#A.M. Johnson

[wendysbooknook]

Quote:

"The crowd went quiet, and when the whistle blew, and he sliced through the surface, I heard it. The moment when the sun broke past the horizon and kissed his body as he parted through the water. Brilliant and bold. An orchestra with each stroke. I couldn't take my eyes off him as he manipulated the elements. Using air as fuel, bending water to his will. He was fast, faster than humanly possible, and each kick of his foot mimicked the galloping beat of my heart." - A.M. Johnson "Let there be light"

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[cattatonically]

Heart2Heart: A Charity Anthology Vol. 6 – Edited by Leslie Copeland

Synopsis

Once upon a time, a bunch of authors wondered… what would happen if Heart2Heart, the dating app responsible for pairing up the quirkiest, most perfect couples, brought people together by asking the questions they never knew they needed answered?

From learning each other’s secret zombie survival skills, to disputing the greatest starship captain ever, to confessing their feelings about Cornish pasties, the characters in these fourteen brand new stories inspired by reader suggestions will learn that no matter how random the question… love is always the answer.

And, as always, all proceeds from this anthology will benefit LGBTQ+ charities to ensure that love in all its incarnations will be celebrated and protected every day of the year!

My Thoughts

Another anthology, and another really good time!

After reading the 5th volume of the Heart2Heart anthologies, I really meant to go back and start at the beginning. But somehow I found myself with the newest volume instead.

I really liked that the theme was so random, and that the questions were so broad and unique! Each story was so captivating, I had to take a pause in between to truly process them all on their own.

Just like with volume 5, there were definitely some stories that I liked more than others. Definitely some authors that I felt a bit more of a connection with than others. But I can truly say that there wasn’t one single story I disliked at all. I walked away with a few more authors to check out at a later date, as well!

Sometimes, all we need are really good, happy endings, and fuzzy feelings. This anthology definitely offers that in spades. I cannot wait to explore more of these authors, and the earlier editions of these anthologies.

[hannaedits]

Con Report: Indies Invade Philly 2023

[melanielocke]

So, I really need some book recommendations.

I usually read fantasy but I also like dystopian, sci-fi and stuff. As long as it's fictional. I also like rewrites (if that makes sense).

Since the request wasn't super specific, for this one I just picked a couple of very different fantasy books that I read recently and have not yet discussed. I don't have a lot of recent dystopian (publishing currently believed dystopian is dead, I think). For sci-fi, check out this post

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen is a retelling of the Goose Girl. That's a relatively unknown Grimm fairytale where a wicked maid steals the identity of a princess. This book tells the story of the maid, Vanja Schmidt, who is the adopted daughter of Fortune and Death. She used to be Princess Gisele's maid, until she stole Gisele's enchanted pearl necklace that changes her appearance and takes her place. Now, Vanja leads a double life as princess and jewel thief, seeking to make enough money to escape before she has to marry her creepy fiance, and so she can escape her mothers. But when she crosses the wrong god, she is cursed to slowly turn into a statue of jewels as punishment for her greed, unless she finds a way to make up for what she stole. I'd recommend this book if you like unlikeable main characters.

Vanja is very selfish, but she if she doesn't put herself first, no one else will, so it is definitely understandable. She has a tendency to push everyone away, but deep down she's very lonely. She's a gremlin, and I love her.

There are also some very charming side characters, including the daughter of the god who cursed Vanja, a shape shifter who does not quite understand human behavior, and a prefect (a magic detective of sorts) chasing the jewel thief.

This book also makes some great social commentary on class and wealth. Vanja might have done a bad thing stealing Gisele's life, but Gisele wasn't entitled to all that wealth and prestige in the first place, and this book heavily criticizes nobility.

The Forever Sea and the Endless Song are part of a series and I have only read book 1 so far (book 2 just came in yesterday). This is an adult fantasy series and as such it is heavier on the world building and more complicated than most YA fantasy, so if you've only ever read YA fantasy I don't think this is the best book to transition into adult, but if you're used to reading adult this is a good series to try.

The Forever Sea is one of the most unique fantasies I've read, and this mainly lies in the world building. The premise of this world is an ocean made out of very high grassland. Ships can sail on this grass with the help of a magic hearthfire, and if this fire would go out you would very slowly sink beneath the grass. Sailors go out onto the sea mainly to harvest all sorts of plants used for food and medicine.

Kindred was raised by her grandmother, the Marchess, a legendary captain and hearthfire keeper. When her grandmother disappears beneath the sea, everyone assumes it was a suicide. But Kindred finds a note from her grandmother implying that it was not suicide, but that she was searching for what is down at the bottom of the sea, and might still be alive there. So Kindred sets out to find her, traveling across the Sea and through a legendary pirate city to see if her grandmother could still be out there, and what is at the bottom of the sea.

This book is very plot driven with a huge emphasis on the environment and descriptions on it, but also lots of world building on how this works exactly. There isn't a lot of emphasis on it, but there is also a sapphic relationship in here between the main character and another sailor. As I said, I haven't read book 2 yet but will start it soon. It's also not out in the US yet (coming 14th February, but the UK edition was released already) From the reviews I gathered there's going to be a third (last? idk) book.

In the Ravenous Dark is a dark fantasy that is marketed as YA, but I think it's very upper YA, maybe more NA but publishing doesn't think that is a thing, so YA it is.

This is set in a world inspired by ancient Greece, but only vaguely (clothes, buildings etc, much of the world building is completely made up), and Rovan, the main character, is a blood mage. Since her father's death, she's kept her blood magic hidden, but when her magic is revealed she is taken to the palace and bound to Ivrilos, a dead spirit who can control here, which is something that is done to all blood mages.

Rovan falls in love with two people she can't trust, the spirit Ivrilos, and princess Lydea, another blood mage, and together they uncover a plot of what is going on in the world of the dead and living, and why blood mages must be bound to spirits.

I think the magic system in this book was very well done, including the way spirits work and the realm of the dead. The book was at times a little messy, and I think it might have worked better as a duology since there was so much going on, but I don't bother me much while reading it.

There's a poly relationship between Rovan, Ivrilos and Lydea, which I really liked, and there's Japha, a really cool non binary side character who's essentially the fourth part of the found family.

Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman is a YA fae fantasy set in a second world focusing on an autistic main character

Seelie is a changeling. Though she looks exactly like her twin Isolde, she's actually a fae creature trying to control her unpredictable magic. She and her sister had to flee their home due to prejudice against changelings, and end up stealing to survive. When they get caught up in a heist gone wrong, they team up with unexpected allies to go on a quest and unravel a mystery to do with fae and human history.

The plot of this book is what you'd expect from a YA fantasy, fast paced, not super unpredictable or anything. The strenght of this book is the main character. Seelie is autistic and written by an autistic author, and while it is set in a world where the term autism does not exist, it is portrayed really well and I found Seelie very relatable as an autistic person. In this world, changelings are typically autistic (because real world changeling myths often derive from disabled children, including autistic children). The sister relationship is also intersting, because Seelie and Isolde are so different, and have very different ideas of what their life should be like once they're finished with this quest.

It is the first in a duology and I have no clue when book 2 is coming out

The last book on this list is the Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar which is a contemporary fantasy inspired by Indian mythology, specifically, the naga. Naga in this world can't dream on their own, so they have children taken from the human world who become dream runners. They travel to the human world to collect dreams from humans for the naga.

Tanvi is such a dream runner, she's been in Nagalok for the past 7 years. Dream runners don't dream themselves and are devoid of emotion, but for Tanvi this is slowly returning and she's desperate to make it stop.

Venkat is a dreamsmith, the only human in Nagalok who is not a dream runner. Instead, he shapes dreams collected by the dream runners into dream stones used by the naga.

They team up to figure out what is going on with Tanvi, and uncover a plot that could destroy the naga world.

I loved the creative world building in this book, with how the dream runner system works. Tanvi was a little difficult to relate to at first, because she was very obsessed with earning a charm bracelet in exchange for her dreams and I found this confusing, but this will make sense later on, and this book had some twists I really liked.

I hope this helps!

[bob-the-movie-man-film-reviews]

The Watchers (15): A Very Creditable debut outing by Ishana Shyamalan... until the finale.

#onemannsmovies #filmrevies of "The Watchers". #TheWatchers. A very Shyamalanny debut for young Ishana, but a half-decent offering in a well-worn genre. 3/5.

A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Watchers” (2024). “The Watchers” is the debut feature of Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of course of famous director M. Night Shyamalan. And the film has Shyamalan fingerprints all over it! And like the proverbial curate’s egg, it was good in places. Bob the Movie Man Rating: Plot Summary: Mina (Dakota Fanning) is an artist in Galway, doing work in a pet-shop on…

[afriblaq]

Dec. 4, 1969—55 years ago today—police officers from the Cook County, Ill., State Attorney’s Office, in collusion with the FBI, committed the cowardice act of sabotage, murder and assassination of Chicago's Son, Activist, Humanitarian, Freedom Fighter and Uniter Fred Hampton as the Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and his pregnant girlfriend slept in their home on 2337 W. Monroe St. At approximately 4:45 a.m., 14 police officers raided the apartment on Chicago’s West Side and opened fire in the orchestrated hit. Four other Panthers were shot; several were beaten; and Deborah Johnson, Hampton’s eight-months-pregnant fiancée, barely escaped with her life. Make no mistake about Fam, at the age of 21 he founded the now bastardized  Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots and the Young Lords, and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. THIS, TO THEM, MADE HIM A THREAT TO THE SYSTEM... I KNOW *MY HEROES... I KNOW WHERE I DRAW MY INSPIRATION!

@darkk3ntdanger

[atavist]

The Titanic of the Pacific: A tale of disaster, survival, and ghosts.

Issue no. 138 of The Atavist is now live:

Those onboard were stunned when none of the surviving women would get in the rafts. They believed that with ships in sight, rescue might be imminent. If it wasn’t, the women had little reason for hope. Many had watched their husbands and children die. They preferred to stay where they were. Some began to sing “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” a hymn that in just a few years would become famous for reportedly being the last song sung aboard the Titanic.

Men readied the rafts. The first group to leave consisted mainly of crew members, including chief cook Samuel Hancock. After clearing the ship around 10 a.m., the men rowed toward the distant vessel—only one seemed to remain—but then lost sight of it. Hancock knew there was a northerly current and told the men to keep the shoreline in sight.

Peter Peterson stood on the Valencia’s deck, watching as the topmast came crashing down and the hurricane deck finally caved in. It was now or never—the last raft needed to leave the ship. Captain Johnson tried to change the women’s minds. “This is the last chance,” he said. One replied, “We might just as well die on the ship as die on the raft.”

[how-serene]

Do You Need The Sandman?

Pairing - Johnson (Reprisal) x Fem!Reader

Summary - It's midnight and all Johnson wants is to hear your pretty voice on the other end of the line.

Word count - 497

Warnings - smoking, so many uses of pet names, yearning, Johnson being slightly horny for you

A/N - Love how I'm literally only writing for Johnson so far. Inspired by the song Evangeline by Stephen Sanchez.

Johnson took a long drag from his cigarette, letting the smoke coat his tongue. In his other hand he held a sleek black phone that was connected to a barely kept together phone booth. A stream of live band music spilled into the streets whenever someone walked inside the bar, reminding him he wasn’t alone. 

Pick up, baby.

He cradled the phone to his ear, holding onto it as if the device might disappear in his hands. Maybe you were asleep, or simply weren’t home-

“H-Hello?” your sweet voice came through the receiver, stalling his thoughts. A strange sense of relief washed over him. 

“It’s me, angel.” he said, plucking the cigarette from his lips. He could hear you shuffling around, turning on the lamp beside your bed. 

“Well hello, lover boy.” you eventually said, giggling in his ear. His heart fluttered at the sound, as he firmly pressed the phone against his cheek. The time on his watch read 12 a.m.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he apologized, flicking the cigarette. “Just wanted to hear your voice.” 

His stomach twisted at your silence, tugging at the phone cord as some mease distraction as he waited. 

You sighed into the phone, “It’s fine, I wasn't getting much sleep.” You fell silent again, weighing something in your mind. 

“Too busy thinking about you anyway.” 

He perked up, snuffing out his cigarette as he propped his arm up on the phone stand. People continued to filter in and out through the bar door, drunkenly making their way past him without another thought. 

“Been thinkin about you too, angel face.” he confessed, his voice nearly a whisper. He could picture you lying there right now, phone held up to your ear, hand grasping onto it like a lifeline. The mattress hugging the curves of your body, the sky blue nightie you adored rising up over your stomach whenever you moved around. Your own hands running down the sides of your soft body, teasing him over the phone. 

“Been thinking about you a whole lot,” he muttered, the sight of you in his mind vanishing. You giggled again, amused. He closed his eyes, greedily drinking in the sound. 

“I’m curious to know just how much I’ve been on your mind, Johnson.” 

Your sugary voice was almost mocking, causing his heart to wince. 

He glanced back at the bar door, contemplating. The minutes ticked away on his watch, yet it felt as if time didn’t move at all. The sight of you appeared in his mind again, all blue and all soft. 

“Stay awake for me, doll.” 

You hummed, “Will do, doe eyes.” before promptly hanging up. 

He hung the phone back up, flicking his cigarette on the ground. The warm night air brushed against the nape of his neck. He began walking, the mere thought of you in his mind pulling his body toward your presence. 

Behind him, the lively sound of bar music and laughter filled the parking lot.

So, don't go to sleep, don't rest your head I'll be the pillow, and I'll be the bed Holding your dreams as you lie to rest

[myfriendtheurbanlegend]

26-year old article about Jim Caviezel from the Seattle Times. I remember reading it and liking it very much but it has been deleted from their site so I'm copying it here in its entirety.

The Unexpected Star -- Jim Caviezel's Stubborn Sincerity Cuts A Swath Through Hollywood

By Richard Seven

AT FIRST GLANCE, Jim Caviezel's big, ocean-blue eyes seem little more than the requisite work tools of a movie star.

They were as polished as new-car paint in "The Thin Red Line," the impressionistic World War II movie that catapulted him toward celebrity. In his role as Private Witt, Kentucky-bred GI existentialist, he spent much of his time standing by like a battlefield aura, staring and soaking in the chaos. In one powerful scene, he communicated shock, fear, helplessness and then joyful peace in a 15-second span using nothing but his gaze.

His look has always grabbed attention, at least as far back as 1987, his senior year at Kennedy High School in Burien, when he was voted "boy with the prettiest eyes."

They are more than props of a pretty boy, though. Look closer and you'll see an earnestness staring back that announces what or how he's feeling and reveals he is far more Skagit Valley, where he grew up, than Tinseltown.

In fact, at 30, Caviezel finds himself a Hollywood commodity in part because he's not Hollywood at all.

He has a child's curiosity that lets him introduce himself to Al Pacino, Magic Johnson or any stranger who grabs his attention. He looks flush at you when he talks about his Catholic faith, or his determination not to let learning difficulties slow him or fame change him. He is direct and intense, once frightening a casting director while portraying a menacing jerk. "I didn't get the part," he recalls.

He can seem quaintly courteous, yet possesses a righteous temper. While walking through the Los Angeles airport once with his wife, Kerri, he sighted a known scam artist posing as a priest and soliciting "donations." Caviezel pointed, shouted "You're a fraud!" and hunted for security guards.

There are times he burrows into a hyperfocus so strong it seems a trance. Other times, his thoughts drift like smoke while someone is talking to him.

He struck casting directors as over-eager or spacey when he was struggling. Now that he has momentum, they consider him fresh. Idiosyncratic director Terrence Malick saw something new when he chose Caviezel (ka-VEEZ-uhl) to be Witt, the spiritual core of the Oscar-nominated film, instead of Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt or Matthew McConaughey.

Caviezel has finished supporting roles in two high-profile movies opening this fall and is starring in one set for spring. He receives several scripts a week, studio brass are dangling projects, and fashion designers, in their way of rewarding people more the less they need it, send him free clothes.

His run could stop at anytime and for any reason, but the debate in Hollywood isn't about whether he's got what it takes. What they wonder is how a wide-open Northwest man with a strict moral code, an aggressive sincerity and windows for eyes can survive in an industry that runs on illusion.

Back in December, as photographers crowded Caviezel at the premiere party for "The Thin Red Line," friend and co-star Sean Penn walked up, put his arm around his shoulders and whispered, "I don't know how you're going to last in this business. You don't fit in."

It was both compliment and caution.

AT 5:15 A.M. CAVIEZEL has the dark lanes of Beverly Glen Boulevard to himself as he drives his 1993 Honda Accord, with a University of Washington "W" decal on the back window, from his Sherman Oaks apartment toward UCLA. He is headed for a two-hour workout before a day of research and practice for a potential role as an autistic man.

Two nights before, his face and wistful look, magnified on a movie screen, had dominated the best-picture clip for "The Thin Red Line" during the Academy Awards.

He is 6-feet-2, a slender 185 pounds, with short, coal-black hair and an angular face with high cheekbones. In the dim dashboard glow, he looks far younger than in the movie, perhaps 22, the age at which he moved to L.A. to become an actor in early 1991.

He never considered the impossible odds then. He was so confident that he struck people as naive or cocky, like when he was dumped into a garbage bin at Mount Vernon High School as a freshman for saying he planned to make the varsity basketball team.

He was a gifted mimic, even as a kid, doing imitations of Mr. T, the gruff goon on TV's "The A Team," and others. He made people laugh and felt warm in the spotlight. He modeled clothing and appeared in a few Seattle-area plays. He got his Screen Actors Guild card after scoring a 10-second part in the Northwest-filmed "My Own Private Idaho." Playing an airline ticket-taker, he said, "Do you have any bags to check?" and "Have a nice flight."

A local talent agent said he had what it took, and that was all the nudging he needed.

"I came down here with the same sort of expectations I had as a freshman at Mount Vernon, and I got pummeled again," he says, his soft monotone harmonizing with the hum of tires on road. "I didn't know what acting was, and no one down here cares if you make it or not. I was pressing, and it showed."

He still hasn't veered much from the over-achieving straight arrow who studied hard and dreamed big while growing up in a close-knit family unified by Catholicism and basketball. His father, James Sr., a longtime Mount Vernon chiropractor, was a high-school All-American and played at UCLA for Coach John Wooden. All five children - Ann, Jim Jr., Amy, Tim and Erin - played college ball.

Jimmy, as they call him, had the least relative ability but worked the hardest. While his younger brother, Tim, a highly recruited high-school player in 1990, hoisted half-court shots on the family's court, Jimmy did ball-handling drills. He transferred as a junior to O'Dea High School in Seattle because it was a Catholic school and seemed to offer a better chance to play basketball. He moved to Kennedy as a senior and started at point guard. He lived with friends, commuting home to Conway, a Skagit Valley town just south of Mount Vernon, on weekends.

He played two years at Bellevue Community College. Coach Ernie Woods says Caviezel was the hardest worker he had in 30 years and also made his mark by charming a Bay Area restaurant owner into giving the team a free dinner during a road trip.

The blend of intensity, personality and faith helped separate him from the hordes of young, good-looking wannabes who swarm L.A.

He was there about a month when he met Father Lawrence Jenco, the Catholic priest who had been held hostage in Lebanon for 19 months in the mid-1980s. Jenco introduced him to Chuck Weber, a USC professor with a big house near Hollywood.

"The idea was for Jimmy to stay a month so he could get his feet on the ground," said Weber. "He stayed more than five years. But that was fine. We'll be lifelong friends."

Cheap rent let Caviezel spend more time practicing and auditioning and less time waiting tables. The early years were dry, but he trudged ahead.

Once, as President George Bush left a fund-raising party at a producer's Malibu home, he pushed between Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell to shake Caviezel's hand. "Nice job" he told Caviezel, who was there not as a guest, but as a server. Bush saw a vote, but Caviezel had made sure he was nearby.

In 1993, he turned down a scholarship to Juilliard, the prestigious New York performing-arts school, to take a bit part in "Wyatt Earp." His role involved a few days of filming, but director Lawrence Kasdan liked him so much he paid him to stay for the entire four-month shoot. When the star, Kevin Costner, needed to go to Seattle, he gave Caviezel a lift in his private plane.

He always did better with people he got to know on the job than with casting directors. His agent, Pamela Cole, says his sincerity can win people over - or throw them off. "Jimmy's not like most actors," she says. "He cares about other people."

AT MID-MORNING, his workout finished, Caviezel heads down Pacific Coast Highway South while Frank Sinatra croons "Strangers in the Night" from the car's tape deck. He points out a beachside restaurant called Gladstone's.

"That's the place to eat breakfast," he says. "I should know. I used to work there." He points to the other side of the highway into the Malibu hillsides. "This is Sean Penn country, too."

The autistic role Caviezel is considering was Penn's before Penn had a falling out with the studio. The men maintain an odd-couple bond developed while filming "The Thin Red Line." Like their characters, Caviezel is the stubborn optimist while Penn is guarded. There was a scene in which Penn's character, Sergeant Welsh, asks Witt, "You still seeing that beautiful light? How do you do that? You're a magician to me." Witt responds, "I still see a spark in you."

The scene was ad-libbed, the two speaking based on their friendship. As in the movie, Penn is both taken and baffled by Caviezel. (Though known for his distrust of reporters, Penn agreed to say something: "Jim's got an almost archaic sincerity, which is very pure - a rare and valuable thing for an actor.")

Long before they met, Caviezel had a dream in which he was acting with Penn. About a year later, in 1996, they were auditioning for lead roles in "The Hi-Lo Country," about two cowboys.

Caviezel was sure it was his break, but he came home one day and found a note from the director saying the studio wanted someone else. He was crushed and decided to give Hollywood six more months and then look for a stable life.

"I gained a little freedom from that," he said. "I decided to quit being so worried about getting the next part and just do the best I could. Instead of doing 10 auditions, I'd only go for the parts I wanted. I'd go down fighting and let people laugh, because I was designing my own life.

"I put my faith in God. It was about Him and my family. It had to be more than about me."

IT SEEMED EVERY ACTOR wanted a role in Malick's first movie in 20 years. He had done only two films, but both were unique and lasting. He made stars out of Martin Sheen in "Badlands" and Richard Gere in "Days of Heaven." Caviezel had never heard of him.

Penn, the first to sign on, suggested Caviezel. Malick planned a feature-length poem and became intrigued by Caviezel's soulful presence. The two dined a few times so he could size up the unknown.

Malick wasn't interested in Caviezel's resume, which was peppered with tiny roles such as a fighter pilot in "The Rock," and a dim-bulb Navy SEAL recruit in "G.I. Jane." In "Ed," perhaps the worst baseball movie ever, his character was cut from the team and movie midway through after Ed the monkey outplayed him at third base. Caviezel's greatest exposure might have been a 1997 job modeling jeans for The Gap on buildings, kiosks and buses across the country.

Malick warned Caviezel not to turn down other offers, but he did, ignoring chances to make television pilots at $100,000 apiece. He was visiting his parents in Conway months later when Malick finally called and said, "You're Witt."

Malick shot enough film for several movies and seemed to be winging it. Big names were axed; featured parts became glorified cameos. Caviezel wound up front and center. The beautiful, meandering movie confounded some customers and critics, but Caviezel was widely praised for how he translated Malick's spiritual vision.

What he does next is critical if he is to keep momentum. His eyes will stare out with menace from the bearded face of a Civil War bushwhacker in "Ride With the Devil," due in October. He's a bad guy, but a complicated one. He plays Al Pacino's estranged son in "Any Given Sunday," an Oliver Stone movie coming in the fall.

He is wrapping "Frequency," a time-tripping thriller in which he stars as a New York homicide cop who learns he can communicate with his dead father, played by Dennis Quaid.

He is weighing other projects, but really wants one still deep in development. It's the story of Jimmy Braddock, an underdog who became boxing's heavyweight world champion in 1935. He is drawn to it because Braddock was a devout Catholic family man.

Directors and producers call Caviezel's charisma "old-fashioned" and liken him to Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart.

"The only thing that scares me is Jim's such a kind soul," said Beverly Dean, his longtime manager, who recalls the lean early years. "The studios all want to be his friend now, but he has to learn to say no."

AFTER CRUISING past Malibu and stopping for juice at a Starbucks (where a pretty woman recognizes him and exclaims, "You look so young!"), Caviezel pulls his Honda to the curb in front of Agoura Hills High School.

Wearing blue jeans, a sweatshirt and glowing-white Reeboks, he walks into a special-education classroom where he has spent days observing and talking with autistic teenagers to prepare for the audition.

The teacher suggests Caviezel sit in a student's desk to see how important routine, such as always using the same desk, can be to an autistic person. The developmental disorder severely limits the ability to make social connections; the teacher warns Caviezel that the student likely would express his displeasure without looking him in the eyes.

"Actually," she adds after regarding Caviezel, "he might look in your eyes."

When the boy walks in, he not only looks Caviezel in the eyes but seems happy to see him.

A few days before, Caviezel had stood in front of the class and told the students about his own learning problems. In 1994, at age 25, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. He also struggles with dyslexia. He told the students he felt stupid in school because he had to study so much harder than everyone else. He had bouts of frustration that led to fights and was turned down for dates by girls who thought he was weird.

But he learned to use what makes him different and find his talent, he said, and they could, too.

"I'm like you," he said.

While a stretch, it made an impression. One boy walked up and, while looking over Caviezel's right shoulder, said, "Thank you for what you said."

Caviezel won't take Ritalin, the drug often prescribed for ADHD. He uses diet, his early-morning fitness regimen and a Marine's discipline. He has worked on a machine designed to retrain brain waves and enhance focus and found he is exceptionally good at it. There are times his mind feels groggy, as if he just got out of bed, but he also has long periods of crystal clarity most actors can't touch, he said.

It has led to an holistic approach to work. He reads a script dozens of times but doesn't stop at memorization. He tries to understand a character so he can assume the personality.

Jim Schamus, producer and writer of "Ride With The Devil," said Caviezel was by far the most prepared actor on the set. He carefully read the book the movie is based on and pointed out key lines Schamus had missed in his adaptation. Caviezel grilled Schamus about the purpose of the film's violence, became close to its guerrilla-warfare expert and brought a band to the set that played Civil War-era music.

FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL, Caviezel drives to Hollywood and the office of John Kirby, his acting coach. Kirby sits in a corner, surrounded by framed pictures of actors and a poster that begins, "How To Be Creative . . ." Caviezel sits so close their knees almost touch.

The role he is practicing is that of an autistic father fighting to keep custody of his 5-year-old daughter. Caviezel isn't sure he wants it; parts of the script feel manipulative to him.

They run through a scene in which Kirby plays the daughter, asking questions like, "Where does the sky go?" and "Where's Mommy?" Caviezel gropes through his lines, searching for tone, cadence, posture.

Soon, he is pacing across the room and grumbling about getting involved. How can he learn autism in a few days? he asks. He can't afford to bomb the audition, and he is growing agitated. He puts his face inches from Kirby's to make a point.

Kirby calmly offers specific tips and reminds him to lighten up. Caviezel begins using mannerisms he picked up in the classroom, scrubbing the side of his head with his knuckles, pinching his fingertips, rocking and humming. The fidgeting right leg is his own.

The reading flows from there. In a scene where the character defends his parenting ability in court, Caviezel's voice explodes in anger while his eyes bore into Kirby. A look of shock sweeps over the coach's face - until he realizes this is in the script.

Hollywood used to laugh at Caviezel's jock exuberance, Kirby says later, but that's who he is.

"He has such a soul, such a spiritual center, that it is easier for him to show everything," Kirby said. "He's not a cliche. It's real."

BY THE TIME HE leaves Kirby's office, Caviezel feels better about the part. (He eventually auditioned and said it went well, but the movie project has been put on indefinite hold.) He also looks frayed, though. He hasn't eaten all day, and his eyes have reddened.

The question of fame comes up. Hollywood wants to know if he is the re-incarnation of Montgomery Clift, whom he resembles, or a one-hit wonder. How will he handle it once TV tabloids learn how to pronounce Caviezel? Will it all blur his clear-eyed vision?

He becomes solemn. He's aware celebrity comes cheap. He likes to cite what Nick Nolte told him: that fame is a big red balloon, flashy but filled with nothing but air. It grows and grows until there's no room for anything else, and then pop, it's gone.

Besides, he says, he wants to be only famous enough to get good roles and successful enough to someday run his acting career from a place like Spokane. That leads him to talk about his wife, who is not impressed with Hollywood.

They met on a blind date while he was struggling in L.A. and she was a basketball star, Kerri Browitt, at Western Washington University in Bellingham. They rendezvoused at Alderwood Mall and have been married three years. An English-literature teacher, she is, like him, a devout Catholic, serious and small-town, with family roots in Roslyn, Kittitas County, that go back 100 years.

Now that Caviezel seems on the verge of finding the dream he came to Hollywood for, his perspective of the dream has changed.

"I know this can all go away tomorrow." he says. "I've done nothing to brag about, but I thank God I was able to hang on long enough to find that one thing I can do well."

Before merging into the swelling freeway traffic to drive home, Caviezel stops at a gas station on Melrose Avenue. He recalls how, early in his career, he auditioned for "Melrose Place," a soap opera about beautiful but miserable people. He hadn't really wanted the part, but felt he needed to get noticed. The casting director didn't think he fit in. In fact, she thought he was strange and told his agent never to send him again.

Leaning on the roof of his car in the late-afternoon L.A. sun, a few days before flying to the East Coast to film with Quaid, the Melrose memory returns a spark to his eyes, as if he were, again, thanking God.

Richard Seven is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. Harley Soltes is staff photographer for the magazine.

[algebraicvarietyshow]

The House rejected a new Republican proposal to avert a shutdown, a day after President-elect Donald J. Trump torpedoed a spending deal that House Speaker Mike Johnson had struck with Democrats. The new, Trump-endorsed plan would have tied an extension of government funding to a two-year suspension of the federal debt limit. 

The vote was 235 to 174, with 38 Republicans and 197 Democrats voting no. Mr. Johnson is trying to find a new way forward. If a spending deal is not passed, government funding lapses at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

de kormanyozni tudnak!

mi lesz vajon ha trump elnok ur beiktatasaig nincs kormanyzati finanszirozas? kar lenne a szep unnepsegert

[lonestarflight]

"The Space Shuttle Enterprise, the nation's prototype space shuttle orbiter, departed NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, at 11:00 a.m., May 16, 1983, on the first leg of its trek to the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France. Carried by the huge 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), the first stop for the Enterprise was Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Piloting the 747 on the Europe trip were Joe Algranti, Johnson Space Center Chief Pilot, Astronaut Dick Scobee, and NASA Dryden Chief Pilot Tom McMurtry. Flight engineers for that portion of the flight were Dryden's Ray Young and Johnson Space Center's Skip Guidry. The Enterprise, named after the spacecraft of Star Trek fame, was originally carried and launched by the 747 during the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) at Dryden Flight Research Center."

Date: May 16, 1983

NASA ID: ECN-24314

[cattatonically]

Snowed In: An MM Romance Charity Anthology- Kiki Clark, Nora Phoenix, E.M. Lindsey, Nicole Dykes, Crea Reitan, A.M. Johnson, Dianna Roman, Cora Rose, Kelly Fox, and Lark Taylor

Synopsis

Snowed In is an MM Romance Charity Anthology from some of your favorite authors!These Christmas-themed stories all feature the swoon-inducing trope of being snowed-in together! You can find new, exclusive novellas from Kiki Clark, Nora Phoenix, EM Lindsey, Nicole Dykes, Crea Reitan, A.M. Johnson, Dianna Roman, Cora Rose, Kelly Fox, and Lark Taylor!

All proceeds will be donated to Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE).

My Thoughts

I love anthologies like this. I’ve read a few since first discovering them a few years ago, and I can never get enough.

Snowed In has the benefit of donating all the proceeds to Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), so not only do I get to read some fantastic stories, but I know my contribution is going to an amazing cause.

I also get to enjoy a few very fun takes on the same trope – being snowed in over the holidays!! With any anthology, a couple of the stories didn’t appeal to me as much as the others did, but they were all very fun regardless! I got to explore the writing styles of a couple new-to-me authors, while also relishing in the works of authors that have become staples on my digital shelves.

I really had a great time with Snowed In, and just in time for the holidays! I can be quite the Grinch this time of year (lots of family drama and trauma have made the holidays rather torturous some years). Being able to find little bits of enjoyment when I can eases the anxiety and the dread. And this anthology wad definitely way more than just a little bit of enjoyment.

[mariacallous]

On Aug. 8, 1974, Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon shocked the nation. Following more than a year of multiple investigations into his administration over the Watergate scandal, Nixon went on television and announced that he would be resigning from office the following day.

“To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the president and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home,” Nixon said as the nation watched. “Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.”

Less than two years earlier, Nixon had defeated South Dakota Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic Party’s candidate, in a landslide victory that pundits had compared to former President Franklin Roosevelt’s historic reelection in 1936. But now, Nixon became the first president in the nation’s history to step down before finishing his term. Americans were stunned and relieved. But even as Nixon’s administration has come to represent the ultimate rupture of a presidency, his was in fact the third consecutive administration to end in disruption in the mid-20th century. John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in November 1963. Lyndon Johnson had unexpectedly withdrawn from his reelection campaign in 1968. And then, six years later, Nixon would resign.

Nor was the outcome inevitable, as it may seem today. Nixon had fought when Congress, a grand jury, special prosecutors, judges, and reporters tried to find out what his role had been in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in June 1972, and whether he had obstructed subsequent investigations. Just a few days before Nixon’s announcement, a mere 31 percent of Republicans polled by Gallup felt that he should no longer hold the office.

The pressure had mounted. On July 24, in United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that the president must turn over secret White House tape recordings—one of which contained a “smoking gun” in which legislators could hear him in a conversation with advisor H.R. Haldeman, agreeing that they should persuade the CIA to stop the FBI from looking into the matter. On Aug. 7, Sen. Barry Goldwater, Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, and House Minority Leader John Rhodes—all Republicans—met with Nixon and said that if the House voted to send them articles of impeachment, which seemed likely, many in the GOP would join the Democrats in voting to remove him from office. Nixon’s job approval, according to Gallup, fell to 24 percent, with more than a majority of the country thinking he should leave. That’s what he did.

On Aug. 9, at 9:31 a.m., the president entered into the East Room with the first lady, Pat Nixon, and addressed a small group of cabinet officials, friends, and supporters. As he held back tears during different moments of his talk, Nixon advised everyone who was surrounding him: “Aways give your best. Never get discouraged, never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

He then went down to the Diplomatic Reception Room, where he wished the new president, Gerald Ford, good luck. Nixon walked up the staircase to the helicopter that was waiting for him outside, turned to look at the White House one last time as president, waved with his fingers shaped as a “V” for victory, and then flew off to Andrews Air Force Base, where Air Force One brought him back to California.

“With his departure,” wrote Jules Witcover in the Washington Post on Aug. 9, “he leaves behind a political legacy of negativism that far transcends the damage to his own party.”

Nixon’s presidency came to an abrupt end, but the resignation was just the final stage of a tumultuous era. The nation had been embroiled in fierce internal battles over issues such civil rights and the war in Vietnam. College campuses had been rocked by ongoing protest. Even the clothing that a person chose to wear sent strong signals about what they stood for. The Democratic Convention in August 1968 in Chicago had been a fiasco. The whole world watched as anti-war activists clashed with Mayor Richard Daley’s police force; inside the convention, anti-war delegates fought with supporters of then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had become the nominee when Johnson withdrew from the race

And all of this took place after there had been a series of assassinations that started with Kennedy. When Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968, unrest swept through major cities. When an assassin killed one of the late president’s brothers, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in June, many young people lost all hope.

It is not a surprise that in 1974, Knopf published Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, a masterful work that would come to be considered one of the greatest nonfiction books of the century. Caro traced the career of the legendary unelected civil servant Robert Moses, who started his career as an idealistic reformer but ended as someone who did whatever was necessary, and to whomever, in his quest for total power. “The real lesson of Moses’ career,” wrote a reviewer in the Los Angeles Times, “and it is not nearly so difficult to understand in light of recent events such as Watergate—is the way the techniques of opinion manipulation and power use can operate within democracy.”

But another perspective suggested that perhaps Nixon’s resignation demonstrated that “the system worked,” with the optimists wanting to believe that a scandalous president being forced to give up power would restore the trust in government and elected officials that Vietnam and Watergate had stolen from them.

“No one can rejoice in the events which culminated in the resignation of the President,” noted American Bar Association President Chesterfield Smith in a newspaper interview. “We can, however, find comfort in the fact that … when our system for the administration of justice was tested—by perhaps its greatest challenge of all time—that system proved equal to the task.”

Such feelings did not last long. History took a different turn, and public distrust of government worsened. In 2024, Americans have trouble believing that their leaders will serve the public interest. According to Pew, a mere 22 percent trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always.” Though there have been some moments of improvement, such as at times during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and in the years immediately after 9/11, the public trust percentages upward of 70 percent that were normative in the early 1960s currently feel impossible to recreate. Even in recent years, when trust has grown slightly higher, positive numbers remain far lower than before.

So why didn’t Nixon’s resignation make things better? How did an act of such massive historical weight fail to cure the ills that were afflicting the body politic?

To begin with, Richard Nixon was never held accountable. Just one month after he told Americans that he was stepping down, his successor, Ford—who Nixon had appointed to be his vice president in 1973, when Spiro Agnew resigned in scandal—pardoned Nixon for any crimes that he might have committed. Seeking to heal the nation, Ford did the opposite. Nixon, who in 1977 told television interviewer David Frost that if a president did something, then it was legal, went on to have a career writing books and giving advice to future leaders. Rather than a criminal, he was treated as a statesman.

Public distrust also never went away because Vietnam and Watergate created a more vigilant outlook, with institutional support, as more people on both the left and right were constantly on the lookout for wrongdoing. Investigative journalists, nonprofit organizations, and good government groups such as a Common Cause were determined to keep holding elected officials accountable. So Americans naturally learned more about the bad things that politicians could do, such as when Sen. Frank Church’s committee revealed the illicit activities of the CIA during the Cold War, as the forces of reform struggled to clean the government so that it work be better. The quest for improvement tapped into a distrust of government that had always been part of the United States since its founding, when the country was created in a rebellion against a corrupt and oppressive British government.

Had this healthy skepticism been balanced with messages about the virtues of what Washington could do, such as when elderly Americans received health care through Medicare or poor young kids received nutrition through school lunch programs, public opinion might have improved. But instead, a conservative movement swept through the nation. Conservatism targeted the ills of government. As Reagan declared in his inaugural address, “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

These feelings only intensified as more conservatism became more entrenched in politics and as the United States moved further away from Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society. Even some Democratic leaders such as President Bill Clinton, though still liberal, embraced Reagan’s logic as well. During his State of the Union address in 1996, Clinton proclaimed that “the era of big government” was “over.”

As if all of this was not enough, the intensification of hyperpolarization over the past two decades has caused red and blue Americans to distrust officials from the other side. To be sure, strong partisanship is a good thing. Robust parties offer Americans real mechanisms within the mainstream political system to express differences and to struggle over policy. Parties have helped to provide coherence to the country’s incredibly fragmented government.

But when “affective polarization” became normative, as political scientist such as Liliana Mason have argued, intense emotionalism left members of each party disliking the other and disgusted by their opponents to the point that there could be no reconciliation. Fundamental differences have been supplanted by fundamental distrust. And social media has created multiple opportunities to spread all kind of information regardless of its veracity, which further fuels these feelings.

Besides the sorts of tensions that this culture of distrust has created, the sentiment also makes it more difficult for the government that we all need to survive, thrive, and do good work.

Rather than hoping that somehow conditions will miraculously change, the time has come for a new reform agenda, where the country’s elected officials take the concerns that were at the root of the good-faith skepticism that took hold when Nixon stepped down. Instead of just railing against those in charge, Americans need more dialogue about improving processes, procedures, and rules—while demanding better leadership—in order to produce a government that is always looking out for the national interest.

[garadinervi]

Emily Dickinson, Before I got my eye put out, A.MS. (unsigned) poem; [n.p., ca. 1862 Aug.] [(1s. (3p.) MS Am 1118.1 (14)). Emily Dickinson Archive. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0]

Bibl.: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA, and Toronto, 1960, p. 155

Before I got my eye put out (J327, Fr336) Before I got my eye put out I liked as well to see – As other Creatures, that have Eyes And know no other way – But were it told to me – Today – That I might have the sky For mine – I tell you that my Heart Would split, for size of me – The Meadows – mine – The Mountains – mine – All Forests – Stintless Stars – As much of Noon as I could take Between my finite eyes – The Motions of The Dipping Birds – The Morning's Amber Road – For mine – to look at when I liked – The News would strike me dead – So safer Guess – with just my soul Upon the Window pane – Where other Creatures put their eyes – Incautious – of the Sun –

[spacefrontier]

Cygnus NG-21 S.S. Francis R. 'Dick' Scobee', carrying over 8,000 pounds of supplies and experiments, has successfully been berthed to the International Space Station.

Despite a low pressure state in the Cygnus engine preventing two orbit raising burns early in the mission, Northrup Grumman engineers were able to work out new burn and trajectory plans, enabling Cygnus to rendezvous with the International Space Station at the originally scheduled time.

At 3:11 a.m. EDT on August 6, 2024, astronaut Matt Dominick captured the spacecraft with the International Space Station's Canadarm2, with berthing completed remotely by engineers at the Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center at 5:33 a.m. EDT.

Cygnus will remain at the space station until January, where it will dispose of thousands of pounds by burning up in Earth's atmosphere during re-entry.

NASA 1, 2

[kaelinlikespeas]

Queerplatonic Jr.sie hcs:

(Rosie and John J. Johnson Jr.)

Both of them r literally not ashamed to say 'I love you' without it being all romantic-feely,they just think of it as a normal word for it

Jr. calls Rosie up whenever he has a weird thought in his brain. Usually it happens when it's 6 hours ahead for Rosie and 6 hours behind for Jr.

Ja Nein is fine with their qpr. He has small chats from time to time with Jr. (I needa stop lying yall)

They r randomly so creative with their convos together that they have random conversations about ranking their close friends based on which of the Seven Dwarfs they would be or some random stuff

They watch Octonauts and sitcoms together...

They have small arguments abt random things that pissed the other off a few days ago but both of them immediately reconcile afterwards

They have matching keychains..its just that Jr. can't find a spot to hang it from, so he just carries it around while Rosie places them on it's keys

Rosie knows Jr. is horrible at singing,but it doesn't say anything, but instead, she hypes him up for it (THATS WORSE)

Rosie and Jr. love hugging eachother for no reason,it's a buddy thing they do together.

If Rosie were to go visit Jr. after the season,she usually stays at his house (apartment? Idk) and one time Jr. caught Rosie sneaking at his kitchen at 4 a.m. and it was using an edit of Ja Nein as a flashlight.

They have a secret handshake..heh..

Jr. gave his spare Technicali jacket for Rosie to wear. It's safe to say Rosie wears it a lot whenever it comes to visit him.

They give pecks to eachother on the cheek or on the forehead (heh..Jr.sie..)

Rosie doesn't care how airheaded he is,she just likes him for who he is,honestly.

Jr. randomly has multiple photos saved of them doing friend stuff. (75% of his gallery is his team,15% is Rosie, and him 10% is just his miscellaneous photos of random items)