#I based his look after 1920s cowboys I looked up | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wastelandwitch77 · 3 years ago

Photo

SO I absolutely love historical dress, and I saw The Bad Batch western AU by @hellothere-generalangsty , so I had to do this. (I’m also going to tag @mintywriteswritings because I first found the AU through her and she writes beautiful fics for it) Our view of the wild west is very 1950′s Hollywood, which is fine, but I just wanted to design some historically accurate costumes. (I made one for myself too because I wanted to design another dress) I’ve been working on this for at least a month? I think? So here’s the (mostly) historically accurate Bad Batch. If you want to read more about my decisions or research, you want to learn more about historical accuracy for your fics, or just think historical fashion is fun, please keep reading under the cut.

Our time period here is the late 1860′s.

I want to emphasize that this is DAY WEAR. This is what you’d be wearing around town or at work or at home. Evening wear is an entirely different beast altogether.

I guess I’ll start with Tech. Tech is the most fashionable. He’s a city boy and a doctor, and has access to more expensive fabrics, as well as knowing more about what’s trending. Everyone else is a year or two behind the fashion because it takes a while for the fashion to move out west.

His frock coat is very in fashion.

Working class people tried to stay on the fashions just as much as wealthier people, they just used what they had, typically adapting garments they already had to suit the new styles.

Lower class and working class people typically had maybe 4? outfits total. Two to switch out day to day, a “Sunday Best” to wear to church, and then something to wear to fancy occasions like dances and weddings (evening wear). Tech, being a bit wealthier, may have a few more than that.

Undergarments were changed everyday and washed more frequently than the outer clothing. Typically the outer clothing isn’t touching your skin much so that it didn’t get sweaty and didn’t have to be washed often. (washing=more wear and tear on the clothes) Aprons were worn during work to also keep the clothing from getting soiled.

The dropped shoulder seam and bishop sleeve was the go-to for both men and women.

Men would not go any where with at least a vest over their shirt if there were to be any women present (except their wife). Just the button up shirt is essentially like being in your underwear.

Likewise, women would never, EVER, have their hair down around men (except their husband.)

Woman’s hair was always parted in the middle (side part was only for men) and pulled into an up-do low on the head.

I had to cut Hunter’s hair, because long hair for men was only found on Confederates during this time and I just could not stand for that.

The modern cowboy hat didn’t exist yet. The hat here is “The Boss of the Plains.” It had only recently been created but was an instant hit. If the time period was any earlier than the 1860′s your cowboys would’ve been wearing a bowler hat.

If you are a woman, YOU ARE WEARING A DRESS. If you wore menswear at this time, you would get laughed out of town. No trousers. Not until at least the 1910′s did it become somewhat acceptable for women to wear pants at all. Yes, even while riding a horse, which means...

WOMEN ALWAYS RODE SIDE SADDLE. No exceptions. Not in the 1860′s.

WOMEN ARE WEARING CORSETS. YES, EVEN WORKING IN THE FIELDS. Corsets have been given a bad name by modern media, don’t fall for it. I could go on about corsets for hours if you let me. They did not restrict your movement or breathing. They weren’t laced tightly. They just provided structure and essentially functioned as the precursor to the bra. If it is before 1920, you are wearing a corset.

This is a mistake that’s made a lot, but you wore a chemise under your corset. Your corset does not touch your bare skin.

Women wore crinolines (kind of like a hoop skirt) that were slightly fuller at the back (getting ready for the bustle that was popular in the 1870′s). This is likely the only undergarment that MIGHT have been shed during hard labor.

Working women still wore full length dresses, only hemmed maybe an inch shorter for ease of movement.

Clothes for children were just smaller versions of adult clothes, really.

Young boys (like under the age of 6?) wore dresses until they were older.

Women and girls would’ve worn bonnets, but I think bonnets are fugly so I didn’t draw any.

There were just so, SO many amputations performed during the Civil War that the entire culture around disability changed. There was better accessibility and technology for disabled people than ever before.

I don’t think Tech would let Echo look shabby so he always makes sure that Echo is dressed appropriately.

I gave Echo a frock coat like Tech’s to mimic his kama, but then I put him in a wheelchair so you can’t even see it.

For shirts, dresses, and vests, they didn’t really do solid fabrics during this period. The more elaborate the pattern the better.

A shaved head on both men and women indicated that they were either ill or were recently ill (consumption, anyone?)

I based Hunter’s birthmark on my irl uncle Doug, who was a real cowboy.

I allowed hair-dye and bleach to exist because it helps keep the characters recognizable and also because I can.

The funnest part of this project was probably designing the patterns on the clothes.

My favorite design is probably Tech.

Menswear is kind of boring. It doesn’t change much after the Regency period. It was very tedious reading about the varying width of lapels in the 1800′s.

Overall, this period of fashion is not my favorite. This project made me yearn for the vastly superior 1890′s-1910′s era. But I still had a lot of fun.

If you still have questions feel free to ask. I don’t have a degree in historical fashion or anything, but I did hella research for this and if I know the answer to your question I’m happy to help.

#tbb western au #tbb #the bad batch #tech #wrecker #echo #hunter #omega #crosshair

45 notes · View notes

reading-writing-revolution · 4 years ago

Text

December 30, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 31

And so, we are at the end of a year that has brought a presidential impeachment trial, a deadly pandemic that has killed more than 338,000 of us, a huge social movement for racial justice, a presidential election, and a president who has refused to accept the results of that election and is now trying to split his own political party.

It’s been quite a year.

But I had a chance to talk with history podcaster Bob Crawford of the Avett Brothers yesterday, and he asked a more interesting question. He pointed out that we are now twenty years into this century, and asked what I thought were the key changes of those twenty years. I chewed on this question for awhile and also asked readers what they thought. Pulling everything together, here is where I’ve come out.

In America, the twenty years since 2000 have seen the end game of the Reagan Revolution, begun in 1980.

In that era, political leaders on the right turned against the principles that had guided the country since the 1930s, when Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt guided the nation out of the Great Depression by using the government to stabilize the economy. During the Depression and World War Two, Americans of all parties had come to believe the government had a role to play in regulating the economy, providing a basic social safety net and promoting infrastructure.

But reactionary businessmen hated regulations and the taxes that leveled the playing field between employers and workers. They called for a return to the pro-business government of the 1920s, but got no traction until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, when the Supreme Court, under the former Republican governor of California, Earl Warren, unanimously declared racial segregation unconstitutional. That decision, and others that promoted civil rights, enabled opponents of the New Deal government to attract supporters by insisting that the country’s postwar government was simply redistributing tax dollars from hardworking white men to people of color.

That argument echoed the political language of the Reconstruction years, when white southerners insisted that federal efforts to enable formerly enslaved men to participate in the economy on terms equal to white men were simply a redistribution of wealth, because the agents and policies required to achieve equality would cost tax dollars and, after the Civil War, most people with property were white. This, they insisted, was “socialism.”

To oppose the socialism they insisted was taking over the East, opponents of black rights looked to the American West. They called themselves Movement Conservatives, and they celebrated the cowboy who, in their inaccurate vision, was a hardworking white man who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone to work out his own future. In this myth, the cowboys lived in a male-dominated world, where women were either wives and mothers or sexual playthings, and people of color were savage or subordinate.

With his cowboy hat and western ranch, Reagan deliberately tapped into this mythology, as well as the racism and sexism in it, when he promised to slash taxes and regulations to free individuals from a grasping government. He promised that cutting taxes and regulations would expand the economy. As wealthy people—the “supply side” of the economy-- regained control of their capital, they would invest in their businesses and provide more jobs. Everyone would make more money.

From the start, though, his economic system didn’t work. Money moved upward, dramatically, and voters began to think the cutting was going too far. To keep control of the government, Movement Conservatives at the end of the twentieth century ramped up their celebration of the individualist white American man, insisting that America was sliding into socialism even as they cut more and more domestic programs, insisting that the people of color and women who wanted the government to address inequities in the country simply wanted “free stuff.” They courted social conservatives and evangelicals, promising to stop the “secularization” they saw as a partner to communism.

After the end of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, talk radio spread the message that Black and Brown Americans and “feminazis” were trying to usher in socialism. In 1996, that narrative got a television channel that personified the idea of the strong man with subordinate women. The Fox News Channel told a story that reinforced the Movement Conservative narrative daily until it took over the Republican Party entirely.

The idea that people of color and women were trying to undermine society was enough of a rationale to justify keeping them from the vote, especially after Democrats passed the Motor Voter law in 1993, making it easier for poor people to register to vote. In 1997, Florida began the process of purging voter rolls of Black voters.

And so, 2000 came.

In that year, the presidential election came down to the electoral votes in Florida. Democratic candidate Al Gore won the popular vote by more than 540,000 votes over Republican candidate George W. Bush, but Florida would decide the election. During the required recount, Republican political operatives led by Roger Stone descended on the election canvassers in Miami-Dade County to stop the process. It worked, and the Supreme Court upheld the end of the recount. Bush won Florida by 537 votes and, thanks to its electoral votes, became president. Voter suppression was a success, and Republicans would use it, and after 2010, gerrymandering, to keep control of the government even as they lost popular support.

Bush had promised to unite the country, but his installation in the White House gave new power to the ideology of the Movement Conservative leaders of the Reagan Revolution. He inherited a budget surplus from his predecessor Democrat Bill Clinton, but immediately set out to get rid of it by cutting taxes. A balanced budget meant money for regulation and social programs, so it had to go. From his term onward, Republicans would continue to cut taxes even as budgets operated in the red, the debt climbed, and money moved upward.

The themes of Republican dominance and tax cuts were the backdrop of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. That attack gave the country’s leaders a sense of mission after the end of the Cold War and, after launching a war in Afghanistan to stop al-Qaeda, they set out to export democracy to Iraq. This had been a goal for Republican leaders since the Clinton administration, in the belief that the United States needed to spread capitalism and democracy in its role as a world leader. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq strengthened the president and the federal government, creating the powerful Department of Homeland Security, for example, and leading Bush to assert the power of the presidency to interpret laws through signing statements.

The association of the Republican Party with patriotism enabled Republicans in this era to call for increased spending for the military and continued tax cuts, while attacking Democratic calls for domestic programs as wasteful. Increasingly, Republican media personalities derided those who called for such programs as dangerous, or anti-American.

But while Republicans increasingly looked inward to their party as the only real Americans and asserted power internationally, changes in technology were making the world larger. The Internet put the world at our fingertips and enabled researchers to decode the human genome, revolutionizing medical science. Smartphones both made communication easy. Online gaming created communities and empathy. And as many Americans were increasingly embracing rap music and tattoos and LGBTQ rights, as well as recognizing increasing inequality, books were pointing to the dangers of the power concentrating at the top of societies. In 1997, J.K. Rowling began her exploration of the rise of authoritarianism in her wildly popular Harry Potter books, but her series was only the most famous of a number of books in which young people conquered a dystopia created by adults.

In Bush’s second term, his ideology created a perfect storm. His administration's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people and caused $125 billion in damage in and around New Orleans in 2005, revealed how badly the new economy had treated Black and Brown people, and how badly the destruction of domestic programs had affected our ability to respond to disasters. Computers permitted the overuse of credit default swaps that precipitated the 2008 crash, which then precipitated the housing crisis, as people who had bet on the individualist American dream lost their homes. Meanwhile, the ongoing wars, plagued with financial and moral scandals, made it clear that the Republicans optimistic vision of spreading democracy through military conflict was unrealistic.

In 2008, voters put Black American Barack Obama, a Democrat, into the White House. To Republicans, primed by now to believe that Democrats and Black people were socialists, this was an undermining of the nation itself, and they set out to hamper him. While many Americans saw Obama as the symbol of a new, fairer government with America embracing a multilateral world, reactionaries built a backlash based in racism and sexism. They vocally opposed a federal government they insisted was pushing socialism on hardworking white men, and insisted that America must show its strength by exerting its power unilaterally in the world. Increasingly, the Internet and cell phones enabled people to have their news cater to their worldview, moving Republicans into a world characterized by what a Republican spokesperson would later call "alternative facts."

And so, in 2016, we faced a clash between a relentlessly changing nation and the individualist ideology of the Movement Conservatives who had taken over the Republican Party. By then, that ideology had become openly radical extremism in the hands of Donald Trump, who referred to immigrants as criminals, boasted of sexually assaulting women, and promised to destroy the New Deal government once and for all.

In the 2016 election, the themes of the past 36 years came together. Embracing Movement Conservative individualist ideology taken to an extreme, Trump was eager enough to make sure a Democrat didn't win that, according to American intelligence services, he was willing to accept the help of Russian operatives. They, in turn, influenced the election through the manipulation of new social media, amplified by what had become by then a Republican echo chamber in which Democrats were dangerous socialists and the Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was a criminal. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision which permitted corporate money to flow into election campaigns, Trump also had the help of a wave of money from big business; financial institutions spent $2 billion to influence the election. He also had the support of evangelicals, who believed he would finally give them the anti-abortion laws they wanted.

Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes but, as George W. Bush before him, won in the Electoral College. Once in office, this president set out to destroy the New Deal state, as Movement Conservatives had called for, returning the country to the control of a small group of elite businessmen who, theoretically, would know how to move the country forward best by leveraging private sector networks and innovation. He also set out to put minorities and women back into subordinate positions, recreating a leadership structure that was almost entirely white and male.

As Trump tried to destroy an activist government once and for all, Americans woke up to how close we have come to turning our democracy over to a small group of oligarchs.

In the past four years, the Women’s March on Washington and the MeToo Movement has enabled women to articulate their demand for equality. The travel ban, child separation policy for Latin American refugees, and Trump’s attacks on Muslims, Latin American immigrants, and Chinese immigrants, has sparked a defense of America’s history of immigration. The Black Lives Matter Movement, begun in July 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin, has gained power as Black Americans have been murdered at the hands of law enforcement officers and white vigilantes, and as Black Americans have borne witness to those murders with cellphone videos.

The increasing voice of democracy clashed most dramatically with Trump’s ideology in summer 2020 when, with the support of his Attorney General William Barr, Trump used the law enforcement officers of the Executive Branch to attack peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C. and in Portland, Oregon. In June, on the heels of the assault on the protesters at Lafayette Square, military officers from all branches made it clear that they would not support any effort to use them against civilians. They reiterated that they would support the Constitution. The refusal of the military to support a further extension of Trump's power was no small thing.

And now, here we are. Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes and by an Electoral College split of 306 to 232. Although the result was not close, Trump refuses to acknowledge the loss and is doing all he can to hamper Biden’s assumption of office. Many members of the Republican Party are joining him in his attempt to overturn the election, taking the final, logical step of Movement Conservatism: denying the legitimacy of anyone who does not share their ideology. This is unprecedented. It is a profound attack on our democracy. But it will not succeed.

And in this moment, we have, disastrously, discovered the final answer to whether or not it is a good idea to destroy the activist government that has protected us since 1933. In their zeal for reducing government, the Trump team undercut our ability to respond to a pandemic, and tried to deal with the deadly coronavirus through private enterprise or by ignoring it and calling for people to go back to work in service to the economy, willing to accept huge numbers of dead. They have carried individualism to an extreme, insisting that simple public health measures designed to save lives infringe on their liberty.

The result has been what is on track to be the greatest catastrophe in American history, with more than 338,000 of us dead and the disease continuing to spread like wildfire. It is for this that the Trump administration will be remembered, but it is more than that. It is a fitting end to the attempt to destroy our government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

7 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 years ago

Link

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 30, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

It’s been quite a year.

In America, the twenty years since 2000 have seen the end game of the Reagan Revolution, begun in 1980.

And so, 2000 came.

As Trump tried to destroy an activist government once and for all, Americans woke up to how close we have come to turning our democracy over to a small group of oligarchs.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #quotes #poltical #history #election 2020 #21st century #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP

3 notes · View notes

notbecauseofvictories · 5 years ago

Note

hi sarah! you'd been talking a lot about the history of blues/bluegrass a few months ago and i just remembered it so i was wondering if you have any book/article recommendations for the history of those genres?

Absolutely! My research has tended to focus on the history prior to the 1960s, since by that point both blues and bluegrass had mostly settled into the genres we recognize today.

BLUES is technically older, and the creation of black Americans, based on a Southern threading together of spiritual music (itself with deeper, trans-Atlantic African roots), slave working songs, and uniquely African-American folk ballad traditions. It encompasses an incredible amount of regional variation, as well as religiosity, and a slide into sub-genres like dirty blues and its euphemistic cousin, hokum blues. (If you want to hear the difference, listen to Lucille Bogan’s “Shave ‘em Dry” versus Bessie Smith’s “I Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl”.)

Sources for the Blues:

Samuel Charters’ “The Country Blues” was published in 1959 and is considered the groundbreaking history of the genre. The book has some failings and errors (it definitely over-romanticizes black life) but it really was the first of its kind and ignited all the study afterwards. Charters’ recordings of the blues artists he spoke with and interviewed has also been made into an album of the same name by Smithsonian Folkways.

There’s no way I can talk about the blues without referencing Alan Lomax—an ethnomusicologist and director of the American Archive of Folk Culture, who, when the Library of Congress stopped funding folk music recordings, went on collecting them independently. “The Land Where Blues Began” is both the title of his account of finding those recordings, and the documentary he directed and narrated for PBS.

For more of a straightforward history, I recommend "Deep Blues“ by Robert Palmer or “Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music” by Ted Gioia. They’re both good “big picture” histories.

A lot of blues histories are written by white historians and critics—with the exception of LeRoi Jones’ “Blues People” (since publication, Jones has changed his name to Amiri Baraka). It’s less a history than a theoretical project, an ethnography and sociological history of the people blues came from and why black people could make the blues in the first place. Still, it’s a great read and deserves to be on this list.

I’ll also give a shout out to “The Black Musician and the White City” by Amy Absher, which is all about the music scene in Chicago—the chapter I’ve linked here is a fascinating picture of what the music scene looked like, as the Delta blues branched off into Chicago blues and black musicians struggled to make inroads into a highly segregated profession (also, a look at the tension between largely-white unions and black communities in Chicago that continues to inform city politics).

If you’re looking for introductory reading….

I found this article on African-American Song from the Library of Congress a good starting place—it’s only partly about the blues, but I think it’s good to understand the context of blues, and the various other styles that were co-evolving with it. Blues, string-band, vaudeville, gospel….all these genres were talking to one another, and understanding that gives you a better grounding for the actual history of the thing.

Though less formal, PBS actually created “The Blues - Classroom” in 2003, which is a repository of lesson plans and essays to accompany the seven-part film series of the same name. It’s a great, quick resource, if you’re just getting started.

BLUEGRASS is much younger, if you’re going by when Earl Scruggs invented the particular picking style every banjo player since has imitated—or co-equally created, based on old-time string band music and what Al Hopkins in the 1920s called “hillbilly music.” You’ll often see the genre referred to as “bluegrass and old-time music” as a way of referencing both the pre-WWII folk/hillbilly music that gave rise to the genre as well as all the followed after Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. (Though the debate as to what “counts” as bluegrass is so ubiquitous that the International Bluegrass Music Association message boards gave it an acronym: WIBA, short for “What Is Bluegrass Anyway?”)

Sources for Bluegrass & Old-Time:

A pretty foundational text in this area is Neil V. Rosenberg’s “History of Bluegrass”—Rosenberg almost exclusively studied bluegrass in the US, and had a column in Bluegrass Unlimited (the “bible of bluegrass”) for years. If you want just a taste, there are a number of his articles on jstor. Personally, I recommend “From Sound to Style: The Emergence of Bluegrass.” (He tends to be overly partial to Bill Monroe, but it is a heavy-hitter book in the area.)

There are a number of personal accounts that I could list here—for instance, Bill Monroe (the ‘father of bluegrass’) has a biography that’s supposedly pretty good, and Butch Robins, who later played banjo for the Blue Grass Boys, has a video series where he talks about bluegrass and his experience as a musician. However, I don’t know if these are actually enjoyable resources for anyone except the true devotee.

“What is bluegrass anyway? Category formation, debate and the framing of musical genre” by Joti Rockwell, from Popular Music. I love a good categorical debate!

Some of my favorite post-1960s bluegrass comes out of what I would call “folk resistance music”—figures like Pete and Mike Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, all wielded the particular sound of bluegrass, but in a way that made it ideologically more similar to blues or traditional folk music. As someone who watched Harlan County, USA at a tender point in her life, I have a particular affection for Hazel Dickens, and I did enjoy her biography “Working Girl Blues.”

If you’re looking for introductory reading…

The Library of Congress entry on bluegrass music is a good place to start.

The Journal of American Folklore did an entire issue on hillbilly music and its influence on bluegrass. You can find it digitized on jstor here, including a very instructive article called “Introduction to Bluegrass” by L. Mayne Smith, himself a musician of the folk music revival.

……..as a final note, I also want to point out that though it’s tempting to think of blues as distinct from bluegrass/hillbilly/old-time, as well as easily separated out from folk, gospel, jazz, ragtime, vaudeville, and traditional English/Irish/French/West African/etc. sounds, it’s simply not true. Talking about these musical trends as separate and distinct ignores the fact that many were happening at the same time, evolving concurrently and together, borrowing extensively from one another as musicians swapped techniques, styles, and dirty tricks.

By way of example, the “blue” in “bluegrass” comes from the addition of blue notes, which is also where you get “the blues.” Bluegrass definitely borrowed them from the African-American artists who had been blending blue notes and various styles of gospel music for decades by that point. But blue/bent notes are popular in Irish and English folk music as well, particularly on various types of mouth harps and pipes (…in America, mouth pipes became the diatonic harmonica, which, along with the banjo—itself evolved from West African gourd instruments—gave birth to cowboy blues. It’s all a huge, weird, mess of people making noise.)

Nevertheless, there are intense politics wrapped up in who each genre “belongs” to. As Lil’ Nas X’s “Old Town Road” recently demonstrated, music genres often serve to keep “black” music and “white” music as distinguishable as possible—even when the sound is the same. This has been true since the origin of record labels, when recordings of black artists were “race records,” or “string-band” and white artists made “hillbilly” or “old-time.” (They sound very similar and frequently borrowed instrumental techniques from one another.) It doesn’t help that bluegrass rose to prominence with an all-white band, at a time of intense racial tension and as many Civil Rights activists and black historians were reclaiming the blues as a distinctly African-American sound. More recently, Joe Thompson and Tony Thomas (a fiddler and a banjo player, respectively) have spoken out about their experiences as black musicians in a musical subculture that is often designated for-and-by white people.

I bring this up not to invalidate the sources I’ve listed above, but to point out that the story of blues and bluegrass and the space between them is complicated—there’s not just one story to tell. The 1960s’ blues fetishism has been equally damaging and helpful; the idea that bluegrass is “white” music is in a sense correct, but also a gatekeeping mechanism to keep black artists out of music they have always participated in and influenced. Much like every other aspect of American history, there is a dense and complex interplay between race, class, and self-made mythology that historians are still unpicking.

But goddamn, the music is cool.

#long post for ts #history #thehazardsolove #the devil went down to georgia (and then went down on johnny)#from the bookshelf

188 notes · View notes

beautyslave17 · 4 years ago

Text

Produced Houses

. Is It Worth Making A Top Quality Build?

https://www.bromleygaines.co.uk/new-builds/ : #f9f9f9;border: 1px solid #aaa;display: table;margin-bottom: 1em;padding: 1em;width: 350px;">

Content

How The Property Improvement As Well As Repair Solutions In London Job.

Rj Repair Services.

Beginning Your Project.

Tiny Orangery Conservatories And Also Glass Conservatories.

This did not take place and also at 1920 on 13th Jun he mentioned he reimbursed the cash but would certainly take two days to clear, something my financial institution educated me would only take about two hours max as was a financial institution transfer. Having sent out messages today giving more opportunity to reimbursement I left adverse comments on Facebook. He has actually ultimately taken the page down, not the actions of a person that is genuine. I understand he made use of to trade as WBA Cleaning as well as Maintenance according to his invoice he sent. Please do not make use of NewLook building services Ltd based in Chesterfield.

Are orangeries warm in winter?

No - orangeries are not cold in winter, in fact they are very warm. Orangery roofs are highly thermally efficient, meaning that orangeries are warm and comfortable, whatever the time of year. building contractors local are as warm as any other room in your home – even in winter.

However, every sector has its cowboys and also plainly the structure trade is an industry. You'll be functioning closely with the builder of your new house for a minimum of six months, and you want to ensure you know with that you're. agreeing to work. The exhilaration of beginning construction on your new house might make you wish to hurry with this procedure, yet take your time; it's certainly worth it. Double check that the building contractors you want are actively constructing in those areas. If you're moving to a McMansion in Arizona, it won't be useful to fall in love with a builder that just constructs little residences in Alaska.

The very first tip-off is if they asked to be paid in cash, or cash-in-hand all with a pledge on no BARREL to be paid. There are, usually, a minimum of 100,000 grievances each year about them. They wreck points for completely trusted contractors, as well as for all the discuss them, they're in the minority-- it simply happens to be a minority that gets a great deal of promotion. When builders have an excess of finished new buildings, there is commonly higher inspiration to market.

If you are an accredited building contractor or tradesperson in NSW, you require to get residence building payment cover for each house structure job over $20,000 including GST. If you fail to show you have relevant site-based experience in a wide range of structure construction job, we can not accept your application. This includes dealing successfully with sub-contractors, customers and also others. As soon as you recognize what licence kind you want, and also you have actually examined you have the right credentials as well as experience, you can get a permit or certificate.

Just How The Residential Property Improvement As Well As Repair Solutions In London Work.

If you pick among these uninhabited brand-new residences, switching over out specific attributes for upgraded variations is often a straightforward procedure, as well as the home builder might agree to include a few of these upgrades as a reward. Don't depend on the builder to tell you when that factor has actually been gotten to. Instead, appoint Thame builder to check out the work and confirm that what you are paying for deserves the cash, and is full to constructing codes. Structure agreements are written by specialists accustomed to building terms and trade techniques. As well as it's likely that individuals who have put together the file you are informed is there to secure you, was, or is, a builder or market expert.

What is the difference between an orangery and a sun room?

The most striking difference between sunrooms, conservatories, and orangeries are: Orangeries are supported by solid brick-built pillars, low-level walls and/or an insulated internal pelmet. Orangeries tend to feature bright & airy roof lanterns, although these can be added to conservatories too.

While you don't want a home builder that purposely takes a long time to finish a task, neither do you want a builder who is eager to do the job quickly, or that regularly knocks off early during the task. Making your Certificateor Diplomain building as well as building and construction must not gobble every one of your time and savings.

Rj Repair Providers.

Are orangeries warmer than conservatories?

Orangeries tend to be a little warmer than conservatories because they have brick walls which can be insulated to keep in the warmth. Because of the brick walls, the heat will have a harder time escaping. The cold will also have a harder time getting in thanks to the insulated walls.

Sign-up to our newsletter and keep up to day with everything home building/ layout associated including information from your much-loved neighborhood home building contractors. If you are a person that holds a structure or swimming pool building licence or certificate, you are needed to do Continuing Specialist Development. Your permit will certainly be automatically suspended if you do not adhere to an order by a court or the NSW Civil or Administrative Tribunal to pay money for a building case.

Do glass box extensions need foundations?

The principal of a glass room does mean the base required is fairly flexible as you do not actually require foundations as you would for a conservatory or brick built extension but only require concrete pads where the support legs are situated.

Most rogue builders do not bring insurance, either, which once again could function to your detriment if an accident took place. Cowboy contractors are merely rogue investors, of course, usually with little or no knowledge of structure, so you wind up with a messed up work-- that's if it's ended up in all. Experience as a Proprietor Building contractor, or as the owner of a Proprietor Building Contractor Authorization, is not appropriate to satisfy the functional experience needs to get a permit or certificate as a contractor. From this moment forward, Checkatrade worked to assist display the best tradespeople from around the UK and has continued to do so since.

Beginning Your Project.

These internet sites hold the information of countless home builders and structure business. Home builders' scores on these sites are based upon the responses from clients, so the much better the task done by the home builder, the greater the ranking. Keep an eye out for boards on building sites in your area, yet always do your own research study also.

Do conservatories need foundations?

Like other new extensions, conservatories must have foundations in place. Foundations are necessary for transmitting the building's weight safely to the ground. Without adequate foundations, the structural integrity of a conservatory is severely affected.

As the day progressed we heard nothing and also I started to try to call. Ultimately he addressed and reiterated his purpose to do the job. When he fell short to do so or even allow us know as it was obtaining later wouldn't show up we realised something was incorrect. The following day after countless efforts through message and also calls,, he eventually agreed to refund the money after 1430.

Small Orangery Conservatories And Also Glass Conservatories.

youtube

Let The Sunlight In! Everything You Needed To Know Regarding Sunrooms

They are cowboy builders.They took our deposit worth ₤ 5000 as well as vanished. We took care of to track them down and also found they own one more registered business called NewLook plastics Limited.

Does an orangery add value to your home?

An orangery can increase the value of your property by almost as much as adding a traditional extension. On average, an orangery will cost upwards of £20,000, but it can be cheaper, depending on the size, style, features, and materials you choose.

Newly Constructed Houses.

Information regarding general building work permits and certifications. lately conducted a study finding that possibly 2.5 m people have had a conflict with their building contractor or designer in the past 3 years. does not claim the number of individuals it checked so, if you read my current short article The dangers of studies, you must understand to take the number with a pinch of salt.

It's a help, as well, if the builders and participants of some profession group-- although check that too, given that cowboy structure companies have been known to fake membership. Ultimately, never ever pay in money, as well as absolutely never ahead of time-- you need to only spend for work that's been finished. The very best thing is to learn to identify the cowboy home builders early, so you can transform them away-- it saves a great deal of difficulty later.

Anybody building a brand-new residence needs to sign a contract, as well as while the builder states it is "typical documentation", to lots of people, it's anything however. Besides the late shipment of the ownership a number of other malpractices are complained versus the building contractors.

Inspect online for testimonials as well as get comments from individuals that have actually used the home builders prior to. We reserved WBA building as well as building based in Cheltenham using Facebook search, to provide and also fit a garden bar at expense of ₤ 550. The Thursday beforehand he got in touch with to state as the climate was poor he would not be able to execute the job. Nevertheless, on the Saturday we called him as well as said as the weather condition looked great would he be concerning finish the work. This he stated he would as well as would certainly call 30 minutes in advance so we really did not have to wait in.

Also, the warranty solution has actually been really fast when required.

Beazer Houses - Exceptional experience with the sales group and also the constructionOmar E.

Exceptional experience with the sales group and the construction manager cooperating with me on all queries.

Victoria was currently the biggest market in the country for new detached residences as well as the state has actually uploaded a near-record variety of beginnings in 2017/18.

They don't feedback as well as we could not acquire anyone to help accessibility services.

Brain was our sale's rep. He was excellent in assisting us seal the deal.

It needs to be a fulfilling experience that arms you with important knowledge and also establishes a straight path to your job advancement. A degree from an Australian university (in building, construction, building task management, building management, used scientific research, amount surveying, or building and construction business economics). The level must require the applicant "to undertake the equivalent of 4 years' full time research and also a required job placement".

2 notes · View notes

novareign · 4 years ago

Text

December 30, 2020 (Wednesday)

It’s been quite a year.

In America, the twenty years since 2000 have seen the end game of the Reagan Revolution, begun in 1980.

And so, 2000 came.

As Trump tried to destroy an activist government once and for all, Americans woke up to how close we have come to turning our democracy over to a small group of oligarchs.

1 note · View note

chiefnooniensingh · 5 years ago

Text

I Won’t Hesitate (for you)

Chapter 1: I've been waiting for this moment (all my life)

Summary: Alex Manes, renowned Private Detective, is resting after solving an open-and-shut case in Istanbul aboard the Orient Express, when tragedy strikes and one of the passengers is discovered murdered in his locked cabin. Knowing he might be the only one who can solve this locked-room mystery, he takes it upon himself to solve this - seemingly - simple case.

Things quickly take a turn for the complicated as a 10-year-old murder case becomes connected to the current victim, the passengers turn out to be less trustworthy than they seem and Alex runs into a few old acquaintances.

The case may not be as simple as Alex first assumed, and soon he is faced with an impossible choice.

Will Alex solve this case, or does a murderer walk free?

Based on Dame Agatha Christie's novel and the most recent movie adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express.

A/N: And here it is!

I started this way back in July, the first story idea that stuck with me for longer than ten seconds. Instead of starting to write immediately, like I usually do, I started by outlining all the chapters. Based on that, I have managed to finish the entire story, before giving into the temptation of posting it. I plan on posting a chapter at least once a week.

I hope you guys like it!

Also who can guess the songs that inspired the chapter and story titles?

A special thanks to Aileen (@acomebackstory), Callie (@callieramics), @hm-arn, @royalshadowhunter and @ladymajavader for their continued support and cheerleading. I don't know if I would've finished it without you guys!

In this chapter: We meet Alex Manes, Private Detective and control freek, after successfully having closed a case in Istanbul. On a whim, he decides to return to Paris by Orient Express. On board, he runs into some old acquaintances.

[also on ao3]

Late August, 1920

It was the month of the ratification of the 19th amendment. Whilst women throughout America were celebrating a resounding success (though most were not allowed to vote until well into 1921), a local New Mexian newspaper reported a tragic story:

Ortecho Family Drama Unfolds: Rosa Ortecho (11) disappears in the dead of night. Police suspect foul play.

The Ortechos were stellar chefs of Mexican descent, moving to New Mexico to open their first US-based restaurant. While the country wasn’t as welcoming to them as they had hoped, the food spoke for itself and soon Ortecho’s Bistro had built a faithful customer base.

Mr. Ortecho ran the restaurant alone, after Mrs. Ortecho was committed to a mental institution, and raised his daughters with the pride and flair worthy of a cook. Their youngest, Liz, was 9 when the drama unfolded. Rosa and Liz shared a bedroom and their sisterly bond was as close as it could be. Liz adored Rosa.

So when she woke up on that faithful night, awoken by a cold draft from a window that had most certainly not been open when Mikey had tucked them in, and she looked over to find Rosa’s bed empty, a part of Liz died on the spot. Screaming, she quickly woke up the entire house, and within a few hours, the entire town was up and looking for Chef Ortecho’s eldest daughter.

Detective Valenti of the local sheriff’s department was put on the case, but the bedroom held no clues other than an open window and the land surrounding the house was large and not easily traversed. It was commonly agreed that the kidnapper could not have gone far.

“After two weeks of silence, Chef Ortecho finally allowed reporters on his property, to appeal to the kidnappers and anyone who has any information on the whereabouts of his daughter. ‘Please,’ Chef Ortecho pleads, desperation clear in his voice, “Please, Rosa and Liz are all I have. If I lose one of them…please, return my daughter, Liz’s sister. She’s just an eleven-year-old girl.’ Afterwards, Chef Ortecho was too overcome with emotion to speak, and Detective Valenti shooed the reporters out of the house.”

Not long after the interview was released, Detective Valenti brought terrible news; the body of Rosa Ortecho was found a few miles from the house, half-buried in a forest. The kidnapping had become a murder.

The Ortecho family was wrecked. The restaurant closed indefinitely and Chef Ortecho and his only remaining daughter were barely seen in public.

Detective Valenti stayed on the case as long as he could. He had solved all cases that came before, even if they were deemed ‘unsolvable’ and was driven to solve this one. But the longer he went on, the colder the trail got. Several suspects were named, but none had clear motives, and all had believable alibis.

The case grew cold.

Present day, 19th of October, 1935

Alex Manes shook hands with the Police Captain of Istanbul’s biggest precinct. He had just assisted in solving a very complicated theft and the thief was now safely behind bars. This is what he loved about his job; he got to travel to all kinds of places to help people.

“Teşekkürler, Mr Manes. We could not have solved this case without you,” the captain said.

Alex smiled. “You had all the facts already, all that was needed was to put them together. The world is built on logic, one just needs to learn to see it.”

The captain shook his head with a smile. “As you say, Mr Manes.” The two of them stepped outside, into the warm autumn air. The city was bustling with people, the air filled with delicious smells of spices and coffee. “Will you be enjoying our grand city, Mr Manes? The Haga Sofia is open for tourists now.” The captain couldn’t withhold a small hint of disapproval at the city’s decision to turn the greatest mosque into a museum.

Alex shook his head, shrugging on his coat and putting on his cowboy hat, the only thing he kept from his childhood years. “No. There’s a case waiting in New York. I’m planning on traveling to London tonight, so I can be in New York in time for Thanksgiving.”

“If I may be so bold, take the Orient Express,” the captain said, his face lighting up. “The wife and I saved up enough money a few years ago, and we went by Orient Express to Paris. The ride is beautiful.”

Alex looked the captain up and down, noting the crooked tie and the dishevelled hair. The captain was busy and criminally underpaid, yet he seemed like a decent fellow. “I thank you, Captain.” He held out his hand again.

“And I, you, Captain.”

“Just Mr Manes now, I’m afraid,” Alex corrected. He straightened his hat and began to walk towards his hotel, enjoying the walk in the early autumn sun and a city in bloom. If his father knew he was in Turkish country, he would not hesitate to call Alex a traitor. But Alex wasn’t in America anymore, and neither was he in the Army. His father had no control over his life anymore, and Alex preferred it this way. Jesse Manes’ racist and discriminatory lifestyle was not something Alex wanted anything to do with.

At the hotel, he tightly packed his suitcase and took a taxicab to the train station. A line was forming at the Bucharest ticket booth, but the Paris ticket booth was line-free. Alex walked right up. “Good afternoon. I was wondering if there were any tickets left for the 10.31 to Paris?”

The man looked up and they both did a double take. “Alex?”

“Flint?” Alex stared open-mouthed at his older brother, who was in full Orient Express costume, looking extremely bored. Flint and Alex hadn’t gotten along in their youth, but when they were both in the Army, they rekindled some of their brotherly bond. After Alex was honourably discharged, they lost touch.

“Little brother!” Flint boomed, making several passengers look around in surprise. He jumped up and pulled Alex into a bone-crushing hug. “It’s been a while, what you been up to?”

Alex chuckled and patted his brother’s back. While he had grown fond of Flint in their three years on the force together, it was still uncomfortable to be greeted this way. Flint had been the worst bully of all his brothers. “Oh, you know, solving some cases, travelling the world. How about you?”

“Been working here for a year now. Father is the new director of the Compagnie.”

Alex scoffed. “The French must love that.”

“It wasn’t the most popular decision, no. But you know Father, once he sets his mind to something, he gets it.” Flint rolled his eyes, and Alex felt a strange sort of warmth. He had always been the only one to be at odds with their father, and it was strange to share this with his brother. “Anyway, after I was discharged, I really needed a job and he landed me this one. The work is boring but living in Istanbul is a dream. Did you know they opened the Haga Sofia to the public now? It’s stunning.”

“Yes, I did, but sadly, I did not have time. And I have to return to New York before Thanksgiving. So, can you get me a ticket to Paris?”

Flint clicked his tongue, looking remorseful. “Sorry, Alex, everything was fully booked weeks ago. But if you really need to go to Paris, I can put you on the Belgrade car. There’s a direct line to Paris from Belgrade as well, on the Arlberg-Orient Express, and the transfer is only a couple of hours.”

Alex sighed, but took out his check book. “Well, I could complain, but what would that help?”

“Tell that to all the passengers to whom I had to deliver the same message.” The two brothers laughed as Alex wrote out the check. “Here’s your ticket, little brother. Don’t lose it, or they’ll toss you out halfway to Sofia. Even if you’re the boss’s son.”

“I think being Alex Manes makes me more likely to be tossed out, but I’ll keep it safe, nonetheless. Thanks, Flint. It was good seeing you.”

“Same to you, man. If you’re ever in Istanbul again, don’t hesitate to visit.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. See you around!” Alex took up his suitcase and carried it over to the Belgrade carriage. He worked his way through a crowd of people, all of them were ready to board the Paris carriage. A young, dark woman was supporting a middle-aged, frail-looking woman who could only be her mother. A blonde, high society woman was ordering her and her husband’s suitcases to be brought on the train. Alex almost tripped over a man who was tying his shoelace. “Oh, excuse me,” Alex said, side-stepping the man. A white coat was hanging over his arm. A doctor, Alex deduced easily, then moved on.

A man helped Alex haul his suitcase on the train and find his cabin. It was a single cabin, and Alex exhaled. Sharing a cabin was murder on his senses, which were always in overtaxed at the end of the day, and there was nothing better than reading a good book to wind down, with no distractions. “Thank you, kind sir,” Alex said, giving the man a generous tip. The case in Istanbul had paid very well.

“The dining carriage is that way, just pass through the Paris carriage and you will find it there. Breakfast is served at 8.30am, lunch at noon, tea at 4pm and dinner at 7. Should you need anything else, you can ring this bell and the conductor will be right with you.”

“Is there one conductor for the whole train?” Alex asked, incredulously. That seemed too much work for one man, as several carriages would be added in Venice and Lausanne.

The man laughed. “Certainly not, sir. Every carriage has its own conductor, who has a small cabin at the end of each carriages. At night, the doors between carriages will be closed for safety reasons, but everyone still has a right to call upon the conductor at all times.”

“That’s excellent, thank you very much. Enjoy your day.”

“You as well, sir.”

The man closed the door behind him, and Alex sank into his bunk with a heavy sigh. His leg was aching. He swore. He’d been walking around too much on it and the scar near his knee was acting up heavily. Alex stretched his leg with a groan, just as the whistle outside sounded and the train shocked into movement.

Alex looked out the window as the pulled out the train station. Istanbul had been nice, but after the chaos of the city, Alex was looking forward to a restful week on the train. He needed to recharge before his major case in New York.

He watched the city centre turn into the less populated outer cities and then into wide open nature. With another groan, he opened his trunk and took out his book. It had been locked in his trunk ever since he arrived, and now he finally had the time to read the newest murder mystery.

Just as Alex had gotten emerged in the story, a knock sounded, startling him. He blinked, reorienting himself, then said, “Come in!”

The door slid open and a man in a conductor’s uniform stepped in. “I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but a cabin in the Paris carriage just became available and my boss has off – ” Alex froze as he looked up at the man, and their eyes met. “Alex?” The way his name rolled of the conductor’s tongue catapulted Alex straight into his teenage years, and his heart soared and sank all at once.

“Michael?”

The silence stretched between them for a full minute, both of them staring, the echoes of years long past the only thing that made any noise. Finally, Michael blinked and cleared his throat, “As I was saying, my boss has offered you the empty cabin. Now I know why.” The bitterness in Michael’s voice made Alex feel like he’d been slapped in the face.

“Michael, I – ”

“If you’ll follow me. Sir.” Michael turned on his heels sharply and walked out, leaving Alex to struggle to his feet, pick up his trunk and drag it along with him to the next carriage. Michael’s silence was icy, leaving Alex feeling uncomfortable the entire trip. Michael stopped in front of a cabin roughly in the middle of the carriage, opening the door with a bang and standing aside. “Your cabin, Mr Manes.” Michael never looked at him once. “Courtesy of Master Sergeant Manes.” He turned to leave.

“Michael, wait.” Alex dropped his suitcase and grabbed Michael’s arm. Michael froze, but didn’t turn back. “I haven’t seen or talked to my father for two years.”

Michael scoffed. “I don’t care anymore, Alex. You enjoy your trip.”

Alex recoiled as if Michael had slapped him. Speechless and with a constricted throat, he watched Michael walk to the dining carriage and disappear. Feeling his eyes burn, he blinked rapidly and turned to enter his new cabin. He was stopped short when he heard an all-too-familiar voice. “Alex.”

Alex was once again catapulted into a past, but this time not a past he’d care to remember. He squared his shoulders, snapped all his walls in place and turned around. “Father.”

“Flint said there was a guest wanting to go to Paris on the Belgrade carriage. I did not realize it was you.” Master Sergeant – no, Compagnie director Manes looked as disapproving and strict as ever. Alex hated looking at his face more than anything else.

“Guess he wanted to spare you,” Alex said curtly. Then, as to not be discourteous, “Thank you for offering the cabin to me.”

Jesse Manes simply made a non-committal sound. “Are you still solving other people’s problems for them?”

“A private investigator, you mean?” His father had never approved of his career choice, but then again, he’d also been disappointed when Alex was medically discharged after only three years. “Yes, I am. I just helped solve a major case in Istanbul. Not that you’d be impressed, it didn’t involve actively trying to kill someone.” In the old days, a comment like that would’ve resulted in a vicious beating. But Alex was a grown man now, with several years of combat training under his belt, so all Jesse Manes could do was ball his fists and grit his teeth.

“Welcome aboard my train, Alexander.” Director Manes turned on his heel and left the carriage. The door next to his cabin opened, and the blonde woman from the platform stuck her head out the door.

“Is everything alright out here?” She had an American accent.

Alex managed a smile. “Of course, ma’am. I’m sorry if I disturbed you, I keep running into old friends.”

“A fellow American! A pleasure. My name is Isobel Bracken, and this here is my husband.” A dark-haired man wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she smiled at him with affection.

“Noah Bracken, a pleasure to meet you.”

“Manes. Alex Manes.” The two men shook hands. Alex felt an unexplainable shiver run up his spine, so fast that he might have imagined it, when he looked into Mr Bracken’s eyes. Alex couldn’t put his finger on the feeling, but he felt his guard raise slightly.

“The private detective?” Isobel straightened, an expression on her face Alex found difficult to read. “I read about the case you solved recently in Algiers. Unbelievable, how such a tiny detail can solve such a major case. Impressive!”

Alex smiled indulgently. He didn’t much care for the fame his work brought him, he enjoyed flying under the radar, and people recognizing his name would only make his work harder in the long run. “Thank you, Mrs Bracken. If you’ll excuse me, I was just relocated to this cabin and I’d like to unpack.”

Mr Bracken nodded and went back inside, but Isobel lingered a single moment longer, frowning. “I was told a Miss Cameron would be in the adjoining cabin.”

Alex shrugged, his mind already wandering. “I guess she never showed up. Good afternoon.” He went inside his cabin, unpacked properly this time and sat on his bed, staring out the window. Running into Michael on a train he never even planned on taking before earlier today had rattled him in a way he never expected.

It had been ten years since Alex had seen Michael. A lot had happened since then. He’d built up a new life for himself, a life that didn’t include Michael, and while it had hurt more than he could possibly say to make that choice, Alex thought he’d gotten over Michael.

Apparently not.

#malex ff #malex #malex fanfic #roswell new mexico #motoe au #my malex ff #my fanfic

20 notes · View notes

impressivepress · 5 years ago

Text

Landmarks of Early Soviet Cinema

The 1920s was a miraculous golden age for Soviet cinema, both for features and documentary.

The eight films included in this meticulously curated and handsomely presented collection convey the incredible excitement filmmakers felt at the opportunity to participate in the construction of the world’s first socialist state. Freed from the need to make money that drove the Hollywood industry, they could focus on “educating” the new Soviet population. Even Vladimir Ilych Lenin, the father of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the country that would become the U.S.S.R., understood that cinema, an art based on technology and machines, was the most suitable one for a country founded on the transformation of humanity through industry and technology. Cinema was nothing less than “the most important art,” Lenin famously declared. Experimentation was the order of the decade. It was a brief but brilliant interlude, before Joseph Stalin came to power and cast a puritanical and paralyzing pall over all the arts, including cinema, in the early 1930s.

In the thick booklet of detailed critical essays that accompanies the DVDs, curators Maxim Pozdorovkin and Ana Olenina write that their goal is to expand understanding of the early Soviet film industry beyond the relatively well-known work of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. (So highly respected was Eisenstein by the end of the 1920s that he was even invited to Hollywood in 1930 to work at Paramount Studios.) Pozdorovkin and Olenina sought to chronicle the development of Soviet Montage and to showcase “the many ways of approaching that mysterious moment between two shots…. Though the films collected here run the gamut of genres and montage styles, what unites them is a belief in the power of fragmentation, recombination, and juxtaposition. They take an active, transformative approach to the footage and display an acute awareness of the medium’s power over the spectator. They believe in cinema’s ability to transform the spectator.”

Four feature films and four documentaries make up the set. The directors are a who’s who of kino luminaries: Lev Kuleshov (The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr.West in the Land of the Bolsheviks and By the Law), Sergei Eisenstein (Old and New), Dziga Vertov (Stride, Soviet), Esfir Shub (The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty), Mikhail Kalatozov (Salt for Svanetia), Viktor Turin (Turksib), and Boris Barnet (The House on Trubnaya). All the films were originally released between 1924 and 1930. Each has a nifty new musical score, using both previously composed and original material. Robert Israel compiled four of them; his score to the early morning Moscow street scenes inThe House on the Trubnaya makes ingenious use of Sergei Prokofiev’s piano cycle, Fugitive Visions, to set the mood.

The films of Eisenstein and Kuleshov are the best-known. In Old and New, completed in 1929 with his trusty codirector Grigori Aleksandrov, Eisenstein (1898-1948) was responding to the Communist Party’s appeal to artists in all media to create work that addressed the transformation of the backward Russian countryside. The film’s production was severely complicated by the frequent changes in official policy on economic development in the agricultural sphere, and Eisenstein had to several times reedit and retitle the film. The dominant theme (as in so many other Soviet films of the late 1920s) is the triumph of the machine over outdated traditional methods. In this case, a cream separator represents the apotheosis of progress and a symbol of the shining future. Eisenstein considered the playful sequence in which the cream separator springs into action, spewing luscious cream, an experiment in “cinematic ecstasy” resembling (in Olenina’s words) “an erotic or religious rapture.” Farmwork never looked so sexy. The failure of the excessively “formalist” Old and New, roundly booed by the party press at its premiere, left Eisenstein traumatized. For nearly ten years afterwards he failed to complete another film, despite numerous false starts both in Hollywood and in Moscow. Only with the simplistically propagandistic Alexander Nevsky would he resurrect his career.

Like Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov (1899-1970) not only made films, but also wrote extensively on film theory. His imaginative parody The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr.West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924) upends negative Western preconceptions about Russians and Bolsheviks, even as it consciously imitates the style of the American action films he so admired. With an all-star cast that includes the manic, leering Aleksandra Khokhlova and cameo appearances by two directors (Boris Barnet and Vsevolod Pudovkin), Mr.West reaches its Buster-Keaton-like climax in a memorable chase sequence. “Placing a cowboy in fringed chaps on the snowcovered streets of Moscow and having him lasso an unsuspecting Russian coachman,” writes Olenina, “is a strategy that bespeaks Kuleshov’s pursuit of comic defamiliarization.” By the time he made By the Law two years later, in 1926, Kuleshov’s style had dramatically changed, becoming less artificial and more moody and psychological under the influence of German expressionism. This gloomy story (adapted from a short story by Jack London) of murderous jealousy and passion among three prospectors under extreme pressure in the Klondike packs considerable emotional power, with another hyperkinetic performance from Khokhlova.

Future director Boris Barnet (1902-65) began as a Kuleshov protégé, but they parted ways after Barnet nearly killed himself doing a stunt in the role of the cowboy inMr.West. Soon he had a successful career as a director in his own right. Barnet’s fourth film, The House on Trubnaya (1928), a witty social satire on life under the limited capitalism allowed by the New Economic Policy, made him famous abroad as well. Written by a stellar quintet that included the formalist critic Viktor Shklovsky, The House on Trubnaya deals with one of the favorite topics of the era: the Moscow housing shortage. As thousands of peasants flooded into the capital, they resorted to all sorts of ruses to find a place to live, crowding into communal apartments that provided ample material for domestic comedy. Barnet uses an open staircase in an apartment building for lots of up-and-down action. “Chopping wood on the staircase is not allowed!” warns a poster, but some of the brawny barechested residents do so anyhow. Parasha (played with physical gusto by Vera Maretskaya), the country girl who has come to Moscow in search of her uncle, ends up as a domestic servant to a pretentious bourgeois hairdresser. But he gets his comeuppance when she joins the union and asserts her proletarian rights.

Barnet uses lots of entertaining visual tricks and puzzles: stop-frame with reverse motion, reflections in puddles and mirrors, even a car seeming to move in a full circle with small stop-motion jumps. A scene of a workers’ march through the city streets becomes a symphony of flags and flagpoles floating disembodied in the sky. Unlike most Soviet films of the period, The House on Trubnaya illuminates human feelings and foibles within an ideological framework, in a manner reminiscent of Ernst Lubitsch. A highly original and versatile talent, Barnet later made spy films that have been favorably compared to Hitchcock’s.

In Soviet cinema, documentary film occupied a highly privileged position. As Maxim Pozdorovkin writes in his accompanying essay, “Nonfiction film was recognized both as an art form and as source material for the writing of history.” Many Soviet filmmakers blurred the line between feature and documentary; Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin and October provide only two of the best examples. In his ground-breaking Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov (his real name was the more prosaic David Kaufman) proved that documentary film could be exciting and artistic. In this collection, Vertov is represented by his informational “lecture-film” Stride, Soviet (1926), a plotless and heavily edited assortment of scenes from the daily life and labor of Moscow. Without the aesthetic integrity of Man With a Movie Camera, it requires patience (and probably some political background) from the viewer, but offers in its best moments a dynamic portrait of a “city-in-progress.”

Esfir Shub (1894-1959), one of the few female directors in the early Soviet film industry, had a less “activist” view of documentary than Vertov. Her masterpiece, The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927), is a “montage of historical documents” that she found in newsreels, official film records, and home movies of the Tsar’s family. For Shub, montage meant allowing the original footage to speak for itself without excessive formal manipulation. Because the footage she discovered is so emotionally revealing, exposing the amazing indifference of the Russian aristocracy to the squalor that surrounded them during the horrific slaughter of World War I, what emerges is a powerful documentation of “living reality,” as fellow director Vsevolod Pudovkin described it. The pace of the editing is slower, more deliberate, than in most other Soviet documentaries of the period, but the analytical message condemning the evils of the old regime no less incisive.

Vertov and Shub paved the way for the work of two other directors who took documentary in a more artistic, impressionistic, and even ethnographic direction: Viktor Turin and Mikhail Kalatozov. Both explored the remote and exotic territories on the southern fringe of the newly formed U.S.S.R., in documentaries produced outside the mainstream Russian studios. Both also celebrate the progressive mission of the Soviet government in bringing technological improvements to the lives of people whose lives had been virtually untouched by modern civilization. In Turksib (1929), made by Vostok-Kino in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, Turin chronicles the construction of a new railroad linking the textile industry of southern Siberia with the wool and cotton producing regions of Kazakhstan. His treatment of the harsh beauty of the Kazakh steppe is breathtaking, its endless sandy expanses sculpted by the wind into weird abstract patterns. To illustrate the need for a reliable connection between the textile industry and its suppliers, he shows a long caravan of camels overtaken and submerged by a violent sandstorm. Pumping pistons and speeding locomotives provide the solution. Turin uses many of the same techniques (visual metaphors, striking informational graphics, allegorical montage) seen in other Soviet documentaries of the period, but with unusual taste and restraint.

The setting for what may be the most remarkable film in this set, Kalatozov’s Salt for Svanetia (1930), is an isolated village high in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia. Made by the Georgian state studio with Kalatozov as cameraman, it bears an introductory quotation from Lenin: “The Soviet Union is a country so big and diverse that every kind of social and economic way of life is to be found within it.” So Kalatozov (who was himself of Georgian origin) spends most of his time showing the bizarre, vivid world of the Svan community, living a highly ritualized and brutal existence to which the cinematography lends a mythological dimension. The village’s problem is that it has no salt with which to support life for both humans and animals. Graphic images of death and suffering abound. Only the arrival of a Bolshevik brigade in the film’s final moments promises relief.

Several decades later, Kalatozov would become world famous for his searing antiwar film, The Cranes Are Flying, and for his sumptuous portrait of the Cuban Revolution,I Am Cuba. Salt for Svanetia prefigures both of them in its unorthodox and arresting visual imagery. Pozdorovkin calls it “the most visually liberated film of the silent Soviet era,” with its preponderance of crazy angled shots and exaggerated naturalism. The evocative new score by Zoran Borisavljevic, which draws on traditional Georgian music, only heightens the emotional impact.

The quality of all the films restored for the Landmarks of Early Soviet Film DVD box set is exemplary. All but two of them (Turksib and The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty) have the original Russian intertitles as well as easily read English subtitles. The critical material in the accompanying booklet gives extensive historical background and information on the films, but there is one odd omission: the running time of each film is nowhere to be found. But anyone interested in Soviet film, or the early history of documentary, will want to own this set.

Harlow Robinson

Matthews Distinguished University Professor of History at Northeastern University

---

Cineaste, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2

#film #soviet film #dziga vertov #lev kuleshov #cineaste magazine

4 notes · View notes

oswhys · 6 years ago

Text

Dumb AC concept ideas

So this is basically a info dump of ideas for potential AC games and concepts that its been playing with in my head, it's mostly me nerding out about junk (look if I can info dump about Teotihuacan I’ll do it.) like it's ideas that I think would be cool and what id want to see in future installments, even if they aren't likely to happen. It's also written super casually cause I started making this in a burst of inspiration at like 2 am and yet still got distracted from it cause I started going on tangents. So it's a bit of a mess. I’m totally down for bouncing ideas around if anyone has their own concepts.

1920’s jazz age assassin from the beginning of unity and the abstergo employee handbook. "The lives and failures of the most degenerate Americans to ever grace the world's stage - Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Stein." please tell me how this doesn't sound cool as shit? Okokokokokokok SO… CARS. like this dude would have a car (and of course the player can earn different cars and looks for their car and junk, including a yellow Duesenberg… like come on if he knew Fitzgerald they gotta let this dude drive Gatsby's car.) I think there can be an argument about him having a rope launcher attachment buuut maybe not??? I mean a car and a rope launcher would be dope as hell. The dude probably bounced between Paris and New York if he's a genuine jazz age junkie like how abstergo describes him and his writer pals. Also it would be cool to meet Picasso… also his base of operations should be a fucking speakeasy, like duh, like where else would a 1920’s assassin camp out? I don’t really have any plot ideas but the concept of a jazz age assassin is cool enough for me to want it this badly.

1970’s-1980’s William Miles in a corporate espionage type game, like i know he had Desmond in 1987 but he was an active filed assassin in 1977 when he was in Moscow so clearly he could've been doing other junk around then. It doesn't have to be him, i just want a 70’d-80’s assassin trying to fuck with abstergo and trying to steal animus research or something. Like Alieen Bock died in 81 and that was at the height of animus research before abstergo started really investing in it cause of Vidic. Like the surrogate initiative and the animus project are… basically the same thing really. Like knowing that Altair and Ezio were not actually related until their bloodlines crossed with Desmond. So with the memory keys being cited as an integral part of the animus project they obviously had a role to play in the surrogate project. Besides the newer games are pretty loosey-goosey with how the DNA and animus junk works now, with the spear having DNA traces or whatever and its corrupted enough that we could… choose things?? (don't ask questions just have fun i guess.) ok i’m over thinking this stuff… but come on… disco!!!!! Please please please have a disco assassination. Like… the idea of an assassin taking out a target at the disco is cool enough for me to want it. ALSO!!! If it goes into the 80’s then please for the love of god a Thriller inspired outfit would be to die for. Like i know getting the exact look would be a trademark nightmare but an inspired look may be able to get away with it. I just want some real corporate espionage type missions while dressed in some brightly colored dorky(cool as shit) 70’s/80’s fashion.

So like… ANYTHING from ancient Andean culture. So The Chimú or the Moche… that would be cool, but I'd settle for Wari and Tiwanaku. I just kinda want to see Chan Chan recreated. And Moche art was so fucking good like… idk man they're making video games that are mostly of ancient cultures now so the possibility of them making something in a more modern setting is slim to none. Like come on they're gonna want to make like idk maybe one more really ancient cultural game so they can still reuse assets again before making a whole new saga. That's just their track record. The problem with doing an ancient andean cultural video game is that there isn't a lot to work with other then our knowledge of the architecture and artistry of the ancient peoples. We have art documentary significant events but there isn't really any historical recordings so there's no significant figures to meet or events to take part in that we know of right now. BUT that also means that hey if Ubisoft wants us to have freedom of choice within the narrative this would be a great opportunity.

Speaking of ancient culturesssss ancient Mexican cultures would be REALLY cool too. Like obviously Mayans culture is the first to come to mind but AC already kinda explored the Mayans so idk maybe a more underrated ancient culture deserves the spotlight. The Zapotec and other civilizations in the Oaxaca. Like this would be really cool since we actually see a rise in raiding and conquest warfare, like theres these bas-relief stone carvings called Las Danzantes which are actually depictions of sacrificial victims, most likely foreign captives. The architecture is also to die for like i’m a sucker for talud-tablero style stuff popping up in ancient Latin america. Also do i gotta say it? BALL COURTS!!! A recreation of the ancient ball game in a video game would be cool as shit my dudes like… please i want this so bad. Like how origins depicted mummification with respect I’d love to see the same kind of loving dedication to the funerary practices of the ancient peoples. (off topic completely but some latin american civilizations had their own forms of mummification) like i wanna see the abandonment of Monte Alban and the later use of it by the Mixtecs. But the most important thing about the celebration of the ancient Zapotec would be the ability to celebrate the modern Zapotec culture, that would just be cool. Ok I’ll finish up this train of ideas with the one i really really really want to see recreated, the original Teotihuacan, before the Aztecs found it. With the pyramids being painted and covered in beautiful carvings and, of course, talud-tablero style architecture. It's basically the biggest ancient city in mesoamerica with hidden cave systems that we are still finding today and so much of the ancient city was built over because it might've been covered up or eroded to the point where no one knew it was there, or because there wasn't really anyone who cared enough to uh, not build on top of historical sites. Modern mexico city is built all around and on top of it (apparently you can see Walmart from the top of the temple of the sun…) so its a huge ancient city that was really colorful and really populated with crazy ancient tunnels underneath the pyramids that we’ve only discovered recently so how fucking cool are those possibilities? Like i just can't get over the idea of some assassin-esque person climbing up red pyramids and sitting next to statues and carvings of Queztalcoatl painted in a turquoise. Ancient farms and city life thriving. From what we know about it, like many other ancient latin american cities it was abandoned at some point, exactly why is unclear though (probably a mix of things cause there wasn't any kings really but more like… neighborhood councils (that's the best guess rn)). It was an actual city though, most archaeologists compare it to modern cities due to its city planning and its huge population. What was left behind was so spectacular that when the Aztecs found it they legit thought it was the city of the gods. This was a real fucking city and I’m crazy about it man i want it in a fucking video game my dudes.

COWBOYS PLEASE. Like i know rdr2 came out so they probably wont do it (for a while at least) and they already have the gold rush assassin so they've dabbled with cowboy stuff but… cowboys… like theres nothing else to say really… Cowboys. Also like i know how AC is pretty much ass melee combat and cowboys means guns and lots of guns and bows and probably rope darts. But… folding swords. That my shitty solution to have melee combat, like syndicate had melee and some gun stuff cause duh, but it was mostly melee. Like you can make the game centered around stealth so a lot more sneaking then combat, kinda like in unity. I have a few ideas for this one but most of them play into my own personal cowboy wish fulfillment fantasy of owning a farm with snakes for the production of venoms and other toxins. It's hard to explain but i kinda really want to see someone with a snake/spider enclosure where they produce venoms for the protag to use. The specific time period i have in mind is like 1870-1888 but it could defo go later. It's just that was peak for a lot of famous gunslingers and robberies. And Mesa Verde was basically rediscovered in the late 1880’s (its kinda weird like it was “officially” discovered in 88 but others saw it before that soooo. Also Montezuma Castle would be cool to visit in game as well. I dont have have a lot of knowledge about mesa verde or Montezuma but i know they're cool af.) the wild west is just ripe with possibility so i have some hope they’ll do one in the future but i don't see it happening anytime within the next couple of years.

Please for the love of god give me a AC3/unity dual sequel. Set in 1798 Egypt before during and maybe a little after the french invasion of Egypt. There would be a ton to work around and justify to get that to happen in universe buuuuut… i want it so badly. I have a shit ton of ideas but im saving all of that for a rainy day.

I wouldn't mind if they actually did stuff with WWI, mostly cause i really like that one WWI assassin from project legacy and Lydia's whole thing was really cool.

Ok I’m kinda on burn out after all that cause I just… its 4 AM and i’m supposed to be writing a paper but I made this big fucking oops.

#Assassin's Creed #assassins creed #assassin’s creed #this is dumb sorry i just... gotta express this shit #my stuff

4 notes · View notes

cabinboy100 · 8 years ago

Text

12 MONKEYS: 3x05-3x07: Rambling on a lotta TimeStuff…

A write-up on mess of 12 MONKEYS happenings and possibilities from the night 2 of season 3, so, episodes 5 thru 7.

A transcript of and reflection on Jennifer’s creative struggles in 1920s Paris from night 1…

12 MONKEYS: 3x02: Guardians: Catching up w/Jennifer Goines…

For some scattin’ on some of night 1′s time tech…

12 MONKEYS: 3x01-3x04: Time Vests & Titan…

For some scattin’ on night 2′s Project Charon…

12 MONKEYS: 3x05-3x07: Project Charon?

TERRY THE DOOMSDAY TURTLE?

DEACON: Does Jones know you brought back a paradox in a half shell?

Jennifer brought egg Terry thru from the past to meet chicken Terry. She went as far as having them get pretty much face to face and create paradox sparks. Turtles are so long-lived, could they make up what they lack in human-like consciousness with long life and qualify for Primaries of their own? Gears that turn for Turtle Time alongside Human Time?

Why would he be a Doomsday Turtle, you ask? Because it's him that causes the destruction of Raritan National Labs? Did you see young Terry while Jennifer was engaged with her visions and drawings? He was making a (super-slow) beeline for his older self.

I'm hoping that the Terry-dox saves everyone from a more horrific fate, or ends up being part of Katarina's Project Charon, which ends up being both an escape plan *and* a trap for their enemies.

THE GUARDIANS & TIME VESTS.

Are there only four Time Vests in Titan? Magdalena and Hockley seem very ready to be active, aggressive protectors. Lucinda and Mr. Maths-n-History less so, although they did arm themselves to confront Jones and Cole in 1922. With the directive that vests are only to be used in the service of the protection of the Witness, I want to believe that all of the Guardians must have pledged to push the reset button (which includes Remainder Disposal) should the need arise.

So far, tho, we've only seen Mags do it, right? And then we saw Cassie kill Mags outside Monkey Mansion in 1953. Lucinda was killed in the Witness Wake revival tent. Hockley was killed by Hannah. That leaves Teach, who managed to Vest away with Athan despite his bullet holes. Teacher of the Year!

Guardian pledge or not, I doubt that Teach splintered to execute a reset. Partly because he may not have had presence of mind in that state—escape would be tip-top priority, and partly because I think he'd be pleased to have the Witness free of Magdalena's Granny Goodness influence. Where and when Teach would take Athan? Well, perhaps he's aligned with Malick, who reconstructed Deacon and helped Cassandra. Maybe he's one of the Titan Fifth Column, and has a designated spatio-temporal safe house to go to.

BEST MIND YOURSELF BEFORE YOU IGNITE YOURSELF!

—A bitchier Cassandra =)

Okay—nitpicking here, but man! Those vests are TOO easy to use, aren't they? Did Future Asshole slip a manual into Cole's pocket in the post-apoc Emerson lobby? Did he pass it on to Cassie? Or did Katarina train everyone on the vest's use after analyzing and testing—beyond the simple once-over we get to see and hear?

But, thank Time they ARE easy to use, right? Cuz Lucinda's vest gets Cass and Cole out of the Wake gas chamber, and to Monkey Mansion. And in the fight outside said Mansion, Cassandra gets the best of Evil Annie Lennox by pressing a button.

I mean, really, shouldn't that be coded? Or have a child-proof cap? =)

WORD, DEACON.

Crazy impossible thought—Deacon does not find himself in the Word of the Witness or Jennifer's Primary visions because he is intentionally hidden. Why? HE IS THE WITNESS!

Heh. If only, cuz—dayumn! =)

No, unlikely. Not impossible, of course—it's 12 MONKEYS, people!—but unlikely. More likely, I'm thinking that he IS intentionally hidden/obscured but as a wild or hidden card, to be played at the right time. For whose side or gain? Well, I can't be certain, but I do have a favorite possibility…

Malick. When Deacon confronts Olivia about how he's missing from her boss's memoirs, she needles him a bit, identifies him as a "fellow" "lost soul" in search of purpose…

DEACON: I am not a god damned Red Shirt! I have a purpose! OLIVIA: You wanna know your purpose? Ask yourself—what were you made to be?

I'm gonna take that literally, and maybe take "made" as "re-made." We saw a montage of Malick-Desaad's surgical work on Deacon, post-Titan-rumble, but I wonder if certain details and procedures were left out. Could technology have been implanted in him? Could he have been mentally programmed while captive and healing? And given that this is Malick, someone of the Army, but apparently against the Red Forest, to what end?

I'd love it if Malick might be the usurper that I've been hoping Tall Man would be. Someone with a long game to work within the Army until a perfect moment when he can either seize power or take advantage of some situation to realize a secret goal or goals. What if the powers that Athan wields belong specifically to his body, but someone with the right abilities of his or her own could possess that body, replacing Athan's will and psyche with their own. Perhaps the true Witness is a malevolent will who possess the body of Cole and Cassandra's son.

And maybe the carpe-ing of that diem hinges on Deacon!

Also about the Word, but not so much about Deacon…The inclusion of all those artists and thinkers throughout time. Is the Witness identifying them all as Primaries, some of them explicitly focused on Time in their works? Jennifer said Jim Morrison was one, after all. Attributing the eccentricities of such creative minds to Primary-ness is a fun and consistent note on 12 MONKEYS's reality.

MALICK IN PRIMARY-VISION?

I feel like Jennifer' vision of a robed man climbing the steps in Titan is something we've actually seen already—Malick (I think?) ascending the steps to inform Tall Man that there is a Traveler approaching Titan, when Cole makes his run to save Cassie near Syracuse in 2163.

Not sure if "ring the bell" is directly connected to this, but I think that's what Jennifer says right after "climb the stairs…"

Is Malick an ally or enemy? Leader/member of Fifth Column/Titan resistance or coup? An usurper of Tall Man/Witness's power, more malevolent than either?

IMPROVED SERUM?

I like that the latest batch of serum seems to preserve "original" personal histories and also somehow fold in those of new/rewritten reality (at the cost of a nosebleed). Remember when the virus was destroyed in the Markridge hanger? Katarina saw time change around her, resulting in her original self having to learn about her new personal history (including her space cowboy boyfriend, Eckland =).

Now, tho, when we see Cassandra interact with her mother, urging her to insist that her younger self accompany her to the museum, memories of that event, true to the new reality, are now hers.

I like to think that Jennifer doesn't experience this as a result of her visit to the auction house, since when she first arrives, she experiences deja vu, meaning (to me, at least), that she already has memories of that day, faded no doubt, but imprinted on her four-year-old self.

Man, wee Jennifer is SO adorably cool! I'm a little disappointed Leland wasn't just a bit cooler or prouder of his daughter back then, but not surprised by it. He's dickish in any era.

Maybe he never took Jennifer to GOONIES, but only went on his own, or with a mistress. Boo.

HYENA BURGER!

I know it can't be enough to base a relationship on, but it certainly doesn't hurt that Deacon and Jennifer are both so steeped in their common language of pop culture. Some goofy highlights, most of Deacon, it turns out…

Deacon wants to storm the castle.

Jennifer educates everyone in heist films.

Holy shit, it's Gozer!

full-torso vaporous apparition!

Jennifer describes splintering as a not-so-fresh feeling.

Deacon, perhaps living a dream, reenacts a piece of PULP FICTION at the auction.

Deacon refers to Terry as a Ninja Turtle.

It’s hard for Jennifer to see Deacon blowing away innocents, and Deacon feels he’s being consistent, but maybe with a chip on his shoulder? Saying—I’m a Bad Man.

But isn’t that pretty much where Cole was at the start of this? And IS he truly a Bad Man? I mean, don’t ask HIM, of course, but Jennifer herself explains to him how he gave him the advice and chance, set the example, for her to save her own life, and then lead and save others.

Still rooting for HyenaBurger (aka Jenncon, Deannifer, MothKing =).

AGENT MOTHER-F-ING GALE!

Hrm…Should that be MotherF-ing Agent Gale? I still like Agent coming first, so I’m sticking with it…

GALE: That's not fate, that's dumb luck. Either way, when it's time for my dirt nap? I'd hope I'd have something to say about it all.

Cole and Cassie totally Marty-leaves-the-letter-for-Doc-Brown Agent Robert Gale in 1953 about Berlin 1961. AND—no flickering lights or nosebleeds! This will have always had to happen! Well, y'know, at least in the last few versions of 12 MONKEYS reality. Cuz, man, look at that trench coat Gale is wearing in 1961. He is wearing whatever the FBI has in the way of bulletproof vest tech under that. Maybe three of them. =)

Hrm…Y'know, I was hoping for another Cole-Gale Time Bros team-up between 1953 and 1961, but since they gave up the McFly letter during this visit, that seems less likely…But—not impossible. No, I'm still holding out hope for it. I think we have yet to see the nefarious "bum hair" associates of Cole's that Gale refers to in 1961.

I really do think Gale should have another encounter not only with Cole, but "Mother" Vivian/Mantis. I can't remember exactly what he says about is efforts to track her in 1961, but I think it's fair to say that the S-Files (for Splinter) are a slight obsession for him. Given Stack's backhanded encouragement at the Emerson bar, Gale has become a Cold War era Mulder. Maybe Mother and Gale find themselves aligned against the Army for a case and help each other out (or spare one another), maybe over the fate/control of her son, Tall Boy?

I would SO love to see a spinoff with Gale along the lines of X-Files/Night Stalker, with the occasional time traveling partner for special cases. =)

BELOVED WATCHES.

The fob watch that Cassie lifts from the Witness's museum has an inscription—For my beloved [INITIAL]. What the F is that initial? The cursive and the gold-ness have got me confused as to how to read it. I've been told it's an "E" but the first time I saw it, I thought "C." The "E" lined up when I thought that Cass said she wanted to name her child "Ethan," but that turns out to be "Athan," Greek for "eternal life" or "immortal," says Wikipedia.

The "C" worked for me cuz then it could be for Cass or even Cole, but from whom? Frack. Hopefully, it will be resolved with context tonight.

Did Malick replace it with a time-dupe? Cuz she's been walking around with it for a While, hasn't she?

Cassie's watch, the one found on her corpse at the CDC in 2043. It's kind of amazing how it's become so charged with meaning. That she gives it to Cole to keep could mean/result in a way to keep tabs on Cassandra being alive, as we know that she has it on her wrist when she dies at the CDC (we, the audience, get to see the scratch disappeared by Time). However, with the reality shifts that postponed their CDC "see you soon" to 2018, who knows what details may have changed, right?

Still, it's a sweet and excellent and time travel perfect motif. I guess I'm coming to expect no less from 12 MONKEYS. =)

JENNIFER SPEAKS TO TIME AND TIME REPLIES!

JENNIFER: Hi, Old Girl…It's time I had a chat w/Time. So, could you put me thru to her? Hi, Time! Long time listener, first time caller…

AND—this exchange only happens because of DEACON! It's his advice regarding the free-floating full-torso vaporous apparition that leads her to engage—HyenaBurger! =)

WAKE/WITNESS REVIVAL MEETING.

They choose one to join the Army—and promise that they will once again see a lost loved one—and kill all the rest. That's a pretty F'd up MO. How many times are they able to actually do this before they're stopped? Y'know, in a timeline where Team Splinter didn't (apparently) put a stop to the practice.

I had a thought that Tall Dad, Mother, and Mags might be taking advantage of Cole and Cass's presence at the Wake, post-Athan's birth, to kill them, but the details of how it goes down don't seem to reflect that. Only Lucinda seems to know that they're in the audience for certain, right? I'm not sure what the Witness detects then, since he seems to have been part of a cross-time mind meld during that session, perhaps saving Cass and Cole from a more fearsome and direct attack.

LITTLE SHIT.

This was a revelation from the first night, really, but I believe that the Joneses all use "Little Shit" as a term of endearment. =)

Also, I have a theory that the canine Little Shit, Katarina's companion during the dark time she spent alone defending the facility, may be the result of Cole's first subversion of the dominant paradigm. What paradigm? Killing to make life/the world better. Back in 2033 (I think), Cole and Ramse are tracking a dog, with the plan of turning it into dinner. However, we end up seeing them sharing what little food they have left with the dog instead, and Ramse declaring, "We're gonna die."

I think that Little Shit is the child of that dog, alive in 2044 to join Katarina only because Cole spared his mother or father a decade earlier. First/further proof that the only time things change is when Cole/Team Splinter saves someone.

Gotta worry just a little, though, with Little Shit having the run of the place, maybe he's been immersed and is a vessel for the Witness, spying on Team Splinter in black and white. Hrm…

RAMSE'S RETURN?

Katarina learns the truth about the parentage of the Witness by tracking Ramse's tether to the end of the line. She actually witnesses (!) Cole killing his brother over the truth about it.

What if Katarina sticks around after the eavesdropping—or splinters back and returns immediately—and SAVES Ramse once Cole has splintered back to 2046? That would be a helluva card to play against Cole when Katarina and Deacon face off against the him, Cassie, and perhaps the Witness, no?

Unmake history!

Keep on keepin’ on~

9 notes · View notes

prinzenhasserin · 7 years ago

Text

Rare Male Slash Exchange

Dear Creator!

I had so much fun doing this exchange last year, and please don’t feel obligated to use my prompts. This letter is just in case you might want to poke at some more of my likes. Generally, I’m open to a lot, and will be happy with any rating from gen to explicit.

My AO3 account is here. My prompts are pretty ridiculous in places. That’s just how my mind works! Feel free to play them entirely straight, or subvert them to your heart’s desire. I’m not so much a fan of darkfic, exceptions apply for hopeful/happy resolutions.

Feel also free to include other characters or OCs as side-characters, if they are necessary because of plot reasons. ❤️

(If this letter cribs a lot from my other letters, it’s because I’m lazy, and my likes don’t change around that much :D You can find some of my other letters under the exchange letter tag. I hope you have fun creating!)

Likes:

loyalty

odd couples!

found family, dysfunctional families that nevertheless love each other

historical stories for same-sex pairings that aren't unhappy but that fit with the society of the time (so like, spinster ladies living together; bachelors-for-life); I also like homophobia-free societies!

cultural differences! age differences! height differences!

heists, rescue missions

character driven narratives

dragons, fairy tales, magical realism, urban fantasy

Space AUs

competent characters

people not realising they’re the most competent at their job/hobby

people failing their way to success

happy endings, earning your happy ending, open yet hopeful endings

cynical humour

mutual pining

everything is better in suits, corsetry, fancy dresses

crossdressing

Identity shenanigans (secret identities, mistaken identities)

Blatant Lies

Enemies becoming friends and/or lovers

outsider POV

epistolary, poetry, unusual narrative formats

orange/blue morality (that is, not entirely human morality); grey/grey morality

non-verbal expressions of affection

Kinks I’m always down for:

wall sex

shifting power dynamics

semi-public sex

lots of foreplay, drawn out orgasms, edging

desperate sex, drunk sex, we-just-can’t-help-it!sex, sex for life-affirming

sex toys

sex toys in public (though I get embarrassed if someone else notices)

DNWs:

infidelity in mentioned pairings

suicide

permanent character death

Specific Art Likes:

sketches!

textures!

background!

lavishly designed worlds and setting!

Kisses! Sleeping Together!

Trees!

Colours! Black and White! Sepia!

Explicit art! beauty spots and scars! hair!

Astreiant (fanart+fanfic)

Philip Eslingen/Nicolas Rathe

I'd love something exploring why the city has decided on calling Eslingen Rathe's "black dog", or maybe a scenario where Caiazzo uses Eslingen's relationship with Rathe as a distraction leading to much angst (but pls don't end on a unhappy resolution) Rescuing each other from uncomfortable situations/criminals/too much work?

How Rathe deals with Eslingen's coming promotion to the City Guard would also be great! Or even an AU, where they meet later--do they still find each other? (Other very intriguing AU ideas: integrating soulmates into the already pretty wacky magic system of Astreiant, an arranged marriage AU because Caiazzo and the surintendant want to unite Astreiant's lawful element with it's unlawful element...)

for art I'd love some costume porn, but also a spotlight on Eslingen's long hair, or Rathe's ratty exterior, and their contrast to each other. really, illustrating any scene would be amazing

Cowboy Bebop (fanart+fanfic)

Spike Spiegel/Vicious

The whole mysterious past these two have going on with each other is very intriguing to me, and while I'm much more of a fan of enemies to lovers, the other way around is also good. Was Julia just a beard? Did Vicious resent their relationship? How did they come to feel so violently about each other? did Vicious keep Spike as a pet, that also happens to be really good at murder?

Or maybe, their relationship had always been violent, and the whole killing thing was just a courtship gone horribly wrong?

or maybe Spike meets Vicious during on of their bounty hunts, and distracts him from following the crew with sex? maybe they get locked into a treasure vault together, and need to wait for rescue, and things happen?

or maybe, possibly, despite being riddled with gunshots, Spike survives his last stand, and Vicious regrets his hasty decision of killing him, and (okay, this maybe slightly ooc) nurses him back to health?

Original Works (fanart+fanfic)

Prince/Prince of Enemy Country

- do they know that the other one is royalty? maybe they meet on a Grand Tour, and only later find out that their countries are at war/have a contemptuous relationship? - arranged marriage to end the war? arranged marriage to remove them from the order of succession? - one of them seduces the other for political gain (and/or accidentally manages to fall in love) but also happy with just PWP! - I'd love this in every imaginable setting: set in SPACE, fantasyland, 1920s NYC, modern times, Byzantine Empire; they are fairies, bunnies, mermen, aliens, whatever

Spy/Ghost of Enemy Spy

- (does the ghost retain a sense of loyalty? it could be interesting either way!) - ghost sex: does the ghost need to possess someone to be able to have sex, or can they influence the spy directly in some way? telepathic sex? dream sex? - does the spy try to seduce the ghost to get at the enemy's secret? does the ghost simply tell them, because he's bored and stopped caring? do they go on spy adventures together? maybe the ghost helps the spy escape from prison, because the ghost was executed because they knew too much and now they want revenge? -also consider: space ghosts.

Young Crime Boss/His Grizzled Bodyguard

- yes please. Special bonus points if the Bodyguard is smitten, but feels so much guilt, and only lets himself be very carefully seduced - I'd love this in every imaginable setting: set in SPACE, fantasyland, 1920s NYC, modern times, Byzantine Empire; they are fairies, bunnies, mermen, aliens, whatever - young boss gets kidnapped and needs rescue? bodyguard manages to get caught by the police trashing the abusive ex-boyfriend, and young boss needs to bail out the bodyguard, and pays too much money and makes the bodyguard pay by using his body?

DCU (Comics) (fanart+fanfic)

John Constantine/Bruce Wayne

I saw this in the tagset, and it's so tantalising! (I am also eagerly awaiting Batman:Damned, so if you want to create something in that direction, feel free to!) Otherwise, I don't really mind which version you write!

- John is a member of the Justice League, and so he had to have met Batman. How does that go? Bonus point if it ends with Constantine in Bruce Wayne's life and bed! - Or maybe Constantine meets the Bruce Wayne persona on one of his adventures, and expresses his utter bewilderment at posh people, as he does, and somehow they end up having sex to resolve their issues? - or perhaps, Batman needs a ritual done, and so he turns to Constantine, who convinces him that nothing can be done without a sex magic ritual?

Harry Potter (fanfic+fanart)

Orion Black/Abraxas Malfoy

--you know what would be really cool? If they had a livelong relationship with each other, and only reluctantly married to get kids (also the reason Orion Black married his cousin, perhaps? Because he was already a "confirmed bachelor"?) would also love a kinky PWP! or love letters that are only found after their death

perhaps they have a fling at school, and Voldemort blackmails them into joining his deatheaters because of it? and there's much drama, but they can't let each other go because of true love?

but also consider a complete AU, where Orion and Abraxas marry for political reasons to give the Malfoy family legitimacy or whatever; or Orion and Abraxas coming back as ghosts and really annoying the owner's of Grimmauld Place with their constant ghost banging (literally and figuratively)

Harry Potter/George Weasley

yes please. Fred can be alive (I prefer that, actually), and I prefer if Ginny wasn't fridged, but I'd really like this way of connecting Harry to the Weasley family. does it start when they are still in school? George really wants to repay Harry for the Triwizard money, and manages to con Harry into some sort of relationship because he feels like that's the only thing he's really good for?

Or, they get together after war is over, and Harry/Ginny stops working out--maybe they fall into bed with each other after a boring Ministry event, and drunkenly decide they need some excitement in their life? Or perhaps, a prank gone wrong looks them into a broom cupboard with or without sex pollen?

The love potions they sell in store are accidentally keyed to George, and Harry manages to get dosed, and somehow it works out great?

Severus Snape/Charlie Weasley

Snape needs to lay low and comes to Romania? Somehow, Snape survives Nagini and brews the best burn healing paste, of which Charlie is always in need?

Charlie comes back as Professor for Care of Magical Creatures, and manages to seduce Snape? I'd prefer if Charlie was at least 17 if they start boning while he's still in school. does it complicate Snape's spying duties? does Charlie dress up in lingerie?

Bungou Stray Dogs (fanfic+fanart)

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke/Dazai Osamu/Nakajima Atsushi

- pls give me violent relationships based on mutual assured destruction

- i’d love a relationship based on one-upmanship, on a general push-and-pull, even all the way at the beginning in chapter 9 of the manga, where Dazai is like "My new subordinate is so much better than you ever were."—and they have such a great chemistry between all of them. I’d like it even if you split up the pairings! Each one you could do is very intriguing!

- Dazai is always so hyper-focused on pretty women, and yet, for some reason, most of the people he surrounds himself with are pretty boys, and he’s such a mastermind with all other things, it would be super intriguing to see him have this epic blindspot of how attracted he is to Atsuchi and Akutagawa�� Atsuchi and Akutagawa make such great foils too, they’re such great rivals (for Dazai’s affections?)

- does someone finally look them in a room together, to make them work out their tension?

- there’s this new ability user called EL James, and their ability is sex pollen, and it surprises the three of them on a mission? alternatively, I'll take other authors with wacky powers :P

- I’d even love an AU where, say, Dazai is some rich mogul who likes to keep pets, or anything really, as long as you preserve their character dynamics. Or soulmate AUs!

- Dazai manipulates them into sleeping with each other for the greater good, and only then does he notice that he kinda likes them too, and feels much angst about it, or maybe Atsuchi can’t take Akutagawa’s pining, except accidentally he sleeps with him, and then they seduce Dazai together?

- I’d also be very interested in encounters with literary figures that haven’t been seen yet

Inuyasha (fanfic+fanart)

Sesshoumaru/Inuyasha

am here for all the contrived reasons to get them together. Hate!sex? Yes! Sex Pollen? You got me! Arranged marriage by their dad to keep dog demons with dog demons? I am here!

What I like is their contemptuous relationship with each other, that nevertheless evolves – I like that they claim to not spit on the other if they were on fire, but when push comes to shove, they do help each other, and defend the other from their enemies. I like that they are halfbrothers, that they clearly recognise the power in each other, the underlying class issues, and all.

How about a small snippet of them teaming up together? Surprised by sex pollen, or a gender-changing well? time loops would be awesome! as would Inuyasha and Sesshomaru meeting again in the future, with Inuyasha time-travelling and Sesshomaru getting there the conventional way. Would also read soulmates!fic, or a sleeping beauty AU

I see both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru as fairly aggressive and forthright, and would prefer you not to characterise either of them as submissive (outside the bedroom).

The Inheritance Cycle (fanfic+fanart)

Murtagh Morzanson/Eragon Shadeslayer

Would love this at any point during canon, but please don't change the setting! Adding additional worlbuilding is really awesome, though.

- do they sleep together during their days on the run, to keep themselves warm and then it turns into more? do they get caught in an old sex pollen trap somewhere?

- Saphira and Thorn go into heat and it transfers over to their riders?

- would also love post-canon things, where Eragon goes to look for wild dragons, and finds where Murtagh went instead, or something

- AU, in which Galbatorix makes them marry while Eragon is captive, and because they said their vows in Elvish, it's still valid after they kill him, and they have to deal with hearing each others thoughts and being connected until death do them part?

The Three Musketeers - Dumas (fanfic+fanart)

d’Artagnan/Jussac

- Then, there’s also Jussac–and their rivalry is set up so well! The longstanding Cardinal’s Guard against the new impulsive Musketeer? Perfection. And then Jussac disappears, and it made me so sad. - So, rival hate!sex? Are they assigned to protect someone and have to arrange themselves with each other? Are they banding together for a greater enemy? - Is one of them blackmailed for their sexuality, and they can only go to the other for help, because nobody is going to believe the gossip they have about the other? I’d prefer if the blackmail doesn’t put emphasis on homophobia, just that the sexual behaviour was not socially acceptable. - They are wooing the same mistress. Because of reasons, they have to hide in her closet together, and the only reasonable recourse of action is banging each other. - Foiling an assassination attempt? getting imprisoned together, because they duelled in public? - I’d also be game for a total AU! But please preserve the general fucked up character dynamics, because they are what I like about this canon.

d’Artagnan/Athos

- d'Artagnan pays so much attention to Athos, and his many swings of temperament, and he has such a crush on him! It’s hard to tell if he wants to be him, or bang him, and I really really want the latter. When Athos says, he has sworn off of women, what he means is that he’s only interested in men, right? right? that is to say, I’d love canon divergence, where they end up together (and please, with the possibility of longterm happiness) - If you want to set this before Milady’s appearance, sure! If you want to set this after Milady’s appearance, I would love to see the dramatic fallout of Milady flirting with d'Artagnan, or hurt/comfort after Athos kills his wife the second time. - Treville makes them root out the Cardinal’s spies out of his ranks! They have to spend a lot of time close together; or Treville makes them go on duty together, because Athos is very experienced, and that’s not the only thing he’s experienced with ;) - d’Artagnan needs help managing the estate the King grants him, and Athos lends a helping hand I like a good helping about catholic guilt, but not just specifically about homosexuality.

#exchange letter #rare male slash exchange

0 notes

cover32-yahoopartner-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The Mount Rushmore of NFL coaches

In the midst of the NFL offseason, cover32 will debut a series of new segments to hype up NFL fans for the start of the 2017 season. The Mount Rushmore series follows the doppelgangers, roundtable, and debate series.

(Previous Mount Rushmore: Owners, Offensive Line Prospects, Worst Uniforms, Quarterbacks, Celebrations)

The ‘Mount Rushmore of Sports’ arguments may be cliche, but they sure are a lot of fun. Sports writers, talk shows and podcasts could (and often do) spend weeks debating the pros and cons of crowning the four most poignant icons on a given sports topic. One of those most hotly debated topics is coaching.

The NFL has long been blessed with its share of legendary sires of the sidelines. From its inception, and through two mergers, NFL coaches have left indelible marks on the league, and most importantly on the teams by which they are employed. Since 1920, 485 men have been granted the privilege of owning the title of ‘NFL Head Coach.’ But that has not deterred many a sports pundit from attempting to select the four most iconic of that elite group. It’s a daunting task, for sure. Here is my attempt…let the games begin!

Since 1920, 485 men have been granted the privilege of owning the title of ‘NFL Head Coach.’ But that has not deterred many a sports pundit from attempting to select the four most iconic of that elite group. It’s a daunting task, for sure. Here is my attempt…let the games begin!

AROUND COVER32

Around the NFL: Is RB, Jamaal Charles a good fit for the Broncos

What’s Trending: Patriots snubbed again at the annual ESPY Awards

NFL Mount Rushmore: Taking a look at some of the worst NFL uniforms of all-time

cover32 Rotisserie Periscope: This week Patrick Hatten carves up the NFC East

Fantasy Football: Evaluating WR, Brandin Cooks’ fantasy value for the 2017 season

Honorable Mentions:

The coaches on my Honorable Mention list would be on anyone’s top ten coaches list. Some may argue they could be rated higher than those on the Mount, based on pure coaching ability. I think the argument can be made for any of these great coaches. However, please remember that this Mount Rushmore was determined by my opinion of overall impact on the NFL…not just wins, losses and statistics.

For example, I would rank Don Shula as no worse than fourth on my list of all-time coaches. The fact that he had only two losing seasons in his entire career solidifies that ranking. However, my interpretation of ‘Mount Rushmore’ is based primarily on iconic contributions to the game. Of course, debate on this topic is the fun of it and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Let’s start with the coaches that barely missed the cut… (and I mean, barely!)

Chuck Noll: With four Super Bowl titles for the Pittsburgh Steelers on his very impressive resume, it was very hard to list Noll merely as an Honorable Mention, making him my hardest cut.

Tom Landry: The Dallas Cowboys legendary coach, and one of the classiest to ever patrol the sideline, won two Super Bowl titles in ‘Big D’ and was as equally hard of a cut as Noll. Landry is, and always will be, a coaching legend.

Bill Parcells: Won two Super Bowl titles with the New York Giants. Parcells rarely gets the credit he deserves for helping to instill a winning culture in New England, where he led the Patriots to a Super Bowl appearance and laid the foundation for one of the Patriots greatest acquisitions (We will get back to that one in a little bit.)

Curly Lambeau: The most iconic football stadium in the country (Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI) is named after Lambeau, and for good reason. He won six titles as a head coach and is tied with George Halas for the most all-time championships.

Joe Gibbs: This may cause an eye roll, but Gibbs won three Super Bowls, each with different quarterbacks (Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien). That’s a pretty impressive feat.

Don Shula: Shula is among the best of the best. He is the winningest coach in NFL history with 328 victories. He won two Super Bowls and was the man who engineered the only undefeated team in NFL history, the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

The “FDR” spot:

One of the most common debates on the actual Mount Rushmore in South Dakota is that it should be updated to include a carving of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). In the ‘Sports Rushmore’ argument, the “FDR” spot is reserved for someone that is above an honorable mention and would get the spot if a fifth carving was commissioned.

For this ‘Rushmore,’ the spot goes to George Halas.

Halas, who was known as “Mr. Everything,” was best known for his time as head coach of the Chicago Bears. He was also a player, owner and overall pioneer of many modern coaching techniques. He was the first to hold daily practices, watch film to learn weakness about his opponents and put his coaches in the press box. Halas finished his coaching career with an overall record of 324-152, winning six NFL championships.

The Mount:

Vince Lombardi: The most coveted trophy in the sport is named after Lombardi, and the honor is well-deserved. While he is best known for coaching the Green Bay Packers to victories in Super Bowls I and II, he also won three league championships in the pre-Super Bowl Era. Lombardi was 105-35-6 overall in his coaching career, including a 9-1 record in the playoffs.Lombardi’s legacy stretched far beyond the sidelines. He was the first of his kind, as the true architect of the Green Bay dynasty. In addition to head coaching duties, Lombardi was his team’s general manager and head scout. He was also a key figure in the NFL during the civil rights movement. Lombardi was determined to ignore any prejudice that existed in the league at that time and welcomed players of all races. He refused to do business with anyone if they did not treat all of his players equally.

Bill Walsh: Although his career longevity wasn’t as robust as others, Walsh was as instrumental of an NFL figure as anyone associated with the league. He was the inventor of the West Coast offense and has often been called the ‘father of the modern game.’ His legacy includes one of the most extensive coaching trees in history.Walsh won three titles in eight years with the San Francisco 49ers, coaching such prolific Hall-of-Famers as Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Ronnie Lott. Walsh, himself, was elected to The Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993. He finished his career with a record of 102–63–1, including an impressive run as one of the greatest postseason coaches of all time.

Paul Brown: Few have been credited with more contributions to the game than Paul Brown. He established his legacy by winning four All-America Football Conference (AAFC) titles in four years. Some may consider that these victories should not count at the NFL level. However, once the league merged with the NFL, his Browns team dominated there as well. He won three NFL titles in his first six years.Brown is also credited with a number of football innovations. He was the first coach to hire a full-time staff of assistants in order to test players on their knowledge of a playbook. His inventions include the modern face mask, the use of a practice squad and the draw play. Perhaps his greatest contribution was his role in breaking professional football’s color barrier. At a time when it was nearly unheard of, Brown brought in some of the first African-Americans to play pro football in the modern era. He was instrumental in founding two franchises – the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Bill Belichick: There haven’t been many sports figures that are as polarizing as Bill Belichick. He is a genius to some and sinister to others. However, Belichick has undoubtedly earned the ‘Rushmore’ honor. He has led the New England Patriots to 14 AFC East division titles. As well as 11 appearances in the AFC Championship Game. He earned Coach of the Year honors in 2003, 2007 and 2010. Belichick has coached the Patriots to seven Super Bowl appearances, winning five titles, which is an NFL record. His appearance in Super Bowl LI was the Patriots’ ninth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, which is the most of any team.Belichick is the NFL’s longest-tenured active head coach and currently ranks fourth all-time in regular-season wins at 237. He is first in playoff wins with 26. He is also the only head coach in NFL history to win three Super Bowl championships in a four-year span. In addition, Belichick serves as his team’s General Manager and has managed to keep his team in constant contention for a Super Bowl title. The team’s model is often imitated but has yet to be duplicated. Most impressively, in an era that is designed to ensure parity through the league. Many consider Belichick and his quarterback, Tom Brady, to be one of the greatest coach/QB duos of all time; making the Patriots a modern-day dynasty.

Some of you will agree with me. Some of you will not. But let’s face it…that’s what makes this argument great. Every NFL fan has almost certainly given the ‘Mount Rushmore’ treatment to their favorite teams and positions. Today, I thank you for letting me provide you with my Rushmore of the sidelines. The only question that remains is…’What’s your’s?”

– Mike D’Abate, is a Staff Writer for cover32/Patriots and covers the New England Patriots. Like and follow on Follow @MG973024 Follow @cover32_NE and Facebook.

The post The Mount Rushmore of NFL coaches appeared first on Cover32.

#_author:Mike D&39;Abate #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DIJnLEAX #_uuid:49d29ce6-9a14-38c1-91a7-848fdb4ea040 #_revsp:cover32_362

0 notes

loren137-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Holly Lorenz Composition I Brian Lewis My Favorite Bars Downtown Minneapolis Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a young female wandering around in the largest city in your home state? How about a city with an estimated of 400,000 people living in it? (Google.com) Well, that state happens to be Minnesota, and the city that lies within is called Minneapolis, or also known by its slang term, “Murderapolis”, for its well-known dangers, killings, and murders of course. Most people may be afraid of this evil city, but here are the beauties I find within it, and what makes me want to visit this city at least twice a week. The most common place you can find me in downtown Minneapolis is either at The Pint Public House & Sports Bar or at The Pourhouse, both which are located within a block or two of each other. The Pint Public House is a newer sports bar that opened at the end of the year of 2015, and has been very successful ever since. To the left of the building you can find Brothers Bar, which has been there for a lot longer than The Pint, and on the other side with an alley in between you can find the notorious Aqua Nightclub, which has been around since I first started going to Minneapolis in 2012, and even back then it wasn't new. Having these two buildings next to The Pint gives it a very good location, one that people can find easily. The main entrance to The Pint is first a flight of stairs, only about six or seven of them, with extremely large heat lamps overhead for those bitter cold winter nights. The patio makes a great luxury for anyone that is a cigarette smoker. Then, there is a set of doors that lead to the entry way, with a second set of doors leading to the actual bar. Inside the bar, you can find multiple televisions to watch your favorite sports teams hopefully win. This is my favorite bar in this entire city because of its friendly and caring staff. Every time you walk into the front doors, someone is there to greet you with a smile and a welcoming hello. They will accommodate to you as best as they can no matter what, and that is sometimes very hard to find downtown. Most people working just care about how much money they are going home with at the end of the night. My favorite bartender in the entire city works at this bar. His name is Randall; he was born in Chicago but raised in Minneapolis. Randall is my favorite bartender because he always greets me with a smile and stops whatever he is doing to take my drink order and make me a priority. When a staff member does this, it makes me feel important and good about myself. Also, Randall always seems to leave his problems at the door when he comes to work and has a great attitude every time I have come to see him. There are many flat screen TV’s covering the walls and the smell of the food is strong and appetizing. If you are leaving The Pint to head to my second favorite venue/bar, you take a right out of the building to the nearest intersection of 1st Avenue and 5th Street. At this intersection, you can see a wide array of venues and restaurants. It is a very busy corner seeing as it also accommodates the Blue Line which is the Metro Transit train. First, you'll be standing in front of Brothers Bar again, with Reverse Nightclub to your left, Cowboy Jack's to your right and Pizza La Vista across the street. To get to The Pourhouse, you will want to cross 1st Avenue and walk past the entrance to Reverse nightclub. After you walk past that, you'll walk past Sneaky Pete's Ultimate Fun Bar, Dreamgirls strip club, a very busy and popular general store who is owned by one of my friends, another pizza restaurant, and then finally another intersection which happens to be Hennepin Avenue and 5th Street. You'll cross Hennepin Avenue and then end up directly in front of The Pourhouse's main entrance. The main entrance is hard to miss because of its old style look and beauty. It stands out because of its brass and rusty colors. The Pourhouse tried to have a theme of old and rustic when being built and is based off from the looks of buildings in the times of the prohibition in the United States back in the 1920's. No matter what night of the week you decide to go here, you can almost be guaranteed to see a very large and tall man named Bill, waiting to check your identification card to make sure you are old enough to enter the building. Bill always has a smile on his face no matter what the weather is like and is always very welcoming. He is one of the reasons I love coming to this venue. Immediately when you walk in, you can see tons of empty wooden barrels with rusted metal on them used for decorations on the wall, or used as a wall, along with very dim lighting to make it seem like a constant happy hour inside. The lights are never very bright because this location is mainly used for drinking and socializing. Once you get into the main room, there will be a bar up against the back wall, with a friendly staff waiting to help you. My best friend of six years is a manager at this venue and is also occasionally a bartender when they are short staffed. His name is Billy, which is ironic how both of my favorite workers have the same name at this bar. Billy and I have been friends for quite some time, so you already know that he is going to make sure I get the best service I possibly can receive when I walk through the front door. Some places in downtown have a cover charge to enter the venue but, being a friend of Billy, that is something I do not have to worry about. These are all many reasons why I think Minneapolis is a beautiful city, and not as evil as everyone makes it out to be. I believe the people who work and live in the city make it a difference because the way they treat you is better than most places you might go. I feel as if I didn’t know these certain people and places in Minneapolis I am not too sure if I would even go. A big reason I do choose to go downtown is definitely Randall and Billy. Randall always makes me feel like he wants me at his bar, along with Billy. Bill is just very welcoming and always makes sure I have a safe ride home after I leave because he never leaves the front doors of the building. Even though I have people and staff members of bars and nightclubs watching me as I walk from building to building, it is still very unsafe to be out and about at night alone, I am just happy that there many police and good-hearted people keeping an eye out for me, which keeps me coming back. It also doesn’t hurt that the food is to die for and I always make sure to be hungry when I visit. Bibliography "Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

0 notes