#{{history has its eyes on you;; dash commentary}}

[staticl0ve]

For the writer's commentary! I loved this moment between roommates 😊

-

Sixty stood before you, smiling softly as he placed one arm around your waist and the other, cradling your head so you had to rest your face onto his chest. He hummed quietly to the song, his chest rumbling in waves.

His embrace was familiar to you. Friends hugged and that was what you two were. Friends. Hugging. You weren’t at all shocked by the warmth, or his clothes that always had a silken quality to it…or the firm and strong chest that flexed as he moved. His cologne smelled good though, like a rose garden. Somehow it didn’t soften his rather masculine image, but rather added to it. Sixty was a confident man, one who was rather secure in who and what he was, who he liked and boy did he like.  After all, you were roommates. On plenty of occasions, you had awkwardly greeted his one night stands before they dashed away.

Your footsteps were matched to his as he swayed you both slowly to the music. One, two, three, four. A half turn, then another. A weight, literally, was added to your head. You weren’t sure if it was his chin, or nose but you were damn certain it couldn’t have been his lips.

“Talk to me,” he said.

You buried your face into his chest. “About what?”

His hand slipped from your back and up to stroke the space between your shoulder blades. “Whatever you want.”

“Why don’t you ever go on dates?”

“Hmm,” was the sound he gave in place of an answer.

When he met you long after he settled into deviancy, you both got along like a house on fire. Between your infectious laughter and your wicked desire to throw his jokes back at him. Sixty was hooked. And let’s be honest, he was again, a simple machine with two perfectly functioning eyes. You were intelligent, thoughtful, and the finishing note to his ideal trifecta was your unique brand of beauty.

You scanned his features, the small dent on his forehead drawing your focus. The mysterious dent with a story of its own.

It was year one of your friendship. Behind him was the backdrop of a crystal clear lake and you beside him, sweating buckets from a long, intense hike. As you cooled off in the lake with your legs in the water, Sixty spoke about his history and the atrocities he almost committed to his own kind. You listened, nodding and commenting when appropriate. The wake up call he needed was a bullet grazing his head and the rest as they say, was ancient history.

Oh my gosh. You angel. 🩵 Thank you for this ask! I can’t wait to spam you with mine.

-

Thinking back on what was happening/what I wanted out of that one shot… the story starts with the cheesy lame romcoms on a tv screen. What does it mean to feel romantic emotions and what it means when one feels them differently than the other.

He gets her flowers but it’s not in the same, wooing manner because he’s kept his name off of the gift. He just knows she needed to hear that she’s worthy of love and by keeping the gift sender a mystery, he’s also unsure if he’s the one that can provide that type of love.

Sixty in this story loves to use physical touch to express himself. At this point in their friendship, they’re close enough that hugging for comfort has a very platonic feel to it. But I also wanted to draw some attention to how he’s subconsciously doing more like dipping his head to her face and considering/fighting the urge to press a kiss to her head. Things he may feel are too intimate of a gesture that may give him away.

It’s odd to him, that in this moment, he doesn’t want to make their dynamic complicated because, why do that when everything is working?

Sixty’s not a romantic kinda guy, but he feels all the ugly feelings of jealousy and possessiveness. I find it’s a fun fanon idea to explore with him what it means if one doesn’t necessarily feel cheesy love story emotions (like some may write of Connor’s experience) and how for Sixty, just having that interpersonal connection: a friend to laugh with, one he’s sexually attracted to, one he cares about, maybe that’s what romance and love means.

[americangrove]

Freedman Lean

I

I had never seen the work before, still have not seen it as a sculpture, only as a picture of a sculpture, the picture in turn the frontispiece to the book I browsed—Brief Report of the Services Rendered by the Freed People to the United States Army in North Carolina, by Vincent Colyer, published 1864, only a year after the sculpture was made and shown, but by which time it was already regarded as an arresting depiction of black emancipation in the round—perhaps even the depiction of it, as John Adams Quincy Ward’s work  may have been the first time black skin was translated into plaster and subsequently into bronze in American art.[1] A critic back then exclaimed—

A naked slave has burst his shackles, and with uplifted face thanks God for freedom. We have seen nothing in our sculpture more soul-uplifting or more comprehensively eloquent. It tells in one word the whole sad story of slavery and the bright story of emancipation.[2]

“Sad story”, “bright story”— in my consequent search to learn more about the work, it seemed this 1864 assessment itself told the long story short of the sculpture for subsequent commentaries remain within its range, emphasizing either the legacy of slavery or the possibility of freedom, along with the attendant histories of reception, construction, intention, and circulation that support either side. This two-way range makes sense given the historical context of the work in 1864, just as it makes sense given the contemporary context of the work in 2024 (“Observe that the ‘Freedman’ still grasps several links of his chain” wrote Freeman Henry Morris Murray in 1913. One kind of emancipation is only the beginning of another kind that itself is still just beginning.[3]) 

Yet, there is more here than the man, his shackles, his small fold of cloth, his slavery, his emancipation. There is also the stump upon which he “leans”—the tree is direct object of his action and direct support for his body and that is all anyone ever seems to remark of the tree, if any remarks are made at all.

II

It used to be said that you can tell whether a sculpture was a Roman copy or a Greek original depending on if there were struts or not.[4] The Greeks, the thought went, mostly used bronze, the Romans marble. Mineral and metal, in color, feel, source, and weight the two materials differ—and in tensile strength too. Bronze has some. Marble has next to none. So the Roman Wounded Amazon leans on a post that projects into her, just as the wide leg Roman Hercules holds a brick between his outspread legs, not to demonstrate his upright strength but rather to maintain it. The Discobolus player, so easily animated into full swinging motions from his marmoreal fragments, becomes a much more cumbersome image of independent mobility when the pieces are imagined all back together, the disk looking like a railroad sign protruding from his lower back. But his awkwardness is only so in our eyes and the way we have learned to look at sculpture (and also perhaps ourselves?) a way in which the human figure is understood to have come slowly out of mass and bulk, backgrounds of earth or rock or metal and slowly taken its own step forward into independent standing. So many struts in Roman sculptures are small subterfuges in the fantasy of figural self-sufficiency. Ignore them then or allege the Romans ignorant in taste for what other arguments can struts solicit? Like strings, plugs, tubes, screws and switches struts are what we prefer not to see as they dash the chance of imagined autonomy. To dream a Pygmalion into being—either out of stone, metal or of flesh— begins with believing a figure is already freed in its form so that another kind of freedom follows.

III

Report of the Services Rendered by the Freed People to the United States Army— the title summarizes the book. Vincent Colyer, an artist after the Civil War, was, during the war, the “Superintendent of the Poor for the Union’s Department of North Carolina.” His first task was “to employ as many negro men as I could get, up to the number of five thousand” to build forts. Once these places for defense were made, plans for espionage and offensives followed and as efforts turned in their favor, processes of repair in the built and social landscape could be undertaken. Of one such moment Coyler recounts that,

On Roanoke Island, the blacks, for want of a church edifice, had constructed a spacious bower, cutting down long, straight, pine trees and placing them parallel lengthwise for seats, with space enough between for their knees—constructing a rude pulpit out of the discarded Quartermaster’s boxes, and overarching the whole with a thick covering of pine branches.[5]

They were leaning on the trees; they were praying under pines.

IV

It could be said that the tree holds the man up rather than that the man sits on the tree. Semantics someone says. Exactly, I agree—meaning depends on priority, sequence, and relations, in short, context.

V

His right foot is preparing. Whether preparing to kick off from the stump or relax onto it cannot be decided. The foot could do either in part because the stump can be either a place to launch from or a place to lay on. Supports are not just passive, but they must be able to bear the needs of the supported, some needs of which are obvious (maintaining uprightness), some of which are obscure. What does the tree do for the freedman aside from being a convenience for him? Alternatives could be imagined: a rock, bare ground, a chair, a stool. He could lean or sit on any of these, though each would alter the work, veer it towards different meanings. Chair or stool suggests some room’s interior, but the emancipation of the Freedman with his shackles and loincloth connotate a struggle that has occurred outside. A rock or bare ground then would be better, though if he were on bare ground the work would lose its quality of liminal ascent, its feeling that the man has a chance to choose his next move; instead of wondering what one can do as a free man, on bare ground he would have to ask a more basic question again  “Am I not a man and a brother” as the slave on the coin asked from his position on the ground, unsure if his humanity was recognizable.

A sizeable rock then is perhaps the only alternative to the tree stump, not too architectural, not too abject, though it too would not be a perfect synonym of support—it could even be antonymic.  Though both natural objects, stones are heavy, hard and seem to always have been where they were just as they seem they always will be. To a degree trees are the same, but that we call the tree which the Freedman leans upon a stump already indicates its changeableness. Its top has been cut down, worked by hands (perhaps his hands), the trunk dragged some time ago to mill and market, supporting as many endeavors as wood does for humans.  Its top supporting others, the bottom of the tree in turn seeks to be supported itself by the ground. A stone has ground underneath it too, but a tree holds its ground—even in death its trunk flares and the soil slopes from the man’s right foot to his left as the tree’s roots reach deep below to hold up the stump that holds up the man who wants to hold onto his freedom. No act is wholly self-sufficient, but each reaches out to make relations to bring itself into being, sometimes these relations are brief—the man will not lean long on the tree—sometimes these relations will be coextensive with life—this tree died rooted where it first broke ground.

VI

Some say what the man looks out to, or rather for, is danger—men who cannot bear the thought of his freedom, for what kind of relation beyond subjugation could they imagine. And maybe that fear does dog him here back then on the tree stump, just as it may here right now on the deck chair, as Huge Hayden imagines.

However, there has to be more on his brow than the apprehension of another arrest. His gaze is attentive but not anxious; one hand is easy, one hand tense. So specific in visage, he does not conjure up a community of black folks by allegory so much as by implication; he must have family, he must have friends—maybe he waits for them to join him, not on the small raft of ground visible under his feet, but on ground that must be broader, because the tree, so specific in its form too, also implies others like it around which altogether make a forest that surrounds the man and any others like him, surrounds them with a of forest sounds and scents and smells and sights, surrounds them with its support as it always has, though before now whatever sentiments so much sensation may have offered was at all times subject to the censure of enslavement—a shackle upon feeling as well as the feet. This sudden strange new world of his where one can just sit and sense must feel as much, if not more a strain as the one in which sitting and sensing where secrets done in the shadow of oversight. The relations of the world from which he escaped were chain tight and determined, you got just the bare minimum of ground to survive. The relations of the world he might enter seem at once infinite and nonexistent. When he is ready, the remnant limb of the tree on which his right hand is placed will be what helps him stand up, the remaining roots of the tree which his feet tread will be what helps him move forward—forward into a forest, and not just one of trees…

Notes:

[1]  Kirk Savage writes, “The Freedman was probably the first image of an African American ever cast in bronze, and it may have been the first African American figure in any sculptural medium to be shown in a U.S. art exhibition. It isn’t surprising that the organizers of the exhibition put it in an inconspicuous corner; they must have been rather nervous about what reaction there would be to such an unprecedented work.” See: Savage, Kirk. “Molding Emancipation: John Quincy Adams Ward’s The Freeman and the Meaning of the Civil War”, in The Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture Reader (edited by Vanessa R. Schwartz and Jeannene M. Przyblyski). London: Routledge, 2004, p. 263.

[2] The assessment was James Jackson Jarves’s. And is quoted in: 

Murray, Freeman Henry Morris, Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture. Washington, D.C.; self-published, 1916. p. 13.

[3] Ibid., 16.

[4] Anna Anguissola summarizes the view: Already in the late eighteenth century, Ennio Quirino Visconti conjectured that extrinsic elements were peculiar to Roman marble copies of Greek bronze originals, required by the necessity of reproducing their poses in heavy stone (1782–1796, III: 65). This has remained common opinion ever since, leading to the conclusion that supports invariably signal derivation and inadequacy. Especially non-figural struts, whose number, dimensions, and visibility defy our aesthetic conventions, have prompted an array of negative judgments as disfiguring additions (as shown by Hollinshead 2002: 117). This modern bias has deeply affected how information about Roman sculpture is presented up to our day. Pictures in museum catalogues still tend to show as little as possible of the supports. See: Anguissola, Anna. “Marks of Imitation or Signs of Originality? An Approach to Structural Supports in Roman Marble Statuary.” Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, vol. 0, no. 2012, Mar. 2013, p. 5.

[5] Colyer, Vincent. Brief Report of the Services Rendered By the Freed People to the United States Army in North Carolina, In the Spring of 1862, after the Battle of New Bern. New York: G.A. Whitehorne, 1864 .p. 6, 36.

Image Sources: 

“The Freedman from the Statuette by J. Q. A. Ward.” frontispiece to—Colyer, Vincent. Brief Report of the Services Rendered By the Freed People to the United States Army in North Carolina, In the Spring of 1862, after the Battle of New Bern. New York: G.A. Whitehorne, 1864. 

Discobolus player, titled “Figure 24 Drawn reconstruction of the Discobolus from Castel Porziano (now in Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano). Reconstructed parts are in grey.” in Anguissola, Anna. “Material and History.” Part. In Supports in Roman Marble Sculpture: Workshop Practice and Modes of Viewing, 25–102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Anti-slavery Medal, Great Britain, 1834, silver, at National Museum of American History. 

Side by Side comparison of Ward’s and Hayden’s Freedman, from Amon Carter Museum Of American Art found in online article “Seven artists confront America's "unfinished emancipation" at the Amon Carter in Fort Worth” Kera News see:https://www.keranews.org/arts-culture/2023-03-16/emancipation-exhibit-amon-carter-museum-fort-worth

[fallenxspirit]

Spectre feels a shiver run up his spine- somehow...somewhere he feels like people are talking about him.

How strange.

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Hero | Luke Patterson

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Song Fic February Week 4: Musicals 

Inspiration: StarStruck (DCOM)

Requested: Yes/No

A/N: Anon suggested doing something with the Starstruck soundtrack, so I’m writing a whole-ass series. This is based off the plot of Starstruck but the reader was a fan of JATP until she met Luke... Basically crush to enemies to lovers! Also a modern!au.

The third installment of the StarStruck series! 

StarStruck

Something About The Sunshine

Hero

What You Mean To Me

Pairing: Luke x Fem!reader

Song(s) used: Hero - Christopher Wilde (StarStruck ST)

Warnings: few swear words, mention of car accidents, mention of child abuse, mention of postnatal depression, tiny bit of angst

Words: 8.6K

I’m almost nervous to see him again. There’s a nervous flutter erupting from the pit of my stomach and I feel hot and sweaty when it’s not even that warm out. The boy didn’t have that effect on me just a day ago and now he suddenly does? I hate this. 

“Morning,” I greet when I find Luke standing outside the coffee shop with his hood pulled far over his head and sunglasses covering his beautiful eyes. He shoots me a smile, but I don’t think he actually looks at me. Right, the whole “I can’t be seen with you”-thing. 

“Want to go grab some coffee before we go?” I ask instead, pointing at the shop. 

Luke nods his head and follows me inside where we wait in line together. The silence that hangs over us is uncomfortable for the first time. I don’t know why but his mysterious, secretive antics are making me nervous. 

“Next!” the barista calls and the two of us step forward. The twenty-something woman shoots the both of us a polite smile, not even acknowledging that Luke’s keeping his head low. This is L.A., she’s probably used to it by now. “What can I get for ya?” 

“An iced vanilla latte for me, please,” I say and then glance down at Luke. 

He coughs. “Iced caramel macchiato.” His voice is low, just above a whisper, as though he’s telling the barista and me a secret. I’m glad we’re going to be out of the city soon, so Luke can go back to his regular self. Or to the singing-on-top-of-a-car-in-the-middle-of-nowhere self. 

“What’s your name, please?” 

“Y/N…” My eyes land on Luke for a split second, and I’m pretty sure he’s not even going to answer. Luke’s a pretty generic name, I’m sure people won’t even bother to look up. “Put my name on both, please.” 

The barista smiles and then dashes off after I paid to start making our coffees while we shuffle towards the end of the counter, ready to take our drinks when they’re ready. Luke keeps his head down. He doesn’t even look up at me and the awkward silence doesn’t eb away.  

“You’re not gonna talk to me yet, are you?” I ask him as I hand him one of the two straws I picked up. He shakes his head. I try my hardest not to groan and instead, hand him the keys to my car. “Here, get yourself settled in my car, I’ll handle this.” 

His eyes peer over the rim of his sunglasses, flickering with uncertainty and gratefulness at the same time. I shoot him a smile, urging him to get out of here, which he does with a quick flash of his teeth. 

The awkwardness quickly washes off me when he’s left the coffee shop and I’m all alone, hoping everything would change once we’re all alone, away from the prying eyes of Los Angeles’ residents. 

“Iced vanilla latte and iced caramel macchiato for y/n,” the barista calls and places the cups on the counter in front of me. 

I smile at her, say, “Thank you! Bye!” and then dart out of the coffee shop as fast as I could. I weave my way through hasty people and slacking tourists towards my Toyota Yaris where a hooded boy sits in my passenger seat. He still has his hood pulled up and his sunglasses balancing on the bridge of his nose. He almost looks sad, which makes me a little sad too. I wish I could do more than let him wait in my car. 

“Here you go,” I say and hand him his coffee when I’ve settled into my seat. 

“Thank you,” he mutters, and I’m pretty sure it’s not just for the beverage. 

A smile etches its way to my cheeks as I regard him. “You’re welcome,” I say and then start the engine. As I pull out of the parking lot, Luke finally sparks up a conversation. I’m almost relieved to hear his voice again for more than two words.    

“Where’re we going?” he asks. 

I debate telling him but then decide I’d do it anyway. I’ve been researching a lot last night and have found the greatest secluded spots and the time slots when they’re mostly deserted or have the least visitors. The one I wanted to take him to today was a lot closer than the other ones, so I figured we could start with that. 

“The Old L.A. Zoo. It’s less crowded before 9am, so I figured we could go explore it a bit until too many people arrive?” The statement comes out of my mouth as a question since I’m unsure whether or not he’d like that. 

“Cool,” he replies, and he sounds honest, too. “I don’t think I’ve ever been there.” 

It surprises me a little, but I go with it anyway. “Really? I’ve been there plenty of times! It’s really cool! Kinda spooky.” Luke lets out an airy laugh at that and it makes my heart flutter a little. 

Within ten minutes, we arrive at the old zoo. Ten minutes had gone by and yet it felt like a split second. The conversation ran fluently on our way there and Luke told me things about the band and his childhood that not even the biggest fangirl on earth could possibly know. I love talking to Luke about those seemingly uninteresting, small things. 

The rest of the morning, too, goes by as if there’s no concept of time whatsoever. The two of us walk through the old, abandoned zoo and explore every single old habitat. I even find a website that tells us the entire history of each section of the zoo and as I read it, Luke listens and adds in his own commentary. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much in just a few  hours. This guy is genuinely funny and I just adore talking to him. Our conversations go from the ridiculous to the serious, and every subject in between. 

It’s just the perfect day that I wish would never end, but inevitably, Luke has his own responsibilities and has to go by lunch time. 

“Hey, why don’t you come with me to the studio?” he asks with a smile as we’re making our way back to the car. “I’m in there all by myself, aside from our producer, and I’m recording a few songs.” 

I open and close my mouth a few times, letting incomprehensible sounds roll out. It makes me look like a dumbfounded fish, I’m sure, but I don’t care. My brain is dysfunctioning for a moment. Luke Patterson is asking me to come to the studio with him. To watch him record some songs. Songs that are going to be on the album. 

Luke’s laugh makes the gears in my brain fall back into place. “Is that a yes?” he asks. 

A heat rises up to my cheeks. “Yeah,” I finally manage. 

“Cool,” he says and then gets into the car. 

The ride to the studio is filled with smooth conversation. We never miss a beat, there’s never an awkward silence between the two of us. Only when we arrive at the recording studio and we’re met with a huddle of paparazzi outside the door.

“Fuck,” he mutters and ducks down. I do the same, knowing he doesn’t want me to be seen with him either. “Drive around back,” he orders before fumbling into the glove compartment of my car. He retrieves a pair of sunglasses I kept there, along with a shawl of my mother’s that I didn’t know was still in there. “Put this on.” 

“No,” I reply sternly, pushing his hand with the shawl away. I do take the sunglasses from his hand though, and push them onto my nose. “Put that shawl away,” I bark. The boy obeys and stuffs the piece of cursed fabric back where it came from. 

Mental note: throw that out. 

When we finally do get into the recording studio, as soon as I’m on Luke’s side, he grabs my hand and drags me into the building before anyone could ever spot us. I nearly stumble on my own feet, but quickly pick myself back up before I faceplant the floor. 

Luke huffs. “Phew, that was close.” 

He looks at me, and for a second, I think he might bring up the shawl again, but he doesn’t and instead turns to his producer, who had gotten up from his swivel chair the second we burst in.  

“Connor!” Luke greets excitedly and shakes the man’s hand. 

He looks near his thirties, strong built with flawless dark skin and a full head of afro hair. Combined with his extremely savvy outfit, I find him really cool-looking. He’s the kind of guy that would get all the girls in high school while still being a sweetheart. 

“You brought some new flesh, I see,” Connor says to me and outstretches his hand for me to shake. I do so with a wide smile on my face while pretending not to be completely nervous about being in a recording studio for the first time. 

“Y/N,” I introduce myself. 

“Welcome to our little slice of heaven on earth, y/n.” My eyes flick to Luke, who’s giving me that look again, so I quickly turn back to Connor. “Any knowledge of recording studios, y/n?” he asks. 

“Never been in one, but my friend is a producer and he did teach me some things.” 

I hear Luke huff beside me. “I didn’t know that.” 

“Well, there’s a lot you don’t know.” I shoot him a wink as Connor beckons me towards his deck. For a while, Connor guides me through his paces while Luke gives the best of himself on this song. 

After a few takes, Luke comes out of the booth and joins me and Connor to listen to what we’d recorded thus far. “What if –” I pause, debating my thoughts. “What if we go in with some soft backing vocals on here?” I click the part of the chorus we’d recorded and sing along with recorded Luke. 

“'Cause I I can be everything you need If you're the one for me Like gravity I'll be unstoppable I, yeah, I believe in destiny I may be an ordinary guy With heart and soul But if your the one for me Then I'll be your hero”

“I think if you put Julie on those backings, it could give that duet-vibe you guys are so good at.” I notice Connor and Luke glance at each other, soft smiles playing on both their lips. 

“Why don’t you show us?” Connor asks as Luke already grabs my hand. 

“What?! Me? No! Julie.” 

Luke chuckles and drags me into the booth with him. “Yeah, but we’re gonna need a demo, don’t we?” He delicately places a set of headphones on my head before placing one on his own. He signals to Connor and no later than 2 seconds, the instrumental version of the song blasts through the headphones. 

Gazing at me, Luke starts singing the first verse of the song, and I let him. It almost feels like he’s serenading me. Almost. All that’s missing is a guitar or a boombox over his head. 

“I'm no superman I can't take your hand And fly you anywhere you want to go Yeah I can't read your mind Like a billboard sign And tell you everything you want to hear But I'll be your hero”

From the chorus onwards, I jump in with backing vocals wherever I feel like it’s acceptable without taking my eyes off of Luke. 

“I I can be everything you need If you're the one for me Like gravity I'll be unstoppable I, yeah, I believe in destiny I may be an ordinary guy With heart and soul But if you're the one for me Then I'll be your hero”

“Could you be the one Could you be the one for me” “Oh I'll be your hero” “Could you be the one Could you be the one for me” “Yeah I'll be your hero”

“So incredible Some kind of miracle That's what it's meant to be I'll become a hero So I wait, wait, wait, wait for you”

We keep our eyes locked at the high note too, smiles plastered on our faces from ear to ear. Singing with Luke gives me some kinda rush. A feeling I can’t quite describe but it’s a feeling I want to feel more often. 

“Yeah, I'll be your hero Yeah”

“Cause I I can be everything you need If you're the one for me Like gravity I'll be unstoppable I, Yeah, I believe in destiny I may be an ordinary guy with and soul But if you're the one for me I'll be your hero”

“Yeah, I'll be your hero”

“Could you be the one Could you be the one for me”

“Yeah I'll be your hero”

The music fades out in our headphones, and soon, Connor’s applause sounds through it instead. I’m snapped back into reality, away from cloud 9, away from the pure bliss that’s singing with Luke and gazing into his eyes. 

“That was amazing! Good job, guys!” Connor says, beaming. 

Luke and I remove our headphones and he grabs my hand to lead me back to the decks where Connor welcomes us with open arms and a wide smile. 

“I thought you and Julie were the most watchable duetters, but I’ve been proven wrong.” 

I feel the heat rise to my cheeks before Luke snaps me out of it again. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Con. Can you send the finished product to the band and our manager? I’m sure they’d like to hear this. Don’t tell them who’s on backing vocals, though. They don’t need to know that.”

I swallow a lump in my throat and try to convince myself it’s probably not that deep. Luke doesn’t want to be seen with me. Not even by his band mates. It’s fine. It’s totally fine. 

We wrap up the recording session and I drive Luke back to the coffee shop where he looks behind him and out of every single one of the windows, just to be sure the coast is clear of paparazzi. 

“Thanks for the day, y/n. I really enjoyed spending time with you again.” 

I force a smile. Ever since his statement to Connor about not wanting the band to know about me, I’ve been going over everything in my mind and it has caused me to fold in on myself.

“Yeah, it was fun.” 

He gazes at me for a moment, inspecting every inch of my face as if detecting the lie from my eyes. When I think he’s just going to bid his goodbyes and get out, he doesn’t. Instead, he turns his body to me and reaches for his phone. I watch as he unlocks it and taps away on it before turning the device towards me. There’s a new contact form open on his screen. 

“Gimme your number. I’d love to do this again some day.” 

I furrow my brow while taking the phone in my hands. “Do you even have time to spend days with a nobody like me?” I don’t dare look at him and keep my eyes on the screen as I type my name and number. 

He doesn’t say anything either until I finally cave and look up when giving his phone back. There’s a crease in his forehead as his eyebrows are knitted together in confusion. 

“You’re not a nobody, y/n. I’d gladly make time for you. I told you, I loved spending days away from reality. Especially with you.” Fangirl Me is jumping out of my skin while Present Me tries to keep her cool and ignore all of the butterflies that erupt in her stomach. 

“Cool,” Present Me says out loud while Fangirl Me is scolding her so hard. 

Cool? Cool?! Seriously? Dude.   

“I’ll text you, yeah?” 

I nod my head in response and watch as he gets out of my car. Before I can even place my foot on the gas or shift out of park, my phone beeps in the pocket of my sweater. For the first time in forever, I smile when seeing an unknown number on my screen. 

As I look out of my window, I find Luke looking at me with his hood pulled over his head again. He shoots me a quick smile and a wave before I turn to my phone again and type a reply. 

I whip my head up to see his reaction. His jaw drops before his face turns into a scowl as he glares at me. Giggling and satisfied with the reaction, I place my phone on the passenger’s seat where Luke was sitting before and then pull out of the parking spot. 

That night, I save Luke’s number to my phone. I go between “Luke P.”, “Patterson” and “Luke ❤️” but eventually decide on the funnier option and save him as “Poo Musician 💩”.   

I stand in line at the coffee shop before 8:30 that morning and I’m a little nervous. Last night when I returned from my day with Luke, the two of us had been texting back and forth. I felt like a sixteen year old again. One of those giggly teenagers that’s texting their crush. Which is what I was, but it’s been a while since I felt like it. 

Once I have an iced vanilla latte and an iced caramel macchiato, I head outside where I find a boy waiting by my car. He’s wearing a sleeveless shirt paired with a bright blue sleeveless sweater, his hood pulled far over his head so his face is hidden from prying eyes. 

I don’t need to see his face to know it’s Luke. I’d recognize those muscles from a mile away. The way he’s leaning against the hood of my car and the way he’s holding his phone is a dead giveaway too. 

“Your coffee, sir,” I say in a serious, deep voice. 

Luke’s head snaps up, eyes wide. He looks like a deer caught in headlights until he notices it’s just me and relaxes. A smile etches onto his face as he tucks his phone into the pocket of his jeans whilst taking the coffee I ordered for him with his other hand. 

He takes a cautious sip from the beverage. “Hm, Caramel Macchiato, someone’s been stalking me.” I know he’s just teasing, I can tell by the way one corner of his mouth curls up and his eyes have that childlike glint in them. 

Making my way to the driver’s side of my car, I smile and say, “Contrary to popular belief, Patterson, I’m not a stalker. I just remembered your order from yesterday.” 

Luke’s smile tells me something I’d rather not think about. It’s like he’s saying “You remembered my order” in that flirty way only he knows how to. I simply shrug before opening my door and getting in with Luke following my example. Without missing a beat, he fishes my phone from between my fingers and grabs my free hand to use my thumb to unlock my phone. This time, I don’t object and let him. I know that it’s just to get to my music app anyway. 

While Journey’s Anyway You Want It plays through the car’s speakers, I pull out of the parking spot in front of the coffee shop and start driving to the next location I’d found during my research the other night. 

“Where’re we going?” he asks, and I flashback to yesterday when he asked me the exact same question in that exact same way. 

I smile as I place my cup in the cupholder between the two of us. “You’ll see.” I glance over, finding him tilting his head slightly and giving me that ‘Really?’ look. “I promise it’s very secluded and not a lot of people will be there.” 

“Cool,” he says and sips. “Is this where you’re going to kidnap me and hold me for ransom? I bet you could get a lot of money for a Julie and The Phantoms band member.” 

I snort at his remark. “How much do you think I could get for you?” 

He scrunches up his nose in thought, which I catch as I take a quick glance at him again. As I face the road again, I reach for my coffee and take a quick sip, awaiting Luke’s response to my question. 

“Like 10k?” 

I nearly spit out my coffee. “10k?!” I screech, and his laugh thunders through my car. “Careful or I’ll actually kidnap you and hold you for ransom if I’m gonna earn that much.” 

The laughter dies down and after a few moments of silence lingering in the air, Luke says, “How much do you think I’m worth?” 

Without missing a beat, I respond to his question, dead serious. “Not even a dollar.”  

Luke gasps, his mouth dropping in absolute disbelief while I can’t help but cackle loudly. Judging from this conversation alone, I’m positive today will be a good day. A good, fun day. 

“I’m worth more than a dollar, right?” 

“No, you’re right, I’d probably ask like a million and then no one will pay the ransom and you’ll have to stay with me for the rest of your life.” 

I let out my best maniacal laughter as I feel him watch me. I know the exact look he’s giving me. The look. The one with the glistening eyes and the slightly turned up lips. The one all girls and gays swoon for. The one I would swoon for if I’d turn my head right now. But I don’t. For once in my life, I’m smart and keep my eyes on the road. 

“You like me,” he states proudly. 

“Slightly less strong dislike.” I’m lying through my teeth, but I’m hoping Luke won’t notice. Or at least not acknowledge it because I can already feel the heat rising to my cheeks. 

“I’ll take it.” 

He reaches forward and turns the volume up as Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” floats through the speakers. Very loudly, and very obnoxiously, the boy begins to sing along. If it wasn’t for the velvet smooth voice, I would’ve scolded at him to keep it down. But the sound actually makes my toes curl and my stomach flutter. For a verse, I let him sing by himself while I enjoy his performance but by the chorus, I can’t withhold myself and sing along with him. 

The rest of the ride is filled with belting of the road trip tunes, laced with patches of small talk. It’s the perfect car ride, and before we know it, we’ve arrived at our destination. Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area. The parking lot is practically empty, aside from two cars, which I’m assuming are the staff’s. It’s the perfect indication that I picked the right spot to go to, and I can tell Luke knows it too. 

He’s bouncing in his seat, either from excitement or the amount of sugar that was in his iced coffee, and when I turn off the ignition and turn to him, he looks at me with the widest smile plastered on his face. He almost looks like an excited toddler on Christmas morning, ready to open his presents. 

“I came here once with my parents when I was younger,” he tells me, “I love this place.” 

His confession makes me smile. “Good because I’ve been scouring the internet for the perfect place.” He shoots me the look again. “Stop looking at me like that.” 

“Like what?” 

“Like you’re going to kiss me.” 

He shrugs, “Maybe I want to.” 

“So you want me to slap you?” 

His smile fades away immediately. “Let’s go,” he grumbles and quickly gets out. 

I heave in a deep breath, recollecting myself before getting out too and retrieving the backpack I brought, filled with stuff for today. Including my itinerary – or just a notebook filled with some ideas I had. 

“How about we start with a bike ride across the park?” I suggest, pointing at the bike rental shop I found on Google the other night. 

We walk into the rental place, expecting there to be bikes upon bikes but instead, we’re met with kayaks, pedal boats and go-karts. My eyebrows furrow, creasing my forehead as I look around the space. Why’s this called a bike rental when there are technically no bikes to rent? No actual bikes. 

“I thought we were going for a bike ride?” Luke says, teasingly. I look up at him, and I think my face tells him enough about my knowledge about this place. My research clearly wasn’t sufficient. 

Deciding to just roll with the circumstances, I roll my shoulders back and put a smile on my face. “Yeah, we’re going on a bike ride with one of these!” I say and point to the large, green go-kart. One of those that look like an old-school car at the front and have children’s seats in front of the terribly cushioned seats for adults. The ones with the small plastic wheel and bike pedals for two adults. I remember going on one of those big ones for six people with my family. 

“You’re serious?” Luke asks, his eyes wide. 

Instead of answering, I shoot him a smile before stepping forwards towards the staff member at the counter. The woman behind the counter looks no older than 45 and has long, billowing blonde locks that cascade down her shoulders. Her bright blue piercing eyes glisten as they land on the two of us, clearly glad she sees some customers so early in the day. 

“Good morning,” she greets with a smile, “We open in half an hour.” 

“Oh…” My research has been poor. 

Before I can possibly think of an answer, Luke steps forward and flashes the woman a smile. I’m not sure if he’s going to use his manly charms or if he’s going to pull the “Don’t you know who I am?” card. 

“Can’t you… make an exception for us?” he asks, leaning his elbow on the counter as he looks at the woman through his lashes. The woman looks up at Luke, her face like stone. She doesn’t recognize him and doesn’t fall for his charms either. 

Shaking my head, I spring into action. I quickly change the ring on my index finger to my ring finger and wrap my arm around Luke’s bicep while the other rests on his chest, making sure the ring is as visible as can be. As I flutter my eyelashes at the woman, I let the words tumble out of my mouth. 

“Please, ma’am? It’s our one year engagement anniversary and he was going to take me on this romantic bike ride….” I then lean forward over the counter. “He’s not very good at researching our dates, but he tries.” 

The woman’s eyebrows knit together as her eyes dart from me to Luke and back. 

“Aren’t you guys a little young to be engaged?” 

Luke jumps into the improvisation spot. “We’ve been told that a lot but we’ve been best friends for years and there’s no one I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.” He looks down at me and when I glance up, too, he kisses the tip of my nose, which I then scrunch. 

I ignore the flutters in my stomach and face the woman again. She seems to have softened, her eyes less icy than it was before. Then, she turns to her computer and clicks through a few browsers before facing us again. 

“What do you guys want? The Surrey?” She points to the green bike-thing at the front of the shop. I nod my head in response. “Okay. You’ve got it for two hours for the price of one hour.” 

A smile etches its way to my face. “That’s perfect, thank you.” 

 Luke pays the woman the rental fee and then she helps us get Surrey out of the garage. After bidding our goodbyes, Luke and I pedal off on the bike. 

“One year engagement, really?” Luke asks me when we’re far enough from the rental and I switch my rings back around. 

“Well, whatever you were doing didn’t work.” 

 He scoffs. “It was working.” 

We pedal down the winding road with the wind blowing through our hair. I love how warm the breeze is and how the birds are chirping in the trees around us. This is the perfect day to go out and do this. 

“What exactly were you planning to do?” I ask him, glancing up at him. He’s focusing on the road ahead of us, a comfortable smile resting on his lips while his eyes flick from one side to another, taking everything in. 

He glances down at me, the smile turning into a smirk. “I was going to charm her with my manly wiles.” 

“And how was that working for ya?” 

For a second, we lock eyes. Luke has an annoyed look on his face while I can’t help but have my lips curl up on one side into a smirk. When he whips his head forward again, I notice the slight tint of pink covering his cheeks. 

Did I just make Luke Patterson blush? 

“So,” he coughs. “Whatcha wanna do?”

I shrug. “We could play twenty questions? Get to know each other better.” 

He nods his head in response. “You wanna start?” 

“That’s your first question?” 

“That’s yours?” 

I press my lips together, shutting myself up for just a moment before recomposing myself. I’m not going to lie, I totally Googled some questions to ask in a game of 20 questions. So, I’m prepared. 

“If you had to be trapped on a deserted island with one of your friends, who would you pick and why?” Luke’s eyes widen at the question a little. 

“Woah, straight in! I thought you were gonna start with ‘favorite color’ or something.” He chuckles lightly, and so do I. “Uhm… Not Alex, he’d probably be super anxious and pace all the way across the island and make me nervous. Not Reggie either, he’d be singing country songs the entire time, though he is a great cuddler. Maybe Julie? Though she’s gonna be miserable without Flynn….” 

With every thought he says out loud, my smile grows bigger and bigger. 

“You?” My heart leaps in my chest at his answer. “Yeah, I like spending time with you and what better place to get away from real life than a deserted island, right?” 

Without missing a beat, the next words pour out of my mouth. “It’s cute how you think we’re friends now.” I surprise myself with the words I speak. We are friends, but I like winding him up into thinking we’re not. 

“Friends who wanna kiss each other.” 

Ignoring the heat rising to my cheeks, I reply, “You mean kill?” 

Luke shakes his head, an amused smile on his face. “When are you going to admit that you like me?” 

“Never – Next question.” 

“Uhm… What was the last thing you stole or shoplifted?” he asks and I’m glad he doesn’t push any further on the fact I basically admitted that I like him. 

“Oh! A magnet in a tourist shop in Lanzarote,” I reply, giggling a little at the memory. “I was there with a couple of friends during Spring Break and those magnets cost way too much for what they are and there was like a rack outside the shop. So, I shoplifted an overpriced Lanzarote magnet.” 

Luke throws his head back as he laughs, nearly steering us into the bushes. “That’s amazing,” he cackles.  

We cruise through the entire park for two entire hours, asking each other questions, and after returning the Surrey, we walk towards the lake where we settle down onto the blanket I brought for some food. I’d prepared an entire picnic basket for us to enjoy during our lunch. 

“I find it very cute that you made an entire picnic basket for our first date.” 

I smile. “I find it very cute that you think this is a date.” 

He gives me the look again, but I ignore it and get every piece of food out of my backpack, sprawling it out around us. Sandwiches, chopped up vegetables and fruits, muffins,... All the delicious foods you’d find in a picnic. 

“Tell me more about your childhood,” Luke then says as he takes a chicken sandwich and takes a bite. “You don’t talk about it much.” 

My heart drops into my stomach. I wish he wouldn’t ask about that. Talking about my childhood means talking about my mother and I’ve been trying to avoid that for the past years. Not that many of my friends even know about that. 

“I told you plenty.” 

“You talked about your teenage years, but never about your childhood.” 

I take a deep breath. He’s not going to shut up about this until I tell him. It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s just that I don’t love talking about what happened with my mother. It’s something I’d much rather forget. 

“There’s a reason for that,” I reply pointedly and then shut myself up by taking a sip from the box of orange juice. I’d packed one for the both of us, but I’m the only one who’s opened it already as Luke had gone straight in with the sandwiches. 

Luke stares at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue. His eyes pierce through my soul and give me a sense of comfort. They lift a weight of my shoulders and chest that I hadn’t even noticed were there. His eyes feel like coming home. Comfortable. A place to relax. A place to be me, be myself. 

I heave in a deep breath and place my juice box on my nervously bouncing knee, holding it with my hand. It doesn’t stop the bouncing, so now my whole body is practically shaking along with the movement. 

“I–” I stop myself, reconsidering my words. “My childhood wasn’t the sunshine and roses it’s supposed to be.” I chuckle nervously and when I meet Luke’s eyes again, they’re looking at me with such intent that I almost launch forward and kiss him. But I don’t. 

“Mom was… difficult to live with…” I start cautiously,  not even daring to look at Luke as I speak and keep my eyes on the still lake in front of us. “She uhm… After I was born, she kinda went into postnatal depression. She didn’t take care of me, she barely even looked at me… At one point, it went so far that she got into an accident, on purpose, with me in the back. She did it a few times, even, to the point where dad just had to report it. She was admitted to the psych ward and that was that... I was ten at the time.” I swallow to hold back the tears that are pricking behind my eyes. 

Feeling a soft brush of the hand on my knee, I glance up, meeting Luke’s eyes. They give me that sense of comfort again, that sense of home, the reassurance that I’m okay. 

“We haven’t really seen her since. She’s out of our lives…” I sniffle and place my hand over Luke’s, giving it a thankful squeeze. “I don’t like talking about it.” 

Luke carefully laces his fingers through mine, his cold rings cooling my warm hand. “I’m sorry I brought it up.” I shrug dismissively. “But thank you for telling me.” 

“So, tell me,” I lift our entwined hands for a second as though pulling us back into reality. “How did Sunset Curve-slash-Julie and The Phantoms came to be?” 

Luke chuckles before engulfing our locked hands with his other and tumbling into the origin story of the bands he was in. He talks about meeting Reggie and Alex in primary school, and then meeting Bobby in middle school. He explains how they started the band in music class and then continued playing together until Bobby moved away from Los Angeles. The story then lapses into giggles and chuckles about all the things they tried to keep Sunset Curve alive, but terribly failed. 

“But then we met Julie in high school and – the rest is history.” 

We’re clearing up our mess before making our way back towards the car. I love hearing Luke talk, especially about the band. It makes his eyes light up and he gets all bouncy and enthusiastic. It’s the cutest side of Luke I ever did see in the past few days of hanging out with  him.

I take one last look at the lake where tiny dots of humans are floating along on the lake in their tiny boats. There are just a few, so nothing to worry about, but it does make me want to go kayaking too. Mostly because I don’t want the day to end. 

“Wanna go kayaking?” I ask Luke, pulling him to a halt by tugging at our still intertwined hands. His eyes dart from mine to the lake and back. I can tell he’s debating it, but then he nods and a smile appears on his face. 

With our hands intertwined, we go back to the rental place and ask the woman for a double kayak. We pay, put on the safety vests she’s given us and then proceed onto the water. As we pedal along, Luke tells me about all the adventures he’s been on with his friends and how he used to do this all the time before his schedule got so crazy. 

Every now and again, he stops and pretends to tip the kayak, making me squeal each and every time whilst he laughs his most maniacal laugh. 

The wall I’d built around my heart was slowly crumbling. Every laugh, every touch, every glance took away a small part of the brick wall. I’m falling in love with the boy I’d had a crush on and then strongly disliked for a good five-ish days. 

Getting distracted was not a good idea as I’m not prepared for what follows next. Luke pretends to tip it over again, but this time, he wobbles too hard and actually makes the boat topple overhead. I squeal, but quickly shut my mouth as I tumble into the water, making sure not too much of the lake’s contents gets into my body. 

“Patterson!” I scowl as I crash the surface again and find Luke laughing a few feet away. His brown, shaggy hair sticks to his head, dripping small drops of water onto his face. If I wasn’t so angry at him, I would definitely kiss him right here, right now. 

“I hate you!” I splash some water at him as the words roll off my lips. Luke’s laughter abruptly stops and he stares at me. His once glistening eyes dull down while his mouth falters into a frown. 

“You do?” 

My face softens as I watch him. He looks so beautiful with his hair all dishevelled and the reflection of the sun on the water mirroring onto his face. I want to kiss him. I want to kiss him so bad. 

I swim closer towards him and stroke his wet hair out of his face. My breath hitches in my throat at how close we are but I try to play it off by keeping my hands on his face and my eyes locked with his. I notice his eyes flicking down to my lips a few times, telling me he wants to kiss me as much as I want to kiss him. 

Should I? Full throttle? Or step on the brakes? 

I don’t even get the time to think about it as Luke presses his lips to mine. Now I don’t hesitate a single moment and immediately kiss him back. Sliding my hands into his wet locks and pressing my body as close as I can, I melt entirely into him. The same sense of bliss I have when singing with Luke washes over me and I find myself on cloud 9 again.  

We pull back after a moment to catch our breath. The glint in his eyes is back and his mouth, though a little swollen and red, curls up into a smile. He presses one more kiss to my nose before helping me towards the shore. We climb out of the water and bring the boat back to the rental place, along with our safety vests. 

Grabbing my backpack I had left with the woman for safekeeping, Luke and I bid our goodbyes and leave the rental, intertwining our hands again. The feeling his hand in mine gives me will never get old. 

As we get to the car again, I yawn, feeling a sense of exhaustion wash over me. Luke smiles upon noticing this and takes the keys from my hand. Wordlessly, he presses a kiss to my forehead and then leads me to the passenger side. He opens the door and lets me get in before shutting the door and jogging to the other side. 

The car is filled with a comfortable silence, just the crackling of a song playing on the radio filling out the quietness. I rest my head against the headrest and glance at Luke every now and again as he drives Sabrina. He has that one-hand feel on the steering wheel and the other rest comfortably in mine on the gearshift. 

“I had a lot of fun today,” I mumble, unable to speak any louder. 

A smile etches its way to Luke’s face. “Me too.” He takes a quick glance at me and then lifts our hands to plant a kiss on my knuckles. “Our band’s house is closer, you want to stop there and get us dry before you go home?” 

I hum softly, letting my eyes fall shut for a moment. Luke’s thumb grazing the back of my hand almost lulls me to sleep until he curses before the car comes to a halt. He pulls his hand away from mine and when I look up, the driveway and street in front of the enormous white-brick house is filled with dozens of cars. 

“Fuck, I forgot about the album wrap party,” he grumbles and then looks over at me. I’m shivering from the cold and exhaustion. “I can’t let you drive home like that.” 

I’m unsure if he’s talking to me or pondering out loud, but I shake my head instead. “It’s fine,” I say. “My house isn’t that far away… I think…” 

“No, y/n. I’m not letting you drive home exhausted and cold.” His voice is stern, yet laced with a bit of worry. “You’re gonna come in and I’m– I’m gonna bring you up to my room. You can dry off there and maybe take a nap or something. Yeah! Yeah, that’s it!” He sounds way too excited about something so banal. 

He hops out of the car and quickly jogs over to my side whilst I’m already opening the door. Before I could react, he tugs me towards the house. I can barely get my bearings or take the time to look where I’m going before I’m pulled into a room. 

“There are shirts and joggers in the dresser over there, pick out whichever you like and then take a nap or something. I’ll be back before you know it.” He kisses my cheek and then dashes towards the door. 

“You’re just gonna leave me here?” 

He lets go of the door handle and slowly turns towards me. His eyes are laced with regret as he takes in the sight in front of him. I must look ridiculous with my hair and clothes wet and bags under my eyes. 

“Please, y/n? I can’t have people know about us, okay? I just – can’t…” 

Turning on his heel, he opens the door and leaves me in his bedroom all alone. I take a minute to let the information process in my brain before turning around and taking in the room I’m in. 

The walls are painted white, except for the one wall behind his bed that’s a muted dark blue. His bed is king size and on either side is a nightstand. I inch closer to the one that’s actually filled with stuff, which I’m assuming is the one he uses most. Nightstand contents often tell a lot about a person. His contains the band’s autobiography, “Bruce Springsteen: All The Songs” and “Beach Read” by Emily Henry, the book I started the other week and shared on Instagram Stories. 

Would he have seen that and decided to read it too? 

Shaking the ridiculous thought out of my head, I move over to his dresser and take out a pair of joggers and his Rush muscle tank I’ve seen him in many a time during gigs. I peel my drenched clothes off my body and get into Luke’s freshly washed ones. They smell of his laundry products. It’s a fresh and calming scent.

For a while, I look around his room. The books on the shelves and the pictures on the walls, most of which of the band and some of him and Carrie Wilson. There had been a rumor about him dating the Instagram Influencer, but I’d never believed it until I saw her face pop up in some of the framed photos in his room. 

I decide to go and venture about the house since all the commotion seems to be outside in the garden. I weave through hallway upon hallway, finding more photos and more things that belong to the band. The living room walls are adorned with platinum records and other awards they’d won over the two years they’d been active in the music industry. I can’t help but feel a sense of pride rush over me. That’s my favorite band right there. That’s the boy I’ve fallen in love with. 

“Excuse me – Who are you?” 

The voice makes me jump out of my skin. I thought everyone was outside. When I look up, I find the perfectly flawless face of Carrie Wilson. Her long, blonde hair cascades into curls down her shoulders and back while her round, brown eyes stare at me with intent and curiosity. 

“Oh, sorry. I’m y/n. I–” I stop myself, remembering Luke didn’t want anyone to know about us. That includes his girlfriend – or ex-girlfriend. 

Carrie’s mouth curls up into an amused, curious smile, catching onto what’s happening. “You’re Luke’s new adventure, aren’t you?” I huff out the breath I was holding. It’s a telling huff, I’m sure. “You are…” She trails off and inspects me for a second before continuing. “Just so you know, it’s not going to work. Luke’s too infatuated with this lifestyle of his. He loves his job, he loves his stardom. He loves it too much to ever focus on a partner. Believe me, we tried.” 

I exhale at the use of her past tense, but then all the other information downs on me. Luke’s life is so much different from mine. While I work several jobs to pay for college and still live with my dad, he lives by himself and tours the world. He’s too busy to start anything serious with me. Whatever happened in the last few days was just temporary. 

“You seem sweet, y/n, so I’m going to be frank. Get out before it’s too late. You’re only gonna get hurt if you’re gonna stay.” As she passes me, she places a reassuring hand on my shoulder.  

If my brain wasn’t going a mile a second about everything she’s telling me, I would be caught off guard by how sweet Carrie Wilson is. She’s always portrayed as this complete ego-centric bitch who used people to her advantage. 

The exhaustion taking over, I shuffle back upstairs and sit down on Luke’s bed but when I hear the commotion outside die down and guitar strums float through the air into the house, I grow curious. I get up from the bed and make a beeline towards the ceiling-to-floor glass doors that give out onto a balcony. I carefully open the door and step out, the summer breeze tickling my skin while Luke’s voice reaches my ears. 

The balcony looks out onto the garden, it’s just out of sight from where everyone’s huddled up around the band. I lean my elbows on the bannister and watch on as Luke’s voice floated through the air. 

“I'm no superman I can take your hand And fly you anywhere you wanna go, yeah I can read your mind Like a billboard sign And tell you everything you wanna hear, but I'll be your hero”

I smile at the memory of us in the studio yesterday. The last few days have been perfect. Just… Perfect. And now this girl has to come and ruin it by pulling me back into reality. 

“Cause I, I can be everything you need If you're the one for me, like gravity, I'll be unstoppable I, yeah I believe in destiny I may be an ordinary guy without his soul But if you're the one for me Then I'll be a hero Oh, I'll be a hero, yeah I'll be a hero”

It’s not that Carrie isn’t right. She is. Luke is way too busy with the band and his fame and everything around it. He doesn’t have time or room between those things for me. Not for an ordinary girl. Not for anyone. 

“So incredible Some kinda miracle That when it's meant to be, I'll become a hero, oh So I'll wait, wait, wait, wait for you”

Luke’s eyes meet mine as he hits that high note and his mouth curls up into that beautiful smile I’ve come to love. Once again, I’ve fallen in love with someone who would never reciprocate those feelings. If I don’t get out now, I’m going to get hurt. 

“Yeah I'll be a hero Cause I, I can be everything you need If you're the one for me, like gravity, I'll be unstoppable I, yeah I believe in destiny I may be an ordinary guy without his soul But if you're the one for me I'll be a hero Yeah, yeah I'll be a hero, yeah I'll be a hero Hero”

As the last notes of his song ring out into the night, I grab my still wet clothes and my keys Luke left on the dresser, and then leave the house. My heart breaks with every step I take, but I know it’s what’s best for me. It’s what’s best for both of us. There’s no room for me in his life. Like he said, he’s no superman, he can’t handle this many things at once. Not even a hero would be able to.  

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@wanniiieeee @phantompogues 

JATP taglist:

@hannahhistorian92 @marinettepotterandplagg @thequirkybookaholic @bookdealer5 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @hemmingsness @iainttakingshitfromnobody @ifilwtmfc @angryknightstatesmantrash @kiss-themoongoodbye @charliesmountains @thedarkqueenofavalon @calamitykaty @caitsymichelle13 @wiselight @kcd15 @vicesvsvirtuesfanfic @stars-soph @kinda-really-lost @notasofti @stellasmusa @n0wornever @kaitieskidmore1 @tefilovesreading @pxperphxntom @crybabyddl @crybabyddl @headheartbellarke @authentic-gillespie @happinessinthedarkesttimes @bright-molina @rangerelik @cordeliascrown @willex-owns-my-heart @fangirlangioma @frickin-bats @flower-name @jaskiers-sweetkiss @jandthephantoms @kelpwithawhy  @the-hufflepuff-hunter @lookingthroughmirrors @buckybarnesishot310 @echocharm17618 @littlemissaddict @mystic-writings @joynerxmercer @brooke0297 @magicalxdaydream @musicianspiritsblog @bexxy @ruvaitkevicius @whitetigerlover17 @stressyanddepressysimp  @talk-on-the-street @theolivekiddo @sunsetcurvej @teti-menchon0604 @candycornmgg @gray_jato

Charlie/Luke taglist: 

@lukeys-giggle​ @gingerxarmy​ @lovesanimals​ @lolychu​ @perfectlywrongformend3s​ @luckylouiebug @camiladelrio98​ @myfriendscallmebeans​ @rachmmb​ @whitemanshoe19​ @killerqueenfan​ 

TAGLIST |  MASTERLIST 

[facethemusix]

Tag List

are you there god (asks)

another stellar conversation (memes)

let the world pass by (opens)

stars on the cuffs of your jeans (aesthetics)

a million worlds apart (musings)

make my song take flight (music)

out of openings (mun talks)

she says in parenthesis (dash commentary)

don't modulate the key then not debate with me (dash games)

within these words I finally find you (info)

looking to the world (mirror)

exit pursued by bear (crack)

history has its eyes on you (event)

remember who you are (saved)

Verses

Main Verse

anybody have a map? (main)

Older Verse

young scrappy and hungry (older)

young scrappy and hungry (info)

Amnesia/Wander Verse

go the distance (wanderer)

go the distance (info)

FGO Verse

my destiny calls and I go (fgosha)

my destiny calls and I go (info)

ORV Verse

you keep on walking and you don’t look back (orv)

you keep on walking and you don’t look back (info)

[now-serving]

City of Stairs - a book review

The world created by Robert Jackson Bennett in City of Stairs is simply put: expansive, intricate, cohesive, and absolutely fascinating. How this story (and its two sequels) has not spawned a roaring cult fandom is beyond me. The mature source material is endlessly entertaining with still so much to explore; aided by Bennet’s masterful spinning of a world overflowing with complex social commentary, political upheaval, and divine magic that fits in so naturally. I could go on, there is so much to love in Bennet’s world: the waring, conquering, rebelling, and reconquering people of the Continent and Saypur, the ravaged, husked Continental capital Bulikov—the city of stairs, and the once very real and tangible Gods of limitless power, now murdered. 

The characters inhabiting Bennet’s gritty, divine magic laden world are for the most part complex, driven, unique, and brimming with personality. Ashara (Shara) Komayd is a head-strong and ruthless detective who’s unwavering devotion to the discovery of truth and encyclopedic knowledge of the Divine fold together to form a near unstoppable brilliant force. Shara’s ability to simply outsmart enemies is balanced by her towering, door-filling hulk of a “secretary” Sigrud je Harkvaldsson. The stoic brawn to her brains, Sigrud will readily murder, eviscerate, or at the very least incapacitate anyone or anything in Shara’s way and in the next moment will provide a calm and reaffirming ear for Shara and her musings. Bennet builds his characters so carefully and consistently that I have to assume they are direct representations of real people in his life. Characters’ actions are so well justified by their personalities that I repeatedly noticed myself thinking “wow, that’s SO Sigrud”, or “that’s SO Shara”. 

Some side characters leave something to yearn for, but this is likely more a symptom of me being entirely sucked into this amazing world of the Divine Cities trilogy and wanting to know everything about everything down to every characters’ inner thoughts, the history of each city, the geography of the continent. Are there insects in this world? What kinds of animals roam the countryside? What are the oceans like? Are there other landmasses? Other people and other Gods yet to be discovered? Any fantasy detective novel that leaves the reader wondering about the resident flora and fauna a year after reading deserves some special commendations. 

The City of Stairs is brilliantly atmospheric (in part aided by fascinating excerpts of ancient texts, newspapers, and scientific journals presented at the beginning of each chapter), expertly written, with stunningly depictions of a fantastical world through the eyes of lovable and dynamic characters. I wish I could have my memory wiped just to relive the experience of exploring Bennett’s world with fresh eyes. But rereading City of Stairs several times will have to do for now.

--   An Excerpt  -- And Olvos said to them: “Why have you done this, my children? Why is the sky wreathed with smoke? Why have you made war in far places, and shed blood in strange lands?”

And they said to Her: “You blessed us as Your people, and we rejoiced, and were happy. But we found those who are not Your people, and they would not become Your people, and they were willful and ignorant of You. They would not open their ears to Your songs, or lay Your words upon their tongues. So we dashed them upon the rocks and threw down their houses and shed their blood and scattered them to the winds, and we were right to do so. For we are Your people. We carry Your blessing. We are Yours, and so we are right. Is this not what You said?”

And Olvos was silent

--BOOK OF THE RED LOTUS, PART IV, 13.51–13.59

[evieveevee]

What We Lost: Returning to Tumblr in 2020

On December 17th, 2018, Tumblr banned 'adult content' across the site, marking the end of an era. The ban was the result of a cavalcade of issues which reportedly made maintaining NSFW content unfeasible for Tumblr. Now, it's 2020. I'm back on Tumblr, and I can't help but meditate on what we've lost both on Tumblr, and across the globe in 2020.

Part One: Tumblr and Adult Content

*Things we lost to the flame Things we'll never see again All that we've amassed Sits before us, shattered into ash

— Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"*

A bit of personal history: Tumblr was the primary community I used in various forms from 2012 onwards, associating with various fandoms, doing what I could to design interesting things. The various communities I was involved in intersected with social justice communities, and eventually I dug into those further and tried to learn to better myself in the process, starting along the path to becoming the person I did.

Part of that process was also learning to love my own body, a thing I was not particularly good at and still struggle a bit with nowadays. One of the ways I did this was by making 'adult content', or more plainly, pornography. It was a unique opportunity to experiment with femininity and sexuality - something I'd been very closed off from as part of my upbringing - in a supportive, fun environment. Experimenting with my self image first in this way, in semi-private, led to me experimenting more publicly and eventually embracing aspects of that as part of my day to day life. That's right: making pornography was part of what led me down the path to figuring out I was trans and embracing that part of me.

Making porn on Tumblr was a great time; the adult content creators and consumers community on the site was largely supportive of queer people and sexuality, different body types, all manner of things. It was - in my experience - a healthy and fun place to be, and certainly one of the better places you could be on the internet for a visual medium like pornography. Tumblr's format made it easy to share both adult content you made yourself, and stuff you were curating. Vex Ashley wrote that "this sharing was so desperately vital for women and other marginalised people whose sexualities are often overlooked or infantilised in media about sex in preference for the tastes of the traditional porn consumer – the straight white guy" in a eulogy and love letter to Tumblr's adult content communities.

Tumblr's format remains novel to my knowledge as well: the notion of having a large image-focused feed which also allows for easy sharing and curation, gorgeous, high resolution pieces and photos to be uploaded with relatively little compression, custom arrangements of photosets, and personalized theming of your blog. There was, and remains, lots of potential for expression on Tumblr., and its focus remains unique. Twitter and Mastodon's focus is on what's written, Wordpress doesn't have the sort of interlinking of blogs that Tumblr does, and Facebook is... Facebook (read: evil).

I think the novelty of that format is what made the announcement of the ban on 'adult content' so impactful. Even looking back at the framing of it is gross: the post posits that 'adult content' is something which is negative, and says that removing it is working towards a 'more positive' Tumblr. There appears to be an attempt to try and strike a balance in allowing conversation about sexuality and such, but this is the killing blow. A huge portion of the community, including countless queer and furry artists, needed to find a new home online.

3 months after the ban had hit, traffic had reportedly dropped off 20%. Recent data from SimilarWeb, the outfit which published that initial data, shows that visits to the site have dropped off a little bit more, but have stayed otherwise pretty consistent. August 2020's data shows about 317 million visits. [1] In other words: any hope that this move would allow Tumblr was dashed. A massive portion of the userbase deleted their accounts after archiving them; Tumblr and the internet at large had lost a massive, vibrant chunk of community, and it was completely in vain.

I lost contact with a bunch of those folks I was following on Tumblr for years. The mass exodus left both people who wanted to find and share artwork and adult content and the people who made it completely adrift. Years later, some artists are still picking up the pieces. Archaic policy like SESTA/FOSTA being brought into the picture has left very few standing when it comes to adult content, Twitter included. Who knows how long that will last? If something happens to change the way that Twitter handles adult content, for example, what options do casual creators like myself have?

Fortunately, platforms like OnlyFans exist. But even those are at potential risk from legislation like the EARN IT Act, not to mention the danger this poses to Twitter and to the internet at large. OnlyFans and its ilk, as they exist right now, are fantastic for sex workers because they offer pay-gating and a variety of features to make sure sex workers get paid. But they leave those of us who want to be able to curate the content they enjoy or casually create their own content freely without real options, and without real community.

We stand to lose a lot, and as always people in the margins will be the ones most impacted: the queer, the people of color, the disabled; all will suffer greatly if adult content is found without a home. Media dealing with queer themes is enough to be considered "adult content" by some and it's not hard to imagine what we could be staring down the barrel of here.

What have we lost in eliminating platforms like this?

Part Two: 2020 and the World

*These are the things The things we lost The things we lost in the fire, fire, fire.

— Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"*

Meditating on what we have lost seems to be a running theme for the year 2020.

January: New Year's Day. In Aotearoa New Zealand, smoke covers the skies from a fire a literal ocean away. The Australian bush has been on fire, part of one of the most and it has turned the skies of a nation not it's own orange at midday, across thousands of kilometers. What did we lose in those fires? What stories and history? What wildlife, what species? What will remain afterwards? What will grow anew?

April: Aotearoa New Zealand hits the peak of COVID-19 related lockdown with the entire nation moved to Level 4, meaning that nothing except truly essential services, such as roadworks, pharmacies, and supermarkets were open. During that time, I thought a lot about how some of my favorite small shops were doing; the bakery with astonishingly good pies, the charming dollar store which always has a few things that catch my eye, the coffee cart near one of the local parks every morning. As a nation, Aotearoa acted early to deal with COVID-19 with a strong hand, and it was risky for all of those small shops across the country. What would we come out the other side of the lockdowns having lost, both in terms of human cost and cost to the places around us?

May: Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, massive protests against police brutality, racism, and white supremacy break out across the United States of America. Daily protests have continued to the time of writing in some cities. George Floyd is one of 781 people killed by police in 2020 at the time of writing in the United States alone [2]. 1099 people were killed by police in 2019 [3]. What incredible lives and stories have been lost in the process? Are those stories being told now? How do we prevent this from happening again? (Hint: defunding the police will be a start, and supporting the cause now is a good choice too.)

It is now September: The incompetence of the US Government has allowed COVID-19 to spread beyond control, leaving tens of thousands of deaths in its wake; lives and stories which must be remembered and their stories carried on by others. The western coast of the United States is on fire, blanketed in smoke and ashes. Massive west coast cities like San Francisco gain an apocalyptic feeling as the skies turn orange, like they did for me in January. Friends of friends lose everything in small Oregon towns. The costs of the prolonged fires will be paid by people all up the coast; it's their health outcomes which will suffer. What will we lose as a result of this in the future? What can we do to make things better?

I want to be clear: this is not a comprehensive list, and is centered around the things that me and my social circles have been aware of and talked about. Even with that consideration, we have to reckon with massive, ongoing, and far reaching concerns. The loss felt as a result of all of the above issues is staggering, and far reaching, and we must fight to ensure that loss is not in vain. Voting alone is not going to solve these concerns, and there's more to concern yourself with than any one person should have to cope with. There's not a magic bullet to solve all this stuff though.

Rather than pretend that I have one, I want to propose a couple things to close this out: one bit of advice, and one plea for yourself and others.

The advice: pick your battles carefully. Pick issues you want to focus in on, and fight for those things to make things better where you live, and in your social circles. Choose things to care deeply about first. Keep caring about them.

The plea: think carefully about the questions I've asked throughout this piece, and think about the things in your life and communities that you have lost. Think about how to make sure those losses are taken with you and learned from; to take lessons learned and better yourself and the people around you. Think about the things you don't want to lose, and how to fight like hell for them.

Move forwards to something, and some place better than where we are now. Stand united with the people around you, and press on.

*Do you understand that we will never be the same again? The future's in our hands and we will never be the same again.

— Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"*

If you enjoyed this piece and want to support my work, please contribute to my Ko-fi. If you are interested in re-publishing this piece on another site, please contact me either here or via my business email.

References

[1] Data provided by SimilarWeb; accessed on 15/09/2019 at 5:30am. (https://www.similarweb.com/website/tumblr.com/)

[2] Data provided by Mapping Police Violence (https://mappingpoliceviolence.com); accessed on 15/09/2020 at 4:08am NZT

[3] Data provided by Mapping Police Violence's (https://mappingpoliceviolence.com) database, downloaded on 15/09/2020 at 4:08am NZT. Count obtained using the following formula:

=COUNTIFS($'2013-2020 Police Killings'.F:F,">=1/1/2019",$'2013-2020 Police Killings'.F:F,"<1/1/2020")

[dailyaudiobible]

03/26/2019 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 5:1-6:25, Luke 7:11-35, Psalms 68:19-35, Proverbs 11:29-31

Today is the 26th day of the month of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It is great to be here every day. Right now…I don't…and this won’t be the last time I say stuff like this. I say stuff like this all the time throughout the year, but when I'm calling out these days and I'm looking at the fact that we’re at March 26th, by the way, happy birthday to my brother. I just…I mean…it just very much feels like it was just New Year's Day, like we just started this journey and we really are about to finish 1/4 of the year. And it reminds me in a good way that time is flying. And, you know, if we’re not here than we weren’t here, right? So, if we’re always out in front of ourselves trying to get things done in advance which is…I'm raising my hand, it’s the story of my life…then we look at a calendar and realize a bunch of time has past and where did it go, right, because we were always out in front of ourselves and we weren’t here. So, I wasn't planning on talking about that at the top of the Daily Audio Bible, but I imagine that I'm not the only one. And, so, let's be here now as we allow God's word to wash over us. We’re reading from the Good News Translation this week and we’re reading from the book of Deuteronomy and the book of Deuteronomy is the final book in the Torah and it is the final three conversations or discourses that Moses gave to the people before he left them, like before he died, before he became history. So, these are the things that Moses, who has gone through a lot with these people, this is what he feels like is important to say. In today's reading we will begin his second of three discourses. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and 6 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in today's reading from the gospel of Luke, John the Baptist who has been has been taken into custody by Herod sends a couple of his disciples to Jesus to ask, “are you the one?” Kind of an interesting question. Why would John ask such a question? And this is where we begin to brush up against the apocalyptic worldview of the time and we’ve kind of talked about this before and we’re not gonna get into like super big depth about this other than from time to time, we need to mention what we’re rubbing up against because it gives us context for what we’re reading in the Bible, but also context for our own lives because we have an apocalyptic worldview. So, essentially what we’re saying when we’re saying apocalyptic worldview sounds so ominous is essentially that the world is heading in some sort of direction, right? And usually as it's passed down from generation to generation the direction that we’re heading in is not a good direction, right? Things are only getting worse and that will lead us to a breaking point or a tipping point where things could get very, very messy, but what is happening then is something new will be born out of that, a new heaven and a new earth as it were. That's how we as Christians would speak, but this apocalyptic worldview is essentially the sense that were going somewhere, and things are going to get worse before they get better but they're going to get better. In the first century when Jesus ministry and John's ministry were taking place, I mean, things had gone through quite a long time of turmoil. The children of Israel that we’re reading about in Deuteronomy right now, they haven't crossed over the Jordan River and gone into the promised land. In Jesus time they've already long been kicked out of the promised land for their unfaithfulness to God. So, there back in their ancestral land but it's not their land and so there's all kinds of turmoil and uprisings. So, they are looking for a Messiah. They are looking for somebody who can rise up, rally all of the Hebrew people together, restore them to God, and see God to do some of the miraculous overthrow that he had done in times past. So, right? They have in their ancestry the story of God coming with the plagues on Egypt. So, if God can do that to Egypt, He can certainly throw the Roman Empire out of this land and that is what they want, and they believe it will happen through this one person, God's anointed, the Messiah, the one who was sent to do exactly that. So, this is why John sends a couple of disciples to say, “is that you? Just checking. It is it you?” Because they have a worldview and a certain set of expectations about what the Messiah’s job and roll is and what the Messiah will accomplish. Of course, Jesus will accomplish all of those things, it will just be on a cosmic level and not just a temporary fix for a certain generation or time. So, Jesus sends word back to John basically telling his disciples, “look, go tell John what you are seeing. Don't go just tell John miracles are taking place. Go tell him what you are seeing because what is taking place is what it looks like for the kingdom to come”, right? So, wherever Jesus is going restoration is happening, the kingdom is coming. Wherever He is the kingdom is. Friends, that is still true, and He is within you. Wherever you go, so goes the kingdom. You can walk into these situations with the kingdom and ignore the power that you have because of that and walk away, or you can be Christ like. Jesus, in the gospel of Luke today after this discourse about John kind of finishes everything up by saying, “how can I speak about this generation?” And he talks about how there are kids in the marketplace and kids play for other kids wedding songs, but nobody dances and so they decide to play sad songs, but nobody cries. What Jesus is effectively saying here is, “you are never satisfied. God could send you…and He's talking about John here…this prophet that lives a very austere very, very simple life with a fiery message, that's not good enough for you. And then the Son of Man comes and He’s not doing that He's eating and drinking, being among you, going where people who need a doctor are. That's not good enough for you. Nothing is good enough for you.” This is what Jesus is saying. If we just push pause and just consider what we’re talking about in the gospel of Luke today, we are already pinned to the wall, we have already been exposed. We do all of the same things, but lest we think this is a new invention on planet Earth, this kind of thing, forgetting who you are and where you've come from and who God is and where you're going, this has always been happening. And, so, we turn the page backward from the gospel of Luke and we go back into our reading from the book of Deuteronomy today and Moses is giving his second discourse and what is he telling the people? “Tell your children about what you are experiencing today. When they ask questions answer them. Pass the story forward, who you are, who God is, where you are going. And, so, we’ll close our little chat today by reading a passage back to you from the book of Deuteronomy. The reason that I'm reading this back to you is to remind you who you are, who God is, and where you're going. These words spoken to the children of Israel are certainly in to their context, but these words also mimic the story of our lives. “We were slaves of the king of Egypt and the Lord rescued us by His great power. With our own eyes we saw him work miracles and do terrifying things to the Egyptians and to their king and all his officials. He freed us from Egypt to bring us here and give us this land as he had promised our ancestors, he would. Then the Lord our God commanded us to obey these laws and to honor Him. If we do He will always watch over our nation and keep it prosperous. If we faithfully obey everything that God has commanded us he will be pleased with us.”

Prayer:

So, Father, we come before You, acknowledging this and falling to our knees because we are not capable of doing this in our own strength, but You came for us and You made it possible for us to walk in union and in unity and in collaboration and in relationship with You. And, so, as we walk with You we certainly can walk on the pathways that will only lead us to righteousness, will only remind us of our identity, will only remind us of who You are and where we’re going. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it's we’re you find out what's going on around here.

I guess the most immediate thing to mention is the More Gathering for women. Today is the 26th and registration for the More Gathering ends on the 31st of this month. So, you can get all the details at moregathering.com and we hope to see you there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you, thank you, thank you for those of you who have clicked that link over the years. Thank you. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi family, this is Rachel from Houston. I am calling today to encourage Dash from Indiana. I just heard your message and it spoke directly to my heart. I actually was at a Bible study last night and it was about how forgetful we are sometimes, and I think that it’s something that…we are forgetful. We forget how big our God is and, you know, our God is so big that He, He’s just so much bigger then all of the worry and stress and unfortunate pain and discomfort that we feel. And, so, not to discount the way that you feel, that depression is directly from the devil and I push that away. So, devil we do not that depression. But I encourage the joy from Jesus in your heart for all the love for that baby boy who’s turning one and all the love for your new one on the way and I really really encourage you, I give you the love of Jesus in your heart and I just am praying over you and you will be on my prayer list every single day. So, I love you and I love you family and I am lifting you up. So, have a great day.

Hi…hi…I am Erlin from Haiti I want to ask you for my cousin, she’s named is Julia. She has a cancer and now she’s comma. So, we know that God is the God of the impossible, but I know He can do and He can heal my cousin. Also, for my brother for some time he’s seeing some blood in his poop and he started a medical following and next week he’s gonna have a colostomy. So, I want to ask prayer for him and for all my family. Thank you.

Hello family, I’m a first-time caller and calling from Nigeria. __ I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio for almost 5 years now. I have a request and I want you guys to please put my mother-in-law in prayer. Her name is Rita. Please, she’s had some kind of illness that brings pain to her face and it has no known cure. Right now, she’s in the hospital and the doctors are saying they don’t know what it is to her. __ she can’t produce any blood platelets. So, please lift her up in prayer for me, that the Lord may heal her wound. Thank you.

Hi, I was listening to Daily Audio Bible today and I heard a request from Dash and I heard other prayer requests similar to that __ a while about feelings of hopelessness and I just want to say that first, it’s a huge step that you’re even calling to ask for prayer. I think that’s amazing and I think that’s such a gift from God because it’s so hard to take that step, to ask for prayer. And, so, I think you should just commend yourself and others who have called in feeling hopeless too, that you even took that step. And, so, I just want to let you know and the others know as well that I’ve been praying for you and will continue to pray for you. I struggle with that as well, but I just want you to know that God always delivers, and He never fails and just hold onto what you know deep down in your heart about God truth. Try not to focus on how you feel because our feelings often feel lead us astray, but God’s truth always remains there. So, keep it up and I’ll just be encouraging you in prayer. Thanks.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible, this is Scott in Alaska. I haven’t called in in two years. I’ve been listening since about 2010, off and on. I’m actually not in Alaska, I’m driving back to Alaska right now in Western North Dakota nearly to Montana. I’m so grateful for the DAB and being able to listen to it going down the road and a thought came to me this morning. The roads pretty foggy. I’ve only got about a quarter to a third mile visibility. It’s kinda like life sometimes. I can’t see everything coming up ahead but it’s really fine. A quarter-mile is more than enough visibility. I’ve got warm coffee and the Daily Audio Bible and people to pray for. I don’t really need to see any further than that. I’ve got complete faith that this ole highway is still rollin’ miles and miles ahead of me and I’ll see as it comes to me. That’s sort of the way God does our life too, isn’t it? So, if you’re in life that’s kind of foggy and you can’t see very far ahead right now, it’s no big deal. Have a cup of coffee, read the Scriptures, and pray for other people and the road will unfold for you. So, thanks a lot and I’ll try to check in again on this trip up to Alcan. I love you all and thank you Brian for doing this.

[ecampbellsoup]

Outlander First Impressions: Chapter 1

YAY!!!!!! Here we are for my first impressions of Outlander!!!!!!

I specifically chose this title for the blog series because First Impressions was originally going to be Jane Austen’s title for Pride and Prejudice. (JANE, I LOVE YOU DARLING!!!)

I am going to pull lines that stick out to me AND write a quick little opinion piece after each one. My commentary will be raw and my true thoughts ❤️

Hope y’all enjoy!

“It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance…”

I am the first to admit that I do judge a novel based on the introductory line. It is incredibly important. It should be orignal while also evoking the heart of the book to be unveiled.

I LOVE this opening. It has a lot of metaphorical weight to it. Everything about Claire’s story starts with a disappearance not only from time, but from the woman she used to be.

I also adore the idea that Scotland stole Claire’s heart along with its countryman (HEHE JAMIE) even if it wasn’t at first glance ❤️

“We both felt it [Highlands] was a symbolic place to re-establish our marriage.”

OH LOL. Oh wow. The irony in this statement is NOT lost on me 😂. Sorry Frank.

Also, how fascinating is it that these two Brits almost went to Brighton, but then decided upon SCOTLAND last minute. I do not see that as a coincidence (JAMIE: SHE IS COMING FOR YOU)

“Inconsiderate little wench. I came here for rest, remember?”

Okkkkkk I already dislike Frank 🙄😂

I know he is saying this in jest. BUT FRANK: you haven’t seen your bride in literal years. How about a little enthusiasm? How about being excited that your woman wants to be close to you?

There is a lot of selfishness wrapped up in that pretentious joke.

“He was, however, known by the rather dashing nickname of ‘Black Jack’.”

YOO-HOO. UH FRANK. Hate to burst your bubble. Dashing by definition means elegant and gallant. It is a term of admiration.

AND YOUR ANCESTOR WAS THE POLAR OPPOSITE

I vomit at the mere mention of him (Sorry, had to get my BJR loathing out on the table hehe 😂)

“I had never owned a vase in my life.”

This line holds a lot of hidden meaning. I think when Claire speaks about owning a vase what she really means is she’s never really felt anything is HERS. Even her husband.

It has all always been slightly out of grasp.

“Now perhaps you’ll stop putting flowers in my books.”

GOOD GRIEF FRANK. DO YOU EVEN LIKE YOUR WIFE??????

Again, I know he is “kidding”, but really Frank? Do you have to make jokes at your wife’s expense? I’m only 9 pages in and this is your SECOND one!!!

WHEN IS PRECIOUS JAMIE SHOWING UP. I WANT BABY J.

“Mrs. Randall is verra much interested in wee plants”

I LOVE that Claire is a woman of the earth, dirt, and ground.

JUST LIKE JAMIE BUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY 😭

(Also Jamie’s quote, “I told them we needed to go fetch some more of your wee herbs” from 1x8 TOTALLY came to my mind hehe)

“…Frank said, looking dreamily at the horizon.”

You know what actually makes Frank excited? History.

He is not looking dreamily at his bride. HIS EYES BREAK FROM CLAIRE AND LOOK AWAY as he thinks about what actually gives him passion.

“…as I tried to smooth them [curls] back.”

Notice how Claire feels the need to SMOOTH her beautiful curls away from her face with Frank. She feels the pressure to alter herself.

YET JAMIE ADORES THE CURLS AROUND HER FACE.

“I rather thought he was looking up at your window…But before I could touch him, he whirled suddenly round and pushed past me and walked down the road.”

JAMIE!!!!!!!!!! JAMIE JAMIE JAMIE JAMIE! HI BABY J!!!!!!

While Frank is constantly looking away from Claire, Jamie stands paralyzed at the view of her.

ALSO, Jamie was like: Get out of my way, Frank LOL.

“I like everything about you.”

Well that is nice of you to finally affirm your precious wife, Frank.

HIGHLY suspicious that statement is genuine though.

“Just, when I saw that chap outside, it occurred to me…he might have been someone you nursed.”

DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER.

Yes, Frank. Claire has nursed that sweet man back to health MANY times. Annnnnd a wee bit more than that hehe

“The quality of mercy is not strained…it droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven.”

Claire, despite her stubbornness, is a very gracious woman.

This moment also reveals a lot to me about WHY she is so initially resistant to Jamie. She is a faithful wife and she does not desire to be cruel to Frank.

Also: this quote almost reminds me of what Mother Hildegarde speaks to Claire as she fights to forgive Jamie after the loss of Faith. “God says we must revel in mercy. Tread sins underfoot. And hurl iniquities into the sea.” (2x7)

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

The show and book very closely follow one another so far, bravo!

However, the interpretation of Frank on screen is a much more palatable one than the novel. I think Tobias/writers/directors added a sympathetic tone to Frank that is not in the book.

It is obvious that Claire is NOT Claire with Frank. She is stifled and quieted.

But also: WHEN IS JAMIE COMING. I WANT JAMIE. Heheheh 😍😂

Until chapter 2, au revoir!

[disneywonder-rp]

ITINERARY - DAY TWO: WE’RE ON ISLAND TIME!

Date: Monday, December 30th, 2019

Good morning passengers! Today we’ll be arriving at our first port of call: Key West, Florida! Make sure you’re wearing something light and breezy, temperature is supposed to be a hot 85 degrees and it’s quite humid outside. We’ll be docking around 8 am, however you’ll want to be back on the ship by 5 pm so that you can dress for dinner...and so we don’t leave without you! If exploring the island isn’t your speed, feel free to stay on the ship - we’ve got plenty for you to do without having to set foot on land! 

Day’s Schedule:

Port of Call: Key West, Florida

Dinner: Animator’s Palate 

Evening Show: Golden Mickey’s 

Detailed Schedule:

About Key West Florida 

As the largest island in Florida, Key West measures 4 miles long and 2 miles wide. The island represents the southernmost point in the continental U.S., and because of proximity to the Gulf Stream, enjoys a mild tropical climate.

Local Culture and Flavor: With its beautiful beaches, balmy weather, pristine natural settings and fetching old American architecture, it's no wonder Key West is a celebrated locale for world-class leisure, recreation and scintillating nightlife. The island also possesses a fascinating culture all its own.The oldest part of the island includes the historic district and is known as "Old Town." Here, visitors can tour Mallory Square—where a street festival is held daily at sunset—and Duval Street, a popular destination for carefree dining and drinking. Old Town features distinct, Victorian mansions and many of the island's legendary establishments, dating as far back as 1886.

Past and Present: With so much of its original architecture still intact, it's clear that Key West is a settlement with a long history.Once part of the Spanish-owned territory of Florida, it was transferred in 1815 by the governor of Havana to U.S. citizen John W. Simonton who bought the island on the recommendation of his friend, John Whitehead—a man who had been shipwrecked on the island once and had recognized its vast potential as a strategic harbor.Positioned on the wide shipping lane of the Straits of Florida, Key West was known as the "Gibraltar of the West" for its mercantile and military value. Famous Commander Matthew C. Perry physically claimed the land as U.S. territory by planting an American Flag on its shores in 1822.Early settlers farmed key limes here; later inhabitants salvaged cargo sunk on nearby reefs to eventually create young America's wealthiest city. Many initial residents of Key West were immigrants who traveled there from the Bahamas; their rich cultural influence is felt in Key West today. Because the island is situated closer to Havana than it is to Miami, a steady influx of Cuban immigrants transformed the population of the island throughout the last century.Currently, you can tour streets that Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams called home, or choose to travel to the coasts for snorkeling adventures in the crystal-clear waters, as so many vacationers do happily year after year.

Things to do in Key West: 

Southernmost Point - Stand at the southernmost point of the continental United States! Be sure to bring your camera to take pictures with the signs marking the significant point. From here, you're only 90 miles from Cuba.

Key West Lighthouse Museum - This museum documents the fascinating history of the 92-foot lighthouse built in 1847. After a tour, scale its heights to enjoy a breathtaking view of the Keys—a glorious sight you won't be able to see anywhere else.

The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum - Ernest Hemingway penned his masterpieces, Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, while living in Key West. Step back in time and visit his former home to explore the rooms and gardens where the Nobel Prize winner lived and wrote for over 10 years. (More information HERE)

Sloppy Joe's - There's only one Sloppy Joe's, and this is your chance to experience the real thing! This well-known bar has been a favorite “watering hole” in Key West since 1933. Doors opens at 9:00 AM, live music begins at noon and the fun keeps on going! (More information and menu HERE)

Additional Key West Adventures can be found HERE. 

Dinner

Location: Animator’s Palate (information HERE)

Table Assignments found HERE

Evening Show (Optional)

Location: Walt Disney Theater

Time: 8 pm

Show: The Golden Mickeys (information HERE)

The Red Carpet Pre-Show - Feel free to wear something sparkly, frilly or downright dashing for this big night. As you walk the red carpet that leads into the theater, be sure to flash a grin—someone in your entourage just might be caught on camera. Keep an eye out for our shipside celebrity columnist Rona Rivers, who will be providing on-air commentary—live from the red carpet!

[rallamajoop]

The Great Escape Attempt

Chances are, if you know anything about The Great Escape, you know that it features a scene where someone ramps a motorbike over a prison camp fence. It’s one of those scenes that’s been so relentlessly pastisched and parodied that you'd probably recognise the references even if you couldn’t name the film – an iconic image of Hollywood spectacle, as man and machine go flying over our heads to freedom.

That someone was going to vault a motorbike over a fence at some point was one of few things I knew about this movie going in.

Now, scenes like this do tend to grow in the re-telling, but I would not have guessed just how exaggerated the parodies would prove to be. To begin with, we aren’t jumping the prison fence itself – the prison break itself is about a third of the runtime behind us, so instead we’re making do with some random border fence in Nazi territory, as Steve McQueen flees the pursuing Nazis. For another thing, the fence he jumps is actually only the first and much lower of two fences.

And having jumped that fence, he almost immediately runs head-first into the second one.

From this dignified position, he’s recaptured and taken back to prison, there to spend the rest of the war.

It’s still a reasonably cool stunt and all, but blink, and you could miss this ‘iconic’ scene altogether – the camerawork doesn’t remotely frame it as the epic moment it would become in reproduction (and given what follows, you can see why not). It’s more like watching a fleeing animal tangle itself in a hedge than a great leap for freedom. It’s odd to find myself thinking, “well, okay, but it was cooler when the team behind Wallace and Gromit did it with the chickens.”

I open with this particular impression not simply for effect, but because this sort of anti-climax was typical of the my overall experience with the movie. If you asked me to summarise the film in a few words, they might be, escape was not actually as great as advertised. Remember this, we’ll come back to it.

Summarising the film in more detail requires some background context. The Great Escape is, for the completely uninitiated, a film based on a real, historical breakout of (primarily) British troops interred in a Nazi prison camp during World War II. Opening cards assure us that though liberties have been taken with some of the personalities involved, all the details of the actual escape are as truly took place.

My own interest in the film was twofold – for one, as covered above, this is one of those films which has been so relentlessly referenced in popular culture since its release that I was curious about the original, and the fact that my own family history intersects with the British war effort (both my paternal grandparents were in the RAF) adds some minor personal interest in the topic. For another, and probably the more obvious point, this film features David McCallum, and since I’d already given one of Vaughn’s pre-UNCLE films a try, this seemed the logical follow-up.

Actually, there are additional parallels between The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, as their large ensemble casts both featured Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn among the more prominent credits – or, to put it another way, both featured That One Skinny Blonde Dude From M7, One Of Those Two Brown Haired Dudes from M7, and That Other Skinny Blonde Dude From M7 Who I Kept Confusing With Steve McQueen. Believe me, when you’ve already spent one movie trying to figure out which of the two skinny blonde dudes in cowboy hats is Steve McQueen, having both of them show up in a second movie with an even bigger cast does not help (that both had American accents in a cast of English accents did not help either), and round 2 of Is That Steve McQueen? quickly ensued. Having now spent two different movies on this same problem, I think I can definitively state that I Do Not Get the hype about Steve McQueen. He is generic as fuck.

I would like to say that the rest of the cast was more distinctive, but I’d be lying. The trouble with large ensembles of white dudes with generic faces and hair is that, well, just look at these people. Richard Attenborough was consistently recognisable, as was the one bald dude and the one with the mustache, but few others really stayed with me, and keeping track of who was who and who did what was a genuine chore. It’s not even that they were all generically hot, as they’d probably be were the movie made today – in a cast stuffed to the gills with healthy young men of enlistment age, David McCallum remains the only notable eye-candy on screen, and he did not have enough scenes.

In fairness, though, this isn’t a movie about characters nearly so much as it exists to chronicle an event, and the scenes where the escape plan gradually comes together were the film’s best. Next to zero time is wasted on getting to know one another or formulating their plans: the Nazis have opted to deal with their most troublesome prisoners by chucking every member of a seasoned team of British escape artists in the one place, and thus most everyone knows one another from the get-go. ‘Big X’ outlines the plan to dig their way out of the camp in one of the earliest scenes, gives everyone their job, and they all go to it. Men are assigned to dig, to dispose of the dirt, to scrounge materials, to keep watch, to forge documents and even to make clothes to help escapees to blend into the populace after making it out. There are setbacks and missteps, but the majority of the action is rather like watching an episode of Hustle or Mission Impossible – sit back and enjoy, knowing the heist is in good hands.

At the same time – and for all the perfectly valid commentary about Steve McQueen being shoehorned into the action for the benefit of the American market – he and his countrymen did add a valuable (though never over-dramatised) element of culture clash. He’s the outsider, who initially has his own plans, who only gets drawn into the plan as an early attempt is foiled and the tension mounts. Perfectly valid narrative device, no matter how little he may have done for me as a character.

No, the major problem with the film arrives only later, as the escape takes place. Now, up until this point, my major problem with the film had been that the whole notion of the escape plan seemed a bit of a jolly jape to the men enacting it. As far as Nazi camps go, it goes without saying that these folks have it insultingly good. Most have multiple previous escape attempts to their names, after which they’d all been rounded up and politely brought back to prison. Early in the film, an exasperated Nazi Colonel implores the ranking British officer to have his men give it up, so that “we may all sit out the war as comfortably as possible,” to which he receives the brazen reply, “it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape.” Now, it’s fair to say that no-one wants to be a prisoner of the Nazis as the war wraps up, for all sorts of good reasons. But the impetus behind the escape is certainly not survival, but explicitly, “to start another front, to foul up the Germans behind the lines.” To achieve this, they plan not simply to escape, but to escape in unprecedented numbers – to free a full 200 men and set them loose in occupied territory, to tie up as many Nazi resources as possible. This goal is as explicit as can be: it’s in the trailer, it’s the carrot they use to get Steve McQueen on-board, etc. It’s the rallying cry behind the movie.

On the night of the escape, however, one thing began to bug me, as with every man in the camp outfitted with new clothes and papers, waiting for his turn to make the dash, it became apparent that the diggers were only now closing the final distance to open the exit into the fresh air. I’m no expert here, but it struck me as extraordinarily bad planning not to at least have had someone stick their head out the night before to confirm, eg. that they hadn’t brought themselves up under a boulder or a bee hive, or the border guard’s favourite tree for a discrete piss in between their rounds, etc. The counter-argument, presumably, was that every single day they waited was a day where the tunnel might be found and the whole thing foiled. But when one has just spent several minutes thinking, “gosh, they’re going to feel like right twits if it turns out they’ve misjudged the distance and come up short or something,” it’s a bit hard to feel as sympathetic as one should when that’s exactly what they did.

This is all, for the record, historically accurate – only a mere 75 of the 200 men would make it out through the botched tunnel before they were seen and the alarm raised. With months of careful planning, outfitting 200 men to blend in in Nazi territory – even going so far as to have one man stage a solo escape attempt and then deliberately get recaptured after he’d had a chance to get the lay of the land – the one thing the conspirators didn’t do was stop to say, “do you think maybe we’ve misjudged the distance to the trees, given that we’re basically guessing? Shouldn’t we have someone stick his head out of the tunnel just to double check before we commit?” Perhaps this all made far more sense from the inside, but the film didn’t especially sell it, and that’s disappointing.

The greater disappointment, however, was that after this great failure, the film shrugs, and goes on to follow the various escapees as they mostly sort of drift around occupied territory for a full additional third of the film’s runtime before most are recaptured, and at last summarily executed. This could, with a few tweaks, have easily been a clever subversion – the kind of tragic disappointment on which the reality of war is built – but as filmed, the framing carries surprisingly little narrative weight. The magnitude of their failure to free the full 200 prisoners or create the new front they’d planned is never really dwelt upon. There are no bold new plans to make the best of their options with their limited numbers, no revised strategy to prioritise survival – what any of them are actually trying to do beyond ‘not get captured’ is quite ambiguous. And thus the conclusion is not a tragedy, but a prolonged anticlimax. When the Nazis finally have almost everyone but Steve McQueen shot, all I could really think was, “yeah, can’t especially blame them at this point.” I mean, they should’ve shot Steve McQueen too, but that’s beside the point.

Ultimately, The Great Escape is neither awesomely epic nor soberingly tragic. It’s merely a moderately authentic recreation of a one of the most meticulously planned fuck-ups in POW history, and it doesn’t even seem to know how it feels about it.

In conclusion, my advice to you all is not to bother with The Great Escape (Attempt). If you want a truly magnificent WWII escape story, then I’d suggest instead you look up the 1943 uprising and escape from Sobibór – the 2014 documentary Escape From a Nazi Death Camp gives an excellent overview, and you can probably find a copy online fairly easily (it may even be available on Netflix in some regions). Sobibór, for the record, was a genuine concentration camp – the prisoners were primarily Polish Jews, kept alive only to do the horrific work of stripping and incinerating the bodies of their fellows – and yet so many of the facts of the escape are just about pure Hollywood.

There’s a portent of doom, when a note in the pocket of a gas chamber victim brings a warning that the Nazis are beginning to shut down their own camps, and that Sobibór may be next in line. There’s culture clash, as the original population ally themselves with a small group of newly transferred Russian soldiers, only lately added to their numbers. There’s a daring, meticulously-organised escape plan led by a tall, young, hot Russian officer (Lieutenant Alexander Pechersky), with the gall to give inspirational speeches at key moments, and even live to carve the name of the camp on the wall of a building in Berlin. There’s even some romance – two of the prisoners met in the camp, fell in love, and lived to escape together.

But most important of all, there’s the success – around 200 of the prisoners made it out, and almost 50 of the escapees would be still free to see peace come again, putting the very modest 2 surviving escapees of “The Great Escape” to shame. Seriously, look it up – it’s got the material The Great Escape was based on beat on every possible front, and it doesn’t shy away from the true horror evoked by the words ‘Nazi’ and ‘camp’ in combination.

Alternately, look up the escape from Treblinka, another Nazi extermination camp in Poland, where prisoners broke into the armoury, set fuel stores on fire and burst out amid a hail of gunfire. Nearly 70 of those who escaped lived beyond the end of the war too.

What do stories like these lack? English-speakers, presumably. No British prisoners, no Steve McQueen, no Hollywood deal. End of story. Sobibór got one British made-for-TV movie, but that seems to be about the limit of the interest in dramatising this sort of material in the Anglophone world.

Anti-climax indeed.

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: REWIND REVIEW: Aladdin

(Image: stylecaster.com)

For an occasional new segment, Every Movie Has a Lesson will cover upcoming home media releases combining an “overdue” or “rewind” film review, complete with life lessons, and an unboxed look at special features.

ALADDIN

After enjoying a billion-dollar run at the worldwide box office, Disney’s summer hit Aladdin descends to home media store shelves on September 10th.  Directed by Sherlock Holmes franchise steward and kinetic auteur Guy Ritchie, the razzle and dazzle of this re-imagined classic impressed in many areas while it lacked in others.  All of the spectacle is on display for DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD.    

LATE HOMEWORK EXCUSE:  

No pass of forgiveness is needed for Aladdin.  I saw this one as large as possible at the Chicago Navy Pier IMAX before its release.  The dashing visuals and colors played well on that massive format. This disc review will include portions of my full review from 

ANTICIPATORY SET AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:

In front of Will Smith’s winking and bejeweled human form and his sizable and mystical sapphire sinew is a slightly thickened story true Disney fans know by heart. A handsome “street rat” sneaker named Aladdin (Canadian-Egyptian newcomer Mena Massoud of Hulu’s Jack Ryan) catches the appreciative and alluring eye of Jasmine (pink Power Ranger Naomi Scott), the Princess of Agrabah, an independent spirit lamenting the trappings of her regal stature and required betrothal to fellow royalty. The handsome hustler also gains the prophecy-fulfilling curiosity of Jafar (Marwan Kenzari of Ben-Hur), the hypnotizing top advisor to the Sultan (12 Strong’s Navid Negahban), who is convinced the young man is the human key to the Cave of Wonders and a certain handheld beacon that likes being caressed by fingertips.

LESSON #1: EXCEEDING ONE’S INITIAL OR CURRENT PLACE — The moral dilemma of Aladdin has not changed. We have many “waited my whole life”-spewing characters trapped by their present or past places in society, complete with the corresponding weaknesses of confidence that accompany those tiers. Birthright, caste, hierarchy, gender, legislation, and other constraints like that pesky lamp all stand as potential causes. As the film and one of its new songs implores, too many good people are “seen and not heard.” Truthful resolve and manufactured personal improvement are the dueling paths sought to change one’s “speechless” or limited circumstances.

Just as he did for 2017’s Beauty and the Beast revival, composer Alan Menken returned to his Oscar-winning score and songs. His involvement was vitally essential to maintaining a level of glow for the movie. The execution, however, is the tedious part. The new songs from the songwriting duo of Pasek and Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman) are too slight or misplaced in their moments. Massoud and Scott may look the parts, but their vocals cannot quite achieve all that is necessary for “A Whole New World,” arguably Disney’s greatest duet song in their expansive catalog (a bar that was, forgivably, not going to be topped). Will Smith and choreographer Jamal Sims save the day. Where the pipes fail on the audio tracks, the punchy footwork and gyrating gambols on camera provide the dazzle, making one wonder and wish Aladdin could have gone full Bollywood. Guy Ritchie used to have that panache so it’s surprising not to see on the biggest stage.

MY TAKE:

It is becoming increasingly tedious to both critique and enjoy these Disney “re-imaginings.” The teeter-totter between familiarity and freshness changes with each movie due to the modern desire to update and the soaring fan expectations set by the level of nostalgic adoration carried for each previous property. The results have been wildly mixed. Aladdin more of that middle with a tilting lean that could go either way. The studio and Sherlock Holmes series director Guy Ritchie aimed admirably with an “ambitious and non-traditional” take employing minority casting against whitewashing and colorism. Those skin-deep improvements are progressive, but who are we kidding? The color that mattered most was blue. 

All the desired diversity in the world paled to who could possibly follow the late Robin Williams? The Genie is the ticket to more than just wishes when it comes to this reboot’s success. That laborious task was given to Will Smith. Folks, he is a hot, baking sun of swagger! Will has not been this loose and free since Men in Black 3 seven years ago. Aladdin reminds us how much of a consummate showman the 50-year-old is and always has been. Will has a style, energy, and stage presence all his own, and he saves this entire movie from sandy ruin.

Heading back to the symbolic piece of playground equipment, the casting and performances in Aladdin are one step forward and two steps back. Massoud and Scott represent closer matching minorities for the affair and their attractive chemistry together has smoldering warmth. Massoud’s winning smile will swoon many. For today’s empowering present, Scott’s Jasmine was positively bolstered with layers of independence and, thankfully, less sexualization than previous incarnations. 

Unfortunately, the not-so-thin varnish of multiple unfavorable Arabic and Asian tropes, from accents to character behaviors, smears the rest of the human landscape of Aladdin. Negahban’s Sultan, for example, is terribly one-dimensional where even the doting towards his daughter is too slight to resonate as regality. The bigger vacuum is the main villain. Kenzari’s Jafar suffers from underwritten motivation and a somewhat unimposing performance. Had the same updating attention given to the Jasmine role been extended to that character by writers John August (Dark Shadows) and Guy Ritchie, the overall improvement could have increased the storytelling heights.

LESSON #2: REPRESENTATION ISN’T ENOUGH — The on-and-off irregularity of Aladdin is a unique situation. Yes, it is wonderful Disney sought people of color for this ethic fairy tale, but the clout of their portrayals and the substance of their actions are not improvements. If you’re going to do the right thing by diversity, go all the way, not just halfway or selectively. Dare to combat stereotypes completely.

2 STARS

EXTRA CREDIT:

(Image: disneystore.com)

As a home media release, the extras here for Aladdin are rather thing.  Whether it’s been their own branded titles or the Marvel ones, the disc special features for the Mouse House’s offerings have been disappointing for too long.  When you have a hands-on and energetic filmmaker like Guy Ritchie and the always-on charisma of Will Smith, the potential for interesting and entertaining behind-the-scenes content is huge.  This Aladdin doesn’t even contain a basic director or writer commentary.  At least the MCU films carry those.

Two items from the special features menu stand out as the best bits and bytes (and, no, it’s not the overplayed trailers for Frozen 2 or Maleficent: Mistress of Evil).  The first is Mena Massoud’s collected video journal chronicling his experiences during the lengthy and labor-intensive international shoot.  Edited down to a little over ten minutes from months of casual exploits, the open diary shows quite the full scope of what it took Ritchie and company to make this blockbuster from the eyes of an emerging actor at the center of it all.  

It’s sad that his cellphone-shot footage is, with equal length, more compelling, revealing, and entertaining than the two tiny, fancy, and studio-created featurettes, “A Friend Like Genie” and “Guy Ritchie: A Cinematic Genie,” that precede it on the disc.  The first of those does have Will Smith making an ever-so-brief and reflecting nod to the history of Robin Williams that came before him, but then it’s the bouquet parade of shared compliments. The same goes for the portrait of the director, which also is too short to really give a taste of the artistry that comes with his camera speed shits, angles, and sense of pacing.  Without a commentary track of Ritchie or Smith really conversing, we’re missing so much backstory.  

The second stellar feature is an outstanding deleted song entitled “Desert Moon.”  It’s a lovely duet between Massoud and Scott that is sung separately as the characters reflect after parting away from each other earlier in their courtship and before Aladdin is thrust into the Cave of Wonders.  The scene was fully shot and edited, only to become a late and erroneously scratch from the final film. With sweet lyrics from Benj Passek and Justin Paul, this ballad might be better than any of the other original songs that stayed in the final 128-minute picture.  This is must-see.  

Those are four minutes that could have added romantic weight to the movie. The other deleted scenes are mostly trims of other exchanges. Naturally, Will Smith’s humor dominates the blooper reel for easy laughs and tension-breaking shenanigans. Lastly, with its musical spine, the Aladdin disc contain three lavish music videos. The first is for Naomi Scott’s powerful “Speechless,” the song the studio is likely stumping for when it comes time for Oscar consideration in the Best Original Song category. Two versions of “A Whole New World” are included as well. The first is the end credits update performed by Zayn and Zhavia Ward. The second is a Spanish version “Un Mundo Ideal” by Zayn and Becky G., a nice addition for the sizeable international audiences.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#822)

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[ark-of-eden]

R is drunk and raving (not in the party way).

(R:) Additionally, I’m procrastinating like a fucking champion at working on fic construction, so you know the best use of my time is going off about random social media crap on the internet.

tl;dr: Putting all commentary in tags on Tumblr makes R cry and shit thousands of words into the Internet.

Every social media site inevitably develops sets of unwritten social conventions. Some of them actually make sense as being derived from meatspace etiquette and therefore you don’t really have to stress about remembering them as long as you play nice like a decent creature.

And some of them just don’t make any fucking sense that I can see. Folks on Twitter using a deliberately space-limited form of media to write a page’s worth or more in a string of 30+ rapidfire tweets? This is just how it’s done over there? (Tweetlonger exists but for some reason these massive chain-tweeters never seem to use it. Same with posting the whole thing in a long-form site like LJ/DW/Tumblr and just linking it to a tweet.)

And Tumblr has things that I literally had to put effort into learning after I migrated here, and after I learned about them I frankly decided to ignore them because I couldn’t see the point in them. Tumblr has this bizarre allergy to commentary and, likely derived from that, the practice of instead commenting by putting it all in awkward tags that render the tagging system not especially useful and are harder to get to if you’re actually interested in an individual’s thoughts about a thing and not just the twelfth instance of the same post crossing your dash in a day or two. It’s not like you can’t engage with people, because asks and messaging and such exist, but like...there’s this strong sense that it’s Terribly Ill-Mannered to weigh in with your own impressions right there, in the body of the post, typing your own words in that seductive, wide-open text box that appears all on its own when you go to reblog something. The properly-socialized Tumblrite eschews that tempting text field and instead posts weird sentence fragments in tag form (interspersed with actual tags that might serve to usefully categorize the post’s content), to the extent that some people can add on a good couple paragraphs of material down among the hashtags where others need to go looking for it on purpose if they want it. (I, at least, haven’t been able to find a plugin or something that automatically expands full tags on all posts so that I don’t have to fuck around with extra interface elements to get to them. I admit that I haven’t looked super hard, though.)

Preserving the original form of the OP’s post is a noble practice that I heartily support, but how is adding commentary a problem if you’re only adding a separate thing, not taking away or altering anything in the original...? This was already a practice/convention/code of social interaction on Tumblr when I got here, so I was never in the front row to witness this element taking shape. I suppose it must have made good sense at the time, but every time I see ten people reblogging the same post with no additions and a paragraph of tags appended to it, it’s like a splinter in my brain that has been digging into me for years now.

And I’m not hating on people who do that! I get that that’s The Way It’s Done Here and I am the deviant weirdo for continually adding comments directly onto things that I reblog. Tags are where individuality lives here, unless you’re producing your own original posts, which I guess other people are then supposed to reblog without commentary so that you have to go hunting after all the reblogs individually if you want to get an actual sense of what these people were all thinking when they reblogged your thing. It all just seems...so...WORK INTENSIVE, refusing to use site functions as they were intended??

Look, I absolutely know that my commentary is not the work of incisive genius that unfailingly adds value to every post I find worthy of my attention. We’re pretty much solid shitposting on this blog. Because I’m a little loaded at the moment and that gives me a handy excuse to run my fingers like an idiot (plus I put that readmore up there, so if your eyes are actually consuming these words, you have only yourself to blame for being here), let me run down relevant history of how we got here.

LJ was home for a good long while. Then shit got seriously messed up and Dreamwidth was created as a better LJ, so we migrated all our stuff over there. And journaling sites along those lines still feel like a native environment. I, in particular, am the most long-winded piece of shit we know and I am honestly incapable of talking about anything of worth in short form. It’s a sickness and I just sort of have to own it. :/ But that’s why journaling sites are a good place for me to live, because that’s where people go when they have the inclination to read meandering scrawls about the depths of other people’s lives or whatever.

We went to Twitter for a good while because all the cool people we knew from LJ were going there for some unfathomable reason. These people wrote things that were complex and fascinating to read, so all of them jumping ship to a place that limited them to 140-character chunks made no damn sense, but we loved those people and wanted to trust that they knew what the hell they were doing. And they probably did, and a couple of us were actually okay with Twitter, but I, being the long-winded shitpiece, spent a lot of time frustrated and kind of overstimulated.

Then things started going to hell more and more consistently for me personally (and us generally by extension, but that’s unnecessary detail). Bunkering down specifically to protect people that you care about from the fallout of your crazy is a fairly common thing for mentally-ill people to do, I think. So I’d shut up online until I felt stable enough to talk to people again. Those periods lasted a few days, then a week or more, then a month, then eventually I stopped talking entirely. I missed the LJ/DW format, but in the past I’d written about life events and things I was thinking about and such, so...at the time, all I really had to write about was the bad stuff. So LJ/DW was basically unusable as well.

I literally came here to be as shallow as I could possibly manage. Tumblr had a rapid, chaotic flow similar to Twitter, but could hold longer content like LJ/DW. We’ve never really used the site’s full functionality at any point, though. For at least a year, all we were following was the most lightweight, zero-calorie entertainment that we could find. (We actually came here for Flight Rising content, so there was a lot of that.) Being engaged with fandom in any consistent respect is an extremely recent thing.

And I’m not saying that fandom hasn’t got depth and complexity because it absolutely does and that’s one of the beautiful things about shared fan experiences. I kind of got into that sort of fandom by accident after getting here and rediscovering Transformers. But the unvoiced policy that I’ve always had here is to avoid the Too Real and dodge serious topics whenever possible. Thus, no gender theory, no neurodivergence or multiplicity, no nonhumanity, no religion or UPG, nothing with real substance behind it that bared real vulnerabilities. (Apparently this was a good move anyway because the nonhuman and multiplicity situation here on Tumblr is a bit of a clusterfuck? I honestly wouldn’t know, as I haven’t made a lot of effort to link up with those folks.) That’s still the policy. That might remain the policy forever until I reach some vaguely-defined threshold of sanity that makes me worthy of talking about those things in places and formats that other people can interact with.

And I’m sorry for all this talk about mental illness, but it’s simpler just to explain things clearly. I likely won’t go into any more detail about it on Tumblr. Or anywhere else, because I care about people even if I’ve never met them or talked to them at all and I still want to keep it all in the bunker to protect good people from the crazy. Sometimes, all you can do is just prevent the damage from spilling out into other people’s lives, and that’s the place that I usually operate from.

I’m still pretty drunk, so I’m allowed to ramble from too much truth serum, but all of that explanation was to get around to saying that the format of online communication that is most intuitive to me is the long, oversharing gut-spill of random people talking about things that are really meaningful to them - not in the sense of elaborate philosophy or artsy epistles to the cosmos, but just people being super real about things that are meaningful to them and going into lots of detail about them because gushing about things you love is great. And it’s possible to get that sort of discussion and gushing in Tumblr fandom, and I love it because it reminds me of better times, and the fact that I love it is WHY IT MAKES ME SO GODDAMN FRUSTRATED that Tumblr culture is basically stifling discussion and feedback and RESPONSE to things that people find interesting!!

Like, here’s how I see it. Unlike on LJ/DW, where you were limited to hyperlinking to a cool post in one of your own posts if you wanted your readers to go check it out, on Tumblr, if you find a super cool thing, you can pull it directly into your space and let other people experience it directly, exactly as you experienced it. But the thing is, I also subscribe to the My Blog My House concept. If I pull a thing into my “home,” I do it because there’s something homelike about it; it belongs in my home for some specific reason. I don’t take “ownership” of an item in the sense that I’m claiming it in place of its creator, but I’m taking ownership of it in the sense that it’s part of my Stuff now and it’ll get my fingerprints all over it and be blended into the general morass of Stuff that I recognize as my home. I don’t just pull random crap into my home for no reason at all.

And I just figure that other people are similar in the sense that they reblog things for distinct, unique reasons, not in the sense that they have some master plan for their blog content (some do, but it’s not necessary), but just that they have compelling reasons why they pick certain bits of content out of the larger river of their dashboard and put it in their own space for people to experience with them. I follow people based on the interesting things that they find interesting. I’m interested in why they’re interested in those things. They seem like interesting people to me because they’re interested in what they’re interested in.

But the WHY is a really important part of the equation for me. Did this person reblog that photo because they’ve been to that place themselves, because they like that kind of tree, because they reblog photos with that color scheme every Thursday? Did that person reblog that piece of art because they love that character, because they’re studying that art medium, because it reminded them of something funny they saw somewhere else? People attach their own context to things that they latch onto. It’s so freaking weird to me that people have to hide their interpretations or impressions in tags here on Tumblr, making them unimportant and optional in the process of sharing things they like with others. (Okay, people also share a lot of things they hate, but reasons for outrage are still part of the context that one adds to content.)

I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT TO YOU. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT MAKES YOU THINK AND FEEL. Even if it’s a blurb about how giant robots fuck or a cute kitten video, I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS.

Not in excruciating detail or with insightful analysis or even a lot of text at all. Mostly, the things that people put in tags are things that, to me, are a really crucial part of the experience of being able to go into someone’s “home” and see the Stuff that they chose to put in it. Reducing oneself to a glorified signal repeater is...okay, I guess, though it turns a Tumblr blog into a kind of faceless stream of other people’s material a lot of the time. The personal touch is what makes it all interesting. And I’m just unutterably frustrated that, somewhere along the line, it was decided that personalizing an experience by sharing one’s own impressions of it became rude enough that polite society decided that it had to be hidden away in tags. I want all of it, so I do go looking for it, but omg it requires MORE EFFORT and BURNING CALORIES and BODILY MOVEMENT and WAAAAH, you know what I mean. :P

And possibly Tumblr society is right and it’s done for a good, decent purpose and I’m being pigheaded and uncool by insisting on doing things my way without bothering to try and understand the local customs. I’m not usually that much of an asshole, but I am about this, for some reason. And I admit that my craving for those personal touches could very well spring from how utterly isolated and lonely I am, so maybe normal people really don’t need all the extra info and actually do just want mostly-impersonal streams of content. And that’s fine, since I know I’m kind of a weirdo even on my best days.

I’m pretty sure that that was all that I really wanted to say. I’m probably overreacting about the whole comments-in-tags thing. Like I said, it’s kind of an irrational irritation. Also, I need to stop before I write myself sober and no longer have an excuse for all of this. If you actually read all of that, you are an awesome, generous person and I’m pretty damn certain that I love you even though I have no idea who you are.

[thewebofslime]

he War Zone recently outlined the logic behind persistent rumors that the U.S. Air Force, or some other U.S. government entity, might have regenerated some F-117A Nighthawk stealth combat jets for operations in the Middle East, most likely Syria, in recent years. We also noted that there’s absolutely no hard evidence to substantiate these claims. But there is a strong possibility that the United States did deploy another aircraft, a variant of the General Atomics Avenger drone, carrying the base designation Q-11, to meet a similar requirement for a stealthy, but armed platform that could strike high value and mobile targets in contested areas. To quickly recap, on Mar. 2, 2019, Dutch online aviation magazine Scramble posted claims on their Facebook page regarding the possibility that some F-117As flew missions in the Middle East in 2017. If true, this would have likely occurred because of a demand for the Nighthawks' particular attributes, most notably it being a relatively quick and stealthly platform that is able to employ laser-guided bombs on moving targets. It also doesn't represent the high-end of U.S. aerospace technology, especially in terms of its low-observable design. As such, if one was lost, the technological risk wouldn't be catastrophic. LET'S TALK ABOUT THE RUMOR THAT F-117S HAVE FLOWN MISSIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST RECENTLY By Tyler Rogoway Posted in THE WAR ZONE PHOTO EMERGES OF STEALTHY AVENGER DRONE FITTED WITH ADVANCED MULTI-SPECTRAL SENSOR SUITE By Tyler Rogoway Posted in THE WAR ZONE SHEDDING SOME LIGHT ON THE AIR FORCE'S MOST SHADOWY DRONE SQUADRON By Joseph Trevithick and Tyler Rogoway Posted in THE WAR ZONE USAF REVEALS DETAILS ABOUT SOME OF ITS MOST SECRETIVE DRONE UNITS WITH NEW AWARDS By Joseph Trevithick Posted in THE WAR ZONE BEHOLD THE MOST DETAILED PHOTO TAKEN OF AN AIRBORNE F-117 NIGHTHAWK IN OVER A DECADE (UPDATED) By Tyler Rogoway Posted in THE WAR ZONE This is a capability gap the U.S. military had had since retiring the first-generation stealth jets in 2008 and only recently regained, at least publicly, with the integration of the GBU-49/B dual-mode Paveway precision guided bomb and associated software onto the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. You can read all about these issues in our previous post here. Officially, most of the last of the Nighthawks are in "Type 1000" regenerative storage Tonopah Test Range Airport, where they have been since their formal retirement more than a decade ago. Between four and six have remained in flyable condition, and have flown fairly regularly, for years. The service’s stated plan has been to permanently dispose of them at a rate of four per year starting in 2017. USAF An official picture of F-117As in storage at Tonopah. But whether or not the United States sent F-117s back into combat or not, the requirements that would have prompted that deployment were still there. If the U.S. government had identified a target it wanted to strike clandestinely and that could be on the move in, say, Western Syria, an area full of Syrian air defenses, it would have had few, if any options, at least publicly, to carry out that mission without being easily detected. This bring us to the General Atomics Avenger, also known as the Predator C. The Air Force appears to have designated at least one variant of this drone the YQ-11 and there are likely be additional configurations, such as an operational MQ-11. These designations are wholly unrelated to AeroVironment’s RQ-11A and RQ-11B Ravens. At the time of writing, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) has not responded to our queries for clarification and additional details on this nomenclature. But more on this later. The video below was General Atomics' vision for how Avengers would operate on the battlefield circa 2012. Despite its initial name, this unmanned aircraft is distinct from the company’s earlier MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper designs, featuring a stealthy planform reminiscent of Northrop's Tacit Blue demonstrator and using a turbofan engine for greater power and speed than its propeller-driven family members. Avenger also has a much higher operational ceiling than the MQ-1 or MQ-9, being able to reach altitudes of around 50,000 feet. GENERAL ATOMICS General Atomics Avenger in front of an MQ-1 Predator, at left, and an MQ-9 Reaper. The latest iterations of the Avenger, which are substantially larger than the original prototype, have a cruising speed of around 400 miles per hour, more than twice that of a Reaper, and a maximum flight time of around 20 hours, depending on what payloads it is carrying. In 2016, General Atomics also flew a new variant of the drone, called the Avenger Extended Range (ER), for the first time. The Avenger ER has since demonstrated an ability to remain aloft for longer than 20 hours. They also have the ability to carry weapons, including laser-guided bombs, in their internal payload bays, as well as additional stores on up to six underwing pylons. The Avenger can accommodate various sensor turrets with electro-optical, infrared, and multi-spectral cameras, as well as laser designators, on a retractable mount. This allows the drone to operate in maximum stealth mode until it reaches the target area. These drones, which, like the F-117s, don't represent the cutting-edge of American low-observable technology, but would still be well suited to conducting discreet and flexible missions over less than welcoming airspace in Syria from bases in nearby neighboring countries. General Atomics says the drones can also self-deploy to a forward operating site or that C-17A Globemaster III or C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft can transport them and other supporting equipment to the desired location. USN An Avenger with various inert examples of the precision guided bombs it can carry internally on display in front. Publicly, the Air Force has exactly one of these unmanned aircraft in its inventory, which it announced it was buying in 2011 under curious circumstances. An initial contracting notice said the service planned to send the drone to Afghanistan for tests, but this announcement was then “cancelled” and edited to redact the planned deployment location. In December 2011, the Air Force denied that it had plans to send the Avenger to Afghanistan. The initial contracting notice had come shortly after an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, likely flying from a base in Afghanistan, had crashed in neighboring Iran, leading some to speculate that the Avenger’s actual missions would be over that country. Another possibility was that it might fly from Afghan bases to conduct secretive strikes against terrorists and keep in an eye on the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan. GENERAL ATOMICS An Avenger on the ground with its payload bay open. What exactly the Air Force’s plans for the Avenger were or what it actually did with the drone remain unclear. An annual history of Air Combat Command (ACC), the service’s main warfighting command, for 2011 includes a section talking about both the Predator C and the then-ongoing MQ-X program, but the comments on the former are almost entirely redacted. The author previously obtained a copy of this document via the Freedom of Information Act. “The next generation RPA [remotely piloted aircraft], or MQ-X as it was more commonly called, promised a more viable solution to meeting the Air Force's future unmanned ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] needs,” the historical review explains. “Unlike the Predator C which offered only minor improvements over the MQ-9, MQ-X had to be ‘survivable in a contested environment, weather tolerant, and have robust and agile communications.’” USAF VIA FOIA The entire, unredacted portions of the section on the Predator C and MQ-X from the 2011 ACC history. This is curious commentary given that the Avenger can carry a significantly larger payload than the MQ-9, has a substantially greater cruise and dash speed, and offers stealthy capabilities that the Reaper does not. This same section says that by the end of 2011, ACC had begun discussions with the U.S. Navy about blending MQ-X with the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. In February 2012, the Air Force publicly cancelled MQ-X entirely. In retrospect, this is not surprising as anything having to do with advanced unmanned combat air vehicles had disappeared from the USAF's documentation and vernacular around that time. You can read all about this mysterious saga here. The unredacted portions of the 2012 annual history for ACC, which the author also got via FOIA, makes no mention of this program at all or of the final fate of the Air Force’s lone Avenger. The Navy’s UCLASS turned into an entirely separate debacle, which you can read about in more detail here, resulting in a complete shift in requirements to an unmanned aircraft that would primarily serve as an aerial refueling tanker. Boeing is now on contract to build this drone, known as the MQ-25 Stingray. General Atomics had used the Avenger as a surrogate to test various technologies in support of its own ultimately failed bid for this program. The Avenger’s history with the U.S. government didn’t end with MQ-X. As of 2017, General Atomics had confirmed the sale of the lone drone to the Air Force, but also the delivery of “up to seven” additional examples to an undisclosed U.S. government entity. The year before, the company also went on the record saying that someone had flown one of these unmanned aircraft over Syria to conduct a propaganda leaflet drop. We don’t know for sure who within the U.S. government owns or is flying the other Avengers, but Air Force Materiel Command's (AFMC) Detachment 3 flies the “YQ-11,” likely the sole example the Air Force "officially" owns, for test and evaluation purposes, as of 2019. This detachment is situated in Poway, California, home of General Atomics, according to a contracting announcement that appeared on FedBizOpps, the U.S. government’s main contracting website, in February 2019. The detachment also has a so-called “operation location,” or OL-Det 3, spread between General Atomics’ Mojave Desert Flight Test Facilities at Gray Butte and El Mirage Airfields. The testing that Detachment 3 conducts, which also includes work on the MQ-9, supports ACC requirements, as well as those from U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) by way of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). USAF A section from a recent contracting document mentionoing the YQ-11. USAF Another section from another related contracting document describing AFMC, Detachment 3's mission and operating locations. But the latest editions of the Air Force’s Flight Test Aircrew Training manuals, which the service published in 2017, certainly hint at the existence of other U.S. government Avengers and actual operational activities. These documents include entire sections covering the YQ-11, something that seems incongruous for a fleet of just one drone. To retain their currency on this aircraft type, the Air Force says pilots and sensor operators must conduct landings using the drone’s electro-optical, infrared, and multi-spectral camera systems. It’s worth noting that Raytheon’s product page for its Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS) says this system is found on the “MQ-9C,” another designation that has been associated with the Avenger. YQ-11 crews must also fly mission profiles at least simulating the employment of both missiles and bombs. “Qualification in the YQ-11 does not count as qualification in any other aircraft except like YQ-11 series (Q-11X) requiring difference/conversion training,” one of the manuals says. The “Q-11X” reference suggests that there could be additional Q-11 variants, such as an MQ-11A, beyond the "prototype" YQ-11. USAF YQ-11 proficiency requirements as described in Air Force Instruction 11-2FT, Flight Test Aircrew Training, Volume 1. “In accordance with the 2011 defense appropriation act, the Air Force procured prototype demonstration capabilities of the Avenger system,” a spokesperson for the Air Force’s 645th Aeronautical Systems Group, a special projects office better known by the nickname Big Safari, told Flight Global in 2016. “The demonstration has completed and there are no current plans for future demonstrations." But this wouldn’t preclude the Air Force from operating a separate, classified fleet of operational Avengers. It also wouldn’t prevent the service from being involved in some way with another U.S. government entity’s operation of those drones. Annual historical reviews for Big Safari for 2012, 2013, and 2014, which the author obtained via FOIA, make no mention of Predator C, Avenger, or YQ-11 in any way, though they do have a category simply labeled “Classified Programs.” TYSON V. RININGER / WWW.TVRPHOTOGRAPHY.COM In addition, all of this could fit in with what is known, and still unknown, about the Air Force’s top-secret 44th Reconnaissance Squadron, which we at The War Zone were first to report on in detail in 2018. The service will not tell us what type or types of unmanned aircraft this unit operates. The 44th has its own convoluted history tracing back to the activation of a separate, secretive entity known as the 732nd Operations Group, Detachment 1. The 732nd as a whole has connections to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Previous media reports have suggested the group acts as a cover for or is otherwise tied in with the CIA’s top-secret drone operations. FLIGHTLINEINSIGNIA.COM A patch for the 732nd Operations Group, Detachment 1, showing motifs in common with the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron, which flies the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone. This insignia also has the text "Forging the Sword" along with a lightning bolt, sword, and droplets of blood, suggesting this unit had other missions beyond intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. All of this brings us back to the F-117 rumors. There remains no evidence that these Nighthawk deployments ever occurred. There are, however, the on-the-record statements from General Atomics that a U.S. government agency, widely understood to be the CIA, possibly in cooperation with the Air Force, has a fleet of Avengers. There have been no other publicly acknowledged sales of this drone to the U.S. government or any other country. The drone's manufacturer has also revealed that at least one Avenger was flying over Syria at the same time when the rumors about F-117s heading back to combat were first emerging. The Avenger would have been able to meet many of the same requirements for stealthy, armed platform able to engage static and moving targets that was far faster, and therefore more responsive, than other unmanned aircraft available in the region. The 44th also officially stood up in April 2015, which would have given it months to reach at least initial operational capability ahead of an actual deployment the following year. This unit’s activation could have provided a cover for a much more mature Avenger program under the auspices of the CIA, as well. We also know that Al Qaeda’s number two leader, Abu Khayr Al Masri, died in what appeared to be an air strike on his car involving a special low-collateral damage munition in Syria’s western Idlib governorate in February 2017. More recently, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources, that President Donald Trump had pushed the CIA to begin arming unspecified drones under its control flying over Syria after taking office the month before. Trump also reportedly received a briefing from the Agency about unique air-dropped munitions designed to avoid civilian casualties. This strike on Al Masri’s car is exactly the kind of mission profile – a high value target in a moving vehicle traveling in a denied area where American manned platforms don't generally go – that seemed to explain why the Air Force or the CIA might have turned to the mothballed F-117s at all. It’s also an operation that an Avenger could have performed and fits almost perfectly with the details and timeline regarding CIA drone operations in The Post’s subsequent reporting. With all this in mind, the small but critical gap that needed filling over Syria, and possibly over other countries in the Middle East, both friendly and not so friendly, could very well have been filled by the diminutive, but adaptable and relatively low-risk Avenger fleet that currently lives in the darkness. That's not to say that the mothballed F-117 force wasn't possibly evaluated to fulfill this role, but taking the human out of cockpit, as well as leveraging the long-endurance capabilities of the Avenger may have been an all too logical alternative. There's also the possibility that both airframes were put to use to fulfill a similar mission set. The presence of one in the region doesn't necessarily preclude the other. Especially if the F-117s were assigned to the Air Force and the Avengers were CIA assets. But we know for a fact that a handful of Avengers are flying under some classified umbrella for a certain government agency and that they have been active in the Middle East, and Syria, in particular. The claims that the F-117s were returned to service and deployed to the region, on the other hand, come without any hard evidence at all. If the Avenger has quietly stalked and killed high value targets in sensitive airspace, the program is far more successful than anyone has been allowed to let on. Author's note: A special thanks to Tyson Rininger for allowing to use his amazing photo as the banner image in this article. Make sure to check out all his work here.

[robertkstone]

2018 Best Driver’s Car: A Record-Breaking Year

There is a heavy stillness in the air, the weight of expectation.

Less than an hour before, our resident pro driver, Randy Pobst, had flung the mighty McLaren 720S around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 1 minute, 29.78 seconds—the fastest lap ever recorded in the history of our Best Driver’s Car competition. Now, he’s powering the 911 GT2 RS down the infamous Corkscrew, the echoes of the Porsche’s barrel-chested bellow, so much like the iconic 935 racer, cascading through the surrounding hills.

A silent crowd clusters around the giant Racepak monitor in the pit garage. The folks from Porsche North America HQ are here, as are Chevy handlers from Detroit, the McLaren and Aston Martin support teams from the U.K., the Lamborghini guys from Italy, a pair of helpful Honda people, and a posse of Motor Trend editors. We hold our collective breath, transfixed by the real-time trace showing the Porsche’s progress around the 2.2-mile track. The clock deconstructs the lap, by fractions of a second. The 911 explodes onto the front straight and dashes for the finish line.

Distance. Time. Time. Distance. Eyes flicker across the screen; synapses snap the calculus.

Let’s back up. Our Best Driver’s Car shootout is not about a lap time. It’s about confidence: the confidence a car gives you when you take it to the limit, be it your own or the car’s. But when the lineup includes four of the most powerful supercars sold in America, lap times add spice to the competition. At stake? Bragging rights. The fastest car around Laguna Seca may not be Best Driver’s Car. But it will be king of one of the world’s most famous road courses.

Along with the McLaren and Porsche, the big dogs of BDC 2018 include Chevy’s refreshed Corvette ZR1 and Lamborghini’s Huracan Performante. “Seven hundred horsepower is the new 500 horsepower,” Chris Walton muses as he eyes this 2,786-horsepower quartet. And 500 hp is the new middle ground, with the 600-hp BMW M5 and 400-hp Audi TT RS bracketing a group that includes the 460-hp Mustang GT with Ford’s Performance Pack 2, plus Aston Martin’s all-new 503-hp Vantage and the 505-hp Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 Quadrifoglio.

Wait … an SUV in BDC? Yep. The Stelvio is so fast and agile, it damn near defies the laws of physics. It’s a driver’s … er, SUV.

Power isn’t everything, however, and the final three cars making the cut this year did so on the quality of their chassis rather than the output of their engines—though with 306 hp from just 2.0 liters, the turbocharged four-banger under the hood of the Honda Civic Type R has the fifth-highest specific output of this year’s field. Joining the Type R are Kia’s Stinger GT, whose poise had impressed us during last year’s COTY evaluations, and Mazda’s MX-5, back with a 17-percent boost in power and other detail tweaks.

Why no Ford GT? Of course we asked, and Dearborn initially agreed to send one of its low-slung, 647-hp supercars. But two weeks before we were due to start testing, Ford suddenly pulled the car, for reasons the PR department requested we not make public. Send your emails to Ford Motor Company. Maybe they’ll tell you why one of the most exciting driver’s cars ever to carry the Blue Oval wasn’t at BDC.

ROUTE 198

As usual, BDC opens on Route 198 in the sun-bleached hills of Central California. Our 4.2-mile test section, closed to traffic by the California Highway Patrol, allows judges to evaluate the contenders on a real-world road, albeit in closed-course safety. Climbing about 1,000 feet and crossing the San Andreas Fault en route to a turnaround point at the top of the hill, it’s a bewitching mixture of quick corners and mid-pace sweepers (if triple-digit speeds can be counted as “mid-pace”), with humps and heaves that test the limits of suspension travel, shock tuning, and chassis balance. The downhill run puts a different set of loads through the chassis and a spotlight on braking, stability, and steering precision.

Route 198 always throws us some unexpected moments. The monstrously fast 911 GT2 RS causes sharp intakes of breath for some judges when they arrive at corners with a wooden brake pedal and no sign of retardation. The culprit turns out to be the ultra-stiff sport setting for the shocks: It’s calibrated purely for track work, and using it on bumpy Route 198 means the Porsche’s front wheels can be in the air at a critical braking point, causing extreme ABS intervention. “Hated this car on the way down the hill!” Frank Markus gripes as his pulse rate returns to normal.

There are sidelong glances at the Corvette, too. Everyone loves the Herculean supercharged V-8 under the hood, its ferocious power accompanied by a volcanic wall of sound. But no one loves the chassis. The massive brakes haul the ZR1 down from dizzying velocities with insouciant ease, and the hyper-aggressive turn-in response is backed up by impressive front-end grip. After that, it all falls apart, the rear axle failing to provide support on corner entry or traction on corner exit. The big ’Vette is a tail-happy handful. We had all seen the footage of GM product development boss Mark Reuss casually looping a ZR1 into the wall while pacing the Detroit Grand Prix. Now we understood how easily that could happen. “The ZR1 needs to come with warning labels,” Ed Loh mutters.

The Audi TT RS seems quick and has that distinctive five-cylinder thrum that has defined performance Audis since the original Quattro Coupe. But the suspension lacks travel and feels underdamped, leaving the little coupe bucking and bouncing its way up Route 198. “A tad disconcerting,” Erick Ayapana notes.

Thanks to the super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires that come with the Performance Pack 2, the Mustang GT has a ton of mechanical grip. But it feels clumsier and less composed than the Chevy Camaro SS 1LE that impressed us so much in 2016. “It’s hard to have a lot of confidence in this car,” Mark Rechtin grimaces.

There are pleasant surprises, though, like the Aston Martin Vantage. “It’s fascinating to drive the Vantage on U.S. roads after Jonny Lieberman and I tried it in Scotland,” Jethro Bovingdon says. “Over there it seemed a real monster—wide, stiff, and always shouting at you to drive faster. On 198, it’s different but no less engaging. The whole vibe is one of effortless control, and the car hums with feedback.”

Although at entirely different ends of the BDC spectrum, the McLaren 720S and Mazda MX-5 perform as expected. Those of us lucky enough to have spent time in the 720S beforehand knew the big Mac’s endless surge of acceleration, delicately detailed steering, outstanding brakes, and remarkably fluent ride would impress first-timers. And the MX-5 did what Miatas have always done best: offer one of the purest driving experiences you can get, at any price.

Honda’s Civic Type R is another crowd pleaser, and not just because of its remarkable engine and precise gearshift. At $35,595, it’s the second-cheapest car in this year’s shootout (just a couple hundred dollars more than the Miata), but the chassis feels like a million bucks on Route 198. Tremendous front-end grip is complemented by a rear end that tracks faithfully, regardless of throttle condition and road surface. “Incredibly capable and confident and easy to drive fast,” Scott Evans gushes.

BMWs have underwhelmed us recently, so not many editors expected the new-generation BMW M5 to feel so effortlessly fast and supremely composed. The engine is staggeringly good, a 600-hp iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Traction and chassis balance are terrific for a big, heavy sedan. The steering  is linear and consistent though still lacking the delicious tactility that once defined Munich’s best sport sedans. “It’s a family car and a sports car at the same time,” Miguel Cortina smiles.

Kia’s Stinger GT and Alfa Romeo’s Stelvio Quadrifoglio also win hearts, because both outperform our expectations. “Beneath the slightly soft-edged responses is a chassis of real balance and a subtle, nuanced delivery,” Jethro notes after stepping out of the Kia. Chris swoons as he exits the Alfa, impressed by its exhilarating twin-turbo V-6, sure-footed chassis, and sharp steering. “Wow! Way better than I had ever hoped it would be.”

Jonny had been saying for months that the Lamborghini Huracan Performante was a supercar to rival Ferrari’s 488—last year’s BDC winner—and the McLaren 720S. Those of us who hadn’t driven it were skeptical. Flashy, loud Lamborghinis have tended to overpromise and underdeliver; the Aventador’s last place in 2012 is a case in point.

A thigh-high wedge of weapons-grade machismo, the Huracan Performante turns heads wherever it’s parked. The first few turns on Route 198 reveal substance behind the showmanship—superb steering precision, immense braking capability, prodigious cornering grip, lovely chassis balance, and terrific traction. Randy speaks for us all after hurling the shrieking Lambo up the hill and back: “This car makes you into a god. You just get in and you drive like Ayrton Senna.”

Over a sun-blasted roadside lunch from our favorite Tacos La Potranca De Jalisco and dinner at The Cork & Plough in King City, we exchange praise and snark as we rank the contenders after our Route 198 test session. There’s fierce argument over whether the Porsche was better than the McLaren and whether the Aston and Honda really deserved to be ranked as highly as some thought. And what was an SUV doing here?

But there was nearly unanimous consensus as to which car should top the list: The Lamborghini would head to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca as the leading contender for the 2018 Best Driver’s Car crown.

LAGUNA SECA

Laguna Seca is where Randy shines. He’s hot-lapped every Best Driver’s Car contender for the past nine shootouts, delivering not only a benchmark lap time but also concise commentary on how each car felt at the limit. Randy’s innate talent is an ability to get the best out of a car from the get-go, often extracting its quickest time on his first flying lap.

He’s also remarkably consistent. If Randy’s times fade on subsequent laps, it’s because of tire degradation, brake fade, or a spike in intake temperatures causing the engine to pull power.

Motor Trend therefore has a unique data set at its disposal: lap times for more than 120 performance cars, set by the same driver on the same track using the same methodology. The evolution of performance can be tracked right here.

Over the years we’ve relied on the talents of our in-house Gyro Gearloose, testing director Kim Reynolds, to create and build a multitiered Racelogic Vbox system that captures not only lap times but also key data points that help us understand exactly how a BDC contender behaves during the lap, which enables us to correlate objective information with Randy’s subjective commentary. But for 2018, Kim’s triple-redundancy setup has been augmented with the brand-new Vantage CL1 data-logging system from Racepak.

Racepak’s CL1 multichannel data acquisition unit receives data directly from a vehicle’s OBD II port (including engine revs, coolant temperature, and throttle position) and merges it with any external channels you choose, plus its own highly accurate accelerometer and GPS data (including mph). Then it’s Bluetoothed to (and stored in) a windshield-mounted iPhone so Randy can see, real-time, his speed and how much he’s ahead or behind his best previous lap on its display. Simultaneously, the app sends the data, via cell connection, to a server in Phoenix, where the information is rendered into graphics and overlaid onto a swipeable and rotatable track map. Racepak president Tim Anderson says the highly intuitive graphic interface allows team members to watch, as it happens, a car’s performance from anywhere in the world.

Randy will start Day 1 with the all-wheel-drive cars and lower-powered contenders. For Day 2, he’ll open with the big dogs from PerformanceJunk WP Feed 3 https://ift.tt/2PRhjS6 via IFTTT

[cynthiajayusa]

What’s Hot Central Florida: April 2018

Saturday, March 31

Barcodes presents their monthly Leather night (last Saturday of the month) hosted by Daddy Dave Hall and featuring live BDSM demonstrations throughout the night. As always, there is no cover and free parking.

Thursday, April 5

mad Theatre presents Green Day’s American Idiot at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts from tonight through April 15.  The two-time Tony  Award-winning hit musical Green Day’s American Idiot, based on the Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album, boldly takes the American musical where it’s never gone before. This high-octane show includes every song from Green Day’s album, American Idiot, as well as several songs from its follow-up release, 21st Century Breakdown.  Johnny, Tunny and Will struggle to find meaning in a post-9/11 world. When the three disgruntled men flee the constraints of their hometown for the thrills of city life, their paths are quickly estranged when Tunny enters the armed forces, Will is called back home to attend to familial responsibilities, and Johnny’s attention becomes divided by a seductive love interest and a hazardous new friendship. An energy-fueled rock opera, American Idiot features little dialogue and instead relies on the lyrics from Green Day’s groundbreaking album to execute the story line. Ticket start at $35.50.

Friday, April 6th

Southern Nights Tampa presents NeiBEARhood Takeover: 3rd Annual Circuit Cub Glow Jock Strap Party featuring DJ Neon the Glowgobear from Atlanta. Neon/Glow Jock Strap attire strongly encouraged. This event is sponsored by CellBlock13LA & Timoteo Studio with giveaways all night long!!! Also Sponsored by: One Magical Weekend. Thi sis a 21+ event!

Hamburger Mary’s Brandon presents “The Men of Magic Mike Tribute Tour” at 10:30p.m. If you liked or lusted after the movie, this is a show you do not want to miss!

Shawn Wayans comes to the Improv Comedy Theater and restaurant Tampa today and tomorrow Saturday April 7. Shawn made his acting debut in 1989 in his brother Keenen Ivory Wayans’ feature film I’m Gonna Get You Sucka. Immediately following his feature film debut, Shawn joined the cast of the Emmy Award winning comedy series, In Living Color. Shawn starred in the box office hits; Little Man and White Chicks, both of which he also co-wrote and co-executive produced. Shawn began co-writing his string of blockbusters with the smash Scary Movie where he also played Ray, an ambiguously gay football jock, alongside his brother Marlon Wayans, and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans.. Shawn, along with his brothers and sisters, created Thugaboo and the subsequent Boo Crew animated specials for Nickelodeon. When not on the road performing standup, Shawn can be found hard at work in the “lab” where he and his brothers are busy concocting their next project. Tickets are $30.

Saturday, April 7

The Amway Arena presents Stars on Ice in the Olympic season! The best of the U.S. will be coming to you direct from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea to skate together – live in an all-new Stars on Ice!  See America’s top medal contenders including 2018 U.S Champions Nathan Chen, Bradie Tennell and Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue, three-time World Medalists Maia & Alex Shibutani, and U.S. Medalists Mirai Nagasu, Karen Chen and Adam Rippon, along with Olympic Gold Medalists Meryl Davis & Charlie White, World Silver Medalist Ashley Wagner and U.S. Champion Jason Brown in the 2018 Stars on Ice tour!  Tickets start at $12.

The Club Orlando presents “Orlando CumUnion: An International Sex Party” from 10p.m. to 4a.m. Lockers are $26 with rooms $38. For more info go to: Club-Orlando.com.

Tuesday, April 10

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall presents Jersey Boys from today until Thursday, April 12 (just 3 days). Jersey Boys is the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning Best Musical about Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. This is the true story of how four blue-collar kids became one of the greatest successes in pop music history. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide – all before they were 30!  Jersey Boys features their hit songs “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” “Oh What a Night” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” Tickets start at $66.

Wednesday, April 11

Amalie Arena presents Lorde he Melodrama World Tour with special guest Rap duo Run The Jewels Ticket Prices are: $35.75, $55.75, $75.75 and $95.75.

Friday, Apr 13

The Straz Center presents Randy Rainbow live! Famous for his hilarious viral videos depicting himself swapped into political interviews or commentary, Randy Rainbow has become clapback king of the internet since the 2016 presidential debates. Also a comedy writer and fixture of the New York Broadway and cabaret worlds, Randy moonlights as a talking head for VHI and stars in his long-running creation, the BroadwayWorld.com web series Chewing the Scenery with Randy Rainbow and Last Minute with Randy Rainbow. Tickets start at $39.75.

Margaret Cho comes to the Orlando Improv Comedy Theater and restaurant on tonight and Saturday April 14 with 2 shows each night.

Saturday, April 14

The Tampa Museum of Art presents the 13th Annual Pride & Passion: Strange Beauty, which will be a fun and energy-filled evening full of surprises from 8p.m. to midnight. Tickets are $100 for members and $125 for nonmembers and include heavy hors d’oeuvres, open bar, passes to the Museum.  Renew you membership now and save $25 on each ticket purchased. To purchase tickets or f or more information go to: TampaMuseum.org.

OUC Speakers at Dr. Phillips Center in association with UCF Celebrates the Arts present a conversation with Mayim Bialik entitled: “The Big Bang Theory: Making Science Cool (& Funny).” Mayim Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler on TV’s hit show The Big Bang Theory and uses her PhD in Neuroscience as the foundation for her unforgettable character. Mayim will share her hilarious sense of humor and her keen scientific mind as she explores her life as a scientist and the special relationship that exists between The Big Bang Theory and its audience. Starting at 8p.m. with tickets starting at $35 with Meet And Greet tickets $200.

Tuesday, April 17

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall presents Let It Be, which celebrates the music of The Beatles. It relives the past from Ed Sullivan to Abbey Road, with favorite hits including “Hard Day’s Night,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Twist and Shout” and “Strawberry Fields,” and imagines the reunion that never was. The show starts at 8p.m. and tickets are $46 – $76 at Vanwezel.org, the Box Office, or by calling 941-953-3368.

Wednesday, April 18

Southern Nights Orlando presents Miss Darkside Comedy Queen starring Sorcha Mercy, Miss Darkside Coemdy Queen 2017, and Amanda Punchfuk, National Miss Comedy Queen 2017. Categories include: interview, comedic talent, outrageous evening gown, presentation: Gooder than Grits, a country hoedown, and the 60 second spokeswoman. For more information email: Darkside_Ent@yahoo.com.

Global rock icons and newly announced Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2018 inductees Bon Jovi, bring their This House Is Not for Sale Tour, presented by Live Nation, to Orlando’s Amway Center. Tickets start at $26.

Friday, April 20

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 Season 10 and All Stars COLLIDE for Orlando’s White Party Weekend at the Parliament House. Tonight they present All Star Finalist Kennedy Davenport who joins the Footlight Players at 10pm & 12am. There is a $20 VIP Meet & Greet/Photo Op which is on sale now, with general admission paid at the door. Then on

Saturday April 21 – the reigning queen from Season 9 Sasha Velour is joined by Season 10’s Asia O’hara and Kameron Michaels!  $10 General Admission in advance on sale now.  $30 VIP Meet & Greet/Photo Op on sale now!  General Admission is $15 at the door. The shows are nightly at 10pm & 12am. White Attire is encouraged Saturday Night!

98ROCK, Tampa Bay’s Rock Station, presents Tampa’s premier rock festival’s 10th Anniversary, 98ROCKFEST “The Big 10”, at 6p.m. at Amalie Arena. 98ROCK’s on-air personalities “Crash & AJ” officially announced the lineup which will include rock legends Shinedown to headline, Three Days Grace, Seether, Starset, Fozzy, 10 Years and more. Tickets are:  $29, $45, $55 and $75 with VIP ticket packages at $199.

Saturday, April 21

Southern Nights Orlando presents The Devil Wears Prada: The Dragsical, encore performance with doors opening at 8p.m. and the show time at 9p.m. The Devil Wears Prada: The Dragsical is a 45 minute live musical show based off of the iconic film. Written and directed by MR MS Adrien, this show is the first in a series of Dragsicals…not quite a drag show, not quite a musical, where they retell your favorite stories the way they were meant to be told… with drag queens and music! They are bringing the movie to life right in front of your eyes in this hilarious retelling starring some of your favorite Orlando drag queens and featuring some of your favorite songs. The show stars: MR MS Adrien as Miranda; Natalia Taylor Adonis as Andy; Natalie Nayles as Emily; Mike Van Dyke as Nigel and features Dallas Cole & Dre Green. Tickets $20 at: mrmsadrien.ticketleap.com/the-devil-wears-prada-the-dragiscal.

Neema’s Upscale Latin Night: Amor at Stonewall Orlando will be celebrating Neema’s birthday with a big extravaganza starring the sexy male revue, Kandy Ho, Elishaly D’Witshes, Angelica Sanchez, Mimi Marks, Poizon Ivy and Rochelle Mon Cheri with a show time of 12 midnight. This is a 21+ event with doors opening at 9pm with a $10 cover.

Sunday, April 22

If you are like me and are still longing for the TV Show Smash to come back, here is a chance to get a little fix as the Straz Center presents Megan Hilty. Take a heavy serving of Marilyn Monroe, mix it with a dollop of Dolly Parton and Christina Applegate, then add a dash of Kristin Chenoweth and you’ll have the extraordinary stage presence of Broadway musical star Megan Hilty (Wicked). The rightful heir to the legendary line of explosive blonde superstars, Hilty appears for one night only in this intimate evening of song.  Tickets start at $35.50.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall presents Bill Engvall at 7p.m. Bill is a Grammy nominated, multi-platinum-selling recording artist and one of the top comedians in the country. He was a contestant on Season 17 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and as a fan favorite, he made it to the finals. He also lent his voice to the animated comedy series Bounty Hunters, which aired on CMT. Bill was part of the enormously successful Blue Collar Comedy concert films, which sold over nine million units and received a Grammy nomination. He also starred on the WB’s hit sketch comedy show Blue Collar TV. Tickets start at $66.

Monday, April 23

Miss Florida at Large 2018 will once again be held at the World Famous Parliament House on Monday, April 23. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the pageant starting promptly at 8pm. To reserve your hotel room, call 407-425-7571 ($54.95 including tax). The pageant will honor the current reigning Miss Florida F.I. At Large, Angelica Sanchez, as well as Angel Sheridan who is celebrating her 30th anniversary. The pageant will also star Miss Florida F.I., Kalah Mendoza; Mr Florida M.E. Antonio Edwards and the former Miss Florida F.I.’s at Large (Joey Brooks, Lola Lush, Sierrah Foxx, Lorrie Del Mar, Nicolette Ashton, Jasmine Skiies, Jocelyn Summers, Sasha Sommers, TP Lords and Nicole T. Phillips). To purchase tickets for the Miss Florida at Large Pageant, which start as low as $25, go to: Brownpapertickets.com/event/3372674. For more information, call Scott at (954) 478-4587.

Tuesday April 24

Known for her incredible and entertaining live show, international pop icon P!NK brings her Beautiful Trauma World Tour to the Amway Center in Orlando at 7p.m. Tickets start at $139.

Fairwinds Broadway in Orlando 17/18 Season presents Something Rotten starting tonight and going through Sunday, April 29 the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Welcome to the ‘90s — the 1590s!  When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world’s very first musical! This hilarious smash tells the story of Nick and Nigel Bottom (Tony nominee Rob McClure and Broadway’s Josh Grisetti), two brothers who are desperate to write their own hit play while the “rock star” Shakespeare (Tony nominee Adam Pascal) keeps getting all the hits.  With its heart on its ruffled sleeve and sequins in its soul, Something Rotten! is “The Producers + Spamalot + The Book of Mormon. Squared!” (New York Magazine). Tickets: start at $34.25

The Straz Center for the Performing Arts presents the Broadway hit Waitress from today until Sunday, April 29. Inspired by Adrienne Shelly’s beloved film, Waitress tells the story of Jenna – a waitress and expert pie maker, Jenna dreams of a way out of her small town and loveless marriage. A baking contest in a nearby county and the town’s new doctor may offer her a chance at a fresh start, while her fellow waitresses offer their own recipes for happiness. But Jenna must summon the strength and courage to rebuild her own life. Brought to life by a groundbreaking all-female creative team, this irresistible new hit features original music and lyrics by five-time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles (“Brave,” “Love Song”), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) and direction by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Finding Neverland). Intended for mature audiences; contains adult themes and language. Tickets start at $45.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall presents A Chorus Line for 2 days only: today and tomorrow Wednesday April 25. A Chorus Line is musical theatre in its most pure form!  Its celebration and true-to-life depiction of performers and their struggle to achieve greatness on the Broadway stage has earned the show unanimous praise as one of the true masterpieces of live theater.  The iconographic stories, simultaneously touching, funny and inspiring, will haunt you long after you leave the theater.

Friday, April 27

Metro Wellness & Community Centers invites everyone to their Charity Auction for a Night Out with a Community Leader from 6:30-9p.m. at the Creative Loafing Space (1911 N 13th St w200). Their auctioneers include well known media personalities, local entrepreneurs, elected officials, and physicians. Each bid will also include the “night out” experience, which may be dinner, passes to a local museum or exhibition, etc.  Event tickets are $15 and are now available at metrotampabay.org/event/auctionevent. In addition to mingling with the community leaders during the fun event, tickets include light appetizers and a donation bar. Event and Item Sponsorship opportunities are available. Email jamesk@metrotampabay.org or whitneyb@metrotampabay.org. All proceeds benefit Metro Wellness & Community Centers. Parking is available in the garage adjacent to the venue.

Saturday, Apr 28

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Star Shangela joins the Footlight Players at 10pm & 12am. Doors open AT 8 p.m. with the theater doors opening at 9:30p.m. and 11:30p.m. 18+ Welcome. VIP/Photo Op available for $40. General Admission at the front door only!

Sunday, April 29

Record-breaking, global comedy superstar, and America’s favorite ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham, is bringing his cast of characters on the road and stops in Tampa at AMALIE Arena at 3p.m. Tickets are: $48.25

source https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2018/03/29/whats-hot-central-florida-april-2018/ from Hot Spots Magazine https://hotspotsmagazin.blogspot.com/2018/03/whats-hot-central-florida-april-2018.html