WEBVTT

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<c.running>Episode 1 is the night the whole axis is</c>

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<c.running>counted from: by our working convention, Y0.</c>

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<c.steel>Aaron asked for a thirty-minute oil</c>

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<c.steel>paint-along of his own two characters,</c>

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<c.steel>Jefrie and BloodTailor,</c>

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<c.steel>with four voices who never</c>

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<c.steel>introduce themselves.</c>

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<c.fact>For twenty minutes a gentle painter teaches</c>

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<c.fact>real oil craft: value, edges, wet-in-wet,</c>

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<c.fact>glazing, fat over lean.</c>

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<c.fact>Then the bell tolls, the side bars slide</c>

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<c.fact>away, and the painting fills the screen.</c>

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<c.fact>After that it is flown over,</c>

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<c.fact>X-rayed, cut back, sung, filmed silent,</c>

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<c.fact>over-painted, hung and relit.</c>

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<c.fact>The host is never seen: no face, no hands,</c>

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<c.fact>only his brush, his voice and the subtitles.</c>

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<c.steel>Aaron cast him as a homage to a famous</c>

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<c.steel>public-television painter;</c>

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<c.running>and as a working rule he is never</c>

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<c.running>named and never impersonated.</c>

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<c.fact>Paintings speak to him, and he</c>

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<c.fact>answers with total courtesy,</c>

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<c.fact>as if it happens all the time.</c>

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<c.fact>He gives the last stroke away,</c>

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<c.fact>and his last clean word, said softly</c>

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<c.fact>to the viewer, is Goodnight.</c>

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<c.running>By our running reading, every calm one after</c>

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<c.running>him rhymes him: Teo, the agent and the chess</c>

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<c.running>teacher, each ending on Goodnight.</c>

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<c.steel>Jefrie is Aaron's own character,</c>

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<c.steel>set in steel: a small young warrior girl</c>

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<c.steel>from the same dark world as BloodTailor.</c>

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<c.steel>But Aaron has also said that Episode 1's</c>

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<c.steel>Jefrie is not actually going to be canon</c>

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<c.steel>Jefrie: her lines are only what Jefrie would say.</c>

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<c.fact>Inside the painting she is silent</c>

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<c.fact>until the rag gives her a mouth,</c>

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<c.fact>and her first remark is about the</c>

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<c.fact>host's first story: she has been</c>

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<c.fact>listening since the start.</c>

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<c.fact>She tells the painter to make her</c>

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<c.fact>tail heavier, and she is right.</c>

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<c.running>By our running reading, she never returns</c>

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<c.running>as cast: only as a painting,</c>

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<c.running>a print, a drawing or a sound.</c>

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<c.fact>At four forty-seven in the morning,</c>

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<c.fact>a caller rings in,</c>

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<c.fact>painting along since the 2 a.m. airing,</c>

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<c.fact>for his little sister: it's for my</c>

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<c.fact>sister, Rosie. She's nine today.</c>

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<c.fact>He counts things, the bell, the days,</c>

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<c.fact>the seconds, and he is usually right:</c>

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<c.fact>he predicts the last stroke</c>

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<c.fact>at exactly twenty minutes.</c>

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<c.fact>At five-oh-nine, Rosie's painting is done:</c>

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<c.fact>attempt number four, on a pizza-box lid.</c>

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<c.fact>Then he falls asleep on the line.</c>

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<c.fact>The pitchman shouts in capitals,</c>

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<c.fact>prices everything, and owns the phrase</c>

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<c.fact>BUT WAIT, which the host bans.</c>

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<c.steel>Aaron cast him as a homage</c>

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<c.steel>to a famous TV pitchman.</c>

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<c.fact>He has carried a one-hair brush for</c>

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<c.fact>eleven years and never got it wet.</c>

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<c.fact>That night it makes the last stroke:</c>

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<c.fact>a catch-light in Jefrie's eye,</c>

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<c.fact>with nobody holding it.</c>

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<c.fact>Eleven minutes in, the host paints a small</c>

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<c.fact>cabin with one lit window into the ruins,</c>

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<c.fact>and says only: there, that one's just for me.</c>

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<c.fact>Three strokes of gold paint it out.</c>

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<c.fact>After the turn, an X-ray finds it, and its</c>

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<c.fact>window is the only warm pixel on the plate.</c>

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<c.fact>He says: I always put one in.</c>

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<c.fact>Usually it's the part you paint over.</c>

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<c.egg>It is the series' longest-running egg.</c>

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<c.egg>Teo draws a one-window cabin and rubs it out,</c>

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<c.egg>Episode 3's agent is a cursor</c>

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<c.egg>the colour of that window,</c>

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<c.egg>and in Episode 4 only the colour is left.</c>

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<c.open>Why he puts one in is still open.</c>

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<c.steel>Behind them stands the Storm Bell:</c>

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<c.steel>in Aaron's own canon, Jefrie's home.</c>

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<c.fact>In Episode 1 it tolls every five</c>

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<c.fact>minutes, and nobody mentions it until</c>

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<c.fact>the caller counts three.</c>

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<c.fact>Its fourth toll breaks the broadcast</c>

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<c.fact>window at twenty minutes.</c>

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<c.egg>Later nights bury it: re-pitched to F</c>

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<c.egg>under every chat chime in Episode 2,</c>

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<c.egg>and to A under Rosie's check-ins</c>

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<c.egg>in Episode 3.</c>

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<c.idea>One idea on the table: D, F and A walk a</c>

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<c.idea>D minor chord, and a later episode might</c>

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<c.idea>ring it on D again, at twenty minutes.</c>

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<c.open>The first night leaves a lot open on</c>

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<c.open>purpose. Nobody knows whose room the end room is.</c>

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<c.open>The caller's name is unknown,</c>

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<c.open>and so is what became of him.</c>

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<c.open>And how Rosie knew about the girl with</c>

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<c.open>the tail, nineteen hours before the</c>

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<c.open>broadcast, is still open.</c>

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<c.open>Even whether the show was live is open:</c>

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<c.open>the caller asks, and gets only, hi, friend.</c>

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<c.running>By our running count, Episode 2's</c>

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<c.running>film quotes this night twelve times,</c>

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<c.running>and Episode 3's twenty-five.</c>

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Next: sixty years on, a city for the Moon.