Thanks to Gordon for being on the ball enough to realise that this marvellous cautionary tale about reaching for the stars had already been zedded. I'm still posting it just to remind us all how great it is. Otherwise my incursions into blackcurrent land have resulted in a fairly eclectic playlist with, I hope, something for everyone. I've been struck by various different threads of narrative in the songs you've all suggested this week: fame as a living hell pursued by paparazzi, fame as the ultimate goal, fame as the impossible dream which eventually devours you (as with Hot Chocolate's Emma) and finally, and thankfully, some songs which dare to reflect that "life's been good" to those who make it to the top. As the equally divine Oscar, Chrissie and Stephen pointed out "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars..."
But what we really want to know is: Have YOU had your 15 minutes? Did you try for them or did they just happen? Was your life touched by fame as a result? Do tell....
And extra 'Spill points for telling which Oscar/Chrissie/Stephen I mean.....
But what we really want to know is: Have YOU had your 15 minutes? Did you try for them or did they just happen? Was your life touched by fame as a result? Do tell....
And extra 'Spill points for telling which Oscar/Chrissie/Stephen I mean.....
!
66 comments:
I won first prize in a poetry competition when I was 16. I had to read out my poem in public and the microphone broke down. So the world will never know just how good it was ... c'est la vie.
Tragic - but now you can rectify the situation via the wonders of the 'Spill! Go'arn! Do you still have it?
I think the world has probably been spared ... some things are best forgotten!
You're too modest...!!!!
Big love for the Blimpmeister giving us the new springtime Spill header!
I was once interviewed by Danny Baker on the 6 o'clock show on ITV. In order to fit the profile I put on my best (ie. worst) Watford accent for the interview - my mum never forgave me!
Nice one Toffee! What was the subject of the interview?
But couldn't we suggest the Sisters of Mercy cover of Emma? I've been thanked on an album cover and had a song written for me (that didn't make it to the studio though). That's fame enough for me, well I'd like to get a novel published, but I'd have to finish it first ;-)
Tasty playlist by the way FP. Wilde, Hynde, Morrissey I believe.
Watford was the first English town to be twinned with a Russian town - Novgorod. This was way back in 1984 or '85 so before the Iron Curtain came down so it was quite big news. The Six O'Clock show did one of their typical light-hearted look at the news items and came to Watford to interview some of the locals about it. I was working in a local bookshop and they wanted to speak to the staff about sales of Russian phrase books and travel guides. All a bit silly really but quite fun. It was more like fifteen seconds than fifteen minutes ...
The quote is from our 'dear beloved Wilde' - not sure who Chrissy and Stephen are unless Stephen is Stephen Fry?
Great list by the way - we've missed the distinctive frogprincess/Deezer boxes. I liked the Rufus Wainwright and of course the Sprouts. The new album is now due in the summer by the way, and the track listing has already been leaked. There's more on the sproutnet website.
Yes indeed! The Spring Spill header is in full effect!!
The more eagle eyed amongst you may have noiced that the header has changed for the seasons since last summer (i think...) with the occasional intervention (speng, valentines day, xmas etc).
The current spill header took me about 3 minutes to make and upload (it took Samuel Palmer maybe an afternoon to paint the original, which I've seen in the flesh btw). I would now like to open the official Spill Spring header competition - the winner gets their header up for the duration of the season/15 minutes of fame (whichever comes first).
Please send ideas via the sidebar contact email addy. If you would like me to send dimensions, let me know.
Go team!!
The current header was inspired by all the blossoms bursting out all over the place, by the way.
My claim to fame is being the unseen character (the "Godmother") in a Brazilian street circus in Recife. I wasn't there but I'd given a lifelong friend the airfare to go and she promised to put my name in smoke-rings in the circus. Her daughter is my only goddaughter, hence the alias.
Morning to you all and I hope you have a wee chink of sunshine 'spilling through the clouds like we do here. Nilpferd - schoenes Wetter bei Euch d'rueben?
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Toffee - nice news item. It's always interesting to see what towns are twinned with what and very amusing to guess the criteria. Northern mining village with outback settlement in the Ruhr? Tick. Pretty holiday town with picturesque bay on the cote d'azur - tick. You wonder who does the selection. On the Sprout front - major news indeed. But sincerely - is Paddy still alive? I know he had major health problems. Is he well enough to tour? Did he get his sight back? I wonder about this on an almost daily basis. And I'm not joking. The man and his music mean a lot to me.
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Beth - being on album sleeve notes is a good one. That's mine too but I'd forgotten. And I know for a fact that some of you have it in your collection. But keep my identity schtum, dear friends. I'm NOT famous and let's keep it that way.... And two out of three for the quoted question - nice one. i wasn't thinking of Mozza although we can be fairly sure he DID say that at some point...
Oh and you've just reminded me that Manuel Goettsching wished me Happy Birthday from the stage of the Lincoln Centre last August. I just wish I'd been there...!!!!!
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Blimpy the 'Spill looking like it's blossoming out all over. Great work. Following your splended sweet suggestions I now have a pile of chocolate limes as my desktop photo and will change it week after week to be another 70s retro chic sweet. It actually looks very good.
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Mnemonic - that's a very very cool example. Nice one. Did you ever get to go to Brazil on another occasion?
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Glad you're liking the chunes!!!
The Stella track - Fame is a four letter word - is the big discovery of ny week. The track cuts off in the deezer list so here's the link:
http://www.deezer.com/track/2272637
Does anyone know anything about her?
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Toffee it was Stephen Fry. From the moment when he accosts Ricky Gervais in the loos during the Baftas on Extras. He quotes that line at Andy Millmann. Nice one. And you all got Oscar Wilde and Chrissie Hynde of course.
Oh that's made my Sunday - there's a 2008 photo of Paddy on sproutnet with Martin and Thomas Dolby. And he's wearing spex so he can se ( he went blind for a while with shingles). Jubilation!!!Think I will play all my Sprout albums back to back starting with Swoon just to celebrate. Cheers O caramel one!!!!!
Well, I've made 2 features, as everyone knows because I go on about it like the disappointed old lady that I am. I made the first when I was 23, and there was a fellow living in New York at the time who you wanted to know if you were an independent film maker. He was responsible for every smidge of success that Kevin Smith had, (oh so much to answer for) and instrumental in the success of Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Richard Linklater. Well, I met him in NYC, sent him my film, and... A few weeks later I got a message on my machine that he loved it, and his wife loved it (and she was my biggest fan), and all the things he liked about it. And, he said, he would guarantee that not just him and his wife but everybody everywhere would have a chance to see it. I saved that message as long as I could.
But he stopped repping films and moved to Texas and then to Fiji, and...my film was all forgotten about. IT was very discouraging. But I made another feature anyway! And one nice thing that came out of that was that I sent it to Stuart Murdoch, because I thought he'd like it, and he mentioned it in his diary on the B&S blog, with my name and all.
Oh, and once, I had the pull quote on the Guardian's culture page! Nominating a J. Geils song, if I recall correctly.
I'm still dead impressed that you made one feature - let alone two!!! Can you make them available to some VoD site so we can see them? I'd love to!!! Who has the rights?
Go ahead, Steen- just rub it in with that pull quote. As I type, the last dregs of my hard earned GU kudos are being sucked into that pink (PINK!!) icon next to the throbbingly ridiculous "nilpfred".
I'm done and dusted.
Wrecked.
Blutered.
I'm decommissioned, excommunicated.
I've been torn down, ripped up, fucked over.
I've been flushed.
It's over.
Until next Friday, anyway.
Famewise I'm really quite a dark horse.. an extremely dark horse. After a few public speaking engagements, I blew the chance of appearing on a national TV quiz show by interrupting a competitor during vetting tests to blurt out "Assegai". I was ten at the time, and have simply refused the limelight ever since. Other than that I've got one album cover photo, my final design dissertation (available for viewing alongside 598 others) and a highly embarrassing segment of a student radio program to my name. Unlike my brother, whose name occupies the first 50 slots if you google it, if you type mine in you'll make the acquaintance of a fairly well known church organist in an Edinburgh suburb, as well as a deceased but obviously well loved and highly popular Canadian, with whom former schoolmates continually try to make contact.
And FP- please don't mention the weather, ok?
Pink icon? Nilpfred? Maybe it's not you at all. Maybe it's a fan of yours trying to cash in on your celebrité! You have to watch for these things!!
And I would like to say that if you google my name I'm the only one that comes up. The secret is to have such a completely bizarre name that no one else in the google universe shares it with you. Although there's some woman with a name one letter off who has a bondage and dominatrix website.
Oh, and FP, not yet, but that's a good idea, and I'll get to work on it. I feel like they need a bit of editing, which involves me learning final cut pro, which makes my brain say, "for heaven's sake, woman, you haven't asked me to learn anything new in years!"
I have some clips from the second on youTube.
I was on a children's game show (I feel like I've told this story before), I don't remember what it was called though, and failing miserably at two tasks:
a)rollerskating around the set while my opponent was completing a subtraction (I'd never even put on rollerskates)
b)completing the aforementioned 5 figure subtraction while it was my opponent's turn to rollerskate around the set. (I had done my first subtraction a week earlier.
Who knows, maybe I'm one of those youtube compilations featuring disastrous game show contestants, or maybe it didn't even air.
Ooh I also featured on the news the day after France won the world cup in 98. They were interviewing a group of youths and you could see me standing in the background.
I was dumb enough to go for the no-frills pull-out package without reading the following small print.. "GU reserves the right to play around willy nilly with your icon colour and the spelling of your pseud so it looks good on the page, or at least gives somebody a laugh".
That second film would be the one you posted on Clip-joint for the senses theme, right? I really liked that. You should actually shoot something new, you know..
Herr Hippo - could have been worse. You could have been a whole team of rugby players I saw in TeeVee tonight ALL wearing a shocking pink kit. I'm surprised they accepted it.
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Lady S: I've just bought Final Cut Pro so we can go "Aaaarrrrrrrgh" and tear our hair out together if you like.... And you are also, I see, in the exlusive club of getting 3 in the A list. As is Jason. I've enjoyed whizzing round Marconius's very good RR site. Kudos.
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Toffee, lob some of that tablet over here, will you? Looks very scrummy!!!
Salut Frenchy, that world cup footage mmeans I probably saw you on TeeVee well before RR was invented!! Yeyyyyyy!!!!!
I think they won it on the 12th, so I was being filmed on the Champs-Elysées on the 13th for the 8 o'clock news on France 2, I'm sure you remember...
Sure I saw it. And so did my Mom - she was over at the time..
@ frogprincess - virtual tablet on its way to Alsace, as I type ...
Goddit! Scrumplicious!!!!
Did someone say Final Cut Pro?!
Go on Blimp. What have I let myself in for? Is it awsome or totally shitty?'Spill the beanz....
@ fp - now make sure you brush your teeth ...
Too late Toffee - fallen out with all the sugar I eat. Tee Hee.
Nighty night RRers. CU next week for more fun, jolly japes and some more of Tablet's toffee. Er. other way round...!!!!!
And remember you're all up an hour earlier in the morning (groan)
Brushes with fame. is it? Hmm...depends how you define fame as well, but by the broadest definition possible...
- I was once filmed by the BBC for 'Why dont you?' - with my first band, in 1977 - I was 13!
The filming was surreal, coz we were filmed 'rehearsing' in one of the band's father's garage and all the 'neighbours' for miles came to have a gander at what was going on. We hadnt considered that possibility AT ALL! In fact, we hadnt factored in anyone except ourselves I think...
- I once made/directed/edited/wrote a short documentary film (although ive never yet had the heart to put it on You Tube) about former BBC jock Andy Kershaw. Kershaw was 28 at the time and a bit of a maverick figure. I used to see him almost everywhere I went (dj-ing or just hanging out in the same clubs and bars as me) so I just thought - 'i'd like to make a film about you' and asked him and he agreed to be the main interview. I also interviewed Billy Bragg, John Walters, Ian Anderson (FolkRoots magazine) and others for the same film. I had to do the voice over myself, which was not how I would have preferred it...
- I used to be in a band which did quite well, depending on how you define 'well'. The elements which make it seem like 'fame' for most people would be things like supporting Radiohead, Blur, Suede and so on, being a regular guest on Chris Evans BBC GLR program (about the same time as he signed up for The Big Breakfast), having our videos on minor rotation on MTV at the time, and such like details, playing one or two glamourous showcase gigs, inbetween all the toilets...
Of course, its all nonsense past a certain point. But you did ask.
@FP- i use FCP Studio nearly every day for work, and bloody love it!
Sourpus - we need more details! Spill it! Spill the band name!!!
Should we set up a special dropbox folder to upload our own musical claims to fame? We could still retain our anonymity if we wish. I have a couple of things I would be happy to share with the class and I'd love to hear what other Spillers have been involved with back in the dim and distant past - or even more recently...
What band, Sourpus? We must know! And I want to see your documentary. And I want to hear Toffeeboy's music too. We need a 'Spill show and tell.
Firstly, thanks fp for putting up that video of 'Emma'. I've probably not seen it since I sat transfixed infront of TOTP at the age of 10. Erroll really hams it up doesn't he?
It was about then that I had my only brush with fame although I didn't know it at the time. I was in the same class at primary school as Caroline Aherne (i.e. Mrs Merton and The Royle Family etc.). She didn't seem too funny or wacky at the time, just nice and freindly.
I was also in a rock band as a teenager. We played a few gigs - school, local church hall, local sports club and even played 'on the same stage as Hawkwind'.
Well, by that I mean that we played Bolton Tech, on a stage, where Hawkwind had played a few years earlier. So you see we played....the...same ..stage..
(pathetic really isn't it?)
gordonimmel@ The 'playing the same stage' issue isnt as pathetic as all that; I can completely understand! When I played The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden for the first time (not that great a place when you think about it) and I thought about all the great bands i'd seen there as a student, I was so well chuffed with it, it really didnt matter that we played only to handful of stragglers and the bar staff. Even the (recently closed) Princess Charlotte in Leicester (where we used to rehearse four times a week) became a thing of beauty for a few hours when I imagined myself playing on the same stage as so many of my heroes - Chuck Prophet, Jonathan Richman, Mark Eitzel. Thoughts like that cheered up some of my most miserable performance experiences, that's for dang sure.
Which band? Well, you see, this is where the definition of 'fame' comes into it. By some standards, we were well known and had the luck to do some stuff others only dreamed about and by others we were Nobby Noones who will be remembered by a minute group of only the most ardently dedicated - there are no websites in our name, not even a MySpace. Only expensive Japanese vinyl imports on obscure sites make any reference to our name(s) whatsoever.
We began life as 'Storyville' and ended up as 'The Moodybirds'. Click on my spill name and look under my blog 'Angol Vagyok - ments ki innen' (translates as 'Im English - get me out of here!'), where you'll be able to hear one of our later efforts. There is a video for this track, which I will perhaps consider posting at some point.
Would love to know more of the Toffeeboy story also. TB, do tell!!
steenbeck@ the Kershaw film I am saving for some future date so it currently nestles in the sourpussian vaults and has been seen by relatively few so far. As far as I know, its the only film that's ever been made about the guy and its a 1987 time capsule, which gives it a historical value too, I suppose. The 'Why Dont You?' film has long since been erased by the BBC to save money on video tape - which is a MUCH bigger shame in my opinion. We were 13 year old Midlands urchins with a Shadows/Ventures intrumental covers band, in the middle of a Punk revolution - what a shame there's no surviving evidence! Bloody tightarse BBC!! (skyooze my French)
Oh, and just one other thing. Toffee, your post of 'Gonna make you a star' reminded me of one of the best incidents from my days with Storyville. We were doing a Saturday morning BBC GLR appearance (with Jonathan Ross's sidekick Andy Davies as DJ) and David Essex was the official guest on the show, with us providing live music. David ended up phoning in his interview ('stuck in traffic' was his pitiful excuse) and, thereby, we received a once in a lifetime chance to play a song by one of our 70's British musical heroes to the hero in question - we played 'Gonna make you a star' and David pronounced our effort a 'nice one'.
Chuffed, we were.
I just listened to the Moodybirds. Excellent!
And Nlifpdre, which album cover photo? Did you take it or are you in it? (And thank you for your kind & encouraging words about my film. I'm working on it...)
Evening to you, one and all. I am in awe of all the brushes (and some fair strokes) of fame that some of you have had and so feel that I should add in my one or two party pieces.
I have (in no particular order):
- Appeared, in a speaking role, as an intelligence officer in 'Murphy's Law' on the BBC.
- Been on The Weakest Link and got royally stiffed by being the only person to get a single (really oddly-phrased and hard) question wrong in round two.
- Appeared as team captain on Granada TVs 'Schools Challenge', a kind of North West, Sixth-form equivalent of University Challenge. We got murdered by one girl who was a general knoweldge machine, but at least I got to answer a question with the word "chaps". And it was hosted by Mark Radcliffe so happy days. (My my, this is all getting a bit full disclosurey, no?...)
That's about the best I can do but I am now off to check out the Moodybirds, am keen to see steen's films and to witness EJ's rollerskating quizzery...
Oh and, as a sidebar, I should also humbly apologise for (and explain) my prolonged absence from the fold. After travelling around a lot and never being particularly long in one place, the family Frod are now, as of today, settling down again. I have just returned to my parent's house for the last time, to drop our van off in the morning, having moved us lock stock to - gulp - London. The big city where I have gone and got myself a job. Life is, suddenly, a bit different...
Obviously this all means that I won't be around for a week or two yet as we have no internet/furniture/time at present but if anyone knows anything good to do in England's fabulous London, then please let me know. I'm shitting it, to be honest. I mean, it's big...
Night.
I'd like to see it again too Snadfrod, but I don't even remember the name of the show.
There are a lot of things to do in London, where do you want to start?
When it comes to meeting celebrities, my favourite was when Harvey Keitel gave me a big hug as he tried to pick me up on a New York summer night.
EJ - I just love the subtraction/rollerskating combination. Does the one make the other harder? Or are they mutually beneficial activities, like jazz and painting? It must be researched.
As for London, South East is a good start. I'm off to have an explore today...
Also, regarding Keitel, was he trying to pick you up, or was he trying to 'pick you up', if you know what I mean?
Snadfrod--Any youTube clips? Murphy's Law? Weakest Link?
My experience of living in cities is that they feel big at first, but as you get to know your neighborhood, your route to work, etc, they start to feel just right. (Of course, anxiety about starting a new job, finding a new school for your child, etc, etc, can add to the overwhelming feeling, but I bet it won't take long to adjust to all of that)
The thing is Snad, it was a brawn vs brain race. You had to complete the subtraction before your opponent had completed the circle on rollerskates. You couldn't weasel your way into winning this game with only one aptitude, oh no. Mind you, I had none, and won a book about animals as my consolation prize, which was good because I liked books, and my brother who had been a contestant too won a trip to the wax museum, which I tagged along to. THe prize we were really really after was the tickets to go see Club Dorothée, THE children's TV show at the time, that showed all the best Japanese cartoons. It was a big disappointment for the dee brothers.
My great friend Harvey was only trying to pick me up to tease his daughter, who was the person we were supposed to meet. I can't believe I forgot that story when I saw the Steenbeck family, that's my best New York story. Speaking of cities (I love them), SE is the area I know least in London, but my girlfriend used to live there, and raves about this Indian restaurant in Peckham.
I agree with Steenbeck, it's nice to slowly start with your neighbourhood, and then expand little by little.
I too am very partial to south east London, as it's where I cut my capital dwelling teeth back in the 80's when Surrey Quays was still Surrey Docks and the most interesting pub I had ever seen in my life was the Montague Arms in New Cross. No bout a doubt it, London can be topper experience as long as you let yourself go with the new flow - and you aint broke!
Good luck snadfrod. Im actually rather envious...
You people rock! Waving my GnT in your general direction! More detailed chat a bit later. Have to cook some penne thonno mozarella. a plus... FP.
Did someone say South East London?
SE9 in the house! Represent! Braaap!!
Have very much enjoyed reading about all the bands you were in and think that the dropbox idea is a very good one. We need sone kind of archive of our collective musical past and this seems a great way to do it. Special good luck wishes to Snadfrod for life in London. I think Frenchy has out-famed us all with a hug from Harvey Keitel. Meejah fame moment. Ejay I thought of you yesterday evening as I went to see Walter Salles' marvellous film Lino de passe (how would you translated that into French? Is it Ligne de touche?) Sao Paolo looks like hell on earth..... Marvellous film though.
Glad to hear you like FCPro Blimpy!!
Harvey Keitel?? Pah - nothing! I once shook hands with Prince Michael of Kent. To be honest I wanted to kick him very hard on the shins but I was advised by my colleagues that that would be a particularly poor career move ...
Hugged by Harvey Keitel? A handshake with a minor royal?
NOW you're sinking to my level
:o)
I was once strangled by John Noakes ...
Insert your own punchlines!
Funny you shoud say that FP, I'm in SP at the moment for the first time in months, and I missed it. Hell on earth may be a bit harsh but for some it's not too far off from that. 5 haven't seen Linha de Passe yet, but there are a thousand ways to shoot this city. I just finished reading a book called Heliopolis by James Scudamore, which describes it and its inhabitants well, I strongly recommend . Sao paulo is not a city you would really visit, think of visiting New York without having seen of the TV shows and films that romanticise it. It's hard to grasp but it is rewarding the more you know it.
Didn't mean to diss your city, Frenchy. Sure SP has some magical areas. Walter Salles just hasn't found them yet....
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Oh my we are under siege here. The NATO crowd hit town tomorrow. Police, soldiers and helicopters everywhere. I put on Ride of the Valkyrie just to complete the atmosphere. Strewth. All very exciting though.
Coincidentally enough, I just watched an earlier Salles movie called (in English) Midnight--also set in Sao Paulo. It was interesting because the different characters came from very different worlds, so you saw different parts of the city. Parts of it were very good, but there were huge plot/character motivation whackinesses that made it very unbelievable. It did have this chase through a favela (I think) that was giddy and sort of beautiful...a vertical maze-like climb & descent.
No worries, FP, I wouldn't call it magical myself, but I do find it exciting, even if a lot of it repulses me.
When I was living there, this new crime fiction was being shown on TV, and they made it look very grey, as if it was dusk constantly, or like a smog that stopped the light from coming in, which was appropriate I thought, if a bit depressing, and in the book I was reading, the narrator describes the city as yellow, which is appropriate too I reckon. I think that's what I liked about the city, there's a bit of everything.
I can't believe how inarticulate I feel lately. It's a wonder anyone understood what I was talking about! I tried to find a clip of the chase but it's not on youTube, (or the name of the film in English is too different). There were characters that were teachers/professors and they had a very nice apartment, and nice neighborhood, and then there were people who lived in the maze of houses up the hill. It didn't look too bad up there, though. It seemed like a community, in the glimpse of it you got. It would be perfect for crime drama though, with all the hiding places and alleys. You could do a Dassin-esque, naked city-type gangster movie. Whattayasay, FP, shall we write a screenplay?
Steen, I think you'd like the City Of Men series. I think it's the same people who did City Of God, a lot of the same actors are in, except it happens now, it takes place in Rio, but you see a lot of shots of people running through the narrow alleys.
It sounds good--and they have it at Netflix (do you have netflix in England?). I'll get it! I'm embarrassed to admit that I realized that Midnight...takes place in Rio. Oops. But I have seen something recently that took place in Sao Paolo. What could it have been?
There is a netflix-type thingy in England, except it's got a different name.
Could it have been Linha de Passe you saw?..
No, I don't think so. Hmmm. Dunno. There was a sort of prelude to Midnight, before the story started. Maybe that was set there?
Netflix has a new feature that lets you watch certain titles instantly on your computer. I'm excited to discover a lot of Brazilian films. I had been disappointed because it seemed like it was only TV shows and very dopey romantic comedies, but that must have been how they were marketing it, because if you search a little further there are lots of foreign films. I started watching a Brazilian film from the Cinema Novo era...Vidas Secas, which is beautiful and also conveniently fits with this week's Clip Joint subject of deserts. At least I think it does.
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