I’m Dead Already

There's a reason why Armand became my favorite character in QotD during the Devil's Minion chapter. Because for once, we were seeing Armand for who he is and not as the villain in someone else's story. For once, we truly see him through Daniel's eyes. Because Daniel knows Armand's faults. He knows his good qualities, too. He has reasons to both love him and despise him. He adores him, yet he is beyond frustrated with him for not giving him what he wants and making him a vampire because he wants to be with him forever. Daniel's perspective on Armand is probably one of the least biased in the series despite the fact that this is a series full of unreliable narrators. No one portrays Armand as more of himself than Daniel. Not Lestat, Louis, Marius, or even Armand himself. Daniel sees Armand in all his facets. The gentle and thoughtful young man. The ghastly and loathsome creature that has devoured a million lives. The absolute weirdo who becomes obsessed with blenders and other human technology and watches Bladerunner over and over again. The immortal idiot who breaks into his room in the middle of the night demanding he call Paris. The guy who takes care of him and drags him to art shows and hunts pirates and kills drug smugglers to buy the two of them a literal island. Armand's no longer the charming and manipulative vampire who Louis blames for Claudia's death. He's no longer the deranged yet beautiful cultist Lestat met. He's no longer Marius's tragic, Botticelli angel. He's just Armand. Just a weird little guy with a fascination with blenders who wants to be loved but is not well versed in the language of romance and who loves Daniel and would rather die than see him dead but would also rather die than make him a vampire because he doesn't want to damn him. Just Armand.

Jack Douglas on Lennon and McCartney in 1980

Do you think that he chose you specifically for that last project because of your prior relationship? I ask the same question. I mean, we were friends, I never had an agenda with him. None whatsoever. Yoko trusted me. Knew that I understood what she was doing and I didn’t think it was crazy. But I asked John… we used to have a lot of talks. We would talk for hours after a session, cause Yoko worked in the daytime for the most part. And she’d go home and John would come in and we’d work all night. And John would like to kick back after a session. He had an old opium pipe that he liked to load with some weed, [a pipe] that I believe he got from Paul. {…} Did he talk much about the Beatles? All the time.

Did he feel like it was a weight on him? No, he absolutely loved it. I used to have a little Sony blaster that I would put up… It’s funny because now I do my fucking mix through a Bose wave radio, but then it was a Sony blaster. A fairly good one. And if you sounded good in there, everything was right. And one day in a few moments when nothing was going on, he would put on WNYW FM and listen to the radio. He loved to listen.

And when a Beatles song came on the radio, he would tell you everything about that session. Everything that happened. He never had a problem talking about how much he loved that band. And how much he loved those guys. He was a little annoyed at George, because George had written a book and he didn’t mention John much in the book, at that time. But he felt that that would come around.

But his love for that band. Phenomenal. It was great. It was what you hoped he would be like.

He loved them as much as everyone loved them. Did he ever discuss why they never reunited, or why they had those near-misses? Well you know he and Paul were already in the process. This Ringo album I think was going to be big.

That could have been a big stepping stone? Yeah.

Did you ever see them together, any of them? No. But I know that Paul was up at the Dakota.

Did they jam together? I don’t know. All I know is that Paul was preparing stuff for Ringo’s album. (x)

“There’s a million ways to write, but the way I always used to write was with John and it would be across from each other, either in a hotel bedroom on the twin beds, with an acoustic guitar and we’re just looking at each other. He’d make up something, I’d make up something and we’d just spin off each other. The nice thing for me is seeing John there, him being right-handed, me being left-handed, it felt to me like I was looking in a mirror.Obviously, it was very successful. I know I can never have a better collaborator than John. That is just a fact. So I don’t try and escape it. I just know there’s no way I can find someone now who’s going to write better stuff with me than I wrote with John.

Bbc interview with Paul McCartney, March 23, 2017. (via mclennonwasreal)

A clever detail I noticed!🍸

Daniel comments in his ongoing notes about Louis’ household staff that Rashid “makes martini like he’s worked at Duke’s.”

What distinguishes a “Duke’s” martini from other martini?

The “Duke’s” martini is served in a well-chilled glass prepared with just a thin wash of vermouth, followed by gin that has been kept in the freezer and is so cold that its consistency is almost syrup-like. The peel of a lemon is crushed over the top.

You can see that Rashid has everything needed on his cart.

The result is an EXTREMELY cold, dry, and potent martini, considered by many martini aficianados to be the best. Each martini has the equivalent of 5 shots of alcohol.

This martini was developed by bartender Salvatore Calabrese in response to the nightly complaints of a certain Pulitzer-winning journalist who kept complaining that his martini was never cold or dry enough.

No, it wasn’t Daniel Molloy, obviously. It was Stanton Delaplane, who proceeded to write a column praising the Duke’s martini and calling it “the best martini in England.”

I find it a cute and clever touch that out of all the cocktails that could’ve been served to Daniel, he was given a martini created because of the nagging of a fellow Pulitzer-winning journalist. 🍸

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Cast Diaries, episode 5

It would have taken another immortal to keep up with him.

so i haven't read the books but i did read the Devil's Minion chapter and this part made me laugh out loud:

THE DEVIL'S MINION

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (2024) 2.05 – Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape

So there I am, idly skimming a 2015 issue of Uncut and reading this list of shit Paul has around when suddenly… 

The most eye-catching item, though, is a Lennon calendar hanging on the wall; the image for ‘July’ showing Paul’s former bandmate during his August, 1972 Madison Square Garden show. 

Wait a minute. Where are people getting that the balcony monologue by Sam was shot in a single fucking take and was nearly cut??? Like are you kidding me??? He really did THAT all in one take?! I'm foaming and frothing at the mouth. I-

!!! Exactly!!!

The defintion of hell is knowing a show is incredibly well-received in its first season, but if people don’t become machines churning out tweets, content, and rewatching 24/7, there’s no likelihood it’ll get a chance to tell its whole story. This shit is madness. Shows in different genres shouldn’t have to pit-battle for dominance. First seasons are MEANT to be baselines establishing worlds and characters, not complete storylines. The idea that this golden age of television has turned into “get it done in one or get out” is revolting.