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tabloidtoc · 3 years ago

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OK, May 10

You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Inside Kim Kardashian's Wild New Single Life

Page 1: Big Pic -- Jenna Dewan enjoyed a stroll around her L.A. neighborhood with 13-month-old son Callum, whom she shares with fiance Steve Kazee, in a stroller

Page 2: Contents

Page 3: Contents

Page 4: The world watched as Prince Harry came face-to-face with the royal family for the first time in over a year to say farewell to his late grandfather Prince Philip, and now that he's back home in Montecito, California, with pregnant wife Meghan Markle and their 23-month old son Archie, Harry's been reflecting on the emotional reunion and preparing for what lies ahead in the coming months -- although the trip inevitably had its share of awkward moments, he's generally happy with how it went, and things had been especially frosty between Harry and The Firm following his televised tell-all, but the main thing is they broke the ice, and he's finally communicating properly with his family again -- in fact, Harry is said to have enjoyed low-key meetings with several relatives before heading back home to the States, including his grandmother Queen Elizabeth and cousin Princess Eugenie, although he did not have a one-on-one chat with his estranged father Prince Charles and it was more of a civilized catch-up than an intense sit-down because it wasn't an appropriate time to delve into recent tensions; however, Harry did take the opportunity to reassure everyone it wasn't his intention to upset them and that he loves them all very much and they, in turn, echoed their affection for him and they mutually agreed to keep moving forward positively and constructively and there's a still a lot of unfinished business, many are hopeful that all will be resolved when Harry returns to the U.K. for a memorial honoring his late mother Princess Diana on July 1 and this could be Harry's last chance to sit down with his family and properly repair things and Harry and Prince William have both agreed to meet before the event and have a frank discussion about how they can do their best to fix the damage that's been done and air their grievances in a calm and pragmatic manner

Page 6: Next spring, Johnny Depp and his ex Amber Heard will head back to court in the latest installment of their ongoing legal drama, but this time, Johnny, who filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Amber following a 2018 op-ed where she detailed her experience as an alleged abuse victim, is determined to clear his name one and for all -- Johnny and his team have new and explosive testimony from two of the responding officers, plus new body cam footage, that they believe will finally turn things around in their favor and they're convinced it will show that Amber made up claims about their alleged May 2016 brawl in an attempt to ruin him and the video shows a neat apartment with nothing out of place, nothing broken or anything to suggest a knockdown fight had just occurred -- Johnny's always maintained his innocence and now he's confident this evidence will prove it and Johnny's also working on a tell-all that he intends to release as soon as he's declared innocent and the tome will vividly detail what happened on that night in 2016 and throughout their year-long marriage and Johnny feels Amber never really loved him and his friends warned him not to marry her, but he didn't listen, and he's paid a dear price for it

Page 7: A fateful chapter from Ashton Kutcher's past could be coming back to haunt him as he's being urged to take part in the upcoming documentary on his late ex Brittany Murphy and it's stressing him out to no end and so far, he wants nothing to do with it -- the documentary is going to look for clues as to why it all ended like this for Brittany, and producers want Ashton to tell his side of the story and the thinking is he may have little choice but to participate because he had a front row seat to Brittany's life, and her fans want him to shed light on what really happened

* Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria Baldwin knew that having six kids would be a challenge, but they're realizing it's even harder to find nannies who are up to the task of tending to their brood because Alec and Hilaria have some pretty high expectations for the kind of people they want to employ and what the job entails and it's been a logistical nightmare hiring and scheduling a rotating team of caretakers -- in addition to children Carmen, 7, Rafael, 5, Leonardo, 4, and Romeo, 2, the parents welcomed baby Eduardo in September and their sixth child, Lucia, via surrogate in March -- long hours and multitasking are a must given the meal prep, diaper changes and homeschooling, plus the nannies have to know how to deal with a cranky set of kids without losing their cool and Hilaria's every bit the mother hen, so she won't settle for anything less than perfection

* Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna have had it with the romance between their daughter Amelia Hamlin and Scott Disick -- Amelia recently raised eyebrows when she was spotted with bruised lips, which often occurs after lip filler injections, and Harry and Lisa drew a line in the sand and they're concerned that Scott is convincing her to mess with her appearance, especially since she's talking about boob and butt surgery to keep his eyes off other girls and ever since the couple hooked up last October, Harry and Lisa have been sitting back and hoping that Amelia would come to her senses, but it's clear she's in way too deep now, and that they need to make their feelings known, but the worry is that Amelia will be pregnant before she knows it, so Harry and Lisa are ready to take the bull by the horns before Scott ruins their daughter's life

Page 8: It's been nearly four years since Matt Lauer was fired from Today amid a sexual assault scandal, and he's still being snubbed by his old Hamptons crowd -- Matt, who retreated to his waterfront estate in the celeb enclave after a colleague accused him of assaulting her at the 2014 Olympics, has done everything he can to regain his place in the community, but he's remained persona non grata despite his best efforts; he'll turn up to fancy events and be super friendly with everyone but most people just turn their noses at him -- the disgraced ex-anchor, who hooked up with public relations exec Shamin Abas after his 2019 divorce, has been talking to friends about marrying her in a big Hamptons wedding, but it's hard to imagine there'd be much of a turnout and people have had ample time to put out the welcome mat, but it seems like they've shut their doors on Matt for good

* Former Playboy Bunny Kendra Wilkinson has gone from living the high life to pounding the pavement to earn a paycheck, and she's missing the glam old days -- Kendra, who enjoyed a pampered existence as Hugh Hefner's girlfriend and Girls Next Door star, has had to bring home the bacon in the wake of her 2018 divorce from Hank Baskett to help provide for their two children, Hank, 11, and Alijah, 6, and being a single mom is a lot harder than she thought it would be and she currently resides in a humble Calabasas rental and recently snagged a job as a realtor and was hired by Kyle Richards' husband Mauricio Umansky and she's working long hours and weekends, and she looks pretty burnt out and Kendra tries not to complain and is sucking it up as best she can, but she can't help but think about the times when she didn't have to worry about bills and rent and could sleep in as long as she wanted

* He was once Hollywood's biggest bon vivant, but Jack Nicholson has become a total hermit, and friends are concerned that he's harder to get a hold of than ever and Jack's shut himself away in his hilltop home on Mulholland Drive, and everyone is worried about his state of mind -- the actor, who was last seen in public looking disheveled at a January 2020 Lakers game, says he just wants to spend his retirement in peace and quiet, but his loved ones wish he'd make himself a little more accessible -- Jack's admitted that he yearns for one last romance, but how can that happen when he's hiding at home? Jack turned 84 in April, and it's as if he's resigned to spending the rest of his life alone and it's so sad, but it seems there's nothing anyone can do for him

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- stars wow in sexy shoulder-baring dresses -- Ella Balinska, Renee Zellweger, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Page 11: Adrienne Warren, Martha Hunt

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Rainey Qualley vs. Celine Dion in Chanel, Melissa Wood-Tepperberg vs. Idina Menzel in Alice + Olivia

Page 13: Ellie Goulding vs. Charli XCX in Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood

Page 14: News in Photos -- Gavin Rossdale took his beloved dog Chewy with him to tennis practice in the park in L.A.

Page 15: Jeff Goldblum stopped at celeb hotspot Craig's for dinner with wife Emilie Livingston and their kids Charlie and River in West Hollywood, newly single Real Housewives of Orange County star Braunwyn Windham-Burke hit the beach in Miami, Natasha Lyonne continued filming her series Russian Doll in NYC

Page 16: Amber Rose enjoyed lunch with her son Sebastian whom she shares with Wiz Khalifa in L.A.

Page 17: Anchor Robin Roberts filled viewers in on current events during Good Morning America in NYC, Kristen Taekman got all gussied up at her home in NYC, Howie Mandel showed up to the America's Got Talent set in surfing gear in Pasadena

Page 19: Bling Empire's Cherie Chan and fiance Jessey Lee grabbed a bite with their daughter Jadore, pro wrestler Ariane Andrew (a.k.a. Cameron) fueled up with a healthy sip

Page 20: Wells Adams stocked up on some essentials at the grocery store in L.A., Rachel Brosnahan protected herself with an umbrella while filming The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in NYC

Page 21: Jon Hamm and his new rescue dog Splash get some fresh air in L.A., Whitney Port in a beige sweater dress and matching boots while recording her podcast in NYC

Page 22: Selling Sunset's Christine Quinn brightened things up in designer duds while walking her dogs in L.A., Monique Green attended the drive-in premiere of her new series Big Shot in L.A.

Page 23: Irina Shayk and her daughter Lea De Seine walked hand in hand around NYC, friendly exes Sara Gilbert and Linda Perry take a stroll in L.A., Law and Order: SVU stars Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T snapped a photo together in between takes

Page 26: Inside My Home -- Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson's designer digs

Page 28: Home Town stars Ben and Erin Napier recently announced they're getting ready to welcome their second child, a girl, and the famously private pair, who chose to keep the news a secret to avoid any extra unwanted attention or stress, could not be more excited -- this baby is a miracle because Erin was told years ago that pregnancy would be unlikely due to a past health issue and when their first daughter Helen arrived, they were overjoyed, and they never imagined they'd be blessed with a second -- with Erin's due date just around the corner, she and Ben are busy prepping Helen to become a big sis and they have no doubt she'll be wonderful because she's very warm and empathetic toward others and she loves to hug so the baby will be extremely loved -- after the newborn's arrival, the busy HGTV stars will take some much-needed time off and they're a team, and Ben plans to be there to support Erin and make sure she gets her needed rest, but they both love what they do, so it won't be long before they're back in front of the cameras -- while baby No. 3 chatter has already begun, the college sweethearts aren't getting ahead of themselves and Ben and Erin always dreamed of having a big family, and if they can, there will be more children, but if it doesn't happen, then they will be quite content as a foursome

Page 29: Kacey Musgraves is head over heels for her new boyfriend Gerald Onuoha, but friends are worried that she may be rushing the romance -- Kacey, who hooked up with the Nashville-based doctor after calling it quits on her three-year marriage to Ruston Kelly in July, tends to jump into things with her heart and this relationship falls into that category and Kacey, who was spotted snuggling up to her physician beau while out and about in L.A., is on cloud nine with this guy, but when she has to hit the road again it's not like he can pull up stakes and follow her -- she's not thinking straight about the future, and her friends are bracing for trouble once reality sinks in and Kacey would be wise to slow things down and not get ahead of herself

* George Clooney turned the big 6-0 on May 6, and his wife Amal Clooney is being a bit of a birthday buzzkill -- George wants a big, booze-soaked sky's-the-limit bash in an exotic locale like Mexico or Italy with his old drinking buddies like Rande Gerber, but Amal is pushing for a quiet family celebration at home with their children Alexander and Ella, and it's led to a few arguments -- George figures it's his chance to finally let off steam and that it's his choice on how to mark the milestone occasion and he wants Amal and the other wives to come and join in on the fun, but watching George get wasted certainly isn't her idea of a good time and she sees nothing wrong with a dinner at home

Page 30: Harrison Ford is finally set to start filming the new Indiana Jones movie this summer, and his wife Calista Flockhart will be keeping a close eye to make sure he stays safe on the set -- Harrison has been training hard to get in shape and is feeling great, but at his age, you can understand why Calista is concerned and protective Calista plans to accompany Harrison as he shoots the fifth Indiana Jones installment in London and other locales and he's still capable of doing his own stunts, and a lot of it is thanks to Calista, who made sure he stayed fit with weight training and proper nutrition, but Harrison's going to have the best people in the business looking out for him so he doesn't get hurt again, otherwise Calista wouldn't have given him the green light

* It's barely been three months since Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker went public with their hot and heavy romance, and they're already talking about getting engaged and pregnant, not necessarily in that order and Kourtney fully believes this isn't just a honeymoon phase, but that Travis is the man she's going to share her dreams with -- as for Travis, he's been telling everyone he's hit the jackpot with Kourtney and Travis, who has two kids of his own, has already started shopping for rings and he's planning an ultra-romantic proposal because he's big on grand gestures and he's still looking for the perfect ring, but that doesn't mean the baby-making has to wait until it's on her finger

* Love Bites -- Zac Efron and Vanessa Valladares split, Brooks Laich and CrossFit athlete Katrin Davidsdottir dating, Tan France and husband Rob are having a baby this summer

Page 32: Cover Story -- Kim Kardashian single and loving it -- ready to mingle, an unattached Kim is having fun exploring her dating options -- she did all she could with Kanye West and now she needs to steer a new course for herself -- she's been relishing her single status and feels like she can finally breathe again -- Kim may be living it up, but her four children remain her primary focus -- the eligible bachelors who've caught Kim's eye: Drake, Rege-Jean Page, Brad Pitt, Lewis Hamilton

Page 35: Jennifer Aniston's on such good terms with her old flames she still talks to ex-husbands Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux regularly and has even stayed in touch with her former beau John Mayer -- Jen and Brad have a lot of complicated history, but she's glad they reconnected and are friends again and she thinks the world of Brad, and they support each other -- Justin recently revealed he and Jen text and FaceTime, and the divorced duo will always share a special bond -- although she and John split in 2009, Jen and the musician still hang out from time to time and they flirt here and there and when John's in town, Jen's down to meet him -- but friends are urging the star to finally and firmly move on from her exes and they think she needs a fresh start, and Jen's been on a few dates with someone who isn't famous and Jen's not looking to get married again, but she'd like to have a partner to share her life with and this guy could be the one, she's just got to give the relationship a fair chance, without any distractions

* Weeks after announcing she'd called it quits with Alex Rodriguez, Jennifer Lopez is feeling sad and disappointed and she didn't want to believe the rumors about Alex's wandering eye, but the Madison LeCroy thing was the last straw -- it's not the first time Jennifer's been fooled by a bad boy as cheating rumors plagued her romances with Sean "Diddy" Combs and Casper Smart and she's wiser now -- Jennifer's saving grace is she's got a jam-packed schedule so it won't leave too much time to be broken-hearted and she's a busy mom of two with a million projects up in the air so don't expect her to be dwelling on the past for too long

Page 36: Young and In Love -- Why wait? These stars were in their early 20s, or teens, when they tied the knot -- Olivia Wilde married an Italian prince when she was 19, Hailey Baldwin married Justin Bieber when she was 21

Page 37: Demi Moore married rocker Freddy Moore at 17, Uma Thurman married Gary Oldman when she was 20, Cher married Sonny Bono at 18, Macaulay Culkin married actress Rachel Miner when he was 18

Page 38: Jessica Simpson married Nick Lachey at age 22, Kate Hudson married rocker Chris Robinson when she was 21, Drew Barrymore married when she was 19 for only 19 days

Page 39: Janet Jackson married R&B singer James DeBarge when she was 18, Kim Kardashian eloped with a music producer when she was 19, Solange Knowles married and a baby at 18, LeAnn Rimes married a backup dancer at 19

Page 40: Interview -- Anya Taylor-Joy thrilled to pieces -- The Queen's Gambit star is still processing her phenomenal success

Page 42: Role Models -- like mother, like daughter -- these stars are inspiring their kids to stay healthy and fit -- Brooke Burke, Gisele Bundchen

Page 43: Cindy Crawford and Kaia Gerber, Christie Brinkley and Sailor Brinkley-Cook, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba

Page 46: Style Week -- Saweetie has a new sunglasses collaboration with Quay

Page 48: What's Hot Right Now -- stand out with a statement piece from the 8 Other Reasons x Draya Michele capsule collection

Page 49: Make Me Blush -- follow spring 2021's hottest beauty trend and create a flush with a pop of peach, pastel pink or terracotta -- Mindy Kaling

Page 50: Mother's Day Gift Guide -- Molly Sims

Page 54: Entertainment

Page 55: Reality Check -- your small screen guilty pleasures are back and here are all the details -- Bar Rescue, The Real Housewives of New York City, Teen Mom 2, Million Dollar Listing New York

Page 58: Buzz -- The ACM Awards in Nashville -- Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans, Keith Urban and fellow emcee Mickey Guyton, Kenny Chesney and Kelsea Ballerini

Page 59: Blake Shelton, Chris Young and Kane Brown, Miranda Lambert and Elle King, Jimmie Allen and Brad Paisley, Maren Morris and husband Ryan Hurd

Page 60: Sound Bites -- Jessica Alba on not being afraid to complain, Justin Theroux on dating, Jodie Turner-Smith on her and Joshua Jackson being perfect partners, Rob McElhenney on expectations of men in Hollywood

Page 61: Chrissy Teigen on her break from Twitter, Courteney Cox showing off her extremely organized kitchen on Instagram, Lance Bass on the basic thing in his past he'd like to move on from, Amanda Seyfried on confiding to the Mank costume designer about her pregnancy, John Stamos on getting together with wife Caitlin, Eiza Gonzalez on developing body confidence

Page 62: Horoscope -- Taurus Henry Cavill turned 38 on May 5

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Rege-Jean Page

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onelittlebookgeek · 4 years ago

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Book Challenge 2020 (100 books!!) (I did it!!)

After forgetting to track my reading for three years, I started recording my reading on Tumblr last year again, and I’m committed to continuing that this year!

This year is my final year of my Bachelor’s Degrees (I’m finishing English in June) and I’m planning to do a gap year from September on, so now more university after June (at least as far as 2020 is concerned).

I do not really foresee any issues or obstacles to reading this year, except of course finishing my thesis which will probably take quite some time, so I do expect a decline around April until early June. Although I do have a lot more time off in my gap year, I used to read a lot of mandatory books for my studies, so I don’t know whether having a gap year will mean reading more books. Since I’m not doing any university studying, I am interested in reading academic books by myself, studying by myself. Those books are often longer, denser and just take more time to get through; consequently, I might read fewer books in the same amount of energy and time spent reading.

To make a (somewhat) long story short: my expectations are in line with the amount of books I’ve read in the last years, so I’m expecting to read 75 books this year!

Update: it’s mid-October and I’ve already read 99 books this year, so I’ve finished my original goal of 75 books! Now I’m going for 100 books (which should be easy to do, and after that we’ll just see how it goes!).

The crossed book is the one I’m currently reading, I’ve written reviews for books that have a (x) behind them, with the (x) being a link to my Goodreads review!

Update: Today (November 23) I’ve read 114 books so I’ve finished my challenge of 100 books! Right now, I’m still 25 books ahead schedule! Let’s see if I can keep that energy up!

January

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin (5/5) (x)

Serpent and Dove (Serpent and Dove #1) - Shelby Mahurin (4/5) (x)

Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) - Robert Galbraith (4/5)

Weirdos from Another Planet (Calvin and Hobbes #4) - Bill Watterson) (5/5)

Selected Poems - E.E. Cummings (5/5) (x)

Niets zal ons redden maar een beetje liefde is oké - Henk van Straten (Dutch) (4/5) (x)

, said the shotgun to the head. - Saul Williams (4/5)

Loud and Yellow Laughter - Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese (3/5)

Fireborn (The Aurelian Cycle #1) - Rosaria Munda (4/5)

Sylvia Plath Poems Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy - Sylvia Plath (4/5) (x)

The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare (3/5) (x)

Nieuwe Herinneringen - Remco Campert (Dutch) (2/5)

Dido, Queen of Carthage - Christopher Marlowe (3/5)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid (4/5)

Alles wat er was - Stine Jensen (Dutch) (3/5)

Zij in de geschiedenis - Alies Pegtel (Dutch) (4/5) (x)

Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (reread) (5/5)

February

Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus (3/5)

The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1) - Rick Riordan (reread) (4/5)

The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus #2) - Rick Riordan (reread) (4/5)

So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo (4/5)

The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) - Rick Riordan (reread) (4/5)

Educated - Tara Westover (3/5)

Prometheus on Caucasus - Lucian of Samosata (3/5)

March

Reading Old English: A Primer and First Reader - Robert Hasenfratz (4/5) (x)

Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? - Billy Crystal (3/5)

The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) - Rick Riordan (reread) (4/5)

Quick Question: New Poems - John Ashberry (1/5) (x)

Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose - Michael H. Short (3/5) (x)

The Call of the Wild - Jack London (2/5) (x)

The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5) - Rick Riordan (reread) (4/5)

April

The Waste Land - T.S. Eliot (reread) (5/5)

And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou (4/5)

Poëzie in Utrechtse Muren - Ingmar Heytze (Dutch) (5/5) (x)

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (4/5)

Mijn dood en ik - Remco Campert (4/5)

Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster - Mike Davis (3/5)

Native Son - Richard Wright (2/5)

Dido, Queen of Carthage - Christopher Marlowe (reread) (4/5)

May

The Plague - Albert Camus (4/5)

Absalom! Absalom! - William Faulkner (4/5)

Modernism’s Mythic Pose: Gender, Genre, Solo Performance - Carrie J. Preston (2/5)

James Joyce and Sexuality - Richard Brown (3/5)

June

Daisy Jones & the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid (4/5) (x)

Modernism, Sex and Gender - Alison Pease and Celia Marshik (3/5)

The Burial at Thebes: Sophocles’ Antigone - Seamus Heaney (4/5)

The Host - Stephanie Meyer (reread) (4/5)

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) - Suzanne Collins (reread) (4/5)

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) - Suzanne Collins (reread) (4/5) (x)

A Terrible Beauty is Born - W.B. Yeats (4/5)

Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3) - Suzanne Collins (reread) (4/5)

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism - Robin DiAngelo (4/5)

Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Y. Davis (4/5)

The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) - Brandon Sanderson (4/5)

Everything Leads to You - Nina LaCour (2/5) (x)

The Tempest - William Shakespeare (reread) (3/5)

July

Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood (4/5) (x)

American Slavery (A Very Short Introduction) - Andrea Heather William (reread) (3/5)

Angels & Demons (Robert Langdom #1) - Dan Brown (4/5) (x)

Mythos: A Retelling of Myths of Ancient Greece - Stephen Fry (4/5) (x)

Mean Time - Carol Ann Duffy (3/5)

Lijfrente - Vrouwkje Tuinman (Dutch) (4/5)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0) - Suzanne Collins (3/5) (x)

Sonnets from the Portuguese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning (3/5)

A Room of One’s Own - Virginia Woolf (reread) (5/5)

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (4/5)

Onbreekbaar - Hans Hagen (Dutch) (1/5) (x)

The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwoord (reread) (4/5)

The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde (5/5)

Het goede leven: een briefwisseling - Piet Gerbrandy & Andreas Kinneging (Dutch) (2/5) (x)

Constructions of the Classical Body - James Porter (3/5)

August

The Complete Poems - Anne Sexton (4/5)

The Kissing Booth (The Kissing Booth #1) - Beth Reekles (2/5) (x)

The Daily Show: The Book - Chris Smith (4/5) (x)

The Duchess Deal (Girl meets Duke #1) - Tessa Dare (3/5)

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehesi Coates (4/5)

Fragments - Heraclitus (transl. by Brooks Haxton) (2/5) (x)

Animal Farm - George Orwell (reread) (5/5)

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) - Rick Riordan (reread) (4/5)

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (Montague Siblings #1) - Mackenzi Lee (reread) (4/5)

Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto (4/5)

Catilina’s Riddle (Roma sub Rosa #3) - Steven Saylor (2/5) (x)

When Dimple met Rishi (Dimple and Rishi #1) - Sandhya Memon (1/5) (x)

Adulthood is a Myth (Sarah’s Scribbles #1) - Sarah Andersen (4/5)

September

Normal People - Sally Rooney (3/5) (x)

Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age - Donna Zuckerberg (4/5)

Sadie: A Novel - Courtney Summers (4/5)

The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus (4/5)

Vloedlijnen - Piet Gerbrandy (Dutch) (4/5)

Red, White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston (reread) (4/5)

This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor - Adam Kay (4/5)

Envelope Poems - Emily Dickinson (4/5) (x)

A Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10) - Agatha Christie (3/5) (x)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce (4/5)

October

Titus Andronicus - William Shakespeare (4/5) (x)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot #1) - Agatha Christie (4/5) (x)

Het verhaal van Aeneas - Vergilius (trans. to Dutch) (reread) (4/5)

If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin (2/5)

Lesbia, Verzen van Liefde en Spot - Catullus (Dutch) (transl. by Paul Claes) (4/5) (x)

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah (4/5) (x)

The Cat Inside - William S. Burroughs (reread) (5/5)

The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) - Agatha Christie (3/5)

November

Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid (3/5) (x)

Narratology and Classics: a Practical Guide - Irene de Jong (3/5) (x)

The Murder of Roger Akroyd (Hercule Poirot #4) - Agatha Christie (4/5) (x)

The ABC Murders (Hercule Poirot #11) - Agatha Christie (4/5)

The Great Cat (Poetry Collection) - ed. by Emily Fragos (3/5) (x)

Weapons of Math Destruction - Cathy O’Neil (4/5)

The Northern Lights (His Dark Materials #1) - Philip Pullman (4/5)

Vincent van Gogh en zijn brieven - Leo Jansen (Dutch) (3/5)

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell (4/5)

The Fill-In Boyfriend - Kasie West (reread) (4/5)

Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot #3) - Agatha Christie (1/5)

My 2019 challenge

My 2016 challenge

My 2015 challenge

My 2014 challenge

My 2013 challenge

#2020 book challenge #onelittlebookgeek #2020 #goodreads #goodreads challenge #book challenge

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sveasauvageon · 4 years ago

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Ce qu'il a donné Un an, deux ans, cent ans de bonheur Puis la vie te cueille comme une fleur || GW

☾♔; March 5, 2018 ☾♔; sotd: Котик by Alexander Rybak ☾♔; comedian otd: JOHN OLIVER ☾♔; GW To do list ☾♔; {G} https://goo.gl/XSTtMc ☾♔; mod(s): @themadmonarchist @maybones et moi

Title: lyrics from "Requiem" by Alma

--featured not-mine oc's - Eloise Avery | @themadmonarchist - Minah Delacroix | @maybones (see what I did there with the Serena and Blair positioning? -eyebrow wriggle thing-)

- - - x - - -

Updated GW to-do list: - Division of labour (we should really start saying when one of us starts working on something because otherwise we'll end up with redundancies since we think disturbingly alike) - the "chuck" problem: okay, tbh, it's more of an Ed Westwick problem than a chuck one. I don't know how you guys have reacted to the me too and time's up movements, but mine has been to cut all those men out of my sphere of entertainment, I even cut out "witch hunt", "not all men" type dudes, and "only fondled their breasts on tv and apologized for it" men (aka Ben Affleck), because time is up for all of you! Soz, not point, but since last October, Ed Westwick has been caught up in this, and thus far 3 women have accused him of ra.pe and a fourth of sexual misconduct. Now, I know it's not Chuck's fault that his portrayer is a ra.pist (allegedly), but there is still an issue with including his face, etc in aesthetics and gossip girl material because his face is that of a ra.pist's (allegedly). Tbh, I wanna leave him (Ed Westwick) out of material and only discuss Chuck and avoid showing his face or use a dreamcast instead, but like, I dunno what you guys wanna do. Chuck is a great character, although, early on, he was quite rap.ey, the character, and it does not help that his portrayer has since been revealed to be a ra.pist. Allegedly.

- also, going back up to the redundancy issues, I love both of your aesthetic collections and playlists, so for those, I was thinking for playlist, we should make one big playlist on spotify that's collaborative, so that everyone can add their music and it'll kind of be a huge explosion of musical tastes. But also, maybe have a collection that has a link on the group info for individual playlists for characters, and the group made by us and/or others. For aesthetic collections, basically the same idea with one big collaborative collection, and then that collection will have links to other collections (yes, I'm a little ocd).

- also, also, this is completely unrelated, but I was watching trevor noah's show and he made a joke about how much trump's male employees snitch and gossip like sht, but the woman haven't revealed squat. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmlVWFTW8A) It's really funny, and honestly, stupid people fcking up in trump's circle very publically is basically what's keeping me alive. It's just hilarious how stupid some of these people are. ___________________________ Another Update (I'll leave those up until @maybones weighs in on them)

I was working on a draft of the group description to show you guys, and I was using a template of one of my old groups and rewriting stuff and changing it to suit our purposes and I realized how many freaking rules I have (I'm so picky), anyway, some of this stuff obvs won't be applicable (like, there's one about characters dying and I don't think we were planning on going that dark. although, serena was an accessory and chuck kind of killed his dad, so meh, maybe?) anyway, I wanted your opinions on what rules to keep and/or change:

✠ RULES AND GUIDELINES {GENERAL} ✠

I. Please be kind to each other. Your characters can be total jerks, but let us, the creators and/or writers be kind, polite, and respectful (aka, channel your inner Canadian guys). There will be absolutely ZERO tolerance of discrimination. You will be immediately removed from the group, and your actions will be documented and reported. PM me immediately if someone harasses you or you notice harassment between members. ⠀⠀Ia. If you want to be anonymous, for any reason, you can send in your complaints here {https://goo.gl/kbTXeU}, it's a google form, and it doesn't ask you verify your email, and the username option, is just an option, it's not required. If I need to make further contact/information from you regarding your concern, I'll make a group announcement vaguely describing your issue, and you can send in further information anonymously again. I'll be checking the form at least once a week.

⠀II. I'm not giving this any specific rating, however, I will say, you're free to include whatever "adult" content you want, whether it be swears, gore, or the dirty stuff (I'm totally a mature, grown up adult guys). However, do be careful of polyvore's stupid censors, use workarounds like writing your story in google docs, or accents for swear words.

⠀III. This is a non-elimination group, but characters can die. It may be used for inactive members, or if you wanna kill 'em off or maybe revive as a ghost or something else. Permission will always be asked of the creator first (with the exception of characters belonging to inactive members, whose characters may be killed off as penalty). ��

⠀IV. If you miss 3 consecutive contests (without informing me), you'll receive an "x", "|" will be used to break up non-consecutively missed contests, anyway, if you miss 3 in a row, that will open your character to be killed by either myself or other group members. You will be notified, but your permission will not be asked. If you wish to rejoin at a later date, and you character has not been killed off, simply pm me and continue with whatever contest is in progress. If your character has been killed off, you can re-audition with a new one, and I will transfer your points to your new character.

⠀V. Always pm me, your vodka aunt mod, if you feel you'll be unable to enter a contest, your reason doesn't matter. Just let me know you can't get your entry in, that way you won't receive an "X".

⠀VI. Plotting will be left open throughout the group, however, please establish a few of these before contests begin, and always ask permission when using someone else's character(s) and be sure to tag them in your sets. Please, PLEASE work with others, I hate when people just do their own thing in oc battle groups, this is a collaborative story, everyone's stories and ideas matter. I will call you out if I notice something that contradicts the connected story, and I will always, ALWAYS incorporate the stories of group members into the overall narrative. ⠀⠀VIa. Narrative precedence will always be given to the person who completely finishes the description of their set first.

⠀VII. There is not a list of roles to pick from, you can create whatever roles you want, however, I may ask you to change it if I feel your character may become "villager number 6" and not fit in with the action. Rules, regulations, and suggestions for roles can be found here: [placeholder].

⠀VIII. Always be sure to tag the member's when you use their characters and give credit where credit is due.

⠀IX. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and you will be removed and reported. If you're inspired by someone else's work, credit them, otherwise you're stealing.

⠀X. Sets unrelated to the group will be removed.

⠀XI. You will NOT be required to write out a full story. Story portions can be answered in paragraphs, but full stories are always welcome and appreciated.

⠀XII. Do not use templates for contest entries unless otherwise stated.

⠀XIII. Always feel free to contact me with any and all questions, and/or suggestions. You can also send them through the anonymous complaints form, found here: https://goo.gl/kbTXeU

_________________________________

✠ RULES AND REGULATIONS {FACECLAIMS} ✠

I'm quite picky about these, but I'm not gonna be pedantic about it this time. You do you. Having said that, there are still some rules and regulations, as well as a challenge.

⠀I. All faceclaims must be above the age of majority (that's 18+ nearly universally on the planet), there is an exception for child characters but all main OCs must be at least 18.

⠀II. All faceclaims MUST be professionals. They can be actors, models, even singers. However, they must be singers of some note signed onto a label company, like Taylor Swift, or my beloved Dima Bilan (who's also an actor. a good one. yes, I'm bragging). Your faceclaim CANNOT be someone insta-famous, youtubers, or tumblr tweens.

⠀III. Whilst I'm not going to reject any faceclaim on the pedantic basis of "I don't like them", there are some faceclaims that I will and for one reason, and one reason only. Sexual misconduct of any and all kinds. Hollywood and the media are finally cleaning house, and I don't want those dicks in my nerd sht either. To be clear, I don't care whether the misconduct was simply groping a woman's breasts on camera and apologizing about 10 years later, I am going to reject everyone who's been accused. Examples include; Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Tambor, Danny Masterson, Andy Dick, Dustin Hoffman, and fcking Mel Gibson. (Side note, these are just actors, for a wider list of men who have fallen since the Harvey Weinstein story broke in October 2017, I recommend you check out this article {https://goo.gl/Uq65Qv} by the NY Times) ⠀⠀IIIa. If you notice I have accepted someone who has been accused of sexual misconduct/harassment/assault please inform me right away, and ideally with a link to a news source from where you learned about (I will google it myself, but the ready-to-go link would be much appreciated.) ⠀⠀IIIb. Also, Alec Baldwin is on my list of rejected faceclaims. He's not been accused of anything, yet, but I'm not liking his defensive attitude of alleged rapists. Fúck off. Matt Damon also falls under subsection B, for a slightly different reason, but fúck him too. In this watershed moment, I have no time for defensive d i c k s and "not all men" a s s h o l e s.

⠀IV. The Challenge: a lot of us have certain fave fc's we use over and over again (I'm certainly guilty of that), so my challenge is for you to use a faceclaim you have never used before as your primary oc. This is gonna be based on the honour system, some of you guys I may know well, so I'll know if you're using your fave again, but others I may not, and I can't aggressively stalk everyone, so I won't call out anyone for not doing it. It's just a fun little challenge, worth 10 bonus points, if you opt to do it. But again, it's based on the honour system, I'm not gonna stalk anyone, but if I know you and you lie to me on the audition form. First, I'll be hurt, and second, I'll say sorry and tell you you're not getting those bonus points.

(I know, two sets of rules makes me such a di.ck, it's why I need your help guys!)

#polyvore #gw #eloise avery #Svea Sauvageon #minah delacroix #doll set #mine #anna #may

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theliberaltony · 6 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

No matter who wins the 2020 presidential election, they won’t be able to get much done if their party doesn’t also win the Senate. Historically, the presidential election results in a given state have tracked closely with the Senate outcome there, and the two are only coming into closer alignment (in 2016, for example, the presidential and Senate outcome was the same in every state). But partisanship isn’t the only factor in Senate races (yet); a senator’s popularity can still make a difference. That’s why, today, we’re unveiling a metric of a senator’s political standing that takes both partisanship and popularity into account.

With the help of Morning Consult, which polls the approval ratings of U.S. senators every quarter, we’ve created a statistic that I’m playfully calling Popularity Above Replacement Senator (PARS). It’s based on the same premise as my Popularity Above Replacement Governor (PARG) statistic1 — that it’s a good idea to think about politicians’ popularity in the context of their states’ partisanship. PARS, like PARG, is calculated by measuring the distance between a politician’s net approval rating (approval rating minus disapproval rating) in her state and the state’s partisan lean (how much more Republican- or Democratic-leaning it is than the country as a whole).2 Take West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin as an example. According to the latest Morning Consult poll, which covered the first three months of 2019, Manchin had a +5 net approval rating. That may not look like anything special, but it’s actually quite impressive because Manchin is a Democrat in one of the reddest states in the nation (R+30). Accordingly, he leads all senators with a +35 PARS.

Introducing ‘Popularity Above Replacement Senator’ scores

Senators’ net approval ratings for the first three months of 2019 relative to the partisan leans* of their states

Senator State Name Party Net Approval State Partisan Lean PARS WV Joe Manchin D +5 R+30 +35 AL Doug Jones D +6 R+27 +33 MN Amy Klobuchar D +32 D+2 +30 MT Jon Tester D +12 R+18 +30 ME Angus King I +30 D+5 +25 OH Sherrod Brown D +17 R+7 +24 NH Jeanne Shaheen D +21 R+2 +23 AZ Kyrsten Sinema D +12 R+9 +21 VA Mark Warner D +19 EVEN +19 NH Maggie Hassan D +17 R+2 +19 ME Susan Collins R +13 D+5 +18 PA Bob Casey D +15 R+1 +16 MN Tina Smith D +18 D+2 +16 WI Tammy Baldwin D +14 R+1 +15 OR Ron Wyden D +24 D+9 +15 VA Tim Kaine D +13 EVEN +13 SC Tim Scott R +30 R+17 +13 MI Debbie Stabenow D +13 D+1 +12 GA David Perdue R +22 R+12 +10 DE Chris Coons D +23 D+14 +9 OR Jeff Merkley D +18 D+9 +9 MI Gary Peters D +10 D+1 +9 CO Michael Bennet D +10 D+1 +9 NV Jacky Rosen D +7 R+1 +8 NV Catherine Cortez Masto D +7 R+1 +8 LA John Kennedy R +25 R+17 +8 DE Tom Carper D +21 D+14 +7 WA Maria Cantwell D +19 D+12 +7 VT Patrick Leahy D +31 D+24 +7 VT Bernie Sanders I +31 D+24 +7 WA Patty Murray D +18 D+12 +6 GA Johnny Isakson R +18 R+12 +6 CT Chris Murphy D +17 D+11 +6 LA Bill Cassidy R +23 R+17 +6 MD Ben Cardin D +28 D+23 +5 FL Marco Rubio R +10 R+5 +5 WI Ron Johnson R +6 R+1 +5 SC Lindsey Graham R +21 R+17 +4 PA Pat Toomey R +5 R+1 +4 NC Richard Burr R +8 R+5 +3 OH Rob Portman R +10 R+7 +3 MS Roger Wicker R +18 R+15 +3 MD Chris Van Hollen D +25 D+23 +2 NM Tom Udall D +9 D+7 +2 FL Rick Scott R +7 R+5 +2 CO Cory Gardner R 0 D+1 +1 NM Martin Heinrich D +8 D+7 +1 TX John Cornyn R +17 R+17 0 ND John Hoeven R +33 R+33 0 NJ Cory Booker D +13 D+13 0 MA Ed Markey D +29 D+29 0 CT Richard Blumenthal D +10 D+11 -1 NE Ben Sasse R +23 R+24 -1 IL Tammy Duckworth D +11 D+13 -2 SD Mike Rounds R +28 R+31 -3 IA Joni Ernst R +3 R+6 -3 IA Chuck Grassley R +3 R+6 -3 NC Thom Tillis R +2 R+5 -3 AR John Boozman R +21 R+24 -3 RI Jack Reed D +22 D+26 -4 TX Ted Cruz R +13 R+17 -4 IN Todd Young R +14 R+18 -4 MT Steve Daines R +13 R+18 -5 IN Mike Braun R +13 R+18 -5 AR Tom Cotton R +19 R+24 -5 AL Richard Shelby R +21 R+27 -6 SD John Thune R +24 R+31 -7 HI Brian Schatz D +28 D+36 -8 AK Lisa Murkowski R +6 R+15 -9 AK Dan Sullivan R +6 R+15 -9 NY Kirsten Gillibrand D +13 D+22 -9 AZ Martha McSally R 0 R+9 -9 IL Dick Durbin D +3 D+13 -10 NY Chuck Schumer D +12 D+22 -10 UT Mitt Romney R +21 R+31 -10 CA Kamala Harris D +13 D+24 -11 MO Josh Hawley R +7 R+19 -12 NE Deb Fischer R +12 R+24 -12 WV Shelley Moore Capito R +18 R+30 -12 KS Jerry Moran R +10 R+23 -13 UT Mike Lee R +17 R+31 -14 MS Cindy Hyde-Smith R +1 R+15 -14 RI Sheldon Whitehouse D +11 D+26 -15 ID Mike Crapo R +20 R+35 -15 ID Jim Risch R +20 R+35 -15 TN Lamar Alexander R +13 R+28 -15 CA Dianne Feinstein D +8 D+24 -16 MO Roy Blunt R +3 R+19 -16 TN Marsha Blackburn R +10 R+28 -18 WY Mike Enzi R +29 R+47 -18 WY John Barrasso R +29 R+47 -18 OK James Lankford R +15 R+34 -19 MA Elizabeth Warren D +9 D+29 -20 KY Rand Paul R +2 R+23 -21 OK Jim Inhofe R +12 R+34 -22 HI Mazie Hirono D +14 D+36 -22 KS Pat Roberts R 0 R+23 -23 NJ Bob Menendez D -10 D+13 -23 ND Kevin Cramer R +8 R+33 -25 KY Mitch McConnell R -13 R+23 -36

A Democratic senator with a net approval of +2 in an R+7 state has a PARS of +9 (2+7 = 9). If the same state had a Republican senator with the same approval rating, the PARS would be -5 (2-7= -5).

Independent Sens. Angus King and Bernie Sanders are considered Democrats for these calculations.

Shaded rows denote senators whose seats are up in 2020, excluding those senators who are not seeking reelection.

* Partisan lean is the average difference between how a state votes and how the country votes overall, with 2016 presidential election results weighted at 50 percent, 2012 presidential election results weighted at 25 percent and results from elections for the state legislature weighted at 25 percent. The partisan leans in this article were calculated before the 2018 elections; we haven’t calculated FiveThirtyEight partisan leans that incorporate the midterm results yet.

Sources: Morning Consult, media reports

Like we did for PARG, we can use PARS as a tool to assess the 2020 Senate elections — specifically, to give us clues about which of the senators whose seats are up in 2020 might be poised to over- or underperform their party’s presidential ticket.

That conversation starts with Sen. Doug Jones, who comes in at No. 2 in PARS with a score of +33. Jones is a Democratic senator in R+27 Alabama, so he’s fighting an uphill battle. And if he is able to maintain a positive net approval rating (it’s +6 currently), that will be a sign of life for his candidacy.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins is another senator who hopes to overcome the partisan lean of her state (Maine is 5 points more Democratic-leaning than the nation) to win reelection. Her net approval rating in the Morning Consult poll has been on the decline over the past two years, but she still has a solid +13 net approval rating. The question is whether the results in 2020 will be closer to her net approval rating or Maine’s light-blue partisanship; splitting the difference yields a race that leans (or tilts) Republican, which is exactly where major election handicappers have it.

Similarly, if you were to look at state partisanship alone, you might assume that Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Warner of Virginia and Tina Smith of Minnesota are electorally vulnerable. But PARS reveals why the handicappers aren’t so sure. They all sit in closely divided states (from R+2 for New Hampshire to D+2 for Minnesota), yes, but they are all also quite popular. Shaheen has a +21 net approval rating, Warner has a +19 net approval rating and Smith has a +18 net approval rating.

Unlike this trio, there are some senators whose electoral fates probably do hinge on the presidential race. Those include Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas. Each has a PARS between +1 and -3, indicating that their net approval rating is in line with their states’ partisan lean. If the Democratic presidential nominee carries their states (admittedly, this will be easier for Colorado than for Texas), the party may get a Senate seat as a bonus.

Finally, the senator who ranks last in PARS is also up for reelection in 2020, and it’s a big name: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell manages just a -13 net approval rating despite inhabiting an R+23 state. It’s not crazy to think he could be vulnerable in 2020. Democrats are reportedly trying to recruit former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who raised $8.6 million for an unsuccessful 2018 congressional bid, to run against him. But it’s worth remembering that Lucy has held this football in front of Democrats before. In 2014, McConnell also had popularity problems, and Democrats thought they had a top candidate to challenge him in Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. McConnell beat Grimes 56 percent to 41 percent.

Check out all the polls we’ve been collecting ahead of the 2020 elections.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Nathaniel Rakich

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sam-breakwell-bcu-viscom-blog · 6 years ago

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Contextual Studies Lectures: Queer Theory

What is Queer Theory?

• Queer theory is an academic discipline that grew out of Feminist Theory and Gender Studies in the 1990s

• Challenges the way that heterosexuality is considered “normal” (terminology: ‘Heteronormativity’)

• Explores identities or behaviour that might be considered “other” or deviant

Structuralism

1. The individual is an object / product

2. There are universal laws and grand narratives

3. Meaning is inherent in language

4. Favours structures, categories and binaries

5. Developed In the late 1950s and early 1960s, via structural linguistics

6. Relates to Modernism in art

Post-structuralism

1. The “subject” is a cultural construct

2. There are many “truths”

3. Downplays the role of the author - meaning is intertextual

4. Favours pluralities, nuance and complexities

5. Developed In the 60s and 70s by continental philosophers and critical theorists, as a response to Structuralism

6. Relates to Post-Modernism in art

Deleuze argues that homosexuals like other minorities – women, colonized people – have to question these identities and turn away from their own questioning in an ongoing fashion. They have to enter into a permanent revolution […] who searches not for a ‘gay identity’ or for ‘being-gay’ but for becoming gay.

Stonewall Inn nightclub raid, June 28, 1969

Stonewall Riots 1969

Yeah, come for me. Thirty-two years later and they’re still coming for me. And what have we got? Here, where it all started, trans people have nothing. […] And it really hurts me that some gay people don’t even know what we gave for their movement.

“Queens in Exile, the Forgotten Ones,” by Sylvia Rivera, 80-81.

We must reject a queer politics which seems to ignore, […] the roles of identity and community as paths to survival, using shared experiences of oppression and resistance to build indigenous resources, shape consciousness, and act collectively. Instead, I would suggest that it is the multiplicity and interconnectedness of our identities which provide the most promising avenue for the destabilisation and radical politicisation of these same categories.

Cohen, Cathy J. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ 3, 1997 (437-465), 459-460.

Queer Disability Studies / Crip Theory

[…] to be able-bodied is to be “free from physical disability,” just as to be heterosexual is to be “the opposite of homosexual. Like compulsory heterosexuality, then, compulsory able-bodiedness functions by covering over, with the appearance of choice, a system in which there actually is no choice.

Robert McRuer, “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer / Disabled Existence, Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability (New York: NYU Press, 2006), 301-308

“Cripple”, when I use it, allows me to take ownership of everyone’s misconceptions of disability. I know you’re scared of me; I know you think I’m different from you, and guess what? I am. I’m owning that as best as I can when I use that word. It is a term of personal empowerment for me. I wouldn’t use it to describe another disabled person without their consent, but for me it helps me navigate the experience of disability with an honesty that I think is really important.

Andrew Gurza in “Here's What This 'Queer Cripple' Wants You To Know About His Sex Life”, Huffington Post [online] (21st July 2017).

People invent categories in order to feel safe. White people invented black people to give white people identity. Straight cats invent faggots so they can sleep with them without becoming faggots themselves.

James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni, A Dialogue (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1973).

Isn’t “queer” just another category?

Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. David Halperin, Saint Foucault: Towards a gay hagiography. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 62

Gender is the repeated stylisation of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Drag constitutes the mundane way in which genders are appropriated, theatricalised, worn, and done; it implies that all gendering is a kind of impersonation and approximation. If this is true, it seems, there is no original or primary gender that drag imitates, but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original. Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” in Sara Salih (ed.), The Judith Butler Reader New York: Blackwell, 2004), 127.

Queer Theory as a way of life?

“How can a relational system be reached through sexual practices? Is it possible to create a homosexual mode of life? … To be “gay,” I think, is not to identify with the psychological traits and the visible masks of the homosexual, but to try to define and develop a way of life.”

Michel Foucault, “Friendship as a Way of Life” The Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, (Volume One). Translaed by Robert Hurley (New York: The New Press, 1997), 135-140.

Untimeliness dislodges queers from socially shared, normative periodicities. For those without children or ambitions to procreate, queers are cut loose not only from parenting responsibilities but from quotidian temporal rhythms that the family-orientated community imposes (school, soccer, shopping). With the notion of queerness strategically and critically posited not as an identity not a substantive mode of being but as a way of becoming, temporality is necessarily already bound up in the queer.

E.L. McCallum and Mikko Tuhkamen, “Becoming Unbecoming: Untimely Meditations” in Queer Times, Queer Becomings (New York: SUNY Press. 2011), 1-21.

…to refuse the battle for the right to marry, to refuse the presumed connection between marriage rights and liberation, to refuse to succumb to the idea that coupled monogamy is the best way to practice intimacy. To refuse to ask for the rights that have been refused to you is to turn your back on the carrot dangled by the state and to go looking for nourishment elsewhere.

Jack Halberstam, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal, (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 128

Obviously not all gay, lesbian and transgender people live their lives in radically different ways from their heterosexual counterparts, but part of what has made queerness compelling as a form of self-description in the past decade or so has to do with the way it has the potential to open up new life narratives and alternate relations to time and space.

Jack Halberstam, In a Queer Time & Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (New York: New York University Press, 2005), 1-2.

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lacontroller1991 · 3 years ago

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12 Days of Christmas Masterlist

MAIN MASTERLIST

Author’s Note: So whooooo, new challenge designed by myself and a couple of other GFS, anyways, this table is Joel heavy (so sorry) but I did manage to throw in Bucky and Rick Grimes into the mix.

AND I KNOW I FAILED KINKTOBER - but I will have immense free time on my hands once school is out so I will not fail this. Anyways, it follows:

Day 1: Ed Baldwin x Fem!Reader

Coming fresh off of the lifeboat of Apollo, Ed completely forgets what was so significant about that day until he comes home to a warm house, presents under the tree and a full meal cooked and ready for him.

Day 2: Rick Grimes x Fem! Reader

On a particularly cold day in Alexandria, all you wanna do is cuddle with Rick.

Day 3: Stephen Holder x Fem!Reader

While chasing down a criminal, you trip and fall into the sound, drowning. Holder wonders where you went when his gut tells him something is wrong.

Day 4: Suicide Squad; Rick Flag x Fem!Reader

Letting the inmates of Belle Reve have a snow day was not Rick’s smartest idea, but when you start a snowball fight, he is non-resistant to your charms.

Day 5: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Trying to get home for the holidays, you are frustrated when your plane is delayed, but luckily for you, you have a handsome stranger sitting next to you to keep you occupied.

Day 6: Rick Flag x Fem!Reader

When your boyfriend decides to dump you at the last possible moment, you are left without a date to your office’s Christmas party, so you decide to use a lifeline, your long term friend, Rick Flag.

Day 7: Rick Flag x Fem!Reader

Knowing how hard he’s been working lately, you decide to give Rick an early Christmas gift. Yourself.

Day 8: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

When New York is hit with a blizzard, you and Bucky look for things to occupy your time while waiting out the storm.

Day 9: Stephen Holder x Fem!Reader

Holder chases you through the airport to tell you how much he loves you before you move to NYC.

Day 10: Ed Baldwin x Wife!Reader

Keeping up with tradition, you and Ed spend Christmas Eve decorating the tree and slow dancing in the living room to Christmas songs.

Day 11: Takeshi Kovacs x Fem!Reader

Having bad memories of Christmas, Tak is weary to spend the holiday with anyone, but you change that.

Day 12: Rick Flag x Fem!Reader

It’s all fun and games until you’re standing under the mistletoe with the man you despise the most.

Taglist General: @marvelousmermaid @yelenas-lova @himbovillain-anon @babblydrabbly @a-reader-and-a-writer @fairchildflag @siliethkaijuy @infatuatedjanes @niki-xie

Joel Related Taglist: @aestheticallywinchester @loverhymeswith @xoxabs88xox @t-i-n-y-d-i-n-o @witchygagirl @the1redrose @ratcatcher2world @lorecraft @green-socks @heart-0n-fire @weallhaveadestiny @yourjacketisnowdry @rachelh1992 @tompetersebbuckyhazleo @a-girl-who-loves-disney @bubblegloopswampwitch @knivesareout @beltzboys2015-blog

IF YOU WANNA BE TAGGED JUST LET ME KNOW!!!!!

#12 days of christmas #rick flag x reader #Takeshi Kovacs x reader #Stephen Holder x reader #ed Baldwin x reader #Bucky Barnes x reader #rick Grimes x reader #reader insert #female reader #joel kinnaman #Sebastian stan #Andrew lincoln #the suicide squad #marvel cinematic universe #dceu #altered carbon #the walking dead #the killing #lacontroller1991

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a-reader-and-a-writer · 2 years ago

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So, I have been in a bit of a writing dry spell recently and I am trying to find a way to kickstart things. For those of you who don't know, I am a HUGE fan of musicals! It is honestly a bit of an obsession 😅 So, I want to try something! (I haven't forgotten all of my current WIPs, requests, or series. I am hoping this restarts some of my creative juices to go back to them!)

Challenge: Send me a character or characters below the break (they have to be in the same fandom/world) along with a song from one of the musicals listed below, and I will write a drabble or fic (loosely) based on the song. Unless specified, I will make it a reader-insert.

Feel free to send me as many requests as you like and I will try to do my best to fulfill them. Also, feel free to ask about other musicals or other songs. These are just the ones I felt could really work with some of these characters but there are a ton of great ones I didn't include here!

Note: feel free to request a song from a musical not listed below. These are just the ones I thought had multiple songs that would work well for drabbles/fics. Due to this, some of my favorite musicals were left off this list, so please request away! I will at least consider any song. Feel free to reach out and ask first if you would like! 🥰

Characters: (one or more from a category)

Top Gun: Hangman, Rooster, Bob, Phoenix, Fanboy, Dagger Squad (as a whole), Maverick, Iceman (what the heck!) Marvel: Bucky Barnes, Matt Murdock, Frank Castle, Steve Rogers, The Avengers (as a whole), Peter Parker (The Amazing Spider-Man or MCU Spider-Man) DC: Batman (general or Battinson), Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, The Batfam (as a whole) Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, The Suicide Squad (as a whole), Peacemaker, Vigilante Star Wars: Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), Din Djarin Misc: Takeshi Kovacs, Stephen Holder, Ed Baldwin, Rhett Abbott, Miles Miller, Harrison Knott

Musicals: (unless specified, the Broadway versions not movie versions)

Anastasia, Be More Chill, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago (movie), Hadestown*, Hamilton, Heathers, Into the Woods, The Greatest Showman (movie), The Lightning Thief, The Phantom of the Opera (movie), Wicked

*No Batman-related characters for Hadestown. I have a full fic in the works for that 😊

Wild Card Song Picks: (not traditional musicals but still great songs)

Songs from season 2 of the NBC show Smash (still obsessed after all these years) Songs from the ABC show Galavant (an extremely underrated show) Feel free to include a song from a Disney movie/musical and I might give it a shot. Some I am definitely open to off the top of my head are: Proud of Your Boy (Aladdin Musical), Evermore (Beauty and the Beast live-action), Go the Distance (Hercules), I Won't Say I'm in Love (Hercules), Part of Your World (Reprise) (The Little Mermaid), How Far I'll Go (Moana), or anything else you can think of!*

*I know I am a bad Disney fan, but I still haven't seen Encanto 😬 so please no songs from that

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allenmendezsr · 4 years ago

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Joe Dulmage, Special Forces Solider

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Kalyan Pathak

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Chris A. Santi, past student

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Raymond Rimocal

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Kalyan Pathak (second email he wrote in)

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Walter G. Paiz, Restaurant Manager

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George Boutsikakis, 43

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Susan Mueller, Mother

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Christine Tomczak, 26

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fan-of-mulligan · 4 years ago

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FOM BLOG: BRISTOL ROVERS 0-2 GILLINGHAM

My Thoughts On Bristol Rovers V Gillingham…….

The Memorial Stadium has been a good football stadium for Gillingham to travel to in recent season’s, Gillingham drew 1-1 against Bristol Rovers In The 2019 / 2020 Season With Tom O’Connor scoring a late equaliser, Gillingham won 2-1 against Bristol Rovers in The 2018 / 2019 Season, With Elliott List and Callum Reilly getting themselves on the score-sheet, Callum Reilly then got sent off and Liam Sercombe scored a sensational free kick for Bristol Rovers to half the deficit and Gillingham had to survive eight minutes of additional time to held on for three valuable points, and the final away game of The 2017 / 2018 Season saw Elliott List score a stoppage time equaliser which saw Gillingham retain there League One Status, And although Gillingham have drawn two of our three visit’s to Bristol Rovers, Gillingham really can do with picking up all three points against Bristol Rovers to start opening up a gap between ourselves and The League One Relegation Zone.

I thought Bristol Rovers were going to be dark horses to challenge for A League One Playoff Place This Season, Ben Garner had signed the likes of Jack Baldwin, Zain Westbrooke, Josh Grant, Ben Liddle, Ali Koiki, Erhun Oztumer, and of course, Max Ehmer and Brandon Hanlan, two players we were hoping to see extend there stay at Gillingham Football Club, Bristol Rovers paid substantial compensation to sign Brandon Hanlan, where as Max Ehmer wanted the security of a two year contract because Gillingham were unable to offer contracts to players because of the uncertainty regarding when The 2020 / 2021 Season was going to start, However, despite recruiting plenty of high profile players, a disappointing start to the season has seen Ben Garner replaced by Paul Tisdale, And Paul Tisdale will have the challenge of trying to keep Bristol Rovers in League One first and full-most and looking to implement his own idea’s which will of course take time.

And both teams come into this fixture off the back of contrasting FA Cup Results, Bristol Rovers won 6-0 against Darlington and Gillingham lost 3-2 against Exeter City, And Bristol Rovers will play against Sheffield United At The Memorial Stadium In The FA Cup Third Round, A Match which will surely be televised and had supporters been able to go to this match in normal circumstances, then this match would have completely sold out, even in normal league matches, Bristol Rovers would be getting 6,000 - 7,000 attendances inside The Memorial Stadium.

But the one thing we want to see from Gillingham in this match is a response, the performance can be as disappointing as it was against Crewe Alexandra, But if Gillingham have to smash and grab this match to win 1-0, then I will take that scenario any day of the week, Because a win for Bristol Rovers will see them close the gap on Gillingham to just one point and we’re are looking over our shoulder at the relegation zone, If Gillingham win, then Gillingham increase the gap to seven points and we will have seen a response from Gillingham after that disappointing FA Cup Second Round Defeat Against Exeter City.

Eventually, Gillingham’s Team News Was Announced On Social Media, And Gillingham Lined Up As Follows,,,,,,, Jack Bonham, Ryan Jackson, Jack Tucker, Connor Ogilvie, Tom O’Connor, Robbie McKenzie, Scott Robertson, Kyle Dempsey, Dominic Samuel, John Akinde, Vadaine Oliver Substitutes: Joe Walsh (GK), Declan Drysdale, Josh Eccles, Henry Woods, Matty Willock, Alex MacDonald and Trae Coyle - Tom O’Connor returns to the starting line up having missed the last few matches having picked up an injury whilst on International Duty With The Republic Of Ireland U21’s, But the big news has to be John Akinde, Dominic Samuel and Vadaine Oliver all starting alongside each other in attack, now lining up with three strikers up-front away from home is very adventurous, I did wonder if Gillingham were lining up with three strikers because Bristol Rovers have normally lined up with three centre back’s and Gillingham are looking to match up three verses three in what will be a very interesting battle between John Akinde, Vadaine Oliver and Dominic Samuel verses Max Ehmer, Jack Baldwin and Ed Upson ???

I had I Follow all set up ready and waiting for kick off, and at least this match kicks off at 7PM, And I think the inconsistencies regarding kick off times for mid-week matches has been infuriating, 5.30PM, 6PM, 6.30PM And 7PM, And if your A Season Ticket Holder who has paid for there Season Ticket and you cannot watch the mid-week matches that kick off at 5.30PM or 6PM, then your not going to be pleased with the home games that you are unable to watch because of kick off times constantly being changed for mid-week matches, I can understand the reasoning as to why Gillingham are kicking off at 1PM on A Saturday Afternoon instead of kicking off at 3PM, but mid-week matches have been kicked off at different times and there seems to be less of a understanding on why this is the case.

Both teams were out on to the pitch ready and waiting for kick off inside The Memorial Stadium, Hopefully, Gillingham can put the disappointing 3-2 defeat against Exeter City behind us by responding with a win against Bristol Rovers, and a win which would move Gillingham up The League One Table and further away from the relegation zone - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!

FIRST HALF:

And the first noteworthy moment of the match see’s Josh Grant header the ball out of play for A Gillingham Throw On right on the halfway line in-between both managerial dugouts, and it is from this throw on where Gillingham manage to win themselves the first corner kick of the match, Ryan Jackson throws the ball long down the line and Luke Leahy wins the initial aerial challenge and Robbie McKenzie wins the second aerial challenge to header the ball forwards, and although Luke McCormick wins the third aerial challenge, The Bristol Rovers Midfielder can only header the ball straight into Scott Robertson’s Path, And Scott Robertson gets the ball under control before looking to pick out Vadaine Oliver with a threaded through-ball, But Jack Baldwin had tracked back and kicked the ball out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Scott Robertson whips in a low cross towards the near post which wasn’t the best cross it has to be said, But Josh Grant has headed the ball out of play for another Gillingham Corner Kick, And Scott Robertson can try again at the second attempt, and from the second corner kick, Scott Robertson whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross towards the near post and Connor Ogilvie’s looping header goes well over the crossbar and out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick.

As for how Gillingham are lining up in this match, Jack Bonham, Ryan Jackson, Jack Tucker, Connor Ogilvie and Tom O’Connor are Gillingham’s Back Five, Robbie McKenzie is playing in the central defensive midfielder role, Scott Robertson and Kyle Dempsey are lining up alongside each other in central midfield with Dominic Samuel playing in The Central Attacking Midfielder Role, And John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver are playing alongside each other in attack, Gillingham have switched to A 4-4-2 Diamond Midfield Formation, and this switch coincides with Jordan Graham being unavailable because of injury, The diamond midfield formation was the backbone of Gillingham’s success in The 2019 / 2020 Season, can the diamond help Gillingham to pick up all three points against Bristol Rovers at The Memorial Stadium ??? - Only time will tell.

Three Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham have a throw on down the right side of the pitch in Bristol Rovers Half Of The Pitch, And From The Resulting Throw On, Ryan Jackson throws the ball short to Robbie McKenzie, who takes a few touches in possession of the ball, And Robbie McKenzie’s threaded pass through to John Akinde is over-hit and runs all the way through to Anssi Jaakkola In The Bristol Rovers Goal, Vadaine Oliver is then penalised for his challenge on Luke McCormick on the halfway line and Bristol Rovers have been awarded a free kick, and from the resulting free kick, Bristol Rovers pass the ball across there back four from right to left, And Luke Leahy has possession of the ball down the left side of the pitch, And Luke Leahy’s long ball down-field towards Brandon Hanlan is to long and runs all the way through to Jack Bonham, and from here, Gillingham were looking to cause Bristol Rovers a few problems defensively as Jack Bonham kicks the ball long down-field and John Akinde looks to try and flick the ball on towards Dominic Samuel, But Luke Leahy shields the ball out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick.

Five Minutes Into The Match, And Dominic Samuel’s cross from the right side of the pitch in Bristol Rovers Final Third is blocked by Luke Leahy and the ball deflects out of play for A Gillingham Throw On, And From The Resulting Throw On, Gillingham create a half chance to try and open the scoring, Ryan Jackson throws the ball short to John Akinde, who manages to retain possession of the ball before passing the ball back out-wide to Ryan Jackson, And Ryan Jackson whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Vadaine Oliver’s glancing header was going wide of the far left post and Bristol Rovers Goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola gathers the ball with ease, But despite that half chance not creating a meaningful goal-scoring opportunity, Gillingham were looking to open the scoring in the next passage of play, Anssi Jaakkola rolls the ball out-wide to Josh Hare, who was pressured by Scott Robertson to kick the ball long down-field and the ball runs through to Jack Bonham, who kicks the ball long down-field and John Akinde wins the aerial battle to flick the ball on towards Vadaine Oliver, who’s first time shot towards goal clears Bristol Rovers crossbar by some considerable distance - Although, It has to be mentioned that I thought the last touch had come off Josh Hare and Gillingham should have been awarded a corner kick.

Eleven Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham create a very good opportunity to try and open the scoring, Ed Upson’s pass forwards towards Sam Nicholson on the centre circle is intercepted by Robbie McKenzie, And Robbie McKenzie runs forwards in possession of the ball before passing the ball square to Dominic Samuel, And Dominic Samuel takes one touch to control the ball and another touch to thread a pass through to Robbie McKenzie, who had continued his run forwards inside Bristol Rovers’s Penalty Area down the right side of the pitch, And Robbie McKenzie whips in a dangerous cross first time across the face of goal and John Akinde cannot make any contact on the ball and the chance had gone for The Gills, However, Bristol Rovers turned defence into attack because Josh Grant passes the ball centrally to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson passes the ball out-wide to Erhun Oztumer down the left side of the pitch in Bristol Rovers Half, And Erhun Oztumer runs into a more central position on the pitch in possession of the ball before picking out Luke McCormick with a cross-field pass, And Luke McCormick gets the ball under control before passing the ball through to Luke Leahy on the over-lap, And Luke Leahy passes the ball back to Luke McCormick, who passes the ball back to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson passes the ball back to Jack Baldwin, And Jack Baldwin takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball forwards to Erhun Oztumer, And Erhun Oztumer takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Luke McCormick, And Luke McCormick kicks the ball towards Brandon Hanlan on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Brandon Hanlan lays the ball off to Sam Nicholson, who runs forwards in possession of the ball inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Sam Nicholson fires his effort towards goal across the face of goal and Sam Nicholson’s shot flashes across the face of goal and wide of the far right corner of the net with Jack Bonham diving at full stretch - Gillingham and Bristol Rovers have both created clear cut goal-scoring opportunities at either end of the pitch, But Sam Nicholson’s chance was the better of the two chances.

Thirteen Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham created a decent opportunity to open the scoring, Jack Bonham kicks the ball long down-field and John Akinde brings the ball under control with his chest before passing the ball square to Kyle Dempsey down the right side of the pitch, And Kyle Dempsey passes the ball back to Ryan Jackson, who takes a touch to control the ball before kicking the ball long down-field and Scott Robertson wins the first aerial challenge and Jack Baldwin wins the second aerial challenge to header the ball clear and away from danger and Erhun Oztumer passes the ball back to Luke Leahy, who takes a touch to control the ball before kicking the ball long down the line towards Brandon Hanlan, who manages to retain possession of the ball despite pressure from Jack Tucker, But Ryan Jackson challenges Brandon Hanlan and pokes the ball back to Jack Tucker, who takes a touch to control the ball and kick the ball long down-field, and Vadaine Oliver wins the aerial challenge to flick the ball on towards Dominic Samuel, And Max Ehmer’s defensive header hits Dominic Samuel, and the ball deflects into John Akinde’s Path, And John Akinde see’s his initial shot towards goal blocked by Max Ehmer and the ball ricochets back to John Akinde, And John Akinde see’s his second shot towards goal blocked by Josh Hare and still John Akinde has possession of the ball for The Gills, And John Akinde passes the ball back to Kyle Dempsey on the edge of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area, And Kyle Dempsey works his way into a shooting position before curling a low shot centrally towards goal which was comfortable for Anssi Jaakkola to save in goal for Bristol Rovers.

Fifteen Minutes Into The Match, And Bristol Rovers were looking to make the breakthrough, Josh Hare has possession of the ball down the right side of the pitch just in Gillingham’s Half Of The Pitch, And Josh Hare passes the ball inside centrally to Ed Upson, Who gets the ball under control and passes the ball out-wide to Josh Hare, And Josh Hare passes the ball forwards towards Josh Grant, who passes the ball back to Ed Upson, who takes a few touches in possession of the ball, And Ed Upson passes the ball forwards towards Erhun Oztumer, who plays a first time pass through to Sam Nicholson, And Sam Nicholson is through on goal inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Sam Nicholson’s shot towards goal takes a deflection off Connor Ogilvie and the ball goes wide of the near post and out of play for A Bristol Rovers Corner Kick - And Sam Nicholson came very close to opening the scoring for Bristol Rovers There - And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and the ball ricochets off Vadaine Oliver and Robbie McKenzie just boots the ball clear and away from danger, and Ed Upson headers the ball square to Josh Hare, who takes a touch to control the ball before kicking a diagonal cross-field cross towards Max Ehmer, who headers the ball down towards Sam Nicholson inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Sam Nicholson gets the ball under control before laying the ball off to Luke McCormick, And Luke McCormick’s low shot towards goal is routinely saved by Jack Bonham In The Gillingham Goal.

And In The Seventeenth Minute Of The Match, Gillingham had a half chance to try and open the scoring, Gillingham have a throw on down the right side of the pitch just inside Bristol Rovers Half Of The Pitch, And Ryan Jackson throws the ball long down the line and Vadaine Oliver wins the initial aerial challenge and Ed Upson headers the ball partially clear and away from danger, However, Kyle Dempsey wins the fifty / fifty challenge and the ball ricochets into Dominic Samuel’s Path, And Dominic Samuel manages to pick out Tom O’Connor down the left side of the pitch in Bristol Rovers Final Third, And Tom O’Connor takes a touch to control the ball and another touch to whip in a dangerous in-swinging cross towards the far post and John Akinde’s low pull-back across the face of goal hits Jack Baldwin and Anssi Jaakkola dives on to the loose ball for Bristol Rovers, John Akinde, Dominic Samuel and Scott Robertson were all appealing for a penalty kick for Gillingham, and those penalty appeals were waved away, and also, I don’t think it was a penalty kick for Gillingham, The Penalty Kick John Akinde got against Charlton Athletic may have looked soft, But John Akinde was clearly tripped inside the penalty area in that match, this penalty appeal however isn’t a controversial decision and I don’t see anything in that to suggest it was a penalty for Gillingham.

But from here, Bristol Rovers were looking to open the scoring as Anssi Jaakkola kicks the ball long down-field and Jack Tucker wins the initial aerial challenge and Erhun Oztumer manages to pick out Sam Nicholson with a first time pass down the line and Sam Nicholson is through on goal down the left side of the penalty area - Gillingham’s Right - And Tom O’Connor is sticking with Sam Nicholson, However, Sam Nicholson cuts inside, inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area before skilfully evading the challenge from Tom O’Connor, And Sam Nicholson has fired his shot towards goal over the crossbar at the near post - AND THAT WAS THE CHANCE FOR BRISTOL ROVERS TO OPEN THE SCORING!!!!!!

And In The Twenty Second Minute Of The Match, Bristol Rovers had the chance to open the scoring again, Josh Hare has possession of the ball down the right side of the pitch, And Josh Hare passes the ball square to Josh Grant, who passes the ball square to Erhun Oztumer, And Erhun Oztumer takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball forwards towards Sam Nicholson, who plays a return pass back into Erhun Oztumer’s Path, And Erhun Oztumer passes the ball out-wide to Luke Leahy down the left side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Final Third, And Luke Leahy fires in a low dangerous cross and Brandon Hanlan cannot get the ball under control and the loose ball almost falls kindly into Sam Nicholson’s Path but Tom O’Connor manages to header the ball partially clear and away from danger, however, Luke McCormick has scuffed his first time effort towards goal wide of the far left post - But Bristol Rovers are just starting to ask more questions of Gillingham defensively at this moment in time.

Twenty Four Minutes Into The Match, And Tom O’Connor’s in-swinging cross is charged down by Josh Hare at the expense of conceding a throw on for Gillingham in Bristol Rovers Final Third, And From The Resulting Throw On, Gillingham created a decent goal-scoring opportunity, Connor Ogilvie hurls in a long dangerous throw and Josh Hare can only header the ball clear towards the edge of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area and Dominic Samuel’s first time volleyed effort towards goal was heading towards the bottom right corner of the net and Anssi Jaakkola had to dive low quickly to save and then gather the ball at the second attempt to preserve the 0-0 score-line - And Dominic Samuel was so unlucky not to open the scoring for Gillingham There.

Bute despite almost taking the lead with that chance from Dominic Samuel, Bristol Rovers almost opened the scoring with the next passage of play, Anssi Jaakkola kicks the ball long down-field and Jack Tucker wins the aerial challenge up against Brandon Hanlan, however, Luke McCormick is on to the second ball, And Luke McCormick passes the ball forwards to Sam Nicholson, Who looks to turn into a more central position just outside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, But Sam Nicholson turns back on himself, and this creates some space for Sam Nicholson to unleash a fiercely driven effort just wide of the far left post, And Sam Nicholson has been the player to watch out for the home side, Because Sam Nicholson has already had a few efforts on goal which have fortunately failed to hit the back of the net.

But the next passage of play does see Gillingham stick the ball into the back of the net and open the scoring in this competitive League One Fixture, Jack Bonham kicks the ball long down-field and Jack Baldwin wins the initial aerial challenge up against Vadaine Oliver and Ryan Jackson wins the aerial challenge up against Brandon Hanlan and Kyle Dempsey flicks the ball on towards Scott Robertson, who manages to hook the ball over his shoulder and pick out Dominic Samuel with a unorthodox pass, And Dominic Samuel flicks the ball on towards Vadaine Oliver and Vadaine Oliver’s attempted pass through to John Akinde is blocked by Max Ehmer and Luke Leahy passes the ball forwards towards Luke McCormick, And Luke McCormick passes the ball back towards Jack Baldwin, And Jack Baldwin passes the ball out-wide to Luke Leahy, who takes a touch to control the ball before kicking the ball long down the line and Brandon Hanlan manages to retain possession of the ball momentarily when protecting the ball between himself and Jack Tucker, But Ryan Jackson manages to regain possession of the ball for The Gills before passing the ball back towards Jack Tucker, And Jack Tucker has kicked the ball long down-field and Vadaine Oliver manages to get on to the end of Jack Tucker’s long pass and Vadaine Oliver has the strength to get to the ball ahead of Max Ehmer and Vadaine Oliver shows great composure to chip the ball past Anssi Jaakkola with a neat first time finish and Gillingham have taken the lead at The Memorial Stadium - BRISTOL ROVERS 0-1 GILLINGHAM.

When Gillingham drew 1-1 against Charlton Athletic at Priestfield Stadium, I was talking about Vadaine Oliver’s one on one effort being saved by Ben Amos and big moments in matches can change football matches one way or the other, and in that match, If Vadaine Oliver scored for 2-0, then Gillingham would have been in a fantastic position to pick up all three points, But this goal from Vadaine Oliver against Bristol Rovers is a big goal in a big moment, Because Gillingham have taken the lead against A Bristol Rovers Side who can move to just one point behind The Gills if they can win against Gillingham, But a win for Gillingham will move Gillingham seven points clear of Bristol Rovers, this goal wasn’t a thirty yard screamer, it wasn’t a over-head kick, But this is a very important goal that Vadaine Oliver has scored to give Gillingham the lead against Bristol Rovers.

Twenty Seven Minutes Into The Match, And Luke McCormick is penalised for fouling Ryan Jackson, and from the resulting free kick, Gillingham had the chance to go 2-0 up, Kyle Dempsey whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and John Akinde’s first time effort towards goal clears Bristol Rovers Crossbar and the ball goes out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick - Very difficult technique for John Akinde to get that effort on goal on target, But 2-0 would have put Gillingham in a strong position to pick up all three points.

Twenty Nine Minutes Into The Match, And Jack Baldwin is penalised for his challenge on Dominic Samuel right on the edge of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area down the right side of the pitch, and from the resulting free kick, Kyle Denpsey whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Max Ehmer headers the ball partially clear and away from goal and Sam Nicholson smashes the ball out of play for A Gillingham Throw On, Which See’s Tom O’Connor throw the ball long down the line and Vadaine Oliver wins the initial aerial challenge and Max Ehmer boots the ball clear and Tom O’Connor headers the ball forwards towards Vadaine Oliver, who flicks the ball on towards John Akinde, And John Akinde manages to retain possession of the ball before passing the ball short to Vadaine Oliver, who passes the ball out-wide to Dominic Samuel down the left side of the pitch, And Dominic Samuel manages to pick out Kyle Dempsey with a pass towards the edge of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area, And Kyle Dempsey passes the ball back short to Robbie McKenzie, And Robbie McKenzie manages to pick out Ryan Jackson with a pass out-wide down the right side of the pitch, And Ryan Jackson waits for passing options before managing to pick out Robbie McKenzie with a pass on the edge of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area, And Robbie McKenzie’s first time curling effort towards goal goes just wide of the far left post, AND THAT WAS THE CHANCE FOR GILLINGHAM TO GO 2-0 UP!!!!! - Difficult to say if Anssi Jaakkola had that effort on goal covered because The Bristol Rovers Goalkeeper had dived at full stretch, But that was a sensational strike from Robbie McKenzie though.

Thirty Three Minutes Into The Match, And Bristol Rovers manage to win themselves a corner kick, Luke Leahy has possession of the ball down the left side of the pitch, And Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross towards Brandon Hanlan and Jack Tucker has to header the ball out of play for A Bristol Rovers Corner Kick, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Vadaine Oliver headers the ball partially clear and away from danger and Erhun Oztumer is first to the loose ball on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Erhun Oztumer passes the ball short to Luke McCormick and Scott Robertson has put in a very strong robust challenge on The Bristol Rovers Midfielder and the ball ricochets towards Erhun Oztumer, who runs out-wide down the left side of the pitch in possession of the ball before passing the ball short to Jack Baldwin, who gets the ball under control before whipping in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Connor Ogilvie manages to header the ball clear and away from goal momentarily, however, Ed Upson is on to the loose ball and Ed Upson passes the ball out-wide to Josh Grant, who passes the ball back to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson tries to pick out Brandon Hanlan with a lofted crosses inside Gillingham’s Penalty Areas But Jack Tucker was in the right place at the right time to kick the ball clear and away from danger, And once there was a stoppage in play because John Akinde was penalised for his foul on Luke McCormick In Bristol Rovers Final Third, There was a stoppage in play because Luke McCormick requires some treatment from the physio’s, and after getting some treatment, Luke McCormick is back on his feat again and Bristol Rovers may well hope that Luke McCormick can get through to half time before getting properly assessed at the break.

In The Thirty Ninth Minute Of The Match, Ryan Jackson runs down the right side of the pitch in Bristol Rovers Final Third, And Ryan Jackson’s cross is charged down by Jack Baldwin at the expense of conceding a corner kick, and from the resulting corner kick, Gillingham had the chance to double there lead to 2-0, Kyle Dempsey whips in a high and hanging corner kick towards the back-stick and Vadaine Oliver has headed the ball wide of the far left post and I thought the ball had gone out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal Kick, However, Referee Scott Oldham has awarded a corner kick to Gillingham (maybe the final touch came off Jack Baldwin perhaps ???) and it is from this corner kick where Gillingham almost scored for 2-0, Kyle Dempsey passes the ball short to Scott Robertson, who gets the ball under control before playing a return pass back towards Kyle Dempsey, And Kyle Dempsey curls a cross / shot towards goal from the edge of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area and Kyle Dempsey’s cross / shot towards goal curls just wide of the far right post, and if that cross / shot from Kyle Dempsey was on target then Gillingham would have scored for 2-0 - A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR GILLINGHAM TO SCORE - Also, any touch off Upson, Grant or Baldwin would have seen one of those three players for Bristol Rovers inadvertently divert the ball into the back of there own net because the penalty area was so crowded that any touch on the ball would have been enough for Gillingham to double there lead.

Forty One Minutes Into The Match, And Luke McCormick tries to pick out Brandon Hanlan with a long kick down-field, And Luke McCormick’s long kick towards Brandon Hanlan is too long and the ball runs through to Jack Bonham just inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And In The Forty Third Minute Of The Match, Bristol Rovers were pushing for the equaliser, Because Sam Nicholson has possession of the ball roughly twenty five yards from goal, And Sam Nicholson manages to pick out Josh Hare with a threaded pass down the right side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Final Third, And Josh Hare has whipped in a dangerous in-swinging cross first time and Connor Ogilvie has to header the ball over his own crossbar at the expense of conceding a corner kick, and from the resulting corner kick, Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross towards the near post and Josh Grant has flicked the ball across Gillingham’s Penalty Area And Robbie McKenzie has smashed the ball clear and away from danger - anywhere will do as far as Gillingham are concerned.

And In The Forty Fifth Minute Of The Match, Gillingham had the chance to go 2-0 up, Ryan Jackson manages to pick out Vadaine Oliver with a long ball down-field and Vadaine Oliver gets to the ball down the right side of Bristol Rovers Penalty Area, And Vadaine Oliver manages to keep the ball in play by hooking the ball across Bristol Rovers Penalty Area and John Akinde’s shot towards goal is blocked by Max Ehmer and Anssi Jaakkola dives on to the loose ball and was able to gather the ball at the second attempt - And John Akinde had a half chance there to double Gillingham’s lead to 2-0 just before half time.

And just as we are into first half stoppage time, Bristol Rovers were looking to score the equaliser before the half time interval, Josh Hare see’s his low cross across the six yard box cleared out of play by Connor Ogilvie for A Bristol Rovers Throw On In Gillingham’s Final Third, And From The Resulting Throw On, Josh Hare throws the ball short to Erhun Oztumer, who passes the ball back out-wide to Josh Hare, And Josh Hare fires in a fantastic low cross and Jack Tucker and Brandon Hanlan both compete for the ball at the near post and Jack Tucker has headed the ball up into the air and Jack Bonham claims the loose ball to relieve the pressure building on to Gillingham’s Goal, and the final noteworthy moment of the first half see’s John Akinde charged down Luke Leahy’s attempted clearance out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick, and after two minutes of stoppage time, Referee Scott Oldham blows his whistle for half time.

HALF TIME: BRISTOL ROVERS 0-1 GILLINGHAM

I uploaded the following comments on to Social Media At Half Time,,,,,, HALF TIME: BRISTOL ROVERS 0-1 GILLINGHAM - Vadaine Oliver's goal is the difference between both teams at half time, But Gillingham have created plenty of opportunities to add to the score-line, Ogilvie has headed over from Robertson's cross, Dempsey's cross / shot just goes wide. Dominic Samuel and Kyle Dempsey have forced Jaakkola to make important saves in goal for Bristol Rovers, Robbie McKenzie has curled one effort towards goal which goes just wide of the far left post, Akinde & Oliver up top allow Gillingham to win the physical battle in this match. But despite how impressive Gillingham have been in the first half, Bristol Rovers have had chances to score, Nicholson fires an effort narrowly wide, Nicholson has curled one effort towards goal just wide, McCormick has had an effort on goal just go wide of the far post as well. Gillingham deserve to be winning on balance of play in the first half, just a real shame that Gillingham have not extended there lead because Bristol Rovers will get opportunities to score in the second half, next goal in this match is huge, Hopefully Gillingham get a second goal.

And Gillingham switching to a diamond midfield formation with John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver up-front and Dominic Samuel playing in the central attacking midfielder role has worked (so far) John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver are winning the aerial battle up against Max Ehmer and Jack Baldwin, And Dominic Samuel is finding those pockets of space in various area’s on the pitch to cause Bristol Rovers problems and Dominic Samuel has seen his shot towards goal saved by Anssi Jaakkola, And Bristol Rovers are struggling to cope with the physicality from Vadaine Oliver and John Akinde, and at the same-time, Bristol Rovers do not have the physicality up-front because Brandon Hanlan is lining up as a lone striker.

But even though Brandon Hanlan is lining up as a lone striker, Erhun Oztumer is a quality player in midfield and he is capable of creating something out of nothing, Sam Nicholson has caused Gillingham plenty of problems defensively and you can see Paul Tisdale looking to do something to try and get Bristol Rovers back into this match, because you cannot see Bristol Rovers not testing Jack Bonham in-between the sticks and there is still plenty of time remaining in this match for Bristol Rovers to get a point, or turn this match on it’s head to pick up all three points, hopefully, Gillingham can score the all important second goal at some point in the second half which would put Gillingham in a very strong position to pick up all three points - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!

SECOND HALF:

And right at the start of the second half, Bristol Rovers do make a change because Alfie Kilgour comes on to replace Luke McCormick (A Substitution which I failed to spot initially) And I guess with Luke McCormick picking up that knock in the first half that Paul Tisdale is taking no chances and The Bristol Rovers Manger is not only making sure that Luke McCormick doesn’t pick up a serious injury, But also, Defender Alfie Kilgour comes on to line up alongside Max Ehmer and Jack Baldwin in a back three, as Bristol Rovers look to try and deal with the physicality from Vadaine Oliver and John Akinde.

Gillingham have not made any changes at the start of the second half, But Gillingham did create the first noteworthy attack, Bristol Rovers have a throw on down the right side of the pitch in there own final third, And Max Ehmer throws the ball back to Alfie Kilgour, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Alfie Kilgour passes the ball forwards to Ed Upson, who takes a few touches in possession of the ball before passing the ball square to Josh Grant, who allows the ball to run through to Josh Hare on the byline, And Josh Hare takes a touch to control the ball before clipping the ball down the line towards Brandon Hanlan, who gets the ball under control and Tom O’Connor intercepts the ball and the ball ricochets towards Kyle Dempsey, And Kyle Dempsey gets the ball under control and passes the ball forwards to Dominic Samuel, And Dominic Samuel is looking around for passing options before managing to pick out Vadaine Oliver with a superb pass over the top down the right side of the pitch just outside Bristol Rovers Penalty Area - Bristol Rovers Left - And Vadaine Oliver takes a touch to control the ball and Vadaine Oliver whips a cross / shot across the face of goal, And Vadaine Oliver’s cross / shot doesn’t pick out John Akinde at the far post and doesn’t hit the target and the ball goes out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick.

Forty Eight Minutes Into The Match, And Scott Robertson is penalised for a high foot on Luke Leahy from Robbie McKenzie’s Pass, and from here, Bristol Rovers create a half decent goal-scoring opportunity, Alfie Kilgour passes the ball short to Luke Leahy and Luke Leahy passes the ball inside centrally to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson takes a few touches in possession of the ball before passing the ball back out-wide to Luke Leahy, And Luke Leahy kicks the ball long down-field towards Brandon Hanlan on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Brandon Hanlan chests the ball down towards Sam Nicholson and Tom O’Connor boots the ball clear and away from danger and Jack Baldwin headers the ball square to Max Ehmer, And Max Ehmer passes the ball out-wide to Josh Hare, And Josh Hare passes the ball inside to Josh Grant, And Josh Grant runs forwards in possession of the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Josh Hare down the right side of the pitch, And Josh Hare takes a touch to control the ball before whipping in a dangerous in-swinging cross towards the far post, And Luke Leahy hooks the ball back across the face of goal and Connor Ogilvie headers the ball partially clear and away from danger and Ed Upson gets the ball under control on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Ed Upson threads a pass through towards the byline and Josh Hare’s first time cross is low towards the near post, And Jack Bonham saves and then gathers the ball at the second attempt.

And from here, Jack Bonham kicks the ball long down-field and Vadaine Oliver does really well to not only win the aerial challenge, but to also keep the ball in play down the right side of the pitch, And Vadaine Oliver passes the ball back to Kyle Dempsey, who takes a touch to control the ball, And Kyle Dempsey takes a few touches in possession of the ball before whipping in a dangerous low in-swinging cross towards the near post and Jack Baldwin kicks the ball partially clear and away from goal and Erhun Oztumer lays the ball off to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson kicks the ball long down-field and Brandon Hanlan manages to header the ball back towards Sam Nicholson, who manages to retain possession of the ball, looking to be heading towards the left wing before turning back into a more central position on the pitch, And Sam Nicholson manages to pick out Josh Hare with a quality cross-field pass, And Josh Hare manages to get the ball under control before passing the ball inside to Max Ehmer, who runs towards the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area in possession of the ball, And Max Ehmer lays the ball off to Erhun Oztumer, who takes a touch to control the ball before pretending to shoot, shift the ball on to his left foot, and then Erhun Oztumer, quickly shifts the ball on to his right foot, And Erhun Oztumer has whipped a curling effort towards the far left side of the goal and Jack Bonham had to dive at full stretch to his right to parry the ball wide and away from goal and the ball goes out of play for A Bristol Rovers Corner Kick - GREAT STRIKE FROM ERHUN OZTUMER, (WHO REALLY IS A TOP QUALITY PLAYER IN LEAGUE ONE) AND THE QUALITY OF THE STRIKE FROM OZTUMER IS MATCHED BY THE SAVE FROM JACK BONHAM.

And from the resulting corner kick, Josh Hare whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Jack Baldwin has headed the ball over the crossbar from close range and the ball has gone out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick, Gillingham’s Six Yard Box was packed so any header on target from Jack Baldwin could well see Bristol Rovers score a early equaliser in the second half, and with Alfie Kilgour coming on at half time to play alongside Max Ehmer and Jack Baldwin in defence, then Bristol Rovers have got three centre back’s who can cause Gillingham problems defensively from set plays.

Fifty Three Minutes Into The Match, And Alfie Kilgour is penalised for his foul on Dominic Samuel on the halfway line, but just before that foul, Robbie McKenzie intercepted the ball from Sam Nicholson at the crucial moment and passed the ball forwards to Dominic Samuel, so well done Robbie McKenzie for that interception, and from the resulting free kick, Jack Tucker kicks a diagonal cross-field cross long down-field and although Vadaine Oliver wins the initial aerial challenge, Josh Hare was in the right place at the right time to kick the ball long down-field and Connor Ogilvie headers the ball towards Tom O’Connor on the left flank on the halfway line, And Tom O’Connor gets the ball under control before kicking the ball long down-field and Max Ehmer looks like he has put himself in-between the ball and John Akinde to shield the ball out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick, But Vadaine Oliver almost manages to kick the ball against Max Ehmer to win Gillingham A Corner Kick, but the ball does in-fact go out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick, And Again, Bristol Rovers just cannot cope with the physicality from John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver.

Fifty Five Minutes Into The Match, And Connor Ogilvie is penalised for his foul on Brandon Hanlan, And Bristol Rovers have been awarded a free kick, and from the resulting free kick, Bristol Rovers came close to scoring the equaliser, Ed Upson passes the ball forwards to Josh Grant, who takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Josh Hare down the right side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Final Third, And Josh Hare takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball back inside to Josh Grant, And Josh Grant takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball back to Alfie Kilgour, And Alfie Kilgour passes the ball towards Sam Nicholson a left / central area of the pitch, And Sam Nicholson takes a few touches in possession of the ball before passing the ball forwards to Brandon Hanlan, And Brandon Hanlan passes the ball back to Luke Leahy, And Luke Leahy play a one / two with Josh Grant before whipping in a dangerous in-swinging cross which Connor Ogilvie manages to header the ball clear towards the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, However, Josh Grant has possession of the ball for Bristol Rovers, And Josh Grant passes the ball short to Sam Nicholson, who takes one touch to control the ball, and another touch to get a shot off towards goal, And Sam Nicholson’s shot towards goal takes a huge deflection off Jack Tucker and the ball diverts out of play for A Bristol Rovers Corner Kick - AND THAT WAS THE CHANCE FOR BRISTOL ROVERS TO EQUALISE!!!!!! - And from the resulting corner kick, Bristol Rovers created a half decent opportunity to level the game up at 1-1, Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Vadaine Oliver headers the ball partially clear and away from danger and Erhun Oztumer gets the ball under control before passing the ball out-wide to Luke Leahy, And Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Brandon Hanlan’s glancing header bounces just wide of the far left post and Jack Bonham had dived at full stretch to ensure that Brandon Hanlan’s header was not on target and the ball goes out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick.

Fifty Seven Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham had the chance to go 2-0 up, Connor Ogilvie kicks the ball long down-field and Jack Baldwin headers the ball clear and away from danger and Ryan Jackson gets the ball under control before passing the ball back to Jack Tucker, And Jack Tucker takes a touch to control the ball before kicking the ball long down-field and Vadaine Oliver flicks the ball on towards Scott Robertson, who manages to keep the ball in play and run wide away from goal and Scott Robertson passes the ball back to Tom O’Connor on the left flank, And Tom O’Connor takes a touch to control the ball before whipping in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Kyle Dempsey’s header towards goal loops up into the air and Anssi Jaakkola makes a comfortable save in goal for Bristol Rovers.

Gillingham were awarded a free kick in The Fifty Ninth Minute Of The Match, And From The Resulting Free Kick, Connor Ogilvie kicks the ball long down-field and Max Ehmer wins the aerial challenge up against Vadaine Oliver to header the ball partially clear and away from danger, But Tom O’Connor is first to get on to the loose ball, And Tom O’Connor goes on a driving run down the left flank in possession of the ball before whipping in a high and hanging cross towards the back-stick and Tom O’Connor’s cross is over-hit and runs out of play for A Bristol Rovers Throw On, And From The Resulting Throw, Luke Leahy throws the ball back to Jack Baldwin, who gets the ball under control and passes the ball forwards to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson passes the ball back to Jack Baldwin, And Jack Baldwin passes the ball forwards to Sam Nicholson on the halfway line, And Sam Nicholson manages to retain possession of the ball before laying the ball off to Erhun Oztumer, who plays a first time pass out-wide to Josh Hare down the right side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Final Third, And Josh Hare not only manages to keep the ball in play, But Josh Hare goes on a dribbling run forwards down the right side of the pitch and continue’s his run forwards inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Josh Hare’s low cross is blocked by Scott Robertson at the expense of conceding a corner kick, and from the resulting corner kick, Luke Leahy whips in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Vadaine Oliver manages to header the ball partially clear and away from danger and Scott Robertson kicks the ball forwards and further away from goal, and Ed Upson is on to the loose ball and passes the ball square to Erhun Oztumer, And Erhun Oztumer takes a touch to control the ball before going in a skilful run forwards in possession of the ball, taking on Scott Robertson and Kyle Dempsey and Erhun Oztumer is challenged by Vadaine Oliver and the ball ricochets off Kyle Dempsey, And Erhun Oztumer’s shot on the turn is saved by Jack Bonham In The Gillingham Goal, And Erhun Oztumer is the one player on the pitch who is capable of creating something out of nothing, thankfully, Jack Bonham has saved Erhun Oztumer’s shot on the turn to preserve Gillingham’s 1-0 lead.

And from here, Gillingham go from almost conceding at one end of the pitch, to almost doubling there advantage to 2-0 in the next attack, Jack Bonham has kicked the ball long down-field and John Akinde flicks the ball on towards Dominic Samuel, And Dominic Samuel passes the ball forwards towards John Akinde down the right side of the pitch in Bristol Rovers Final Third, And John Akinde has whipped in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Josh Hare has headed the ball straight into Max Ehmer, and the ball ricochets back towards Vadaine Oliver, And Vadaine Oliver see’s his first time shot towards goal saved by Anssi Jaakkola at point blank range and the ball diverts out of play for A Gillingham Throw On and Anssi Jaakkola has kept Bristol Rovers in this match with a very important stop - BUT THAT WAS THE CHANCE FOR GILLINGHAM TO GO 2-0 UP.

Sixty Three Minutes Into The Match, And Bristol Rovers make a double substitution as Zain Walker and Ali Koiki both come on to replace Josh Hare and Luke Leahy as Bristol Rovers substitute both wing backs, And Paul Tisdale will be hoping that fresh legs in both wing back positions can help Bristol Rovers cause Gillingham problems defensively in the wide area’s, As far as any substitutions for Gillingham goes, I think Scott Robertson could be a player who gets taken off because Scott Robertson is one player who may well need protecting having been in and out of The Gillingham Side in recent weeks.

In The Sixty Eighth Minute Of The Match, Bristol Rovers have the chance to equalise, Erhun Oztumer has possession of the ball on the halfway line for Bristol Rovers, And Erhun Oztumer manages to retain possession of the ball before running forwards into Gillingham’s Half Of The Pitch, And Erhun Oztumer is looking around for passing options before passing the ball short to Josh Grant, And Josh Grant passes the ball out-wide to Ali Kolki, And Ali Kolki runs inside centrally in possession of the ball before passing the ball back to Ed Upson, And Ed Upson passes the ball out-wide to Josh Grant, who shrugs off the attempted challenge from Dominic Samuel, And Josh Grant runs inside into a more central position on the pitch and Josh Grant continue’s his run towards the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Josh Grant’s shot towards goal fails to hit the target and that was a bit of a let off for Gillingham, because it had just opened up for The Bristol Rovers Midfielder to get a shot off on goal.

Sixty Nine Minutes Into The Match, And Alfie Kilgour goes down to the deck requiring treatment for a head injury, and after getting some treatment from the physio’s, Alfie Kilgour was OK to continue playing for Bristol Rovers, But In The Seventieth Minute Of The Match, Bristol Rovers had the chance to equalise, Ed Upson passes the ball out-wide to Ali Kolki, And Ali Kolki keeps the ball in play before passing the ball inside towards Zain Walker, And Zain Walker passes the ball towards Ed Upson, who passes the ball forwards to Josh Grant, And Josh Grant passes the ball forwards to Erhun Oztumer, and Erhun Oztumer passes the ball short to Josh Grant, who is waiting around for passing options before laying the ball off to Erhun Oztumer, who manages to clip the ball towards Ali Kolki down the left side of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Ali Kolki cannot quite manage to get the ball under control and the ball ricochets towards Brandon Hanlan, And Connor Ogilvie times his challenge to perfection on Brandon Hanlan, and not only has Connor Ogilvie made a goal saving interception, but Brandon Hanlan is penalised for his foul on Connor Ogilvie and Gillingham have been awarded a defensive free kick - Had Ali Kolki got the ball under control then he would have surely equalised for Bristol Rovers. and that is a massive let off for The Gills.

Seventy Two Minutes Into The Match, And Jack Tucker is penalised for his fun on Josh Grant - And Bristol Rovers have been awarded a free kick right on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area - And From The Resulting Free Kick, Erhun Oztumer’s free kick towards goal hits John Akinde and the ball loops up into the air and Robbie McKenzie wins the aerial challenge and headers the ball down inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Tom O’Connor kicks the ball clear and away from danger towards the halfway line, and Dominic Samuel does exceptionally well to retain possession of the ball and wait for his team-mates to come forward to offer some support, And Dominic Samuel passes the forwards to Kyle Dempsey in Bristol Rovers Half Of The Pitch, And Kyle Dempsey retains possession of the ball and runs across towards the right side of the pitch and Kyle Dempsey passes the ball out-wide to Ryan Jackson, who takes one touch to control the ball, and another touch to thread a pass down the line towards Kyle Dempsey, And Kyle Dempsey whips in a dangerous low cross across the six yard box and there was Vadaine Oliver to header the ball into the back of the net for 2-0 with a diving header and there was nothing that Anssi Jaakkola could have done to prevent Vadaine Oliver from scoring his second, and Gillingham’s second goal of the match - BRISTOL ROVERS 0-2 GILLINGHAM.

But we have got to mention the quality of play from Gillingham to hit Bristol Rovers on the counter attack, Dominic Samuel retains possession of the ball and passes the ball short to Kyle Dempsey, who passes the ball out-wide to Ryan Jackson, And Ryan Jackson plays a return pass down the line towards Kyle Dempsey, who whips in a first time cross with quality and Vadaine Oliver has scored that all important second goal to give Gillingham a two goal lead, However, Vadaine Oliver has collided with the post after scoring for The Gills and requires some treatment, thankfully, Vadaine Oliver is back on to his feat again, but with that all important second goal, Gillingham can possibly look to bring on Trae Coyle for Vadaine Oliver and Gillingham can substitute Vadaine Oliver to ensure that he is available for selection for the home game against Swindon Town On Saturday.

However, straight from the kick off, Bristol Rovers almost halved the deficit straight away, Max Ehmer passes the ball out-wide to Sam Nicholson, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Sam Nicholson threads the ball down the line towards Zain Walker, And Zain Walker takes a touch to control the ball before playing a short pass back to Sam Nicholson, And Sam Nicholson see’s his cross charged down and deflected into Zain Westbrooke’s path, And Zain Westbrooke has kicked the ball up into the air and Ali Kolki is there first to get to the loose ball and play the ball back into Zain Westbrooke’s Path, And Zain Westbrooke’s first time shot towards goal clears Gillingham’s Crossbar by some considerable distance, Bristol Rovers have also made there fourth substitution of the match with Zain Westbrooke coming on for Ed Upson, this substitution must have taken place when Vadaine Oliver was getting some treatment.

Seventy Eight Minutes Into The Match, And Jack Bonham saves Sam Nicholson’s dangerous in-swinging cross with considerable ease, And In The Eightieth Minute Of The Match, Zain Westbrooke has whipped in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Jack Bonham has gathered the ball with ease, Bristol Rovers just do not have the physicality in the final third to cause Gillingham problems defensively in the air, And with Gillingham winning 2-0 and quite happy to let Bristol Rovers have possession of the ball, Then Bristol Rovers have to find a way to stick the ball into the back of the net very soon to set up a grand-stand finish to this match.

Eighty Two Minutes Into The Match, And Bristol Rovers were looking to find that goal which would set up a grand-stand finish, And Sam Nicholson has whipped in a dangerous in-swinging cross towards the far post and Ryan Jackson has got the faintest of touches on to the ball to header the ball away from goal, And Ryan Jackson was clattered into by Zain Walker and Gillingham have been awarded a defensive free kick and well done Ryan Jackson for that defensive header, and Ryan Jackson requires some treatment on the pitch, and this stoppage in play allows Gillingham to regain there composure and slow down the tempo of the match to our level.

Eighty Four Minutes Into The Match, And Ali Kolki times his sliding challenge to perfection on Ryan Jackson, And Gillingham have won a throw on in Bristol Rovers Final Third Down The Right Side Of The Pitch, And From The Resulting Throw On, Ryan Jackson throws the ball short to Kyle Dempsey, who passes the ball back out-wide to Ryan Jackson, And Ryan Jackson passes the ball short to Kyle Dempsey, who passes the ball back to Dominic Samuel, And Dominic Samuel clips the ball over the top for Ryan Jackson to run on to, And Ryan Jackson manages to keep the ball in play by standing a cross up towards the far post, and there was John Akinde to header the ball over the crossbar, and the ball has gone out of play for A Bristol Rovers Goal-Kick.

And that header was John Akinde’s last involvement in this match, Because Alex MacDonald comes on to replace John Akinde, And John Akinde has been superb up-front alongside Vadaine Oliver all evening, and this is probably one of John Akinde’s best performances in A Gillingham Shirt, Alex MacDonald will come on to sure things up defensively for The Gills, And In The Eighty Seventh Minute, Bristol Rovers created a half decent goal-scoring opportunity as Jack Baldwin passes the ball forwards towards Brandon Hanlan inside Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Brandon Hanlan has gone to ground underneath Connor Ogilvie’s challenge and Jack Tucker takes no chances and kicks the ball clear and away from danger at the expense of conceding a throw on, and from the resulting throw on, Ali Kolki throws the ball back to Jack Baldwin, who takes a touch to control the ball before whipping in a high and hanging cross towards the back-stick and Jack Bonham was able to gather the ball with ease.

And In The Ninetieth Minute Of The Match, Bristol Rovers came close to scoring again, Sam Nicholson has managed to pick out Brandon Hanlan with a low cross across towards the near post, And Brandon Hanlan manages to retain possession of the ball before eventually being challenged by Alex MacDonald, However, Alfie Kilgour has possession of the ball down the right side of the pitch, and Alfie Kilgour passes the ball down the line towards Sam Nicholson, And Sam Nicholson uses his pace to take on Alex MacDonald and stand the ball up towards the far post and Josh Grants Header towards goal goes wide of the far left post, and the ball goes out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick.

Gillingham then make there second substitution of the match as Declan Drysdale comes on to replace Scott Robertson, who has put in a exceptional performance in the middle of midfield, And Declan Drysdale will come on to sure things up defensively for The Gills, The next attack see’s Bristol Rovers on the front-foot as Zain Westbrooke plays a one / two with Sam Nicholson and Zain Westbrooke passes the ball inside centrally to Erhun Oztumer, who passes the ball square to Jack Baldwin, And Jack Baldwin passes the ball out-wide to Ali Kolki down the left side of the pitch, And Ali Kolki whips in a dangerous low cross and Brandon Hanlan flicks the ball across the penalty area and Tom O’Connor boots the ball clear and away from danger and Erhun Oztumer gets the ball under control, takes a few touches in possession of the ball and passes the ball forwards towards Brandon Hanlan, And Brandon Hanlan lays the ball off to Zain Walker, who passes the ball backwards towards Zain Westbrooke, And Zain Westbrooke passes the ball out-wide to Sam Nicholson, And Sam Nicholson passes the ball back inside to Zain Westbrooke, And Zain Westbrooke takes a touch to control the ball before whipping in a dangerous in-swinging cross and Zain Walker’s diving header fails to hit the target and the ball goes out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick.

And In The Ninety Third Minute Of The Match, Trae Coyle comes on to replace Vadaine Oliver, And you have got to applaud Vadaine Oliver, not just for the two goals, but his overall performance was exceptional again for Gillingham and Vadaine Oliver has now scored three goals in his last two appearances for The Gills, And the final noteworthy moment of the match see’s Max Ehmer’s low cross across the face of goal go out for a goal-kick for The Gills, and neither Brandon Hanlan, Zain Walker or Ali Kolki can divert the ball goal-wards, and after over four minutes of stoppage time, Referee Scott Oldham blows his whistle for Full Time and the final score at The Memorial Stadium Is Bristol Rovers 0-2 Gillingham.

FULL TIME: BRISTOL ROVERS 0-2 GILLINGHAM

I uploaded the following stats update on to Social Media,,,,,, FULL TIME: BRISTOL ROVERS 0-2 GILLINGHAM - A brace from Oliver earns Gillingham three valuable points and Gillingham now move up to 12th in The League One Table after this win tonight, Gillingham's win against Bristol Rovers was also The Gills third away league win of the season. Vadaine Oliver will get all the praise and plaudits for scoring both goals tonight - and rightfully so - But you can pick a additional seven or eight players who were exceptional this evening, Robbie McKenzie is one of those players, who again was superb in-front of the back four, Kyle Dempsey whipped in a sensational cross for Oliver's second goal, Tucker and Ogilvie were brilliant in the heart of Gillingham's Defence, and when Jack Bonham had to be called upon, he prevented Oztumer from scoring from a free kick when the score-line was 1-0 to The Gills. After losing 3-2 against Exeter City In The FA Cup Second Round on Saturday, we wanted to see Gillingham respond tonight, And The Gills have responded by putting in our best performance and our most professional performance of the season by winning 2-0 against Bristol Rovers.

And the latter part of my status update is the big talking point, we wanted to see Gillingham respond with a result against Bristol Rovers, But this wasn’t a smash and grab 1-0 win, this was a exceptional 2-0 win for The Gills against A Bristol Rovers Side who were tipped by many at the start of the season to be dark horses for a playoff challenge in League One, And I do believe that this was Gillingham’s most professional performance of the season, and we have seen the players put that 3-2 home defeat to Exeter City In The Second Round Of The FA Cup behind them with a hard fought win against Bristol Rovers At The Memorial Stadium, If there is one negative on the result, it is the fact that we as supporters could not be inside The Memorial Stadium to celebrate Gillingham’s 2-0 win tonight, Traveling back from a away ground with a win, three points, a clean sheet, and celebrating the win with your fellow supporters are moments to savour that is for sure.

Gillingham are now twelfth in The League One Table, and more importantly, seven points clear of The League One Relegation Zone, that win against Bristol Rovers has opened up a gap between Gillingham and the bottom four, and if Gillingham can back up this win against Bristol Rovers with another win against Swindon Town, Then that gap between Gillingham and the bottom four is only going to increase, and hopefully, by the time we get to the home game against Peterborough United on Boxing Day the gap between Gillingham and the bottom four is ten points at the very least.

Bristol Rovers just could not cope with the physicality from John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver in there own final third, and Bristol Rovers were lacking a striker with that physicality up-front to cause Gillingham problems defensively, Sam Nicholson, Zain Westbrooke, and Erhun Oztumer are not players who can cause Gillingham problems defensively in the air, and the one player who can win the ball in the air in Brandon Hanlan was either isolated, or double marked to perfection from Jack Tucker and Connnor Ogilvie, and it was interesting to hear Steve Evans mentioned that these two trained attack verses defence against Brandon Hanlan when Brandon Hanlan was playing for Gillingham, So we knew how to prevent Brandon Hanlan from causing Gillingham problems defensively, and to keep a clean sheet away at The Memorial Stadium is a incredible response from how Gillingham conceded three goals against Exeter City, the entire team responded and put in a exceptional team performance, and just when Gillingham needed one as well.

Bristol Rovers Supporters have spoken about Gillingham on there forum, and one comment in-particular stood out, "Gillingham everything you need in league 1 with a mid table budget. Big, tough , experienced , hardworking , confident and organised.” And Bristol Rovers have the experience, they have the quality in there side to be pushing higher up the table, but they are perhaps lacking the organisation, the confidence and the toughness you need to dig out a unconvincing 1-0 win when your not at your best, And when you look at the likes of Sam Nicholson, Max Ehmer, Jack Baldwin, Brandon Hanlan, Luke Leahy, Ed Upson, Abumere Ogogo, Zain Westbrooke, and Erhun Oztumer in Bristol Rovers First Team Squad, then Bristol Rovers should be pushing much higher up The League One Table, and maybe Paul Tisdale will be hoping to bring in a few reinforcements when The Transfer Window Opens In January.

This was a professional performance, this was precisely the response we wanted to see from Gillingham after losing 3-2 to Exeter City In The Second Round Of The FA Cup, we were wondering how Gillingham were going to cope with the absence of Jordan Graham from the starting line up, and Vadaine Oliver and John Akinde up-front gave Gillingham the physicality in the final third and Dominic Samuel put in a superb performance for Gillingham in The Central Attacking Midfielder Role, But it wasn’t just the attacking players who put in a superb performance, defensively, Gillingham were out-standing and to go to The Memorial Stadium and keep a clean sheet is something that Gillingham have not done too often, even though we have picked up quite a few points away against Bristol Rovers in recent season’s, this was a very good win, Because the players have put that defeat to Exeter City behind them and Gillingham are now twelfth in The League One Table.

As for Gillingham being twelfth In The League One Table, I think any talk about challenging for the playoff is very premature, and with Gillingham playing against Swindon Town, Doncaster Rovers, Accrington Stanley, and Rochdale over the next four league games, the challenge has to be to get as many points as possible from these four matches and to open up a huge gap between Gillingham and The League One Relegation Zone, so much so that we are not even talking about looking over our shoulder at the bottom four, And four wins out of four from these four league games would put Gillingham on Thirty Two Points from Eighteen Matches.

Hopefully, the first of those four wins can be achieved on Saturday when Gillingham take on Swindon Town At Priestfield Stadium, this would also be another fixture that Gillingham Supporters would have loved to have gone to, But this match will be played behind closed doors, and hopefully, Gillingham can build on this 2-0 win against Bristol Rovers and pick up another three points against Swindon Town - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!

#BristolRovers #Gillingham #Football #LeagueOne

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christinesweeney · 5 years ago

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COM713 Assignment 3, Part A

Proposed Research Question

Here and Now: what is the storytelling role of the writer in the digitally literate age of Australian children’s television/online/on demand production. Key words: storytelling, millennial's, Australian children’s television writers

Background

Australian children’s television has occupied a unique position in the global world of broadcast television with government investment opportunities, requirements for broadcasters to invest in the production of programs, scheduled broadcast time slots, quota system, clear guidelines in regards to content per classification and a media watch to ensure this all happens. This has resulted in a golden age of children’s programming with strong Australian voice, creative ideas and strong pre-sales and broadcast rights in international markets; a creative sandbox for writers, “particularly in the vulnerable genres of feature film, TV drama, children’s drama and documentary” Create NSW p. 1

Within the television production cycle, the writing practice holds a place in a either 1. a script that attracts production investment or 2. is a creative concept which is funded and a script commissioned. Both scenarios require government support as children’s television drama in particular is the most costly to make. Although popular with Australian audiences (Lockie Leonard, Blue Water High, Nowhere Boys, Round the Twist for example. Parry. (2017)) home-grown productions are often the first to be replaced by cheaper imported programming that has already recovered all or most of its costs in its home market. Create NSW (2017 p. 1).

The Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review in August 2017 was undertaken in response to changes in audience viewing patterns, increase in online distribution and new broadcasters not under the same programming regulations as existing broadcasters - these changes have put pressure on the existing policy. The 2017 Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review, conducted by the regulator ACMA and Screen Australia, was due to complete its report at the end of 2017. It has not yet been made public (Potter 2018).

As a backdrop to this domestic picture, the European Parliament for example proposed to increase the current local content requirement from 20 per cent to 30 per cent and to also apply it to satellite/video on demand services such as Netflix, while also allowing member states to impose minimum expenditure requirements (AMSD 2017). This review was completed, adopted and became legislature in November 2018.

A further example includes the UK government’s removal, in 2003, of children’s television programming quotas, leading to a 93% fall in spending by commercial channels and a concentration of children’s programming on the BBC children’s channels. Pett (2016).

Subsequently after a further review, the UK government has now given its communications regulator, Ofcom, the power to impose children’s content requirements on broadcasters amid concerns a generation of children are growing up watching repeats and foreign imports. Hughes. L (2017)

Rapid changes to the media landscape has seen a shift of control to new global players, and the children's audience themselves, who, enabled by technology are reshaping the media landscape. There is nothing new or remarkable to them about this technology. It is simply a part of the lives they live. The challenge for broadcasters today is to make content available to young people when and how they want it, to help them find it, navigate their way through it, and even create it hand in hand with broadcasters.

As part of her opening speech to the last World Summit on Media for Children/ Children's Global Media Summit Manchester December 5th 2017 Dr Patricia Edgar, AM – Founder and Deputy Chair (1999-2017) stated that “Mastery and understanding of media technology are now necessary life skills, as important as reading and writing, for living successfully in this century”.

It is in this context that I regard that the writing practice for children's television paradigm has changed: television is global, territories have blurred, creating:

● Multi-channel becoming omni-channel

● Trans media

● Cross platform storytelling

● A digitally literate audience

● Lean in instead of sit back

● Diversification of Government policy

● Resistance from broadcasters to invest in producing new content and achieve their quotas through re-runs reality TV and purchased content

● The broadcasting paradigm has shift but most importantly the audience has rapidly evolved – to what?

Draft Literature Review

This section has a current focus on contemporary commentary and research of Communication methodology and theories. This focus underpins the primary research questions of the writing practice as seen in the context of these communication trends. The data was collected during the development of the research question phase.

1. Local, state and federal government:

Why We Engage: How Theories of Human Behavior Contribute to Our Understanding of Civic Engagement in a Digital Era

Berkman Center Research Publication No. 21

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2343762 This paper is the most recent I have found that discusses the issues being faced in this subject. The focus of this paper is on civic engagement: “New technologies and corresponding social practices, from social media to mobile reporting, are providing different ways to record, share, and amplify that attentiveness. Media objects or tools that impact civic life can be understood within two broad types: those designed specifically with the purpose of community engagement in mind (for instance, a digital game for local planning or an app to give feedback to city council) or generic tools that are subsequently appropriated for engaging a community (such as Twitter or Facebook’s role in the Arab Spring or London riots)” (Gordon, Baldwin-Philippi and Balestra, 2013, p.1/2). This paper is a literature review and discusses the changing trends in social engagement and public participation. These are matters that communicators need to be aware of and understand how to acquire and process digital information, the processes of debate that are opened by the various digital technologies and how groups take action as a consequence of their digital engagement. 2. New media literacies: Also a literature review, Macnamara, J. (2013). Beyond voice: audience-making and the work and architecture of listening as new media literacies.Continuum, 27(1), 160-175.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10304312.2013.736950, makes a strong point that in the face of all our new technologies, there is still a strong requirement to listen. Well worth pursuing for this research topic. 3. Research and digitisation: How do we find out in today’s complex, fragmented environment with many diverse channels, what people are thinking about? Gone are the days when a researcher would go door to every second door in a particular demographic to seek answers to a wide range of issues. When constructing social science research can the digital technologies assist us to get a more accurate outcome? This paper raises many of the issues being faced by the digital researcher: Murphy, J., Link, M. W., Childs, J. H., Tesfaye, C. L., Dean, E., Stern, M., ... & Harwood, P. (2014). Social Media in Public Opinion Research Executive Summary of the Aapor Task Force on Emerging Technologies in Public Opinion Research. Public Opinion Quarterly, nfu053.

https://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/11/24/poq.nfu053.full 4. Mobile and the bigger picture: A useful update on the role of mobile communication and how it must be integrated with all other communication strategies and tactics, Strategic Communication Campaign Fundamentals

https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/90227_Chapter_2_Luttrell_PR_Campaigns.pdf Chapter 2, Luttrell PR Campaigns, Sage Publications (2019).

5. Other applications of digital technology: Digital interactive storytelling (Szilas, N., Axelrad, M., & Richle, U. (2012).

Propositions for innovative forms of digital interactive storytelling based on narrative theories and practices.

In Transactions on Edutainment VII ((pp. 161-179) Springer Berlin Heidelberg); global cities (.Taylor, P., Derudder, B., Saey, P., & Witlox, F. (Eds.). (2006). Cities in Globalization: Practices, policies and theories. Routledge); the information society (Webster, F. (2014). Theories of the information society. Routledge); fashion and culture (Bruzzi, S., & Gibson, P. C. (2013). Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and Analysis. Routledge). 6. Critical theories: All research in communication today needs to take account of critical aspect of our area of investigation. I have already have read some of these theorists but it is always good value to review them as they are important to understand what shapes critical communication theory. McCarthy, T. (1981). The critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. Taylor, R. W., Fritsch, E. J., & Liederbach, J. (2014). Digital crime and digital terrorism. Prentice Hall Press. Essed, P. J. M., & Goldberg, D. T. (2002). Race critical theories: Text and context. Blackwell. Berry, D. M. (2015). Critical theory and the digital. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Further Weblinks

This might be a rather simplistic introduction but it does provide a framework for understanding the space that I will be working. It is a useful primer on what digital means:

http://www.slideshare.net/sujinaummarj/digital-communication-4261185

This is how social media can create issues for organisations:

http://mumbrella.com.au/how-to-avoid-insulting-kanye-west-from-your-brand-account-347478

What is communication?

Why do we communicate? What facilitates our communication in today’s digital world?

Let’s think on how we communicate? What technologies do we use in all our communication?

Does digital connectivity take into account all the socio-cultural impacts on communication?

Does digital connectivity allow us to develop strategy and formulate a plan for communicating for multiple stakeholders over multiple sites simultaneously?

http://communicationtheory.org/list-of-theories

Reflection on the theories of communication I have studied so far has allowed me to consider which ones apply to my research interests. I made mention of them in the final section of this paper, outlining the characteristics that I will need to consider when developing my proposal.

Further Weblinks

AN EVOLUTION IS COMING

http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/reports/designing-the-digital-workplace

Most of the theories noted above have not specifically been designed to analyse the new technologies of digital connectivity. This presents both a problem and an opportunity for me. The problem; I have to decide if these theories from communication are suitable for today's environment and if they are, when should they be applied. Also I need to decide if they are suitable but need modification for a digital environment.

https://www.hetl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/HETLReview2013SpecialIssueArticle1.pdf

The above article on connectivisim as a theory has helped me understand how fluid this area of theoretical research is. And this Goetzman (2014) item on Digital Influences: Social Learning Theory, also sets out some of the new influences in the field. Although it has a psychological approach it demonstrates the multidisciplinary learning that one needs to sign up to be effective communicators:

http://goetzman.co/blog/digital-influences-social-learning-theory/

Siemens (2005) has also studied the theories that underpin the introduction of technology to the learning environment.

http://er.dut.ac.za/handle/123456789/69

A more recent discussion on the issue of a digital divide can be found in this Lu (2011) article from the Journal of Information Science, 36(6), 660-679.

http://jis.sagepub.com/content/37/6/660.short

Giustini, D. (2009). Utilizing learning theories in the digital age: from theory to practice. Journal of Canadian Health Libraries Association/ Journal de Association des bibliotheques de la sante Canada, 30 (1), 19-25 (http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/jchla/article/viewFile/22811/16995).

This form of article is reflective of the dearth of research in this area I am researching.

This initial research has informed this paper to a degree and I now have the opportunity to search more intensively and find other research that is more recent and relevant for my thesis literature review.

Research questions to date

● With a shift in the broadcast parameters and a radical change in the cognition ability of our audience:

● What is the role of the writer in the millennial age of Australian children’s television production?

● How do they do it?

Research to date has been an attempt to construct a framework to review the development of Australian children’s television writing – past to present [possible future scope?] and obtain an understanding of the pre-literate audience.

In this context, my core ethnographic question asks: How do people make sense of their everyday activities so as to behave in socially acceptable ways? I am trying to get to the norms, understandings and assumptions that are taken for granted by people in this setting because they are so deeply understood that people don’t even think about why they do what they do:

▪ Conduct and complete reviews of relevant literature

▪ Record interviews with Australian children’s television writers

▪ Industry surveys – writers, broadcasters, production houses

▪ Analyse and prepare the information gathered, for interpretation

I intend to put forward an interpretation of the changes and developments in Australian children’s television writing and the pre-literate audience brought about with the introduction of broadband, digital and interactive capabilities in Australia.

Research methods

An Integrated Literature Review (it’s a research method in itself) that I would undertake first up so as to review, critique and synthesise representative literature on Australian Children’s Television so as to generate new frameworks and perspectives on audio visual storytelling.

Case Study of specific programs and children’s response to the work

Record interviews with Australian children’s television writers

Project Scope

My portfolio will probably consist of around six chapters:

1. Introduction

2. Literature review

3. Case study 1

4. Case study 2

5. Case study 3

6. Conclusion

Ethics approval

Ethics approval will need to applied for in the immediate future, to ensure that my research involving human participants be approved and conducted in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) (National Statement (2007) which consists of a series of guidelines made in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992. NHMRC (2019).

Research data required

Australian children’s television writers

● Names

● Output

o Title

o credit

o awards

o year/dates broadcast

● years active

● Awards

● Place in the industry – personal contributions ie teaching, activism ‘their story’ etc

Industry status

● Funding/investment pathway for Australian children’s television

● Support organisations is Screen NSW etc

● Biannual children’s television conference

Case Studies

Observation of the writing process for one contemporary writing project with one or a team of writers

● Ideation

● Commission

● Development

● Production

● Broadcast

Survey

Opinions and statistical questions for full time performance writers ie Australian Writers Guild members

Video interviews

Selection of subjects for recorded interviews, record interviews, transcribe, analysis

Questions how do you write for a digital literate audience?

Focus Groups

Survey, question and video record observations of interaction with material from the era:

● Baby boomers

● Generation X

● Gen Y

● Millennials

Analysis data

● Research – written documentation,? who are our writers

● Case studies – video transcripts and written documentation

● Focus groups - survey and recorded discourse

● Video interviews – transcripts, edited footage

Research material output

● Research – written documentation, who are our writers?

● Program Case studies – video transcripts and written documentation

● Audience Focus groups - survey and recorded discourse

● Writer Video interviews – transcripts, edited footage

All of the details on this list would thereby become elements of the three interrelated research projects forming my exegesis portfolio, see Research Methods page 9.

My initial research drew on the work/findings of Hall, Williams (see final section of this paper) and others (cultural ethnographic research studies – there were many) in order to present a case for qualitative inquiry methodology and research design, in this instance an ethnographic case study. I attempted to then state up front the core philosophical question of your favoured research approach – just what it is that I am seeking to explore in this context - What is the culture of this group of people? How does culture explain their perspective and behaviours?

Finally further Research provided insight into the theoretical work of Piaget, Vygotsky, Dewey and Bruner and Constructivism/Interpretivism, a learning theory that “equates learning with creating meaning from experience” (Bednar et al., 1991) as my research paradigm. Once I firm up on my research question and sub-questions, in an ethnographical context, there are specific field work techniques/data analysis and representation formats I will need to draw on - to find out how the culture works.

Prior to researching and writing this paper I was looking to investigate two different questions in this overall research; the creative development of writing in this digital age and/or the regulatory framework in which writers and producers produce the work. My main focus is heading toward the examination of writers and the evolution, if any, of their (literary, cultural) storytelling craft for children. Regulation, industry guidelines and technology form the background to this proposed research question.

“The advent of new technology and how quickly it’s moving and how most of us just can’t keep up with it. How do we make all these advances in technology work in terms of the content we’re making? How do the two intersect? I don’t think any of us really understand what that means. It’s just such a Brave New World in lots of ways.”

Anita Jacoby, ITV Studios Australia

Child’s Play: Issues in Australian Children’s Television 2013, Screen Australia 2013

This draft proposal is a further record of my attempts to refine my initial research idea from several perspectives. While not able to wholly answer what the final research question will be at this stage, I can say that storytelling is a vital and important factor in the screen industry for children and the highly regulated landscape for delivery and consumption is in flux.

Here and Now: what is the storytelling role of the writer in the millennial age of children television production.

Key words: storytelling, millennials, Australian children’s television writers

Critical analysis of three research methods suitable for my project and arising from practice research approached, with indications of preferred approach

This section of the paper is a summary of my proposed research on methodology, to date.

Table 4. Excerpt from Table 3. Adapted from various sources, including Crotty (1998) P.256.

“What procedure can we use to acquire knowledge?” Patel (2015).

Theoretical perspective

Constructivism

Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process. The learner is an information constructor. People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality. New information is linked to to prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective. So constructivism is a learning theory that “equates learning with creating meaning from experience” (Bednar et al., 1991).

CONTRIBUTORS

● Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)

● Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)

● John Dewey (1859 – 1952)

● Jerome Seymour Bruner (1915 – 2016)

Swiss psychologist and genetic epistemologist Jean Piaget, along with Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky were among the first during the early part of the 1900's to espouse constructivist learning.

Piaget's theory of constructivism argues that people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. Two of the key components which create the construction of an individual's new knowledge are accommodation and assimilation. Piaget (2013).

The type of learning that Vygotsky viewed was one where the learners should discover their own truths about the world. He believed that:

● instructors and learners are equally involved in the learning process

● that there is significant implications for peer collaborations

● Using the ideas of thought and speech increased the learners ability to communicate with peers or collaborators.

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer and is one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology.

Bruner’s constructivist theory is a general framework for instruction based upon the study of cognition. Much of the theory is linked to child development research (especially Piaget’s). The ideas outlined in Bruner (1960) originated from a conference focused on science and math learning. Bruner illustrated his theory in the context of mathematics and social science programs for young children (Bruner, 1973). The original development of the framework for reasoning processes is described in Bruner, Goodnow & Austin (1951). Bruner (1983) focuses on language learning in young children.

Interpretive

Interpretive theory is a general category of theory including symbolic interactionism, labeling, ethnomethodology, phenomenological sociology and social construction of reality. Interpretive theory is typically contrasted with structural theories which claim to remove the subjectivity of the actor and the researcher and assume that human behaviour can best be understood as determined by the pushes and pulls of structural forces. Interpretive theory is more accepting of free will and sees human behavior as the outcome of the subjective interpretation of the environment. Structural theory focuses on the situation in which people act while interpretive theory focuses on the actor's definition of the situation in which they act.

Interpretive theory seeks reciprocal inter-subjective understanding of subjects. Interpretivist research is fundamentally concerned with meaning and it seeks to understand social members' definition of a situation (Schwandt 1994. Page 118). Interpretive theory involves building a second order theory or theory of members' theories (Schutz, 1973) in contrast to positivism which is concerned with objective reality and meanings thought to be independent of people.

Cultural Phenomenology

Raymond Williams’ work laid the foundations for the field of cultural studies and the cultural materialist approach. ‘Culture is ordinary, in everyday society and every mind’ (Williams 1958)

Williams proposed that culture meant both a whole way of life (culture in the anthropological sense, synonymous with everyday life) and at same time the signification (processes of discovery and creativity in the arts and learning in say novels, films but also advertising and television) that circulate within a society. He coined the phrase ‘structures of feeling’ in order to offer a perspective in which to view anthropological culture saturated by a mass of representations. (Highmore. B)

In his 2008 article “Raymond Williams and Education” Josh Cole says “Williams advanced a position which had culture, economics and politics in deep and shifting interaction with one another. A social formation at a given historical moment was for Williams a “complex interlocking of political, social, and cultural forces.” (Williams 1977)”.

Research for his seminal work Culture and Society included Williams looking at the historical changes in the meanings of over 109 words and writing at length on the significance of the facts of these changes. This body of work was to be the appendices of Culture and Society however the depth and detail of the work saw it published as Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society.

“This is not a neutral review of meanings. It is an exploration of the vocabulary of a crucial area of social and cultural discussion, which has been inherited within precise historical and social conditions and which has to be made at once conscious and critical – subject to change as well as to continuity.” (Williams 1976)

A revised and expanded (Williams’ added 21 new words) edition of Keywords was published by Fontana in 1983. Keywords remained an influential text through the 1980s, with another edition (without further additions) published in 1988. In 2005 Blackwell published New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, (written by noted international scholars) in an attempt to update Williams' text. Keywords was republished in 2014 by Fourth Estate with an accompanying art exhibition at Tate Gallery, Liverpool.

“Even now, the open-endedness of Keywords prevents it from seeming dated. Its highly personal, impatient, connection-seeking style fits the internet age well” (Beckett 2014)

Stuart Hall, within the Culture and Society paradigm, looked at class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, nationality and personal identity (an ongoing product of history and culture, rather than a finished product) in ‘culture’ whilst drilling down into Williams’ ‘culture is ordinary’ proposition. Hall said that culture was not something to simply appreciate or study but a “critical site of social action and intervention, where power relations are both established and potentially unsettled”. (Proctor 2004).

“the question [is] of representation…. one of the central practices which produce culture and a key ‘moment’ in what has been called ‘the circuit of culture’. (Hall. S 1997)

Hall’s original model was significantly revised by du Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackay and Negus (1997) where “the Circuit of Culture” is used as the theoretical model against which cultural items may be assessed for meaning.

In 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse’ (Hall’s encoding/decoding model, developed during his time at the British Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and first published in 1973 is said to have been a precursor to later circuit models developed by cultural theorists (Leve 2012)), Hall offers a theoretical approach of how media messages are produced, disseminated, and interpreted. “a message must be perceived as meaningful discourse and be meaningfully de-coded before it has an effect, a use, or satisfies a need.” (Hall 1973). His model claims that TV and other media audiences are presented with messages that are decoded, or interpreted in different ways depending on an individual's cultural background, economic standing, and personal experiences. Hall researched and challenged the encoding and decoding theory model over time, developing structure through a semiotic approach. There are four codes of the Encoding/Decoding Model of communication: dominant code, professional code, negotiated code and oppositional code known as the globally contrary code.

This model has been adopted and applied by many media theorists since Hall developed it. A number of theorists and Hall himself (Johnson, 1986; Pillai, 1992; Wren-Lewis, 1983; Morley and Chen, 1996) have highlighted conceptual deficiencies and inadequate terminological distinctions and clarifications within this earlier model which serve to inform later more comprehensively theorized models and their related concepts. (Leve 2012). Hall's work has been central to the development of cultural studies, and continues today because of the importance of decoding. Cultural Studies started challenging the mainstream media effects models in 1960. The main focus was how audience members make meanings and understand reality through their use of cultural symbols in both print and visual media. (Campbell 2003)

In using this cultural studies approach, which analysis the contemporary media using Marxist theories of society and the state, allied to forms of structuralism (Williams 1979, Hall 1980) as a basis of interrogation for the following dissertation topic:

Digital Natives: redefining the framework for developing Australian television programs aimed at a pre-literate children audience. How do children’s television writers develop their writing and storytelling skills for transmedia projects for an increasingly digitally literate audience up to five years old ,creates research questions, research approach, data collection, data analysis and conclusions firmly in this tradition.

Denzin and Lincoln write that qualitative research and practice operates in a complex field that crosses eight historical eras with the eighth described as:

Future 2010: which is now the future. The eighth moment confronts a methodological backlash associated with the evidence based social movement. The eighth moment asks that the social sciences and humanities become sites for critical conversations about democracy, race, gender, class, nation-states, globalization, freedom and community Denzin & Lincoln (2013).

Psychology, sociology, linguistics, literature, communications and anthropological theory will complement the empirical work. Methods of data collection will include in-depth interviews and group interviews, field notes, participant observation and surveys, journals, letters, conversations and life experience – collectively forming a narrative inquiry.

These individual studies determine methods of data collection and data analysis. The final research will have an “emphasis on discovery rather than proof, exploration rather than demonstration, suggestions rather than certainty - though these distinctions are not absolute.” (Vere Hodge. R & Tripp. D 1986).

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