Marlon literally said during the flower festival that Marnie was beautiful 🥺 Marnie, please dump Lewis and date a man who will cherish you! 😩

Hello! First off, I simply adore your writing. Your characterizations simply feel so... natural! It's lovely! Second, could I request some fluffy Harvey/Elliott at either the Feast of the Winter Star or the Spirit's Eve festival? That would be grand. Thank you!

Teehee sorry this took so long! I had written a story about the two of them at the Feast of the Winter Star and then hated it so much I completely started over 🤪 So I hope you enjoy this now seasonally appropriate Spirit's Eve fluff!

Title: Meet me Halfway

Rating: G

Summary: Harvey is crushing on Elliott, but is more than okay with keeping things the way they are. When Elliott invites him into the maze at the Spirit's Eve festival though, the men get much closer than Harvey ever thought.

Characters: Elliott, Harvey, Sebastion, Marlon, Maru, F!Farmer

Words: 2841

Harvey had been standing by the refreshments table when Elliott passed behind him, his fingertips lightly grazing against the Doctor's shoulders. Harvey jumped, almost spilling his drink but managed to steady himself, cheeks flushed as Elliott laughed.

“A bit on edge, Doctor?” Harvey cleared his throat and set his cup down, his other hand reaching to the back of his neck.

“No! I mean, kinda. I have to say, I think this is probably my least favorite festival.” Elliott nodded. Harvey studied his face, trying to read the man next to him. Was there a slight blush in his face as well?

Even though they had lived in the same town for years now, only a few months ago had it struck Harvey how cute the man living on the beach was. They had talked a bit around town and at festivals, and of course Harvey was Elliott’s doctor. But since the community center had been restored Harvey had begun to spend more time there, reading articles that his colleagues from the city had sent him or using the craft room to work on his model planes. Elliott was there constantly as well, and the two men began to grow more familiar.

Harvey’s feelings surprised him. It wasn’t that he had never had feelings for another man before, but just how suddenly they had developed after getting to know Elliott was strange to him. Harvey had accepted who he was at this point in his life; he was rigid and methodical, overthinking most aspects of his life. But Elliott had somehow swept in and threw his life out of order— Harvey acted impulsively around him, and it scared him.

But what scared Harvey even more was that he couldn’t tell how Elliott felt about him. Elliott was definitely flirty with him, he couldn’t deny it. But Elliott flirted with everyone, or at least seemed to. Elliott was confident, outgoing, and rather touchy with almost everyone in town. There was no way Elliott felt the same way about him, introverted and anxious, but Harvey couldn’t help but feel the hard thumping in his chest everytime Elliott was around.

Beside him Elliott nodded, scooping some of the hot apple cider Gus was providing into his own cup.

“I can understand that. While I’m sure you’ve caught on that I tend to have a certain… flair for the dramatic,” Elliott regarded Harvey out of the corner of his eye, a coy smile on his lips, “this holiday quite honestly might be overdoing it.”

As if the universe was proving a point, a loud clanging noise rang out behind the men. Elliott’s eyes went wide with fear as he jumped, his body colliding with the Doctor’s as he moved away from the noise. Harvey dropped his drink as he steadied the man in front of him, not sure whether to be disappointed by the loss of his cider or elated by the touch. Once Elliott was no longer falling, Harvey turned to investigate the noise.

Behind him, one of the walking skeletons was at the edge of his cage, a bony arm outstretched and rattling against the bars. Sebastian had fallen back onto the ground and was trying to crawl away from the beast with wide eyes. Marlon stepped in quickly after the skeleton had made its move, pushing the monster further back in with a large stick. Once the skeleton was far enough back, Harvey watched as Marlon offered a hand to Sebastian and pulled the boy up, saying something stern but inaudible from this far away. Harvey turned back to Elliott, who was watching the scene with a grimace.

“You want to move somewhere else? Like, away from this?” Elliott’s gaze snapped back to Harvey, his unsettled look quickly turning into a smile.

“I’d like nothing more, my dear doctor.” Elliott linked his arm through Harvey’s and began to march off, Harvey blushing furiously as he stumbled along.

Elliott led them far away from the refreshments, until Harvey found them standing in front of the maze. Elliott looked toward the entrance, then turned to the Doctor.

“Do you want to go in? I’ve never actually tried the maze before, but with you I’m feeling a little bit more bold.” Elliott winked and Harvey coughed, scratching the back of his neck.

“I’m not sure how much of a help I’d be in there. Honestly, the one time I tried before I barely made it 20 feet.” Elliott laughed.

“Well, maybe with the two of us working together we’d go 30.” Harvey chuckled. Before he could agree, someone called out behind him.

“Hey, Doc! You going in?” Harvey and Elliott turned and saw Maru and the Farmer walking toward them, hand in hand.

“Yes! The two of us are going to try to make it an astonishing 30 feet in.” Elliott had answered before he had gotten the chance to, so Harvey nodded along. Had he really agreed to go in, though? Beside him, he saw Elliott tip an imaginary hat toward the Farmer. “Howdy, partner.”

The Farmer sighed, letting go of Maru’s hand to brush her hand through her hair. “El, just because I live on a farm doesn’t mean I’m a cowboy.” Elliott tilted his head to the side, smiling slightly.

“I mean, you sure ride that horse of yours almost everywhere.” Harvey bit his lip, using the moment to bring himself back to reality. Elliott wasn’t flirting with him, he was like this with everyone. The Farmer sighed again, grabbing Maru’s hand once again.

“Whatever.” She began to pull Maru toward the maze. “Later, losers. We’ve got a maze to finish.” Elliott laughed next to Harvey, and waved the two women off. Maru looked over her shoulder grinning at Harvey, mouthing ‘you got this’ in an animated manner until she disappeared behind the first hedge, trailing after her partner.

Harvey furiously blushed. Maru had figured out his crush weeks ago after the two of them had gone out for drinks after work, when Harvey had been so busy staring at Elliott that he had walked straight into a stool and fallen over it.

“Well, no time like the present, I suppose.” Harvey blinked back to reality. Elliott was standing in front of him, the two men eye to eye. Harvey swallowed.

“I guess.” He put on a weak smile, attempting to feign some kind of confidence. Elliott nodded.

“Then let’s away!” Elliott turned and began to walk toward the maze. Harvey sighed, and followed quickly after.

It wasn’t long until the pair came to the first challenge of the maze. As Elliott and Harvey walked side by side, making pleasant small talk, that green hands began to poke their way out of the ground. Elliott jumped, his body colliding with the Doctor’s.

“Oh, Yoba!” Harvey instinctually grabbed Elliott, pulling him close.

“Oh, no, nope! No. Come on.” Harvey let go of Elliott’s shoulder, his hand grabbing the man around the forearm. He took off down another branch, Elliott running behind him.

Once they no longer saw the hands coming out of the ground, men stopped, panting.

“Okay, I get why you didn’t like to go in here.” Elliott looked up at Harvey, still out of breath. Harvey, unsure of how to react, just began to laugh, dropping to the ground as he tried to regain his composure. Elliott sat beside him, brushing his hair back.

“Yeah! No duh.” Elliott began to laugh as well, the men giggling in the dark. Once composed, Elliott turned to face Harvey.

“You know, I quite like it when you’re more relaxed like this. Not that you’re always stiff, just… you seem like there’s a lot going on in your mind.” Harvey weakly smiled and stood up. He was getting too loose.

“Well, that’s being a doctor, I suppose. Especially being the only one for quite a distance.” He offered his hand to Elliott, who took it and pulled himself up.

“That makes sense. You’re always thinking of others.” Elliott smiled. The two men regarded each other. Harvey found himself getting closer, their bodies almost touching, until he noticed a hedge off in the distance reflecting light. He took a step away.

“Wait, what’s that?” Elliott turned around and tilted his head, searching for what Harvey was referencing. Once spotted, Elliott faced him again.

“I guess we know where to go next.” Harvey nodded, and the two moved toward the light source.

The pair came to a large TV, alternating with static and a series of strange images, weird whispers emanating from the speaker bar attached.

“I mean, it’s not as unsettling as the hands but… I’m not a fan of this either.” Elliott was scanning the TV, frowning.

“I know Lewis is trying to boost tourism, but this seems like a lot,” Harvey added, taking a step closer toward his companion. It was human nature to huddle when scared, right? Elliott surely wouldn’t notice. Harvey thought about how he had held the writer when the hands came out of the ground. As terrifying as that was, he almost wanted to do it again.

“I don’t think Lewis built it. I think the Wizard in the woods said he was doing this,” Elliott suggested. The pair heard a snort and both jumped back, trying to find the source.

Maru stepped out from behind the TV, a funny look on her face. “He’s not a wizard, he’s just some hermit in the woods who likes to play with grass.” Harvey’s shoulders relaxed. It wasn’t a monster, it was his nurse.

“I don’t know. Leah said she’s seen some weird things going on at his tower at night.” Maru snorted again and turned her attention back to the screen.

“He probably has some of those LED strips that change colors on the outside of his home.” Elliott nodded, but didn’t look too convinced.

“Maru, what are you doing just lurking out here? And where’s your girlfriend?” Harvey looked around, making sure the TV was the only horror nearby.

“I wanted to figure out how this is working. There’s no plugs out here, and when I opened the battery compartment it was empty. There has to be some other energy source in here.” Maru held up her pocket knife in one hand, a couple of screws in the other. “And she went on ahead to keep exploring so I could play with this. When I’m done I’ll meet her in the middle point of the maze, it’s just up ahead.” She returned her full attention back to the monitor, walking around it’s backside once again.

Harvey turned to Elliott, who shrugged. “Should we move on?” Harvey smiled.

“Lets.”

From where they were standing, Harvey could see the middle point that Maru had talked about. The pair headed toward the fountain, and paused to watch the water shoot high up into the air.

“Well, I’d venture to say we made it quite a bit farther than 30 feet.” Harvey chuckled as Elliott gently elbowed him.

“Quite a bit farther than I made it last time, for sure.” Harvey smiled at Elliott, then turned his gaze back to the fountain. “I’m surprised it’s already the halfway point. It doesn’t seem like we’ve gone too far.”

“I suppose what this maze lacks in physical size, it makes up for in psychological horror.”

As if on cue, the men heard a yell from beyond the midway, and Abigail ran back in toward them, a blur of purple.

“No way, nuh-uh, nope! I’m out.” She blinked out of her confusion, and looked up at Harvey and Elliott. “Dudes, I’m OUT of here.” Harvey stuck a hand out, trying to stop the teen from bolting past him.

“Woah! Abby, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” He scanned for any obvious signs of injury, his doctor instincts kicking into gear. Abigail was generally fearless, even in regards to her own safety. It took a lot to rattle her.

She looked up at the doctor, her eyes wide with fear. “Dude, I mean Doc, there’s some big spiders back there. Like, me-sized. I’m outta here.” She brushed past Harvey and Elliott, making her way toward the path that the men had just come from. “Good luck!”

Harvey looked toward Elliott, who had noticeably paled. Elliott swallowed, then met the doctor’s gaze. “I mean, making this far was a personal victory anyways? Why push it?”

Harvey stared at Elliott, mouth ajar, before bursting into loud laughter. He sat on the edge of the fountain, trying to take deep breaths to contain his joy.

“Oh thank Yoba, I did NOT want to go in there.” Elliott laughed and sat beside him, his fingertips resting only an inch away from Harvey’s own.

“I think we did very well, though! I mean, halfway is nothing to sneeze at.” Elliott looked toward Harvey and winked. “And you’ve been so brave! Why, the way you rescued me from those hands was quite impressive.” Harvey coughed and stood up, suddenly aware of how close he was to Elliott.

“Yes, well, of course.” Elliott looked up at him, his smile slowly falling. Finally, Elliott sighed.

“I don’t know how much more direct I can be, Harvey.” Elliott’s voice was low, and much more serious than Harvey had ever heard. He turned to Elliott.

“What?” Elliott stood up and crossed his arm over his stomach, nervously rubbing his forearm.

“I mean, I hoped you would have caught on by now, over the past few months, or maybe you have and are just trying to be nice? I don’t…” He trailed off, his gaze lowering toward the ground. “I guess I just like you, Harvey, and I was hoping that by inviting you into the maze with me something would happen, but you keep pulling away and I just… I don’t know.”

Harvey’s jaw dropped. Elliott was flirting with him. Him! And oh Yoba, he had blown it, overthinking each touch, every word, the tone of his voice. Elliott had liked him, and Harvey was too full of fear to do anything. Had Maru known? Is that why she wished him luck?

Harvey sputtered, trying to spit out something, to reassure Elliott. He likes me too. Elliott sighed, meeting Harvey’s eyes again, forcing a smile.

“I’m sorry, that was probably a lot at once. I don’t know why it all came out like that. We can head out if you want.” Elliott took a step back.

Harvey needed to act, to break through his fear. He likes me. Now was not the time to be frozen by indecision, to read far too much into every action. Elliott was there, in front of him now but moving away.

Without thinking, maybe for the first time ever, Harvey reached out and grabbed Elliott’s shoulders, pulling the man in closer to him. Their lips connected, and as Harvey kissed him he could feel his heart beating violently in his chest. Elliott had tensed momentarily when the Doctor had grabbed him, but Harvery could feel him smiling now, melting into the kiss as Elliott placed a hand on the side of his face.

When he pulled back, Harvey was breathless, his hand shaking as he brushed a piece of hair out of Elliott’s face. Elliott was smiling, his cheeks flushed red.

“I like you, a lot, Elliott. I just… I didn’t think you felt the same way.” Elliott laughed quietly, his thumb stroking Harvey’s cheek.

“For such a bright man, you can be awfully dense.” Harvey smiled.

“Yeah.” Harvey moved to kiss Elliott again when he heard something shuffle in the maze behind him.

The men looked toward the path, still holding each other, as the Farmer huffed out of the maze, holding a rather large pumpkin in her hands.

“It’s just a pumpkin! I had to make my way through all that for a pumpkin! And not even a special one like last year, it’s made of foam!” She looked up, her expression softening when she realized what she had walked into. “Oh, um.”

“Maru’s back at the TV still,” Elliot said, his hands not moving from Harvey’s face. The Farmer’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two men’s faces, trying to press her lips together to stop from smiling.

“Thanks. Uh… yeah.” The Farmer walked quickly toward the way back, passing the men with a poorly suppressed smile on her face. Harvey figured she’d break the news to Maru as soon as she saw her.

“Well, where were we?” Harvey turned his attention back toward Elliott, who was smiling warmly at him. Harvey bit his lip, smiling.

“Oh, yeah.” He kissed Elliott again, much calmer than before, enjoying the feeling of their lips touching. Harvey pulled back again. “Want to go back and get a drink? I spilled my cider earlier”

Elliott dropped his hands from Harvey’s face and laced his fingers between the Doctor’s. “I’d love nothing more.” The two men went back into the hedges, hands swinging between them as they made their way back through the maze.

GROUP TWO  - THE SOUNDBOOTH. FAILURE.

PLAYERS:

THE THESPIAN - Dominic Logan. THE SLACKER - Jamie Dyer. THE FALLEN ANGEL - Alice Alder.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

- JAMIE FELL 50 FEET FROM THE SOUNDBOOTH’S EMERGENCY EXIT AND BROKE HIS LEG.  - ALICE DIDN’T ELECTROCUTE HERSELF DESTROYING THE SOUNDBOARD. - THE GANG USED ALL THREE TRIES IN THEIR PUZZLE AND FAILED. THEY DID NOT FIND THE KEY TO SAVE THEIR FRIEND.  - THEY WERE BLAMED FOR THE CANDY GIRL’S SHOW. THIS WILL COME BACK TO BITE IN-GAME.

Setting up for shows had never exactly been smooth-sailing, but with Mac missing for the last ten minutes things were slowing to a halt. Everyone seems frustrated - nobody seems to know where he’s gone… Except for a forgettable boardwalk worker who looks like they’d rather be anywhere else. He says he watched Mac go up to the sound booth across from the Main Stage. Typical musician. Jamie better go drag him back before their set is supposed to start. @indyerneed​

 Plans between the twins shouldn’t have even really been called plans; plans had the unfortunate chance of falling through. No, when they said they were going to do something, it was set in stone - so when Libby isn’t anywhere to be found before the ribbon cutting ceremony…? Well, it’s certainly grounds to be worried, isn’t it? People are crowding into the area around the stage, but it’s only a moment before one of the Boardwalk workers taps Dominic on the shoulder. Apparently Libs found a better place to watch: from the sound booth across from the main stage. Damn her connections to the Hargroves, right? Oh well. Dominic better go find her before the show starts. @dominiclogan​

Alice, Alice, Alice. The Candy Girl’s fascination with the Fallen Angel of the group had rhyme and reason, but somehow it was still a mystery of it’s own. Did she really favor the girl, or did she just have plans for her? Did she want to avenge Alice, or torment her - just like Lux did before she died? Who knows. Either way, when the message came in, ‘I want to meet.’ How could anyone refuse? They picked a time and a place - 7:30pm in the sound booth across from the stage. Her special instructions? “Bring no one.” I guess she didn’t want anyone crashing the little party she had planned. @alicealder​

THE NARRATOR: Reunions were supposed to be pleasant occasions, weren’t they? They were supposed to bring feelings of joy, and nostalgia; you were supposed to forget the awkward haze that had plagued your senior year of high school, and pretend like the good old days were actually just that. Good. Absence did make the heart grow fonder and all that, didn’t it? 

Though, maybe it’s silly to wonder why this little reunion, in the Sound Booth that towered above the boardwalk, might not be so pleasant. It was only a week ago, after all, that they were all huddled into Harvey’s basement, playing at the whims of a suspected lunatic. Not even ‘a Day in Carousel Cove!’ could smooth over that awkward little blip, could it?

Still, the three of them made their polite, albeit stilted conversation. Jamie laments about being late for his set, and Dominic insists he has to go find Libby… Alice may or may not be wondering what the hell is going on! But the unmistakable sound of the lock clicking in the door behind them should be enough to stop all conversation. Jinkies, kiddos! Wonder what’s in store for you this time.

MAKE A CHOICE: SOMEBODY RESPOND.

DOM: If it had seemed like they’d stumbled into a bad horror movie before, things were apparently only going downhill from here. As if having to make painfully stilted small talk with the two people in this god damn town that he did not want to be stuck anywhere with wasn’t bad enough already, the sound of the lock clicking behind them made his head whip around. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Dominic muttered under his breath, heading straight to the door to try the handle -- because maybe, he was just finally going insane and hallucinating the worst case scenario.

THE NARRATOR: A clock in the corner of the room strikes 7:30pm just as Dominic tries the handle - truly, and surely locked - but it’s only the beginning of the panic. It’s time for the festivities to begin - whether they’re all there or not. 

Dean Hargrove steps  onto the Boardwalk’s stage that’s laid out below them; Lux’s parents entered only a moment after. It really would be a lovely place to watch the show… If the Candy Girl hadn’t had other plans for the gang that day. Hargrove hardly says Lux’s name - hardly gets into his plan to honor the girl with the ‘Lux Lewis Memorial Carousel’ before  he’s cut off by a voice they don’t quite recognize. A voice that might just damn them all.

CANDY GIRL:  “REST IN PEACE TO OUR DEAR OLD LUX, BUT I HAVE NEWS THAT THE CHERRY TIMES IS TOO SCARED TO TELL! THIS WAS NO SUICIDE. LUX WAS MURDERED. THE QUESTION IS - WHICH ONE OF HER FRIENDS DID IT?” THE NARRATOR:  At that moment, a sheet unfurls behind Dean Hargrove, and a projector that’s been crudely wired into the soundboard flips on. The image it casts is a shocking sight to the crowd - you might even be able to see a couple of them wince if you squinted hard enough - but to our little ragtag slice of the gang, the Cherry Bomb logo was all too recognizable. It was a blown up version of her latest issue, and - surprise, surprise! - Lux is once again the star.

What they weren’t expecting, though? The crime scene photos that the projector begins flipping through, one by one.

CANDY GIRL: “AND TO THAT LITTLE GANG! MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE LATEST ISSUE. IT’S FULL OF FUN, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN IMAGES OF LITTLE LUXIE’S DEMISE, AND A SPECIAL SURPRISE JUST FOR YOU: SOMEONE IS MISSING, AND YOU’RE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO CAN FIND THEM BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. GOOD LUCK!” THE NARRATOR: It would have been impressive timing if it weren’t so fucking frightening, but at just that moment, their very own issue of the Cherry Bomb slides beneath the door, skidding to  a stop, right at their feet.

The cover is collaged with photos of Lux, the inside? Those same crime scene photos. There’s no pictures of her body, of course - that would be crude, even for the Candy Girl… kind of. But images of the blood soaked into her carpet; still pictures of her bedroom, flaunting a life once lived, those are there. A shot of her suicide note, ‘I’m sorry, I love you,’ and all.

 And right there, in the middle of the spread, like a centerfold? A note, written in Sharpie - just for the gang, of course!

CANDY GIRL: GET OUT,,, GET OUT, WHEREVER YOU’RE LOCKED!!!! NOT A FAN OF SMALL SPACES?? I’LL STICK YOU IN A BOX. SOMEONE IS MISSING, BUT I WON’T SAY WHO… FIND THE KEY, AND FIND OUT WHO. 

YOU MUST STOP MY SHOW, AND YOU’RE ON THE CLOCK!  BUT LET TIME RUN OUT, AND THEY STAY IN THE BOX. WILL THE TIDE COME IN? HMM, MAYBE IT WON’T. OR BETTER YET? MAYBE YOUR FRIENDS WILL FLOAT.

DO YOU LIKE IT, FREAKS, DO YOU LIKE MY NOTE? I HOPE YOU DO, BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T! ALL OF CHERRY WILL FIND YOU UP THERE… 

AND ALL OF THE BLAME WILL BE YOURS TO SHARE.

THE NARRATOR: Oh...my. Now, that’s a predicament, isn’t it? I suppose we’re at least lucky that the Candy Girl leaves the rules simple, right? Find a key, stop the show, and get out before someone can blame all of you for the horrific slideshow!

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU MUST ESCAPE THE ROOM, BUT FIRST YOU MUST FIND THE KEY. YOU MUST ALSO STOP THE CANDY GIRL’S SHOW… THAT IS, UNLESS YOU THINK THE THREE OF YOU CAN GET OUT BEFORE SOMEBODY FINDS YOU UP HERE.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO STOP THE SLIDESHOW? OR DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET OUT IN TIME?

THE NARRATOR: Is stopping the slideshow selfish, or noble? It’s not exactly up to me to decide - yet - but either way, with the hell that Cherry has been through lately - and Lux’s parents at that - the town probably deserves this one. 

The soundboard had clearly been tampered with long before they found the gang found their way in the soundbooth. There’s wires that have been ripped out and duct taped into new places - there’s a soldering iron off to the side that was still warm to the touch. Whoever did this must have worked quickly… and gotten out right before they arrived. Fucking creepy. It looks like there’s a few ways you can stop the show, though.

There’s always the route of champions - pulling wires until something goes dark. You could look for a power source - it all has to be plugged in somewhere, right? Or… you could just destroy the board.

MAKE A CHOICE:YOU MUST STOP THE SHOW. DO YOU START PULLING WIRES [LUCK], LOOK FOR A POWER SOURCE [PROBLEM SOLVING], OR DESTROY THE BOARD [FIGHTER]?

ALICE: It seemed like the most obvious solution, right? Pulling the wires could, like, electrocute them… right? Then it wouldn't matter if they were caught, because they'd be bacon! Searching for a power source? ...Too long. And they had to stop it some way! “Alright, that’s enough.” And with that… Alice went Wreck-It Ralph on the projector.

THE NARRATOR: It was a crude solution - that much is true - but hey! If it works, it works… And what else could you really expect from Alice? It takes a few minutes, but before long the board is sparking and the projector is stuttering to a halt. They can’t exactly figure out how to stop the music, but, somehow that seems like a lesser priority. 

Congratulations! You’ve stopped the show… but you've taken away an option that might have helped you out later. Woops.

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU MUST ESCAPE THE ROOM, BUT HOW DO YOU IT? THERE HAS TO BE A KEY SOMEWHERE, SO HOW DO YOU FIND IT? BY LOOKING FOR CLUES [PROBLEM SOLVING] OR BY TEARING THE ROOM APART? [LUCK]

JAMIE: Jamie gave Alice’s destruction a disparaging look before glancing at the other two. The question of ‘really?’ was dry and all in his eyebrows. He shook his head and started surveying the obvious surface before methodically moving to concealed space, looking for clues that might lead them to the key out of there. “No point in making any more of a mess here if we have to find a needle in a damn haystack.”

THE NARRATOR: Good thinking, Jamie. While he stays focused on the sharpie scribbled riddle in the ‘zine while the other two raid the room for something useful. Not so useful, but strange enough to take note of? A cherry red briefcase, shoved into one of the dusty, storage lockers.

Not only that… but maybe there’s actually more to the note than they thought.

CANDY GIRL: GET OUT,,, GET OUT, WHEREVER YOU’RE LOCKED!!!! NOT A FAN OF SMALL SPACES?? I’LL STICK YOU IN A BOX. SOMEONE IS MISSING, BUT I WON’T SAY WHO… FIND THE KEY, AND FIND OUT WHO. 

BUT WATCH OUT, WATCH OUT! YOU’RE ON THE CLOCK! LET IT RUN OUT, AND THEY’LL STAY IN THE BOX. WILL THE TIDE COME IN? HMM, MAYBE IT WON’T. OR BETTER YET? MAYBE YOUR FRIENDS WILL FLOAT.

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU MUST FIGURE OUT THE PUZZLE. GET THE BRIEFCASE OPEN TO FIND THE KEY.

DOM: This was absolutely ridiculous. Dominic was here to see his sister, not play god damn games. Speaking of which -- all that talk about someone being in a box and his sister decidedly not being here continued to ramp up his heart beat with every passing moment. “God damn it -- here,” he paused to lean over Jamie, fingers working quickly to put in the code: 2, 1, 3, 4.

MAKE A CHOICE: WRONG CODE. TRY AGAIN.

ALICE: You know, there were a lot of red flags popping up right now. The threat of a friend (yes?) dying (drowning, she took it? So much aquatic language!) was really just… overdoing it. “Let me try,” she sighed, pushing Dominic away from the briefcase and entering ‘3214.’

MAKE A CHOICE: WRONG CODE. TRY AGAIN.

DOM: They were running out of time and stable nerves. They had to get out of here, they had to find that god damn key and figure out what the fuck was going on here. So, with a last effort, Dominic reached forward again, this time entering 3421.

MAKE A CHOICE: WRONG CODE. YOU'VE LOST ALL CHANCES OF SAVING YOUR FRIEND.

THE NARRATOR: The sound of the clock ticking in the corner of the tiny room is almost ominous as it continues on in it’s effort; keeping a steady beat to their struggle. They’ve lost all hope of saving their friend, but they still have to get out, or they might be framed for the Candy Girl’s little show at the Ribbon Cutting ceremony.

At least they have a few options. They could always try to break down the door - it would take some might, but it’s possible. Maybe. Someone could always climb out of the window, and take the emergency ladder down - it would be easy to let their friends out from the outside! Just watch out. It’s a long fall down if you miss a step. 

Or, if they’re really desperate… They could always try to call for help.

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU MUST ESCAPE THE ROOM. DO YOU BREAK DOWN THE DOOR [STRENGTH], TAKE THE EMERGENCY EXIT [BRAVERY], OR CALL FOR HELP? [SURVIVOR]

JAMIE: Jamie stared at the stubborn suitcase only for a single beat, deciding that they were wasting a lot of time. “Yeah, okay. Plan B, I guess,” he said without fanfare, moving to the window and shucking it open. Really, it was the thought of Mac that compelled him sling his leg over the barrier. He wasn’t thinking about how much he wouldn’t have minded a long fall down or how the other two were were probably worth more noble deaths. “I’m gonna try and get around. Wouldn’t recommend looking out here if you don't hear from me in a bit.”

THE NARRATOR: Don’t look down. Don’t look down. It’s nearly fifty feet off of the ground - a single slip might mean a broken leg, but somehow they manage to keep their footing… That is, until they don’t anymore. It’s a split second of hesitation, but they slip, and down, down, down they go! They’re not dead - they know they’re not dead once they hit the ground. Their leg, on the other hand…? That's probably broken. Definitely broken.

-

Bruised, broken, and thoroughly played by the Candy Girl’s games, maybe this little ragtag slice of the gang wasn’t expecting a rescue… And a rescue didn’t exactly come either. They waited for nearly half an hour - Jamie outside, fifty feet down and trying to scream for help over the music. They were all convinced they would spend the night here - but when the door swings open, it isn’t anybody looking for them out of concern… It’s Dean Hargrove. And he wants to know what the hell is going on here. 

Maybe if they had been a little more cunning - maybe if they had made better choices - they might be able to talk him out of his accusations. They might be able to convince him that they weren’t responsible for the cruel show… But it’s no use. The Candy Girl set up the trap, and now they were going to be paying the price. So much for saving your friend.

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU FAILED YOUR EVENT. YOUR FRIEND MAY MEET THEIR DEMISE.

Stuck in reverse - playlist

You can find it on Spotify here. 

Okay, let’s talk about it! 

Sam Smith – Fix you

I remember crying to the original song (by Coldplay) back in 2005. Whoo boy, lots of teenage feelings!

I’m not the biggest fan of Sam Smith’s music, but one day I was just driving home from work and this song began playing on the radio and by the end of it I could barely see the road.

// When you try your best, but you don’t succeed When you get what you want, but not what you need When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep Stuck in reverse And the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can’t replace When you love someone, but it goes to waste Could it be worse? //

That one line – stuck in reverse – felt just so perfect for a story set in the universe where people invert themselves back and forth.

It became one of the three main songs that inspired me to write the whole damn thing, and also the only title in the story that is not a title of a song as well.

Chapter 1: Ben Platt – Ease my mind 

This is one of the songs I have on my daily playlist, I just love it, and the lyrics are so fitting:

//Most days I wake up with a pit in my chest There are thoughts that I can’t put to rest There’s a worry that I can’t place

Most nights, I am restless and quiet won’t come So I lay there and wait for the sun There’s a trouble that won’t show its face

You came out of nowhere and you cut through all the noise I make sense to the madness when I listen to your voice//

We learn more about the nightmares in the next chapters, but it all starts here. That melancholic vibe stuck with me for the rest of the story I guess.

Bonus song: Lewis Capaldi - Before you go

The combat scene in one song, or at least what I imagined was going through Reader’s mind at that point.

//I fell by the wayside like everyone else I hate you, I hate you, I hate you but I was just kidding myself Our every moment, I start to replace ‘Cause now that they’re gone, all I hear are the words that I needed to say When you hurt under the surface Like troubled water running cold Well, time can heal but this won’t//

Have you ever felt that way? Trying to hide your broken heart under anger? I don’t know, it just resonated deeply.

The second part of the song kinda seeped into the next chapter:

//Was there something I could’ve said To make your heart beat better? If only I’d have known you had a storm to weather

//Would we be better off by now If I’d have let my walls come down? Maybe, I guess we’ll never know//

Chapter 2: Kaleo - I can’t go on without you

Another song from my daily playlists (side note – I saw Kaleo once live on a music festival and they were mind-blowing, you should really check out more of their work).

It worked with the story because of its desperate and painful mood.

Bonus: Calum Scott - Dancing on my own

Holy shit, I FELT this one. (Been there, done that). Of course I had to write it into Reader’s past. Actually, I wrote it first and then found the song, but it doesn’t matter, that’s the flashback scene right here:

//Somebody said you got a new friend Does she love you better than I can? And there’s a big black sky over my town I know where you’re at, I bet she’s around And yeah, I know it’s stupid But I just gotta see it for myself I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her, I’m right over here, why can’t you see me? And I’m giving it my all //

Chapter 3: Billie Eilish – Bad guy

No feels, pure bop. This song is so BADASS, I really needed to get that vibe into the undercover mission, I didn’t want Reader to be an emotional mess and nothing else, you know?

Bonus: Tones and I – Dance Monkey

I shit you not, I’ve had that one on repeat for the dance scene. There is something incredibly seductive in that beat, I just couldn’t get it out of my head.

Bonus: Kings of Leon – Closer

It just makes my heart clench and leaves me breathless.

Chapter 4: Ben Platt – Bad habit

Ah, that was the moment when I cursed at myself for using Ease my mind for chapter 1, but we already talked about it.

Even though this song is very emotional, it’s not that heartbreaking, you can hear a faint smile here and there and it just makes my heart sing.

And oh my god, those lyrics:

//You always said that I’d come back to you again ‘Cause everybody needs a friend, it’s true Someone to quiet the voices in my head Make ‘em sing to me instead, it’s you Hate to say that I love you Hate to say that I need you Hate to say that I want you But I do Bad habit, I know But I’m needin’ you right now Can you help me out? Can I lean on you? Been one of those days Sun don’t wanna come out Can you help me out? Can I lean on you?//

They just work with that plot, you know?

Bonus: Dodie – Sick of losing soulmates

Another song that just resonates with the story.

//What a strange being you are, God knows where I would be If you hadn’t found me, sitting all alone in the dark A dumb screenshot of youth Watch how a cold broken teen Will desperately lean on a superglued human of proof

What the hell would I be, without you (what the hell would I be) Brave face talk so lightly, hide the truth (hide the truth)

'Cause I’m sick of losing soulmates, so where do we begin I can finally see, you’re as fucked up as me So how do we win?//

Chapter 5: Adele – Someone like you

The whole damn sunset scene + this song on repeat = feels

The pain in her voice? God, it just reduces me to a puddle of tears.

Reader could just sing it at some point to Neil almost word for word.

Bonus: Passenger – Let her go

Okay, the case of that one is quite funny, because I kinda needed to figure out how to get from point A to point B of the chapter, and I was browsing Spotify looking for „campfire songs” or something like that. Of course I’ve heard this one before, but I’ve never actually focused on the lyrics.

And oh boy, suddenly it all became clear.

Headcanon time – in my head, Wheeler and Neil are close friends, she treats him a bit like a younger brother, I just can imagine they know each other very well at that point. Of course she knows hows about his past. Of course she heard about Reader. And she thinks they are both silly babies and they should just kiss, right? That’s why she chooses that song.

Those lyrics – they fit Neil’s backstory so damn well.

//Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go//

And he was stupid enough to let her go. Because his timing was off.

Those lyrics are also perfect to make Reader think about his ex-girlfriend, because of course that is what you’re gonna it’s all about.

Bonus: Del Amitri – Tell her this

Ahh, there it is – the second out of three main songs for Stuck in Reverse.

I remember the moment I found out that Rob Pattinson sings and writes music, then I listened to some of the songs and my heart went whoooosh. So I just had to make Neil play a guitar, I just needed to find out what song would be The One.

Do you remember that flashback about them both watching a tv show on his couch? Here, you’re welcome. 

I recently started rewatching Scrubs and when I got to that episode – ding, ding, ding!

This is the ultimate “hey, I fucked up, I shouldn’t have let you go, I’m an idiot and I love you.”

Chapter 6: Imagine Dragons – Next to me

I adore that song. It warms my heart. I think it fits Neil and Reader’s relationship.

And I needed all the fluffy feelings to switch the tone of the story to something lighter.

Bonus: Michelle Branch – Everywhere

This one is a silly bop, and it always puts me in a good mood. A nice song to listen to when you are happy, in love, and you are making breakfast.

Bonus: Ashlee Simpson – Pieces of me

This one (same as the one before) came to me from Zach Braff’s workout playlist, haha. I mean I almost forgot about it, but it makes me smile every time I hear it, and the lyrics work nicely:

//On a Monday I am waiting Tuesday I am fading And By Wednesday I can’t sleep Then the phone rings I hear you And the darkness is a clear view Cause you’ve come to rescue me

Fall, with you I fall so fast I can hardly catch my breath I hope it lasts

It seems like I can finally Rest my head on something real I like the way that feels It’s as if you know me better Than I ever knew myself I love how you can tell All the pieces, pieces, pieces of me//

Bonus: Kaleo – I want more

Is there such a thing as a warm melancholy? Because that is a vibe I get from that song.

//Turn back, leave all you had Forgive, I’ll forget 'Cause what we need is what we once had Time won’t stand still Just say you will 'Cause I need you there and now

If you leap, I’ll come falling too Running deep 'til that rivers through I don’t mind what you have to do 'Cause I won’t think less, less of you

Yes, I want more, more Looking for more I want more, more 'Cause I want more

Old grounds Feels like the weight has been lifted away So don’t you leave me there wanting more//

Chapter 7: Ben Platt – In case you don’t live forever

I mean it’s not my fault that Ben’s songs make me FEEL things, damn it.

The whole damn song = utter heartbreak when you think about Neil coming back to Reader before he goes back to Stalsk-12 to open that damn lock.

//I, I’ve carried this song in my mind Listen, it’s echoing in me But I haven’t helped you to hear it We, we’ve only got so much time I’m pretty sure it would kill me If you didn’t know the pieces of me are pieces of you

I’ve waited way too long to say Everything you mean to me

In case you don’t live forever, let me tell you now I love you more than you’ll ever wrap your head around In case you don’t live forever, let me tell you the truth I’m everything that I am because of you//

Bonus: Charlene Soraia – Wherever you will go

Why am I doing this to you? Because we all like pain.

This one is for the scene on the deck:

//So lately, been wondering Who will be there to take my place When I’m gone you’ll need love to light the shadows on your face If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all Then between the sand and stone, could you make it on your own

If I could, then I would I’ll go wherever you will go Way up high or down low, I’ll go wherever you will go

And maybe, I’ll find out A way to make it back someday To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all Then I hope there’s someone out there who can bring me back to you//

Bonus: Rhys Lewis – No right to love you

No light, only pain and suffering.

//'Cause I have no right to love you When I chose to walk away I have no right to miss you When I didn’t wanna stay And I have no right to need you And I knew what my heart was gonna lose I have no right to love you But I do, I still do Yeah, I still do//

Bonus: Knox Brown x Gallant – Reignite

This song is just so incredible, it makes my palms sweat and my mind going places. Yep, it was on repeat.

Oh you know which scene this one is for.

Bonus: Freya Ridings – Lost without you

The last dialogue. On repeat. Because this song breaks my heart and leaves me a sobbing mess.

//Strangers rushin’ past Just tryna get home But you were the only Safehaven that I’ve known Hits me at full speed Feel like I can’t breathe And nobody knows This pain inside me My world is crumbling I should never Let you go I think I’m lost without you//

(OI, SPOILERS) 

Chapter 8: Florence + The Machine – Never let me go

I have only one thing to say:

Fuck you, Nolan.

Third out of three.

//And it’s over and I’m going under

But I’m not giving up I’m just giving in

Oh, slipping underneath So cold and so sweet

In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold And all this devotion, well, I never knew at all And the questions I have for a sinner released In the arms of the ocean deliver me

(Never let me go, never let me go Never let me go, never let me go)//

Bonus: Sasha Sloan - Dancing with your ghost

Suffer with me.

//Yelling at the sky Screaming at the world Baby, why’d you go away? I’m still your girl Holding on too tight Head up in the clouds Heaven only knows Where you are now

How do I love How do I love again? How do I trust How do I trust again?

I stay up all night Tell myself I’m alright Baby, you’re just harder to see than most I put the record on Wait 'til I hear our song Every night I’m dancing with your ghost Every night I’m dancing with your ghost//

Paul Thomas Anderson’s THE MASTER and what it may teach us about  mind-control vs freedom Post-Covid

So last night I watched The Master. It was a most pleasing way to spend a Saturday evening; alone, with two cats draped on the sofa and windowsill respectively, and it rounded off a pretty pedestrian Saturday mostly spent mowing and raking the lawn and scattering grass seed whilst *Boo finished reading Jacqueline Wilson’s Rose Rivers whilst occasionally appearing at the back door to yell; ‘mama, you’re driving me nuts with your gardening!’ Somehow I’d been looking forward to scattering my grass seed all week - the promise of moist new green growth on our dusty brown patches. Thing is - and there is a lesson in here somewhere - the grass seed box said it covered 10m square - I guess I got a bit carried away and basically I ran out after one corner. So one corner of my lawn will look like Eden, and the rest will continue to look like some deserted Sicilian scrubland... That’s life, baby, I guess. 

So anyway, The Master....dear God. There are many ways I could go with this...Firstly undiluted, scope, wonder, singular sensitivity, impossible mastery, extreme importance and sheer exalting, agonising beauty of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films is the subject of another post. (I’m still on a high from the explosive visceral experience of watching Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood and that was, what, 5 years ago? 10 years ago?) Then The Master came out in 2012 and P.T.A. raised his game even more. 

I could, and will another time, talk about the astonishing gift Joaquin Phoenix afforded the world with his embodiment of his character, Freddie Quell. (I say ‘embodiment’; ‘performance’ always strikes me as an incorrect way of describing an actors full immersion in an imagined character’s inner life.) To my mind, Freddie is one of the most affecting, heart-breaking, occasionally funny and downright truthful portrayals of a ‘broken’ man; an exiled, psychologically damaged, wild and lonely spirit who roams the world, desperate for love and acceptance, clearly one of the great ‘un-belonging’ of the post-war world in America. In one the open scenes he simulates fucking an over-sized figure of woman carved in sand on a hot beach, for the amusement of his army pals. In the final scene of the film, after his long long incredible journey , we see him caressing this sand woman again, resting his next to a large sandy breast. Oh poor dear Freddy Quell; my tears ran with him last night; knowing myself in this second viewing of the film, to be so like him. Perhaps one day I will be able to shake Joaquin Phoenix’s hand and say ‘thankyou so much for Freddie.....’ I often feel like that with actors work that resonates through the bones. 

I could also talk about how Philip Seymour Hoffman was possibly the greatest screen actor of his time, and how crazy it was that the world didn’t seem to mourn his tragic early death. Was it perhaps because he died of an accidental heroine overdose? - and this, well, didn’t sit very well with Hollywood. His embodiment here of Lancaster Dodd, charismatic leader of philosophical cult movement The Cause, is breath-taking. But then all his performances were breath-taking. I had a dream about him once (whole other post entitled CELEBRITY DREAMS coming your way); we were kind of friends even though I knew he was dead and his face kept appearing on billboards all over London. If, when; I meet him in the spirit world, I’d like to shake his hand and thank him for Lancaster Dodd and Brandt in The Big Lebowski, and Truman Capote, and also for providing me with one of the most pivotal theatre experiences of my life. August 2001, Edinburgh Festival, I witnessed his production of Jesus Hopped The A Train at The Gilded Balloon; this was running gold theatre. Within half a second of the play ending the entire full house erupted to it’s feet like we’d all been tasered from the floor. Thank you Philip...you gave me faith then that theatre is important; that art comes from dark places and revives...

I could talk about the astonishing crashing score composed by Radiohead’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

I could also talk about Amy Adam’s terrifying portrayal of Lancaster’s icy wife Peggy and her utterly brilliant final put-down to Freddie: “you either do this for a billion years, or not at all...” (she’s referencing Freddie’s abandonment of the cult she’s set up with her husband, but this line, I feel, could apply to motherhood...….)

                                                  * * * * * * * * * *

 It usually takes me two viewings for a films deeper meaning to seep in, and last night I was struck by what I see as the heart of the film. The core of the film is relationship between Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd; it’s an uncompromising study of male vulnerability and the cosmic search for ‘a father figure’...  On a bigger scale, its about how those in positions of assumed power and influence ( Dodd) rely on the adoration and worship of those whom society deem ‘worthless’ (Quell). It’s about the fragility and corruption of a society whereby a man promises freedom and empowerment to his followers (Dodd devises a system of ‘processing’ whereby he takes initiates back to past traumas through a curious mixture of interrogation and hypnosis and ‘cures’ them; he posits that his vision can cure leukaemia and will bring about world peace) and how those ‘disadvantaged’, the great ‘unloved’ can be absorbed into such an attractive lifestyle. In one painful scene, Freddie is taken to a party at a mansion, filled with monied people and luxurious things. Freddie is dressed smartly for the occasion; but is sweating with nerves and orders a scotch at the earliest opportunity, before hiding away in a side room and stealing an ornament. It took me back to my own exile, when, at the age of 17 I landed at Brentwood Boys School in Essex, and cut off from my parents, shattered from my sister’s suicide and a lifetime of confusion, I nonetheless attended many a glorious party; a perfect size 10 and top of the class, I knew how to say all the right things. But, like Freddie, I knew I didn’t and wouldn’t ever fit it. Like him, I would often sneak off to the side rooms, get off my head drunk to hide my shame and hopeless, and cause some fight..

In the end, despite himself, Freddie starts to see through Lancaster’s bullshit and returns to his life on the road. Though The Cause had given him a home, suits and ties, friendship, respect and a certain ‘standing’ that he could only have dreamed of, as he confesses to Peggy at the end, before returning to his own brand of personal lonely freedom; ‘it’s just not how I look’.  

                                                        * * * * * * * 

“Don’t you know, They’re talking about a revolution it sounds like a whisper Don’t you know you’d better run run run run run run run run.....” Tracey Chapman 

Talkin’ About A Revolution

What I find heartening and deeply exciting about these early post-Covid times, as the first chinks of sunlight pour in through windows that have separated us from friends, lovers, fellow man for so long, is that people are choosing freedom. In small ways, perhaps, but I get the overall sense that for many people, fear has had its day. As my dear friend said over tea the other day; ‘people are thinking fuck this, fuck it, we wanna fuck’....well, exactly. 

It was this dear friend I met up with in her wood a few weeks ago; we hugged each other day, and it was such a joyous relief to see her I told her that if I got the virus and killed me, oh fuck it, it would be worth it, just to sit next to her by a river on a sunny day...

I’ve had two other conversations lately to support my little theory; a particularly cheerful friend of mine turned up with her daughter unannounced on my doorstep couple of weeks back  - they had a bag of clothes; would Boo like them? Initially we did the ‘2 m’ thing, paying homage to THE RULES as dictated by the blessed government of this land; I hovered on the threshold of my kitchen - she stood outside by the flower-pots. Then I broke the rules; ‘look, do you wanna come in?’ - That was it. The ice was broken - and she stood, blond, beaming and glorious with her big sunglasses on, in my little kitchen - along with her daughter and mine, and I could literally have feasted forever on the sheer joyous fleshiness of having three other living homo sapiens near me. That sunny day in early June, two women in a small village in Sussex chose freedom. ‘I’ve just had enough of all this virus stuff’ she said ‘I’m even dreaming about it! I’ve just had enough’. 

Then last week a friend came over with her three glorious girl children and told me how her youngest, a endlessly sweet six yr old, had ‘hidden behind a tree with her friend so that they could have a hug’. Lets think about that for a moment; six years olds hiding behind trees to have a hug. Its pretty damn sad. And weird. This friend had been on full on paranoid lockdown due to one of the children’s potential serious health issues - but she’d reached breaking point. ‘I’ve had enough’ she said. And that day her girls and my daughter raced up and down the stairs and around the garden in glorious flagrance of any state prescribed social distancing rules. 

                                                * * * * * * * * * * * 

In the end, Freddie breaks free from his master’s and The Cause’s control and continues - we assume -  his lonely drift around the world. In their final agonising meeting, Lancaster reveals the smashed ungenerous ego of a despot thwarted by his adoring lover: ‘if I meet you in a future life I will show you no mercy, you will be my sworn enemy’. Freddie, emaciated, tearful and ever desperate to belong, asks Lancaster to reveal to him how and where they’d met in a previous life... He knows it’s bullshit, in the way I knew my father was incapable of loving me, but when you’ve got a Krakatoa sized hole in your heart, you just can’t stop hoping somehow...pledging allegiance to a resplendent asshole is somehow better than our greatest fear; the abyss of loneliness and isolation. Lets face it; freedom is pretty terrifying after such a long stretch of captivity. 

That’s the thing in these Covid times; we always have a choice. We have a choice now, whether to be continue to be afraid or whether to choose freedom. Whether to cut loose and go racing into the desert on a motorbike back to his first love, like Freddie does, following his own destiny, not succumbing to control forces that on the surface entice him into a richer more glamorous life. 

And I’m not talking about being an complete idiot and denying there’s a serious virus still on the loose, or hugging scared people in the street to prove a point, and I’m not denying  that many people are extremely vulnerable - I’m talking about something entirely different; that deep inner decision that calls in all of us - whether to choose the uncharted waters of freedom, or rest in an all-too familiar fear zone. 

To conclude, my dear friend Matilda sent me this book ‘Big Magic - Creative Living By Fear’ by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love (I’ve just watched the film its rather good I think...) Anyway, there’s this great chapter called Fear Is Boring which rang through me, growing up as I did drenched in the anxiety of a Munchausen Syndrome-by-proxy mother (WHOLE other post...) - but here’s what she says about the time, age fifteen, she ‘wised up’ to fear and chose another way: 

“I noticed that my fear never changed, never delighted, never offered a surprise twist or an unexpected ending. My fear was a song with only one note - only one word, actually - and that word was “STOP!” 

Dear reader, I’m shitting myself with the best of them, but I’ve had enough of fear. I’m not stopping. I’m going. What do you say?..... xxxx 

Big love from Christine 

A New Sun: Part 9

I awoke next morning in a tangle of blankets and my head pounding. Maybe I had drank more of the fruit punch than I thought..

Ash was staring at me from the foot of the bed, his head cocked to the side. I licked my lips before asking. “Do you want breakfast?” His response was a fiercely wagging tail. I dropped the food in his bowl then changed into my work clothes. Outside I planted the flowers for the festival, the next day I was thankful for that decision, since Haley stopped by. The whole time she was there she kept a hanker-chief over her mouth and nose. She ended up coming by twice more that week to check on the progress, she admitted a squeal of excitement at the first bud that popped out of the soil.

By the time the Flower Festival came around I had a field of flowers and the farm smelled of spring. Ash would run through the beds of flowers, every once in awhile his head would pop up as he bounced. The sun had just started to rise, budding up over distant pines. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, breathing in the morning. I was filling wicker baskets with my flowers, I had promised to deliver them this morning. An hour later my baskets were full and my fields empty except for a few parsnips. Most of them were a gift for George, the others would be the last of my crops for this season.

Next month I would be busy with so many crops available and I had already promised Mayor Lewis hot peppers and fresh veggies for the luau.

“Farmer!” Haley’s sing song voice rang out across the fields.

“Morning Haley!” I waved at her. She paused to wrap a sunflower print scarf around her nose and mouth.

“I just don’t know how you deal with this.. smell,” she said as she approached.

“I really don’t smell anything,” I shrugged and picked up a basket, shoving it in her direction.

“Oh you know the smell,” Haley motioned to the ground before taking the basket.

“Soil?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Dirt, nature, dog.”

I looked down at Ash who had his nose in the dirt, he inhaled deeply then let out a loud sneeze.

“Smells like victory,” I smiled to myself.

Haley took me to a part of the Valley that I’d never been to, it was a clearing on top of a cliff. I sat down the baskets and went to cliff edge. The blue of the ocean seemed to stretch on forever, before disappearing into the sky’s horizon. Behind me Asher yipped, I turned to look at him. He was standing several feet back from the edge, tail tucked between his legs. “Its okay buddy,” I soothed him, stepping back from the edge.

Alex stepped into the clearing, thermal mug in each hand. He gave me a small nod and approached Haley, handing her one of the mugs. “What is it?”

“Try it,” there was a small smile on his lips. She looked between him and the mug before taking a hesitant sip. “Oh, chia tea, this is good babe!” She took another drink. “Did you make this or grandma?”

Alex’s smile grew. “Grandma gave me some pointers, but I did!”

“You did a good job!” Haley took his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. Alex brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.  

I shifted were I stood and dug the toe of my boot into the ground. This was awkward. My few interactions with Haley had always been short. Not only in time together, but her answers to me. Not only that, but everything I had heard about Haley were always less than nice. She was rude and selfish, seeing this side to her was.. strange.

Next to Asher let out a loud sigh that grabbed the attention to the other two.

“Farmer, come here, I need help making flower crowns. Alex, please start setting up the tables.”

At least one of us got a please.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed making the flower crowns. I had even made one for Ash, getting a smile out of Haley as he paraded around his new accessory.

“Thanks for this Haley,” I spoke before I could stop my brain. She paused in her flower arrangement, looking up over the petals at me. “For what?” She asked.

“Having me help,” I shrugged. “I haven’t done anything like this in a long time. It’s… it’s nice.”

“Yeah, of course,” Haley smiled. “Thank you for helping, I know the others hate this tradition, but,” she paused, taking a long deep breath she closed her eyes. “There is something romantic about it. Something warm. I love the dancing, the smell of the flowers, the sound of the ocean below us.” Opening her eyes, she smiled at me.

“I can see that, I’m glad I get to be here to witness it.”

An hour later we were set up, Emily had delivered the outfits, Gus had arrived with Lewis and set up the buffet. Alex had finished the picnic tables, now the other villagers were coming in. I watched as Abbie ran across the clearing, throwing herself into Sam’s arms, laughing. Sebastian was leaning against a fence post, cigarette between his lips. He says something that I can’t make out, but he received a playful punch from Abbie. I felt a frown tug on my lips, a similar tug was felt in my chest. I swallowed the lump that was forming.

“Sebastian, huh?” Haley said from next to me. We were putting the bouquets she had made onto the tables. After this I would be free.

“What about him?” I sniffed, suddenly focusing on the flower arrangement.

“You like him,” she crossed her arms across her chest, her bright blue eyes were hard. I shrugged.

“Kit!” My eyes snapped to Haley as she said my name. “Do you like him?” She asked again.

“Does it matter?” I turned away with a huff. I could feel her watching me still, but I ignored her and kept my focus on the arrangement in front of me.

“Abbie dear!” Haley’s voice sang across the field. “Could you come here please?”

I stared at Haley, mouth open as she smirked at me.

“What’s up?” Abbie was breathless as she approached us.

“Does our little Miss Farmer here have a crush on Sebby?” Haley was blunt with her question, but her voice was sickly sweet.

“Uhhh,” Abbie shot a glance over at me. I groaned, digging the palms of my hands into my eyes. I giggled erupted from Haley as she clapped her hands together. “Oh this is just perfect, yes!” Haley spun in a circle, her blue skirt flaring out around her legs.

“What?” I looked between Abbie and Haley.

“YOU and HIM, it is SO perfect, how could I not see it BEFORE!?” Haley’s voice was becoming more shrill as she spoke. “Haley, what’s going on?” Emily asked coming up to us.

“Farmer likes Sebastian!” Haley clapped her hands in excitement. I slapped my hand over her mouth. “Shut up, before he hears you!”

There was a muffled reply from Haley.

“Haley, don’t interfere. Kit obviously doesn’t want him to know.” Emily frowned.

Haley pushed my hand away and shook her head. “But he is just so… awkward and totally oblivious to everything.”

“That’s what I said!” Abbie nodded. “And it’s true. You have to grab him by the face and be like ‘Sebastian, I like you. I have since we were kids, that’s why I shoved you off the dock that one time. Then that other time we were in the mines and I kicked a rock, it bounced off the wall and hit you in the head and thought I killed you-’”

I groaned. “I thought we were never going to mention that again.”

“I cried, a lot.”

“I legit thought he was dead!”

“Then you take him by his dumb face and kiss him!” Abbie batted her big blue eyes at me.

“Yeah, or something like that!” Haley nodded. Emily shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look, Kitten-”

“Kit.”

“Kitten,” Haley purred. “Sebastian has only had like two girlfriends his whole life. The longest one was with that girl Yuki and that was hella toxic!”

“Hella,” Abbie agreed.

“And he is totally oblivious when someone likes him, because he just doesn’t think someone can like him!” Haley flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. “So go and work your charms on him girl!”

“I have zero charm,” I mumbled.

“Zero,” Abbie echoed. I glared at her.

Haley looked between the two of us, a scheme forming behind her eyes. “Abbie, congrats girl, you are out of the dance this year. Kit, you are taking Abbie’s spot!”

“Oh, that’s dirty,” Emily winced.

“I like that,” Abbie cackled.

“So what?” I asked. “I have to do your dumb cult dance, woo-hoo!” I twirled my finger.

“You have to do the dance with Sebby,” Haley winked at me.

“Well fuck.”

I started towards the fields entrance, Abbie, Emily and Haley grabbed me and dragged me backwards. I stumbled over my boots and fell hard onto the ground. I groaned and leaned back into the grass. I’m beauty, I’m grace, I’ll fall on my face.

“Get up,” Haley demanded. “People are staring, get up before I make a scene.”

“She’ll do it Kit, get up!” Emily urged. I scrambled to my feet, dusting myself off. Ash trotted over to me, his flower crown had fallen off playing with Pepper. “I don’t want to do this!” I crossed my arms over my chest, a scowl on my face. “Look at me, I’m a mess!” I motioned to my grass stained jeans and muddy boots. Even my tank top was dirty and pulled my plaid over shirt closed.

“That’s okay, you get an itchy dress to wear!” Abbie beamed.

“And I’m sure Emily can do something with your hair,” Haley picked a piece of my red curls between two fingers. She let it fall to my shoulder, before she flicked it back with the same two fingers.

“What’s wrong with my hair?” I whimpered before gathering my beloved curls over my shoulder and holding it close.

“It’s just.. messy,” Haley shrugged. She wasn’t lying, it was messy, I hadn’t been taking care of it since I moved onto the farm.

“Come on Kit,” Emily took my hand in hers. She pulled me along, I glanced back over my shoulder, Abbie had a wide smile on her face and she waved at me. Haley was smirking, she tossed her hair over her shoulder before she skipped off.

Within the hour Emily had me in the dress meant for Abbie to wear today. It was a good thing we were similar in size. She had braided my hair back, two curls framed my impish face. I had tanned since moving to the valley and she didn’t have any foundation that matched my new complexion, she was able to frame my big green eyes in black liner. Emily smiled as she looked me over.

“This dress is itchy,” I looked down at the monstrous dress. Even though it was the correct size, it still managed to swallow me. I found Maru across the changing tent, the small woman was nearly lost in a sea of tulle.

Emily laughed. “It is!

“How come you don’t have to do this?” I asked.

“I did up until.. oh I don’t know, four year ago?” Her nose scrunched up. “I danced with Shane. He is a surprisingly great dancer! I however am not. I tripped over my own feet and fell, knocking down Penny who was next to me. The whole line went down like dominoes. I was out after that.” Emily laughed. “Poor Shane though, I think he might of actually enjoyed it though.” Emily fidgeted with her hands.

“You should ask him to dance then,” I bumped her shoulder with mine.

“Oh no.. I couldn’t,” she shook her head.

“You just got me all dolled up to make me dance with Sebastian,” I started. “If you don’t think for a single second I will drag you across the field and shove you into Shane and hold up a radio for you guys to dance together, think again!”

“Haley would be mortified,” Emily spoke softly. I glanced around the tent for the queen bee, she was near a mirror, arranging a flower crown of blue jazz upon her golden waves of hair.

“Well then,” I huffed. “I will think of another way to have you dance.” I grabbed my own flower crown and jammed it on my head. Emily straightened my crown of purple tulips. Outside music started, I got into my place in line, behind Maru and walked out.

I was thankful that the dance was easy, the steps simple and the music terrible. I was also thankful for the five years of summer dance class that my mother shoved me into as a child. I was not a bad dancer and before being swallowed up into the Joja Corporation black hole I would frequent night clubs with my friends. Still, I felt nothing had prepared me for this and my heart hammered in my ears. I couldn’t hear the music any more over the roar of blood in my ears. On the edge of the crowd Abbie gave me a thumbs up and smile, I wanted nothing more than to flick her off and punch that smile clean off her face. I took a deep breath and looked at Sebastian who was standing across from me, clearly confused at his change in partner. I shrugged, then took in his outfit. Biting my lip I kept myself from laughing. It was a denim explosion and it was hilarious to see him out of his usual dark skinny jeans and black shirt.

‘Shut up,” he mouth at me. Suddenly the panic stopped and I smiled at him, the music came back and my heart calmed. A new song came over the speakers and the dance started. Sebastian kept his eyes on his feet as he moved towards me, his fingers tapped against the side of his legs. I flowed through the steps that Haley had taught me. His fingers intertwined through mine as we spun. He clenched my fingers tightly as we moved into our next steps. I looked down at our hands, then back up at him. He was biting his bottom lip, his eyes still on his feet.

“Bash,” I whispered. He glance up at me, just for a second, his dark eyes met mine. “Bash, breath.”

He let out a long breath of air, he squeezed my hand again, his eyes locked onto mine. The music faded out and the dance was over. We took our bow to the sound of applause.

“Kit you were so good!” Abbie bounced over to me.

“I think I might make you a permanent dancer,” Haley smiled at me, she was wrapped up in Alex’s arms who placed a kiss on her cheek. She wasn’t paying much attention to him, instead her eyes were glued to Sebastian hand, it was still clenching mine. I looked over at him, he was still staring at me, his head slightly cocked to the side.

“You okay Bash?” I asked, looking him over. His other hand was clenching and unclenching over and over. He was still on the verge of a panic attack.

“Fine!” He finally gasped out.

“Oh Sebby!” Robin slammed into Sebastian almost knocking him over and our hands finally came apart. “You did so good!” Kissing her son on the cheek she held him at arms length.

“Mom!” Sebastian tried wiping the kiss off with his shoulder. Asha and Asher came bounding over and bounced around my feet.

“I don’t know about everyone else, but I want out of these clothes and some food!” Sam came over and rubbed his stomach.

“Saaaame!” Alex groaned out.

“Food sounds amazing!” Maru said, Demetrius putting a wall of over protective dad between her and Harvey.

Just like that the moment was gone.

Georgie Henley for The Times of London - ‘There is pressure on child actors not to admit it’s hard’

She had a ball as a child playing Lucy in the Narnia films, but her schoolmates were unkind — not that it stopped her. Now she’s on the London stage // Keep reading for full interview

Georgie Henley vividly remembers her first day in Narnia. She was eight years old, 12,000 miles from home and surrounded by a film crew waiting for her to act on camera for the first time. Henley was playing Lucy, the plucky youngest child of the Pevensie family in the Walt Disney film version of CS Lewis’s wartime fantasy classic The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. On the first take she looked at the camera because she didn’t know better. That error aside, she thought she spoke her lines all right. Yet the director, Andrew Adamson, kept asking her to do the scene again. And again. And again.

After about an hour of this she started welling up. Adamson came over and asked why she was upset. “And I just said, ‘I’m getting it wrong, that’s why you keep doing it over and over again, isn’t it?’ And he said, ‘No, we have to position the camera in different places, we do different shots and then we edit them together.’ ” She laughs at the thought. “I mean, it’s basic stuff, but I didn’t know because I was just plucked from nowhere.”

Now 22, Henley has just started her first professional stage role. She is starring in Angry, a collection of monologues by the restlessly provocative playwright Philip Ridley at the Southwark Playhouse in south London. She is upbeat, articulate and aware of the negative narrative that surrounds child actors and quietly determined to buck it.

She is hugely grateful for her experience on the three Chronicles of Narnia films: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in 2005, Prince Caspian in 2008 and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010. They have set her up financially, so that after finishing her degree in English at Cambridge University in 2016, she was able to move to a flat of her own in London. Unlike some other child actors, she says, who get pressured to support their families, her parents — Mike, a former solicitor who now works for HSBC, and Helen, who chaperoned her on all three Narnia films — made sure she kept her earnings.

“And I don’t take any of this for granted,” she says. “To have a franchise at a young age, it’s what a lot of actors spend their whole lives trying to get because you have guaranteed work and a guaranteed pay cheque. Not that I really thought about that at the time.” On the first film she didn’t even realise she was being paid. She did by the second film. “But it was like Monopoly money to me.”

Yet while she thinks there is “scaremongering” about what it’s like to be a child actor, she is quick to admit that it had a big impact on her school life. It happened almost by accident: a casting director, Pippa Hall, who had discovered Jamie Bell for Billy Elliot, held an audition at the drama club to which the seven-year-old Henley went each Tuesday after school in Ilkley, Yorkshire. “I was just lucky,” she says. She laughs awkwardly at the suggestion that, however she got the job, she was unusually good once she started doing it. “Thank you! I can’t cope with people saying nice things to me.”

She was “quite a weird child; on the fringe socially, just always off in my own world”. At first she thought she was auditioning for a panto in Bradford. As the process dragged on for months, and she started to travel down to London to audition alongside children from stage schools, she and her parents got to realise what it might involve. In fact, her parents pulled her out of the process when they were told it would involve four months filming in Canada. Her older sisters Rachael (who played the older version Lucy in the first film) and Laura stepped in, insisting that this was too big an opportunity to pass up. Her parents relented. Whereupon it became seven months in New Zealand instead.

“It changed my life,” Henley says. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. And I didn’t know anything. All I knew was what I had learnt in my drama club every Tuesday, and having parents who never told me to be quiet or anything, who liked me for being a little bit odd.”

Filming, give or take that first-day wobble, was wonderful. She apologises again for cheesiness. “It was like this magic thing. Every day it was a new costume, a new setting, new creatures to imagine you were talking to.” She watched the first film again two Christmases ago with her grandmother and enjoyed it. Certain memories from filming linger more than others: the day she played mini golf with Tilda Swinton, who was playing the White Witch, or the surprise party on set for her ninth birthday, when her father and sisters flew out to join her mother. “It was one of the best days of my life. It was just amazing. But it’s so funny when I meet children that age now and I think, ‘You are tiny.’ I remember what I was doing at that age and I can’t believe it.”

She has kept in touch with her co-stars, although they are rarely in the same room together. William Moseley, who played the oldest boy, Peter, acts in Hollywood. Anna Popplewell, who played Susan, still acts and lives round the corner from Henley in north London. Skandar Keynes, who played the younger brother, Edmund, overlapped with Henley at Cambridge. He was in his final year when she was in her first, but by that time he had stopped acting. “Nobody else will ever be able to understand what we did together. It’s this crazy, amazing thing. You just can’t explain it.”

As well as filming in New Zealand — and Eastern Europe and Australia in the later films — there was foreign travel for publicity junkets. She has visited Japan three times, she says, but doesn’t feel she knows the place since she spent most of her time there in hotel rooms. The same goes for New York. She will never forget being 15, waking up in her hotel room in Tokyo and remembering that she had a mock chemistry GCSE to do. She kept up with school work through tutors. The child actors shared classrooms as well as dressing rooms while on location.

Returning to normal life between films was difficult, though. Her family did a great job of keeping her feet on the ground, she says. They are all “very close”. However, she struggled when she got to Bradford Grammar School when she was 11. “Secondary school is where I struggled. I loved the work side of school, I loved learning, but the social side was a minefield. And part of that was worsened by the films that I had done, by me being in and out of school.

“There is such a pressure on child stars not to admit that it’s hard. To smile in interviews and say, ‘Yeah, I love my double life,’ and pretend they are a special agent or something. Because if they admit that it’s hard sometimes they sound like they are difficult.” She wouldn’t change anything about the films, but wishes she hadn’t played her achievement down so much when at school. She didn’t act in anything at school until her final year. “It was that thing of not wanting to put your head above the parapet for fear of it being sliced off, but I should have had the confidence to be proud of what I did. I was bullied mercilessly; people were so awful to me at school. It was amazing getting to uni and people being, like, ‘That’s so cool!’ And I was, like, ‘I know, right, isn’t it?’

“So I wish I could say to the 13-year-old me, ‘Be proud of what you’ve accomplished.’ And that doesn’t mean being arrogant. They are not the same. I think I conflated the two things.”

At university she studied English, but did theatre too. “You can experiment and f*** up or succeed, and if you do well nobody cares a week later and if you f*** up nobody cares a week later.”

She wrote and directed a couple of short films while there. She also kept up her film acting, although without Narnia budgets. In Perfect Sisters she played one of two Canadian teens plotting to kill their mother. The Sisterhood of Night, an American film, was a bit like The Crucible reworked for the age of social media. She also made Access All Areas, which was about a bunch of teenagers who go on the run to an island music festival. “It was amazing to be doing different characters,” she says. “People thought it was me trying to get away from the Lucy Pevensie thing, and maybe it looked like that, but your tastes change.” Before that, she was offered other fantasy or period films, but preferred to wait until she could do something different.

Talking of which, her professional stage debut certainly ticks that box. Ridley, known for troubling plays such as Mercury Fur or Dark Vanilla Jungle, has written six “gender-neutral” monologues, including one long one that is one of Henley’s favourites, about a teenaged sexual experience that may or may not have been entirely consensual. How you view it, Henley suggests, depends on which night you attend. She and her co-star, Tyrone Huntley, alternate who performs which three monologues each night. “You’ve got me, a white, straight woman, and Tyrone is a black, gay man; it’s two entirely different identities, but it’s the same words.”

Henley was already a fan of Ridley and had even written an essay about him at Cambridge, although she was mortified when one of the producers told him this. She will not let him read it, she says with a chuckle. She did some directing at university and would like to do more. Later this year she shoots her next short film. Beyond that some other work seems to be looming, but nothing she is sure about yet. She lives on her own, loves having her own space and isn’t in a relationship. “I’m a single Pringle. I don’t know how people my age have time for anything like that because I sure as hell don’t. I’m trying to keep myself together, let alone worry about someone else.”

The previous day she had picked up her first pay cheque for Angry.Fringe wages can’t be huge, but she’s thrilled to be paid for doing a job she loves. She is happiest when working. “Some child actors grow up and their career gets quite calculated. Their management say, ‘You can do an indie film, then you have got to do a blockbuster, and then you can do two more indies,’ but I’m just looking for stuff that scares me and challenges me; things I haven’t done before. Because I still feel like I don’t know anything and I have still got lots to learn, so having to jump in at the deep end like this . . .” she laughs. There is nowhere to hide when you’re doing monologues. “And that is terrifying, but it’s also a gift.”

BRUME

Dusty Shaky Shiver

Review & Interview by Zachary Painter

Photos by Bruno Pereira (Wav Magazine)

Music is a dynamic force and we, as the ultimate architects of musical expression, have very little control over how it affects us. The most fascinating phenomenon, then, is to witness the progressive evolution of a group of individuals contributing to the greater musical conversation of our time. Take BRUME, for instance, a Bay Area three-piece who just released their sophomore effort, 'Rooster' (2017). It’s an impressive slab of gritty, colorful doom, and it delivers on every paradigm of what we call doom metal.

Rooster by Brume

Rooster’s primary achievement is that it sounds much bigger than anything the band has done before. It’s bold, heavy, and beautiful, and the songwriting is tighter and stronger than anything from their 2015 debut, Donkey. By focusing more on interesting guitar work and sounder song structures, the trio has avoided sounding like another Windhand doom-pop clone, which isn’t so easy to do if your band features a female vocalist. From their latest work, Brume draw comparisons to the likes of Messa or to some degree Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard.

Indeed, not experimenting enough was the major drawback of Donkey, which relied on singer and bassist Susie McMullen’s soaring falsetto to carry the band through five rather similar tracks. Rooster is superior in that it works more with the band’s collective talents to create staggering moments that incorporate dynamics and powerful guitar progressions. Songs like opener "Grit and Pearls," for instance, progress by sculpting dynamics that carry the listener from stentorian peaks to quiet, calm depths. These transitions establish intimate moments with the listener, imparting Rooster with a richness that sustains the whole record.

Perhaps "Reckon" captures Rooster’s variety the best: Jamie McCathie’s guitar--clean and coated with some effects--sounds out a bluesy passage that supports McMullen’s swaggering vocal lead. It’s a calm introduction that proceeds to obliterate the listener as Jordan Perkins-Lewis joins McCathie with his drums to create a wall of sound. Towards the halfway point of the song, McMullen belts out a tribal-esque chant that soars majestically atop McCathie’s High on Fire-inspired riffing and Perkins-Lewis’ sustaining ride cymbal.

To bring some balance to Rooster, Brume included a softer song called "Welter," an acoustic track that combines piano from Billy Anderson himself to accompany McMullen’s stunning vocals. “The villain plays the victim,” sings McMullen. “Do you use pity as your weapon?” The melody and lyrics come from a place of hurt; the pain and upheaval radiate from McMullen’s crooning voice as soft piano chords shimmer in the offing. It’s a moment of vulnerability and nakedness, but it cuts deep.

The album ends on "Tradewind," a slow paced dirge that shifts from somber plodding to a cathartic release towards the final minutes of the song. “Open wounds, healing truth, healing you. Open wounds, open, open you, healing truth,” McMullen sings. The cleansing nature of the lyrics in conjunction with the guitar’s unbridled drone creates yet another moment of unashamed tenderness that shows us a side of doom metal we’re only accustomed to getting in small doses from bands like Pallbearer, Warning, or even Type O Negative ("Love You to Death" is one of the sappiest songs in metal, but we love it all the same). More of this, please.

The daringness to pioneer new sonic territory is what makes Rooster such a success. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s not terribly derivative, either. For their second LP, the future is looking bright for Brume.

A Lively Conversation With Brume

By Zachary Painter

Photos by Kristen Wrzesniewski

Brume recently finished up a few UK tour dates with Gurt. You also got to play Desertfest at The Underworld alongside Bongzilla and Inter Arma, among others. How was that whole experience? I read that Body Count was forever "your" band.

Susie McMullan (vocals, bass): Ugh, that was so incredibly fun. Travelling with rad dudes who have fantastic music you get to hear every night will elevate you and make you want to do better. Gurt is a killer band and a fun bunch of dudes to party with every night. I have been singing “Salt In My Vagina/Jon GarSeeYa Later" and “Battlepants” walking around in the city with a huge smile on my face since I’ve gotten back. Desertfest London was a treat, as well. We were well taken care of, packed the venue, and pretty much had the best show to date. The sound was epic and the event was really well run. I was meaning to reach out to the sound folks at the Underworld to let them know how excellent it was. Can’t ask for anything better than that?

Most people don’t remember their dreams. Mine are clear, awful, and haunting...

Jordan Perkins-Lewis (drums): Desertfest was incredible. Easily one of my favorite festivals in the world. Gurt warms the cockles of my heart. We stayed with a lot of mums on this trip. Mums go hard on tour.

Jamie McCathie (guitar): The tour was epic. For me, I got to hang with my Gurt family and introduce Brume to not only some of the best peeps on the planet, but a seriously incredible band. Gurt slayed every night. And to end the tour at Desertfest was an amazing experience. The Underworld was rammed. It’s my favorite venue in London and I never got to play there in the 7 ½ years I lived in London. It was an experience. Body Count "Get Shot" turned 'to the tour anthem after Bill and Spice banged on about how amazing the new album was -- it’s epic. It was our stage entrance tune at Desertfest. It made us feel pumped.

Which bands were you looking forward to seeing most?

Susie: Inter Arma and Elephant Tree, two current inspirations. I’m pretty pumped to say we are playing with Inter Arma again on August 17th at Thee Parkside. That makes two times in one year. #madeit

Jordan: Vodun and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs were high on my list.

Jamie: I was so excited to see Inter Arma, and they blew my ass off. I was also excited to see bands I hadn't from the U.K. like Elephant tree, Vodun, Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters and Mammoth Weed wizard Bastard. Elephant tree were one of the bands Susie and I religiously listened to when we were starting Brume. They are a huge influence on us and to do something in the future with those guys would be rad. Pete and I go a lil' way back from my Gurt days.

We spend most of our time hiding in a cave making music.

You guys worked with Gareth Kelly and his record label and PR entity When Planets Collide to set up this tour. Seeing that Brume has close ties with Gurt and the UK scene, do you have future plans to collaborate with Gurt or other bands overseas?

Susie: I have dreams of spending time, collaborating, and having future plans with a few overseas bands such as Elephant Tree, Pist, Sedulus, and Mage. You can’t fight gravity.

Jordan: We’re bringing Gurt over next year. That’s all I’ll say for now.

Jamie: The tour was special for me because I played a set with Gurt every night, the songs I could still remember. They came on stage and played "Tradewind" with us a few nights. Doing more with Gurt would be amazing. There was a lot of talk about getting Gurt over to the West Coast. We’ll see.

Any upcoming tours for Brume stateside?

Jordan: We’ll get down to Los Angeles at some point this year and hopefully back up to the Pacific Northwest. There are also rumors of the East Coast and Deep South.

Jamie: A couple of awesome shows coming up in the Bay Area -- San Jose and San Francisco with Castle and Year Of The Cobra, plus a few yet to be announced that we are crazy excited about.

Since Donkey came out, it seems a lot has happened logistically for the band. I remember discovering Donkey on Transylvanian Tapes out of Oakland. Do you still work with them? How did you transition to DHU Records?

Susie: Yeah, Transylvanian Tapes is led by this wonderful man that helps small bands like us out, but he only does tapes. DHU only does vinyl. He is also a lovely man who does a lot for us. We are grateful for Transylvanian Tapes and DHU because they not only propped us up when we were invisible to most people, they introduced us to a lot of other underground bands that now inspire us and help us progress. Very similar to you guys. If it wasn’t for Doomed & Stoned, Planets Collide, Ripple Music, Transylvanian Tapes, DHU, and these wonderful blog posts and reviews, we’d not be given the chances that we have had so far. We are incredibly grateful for it. We spend most of our time hiding in a cave making music. Y'all make us relevant and visible.

Jordan: The community surrounding bands like us, and music like ours, is absolutely the best part of doing all this. We’ve met some wonderful people who have really gone out their way to push us and encourage us to keep going. Transylvanian Tapes and DHU are a huge part of that. The support we’ve been fortunate enough to receive has been overwhelming.

Jamie: James Rauh from Transylvanian Tapes is a legend. He totally hooked us up and continues to do so much to promote Brume and a ton of the other amazing underground Bay Area bands. DHU reached out to us after Donkey came out and has been a huge partner in getting our music to wax. He puts out incredible bands and tirelessly connects with people to spread the word. When Jordan said he wanted to make a label to put out Rooster we were so pumped for him, but decided to have DHU still help with vinyl. I'm glad we did, the color looks way killer and I know people are gonna lose their shit.

What are some Bay Area bands you’re psyched on? I really enjoy Swamp Witch, Body Void, Noothgrush, Brainoil, etc. Any up-and-coming bands in that area you’re digging?

Susie: Yes, Body Void is the total package. I’m a huge gigantic fan of War Cloud and Love Moon, too. I’m wearing a War Cloud shirt right now.

Jordan: So many Bay Area bands to love! KOOK, Tvsk, Name -- it goes on and on.

Jamie: Body Void is fucking incredible. Wilt’s voice is something else, and they keep getting better with every release. KOOK from San Jose are killer, too; not only sweet guys, but man they slay live. Serpents of Dawn, Tvsk, Lowcaster, War Cloud -- it's pretty vibrant around here and getting better.

So this new album, for me, has three focal points I want to talk about: the album art, the lyrics, and, of course, the music. For the album art, you guys chose Sean Beaundry to draw up this fantastic album art. How did you find Beaundry and what made you choose him?

Susie: Jamie found him. I was slow to the party, but fell just as hard in love.

Jordan: We knew what we wanted art-wise. We didn’t know Sean would take it leaps and bounds beyond what we had imagined.

Jamie: The album name was already decided, and Shaun's birds and crows I'd seen were amazing -- plus everything he'd done for Kylesa has this modern quality that I really wanted for our artwork. I reached out to him and was lucky enough that he was pumped about the project and creating a cockatrice. He was a dream to work with and has provided us such a killer album cover. We love it.

I really like Brume’s approach with album artwork and album names. 2015 released Donkey and it aptly featured a humanoid creature with a donkey’s head on the cover. Rooster features a wrathful rooster-snake throttling a sparrow. So what’s the link between your album art and names?

Jordan: Donkey was a temporary band name when we first got started. It eventually became the name of our first EP and Jamie discovered the artwork. I think we all fell in love with the chimera idea, so once we settled on Rooster we already knew it had to be some sort of animal hybrid.

Jamie: Animal hybrids may be a theme. Or farmyard animals? Who knows.

Donkey by Brume

Some of the lyrics on this album were extractions from Victoria June Baigrie. I’ve looked her up and she’s an obscure poet. Tell us more about her work, why you chose to use her poetry, and in what ways it influenced the songwriting for the record.

Jamie: Vicci is my talented wife. The whole album was written by Susie, except "Harold" which is an extraction from a poem that she had created about an injured goldfinch she found and fostered when we lived in London. She found it lying in the street on a bustling Portobello road and swept it up, nurtured it back to health, and then took it to a wildlife reserve a week or so later. The whole experience was both rewarding and traumatic for her, so when Susie asked her to write a poem about it, she jumped at the opportunity. She's keen to write more, maybe even some short stories for books are in the future. The acoustic intro I came up with at the same time this all happened, probably six years ago, so I’m glad I could make this song come to life. Harold is the bird you see on the cover, he looks in trouble but when you see the center gatefold on the vinyl artwork you’ll notice he’s just fine.

"Call the Serpent’s Bluff" is one of the more interesting songs for me lyrically, specifically the first two stanzas.

The other night I dreamt of the devil In a painting white teal and purple His glowing head and arms were a’ flailing But the frame was somehow firmly planted

He didn’t talk but yeah he scared me I left the room but he still got to me He’s in my head

What went into selecting these lyrics?

Susie: That was a poem I wrote one morning after a pretty bad dream. Most people don’t remember their dreams. Mine are clear, awful, and haunting most of the time. I find that writing them down helps me deal with it and try to get it out of my head. Demons and Devils pop up in my dreams a lot and not in a funny, cool, metal way. I think it was a manifestation of me fighting some bad decisions I was tempted to make and ones I have already made, except for the end of the song. The end came a year later as an epiphany when I adapted the poem to music. I remember jogging to it making up a melody to the last riff and thinking, “Oh shit, fuck that. I'm calling his bluff.” The ending was emotionally triumphant. My dreams are like I constantly have these demons fucking fight over my soul. But I won that one a year later. Weird that I’m explaining this to a stranger. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe you should buy me a whiskey first, and I’ll tell you the rest. I like Bulleit.

Jordan: Make mine a double.

Jamie: Three, please!

Ok, so musically this album sees Brume really hitting their stride. How did the writing process change for this record?

Susie: In 2014, we just met and started playing music together. I’m not sure much has changed in our process, except for more time spent together probably helps you build trust and learn how to collaborate easier together. I know I feel more comfortable to make armpit farts as an intro and chirp bird noises mid-song!

Jordan: The first EP was more of a rush job, since Susie was expecting and the fate of the band was unknown. We really wanted to get something out quickly. With Rooster we booked the studio time well in advance and got Billy Anderson to sign on fairy early. There was a good six months where we didn’t do anything but write and rehearse. We’ve also become quite close as a band, so we were more willing to take risks that maybe we wouldn't have attempted on the first record.

Jamie: Process-wise, the only thing that had changed was a lot more focus on lyrics and vocals. Susie and I spent a lot of time at each other’s apartments between band rehearsals focusing in on melodies, intonations, and harmonies. Thanks to all husband and wives in Brume for putting up with us!

What did you want to avoid on this record? In other words, what did you not want this record to sound like, be perceived as, and so on?

Susie: Nothing, I don’t really think that way. I just do what I want to and try not to hold back. It isn’t great life advice but for music it works well for me. Plus, if Jamie or Jordan thinks my idea sucks, they have no problem telling me. That makes it easier to go for it, as far as I’m concerned.

Jordan: We never limit what we want to do. If we like it, we do it. We don’t try to avoid sounding like anything. We sound like who we are.

While the goal should never be "longer is better" for doom, necessarily, the songs on this record are noticeably longer and more fleshed out than those on Donkey. Did this come naturally as you wrote the compositions or were you trying to write a fuller, more complete opus?

Jordan: We joke that our songs aren’t finished until they’re over the six-minute mark, but we do like to stretch things out and slow things down. We’re not in a rush to get to the next song.

Jamie: I’m a big fan of Junior Kimborough, old Bob Dylan, and Yob. Monotony is kind of my jam. Some people find that boring, I find it hypnotic and calming. There is a balancing act to keeping people engaged, so to add more flavor to a song meant making them a lil' longer than we did on Donkey. We wanted these songs to feel more epic and have more dynamics and take people on a journey, so twelve-minute songs just kind of happened.

In "Reckon," McMullen’s vocals deliver this tribal chant in the middle of the song, followed by a fucking heavy riff. It’s a big moment and it's segments like this that make Rooster stand out. What influences would you say pushed you guys to write songs like "Reckon"?

Susie: Jamie wrote that riff -- it's so good, right?! Love that shit. Lyrically, that song is about a big, ugly dude that works at NASA who looks like he should play in Crowbar that I crushed on for some time. It seemed natural to make this song a story about a badass who could match up to that riff. Tribal chants, animal sounds, three-to-four schizoid-personalities in one song, that is what speaks to me vocally and makes me feel wild and alive.

Jamie: The structure in that song came from my fear of it sounding too much like a blues thing. I think that’s where the schizoid personality comes in. There’s a lil' bit of All Them Witches, Pallbearer, and a total High on Fire "10,000 Years" riff at the end that pretty much sums up what I would have been listening to that month.

This album experimented a lot more with dynamics than Donkey. "Tradewind," which starts off with soft, somber guitar work, swells and fades throughout the song, ending on a strong crescendo. This really heightens the cathartic nature of the music. It’s purging, painful, and beautiful. Tell us more about how you guys "discovered" this element of your songwriting.

Susie: For the bass, I just try to beef up the guitars unless I can add something fun and dynamic or bring another riff that compliments Jordan or Jamie. Vocally, I like to show all sides of me. I am not strong and tough 24/7. Sometimes I’m fragile or scared or weak. Sometimes I’m pissed at the whole world and other times I want to lift the world up. I try to give all of those sides of me even if it isn’t that cool to show it. I notice when I do so then singing and playing music is therapeutic and self-nourishing. I don’t have to pretend to be something stronger than I am. It is a sustainable lifestyle being yourself. I highly recommend it.

Jordan: Metal bands have feelings, too.

Jamie: Last year's Radiohead album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was something I obsessed over. That and All Them Witches (ever since I saw them at Day of the Shred in 2014). Whilst very different artists, both bands craft albums that are rich and dynamic. They create such contrast in style and mood. I love this juxtaposition. I respect that I never know what I’m going to get with both of these artists and I was so heavily inspired by that idea, I worked hard to incorporate it into Rooster. I’m excited to see how much more contrast we can create in the future.

I really enjoyed this record, still spinning it now. Thanks so much for visiting with the readers of Doomed & Stoned!

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Let's declare some winners. Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Maschine Masters / YouTube and Crooklyn Reactions / YouTube In just one month, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz The Beat Battle series has gone from a new event that connects the past and present of hip-hop to an exhilarating excitement in our inner spring, joining DJ sessions from D-Nice, Questlove and others, as well as the unpredictable Ontario artist Tory Lanez. Quarantine radio like remote viewing but essential live for rap and R&B fans while live shows and festivals are shelved by COVID-19. Verzuz reinvents the DJ battles of the beginnings of hip-hop for the set "one gotta go". The premise is simple: two eminent producers (or singers or songwriters) join live on Instagram and compete to decide who has the best catalog. The rules met on the fly by trial and error. As it stands, each battle is fought over 20 rounds, each competitor making a move and hearing a rebuttal. Verzuz is fun, simple and wide open - maybe a little too wide open. The public is mainly in charge of the rating, and there is rarely a consensus on the points. Regional biases and generational schisms are increasing. Playing a deep cut makes you lose the point almost flatly, even if it's one of the greatest songs of all time. There's nothing wrong with a slugfest, but it's exhausting to hear people throw out timeless classics. You can be a legend with decades of success and lose the crowd too far from the radio. You can be a veteran who changed the game forever and get smoked in the public eye because someone else's music is fresher in everyone's shared memory. You can score points with records made primarily by someone else. If you have cultivated a relationship with a leading artist, you are almost guaranteed to win. Despite these minor problems, Verzuz makes dull weekends more enjoyable and gives the game a spirit of friendly competition. It also teaches fans how many heads it takes to make a record. You could hear the same song in three different battles: once from a producer, again from a co-producer, then again from a songwriter who helped refine the melodies or flesh out the lyrics. That said, the repetition of the hits also highlights the need for more variety in the casting of candidates, a concern that Swizz and Timbaland seem to address in programming in the future, as the boom bap giants RZA and DJ Premier recently teamed up for one for ages and revenge between the 80s and 90s. R&B veterans Teddy Riley and Babyface are in the works after a failed first try. Verzuz needs talent from different regions and times, and desperately needs women. Until we know what will happen next, let's review what we have seen so far, ranked from best to worst to absolutely doomed. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcM3MKN92O0[/embed] -> What is the summary? When Babyface first postponed its battle with Teddy Riley this month (while R&B born Kenneth Edmonds took the time to recover after being tested positive for coronavirus) asked who would fill these shoes on Easter weekend. Wu-Tang RZA's brain and Gang Starr's DJ Premier intensified. The native of New York built his legend on grainy tones and samples of funk and kung fu, shoveling a pile of metro soil on the threshold of traditional hip-hop in the early 90s with classics like Enter the 36 rooms, Liquid swords, and Only built 4 Cuban Linx. Premier, a renowned New York hip-hop venue via Houston and Boston, is a platinum assistant capable of creating new melodic lines from pre-existing records. While RZA made a splash on Staten Island, Preemo made magic with Nas, Biggie, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep and more. Their competition was a clash of rap titans that will go down in history. The duo played cat and mouse through 20 legendary street rap spins, then blessed us with a long, successful bonus round in which they forgot to participate in the main battle. Who won? Preemo was the favorite in the days leading up to the battle, but RZA was armed with good records by Method Man, GZA, Ol ’Dirty Bastard and Raekwon. He was too close to hang on to the score. The winner is anyone connected to hear the story of New York hip-hop song by iconic song. (That said, I'm on the side of RZA.) Strong points: Decades of hip hop royalty have camped in the comments, RZA arriving in a sleeveless vest and gloves with Afro Samurai playing in the background, the Prime Minister calls Wu-Tang's ugly hit "Gravel Pit" a pop song and follows with "Ain't No Other Man" by Christina Aguilera, RZA chasing the hot song by Biggie diss "Kick In the Door ", off 1996. Life after death, with "The Long Kiss Goodnight", another diss track from the same album. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H_l_Mzh3EI[/embed] -> What is the summary? Swizz was a 17-year-old boy from the Bronx when he started making beats for DMX and the Ruff Ryder clique in the late 90s. Virginia Timbaland's innovator was the other benchmark of the time. If you didn't have Swizz or Tim or the Neptunes involved in your major label album, you were spoiled. It was the case of Jay-Z Flight. 2: Hard Knock Life at Drake Thank me later and beyond. The depth of the catalog made this battle a war of attrition; these are guys who can go song for song, artist for artist. The two clashed on records from Jay, Drake, Missy Elliott, Kanye West, Aaliyah, Justin Timberlake and dozens of others. The first Verzuz the battle is the longest and most difficult to call. Timbaland is the most convincing musician; there are wilder things that happen to a Timbo beat than a Swizz seven times out of ten. But Swizz is a joker ready to take on roles that no one would dare better. Run away from Jay-Z's “Jigga My Nigga”. The melody is meaningless. It's hard like nails! Who won? I give Timbo the advantage for having encouraged Swizz to play R&B and to stay strong when his opponent's (killer) reserve of the 2006 Beyoncé classics has run out, revealing his opponent's shortcomings while highlighting its own strengths. Strong points: The Jay-Z War at six songs where we could hear classic cuts from the In my life albums, every time Swizz played DMX and Timbo joked, "You play your artist." Trash conversation is the key. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i18yHuizwc[/embed] -> What is the summary? Lil Jon and Teddy Paindergrass are the yin and yang of mid-2000s hip-hop radio. (Peace to the Ying Yang Twins, however.) T-Pain has made Auto-Tune the rap wave almost alone based on records like "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin ')" and "Can't Believe It" "and produced most of it himself. (Another time, let's talk about the imposing synths of "Drank" and "Chopped N Skrewed" which are just as instrumental for the massive sound of hip-hop from 2005 to 2008 as DJ Toomp jams like "What You" by TI Know " and "I Luv It" by Jeezy or "What Up, What's Haapnin" by Drumma Boy on Tip and "Put On" by Jeezy and Kanye.) Jon brought turbulent and crunk music from Atlanta to the masses and produced for everyone from Usher and Ciara to Pitbull and, yes, T-Pain. Who won? The back-to-back bangers and lively jokes of these two made this battle less of a war and more of a club night. It was too close to call. This time, the winner was us. Strong points: Lil Jon reminding T-Pain that "Buy U a Drank" borrowed its hook from "Snap Yo Fingers", T-Pain dancing and singing with live performances of his hits until Swizz said, "What do you think, Essence Fest? ", Jon scary the crowd with anti-vax conspiracy theories, all hell was unleashed when T-Pain played the remix of "I'm a flirt" by R. Kelly. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9xRjR8iz9c[/embed] -> What is the summary? Babyface writes majestic and masterful love songs for a long list of clients, including Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men and Ariana Grande. His solo albums Tender lover, For the freshness in you, and The day rank among the best R&B of all time. Teddy Riley, with producers like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, brought a new swing to the masses in the 80s and 90s, mixing hip-hop drums and R&B melodism for famous collaborators like Bobby, Whitney, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson. Riley's groups of singers Guy and Blackstreet have scored classics in "Piece of My Love", "Groove Me" and "No Diggity". The main event on Saturday evening drew the pre-game excitement of a Tyson fight for the adult and sexy crowd. Unfortunately, the battle lasted as long as an Iron Mike match, sinking into chaos early on when technical problems emerged at the end of Teddy and sabotaged the first hour. He was trying to perform for his website while broadcasting the battle on IG Live, with a room full of staff, while Babyface directed his end of the feed alone in headphones. We heard about six songs in the first quarter hour, after which Riley asked for 20 more minutes to work on the sound, and Babyface quietly escaped and promised to reschedule the already rescheduled battle. Saving this lower ranking battle is Monday night's rematch, which went off without much technical difficulty or really no glare by Teddy Riley. After a few hilarious minutes trying to figure out how to pin a comment on IG Live, the duo settled in, played a bunch of classic records, talked about trash, cast shadow and reminded everyone why we considered them to be R&B greats. Who won? You could say that Babyface won the first night after entering the scene with two Bobby Brown classics and remained a good sport while Teddy's entire group, hype, staff and film crew fumbled with microphones and speakers, trying to stream live on two separate platforms and drown a deadly echo that Riley swore at one point came from the other guy. The rematch went to Babyface, and it wasn't close, although Teddy got some good rebuttals, reminding us that the new classic of the Keith Sweat "I Want Her" jack swing is (almost) as good as "Every Little Step" by Bobby Brown. " Strong points: Toni Braxton on the way to war Twitter, Mariah Carey and Adele make jokes, Babyface playing "Change the World" on acoustic guitar while Teddy understood the sound on Monday, Raekwon in the comments talk about stealing people from Babyface songs, Riley's team trying to fix the microphone problems by bringing in even more microphones, Babyface leaning a bit on social distancing while Riley sank in a room with what appeared to be ten heads present but no masks in view the SAME. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJPMKL_qTV0[/embed] -> What is the summary? The third Verzuz the battle re-established order when the successful R&B songwriters Ne-Yo and Johnta Austin matched the goods. The two artists are masters of tasteful love songs with hot sequences that last from the middle to the end. Ne-Yo's successes like "So Sick", "Because of you", "Miss Independent", "Irreplaceable" by Bey, "Take a Bow" by Rihanna are fluid R&B classics. Johntá's catalog - see: Bow Wow and "Like Mine" by Ciara, "Run It!" By Chris Brown "Can't Help But Wait" by Trey Songz and "We Belong Together" and "Shake It Off" by Mariah - fill the picture of a bygone era of health 106 & Park countdown and contemporary radio rate paced without worries. Who won? The two songwriters selected their best material, for the most part, although Johntá could have applied pressure with a few Mariah joints in platinum. Ne-Yo finally won, although it is better appreciated as a two-and-a-half hour nostalgia playlist from the 2000s than a formal beat battle. Strong points: Johntá sipping wine in a suit and looking quietly disturbed, Ne-Yo offering a gentleman's trash speech, The-Dream appearing in comments wondering why he couldn't have such a civilized battle. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EznbRsGAhw4[/embed] -> What is the summary? The second Verzuz event associated two hitmakers who have had an impact over the past ten years. Mostly known for drums exploding like bombs, the West Coast rapper and producer Hit-Boy composed songs by Jay, Kanye West, Bey, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj. The Toronto Boi-1da has worked with Drake since its first mixtape in 2007, Room for improvement. "Miss Me", "Headlines", "0-100 / The Catch-Up" and "Over" - all him. The catalog also includes the Eminem Hot 100 “Not Afraid” topper and scorchers with everyone from Rick Ross to Rihanna. It seemed to be an equal match until everyone realized how infinite the Drake Boi-1da classic pool is. Hit-Boy put pressure on big radio records like "Feeling Myself" by Bey and Nicki and "Backseat Freestyle" by Kendrick, but Boi-1da had an answer for almost all of them. Who won? Trying to push Boi-1da out of his comfort zone was a solid strategy that ultimately backfired on Hit-Boy. He pulled out too much of his biggest hits too soon, and it cost him in the back half of the battle, when Boi-1da locked himself in, playing ten years of Drake successes. It was a little bit like the people who fire fireballs in street fighter: It's rude, but if you can't beat him, you can't beat him. Strong points: Hit by drawing his Rihanna card with the Anti banger "Woo" but then catching "Work", Boi-1da presenting with a drop of Drake saying: "I should continue to sign with Hit-Boy because I had all the success, my boy", on " 0-100, "the two producers preview the unreleased music by Nipsey Hussle, Nas, Drake and Roddy Ricch. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN1dGTHR-wo[/embed] -> What is the summary? Mannie Fresh is a southern rap hero best known as the architect of his Cash Money. In the 90s, he produced the first albums of Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Big Tymers, B.G. and Hot Boys, creating beats essentially from scratch. The streak continued over the next decade with TI's "Front Back" and "Big Things Poppin" Scott Storch started out as a member of the Roots and became one of the must-have beatmakers and session players of the artists , working with everyone from 50 Cent and Chris Brown at Paris Hilton and Brooke Hogan. Storch's story is complicated in a way that Mannie Fresh is not - by 2010, Storch's career had become a cautionary tale about addiction and over-spending - but regular customers like Brown and more recent stars as 6ix9ine and Russ have been looking for in recent years, as Fresh's relationship with Lil Wayne has led to good investments on Tha Carter V and this year Funeral. In battle, the two producers played classics alongside a few more recent songs, but the age gap in the crowd was palpable. Verzuz largely satisfies nostalgia; the successes of 99 and 2000 are not always as good. Who won? People swear it was a rash in favor of Storch, accusing Mannie Fresh of having a sound too specific to its time and region. It's a riot, because Storch's taste for eccentric synth sounds, hand claps and Americanized ragas screams as much as "Back That Azz Up" in 1999. But Storch finally took this one. Strong points: Storch smoking fat dulls all the time and lights them with a portable torch, Jadakiss laughs in the comments when his collaboration with Mariah Carey "U Make Me Wanna" took effect, Storch slipping "Cry Me a River" by Justin Timberlake in the mix on the technicality that he is credited as the song's key player in the Justified album cover notes. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K0-O0YFYB4[/embed] -> What is the summary? New York rym French Montana is a trap artist whose real gift is the hooks; the catalog of tubes on which it is presented is surprisingly deep. According to the song, Tory Lanez is either an R&B singer using rap rates, or a rapper with an attentive ear for the melody. (The nose Quarantine radio combines the steamy humor of a radio jock with a steady stream of famous guests like Megan Thee Stallion and Drake and a long line of fans ready to twerk in front of the camera. It's the spring hit, attracting an average of a quarter of a million heads each time.) It sounds like a quirky match until you play a lot of their songs back to back and see the common threads. Who won? Tory Lanez has chops, but French has relationships. In a field where the biggest success always takes precedence, songs like "Stay Schemin" and "Pop That" will always demolish "Ferris Wheel" and "K Lo K", even if these are all good songs that share aesthetics . The French have won a mile. Strong points: Lanez playing "Kika" by Tekashi 6ix9ine Day69 but refusing to recognize who it was, the French nonchalantly smoking hookah, Lanez being a good sport to lose. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGZ86i310I[/embed] -> What is the summary? The scandalous confrontation between Atlanta-based hitmakers The-Dream and Sean Garrett is the reason Verzuz now has basic rules. Dream - who contributed to the creation of many successes, including “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncés and “Touch My Body” by Mariah Carey, and created his own memorable songs in “Falsetto” and “Rockin 'That Shit' - was cordial and timely in his Sunday evening scrap. Garrett is best known by people who do not read the lining notes as a guest in Nicki Minaj's "Massive Attack", but known to those who know him as the co-author and / or co-producer of singles like "Yeah !, "by Usher Ciara's" goodies "and Yonce's firecrackers like" Ring the Alarm ". That said, he showed up late, shaking the camera lasciviously and letting the recordings topple over for too long. (That's why contestants are only allowed to play a song until the first chorus now.) Antics ate most of the first hour, where Dream released a steady stream of solid songs, and Garrett played random songs, digging Blueprint 3- Will be songs by Jay-Z and unpublished first solo. But the scales were rocked, and the fight became good when Garrett pulled it together and started matching Dream song to song. Who won? The crowd swore that Garrett was smoking Dream, but what really happened was that he shot a Rocky. He ate shots through the opening laps and swayed towards the end when his opponent withdrew. But it's not boxing. There is no KO. It is important that Sean blew up the first hour. It is also important that Dream lets slip a comfortable lead, giving up too many points while leaving too much heat on the table. Sean won ... but it was close. Strong points: The-Dream playing mini-golf in front of the camera as Garrett appears slammed and makes impromptu opening remarks, Dream showing the demo version of Jay-Z's "Holy Grail" with himself instead of Justin Timberlake, Garrett scary the crowd with faces of love, famous spectators like Big joe, Kelly Rowland, and Rick Ross get tired and act in the comments. https://oltnews.com/all-verzuz-instagram-battles-live-ranked-vautour?_unique_id=5e9f3fce8833d

Episode 122 : Drop It Heavy

"Scripture tell me no one excluded when rain drippin'..."

- Tobe Nwigwe

This month has been a rough one, but here we are once again with a brand new selection for your headphones and speakers! We remember the great KMG, and then sprinkle the selection with some strong UK tracks, overlook gems, rapid genre jumping, and one absolutely amazing remix. While individually there aren't many obscurities in the mix, I'll be impressed if anyone already knows every track on here...

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Above The Law : V.S.O.P (Remix)

Been waiting a long time to play this one - it was quite a few years of looking to find a decent 12" copy (thanks Discogs!), and then it was one I was determined to save for an anniversary of KMG's passing. The original from the excellent "Black Mafia Life" is proto-G-Funk, but this version puts a just a touch of extra chaos (and bass) into the mix, courtesy of Cold 187um on both occasions. An ode to late-night partying and cognac, but still bringing the battle edge to the second verse, this has KMG handling the hook solo but going back and forth with Cold 187um on the mic. A much underrated tag team from the west!

Jigmastas : Too Ill (Instrumental)

I love the fact that the "Resurgence" album came with a complete set of instrumentals, just so you can get that DJ Spinna flavour undiluted - here's just a taste!

Tobe Nwigwe ft. FAT : PEEP GAME

Another #GetTwistedSundays killer! I'm bringing this Texan back for a second appearance in the last four months, with a track I think a lot of you will really enjoy. The producer Nell brings a fresh style, with some great change-ups in the beat - and the other half of the bargain is held up with skills galore. Tobe absolutely crams meaning (and syllables) into his devastating monotone flow, and his wife FAT provides a great spoken-word-like breakdown in an efficient eight-bar appearance. This is a trio of brilliant artists (along with their video crew) doing amazing things.

BADBADNOTGOOD ft. Kaytranada & Snoop Dogg: Lavender (Nightfall Remix)

Canada's BBNG first released the original version of this track on their "IV" album, but Snoop Dogg heard it and somehow knew it could benefit from his own unique enhancement! This version ended up as an inclusion on his 2017 "Neva Left" album; his added verse addressing police brutality, in addition to the controversial video, thrust it into the consciousness of a much larger audience. 

DRS : All Time High

I was reminded of this track from the new "From The Deep" LP when DRS performed it live at a Manchester International Festival event recently. He's one of the most important artists the Manchester scene has ever had, with his influence spreading far and wide - whether fully acknowledged or not. While he's now mostly known for his drum & bass work, he was of course one-third of Broke 'n' English (alongside Strategy and Konny Kon) and this album has him displaying his Hip-Hop skills over the production of Pitch 92. 

Lowkey : Hand On Your Gun

If you like politics in your Hip-Hop, then Lowkey is someone you should definitely be checking for - a British MC of Iraqi descent, he brings his worldview to the mic with strength every time. His second album, "Soundtrack To The Struggle" gives us this stinging condemnation of some of the big players in the global arms trade, with ShowNProve providing the Wild West-themed track.

Kaytranada ft. Karriem Riggins and River Tiber : Bus Ride

A nice instrumental from the "99.9%" album. The guest star Karriem Riggins gets busy on the drums in a subtle way through most of the track before showing out right at the end with a little double-time flair!

Children of Zeus : Respect Mine

"Travel Light" is now a year old and it's still getting just as much play as it did on release! Juga-Naut on production, Mr.Thing on the sharp cuts, and Tyler and Konny Kon putting it down on the mic make up a major league quartet.

Robert Glasper Experiment ft. Norah Jones : Let It Ride

As strong as this track is, it's not even one of my top three from "Black Radio 2", which speaks to just how good that album is! Mark Colenburg earns his money on the double-time drumming that you'd think had to be a programmed drum machine, setting a furious pace that the rest of the groove languidly follows. The bass and piano are low-key and do their thing without upstaging Norah Jones on the vocal of this classy cut.

Janelle Monáe : Cold War

This is an absolutely furious cut. The video is definitely worth a watch - similar to the one for Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U", it stays focused on her face for the entire running length and is packed with emotion, as are the lyrics. Clearly one of the standouts on "The ArchAndroid", with the themes of isolation and struggle articulated by one of the best artists of this era.

OutKast : B.O.B

I've been wanting to do the blend from "Cold War" to this for ages! One of my favourite tracks from this duo, this pretty much made my brain explode when I first heard it back in 2000. I was surprised to find out recently that this wasn't a big hit even on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts, but they were actively trying to go against the grain and a lot of the audience probably just wasn't ready. To me, this is Andre and Big Boi at the peak of their lyrical games, keeping up with a track that really would fit the name "organised noize" - but was actually produced by the group themselves alongside Mr.DJ. That's a real gospel choir you're hearing on the hook and the outro, a really serious guitarist letting loose all over the track, and a real MPC being beaten into submission for those drums. Stone classic from the "Stankonia" LP. Oh, and "got a son on the way by the name of Bamboo"? Well, time flies...

[The Alchemist] Cam'ron : Wet Wipes (Instrumental)

This fit the bill here as something electronic-sounding that was also half the speed of the frenetic OutKast track, allowing us to come back down to earth a bit. The Alchemist cooked up a thudding, menacing beat for what was a typically disrespectful Cam'ron track from 2006's "Killa Season". This was actually Alchemist's first MPC beat (he was a devotee of the ASR-10 up to this point) and has the chopping and aggression that is very reminiscent of a track he did years later, Raekwon's "Surgical Gloves".

The Lady of Rage : Raw Deal

I finally sat down to listen to the "Necessary Roughness" album from front to back for the first time recently, and I can confirm that it was indeed slept-on. This was probably a consequence of it being pushed further and further back by Death Row, until it finally got a very quiet release in 1997. If you'd forgotten about the skills that made her a people's favourite, here's a reminder over a Daz Dillinger and Tyrone Wrice beat, laid-back enough to give her the space to get busy. 

Glenn Lewis : Don't You Forget It (Curtis Lynch Remix)

FIRE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥! The original Glenn Lewis cut from "World Outside My Window") has always been a favourite of mine, and it's one you don't want to mess up with a clumsy remix - for example, the Desert Storm attempt with the most "missing the point" guest rap verse in music history. I can't remember how I found this one, but it stunned me - the re-interpretation is perfect. Lewis is from Trinidadian and Jamaican roots, and the move to connect with someone like London's Curtis Lynch for this remix was a natural but also an inspired move. It sounds like this one has been re-voiced rather than just swapping instrumentals, and it's a rootsy dancehall masterpiece with the drums, bass, and every single accent on point. Turn this one all the way up!

London Grammar : Non Believer

I'm not even sure what genre you'd count this as - Wikipedia claims "indie pop", but even that doesn't quite hit the mark. For me there are definite vibes of what they used to call "trip-hop" - I can imagine previous eras of Portishead or Massive Attack doing a tune like this. This track from "Truth Is A Beautiful Thing" is itself a melancholic beautiful thing, with Hannah Reid's crystal-clear vocals soaring over the moody beat.

Sean Price & Illa Ghee : 2Pac by the Locker

If you know "Juice", you know what this title is all about! I'd describe the track as "short and sweet", if there was anything remotely street about it. Sean P and Illa Ghee come through like a pair of brass knuckles as they do on every other cut on the "Metal Detectors" EP - just beasting.

Jake One : Gangsta Boy (Instrumental)

Coming through slamming like a new take on Dre's "Lyrical Gangbang", this is a monster of a beat from Jake One's "White Van Music Instrumentals". It had to be, since the MCs on the vocal version are the rugged neva smoove M.O.P.

Raekwon : Canal Street

Raekwon is one of the greatest picture painters in Hip-Hop history and this is an absolute art masterclass. From the first lines "All of our fathers is bank robbers, holding TECs/Eights of hero'n, shooting in the steps" he grabs your mind's eye and never lets it go until the track ends. Flawless street imagery all the way from "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt.II" to such an extent that the video actually takes away from it! Icewater Productions bring a fairly well-used sample in that brings the crime-flick menace the lyrical content demands. One nice touch on the production side - the sudden turn up of the volume in a matter of a beat or two in the transition from the intro to the first verse - definitely makes it hit you in the chest.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

  Check out this episode!

2019 Sonoma Speed Festival: Where did the time go?

What the hell happened?

When did the 90s become “vintage?”

“Retro,” maybe, but “vintage?”

I guess the writing has been on the wall for a few years now, but recent events have woken me from my blissfully ignorant slumber…more on that later…

One such recent event was the inaugural Sonoma Speed Festival at Sonoma Raceway. I was interested to see a new interpretation/incarnation of what I think was formerly the Wine Country Classic and then Wine Country Motorsports Festival, mainstay Northern California vintage events that have been must-sees for us for at least a couple of decades. I’ll admit that I was a little skeptical of this new incarnation of one of my favorite things, and honestly, I was a bit surprised by the cost of entry for the first run of the event. That aside, I went into the weekend with an open mind, and empty memory card in my camera and hopes that this event would deliver on it’s many promises.

What I got, from the word “GO” was all of that (maybe a little more), and also an unanticipated revelation.

The event was about as as tidy as any racing affair I’ve ever attended. In an obvious nod to the Goodwood Festival of speed, the paddock area of Sonoma Raceway was transformed into quite a civilized occasion. There wasn’t a transporter, trailer, RV or easy-up in sight. In their stead were several long open-sided tents featuring cars arranged by racing group with minimal team equipment or infrastructure. Though the cars were fairly close to each other, I never got the sense that I had any less access to walk around the cars and to take pictures and chat with drivers and mechanics that I’ve had in the past. Though I’m sure the teams missed having their kit closer, the situation really presented well.

At the ends of the rows of long tents were various corrals, carpeted with artificial turf, and surrounded with low white picket fences. Some of the corrals featured several priceless Italian cars on static display, one a stunning de Tomaso Sport 5000 racer destined for the upcoming Bonhams auction at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering and others provided chairs and tables and benches on which to soak in the sites, partake in some fine food and local wines or just rest weary feet.

The permanent pit garages were packed with a dazzling array of vintage dragsters, classic Formula 1 cars, a zillion dollars worth of French pre-war hardware (both road and racing cars), and a display featuring Jim Clark’s Indy 500 winning 1965 Lotus 38. These alone would have made for a pretty decent vintage event, but there was more….so much more.

Nestled in the heart of the event was the ever changing corral of Radwood cars. I’m an unabashed fan of Radwood, and I relish every opportunity to sing their praises and preach their message. True to form, they presented a tour-de-force of 80s and 90s cars, fashion, culture, tons of free swag and a photo op area for any and all to enjoy. I take my hat off to this group for representing their unique brand of retro, jank and period style to an event that would not normally pay proper homage to the all but forgotten modern classics of the Rad era. Well done to them and good on the event’s promoters for featuring the cars and culture of the 80s and 90s as those things become the new “classic.” (again, more on that later)

The cherry on top of this event was something that I frankly thought was a BS promise by the event planners. I was beyond skeptical that ANYONE would be able to deliver a modern era F1 car to Sonoma Raceway, let alone have it take to the track in hopes of snatching the track record. Well, they did just that, and quite a bit more. They didn’t just present us with a used up back marker of a car, they got a factory supported 2016 Mercedes-AMG F1 W07/04. This wasn’t some cobbled together test mule…it was the car Lewis Hamilton’s world championship winner, the most successful individual chassis in F1 history. As if that wasn’t a lot to deliver, Mercedes even threw in factory test driver and former F1 hotshoe Esteban Gutiérrez to attempt to snatch the track’s lap record of 1:21.688. (Without wading into the politics bragging rights and records, I will only note that the track’s standing “race record” time was set by Marco Werner in an Audi R8 in 2004 in an actual race) Gutierrez completed his fastest lap (on a clean and empty track and under ideal racing conditions) in an astounding 1:15:430!

Now I’m Ferrari Tifosi through and through, but I was humbled just to see the thing. As much as it pains me to say nice things about the car and the team that belittle my beloved Ferrari every other weekend, I have to give praise where it’s due. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to be up close to a remarkable machine driven by one of the greatest drivers in the history of F1 racing.

Also on hand, in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas garage were two other examples of Mercedes’ participation and dominance in Grand Prix racing. Positioned to the left of the F1 W07/04 was the ex-Rudolf Caracciola 1938 W154 which was the last of Mercedes’ pre-war grand prix cars. The sheer size and overall presence of this car is almost unfathomable. It looks sounds and smells like almost nothing else in the universe. Of the thousands of cars I’ve seen in my lifetime, the only cars that I could begin to compare it with would be the other Silver Arrows, the cars of the Audi Auto Union. That’s some pretty rare and hallowed company.

The car stationed to the right of the modern Mercedes hybrid was an example of one of the most recognizable cars from the dreams of any fan of vintage cars, racing or design for that matter. This particular ex Fangio/Moss 1954 W196 was not the most successful car of its kind, but nobody really cares about that. It’s one of those masterworks of automotive technology and design that you get to see once in your lifetime and you never forget. After taking this car in for the first time on Saturday morning, I quietly uttered the phrase, “this thing on its own was worth coming for.” This is a phrase I would utter several more times over the weekend.

I guess this is a good segue to try to quantify the event without blubbering on about specific things with (more) superfluous language. You probably wouldn’t want to read it all, and frankly there was a lot going on. As much time as I spent walking around the event over two days, my travels on social media sites have shown me that I missed some things….a lot of things. Upon reflection, this event was bigger than I thought it was.

The other things at the event that are noteworthy:

The event featured no less than three Ferrari 250 GTOs (2 races and a road car)!

On that note, there were a lot of other Ferraris 250 variants on display too. (GTOs, SWBS, Testarossas, Oh My!)

A 1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail graced the grounds and the track. This was the first F1 GTR to win a race.

A spectacular 1992 Ferrari F40 LM dazzled in the paddock and on the track, driven by Johannes van Overbeek.

Saturday afternoon featured a nostalgic dragster demonstration on the track’s legendary drag strip. (Never seen that at a historic event before!)

When I began composing my thoughts about the Speed Festival, I was ready to say that the event was pretty good, but also that I was a little shocked at the ticket prices. I wasn’t sure that any first time happening could be worth the admission. We’ll unflinchingly pony up for events we know and love. We have the benefit of history on which to judge whether or not we want to drop the coin. Good value is worth the money. This in mind, after deliberation on my experience, reading the accounts of others and looking at all of the comments pictures and write-ups all other the internet, I’ve changed my mind. As I said earlier, I’ve been to a lot of historic events over the last few decades, but really, this one packed more good stuff into its program than most. It was well presented, it was well thought out, and most importantly it delivered much more than I expected and I really couldn’t find a flaw with it. We will absolutely put and keep the event on our calendar in the future. It truly is an event not to be missed. It is worth the spot on your calendar too and absolutely fantastic value for your racing dollar.

And a final thought, because the writing was on the wall….

As I mentioned at the top of this piece, I’ve been woken from ignorance by this event and also from a few others in the last couple of years. What’s really slapped me in the face is that I’ve discovered that vintage racing is evolving into something interesting. It will always be a place to watch the cars of yesteryear…things made of brass and hand hammered metal, things with big blocks and things that make smoke….but now there’s more to it. Vintage racing events are becoming places to see things that are very much modern…things made by and with computers….things made of plastic and things that aren’t necessarily loud and things that might not shake the ground. The Audi R8 is now a vintage race car, as well as the slightly older, McLaren F1. In the paddock, the cars of Radwood, the cars of the 80s and 90s, don’t seem out of place at all. In fact, these cars seem to be drawing on a couple of generations of car lovers who might not otherwise want to go to type of event that would normally feature relative dinosaurs. I’m turning 43 in August and I have to relate that both my 12 year old son and I seem to be gravitating and embracing these relatively new arrivals to the scene, and in some cases were getting more out of them than we are the more “standard fare.” (look out 250 GTOs!)

As we’ve opined numerous times, we see many difficulties in the future for vintage racing. Cars are taken out of commission because they become too valuable (or they get wrecked), many drivers and caretakers of vintage cars are (respectfully) “advanced in years” and, well, nothing lasts forever. These things are true, and they will remain so. The good news…the writing on the wall…is that the (relatively) new kids on the block are making themselves known, and they’re establishing their place in the paddock. For this, we are grateful. Because of this, events like the Sonoma Speed Festival with exist and thrive to provide all of us with what we love.

Lloyd of the Dance

IT’S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAS! Like hell it is. Personally, I think there should a blanket ban on all Christmas products and advertising until the first of December. Anyone caught violating it would be suspended upside down in a chimney until Christmas Day as penance. Of course I’m excluding advent calendars, but I think of them as advent products rather than Christmas products, and banning them until December makes them very difficult to use properly. Regardless, I think I’ve made the point that I maintain a steadfast attitude of Bah Humbug until the twenty-fifth is actually in sight, so you can imagine my outrage as the Christmas adverts started coming out of the woodwork.

I’ll start with a bizarre and disgusting advert that, to be honest, has nothing to do with Christmas. Yesterday I had the misfortune of watching Oasis’ new advert for a product they aren’t selling. They’re following on from that bizarre and disgusting thing a couple of years ago where an advert had two pretend strangers kiss for the first time in front of a video camera. I can’t even remember what it was advertising, but the clinical aura and the sense of unease it imbued in the viewer was difficult to forget, and in a bid not to be forgotten Oasis has gone for the same thing. Two strangers are asked to drink from a single Oasis bottle with a cap at both ends, one which isn’t even a real product. Surprisingly enough, this results in hesitant scenes, mostly culminating in both gagging and spraying a mixture of saliva and Oasis juice drink all over the room and each other. Unpleasant doesn’t quite cover it. I don’t even know what it was trying to say, that Oasis is so good you’ll be willing to ingest someone else’s putrid, curry flavoured mouth gunk just for a sip? I’ve no idea who though this advert might have been a good idea, because it really isn’t. I’ve never really tried Oasis, and I’m certainly not going to now that I’ve permanently associated it with the image of two people spitting on each other.

Of course, the Oasis advert is just trying to tie in to the current fashion in advertising, that of seeming friendly and promoting social unity or whatever. In theory, I don’t have a problem with people trying to bring a little more love and understanding into the world, but when the message is being put across by a multinational cooperation I start to lose my faith in whether it’s actually genuine. While the advert remains disgusting, I get the principle of bringing people together. However, when this is being said by Coca-Cola, who on a fundamental level couldn’t care less about togetherness provided people keep buying their cans of liquid sugar, my natural cynicism kicks in and I start seeing such adverts as little more than an attempt to sell more drinks by associating them with something that people want at that moment in time, which is all an advert really is, if you think about it. Usually I wouldn’t care, like when they use Star Wars to advertise toothbrushes or whatever Star Wars is advertising at the moment, but I do think that the world could stand to be a little more united so the thought of massive companies pretending to care just to make themselves even richer genuinely angers me.

In my eyes, banks are the worst offenders. I’m aware that I’ve had this little rant before, but I was out of ideas for this week so I’m doing it again. The bloody Lloyds adverts have been around for a while now, with their new slogan, ‘By your side’, which makes me want to wretch. I mean, they’re all crap, but the mental health one angers me so much I try to avoid it whenever I can. It’s a good advert. It makes an excellent point about mental health and recognising it, which I suppose isn’t surprising when you consider that it was made with Mental Health UK. If this was just an advert promoting mental health awareness I would fully support its broadcast, but I just can’t for the simple principle that it was made by a BANK. Banks are not ‘by your side’. Banks are the wretched monoliths which tower above capitalism like volcanoes, just waiting to burst and pour rock and fire down on the poor people below. Banks are businesses. They can dress themselves anyway they want, put silly hats on or wrap themselves in sheep’s wool but the fact remains, they don’t care about you. They don’t care about your family, your health or your mental health. It makes no difference to them whether you live or die or are sold into slavery providing you keep giving them money. I’m well aware that there’s probably a significant number of people in the UK suffering from mental health problems because of Lloyds’ bringing them to financial or physical ruin. They don’t care about people, they care about profit, so pretending to have such noble goal doesn’t endear them to me, it just drives my ire as they profane something so worthy of respect. I suppose the slogan isn’t too inaccurate after all. If you sign any contract with Lloyds, they will be by your side for life. They’ll follow wherever you go, keeping to the shadows and just biding their time, waiting until either the world destroys you or they do so they can siphon off whatever’s left of your life as profit. By your side indeed.

All right, now you know quite how angry I am at the moment, let’s finally hit Christmas. John Lewis! Ever since that incredibly trite advert a few years ago with the boy and the baked beans the world has been watching your Christmas advert, and they’ve been going downhill from what wasn’t a high summit in the first place. This year they decided to cut all ties and do nothing to do with Christmas or John Lewis, instead showing a two minute trailer for an upcoming Elton John biopic. The implication is that if you buy something like a piano from John Lewis for Christmas, the recipient may then metamorphose into Elton John. It’s completely ludicrous. John Lewis only started selling pianos this year, just to get their advert to make sense. You get the feeling that they booked Elton John for the job then just sat back and watched a Flog It marathon. “Ought we try to write something for this year’s Christmas advert?”                                         “Nah. We’ve got Elton John.” I find it hard to believe that the planning of the advert went any other way. It’s a film about Elton John. That’s it. They end with the tagline – ‘Some gifts are more than just gifts’, which is true, but ignores the fact that 99.99% of gifts are. They certainly are if they come from John Lewis, they even have a section of their website labelled ‘Gifts’. I’m not even going to touch on how clicking that brings you to a rather sexist page for ‘Gifts for her’ and ‘Gifts for him’. I don’t think my poor laptop would survive.

Sainsbury’s! Oh no, just because John Lewis’ efforts were pitiful doesn’t mean you’re getting away with it. Sainsbury’s decided to copy John Lewis’ advert from earlier this year, the one with the school production, only they changed the song from Bohemian Rhapsody to the New Radicals’ You Get What You Give, which when you listen to the lyrics seems an interesting choice. It followed that pattern we saw in Love Actually and those dire Nativity films, where the school nativity becomes an amazing festival of music and amazing costumes that stirs the soul. In many ways it just seems mocking to actual parents who have to go to real nativity productions, which are inevitably just half an hour of four year olds with dish cloths on their head wandering about among other four year wearing bad cow suits and singing simple songs very quietly. To be fair, I’m only talking about the final number of the nativity in Love Actually where the girl comes out and sings All I Want for Christmas is You. The rest is more true to life, and the finale is played for comic effect. Just to be clear, I LIKE that film. My word, you’re unlikely to ever hear me say that in this column again.

Having said that, I actually don’t mind Tesco’s advert. It does what it needs to, shows lots of attractive food and just generally gives a sense of festive relaxation. It’s not a master class in film making, it isn’t going to shatter the earth, but it’s certainly the best offering so far. It does what was asked of it. Oh yes. You’ve seen it coming haven’t you. I’m getting ready. In less than one sentence I’m now going to segue into The Apprentice! The link of course being that Jackie and Khadija completely failed to do what was asked of them in the hairdresser’s courtyard during this week’s gardening task. Rather than jet wash the place as requested, they poured water on the floor and then brushed all of the dirt that had lifted from under the plant pots into the centre. It was not a good showing. They are ridiculously lucky that their team won. Khadija didn’t even seem to understand how a leaf blower works, and I don’t mean the mechanics of it, I mean that it blows leaves. I’ve no idea how long she spent in that courtyard blowing leaves around, but given that there was nowhere for the leaves to go, the fact that she tried at all indicates a condemnable fault in reason. Did she think that a leaf blower blew leaves out of existence? Then Jasmine and Sabrina claimed to have renovated a rooftop by painting odd planks of a bench yellow and dotting Homebase plants about in their sale pots. I hope they at least took the prices off.

To be honest, I don’t think that Kayode deserved to be fired. There were people on the other team who were far more deserving. However, he did dress up in a daffodil hood and call himself the sunflower guy, which is difficult to ignore, and he had a howler in the pitch last week, even though it wasn’t explicitly his fault. So farewell Kayode. You weren’t useless, but you were rubbish.

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Club tropicana! Why kitsch is everywhere this summer | Fashion

At Primark, the £6 best-selling bikini of the season has pineapples on it. If it has sold out in your size, though, don’t worry: online shop Asos has three different bikinis with pineapples on them. It has got phone cases, necklaces, backpacks and dressing gowns to match, too. At John Lewis, one in five products sold in the summer party department has a flamingo on it, as does every other birthday card in Paperchase. Ditto the fairy lights in the US clothing chain Anthropologie, and the USB sticks in Urban Outfitters. The vases in the window at Zara Home are shaped like cacti, as are the ones at The Conran Shop. At Oliver Bonas, you can find watermelon-slice earrings to match the watermelon beach ball you picked up at Selfridges, which goes so well with your new Dolce & Gabbana watermelon-painted handbag.

Describe a 1950s Palm Springs poolside cocktail party using only emojis, and you capture the aesthetic of summer 2017. The colours are pink and green (a flamingo with a palm tree, a watermelon slice). The shapes – pineapple, cactus, Martini glass – are as sunnily evocative and as easy to draw as a smiley face. Move over industrial chic bare bricks and copper pendant lights, because we are living in the Age of the Pineapple.

If you thought pineapples and flamingos were last year’s story – well, they were. Flamingos starred in a Gucci advertising campaign, and novelty items emblazoned with pink birds were the runaway high-street success of 2016. Now, halfway through 2017, John Lewis reports that flamingo-related sales are up 40% year on year. “The flamingo is still king for us,” says buyer Lisa Rutherford. “It’s on greeting cards and wrapping paper, and it tops the sales list in every single category week after week. Now we have expanded into watermelons and cacti. We’ve got an inflatable lobster, too.”

Ahead of the trend: a Gucci’s advert from 2016, featuring flamingos. Photograph: Gucci.com

Palm Vaults, in Hackney, is this year’s most Instagrammed cafe. The serenely kitsch pink-and-pistachio decor nods to the famous Beverly Hills Hotel, whose dusty pink walls are offset by Martinique banana-leaf wallpaper, which was designed for the hotel when it opened a century ago, and has become a classic. Authorship is hard to define in popular culture, but the Beverly Hills Hotel comes up again and again as the mothership of tropical kitsch. Its swimming pool is all swagged cabanas and striped beach towels, a stage set for an heiress in a kaftan to step out of a Slim Aarons photograph and order a margarita. Perfect, then, for our ultra-connected age, in which holidays have become intensely social. (Consider: a decade ago, the ultimate aspirational holiday image was having a paradise beach all to yourself. Now, it is sharing a giant inflatable flamingo with your best friends.)

“This look is a kind of shorthand for summer and cocktails and festivals. All those nice things,” says fashion editor turned style blogger Erica Davies. “Social media drives desire, because you open Instagram and see people dancing under palm trees at Coachella, and that makes you want a bit of that in your own life.”

Inflatable flamingo are to be spotted flocking together in John Lewis. Photograph: John Lewis

The plastic lawn flamingo was a smash hit across America when it went on sale in 1957, the year of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock: an expression, perhaps, of a sublimated suburban yen for escape. “Flamingos aren’t something you see in everyday life,” says interior stylist Emily Blunden. “And that’s the whole point. By having one in your house, you bring a little bit of fantasy into your home. We’d all like to live in a Malibu beach house. But that’s not feasible, so we work with what is.”

You can buy a pineapple for 79p in Tesco now, but the fruit still carries symbolism from the days when it was a sign of status – there is a 17th-century painting in the Royal Collection of Charles II being gifted a pineapple by a visitor on bended knee. It is also a symbol of hospitality: in parts of the US, the pineapple is a traditional door-knocker icon, because it stands for welcome. Dressing your home as if setting the scene for a party comes naturally in the age of Fomo (fear of missing out), when events and experiences are the ultimate treasures. “It is about being positive, about having something to look forward to even when the world looks a bit grey,” says Davies.

Several times in the course of talking to people for this article, I asked a question about pineapples and was given an answer about emotion. Or I brought up cacti only to find the conversation segueing into the economy. “As designers, we reflect what’s going on in the world,” says Molly Park, head of design for home and gifts at Oliver Bonas. “These kinds of purchases are driven by emotion, so what we create is a reflection of society’s emotional needs at a given moment. Right now, we are going through an age of activism. Everyone has a cause. And that means that the colours and graphics that people respond to are quite punchy and loud.” She predicts that the upbeat mood of tropical kitsch will give way, next season, to something starker and more hard-edged.

Pool-side style: Palm Springs goes kitsch during Coachella in 2016. Photograph: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images

A trend puts a time stamp on a product. Greeting cards and gift wraps are trend-driven because, subconsciously, you want the recipient to know that you took the time out of your lunch hour to buy those items specifically in honour of the occasion. Before tropical kitsch we had “coastal”: whitewashed everything, handpainted signs on rope handles, shells and starfish. Before that, “chateau glamour”: faux deer heads, chandeliers, velvet sofas. What is different about this look is that rather than being founded on a colour scheme (pebble and cloud white for coastal) or a specific piece (a chandelier for the chateau), it is built around immediately identifiable mascots. The flamingo brands your home just as a Nike swoosh brands your T-shirt or a smiley face sign-off signals the tone of a text.

Beneath the surface feelgood factor, tropical kitsch has a subversive edge, in its nostalgia for pre-Trump America. Popular culture has always had a soft spot for milkbar-era Americana – Katy Perry was namechecking Cherry Chapstick on I Kissed A Girl in 2008 – and this mood is currently making itself felt across film (the baseball jackets and retro diner uniforms in Baby Driver) and fashion (cowboy boots and stars and stripes in Raf Simons’s Calvin Klein debut, a collection soundtracked at New York fashion week by Bowie’s This is Not America).

And, for all its jazziness, this is a fundamentally egalitarian trend. Put bluntly, it does not make you look wealthy. Its origins are in the sophisticated Hollywood Regency taste of America’s first interior designers, Elsie de Wolfe and Dorothy Draper, but it is sold in a way that makes a virtue of the cheap, cheerful and temporary. Generation Rent want Instagrammable interiors that they can take with them when they move. There is no point saving up for a fitted kitchen in a rented flat, but you can buy a bar cart and a pineapple-shaped ice cube holder to go on top. The economic circumstances of the target market have shaped this trend. Interiors tell the story of our lives. In 2017, that message is written in emojis.

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Title:  Neosho Falls ("series pilot")

Genre:  Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Production Company:  Obvertere Limited

Independent/SAG

Screenplay:  Loron Hays, Eric Hyde

Music:  Matt Pelsma (Hell on Wheels)

Production Status:  GREEN

Release Date:  2018

SYNOPSIS:  Two families in small town Kansas find themselves in the path of an extra-terrestrial visitor.

Why Help?

No one has ever seen a film like this, made by a Kansan, and filmed by Kansans.

The short film stars George Dean (From Ashes to Immortality), Angela Nordeng (Viscious), and Andy Stowers (It Starts with Murder!). It has special appearances by Delilah Rose Pellow (Ex Somnia, From Ashes to Immortality), Paul Ford (Alien Nation), and an extra special guest appearance by Kelly Perine (Downward Hiro), T.V. host Mike Anderson (From Ashes to Immortality) of the Not So Late Show, and Shamrock FC professional MMA fighter Zak Bucia, who choreographed fight scenes in From Ashes to Immortality, and is returning to help in the production of Neosho Falls.

Badass Sinema Unearthed’s Loron Hays, a Kansas resident, is the author of Only When I Breathe and Either Side of the Same Street. He is an active member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and his opinions on film – which favor B-movies and drive-in flicks – can be read at Reel Reviews (www.franksreelreviews.com). Neosho Falls is his first co-written venture with filmmaker Eric Hyde; it won’t be his last.

Eric Hyde is an emerging director and writer from Lawrence, Kansas with a unique cinematic vision. He has worked with Emmy nominated Director of Photography Jeremy Osbern of Through A Glass Productions, SAG actors Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans) and Blake Robbins (The Scent of Rain and Lightning), and Sundance nominated Director Kevin Willmott.

News, Advice, Comments

“People are going to take time out of their lives to watch this, and they are going to pay money. You have to tell a story, and you have to leave the viewer walking away with something." - Marc Havener

"Go make a film!  The only one stopping you is you!" - Blake Robbins

"A very ambitious fight sequence... You must have a very good fight choreographer." - Wes Studi on his fight scenes in From Ashes to Immortality

"I am very proud of you for making this happen... it takes a special gift to motivate and inspire.  I wish you continued good fortune and always remember that sometimes in filming things take a turn.  Try to embrace that it could be for the better." - Blake Robbins

Cast

George M. Dean is a versatile actor who started his career in theater. He was born George Earl Matchette in Dallas, Texas, on December 16, 1978 to Linda Pecina and George Matchette. His first major role was Fight Night where he played a bookie. From there, he went on to play a football coach in 32, a British doctor in Tales of the Interim Net, a police coroner in The Chosen series, and a drunken, abusive father in From Ashes to Immortality. George M. Dean is a character actor who has done Shakespeare, plays, film, commercial, and print work. He studied theater under Tony Piazza and completed three years of college under a full ride theater scholarship. George M. Dean is currently involved with two short films and the series pilot, Neosho Falls. When George M. Dean is not acting, he focuses on his music. He is the C.E.O. for Pauper Inc. and is a musician in the group D.I.D. which is due to release its second album, WOKE, in late 2017. George was raised around the country in a gypsy lifestyle. He dropped out of school when he was 16 to go to work on a pipeline to help out his family after his stepdad was hurt during a volunteer firefighter incident. He decided recently to leave the corporate world and to follow his dream of being a full-time actor.

Angela Nordeng was cast to play the role of Mary in Neosho Falls after meeting director Eric Hyde at Bare Bones Independent International Film and Music Festival, where she was awarded Best Actress. Angela has won awards at various festivals for her work in the feature film Vicious, in which she starred alongside Jason James Richter of Free Willy fame. She can currently be seen in FX's Married and Lifetime's My Crazy Ex, as well as the trailer for the upcoming Will Ferrell film, The House, which will debut later this year. She is excited to announce that she's currently in preproduction for Assembly Line Entertainment's upcoming feature, Arlington Road, with Bruce Dern and has just wrapped principal photography on RD Womack III's untitled film. Outside of acting, Angela enjoys playing guitar, swimming, backpacking, rock climbing, and aerial dance.

Andy Stowers has been working in theatre and film as an actor, writer, director, designer, and producer for over 20 years. He has performed all over the country but does most of his work in and around Lawrence, KS. He received theatre training at Wichita State and the University of Kansas. He co-founded E.M.U. Theatre of Lawrence in 1998, owns and operates The Invisible Hand Framing & Printing Inc., currently performs regularly as a member of Foxy By Proxy Revue, and is father to a beautiful and intelligent, young child.

Rebeca Anderson. No bio available.

Delilah Rose Pellow is so excited to be working with Eric Hyde again after working with him as Evie in From Ashes to Immortality. Delilah has been acting in theatre since the age of 3, and started acting in film/commercials around the age of 6. Some of her other film credits include: The Lucid Engine (Bruce Branit), Men Go To Battle (Zachary Treitz), and The Boy Who Stayed (Dan Hernandez). Delilah loves being on set or stage and can't wait to see where this exciting life of acting takes her!

Kaylin Mally was born in Kansas City. She is currently a sophomore in high school and is on their dance team. She lives with her parents and has a brother, sister and a dog. She has been in the feature film, American Honey, and several other local films and commercials. She enjoys taking acting classes, dance, modeling and just hanging out with her friends. She is planning to move to Los Angeles after high school and continue her education and pursue her dreams.

Alex Hurt is a Lawrence, KS native and senior at Lawrence High School. He is active band member, music producer, and has performance experience in theatrical production. Neosho Falls is his first film.

Henry Letner was born in Omaha, Nebraska on September 3, 1999. Attending Baldwin High School as an incoming senior. Worked small town productions as a child and as a sophomore in high school. Amateur guitar player and performer. Currently focusing on being a student and works at the Baldwin City Pool.

Born the son of a Penn State professor and a Chemical Engineer mother, Kelly Perine showed an innate ability for acting by the age of 5. Kelly’s love of performing kept him active throughout his upbringing, participating in numerous plays in community theatres around PA. His high-school days were spent at Lake Forest Academy on the North Shore of Chicago, where he got his first taste of the big time while doing work for numerous productions shot in the Windy City. After coming to California to attend Pomona College for a B.A. in Film Studies, Kelly continued his education and received an M.F.A. in Drama from the University of California: Irvine. For the past 2 decades Kelly has been a staple in film and Television. You may recognize him from his early appearances on: E.R., Seinfeld, The Practice, Mad About You; along with playing recurring characters on: The Drew Carey Show, Providence, The Parent 'Hood, Malcolm & Eddie, True Jackson V.P., & For Your Love. Kelly has also been a series regular on U.P.N.'s: Between Brothers where he played Weatherman Dusty Canyon, Under One Roof where he starred opposite Flavor Flav, and possibly most recognizably as a regular on U.P.N.’s hit comedy One On One playing the outrageous Duane Odell Knox. Kelly has also been featured in national ad campaigns for: Jimmy Dean Sausages, Go Daddy, H & R Block, Callaway Golf Balls, A.T.&T., Foot Locker, Kelly Tires, Bud Ice, Coors Light, Motel 6, Wendy's, Toyota, Wausau Insurance, Pizza Hut, Captain D’s. Kelly’s movies include “The Babymoon”, “The Wedding Pact”, “Dog Gone”, “Convincing Clooney” & “Speed Dating”. His recent television offerings included appearances on: The Crazy Ones, The Thundermans, Dog With A Blog, Let’s Stay Together, and Austin & Ally. Kelly is also proud to have starred in and Executive Produced “A Perfect Day”, an 18 minute short film which follows his postman character as he talks a troubled teen out of committing a desperate act. It is an award-winning dramatic piece, having been screened at 45 festivals. Kelly wrote/directed/stars in his latest short “Downward Hiro” which is just starting it’s festival run. Kelly also has 3 feature comedy scripts and various television projects in the works.

Television’s Mike Anderson has entertained the Kansas audience since 2011 with his late-night program the Not So Late Show. As the host and principle writer Mike has won several national awards. He was also named “The Most Interesting Character in Small Town America” by Readers Digest. Mike has been featured in local and national commercials but does the majority of his work in the Lawrence and Kansas City area. He has his doctorate from the University of Kansas and has even been published in academic journals and books. He appreciates the finer things and lives his life dancing close to the fire.

Paul Ford, born in Ahoskie, North Carolina on September 18th, 1967. Attended Millbrook High School in Raleigh, NC. Began acting as a child doing commercials for Easter Seals Society, and Jerry Lewis Telethon. Moved to Hollywood, California in 1987. Did some small parts and extra work. Was a professional guitar player from 1988-1998. Now lives and acts in Southern California. Representation KMR Talent Agency Gail Ford Williamson [email protected] Manager; Gina Stoj Management [email protected]

Zak Bucia, born Zakary Alan Bucia in Lawrence, Kansas, September 27th 1984, has studied martial arts for over 30 years. He moved to San Fransisco directly out of high school to then become a professional fighter in 2007. He has choreographed fight scenes for the film From Ashes to Immortality as well as acted in Valeo Hospital and Harley Davidson commercials. He currently resides back in his hometown of LFK - Lawrence, Kansas.

Eric Hyde is an emerging director and writer from Lawrence, Kansas with a unique cinematic vision. He has worked with Emmy award-winning Director of Photography Jeremy Osbern of Through A Glass Productions, SAG actors Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans) and Blake Robbins (The Scent of Rain and Lightning), and Sundance nominated Director Kevin Willmott (C.S.A: The Confederate States of America, Chi-Raq). Neosho Falls is a series pilot/short film, and is his second film.

Badass Sinema Unearthed’s Loron Hays, a Kansas resident, is the author of Only When I Breathe and Either Side of the Same Street. He is an active member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and his opinions on film – which favor B-movies and drive-in flicks – can be read at Reel Reviews (www.franksreelreviews.com). Neosho Falls is his first co-written venture with filmmaker Eric Hyde; it won’t be his last.

#TGTfeature 005: MAS1A [Singapura Dub Club, The Irietones, Chiney Money: Singapore] After fully recovering from all the bass brought by Doctor Jeep, #TGTfeature 005 keeps that future-forward focus with a versatile and deadly rapper, singer, and artistic creator: MAS1A! This and forthcoming #TGTfeature articles will highlight dedicated musical talents by featuring their recent work as well as an in-depth interview. Known for her fierce flows as well as her irie vibes, MAS1A is currently based out of Singapore where she is reinventing the SE Asian cultural scene. She kindly took the time to discuss her many creative projects, current influences, and exactly why she founded a reggae club in Singapore. A bit about MAS1A: - Constantly evolving, she’s blown up the Canadian hiphop charts, cut heavy tracks with Bassnectar and ill.gates, and recorded at Tuff Gong studios… and that’s all before her arrival in Singapore - Her recent work includes solo performances, regular events by Singapura Dub Club, annual invite-only Dub Club gatherings (2016 on Gili Air was amazing, I assure you), as well as the design and manufacturing brand Chiney Money - Currently recording her upcoming album, Irie Guide to the Far Eastside

TGT: How did you first get into reggae-related music, and why has it become such an important part of your life? M: I was working in LA around 2013 as a ghost writer, writing pop and rap verses. One day I wanted a 180 change from Hollywood life. After remembering songs my brother had played for me growing up including Peter Tosh, Toots and Maytals and Black Uhuru I thought the best choice was a move to Jamaica. Spending so much time in Jamaica allowed me to really immerse myself in the culture and fall in love with all it’s positive aspects. I started as a hiphop emcee and it was witnessing live toasting and sound system culture in street parties from Kingston to Orange Hill. I learned a new level of performing, entertaining and challenging myself artistically through studying how confident and unapologetically unique all the artists were. I also related to the positive message, while starting to feel a bit jaded by the direction of popular hiphop’s waning message.

TGT: What's the relationship between your current projects – MAS1A, Singapura Dub Club, The Irietones, etc. – and how do you manage them all successfully? M: Singapura Dub Club is a reggae & island community I founded in Singapore. Initially it was therapy for me to deal with missing Jamaica and adapting to a new culture and lifestyle. The Singapura Dub Club has since grown into a recognized and monthly event here in Singapore and we are so proud to have brought many great dub and reggae performers to Singapore and the SE Asian market. The Irietones, was the first reggae band formed that I worked with in Singapore. We were fortunate to play many quality stages from Vietnam to HK Reggae & Ska festival, and spread more Singaporean Reggae vibes through out the region. The Irietones also played as a house band for Singapura Dub Club, backing up not just myself but reggae talents that have passed through. MAS1A is my artist name and how I release my new musical projects. I haven’t released a new LP in 3 years, as I have been developing the Singapura Dub Club. Only now, I am coming back to creating under MAS1A. I think as creatives the balance between what you do inside and out is critical. It is important to give back and create platforms greater than just yourself and that could help the culture that you love grow. My friend in Jamaica always give me this piece of advice: “Masia don’t give away your last.” So when I’m down to my last resources of energy to put on shows, I have to circulate and replenish myself by creating music, art and relationships again - in other words, live life before sharing something new. TGT: You've recently hosted UK jungle legend General Levy in Singapore (with Johnny Osbourne arriving soon!); how’d the show go, and what was the reception like from the local crowd?

 M: The show was mental, we had people around all around the world at the show as well as Singapore’s new and old reggae and d&b heads. Crowd went nuts - the General’s energy is INCREDIBLE! TGT: Related, what's the reggae scene like right now in Singapore? 
 M: It’s bubbling and growing in many exciting ways. You have sound systems like Lion Steppaz and our own Singapura Dub Club, growing. The Dancehall Dance scene is super lit, with teachers like Blacka Di Danca coming through and working with the community. SE Asian bands are reaching out to come play Singapore - so definitely blood circulating and looking forward to hear new reggae sounds, unique to SE Asia. TGT: Your work is certainly eclectic, and often shows influences from multiple genres within a single track. Which styles of music and artists are you particularly appreciating right now? M: Kendrick, Peter Tosh, Betty Davis, Sean P. Since I’m in NYC right now, I’ve also been revisiting Prince records. I can’t believe he’s gone.

TGT: You’re also known for your exciting live shows, like your NYE bashment set in Japan with XLII; any advice on how best to mash up a crowd on the road? 

M: XLII is a DJ that plays music for a very very high-energy crowd. We call it the XXX$$$ workout! I think it’s great to have levels as a performer - in your voice, in the stage placement, in dynamic to keep the crowd engaged. I think an important thing that toasting taught me is that the vibe when performing goes both ways, you feed the audience something, if they like it they will come back twice as loud. If they don’t understand, you can break it down into a rap, or singjay for them. You’re all riding a wave together, and when they feel what you feel on stage rockin’ that’s the good “mashup zone.”

TGT: You’re currently at work on a new album… what can you tell us about the project, and how does Richie Berreta’s experiences from Dub Spot educator to Beyonce remixer fit in with the sound of MAS1A? 

M: The new album is called An Irie Guide to the Far Eastside, and will be delivered in a pocket-sized guide book format – which will outline the good vibes places in SE Asia. The places you wouldn't find on Trip Advisor and Yelp. This will also give you an insight into the places I've gone that inspired the music and collaborators chosen for the record. Richie is this incredible musical genius, has mixed down many of Major Lazer’s records and produced some official remixes. I met with Richie to discuss the album before working with him, and I was thrilled that he understood the sound I wanted, as he ranges as a producer from hiphop and dancehall to roots reggae. All elements of production played live. Most of all what impressed me about Richie was his passion for music. He would go through 3 different guitars just to ensure he got the right sound. We have agreed on a genre we'd like to call “Reggae Prom,” a sweet and nostalgic side of reggae. Imagine the movie Pretty In Pink went reggae. Richie isn't producing the whole album. I have a few producers on it including Navigator (Kuala Lampur), Part2Style (Tokyo), C Infamous (Hong Kong) and Cookie Cartel (Vancouver, Canada). Richie is the executive producer to ensure everything has a synchronicity and flow. I want the album to be your soundtrack as you explore the Far Eastside. STAY LOCKED IN WITH MAS1A: MAS1A Facebook Soundcloud Singapura Dub Club The Irietones Image Credit: Jason G. Lewis

Interview with NERDS 2DX

Born in Jamaica, Queens NERDS has been adding his own unique style to every wall he approaches. From train yards to The Bushwick Collective, NERDS has no limits. His passion and dedication to the game is unmatchable. Without further ado, Writers Ink presents NERDS 2DX!

Why “NERDS”? What inspired you to choose that combination of letters?

I was always the bad smart kid in school… lol

When did you start writing?

Shit… I started noticing graff in like 7th grade, but I didn’t start to “actively” participate until High School… So like ’99, but I didn’t write “Nerds” back then… lol

Word, so about 17 years… That’s putting in work. What were the first few words you put up? Or just one prior?

I used to write “PAER,” that was my first tag.

When was the first time you went to prison?

Mid 2000’s… Like late ’05-’07… I was living in Miami, fucking up my septum with that good oil based coke… Selling 8balls and shit… Got jammed up on some charges… …I thought they were small at the time, but Florida’s judicial system isn’t New York’s. I was basically just doing my Charlie Sheen at the time… I felt like I was lucky to get that 18+ months… This was basically the time the pill mills started popping up everywhere… We all were smoking a lot of pills, going out and robbing the dope boys… Smacking $20 rocks out of their hands and doin’ the Carl Lewis… I was glad to make it out of there alive… They can keep that 18 months… It’s a gift… lol.

That’s pretty wicked. When you were in Miami, were you still writing “PAER” or had you transitioned to “NERDS.”

I got the name “NERD” around ’01-’02… I didn’t add the “S” until maybe ’07-’08 when I came back from Florida… I didn’t write much in Miami… The scene was so different… I didn’t have a car either… When I did steal or “acquire” a car… I was pretty preoccupied with other crimes…

What made you decide to come back to New York?

I had nothing left for me down there… So I decided to come back and start all over…

What was the first thing you did when you came back to New York?

The first thing I did was link up with the squad… Start painting again… I felt like I needed to get back to a sense of normalcy… And that felt like the only way.

JINS, NERDS, JROZ

What kind of spots do you and the squad like to hit?

It really all depends on the mood I’m in… Sometimes it’s something very thought out and well planned… Sometimes I have to drink a lot and I’m just like “Fuck it.”… I try to keep it diverse… Most of my squad would probably agree… We all like to challenge each other, keep us all developing.

Those shredded layers you paint are staggering, what inspired that idea?

Honestly, that idea all came from me doing collages on that fine art shit… I had like garbage bags full of ripped paper in my house… One day I was blackout drunk and started visualizing these fonts all stacked up… The idea just started really basic and then developed fairly quick… Especially once I started free-styling the colors… I’m not one of those writers who has crates of paint at their house… I’m usually working with rattlers and shit I find in my back seat… lmao… No sponsors. So it just made a lot of sense to stagger them… Especially when you’re working with quarter cans and 1 good cap… Hahah. Just gimme five scraps and I’ll smoke anybody…lol… I’ll blow cans up if I have to… lmao.

Lmao, word. That’s what’s up. How long did it take to paint that mural at the Bushwick Collective Wall in 2015?

That was actually the first non-graffiti mural I’d ever done… And at the time the biggest piece of work I had ever done… I painted it on a scaffold in the rain after work everyday for three days straight… I like a challenge… lol.

Spoken like a true savage. What type of opportunities have you had to travel different places for both galleries and straight up graffiti?

In the last few years I’ve traveled a lot… Exploring different abandoned buildings on the east coast… I fell in love with that lifestyle immediately… The isolation spoke to me in some sick way… lol… I’ve been invited to a few different festivals… experienced a lot of different cultures… Met a lot of white bitches with fat asses… They’re out there… lol.

Speaking of abandos, was that phone actually working? Or was that just for the ‘gram?? Lol. How’d you even find that place?

Lmao… Nah that shit was actually working. Deadass… made some local calls on that bad boy… Abandos are a dangerous game, especially going at it alone. If you want to find them, then you have to open your eyes… They’re all around… Keep your ears to the street and keep those clippers handy… lol.

What do you think about social media and graffiti combined?

I’ve always said that the internet itself is a tool… A tool improperly used can be dangerous… With that being said a lot of good writers careers have done well because of social media… Myself included, but I’ve been doing this when social media consisted of Bombing Science magazine and ArtCrimes.com… lmao… The internet has created a lot of hybrid styles… Which I’m all for, but a lot of the community and history has been lost… I feel like it’s a double-edged sword… Styles with no master… Street art is the entitled, ungrateful offspring of graffiti… Like the crazy dad who finally makes sense when you’re older… lol.

Who would you say has influenced your style the most?

At this point in my life, I get influences from all different areas of art… That’s a loaded question… Growing up in Queens I was mentored by a lot of old school BMK crew… Optick/ Smend… As I grew up traveling around the city, I became more aware of the variance of styles… SLOPE from BK had a lot of styles… SETUP.. I was definitely influenced by ESPO and his gates…. I never wanted to feel one dimensional in a specific style… As I got older I pushed myself to be diverse… So at this point I don’t even sketch anymore… It’s just a bag of tricks at this point… I like it like that… I’m a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, rolled in a big ass cigarette with coke on the tip… Hahaha.

From your story about Miami I can tell things were pretty wild. What was a wild experience you had in NY?

A few years ago when I was shooting my video entitled “No Invite” I went to Yonkers to search out a ‘bando. I had never been there before and had no idea how to get in…(**Side-note** At this point I had been on a three day cocaine binge. I had about 2 G’s left tucked in my sock. I was really fucked up… You know the type of fucked up that every line of Coke do you do falls out of your nostrils because your septum is just overworked…) Anyway I find the entrance to the building through a basement window that had about a 12 foot drop to the ground … there was a chain attached to the wall a few feet from the window that I grab and climb down. Meanwhile I had no idea how I was going to get out of the building when I was done nevertheless …But Fuck it though……I made my Way to the third floor. I found a wall with good light and started to unpack my paint (But If You’ve never had the unfortunate pleasure of spending three days with no sleep doing cocaine like Marion Barry… Chances are you will begin to hallucinate.) All of a sudden I hear someone say “Hellooo.” I pause while going through my cans and there is the voice again “Helloooooo??? “with some weird accent. At this point I couldn’t tell whether I was hallucinating or if this was really happening. There was the voice again, “Helloooooooooooooooo” with a weird Russian Polish-ish fuckin’ accent. So all of a sudden….I couldn’t tell you why… haha… I just yell Out ..”What’s Good Nigga!!”…..I still don’t know if I’m hallucinating or not yet or if it’s the fuckin’ boys but I’m wayyyyy to fucked up to be analyzing the situation that deep…haha… The dude yells back “Hey hey hey!!!… I’m lost, I can’t find the way I came in!!!”….about 45 seconds later he comes around the corner into the room I’m in… He’s one of those German/ Polish/ Russian /Mediterranean Merrill wearing photographer urbex dudes… I tell him the way I came in and he tells me he tried it and can’t climb the chain. He’s extra flustered… I tell him “Relax… I got you…” I show him the room where I climbed in through the window… I climb back up the chain on some American drugs ninja warrior shit and dead grant out the frame of the window off with just my feet. I grab his hand and lift him to a point where’s he’s comfortable enough to scale the chain… (I swear just reliving this story is fuckin’ ridiculous…lol.) I shimmy back down the chain, he’s extremely grateful… He says something to me and gives me a salute lol, (the type of salute you see Afghanistan kids give American soldiers…lol.) I trek back upstairs to finish the piece I started… About 1 hour later it gets really dark really fast… So I make my way back to the room to climb out. It’s fuckin’ freezing, my hands are cold and stiff, the chain I have to climb is like an ice cube, and I’m totally gassed. I don’t have the energy to climb it… I start walking room to room trying to find one loose plywood board on any random window…I’m kicking shit..trying to get out by any means… I don’t even give a fuck about the cops at this point I’m freezing… Any booking is better than death…#deadass… I sit down and light a cigarette and evaluate the situation. All of a sudden a flash light hits me through the elevated window and I hear that weird ass Russian/German/ Polish niggas voice…”HELLO!?!?!?!”……I just break out laughing… (It turned out that garbled foreign shit he was sayin’ to me as he went out the window earlier was him letting me know he was coming back with friends later)..They throw down a rope ladder and climb down. We give each other pounds and exchange language neutral expressions of respect and gratitude. I climbed out the window and never saw those tourists again…karma, huh?

When have you gone to bookings and got placed in the same cell with someone you knew?

Every time I go to jail or booking or whatever I always end up with a story. I’ve got more stories than the fuckin’ bible…lol. Sometimes when I’m about to tell a story even I know how unbelievable some of this shit is…lol

So, it’s maybe 09-11…hahah…whatever. I’m walking down 62nd on the east, fresh new chrome uni. At the time I was flipping everything from dimes to biftys of green straight delivery style. I even had a beeper on some late mid 90s clockers shit (Dope Spike Lee Movie.) I just ground the tip down of this brand new uni silver from my mans “Geo” at the Scrap Yard…

I’m approaching 1st ave and there’s a fresh mailbox… I roll up on it, bust off a quick handstyle. Exclamation, swirl, all that… I keep walking… All of a sudden I hear this whistle start blowing crazy…!!!!!!!!!!!….!!!!!!!!!!!!…..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…

I turn around and 2 bike cops roll up on me fast as fuck… Did the power slide and everything..Baywatch shit… At this point I’m literally on the curb standing on the sewer grate… Out of pure instinct I drop the marker in the gutter… “Where’s the marker buddy?….Where’s the cans?…Turn around …You think we didn’t see you?” I don’t say shit… They look around for a while and see it in the gutter…(* I fucking swear to you*… They brought a fucking police tow truck to lift up the grate and retrieve the marker like it was a fucking CSI investigation no lie.*)… They ship me to the precinct… From the precinct to the Tombs (my 2nd Home)… Once I make it To the second cell I’m tired and there’s no open space… I see this dude layer out across a big piece of real estate….I walk over and I don’t know why but the first thing I see is his sneakers… Some Black shell toes with rainbows stripes…(I know a nigga with those kicks…I’ve never seen anyone else with them, but they’re obviously not the only pair in existence.) His shirt is pulled over his face to block the fluorescent lighting…I tap him on the shoulder.. “Ayo…Slide down a little bit nigga…” He pulls the shirt off his head…..NEMZ ..muthafucker!!!!!! …We start bugging out… The CO is telling us calm down and shit…He got wrapped up in some other shit (that’s his story to tell..hahaha.) Anyway it turned out he’s already been here for like 24hrs. By the time we reach the lawyer cell we have been together for hrs… (Btw Shout Out To Azel Cs..Lower East side Boy…there isn’t a a bookings I’ve been in that he doesn’t have scratchies/ lighter tags u name it.) We go up to see the judge, some of his family was there and they’ve met me on different occasions…lol. So when they saw me there they thought we were co-defendants…hahahah…Let’s just say I wasn’t that welcome at the family house for a while…hahah.. #deadass… lol.

Anyone you want to give a shout out to?

First and foremost none of this would be possible without ME… So let me start by thanking myself… Big Shout Out To My Ace.. DIM TIS CSF… I never would of been in this game if it wasn’t for him… Shout out to The whole TIS Familia…SENO, SEAK, NEMZ CIR, and my nigga EONIS out in Atlanta… My 2dx family state to state…DEK, SMASH, SANS, RUKUS, MINUS, SNEK, Smirk, CRIS, ETHEK, REUP out in Baltimore and SKIZM… All My CSFamily…Brooklyn!!…GIGS, FRESH5, SLUE… All my WATCriminals…USEE, LEER, GASE EK, BIRD… My Dude RANT in Ohio… My Man CAKED WPK..”Aka” Brick Tosser…..The team is huge… Also Shout out to the homies EVAK, EGORE, CENT… My nigga OVER NFG… And Of Course The Great JIN’S 5MH…..Shout out to Queens… And Last But Not Least… RIP BAK ,RIP ZNO ,RIP PANAS, RIP YEAH ,RIP CEFR…. You’re truly Missed… We’ll paint again soon…..…I’m Out.