#I am Begging the National to come to Columbus like what do I have to do

[gingerwerk]

Making good financial decisions today but at what cost 😔 (making myself not buy $200 the national tickets)

[slipping-through-my-fingertips]

peace

Part of my folklore series

Summary: Blaine is a famous singer and just wants a day to himself; Kurt wins a meet and greet contest. 

Notes: my first fic of the new year...sixteen days into it! I’m so happy with how this one turned out. 

AO3

Blaine sat up, white hotel sheets wrapped around him. His personal assistant was talking into her earpiece and opening the curtains letting the morning sunlight in. Amelia gestured for him to get up and shower. 

Another day, another packed schedule. He looked at the alarm clock he never had to set and saw it was 5 am. 

Right, the morning show interview. 

It was a quick shower, he didn’t bother doing his hair knowing as soon as he stepped out of the bathroom, his usual hair and makeup people would be set up. Blaine sat in their chair, still naked under his hotel robe, allowing them to get to work. 

Meanwhile, Ameila talked him through the day as she always did. 

“Morning show at 6:30, brief fan meet and greet after. They assured me it’s only thirty people.” 

More exclusive than he’s used to but he has a concert tonight. There will be more fans to meet later today. 

His first of three hometown shows. Well as close to hometown as he can get; Columbus is the closest city to where Blaine grew up. There’s not a big enough venue in Westerville to play. This show is the reason why he woke up in a hotel room as opposed to his tour bus. Multiple shows in one city meant an actual bed for a few nights. 

“Quick lunch with Bobby at noon.” Blaine’s manager. “Your parents will meet us at the stadium for soundcheck at 2.” 

After soundcheck, Blaine knows he’ll have exactly 40 minutes to himself. That time will be spent taking a nap or eating again. His team has him ready to go in less than 20 minutes, Amelia has a coffee in her hand for him and a cronut for the ride to the studio. Blaine makes sure to thank everyone before exiting the hotel room. 

The interview is generic. 

How’s it feel to be back home? 

Favorite song to perform on tour? 

Plans for the next album? 

Best city you’ve visited so far? 

Which city are you most looking forward to? 

No questions he hasn’t answered a thousand times before. The meet and greets are always better. 

Blaine loves meeting fans. They always have the best stories of how they found his music and make him feel like he’s actually changing minds with his lyrics. He takes photos and shares smiles. The line slowly gets shorter and shorter. Amelia is next to him keeping time. 

The studio’s photographer, who will send professional photos to the fans, is having a blast. Creating funny poses as well as big smiles. Everyone is having a great time. 

Still, Blaine has this sinking emptiness in his chest. This is all he ever dreamed of—making music, singing to crowds, meeting fans—yet he isn’t whole. There’s a piece of himself he hasn’t found. 

Then a blue-eyed boy approaches him. 

** What the fuck do you say at a meet-and-greet? 

You’ve changed my life. Made it feel possible to be gay and sing and be from Ohio. I wanna leave this place just like you did. 

Everything Kurt could come up with sounded lame and overdone. There were no words to encompass what Blaine Anderson’s music had done for him. 

Blaine Anderson was only three years older than Kurt. While still in high school, he signed a record deal. Rather than taking the SATs, he went on tour playing in small venues. He didn’t walk at graduation because he was promoting his second album. This was his third national tour and first with international dates. 

Kurt was lucky to score tickets for tonight’s concert. He had begged his dad to let him go alone, reassuring him and Carole a hundred times that he’d be fine driving alone. Burt, of course, insisted Kurt stay the night in a motel and drive back the next morning. Kurt knew once the concert was over, he’d be thankful to only have a ten-minute drive until he could crash in bed. 

Before tonight’s show, he was watching Blaine’s “Good Morning Columbus” interview and was one of thirty lucky fans getting to meet him afterward. 

Kurt had won the meet and greet in a radio contest. Asked to use the restroom during third period to call in. 

The line for the meet and greet was moving quickly. At least, it felt fast to Kurt. he was trying to distract himself with his phone but he could still hear the eagerness of the fans around him, see the flashes from the camera, and hear laughter from whoever was currently with Blaine. 

All of a sudden, a lady was asking for his phone and name. 

“Professional photos will be emailed to you within 48 hours, I can take some casual ones on your device.” 

She had bright red hair, Kurt noticed. 

“Thank you,” he said, handing over the phone. 

“Name?” she asked, smiling at him. 

“Kurt Hummel.” 

She made an ‘o’ with her mouth and walked over to Blaine. Kurt could hear her whisper, “he’s the contest winner.” 

Blaine beamed at him when Kurt introduced himself. He asked how old he was and if he lived in Ohio. 

“18, born and raised in Lima.”

“No way!” Blaine exclaimed, “That's like an hour from my hometown.” 

I know. Kurt held his tongue. 

“Wow, that’s so cool.” 

“Okay, smile wide,” Blaine instructed. 

He wrapped an arm around Kurt’s shoulder and put their heads together. Everyone else had only gotten three photos with Blaine but Kurt went home with six. 

After the meet and greet, Kurt went to the coffee shop across the street. He had a whole day planned out before the concert. There was no point to just sitting in his hotel room all day when there was a whole city to explore. But first, mocha. 

He had just gone over his itinerary one last time and had opened his photos app when someone slid into the seat in front of him. 

**

“Hi again,” Blaine said. 

Contest winner Kurt looked over his shoulder and Amelia waved to him before putting a finger over her lips. A silent plea to keep this on the down low. 

“Hey.” 

“I don’t mean to interrupt but I wanted to talk more after the meet and greet but you had already disappeared. Usually, fans stay and...sorry that’s not the point,” Blaine said, stumbling a bit with his words. “Um, we—that is Ameila and I—we were walking to the car and saw you here. I had to stop.” 

The boy across from him simply stared. Blaine had just dropped a lot of information onto him after all. He wasn’t quite sure he had explained himself very well either. 

“I’m not sure I understand.” 

“Right, well,” Blaine paused. “Do you have plans today?” 

Kurt gestured to his itinerary on the table between them. “I do.” 

“Oh, of course you do.” Blaine stood up. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. This was weird, I really am sorry.” 

He went back over to Amelia, who was as usual on her phone. Undoubtedly typing out a message to Bobby about lunch. 

“We can go now,” he told her. 

She nodded, knowing not to mention Kurt until they were alone in the car. Blaine can’t remember the last time a boy had him tripping over his words like that. He hadn’t ever embarrassed himself so badly in front of a cute guy until Kurt. At least not since high school. Since his career imploded, Blaine had been pretty smooth talking to guys. Flirting came easy but today, oh boy, did Kurt have his insides tied in a knot. 

“Wait,” someone said, just as Amelia was about to shut the car door. 

Blaine leaned forward to see Kurt standing there. 

“You didn’t ask to join me on my plans,” he said. 

He was smiling shyly at Blaine. 

“Amelia,” Blaine said, “do you think we can reschedule with Bobby?” 

“Already done,” she told him. 

Blaine got out of the car and joined Kurt on the sidewalk. “I’ll see you at 2 for soundcheck,” he promised. 

“I’ll hunt you down otherwise,” she smirked. 

The car pulled off the curb. 

“So, where are we headed?” Blaine asked. 

** The last time Kurt Hummel had been in Columbus was with his dad. Burt had business with a tire company based out this way and little Kurt had been roped into a short road trip. Being with Blaine Anderson was different. 

For one, they were walking to a museum not driving to negotiate tire prices. Blaine was happily chatting about shops they passed and guided Kurt into a shortcut he knew about. 

Another thing, people occasionally stopped Blaine to take photos or ask for an autograph. Kurt had offered to play cameraman for a few fans. All of whom had assumed he and Blaine were lifelong friends. Who was Kurt to correct them? Especially, when Blaine said nothing at all about it. 

“I’m sorry for being weird at the coffee shop,” Blaine said, as they crossed the street. 

“It’s okay.” Kurt shrugged. 

It wasn’t every day a famous person wanted to hang out with him. 

“I’m sorry too,” he added, “I wasn’t the nicest to you. I was just confused, still am, to be honest.” 

Blaine sighed. “I’m so not doing this right.” 

“I’m Blaine,” he said. 

“I know, I’m Kurt. We’ve met already,” he teased. 

“Okay, okay, make fun of me all you want,” Blaine replied, “but in all seriousness when I saw you earlier, I just knew I had to get to know you better.” 

“So tell me, Blaine Anderson, how did you convince your team to let you have the day off? Don’t you have a show tonight?”

Kurt knew very well that the man next to him would soon be on a stage. He was actually looking forward to it. 

“Amelia, she’s my PA, is a godsend. She’s the one who was with me at the coffee shop.” 

Kurt nodded. The slim redhead with a bright pink manicure. 

“I only had lunch with my manager until soundcheck though,” Blaine continued, “luckily concert days are usually left empty. No one wants a drained superstar.” 

“Ah, gotcha.”

“So, if you’ll have me…I’m yours ‘til then.” 

Kurt looked Blaine up and down, pretending to size him up while actually checking him out. “I’ll have you.” 

Blaine laughed. 

Google maps told Kurt they were about 4 blocks from the museum now. Honestly, he could get used to the convenience of city life. New York was waiting for him when the summer ended. He was about to ask Blaine if he had any favorite spots in the city when he heard his companion’s stomach grumble. 

“Don’t they feed you, pop star?” 

“I was on my way to lunch when we bumped into each other,” Blaine said. 

“You mean when you were stalking me,” Kurt corrected, smiling.

“I wasn’t…” 

“Anyway,” Kurt interrupted, “wanna grab food?” 

Blaine nodded, “yes please.” 

On the next block, they find a sandwich shop that’s not too crowded. After a waitress took their orders, Kurt asked, “so, what exactly did you want to know?” 

“Hmmm.” 

“You said you wanted to get to know me better.” 

“I did…” he replied, “everything I guess, you’re a senior right? You said you were eighteen.” 

“I’m a senior, yeah.” 

“So, what are your plans after you graduate?” 

“College in New York City. My best friend and I are getting an apartment together.” 

“Wow, that’s exciting!” Blaine said, “I love New York.” 

“Tell me about it, I’ve only been once for a show choir competition.” 

“You do show choir?” 

“Yeah, I’m in the New Directions.” 

“Didn’t you go to Nationals last year?” 

“Twelfth place but yes we were there. Do you follow high school show choir?” 

Blaine blushed. “I do, I used to be a Warbler. I got into the habit of reading those blogs and just never stopped.” 

Kurt smiled. “They’d freak out if I said I had lunch with you.” 

“Really? Maybe I should send you back with signed headshots.” 

“Please don’t, they’ll never stop interrogating me if you do.” 

“Maybe just one for you then,” Blaine suggested. 

Kurt had to stop himself from saying yes, that’s exactly what I want.

**

Blaine did end up telling Kurt all about New York over lunch. He suggested some good places to shop and eat that Kurt wrote down in his notes app. In exchange, Kurt told him about his life: his dad’s shop, McKinley, glee club, and his future dream of being on Broadway. 

“You’ll get there,” Blaine said confidently. “Half the battle of stardom is ambition and drive.” 

“And the other half?” 

“Talent.” 

Long after their plates were emptied and cleared, the pair was still sitting at their table. So long, in fact, that Amelia found them there demanding Blaine get his ass over to soundcheck. 

“Sorry about the museum,” Blaine told him. 

“It’s fine, I can still make it before the show starts.” 

“You’re coming tonight?” 

“Yeah, I didn’t drive all the way to Columbus for an interview,” he said, “no offense.” 

“None taken.” 

Despite the fact that Blaine had turned away from Kurt, he could still see the bright smile on his face. Kurt took one last sip of water while Blaine seemed to be talking telepathically to Amelia. Exchanging weird eye contact. 

“Come to soundcheck,” Blaine finally said, taking one of Kurt’s hands. “I’ll get you backstage and everything.” 

Kurt looked to Amelia for permission but she was busy typing away again on her device. Probably scheduling the whole thing. 

“Okay.” 

The three of them got into the car. Amelia took the front seat to give them the semblance of privacy. Which would’ve worked if she had stopped turning her head around to relay information to Blaine. 

“Your parents are running a little late due to high traffic even though we told them to leave an hour early.” 

“Is this the final setlist?” 

“Bobby is meeting us there since we skipped lunch, he has some stuff to go over.” 

Sensing how overwhelmed Kurt was, Blaine reached over to squeeze his hand. 

Kurt had been to the stadium here in Columbus before but he had never seen it so empty. There was plenty of crew rushing around putting the final touches on everything but all the seats were empty. 

“I hope you won’t be upset at losing your seat,” Blaine said. 

“Oh, I thought I’d hang out here until the show started then go sit.” 

“Not if you want to stay backstage, you can watch from here.” 

Blaine guided him to the edge of the stage pulling aside a short black curtain. 

“Wow,” Kurt said, stepping forward a little. 

“It’s a nice view, right?” 

Kurt nodded. 

“Blaine, you have to get ready.” 

“Come on, wait ‘til you see the dressing room.” 

Amelia led the way, Blaine kept them several feet behind her. Occasionally stopping to thank a crew member. 

“I want you to know I had the best day today with you,” he told Kurt, “I don’t get many days off and I certainly don’t get to spend them with someone like you. So, thank you for letting me interrupt your plans.” 

Kurt was silent for a moment taking in everything. Had he really spent hours of his time today just talking to one of America’s biggest names in pop? He wouldn’t have changed today’s outcome if he could. He had the time of his life. 

“Me too,” he said, “I had a wonderful time.” 

Blaine beamed. “I hope we can do it again soon.” 

Kurt nodded. 

****

2 years later

“Is this the final setlist?” Amelia asked. 

Blaine nodded. 

It’s been just over a year and a half since he last played here in Columbus. Once again, he has Kurt Hummel at his side, well, backstage.

During that brief period, Kurt had started college in New York and Blaine spent a lot of time at his New York apartment. Six months ago, when Kurt finished his semester, he gave up on the dorm life in favor of moving in with his boyfriend. 

They hid from the public eye for as long as they could but eventually they were found out. It wasn’t even in the city, they were on a long weekend vacation in the mountains. A remote cabin. Yet, paparazzi found them on one of their outings into town. 

Blasted their relationship over every magazine cover, exploding on the internet as the newest craze. The couple opted to spend the week at the cabin. 

One instance, just a few weeks into their official relationship, Kurt was bombarded at school, came home sporting a decent bruise on his right arm from where he was grabbed. That night when Blaine came back from the studio, he tried to break up with Kurt. Except, his stubborn boyfriend was having none of it. 

“I see you finished it,” Ameila said, smiling. 

“I did.” 

Someone waved him onto the stage, the crowd was deafening. Blaine looked around the floor for the white tent he knew Kurt was standing under and blew a kiss in his direction. 

“I’d like to slow things down a bit, if that’s okay,” Blaine said. 

The crowd cheered. 

“It’s just me and the guitar now. I’d like to test out a song on you tonight. I wrote it when I was at a really low point. Struggling with what my fame meant for my life, what it meant for my boyfriend’s life, and what it would do to our budding love.” 

The stadium is quiet now. 

“It’s called peace and it’s for the love of my life.” 

“Our coming-of-age has come and gone

Suddenly the summer, it's clear

I never had the courage of my convictions

As long as danger is near

And it's just around the corner, darling

'Cause it lives in me

No, I could never give you peace”

Kurt held his hands over his heart. Never had he imagined having songs written about him, let alone love songs. 

A hand squeezed his shoulder, “he’s a keeper, you know?” Burt said. 

Kurt nodded with tears in his eyes. His dad, Carole, and Finn (and a few bodyguards) were under the tent with him. He was overwhelmed with their support for his relationship with Blaine. They loved him as much as Kurt did. 

“It’s for the love of my life,” Blaine had said.

God, he was so lucky to have fallen in love with him. 

They had been dating just over 2 years now. They lived together. Blaine made it a point to call it their apartment not his. 

Those 2 years were some of the best of his life but they had their fair share of trouble. 

Kurt had never thought of love songs being about him because he never thought he’d be dating someone in the public eyes. Sure, Kurt thought he might catch the public’s attention whether it be on stage or in a fashion magazine. He thought he’d be the one protecting a partner from the spotlight. 

But they agreed, nothing was coming between them. 

“But I'm a fire, and I'll keep your brittle heart warm

If your cascade ocean wave blues come

All these people think love's for show

But I would die for you in secret”

A month after they moved in together, a gossip site published a series of articles about Blaine’s “publicity stunt of a relationship.” He was dating Kurt to prove he could date a man and not lose the public’s approval, he was dating Kurt to prove he could appeal to the “common man” by dating someone who wasn’t famous, he was dating Kurt….

Kurt came home crying that day. He collapsed at the front door. 

“Sweetheart,” Blaine said, instantly wrapping Kurt in his arms, “what’s wrong? Please tell me.” 

Through his sobs and tears, Kurt managed to say, “they hate me. They think it’s fake.” 

“Who, darling, who?” 

“Everyone.” 

Later, Blaine got the whole story. He vowed to never make Kurt feel like that again. Kurt would be so loved that he couldn’t be phrased by petty gossip. Especially not gossip about their relationship. 

They spent that night wrapped around each other on the floor in front of the fireplace. Outside, a blizzard was brewing giving them a much needed day off. 

Two days later with the city still cleaning up the snowy streets, Blaine told him he loved him for the first time. 

Kurt was sitting with his feet dangling off the kitchen countertop while Blaine added semi-sweet chocolate chips into their pancakes. It was noon but still dark outside. The thick clouds put the entirety of New York to sleep. 

“You know it’s nice not having classes on Friday.” 

“You could schedule that for next semester. I’m afraid the snow won’t be here that long.” 

“Scheduling is coming up,” Kurt said, “and I wanted to talk to you about it.” 

“What about it?” Blaine flipped a pancake. 

“What if I went fully online for the spring?” 

He turned around slowly, “and why would you do that?” 

“Well, a little birdie told me Blaine Anderson is touring and I’m feeling like the groupie life is for me.” 

Blaine smiled. “Oh yeah?” 

He stepped closer to Kurt, who quickly wrapped his legs around his boyfriend’s waist. Their foreheads touching. 

“It won’t affect your graduation date?” 

“No, most students study abroad their sophomore or junior year, I’m basically doing that but instead of one country I’ll be seeing the world.” 

“Let’s do it,” Blaine said, before pressing their lips together. 

“And you know that I'd swing with you for the fences

Sit with you in the trenches

Give you my wild, give you a child

Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other

Family that I chose, now that I see your brother as my brother

Is it enough?”

The crowd loses their mind when Blaine sings about a child. 

He knows they’re still too young. But dammit, if he doesn’t want to have everything with Kurt. 

There are plenty of reasons why ‘right now’ doesn’t work. 

For 1, Kurt has to finish school, start his life as an adult, and figure out who he is without classes to stress him out. 

Two, Blaine has to get out of the spotlight before they have a family. He doesn’t want to be on tour and miss his kid’s first word. He’d step back for a while to raise them alongside Kurt. 

Thirdly, they aren’t even married yet. Blaine has plans, no ring, but plans aplenty. 

Maybe they’ve only been together for 2 years but Blaine knew from that first day this was his happily ever after. Kurt Hummel was it for him. 

**

“He don’t mean…” Burt said. 

Carole shushed him. 

Kurt was sure the crowd was loud but to him the stadium was silent. He couldn’t hear anything but Blaine. 

If Kurt said didn’t want anything and everything with that man on stage, he’d be a liar. 

Blaine was the best thing that had ever happened to him. 

Kurt was sure his dad was worried about the child line but it’s not like two cis gay men such as themselves could just jump into the whole baby thing. There’s way more planning for them than the average couple. 

All Kurt could hear was that last line. He and Finn had had their own disagreements in high school but they were brothers now. Blaine had his own issues with his older brother Cooper over the years too. It was nice to know Blaine found a second brother in Finn because Cooper and Kurt were two peas in a pod. 

Maybe they weren’t officially family yet but Kurt knew in their hearts the two families were already one. 

“I'd give you my sunshine, give you my best

But the rain is always gonna come if you're standing with me”

Kurt ran to the dressing room after the show. Lost his parents and Finn in the crowd but he knew they’d find their way back here. He pushed open Blaine’s unlocked door. He never locked it when Kurt was at his shows. No one else barged in like Kurt did. 

Blaine was pulling a new shirt over his head ridding himself of the sweat-soaked one. His hair looked like he had freshly showered but Kurt knew it wasn’t. 

Still, regardless of how gross his boyfriend currently was, Kurt launched himself into his arms almost knocking the both of them to the ground. Luckily Blaine found balance along the back wall and held them up. Kurt wrapped his limbs around him and peppered kisses all over his neck. 

“I love you so goddamn much.” 

“What do I have to do to get a reaction like this every time I come off stage?” 

Kurt laughed and pulled back to look at Blaine. It was then Blaine noticed his tears. 

“Woah woah, what’s wrong?” He brought a hand up to wipe them away. 

“Nothing,” Kurt said, smiling, “absolutely nothing.” 

“I love you too. So much.” 

Blaine eventually moved them onto the couch but Kurt refused to get off his lap. 

“I’m all gross, Kurt.” 

Which only made Kurt dig his face farther into wet Blaine’s neck. 

That’s how the rest of the Hummel’s found them. 

“I just wanna get one thing straight,” Burt said, entering the room, “no grandkids until Kurt’s settled in a good career.” 

“Ay, ay!” Blaine replied, saluting him. 

“And no proposals until Kurt’s outta school.” 

“Understood,” Blaine said. 

“Not that he can dictate that,” Carole told them. “It was a beautiful song, Blaine.”

“Thank you.” 

“Like hell I can’t,” Burt said, “no fatherly blessing until there’s a diploma in his hand.” 

“Well you’ve got step-motherly blessings out the wazoo,” Carole said, “that’s plenty to go to the chapel right now.” 

While the two of them went at it, jokingly of course, Kurt whispered to Blaine, “I’d marry you in a second, Blaine Anderson.” 

“I’d marry you in a second, Kurt Hummel.” 

“But I do wanna wait until after college.” 

Blaine smiled, “you always were a daddy’s boy.” 

“Just hope our kids take after me.” 

Knowing there was no better way to stop an argument, even one made up of jokes, Blaine kissed him. 

[welcometowcwmondaynitro]

WCW Monday Nitro 09/09/1996

Shit be exploding, so you know what time it is.

Yes sir.

Once again we are not given a location this week, which generally means the town is too small-time for the big shots at WCW to even consider giving a shout out to. My research tells me this broadcast comes from the Columbus Civic Centre in Columbus, Georgia.  

As always we are introduced to our first hour announce team, Schiavone and Zbyszko.

Tony is looking quite smart this evening. Larry as expected has a horrific multcoloured abomination on underneath his jacket. It’s basically his gimmick a this point so whatever. 

They talk about how the balance of power has shifted to the nWo and Larry says Giant is “the biggest traitor since Benedict Arnold”, nice ancient reference there, Larry. We get a recap of last week’s awesome show-ending brawl. 

Once they’re done wrapping this up, Goldberg’s music plays. What? I check my file - yes, definitely 9th September 1996. Has Goldberg time travelled back to 1996 and changed history by debuting early?

Well, either that is one hell of a disguise or no, actually Goldberg’s theme music was first used by this Japanese guy called Pat Tanaka. It’s really weird seeing this random fella walk out to Goldberg’s music. The crowd boo mildly - I guess just because he’s Japanese? I don’t remember there being any storyline reason to boo him, anyway. 

Pat’s opponent is... this.

Looks like a mascot from a early/mid-90s video game brought to life. If this is Super Calo then I am curious as to what regular Calo is like. I am unsure as to what makes this version ‘Super’, but maybe we’ll find out in the upcoming match. Mike Tenay joins the announce crew because it is Calo’s debut and Tenay is the only one likely to know anything about him.

Pat Tanaka vs Super Calo

I was kind of hoping Tanaka would start the match with a spear and then jackhammer Calo into oblivion, but no such luck. 

As one would anticipate from a man dressed like a stereotypical kung-fu master in an 80s movie, Tanaka starts the match off with some kicks.

Calo jumps around pointlessly and then gets kicked in the face. Bants.

Tenay tells us Calo’s name and look comes from the “top rap group” in Mexico. He does not name this group. Confusingly wikipedia claims Calo is named after a Mexican rock group with the same name, but his image is meant to convey a rapper. So, just... what? Also what rapper has ever looked like Super Calo? In Mexico is that how rappers dress? 

Well anyway this odd fellow somersaults over the ropes onto Tanaka outside of the ring. 

The screen then cuts to this.

 Then we’re back to the match. OK then. 

Tanaka hits Calo with a powerbomb, which leads to Tony talking about him being “so schooled in the martial arts”. Yes, because we all know that classic martial arts move the powerbomb. Often followed by a leg drop and a scorpion deathlock. 

The ending to this match is beyond ridiculous. 

First, Tanaka puts Calo onto the top turnbuckle.

Neither man seems to know what is meant to happen next, so they awkwardly wrap their arms around each other.

Tanaka then lifts Calo up like he’s going for an inverse piledriver and falls backwards.

Apparently he knocks himself out, gets pinned, and loses.

What an idiot.

Super Calo defeats Pat Tanaka via Pinfall.

Nothing too super about our friend Calo in this one I’m afraid. His victory came largely because Tanaka is a super dunce.

We got some lads in the front row who are big fans of the classic moustache.

They seem quite pleased that Calo emerged victorious.

Just under seven minutes in and we throw back to Mean Gene in the locker room with Rick Steiner. This should be good.

Shirts hanging out of the lockers behind them, as you do. 

Gene asks Rick Steiner about Nick Patrick’s questionable officiating - referring to the incident last week where Luger was disqualified in seconds for basically nothing. Rick says that he had Luger, and Gene saw it. Total bullshit as the match had barely started, and Gene does point that out. 

Luger walks into the frame as we see last week’s replay. Rick is continually going on about how he was going to win, sounding like a mentally challenged three year old. On the other hand this is a guy who also genuinely thinks he’s a dog, so... I should probably be impressed that he is able to form words and put them into a somewhat coherent structure.

Gene says that Steiner is “a little confused” in the understatement of the century, 

Luger tells Rick that he’s “a great tag team wrestler” but he feels like he has the edge in a singles environment. Rick continues to fail to understand basic english and keeps repeating “I can beat you, ask Sting” and then starts calling for Sting.

Gene then ushers Rick away like an unruly child as Luger walks off as well. Gene says that Luger was alluding that Rick “doesn’t have it upstairs”, pointing to his head. Wow, what a dick. Luger didn’t say anything like that. All he implied was that he was a better singles wrestler than Rick. Not sure where Gene has gotten his interpretation from, but my guess is he just wants to stir the pot as usual.

Next it’s nWo announcement time.

Just the usual t-shirt ad with Nash saying “all proceeds go towards the Ric Flair retirement fund”. Joke’s on him, that fund must have accrued some serious cash before it was finally paid out.

We’re back and...

Somebody buy these poor kids some real nWo t-shirts. 

Where did these people come from? Did they decide to stop by Nitro after a corporate dinner or something? 

Are these pilots in the audience as well? Wtf? Why are all these people coming to the show dressed in their work clothes? Is this a common thing in the States?

Oh, hey, guess what - Glacier debuted. I would say “remember all that hype” but if you’ve been reading this sad collection of nostalgic drivel then you will indeed remember the many Glacier adverts that have been on every Nitro broadcast since May or so. We’re now in September and Glacier finally had his first match... on WCW Pro.

Seriously.

WCW Pro is like... Sunday Night Heat or Velocity in WWE terms. It’s below WCW Saturday Night for fuck’s sake.  Tony calls it “one of the most eagerly anticipated debuts ever” - which is why he made his first appearance on WCW FUCKING PRO. Oh WCW, what are you like?

Larry says Glacier will be “a force to be reckoned with”, which, spoiler alert. turns out to be the opposite.

  Oh good, these two walking charisma vacuums.

And these two lumbering idiots. WCW, the best wrestling on the planet. How could WWF in 1996 find no way to entice people away from Pat Tanaka vs Super Calo and The AFC vs the Nasty Boys? Seriously. It isn’t that difficult. 

The AFC do their usual schtick of singing the Canadian national anthem badly and the crowd get angry because ‘Murica fuck yeah and whatever. The Nasty Boys say “fuck this” and attack the AFC after about 10 seconds of this bullshit, getting the match started.

The Amazing French Canadians Vs The Nasty Boys

You don’t care about this match. I don’t care about this match. Let’s just skip to the end.

Knobbs whacks the eyepatch guy with the flag the AFC brought out. Saggs pins for the win. 

The Nasty Boys defeat The Amazing French Canadians via Pinfall.

Mean Gene comes scurrying out to interview the Nastys, for some reason.

Saggs says everybody has been pointing the finger at the Nasty Boys, accusing them of being with the nWo (can’t imagine anybody really cares but OK, sure). Saggs says the Nasty’s are only worried about the tag titles which are in WCW, ergo they aren’t interested in joining the nWo. Does he not realise that faction affiliation is irrelevent as far as challenging for belts is concerned? I mean, Hogan is literally WCW Heavyweight champion at this point in time. 

Knobbs says that the Nasty’s don’t care about the nWo, they’re in WCW and they’re coming for Harlem Heat to take the tag team titles. Short and to the point, which is fine by me, even if the Nasty’s appear to be under the mistaken impression- that joining the nWo would invalidate them from challenging for the tag titles. 

We’re back from a commercial break to find Scott Norton and Sgt Craig Pittman in the ring.

Sgt Craig Pittman Vs Scott Norton

The commentators bill this as a “hold versus hold” match and I’m not sure what this means, as I was under the impression every match is hold versus hold. But whatever. 

After some back and forth Pittman decides that it’s time to ram his head into Norton’s sternum. 

It looks pretty painful and not especially effective, but Pittman enjoys it so much he does it again. 

They head to the outside of the ring. Norton gets whipped against the guardrail, the entirety of which moves upon impact, but then Norton regains control by slamming Pittman’s shoulder into the ring post. 

Norton locks in the armbar but the Sarge will not give up. Long gets onto the ring apron to beg Pittman to give in, but he won’t. WCW, for reasons beyond my understanding, is very careful about protecting Sgt. Craig Pittman. He never gets pushed, as far as I remember, but this man WILL NOT QUIT.

Then... 

Ice Train wanders out wearing this abomination. Seriously - what the fuck? It’s like a demin vest with a backpack built in. It’s something you would expect to see an eight-year old girl in the mid-90s wearing over the top of a t-shirt or something. What clothing brand figured that this design was suitable for huge, beefy dudes? I don’t know, but they clearly have a customer in Ice Train.

Train throws in the towel for Pittman.  

Scott Norton defeats Sgt. Craig Pittman via Forfeit. 

He enters the ring and stares down at Norton, who is looking at Train’s vest top and moobs like “dafuq?”

The two former amigos have a staredown which doesn’t lead anywhere. 

Pepboys Power Pin of the Week is a submission. Go figure.

We head to the locker room where Gene-o is with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Lex Luger.

Three of these men are dressed appropriately. The other is Lex Luger.

Apparently Sting is supposed to be a part of this interview as well but is nowhere to be found. Luger assures Flair & Arn that Sting is in the building, but the Horsemen are having none of it and are concerned that Sting doesn’t have his head in the game. Flair starts going crazy and practically flings himself into an alternate dimension with his erratic movements.

Like a jet propeller is being put directly in front of his face.

Anyway eventually these two sad sacks come lumbering in...

Mongo looks like he’s about to explode, whilst Benoit as usual appears barely awake. Mongo yells about not being able to count on Luger and Sting. Luger reiterates that Sting is in the building somewhere, he’s just not around for the interview. The Horsemen do seem overly paranoid here - how hard would it be to track Sting down and talk to him if they are this pissed off? 

Arn says he’s called ahead to Winston, Salem (where Fall Brawl/War Games is being held) to pre-book himself a hospital room as he assumes he’s going to need one. Seems like a somewhat pessimistic thing to do, but is it even possible to pre-book hospital room? Arn is talking like he’s booked a hotel room for the night. Strange lad. He also suggests Hogan uses battery acid to burn out his eyes which... I mean, don’t give the guy ideas, Arn.  

Interview ends with everybody talking over each other and Flair wooing a lot - so, the same as most Horsemen interviews.

People in the crowd are holding these signs which say “nWo - you haven’t seen bad... but it’s coming!” - indeed, Hogan Vs Piper is coming.

We get a recap of this thrilling DDP/Eddie/Chavo storyline which nobody cares about, but why this is recapped is beyond me as the next match has nothing to do with any of those three. 

Instead, out comes “the desparado” himself, Joe Gomez.

Somebody throws a wad of paper at him as he enters. Obviously not a fan.

His opponent is Juventud Guerrera,  who Tony repeatedly refers to as Juventud Guerrero. 

As Juvi enters he runs past these ladies, who appear both baffled and unimpressed with him.

Cold.

Joe Gomez Vs Juventud Guerrera

The match starts off okay, but descends into disaster fairly quickly as Juvi starts trying various lucha things which poor Joe is clearly not comfortable with. First Juvi stands on the apron, jumps onto the ropes as Gomez slowly walks towards him and does this...

It’s clear from this angle alone that there is no way in hell Juvi is going to reach Gomez. In fairness to WCW they switch camera angle just in time to make it look slightly less terrible, although I imagine it was more down to luck than skill. Nonetheless Gomez at least tries to sell the move, falling backwards theatrically.

Weeee! Points for effort if not execution. 

This happens next, and thanks to Uproxx “Best and Worst of WCW Monday Nitro” series (check it out, it’s great) I have a GIF to put into pictures what I would struggle to put into words.

Speaks for itself.

After this Juvi seems to want to go for a hurricanrana from the top turnbuckle but I‘m not sure if they botch this as well or it was the plan, but Juvi ends up backflipping away from the turnbuckle and then catching Gomez with a weak looking dropkick as he jumps towards Juvi.

Juvi just about manages to hit the finishing move...

But even that looks a little bit dodgy. At least Joe just had to lay there for this one. Ref counts to three and mercifully this one is over. Not sure if Gomez or Juvi are to blame for this shitshow, but either way I advise never putting them together again.

Juventud Guerrera defeats Joe Gomez via Pinfall.

For some reason Mean Gene is on the ramp to interview Nick Patrick. Oh good, more of this storyline.

Before they start the interview though, as Juventud walks past Gene and Patrick, Gene says “very good match there on the part of Juventud Guerrera”, then gives Juvi a disdainful look and mutters “guy just kind of... wanders around here”. LOL. Why is Gene throwing shade at poor Juvi? “Guy just wanders around here”, like he’s a lost child or something. I guess Gene is still salty about the interview with Juvi that went wrong a couple of weeks ago, but come on, that was hardly Juvi’s fault. Obvious Gene is still holding a grudge though. 

I don’t think anybody really wants to hear from these two ballbags but here we are anyway. 

Gene is accusing Patrick of making too many controversial calls for it to just be coincidence, whilst Patrick is accusing Gene of being a shit-stirring cock cheese who needs to get a life. Neither are lying but nobody really cares either. What is funny is that Okerlund is very haughty and dismissive of Patrick - until Patrick threatens to take Gene to court - at which point Gene stutters “well I-I hope that doesn’t happen” before saying “thank you very much Nick Patrick, sir, thank you” to Patrick as he walks off. Pathetic. 

Meanwhile Hogan, Hall, Nash and the Giant are outside in the pouring rain putting those nWo flyers with the “you haven’t seen bad... but it’s coming” slogan on random cars. This seems like a total waste of time as by the time the car owners get back to their vehicles the rain would probably have destroyed those flyers anyway.  Do these guys really have nothing better to do? Tony tells us the nWo are “literally” in the parking lot - as opposed to what, being there in spirit?

Ted DiBiase is the smartest of the lot as he 1) has an umbrella and 2) isn’t wasting his time putting up useless flyers in the pouring rain. He’s talking to somebody in the car, and the announcers are shitting themselves as to who it might be, as they tend to do. For all they know DiBiase might just be talking to the driver. 

“HERE’S A STORY OF TWO BROTHERS, RICK AND SCOTT!”

Just Rick tonight. He comes out doing that sad half-bark he does whenever something is troubling him. 

His opponent, of course, is Flexy Lexy.

Rick Steiner Vs Lex Luger

These two are not exactly known as ‘ring generals’ so I am not expecting a classic here. Let’s see, though. Perhaps we will all be pleasantly surprised. 

After various arm drags, headlocks, shoulder blocks, and so on, this happens.

Uh...

Yeah. Rick is basically molesting Luger in the ring and keeps this up for a disturbing amount of time. I guess it’s meant to show his amateur wrestling background but it basically just looks like sexual assault. Rick’s hands are going to places they really should not. 

Hour two begins with the usual fireworks. Bischoff, Heenan and Tenay come in on commentary for the rest of the show. 

Rick hits Luger with a nice powerslam, and Randy Anderson cannot bear to watch the impact. The crowd bark their approval which, personally, I don’t think is helpful. Rick’s clinical lycanthropy is only going to get worse if people bark at him when he does something good. Or bark at him in general, really.

More cuddling. Back away, Rick. Even Randy Anderson is telling him to cut it out at this point.

Luger takes control with a powerslam and signals for the rack. However, before he can attempt his finishing move...

This dicksplash comes running out waving his arms around. Looks like he’s doing the sieg heil there but fairly sure it’s just the timing of the screenshot.

Anyhow, Patrick tells Luger to follow him out the back, yelling something about the nWo beating up Sting.

Considering Patrick’s recent behaviour, Lex, it might not be wise to...

OK. Never mind. Of course Luger goes running after Patrick, abandoning the match entirely and getting himself counted out. 

Everyone looking towards the entrance way like “where’s he going?” 

Rick Steiner defeats Lex Luger via Countout.

We get a shot of DiBiase talking to the mystery man in the limo. Sting’s voice is heard but it is blatantly piped in from some other promo. He says he’s “tired of the DTA stuff, don’t trust anybody”, so I guess he’s not a fan of Stone Cold Steve Austin. DiBiase pretends to talk to the pre-taped Sting voice until Lex shows up.

A guy who is clearly not Sting gets out of the limo and starts beating up Luger whilst Bischoff screams “NO! NO!”

I have the advantage of hindsight and my monitor is probably bigger than most people’s TVs back in 1996... but still, it’s really obviously not Sting. Were people genuinely fooled by this? 

The nWo along with “Sting” beat Luger down and leave him laying in a broken heap in the rain...

It has not been a good night for Luger. First he got yelled at by the Horsemen, then he spent ten minutes getting inappropriately touched by Rick Steiner during their match, then he gets smacked around by the nWo and left on the ground in the pouring rain. Bad times for sure. Although if you’re stupid enough to follow Nick Patrick anywhere... 

Luger does manage to get back up but ends up just kind of wandering around in the rain looking confused whilst the nWo flee, leaving the limos parked outside the building.

These bois are not impressed by what they have just seen. Tenay looks like a dad who is about to grab his belt and put a whippin’ on somebody. Bischoff is indignant. Heenan wears the expression of a man who was just forced to sit through every Raw from 2015. Pure torture. 

Bischoff says he has an update which is literally “we don’t know where [the nWo] are. I’m sorry. I don’t know”. Well thanks for that. Very helpful. 

We get a long recap of last week’s angle including more footage of the amazing all-out brawl that ended the show. Then we get another nWo advert for their t-shirt. 

A bunch of random jobbers are outside with Luger and Rick Steiner milling around the limo yelling out “DIBIASE!” - as if he’ll just pop up and be like “sup bois?” - pointless endeavour. Rick Steiner is the only one smart enough to bring an umbrella outside. Let that one sink in. Luger chucks a bunch of stuff out of one of the limos onto the floor which seems unnecessary. 

Out comes pre-Flock Billy Kidman. The commentators could not care less, just droning on about Sting’s supposed “defection”. 

The other combatant in this contest is Cruiserweight champion Rey Mysterio Jr.

Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Billy Kidman

The announcers spend the entire match in ‘sad voice’, like their dogs have all collectively died. It’s really annoying.

The match spills to the outside very quickly. Rey gets the advantage and rolls Kidman back in. He attempts to jump off the ropes from the apron, but Kidman knows what’s coming and meets Rey with a dropkick to the chest.

Kidman slams Rey in the centre of the ring, runs over to the turnbuckle and leaps off.

Just a two count though. Rey wins the match soon after this by flipping off the ropes onto Kidman.

It looks weak but whatever. This wasn’t anything special.

Rey Mysterio defeats Billy Kidman via Pinfall.

We come back from a commercial and the Dungeon’s of Doom’s “music” is playing, and I put that in inverted commas because it isn’t really music, just a pseudo-creepy OTT villainous laugh accompanied by some kind of chant. Whatever. Normally any sign of the Dungeon is enough to make me want to hang my head in despair, however!

If Meng is involved, it might be somewhat entertaining. Just to note those aren’t two random arms sprouting out of Meng’s shoulders – the Barbarian is behind him.

The announcers are still going on about how tragic Sting’s supposed betrayal is – and Bischoff apologises for “not giving Rey Mysterio the attention he deserves in his match”. I mean, kind of tough to take that apology seriously considering how often this has happened and will continue to happen until Nitro goes out of existence. It is the only time I can recall any commentator in WCW actually apologising for the routine ignoring of the cruiserweights in favour of talking about/complaining about the nWo, though.

These two are the opponents. Yeah, Public Enemy, they definitely deserve that pyro. Sure. Look at them waving their hands in the air like they just don’t care.

By the way, the commentators are still going on about Sting. I wonder if we’ll get another apology for ignoring this match as well? Not that I’d necessarily blame them here.

Some diehard wrestling fans here. I think we saw them previously – seemingly someone in production has taken a liking to these ladies. They look like they got lost on their way to a PTA meeting, but fuck it, might as well enjoy themselves now. Watch out for the dude behind you though, ladies. That smile worries me a little.

The Faces of Fear Vs Public Enemy

We go to a commercial break, and as soon as we come back Bischoff says “I hate to keep repeating this, but apparently Sting has joined forces with the nWo”. Bullshit, if you hated it that much you’d have shut up about it by now. I mean, jeez, we get it.

This contest is just a brawl, as you’d expect. Not exactly a match for the ages, but all of a sudden, randomly…

This dude on the left appears and begins running/skipping around the ring.

The fuck? It’s like Rockstar Spud’s demented uncle or something. 

He briefly chases Jimmy Hart, then just… vanishes? Oh, and by the way, the commentators make no mention of this. They do not acknowledge this at all. Why? Because they’re talking about everything except the match itself. Literally, I’m not kidding, it’s like this match is not happening. It’s like listening to a radio show or a podcast spliced together with unrelated WCW footage.

Wait, what? What’s happening now? The match is ongoing and they just cut to the back. Judging from the faces of these lads you’d think someone died. It’s a sombre scene to say the least – but seriously, why even have the match in the ring? What’s the point? The commentators are acting like it isn’t happening and we cut to an interview as the match is happening. Bischoff doesn’t even note that we’ve cut away from a match in progress, he just says “take it away Gene”, like this is totally normal. Whatever, I guess. It’s not like I’m desperate to see the Faces of Fear versus Public Enemy, but what a bizarre way to structure… everything.

Gene asks Arn to explain what happened in the parking lot earlier. Seemed quite self-explanatory to me and the commentators have not stopped talking about it since it happened, so the viewers really don’t need any extra information.  

Arn says he doesn’t give a shit about Luger losing a friend, or that he’s lost a team mate, he’s just shocked. He brings up Sting’s loyalty to WCW.

They actually move to a split-screen here – I guess someone in the production truck remembered there is actually a match going on. It wouldn’t be fair to deprive the dozens of Faces of Fear/Public Enemy fans the chance to see their favourite grapplers go at it.

Anyway, Arn says he has a sick feeling in his stomach, he’s shocked, and he’s out of words. He’s said quite a few already, though, so not really.

Flair stands there with his arms folded, eyeing the audience like a disappointed father.

Luger says he doesn’t have any answers, and that his “best friend in the whole world” stabbed him in the back. He then says he knows where Sting lives and where he works out, and he’s going to go and find him “right now”. Sounds like Lex is planning to murk Sting. However, he should keep in mind this is a guy who only last week tried to murder somebody by chucking a rock through the window of a limo, then stole a police car. Come to think of it, I’m not sure why Sting isn’t in jail. Regardless, I wouldn’t be chasing after him without a good plan.

Flair screams that he’s “sick of it” and just generally yells about how they’re going to beat up the nWo at War Games (including Sting). Arn says “it’s a fight to the death – yours, not ours”. I suppose that was worth emphasising? Also Arn has a tendency to see these matches as ending in death, even though it never comes close to that.

We return to the Faces of Fear/Public Enemy match. By “we” I mean the audience – the commentators are still talking about War Games. I genuinely don’t think they have said anything about the match – oh, wait a minute, Bischoff does mention the match, finally. Although he says the teams are “literally fighting for their lives” which is not exactly accurate. What is up with these people thinking matches are going to end so tragically?

Anyway, the brawling continues for a while and eventually, somehow, Rocco Rock ends up lying on a table. Barbarian heads for the top turnbuckle.

Guys, I don’t foresee this ending well. Seriously, what is the absolute best result of this? Rocco (who can clearly see Barbarian on the turnbuckle) for some reason lays there and lets Barbarian jump on him. It’ll be brutal for both. Or, Rocco moves and Barbarian crashes through the table. Either way Barbarian doesn’t win in this scenario.

Uh oh. Jimmy Hart is absolutely useless at holding Rocco down, kicked away like an insect as Rocco sits up.

That is a fucking sick bump. It’s funny because Barbarian barely takes any serious bumps at all, on Nitro at least, then he decides to say fuck it and leaps to the concrete through a table because YOLO I guess?

Well anyway he dead. Rocco brings a second table into the ring.

Looks pretty old. Nick Patrick wags his finger in disapproval, but incredibly that isn’t enough to persuade Public Enemy to stop. They lay Meng on the table, then Rocco goes to the top turnbuckle for a moonsault…

He almost misses the table entirely, only catching Meng with his legs. The table is weak enough that it breaks despite the soft contact.

You’d think that would be the spot that ends the match, but no. Meng gets up like nothing happened and starts brawling with Rocco again. Barbarian is also somehow revived and back in the ring fighting with Grunge. This is weird because the outside table spot with Barbarian getting wiped out, and then Meng getting put through the table by Rocco’s moonsault, felt like the end sequence of the match. Now it’s like we’re back at the start again. Keep in mind the match has been going for about 10 minutes now. That’s at least 7 minutes longer than is ideal for these teams, really.

Whilst Rocco and Barbarian are hugging it out in the corner, Meng puts the Tongan Death Grip on Grunge and now this one is over.

No explanation as to what the fuck was going on with that random ginger guy running around the ring earlier by the way. Oh well. During the replay Heenan accidentally calls Meng “Haku” and then goes silent immediately. Oops.

The Faces of Fear defeat Public Enemy via Pinfall.

Suddenly Okerlund appears at ringside, accompanied by the Dungeon of Doom.

Maxx, Jimmy Hart, Big Bubba, Gene, Kevin Sullivan, Hugh Morrus and Konnan. To quote Rufus from Final Fantasy 7 – “what a crew”.

Sullivan is no longer painting his face with those stupid markings, but for some reason is now wearing a white headband. Does he think he’s the Karate Kid now?

He also starts making this derp face - and this isn’t just a screen grab catching an awkward expression momentarily, he’s making this face on purpose.

For some reason we go to Jimmy Hart first, who tells the Giant “it’s the beginning of the end for you, you just don’t know it yet”. I’m sure he’s quaking in his boots.  

Big Bubba then rants about Glacier, talking about him saying he’s coming for “6 or 7 months” and asking if he’s not debuting because he’s afraid. Slight exaggeration on the 6 or 7 months from Bubba, but to be fair it does feel like those vignettes have been running for at least that long. Bubba actually doesn’t seem to be aware that Glacier debuted on WCW Pro, but it’s WCW Pro, so... understandable. Bubba calls the Dungeon of Doom “the masters of intimidation”…

What he means is that Meng is the master of intimidation. The others aren’t exactly adding much to the equation. Maxx is standing off to the side looking distinctly unimpressed by the entire thing.

With that said, bored does seem to be his default expression regardless of what is happening. I imagine he’d have the same expression even if Bubba was in the process of sprouting three heads whilst doing a kossack dance.

After calling Gene “homes”, Konnan calls Sullivan a “hardened veterano”. He then says Sullivan has seen and led gang wars from coast to coast.

Yes, Kevin Sullivan wearing that silly white headband is exactly what I think of when I think of leaders of gang wars. Sullivan’s ‘wut?’ expression here says it all. I’m not sure you can call the Dungeon of Doom/Alliance to End Hulkamania Versus Hogan and Macho Man a “gang war”. I’m not sure two people can even constitute a gang. Also Sullivan may be worried Konnan is unintentionally (?) implicating him in genuine gang wars… which probably isn’t in the Taskmaster’s best interests.

Konnan challenges the nWo to come out and confront the Dungeon, who he calls “the toughest set”. Yeah, sure. The challenge is not accepted, because the nWo are for sure terrified of a “gang” featuring the likes of Maxx, Kevin Sullivan, Big Bubba and Hugh Morrus.

Sullivan says that Savage thinks he’ll owe the Dungeon “a debt” for carrying him out from the ring last week. I doubt it in all honesty – maybe if they’d actually done something to help him before he’d been beaten down and spraypainted. Carrying him out after the fact didn’t really help much.

Anyhow, Sullivan says Savage can repay this fictional debt by first beating John Tenta, because why not I guess, and then by getting rid of the Giant. That doesn’t really seem like a balanced deal. We carry you backstage after you’ve been beaten up, you make it even by beating John Tenta and the Giant. Hmmm.

Time for some nWo propaganda.

Hogan tells us that they “aren’t here for a stinkin’ reason” – directly contradicting Nash and Hall, who had previously made it clear they’d come in specifically to take over WCW. He then randomly says “we’ve got our boss with us” and points to Ted DiBiase, who’s sitting in a chair behind them.

Homely. DiBiase looks like he’s being held prisoner, but whatever. Hogan says DiBiase makes Ted Turner look like a “pauper”. Honestly I could try to recap this whole thing but it’s really just a bunch of random sound bytes ripping on WCW for the most part. They talk about wanting “their own tag team tournament” for some reason. They also want a segment (on Nitro, presumably) where they can “highlight” their talent. What they actually mean is a segment highlighting Hogan, as we’ll discover going forward. Scott Hall says “nWo 4 life” with the hand sign (might be the first instance of this?) and they all end the segment laughing like it was an amazing joke.

I was a satellite dish owner back then – or rather, my parents were - but no WCW PPVs in the UK, sadly. We only got a butchered hour-long version of Nitro on TNT UK during 1996 & 1997. I didn’t find out that I’d been watching an edited version of the show until many years later. At least now I can sit back and relive the glory of the Faces of Fear Vs Public…. eh, maybe TNT UK were doing us a favour after all.

Back with your bois at the announce desk. Tenay once again has that “stern dad” look, whilst Heenan seems to be whimsically remembering something from years gone by. Take a guess as to what Bischoff is talking about?

A)     The upcoming main event

B)     Meltzer being wrong about everything

C)     Blue Chew

D)     Sting’s betrayal

If you’ve been following along thus far, you’ll know the answer. The lad does genuinely hate big Dave though, and loves that Blue Chew. Come to think of it, what is the main event? I can’t even remember. Sting’s supposed betrayal has been hammered into my brain so many fucking times at this point I can barely conceive of any other event occurring at any wrestling show.

Chris Jericho’s music plays, but…

It’s John Tenta? Still got that stupid haircut by the way. Seriously, fish man, you’ve made your point. Get that shaved.

But yeah, I’m confused here. I thought Jericho was coming out. But hold on, that’s Jericho’s second theme, “One Crazed Anarchist”, aka the Pearl Jam ripoff, not the one he’s using at this point in WCW, which I believe is the Journey ripoff. So John Tenta is in fact the OG “One Crazed Anarchist”. For the record, the theme suits Jericho far more than it suits the former Shark.

As he comes out Tenta says “Savage, you’re not putting me down”. You think so, John?

What exactly has that guy in the hat been up to? That is not the look of an innocent person.

Ohhh yeahhh, it’s the Macho Man. The commentators are pretending that the result of the match is in any doubt, which I suppose they have to do.

John “anti-fish” Tenta Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage

Savage storms to the ring, but that turns out to be a bad idea as Tenta stomps on the Macho Man’s back as he slides in and then clobbers him with a forearm to the back.

Bad strategy, Macho. Tenta’s moobs though… whoa.

That’s an interesting choice of attire for a wrestling event, madam.

Tenta works over Savage in the corner for a bit. Savage then begins to make a comeback, before for some reason attempting to slam Tenta…

Goes about as well as you’d expect. Macho really needs to work on his strategy.

Bischoff actually specifically says here that Heenan accidentally referred to Meng as “Haku” earlier and wants to make it clear Meng now works for WCW and not the WWF. I guess they were really taking this kind of thing seriously due to the lawsuits flying around at this point in history. Funny though, as you hear these kinds of slip-ups all the time. I mean, if TNA or AEW were sued for every time a commentator accidentally used a competitor’s ex-WWE name there would need to be a legal department created specifically just to deal with the fucking volume. At least Heenan didn’t call it “WWF Nitro”.

Tenta hits Macho with a decent looking drop kick – quite impressive considering his weight. Outside of the ring Savage hits Tenta with a steel chair…

He isn’t disqualified because…? He whacks Tenta twice more with a chair. This is not a no-DQ match, but it is WCW, so fuck the rules unless we need them for storyline purposes, right?

Flying elbow drop!

Macho goes up for a second, but then Teddy Long comes to ringside yelling “Macho!” – what could the so-called “godfather” want with Savage? Also where’s my man Ice Train at? Come to think of it, I just remembered what he was wearing earlier… best for him to stay backstage.

Savage still hits the second elbow drop. Long is gesticulating wildly at Savage and yelling something about the nWo. Savage leaps over the top rope with nice agility.

But before we go any further…

Son, I am disappoint. I can’t even say “A for effort” because that is the lowest tier of effort.

Anyway, Savage follows Teddy to the outside of the arena where Teddy announces “YOU GONNA GO ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE UNDERTAKER PLAYA!”

Actually, they run towards a limo.              

The limo drives off as soon as Savage approaches it. What was the point of that?

Flair and Mongo randomly appear as the limo drives away.

There’s another limo there, but only a box of spraypaint inside it. There are a ton of WCW guys out there now – the Horsemen, the Dungeon, Public Enemy, Juvi, Super Calo, Savage… basically everyone who was on TV tonight. They start spraypainting “WCW” on the limo windows… or rather, they try to. Due to the fact it’s been raining and everywhere is wet it ends up just looking like a green smudge. As an aside, if that is in fact not an nWo limo, somebody is going to be in for a surprise.  

For some reason the commentators are all standing up. Tenay is looking more evil every time he’s on camera. It’s like he wants to reach through the camera and strangle each and every viewer.

Seriously though, he is repeatedly making a “pissed-off dad” face.

“Dad, I borrowed your car…”

“Um… and… I got a speeding ticket…”

“And there’s a dent on the front as I kinda sorta knocked over the mailbox…”

Grounded forever.

Anyway, once they all sit back down Heenan goes on a rant about the nWo which concludes with “if we don’t stop them now then they can’t be stopped”. If only you could glimpse into the future and nWo 2000, Bobby.

Oh, by the way, I guess John Tenta won the match against Savage by count out? It wasn’t announced or shown, but Savage jumped out of the ring and never returned, so…

John Tenta defeats “Macho Man” Randy Savage via Countout.

I guess Tenta was right, Savage didn’t put him down after all. Score one for the fish hating weirdo.

Double A suddenly appears on set. Heenan gives Arn his headset. Can’t help but think it’d be better for Anderson to be in the ring with a mic, as the fans in the arena can’t hear any of this… but whatever.

Arn says that the world is “in shock” and “outraged”. The world is probably a bit of a stretch, but OK. Flair turns up as Arn is talking, as do Benoit and Mongo. Arn says that this all began ten years ago with the original Horsemen, and that they paved the way and showed the nWo how to do it. Technically true. Arn says the nWo want to be the Horsemen “when they grow up”.

Tenay continuing to give that evil stare, even at Arn. Bischoff looks kind of sad.

As an aside, I may have mentioned it before, but I really like this shirt design:

Bischoff begins talking about making mistakes, but Flair interrupts him. Flair screams so loudly that the headset seems to take some damage as the volume decreases slightly. Flair explains War Games – although if you don’t know what it is by this point then what have you been doing with your life? – and says Hogan won’t leave War Games alive. Spoiler alert: he does.

Bischoff then talks about how maybe bringing Hogan in to WCW was “a mistake” and that the Horsemen “haven’t been given their just due”. The same exact sentence could have been said in 2000 and been even more relevant.

WCW then ends the show with a replay of Luger getting beaten up by “Sting” and the nWo. I’m sure he appreciates that. A good thing they reminded us, as I think a whole ten seconds passed at the end there without mention of Sting’s betrayal and my memory had started to go hazy.

[ohprettyweeper-moved]

Open Your Eyes (Part 4)

Chapter Summary: As Christmas Day nears, feelings get stronger.  Pairing: Tyler Joseph x OFC, Frank Iero x OFC Word Count: 2635 Warnings: None? A/N: I needed something fun and cute to write with low pressure so that I could stop worrying about a more serious piece I’m working on for a bit. This five-part crossover series was the result! It’s cheesy and fluffy and is probably akin to something you’d see on the Hallmark Channel, but that’s how I intended it to be. Thanks to @razor-tothe-rosary for your help and encouragement! Enjoy reading, everyone!

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Masterlist

Americus scrolled through her phone one morning, ignoring Vanessa’s emails and catching up on the industry gossip. She was slightly surprised when she came across a paparazzi picture of Emerson and Frank Iero coming out of a record store in Jersey together. She knew that the Vans photoshoot had gone well for her new friend, but she hadn’t realized it went that well.

“Canoodling with co-stars, huh?” Americus teased when Emerson answered her call.

Emerson paused for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“There’s pictures of you and Frank together in Jersey,” Americus explained. “I knew you were going home for the holidays, I didn’t realize you were going to see Frank while you were there.”

“This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen,” Emerson groaned. She explained about Jeff and the phone call on the day of the shoot, how she had become friends with Frank, and how Jeff had stood her up at the airport. “Frank rescued me, and I wasn’t ready to face my family, so I hung out with him for a little bit.”

Americus frowned. “It’s not a bad thing, you know. I don’t know Frank real well, but I’ve heard good things about him.”

“No, Frank is great. It’s just that I’m new to all of this, and I don’t want anyone thinking I’m using Frank or you or anyone to climb the ladder.”

“I’ve seen your work, you know. You’re climbing the ladder on your own. If you make friends along the way, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s important to have people you can trust in this industry, honestly. Vans was a big deal, and you got there on your own. It can only go up from here, and it’s not going to have anything to do with Frank.”

“I guess,” Emerson mumbled. “I’m with my family now, but I’m going to call Frank. I’ll give you a call when I’m back in Los Angeles.”

Americus cleared her throat. “I’m actually doing some soul-searching of my own right now, and I’m in Columbus. Stay in touch, though, okay? If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”

“I will. Talk soon.”

Americus disconnected the call and tossed her phone to the cushion beside her. Emerson’s fear of being thought less of within the industry was precisely one of the things that made her want to get out. The littlest thing about one’s life could be misconstrued; it could destroy a prestigious career such as Americus’s or end one that had hardly begun, such as Emerson’s.

“Deep in thought again, daughter?” her father asked, coming into the living room with a cup of coffee in each hand. He handed one to Americus and took a seat at the other end of the couch.

Americus gave a small smile. “I’ve got a lot to be thinking about. I love the life I’ve lived, Dad. Really. I have no regrets, except that lately, I just don’t feel … well, grounded. That’s the word I keep using. I’ve never canceled on contracts before, until now.”

“That’s how you know this is important to you.”

“You’re right there. Being home again has been amazing, but it does still feel like a break. I know I need to go back to work, I just don’t know what work that will be.” She pressed her lips together. “Tyler offered me a job doing photography for their tour.”

“Tyler,” her father echoed. “That’s been a nice reunion, hasn’t it?”

“Daddy,” Americus said, rolling her eyes. “This isn’t about Tyler. Though, yes, it has been nice to be around him again. But to give up modeling -- everything I’ve built over the last fourteen years. I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Modeling wasn’t going to last forever, anyway. And, you know, taking a step back now doesn’t mean you’re done for good.”

They finished off their coffee in silence. With their mugs empty, Americus’s father excused himself to run his usual Saturday errands. Americus had some things to do herself, so she got up and got dressed, and headed out on her own.

Emerson let out a deep breath as she surveyed herself in the body-length mirror. Her sweater dress was pristine, save for the little piece of fuzz she picked off near her hemline. Her leggings would keep her warm, as would the socks and boots on her feet. Her hair was perfectly curled, her makeup flawless.

“Well, you look date-ready,” Tanya smiled from her place on the couch, curled up with Emerson’s soon-to-be stepfather.

“Thanks,” Emerson replied, one end of her mouth tugging upward. “I’m really not sure about this.”

“We know you’ve never wanted to do things this way,” Graham assured, “but Frank has been in this business for a long time. I don’t think he would lead you astray.”

Emerson didn’t think he would, either, but that didn’t make his plan any more appealing. What her mother and stepfather didn’t know was that when Emerson had called Frank about the pictures and the speculation, he had suggested they use it to get to Jeff and Sarah; to make their exes jealous, if nothing else. These weren’t the types of games Emerson usually played, but it had seemed like a better idea at the time than it did now.

When Frank arrived at seven o’ clock on the dot to pick her up, Emerson let him in the house and politely introduced him to her mother and Graham. Ignoring the meaningful looks in her direction, Emerson bid them goodnight and promised not to be gone too late, before she and Frank walked out to his car.

“Freezing out here,” she mumbled, dropping into the passenger seat.

“It is Jersey in December,” he reminded her. “You hungry? I’ve got reservations in the city.”

Emerson nodded. “I’m definitely hungry. But we don’t have to go all the way into the city, you know. We could eat around here. I don’t mind.”

“First of all,” Frank said, smirking at her as he pulled onto the main drag, “you deserve to be spoiled a little. Second of all, pretty sure New York City is a better place for us to be seen out together than anywhere else in the area.”

“That’s true.”

“We don’t have to go, if you’re unsure.” He reached for her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

Emerson took a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t want to go. I wouldn’t mind Jeff seeing me out there, better off without him, really. I’ve just never played games like this before -- always made a point not to, actually.”

“I like that about you. But sometimes, you’ve got to play the game. In this industry, Emmy, you have to show them that you can stick up for yourself. That you’re not a doormat, and that you’re not the innocent, naive thing they all think you are.”

Emerson withdrew her hand from his. There was something harsh and condescending in his tone. It made her want to get out of the car and walk home in the cold. Crossing her arms over her chest, Emerson sat back in her seat and spent the rest of the drive staring out her window.

Tyler came to pick Americus up this time, and when they saw each other, they couldn’t help but laugh. Americus’s sweater read, “Why is the carpet all wet, Todd?!” while Tyler’s read, “I don’t know, Margo!” The exchange was one of their favorites from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, so it was only fitting that their sweaters were coordinated.

“And we didn’t even have to try,” Tyler laughed, holding her steady as they walked down the icy steps of her father’s front porch. “Don’t slip. I about ate it on the way up.”

Not at all interested in a bruised backside or sore limbs, Americus held tight to Tyler’s arm as they awkwardly made their way to his car. When she was safely seated and buckled in, Tyler went around to the driver’s side, ready to get them to Josh’s place.

“I thought you said Josh lived in LA?” she asked.

“He’s got an apartment there and a house here,” Tyler explained. “We’re in Los Angeles a lot, but Columbus is home. You know?”

Americus nodded. “Yeah. I do, actually.”

“It’s been nice having you around here, you know. Spending time together again. Not that this is anything, you know, so don’t take it the wrong way, but I always wondered if you and I wouldn’t have became something if life hadn’t taken us in different directions.”

“Really? You would have wanted that with me?”

Tyler shrugged, suddenly wondering if maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up. “We were young. When you’re young and close friends with the first girl you ever kissed, those things cross your mind. But I’m kind of an emotional guy.”

“You are,” Americus agreed, “but I wondered it, too. You were my first kiss too, you know.”

Tyler couldn’t help but smile as he glanced at her from the driver’s seat. “I did know that, actually.”

Americus couldn’t help but blush and wonder if maybe Tyler had walked back into her life at just the right time, and for a reason she was just beginning to understand.

When they pulled up to the front of the restaurant, Frank handed the valet the key before opening Emerson’s door. She stepped out of the car, walking a few steps ahead of him. Just outside of the front door, Frank caught her by the elbow and pulled her aside. His hands mingled with hers, and he begged her forgiveness.

“I shouldn’t have said it like that, I’m sorry. I know the kind of reputation you’re trying to uphold and I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I am saying that you have to start sticking up for yourself if you’re going to make it, or your reputation isn’t going to matter. I think you’ve got a great future ahead of you. I want to see you make it. I don’t want -- I don’t want anyone to hurt you.”

Emerson swallowed hard. “Thank you, for the apology. It’s accepted. And for not wanting me to get hurt. I don’t want that either, but I also don’t want to become someone I’m not. I don’t want to be cold and callous and unfeeling.”

“There’s a balance,” Frank assured. “We just have to find it for you. Ready to eat now?”

Leaving one of her hands in his, Emerson nodded. “I’m ready.”

Frank smiled and led her into the restaurant. He gave his name at the front, and the host assured him that a table was waiting as reserved.

With their minor disagreement behind them, more pleasant conversation ensued. It wasn’t at all unlike their times together before; Emerson couldn’t believe how easy it was to just be around Frank. She didn’t have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t, or keep up appearances for work. In fact, by the time their food was served, Emerson had all but forgotten the reason they were out in the first place.

After dinner, Frank took her to Rockefeller Center. They took a picture together in front of the big Christmas tree there, watched people go by, and slowly made their way back to the restaurant.

When they crossed the Jersey state line, Emerson bit her lip. She knew what she wanted to say, but she wasn’t exactly sure how to say it. After another couple of minutes, she just blurted it out.

“I don’t wanna go home yet.”

Frank looked over at her briefly before setting his eyes back on the road. She could see that he was the one trying to fight a smile now, and it made her feel better about saying what was on her mind.

“Wanna go back to my place?”

Emerson nodded, shooting a text to her mother that she may not be home at all. Even as an adult, she didn’t want to worry anyone and add anymore drama to her vacation.

At Frank’s place, he offered her an oversized t-shirt to exchange for her dress. Her leggings would suffice for now, so she declined his offer of sweats and they settled on the couch with a couple of beers and Year Without a Santa Claus. The movie was Emerson’s favorite holiday film, so when she saw it on the guide, she pleaded with Frank to watch it with her.

As the movie started, Frank scrolled through his phone. Emerson asked if there was any reports of the two of them out in the city together, but he shook his head.

“Nothing yet. Don’t worry, I’m sure something will come up. Jeff will see what he’s missing.”

Emerson nodded and sipped at her beer, but she wasn’t really interested in making Jeff jealous anymore, she realized. She was only interested in what could develop with the man sitting next to her.

As the movie played and the two of them drifted off to sleep, Emerson leaning against Frank and him with an arm around her shoulders, Emerson started to wonder just how much her career would be affected if something with Frank started … or perhaps it already had.

The party was a blast. The crowd wasn’t too big, but it was certainly more than a group of people hanging out. Josh was nice and hospitable, conversed easily with Americus, and enjoyed hearing her stories about Tyler from their childhood.

Tyler never once left her side. Every wink he sent in her direction, everytime he leaned close to whisper something in her ear, chills invaded Americus’s spine. Her crush was quickly developing into something more, and while she wanted to see where all those what-if’s from long ago might lead, she also knew she had a decision to make regardless of her feelings for Tyler.

They stayed later, after everyone had left, and helped Josh clean up.

“That’s good for now,” Josh said, once all of the trash was picked up and the snack bowls were grouped on the island in the kitchen. “I’ll get the dishes and whatnot tomorrow.”

“You sure?” Americus checked. “It won’t take long between the three of us.”

Josh waved her off. “It’s almost one in the morning, it’s freezing outside. Get out of here before I change my mind.”

Americus smiled and hugged him. “Nice to meet Tyler’s best friend.”

“I was going to say the same to you,” Josh returned with a smile. “Good to know we can get along, if you decide to come work with us.”

Americus took a deep breath, glancing at Tyler. She should have figured Josh would know about the job offer; Tyler wouldn’t have offered it before checking with other people involved first. Still, it was strange to hear from someone else.

Josh bid them goodnight and saw them to the door; Americus had a tight hold to Tyler’s arm again so she wouldn’t slip but they both managed a wave back to Josh before getting in the car.

“Are we too old to do sleepovers like we did when we were little? I mean, before the whole boy-girl thing became an issue?” Americus asked. “I know it’s not the field like you talked about before, but I just feel … I don’t know. Can’t put a label on it.”

Tyler nodded and reached his gloved hand out for hers. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Wanna stop at your dad’s for clothes and stuff first?”

Americus nodded, lacing her fingers through his. They had more or less picked up right where they left off before her life moved west, and she wasn’t complaining one bit about that. There was some getting to know each other again that would have to happen, but she could accept that.

[theycalledmecrazy]

It's strange to say, but I'm one of the last people to shop in the wee hours of the morning at a Walmart. I finished my shopping and approached the cash register right around midnight. The cashier had just clocked in and had just been told that was her last night working the late shift as a cashier. Starting tomorrow, all the Walmarts across the nation will close at 11 PM. Third shifters like my cashier will be in charge of cleaning and sanitizing a store and assisting in restocking for the next day.

It's a strange thing to think about. Our lives are so convenience based. Anytime day or night, if you need something, there was probably a store within a reasonable driving distance that you could go to and find what you need, barring any specialty necessities. 

I wonder to myself if this move won't be slightly counterproductive to containing the virus. As it stands now, shoppers are spread out in the major big box stores over a 24-hour period. Now, with many stores taking 8 or so hours off in the middle of the night, shoppers will only be able to access the store within a 16 to 17 hour timeframe, naturally leading to a higher concentration of people during those times.

It's been a week of interesting firsts. Just the other day, Mike Dewine, governor of Ohio made the announcement that Ohio schools would be closed for 3 weeks. For the first time in history, every Disney park on Earth is closed at the same time. And for the first time in my knowledge, my job has authorized people who don't normally work from home to do so.  

I digress from my point. First, I suppose some backstory will be due. This is being written on the Ides of March in the year 2020. I am in Columbus, Ohio, United States. I am 37 years old. The country, state, and city have all declared states of emergency in the wake of the spread of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. As I dictate this to my phone, I'm driving home from Sidney Ohio, having just completed a route delivering medicine to nursing homes. I work two jobs.

I began researching this disease and the spread of it well before it hit American shores. I've been watching the John Hopkins 'heat map' since the second week of January, a time when the only mention of coronavirus you heard was your coworker telling a joke involving it going best with lyme disease. I've learned about its capability of spread in an urban populace, and I watched the drone footage of the "ghost city" of Wuhan several weeks ago, long before it went viral (ha!) via Facebook. A booming urban metropolis reduced to how London looked in 28 Days Later. I learned about the term 'Community Spread' before it was ever uttered on American live feeds. My productivity at work, my attention to friends, my normal functioning bottomed out as I became hyperfocused on the menace that I begged the universe in vain to keep overseas. I should have known, and should have been preparing. But, as humans are prone to be, I was a product of my environment. That culture of convenience and procrastination. But now there's no more convenience and no more procrastination.

I now know that things are going to get worse. These kind of rushes on product like we've been seeing is just the beginning. We are going to face days of true scarcity. I fear that even with my recent stockpiling, that my "preparedness" has come too late. I remember my father teaching me how to stockpile and prep for days when there would be scarcity, and I've failed to do so effectively. Over the last week or so, I've done my best with the small amount of resources I have. As things stand now, my shelves are stocked. I know how to ration in emergency situations, and although it will suck, I know that I can ration much smaller amounts because I have a lot of fat on my body that my body will live off of for extended periods of time. I always joked that being overweight was just a surplus Y2K survival kit. Turns out, that's truer than I'd like it to be. I thought keto was my path to losing weight. Turns out the coming days will be much more effective. 

The scenarios that we had always gone over in are prepping drills involved an attack on the United States or some uprising within. All that boogaloo horseshit you hear, or heard. Ways to make sure that your food was secure from people that might be looking for it. Making sure that you had weapons to defend yourself and those in your care. Safeguards against basic things like frostbite or heat exhaustion. Basic first aid. Foraging. Boy Scout shit. The drills never included anything like Covid-19. At first we were told that the illness was little worse than a common cold, just a little easier to spread the people. Now, we are getting reports that it creates a fibrosis in the lungs, and even if you recover from your bout of the illness, you can be left with up to 20% reduced lung capacity. People in Hong Kong are now reporting that healthy adults that have recovered from the disease now get winded by a brisk walk. In Japan, a recovered patient has tested positive for the disease again, making the medical community wonder about the antibodies that the bodies of recovered SHOULD be producing. Dad and I never prepared for anything like that. I think the best hope in the situation that we prepared for would be that any human we come in contact with will have also been similarly reduced in  capacity, since this disease looks to be one that will spread to a majority of the populace. I'm glad that part of preparedness is adaptability, but I'm still sitting here rambling.  

I've tried to focus on purpose in the last several days. I keep telling myself that it's important to stay positive and to still do the things that I love doing. Indeed, I still play cards with my roommate and my gaming group of friends, all aware that we may wind up having to quarantine once 'things get bad'. I watch people that I love still doing the things that they love, seemingly unaware of the world that's collapsing around us. What I like to go see a movie? Would I like to go to the mall? Would I like to go see a show in a theater? Absolutely. But while many do not notice, we don't live in that world anymore. Well, some still do. They'll live in that world until the very last moment they can - which is why I had to live in this new one so soon. Even now, when it's becoming apparent that the world as we knew it is over, social media is alight with blissful ignorance and vapid resistance to the world we find ourselves in. 

When the first cases were reported in the state, it was on a day I found myself financially unstable. I couldn't have prepared for anything that day if I'd wanted to - I had victoriously paid off two large pieces of debt and was done with an 'only has money' week until next payday, and even the next paycheck had obligations. Instead of writing a plan, I wrote letters to my loved ones with advice for the upcoming hard times, and an apology for leaving them(before you all sound the alarm, that's not what this is, and that feeling has long since passed). Reading the letters to myself, I realized the cowardice behind the words, and despised myself for a few days after deleting them. Though, admittedly, even now as I watch the heat map and watch the numbers rolling in, I somewhat long for cowardice, but steel myself and square my shoulders for the task ahead. 

Now this.

Some friends have asked me to promise to get their loved ones to them if I'm closer to them than they are, or even to keep them with me and keep them safe. For all my misanthropy, I guess people still see me as some kind of fringe guardian in many respects. I suppose it's because they know I'd die before letting someone I care about die. I wonder if it makes me exploitable, or if maybe that's just my purpose. It makes a lot of things make a lot of sense. Sometimes in the horror movie of life, you're the one that distracts the monster so the others can get away. I have no illusions of being the hero, but I won't turn down the opportunity if it happens. Ugh, this paragraph was self serving as hell, but I'm not deleting anything at this point. Watch me ramble. Maybe there's something valuable in it. 

That time is a bit off, but I know that I'm going to see loved ones die in this, and I know that my friends in my time that read this will think I'm being overdramatic(I'm sure some of them haven't even made it this far and have either called me or forwarded this to authorities - both unnecessary, I assure you). I know that I may not survive what's coming. So I think the best thing I can do is do what I've always done. Write. I will write and hope that my words will create a culture among those that read my words in a distant future. My goal is to make you, the reader, not make the same mistakes we made, the mistakes I made, the mistakes anyone made. I won't have an editor, most likely, so forgive my rambled mess of a memoir. Maybe someone in the future will edit and make sense of it all. 

I hope that this is all just me ranting and raving about something absurd and in the future this will embarrass me and we'll all laugh about it. If you're in the future and reading this, however, that means that scenario isn't what happened. I hope things are better for you. I hope that I'm talked about with good words. I hope some of my loved ones are the ones who saved these words and shared them with the world. It would be really great if it was me, but I'd probably edit out this whole paragraph, so probably not. That's ok. Either way, it's now 2:30am and I must unload groceries and get them shelved. Tomorrow is another day, and I'm going to play some video games while I can like the old millennial I am to escape for a couple hours before my nerves finally let me sleep. See? Rambling run-on sentences. You'd never guess I was an English major. Ms. Somers would be so disappointed (lol). I told my friends in February that we'd be ordered to stay at home soon. They called me crazy.

I didn't realize until just this moment that if anyone ever reads this aside from those I send it to in order to preserve it, I'll essentially have been writing my own eulogy. That's fine. I'll take that.

I decided to create this Tumblr on March 30, 2020. In the two weeks since writing this prologue, things have progressively gotten worse. I will write more tomorrow.

[miningtransport]

Sightseeing Car

July 4, 2017

I think since the Fourth of July is a travel day, that means I'll be sidestepping the holiday altogether. It’s such a hot, dusty, crowded holiday sometimes and we’re sliding toward authoritarianism right now, so skipping it seems fine. But it doesn't work out like that on the Coastal Starlight Amtrak train from Salem to Seattle.

By the time we cross the Columbia River and head up into Western Washington, I've abandoned my seat in coach and am stationed in the sightseeing car. On those big trains that come all the way up from L.A., the coach cars feel like dormitories. People are really camping out in there. There’s little babies, and odors, and sleeping bags. More than half of the curtains have been pulled shut. The sightseeing car is full of light and windows, with the seats facing out.

A couple of volunteer park rangers are narrating what we see out the windows. They have a lot of good information about rivers, the industrial stuff we pass, ships taking grain to Hong Kong, steel plants. Osprey nests. Local history. It's a bit cheesy at times, but I enjoy the narration of the ride, and it's kind of cute how many people are happy to be talked at by the old duffers in vests.

Different people sit around me and then depart. They half listen, half talk amongst themselves. A young man in head to toe Seahawks gear sits down awkwardly in the seat next to me for a while. I take him to be Middle Eastern. Two young Asian women across the aisle seem to just be getting to know each other. I catch snippets of their conversation. “It can be hard. Do your parents speak English?” “No, do yours?”

I’m half listening, half writing in my journal about my weekend at the coast. A little voice says, “Excuse me, but is anyone sitting here?” It’s a black girl of about 8 years old. She is wearing pink sweat pants and a grey sweatshirt with pink stars on it. She has many long black braids. She’s confident, she’s polite, she’s smiling. For the moment she’s unaccompanied by an adult. I tell her to sit down. She’s peering out the window but also keeps blatantly looking over at me writing. “Whatchu writin about?” she asks. I tell her, “Just my weekend. Stuff that happened.” She looks disappointed, like she doubted I had a very interesting weekend, and if it were her writing it would be something juicier.

A little while later, an older man comes in the car. I don’t take him for her grandpa at first because even though his skin is dark brown like hers, he has one long braid down his back and his facial features and body language remind me of the old Native guys in the town where I grew up. But he is her grandpa and they move a little further down the car to where there were two seats together. He is spare and stone-faced, with a ball-cap on and plain jeans and a t-shirt. He doesn’t react much to the girl and certainly not to anyone else around him, but she merrily fills the picture in. “Yes, this is my grandpa,” I hear her say to someone across the aisle. She’s turned around in her chair, long arms hanging off the back. “We go to the lake, but usually only when it’s good for fishing. We catch a lot of fish. And eat them.”

I remind myself not to stereotype. Just because he seems really Native American, that doesn’t mean he is. He’s just a travel weary guy with an inscrutable face. And the whole inscrutable face thing, that’s stereotyping too.

We pass a tree farm, and one of the volunteers is saying in the microphone, “This is a Christmas tree farm, but where on Earth do you think you could use a 30-foot tall Christmas tree?” The little girl’s hand shoots up. The old white guy points to her and she says, “IN A MANSION.” He says, “Well no, they just cut some of the branches off to make wreaths and the rest of the tree keeps growing.”

She turns back to the window, unfazed. She seems to know her answer was better than his. She seems pleased with herself, and reasonably sure others are pleased with her too. Not in a show-offy way, but just in a nice way.

I hear two people behind me talking. Their travel plans were both thrown off by the train derailment a couple of days earlier. They commiserate, and then start talking about other things. They both live in Seattle. The woman is white, in her late twenties or early thirties. I’d taken a peek at her earlier. I don’t know about the guy. He sat down after I looked last. I don’t want to look over and be obvious.

Then I hear her saying, “You know, that one, that loud-mouthed African woman.” I think, “Who can she be talking about?” and then realize she means Kshama Sawant, an Indian-American councilwoman. The woman is saying that raising the minimum wage to $15 has “ruined Seattle” and caused businesses to close their doors. The man she’s talking to says “Um… that’s all really… debatable.” The woman goes on to say that she herself got a pay bump when the minimum wage was raised, but she says it scornfully, like it was no good to her.

A man on the other side of them overhears the exchange and comes into the conversation. The two men are ignoring the woman now, choosing not in fact to have that debate. They are talking between themselves about volunteering for this or that Democratic state legislator’s campaign. They are both really well versed in the nuances of local politics.

The woman butts back in and says loudly, “Are you Hispanic?” The man sitting next to her says “Uh, no. Not at all.” She says “Ok, well I was just asking a question.” Then she says, “Where are you from, then?” He says, “I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio.” He is keeping his voice more casual than she is, but I can hear a certain tension sliding in. I can’t take it anymore, and glance over. The young man she’s talking to is the one I’d seen before, the possibly Middle Eastern (?) man in Seahawks gear. “Ohhhh” I think, as it all slides into place.

We’re approaching Centralia now. The little girl is still engaged with the scenery, the narration, her braids, her neighbors, herself. Her grandpa is still staring straight ahead thinking unknowable thoughts and betraying no emotion whatsoever.

The guys at the front with microphones are saying, “Centralia was founded by George Washington. No, not that George Washington!” They go on to explain that George Washington was the son of “a white servant girl and an enslaved black man” in Wherever, USA. His mother was afraid he would be sold into slavery, so she begged some people going west to adopt her son and take him with them. The family moved farther and farther west and I think George was a young man by the time they got to Washington. Stories of his entrepreneurial pluck. His ingenuity. How much the town loved him. How he was honored when he died in 1905.

I’m thinking, “Well, this is told like such a happy ending, but it’s a tragedy that this guy’s mother had to give him away because of slavery.” I think of Charles Mudede’s criticism of Nicole Brodeur—writing as if only white people are reading. I figure that’s what we’re all doing all the time. That’s America for you. One long rolling micro aggression, just like this train ride.

The train stops at Centralia, and our car is blocking an intersection. Cars are stopped waiting for the tracks to clear. A white couple in white middle age walk up and stop there, waiting. I look at them and think, “So you live in a town that was founded by a black man. Huh. Looks like Trump country.” I have no idea. I’m just stereotyping. He’s kind of sweaty and ruddy with a beer gut under his t-shirt and mussed up hair and sunglasses. She’s prim in her culottes with her little bob. I have no idea. But they seem very white and they could be Trump voters.

Then they’re smiling and doing big waves and I look over and see that they’re responding to the little black girl in the sweat suit and braids. She’s cheesing for them through the window. She’s waving like she’s royalty and her subjects have flocked to the tracks to watch her roll through her kingdom. I look to see if her grandpa looks amused. He is stone-faced as ever. I think, “maybe he’s like this all the time, or maybe he’s just really sick of white people.” As the train continues to sit there, the couple and the little girl both get distracted, but then as we pull away, there is a last beaming, waving connection—this time initiated by the white man on the sidewalk, who cranes his head and tips forward and makes the girl laugh with his goofy waving.

We’re running along the coastline now, and there are people down on the beach, on the rocks, on boats, on docks with their legs dangling off – mostly white people. The volunteer guys call our attention to a small island out in the bay, Fox Island. They begin another historical story, about how there was an Indian war because the governor of Washington was going to put “four large tribes and one small tribe” on a reservation out on that tiny island. I hear that the old white guys are trying, that they are saying the governor was responsible for the war, they are saying the names of the individual nations. They are saying it’s ridiculous that someone was trying to put all those people on a reservation on such a little island.

I think “HOLD ON” that’s not a reservation, that’s internment.

And then the guy speaking says that the tribes lost that battle but they “kind of won the war” because they got larger, separate reservations.

HOW IS THAT WINNING.

God. White people!

HOW IS THAT WINNING.

South of Tacoma, the crowds get bigger, browner, more citified. From the train it looks like some idealized version of a happy, multiethnic, multicultural society. Hijabis strolling in the sun. Big latino (latinx?) families. Kids running around. Black women with big natural hair and flowy skirts, swishing in the breeze. It’s just everybody. And people look happy. Tweets from that morning’s Black Twitter flash before my eyes. What the Fourth of July means, has meant to black people. How people find a way to carve out their own meaning, find their own sources of joy.

I read Black Twitter, and maybe I’m a bit of a lurker for following so many great black women writers on Twitter and reading their blogs and think pieces. But I figure if I keep listening to them, maybe I’ll be ready just on the off chance that I write something someday that finds its way to one of them. Because I don’t want to write like only white people are reading, or talk like only white people are listening, or experience the U.S. like only a white person can.

[krisrampersad]

Earthquake Earthquake

Ground beneath feet rocked harder and harder abd harder for almost a minute. Felt throughout Trinidad from reports north to south east to west. Escalated in strength before stopping UWI Seismic research centre estimate it at 6.8 near Venezuela but felt the radiating waves underfoot

Earthquake

My immediate thought when it continued on and on and on increasing in strength was how much still remains to be done before we lose so much and the heritage conservation work we had done in Port Royal Jamaica, the city that sunk in the Jube 7 1692 earthquake  that caused most of the city to sink  below sea level, some 5,000 deaths altogether from the earthquake, tsunami and after effects of floods and diseases.   see more Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU    

and video this page   click on video below 

Official preliminary report UWI, SRC - Automatic Earthquake Location

DATE AND TIME: 2018-08-21 5:31 pm (Local Time) 2018-08-21 21:31 (UTC)

MAGNITUDE: 6.8

LOCATION: Latitude: 10.51N Longitude: 62.76W Depth: 73 km

NEARBY CITIES: 55 km ESE of Carúpano,  Venezuela 95 km NE of Maturín,  Venezuela 131 km SE of Porlamar,  Venezuela

If you felt this earthquake, please tell us (https://ift.tt/2FTQL1v)

DISCLAIMER: this event has NOT been reviewed by an analyst. It was automatically   located by a seismological computational system, therefore, it is a PRELIMINARY result and this may vary when new additional data are processed.

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Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination Creating Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination Conceive. Achieve. Believe Demokrissy: Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Others: Demokrissy: Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 ... Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2.  http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's New ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an ... Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 10:36 AM ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Carnivalising the Constitution People Power ... Feb 26, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Envisioning outside-the-island-box ... - Demokrissy - Blogger Feb 10, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Futuring the Post-2015 UNESCO Agenda Apr 22, 2014 It is placing increasing pressure for erasure of barriers of geography, age, ethnicity, gender, cultures and other sectoral interests, and in utilising the tools placed at our disposal to access our accumulate knowledge and technologies towards eroding these superficial barriers. In this context, we believe that the work of UNESCO remains significant and relevant and that UNESCO is indeed the institution best positioned to consolidate the ..... The Emperor's New Tools ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Cutting edge journalism Jun 15, 2010 The Emperor's New Tools. Loading... AddThis. Bookmark and Share. Loading... Follow by Email. About Me. My Photo · Kris Rampersad. Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant, Facilitator, Educator and Practitioner. View my ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/

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[kickstarter-promotion]

Another Amazing Kickstarter (The Tooth Fairies Castle- Lost Teeth will never be the same. by Briana Pangborn —Kickstarter) has been published on http://crowdmonsters.com/new-kickstarters/the-tooth-fairies-castle-lost-teeth-will-never-be-the-same-by-briana-pangborn-kickstarter/

A NEW KICKSTARTER IS LAUNCHED:

 Our mission is to give the Tooth Fairies an identity, they’re begging for one, but not just one Fairy and not just one identity. We’ve made Fairies out of 6 predominate ethnic groups in the U.S., 4 of these fairies are Female and 2 are Male Fairies. We see this as an opportunity to educate our children on other cultures so that they might understand why we do things differently and be more accepting and understanding to those differences. The U.S.A. is a “melting pot” of many different nationalities and now more than ever we need to find ways to unite and bond. We know we’re not going to change the world and bring complete peace with our book, although that would be AWESOME, but we would like to believe that we’re at least teaching tolerance and acceptance and well, we think that’s pretty cool!!           …YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT’S NEXT!!

When my girls, Savannah and Courtney, were loosing their baby teeth we would put “Fairy Dust Dollars” under their pillow (I’d put glitter glue on the money) They LOVED it and that paired with my unhealthy addiction to glitter made it a win, win! 

Those “Fairy Dust Dollars” were the inspiration behind this project. When you think of Santa Claus you immediately have a picture in your head of what he looks like. Whenever we think about the Tooth Fairy we don’t have a clear picture of what he or she looks like. I’m hoping to change that…

We took the latest census and picked the top 6 ethnic groups , from the U.S, and made a fairy for each group here is what we came up with:                                                              

1) German Male Fairy- Name is David    2) Scottish/Irish Male Fairy- Name is Vallen  3) African Female Fairy-Name is Amari 4) Mexican Female Fairy -Name is  Anika   5)China Female Fairy- Name is Ting  6)India Female Fairy- Name is Amala        * Head of the Tooth Fairies- Name is Morna Glory           *Protector of the Castle-Dragoness Nessie

All our fairies wear costumes that reflect their culture and they also all have non-conventional wings. Oh and did I mention that this book will not be illustrated? We decided that children these days are so smart that they would believe in the magic of the tooth fairy even more if they could see a real picture of the fairies instead of an illustrated version. Our Fairies range in age from 16-65, who says fairies have to be young and only female? Not Us!!!  We have incorporated folklore and traditional attire for the fairies and the backgrounds of all pictures. This book will be the first in a series of 7, all 7 will correspond with each fairies ethnic background and the folklore in that region which we will combine with our folklore of the tooth fairy from the United States.

Imagine, if you will, a beautiful castle (made of teeth, of course) sitting in the highlands of Scotland on Loch Ness….I’ll give you a moment to close your eyes and just take it all in.. Aye, she’s a beauty!!…..moving along now, This castle is the head castle for the Tooth Fairies. This is where all new fairies come for their training. The Lady of the castle is Miss Morna Glory, you’re going to love her! The castle is protected by a beautiful opal colored dragon that lives deep within Loch Ness. The locals call her Nessie so that’s what we call her as well, plus she seems to like it. 

 Miss Morna Glory feeds Nessie a treat everyday at 5:30 am on the dot!     (We’ve even put the recipe for Nessie treats in the book)  One day Morna gets a letter in the mail telling her that she won a free trip to Disney World in the United States. She was so excited that she left without asking someone to feed Nessie everyday. The next day at 5:30 Nessie comes ashore and waits for her treat. After waiting an hour Nessie goes searching in the castle for her treats and finds them in the kitchen where she proceeds to eat them all. Nessie turns to go back to the Loch and realizes that she’s accidentally tore down half the castle.

Morna returns from her trip a week later to find her castle in ruins and calls out to her top 6 Tooth Fairies from around the world to help her rebuild the castle. She tells them to go out and bring the cleanest, strongest, whitest, and best teeth back. She gives each of them a container of “Fairy Dust” (each fairy has their own color glitter) to leave on the money as a sign to the child that their tooth was good enough to be used for the castle. 

…..Speaking of the castle, one of our plans is to have a corresponding website that will allow your child to see where his/her tooth is in the rebuilding of the castle. You’re child’s teeth will always light up whenever you pull up the castle on your account page. The kids go crazy over this, and I have to admit, it’s way cool!! That website will allow your child to sign into their account and not only see their teeth as “bricks” in the new castle but also learn all about the fairies and their country of origin along with history and facts about their culture , play games and even bake up a treat or two from their favorite fairies home country and that’s just the beginning.

   Well, we feel like we are the luckiest people around because we by far landed the most amazing photographer. I wouldn’t be able to pull off such a huge project without the talent of Laura from Laura Dark Photography. Laura has been in the business for well over 20 years and has an eye for capturing moments that others never even see. Laura’s studio is in Columbus Ohio and I was shocked but relieved to find such a gem outside of Hollywood. You can check out Laura’s work for yourself at www.lauradark.net or on facebook under Laura Dark Photography. While you’re there check out the pictures shes now doing with Ironwood Wolf’s, they are breathtakingly beautiful. You will see the same attention to detail and beauty in our pictures for the book as you see in every picture on her website.   *Thank You to Belinda Biddle for allowing us to us  the beautiful picture of the Scottish countryside she took on her recent trip to Scotland in 2016.

  * Publishing Fees and Books- $6,000.00 * Photographer and assistants plus site rental fees $10,000.00  * Costume Designer- $7,000.00  * Make-up, Hair and Special Effects Artist-$4,800.00  *Kickstarter Fees-$2560      * Extra Fees and expenses-$1,640.00

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY Kickstarter.com and Kicktraq.com VISIT PAGE SOURCE

[krisrampersad]

LiTTscapes child star Tops T&T in SEA Exams ongoing saga of our Reading Revolution

Congratualtions to Saiesh Rampersad who topped the national SEA exams with perfect scores 100 percent in Language, Maths and Creative Writing. Want to know why?

 He was only five years but he was already a star when he introduced author Dr Kris Rampersad cheekily and flawlessly reading three pages of text as “My Aunty Krissy” at the launch of the highly acclaimed LiTTscapes –Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago  at WhiteHall a commemorative publication on the Literary Heritage of Trinidad and Tobago featuring the representation of the islands by some 100 writers through photographs and texts. At the launch, Saiesh portrayed The Mystic Masseur, a famed character from the novel by VS Naipaul. . LiTTscapes was written to encourage appreciation of reading, literature and heritage and to spark curiosity in the world around by one and old, in conjunction with LiTTours and LiTTribute, dubbed ‘the reading room outside the reading room’ to make reading, even the harsh social realism of Caribbean literature, an enjoyable experience. Many children took part in our launch and have all gone on to be successful in their pursuit of excellence. We salute you. Saiesh success is testimony to the important role of dedication, guidance and encouragement from adults, beginning with his parents and family. Rooted in his heritage and with tremendous guidance support and encouragement, his is a role model in many ways for others.

We at LiTTscapes believe a solid literary gounding and understanding of one's place in the world is the foundation for success! Congratulations to all the children who wrote SEA.

 To those looking for help to guide their chldren, and adults, through enjoyably learning experience, ask about our events and activities or ook your on, LiTTscapes, LiTTour and LiTTribute.

 Corporate collaborations are welcome. Email lolleaves@gmail.com.  

 Five Year Old Child Stars at LiTTribute: https://goo.gl/fn3oTR

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Yo Ho ho and a bottle of rumhttps://goo.gl/TvXOHU

 Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Changing the World with Ideas  goo.gl/Pa6jAk

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits Nationhood in contestation with globalisation: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/08/nationhood-in-contestation-with.html    https://goo.gl/KWdUtx

https://ift.tt/2vv44gW

http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-world-inspired-littscapes-turns-3.html   https://goo.gl/J1EFn5

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The Walcott Files LiTTscapes for Littribute to the Antilles  A LiTTribute at UNESCO  Inscription by UNESCO of Poems Small only in Size UNESCO Executive Board told World in a Fishbowl A Musical Heritage walk UNESCO Creative Cities

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OverCopulation - The Archbishop The Priest The Politician & The Journalist

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Diplomats get stimulating LiTTour 

  Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination Creating Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination Conceive. Achieve. Believe Demokrissy: Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party

Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Related:

Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy

Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Others: Demokrissy: Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 ... Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2.  http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's New ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an ... Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 10:36 AM ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Carnivalising the Constitution People Power ... Feb 26, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Envisioning outside-the-island-box ... - Demokrissy - Blogger Feb 10, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Futuring the Post-2015 UNESCO Agenda Apr 22, 2014 It is placing increasing pressure for erasure of barriers of geography, age, ethnicity, gender, cultures and other sectoral interests, and in utilising the tools placed at our disposal to access our accumulate knowledge and technologies towards eroding these superficial barriers. In this context, we believe that the work of UNESCO remains significant and relevant and that UNESCO is indeed the institution best positioned to consolidate the ..... The Emperor's New Tools ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/ Demokrissy: Cutting edge journalism Jun 15, 2010 The Emperor's New Tools. Loading... AddThis. Bookmark and Share. Loading... Follow by Email. About Me. My Photo · Kris Rampersad. Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant, Facilitator, Educator and Practitioner. View my ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/

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@FoxNews, @UKinCaribbean, @WBCaribbean, @TheEconomist, @wef, @economictimes, @business, @businessinsider, @wsjbusiness, @wsj womenshealth, @wsjmag, @people, @fortunemagazine, @ellemagazine, @oprah, @O_magazine,  @OWNTV, @oprahbooklist, @voguemagazine, @twitterwomen, @womenintheworld, @UN_Women, @womenatforbes, @womensmediacentre @womensenews,

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[krisrampersad]

Rampersad: Claim our writers, recognise our heroes

Rampersad: Claim our writers, recognise our heroes

Michelle Loubon

Published: 

Sunday, September 16, 2012

First Lady of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Jean Ramjohn- Richards right, chats with Dr Kris Rampersad as she launched her latest book LiTTribute to the Republic at Knowsley Building, Queen's Park East, yesterday. PHOTO: NICOLE DRAYTON

“We cannot continue to view ourselves through the shattered lenses of the past.” Dr Kris Rampersad, author of LiTTscapes Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago, made this comment at LiTTribute to the Republic. The launch was also twinned with Tea Readings with the First Lady Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards.  She was joined by her daughter Maxine Richards and daughter-in-law Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards.

Rampersad said: “The creating of the society we want has to begin with us. It is not reinventing the wheel. “It is taking charge and setting for ourselves our own benchmarks of public action and accountability. We are taking this (literature) into all our communities. “We are asking them to claim their writers, recognise their heroes and respect their elders for the repository of knowledge and wisdom that they are...and yes, set up monuments, too, to them so the visitors will come honour them and honour us too, as our ancestors did in their land before coming here, so we do not have to go too far to look for our heroes.” 

On a lighter note, the launch featured readings by Saiesh Rampersad, five, an appraisal by cultural activist Pearl Eintou Springer, Chibale Drumming Ensemble and invocation by Kadie Edwards, Jolie Wong and Josiah Persad Rampersad: Claim our writers, recognise our heroes | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper

Michael Anthony: Save Mayaro Post Office

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Published: 

Sunday, September 16, 2012

The destruction of McLeod House, Chase Village, Chaguanas, sparked a lot of furore recently. Historian Michael Anthony is now appealing to the relevant authorities to act swiftly to save the landmark Mayaro Post Office which he claims is at the point of collapse in his hometown.

He made this comment at the launch of LiTTscapes (Landscapes of Trinidad and Tobago), at Knowsley House, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. Anthony, who hails from Mayaro, was also a special guest of event host Dr Kris Rampersad, who referred to him as her “muse.” Anthony said: “I felt hurt. They were afraid if they called the Government, there would be opposition.”

Sharing his knowledge of McLeod House, he said: “It was called Friendship House. There were competitions and they had banners proclaiming the amount of sugar that was produced.” “But there is another house at Mayaro that has contributed to the development of Mayaro. It is the Mayaro Post Office. And it is part of the historical culture.

“For 30 years, we have been trying to get the authorities to help. The building is crumbling. We called the Ministry of Health to come and get rid of the corbeaux. But they never came.” Anthony said although it belongs to the Mayaro Historical Society, he is hoping they would get help from the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism and the National Trust to restore and beautify the architectural icon.

 Anthony noted legislation was being worked upon to save these heritage treasures. “When it is enforced the people who live in these houses will have to look after them. I am hoping something would be done too because the house would collapse.” In the aftermath of the McLeod House demolition, Vel Lewis, National Trust and Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, says Minister of National Diversity and Social Integration Clifton De Coteau plans to meet with with Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to “follow up on the listing.” Lewis said while “properties of interest” had been identified, there was an urgent need to concretise the formal listing.

Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU

Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Arresting the Tears Hayti I’m Sorry https://goo.gl/6sy3y6

Noble Tears of a Nobel Bard https://goo.gl/WXbMpv

Towards State of the Art Museum: https://goo.gl/FfHfJL

Jurisprudence An Ode https://goo.gl/Gmn7l0

Ah Drinking Babash https://goo.gl/GhMncz

The Human face of constitutional reform https://goo.gl/6escjj

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits https://goo.gl/P6gP2Q

 Murder and the Museum  http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Woman in the mirror https://goo.gl/pvnX9d

Links to Demokrissy blogs

Related Links:

Murder and the Museum http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr

  Celebrating Nationhood But Can new Save the Nation http://ift.tt/2wLgqVm

Death of Knowledge & Social Conscience

Pat-bishops-last-struggle-killings https://goo.gl/tQUySt

Them-red-house-bones

A-tale-of-two-skeletons

Arresting-tears-for-us-and-haytian-globe:

Yo Ho ho and a bottle of rumhttps://goo.gl/TvXOHU

 Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Changing the World with Ideas  goo.gl/Pa6jAk

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits Nationhood in contestation with globalisation: http://ift.tt/2xPw4Mo    https://goo.gl/KWdUtx

http://ift.tt/2vv44gW

http://ift.tt/1ThyYwQ   https://goo.gl/J1EFn5

my-discoverie-columbus-lost-and-found

http://ift.tt/2udiMa6

http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K /from-beirut-to-port-of-spain-how-west.html

The-price-of-passion-awards-and-rewards

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Exploring a World Through MultiCultural Lenses http://ift.tt/2veR3ei

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Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination Creating Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination Conceive. Achieve. Believe Demokrissy: Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Others: Demokrissy: Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 ... Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2.  http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's New ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an ... Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 10:36 AM ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Carnivalising the Constitution People Power ... Feb 26, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Envisioning outside-the-island-box ... - Demokrissy - Blogger Feb 10, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Futuring the Post-2015 UNESCO Agenda Apr 22, 2014 It is placing increasing pressure for erasure of barriers of geography, age, ethnicity, gender, cultures and other sectoral interests, and in utilising the tools placed at our disposal to access our accumulate knowledge and technologies towards eroding these superficial barriers. In this context, we believe that the work of UNESCO remains significant and relevant and that UNESCO is indeed the institution best positioned to consolidate the ..... The Emperor's New Tools ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Cutting edge journalism Jun 15, 2010 The Emperor's New Tools. Loading... AddThis. Bookmark and Share. Loading... Follow by Email. About Me. My Photo · Kris Rampersad. Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant, Facilitator, Educator and Practitioner. View my ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K

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