Shall we continue talking about the Gravers or shall we get back to the chronology and talk about the movie? There’s so many directions we could go in, so many paths to take. That’s what I love about writing, but it’s frustrating. I want to just get it all out there, and I do mean ‘all.’

  I think before I talk more about the Gravers we should talk a bit more about what Victor and Gloriana Graves did to win their hearts. And they did not win all of their hearts, by any means. Remember, this is supposed to be a bit hyper realistic. He won some hearts, with others it was a business deal, and with others it was just a cool thing to do, and with others they were just going with it for fashion’s sake.

  There are many levels to being a Graver, some are more hardcore than others, as fans in the real world tend to be. Victor and Gloriana both knew this about people. They wanted a space that appealed to as broad a range of them as possible, while making the hardcore fans feel rewarded for their loyalty without making the more casual fans feel like they were being overlooked.

  It starts with two axioms: 1. All Gravers are Equal 2. Some Gravers are more equal than others. This is, of course, in reference to Animal Farm by George Orwell. Irony is a big theme in the Graves Spirit. It also works well for us in constructing a complicated man, one who stands somewhere between the poles of evil and beneficent.

  He explains this to them, of course, what he means specifically. He doesn’t go too philosophical at this time, as he’s speaking to all of them and he doesn’t want to bore them. He just makes it known that he’s going to try to make an institution in which there’s a genuine effort to achieve the Proper Balance amongst its members.

  Pay attention to those words: Proper and Balance. Sometimes they are together, other times they are on their own or with other words. These are important concepts in the Gravesian philosophy. A scale is added to their personal flag at some point, for ‘Balance’; and for ‘Proper,’ it’s either going to be a checkmark or a neat bowtie. I haven’t decided. But we’re getting too into the nitty gritty.

  He also asks for patience and understanding as he works out the kinks, the hiccups, with the institution. As he tries to make things better. He mentions how Minecraft began as a pile of shit and it was only with time and significant effort that he alchemically transmorphed it into the delectable chocolate it became. He needs time to work things out.

  And so the Gravers were told all of this after they retrieved the physical copies of the movies. They returned to their local movie theaters and delivered them unto the owners, the managers.

  Recall, they were given these movies for free and were not expected to pay V&G any cut, just urged to do so if it turned out to be profitable for them. Some of the movie theaters played the movies, others waited to show midnight screenings at first so as not to interfere with the movies that were already in theaters. Victor and Gloriana had purposefully chosen a date where there wouldn’t be much competition, where they wouldn’t have stepped on the toes of any Hollywood institutions, them needing to stay as hidden and unthreatening as possible (so that they can later dominate/conquer/chop Hollywood).

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  There were two three four components of Victor and Gloriana Graves’ Music Video Extravaganza (at least there is in my current recollections): 1. Music Videos, two of each in the Extravaganza, as everyone likes a rewatch of something beautiful. 2. Victor and Gloriana Graves’ Fatebook, Pilot Episode, a relatively short episode of a series they wanted to work on, the first fictional work of their career (in this version of the universe), 3. Gravesian Philosophy videos, 4. Commercials, custom made commercials from Victor and Gloriana Graves themselves. They were for specific products but they hadn’t actually negotiated any business deals with the corporations who owned those products. They were hoping the companies would just give them some money once they saw how successful the Extravaganza was, or at least that would give them some ammunition to come negotiate with the next Extravaganza.

  Should I say something about the music videos in the Extravaganza? These were largely visual affairs, as you can imagine. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all, but the music videos were shot at 24 frames per second. I may at some point describe them, but as of yet, as I write this, I haven’t got a single reader, so the question I asked in one of the previous chapters, about whether my description of Kanye West’s Famous music video was at all interesting, hasn’t been answered yet. But I will give you some broad (very broad) strokes.

  They were visual masterpieces. The lighting, the busy-ness, the attention to detail. Dare I say it reminded me of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? That, too, was detailed, beautiful, and full of context for the medieval people it was painted for. They’d look up and see the stories that they spent their whole lives listening to, the stories that meant more to them than anything, come to life.

  It was heavy on the symbolism. Heavy-handed, as a matter of fact. Recall the symbol of Victor and Gloriana Graves is a skull with a crown on it. Subtlety was not their strong suit. But there was so many symbols flying by so fast that it didn’t matter.

  And what music did they choose? They were fond of Kanye West, true, but this wasn’t the Kanye West Music Video Extravaganza, it was theirs. There was a time I could have answered that question, in detail.

  There was a time where I could have explained every image in every single music video. A time when my maladaptive daydreams were at their strongest, captivating me like a serpent is captivated by a snake charmer. Since the psychoses, though, and I had three of them that sent me to the psych ward, I’ve been medicated and haven’t had them anywhere nearly as strong. My imagination, at this point, is a bit below average. It feels like sobriety, and it is. It’s not really ‘fun,’ but it is, at least, ‘healthy.’ But that’s enough about me.

  Kanye West’s All of the Lights

  Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven (a long one)

  Kendrick Lamar’s m.A.A.d. city

  Les Miserables’ Look Down (Beggars) from the movie

  AC/DC’s Thunderstruck

  One of the Hamilton songs (we will have to talk at length about Hamilton at some point)

  There were others, but those are what comes to mind now, those are some that I can remember bits and pieces of.

  More to come.