#Gregg Re

[nothingunrealistic]

The sound of Billions, the television drama series about power and wealth in the world of high finance, is, in many ways, the sound of silence.

According to re-recording mixer, sound editor and sound designer Eric Hirsch, the mission of the Billions sound editorial and mix teams, who are based at Goldcrest Post in New York City, centers on a simple question. “What is the sound of nothing?” he says. “And how do we make it sound like nothing, but sound good?”

The answer? “It’s a rich palette of various unobtrusive things,” Hirsch says. “And every once in a while, there will be a sequence where it's a little bit more of a whiz-bang moment.”

[…]

Wall Street types value their peace and quiet, it seems. The Goldcrest team, together with the creators of Billions — Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin — plus executive producer Mike Harrop and showrunner/executive producer Beth Schacter, agreed on some basic sound design rules almost from the beginning. “Nobody’s got a phone; there's no such thing as a ringtone in this show. And you can’t hear anything from the other side of the office doors,” Swiatlowski says.

“These traders make a lot of money, and they can invest a lot of money into their offices,” he continues. “So, anytime you're in an office and the door closes, no sound is getting through. But the moment the door opens, we can hear some stuff. That makes it easy for us to prepare what the showrunners are going to want to hear in a scene and what they're not going to want to hear.”

Billions is a very talky show, so the focus is always on the dialogue, whatever else is going on in the background. “So it's about somehow managing to take anything that would interfere with the dialogue and mixing it in a fashion that you can hear it, but it doesn't compete,” Swiatlowski says. The show is mixed in 5.1, although there has been some discussion about Dolby Atmos for the future, he says.

Since many scenes take place in quiet, glass-walled offices, you might imagine that the production mixer would be challenged by reflections. “We have very controlled spaces. They do a lot of work on putting blankets over the glass, so it's not super reflective,” Swiatlowski reports. “And they will sometimes put a blanket above the actor to minimize the amount of pinging around.”

There are also plenty of scenes outside of the brokerage houses on the show, a number of them filmed in Manhattan, where the environment can’t be controlled. But very little looping is done, per the wishes of the showrunners, who would rather have noisier production dialogue than record ADR. “There are probably only 20 cues, at most, in an episode. We do as little looping as possible,” he says.

That said, there are times when ADR is needed: “Mostly it's just adding lines or fixing a story. If we can just squeeze in a word or syllable to fix up a moment, we'll do that.”

[…]

There is a lot of music in Billions. “The showrunners, particularly Brian Koppelman, have very specific tastes about needle drops, and they make liberal use of them,” Swiatlowski says. Indeed, the needle drops — previously produced songs not written for the score — have taken on a life of their own, spawning Spotify playlists of tracks by the likes of U2, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and Sly & the Family Stone as well as indie rock favorites from the Replacements, Pylon and Pixies that have featured on the show over the years.

“There are a lot of cues with very, very, very short spaces in between,” he continues. “Also, the score, by Brendan Angelides [also known as Eskmo], is just everywhere. It’s kind of aethereal, but that contributes something to the emotional nature of the scene.”

Much like the sound design, Hirsch says, the music should generally be subliminal. “It's not quite the sound of nothing, but it is sort of the same idea. You don't ever want to be thinking about it, but you want to be propelled by it.”

Their job is to make the words shine and have everything else support that, Swiatlowski stresses. But of course, when the script takes the action outside of the office environment, the Goldcrest crew can have a little fun. “Then we can get a little bit more creative with our ambiences and the things you hear.”

“One thing I found interesting is that there's the dialnorm level that we have to get to,” Hirsch says. “A lot of the time, people are having these very intense, whispered conversations. So we monitor at 77 dBSPL, a really low level, because we have to just crank the mix in order to get up to where it needs to be. And because there's so little other sound, the dialogue has to be really loud. That's been an interesting thing to figure out.”

[zenlesszonezero]

Join Zenless Zone Zero with Tsukishiro Yanagi, the deputy leader of Hollow Special Operations Section 6! Beneath her ordinary office lady exterior lies a meticulous, emotionally intelligent big sister to the team.

[only-when-i-write]

Enjoy time passing like a runaway train for once because it means May is just around the corner.

Also join me in trying (again) to teach myself writing in shorthand to impress dutch professors?

what am I going to do without the good lads appearing in my inbox with their camaraderie and love and occasional gunfire 😭

[v1x3n]

M E E T A N D G R E E T

141 x reader ⸝⸝ navigation

୨୧ 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘴 : you re-meet your old friend, johnny mctavish, but he changed - a lot - and he had brought a few friends with him, who are all part of a band!

୨୧ 𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘴 : fluff mostly - slight suggestive mentions near the end, awkward reader, nothing much!!

a scottish voice shouts above the raging music in the background, a voice you recognized. a voice that belonged to an old friend, Johnny mctavish. but what is strange is that he is with a bunch of other blokes.

a large man, not fat but built, he looms' down on you with an almost menacing stare. the only piece of him you can see is his eyes. The rest was covered by a skull balaclava, leather jacket, a skintight white t-shirt, gray baggy jeans and some spiky boots. his arms were crossed and he stood up like a brick wall, he was tall as well. he was scary if you were honest. you could see a slight black tattoo peaks out under his jacket. skeleton hands printed onto the gloves. you could see a chain leading into his white shirt, from how tight the top was you could clearly see the rounded rectangle metal through them. some type of necklace.

The man next to him was utterly gorgeous, he had large eyelashes and a little bit of stubble, his big brown eyes were luring you in - almost putting you under a spell. eyes trailing down to look at what he was wearing, he gave off more roadman, would stab you for a greggs, which was different from the man you just looked at. He wore black cargos and a gray jacket opened, showing a cropped black tank top underneath. all up his ear was done with silver piercings, he also had his belly button pierced - showing it off with the cropped shirt, a ring hung around his left nostril. a layered barbed wire necklace hung from his neck along with a black belly chain.

Then right in front of you were two guys, Johnny - your old friend and another man who looked much older than the rest, 5 maybe 7 years older than the others. He was smart though, he looked homely, he looked like he could be a settled down dad with a paid off mortgage. His warm smile could cheer up any day, his beard covering most of the bottom of his face, a white shirt covering his chest with the first few buttons undone, a silky black tie hovering on the shirt. He wore black jeans with a black belt. the handsome man had his right eyebrow pierced, other than that you couldn't see any other piercings. he didn't have any necklaces on, but his fingers were loaded with rings upon rings. on his left hand wore a pain silver one on his ring finger followed by a repetitive skull ring on his middle finger. his other hand had a thinner silver ring on his middle finger then a bone ring wrapped around his thumb.

"How are ya, lass?" the man in front of you says, snapping you out your little transe. Your old friend has changed quite a lot. He still had his silly mohawk - but it was currently a little longer, scraggly and it looked like he had been roughed up - and his stupid grin. some type of logo tattooed onto his right arm. you glance up at his face to really admire his details, a strong glare and a grown yet stubbily beard, your eyes trail down to his jaw which his stubble grew over, then down to his outfit. The man in front of you wore a cropped turtleneck tank top - Jesus - patchy cargos with a belt that held the baggy pair up, on the belt was a skull buckle. Unlike the other man who wore a cropped top, you could see Johnny's happy trail leading up to his belly button. your old friend wore some black bracelets around his wrists, johnny was definitely the most jeweled than the rest of them. around his neck was a collar - it wasn't a choker, definitely not, it was a collar. It couldn't help you think what type of kinky shit he was into. He had a septum pierced into his nose, along with a bar leading across his left ear, trailing down with a few other piercings across both ears.

"oh! I'm good! haven't seen you in so long!" you smile and quickly pull him into a hug, getting a whiff of his scent, you linger on his shoulder when he wraps his arms around you. It was kinda awkward with all his friends cucking but you chose to ignore them and focus on johnny. "How are you? you look... very different!" you choke out a laugh. obviously you weren't laughing at the style, just the change of how he used to dress.

"i look good though, divnt i?" he chuckles and a cough booms from behind him, the masked, you would say gentleman but he certainly doesn't look gentle. "hahh- yeah you do! it suits you!" you gleam and pull away from him, glancing at the other boys.

"Shite sorry, this is Simon," he points at the masked man, "kyle," the pretty guy smiles sweetly at you, "and john!" The father-like man tilts his head and grins. Johnny introduces you to the gang and they all say hi. Some voices are gruffier than the rest. "What are you here for!" you try to quietly shout over the music that slowly gets louder.

this stupid bar was a regular one you visited, you'd usually come here for the bands and occasionally the men. "We performed here earlier" the man, John said with a strong smile plastered on his face. "holy fuck! youre in a band, jj?!" you exclaim and grab onto johnny's hand.

"ye, me and these ballsacks made one together, want an autograph then, lass?" he mocks.

you laugh at him and look around at the other three brutes there, "ye four chat, i'll grab some beers" johnny says before waddling off. you gulp, looking up at the men and awkwardly smile, "sooo..." you mumble quietly.

"How do you know Johnny, sweetheart?" blushing slightly as the man, John, speaks to you. "oh! We were close friends like all our lives, went to primary and high school together" you sweetly smile as another of the men speaks, Kyle, his voice like honey whilst he looks down at you. his big brown eyes taking you all in, "how'd you two meet back then? he tricked you into bein' his mate like?" Kyle jokes.

you laugh quietly, "hah- no, uhm we were in class when we were six or seven maybe? and he sat next t' me, he gotten glue all over the table and all over himself - on the first day - so the teacher told me i had t' clean him up," you fumble with your hands, looking between simon and the rest whilst telling your story, "so i was angry at him because i couldn't play outside that day cause i had t' help him clean up. and he has been annoying me since" you let out a light laugh. you could say you two stuck together.

kyle and john chuckle whether simons eyes dont give off a tell for what emotion

"you his girlfriend, then?"

"what?" choking on air for a few seconds at the accusation. you couldn't deny that maybe you had a small thing for him in highschool but that was just confusing friendship with romance, so if you really think about it - no you didn't. "God, no! He's just a friend!" laughing slightly. the group hummed, it sounded like satisfaction.

"So no boyfriend?" Kyle confirms.

"Like at all?" an eyebrow raises, you look toward simon, who hasn't spoken yet, then towards kyle and john once more with your head slightly tilted. "erm, no, there's no boyfriend" the three of them nod.

A long awkward silence fills the bar, the only sound being the blasting music and people drunk in the background. god this was awkward, but soon johnny came back. four pints and your favorite drink. your smile coated with sugar as johnny gives you your drink, "thanks jj"

"No bother, Bonnie," he passes the other drinks out. you five quickly go find a small booth in the back to talk in, "so what were yous talkin boot?"

"jus slagging you off, Johnny" Kyle pipes up which makes you snicker and Johnny rolls his eyes. "right." he scoffs.

"I was telling them how we uhm met!" you smile and take a sip of your drink. Johnny does the make and hums, "the glue story?" a nod that signals a yes, "still not forgave you f' that, mind." you give him a jokenly glare, "it was years ago!" Johnny gasps, Kyle laughs whilst Simon's eyes flirt between the two of you. your eyes wander over to simon who has his mask ruffled up over his nose so he can drink his pint.

the masked man had a bit of stubble around his face, his lips were pinkish and god you were almost hypnotized, you couldn't see that much but it looked like a lot. he took small sips from his glass and you gaze up at his eyes which were intently looking st you, listening to each and every word you said. you gulp and quickly look away to see john, johnny and kyle talking about something. you could probably piece it all together but you were too panicked that simon had caught you staring. fuck, you didnt mean too stare for that long but you honestly hadnt expected him too look like that.

"oh, i forgot t' ask like what do yous all do in the band?" you look at them all.

"I'm the bassist and backing vocals!" Johnny peeps up, smiling widely. "drums." John hums, looking at you and taking a gulp of his pint. "guitar." Simon says, his voice gruffier - it sounded like exactly how he looked, strange. "I'm the vocalist and rhythm guitarist." Kyle smiles and winks at you.

"cool!" you smile, a finger circling your glass whilst you look between them all, "anythin i would've heard?"

"mayperhaps" Kyle grins, "here" he grumbles and pulls out his phone, showing you his band on spotify. you gasp, "oh my god! no way! My friends have talked about your band!"

the four men look at eachother, "really?" Johnny speaks. you nod as a reply, "i never really listened t' it tho.." muttering under your breath.

"Shame, you should. not t' brag but we are very good" johnny smirks, he looks you up and down, “so what you been up t’? Anythin’ fun?” you think for a second, what have you been up to? You had a few boyfriends, not anything that serious though, you uhhmm… What have you done? You sit there with your thoughts as a few of the guys look at you, they sip onto their beers as they patiently wait for a reply to Johnny's question. “Oh uhm i dunno” you hesitantly let out a slight laugh, “i moved around here and ermm… had a few jobs around the place. Right now I am working at some cafe a few blocks away” looking down at your lap, you were almost embarrassed that you were telling your old best friend, who's successful right now, that you were just working at a small cafe. It was not paid that much but you needed the job - you obviously weren't going to tell him, or any of them, that you were just getting by though.

“Oh you live round here?” John peeps up, keeping his eyes on you whilst he finishes off his pint. your eyes follow his hands as he slams his glass down. “Yeah, do yous?” Simon looks off to the side of the table, out to all the people in the bar. “No we are on a little tour right now, just around the uk” Kyle answers after gulping a large sip from his beer. “Oh! Okay!” you smile at them, “where have you been so far?” 

“Few places in London and well here, still going round though” you nod at Johnny's words. Lucky that you ran into them though, you had missed johnny and well his friends definitely weren't hard to look at. Wait wait wait, you couldnt think that, you barely knew them. They were a bunch of emos who have a band together, you only knew Johnny - and that was years ago. 

You and Johnny had stopped talking in college. Maybe you had grown apart, or something happened, perhaps it was something you had said? But long story short you and him stopped speaking, full stop. At the time you were heavily distracted by other things though so it hadnt hit you that hard, sometimes you would sit in your bed, going through old photos of you and him together. Then it would hit you hard, at that time you thought to yourself ‘yeah, i miss him’ but then you would distract yourself from that feeling. Another thing that would distract you was your boyfriend, you two had been together for quite a while actually. Johnny actually introduced you two together at the start of college, his name was Danny, but then you and Johnny stopped talking after hitting it off with danny. You would wonder if that was the reason you stopped talking, Danny, but that simply couldn't be it because he and Danny were friends, and why would jj stop talking to you just because you were dating someone? 

A voice snaps you out of your thoughts, “we should get going” a rough, gruff voice, one you only had heard once. Simon. You look up at him then your eyes trail around the table. All the drinks drank and everyone looked incredibly tired, “ah shite yeah, need t’ practise in the morning so got an early night” Kyle follows up. You nod at him, understandingly. 

“Oh okay” a disappointed hum comes from you, “bye then” you smile as the rest stand up. You stand up along with them and look at Johnny whilst he walks over to you, wrapping you into a tight hug. You could smell his cologne once more but this time he smelt more like alcohol than before. You bury your  head into the corner of his neck as his arms squeeze around you, his hands trailing down to your waist, Johnny pulls back and winks. “I'll hopefully see you again?” 

“Yeah..” you murmur, “here uhm i'll give you my number f’ if you're in town again?” you suggest, pulling out your phone and passing johnny it. Johnny quickly puts your number into his phone, he smiles.

They all say goodbye, Johnny pulls you into another long, tight hug and lets you go almost winded. Kyle puts a hand on your arm and lets it trail down your soft skin, telling you he hopes to see you later. John bends down to kiss your cheek whilst he chuckles lightly, saying it was nice to meet you before his eyes wander around your person - muttering that you should come to one of their concerts some time. But Simon only pulls his mask back over his face, back to the original position it was in. Simon's eyes look you up and down as he grumbles a small bye.

And with that you're left outside of the bar, watching them all walk off, yet something catches you off guard, Simon looks back and sees you staring once more. Embarrassing. His eyes almost glimmer, but then he looks forward once more. Scoffing as a bright blush covers your cheeks, fuck, you needed to get fucked cause you were stood looking at 3 strange men and your old bestfriend, blushing because you thought they were fit.

But luckily you would and could never act on your horny thoughts that spew in your mind because you would never see any of them again. Right? Riiight.

[pupsmailbox]

MUSIC ID PACK

NAMES ⌇　abby. ace. adagio. adam. adria. adrian. adriane. aero. alex. alice. angus. ann. anthony. apollo. ari. aria. ariane. ariette. avril. axl. axton. bill. billie. billy. blaze. bohemia. bon. brad. brian. bruce. cade. cadence. cadentia. cantrelle. charlie. cher. chester. chordelle. chordette. chordiene. chrissie. christine. cleo. cliff. coda. cosmo. crescenette. crescenne. cresciene. cruz. dahlia. danny. dave. david. dax. daze. dolce. dolcette. dolciene. dolciette. don. doremi. duff. dusty. echo. eddie. electra. ember. ensemblette. enslette. enzo. eric. estelle. faye. flash. fleetwood. florance. floyd. flux. forte. frank. freddie. geddy. geezer. gene. george. ginger. glenn. glimmer. grace. gregg. halen. halo. harmonette. harmonie. harmony. harp. hayley. helena. iggy. isis. izzy. jack. jasper. jett. jimi. jimmy. joe. john. juno. kade. kai. kairo. keira. keith. kian. knox. krist. kurt. larkin. larry. layla. liam. lindsey. lio. luna. lux. lyric. lyrical. mac. malcolm. maynard. medley. meliene. melodie. melodiette. melody. micheal. mick. mitch. moxie. muse. musette. musine. nancy. neal. neil. neon. nick. nicko. nicky. noel. note. notesie. notesy. nova. octavia. onyx. orchestrae. orchestraette. orchestraine. ozzy. paul. pax. pear. pete. peter. phil. piper. pulse. quest. randy. rave. rhea. rhythm. rick. ringo. riven. robert. roger. ronnie. rosa. rose. sabbath. sable. serj. sierra. sky. skye. sona. sonata. sonette. songbird. songesse. songette. songstress. sonia. sonic. sonnet. spark. steve. steven. stevie. strobe. symphonia. symponiette. talia. taryn. tempo. thom. tim. tom. tony. treble. trix. vibe. viola. violette. violiene. vyn. xara. zack. zeppelin.

PRONOUNS ⌇　aero/aero. ba/bass. band/band. base/base. beat/beat. black/black. blink/blink. bpm/bpm. chili/chili. crash/crash. cream/cream. cue/cue. cure/cure. door/door. dor/doremi. drop/drop. dru/drum. drum/drum. eagle/eagle. echo/echo. electric/electric. electro/electronic. fla/flash. flu/flute. flute/flute. for/forte. forte/forte. glo/glow. guitar/guitar. gun/gun. har/harp. heart/heart. hot/hot. hx/hxm. hy/hym. iron/iron. jam/jam. journey/journey. jump/jump. ke/key. kiss/kiss. la/lala. las/laser. loud/loud. ly/lyric. machine/machine. maiden/maiden. mel/melody. metal/metal. mix/mixed. mu/muse. mu/music. muse/muse. music/music. ne/neon. nirvana/nirvana. no/note. noe/note. note/note. oasis/oasis. oct/octave. pearl/pearl. pepper/pepper. perform/perform. pi/piano. pia/piano. piano/piano. pink/pink. queen/queen. ra/rave. radio/radio. rage/rage. re/reverb. red/red. reverb/reverb. rhy/rhythm. riff/riff. rock/rock. rose/rose. rush/rush. scorpion/scorpion. scream/scream. shred/shred. shx/hxr. shy/hyr. sing/sing. soe/song. soe/sonnet. sol/sola. song/song. spike/spike. stone/stone. string/string. stud/stud. sync/sync. tem/tempo. tempo/tempo. thxy/thxm. thy/thym. tra/track. tre/treble. treble/treble. trumpet/trumpet. tu/tune. tuba/tuba. tune/tune. vi/vibe. vio/violin. vocal/vocal. wa/wave. yell/yell. 🎤. 🎧. 🎵. 🎶. 🎷. 🎸. 🎹. 🎻. 🎼. 💥. 📹. 🔊. 🔋. 🔌. 🗯️. 🤘. 🥁. 🧑🏻‍🎤.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amee Vanderpool at SHERO:

Before World War II, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had identified German, Italian, and Japanese aliens and claimed they were “suspected” of being potential enemy agents. These people, some of them American citizens, were legally kept under surveillance, and following the attack at Pearl Harbor, people from “enemy nations” and all people of Japanese descent were immediately considered suspect and referred to the US Army. In 1942, Executive Order 9066 was enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Under this order the entire west coast was deemed a military area, and was divided into military zones. Curfews were established that included only Japanese-Americans. Voluntary evacuation of Japanese-Americans from a limited number of areas, totaling about seven percent of the entire Japanese-American population, was begun. The issue of human rights had been briefly brought up at Congressional Hearings prior to the issuance of these new laws, but in 1942, no one felt these rights were important enough when compared to securing the United States. On March 29, 1942, Japanese-Americans on the west coast were given a 48-hour evacuation notice, and most of their land and private property was abandoned and never recovered.

From the end of March to August of that year, approximately 112,000 persons were sent to racetracks or fairgrounds, which had been re-labeled as “assembly centers.” People were tagged like cattle and sorted for removal to a more permanent "relocation center" where they would be imprisoned for the remainder of the war. In these "relocation centers,” also called "internment camps,” four or five families shared tar-papered army-style barracks for nearly three years or more until the end of the war. The people in these camps shared eating facilities and restrooms and had limited opportunity for work or school. Nearly 70,000 of these evacuees were American citizens, who were denied their due process rights as the federal government froze their ability to appeal their circumstances under the guise of “American security.” This was just 80 years ago. On Tuesday, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, through the the Texas General Land Office, offered Donald Trump the 1,400-acre Starr County site to build new detention centers to fulfill his promise of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said in the Tuesday letter that her office is “fully prepared” to enter an agreement with any federal agencies involved in deporting individuals from the country “to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history.”

We are again on the brink of repeating some of the most shameful and abhorrent lessons that America should have learned long ago. While Donald Trump and his Project 2025 implementation team move to enact the fascist promises made during the election, many of Trump’s cronies are already aligning themselves to profit from the impending migrant prison system that will be nothing short of a concentration camp. Due Process Rights will again be frozen, as amnesty and human rights will cease to exist within these militarized zones. Dismissing any warnings about where we are headed by calling these claims hyperbole will cease to matter after Donald Trump assumes his office on January 20, 2025.

Amee Vanderpool wrote an excellent blogpost on SHERO that the dark days of internment camps (or concentration camps) are back again, this time aimed primarily at undocumented immigrants. But will it stop with just undocumented immigrants? Absolutely not.

[yellowjacketsfashion]

The hunting knife is the “Brass Buck 120 Hunting Knife.”

For a Close Matches, there’s a couple of options available.

The picture on the left is of a a 3d printed knife replica on Etsy.

The image on the right is of a plastic “Scream” halloween prop knife that you can get at Halloween costume shops. It’s a close match because Fun Fact: the Buck knife in Yellowjackets is the same kind of knife as the one in the Scream franchise! The only real difference is the paint job but I think it would be fairly easy to repaint it.

[thebreakfastgenie]

Can you explain Jimmy Carter to an Australian

Jimmy Carter was president from 1977 to 1981. He lost re-election to Ronald Reagan in perhaps the downgrade of the century. Carter was traditionally ranked as one of our worst presidents, but that's kind of unfair, and recently some (including me) have begun to say he was underrated. I think sometimes he gets memefied into being more liberal than he actually was, but he was liberal, and he has a reputation for being more interested in peace that other US presidents. His foreign policy was mixed bag, but he did refuse to invade Iran during the hostage crisis, and I think that counts for something. The peaceful reputation is somewhat relevant to the contrast with Kissinger. The American hostages held in the embassy in Iran were released immediately after Ronald Reagan took office and Reagan fans like to claim this was because Reagan was so intimidating but Reagan didn't really do anything. The Ayatollah's government hated Carter personally because he let the deposed Shah of Iran come to the US for cancer treatment. Jimmy Carter is probably one of our best examples of a Christian president, except he's the kind of Christian who's like "peace is good and racism is bad" so the "America is a Christian country!!" people hate his guts lol.

He was also kind of chill in other ways; they called him the rock and roll president because he had some musicians campaigning for him, especially the Allman Brothers, who played a big role in his campaign. Also Gregg Allman smoked weed at the White House with Carter's son and Carter 100% knew about it.

For many years Carter's reputation has been "not a great president, but a great ex-president" because the Carter Foundation has done a lot of incredible humanitarian work, perhaps most notably nearly eradicating guinea worm, a parasitic disease. He was also personally building homes with Habitat for Humanity into his nineties. He's also known for being a peanut farmer before he got into politics. He was married to his wife Rosalynn who just died for 77 years. So he has kind of a sweet old man reputation.

He's also 99 years old, beat brain cancer once, and announced he was going into hospice, like, almost a year ago? It was a while ago, and yet he's still kicking. So that's kind of a meme too among the kind of nerd who follows these things (me).

So the tl;dr is two really old American politicians, one associated with peace and humanitarianism, one associated with war crimes.

[railwayhistorical]

The Allman Brothers Band

Re-posting this with some additional details...

When Gregg Allman (1947-2017) passed nearly seven years ago, I was driven to the negative archive to see if I had any decent shots of the man. I had attended at least two concerts in 1979, as I recall, which would put these images in the Enlightened Rouges time period. I was not thrilled with the quality of the negatives I found, but I was glad to have them nonetheless.

Gregg used his Hammond B-3 with Leslie speaker, of course, but what one sees above is an electric piano with “Hohner” printed thereon. In addition to Gregg, there are three other original members of the band playing during this time period—Dickey Betts, who can be seen playing his Gibson Les Paul, as well as both drummers: Jai Johanny Johanson (Jaimoe) and Butch Trucks.

In the end, one can say that Gregg Allman certainly had an interesting life, with extreme highs and lows. Musically, he had a unique voice and wrote some very memorable songs. The band, which Gregg and his talented brother Duane formed in 1969, was extremely influential and enjoys a firm place in the history of rock and roll. Duane is often to be found on lists of "best guitarists" of course—he was an unusual talent, to be sure.

Three photographs by Richard Koenig.

The close-up of Gregg was taken in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena on May 26th 1979. The other two: the Band from afar, with the second highlighting Dickey, were shot at Alpine Valley, near East Troy, Wisconsin, on August 18th 1979.

[nerds-yearbook]

Transformers the movie was released on August 8, 1986. Originally, G.I. Joe the movie was meant to be released first but was pushed back. Blowback from the Death of Optimus Prime (Peter Cullin) caused the producers to change the planned death of Duke (Michael Bell) in the G.I. Joe movie. Also, the commercial failure of the movie also down graded The G.I. Joe movie to straight to video/TV release. The movie was the final theatric roles of Orson Welles and Scatman Crothers. The human character Spike (Corey Burton) swore in the movie because they wanted a PG rating (The G.I. Joe movie had originally planned a scene of brief topless nudity to get their PG rating, but that was dropped somewhere in production). Seasons 1 and 2 were supposed to take place in the present, but the movie and season 3 were pushed forward 20 years in time to the year 2005. The movie not just killed off Optimus Prime, but also Ironhide (Cullen), Ratchet, Prowl (Michael Bell), Brawn (Burton), Wheeljack, Windcharger, Megatron (Frank Welker), Starscream (Christopher Collins/Chris Latta), Skywarp, Thundercracker, Shrapnel (Hal Rayle), Kickback (Clive Revill), Bombshell and (off screen) Huffer. The movie introduced Unicron (Welles), Galvatron (Leonard Nimoy), Arcee (Susan Blu), Ultra Magnus (Robert Stack), Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (Judd Nelson), Springer (Neil Ross), Kup (Lionel Stander), Blurr (John Moschitta Jr), Wheelie, Cyclonus (Roger C Carmel), Scourge (Stan Jones), Kranix (Norman Alden), Arblus, Daniel Witwicky (David Mendenhall), the Lithones, the Shrikebats, the Sharkticons, the Quintessons, the Allicons, (the Mini-Cassettes) Eject, Rewind, (the Junkions) Wreck-Gar (Eric Idle), Junkyard, Scrapheap, Re-Cycle, Rubbish, Hazmat, Ashtray, Greasestain, Wasteoid Gamma, and Trashbin. The movie also included Astrotrain (Jack Angel), Scrapper, Swoop (both by Bell), Grimlock (Gregg Berger), Devastator (Arthur Burghardt), Shockwave (Burton), Jazz (Cruthers), Dirge (Bud Davis), Perceptor (Paul Eiding), Blitzwing (Ed Gilbert), Bumblebee (Dan Gilvezan), Blaster (Buster Jones), Cliffjumper (Casey Kasem), Laserbeak (Latta), Scavenger (Don Messick), Bonecrusher, Hook, Slag (all Ross), Soundwave, Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage (all Welker). Leonard Nimoy would return to the Transformers franchise in the live action reboot as the voice of Sentinel Prime in Transformer's Dark of the Moon. The sound track was very eclectic including the iconic "The Touch" by Stan Bush and "Dare to Be Stupid" by Weird Al Yankovic. The score was by Rocky IV composer Vince DiCola. While it underperformed and was controversial upon its release, the movie has since gone on to be a cult classic. ("Transformers: The Movie", Movie, Event)

[initial-lime]

There’s something so genuine profound about Gregg SHOOTING someone for mae, no hesitation. Like yeah okay at that point they all know it’s like a murder cult thing but sticking a crossbow bolt in a guy still takes effort, and he even says he “wasn’t aiming for the shoulder”

The people in this game. They are honestly very mundane and realistic ‘people’ especially coming from a small nowhere town

But god I just. Mae and Gregg, they make me SICK your honour

I have a 100% completion in this game and I still keep re-playing it, it has changed and continues to influence my brain chemistry even if it’s not the front burner fixation

[northwindow]

What are your favourite ever books

❤️ oof such a hard question! i have a strong recency bias, and almost never re-read anything. but here are some favorites:

the topeka school by ben lerner

the glass eye by jeannie vanasco

the idiot (and either/or) by elif batuman

pilgrim at tinker creek by annie dillard

amrita by banana yoshimoto

chilean poet by alejandro zambra

the outline trilogy by rachel cusk

dalva by jim harrison

shattered sonnets, love cards, and other off and back handed importunities by olena kalytiak davis

the wild iris by louise glück (goat— rip ❤️)

frank: sonnets by diane seuss

another country by james baldwin

hot milk by deborah levy

cassandra at the wedding by dorothy baker

pilgrim bell by kaveh akbar

the story of my teeth by valeria luiselli

motherhood by sheila heti

madness rack & honey by mary ruefle

the poetics of space by gaston bachelard

all of it singing by linda gregg

from from by monica youn

[deusvervewrites]

Foretell AU: I was re-reading the initial post of this AU and the bit about Midoriya being good at taking notes, which made me imagine that his handwriting is sorta like a doctor's handwriting because of how quick he makes them.

I was thinking this mostly because the other day I learned that it's not that doctors have bad handwriting, but that actually they write using an actual shorthand code that people in the fields of medicine and journalism use to make quick notes, it's called Gregg Shorthand.

Considering that he only has one hour per use of his Quirk before he loses those future vision, shorthand is actually an extremely useful skill for him to have, since any second he can save is another second he can gather information

[partisan-by-default]

One reason to doubt the conviction is that modern science looks at shaken baby syndrome with increasing skepticism. More importantly, however, the evidence in Roberson’s case suggests that his poor girl actually died from a combination of pneumonia and medications that should never have been prescribed to such a young patient, and that the injuries that a 2003 jury attributed to child abuse may have resulted from a surgery.

Another reason why the order in In re Texas House of Representatives is so extraordinary is that it involves what may be an unprecedented conflict between the state’s legislature and its governor. Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) has the power to issue a 30-day pause on Roberson’s execution (although not to grant him permanent clemency) but has thus far refused to do so, and the state intended to execute Roberson Thursday night.

The day before, however, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers issued a subpoena seeking Roberson’s testimony before a committee of the state’s House of Representatives. This hearing isn’t scheduled until Monday, and Roberson obviously could not comply with this subpoena if he had been killed Thursday night.

So Roberson’s case raises what may be a unique separation of powers issue under the Texas Constitution: Can Texas’s executive branch of government carry out an otherwise lawful execution if doing so would prevent its legislative branch from hearing testimony from a witness it has already subpoenaed?

[samasmith23]

Diving into The Abyss arc of Donny Cates' Venom!

I'm currently marathoning Donny Cates' Venom run in the "Venomnibus by Cates & Stegman" that I got as a birthday present this year. I re-read "The Abyss" arc published in Venom (2018) #9-12 just a few nights ago (which was the last arc from the run that I originally read back in 2019), and holy FREAKING crap... I had honestly forgotten just how effectively heavy and powerful this arc truly was!

When I first read this storyline back in 2019, it completely blew me away with its sheer amount of shocking twists and revelations, ranging from the backstory of a teenage Eddie Brock being involved in a drunk driving accident in which he ran over and killed a kid, but ultimately got off despite wanting to plead guilty due to Eddie's abusive father Carl Brock violently forcing him to plead innocent, to the revelation that his older sister Mary Brock and past experiences with cancer were actually false memories implanted by the symbiote in order to manipulate Eddie into staying with it, to the fact that he has a son named Dylan Brock who was accidentally conceived during that brief time his ex-wife Anne Weying bonded with Eddie's symbiote and briefly became "She-Venom" during the 90s miniseries Venom: Sinner Takes All.

But re-reading the story now I can look back and greatly appreciate the sheer amount of craft that's on display with Cates' writing in this arc, since he carefully foreshadows all of these plot twists all throughout the arc through subtle hints and double-meanings in the character's dialogue. Aside from the brilliant narrative subversion of fooling the reader into initially believing that Eddie is the kid who's run-over in the flashbacks before pulling to rug to reveal that in actuality Eddie was the one behind the wheel, the twist that Eddie's sister was simply a false memory was expertly foreshadowed through both Carl & Dylan being absolutely confused whenever Eddie mentioned the name "Mary."

Another that I really love about the drunk-driving backstory is how it not only recontextualizes Eddie’s motivations as both an anti-hero and as a supervillain. In regards to his anti-hero persona, Eddie's constant proclamations about wanting to "protect the innocent" were rather ill-defined back when the character received over a dozen miniseries' during the 90s. But here Cates' emphasizes how Eddie's guilt over accidentally killing a kid and being let off due to being manipulated by his abusive father has made him want to try to protect "real innocents" from people like himself. but also during his time as a villain pursuing Spider-Man. As for how this backstory recontextualizes Eddie's tenure as a Spider-Man villain, during in the original David Micheline era in which Venom first debuted, Eddie’s hatred for Spidey was connected to the classic Death of Jean DeWolfe storyline, wherein Eddie wrote a series of interviews for the Daily Globe with a man he believed to be the notorious serial killer, “the Sin Eater,” whilst hiding the killer’s true identity under the guise of “first amendment rights and protecting his journalistic source.” But Eddie was eventually forced to reveal his source’s identity due to mounting police pressure and the Sin Eater’s rising body-count, which led to Eddie outing the Sin Eater as Emil Gregg. But literally 30-minutes later it was revealed that Gregg was just a copycat, as Spidey caught the real Sin Eater who turned out to be policeman Stan Carter, which led to Eddie being fired and refusing to take responsibility for his own failures by projecting the blame onto Spider-Man. Additionally, the Micheline's Venom: Lethal Protector & Zeb Wells' Venom: Dark Origin miniseries highlighted how Eddie’s relationship with his estranged father partially influenced his writing of the Sin Eater interviews in an effort to bolster his reputation, but following his firing permanently destroyed any chances of reconciliation with Carl Brock.

And in those classic stories Eddie constantly proclaimed that he was “once an innocent whose life Spider-Man ruined,” even though his actions as a journalist were incredibly morally dubious and unethical. So the drunk driving backstory of Eddie being violently forced to plead innocent by his father and ultimately getting off? That only further fleshes out Eddie’s inability to accept responsibility and false projection of “innocence” onto himself during his villainous phase in those original stories, while also showing how much Eddie has grown since then by acknowledging that he’s not a “real innocent.”

Plus, there's also a strong thematic through-line in this arc about the nature of abusive relationships in the form of Eddie's co-dependent bond with the Venom Symbiote plus Carl's abusive behavior towards Eddie in the past & Dylan in the present day. Additionally, Cates also touches upon ideas of self-improvement and redemption, not only through the backstory of Eddie's motivation to "protect the innocent," but also through the story ending with Eddie deciding to raise Dylan himself after helping him escape Carl's influence, as well as the Venom symbiote willingly leaving Eddie & Dylan after the former denounces the symbiote's manipulative behavior, with the symbiote proclaiming that it's, "Trying... to... be... better... both... of... you... better... without... me..."

It shows that the key difference between Carl and both Eddie & the symbiote is that Venom at least acknowledges his past monstrous behavior and makes efforts to change unlike his coward of a father, thereby simultaneously allowing Eddie to overcome the demons of his past with his abusive father, as well as making the symbiote's later reunion with Eddie in Absolute Carnage more believable!

Like... hot dang! There's a reason why "The Abyss" arc in particular left such a lasting impression on me when I initially read the first 12-issues of Donny Cates' Venom series a few years ago! Not only does it still hold up phenomenally well from both a narrative and thematic standpoint, but it's gotten me even more excited to dive into the rest of Cates' Venom run and the corresponding Absolute Carnage and King In Black events, which will be my first time ever reading those stories!

However, I do have some thoughts regarding two minor points of contention about Cates' run as a whole and "The Abyss" arc in particular that I've encountered from toxic fandom spaces here on Tumblr that I also wanted to address, which I'll link to right here:

[evengirlierballs]

What are your NITW headcanons?

I HAVE A LIST: 1. Gregg is trans and might realize that after they start living in bright harbour 2. Bea and Jackie are the best two characters to ship don't @ me. 3. The Janitor is a cryptid who just shows up to fix things when people are going through difficult transitions, hence is obsession with fixing doors. He's always helping people through thresholds of uncertainty 4. Germ is. 5. Gregg and angus will eventually break up/join a polycule after seeing what else is out there, since right now theyre the only gay boys in town to their knowledge. 6. Mae is Nonbinary (directly disproven in a statement by the creators, i simply do not care) 7. Gregg and Mae and Angus are all supposed to be fat characters!!!! I continue to re-iterate this and display it in my work. Most people dont have a problem with angus being fat but they will often draw gregg as a twink and mae as a female twink, but:

THIS BOY IS WIDER THAN HE IS TALL LIKE GOT DAMN how are people still pretending that he's a twinklet. all i have to say is NUH UH! and for mae, her clothes are often depitcted as too small and i just like the idea of her form matching gregg's as their connection is strong. 8. Gregg clearly prefers physical activites like skating, biking, smashing cars with bats, crossbowing, knife fighting, archery (etc) but I also totally feel like he's a nerd you know? like he'd totally have a fun night with angus and mae and bea playing DnD or something, He may not have always been into that stuff, but Angus would totally get him into it. 9. [SPOILERS AHEAD] I believe that obnoxious church group was part of the secret town cult. We never get to know all of who was a part of the conservative uncle cult, and what we do know about the members is vague at best. But, there's a small list of people i noticed who don't show up for the final day of the game before band practice, it could just be a coincidence, ya know, theyre just sleeping in or something, But i wouldn't be surprised if those shitheads who refused to house bruce bit it at the bottom of the well. For a while I also thought Bea's dad and Aunt Molly were part of the cult, but in the weird autumn edition, both of those characters are encountered during the final day/cutscene on mae's puter. 10. Mae's grandad and that older union dog lady (sasha? i think?) were totally slonkin' each other's shit silly style between/at protests. 11. If you smack gregg's knife enough times in the knife fight scene, it'll break! and he'll replace it with a much cooler orange knife. This isn't a headcanon, this is just a fun fact from me! Lar! 12. Angus is definitely the top, he's just soft about it. and gregg is just a hyperactive bottom. 13. In the scene where mae attends the party in the woods with her friends, The eternal idea of, "a douchebag with an acoustic guitar who does nothing but bring it to parties to play one song" is referenced. It is my personal headcanon that that guy is playing wonderwall. 14. my cat is currently trying to attack my butterflies hold on 15. When pastabilities opens, the gang will all get a delicious meal there, and it will be revealed that pastabilities has a local music night every tuesday, and as a result, Mae and Gregg convince bea and angus to finally play out, and they go to pastabilities to perform their first ever (mini) (unnoficial) (local) concert.