#Blue would win every contest. He's fabulous like that

[smolponcho]

I like Dreamswap. I like pokemon. Boom.

Blue now has a shiny Eevee.

Why Eeevee? Because I read that Blue would be a Sylveon. But since Blue is extra, he gets to be a shiny. But. What if he HAD a pokemon? I just gave him a shiny Eevee. It’s a female by the way! I tried to do the gender difference in Eevee but- Tail pixel art ain’t easy. If you look up the Eevee gender difference, you’ll see a female Eevee has a heart pattern tipped tail! :D

I feel like Blue is the least-trustworthy when it comes to pokemon but I had a thought the other day. Blue would be a Pokemon coordinator - therefore he enters Pokemon contests and just shows of the beauty of pokemon! :D He doesn’t like to have pokemon battles though so when it comes to that part of the contest.. Ehhhh. He just has a special strategy!

He would have a sylveon though- Just. Yes. Fabulous, just like him.

And I can imagine Blue being scared of ghost and fighting type pokemon- And maybe a few dark pokemon-

Dreamswap belongs to: @onebizarrekai

Pokemon belongs to Nintendo!

I drew the art :)

Hope you like it!

[spn-meanttobe]

Summaries Part Two [51-100]

Claiming Info -- FAQs/Rules The first Claims post will be a separate post going up on Saturday, November 7th at 12 pm EST. The second Claims post will be a separate post going up on Sunday, November 8th at 12 pm EST.

51. My Only Vice She's as pretty as a daisy... Sexy, easygoing Rosie Bliss may look like an innocent flower-shop owner, but former vice cop now police chief Sam Maguire is suspicious of the so-called herbs she grows along with her blooms. As sweet as a rose... So the serious detective launches an investigation into Rosie and her very mysterious past. But his most disturbing discovery? He's irresistibly attracted to free-spirited Rosie. And as dangerous as a Venus flytrap! Then cool, controlled Sam accidentally drinks a cup of her special brew and loses it completely! Not only does he end up sleeping with his suspect, he craves more – of Rosie, the most potent drug of all.

52. Night Shadow In a city ruled by fear... A solitary figure shrouded in black walked the night, determined to awaken a terrified metropolis from the nightmare of crime. There was nothing -- no bullets, and certainly not legal technicalities -- that could deter the man they called Nemesis from his mission. Deborah O'Roarke, an idealistic young prosecutor waging her own war against crime, owed Nemesis her very life. She shared his passion for justice, yet she could not accept his lawless methods. Still, though she fought her unwelcome desire for this disturbing stranger, she was unable to deny her longing to share the shadows that were his home.... After the night he saved Deborah O'Roarke from an attacker Nemesis rediscovered the sweet ache of longing. As Gage Guthrie he could woo her. But the idealistic prosecutor abhorred his vigilante approach to crime fighting. So how could he reveal he was the phantom who lurked in the Night Shadow? Fear casts a long shadow....

53. Night Shift Her voice was like whiskey, smooth and potent, but it was her contradictions that fascinated Detective Boyd Fletcher―the vulnerability beneath her tough-as-nails facade. Late-night radio announcer Cilla O'Roarke was being threatened by a caller, and it was Boyd's job to protect her no matter what. But the sultry deejay was getting under his skin, and the undeniable attraction that sizzled between them concerned the detective…because anything could happen on the Night Shift.

54. No Good Duke Goes Unpunished The ruin of the lady means the taming of the scoundrel. A rogue ruined... He is the Killer Duke, accused of murdering Mara Lowe on the eve of her wedding. With no memory of that fateful night, Temple has reigned over the darkest of London's corners for twelve years, wealthy and powerful, but beyond redemption. Until one night, Mara resurfaces, offering the one thing he's dreamed of: absolution. A lady returned... Mara planned never to return to the world from which she'd run, but when her brother falls deep into debt at Temple's exclusive casino, she has no choice but to offer Temple a trade that ends in her returning to society and proving to the world what only she knows...that he is no killer. A scandal revealed... It's a fine trade, until Temple realizes that the lady--and her past--are more than they seem. It will take every bit of his strength to resist the pull of this mysterious, maddening woman who seems willing to risk everything for honor... and to keep from putting himself on the line for love.

55. Once Smitten, Twice Shy Legend claims this antique Irish wedding veil can grant your heart's deepest desire. But be careful what you wish for... Wedding videographer Tish Gallagher is at the end of her rope. Her business is about to go bust. She's just spent her last buck on nonreturnable (but oh so fabulous) shoes. And her most sustainable relationship is with a pint of Häagen-Dazs. So she makes a wish on the lucky wedding veil to get out of debt...and sees the man she never stopped loving, her ex-husband, secret service agent Shane Tremont. Sure, their chemistry was off-the-charts sizzling hot, but their clashes were legendary, and no amount of longing will change that. When her dream job of recording the first daughter's wedding appears out of the blue, Tish knows it's her only shot to get out of the red. Just one teensy glitch: Shane is the groom. From the moment they see each other, she knows nothing's changed - the same old black magic is still between them, as irresistible and potent as ever. But he's promised to another and Tish has been burned before. Will she always be... once smitten, twice shy?

56. One Night with Morelli Warning: one night will never be enough… Draco Morelli: ruthless businessman, adoring father and wary ex-husband. This gorgeous Italian only ever signs up for temporary flings with glamorous women who know the rules of the game. Until he is blindsided by the one woman in all of London not interested in a relationship with him…. Eve Curtis: dedicated workaholic, loyal friend and self-professed singleton. Determined to remain independent, Eve has been happy keeping men at a safe distance. Until now. Because when Draco sweeps her off her feet and into his bedroom, he opens her eyes to a whole new world of sin and seduction!

57. One Night with the Shifter A one-night stand with a werewolf has unexpected consequences. After he is exiled from his pack, Tyee Grayson must learn to make it on his own. But one night with a beautiful stranger who has luminous blue eyes changes everything…. Especially when his instincts shout that she is the one. All elementary school teacher Jessica Brierly wanted was a night on the wild side, but when she finds herself pregnant, all the rules change. Not only does her lover have more secrets than she ever imagined, but suddenly they're both fighting off vampires. When vampires attack the town she dearly loves, Ty must work with his old pack to save them from a ruthless enemy who could kill not only his mate and his unborn child – but the entire human race.

58. One Texas Night Melinda Amery awoke to the double-barreled deep blue eyes of Lieutenant Grady Sloan. A more formidable – or handsome – man she'd never seen. And he wanted answers about a murder. Only, Melinda had none. She had no recall, except she knew nothing good would come from remembering... Grady was the kind of cop who wouldn't let go until he got what he wanted. With his job on the line, he needed to break the case. But the only witness had amnesia – and tormented dark eyes that needed healing. And Grady couldn't help his overwhelming attraction toward Melinda. But would her hidden memories reveal more than either of them wanted to know... ?

59. Pushing the Limits No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

60. Red, White & Royal Blue When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instagrammable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Red, White & Royal Blue proves true love isn't always diplomatic.

61. Renegade Protector When intimidation turns to deadly force, it's time for Frontier Justice. If ruthless developers want Mariana Balducci's land, they'll have to kill her for it. And they nearly succeed—until Ty Morrison foils her attacker. The sexy San Francisco cop is part of a secret organization called Frontier Justice. Mariana is tough, but she realizes she can't win this fight alone. And when bullets fly, Ty realizes battling bad guys is easier than fighting their sizzling attraction.

62. Rocky Mountain Wedding Melody Pennington fled to Montana for a new start as a mail-order bride. Gabe Brooks, handsome older brother to the man she was supposed to marry, helps her settle in. But what Melody doesn't expect is to fall for the rugged, closed-off lawman...

63. Romancing the Chef When Veronica Howard is invited to compete in an all-star TV cooking contest, the up-and-coming restaurateur is ready for a fair food fight. Then she discovers who her main competition is: Ace Brown, her friend from culinary school – now the world's hottest celebrity chef. Has she gone from the frying pan right into the fire? Ace Brown – aka the Sexy Chef – knows what women want. After all, recipes for desire are his globe-trotting specialty. Ronnie may not have given him the time of day back in school, but this time Ace is cooking up a surprise she can't resist. Seducing the voluptuous foodie will be his pleasure…until she turns up the heat. With sexual sparks flying, is the footloose bachelor about to become a connoisseur…of love?

64. Rumors that Ruined a Lady Amongst the gossip-hungry ton, no name has become more synonymous with sin than that of Lady Caroline Rider, cast out by her husband and disowned by her family. Rumor has it that the infamous Caro is now seeking oblivion in the opium dens of London! There's only one man who can save her: notorious rake Sebastian Conway, Marquis of Ardhallow. Soon Caro is installed in his country home, warming his bed, but their passion may not be enough to protect them once news of their scandalous arrangement breaks out.

65. Secrets of a Gentleman Escort He's the talk of the ton – for all the wrong reasons! Society's most outrageous – and popular! – escort Nicholas D'Arcy is renowned for his utmost discretion. So when he suddenly finds himself named and shamed by a jealous husband, he reluctantly accepts a summons to the countryside…a fate worse than death! Annorah Price-Ellis isn't what Nick is used to – innocent, feisty and decidedly uncomfortable with the spontaneous heat between them! Suddenly, London's most audacious lover is out of his depth, and in danger of revealing the real man behind the polished facade….

66. Seduced by the Operative For psychologist Claire Cantwell--code name Cyrene--the stakes couldn't be higher. Tapped for a top-secret mission for the president, the OMEGA covert operative needed the unique expertise of a man with whom she'd shared danger--and her bed. Lethally attractive special ops agent and ultra-suave diplomat Luis Esteban wanted more than Claire was ready to give. Now, with their very survival at stake, Claire has to trust Luis with her life... even if that means surrendering the one thing she vowed never to give: her heart.

67. Serendipity Faith Harrington was the classic girl of privilege - until her father was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and then her marriage crashed and burned. Now Faith is back in her hometown, hoping for a fresh start. But her father's betrayal has rocked Serendipity - and not everyone is ready to welcome her with open arms. Then she runs into her teenage crush - the dark, brooding Ethan Barron. Ethan, no stranger to scandal himself, never imagined he'd own the mansion on the hill, much less ever again come face-to-face with Faith - the princess he once kissed senseless. The chance meeting reignites the electric charge between them. Still, when Ethan hires her to redecorate what was once her childhood home, Faith is sure that getting involved with the town's notorious bad boy will lead only to trouble. But her heart has other ideas. And so do the townspeople of Serendipity...

68. Shades of Desire Natalie Jones is the lucky survivor of an elusive killer who preys on young women and then disappears from view. And since her harrowing ordeal, the once gutsy photojournalist has remained isolated in her home, paralyzed by fear and her failing vision. Special Agent Liam "Mac" McKenzie has scars of his own. But despite his efforts to ignore the attraction that simmers between him and Natalie, he needs her help to catch a predator. Soon, they will forge a tentative alliance, charged with desire. Through a soft-focus lens, Natalie dares to envision a future with Mac beyond the investigation & never guessing that the clues hidden within her photographs are drawing them into an explosive confrontation with a madman.

69. She's Got it Bad Twelve years ago Zoe Ford let Liam Masters break her heart. But now? There's not a chance. Zoe is as tough and wild as they come. So when Liam shows up at her tattoo parlor, she's more than ready to take him on again. That's not going to be a hardship, since he's hotter than he ever was. This time she's staying in charge. And she's not going to consider their score settled until he's hot, bothered and begging for more! Then she'll move on as callously as he left her. Unless all that deliciously bad sex is just too good to give up….

70. Snowbound with the Soldier Maybe this Christmas…? It has been seven long years since Kara Jameson last saw Jason Greene. Returning home as a wounded war hero, Jason looks a shell of the man she once knew. Yet her heart still skips a beat as if it was yesterday…. Stepping back into civilian life, Jason looks to Kara for help. But there's too much water under the bridge – not to mention too much lingering attraction. But it seems that the mountain weather has other ideas, and when Kara and Jason end up snowbound together they are forced to confront the ghosts of Christmas past.

71. Soldier Caged

He'd lost blood and comrades on the world's battlefields, but neither compared to losing his memory. Waking up in a secret military bunker, drugged, with vague images of a mission gone bad, Jonah had nowhere to turn. Until help came in the form of the one woman he'd always remember... Psychologist Sophia Rhodes never got over the bad boy who'd stolen her good-girl heart a decade ago. But without military training, how could she possibly steal Jonah from a high-security facility? She had only one hope--that he'd never forgotten her, either. Sophia knew the breakout was the easy part. Somehow she had to help Jonah focus his hazy images--before a desperate man made sure he'd never remember...

72. Sound Bites Renee Evans has a knack for trouble. After walking in on her best friend and boyfriend in bed together, twenty-five-year-old Renee flees her dream job as a music journalist in sunny Los Angeles and returns to her hometown of Boston – only to meet Dylan Cavallari, the mysterious, aspiring musician who lives in her apartment building. Dylan's piercing gaze and womanizing demeanor make him exactly the type of guy that Renee should steer clear of – which is most likely the reason she falls for him. But when Renee's troublesome ex comes back and threatens to drive her and Dylan apart, Renee is forced to face her past and save her relationship with Dylan before it's too late.

73. Succubus Blues When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical? But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven't stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess getup complete with whip and wings. And she can't have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy's life. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore--free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't. But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny...

74. Tell Me Your Secrets It was a dark and sexy night... And Brooke Ashby knew she was in over her head. As head writer for the soap opera Secrets, she was used to living vicariously through her characters. But that all changed the day she learned she was adopted, and that her identical twin sister had mysteriously disappeared. What else could she do but try to discover what had happened, even if it meant taking her sister's place? It shouldn't be hard. After all, she was good at research and had a talent for acting, if she did say so herself. Her plan seemed foolproof…until Brooke found herself in bed with her sister's fiancé….

75. Temptation's Kiss Patrice Sutton has just landed the role of her career. Snagging the female lead opposite devastatingly handsome, six-foot-three movie idol T. K. McKenna is a dream come true. When she learns they'll be filming out West she's secretly thrilled…and ready to show her gorgeous co-star the ropes of life on the ranch. Until T.K. turns the tables – by initiating her into the art of seduction far from the camera's glare. T.K. knows that with her incredible beauty, talent and sweet sincerity, Patrice has what it takes to make it really big. And the burgeoning film star is showing T.K. a passion more real than anything he's ever experienced on – or off – the screen. But what will it take to prove to her that she's the only woman he'll ever desire…and love?

76. Texas Mom Texas veterinarian Delaney Blair will do anything to find a bone marrow donor for her four-year-old son, Nickolas. The only likely match is his Argentinean father, Dario. But Dario and Delaney didn't part on good terms. In fact, he doesn't even know he has a son! Delaney travels to Argentina to find him, and Dario, shocked, returns to Texas. It's not long before Nick and Dario become close. Not only that, Dario can't hide the feelings he has for Delaney – feelings that have been there since they met. Dario's family doesn't want him to be with her. But now they have to see if the love between them is strong enough to keep them together.

77. The Cajun Cowboy Talk about a bad hair day! Louisiana beauty salon owner Charmaine LeDeux has a loan shark on her tail, and Raoul Lanier, the six-foot-three hunk of testosterone she thought she divorced, has just delivered a bombshell: They're still married! At least the rundown ranch they've inherited together is the perfect hideout. Holy crawfish! It's hard enough for Raoul to play cowboy to a bunch of scrawny steer, let alone suffer the exquisite torture of living with the delectable Charmaine, who's declared herself a born-again virgin. What's a man crazy with desire to do? Seduce her on their home on the range, even if it means taking advice from bachelor ranch hands, Charmaine's belly-dancing great-aunt, and St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes. With the moon shining over the bayou and the Dixie Mafia in hot pursuit, this Cajun cowboy must sweet-talk his way into his wife's arms again...before she unties the knot for good!

78. The Happy Baker We've all been there. The blind date from hell. The Big Hurt. The guy who details his various surgeries over Caesar salad on the first date. Who needs a pint of rocky road when you can head to the kitchen and work out your heartache with a whisk and a bottle of wine? Erin Bolger has been there, dated that and baked through it all. Turns out the more bitter the heartbreak, the sweeter the batter. So don't cry over bad dates, bad boyfriends or bad breakups – whip up a batch of My-Mom-Didn't-Like-You-Anyway Cupcakes and bake yourself happy.

79. The Heist FBI Special Agent Kate O'Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world's most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years the only name she's cared about is Nicolas Fox -- an international crook she wants in more ways than one. Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail -- particularly Kate O'Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there's no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman... even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: He convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O'Hare. Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who's hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O'Hare's patience and Fox's skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate's dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day's work... if O'Hare and Fox don't kill each other first.

80. The Inn at Eagle Point It's been years since Abby O'Brien Winters set foot in Chesapeake Shores. The Maryland town her father built has too many sad memories and Abby too few spare moments, thanks to her demanding Wall Street career, the crumbling of her marriage and energetic twin daughters. Then one panicked phone call from her youngest sister brings her racing back home to protect Jess's dream of renovating the charming Inn at Eagle Point. But saving the inn from foreclosure means dealing not only with her own fractured family, but also with Trace Riley, the man Abby left ten years ago. Trace can be a roadblock to her plans...or proof that second chances happen in the most unexpected ways.

81. The Klone and I After thirteen years of marriage and two kids, Stephanie was devastated when her husband left her for a younger woman. Suddenly she was alone. Then a spur-of-the-moment trip to Paris changed everything. Peter Baker was a handsome high-tech entrepreneur also visiting the city. Stephanie was certain it couldn't possibly work. But much to her amazement, he contacted her when they returned to New York. And Stephanie embarked on a bizarre and hilarious adventure beyond her wildest dreams. Shy, serious Peter, chairman of a bionic enterprise, was supposed to be away on business. Instead, he's standing at her door, wearing satin and rhinestones. Naturally, Stephanie thinks it's a joke -- until the truth suddenly dawns: this isn't Peter playing a role. This is his double! Calling himself Paul Klone, this wild, uninhibited creature isn't even remotely like Peter except for his identically sexy good looks. This uproarious novel explores the outrageous love triangle that develops between Stephanie, Peter... and The Klone.

82. The Man from Atlantis These days, eligible, attractive, single men weren't exactly coming out of the woodwork! So when Jenna stumbled across a gorgeous male specimen, she couldn't let a mere ten-thousand-year age difference interfere with romance! Besides, everyone knows older men are sexy!

83. The Man With Emerald Eyes A victim of her brother's gambling debts, lovely Theone Danvers had been left to choose between the hell of debtor's prison - and the lecherous arms of the Marquis de Juliers. But Theone was a fiery beauty with a mind of her own. Disguised as a lad, she took to the highroad with smoking pistols, and stole herself a fortune in gold. Then, in the green depths of the forest, she meets a rival - a highwayman with haunting emerald eyes, a price on his head, and a noble secret in his past. They join forces, and Theone rides headlong into the greatest danger of her renegade career: the unquenchable passions of a woman's first love!

84. The Prince Charming List Heather Lowell asked herself this question after moving to Prichett, Wisconsin, to temporarily manage the Cut and Curl Beauty Salon. She's hopeful that this summer she will finally find the love of her life. She even has a list detailing everything she wants in her Prince Charming. But when two men enter her life, Heather suddenly needs to figure out what she really wants – and whether handyman Ian Dexter or rebel-artist Jared Ward figures into her happily ever after.

85. The Ranger Texas Ranger Mitch Striker's uncomplicated bachelor lifestyle suits him just fine: catch the bad guys and move on. But there's nothing straightforward about struggling single mom Brandie Ryland or her adorable four-year-old son, Toby. The beautiful redhead is the prime suspect in Mitch's undercover investigation. But when a hostage standoff leaves Brandie's family vulnerable and uncovers a roomful of contraband and drugs, Mitch second-guesses her involvement in the crime…and his ability to keep his emotional distance. With the danger growing and the clock ticking, Mitch must save Brandie, catch the perps and handle the daddy heartstrings Toby keeps tugging on. Then he'll have to face the secrets he's sure Brandie's keeping – before they become his undoing.

86. The Rose Contract Love is free. Innocence has a price. Raena Barren was born with a secret: of all the magic users in the kingdom of Soma, she is the only one who can hide her power. As a child, she used this magic to help her survive on the streets--until she saved the life of a strange boy called Jorr Portent. He rewarded her with a job in the castle of Soma--and Raena spent the next ten years falling in love with him. But while Raena's life as a servant is sheltered, Jorr's world is one of spies and assassins. When Raena comes of age, their paths will diverge forever… unless Raena can earn a place by his side. To become one of Jorr's operatives, however, Raena must get to know her own body, and outsmart the deadly people around her. She must also sell her innocence to whatever man pays the most… even if that man can't be Jorr.

87. The Secret His Mistress Carried Hiding from the Greek… The ink is barely dry on Giorgios Letsos's divorce papers, but there's only one thing on this unstoppable Greek's mind: finding Billie Smith, his mistress before his marriage. But the sweet, pliable woman he once knew slams the door in his face! Billie fought hard to heal her broken heart after Gio chose to marry someone else. When he storms back into her life, she's determined not to fall for his seduction again. Especially now that she has a secret to protect…their son. But she hadn't counted on just how badly he wants her back in his bed!

88. The Space Between Us Tesla Martin is drifting pleasantly through life, slinging lattes at Morningstar Mocha, enjoying the ebb and flow of caffeine-starved customers, devoted to her cadre of regulars. But none of the bottomless-cup crowd compares with Meredith, a charismatic force of nature who can coax intimate tales from even the shyest of Morningstar's clientele. Caught in Meredith's sensual, irresistible orbit, inexpressibly flattered by the siren's attention, Tesla shares long-buried chapters of her life, holding nothing back. Nothing Meredith proposes seems impossible – not even Tesla sleeping with Meredith's husband, Charlie, while she looks on. After all, it's all in fun, isn't it? In a heartbeat, vulnerable Tesla is swept into a spectacular love triangle. Together, gentle, grounded Charlie and sparkling, maddening Meredith are everything Tesla has ever needed, wanted, or dreamed of, even if no one else on earth understands. They're three against the world. But soon one of the vertices begins pulling away until only two points remain – and the space between them gapes with confusion, with grief and with possibility….

89. The Texas Ranger's Reward Is he seeing double? He can't believe his eyes. When Travis Stillman meets Melissa Dalton, it's as if he's seeing the ghost of his late wife. That explains why his young son warms to Melissa so quickly. The orthopedic therapist is working wonders to help Casey readjust after an accident -- his boy has come alive again. But that's no reason for this former Texas Ranger to let his guard down as he settles into life as a P.I. and single dad. No woman can replace his wife -- especially not one who could be her twin. And when Melissa hires him to investigate a break-in at her family's cabin, he's even more determined to ignore the growing attraction between them. Now he's got to protect both Melissa, and his heart.

90. The Vampire Affair The world knew Michael Brandt as a playboy tycoon. The underworld knew him as a fierce vampire hunter. Armed with a wooden stake and superior strength, Michael targeted the most powerful overlords in a clandestine do-or-die operation...and then tabloid reporter Jessie Morgan uncovered his secret. Only once before had Michael allowed a woman into his secret lair. Now he'd fight heaven and hell to keep Jessie from the same fate. But he couldn't fight the attraction that drew him to her like a bloodlust. An attraction that might prove deadly...or worse. For Michael was going up against the most powerful of the undead--and that vampire had his fangs bared for Jessie.

91. Thief of Hearts An Innocent Beauty. Prim and pampered, Lucinda Snow knew little of men and nothing of danger, until the fog-shrouded night she found herself abducted—and at the mercy of the legendary Captain Doom. Ruthless and mocking, tender and virile, the notorious pirate awakened all Lucy's passionate longings, then abandoned her with nothing but a kiss... A Pirate's Prize. Now safely at home, the alluring waif is tormented by treacherous memories—and by the presence of Gerard Claremont, her mysterious new bodyguard. Everything about him, from his forbidding size to his impertinent manner, sparks her defiance. And even when Gerard's smile turns seductive, no one can make her forget Doom. Yet only when Lucy's path crosses the captain's once more, will she learn who is on a voyage of retribution, and who is out to steal her heart...

92. Things Good Girls Don't Do Good girls don't steal. Good girls don't visit sex shops. Good girls don't have one-night stands. For Katie Conners, being a good girl just isn't worth it anymore. It used to mean getting the life she always wanted. But that was before she got dumped and her ex got engaged to his rebound. So, after a bad day and one too many mojitos, Katie starts making a list of things a girl like her would never do, not in a million years... As a tattoo artist with a monster motorcycle, Chase Trepasso isn't the kind of guy you bring home to mom and dad. And when he finds Katie's list in a bar, he's more than happy to help her check off a few items. Especially the ones on the naughtier side... Katie's more than tempted by Chase's offer, as long as they keep things uncomplicated. But as they spend more time together, she may just wind up breaking the most important rule of all: Good girls don't fall in love with bad boys.

93. This Tender Truce The Boutonnet vineyards, passed down in her family for generations, mean everything to Tory. But she hadn't counted on her grandfather's one condition of her taking over: marry his godson, Chance Mobley. Unfortunately, Tory had decided long ago that she could never truly love the arrogant Frenchman. He had been raised alongside her, and she had loved him once – a child's crush. But Chance has no business being officially inducted into the Boutonnet family, and certainly doesn't deserve her beloved vineyard. As it turns out though, wine might not be the only thing for which Tory has a passion. And Chance has a few things to teach her about love.

94. Undead and Unwed It's been a helluva week for Betsy Taylor. First, she loses her job. Then, to top things off, she's killed in a car accident. But what really bites (besides waking up in the morgue dressed in a pink suit and cheap shoes courtesy of her stepmother) is that she can't seem to stay dead. Every night she rises, with a horrible craving for blood. She's not taking too well to a liquid diet. Worst of all, her new friends have the ridiculous idea that Betsy is the prophesied vampire queen, and they want her help in overthrowing the most obnoxious, power-hungry vampire in five centuries--a badly dressed Bela Lugosi wannabe, natch. Frankly, Betsy couldn't care less about vamp politics, but they have a powerful weapon of persuasion: designer shoes. How can any self-respecting girl say no? But a collection of Ferragamos isn't the only temptation for Betsy. It's just a lot safer than the scrumptious Sinclair--a seductive bloodsucker whose sexy gaze seems as dangerous as a stake through the heart...

95. Unguarded Rhiannon Jenkins is an events planner on the rise. And her latest client, Shawn Emerson, could make her career. Too bad the gorgeous man insists on mixing a lot of pleasure with his business. In Rhiannon's books getting involved with a client is the fastest way to exit a job. So, no. She'll resist all his come-get-me looks and tempting offers. While his charm is easy to overlook, Shawn in the role of confidant and friend breaks down all her best defenses. Suddenly the tables turn and she wants to be close to him. That means opening up about the ugly events of her past – a risk she hasn't taken before now. Oh, but he could be so worth it!

96. Walking Dead For once, Joanne Walker's not out to save the world. She's come to terms with the host of shamanic powers she's been given, her job as a police detective has been relatively calm, and she's got a love life for the first time in memory. Not bad for a woman who started out the year mostly dead. But it's Halloween, and the undead have just crashed Joanne's party. Now, with her mentor Coyote still missing, she has to figure out how to break the spell that has let the ghosts, zombies and even the Wild Hunt come back. Unfortunately, there's no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead. And if they have anything to say about it – which they do – no one's getting out of there alive.

97. What Waits Below Out of the depths... – All her life, Kendra Tremaine had trembled at the very thought of Lynx Lake. She had known even as a child that something unspeakable waited below the surface of the water and she had long sworn never again to set foot on its shore. And yet now she was back to take possession of the family estate that was her unwanted legacy. The legends of Lynx Lake had summoned another visitor, a man of strange powers and dark knowledge. Hart Rainwalker's obsession with the lake's secrets terrified Kendra, even as his brooding passion called to her soul. He claimed only he could protect her from the awful presence that threatened her. But who would protect her from her self-appointed guardian?

98. Wife for Hire The Prospective Husband with a Racy Past... Hank Mallone spotted trouble when she sat down and said she'd marry him! Maggie Toone was a tempting firecracker who'd make his life delightful hell if he let her pretend to be his wife in order to improve his rogue's reputation. Would his harebrained scheme to get a bank loan for his business backfire once Maggie arrived in his small Vermont town and let the gossips take a look? Maggie never expected her employer to be drop-dead handsome, or to affect her like a belt of bourbon on an empty stomach, but she was too intrigued by his offer to say no... and too eager to escape a life that made her feel trapped. The deal was strictly business, both agreed... until Hank turned out to be every fantasy she'd ever had, and Maggie was so bright, funny and downright irresistible that Hank fell head over heels in love! While the town watched, Hank wooed his wife with a charm that had never failed him yet. Could he make her dreams real by proving she belonged in his arms?

99. Wild Heat Sometimes old flames are the hottest of all... In the quaint little town of Cailkirn, Alaska, it's impossible to keep a secret, especially one as juicy as the unexpected return of Kitty Grant. Tack MacKinnon remembers her wild red curls and even wilder spirit-and still feels the sting from when she shattered his heart in college. But there's a pain in Kitty's gorgeous eyes that guts him to the core and Tack is determined to do whatever it takes to see the woman he still loves smile again - even if it means taking on her demons as his own. After fleeing an abusive ex-husband, Kitty decides that the best way to heal her broken heart is to come back home. But she gets a whole new shock when she sees how undeniably sexy Tack has become. More handsome, more muscular, more charming-more everything - he's impossible to resist. Before she knows it, they're reigniting sparks that could set the whole state of Alaska on fire. Yet trust doesn't come easy to Kitty anymore, and as things heat up between her and Tack, she can't help but wonder if one of them is going to get burned...

100. Zombie Moon Caleb Locke lived for one thing — killing zombies. And this man — this legend — was exactly what Samantha Wagner needed. In mist-shrouded alleys, hunted by zombies, haunted by fear, she vowed to find Caleb and convince him to help her. But she hadn't counted on falling in love…. Caleb kept his own secrets — like the one he couldn't hide when the moon was full. But his wolf was drawn to Samantha, recognizing her as his mate. With her in his arms, Caleb reveled in passion… and rued his deception. Would she still love the man who fought by her side if she realized that zombies weren't the only monsters? Samantha would have to make a choice—and she only had till the next full moon.

[fromtheringapron]

WCW Starrcade 1990

Date: December 16, 1990.

Location: Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, MO.

Attendance: 7,200.

Commentary: Jim Ross and Paul Heyman.

Results:

1. Bobby Eaton defeated The Z Man.

2. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Round 1: The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) (USA) defeated Col. DeKlerk and Sgt. Krueger (South Africa).

3. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Round 1: Konan and Rey Misterio (Mexico) defeated Chris Adams and Norman Smiley (United Kingdom). 

4. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Round 1: Mr. Saito and The Great Muta (Japan) defeated Rip Morgan and Jacko Victory (New Zealand). 

5. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Round 1: Salman Hashimikov and Victor Zangiev (Russia) defeated Danny Johnson and Troy Montour (Canada). 

6. Michael Wallstreet (with Alexandra Yorke) defeated Terry Taylor. 

7. The Skyscrapers (Sid Vicious and Danny Spivey) defeated The Big Cat and The Motor City Maniac. 

8. Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton (with Robert Gibson) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael PS Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) (with Little Richard Marley). 

9. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Semi-Final: The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) (USA) defeated Konan and Rey Misterio (Mexico).

10. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Semi-Final: Mr. Saito and The Great Muta (Japan) defeated Salman Hashimikov and Victor Zangiev (Russia).

11. Texas Lariat Match for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Lex Luger defeated Stan Hansen (champion) to win the title. 

12. Street Fight for the NWA World Tag Team Championship: Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) (champions) (with Theodore Long) fought Arn Anderson and Barry Windham to a no-contest. 

13. Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Final: The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) (USA) defeated Mr. Saito and The Great Muta (Japan). 

14. Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting (champion) defeated The Black Scorpion. 

My Review

The 1990 edition of Starrcade is an outright bad show. Amusingly bad, yes, but it’s still a pretty resounding failure. The cherry on the shit sundae, of course, is The Black Scorpion, one of WCW’s most infamous creative blunders. The storyline leading up to Starrcade was a lot of pulpy early ‘90s hokum⏤a mystery man, who may also be some sort of wizard, haunts world champion Sting for months with a groggy voice provided none other than Ole Anderson. It was completely ridiculous and demanded an equally ridiculous payoff.

What makes it suck so bad, however, is that not only is the reveal underwhelming, but it’s also boring. The Scorpion, first and foremost, is dressed like a masked jobber on an episode of WWF Superstars. Then it’s revealed the Scorpion is Ric Flair, the same man who Sting had already faced off with a billion times in the past two years. It’s admittedly interesting watching Flair try to completely abandon his style to play a new character, but the match itself is a by-the-numbers chore. Oh, and Dick the Bruiser is here as a terrible special guest ref who adds completely nothing. At least the Scorpion has the decency to enter the Kiel Auditorium through a spaceship that looks like your grandmother’s antique lamp.

But that’s not all, folks! We’re also treated to the Pat O’Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament, featuring teams from all over the world. A noble ideal, but the talent pool is, um, underwhelming to say the least. For example, we get wrestlers billed from “South Africa” who clearly aren’t from that country. Not that it winds up mattering anyway, because the whole point is for the Americans to beat them all. The matches are also hindered by some blown finishes that really kill the mood. It’s just a series of missed opportunities that could’ve been much a cooler concept if they’d thought more outside the box than “Welp, America wins LOL!”

It should be noted this is the second out of four consecutive tournaments WCW would book for their biggest show of the year. This is firmly ensconced in the era where the booking for Starrcade started to get a little wonky, anyway. I’m not sure how much of it had to do with them trying to distance themselves from the NWA name as much as possible or what, but it took away from Starrcade’s standing as a marquee show. It says a lot about this time period for WCW⏤constantly throwing one gimmick out there after another in hopes something would eventually stick.

It’s kinda sad, because it’s clear they didn’t need to go so far out of their way to establish their own identity. So many pieces of the puzzle are present in this show, from the production to the roster. It’s when they work overtime in competing with the WWF that things falls apart, a mistake they’d go on to repeat several times over. Collision Course is a fitting tagline for Starrcade ’90, and I’m not talking about the tag tournament. The show is a hodgepodge of half-baked ideas and, like any collision, the result is a mess.

My Random Notes

Apologies for the blurry quality of the poster above. It’s practically the best version I can find right now. Cut a queen some slack in the midst of pandemic, eh? 

A few production notes: 1.) Why is the WCW logo on the entrance way always crooked? 2.) I love the blue and yellow ring apron, but the red and yellow ropes are a weird fit. 3.) We’re treated throughout the broadcast with Starrcade Stats, a cheeseball yet time-period appropriate concept giving us trading card details on each of the night’s competitors. For example, the Z-Man does a missile dropkick “if possible.”

Spot of the night goes to Col. DeKlerk who damns it all and hits one of most ill-conceived front flips of all time, which causes Rick Steiner to visibly corpse on camera.

Laugh at Team Russia all you want, but they absolutely would be at a singlet party in Provincetown during Bear Week if it were 2020.

I’m pretty supportive of having filler matches on pay-per-views, but what the hell was even the point of that Skyscrapers squash? Did they forget to book it on WCW Saturday Night and need to make up the minutes?

We get our first taste of the highly acclaimed commentary duo of JR/Paul Heyman. It’s a slightly awkward first outing. Heyman isn’t really the Heyman we’d come to know yet so he sometimes comes off as a second-rate Bobby Heenan. He tries making a joke that the Midnight Express broke up due to Yoko Ono, which is every bit as painful as it sounds.

You mean to tell me the best Canadian wrestlers they could find were Troy Montour and Danny Johnson, whom I’m not even sure are actual wrestlers?

This should go without saying, but the Fabulous Freebirds and their fetishization of the Confederate flag is, um, a huge amount of yikes in a 2020 context. I don’t know a whole lot about about the point of them having Little Richard Marley as their sidekick, but I don’t think I want to know.

As with the dawn of any new decade, the ‘80s were still alive in 1990 and you need to look no further than the Dynasty extras they put on this show as the flag-bearers, with hair almost as tall as those big ass stars on the entrance way.

This, amazingly, marks the first time I’ve seen Rey Misterio Sr. (or Rey Misteric, as he’s referred to in the Starrcade graphics). I’ve honestly never even Googled his name to see what he looks like. It does seem like his nephew has a much better handle on the high-flying maneuvers. He inexplicably launches himself over the top rope after his Round 1 match is over. I’m sure it made Col. DeKlerk proud.

[la-vita-in-arancione]

Killer Queen: Chapter 6 - It’s Late

Summary: Arabella Ruth White is the fifth member of the Marauders. And life at Hogwarts certainly isn’t easy. Especially when you have alcohol, relationships, unhealthy music obsessions, a fake stage persona, weird ass friends with weird ass problems and actual school all thrown into the equation. (This story is also on Wattpad and AO3 of the same name. I will always update on Wattpad first.)

A/N: So I have definitely decided on updating every Tuesday so you can expect that from now on! Just be aware I have now got two shows to rehearse for now so there may be weeks where the update is a couple days late. I will let you know in advance if that might happen.

Warnings(s): swearing, referenced underage if you know what I mean

Word Count: 1.7k+

Taglist: @missqueeniewrites

Ask to be on my taglist!

"If Remus doesn't hurry the fuck up then I'm leaving."

On any other Friday night, what I would need would be to blow off some steam after a long week. What I would need would be to have a party. What I would need would be to make out with my latest victim/boyfriend. What I would need would be to get absolutely shitfaced. But no. Not on this Friday night. Oh no. On this Friday night, while I wanted to be doing something worth my energy, I was waiting for one of my dickhead friends to come to the Gryffindor common room as he apparently had some amazing news.

Amazing news, my arse.

I swear on my record player, that boy is walking a fine line of either being my friend or getting fucking smacked. A very fine line. About as fine as a grain of salt. Speaking of salt, Remus was getting a shitload in his tea tomorrow morning if he didn't get here within the next minute.

I'm such a great friend, aren't I?

"I'm serious, this better not be a joke," I huffed, slouching against the boy whose lap I was currently sitting on. Rick or Dick or something like that. All I could remember was that his face was vaguely reminiscent of a young David Bowie and honestly, I like that in a guy. He softly caressed my thigh with his thumb and pressing a rather wet kiss to the back of my neck. The thought was there at least, even if the hand on my leg was getting a bit too far up for my liking.

Peter gave me a pointed look, "You need to calm down, he's only a couple minutes late."

"What about the time we were, what, 5 minutes late to lunch? You looked as if you were going to have a mental breakdown right there and then," James smirked, no real malice behind the statement. It still made Peter blush furiously to which James only ruffled his hair.

"You just want him to hurry up so you can shag your friend in a broom cupboard," Sirius said, sounding like a disappointed father.

"Darling, you're a fine one to talk, or are we going to let go of the incident where Filch locked you in a cupboard while you were fucking some girl last year?" I retorted, only resulting in a staring contest between us. OK, so maybe we were both, let's say, experienced in that department. Was it a good thing? Probably not. Was it legal? Oh, fuck no. The law was just something that happened to other people really. This only started in the first place because of a extremely impractical bet that was made in our third year.

"Sirius Black, you whore."

"I am no whore! I am as pure as Jesus Christ himself!"

"If you're as pure as Jesus then Ruth is bloody God."

"Fuck off Peter."

"I'm good thanks."

"Sirius, I have not let you go just yet, young man. I know the walk of shame when I see it."

"Yeah from all the guys that you've made traipse out of our room after an interesting date."

"Fuck off Peter."

"Whatever. I could still get more shags than you."

"You wanna bet?"

"Alright then."

Whoever got more shags by the time we left Hogwarts got 100 galleons from the loser. Which is bad because I don't have 100 galleons. And I reckon Sirius doesn't either. Hence why we were both so keen to win. Although if I'm honest, if I managed to keep whatever would be left of my dignity in tact by the end of our seventh year, that would be enough for me. Not that I would ever admit that to Sirius. 

"Oh, look here he comes," James nodded in Remus's direction, who was now making his way through the common room to us. The statement did, however, put an end to the rather childish staring contest that Sirius and I had refused to back down from. Until now. 

Dammit Remus.

"You took your time," I raised my eyebrows at him as he stood before us, "What the fuck is this all about then?" We all looked at him expectantly, practically drowning in anticipation.

"I have some news," he said, taking a deep breath.

"No shit Sherlock," Peter interjected, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

Remus glared at him before continuing, "I trust you all know Idania," he began slowly, as if he wasn't sure how he was going to deliver his apparent news. 

Unfortunately, he had chosen to be friends with a bunch of impatient bastards who had no concept of waiting for someone. Sirius exaggerated a yawn and James looked at the watch he wore for the sole purpose of looking like, and I quote, "a smart hot guy but not too smart to be considered stuck up".

"Anyway, there has been an interesting development," he said, taking a painfully long time to get to the fucking point. After saying this, he gestured behind us and we naturally turned our heads to look. Except there was nothing there.

Remus what.

I turned back to him and was about to ask him this when I noticed that he was now accompanied by a certain blue-haired girl. How the fuck she got there that quickly and that quietly, I would never know. 

I clutched my chest and breathed heavily, grabbing onto David Bowie-lookalike for support, "Is it too much to ask for you to go one day without almost giving me a heart attack? Just one day, that's all I ask."

Idania of course looked rather confused, bless her, and Remus quickly signed for her. Realisation dawned on her face and she breathed shortly through her nose, which I assumed to be how she laughed. This drew my attention to her nose and now I could see her properly, I had the chance to admire her nose piercings properly. She had two silver studs in the left side and a matching ring going through the middle of her nose which reminded me somewhat of a bull. Her hair was styled in two French braids, so loose that I was terrified they would fall out at any given moment, coming to a bun at the bottom of her head. This also allowed me to also see her ear piercings in all their glory. She had two crystal studs in her right ear, meanwhile in her left, she had a hanging moon and star with a chain dangling from the bottom of it, three studs not unlike the ones in the other ear, two rings on the side of her ear and a stud and ring near the entrance of the ear. That was a lot of piercings but she pulled it off fabulously. She was probably breaking more rules in her appearance alone than I had all week and I did not like that, no matter how fucking amazing she looked.

Idania started signing rapidly and Remus thankfully translated for us, "Err, she says seen as Remus here is taking far too long, I'll make it easier for you all," this resulted in a look from him that clearly screamed 'what did I do to you', "Remus and I are going out!"

I fucking knew it.

Thank God I didn't have to spend the entire year watching them make heart eyes at each other but continuously deny the other liked them back. We interrogated them for a while, discovering all the important details such as who asked who (she asked him), when it happened (yesterday) and when their first date would be (tomorrow). They happily gushed about the blooming relationship, much to my delight, but I couldn't help but notice the almost uncomfortable look on Sirius's face when he thought no one was looking.

*************

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Sirius practically yelled, staring at the book in his hands.

"Sorry but that's the first step," I shrugged, smug as hell that I didn't have to go through that. He was currently staring at my notebook that had clearly written the step by step instructions for becoming an Animagus.

And the first part?

Keeping a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month.

A whole month.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I didn't have to do that and you can bet I wouldn't let Peter, James and especially Sirius forget it.

"It's not that bad, you can still talk and drink and eat," Remus pointed out from his hospital bed, "It will just take a lot of getting used to."

"The only thing you can't do is kiss," I said in a sing-song voice that really did not help with calming Sirius down, "Such a shame, isn't it? No sex for a whole month. Guess I'll just have to have as much as possible so you can't catch me and win the bet," I smiled as sweetly as I could and Sirius probably would have smacked me there and then if Remus wasn't giving him what we sometimes call the teacher's glare.

He had to settle for a simple, "Fuck off Ruth."

"That's exactly what I intend to do, darling," I said, trying ridiculously hard to not laugh. Luckily, James and Peter returned from the greenhouses with the mandrake leaves before Sirius could retaliate and before Remus could scold me again. Even when the full moon was a mere minutes away he could still snappy. Perhaps now even more so. James started handing out the leaves - we had a few spare in case, Merlin forbid, we needed them.

"So remember what my mum said," I reminded quickly as I could see Minnie and Poppy coming over to collect Remus out of the corner of my eye, "As soon as we see the full moon, everybody put their leaf in their mouth, OK?" Everybody nodded and hid their leaves as the teachers came closer. 

Remus grimaced when Minnie said grimly, "Come now, Lupin." I shot him a sad smile as he trudged out of the hospital wing. Even though this had been happening every month for near enough 10 years now, I still felt a strange sense of melancholy and maybe even guilt. I hated having to watch one of my best friends go through the mental and physical pain that came with being a werewolf and not being able to do anything about it. I guess we would just have to wait together and hope and pray to a God that may or may not exist that he would be OK.

[sizzites]

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah and I’ve recently decided to begin dipping my toes into gaming journalism. I’ve always liked writing and LOVED games, so why not combine them? I recently had the honor of attending Square Enix’s reveal event for the newest installment in the Tomb Raider series… Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I was able to attend this event due to winning the “Path of the Stars” contest. It’s one of those moments where you almost don’t believe it’s real… no one ever wins those contest, right? That’s how I felt until suddenly I had a congratulatory email and 7 days to prepare myself for a trip to LA!  All in all, things all seemed to come together as the perfect opportunity to start up a blog and get working on things. So here we are! I’m going to walk you through my experience at the reveal event as my first piece.

When we arrived at the event, we were immediately blown away by the venue SE had chosen… the Mayan Theatre. From the outside, it was a beautifully crafted tribute to Mayan artwork. Stone hieroglyphs from the floor to the roof of the building immediately pulled my brain back to all the “Path of the Stars” puzzles which had landed me here in the first place. This was a wonderful little gem hidden away among the city streets of downtown LA. Entering into the building, I felt my excitement levels jump even another level higher as we entered into a dark corridor full of smoke, vines, and amber colored lighting. In front of us was a decorative podium holding up each of the different case designs for the different versions of the game. There were also a few small placards showing some details listed out as well as explaining what would be given to those of us who are able to throw down some cold hard cash for the deluxe collector’s edition of the game.

We pushed past this display and moved onto the doorway into the main theatre. Vines hung down from the ceiling and obscured our view of the next room. As we pushed past the vines, I felt like my jaw would hit the floor. The beauty of the sculpting on the outer walls was nothing in comparison to the magnificence of the decorative walls surrounding the stage. Larger than life sculptures of hieroglyphs and deities were lit ominously from below with bright amber spotlights. The bar was lit with saturated purple and blue light as the bar tenders served up some wonderful themed cocktails. Turning towards the stage, there was an enormous screen with an animated version of the box art for the upcoming game. On either side of this screen were too smaller (but still quite large) screens which ran through each contributor’s logos as well as a small clip from the trailer (which we would be the first to see in just a short while). The floor in front of the stage had a few “standing room only” tables with small candles on the. The floor in that area was awash with fog. It swirled around the feet of those who mingled down in that area. It was somewhat spooky, but totally set the mood for the Mayan/jungle themed event.

The next thing we witnessed was one of the two big reasons I was excited to be present… the previously unreleased trailer for the game. It was absolutely beautiful and the excitement in the room was palpable from all of the press and game community members surrounding us. The footage cut between Lara Croft sprinting through the forest and what appeared to be a human sacrifice. Lara becomes stuck under a rock while moving through an underwater tunnel. The tension heightened as the Mayan priest raised his knife above the sacrifice and Lara got sucked out from under the rock. Just in time, Lara stops the sacrifice and reaches her hand out to the man, painted in blue, whom she had just saved. He stared at her in fear and ran away instead. Lara looked at herself and the dagger she held in her hand before walking forward to look out over the vast Mayan landscape and into the solar eclipse. After the trailer ended, there was a round of applause from everyone in the room.

A few moments later, a man walked out on stage and gave a short presentation. He began by elaborating and emphasizing that this third game in the trilogy was going to be where Lara becomes the tomb raider she was born to be. Multiple times, he said this game would contain her defining moment… although he didn’t let us in on the secret of what that would be. From his description, and also from the game play which I’ll talk about in a bit, I could see that the character of Lara Croft is going to be much more flushed out in this game. She is much more vulnerable and flawed… she is no longer the innocent student from the 2013 reboot… no longer the survivalist from Rise of the Tomb Raider… she is now THE tomb raider and is taking actions that will has consequences that she must face. Her decisions will no longer be black and white or good versus bad. There is now a gray area which makes Lara feel much more human, but she’s still just as much of the heroine we have loved for so many years.

He ended his presentation which meant that the secretive area for playing the demo was now available for press groups to begin coming in. We weren’t able to play right away, but that only had me chomping at the bit even more by the time it became our turn. We entered into the room to see rows of mid-sized televisions and Xbox Dev Kits. I slid on the oversized headphones and grabbed the controller anxiously. I fired up the demo and held my breath as an introductory cut scene played. From there, Lara was tasked with tailing a man through a beautiful Day of the Dead celebration. The candles scattered all around the scene gave off a warm orange light in the outdoor marketplace. Lara wore a large poncho as a disguise and a skeletal mask. The people all around her felt alive. They played music and games and you were able to interact with a few of them. The colors of this game struck me right away, ranging from deep, saturated colors, dark alley ways, to the bright lights of parties.

I won’t give away much more about the actual story, but I will say I was able to do some tomb exploring as well as a tiny bit of fighting. In terms of controlling Lara, everything feels very familiar. The methods of traversing through the environment are all pretty much the same. There are some new stealth elements were felt brilliant, including the ability to hide amongst vines and bushes lining walls. It made Lara feel much more dangerous now that she is adept at using her surroundings. The game play felt classic, but still fresh. And, of course, how can I even begin to talk about the tomb? It was always the one element that I felt was somewhat missing from the previous two games. Although challenge tombs were present (and fully wonderful) in Rise of the Tomb Raider, they still weren’t enough for me. I grew up on Lara Croft’s adventures and have always been very fond of those times when Lara spent an entire game running around in old Egyptian tombs and other similar locales. In the 45 minute demo, we were able to visit one tomb area with no enemies to speak of. It allowed us time to explore and really immerse ourselves in the absolutely fabulous graphics before our eyes. It felt just like the days of Tomb Raider on PS1 (but with a massive visual upgrade) and I loved every second of it. I finished the demo and left the room feeling more excited than I ever thought I could be for September.

All in all, I can say definitively that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is going to be one of the few games I will pre-order and possibly even get one of the “upgraded” versions right away. If I can make a suggestion, it would be that you plan on playing this game. If you haven’t yet played the two previous games, I would also say you should do that before September rolls around. The story arc in this trilogy has been brilliant up to this point and Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have given me no reason to think they will do anything less than deliver an amazing third chapter with this new game. I’ve been playing Tomb Raider for as long as I have been playing games (and happily watching my Dad play it long before I was able to figure out the controls myself), so I’m admittedly a bit of a fan girl for Lara Croft. That being said, even speaking as objectively as possible, this is going to be a monumental release and I think you’d have to be crazy to miss it!

 XOXOXO Sarah

[ksfd89]

Styling the Snowwoman

Literati oneshot about Rory and her kid building a snowwoman

“She doesn’t look like Bjork.”

“She totally does.”

“No she doesn’t, Mommy.  Bjork looks way cooler.”

Rory smiles at her daughter’s pout and stands back to study their snowwoman.

“I’d say this lady looks very cool, and not just because she’s made out of snow.  Don’t you think she looks a little like Debbie Harry?”

“Maybe...”

“Come on, Charlotte.  You’ll hurt her feelings.”

“You’re silly, Mommy,” Charlotte giggles.  “I want her to look good.”

“She does look good.  She’ll look even better when Mom brings the wig and clothes.”

“And then we’re going to Grandma’s house, right?”

“Right.  We’re going to watch movies.”

“And lots of candy,” Charlotte says happily.  She bounces up and down, her cheeks rosy and blue eyes bright with excitement, and jumps around as a voice calls,

“Hey, is that Tigger?”

“Uncle Jess!” Charlotte shouts as Jess appears with a bag slunch over his shoulder and two cups in his hand.  He puts the drinks down as Charlotte runs into his arms and Jess lifts her into a hug, kissing her cheek.

“Is that Charlotte? I could have sworn you were Tigger from the way you were jumping.  How’s my best girl?”

“Me and Mommy are making a snowman for the contest,” Charlotte informs him and Rory adds, “Snowwoman, actually.”

“Yeah, snowwoman,” Charlotte says.  “She needs to look like Bjork but she doesn’t.”

“She just needs more accessories,” Rory remarks and Jess chuckles.  “Mom’s bringing reinforcements.”

“Luke told me about that.  She looks good.”

“She’d better,” Rory says drily.  “We’ve been out here for two hours.  I’m turning into a snowwoman myself.”

“But would you win the contest?” Jess teases.  Rory rolls her eyes and he bends down, picking up the cups.

“I thought maybe you’d appreciate these.  Coffee and hot chocolate?”

“Bless you,” Rory says gratefully and Charlotte protests,

“Can’t I have coffee too?”

“Charlotte Lorelai Gilmore, that’s not what you say when Uncle Jess gets you hot chocolate,” Rory admonishes.  “Say thank you.”

“Thank you,” Charlotte says dutifully.  “I like hot chocolate but I want coffee like Mommy.”

“No, you don’t,” Jess says and Rory ignores him, bending down to her daughter’s eyes.

“Seven years old is too little for coffee, Charlotte.  You can try it when you’re older.”

Charlotte frowns but she drinks her hot chocolate and her complaints disappear. Rory sips her own drink, the feeling seeping back into her fingers and Jess delves into the bag, bringing out two doughnuts.

“For sustenance.”

“Jess, you didn’t have to,” Rory says, unable to stop her smile.  “We’re eating at Mom’s soon.”

“But coffee tastes better with dougnuts.”

“Very true,” Rory agrees.  She splits her dougnut in half, handing it to Jess and he smiles, getting sugar on his nose as he eats.  Charlotte grabs Jess’s hand after she finishes, making him inspect the snowwoman from every angle.

“She doesn’t look like Bjork,” she frets and Jess chuckles.

“She will when Lorelai brings the wig.”

“Mommy and Grandma made a snowman - snowwoman - like Bjork.  It won, right?”

“Right,” Rory agrees.  “And we had the special dinner at the inn.  Remember me telling you about that, Charlotte? Uncle Jess came.”

“Did you sit by Mommy?” Charlotte asks and Jess shakes his head to her disappointment.

“I sat with Uncle Luke.  I rode a sleigh with Rory though.”

“There was a sleigh?” Charlotte asks excitedly and Rory smiles.

“Just like in a story.  It was drawn by horses and covered in bells.”

“It’s like magic,” Charlotte breathes and Jess nods.

“It was.”

He and Rory smile at each other, lost in the memory.  It feels so far yet so recent to Rory.  She remembers the cold, the warmth of the rug across her legs and Jess making her laugh as they rode across the sparkling snow.  The excitement is stark in her mind, but more than seventeen years have passed since she was seventeen.  Her thoughts are interrupted as Charlotte tugs at her sleeve.

“Look at that guy’s,” Charlotte says, pointing at one a few feet away.  The man building it has made the snow look like an actual skirt on the snowwoman, a bonnet on her head and purse in her hand but Jess shakes his head.

“It’s too fancy.”

“I hope you’re not getting ideas,” Rory teases and Jess raises his eyebrows, a smirk crossing his lips.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What are you talking about?” Charlotte asks curiously and Jess coughs, turning away.  Just then Lorelai arrives, her bag overspilling with props and the four of them decorate the snowy Bjork.

“There,” Lorelai says in satisfaction.  “She’s fabulous.”

“She’s stylish,” Rory concurs and Jess puts his hand in his pocket, fastening something on her scarf.

“Now she’s fierce.”

“What is that?” Rory asks, leaning over.  “A Metallica pin?”

“She looks more musical.”

“Can Bjork advertise another band?” Lorelai muses and Rory laughs.  

“I think it shows she has taste.”

“Grandma, I’m cold,” Charlotte says bluntly.  “Can we go to your house?”

“Of course we can, little granddaughter,” Lorelai says and Charlotte asks,

“Is Grandpa Luke going to make lunch?”

“You bet he is, and he’s also going to complain about the calories in the candy.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.  Come on, kiddo.  Rory? Are you and Jess coming?”

“I’ll catch up,” Rory says.  “Just going to check over Bjork one more time.”

“Okay,” Lorelai says, sounding a little puzzled.  “I think she’s decked out enough though.”

“I won’t be long.”

Lorelai and Charlotte wave, walking away.  Charlotte jumps across the snow, her brown hair flying, and Rory laughs.

“She’s such a great kid,” Jess says and Rory nods, smiling.

“I lucked out.”

“You want to know something horrifying?”

“I don’t know, do I?”

“She’s closer to being seventeen than we are now.”

“Oh God,” Rory groans.  “Thanks, Jess.  You’ve made me feel old and also really sad that my baby’s not a baby.”

“Your baby’s already talking circles around you.”

“Yeah, and she’s got more books,” Rory says resignedly.  “I’m crediting her uncle Jess for that.”

“Hey, a reader needs supplies.”

“I won’t argue with that.”

Jess smiles at her and Rory laughs.  “Jess, you’ve got some sugar on your face.”

“I have?” Jess wipes his cheek but misses a spot and impulsively, Rory reaches over and brushes it off.

“There,” she says.  Jess nods and Rory blushes, suddenly shy.  Jess’s skin is cool in the snow but touching it felt oddly intimate.  To distract her mind, she says loudly,

“You’d better not wreck that guy’s snowwoman.”

“What?” Jess asks innoncently and Rory points her finger.

“You think I don’t know what happened to Ringer Guy? Don’t touch the new one!”

“Hey, I’m not a teenager.  Then again, if something did happen, wouldn’t it thrill Charlotte for Bjork to win?”

“Jess!”

“Relax, I’m kidding.”

“She’s so excited,” Rory says, adjusting the scarf on snowy Bjork.  “I don’t want to think about how hyper she’ll be after the movie and copious amounts of sugar that go with it.”

“Imagine if you had a Bracebridge dinner too.”

“I’m exhausted just picturing it,” Rory groans.  “I would love to take Charlotte on a sleigh though.”

“It was fun,” Jess says gently.  “Riding with you.”

“And for me,” Rory says, looking at him.  Jess smiles, wordlessly slips an arm through hers and they walk back through the snow.

[flameclaw22]

Book Review: The Crown’s Game

Spoilers ahead!

Rating: 1 star out of 5

I'd been contemplating reading Circle of Shadows, the newest Evelyn Skye novel, but I wanted to test the waters by reading another of her books first. I found The Crown's Game on sale in the NOOK store for $1.99, so I snapped it up. In a way, I'm glad I did, because reading The Crown's Game ultimately prevented me from wasting considerably more money on Circle of Shadows.

I could use the phrase “dumpster fire” to describe this book, but that's really not fitting: Dumpster fires at least entail vaguely interesting events. The Crown’s Game is easily one of the dullest books I’ve ever read - even duller than any novel in the Twilight series. It’s no compliment to say that Stephanie Meyer did a better job world-building. Evelyn Skye exerted such negligible effort on world-building that her tale barely squeaks into the historical fantasy genre, giving more of the feel of historical fanfiction with magic tossed in for shits and giggles. The magic originates from some spring or fountain or some bullshit that apparently pays attention to arbitrary geopolitical boundaries and nationality. And excluding faith healers and a couple of magical creatures, the latter of whom are only mentioned in passing, there are only four known characters in Russia with the magic, and two of them monopolize most of it. Since both competitors possess gargantuan supplies of the magic, the result is a pair of stupidly overly-powerful heroes.

Skye is just as bad at inventing plots as she is at world-building. Expect no real action or intrigue from Crown’s Game. The game itself is nothing more than an unstructured magical pissing contest, and Skye fails to leave enough to the imagination to keep readers hooked. There’s no nefarious plot running beneath the surface, there’s no tension or suspense; it’s just a fight for who gets to be the tsar’s chief suck-up and who gets to die, and the two competitors falling in love.

The characters are breathtakingly boring. If you played the Wii Fit obstacle course game, you probably remember what a pain in the ass it was to avoid those logs, lest your Mii be comically flattened. Clearly The Crown’s Game’s characters played this game and lost spectacularly, because damn, are they dimensionally challenged. Though it’s not Vika’s fault that Pasha worshipfully describes her in a manner that is utterly vomit-inducing, it is Vika’s fault for failing to demonstrate that she is anything more than an insipid, gorgeous magical girl anime reject. She has pretty red hair with a black streak in it and can generate an entire island with her mind. She misses her dad. She’s pretty. She’s powerful. Did I mention she’s pretty? The way Vika blathers on about how attractive Nikolai is implies that she’s never seen a boy before (even though that’s probably not true). Spare me the agony.

Scarcely surpassing the sentience of a doorknob, Nikolai might as well have been a giant Russian Ken doll. His thoughts mostly consist of dreamily imagining banging Vika, hawing over not wanting to kill her, and attempting to concoct a contest-winning plan. When a woman in a semi-zombified state shows up out of the blue - alleging to be his mother, no less - Nikolai is relatively unperturbed. His strongest reaction is his revulsion over how dreadful Aizhana smells. Come on. Even if you live in a world steeped in magic, if a shambling, malodorous corpse lady appears and claims to be your dead mommy, you should shit yourself, at least a little bit. If all you can do is complain about is the foul stench, you desperately need help. When he walks into the Enchanted Hollow, a goddam cave, his thought is, “So this is why it’s called the Enchanted Hollow.” You’re a little slow on the uptake, pal. Reading this particular line evokes thoughts of that iCarly scene where Kurt, the cute but dumb (fired) intern, rides the elevator and then breathes in awe, “This is an elevator.” And really, that captures Nikolai’s essence - the hot but moronic guy who should be fired before he ruins the world. I half-expected him to pop into a scene with a plastic bag of lemonade.

Pasha isn’t much better. Like Nikolai, he too obsesses over Vika to a degree that seriously annoyed me, as a reader stuck in his head. (What I can say is that Pasha, as nauseatingly pesky as his crush-related thoughts are, isn’t a complete creep. For instance, he refrains from kissing Vika while she is asleep because he does not want to disrespect/violate her.) Unlike Nikolai, however, he exhibits some intellectual curiosity and later undergoes a considerable personality change; unfortunately, this shift is such an about-face that its effect comes off less as character development and more as a rancorous temper tantrum.

There’s little to say for the remaining characters. Renata merely serves to upgrade the love triangle to a love web. Ludmila is Vika’s plump, middle-aged sidekick, who effectively fills the role of a lame-ass Molly Weasley: a source of tasty baked goodies and motherly love, minus the tough fierceness that makes Molly so endearing. Pasha’s sister, Yuliana, functions as the impetus behind the Crown’s Game, urging her father to commence the contest, but Tsar Alexander is such an unpleasant dickbag that no other scapegoat for starting the game is truly required, rendering Yuliana obsolete. At virtually every given opportunity, he goes out of his way to be rude, condescending, or snappish. During his spiel about the rules of the game, Vika interrupts him as respectfully as possible to inquire about why one Enchanter must die at the end of the game, and Alexander acts as if she’s expressed the desire to hit him in the testicles repeatedly with a large stick. He can’t even muster the patience or sympathy to answer a valid question posed by a competitor - a teenager, mind you - in a fatal contest to be the tsar’s magical toady. When Vika arrives at the ball in her fabulous dress, the tsar snidely remarks that she should “take care not to become too enamored of the tsarevich” because “it will require more than a showy gown to be worthy.” Damn it, dude, she just told you that she fashioned her clothes herself. Would it kill you to just toss out some platitude or another? Honestly, I pity Tsarina Elizabeth - she deserves so much better than Alexander. Sergei’s role is just being Vika’s mentor/father figure and an eventual sacrifice; Sergei’s bitchy sister, Galina, is a fucking psychopath who forces Nikolai to kill animals that she put in his bedroom and doesn’t miss a chance to remind him of his “low birth”. And if you’re holding out for a decent villain, don’t bother: Despite being one of the more interesting characters, Aizhana is just a vengeful zombie who boasts a typhus-riddled black tongue (I kid you not), long fingernails, and a festering grudge. That’s pretty much it.

And just what the fuck is this sentence structure?! The writing is clunky, awkward, and the cause of many an eye-roll. For example: “Nikolai shook his head at the beauty of Bolshebnoie Duplo.” This is an actual sentence in a published book not written for fourth-graders. This is an actual sentence in a published book that is presumably not written by a fourth-grader. I have read and enjoyed books with similar writing flaws, but the other elements of the book compensated for them. Obviously, nothing in The Crown's Game does.

This clumsy delivery pervades the romance of the book too. In yet another nightmare sentence, Pasha gushes about this gorgeous girl (Vika), whom he spotted from a distance the other day:

“She has red hair, like the most hypnotizing part of a flickering flame, and her voice is both melodic and unflinching.”

Ew, gross, no, stop. You’re embarrassing yourself, Pasha. You heard her speak but three sentences from a distance and now you can describe her voice like that? Not only does this further paint Vika as a Mary Sue, but it also just makes Pasha look like a pompous ass. This sort of florid diction is typically reserved for Lord Byron’s poetry. And then, when Pasha hops back on the boat back to St. Petersburg, Skye writes, “He murmured, ‘Vika,’ to himself, more than once.” Oh. My. God. By this point, I can safely say that Pasha acts like Ron Weasley under the influence of Romilda Vane’s love potion. J.K. Rowling at least had the courtesy to cure Ron of his sorry state by within the chapter; Skye’s characters, on the other hand, continue this behavior throughout Crown’s Game. I can’t pick on just Pasha, not when Vika serves up internal monologues like this one:

“It was as if the attempts to kill her faded into the background, and now she saw the truth at the core of it all: Nikolai’s magic was gorgeous and powerful and... and... Her lungs faltered. Even the mere memory of his magic was so strong. And touching Nikolai, even through her gloves and his sleeve, was like being pummeled by a stampede of wild horses. No, wild unicorns. Beautiful, wild unicorns.”

He’s the other enchanter, and she’s just now figured out that he’s powerful? Also, does she want to fuck him or his magic? If you think Nikolai contributes nothing to this travesty of romance, you’re quite wrong:

“He had thought, during the mazurka, that they’d had something. Their touch had both frenzied and frozen the ballroom. Their breathing had synchronized, heatedly.”

I could find more examples but I really don’t want to, since I prefer not vomiting.

Skye spends so much time on saccharine pseudo-poetry that she skimps on meaningful interactions between characters, particularly those involved in the two pairings we the readers are supposed to choose between. One carriage ride and a ballroom dance with Vika, whom he’s only known for a couple of weeks, and he thinks he’s so in love with her that when he discovers Nikolai's identity as the second enchanter and that Nikolai is "in love" with Vika too, he feels betrayed enough to pit the two of them - his best friend and the girl he supposedly loves - against each other in a battle to the death. Nikolai and Vika's encounters consist of either one attempting to murder the other, often with a crowd of bystanders within view, or gazing longingly into each other's eyes. Although Vika does have a sweet mother-daughter scene with Ludmila, and Sergei and Galina seem to reach some kind of reconciliation before the former dies, character-to-character interactions are generally superficial and unanimated.

In the end, whether you subject yourself to the agony of reading this book is up to you. Personally, I think it might be less time-consuming to purchase a bottle of high fructose corn syrup from the grocery store, go home, and drink the entire fucker in one sitting. You'd get the same bland, over-sweet experience from whichever one you choose. As for me, I won't be reading another book of Evelyn Skye's. I've had enough literary corn syrup to last me a lifetime.

You can also read this review on my website: <https://thebookishhawk.home.blog/2019/02/25/the-crowns-game-book-review/>.

[dpinoycosmonaut]

ATENEO BLUE EAGLES: NO SUCH THING AS AN OFFSEASON

By Reuel R. Hermoso / August 11, 2018

         After the season of their mother league has ended, most teams usually go on extended breaks and long vacations.  In the professional leagues such as the Philippine Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association in North America, one gets to see many of their players post on social media their latest trips to Europe or the Americas, China, and Japan, among many myriad destinations.  Community outreach programs and basketball clinics are also high on their agenda.           For the men’s basketball team of the Ateneo de Manila University, such travels, while also par for the course, are rarely done for leisure at all.  The Blue Eagles have gone to Europe, to the United States, to Japan, and, lately, to Taiwan – all to participate in pickup games, trainings, and, in the case of the trip to Taiwan, to even represent the Philippines in the 40th William Jones Cup last July.  They also joined local leagues and invitational tournaments over the course of the summer.  Some of the games they played have been exhilarating victories, others forgettable defeats.             But through it all, the team has remained focused on a single objective: to grab all possible chances to play together against any kind of opponent – some have been professional ballclubs or even national teams of their respective countries, like in the Jones Cup – under all conditions and climes, and despite the tremendous distances travelled.  And, to top it all, they have to stay focused as best they can on their studies – because they are student athletes.  All these, according to head coach Thomas Anthony “Tab” Baldwin, are geared toward getting – and keeping – his wards in tip-top shape for Ateneo’s parent league, the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, whose basketball season begins this coming September 8.           Not long after regaining the UAAP crown on December 3, 2017 after half a decade – their last UAAP title in 2012 was the last of a five-peat that began in 2008 – inside a jampacked Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, the Blue Eagles spent the remainder of the semester catching up on rest – and, most importantly, schoolwork.  Finishing the school year 2017-2018 with respectable grades – slotman Isaac Go even got his name on the dean’s list – the newly-minted champions returned to their home base, the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center inside the Ateneo’s main campus at Loyola Heights, hit the gym and weights, and got their stride in the different offseason leagues, including the Smart City Hoops, facing and beating familiar foe Far Eastern University in the title match 70-58 in a grueling, highly physical battle.  The Blue Eagles also went up against last season’s UAAP Final Four contender Adamson University in the Breakdown Basketball Invitational Tournament held on the Eagles’ home grounds.           And to make more heads turn, especially among hoops pundits following the collegiate game, the Blue Eagles finished the elimination phase of the highly anticipated Fil-Oil/Flying V Pre-Season Premier Cup with a 9-0 card, which in itself was already a feat.  Considering the hectic schedule the Blue Eagles faced, which included the Smart City Hoops and Breakdown Basketball tournaments, and balancing that at the same time with school work – the ridiculous rescheduling of the school year made sure everyone would be sweating it out in school in the sweltering summer heat – the Fil-Oil/Flying V feat became even more awesome.  San Beda (now granted university status by the Department of Education), an old rival in the Philippine version of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, gave the Eagles a good fight in the elimination round, as did the other schools, like De La Salle from whom they had wrested the UAAP title.             The Green Archers made them bleed for every point in this first meeting of theirs since the UAAP finals.  That game was particularly trying as the Blue Eagles were coming into the contest from a showdown in the Breakdown tournament the day prior.  Though they got into the groove of their game toward the end of the opening quarter and were able to carry it into the second canto, the Ateneo boys could not put the Archers away so easily, with the latter playing with a lot of pride and a never-say-die attitude that their team has always been known for.  It was largely a nip-and-tuck affair from then on, far from the blowout that many had expected the Blue Eagles to unleash upon the Green Archers.  At the end of regulation, the game was tied at 71.  It was largely on the efforts of rookie big man Angelo Kouame that the Blue Eagles were able to seal the win in overtime, despite the desperate efforts to contain him in the post in extra time by La Salle’s rookie slotman from New Zealand, Taane Samuel, and local veterans in the post Santi Santillan and Justin Baltazar.  Final score: 81-75 in favor of Ateneo.           With the disposal of La Salle, and that 9-0 card tucked in their belts, the Blue Eagles set the stage for the title match against the reigning and defending Fil-Oil/Flying V champs, who they had also met and barely edged past in their first meeting in this tournament – the Red Lions.  In the tournament opener in April, Ateneo squeaked past San Beda 69-68, thwarting a lion-roaring comeback anchored on the red-hot shooting of San Beda gunner AC Soberano, who could have tilted the game in the Red Lions’ favor were it not for the lockdown defense on the sweet-shooting guard in the dying seconds of the game as he tried to knock down two attempts for the go-ahead basket.  Ateneo’s defensive specialist Gian Mamuyac made sure Soberano would not get a good look at the ring.           In the title match on June 30, the Blue Eagles were readier for the defending Fil-Oil/Flying V and NCAA champs.  Their coaching staff had figured out that the key to winning against this vaunted squad from Mendiola was to tame its backcourt generals, Soberano and JV Mocon, and to keep them from organizing their offense and from scoring themselves, as well as to keep the ball from getting into the post, where San Beda big man Donald Tankoua was raring to get his game going, along with new recruit Eugene Toba.  Against Tankoua, Kouame was more than a handful due largely to the latter’s size and length.  Skills and athleticism considered, Tankoua would have the edge in both, plus the veteran smarts to pull one over Kouame, but in the low blocks, size really matters.  Ateneo dependable Matt Nieto patrolled the perimeter, scoring timely baskets to take the wind out of San Beda’s sails.  In the end, a new tournament champion was holding up the championship trophy, with the Blue Eagles scoring a decisive 76-62 victory over the Red Lions.           What made the Fil-Oil/Flying V series jaw-dropping was the fact that just days earlier in Greece on June 21, the Eagles beat the Olympiakos Club’s Under-18 team 95-73, and went on to beat even the National Under-21 team 84-82 on a Thirdy Ravena buzzer beater, prompting the Greeks, who have produced such NBA notables as Kurt Rambis of the Los Angeles Lakers, Peja Stojakovic of the Sacramento Kings, and now Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, to lavish praise on the reigning champs and, in particular, their King Eagle Thirdy.  So with some fatigue – their young bodies may be better able to cope with it but it’s still there regardless – and jetlag coming all the way from Europe, the act of ending the Fil-Oil/Flying V tournament with a 12-0 card is an awesome feat in itself.           Of course, there was that one week spell when they went to Greece, but again, that was all business, or most of it was anyway.  Maybe a little sightseeing at the Acropolis in Athens, but that was about it.  In a few hours, they were back home to face San Beda.  With practically no sleep and jetlag all over them, everyone would’ve understood if the Blue Eagles decided to have an off day, hand the game – and the tournament back-to-back – to San Beda, and no one would really have minded.  It was a preseason stint, after all.  No big deal if you let it go.             Not with coach Tab though.  Kouame related that their venerable mentor, who was in the US for a short visit with family (chief assistant Sandy Arespacochaga coached the Eagles in the championship game against the Bedans), texted each one of them: “The mind will tell the body what to do.”  And those tough young minds did tell those tough, young, but very tired bodies that they could do this; they could win this title.  Against FEU in the semifinal round, the Blue Eagles’ shots rarely found the bottom of the net. But they decided they would frustrate the Tamaraws’ powerful offense with some critical stops.  The old basketball adage that “you can have an off day on offense, but defense never takes a break” is firmly ingrained in Ateneo basketball even as far back as the Joe Lipa years and was solidly entrenched by Norman Black during the team’s fabulous five-peat era that it can’t be cast aside just that easily.  It was this defensive mindset that carried them all the way to the top of the Fil-Oil/Flying V with nary a loss, winning a title in the tournament that Ateneo last held during the five-peat period in 2011.           What do all these hectic preseason activities mean for the Blue Eagles?  More than the experience of winning against the best of Philippine collegiate hoops, more than winning against the vastly talented Hellas, descendants of Achilles and Hercules, the boys from Loyola Heights sought to gain a treasure trove of insights and lessons in the way the game is really played on the international scene. Coach Baldwin, having taught a number of national teams, including those of Lebanon and New Zealand, wants to steer Ateneo basketball toward a more international, less America-centric type of game.           “We’re too obsessed with the American (style of) game,” the American mentor noted about Filipinos. The international style of basketball, which originated in Europe, relies heavily on team play, focuses less on star players, and emphasizes a lot of motion offense with or without the ball.  It also puts a heavy premium on team defense, stops, and gang rebounding on both ends of the floor.           It is in this direction that coach Baldwin wants to pilot the Blue Eagles as they begin their title defense next month when the UAAP basketball season begins with a couple of round-robin eliminations, a series of playoffs in the Final Four format, and a best-of-three title series to cap the season sometime in December.  For the Blue Eagles, no merrier Christmas can be had than hoisting up their second championship trophy in as many seasons.  Hopefully for them, the paradigm shift brought by coach Tab will see to that. (Photo Credit: Facebook/ateneobasketball) 

[buddyrabrahams]

Seven most impressive rookies of the NBA season so far

Markelle Fultz vs. Lonzo Ball was supposed to be the central storyline that dominated this year’s rookie class. Pick No. 1 vs. pick No. 2. Former Pac-12 adversaries who often seemed to have genuine acrimony towards each other. Game-changing talents at the point guard position, each one heading to a major market in the hopes that he would rejuvenate a once great but currently dormant franchise. What wasn’t to like? But then life happened. A clunky shot form or two, a suspect shoulder injury here, a family scandal involving the Chinese government there, and so forth. Now the spotlight has been taken away by a new group of fabulous first-years. And here are the ones who have been the most impressive through this first month of the 2017-18 NBA season.

*Stats courtesy of NBA.com and ESPN*

Dennis Smith Jr, PG, Dallas Mavericks

I pity the fool who tries to stand between a leaping DSJ and the basket. The No. 9 pick’s bounce has been the stuff of cultural folklore dating back to his high school days, and he is already proving his worth in other dimensions of the game as well. Smith’s 15.8 points per game leads all 2017 draftees. He’s also canning 2.4 triples a contest in November and is taking center stage as the primary initiator of the Dallas offense, leading them in both assist average and usage rate. Smith’s first step is TNT, and he seems to improve in the pick-and-roll with each passing day. Indeed, Junior is a glimmering lantern of hope on a 2-13 Mavs team, and don’t worry, he can still do that other thing too.

Donovan Mitchell, PG/SG, Utah Jazz

A largely forgotten commodity at lucky No. 13 in this year’s draft, The Mitchell Report is emerging as a much-needed young savior for a Jazz squad that lost Gordon Hayward to free agency, and then Dante Exum and Rudy Gobert to injury. He’s more a gunner (14.4 shot attempts a game) than a distributor (2.4 assists a contest) and his 38.1 percent shooting leaves much to be desired. But Mitchell has been demonstrating some well-rounded scoring capabilities for a first-year (ranking in the NBA’s 78th percentile on spot-up opportunities and the 72nd percentile in isolation situations) and complements them nicely with a sturdy defensive backbone. Simply put, he checks off a lot of boxes for a ground-and-pound Utah team still trying to find their new identity on offense.

Lauri Markkanen, PF, Chicago Bulls

I suppose 2017 hasn’t been all bad, as it has graced us with the presence of The Finnish Finisher. There’s a strong argument to be made that Markkanen is the rookie who has most exceeded expectations since being drafted. One of the lone consistent producers on a skin-and-bones Bulls team this season, the sharpshooting seven-footer carved out a meaningful role for them from the very first game, and he continues to do cool new stuff with it. Markkanen is sandblasting opponents from the perimeter to the tune of 14.5 points on 2.3 threes per game and has also been a pleasant surprise as a suctioning force on the glass (7.8 rebounds a night, tops on the team). Bobby Portis’ return could steal a bit of his shine, but otherwise, so far, so good for the 20-year-old stud.

Jayson Tatum, SF/PF, Boston Celtics

It should be considered a federal crime for somebody of Tatum’s youth and inexperience to possess such polish and maturity on the court. The teenager leads all rookies with 48.9 percent shooting from distance and is just as good from inside the arc thanks to his quick instincts and his Michael Jackson-like footwork. It was Tatum who picked up much of Gordon Hayward’s playing time and scoring slack, and it’s been Tatum who has provided the Celtics with a crucial pivot to help ignite the flames of their 13-game win streak. Yes, the ex-Duke Blue Devil is drawing praise from up and down the basketball aisle, and, oh yeah, it turns out he’s pretty darn good on the highlight reel as well.

Frank Ntilikina, PG, New York Knicks

My autocorrect may still call him Frank Nickelodeon, but the 19-year-old is the real deal. Whether he’s defending on the ball or off it, Ntilikina is a total boa constrictor on that end of the floor. He’s third in the entire NBA in steals per game, and he’s not afraid to throw his long French limbs at anybody from James Harden to LeBron James. Distributing the basketball (4.7 assists per game and 8.3 of them per 36 minutes) is also an area of particular strength for Ntilikina. And while he has only hit double digits in scoring once this season (shooting [gags] 34.5 percent from the field as a whole), the early returns are still highly encouraging for everybody’s favorite nephew, Frankie Smokes.

Kyle Kuzma, PF, Los Angeles Lakers

*whispers* Big Baller Kuzma is the only Lakers rookie who matters.

A player whom many were anointing the steal of the 2017 draft after he blazed a path of destruction during Summer League and preseason, Kuzma has kept his hype train rolling well into the regular season. With as complete of an offensive toolkit as you will find — dribble drives, mid-post turnarounds, catch-and-shoot threes, hesi pull-up jimbos, you name it — the University of Utah product has arguably been the purple and gold’s best player this year. Kuzma throws up 15 and 7 a night whilst hitting over half of his shots. Those numbers have been steadily increasing since the loss of Larry Nance Jr. to a broken hand. Now Kuzma has a rear-naked chokehold on the Lakers’ starting 4 spot, and he’s not letting go until the rest of the NBA taps out.

Ben Simmons, G/F, Philadelphia 76ers

As it turns out, Ben 10 isn’t just a Cartoon Network show — it’s also the number of different ways that kid in Philly can beat you. Feasting his way to 17.8 points, 9.2 boards, and 7.8 dimes a night through his first 13 professional contests, Simmons is a menace. At 6-foot-10, he gets to the rim with the same ease that most normal human beings would have putting on a pair of pants, and he seems to have eyes, not only on the back of his head, but on the top, the side, and on every other pore of his body as well. Simmons may be a zero from long-range (literally, with no makes on seven three-point tries this year), but he has a wet enough elbow J to keep defenses honest when they dip under screens on him. It’s a true rarity for a player of his bruising athleticism to have such an innate feel for the game. So don’t miss out and be sure to get “Ben Simmons: Rookie of the Year” tattooed on your forehead while you still can.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2yNcgKo

[wiremagazine]

THE BEST OF WORLD CINEMA AT MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL GEMS 2017

By Rafa Carvajal

The 3rd annual Miami Film Festival GEMS 2017 is set to take place October 12-15 at Miami Dade College’s Tower Theater. This fabulous festival is a fall extension of the annual, internationally-renowned Miami Film Festival that will celebrate its 35th edition March 9-18, 2018. If you haven’t been to GEMS, make sure you purchase tickets to watch some of its films this year. To buy tickets, visit gems2017.miamifilmfestival.com. I have attended since its inception and the films have been outstanding. Among this year’s many highlights will be the Miami premiere of Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and the U.S. premiere of Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Florida film Life and Nothing More.

GEMS 2017’s opening night film (Oct. 12) will be Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name – considered one the the most critically acclaimed and Oscar-buzzed titles this year. It will be followed by the A TASTE OF ALTA ITALIA opening night party that will celebrate October’s annual nationwide Italian Heritage Month. Another must see film will be Ruben Östlund’s The Square, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, from a jury presided over by Pedro Almodóvar. The Festival will also present a special seminar conversation titled Don’t Take Yes For An Answer, featuring Miami-Haitian filmmakers Edson Jean and Joshua Jean-Baptiste speaking about their recently completed, eight-episode web series that was 100% filmed in Miami and due for release in 2018 – born out of a winning pitch that they made to the Project Greenlight Digital Studio’s first "Get The Greenlight Digital Series" contest in early 2016. Imagine you have a dream to create your own episodic series. You enter a three-minute pitch video and win the $25,000 top prize! That's what happened last year to actors and roommates Edson Jean and Joshua Jean-Baptiste. Join them and Festival director Jaie Laplante as they discuss the journey from shooting no-budget test-episodes to working on a new Miami set project in the community that inspired them; and learn why they are committed to telling homegrown tales and how their partnership made it possible.

For the first time in its history, Miami Film Festival will introduce VR Escape, a Virtual Reality sidebar, throughout the Miami GEMS 2017 in partnership with MDC’s Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex (MAGIC). You will be able to experience four 360° videos by Angel Manuel Soto, an L.A. based Puerto Rican artist/filmmaker and Miami Film Festival 2015 alumni with his feature The Farm (La granja). 

Another great film at this year’s GEMS will be NO, A Flamenco Tale. Flamenco has a very special place in my heart given my Spanish heritage. I sat down with NO’s director José Luis Tirado to learn more about this GEMS 2017 jewel. 

Rafa Carvajal: What is NO, A Flamenco Tale about? José Luis Tirado: NO, A Flamenco Tale is a musical film. It is an urban and contemporary flamenco opera. It is also a "docufiction," as it explores the hybrid and borderline terrain between the documentary genre and fiction stories. It is an experience of performative cinema, in which what is represented actually happens.

RC: Tell our readers about the main actors in the film and the roles they portray. JLT: In NO, A Flamenco Tale, the actors are flamenco dancers, flamenco singers, dancers of contemporary dance, etc., who interpret their own characters, adapted to the script. The story is driven by a main character, No, who plays the flamenco dancer Noemí Martínez Chico, who is the guiding thread, the "MacGuffin" that takes us to the different situations of the script. The flamenco singer, Rosa de Algeciras, interprets the first antagonistic character, who challenges our protagonist about her feelings of loneliness. Rocío Márquez interprets the inner voice of our protagonist. The flamenco singer, Álvaro Ramírez, dedicates a few tientos and four tango scenes in which he interacts by dancing with Alicia Márquez, Aitor Matres, Maria Rosa Hidalgo, Ramon Martinez, Marco Vargas and Chloé Brûle. María Peña and Herminia Borja lead a revealing coven, in which they sing the truths of life. To the rhythm of rumba, Alicia Acuña teaches us that when everything seems to sink, life appears with its compass.

RC: What did you enjoy the most about directing NO, A Flamenco Tale? JLT: For me, the most enriching part is the learning process. Any project has a large component of learning, experimentation and risk. Imagining and being risky is what gives life to a project. Doing it collectively with a team that is your accomplice in the limits you want to surpass is exciting. Then, there is the perfect communication with Raúl Cantizano, the composer and, in many cases, interpreter of the music, that has flowed in a precise and fun way.

RC: What were your biggest challenges directing the film? JLT: The biggest challenge is to maintain the pulse and visual rhythm in a process that lasts three years. In the developmental phase, script, locations, etc; during the shooting, which lasted seven months; and in the post production and editing phases, etc., which lasted another eight months. Maintaining the intensity of the project during this extended time has been the greatest achievement.

RC: What would you like viewers to walk away with after watching NO, A Flamenco Tale? JLT: I would like for viewers to discover that it is possible to face difficult situations in life with joy and determination. That it is possible and necessary for things to change, but for this to happen, it is necessary that we first change our attitude. The greatest defeat is the defeatist spirit that comes to us from power as the only possible attitude. It is necessary for that reason to say, "No, we will not conform."

RC: How did you become a film director? JLT: From the need to tell stories to others, and also the need for this story to be complex enough to mean something in our knowledge of reality.

RC: Explain the power of flamenco to people who may not fully understand this timeless Spanish tradition. JLT: The power of flamenco basically lies in the fact that it is not necessarily a tradition, it is a living art that transforms itself, and reinvents itself every day. Capable of questioning itself, and of dialoguing with other arts in a contemporary space.

RC: What does flamenco mean to you? JLT: Flamenco is a language that catches you by the guts, at the same time that it distances you so you can have an overview vision. It is a universal language which in association with the language of cinema can be very powerful and universal. 

RC: Describe NO, A Flamenco Tale in 3 words. JLT: In three words it is complicated, but I would say: "An iconoclastic musical." It can stand as a headline.

RC: Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers about NO, A Flamenco Tale or your role as the director? JLT: That if they go see our film, they will leave the room with a malicious smile on their faces; and then they will have no remedy: they will be accomplices of those of us that wish a better world for all. For more information visit our website: joseluistirado.es/p-e-l-í-c-u-l-a-s/no-un-cuento-flamenco.

SPOTLIGHT FILMS: 12 OF THE BEST MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL GEMS 2017 FILMS

Photos provided by Miami Film Festival GEMS

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (France, Italy, 2017) Director: Luca Guadagnino In English, French, German, Italian, with English subtitles

GEMS Synopsis: Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) makes splashy, sensual films brimming with big emotions, but the foundation of his work is a rare tenderness. In 1983 in the Lombardy countryside, an antiquities academic, Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg, who could earn an Oscar for this role), invites a young American Jewish scholar named Oliver (Armie Hammer) to stay with his family at their 17th century palazzo, and assist him with a summer research project. To the Professor’s dismay, his restless adolescent son Elio (Timothée Chalamet) soon falls under a spell of fascination with the gregarious, extroverted American. As Elio shows Oliver the natural delights of an Italian summer with nearby Swiss and French influences, exquisite dreams begin to take flight before our eyes – and those of Elio’s watchful father and mother, Annella. Call Me By Your Name, adapted by the legendary James Ivory from a novel by André Aciman, is swooning and alive – a new masterpiece. Sufjan Stevens contributes original new songs that add immeasurably to the film’s heart-fluttering texture, and the film also does for peaches what I Am Love did for prawns! – Jaie Laplante

CAN’T SAY GOODBYE (Spain, 2017) Director: Lino Escalera In Catalan, Spanish, with English subtitles

GEMS Synopsis: Balancing a barrage of unruly feelings with an air of philosophical wisdom, Spanish director Lino Escalera’s feature debut, winner of four awards at this year’s Málaga Film Festival, is an emotionally searing portrait of familial strife. José Luis (Juan Diego) is dying. His daughter Carla (Nathalie Poza), a bored executive who self-medicates with booze, cocaine and male attention, insists her father keep fighting the grim reaper. His daughter Blanca (Lola Dueñas), an aspiring actress, is willing to submit José Luis to palliative care and let him go gently into that good night. These conflicting attitudes lay bare the sisters’ divergent coping mechanisms and teach them a great deal about their own fraught lives. Watch this intense, smart, tender drama – and you might learn something too. – Jaie Laplante 

ERIC CLAPTON: A LIFE IN 12 BARS (U.S., 2017) Director: Lili Fini Zanuck In English 

GEMS Synopsis: For over five decades, Eric Clapton has been creating rock music deeply influenced by the blues. This documentary traces the guitar virtuoso’s career through the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek & the Dominos and his solo years, telling the stories behind hits like "For Your Love," "Layla," and "Tears in Heaven." Clapton struggled with the demands of the music business, tumultuous love affairs, drug addiction and the tragic loss of his young son. Featuring a candid interview with Clapton and drawing from an extensive archive of performances and home movies, Life in 12 Bars traces how Clapton coped with these challenges. We come away with a deeper sense of what has inspired so much memorable music. – Thom Powers 

FACES PLACES (France, 2017) Director: Agnès Varda, JR In French, with English subtitles 

GEMS Synopsis: Agnès Varda may now be one of our oldest filmmakers, but her work possesses a youthful vivacity unparalleled among her peers of any age. Her latest documentary, co-directed with the mysterious French street artist known only as JR, is inquisitive and playful. The filmmakers board JR’s photo-truck – painted to resemble a giant camera – and travel from village to village, where they meet locals, talk to them about their lives and create immense portraits of them, which are mounted on buildings throughout their communities. Not unlike Varda’s first film, La Pointe Courte, Faces Places pays homage to the vibrancy, diversity and dignity of life beyond the urban centers that typically dominate the big screen. Vive la différence! – Jaie Laplante

IN THE FADE (Germany, 2017) Director: Fatih Akin In German, with English subtitles 

GEMS Synopsis: Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven) boldly navigates the confluence of cultures that comprises contemporary Europe. This new tale of terror and vengeance is just as brilliant as Akin’s previous films – and much more bracing. Katja (Inglorious Basterds’ Diane Kruger) experiences the unthinkable: her husband, a legal advisor to Germany’s Turkish and Kurdish communities, and her young son are killed in a Neo-Nazi terrorist bombing. As In the Fade draws us ever-deeper into the myriad ways that the legal system fails Katja, our heartbroken heroine takes justice into her own hands. Akin tackles the boggling complexities of modern violence with intelligence and focus. Kruger, meanwhile, is an actress of astonishing emotional dexterity, and In the Fade pushes her – and her character – to new limits. – Jaie Laplante

LIFE & NOTHING MORE (Spain, U.S., 2017) Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza In English 

GEMS Synopsis: Still in the prime of her life, Regina works long hours at a Tallahassee fast-food stop, barely earning enough to scrape by and feed her two children – Andrew, an emotionally cagey adolescent, and her young daughter. When a charismatic stranger shows interest, Regina isn’t sure she can muster enough trust to let him into her fraught life – and Andrew’s ongoing confrontations with authorities don’t help matters. With smoldering resentment at his incarcerated father and dealing with a mother nearing the end of her fraying tether, Andrew is more at risk than he realizes. Dividing its attention – and compassion – evenly between Andrew and Regina, Life and Nothing More is an invigorating work of modern neorealism set on the fringes of urban Florida. Spanish writer/director Antonio Méndez Esparza displays an astonishing grasp of the conundrum of race, family and justice that suffuse our contemporary America. Life and Nothing More is essential cinema for our present moment. – Jaie Laplante

MY FRIEND DAHMER (U.S., 2017) Director: Marc Meyers In English 

GEMS Synopsis: There’s something different about Ohio high school student Jeff Dahmer. To get through the days, Jeff plays the class clown, feigning spastic fits to attract attention. After school, he retreats to his makeshift lab, where he dissolves roadkill in jars of acid. No one could foresee what he would become… Based on the graphic novel by John Backderf – one of Dahmer’s former classmates – My Friend Dahmer is a grim origin story. Anchored by former Disney star Ross Lynch’s chilling lead performance, this is a terrifying, surprisingly empathetic look into one troubled teen’s descent into madness. Jeffrey Dahmer would later become one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. But here, he’s simply known as "Dahmer" – a not-so-regular high school student. – Lauren Cohen 

NO, A FLAMENCO TALE (Spain, 2016) Director: José Luis Tirado In Spanish, with English subtitles 

GEMS Synopsis: A beguiling fusion of thrilling cinema and passionate music, NO, A Flamenco Tale sweeps us off to a land where the joys and hardships of life are expressed in breathtaking spectacle and song. Clapping hands, stamping feet, stirring singing, intricate guitar and arresting dance: flamenco is a tradition of bold, soul-piercing gestures. Spanish director José Luis Tirado matches these gestures with a loose story about No, a dancer who works at a small venue in Seville’s Triana Market. At times No feels alienated by the world she inhabits, yet she finds communion in sundry public spaces where her dance provokes reactions from fellow citizens. Let NO take hold of your senses – and you too will be provoked, inspired and moved. – Jaie Laplante

SUMMER 1993 (Spain, 2017) Director: Carla Simón In Catalan, with English subtitles 

GEMS Synopsis: Winner of the Best First Feature Award in Berlin, Spanish writer/director Carla Simón’s autobiographical coming-of-age tale is delicate, transporting and, in its confident, unassuming way, profoundly moving. Sublimely embodied by little Laia Artigas – whose arresting presence at times recalls the young Ana Torent – six-year-old Frida is sent from Barcelona to her aunt and uncle’s home in the Catalán countryside. Frida has lost both her parents, and though her new family is welcoming, her new surroundings overturn her inchoate understanding of the world. In its steady accumulation of precise, evocative moments – a child’s upturned face lit by fireworks; two girls sharing a bath and learning to hold their breath – Summer 1993 renders a time of tumultuous transition with grace and wonder. – Jaie Laplante

THE FLORIDA PROJECT (U.S., 2017) Director: Sean Baker In English 

GEMS Synopsis: Following his micro-budget break-out Tangerine, Sean Baker cements his status as one of our freshest and most vital filmmakers with The Florida Project, pure film of the highest order; it reminds us that even in the direst circumstances life will always yield small yet unforgettable joys. Set in Orlando, this freewheeling film, like its predecessor, offers a big-hearted portrait of America’s marginalized. This time around Baker’s subjects are 22-year old Halley and her six-year-old daughter Moonee. The pair resides in a cheap motel tucked near a freeway and a theme park. Halley struggles to pay for cereal and shelter, while Moonee doesn’t let a little thing like destitution prevent her from exploring her surroundings or playing jokes on a motel staff-member (beautifully depicted by Willem Dafoe). Warm, winning and gloriously alive, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project is a deeply moving and unforgettably poignant look at childhood.

THE LEISURE SEEKER (U.S., 2017) Director: Paolo Virzì In English 

GEMS Synopsis: The Leisure Seeker stars Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren and two-time Golden Globe-winner Donald Sutherland as a runaway couple going on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker, travelling from Boston to The Ernest Hemingway Home in Key West. They recapture their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end. All ticket sales from this screening will be donated to United Way of the Florida Keys to aide in the Hurricane Irma Relief Fund.

THE WORKSHOP (France, 2017) Director: Laurent Cantet In French, with English subtitles 

GEMS Synopsis: Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or-winning The Class was a profound examination of contemporary education in all its social and pedagogical complexities. Set in a summer creative writing workshop, Cantet’s new film, The Workshop, veers into a very different, very intriguing direction. Presided over by a published crime novelist, the workshop’s objective is to have its working-class, mixed race, adolescent participants collectively compose a novel set in their coastal French town. Reaching consensus proves difficult, and Antoine, the most outspoken, contentious participant begins to dominate – and destabilize – the proceedings. Under Cantet’s steely focus, The Workshop seamlessly shifts from a film in which people discuss a thriller to a film that is itself a fiercely intelligent thriller, grounded in the fraught socio-political landscape these kids are inheriting. – Jaie Laplante

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 38.2017

[taniasinel]

The Aidan Gray #AGwithanedge Winners!!

The big day is here!!!  

Today, I am going to announce the winners of the Aidan Gray contest #AGwithanedge.

But first a word about the contest.

Awww, come on!!!

You didn’t think I was just going to say who the winners were – right at first?!?!?

I know it’s NOT fair!!

But, Patience Please!

And NO peeking!!!!!

Ok.  Back to the story.

A few months ago I heard from Randal Weeks, the head honcho at Aidan Gray. 

He had just finished completely restoring a 1920s house in High Point and he wanted to somehow incorporate the renovation into a contest.  After a rash of emails, Randal and his extremely talented group of co-workers came up with the contest that became known as #AGwithanedge.

Randal wanted the contest to merge artistry and design and he came up with this idea:

Contestants would photograph a room of theirs that would look better with an Aidan Gray light fixture.  On that photo, they would merge the actual picture with the fixture of their choice using a photoshop app.

Then, they would load the merged photo on Instagram using the hashtag #AGwithanedge.

Simple enough, right?!?!?

In the beginning, the award prizes were going to be all the Aidan Gray fixtures used in Randal’s renovated High Point house.  The contestants would chose a fixture used in that house and then they would pick a room or a space in their own house that the fixture would look good in.

That’s what the contest was supposed to be.

But somewhere along the way, that became too complicated and in my heart, I knew that many of you were fans of the more classic Aidan Gray, as opposed to AGwithanedge – the more updated Aidan Gray fixtures.   Not everyone is contemporary today, even though it sometimes seems that way.

And I’m glad we didn’t adhere to the rule “only chose a fixture in the renovated house” because I think it freed everyone up to dream about that one Aidan Gray fixture THEY have always wanted to own!

But still, the actual rules of the contest were complicated.

I was a little - well more than a little – I was very concerned that the contest would be problematic.  Not everyone is on Instagram and not everyone knows how to navigate Instagram.  Then there was the issue of the merged photo – using a photoshop type app to create the entry photograph. 

I was also convinced that no one would know how to “merge” photos except for a small handful of computer literate readers.

In the end…all my fears were for naught. 

We had almost 100 entrants in the contest, which is fabulous. 

I offered to create entries for those who weren’t on Instagram or who couldn’t do the picture stitching – so hopefully, no one was left out of entering.   

Basically, #AGwithanedge began with a house, a 1929 Tudor house in High Point:

Randal had seen this fabulous Tudor for sale and he thought it would be perfect to stay in while he was at market and it would also make a perfect vacation house for his three teenaged sons.   The Emerywood house is located at 210 Hillcrest near the High Point Country Club.  It had been custom built for W.C. Idol and his wife, who entertained in the house, hosting parties and garden club meetings. 

The Idols sold the house to John and Mary Diffendal who lived in the Tudor, with their many children, during their 60 years of marriage.  After John passed away, Mary continued to live in the house alone, visited by her doctor who made house calls and the hairdresser and manicurist who both came weekly.  Later, when Mary could not walk upstairs, she moved into the dining room, making it her bedroom.

When Randal bought the house, he took it down to the studs, completely renovating every inch of the house.   He painted the exterior a soft gray and white which immediately updated the house.  This detail was much debated in the Cote de Texas comment section with some of you preferring the dark red brick over the gray paint.  My vote is for the painted version!

In the end, the dream of a Weeks vacation house was not to be.  Perhaps this house was just too close to work to make it relaxing for the Weeks.  Randal sold the house before it was even completely finished:  the winter weather did not allow the landscaping to be installed and the garage apartment was left to be renovated by the new owners. 

The Weeks ending up buying another property they are currently renovating that is far, far away from the pressures of work and it will be a vacation home for the Weeks.

Despite quickly selling the house, Randal was still able to furnish it with all the latest contemporary light fixtures, furniture and accessories from Aidan Gray.  The photos will live on for a long time – and are a wonderful way to show off many of Randal’s newest designs.

Before:  Randal took the house down to the studs.  It was this beautiful, iconic banister that sold Randal on the house.

After:  The wood floors that were once mostly covered by carpet are now stained very dark brown/black.

The view from the entry to the living room on the left and the family room/kitchen past the staircase.

Before:  The library was carpeted and had some wood paneling on the walls, along with faux PAPER paneling!!!!!!   I asked Randal why he had removed some of the paneling and he said, “Joni, it wasn’t wood.   It was brown PAPER glued to the walls!!!”

After:  The library is now very dark gray/black and is a mix of old and new.

The dining room was once where the former owner lived out her twilight years.  Now, it is a contemporary space, with the custom light fixture that Randal created out of an antique altar that once held holy water.  Other pieces of the altar were used in the living room.

 Before:  The family room.  Randal kept the charming corner cabinets, but he removed the wall on the right side, between the kitchen/breakfast room, to create a large open space.

After:  The large family room and kitchen, with the wall now removed.

Randall made this window, between the two corner cabinets, a focal point of the family room.

Before:  The kitchen.  Randal extended the galley kitchen into the breakfast room, making one extra large space.

AFTER:  The galley kitchen is now one large space with a table at the end.  Several different pendants from AG were used in this space. 

The kitchen has an amazing mirrored hood, while the entire back wall is covered in white subway tile.  I think the kitchen is my favorite space in the house.

Upstairs.  The new stairs to the attic are contemporary to juxtapose them against the original stairs with the banister that first attracted Randal to the house.

The room that was once the “sewing room” is now a cute guest room with light pink walls.

We didn’t see this in the original story – the master bathroom with marble tile walls.  Love!

Another view of the  master bathroom.

This bathroom is particularly beautiful with the marble walls.

My favorite bedroom is this attic room.   Be sure to look  at the original story to see all the photos HERE.

And so…..are you ready for the winners??????

Winner #1: 

Winner #1:   azrenee4  aka Renee Hoffman

Renee wrote:  “How amazing would this Crown & Glory Chandelier by Aidan Gray set the tone for our home's entryway!

The foyer would go from so-so to Hello Gorgeous!”

Renee won Aidan Gray’s #L860 Crown & Glory

Aidan Gray says:  The Crown and Glory is backordered and will not be available until next month. 

Renee can either wait for the fixture or choose the L839 Globe in Gold. 

Winner #2:

Winner #2:  elevengables aka Emily

Emily wrote: “Browsing @aidangrayhome for new chandys all over my house!

I think this one is perfect for the formal living! Don't you agree? @jonibwebb Cote de Texas is hosting a giveaway! Pick me! Pick me!”

Aidan Gray says “We agree with Emily's choice: L504 WHITE CHAN Pommard Chandelier, Distressed White.

Note:  The L504S CHAN WHT Pommard Chandelier- Small will not be available till July. Emily needs to verify which size she needs.”

Joni says:  “This is one of my favorite Aidan Gray chandeliers (of course it is!)   Emily is a favorite of décor bloggers and I was so thrilled to see that she had won!”

Winner #3:

Winner #3:  KIMMTAFF aka Kim Marrow Taff 

KIMMTAFF chose two Aidan Gray Burges table lamps for her living room.

Aidan Gray said:  “We agree with Kim's choice: L34 Bruges Table Lamps –the pair.”  

Kim chose the light colored shade.

Winner #4:

Winner #4:   sdpotts619  aka Brenda Potts

Brenda chose a pair of Aidan Gray Marshal floor lamps.  

Aidan Gray said:  “We agree with Brenda's choice: L450 Marshal Floor Lamp (pair)”

Joni says:  “This floor lamp, the L450 Marshal, is so beautiful.  I especially love the base of the lamp and the gilt detailing.”

Winner #5:

Winner #5:   thegreydovecottage aka Andi Cox

Andi says “This Aidan Gray Dinard Table lamp would work perfectly in our foyer,

with our chandelier, which we made from a vintage wire basket.”

Aidan Gray says:  “We agree with Andi's choice: L616 Dinard Table Lamp in Gold (pair.)”

Aidan Gray says:   “Second Choice:  Andi can also choose this lamp from the original giveaway: L804 GOLD Sandra Lamp (pair.)”

Winner #6: 

Winner #6:  blossomsinbatesville aka Blossoms

Blossoms said:  “I would love 2 rosebud floor lamps from Aidan Gray in nickel to go at each end of the buffet!  Love the blue and white too!”

Aidan Gray said “We agree with Blossoms’ choice:  L870 NKL (Pair.)”

Joni says “Randal used two pairs of these floor lamps in the living room of the High Point House.”

Winner #7:

Winner #7:  mysweetsavannah aka Melanie Thompson

Melanie said:  “Dreaming of winning this solitude chandelier from @aidangrayhome and @jonibwebb 's contest!

Thinking it would add a funky vibe to our newly painted dining room!”

Joni says:  I LOVE Melanie’s dining room and LOVE this modern chandelier (I know!  Surprise, but I love it!)

Here is what Melanie’s dining room looks like – won’t this fixture be fabulous in her house???

And Aidan Gray says “We agree with Melanie's choice: L547 CHAN HOM Solitude Chandelier, Black.

Her choice of clear or frosted rods will need to be verified.”

“We would give Melanie a choice of the nickel or brass base as well.”

Winner #8:

Winner #8:  crystalconner  aka Crystal Conner

Crystal says  “I love these Aidan Gray Hourglass Gold chandeliers for my kitchen peninsula.

Can you say "Too many pot lights!?"

Aidan Gray said “We agree with Crystal's choice: L838 CHAN GLD (pair)”  AND they also said:

“Crystal may choose any shape from the beaded collection (above) if she prefers!”

Winner #9:

Winner #9 entered photos of her kitchen AND her living room:

Kitchen

Living Room

Winner #9  eileenbarlow aka Eileen Barlow

Eileen said:  “Browsing @aidangrayhome for new chandys all over my house!

I think this one is perfect for the formal living!

Don't you agree?”

Aidan Gray says “Since we see that these 2 rooms flow together and we agree with all of Eileen’s choices,

she gets her choice of:  L839 CHAN SIL Globe Silver;

L830 CHAN SIL Flared Bell Silver (Gray & White also available); or L855 PEND Eureka Bell Pendant:   

L839 Chan Globe Silver  OR…

L830 Chan Flared Bell Silver (or gray or white)  OR…

L855 Eureka Bell Pendant

Aidan Gray says “This will be either a pair of the smaller pendants or a single of the larger chandelier choice.”

Winner #10:

Winner #10:  MLZook

Aidan Gray said:  “We agree with MLZook’s choice: L532L AB CHAN HOM Large Organic Globe

in Antique Brass, out of stock until July.”  

“Since, the first choice is out of stock now, MLZook may wait for her first choice or we can offer a pair of the small version:

L532 AB CHAN HOM Organic Globe- Antique Brass – A PAIR”

Joni says “Hmm…. Actually, I think I prefer two smaller pendants to one larger one!” 

Winner #11

Winner #11 paulamarietaylor64 entered two choices – the kitchen and…

…her living room. 

Paula said:   “My newly repainted kitchen would LOVE to have a beautiful chandelier to replace the ugly ceiling fan that is currently marring the new, bright look.  And my newly repainted living room needs the Naples Chandelier to replace the circa 1980's faux wood ceiling fan!”

Aidan Gray:  “We agree with Paula's choice of either room: L837 CHAN GW Torch, Gray & White

or L430 CHAN Naples Chandelier, beaded.

If Paula chooses the kitchen fixture, she may choose from the whole beaded collection.

If Paula choose her living room, she may choose from any of the 3 sizes of the Naples Chandelier.

Joni says:  “I would choose the Large Naples Chandelier – in nickel!  - What a great gift!!!”

Winner #12

Winner #12:  atxladybug

Atxladybug says “How could laundry feel like a chore when you're under this gorgeous Aidan Grey Lotus pendant?”

Aidan Gray says “The winning chandelier is the L916 PEND Lotus Pendant.”

“OR TxLadybug can choose our choice from the original giveaway: L523 AB CHAN HOM Modern Basket Weave Chandelier.”

Joni says “Here is the fixture seen in the High Point House’s laundry room!  This is a hard choice.  If TxLadyBug’s laundry room has gold in it – go with the original choice.  If there is silver or chrome, like the laundry room in the High Point house, go with the second choice.”

Winner #13:

Winner #13:  conluc98

Conluc98 says:  “While I love the lamps on my bedside table, I would love a pair of the Fallon Wall Sconces

to add extra light and depth to the focal wall of the bedroom!”

Aidan Gray:  “We agree with contestant's choice: WL305 Fallon Wall Sconce (pair.)”

Joni says: “I LOVE this bedroom!  This is one of my favorite entrants!!  Love the art work and the two flanking wallpaper panels and the Mary McDonald lamps.  Just beautiful.  The sconces will be the crowning touch.  Congrats!!!”

Winner #14:

Winner #14:  elizabethrobson3750 aka Elizabeth Robson 

Aidan Gray says “We agree with Elizabeth's choice: L522 G CHAN HOM Chan Geo Collection Look #2 Small Chandelier, Gold 

 OR we would suggest any shape from our beaded collection if Elizabeth would like to choose from these:

Joni says “The beaded collection seen in the kitchen at the High Point house.”

Winner #15:

Winner #15:  clrbham aka Cheryl Reitz

Cheryl said:  “For the Aidan Gray Contest...our new house 2nd floor sitting area overlooks the park. We plan to put our plum settee in front of this window. This chandelier would look awesome from the inside and even better from outside. Thank you!!!

Aidan Gray said:  “We agree with Cheryl's choice: L860 CHAN Crown & Glory.”

NOTE:  Crown & Glory is not in stock and will not be available until next month.  You can either wait for your fixture OR you can choose from the original giveaway: L733 CHAN Brianne Lantern:

Joni said: “Below is the lantern seen in the High Point living room.  This is a tough choice Cheryl!  It depends how quickly you want your winning prize!”

The living room at High Point.

Winner #16:

Winner #16 is dmbarny@hotmail.com aka Debra.

Debra chose Two AG Fergus sconces for her bathroom.

Aidan Gray:  “Agree with Debra’s choice AG Fergus sconces (pair.)”

Joni says:  “Debra had written that she needed me to create her photo for Instagram, which I did.  I loved her powder room with the antique marble sink and the new Aidan Gray Fergus sconces.  I actually had to create a few of the photos, but this is the only one that won a prize!  Congrats!!!!”

AND…

This marks the end of the Aidan Gray #AGwithanedge Contest!!!

I hope you all agree with the choice of winners.

Thank you to all who that entered and created photographs using your favorite Aidan Gray fixtures. 

I want to also give a huge thank you to Randal Weeks, the creator and master mind behind Aidan Gray and the designer of  the High Point House AND this contest!   Whew!

A huge thank you also to Randal’s crew of co-workers who helped develop the contest rules and saw it through to the end.  A special shout out to Travis Nix and Kady Olson whom I bothered so much during the course of the past few months!

I loved this contest so much – I loved the creativity it brought out and all the discussions it spurned.  And I love how HAPPY the winners will be!!!  I wish you all could have been winners!!

A FEW IMPORTANT NOTES:

TO THE WINNERS – READ THIS CAREFULLY TO REDEEM YOUR FIXTURE:

1.  All the winners need to first email Kady Olson at Aidan Gray.

Her email address is:

ko@goagh.com

2.   In the subject line – be SURE to say: 

“COTE DE TEXAS CONTEST WINNER”

3.  In the email, first list the Instagram User Name you used in the contest.

4.  Next, give your full name and address and phone number.

5.  Then, list your winning fixture. 

If you have a choice of fixtures, list your first choice, then your second choice.

If you have ANY questions about the fixture- email Kady and she will be able to help you.

AND FINALLY, to all winners.  Once you receive your fixture and it is installed, please send me a photo of the fixture hanging!  I would love to see it and so would Randal!!!   This isn’t mandatory, but we would love to see your fixture in place, if possible.

And…that’s all folks!

from COTE DE TEXAS http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2017/06/testing.html

[footyplusau]

After the siren: Best weekend ever? It’s right up there

IN TERMS of drama and impact, nothing will ever beat the final round of the home and away season in 1987.

Hawthorn champion Jason Dunstall’s last-minute goal at Kardinia Park knocked Geelong out of the finals and paved the way for Melbourne to make it for the first time in 23 years by beating Footscray at the Whitten Oval.

Meanwhile at Waverley, Carlton kept the Hawks from claiming top spot – and the precious week’s break that came with it – courtesy of Stephen Kernahan’s goal after the siren.

But the weekend of footy just gone comes awfully close. Hawthorn’s fabulous win over Adelaide on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval (17th beating first for the second straight week) might have stood up all weekend.

Yet the events that followed over the next 72 hours had already consigned it to the “ancient history” basket by Sunday night.

We’ll get to the Hawks a bit later. Let’s start instead with the really close ones. This was the first round since round 23, 2013 to have two one-point results. Add the West-Coast Melbourne and Geelong-Fremantle games and you have four games decided by less than one kick – giving us a weekend of drama and excitement not seen for, well, 30 years.

• The run home: How the race for the finals is shaping up

Comeback Cats do it without Joel

As he sat dazed on the bench after the head clash that sent him off the ground after just one minute on Sunday, Joel Selwood was entitled to wonder whether, after so many games over the last decade in which he carried his side to victory, that gesture would be reciprocated.

Thankfully for him it was, and the two-point win over Fremantle turned out to be one of Geelong’s bravest for years.

By the final quarter, Tom Stewart and Darcy Lang were also out of action, yet it was the Cats who finished all over the tiring Dockers, who at one stage during a mesmerising second quarter led by nearly six goals.

WATCH: The thrilling final minutes at Simonds Stadium

It might have been at home in front of their adoring fans, but such a win can only fuel the belief at Geelong that anything is possible this year. We’ve moved on from the ‘Dangerwood’ phenomenon at Geelong this year, but to claw back and win in the fashion the Cats did without one of them, bodes well for what is to come for the rest of the year.

A grand old flag? Win in the west gets Dee faithful dreaming

Saturday night marked Melbourne’s first win over West Coast since 2009 and the first by the Demons over West Coast in Perth since 2002.

They had no business winning the game, really. Jack Watts, Jesse Hogan and Nathan Jones were watching on TV on the other side of the country while a fourth star, Jack Viney was running around with a crook shoulder.

• Nine things we learned from round 14

Yet the toughness and the versatility for which they’ve become renowned in 2017 came to the fore. Viney was magnificent after spending part of the third term off the ground and Clayton Oliver (despite an awful theatrical flop to the ground right on half-time) relished the hard contest.

Demon takes on ex-Test cricketer in Twitter spat

And then there was the career-best five-goal haul to Tom McDonald. Usually a defender, the absences of Max Gawn, Hogan and Watts have required him to play everywhere but in defence, and he has emerged as one of the better swingmen in the competition.

And that goal to put the Demons ahead just before the death was superb. A bit lucky, but superb nonetheless.

WATCH: McDonald’s five hauls Dees across the line

Social media was abuzz afterwards as to whether the Demons are premiership material. Footy history suggests this group might need to experience some finals footy heartbreak first, but with the best ruckman in the competition and the right blend of speed, hardness, scoring power and flexibility, Melbourne’s premiership window is open. In this new era of AFL parity, why not this year?

Dogs thrill, but 2016 still a distant memory

About a quarter of an hour earlier, the Western Bulldogs outlasted North Melbourne to win by a point, having led for most of the night.

Only in the final seconds of the game, when they went coast-to-coast to get the ball to Jake Stringer for the match-winning point, did they resemble the premiership winning team of last season. Otherwise, they played in fits and spurts and it is hard not to hark back to 12 months ago when the Bulldogs would have put this game to bed much earlier.

WATCH: The final thrilling minutes of WB v NM

The umpiring will be a talking point out of this one – the 26-14 free kick count (which at one stage was about 14-2) and episodes such as Shaun Higgins being called to play on by the non-controlling umpire 40m away just before half-time will dominate the Monday AFL talkfests this week.

Frustrated Scott not dwelling on costly free kicks

The Dogs have been mainly good at home but woeful away and are going to have to manufacture some wins at places such as Adelaide Oval, Cazalys Stadium and Eureka Stadium before the end of the year to a) make the finals and b) enter them with any degree of confidence. After Saturday’s clash with the Eagles they play just three more games at Etihad Stadium for the year.

Swans get the little things right in huge win

The night before at the SCG was insane. What is it about Sydney, Essendon and close finishes?

But while the spotlight will be about the Bombers and the number of errors they made in the final few minutes, the takeaway should also be about how well the Swans played the last few minutes. Heath Grundy and Callum Mills made some enormous defensive plays and player after player made the correct decision during those same frantic contests.

WATCH: The final two minutes of the Swans’ thrilling win

It’s what you get with a mature group that is never out if the game and is a product of one of the best coaching set-ups in the AFL. John Longmire looked as though he couldn’t believe what he saw, but in fact, he shouldn’t have been too surprised. He has engineered the Swans to finish the game as they did.

• Forecast the road to the flag with the AFL Ladder and Finals Predictor

Clarko’s still the king of coaching

Hawthorn’s triumph on Thursday night was another triumph of coaching. Adelaide’s forward line contained Eddie Betts, Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins, Tom Lynch, Wayne Milera, Hugh Greenwood and Andy Otten. The Hawks countered with Kaiden Brand, Blake Hardwick, Ryan Burton, Taylor Duryea, Luke Hodge, Grant Birchall and James Sicily.

On paper the Crows win that every time, but Alastair Clarkson’s brilliantly crafted defensive game-plan didn’t let the Crows get the easy goals out the back, which has been their modus operandi for much of the year.

The Hawks recalled 774 games of experience to their side and it showed. Birchall was a key inclusion and it was a night where the veteran savvy of both Hodge (how fantastic was it having him mic’d up by Channel Seven?)  and Shaun Burgoyne came to the fore. We still don’t see Hodge playing next year, but giving Burgoyne another year at this stage appears a no-brainer, even though the Hawks should rightly wait until the end of the season before making the call.

But the most important person at Hawthorn right now is Clarkson. In a fascinating interview on ABC radio on Saturday he gave every impression of someone determined to stick around for the rebuild, even if nobody at Waverley is calling it such. He remains the best in the business, as Thursday night in Adelaide amply demonstrated.

Other observations

1. It’s all about the wins for the Tigers these days, so excuse the lack of style in their defeat of Carlton on Sunday. Things such as poor conversion can be worked out to a degree at training, but the Blues came at them several times and the Tigers held their nerve. Bachar Houli likely won’t be playing any time soon after what was one of the most uncharacteristic reportable acts in recent memory.

2. Fortress Subiaco? Perhaps not. Saturday night was the first time since 2010 that West Coast has lost a game at Domain Stadium by less than a goal, having won the previous seven. West Coast’s last four games at home this season have been decided by an average margin of eight points. It is becoming increasingly likely that West Coast’s round 23 clash with Adelaide there will be the last AFL game before the move to the new stadium next year, because hopes of a home final for either the Eagles or the Dockers are fading fast.

3. This was the second time this season North Melbourne has lost by one point, and North in 2013 is actually the last team to lose two one-point games in the same season. Adding further salt, they’ve played in five one-point games since 2011 and lost them all. 

4. Hayden Ballantyne’s value to Fremantle was evident from the very start against the Cats on Sunday and he was a factor until he ran out of petrol tickets in the final quarter. He’ll be better for the run, as they say, and Ross Lyon will be delighted to finally have him back.

5. Compared to the lofty standards set elsewhere this weekend, Saturday’s Collingwood-Port Adelaide clash was a relatively drab affair. But the brilliant work of Robbie Gray, especially in the first half, was worth the price of admission alone and his five-goal haul was easily his best return in 12 games at the MCG to date. Ken Hinkley made the point post-match that Gray wasn’t hurt, which hopefully for Port’s sake is a portent of what is to come for the rest of the year.

WATCH: Robbie Gray’s MCG masterclass

6. Expect some of South Australia’s best investigative football journalism this week as the locals examine how North Adelaide’s Ryan Burton slipped twice through Adelaide’s grasp at the 2015 NAB AFL Draft and found his way to Hawthorn. Those two third-quarter goals against the Crows were all class and Burton now shapes as the best first draft pick made by the Hawks since Cyril Rioli a decade ago. He’s signed through until the end of next year, but some of that extra money the Hawks now have thanks to the new CBA will surely find its way into Burton’s bank account before too long.

7. Dayne Beams can’t take a trick and let’s hope the Lions captain, who has been riddled with injury since moving home two-and-a-half years ago, gets on the ground again this year. Beams stood no chance up against Shane Mumford, who as long as he keeps things legal, will scare the bejeezus out of the Giants’ opponents between now and the end of the year.

• Around the state leagues: Who starred in your club’s twos?

8. Relax, Saints fans. Cool your jets everyone else. Jack Billings (30 disposals and a goal against Gold Coast on Sunday) is becoming a super footballer and is on track to give the club all it could hope for from a No.3 draft pick.

WATCH: Jack Billings puts on another show

9. We have the technology but… goal line reviews are still sketchy. Thursday night and twice on Friday night, the TV pictures weren’t quite clear cut to support what the naked eye seemed to show. Some clarification from the AFL on Monday about want the goalpost padding means when it comes to the ball crossing the goal-line would be helpful as well.

The post After the siren: Best weekend ever? It’s right up there appeared first on Footy Plus.

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