#I hardcore struggled on the caption for this one

[strayswolf]

Jason Todd having another full-on flashback but while suited up. It’s so visceral and real and well done. His agony and terror is palpable.

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Season 3, Ep. 120, Break Myself to Pieces

[hartillyfleurir]

Trying To Be Motivated

Hello! Neir here!

As you can see, I’ve created this blog as my XIV journal, with some life updates on the side. I’ll be focusing on my femra WoL, Kurra, as my representative. This is another attempt to inspire myself to share some of the activities and side notes I enjoy in XIV through blogging—and to remind myself why I’m playing this game in the first place.

Eorzea has become my second home, a comforting place I can turn to whenever I feel lonely or stuck in darker thoughts. It’s not an escape; rather, it’s a place that brings a slight smile to my face, alongside the other hobbies I enjoy in life. (..◜ᴗ◝..)

I’m not a hardcore player, and oftentimes, I just log in to do quests and some leveling while taking in the beauty of the locations, the music, the glams, crafting, and more. I might consider myself somewhat disconnected from the actual fandom of the game, despite it being the only online game I’ve invested thousands of hours into. I’d rather discuss my thoughts about its story and lore offline. I don’t roleplay either, and with how large the fandom is, it’s a bit daunting to share my opinions about the story—especially as someone as anxious as I am.

[PHOTO] as of december 2024, i have permanently changed the hair color of my wol to semi-platinum blonde with white strands, similar to her previous color.

I am heavily inspired by JP players who have also created XIV blogs featuring their favorite WoL. Nowadays, we often use social media to express ourselves with just pictures or very short captions. That’s certainly not a bad thing—I do the same on my other blog and SNS accounts. However, the blogs by XIV JP players I’ve seen online take a very different approach. They opened my mind to how fulfilling it can be to write with more substance and intention, showing that it’s still okay to write long posts online, where effort and time aren’t wasted.

I’ve wanted to try this approach too, and maybe one day, look back on this blog to see how far the game has come and how long I’ve enjoyed playing it. This would also help me retain my intermediate writing skills by putting my thoughts into words instead of letting them drift through my mind. Maybe one day, I’ll share this blog with people I become friends with in-game. But for now, I’m still struggling a bit with that.

Anyway, I’ll share more about myself and my femra WoL in the near future. For now, I’m just going to focus on genuinely writing XIV-related content and logs. For easy access, you can visit the custom theme version of this blog.

Please note that this is a sideblog, so I cannot reply to comments. If you wish to talk to me or discuss something, feel free to send me a DM here or on Bluesky. Due to bots on Tumblr, I have enabled DMs here only for mutuals.

Thanks and take care!

~ neir

[904sadmonthly]

At this point, the scheme isn't the problem. Where are Doug Pederson's communication skills?

September 19 2024

Earlier this week, I shared a Facebook post of Mike Tomlin telling reporters he can't tell them how the hot dog is made because they might not like it. Knowing EXACTLY what he meant, I wrote a caption saying I would trade the entire farm to get that man in a Jaguars hoodie.

As many hardcore NFL fans know, the Steelers are driven by their coaching tradition. They've only had 3 since the late 1960s. While patience has been the critical soft skill used by Pittsburgh's ownership to accomplish this feat, the communication skills possessed by Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin helped the coaches keep their part of the deal as well.

Each of these three coaches were or are amazing communicators who could get the most out of the players given to them by their general managers (although, it should be mentioned that Noll controlled everything football related during his run). For evidence, Cowher is working for CBS as an in-studio commentator and Tomlin is widely praised for his realness and ability to keep players with "character issues" in check while other head coaches around the NFL cannot.

Last season, Tomlin's messaging should have fallen through the cracks completely. His team had no quarterback, a struggling run game, and wide receivers who were going into business for themselves every week. Along with that, the defense was aging and starting to get banged up. Unfortunately, the gradual wear and tear culminated with TJ Watt getting injured in the last game of the season when Pittsburgh beat the Ravens to earn a playoff spot.

Despite these challenges, Tomlin and the Steelers won 10 games. DOUBLE DIGITS. In contrast, Shad Khan publicly stated that he believed the 2024 Jaguars were the best team ever assembled by the franchise. After 2 weeks, it feels like their season is about to fall off the rails going into a Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills.

When Trevor Lawrence took the podium after the Jaguars' Week 2 loss against the Browns, he flat out said the team sucks right now. He's right, but it's troubling that the franchise QB who just got the big deal is the one who has to light a fire under his teammates two weeks into the season.

I am NOT a fan of coach speak and cookie cutter public relations statements, but I also feel like certain things and sentiments should stay in house when there are still 15 games left to play. Ultimately, the players are going to mirror the personality of their head coach, and this is why I'm very concerned about Doug Pederson's performance as a communicator right now.

Lately, Doug Pederson's press conferences have been flat and uninspiring. It seems like he's leaning more on the players' execution instead of evaluating the collective elements of a successful football team. Good clock management. The ability to bounce back from huge mistakes. Outplaying bad play calls because your man can beat the other man. These are things any football team can do regardless of the personnel; and Mike Tomlin's Steelers seem to do it every year.

The Jaguars' performance in the 4th quarter this season reeks of a squad that can't get punched in the mouth and swing back. The entire 2nd half of the Miami game also showed that the team doesn't know how to be a front runner for all 60 minutes either. While we love to bash Press Taylor and Trent Baalke, Doug Pederson's tendency to put everything on the players' mistakes instead of what he can do to keep them focused during games is a significant problem.

In his September 19th press conference, Doug highlighted the players' lack of execution again and said the game plans are player driven. If that's the case, who's the one allowing the players to underperform? And what sense does it make to keep putting things in the players' hands if they've shown they aren't ready for the responsibility yet?

I don't have an issue with the Jaguars being a coach driven franchise. We can put Doug Pederson on every billboard in Orange Park and give him a used car dealership in Atlantic Beach as a signing bonus. However, Coach Pederson has to embrace the uglier elements of being The Man if he's going to take Jacksonville into the upper stratosphere of NFL football.

Coach, these losses are on you. Coach, any culture that allows losing is a bad culture. Coach, constant collapses in the 4th quarter are a sign that your in-game communication needs work. Coach,

What is your actual mission statement?

You want to win a Super Bowl. Great, every team wants to do that. But HOW are you going to do it, Coach Pederson? What will be the competitive advantage that separates the Jaguars from everybody else? What or who are you building around? How will you communicate this to the players? How did you communicate this to Shad Khan during your job interview?

These questions need answers, Coach - YOUR answers. Believe it or not, a lot of fans are willing to accept whatever those answers are. However, the good faith has to be rewarded with a tangible and transparent message that we can understand. Scratch that, that the PLAYERS can understand.

Communication is a soft skill that has prevented wars, taken companies to the New York Stock Exchange, made kings, and, yes, won Super Bowls. The greatest coach in Jaguars history, Tom Coughlin, didn't win his championships in Duval, but every player he worked with says the same things about him. Coughlin time. Discipline. Professionalism. It wore a lot of dudes down (and probably wasn't the best approach to managing a bunch of millionaires), but it also gave a wild card Giants team the confidence needed to beat the 2007 Patriots in a game nobody thought they would win.

In life, business, and football, the ability to properly communicate the message of the day is a high value skill. Hopefully, Coach Pederson recognizes this before it's too late.

Did you like what you read? If so, great! If not, dang. Either way, you can support the blog or cleanse your palate by buying a New York Times Best Seller from AudiobooksNow! Just use our affiliate link to make sure we can get a slice of the pie. Just so you know, our relationship with AudiobooksNow will NEVER influence how we decide to cover the Jacksonville Jaguars

[mk-wizard]

Sailor Moon 90s Anime is STILL the best

Hi. I know I am on a Sailor Moon binge here, but after seeing all of Crystal, Eternal and on R (season 2) of the first anime, I want to get this all off of my chest... and before I go further, since these are all animes, I will refer to them as 90s, Crystal and Eternal. And after watching them all, I have to say that the 90s takes the gold medal as the best Sailor Moon anime so far and this is why;

1- It had the best pacing. - While I admit that sometimes, it went too far with the filler, 98% of the time, it worked with the 90s. It took its time to make you get to know the characters for better or for worse, it made you see different sides of them, it gave them a chance to truly develop and be multi-dimensional, and it made you care about them. When a death happened, it felt tragic. When a victory happened, you cheered. And when you saw what side characters did, it mattered. I mean, who can ever forget the contribution 90s Naru Osaka had to the story? And everyone who has seen the 90s anime cannot forget her. More on the character development and getting to know characters later.

Sure, it wasn’t true to the manga and even the characters had different personalities, but I let that slide by because when Crystal and Eternal did follow the manga to the letter, we didn’t get a chance to digest anything. The only characters who develop are Usagi, Chibi-Usa and the outer guardians, and for the last bunch, it was the bare minimum. Crystal and Eternal were fun rides and I would be lying if I said I didn’t like them, but they were like roller coasters. They gave you a thrill, but fast and been done. The 90s was like a slow scenic ride that gave you surprises, emotionally touched you, made you cry, made you laugh, made you root for the heroes and even at the age of 37 years now, I keep rewatching this series.

2- The art of the 90s was better because it was sketchy, dark and edgier. - I know Sailor Moon doesn’t seem like this on the surface because the heroines are lovely girls in cute costumes, it emphasizes femininity and all things pretty, it has a romantic theme and is all about love, but Sailor Moon is also one of the darkest, grittiest, edgy and violent magical girl animes I have ever seen since Magic Knights Rayearth. Sailor Moon has on screen deaths which were permanent most of the time, on screen stabbings and the drawing of blood, and fights that got so hardcore, that real punches and kicks were thrown. The dark edges, black line art and sharp edges worked with the atmosphere of the story. I mean, look at the difference between the halls Dark Kingdom of the 90s (above) and that of Crystal.

And if that is not enough to win you over, the characters were much more animated, organic and conveyed more emotion whether they were exaggerated or serious.

In Crystal, the expressions and body language was very dulled down. Not to mention, very stiff.

Everything is also too bright and soft which makes the characters look like velvet dolls with too much make up especially with the line art. I will give them props for adding better details, cleaner lines, the glow of magical items, and details in the gems, but everything else is all wrong.

Eternal was better, but still not quite there. The colours are still way too bright and the characters still look too much like dolls from having line art that is too wispy. And I really do not like how the eyes have this unnatural glow to them. The edgy scenes become lost with all this brightness.

3- We got to see that there was so much more the characters than just heroes or villains. - Since Usagi is the titular character, let us just talk about her in the 90s since I could go on forever about how much we learned about the characters. In any version of Sailor Moon, Usagi’s role as a Sailor Guardian has always been the core of the story and she does indeed show progress as one. However, the 90s tells us that no matter what, she is still going to be herself too which is just as important and she shows character development as just plain old Usagi too. The manga, Crystal and Eternal which only paint Usagi as not doing anything right except be a Sailor Guardian, but the 90s show her hidden talents and learning new skills. For example, she was bad at cooking at the beginning of the series.

However, by Sailor Moon R, she gets the hang of it and is able to cook a meal by herself. Yes, she is messy, clumsy, never gets the hang of making cookies and is nowhere near Makoto’s level especially when it comes to presentation, but she is good at cooking food.

Another hidden talent of Usagi’s is her drawing skills. She isn’t just good at drawing. She’s got talent at it, so in the 90s, Usagi is quite the artist.

And it is admirable that 90s Usagi is open to trying new things even if she isn’t good at them. She practices, she explores and tries to enlighten herself. Sure, academics, coordination and organization will never be her fortes, but she really does have other and tries to discover more.

In Crystal and Eternal, she is good at being Sailor Moon, she is a good friend and a good girlfriend, but that is it. She is one dimensional here and she isn’t the only one to painted like that. Everyone is only the obvious and that is all the audience gets.

4- Better character redemption. - I mentioned before that Sailor Moon had grit and was dark, but the 90s also made it more complex and did character redemption right. It was open to the possibility of bad people becoming good. For instance, the Black Moon Clan Specter Sister are unforgettable for being successfully redeemed.

Yes, I admit that the monster of the day would get killed by the hands of the Sailor Guardians, but they also clearly showed that the monsters were not people or even alive. They were made of energy, clay or sand. When the monster of the day was a possessed innocent, they were saved through exorcism. Very rarely was an actual person ever killed and even when they were, it was either by the hands of another villain, their own hand, self defense or as a last resort. They never used killing as means of dealing with every single bad guy.

Furthermore, the bridge arc about the Makai Tree that also served as a prologue to Sailor Moon R could be seen as a story about mercy, kindness and love. It stands out as the one time the big bad was actually a misunderstood big good being the Makai Tree herself. And even Ail an An were never bad, but were raised bad. And even then, they changed. This story is unique only to the 90s so far, but it was great and stood out for that reason.

In Crystal, the heroines will kill a person without a second thought which I am shocked that no one brings up how repetitive and contradictory that is. The pretty warrior of love and justice should by all means protect the Earth, but doing so by killing off the bad guy all time is not love or justice. I also think the caption in this picture sums up how I feel about how the one and only time bad guys were given a chance to be redeemed...

Eternal was better because the Asteroid Guardians got redeemed and saved. However, even then, I feel like there is still a double standard. They were one of the good guys to begin with and Sailor Guardians. In the 90s, the Amazoness Quartet wasn’t, but were given a chance to change anyway. I find it cool that the Quartet turned out to be Sailors and even better that they will go on to become Chibi-Usa’s team, but mercy is not just for your allies or for your own benefit. Everyone should be given at least one chance to fix their mistakes.

5- We got to know Mamoru better. - I admit that no matter the incarnation, Tuxedo Mask will never be as powerful as Sailor Moon except when he is King Endymion, but the 90s take on his character made him better even if they did omit his super attack being Tuxedo le Smoking Bomber. What the well dressed masked man lacked in firepower, he made up for in intelligence, insight about the enemy’s weakness, courage and skill. The only times he ever did get overpowered was either by bad luck or because it was intentional because he was taking a hit for Sailor Moon. And even then, he always got back up. He’s a real man like that.

More importantly, we get to know him as Mamoru too. Even before he confides being an amnesiac to Usagi, we see his struggles with feeling alone in the world from having no memory of his life before a tragic accident which also killed his parents. Now, him being a stern cynical person makes sense because I probably wouldn’t be pleasant to be around either if I lived with that. Once his walls come down, we see that deep down, all he wants is to belong somewhere and have a family. It should also be noted that 90s Mamoru doesn’t love Usagi because he is “destined” to. He loves her because he wants to. Even during that brief period where he broke up with Usagi was an act of love. The thing I also always liked best about 90s Mamoru is that even though he loves Usagi more than life itself, his life doesn’t revolve around her which is a healthy thing and he tries to encourage Usagi to be the same way for her own good. He is studying to be a doctor, he has a job and he even has his own crowd which I think is great.

In Crystal and Eternal, while I do see an attempt at trying to follow this trend by showing that Usagi and Mamoru were on their way to falling in love even before they got their memories back, I still find he was one note and we never really learn much about him that has nothing to do with Tuxedo Mask, Endymion or anything royal related. Sure, we know that he’s studying to be a doctor and is a genius to an extent too, but that is it.

I would like to end this by admitting that the 90s was not perfect either, but out of all the takes on the tale of Sailor Moon as of date. Crystal and Eternal were ok, but they just cannot stand up to the quality of the 90s. The only thing I can say I find Crystal did better than the 90s were the costume designs. Specifically, how they let Venus keep her chain belt, Pluto’s key chain belt, Uranus and Neptune’s shorter gloves, Uranus’s sword, Uranus having two earrings, Mercury’s suit is shoulder less which I always found suited her better, and I liked Sailor Moon’s brooch and necklace better in season 1.

And even then, I should have liked it if Jupiter’s antenna was always on display as it is just something I always found cute in the manga, I liked Mars’ five point star earrings better in the 90s, and I like how in the 90s, each of the Inner Guardians’ sailor stripes were a little different.

Of course, this is all my opinion. I would like to hear which of the animes did Sailor Moon right in your opinion and why. Thanks for reading and stay safe, and have a great day.

[britneyfanforever]

The Power Struggle Behind Britney Spears' Conservatorship Saga

There are several parties jockeying for control of Spears' world, and it's hard to tell which one of them she's aligned with. 

 Rag Time is a bi-weekly media investigation of a single celebrity story that's vastly more in-depth than you ever thought you needed. This week: Britney Spears' ongoing conservatorship.

There is perhaps no greater tabloid figure than Britney Spears. From her relationship with Justin Timberlake to her 55-hour Vegas marriage to her mid-aughts partying with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, just about every aspect of her personal life has been documented and dissected byUs Weekly, Perez Hilton, and TMZ, since she broke out as a mega-star in her teens.

In recent years, however, Britney enjoyed a period of relative quiet: She was engaged in a successful Vegas residency, dated a nice-seeming 25-year-old fitness enthusiast, and posted fun memes on Instagram. She seemed to be doing so well, in fact, that fans and journalists started to question the necessity of her conservatorship, which was put in place by her family in 2008 when she was struggling from an undisclosed mental illness and substance abuse issues. For the last 11 years, Britney’s father Jamie Spears has served as her conservator, tightly controlling all aspects of her personal life and finances. The situation has always been confusing for fans (and the media)—traditionally, conservatorships are used to protect the elderly or extremely ill, and Britney has never fit the category.

Now, Britney and the details of her unique situation are back in the tabloids, as she is legally challenging her conservatorship for the first time. How did she get to this point?

Things seemed to change for Britney at the beginning of this year, when she announced that she was cancelling her new Vegas residency to spend time with her dad, who was struggling with his health after being hospitalized for a colon rupture. Around the same time—according to TMZ—Britney’s cocktail of psychiatric medications started to lose efficacy, which led her to check into a mental health facility for a 30-day stay in April. She has since returned home and started the process to formally end her conservatorship. While she hasn’t spoken publicly about this legal challenge, reports suggest that she is determined to gain more freedom, even as she seems to be struggling with her mental health.

What is going on with her? And who’s controlling the narrative? Let’s try to make sense of what’s happening between the cover lines.

People gets the first scoop

At the beginning of April, Britney announced on Instagram—her preferred way of connecting with fans and the media over the last few years—that she was taking a little “me time” in the wake of her father’s illness. People quickly followed up that post with an exclusive report stating that she had checked into an undisclosed mental health facility for a 30-day stay. (The report did not cite a specific source, but it's likely the story came directly from someone on Britney’s team— People is the preferred tabloid of celebrity publicists, especially when it comes to delivering potentially scandalous or controversial updates on a celeb’s life.) A source told the tabloid that Britney was getting “all-encompassing wellness treatment” and that “there is nothing dramatic going on with her—she just realized she needs to make sure to take time to care for herself.”

Hardcore Britney fans didn’t buy this sanitized statement, however. Shortly afterPeople’s report came out, hosts of the fan-led podcast Britney’s Gram made the startling—and as yet unproven —claim that Britney was being held against her will at the facility. The conspiracy-laden podcast reignited the #FreeBritney movement on social media and prompted a wave of tabloid coverage about Britney’s conservatorship that has yet to die down. (#FreeBritney has been around and vocal, to varying degrees, since Britney’s conservatorship was put in place in 2008. Vulture has a good primer on the movement here).

In the wake of this controversy, People has continued to provide positive updates about Britney’s life. In the last week, the outlet has published four (four!) separate stories online about how Britney has a great relationship with her fitness enthusiast boyfriend, Sam Asghari. “There is no question that Sam is great for Britney,” a “Spears family source” told the tabloid earlier this week. “He is very motivated to stay healthy and fit, and they often work out together.” So … that’s good, at least?

TMZ takes Jamie’s side

TMZ, meanwhile, has presented a more dire view of Britney’s situation. Picking up right where they left off with their coverage of her unfortunately public breakdown in 2007, the site has been posting round-the-clock about her conservatorship battle. Based on the exclusives the site has gotten so far, it looks like TMZ has a direct line to someone in Britney’s camp. (The site was the first to report that the pop star was having issues with her medication leading up to her stay in a mental health facility, intel that’s now been confirmed by People and other tabloids). So who’s TMZ talking to? Someone who seems to be very sympathetic to Jamie Spears.

TMZ has posted dozens of stories about Britney since she checked into the facility last month, and together they form a three-part narrative that goes something like this: 1) Britney is currently making bad decisions about her health, 2) Jamie has been the best thing for Britney since he became her conservator in 2008, and 3) the conservatorship should continue, despite what other people close to Britney (like her mom, Lynne) might think. According to TMZ, Lynne, who divorced Jamie in 2002, has been staying with Britney since she left the mental health facility and advocating for her in court. But this is not a good thing, per TMZ’s sources. Here’s how the gossip site summed up the current state of affairs in a post from last week:

“As we reported, Britney is not doing well after her 30-day stay at a mental health facility. As we told you, her meds stopped working and doctors have been unable to find the right combination of drugs. As one source said, ‘Britney is making bad decisions and it's a problem.’

Jamie has been trying to provide structure and discipline, and we're told the conflict is that he believes Lynne is way too permissive and just wants Britney to like her.”

TMZ’s sources have also tried to undercut Lynne’s connection to Britney, claiming that the two have been somewhat estranged since Britney broke up with Justin Timberlake in 2002. In a post suggesting that Britney is “using” her mom to gain more freedom, the site noted that Lynne “used to be extremely close to Britney, but when Britney and Justin Timberlake broke up back in 2002, the singer cut her mom out of her life. Their relationship has been spotty ever since ... we're told Lynne hadn't seen Britney for around a year.”

But Us Weekly says....

TMZ has dominated the coverage of Britney’s conservatorship battle, but all the other tabloids are covering it as well. Us Weekly, it seems, has a line into Lynne’s camp. Last week, the tabloid reported that Lynne has Britney’s “best interest at heart” and that commentary that she is being too permissive with her is false.

“Reports that Lynne is trying to help Britney loosen the constraints of the conservatorship are false,” a source told the tabloid. “If anything, Lynne wants Britney back in treatment, and that angers Britney.”

Us Weekly has also exclusively reported on Kevin Federline’s view of the situation. Kevin, who has had full custody of his two sons with Britney since Britney’s conservatorship began in 2008, is apparently limiting Britney’s visits with her children while she recovers. “Kevin won’t allow the boys to spend more time with their mother until Britney is once again stable and therapeutic on medication,” a source told the tabloid. “He allows the boys to spend time with Britney, but it’s at his discretion.”

What about Britney?

Looking out over the tabloid landscape, it’s clear that People is getting official updates from Britney’s PR, TMZ is getting Jamie’s view of the situation, and Us Weekly has sources connected to Lynne and Kevin. But none of the tabloids are talking to Britney directly, save for this week, when, in response to conversationabout whether or not she'd ever perform again, she told a paparazzo in a drive-by that "of course" she would. Instead, she has been using Instagram to connect with her fans since she left the mental health facility earlier this month.

On April 23, she posted a video on Instagram where she indirectly responded to the #FreeBritney movement, telling fans “all is well” and that “my family is going through a lot of stress and anxiety lately and I just need time to deal.” In the caption, she added, “You may not know this about me, but I am strong, and stand up for what I want!”

Since she’s been home from the mental health facility, she has posted selfies with her fitness enthusiast boyfriend, Sam Asghari, and videos of herself doing yoga outside and dancing to Michael Jackson in a home gym. At least one of the videos was filmed over a year ago, per The Blast. And it may not even be Britney who is sharing these snippets with the world. Here’s a tidbit from all the TMZ coverage that seems to be getting overlooked: According to a source connected to Jamie, Britney doesn’t even have a smartphone.

In a post about Britney “using” her mom Lynne to gain more freedom in court, TMZ provided previously unknown details about the pop star’s phone usage. “Our sources say Jamie is alarmed Britney is using Lynne to get more freedom, during a period where her judgment is extremely bad,” the site reported last week. “She's not allowed to drive with her phone -- security stopped her after she was caught texting and driving a week ago. Security takes her phone when she takes the wheel. By the way ... Britney doesn't have a smartphone -- only a flip phone -- because of what she might do if she has access to the internet.”

Over the weekend, a source told the tabloid that Britney has been asking for an iPhone, but “Jamie has put the kibosh on that because of concerns over social media and people with ulterior motives contacting her.”

At this point, Britney seems to be talking about her current situation only in the courtroom. Last Friday, she attended a closed hearing about her conservatorship with Jamie and Lynne, who has petitioned the court to see Britney’s medical records. (So far, Lynne has not attempted to join Jamie as a co-conservator, but she has shown an interest in becoming more involved in Britney’s care.) According to multiple tabloids, Britney asked the judge for more personal freedoms under her conservatorship—a request that was denied. But the judge did order an expert evaluation in the case, which would be the first step toward ending the conservatorship all together. People reported that Britney left the LA courtroom “comfortable, happy and glowing.”

[madcapmoon]

Fugazi interview

by Jeff Clark, originally written for Stomp and Stammer in April of 1998

They stand alone, really. No other group that emerged from America's '80s hardcore scene that's still breathing - not Bad Brains, nor Bad Religion, nor any of a handful of other somewhat related bands, bad or no - has demonstrated the growth, commitment, and righteousness of Washington, DC's Fugazi. From the taut, grinding release of early albums and EPs like Repeater and Margin Walker, their music has steadily evolved with ever-expanding depth and complexity. A Washington Post article from 1993 stated it succinctly and perfectly: "Fugazi is the face of punk growing up." ·

Ian MacKaye turns 36 this month. He and his longtime friend Jeff Nelson started the fiercely independent Dischord Records in late 1980 to issue a single by their high school punk band Teen Idles. The band broke up; Dischord remained, and thrives to this day by issuing records from an impressive array of impassioned bands, most coming from the DC area. Jawbox, Nation of Ulysses, Dag Nasty, the Make-Up, Faith, and Shudder to Think are but of few of the groups the label has helped over the years, while at the same time offering distribution to many smaller, burgeoning DC indie labels. While Dischord began as a way to document a community, it could be argued that the label is the fuel that keeps that community burning.

Musically, MacKaye and Nelson continued on in the highly-influential hardcore band Minor Threat until 1983, and after brief alliances with Embrace and Egg Hunt, MacKaye hooked up with bassist Joe Lally, drummer Brendan Canty, and guitarist/vocalist Guy Picciotto to form Fugazi. While much is made of their strict integrity and work ethics - they don't charge more than five bucks a show, they won't sign to a major label, they won't allow stage diving, etc. - what ultimately makes Fugazi such a vital rock 'n' roll band is its intensely powerful music. With End Hits, their first release in nearly three years, they'll surely further confound close-minded punk purists - no surprise, really, since MacKaye has freely admitted to being a freak for Hendrix, the Beatles, and Cheap Trick, among other classic rockers. End Hits may not come across as immediately visceral as the band's earlier work, but the creative combustion is more than evident. Urgent, organic, explosive - it's music that's alive, and it makes the listener feel as such.

At the moment, MacKaye is at home in DC, doing administrative work for Dischord (the main office is housed across the street,) fielding constant phone interruptions, arranging a short May tour for the band (its first live dates since a ten-year-anniversary show in Washington last September,) and contemplating the future of Fugazi under some new circumstances. It's been a strange, pivotal couple of years for the band - MacKaye became extremely ill during an Australian tour at the end of '96; his chest inexplicably filled with fluid and a lung collapsed, all with no evidence of bacteria. He had to have surgery, followed by an extended recovery, knocking the band out of commission for the better part of a year - "Yeah, it was pretty bleak, to be honest with you," MacKaye understates, after describing the ordeal. Meanwhile Canty married and had a child with his wife, and Lally bought a house. Basically, punk grew up some more. But with the release of End Hits, and a comprehensive documentary film on the band currently being assembled by Jem Cohen, it looks to be one of the most exciting periods yet for one of the world's most exciting outfits. With the help of various titles from Fugazi's past and present, here are MacKaye's thoughts on matters of heart and mind:

Repeater: "I'm a working man. I wake up quite early, usually around 7:30 or eight. And I try to have some food, I do some stretching, I look at the newspaper, and then it's time [to work], and then it's dark, ha ha ha! In other words, I don't really have any sense of what my days are comprised of, because every day is very different. I sometimes struggle for routine, but there's so many details that change every day, that don't have real routines I don't pack boxes, per se, I don't order things. I have a lot of people calling me about things. I book the band, which is extremely involved. Generally speaking, I answer questions."

Long Division: "From my point of view, we started Dischord to document a particular community here in Washington. And I had no intentions at that time, nor do I have any intentions at this time, to be a rock and roll label owner. I never wanted to be in the record business, but, um, I kind of accepted a mission that made me put out records, and somewhat put me in a position where I am kind of in the record business. I kind of assumed it would be somewhat self-perpetuating, but I didn't think it would be permanently self-perpetuating. I have some dream that at some point it'll be clear that the community that I was interested in documenting will no longer really exist, and at that point I don't think the label will exist anymore."

Steady Diet: "The thing about Dischord, as a label, it's gotten bigger and bigger. We've been around for so long, primarily because of the Fugazi stuff, and also Minor Threat, and a lot more people have become kind of involved with the label as a sort of family. They work there, and there's a lot of activity, and a lot of stuff that Dischord is involved with that most people have no idea about. Particularly within distribution. We lend an awful lot of money out to a lot of local labels to help them get stuff done. I think that the label's sort of gotten bigger than itself at this point. So, when I think about stopping the label, it really means it's gonna stop an awful lot of things and people. And I have to be very, very thoughtful about it before I do something like that."

"From my point of view, we started Dischord to document a particular community here in Washington. And I had no intentions at that time, nor do I have any intentions at this time, to be a rock and roll label owner."

By You: "I think some people don't really understand the nature of 'Do It Yourself.' When you do it yourself, you have to do it. And it's a lot of work. And it's not just an issue of, you know, not participating with major labels, or whatever. It's about working. And, it's been a very strong ethic with us, with me, all along. And basically, my work has been sort of all-consuming for the last 17 or 18 years The people who are interested in our band, quite a few of those people are involved in projects, musical or literary or whatever, the kind of things that involve direct action, and interaction. So, I think that at the end of the day, though, when you do this work and you make these decisions, and you kind of cover this ground on your own, you don't have to answer for it later on. You can speak with some responsibility."

Blueprint: "From our point of view, we spend almost all of our time trying to write music which is interesting and challenging. We work very, very hard on our songs and our records. So it's a little discouraging when it's just like, 'Oh yeah, those are the guys that won't sign to a major label.' But at the same time, there are plenty of other people who, maybe they're aware of that, but they're into the band. So I think the people who can only think about us in really simplified terms, like what they perceive as our philosophy or our behavior patterns, that's just more representative of their kind of really tacit concept of the band."

Do You Like Me: "People have this really kind of, I think, bullshit rap about preaching to the converted. I don't know that I agree with that. There is incredible potential created when a band and an audience get into a room together. I mean, obviously I can have a lot of fun with people who don't like the band and wanna yell things, but it gets kind of tedious after awhile. So my sense is, as much as people use that 'preaching to the converted' thing in sort of a derogatory sense, people should re-examine the idea of that, and think about when you have complimentary forces, sometimes you can get a lot more accomplished."

Birthday Pony: "I don't know what to tell you, except that September 3rd, 1987, Fugazi played our first concert at a place called the Wilson Center, it's a church basement here in Washington, DC. And on September 3rd, 1997, Fugazi played the Wilson Center in the basement of the church. There was nothing more. There were 200 people at both shows, it was very small. But I don't think many bands have that opportunity, to play the same venue, ten years to the day, and we felt like it would be good for us. And it was. It was actually the last concert we played. We haven't played since."

Provisional: "There was a lot of discussion - 'Well, are we gonna play more, or not?' We had that really terrific ten year bookend kind of thing, but in any event, we booked some dates for May, so I think were playing. We're gonna do a week. It's a whole new thing, now. We've gotta figure out how to work with a family. We've got a baby on board. So, we're gonna start real lightly. There's a lot of other stuff going on in people's lives right now, in their personal lives, that needs to be sorted out, still. So, this is gonna be a really spotty year. I mean, I am very happy with this record, The band has been very busy, I have been working non-stop on the band. I just don't think we're gonna be able to get out and do that much touring."

End Hits: "It's such a good name. And I think when people listen to the record, if you pay close attention to it, that the title will come more in focus. I don't think it's quite as apocryphal as it sounds. We're not suggesting that the band is coming to an end."

Closed Captioned: "Jem Cohen and I went to Woodrow Wilson High School together here in Washington. He's been quite close to the band since the very beginning. He actually co-wrote the song 'Glue Man,' and he's been filming us, really, since the beginning of the band, in one form or another. And finally, in the last few years, we've been trying to kind of bring all this material together and get it into some kind of two-hour-long piece about the band We feel that as the band starts to kind of wane as far as playing live, we won't be able to tour as much, and obviously eventually we're not gonna be playing any shows at all, then people who are interested in seeing the band are gonna be reliant on video or film. We thought we'd create something that we were really comfortable with, and was aesthetically in keeping with the way we feel about the band."

Turnover: "We've all gotten older, and there's far fewer bands that I feel as passionate about. Which isn't to mean that there aren't good bands, there are plenty of great bands, it just means that they're not speaking to me in the same way. It's a much less cohesive community - however, we've managed to stick it out. We're all very close friends, and the music may not play nearly as much of a role as it did in the past, but I think at this point, even just our company is enough to get together. I think we're stuck to each other now. So, it would be inaccurate for me to say that it's the same, or it's as strong on certain levels, but I would say that we've grown up together, and the community is still intact. These are people I'll know for the rest of my life."

Burning: "I am very interested in what's going on with young bands and stuff, but I have found that as much as I like to go and check out bands, and all that, I don't feel welcome. It's a very small scene, and I'm not suggesting that I'm some big shit. I'm not. But just within this same scene, it is difficult. I feel uncomfortable going to shows, because I just think it freaks people out that I'm there. But within a certain context, it's good to know that kids who are 16-, 17-, 18-years-old, they need to do their own thing. And I don't necessarily have a place in that world. For me, it's all about trying to keep the fire burning. And to make things possible. And who knows what happens next year. When you keep moving, you stay warmed up, and I still feel warmed up."

Reclamation: "The longer we're together, the bigger our past is. One thing I've found out about music is that after you create a legacy, you have to spend time administering that legacy. Keeping your records in print and all that stuff. There's one more goddamned thing you've got to do. I wasn't lying when I said I spend most of my day answering questions. I'm answering questions about things that I have done, and that troubles me sometimes because I feel like I should be doing something."

Long Distance Runner: "I'm not sure I have a life outside of Fugazi or the label. I hope something happens that doesn't involve either one of those entities, but at the moment it's hard to say. I'll try to go take a walk now and then."

[emadou]

Lazy Thursdays - When I imported cette photo in my library, la première chose that came to mind was symmetry. Get rid of l’arbre à droite to match what’s on la gauche. - Thursdays are jours de vin at work, et I’m struggling to type cette caption let alone go hardcore in Photoshop... I mean Affinity Photo 😅 - Stay warm and dry, la post de demain will begin with “only in Montréal” and I hope some of you participate in it. - Summary caption: Final Cut Pro is a massive learning curve! Like, can all app developers simply sit down one day, crack open a bottle of a nicely brewed monk beer and come to a mutual agreement that all apps should function and look the same and leave it up to the consumer to decide who they’d like to subscribe to for the rest of their eternity? - Summary caption 2.0: RED - #emadou _____________________________________________ Sony Alpha A7Riii | Sigma 20 F1.4 ART ISO 200 | F4 | 1/500s | 20mm WB: Daytime _____________________________________________ Much love to those that read my captions. (at Vieux-Montréal) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIEnht4D6z_/?igshid=7mbg7oez68t4

[danglydolan]

Need some help? ♡ Grayson (smut)

Summary: You catch Grayson playing with himself in the bedroom and as the nice girlfriend you are, you decide to offer some help…

Word count: 1.590

A/N: Okay, so at first I didn’t really know how to write this because it’s not something I would normally write, but I just sat down and started and this is how it turned out. Fair warning that this is hardcore smut ;) I hope you enjoy and if you did, please leave some feedback or a request! Xx

Requested!

You open your eyes and blink them a few times to let your eyes adjust. For a brief moment you wonder where you are. You lift your head up to look around, but still feel a bit disorientated. When you look out of the windows there was nothing but darkness and you knew it had to be late at night.

It takes a second before you realize you found yourself in the living room and you had fallen asleep on the couch, a few hours after you had sit down with a bag of crips.

It was completely dark in the room, except for the tv screen; a stupid toothpaste commercial was on and the bright light of the screen was spreading a spooky light through the room.

You go sit straight up, placing the bag of crips - which was almost empty - beside you. ‘Gray?’ You call for your boyfriend, your voice sleepy. No answer. ‘Grayson?’ Nope, he wasn’t here. The only sound you were hearing was your own breathing and the annoying happy voices coming from the tv.

Your boyfriend wasn’t laying beside you, either. Maybe he had gone upstairs, or maybe he was in the bathroom, both could be possible. After a quick glance on the clock you decide it really was time to go to bed. Grayson was probably there as well.

With a deep yawn you turn the television off and drag yourself off the couch. With laboured and slow steps you find your way to the stairs.

As you are walking up the stairs you hear quiet noises coming from the first floor. You hold your step and listen closely, trying to hear what was happening upstairs.

At first you can’t understand what you hear, but after a few seconds you realize the noises you were observing came from Grayson. He was in your bedroom, panting.

As the innocent girl that you are, you thought nothing of it. He was probably just working out. ‘Late night workout sesh’; wasn’t that one of his most used snapchat captions?

Almost unable to keep your eyes open you continue your way to the bedroom. As you come closer to the bedroom, Grayson’s moans get louder and louder.

Just when you decide you were going to say he could finish his workout tommorow, you hear Grayson say something. Your hand, which was about to open the door, freezes and you leave it hanging in the air.

'Ah, Y/N… Yes…’

Your heart skips a beat and suddenly you are unable to move. Oh my God. Was he… jerking off? The moment you realize what he was doing you don’t know what to do with yourself. You just stand there in complete darkness, processing the fact your boyfriend was pleasing himself on the other side of the door.

Should you go back and wait until he… was finished? Or should you go inside? You were completely wide awake now. A feeling of nervousness overwhelms you as Grayson continues his deed, still calling your name softly.

Apart from the fact you were starting to get a bit nervous, you can’t ignore another feeling that was developing in your stomach; you were starting to get turned on. Of course, catching a boy jerking off at the thought of his girlfriend was maybe a bit weird, but it was also incredibly hot.

He was pleasing himself at the thought of you… Come on, something about it was just exciting. You don’t even know when you had decided what you were going to do next, maybe it was unconsciously, but suddenly you had a plan. And before you could change your mind, you open the door.

You peek your head around the corner and a quiet giggle escapes your mouth. 'Having fun without me?’ The first thing you see is Grayson on the bed, one hand around his hardness and his other one holding his phone. His hair was messy and he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

His eyes grow wide when he notices you. 'Fuck,’ he says under his breath and quickly tries to hide his phone, but he wasn’t quick enough; you could see he was getting off to a picture of you in a bikini.

It was one he had taken when you visited waterfalls in Hawaii on your vacation together. You could remember that moment as if it was yesterday, and also the way he was praising you and telling you how extremely beautiful you looked on that sunny day.

'Y/N! I-I was just,’ he stutters, pulling up his pants and running a hand through his hair. 'It’s okay, baby. Don’t worry.’ You smile sweetly and walk up to the bed. The christmas lights on the wall were on, which caused that the room had a very cosy and romantic atmosphere.

Grayson’s flushed face softens and he exhales deeply. You go sit on the left side of the bed, your head turned to look at Grayson’s face. His cheeks were red and he still looked a little uncomfortable. 'You need some help?’ You ask innocently, your voice not more than a whisper.

Grayson blinks his eyes like he hadn’t heard it right. 'What? Are you being serious?’ You nod, licking your lips seductively. 'Yes, baby. You’re always the one that pleases me and I think it’s your turn now. I… I want to make you feel good.’

And it was true. Grayson was always the one who got down on you, completely ignoring his own needs. And it wasn’t because he thought you couldn’t do it for him, definitely not. He was just an amazing boyfriend and wanted to make you feel good as much as he could. And he also knew you weren’t very good at doing it yourself.

One night, after you had reached your climax and Grayson went laying down beside you, he even admitted he sometimes got off at the sight of you coming undone.

Grayson’s eyes get darker and he nods slowly. 'Okay…’ you respond and climb onto his lap. He licked his lips as he watched you taking off your shirt. The look in his eyes made clear he was aroused again already.

You lean in for a quick kiss before you got to work. You couldn’t actually believe you were doing this; you had no experience whatsoever, so just did what you thought would feel nice. He gasped when you pulled down his shorts, not taking your eyes off your petite hands.

You look deep into his eyes as you run your fingers up and down his cock, teasing him like he always teased you. 'Y/N…’ he warns you, but you only smile in amusement. 'Patience, baby boy. Patience.’

You close your fingers around his member and Grayson frowns his eyebrows. 'Ah…’ You could tell by the look on his face he was having trouble keeping his face straight. You couldn’t help but giggle quietly.

What an amazing feeling it was to have so much control over him. You could do everything you want with Grayson now, including him begging for you. A flue of self-confidence hit you all of a sudden and by the way he was looking at you you could tell he knew you were the one in charge now.

You continue your movements and run your hand faster and faster up and down his cock, softly massaging it at the same time. When you squeeze his package softly, Grayson grunts approvingly and close his eyes. ’D-Don’t stop. Please,’ he cried out.

You bend down and kiss his tip, causing him to moan loudly. You close your lips around the head and let your tongue do the work. 'Fuck… Yes.’ He was struggling to look at you, his head throwed back every now and then.

You suck his tip gently while looking him in his eyes, because you knew he would found that sexy. Grayson tangles his hands into your hair and starts to thrust against your mouth. You moan hard against his cock and Grayson’s thighs tremble. He could feel your moan all the way through his body.

You grin and get up to kiss his lips, your hand going back to his hard member again. He tried to deepen the kiss by parting your lips with his tongue, but you pull back. You had to focus on what you were doing; you were determined to make him come. Hard.

He was biting his lower lip now, his hands desperately gripping the bed sheets. 'I-I’m close,’ he whimpers. You kiss his lips again but he isn’t able to kiss you back like the amazing way he always did, too busy comprehending what was happening down there.

As Grayson got closer to his release you pump faster and faster, receiving encouraging groans from your boyfriend from time to time. You stroke your thumb over his head when he starts spilling all over your fingers, his hard member twitching in your firm grasp.

'Oh… Shit, Y/N.’ You don’t stop until he completely had come down while you watch him with an triumphant smile. You couldn’t ignore the satisfied feeling you had. Never in the two years you were dating Grayson you were the reason he got an orgasm, and it really boosted your self-confidence.

After a minute he sighs and looks at you, tucking a hair behind your ear. He takes your face in his hands and kisses you passionately. When you both are out of breath he pulls back, looking at you with a loving smile which made your heart grow bigger.

'Now let daddy take care of you.’

[mhsn033]

Benny Tai: Hong Kong university fires professor who led protests

Image copyright Getty Photography

Image caption Benny Tai has been eliminated from his publish on the University of Hong Kong

A main Hong Kong college has fired its law professor, Benny Tai, due to this of a legal conviction over his role in the 2014 pro-democracy protests.

Mr Tai, 56, accused the University of Hong Kong (HKU) of bowing to pressure from Beijing and acknowledged the ruling became “the raze of tutorial freedom”.

Mr Tai became one among the founders of the “umbrella protests” that paralysed Hong Kong’s enterprise districts for weeks.

Final year, a court sentenced him to 16 months in detention heart for his role.

He became granted bail in August, pending an appeal.

The 2014 protests, which personal been largely tranquil, lasted for better than 70 days as folks took to the streets to demand democracy.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption The protests in Hong Kong shut down noteworthy of the metropolis for better than 70 days

The college governing council’s dedication to push apart Mr Tai goes against a old ruling by its senate, which acknowledged whereas Mr Tai had dedicated misconduct, there personal been insufficient grounds to push apart him.

In holding with native media, 18 individuals of the college’s committee voted for his removal, with two against.

If he needs to appeal the dedication, he would must both struggle by the college’s chancellor – Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam – or a judicial overview, the South China Morning Post experiences.

Writing in a Facebook publish, Mr Tai acknowledged: “Academic workers in education establishments in Hong Kong are no longer free to build controversial statements to the overall public about politically or socially controversial matters.”

The dedication to fireplace him became “made no longer by the University of Hong Kong however by an authority past the University by its agents,” he acknowledged, adding “I am heartbroken to search the loss of life of my liked college.”

Media playback is unsupported in your instrument

Media captionActivist Benny Tai advised the BBC final year that democracy constantly came at a mark

The college acknowledged in a observation that it had “resolved a personnel order pertaining to a instructing workers member” after a “stringent and fair due course of”.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-Beijing Liaison Place of abode of job, which represents Beijing’s authorities in Hong Kong, welcomed his removal, announcing: “The University of Hong Kong’s dedication to fireplace Benny Tai is a circulate that punishes unsuitable and praises the virtuous.”

Chinese language divulge media has accused him of colluding with international forces and described him as a “hardcore troublemaker”.

The college’s ruling comes weeks after a controversial security law became passed in the metropolis, giving China more powers there.

The law criminalises secession, subversion and collusion with international forces, however critics advise that the terms are vaguely outlined and the law effectively curtails Hong Kong’s freedoms.

It additionally comes amid native media experiences that elections to Hong Kong’s parliament – the Legislative Council – will seemingly be postponed by a year. News retail outlets HK01, Hong Kong Economic Cases and TVB acknowledged the authorities had made the dedication, which is yet to be formally launched, due to this of coronavirus considerations.

Mr Tai has been accused by the Hong Kong-Beijing Liaison Place of abode of job of attempting to launch a revolution. He had helped organise opposition primaries earlier this month, which attracted millions of voters.

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[youngandhungryent]

The Rock Confirms He Will Be ‘Black Adam’ & Reveals Film’s Release Date

Source: Josh Hedges / Getty

Though DC has a long way to go before it can catch up to the conglomerate that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a VERY long way to go) recent films like Aquaman, Shazam, and of course, Wonder Woman have somewhat helped steer the struggling universe back on course and given fans a slither of hope that the DCEU can actually work. Now after years of rumors and reports that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would be joining the DCEU as anti-hero, Black Adam, the People’s Champion took to Instagram to confirm he will indeed be donning the black cape and yellow boots come 2021 and gave fans a first look at his menacing character.

Yesterday The Rock posted some art of what his iteration of Black Adam would look like in it’s upcoming film courtesy of the legendary Jim Lee and Boss Logic, and wrote a lengthy caption expressing his excitement about getting his chance to finally play a superhero on film saying, “I’m honored to join the iconic #DCUniverse and it’s a true pleasure to become, BLACK ADAM. BLACK ADAM is blessed by magic with the powers equal to SUPERMAN, but the difference is he doesn’t toe the mark or walk the line. He’s a rebellious, one of a kind superhero, who’ll always do what’s right for the people – but he does it his way. “

View this post on Instagram

The Man in Black

Like most kids growing up, I dreamed about being a superhero. Having cool superpowers, fighting for what’s right and always protecting the people. It all changed for me, when I was 10yrs old and was first introduced to the greatest superhero of all time – SUPERMAN. As a kid, Superman was the hero I always wanted to be. But, a few years into my fantasy, I realized that Superman was the hero, I could never be. I was too rebellious. Too rambunctious. Too resistant to convention and authority. Despite my troubles, I was still a good kid with a good heart – I just liked to do things my way. Now, years later as a man, with the same DNA I had as a kid – my superhero dreams have come true. I’m honored to join the iconic #DCUniverse and it’s a true pleasure to become, BLACK ADAM. BLACK ADAM is blessed by magic with the powers equal to SUPERMAN, but the difference is he doesn’t toe the mark or walk the line. He’s a rebellious, one of a kind superhero, who’ll always do what’s right for the people – but he does it his way. Truth and justice – the BLACK ADAM way. This role is unlike any other I’ve ever played in my career and I’m grateful to the bone we’ll all go on this journey together. BLACK ADAM 12.22.21

Huge thank you to my friends, @jimlee and @bosslogic for this first time ever bad ass collaboration.

A post shared by therock (@therock) on Nov 14, 2019 at 9:06am PST

  Though hardcore fans familiar with the Black Adam character remember that one of his features is black hair slicked to the back like a Chicano in the 80’s, it would be for lack of a better word, wrong, to see The Rock rocking a wig piece these days (never forget the foolery that was The Scorpion King).

It will be interesting to see how the DCEU integrates Black Adam into their cinematic universe as he is an antagonist to both Shazam and Superman who’ve already been established. Either way we’re going to find out if The Rock’s Black Adam will help further the DCEU in the right direction come December 22, 2021.

source https://hiphopwired.com/828859/the-rock-confirms-he-will-be-black-adam-reveals-films-release-date/

[like2in]

Bend it like the stars

Bend it like the stars - Here's how celebs are doing yoga in their signature style. We all know how Yoga's holistic approach is why it has a universal appeal and is hailed as the best form of exercise. That's why - even today after years of its invention, we keep coming up with so many interesting variations of this ancient form of exercise. Vinod Channa who has been training celebrities for the last 24 years believes that yoga works for them because, “their work profile demands high-impact movement, dance, long-working hours and sudden jerk movements. They require more mobility, flexibility, agility, speed, and mind-body coordination with strength - all of this comes from yoga asanas and pranayama. Even when they are working on a six pack or a beach body, to reach that level, they need hardcore workout with nutrition but at the same time, they need the agility that only yoga can give. Yoga also helps in avoiding injury like muscle wear and tear, joint dislocation and can be performed for a long time without restriction of age, lifestyle or medical conditions.” Adding further, celeb trainer Anshuka Parwani says, “Most celebrities have an erratic lifestyle which means irregular sleep patterns, food timings, a lot of stress and pressure - yoga is such an internal practice rather than an external one that it helps them to not only to stay fit but also to make them stay calm, especially in times when they have high pressure shots and are stressed out completely. It also stems from their wanting to lean towards meditating - to keep calm and stay focused. Overall, yoga helps to keep the internal factory healthy.” On International Yoga Day, we give you a lowdown on what's trending in the celeb world of yoga App-tly fit Bollywood's official yogini Shilpa Shetty is on a mission to make India fit. The 44-year-old actress can give some of the 20-year-olds a run for their money when it comes to flexibility, toned figure, flawless skin and lustrous hair. While she often shares fitness tips on social media, has come out with DVDs and books, Shetty has now come up with her an app to reach out to the masses. At its promotional event, Shetty performed complex asanas and its photos are breaking the internet. Channa adds, “Shetty has consistently worked hard to reach her target after delivery (she had put on 34kgs). She is in a much better shape and is stronger than what she was in her 20s and is able to do handstand and headstand without much efforts. SAI DHANSHIKA Yoga a stressbuster I always engage myself in a lot of activities because I like to challenge myself just to see how capable I am. Regardless of whatever activities I do - let it be swimming, dancing, martial arts, silambam or gymnastics  - I always come back to doing yoga. The reason being when I'm in the flow of yoga, it eases out my body and mind from tensions. It's a stressbuster for me. As a person, my behaviour has also changed over the years. I have been doing yoga for the past 8 years. If I had not started that early, I'm not sure that I'd be the person that I am today. GANESH VENKATRAMAN Truly Transformative In our lives, we are all running towards one goal - to be happy. We do a lot of hard work, compromise on anything which would make us happy. Have we achieved what we wanted?   No! We missed one important thing. Our inner happiness and inner wellbeing! To get that inner happiness, our ancestors have found this science called ‘Yoga’. You will improve in self-awareness, mental sharpness, health, fitness, energy levels and more importantly emotional stability. You can handle any kind of situation when you practice yoga. Follow Yoga and your life will be truly transformed. BHUMIKA CHAWLA  Gives me mental peace Yoga gives me mental peace and energy. Yoga is a mental, physical and spiritual practice. It's something that whenever I have followed it I have felt peaceful, flexible and more energetic. It is not just the practice of asanas that helps, it's having a deep pranayama process - the breath- that is LIFE.  It's a practise I wish to get deeper into at some point. NAMITHA Yoga is like poetry to me Yoga to me is something that's a fine balance between what to control and what to surrender. I am still new to yoga, but I am starting to fall in love with it. It's teaching my body to dance and bend and twist on its own rhythm freely. Since I have always been into weightlifting and boxing, it took some time for me to calm my mind, slow down my heart rate and listen to my body differently. Without any loud music, just follow my heartbeat in peace in every posture. It's more like poetry to me, once I start yoga I find it difficult to stop. I am positive that within a few months I will be able to attain the flexibility that I want and become a Yogini. That’s what motivated her to start fitness app with Yoga, Workout and Nutrition being the three pillars as they go hand in hand. In India, even if the best fitness expert with certification, experience and knowledge comes with a app, people will blindly follow a celeb instead. Which is why I am glad that Shilpa has come up with the app where she can share our knowledge and expertise to the world.” Couple goals Sushmita Sen and boyfriend Rohman Shawl are setting new trends on social media and taking the bar of love a notch higher with their couple yoga pose. That photo is a reflection of how a good relationship is a result of ‘balance of trust and mutual respect’. In one of their videos, Sushmita can be seen comfortably stationed on Rohman’s body in a very difficult ‘elevated cat and camel’ pose. Sush captioned the video as, ‘To train with a partner, is to know the alignment of energies!!! It’s like creating in unison a way of balance, trust, authentic strength and mutual respect! It’s impossible not to fall in love with the idea of sharing both the struggle and achievements!!! Elevated cat and camel yeah! how I love training with you jaan @rohmanshawl pure magic!! #sharing #partner #team #ourdiscipline I love you guys. (sic). Sharing a similar video, she wrote, “Faithfully balanced & gracefully synchronised, Life is #poetry with you #birthdayboy ‘WE’ for Victory!!! Keep smiling always!!! I love you @rohmanshawl #duggadugga #happybirthday mmuuuaaah.”(sic). Inverted fun Bollywood’s favourite diva and the undisputed queen of fitness Kareena Kapoor Khan is an inspiration to all. Her yoga postures are a killer. Recently, an Instagram fan page of Kareena posted a smoking hot collage of her practicing yoga where she nailed some of the most difficult yoga poses, right from headstand to chakrasana - in the perfect bebo style! From her size-zero Tashan days to her post-pregnancy weight loss - she constantly reminds us that nothing is impossible. Parwani who has trained bebo for over a decade found it easy to work with her post-delivery too. “She was back on the mat in two weeks after delivery and we started with pranayams to focus on the breath work and streamline the hormones. Next came the strengthening of the core and inversions to stimulate the thyroid gland and regulate the hormones. Inversions are easier because you are suspended from your hips: there are no compression on your spine or neck, when you are being suspended in the air. I have seen how Kareena has grown to be so much aware of her body: she knows it best. The FlyFit hammock helped Kareena with postnatal yoga as it’s not easy for anyone to do a headstand, shoulder stand or inversions due of lack of strength at that time. Also when one is working against gravity, it gives more strength and flexibility,” says Parwani. Bend it like the stars Read the full article

[angelsd0ntkill]

30 Day Get-to-Know-Me Challenge Day 11: Share something you struggle with.

I struggle with social interaction and being in the spotlight. A lot. I always have. Maybe it started as “just being shy” – when I was a toddler – but by the time I was in school, I’m convinced it was a disorder. It wasn’t and isn’t just difficult for me to speak to strangers or large groups of people; sometimes it’s impossible. My body freezes, my mind blanks, or sometimes, even if I know exactly what I’m meant to say, I literally cannot force it out. That last one happens a lot in therapy, but also in regular conversation, even with people I know and like. For once I’ll have something to say, a reply of some kind, but I can’t voice it. In therapy it’s okay, because I know I’ll be given the time and/or prompting I need, but it’s really difficult to be social when you have this problem. And the fact that I usually don’t know how to make or continue conversation only makes things worse. Part of this is the fact that I no longer think anyone would be interested in anything I have to say. This is obviously a self-esteem issue, but I think it was exacerbated by one of my past relationships. I’m also constantly worried about saying the wrong thing or not phrasing something properly (Finnish is difficult, okay). Logically I know that making mistakes is fine and normal and most people aren’t gonna ditch you or even really be a dick about it, but something in me (read: personality disorder) doesn’t believe that.

The absolute worst part is that the only solution people have is Just Do It! Practice! It Will Get Easier The More You Do It! As if I didn’t force myself through 14.5 years of school and nearly 3 years of work in customer service, as if I don’t force myself on a daily basis with little to no progress, with the exception of, like, friends.

In recent years, this has extended to the internet. Between the ages of, say, 10 and 20 I was really social online. Like, I spent years on the neoboards chatting and arguing and being a little shit (so hardcore), and then I came to tumblr and would just send asks and reply to people’s posts or reblog from them and add comments like no big deal, and now…? I never message anyone. I rarely reply to posts. I almost never add comments in the caption when reblogging. Many of the fears – as well as some new ones inspired by this site’s nature – have followed me onto the internet now. Hell, I don’t even message my IRL friends over Facebook, I only talk to people who reach out to me.

It’s pretty self-destructive. Especially since for a long time, and to some extent even now, I actively avoided social interaction on any level, insisting I didn’t want or need friends when exactly the opposite was true.

I do have a few friends in real life now, so I guess I have made progress in the sense that I can fight or at least endure the fear. What I meant earlier when I said little to no progress is that the fear never disappears. Okay, it disappears when I’m drunk, but that’s got its own downsides, like being too open, or the potential for alcoholism! :D But yes, this is quite possibly my biggest stumbling block throughout life. Even depression doesn’t quite compare.

[thetexassoulclinic]

On Texas Is The Reason

After leaving a Rocket From The Crypt/Wesley Willis Fiasco show, a kid pushed a flyer into my hand promoting an upcoming Texas Is The Reason show. It was noted that the band was made up of hardcore stalwarts, most of whom I’d never heard of; but they were on Revelation Records. I missed the show.

The next spring, flipping through used CDs at Graywhale I found a Texas Is The Reason EP for a few bucks. Once home I dubbed the EP to a cassette already filled with Sense Field, and some Stench. This tape was listened to repeatedly on the bus up to Brighton. There weren’t many weeks left in the season, but it was enough. Young, hopeless, and physically tired between school, snowboarding, and work, the tape filled my dreams as I dozed in and out while the bus lumbered up the canyon road.

For months I obsessed about them. Revelation catalogs alluded to the President being dead. With little exposure to The Misfits, the reference confused me. The reason for what? Were they from Texas? The internet knew nothing about them, but I barely understood what the internet was. Occasionally articles could be found with vague references. Long distance calls to Revelation headquarters ultimately met with the guy in the warehouse filling orders, and disdain.

Their only album had a sketchy release date, but one evening, not far from where I found their EP, there it was on vinyl. I took it home, wired up my dad’s old record player, and dubbed it to cassette. A heightened sense of worship began. SASE letters were dispatched, and replies were received, hand written, by the guitarist. One of the band members was in Copper - a CD of which was located used, and stabbed with a few hints of brilliance, and holy shit, a lyric Texas repurposed right there at the end of “Caption” - a wonderful pop song that a struggling musician could cover, and build a career around.

They were coming back through town, but I had a conflict. Hold on, they were playing in San Francisco, on my birthday, and I was going to be out there with my dad. Nothing could convince him to stay up late enough to pick me up after a show starting at 10pm ended.

More letters were sent in despair. Two other 7″s were discovered by carefully scanning mail order catalogs. Summer was ending, and with fall, a new job that required a shirt and tie, tougher classes, and a depressive fog. Exhausted evenings were spent crowded around the turntable absorbing every nuance that could be gleaned from this flawless album. Then there was the lyric “…he just found out that she’s in love with just the thought of him.”

The snow fell, and with it the year ending holidays. Then a tour poster at Raunch - they were coming through again in January. The day was taken off from work, spent in celebration on a snow laden mountainside. Video camera batteries were charged, 8mm tape was purchased, and friends and family were rounded up. We got there early because everyone else in the world had to be just as obsessed.

“Hey Norm, I’ve written you letters.” “Oh yeah.” He’s warming up on his white SG, playing unamplified riffs. Of course those sounds could only come from his fingers. It’s just me watching. This is brilliant. Merch was looked over, I had everything, except a new army green t-shirt with JFK assassination conspiracy theories printed on it. “Yeah, this is a new design, and this is the first show we’ve had these” – or that’s how I remembered it. I was the first to put my money down. “Chris, mind if I set up a video camera and record the show?” “Sure. But that spot’s no good, here, come up over here on the side of the stage.” The Stella Brass, a favorite local band, and The Promise Ring from Milwaukee opened. Trumpets were played. Fletch references were made. Knowing nods were sent to friends in the audience. Breathtaking sets from both bands. Their complete merch packages purchased.

The dimming lights invoked, music began, and the crowd moved in chorus. New songs were introduced, songs that, until they regrouped, and recorded them 15 years later could only be heard by watching the scratchy 8mm tape over and over. The set closed, and friends were called back for a “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” cover. Then Garrett kept playing, an Oasis song called “Whatever,” in convocation.

The sun came back, and with it the spring. Word came they were through. 16 songs. Infant technology not yet powerful enough to suffocate their mystery. No time or room for error. And a prayer bleeding out that anyone that breathes music will have an experience this precise with their perfect band.

[planetorigo]

Doodles from Jan 30 2017 - Feb 5 2017

Posting these earlier so I don’t forget. Yes, I’m afraid of forgetting to post this.

Anyways, I’m not even going to pretend. I had an OC things I wanted to post except I ended up not wanting to. It would involve me re-drawing it honestly. Although I’m happy with the Hardcore series doodles I’ve done this time. I only have one for the current season before everything got sad and a lot of it was MineZ and AU things I’m not posting until I’m sure I want to.

The zombie one was actually pretty fun to draw. I’m definitely going to work with that for the other guys. At least the ones who do turn into zombies and we see it.

Captions are included.

[iamandco]

  PHOTO: COURTESY ASHLEY GRAHAM’s INSTAGRAM  Here at I AM & CO, we love to celebrate strong, beautiful, history-making women who help make the world a better place for us all . The sensational Ashley Graham—and her Instagram—have our devoted attention. Ashley is a 31 year old plus-sized model who has taken the modeling and fashion industry by storm. Her career and accolades have brought awareness to self-love and body positivity , and show that women of all sizes, colors, and shapes deserve to be celebrated for their authentic beauty. Ms. Graham became an overnight sensation when in 2016, she was the first size 16 model to be featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. This was a major breakthrough for plus-sized models in the modeling industry. Ever since then, Ashley has been slaying the fashion industry with her complete fierceness and beauty. The best way to keep up with Ashley is to follow her Instagram account @ashleygraham. Her feed is popping and let me tell you why: #BeautyBeyondSize: Ashley Graham loves and owns her sexy, curvy body, and isn’t afraid to flaunt it on social media. You have no idea how empowering it is for me to see a woman like Ashley show me and the rest of the world her natural, beautiful figure. Whenever she posts a fire photo of her body, it reminds me to own my imperfections and to show them off to the world. After I see a photo of Ashley, I feel inspired to put on my favorite shorts and show off my curves to the world.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Feb 14, 2018 at 6:14pm PST Okay Ashley, we see you!!  View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Feb 17, 2018 at 12:55pm PST Whether you have a small booty, a big booty, or something in between, own it, and show it off. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Aug 13, 2018 at 6:23pm PDT What’s better than one gorgeously stunning curvy girl? Two gorgeously stunning curvy girls! Thanks for sharing your beauty with the world, ladies! View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jun 2, 2018 at 8:57am PDT Killer body? Check. Gorgeous backdrop? Check. Badass babe who is making ‘her’story? Check. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jun 17, 2019 at 12:31pm PDT We love when Ashley promotes fellow models of all shapes, colors, and sizes on her feed. Her Workouts are Hardcore: I didn’t realize this, but Ashley Graham is a workout beast. If you think that because she’s plus-sized, she doesn’t workout, you have another thing coming your way! Ashley trains like a freaking Olympian. This woman is the definition of a strong bad-ass babe! View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Oct 5, 2018 at 1:29pm PDT “Are you jumping into your best life?” I am now, thanks to you Queen Ashely!  View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Nov 3, 2018 at 4:53pm PDT Oh no big deal, Ashley is just pulling a 45 pound weight with a man who is at least 180 pounds standing on top of it. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jan 24, 2019 at 7:40am PST Ashley isn’t always in the gym; sometimes she likes to switch it up, Here she is living her best life while skating at the Santa Monica pier.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on May 18, 2018 at 1:45pm PDT Can we talk about how much core strength Ashley must have in order to do this? I gotta hit up my bestie and try this out! View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Mar 1, 2019 at 2:03pm PST I love what Ashley says in this post: “I don’t work out to lose weight, I don’t work out because I want to be thin, I work out to stay healthy, strong, firm and to keep my mind clear.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Nov 19, 2018 at 10:59am PST Can we just talk about the fact that Ashley Graham is literally deadlifting 135 pounds and she is making it look easy! I wish I looked calm, cool, and collected like her when I’m at the gym, lol. She Slays #AllDayEveryDay: As someone who is obsessed with everything beauty and fashion related, I love checking out Ashley Graham’s Instagram feed to see which of the latest trends she’s been rocking. Ashley isn’t afraid to try out new beauty trends and I truly love seeing what she wears, because it gives me an idea of what would look good on me! Also, she proves all the haters wrong because she knows how to look damn good in a pair of skinny jeans and crop top. View this post on Instagram Just as comfortable as it looks🌴 A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Feb 22, 2018 at 7:32pm PST There’s no denying that red looks absolutely stunning on Ashley. As someone who has dabbled in the modeling industry, I can tell you firsthand how incredibly difficult this pose is. Not only does she have to balance on such a slender branch, but she’s doing a major back arch which is definitely not comfortable. The fact that Ashley is making this pose look so graceful and elegant is some next level magic. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Aug 12, 2018 at 3:16pm PDT Sleek hair looks AMAZING on Ashley! I also love her outfit in this picture. She is so chic and put together; this would be a great work outfit View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Mar 4, 2019 at 3:46pm PST This is on top of my list of photos I want to recreate. Ashley truly looks like a modern day Greek goddess in this photo. Her beauty is undeniable. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on May 5, 2018 at 10:05pm PDT I am living for the 70s vibe Ashley is going for! This brown metallic dress looks phenomenal on her olive toned skin and her bouncy curls are perfect for a fun night out. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Feb 23, 2018 at 4:07pm PST Tyra Banks (a.k.a my birthday twin) would be so proud of Ashley and her fierce smize in this photoshoot! Also, can we just talk about (again) how amazing red looks on Ashley?  View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jan 18, 2019 at 3:30pm PST Here is living proof that curvy girls can look fire in a crop top and skinny jeans.  She’s a Huge Advocate for Women and Social Justice: Ashley is putting her fame to good use. She is using her platform and voice to help bring awareness to many issues that need to be changed. She also loves supporting other badass babes, which is something we love to do as well. View this post on Instagram Empowered women, empower women. Loved meeting @BrookeShields on the set of the @swimsuitsforall #PowerSuit shoot! See the campaign. Link in bio! A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on May 21, 2018 at 11:00am PDT Ashley Graham said it best, “Empower women empower women” and that is exactly what Ashley does on the daily. View this post on Instagram It's time to drive for change. I'm proud to be joining the 2018 @Cash_and_Rocket Tour this June, uniting and empowering women to #PressForProgress while we raise donations for charities that support women and children around the world. Learn more and donate at cashandrocket.com/donate. #CashandRocket A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Mar 8, 2018 at 3:52am PST Here she is being part of a campaign that is raising money to support women and girls all over the world. View this post on Instagram IT’S LIVE! My new series #Fearless with @theellenshow is live 🙌🏽 Link in bio to watch Kayla & Rickey’s life change forever!🖤🖤🖤 A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Nov 14, 2018 at 8:35am PST Ashley Graham partnered with Ellen Degeneres and Ellentube to have her own series called “Fearless.” On this show, Ashley helps people who struggle with confidence to see their own beauty and become that fearless person they know they can be. She’s Just Like Us… Except for that whole supermodel thing. Ashley is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s and she loves to keep it real. She knows she’s just another human being like the rest of us. After seeing all her hella relatable posts, I think it’s safe to say we all want to be best friends with her.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on May 7, 2018 at 9:05am PDT Ashley’s idea of the #behindthescenes of getting ready for the Met Gala is definitely different than other celebrities. Here she is getting her nose hairs zapped before the big event. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Nov 12, 2018 at 12:40pm PST In this video, Ashley is showing her followers her struggle with taping up her breasts . “Kim tried it, Cardi B tried it…I don’t think I’m doing this right!” View this post on Instagram #Models A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Apr 10, 2018 at 9:39am PDT Here’s a hilariously adorable video of Ashley with fellow supermodel Hailey Bieber doing funny faces. Ashley captioned it #Models. View this post on Instagram Morgan Williams, over and out!✌🏽 If you want to laugh and cry at the same time, make sure to check it out on cbs! A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jun 22, 2018 at 6:59pm PDT I honestly have no idea what is going on in this photo, but here’s another example of Ashley keeping it real with her followers. View this post on Instagram Bout to eat my way through Europe🍴 A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@ashleygraham) on Jun 30, 2018 at 4:53pm PDT Ashley shoving her face with fancy European food is a whole mood. This  is literally me at 2 a.m. shoving my face into a piece of pizza. Same, Ashley, same. I think it’s safe to say Ashley Graham has saved lives. She has shown the world that a size 16 woman can be equally as beautiful as a size 0 woman. Her goal has never been to steal the spotlight from models who are smaller than she is, but only to bring awareness to the fact that we are all equally beautiful, no matter our size. To see a model like Ashley, who somewhat resembles my body shape, be on the covers of major fashion magazines has helped boost my confidence. I always wanted to see a girl like me (with curves) be celebrated. Ms. Graham’s beauty is game-changing and helping redefine what beauty is. Because of her, many plus-sized models are able to have successful careers in the fashion industry. Because of her, magazines and fashion brands are being more inclusive and celebrating bigger girls. Because of her, I am reminded to love my body for how it is. Ashley Graham, you are an inspiration and all together a #Girlboss. Thank you for being YOU and helping change the game.  If you are interested in learning more about Ashley and her journey, subscribe to her new podcast “Pretty Big Deal”!

[oselatra]

Visionary Arkansans 2018

Inspired men and women who are making great things happen.

Benito Lubazibwa Working for economic mobility.

Benito Lubazibwa wants to do more than encourage African-American entrepreneurship, though that is the primary focus of his own startup, Remix Ideas. "Integrating capital with humanity" is what the native of Tanzania and University of Central Arkansas alumnus says is the ultimate goal: to make Little Rock a more connected, integrated place to live, to break down barriers not just to capital — an entrepreneur's biggest challenge — but between people.

That's what Remix's Night Market in the Bernice Garden has been able to achieve on a small scale. The Night Market's slogan is "One City, One Love," and serves as both a platform for startups — 40 vendors were at the September event — and a place to mingle, listen to music, dine and dance. Nearly all the vendors were women, a fact that pleased Lubazibwa mightily, and established businesses on Main Street indirectly benefited. The event, which Lubazibwa and chief creative officer Angel Burt organized, featured not just African-American women starting out in business, but food trucks featuring the cuisine of many nationalities: Venezuelan, Mexican, Colombian and African. It also had a broader mission than to help create business: It also created jobs. The men setting up and taking down the market were hired intentionally from the ranks of SoMa's homeless population, and Lubazibwa said they were eager, excellent employees who not only showed up on time, but early. They were paid $15 an hour and given T-shirts identifying them with the Night Market. "I told people, the people you have been serving, dancing with, those are the people you call homeless. I call them freedom fighters — they have to fight against whatever is holding them back," Lubazibwa said.

Remix has been in business for a year, working with financing partner Communities Unlimited Inc., which provides microloans, and Innovate Arkansas, an initiative of Winrock International. It hosts the "Remix Pitch Challenge," awarding $1,000 to the winning startup pitch, and will hold a "Celebration of Startups" networking and pitch challenge party from 5-10 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, 201 E. Broadway in North Little Rock. (Tickets are $10.)

Remix seeks to inspire would-be entrepreneurs with its radio show "Remix Ideas." Creative officer Burt interviews business people on the half-hour show on KABF-FM, 88.3, which airs at 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays.

Remix has also worked out discounts for use of co-working spaces at the Little Rock Technology Park and the Innovation Hub. Remix clients will be able to use space at the tech park, at 417 Main St., for $50 a month, and at the Hub for $40 a month.

Remix has several workshops and events lined up for 2019, including a 12-week Startups Business Academy, beginning in February, for people who have the ideas, but not the know-how, on running a business. "Eighty percent of startups fail," Lubazibwa said. The business academy will be practical, showing people how to test their ideas. "You don't buy a car without driving it," he said. "You test drive."

Remix will also hold three pitch challenges and the Ideas Weekend festival July 25-27.

Lubazibwa is also working to introduce the Impactor card, which for $10 will give card holders discounts at participating businesses. It's similar to the Partners Card that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences issues to support cancer research, but instead of two weeks, the Impactor Card will be good for a year. Several businesses have signed on to the idea already, including Remix Ideas' most high-profile success story, Kontiki African Restaurant; and Pyramid Art Books and Custom Framing. Garbo Hearne, who owns Pyramid, said she was impressed with Lubazibwa's energy and his ideas for Little Rock. Lubazibwa said the card would be a "win-win" for customers, giving them a break, and businesses, who would see more customers.

Lubazibwa said he worked in Africa after graduating from UCA in 2001, but realized that Arkansas was as much in need of the same "ecosystem" — a favorite word of startup promoters — to address similar barriers to economic success as were the places in Africa he worked.

It was his parents who instilled in him the notion that the important thing in life was to help others. "They believe that you are judged not by your harvest, but by the seed you are planting. ... That's been in my life since the beginning."

The next movement among people of color will be an economic movement, Lubazibwa believes. "Martin Luther King did an excellent job on civil rights. Now it's time for this generation to fight for economic mobility," not just for African Americans, but "women, Latinos, everybody." He believes Remix is part of that movement.

For information on Remix workshops and events, go to remixideas.com.

— Leslie Newell Peacock

Brandon Markin A curious and roving eye.

Brandon Markin's approach to photography and life are the same: "You get one go-round and so you might as well try it all and put yourself into situations that make you uncomfortable and just deal with that. ... I look at photography as an extension of who I am as a person and a way to document my learning experience as I go through life."

That deep curiosity shines through in a scan of his online portfolios on Instagram (@bnikram) and brandonmarkin.com. There you'll find a tender black-and-white portrait of a young black man holding a diaper-clad baby who regards the camera with a blank wonder, while her father, eyes downcast and with the hint of a grin, plays with her impossibly small baby fingers. It's captioned "From a front porch in Helena. Talking boxing with TJ." Another black-and-white image from January is all light and shadow, a big band of men in cowboy hats on a stage, with beams of light emanating from spotlights out into a sparse crowd on the dance floor, dark shapes huddled tight. It's titled "Quinceañera de Juliana."

Like everyone else's Instagram page, Markin also includes pictures of his family. His wife and frequent muse, Mariella, is a student at the Clinton School of Public Service. The family traveled to Bocas del Toro, an island chain province of Panama, over the summer while Mariella did her required service project, so you'll also find pictures such as one Markin captioned "Girl in Bahia Honda, Panama with her dolls. Life is sweet and fleeting." It's of a small girl in a white dress standing in front of a giant window, looking warily outside the frame and clutching her dolls tightly to her chest.

Markin, 43, of North Little Rock, prefers analog film photography. "I've always been drawn to that process," he said, though he didn't start young. "It wasn't until I was well into adulthood [that] I had the resources to pursue that." Why film? "Part of it is nostalgia. We're nostalgic creatures. Photography is the nostalgic medium. What you're doing, in a way, is stopping time. You're capturing light from a moment that will never be repeated again." You also learn to appreciate motion, he said. "When most people do digital photography, that obsession with perfection means, if they're shooting something with low light, they'll try to stop the motion. But if you're doing it with film, that motion turns into a beautiful thing, with waves and streaks and such."

He's part of noted photographer Rita Henry's Blue-Eyed Knockers collective in Little Rock. The group gets together regularly at Henry's Stifft Station studio to hang out and process film. Through that group and under his own initiative, he's done a number of projects: pics of political protest, of the dilapidated Hotel Pines in Pine Bluff, of the Kanis Bash, where skateboarders and punk and hardcore bands gather at the Kanis Park skate bowl.

Markin makes a living as a photographer, which means he shoots products, events and magazine portraits with a digital camera. But he's committed to continuing his art photography. He has a solo retrospective coming in November 2019 at the William F. Laman Library in North Little Rock. He dreams of traveling through Central and South America on a photo project (Mariella is from Ecuador, so he's traveled to South America before). He met Adger Cowans, the famed fine art photographer, at a talk at Hearne Fine Art earlier this year and asked him for advice. "He said, 'Do what you do and don't worry about where the money is going to come from. If you're true to your spirit and vision, it may take a while, but the money will come.' " For now, Markin is content to keep on keeping on. "Any day that I can be walking around with the camera taking photographs and doing what I love, that's a win for me."

—Lindsey Millar

Jared Henderson Lost the battle, but sees hope for Democrats in the longer political struggle.

First, a bit of news for the politicos for whom it's already time to begin worrying over elections in 2020: Count Jared Henderson of Little Rock out as a candidate for the U.S. Senate or Congress. But don't take that as a sign that his political fire is dwindling. Yes, as the Democratic nominee for governor, he got walloped by Governor Hutchinson in November. (Henderson got 31.7 percent of the vote, while Hutchinson secured 65.4 percent.) That's a big gap, but Hutchinson was a popular incumbent; no one gave Henderson much of a shot to defeat him, particularly considering Henderson had little to no name recognition.

After 10 months of hard campaigning, meeting and greeting and stump-speaking across the state, Henderson may be beat up a bit, but at 40, with a decorated resume and a Clintonesque gift for making policy relatable, he has the look of a star prospect for Arkansas Democrats.

So what's next? He hasn't charted a path yet, but says he plans to "stay engaged in politics." He won't run against U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton or U.S. Rep. French Hill, not because he doesn't think they're beatable in two years, but because he's got a young family and isn't ready to spend 60 percent of his time in Washington, D.C.

After getting two advanced degrees from Harvard, in business administration and public administration, Henderson worked for NASA and for McKinsey & Co., the worldwide consulting firm. He returned to Arkansas to lead the state branch of Teach for America, with a plan to eventually get into politics. "But I was perpetually six or 10 years away until Donald Trump got elected," he said. "When that happened, especially as a new father, I said, 'We've got to get a good, competent, compassionate, inclusive party back in the state,' and the fastest way is just to get in and do it. And, yeah, we may continue to get thumped for a while, but there's not a faster way to make progress."

Why make the political leap into a race for the highest statewide office? Why not start in city hall or in the state legislature? "Whether it's right or wrong, in politics, as long as you're a credible and competent candidate, voters fit you into the box in which you're introduced. ... In politics, I think you have to take risks," Henderson said.

He concedes that he made some first-time-candidate mistakes. "I didn't really start to understand and build an operation that could raise significant amounts of money until June or July, but once we did, I actually started raising significant amounts of money, especially since I was going against someone that no one thought was beatable. If I had been able to start that a year earlier, we would've had enough money to introduce myself to the rest of the state. Would that have won it for us? Probably not. But would that have gotten me another 10 points? Very plausible."

For Democrats to succeed down the road, the party must invest in infrastructure and continue to improve on candidate recruitment, he said.

"My campaign built a field organization that really reached pretty far, but could've gone so much farther. We're rebuilding data systems as a party, so we know which doors to knock on and which voters to engage. As we rebuild that over the next 10 years, you could imagine that compressing some of the margins even more. It's going to take more money than we had. It's going to take a party infrastructure that brings more people in. It's going to take contesting every race."

If Democrats can make improvements, Republicans might help their cause, Henderson said, noting as markers Oklahoma, which recently elected a Democratic congressman, and Kansas, which elected a Democratic governor.

"I don't want the economy to teeter for anyone's political fortune," Henderson said. "But sooner or later it'll turn. I was running this year because I wanted to win and I believed there was a hell of a good argument to win. And I lost. Let the Republicans go do what they say they're going to do in the next few years. Let them cut another $180 million in taxes. Let them ignore that we have the sixth-highest prison population in the world. Let them kick the can on highway funding. We'll see if they follow through with this raise on teachers, but even if they do, it's not going to be enough. This profession is bleeding."

Henderson would like to continue to advocate for issues on which he campaigned. "Education, teenage pregnancy and rural economic development — those are things I'm passionate about and things I believe are really fundamental for building a better future for the whole state, and they're areas that are way under-resourced. You can also speak to them in conservative values. I can talk to my conservative family members on why these things matter and I can get them to nod their heads."

— Lindsey Millar

Lorenzo Lewis Mental health care advocate.

Lorenzo Lewis says his narrow escape from the school-to-prison pipeline was a testament to the importance of equipping marginalized men of color with coping skills and resources to manage their mental health. That's why in 2016 Lewis founded the Confess Project; its mission is to bring mental health and emotional awareness education to men and boys of color.

Lewis was born while his mother was incarcerated. He said behavior and anxiety issues in his early childhood led to his two-month stay at a juvenile facility in Pulaski County at age 10. He wasn't encouraged to talk about his feelings or trauma and almost re-entered the juvenile system at age 17.

"Emotionally, I wasn't validated as a young man," Lewis said. He was told that God heals everything, "but [that's] not practically looking at what helps and digging into the issue." The Confess Project advocates for psychological therapy and medication management. "Some of these different tools that you need to understand, through the process of healing and growing, [are] really important to getting on the right track. And I think those were not the things that were pushed in front of me."

The Confess Project offers monthly empowering sessions, community forums on social and emotional issues; 90-minute workshops for marginalized men and boys ages 10-40 on character education, academic improvement and life skills; and the Confess College Tour, which travels to different campuses with a curriculum focused on mental health education, prevention techniques and open dialogue.

The Confess Project also travels to barbershops in the South and Midwest as part of its "Beyond the Shop" series to meet men and boys where they are. Lewis said the "Beyond the Shop" model is intended to initiate conversations that spread further into the communities the nonprofit serves.

"The model of 'Beyond the Shop' is really meant to let this conversation start here, but blossom into our communities, into our homes, into our families, to help our children, to better our relationships," Lewis said. "So that's why it's called 'Beyond the Shop,' to say that it starts here but it revolutionizes throughout the places we live, work and play in."

Confess Project facilitators provide pamphlets on counseling services at the "Beyond the Shop" meetings. Lewis said that these efforts come full circle when he learns of someone who attended a session and went on to begin counseling, or quit smoking, or otherwise take better care of themselves.

"That is why we do what we do. ... I think it's the ultimate feeling as a founder of this organization," he said. "You intend for that to happen, but you don't always see it happen as rapidly, so when you see that happen, it really gives you a lot of satisfaction. At that point, you know that they have a larger chance of transforming their life, more than what they had before."

The Confess Project also trains barbers to become mental health advocates. Lewis said it intends to train 700 barbers next year through webinars, online video training and follow-ups.

Healing is at the root of what the Confess Project does. The curriculum guides men and boys through three archetypes of masculinity: provider, protector and priest. Lewis said once men and boys are able to identify the harmful constraints and pressures of these archetypes, they're able to gain perspective on the unhealthy behaviors they engender.

"Once you get men to understand that, I think they will begin to live a better quality of life," Lewis said. "We also ask, what is the speed of healing? But we let them know that time to heal and grow is different. ...

"A lot of the conversation is about manhood. It's mental health, but it's also about manhood. We have to dig deep into identity, and social skills, and building relationships. A lot of stuff comes up about divorce, and girls, and domestic violence, and child support. You're really dealing with men from the things that affect men."

According to Lewis, the Confess Project is built on the testimony and storytelling of facilitators with stories like his — stories like those of the men and boys in the barbershops and college campuses and community spaces they visit. Lewis said the resonance is crucial to the fulfillment of the organization's mission.

"I think it's important, because it allows them to really see the bigger picture," he said. "It allows them to see accelerated growth, and it's also just transparent, because it's someone who looks like them and comes from the same neighborhood, or went to the same high school as them, may have had failing grades just like them. ... Our facilitators and staff with the Confess Project all harness stories of power. ... It's a mixture of guys from different walks of life and professions who can relate to our key mission that helps us develop a bigger narrative."

— Rebekah Hall

Project REACH How a team of Arkansans hopes to change the criminal justice system.

Dr. Nickolas Zaller, Dr. Femina Varghese and Ben Udochi were recently awarded a three-year, $350,000 fellowship through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program. The fellowship will allow the team to conduct a telehealth pilot study that provides behavioral health counseling in the West Memphis area for people on probation or parole.

Zaller, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, said the project came to fruition after discussions with Varghese and Udochi, the assistant director of substance use treatment with Arkansas Community Correction, about the capacity of telehealth medicine to reach people in isolated areas.

"We hear all the time that we live in a rural state, [that] we have all these access issues in terms of health care in general," Zaller said. "I feel that we underutilize the potential with things we have, like telehealth and telemedicine, to reach more people in rural areas."

According to Zaller, the pilot study will take place at the local office of Arkansas Community Correction, which oversees parolees and probationers, who are required to report there. If they fail to show up for a meeting with their probation or parole officer, a warrant is issued for their arrest.

"The idea was that is an opportunity," Zaller said. "They're already in the office. We've identified individuals who are struggling. Can we then provide some additional services while they're there?"

According to an analysis by the Pew Research Center and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation of data from a 2016 federal Bureau of Justice Statistics survey, one in 44 Arkansans is under some form of correctional supervision, one of the highest rates in the nation. Zaller said this high rate could in part be attributed to the fact that Arkansas lacks adequate treatment capacity for folks with mental health or substance use issues.

"We haven't invested, it's just plain and simple," Zaller said. "We have not invested in that capacity. We haven't prioritized it, we haven't invested, and this is the consequence."

Zaller and Udochi said the team decided on West Memphis for the pilot study because of its proximity to more rural areas of the state, as the RWJF fellowship focuses specifically on health care in rural America. Udochi said individuals on parole or probation living in rural areas face unique challenges to accessing necessary services.

"Some of the rural areas, they don't have the necessary services rightly available in their location," Udochi said. "Second to that is the transportation issue. So they have to travel a long distance to get the services they need. The hope is that with telehealth services, we can see how beneficial those services can be in alleviating some of those problems in those areas."

Varghese, an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, will supervise her Ph.D. students who will provide the telehealth counseling. Zaller said he, Varghese and Udochi intentionally designed the pilot study to involve students in hopes of generating future interest in the criminal justice field.

"We wanted to do something where we could help these parolees in critical areas and provide our students with some wonderful training, as they're interested in this area, and when they graduate they could continue the work in this area, whether it's part of their practice or pro bono," Varghese said. "It would be sustainable to two different roles."

According to the research team, the pilot study will compare two different groups. Each group will receive a six-session intervention. One group will receive only the treatment that the Community Correction department assigns to it based on its assessment and no telehealth counseling. The other group will also get the Community Correction treatment assigned to it, but that will be augmented by the telehealth counseling conducted by Varghese and her students.

Zaller, Varghese and Udochi will follow the progress of participants over a period of about six months to observe "overall substance use behaviors," Zaller said. The team will then compare the outcomes of the two groups using standardized assessment tools, such as the Addiction Severity Index, and by conducting pre- and post-study interviews with both the Community Correction officers and the individuals who received treatment.

Zaller, Varghese and Udochi said the pilot study would be considered successful if participants respond well to the telehealth counseling and the ACC decides to expand the study to collect more information from different Community Correction locations in the state. But expanding the study would require funding from the state, and Zaller said such funding could be difficult to come by because of attitudes about criminal justice and punishment. According to Zaller, a main emphasis of the fellowship is also to change the cultural narrative surrounding criminal justice and incarceration by becoming public health leaders in the community.

"A lot of it is a cultural shift," Zaller said. "What do we see as the big picture? What sort of society do we want to live in? Right now, we've chosen a society totally dominated by fear. ... And unless we change that narrative, and unless people understand that there are a lot of structural factors that relate to crime, including violent crime, we have to understand that it's not all the same. We have to really start thinking carefully about what it is that we're punishing people for."

—Rebekah Hall

Steve Arrison The Hot Springs promoter wants to see hordes in hot water.

Here's what Steve Arrison envisions: lots of people pouring into Hot Springs, biking in, hauling kayaks in, driving in for the World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade. Bunking in the new hotels, soaking up the craft suds, enjoying the thermal waters. And he wants an improved quality of life for the residents of the Spa City. Thanks to the internet, Arrison said, "people can live anywhere." Why not Hot Springs?

Arrison, 62, has worked as the CEO of Visit Hot Springs, the city's convention and visitor's bureau, for 20 years. In that time, he's seen gaming join the racetrack at Oaklawn Park, the reopening of once-struggling Magic Springs Theme and Water Park in 2000 thanks to a local bond issue, the expansion of the convention center and the opening of the Embassy Suites Hotel. He was part of the group that worked on the Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail. The latest big thing that has Hot Springs promoters licking their chops: Oaklawn's $100 million expansion that will bring a high-rise hotel with 200 rooms, an event center and a bigger gaming area.

Arrison is quick to say he wasn't alone, or even the prime mover, in bringing such new investments to Hot Springs. He's part of a team, and he was reluctant to have the Arkansas Times single him out.

But he would take credit for the Northwoods project, the multimillion-dollar bike-trail development taking place on 2,000 hilly Ouachita Mountain acres just west of downtown. The property was made off-limits to the public after 9/11 because its four lakes supplied drinking water to the city. The city opened the land after it discontinued use of three of the lakes, and in 2016 Arrison — who said he didn't even know the property existed — visited. He was struck by its beauty and had the notion that it would be a good place to build bike trails. Hot Springs already attracts the cycling public with several bike trails, both rugged and easy.

After a visit to Bentonville, where the Walton Family Foundation has invested $74 million on mountain bike trails and the bike trail system that connects Bentonville to Bella Vista and Fayetteville, Arrison made a pitch for Walton money for the Northwoods trail. He was successful: The Walton Family Foundation matched Visit Hot Springs' contribution of $680,000 and phase one was launched. The city dedicated the trail's first 14 miles in November; eventually, Northwoods will have 44 miles of mountain bike trail, complete with angled berms, dirt ramps and tricky turns. Arrison wants to see the lakes become kayaker destinations.

Arrison is also looking forward to the day when the Southwest Bike Trail from Pulaski County to Garland County becomes a reality, but that will be many years from now. He's not going anywhere, however: "I hope to be in this job six or seven years from now. I love what I do."

Next on Arrison's plate is the development of the city's five acres at Park and Central avenues, where the Majestic Hotel once stood. The University of Arkansas's Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design and Kansas State University are in charge of the "visioning process" for the site. Arrison's vision involves Hot Springs' reason for being: the thermal waters. He'd like to see outdoor thermal pools, where people could relax in the toasty 143-degree F. (on average) water.

The Majestic property is a "real pivotal piece" to Hot Springs' development, so it's important to "get it right." He thinks a public-private partnership is likely.

—Leslie Newell Peacock

Stacey McAdoo Transformative teacher.

Long before Stacey McAdoo was a communications teacher at Little Rock's Central High School — let alone the 2019 Arkansas Teacher of the Year — she was a poet. In the mid-'90s, having just graduated from Hall High School, she and her future husband, Leron, began self-publishing a magazine intended to serve as a platform for fellow creatives, especially people of color. They put out a call for submissions, cut-and-pasted together their book by hand and were soon running off copies at a 24-hour Kinkos. They dubbed it "The Writeous."

"When you talk about underrepresented people, one of the things we are underrepresented in is media, and the ability to tell our story," McAdoo said. "A lot of poets wanted to have a place to share their voice, and we filled that niche."

"Fast forward: When I became an educator, I took that same concept and brought it to the classroom," she said. "So I am now the founder and sponsor of the Writeous Poetry Club ... and the Writeous has transformed from a magazine to a youth-oriented poetry collective."

Since McAdoo started the club in 2002 — her first year at Central and her first year teaching — at least 50 students have participated each year, writing and performing original material at open mics, concerts and on "The Writeous Hour," a radio show she co-produces on local station KWCP-FM, 98.9. Kids learn new skills, build creative projects of their own and travel to other cities. "We also do workshops around Arkansas and the country, teaching other people, other youth, how to use and find their voice," she said. (Leron, who's better known around town as the multitalented performer, writer and artist Ron Mc, remains an integral part of "The Writeous.")

The state's teacher of the year is a product of the Little Rock School District. McAdoo grew up in Southwest Little Rock, where she attended Baseline Elementary and Cloverdale Elementary, then went on to Henderson Middle School and Hall. McAdoo received a B.A. in professional and technical writing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Though she always knew she wanted to be a teacher, she brushed those thoughts aside after graduating. The teaching profession was losing the esteem it had once enjoyed in society, McAdoo said; the message she received from her peers and community was that the classroom wasn't the place for her. Instead, she found a comfortable job at Alltel as an administrative assistant and started a family.

Then, her brother died in a car accident, "and I realized then that life was too short for me to not do what I felt I was supposed to do," McAdoo said. "I quit my job, cut my hair off, and enrolled in ... a master's program [at UA Monticello]." As a first-year teacher, she said, she saw a drop in both pay and health benefits compared to her secretarial job at Alltel.

McAdoo arrived at Central the same year as its principal, Nancy Rousseau. She's been teaching communications at the school ever since. She's also taught AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness program for students who are typically the first in their families to go to college since 2007. "I'm their teacher 9th-12th grade," she said. The purpose of AVID is to equip students with the "soft skills" they need to navigate adult life and "discover the hidden curriculum" in college and beyond. "We, as in society, basically operate from a middle-class white person's perspective, and we assume everyone's experience matches that," she said.

As Teacher of the Year, McAdoo will receive a $14,000 award sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. Beginning in July 2019, she'll spend a sabbatical year of service traveling the state and the nation, speaking with teachers and doing professional development. McAdoo will also have a nonvoting seat on the state Board of Education — the body that took over the Little Rock School District in 2015 and has controlled it for the last four years.

McAdoo said she "has a lot of thoughts" about education policy and the LRSD, but she's not yet sure how she'll leverage her newfound status. "I'm just looking and trying to see where my place is," she said. Was she surprised to be selected for the honor? McAdoo laughed. "In light of who I am, and in light of today's climate — yeah, it's real interesting!" she said.

In general, McAdoo isn't shy about expressing her views. Sixteen years ago, as a newly minted teacher, she was skeptical of the emphasis placed on standardized testing by No Child Left Behind, the federal education law. She recalls saying as much to Rousseau during her first interview. Today, she said, "I still think standardized testing is — the word I want to use is 'wack.' ... Because there's no standard child. The whole premise of testing students to whatever this norm is, it's ridiculous." In her classroom, she said, "I close my door and I've done what I thought was best for the children. I teach pretty much the way I wish I had been taught — and/or the way that I think my biological children need." (She and Ron have a daughter who's now a senior at Central and a son who attends Tennessee State University; her daughter is an accomplished poet in her own right.)

Though she's proud of her work in the classroom, McAdoo considers the Writeous Poetry Club her "most valuable contribution ... to society" because it takes a group of kids and "helps validate them as thinkers."

"My platform as Teacher of the Year is using passion and poetry to close the opportunity gap," she said. "You have a core group of students, for the most part from inner-city Little Rock ... spending their time sitting around writing and re-writing and practicing. That's how you transform not just education, but a city."

— Benjamin Hardy

Chrissy Chatham Defender of potential.

When Chrissy Chatham took the helm as CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas in 2015, she didn't exactly know what she was getting into. The secondhand store Savers, which provided a significant amount of funding for the nonprofit, closed both its locations in Little Rock and North Little Rock in 2017, a major setback to the operations of BBBSCA. But Chatham said her vision of growth for the organization has remained the same since she became CEO.

"I've been hopeful the entire three years," she said. "My tendency is to be more resilient and optimistic. We've had several blows over the three years that could have caused some serious changes, but at the end of the day, it's an opportunity to grow, it's an opportunity to build and make this organization true to what it is and get down to the basics. So many nonprofits end up doing more than they're supposed to do, and when you don't have that ability to do more, you get really good at what you're supposed to do."

Big Brothers Big Sisters' mission is to provide at-risk children one-on-one relationships with adults. According to Chatham, the Central Arkansas chapter has 89 children matched with mentors. But there is a disparity in the number of boys waiting for adult mentors — 127 boys are in the process of becoming Little Brothers; 50 are waiting for mentors. At the moment, there are only 19 men going through the necessary background checks and interviews required to be a Big Brother. The reverse is true for girls: There are 42 girls in the process of becoming Little Sisters, and 60 women in the process of becoming Big Sisters. The organization needs more male volunteers and more young girls.

Chatham said the continued investment in the matches is an investment in the future. "I think mentors are valuable and incredibly undervalued in our community," she said. "Every single person has had somebody, whether they realize it or not, to help them through a situation, or a period, or their entire life. ... This is one solution to help our community get better. We've got a lot of crime and we've got a lot of problems with the school system, and we can point to all kinds of things that are wrong. But we have to invest in our youngest populations and set them up for success for that long-term goal of having a successful community."

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America handed down new brand positioning in October, complete with a new logo. Chatham said the new branding is an effort to expand the organization's impact and to "defend the potential" of every child. The new logo of BBBS America features a lowercase "b" in white, which the organization's website said represents Littles and their families. The logo is completed by a green curve that creates an uppercase "B," which represents the Bigs who strengthen the relationships among themselves, their Littles and their families.

A new video for the organization says, "We are not saviors. We are allies." It's a sentiment that Chatham said she's inspired by.

"I love the idea that we're not saviors, we're defenders," she said. "And it's true, we're not saviors. ... [These are] kids who just have an opportunity and have a chance, we just need to open the door for them."

Opening that door isn't nearly as much of a time commitment as people think, according to Chatham. The community-based mentorship program requires Bigs to spend time with their Littles for a minimum of two hours, at least twice a month — just 48 hours per year. Chatham said another common misunderstanding about the organization is what the definition of a good mentor is.

"You don't have to be perfect, you just have to be present," she said. "And, in fact, people who have less than perfect backgrounds are generally going to be fantastic mentors."

When Bigs draw on their own life experiences to help shape the futures of the Littles they mentor, this helps the Littles realize they can do and be more, Chatham said.

"It's not the mentor's role or job to create potential," Chatham said. "It's there. It's our job to defend it, and to make sure it's able to grow, and to light that fire within the kids."

— Rebekah Hall

Kim Lane Empowering entrepreneurs.

Those who think that studying poetry in high school is a waste of time for those whose future is in business should meet Kim Lane.

Lane, 27, who speaks (and thinks) nearly as fast as the speed of sound, rattled off the Edgar Lee Masters poem that inspired her in her teenage years to make her own happiness and success in the working world, part of which is "Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances. ... Life without meaning is torture."

Did this reporter know, Lane asked during an interview at a coffee shop in Conway, where she is the CEO of startup promoter The Conductor, that "85 percent of people hate their jobs?" She was determined that would not be her fate.

Lane's path to The Conductor was a complicated one, a route that took the Hendrix College writing major to work as an advertising writer, then a freelance writer of listicals for a national online publication, then an editor for a local online publication about business (she was also an intern at the Arkansas Times). After a visit to the first Arkansas Challenge startup contest in Northwest Arkansas, she "fell in love with the whole entrepreneurial thing." On she went to the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, where she oversaw its One Million Cups entrepreneur meetups created by the Ewing Marian Kauffman Foundation. She was so successful that Kauffman asked her to be a regional organizer. She became an organizer for the Global Entrepreneurship Network after she brought Global Entrepreneurship Week to Arkansas. For the network, she's traveled to places as far-flung as Africa and Istanbul to help create community among entrepreneurs.

People have been starting businesses for eons, so why the need for The Conductor's mentorships, guidance and access to funding? Because the economy has changed. She cited Kauffman vice president Victor Hwang's comparison of the industrial age economy to today's: It was once the case that the entrepreneur created a widget and the factory that turned it out. Lane likened it to row crop farming, with one plant dominating and weeds — new ideas — being removed. In today's technological world, she said, there is more opportunity for entrepreneurs to act on their own, "and by the way, weeds are good now." Today's job creation is "more about embracing the beauty of everybody's ideas," Lane said.

Some of those ideas are coming from students. The Conductor, which Lane and "Chief Catalyst" Jeff Standridge got up and running with help from partner Startup Junkie Consulting of Fayetteville, partners with the University of Central Arkansas. UCA offers the free Makerspace, complete with 3D printers and other fabrication tools, on its campus, and Lane said it's always full. The space will grow — and continue to be free — when the Conway Corp. utility creates the Arnold Innovation Center in what is now City Hall at 1201 W. Oak St. "It's going to be groundbreaking," Lane said, and credited the collaboration of the Conway Chamber of Commerce, City Hall, Acxiom, Conway Corp. and other sponsors for "moving the needle" of entrepreneurship in Conway and Faulkner County and reducing barriers to business ideas from minorities and women.

Lane said she works "at the intersection of life coaching and entrepreneurship," helping people see that they can act on their dreams, and "see their life a different way." She advises not just people who have ideas but people who only know they want a job that will make them happy.

— Leslie Newell Peacock

Drs. Yu-Po Chan, Edmund Wilson and Po-Hao Adam Huang Spaceflight cubed.

Hold your hands in front of you and form a pair of square brackets with your fingers and thumbs, your palms a few inches apart. That's about the size and shape of the device that will be Arkansas's first satellite. If all goes well, a tiny cube packed with scientific instruments soon will be gathering atmospheric data as competently as satellites thousands of times larger and more costly, according to Dr. Yu-Po Chan of UA Little Rock.

"We are planning in the long run to have a constellation of these satellites ... flying in formation," Chan said. "This would be Arkansas's very first with our name on it. Many other states bigger than us have already launched, so we are catching up, basically."

Chan, the chair of UA Little Rock's systems engineering department, is among a trio of Arkansas researchers working to design CubeSats, a class of miniaturized, low-cost "nanosatellites." His collaborators are Dr. Po-Hao Adam Huang, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UA Fayetteville, and Dr. Edmund Wilson, a chemistry professor at Harding University in Searcy. Their first CubeSat model, ArkSat-1, is being designed by Huang. It should be delivered to NASA by the end of 2019 and launched in early 2020.

CubeSats aren't novel in themselves — NASA's most recent mission to Mars experimentally deployed a pair of the devices near the red planet — but the Arkansas team has a number of original research goals and design innovations. Many nanosatellites don't have a propulsion system. The ones that do typically use a pressurized aerosol propellant, such as freon. But Huang came up with a different fuel: water.

"Our technique is basically using small, micro-channels to contain the water," Huang said. "We open those valves, and it will evaporate. ... It becomes a gas, and we use it as a propellant."

In October, Chan received a $24,900 grant from NASA to develop a different CubeSat project. Called SAMSAT ("solar and atmospheric measuring satellite"), it will eventually map the presence of water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere above Arkansas. Chan will then compare that information to data collected by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-16, which is one of two weather orbiters operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

GOES weighs in at over 3 tons, according to NASA's website — about the weight of a Hummer H2. SAMSAT will probably weigh around 3 pounds.

"We are using the big satellite's data to validate that what we see is accurate," Chan said. "We're talking about billions of dollars in the big satellite, thousands of dollars in these small satellites." The team hopes to prove a CubeSat "can do the same job at monitoring the atmosphere as the big, big bird," he said.

The team also hopes SAMSAT can do a better job at collecting data than some of its cousins because it will be more nimble. That's where Huang's propulsion system comes in. "CubeSats generally don't have a way to maneuver," Huang said. Because they can reorient themselves only a few degrees per second, it's difficult for their instruments to gather data on a small patch of atmosphere as the craft zips through low earth orbit at thousands of miles per hour. "With our design, we can rotate 90 degrees on the order of five to 10 seconds. ... That may be kind of slow on Earth, compared to a car, but it's really fast for a spacecraft."

The job of measuring the atmosphere's composition falls to the team's third member, Wilson. Scientists determine the composition of a gas by examining the behavior of light that has passed through it, a technique called spectroscopy. But most spectrometers are too large to fit comfortably inside a CubeSat, Wilson said.

"I've been able to find a spectrometer that is about the size of a joint in your finger. It's about 1 inch by a half inch by a half inch ... so it may be exactly what we need for our mission," he said. In addition to demonstrating the utility of their technological innovations, the team hopes to gather unique data on the atmosphere above Arkansas, establishing a baseline that could be of use for climate science in the future.

The long-term goal, Chan said, is to deliver a proof of concept that could yield funding for further research. "We're trying to catch a big fish — a multiyear, much larger grant," he said. "It could be beneficial for industry, including manufacturing."

And beyond. Wilson and Huang said they have hopes that their innovations could have application to NASA as it contemplates exploring the moons of Jupiter and Saturn in the coming decades. "Our overall goal is to be able to have a mission to some other solar system body, like Titan," Wilson said.

— Benjamin Hardy

Brian Mitchell History detective.

As the 100th anniversary of the massacre of African Americans at Elaine approaches, first-year graduate students in Dr. Brian Mitchell's public history class at UA Little Rock are filling in gaps in the story of what was one of the most deadly race riots in America.

In September 1919, after one of several meetings black farmers held with representatives of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union, a white deputy spying on the meeting was fatally shot. Acting at the urging of the Phillips County sheriff, a mob of whites roamed the county, killing hundreds — some estimates are as high as 800 — of black residents. Five whites were killed, but only African Americans were arrested and jailed.

Twelve black men were quickly found guilty of murder by an all-white jury and sentenced to death. They were imprisoned while their appeals in two famous cases traveled to the state and U.S. supreme courts. Their convictions were overturned, and they were sentenced to time served and released. But fearing they'd be lynched, all 12 fled the state, along with hundreds of other African Americans from Elaine who feared for their lives.

Mitchell has guided his public history students in the search to find out what happened to those 12 men. He did the legwork over the summer to provide them with public records — census records, city directories, vital records and newspaper accounts. They've been able to track down six of the 12 so far, and locate most of the graves of those six.

As part of the class, the students will write biographies of the men for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies' Encyclopedia of Arkansas. They are also raising funds to place markers on their graves, a project UA Little Rock is doing in collaboration with the National Park Service and other agencies and with the help of private individuals.

Mitchell said that one of the "more interesting aspects" of the class' work on Elaine is to "reassess the role of black World War I veterans." One of the hundreds of men killed by the posse was a veteran who'd been home in Arkansas for just a few months. Returning veteran farmers were "looking for fair compensation, and rather than deal with them fairly, it was easier to kill them," Mitchell said.

UA Little Rock's drama department will use Mitchell's class' research to write and produce a play. "There are such rich characters" in the Elaine story, Mitchell said. "There was one guy who became a gangster in Illinois," Mitchell said.

A previous class worked to transcribe the death certificates of African Americans killed in the race massacre and created a database. The database has been provided to the Arkansas State Archives for public use.

Future projects for Mitchell's first-year grad students include research into West Rock, the African-American community once situated at the base of Cantrell Hill, as a way to learn about redlining, the real estate practice of segregating blacks in certain neighborhoods. He's interested, too, in more study of the tragedy at the Wrightsville boys' so-called "industrial school," which was in fact a prison, where 21 boys locked in a dorm perished in a fire in 1959. He has turned over to the Butler Center records he has on what so-called offenses the boys committed to be sent to Wrightsville.

Mitchell, 50, a Louisiana native who came to Arkansas after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, has been a professor at UA Little Rock for four years (he was an adjunct earlier in his move to Little Rock, and later an investigator with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Metroplan researcher). Mitchell wants to give his students the opportunity to collaborate more with the community, doing joint projects with state and federal agencies and other history-minded groups "to open up an avenue of employment" for those who choose not to pursue doctoral degrees. He said the public history program's success in finding jobs for its graduates, including archival work and museum exhibition, is nearly 100 percent. In fact, the program doesn't accept more students than it thinks will be able to find jobs. The program has "given a level of visibility to the school," Mitchell said. "When I say it's an excellent program, I mean it's an excellent program."

—Leslie Newell Peacock

Jen Gerber Multifaceted creative.

Jen Gerber's first time on a film set was for a small acting role in a country music video in Nashville, Tenn. Gerber, who goes by Jen, said being on the set that day changed her life. "I realized in that moment it was everything I wanted out of theater, which was storytelling [and] a collaborative creation process, but I really didn't want to be an actor," she said.

She's been busy since. She earned an master's of fine arts degree in writing and directing at Columbia University in New York and served as the creative director at The School of Creative and Performing Arts in Los Angeles and New York for six years. She previously worked as an assistant professor at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and now teaches a film production class at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.

In her spare time, she's directed a film — "The Revival" — that has been screened in Los Angeles and abroad.

Now the accomplished writer, director and professor is the executive director of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, a job that keeps her busy yearround. This year's festival, in October, screened 127 films — up from the 2017 festival's 84 films — and its audiences are growing as well. Gerber said she plans to continue the festival's growth by adding more education and outreach opportunities, such this year's inaugural Emerging Voices Filmmaking Retreat for new voices in nonfiction filmmaking and the Emerging Filmmakers workshops for middle and high school students.

These outreach programs, as well as events such as a guided walking tour of Hot Springs given by Matt Green, the subject of the documentary "The World Before Your Feet" and a "walker" who's walking every street and path in New York City, help audiences connect with the documentaries in a larger way, Gerber said.

"I want to do much, much more of that next year to create more of an interactive experience," she said. "Because what's the difference between watching the film at home and watching it at the festival? It's that you get that extra connection to enhance the experience."

With the rising popularity of documentaries such as box-office hits "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and "RBG," Gerber said she's excited about the future of the genre and her involvement in it.

"I think I've become the director of this festival at the right time for the genre because documentary is becoming so mainstream," she said. "It's always been around, it's not in any way new, but I feel right now people are hungry for the truth. ... It's been a new time for documentaries in terms of the audience desire for them and also just creatively. They've become very well told stories. And they always have been, but I think right now we're really seeing different ways that documentary filmmakers are elevating the storytelling within their films."

Though she hasn't made a documentary film, Gerber said she's inspired by the intensive research conducted by documentarians on the subjects of their films. She's now writing a script for a new project: "Crash Reel," about a female demolition derby driver.

"You get to walk in someone else's shoes," Gerber said. "I don't anticipate that I'll ever drive in a derby, but through film, your curiosity can lead you anywhere. I was at a derby and had this idea, and it's started a path now for me of asking questions, getting to know a world, and daydreaming my own ideas into that world."

Gerber is also working on a more autobiographical project titled "Pretty Near Perfect" that's loosely based on her time as a teenage beauty queen living in Hot Springs. For other female filmmakers and storytellers who are looking to break into the industry, Gerber encourages them to find a great mentor and support system, a role she happily served for her former UCA students, some of whom go on to be hired on Gerber's own projects.

"I want to support them, I want to help them grow their resume, and they're really good at what they do," she said. "I've watched them grow beyond what I taught them, so when it comes to any project that I do, I start by hiring this group of young women that I worked with here in Arkansas."

—Rebekah Hall

Jerrmy Gawthrop and Bryan and Bernice Hembree They form the engine that makes the Fayetteville Roots Festival go.

This is a story about three friends with complementary talents who started a music and food festival that's grown into an event that has no rival in Arkansas — but still, its founders insist, remains humble.

More than a decade ago, Fayetteville's Bryan and Bernice Hembree, the husband-and-wife musical duo who perform as Smokey & The Mirror, befriended Fayetteville restaurateur Jerrmy Gawthrop. Gawthrop, in turn, regularly asked them to play at his restaurant Greenhouse Grille. (At the time, the Hembrees were performing as part of a trio called 3 Penny Acre. Gawthrop and his business partner, Clayton Suttle, sold Greenhouse Grille to the Arsaga family earlier this year; they still own two Wood Stone Pizza restaurants).

In 2010, the Hembrees were asked by three musical groups they'd met on the road for help booking a show in Fayetteville on the same weekend. That was the impetus for getting with Gawthrop to put on a one-day Fayetteville Roots Festival at Greenhouse Grille on a Sunday — brunch paired with 10 bands. About 160 people showed up. There was a morning slate of music and an hour break, which was to be followed by an afternoon lineup. During that hour, a water main near Greenhouse Grille ruptured. "During that geyser that was happening, we had musicians putting sandbags in front of Greenhouse Grille," Bryan Hembree remembered. Luckily, George's Majestic Lounge was free that day and welcomed the waterlogged fest.

Near-catastrophe aside, the trio realized they had a winning concept on their hands. Thanks to some underwriting support from a fan from the first event, the Roots Festival was able to book Texas singer/songwriter legend Guy Clark and, in turn, secure the Walton Arts Center as a venue. From there, the festival, held annually in August, has grown exponentially.

This year's event featured the likes of Mavis Staples, Booker T. Jones (of Booker T & the M.G.'s), Gillian Welch, the Del McCoury Band and John Moreland. In addition to the main stage at the Fayetteville Town Center, the festival extended to the Fayetteville Public Library and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Brightwater Culinary School in Bentonville. Food had always been a major component of the festival, but the Hembrees said this year it reached equal footing with the addition of a special Saturday Roots, Food & Spirit event with dozens of guest chefs from around the region and country. Among both free and ticketed events, organizers estimated 7,500 people attended the five-day festival this year. Tickets now regularly sell out before the music lineup is announced (early-bird tickets for the fest, scheduled for Aug. 22-25, 2019, went on sale Dec. 5).

Community buy-in came early on in the festival's run, Gawthrop said. "We started doing things and people jumped on board, like, 'How can we help? I wanna volunteer.' " This year, upward of 100 sponsors supported the fest and some 200 volunteers helped out.

The festival now has a year-round headquarters and an administrative assistant, but Gawthrop and the Hembrees continue to run it amid all their other commitments: In addition to two restaurants, Gawthrop and his wife have three kids with another one on the way. Bryan does ACT-prep work for the University of Arkansas and Bernice works in music education; they also stay busy recording and touring as Smokey & The Mirror and are part of a collaborative album project with Danish folk-rockers The Sentimentals. So, how do they swing it all? "The three of us have a really good working relationship," Bryan Hembree said. "Like now, it's hot and heavy on my shoulders for the booking. Other times Jerrmy is busy with procurement of food and chefs. Or Bernice is working on the educational outreach. It's a true kind of partnership tag team."

Gawthrop added, "It can be a lot. Being able to ask for help and organizing your people are key. Thankfully, we've got a great community where people really want to help — sponsors, local bars, chefs. They want this thing to be here. They're proud of it. People refer to this as 'our festival.' It's a beautiful thing."

— Lindsey Millar

Visionary Arkansans 2018