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rambalaings · 2 years ago

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R8 - Bradley Jackson

There's a famous show on Apple TV+ called "The Morning Show" starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carrell. Some of you might be thinking I have just emerged from a cave to discover this show as you are waiting for season three. For everyone else, it is an exciting look into the lives of Morning TV News anchors and the production team. It is a perspective that I was not too familiar with, so this was one I continued watching through.

I can't say I strongly recommend the show, it is not for everyone. But if you have time, enjoy journalism or are a fan of one of the leads, watch the first episode and see if you feel it worthwhile investing more time in, it will likely not disappoint.

This post is not a review of the show, and one post cannot really do justice to the entire show. It is focused on Reese Witherspoon's character, Bradley Jackson. From the very beginning, it struck a chord.

The first incident where we get into Bradley's inside is when she extemporaneously unloads onto a fellow reporter who injures her cameraman, even if, accidentally. As a reporter, she is expected to behave "decently" but does not. It shows her passion, her imperfection, and her internal revolt. She comes from a dysfunctional family and has no one to share her frustrations with. This incident gives her the vent.

During that rant, she reveals the depth of her research on the piece of news she is about to cover and her intimate awareness of the situation at the coal mine. She puts herself in the shoes of the people she is reporting about. Another surprise! Isn't a reporter supposed to read from a script without deviation, tell the story and move on to another? Not Bradley Jackson!

Unknowingly, this whole episode is recorded by a citizen journalist on their phone and as the premier institution is looking for stories, a maverick scout finds Bradley and wants her to be interviewed for the Morning show. Long story short, that interview reveals Bradley's personality, and her naked ambition to get to the truth and tell it like it is. The host challenges her that she might have done all this just to get the attention of the Morning Show, but she comes out on top with the authenticity and sincerity of her responses.

A sequence of events and a complex intertwining of political, situational, people and circumstantial factors lead to Bradley becoming the co-host of the show! She becomes a fire-starter that catalyzes a bunch of changes to the culture, operational model and fate of the TV station.

So, what about this character makes her stand out? It is that there is a bit of Bradley in every single one of us. How the show put every one of those bits together in one character is mindblowing. What are these bits that we can relate to?

Fluke luck and a big break after years of normalcy

Perhaps it was her humble beginnings and rise to stardom. If I stopped there, this would be Disney's Cinderalla, except it isn't. Bradley did not get time to prepare for such a massive leap. She is a small-town reporter in a small station. She always got into trouble for not knowing how to be 'politically correct'. Have some of us felt this way when we enter the workforce or join a big company or work across teams? Sure!

Values are Non Negotiable

As a reporter, her personal brand, which she has cultivated over the years, is one of being fair and truthful. Those are not easy values to stand up for or reconcile with growing in one's career. The show has shown this nicely, where Bradley is pretty experienced and yet she has not made it on the newsroom rung beyond being a field reporter at a tier 3 station in a small state. Surely, someone of her talent, extempore, and capability should have made it much further? Not Bradley, as she has always found a way to get herself into trouble, possibly for upholding her values above growth or progression. Bradley isn't alone on this, in fact, she can be compared to any superhero in Marvel's comics or most recently Captain Pete Mitchell (call sign Maverick) who is exceptional but remained Captain for years. Don't we love all these heroes? That's why we love Bradley. It is incredibly frustrating to not be able to progress, but when it comes down to values, how can that be negotiable. This is why those who are not good in organizational politics do not hold fancy managerial titles.

Firestarter - if you see something, say something!

Bradley is like fire, she blows everything up. Sometimes the fires help catalyze a revolution, but other times, they bring everything down. This may not resonate with everyone, but no change is brought about without lighting fires. We see this in Bradley repeatedly. She is not worried about her job, her standing with management, coworkers or anyone.

She wants to do the right thing, whether it is in standing up for the truth, supporting the right cause, making people uncomfortable about sidestepping important issues, or just about anything. This hustle and whatever it takes mindset is rare, and can cause a lot of discomfort, but is a necessary ingredient for change.

Such sincerity from Bradley and her passion to change what is clearly wrong, affects the lead host, Alex Levy played by Jennifer Aniston, so much that she begins to feel defensive, subconsciously examining her own approach to journalism. Perhaps she saw a tinge of her ambition when she first started, but that was numbed over the years due to institutional politics or an intense will to get ahead.

Bradley is tapped into time and time again by her champion, the CEO of the network, Cory Ellison, who gave her some of her biggest breaks. She stays loyal to him as he does to her. This is a bit rare, but that's trust that builds between people that grow into their roles helping each other.

People and families are imperfect, *hit happens

Bradley does not kid herself by expecting anything to be perfect. She is perfectly comfortable with imperfection and does not crave the ideal. Yet, she has a few values that are uncompromisable. That in effect marks a conflict she has with herself. This has been shown very beautifully throughout the show and her character has ample opportunities to make tough decisions. She is almost a masochist in choosing the toughest path, situations that are most uncomfortable to tackle, and hardest to navigate. She faces this head-on, not hoping to solve anything, but more to attain some sort of closure that she can make peace with. So many of us, I would wager almost half of us can understand this sentiment.

The other half is portrayed by the lead character who shares the stage with Bradley, Alex Lewis, played by Jennifer Aniston, who has a completely opposite approach to life, she conceals her imperfections and wants to make herself appear as the perfect being. Totally opposite but that's something that the rest of us will relate to!

Bradley is conflicted between owning up to the issues that she has from her family, which is totally dysfunctional. But it is part of who she is and she has already cancelled half of it, what she has remaining, some part of her wants to hold on to, DEARLY. This is especially true of her brother, who is an addict but clings on to her to the point where he becomes a serious burden, a disgrace and a liability for her career. She is conflicted on advice she gets from her closest friends to leave her family behind to pursue her career. This is so reminiscent of the dilemma we have all faced in our lives.

Families are like a package deal or a bunch of grapes, you get the good with the bad all in the same package. You can't choose what you get, you just go along or branch off.

What makes Bradley relatable or memorable?

The botched-up Cinderella story, life is not all rainbows and unicorns that TV shows it to be. Some of us are just tired of the fiction of perfection shown in movies or series, which is good as an escape but does not exist in the real world. Even if you get the opportunity of your dreams, you are seldom prepared to handle it.

The unpredictability, or the sheer talent and pursuit of the truth. It may be that we don't get to play Bradley in our everyday lives. Or perhaps some of us aspire to, but can't or hold back.

This character has been written consistently throughout the show. No matter the situation, the dilemma, or the hard decisions that the character needs to make, she stays true to her principles. A rare and respectable trait that is almost impractical but we see role models from time to time that uses their platform.

The artist, Reese Witherspoon has given Bradley so much life, that makes Bradley Jackson extremely lovable, and totally relatable. No matter where we come from, or how we have evolved, there is some part of us that is Bradley. That's the magic of this character.

We consume a lot of media these days, and such characters leave a mark.

#the morning show #bradley jackson #reese witherspoon #jenifer aniston

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justliikeanimals-a · 3 years ago

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tag dump dos

#❝ —— visuals 》the activator ; jessica.#❝ —— persona 》 the activator ; jessica.#❝ —— script 》 the activator ; jessica.#❝ —— destined connections 》 jessica x catalina.#❝ —— destined connections 》 jessica x derek.#❝ —— love affairs 》jessica x gen.#❝ —— visuals 》the scout ; maverick.#❝ —— persona 》 the scout ; maverick.#❝ —— script 》 the scout ; maverick.#❝ —— destined connections 》 maverick x everleigh.#❝ —— love affairs 》maverick x svana.#❝ —— visuals 》the recruiter ; silas.#❝ —— persona 》the recruiter ; silas.#❝ —— script 》 the recruiter ; silas.

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tmcastandcrew · 7 years ago

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Hollywood star Simon Baker said he had no acting ambitions at first

April 28, 2018

Thank you @YohkoTheHunter

Huge Interview ahead >>

He was working as a pool attendant at the newly opened Sanctuary Cove resort. Any spare time, any spare thought, was spent chasing waves on the Gold Coast, and crashing with his surfie mates at their fibro shack which backed on to the beach at Surfers Paradise. It was the twilight of the 1980s and Simon Baker, a carefree school graduate, had no idea, and no real cares, about what lay ahead.

“No, no, no, I didn’t have any acting dreams,” the now 48-year-old father-of-three insists when U on Sunday sits down with him at the plush QT Hotel in Surfers Paradise for a chat about his latest film, Breath, based on Tim Winton’s novel.

It’s about 30 years since Baker lived here. In the interim, his ruggedly handsome face, sharp blue eyes and self-deprecating smile have taken him all the way to Hollywood Boulevard, where he has his own star on the sidewalk; and seen him receive critical acclaim, and an adoring fan base for his movie roles (Red Planet,The Devil Wears Prada and Margin Call) and television gigs (The Guardian, and his most famous role as maverick police consultant Patrick Jane on The Mentalist).

Not surprisingly, this same natural charm led to Baker’s first acting opportunity which came by accident rather than by design. And it happened in Brisbane.

“We were going camping,” he says, setting up the story of how he and a mate were driving up from the Coast when his friend said they had to make a slight detour into Brisbane because he had an audition for a TV ad.

“My friend told me I could wait in the car or come in and hang out; so I came into the waiting room and the casting woman came in with a clipboard and said to me ‘Have you signed in’ and I said: ‘Oh no, I’m just here with a friend’, and she said, ‘why don’t you sign in and go in’.

“I had never done drama or improvisation before. I was used to knocking around with my mates – a bit of jive talk on the beach, on the streets, that’s all,’’ he laughs.

Needless to say he got the gig. Two years later he landed a job on the Australian TV soapie E Street (“I wasn’t trying for it,’’ he again insists) playing fresh-faced Constable Sam Farrell. It was on that series that he met his future wife, Gold Coast-raised actor Rebecca Rigg.

Baker apologises in advance for eating during our chat. His mop of boyish golden-curled hair and grey flecked-stubble is lit with a wide grin, and deep laugh before he proceeds to wolf down a salad wrap and some fruit pieces. He is refuelling after making the most of a rare break from promotional duties at last week’s Queensland premiere of Breath at the Gold Coast Film Festival, to catch up for “a quick paddle with the boys’’.

The boys are Samson Coulter and Ben Spence who play the lead roles of Pikelet, 13, and Loonie, 14, in the film. Baker co-wrote, co-produced and co-stars in Breath which is also his directorial debut.

As a father of two teenage boys himself, Baker has developed a strong bond with his young proteges with Coulter from Sydney and Spence from Western Australia.

Baker’s own family are never far from his mind, and, at an exclusive U on Sundayphoto shoot earlier at Burleigh Heads, he was keen to capture a shot of the stunning beach scene to show his tribe at home. He celebrates 20 years of marriage this year to Rigg and the couple has three children, Stella Breeze, 24, Claude Blue, 19, and Harry Friday, 16.

He says all of his children go for a “paddle now and then’’ but it is his youngest Harry, who has inherited his father’s passion for surfing.

“It’s a great joy in seeing him (Harry) surf and catch waves,’’ he explains. “I like seeing him gain trust and physical confidence in himself; to trust his wits in certain situations, because that is what a lot of what surfing teaches you.’’

Baker explains he tries to find the right balance between encouraging Harry and ensuring he doesn’t pressure his son to tackle challenging waves he is not yet ready for, because “you can’t push them into those things’’. He says it is important that Harry develops his surfing skills at his own pace.

This caring fatherly approach is the opposite pathway taken by his character “Sando’’ in the coming of age film Breath. The adrenaline-junkie Sando is former world professional surfing star Bill Sanderson who becomes like a “guru’’ to his “wide-eyed disciples’’ Bruce “Pikelet” Pike and best friend Ivan “Loonie” Loon.

Pikelet and Loonie, under the tutelage of Sando, learn to surf increasingly bigger and more dangerous monster waves as Sando conditions their minds and bodies to pursue the extraordinary. Pikelet’s parents, played by Richard Roxburgh and Rachael Blake, remain oblivious to their son’s adventures, as Sando lures, even bullies, them on his increasingly perilous missions.

Roxburgh says Baker is a natural director, and an excellent mentor to the young novice actors.

“I was attracted to working with Simon because I’ve always thought he was a lovely bloke, a terrific actor, and I thought he would work really well with the young actors,’’ he says.

Roxburgh says his role as the staid and reserved father becomes a counterpoint to Baker’s risk-taking and larger-than-life Sando.

“My character is part of the domestic backdrop, I’m often at the garden shed, being very kindly and terribly worried about my son’s wellbeing. I know something is wrong, but I cannot identify it,’’ Roxburgh says.

When Sando and Loonie go overseas on a big-wave excursion, an unsettled Pikelet starts spending unhealthy periods of time alone with Sando’s headstrong wife Eva (Elizabeth Debecki), who carries a permanent knee injury from competitive aerial skiing.

“The film is about the anguish of parenting, of being a parent and watching your son moving and shifting away, being pulled away from you in this strong current and the terrible fear that goes with that,’’ Roxburgh says.

It took Sydney-based Baker a year to cast the two leading actors after a social media call-out to competent surfers netted thousands of entries from around the country including many from Queensland’s Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

Baker, who did much of his own surfing, is surprised that Winton envisaged him as Sando for the film version of his 2009 Miles Franklin Award winner and much-loved bestseller.

“I suppose I don’t know too many actors who surf, there’s a few that have a paddle,’’ Baker says. “I’m at that point, where it is sort of getting sad, because my body is not keeping up with what my heart and mind want to do, sometimes it’s humiliating and sometimes it’s exhilarating.’’

When producing partner Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad) gave Baker the novel to read in 2015 he was immediately smitten and secretly harboured dreams to direct a film adaptation. Baker has directed several episodes of his television shows, including The Mentalist, over the years.

“We started meeting with a few different directors and started developing the script and at one point Mark turned around and literally said ‘has it occurred to you, that you should direct this film’ and I said ‘Yes’,’’ Baker says.

He did have doubts and he worried about time constraints, but then his seven-year contract on The Mentalist ended.

He has devoted several years to bringing the film to the screen including extensive scouting of the Western Australia coast, where the novel is set, and finding the perfect locations on the southern coastline at Denmark and Ocean Beach.

Baker enlisted “colourful’’ Brisbane-based screenwriter Gerard Lee (Top of the Lake) to help with the film script.

“I knew I had to reduce it down to certain key thematic moments and hone in on those and the story, I had to let go of the book in a lot of ways,’’ he says.

Tasmanian-born Baker sees some similarities with his own childhood, growing up in Lennox Heads, on the northern NSW coast, and spending plenty of time at the beach with his surfing buddies. The former Ballina High School student admits he was more like the reserved and restrained Pikelet than the confident and thrillseeking Loonie or Sando.

“I grew up riding around with a pushbike with my mates, discovering the ocean and surfing,’’ Baker says. “There are a lot of parallels there with the book but there are obvious parallels with a lot of people who grew up in Australia.’’

Roxburgh agrees: “Tim Winton can really write about water, especially about the nature of water: what it is; what it does for us; and what it is to be with it; and to live with such a passion for it.’’

It was while growing up that Baker first developed a love for going to the movies.

“As a kid I would go to see a movie and I would be instantly transported by the story and characters. You go, ‘oh wow, I would like to do that one day’,’’ he says.

The 1957 American classic Old Yeller, about a young boy and his ill-fated dog, profoundly affected him as a Year 3 student.

“It’s funny because I watched Old Yeller with my kids 10 years ago and they were saying ‘why are you making us watch this?’,’’ he says. “It’s so heartbreaking and powerful. I can track back the emotional impact that cinema has had on me over the years to that point.

“I still get so excited about going to the movies, getting a choc-top, sitting in that dark room and letting a film take me away.’’

Baker grew up as Simon Denny – the name of his stepfather – but changed it to Simon Denny Baker after reuniting with his birth father as an adult. He later dropped the Denny part.

In 1993 he won the Logie for most popular new talent and then appeared in Home and Away (as James Hudson: 1993-1994) and Heartbreak High (as Tom Summers: 1996).

Baker and Rigg – who married in 1998 after five years of living together – decided to try their luck in the US, which became their base for 18 years.

Soon after arriving, he landed a role as troubled gay actor Matt Reynolds in the Oscar-winning LA Confidential (1998) and a couple of years later snared the key role of lawyer Nick Fallin in the television series The Guardian (2001-2004).

But it was his role as the cheeky and sharp-minded former conman Patrick Jane on The Mentalist (2008-15) which saw an astronomic popularity rise, especially among women. It was rumoured he signed a contract that delivered a payment of $US30 million for his role as Jane. Some 17 million watched the final episode of The Mentalist in the US alone.

His rising profile also led to contracts promoting prestigious French perfume house Givenchy as well as Longines watches.

“I take my hat off to Simon, and others, who have moved to America and have achieved over there,’’ Roxburgh says.

For Baker, his focus is not on the past but on the future, and that continues to look bright with the actor recently optioning Winton’s latest novel The Shepherd’s Hut.

“You should read it,’’ suggests Baker, flashing that trademark winning smile once more.

#simon baker #simonshoots #simon 2018

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marauders1971-1978 · 7 years ago

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Extra-Ultra Playlist Of Marauders’ Stuff

That I compiled out of all the songs on my spotify rather than updating my fanfic

Lily and James:

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Ben E King / The Shirelles

Twist and Shout – The Beatles

Dreams – Fleetwood Mac

Do You Love Me – The Contours

God Only Knows – The Beach Boys

Happy Together – The Turtles

Be My Baby – The Ronettes

My Girl – Otis Reading

Love On A Mountain Top – Robert Knight

I’m In Love – Lovelites

Don’t Go – Wretch 32, Josh Kurma

Where Did Our Love Go? – Soft Cell

You’re The Best Ting – Style Council

Somewhere In My Heart – Aztec Camera

The Bones of You – Elbow

Starlings – Elbow

Perfect – Fairground Attraction

Stand By Me – Ben E King

There She Goes – The La’s

If I Can’t Have You – Yvonne Elliman

Sea of Love – Cat Power

Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations

Don’t You Want Me – The Human League

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – Bachman Turner Overdrive

Time After Time – Eva Cassidy

Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ – Scissor Sisters

Who’s That Girl – Eurythmics

I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin

Can You Feel The Love Tonight – Elton John

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart – Elton John, Kiki Dee

Reminder – Mumford & Sons

Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

To Be With You – Mr Big

Lovely Day – Bill Withers

Rock The Boat – Hues Corporation

Love Really Hurts Without You – Billy Ocean

It’s In His Kiss – Linda Lewis

Bye Bye Baby – Bay City Rollers

Middle of The Bed – Lucy Rose

Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes

Coconut Skins – Damien Rice

Dogs – Damien Rice

Rock With You – Michael Jackson

Tiny Dancer – Elton John

True – Spandau Ballet

Wake Up Boo – The Boo Radleys

Shape Of You – Ed Sheeran

Your Song – Elton John

Hello, I Love You – The Doors

Ho Hey – The Lumineers

Ain’t Nobody – Chaka Kahn

Take On Me – A-ha

Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond

Just Can’t Get Enough – Depeche Mode

It Must Be Love – Madness

Bubble Toes – Jack Johnson

Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson

More Than This – Roxy Music

Over You – Roxy Music

Oh Yeah! – Roxy Music

Midas Touch – Midnight Star

She Moves In Her Own Way – The Kooks

Everything – Michael Buble

Loving You – Paolo Nutini

Jenny Don’t Be Hasty – Paolo Nutini

Forever My Friend – Ray Lamontagne

Got My Mind Set On You – George Harrison

Rhythm Composer – Villagers

God Only Knows – The Beach Boys

Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys

When I’m Sixty-Four – The Beatles

From Me To You – The Beatles

I’m Sticking With You – The Velvet Underground

Only Love – Ben Howard

Diamonds – Ben Howard

Everywhere – Fleetwood Mac

Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys

Lover, You Should’ve Come Over – Jeff Buckley

Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley

Lilac Wine – Jeff Buckley

Listen to the Man – George Ezra

Leaving It Up To You – George Ezra

Barcelona – George Ezra

Blame It On Me – George Ezra

Under the Influence – James Morrison

Delicate – Damien Rice

If You Ever Want To Be In Love – James Bay

You Give Me Something – James Morrison

Better Man – James Morrison

Remus and Sirius:

The Fear – Lily Allen

You Make It Real – James Morrison

When Does Cry – Prince

Puncture Repair – Elbow

The Night Will Always Win – Elbow

Lean on Me – Ben E King

Suddenly I See – KT Tunstall

Better Together – Jack Johnson

Everybody’s Changing – Keane

Have A Nice Day – Stereophonics

Common People – Pulp

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Eurythmics

After the Storm – Mumford & Sons

Little Lion Man – Mumford & Sons

Viva La Vida – Coldplay

I Am Not A Robot – Marina and the Diamonds

Rootless Tree – Damien Rice

O’ Children – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac

Ever Fallen In Love With Someone (You Shouldn’t Have Fallen In Love With) – Buzzcocks

You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon

Some Nights – Fun

Friend Of Ours – Elbow

The Night Will Always Win – Elbow

What You Know – Two Door Cinema Club

Last Request – Paolo Nutini

Tainted Love – Soft Cell

Eternal Life – Jeff Buckley

Dance Away – Roxy Music

Heart of Glass – Blondie

Deeper Underground – Jameroquai

White Flag – Dido

I Wish I Was James Bond – Scouting For Girls

Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

Twice – Catfish and the Bottlemen

Sit Down – James

Steady and She Goes – The Ranconteurs

Shine On – The Kooks

Autumn – Paolo Nutini

Million Faces – Paolo Nutini

Livewire – Fyfe Dangerfield

We’re Not Right – David Gray

I Need – Maverick Sabre

Hold You In My Arms – Ray Lamontagne

Shelter – Ray Lamontagne

Pieces – Villagers

Set The Tigers Free – Villagers

The Meaning of the Ritual – Villagers

Becoming A Jackal – Villagers

The Waves – Villagers

Patience – Take That

A Well Respected Man – The Kinks

The Recluse – Plan B

Promise – Ben Howard

Black Flies – Ben Howard

Keep Your Head Up – Ben Howard

The Fear – Ben Howard

The Wolves – Ben Howard

Goodbye, Apathy – OneRepublic

Take Me To Church – Hozier

Wild Thing – Noah and the Whale

Anarchy in the UK – Sex Pistols

Baby Can I Hold You – Tracy Chapman

Dream Brother – Jeff Buckley

Changes – Will Young

Heartbeats – Jose Gonzalez

Lily and Severus:

How Long – Paul Carrack

Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me – Elton John, George Michael

Hard to Say I’m Sorry – Chicago

Leaders of the Free World – Elbow

Mirrorball – Elbow

Puncture Repair – Elbow

Stand By Me – Ben E King

Lean on Me – Ben E King

Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers

Always Take The Weather With You – The Booze Bros

L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. – Noah and the Whale

Everybody’s Changing – Lily Allen

She’s Always A Woman – Billy Joel

Time After Time – Eva Cassidy

Jealousy – Will Young

Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher) – Jackie Wilson

I Want You Back – The Jackson 5

Roll Away Your Stone – Mumford & Sons

Nobody – ELIZA

Wild World – Mr Big

Everyday Is Like Sunday – Morrisey

If There’s Any Justice – Lamar

Leave Right Now – Will Young

Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds

World Shut Your Mouth – Julian Cope

What Time Do You Call This? – Elbow

Gone, Gone, Gone – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep – Middle of the Road

Jealous Guy – Roxy Music

Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Deep Blue Something

Sunday Girl – Blondie

Heart of Glass – Blondie

Golden Touch – Razorlight

Hanging On Too Long – Duffy

White Lies – Paolo Nutini

These Streets – Paolo Nutini

Rewind – Paolo Nutini

We’re Not Right – David Gray

My Oh My – David Gray

Please Forgive Me – David Gray

I Can Never Be – Maverick Sabre

Open My Eyes – Maverick Sabre

Trouble – Ray Lamontagne

Home – Villagers

Ship of Promises – Villagers

My Lighthouse – Villagers

Just Friends – Amy Winehouse

Yesterday – The Beatles

Somewhere Only We Know – Keane

Gracious – Ben Howard

The Line – Noah and The Whale

Wild Thing – Noah and the Whale

How You Remind Me – Nickleback

Fall For Anything – The Script

Talk You Down – The Script

We Cry – The Script

You Could Be Happy – Snow Patrol

Little Lies – Fleetwood Mac

I Know It’s Over – The Smiths

Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley

Who Am I – Will Young

Breakaway – George Ezra

Did You Hear The Rain? – George Ezra

The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore – James Morrison

Marauders:

I Predict A Riot – Keiser Chiefs

Pass Out – Tinie Tempah

Trouble Maker – Olly Murs, Flo Rida

Friday I’m In Love – The Cure

Dance Wiv Me – Dizzie Rascal, Calvin Harris

Hey Ya! – OutKast

Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand

Mr Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra

Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

1999 – Prince

Lippy Kids – Elbow

One Day Like This – Elbow

My Sad Captains – Elbow

Weather to Fly – Elbow

Station Approach – Elbow

Together in Electric Dreams – The Human League

Walking On Sunshine – Katrina & The Waves

L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. – Noah and the Whale

Good People – Jack Johnson

Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys

Teenage Kicks – The Undertones

Beautiful Day – U2

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – Bachman Turner Overdrive

Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey

December 1963 (Oh What A Night) – The Family

I Will Wait – Mumford & Sons

More Than A Feeling – Boston

Stole The Show – Kygo, Parson James

September – Earth, Wind & Fire

Off The Wall – Michael Jackson

Life Is A Rollercoaster – Ronan Keating

Gold – Spandau Ballet

Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve

We Are Young – Fun

Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears For Fears

K2 – Elbow

Head for Supplies – Elbow

Dancing in the Moonlight – Toploader

Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles

Night Fever – Bee Gees

California Dreamin’ – The Mammas and the Pappas

Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz

1973 – James Blunt

Half The World Away – Oasis

I Need A Holiday – Scouting For Girls

Keep On Walking – Scouting For Girls

Never Miss A Beat – Kaiser Chiefs

Paradise – Coldplay

Candy – Paolo Nutini

Make It Better – Gary Nock

Shine – Take That

Ride Wit Me – Nelly, City Spud

Handlebars – Flobots

Inbetween Days – The Cure

Expectations – Belle & Sebastian

Old Pine – Ben Howard

5 Years’ Time – Noah and the Whale

Old Joy – Noah and the Whale

Waiting For My Chance To Come – Noah and the Whale

Just Me Before We Met – Noah and the Whale

Give It All Back – Noah and the Whale

Tonight’s The Kind of Night – Noah and the Whale

Life is Life – Noah and the Whale

Holidays In The Sun – Sex Pistols

All Star – Smash Mouth

Jesus is a Rochdale Girl – Elbow

Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac

Express Yourself – Labrinth

Let The Sun Shine – Labrinth

Riptide – Vance Joy

Dog Days Are Over – Florence and the Machine

Older Chests – Damien Rice

Eskimo – Damien Rice

Big Bad World – Kodaline

Brand New Day – Kodaline

If anyone wants them as actual Spoitfy playlists do ask, cos I’m always a slut for wasting my time

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the-master-cylinder · 5 years ago

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SUMMARY A father and son go hunting in the mountains. Before they can begin hunting, which the son does not want to do anyway, they are killed by flying jellyfish-like creatures, which penetrate their skin with needle-tipped tentacles.

Some time later, four teenagers, Tom, Greg, Beth and Sandy, hike in the same area, ignoring the warnings of local truck stop owner Joe Taylor (Jack Palance). A group of Cub Scouts is also in the area; their leader (Larry Storch) is also killed by the alien creatures, while his troop runs into an unidentified humanoid and flee.

The teenagers set up camp at a lake, but after a few hours, Tom and Beth disappear. Sandy and Greg go looking for them and discover their bodies in an abandoned shack. They drive away in their van, while being attacked by one of the jellyfish which tries to get through the car’s windshield. After they get rid of it, they arrive at the truck stop. Greg tries to get help from the locals, but they do not believe him, except for Fred ‘Sarge’ Dobbs (Martin Landau), who is a mentally ill veteran. Meanwhile, Sandy encounters the humanoid and flees into the woods, where Joe Taylor finds and returns her to Greg.

While they discuss the situation, the sheriff arrives, but Sarge shoots him and begins to become more paranoid. Greg and Sandy leave with Taylor, who reveals he has been attacked by the humanoid before and secretly keeps the flying jellyfish as trophies. They search for the shack and once there, Taylor goes inside to only find the bodies of Tom, Beth and the cub scout leader. They discuss waiting for the creature when Taylor is attacked by another “jellyfish”. The young people run once again, leaving him behind as ordered. They stop a police car and get into the back seat, but find Sarge driving. He abducts them, believing them to be aliens. Greg plays along, telling the deranged man that an invasion force is on the way, thus distracting him enough to toss him aside, run away with Sandy and jump from a bridge.

They make it to a house where they find new clothing and try to relax. In the night, Sandy wakes up and goes looking for Greg, only to discover that he has been killed by the alien, who is still in the room. She flees to the basement and the creature is about to get her when Taylor arrives and saves her. On the way to the shack, he tells her about the creature: it is a tall extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) who hunts humans for sport to keep as trophies, using the living creatures as living weapons against its prey.

They wait at the shack to ambush the hunter with dynamite when Sarge shows up, almost spoiling their plan. He and Taylor fight, and Sandy is about to hit Sarge from behind when the alien arrives and kills Sarge. Taylor then shoots the creature, with little to no effect. Realizing the last chance of success, he lures it to the shack, which is then blown up by Sandy. She alone survives the horrible night.

DEVELOPMENT It was Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977) co-producer Mike McFarland who came up with the idea for Without Warning (originally titled Alien Encounter, and also released as It Came… Without Warning), Clark’s 1980 sci-fi/horror effort. In a theme later picked up by Predator, Without Warning’s bubbleheaded alien comes to Earth on what amounts to a hunting expedition. After the script spent years floating around Hollywood, Clark reworked it and helped get it into production.

“McFarland hired two teams of writers to flesh out his idea, and besides myself I had another writer, Curtis Burch, come in to help revise the script when I took over,” Clark recalls; neither he nor Burch, who served as an associate producer and the film’s editor, wound up taking credit for their rewrites. “Originally, the alien hunted with a bow and arrow. I wanted it to be a little more unusual than a weapon we could have here on Earth, so I came up with the flesh eating creatures that the alien flips like a Frisbee at its victims.”

BEHIND THE SCENES/ PRODUCTION Shot in California during December. Without Warning was filmed almost exclusively at night, which Clark feels “adds tremendously to a film’s atmosphere,” but also caused its share of problems. “At night it would get down to the low 30s. That’s cold for Southern California. The entire crew wore ski masks, and with the dark and the masks, I couldn’t tell one crew member from another. My cinematographer was Dean Cundey and let’s see, this was my seventh picture. When I wanted to talk to Dean Cundey, I would have to go up to each of them and say, ‘Dean? Are you Dean?’”

“This picture was made for $150,000, including $75,000 for Palance and Landau,” he reveals. “That left me with 75 grand to shoot the picture, edit, do the post production and everything else. So when I agreed to do it under those circumstances, I realized I had to make it in three weeks.

BEHIND THE SCENES/INTERVIEWS Besides offering the obligatory don’t go-near-the-woods warning, the forceful appearances of Palance and Landau serve notice that Without Warning isn’t just going to be a movie about kids in peril. Throughout, there’s a running tension between the young and old characters, and the film ends up being at least as much about the craggy old dudes as the naive, attractive youths. This young-vs.-old dynamic is brought home in a long and impressive scene fairly early in the movie, when two of the kids stumble into a country bar in their retreat from the alien’s flying weapons, finding not only Landau and Palance inside, but also such cinema vets as Sue Ane Langdon, Neville (Eaten Alive) Brand and Old Hollywood star Ralph (Food of the Gods) Meeker in his final role.

“I had used Jack Palance in a previous picture, Angels’ Brigade (1979) and I’d used Ralph Meeker before and worked with Neville on, I guess, two pictures previous to this,” recalls Clark. “I always like collaborating with professional people like them whenever I have a chance. The more experienced an actor is, the less you have to direct him, and I’m able to work quicker because they know what I’m trying to do. My experience with performers of that caliber is that they’re eager to help the director, and very, very good to work with.”

Brand had a not-unfounded reputation as a boozer and brawler, but according to Clark, by the time the two shared a set, Brand’s problems had ameliorated. “He was an absolute sweetheart to deal with,” Clark recalls. “You know, he was the second most decorated hero, behind Audie Murphy, of WWII. He’d had some really tough times, and he’d talk about the fact that he’d had problems drinking and what have you. But when I worked with him for the first time, in 1977, he was completely sober. In fact, in the scene in the bar in Without Warning, he said, ‘Greydon, I’ll do anything you want, but you know I can’t drink.’ And I said, ‘Neville, I never have alcohol on the set. This beer is apple juice with a little bit of spritz water in it to make it foam.’

“So he was wonderful. He was a terrific guy, and always on top of his game. Again, the experienced actors know that they have a job to do. They’ve done it many, many times, and they come prepared, and it’s easier for everybody on the set.”

Landau returns the compliment. “Greydon Clark knew right where we were going with that story before we ever started shooting,” the actor says. “Now, Jack and I might have taken things off in some unexpected directions, what with our tendency to ham it up, but we always had that anchorage that we could rely on.”

Landau and Palance, the two principal veterans in Without Warning’s cast, were hardly nursing-home geezers. Palance was barely past 60, and Landau had yet to turn 50. But careers age in Hollywood with unnatural speed, and at the time the picture was made, both found themselves down a few rungs from the place they had once stood on fame’s endless ladder.

“Yeah, I was one of those washed-up has-beens who found himself mired in a mess of low-budget horror movies and foreign-market exploitations for a long while there,” Palance told us, five years before his 1996 death. “Me and Martin Landau and Cameron Mitchell and Neville Brand and Ralph Meeker, and good old Larry Storch, in the case of Without Warning. But I loved the experience. Maybe not so much at the time, grateful though I was just to keep on working, but certainly in the bigger perspective of having a showy, aggressive role that somebody might notice and appreciate.

“The only direction for us from Without Warning was straight up!” he added with a chuckle. “But us old mavericks, Landau and me and the boys, knew the job was dangerous when we took it-acting, I mean, trying to get away with being movie stars in a land where talent is a disposable commodity—and a hot temper, like I used to have in the early days, was pure damned career suicide.”

Clark has similar praise for Landau whose Dobbs is ultimately revealed to be a shell-shocked wacko who believes the alien has somehow taken over the kids’ bodies, à la Invasion of the Body Snatchers—and the actor returns it. “Greydon Clark is a godsend,” says Landau. “He believed in me—not just in me, I mean, but in a lot of us aging near-burnouts who’d had our day in the fickle major leagues and he offered roles that were neither demeaning, like I’d seen happen to Lon Chaney Jr. with some of those low-budget guys, nor otherwise false. Just working actor stuff, meaty bits of business that allowed us to slice the ham as thick as we wanted. In fact, Francis Coppola told me that he had sought me out for Tucker [1988] in light of that over-the-top stuff I had done for Greydon Clark. It served notice that I still had the chops.”

“I’d like to tip my hat to Marty Landau,” Clark says. “We were on a very, very short schedule, so some days we had to work really long hours. When you’re at a location you only have for a single day, a 12-hour shoot is a short one. We had some 16-, 18-, even 20-hour days.

“This was the first film I’d done with him, and that night, when we were finishing with him, I had to say, ‘Marty, you’re scheduled to come back in about six hours. It’s relatively short, and I can have you out in a couple of hours, but because of scheduling problems, I need you in first thing. You know that I’m supposed to give you a 12-hour turnaround, according to the Screen Actors Guild, but I don’t have the budget to pay you the penalty that’s required by the guild.’ And Marty said, “No problem, Greydon. I’ll just come in and sign in at the regular time.’ ”

Clark pauses. “This is a guy who’d been around. I believe he told me his first film was North by Northwest (1959), Hitchcock’s film, and of course he’d done two or three television series. Again, I’ve been so lucky in my career that all the ‘name’ actors I’ve directed have been just remarkable, and very cooperative and helpful. I know Neville Brand and Palance had a reputation for being difficult, but I found just the opposite to be true. The picture I did with Jack before Without Warning, Angel’s Brigade, had a lot of very, very young people in it, inexperienced people, and he would work with them and rehearse with them, and showed a great deal of patience.”

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SPECIAL EFFECTS

Seven-foot actor Kevin Peter Hall, who made a career of performing in monster suits, tallied his second film appearance as the barely glimpsed human-hunter. “McFarland had already contacted Rick Baker about creating the alien, and Rick had somehow found Kevin,” the director explains. Baker’s involvement ended when Clark took over the production, with Baker protégé and future Oscar-winner Greg Cannom ultimately responsible for the creature and its gruesome handiwork.

“As a producer/director, you’re responsible for everything, really, and I always like to blame somebody else if it doesn’t work and take the credit if it does,” he says with another laugh. “So I don’t want to use the word ‘created,’ but I came up with the idea for the little Frisbee creatures, in the scripting stage. The original concept was that the alien had come here and was hunting with a bow and arrow. That didn’t do it for me, so I was kicking around ideas of what I could do. I wanted to have a live creature that it hunted with, almost like sending dogs out, except that it would be a flying thing that he threw. So I started sketching one day what they might look like, and then I brought in my effects people, and we created this little guy with teeth, and hair around it, and tentacles and so forth, and I believe it works pretty well.”

RELEASE/DISTRIBUTION Selling the film to a distributor seemed easy at first, but quickly became complicated. “I made a U.S. distribution deal with American International Pictures (AIP) and within a few weeks of finalizing the deal, Filmways purchased AIP and announced they were not going to distribute any more of those AIP exploitation pictures,” Clark said. A potentially lucrative sale to cable-TV and to CBS, which premiered Without Warning on its Late Movie, depended on the film’s theatrical exposure. “I had to threaten them with a lawsuit to get Without Warning distributed,” Clark said. “They gave it a minimal release across the United States and the picture, much to their surprise, was well-received and did substantial box-office.” In some territories, the film was released as It Came Without Warning. Clark sees it differently. “Without Warning was released around the world in the spring of 1980 and received positive critical response and strong box-office,” he says.

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CAST/CREW Without Warning (1980) Directed by Greydon Clark Produced by Greydon Clark Tarah Nutter as Sandy Christopher S. Nelson as Greg Jack Palance as Joe Taylor Martin Landau as Fred ‘Sarge’ Dobbs Neville Brand as Leo Ralph Meeker as Dave Cameron Mitchell as Hunter Darby Hinton as Randy David Caruso as Tom Lynn Thell as Beth Sue Ane Langdon as Aggie Larry Storch as Cub Scout Leader Kevin Peter Hall as The Alien

Cinematography Dean Cundey

Makeup Department Greg Cannom … special makeup Alistair Mitchell … makeup artist

Music by Dan Wyman

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Fangoria#150 Fangoria#271

Without Warning (1980) Retrospective SUMMARY A father and son go hunting in the mountains. Before they can begin hunting, which the son does not want to do anyway, they are killed by flying jellyfish-like creatures, which penetrate their skin with needle-tipped tentacles.

#80sFilms #80sHORROR

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spicynbachili1 · 6 years ago

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4 way-too-early 2019 NBA Draft targets

Photograph by Lance King/Getty Photographs

The New York Knicks are most likely going to search out themselves selecting excessive within the 2019 NBA Draft, so it’s by no means too early to take a look at a couple of potential targets.

it’s truthful to say that the New York Knicks is not going to be part of the 2019 NBA Playoffs. With their large star Kristaps Porzingis out and no timetable for his return, no person expects large issues from this crew — at the least for now.

After beginning the season with a Four-Eight file, they discover themselves having the seventh-worst file in the whole NBA, tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Then once more, there are groups just like the Washington Wizards and the Dallas Mavericks who’re set to bounce again after a tough begin to the season. In consequence, the Knicks are just about heading for that top-five choose from a sensible perspective.

However, it’s truthful to say that plenty of groups shall be trying to tank the continuing season in an effort to get the possibility to grab one of many following prospects.

Listed below are 4 prime 2019 NBA Draft prospects the New York Knicks ought to scout completely and goal subsequent June.

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from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/4-way-too-early-2019-nba-draft-targets/

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dnowit41 · 3 years ago

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Inside the Mavericks front office, Mark Cuban’s shadow GM is causing a rift with Luka Doncic

Tim Cato and Sam Amick 6/14/20

In early February, during the second quarter of a home game against the Golden State Warriors, Luka Doncic carelessly turned over the ball and received feedback from a Dallas Mavericks employee he didn’t care for: Haralabos Voulgaris, a well-known sports gambler hired by team owner Mark Cuban in 2018.

Voulgaris, sitting with an open laptop in his typical courtside seat across from the Mavericks’ bench, motioned downward with his hands, which Doncic specifically interpreted as Voulgaris telling him to calm down, multiple team and league sources tell The Athletic. Doncic snapped back, telling Voulgaris, according to one source’s recollection, “Don’t fucking tell me to calm down.” The same sources say Voulgaris later professed that his motion wasn’t solely directed at Doncic, but regardless of intent, it only worsened an already inflamed relationship between the two.

Doncic, multiple league sources say, intends to sign the supermax extension — which he will be eligible for once named to this season’s All-NBA team — with Dallas, worth more than $200 million over five seasons after his rookie contract expires next summer. “I think you know the answer,” he said, smiling, when asked whether he would at last week’s exit interview. But a high-level power broker within the league says the Mavericks recognize that there’s urgency to build a contending team around Doncic after losing in the first round in each of the past two seasons. The clock is ticking.

Internally, there are concerns the front office’s dysfunction has hurt its ability to do so — and that poor relationships Doncic has with key members of the franchise, including Voulgaris, could impact his current desire to remain in Dallas long-term. The team’s most recent postseason defeat against the LA Clippers served as a direct indictment on the roster constructed around him. Can Mavericks management remedy that in time? Or, as some team sources fear, will they pay the price for the dysfunctional dynamics that exist in some corners of the organization?

Dallas announced Voulgaris’ hiring in the fall of 2018 with a title — director of quantitative research and development — that vastly understated his actual role. Multiple league and team sources tell The Athletic that Voulgaris has been the most influential voice within the Mavericks front office since joining the team, either initiating or approving virtually every transaction made over the past two seasons. Those same sources add that Voulgaris has frequently gone as far as scripting the starting lineups and rotations for longtime head coach Rick Carlisle.

That influence has spanned Doncic’s three seasons in Dallas. While he had been drafted prior to Voulgaris’ arrival — Donnie Nelson, the team’s longtime president of basketball operations, was the driving force behind trading up to acquire the Slovenian wunderkind, a process he described in detail to The Athletic last year — Cuban had sought out Voulgaris’ basketball advice in the years before putting him on the team’s payroll. As one team source says, “Mark Cuban is the most powerful person in the organization, but whoever he’s listening to is second.” Cuban was won over by Voulgaris’ vision: an analytics-driven spread pick-and-roll offense with Doncic as the focal point which he has tried implementing in the past seasons.

It’s unclear when the Cuban and Voulgaris relationship began, but their coming together is perhaps unsurprising given Cuban’s origin as a self-made tech billionaire whose first major purchase was the Mavericks. Voulgaris has never been shy about his desire to run a team. In an ESPN feature from 2013, Voulgaris is quoted as saying, “The whole process (of becoming a highly successful gambler) has led me to believe that I’d be able to put together a better team than almost any general manager in the league. If not maybe all.”

The way Voulgaris tells it — the ESPN feature is the only notable reporting ever focused on him, and he declined an interview request from The Athletic shortly after being hired — he began gambling on the NBA in the late 1990s and had made millions by the early 2000s. His success, he says, came in part from an instinctual reading of certain coaches. It finally failed him during the 2003-04 season, causing him to lose much of his gambling wealth and step away temporarily, only returning once he’d developed an analytics model that brought back his old edge. He says he did exactly that, his new model beating the odds at a rate higher than five percent. In 2009, he gave up gambling again to consult for an unnamed NBA franchise. The advisory role lasted one season; he returned to his previous life afterward and began publicly promoting himself. In the coming years, he became a well-known presence in the basketball world.

Voulgaris spent a limited amount of time around the Mavericks during his first season of employment, attending about one-quarter of the team’s games. He attended fewer games the following season, but his imprint on the team’s roster grew substantially that offseason. It was Voulgaris who initiated the team’s acquisitions of Seth Curry and Delon Wright, with multiple sources telling The Athletic that Voulgaris believed Wright should start next to Doncic. “He was the only person that believed that,” one team source says. Wright did start the season opener before being moved to a full-time bench role the following game, barely playing in the team’s first-round defeat in the 2020 postseason. He was traded that offseason.

Because Voulgaris’ influence was greater than his official role, those within the front office — and executives around the league who interacted with them — were often confused about who actually held power. “We had two general managers,” a team source says. Nelson remained the team’s president of basketball operations, a role he has held since 2005, and other executives and agents continued largely communicating with him or Cuban regarding personnel matters. Nelson continued to spearhead major moves, including trades for Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. in 2019, Josh Richardson in 2020 and J.J. Redick in 2021. But team sources say Voulgaris was supportive of the transactions — or explicitly approved them.

Multiple league and team sources point to the 2020 draft as a particularly egregious example of Voulgaris’ power, an evening one source described as “embarrassing.” Most members of the scouting department joined the team’s war room remotely through Zoom and were surprised when Voulgaris, attending in person, didn’t consult them for either of the team’s first two selections (Josh Green and Tyrell Terry) despite disagreements they held with at least one of the players he picked.“

What did (he) sell to Mark to make him believe (he) can do this?” asks one source with an intimate knowledge of the situation. “Nobody knows.”

It marked another throughline of Voulgaris’ tenure with the Mavericks: that his personality and decision making has steadily irritated and exasperated the team’s front office employees and players over the course of the three seasons he’s been employed. “He doesn’t know how to talk to people,” that same source says.

That’s best exemplified by Dallas’ franchise player disliking him. Doncic’s strained relationship with Voulgaris predated their incident in February, multiple sources say. It wasn’t the only incident, either. This season, Voulgaris attended his first game in mid January, frequently appearing courtside at home and also traveling with them on the road in the months that followed. In mid-April, during the final minute of a home defeat to the New York Knicks, Voulgaris was seen on the game’s broadcast footage standing up and leaving with about 45 seconds remaining. While the Mavericks were trailing by 10 points at the time, they cut the deficit to six and extended the game seven more possessions before eventually losing.

Doncic noticed Voulgaris’ early departure. In the locker room after the game, multiple league and team sources say he told teammates he viewed Voulgaris leaving before the game’s conclusion as him quitting on them. Voulgaris would not attend another game the rest of the year.

Multiple team sources confirm Voulgaris remained involved in the team’s gameplans and in-game adjustments in a remote role. But Voulgaris, who earlier this season appeared likelier than not to wrest further control over the front office and perhaps even drive out Nelson entirely, now heads into a summer with his contract set to expire and uncertainty surrounding his future.

When reached for comment on Monday, Cuban defended Voulgaris’ involvement. “I really like what Bob brings to the table. He does a great job of supporting Rick and the front office with unique data insights.”

Cuban added: “Bob has a great grasp of AI and the opportunities it creates for gaining an advantage. Which is important to me. But he isn’t any more influential than any other data source on the team.”

Voulgaris declined to comment for this story when reached on Sunday.

Doncic’s relationship with his head coach, Rick Carlisle, has been publicly scrutinized since joining his team. It’s expected Carlisle will return next season, multiple league sources say, something Cuban publicly voiced support for last week shortly after the first round defeat.“

Let me tell you how I look at coaching,” he told ESPN. “You don’t make a change to make a change. Unless you have someone that you know is much, much, much better, the grass is rarely greener on the other side.”

Multiple sources were surprised to see Cuban’s prompt backing of Carlisle, however, even though Cuban’s support for Carlisle has hardly wavered over the past decade. During the season, it was believed Carlisle’s future could be reconsidered following the season, partly due to a belief Doncic had tuned him out.“

It was very much up in the air,” one source with intimate knowledge of the situation said.

Sources say some players have been frustrated with Carlisle after they lost playing time despite doing exactly what they felt he had asked of them, and for stiff rotation patterns, the latter of which they viewed — correctly, team sources confirm — as being dictated directly to him by Voulgaris. Early on, Doncic also disliked Carlisle’s timeouts and frequent calling of plays.

But Carlisle, who’s “adaptable as a motherfucker,” as one league source put it, began to modify his coaching style as a way of relieving some of the pressure from this sensitive situation. Beyond Carlisle’s obvious coaching acumen, he has always been able and willing to, in essence, read the room when it came to which personal battles he could win and which ones he couldn’t. This was no different.

Doncic’s greatness, so evident so early on, clearly compelled Carlisle to consider the changing hoops politics at hand. Since being hired in May of 2008, Carlisle has had his fair share of friction with key players, in large part because of his well-known tendency to be controlling. But Rajon Rondo, this was not.

In truth, it was far closer to the difficult dynamic that he’d successfully navigated with then-point guard Jason Kidd en route to winning the franchise’s first and only title in 2011. It took an intervention of sorts to get through that friction back then, when then-Mavericks assistant coaches Tim Grgurich, Dwane Casey and Terry Stotts stepped in to tell Carlisle that he needed to loosen the reins on Kidd. In the end, of course, it was a wise and necessary move.

The championship took Carlisle’s credibility to another level in those coming years. He was, with good reason, virtually untouchable when it came to the job insecurities that most coaches face. Such is life when you reach the NBA’s mountaintop for a franchise that has never been there before.

But as Doncic started to look more and more like a modern-day Dirk Nowitzki these past three seasons — the kind of once-in-a-generation player who the Mavericks could build around for the next two decades — the landscape that surrounded Carlisle began to change. And Carlisle, quite clearly, decided to change along with it.

“You can’t win against the next Nowitzki,” one source said.

Doncic has a healthy relationship with the Mavericks organization at large. League sources say he angled to be drafted by the team in 2018, and he has been particularly complimentary of his relationship with Nowitzki, whose final season coincided with Doncic’s first. Those feelings could change if the team’s postseason struggles continue, as the Mavericks haven’t advanced past the first round since their 2011 championship run. It’s not that Doncic’s situation with the team is at a critical inflection point right now. Multiple team sources simply fear that it’s heading that direction.

Those concerns mostly center on Cuban and the decisions he makes regarding who he trusts and imbues with power. Sometimes, it’s examples like Voulgaris, a sports gambler with no league experience being given near total control of the team’s roster. Other times, it’s the relationships he doesn’t sever: The Mavericks’ front office has come to be known around the league for its long-existing power structure that, Voulgaris aside, has barely changed.

Doncic has provided the Mavericks a chance to return to prominence. He’s a generational star the team was fortunate to draft, seamlessly taking the mantle from the franchise player before him. But after beginning another offseason sooner than hoped for, the focus falls upon the organization around him: on how the dynamic that existed over the past seasons was allowed to operate in such a haphazard manner, and whether it can be fixed before it’s too late.

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junker-town · 7 years ago

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Dennis Smith Jr. gives Mavericks a powerful and explosive point guard

Dennis Smith Jr. is similar to Russell Westbrook or John Wall and that should be exciting for Dallas

The Mavericks have plenty to be excited about after selecting Dennis Smith Jr. with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft.

Smith stands at 6’2 and is a point guard who can play above the rim. His explosiveness and athleticism is what sets him apart from the rest of the pack, which is even more impressive considering he’s coming off a torn ACL in 2015.

In a draft that has been guard-heavy, Smith still holds his own after having an incredible freshman year at NC State. Smith was named Freshman of the Year in the ACC as well as ACC Newcomer of the Year by the Associated Press. He averaged 18.1 points, 6.2 assists, and 1.9 steals.

The biggest moment of Smith’s college career came on a 32-point night at Cameron Indoor Stadium in a win against Duke. It was NC State’s first win there since 1995 and a moment that proved how dominant Smith can be on the floor.

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Dennis Smith NBA Draft prospect scouting report

Is Smith the PG we need?

Posted by Sactown Royalty on Friday, June 16, 2017

Why should Mavs fans be excited about Dennis Smith Jr.

His explosiveness is exactly what is needed in the NBA today

Smith’s athleticism is easily his best attribute. He has the quickness that guards need in the modern NBA, especially the ability to drive the lane and attack the basket. Whether he creates his own shot at that point or creates for a teammate, this is where Smith is at his best. His strong frame also allows him to finish easily, which you can see in the following play.

If you want to make comparisons to current guards in the league, his athletic abilities are similar to that of John Wall and Russell Westbrook. The difference is his height and length. Wall and Westbrook each have at least a 6’7 wingspan. Smith’s maxes out at about 6’3.

That said, Smith has a quick first step and can finish strong near the basket, which is as important as ever in the NBA today.

He can do a little bit of everything as a point guard

Smith was one of only two players in Division I this year to have two triple-doubles. In fact, he was the first player in ACC history to have two triple-doubles in a season against conference opponents. His first of the season was a 27-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist outing against Virginia Tech. He also put up 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 15 assists against Syracuse.

He can score on his own from the inside and outside as well as create for his teammates. According to Draft Express, he averaged 6.8 assists per-40 pace adjusted, which ranked fourth best in their Top 100. He’s a strong guard who can drive to the basket with his quickness and from there can continue to create options for the offense. He should be able to really thrive when he is surrounded by more three-point shooters in the NBA, which wasn’t the case for him in college.

Is there any reason to be nervous about Dennis Smith Jr.?

His inconsistency. When Smith is at his best, he’s an terrific player, but his ups and downs on the court make it tough to count on him as reliable. When it falls, he can be unstoppable at times, but had nine games last season where he did not hit one three-pointer.

As a point guard, he’ll need to continue to work on his ability to be a vocal floor leader, something that wasn’t seen much at NC State. His actions and body language will go a long way in the NBA.

Tell me something else that’s fun about Dennis Smith Jr.

Johnson tore his ACL at Adidas Nations in August just before the start of his senior year of high school. He decided to enroll at NC State early to continue rehab there as well as give him the opportunity to be around the team every day.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Smith was a little-used bench player as a freshman in high school before emerging as a star.

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