Hi everyone. Welcome back to Virtual Classic Tuesdays from the Bedford Playhouse. I'm John Farr. Tonight we're featuring Bonnie and Clyde from 1967. A landmark film that opened the floodgates to a new boldness and originality in Hollywood filmmaking. A creative renaissance that would last about a decade. The making of Bonnie and Clyde is also about the dogged persistence of one man, Warren Beatty, who not only starred in the film but also produced it. From the start, Bonnie and Clyde had more than a chair of doubters and detractors. Really, it was Beatty's unwavering faith in the film that allowed it eventually to succeed. Today, we think of Warren Beatty as a highly accomplished actor, producer, writer, and director. But back in the early to mid-60s, he was in a very different place. A stunningly handsome younger brother of actress Shirley McClain, he'd won early fame when he co-starred opposite Natalie Wood in 1961's Splendor in the Grass, directed by Elia Kazan. But every movie he'd made since, like The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Lilith, and Mickey One, had fizzled. He'd also helped produce the wacky comedy What's New Pussycat in 1965, bringing on Woody Allen to write the script and co-star. And even though that movie made money, it was an unhappy experience for him and Beatty was not proud of the finished product. Worse yet, the word was out that Warren Beatty was difficult to work with, and in Hollywood, that's only tolerated if you deliver the goods consistently. Simply put, in 1966, Warren Beatty badly needed a hit. Well, as is often the case, the opportunity came about totally by chance and from an unexpected source. In 1965, Beatty was still involved with Leslie Caron, an older, more established star best remembered for an American in Paris and Gigi. Caron was obviously French and knew the director Francois Truffaut, a leading proponent of a movement in cinema called The French New Wave. Well, she and Beatty were in Paris and set up a lunch with Truffaut to talk about an idea they had for a biopic on French singer Edith Piaf. Well, Truffaut wasn't interested, but he mentioned a script treatment he'd received about two American bank robbers from the 30s, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The treatment was written by two novices from New York City who both had day jobs at Esquire Magazine. Their names were David Newman and Robert Benton. Newman and Benton were huge fans of The French New Wave. Being New Yorkers, they had plenty of opportunity to see those films which were being shown all over town in those days. Benton had actually grown up in Texas and remembered hearing about the exploits of the doomed bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. He and Newman had picked up a book about depression-era bank robbers at the same time and both had been inspired. They wanted to take a quintessentially American story and film it in the raw style of The French New Wave, which is why they approached Truffaut first. Once back in the States, Beatty called Benton and asked to read the script. Benton was thrilled, said, sure, and offered to bring it to him. Well, Benton was surprised when Beatty said, no, no, I'll come get it. Ten minutes later, knock on the door and there was Beatty himself. There had not even been time for Benton to warn his wife, who promptly appeared in Curlers. Benton said that when Beatty left, his wife would not speak to him for weeks. Well, no surprise, Beatty loved the script. But at first, he thought he'd just produced the film. Initially, he saw his friend Bob Dylan for the part of Clyde, as Dylan actually resembled him physically. The real Clyde Barrow was a wiry 5'7", while Beatty was a strapping 6'4". For Bonnie, he first thought of his sister Shirley McClain. Eventually, he came around to the idea of playing the part himself. Obviously, he couldn't play opposite his sister, so he considered a range of other actresses, including his old flame Natalie Wood, who was decidedly not interested. An even bigger challenge was finding the right director. Beatty first pitched old-timers George Stevens and William Weiler and they turned him down. He took it to Arthur Penn, who just directed Beatty and Mickey 1. Penn passed on it too. Beatty approached a few more names, who all declined, and then circled back to Penn. And Beatty was a bulldog, and a highly persuasive bulldog, and finally Penn relented. Also resisting the film was legendary studio head Jack Warner, who failed to see the appeal of this bloody exercise that seemed to glorify the bad guys. As with Arthur Penn, more than anything else, Beatty simply wore him down. One story has Jack Warner pointing to the Warner Brothers' water tower, and reminding Warren that it's his name up there. Well, Beatty replied that WB were also his initials. This guy at Hood Spa. The tumult happening in Hollywood just then, including the upcoming sale of Warner Brothers to 7Arts, proved a key advantage for Beatty and Penn. The old formulas and movies had not been working for some time. The old regimes and traditional ways of doing things were also quietly crumbling all around them. So there was room and tolerance for experimentation. Beatty and Penn would take their modest budget of $2.5 million and shoot most of their film on location across Texas. And they would mostly be left alone with the freedom to make something truly special. First, Beatty hired his close friend Robert Town for script rewrites. Town, who'd win a best screenplay Oscar several years later for Chinatown, would be on the set for the duration. Beatty knew casting would be critical. He'd admired Gene Hackman's talent and discipline on the set of Lilith and quickly cast him as Clyde's brother Buck. Arthur Penn had also directed TV and theater and knew all the players. He suggested Estelle Parsons for Buck's wife Blanche. And he also cast a virtually unknown stage actor named Gene Wilder to play the undertaker kidnapped by Bonnie and Clyde. Now the character of sidekick C.W. Moss, eventually played by Michael J. Pollard, was a composite of several actual accomplices Bonnie and Clyde picked up during their crime spree. That character evolved considerably over time. Originally, Benton and Newman's script portrayed Clyde as bisexual, with Moss a he-man type and a menage-au-tois situation going on with Moss, Clyde and Bonnie. Well, Penn convinced the writers this was a bridge too far for 1967 audiences and suggested they make Clyde impotent instead to keep an element of sexual dysfunction. So the character of C.W. Moss was then reimagined with Pollard in mind and his character provides much needed comic relief. For the key role of Bonnie, they finally took a chance on 25-year-old actress and model Faye Dunaway. Penn had seen Dunaway on stage back east and thought she had possibilities. But Bady resisted at first, wanting a more established name. Dunaway certainly looked the part, though she'd need to lose some weight to play the bird-like Bonnie. But more important, having grown up in northern Florida in a very southern community, Dunaway could relate to this wild Texas mall. Penn continued pushing for her and Bady finally agreed. Now, there was another fortunate discovery early on in this production. Back in the mid-60s, the small towns that Bonnie and Clyde had visited were largely intact. This made location scouting and set design a lot easier than expected. Without question, Warren Bady was extremely fortunate to have Arthur Penn on board. He was really fortuitous that these two men had worked together before and knew what to expect from each other. Again, Warren Bady had a reputation for being difficult, particularly on directors. He questioned the motivation of virtually every scene, which delayed shooting and drove cast and crew nuts. But Penn had the patience to manage Bady. He'd talk him through a given scene, even if it meant everyone else on the set had to stand around and wait. Bady told Penn he wanted to have at least one fight with him each day, even if they had to manufacture one. Usually, that wasn't necessary. However, Penn understood Bady's belief that out of conflict comes inspiration, and he dealt with him accordingly. Penn was also an actors director, letting his players improvise to make scenes better. Gene Hackman, whose film career was really just beginning, would always be grateful for the freedom Penn gave him on this picture. Much has been made of the film's graphic violence, but Penn simply wanted to make his story as realistic and memorable as possible. Above all, he wanted to avoid doing another standard gangster picture, where people clutch their chests when they get shot. Here violence had to reach a new level of realism and, if possible, create a sort of perverse but powerful visual poetry. Penn knew that no Hollywood movie had ever shown a shooting without a cut between the person firing the shot and the victim's reaction. So that moment where the bank employee jumps on the getaway car and gets shot through the window was really a shocker back then, since there was no cut. Also, Penn knew that the ending of the film had to have a major impact. To achieve that, he'd go further in the use of blood squibs than anyone had before. Squibs are those small electric charges placed on actors that detonate on cue, releasing fake blood. At that time, squibs had been around for about a decade, but they'd always been used sparingly. For the climactic scene, both Bady and Dunaway were wired to the hilt with squibs. The scene was then shot with four different cameras running simultaneously at different speeds. The result speaks for itself. Bady Penn and crew wrapped shooting and returned to LA where the film was edited by the brilliant Dee Dee Allen. She included violent scenes that others within the studio assumed would end up on the cutting room floor due to censorship concerns. Finally, Jack Warner was brought in for screening. He told Bady up front, you know your picture's got a problem if I have to get up to pee. As it turned out, Warner got up no less than three times. When the screening was over, Warner said it wasn't his where it's a three-piss picture and the longest 130 minutes he'd ever spent. Well, the word quickly got out. The studio did not have faith in Bonnie and Clyde and wasn't going to get behind it with a really strong distribution and promotion plan. On its release in August 1967, a few critics raved among them a young Roger Ebert who just started working as a critic a few months earlier. However, it got a terrible review from perhaps the country's most influential critic, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times. Excoriating it for excessive violence, he referred to it as, quote, a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy, unquote, then doubled down on his contempt in a second piece for the Times Sunday magazine. As a result, many started predicting a quick death for Bonnie and Clyde. Initial ticket sales were soft, but then a few things happened. First, the film opened very strongly in Europe that fall. Then critic Pauline Kale came out in The New Yorker with a long and passionate defense of the film, calling it iconic and, quote, the most excitingly American American film since the Manchurian candidate, unquote. A month later, Time Magazine singled out Bonnie and Clyde and its year-end piece on the new cinema. Now, by this point Warner Brothers had been sold to seven arts. Jack Warner was retiring and new management was in place headed by Elliot Hyman. Well, Beatty met with Hyman and told him point-blank that the studio had botched the release of Bonnie and Clyde. And now, just as the film was building momentum, it was going to be replaced in theaters by an in-fear but much more expensive seven-arts release called Reflections in a Golden Eye. Well, Beatty demanded right there that Hyman rebook Bonnie and Clyde in theaters. An extremely unusual move. He even threatened to sue him. Still wondering what he could be sued for, Hyman nevertheless finally relented and rebooked the film. Well, it was a smart move as box office earnings rose dramatically. Benefiting from all the press exposure and the fact that with its anti-authority overtones, the film really captured the zeitgeist in the moment. The younger generation completely embraced it. It was hip to love Bonnie and Clyde because it was a period picture that felt utterly modern. The pleated skirt and beret worn by Faye Dunaway even became a fashion sensation, adopted by trendy young women in New York, L.A., Paris, and London. In February 1968, Bonnie and Clyde received a whopping ten Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay. It ended up winning just two for supporting actress Estelle Parsons and cinematography. In the end, the movie would gross well over $20 million nearly ten times its budget. Miraculously, a dud had been transformed into a runaway hit largely thanks to the determination of Warren Beatty. Now he was well rewarded as he negotiated a sizable piece of the gross upfront. Of course, all the key players would go on to bigger and better things. After this, in addition to acting and producing, Beatty would start writing and directing. Over the next three decades, he received 12 Oscar nominations across these categories, winning Best Director for his 1981 film Reds. Both Dunaway and Hackman would become Oscar-winning stars, Hackman winning for the French Connection in 1972, Dunaway for network five years later. Penn earned an Oscar nomination for directing Alice's Restaurant in 1969. He'd also direct Dunaway again in 1970's Little Big Man and re-team with Hackman for 1975's Night Moves. David Newman and Robert Benton would collaborate on more movies including 1978's Superman and Benton would also start directing, winning double screenplay and directing Oscars for 1979's Kramer vs. Kramer. Bonnie and Clyde made a lot of that possible. Please join me next Tuesday for another classic, the best years of our lives from 1946, starring Frederick March, Myrna Loy and Dana Andrews directed by William Wyler. This magnificent story of three servicemen returning home after the Second World War, one of whopping seven Oscars, including Best Picture. It's truly one of my favorite films. Thanks for watching everybody and see you next week. Beautiful friendship. There are so many famous lines in movies, but it's a hell of a good script and you credit Robert Benton and David Newman, but you also credit Robert Town who at that point was like Warren Beatty's shadow. I mean they dressed alike, they talked alike. Robert Town kind of followed him around, but boy it was good that Beatty had him because he was already known even before Chinatown as being a great script doctor. And again, you know, Benton and Newman were not, this was their first script, this was their first film, which is amazing to consider. This question, what was different about the French New Wave, and I guess how does that relate to the influence that you talked a little bit about with Arthur Penn? That sort of gets back to the first question and there's this... Jocular is the wrong word, but there's this sort of free-spiritedness in this movie. It isn't heavy and just gratuitously violent. It's very clever. The word I always use, it's a fancy word, but I love it, is anarchic because things don't seem necessarily to flow together and it's very much about mood and it's kind of a free-wheeling sort of style of filmmaking. That's very much the French New Wave. If you ever go back and watch movies like Jules et Jim, which was Truffaut, it has that same thing, not everything's chronological. You get this feeling that they're sort of recreating cinema as they shoot it. They're hand-held cameras and Penn wanted to honor that and use that because, again, he did a lot of things in Bonnie and Clyde that really hadn't been done before. The example that I mentioned was shooting someone where in the same shot, the shot happens and then you see the bullet go through this guy's head in the same shot without any kind of a cut. That was an example of this sort of like anything goes is not the way to put it, but the French New Wave is all about not being restricted and how you shot something and always going for a kind of freshness and how you were telling your story and also an immediacy. You really feel that you're right there with Bonnie and Clyde. You're in the backseat of that car. You're with those people. You feel like you're getting to know them in a very intimate way that a plot-heavy, more traditional film wouldn't give you. And that I think is sort of a lot of the French New Wave. The notion that sometimes you're almost thinking, well that was realistic a minute ago, but now it's not really so realistic. I mean breathless where Jean-Luc Godard's film, which is a gangster film takeoff which has moments in it that feel real and then moments in it that feel like they're kind of a goof. So that sort of craziness and freshness is what I think Bonnie and Clyde captures that relates to that French New Wave style and feeling. Would you agree that the most prominent theme in the film is family? I haven't. That's not the word that I have used, but it's an interesting thought as I react to it. Obviously the relationship between Buck and Clyde is very much a part of this film and that's why Gene Hackman is so wonderful in the film. And obviously there's this idea that these are people who have very little. They don't have a lot going. And they obviously don't have much to lose. And what they do have in the shared crazy experiences, they develop this camaraderie and this unity that isn't necessarily all that strong. Because when stuff really goes, I mean, I think Estelle Parsons is so funny in this movie. She plays such a wacko. But there are moments when you're sad because you're seeing this wonderful sort of conviviality and this connection between this group of people who are like family because they're in it together. I mean, they're on a short route to nowhere. I mean, they may recognize in the back of their minds that they're probably not going to live very much longer, going to get caught eventually, but they're in it together. And that is I think about the word family. That's really what you feel. I mean, that wonderful scene where they're all in the car together. And they're so like tightly packed. That's sort of that's sort of what I think of that was not an easy scene to shoot either I can tell you. This one is a little bit about the new Hollywood now that the dawn of the new Hollywood is now over 50 years ago. How what can you trace back to this film as the launching pad for the quote unquote new Hollywood.  And in fact, the the the criticism that Bonnie and Clyde gets to this day is that it opened the floodgates to a lot of graphic violence and gratuitous violence. Well, Bonnie and Clyde had graphic violence. I don't believe that Bonnie and Clyde had gratuitous violence. And I think that that came later. But Bonnie and Clyde, they've never been anything quite like that before and after that film. Again, nobody was going to be paying much attention to the to the sensors or that was all sort of just falling apart. And you know, I just think two three years later you had a movie like mash, which is so graphic in terms of showing blood and you know bodies on a table and loss of blood everywhere and all this stuff. You never would have seen that in an older film so violence and the depiction of graphic violence was certainly one big thing. But I also I also think that that French New Wave factor that that sort of that tone that wasn't quite realism. And you see in Butch Cassie and the Sundance kid I keep bringing that up but I really see parallels between Bonnie and Clyde and that film that also took hold a little bit. It's a it's a beautifully written movie. And I think that for the next decade, there was this thing going on where young filmmakers who were just coming up and and screenwriters were actually allowed to make the movies that they wanted to make that had a brain. And then once Jaws came out and not to blame it all on Steven Spielberg but you know Star Wars and and the whole distribution strategy change where you know these big, big, big, big movies would open very, very big all over the country and there was a tremendous amount of emphasis put on those films. And that really hasn't changed that still that's still the model, all these years later. Amazingly enough. How old was Warren Beatty when they made this film was he already over 30. He was he was 30. He was just 30. So I guess don't trust anybody over 30 he just. Yeah, he just he made the cut. He made the cut. He was like 28. And Hackman was older Hackman was 37. So he know you wouldn't trust him. For sure. This is an interesting question about the production about production I guess production techniques. This person said it seems like the sound of the gunshots are much louder than the rest of the soundtrack. And is that it was that was that new or had that been done in other films where they amplify the gunshots and perfect. I can't say that it was new but it really was kind of I think it was. I think it was new. And then specifically wanted that again this was his attempt and a successful attempt to do stuff differently to make just the last thing he wanted was just to have another standard gangster picture. So it was his idea that the gunfire should be louder. There were stories of baby going around when it was when the film was being shown initially, and he'd go up into these projectionists booths, and they'd have adjusted the sound of the gunshots down, because they thought it was a mistake in the mixing.   So he actually had to do that. And that was that was followed by a movie two years later called the Wild Bunch, where the director Sam Peckinpaw did the exact same things that I want those guns to sound so loud, because it's your, your a, you know, it makes sense and and you want people to just be. You want people to be in your devilance you want them to be shocked by it in those days. It was still possible to shock people with gunfire the day unfortunately, it's all too familiar.  Um, were there any other prominent names. I mentioned a few like who was who was the one that got away for baby, but when he originally landed on Arthur Penn so I guess it worked out for the best. But were there any serious contenders before Arthur Penn. Um, well, George Stevens, who directed Shane, William Weiler, who directed the best years of our lives which by the way, I hope everybody comes back for because it is one of my favorite movies. I think he went to Carol Rice, who turned him down to foe obviously turned him down. And I cannot remember any other directors who said no. But I do think it's interesting that he went back to Arthur Penn. I actually met Arthur Penn and interviewed Arthur Penn years and years ago he was one of the nicest men and gentlest men you would ever want to meet. And then literally I can see I've also met Warren Beatty only once, but I could see how they would work well together and I think Beatty was very smart he might not admit it but he said, I can work with Arthur he you know I he gets me I get him. And he knew that Arthur could make it really good. So that's why I think he went back. I mean Beatty could have kept trying with different people. But he, I think he really wanted Penn and I think at the end of the day Penn just said, No, maybe this guy knows something I don't. And maybe it'll be great. And I think honestly though, having met him and interviewed him, Arthur Penn didn't do it just as a favor. He obviously something Beatty said, and maybe it was really, you know, honoring the French New Wave. And really making this a completely different kind of gangster film is what finally got Penn to come around. And I know that he would have had that conversation with Robert Benton and David Newman, because that was the whole premise that's why they did the script that's what they had in mind. I want to come back to the one I was just asked but another question about Benton and Newman, since you just brought them up was, obviously, they take some creative license with the actual story. Was there any significant, seriously significant departures from the story of Bonnie and Clyde that people took issue with or was it just accepted that it was a movie. And that's the story. The, the details of the different heists and who they kidnapped I mean the CW Moss character played by Michael J. Pollard was a composite as I said in my remarks of several different people that they picked up along the way. So I would put it this way I would say that, you know, the details of the you know the they weren't again that wasn't about being faithful to the string of robberies that Bonnie and Clyde actually perpetrated across Texas and representing it just as it happened. That was not at all. The priority. They wanted to be true to the period. They wanted to show that it was Texas I mean it's a true story is all a true story, although I don't think that Bonnie and Clyde was certainly top of mind with a lot of people in this film brought them a degree of renown that they never would have had otherwise. He was a banker, but he was a publisher who was a bank robber operating at the same time was much more famous and in fact himself looked down on Bonnie and Clyde he thought they were kind of stupid, you know, common criminals. because the priority was, we got to make this movie move and it's got to be entertaining. And so this detail is left out and we have only one sidekick, CW homage versus several. So I would say generous allowances and liberties were taken with the actual course of the robberies that were actually done. And again, also, it's amazing to think that, you know, Bonnie Parker was four feet, 10 inches tall. That was the real Bonnie Parker. They done it where it was five, seven. Five, seven was the height of the real Clyde Barrow. Warren Beatty was six, four. So it wasn't about really trying to get a realistic feeling of what these characters were. It really wasn't that. This is an interesting question. Concerning the violent action, can you talk a little bit about the use of slow motion, which Penn uses and the influence of that? Yeah, well, that's for impact. Again, I've just sort of, I've also, I bring up a movie called The Wild Bunch because I've been studying that movie as well and it was done the same way. You have a climatic battle scene or a scene of violence and when you edit it down, you're gonna, you wanna have different speeds covered. So you can cut to a different speed and then cut back to something else. And the slow motion is just sort of accentuating the, sort of, it's like a ballet. It's not the old movies where someone was shot and they'd grip their chest and they'd fall over and then it was like back to the dialogue. The director and the editor are making you watch this moment like it's a dance. Like it's this obscene dance and you're watching all the undulations of the bodies and the jerking and all of that.  And some of the people who saw the final scene in Bonnie and Clyde and saw the final scene in The Wild Bunch even two years later were shocked. I mean, right along the lines of the shower scene in Psycho, it's not what you expect. And it is particularly in a big theater, particularly when it's not what you've seen before or expect, it contributes to a tremendous amount of impact, which that final scene really did have. This is more of a comment than a question, but I guess it is a question. Is that final scene meant to evoke the Kennedy assassination in terms of the, and there's a paruter film? Never noticed that before, but I guess maybe it's possible. Well, that's an interesting question. I think the truth is that the Zapruder film and the Kennedy assassination had a big influence on allowing Bonnie and Clyde to be, and allowing Bonnie and Clyde to be shot though he was shot. When Kennedy was assassinated and we saw it, and we saw it later with the Zapruder film, we lost our innocence and the cat was out of the bag and these people said, no, you can't show that, you can't ask me this way or that way. That all started to go south. The idealism that characterized the early 60s was swept away both by that assassination and the Vietnam War and the disillusionment that came because of it. That in turn allowed Bonnie and Clyde to be because that was all about saying, hey, this is our world. The Eisenhower era is gone. We're in a bold and dangerous new place and in that environment, we're gonna show heads being blown off and we're gonna show people being butchered because it's all around us, it's on the evening news. Every night, the coverage of the Vietnam War on CBS, NBC, or ABC, I remember well, you saw a lot of blood, so that sort of opened it all up. All right, well, if that's all the questions that have been submitted, if anybody has any more, now's your chance to ask. We'll give it one more second before we say goodnight just to see if anybody has any other questions. We should remind everybody one more time that best years of our lives is this coming Tuesday, the 23rd, we're not taking it. Usually there's a week in between but we've changed the schedule a little bit so best years of our lives is coming up on Tuesday, 23rd, and everybody can sign up for that on our website. Please, Dan, let me jump in on that. Folks, if you haven't seen that movie in a while or if you've never seen that movie, please make the effort to do so and join us because it's really a personal favorite of mine and anyone who is interested in the Second World War from an historical standpoint needs to see this film because it really is about servicemen returning from the Second World War and it was shot as that was happening. So it's tremendously powerful. It is a longer film, it's two hours and 50 minutes, so 10 minutes short of three hours. So it's not a short film, but find a way to watch it and I don't think at the end credits you will fault me for having suggested it and I really hope that we see you all next Tuesday because it really is a wonderful movie. We do have one more question, John, this is a good one. Okay. All right, so what do you think, this is from Martin who's asked, what do you think is the best anti-hero movie of the period? That's a toughie, there were so many of them. Well, I have to be honest with you and this is, I happen to be, I've always been madly in love with Butch Cassie and the Sundance Kid. It is a movie that is, it's so unexpected in so many different ways. It's a buddy movie and when you say anti-hero, it's sort of like I define that very simply as these guys are crooks but you still love them so that they become heroes. And I remember seeing that movie in a theater as a young guy and being completely hypnotized by it, by both of them and it is such a good buddy picture. And so that's one of them. I do think much earlier, Breathless is a wonderful anti-hero film and I love Jean-Paul Belmondo and that. But I have to say that for me, and this is where I'm getting into subjective territory because there are people I've met who don't love Butch Cassie the way I do. But if you're asking me my favorite anti-hero, I think it's probably Butch and Sundance. And if I've misunderstood the question, let me know. I think that's how it was intended, that's how it works. I'm happy to have any kind of a debate or an exchange online too. People have other ideas. There were many of them. Anti-hero movies became, and in fact, The Wild Butch is another example because you watch that movie and the William Holden character is tremendously sympathetic and amazingly poignant, but he's a killer. He's a stone killer. So there were a lot of great anti-hero films at that particular time. And I encourage everybody to go and watch them again. Anti-hero is not what best years of our lives are. Those are all heroes. Those are real heroes. And that's fine too. So I hope we can, next Tuesday, we can just talk about heroes, but anti-heroes have their place too. All right, well, thanks John, as always. Thank you everybody for joining us. We hope you have enjoyed this. This has been great. Certainly I think now everybody should go out unless you're gonna do The Wild Butch at some point, John. I think everybody should probably see that one. Well, we talked about it. We talked about it quite a bit, which is a great one. And maybe we'll do that one when we're back and reopen in the theater at some point. So thanks again. Have a good night everybody. We hope to see you next week for best years of our lives. Thanks everyone. Take care. Have a good night.


The decision to attend the University of Alabama expects was a big thing. I always thought about how my grandparents and my dad would help me pay for college. Coming in, the only scholarship that I did have was from the Dallas County Wheelcocks Area Alumni Group. But when I got here, more scholarships were beginning to fall in, such as the academic scholarship from financial aid and just being a freshman.  Going through the financial aid process was very easy. There are people here to help you. They do have call ins that you can do. So basically you can just call or you can email and someone will help you with all of your problems other than just coming in. All of that kind of stuff played a major part in me also deciding on attending this school because at first I was like, I don't know how I can. I don't know if I will be able to, but I'm here. Everything has been getting covered and I'm glad.


Hello friends, welcome back to the channel. In today's video, we're going to go through the best Terrorite Pokemon for farming Herbomistica in the Indigo Disc. We did similar videos for Kira Kami and Pal Dayer for the best Pokemon to go out and hunt in Terrorites to farm Herbomistica. So we're going to do exactly the same as that today for all the brand new Pokemon that we've got available. Now the Indigo Disc is released in Scarlet and Violet. If you want to check those videos out, of course, they will be linked down in the description. Then you're going to have a full list over all three areas of the best Pokemon that are going to give you the best Herbomistica drops. So within the Terrarium in the Blueberry Academy, we have a bunch of brand new Pokemon to go out and hunt. Along with that, a lot of these new Pokemon are going to be now available in Terrorite Dens. We're specifically going to be only focusing on five and six star Terrarites because they're the Dens that are going to give us the Herbomistica drops or at least the chance of a Herbomistica drop. It's never guaranteed that every Pokemon that you battle in a five and a six star Terrarite will have the chance to drop a single Herbomistica. And some of them do have the chance to drop multiple Herbomistica. Now, it's the Pokemon that have the opportunity to drop multiple Herbomistica that we're going to be really honing in on and hunting in this guide today. Out of all of the five star Terrarites that we have available in the Terrarium, we're going to have twenty one Pokemon in a pool that will be picked from in these five star raids from this pool of twenty one Pokemon. There are only three that have multiple drops of Herbomistica. All the other 18 five star Terrarite Pokemon in the Terrarium will have the chance to drop one single Herbomistica. But the following three Pokemon Lapras, Kingdra and Malamar do give the possibility to drop any one of the five different Herbomistica types there are, meaning that when you beat these Terrarite Dens, you're going to have the chance to get multiple Herbomistica from one Terrarite Den, making the farming process that much easier because there's only a low number of Pokemon from this pool of twenty one that can drop multiple Herbomistica and the fact that five star Terrarite Dens are very hard to identify without actually going into the den and checking it itself. It's not the most effective method for farming Herbomistica in your games. This is why, like in the other guides, we concentrate a lot more down on these six star Terrarites that easy to identify on your map. You can pull this open and locate it very easily and then head out to it to check it for one of the Pokemon that can drop multiple Herbomistica. Now, unlike the five star Terrarite Dens, the six star Terrarite Dens have a pool of Pokemon of twenty seven that they're going to be able to pull from. But six of these twenty seven Pokemon in this six star Terrarite pool are able to drop multiple Herbomistica, meaning that you've got about a twenty two percent chance of running into one of these six Pokemon every time you check the six star Terrarite Den on your map. Of course, like six star Terrarite, you have the caveat that you'll only get one of these appearing on your map at a time, but it does mean that you can check it and then use the dead exploit to despawn that six star Terrarite that you've currently got on your map and respawn a new one for you to have another chance in getting one of these six Pokemon that you're going to want to hunt for primarily to farm Herbomistica. Now, these specific Pokemon in six star Terrarite are going to be Galarian Slowbro, Lapras, Alolan Muck, Kingdra, Horigontu and Malamoss. So all of the six Pokemon have the opportunity to drop any one of the five different types of Herbomistica, meaning that you're going to have the good chance of getting multiple Herbomistica drops when you beat any one of the six star Terrarite Pokemon. So the best method going around the Terrarium is going to be opening your map, locating where the six star Terrarite is, heading out to it and checking it for any one of these six Pokemon. If it's not any one of the six Pokemon that we have listed and have on the screen right now, then what you do is use the dead exploit. You can do this by bringing your map up, hitting your home menu and coming down into system settings, then into system and then down into date and time. Make sure that your synchronized clock via the internet is set to off. Go into your date and time. Don't change anything. Just toggle through the options. Hit that OK button and hit your home menu, come back into the game and you'll see all of the dens in the area disappear and respawn, meaning that you're going to get a new six star Terrarite on your map. Again, all you need to do from here is just locate where it is, head over to it and check it for any one of these six Pokemon. It is a very quick and easy method. Once you do run into one of the six Pokemon, go in and battle it and reap the rewards. You're likely going to get at least one Herbomistika if not multiple at a time for beating any one of the six Terrarite Pokemon. Now, I've mentioned it in the previous video, so we'll mention it again in this one. You do have the ability to use a sandwich power to give you increased drops from the Terrarite. Now, raid power level one will give you one extra additional drop in the Terrarite for that type. Raid power level two will give you two additional drops and raid power level three will give you three additional drops. But like I've said in the previous videos, when I've mentioned this, to get raid power level three, you're going to need to use Herbomistika and using Herbomistika to get Herbomistika when you've got the chance of getting no Herbomistika just doesn't make sense. So if you're going to use the raid power at all for that specific type that you're going in against, I would advise just using raid power level two for the two additional drops, which gives you the very small opportunity of getting an additional Herbomistika when you go in against one of these six Pokemon. And of course, it wouldn't be a raid video without some example builds for you to take in and beat the six star Terrarite Pokemon very easily. Of course, we've covered a multitude of different guides on the channel for the different good Terrarite builds for six star and five star Pokemon. And of course, we will be doing another version of that for the Indigo Disc in the near future. So do keep an eye out for that one with all of the new Pokemon that we've now got available in the Terrarium. Now, one of the Pokemon I would always say is a very good option against an array of different six star Terrarites and also the five star Terrarite Pokemon is going to be a Zoomerill. These builds will all be down in the description below if you want to check them out after the video, but they're all going to be able to cover bases. And of course, there are many other options, but these are just generally ones that I find myself kind of going back to time and time again for an array of different six star Terrarite Pokemon. Zoomerill going to have the Fairy Terra type Shell Belt as the held item. Level 100, make sure you hyper train all of your Pokemon, so all of its IVs set to 31. Going to have an adamant nature on this Zoomerill. It will have the EV spread of 252 in HP, 252 in attack and the ability Huge Power. Misty terrain is really nice because you can set it on the field. It'll prevent you from getting affected by any status moves. Bellydrum is there to boost your attack by plus six, putting you in a really good position to just do some huge damage. Lightscreen gives you a bit of production defensively on the special end and play rough is your main damaging attack. So very good, reliable Pokemon. The one that's available to everyone, easy to get and build in your games. Arceus is another one not available to everyone, but if you do have an Arceus in your game from something like Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl or Pokemon Legends Arceus or an event from the past and a very good raid Pokemon because you can change its type to whatever you want with whatever plate you attach it to. So it's very flexible for going in against an array of different Pokemon. This one, we have got the Water Terror type on it, but that was specifically for one Pokemon. You can keep the Terror type normal or it can be whatever you kind of prefer to be because you're not really generally going to to rasterize the Arceus. You don't need to because it's just that good. We'll have the moveset of a recover, calm mind, acid spray and judgment. The basic premise is going to be to acid spray three times, calm mind two or two, three times and then just spam judgment. And depending on whatever plate you have, it will be the same type as the plate that you attach to it as a held item.  The EV spread I would go on this one would be two hundred and fifty two in HP, two hundred and fifty two in Special Attack with a modest nature. And of course, the ability there is multi type. Next up is going to be Annihilate. I can't do one of these recommendation videos without recommending Annihilate fighting Terror type on it as well. The held item going to be the Metronome Level 100 hyper trained and then the moveset of rage first, screech, bulk up and drain punch with the defined ability. And then I would give it an EV spread of two five two HP and two five two and attack with an adamant nature. So that is the Annihilate, a very solid Pokemon, very bulky, good offensively as well and a really nice typing. You can build another one. It is the Ghost Terror type to her, the flexibility between the fighting type and the ghost terror type whenever you need it in different raids. And finally, another one that I will suggest is going to be Goldango or going to be Steel and Ghost type, Steel Terror type on there. Shellbell as the held item. You can change that to metal coat if you like level 100 and hyper trained with the moveset of recover, nasty plot, metal sound and make it rain.  So it's really effective in that means I give it the EV spread of two hundred and fifty two in HP and two hundred and fifty two in special attack with a modest nature and the basic premises at the start of the raid, go for your metal sounds.  You're going to make quick work of a lot of five star and six star Steel Week Pokemon when using this in your games is everything for today's video. They are the six six star terror Pokemon that you're going to want to hunt to best farm Herbomistica in the Indigo Disc and also the three five star Pokemon as well. You're going to want to go out and hunt to make farming them a little bit easier. But like I say, the six star are the ones to go for a lot easier to identify on your map, whereas the five star a little bit more tricky, a little bit more time consuming. But I hope you found today's video useful. If you have, please drop a like and do subscribe to the channel. Also, let me know if you've been farming Herbomistica in the terrarium. What is the best Herbomistica drop that you've had so far? The best I've had is four Herbomisticas at a time. I've had that twice so far. So that's been nice. Nothing more than that. But if you've had any more than that, do let me know down in the comment section. Would love to hear and have a lot of luck farming for Herbomistica for those shiny hunts that you've got planned for the Indigo Disc. Have a great rest of your day, friends. Thank you so much for tuning in until next time. I'll see you again until then. Take care and bye bye.


RAINBOWS Songs that, like rainbows, following after storm, span suddenly with flame-like wings of hope, some silent void of sorrow in my heart, dark with vain prayers and desolating tears, or rising softly in a happy hour, were mirrored like pale colors of the dawn in my glad soul, as in a dancing sea, and born on crest of laughter to the light. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A Song to Beauty by Olive Custins. Red for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Sweet, I have seen the Argent moon astray in crimson meadows of the morning sky, watched by the jealous night too sad to fly before the bright, relentless sort of day, so your pale lovers see you pass them by. Proud beauty, like that wonderful gold flower, the twilight gathers when the sun takes flight and lays before the silver feet of night, beauty that seen in dreams has such strange power. Shine, shine upon my darkness lovely light. By what enchantment were you doomed to range the forest of this world where joys are few? My heart is like a hound that follows you. My heart, a princely hunter. Use your strange, elusive laughter and must still pursue. Oh, once my song bird-heart was free and wise, but now its wings are tangled in love's snare. For it is seen the sunshine of your hair, the troubled beauty of your great blue eyes, the wild rose whiteness of your body fare. In vain fate strives to keep us still apart. Death could not do it even, though there be long leagues of land, broad waste of shining sea, between us. Yet my heart is with your heart when in the world of dreams you walk with me. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Songs of a fairy princess. The Fairy Prince. One. The Princess at the Gate. By Olive Custons. Read for LibriVox.org. By Nima. Prince, you are late. The princess watches for you at the gate, looks down the long dull road with eager eyes and whisper softly, Love, I wait, I wait. Prince, is it wise to be so long and coming, for youth flies, and other men pass lightly on their way, and see a pretty princess there whose eyes. And one might say, I am the prince you watch for every day.  Under bars, the little princess, grown too sad to play, sits passionately whispering.  End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Songs of a fairy princess. The Fairy Prince. Two. The Coming of the Prince. By Olive Custons. Read for LibriVox.org. By Nima.  Learn all love's language, now the princess come. The princess fair, proud princess, hold him fast, with slim white hands, each kiss may be the last. Boy is a flower, whose petals fall apart, and fade too soon, ah, hold him to your heart.  What though a sleepless dragon day and night, the great world watches, jealous of delight, strong love shall stand with shining wings unfurled between you and the hatred of the world. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Songs of a fairy princess. The Fairy Prince. Three. The Letter. By Olive Custons. Read for LibriVox.org. By Nima. They lit the fire and fairies came to dance and flying cloaks of flame.  And there was one who came in with her, white-winged, a dainty stranger, a little page from love's own court and lovely news of you he brought. My fairy prince so far away, so far away from fairy land, I find it hard to understand that I shall see your face today. The morning only waits for you to make it perfect. How that blue, unclouded color of the skies reminds me of your great blue eyes.  And there the light is golden like your hair. O miracle of joy and pain to hold you in my arms again. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Songs of a fairy princess. The Fairy Prince. Four. The Song of Welcome by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by Nemo. Quote, while joy runs on through summer greenery, and all delight is like an open door, end quote, Alfred Douglas, you know I love you, for my darkening eyes confess it when our lips and lashes meet. My life is a long listening for your feet, your coming is like sunshine to sad skies, and when I see your face again life seems like the sun-clouded day that leads the hours and fair procession down a path of flowers towards the folded doorways of our dreams. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Songs of a fairy princess. The Fairy Prince. Five. The Song of Forget-Me-Nots by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by Nemo. A Song of Forget-Me-Nots I Sing. Forget-Me-Nots are my favorite flowers, love, because they are like your eyes, blue as the wild blue butterflies. They stare and dream through the singing hours under the turquoise and silver skies under the fickle skies of spring.  And at twilight time, with gaze as bold, they watch the pumps of sunset pass. In sleepless under the starlit skies, they listen and look with their petals wide, for though the moon be lost for hours, hidden behind her high cloud towers, a brown bird sings by the river's side. Forget-Me-Nots are my favorite flowers, love, because they are like your eyes. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. THE MASKER RAID by OLLIV CUSTONS Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA Masked dancers in the dance of life, we move sedately, wearily together, afraid to show a sign of inward strife, we hold our souls in tether. We dance with proud and smiling lips, with frank appealing eyes, with shy hands clinging, we sing, and few will question if there slips a sob into our singing. Each has a certain step to learn, our prisoned feet move steadily in set paces, and to and fro we pass, since life is stern, patiently, with masked faces. Yet some there are who will not dance, they sit apart, most sourful and splendid. But all the rest trip on as in a trance, until the dance is ended. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A GIRL'S LOVE by OLLIV CUSTONS Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA My days are different from your days. My life is hedged about as with a hedge of flowers. Always bright as roses, and with thorns as keen. So is my girlhood guarded from the strife, the turmoil, of the world's contending powers. Since shapes and shadow are but dimly seen, by those who in the summer sunlight stand, I can but guess the sordid things and sad that mar the great sweet world and come between all simple human hearts in every land. They came between your heart and mine made glad, because your life is brave and gay and wise, because I love you.  Perhaps some day my secret I will tell, or you might guess it, dear, such things have been, some day when our eyes meet and our hands touch.  Meanwhile I dare not love you over much. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Secret by Olive Custins. Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. I have a secret that I cannot sing, because I'm afraid the wind might hear and stride across the sky to you and fling my secret in your ear. I have a secret that I will not say, because I'm afraid some friend would go and whisper it to you, my love one day, and you would know. I have a secret that I dare not prize, although it laughs away my loneliness. Or if you ever looked into my eyes, ah, you would guess. And you might only pity and disdain the passion that has set you far above those other men who loved me all in vain. Oh, love, my love. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Dear the Dance by Olive Custins. Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Good-bye. I shall regret you. To love you, dear, is vain. I never should have met you. Good-bye. And so I must forget you, till you come back again. Good-bye. I say it sadly. You do not understand. Your answer rings so gladly. Good-bye. And yet my heart beats madly, because you take my hand. How near the cold dawn hovers her hooded silver head. Too swiftly she uncovers. Good-bye. Oh, friend, we might be lovers if one brave word were said. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Song by Olive Custins. Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Sing to me, for your songs drive care away. And fill with delicate dreams the common day. In music is your fettered self-set free. It is the en masse man that speaks to me. Gone is the cold bright glance I know so well. Hushed is the hard, light laughter like a bell. Few would believe your smiling, shallow eyes could swim and burn with such grave mysteries. And few who know your clear, low voice would guess that it could tremble with such tenderness.  End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Heart of a Child by Olive Custins. Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Why was I given a child's wild heart I am tired of acting a woman's part and the world seemed sordid and dull in course. It was different in the days of play when the soul was brave and the heart was gay, and one rode away to Fairyland on a painted rocking horse. My friend, you will never understand how I dream of those rides to Fairyland, of those long sweet rides in the firelit room, when one started off with a leap and bound, and one steed so quaintly comparisoned to the silvery sound of little bells that twinkled in the gloom. My friend, you are fair and strong and wise, with your sun-gold hair and your brave blue eyes. But why have you stolen my heart today? For it is such a strange and wayward thing, and birds that are caged will not always sing. In a child's heart, what should it know of love? It only cares for play. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. THE KISS by OLLIV CUSTONS. Red for LibriVox.org by NEMA. In the grey north I found a flower, more fair than blossoms of the south, the red rose of your mouth.  Yes, that shy kiss had such strange power, that summer seemed to bend above the laughing face of love. Our radiant future, tower on tower, a phantom city of delight, rose swiftly into sight. From there a smiling fate would shower, her rarous gifts. I dreamed all this in one brief, silent kiss. No garden blossom has for dour such deep, divine, glad dreams as those you gave to me. Red Rose. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. THE SNOW by OLLIV CUSTONS. Red for LibriVox.org by NEMA. From sullen skies the frail white snowflakes fall like fairy butterflies. Fall on the pale small snow drops, fall and fall, covering the purple violets, covering all the fair fragile children of the spring. Covering the big warm earth is with a pawl. And then the sun shines out, and the birds sing to see a strange white world like crystal glittering. And my soul that in silence for so long is shuttered at the wounded world's red sins, and sordid griefs and passionate dumb sorrows. Suddenly dreams a shining dream and spins a silver poem, and straight way opens wide the great dim windows of her house of song, and laughs to know her dark despairs have died. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. MELLISOND by OLLIV CUSTONS. Red for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Pale little princess, passionate and shy, with delicate small hands and heavy hair. A simple childlike creature wild and fair, yet shadowed by a haunting mystery. Born too I know not what high destiny, and driven out to darkness and despair, to see at last a love divine and rare, slain by a jealous husband, and to die. How listlessly you turn from love and tears, yet looking in the eyes of death you smiled, and stretched out wistful arms, as though once more your pelleas had entered at the door.  He saved your beauty from the bitter years. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. AFTER RAIN by OLLIV CUSTONS. Red for LibriVox.org by NEMA. A scent of fresh, wet mold pervades the air. Pale beams of sunset linger everywhere. And cold, white mists around the river rise, up from the low damp meadows to the skies. So fading into dusk, the daylight dies. The wind sighs out its sorrows to the trees. The ashen sky is froth like wintery seas, and not one star swings wide her casement yet, although the wintry sun has long since set, and darkness and her sister's sleep have met. The moon has swathed her silver face and wide, soft webs of wandering cloud she strives to hide, her splendor from the sullen night alas. When will her dreams of summer come to pass? When will the flowers appear among the grass? And a poem, this recording, is in the public domain. A Dancing Girl by OLLIV CUSTONS. Red for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Dark daughter of a dancing race, how do you weave your secret spells? Song cannot show with what strange grace you lightly lift your frock of lace, sound thick with little silver bells. You hold us with your haunting eyes, and in your hair so soft and long our souls are snared, yet we are wise. We know you through your dark disguise. You are a witch-girl, weird and strong, a pegging creature with the grace of the lost childhood of the world, and in your pale fantastic face and in your smile we seem to trace the fairy with its bright wings furrowed. A water nymph you may have been, with heavy lilies in your hair, our mermaids swinging in the green, deep sea or dryad stretched unseen among fair leaves and blossoms fair. Now from a lighted stage you glance, smiling, oh sorcerous unknown, and we who watch you in a trance enchanted by your mystic dance forget how sad the world has grown. And a poem, this recording, is in the public domain. A C-Song by Olive Custance, read for LibriVox.org by Neema. A stony shore where green waves curl and break, in opalescent stars of foam and shake, the golden silence with a siren song of strange sea voices, calling all day long, seeming to say, oh mortal, come and sleep. The world is full of tears, its ways are steep. Come down before the future saddens thee, and sleep among the rainbows in the sea. There in the shadow of the cliff I lay, in the soft stillness of an autumn day, listened and dreamed, until the little cares that steal upon the spirit unawares, and all the tangled mysteries of fate, man's love and laughter, tears and hopes and hate, were half forgotten. In those perfect hours the bright sea tossed me blue and silver flowers to play with, and a lark with sudden flight flew sunward, singing loud for my delight. And I became a princess, even I, under my turquoise-colored tent, the sky, my heart to thrill, with wonder and wild glee, and for my lord and lover, the great sea. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Reminisances by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Just once we met, it seemed so long ago, so long, and yet men would not think it so, who count their time by years. Just once we met, and now we never meet. It is regret I lost a friend so sweet, that stings my heart to tears. I clasped your hand, but scarcely said a word. We stood as children stand, whose souls are stirred. To great shy love they cannot comprehend. I clasped your hand, and looked into your eyes. My spirits spanned, your spirits mysteries, but feared to call you friend. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Retonello by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Against the wide clear windows of your mind, my songs continually rush in beat, like circling swallows in the summer days. And withbound to eyes, for love has made them blind. They sing in darkness of your beauty, sweet, enchant, and shadow your perpetual praise. And yet it is not love that makes them sad, but sorrow, that stands ever by delight, with bruised white blossoms in her weary hands. Olive tells her all his secrets, mad and glad, and she, with languid lips and eyes like night, listens and whispers back and understands. O friend gone far away, my restless songs crave ever for the hour of your return. At hope's dim doors, though silent wings flashed white, and when bright day puts off the earth's crown of wrongs and darkness draws life dreamward, still they yearn towards you and sleeps fairy lands all night. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Gray Eyes by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. I love to look into your long, sad eyes, those veiled, inscrutable eyes that have revealed your silent soul, grown curiously wise, through strange experience and life's mysteries. Gray eyes whose lids are cunning to conceal, glances that have the glitter of cold steel.  End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The White Witch by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Her body is a dancing joy, a delicate delight, her hair a silver glamour and a net of golden light.   How flowerlike are the smiling lips so many have desired? Lips that love's long kisses have left a little tired. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Dreamer by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Your heart, an angel out of reach, escapes the world's control. Life cannot trouble with its speech, the trances of your soul. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Lingering Day by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Stepping between the sunset's scarlet wings, the fair day puts aside her proud disguise, and from her wary head she backward flings the hood of sunshine hiding her strange eyes. When smiling softly at the startled west, she stands and watches till the splendor dies, and silver twilight calls the winds to rest, and silence settles at the heart of things. But wherefore should you linger, O bright day, and watch so wistfully and watch so late? The sun is gone, and you have cast away the gifts he gave, the mystic seals of fate. The sword of storm, the heavy crown of care, even tired queen, your golden robes of state, say, is it night with great stars in his hair, or the white maiden moon for whom you wait? End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. In Praise of Love by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Love should be pure and passionate, a thing of flame and flowers frail, elusive, bright, a sudden splendor, a most proud delight.  Love is an inspiration which reveals the grace of the beloved to our glad eyes, so we who worship vehemently are wise, since shy strange beauty slips for us her dark disguise, and softly from her secret hiding steals and passion comes to us with laughing lips. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Antinous by Olive Custons, read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. I spoke of you, Antinous, with her who is my heart's delight, the while we watched the dawn of night through veils of dusk diaphanous.  And I, a free-born singing child, in this dull-sorted age of ours, cried to my friend, O flower of flowers, worship with me, but she smiled. She smiled, and said with soft disdain, his statue cannot see or hear. If you should kneel forever, dear, he would not know you kneel in vain. Yet all night long, O my desire, I watched beside you pale and dumb, and now the silver dawn has come, the sky is stained with scarlet fire.  End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Silence of Love by Olive Custons Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. The poise of your small head, how proud it seems! How sad your great dark eyes and your mouth's bow has such a petulant disdainful pout, as though it were worried of the ebb and flow, of life within the soul were shapes of dreams, an endless long procession come and go in all the tumult of the world without. Slowly about us the grave dusk is shed, behind us, as we stand the frost-stung fire flames up and fills the room with dancing light. Which is not but in silence I aspire to praise you in a song unsung, unsaid, a dream song faint with sorrow and desire of music made in memory and delight. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Good night by Olive Custons Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. The clock ticks loudly, but the house is still. The wind moans softly in the chimney groove. Loose leaves at rest upon the window sill stir whisperingly, so fairy folk might move. Clouds cover up the moon, the west gleams white. Good night, dear heart, good night. All day there has been darkness in my heart, all day without you. O, the long gray hours, to think how very far we are apart, to think some ways are all set thick with flowers. When our ways went so sad and void of light, good night, dear heart, good night. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Love and Death, I. The Victory of Love by Olive Custons Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Beloved, I come to tell you it is spring. The old brown earth puts forth pale buds again, pierced by the silver arrows of the rain, who wounded breasts bleed blossoms, violets cling across your grave, and how the wild birds sing. Life sheathed in sunshine is fate's sort of pain, but beauty beckons to my soul in vain. Since you are dead, what comfort can she bring?  I fret to hold your hand sometimes, against my will, in spite of my despair. I love you yet. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Love and Death, II. The Victory of Death by Olive Custons Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. I am true to you, beloved and only love. Even though others seem to snatch away this wayward heart of mine, and every day finds me still seeking in each stranger's face the face I loved, and if at times I trace a chance resemblance see your mouth or eyes, eyes colored like the clearest April skies, I love you again, beloved and only love. I am true to you, beloved and only love, though you have grown indifferent to me. Since death has led you where I cannot see, if you remember, only guess at this, that you sleep sound or find strange lips to kiss. O, what thought shall be thought or what word said to comfort those who sorrow for the dead? I know you are changed, beloved and only love. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Music by Olive Custons. Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Within the room a mist of music rising, between my weary soul and the clamorous world, while through the window floats another song of men's devising, from a fountain like a frail pale feather conningly up curled. That sky-pump we call sunset flares slow winding, and long procession through the western gates ajar, with pageant-deplumed purple gonfalins and blinding, proud flash of swords, it leaves us to the twilight and one pale star. And now the music storms with stern persistence, the prison where my secret thoughts are shut apart, the marching melody beats down my tired resistance and enters through the broken doors the citadel of my heart. So my fair friend, unconscious of the magic persuasion of her music wakes a memory, vivid and bitter of a dead dream sweet and tragic, that once one blue and silver springtide seemed possible to me. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Perot by Olive Custons. Read for LibriVox.org by NEMA. Perot, Perot. At first they said you slept, and then they told me you would never wake. I dared not think. I watched the white day break. The yellow lamps go out. I have not wept. But now I kiss your dear cold hands and weep, shaken with sobs, I cower beside the bed. At last I realize that you are dead, drawn suddenly into the arms of sleep. Love, you will never look at me again, with those rain-colored heavy lidded eyes, closed now forever. Perot, was it wise to love so madly since we loved in vain? In vain, in vain, but Perot, it was sweet to stem the stealthy hours with wine and song, though death stood up between us stern and strong, and fate twined nets to trip our dancing feet.  Yet still was our brave love not overthrown, and I would nestle at your side and see your large, sad eyes grow passionate for me. Love, wake and speak, I cannot live alone. Blue as blue flames the great sky above, the earth is wonderful and glad and green, but shut the sunlight out for I have seen forgetfulness upon the face of love. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. April Twilight by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo The skies are gray, the streets are gray. Twilight walks softly through the streets, against the golden veils of day, with wary, silver-gwinged she beats. So every amber veil is rent, and standing here I watch the night, close round the city like a tent, while all the lamps grow bright. What strange, mad things our fancies are, when darkness spreads and life stands still. Each lamppost, with its yellow star, is like a monstrous daffodil. My windows look across a square. I see dark houses through a screen, slender branches, leafless, bare, yet faintly flushed with green. I see the strangers pass and pass, and some are grave, and some are gay. But all seem shadows in a glass, not like the people of the day. They walk between giant daffodils, how endlessly their footsteps beat, how languidly their laughter thrills the silence of this street. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. April by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo Yet last we see the shadows play again, at hide-and-seek, the shadows of the leaves, and swallows build new nest between the eaves. For spring is with us, bringing in her train, flowers and songs, and sudden rustling rain, and golden mornings, when the poet perceives what stealthy shadow nets the sunshine-weaves, striving to catch the singing birds in vain. But who walks sternly, with a wayward spring? Is it white winter, eager still to slay, thwarting our laughter, or their sullen glance? Yet surely, very soon she will take wing, and leave us to the loveliness of May, the south-wing days when all the shadows dance. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. Life by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo I play with life on different days, in different moons. Sometimes my wayward spirit strays, in wonderful solitudes. Sometimes I seek the crowded ways of the world's gay multitudes. Sometimes my soul is as fierce and mad as a winter sea. Sometimes my soul is brave and glad, and the hours are good to me. But often enough it is tired and sad. Poor wave of eternity. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. A Song of Youth by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo I met youth in a garden wild, with roses tangled in her hair. She looked into my eyes and smiled, kiss me, she said, for I am fair. But, laughingly, I went my way, and heeded not the word she said. What was her smile to me that day? Her mischievous, sweet moths so red. I went my way of dreaming eyes, a light of heart I was yet shy. But not too old, and not too wise, to miss the rainbows in the sky. I went my way with dancing feet, for I was slow to learn the truth, that fame and love and song are sweet, but not more thrilling sweet than youth. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. To a Playfellow by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo I sing to you a song of spring, for youth and spring go well together. A song of soft and sunny weather, a song of birds upon the wing. Song of green against the blue. This is the wayward song I sing to you. I sing to you a song of hope, for surely hope is youth's first lover, and all his rainbows arch above her, and all his dreams a shining rope of sun and mist of light and dew, are wound about her willing feet, and all his ways are wild and sweet. I sing a song of hope to you. A song of love I sing to you, for youth and love are comrades ever. Oh, laughing comrades, hard to sever. And when you too bright love pursue, be sure he will not miss the chance of leading you a merry dance, or if snares beneath and stars above, I sing to you a song of love. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. A Swallow Song by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo Since I cannot come to you, and you may not come to me, words must go where I would be and do what I would do.  They will see your face all day, steel into your dreams at night, safe beneath your pillow white, while I am far away. Since we are such miles apart, see, I send this swallow song. It is tired, the way was long, take it to your tender heart. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. The Coming of Dawn by Olive Custons Red for LibriVox.org by Nemo Oh, dawn with hair of pallid gold, this is the hour of your delight. Upwaving from the east, your white, tremulous, rose-stained wings of light, beat softly at the gates of night. The air is delicately cold, and see, your spears of sunlight hurled, a thwart, the pale sky's ranks of gray.  End of poem, this recording is in the public domain.  She has slain the demon night, but it shadows haunt her yet, and she cannot quite forget the black terror of the fight. So her sunshine, like a veil, falls about her dim and pale, and her skies are cold and gray, and her songbirds, where are they?  Web of mist as soft as sleep, fallen on the mouse that sang, fallen on the eyes that weep.  I love your dark clouds drifting by in weird, fantastic shapes for hours. I love your wayward thunder showers, your sudden rainbows in the sky. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain.  For dreams are lovely, and life is sad, and when you were a child, what dreams you had. Now, over your sole life shadows pass, Girl in the Glass. Girl in the Glass in April Day looks not more tearful, looks not more gay, than your rose-flushed face with a wistful mouth. For your soul seeks love as a swallow flies south, so into your eyes love sorrows pass, Girl in the Glass. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. End of Rainbows by Olive Custons


Hello and welcome to another episode of our special series, Meeting Our Lords. COVID-19 has confined us to our homes for another three weeks. These are very difficult times to run our businesses. In our special series, we at Exchange for Media are bringing to you leaders who can help us navigate our way through these difficult times. Today we are speaking to Rubina Singh, CEO Eye Prospect India. Welcome to the show, Rubina. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me over and hope you and your family are healthy and safe. Thank you so much. We wish you the same. Rubina, these are very challenging times for everyone. How are you ensuring that your business... First tell me what is the kind of impact this has had on your business, this lockdown? Well, like in the case of most people, I think the impact has been massive. It came in suddenly, it was something which is unprecedented, something we had never imagined which would happen. But the fact of the matter is the clients that we work with, a lot of them, the supply chains are broken. Obviously, they're not able to reach out to the customers, there are no footfalls in their stores and businesses are impacted at large. Because of which, there is obviously an impact to the business that we run at Eye Prospect as well, which is digital marketing, helping our clients with their digital marketing efforts. So, yes, there has been an impact. But at the same point in time, we are quickly working on areas where we think we can help clients and trying to also see how we can pivot our business into other areas where there could be an opportunity. So, that's how we are dealing with. So, to talk a little bit through what we're doing with clients, because our current clients are our foremost priority at this point in time. We understand for them also, there is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. The routines have disappeared, there is a feeling of apprehension for them also. In general, the 24-hour news reports that we consume also lead to a lot of anxiety and fear for our businesses. So, I think what is important for us is to be able at least to give some amount of reliability on the work that they depend on us for. We have made sure that what we deliver to them is done bang on time and correctly. There are daily updates and connections happening with clients. There are weekly meetings happening with them, weekly calls happening with them. And the fact of the matter is that because we are not able to do face-to-face meetings which we otherwise do, we are trying to see how we can stay connected more than less by using calls or even video calls very effectively. On the other part that I mentioned was, and I prospect, we tried to also get into another area of business. We all know that while there has been a significant impact on all our businesses, there is always an opportunity that comes with every crisis. That's what I really believe. And the opportunity that has come to us is that most people have a lot of time on hand currently. And that time to my mind can be best utilized in learning something. And as we all know today, digital has become the center of our lives, right? Whether it's connecting with our friends and family or the world outside at large or whether it's as professionals giving us the flexibility to work from home or even as businesses, it's perhaps the easiest way to be able to connect to your customers. So what I prospect are doing is we're building a program which we believe will help build a stronger digital ecosystem by sharing knowledge and providing the hands-on insights that we have got working with real world problems of our clients. And we're doing this in form of holding educational webinars which we kicked off last week which was the first one on paid media. And as we speak, we are doing one tomorrow as well. We got a fantastic response on the webinar that we did last week. And the plan is to continue it in two now different modules. We've started with the Big No module, but as we go forward, we'll get into intermediate and pro as well. And hopefully as things resume back to normalcy, I hope that's soon. But also start another perhaps education vertical within the iProspect brand. So after you've spoken about clients, employees are equally important. And they are also, some of them are also anxious. There are news coming in of pay cuts from everywhere, layoffs. What kind of confidence building measures are you taking for your clients right now, for your employees right now? I think you're right. These are very uncertain times. And people are bound to feel at different points in time. You feel sometimes sad, sometimes you feel stressed, sometimes you feel a bit scared as well. It's bound to happen to all of us. I think what we are trying to do is to help keep the morale of the employees highest. The first thing is that celebrate contributions, right? Whether they're small or big. I think just recognizing and appreciating some great work that is coming through to my mind is the most simple, cost effective and direct way to boost the morale. Apart from that, I think what happens in offices is that we have a lot of water cooler conversations, right? But currently we're feeling all feeling a bit isolated and therefore uncertain on what is really going to happen. So we are actually trying to make a conscious effort to start chatting with our colleagues frequently. Just catching up on the day generally as friends, not so much on work, beyond work as well. Whether it's through phone calls, but more importantly, we are also trying to do a lot of video calls because all of us, you know, we're very excited to see each other. We took it up a granted that we would be with each other for most of our waking hours. But now we're trying to, you know, we understand the importance of it and how much joy that brings to us. And now, you know, we're trying to stay connected. What we're also doing is we're trying to build, you know, continue the culture that we had in whatever small ways that we can. So for instance, in my prospect, you know, we had this tradition of Fun Fridays. What Fun Friday is simple, it's time to unwind together at the office, you know, and we believed it helped us create better relationships at work and out issues if you may have had during the week with a colleague of yours. It generally would lower stress levels and create that happy atmosphere in the office. But, you know, we'll just hang out as friends. So we were missing that a lot. So we did a video call, you know, about the Friday before last with the whole iProspect team. Just to say hello as friends and chit chat. I'm so good to see everybody. And I can also tell you it was a really energizing experience and the productivity of the team. And, you know, I could see that go up by the sheer number of WhatsApp messages that started happening between our internal groups, client groups, so small things like that. I know at a dine level also the HR team is doing a great job. One is we have, like I said earlier, we have time so to invest that time into our hobbies passions as well. We are holding a show, you know, an internal sort of show which is called dance got talent. So that's what the HR team is putting together. But more importantly, we also understand that the pressures and the stress levels some of us are facing, you know, because of the restricted environment that we're currently operating under could be immense. And while talking to friends, family, people we trust in general can help at an organizational level to help with this stress. You know, we're planning a wellness program. So the first session is actually scheduled tomorrow with a sound healer. She's a wholesome life coach, and she uses energy healing through sound instruments, you know, for spontaneous relaxation and meditation. So some of the initiatives that we are doing to keep the environment positive and lift up this group of our team members. Coming back to the clients, I was going through the list and I found a lot of BSFI clients. And this sector is not very active, but it's still visible when I see a television or particularly on digital media. Access recently did a campaign, which is, which became pretty popular. So how are you handling your clients from this particular sector? Well, I would say we are fortunate that our portfolio has been always dominant with the BFSI. And these are essential services, right? Banks are still open and they're functioning as normal. If I look at insurance, in fact, health insurance and life insurance have actually the searches and the businesses are actually increasing in times of these crisis. So yes, this sector has not been impacted as much by the current crisis vis-a-vis some of the others like in travel, hospitality, e-com, and so on and so forth. So there are opportunities and relevant contextual opportunities that we are working with our clients in the sector. But you also have tourism clients. What are you doing with them? Actually, to be honest, we've not been very heavy on that category, but a few of them, maybe a couple of them. Do you have Swiss tourism there? Yes. And I think clients are also being sensitive and we are also sensitizing them on how the consumer behavior is at the moment and what is the mood and how will that information be palatable. So some very interesting campaigns have been designed with very relevant communication to be able to stay connected with the customers. See, I understand this is a situation which is very difficult, but we are all hopeful that at some point in time we will get past this. And at that point in time, we don't want to be completely, you know, not in touch with your customers. So while it can be lesser than usual business as usual days, but it is important for brands to stay interconnected with customers, especially on digital. Well, today, maximum spent is really on digital media and there are various reports which I'm sure you have access to just saying that consumption on digital media has gone through the roof. So this there is an opportunity for clients to be able to, you know, stay connected with their customers through the digital media at prices sometimes which were which are far more economical today because of the demand supply situation. So this will be what it was, let's say six weeks ago. Rubina, I also want to understand you must you understand digital better than most of us. What are the kind of consumption patterns that you're noticing and do you think it will change the way we consume digital. I mean these this lockdown because consumption has increased. Like newspapers have now become digital, you know, everyone is most of the people are consuming newspapers on digital. What kind of changes do you expect once the lockdown is over behavioral changes in consumers. I definitely think it is going to be a huge change in consumer behavior. You know, after this lockdown, one is that digital was always centerpiece and the customer, you know, the consumers and the users were always there. I think marketers didn't, you know, leverage this medium towards fullest. I think today, because of the business situation, they're also realizing that, you know, this is becoming a medium which is going to be far more effective and reaching their customers directly.  But today when you see women, you know, or even for the men folk when they see the women working at home cooking looking after families also managing their work, they're able to understand that power better. Is this again something wrong with the video? Well, they always knew, yes, digital is grown and I can hear you absolutely clearly and see you absolutely. There was just one second glitch here. Okay. So what I was really saying is why marketers always knew this that digital is become centerpiece and it is where all the customers is today's situation has forced them to, you know, kind of use it as a medium as effectively and large it is currently to be able to, you know, deliver their messages which are not just acquiring customers but also top panel objectives. If I talk of person ages, how much growth do you think that's sweet? Let her be there. We all know they're working from home. How much growth do you think we will see eventually in consumption patterns in digital after this lockdown? I mean it's hard to remember and to say anything right now. Can you hear me right now? I can hear you but I think. Can you hear me right? Yeah. Yes. I think it's hard to make any guesses right now but I definitely see that there is going to be a positive impact on the digital channels for sure. I think from a customer's point of view because I think that, you know, they're going to use it more and also from as customers also currently we want anything they're trying to use digital right so I think we are adopting it for much as well, not just for consumption of media but transactions as well. And for businesses also while they're realizing that even, you know, this whole situation even once the lockdown opens they're going to be like the Prime Minister said today there are going to be steps in which it will be released. I don't think people will immediately go back to their normal behavior of getting out to the stores as quickly. It is going to take some time to get back to that normalcy. In that time, I think both customers and marketers will leverage this medium hugely effective. I know it's definitely going to be a big positive upspending putting numbers to it at this point in time is going to be a very hard task. So before we close, I would want you to say something for the youngsters of the industry. You know, we've just maybe they started their career this year or somebody who started their own digital agency this year.  Well, I'm no expert. I think I would. But I have always believed that every cloud has a silver lining and there is some opportunity in every adversity. So see the bright side of things, invest in learning, see where the opportunities are and build on it. I think those of us who are in the digital space are still better off than many other people. Because I think this is the space which will be or which even currently is less impacted than some of the other mediums. When I look at, for instance, our form, what people who work in their events business, right? So this opportunity to stay positive, stay focused invest in learning invest this time of thinking through new ideas, finding new opportunities and build on them and stay positive and safe. Rubina, thank you so much for talking to us and taking your time out. I'm sure this interview will inspire many young people. Stay at home and stay safe. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm sorry about the interruption that is working from home. It's perfectly fine. Thank you so much.