a side effect of reading we could be so good by cat sebastian right after watching the 2021 remake of west side story (by which i literally mean i finished the movie, went "hey you know what else is set in 1950s new york city," and went to find the copy my sister got me for christmas to heal myself emotionally from the sad ending of that film) is that i'm weirdly attached to the idea of josh andrés rivera as nick russo and mike faist as andy fleming in a film adaptation

Days 14-18: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

There are no words or even photos that can do justice to Rocky Mountain National Park. But, I'll try my best. For you.

Friday, September 16 - Arriving at RMNP and Timber Creek Camp

Given campground availability and my plans to spend time in Boulder after my visit to RMNP, I decided to start on the west side of the park and make my way eastward over the course of my time in the park.

I spent most of Friday driving to the park (about 2 hours), visiting the Kawuneeche Visitor Center (another hour or so - it was raining so I wanted to see if it would dry up a bit, get my collectible sticker, patch, and passport stamps, and gather some hiking tips from the rangers!). I then wrapped up the day settling in for my first night at Timber Creek Campground.

The rain let up for long enough to get a fire going, enjoy the stars, and go to sleep. It then proceeded to pour most of the night! My tent held up great - I was totally dry and warm inside.

Saturday, September 17 - Hiking Little Yellowstone & Lulu City

Hit the trail after my favorite breakfast of yogurt, blueberries and granola (the Yeti 45 Cooler is truly amazing and worked as an effective refrigerator for 5+ days)!

On the agenda: Little Yellowstone and Lulu City. This ~7-8mi hike took me along the source of the Colorado River with a combination of rich emerald colored forests and lush golden meadows under a crystal blue sky painted with cotton ball white clouds - the color contrasts were eye popping and made for great photo ops. I also visited the site of a small 200-person settlement from the 1800s, (Lulu city). And along the way, I even made some animal friends, a deer, a moose, and a lil marmot!

I'll let the photos to the rest of the talking:

Sunday, September 18 - Trail Ridge Road & Alpine Tundra

I woke up at dawn to pack up and drive east on Trail Ridge Road across the Continental Divide my next home base at Moraine Park Campground!

The elevations on Trail Ridge Road get so high that you are in what is called the Alpine Tundra, a landscape with such harsh conditions that trees cannot live there.

On a stop at the Alpine Visitor Center (the highest National Park Service facility!) I learned all about the ecosystem and animals of the Alpine Tundra including Elk, Big Horn Sheep, Marmot, Pika (in danger danger due to climate change and their conditioning to very cold climate), Coyote, Weasels, Ptarmigan and many plants!

I hiked the Rock Communities Trail to try to spot some Pika, and unfortunately I didn't see any but I did get to see some pretty cool mushroom rocks and stunning views!

The drive down towards Estes Park was equally stunning with views of the forested lower peaks and absinthe-green valleys

Finally I made it to my campsite! It was my favorite campsite of the trip so far, spacious and set back from the road in a glen with perfect trees to set up my hammock.

Monday, September 19 - Four (Five, Six) Lakes Hike

I got up at dawn again to start my hiking day early - I was determined to hike most of the Bear Lake area of RMNP via the Four Lake Loop (but I added in a few extra lakes!)

I watched the sunrise over bear lake, and then found a perfect spot to make breakfast and coffee on my way to Dream and Emerald lakes.

The colors of the various glacial lakes on this hike were beautiful variations of turquoise and teal. Dream Lake (pictured above) was more of a greenish color similar to Emerald Lake just a bit more of a climb past it. I got to see a beautiful small waterfall on my way up to Emerald.

My favorite lake by far on this hike was Lake Haiyaha, which was a light mint turquoise color due to a recent rockslide releasing many glacial minerals into the lake!

On the way down from Lake Haiyaha towards the Loch I made some new friends, Suzy, Beth and Wyatt from Georgia! We hiked most of the afternoon together trading adventure stories. Because I was with them I continued on towards Sky Pond where they were headed (a bit further of a hike than I had planned for myself) and got to see some incredible vistas from a higher elevation!

Finally the sun was making its way down in the sky so I decided to head back down towards camp. The cottonwoods were changing color in this more arid part of the landscape, and the yellow contrast against the dark green and bright blue sky (seriously the most blue sky I've ever seen) was absolutely gorgeous.

On the drive back to my campsite, I saw a lot of people gathered by a meadow, and realized that there must be elk to view there! I was too tired to check it out, but decided I'd do so in the morning. Exhausted, I collapsed in my tent after making a quick dinner and was asleep by 9pm!

Tuesday, September 20 - The Elk Rut, Sprague Lake & Heading to Boulder

Again I got up at dawn, this time to go visit some Elk friends! I didn't know prior to my visit, but I got so lucky that the Elk Rut was just beginning upon my arrival in RMNP.

What is the Elk Rut? It's an incredible annual mating ritual for elk where males (bulls) compete to build harems of females (cows) by sparring and making haunting bugling sounds!

A large herd had settled into the meadow just by my campground, so I was able to walk over as the sunrise was turning the mountains into a bright pink backdrop. There were dozens of professional and amateur nature photographers out already.

I even got to witness some sparring! I tried to upload the video here but for some reason it wasn't working.

After I watched the Elk for an hour or so, I headed back to pack up my camp. I stopped by Sprague Lake to make lunch and got to see some trout swimming up stream (Natalie, if you're reading this I thought of you the whole time!)

Unfortunately it was then finally time for me to head out of the park. I made one more visitor center stop at Fall River on my way out. And I even got to say hello to another herd of elk just hanging outside a Safeway Supermarket in the town of Estes!

My day ended with an arrival that evening in Boulder to visit with my good friend Sarah Jane and her adorable son Hendrix for a couple of days.

I'll share more in a post next week about my stay in Boulder, and my journey to Wyoming to explore Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks!

Warm Beers

Taglist is Open! Dm or comment to be added!

Posting Schedule: Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Set before season One!

All Works Master List

Warm Beers Master List

5

Word Count: 1284

    Kenzie skips into the chateau, making pointed eye contact with Kiara. "Kie, kitchen?" Kiara was already off the couch and on her way to the kitchen before Kenzie could finish. JJ had spilled that she was going on a date after work, and Kiara knew exactly what that meant.

    "Girl talk?" JJ asks, following Kenzie into the room with a smile. "I never get to be a part of those." He whines when Kiara points for him to leave. "Please? What are they even like? Do you talk about boys? Sex?" JJ continues while McKenzie ignores him, grabbing two beers from the fridge.

    "Maybe one day, J, but tonight's not the night," Kenzie says as she pats JJ on the shoulder and turning him to leave. He scampers off like a scolded dog, head hung low and shoulders sunken. Both girls sit on opposite corners of the counter, knees bumping slightly.

    "Okay, what's up?" Kiara asks, looking over her friend. Kenzie's cheeks are pink, and her hair is conveniently placed to cover her neck, held down by JJ's hat.

    "Dude, you will not believe the hookup I just had," Kenzie starts. Kiara laughs as Kenzie moves her hair, revealing her hickeys. "Kissing was a four out of ten. Way too much tongue and not enough lip." She starts to judge the escapade. She doesn't know when she began rating her hookups, but Kiara was always willing to listen. "Dick work? Zero." Kiara covers her mouth to stop from spewing beer over her friend as she chokes. "Couldn't feel a god damn thing, and he came in like three seconds flat, I swear to God." McKenzie finishes her rant with a chug of her beer.

    "Overall rating?" Kiara prompts, eager to hear how well he ranked. No one has ever placed over a five on Kenzie's scale. Maybe it was the types of boys she went for or the high expectations Tumblr stories had set for her sex life.

    "Four out of ten, only because he indulged the vampire kink," Kenzie rationalizes, shrugging at Kiara's snort. "Eh, wait, no. Three. Three out of ten because I can't forgive the three seconds." Kiara laughs loudly, pulling the boys' attention to the girls.

    JJ watches closely as Kenzie laughs and leans into Kiara. He wished he could be in there to hear exactly what they were talking about. The curiosity was killing him as McKenzie snorts at something Kie said. Was it about her date with that stupid touron in his leather jacket? A dark feeling fills his stomach as he watches Kenzie shift her hair to the side, revealing a black and blue neck.

    The door slams behind him as JJ leaves, needing to smoke a joint to combat the feeling growing inside. His hands shake as he tries to light the blunt, groaning in frustration when the lighter flickers and snuffs out.

    "Was I the only one who thinks JJ sounded mad when he left?" McKenzie asks when she and Kiara join the boys. While the boys shrug, Kiara nods in confirmation that JJ seemed irritated. With a small sigh, Kenzie follows after her friend, worried about his small outburst. "Need a hand?" She asks when JJ toss the black lighter out into the yard with a frustrated sigh.

    "No, I got it," He bites, not looking towards Kenzie as he rummages through the sunroom for another lighter. McKenzie clears her throat as she pulls out her favorite yellow one that's covered in little stickers Kiara bought her. JJ looks at her and gives a pressed smile when he takes the Bic and lights the weed.

    He takes a seat on the steps, ignoring the fact that Kenzie sits next to him, shoulder pressed to his. They sit in silence as JJ smokes, watching the waves crash to the marsh. The heavy feeling coating JJ's heart slowly lifts the more he smokes. "Want to talk about it?" She asks, reaching for the blunt in his hand as she lays her head on his shoulder.

    "About what?" JJ deflects, watching Kenzie's cloud disperse into the air. The sweet smell of her coconut shampoo mixed with weed fills his lungs. Kenzie sighs and takes another hit of the blunt. They continue to sit in silence while Kenzie waits for JJ to answer her question. "Just feeling off, I guess." He finally divulges, feeling safe and secure with Kenzie next to him.

    It was like she had a spell on him. McKenzie could make JJ tell her everything in just one look. John B. was his best friend, sure, but the deputy's daughter was his personal secrets holder. She knew things about JJ that he's never told anyone, some of which he won't repeat again in his life. The deputy's daughter was the town's bad boys' safety person.

    "I'm sorry, J. Had too many warm beers?" She jokes, pulling a chuckle out of JJ as he steals the joint back from Kenzie. He shakes his head before laying his cheek on her head. "Everything going okay at home?" She asks, knowing it's a loaded question. Nothing was ever fine at the Maybank house, but some days were better than others.

    Somedays, Luke was too drunk to remember his own name, let alone his hatred towards his own son. Other's he was already passed out by the time JJ got home from work. Nothing was ever 'fine' in JJ's house. Somedays were just easier to handle.

    "As fine as they can be, I guess." JJ shrugs and changes the subject. "How'd the date with Leather Jacket go?" Kenzie giggles and shakes her head.

    "It wasn't a real date. I gave him a three out of ten." JJ makes a disapproving noise and shakes his head.

    "Poor guy didn't stand a chance. The scale is brutal," He jokes, elbowing Kenzie gently as she giggles. It only took some weed, and now the friends were back to their usual banter.

    "Whatever. You think you could beat a five, Maybank?" Kenzie laughs, looking up at her best friend. He stares down at her, and something inside of him took over. Something devilish and confident.

    "I know I can, Princess." He whispers, leaning into her. Kenzie stays still, practically paralyzed by JJ's words and actions. Kenzie can feel his breath fanning across her lips, smelling of weed and beer. His blues eyes are glazed over but captivate Kenzie as they stare at each other. JJ continues to slowly lean in, hesitant to bridge the gap.

    The trace snaps when JJ realizes just how close he is to her lips, mere breaths away. What the hell was he doing? This was his best friend. He wasn't supposed to be having these feelings towards her. She was practically family to him. An extremely hot and sassy family member.

    JJ kisses her cheek sweetly before getting up, passing the last of the roll to her. "I'm gonna go get a game started. Come in when you finish the blunt," He announces. But, really, he just needed to get out of that situation before he did something irreversible.

    Kenzie sits in shock on the stairs, watching as the sun starts to set to the west and casts beautiful warm colors onto the water's surface. She couldn't decide if she was angry because he even tried to kiss her or that he didn't follow through. That was her best friend, and she wasn't supposed to want to kiss him, but goddammit, she wanted nothing more than to kiss his perfect pink lips.

    As the water turns orange, Kenzie rationalizes that she was still frustrated after Theo's three-second and projected onto JJ. A night's sleep would fix it all.

Taglist: @gwenlovesharrystyles​ @x-lulu​

oddworld ask game, tagged by my sister @ask-alf-oddworld !

1. Which Oddworld game is your favourite out of the series?

it’s hard to choose, but i’d have to go with Munch’s oddysee. it was the first game I was introduced to, and the first game I played.

2. Who’s your favourite mudokon?

3. Who’s your favourite slig?

there aren’t many slig characters (unfortunately) but I like Lulu’s slig. he was a cool guy

4. Who’s your favourite glukkon?

Molluck, he was cool 😎

5. Who’s your favourite Oddworld character in general?

6. Which sapient species is your favourite? (I.e. Muds, sligs, gluks, vykkers etc)

definitely mudokons, they’re so cute

7. Which non-sapient species is your favourite? (I.e. Paramites, scrabs, slogs etc)

gabbits babey!!

8. Which is your favourite level/cutscene?

I can’t choose a favourite level, but I can choose some of my favourite cutscenes! one was that cutscene in New n’ tasty where Abe first transforms into Shrykull and then he does that walk where you can tell he’s thinking ‘yeah i’m the shit’

other favourite cutscenes are the good ending from Munch’s oddysee, and Alf having a go at Abe in Exoddus because he and his friends want a drink.

9. Which location in Mudos is your favourite?

I actually really like west Mudos and wanna see more of it!

10. What’s your favourite quote/line from the games?

the b o i l e r ?

11. Which is your least favourite game out of the series?

this is a hard question, if I had to choose it’d have to be Stranger’s wrath, but that’s still a very good game.

12. Who is your least favourite Oddworld character?

eugene. also big bro sligs used to scare the absolute crap out of me

13. Natives or industrialists?

natives all the way!!

14. Abe, Munch, or Stranger?

I think we know ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

although when I was first introduced to Oddworld, my favourite character was Munch- he’s a close second for me now, but I used to love him a lot

15. When did you first get into Oddworld?

I was around 7 years old when my sister showed me a drawing of Abe that she did. I was like “h u h” and Abe gave me a certain weird vibe that was hard to explain. a mixture of discomfort and intrigue.

she began telling me about the Oddworld games and showing me cutscenes and stuff, and I happily and excitedly watched her play them. I made a DeviantArt when I was 8 or 9 (has been abandoned for yEEEARS) where I mostly posted my Oddworld fanart.

i drew this when i was like 8 or 9?

16. Has there ever been a moment in the games that terrified you?

the bad ending for Munch’s oddysee. sweet jesus

17. What moment from the games made you laugh?

i’ve has some really funny glitches, also various moments from cutscenes.

18. How many times have you played the games?

i’ve only finished Munch’s Oddysee and New n’ tasty once each, getting the good ending both times. I played part of Stranger’s wrath but stopped at Packrat Palooka (I think?)

as for all the other games, I watched my sister play them lmao

19. What’s your fondest Oddworld-related memory?

there’s multiple! finishing Munch’s oddysee for the first time and getting the good ending (I think I cried? lol) and any other one would probably be watching my sister play the games lmao

20. Do you have an OC?

oh man. i’ve had a lot of Oddworld ocs that have come and gone. the first one I made was called Bob, an average looking mudokon with a single red feather for hair. he stuck with me the longest but I abandoned him a couple years ago. he still means a lot to me though, he’s one of the ocs i’ve had for the longest in general. may revive him in future

though I am actually working on an OC at the moment! his name is Leif, he’s a farmer mudokon who grows crops and stuff. i’ll probably make an account for him later.

21. Do you have any headcanons?

yep! I can’t remember all of them, but one is that Toby is a teenager.

22. Do you have any AU ideas?

Abe but he’s on the side of the industrialists lmao

23. Do you own/collect any merch?

I have a Munch plush that my sister kindly gave to me!! I love him a lot

24. Do you have any unpopular opinions?

alf is smelly hehe

25. Who’s your favourite person (or people) on Oddtumblr?

y-you guys know who you are 🥺👉👈

(absolute favourite though is @ask-alf-oddworld , she’s my sister and she got me into Oddworld in the first place)

26. What are your thoughts on Lorne Lanning, Sherry McKenna, and/or Oddworld Inhabitants?

I love them and their work so so so so much, and can’t thank them enough for creating this beautiful and messed up story.

27. What piece of lore do you hope makes it into the games?

aw man. anything relating to the queens or Munch’s oddysee.

28. Which character from the lore do you hope shows up in the games?

sam

29. What hopes do you have for the franchise?

I hope it gets more attention!

30. How has Oddworld impacted/influenced you?

it influenced me to develop morals. the stories were so creative and inspiring, but also based on actual things that were going on in the world. the Oddworld games have this unique and indescribable vibe about them (in a good way)

also Oddworld just made me really happy. it’s been one of my most important and biggest interests, it was the first thing I ever became really obsessed with, and I have so many positive childhood memories.

“The Farewell” Review: Asian Family Dramedy Finds Bittersweet Humor in Grief

Directed by Lulu Wang

Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin

It’s been a while since I’ve gone out of my way to see a film that didn’t feature super heroes, dog-loving hit-men, or giant atomic-breathing fire lizards but a chance to see Awkwafina flex her comedic and dramatic chops while supporting Asian American creative voices was too good to pass up in “The Farewell.”

Director Lulu Wang’s film, based on “an actual lie” that her family went through, is a mesmerizing bittersweet and often hilarious take on the cross section of immigrant family values and the love that holds it all together. It’s the kind of story that will make you want to hug your parents and relatives extra tight, while laughing your ass off and shows a new angle to the family dramedy through Asian American voices that Hollywood rarely touches on.

(Since I’m sure most of you NERDS don’t watch Indie films, here’s the trailer to get you up to speed.)

“The Farewell” tells the story of an Asian American woman named Billi struggling to find purpose in her life out in New York. When she learns that her Nai Nai (grandmother) is dying from cancer she is told she is forbidden from telling her about her condition as per Chinese tradition. Under the guise of a wedding for her cousin the family uses it as an excuse to get together to be with Nai Nai one last time but the secrecy does not sit well with Billi and now she finds herself struggling with keeping the truth as it slowly eat her inside.

The best thing about “The Farewell” is that it doesn’t choose a side in its East vs West dynamic that may feel apparent in the film’s trailer. In fact, it’s more closely East AND West when it comes to the message of the story. The film doesn’t aim to vilify Billi’s family for hiding the truth from their matriarch but rather simply state this is how it is in China. It doesn’t try to state that this is the right way of thinking either, of course, as plenty of the film’s dramatic frictions comes from this lie but the film balances this East and West ideology very well by ultimately choosing not to take a side and simply show how this family loves one another which is ultimately more important to its narrative.

Though the film has an ultimately tragic premise it is here that much of the movie’s great comedy comes from and often at hilarious levels. It doesn’t simply make comedic scenes take place between the family drama it actually melds the two perfectly as humor comes directly from the tragedy. Often while viewing this film in fact you might find yourself wondering if you should laugh or cry and sometimes, you’ll end up doing both and the film is better for it in this way.

(That look we all gave when we tried to avoid spoiling “Endgame” to friends a couple months ago before they got a chance to see it.)

The film does such a wonderful job of making good, bittersweet humor out of this familiy’s struggle with tip-toeing around the truth that you’ll simultaneously want to sympathize with them and laugh at/with them at the same time. The humor can be both outrageous, dry and sometimes even dark in this way and makes for a very complex viewing experience. It’s a great balancing act that projects both emotions in perfect harmony from start to finish that’ll have you crying from laughter and sadness.

It’s the cast though that makes all this work perfectly as they form a believable loving but slightly dysfunctional family from various parts of the world. Tzi Ma is great as Billi’s father who struggles in his own way with his Chinese principles and his newer American beliefs. Diana Lin reminds me almost too much of my own mother, who is both loving and haranguing toward Billi throughout the film. And Zhao Shuzhen will make you wish she were your grandmother as her undeniable charm keeps the story humming along at a delightful and loving pace.

But it’s Awkwafina (real name Nora Lum) of course who shows off her impressive range here as both a dramatic and comedic talent that brings this all together here. Her catchy one-liners and star-making performance in last year’s “Crazy Rich Asians” was one of the film’s big highlights and she’s no less charming in “The Farewell” as well. 

Awkwafina carries this film as the audience’s primary western point of view but again it never turns to condescending of cultural traditions as our main character struggles internally throughout the film but never vilifies what is going on either. It’s a highly nuanced performance that shows Awkwafina’s star is indeed rising and deserving of recognition when awards season eventually rolls around.

(Side note: If I ever get famous I want to party with Awkwafina haha)

So, now it’s time for me to get on my soapbox again for a minute. If there was any doubt that diversity and showcasing minority artistic talents is important just look at all that’s changed in the wake of last year’s “Crazy Rich Asians.” I mean, just look at this picture of the theater I went to see this film at this past weekend.

It was a full house and it wasn’t even the showtime I originally wanted to see it at because the previous one had sold out too! And this wasn’t a crowd of predominantly Asian folk seeing this film; viewers of seemingly all backgrounds came out to see this wonderful family dramedy. It’s further proof that these films about the Asian American condition are relevant and more importantly have mass audience appeal.

On the surface a film like “Crazy Rich Asians” (especially compared to the complexities of this film) feels like a pretty standard rom-com but by getting it in theaters past all the countless bull shit, nay-saying it effectively broke down the door for new films that featured Asian Americans. In just a year’s time Henry Golding has already starred in “A Simple Favor” and is set to star in two more before the year’s end. John Cho was able to make his directorial debut with “Searching” and is set to play Spike Spiegel in Netflix’s “Cowboy Bebop.” Ali Wong’s “Always Be My Maybe” was a huge streaming hit as well on Netflix last month. And Marvel Studios is finally ready to have an Asian American super hero make his debut in Shang Chi later in the MCU’s phase 4.

(Ali Wong is just delightful if you didn’t already know btw.)

This is what I mean whenever I say Hollywood needs to give these films a chance because look how much has changed with just one movie. Who knows if a movie like “The Farewell” would’ve had a chance at even minor independent film stardom if a movie like “Crazy Rich Asians” hadn’t been given a chance to shine first on the big stage.

These movies and these people deserve a chance to tell their stories because they are relevant, they are poignant and more than anything they are good fucking stories! “The Farewell” is easily my favorite film of the year and I am grateful to “Crazy Rich Asians” for making it a possibility to be here. And if you think diversity still doesn’t matter then kindly just go fuck yourself because Asian Americans, these films and these beautiful, heart-wrenching and often funny stories are here to stay whether you like it or not.

(Seriously though can we like hang out, Ms. Awkwafina?)

“The Farewell” is well worth searching for a theater that’s playing it on the limited release circuit and will have you laughing and crying at the same time before and after the credits roll. It’s a film that will undoubtedly leave a mark no matter what cultural background you come from because the love in this story is relevant to everyone.

So, go see this movie and don’t forget to bring your Nai Nai too.

 VERDICT:

5 out of 5

*Me after the credits rolled.*

GOOD MORNING IN SUMBA ISLAND, ROYALS!

When: September 8 - 15, 2018

Where: Sumba Island, Indonesia

What:

After a long over-night flight, we’ve landed safe and sound at Bandar Udara Tambolaka on Sumba Island and are on our way to the Nihi Resort on the South West shore. Once we arrive, you’ll get your room keys and the possibility to rest and relax, before we invite you to lunch at Ombak Open Air restaurant - come barefoot, you’ll love it!

Welcome to Paradise and to a week-long amazing trip ahead!

Below you will find the room assignments which you’ll also receive personally along with more information on your Villa!

Gameplay: Get in touch with your room mates, make plans, go have a look at the event list that will be posted soon, and most of all - have fun!

Lulu Villas

“Our Lulu one-bedroom villa is made up of a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom and outdoor tub, connecting to a living room or children’s bedroom with en-suite bathroom and outdoor shower.”

@tonksinroyal & @soutterlytaron + Sadie & Julian

@ryljaredh & Allegra Harris + Ben

Katanar Villas

Each one-bedroom villa is made up of two generously proportioned stories. The first floor houses a powder room and a luxurious open air living area that overlooks a sprawling deck with a private infinity pool. An adjacent family room can be used as a second bedroom accommodating up to two children, or to relax, watch movies, or work. The second floor features a large master bedroom, the hero of which is a signature canopy bed with dramatic ocean views.

@royalhardy + Louis

@rebccaferguson + Isac & Saga

@royaldowneyjr & Susan + Indio, Exton & Avri

Lamba Villas

Built entirely on one level, each of the two Lamba estates features an exquisitely appointed master bedroom that opens out onto a deck with a private plunge pool. A rambling backyard, private garden and outdoor shower with ocean views complete the scene. Ideal for couples looking for a sense of privacy and the perfect amount of space, Lamba is the jewel tucked conveniently away in the heart of the resort

@ryljoylenz & @itssammyclaflin

@royalbrendon & @nosferatuross

Marangga Villas

Marangga is an with its own private gardens leading directly to the ocean. At the foot of the property with panoramic views of the Indian ocean is a private cliffside bale. Inside the private bale is king sized day bed that can be appropriated for any number of uses. Each Marangga has its own private plunge pool, outdoor shower and dining area.

@royalprincessdrew & @patrickmcdempsey

@m-smithryl & @msfoyx

Kasambi Villas

Kasambi’s two luxury one-bedroom suites feature private, creek-side entrances and are surrounded by gardens of Jasmine, Frangipani, and Palm trees.  They share a plunge pool with a private path to the Nio Beach Bar.

@ryledharris & Amy

@rylsdonttrythis & Julia

Wamoro Villas

Spacious and grand, the one bedroom villas feature king sized canopy beds with a sitting area and work station. High ceilings and three walls of windows makes each bedroom feel both airy and serene. Outside you will find your own private plunge pool and lounge area with spectacular unimpeded views of Nihi beach.

@jensmrsn & @royalodonoghue

@rylhopkins & Stella

Mandaka Villas

Nestled under the trees in a cottage like setting, Mandaka’s one-bedroom villa combines the luxury of the expansive estate with its own secluded corner of the property overlooking Nihi’s coveted surf wave.  A private path leads directly down to the Boat House for water activities, socializing, and sunset cocktails.

@rylchelsey​ & Rhett

Lantoro Villas - shared as one

Located on a shared beachside estate, the Lantoro villas are perfect for families and groups of friends travelling together yet also have the flexibility to be rented separately. The one bedroom suites feature secluded gardens, a private path leading down to the beach and a private plunge pool.

@royalgrillo + Remy, Rio & Liam

@royaltucker & Tara + Yuna

Haweri Villas

Haweri is indeed the villa of abundance. There are two large swimming pools, a ten person hot tub, a waterside yoga pavilion, a secluded bamboo bale above a private beach, and a spectacular living and dining room perched on a hilltop overlooking the coastline. For those seeking absolute privacy surrounded by nature at its best, this is the place to be.

@justmaxirons & @rylbenzo + @royalmiller & @rylhiddleston

@jerleerenner & @rylcolin + James & Henry

Tree House Villas

Separate but conjoining villas punctuate this breathtaking jungle property. Built around the trunk of a tree, Mamole is ideal for anyone who appreciates unique design and a sense of immersion in nature. Generously appointed deck chairs and lounge seating make Mamole a social estate perfect for larger groups of friends or families that wish to be separate but close together. 

@sirbooth, @gabriellazannawilde​ & @luluhaleryl

@georgeclooney-ryl, @msirinashayk & @royalmcdane, @natdormerxo

@jelenagnoura, @enochalready, @jessesoffer & @rylgolding

@simplysophiab​, @leighlm, @royalsmanny & @milenastrikesback

Puncak Villa

Perched near the highest point of the resort above a hillside of organic gardens, Puncak comprises of a four-bedroom estate with a sunken outdoor dining area and two plunge pools. This villa includes a ground floor open-air living room.

@royalpeacekeeper, @ryl-ajcook, @rylmckinnon, @rylsarfati​, @hbicarter & @colorfullymichael

COLOURLESS DREAM set list

■■Vol.4 2017 12/17

■Conta 1st Under Two Flags / Masks It’s Immaterial / A Gigantic Raft In The Philippines The Laughing Apple / Precious Feeling JulianCope / 24a Velocity Crescent Blue Hollow / Inhale Presence / Act Of Faith Fools Dance / The Collector The Wild Swans / Archangels

■24no 1st This Mortal Coil / Sixteen Days - Gathering Dust Fra Lippo Lippi / Some Things Never Change Gene Loves Jezebel / Bruises (Orignial Extended Version) Radiohead / High And Dry Slowdive / Star Roving My Bloody Valentine / Never Say Goodbye

■久保田稔人 1st Repetition / The Still Reflex Style Syndrome / Shinning The Vail / Twist Dead Can Dance / Carnival Of Light The Creaturs / Mad Eyed Screamer Oate Wylie / Sinful The Blue Angels / Candy The Icicle Works / Love Is A Wonderful Colors

■小野島大 1st Alien Sex Fiend / R.I.P. (Blue Drumb Truck) Belfegore / All That I Wanted (Extrended Club Mix) Cult / Spiritwalker Bauhaus / Lagartija Nick Killing Joke / Tension The Birthday Party / Releace The Bats a clan of XYMOX / A Day (Remix) Sioixsie & The Banshees / Fireworks (12” Version)

■migon The Psychedelic Furs / Heatbreak Beat Clan Of Xymox / Loneliness TheCult / Dreamtime PlayDead / Propaganda Bauhaus / In The Flat Field Love & Rockets / Motorcycle MarchViolets / SnakeDance Gene Loves Jezbel / Desire The Bolshoi / Sunday Morning The Sound / Skeletons Sad Lovers And Giants / Echoplay

■Guest DJ Xerstorkitte From Australia Siouxsie and the Banshees / Spellbound Sisters Of Marcy / Vision Thing Alien Sex Fiend / Walk the Line She Wants Revenge / Tear You Apart Joy Division / Love Will Tear Us Apart Killing Joke / Love Like Blood Peter Murphy / Cuts You Up

■24no 2nd The Bubblemen / The Bubblemen Are Coming Tones On Tail / Christian Says Bauhaus / The Passion Of Lovers (Live) Death Cult / Christians (Live) U2 / Bad (Live) The Sound / Fatal Flaw All About Eve / End Of The Day Siouxsie & The Banshees / Candyman The Sisters Of Mercy / Walk Away

■久保田稔人 2nd 17 Pygmies / Chameleon The Colors Out Of Time / She Spins Blue China / Tomorrow Never Knows Modern Eon / Watching The Dancers The Church / Myrrh Silent Running / When The 12th Of Never Comes School Of Seven Bells / Ablaze The Horrors / Point Of No Reply The Chameleons / The Fan And The Bellows

■Conta 2nd All That Jazz/Banner Of Love The Cure / Lullaby Modern English / Swans On Glass Wasted Youth / Rebecca’s Room Flesh For Lulu / Roman Candle The Sound / Golden Soldiers The Teardrop Explodes / Colours Fly Away Joy Division / No Love Lost Siouxsie & The Banshees / Mirage Killing Joke / Sanity Peter Murphy / Blue Heart The Chameleons / Tears

■小野島大 2nd My Bloody Velentine / Soon (The Andy Weatherall Mix) Curve / Coast is Clear Lush / Sweetness and Light The Boo Radleys / The Finest Kiss Swervedriver / Rave Down Radiohead / Just The Cure / Why Can’t I Be You? (12” Mix) B-Movie / Nowhere Girl (Version) The Lotus Eaters / The First Picture Of You Echo & The Bunnymen / The Killing Moon (All Night Version) U2 / October

■■Vol.3 2016 12/11

■migon 1st Death In June /Black Radio Dead Can Dance / Carnival Of Light Cocteau Twins / Ivo The KVB / Night Games She Past Away / Sann/Hallucination The The / Flesh And Bones Virgin Prunes / Deline And Fall Bauhaus / Spirit

■Conta 1st Dole / Rumroad The Shamen / Happy Days Wah! Heat / Better Scream Care / Whatever Possessed You Black / Hey Presto Ian McCulloch / Lover Lover Lover Electrafixion / Zephyr Echo & The Bunnymen / Crystal Days

■24no 1st Chapterhouse / Breather The Boo Radleys / Lazy Day Sweet Jesus / Real Babe Catherine Wheel / Shallow The Charlottes / Liar Moose / Suzanne Ride / Here And Now Lush / Sweetness And Light (The Orange Squash Mix) My Bloody Valentine / Map Ref 41°N 93°W

■小野島大 1st Nico / Procession The Dance Society / 2000 Light Years From Home The Mission / Wasteland Killing Joke / Love Like Blood (Gestalt Mix) Southern Death Clut / Fatman Theatre Of Hate / Do You Believe In The West World Specimen / The Beauty Poison

■migon 2nd Marc Almond /Melanchory Rose Echo & The Bunnymen / SevenSeas The Cameleons / Nostalgia (7’’ Version) Scars / All About You Clan Of Xymox / Farewell The Beauty Of Gemina / One Step To Heaven Play Dead / Walk Away Siouxie & The Banshees / Cities In Dust

■Conta 2nd Bel Canto / White-Out Conditions All About Eve / D For Desire The Mission / Severina Dead Or Alive / It’s Been Hours Now Original Mirrors / Boys Cry The Mighty Lemon Drops / Happy Head Julian Cope / Bandy’s First Jump Echo & The Bunnymen / New Direction (Original Version) Associates / Party Fears Two

■24no 2nd The House Of Love / Christine Kitchens Of Distinction / Quick As Rainbows The Room / New Dreams For Old (7" version) Sad Lovers And Giants / Lost In A Moment Cocteau Twins / Feathers-Oar-Blades The Icicle Works / Love Is a Wonderful Colour Echo & The Bunnymen / Never Stop (Discotheque)

■小野島大 2nd The Mock Turtles / Wicker Man The Bolshoi / A Way II (edited Version) Pale Saints / harf-life,remembered whirl. / Clear Slowdive / Slowdive My Bloody Valentine / To Here Knows When Velvet Underground / Sunday Mornig

■migon 3rd Fields Of The Nephilim / Power Red Lorry Yellow Lorry / Walking On Your Hands Echo & The Bunnymen / Villiers Terrace The Sound / The Fire NewOrder / Broken Promise The Cure / Push U2 / Two Hearts Beat As One Killing Joke / Big Buzz Joy Division / Disorder

■Conta 3rd Tones On Tail / OK, This Is The Pops Nightmares In Wax / Black Leather The Sisters Of Mercy / Body Electric The Chameleons / Singing Rule Britannia The Essence / Only For You Echo & The Bunnymen / Clay Dead Or Alive / Lover Come Back To Me Bauhaus / Ziggy Stardust

■24no 3rd Siouxsie & The Banshees / Hong Kong Garden (‘Marie Antoinette’ Version) The Birthday Party / Dead Joe Virgin Prunes / Pagan Lovesong (Tormentallama) Sex Gang Children / Into The Abyss The Danse Society / Somewhere Killing Joke / Wardance The Sisters Of Mercy / Marian (version) Bauhaus / Dark Entries

■小野島大 3rd The Shamen / Young Till Yesterday The Jesus And The Mary Chain / Sidewalking (7" Mix) The Cure / Just Like Heaven Wah! / Forget The Down The Wild Swans / Revolutionary Spirit The House Of Love / Real Animal The Teardrop Explodes / Treason (It’s Just A Story)(Remixd Version) Echo & The Bunnymen / Silver (Tidal Wave) The Doors / Light My Fire

■ENDING Echo & The Bunnymen / Ocean Rain

■■Vol.2 2015 10/4

■migon 1st In The Nursery / Bumished Days Phycedelic Furs / Sister Europe Andi Sex Gang w/Marc Almond / The Hungry Years Bauhaus / All We Ever Wanted Was Everything Asylum Party / The Sabbath The Cameleons / Swamp Thing The Mighty Lemon Drops / like An Angel

■Zodiac 1st Opposition / My Room Is White Lines / Come Home Comsat Angels / Be Brave In The Nursery / Twins These Immortal Souls / Mary Me (Lie Lie) Tears For Fears / Change AR KANE / When You’re Sad

■Conta 1st Party Day / Glasshouse Seventh Seance / Another Empty Face Crown Of Thorns / Kingdom Come Western Promise / Promised Land The Sound / Deep Breath The Teardrop Explodes / When I Dream Ian MuCulloch / In My Head The House Of Love / Destroy The Heart The Names / Calcutta

■24no 1st Dif Juz / Hu Spacemen 3 / Revolution Revolver / Heaven Sent An angel Swervedriver / Son Of Mustang Ford Pale Saints / Sight Of You Zero Le Créche / Last Year’s Wife Wild Swans / The Revolutionary Spirit My Bloody Valentine / Off Your Face

■小野島大 1st Divine & Statton / Bizzare Love Triangle Care / Flaming Sword The Chameleons / In Shreds Sad Lovers & Giants / Imagination The Comsat Angels / Will You Stay Tonight? Blue in Heaven / Julie Cries Echo & The Bunnymen / The Puppet The Sound / Heyday Bauhaus / Dark Entries

■migon 2nd Play Dead / Shine The Dance Society / Hide Virgin Prunes / Baby Turns Blue Rosetta Stone / TheWitch The Sisters Of Marcy / Vision Thing Clan Of Xymox / Out Of The Rain The Cure / Object Sad Lovers And Giants / Clint Red Lorry Yellow Lorry / Spining Round The Sound / Resistance Joy Division / Ice Age Echo & The Bunnymen / Heaven Up Here U2 / I Will Forrow

■Zodiac 2nd Modern Eon / Euthenics Joy Division / Walked In Line Daniel Ash / Get Out Of Control Killing Joke / Tension FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM / Back In Gehenna Sisters Of Mercy / First & Last & Always Ghost dance / Celebrate Rose Of Avalanche / Stick In The Works Theatre Of Hate / Eastworld THE MARCH VIOLETS / Steam And Also The Trees / Wallpaper Dying

■Conta 2nd And Also The Trees / Misfortunes Gene Loves Jezebel / Shaving My Neck Lulu Kiss Me Dead / The Ultimate Solution Snake Corps / Victory Parade The Chameleons / Perfume Garden Cocteau Twins / Carolyn’s Fingers Lush / Sweetness And Light Joy Division / Atrocity Exhibition (live) New Order / Singularity

■24no 2nd The Jesus & Mary Chain / Sidewalking (Extended Version) The Birthday Party / Zoo-Music Girl The Cult / Spiritwalker In Two A Circle / Rise 1919 / Caged Sex Gang Children / The Crack Up Echo & The Bunnymen / All That Jazz The Teardrop Explodes / Treason Magazine / Shot By Both Sides (Original Single Version) Siouxsie & The Banshees / Cascade Bauhaus / Telegram Sam

■小野島大 2nd Camberwell Now / Greenfingers Sonic Youth / Stereo Sanctity Belfegore / All That I Wanted Killing Joke / Adorations (The Extended Mix) The Mission / Serpents Kiss The House Of Love / I Don’t Know Why I Love You Siouxsie and The Banshees / Spellbound (12" Mix) Wah! / Somesay Associates / Club Country (12" Mix) Jesus and Mary Chain / Upside Down Joy Division / Transmission The Cure / high (higher mix)

■migon　B2B The Sound / Hothouse(Live) Modern English / GatheringDust The Pshychedlic Furs / Pretty in pink

■Zodiac　B2B Jesus ＆ Marychain / Neverunderstand The Cure / Boys Don’t Cry Jesus ＆ Marychain / Just Like Honey

■Conta B2B The Mission / Over The Hills And Faraway Julian Cope / Five O'clock World Echo & The Bunnymen / The Back Of Love

■小野島大 B2B The Smiths / How Soon Is Now? John Foxx / Europe After The Rain World Of Twist / She’s A Rainbow

■Ending Sad Lovers ＆Giants / Colourless Dream Bauhaus / Cloud

■■Vol.1 2014 11/24

■migon　1st Wasted Youth / Jealousy The Associetes / Tell Me Easter’s On Friday Fra LippoLippi / Barrier This Motal Coil / Song To Siren Dead Can Dance / Carnival Of The Light And Also The Trees / Shealetown Death In June / Fields Kissing The Pink / What Noise Cocteau Twins / Ivo

■Zodiac 1st Waterboys / The Whole Of The Moon Flowers For Agatha / The Freedom Curse Passion Puppets / Voices (Extended) TV21 / This Is Zero That Petrol Emotion / Mouth Crazy BFG / Higher Than Heaven…Is Echo & The Bunnymen / The Pictures On My Wall

■24no 1st The Charlatans / Happen To Die (Long Version) Modern English / I Melt With You The Icicle Works / Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream) Ride / Like A Daydream Lush / Outdoor Miner Loop / Arc-Lite (Sonar) Curve / Fait Accompli (Extended Extended Extended) The Jesus & Mary Chain feat. Hope Sandoval / Sometimes Always

■久保田稔人 1st Schlimer K / She’s Gone Belfegore / All That I Want Red Beat / See Monsoon / Tomorrow Nwever Knows Section 25 / Colour Movement Sex & Violence The Essence / The Afterworld Lucy Show / Come Back To The Living Loard / RIBS

■小野島大 1st

■木下理樹 1st

■migon　2nd Clan Of Xymox / Muscoviet Musquito Xmal Deutshland / Qual The Dance Society / Somewhere The Names / Floating World The Wild Swans / God Forbid Sad Lovers And Giants / Colourless Dream The Shamen / Something About You Interpol / Roland The Cameleons / Everyday I’m Crucified The Mighty Lemon Drops / The Other Side Of You Ecoh & The Bunnymen / Clocodiles The Sound / Heatland

■Zodiac 2nd The Sound / Sence Of Purpose (What are We Going To Do) Snake Corps / Science Kills Julian Cope / 5 O'clock World Then Jerico / Let Her Fall March Violets / Snake Dance Alien Sex Fiend / I Walked Line Fields Of The Nephilim / Power Love & Rockets / If There A Heaven Above Specimen / Beauty Of Poison

■24no 2nd The Cure / The Lovecats (Extended Version) Siouxsie & The Banshees / Song From The Edge Of The World Skeletal Family / Promised Land (Extended Version) Gene Loves Jezebel / Desire (Come And Get It) The Mission / Serpents Kiss The Sisters Of Mercy / Walk Away Play Dead / Sacrosanct Virgin Prunes / Pagan Lovesong (Vibeakimbo) B-Movie / Nowhere Girl (Long Version)

■久保田稔人 2nd Opposition / The Man Who Almost Shaves 17 Pygmies / Chameleon Asylum Party / Julia Adrian Borland / Fast Blue World Bram Tchaikovsky / Robber Comsat Angels / Island Herat Toy / It’s Been So Long The Horrors / New Ice Age The Church / Tantalized Joy Division / Atmosphere

■小野島大 2nd （1st&2nd ※順不同） Blue in Heaven / Across My Heart The Mock Turtles / Can You Dig It? ART-SCHOOL / テュペロ・ハニー Chapterhouse / Pearl Curve / On The Wheel dip / 冷たいぐらいに乾いたら My Bloody Valentine / feed me your kiss Nine Inch Nails / Mr.Self Destruct Oasis / The Shock of the Lightning Radiohead / Just The Flaming Lips / Race for the Prize (Remix) The Novembers / Sturm und Drang きのこ帝国 / パラノイド・パレード 血と雫 / 黄泉にひびく Animal Collective / Summertime Clothes Bauhaus / Third Uncle New Order / Everything’s Gone Green Pavement / The Killing Moon Killing Joke / Love Like Blood Towns / Get Me There

■木下理樹 2nd

■Last Echo & The Bunnymen / The Cutter The Cameleons / In Sherds

■Ending Echo &The Bunnymen / In Blue Skys

Scared Of The Dark- TAZ

Small fic about Ango and Lup bonding over a bout of insomnia. Based off of this and this post. Is this on ao3? Yes it is.

Listen. 

It’s one thing for Lup to be awake for five days straight.

Elves don't actually need sleep anyway- and ever since she became a Hunger-busting Lich, the whole trance that she had goin' on wasn't even a thing anymore. So excuse her if she spent the nights staring fondly at her dumb brother, or her little denim boy who insists on staying up with her but always falls asleep somewhere around three AM. (She loves him, you know.). She also spends it by cleaning up the debris that now littered the not-an-actual-moon base, or sometimes by just shooting random fireworks into the air because she's free, she's free free free after that decade in that staff of a prison. So it's one thing for Lup to stay wide awake for one hundered and twenty four hours and thirty seven minutes. It is quite another for a little human boy. Angus McDonald wasn't sleeping at night. She would sometimes see the shadow of a little human in a window of the Starblaster, or in one of the many BOB domes. The kid was usually reading through the night, or sometimes slurping something out of a cup while looking warily towards the west, where the body of the Last Judge finally fell and dissipated into light. (Upon further inspection of the cup in the mornings, Lup notes that the kid likes to drink hot chocolate with three expresso shots. It occurs to her that she should start hiding the coffee. It also occurs to her that, being the world's greatest detective, he would probably find it in a heartbeat. ) As the hours wear on, she sees him doing random things to keep himself awake-cleaning, drawing, even going into Magnus's stash of clear nail polish and giving himself a mani-pedi. Her worry hits it's peak when, one day, she sees him sitting down, cup in hand, cracking open a math textbook and proceeding to actually learn from it. Oh. That kid's hit a low. She blasts open the door to the bridge and he jumps, scrambling to his feet and brandishing his wand at her. His owl like glasses have slipped on one side of his face, making one eye (and eye bag) look bigger than the other. When he sees her crimson red robe he relaxes his stance, putting his feet together but still keeping his wand pointed in her general direction. (She isn't hurt by this. If she had met a being made out of pure magic, she would like to keep a weapon close at hand as well. So she's...a bit proud of him.) "Hello, ma'am!" He waves cheerfully with his free hand. Lup smirks (as much as she can under her hood) and gives the kid a mock salute. "Sup, little man," she drawls and floats over to his side, pretending to study the book he had spread out on the small table Davenport uses(used. He used to use it.) for lunch and the odd come uppance of paperwork. " 'Mathematics for the Fantasy Middle Schooler', huh? Never had those in my day." She flicks her hand and the book begins to levitate, floating toward her. She turns the pages quickly, then slowly with her mind, reminding herself that n o, you don't really have hands to grasp things with, don't be silly- "Well, I am entering middle school soon, ma'am," Angus's voice cuts through her thoughts. She turns from the book and towards him; he's fixed his glasses now, and was looking down at the ground politely, casting furtive glances at the book that was now spinning slowly in the air. "I thought that I should get some studying done early, to get ahead." "What a great idea, Ango!" Lup closes the book with a sharp snap and returns it to the ground. "But why, exactly, are you executing this wonderful idea at four in the morning?" Angus jumps at the loud sound and flicks his eyes to Lup's shadowy face. She wonders how he sees her; she didn't really pay much attention to the kid on the battlefield, even though Taako had cornered her before he had left ("Lulu, take care of him. Squirt has barely been alive for a decade no matter how mature he acts, he hasn't seen war"). Right now, all she sees is a scared and sheepish child, shuffling his feet before muttering "I can't sleep, ma'am. At night, I mean. The darkness sort of...unsettles me." "You mean you're scared of the Hunger coming back?" This time he looks up at her and stares. "H-How did you-?" Lup snorts and floats closer to the ground, letting her essence spread across the floor until her hood is at level with the boy detective's curls. "Ahem, excuse-toi, buddy. You're talkin to a professional Hungerbuster." "But isn't it...a bit stupid? To be scared?" Angus's eyebrows furrow as if he's trying to solve a puzzle he was just given. (She watched him do some of Lucretia's handmade puzzles a few days ago. He completed two-a whole two more than anyone at the IPRE managed to do in a century.) He continues. "The Hunger's gone, right? The threat's...gone. So why do I feel as if it's going to come back?" He folds his arms together as if he's hugging himself, and the gesture looks so natural that Lup wonders if this kid has had anyone to comfort him in his short, short human life. "Every time I look to where that judge fell, I feel like someday, when I'm not looking, that thing is going to come out of nowhere and finish what it started and that, that scares me ma'am. I've been scared before, but never like this. I've never been scared of something that can't happen." In this moment, in this exact moment, Lup understands exactly why her family adores Angus McDonald. "Come with me, kid." She gestures with a billow of her robe to the door. Angus looks at her for a moment before pocketing his wand and letting his back be covered by her crimson robe, pushing him forward. "Also," she says as they exit. "Don't call me ma'am, little dude. I'm just your girl Lup." - She shows him their story. He's heard it before, yes, through the light of the baby Voidfish and through being with them during the last bit of their journey but not this. She shows him Lucretia's journals and drawings, depicting how scared they all were. Scared of the new responsibility that was thrust upon them. Scared of the Hunger, which they knew only came at the end of the year but it wasn't rare to find one of them at the observation deck of the Starblaster, eyes to the sky to see if they could find anything staring back midway through the cycle. Scared of losing each other, even though they knew that they would be back, that they would always come back, that didn't stop them from having nightmares. ("Even Taako?" "Even Taako.") She shows him how they dealt with their fear, through touch and laughter and closeness. She opens up a false panel in the kitchen and shows him a cookbook filled with chapters not based off of food but off of people and circumstances. She walks with him through the halls and tells him stories of Magnus picking her up, chair and all, and parading her around the room, because Barry had died three weeks ago and it had only been their fifth month together as in together and she had been just so terrified. Of when Magnus had died during the first cycle and they saw him reform right before their eyes, and she could have sworn she heard everyone choke back a relieved sob because they thought they had lost him but he came back but what if he didn't come back? She tells him this and more, and they reach a small storage closet, tucked away near the engine compartment. Lup stops in front of the the door, noting that the door, while a bit rusted, was opened a crack. Angus stops with her, peering into the room with the muted curiosity of a tired detective, and he asks "What is it, Lup?" but she's already pushed open the door, the weak light of the ship illuminating the figures within. Pillows everywhere. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors and makes, just covering the room in their plushness (that Lup can't experience, not anymore but this isn't about that). The floor below is covered in mattresses, but that isn't the main thing that catches their attention. It's Magnus, sprawled out in the middle of the room, breathing softly. On his chest lay the hands and head of Madame Director herself, her head rising softly with each breath Magnus takes (Angus has never seen Lucretia ever looking so serene. She looks a good 20 years younger now.). On the opposite side lies Merle, propped up against the wall that is Burnsides, Extreme Teen Bible clutched in one hand. Using Magnus's left forearm as a pillow, Davenport is snoring softly away, bits of drool escaping his mouth and sliding down Magnus's skin (He doesn't mind. He never has.) Taako is here too; curled up on Merle's side, snuggling close to Magnus's collarbone, his nose touching the warrior's neck. (He was last to join them, all those years ago. He always said the nightmares never came to him until one day he slammed open the door to find them all lying here, together and alive and not dead like he'd dreamed-) And there was Barry, her Barry, taking over her old spot by Magnus's legs, slinging his own over and sleeping face up, head resting on one of the many pillows. She floats over to her friends, her family, just aching to touch them but she can't so she just watches, her very essence just sweeping over them to say I'm here, I'm alright, we're here- and their bodies seems to relax a faction of a milimeter, as if sensing the arrival of their last member. And Angus watches her watching them and in that moment, the boy understands the true power of a having a hand to hold, lips to kiss, a body to hug and tickle and hold and why he and a being made of magic and a soul were bonding at four in the morning because they had no one and yet that wasn't true. The boy feels the weight of being awake for one hundred and twenty four hours and fifty seven minutes crash down on him and he sways, feet sinking into the soft plush of the underlying mattress as he makes his way across the room. Lup sees Angus coming and spreads her robe again, herding him into the  space between Magnus and Lucretia. He sinks into the ground and nestles himself near  the Director's lap, his head leaning on Magnus's stomach. Lucretia stirs and Angus freezes up, worried that she would look down at him with her patented disapproving look and ask him why, exactly, he was here and would he please be professional and get off her lap. Lucretia stirs and wraps an arm around the boy, pulling him closer into a rather motherly embrace, patting his head sleepily. "Night, Angus," she sighs and drifts back off to sleep, leaving him very relieved and very tired. He yawns and Lup takes his glasses off without a word, folding them neatly and placing them in the corner of the room, next to Barry's own. He looks young, so very young curled up to these beings who've lived and died for a century and a decade for a victory they achieved a mere one hundred and twenty five hours and three minutes ago. Lup whispers a good night as the boy steps cautiously into unconsciousness, and she keeps a quiet vigil through the night over her family. It's the closest thing to rest she has had in a long time.

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND November 22, 2019  - A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, 21 BRIDGES, AGNES BY VARD and more

While things have gotten busier in my everyday life, things are somewhat slowing down in terms of movies as we get through Thanksgiving, and then things will pick up again in December as every studio tries to get their awards movies into theaters.

The big movie of the weekend is Disney’s FROZEN 2, which I really don’t have much to say about. I haven’t seen it. I don’t plan to see it. NEXT! (I did write quite about about it over at The Beat.)

I have seen the other two wide releases of the weekend and the better of the two is Marielle Heller’s A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (Sony/Tristar Pictures). I’m not going to write a full or mini review, but you may already know that this is the movie in which Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, but what you might not realize is that this is not a biopic. Instead, this is a story based around a 1998 meeting between Rogers and and a cynical Esquire writer (played by Matthew Rhys) sent to profile him. What happens instead is that the writer ends up becoming friends with Rogers, who helps him deal with domestic issues, particularly with his father (played by Chris Cooper). It’s quite a wonderful film that really wins you over as it goes along, and though it’s not Mr. Rogers’ story, it is Hanks’ movie, very similar to Disney’s Saving Private Ryan a few years back.

I really wanted to like Brian Kirk’s 21 BRIDGES (STXfilms), starring Chadwick Boseman, J.K. Simmons, Sienna Miller and Stephan James, cause I really like a good New York-based police thriller… but this isn’t one. Yeah, I’m not sure what happened but a lot of it has to do with Kirk having a better cast than a script, and there being a lot of really obvious and questionable plot devices that are easy to figure out almost from the beginning. I also was annoyed that it immediately set up Boseman’s police detective as a cop not afraid to use his gun but twice he has Stephan James’ character at gun point, once while he is holding his partner (Miller) hostage, the other in a face-off on a train, and he doesn’t shoot.  It’s just a very disjointed film that could and should have been a lot better.

LIMITED RELEASES

Before we get to the regularly-scheduled releases, I want to mention the latest concert film release by Trafalgar Releasing, Depeche Mode: Spirits in the Forest, which is where you’ll be able to find me on Thursday night. I was pretty bummed to miss the group’s last tour, I think because I was in Toronto for my last TIFF, but going by Trafalgar’s other releases, this should be another great concert film.

The bigger release of the weekend is Todd Haynes’ DARK WATERS (Focus Features), starring Mark Ruffalo as environmental defense lawyer Rob Pilott, who was called upon by a farmer (Bill Camp) from the area of West Virginia where he grew up about the hundreds of cows who were dying from mutations which could be blamed on the nearby Dupont plant. As Pilott investigates, he learns that the materials being used to create the company’s innovative “teflon” has elements that are dangerous to living things, as he spends decades trying to get them to take responsibility.  I usually like this type of movie, as evidenced by last week’s The Report, and of course, I’ve been a long-time Haynes fan, but this movie was a real slog, especially when compared to The Report  or the earlier environmental message movie from Focus Features, Promised Land, which Gus Van Sant directed. Haynes had a decent cast but the story is told at such a snail’s pace that I found myself mostly bored and even dozing at times. Anne Hathaway is particularly wasted as Pilott’s wife, because she really doesn’t get to show off her usual dramatic flair. I did like most of the cast otherwise, but I just can’t in good conscience recommend this movie.   (Regardless, I should have some interviews over at ComingSoon.net sometime soon.)

On the other hand, I loved Agnès Varda’s final film VARDA BY AGNÈS (Janus Films), a documentary that covers her entire film career and acts as a mini-filmmaking lesson as much as it’s a portrait of her life. I’ll freely admit that I’m not too familiar with Varda’s work beyond the movie Faces Places, which she made with photographer J.R. a few years back. This movie covers their collaborating but also so much more, and if you want a great autobiographical view of the filmmaker and visual artist, this is a great introduction, especially with her entire filmography being shown at Lincoln Center in a complete retrospective next month. I just loved this movie, and it made me want to see more of Varda’s work, as she has had such an amazing and rich career as a filmmaker, especially in recent years as she got more into creating film-based installations. This opens at the Film Forum and at Lincoln Center in New York, and I expect somewhere in L.A. as well but hopefully it will get out to more cities.

Opening at the Quadin New York as well as the Laemmle Royal in L.A. is Kim Loginotto’s doc Shooting the Mafia  (Cohen Media Group)  about Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia who spent her life battling the Mafia by filming their crimes as a photojournalist. 

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney also has a new doc out this week called CITIZEN K, also opening at the Laemmle Royal, but can also be seen at the Kent Theater if you don’t mind treking out to Coney Island. It’s a look at post-Soviet Russia through political dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was able to get rich living in exile in London after being deposed as an oligarch.

Apple TV+’s Sundance pick-up HALA (Greenwich Entertainment) will get a theatrical release before debuting on the channel. Written by Minhal Baig, it follows a 17-year-old Pakistani-American teenager (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) who is try to balance her different lives.

Also out this week is the action flick The Courier (Lionsgate), starring Olga Kurylenko as a motorcycle courier who has to fight a sadistic crime boss’ henchmen to protect the witness that can incriminate him. It also stars Gary Oldman and Dermot Mulroney. I’ll let you figure out which actor plays which role.

Lastly, there’s Jon Kasbe’s doc When Lambs Become Lions (Oscilloscope Laboratories), winner of the editing award at Tribeca, as it follows a small-time ivory dealer who is trying to protect his trade with the help of a conflicted wildlife ranger.  It opens at the  Laemmle Monica Film Center in L.A. on Friday and then the Village East in New York on December 6.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s streaming premiere is the fantasy rom-com The Knight Before Christmas, starring Vanessa Hudgens and Josh Whitehouse.

REPERTORY

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

I’m going against the norm this week by starting off with FilmLinc, and there’s a good reason for that, and it’s called, “Relentless Invention: New Korean Cinema, 1996-2003,” which as it explains quite readily is an amazing series of some of the best Korean films from those years leading up to Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy, which was quite a turning point for the country’s cinema. The series includes two of Bong Joon-ho’s films, 2003’s Memories of Murder (in a new 4K restoration) and Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), as well as Director Park’s earlier films Joint Security Area (2000) and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, both which are excellent. Others include Kwak Jae-wong’s rom-com My Sassy Girl from 2001, which was a pretty big Asian box office sensation. Genre films are well-represented with Kim Jee-won’s 1998 film The Quiet Family, Park Jong-won’s Rainbow Trout (which I highly recommend since it has similar class contrasts as Director Bong’s Parasite), as well as Nowhere to Hide. The series will run through December 4, two whole weeks, and if there’s a good excuse to get up to the Upper West Side, then THIS IS IT!!

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Things are still going well down in my own neighborhood on the Lower East Side, as Metrograph Pictures will be releasing a new restoration of Susan Sontag’s 1969 debut feature Duet for Cannibals (Metrograph Pictures), a quirky movie she made in Stockholm centers around the love quadrangle between a German exile, his wife and his Swedish secretary and soon-to-be wife. Noah Baumbach’s residency continues with screenings of 2010′s  Greenberg and 2014′s While We’re Young, paired with hand-selected companion films, Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1973) with the former and Mike Nichols’ Working Girl (1988) on Sunday. Also, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, currently my favorite movie of 2019, will screen at the Metrograph on Sunday as part of its allegiance with the New York Film Critics Circle.

The Metrograph is doing Daniel Schmidt’s “Dream Double Feature” a little differently… by showing them on two different nights with Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1947 film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on Friday and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2015 Cemetary of Splendor with Rachel Rose’s 2016 short Everything and More on Saturday. I don’t really know as much about the films being shown as part of Moustapha Alassane: Three Programs of the Nigerien Master, but each program is made up of a series of shorts that are running Saturday and Sunday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph is the anthology film Tokyo!, featuring short works from Bong Joon-ho, Michelle Gondry and Leos Carax. It will screen Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights while this weekend’s Playtime: Family Matineesis George Cukor’s 1933 adaptation of Little Women. 

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The lateness of my column means I keep missing the Weds matinee and I apologize for that. Also tonight and Thursday is a double feature of Vigilante, The Delta Force and Avalanche. Friday’s Cronenberg matinee is 1996’s Crash, while the Friday midnight movie is Pulp Fiction and then Saturday’s midnight is Demolition University (1997) with director Kevin Tenney in person. This weekend’s Kiddee Matinee is the 1961 adventure Mysterious Island. Monday’s matinee is The Limey, and Monday night is a “Robert Forster Secret Surprise Night” in tribute to the late star of Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Tuesday’s double feature is David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive with the 1998 remake of Psycho, and just in case I’m late on next week’s column, the Weds. matinee is Samuel Fuller’s 1959 The Crimson Kimono.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

This weekend’s Weekend Classics: May All Your Christmases be Noiris Allen Baron’s 1961 film Blast of Silence(on Friday and Saturday only), this week’s  Waverly Midnights: Spy Games is 1990’s The Hunt for Red October and The Manchurian Candidate.  Late Night Favorites: Autumn 2019is once again Argento’s Suspiriaand Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange– both great movies, but enough already! At least on Monday, you’ll have a chance to see Todd Haynes’ awesome 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, presented as part of the Queer|Art|Film series.

MOMA  (NYC):

Vision Statement: Early Directorial Works will screen Cristian Mungiu’s acclaimed 2007 film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Dayson Thursday (also playing at Film Forum this weekend), John Cassevetes’ 1959 film Shadowsand Kleber Filho’s Neighboring Sounds on Saturday. Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Filmcontinues with more films from 1927 and 1928.  Otherwise, MOMA is concentrating on its annual “Contenders 2019” series.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

“The Romanians: 30 Years of Cinema Revolution” continues through next Thursday with lots of interesting choices and Yasujior Ozu’s Tokyo Twilight continues through November 28. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is Miracle on 34th Street.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Friday is a special cast and crew reunion screening of Flight of the Navigator, while Joe Dante’s 16mm Spotlight on Sunday will show Ladybug Ladybug (1963). The theater is mostly focused on “Argentina: New Cinema 2019,” while the AEROis mostly focused on “Cinema Italian Style 2019.”

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN(NYC)

Next Monday’s “Out of Tune”  is The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (which is already sold out), Tuesday’s “Terror Tuesday” is 1987’s Stagefright and the “Weird Wednesday” is 1994’s Tammy and the T-Rex.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Sunday, Jane Campion’s In the Cut (2003) and Alan Pakula’s Klute (1971) will be shown as a double feature as part of “Beyond the Canon.”

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

MOMI’s “Moments of Grace: The Collected Terrence Malick” continues this weekend with screenings of The Thin Red Line(with critic Matt Zoller Seitz introducing the Friday night screening) and Days of Heaven.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

1987’s Oscar-winning performance by Cher in Moonstruck opposite Nicolas Cage screens on Thursday and Friday. Guillermo del Tor’s Pan’s Labyrinth also screens Friday night while the Coens’ Raising Arizona (1987) will screen Saturday as will a special Kevin Corrigan-hosted screening of 1997’s Bandwagon in 35mm. Sunday is a special 35mm screening of Sofia Coppola’s 2006 movie Marie Antoinette.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

The Friday midnight offering is Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon in 1997’s Freeway.

Next week, it’s Thanksgiving and Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which also has advance screenings this Friday and Saturday nights, as well as the crime-drama Queen and Slim.

Its 2:47 pm

Welcome to “8 Questions with…….”

Two things struck me about our next guest,actress Jamie Ohlsen,one ….she looks like a complete badass that you want to share a foxhole with in a fight. Anyone that would think about messing with her should think twice,no..make that three times before making that step. Two,she has a lovely smile and really beautiful eyes. And why would any director try and hide that smile should be dragged out back and meet the cheetah up close and personal.  Yeah,Jamie has that kind of smile… But she is also fearless as well…because at a age when most performers have established a career already,Jamie decided to START hers and how it happened is one of those kind of starts you only can get in Hollywood. Now she has been cast in a series on Amazon Prime,rubbing elbows with a huge favorite of indie actors,Robert LoSardo and is looking to create her first feature film. Rumor has it that not only will be cheetahs in it but Jamie is going to show off her wonderful smile. While killing bad guys of course…. One can’t but admire Jamie for working very hard on her young career and getting the place where she is at now. I am so happy Jamie agreed to do our series and answer the 8 Questions we sent her…..enjoy!

   Please introduce yourself and tell us about your latest project.

Hello! My name is Jamie Ohlsen.

I recently completed 2 indy feature films as well as a Sci-Fi dramatic TV Series. I was brought onto the TV Series the end of Season 2.

    The first indy feature I was in is called “Crossed”. I play an assassin named Lulu Chang that works for a crime boss named Drevin, played by the talented Robert LaSardo. It’s a dramatic crime-action movie. Some other recognizable faces in the film are Omar Gooding and Thomas “Tiny” Lister Jr (Otherwise known as Deebo from FRIDAY). This film is almost out of post-production and will be released soon!

   The second indy feature I was in is called “Desire Lines”. In this film, I play a character named Viscid, a manipulative owner of a holistic adult film company. This film is also almost out of post-production and will be released soon!

  The TV series I was cast in as Sergeant Newton is called “Age of The Living Dead“. It’s currently released on Amazon Prime, as well as FX Asia. I was cast during Season 2 which just completed principal photography on 09/16/19. Viewers can watch Season 1 in full on Amazon Prime. Season 2 (Which is the Season I am in) is set to be released in 2020. This show is about Humans and Vampires being quarantined in the US by the rest of the world. The humans occupy the west and the vampires occupy the east. They are separated by a  “No man’s land.” They currently have an agreement to not try and kill each other, but things start to go wrong with that agreement. You’ll have to watch to see how wrong it goes… 

 Where were you born and raised at? Are members of your family naturally artistic?

I was born in Bellflower, CA. I lived the majority of my life in Los Angeles County, but I did live in Stockton, CA (NorCal) for a total of about 8 years. My family would move us from LA to Stockton and back every 1-2 years. I guess you could say they got bored easily! *lol* It’s funny because growing up I didn’t understand creativity how I understand it now. I used to think that you were only an Artist or Creative if you knew how to draw or played an instrument. So I never thought I was an artist or creative because I sucked at drawing and didn’t play instruments. I was more into sports. My parents and sisters also didn’t seem artistic or creative to me because they didn’t do those things either. But I only recently realized (In the past 10 years) that my family is very creative and artistic!

   Growing up, we didn’t have much money in our family. So when a neighbor would buy their kids a new basketball hoop, or go-kart, or slip-n-slide, my mom would make us one by hand! She was so creative with building things. She never wanted us to feel left out. She’s an amazing mother!

    My father used to sew and write poems. He never mentioned that to me as a kid, or even as an adult. I only found out because I went over to his place one day and found an old pillow that had a poem sewn onto it. I asked him where he bought it and he said he made it when he was young!! I was so shocked! He also shows his creativity through how he dressed and what jewelry he wears.

What led you to become an actress? Who helped you the most when you first started out?

I’ve been obsessed with film since I could remember! I have a very vivid imagination so I get lost in every film. Even if it’s not the greatest film. *lol* So much so that when I was a kid, I was banned from watching horror films with my mom, dad, and two sisters. They banned me because prior to that when I would watch it with them, I’d end up sleeping with either my parents or one of my sisters. I guess they got tired of that! haha I realized that movies allowed me to go to different times and places. That’s amazing to me. I attempted becoming an actor when I was young, but my parents just didn’t have the time or the money to help me with that.    Fast forward to January 2018. Acting had been tugging on my heart, soul, and mind for years. I just kept ignoring it. This time it tugged so hard, I had to listen.    When I first started out, my GF/partner helped me a lot. She helped me with my scenes and self-tapes. She still does! Also, my now Producing partner, Marvin Williams, helped me a lot too. He’s the first person that I had a meeting with about the BIZ part of SHOWBIZ. He was casting for a TV series and I contacted him for a role. We met to chat and during our 3 hour-long conversation, he told me, “You’re going to do well as an actor, but you’re also a Producer!” He said that he could see it by the way I spoke, carried myself, and how my mind worked. I wasn’t only an artist, I was a businesswoman. Since that day I approached this business as an actor and producer. And I must say, it’s paid off for me! Thanks, Marv!! I also owe a lot to my other producing partner, Darien Smith. He cast me as Lulu Chang in Crossed and has helped, guided, and is rooting for my success in this industry as well! Thanks, D-Buck!

 What was your first acting role and how did you feel after booking it?

I was at home on my computer. I googled, “How to become an actor.” I saw a post from Backstage. I went to their site and scrolled through the different roles. I didn’t have an account and wasn’t 100% ready to sign up and pay, but luckily I saw a post about an LGBTQ short film. I then saw a role for a DJ. I thought… ” I can play a DJ!” Luckily I saw an email that I could grab off of Backstage and email directly from my Gmail account! I realized later that rarely happens, so I guess it was meant to be! 🙂 So I emailed the casting person some photos of me and my info. I got an email back within 15 minutes! They sent me sides to do a self-tape. I had never done a self-tape (didn’t even know what it was) and didn’t know what sides meant. So I had to google all of this! *LOL* I was SO nervous. I started to question this whole acting thing… but my gut told me to just do it!! So I went to my bathroom and set up my lighting and backdrop. I must’ve done 100 takes! I was so tired of doing it over and over, so I just picked the best take and sent it! AHHHH!!!  20 minutes later I get a call saying I got the role!!!! What!?? Crazy, right? That was it, I was HOOKED!

 What is the audition process for you like? Do you do anything special on days you have an audition? How do you handle not getting a part?

Auditioning at first was nerve-racking!! It still can be, but it’s not as bad for me as when I first started. It helps to do it often as well as to train on how to do it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever not feel a bit nervous in auditions, but I do feel myself becoming more confident and less nervous these days. What I have found that helps me is to focus on my character and be that person. Don’t think about Jamie, because Jamie is not in the room, my character is. Also, focusing on imagining the auditioning room being the scene that my character is currently in. For example, a kitchen, park, jail cell, hotel, hospital room, etc. Be in the scene before you get into the room. Breathing techniques help me a lot too. Help to calm my nerves down. Lastly, not trying to book the part. But just going in there and serving the scene and story. That makes me less nervous as well.

   I audition so much, I’m used to not getting 99% of the things I go in for. I also come from a sales background, so I have thick skin when it comes to rejection. There have been a few roles that I wanted so badly and didn’t get. Those definitely hurt a bit, but I don’t allow myself to roll around in the mud, so-to-say, for too long. So within an hour of knowing I didn’t get it, I accept it.

 How did your producing career get started? Can you walk us through a “pitch” for a project you are trying to fund? How hard is it to retain creative control from the people who are funding your project?

As mentioned earlier, my now producing partner, Marvin Williams, helped me to discover the “Producer” in myself. Once he told me that, my every move became strategic towards becoming a great producer as well as an actor. I then started to do research on, “How to become a producer.” I didn’t find many “How to’s.” So I started to research successful Producers names and started to follow and read about their journeys, trials, tribulations, and successes. I then came across the partnership of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. What a fascinating story and journey they have! I started to study what they did and started to emulate a little of it. I was also still getting coaching and tips from Marvin. I still do! I’ll say that my road to becoming a successful producer has not been a walk in the park! I’ve met some questionable people who pretended to be people they aren’t and feel I have dodged a few bullets!! So grateful for that! I now have my dream team in place. We are in pre-production for our first project as a team. We are producing a horror feature film. It will be shopped at the studio level due to Marvin William’s connections and partnerships. I will also be a lead actor in this film. I cannot wait for everyone to see this!!    The pitching of projects in regards to how me and my team do it entails putting a pitch-package together for our investors to visually see. We’ll discuss the script, the feel of the film or show, as well as what our plans are for distribution. The key is to have trust with them as well as to be excited! Investors want to know that you know what you’re doing with the project, are excited about it, will complete it, and get it sold! Our team will not make any film or tv series that we cannot sell.    It’s not hard for us to retain creative control because we set expectations upfront. If you want full creative control, your investors need to understand this from the very beginning. Transparency is key! 

 What were the three best pieces of wisdom given to you professionally and have you applied them in your career?

1- Control your destiny in this business by becoming a producer and/or creating your own content. If not, you’ll be waiting around for people to say yes to you.

I apply this daily. As mentioned earlier, I feel moving through this industry with this always on my mind, I feel has gotten me things I wouldn’t normally have gotten.

2- Expect this business to be a marathon, not a sprint, but do your best to walk fast…

I always have this on my mind as well. I understand this isn’t a sprint to the finish line, but I also don’t want to wait 30 years to accomplish what I want to accomplish.

3- There are people less qualified than you doing more than you, so don’t make excuses, go after what you want!

This one really helped me in the beginning of my career. I would sometimes doubt myself. But remembering this helps me to just focus on what I am doing and not to compare my career and other’s careers. We all have our own paths/journeys. We can all accomplish what we want if we just work hard, smart, and stay the course!

 How important is a management team to an artist? What do you expect from them?

If you would’ve asked me this before I signed with my new management agency (Shout out to DIVERGENT TALENT MANAGEMENT), I would’ve said, “ehh.” Before Divergent I was with two other managers. I had to fire both of them. I wish them the best of luck. Now that I’m with Divergent, I now understand how amazing a great management team is to my career! Darcie and Jennifer work their A*#es off!! Seriously. They send me a monthly report of everything they submitted me to for each month and I am blown away. I never had a manager do this. It makes me want to win even more just for them to win as well. Thanks, ladies!!    I don’t expect much. It’s simple. Communication, hard work, understanding of where I’d like to go in my career and help me to get there, as well as give me constructive criticism and help me to grow.

 How hard is it for you to detach yourself from an intense role?

To be honest,I’ve yet to do a crazy intense role. I feel like the horror film I am about to shoot will be my most intense role. So check back with me after that! 🙂

 You are producing your dream film….who are you casting and who is directing and why?

Leonardo DiCaprio, Sarah Paulson, and Martin Scorsese come to mind. Leo has been a favorite actor of mine all of my life. He’s gotten better and better over the years and I feel I would learn A LOT from being on set and working with him. Sarah is a phenomenal actress. She’s gone to dark places on AHS. I definitely would want to work with her and learn from her as well. And Martin Scorsese, well… do I really need to explain!? haha! 

 The cheetah and I are flying in to watch your latest film being made, but we are a day early and you are playing tour guide, what are we doing?

First, we’d go grab a bite to eat at one of my favorite vegan restaurants, Crossroads! You’ll love this place! Even non-vegans (Me) love it! Then, we’ll explore a fun WB backlot tour! If you’re in LA, you have to see this at least once, especially if you love films and movie-making! Next, I’d take you to the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum. It’s a bit of a depressing subject matter, but it’s fascinating and should be widely known and talked about! Then to end the evening, we’d lighten the mood back up and I’d take you to one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in Little Tokyo! Their fish is always fresh and their service is A1! We could then walk around and see the little shops and then go to my favorite ice cream spot called, Bae! SO GOOD!!!

I like the thank Jamie for one of my favorite interviews I have done yet. I felt I learned a lot not about Jamie and her career but also what really goes on behind the scenes in indie film Hollywood. We wish Jamie the very best in her career and will keep a sharp eye for her TV shows and films.   To keep up with Jamie,you can follow her on her various SM Platforms.

You can follow Jamie’s career on her IMDb page. Follow Jamie on her Twitter page. She also has a InstaGram page.

Feel free to drop a comment below,we love reading your comments and thank you for your support!

8 Questions with………actress Jamie Ohlsen Its 2:47 pm Welcome to "8 Questions with......." Two things struck me about our next guest,actress Jamie Ohlsen,one ....she looks like a complete badass that you want to share a foxhole with in a fight.

WAITING FOR LULU by Andy Martin

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

 I'm in The Wuthering Heights pub. I know, it's a shameless exploitation of the novel's title, but Lulu and I didn't care when we stumbled across this place in the early nineties. We liked the way it blatantly took advantage of its location on the edge of the remote Haworth moorland. We had dinner here before we set off into the open country with our tent and camping equipment.

Tonight though, I'm finishing my meal alone. I undo the top button of my shirt and release the pressure around my neck. I remove my Anglican clerical collar and place it on the table in front of me. Being back here, I feel like a twenty-year-old again. I look at the oak beams on the ceiling. The place hasn't changed. It still has the same decor: the lead windows and ornate mirrors; paintings of the Yorkshire landscape in gilt frames. The smell of polished wood and real ale. I'm the only customer tonight. I look towards the door, half expecting Lulu to walk in but it's extremely unlikely. It's been eight years since I last saw her.

I reach into my shirt pocket for a picture of her, taken in her student house in Glasgow. Her eyes stare back, wild and dark. Her pale skin is unblemished, with naturally pink cheeks; blonde hair cropped short at the back; long at the front, hanging down to her jaw-line on one side. She changed hair colour frequently, but blonde suited her best. Behind her, scrawled over the walls in black ink, are verses of her poetry. She never stopped writing: in notebooks, on scraps of paper, on her hands, wherever she was, whenever she thought of it. She even wrote one on the back of this photo. I study the familiar words:

It's a picture of a house I built burning in my head,

It's a picture of a little boy bouncing on a bed,

It's a picture of a little girl bouncing by his side,

It's a picture of a daddy who may as well have died.

I turn it back over. There's a white fold line across the middle of the photo, but it's the only picture I have. I place it on the table next to my dog-collar.

Outside, snowflakes tumble down in ever-changing courses. Fleeting shapes fall and disintegrate on the glass before my eyes can catch them. More drift down against the winter landscape and I'm lost in memories of Lulu once again.

The first time I saw her was on my twentieth birthday. I was in The Jug of Ale with my mate, Coddy. It was crowded; music thumping, lights flashing, everywhere the cacophonous din of laughter and chatting.

"Hey, Dan." Coddy nudged me, pointing to a girl on the dancefloor. "What do you think of her?"

I wasn't sure who he meant. Most of the girls looked the same to me - short skirts and white stilettos.

"Yeah...she looks all right," I said.

It wasn't my kind of venue. I spent most of the night slowly nursing a pint of Guinness while Coddy did his best to impress any female who would listen to him. He'd managed to speak to a girl with long dark hair.

"So, what do you do?" she asked him.

"I'm an astronaut," he said, with his typical straight-faced confidence.

Then I saw Lulu. She walked up to the bar and stood inches from me. She wore a purple, knee-length dress with Doc Marten boots, but what drew me to her most were her eyes. They were dark, but incandescent with life.

***

"Your bill, sir!"

The waiter places my bill on the table. Two men stand by the door, ready to lock up for the night. A glance at my watch tells me it's midnight. I apologize for keeping them, put my collar and photo in my pocket, and settle up. I step outside into the cold air. The moon is big and bright. It's stopped snowing and the wind has died down. Everything is white.

There's no sign of anyone outside. I pull my coat collar tight around my neck and stroll along the path towards the heath, the inspiration for Emily Bronte's tragic love story. 'Wuthering Heights' was Lulu's favourite book.

Last time we were here it was under cloudless blue skies. I remember sitting outside our tent in the long grass surveying the endless moors, breathing the sweet warm air, watching the wings of insects dancing in sunlight. The memory is etched in my mind. Lulu noticed a white rose growing next to us.

"Look," she whispered. "That is so rare." She took hold of it and broke it off halfway down it's stem. A thorn pierced her skin and drew blood but she didn't flinch. 

"Whenever you see a white rose, think of me." She handed it to me.

I wanted to ask her to marry me there and then, but I was scared of being turned down.

Instead, I asked, "Do you think we'll still be together in ten years?”

"Maybe." She smiled, amused at my question.

And then, to try and ensure we didn't ever lose contact, I came up with this ridiculous idea: "Let's meet back here in the year 2000, whether we are or not, on the date of Bronte's death. Midnight.”

"The nineteenth of December. Okay." She looked deep into my eyes and smiled.

I held the side of her face in my hand and reached towards her. Our lips touched. Tongues. Two souls merged together; the outside world non-existent. Bodies touched; stirred.

***

A single snowflake lands on my nose. Then another. I look up into the night sky as the snow starts to fall  again. I pull back my coat sleeve and look at my watch. It's quarter past midnight. I don't know if the idea was to meet at the pub or where we camped. I don't hold much hope but wander further down the lane.

"Like the eternal rocks beneath." That's how Lulu once described her love for me and I felt the same for her. I'd never met anyone so fearless and unpredictable, yet at other times she'd be lost in deep thought. She studied Art, while I read Theology. We started going out after lectures, drinking and smoking together, talking into the early hours, spending every available moment with each other.

I walk through the falling snow, along a dim, deserted path in the direction of the rock-face, close to where we camped. From the gate on my right, the lane slopes towards the open countryside. I sink up to my calves in soft, fresh snow. All I can hear is my own breathing and the light crunch of each step as I move forward.

Lulu didn't know her parents. She was brought up in a Catholic orphanage on the west coast of Ireland. She didn't talk about her childhood very much. All she ever told me was that she'd been abandoned when she was six years old. She hated the thought of being left by anyone again; she told me she preferred not to get too close to people.

I stop for a moment and hold my breath. There's not a sound except for the very faint whisper of snowflakes landing all around me. As I set off again, the crunch of my footsteps is deafening.

I arrive at a steep bank and the snow slides away in clumps. I grab a branch above my head and a dusting of white powder falls, but I've made it. I'm in an open space with a view of endless hills. I stand for a long time, taking it all in, looking for any sign of life on the beautiful, desolate moor.

We saw each other every day for a year. She gave no explanation before she left, except that she needed to get her head straight. A week afterwards, I received a poem from her in the post, along with a note saying she was staying with an aunt in Ireland. A few weeks after that, the lease ran out on my house. I tried everything to get in touch with her but no-one could help. The university wouldn't provide me with any information and no-one knew her home address, or even which village she was from. I never heard from her again. I spent a few months drinking myself into a numb haze until I realised I was better off getting my life back on track, training for the ministry, helping all those other broken-hearted people.

I've been the rector at St Matthews in Ayr for three years. None of the leadership or parishioners know anything about Lulu. I take a deep breath. After tonight I'll be able to put to rest any thoughts of a reunion. The air is crisp and still. Nearby branches crack as they strain under the weight of fresh snow. I stand motionless on the moor, listening.

Moonlight shines through the clouds and my eyes become accustomed to the light reflected on the heath. Apart from black shadows under bushes, everything seems as bright as daylight. Then I hear a faint thud and feel a chill on my neck. I listen carefully. I can sense someone near. Close behind me. Maybe two meters away. Maybe closer. I'm too scared to turn. A rustle. Someone out walking their dog perhaps? Or is it just the sound of winter on the moors?

"Lulu?"

I turn, but there's not a soul for miles. It's stopped snowing.

A memory comes to mind. A burned-out tree nearby, destroyed by lightning. All that was left was the remains of the trunk; the top brown and charred. I'm not far from it. I step forward.

Around the side of a hill is the rock-face we climbed - its towering presence imposing. It was at the top that Lulu and I held each other, surrounded by endless countryside. I stand motionless, absorbed by the familiar sight, and it feels like Lulu is here with me.

Another memory unfolds. Something she said to me. A Bronte quote. What was it? I close my eyes to concentrate. There was a moment when Lulu had slipped from my arms and looked straight at me:

"Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!"

I open my eyes. The seriousness of her face when she said it. And yet here I am, back on the heath, unable to find her.

Praying feels pointless tonight. I reach into my coat pocket and take out a small bottle of Glenlivet. There's a crack as I twist off the cap. I hold the bottle to my mouth and take a generous gulp. The acrid taste of scotch burns the back of my throat. My eyes are warm with tears and I throw the bottle as hard as I can onto the heath. It lands with a quiet thud and disappears into the snow.

I stumble backwards a moment and through blurred vision, I see the burned out tree. Such a distinctive sight. It must have been hit directly to cause that kind of damage. One side of it is covered in snow and the other is untouched. I walk towards it and see words scratched into the bark:

IF ONLY

YOU'D COME

X

Andy Martin is a Philosophy teacher. He had a number of articles published in the music magazine Brum Beat. This is his first short story.

the west side story remake didn't include ANY ominous gangster finger-snapping so WHAT was the point

Sensor Sweep: Anime loss, Nintendo lawsuit, Dragoncon, Paladins, Men’s Adventure Magazines

Fantasy Fiction (Forbes): The fantasy genre has exploded in recent years with the popularity of hit series like Harry Potter and A Song Of Ice And Fire. Fantasy first hit its stride in popular culture with old, pulp sword-and-sorcery stories like Conan the Barbarian and sword-and-planet fare like The Princess Of Mars.

Later, J.R.R. Tolkien sparked the modern era of fantasy fiction with The Hobbitand The Lord Of The Rings, which in turn inspired countless other authors to pen myriad tales of magic and adventure, and even led to the advent of Dungeons & Dragons and hundreds of other tabletop games.

  Pop-Culture (Brain Leakage): I just wonder if before he asked it, he’d heard the news that scriptwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge is shaking up the iconic—and inarguably masculine—James Bond franchise by replacing 007 with a new female agent.

Quoting the article:

“Bond, of course, is sexually attracted to the new female 007 and tries his usual seduction tricks, but is baffled when they don’t work on a brilliant, young black woman who basically rolls her eyes at him and has no interest in jumping into his bed. Well, certainly not at the beginning.”

  Anime (Walker’s Retreat): While Kyoto Animation didn’t produce much anime that’s in my wheelhouse–just Full Metal Panic–that doesn’t mean they haven’t put out good work, either in the past or present. (e.g. Violet Evergarden) Neither does it diminish the people who worked there or the respect for the work done. Now, because one man decided to torch the building they were in, 34 people are dead and–as quoted above–all of it is gone.

  Gaming (Niche Gamer): A class action lawsuit has begun against Nintendo for the “drifting” issue on the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con.

Law offices Chimicles, Schwartz Kriner, & Donaldson-Smith have begun looking into consumer complaints over the controller’s drift issue. For those unfamiliar with the issue, it is when the joystick remains untouched, yet input is still registered. In addition this can also cause some input to be inaccurate (i.e. if the “drift” is to the left, it may result in inputs fully to the right only being half-way).

  Awards (Dragoncon): Welcome to the annual Dragon Awards! A way to recognize excellence in all things Science Fiction and Fantasy. These awards are by the fans, for the fans, and are your chance to reward those who have made real contributions to SF, books, games, comics, and shows. There is no qualification for voting – no convention fees or other memberships are needed. The only requirement is that you register, confirm your email address for voting purposes, and agree to the rules. This ensures that all votes count equally. You may register to receive a ballot until Friday, August 30th at 11:59PM (EDT).

RPG (RPG Pundit): And thanks to everyone who’s been buying my products as encouragement to keep me doing videos and livestreams.  Thanks to you guys, both Dark Albion and Lion & Dragon are now GOLD Bestsellers on DTRPG! This in spite of the fact that both products are also sold on other venues like Lulu and Amazon.

            Gaming (Table Top Gaming News): The West Kingdom series from Renegade Game Studios is getting a new addition. You can head over and put in your pre-order for Paladins of the West Kingdom. West Francia is under attack on all sides from the likes of Saracens, Vikings, and even Byzantines. The nobles of France must find soldiers to defend their territory. In the end, one will be hailed as the savior of France.

  Cinema (G. Scott Huggins): And now for my review of Lifeforce.

When that movie came out in 1985, I was twelve. I hated horror movies, so was uninterested. But I knew the movie was about space vampires, and that sounded pretty stupid to me. Over the years, a number of people have referenced the movie, and it seems to have attained some sort of cult following as an underrated 80s classic. So when I saw it free to watch on Amazon Prime, I decided to see if maybe my twelve-year old self had been overly judgmental.

  Pulp Fiction (Don Herron): THE BEST OF EDMOND HAMILTON was created as one in a series of such volumes, released in paperback by Del Rey/Ballantine — but here we have the first hardcover edition done by Doubleday for the Science Fiction Book Club in 1977. Hamilton (1904-1977) wrote the afterword in 1976 but didn’t live to see this collection appear. His wife, editor and introduction writer for this volume, would die in 1978, about a year after this book saw print.

          Men’s Paperbacks (Paperback Warrior): Randy Wayne White became a New York Times bestselling author with his 25-book ‘Doc Ford’ series. Launched in 1990, the modern series stars a government agent turned marine biologist who fights crime in the Caribbean. However, before White went mainstream, he authored two men’s action-adventure paperback series in the 1980s – 11 novels in the ‘Hawker’ series written as Carl Ramm and seven for the ‘Dusky MacMorgan’ series under the name Randy Striker.

  Horror (Too Much Horror Fiction): Wow, the 20th post in my quest to help horror fans find forgotten books and stories! These descriptions have me stumped, so can anyone help ID these works? Thanks in advance y’all!

1. Paperback, cover mostly black, front cover illustration of an evil or feral-looking naked woman lying on grass, glaring angrily up at the us, the viewer.

      Non-Fiction (Glorious Trash): This is basically the primer for Marc Olden’s Narc series, sort of the “nonfiction” version of it. I put that in quotes

because for the most part Cocaine reads like fiction…many, many stories of drug dealers and the narcs who pursue them, with even the oddball “fact” coming off like fiction (like “the famous rock group” that was busted for coke possession and wrote a number one song about it, even sending the narc who busted them a thank-you note).

          Pulp & Man’s Adventure Magazines (Menspulpmags): In fact, three of the top pulp magazines that pioneered the pulp genre and had the largest circulations and longest runs in the classic pulp format also pioneered the men’s adventure magazine genre and had among the largest circulations and longest runs in that realm.

Those magazines are ARGOSY, ADVENTURE and BLUE BOOK.

    Sensor Sweep: Anime loss, Nintendo lawsuit, Dragoncon, Paladins, Men’s Adventure Magazines published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

August 2017 in Review, From So Much Pizza to ‘Grief Bacon’ and Chicken ‘Wangz’

The month in openings, closings, top news, and more

August 2017 saw plenty of restaurant openings, including tons of pizza (1000 Degrees Neapolitan, Blaze, Unchained, Oath Craft, Sweet Tomatoes), a number of out-of-town chains (those first two pizza spots, plus Caffe Nero, Wagamama, and more), a variety of cafes and other all-day dining options, and more.

On the closure side, it was a quiet month, but a few longtime spots did say goodbye, including Jamaica Plain dive bar Drinking Fountain and the Fireplace in Brookline. Fort Point’s popular Tavern Road, which opened four years ago, also closed in August.

Read on for a summary of August 2017, including the most-read news stories and maps, the openings, and the closings.

Jump to: Most-Read Stories | Top Maps & Guides | Openings | Closings

Most-Read Stories

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A Halal Guys meal

Tavern in the Square Disappears From Cambridge: The locations in Porter and Central squares are now closed.

Tavern Road Is Closing in Fort Point: August 26 was the final day.

Alton Brown Appreciates Boston’s Hand-Pulled Noodles and Sardine-Filled Wine Bars: Tell him where to eat when he returns to the city in October.

Brookline’s About to Get a (Self-Described) Best Burger Bar: The enthusiastically named restaurant opens August 10 with boozy milkshakes and dry-aged beef.

The Fireplace Is Closing (for Real This Time) After 16 Years: August 31 was the final day for the Brookline restaurant.

The Halal Guys Finally Brings Its Coveted Gyros to Boston in September: Get ready for piles of chicken, hummus, and baba ghanoush.

1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza Fires Up Downtown Boston Tomorrow: Opening day includes free pizza, cooked in two minutes.

Look Inside Explorateur, Opening Today in the Historic Masonic Lodge: All-day dining and a France-meets-California menu.

Boston Restaurants Respond to This Weekend’s ‘Free Speech’ Rally: Some are making donations to groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A Restaurant Whose Name Means ‘Grief Bacon’ Opens in Worcester: With house-made sausage, charcuterie, and more.

Top Maps & Guides

Katie Chudy for Eater

White Trash Hash at Lulu’s Allston

The Hottest Restaurants in Boston Right Now, August 2017: The Heatmap is updated monthly; the August update included the addition of Café du Pays, Pammy’s, Ruckus, and Yellow Door Taqueria.

The Hottest Brunches in Boston Right Now, August 2017: The Brunch Heatmap is also updated monthly; the August update included the addition of Buttermilk & Bourbon and Pagu.

64 New Boston Restaurants to Check Out This Fall: We’ll continue to update this guide throughout the fall with updates on new restaurants opening throughout Boston and beyond.

The Ultimate $1 Oyster Guide, Late Summer 2017: Where to find dollar oyster deals in Boston and beyond.

A Handy Map of Boston-Area Barbecue Joints: So much meat.

Vital Brunch Spots to Know in Boston: Whether you’re up for a classic dish, dim sum, or something with a little Southern flare, here are some essential Boston-area brunches that’ll knock your socks off.

33 Essential Boston Coffee Shops: Start your caffeine adventure here.

The Cocktail Heatmap: Where to Drink Right Now, August 2017: The Cocktail Heatmap is also updated monthly; the August update included the addition of Cafe Artscience, Cantina La Mexicana, and Yellow Door Taqueria.

The Eater Boston Event Guide: Updated weekly, this guide provides recommendations for food events to attend in the coming weeks.

Where to Watch College Football and NFL in Boston: Watch sports, drink beer, eat wings.

Openings

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Meatballs from Certified Meatball Co.

110 Grill (1175 Main St., Haverhill, Boston): This location chain accommodates gluten-free and other special diets and has a bunch more locations on the way.

1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza (45 Court St., Downtown Boston): The first Boston location for this New Jersey-based pizza chain.

Assaggio Restaurant (29 Prince St., North End, Boston): Now owned by DePasquale Ventures, this Italian restaurant reopened in August with a new menu and a new look.

Balance Patch Video Game Cafe (1031 Commonwealth Ave., Allston, Boston): A gaming cafe near Packard’s Corner with sandwiches, coffee, and more.

Best Burger Bar (195 Washington St., Brookline Village): Burgers, dogs, and chicken “wangz” in the former Middle Gray space, plus a cocktail list by Brother Cleve.

Blaze Pizza (961 Commonwealth Ave., Boston): An ever-expanding counter-service pizza chain that counts LeBron James among its investors.

Caffe Nero (416 W. Broadway, South Boston): Yet another location of this London-based, Italy-inspired cafe chain has opened in Boston.

Certified Meatball Company (429 W. Broadway, South Boston): A ball-filled restaurant from the group behind Wink & Nod, Southern Kin, and more.

Cheeky Monkey Brewing Company (3 Lansdowne St., Fenway, Boston): A brewpub with a street food-inspired menu, replacing Tequila Rain by Fenway.

Curds & Co. (288 Washington St., Brookline Village): A high-tech cheese shop (there’s an app involved) that serves grilled cheese, cheese plates, and some other prepared foods.

Curry House (102 Water St., Downtown Boston): This Indian restaurant also has a Brookline location.

Davis Square Hand Crafted Donuts & Bagels (377 Summer St., Davis Square, Somerville): Long-planned doughnut and bagel joint in Davis.

Evy Tea (1 Monument Ave., Charlestown, Boston): This is the second brick-and-mortar location for the growing cold-brew tea company.

Explorateur (186 Tremont St., Downtown Boston): France-meets-California cuisine and an all-day cafe in the Masonic Lodge by the Common from a restaurant group that typically opens more club-oriented spots.

Honeycomb Cafe (107 Savin Hill Ave., Dorchester, Boston): Breakfast and lunch — featuring Iggy’s Bread, Union Coffee Roaster, and other local producers — in the former home of an ice cream shop.

Intrepid Cafe (150 First St., East Cambridge): A cafe featuring Mem Tea tea, Danish Pastry House baked goods, and Bread Obsession breads.

Kummerspeck (118 Water St., Worcester): A very meaty restaurant, featuring charcuterie, sandwiches, and more; the name (“grief bacon” in German) idiomatically refers to emotional eating.

Milkweed (1508 Tremont St., Mission Hill, Boston): A restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from the owners of Blarney Stone in Dorchester.

Moon Bar (304 Stuart St., Back Bay, Boston): Mooncusser Fish House’s more casual downstairs counterpart, serving soft-shell crab BLTs, lobster rolls, and more.

Oath Craft Pizza (181 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge): This Nantucket-based pizza chain keeps growing; this location is right by Saloniki in the Novartis building.

Punjab (485 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington): This Indian restaurant had been closed for 18 months due to damage from a burst pipe; it reopened in August.

Spring Shabu-Shabu (304 Western Ave., Brighton): A hot pot restaurant that took over the former home of Maki Maki, a sushi restaurant.

Sweet Tomatoes (1279 Washington St., West Newton): Over a year after a tragic car crash that killed two customers and injured others inside the restaurant, this pizzeria has reopened.

Taste Wine Bar & Cafe (101 Summer St., Downtown Boston): A wine bar and cafe with an accompanying wine and cheese shop.

Teamoji (3 North Beacon St., Allston, Boston): The replacement for Tealosophy, serving bubble tea, ice cream in puffle cones, ice cream in fish-shaped pancake cones, and more.

Tous Les Jours (152 Harvard Ave., Allston, Boston): The third Massachusetts location of a South Korean-based chain that serves French and Asian treats.

Unchained Pizza (505 Adams St., Quincy): At long last, the original location of this pizzeria has reopened; it now has a Dorchester sibling as well.

Union Street Restaurant (107 Union St., Newton): This Newton staple briefly closed for some renovations and promptly reopened under new ownership.

Verts Mediterranean Grill (267 Washington St., Downtown Crossing, Boston): The third Massachusetts location for the Texas-based fast-casual chain.

Wagamama (100 Northern Ave., Seaport District, Boston): This is the third Boston location of the UK-based noodle chain that is currently open; a longtime Harvard Square one closed shortly before this opened.

Closings

Official Site

Roasted pineapple roll at Haru Sushi

Dot 2 Dot Cafe (1739 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester, Boston): This cafe opened in 2008, serving breakfast and lunch as well as hosting live music and other events.

Drinking Fountain (3250 Washington St., Jamaica Plain, Boston): This classic dive bar first opened in the 1940s and had been under the same ownership since 1977.

The Fireplace (1634 Beacon St., Washington Square, Brookline): After a false alarm a few years back, the Fireplace closed in August after a 16-year run; the space will reportedly become a Mediterranean seafood restaurant.

Haru (55 Huntington Ave., Back Bay, Boston): This New York-based sushi restaurant closed its only Boston location in August; six New York locations remain.

Lanes & Games (195 Concord Tpke., Cambridge): This bowling alley, restaurant, and bar said goodbye in August after decades in business; it’ll be replaced by an apartment building.

The Playwright (658 E. Broadway, South Boston): This popular Southie bar closed after 17 years, but it is expected to reopen with a new name and renovated space soon.

Spotlight Tavern (208 Rantoul St., Beverly): This North Shore restaurant and music venue closed suddenly in August.

Tavern in the Square (1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge; 730 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge): Both Cambridge locations of this local pub chain have closed. The Porter Square space will be home to a new Shaking Crab location, while the Central Square one has already reopened as 730 Tavern, Kitchen & Patio.

Tavern Road (343 Congress St., Fort Point, Boston): Brothers Louis and Michael DiBiccari closed their popular four-year-old restaurant and bar in August.

On the Red Carpet with the Stars

I have been a classic film fan since I was in high school. The names Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and myriad others are mantras for me, evoking worlds of glamour and artistry I find irresistible. And for the classic film fan there is no better TV station than Turner Classic Movies. TCM airs unedited classic movies without commercials, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is truly the classic film-lovers dream.

As a bonus, the station has stepped out of the television set and into the world with the TCM Classic Film Festival, held in Hollywood every spring since 2010. I’ve been to several other classic film festivals, all great in their own right but, for me, the TCMFF is the best. It is the gold standard of classic film festivals. It features four days of meet and greets, panel discussions, book signings and film screenings in iconic Hollywood theatres. It’s a chance for fans to see classic films on the big screen in the manner in which they were originally intended to be seen.

Another important element of the festival is the film-fan community that has been created by TCM, the festival, and the power of social media. Fans communicate with one another in the virtual world and then meet face-to-face at the festival at the yearly Hollywood reunion. The festival has inspired me to become a guest essayist for the blog CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch, and influenced my partner, Ed Johnson, who has accompanied me to the festival in past years, to create the Lights! Camera! Politics! film series, which has just finished its fourth season at the Stephen Crane House.

While I did not attend the festival in its premier year I’ve been to each one since. In 2015 and 2016 TCMFF created a social media program and I was honored to be a selected member of that prestigious group. As a TCMFF Social Producer I created two social media projects. “TCM Boulevard” focused on the festival’s Hollywood location while “Best TCM Fan in a Starring Role” was a trivia game that enabled me to engage with other pass holders on a more complex level. This year I was selected to receive media credentials and a spot on the red carpet.

Each year, on opening night, there is a gala screening held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, originally known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a beautiful movie palace that first opened in 1927. Upper tier pass holders receive access to this screening and make their entrance on the red carpet next to the celebrities in attendance. Afterwards there is a cocktail party, held on the rooftop of the W Hotel, with a breathtaking view of Los Angeles. Past events I have attended included screenings of “An American in Paris” introduced by star Leslie Caron, and “Funny Girl” introduced by Cher, as well as the surprise party appearance of Lulu, singing her hit “To Sir, With Love,” and Kim Novak sidling up to me at the bar. But this year I watched the event from the other side as a member of the press pool.

The opening night film this year was the 1968 Best Picture Academy Award winner “In the Heat of the Night” and would include appearances by stars Sydney Poitier and Lee Grant, Director Norman Jewison, Producer Walter Mirisch, and composer Quincy Jones. I arrived at the event and was happy to find that my position would be with a group of friends. The crew was applying finishing touches to the brilliantly red carpet as we were led to our spots, each marked by the outlet or blog we were representing. I was a more than a little excited as we passed reporters with professional cameras, both still and video – me with my iPhone and pad. I settled in as I chatted with my friends and waited for the celebrities to arrive, some of whom we could now see coming down the line. Beau Bridges, Lee Grant… the red carpet was a classic reunion of stars that night.

There was Wyatt McCrea. The name may not be familiar to you, but he is the grandson of actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee and has himself been involved in the entertainment business. He would be introducing one of the great comedies of the classic era, “The Palm Beach Story,” which stars his grandfather. The theme of this year’s festival being “Make ‘em laugh,” another reporter asked Wyatt what made him laugh, and he responded his uncle Jody, another acting McCrea you might remember from the 1960’s beach movies. I followed up by asking him if there was a movie that made him cry. He said there was no movie in particular but spoke with sincerity about the power of movies to affect us emotionally, be they happy or sad. That, he said, is what makes for their eternal appeal.  

There was Keir Dullea, star of the film “David and Lisa,” which he would be introducing at the festival, and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and stage, television and film actress Dana Delany who has been a popular guest host on TCM and was at the festival to introduce the film “Love Crazy.”

Sara Karloff, daughter of horror star Boris Karloff, came by and was talking to reporters about her father’s sense of humor, saying that he was the antithesis of most of the characters he played. She said that he was funny, caring and loving. We agreed that this shows through the heavy makeup and costume he wore in his career-defining role as the monster in the classic “Frankenstein,” probably the subtlest, most sympathetic portrayal of that character in all its cinematic incarnations.

There was Dick Cavett, attending the festival to introduce two comedies, the Marx Brothers’ “Monkey Business” and Laurel and Hardy’s “Way Out West.” I didn’t get a chance to speak to him but he seemed to be one of the more popular and accessible celebrities throughout the remainder of the festival, particularly with the young ladies. I saw several selfies taken with him by friends, Mr. Cavett mocking shock, as if he had been caught in a compromising position with the phone’s owner.

Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin stopped by and I knew from poring over the schedule that he would be introducing 5 films at the festival. I asked if there were any films in particular that he was looking forward to hosting. He told me that he had been allowed to pick two films for the festival, “The Magic Box” and “Street Scene,” and was looking forward to exposing them to a wider audience as, in his opinion, they are both under-seen and underrated. I agreed that, for me, discovering a brilliant film that I am unfamiliar with is often a highlight of the festival.

Actress, writer and director Illeana Douglas talked a bit about the “Trailblazing Women” series she has hosted for 2 seasons on TCM. A quick aside, Ms. Douglas has written a great memoir, “I Blame Dennis Hopper,” that includes a story about her dropping a canapé on the expensive suede shoes of James Woods. I had seen her at a party the night before and couldn’t help noticing her beautiful, very high-heeled shoes, which brought to mind her book. I chatted with her and mentioned the story, promising not to drop anything on her foot.

There was Actor Bob Balaban, unable to speak due to laryngitis, and Fred Willard, in a bright blue suit. Both starred in the film “Best in Show” and would appear at the festival screening of that film.

I’ve never seen the children’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” which was going to be screened poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that night but I HAVE met Veruca Salt. Actress Julie Dawn Cole, who played Veruca, and two co-stars, lead Oompa Loompa Rusty Goffe and Paris Themmen, who played Golden Ticket winner Mike Tee Vee, were walking the carpet together and Ms. Cole stopped to chat. She continued to act after the film but eventually left the business to become a child psychotherapist. I asked her about Gene Wilder, who seemed to be looked upon with affection by all who worked with him. She said he had been quite nice during filming and that she had run into him years after the finish of the picture and asked if he remembered her. She was touched when he replied “Veruca Salt wasn’t such a bad girl.”

There was “Marnie” star Diane Baker and Ruta Lee, who appeared in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” both aglow as they made their way down the busy carpet. John Landis, who directed hits such as “The Blues Brothers” and “An American Werewolf in London” was busy with a television interview but his wife, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis, was happy to stop by and share with us her husband’s latest favorite joke (it involved a Caesar salad and a stabbing) and the costumes she was proudest of designing were for the film “Animal House.”

Most of the celebrities had passed and I began to relax when Quincy Jones dashed by. And, as if to prove true a joke I have about myself – If a star isn’t over 80 I don’t know who they are – a somewhat familiar looking man dashed by. Who is that? I asked a friend. Actor and comedian Chris Tucker.

And that was that. A group of us went for a bite to eat and a drink before I headed off to my first movie of the festival. Oh, yes, I did see some movies. That night I watched “Requiem for a Heavyweight” which was introduced by TCM’s Sunday morning Noir Alley series host Eddie Muller.

I started Friday morning with a 9:00 AM screening of the rarely seen “Rafter Romance,” an early Ginger Rogers film, followed by “One Hour with You,” which stars Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, both delightful comedies from the early 1930’s. I followed those with “Panique,” a 1946 French thriller about the power of petty hearsay, “Red-Headed Woman,” another early 30’s comedy starring Jean Harlow, and “Laura,” a landmark 1944 film noir starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney.

Saturday started with a 10:00 AM screening of “This is Cinerama,” introduced by Leonard Maltin at Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome, one of the theatres specifically built for that short-lived widescreen process. I then saw the gripping 1950 film noir “The Underworld Story,” the 1936 screwball comedy “Theodora Goes Wild” starring favorites Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas (grandfather of the aforementioned Illeana), and the 1948 comedy “Unfaithfully Yours,” which stars Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell.

I was relying heavily on Starbucks coffee Sunday morning when I attended the 9:00 AM screening of “Cock of the Air,” a recently restored 1932 comedy. I then went to the Larry Edmunds bookstore, a long-time Hollywood landmark, for a book signing by Tippi Hedren, star of two Alfred Hitchcock films, “The Birds” and “Marnie.” Still beautiful at 87 years old, Ms. Hedren was kind and gracious as she signed my book and sat with me for a picture. I then saw the 1970 film “The Landlord,” which was introduced by stars Beau Bridges and Lee Grant, “What’s Up, Doc,” (1972) introduced by the film’s director Peter Bogdanovich (who confided that Cary Grant’s advice to Ryan O’Neal regarding the portrayal of his character was to “wear silk underpants”), and the somewhat ridiculous but beautiful 1944 film “Lady in the Dark,” again Ginger Rogers, in this film wearing a jewel-lined mink evening gown – the perfect way to end the festival.

After the last film I attended the closing party at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a chance to say goodbye to friends old and new, and to make a few new ones before my departure. I was shocked when I returned to my room and discovered that it was after 3:00 AM. Well, at least I didn’t have to get up for an early screening the next morning.

If you are not a classic film fan I urge you to give one a try. They are a major component of 20th century cultural history and many of them are the foundation for the films we watch today. Do you like special effects and science fiction? Try the original 1933 “King Kong,” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951). Are you a romantic comedy fan? Watch “The Lady Eve” (1941) or any of the films of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Suspense? Thrillers? Look up film noir. There are hundreds of dark, bleak 1940’s films full of tension, moral ambiguity and shocking violence, usually more inferred than explicit.

If you are a classic film fan, put the TCM Classic Film Festival on your to-to list. It is 4 days of movie heaven. But be prepared – if you go, you will more than likely be planning your trip for the following year on the plane trip home.      

August 2017 in Review, From So Much Pizza to ‘Grief Bacon’ and Chicken ‘Wangz’

The month in openings, closings, top news, and more

August 2017 saw plenty of restaurant openings, including tons of pizza (1000 Degrees Neapolitan, Blaze, Unchained, Oath Craft, Sweet Tomatoes), a number of out-of-town chains (those first two pizza spots, plus Caffe Nero, Wagamama, and more), a variety of cafes and other all-day dining options, and more.

On the closure side, it was a quiet month, but a few longtime spots did say goodbye, including Jamaica Plain dive bar Drinking Fountain and the Fireplace in Brookline. Fort Point’s popular Tavern Road, which opened four years ago, also closed in August.

Read on for a summary of August 2017, including the most-read news stories and maps, the openings, and the closings.

Jump to: Most-Read Stories | Top Maps & Guides | Openings | Closings

Most-Read Stories

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A Halal Guys meal

Tavern in the Square Disappears From Cambridge: The locations in Porter and Central squares are now closed.

Tavern Road Is Closing in Fort Point: August 26 was the final day.

Alton Brown Appreciates Boston’s Hand-Pulled Noodles and Sardine-Filled Wine Bars: Tell him where to eat when he returns to the city in October.

Brookline’s About to Get a (Self-Described) Best Burger Bar: The enthusiastically named restaurant opens August 10 with boozy milkshakes and dry-aged beef.

The Fireplace Is Closing (for Real This Time) After 16 Years: August 31 was the final day for the Brookline restaurant.

The Halal Guys Finally Brings Its Coveted Gyros to Boston in September: Get ready for piles of chicken, hummus, and baba ghanoush.

1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza Fires Up Downtown Boston Tomorrow: Opening day includes free pizza, cooked in two minutes.

Look Inside Explorateur, Opening Today in the Historic Masonic Lodge: All-day dining and a France-meets-California menu.

Boston Restaurants Respond to This Weekend’s ‘Free Speech’ Rally: Some are making donations to groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A Restaurant Whose Name Means ‘Grief Bacon’ Opens in Worcester: With house-made sausage, charcuterie, and more.

Top Maps & Guides

Katie Chudy for Eater

White Trash Hash at Lulu’s Allston

The Hottest Restaurants in Boston Right Now, August 2017: The Heatmap is updated monthly; the August update included the addition of Café du Pays, Pammy’s, Ruckus, and Yellow Door Taqueria.

The Hottest Brunches in Boston Right Now, August 2017: The Brunch Heatmap is also updated monthly; the August update included the addition of Buttermilk & Bourbon and Pagu.

64 New Boston Restaurants to Check Out This Fall: We’ll continue to update this guide throughout the fall with updates on new restaurants opening throughout Boston and beyond.

The Ultimate $1 Oyster Guide, Late Summer 2017: Where to find dollar oyster deals in Boston and beyond.

A Handy Map of Boston-Area Barbecue Joints: So much meat.

Vital Brunch Spots to Know in Boston: Whether you’re up for a classic dish, dim sum, or something with a little Southern flare, here are some essential Boston-area brunches that’ll knock your socks off.

33 Essential Boston Coffee Shops: Start your caffeine adventure here.

The Cocktail Heatmap: Where to Drink Right Now, August 2017: The Cocktail Heatmap is also updated monthly; the August update included the addition of Cafe Artscience, Cantina La Mexicana, and Yellow Door Taqueria.

The Eater Boston Event Guide: Updated weekly, this guide provides recommendations for food events to attend in the coming weeks.

Where to Watch College Football and NFL in Boston: Watch sports, drink beer, eat wings.

Openings

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Meatballs from Certified Meatball Co.

110 Grill (1175 Main St., Haverhill, Boston): This location chain accommodates gluten-free and other special diets and has a bunch more locations on the way.

1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza (45 Court St., Downtown Boston): The first Boston location for this New Jersey-based pizza chain.

Assaggio Restaurant (29 Prince St., North End, Boston): Now owned by DePasquale Ventures, this Italian restaurant reopened in August with a new menu and a new look.

Balance Patch Video Game Cafe (1031 Commonwealth Ave., Allston, Boston): A gaming cafe near Packard’s Corner with sandwiches, coffee, and more.

Best Burger Bar (195 Washington St., Brookline Village): Burgers, dogs, and chicken “wangz” in the former Middle Gray space, plus a cocktail list by Brother Cleve.

Blaze Pizza (961 Commonwealth Ave., Boston): An ever-expanding counter-service pizza chain that counts LeBron James among its investors.

Caffe Nero (416 W. Broadway, South Boston): Yet another location of this London-based, Italy-inspired cafe chain has opened in Boston.

Certified Meatball Company (429 W. Broadway, South Boston): A ball-filled restaurant from the group behind Wink & Nod, Southern Kin, and more.

Cheeky Monkey Brewing Company (3 Lansdowne St., Fenway, Boston): A brewpub with a street food-inspired menu, replacing Tequila Rain by Fenway.

Curds & Co. (288 Washington St., Brookline Village): A high-tech cheese shop (there’s an app involved) that serves grilled cheese, cheese plates, and some other prepared foods.

Curry House (102 Water St., Downtown Boston): This Indian restaurant also has a Brookline location.

Davis Square Hand Crafted Donuts & Bagels (377 Summer St., Davis Square, Somerville): Long-planned doughnut and bagel joint in Davis.

Evy Tea (1 Monument Ave., Charlestown, Boston): This is the second brick-and-mortar location for the growing cold-brew tea company.

Explorateur (186 Tremont St., Downtown Boston): France-meets-California cuisine and an all-day cafe in the Masonic Lodge by the Common from a restaurant group that typically opens more club-oriented spots.

Honeycomb Cafe (107 Savin Hill Ave., Dorchester, Boston): Breakfast and lunch — featuring Iggy’s Bread, Union Coffee Roaster, and other local producers — in the former home of an ice cream shop.

Intrepid Cafe (150 First St., East Cambridge): A cafe featuring Mem Tea tea, Danish Pastry House baked goods, and Bread Obsession breads.

Kummerspeck (118 Water St., Worcester): A very meaty restaurant, featuring charcuterie, sandwiches, and more; the name (“grief bacon” in German) idiomatically refers to emotional eating.

Milkweed (1508 Tremont St., Mission Hill, Boston): A restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from the owners of Blarney Stone in Dorchester.

Moon Bar (304 Stuart St., Back Bay, Boston): Mooncusser Fish House’s more casual downstairs counterpart, serving soft-shell crab BLTs, lobster rolls, and more.

Oath Craft Pizza (181 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge): This Nantucket-based pizza chain keeps growing; this location is right by Saloniki in the Novartis building.

Punjab (485 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington): This Indian restaurant had been closed for 18 months due to damage from a burst pipe; it reopened in August.

Spring Shabu-Shabu (304 Western Ave., Brighton): A hot pot restaurant that took over the former home of Maki Maki, a sushi restaurant.

Sweet Tomatoes (1279 Washington St., West Newton): Over a year after a tragic car crash that killed two customers and injured others inside the restaurant, this pizzeria has reopened.

Taste Wine Bar & Cafe (101 Summer St., Downtown Boston): A wine bar and cafe with an accompanying wine and cheese shop.

Teamoji (3 North Beacon St., Allston, Boston): The replacement for Tealosophy, serving bubble tea, ice cream in puffle cones, ice cream in fish-shaped pancake cones, and more.

Tous Les Jours (152 Harvard Ave., Allston, Boston): The third Massachusetts location of a South Korean-based chain that serves French and Asian treats.

Unchained Pizza (505 Adams St., Quincy): At long last, the original location of this pizzeria has reopened; it now has a Dorchester sibling as well.

Union Street Restaurant (107 Union St., Newton): This Newton staple briefly closed for some renovations and promptly reopened under new ownership.

Verts Mediterranean Grill (267 Washington St., Downtown Crossing, Boston): The third Massachusetts location for the Texas-based fast-casual chain.

Wagamama (100 Northern Ave., Seaport District, Boston): This is the third Boston location of the UK-based noodle chain that is currently open; a longtime Harvard Square one closed shortly before this opened.

Closings

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Roasted pineapple roll at Haru Sushi

Dot 2 Dot Cafe (1739 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester, Boston): This cafe opened in 2008, serving breakfast and lunch as well as hosting live music and other events.

Drinking Fountain (3250 Washington St., Jamaica Plain, Boston): This classic dive bar first opened in the 1940s and had been under the same ownership since 1977.

The Fireplace (1634 Beacon St., Washington Square, Brookline): After a false alarm a few years back, the Fireplace closed in August after a 16-year run; the space will reportedly become a Mediterranean seafood restaurant.

Haru (55 Huntington Ave., Back Bay, Boston): This New York-based sushi restaurant closed its only Boston location in August; six New York locations remain.

Lanes & Games (195 Concord Tpke., Cambridge): This bowling alley, restaurant, and bar said goodbye in August after decades in business; it’ll be replaced by an apartment building.

The Playwright (658 E. Broadway, South Boston): This popular Southie bar closed after 17 years, but it is expected to reopen with a new name and renovated space soon.

Spotlight Tavern (208 Rantoul St., Beverly): This North Shore restaurant and music venue closed suddenly in August.

Tavern in the Square (1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge; 730 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge): Both Cambridge locations of this local pub chain have closed. The Porter Square space will be home to a new Shaking Crab location, while the Central Square one has already reopened as 730 Tavern, Kitchen & Patio.

Tavern Road (343 Congress St., Fort Point, Boston): Brothers Louis and Michael DiBiccari closed their popular four-year-old restaurant and bar in August.