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blacklodgemusictx · 11 months

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The thing about plans is: they necessitate optimism. You have to assume the world will keep turning for long enough to get to the plans in... The Future.

Three months ago, I went, "We should see the Pool Kids"... in Ohio! Somehow it made sense to fly 1200 miles to see them on a Thursday versus the normal hoops I have to jump through to see any band here in Texas (Austin and Denton are a Tuesday and a Wednesday. Any time I see a show in Texas, due to the fact that I live nowhere anyone would ever want to come on purpose, there is always extra time off to be requested for drive time -- 3ish hours for Denton, 4 hrs one way for Austin).

"Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go on Tour" also represents the Pool Kids' first foray out on the world as... headliners (starry eyes.)

I didn't write about the Pool Kids back in March. I should have. It would be a lot easier now to describe what they mean to me if I had.

The Pool Kids are a delightful anomaly in my own history. I discovered them 100% on my own. No outside influence what so ever. Doug and I simply lamented one night in late 2018/early 2019 that we really needed to find something closer by to do. Maybe something is happening close by and we don't even know it! Something that won't require... taking off time from WORK?! So I got on Spotify and searched for bands touring nearby -- within a 100 mile radius (Dallas is 186 miles). I looked at the results: someone called the Pool Kids. In San Angelo. 91 miles!!

They were the *only* band not wearing cowboy hats in their profile picture.

They're new (at the time) album was called "Music to Practice Safe Sex To." Ok. I put it on for a listen. Girl singer. Ugh. Not my thing. But anything to block out the random bullshit background noise in my office. I play it through. Eh. Doesn't Grab me.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

But time passes... brain says, "lizzz.... lizzz listen to that album again... lizzzz" Yes, brain, I do as you command.

And it grabs me.

It grabs me hard.

And I *love* it. I don't know why. I'm big on understandable lyrics. And I can't say I understand half of what is being said. But the melodies are gorgeous. I get goosebumps. Whatever she's talking about it, it's sad... and contemplative. And angry ("I should rip your throat out for what you've done to me...") Her voice is low for the most part. Something I've only learned about myself recently is I tend toward listening to voices that sound closer to my own and I'm a contralto.

When I look in to the band, I'm told it's "math rock." I have no fucking clue what that means (musicians have explained it to me: Complex time signatures. Key changes. Sounds like a new definition of "prog" to me. Close, the musicians tell me, but not quite.) Whatever. Don't make me label a thing. And for sure if you tell me it's "math rock" and then assume I will like other kinds of "math rock" I will refuse on principle. I pride myself on being harder to define in my tastes than that.

The reality? My finger is placed squarely on it later. "oooOOOOooo I see!" Hayley Williams from Paramore acknowledges and gives them props at some point... *that's* it. They remind me of the Paramore appreciation I gleaned from my time as a too-old-to-admit-it-Twihard. Simple.

We absolutely go to the San Angelo gig. Doug and I are easily the oldest people there -- old enough to be these kids' parents easily. The "De Nada" is a artsy thrift store during the day. At night, they push the clothing racks and other offerings against the wall and become a venue.

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five bands. They all sort of run together. The only one I remember is a band from New Orleans. The lead singer is wearing a ruffly shirt and I'm pretty sure he wants to be the Vampire LeStat when he grows up. He does weird acrobatics. Somersaults? Paints his face with red lipstick.

The Pool Kids wail.

I am floored. They are actually kids (something you must know about me is I've been approximately 200 years old since I was in high school... I would have acknowledged their youth even if they had been OLDER than me at that point.) But the amount of rock they bring is amazing, jaw dropping. Lead singer Christine, SHREADS, does that "up-on-the-neck tapping" guitar thing I only saw as a kid stealing glances at MTV when Mom wasn't around (baby cousin posted look out at the door... promptly and cheerfully narc'd on me for doing something I wasn't supposed to).

I have a couple videos from that night on YouTube. One example being:

youtube

We talk to them after. Doug wants to know about their influences. In the accidentally condescending way my brain works, since I’ve been 200 years old this whole time… I am interested to hear what they say. How do you cultivate that amount of raw power and instrument mastery at that age? The only thing I remember being mentioned was Pink Floyd.

Nice.

I come prepared. I cashed out my Christmas money before coming. Pretending to be a baller, I fan out the cash and buy as much of their merch as possible. It was $100, but the way all their eyes lit up, I felt important. And I loved it. I think Christine hugged me. I don’t really remember. I hope that got them lots of van gas and hot meals as they continued on their way… bringing the good news of rock to other points of the compass.

I was now flush with copies of their album. I sent one to Salim and one to Sue Harshe – a friend we made on a pilgrimage to see Scrawl (godmothers of riot grrl — look them up!) in Knoxville in 2015.

Fast forward…

Life changing time with Salim on the road Feb 2020… two last shows: Caroline’s Spine in Tulsa… And the Pool Kids in Houston. March 2020. On an impressive bill with the Wonder Years. Bigger! Poised for up up up bigger and better things.

Then the world ended.

But it got better….

(didn’t it?)

We saw them in Dallas this March at Amplified Live.

And I cried.

Not just a quiet trickle from the corner of my eye.

I cried hard. There they were. Rocking. Bigger and better. Christine working the crowd like a young Bono at Red Rocks. Coming in to herself. Coming into themselves as young rock gods. Master of the stage. Master of all they survey. I was just so in love with what I was seeing and hearing. So proud of them. So happy that we as humans were back. Able to watch a show like this and just be together again. Maybe everything would be ok after all.

I talked to Nicolette (complete bass domination — Doug commented much later that she seems to have the most fun performing on stage of anyone he’s ever seen… and his history as a fine appreciator of rock is ten years longer than mine) at the merch table later. Tried to get myself under control. Still had an embarrassing hitch in my throat. I have seen a LOT of good performances before, but none that have gotten that kind of response before.

She remembers me. I know not a huge amount of time has passed, but in their history and progression as a band and our progression as a now traumatized people… millennia has passed.

I am touched.

So now we are back up to current. They are headlining. Of course they are. They deserve every bit of this. Again I swell with pride though… I’ve backed a winning horse. This is rare. Usually when I love you, you break up (RIP People in Planes).

The deciding factor that made us pick Ohio though was two fold: first date of the tour and where it was: ACE OF CUPS. Ace of Cups was owned by the other half of Scrawl, Marcy Mays (what I didn’t know at the time was that Marcy no longer owns it as of the end of 2022.)

I Facebook squeal. Sue, I tag, can I take ANY sort of credit for this? She agrees that I can, but without elaboration. I don’t know if the credit comes in the fact that I just love them THAT much and have therefore done that “manifesting” thing I keep hearing about. I have WISHED this in to existence. In my happy mind movie though, back in 2019, Sue passes the album on to Marcy. Marcy agrees that they wail. Mentions as ownership of Ace of Cups passes from her, that the Pool Kids are really amazing and if they come by, you should totally get them. Pool Kids acquired.

Perhaps best to just enjoy my happy mind movies and not require further elaboration.

Back to present-present.

Flying always seems like such a doable thing until you (I) are there. I forgot my calm-down pills. The little white bits of magic that make the anxiety grey out for a few hours. There’s also that lull where you watch your airport gate fill up. Maybe *this* time the flight won’t be full.

It’s always full.

Leg one is to Atlanta. Short layover.

Text from Salim, “Can you talk at some point today?”

Literally, right now. This is the most available I will be all day.

So he calls. He’s had a health set back (read his Facebook… I never know what I’m allowed to talk about when it comes to other people.) Our trip that was on the books for the 07/21-07/27 with Rhett {Miller} is off. Off 100% sure? I am just trying to clarify for the purpose of undoing plans. But the voice that lives in my head and constantly tells me I’m an asshole pipes up. Way to make it about you. Jerk. He’s poorly and you are asking if the trip really, truly is off. That’s not what I meant. It’s never what I mean.

I am able to cancel all the hotels and get credit for the plane fare before we even line queue up for next boarding.

I have always had a sense for when something is meant to happen. I didn’t feel like this trip was a good idea. Salim is a big proponent for listening to the universe when it tells you something. I try to be too. We were all meant to stay here for now. I hate that he had to have something health related happen, but in the end… I think we will all realize we were supposed to stay home. Whether I get sick, or Doug, or one of the cats. Something will happen to make me go, “Oh. Here it is. I hear you, universe.” For Salim, I think his prescription is stillness. He is the most go-go-go person I know. He never stops swimming. Something wants him to stop swimming for right now.

This is ok. Seriously. I don’t mind and the only thing I am worried about is my friend.

So we board for hop to. Columbus. Our destination.

The flight is not bad. I feel optimistic. Maybe soon I will master my fear. Fly all the time like it’s not a big deal… maybe make an international jaunt before too long — an idea I’ve never entertained before.

We land at two-ish. Haven’t eaten. There’s a Bob Evans in our hotel’s parking lot. I’ve never been to a Bob Evans. It feels sort of like a Dennified Cracker Barrel. I don’t eat much. I drink even less (there’s that foreshadowing thing again).

We go back to our room and sleep. It’s good sleep. The bed is soft, but not too soft. We wake up at 6:30. Venue is a mile away. Doors at 7.

I primp a bit. No makeup this time. Though it’s easily 25 degrees cooler here than home and there are perceptible dark clouds that might mean a bit of rain if we behave ourselves. I could have worn makeup, but it doesn’t matter.

The venue… there’s that twinge in my chest again. It’s worse this time. But I am delighted. The stage is dark and light chevrons, the backdrop: red curtains. There’s a recognizable symbol on the wall (the thing that looks like an ant’s head with antennae on either side). This is what BLM would have looked like. We HAD the red curtains purchased — they are in our dining room now. The chevron design is a rug … that’s still rolled up in a corner and hasn’t been touched for a year now. Someone else is like me. They know. Again I don’t know if that was Marcy or the new owners and it doesn’t matter if I ask. It still exists. If I managed to walk any further back past the stage… there probably would’ve been owls. Schrodinger’s venue. By not exploring further, it contains all possibilities.

The first band is Chase Petra (the second is Sydney Sprague per the tour poster.) I didn’t look either up ahead of time. I have never given much credence to the idea that I could be influenced to love just by proximity to the band I came to see… but I instantly recognize this idea as false: I got Salim from being an opener. I got Jesse and Landon from Salim… sight unseen.

And I love them both.

Chase Petra is amazing. They are young and saucy. They have attitude. In keeping with the name of the tour, emphasis on “girls.” Chase Petra are 3/4 girl. And all power. The vibe is similar to the Pool Kids. A strong, young, shredding female vocalist, but the show stopper was the other guitarist. She was an eighties hair metal rock god reincarnate. All flying fingers and whipping hair.

It’s so FUCKING LOUD. The hair on my arms vibrates, my heart doesn’t know when to beat, my stomach vibrates.

I love them. The audience loves them too and shouts along with most of their songs.

Band two: Sydney Sprague. They are older. The bass player wears a neckerchief like Fred from Scooby Doo and commands a Moog in between bass slinging duties. The singer is all in black and reminds me of me. Same dark hair style and cut I kept in high school. She’s got a sweet voice, higher than the other girls on the bill. Their performance is a little more low key, but no less powerful. They are a fantastic, cohesive unit in total control of their art.

Someone further to my left up front has brought huge bunches of roses. One for each band. Chase Petra’s bunch lives on stage by their set list, Sydney receives hers like a beauty queen. All blushing and sweet thanks. “Fred” leans over and buries his nose in the bouquet for a moment.

Finally, the moment draws close. I am keenly aware that I am running out of time. I have spent energy enjoying the first two bands. I will pay for this. My spine continues to grind itself to sand, as I assume it will for the rest of my life. I have already remarked that it’s “hot in here.” Liz, it’s not, Doug says. Not good. I’ve had a total of maybe 4 ounces to drink today. All in the name of easier travel.

I’ve taken small moments in between each band to sit on the edge of the stage. I know I will eventually hinder something to do with the bands and their myriad cables and plugs, or the imposing young doorman with the impressive afro will come along and tell me to get up.

Neither.

It’s Nicolette the lovely bass player again. “Excuse me, I have to get in here,” I was sitting on a blank plate that ended up covering electrical sockets. I touch her shoulder. She looks at me. Ah, there’s the recognition. She’s glad to see me.

She puts out the setlist. I’m excited. But filled with dread. I have to last this long. I have to fight my own body for 12 songs and I’m already flagging… but it’s starting and I can’t think about it now.

Their entrance music is… “Sandstorm” and I’m dying. I’m ready to rave. But the music stops abruptly. Starts again. But the moment is gone. Oh well. They tried.

Christine is wearing white platform go go boots, short skirt, fishnets, midi top. Nicolette has an equally short skirt, neckerchief too, but there’s nothing Scooby Doo about hers. I don’t know where to look. I don’t know what I’m supposed to think. They look amazing. Someone on TikTok later declares, “Their fits!!!” Fits… ‘fits… outfits? That has to be it. Woman have been weaponizing their sexuality since woman were admitted to the boys club that is rock music. Courtney Love’s ripped baby doll dresses and bruised innocence, L7 and… throwing… stuff… on stage, performing in bikinis, performing in too little, too much. Anything open for interpretation and therefore derision or scorn. But sexualizing is not cool anymore. I don’t know what kind of commentary I am allowed on this subject, but I am left echoing the same cry, “their fits!!” Their oufits, they are “fit”, they are there and raw and breathtakingly sexual and powerful. You don’t stare at the sun either, but you’ve done it. You’ve dared.

I also have a revelation. Role models. These people are amazing, iconic. I take a moment to bless the proliferation of media I’ve cursed in past. If I had access to these kinds of strong female role models as a teen, my life would have been completely different. I wouldn’t have let my mother’s flat declaration, “You aren’t good at music. PICK SOMETHING ELSE.” Turn me from my fated course.

It makes me happy that social media is exposing young people to bands like the ones on this bill. There’s hope for the future.

They open with “Swallow,” one of the songs on my revised Ketamine playlist. There’s a bit of treated vocal that is the absolutely definition of why music is good. Music should give you that thrill like sticking your head out of the window of a moving car. That drop in your stomach. Momentary breathlessness.

Can’t put my finger on it Don’t know what makes it so appealing I’m not begging for your affection I’m just addicted to the feeling…

Two songs in. Time for the third. How many people here were around for our first album – Music to Practice Safe Sex to? ME!! MEEEEeeeeeEEEE…. I scream. You can hear it on the video. I should be embarrassed. I’m too old to be reacting like this. But I got such a late start…

The music doesn’t know the social constructs of age or sex… it just knows what feels good.

The “Safe Sex” portion of the show is two songs long. This makes me sad. You never forget the album you came in on. It’s a much more forlorn sounding album though. I know from Salim that the forlorn ones don’t get people dancing. But “Patterns,” ah… I would have lost my mind for “Patterns.”

And I spent one too many nights banging my head against the wall to hear another voice telling me that I’m doing something wrong So excommunicate me You’re no better than the fucked up doctrine that sent me running to your doorstep in the first place

Fucked up doctrine. My youth is fucked up doctrine. My memories are tainted by it. I still wonder how they can wield so much word power at such a young age, but then again these struggles are as old as the generations. As long as their have been the elder and the younger, the subjugator and the subjugated, rulers, oppressed, one group will chafe against the other. It hurts the heart, grinds down the soul… but it makes the music amazing.

We make art, music, poetry, to feel hope.

I make it almost to the end… almost… Talk Too Much: Christine does the young Bono thing and goes out in to the crowd. Several times a mini mosh pit has broken out right where she is. At some point, someone flicks beer on us… at least I hope it was beer. Ugh. I am done. The anesthetized feeling starts in my finger tips.

I am going to pass out.

I mouth to Doug, “I have to go. NOW.” I head for the stool previously occupied by the imposing young doorman. I lay my head on the counter for a second. I wait to be booted off. I’ve been doing this for years. I’ve passed out, tried to pass out, and all stages in between for years, in myriad venues in cities all across the US. I like to be in the front. My constitution takes issue with this. But I do it anyway.

I try to gesture to Doug: thumb at my lips, fingers curved around an invisible cup. Drink. Please I need water. But there are too many people.

Next best thing: air. I lurch out the door and land on the pavement beside the door. The Kids are launching in to an encore. I can’t heard what it is. Doug is on his phone summoning the Uber. Imposing Young Doorman Man appears… with a cup of ice water in his hand. THANK YOU, DEAR BLESSING, SIR! You have no idea how many people normally just go, ‘YOU — you can’t sit there!’ (Hi, La Zona Rosa in Austin… the scuzzy incarnation not the gentrified one) even though I’m pretty sure if you kick me out of your establishment while swooning and I faceplant on the cement, I could sue you. Or something.

People aren’t normally friendly about it because they assume I drank too much… when it’s the opposite: I didn’t drink at all.

The Uber appears and we are whiskered away. I still couldn’t hear what the encore was. But I’m not sad. I got most of it and it was AMAZING. Nicolette saw me so I exist. Mission accomplished.

We are back in the hotel. Doug orders Denny’s Doordash. The thing about prolonged exposure to sonic assault is: nausea. Nothing sounds good. Until Doug says… macaroni and cheese. And I know EXACLTY what kind Denny’s has because I’ve noticed it on the menu before. It doesn’t lie. It doesn’t pretend to be something else. It is real: really Kraft boxed mac… and at that moment it sounds like the AMBROSIA of the GODS.

Which is exactly what it tastes like.

I am replenished. The gods of rock are appeased for another night …

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rappaccini · 12 days

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.......... kingdom of the planet of the apes thoughts

noa

great new protagonist. excited to see how he evolves as a character. he's definitely The New Caesar, but his gentler personality is a welcome change.

damn somebody else CAN actually hit the andy serkis notes for playing an ape. props to this actor.

glad he isn't caesar's descendant and that his clan's totally apart from caesar's tribe. thank you for expanding the world instead of star warsing it. -- and for calling out the obsession with nostalgia via proximus.

his arc was great. questioning the state of things and wanting something better should hopefully spell good things for the development of the ape society in the reboots. more on that in a sec.

that or he's about to have one hell of a disillusionment arc.

these movies keep coming up with clever ways to distinguish their ape characters. the bald spot, green eyes and armband being his thing are his.

his tribe and their eagle culture is fascinating. the concept of apes using abandoned skyscrapers as towers for bird husbandry comes from a history channel documentary i remember watching as a kid and i love seeing it pop up here.

even the eagle song, which could've been so cheesy, works in context.

even his name is so well thought-out. noa as in noah, who guides people through a flood; which noa does at the climax. and noa as in 'no', the first word an ape spoke out loud in the first trilogy, which is paralleled when mae shouts his name- the first word a human speaks in the second trilogy.

.... anaya and soona were certainly there.

the soona romance felt out of nowhere. like oh ok so the one girl in the friend group is the future gf. we're doing that. fine.

and all that just so her designated bf can emotionally cheat on her with a human for two more movies. girl. get out of there now.

yes i think noa and mae had chemistry. pota is a franchise that simply does interspecies romance. a lot. you just have to roll with it if you're gonna be here.

i was wondering when that would make it to the movies again, and it seems like they're trying to see how much they can get away with.

like it's 100% intentional that they have young adults who aren't married and have no kids as the pro and deuteragonist in this trilogy. they know about the chemistry. they animated him checking her out like that on purpose. they made them co-leads for a reason. they did a parallel to the "NO" scene in rise with mae calling noa's name. they gave mae a beat of jealousy when she learned about him and soona. he's catching her on horseback and giving her a token of clothing from his clan. he's unable to choose between his childhood sweetheart and the girl he's been traveling with for weeks. there's a layer of innuendo in the climb to access the military silo that had me cackling.

they know what they're doing.

it's probably not gonna be a literal ship, more like a symbolic one. i don't want them to kiss or fuck or say i love you i want them to stare at each other, obsess over each other, debate the nature of humanity and sentience, touch foreheads, save each other, try to kill each other and die in each other's arms. they're gonna make their symbolic breakup everybody's problem.

general worldbuilding thoughts

maybe it's just that i've been getting back into fantasy but there's a very... familiar vibe to the rhythms of the story. a noble prince, a fat goofy monk and a belle dam sans merci setting off to fight an evil king. but it's apes!

damn we're really so desperate for gay rep that we're taking raka saying "he was my village" about a guy he was close to and running with it huh

(👀 at noa and mae encountering another unconventional couple. it just keeps stacking up.)

okay. then we have to talk about how the only possibly queer character is the guy who can't even admit that he's gay even though none of the characters should have a problem with it, who drowns halfway through the movie. and is played by the only person of color in the main cast. oh so i guess these apes aren't that different huh.

no this is such a gripe i have with pota reboot worldbuilding. the apes are starting a new civilization... and building it like humans. everyone's straight, even though bonobos are famously up for anything and even chimps, orangutans and gorillas have been known to get gay. apparently monogomous mates are a thing even though apes don't do that. all power is held by male characters, even though bonobos are matriarchal, orangutans wouldn't give a shit either way and female chimps may not lead their troops but they sure as shit don't hide at home with the babies. yeah okay ~they don't have to behave like their species~ but... isn't that a missed opportunity? if you're going to build a new society based on a species of animal, wouldn't it be more interesting to build it around how those animals behave? or at least do something different than the same system we have?

at least this reboot doesn't fridge any of the female characters. was sure noa's mom and soona were toast. still think they won't make it to the end of this trilogy but they got through part 1.

.... so are gibbons evolved too. i think raka mentioned gibbons. wtf would that be like. skinny little dudes with big voices. can we meet some.

mae

a great deuteragonist. another gripe i had about the caesar trilogy was how male-centric it was. no seriously i was sitting in the theater ten years ago watching dawn, thinking, those humans could've sent a team of women up to restart the dam and this whole mess could've been different because koba's specifically triggered by the presence of men. because men were the people abusing him. (and because bonobos follow the females in the group)

not a coincidence that when the apes adopt a human into their tribe, it's a little girl.

so kotpota having a female deuteragonist was very needed and even something as small as noa's mom being a leader figure was too. the bar's in hell. don't love soona being The Designated Girlfriend, and mae only interacting with guys though. please let her interact with women.

seeing kingdom actually use that angle, of apes being calmer and more accepting of women than men, and having mae exploit that with those puppy eyes? oh that was smart. even if they didn't realize they were writing it that way i'll take it.

another smart detail: the bunker being in the plains. humans were grassland apes. makes sense that would be where they'd continue to exist, and where the other species would avoid.

adding onto that: humans are good swimmers compared to other primates. wish more was done with that given how much of the story revolves around being near water. i'm just saying i wish we got a scene where mae casually swims across the river while raka and noa are like. trying to inch their way over a fallen tree or something. different apes are good at different things. let's see more of that.

anyway love the mae twist. love that she isn't an astronaut-- but is setting in motion events that will lead to their return. and that there are pockets of intelligent humans out there.

extremely funny that she keeps accumulating dirt and has the rattiest side braid. this girl simply does not bathe.

i am staring hard at the implications behind mae always wearing eagle clan blue after she accepts noa's mom's blanket. it's the blanket, then the shirt, then the poncho. hm.

i'm wondering if there are in fact cultures where humans and apes are living together peacefully. or if this is the story of how one is created.

regardless it looks like the conflict's going to shape up to be humans trying to reclaim earth and apes fighting to maintain their new lead. cool.

still annoying that even in the apocalypse women have tweezed eyebrows and hairless armpits. okay.

i'm so curious about mae. how much of her backstory was true and how much was a lie. her group being massacred was clearly true, but her mother being dead may not be. she's clearly isolated from the bunker civilization given that she isn't allowed inside, so is she just... alone. unable to go home again. do they think she's contaminated. is she going to be stuck outside alone in a hostile world for years until the next movie comes out. what's going on there.

anyway the foiling of her and noa is great. smart but naive rule-following son of the chief who's never had a hard day in his life, vs bitter manipulative grimy girl who grew up in constant fear. that's juicy. he can fix her! she can make him worse!

she's clearly not evil. she's just been through some shit. you can see the wheels turning in her head as she realizes raka and noa are genuinely kind, and where her fears about apes are coming from when she literally watches them hunt other humans for sport, had her group murdered by them last week and just narrowly escaped being killed by them. her paranoia and bitterness is actually justified. when she lies to noa, it's because she has good reason to fear him and her distrust of him is well-founded. when she blows up the dam to destroy the weapons inside the vault, it was the right move because proximus absolutely would have used them to enslave more apes. and when she conceals that she has the gun, i don't blame her. (also worth noting that she takes the smallest one in the locker and leaves the rest)

... love that she's the one who made the choice for noa about ~which girl will you choose to kill~. nah bitch. she's choosing YOU.

and she WAS honest to noa about what she wanted from the bunker. dude's not gonna get what a hard drive is, so "book that lets us speak" WAS accurate.

(... very clever of the movie to have noa and co pick up a book of abcs, aka, a book that teaches you how to translate letters into sounds, and see images of apes in cages. the misunderstanding makes sense: he thinks she was here for that. and symbolically, she kind of is.)

the mission she's on IS that serious. fuck yeah getting the satellites working so we can speak to other survivors is worth taking all those risks.

.... and fuck yeah it's gonna lead to some conflict. gonna be interesting to see what mae does when that breaks out.

if she's getting a redemption arc, i love it. if she's about to turn into a tragic villain, i love it.

she's the koba of this trilogy.

(... and since koba was gay as hell for caesar. you know that that means.)

proximus

great villain. great personality. great example of the apes getting in on serfdom and organized religion. he's got an immortan joe flavoring that's exciting.

i know i'm the only person who gives a shit about this but noa should absolutely have been a bonobo and proximus should've been a chimp. putting aside that we're really doing that Good Chimp Evil Bonobo shit again... the softboy from a pacifistic clan being a bonobo just makes more sense because bonobos are the peaceful apes. like yeah ~they don't have to be exactly like the species they're based on~ but when are we gonna get a good bonobo depiction. why is every bonobo an evil wannabe dictator.

and the violent caesar wannabe being a literal chimp and using that heritage to try to claim an inherent connection to the ape messiah feels like a missed opportunity.

especially when you consider that the bronze age apes are already starting to take after humans in their social structure: the apes, all on their own, just invented organized religion, monks, animal husbandry, kingdoms, patriarchy and raiding parties that capture and forcibly convert other tribes to make them into slave labor.

... odds are speciesism is next. it's already there with the humans. how long's it gonna take before they start insisting that certain apes can only serve certain roles in society. we already have it as a given that the chimp Must Be The Protagonist and the bonobo Must Be The Antagonist, that the always-male gorilla's the enforcer, and that the orangutan's always a chill smart guy. what happens if someone doesn't fit that caste system, or if the system fragments into tribes that don't mix species. probably not anything good.

... at what point are we gonna talk about how humans are apes too. it's not the 60s anymore, let's go into that.

or how we really needed to expand the 'proximus wants to be like humans and that's why he's bad' theme to 'any ape that becomes as evolved socially as humans will end up emulating human civilization in all its best and worst ways because humanity isn't the problem, power is'

i hope we still get there. the reboot spent an entire trilogy building up how human apes are and how apelike humans are; let's see the lines start to blur.

anyway frank gallagher being his human advisor was fun. proximus has a real king louie vibe that's funny and eerie.

did proximus and frank gallagher explore each others bodies

of course this fucker's obsessed with the roman empire.

.... still think there's a missed opportunity. like. think about it: proximus wants to be human and is obsessed with evolution and speeding ahead through it by any means necessary. and with bringing an intelligent female human to his court alive and mostly unharmed, and keeping her in a gilded cage. and his manservant's warning said human female captive that whatever the fuck proximus wants with her, it might be worse than death.

all i'm saying is, when proximus literally pulled a 'bathe her and bring her to me' and had her eating at his table as he was breathing down her neck right in front of the guy who has a crush on her who he's trying to break the spirit of, talking about speedrunning evolution and how superior he thinks humans are, preening about how he's made himself a kingdom, sneering about how interesting it is when humans and apes pair up, and. uh. the innuendo in him saying he wants to speed up evolution by forcing his way into an enclosed chamber that's important to mae that she desperately wants to keep him away from that she insists is only for humans (... which she will let a different ape into anyway later that night by clinging to noa as he... you know. gets her there. as they're soaking wet.)

look i was waiting for him to drop the bombshell that he's looking for a human queen and has decided that he wants mae.

you know what that implies.

i wish they'd gone there. it's not even new territory for this franchise!

it would've given mae a visceral reason to snap necks and blow shit up that the audience would understand a lot easier than amorphous ~mistrust of the apes~ -- you really needed a concrete example of what mae personally is afraid of, and this was the best opportunity to give her that while disrupting as little of the story as possible. it would've taken one line of dialogue and maybe one gesture from him to pull that off.

it hammers in that proximus really does want to repeat the worst aspects of human civilization. which contrasts him to noa, a chance to do things differently. the law is wrong, and whatnot. what's the point of starting over if you're going to do it all the same.

it gives proximus another level of menace. fast way to switch the audience's perception from 'he's a dick but he's fun to watch' to 'oh yeah this guy needs to die.'

and since you're clearly playing with interspecies relationships, you gotta establish that they're going to start happening. this would've been a good opportunity to say "yes, we're going there" and show the audience what a bad one would look like, so they can recognize that the good one is different.

predictions.

... ok so beneath the planet of the apes is next, right? and then conquest to close out the middle chapter trilogy?

my wild guess is they'll focus on mae and her bunker people to contrast noa and his clan, and they'll have a female human antagonist to balance out the male bonobo. possibly dichen lachman's character.

maybe they'll drop a male human love interest in for mae to balance things out. another layer of plausible deniability. also it would be extremely funny if he and soona met and were like 'wait a damn minute'

… if they’re really doing a beauty and the beast, what if he’s the gaston figure

and to really drive the foils home, this time noa's gonna have trust issues and instigate the shady fuckup that results in the climax.

and then in the third, there'll be another war that the apes, in some form, will win. and noa and mae will either be trying to prevent it or leading their factions into a death spiral. fun either way.

they won't ever Go There with them being a couple. like no way would they have the balls to do it, and soona being the out-of-nowhere gf for noa pretty much confirms it. unless she's fridged. (man i hope she dumps him)

but their dynamic's got that vibe for a reason. i wouldn't be shocked if they ride that ambiguity through the trilogy and then have their historical interpretations in poto 7-9 be assumed to have been a couple, the same way caesar's been reinterpreted-- either the story of a human-ape relationship that made it possible for their species to live together, or a cautionary tale about Why We Do Not Mix. or springing some indication that the first human-ape hybrid came from them after the credits roll on the third movie, assuming they survive it. which i doubt.

part of me really fucking wonders if the twist for this reboot's going to be that apes and humans DO find a way to live together and noa and mae do succeed at getting their respective factions to live together. maybe it will be some romeo and juliet/uniting the tribes through symbolic marriage shit. feels like the fullest encapsulation of the do-things-differently theme they're playing with in kotpota.

or maybe they'll kill each other. which would also be fun but in a tragedy rubberneck way.

either way i'm excited. i missed these movies!

#planet of the apes

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edenfenixblogs · 5 months

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Hello Eden (is it okay to call you that?)

Do you have any current favourite songs? What kind of music do you generally listen to?

And do you have any favourite books? What kind of books do you like to read?

If you are okay with sharing, no pressure.

Sending you love and strength ❤️

Ah!!! Thanks for this ask @sunnenfinster! What a lovely change of pace.

Eden is fine!!!!!

Ok, so I love music and books!

Of all broad genres of entertainment media, music is probably what I follow least closely. It’s not that I don’t like it; I just am always behind the curve in my tastes. I love listening to most confessional singer/songwriters. I love folk, rock, pop, and rap. I also get a lot of music I like from the background of media like TV, Movies, and podcasts. In general, I love confessional singer-songwriters from any genre.

Fave singers (and the albums I’d recommend from them: songs I’d recommend from that album [notes]):

Jem (Finally Woken: Come on Closer, Falling for You, Just a Ride). All songs on this album rock, to me.

Sheryl Crow (Sheryl Crow: A Change Would Do You Good, [about choosing love over anger and stopping gun violence], Redemption Day [about the Bosnian war], Maybe Angels [could be about aliens or being in a cult idk but it’s a good song about misplaced belief] I love every song on this album tbh. Wall-to-wall bangers.

Missy Elliot (Under Construction: Gossip Folks, Work it)

Suzanne Vega (99.9 F: 99.9 F, Blood Makes Noise, Rock in the Pocket, When Heroes Go Down)

Artists and songs I like in general: Aimee Mann (her voice is like butter and I could listen to her sing forever); Eliza Rickman: Pretty Little Head; Sims: Icarus; Dessa: Call Off Your Ghost; Sifu Hotman: Matches (I know no other songs by this artist but I LOVE this one so much. I’m gonna go listen to it right now); Lorde: Yellow Flicker Beat; Björk: Human Behavior; G Flip: Hyperfine, Gay 4 Me, Killing My Time; Aimee Mann: That’s Just What You Are [I love Aimee’s voice and could listen to her sing the phone book. All songs off her Magnolia Album are amazing too]

And gosh. So many more…

As for books!!!! OMG! I love books so much. I love so many different kinds of books. Some fave genres include: Classic Lit, Magical Realism, Sci-fi/Fantasy/Speculative Fiction; Engaging YA Series, Historical Fiction; Culinary History and Analysis; and Mythological Retellings

Classic Lit Faves:

“To The Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf [This contains my fave quote in all of literature. This could also never be adequately adapted into a movie. It’s a fascinating look into how people think and how we all process internal thoughts. Must be comfortable with long sentences, semicolons, and allowing sentence clauses to wash over you like ocean waves in order to enjoy this book]

“Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee

“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque

“The Portable Dorothy Parker” by Dorothy Parker

“The Odyssey” by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

“The Iliad” by Homer — both Emily Wilson’s Translation and Stanley Lombardo’s Translation

Magical Realism

“The House of the Spirits” by Isabelle Allende

“Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” by Mario Vargas Llosa

“Bless Me Última” by Rudolfo Anaya

“Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel

SFF Faves:

“An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” and “A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor” by Hank Green

“The Martian” by Andy Weir

The Tiffany Aching line of the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett (“The Wee Free Men,” “I Shall Wear Midnight,” “A Hat Full of Sky,” and “Wintersmith”)

“The Locked Tomb” Series by Tamsyn Muir (“Gideon the Ninth,” “Harrow the Ninth,” “Nona the Ninth” so far)

Engaging YA

“The Hunger Games” Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

“Grishaverse” Series by Leigh Bardugo

“Shadow and Bone Triogy” (related to the Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo [note: I didn’t know until making this list that Leigh Bardugo is an Israeli Jew! Very cool]

Historical Fiction:

“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg [the associated cookbook is very good. Also, you’ll never eat ribs the same again]

“Tracks” by Louise Erdrich [one of the most interestingly written books I’ve ever read. Has two dueling narrators. This is part of a series of books but can be read as a standalone]

Culinary Analysis History

Bree Wilson’s books (“First Bite: How We Learn to Eat,” “Consider the Fork,” and “The Way We Eat Now,” specifically) are some of the best out there. [I didn’t realize until a couple weeks ago that Bee Wilson and the classicist translator Emily Wilson are sisters! They are both extremely smart, engaging writers.]

“Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan

“An Edible History of Humanity” by Tom Standage

“Food: A Cultural Culinary History” by Ken Albala (this one is a Great Courses course, so not technically a book. But it’s available most places you can get audiobooks. And it’s what got me fascinated with this subject)

Mythological Retellings

“Circe” and “The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

“The Silence of the Girls” and “The Women of Troy” by Pat Barker [TW Rape]

“Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman

Genre Defy-ers

(These are some of my All Time Faves that can’t really be confined to any genre)

The “Outlander” Series by Diana Gabaldon [and the related “Lord John” Series by the same author] (TW: for Rape)

“The Anthropocene Reviewed” by John Green

Just Finished Reading

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote (Wow it was so good. I haven’t seen the movie in a while but I seriously doubt they adapted it faithfully. It was so surprising!!!)

Currently Reading

“Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie

Selections From My To Be Read List

“The City of Brass” by S.A. Chakraborty

“Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus

“The Source” by James Michener

“The Secret of Cooking” by Bee Wilson

“Equal Rites” by Terry Pratchett

“A Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England” by Ian Mortimer

“What You Are Looking For Is In The Library” by Michiko Aoyama

“The Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis

I also love to read cookbooks from various cultures to gain insight into those cultures in a very tactile way.