigismondi that you can check out on Next Best Picture.

As the third horror movie this month, I’m not sure this can deliver where the previous two (The Grudge and Underwater) failed, especially without much star power, but because it’s January, and there’s very little else to do, it can probably make $8 to 10 million in its 2,500 theaters.

Opening in moderate release this weekend (theater count TBD) is filmmaker Todd Robinson’s THE LAST FULL MEASURE (Roadside Attractions), a military drama that the director has been trying to make for a decade. He’s pulled together an amazing cast that includes Christopher Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Diane Ladd, Sebastian Stan, Bradley Whitford, Peter Fonda, William Hurt, Jeremy Irvine and Michael Imperioli. I still remember Robinson mentioning this project when I spoke to him for his excellent movie Lonely Heartswhen we spoke for ComingSoon.netway back in 2007, having seen that movie at the Tribeca Film Festival.

It involves a group of Vietnam vets trying to get a brave soldier, Airman William H. Pitsenberger Jr. (played by Irvine), the Medal of Honor for his actions on the battlefield to save them 34 years after his death. It sounds like a terrific premise, so it’s a movie I’ve been waiting to see for a very long time. I’m not sure exactly how many theaters Roadside Attractions will release the movie into, but I doubt it will be enough to get it into the top 10, as I think it will end up making $2 to 3 million at best. (This probably would have been a good movie to release over Veterans’ Day, but I guess it was afraid of Roland Emmerich’s Midway, which did end up winning that weekend.)

Mini-Review: It’s pretty obvious what a passion project this must have been for filmmaker Todd Robinson from the time it’s taken for him to get this movie made, but once watch how this story plays out, it’s much more obvious why he was so driven. Even fifty years after the events depicted in the film’s Vietnam War flashback

It’s 1999, and Sebastian Stan plays Scott Huffman, an Air Force attorney working at the Pentagon who is assigned the duty of investigating the heroics of Airman William H. Pitsenberger Jr., who dropped into one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War to save a number of soldiers. William Hurt plays Tulley, the soldier that comes to Huffman, although the lawyer tries to put him off due to the upcoming regime change. Against his will, Scott has to pursue this endeavor, so he goes to interview a number of the living men who were there on that fateful day.

What’s amazing about Robinson’s film is that while it focuses mainly on Stan’s character, the various actors he meets on his journey deliver some absolutely amazing performances, from Christopher Plummer (as the dead airman’s dying father), Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris and the late Peter Fonda.

At its worst, The Last Full Measure veers into TV movie melodrama, so it takes some of the stronger actors to drag it back. The worst example of this are the scenes between Stan and his ersatz family, which seems the most like needless scenes added to create some sort of artistic license. It probably will be little surprise that many of the names and circumstances have been changed for similar reason.

It’s a shame that Roadside Attractions doesn’t have enough faith in this movie to give this a bigger push, instead dumping it into a January weekend with little fanfare. Sure, this is certainly the type of movie that cynical film critics like tearing apart, trying to find faults over the good…. And there’s a lot of good to be had. There’s no denying that this is an important story that needs to be told, and hopefully, the audiences that might appreciate it will be able to find it. Rating: 7.5/10

What should be interesting to see if the horror film The Turning does well enough to surpass Dolittle for third place or falls just short. Either way, Universal will have three movies in the top 5, which is quite remarkable considering what a horrid December the studio had.

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Bad Boys for Life (Sony) - $29.5 million -53%

2. 1917 (Universal) - $13 million -41% (up 1 million)*

3. Dolittle (Universal) - $10.1 million -54%

4. The Turning (Universal) - $9.3 million N/A (up .2 million)*

5. The Gentlemen (STXfilms) - $8.6 million N/A (up .1 million)*

6. Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony) - $5 million -48%

7. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Lucasfilm/Disney) - $4 million -52%

8. Little Women (Sony) - $3.5 million -45%

9. Just Mercy (Warner Bros.) - $3.1 million -47%

10. Knives Out (Lionsgate) - $2.6 million -40%

- The Last Full Measure (Roadside Attractions) - $2 million N/A (down .5 million)*

* UPDATE: Not a ton of changes but mainly a little bit of tweaking due to revised theater counts

LIMITED RELEASES

Not a ton of limited releases of note that I’ve seen, although I did see Richard Stanley’s sci-fi thriller COLOR OUT OF SPACE (RLJE Films), starring the one and only Nicolas Cage, and I even spoke to Stanley, an interview you’ll be able to read on Next Best Picturehopefully later this week. It’s based on HP Lovecraft’s short story, and in the movie, Cage plays an Alpaca farmer whose family is affected by a meteorite that falls on the property, causing all sorts of bizarre changes both mentally and physically. It’s another movie where Cage can go a little nuts, but I also liked the performances by Madeleine Arthur and Joely Richardson, who ALSO appears in The Turning this weekend. There are also some smaller roles from Q’orianka Kilcher (from Malick’s The New World) and the great comic, Tommy Chong. There will be a special screening tonight in select cities with a satellite QnA with Stanley and Cage, and then it opens for real Friday. Being RLJE, it should be On Demand shortly afterwards.

Oddly, I haven’t seen any of the movies in the franchise that brings us DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 3 (Wanda Pictures/WB International), but the previous installments of director Sicheng Chen’s police action-comedy must have done well enough for people to want to see more of detectives Tang Ren (Baoquiang Wang) and Qin Feng (Haoran Liu) to get a third movie. The first movie made $120.6 million worldwide while the sequel made $544 million, so yeah, a third movie was inevitable. The sequel made less than $2 million domestically but one can expect that Chinese audiences in America will help the third movie do similarly. For comparison, the latest installment of the Ip Man franchise, starring Donny Yen, has grossed $3.5 million in North America. This will open in about 150 theaters.

Sadly, I also didn’t get a chance to see Dante Lam’s The Rescue (CMC Pictures), the Chinese filmmaker’s follow-up to his global blockbuster Operation Red Sea, before writing this column, but this is clearly one of the major Chinese tentpoles being released for the Lunar New Year movie season. It stars Eddie Peng from Operation Mekong as the captain of an elite rescue team, and it’s shot by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau. I’m hoping to see it this coming Friday.

Terry Crews stars as John Henry (Saban/Paramount) in Will Forbes, in this case Henry being an ex-gang member who puts aside his life of violence to take care of his aging father (played by Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead )in South L.A. where he meets two immigrant kids on the run from his former gang leader (Ludacris), putting him in a tough spot. It will open in select cities and On Demand this Friday.

Bertrand Bonello, who made the excellent Nocturama a few weeks back, returns with his eighth feature Zombi Child (Film Movement), which is a very different take on the genre. It draws from the true story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was reportedly zombified in 1962 Haiti, this one centering around Narcisse’s (fictional) orphaned granddaughter who is trying to fit in with the mostly white girls at her boarding school. It will open in New York at the Quad Cinemaand at Lincoln Center.

Lastly, there’s the Bollywood film Panga (FIP) from director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, starring Kangana Ranaut as a middle-class Indian woman and former kabaddiworld champion looking for new meaning as a wife and mother, who decides to return to the sport despite her age and responsibility to family. It will open in roughly 100 theaters.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Opening Friday at the Metrograph is the 1stU.S. release of the director’s cut of Jia Zhangke’s 2010 documentary I Wish I Knew,which looks at the past and present of Shanghai in a documentary full of interviews with people from all different walks of life including local actresses and fellow filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. It also follows Zhangke’s favorite actress Zhao Tao, who was amazing in last year’s Ash is Purest White, as she explores the site of the Shanghai World Expo Park as it’s under construction. It’s a great film to learn more about the history of mainland China, something I greatly appreciated having been such a longtime inhabitant of Chinatown.

Even more exciting is that the Metrograph is starting a retrospective series for indie filmmaker Hal Hartleythis Friday, which is exciting since I’ve been such a big fan but haven’t seen nearly as many of his films as there are out there, having only seen his debut The Unbelievable Truth (1989) a few years back, also at the Metrograph. Hal Hartley will be at the Metrograph this Friday night, January 24, and then back on February 1 for screenings of Henry Fool (1997) and its 2006 sequel, Fay Grim. This weekend, you can see Trust from 1990, Simple Men (1992), 1994’s Amateur and more.

With the nomination of Julia Reichert and Steven Bonar’s American Factory receiving an Oscar nomination, Metrograph has put together a last-minute series, “The Academy-Nominated Films of Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar,” a program of three shorts including the 2009 short The Last Truck(shown with American Factory), 1976’s Union Maids and 1971’s Growing Up Female, and the 2006 miniseries A Lion in the House.

This weekend’s Late Nites at Metrograph is the Jackie Chan action classic Police Story (1985). Oops, I made a little error as Playtime: Family Matinees, was supposed to be Taika Waititi’s 2016 film The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, but it got changed to Peter Weir’s 1989 movie Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams, which is also quite good.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Besides tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” of Brain Dead (1990), they’re doing a Troop Beverly Hills “Quote-Along” tomorrow night. If that isn’t good enough, on Monday, you can see the Lonely Island’s amazing Popstar: Never Stop Stopping either as part of the monthly “Out of Tune” hosted by my pal Jeremy Wein at 7pm or at 9:30 as a Sing-Along, well except that both are very close to sold out. Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is the Japanese horror classic Ringu (1998) (I’ll be there) and then “Weird Wednesday” is 1979’s Killer Nun.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Wednesday’s “Afternoon Classics” is Ernest Borgnine’s 1955 film Marty, and then Weds. and Thurs’ night’s double feature is Bob & Carol & Ted & Aliceand Jacques Demy’s Model Shop, both from 1969. Friday’s “Freaky Friday”… um… “Afternoon Classics” is the 1985 vampire thriller Fright Night, and Friday night’s midnight screening is Tarantino’s Django Unchained. (The Saturday midnight screening of Scorsese’s Goodfellasis already sold out.) The weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee” is Miyazaki’s How’s Moving Castleand then the Monday Matinee is the 1971 thriller Klute. (Most of the weekend evening slots are taken up by Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, just to make sure all the Oscar voters have a chance to see it in the next couple weeks.) Monday and Tuesday night is a Henry Hathaway double feature of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer(1935) and The Trailer of the Lonesome Pine (1936).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

While the “Black Women: Trailblazing African American Performers & Images, 1920 – 2001” continues this weekend with the 1934 and 1959 iterations of Imitation of Life, as well as screenings of What’s Love Got To Do with It, the Tina Turner biopic starring Angela Basset, who received an Oscar nomination for it, and then the Film Forum Jr. screening is The Wiz, starring Michael Jackson and Donna Summer. Other movies in the series include Cleopatra Jones, Gone with the Wind and Spike Lee’s debut She’s Gotta Have it. Film Forum is also doing a special Homage to Anna Karenina, the late Jean-Luc Godard muse who starred in many of his classics including Band of Outsiders, Alphaville, Pierrot Le Fou, plus six other films will be screened beginning Wednesday and through January 30. On Sunday, Film Forum is showing Lee Grant’s 2005 documentary A Father … a Son … Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is about Kirk and Michael Douglas with Grant in person doing a QnA. The theater will also screen William Wyler’s 1951 film Detective Story, which stars Grant on Sunday and next Tuesday.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

This weekend begins “Cinematic Void 2020” with the Friday selection being Dario Argento’s The Cat O’Nine Tails (1971), followed on Saturday by a 5-movie Giallo Marathon, including Argento’s Opera(1987), Bava’s A Blade in the Dark (1983), Fulci’s The Black Cat (1981), and two more. Joe Dantewill be on Sunday for his 16mm Spotlight, showing 1972’s Richard. This week’s “Sunday Print Edition” is Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich(1940) in 35mm in the afternoon and then Richard Benjamin and Dyan Cannon will be on hand to discuss the amazing 1973 thriller The Last of Sheila, one of my favorite movies.

AERO (LA):

Besides a matinee screening of Scorsese’s Goodfellas on Thursday (free to Cinemateque members), the AERO begins a “Ford Vs.” series with a double feature of John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952) with Sam Peckinpah’s classic Straw Dogs (1971). Friday is Ford’ sStagecoach(1939) with Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff (2010). Saturday at 9AM, you can watch a triple-feature of Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, and then in the afternoon, the AERO will show Toy Story 4 with guests. That’s a full day of Toy Story viewing! Saturday night’s “Ford Vs.” is Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro, both from 1962. Sunday night’s double is Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) with Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946). Tuesday’s Scorsese matinee is his debut Mean Streets.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

You can still catch a few of the movies in the lead-up to Bonello’s Zombi Child with another screening of I Walked with a Zombie on Weds. night, as well as De Palma’s Carrie and the Extended Director’s Cut of The Exorcist on Thursday.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Jack Lemmon will present the classic Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot (1959) on Wednesday, Black Edwards’ The Great Race (1965) on Thursday and 1968’s The Odd Couple on Friday.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

This week’s Weekend Classics: Luis Buñuelwill screen a double feature of the classic short Un Chien Andalou (1929) with the doc L’Age D’or (1930) while Waverly Midnights: Hindsight is 2020s will screen Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men and Late Night Favorites: Winter 2020goes with Argento’s Suspiria… again.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Saturday, there will be a “Texas Chainsaw Double Feature” of the first two movies from 1974 and 1986 as part of the “Disreputable Series.” Also, the museum continues to screen Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as part of its exhibition.

ROXY CINEMA(NYC)

The Nicolas Cage love continues on Weds. with Martin Scorsese’s 1999 movie Brinigng Out the Dead, and then on Saturday, Bottleneck Gallery will screen 1987’s The Monster Squad and 1986’s Night of the Creeps.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

Friday’s night’s midnight movie is John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine (1983).

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

The New York Jewish Film Festival continues through next week so no rep stuff.

STREAMING AND CABLE

On Sunday, Netflix will stream the first season of Fast and Furious: Spy Racers, which I have little to no interest in. I have a little more interest in Star Trek: Picard, which will begin streaming on CBS All Access on Thursday.

That’s it for this week. Next weekend is the Super Bowl, but that’s not gonna stop the releases of Gretel and Hansel(U.A. Releasing) and Blake Lively’s The Rhythm Section (Pararamount).

#TheWeekendWarrior Movies Reviews TheGentlemen GuyRItchie TheTurning TheLastFullMeasure BoxOffice

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sea040561 · 7 years

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Seize the Day (or Night) Part 2

itle: Seize the Day (or Night) Part 2

Author: @sea040561

Beta’d by: @sofreddie

Pairing: Jared x Reader

Summary: Jared finally has the courage to reveal how he feels

Word Count: 7178 (I couldn’t seem to stop with this one lol)

Warnings: verbal abuse, angst, crying, pregnancy

Author’s Note: For @gone-to-fight-the-fairies writing challenge - Supernatural's Summer of Heroes Challenge. My quote was “When are we going to talk about this unspoken thing between us?” - Peter Quill - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

Previously on Part 1: You almost blushed as Jared suggested getting comfortable on the couch. Oh how you’d love to get very comfortable with him, on the couch, or the bed, even the floor. Hell, the kitchen counter even. Slipping your shoes off, you tucked your feet under you and leaned back into the soft, plush couch sighing. ‘Maybe you will get the courage to tell Jared how you feel tonight,’ you thought to yourself.

The pizza had been ordered and eaten and the first movie had been watched. You were so nervous that you didn’t even chastise yourself for eating so much pizza. Now you and Jared were cleaning up your mess before starting the next movie. You had yet to decide on it. You had let Jared choose the first movie which had been Fantastic Beasts. You were debating between the 2007 remake of Hairspray or Grease 2.You were a huge fan of musicals, probably because you couldn’t sing a tune in key if your life depended on it.

You plopped down on the couch as you wait for Jared to exit the kitchen. You decided on Hairspray so you popped the blu-ray into the player and patiently waited for Jared.

He came back from the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel, and plopped down next to you. “So, what is the verdict?” he asked as he smirked. He pretty much knew which movie you had decided on. What he didn’t know, nor did you, was how much the viewing of the movie this time around was going to be so emotional to you. Everything with Hunter was still at the forefront of your mind.

“You’ll see,” you replied with a small smile as you leaned against Jared’s side. You inhaled sharply when he slipped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer to him.

As Good Morning, Baltimore started, you began to sing along as you unknowingly started tapping your fingers on Jared’s knee.

You never noticed Jared watching you slyly as you began to tense and your eyes teared up listening to Amber Van Tussle tease Tracy Turnblad. You never realized how much Amber had bullied Tracy until this breakup with Hunter. Plenty of what he had said to you mirrored what Amber was saying in the movie.

Suddenly, you felt a large warm hand on your shoulder squeezing slightly. You looked over to find Jared staring at you with concern in his eyes as he paused the movie. You watched as his hand slowly reached up to tuck a long strand of hair behind your ear. You shivered as his fingers lightly caressed your ear with this movement hoping that Jared wouldn’t take notice. But when he looked in your eyes, you realized that he had seen your reaction.

“Hey, Y/N,” he said softly, “honey, I know something is going on with you. I have sensed it since you came back from hiatus.”

Your eyes widened as Jared confronted you, ”Excuse me?”

Jared grasped both your hands in his large ones and squeezed, “Please, you know I’m a good listener and I really care about you. I don’t like that you haven’t been smiling the last few weeks. It breaks my heart to know something has caused this.”

Your breath hitched in your throat as you considered what Jared was saying. You looked down at your adjoined hands. Your heart was telling you to just tell him everything. Your head was saying hell no. He’d only think you were weak and pathetic.

You felt his hand on your chin pulling y/e/c eyes to meet his, “Please.”

That pleading tone made your resolved break and you made a split second decision and allowed your tears to begin to fall. Jared grabbed you, engulfing you in his arms. You could feel your tears wetting the front of his tee shirt. Snot began to run out of your nose. You were horrified when Jared reached up to wipe your nose making you sob harder than before. You felt him tighten his hold on you, allowing you to feel the warmth coming from his body. Once you began to calm down, Jared grabbed your face in his hands, gently wiping away the slowly stopping tears that were still streaming down your face, “Baby, please, you know you can talk to me. I promise it is just between you and I.” You startled in surprise at being called baby. None of your previous boyfriends had ever used that term of endearment.

Bracing yourself for your confession and Jared’s possible look of disappointment, you began to talk, “Well, my ex-boyfriend, Hunter, broke up with me right before hiatus ended.”

Jared was surprised to hear that you had an ex-boyfriend. Not that he didn’t think you dated, but you had never mentioned it and you were pretty much a very open person on set, or at least he had thought so.

Jared rubbed your back lovingly as he urged you to continue, “Uh, well, you see,” you continued, “He didn’t like that I was spending so much time on set cooking for everyone else instead of him. He also didn’t like that I had decided to take some additional cooking classes online which took up most of my spare time.”

Jared nodded his head affirmatively waiting for you to continue. He knew the hardest part of what you were going to say was next on your lips.

You unconsciously shuffled closer to Jared seeking more warmth from his body. Your body hoping that being that close to him would keep you grounded. With another deep breath, you proceeded talking, “Uh, he said I had gained weight over the past year.” You paused in your storytelling to gage Jared’s reaction but he was just staring at you intently waiting for you to finishing speaking, “He said I was fat. Too fat for him.”

Jared had to restrain himself from screaming at Y/N that she was not fat - she was beautiful just the way she was.

“I am,” you stated defeatedly, “Hunter’s right. That’s why every boyfriend I ever had has broken up with me.”

“Is that why you never told any of us that you had a boyfriend?” Jared said with a pleading tone. He was hoping that you wouldn’t say yes to that question.

You hesitated in answering, “I guess so. None of my boyfriends ever wanted to come see me on set. They had their own careers and friends that they spent time with yet they faulted me when we didn’t spend enough time together.”

Your mind began to remember arguments you had with your exes and you slowly began to realize that they always blamed you for everything. They got sick...it was your cooking. They overslept...you forgot to wake them up. They had nothing to wear...you hadn’t done his laundry. The list was endless.

“Look at me,” Jared probed cautiously, “you are beautiful.” You continued to shake your head no. “Yes, you are,” Jared pleaded, “How can I make you believe that? No matter what you’ve ever looked like, you’ve always been exceptionally beautiful and a ray of sunshine.”

You sighed heavily, “I don’t know.” You were growing more embarrassed by the moment. None of your boyfriends were ever as gorgeous, yet as kind as Jared. No one like Jared ever paid attention to you. You quickly realized that you had been settling for the douchebags you had been dating. But your mind still battled your heart, one telling the other that you didn’t deserve happiness, then the other screaming back that you were a beautiful person who deserved as much happiness as possible.

You snuck a glance up at Jared’s face, gazing into his hazel eyes, searching for something but you didn’t know what. Before you had a chance to react, you watched Jay slowly lean forward causing your heart to palpate excitedly. As much as you wanted him to kiss you, you knew that wasn’t going to happen. At best, Jared was going to give one of his signature Padalecki full body hugs.

You jumped slightly when you felt Jared’s hands cupping your face, his thumbs rubbing over your upper lip. Unconsciously, you opened your mouth and slipped your tongue out feeling Jared’s thumb graze your tongue. Without hesitation, you groaned deep in your throat. Before you could respond to the sensations coursing through your body, you felt Jared’s lips cover yours. His tongue sought entrance to your mouth and you obeyed immediately. You reached your hands up threading them through Jared’s luxurious brunette locks. He quickly pulled you onto his lap as you resisted at the same time. You were too fat to be sitting on his lap. You had never done this with any of your other boyfriends. You tried wiggling out of his lap while your lips were still attached to his. His tongue was mapping the inside of your mouth at a slow and agonizing pace. You felt Jared’s arms tightened around you as he growled ‘no’ into your mouth.

You knew this was wrong. Jared just felt pity for you. He was just being a good friend to you. A good friend who just happens to be kissing you wonderfully. What you didn’t know is that Jared was throwing caution to the wind and going for what he wanted - you.

Jared ripped his lips from yours as his hands traveled down your ticklish sides and came to rest on your hips. You could feel his prominent bulge directly underneath your core. You knew your panties were soaked with arousal and the urge to rub against Jared’s bulge was growing increasingly stronger by the second. But, a man is just a man. It was a natural reaction to have an erection after the kissing session Jared just participated in.

Jared leaned forward resting his forehead against yours, searching your eyes, “You still don’t believe me, do you?” He silently waited for you to answer. He could see you swallow heavily as a panicked look appeared in your eyes.

“Don’t answer that,” Jay replied, “Will you believe this? I. LOVE. YOU.”

Your eyes widened in surprise as your breath was stolen from your body. Your mouth gaped open trying to formulate a response.

Jared continued, “I. WANT. YOU. ALWAYS and FOREVER.” accenting each word with emphasis and a slight bit of Texan twang, “I can see it in your eyes, Y/N. This is not a joke. This is real life. These are my feelings, putting it all on the line. I have loved you since the moment you walked onto set in Season 9. I was so afraid to say anything to you. I was afraid you would reject me.”

“Reject you?” you stuttered, “Who would ever do that to you?”

Jared sighed before he responded, “I’m just glad that other woman did because God meant for me to meet you. For you to meet me. I truly believe it was fate.”

Jared grinded his hips upwards towards your aroused core, “Feel what you do to me?”

Slowly you nodded your head as Jared continued, “That is all you. You are a beautiful, vibrant, sexy, fun-loving, amazing woman. You are not fat. Never let anyone tell you that! I love your body. I always have. Damn, woman, I don’t think you know what you do to me day after day on set. Jensen is always teasing me. Wanna know how many times I’ve had to run to my trailer during resets so I could relieve myself? Screaming your name? Wishing you were sucking my cock? Or better yet, straddling me, sinking into your deep wet heat, latching my mouth on your nipples, as my finger seeks out your back entrance, fucking your pussy hard and fast?”

You shuddered in desire knowing you were going to cum just from Jared’s dirty talk. You almost felt embarrassed that he was able to affect your body in this way. No other man ever had. Then again, you realized that no other man had loved you the way that Jared claimed he did.

“After a while,” Jared whispered, “I’d pull out and slide down your sweat covered body, reaching your pussy lips. I’d gently take my forefinger and thumb and spread those lips open, searching for your glistening and pulsating clit. I’d lean forward taking in a deep breath of the smell of your musk before latching onto your clit and sucking deeply.”

Jared watched as your body shuddered heavily. He knew you were close, so close. Only a few more words and you would be gone, “I’d gently insert two of my fingers curling them slightly hitting your g-spot after minimal searching.” He could feel your legs tightened around his hips as you unknowingly started to rock back and forth, hard, against his bulge.

Jared leaned forward and in a sultry tone brought you over the edge, “Come for me, Y/N. Give it all you have.”

Your head dropped to Jared’s shoulders as you buried your mouth in his neck, nipping slightly. You rocked back and forth once, twice, and on the third time, you screamed loudly as you felt your orgasm wash over your body finally rendering you speechless. Sweat was dripping off your nose and onto Jared’s shoulder. Without warning to Jared, you started licking up the sweat from his neck and shoulder. He could feel you continue to shudder as aftershocks of your orgasm coursed through you. You nuzzled his ear as he felt you breathing deeply trying to regain your breath.

You realized that you had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Jared finally realized that you had whispered something in his ear, “Hey, babe, I can’t hear you” as he continued to stroke your hair away from your forehead.

“I love you, too,” you replied searching out Jared’s eyes, “I always thought I didn’t deserve to be loved. That no one really cared about me. I’ve never felt the way I feel tonight. You have shown me how it feels to be loved, both psychically and emotionally. Not one has ever taken the time and patience to show me that. Honestly, I had convinced myself that no one would ever want me in the way you do. I was told so many times in my life that I wasn’t worth it. That I was just there to cook and clean. That in my body, I would only be a fucktoy, that no one would ever want to make love to me, just fuck me.” You saw Jared’s jaw clench with that statement.

With tears streaming down your face, you leaned forward kissing Jared lightly.

Jared grabbed you around your wrists before you could weave them around his neck, “I want you, body and soul, forever. I want to marry you. I want to have children with you. I want to always make you feel pleasure in bed and outside of bed. I want to experience this journey of life with you.”

Your immediate answer to Jared’s question was to rip your underwear off then pull down Jared’s boxers and lounge pants in one swoop. You grabbed his cock, running it through your pussy lips to slick it up as much as you could. Jared was a well-endowed man and you wanted to feel all of him.

Lining him up with your entrance, you steadily sunk down in pleasure, moans being torn from your lips as your walls stretched to accommodate Jared. He assisted you in setting the pace by grabbing your hips tightly, helping you lift yourself almost all the way off his cock, then sinking back down. This pattern continued as each of you panted in each other’s mouths, then necks, and periodically kissed. You could feel your orgasm building from penetration alone, which has never happened to you. You could feel Jared’s pelvic bone rubbed easily against your clit but only with a slight touch. Between the sensational feeling of your clit being rubbed constantly and the deep penetration of Jared’s cock hitting your g-spot, this one was getting stronger by the second, almost frightening to you.

You whimpered loudly, “Jared, it’s never felt this strong, so intense, what’s going on?” You steadied yourself by placing your hands on Jared’s shoulders and gripping tightly. Your head was now thrown back in ecstasy, your hair waving back and forth brushing against Jared’s thighs with each movement of your body.

Jared had a inkling what was happening to you, “It’s ok, baby, just let it go. It feels good, doesn’t it?” He knew you were going to squirt.

You nodded your head in agreement.

“In a few moments, you’ll be mindblown,” Jared replied lovingly as he thrusted up, hard, one final time, as you slammed down onto his cock.

You could feel your juices squirting out of you, almost like you had peed yourself. The sensations continued for a few seconds as you rode out the most intense orgasm you ever had in your life. You had nothing to compare this feeling to. The intense feeling continued as you felt Jared spill inside of you, his cum coating your walls. As you both rode out your orgasms with harsh pants and deep breaths, you realized that you had never used a condom. You were not on birth control pills because you found, at a very early age, that you were allergic to most brands.

Jared searched your face as you both stopped moving, “Talk to me. I can see the thoughts running through your mind.”

“Uh,” you started shyly, “We didn’t use a condom” as your eyes bored into Jared’s.

Jared threw his head back and laughed, “I assume that you aren’t on birth control since you asked me that question.” You sighed defeatedly, “No, I’m allergic to most of them. I never slept with any of my boyfriends, except for my first time and Hunter.”

“So, wait, how many times have you had sex before me?” Jared asked cautiously.

You dropped your chin to your chest, “Twice. My first time and then Hunter. After sleeping with me, he never wanted to. I figured it was because of my body or that I was horrible in bed.”

“Oh baby, I would have been more careful with you. I know I’m not like the average man and I would have spent more time prepping you,” Jay answered kindly.

“NO! I wanted it like that. You made me feel like I wasn’t going to crush you, that my weight didn’t matter, and you gave me the courage to let go of my inhibitions. I’m just worried about” as your voice trailed off.

Jared grabbed your chin forcing you to look at him, “What are you worried about?”

“Baby,” you whispered.

“Yes, I am right here. Please tell me,” Jared probed jokingly.

“No,” you said forcefully, “I’m worried about a baby. WE. DIDN’T. USE. A. CONDOM.”

Realizing what you meant, Jared let out a big oh as he started to smile, “Would that be such a bad thing? Remember I said that I want children with you. I want the apple pie life, the whole nine yards. I want us to be that sappy couple always in love, kissing like teenagers in our 70s.”

Realizing that you didn’t need to run anymore, that the rest of your life was sitting in front of you and he wanted you just as much as you wanted him slammed into you full force. You were not alone. You were never alone. You threw your arms around Jared’s neck crushing him to your chest, “About your earlier statement, I will marry you.”

Jared smiled brightly, “Are you glad I wanted to speak to you about that unspoken thing between us?”

You blushed easily as you giggled, “Can we practice for a baby again?” as you rotate your hips, feeling Jared’s cock swell with arousal. He joined in your laughter as you pushed him flat against the couch. You were finally happy, and satisfied. You could breathe easily for the first time in your life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eight weeks later:

“Hey, how’s the happy couple?” Jensen inquired as he exited his trailer as he spied Y/N walking across the lot.

Hearing Jensen’s voice, you stopped and waited for him to catch up, laughing at the same time, “It is so surreal. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself.”

“Well, you definitely deserve all the happiness in the world,” Jen stated giving you a warm hug filled with love, “I was about to set both of you up on a blind date with each other if Jared didn’t act soon.”

You threw your head back and laughed, “I’m just glad I pulled my head outta my ass. I never knew I could be this happy, this complete. I never doubt that he loves me for who I am, body and all.”

Jensen smiled brightly and knowingly, “There is something you aren’t telling me” as his green eyes twinkled.

Shyly, you glanced down then back up at Jensen and just smirked, “I’ll see you at lunch time.”

You periodically watched the boys filming as you were overseeing the preparation of lunch for the cast and crew. You hurried your assistants along as you heard the director of the week yell for a 45 minute break for lunch.

Anticipation was rumbling in your stomach as you watched your boyfriend and his best friend shed the outer layers of Sam and Dean Winchester in order to be more comfortable while eating.

You smiled brightly as Jared approached quickly, grasping you around the waist and hugging you to his chest. At y/h tall, you were the perfect height for his awesome hugs.

Jared leaned back, looking you in the eyes, as he dipped his head licking his lips before smashing them against yours. You moaned deep in your throat as your arms wrapped around Jared’s waist and slipped your hands into his jean pockets. Your tongues battled each other for dominance.

This continued for a few minutes until you suddenly stumbled as a wave of dizziness hit you. Of course, Jared thought it was because of your heavy makeout session.

“Jay, I need to sit down,” you whispered as you pulled your lips from his, glancing up at him. Jay led you over to one of the many tables set up in the craft services area. He pulled out your chair for you as you slumped down in the seat. You cradled your head in your hands as you felt each roll of dizziness course through you. Soon, the sensations changed to horrible waves of nausea. Suddenly, a can of warm ginger ale was thrusted into your hand. You sighed as you look up gratefully. Jensen was sitting across from you as Jared sat next to you panicking, “I figured you might need that.”

Jared looked at the ginger ale in your hand, “Honey, you are overworking yourself. See, now you are getting sick.”

You waved your hand in front of Jared’s face stopping him from proceeding, “Jar, I’m okay. Seriously, I am.”

“But,” Jared started to respond.

“No buts,” you replied, “I. AM. FINE. I promise you” as your eyes searched his, “In fact, I am more then fine. Remember two months ago when you said you wanted to start a family with me?”

Jared’s eyes widened in excitement. You continued speaking, “Well, after I freaked out about not using protection.”

Jared laughed in response remembering the panic in your voice thinking that he would be upset with you.

Jared angled his body towards you so that he was sitting sideways on the chair. He grasped your small hands in his and nodded for you to continue.

“Do you still feel that way?” You asked timidly. Once in awhile, you forgot that Jared wasn’t the type to yell and scream at you. You were so used to former boyfriends doing that to you that it was a natural reaction. You had slowly been getting better over the past eight weeks with Jared’s confidence in you.

Your boyfriend squeezed your hands, “Of course I do. You know I do. Please don’t ever doubt me.”

“Well, congratulations, in about seven months, we will be a family of three,” you said as you bit your lip in anticipation.

You could see Jensen smile out the corner of your eye, as well as Misha and the rest of the crew.

Jared froze in motion as the words sunk into his brain, “Wha?”

You grabbed Jared’s hand and placed it over your stomach, “I. AM. PREGNANT.”

Jared grinned, “You mean I nailed it on the first try?”

You slapped him across his chest playfully and giggled, “JARED!” As you rolled y/e/c eyes. Suddenly, your demeanor changed as your mind started to wonder.

Jared could see the emotions flittering through your eyes as you processed the onslaught of words running through your brain, “Hey, baby, I know what you are thinking. Don’t. I will always love you no matter what size you are. You are carrying our baby, nurturing him or her, giving them life. You are giving the greatest gift ever besides yourself. Allow yourself to enjoy this. I will be with you every step of the way, through thick and thin, through good and bad, through ups and downs. Always.”

He slid his hand down your face as your eyes teared up in response to Jared’s proclamation, “I love you, Y/N. Now do you think we should plan that wedding now?”

You laughed through your tears as you agreed, “Fuck yeah! I’m ready to be Mrs. Y/N Padalecki.”

“So am I,” Jared assured you as the cast and crew erupted into loud applause. You could feel Jensen move behind Jared and pat him on the back wishing him well then a soft kiss against your cheek as Jensen whispered in your ear, “I am so proud of you. You will always be one of my best friends.”

You squeezed his hand in response as you looked around you at the wonderful family you had become a part of 4 years ago. Never in your wildest dreams did you think you’d be as happy as you are right now. All because of a 6’5” tall hazel eyed Texan.

#Supernatural's Summer of Heroes Challenge #gone-to-fight-the-fairies #part 2 #angst #verbal abuse #crying #unprotected sex #pregnancy

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jadelotusflower · 7 years

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It’s cold in that fridge: The case of Lady Marian

Christmas, 2007. I was among the scores of viewers across the UK tuning in to see the season 2 finale of Robin Hood, which saw the gang trek to the Holy Land on a mission to rescue Marian from the clutches of the Sheriff, and prevent the assassination of Good King Richard™.

There had been rumors and hints that a character would be killed off in the last few episodes and speculation was rife. But almost everyone was shocked when Marian was stabbed, this time fatally, by Guy of Gisborne, married Robin on her deathbed and was buried in the sands of Acre to show that this was no fakeout and she was really, truly dead - although this did not stop people clamoring for an “it was all a dream” reveal just to bring her back.

But nope, welcome to the fridge, Marian.

To say that people were angry would be an understatement - the BBC was flooded with complaints and the rumor mill was strong - arguments were made that Lucy Griffiths wanted to leave the show, because why else would they kill off such a beloved character, one of the only two female regulars on a show, and not only one of the defining, enduring aspects of the Robin Hood legend, but a fantastic character in her own right. Lets take a look at some of the comments just on the BBC website:

My 6 year old daughter was in floods of tears.

BBC and Tiger Aspect have traumatized millions of children with Marian’s death.

They ruined the show when they killed marian, SORRY BBC…..I will not watch the third series.

The decision to kill Marian was gratuitous sensationalism - designed for headlines not for the (young) audience.

Killing Marian off is senseless and has obviously upset many children, let alone me and I’m an adult!

The ending was a huge disappointment and I’ve never seen my family in so many tears!

My daughters are devastated! The main reason they watched Robin Hood was to see Marian, I can’t imagine they (and many other 7 year old girls) will want to watch a series without her.

Horrible! My children and I watch the show and to see the looks on their faces when Marian died….I will NEVER watch this show again.

Basically:

and

Of course, devastation and fan outrage are common whenever any popular character is killed off, but Marian’s death in particular seemed to strike people very deeply not only in fandom, but in the general audience.

It’s important to remember that Robin Hood was conceived as a family friendly show - it occupied the pre-watershed Saturday night timeslot when Doctor Who was in the off season, and Marian was a character that many young viewers, particularly young girls, looked up to. It was shocking for them to see their heroine killed, and many of the complaints, while indulging in a bit of “won’t someone think of the children”- was not without foundation - it’s clear that many a tear was shed over Marian by viewers who’d tuned in for a fun, all-ages retelling of the Robin Hood legend and instead saw Marian impaled. Even in Australia, when the finale aired many, many months later, I read letters in the tv guide lamenting Marian’s demise and the effect it had on their daughters. It’s important to note that many of these viewers would not return for season 3.

But shocking as it was, maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised. This was, after all, a Classic Fridging. Women killed in horrible way? Check. Excessive manpain? Check and check. The male character(s) story/conflict driven by female character’s death? Check and check again.

But what makes the death of Marian somewhat different from your average fridging was her status as a folk heroine. Marian is an integral part of the Robin Hood legend and we’ve seen her in many iterations - from Olivia DeHavilland to cartoon vixen. This version of Marian, in particular, was entirely suitable for a modern re-telling; she was a capable fighter, smart and strategic, chaffed against society’s expectations for her, and was a hero in her own right as the Nightwatchman. Her goals were aligned with Robin’s, but her agenda was her own.

So there was a double backlash - against the killing of this Marian in particular, and against killing Marian in general, in what was seen as a dishonour to her iconic status. Many of the comments in the article linked above speak of disrespect to the legend, to folklore. Whatever else may change in a Robin Hood story to adapt to changing times, we expect there to remain some constants, and one of those is that Marian lives. Whether she goes on to marry Robin in that church in Edwinstowe is of less relevance, what is important is Marian’s status as an iconic, feminist figure who the viewer desperately wants to see get their happy ending, because she is not a tragic figure, but a transformative one, the May Queen.

These stories and characters have such power that a complete subversion of them without warning, and for no real purpose is upsetting, and not in the “wow, what a twist, I can’t wait to see what happens next” way the showrunners desired.

(At this point I should also mention that Marian was also killed off in Once Upon a Time, but the less said about that trainwreck of a storyline, the better.)

It came out later that Marian’s death in fact a showrunner decision, and while Richard Armitage has been free in expressing his displeasure in the outcome, producers Dominic Minghella and Fox Allen were unrepentant, if not completely tone deaf:

Minghella - Her position was to an extent untenable in that, without a father to protect, she no longer had reason to pretend she was “on-side” with the Sheriff and Gisborne. There was no reason not to declare her affiliation, and affection, for Robin. So she did. There was no way Gisborne could allow that. He would rather kill her than let Robin have her. So he did.That was the core logic. Marian’s days were numbered once her father died.

MARIAN’S DAYS WERE NUMBERED ONCE HER FATHER DIED.

Here we have a textbook example of why fridging is part of a larger issue in how female characters are written. Marian’s role, in Mighella’s view, was the spy in the castle and object of affection, and when that role ended so did her life. Male Writer Logic. There was literally no other story left for Marian except to remain the focal point of the Love Triangle and that she could easily remain in death. Except, you know, the myriad of other, infinitely more interesting storylines they could have explored, such as Marian joining Robin’s gang in the forest, Marian marrying Guy and still trying to work the inside, Marian striking out on her own - any of the plethora of scenarios that have since been explored in fanfic.

That’s not even getting to the gross assertion that once Sir Edward died, Marian by necessity wasn’t far behind. Really, Marian had NO other reason to remain a spy once her father died? A character who created an alter-ego in the Nightwatchman to “go to war against poverty” who declared that “England needs me” and who tried to kill the Sheriff to stop him from killing the king? Nope, her only driving force was a desire to protect her father, and she could have no other motive for pretending to remain on the Sheriff’s side.

This is something I will always believe no matter what denials or counter-arguments are made: they wrote themselves into a corner with the love triangle and took the easy way out. This way they could still write Robin and Guy fighting over Marian but didn’t have to worry about her pesky feelings or agency. They didn’t have to worry about her at all, they could just let the male characters grieve and brood and fight over her, without Marian actually being present, without them needing to have her make a choice. This way, Marian can remain the object of the love triangle rather than an active participant.

It’s laziness, pure and simple. Far from shaking things up, it’s taking the cliche-ridden, well-travelled path of the hero and the antagonist at each other’s throats, so sad over the death of the woman they loved, each able to memorialise her as they wish.

Minghella again - There were several considerations in play. The main one was that after 20+ episodes, the show was in danger of getting stuck. We needed to shake up the world. Whenever we tried to move away from the ‘format’ of Sheriff chasing Robin/Outlaws break into Castle it didn’t quite work… and yet at the same time we were worried about repeating ourselves ad nauseam. Marian’s demise also seemed to me inevitable once we had taken away her father. His role was pivotal in that it kept Marian in the castle, for fear of repercussions against her Dad, and meant she could not run off with Robin and declare her hand. Once he was gone, she had no reason not to go off with the outlaws. That felt to me like a potentially uninteresting place for Marian and Robin – there would be no barrier, no tension, leaving room only for bickering about strategy.

As a Robin/Marian fan, I find this particularly egregious. I hate that it’s “uninteresting” to explore the dynamic between a couple once they’ve gotten together, especially characters like Robin and Marian who, let’s face it, have Issues™ and Marian in the forest would certainly not remove any tension between them - if anything the opposite would be true.

But far worse is viewing Marian only in terms of her relationships with the male characters - her father, Robin, and Guy. Even if they felt they had nothing further to explore in Robin and Marian’s relationship, that doesn’t mean they didn’t have anything further to explore with Marian herself. Losing her home and father, learning to live in the forest and be one of “the gang”, and likely being ill-suited to such a role, continuing her work as the Nightwatchman, growing closer with some of the outlaws and likely having tension with others. How would Much and Marian learn to live with each other, for example? Would she become the person in Allan’s corner, having grown to know him better in the castle? Would she and Djaq have grown close and become the female friend likely neither of them ever had before? Would she threaten Robin’s leadership, convinced that she could do better?

But no, she no longer has a father to protect, her role as spy/fooling Gisborne is finished, and she declares her love and allegiance to Robin. There’s nothing left for her to do, except die. Male Writer Logic.

This is the ultimate sin of fridging, not only because it removes a female character from our screens, but because it diminishes that character, making her worth and value dependent on the men in her life and not even conceiving that she could lead a story of her own. It’s “shock value” to “shake up” the narrative, to explore what “losing the thing he loves most” does to the male lead. It becomes about grief, rage, and revenge, and no longer about the female character at all.

The worst thing? Marian was a fully realised character - bold, brave, capable, flawed. She didn’t always do the right thing or make the right choices, she could be stubborn and prideful and reckless, but she was always interesting.

She had so much more to give.

#my gang to me 2017 #lady marian #robin hood bbc #it's cold in that fridge #the salt chronicles

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