#Chris Myers Interview

[thenewdemocratus]

Chris Myers: Charles Barkley Interview

. Source:The New Democrat  Now we are talking about Charles Barkley the basketball analyst, which I think he does a great job as and even one of the best NBA analysts in the business right now. And we are also seeing Charles Barkley the political and social commentator. We already saw Charles Barkley the great basketball player and again I see him as one of the top 5-10 players of all-time in the…

[buk0wskis]

character mix masterlist !!

now THESE babies are my pride and joy. i have so much fun making them, just sitting and brainrotting on some silly little guys to craft these mixes… gods, there’s really nothin’ quite like it. so enjoy these, if you’re curious! :)

this list will be updated in the future, but now that this is posted, i’ll likely make a separate post when a new one is up and add it here as well. suffice to say, i’m not stopping any time soon! the grind never stops, baby!

Aaron Stanford characters

John Allerdyce / Pyro (Fox X-Men + Deadpool & Wolverine)

James Cole (12 Monkeys)

Seymour Birkhoff (Nikita)

Doug Bukowski (The Hills Have Eyes ‘06)

Hades (Horse Girl)

Will Traveler (Traveler)

Duke (Rick)

Stephen / Maxwell (Fear Itself 1x12: "Echoes")

Oscar Grubman (Tadpole)

Skeemo (Finestkind)

Josh Snow (Law & Order: Criminal Intent 8x13: “All In”)

Peter Timmons (FBI: Most Wanted 2x06: “Dysfunction”)

Andrew Peterson (How I Got Lost)

Jim Brauer (Fear The Walking Dead)

Michael Adler (Runaway)

Kyle Braddock (Furthest Witness)

Unreleased WIPs:

Sergei Devchenko (Third Watch)

Neal Downs (Flakes)

Beagle Kimbrough (The Cake Eaters)

Anthony Tregoni (Holy Money)

Miles Richardson (Clinical)

John “Rugged” Rudgate (Live Free or Die)

The Man (We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew)

Rich (Standing Still)

Michael Blake (Spartan)

Gabe Winters (Winter Solstice)

David Logan (Kepley)

Brett Chandler (Numb3rs 4x02: Hollywood Homicide)

Sneed (Star Trek: Picard 3x02: Disengage)

Peter Myers (Westworld 4x01: The Auguries)

Ship mixes

DickKory (Titans)

DickHank (Titans)

AdriDick (Peacemaker / Titans)

Casserole (12 Monkeys)

Unreleased WIPs:

Allerdrake (Fox X-Men)

Andrew x Jake (How I Got Lost)

Jay x Tyler x Will (Traveler)

Titans (2018)

— THE ALAZUL. (the essential dick grayson mix)

the boy wonder. (dick as robin)

COME OUT AND PLAY! (dark dick, aka when he was possessed by trigon in 2x01)

the grayson road trip mixtape (self-explanatory. some songs were totally added due to self-indulgence, btw)

Brenton Thwaites characters

Desmond Brimble (Office Uprising)

Henry Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales)

Devon Cassidy (I Met A Girl)

Prince Phillip (Maleficent)

Bek (Gods of Egypt)

Luke Gallagher (SLiDE)

Norman Young (A Violent Separation)

Paul Asher (An Interview With God)

Chris Goodson (Ghosts of War)

Tim Russell (Oculus)

Dean McMullen (Blue Lagoon: The Awakening)

JR White (Son Of A Gun)

Unreleased WIPs:

Possessed Henry Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales)

Nic Eastman (The Signal)

Jonas (The Giver)

Mark (Save Your Legs!)

Angelo Durning (Ride)

Sam (Charge Over You)

Chet (Ruben Guthrie)

Other

playboy psycho villain played by brenton thwaites (a concept playlist for the type of character i am absolutely DYING to see brenton play)

Unreleased WIPs:

James Wilson (House M.D.)

[mattnben-bennmatt]

Casey Affleck in New York in May. Photo: Alexia Barroso.

Casey Affleck interview w/ The Wall Street Journal (30 July 2024)

Casey Affleck on Living With Matt Damon and Ben Affleck—and Feeling Like an Outsider

Co-star of ‘The Instigators’ talks about his alcoholic father, what kids’ AA meetings taught him about role-playing and his ‘Price Is Right’ hot tub.

By Marc Myers

-

Casey Affleck, 48, is an Oscar-winning actor best known for his roles in “Manchester by the Sea,” “Gone Baby Gone” and “Oppenheimer.” He co-wrote and co-stars in the heist film “The Instigators,” which will stream on Apple TV+ starting Aug. 9. He spoke with Marc Myers.

Early home life was a wild and unmonitored experience. I grew up in the late ’70s and ’80s on a slightly rundown street in a sweet neighborhood in Cambridge, Mass. Our area off Central Square was ethnically diverse and blue collar.

My father was many wonderful things, but his alcoholism took him from us for many years. As a result, my mother was a single mom for much of my childhood.

Affleck with his mother, Chris, in Westwood, Calif., in 2000. Photo: Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images

My family lived in a two-story clapboard house. My mother rented out the space above us. Many houses had three generations living at home, and families survived from paycheck to paycheck. Everyone was in the same situation.

My mom was an elementary school teacher. She worked long hours, so my older brother, Ben, and I saw her mostly before and after dinner, when she’d grade papers and we’d do homework. My dad was a janitor, a mechanic and a bartender. Before I was born, he was a stage manager at the Theater Company of Boston. 

In my early years, I attended AA meetings for kids who had a parent who was an addict. The goal was to help me understand what was happening and to cope. We’d re-enact at-home scenarios—behaving like your addicted parent to better grasp the problem and express your feelings. This role-playing was my first unintended exposure to acting.

Eventually, my dad’s drinking and erratic behavior led to my parents’ divorce when I was 9. Mom, Ben and I remained in our house while my dad moved to various places.

My mother placed an emphasis on education, so Ben and I had to maintain some level of academic standards. As a kid, I was a class-clown extrovert and got into lots of trouble because of it. 

When I was 10, my mom was a tutor for child actors on PBS educational programs. We went to Mexico for nearly a year and traveled throughout the country and the Yucatán Peninsula with a PBS TV series. My horizons broadened.

After we returned to Cambridge, my mom’s best friend, Patty Collinge, took an interest in me. She was a casting director with two daughters my age who became two of my best friends. Patty would take us to film sets to be extras so she could keep an eye on us. 

Affleck, left, at age 11, and at age 4. Casey Affleck (Family Photo)

I never had plans to become an actor, but in high school, I had a great drama teacher, Gerry Speca. He gave me most of the tools I use now.

He’d arrive at 7:30 a.m. and stayed most nights until 8 or 9. He was brilliant, selfless and could be hard on us. I think he initially saw me as a mediocre performer who was a bit of a wiseass. I didn’t get good parts until I was a senior. 

Gerry also encouraged us to write our own plays. We did months of skits and improv scenes. Then he put all that stuff together, and we competed in the New England Drama Festival. Everything I’ve been able to do I can attribute to the process that Gerry taught me.

Acting just happened. As soon as I graduated from high school, my best friend and I drove to California and saw everything in between. In L.A., we lived with a bunch of people from Cambridge, including Ben and Matt Damon, but I still felt like an outsider.

From left, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck at Damon’s birthday party in the late 1980s. Photo: Casey Affleck (Family Photo)

I spent 1994 in L.A. auditioning for roles that I didn’t get and working as a busboy in a brewery. I decided to go to college. I did two years, total, at Columbia University. I also auditioned for acting jobs to earn enough to pay the next semester’s tuition. But as acting work picked up, I faded on college. Now I wish I hadn’t. 

The turning point in my acting career was the 2007 film “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” in which I played Ford. I began that role by trying to understand the person who had killed James. To do so, I had to understand the darkness in myself.

Clockwise from top left: Casey Affleck in ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’ (2007); in ‘Gone Baby Gone’ (2007); in ‘The Instigators’ (2024), right, with Matt Damon; and in his Oscar-winning role in ‘Manchester by the Sea’ (2016), leaning on Kyle Chandler’s shoulder. Everett Collection (3); Apple

Today, I live in the same four-bedroom French Norman house in East L.A. that I bought in 2005.

My dad eventually went into rehab and became sober. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate and love him more and more. He is incredibly strong, of great character, extremely funny and very smart. I owe him and my mom a lot.

Their chief concern is whether I’m happy. On the acting side, the answer is never easy for me. As for my family, I love being a parent more than anything. 

Casey’s Hot Tub

“The Instigators”? I play Cobby, who, with a group of Boston thieves, attempts to pull off an election-night heist as a therapist tags along.

Downtime? I love being on my two kids’ schedules when they stay over.

Meaning? I make them lunch, take them to school, pick them up, do stuff after school, make dinner and hear about their day.

Pastime? I play on a baseball team and write a lot.  

Splurge? I bought a hot tub from a “Price Is Right” contestant who didn’t want it. It’s big and ugly, but I am kind of star struck by it. I even added a cold plunge.

Appeared in the August 2, 2024, print edition as 'From a Boston Pack To an L.A. Outsider'.

[itsrattysworld]

Without Prejudice Mervelee Myers Begs South London Press Publish 28 May 2004 Barclays Defrauded Graduate Open University 2009 Cancer Research 2010 Interview Dr. Maria Hudson Policy Studies Institute ACAS Understanding Statutory Assessments Target Of Maria Goncalves Maria Freeman Joelle Laz Reference Transfer LSCN A Voice Of A Child Project LEYF CEO June O'Sullivan Nursery World Magazine Sky News Cost Of Childcare Community Playthings UK Visited Jamaica Son's Wedding Mum's Funeral Got Married 21st May 2014 BIB Fronted Ofsted Long Service Award 1st Christmas LEYF On My Doorstep LinkedIn 2015 Write Dilys Epton Depressed Dying Slowly Of Torture Medical Suspension HOC Nursery Dr. Laura Crawford Advice Seek CBT Find Out Why I React Way I Do To Certain Situations New Cross Community Nursery Cover At Moonshot Meet Chris Pascal Tony Bertram Middlesex University AOUG Trainee Counsellor Laura Tinsley HCT Group Impact Report 2016 1 In 5 Of All Suicides Are Associated To Unemployment 600,000 Older People In UK Say They Leave Home Once Per Week Or Less Narrator Pembroke House Walworth Living Room Cardboard Citizens Fundraising Parkinson's UK Macmillan Cancer Support COVID-19 BAME Community Face Windrush 70 ITV News 2018 23/11/2024

Without Prejudice Mervelee Myers Picks Myself Up After Visit From Southwark MHOAD Team SLAM NHS Unannounced Like Met Police Holly Sweeney P255654 Nikki Wright P240064 Harry Stack P255641 Ben Godfrey P25584 On 30th November 2020 After I Got A Call Sunday Night Asking Me To Come To Walworth Police Station For Interviews 1st December The MOPAC Report By Nikki Babb Neil Solliss Shows Misogyny…

[prnanayarquah]

BOB MARLEY MOVIE ONE LOVE HITS THEATRES FEBRUARY 14TH

New Post has been published on https://plugzafrica.com/bob-marley-movie-one-love-hits-theatres-february-14th/

BOB MARLEY MOVIE ONE LOVE HITS THEATRES FEBRUARY 14TH

Bob Marley’s One Love tells the story of how reggae icon Bob Marley overcame adversity, and the journey behind his revolutionary music. The movie celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the big screen for the first time, Bob’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music is shared.

One of the preview’s most intense moments comes during a scene chronicling December 1976, when a crew of men attempted to assassinate Marley inside his home with his wife and children. “No guns can stop this message,” Ben-Adir’s Marley says in the trailer, accompanied by a version of “Three Little Birds.”

Along with chronicling Marley’s rise to fame, One Love also highlights his historic performance at the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica in April 1978, which aimed to heal the rupture between the country’s two major political parties, Jamaica Labour Party and People’s National Party.

Outside of Ben-Adir, other actors in the cast include Lashana Lynch, who plays Bob Marley’s wife, Rita, James Norton as Chris Blackwell, Anna-Sharé Blake (aka Sevana) as Judy Mowatt, Naomi Cowan as Marcia Griffiths, Umi Myers as Cindy Breakspeare, Aston Barrett Jr. as Family Man Barrett, Gawaine “J-Summa” Campbell as Antonio ‘Gillie’ Gilbert, David Kerr (aka Davo) as Junior Marvin, Hector Roots Lewis as Carlton Carly Barrett, Sheldon Shepherd (Yardie) as Neville Garrick, and Stefan A.D Wade as Seeco Patterson.

Before Ziggy Marley approached Kingsley Ben-Adir to play his late father in the film, the actor had already portrayed larger-than-life historical figures like Malcolm X (in One Night In Miami) and Barack Obama (in the miniseries The Comey Rule). But Ben-Adir had no musical experience or capabilities. “I was completely convinced that there’s no point in auditioning for this,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I can’t sing. I can’t dance.”

However, the director was looking to cast an actor rather than a musician to play the reggae icon. “I was more interested in his acting,” Green told The Observer.  “The same way that I approached King Richard, the two young actresses that play Venus and Serena [Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton] had no sports capabilities whatsoever. It’s about being great actors – and then training.”

Ben-Adir learned to sing and play guitar for the role, performing all the songs with his own voice during filming, while the final film combines his voice with Marley’s archival recordings. “Bob’s not someone you can choreograph or copy,” he told EW. “His singing and dancing are from an internal experience, so you really have to find your own version of that for yourself.”

The actor went to work studying Bob and listening to over 50 rare archival Marley interviews to learn his Jamaican Patois and way of speaking.  “The more I dug into Bob,” he shared, “the more I realized that music was really everything to him. It really saved him, and he separated himself from other artists around that time.”

The film was directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, who made his studio directorial debut with King Richard, which featured Will Smith as Richard Williams, who coached his daughters Venus and Serena into becoming tennis superstars. It received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, with a best actor win for Smith.

The film was written by screenwriters Zach Baylin, who also worked on King Richard, The Wolf of Wall Street’s Terence Winter, and Shooting Stars’ Frank E. Flowers. The film was produced in partnership with members of the Marley family, including his wife Rita Marley, son Ziggy Marley, and daughter Cedella Marley produced.

Green also spoke on the family’s concern that Marley is portrayed “in a way that feels authentic and meaningful,” he told The Guardian.

Ziggy Marley shared a statement reflecting on the monumental biopic. He said: “Nothing happens before its time, and now is the time for the story of our father Bob Marley to be represented in a biopic theatrical release coming in 2024. You’ve heard the music, and you think you know the man but do you really understand what he went through and what moments shaped him into the person he became…this film will bring you to witness for the first time what it was like to be around the legend, to see his pain his sorrows his joys and his redemption.” He adds that “the cast and crew represent one of the most unique creations to ever come out of a Hollywood studio.”

[marjaystuff]

A (SIGH) Serial Reader

I have finally begun to accept the truth about my reading habits.  I am … a serial reader.  Yup, I am.  Maybe it is like Lays Chips where you can’t eat just one, I prefer a series of books with familiar characters.  I am unsure if this should be something I admit or not… I am a (gulp) serial reader.  In the past many books were written as serials, in pieces with each addition a part of the same book like Dickens.  Today’s serial novels tend to be a series of stand alone novels with a common thread that ties them together.  For me the best are the books do not end in cliff hangers but are each their own story.   

Case in point. The last two new authors I started to read are ones that write series of novels centered around the same family.  Lucy Score and Devney Perry.  Not only did I read their newest series - yes all the books, I went back and read their prior series in order.  The fact that I could get most of them on Kindle Unlimited is just lucky.  Both authors work around mostly families and then one by one write a romance novel - sometimes with suspense about the next person with a connection and their forever person.  Lucy Score’s newest series Knockemout highlighted three brothers.  Devney Perry’s newest series The Edens highlighted 6 of the Eden family - siblings.

Before you jump to the conclusion that this is a new fascination.  I feel I must remind you of some of my other favorite “serialist” writers.  

Chris Keniston’s newest series about the Billionaire Barons of Texas about the grandchildren of the Governor or my favorite series Hart Land about nine granddaughters of the General.

Sabrina Jeffries and her newest series about the Designing Debutantes with three sisters having to make their way with designing grand parties for the Ton.  

Eloise James and her series about the Wildes of Lindow Castle.

Alexa Aston and eight books in the series called Suddenly a Duke.

Katy Regnery and her newest series called The Stewarts of Skagway

Laura Griffin with the romantic thriller series Texas Murder Files and the Tracers

Maisey Yates and her series about the Four Corners Ranches - Cowboys - need I say more?

However, I can not fail to name the best of the best series writers of them all: 

JD Robb and her In Death series would be an all time favorite.  Eve Dallas, her husband Roark and their group of friends and fellow police officers in New York City in the future certainly has shown us the way to write a series and amass a global group of followers. Sixty-nine novels and going just as strong as when I started reading them eons ago.  

The only problem with reading series is that you often have to wait a year between novels. SIGH.  My solution is to read as many as you can - so there is always a new book to read.  

Elise has sent in an interview with Terri Parlato and her series of books about Detective Rita Myers.  The book has multiple suspects and lots of twists and turns according to Elise!  Another great series to consider!  

I wonder if the fascination grew from the Nancy Drew mysteries.  hmmmm

[ear-worthy]

Five Best Sports Podcasts Of 2023

Please don't get upset. I'm trying to prepare you for the news. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? The Bill Simmons podcast is not on my list of the top five sports podcasts. No, I don't have a gripe with Mr. Simmons. His show is a perfectly competent sports podcast. Mr. Simmons has not been without controversy in his career, -- angry white man syndrome -- but is knowledgeable and articulate about sports. 

However, the sports podcasts I've chosen all have something  -- a special ingredient to offer.

First, let me wax angrily about the controversy addicts on sports podcasts who think that blurting out the most outlandish statements at a jet-engine decibel level generates ratings and makes them more visible in a crowded sports broadcasting field. Yes and yes, courting controversy accomplishes both goals, but at some point listeners get tired of your forced rants and fake controversies.

How many times can you flip out on the refs in any sport? Or call some athlete overrated? Or overpaid? Or attack some billionaire sports owner who has the ego of a monster and the self-awareness of a three-year-old?

Think Stephen A.Smith, Skip Bayless, and Colin Cowherd. These three never met an unfiltered opinion they didn't like. But enough about them. Let's talk sports podcast excellence.

  Hang Up And Listen

Slate podcasts are, as a rule, a cut above iHeart, Spotify, and Wondery podcasts. These intelligence-inflected podcasts are often designed to spur thinking, reflection, and self-awareness. That rule applies to the Hang Up And Listen podcast with hosts, Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin, who excel as quieter, more perceptive versions of Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. 

The show covers the requisite sports topics of the week. The December 18th episode, for example, covered the indefinite suspension of Draymond Green, reports of the Wizards and Caps decamping to Northern Virginia, and college quarterbacks in the transfer portal.

What makes this podcast so remarkable is the show's instinct to make listeners think about the covered topic, instead of telling listeners what the hosts think and demanding that listeners then support the ideological line. 

What the three co-hosts accomplish every episode is to remind listeners that, while sports can be a metaphor for life, it's still an entertainment medium. Even more impressive is the show's resistance to either lionize or demonize athletes in sports. Instead, the show reserves its opprobrium for the self-indulgent, narcissistic owners of team sports and parent organizations of individual sports. 

I recommend the August 7th episode titled, "The USWNT Is Out Edition," covering the Women’s World Cup, conference realignment, and the MLB trade deadline. Plus, a conversation with Wimbledon quarterfinalist Chris Eubanks.

Ross Tucker Football Podcast

Ross Tucker is a former offensive lineman whose career was cut short by a serious neck injury in 2007. He's a Princeton graduate and has done multiple jobs in football journalism since his retirement. 

His show -- Ross Tucker Football Podcast -- broadcasts throughout the year with reviews of the NFL draft by position, forecasts about the upcoming season, and guest interviews that sparkle.

Tucker doesn't offer his listeners the typical screaming retired football player with random opinions that are shouted and announced as fact. Instead, Tucker interviews people with more thoughtful, nuanced positions, such as journalist Gary Myers, math wizard Steve Fezzik, and insightful interviews with current players. 

However, Tucker's ace in the hole is ESPN's NFL Matchup producer and analyst Greg Cosell. Unlike some analysts, Cosell is not loud, controversial and is often quite bland. But his devotion to watching game films and explaining the intricacies of the game to listeners makes him a unique repository of knowledge for those who really want to understand how NFL football is played.

What to know about which teams use "12" personnel and why? Cosell will tell you on this podcast. (12 personnel means that there is one running back, two tight ends, and two receivers on the field.) When Cosell explains the two deep safety shell (The two deep safeties divide the field in half and work over the top of the five underneath players.) you'll understand why some quarterbacks have a hard time exploiting that defense. Cosell is ideal for the fan who wants to know why his team is winning or losing, and not for the fan who wants to blame the referees for everything.

The Rich Eisen Show

The Rich Eisen Show provides a mix of sports news, interviews with athletes and celebrities, and lively discussions on current events in the sports world. Eisen brings his extensive knowledge and experience to the show, engaging with guests and offering insightful analysis. The show covers a wide range of sports topics, including football, basketball, baseball, and more. 

The show has a similar format to most sports podcasts, but it's Eisen that stands out. He's smart, and can be smart-alecky but with a restraint that tells listeners he's a thinking man, not a drinking man. Eisen handles interviews with ease, and always inserts reflective musing, attentive skepticism, and that awareness that he's discussing sports, not life or death conundrums.

Finally, Eisen may have the only spouse who is always an incredible sports podcaster, Suzy Shuster. (What The Football with Amy Trask).

30 For 30 ESPN Podcasts

It may be that ESPN's 30 for 30 Podcasts has set the bar so high for audio sports documentaries that no one will catch up. 

 The podcast is a highly acclaimed audio series that extends the storytelling of ESPN’s renowned 30 for 30 documentary films. Each episode of the podcast focuses on a captivating sports story, delving deep into the narratives that shape the sports world. 

With a combination of powerful interviews, archival recordings, and expert analysis, 30 for 30 Podcasts brings these stories to life in an audio format. The podcast covers a wide range of topics, including iconic athletes, historic moments, and controversial events, providing a thought-provoking and immersive experience for sports enthusiasts. 

30 for 30 is known for its high production value and compelling storytelling, which is why it has earned a dedicated following and continues to captivate audiences with its unique blend of sports and narrative journalism.

Attaching an asterisk to this podcast, I can't leave ESPN without mentioning Bomani Jones, who has always been a natural fit for the podcasting format. While it sucked to lose High Noon (the show he hosted with Pablo Torre), Jones cuts deep on everything from sports and culture to music and social issues.

Jones is one of the smartest people in sports media, and anyone looking for a debate is going to get their money's worth—and that's why he's always such a great listen, no matter what the platform. 

 Real Science Of Sport Podcast

 World-renowned sports scientist Professor Ross Tucker and veteran sports journalist Mike Finch break down the myths, practices and controversies from the world of sport on the Real Science Of Sport Podcast. 

From athletics to rugby, soccer, cycling and more, the two delve into the most recent research, unearth lessons from the pros and host exclusive interviews with some of the world's leading sporting experts.

Recent episodes include Rugby's high-tech mouth guards, cold water therapy for recovery, the science of carb loading for endurance athletes, and the effectiveness of high-altitude training.

Finally, science people have a voice in sports.

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

Finally, a good sports podcast should not recreate the sports bar or locker room in language, attitude or intelligence level. A sports podcast should not approximate jock talk in the locker room and devolve into audio "high-fives” or “belching and boobs” jokes. 

While some men still can't accept this fact, more and more women are listening to sports podcasts. 

A good sports podcast shouldn't be designed for the frat boy follies. Sure, sports podcasts do not have to sound like the Harvard Business Review podcast, but also not appeal to those who spend time on new "knock-knock" jokes and deciding on their latest whoopee cushion purchase.

These sports podcasts I've highlighted can fill your craving for sports talk by offering you a healthy dose of lively, spirited yet intelligent sports news and commentary. 

By contrast, I heard a fan call in to a sports radio show after the Eagles lost to the 49ers a few weeks ago and tried to recruit people to fly to San Francisco and start fights at the next 49ers home game for revenge. 

Get a life. It's only a game. 

[brokehorrorfan]

Scream Factory has revealed the specs for its The Return of the Living Dead Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD, which releases on October 18. Due to licensing issues, it will feature the same song replacement as the previous Blu-ray.

Shout Factory is carrying an exclusive bundle that includes a set of four enamel pins designed by Matthew Skiff (limited to 1,000) and an 18x24 poster featuring the theatrical artwork for $94.99 (pictured below).

The 1985 horror comedy is written and directed by Dan O'Bannon (co-writer of Alien). Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Matthews, Don Calfa, Beverly Randolph, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., and Linnea Quigley star.

The Return of the Living Dead has been newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative and is presented in Dolby Vision (HDR 10 compatible) with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 sound.

The three-disc set includes the extended workprint cut of the film (in standard definition), the documentary More Brains: A Return to the Living Dead, and more. Details are below.

Bonus Features

Disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Audio commentary director Dan O’Bannon and production sesigner William Stout

Audio commentary by actors Thom Mathews and John Philbin and makeup effects artist Tony Gardner

Audio commentary by production designer William Stout and actors Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, and Allan Trautman

Audio commentary by Gary Smart (co-author of The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead) and Chris Griffiths

Zombie subtitles

In Their Own Words - The Zombies Speak

Disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Audio commentary director Dan O’Bannon and production sesigner William Stout

Audio commentary by actors Thom Mathews and John Philbin and makeup effects artist Tony Gardner

Audio commentary by production designer William Stout and actors Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, and Allan Trautman

Audio commentary by Gary Smart (co-author of The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead) and Chris Griffiths

The Decade of Darkness – ‘80s horror featurette

Theatrical trailers

TV spots

Still gallery – Posters, lobby cards, stills, and behind-the-scenes photos

Still gallery – Behind-the-scenes photos from special makeup effects artist Kenny Myers

Zombie subtitles

In Their Own Words - The Zombies Speak

Disc 3 - Blu-ray:

The Return of the Living Dead workprint (standard definition)

More Brains: A Return to the Living Dead - 2011 feature-length documentary with cats and crew

FX interviews with production designer William Stout, FX make-up artists William Munns, Tony Gardner, Kenny Myers and Craig Caton-Largnet, visual effects artists Bret Mixon and Gene Warren Jr., and actor Brian Peck

Music interviews with music consultants Budd Carr and Steve Pross and soundtrack artists Dinah Cancer (45 Grave), Chris D (The Flesh Eaters), Roky Erickson, Karl Moet (SSQ), Joe Wood (T.S.O.L.), Mark Robertson (Tall Boys), plus musicians Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks) and John Sox (The F.U.’s, Straw Dogs)

Interview with John A. Russo

Production design interviews with writer/director Dan O’Bannon and production designer WIlliam Stout

The Dead Have Risen – interviews with cast members Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Brian Peck, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph, Linnea Quigley and more

Interview with writer/director Dan O’Bannon (his final interview)

Horror’s Hallowed Grounds filming location featurette

When an accident at a medical supply warehouse reanimates an army of corpses, they arise from their graves with a ravenous hunger… for human brains!

Pre-order The Return of the Living Dead.

[halloweendailynews]

Michael Myers Actor George P. Wilbur Has Passed Away

Michael Myers Actor George P. Wilbur Has Passed Away

Best known for playing The Shape (aka Michael Myers) in 1988’s Halloween 4 and 1995’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, George P. Wilbur has reportedly passed away. Chris Durand (read our interview here), who also played Myers in the 1998 sequel Halloween H20, shared the news on Facebook today, writing, “George P. Wilbur passed away last night. George, you were a class act and well loved.…

[the-shelfish-reader]

LIVE FROM NEW YORK

AN UNCENSORED HISTORY OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE AS TOLD BY ITS STARS, WRITERS, & GUESTS

by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller

©2002; 596 pg; Little, Brown

It’s a uniquely difficult task to write a review of a book that’s an oral history told by many disparate voices about a TV show that, when this book was published, was 26 years old. Also, it’s a monster of a book, coming in at nearly 600 pages (!). But it’s such a pleasure to read what luminaries of the comedy world remember about their time on a show that, as Dan Aykroyd put it, was like “the Master’s Program in comedy.” Every single person interviewed for this book, without exception, REVERES the show. And they look back with so much love and gratitude for having had the opportunity to be a part of it, while also recalling hurt feelings, power struggles, experiences of misogyny and racism, 18-hour days (some cocaine-fueled, others not), but still, a time they all remember as the greatest days of their lives.

But it’s also hard because this book contains interview snippets with, like, 150 different people involved in the show who shared their memories. That’s a lot of different, contradictory, FUNNY viewpoints.

When SNL premiered on October 11, 1975, I was 16. I saw that first show live. There wasn’t much else to do at that age, television had always been my friend/teacher, and there were only three channels available back then (and sometimes, if you were lucky, a PBS station). I had no idea WHAT this weird new show was about, but I will never forget seeing the very first cold open: John Belushi and Michael O’Donoghue (head writer) do a sketch titled simply, “Wolverines.” If you haven’t seen it, you should, because none of us, nobody, had ever seen anything like it on TV or anywhere else:

Delightful, strange, and HILARIOUS. The show has changed in many ways since those days, but the premise and the format have basically stayed the same, and well past the publication of this book, up to and including last Saturday’s 47th season opener. This show has been on the air, performed the same way as the first show, for FORTY-SEVEN YEARS straight. Just think about that. How is it possible? This particular oral history strongly suggests that the main reason for its longevity is one man: Lorne Michaels.

Lorne is the rock of SNL. He liked to hire unknowns—potential comedic geniuses who were crushing it in the comedy clubs of Chicago, L.A., and New York, then throw them together in a high-pressure environment and see what resulted. The performers, writers, and writer-performers (almost all performers had to write for themselves and castmates, too) are LEGENDARY. I’m going to give you a PARTIAL list of the comedians who passed through SNL in some capacity at some point in their careers:

John Belushi

Gilda Radner

Dan Aykroyd

Garrett Morris

Chevy Chase

Jane Curtin

Bill Murray

Al Franken

Eddie Murphy

Joe Piscopo

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Billy Crystal

Martin Short

Christopher Guest

Robert Downey, Jr. (True! For one forgettable season in 1980.)

Anthony Michael Hall

Damon Wayans

Jon Lovitz

Dana Carvey

Dennis Miller

Kevin Nealon

Conan O’Brien

Larry David

Bob Odenkirk

Phil Hartman

Chris Farley

Mike Myers

Adam Sandler

David Spade

Chris Rock

Rob Schneider

Norm Macdonald

Will Ferrell

Jimmy Fallon

Colin Quinn

Tina Fey

Tracy Morgan

Molly Shannon

Maya Rudolph

Chris Kattan

Rachel Dratch

Every person on this list still living at the time gave extensive interviews for this book. There are segments from guest hosts like Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Goodman, Lily Tomlin, and Robin Williams. Executives behind the curtain, producers, casting agents, and actual titans of the entertainment industry also contributed excellent background on the “suits” and the power they had (or didn’t!) over the show’s content, personnel, and format.

I mean, that is a mindblowing list, and again, this is only up to roughly 2001! None of these people are still there now, but their influence is everywhere. I feel it every time I watch. I’m a comedy person. I LOVE to laugh. I’m definitely the target audience, so I bought this book when it was first published in hardback, and have hung onto it through several major book downsizes I’ve done over the years. I remember my first read as just an immensely enjoyable experience—an epic dive into all this fascinating background minutiae. And just exactly how do they write and perform these 90 minutes, every Saturday night from 30 Rock, at 11:30pm, live without a net, year after year? The answer to that is in these pages, and it’s a process of extraordinarily hard work done by all these talented people, week after week.

Nobody remembers the name Charles Rocket, but he was a main cast member in the 1980-81 season. He said “fuck” on air, the censors didn’t catch it in time, and the then-executive producer, Jean Doumanian, was fired as a result. She took over from Lorne after the first five, magical, original-cast years. She lasted 10 whole months, and was replaced by the network suit who’d gotten SNL on the air, together with Lorne, in the beginning. His name was Dick Ebersol, and he lasted four years. The show was in a grave decline in the early eighties. Everyone left when Lorne did—all the brilliant, iconoclastic, talented writers who were tuned into the specific tone SNL had maintained for its first five years were gone. Lorne returned in 1985, did the work, and turned the course of the show around. In later years, they kind of had a revolving door policy: you might have quit, you might have been fired, but if you bided your time and did good work somewhere else, you could always ask to come back (even if only for one show).

This is a recurring cycle in this show’s history—there’s an upward trend of “oh, everybody watches this show and it’s funny and relevant and irreverent simultaneously” followed by years when the quality declined so much the media started referring to the show as “Saturday Night Dead.” Then the evolution begins anew as changes are made/happen. Cast members and writers come and go (in many cases, fired outright), and so the phoenix rises. Again.

The huge tragedies the show has survived are detailed extensively, and the quotes and interview segments used are very emotional. The death of John Belushi from an overdose at age 33, in 1982, devastated everyone who knew him. His death left an enduring legacy on the 17th floor at 30 Rock, the show’s home since day one—no more drug use at work. At least not openly. And if that seems really weird from a 2021 perspective, I’m telling you—the seventies were different. People quoted in this book who were there for those first five seasons tell of a pervasive smell of weed emanating from the offices. Coke was ubiquitous. Nobody knew Belushi used heroin, and generally, people simply didn’t know such a new and “innocuous” drug like cocaine could, in fact, kill you. And after John died, drugs vanished from the offices, studios, and sets. Gilda Radner’s death of ovarian cancer in 1989 was a similar shock. But it was the accidental overdose of Chris Farley in 1997, from the same drug combination that killed his idol, Belushi, and at the same age of 33, that was maybe more personally devastating to the cast. Farley, Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Chris Rock were an extremely close-knit group who had all come onto the show together and subsequently had become lifelong friends, and they’d also done some of their best work of their careers together. Chris died mid-season, and the heartbreak wouldn’t end there, because five months later, in May of 1998, the world learned that former cast member Phil Hartman, considered the “glue” of the show during his years in the cast, had been shot and killed by his wife, who then shot and killed herself.

The book doesn’t linger on the worst times, however, and there are plenty of wonderful stories and funny anecdotes. The majority of people who worked on the show describe it as exhilarating. It’s a purely joyful thing when a group of highly motivated people produce a finished product that is also a quality product. The barometer of quality with this group is simple: to KILL. To leave the audience laughing. In the earliest days, the prevailing attitude was, “WE think this is funny, and if you don’t, you’re WRONG!” I got the impression that while they loved to make themselves laugh, they were acutely aware that their humor needed to translate to an audience. Everyone ever involved has been so, so good at that, and Lorne, with his incomparable instinct, has always had the final cut.

Notable Quotes:

On Belushi:

Lorne Michaels: “In the beginning, there were two things John didn’t do: he wouldn’t do drag, because it didn’t fit his description of what he should be doing. And he didn’t do pieces that Anne [Beatty, a writer) or Rosie [Shuster, Lorne’s wife and writer] wrote. So somebody would have to say a guy had written it. Yet he was very attached to Gilda and Laraine [Newman, original cast member.]”

On the show’s youthful appeal:

Steve Martin: “When you’re young, you have way fewer taboo topics, and then as you go through life and you have experiences with people getting cancer and dying and all the things you would have made fun of, then you don’t make fun of them anymore. So rebelliousness really is the province of young people—that kind of iconoclasm.”

On writing with drugs:

Tim Kazurinsky (writer, cast): “Having grown up in the sixties, I was kind of done with my drugs by the seventies. And so here it was the eighties, and I particularly hated cocaine. And whenever a new shipment arrived on the floor, I would come in and see everybody grinding their teeth. I came in one day, and pretty much the whole floor was just craving it heavily, and I went, ‘Oh, this is not good. I’m going to write at home.’ Because everybody was running into my office with giant pupils and grinding teeth saying, ‘I’ve got an idea!’ And you know, I’ve always found that cocaine causes constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth. In the time it would take to sit and listen to people’s ideas while they were coked up to the tits, I could get more work done at home.”

On the long hours in enclosed spaces:

Lorne Michaels: “I used to say that you only get so many hours that you can be with someone for a lifetime, and you can kind of use it all up in a very intense four or five years, or you can spread it over a lifetime. Friendship really needs distance and space. Not that we’re overcrowding like rats. But the schedule is built so that after three shows in a row, when people are really getting on each other’s nerves, there’s a hiatus and you get some distance from it, and you appreciate what a good place it is to work.”

On Lorne:

Tracy Morgan: “It’s like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Whenever Luke was in trouble, Obi-Wan would come out of nowhere. That’s who Lorne Michaels is; he’s Obi-Wan. That’s what I call him. Everybody has their little nicknames for him. Chris Farley used to call him the Chief. Some people just call him boss. And some people call him Daddy. I call him Obi-Wan.”

2021 gave me new perspectives on events discussed in these pages, and it was both more fun and more time-consuming. This time, I could find and watch important moments as they occurred, via YouTube. Wikipedia helped me with individuals’ background details that weren’t familiar to me. I had many laughs and a lot of fun doing extra research. Just before I started reading, Norm Macdonald died of leukemia he’d been fighting for nine years. Nobody knew. Even Conan, arguably the closest to Norm, didn’t know he was sick. Norm got to do the popular “Weekend Update” segment after Kevin Nealon left, and he was able to snag a writer “held in awe” at the show, Jim Downey, to co-write and produce his weekly segment.

Jim and Norm decided to do “Update” with Norm giving a deadpan delivery of fake “news” one-liners as savage as they were funny. Sometimes, the audiences didn’t seem to get it. Other times, the jokes would kill. Hilariously, they started writing O.J. Simpson fake news pieces, containing jokes whose punchline invariably outright called him a murderer. O.J. had been acquitted, but that didn’t make any difference to them. Unfortunately, Don Ohlmeyer, at that time head of NBC west coast programming, was a longtime friend of O.J.’s, and he didn’t think any of it was funny. He waged an all-out assault against Jim and Norm, which eventually resulted in Norm being fired from the show. To paraphrase Norm, Ohlmeyer thought every single joke in “Update” should elicit a strong response, like laughter, cheers, and applause. Jim and Norm didn’t care if a joke didn’t get a laugh. They only cared that the jokes were good, even if most of them flew over the audience’s heads.

Re-reading this book was an immersive and highly enjoyable experience for me. I would recommend it to comedy fans, SNL fans, and fans of the talented comedians who have been a part of this extraordinary TV show. I do wish there was another book, done in the same oral-history style, covering the last 20 years. Still, I loved the experience, and it was good to spend some time with people whose work I love and admire.

[isgrow]

Pacquiao beats Thurman for WBA Super World Welterweight Championship belt | HIGHLIGHTS | PBC ON FOX

being published on http://mybecause.com/pacquiao-beats-thurman-for-wba-super-world-welterweight-championship-belt-highlights-pbc-on-fox/

[detroit-become-human-analyze]

Detroit: Become Human - Chronology and timeline of events... (CANON)

The chronology and timeline of events ( https://detroit-become-human.fandom.com/wiki/Chronology ) in the world of Detroit: Become Human.

pre-1960

1915: Birth of Arnold Brook.

1917: Zlatko Andronikov's family flees the revolution in Russia.

1960s

1963: Birth of Carl Manfred (July 13).

1970s

1978: Birth of Michael Brinkley (January 24), Amanda Stern (May 14).

1980s

1980: Birth of Gordon Penwick (June 10).

1982: Birth of Dennis Ward (June 11), Jeffrey Fowler (August 8).

1983: Birth of Christopher Gray (June 18).

1985: Birth of Hank Anderson (September 6), Cristina Warren (September 15).

1987: Birth of Jonah Graham (December 9).

1988: Birth of Joseph Sheldon (August 14), Gary Kayes (December 3).

1989: Birth of Derek Myers (May 7), Ben Collins (September 12).

1990s

1991: Birth of Zlatko Andronikov (September 21).

1992: Birth of Douglas Mitchell (August 10).

1993: Birth of Rose Chapman (March 31).

1994: Birth of Captain Allen (December 2).

1995: Birth of Edward Dempsey (February 8), Richard Perkins (July 13), Todd Williams (September 21).

1998:

1999: Birth of  Isaac Falone (March 10), Elizabeth Wilson (March 25), John Phillips (October 11).

Death of Arnold Brook.[1]

Birth of Chris Roberts (May 16).

2000s

2000: Birth of Michael Webb (September 9).

2001: Birth of Jimmy Peterson (February 1), Caroline Phillips (May 23).

2002: Birth of Elijah Kamski (July 17), Gavin Reed (October 7).

2005: Birth of Pedro Aabdar (January 25), Rosanna Cartland (December 12).

2008: Birth of Carlos Ortiz (October 27).

2009: Birth of Nathan Clark (August 18), Chris Miller (September 30).

2010s

2010: Birth of Leo Manfred (March 21), Joss Douglas (October 24).

2012: Birth of Samuel McCray (April 10).

2013: Birth of Adam Chapman (August 5).

2018: Elijah Kamski founds CyberLife, creates first androids.

2020s

2021: Release of RT600 "Chloe".

2022: RT600 Chloe first android to pass the Turing test.

2024:

2027: CyberLife sells 1 millionth android.

2028:

2028or 2029: United States pass the Android Act.

2029: Hank Anderson promoted to the rank of lieutenant (reported on August 22).

Release of ST200 "Chloe", first industrially produced android.

CyberLife leased a disused warehouse. (Extras Gallery)

CyberLife starts the commercial production of androids.

KNC's interview with Chloe (April 25).

Release of JB100 OR Andy (12-2027).

Death of Amanda Stern (February 23).

Elijah Kamski named Century magazine's "Man of the Century". Later, Kamski resigns as CEO and leaves CyberLife.

Red Ice Task Force dismantles a Red Ice network (reported on February 3).

Birth of Emma Phillips (September 2).

Release of EM400 (2028), Jerry (06-2028).

Birth of Cole Anderson (September 23).

Release of PC200 and PM700.

2030s

2030:

2031:

2032: Release of AX400, Kara (04-2032).

2033:

2034:

2035:

2036:

2037: Rose Chapman starts helping deviants.

2038: the year Detroit: Become Human takes place.

CyberLife reaches market valuation of $850bn.

Release of TR400 OR Luther (01-2030), HK400 OR Carlos' Android (05-2031), URS12 Android Bear (10-2030).

Androids introduced into the United States military and Michigan law enforcement. Red Ice Task Force seizes boat with nearly 1t Red Ice (reported on November 23).

Release of Ralph (/WR600?) and PJ500 (2031), Josh (11-2031).

Birth of Sumo (April 2031).

Release of JB300 336 445 581 (/JB300?) (05-2033), YK500, Alice (07-2033).

Carlos Ortiz spent several stays in a psychiatric hospital in 2033.

Release of PL600 (2034), Simon (02-2034).

April 2034 Season Finals Detroit's Champions Take An Early Lead (Basketball Magazine poster around Hank's Desk)

Release of "Traci"s WR400 and HR400 (2035), North (10-2035).

Death of Cole Anderson (October 11)[8].

Detroit Gears basketball Playoffs (Seen at Hank's desk)

Cristina Warren elected President of the United States.

Carlos Ortiz spent several stays in a psychiatric hospital in 2036.

Release of KL900 OR Lucy, Rupert (possibly plus WB200?).

Reported missing: Simon (February 16), Rupert (October 11).

Death of Rose Chapman's husband (estimated, "died 2 years ago" in 2038[9]).

2038

The year 2038 is the temporal setting of Detroit: Become Human.

global population 10 billion.[10]

January-July

Edit

January

February

The first DPD case file about deviants ("dates back nine months")[11]

March

April

May

June

July

August

RK800 "Connor" released (08-2038).

Birth of Damian Miller ("three months ago" in November).

Aug 15th: Chapter "The Hostage".

around 7:30 PM: Daniel takes Emma Phillips hostage.

Death of John Phillips (estimated 07:29 PM), Officer Antony Deckart (estimated 08:03 PM), and another officer (found dead in the pool). Officer M. Wilson is wounded by Daniel, death optional.

CyberLife sends RK800 Connor as a hostage negotiator. ITM televises the hostage situation.

08:29 PM: Chapter "The Hostage" begins. Connor arrives at the Phillips apartment.

08:30 PM: DPD reports that a deviant android is involved. (ITM report)

September

09/14: An android waiter (AV500 #234 777 821) in Fast Coney Dogs attacks Charles Bell and escapes.

October

10/04: Gordon Lopez's AL series android disappears. North deviates at a customer's home and escapes.

10/05: Eden Club manager Floyd Mills reports to the police that North is missing.

10/06: North arrives in Jericho (North has been in Jericho "4 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours" on Nov 6 after 5 PM).

around 10/17: Carlos Ortiz killed by Carlos' Android. (Based on his body being dead for 19 days on Nov 5th)

10/22: An android (AP700 #480 913 802) attacks her owner Sarah Cornwal, the house, and escapes.

November

Friday Nov 5th: Chapters: Shades of Color, The Opening, A New Home, The Painter, Partners, Stormy Night, Broken, Fugitives

CyberLife zoo opens in Detroit.

Several Russian warships have taken position in the Barents Sea since Saturday October 30th. (CTN news)

09:38 AM: Chapter "Shades of Color" begins. Markus arrives in Greektown to pick up Carl's paint from Bellini Paints.

09:58 AM: Chapter "The Painter" begins. Markus arrives back at Carl Manfred's House.

03:24 PM: Chapter "The Opening" begins. Todd Williams picks up Kara at Android Zone.

04:53 PM: Chapter "A New Home" begins. Todd and Kara arrive at Todd Williams' house.

"around 8" (PM or AM): Landlord calls police because he found Carlos Ortiz's corpse.

09:14 PM: Chapter "Stormy Night" begins. Dinner in the Williams house.

09:42 PM: Chapter "Broken" begins. Markus and Carl arrive home from the opening of Carl Manfred's retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

10:58 PM: Chapter "Fugitives" begins. Kara and Alice to get off the bus in Camden.

11:21 PM: Chapter "Partners" begins. Connor arrives at Jimmy's Bar to pick up Hank Anderson.

Saturday Nov 6th: Chapters:

The Interrogation, From the Dead, Waiting for Hank..., On the Run, Jericho, The Nest, Time to Decide, Zlatko, Russian Roulette, Spare Parts, The Eden Club

During the night: Russian carrier and American patrol boat reported to have exchanged warning shots in Arctic, no casualties. (~CTN news[11])

KNC reports on the first artificial intelligence to write a book.

CTN reports that a CyberLife prototype detective android is assisting the DPD. (~CTN news[11][15])

President Cristina Warren makes speech to Congress, demanding that Russian troops withdraw from the Arctic region. (~CTN news[8])

N/A: Severe hurricanes blight Mid-West, dozens killed. (seen under the scrolling header during Waiting for Hank.)   (~CTN news[8])

12:41 AM: Chapter "The Interrogation" begins. Hank interrogates Carlos' Android.

03:34 AM: Chapter "From the Dead" begins. Markus reboots in Solid Waste Landfill.

08:42 AM: Todd Williams' dead body is found by a friend and reported to the police. (If killed by Alice or Kara)

09:56 AM: Chapter "Waiting for Hank..." begins. Connor talks to Amanda. Then arrives at DPD Central Station.

10:25 AM: Chapter "On the Run" begins. Kara wakes in Camden.

03:02 PM: Chapter "The Nest" begins. Hank eats at Chicken Feed.

04:30 PM: Chapter "Jericho" begins. Markus travels to Ferndale Station.

06:24 PM (estimated[16]): Death of Michael Graham at Eden Club.

05:13 PM: Chapter "Time to Decide" begins. Markus meets Jericho androids.

07:45 PM: Chapter "Zlatko" begins. Kara and Alice arrive at Zlatko Andronikov's House.

07:51 PM: Chapter "Russian Roulette" begins. Connor talks to Amanda. Then visits Hank Anderson's home.

08:01 PM: Chapter "Spare Parts" begins. Jericho androids raid CyberLife Warehouse and Docks.

08:17 PM: Chapter "The Eden Club" begins. Connor and Hank arrive at the Eden Club.

Sunday Nov 7th:

Chapters: The Pirates' Cove, The Bridge, The Stratford Tower

01:02 AM: Chapter "The Pirates' Cove" begins. Kara's group travels by car.

01:19 AM: Chapter "The Bridge" begins. Connor and Hank in Riverside Park.

09:24 AM: Chapter "The Stratford Tower" begins. Markus sits on a street bench and gets an idea.

Monday Nov 8th:

Chapters: The Stratford Tower cont., Public Enemy, Midnight Train

01:30 PM: Chapter "The Stratford Tower" cont. Markus infiltrates the Stratford Tower.

01:59 PM: Markus is recording the message in Stratford Tower (Connor' "Pupil Reflection" scan is timestamped "13:59:54").

04:06 PM: Chapter "Public Enemy" begins. Connor talks to Amanda. Then Connor and Hank arrive at Stratford Tower Floor 79.

05:10 PM: Chapter "Midnight Train" begins. Kara's group arrives at Rose's Farm.

Tuesday Nov 9th:

Chapters: Capitol Park, Meet Kamski, Freedom March, Last Chance, Connor, Crossroads

01:51 AM: Chapter "Capitol Park" begins. Jericho androids discuss Stratford broadcast.

02:00 AM: Jericho android teams attack the five CyberLife stores in Detroit simultaneously. Markus and North arrive at Capitol Park 10 minutes previous.

11:17 AM: Chapter "Meet Kamski" begins. Hank (+/- Connor) arrives at Elijah Kamski's house.

12:04 PM: Chapter "Freedom March" begins. Markus on roof, reflecting.

04:13 PM: Chapter "Last Chance, Connor" begins. Connor talks to Amanda. At DPD, Connor has to find Jericho.

N/A: Military androids removed from service(~CTN news), resulting in armed forces losing 2/3 of effective personnel. Androids are ordered to be turned over to the authorities, to be delivered to the nearest police station or army barracks, to be put in camps. The lack of androids shuts down services and utilities such as hospitals, schools, water, electricity, networks. (~KNC news[19]) Detroit is under curfew.

09:34 PM: Chapter "Crossroads" begins. Kara's group is driving to find Jericho.

10:45 PM: FBI and military raid on Jericho (~Warren press announcement)

Wednesday Nov 10th:

Chapters: Night of the Soul

06:00 AM: national curfew declared (~Warren press announcement)

Chapter "Night of the Soul" begins.

04:17 PM: Markus visits Carl's grave. (Pay Respects)

07:31 PM: Markus visits Carl's house. (Welcome Home) Then Markus in church (Markus on Sacred Ground). OR Jericho androids in church without Markus. (Connor/North on Sacred Ground)

07:31 PM or N/A: Connor speaks to Amanda (Thin Ice), visits Hank (Hank's House).

N/A: Android leader gives speech in undiscovered Jericho. (Markus/North Among the People)

09:24 PM: President Cristina Warren press announcement on Jericho raid, curfew etc. (Battle for Detroit)

Thursday Nov 11th:

Chapters: Battle for Detroit (events from multiple paths)

N/A: The U.S. Army has set up temporary camps in most major cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston, San Francisco) to gather and destroy androids. (KNC News report, which is heard in Kamski's house if everyone died)

"at/since dawn": Androids take to the streets, either in peaceful demonstration (Markus Demonstration) OR fighting to liberate camps (Markus Revolution).

10:48 PM: Connor arrives at CyberLife Tower. (Connor at the CyberLife Tower)

10:51 PM: Kara's group in West Side Industrial on the way to Bus Terminal. (Kara Leaving Detroit)

10:56 PM: Androids march down Woodward Avenue onto Hart Plaza (Markus Demonstration/Revolution/North)

11:01 PM:

11:02 PM: Kara's group reaches Bus Terminal. (Kara Leaving Detroit, Risky Checkpoint)

11:06 PM: Kara's group enters Enclosure. (Kara Captured)

11:07 PM:

11:08 PM:

11:15 PM: Kara's group reaches Bus Terminal. (Kara Leaving Detroit, Safer Detour)

11:15-30 PM: Last bus from Detroit Bus Terminal departs to Canada Border. Cross-border bus service is suspended afterwards.

11:16 PM: Hart Plaza barricade is attacked. (Markus Demonstration)

11:26 PM:

11:30 PM: Kara's group arrives at US-Canada Border. (Kara Leaving Detroit)

11:36 PM: Kara's group enters Canada. (Kara Leaving Detroit)

11:57 PM: Kara's group arrives at banks of Detroit River, Canada. (Kara Leaving Detroit)

presumably before midnight: President Cristina Warren gives speech (Battle for Detroit).

Connor arrives at Floor -49. (Connor at the CyberLife Tower) OR Connor on Hart Plaza rooftop. (Connor's Last Mission)

Androids at Hart Plaza launch attack. (Revolution)

Connor vs Connor-60. (Connor at the CyberLife Tower)

Hart Plaza final assault, Markus vs Connor, vs tank. (Revolution)

Androids in Hart Plaza barricade. Perkins offers deal. (Markus Demonstration)

Kara's group facing destruction in Hart Plaza camp. (Kara Captured)

Hart Plaza androids arrested, Markus killed (Markus Demonstration, surrender)

Kara's group arrives at banks of Detroit River, Delray. (Kara Leaving Detroit)

Friday Nov 12th:

Chapters: Battle for Detroit cont.

12:01 AM: Hart Plaza and CyberLife Tower android groups meet. Android leader gives speech. OR Machine Connor checks on Markus's corpse, after the latter's surrender to Perkins.

07:37 AM: Kara's group wakes in Solid Waste Landfill. (Kara Captured)

[kevrocksicehouse]

Penelope Spheeris, intrepid chronicler (and parodist) of teenage wastelands, turns 75 today. A few of her films:

The Decline of Western Civilization (1981). Spheeris completed this documentary about the hardcore punk scene in Los Angeles (featuring music by X, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, The Germs, Fear) right when it started to define American punk rock. She had a great eye, not just for the band members but for the nihilistic dead-enders who were their truest fans. The shots of moshers slamming into each other on the floor is still exciting, the racism and homophobia of the bands and fans (sometimes calculated, sometimes not ) still disturbing. And the story of the Germs’ Darby Crash -- rock star, wastoid, moron -- and the comedy of his struggle to sing into the mike (“We’ve tried everything short of glueing his mouth to it” says his manager), is undercut by his overdose death, (a death we can see coming), shortly before the movie came out. If you ever loved hardcore punk, this movie is a sobering look at how the sausage is made – and consumed. 

The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years (1988). This look at the LA glam-metal scene, released right as Guns’n’ Roses and Poison blew up, is as honest and dispiriting as the first Decline…, but also more poignant. While the punks of the first doc had some awareness of their chosen outsider status, of being anti-rock stars, the glam bands have no convictions other than a “rock’n’roll lifestyle” of drugs, cheap sex (mostly with groupies) or with the younger bands, a wish for the same. Most poignant is a long interview with WASP guitarist Chris Holmes which mixes braggadocio (“Best groupies are in Salt lake City and I’ve had four of ‘em at a time.”) with fatigue and suicidal self-hatred as he gets drunker and drunker. Like the film itself it’s a depiction of Rock and Roll as utter meaninglessness – a Ponzi scheme of fame and oblivion.

Wayne’s World (1992). As pointed as her critique of metalheads was, Spheeris had enormous affection for them as evidenced in this expansion of a Saturday Night Live sketch about two would-be bangers (Mike Myers, Dana Carvey) who have a public access show. Spheeris can get how satisfying nothing to say and nowhere to go can be (a scene of Wayne and Garth lying on a car hood riffing about Wayne’s girlfriend – “In Latin she would be called ‘babia majora’ ” “If she were a president she’d be called ‘Baberaham Lincoln’”) is as funny as the famous scene of Wayne’s crew head-banging to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

[markesinwheelchair]

Scott D’amore receives a medical update on John E Bravo. D’amore informs Tommy Dreamer that he’s in critical but stable condition. Dreamer says he’s launching an investigation to solve the mystery of who shot Bravo!

CARNAGE in Knockouts Championship Rematch! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Deonna Purrazzo has her sights set on reclaiming the Knockouts Championship from Su Yung, but when her dirty tricks backfire, the proceedings devolve into CARNAGE!SharePlay VideoKnockouts Champion Su Yung vs Deonna Purrazzo w/ Kimber Lee – Knockouts Championship

We kick off IMPACT! with a Bound For Glory Championship rematch as Su Yung defends the Knockouts Title against Deonna Purrazzo. The Virtuosa jumpstarts the match with a bicycle kick in the corner. Deonna targets the arm of Su as she prepares to lock in the Fujiwara Armbar. As Purrazzo is trapped in the Mandible Claw, Kimber Lee slides a steel chair into the ring. Both Knockouts play tug of war with Su gaining possession. Su uses the chair as a weapon and the referee calls for the bell!

Deonna Purrazzo w/ Kimber Lee def Knockouts Champion Su Yung by Disqualification – Knockouts Championship

After the match, Su continues the assault with the steel chair, sending Purrazzo and Lee retreating.

The Knockouts Tag Title Tournament begins in two weeks on IMPACT!

Heath Signs His IMPACT Wrestling Contract

Heath meets with Scott D’amore to sign his IMPACT Wrestling contract but it becomes apparent that Heath’s injury will prevent him from competing anytime in the immediate future. D’amore says that everything Heath requested is in this contract – but he’ll have to wait until he’s healthy to sign it.

Barrister RD Evans confronts Scott D’amore about Deonna Purrazzo’s Knockouts Title rematch ending in disqualification earlier tonight. Evans demands that D’amore makes this right. D’amore informs him that Purrazzo will indeed receive another shot at Su Yung – in the form of a No Disqualification Match at Turning Point on IMPACT Plus!

World Champion Rich Swann and Eddie Edwards prepare to face Eric Young and Sami Callihan in tag team action later tonight but first, they sing Eddie’s theme song!

X-Division FIREWORKS as Chris Bey & Trey Miguel Light It Up! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020The competition level in the X-Division is at an all-time high, and two of its all-stars deliver a WILD performance as Chris Bey battles Trey Miguel!SharePlay VideoChris Bey vs Trey Miguel

Who will pick up the victory in this clash of X-Division stars? Trey is in control when Bey rakes his eyes, followed by a clothesline to the back. Trey builds momentum with a reverse 619. The pace quickens when Trey hits an impressive combination, culminating with a big neckbreaker for two! Bey blocks the Cheeky Nandos Kick in the corner. Bey flies off the top with a cutter to score the victory.

Chris Bey def Trey Miguel

Madison Rayne’s Locker Room Talk w/ Jordynne Grace & Tenille Dashwood

Johnny Swinger returns to co-host Locker Room Talk as Madison welcomes in her guests, Jordynne Grace and Tenille Dashwood. Both Knockouts are looking for a partner ahead of the Knockouts Tag Title tournament which begins in two weeks. Jordynne says that despite her partnership with Alisha not working out last week, she is confident she will find someone else in time. Jordynne admits that Tenille will do whatever it takes to win and proposes that they form a team. Tenille instead asks the former two-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion Madison Rayne to team up! Madison accepts as Jordynne looks on in frustration.

Tommy Dreamer questions referee Brandon Tolle to see if he was the one who shot John E Bravo last week. Dreamer recalls when Bravo berated Tolle after a bad call in the match between Fallah Bahh and Johnny Swinger on IMPACT! Meanwhile, Swinger and Cody Deaner argue over who’s next in line to be questioned because they both have a match next – against each other!

Open Challenge SPOILED by TJP! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020The Deafeat Rohit Challenge is BACK, but TJP shows up to crash the X-Division Champion's party!SharePlay VideoDefeat Rohit Challenge for the X-Division Championship

Rohit Raju is in the ring awaiting his next challenger for the X-Division Championship. TJP comes out but the Defeat Rohit Challenge is only open to those who Rohit has not already defended against. Rohit claims that even though he may not have pinned TJP at Bound For Glory, he still lost in the Six-Way Scramble. TJP reflects on his incredible list of accomplishments in professional wrestling but it’s not enough to persuade Rohit to give him another shot at the title. TJP has had enough and spills his hot tea on the X-Division champion! A brawl breaks out with TJP gaining the upper-hand, sending Rohit retreating.

Backstage, Gia Miller interviews one half of the Motor City Machine Guns, Chris Sabin. Last week, XXXL made a statement when they took out his partner Alex Shelley with a blindside attack. Sabin says that every tag team in IMPACT Wrestling knows they can’t beat the Guns two-on-two and that was the reason for XXXL’s assault. Sabin challenges one member of XXXL to a fight next week!

Scott D’amore announces that Rohit Raju must defend the X-Division Title against TJP next week to determine who the better man is once and for all. This will be TJP’s last chance as long as Rohit is the reigning X-Division Champion.

Champs ON THE RUN as Good Brothers Stand Tall! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Doc Gallows battles Ethan Page in a clash of heavyweights, but when matters break down, it's The Good Brothers who have the champs on the run!SharePlay VideoTag Team Champion Ethan Page w/ Josh Alexander vs Doc Gallows w/ Karl Anderson

Gallows is in total control from the opening bell as Page throws a tantrum at ringside. Alexander provides a distraction, allowing Page to gain the advantage. Page distracts the referee while Alexander gets physically involved. Page follows up with a DDT for two. Gallows fights back with a series of elbows, then quickens the pace with multiple clotheslines. Gallows sets up in the corner but Alexander hooks his leg. Anderson has seen enough and takes it to Alexander on the floor. Gallows hits a big boot for the three count!

Doc Gallows w/ Karl Anderson def Tag Team Champion Ethan Page w/ Josh Alexander

After the match, The North attack Gallows but Anderson evens the odds and hits Page with the Gun Stun.

Gia Miller interviews Swoggle, who says he feels at home in IMPACT Wrestling. His former friend Brian Myers interrupts and calls him a sideshow attraction, not a professional wrestler. Myers rips Swoggle’s autobiography out of his hands and pushes him to the ground.

Shooting Suspects GO TO WAR! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Both under firm suspicion in the shooting of John E. Bravo, Johnny Swinger & Cody Deaner collide in an impromptu match to avoid being investigated!SharePlay VideoJohnny Swinger vs Cody Deaner w/ Cousin Jake

Two of the suspects in the shooting of John E Bravo compete in singles action tonight. Swinger calls for a timeout, prompting Deaner to pummel him with boots in the corner. Deaner takes a swig of beer but that gives Swinger the opening he needs as he sends him head-first into the turnbuckle. Deaner hits an inverted Atomic Drop and it’s time to Give’r! Deaner attempts the DDT but Swinger counters and retreats to the outside. Swinger grabs a steel chair but Jake stops him from using it. Instead, Swinger hits Deaner with a loaded fanny pack to steal the victory!

Johnny Swinger def Cody Deaner w/ Cousin JakeMoose Makes VIOLENT Statement! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Moose feels disrespected and overlooked, and sets out to make an example of Willie Mack when "Chocolate Thunder" interrupts his speech!SharePlay Video

Self-proclaimed TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose is in the ring. He reflects on his hard-fought victory over EC3 at Bound For Glory. Moose states that no matter what he’s been through over the last several months, people still look at Rich Swann as being the premier champion in IMPACT Wrestling. Last week, Moose sent a message to Swann when he attacked his friend Willie Mack in the parking lot. Moose warns Swann that pain is headed his way when Willie hits the ring and charges at the champ! Willie gets ahead of himself and bumps into the cameraman. This allows Moose to gain the advantage as he chokes Willie out with the camera cable.

Chris Bey congratulates Rich Swann on becoming the new World Champion at Bound For Glory. Bey tells Swann that it’s time for him to go to the management office and request a match against Bey with the title on the line. Swann tells The Ultimate Finesser that if he wants an opportunity, he needs to earn it.

Night 1 of Tommy Dreamer’s investigation into who shot John E Bravo concludes with him narrowing down the suspects to 10 individuals. They are: Johnny Swinger, Havok, Cody Deaner, Fallah Bahh, Brandon Tolle, Hernandez, Larry D, Father James Mitchell, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie.

Moose will battle Willie Mack on November 14th at Turning Point!

Ken Shamrock ASSAULTS World Champion Rich Swann! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Ken Shamrock gets involed in the STACKED tag team main event, assaulting IMPACT World Champion Rich Swann to help his partner Sami Callihan!SharePlay VideoSami Callihan & Eric Young vs World Champion Rich Swann & Eddie Edwards

Both Eddie and Swann bring the aerial offense to their opponents in the early going. Back in the ring, Callihan begins to wear Eddie down. Eddie hits Callihan with the Blue Thunder Bomb to create separation. Callihan tags in EY who immediately knocks Swann off the apron, preventing Eddie from making the tag. Eddie hits EY with a huge superplex! Eddie fights free and finally makes the tag to Swann. The champ is on the attack as he picks Callihan off the top with a Hurricanrana. Swann takes out both EY and Callihan with a double handspring cutter! Swann locks in the Sharpshooter on Callihan while Eddie locks in the half Boston Crab on EY. Callihan is about to tap but EY stops his hand from hitting the mat! Ken Shamrock comes down to ringside and sends Swann into the steel ring steps. Meanwhile, Callihan connects with a Piledriver on Eddie to win.

Sami Callihan & Eric Young def World Champion Rich Swann & Eddie Edwards

Sami Callihan, Ken Shamrock and Eric Young stand tall as IMPACT! on AXS TV goes off the air.

[slasherscream]

                                 CHARACTER LIST/RULES

WHAT I’LL WRITE: 

nsfw and sfw

any (insert race/ethnicity/particular thing) for reader

any gender pronouns/identity

delicious polyamory content

dubcon

yandere/darker material 

WHAT I WON’T WRITE:

incest

pedophilia

RAPE!!! do not ask me for this, seriously

scat/watersport/spitting

character match-ups

supernatural, superhero, mutant, creature, etc. readers. 

CHARACTERS:

arvin russell (devil all the time)

dani ardor (midsommar)

dennis rafkin (13 ghosts)

david mccall (fear 1996)

billy loomis

brahms heelshire

ben hargreeves (umbrella academy)

beth washington (until dawn)

carrie white

candyman

charles lee “chucky” ray

claudia (interview with the vampire -platonic only-)

chris hartley (until dawn)

emily davis (until dawn)

ginger fitzgerald (gingersnaps)

hannibal lecter (1991)

jason dean/jd

jennifer check

jordan li (gen v)

josh washington (until dawn)

jessica riley (until dawn)

jim (28 days later)

kevin khatchadourian

louis de pointe du lac (interview with the vampire)

lestat de lioncourt (interview with the vampire)

mike munroe (until dawn)

matthew taylor (until dawn)

mrs. lovett (sweeney todd)

nancy downs (the craft)

norman bates (1960)

pelle (midsommar)

patricia (split)

robert neville (i am legend)

sidney prescott

stu macher

sweeney todd

sandie collins (last night in soho)

shane walsh (the walking dead)

samantha giddings (until dawn)

tatum riley

tiffany valentine

v (from v for vendetta)

yautja (predator films)

+ feel free to request new characters but be patient because i’ll probably have to watch the movie they’re from first

NON-SLASHER/HORROR CHARACTERS: 

hellboy (2004)

abe sapien (2004)

sebastian valmont (cruel intentions)

I DO NOT WRITE FOR:

michael myers

bubba sawyer

nubbins sawyer 

chop-top

drayton sawyer

freddy krueger

baby Firefly

captain spaulding

otis driftwood

CHARACTER COLLECTIONS:

crazy ass boys gang consists of:

billy loomis, jordan li, kevin khatchadourian, stu macher, jd/jason dean, sebastian valmont, nathan prescott, josh washington, david mccall, sparrow!ben hargreeves, pelle, and occasionally arvin russell.

crazy ass girls gang consists of:

tiffany valentine, jennifer check, carrie white, nancy downs, jordan li, ginger fitzgerald, sandie collins, and occasionally, victoria neuman (the boys), patricia (from split)

crazy ass husbands gang consists of:

hannibal lecter, shane walsh, norman bates, v (from v for vendetta), candyman, joel miller, robert neville, lestat de lioncourt, jim (28 days later), abe sapien, bo sinclair, vincent sinclair, lester sinclair

i do headcanons and scenarios. specify which you’d like when you send your request or i’ll wind up picking for you. for headcanons you can request up to FOUR characters per ask. you can, of course, send the same request for a different character. 

vague requests are EXTREMELY low priority and i probably won’t write them at all  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . they drain me on a creative level (example. tiffany valentine x gender neutral reader) (example 2. headcanons for hellboy x fem!reader). 

i write original content off of tumblr and with every passing year i have less time to write for this blog. having to come up with ideas constantly is how this blog goes without any updates for months at a time. i get burnt out creatively very easily and i will always prioritize diverting brain power towards my original writing if this blog drains me. do with that information what you will.

more detailed requests for the longevity of this blog encouraged (example. chucky x reader and how they make up after a fight)

like my blog? my cashapp and kofi are both slasherscream

[bountyofbeads]

Coronavirus Live Updates: Vietnam and Australia Curb Access to China as Death Toll Passes 250 https://nyti.ms/2RL1Ary

As New Virus Spread, China’s Old Habits Delayed Fight.... At critical turning points, Chinese authorities put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis and risking public alarm or political embarrassment.

By Chris Buckley and Steven Lee Myers | Published Feb. 1, 2020, 12:30 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted Feb 1, 2020 |

WUHAN, China — A mysterious illness had stricken seven patients at a hospital, and a doctor tried to warn his medical school classmates. “Quarantined in the emergency department,” the doctor, Li Wenliang, wrote in an online chat group on Dec. 30, referring to patients.

“So frightening,” one recipient replied, before asking about the epidemic that began in China in 2002 and ultimately killed nearly 800 people. “Is SARS coming again?”

In the middle of the night, officials from the health authority in the central city of Wuhan summoned Dr. Li, demanding to know why he had shared the information. Three days later, the police compelled him to sign a statement that his warning constituted “illegal behavior.”

The illness was not SARS, but something similar: a coronavirus that is now on a relentless march outward from Wuhan, throughout the country and across the globe, killing at least 259 people in China and infecting more than 11,700.

The government’s initial handling of the epidemic allowed the virus to gain a tenacious hold. At critical moments, officials chose to put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis to avoid public alarm and political embarrassment.

A reconstruction of the crucial seven weeks between the appearance of the first symptoms in early December and the government’s decision to lock down the city, based on two dozen interviews with Wuhan residents, doctors and officials, on government statements and on Chinese media reports, points to decisions that delayed a concerted public health offensive.

In those weeks, the authorities silenced doctors and others for raising red flags. They played down the dangers to the public, leaving the city’s 11 million residents unaware they should protect themselves. They closed a food market where the virus was believed to have started, but told the public it was for renovations.

Their reluctance to go public, in part, played to political motivations as local officials prepared for their annual congresses in January. Even as cases climbed, officials declared repeatedly that there had likely been no more infections.

By not moving aggressively to warn the public and medical professionals, public health experts say, the Chinese government lost one of its best chances to keep the disease from becoming an epidemic.

“This was an issue of inaction,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies China. “There was no action in Wuhan from the local health department to alert people to the threat.”

The first case, the details of which are limited and the specific date unknown, was in early December. By the time the authorities galvanized into action on Jan. 20, the disease had grown into a formidable threat.

It is now a global health emergency. It has triggered travel restrictions around the world, shaken financial markets and created perhaps the greatest challenge yet for China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The crisis could upend Mr. Xi’s agenda for months or longer, even undermining his vision of a political system that offers security and growth in return for submission to iron-fisted authoritarianism.

On the last day of 2019, after Dr. Li’s message was shared outside the group, the authorities focused on controlling the narrative. The police announced that they were investigating eight people for spreading rumors about the outbreak.

That same day, Wuhan’s health commission, its hand forced by those “rumors,” announced that 27 people were suffering from pneumonia of an unknown cause. Its statement said there was no need to be alarmed.

“The disease is preventable and controllable,” the statement said.

Dr. Li, an ophthalmologist, went back to work after being reprimanded. On Jan. 10, he treated a woman for glaucoma. He did not know she had already been infected with the coronavirus, probably by her daughter. They both became sick. So would he.

HAZMAT SUITS AND DISINFECTANTS

Hu Xiaohu, who sold processed pork in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, sensed by late December that something was amiss. Workers were coming down with nagging fevers. No one knew why but, Mr. Hu said, several were in hospital quarantine.

The market occupies much of a block in a newer part of the city, sitting incongruously near apartment buildings and shops catering to the growing middle class. It is a warren of stalls selling meats, poultry and fish, as well as more exotic fare, including live reptiles and wild game that some in China prize as delicacies. According to a report by the city’s center for disease control, sanitation was dismal, with poor ventilation and garbage piled on wet floors.

In hospitals, doctors and nurses were puzzled to see a cluster of patients with symptoms of a viral pneumonia that did not respond to the usual treatments. They soon noticed that many patients had one thing in common: They worked in Huanan market.

On Jan. 1, police officers showed up at the market, along with public health officials, and shut it down. Xinhua news agency reported that the market was undergoing renovation, but that morning, workers in hazmat suits moved in, washing out stalls and spraying disinfectants.

It was, for the public, the first visible government response to contain the disease. The day before, on Dec. 31, national authorities had alerted the World Health Organization’s office in Beijing of an outbreak.

City officials struck optimistic notes in their announcements. They suggested they had stopped the virus at its source. The cluster of illnesses was limited. There was no evidence the virus spread between humans.

“Projecting optimism and confidence, if you don’t have the data, is a very dangerous strategy,” said Alexandra Phelan, a faculty research instructor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University.

“It undermines the legitimacy of the government in messaging,” she added. “And public health is dependent on public trust.”

Nine days after the market closed, a man who shopped there regularly became the first fatality of the disease, according to a report by the Wuhan Health Commission, the agency that oversees public health and sanitation. The 61-year-old, identified by his last name, Zeng, already had chronic liver disease and a tumor in his abdomen, and had checked into Wuhan Puren Hospital with a raging fever and difficulty breathing.

The authorities disclosed the man’s death two days after it happened. They did not mention a crucial detail in understanding the course of the epidemic. Mr. Zeng’s wife had developed symptoms five days after he did.

She had never visited the market.

THE RACE TO IDENTIFY A KILLER

About 20 miles from the market, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were studying samples from the patients checking into the city’s hospitals. One of the scientists, Zheng-Li Shi, was part of the team that tracked down the origins of the SARS virus, which emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in 2002.

As the public remained largely in the dark about the virus, she and her colleagues quickly pieced together that the new outbreak was related to SARS. The genetic composition suggested a common initial host: bats. The SARS epidemic began when a coronavirus jumped from bats to Asian palm civets, a catlike creature that is legally raised and consumed. It was likely that this new coronavirus had followed a similar path — possibly somewhere in or on the way to the Huanan market or another market like it.

Around the same time, Dr. Li and other medical professionals in Wuhan started trying to provide warnings to colleagues and others when the government did not. Lu Xiaohong, the head of gastroenterology at City Hospital No. 5, told China Youth Daily that she had heard by Dec. 25 that the disease was spreading among medical workers — a full three weeks before the authorities would acknowledge the fact. She did not go public with her concerns, but privately warned a school near another market.

By the first week of January, the emergency ward in Hospital No. 5 was filling; the cases included members of the same family, making it clear that the disease was spreading through human contact, which the government had said was not likely.

No one realized, the doctor said, that it was as serious as it would become until it was too late to stop it.

“I realized that we had underestimated the enemy,” she said.

At the Institute of Virology, Dr. Shi and her colleagues isolated the genetic sequence and the viral strain during the first week of January. They used samples from seven of the first patients, six of them vendors at the market.

On Jan. 7, the institute’s scientists gave the new coronavirus its identity and began referring to it by the technical shorthand nCoV-2019. Four days later, the team posted the genetic sequence of the new virus on a database of sequences of nucleotides, the molecules that are basic units of DNA.

That allowed scientists around the world to study the virus and swiftly share their findings. As the scientific community moved quickly to devise a test for exposure, political leaders remained reluctant to act.

‘POLITICS IS ALWAYS NO. 1’

As the virus spread in early January, the mayor of Wuhan, Zhou Xianwang, was touting futuristic health care plans for the city.

It was China’s political season, when officials gather for annual meetings of People’s Congresses — the Communist Party-run legislatures that discuss and praise policies. It is not a time for bad news.

When Mr. Zhou delivered his annual report to the city’s People’s Congress on Jan. 7 against a backdrop of bright red national flags, he promised the city top-class medical schools, a World Health Expo, and a futuristic industry park for medical companies. Not once did he or any other city or provincial leader publicly mention the viral outbreak.

“Stressing politics is always No. 1,” the governor of Hubei, Wang Xiaodong, told officials on Jan. 17, citing Mr. Xi’s precepts of top-down obedience. “Political issues are at any time the most fundamental major issues.”

Shortly after, Wuhan went ahead with a massive annual potluck banquet for 40,000 families from a city precinct, which critics later cited as evidence that local leaders took the virus far too lightly.

As the congress was taking place, the health commission’s daily updates on the outbreak said again and again that there were no new cases of infection, no firm evidence of human transmission and no infection of medical workers.

“We knew this was not the case!” said a complaint later filed with the National Health Commission on a government website. The anonymous author said he was a doctor in Wuhan and described a surge in unusual chest illnesses beginning Jan. 12.

Officials told doctors at a top city hospital “don’t use the words viral pneumonia on the image reports,” according to the complaint, which has since been removed. People were complacent, “thinking that if the official reports had nothing, then we were exaggerating,” the doctor explained.

Even those stricken felt lulled into complacency.

When Dong Guanghe developed a fever on Jan. 8 in Wuhan, his family was not alarmed, his daughter said. He was treated in the hospital and sent home. Then, 10 days later, Mr. Dong’s wife fell ill with similar symptoms.

“The news said nothing about the severity of the epidemic,” said the daughter, Dong Mingjing. “I thought that my dad had a common cold.”

The government’s efforts to minimize public disclosure persuaded more than just untrained citizens.

“If there are no new cases in the next few days, the outbreak is over,” Guan Yi, a respected professor of infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong, said on Jan. 15.

The World Health Organization’s statements during this period echoed the reassuring words of Chinese officials.

It had spread. Thailand reported the first confirmed case outside China on Jan. 13.

A CITY BESIEGED

The first deaths and the spread of the disease abroad appeared to grab the attention of the top authorities in Beijing. The national government dispatched Zhong Nanshan, a renowned and now-semiretired epidemiologist who was instrumental in the fight against SARS, to Wuhan to assess the situation.

He arrived on Jan. 18, just as the tone of local officials was shifting markedly. A health conference in Hubei Province that day called on medical workers to make the disease a priority. An internal document from Wuhan Union Hospital warned its employees that the coronavirus could be spread through saliva.

On Jan. 20, more than a month after the first symptoms spread, the current of anxiety that had been steadily gaining strength exploded into public. Dr. Zhong announced in an interview on state television that there was no doubt that the coronavirus spread with human contact. Worse, one patient had infected at least 14 medical personnel.

Mr. Xi, fresh from a state visit to Myanmar, made his first public statement about the outbreak, issuing a brief set of instructions.

It was only with the order from Mr. Xi that the bureaucracy leapt into action. At that point the death toll was three; in the next 11 days, it would rise above 200.

In Wuhan, the city banned tour groups from visiting. Residents began pulling on masks.

Guan Yi, the Hong Kong expert who had earlier voiced optimism that the outbreak could level off, was now alarmed. He dropped by one of the city’s other food markets and was shocked by the complacency, he said. He told city officials that the epidemic was “already beyond control” and would leave. “I hurriedly booked a departure,” Dr. Guan told Caixin, a Chinese news organization.

Two days later, the city announced that it was shutting itself down, a move that could only have been approved by Beijing.

In Wuhan, many residents said they did not grasp the gravity of the epidemic until the lockdown. The mass alarm that officials feared at the start became a reality, heightened by the previous paucity of information.

Crowds of people crushed the airport and train stations to get out before the deadline fell on the morning of Jan. 23. Hospitals were packed with people desperate to know if they, too, were infected.

“We didn’t wear masks at work. That would have frightened off customers,” Yu Haiyan, a waitress from rural Hubei, said of the days before the shutdown. “When they closed off Wuhan, only then did I think, ‘Oh, this is really serious, this is not some average virus.’”

Wuhan’s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, later took responsibility for the delay in reporting the scale of the epidemic, but said he was hampered by the national law on infectious diseases. That law  allows provincial governments to declare an epidemic only after receiving central government approval. “After I receive information, I can only release it when I’m authorized,” he said.

The official reflex for suppressing discomforting information now appears to be cracking, as officials at various levels seek to shift blame for the government’s response.

With the crisis worsening, Dr. Li’s efforts are no longer viewed as reckless. A commentary on the social media account of the Supreme People’s Court criticized the police for investigating people for circulating rumors.

“It might have been a better way to prevent and control the new coronavirus today if the public had believed the ‘rumor’ then and started to wear masks and carry out sanitary measures and avoid the wild animal market,” the commentary said.

Dr. Li is 34 and has a child. He and his wife are expecting a second in the summer. He is now recovering from the virus in the hospital where he worked. In an interview via text messages, he said he felt aggrieved by the police actions.

“If the officials had disclosed information about the epidemic earlier,” he said, “I think it would have been a lot better. There should be more openness and transparency.”

_____

This article is based on reporting and research by Elsie Chen, Sheri Fink, Claire Fu, Javier Hernandez, Zoe Mou, Amy Qin, Knvul Sheikh, Amber Wang, Yiwei Wang, Sui-Lee Wee, Li Yuan, Albee Zhang and Raymond Zhong.

*********

China Increasingly Walled Off as Countries Seek to Stem Coronavirus

The number of deaths from the virus outbreak rose to 259 and the number of cases soared to nearly 12,000. Australia and Japan joined the United States in imposing travel restrictions.

By Alexandra Stevenson | Published Feb. 1, 2020, 3:52 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 1, 2020 |

HONG KONG — New walls are rising between China and the world as the country grapples with a fast-moving coronavirus and its mounting death toll.

Vietnam on Saturday became the latest country to try to close itself off from the world’s most populous country, barring all flights from and to China. Over all, nearly 10,000 flights have been canceled since the outbreak.

Australia joined the United States in temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who have recently traveled to the country. There are officially eight confirmed cases in the United States, including one person connected to the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Japan also said it would bar foreigners who had recently been in the Chinese province at the center of the outbreak, or whose passports were issued there.

As the death toll increases and more countries cut off China, the economic and political crisis caused by the virus is only intensifying there, with authorities coming under scrutiny for their slow initial response.

Major businesses have started to acknowledge the effect that the virus — and China’s near shutdown — is having on their bottom lines. Earlier, Apple had said it was rerouting part of its supply chain but would shut only one store. By Saturday, it said it would close all 42 of its stores in mainland China, its third-biggest market and where it generates about one-sixth of its sales.

It was the latest move by some of the world’s biggest companies to shift supply chains and adjust operations in China.

Chinese officials have been changing course after their initially slow response to the virus.

A prominent government expert admitted that he had been wrong to say the virus was under control in early January.

And the mayor of a town near Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, was fired for negligence after the disabled teenage son of a quarantined patient died. The cause of death was still under investigation.

But the Chinese authorities also appeared to be taking tougher measures to stifle criticism, for example scrubbing the internet of an article critical of the government in The Global Times, a tabloid controlled by the governing Communist Party.

As the number of deaths and new cases rapidly rose this past week — 259 deaths and nearly 12,000 by Saturday — one by one, international organizations and foreign countries reacted.

The State Department issued a travel alert urging Americans not to go to to China because of the public health threat.

Delta, United and American Airlines suspended all flights between the United States and mainland China.

By the time the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on Thursday, some of the world’s biggest companies had barred their employees from any travel to China, and countries began to close their borders.

Even as some countries took drastic measures, their leaders also acknowledged the economic impact.

“It’s going to hurt us,” warned Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, after announcing that the small island state would bar all Chinese visitors and foreigners who had traveled to China within the past 14 days. (The incubation period for the disease is believed to be one to two weeks.)

“China is a very big source of tourists for Singapore,” Mr. Lee told reporters after announcing the ban. Restaurants, travel operators and hotels in Singapore were all “bound to be significantly affected.”

On Saturday, Australia joined the United States and a growing list of other countries and cities that have issued travel warnings in an attempt to stem the flow of people who could be carrying the virus. The American government said on Friday that it would temporarily deny entry to noncitizens who had recently traveled to China.

The Australian government also urged Australian nationals to “reconsider their need to travel” to China. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that “Australian citizens, Australian residents, dependents, legal guardians or spouses” would still be allowed to return.

Qantas, Australia’s biggest airline, canceled its mainland flights, though it said it would still fly to Hong Kong.

Taiwan said it would bar Chinese nationals from the southern coastal province of Guangdong from entry beginning Sunday and travelers who recently visited the area would be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Vietnam, China’s neighbor along its southern border, joined Singapore and Mongolia in essentially shutting off its borders to China, banning all flights coming from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau until May 1, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Only flights that have received approval from the country’s Civil Aviation Authority will be allowed following the ban, which took effect on Saturday.

The Mongolian authorities also shut the border with China until March 2, while other countries and regions this past week stopped short of sealing off their borders entirely.

Hong Kong halved the number of flights from China, shut down rail service to mainland China, and also limited visas to the semiautonomous region in a move that has prompted criticism from trade unions including hospital workers, some of whom have voted to strike. They want to shut the city off from the mainland.

In a twist, Hun Sen, the leader of Cambodia, one of China’s close neighbors, emerged as a contrarian when he decided not to limit any travel and movement of Chinese tourists to his country.

He was defiant in his decision, saying that doing so would “be an attack on the Cambodian economy” and would “strain relations” with China.

“I don’t care what other countries think — Cambodia does not behave this way,” he said.

Cambodia is home to many Chinese businessmen and China is the country’s largest benefactor.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, sent a letter to President Xi Jinping of China offering condolences — and aid — to help Beijing fight the coronavirus outbreak, the North’s state-run news agency reported on Saturday.

But North Korea was one of the first countries to shut its borders to visitors from China to keep out the coronavirus.

Amid the expanding crisis and growing criticism of Beijing’s strategy, a prominent respiratory expert who originally told Chinese state news media that the coronavirus was under control and preventable admitted that his choice of words had been inappropriate.

The expert, Wang Guangfa, head of the department of pulmonary medicine at Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, compared himself and other medical professionals tackling the outbreak to soldiers walking onto a battlefield.

“All the bullets are flying,” Dr. Wang said in an interview with Jiemian, a finance-focused news site founded by Shanghai United Media Group, which is controlled by the Shanghai government.

The doctor has come to symbolize how slowly China recognized the urgency of the outbreak. Dr. Wang himself contracted the coronavirus, apparently during a visit to Wuhan.

He initially said that the virus could not be spread by person-to-person contact. But 11 days later, he confirmed to state news outlets that he had the virus and that he might have contracted it during a trip to the center of the outbreak with a group of experts.

In his interview, Dr. Wang said that he had misdiagnosed his symptoms as those of flu, and that he had waited days before checking himself into a hospital. He said he had since recovered and was discharged on Thursday.

Asked why he had originally called the coronavirus “preventable and controllable,” Dr. Wang blamed limited information at the time of his Wuhan visit. A clearer picture of the virus’s transmissibility would have required “epidemiological data, which is difficult to judge,” he said.

His interview has been widely shared on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform. Some of the most popular comments have come from angry users.

Criticism about how long it took for the authorities to act has grown online. The initial reports of the virus began in early December, but it was not until late January that Chinese officials sprung into action, eventually locking down entire cities around the epicenter and halting public transport across the country during its busiest holiday travel period of the year.

China’s sudden action drew praise from the World Health Organization and other bodies overseas, but at home, anguished and angry comments sneaked past censors.

Yet not all criticism made it through the great firewall. On the Chinese internet, people complained that censors’ were working in overdrive as many articles and social media posts were deleted.

One of the starkest examples of censorship that critics pointed to was an article written by Hu Xijin, the editor of The Global Times, the nationalist tabloid of the Communist Party.

Mr. Hu wrote that the heads of the national health commission and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention should take responsibility for the delay in reporting the seriousness of the epidemic.

A few hours after it was posted on Friday, his article was deleted from The Global Times’s website.

______

Reporting was contributed by Elaine Yu, Carlos Tejada, Yuan Li and Cao Li in Hong Kong, Choe Sang-Hun in Seoul, South Korea, and Motoko Rich in Tokyo.

*********

Coronavirus Live Updates: Vietnam and Australia Curb Access to China as Death Toll Passes 250..... Australia joined the United States in temporarily barring foreigners who have recently visited China. Vietnam barred almost all flights from and to China.

Published February 1, 2020 | The New York Times | Posted February 1, 2020 |

Taiwan is barring Chinese nationals from the southern coastal province of Guangdong.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

READ UPDATES IN CHINESE: 武汉疫情每日汇总中文版

United States, Australia and Japan expand travel restrictions.

The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who have recently traveled to China, hoping to limit the spread of the new coronavirus to their countries, while Japan will bar foreigners who have been in the Chinese province at the center of the outbreak.

The American restrictions, announced on Friday, exempt immediate family members of American citizens and permanent residents. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia’s temporary ban on Saturday, saying that “Australian citizens, Australian residents, dependents, legal guardians or spouses” would still be allowed into the country.

American officials also said that any United States citizen returning home who has been in the Hubei province of China within the past 14 days — believed to be the virus’s incubation period — will be quarantined for up to 14 days. Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, is in Hubei.

Those who have been to other parts of China within the past 14 days will be subject to “proactive entry screening” and up to 14 days of monitoring and self-quarantine.

Over all, nearly 10,000 flights have been canceled since the outbreak, according to Cirium, a global travel and data analytics company.

Vietnam barred almost all flights from and to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau until May 1, according to the United States Federal Aviation Administration. Only flights that have received approval from Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority will be allowed during the ban, which took effect on Saturday.

Four airlines in the Philippines announced they were reducing or canceling flights to China: Cebu Pacific Air, Philippine Airlines, Philippines AirAsia and the local unit of AirAsia Group Bhd, the Reuters news agency reported.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the country would bar entry to foreigners who had visited Hubei within the past 14 days, or who had passports issued in Hubei.

Taiwan is barring Chinese nationals from the southern coastal province of Guangdong from entry beginning Sunday and travelers who recently visited the area will be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine, Taiwan state media said on Saturday.

The United States will also funnel all flights from China to just a few airports, including Kennedy in New York, O’Hare in Chicago and San Francisco International Airport.

Several countries were evacuating their citizens from Hubei.

South Korea, India and Bangladesh have flown hundreds of their citizens home from Wuhan, while Indonesia and Turkey have sent planes there, according to The Associated Press reported.

On Monday, the Russian military will begin evacuating Russians from affected regions in China, Russian media reported.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the American actions were being taken because there were “a lot of unknowns” surrounding the virus and its transmission path.

The announcement came as major air carriers suspended flights between the United States and mainland China. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said direct air service would be halted for months, news that rattled the stock market and industries that depend on the flow of goods and people. Qantas followed suit on Saturday, announcing its own suspension of flights to China.

Turkmenistan Airlines began an indefinite suspension of flights to Beijing from Saturday because of the outbreak, according to a statement. Qatar Airlines also suspended flights to China.

Death toll passes 250, with nearly 12,000 infections confirmed.

Chinese officials on Saturday reported the highest death toll so far in a 24-hour period.

◆ The 46 new deaths in China raised the toll to 259.

◆ About 2,100 new cases were also recorded in the country in the past 24 hours, raising the worldwide total to nearly 12,000, according to Chinese and World Health Organization data. The vast majority of the cases are inside China; about 100 cases have been confirmed in 21 other countries.

◆ All of China’s provinces and territories have now been touched by the outbreak.

◆ Countries and territories that have confirmed cases: Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, Macau, Russia, France, the United States, South Korea, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Britain, Vietnam, Italy, India, the Philippines, Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Finland and Sweden.

◆ Cases recorded in Thailand, Taiwan, Germany, Vietnam, Japan, France and the United States involved patients who had not been to China.

◆ No deaths have been reported outside China.

◆ China has asked the European Union for help in purchasing urgent medical supplies from its member countries, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

MASSACHUSETTS CONFIRMS ITS FIRST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS.

The first case of coronavirus in Massachusetts has been confirmed, officials said on Saturday: a man in his 20s who returned from Wuhan and lives in Boston, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the United States to eight.

The University of Massachusetts-Boston confirmed in a separate statement on Saturday that a member of the school’s community had contracted the virus. The statement also said that it expected “business as usual” on campus.

The authorities in Massachusetts were notified by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the positive test results late Friday evening, according to a statement by the Boston Public Health Commission.

The man recently traveled to Wuhan and sought medical care soon after his return to Massachusetts, the statement said. He will remain in isolation until he is cleared by public health officials and his close contacts are being monitored.

Monica Bharel, the Massachusetts public health commissioner, said in a statement that she was “grateful” that the man is recovering and sought medical attention immediately.

“Massachusetts has been preparing for a possible case of this new coronavirus, and we were fortunate that astute clinicians took appropriate action quickly,” she said.

SPAIN CONFIRMS ITS FIRST CASES OF CORONAVIRUS.

The Spanish health authorities said on Saturday that a German tourist has Spain’s first confirmed case of coronavirus and was healthy, but would remain isolated in a hospital in the Canary Islands.

Fernando Simón, the director of the Spanish Health Ministry’s emergency coordination center, told reporters that the German was not showing any serious symptoms of coronavirus. The patient contracted the virus in Germany before traveling to the island of La Gomera, which is part of Spain’s Canary archipelago.

The German, whose name was not disclosed, is part of a group of five tourists who have been quarantined in a hospital on La Gomera since Wednesday.

A CHINESE DOCTOR WHO CALLED THE VIRUS ‘CONTROLLABLE’ REGRETS HIS WORDS.

A prominent respiratory expert who originally told Chinese state media that the coronavirus was under control and preventable has admitted that his choice of words was inappropriate.

Wang Guangfa, head of the department of pulmonary medicine at Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, compared himself and other medical professionals tackling the outbreak to soldiers walking onto a battlefield.

“All the bullets are flying,” said Dr. Wang, in an interview with Jiemian, a finance-focused news site founded by Shanghai United Media Group, which is controlled by the government of Shanghai.

In many ways the doctor, who has been widely criticized for his reassuring early statements, has come to symbolize how slowly China recognized the urgency of the outbreak. Dr. Wang, who initially said that the coronavirus could not be spread by human-to-human contact, later contracted it himself, apparently during a visit to Wuhan.

As the virus began to spread through Wuhan in early January, people who spoke out about it online were silenced by censors and, in some cases, held by the police. When journalists from Hong Kong — whose news media were among the first to shed light on the virus — visited a Wuhan hospital, police officers detained them for hours.

In his interview with Jiemian, published on Friday, Dr. Wang said he had misdiagnosed himself as having flu, and that he had waited days before checking himself into a hospital. He said he had since recovered and was discharged on Thursday.

Asked why he had originally called the coronavirus “preventable and controllable,” Dr. Wang blamed limited information at the time of his Wuhan visit.

His interview has been widely shared on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform. Some of the most popular comments are from angry users.

“‘Could be prevented and controlled,’ Wang Guangfa,” said one user, who wrote under a pseudonym based on “Gorbachev” in Chinese characters. “Because of this line, the most critical half-month was squandered! And resulted in this.”

HONG KONG MEDICAL WORKERS VOTE TO STRIKE.

A newly formed union of medical workers in Hong Kong voted Saturday to go on strike next week to pressure the territory’s government into barring arrivals from mainland China. The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance says that local medical services are in danger of being overwhelmed by visitors from the mainland, and efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Hong Kong will not be effective without a full closure of the border.

Last week Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s top official, announced several steps to drastically cut arrivals of people from the mainland into Hong Kong, an autonomous part of China. Hong Kong has closed several border points and rail stations and cut flight arrivals by half. The central government has also said it will stop issuing permits for individual visitors.

But the new medical workers union says those steps do not go far enough.

“As country after country begins to announce the banning of foreigners’ entry from China, the Hong Kong government chooses to keep its doors wide open,” the group wrote on Facebook after the results of their strike vote were confirmed. “The already limited resources and manpower in Hong Kong that are necessary for healthcare will soon be completely depleted, as an endless stream of non-Hong Kong residents continues to come into the city, seeking for medical care.”

The union has about 18,000 members out of about 80,000 Hospital Authority personnel. It says 9,000 of its members have signed a pledge to strike. Out of 3,164 votes cast by its members on Saturday, 3,123 were in favor. Without a response from the government, the union says the strike will begin Monday with non-emergency personnel.

Hong Kong has 13 confirmed cases of people infected with the new coronavirus, health officials say.

A VIEW OF THE EPICENTER FROM A NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER.

Amy Qin, who covers China from Beijing, on Friday arrived in Wuhan, the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 250 people so far. Follow Amy as she reports around Wuhan.

Amy arrived in a wary city that has been cut off from the rest of the world for more than a week.

Streets were mostly empty as people avoided contact with one another and stayed fearfully at home. Not everybody could bear to stay inside, however.

All around the city, authorities and businesses have worked to create an air of normalcy.

It’s clear, however, that the city has been strained to its limits by the epidemic.

APPLE WILL CLOSE ITS CHINA STORES FOR A WEEK.

Apple on Saturday said it would close its stores in mainland China, one of its biggest markets, until Feb. 9.

In a statement, the iPhone maker said it was closing stores, corporate offices and contact centers “out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts.” Its online store would remain open, it said.

The company operates 42 stores in mainland China, though its iPhones and other devices are widely available through other retailers.

Apple generates about one-sixth of its sales and one-quarter of its operating income in China. While its results there fell last year, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, told investors last week that the company’s new iPhone 11 was selling well in the country.

But he also cautioned that the coronavirus outbreak had kept the company from offering more specific guidance about its financial performance in the coming months.

Mr. Cook also said the company was looking for ways to minimize supply disruptions. Apple makes most of its iPhones and other gadgets in China, usually in factories owned by third-party contractors like Foxconn of Taiwan.

Apple is only one of a slew of global companies reconsidering their China operations as the outbreak has spread. A prolonged slowdown or closure in China could have a major impact on global economic growth.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, addressed such concerns on Saturday, pledging to make sure the country’s financial system had enough cash to deal with the economic blow.

NORTH KOREA OFFERS AID AND CONDOLENCES, BUT KEEPS ITS BORDER CLOSED.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has sent a letter to President Xi Jinping of China offering condolences — and a rare donation of aid — to help Beijing fight the coronavirus outbreak, the North’s state-run news agency reported on Saturday.

North Korea was one of the first countries to shut its borders to visitors from China to keep out the coronavirus.

But in his letter to Mr. Xi, Mr. Kim “sent warm greetings to all the party members and medical workers of China active in the first line for the prevention of the epidemic, and expressed deep consolation for the families who lost their blood relatives due to the infectious disease,” the North Korean news agency said.

Along with Mr. Kim’s letter of condolence, North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party sent an undisclosed amount of “aid fund” to its Chinese counterpart under a decision its Political Bureau made on Friday, the North Korean news agency said.

Mr. Kim “conveyed his sincere feelings of wanting to share the suffering and trial of the fraternal Chinese people and to render help even a bit,” it said.

A QUARANTINED PATIENTS SON DIES OF NEGLECT, AND THE LEADERS OF A CHINESE TOWN ARE FIRED.

The mayor and Chinese Communist Party chief of a town in Huanggang, a city near Wuhan, have been fired over negligence that resulted in the death of the teenage son of a quarantined coronavirus patient.

The patient, Yan Xiaowen, had returned from Wuhan to the town of Huajiahe in mid-January. A few days later, on Jan. 22, he developed a fever and was immediately quarantined. His 16-year-old son, who had cerebral palsy and required round-the-clock medical attention, was entrusted to the care of relatives, village cadres and village doctors.

On Jan. 29, the day Mr. Yan’s coronavirus was diagnosed, his son was deemed a close contact and transferred to an observation ward. He died around an hour later. The cause of death was still being investigated.

Mr. Yan had appealed for help on social media, worried that his son was not receiving regular care and saying that village party officials told him that his son had been fed only twice in five days, The South China Morning Post reported.

A statement released by the local county government on Saturday said the cadres did not act “dutifully” or “do their best” to care for him. The town’s mayor and party secretary were removed from office as a result, the statement added.

‘BE HEALTHY and SAFE!’ BUT DON’T COME BACK, SAY TEXTS TO BEIJING RESIDENTS in HUBEI.

“Are you and your family doing well? We’ve been worrying about you all this time!” read a text message sent on Saturday to Wuhan’s visitors from Beijing.

But they were more than just innocent greetings. Beijing’s Center for Disease Prevention and Control appeared to have tracked the city’s residents who were on trips to Hubei Province and asked them not to return. Wuhan, the heart of the outbreak, is the provincial capital of Hubei.

“You and your family must protect yourselves and manage your health well, and strictly abide by the epidemic prevention and control measures by the local governments in Hubei and not return to Beijing for the time being,” the message continued.

China’s cellular service providers can use their networks to track and locate phone users.

Beijing, China’s capital, has also taken extra steps to keep people off the streets and public places. Companies in Beijing, except for utilities and pharmaceutical or medical equipment firms as well as supermarkets, would postpone reopening until Feb. 10, a week after an extended Lunar New Year was to end, the official Beijing Daily reported.

Southeast of Beijing, the city of Tianjin, which is home to 15 million people, had also suspended all schools and businesses indefinitely, according to local state media.

WORLD LEADERS WEIGH THE COST OF CHINA RESTRICTIONS.

As the coronavirus continues to spread through China and globally, world leaders are having to weigh the cost of reacting by closing their borders to Chinese travelers.

The outbreak and China’s tightening of its own border are beginning to expose how dependent many nations are on China and the cash its selfie-snapping tourists bring in.

For Australia, which on Saturday joined the United States in temporarily barring foreigners who had recently been to China, China was the single largest source of visitors in 2018, and its tourists spent 12 billion Australian dollars, or about $8 billion, that year.

As some countries took drastic measures, their leaders acknowledged the economic impact of the moves. “It’s going to hurt us,” warned Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, after announcing that the small island-state would bar all Chinese visitors and foreigners who had traveled to China within the past 14 days.

“China is a very big source of tourists for Singapore,” Mr. Lee told reporters on Friday. Restaurants, travel operators and hotels in Singapore were all “bound to be significantly affected,” he said, as would the rest of the economy, given that China is one of Singapore’s biggest trading partners.

The authorities in Mongolia, which is heavily dependent on China’s demand for its coal and copper, closed their country’s border with China until March 2.

Other countries have kept their borders open.