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qqueenofhades · 3 years ago

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Keeping my fingers crossed for that Black Widow meta

Aha, okay. As usual, I am ludicrously easy to enable, so let's take a crack at this. The ask obviously contains SPOILERS for the Black Widow film (and is also tagged "black widow spoilers" if you're planning to filter), and discussion/reference to other films/properties in the MCU, though I don't feel like any of those are still a secret.

Anyway, as I said in my earlier post, I can't believe I am actually still trying to critically analyse a Marvel production in the year of our Lord 2021, but then, I feel like we all have a complicated relationship with it. Likewise, the feeling of "oh wow NOW you're giving Natasha a solo movie after you killed her off in a cheap and fairly sexist way in Endgame?" If this film had come out ten or even five years ago, it would have been major, but holding it off until now seems to have left most of us justifiably unimpressed. Plus, as I am absolutely not the first person to point out, it renders Natasha's sacrifice in Endgame "because I don't have a family" even more narratively incoherent. I realize that this film was written after that one by totally different people, there's no point in expecting the MCU to make consistent canonical sense throughout its eighty billion different films/series, we were all stuck with a mess after the Whedonified Age of Ultron Nat, and so forth, but still. Natasha explicitly SAYS that she has two families (her wacky Russian found family of spies and the Avengers) and her decision to leap off the cliff in Endgame to save Clint and his retconned perfect white heterosexual nuclear family.... Hmmmm. To which I say to you, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb at Male Writers, sir.

Likewise, while I am wildly attracted to Florence Pugh as Yelena and deeply desire to be wrapped between her thighs, the movie felt more like her story than Nat's. Yelena drove most of the plot and the action, while Nat was just kind of along for the ride. As a solo piece, we really didn't learn that much about Natasha aside from the opening scene (which felt like it was straight out of The Americans and probably worked the best of the whole film for the reason) with her childhood in America. But even the infamous "what happened in Budapest" backstory with her and Clint was quickly info-dumped rather than shown, and they could have taken more narrative risks or included more flashbacks or otherwise given us more NATASHA, y'know??? Instead of cramming the film into the small space between Civil War and Infinity War and making it even weirder that Nat seemingly has no memory or reference to these events when she returns to the team at that time. Why not show her looking for Yelena or her actual defection to the Avengers or anything else we might want from a film that purportedly exists entirely to provide backstory for a now-dead character? It felt like even in the film universe, the main quest was being repeated -- she tried to kill Baddie McSoviet once before and it didn't work out, so she has to do it again, something something. Okay.

As for that, good ol' Marvel and its American Superiority TM. The only actual Eastern European actress in this film about Eastern Europeans was Antonia/Taskmaster, played by the Ukrainian Olga Kurylenko (and I was very interested in her?? If she's supposed to be a narrative foil and a ghost of Nat's past and mark of her former sins, etc., why not develop her as an actual character?) Everyone else were Brits and Americans hamming it up with even more chew-the-scenery fake Russian accents than Elizabeth Olsen's "Sokovian" accent as Scarlet Witch. If it's established that they all have perfect American accents at the start of the movie, why is Nat the only American-accented character in the modern day if she had presumably the exact same childhood as Yelena? I know it's another way to set her apart, but that and Baddie McSoviet (the Russians are finding a way to steal free will from people's brains! Zomgz!!! Is this 2021 or 1981?) were straight out of the Cold War in terms of its not-so-veiled American Supremacy Message. Likewise, making modern!Natasha a former KGB agent never really made sense, since she says in Winter Soldier that she was born in 1984, and we see her in this film as an 11-year-old in 1995. But the USSR collapsed in 1991, when she was seven, and the Red Room appears to be an entirely unrelated flying....lab....thingy run by a generic evil Russian (Ray Winstone, likewise Hamming Up Accent). So like. What is she, guys?? Make up your minds!!!

Likewise, Baddie McSoviet/Dreykov as a villain obviously plays into the hoary old Hollywood "All Bad People Are Recognizable As Being Terrible Sexists and Also Probably Russians" trope, but aside from that, he doesn't make sense. He has this entire army of basically unstoppable Widows and he has just been.... waiting around and causing random explosions? Or was just waiting for Nat and company to return so he could Put His Evil Plan Into Motion? Are we really supposed to believe that this guy has just been sitting up in his flying saucer and essentially never doing anything this whole time? He had about a million chances to launch this take-over-the-world plan long before Natasha ever got there. Plus, I.... am.... not sure what to think (aside from /deep sigh/ MARVEL) about the fact that all the Widows we see dying/getting killed on screen are women of color. (Then the Black surgeon who was about to remove Yelena's brain in the Red Room and the only other Black guy being Natasha's errand boy, which just... in context... YIKES.) I think the fact that there are random Black background Widows are supposed to mean that they're inclusive and badass or something? Scarlett Johansson also has her own issues with White Feminism and all the other things we've critiqued her for before, so after TFATWS and the Flag Smashers, Marvel clearly has found its subtly racist sweet spot. As usual?

The end of the film also just basically turns into the standard Marvel empty-spectacle/cool-looking fights/people flying through the air thing, and I wanted a lot more focus on the wacky found-family Russian-spy hijinks (I did love them, for reasons) and character dynamics, rather than all of them separately fighting baddies in different places. I did obviously have feelings about Natasha putting the parachute on Yelena to save her life. But why were we then denied Nat/Gamora parallels/relationships/any character development or interaction at all in Infinity War/Endgame? Both of them are trained assassins adopted into a non-biological family that they have a complicated relationship with, but end up forging a strong bond with their sister (Yelena/Nebula) nonetheless. Of course, that would have required Endgame to put more effort into its female characters than what it did, which was one (1) Epic CGI Charge Scene at the very end, and literally nothing else. Not that I am still salty about this or anything.

Anyway. The movie was genuinely fun in places. The wacky Russian found family of spies was definitely the best part, even if it made Endgame even more nonsensical as a result. But I wanted this movie to be a lot better than it was overall, though I probably would have liked it more if it had actually come out in a timely fashion and wasn't only released after they killed her off. It just feels like there were so many possible threads of potential that could have been done with Natasha if they were actually interested in experimenting and exploring the character and not just coming up with new baddies and ways to go boom, and it unfortunately missed the mark with that.

#anonymous #ask #black widow #black widow spoilers #mcu #long post

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saddiedotdk · 3 years ago

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Tony Goldwyn admits that after seven seasons playing Scandal‘s Byronically romantic President Fitzgerald Grant, a one-episode guest stint on HBO’s horror series Lovecraft Country, as the menacing, aristocratic white supremacist/occultist Samuel Braithwhite, offered an opportunity to tap some less frequently summoned acting skills.

“It was very operatic, that character, so you don’t often get to do that on television, or in front of a camera,” Goldwyn recalls, noting a key scene in which he had to shout a mystic incantation in an invented dialect at the top of his lungs. “I had to learn, phonetically, this runic language, this whole long chunk of this spell that I was casting. And that was fun and interesting, and a muscle I had not flexed for some time.”

Goldwyn, who since Scandal wrapped has appeared in multiple Broadway productions and next headlines National Geographic’s miniseries The Hot Zone: Anthrax, joined THR to reflect on flexing those new muscles after Fitz, Lovecraft‘s unexpected immediacy, and his earliest TV acting guest stints on a string of now-classic series.

What kind of permission did the unusual genre-bending nature of the show give you as an actor?

Playing a to-the-manner-born white supremacist, who’s this sort of Gothic figure … you had to lean into the camp of it, the genre. But the way that guy’s mind works is representing something profoundly real and disturbing in our culture and human nature.

When you meet my character, he’s un-anesthetized, getting a piece of his liver cut out on a table in his lab, screaming bloody murder. And then Jonathan Majors enters the room, and [Braithwhite] says, “Oh, he’s darker than I [expected]” … That kind of a statement is shocking, and yet also camp, if you know what I’m saying. It’s larger than life, but tragically all too close to life, as we have seen this year, really. And that’s what’s so weird: Not that racism wasn’t a familiar concept in American culture, but we shot that in 2019, and the events of 2020 sort of exposed how close to the surface all that still is.

To see it come out at such a charged moment, immediately following the Black Lives Matter protests, when it achieved even greater degrees of relevance and immediacy, must have been a unique experience.

Slightly surreal, honestly. It was very disturbing. It’s very discomforting … When I read it, it felt dangerous and relevant and provocative, but also fun. When I saw it, it was still entertaining, but there was a much darker sensibility to the fun aspect of it, if you know what I mean. And honestly, for me personally, now that I’m reflecting on it … embodying a white supremacist was a very different experience in 2020 than it was in 2019. There was something where I could feel that I was at an arm’s length from it. Whereas now, there’s been a seismic shift, and it would be, frankly, much harder to do — which makes me feel a bit silly, because of course that’s my reality, and I think the reality for African Americans is not that different. People are like, “Yeah, wake up!” Which is what Misha [Green] was writing about, but the world has a very different lens on it now.

ELI JOSHUA ADE/HBO

After several seasons on a hit TV show in a regular role, what have you enjoyed about these briefer excursions? Fitz was such a complex character — he could be dark, he could be someone you rooted for — that the role doesn’t saddle you, the actor, with a lot of typecasting baggage.

I really loved playing Fitz, for the reasons you said … He was so complicated and had so many light and dark shades that made him just endlessly fun to play. And I’d never had the experience of living in a character for that long.

But that said, since Scandal ended, I’ve played five, six, seven different roles, all so different, from Samuel Braithwhite to the shows I did on Broadway … And the project I’m doing now for Nat Geo, The Hot Zone — the character I’m playing could not be more different from Fitz. It’s wonderful [after] going to work every day and playing the same character and literally wearing the same suit every day for seven years to just go to completely different places.

When you were starting out, you took the jobs that came your way, as actors do, and a lot of those were guest spots on future TV classics. What do you remember about those years? And what it was like to step onto a series as a young, up-and-coming actor?

First of all, I was just grateful to have a job! I mean, I still am, but when you’re starting out, just any work you can get is good work. And also, it was a way to learn about acting in front of a camera, because I started working in the theater, and the camera was very foreign to me.

I did a bunch of those guest star things in shows in the ’80s, from sitcoms to dramas and cop shows and whatever: Matlock and Designing Women and the pilot of Murphy Brown, and I did — oh God — a show called Hunter, do you remember that? And then a couple of things that had more meat. St. Elsewhere was actually where I got my SAG card … I did L.A. Law, too. I had a pretty good part in that.

I imagine this is true for people today still: It’s a rather difficult thing, because you’re coming onto a show, where everybody knows the show and everybody does this thing every day, and you’re kind of parachuting in to give your performance and play this character. And you don’t know anybody in it. It can be very challenging. And eventually, after you’re more experienced, you learn to relax, but that I found very difficult.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

#Tony Goldwyn

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infinitemusiczz · 5 years ago

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writeblr intro

hey, everyone! i’m natalie, but everyone calls me nat. i’m pretty new to tumblr, considering that i just joined in the past few hours, but i’m hoping to make a lot of friends and have some fun!

i’m sixteen years old, and i live in new york city, but i’ll be moving in a few weeks to san francisco! i love to read and write, and i’m really into dystopian, historical fiction, and classics. i’m hoping to share an idea that i’m planning to write. i’d love to hear any comments you have for it!

i love making new friends, so feel free to message me or send an ask to introduce yourselves! if i’m a little slow at everything, i apologize. tumblr’s pretty confusing lmao.

anyway, here is a short description of the story i’ll be writing here:

VICTIMIZED ─── ❛ for the people whose stories need to be told ❜

synopsis: this is an idea that i really love. basically, it’ll tell the stories of numerous fictional victims of history. each story will be about a chapter. i’m hoping it’ll teach people about the some of the horrible parts of history that we shouldn’t forget. we need to remember so that we don’t make the same mistakes in the future. i haven’t yet decided the final topics or characters, but they’ll most likely include some or all of the following:

slavery

concentration camp victims

african american civil rights movement

women’s rights

human trafficking

native american persecution

genre: historical fiction

time period: will span through different periods of history to detail different historical events and topics

themes: hope and the lack of it, a hint of romance, despair and finding your way out of it

characters: there will be a wide range of characters throughout the book. there will be an equal ratio between male and female, but i haven’t decided on the final number.

i think that’s pretty much it! i’m so excited to be apart of this community, so if there’s anything fun or interesting going on, let me know, and i’d love to participate!

── nat :)

#writeblr #writeblr intro #snowqueens #usersilena

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yeahshesaidso · 5 years ago

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Why Natasha Romanoff is dangerous, part 2: Steve

They're at a gala. It's something for Stark Industries, some investor shtick that Fury thought would be a good idea to stuff the Avengers into. Something about how seeing 'Earth's mightiest heroes' makes the investors feel safer about putting their interests in Tony's more than capable hands. She knows it's a load of bilgesnipe dung, but the others are here and she didn't have enough of an excuse to skip out on them. Besides, Tony and Clint would pout at her all day long tomorrow if she'd missed this, and she didn't particularly feel like leaving Bruce to the wolves.

She's on her second glass of club soda - she never, ever drinks at these events. She's made that mistake before and sorely regretted it. Her body's wrapped in a deep purple velvet number, something Pepper had picked out and enthused that she would love it. She likes Pepper, sees a little bit of an akin personality in her. And after that whole mess with Hammer, she trusts Pepper a little bit more than before. 12% more.

She leans back against a convenient countertop. She's positioned herself in one side of the room, not too close to the corners that people can't find her, but not too close to the centre of attention, either. That's Tony's and Steve's job, they butter up the investors, Tony with his easy, practiced charm, and Steve with his natural affable personality.

She sees the latter making his way over to her now, and sets her glass on the countertop behind her. He's in a tuxedo, again courtesy of Pepper - really, that woman is a treasure trove. He seems a little out of breath but his eyes are as bright as ever. She gives him a smile, moving to make space for him.

"Natasha! Boy, it feels like I haven't seen you at all this evening," he tells her. She chuckles a little. "We all came here in the same car, Steve," she reminds him. He ducks his head. "Yeah, but you've been standing here all night and I've been chatting with all these different people. I've barely spoken to you, that's not very nice of me." He gives her an earnest look, all wide blue eyes. How does anyone refuse Steve Rogers anything, she wonders, when he looks like a puppy all the time?

"Well, you've done a fantastic job of chatting up our investors. Letting them know that they're furthering the American dream by putting money into SI." She's not wrong, not really. The extra money is sure gonna help half the employees in SI. Especially the ones who need better healthcare. She makes a mental note to ask Tony about the state of the healthcare policy. No doubt if there were improvements to be made, he'd do it. He's generous like that.

Next to her, Steve shifts his feet. "Well, this is my first time doing something like this. I hope I haven't screwed it up too much with not knowing enough."

"You haven't," she assures him. "You've done perfectly."

He smiles down at her. "Thanks, Nat. Hey, I think I'm gonna go get a drink, do you want anything?" She shakes her head no, and he gives her a quick grin before heading to the bar. She watches his tall frame manoeuvre through the crowd, pausing to shake a few hands before stopping at the bar. She squints a little. Steve can't get drunk, she knows, but he has a liking for whiskey.

The bartender sets down a glass in front of him and pours out a fifth. Steve's just about to drink when two middle-aged women cosy up to his right side. Even from her vantage point halfway across the room, Natasha can see his cheeks go red at their forward manner.

One of the women goes around to Steve's left, making sure to trail her hands across his now-stiff shoulders. Natasha's just wondering if she should intervene when it happens.

Steve's preoccupied with talking to the lady on his right, who's got a hand on his knee and is leaning uncomfortably close. The other woman slips her hand into her purse, brings out something and raises her hand over Steve's drink. She tilts her hand a little, making sure that the contents of whatever's in her hand are emptied into his glass. It happens so fast, and so subtly, that anyone else might've dismissed it.

Natasha doesn't.

Her blood boils in her veins. For a split second, she can feel her expression changing into one of absolute rage, her brows furrowing and teeth clenching, but she smooths it out. She doesn't want to draw attention to herself.

She slips into the crowd, moving easily to the bar and tapping absent-mindedly at her thigh where she's got two knives hidden beneath the soft fabric. No murder, she reminds herself, Tony doesn't need that tonight.

She reaches the bar and is immensely grateful to see that Steve hasn't touched his drink yet, still trying to fend off the women's advances. Both are on his right side now, and he's turned a little to face them, drink forgotten behind his back.

She taps Steve's shoulder once, twice and introduces herself to the women. Her smile is the wrong side of icy, and with a glimmer of satisfaction, she sees one of the women subconsciously take a step back. The other one, the one who'd tried to drug Steve via alcohol, tips her chin up a little. She doesn't miss Steve's relieved look out of the corner of her eye.

"Ladies," she says politely. "Can I interest you in a drink?" They nod hesitantly, and Natasha gestures to the bartender. "Whiskey?" she asks the women, and smiles when they nod again. The bartender sets down two more glasses, pours two more fifths - and quick as lightning, she shifts the glasses around. She takes the one farthest on the left, one of the untouched glasses, and tugs a little on Steve's hand to get up. He comes willingly, looking a little confused.

She plasters an expression of regret on her face. "I'm sure your company is immensely enjoyable, ladies, but unfortunately Steve and I still have to fulfil our duties. You know how it is. On as important a night as this, we don't want to take any risks." She moves a little in front of Steve, effectively cutting off the lecherous stares of one of the women. She doesn't need to look behind her to know Steve's cheeks are stained pink.

She turns to go, pressing at Steve's back to move him along. "Enjoy your drinks, ladies!" she throws over her shoulder.

Steve looks bemused, but Natasha can see the underlying gratitude in his face. "Thank you," he tells her. "I didn't know how to handle that."

"It's okay, Steve," she says. "That's what I'm here for."

(When Natasha casually checks the tabloids the next day, she sees a small article about two wealthy heiresses found drunk and loopy in a restaurant's dumpster two streets away from the gala. Her smile is small and private.)

Set circa Avengers 2012.

#marvel #avengers #natasha romanoff #steve rogers #why natasha romanoff is dangerous

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news4dzhozhar · 6 years ago

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I FIRST MET Dzhokhar “Jahar” Tsarnaev in seventh grade, on the basketball court at the Cambridge YMCA in Central Square, where I played on weekdays & in a Saturday league. He went to the gym to use the weight room & shoot around. I disregarded him — he sucked at basketball.

Basketball helped me feel like an American, instead of a Muslim whose single mother dragged him here from Morocco looking for a better life, then worried constantly that we wouldn’t find it. Before basketball, I didn’t really fit in. I wasn’t particularly smart or witty. Worse, I had started second grade in Cambridge the very same month that the Twin Towers fell. On the playground, kids would call me “sand [expletive]” “Saddam Hussein’s son,” or “Abu,” after Aladdin’s monkey. One kid nicknamed me “Unicef,” which was brilliant, in a way: It rhymed with my name & alluded to my African heritage, financial situation, & emergent unibrow. When we were a little older, kids would come up to me, place fake “bombs” on my body & then run away making ticking noises. I got into a fair amount of fights until my mother, who worked three jobs, told me I had to stop. Even if it meant saying nothing when bullies taunted me, I had to exercise self-control. It felt completely debilitating.

My mom always made me stay in the apartment until I finished my homework. But she agreed that as long as I kept my grades up, I could play basketball after school. I began spending hours on courts across Cambridge. This freedom allowed me to meet a slew of people who helped me develop as a young man & truly feel a part of the culture of Cambridge. As I improved, I gained confidence, sociability, & friends.

I met Jahar again in high school, when we enrolled in the same lifeguarding course in my sophomore year, his junior year. Lifeguards were paid well for minimal effort: You sit in a chair & watch people swim, or so we thought. We were actually terrible swimmers, but our teacher stressed that if we failed during a rescue attempt, people could die. So we learned how to breathe while swimming with our heads in the water, & swam endless laps to get in shape. We took turns “drowning” at the bottom of the pool, holding our breath & waiting to be “rescued.” Jahar & I learned to trust one another in the pool — and that trust soon extended beyond class. After we became certified, a group of us from the class applied to be lifeguards at Harvard University during the summer of 2010. To our surprise, we each landed positions.

Jahar & I became part of a small group that would gather at “808,” a tall apartment building off Memorial Drive overlooking the Charles River. After dark, we frequented a party spot nearby that we referred to as the Riv. We were all classmates, peers, co-workers, & good friends who shared common interests. We called ourselves the Sherm Squad. We didn’t know that “Sherm” referred to Nat Sherman cigarettes dipped into liquid PCP (I didn’t even know what PCP was). All we knew was the word Sherm had a negative connotation. We used it to mean someone who messed up a lot; we called it being a Sherm. I felt Jahar & the Sherm Squad accepted me unconditionally; they became my home base of friends, almost an adopted family

My real family’s life centered on Islam. I was raised to follow the teaching of the Koran & the five pillars of Islam, which boil down to self-discipline, love for yourself & toward others, & growing your relationship with God. We typically went to the mosque on Prospect Street twice a week, plus whenever my mother forced me to come to some event she’d volunteered for. I never looked forward to it. Men & women separate when they enter the mosque, which drove home my lack of a father or other male role models (I have an older brother, but we haven’t talked in years). So I would sit by myself or with someone else I knew who didn’t want to be there, engaging only when the call for prayer was sung.

One Friday near the end of sophomore year, my mother yelled at me to go to prayer.

When I walked in, I did a double take — Jahar was sitting there, listening intently to the imam. We had been hanging out all that year & he had never mentioned being Muslim. I picked my way through the large crowd sitting on the patterned carpet & squeezed into a spot next to him. “What are you doing here?” I whispered. “You’re not supposed to be here!

He chuckled and whispered back: “I’ll tell you after.”

After we prayed, he told me his family were also Muslim immigrants who expected him be a model Muslim. We both were trying to maintain an image as wholesome Muslim youths at home while being normal American teenagers away from it.

Balancing our family & American lives was stressful. As a junior, I played point guard on Cambridge Rindge & Latin School’s famed basketball team, and Jahar, a senior, was the wrestling team’s co-captain. During the fierce month of Ramadan or on the fast day before Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, we might endure grueling sports workouts on empty stomachs & no water. At least we could complain to each other.

Maintaining separate Muslim & American lives sometimes meant keeping secrets from & even lying to those closest to us about our other life. We were shamed just for being Muslim by strangers, the media, & even some of our peers, just as our Muslim families shamed us when we were caught committing a sin. Jahar & I shared countless hours toking herb, hanging out, & hitting social events. We lived near each other, & often walked home together from parties. We’d hit Cambridge Street, dap each other up with a handclap and bro hug, then head off to our Muslim lives.

He was fun to be around — always cracking jokes, coming up with things to do. He was smart, warm, respectful & a good listener; and many of us admired his ability to “code switch,” moving effortlessly between social crowds & people of different races. He was also adept academically, holding his own in honors & Advanced Placement classes. He was generous, too. Whenever I ran short of funds, he’d give me money for lunch & crack “Stop being a broke boy!” in a way I found endearing.

Sometimes, when we were hanging out, he’d get calls from his older brother, Tamerlan, telling him to get home. Jahar mostly heeded these requests without question. (He admired his older brother, and I envied their seeming closeness.) At one point, Jahar told me that his family was arranging a marriage for him & he was considering it. All I could say was, “Well, it’s your life, bro.”

* *

IN SENIOR YEAR, my priorities were playing basketball, finding the right college, my fantasy basketball team, girls, watching the Celtics, partying with friends, the prom, & making sure to get my homework done. In the secular, diverse melting pot that is Cambridge, I had my American life at school & my Muslim life at home. Adhering to the tenets of Islam, especially the daily prayers, was a struggle, & it didn’t help that Jahar, one of my main confidantes, was off at college.

My mother still expected me to act like a strict Muslim, even though by now I was really only going to the mosque on the major holy days. She forbade me from attending “unwholesome” social gatherings, including school dances & any event held at the home of a female. I was not to swear, use drugs or alcohol, or flirt, among other vices. My mother knew little of what I actually did when I left the house, since I usually climbed out my bedroom window after she had gone to bed. But she often guessed at what I was up to, & frequently berated me as unworthy.

I was much more interested in my American life, where religion was immaterial. You were judged on your social standing, whether your personality added life to the party, and how you expressed yourself through fashion or music. When Jahar was back from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on breaks, it seemed like we picked up right where we left off, cruising the city with the homies in his green Honda, looking for a party. My future felt bright. I was going to attend Bentley University, & become an entrepreneur. I had fulfilled my mother’s American-immigrant dream of getting into college & building a real life in America.

* * *

DURING MY FRESHMAN YEAR at Bentley, I realized that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in school. I took a leave during second semester & went back to Cambridge.

I was at a friend’s house on April 15, 2013, when the bombs went off on Boylston Street. We ended up on a nearby rooftop, watching the commotion — the helicopters scouring the city & flashing police lights everywhere. I felt angry & under attack. I wanted the monsters who had committed this atrocity to get what they deserved.

On the 19th, I was at another friend’s house and still up at 3 a.m. when I got a call. “Turn on the news!” my friend said. They were broadcasting a photo of the possible suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. “Just look at the picture, fam,” he said to me.

I looked at the blurry image on screen. “What am I supposed to be looking at, bro? I don’t know who that is.”

“Yo, doesn’t he look like Jahar!”

I thought that was outrageous. I fell asleep on the couch, & the next morning I woke up to see my friends huddled around the TV. I had never seen kids my age so absorbed in the morning news. I wondered if maybe a late spring snowstorm was approaching. They told me Cambridge residents had been asked to stay inside, and it did sort of feel like a snow day.

Suddenly, Jahar’s face appeared on the screen — there was no mistaking him this time. He was the bombing suspect still at large, the anchors said. Aside from the sound crackling on the TV, the room was dead silent. I felt like 10,000 volts of electricity were coursing through my body. It had to be a mistake. The Jahar I knew wouldn’t even do something mean, let alone commit an act of terrorism.

One of the girls’ cellphones rang; the call was from a TV newsroom where her sister’s friend was working. As our friend answered questions, her name appeared on the screen & we heard her voice come from the television. Within minutes, the doorbell rang. Our high school principal came into the house, along with two FBI agents wearing bulletproof vests. The FBI agents said they were looking for Jahar, and collected our cellphones. They had us sit in the living room & pulled us into the kitchen one by one to question us.

It didn’t take long for one of the FBI agents to step in the room and say, “To save time, which one of you knew him the best?” I raised my hand. In the kitchen, they asked what I knew about the bombing — nothing — where I thought Jahar was, whom he might try to contact. I answered their questions as best I could, and then they left.

Much later on that surreal day, a group of us were walking around Central Square, saying almost nothing. A pizza shop had its TV on & that’s where we saw a news update: A body had been found in a boat in Watertown, it said. Though we’d later learn he’d been captured alive, at that moment we believed our friend was dead. I remember a man riding toward us on his bike screaming like some sort of modern-day Paul Revere: “They caught him! They caught the bomber!”

This infuriated us, and we started screaming insults & epithets at him. I’ll never forget his shocked expression. That’s probably how most people reacted over the next few days when some of us defended Jahar, saying he was a good kid. But really, that’s the Jahar we knew.

* * *

SOON WE KNEW THE FACTS of the despicable acts Jahar committed with his brother, Tamerlan. We witnessed the heartbreak & loss suffered by those they hurt & by the families of those they killed. Jahar left behind an ocean of pain that is still washing across my city, & my country, sowing hatred & division between people who hardly know each other’s lived reality. Jahar wounded those he grew up with as well as millions who practice a religion he perverted with his crime. He made suspects of everyone who knew him.

Jahar put our safety & freedom in direct peril. Cambridge gave way to the real world, a place where I found myself feeling clueless. Like many of my friends, I did not have easy access to a lawyer. Later, I would realize I didn’t have access to what I needed even more: medical advisers, counselors, or therapists. Some of our mutual friends made bad choices & ended up in jail.

In the fall of 2013, I returned to Bentley to start my second semester, but I was still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the bombing, the FBI calls & questions. I felt guilty I even knew Jahar, after what he’d done. I was ashamed about what had happened to his victims — I still feel terrible for them. It feels awful that innocent people were hurt by a person I cared so deeply for.

That November after the bombing, three days before midterms, the FBI interrogated me for five hours, as far as I could tell simply because I had been friends with Jahar. I had nothing to tell them; I still felt betrayed by him, & knew he deserved the full brunt of the judicial system. After that interview, I found myself completely unable to focus on my studies. I asked my professors for extensions, but all of them made me take my midterms. I failed several of them, & soon after I took another leave.

This time I entered a downward spiral of addiction, insomnia, severe stomach pains, & depression, which fed off each other. I didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours a night for months. I felt paranoid & distrustful in every social interaction. Every aspect of my American life I had had to figure out on my own, and it seemed as though I hadn’t figured out anything at all. I felt like I had fallen behind my peers, unable to compete with their intelligence, their access, their privilege.

I was exhausted from maintaining multiple, often conflicting identities as a Muslim-American, from not being Muslim enough for my family, but too Muslim to feel secure in a hostile, post-9/11 environment. It was soul crushing; I felt I had lost touch with the person & identity I fought for years to establish. It got to the point where I could no longer follow a normal conversation. I lost around 25 pounds, and the ability to play basketball, which had been my sanctuary.

CONTINUED AT THE LINK

#jahar Tsarnaev #dzhokhar tsarnaev #tamerlan tsarnaev

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dictionarywrites · 6 years ago

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Like The Sun Married The Moon

4.5k. Complete. Rated T. DashingFrost.

A little 5+1 style story: five times the Avengers noticed Loki maybe had a secret, and one time it came out.

Then going back through the six in reverse.

My Ao3 | Send requests | Tip jar!

One: Tony Stark

It’s not that Tony’s interested. He’s not.

It’s just that Loki’s been here on Earth for what, nearly a year now? And he’s so comfortable. So confident. Sure, he’s under whatever spell that stops him from hurting people, and that’s the only reason they can really trust him, but the guy is just such a card.

Tony watches him as he laughs, taking a slow sip from his wine glass: the party’s buzzing, and Tony knows who invited him, because, yeah, Tony’s known all across New York in all the rich circles, and as much as he can get annoyed with stuffed shirts and demanding rich girls, a party is a party. But who the Hell invited Loki? This is an event with some of the richest, most upper-class people in New York, and Loki gets an allowance from SHIELD, but it’s nothing super impressive.

Loki can see Tony watching him, and he arches one dark eyebrow, raising his glass.

Tony strides across the room, and Loki murmurs quiet words to the men he’s speaking to, all fashionable guys with coiffed hair and floral shirts, and he comes closer. Loki’s well-dressed for the occasion, at least: he wears a suit in some kinda pastel lilac, the white shirt open and baring the column of his neck to the room at large. And the hair… God, Loki’s hair had been gross when they’d first seen him, greased back from his head, but now it’s well-washed and healthy, tied up in a loose bun with a few strands hanging around his face, the style effortlessly graceful. A new piece of jewellery shines through the shell of Loki’s ear, and a silver stud shines through the side of his nose.

(“Ooh, loving the new look, Reindeer Games. What, taking the time to rebel now that you’re out of the house?” Loki had laughed, the sound loud and wild and free.

“No one pierces anything on Asgard – even earrings are clipped on or held with magic. I could never do this before.” And that… That’d been wild, to hear from a guy nearly three thousand years old. Still new experiences to be found, even at his age.)

“You look like you’re having a good time,” Tony says mildly.

“I am,” Loki replies. He holds his wineglass like the prince he is, his grip delicate on the glass stem, and when he swills the liquid inside, the motion is practised and almost thoughtless, as if it’s pure instinct that makes him do it. “I like parties.”

“Really?” Tony asks, leaning back slightly. “Didn’t have you pegged for a big occasions guy.” Tony’s sarcasm only makes Loki smile, and he takes a slow sip of his drink. “What, you looking for a rich girl to take you home?”

“No,” Loki murmurs, slowly shaking his head. His gaze is momentarily far away, a little sadness shining in his eyes. It’s weird – Loki’s been planet-side for ten months, all-in-all, and he honestly avoids every single one of the Avengers when he’s not at work. Tony keeps vague tabs on him, knows that he keeps himself to himself in his little apartment in Brooklyn, knows that he uses his allowance just to get groceries (guy’s a health food nut, who knew?) and saves the rest, but Loki… It’s not easy to track him. Tony knows he goes places, and meets people, but it’s all but impossible to keep a surveillance on him, and yet he never wants to hang out with the guys from work. Tony doesn’t feel like he knows much more about Loki than he did when the guy first attacked New York. “I don’t partner myself with women these days.”

“Oh,” Tony says, feeling his eyebrows raise despite himself. Shit. “That, uh— How is Asgard? On the whole, um, the whole gay thing?”

“Not good,” Loki answers plainly. “But Asgard isn’t so good on me. It never has been.” Tony reaches up, dragging his fingers over the side of his mouth, feeling the warmth of his own hand against his lips. Loki’s hot. Tony knows Loki’s hot, and he knows damn well that he’s hot himself, and really, there’s no shame in trying—

“You know, uh, I’m not— We could always, uh…” Loki is staring at him, blinking slowly, and then he chuckles. The sound begins low in his throat, dark and slightly foreboding, and when he reaches out, patting the side of Tony’s cheek, his fingers are freezing cold. The condescension should piss Tony off, but instead it makes heat burst in his chest.

“I think not, Stark,” Loki murmurs.

“You know, it’s been nearly a year. I think Tony works. Or— Anthony, right? You wanna call me Anthony?”

“Anthony,” Loki repeats softly. His smile is nothing but fond, despite how patronising his tone had been a second ago, and he draws his hand neatly back, drawing his hand over his hair, tucking a loose strand of dark hair away from his face. “Don’t take this as an insult, but Midgardians… You are so fragile, and all of you so young. Such an interspecies union might be something Thor would take to easily, but not I.”

“We must all seem like babies to you,” Tony murmurs.

“Not babies,” Loki murmurs. “You are adults, each of you. But… Different. As a wolf is different to a fox.” And then Loki is moving across the room, taking up a conversation with a pretentious artist Tony always tries to avoid talking to himself: they greet each other like they’re old friends, touching one another’s arms, and it’s—

Weird.

Loki’s weird. But in a good way, Tony thinks, rejection aside.

Two: Steve Rogers

Loki isn’t a good man. Steve knows that. He’s also not as bad as Steve had thought in the beginning.

Loki is weaving magic upon the air, and every single kid in the classroom is watching raptly, every one of them staring up at the shimmering energy that gathers between Loki’s hand, making up the petals of a shining, transparent flower of gold and silver. It’s artful, poetic – it’s one of the most beautiful things Steve’s ever seen, and he still thinks of it an hour later, when the Avengers are done with the school visit, and when everybody else has started splitting off in different directions. And yet Loki… Loki has a faraway look in his eyes, a kind of sadness, and Steve falls into step beside him.

It’s funny – Loki works with the Avengers, and he’s one of them, sure, but Steve never sees him outside of their official appearances, or when they’re dragged into a fight. Loki’s a solitary kind of guy, it seems.

“You want kids?” Steve asks. Loki turns to him, surprise showing on his face.

“I have children,” Loki says. Steve stares at him, and Loki gives him an awkward smile, shrugging his shoulders. “I am once widowed, once divorced, Captain Rogers. Four of my children yet live, and two are long-since dead.”

Jeeze. No wonder the guy’s sad and distracted.

“Sorry,” Steve says. “I didn’t, um, I didn’t realise.”

“It’s alright,” Loki murmurs, his hands in his pockets. He’s comfortable in Earth clothes, it seems to Steve – more comfortable than Steve feels sometimes, with the subtle differences to the clothes he grew up with. “Perhaps I shall have more, one day. I don’t know.”

“You got anyone in mind to settle down with?” Steve asks, and it comes out so quickly, the flirtation hanging on the air. Loki smiles.

“Yes,” he says, and Steve reaches up, rubbing the back of his neck. Every time he thinks he knows something about this guy, it seems like he’s proved wrong.

“God, really just putting my foot in my mouth again and again today, huh?” Loki reaches out, and his cold fingers gently pat the side of Steve’s shoulder. He says nothing, and walks away.

Thing is… What, the guy’s got somebody in mind? Who?

Three: Clint Barton

“You ever gonna tell ‘em?” Clint asks. They’re in the laboratory in Avengers Tower, and Loki glances up from where he’s bent over some engineering schematics, making adjustments to some old designs they’d dug out of the SHIELD archives. Loki’s an engineer, it turns out – as good an engineer as Clint himself, even if he’s not gonna be patenting a million inventions any time soon.

“Tell them what?” Loki asks. He keeps his distance from Clint, and Clint likes it that way. It’s… Weird. The connection to Loki has been broken, Clint’s sure of that, but sometimes it’s like there’s a lingering instinct hovering in the back of his mind, to fall into step beside Loki, to obey orders…

Clint hates it. He hates following orders, hates the way he feels like he should be swearing fealty to Loki some days, but Loki doesn’t rub it in. He’d apologised, a few weeks after getting thrown down to Midgard, and offered Clint whatever “boon” he wanted, and Clint had just said to leave him alone – and Loki had.

“There’s— I don’t know what it is, who it is,” Clint says. “But there’s someone else. Someone you’re connected to, not Thor, not your mom. Someone else.”

“I’m not going to tell them,” Loki says at length. Clint reads the words on his thin lips, and inexplicably, they make him sad.

“No one hates you, you know,” Clint says. “Not even me. You can trust the Avengers. They’ll all have your back.” Loki’s lips twitch, and he looks up from the schematics, looking at Clint seriously. There’s a short pause as Loki seems to think over what Clint’s said, and then he brings his fingers up to his mouth and chin before bringing his palm outward: Thank you.

Clint didn’t know the guy could sign.

Four: Natasha Romanov

“Truth, or dare,” Nat says, leaning back in her seat, and Loki watches her for a long few moments, his lips quirking into a little smile. The party’s chilled out – sitting around the table, it’s Nat, Loki, Thor, Bruce and Clint, and it’s… It’s almost normal. Almost normal. It’s weird, to settle into the American lifestyle and just hang out with people after work, but today… Today had been pretty rough.

Maybe that’s why they’re all getting drunk together, playing stupid college games, so that none of them has to be alone with their own thoughts – maybe that’s why Loki had stuck around instead of slinking home like he usually does; maybe that’s why Tony had latched onto the excuse of Thor being down on Earth to celebrate.

“Truth,” Loki says.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Nat asks, mildly. “You’re a God of Lies, right?”

“Equally, I am a God of Truth,” Loki says. “I am worshiped for deceit on three planets, but for honesty on three more.” Nat glances to Thor, wanting to judge if this is true on his face, but there’s something pinched about his expression, as if Thor doesn’t know if this is true or not. Loki isn’t looking at Thor; Thor is looking right at Loki, a kind of tired melancholy in his eyes.

“You’re worshiped on more planets than Earth?” Clint asks. “How many?”

“I believe it’s Ms Romanov’s turn to ask her question,” Loki murmurs softly. Thor stands abruptly from the couch, walking across the room to join Sam and Steve in the kitchen, and Loki presses his lips loosely together, closing his eyes for a second. He looks hurt. So does Thor.

Something easy, then – something simple.

“How many times you been married?” Nat asks.

“Three,” Loki answers cleanly, and then he walks away.

Five: Thor

“Is that true?” Thor asks quietly. “You are worshiped as a deity of honesty, on some worlds?”

“Yes,” Loki answers. It ails Thor, to see his brother so easily settled upon Midgard – he ought be glad, to see his brother finally so comfortable in his skin, to see Loki look almost content, but—

He hates it. Hates having Loki so far from Asgard, exiled forevermore; hates to see Loki with pieces of metal piercing through his ears and his nose, hates seeing Loki in foreign clothes and looking comfortable in them. Thor thinks of the times Loki would disappear from Asgard for years at a time, for decades at a time… He thinks of the time he had sought Loki out on the strange planet known as Koom, where Loki was lecturing in applied mathematics, and how Loki had reluctantly returned home with him after nearly eighty years; he recalls finding Loki in a flour mill on the planet Jafara, alone and unfriended, and how Loki had slunk back to Asgard as a cowed dog; he recalls the most recent time, on the golden sands of Hashtor, where Thor had said “Come home,” and Loki had laughed, and retorted, “I am home.”

“I wish you could come home,” Thor says softly.

“This is my home now,” Loki says. The two of them stand on a balcony, overlooking New York City, and Thor feels his heart ache. “How fare the Warriors Three?”

“Well,” Thor says quietly, thinking of how different it is, to travel the Nine Realms without Loki amongst them. It is preferable, in some ways – there is no mischief to be found, but in others… It feels stilted, unnatural, as if there is a part of them missing. Even Volstagg had agreed.

But it can never be the way it once was.

“And your parents?” Loki asks. The words cut Thor like a knife.

“Our parents,” Thor says, sharply. Loki draws away from him, and then he delicately shakes his head.

“No, Thor,” Loki says softly. “Your parents.”

“You would isolate yourself from all who love you,” Thor snaps, feeling fury flare within him. “Here you are, amongst these people, and do you allow any of them to be your friend? Once more, Loki, you have made yourself alone, and to what end?”

“Have you ever considered that I like my solitude?” Loki asks, his voice unerringly calm and cool. “You are glad to be a member of a rollicking band: I prefer to be alone.”

“You lie so much,” Thor mutters. “You deceive even yourself.”

“Perhaps,” Loki murmurs. “Sometimes a lie is kinder than the truth.” Thor cannot take it, and he stalks away, and when he returns, Loki is gone – back to his apartment on the other side of the city, where no one will speak to him, where no one will ask things of him.

Of course. Such is how it is.

There is no limit to how many secrets Loki will keep, if he is able.

Six: Bruce Banner

Loki lies very still in the infirmary bed, laid on his back. His eyes are closed, and Bruce leans over, gently patting the god’s face to try to get him to wake up. Loki groans in quiet pain, and Bruce presses his lips together, leaning away from him. Whatever Loki had done to win them the fight – and yeah, it had definitely been Loki who got them out of it, because he’d turned the damned demon to dust, and then dropped to the ground like a stone – it had taken a lot out of him.

Bruce knows it, because he can see all of Loki now. His true body is showing: the skin is a deep blue, with indents and markings on the skin, and there are scars all over his body. Dappled wet scars that must have been caused by acid are visible around Loki’s eyes, and there are pockmarks and tears around his lips, where once somebody sewed them shut.

But the weirdest thing isn’t that Loki doesn’t look like an Æsir anymore, or that Loki has scars. The weirdest thing is on his right hand, where a golden band shines on his ring finger, catching the light.

(“You’ve been married before, right?” Bruce had asked once. “Do you guys wear wedding rings?”

“No, that is a Midgardian tradition,” Loki had said quietly, but a little smile had caught on his lips, and he’d kept it for the rest of the day.)

The doors to the infirmary burst open, and Bruce presses his lips together. Loki is just beginning to stir into consciousness, and Bruce had hoped to get him awake before Thor arrived – but there’s a reason Bruce had sent word to Asgard as soon as Loki had gone down.

“Thor, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna be fine,” Bruce says. “He just—” Bruce freezes. The man striding into the room, his armour clinking, is not Thor. He has a muss of blond hair around his head, and a moustache and a little beard. “Uh, you can’t be—”

“Fandral,” Loki whispers, and he weakly raises his head, leaning into the gloved hand that cups his cheek. The stranger – Fandral – is leaning over the bed, and his expression is tortured, his brown eyes shining with pain. “I’m fine, you needn’t… You needn’t fuss so.” Loki is speaking hoarsely, and it looks like just talking is hurting him.

Bruce pours him a glass of water, taking a step forward, but before he can offer it out, Fandral has thrown both of his gauntlets messily onto the ground, and he takes the glass with a surprisingly soft hand, tipping Loki’s head up to take a sip of the water. Bruce doesn’t miss the glint of silver on his left hand, a ring…

God. Fandral turns away from Loki, giving Bruce a serious, consternated look.

“Healer,” he says quietly. “What ails him?”

“Best guess?” Bruce asks, awkwardly. “Magical exhaustion.”

“Correct,” Loki mutters. “I just need rest.”

“And you shall have it,” Fandral murmurs. Setting the glass aside, he moves to cup Loki’s cheek, tracing over the blue skin with gentle fingers. “I was so— Thor and Sif are abroad in Muspelheim, so t’was I that received the missive before it was brought to your mother… I ought to have come sooner.”

“I was your king,” Loki says quietly. “And you betrayed me.”

“And you didn’t betray me in kind?” Fandral demands, his tone harsh even as his fingers brush featherlight over his cheek. “Throwing yourself from the Bifrost like that, disappearing… I thought you dead. I mourned for you, in silence, knowing no one else could know the grief I bore.”

Bruce feels like he’s intruding, but he really has nowhere else to go. He can’t exactly walk out: there isn’t another doctor around just now, and he doesn’t want Loki on his own. He makes himself busy, looking at charts and Googling basic shit on his laptop, but beside him, it continues.

“And then when you were sent here, to Midgard, as punishment… I ought have resigned my commission immediately,” Fandral whispers. “I ought have retuned to Midgard once more, to be with you.”

“You can’t give up Asgard for me,” Loki whispers. “I can never go back.”

“Then I shan’t either,” Fandral promises, the words ringing through the room. And then he kisses Loki, soundly on the mouth, chaste but full of feeling, and Bruce wonders when the best time would be to interrupt them. He decides to wait until they stop kissing.

It takes a while.

Six: Bruce Banner

“Secretly married, huh?” Bruce asks a few days later, and Loki looks him in the face, taking in the lines of his expression, the uncertainty as he offers Loki a pill to take. Loki swallows it, tasting its bitterness on his tongue.

“I never imagined he could still love me,” Loki whispers. “After all that had happened.”

Bruce glances at him, and he hesitates for only a moment before he says, “Doesn’t seem like he’s the type of guy to back down once he loves something.”

“No,” Loki agrees. “That he is not.”

Fandral is arm-wrestling Sam Wilson, and the two of them are both as charming as the other, exchanging easy, comfortable words over their sport. The two of them seem evenly matched, with their strengths – Loki knows this is but another layer of charm on Fandral’s part, pretending himself to be weaker than he is.

His heart feels warm in his cool chest.

Five: Thor

Loki stands in between Fandral and Thor, shielding Fandral’s body with his own: he can feel Fandral’s heavy breathing against the back of his neck, feel himself shake, and he looks Thor in the eyes, unwavering.

The rage on his brother’s face is unspeakable, indescribable, and Loki stiffens further, keeping himself in place.

“How long?” Thor asks – nay, demands.

“Around a century,” Loki says. “We— You recall when I was gone for five years, and you retrieved me from Hashtor, the planet with the golden spires, and Fandral had been on a sojourn to Midgard? Fandral was with me. The whole time.”

“We couldn’t tell you,” Fandral says from behind Loki’s shoulder, but he isn’t foolish enough to step out. “Asgard would never accept a marriage between two men, least of all of its prince, and a member of its nobility.”

“So you hid it,” Thor growls. “So you hid it, from me, your brother, and you, Fandral – I thought us the greatest of friends!”

“And if you thought I was using our friendship to abuse your brother?” Fandral asks, his charming voice surprisingly sharp. “You would not have jumped to such a conclusion?” Thor freezes, for a second, and a little of the rage seems to fade from his eyes. “Thor… I love you, my friend, but we could not risk being discovered. There was no way to predict how the people of Asgard, how the Allfather, would respond.”

“Now, of course,” Loki says softly. “Such things are immaterial.”

“You mean to stay here, then?” Thor asks, looking past Thor, to Fandral himself. “With him?”

“Yes,” Fandral says. “A century in secrecy, and here… Honesty.”

“A shame, Loki, that you no longer consider us brothers,” Thor says at length.

“Who says I don’t?” Loki demands, surprised by the emotion cracking in his own voice. “We are brothers, Thor, through bond if not in blood.” Thor smiles, softly, his eyes glittering with warmth.

“Why, then,” he says in scarce more than a whisper. “Fandral is my brother as well.” Relief bursts in Loki’s chest like a Midgardian firework: he turns his head, catching Fandral’s eye, and when they laugh, it is as one, full to the brim with relief, and understanding, and love.

Four: Natasha Romanov

Three times married, he’d said – three times. Once widowed, from a Jötunn named Angrboða; once divorced, from a Vanir woman when their children had died – Sigyn. And still married, now, to an Æsir: Fandral.

Nat watches as Fandral and Loki sit on a couch together in the common room of the Avengers Tower, Fandral’s boots on Loki’s lap and one of Stark’s tablets in Fandral’s, the two of them playing either side of some game that looks suspiciously like a two-man version of Candy Crush.

Happiness radiates from Loki like heat, and Nat’s never seen him so happy.

He doesn’t avoid the parties any more, or the times when they chill – him and Fandral both come, and when Loki feels like going silent, Fandral talks instead. The guy is bright and flirtatious, always telling a joke, always telling stories, always full of vim.

It’s like the sun and moon have married each other.

Three: Clint Barton

“He’s hot,” Clint says quietly. “Kudos.”

Loki laughs, and he signs and speaks at the same time: “Thank you.”

Two: Steve Rogers

“You know,” Steve says mildly, “You always told me you thought nationalism was stupid.”

“I do,” Loki murmurs, amusement ringing in his tones.

“Oh, so you make fun of me being a patriot,” Steve says, his hand on his chest, “But him—” He gestures to Fandral, who is telling some cock-and-bull story of Asgard’s founding, a story Loki has heard a thousand times before. Loki’s lip twitches.

“No, I think his patriotism is ridiculous as well,” Loki murmurs. “Asgard and America aren’t so dissimilar – in their flaws, or their strengths. In an ideal world, melting pots of culture; in practice, colonial super powers, feared as much as they are loved.”

“He gave it up for you,” Steve points out. He doesn’t say it unkindly – if anything, it is intended as a kindness, and despite the discomfort within him, despite Loki’s uncertainty… Loki nods.

“I am to be worthy of that sacrifice,” Loki whispers: it is a vow.

One: Tony Stark

“You love him?” Tony asks.

“With all my heart,” Fandral murmurs. The two of them stand together, and Tony glances across the room, watching as Loki holds a group of real estate moguls spellbound in some story or other, gesticulating as he speaks. Fandral… Fandral’s a pretty cool guy. Tony had liked him right off the bat, liked his spunk and his easy manner, liked his sense of style.

They click.

“He said before… Asgard isn’t so good on gay people. Men who’re with men; women who’re with women.”

“No,” Fandral murmurs. “Others in the Nine Realms are like Midgard – Alfheim has no issues at all with such things, and Nidavellir couldn’t care less who you might bed. But Asgard has its traditions, its long-held prejudices…” Fandral is watching Loki like Loki is the greatest piece of art he’s ever seen, like he’s forever picking out new details he loves. Fandral’s glittering brown eyes are full of warmth, and his lips curve into a soft smile. “We married on a foreign planet, in the dead of night, beneath the light of two bright moons. We knew it would be a secret for the longest time, and it didn’t matter at all. So long as we shared our bond, all would be well.”

Fandral is turning the silver band on his left hand again and again, in circles around his ring finger’s base with his thumb. On his middle finger, there is another ring, this one made of gold with a red ruby carved into a coat of arms – a signet ring.

“I have been to Midgard once before, you know,” Fandral says softly. “T’was many years ago, many centuries… I fell to England, and could not get home, so I formed a band of good friends, and I married a princess then, too – her name was Marian.”

“Marian,” Tony repeats. “Like— Like Maid Marian?”

“Yes, that was her,” Fandral confirms, like it’s nothing. “They called me—”

“Robin Hood?” Fandral’s eyes widen slightly, and he leans back.

“Yes,” he says.

“Jesus Christ,” Tony says. “You know you’re… Famous, right? Like, I know that’s not the same as being a god, but everybody knows who Robin Hood was. You two—” Tony laughs, running his hand through his hair. “God. You really are made for each other, huh?” Fandral smiles, showing his dazzlingly white teeth.

“Yes,” he agrees easily. “I suppose we are.”

Loki is gesturing for Fandral to come over, and Fandral pats Tony’s shoulder as he slips across the room, putting one hand around Loki’s waist and easily falling into conversation with the moguls, like he’s meant to be here. And don’t they look a pair, Loki in his grey suit and Fandral in his gold, don’t they look—

Honestly, is it so bad that Tony could kinda go for both of them?

Huh. Maybe it’s a… Maybe it’s a thought.

FIN.

#fandroki #dashingfrost #avenger loki #marvel #fanfic #dictionary writes

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior Home Edition May 22, 2020 – THE TRIP TO GREECE, MILITARY WIVES, INHERITANCE, THE LOVEBIRDS

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the “Summer That Never Was” continues this weekend, which is…. Are you seated for this next part? Memorial Day weekend! Yeah, there will be none of the usual BBQs and block parties, but most of all, there will be none of the voracious moviegoing that signifies the pyrrhic start of the summer… that is, if you don’t count the normal first weekend of May or the actual start of summer later in June.

This was an even tougher week to write a column, because just as I was starting on it this weekend, one of my favorite filmmakers (and just a wonderful person), Lynn Shelton, died quite unexpectedly and tragically. It really shook me up, and I’m not quite sure how long it will take me for me to get unshaken. But I’m going to try to push on through the tragedy. Just bear with me, please, if this column doesn’t see the light of day until Thursday.

After a rather drab weekend with not too many new releases and fewer that I was very excited about, we’re getting a few semi-decent films that hopefully will find an audience at the drive-ins, including some newly reopened ones.

But first… SPAGHETTIMAN!!!!

I’m pretty excited to hear that the virtual Oxford Film Festival is doing a special one-day screening of the HeckssBender’s hilarious superhero comedy, which I saw at the festival way back in 2016, where it became a bit of a sensation. You can get tickets to watch the movie and attend a special commemorative QnA, moderated by yours truly, right here! As you can imagine, I’m a huge fan of this indie superhero movie set in L.A. where a slacker named Clark, played by Benjamin Crutcher (who I think will be a huge comedy star someday), ends up getting superpowers… um… to produce spaghetti. When his roommate and best friend Dale (Winston Carter) finds out, he prompts Clark to use his powers to fight crime, but Clark has a better idea… he can fight crime for MONEY! It’s a very funny and sometimes silly premise but man, I love what these guys did with that premise. If you’re a fan of Broken Lizard and other comedy collectives, you should use Spaghettiman as your entry into the wonderful and wacky world of HeckBender! (They made a second feature since then called Cop Chronicles: Loose Cannons: the Legend of the Haj-Mirage and they have a YouTube channel, if you want more laughs.)

Oxford also adds more things to its Virtual Cinema this weekend, including a block of “Black Lens Narrative Shorts,” the documentary Queen of Lapa and the third “Fest Forward” block, all of which you can order at Eventive (including a few that will end on Thursday).

Also, the second Film Festival Day will take place this Saturday through the Film Festival Alliance with a virtual screening of Angela Pinaglia’s documentary, Life in Synchro, which is all about synchronized ice skating. About 34 regional film festivals, including the Oxford Film Festival, are taking part in the program which takes place this Saturday, May 23, and you can learn more about it at the Film Festival Day site.

Now that we’ve gotten some of the festival news over with, let’s begin this week’s column with a trip to England… well, not quite. The movie I’ve been most excited about is Michael Winterbottom’s THE TRIP TO GREECE (IFC Films), the fourth (and sadly, final) movie in the series of mockumentaries, starring best frenemies Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, who have really turned these movies into quite an art and science.

As the title will attest, this time they’re in Greece, basically doing the same things they did in Italy and Spain, visiting restaurants, eating food, squabbling with each other while also trying to one-up each other with a choice of selection of impressions. There’s a lot of Bee Gees and John Travolta references, as well as the duo recreating scenes from movies like Marathon Man and Midnight Cowboy. When that’s not happening, Rob is teasing Steve for his roving eye for women, while Steve gets him back since he’s found more fame and success in his career.

These aren’t documentaries, though, and Winterbottom includes a few scripted scenes to tie things together. We even get an arty black and white dream sequence dealing with Steve’s dying father, and these all offer good opportunities for Coogan and Brydon to show off their dramatic acting chops, which is another topic of dissension.

What’s nice is that The Trip to Greece works well as a standalone film even if you haven’t seen the previous three films. If you have seen the previous “Trip” movies, you may already know what to expect. If you’re a fan, you’ll already know that spending time with these two hilarious guys is a perfectly fine alternative for being able to go on trips yourself.

The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo’s new movie, MILITARY WIVES (Bleecker Street), is another movie I saw right before the NYC movie theater lockdown, when it was supposed to be released in mid-March. Bleecker Street has finally decided to give the movie a digital release, although maybe it’ll get into some of those newly-opened drive ins where it would play beautifully. As the title suggests, it takes place on a British military base where a group of wives, including Kristin Scott Thomas’ Kate, come together to form a recreational chorus to have fun and get their minds off their spouses at war. Kate is a type-A control freak, so she is immediately at odds with Sharon Horgan’s Lisa, who is more popular among the wives.

Going into this movie knowing that it’s based on a real story about wives who formed a singing group and knowing that this is directed by the guy behind The Full Monty may be all you need to know about what is generally a cutesie dramedy where a wide variety of group of women get together to support each other with all sorts of ups and downs. Listen, this isn’t exactly redefining the wheel other than this being a younger group of women than, say, Calendar Girls, but it’s in the same vein. This is basically a feel-good movie with a last act that gets a little corny, but it’s otherwise a wonderful story and Thomas leads a strong cast of women, joined by Greg Wise as her husband and Jason Flemyng as the officer in charge of the base.

This isn’t a terrible movie, and even though the last act starts to get corny as the women prepare for an Albert Hall performance, the film is otherwise a wonderful film full of emotions that only true curmudgeons would feel like their time was wasted by watching it. Bleecker Street will now release Military Wives on Hulu and digital just in time for Memorial Day weekend, which actually may have been more appropriate than its original March date.

The suspense thriller INHERITANCE (Vertical), directed by Vaughn Stein (Terminal) revolves around a wealthy and powerful Monroe family whose patriarch suddenly dies, leaving his daughter Lauren (Lily Collins) and wife (Connie Nielsen) with a shocking secret inheritance that could unravel their lives. I won’t say much about the secret, but it involves an almost unrecognizable Simon Pegg, spending much of his time in the dark with an American accent and giving a very different performance than we’ve seen from him.

I’m a big fan of Lily Collins as an actor, and I’m all for actors trying to stretch out a bit with their roles, but I’m not sure she was well-suited to play District Attorney Lauren Monroe, which may have worked better with an older actor. Although Collins is in her early ‘30s, she still looks very young, and because of that, it’s hard to believe her already being the D.A. (something which would generally take a dozen or more years as an attorney, one would expect). Pegg isn’t much better, and maybe because he too is trying something different from the norm. Since the majority of the movie is just the two actors, it involves as lot of over-emoting to creating dramatic fireworks that never fully arrive. Collins in particular tends to go over with every emotion in a performance that desperately needed to be scaled back. The rest of the cast is just okay with Nielsen having an even smaller part than Patrick Warburton -- an odd casting choice as Lauren’s father -- who dies as the film begins. Chace Crawford plays Lauren’s brother who is running for office, a subplot that add so little to the mix, except to try and create more tension.

I haven’t gotten around to seeing HBO’s Succession to know if there are any similarities in terms of its exploration of dark family secrets, but Inheritance is just not very good or interesting. The writing (by Matthew Kennedy) is weak, a bit like a bad television drama, in fact, and the severe miscasting just makes it harder for anyone to deliver on the material. Realizing this, Stein overpowers every scene with overdramatic score that makes it even harder to appreciate the actors’ efforts. In some ways, Inheritance reminded me of the recent Human Capital, which was generally a better film with a stronger story, but Stein’s inspiration clearly comes from all those ‘80s and ‘90s thrillers that try to keep the viewer on the edge of their seats. Like David Tennant’s Bad Samaritan a few years back, this one fails to get the viewer even remotely excited. (The movie was also valid proof of why I hate watching movies on my computer since most of the scenes are so dark, it’s hard to really get much out of it.) Inheritance has been playing on DirecTV since April 23, but it will be available On Demand and Digitally this Friday.

Paramount Players is the latest studio to go the VOD route with the found footage supernatural thriller, BODY CAM (Paramount Players), directed by Malik Vitthal (Netflix’s Imperial Dreams) and starring Mary J. Blige, Nat Wolff, Theo Rossi and more. It involves a routine traffic stop by police officers that leads to the grisly death of one of them, and the surviving officer (Mary J. Blige) realizing that the victim’s body cam footage may be able to show what really happened as she tries to understand the supernatural force behind a series of murders. Sadly, Paramount Players wouldn’t supply critics with early screeners to watch and review, so I may have to wait for one of my colleagues to shell out the bucks.

A movie I saw at least year’s Tribeca that will be available digitally this week is Sasie Sealy’s LUCKY GRANDMA (Good Deeds Entertainment), starring Tsai Chin as a recently-widowed and quite ornery 80-year-old Chinatown resident who goes to see a fortune teller who tells her she is going to have a very lucky day. Of course, she takes that as advice to go to Atlantic City where she wins big, but it’s her trip on the bus back where she gets lucky when a man with a bag full of cash dies. Grandma’s newfound bag of cash ends up attracting the attention of local gangsters, so to protect herself, she hires a rival gangster as her bodyguard. This is a really fun movie that I probably before I saw my #1 movie of 2019, The Farewell, and it’s only similar in that it involves a lovable Chinese grandma, and it mostly takes place in and around Chinatown in New York, but Sealy has a filmmaking style more in the vein of a Tarantino or even the Safdie Brothers where it really pushes the genre aspects of the story with the music choices, which are particularly fantastic. But really, it’s the amazing character created by Sealy with Tsai Chin that makes the movie so entertaining. I’m so glad that this is finally being released so more people can see it since it was such a popular but underseen movie at Tribeca last year.

Another film to look out for this weekend is Benjamin Ree’s documentary THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF (NEON), which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s the story of Czech artist Barbara Kysilkova, who has two paintings stolen by Karl-Bertil Nordland, but when she seeks out the thief, she ends up befriending him and asking him to sit for a portrait as a bond is formed between these unlikely people. It will also be available on Hulu, VOD, on various Virtual Cinema platforms AND at select drive-ins starting this Friday.

Also on digital this week is Philip (Boiling Point) Barantini’s action-thriller VILLAIN (Saban Films), starring Craig Fairbrass as ex-con Eddie Franks, who is trying to start a new life after leaving prison. He soon finds that impossible when he learns his brother owes a large amount of money to a dangerous drug lord, so Eddie has to return to that life of crime in order to help him.

FilmLinc’s Virtual series continues this week with a combination of new and repertory films, including Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc/Jeanne (KimStim), a sequel to Dumont’s 2017 musical, Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc. This one, which premiered as a selection in this year’s cut-short “Rendezvous with French Cinema,” stars ten-year-old Leplat Prudhomme, and it will get a one-week exclusive rental with 50% of its $10 rental to go to FilmLinc. Also this week, the venue’s Virtual series will include Raúl Ruiz’s 2010 film Mysteries of Lisbon, an HD premiere that includes new footage.

As mentioned last month, the docuseries, Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time (Quiver Distribution), will continue this week with Volume 2: Horror and Sci-Fi, which is available right now on digital, On Demand, and while I haven’t watched this episode yet, if it’s even remotely as good as Vol. 1, this will be a must-see.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Paramount has another planned release going to streaming, and in this case, it’s Michael Showalter’s THE LOVEBIRDS, reuniting him with The Big Sick co-writer/star Kumail Nanjiani and pairing him with Issa Rae from HBO’s Insecure. Despite the title, the googly-eyed love between Nanjiani’s Jibran and Rae’s Leilani only lasts a few minutes before the film cuts forward after they’d been together for a few years, and things aren’t as copacetic. They are close to breaking up, but on a trip to their last party together, the couple’s car is hijacked by someone who claims to be a cop and is chasing a guy on a bicycle. When the carjacker kills said cyclist, Jibran and Leilani realize that they may not have been helping the good guy. They’re soon sent on a trip through an underground world of crime and conspiracy to clear their names since they feel as if they’re the primary suspects in the murder.

I actually was looking forward to The Lovebirds after seeing its first trailer at CinemaCon last year. I generally like Nanjiani and really wanted him to bounce back from last year’s Stuber, which was pretty disappointing. Teaming him Rae seems to have done the trick since they’re both funny in their own right, but then they have former “The State” and “Stella” member Showalter at the helm, and he’s proven with his growing filmography as a director that he’s good at mixing laughs and even going fully R-rated when necessary. While the trip the duo takes isn’t particularly enlightening or different from other “buddy action comedies” (other than bringing together their own comic sensibilities), it all leads up to quite an amusing Eyes Wide Shut parody before its semi-obvious climax and endings.

Sure, some of the funniest bits of The Lovebirds were in the trailer, and some moments are downright corny, because you generally can figure out where it’s going. I did prefer this more comedic take on the premise that was slightly similar to last year’s Queen and Slim, and the combination of Showalter, Nanjiani and Rae allows the movie to go to newer comedic territory than we’ve seen from any of them.

In other words, this is still far better than Stuber and a lot of the Adam Sandler comedies produced by Netflix, so the streaming network kind of lucked out by having the opportunity to stream this semi-decent comedy, which more people are likely to see on the streaming service than they would have in theaters.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #Movies #Reviews #TheLovebirds #TheTripToGreece #Military Wives #Inheritance #Streaming #VOD #Digital

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macaroni-rascal · 2 years ago

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What are you excited about for US Nationals? I loved the rundown you gave for Canadian Nats!

Oh, fun question! And thank you!

Men: Deeply excited for Jason Brown to be back, I have missed his skating a lot and he is always a pleasure to watch. The US has three spots for men, so it is very very possible that he will nab one of those spots. There isn't much depth in US men's right now, it's basically Ilia, a very wide gulf, and them Camden limping behind him. My guess is those three will be the ones assigned to worlds, as long as Camden and Jason skate clean-ish, they can get medals. I don't think any other American man has a shot as medaling unless they skate perfectly, and other make mistakes, however it is men's skating, so that is always a giant possibility. Tomoki will likely have one good program and a splat fest in the other, Jimmy Ma will do that weird bow with his fist over his heart in the k/c after falling three times, and Andrew Torgashev will disappoint me.

Women: A deeper field than the men's, by quite a lot, actually, I am very much looking forward to this. Isabeau Levito is the very likely champion, unless something goes horribly wrong. However the chase for silver and bronze will be interesting. Starr Andrews has had a pretty solid (for her) season, if she goes clean and others falter she can really rise to the occasion, she usually peaks at Nationals; Amber Glenn has also had an alright season, with a medal on the GP, but then a very messy second event, this is her moment to make a definitive stand for herself and her skating, I hope she does well. Gracie Gold will be competing as well, and I will always have a small soft spot for her, Bradie Tennell is back and could throw a wrench in the gears, not to mention, Lindsay Thorngren, Ava Marie Ziegler, and Audrey Shin, all wanting to stake their claim and show their best as the new comers.

Pairs: The field with nearly as little depth as the men's, it is Alexa and Brandon's to lose, the only thing that will keep them off the top of the podium is a complete and utter disaster in both programs. Chan and Howe will want to skate well and nab silver to cement themselves as America's other top team, going to the GPF was huge for them, even if their skates weren't amazing. The bronze is up for grabs, and the other teams will be battling it out to get to worlds.

Ice Dance: Chock and Bates for gold, no question, and then since Hawayek and Baker have withdrawn, silver and bronze will be between Carreira and Ponomarenko, and Green and Parsons. Whoever ends up with silver will be going to worlds, in all likelihood, since Kaitlin and Jean Luc have said they will still make a bid for the worlds spot, which they should undoubtedly get. It will be interesting to see if Wolfkostin and Chen continue to have a giant mistake every program, how Zingas and Kolesnik do in terms of stacking up against other teams such as Pate and Bye, Bratti and Somerville, and the Browns.

The US is the only country with three spots across all disciplines for worlds, so there is a lot at stake and spots for grabs everywhere, so it should be lots of fun.

#konner talks skating #this was fun!#thanks anon #got me so psycheddddd

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Biden’s Birmingham speech

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/bidens-birmingham-speech/

Biden’s Birmingham speech

THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK…Monday: THE PRESIDENTwill participate in a ceremony for new ambassadors, and he will participate in presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mariano Rivera. He will meet with the crown prince of Bahrain before going to Albuquerque for a political rally.Tuesday: THE PRESIDENTwill raise money in Palo Alto and Beverly Hills.Wednesday: THE PRESIDENTwill raise money in Los Angeles, San Diego and then leave for Washington.Friday: THE PRESIDENTwill host the Australian PM for a state visit.

— MARIANO RIVERAwas a closer for the Yankees, and a legendary one at that. The Nats could use him at this point.

SNEAK PEEK … JOE BIDENis speaking today at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. From his remarks: “The domestic terrorism of white supremacy has been the antagonist of our highest ideals from before our founding. Lynch mobs – arsonists — bomb makers and lone gunmen. And as we all now realize, this violence does not live in the past.

“The same poisonous ideology that lit the fuse at 16th Streetpulled the trigger in Mother Emanuel, unleashed the anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh and Poway, and saw a white supremacist gun down innocent Latino immigrants in an El Paso parking lot with military-grade weapons declaring it would stop a quote ‘Hispanic invasion of Texas.’ …

“I am sure, in those first hours after the bomb exploded—it was hard to see through the smoke and rubble to a day like today.

“As Dr. King eulogized those girls – perhaps not even he could haveimagined the day nearly 50 years later – when this nation’s first black president would award them the Congressional Gold Medal—one of our highest civilian honors.

“It is only with persistent effort… It is only with fortitude in our actions…It is only with faith in ourselves and the future that may yet be…That change comes— sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once— and progress continues. “

STORY OF THE DAY … NYT’S MAGGIE HABERMAN: “Despite Turning Down Inauguration Gig, Elton John Has a Recurring Role in Trump’s Presidency”:“The email was cordial, warm and deferential.

“‘Thank you so much for the extremely kind invitationto play at your inauguration,’ wrote one of President Trump’s favorite musicians, Sir Elton John. ‘I have given it a lot of thought, and as a British National I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me to play at the inauguration of an American President. Please accept my apologies.’ …

“But for Mr. Trump, the rejection from Mr. John was probablyparticularly tough to swallow. In multiple books, Mr. Trump had praised Mr. John’s talent and drive. In 2005, Mr. Trump had arranged for Mr. John to perform at his third wedding, to Melania Knauss. Eleven years later, Mr. John sent his carefully-worded email passing on an encore performance, this time at Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

“‘Tiny Dancer,’ one of Mr. John’s most well-known songs,still rings out at the president’s rallies, part of a playlist that Mr. Trump personally selects. The president nicknamed the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, ‘Little Rocket Man,’ a homage to the song by Mr. John and a reference to the strongman’s missile tests. When the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, went to a meeting with Mr. Kim, he came bearing an Elton John record. And aides say the president has seen the singer’s biopic, ‘Rocketman.’”NYT

TRYING TO PUSH NETANYAHU OVER THE LINE … WAPO: “Trump floats idea of mutual defense pact with Israel, days before close election,”by Anne Gearan and Steve Hendrix: “President Trump said he had discussed a possible new defense pact with Israel during a phone call Saturday with Benjamin Netanyahu, highlighting the Israeli prime minister’s close ties to the Trump administration days before Netanyahu faces a difficult reelection vote.

“Trump did not promise to install a mutual defense pact,nor divulge further details of the conversation. The idea is generally popular in Israel, where the United States is the most important ally and defense partner.

“‘I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibilityof moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance . . . between our two countries,’ Trump wrote in a pair of tweets Saturday.

“The language of the tweets suggests he is contemplating a formal treaty,which would have to be submitted to the Senate for ratification.”WaPo

— COLOR US A BIT SURPRISED.This is not a terribly strong statement.

Happy Sunday. THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS’ bullpen gave up 10 runs yesterday, and the Nats lost 10-1. The Nats are now 1.5 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs for the first wild card spot.

SPOTTED: Bob Costa having brunch with Guster’s Ryan Miller and his wife, Angela, at Le Diplomate on Saturday.

CONNECTICUT POST: “Pelosi, in CT appearance, says she’s optimistic on background checks,”by Kaitlyn Krasselt: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is optimistic a series of bipartisan bills, including pay equity and background checks, that have passed in the U.S. House of Representatives but stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate will pass prior to the 2020 election.

“‘The first 10 bills that we advanced when we took control of the House,they all had bipartisan support,’ Pelosi said Saturday in New Haven. ‘It is interesting though, that if they don’t pass those bills, there is a consequence in the election, so we hope that would be a motivator in addition to doing the right thing.’”CT Post

FRONT PAGE OF THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS …“Trump’s Bay Area event shrouded in secrecy”

QUITE THE IMAGE … FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTISon the front page of the Tampa Bay Times, playing golf with a golf tee in his mouth.Front page PDF

CRAIN’S DETROIT: “Grand Hotel considered for 2020 G7 summit,”by Chad Livengood: “President Donald Trump’s administration scoped out Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel for a possible 2020 G7 summit location before the White House opted to hold the annual gathering of world economic powers at the president’s south Florida golf club and resort, Crain’s has learned.

“A spokeswoman for the Grand Hotel told Crain’s on Fridaythat the famed Mackinac Island hotel and resort was vetted and considered for the G7 meeting. The spokeswoman could not divulge any additional information, other than to say that unnamed federal officials visited Mackinac Island as part of the vetting process.

“The 397-room Grand Hotel, which is in the midst of a historic saleto a Denver-based private equity firm, is believed to be the only Michigan site considered for the Group of Seven meeting of the leaders of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.”Crain’s Detroit

NYT’S SHANE GOLDMACHER: “Planned Parenthood and Fired Former Chief Mired in Escalating Dispute”:“Leana Wen, the recently fired former president of Planned Parenthood, appears headed toward an increasingly contentious exit, after accusing the organization’s leadership of trying to “buy my silence” in a dispute that threatens to prolong and magnify an acrimonious transition at the top of the nation’s best known women’s health care and reproductive rights group.

“Dr. Wen has been engaged in two months of fraught negotiationsover her severance package since she was fired in July. She led Planned Parenthood for less than a year and accused the organization of withholding her health insurance and departure payout as ‘ransom’ to pressure her to sign a confidentiality agreement.

“She made the accusations in a barbed 1,400-word letterto Planned Parenthood’s board of directors this past week, which was obtained by The New York Times. ‘No amount of money can ever buy my integrity and my commitment to the patients I serve,’ Dr. Wen wrote.”NYT

BREAKING … AP/DUBAI: “Iran dismisses US allegation it was behind Saudi oil attacks”:“Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day that hit the world’s biggest oil processing facility and an oil field in Saudi Arabia, just hours after America’s top diplomat alleged that Tehran was behind the ‘unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.’

“The attacks Saturday claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels resultedin ‘the temporary suspension of production operations’ at the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field, Riyadh said.

“That led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 millionbarrels in crude supplies, authorities said while pledging the kingdom’s stockpiles would make up the difference. The amount Saudi Arabia is cutting back is equivalent to over 5% of the world’s daily production.

“While markets remained closed Sunday, the attack could shockworld energy prices. They also increased overall tensions in the region amid an escalating crisis between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.”AP

— WSJ: “Saudi Oil Attack Is Unlikely to Dent U.S. Economy:If strikes trigger higher energy prices, China and Japan will suffer most, economists warn,” by David Harrison: “While the total impact of the Saturday attacks remains unknown, analysts say the U.S. economy is very different than it was in the 1970s, when surging oil prices tipped the economy into recession. Oil-price shocks no longer pack the same punch, they say.

“Today, energy accounts for about 2.5% of household consumption,down from around 8% in the 1970s, according to Bank of America economists. Since the early 2000s, U.S. energy companies have dramatically ramped up production using new drilling techniques, such as fracking. Oil production doubled between 2008 and 2018, and the U.S. is now the world’s top oil producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“The Saudi oil-field attack adds a new factor to consider for Federal Reserveofficials, who have been weighing how a variety of geopolitical risks will influence the economic outlook, including the U.S.-China trade war, unrest in Hong Kong and Britain’s impending departure from the European Union.”WSJ

NEW …Adapted from NYT’s Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly’s new Brett Kavanaugh book:“But while we found Dr. Ford’s allegations credible during a 10-month investigation, Ms. Ramirez’s story could be more fully corroborated. During his Senate testimony, Mr. Kavanaugh said that if the incident Ms. Ramirez described had occurred, it would have been “the talk of campus.” Our reporting suggests that it was.

“At least seven people, including Ms. Ramirez’s mother,heard about the Yale incident long before Mr. Kavanaugh was a federal judge. Two of those people were classmates who learned of it just days after the party occurred, suggesting that it was discussed among students at the time.

“We also uncovered a previously unreported story about Mr. Kavanaughin his freshman year that echoes Ms. Ramirez’s allegation. A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly. (We corroborated the story with two officials who have communicated with Mr. Stier.)

“Mr. Kavanaugh did not speak to us because we could not agree on termsfor an interview. But he has denied Dr. Ford’s and Ms. Ramirez’s allegations, and declined to answer our questions about Mr. Stier’s account.”NYT

THE PRESIDENT,just before 9 a.m.@realDonaldTrump:“Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for liable, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination. When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can’t let that happen!”Trump corrected the tweet to say libel.

KANSAS CITY STAR: “Kris Kobach sent names of Nebraska residents to ICE while running for Kansas governor,”by Jason Hancock and Jonathan Shorman: “Kris Kobach was in the middle of running for Kansas governor in December 2017, but he had unfinished business in Nebraska.

“The former Kansas secretary of state helped write an ordinance in 2010for Fremont, Neb., banning landlords from renting homes to immigrants living in the country illegally. Four years later, he successfully defended his handiwork on behalf of the town all the way to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“His legal victory attracted national attention.Still, enforcing the law had proven difficult because information collected on rental applications wasn’t enough for the federal government to determine whether someone was in the country legally.

“But Kobach wasn’t ready to give up. So in 2017,while still receiving a $10,000-a-year retainer from Fremont, he emailed the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a list of 289 people who had applied for an occupancy license in the eastern Nebraska city, where about 15 percent of its 26,000 residents are Hispanic.”KC Star

FOR MCCARTHY AND THE NRCC …So many Republicans are retiring that it’s front page news when your delegation is NOT retiring.

— POST AND COURIERin South Carolina:“GOP leaders from SC fight on:State’s 5 congressmen to run next year, even as others call it quits”

2020 …

— NYT’S LONG RUN SERIES: “Kamala Harris Was Ready to Brawl From the Beginning:In her first race, she defied her old boss, a fund-raising pledge — and the implication that she owed her career to her ex-boyfriend.,”by Matt Flegenheimer in San Francisco

— MARC CAPUTO: “Biden allies attack Warren’s electability”:“As Elizabeth Warren climbs in the polls, Joe Biden’s Massachusetts allies are warning that her home-state election history suggests she runs weakest among the types of voters Democrats need to win over to capture the White House.

“While Warren won re-election easily in 2018, Biden’s backerspoint to her performance among independent and blue-collar voters as evidence she’ll fail to appeal to similar voters in the Rust Belt — just as Hilary Clinton did in 2016.

“‘The grave concern of many of us Democrats in Massachusettsis that in many of the counties where Sen. Warren underperforms, they are demographically and culturally similar to voters in key swing states,’ said state Rep. John Rogers, who backs Biden. ‘The tangible fear here,’ Rogers said, “is that these Massachusetts counties are bellwethers for states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio — key states that Democrats can’t afford to lose in the battle to beat President Trump.’”POLITICO

SUNDAY BEST … PETE BUTTIGIEGtoGEORGE STEPHANAOPOULOSonABC’s “This Week”reacting toDONALD TRUMPsaying the South Bend mayor was up two in Texas: “I mean, you can’t take it that seriously. Other than I’m — I’m very curious to know what pollster let him know that I’m beating him in Texas by two points. That’s news to me, but it’s very good news if it’s true.”

— KELLYANNE CONWAYto Bill Hemmer on“FOX NEWS SUNDAY”on a possible meeting with Iran’s president: “He has never … we never committed to that meeting at the United Nations General Assembly. The president just said he’s looking at it.”

— SEN. CORY BOOKERto Chuck Todd onNBC’s “Meet the Press”about his flagging poll numbers: “The polls have never been predictive this far out. In fact, if you’re polling ahead right now, you should worry because we’ve never in my lifetime and yours had somebody who was polling ahead this far out that went on to the presidency. The people that usually win are younger, dynamic candidates that are considered long shots. Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.”

— JAKE TAPPERspoke toPETE BUTTIGIEGabout Beto O’Rourke’s calling to confiscate guns onCNN’s “STATE OF THE UNION”.TAPPER: “Do you agree? Did Beto O’Rourke say something that’s playing into the hands of Republicans?”BUTTIGIEG: Yes.

“Look, right now, we have an amazing moment on our hands.We have agreement among the American people for not just universal background checks, but we have a majority in favor of red flag laws, high-capacity magazines, banning the new sale of assault weapons.

“This is a golden moment to finally do something,because we have been arguing about this for as long as I have been alive. When even this president and even Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, we know that we have a moment on our hands.Let’s make the most of it and get these things done.”

— WYOMING REP. LIZ CHENEYtoCHUCK TODDonSEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY.):“Look, I think if you look back at what, what Senator Paul has said over many, many years, he’s very different from where President Trump is on these issues. President Trump puts America first. Senator Paul, whenever given the opportunity, blames America first.”

— RAND PAULtoJAKE TAPPERon CNN’s “State of the Union”: “I can’t meet a general who can clearly tell me what our national security interest is in Afghanistan. Most of the military, over 60 percent of the military who served in Iraq or Afghanistan now think both of the wars should come to an end.

“So I think the president’s right to do this, but I think we have to callout the Republicans who are preventing him. This is the Bolton-Cheney wing. Dick Cheney to this day still thinks the Iraq War was a good thing. The Iraq War, President Trump has said, was the biggest geopolitical blunder of the last generation. It destabilized the Middle East. It increased the strength of Iran. It tipped the balance towards Iran.

“So there really was nothing good about the Iraq War.And Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, John Bolton, they still don’t get it. They still are advocating for more regime change in the Middle East.”

THE PRESIDENT’S SUNDAY …No public events scheduled

NEW EXCERPT … “’No turning back now’: The inside story of James Comey’s trip to Trump Tower”from Josh Campbell’s“Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump’s War on the FBI”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY … BOSTON GLOBE’S VICKY MCGRANEin Springfield, Mass.:“Potential Joe Kennedy vs. Ed Markey face-off at center of Democratic convention”:“Senator Elizabeth Warren on Saturday said she sees nothing to criticize in Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III launching a primary challenge to the candidate she has endorsed, Senator Edward J. Markey.

“Warren told reporters that she stands by her endorsement of Markey,which she made in February. But she declined to offer any words of discouragement for the 38-year-old Kennedy as he mulls a challenge to Markey.

“‘I couldn’t ask for a better partner in the Senate,’ Warren saidof Markey in comments made shortly before she took the stage at the state Democratic Party’s annual convention here. But she called both men friends and offered equally strong praise of Kennedy, noting that she had him and his wife as students at Harvard Law School.”Boston Globe

BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS,curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):

— “How David Swensen Made Yale Fabulously Rich,”by Drake Bennett, Janet Lorin and Michael McDonald in Bloomberg Businessweek: “He walked away from the stock market, built a network of elite private funds, and created a fortune with no end in sight.”Bloomberg Businessweek

— “What I Wish I’d Known About Sexual Assault in the Military,”by Sandra Sidi in October’s Atlantic: “For women, fending off unwanted male attention is the job that never ends.”The Atlantic

— “The Moral Logic of Humanitarian Intervention,”by The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins: “Samantha Power made a career arguing for America’s ‘responsibility to protect.’ During her years in the White House, it became clear that benevolent motives can have calamitous results.”New Yorker

— “I Was Caroline Calloway,”by Natalie Beach in The Cut: “Seven years after I met the infamous Instagram star, I’m ready to tell my side of the story.”The Cut(h/t Longreads.com)

— “Notre-Dame’s Toxic Fallout,”by NYT’s Elian Peltier in Paris and James Glanz, Weiyi Cai and Jeremy White in NYC: “Flames engulfed 460 tons of lead when Notre-Dame’s roof and spire burned, scattering dangerous dust onto the streets and parks of Paris.”NYT

— “Malcolm Gladwell Reaches His Tipping Point,”by The Atlantic’s Andy Ferguson: “Among his other talents, he’s one of those ‘professional communicators’ that public-speaking coaches always say we should emulate: First he tells his audience what he’s about to tell them, then he tells them, and then he tells them what he just told them.”The Atlantic(h/t ALDaily.com)

— “Superfans: A Love Story,”by Michael Schulman in The New Yorker: “From ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Game of Thrones,’ fans have more power than ever to push back. But is fandom becoming as toxic as politics?”New Yorker

— “Competitive Oyster Shucking Is Real, Decadent, And China’s Best Party,”by Noelle Mateer in Deadspin: “Do not assume, just because there is champagne and whiskey and maybe, sometimes, drugs, that these shuckers aren’t also thinking long and hard, and often poetically, about their métier.”Deadspin(h/t Longform.org)

— “The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen,”by Tucker Carlson in Esquire in Nov. 2003: “Recently, an eminent, varied, large, and unlikely delegation of Americans, led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, went to Africa to heal a wounded continent. They took the whitest man in America with them.”Esquire

— “Ship of horrors: life and death on the lawless high seas,”by Ian Urbina in The Guardian: “From bullying and sexual assault to squalid living conditions and forced labour, working at sea can be a grim business – and one deep-sea fishing fleet is particularly notorious.”Guardian

— “Confessions of an Islamic State fighter” —1843 Magazine’s Aug./Sept. issue: “Fitim Lladrovci travelled to Syria to fight a holy war. Now back in Kosovo, he continues to call for jihad. Alexander Clapp is granted a rare interview.”1843 Magazine

— Why Can’t California Solve Its Housing Crisis?”by Tessa Stuart in Rolling Stone: “It’s the epicenter of the tech industry and the wealthiest, most progressive state in the union, but homelessness is surging — and no one can agree on how to fix it.”RS(h/t Longform.org)

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [email protected].

SPOTTED:Pete Buttigieg hosting friends and supporters at Morris American Bar in D.C. before attending the Congressional Black Caucus gala at the Convention Center on Saturday.Pic

SPOTTEDat a party for Kim Wehle’s new book, “How To Read The Constitution And Why,” ($17.99 on Amazon) at the home of Megan Rupp in Chevy Chase, Md.: Rod and Lisa Rosenstein, Rick Wilson, Maya MacGuineas and Will Rabbe.

TRANSITION — Cari Lutkinsis now deputy chief of staff for operations at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. She was previously director for strategic initiatives at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and is a Trump White House alum.

WEEKEND WEDDINGS – OBAMA ALUMNI: Alexa KissingertoGareth Rhodes —per NYT’s Vincent M. Mallozi: “New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo officiated. … The couple met at Harvard, from which each received a law degree. The bride, 29, is a judicial clerk for Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She previously served as an aide to Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama. … The groom, 31, is special counsel to the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services in New York and Albany. … He previously served as an aide to Governor Cuomo and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 19th Congressional district in 2018.”With a pic,NYT

— “Taylor Barnes, Alexander Logan,”via NYT: “Ms. Barnes, 29, is the constituency operations director and the women’s political director of the [DNC], where she helps manage constituency outreach groups in Washington. … Mr. Lord, 33, is the database manager at the National Guard Association, where he oversees reporting and analytics, membership acquisition and retention strategy in Washington.”With a pic,NYT

— “Katie Rodihan, Heath Hyatt,”via NYT: “Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, officiated …Ms. Rodihan, 27, is the national press secretary for Inslee for America, the presidential campaign of Gov. Jay Inslee, Democrat of Washington, who last month dropped out of the 2020 race. …Mr. Hyatt, 29, is an associate at Perkins Coie, a law firm in Seattle. … [T]heir relationship developed while they were campaigning for Mr. Kaine in Virginia in 2012.”NYT

— Chris Hayden,deputy communications director for Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, andRachel Chaney,a longtime organizer who most recently worked at Democracy Forward, were married last night in Ocean City, N.J.SPOTTED:Ben Ray, Alex Kellner, Adrianne Marsh and Paul Dunn, Rob Flaherty, Carla Frank, Lily Adams, Corey Ciorciari, James Singer, Rachael Hartford, Caitlin Legacki, Cameron Sullivan, Stewart Boss, Suzy Smith, Morgan Finkelstein, Noah Dion and Joe Philbin.Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Erin Memmott,a partner at Oorbeek Memmott Group, andJustin Memmott,counsel for the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, welcomed Samuel David to the world.Pic

BIRTHDAYS:Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) is 43 … Ashley Parker, WaPo White House reporter and MSNBC/NBC senior political analyst … Sara Fagan, CEO of Deep Root Analytics … former Bush/Cheney speechwriter John McConnell … Kirsten Kukowski … Christian Pinkston … Chris Lehmann … NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik … Todd Breasseale … Ben Kamisar … “CBS This Morning” producer Adam Aigner-Treworgy … Alana Russo … former Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is 6-0 … POLITICO’s Kathy Wolfe, Jenn Miller and Hung-Su Nguyen … Alexandra Berg … Eliza Shapiro … Tiffany Haverly, director of public affairs at PhRMA … Sabrina Rush … Sandra Alcalá, House director of member services (hat tip: Jon Haber) … Jon Gossett … Chandler Smith Costello, SEC deputy director for public affairs …

… Ryan Nobles,CNN Washington correspondent … Zara Rahim,head of comms of The Wing … Herb Rothschild is 82 (h/t son Gregg) … Tony Mauro … League of Conservation Voters’ Dawn Cohea … Katie Thompson … David Lloyd … Elizabeth Meyer of Booz Allen Hamilton … Cat Cheney … Don Irvine … Jodi Hanson Bond … Marya Hannun … Amy Sisk … Rebecca McGrath … Hannah Connaghan … Bryan Doyle … Wayne King, deputy COS for Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) … Mal Kline … Kristen Bor … Dave Shott … Bloomberg Opinion’s Max Berley … Veronica Lew … Nathan Hurst … Allyson Alvaré Kranz … CNBC’s Ryan Ruggiero … Theola DeBose … Connie Carter … Neil Makhija … Marie Arana … Phil Zabriskie … Wayne Reynolds … Chip Rodgers … Todd Olsen … Jill Moschak

Anna Palmer @apalmerdc

Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

View all our political and policy newsletters

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reddtabor · 8 years ago

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Judgment Day, Cider-Style

With Nearly 170 Entries Across 14 Categories, the Fifth Annual Portland International Cider Cup Embodies the Northwest’s Blossoming Cider Revival

On the morning of April 9, 2017, contestants in the Portland’s annual Bridge to Brews race ran or jogged by the Widmer Brothers Brewery, unaware that inside a very different competition was brewing to showcase the best of the best in one of the nation’s cider epicenters.

Widmer, which also makes Square Mile Cider, was the site of the fifth annual Portland International Cider Cup, a regional cider competition for cideries within the geographic boundary supported by the Northwest Cider Association.

Map of member cideries in the Northwest Cider Association.

Founded in 2013 by Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Abram Goldman-Armstrong of Cider Riot!, Dave White of Whitewood Cider, Nick Gunn of Benchgraft Cider Consulting, and Mark Crowder of Rain Barrel Ciderworks, PICC 2017 received a record 168 unique ciders vying for a medal in one of 14 categories that included Modern Dry Cider, Heritage Sweet Cider, Spiced/Herbed Cider, Wood/Oaked Cider, and Northwest-invented Hopped Cider.

I’ve run the Bridge to Brews 10K three times, and while jogging over the Willamette River on a traffic-free Fremont Bridge is amazing, the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at how more than 40 regional cider, beer, and wine experts rate regional ciders couldn’t be missed.

Cider pours at Portland International Cider Cup 2017. Photo: Sean Connolly

I was on the scene as a volunteer steward, which meant serving blind tastings to a table of judges rating one particular cider category. I drew—picked, actually, pardon the pun—the Spiced/Herbed category, which had 16 entries evaluated by judges whose experience ranged from a head cidermaker to a national cider ambassador, a food, beer, cider, and wine freelance writer, and an area beer expert and blogger.

The eclectic background of the 44 judges was intentional, according to Emily Ritchie, Executive Director of the Northwest Cider Association, which now manages PICC on behalf of its 80+ members.

More than 40 judges evaluated nearly 170 ciders across 14 different categories. Photo: Sean Connolly

“We wanted to make sure we had more women [judges] this year,” says, Ritchie. “We also want a wide variety of palates, so we invite people … including wine cellarists, chefs, professional cheese and coffee judges, beermongers, and of course cidermakers.”

Blind tasting is also a critical part of the judging process in order to eliminate bias, even though some of the judges are damned good at sussing out cider profiles, what cideries might be behind the elixir, or a certain cider makers’ style. The Northwest cider scene is, despite its growth curve, a close-knit community. As a steward, it was my job to not only provide the pours, but keep the cider makers and ciders I’m bringing down to the rating table anonymous.

A blind tasting sheet from PICC 2017. Photo: Sean Connolly

Watching judging in action was—for me—fascinating. I’d seen the rating sheets the judges they’re using: each cider was rated within its specific category on appearance, aroma, taste, body and finish, and the judges’ general impressions of the drink.

Jana Ensign-Daisy-Ensign of Finnriver Farm and Cidery is one of the judges I work with. A lover of all things fermented with an enviable ‘National Cider Ambassador’ job title, Daisy-Ensign views judging cider as a ‘dream opportunity.’

PICC judges evaluating a cider’s appearance. Photo: Sean Connolly

“Knowing how much care goes into crafting each cider that arrives anonymously at the table,” she says, “it is with great weight and consideration that we, as judges, gaze upon, smell, sip, and savor each iteration of fermented apples striving to appreciate the intent of each cidermaker. We consider both merits and flaws to appraise the drink as a whole. How a cider aligns with the definition of the category in which it is entered for competition is a guiding factor.”

For instance, entries in the Spiced/Herbed cider category at the table I stewarded were evaluated for balance between aroma and flavor and the herbs or spices used in the crafting. The ciders’ fundamental apple flavor, meanwhile, shouldn’t be masked or overpowered by the ingredients. For entries in this category using eclectic flavor enhancers like lemongrass, ginger, tamarind, or even jalapeno and habanero peppers, achieving boldness and balance can be tricky.

Entries in the 14 different PICC 2017 cider categories. Photo credit: Carolyn Winkler, Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider

The background of the stewards and other event managers and organizers I worked with throughout the day was varied and impressive as the judges’ and the cider entries. Stewards David and Glynnis, both bartenders, are a cider-loving couple who are networking for new job opportunities. Eric is a beer and cider lover here for the scene—and the samples we occasionally get to enjoy ourselves. Helen – my colleague and boss, is Portland Cider Company’s media and marketing maven. Lisa works for NW Cider Brokers, which helps small cideries build their brand and broaden their market reach. I can relate to all of them in little ways, and they’re interesting, fun people.

Back in Cider Central—the name I’ve given the upstairs room where the stewards keep the ciders organized and pour tasting flights, we’re guided by Ritchie, who pinch hits everywhere throughout the day, Crowder, the Master of Cider Ceremony who crunched rating numbers for hours, can recall virtually every rule, entry, their category, and whose modern dry cider served as the judges’ taste calibration cider, and Carolyn Winkler, Reverend Nat’s Events Manager and the Chief PICC Competition Coordinator.

Glynnis and Dave, two volunteer cider stewards, pouring samples in preparation for judging. Photo: Sean Connolly

This was not only Carolyn’s second year in a row very capably managing PICC, it was her second day in a row organizing a major cider event. The day before Winkler, worked the Third Annual Hopped Cider Fest for 12 hours, and as I watch her bring up crate after crate of tasting glassware and handle myriad other details large and small, I’m reminded of an Energizer Bunny who traded in his drum for tasting flights.

Throughout the day, we talked in rhythm with the steady cadence of stewards filling cider flights, entering and leaving Cider Central to bring samples down to the judging area. I learned about Crowder’s plan to launch his own commercial cidery in the near future somewhere in Eastern Oregon, how Winkler juggles home-schooling her children with work, got details of my colleague Helen’s upcoming trip to explore cider markets in Colorado. We took (very) small samples of certain ciders that are eye-catching or have interesting descriptions, paying close attention to giving the judges just the right amount of cider to sample so everyone stays sharp. We laughed over Monty Python skits (hear what floats on water at minute 0:58), finicky judges, and the unfortunate baby spider that crawled into and met its end in a sample cup. [The judge demanded a re-pour].

An array of ciders judged during PICC 2017. Photo: Sean Connolly

PICC may not be as large as the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition, which is now in its 12th year, but for Ritchie and organizers Goldman-Armstrong and Crowder, PICC is all about branding Pacific Northwest ciders within what I call the New American Cider Movement. Entering a competition is a good way for a cidery to get feedback on new releases and get reference for where they sit in a roomful of judges, Ritchie says. It’s also an opportunity for the Northwest cider-making community to encourage its members to produce high-quality, even “flawless cider.”

For Crowder, who helped create PICC, it’s a great way to watch the continued evolution of not only the Northwest cider scene, but the evolution of cider drinkers’ tastes, too. “I think the biggest take-away from that is that as consumers palates evolve with cider, more dry ciders are becoming available--and hopefully successful--on the market,” Crowder says. “[The] modern and heritage dry [category entries] both doubled in size this year, he notes, “also, fruit and spiced/herbed ciders have all seen a sizable increase in entries.”

Cider sample cups. Photo credit: Carolyn Winkler/Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider.

By 4pm, Gold and Silver awards have been awarded in each category, and the Gold medalist ciders were being poured for a smaller, select panel of head judges from the category tables that have assembled to select the Best in Show entry. Another commitment means I have to, reluctantly, leave PICC 2017 before the judging is complete. But that’s ok: the winning entries are going to be kept secret until June 15, 2017 at the 2017 Portland International Cider Cup Awards Party anyway.

As much as I dislike the phrase “everyone’s a winner,” one of the take-away messages I got as a PICC 2017 steward is that now, at this moment in the New American Cider Movement, there’s a concerted effort by the Northwest’s cideries and cider makers to collectively stay on their A-game. For the winners, there will, of course, be bragging rights and the ability to showcase the award in marketing their product.

Cider flights at PICC 2017. Photo: Sean Connolly

But for the Northwest’s cider community as a whole, PICC is about more than who wins. Emily Ritchie sums it up this way: “We're creating a brand of Northwest-made cider right now and we want this region to be known for excellent products. The competition encourages better and better cider!”

For those of us that love cider and its myriad, eminently quaffable varieties, that’s a concept that can’t be beat.

Want to find out which ciders won in each of the PICC 2017 categories and which one took away Best in Show? Look for media announcements following the industry’s Portland International Cider Cup Awards Party at Portland Cider Company on June 15, 2017.

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teachanarchy · 8 years ago

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"The fascists already have power," prison abolitionist and Black Panther Party member George Jackson said in 1971. "The point is that some way must be found to expose them and combat them."

Recently, images of (mostly white) radicals engaging in "black bloc" tactics -- wherein groups of protesters dress in all black clothing and masks in order to conceal their identities -- have grabbed the attention of the US mainstream media, piquing the public's interest in antifascism, or "antifa" for short. Militant, left-wing opposition to fascist groups and ideas, oftentimes including the physical confrontation of fascists, is re-entering the American political imagination. But while many people think of white anarchists breaking windows and punching Nazis when they talk about antifa, Black folks in the Western hemisphere have essentially been doing antifascist work for centuries. It just hasn't been recognized as such.

"Living as a Black person in America every day is an antifascist struggle," Trevor, a Black activist with the antifa group NYC Anarchist Action, told me. "Any day you could end up on the plantation, which is the prison system. So every day is a war to some degree." And with Donald Trump in power and the neo-Nazi and white nationalist coalition that calls itself the "alt-right"on the rise, the history of the Black liberation struggle, along with the activism of today's Black antifascists, can provide the US's growing antifascist movement with valuable lessons on exposing and combating American-style fascism. I spoke to some Black antifa activists and asked them for their thoughts on the past, present and future of Black resistance against fascism and white nationalism.

For the people I spoke to, history shows that the Black liberation struggle includes the struggle against fascism.

"Historically, a lot of the work that Black people have done has been antifascist," Mike Bento of the anti-police brutality group NYC Shut It Down told me. "From the anti-lynching campaigns in the early part of the last century up through to the Civil Rights Movement and to the Black Panthers: These are all antifascist movements."

Bento began doing traditional antifa work when he spent a few years in London beginning in 2010. It was there that Bento and his comrades began confronting fascist groups like the British National Party and the English Defense League in the streets and physically stopping their marches. The experience helped him realize that fascism isn't just Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini or skinheads with swastika tattoos in Europe.

He recalls an incident on election night in 2008. Bento was in California protesting against Proposition 8, a ballot measure making gay marriage illegal, when a passer-by gave him a wake-up call. "I was holding a sign that said 'No on Prop 8,'" Bento said. "And a white dude in a big truck drove by and said, 'Go back to your neighborhood, you faggot nigger!' He literally called me a 'faggot nigger.'"

The symbolism of this happening on the same night that Barack Obama became the first Black president wasn't lost on Bento. The moment crystallized for him how the different kinds of discrimination and oppression are connected and how US fascists would continue to remain a threat despite the country electing a Black man as its leader.

American fascism is no recent phenomenon, either. Bento notes that the US, with its foundational culture of white nationalism combined with its long tradition of scapegoating and state repression of people of color, has always been a fascist state for Black folks. Even before the Black Panthers or the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Black activists like Mabel and Robert Williams were fighting the most brutal forms of American fascism by arming Black people and teaching them how to defend themselves from the Ku Klux Klan.

This is why antifascist work "has always been important," said Gem Isaac of the Black-women-led, anti-police-brutality group Why Accountability. Her group recently organized a march in New York City against white nationalism on Inauguration Day where protesters marched from Harlem to Trump Tower, shutting down streets and chanting against Trump and the police on the way there. Isaac points out that Black people have long been at the forefront of many areas of social and political life, including antifascism.

"We talk about the Civil Rights Movement, but we can go back further than that," Isaac told me. "When you talk about Nat Turner or Sojourner Truth, to take up arms against your oppressor and push back against them, that is antifascist work. When you talk about Nanny of the Maroons in the Caribbean or the Haitian Revolution, that is antifascist work. History has shown us, time and again, African people participating in antifascist work."

Isaac, along with another member of Why Accountability, also showed up at New York University on February 2 to help shut down a speech by fascist hipster Gavin McInnes. This practice of disrupting and shutting down fascist meetings and speeches is known as "no-platforming" and is a quintessential antifa practice aimed at stopping fascists from organizing and thus preventing and defending against far-right violence.

"You had Gavin McInnes being given a platform by NYU to come in and, in my opinion, do a recruitment session," Isaac said. "Being allowed to come, under the guise of free speech, so you can eventually bring violence against other people and have it upheld by the local police department -- that is violence."

Isaac also brought up tactics like doxxing (in which people's private information, such as their full names, phone numbers or addresses, are published online in order to encourage abuse) and targeted online harassment, which are used by alt-right trolls, as more modern forms of fascist violence. Black women have been especially targeted in these kinds of online attacks, as illustrated by what happened to comedian and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones in July 2016. Racist online trolls, angered at the idea of a Black woman starring in the Ghostbusters movie, began endlessly harassing Jones on Twitter, flooding her account with racist and sexist comments shortly after the release of Ghostbusters. About a month after this harassment began, Twitter banned Breitbart editor and fascist troll Milo Yiannopoulos for coordinating the online attacks. Jones' personal website was then hacked with photos of her driver's license and passport posted up on it. The hackers also posted alleged nude photos of Jones.

"What's happened is the actions of the KKK from yesteryear have now moved to a digital platform," Isaac said. "So instead of burning a cross at your house, which they still do depending on where you are, they'll dox you, threaten to release information about you, or they'll post unflattering photos of you on white nationalist websites. So the tactics have shifted but the outcome that they want -- for violence, harm or death to come to anyone who opposes white nationalism -- is all the same." Colin Ashley of the racial justice group Peoples Power Assemblies has experienced this kind of violence firsthand not just for being Black but also for being queer. On the night of December 17, 2016, Ashley and a group of friends had just left an activist party in Manhattan and were chanting slogans like "Black Lives Matter," and "We're here! We're queer! We're fabulous! Don't fuck with us!" They were soon approached by a group of men chanting "Trump!" who then made racist and homophobic remarks to them. One of the Trump-supporting men pointed specifically at Ashley and yelled: "He's a fucking faggot!"

"As we chanted back at them, they were following us from the event that we were at, one of them took a swing at one of my comrades," Ashley said. "I jumped in to defend them, and we were then basically beaten and attacked by this guy and his friends that night."

Pictures of the aftermath showed Ashley with a swollen face, a bruised eye and blood on his clothes. The attack exemplified for Ashley how the most marginalized groups of people, groups like immigrants, LGBTQ folks and Muslims, are often the main targets of fascist violence. This vulnerability to fascist violence, whether it be in the form of street harassment or deportations or incarceration, is also increased for people who are part of more than one marginalized group. Black immigrants, Black queer people, Black trans folk and Black Muslims all have to be extra careful of politicized bigotry putting them in physical danger. "We know full well from the history of this country that once fascistic nationalism takes hold, the most marginalized are the ones who become blamed, targeted and systematically oppressed," he said. "There may be this sense for some people that it's just immigrants or just Muslims, but it's not going to stop with these groups."

The case of CeCe McDonald, a Black trans woman attacked by a Nazi in June 2011, is emblematic of the constant threat to marginalized people posed by fascists. Much like Ashley, McDonald and a group of friends were confronted by another group of people spewing racist and transphobic remarks at them. One of the women in the other group smashed a glass in McDonald's face and punched her. After a fight between the two groups broke out, the woman's ex-boyfriend assaulted McDonald, whose face was already bleeding from the glass, and threw her into the street. The man, with fists clenched, began pursuing McDonald. She quickly pulled a pair of scissors from her purse and stabbed the man in the chest as he lunged towards her. The man died. He was later found to have a swastika tattooed on his chest. McDonald, now seen by many as a hero and antifascist icon, went to prison for 19 months of her 41-month sentence, despite having obviously defended herself against a racist, transphobic Nazi who was threatening her life.

But despite these cases of street violence and online harassment, all of the activists I spoke to insisted -- like the Black Panthers did before them -- that a primary perpetrator of fascist and white supremacist violence against Black people has always been the police. In her autobiography, the legendary Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur recounted how much the New Jersey State Troopers resembled and spoke like actual Nazis. Despite calling them "fascist pigs" for years, the cops "shocked me by the truth of my own rhetoric," Shakur said. Recently, the Intercept reported on a 2006 FBI report showing that white supremacist groups have long been "infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel." When a Philadelphia cop was photographed last year at the Democratic National Convention with his Nazi tattoos in plain sight, Internal Affairs cleared him of any wrongdoing. And during the presidential campaign, the Fraternal Order of Police, the country's largest police union, proudly endorsed Donald Trump for president. Cops and the Klan have been working hand in hand for much of US history: from the KKK allying with Southern police during the Civil Rights era in order to more easily commit murder to the modern-day infiltration of law enforcement by the KKK. This has, in turn, shaped Black resistance and given Black antifas a unique perspective on fighting fascism. Daryle Jenkins of the One People's Project, a group that monitors racist and far-right groups, can tell you everything you need to know about fascists and white supremacists in the US. And though he's spent about 30 years keeping an eye on right-wing groups and even been individually targeted by them, he points to the police as a major source of white supremacist violence against Black people.

"Whenever you see a cop beating somebody down on the street or slamming people up against a wall, that's part of it. And everybody keeps forgetting that," he said. "I think that one of the biggest problems that we have is the fact that the fascists use law enforcement as a way to get at those that they hate. They basically look at law enforcement as their own personal Gestapo."

The close relationship between police and fascists is why Trevor, Bento, Isaac and Ashley are all part of groups that focus on state violence against people of color. All of them have also personally experienced or witnessed violence from police.

Trevor has been harassed and stopped and frisked simply for being Black. Bento was once racially profiled and had a gun put to his head by a cop. Isaac has seen Black activists physically assaulted by police while trying to file a complaint against police. Ashley had a cousin who was killed by police.

Though Jenkins can't imagine large numbers of Black people embracing the black bloc tactic in the struggle against cops and fascists, he does see similar tactics occurring in more broad-based Black antifascist work.

"When you see what happened in Baltimore, when you see what happened in Ferguson, that's our antifascist work," he said, referring to young people battling it out with cops in the streets of both those cities in response to high-profile cases of police brutality. "It just hasn't been called that."

In the future, Ashley hopes to see Black antifa activism being called that, and hopes to see the label "antifa" being used to describe more than just breaking windows and punching Nazis (though he's not necessarily opposed to those things).

"Yes, there's something beautiful and powerful about direct forms of resistance that are more aggressive and straightforward; but also, part of antifascist work is establishing alternative ways of being," Ashley said. "In many ways, people of color, Black people especially, have always kind of done that in this country out of necessity. But I think it needs to be expanded, and I think it needs to be named as antiracist, antifascist work. Both of those are part of our liberation struggle."

The other activists agree, but none believe that establishing those alternative ways of being will be easy. Trevor, who sees the Black Liberation Army as the model for fighting against fascism, has no illusions about the consequences of trying to smash fascism, and stressed that in this struggle, conflict will be inevitable. "The coming conflict is going to be a lot more intense, because the reactionaries have reached the height of power," he said. "It's very serious times now."

#police #racism #antifa

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vamonumentlandscape · 3 years ago

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Richmond Day 2

Near the former slave market in Shockoe Bottom in the heart of Richmond is a 15-foot statue dedicated to the reconciliation of slavery. It was unveiled on March 31, 2007, and has identical copies in Liverpool and Benin. These other locations are paramount as Liverpool had significant profits from the shipbuilding of the massive slave vessels. Benin also gained greater access to goods in exchange for human beings. The Richmond statue itself is evocative as it shows two human figures embracing. Engraved on the base of the statue are slave ships, chains, and maps of where the enslaved were brought in to be auctioned to the highest bidder at markets like the one in Shockoe Bottom. It was estimated that nearly 300,000 people were sold in Richmond before the outbreak of the Civil War. We noticed that a few broken light fixtures surround the base, which necessitates attention from the appropriate city department. The statue remains a vital part of the Richmond Slave Trail as it presents an honest portrayal of the role that Richmond had in the most tragic violation of human rights in the history of the United States. The city government could never go back in time and stop slavery from happening, but this form of apology is a positive step towards addressing our troubling past.

After we viewed the Reconciliation Triangle Monument, we walked over to see the nearly hidden memorial to the Slave Auction. It is just across from the train station, beside a trash can. It is a sign in disrepair from weather and age. The first sentence on the sign makes you aware that you are in the exact geographical location of where the slave auction block was. It leads one to imagine yourself in the 19th century Shockoe Bottom. “To your left, around, and behind you were the cobblestone streets that led to the large, fashionable, brick hotels where dealers had their first floor offices and buyers rented upstairs rooms.” The image is vivid of how it once looked when humans were being sold by other humans. Signage leads you to continue on the Richmond Slave Trail. We walked about a quarter of a mile towards the parking lot below the train station and highway to find the next oddly placed stop on the trail. Lumpkin's Slave Jail was right below a major street, with a large, white structure on a trailer directly beside it. The greenery was overgrown on the signage. Once we got past the disrepair the site was in and began reading, the story came alive. “The Devil’s Half Acre” is what Lumpkin’s Slave Jail was known as. A dark place where those who bought slaves could come to purchase the enslaved who were known to “rebel” or seek their own freedom. The torture the enslaved men and women went through at Lumpkin’s Jail is unimaginable as the jail was eight feet underground without any ventilation or light. It is interesting to note that despite the abuse Lumpkin put many enslaved people through, by either owning, buying, selling, or imprisonment, the wife and mother of his five children was a formerly enslaved woman named Mary. After the Civil War and Lumpkin’s death, Mary was left with all of his property. Of course, she did not want to remain on a property where her life was spent in the shadow of an evil man, so she leased the land for a better purpose. Nathaniel Colver, an abolitionist and preacher, was searching for land and space to have an African American Seminary. Once Mary and he met to create the seminary, which is now Virginia Union University, the “Devil’s Half Acre” became “God’s Half Acre.” Continuing to read about the site, one also learns the oddly placed white structure is an important piece of preserved Richmond history. Winfree Cottage was owned by the formerly enslaved Emily Winfree and stood at the intersection of Porter and Commerce streets. This home was going to be demolished in 2002 for a parking lot, but thankfully Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods raised the money to preserve the site to where it is today. Though all three sites discussed are in semi-disrepair, it is notable they exist at all. Thankfully those all across the nation are beginning to recognize the importance of many different stories in America’s history.

Towards the middle and hottest part of our travels, we ventured to Brown’s Island, which is located near the riverfront of the James. During the Civil War, the Confederate States Laboratory operated here with women and children making ammunition for the Southern forces. It was a prime location due to its proximity to the railroads and canal. Throughout the early part of the 20th century, the Albemarle Paper Company operated a mill on the island before gifting the land to the City of Richmond. It is now a beautiful park with trails for visitors to get some fresh air and exercise. The main reason we sought to visit the park was to see if there was any progress on the Emancipation Proclamation and Freedom Memorial. While it has yet to be constructed, progress has been made at the site. We believe that the fenced area just across from Tredegar Street is where the monument will be placed. According to the MLK Commission, Virginians that will be included at the site are Mary Elizabeth Bowser, Dred Scott, Nat Turner, and many others that deserve to have their stories known. Across from the construction site is the Headman Statue, which commemorates the contributions of African-Americans to the city economy. A bronze statue depicts a man standing on a boat holding an oar while looking over his shoulder. Unfortunately, the original fiberglass statue was stolen and vandalized in 1989. When found, it had over 400 bullet holes. It is possible that this incident was racially motivated. The Headman was replaced in 1993 by the original artist and has remained in its current location ever since. We enjoyed making a quick stop at this picturesque part of Richmond.

One of the more complex stops on day two in Richmond was at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) and the United Daughters of the Confederacy Headquarters (UDCH). The VMFA looks inviting with a large garden space in the back, a stairway fountain, and art surrounding the main building. The UDCH parallel to the VMFA has an entirely different feel. A marble fortress with orange cones, empty flagpoles, and private security surrounding the already seemingly indestructible building. It was an odd feeling as we looked upon Rumors of War, the 2019 piece by Kehinde Wiley that was inspired by the JEB Stuart statue on Monument Avenue. Despite being inspired by the Stuart statue in looks, the meaning is entirely different. The African American man sitting atop the horse in streetwear is an ode to People of Color who have been lost due social and political injustices across the nation. Just to the right of this powerful statue stands the fortress of the UCDH. It is a conflicting site that shows the state our country is in now. Two narratives battling for recognition and validity. One that represents the Lost Cause that is fighting to stay alive, the other showing the harsh, yet true realities that People of Color have struggled with continuously. How can these two narratives exist side by side? As events in 2020 proved to us all, the two narratives can no longer coexist. We spoke with the African American security guard who was perched outside the UDCH. He made it known to us that he and others around were armed and were not to be messed with. We asked him about the protests Richmond had seen in the summer of 2020 and how they were affected. He told us there had been graffiti all on the walls of the building, but it had been removed. Flags of the Confederacy had been taken down. But, the main reason for their presence was “a scooter was thrown into one of the windows and destroyed many records. We couldn’t have history like that lost again.” When we were finished talking to him about the increased security and state of the building, Tomi asked if we could walk around the grounds which were plastered with orange cones and no trespassing signs. The guard immediately stopped her as she took a step further and told her to walk on the sidewalk surrounding the facility. A fortress indeed.

Though we ventured to see a few permanent exquisite pieces of art on display at the VMFA, such as the Romanov Fabergé eggs, we were lucky enough to get in for free at the Dirty South exhibit Thank goodness for Dr. Sherayko’s museum membership and the kind employee at the front desk! The purpose of the exhibit was to highlight Black southern culture. The first thing that we saw were a stack of televisions playing a piece of Billie Holiday's “Strange Fruit” on a loop. The words “Black Bodies Swaying” were permanently ingrained in our brains. Throughout the rest of the exhibit, works from artists are highlighted to show the challenges of being an Afircan-American in the United States. We were brought to tears by a sculpture that depicted a tree used for lynchings across the South in the Jim Crow era of the 19th and 20th Centuries. A short film played near the end of the exhibition. It had an interesting contrast of highlighting elements of Black culture while also showing snippets of police officers viciously shooting and beating unarmed African-Americans. However, it did appear a bit dated since it was created before the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Though the video was powerful, it seemed to be missing something since it left key Afircan-American women and images from the Black Lives Matter movements of 2020. We are curious about when the short film was created. The main exhibit concluded with several hubs of Black music throughout the South, including New Orleans, Atlanta, and even Hampton Roads, Virginia. Who knew that Missy Elliott and Ella Fitzgerald were from this great Commonwealth?

We were startled to see Paul Rucker’s KKK mannequins on exhibit upstairs. The robes were purposefully meant to be unsettling, but are also unique because the fabric used for the 52 figures included kente cloth, camouflage, and other unique materials. Rucker sought to normalize systemic racism in the present and make it clear that our society has yet to break free from it. Rucker stated in a recent interview with Alex Teplitzky of Creative Capital that though the KKK is weak today, “The people enforcing white supremacy today are normal, everyday people, who are not associated with any groups whatsoever.” The artifacts and robes within should scare anyone who views them but should also prompt them to act in favor of social justice.

After walking through the powerful Dirty South exhibit, the beautiful Natural Bridge display, and seeing the Romanov eggs, we walked outside in the garden of sculptures. Our attention was grabbed by the random church structure in the far left corner of the campus. We walked over to find a church dedicated to the Confederate dead. It was past four o’clock at this point and the church was closed, but signage and peering through windows gave us a pretty good idea of what was inside. Built in 1887 as a memorial to the Confederate dead, the church housed a space for the veterans to worship and congregate. Used until 1941, the church witnessed over 1,500 funerals to veterans of the Confederacy. After 1941, the space was used as a memorial and is now owned by the VMFA. Currently the church is being used as a part of the Dirty South exhibition. Jazz and blues fills the hall as you walk around the seeming shrine to the Confederacy. As we walked away from the building, we noticed a stained glass window through another window that depicted the Confederate flag flying. The exhibit inside the Confederate church is just another sign of progress in that two histories can co-exist, but not two narratives. The Lost Cause is truly beginning to become erased from many sites such as this and it is encouraging to see the truth coming to light.

A special mention to a source that made this post possible:

www.creative-capital.org

#richmond #history #virginia #civilrights #news #student #important #monument

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reomanet · 6 years ago

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TPS Consulting Daily

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