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cookiedoughmeagain · 6 years ago

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Haven DVD Commentaries: 4.01 - Fallout

Gabrielle Stanton Executive Producer, and Writer for this episode, and Matt McGuinness, Executive Producer

[As the ‘previously on’ section shows] Gabrielle Stanton: I just remember how many times we wrote the word ‘barn’ during the last few episodes of the last season. If it were a drinking game we never would have made it through.

[As Duke watches Audrey’s memories play out on the walls inside the barn] Matt McGuinness: What’s clever about this scene is it was a way for us to hide a bit of backstory because you got to see these various moments, but it also helped to explain what the barn was and how it is a repository for her memories and whatnot. GS: It was kind of a way for us to do flashbacks without actually doing flashbacks.

[As Duke lands in the aquarium] MMG: I have to do a big shout out right here. This idea of Duke landing in some sort of fluid and us not knowing where he was and then coming up, was Ginger McGuinness’s idea. My daughter at the age of 8 came up with this idea; ‘Daddy why don’t you have him land in a fish tank in an aquarium?’ which we thought was super cool. GS: And Balfour did too, until he realised how cold the water was going to be. MMG: Apparently that tank held lobsters or something, and Eric is a surfer - he knows cold water, but it was I think low 50s, which is bitterly cold. GS: But he was a trouper; went in again and again.

[As the detective is questionning Duke in the hospital] GS: I like this scene because it was Duke trying to talk his way out of something, and we got a chance to talk about his aliases and his fake IDs and it’s always fun when we get to do that... I actually worked worked with Balfour on a short-lived show called Veritas The Quest many years ago, and Calvin Banks, the name of one of his aliases there, was the name of his character on Veritas. MMG: Wow! Really? That is some inside arcane knowledge. GS: I thought there would be someone who got it, but I don’t think anyone did. Including Eric.

The outside of the Haven Bookshop is Lunenberg and the inside is in on location in Chester. GS: The Warp and Weft Giftstore in Chester closed down and we kinda took it over and shoot various things in there; bookstores, cafes, offices, MMG: If you ever get the chance to go to Chester, Nova Scotia, it’s a lovely little town. I might suggest the summer as opposed to the winter … GS: It’ll be raining either way, but it’s just whether it’s cold rain or cool rain. MMG: It’s a very nice spot, lots of tourists like to go there. And as you drive around Chester you will see plenty of places - and by ‘plenty’, I mean all of Chester. We’ve shot everywhere in Chester as we head into our fifth season. GS: Yeah it’s kind of amazing; I don’t think there’s anything we haven’t shot.

GS: And now we’re about to meet Jennifer. She is a great character, we’re really really happy with everything her and Eric do this coming season. MMG: Yeah we were really happy with the performance of Emma Lahana who plays Jennifer. GS: And they just had good chemistry. You hope you’re going to get good chemistry when you cast people, but you never really know until you start seeing it on screen.

MMG: Ah look, Eric’s got his pants on under that gown. I would have suggested no pants.

[As Jennifer starts talking to Duke] GS: This was the scene we used for auditions to cast Jennifer. We saw a great many actresses for this role. GS: I remember on the day there were many discussions about the hat she’s wearing. MMG: She kind of became known for her hats and scarves. There’s a hint for the fans; scarves will continue to play a part in the story of Jennifer.

GS: It’s so funny doing these commentaries because it’s always like a year later, since we shot it and edited it and everything, so it’s always looking back. I was telling someone earlier that usually about 10 minutes in, I just forget what I’m supposed to be doing and just start watching the episode.

[As Duke and Jennifer are talking about the barn etc.] GS: This was also a nice way … Every premiere episode you always want to reset the series for new audience members, and this was a nice way of telling Jennifer what was going on, but also telling new viewers; ‘hey there’s this town called Haven, people do weird things there …’. MMG: Do you know where we shot this scene? GS: I believe it was a real hospital. MMG: It looks like it. GS: I think it was outside Chester. Even though we now have a hospital set on our stages, but we came here because we wanted it to look different, so it could look like Boston. Although I think the next scene, in the parking lot, I think that is in fact Chester.

[Brief interruption as Matt leaves the room to take a phone call] GS: This is the life of an executive producer. You cannot do one thing at once, you have to do ten things at once.

[Duke and Jennifer in the parking lot] GS: Actually, I take it back - the memory is coming back to me; I believe we shot this in Halifax, to give it a big-city feel. Although I could be wrong about that because it is hard to remember.

[As Dave answers the phone to Duke] GS: OK so everyone wants to know what’s the Oprah Winfrey joke - we honestly don’t know. We just thought it would be the most hilarious thing to say, if Dave had some kind of Oprah Winfey thing. And he played it spectacularly. GS: This is the biggest time-cut I think that we’ve done in the series, this is six months since the previous events. We leave a lot of our seasons on these big cliff hangers - two people pointing a gun at each other, or ‘my name is Audrey Parker’, ‘no my name is Audrey Parker’ - and this was one of the few opportunities we had, and we said we could do something cool and do a time-cut.

[As we see Nathan with the bikers outside the diner] GS: Now for all of you Lucas fans out there - the beard. I’ll tell you a little story about the beard. He was actually supposed to have the beard through the first and second episode, and then when he realised he was going to find Audrey and he regained his sense of purpose he was going to shave it. But we ended up doing something called cross-boarding which meant that we shot episodes one and two not in order. So we would shoot some scenes of episode two during the episode one block and vice versa. So we couldn’t have him keep the beard because he couldn’t shoot one scene and have the beard and another scene and not have the beard. So this is the only scene that he has the beard, and it was devastating for Lucas Bryant because he spent all hiatus growing it. But he did a good job; it’s a good beard.

[Matt returns, saying he had to take the call because it was an emergency. Apparently related in some way to the 300 gallon salt-water aquarium he has at home. “That was my fish tank guru.”]

GS: Oh this is - did the slim jim joke stay in? MMG: Yeah, not really. We worked a lot on this slim jim bit and never quite got it where we wanted it.

[Discussing Dwight as Chief and the various names that Adam goes by] GS: We just get excited when we see him on screen because we know that some day he’s going to be a mega-super-star and we’re gonna be like ‘We cast him!’, ‘We had him on our show first!’. GS: I love the three of them together [Dwight and Vince and Dave]. We write a lot of stuff for them and they always totally nail it. MMG: Yep, Edge and the Teague brothers have an ongoing story, particularly Edge and Vince - Dwight and Vince.

[As we see Lexie in the bar] GS: We shot all these bar scenes in a block, with our fun character of Lexie. And for anyone out there who has nothing better to do with their time than thing about things I’ve written in my career; there are quite a few series I’ve worked on that I’ve gotten the name Lexie into. This was the most recent. I’m still trying to work out how many I’m getting screwed out of character payments for though. MMG: And here is season four’s suprising new male lead; Colin Ferguson. Lovely man, tons of fun. He used to do stand-up comedy nights, and when you do a comic con with him, that becomes immediately apparent. He’s very funny, and very clever and just sweet and professional.

[As the Guard welcome Nathan and Duke back to Haven] MMG: Oh this scene was fun, we’re introducing everyone in this episode. So here comes another favourite character of ours; Jordan McKee. The last name is the name of an old girlfriend of mine. GS: This was a very elaborate scene to block and shoot. MMG: Yes, it was. Pretty much any time you have cars stopping on marks and people getting out of car doors, everything gets shockingly complicated. GS: Not to mention we have a great number of our characters here, all in one place. GS: The funny thing about this, is that the tornado is about to go off, and every other day this week that we were filming, it was rainy and cloudy and that whole thing. And the one day we’re going to have a tornado and giant rain storm - beautiful blue crystal skies. That’s the way production goes.

GS: We have realised that the downside to Dwight’s Trouble is that he is in that bulletproof vest a lot. It’s very rare to see him without it. But we’re working on it. MMG: We get him out of everything, season five.

[As the tornado arrives] GS: Our director Shawn Pillar was very excited to blow the steeple off the church here, which is a real church in Lunenberg. And all these leaves were someone from props standing there with a big hefty bag of leaves in front of a giant fan. MMG: And the tornado is the work of Chris Wood GS: Our genius FX guy. MMG: He’s great; he’s a very big part of the show.

GS: Oh yeah the other body found on the beach [that Dwight mentions] that was going to be another Troubled person that we were going to see and we never actually ended up seeing them.

MMG: Adam Copeland came to us largely as a wrestler and it became very clear to us that he had lots of talent as a thespian as well. He’s good with the jokes [His ‘usually’ reply to Jennifer’s comment about police stations being safe]. He can throw away a funny line, and that’s not an easy thing to do.

GS: It’s so funny looking at this a year later and seeing how everyone’s hair and facial hair and everything looks a little bit different. MMG: The boys look great. GS: Yeah. MMG: It’s not a surprise as it’s a television show, but there are some good looking people living up in Haven, Maine.

GS: These bar scenes were fun to shoot. Emily Rose liked it I think, getting to play someone so very different from Audrey. MMG: And one of the reasons we shaped season four the way we did was because Emily had a baby a week or two before we started shooting, so she was out of commission for around the first two months I think of shooting. So we wrote her into all the episodes but - oh this guy [who has just come into the bar with a gun in his belt] he works on the crew, but he’s great - he’s really good in this role and then you see him working on the crew. He’s a really nice guy, and I can’t remember his name right now. He’s a great guy but I’m blanking on his name because I’m old. Anyway - we had to figure out a way to get Emily into the first few episodes, but shoot all the scenes together and them cut them in in post. So we wrote all these bar scenes in the script and we didn’t shoot any of them when we were shooting the rest of the episode. And then when we got to around episode five or six, we shot what was going to be two days, and then three days, and then four, and I think it turned into six days in this bar. GS: By the way this character’s name [who is pointing a gun at Lexie] is Sinister. GS: This was a fun stunt sequence coming up, Colin rehearsed it quite a bit. MMG: I like the way he takes his glasses off there; he does a great job. Kyle! His name is Kyle [who plays Sinister] GS: Yes! Kyle. Kyle; you’re awesome. We’re just really over-worked and exhausted.

[In the station as Stan and other cop notice the return of Nathan] MMG: So the female cop there, Rebecca Rafferty, is played by the real-life spouse of Lucas Bryant. GS: Kirsty Bryant.

[About the photo of the fulgerite on the beach] MMG: That looked really cool with the hand and everything. GS: I know! It did look really good, we just didn’t have time for the full scene with it. MMG: Yeah, this is one of the whole challenges of production; we had this whole thing written … but we just had to talk about it and show the photo instead. GS: This episode was running really long because we had so much stuff going on with it. MMG: That thing you see in the background there behind Nathan is a popsicle stick lamp, which we’ve all imagined that Nathan built for his dad the Chief. I had a whole backstory for this in my head. There’ a bunch of popsicle-stick lamps in the Chief’s office, and they’re left over from when Nik Campbell was the Chief. [and then they appear to be interrupted by some kind of technical issue and we don’t get any more to this story, sadly]

GS: So as some of you may remember, Marian Caldwell was in the pilot episode, and we thought it would be cool to bring her back and see what happened to her. I think it was in Star Trek when Khan got really mad at Kirk telling him, ‘You fly around the universe, and you never check back in on people after you fix the problem.’ So here at Haven, we do: we come back to see what’s going on. GS: All this frosted breath here is special effects, but it looks really good. MMG: It looks really good. GS: And I like the way they made everything look cold and frosty. MMG: It looks great. And when Marian opens her eyes, it still makes me jump. That was really great, because it looks like she’s dead. GS: She is so good in this scene. We’ve got to bring her back. MMG: Yeah we’ve got to bring her back. Season five. She’s very talented. GS: She looks so mad there. I totally believe that she would freeze you.

MMG: There’s the Teagues and their very short-lived van. GS: Didn’t that explode in real life? Yes, it did. There was a fire in the van. MMG: The van has actually burned in real life. Which I think we used. GS: Yeah, the first thing we thought was ‘Sweet! How can we work that into a story?’

GS: I liked the way they did this reveal [with Conrad in the chair]. And I like how blue all this is. They did a really nice job. It really works with the emotion of the scene. I think when the ice moves, and the breath are CG, and the rest is pretty practical [effects there on the set]. GS: Poor Nathan, he gets beat up this whole season.

MMG: You know, I’ve noticed that Dave never wears his reporter hat any more that he used to love; that hat with the feather like an old timey news man. We need to get him back in that hat. GS: I think we should!

MMG: And there’s the Grey Gull, the world’s coldest place to shoot. GS: But also the most beautiful. MMG: I kind of want to go to a party at the Grey Gull; it looks fun. GS: I think they should open it as a real bar. I guess there’s no running water in it, but. I would totally go. GS: So this is our final introduction for this episode; Duke’s brother. This was chock full of introductions this episode. MMG: There’s a pretty strong resemblance to Mr Crocker there.

MMG: Nice nose-ring. GS: I think she keeps it for a while. MMG: She keeps it the whole time she’s Lexie. GS: That’s right - we wrote a whole scene where it comes out eventually.

#haven syfy #haven dvd commentaries #haven season four extras #4.01 - fallout

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky, Wine, Coffee, and Beer

Praying. Contemplating. Spending time in silence. Monks live a simple life, one some of us can be hard-pressed to relate to.

Think your life bears no parallels to these men of God? Think again — and thank them for some of your favorite beverages. Centuries after they first began making alcoholic beverages and caffeinated brews, modern monks are making ancient feel new again with fresh takes on whisky, wine, coffee and beer.

The shift many distilleries have made during the global pandemic, producing hand sanitizer instead of spirits, is coming full circle. Back in 1494, when the earliest written reference to what’s now known as whiskey — apparently made by Friar John Cor — was recorded in the Scottish king’s tax record, monasteries were producing the stuff as a health tonic for the sick. Monks wrote long lists of its health-giving properties during the 15th century, including the “miraculous things” it could do if you rubbed it on your hands. Human nature being what it is, some monk must have said “Let’s taste it” along the way — and from there, they started perfecting it.

Perfecting what’s known as Scotch whisky today is exactly what Andrew McKenzie Smith, founder of Lindores Abbey Distillery, has set out to do. He’s not a monk, but he resides on the farm where the first whisky-making monks lived. When his great-grandfather first bought the land, the family was “blissfully unaware” of the connection back to 1494, says Smith. Then, they started receiving emails from whisky groups asking why a place with such history was, with no disrespect, “a falling down old farm,” Smith explains. He agreed, and that’s what sparked him to lead a fundraising effort to return “the spiritual home of Scotch whisky” to its roots and open a new distillery there.

“With the weight of that history behind me, raising about 10 million pounds [about $13 million] wasn’t that difficult, purely because of where we were,” Smith says.

All the stars aligned to make it happen. This December, Lindores Abbey Distillery’s first Scotch whisky will be released to its members (and next summer to the public). It’s been selling its base spirit, aqua vitae, which was first made at Lindores Abbey centuries ago, since it opened in 2017. Smith likes to think the taste is remarkably similar to that which was first made here in 1494.

“We’re growing barley in the same fields the monks tended, we’re using the same water, and we’re under the same sunshine,” says Smith. “As close as possible, we’re reliving what Friar John Cor did back in 1494.”

During the pandemic, Lindores Abbey Distillery made and gave away hand sanitizer to a nearby village. It also donated extra distiller’s yeast, which would have gone to waste when distilling was halted, to village bakeries. “You had all this bread,” says former chef Smith, “that smelled slightly of alcohol.” But it was delicious, nonetheless, he says.

Holy Wine You Can’t Get Outside of Cannes

While Smith is reading history books to fine-tune his recipe and replicate the original Scottish monks’ spirits, the monks of Lérins Abbey on Saint-Honorat island in the south of France need not look further than their own ancestors. The 21 monks who today make up the Cistercian Congregation of the Immaculate Conception are still very much involved in the monastic tradition of making wine that’s spanned more than 16 centuries.

Across the Abbey’s 8-hectare (about 20 acres) wine estate, the monks grow grapes such as Chardonnay and Viognier to produce four white wines, and Syrah and Mourvedre for three different reds. Production is around 35,000 bottles a year, according to Dominique Vion‚ head sommelier at La Palme d’Or at Hotel Martinez, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Cannes (just two minutes away by boat, Vion says).

Vion first tasted wines from Lérins Abbey early in his career as a sommelier about 20 years ago. He loved them immediately, which is why they’re still on the menu at La Palme d’Or. “The wines are good compositions, complex in their youth and rich, which [gives] great aging potential to the vintages,” he says.

While the technology has evolved (for instance, the winery now has modern equipment, employs organic farming techniques, and works with a civilian oenologist), the monks remain active in their work in the vineyard, and the wines retain their exclusivity and a keen sense of place. Take-away sales from the restaurant are not allowed, but you can buy the bottles at a few merchants in Cannes, as well as from the Abbey directly. The first Friday of every month, they offer an excursion that takes guests via boat from Cannes to Saint-Honorat for a 15-minute vineyard tour, followed by a tasting of several wines. Seasonally, guests can also enjoy lunch on the island at the monks’ La Tonnelle restaurant.

Old World Meets New World in Northern California

Across the pond, at New Clairvaux Vineyard in tiny Vina, Calif., Aimée Sunseri is also enlisting the help of monks. As a fifth-generation winemaker, she’s been the head winemaker here for 17 years but works closely with the vineyard manager, Brother Luis Cortez, who’s part of The Abbey of Our Lady of New Clairvaux. The 16 monks who live here happily cultivate the vineyard, handle the harvesting, and crush the grapes used to make everything from Tempranillo to Sauvignon Blanc wines.

“We try to be as involved as we possibly can because manual labor is a key Cistercian principal — a spiritual source of empowerment and glorification for God,” says Brother Luis. They worship by participating and collaborating in creation, and making wine is part of that divine collaboration, he adds.

Though they follow many of the same principles of winemaking developed by the Cistercians during medieval times, they’re also bringing in fresh perspective (another Cistercian principle: bringing new ideas to new lands). Sunseri says it’s the first vineyard in the United States to plant two Greek varietals, Assyrtiko and Moschofilero. The pandemic has also forced them to get creative, including moving their tasting room outside.

Brother Luis, who says he starts each day in prayer and communion with a sip of New Clairvaux’s Angelica, says the change has been a positive one for customers, who appreciate being outside and hearing the birds while tasting their wines. “We’ve always embraced that tranquil environment, but it’s amplified with us being forced to be outside,” he says. “[Being outdoors] is a huge part of our life here, so this is a beautiful thing that came out of struggles of the pandemic.”

Yes, Monks Are Even Making Coffee

As legend goes, according to the National Coffee Association, it was a goat herder in Ethiopia who first discovered the power of coffee, noticing his goats were too energetic to sleep after eating beans from a particular tree. He shared his findings with a local monastery, where the monks then made a drink from the berries — the first known coffee — to keep them alert through long hours of evening prayer.

You better believe monks are keeping this tradition alive today, and none are more enthusiastic about it than the modern Carmelite Monks, a Roman Catholic community residing in northwestern Wyoming. They pay homage to monks’ history with coffee by roasting and selling their own beans as a means of supporting themselves, a business that began back in 2007.

The monastery claims that 85 percent of orders are from repeat customers, which is why they’ve expanded their offerings through Mystic Monks Coffee beyond the original bagged beans. They offer coffee-of-the-month subscriptions (in flavors like chocolate cherry, butterscotch cream, and Snickering Monk Candy Bar), as well as single-serve pods called Monk-Shots, loose-leaf tea, and unique double-handled mugs, representative of the Carmelite tradition of drinking coffee with both hands in celebration of the harvest.

Supporting the Monastery with Traditional Trappist Beer

Of course, beer is perhaps the best-known lifeline among enterprising monks. But beyond Belgium and the Trappist breweries throughout Europe, there’s one right here in the States. After making and selling jams and jellies for more than 60 years to support their community, the monks of Saint Joseph’s Abbey outside Spencer, Mass., began to realize that to stay on the property with 50 monks, they’d need an alternative source of income. That’s where beer came into the picture. When it came time to decide whether to take the plunge, “we had the greatest majority vote for anything we ever did,” recalls Father Isaac Keeley.

In case you’re wondering, monks do drink beer (though they don’t eat meat). But before they had their own brewery, the monastery would enjoy alcohol only sparingly, at big feasts or holidays, says Father Isaac. Once he got into researching beer — in particular, after enjoying a tall glass of St. Bernardus at a local tavern — he realized what they’d been missing. “I scandalize some beer aficionados, but that was the day I discovered beer can really be a lot more than the ‘Clydesdales beer,’” he says.

The monks enlisted the help of a few local brewers — as well as a monk who trained at a Trappist brewery in Belgium — to help them build a process and brewery that would align with the traditional Trappist rules. The first brew they released, Spencer Trappist Ale, was inspired by patersbier (Latin for “father’s beer”). Normally, this style has a low alcohol content around 4.5 percent, but Father Isaac says he knew that if they wanted to sell any to the public, they’d need a higher alcohol content. The result was a 6.5 percent beer that he describes as having a hue “the color of sunrise at Nauset Beach on Cape Cod on the third Monday of September.”

Needless to say, he’s learned a lot about beer since growing from a “helper” on the project to director of Spencer Brewery. He’s also had to get creative during Covid-19 when sales of draft beer came to a screeching halt, he says. The upside is that for the first half of 2020, packaged-beer sales were slightly ahead of the same period last year, and they’re continuing to bring in revenue for the monastery by contracting out their brewery space, currently larger than they need, to other local brewers.

The monastery itself is still closed at press time, but Father Isaac is already brainstorming how he can expand when things begin to normalize. “It’s a crazy journey for a contemplative monk to be doing this,” he says, “but it’s stretched me so much.”

The article Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky, Wine, Coffee, and Beer appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/monks-making-whisky-wine-coffee-beer/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

Text

Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky Wine Coffee and Beer

Praying. Contemplating. Spending time in silence. Monks live a simple life, one some of us can be hard-pressed to relate to.

“With the weight of that history behind me, raising about 10 million pounds [about $13 million] wasn’t that difficult, purely because of where we were,” Smith says.

Holy Wine You Can’t Get Outside of Cannes

Old World Meets New World in Northern California

Yes, Monks Are Even Making Coffee

Supporting the Monastery with Traditional Trappist Beer

The article Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky, Wine, Coffee, and Beer appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/monks-making-whisky-wine-coffee-beer/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/monks-are-making-and-inspiring-your-whisky-wine-coffee-and-beer

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isaiahrippinus · 4 years ago

Text

Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky, Wine, Coffee, and Beer

Praying. Contemplating. Spending time in silence. Monks live a simple life, one some of us can be hard-pressed to relate to.

“With the weight of that history behind me, raising about 10 million pounds [about $13 million] wasn’t that difficult, purely because of where we were,” Smith says.

Holy Wine You Can’t Get Outside of Cannes

Old World Meets New World in Northern California

Yes, Monks Are Even Making Coffee

Supporting the Monastery with Traditional Trappist Beer

The article Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky, Wine, Coffee, and Beer appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/monks-making-whisky-wine-coffee-beer/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/628792057154174976

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katiebruce · 7 years ago

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Year of the Silver Star

It’s taken me a while to sit down and right my annual end-of-the-year post. Normally, I’ve got this post done in the weeks leading up to New Year’s Eve, or, at the very least, the night before. Yet, here we are.

I think part of it is my fear of letting go of what was such an incredible year for me. I know I’m basically alone in having had a great 2017—that’s okay, I’m usually an outcast anyways—but also a sense that I’ve peaked and will now plateau, if not avalanche, downwards into both my Saturn Return and my thirties. Whatever it may be, I owe it to both one of the best years of my life and one of the strangest starts to a new year I’ve ever had to document it.

So, here it is.

I started 2017 doing one of my favorite things: being out of the country. Sure, I was working, and sure, I wasn’t with my most favorite people, or in one of my favorite cities (not to shade Toronto, by any means)—but I had a good time. I had this overall feeling of excitement and change and that air of “anything is possible” that often accompanies the completion of a year--but somehow more than ever before. Something just felt right.

I knew that starting the year off out of the country would provide ample travel opportunities and I made no hesitation in starting that right away. My best friend and I flew to Philly for a weekend—to see one of our favorite emo bands, mind you—and explored the frigid city in all its historic glory. About a week later, I flew to Vegas for my roommate’s bachelorette party, which, in and of itself, was easily one of the most eventful things that happened last year…

February came and I turned 28 and celebrated with my girl gang at a library themed, Oscar Wilde bar. We got LIT-erary. I still find that fucking hilarious. We ended the night at our favorite watering hole, The good old Owl and ended up getting called The Spice Girls which was actually such a revelation for us (and even though Nicole wasn’t there, she somehow was the fifth we needed and the universe fucking knew it.)

About a week or so later, me, Bethany and Lo flew across the fucking pond. We traveled London, Liverpool and Edinburgh for a week and froze our bloody arse’s off. In London, Lauren and I had a most memorable night where we were both kissed by a rose and wound up and a Beyonce bash, complete with face masks of Bey and all. I was catcalled in the most British way possible: “Oi, that’s a big bottom!” and I ended up meeting a guy we referred to as Mr. Grey for the better part of the year. He and I would, uh, well, fuck it. We’d have facetime sex at like, the most awkward hours and tbh it was sexy and made me feel great and I walked a little lighter and enjoyed how silly it was for a while. Of course, it ended a few months in, as these things often do, but I can’t deny the fun I had and I feel like I shouldn’t. Everyone should have sex with a sex monster (yes, that’s what I’m going to refer to him as now) at least once in their life. It was a wild ride.

Beebs and I got inked in Liverpool on an absolute whim, and I had a sixty-year-old man tell me about the time he saw Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour as we listened to Lorde and he forever immortalized my love of The Thin White Duke on my forearm. This is when I really started letting go last year; I’m not very good at being impulsive. I may appear to be, but deep down I have grave anxiety about pretty much anything I do. I’ve just been lucky enough to have people who are willing to tolerate it and help me work past it in my adult life. But something changed in me in Liverpool, that drunken night where I not only decided I would get inked but thought up the concept mere hours before having it forever, and I can say I completely allowed this new girl to inhabit me and take over for the remainder of the year.

I fell in love with Edinburgh and decided that, should I pursue a Master’s degree in the next few years, I’ll be going to school there. I’ve never felt quite as home as I did there. (I realize I’ve always said that about London, but trust me, if something was ever going to top Lahndo, it must be true love.)

Me and the girls (all sexed up from chatting with all the foreign boys we did) had a most memorable night when we got home getting drunk at a sex store together and spending a collective $800 or so dollars on toys and lingerie. Self-care, bitches.

In March, I watched as my roommates committed to a beautiful forever together. It was also my first time as a bridesmaid, and holy cow are weddings a lot of work. I’ve always said I’ll have a tiny wedding, if not just elope, but holy hell the experience from the inside only solidified that in my mind.

Spring came and went and I grew my hair longer and cut it short again, yearned for warmth and visited my sister in Florida & flew to visit Kris in his newly adopted city of Denver. This is also around the time where I went on a few Tinder dates (Lord, help me) and fell, soul-crushingly head over heels for a guy I met one fleeting day at work…

I took Acid on a third date which resulted in it also being The Last Date, but it made me see text messages as bubbles and I battled a dragon trying to get money from and ATM and watched a Star Wars for the first time (and last time) and had an evening of bad, trippy sex. Nothing like hallucinogenics to make you realize you are not in sync with another person, lol.

So it goes.

I traveled Europe for two weeks with Ellie which was lovely and exhausting. I returned to my beloved Italy, which was huge for me, as I always wanted to go before it had been ten years since the last time I stepped foot in the first foreign country I ever visited. We got drunk in San Marco Square and listened to battling string quartets and fell in love with foreign men we were too afraid to talk to and I was old enough this time around to know not to order a Long Island iced tea from a bartender who barely understood English in the first place…

We eventually, by some form of absolute witchcraft, caught a flight to the tiny Greek island of Santorini and legit lived in a cave house for five days. We walked all over that tiny island and I let the sea breeze cleanse my skin and my hair and my heart and my mind. We watched the sunset every evening as if it were a spectacle to behold (it was—it always is) and just really let ourselves tell time by nature, and how it made our bodies feel. It was really a humbling experience to be in a place that’s so, so small. Going to Athens (via a ten hour ferry ride, mind you) was a bit of culture shock after being so confined for so long. Being in one of the most Eastern cities in Europe, however, really just made my itching to go to the middle east even more dire.

I had a rough summer in terms of mental health; I hate summer flying (& the debilitating crush I mentioned above seemingly saved me—for like a week—and then left just as fleetingly as it arrived and left me in a pretty low place. I still dream about the guy regularly; I had two separate one’s last night.)

I started taking Xanax again. Because, well, life is hard and my roommate has a prescription.

I got to explore the beautiful, beautiful part of Wyoming that is Yellowstone National Park and got to see the beautiful, beautiful human being my best friend is becoming in the process. For a few days we camped, explored, and just really took in nature—even a death storm that threatened to turn our tent into a boat—it was a beautiful experience and I’m glad Nicole has found a place to call her home surrounding her with such beautiful, expressive people.

August came and with the promise of September on its heels, I started to feel like myself again. Virgo season always does it to me; it’s my polar opposite and therefore, my most compatible sign. Ellie and I got another round of impulsive tattoos; strawberries—a quote stolen from Shakespeare that really just became a euphemism for our friendship throughout the year. We went to riot fest and I saw New Order and cried and Paramore (for the first time since I was, like, nineteen… and while we’re in a side note, let me just mention how much After Laughter was very much the soundtrack to my year and I’m not ashamed to admit it) and Ellie cried and we just had a very fun few days in the hot Chicago heat.

I chose to recover from this by getting yet another tattoo; my largest & most intricate to date, so that made for an interesting, but wonderful day. It’s also worth noting that I got it in the south side of Chicago so, like, if I ever go to prison at least I’ve got that going for me.

I returned to Milwaukee and had a riotous night with my girls where I got hit on by two famous band members and it was like, the stuff dreams are made of. I know it’s silly to assign worth to someone’s fame, but you have someone hit on you who has, like, a million Instagram followers & songs in like fifty different movies and see how it makes you feel & then judge me. This also started my love affair with the lesser famous band member who I’ve now entered into some weird “see you around Chicago” love affair thing for the past few months where we both flirt and ignore each other simultaneously. It’s wild.

I saw so many bands and cried to so many songs and discovered so many artists and felt all the things.

Friendsgiving came, and Nicole came, & along with her came The Con X tour. Without getting too into it, that was a huge shifting point for me & 2017 in general. The Con was an album that saved my life both metaphorically & also, like, physically, and to be able to stand outside of the depression that nearly took my life ten years prior and say, loudly, “I am still here and I like my life and sort of like the person I am but I am also trying to become better each and every day and it’s all very much worth it” is beautiful and powerful thing.

My mom and I spent a wonderful weekend in Vancouver, exploring the cold north and even got to go whale watching, which was, honestly, one of the most breathtaking, awe inspiring experiences I’ve ever taken part in. Nothing will make you feel as small as floating in a yellow zodiac in the middle of the ocean surrounded by six Orcas and a baby (but fucking huge!) humpback whale will. Nature does a good job of reminding us of just how insignificant we are.

The holidays just passed and I forgot about two ex-lover’s birthdays until days after each had past. I’m a big fan of dates; so this, too, was a huge thing for me. My Saturn Return stressed me out for months, yet finally arrived, subtlety, yet very directly. I assigned all my turmoil the Mercury Retrograde and the moon’s rotation yet also tried to use that bad air as a way to propel myself further into becoming better in some odd way.

I spent a week at home in Tampa and the past week here in Chicago and I’ve been reflective and passive towards the new year, which is new for me. I celebrated the end of one of my favorite years, Year of the Silver Star, seeing Twin Peaks at one of my favorite venues in the world. I’ve lately adopted such a deep, profound love for Chicago that I can’t say was always there. I’ve always loved it here; don’t get me wrong. But lately I’ve just got this overwhelming sense of pride about living here and the person it’s shaped me to be. I truly live in the greatest city in America; it’s such a quiet, best kept-secret and it’s all fucking mine.

So, in saying goodbye, I realize I am also going to be mourning the death of a good friend to me—2017—in the process. There’s a certain amount of fear that comes after having such a good year. Can anything else compare? Where will I go from here? What does the future hold for my small, insignificant experience on this planet?

At least David Bowie can’t die again.

2018 has had a slow, humble start. I think that’s going to be the theme, though—slow and steady. I’m cautious because I’m aging (twenty-nine in a few weeks. twenty-fucking-nine!) but also because of my fear and understanding of Saturn Return. I was just becoming comfortable with impulsive kb, and am now being faced with a wise, considerate version of myself. I’m really trying to act thoughtfully & with reason.

I will not invite toxic relationships, old or new, into my life. I will not settle for less than what I what, just because I am afraid to voice what I do want. I will not let anything stop my travel plans—and boy, do I have a lot of them for this year.

I will move out of my apartment, my home for the last seven years, in four short months. I will turn a new leaf. I will (finally) graduate college. I will likely have bad sex. But, I will also have good sex. Really, really good sex. I can feel it; it’s vaginal intuition. I will visit India and bask in the beauty of the Taj Mahal and dream of a love so wild that someone might dream of building me something so grand in order to express their feelings for me some day. I will visit Australia and New Zealand, Iceland, China and who knows where else. I will continue to learn about myself, slowly, humbly, and try to embrace the woman I am and the one I want to become.

So, 2018, Year of the Stardust, I salute you and your intrinsic ability to control what’s next for me. I know it’s going to be a transitional year; that’s inevitable. But I will do my best to accept your place in my life with open arms and love. I will try every day to better understand my place in this world, and what’s next for me. I will continue to grow up. I will end my twenties with you!

I eagerly await your lessons and turmoil, & burn sage in beginning you, officially, tonight. (After all, it’s a full moon and that feels more like a fresh start than some mortal-made calendar, anyways.)

Cheers to you, Stardust. May the crumbling of my Silver Star bring only beauty within you.

#personal

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trbl-will-find-me · 7 years ago

Text

Every Exit, An Entrance (15/?)

There are two (and only two) possibilities: either she led XCOM to victory and they are now engaged in a clean up operation of alien forces, or XCOM was overrun, clearing the way for an alien-controlled puppet government to seize control of the planet.

She’d really like to figure out which it is, but asking hardly seems the prudent option.

Read the rest here

Shout out to @inbatcountry17 for letting me borrow @commanderweir for a cameo.

They manage to make contact with the local cell a few days later, buying their trust with food and medical supplies. In return, their scouts lead Moon and Kelly right to the perimeter of the complex.

“Don’t get close, but see what you can gather,” she instructs over the comms. “I don’t want to go in totally blind.”

“Looks like an outbuilding and some sort of tracks on the approach,” Moon says. “Hard to see the facility from here.”

“Any sense of what kind of cover we can make use of?”

“Not much,” says Kelly. “A lot of low, barrier-type fences. Could maybe scale that outbuilding, but that’s more perch than protection.”

“What are you seeing in terms of a defensive complement?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. Confirmed visual on an officer, some grunts, and a Sectoid, but other than that, it looks pretty light.”

“They weren’t counting on anyone finding this place,” Central says, crossing his arms. He stands across the Hologlobe from her, eyes fixed on scan data of the AO. “Still, I’m betting they’ve got some kind of back up.”

“Well, let’s not meet them just yet. Kelly, Moon: head back to the ship. We’ll debrief here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Wilco.”

“Thoughts?” She asks, turning her attention to Bradford.

“Whatever’s in there, I doubt we’re gonna like it.”

“Agreed, but who do we send in? Zaytsev’s down. Krieger’s in no position to be back on the duty roster. Thomas, Kelly, and Wallace are the obvious answers, but I hesitate to field them again without having a better sense of what they’re up against.”

“It’s a luxury we don’t have.”

She sighs. “I don’t disagree, but everyone has a breaking point. We can’t afford to have any of them finds theirs. Especially not on this op.”

“They’ve had time to process.”

“Digging graves isn’t exactly R&R.”

He rubs at his neck. “Unless you’re hiding seasoned recruits somewhere, Commander, I don’t see many other options.”

She runs her fingers through her hair, jostling strands loose from her braid. “We need more people.”

“I’m working on it. But for now ---“

“We’ll have to make do.”

He nods.

She knows the rules of war. If you want people to fight, you have to give them a cause to believe in. It can’t be any cause, though, and it can’t just be a good one. People don’t fight futile wars; they fight wars they believe they can win. Half the job of a propaganda campaign is convincing the masses they aren’t stepping into a slaughterhouse when they commit to the fight.

The other half, of course, is reassuring them that the cause is worth the lives of their brothers and sisters, the blood of their children, the conspicuous emptiness where friends once stood.

They’ll need concrete results if expect to make any inroads.

She leans on the rail surrounding the Hologlobe, eyes fixed on stills from the video feeds. “God, please let this go better.

Bradford shoots her a look. “Not like you to tempt fate.”

“I’d throw salt, but I don’t think we have any to spare.”

“They’ll make it in, Commander.”

“Yeah, but at what cost?”

A key part of successful subterfuge is plausible deniability, minimizing the risk that they’ll both be caught if the Council catches wind. A key part of plausible deniability is minimizing interactions inside and out of the public sphere.

It leaves her with entirely too much time on her hands.

She is sprawled on the couch of the Common Room, scrolling through the news on her tablet, when she clicks onto some story about the resurgence of the Asbury Park boardwalk.

She’d been to Asbury once, years ago. She’d gone with friends to see the sights, walk in the footsteps of Springsteen and his E Street Band. The Casino was an empty shell, a gorgeous, rotting ghost at risk of being reclaimed by the ocean. From the empty winter beach, she could see trees spouting from the ruined interior. They had bundled their way down to the Wonderbar, shrugging off coats and gloves and scarves to wrap themselves in the mystique of the shoreside town.

They’d made sure to leave before dark.

Apparently, some things do change.

The pictures of the boardwalk shine with color and life. People crowd into bars and restaurants, stroll down the street with armfuls of beautiful packages. Her gut twists at the sight of the Casino, badly damaged by storms and the forward march of time. Tilly is still there, smiling down, but the place is otherwise unrecognizable.

There’s a link at the bottom to the local paper, the Asbury Park Press, with an article from some years ago. Her gaze flicks up to the clock on the wall; she has plenty of time before her shift begins. She clicks, and finds her way to the most recent headlines.

There’s nothing particularly interesting at first. News of local school sports teams, of recent real estate developments, an editorial about the governor pass unremarked before her.

And then she stops dead.

Four missing in Pine Barrens, reads the headline. Fifth confirmed to be mauling victim discovered last month.

She opens her email and briefly scrolls through. She doesn’t see his address among her recent mail, but that’s hardly surprising.

She copies and pastes the link to the article into the body of an email and addresses it, trying not to smile as she does: [email protected]

Only Weir, she thinks.

She tabs up to the subject line. Pertinent to your interests … assuming you’re not on scene already, she types.

She keys in a cursory search, turning up a string of recent disappearances, and adds those links in. She suspects he’s already well aware, but she’s in want of anything better to do.

Besides, she thinks. Maybe, one day, he’ll actually catch the bugger.

She tries to picture Weir’s face, almost always serious, with the grin of a proud fisherman, catch hung from a rack beside him, its blood pooling below, splashed across the front page of a newspaper. It’s a ridiculous image, the mere concept of it an exercise in absurdity.

Still, it makes her laugh.

As if Weir would ever allow that kind of publicity.

She hits send and checks the time yet again. The whole endeavor has only taken up a paltry fifteen minutes.

She sighs. There is a reason she did not go into intelligence work.

“Hit the deck!” She shouts, as the MEC launches a grenade volley.

It had been going well. It had been going so well. They had made short work of the troopers and the captain, and had dispatched the Sectoid without incident. Kelly had caught the Lancer as it rounded the corner, greeting it with a shotgun blast to the face.

They had moved through the trainloads of bodies, taking cover behind the glowing green sarcophagi, and picking off would-be assailants. She knows that the sight of her men, living and breathing amidst a sea of the dead and good-as-dead will be an image she carries with her for the rest of her life, the memory of Central’s horrified whisper in her ear.

The turret had given them all a scare, but even then, they’d managed to breach the facility with only the most minor of injuries.

But, they had all missed the opening volley, and things had gone downhill rapidly from there.

“Fuck,” she hears Wallace mutter. “That’s a lot of blood.”

“Medkit it and get ready to fire,” she says. “Moon, what’re your sightlines like to the target?”

“They’re good, ma’am.” “Take the shot.”

The spray of bullets connects squarely with the MEC’s chest armor, sending it clattering to the ground and exposing the understructure. “Nice shot! Kelly, see what you can do to weaken it, but stay back.”

The ranger takes aim and fires, grazing the device. “Damnit,” she mutters. ”I’ll get it next time!” “Thomas, your move.”

She watches in vague horror as he removes the pin from his grenade and hurls it towards the MEC.

“Down!”

The feed from all four cameras distorts, the shock and debris from the explosion occluding her view.

“Menace? Menace!”

“Everyone’s here, ma’am,” Kelly groans.

“What the hell were you thinking, Thomas?”

“It solved the problem, no?”

“It’s not a solution with the risk of collateral this high!”

“It is down, and that is what matters.”

“Come on, cowboy,” she hears Kelly say, and watches the feed as she hauls Wallace to his feet. “Break time’s over.”

“Ugh,” Wallace groans. “I don’t feel so good.”

“Just a little longer,” Kelly says, voice softer. “We’re almost there.”

“Prepare to breach the facility, but don’t take any risks you don’t have to,” the Commander says. “Thomas, keep it in your pants and let Moon and Wallace handle the demolition duties. That’s an order.”

“Putain de merde,” Thomas mutters.

“Je vous comprends,” she retorts. In the background, Sally chuckles to Central’s obvious displeasure. The ranger’s cheeks flush red and she grins, satisfied.

She takes a moment to watch them, caught in one another’s video feeds: Thomas’s disdain, Moon’s vigilance, Kelly’s gentle concern, and Wallace’s growing fear. She forces herself to swallow the growing lump in her throat. Not the time, she thinks. You’ve got a job to do and people counting on you to do it. “Come on, people, let’s go find out what ADVENT has in store for us.”

He is waiting for her at her office door when she clocks off shift that night.

“Commander.”

“Central.”

“Do you have a minute?”

She nods. “Come in.”

The whole interaction feels like a kind of elaborate kabuki, some grotesque approximation of their relationship. Even so, it’s a comfort to have him close.

He leans back against her office door, shoving his hands in his pockets. ��I have good news, and I have bad news.”

She sinks into her desk chair, trying to get a read on the situation. There is still color in his face, which bodes well, and he does not have the hunched look of a man on the lam. He catches on quickly. “It’s not that bad,” he adds.

“Alright, shoot.”

“We can fake an intrusion, but we’ll need help.”

“You have someone on the outside?”

He shakes his head. “We risk too much if we go out of house.”

“So, we’re cooked.”

He shakes his head. “Not exactly, but this op got a lot more risky.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Engineering a hack is way outside my scope of practice.”

“But not Dr. Shen’s.”

She leans back in her chair. “We can’t. He’s got a kid. I can’t ask him to do that.”

“We give him a device entirely isolated from our network. We destroy the hard drive after he’s done.”

“Where do we launch it from?”

“We can proxy it off, make it look like it’s coming from somewhere else.”

She nods. “How do we keep Vahlen off the scent?”

He sighs. “That’s the risk.”

“I don’t think she’d turn us in, but ---“ “But, if anyone would use that information for leverage, it’d be her.”

She nods. “Exactly.”

“For the moment, I think you’ve appeased her. She’s got plenty of work on her hands and once she’s involved there. Well. She’s a dedicated professional.”

“Fanatical.”

“I was trying to be polite.”

She shrugs. “I’m just glad there’s enough of an institutional safety net to keep her in check.”

“Harm reduction’s never a bad operating procedure.”

“My policy of choice.” She pulls the elastic from her hair, shaking it loose from its bun. “So, this is your area of expertise. How do we bring Shen in?”

He cocks his head. “Sooner, rather than later. Odd hours. Entirely word of mouth.”

She nods. “Who’s making the ask?” “Probably easier if it comes from you.”

Again, she nods. “Sometime tomorrow?”

“I’ll be here when you need me.”

She chews on her lip. “I can’t believe this is what it’s coming to.”

“We made the right call, Lizzie,” he says, with far more certainty than she’s expecting.

Her gaze shoots up. “You’re seem awfully confident in that.”

“Comes with having friends in shady places.”

“So, they’re moving on something.”

He nods. “No one’s sure on what, though.”

“Damnit,” she mutters. “How are they always one step ahead of us?”

“Power, money, sleep. Take your pick.” His face softens. ”If it’s any help, general consensus is they have no idea what’s going on from our end.”

She nods. “Small mercies. Still, I don’t have a good feeling about that call.”

“They’re absolutely looking to weaponize the modified SHIV, but that’s not a surprise.”

She shrugs. “There’s only so much it can do with conventional weaponry. Still, I’ll take that over the alternative.”

“You and me both, Commander.”

She buries her face in her hands for a moment, wishing for a little peace and quiet, a few weeks without an emergency. Somehow, she doubts even that would soothe her nerves. “So, tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

#fic #xcom #every exit an entrance #commander/central #that is weir's canon email address friends

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mollymauk-teafleak · 7 years ago

Text

My Heart: Chapter 2

Lafayette and Adrienne spend their first night together.

Thanks to my amazing cowriter @childofdustandashes, y’all just aren’t ready for her chapters, I swear

This was getting to be a habit.

Adri and Gil held out as long as they possibly could but the night was just too beautiful to spend in the hall, eating food too rich to really be stomached for anything more than a spoonful or a smudge across a china plate, making stiff conversation with their parents’ overlapping friendship circles about wine and what was being shown at the theatres and galleries in the city and, mostly, the upcoming wedding season; being pointedly sat as far as possible from each other by Madame de Noailles and yet still getting daggers thrown at them from her steeled green eyes every time they so much as exchanged a smile. You’d think they were in the midst of some illicit affair rather than only having had a few dates, mostly to Gil’s library and a few times to the old fashioned picture house they were both fond of. In the two months since their first, charmingly awkward meeting, they were guilty of nothing more than being apparently unable to let go of each other’s hands, kisses that left both of their heads swimming at the end of every date, the achingly sweet rituals of a first romance.

Yet from the response of his Adri’s mother, the whole thing was as scandalous as her Uncle Talehot who’d sold his estate at the age of seventy and moved to Nice to open a bar.

The young Lafayette was more easily cowed by the formidable woman than his girlfriend was, so it was he who kept his eyes on his own plate through most of the dinner party and she who seized his hand suddenly as the group moved to the lounge for drinks, pulling him out of the moving river of bodies and away down the hall.

“Adri!” he laughed breathlessly, making absolutely no move to dig his heels in and resist her towing him out of the back door and into the shadowed grounds, into the warm and thick and fragrant summer night. Gil felt himself get more daring with each lungful of air he took, each one relieved and a little desperate after being so cooped up for the entire dinner party.

“They won’t miss us, surely?” she pleaded gently, running recklessly, even after they’d left the lights of the mansion far behind them, soon sprinting across the grass simply because she wanted to, because her hair was coming loose, it’s dark curls and the lace of her dress streaming out behind her and the dew was soaking through her pumps to her stockings and she was picking up speed so why not keep going, why not fly?

Gil knew they would be missed. He could see the scene playing out in front of his eyes, Madame de Noailles noticing their absence within five minutes, the war behind her smooth face between her desire to maintain etiquette at a social gathering and her fury erupting like a volcano, his own Mama would spot it early and expertly distract and divide attentions with some music, a copious flow of more wine and port. His Papa would join in after a subtle touch on the arm from his wife, diving in with some of his most entertaining high society anecdotes, the well worn ones he’d been breaking out at parties like this since his hair was still black but they never failed. That would keep Adri’s mother quiet at least, though it definitely wouldn’t save them from getting in severe trouble when they had to return, a bigger dose for his girlfriend than for him.

But, a heartbeat after, Gil found himself not caring in the slightest. The only thing he saw now was Adrienne in front of him, his hand firmly clasped in hers, the moonlight settling on her hair like a light settling of snow, as well as on her shoulders, bare now as she abandoned her scarf to hold it over her head like a triumphant banner of victory. All he heard was her beautifully wild laughter, ringing like bells as they careened down the rolling hill, down towards the bulk of the gardens. That was more than he could possibly have wanted.

Adri seemed to be following some impulse and he was happy to go along with her as they reached his Papa’s much loved lily garden, the one he and the gardener were always playfully arguing over how best to tend. Whoever had been winning recently clearly had the right idea; the flowers were thicker and bolder than Gil had ever seen them, recent rains and much careful attention creating towering structures of vines, flower heads that seemed to glow in the late hour’s darkness for their exceptional whiteness, proud, tall stems, tightly packed beds of gypsophila and blue flowering Salvia and lordly, sprawling ferns and a scent that had grown almost intoxicating, something from a Midsummer Night’s Dream that would have them disrobing and cavorting in amongst the flora in no time. It really was beautiful, it seemed only natural for them to skid to a breathless halt right in the middle of it all, at the stone bench right at the epicentre of the colour and the life.

“You trying to kill me?” Gil panted, grinning in something of a dizzied haze, completely entranced by his girlfriend.

It still felt strange saying that. Girlfriend. Adrienne de Noailles, the girl he’d had a crush on all the way back in fifth grade was his girlfriend.

“Of course not!” she laughed, smoothly using her discarded scarf to tie up her long, now rather windblown hair, “Then who would I talk to? Who would be as good company as you are?”

Gil knew he was blushing, so fierce it was probably visible even in this light, but he’d done that more than enough times in front of Adri, she was surely used to it by now. He was starting to realise that a lot of what used to embarrass him, what used to drive him into the shadowed corners of parties and galas, what used to stop him from raising his hand in class or really talk to anyone at school other than the handful of souls persevered enough to see through the stony shyness. Adrienne would never laugh the way some kids at school or even adults at parties who’d had enough alcohol to not enough morals to forget their politeness laughed at him. She would always smile that gorgeous smile of hers that made his knees weak, she would brush his cheek with her fingertips, look at him like he was a beautiful piece of artwork she was recognising something of herself in. And everything Gil had ever hated about himself, wished away when he caught sight of himself in the mirror after stepping out of the shower, he suddenly loved. Because Adrienne loved it.

“I...I wasn’t really planning on doing much talking,” he confessed, some daring gripping his tongue and making it say what he actually wanted to say, rather than over thinking and chickening out.

Adri’s eyes widened and her pupils grew a little, their depths as black and inviting and a little unnerving as the void of the night sky above them, speckled with stars Gil ached to know better and simultaneously quaked before.

“And what were you planning exactly, rather than talking?” she murmured in a low voice. She sounded as if she knew the answer.

Gil didn’t need to say any more, he just leaned in and pressed his lips against Adri’s, deciding it was far past time he tasted what lay behind them. Adri responded immediately and eagerly, her hands delicate but the want in them was clear as they moved up and deftly pulled the ribbon holding her boyfriend’s bun in place, letting it spring free. Then her arms circled his neck, bringing him good and close as their mouths showed no signs of parting willingly. Gil gave a gentle murmur as her painted lips, a deep wine red that he would gladly get drunk on, parted for him and her tongue slid across his, sending a bone deep shudder running right through to his fingertips. It was unfamiliar. It was a breach. But after not even half a second of what, Gil’s heart cried out hungrily for more of this, more of her.

He pulled her into his lap with an insistent tug, making her gasp gently in surprise at the strength in his wiry limbs, a gasp that quickly turned to laughter and a flurry of kisses against his sharp cheekbones, falling like the most wonderful cool summer rain. Eventually she found her way back to his mouth, the two of them kissing fiercely with an endearing kind of messiness, a lack of technique that spoke only of wanting something unfamiliar but so desired that they didn’t care how they got there. They just wanted to grab at each other and explore and grip so tight that their knuckles went white because this was so new and perfect, neither of them could believe that it would last for very long. That it wouldn’t be taken away from them as suddenly as they’d discovered it so they had to have it all as fast as they could take it.

Gil didn’t realise what was happening, so engrossed in everything with Adrienne, her touch, her taste, the taste of slightly charred sugar from dessert, her sound, the gentle little moans as their kissing built and deepened and grew, her scent, the scent of her spiced perfume. But Adri herself noticed, as she shifted her legs and ended up straddling his lap, the waterfall of her dark skirts covering them both.

“Um, cheri?” she giggled, resting her forehead against his, giving a daring roll of her hips.

Gil’s jaw slackened and he gave a strangled little sigh, realizing very quickly what she meant, cottoning on to the stirring between his legs. If he blushed before it was nothing compared to the way his dark cheeks flamed now.

“I...um, sorry, I don’t...uh…” he stammered, biting his lower lip like he always did when he could feel his brain running away with his mouth but he couldn’t catch up, “I don’t know how to make it not do that.”

Adri tried very, very hard not to laugh, getting the sense that that really wasn’t what her boyfriend needed to hear. But he was just so damn cute. And feeling the rather insistent press against her lower stomach was sending her pounding heart to the top of her throat, as if it wanted to peer curiously at every inch of her Gil as much as Adri herself did.

“It’s okay,” she murmured softly, still smiling, though it had shifted to something more wicked, more excited now, “I like it. I think...I think I want...”

There were some things that were better said in the gaps between words than the words themselves. Gil understood immediately what she meant.

“You do?” he whispered, his voice a little hoarse, “You’re sure?”

Adri did that stroke of his face again, the one that raised goosebumps all across his skin, and her smile was more beautiful than any flower in the place.

“I do, Gil,” she breathed, “I think I’m ready. But only if you are?”

Gil felt like his body more than answered the question for him but he knew it was right to say it out loud, “Yes I want you, Adri. Pretty...pretty damn badly.”

“Then nothing is stopping us,” Adri beamed, shy and excited and nervous and hungry all at once, playing across her face all at once like an aurora and making something so beautiful that Gil didn’t quite know what to do with it. He just couldn’t rationalise that someone so wonderful was pressing her body against him and looking him right in the eyes and saying she wanted him. And yet here they were, limbs moving, clothes being pulled back, sleeves slipping down shoulders to expose collarbones, fingers stroking hair into rivers down backs, lips never leaving each other’s skin for more than a second.

You don’t deserve her, Gil thought, this must be a dream.

He wasn’t to know it but Adrienne was thinking the exact same thing about him. This irony of their relationship would prove to be long lasting.

Neither of them had given much thought to their first time together. Of course they weren’t completely ignorant, it wasn’t as if Gil hadn’t used thoughts of almost every aspect of Adrienne, her smile, her eyes, the softness of her hair, the way her skirt hugged her hips, how it felt to kiss her, to pass sleepless nights in the conventional way for teenage boys and it wasn’t as if Adrienne hadn’t done the same, with thoughts of Gil’s hair, how he’d taken his shirt off when they’d been reading in the library the other day and the sunlight had played off his chest, his crooked smile, his strong arm around her shoulders, the way the loose sweatpants he favoured sometimes slipped further down his hips and suggested at more than he was aware of. It wasn’t as if hands hadn’t wandered as they’d kissed in Adri’s pick up truck, bought by her after her mother had told her she could purchase a car and for once not been stringent enough about what constituted a proper car for a young lady like her daughter. Hence why she hadn’t made that mistake again.

It wasn’t as if there hadn’t always been the implication that one day they might, that when they were ready they would take that step, that soon it would feel right, that maybe… But it had all been hypotheticals and ellipses and now it was solidifying into something real, they could do nothing but follow their instincts and hope that carried them there, to where they wanted to go. They had to trust their own hearts, a forbidden and much desired and fantasized about and hopefully sweet concept the two of them had been denied up until now.

Well, no more of that. As Adrienne said, why not? Why not let that ridiculous denial end now?

Gil pulled off his jacket and spread it on the soft grass, as dense and comfortable as any bed, with the fresh scent of dew. Adri lay on it, her heart fluttering at the view she suddenly had of the night sky, of the stars’ pinpoints of light through the velvet blackness of the sky. It occurred to her in that moment how beautiful darkness could be, how it seemed to have a motion and life behind it, a gentleness, a security, depths and promise and such raw beauty. The stars were fine, but it was the night that made them shine.

She kept her dress on, just pulling the skirts of it up around her waist and sliding the thin, lacy panties she was wearing (with a thrill of relief that she’d chosen a pair of her prettier ones) down her legs and kicking them away to hang rakishly off the bench, making them both get the giggles for a few minutes. Gil was prepared to be a little more daring, standing and pulling off his shirt, undoing his belt with eagerly shaking fingers, giving a soft moan as his boxers followed and the cool air touched parts of him he wasn’t used to. Though he was more aware of Adri’s eyes as she took in the sight of every single inch of him, of several inches in particular. An impulse to cover himself with his hand seized him for a moment but then he realised behind the shock in her eyes, there was hunger, there was a slackening of her jaw and a need in the way she took him in. That was when he began to smile.

“Sorry,” she blushed, her grin reaching her eyes in such a beautiful way, “I just didn’t expect...um...I mean...you’re really big?”

Gil blinked for a moment and then burst out laughing, covering his now bright red face with his hands. And a second later, Adrienne was howling with laughter too.

“Sorry, that was so awkward,” she choked out, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, “I just couldn’t think of another adjective!”

“It’s okay,” Gil chuckled, “That actually, um, really flattering? So, thanks.”

“Can we just have sex before I say anything else utterly stupid?” she begged, grinning hopefully.

“It’s kind of the stupid stuff that makes me want to have sex with you so badly?” he admitted with a coy smile, settling himself on his knees between her parted legs, arms at either side of her shoulders.

Adri was struck so hard then by his genuine sweetness, she reached up and pulled him down to her, kissing him as fiercely as she could. Gil responded in kind within an instant, neither of them seeing any sense in waiting a second longer. They felt a rhythm sneak up on them, a sense of where to put their hands and where to kiss and where to position their legs, of where to go and what to do, of what it was they were searching for. The heat grew between them, their kisses wandered down to newly exposed skin, tasting things they’d never tasted before, finding new softness and new curves, enough to make the garden swim around them.

Before long, Gil’s hand dipped between her legs, disappearing up underneath her skirt, finding wetness and slickness and warmth. Adri gave a soft gasp, her eyes widening. His dark eyes flickered to her, a question in them, not quite sure yet how to distinguish between noises of uncertainty and noises of desire. Though he was learning fast, his girlfriend was very vocal.

“Yes,” she nodded frantically, feeling honest fear when his fingers withdrew, “Yes, more.”

Gil could give more. He could give it gladly.

Adri suddenly felt like one of his books, one of the books of poetry or literary criticism or free thought that he read so devotedly, that he found such peace and kinship in. As his fingers probed, she felt thumbed through, opened, leafed through, feeling the same burning focus like she was the centre of his whole universe. She felt studied, explored, adored in a way she never had until now. When Gil’s eyes locked with her’s, she could believe that he saw nothing but her.

“I...please…” she croaked after she’d had as much as she could stand of being rocked and tossed against the grass, clamping her thighs around his wrist, building and building and scrabbling for some height that remained out of reach.

“I’ve got you,” Gil promised, shifting his hips, struggling for just a few moments with the wonders of female anatomy before suddenly realising his path, “Just...just let me know if it’s too much, okay? I’ll stop.”

Adri nodded, her expression softening. One of her hands reached out and found one of his, their fingers winding together, slotting together perfectly as if they’d been made specifically to hold one another. In the low moonlight, their fingers were almost indistinguishable, they could have been one soul, one individual, rather than two people.

Gil kissed a path along the delicate slopes of her collarbones and neck as he shifted his hips, gentle as he could be as he slid into her. He met a little resistance and shivered, so close to stopping, but Adri wrapped her legs around his hips and drew him forward, taking all of him until their hips bumped into each other. And the groan of his name she made couldn’t be mistaken for anything but ecstasy.

He’d despised it with all his might when the whole world had apparently decided ahead of his arrival to always call him by that particular one of his names. Of all of the ones at their disposal, why that one? He’d decided somewhere around his fourth birthday that when he got old enough, he was going to make everyone call him Lafayette.

But there was something about the way Adrienne said it, especially now, where it hung in the heavily scented air. He decided he would let her call him Gil for as long as she wanted.

They moved together, raw instinct directing every slightly hasty thrust and grasp and drag of nails down his back. Gil was glad of their distance from the house, Adri was soon writhing and screaming and bucking, her face pressed to his shoulder, trembling all over with so much sensation it was bordering on overwhelming, too much, too hot, too bright. So she fixed her eyes on the night sky above them, on that endless, comforting darkness. She lost herself in it and she sighed his name.

Gil found power in his wiry muscles he’d never been aware of, drunk on the scent of lilies and damp grass, on how Adri throbbed and contracted around him, how the cool chill of the night rose goosebumps across the dark velvet of his skin and yet a fire burned between his legs and through his belly in the best kind of way. He reached the edge before she did but he held on fast, clawing at the wet earth and feeling sweat run down the straight valley of his spine, determined to let her taste the same wild sweetness he was right now.

And he wasn’t waiting long. Neither of them received any warning, neither of them were braced for it but within seconds of each other the tension snapped and they hit their pleasure hard. Adri saw the whole damn universe rock and blur in front of her eyes with the force of it and she found, for all her noisiness up until now, the climax stole her words. Gil, on the other hand, moved from the restless panting he’d been reduced to and howled her name at the top of his voice as he came, heat breaking from him.

It was a while before either of them could speak and, even then, what could they say?

Gil found the words first, after he withdrew from her and rolled to lie on his back by her side, his slightly damp eyes fixed devotedly on her face.

“I love you, Adrienne de Noailles,” he murmured, his voice an exhausted and satisfied rasp, “I love you so, so much.”

Adri bit her lower lip, the simplicity of the words somehow only making them hit her harder.

“I love you too, Gil,” she whispered, her shaking hand stroking the angles of his face delicately, “More than anything.”

Neither of them really kept track of how much time they spend just looking at each other, just wandering through the thoughts and emotions and aches and wants left after all of this, but eventually they were both shivering from the cold, giggling a little hysterically, just repeating the words over and over, marvelling how they never lost their magic.

I love you.

***

Years and years later, when most people did in fact call him Lafayette, pretty much everyone apart from his family and his love, a lot about the grounds of the family mansion had changed, shifting and rolling as time flowed past it all. Some parts had to be moved, building renovations forced other parts away, changes in the weather mean some plants weren’t viable any more, some new ones were introduced. He hadn’t wanted much to change, wanting to preserve what his parents had left but some things had been unavoidable despite his best efforts. Most things, in fact. Nearly all. Some days, Laf barely recognised the old place, he couldn’t really believe this was the house in all his memories. So much was different.

Except one corner of the grounds. The corner than held the lily garden.

That would never change.

#lafayette #lafayette/adrienne #adrienne de lafayette #the lafayettes #smut #super romantic #if I do say so myself

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thenichibro · 8 years ago

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Spring 2017 Anime First Impressions

This season doesn’t really seem to have a posterchild show like last season, which had both a new KyoAni work and Konosuba’s follow-up. However, there’s some good slice-of-life and top-tier fanservice, so as usual there will be ups and downs, weighted towards the latter of course. (This paragraph is short because I had a huge rant here about Anime Strike and its effect on consumers/businesses, but I’m pretty sure no-one who follows me gives a shit about actual discussion of the industry, so I’ll spare you.)

With MAL links, and original shows marked:

Alice to Zouroku (MAL) Starting off we have a hefty 40-minute episode, which follows Sana, a girl with supernatural powers, escaping from a reserach lab. She is chased by the organization's other power-users, and snares the other main character, Kashimura, in a bad-CG-filled car chase. I like Kashimura as that sort of grizzled old man type moreso than a generic teenage protag in this sense. His no-nonsense attitude contrasts well with the haughty-yet-childish one of Sana. In addition, I like the subtle humor near the end of the episode that contrasts what you think Kashimura's line of work is with what it actually is. The animation looks somewhat plain, and the CG is honestly just bad. The entire sequence could have used hand-drawn, but for a solid 2-3 minutes it was hard to look at. Other than that there isn't anything especially new here - reality-warping powers, dangerous medical research - we've seen it before. I don't really think this needed a 40-minute episode, but we'll see where it goes.

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records (MAL) Any show with a school uniform that highlights midriffs gets points in my book. Starting off, we have the eccentric (in this case lazy) teacher, Glenn, starting at a magic school. There's the haughty noble girl, Sistine, oft-embarrased by the teacher's antics, and her quieter sister Rumia. While setting itself up as a comedy in episode 1, episode 2 has everything from a shouting match culminating in a slap to military thugs sexually assaulting Sistine - so I'm honestly not sure which way this is going. The boastful-but-easily-embarrased Sistine contrasts well with the smooth-with-nothing-to-back-it-up Glenn. We have the brewings of a wider plot, with why Glenn was assigned to the school if he's a bum and Sistine having a goal of discovering secrets of a floating island. The animation overall is still quite good, which helps in a magic-casting show. Helps the fanservice out too. I don't have high expectations for this show, but the lower the bar the easier this show will impress. I just hope it focuses on a single direction in the plot instead of trying to have comedic episodes and dark episodes.

[Original] Sakura Quest (MAL) Starting with a bubbly OP (and ending with a similarly fantastic ED), we have the first slice-of-lie this season. I love the genre, I love the country locale, I love the art, and I loved Shirobako. I have high hopes. Our main girl Koharu wants to get out of the country and get a job in Tokyo, but the job she gets (by mistake, even) is back in the country at a tourism board. Sakura Quest puts an interesting spin on the country locale, setting Manoyama up as both tranquil yet struggling - and I like it. It brings a sense of realism to an oft-idealized setting. The language of taxes, grants, and the real strategy of creating "mini independent states" to boost local tourism echoes Shirobako in its depiction of life, and that's good. Koharu is plucky, insistent, and overall just a joy to watch. I'm refreshed any time a show does something about not high-school students or teenagers in general. Focusing the story on adults that have established lives (or even better, that are trying to establish their lives) gives the slice of life genre, well, new life. Showing the smooth transition between the comedic and the sentimental, with background music to match, the tonal shifts are nothing abrupt, a the first episode flowed well. P.A. Works certainly has a hit-or-miss record with original shows, and Sakura Quest thus far is more Shirobako and less Glasslip. I'm looking at an AOTS contender already.

Clockwork Planet (MAL) Starting off with an impressively boring action sequence, we have our heroes led by a (I'm sure incredibly powerful) kid defeat a bunch of automatons. A world created entirely of clocks, and a main character (Naoto) obsessed with tinkering with them. My primary conception from the summary was more apocalyptic, with the main character being a wandering junker who finds an automaton (Imagining the world looking sort of like Gargantia, with less water). Maybe I'm just standoffish because instead we got a high school kid with an annoying voice that finds a girl who proceeds to call him "Master." This is of course after the fact that despite Naoto being unable to fix a single clock, he easily opens and fixes the girl, one of the most top-of-the-line automatons created. Naturally. As far as the "clockwork" aesthetic goes, instead of a rusty, machinic society the world looks exactly like any other city, except with random gears everywhere. At one point it shows a character driving an otherwise normal car, but in the door of the car there are gears that look like they aren't connected to anything, just there to remind you of the title. Regarding the animations, they're not great, echoing the facial style of something like Baka to Test or Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? - only this show is airing in 2017. Also, a shot shows a bunch of gears falling from a guy's hand feels the need be CG. Ugh. Shoved-in fanservice on top of all of this makes this a show I already regret starting. Avoid.

Eromanga-Sensei (MAL) Next up, we have the second original series from the famed creator of "It's Okay to Fuck Your Sister if She Likes Porn," This one uniquely titled "It's Okay to Fuck Your Sister if She Draws Porn." Sibling bonding over erotic fiction/art. Wew. Nothing else to expect from OreImo's creator, but similar themes do not a similar plot make. I hope. The first episode is the reunion, where Masamune finds his shut-in sister Sagiri is Eromanga-sensei, his LN ero-artist. I'll give it this - Sagiri is leagues cuter than Kirino. Man, fuck Kirino. Naturally the art is similar to OreImo, especially Masamune, only I think his hair's a bit greener. Other than that, though, the animation is smooth. Eromanga-Sensei starts off on a much more sentimental note, with discussions of dreams, mourning parents, etc. Other than one main fanservice-y scene and the fact that they connect over erotic art, the sentimental is certainly preferable. ClariS return for the ED of ep1, and it's fantastic as ever. I mean, seriously, Nexus as the OP for OreImo was the best part of the show. Judging from the key art this may well become a harem, but we'll see. So far it beats OreImo, but that's a low bar.

Sakurada/Sagrada Reset (MAL) I don't know why the changed the romanization to "Sagrada," but then again I don't know Japanese in the first place. Sakurada Reset follows Kei and Haruki, with the powers of recalling the past perfectly and being able to reset time, respectively. The town of Sakurada gives people the powers for basically no reason, but on the other hand that's not really the point - the assumption is that this is normal. Set up to be friends by Soma, the enigmatic class rep, Kei aims to get Haruki to help him help people, using their powers. Haruki is adamantly opposed, for fear Kei could exploit her, as she herself doesn't remember anything after resetting. Sakurada Reset certainly doesn't set itself up as a comedy, but rather a series of sobering investigations undertaken by Kei and Haruki. There's a lot of pseudo-philosophical bullshit off the bat ("You're unable to believe your own righteousness, yet you continue to be righteous."), and yet the show isn't interesting enough for me to look any deeper. Add to that a surprisingly dark first investigation topic, and I'm already kind of tired of this. If you like HaruChika (which I didn't) with darker themes, then give this a watch. Otherwise, I'd avoid.

Hinako Note (MAL) Back on the slice of life train, Hinako Note follows, well, Hinako, a girl who sucks at speaking, moving to Tokyo to go to high school and get better via the theater club. She moves into a bookstore-cafe combo, living with Kuu, who likes books so much she eats them, and Mayu, the short girl who dresses like a maid. Also introduced is Aki, the quiet landlady and a theater troupe leader on the side. The only conflict is that the theater club is shut down, and so Aki suggests Hinako simply form a troupe with the rest of the girls. The OP/ED show we'll meet a fifth girl, so I expect that soon. Speaking of the OP/ED, they're both incredibly fast paced, sung by the cast, and remind me of Teekyuu's OP style, if you like that. The animation is pretty good, though the show really likes going into chibi-style a lot. Probably more a style choice than budgetary problem, and I don't mind it. Overall, it seems like the theater setup could produce a wealth of interesting scenarios, and the girls are cute. Not much else I need.

[Original] Tsuki ga Kirei (MAL) Last on the slice-of-life roster, we have an self-described slow paced school story, and an original from feel. studios to boot. I'm excited. Starting in the third-year of middle school is interesting, because that means all the relationship-forming is already done. (To be done away with when they get to high-school though, I'm sure). Akane is a sincere, shy girl on the track team, while Kotarou is a similarly shy novice writer and spends club time as the school's librarian. They share off glances at each other, leading to a nervous, stammering meeting at a family restaurant where not much else happens. "Slow-paced," to be sure. The animation matches the shows sort of muted tone, with no massive eyes (or tits), no multicolored hair, etc. It's clear Tsuki ga Kirei aims to tell a more-or-less realistic love story. One thing I did notice, mostly in the beginning of the episode, was the crowd shots combined with CG. Honestly, just do closer shots so you can avoid CG-ing people. It never looks good. The first episode sort of confirmed my feeling that this show will be a nice way to decompress each week, as we watch Akane and Kotarou grow slowly closer. If the title's any indication, their relationship will have its awkward moments, but there's nothing more essentially youth than that, right? Unlike many original works, this show doesn't look like it will go in any strange direction, and that consistency is relaxing. Give this a watch.

Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho (MAL) Furry Berserk, I guess? ZeroSho follows the unnamed beastman "Mercenary" and Zero, a mage, as they search for Zero's Grimoire, the basis of all magic. The show follows a typical fantasy setting, with mages at war with a ruling empire, and beastmen subjugated by everyone. Interestingly, "sorcery" differs from "magic" - the former requires a summoning circle, long casts, etc., while the latter is quick and far more deadly. More interesting is the fact that Zero wrote the book on magic. I normally enjoy overpowered characters, and in this case that power is packed into a cute, ahoge-sporting mage loli. Definitely a plus. Something else the struck me as unique was the comedic moments throughout the episode. Thus far Mercenary and Zero play off each other quite well, and I'm interested to see where it goes. There's the standard background of discrimination against beastmen/witches and Mercenary's war-torn past, but at least if it's been signposted now it won't be jarring later. This show surprised and impressed, and I'm interested to see how it goes. And man, Zero's cute.

Anonymous Noise (MAL) For whatever reason, I've been waiting for this to come out for a while. I'm not sure why, but when there were any cast announcements or key visuals, etc. I always recognized the name. Anyway, Anonymous Noise sees Nino Arisugawa - "Alice," a loner singer starting high school reunite with her childhood singing friend Kanade Yuzuriha - "Yuzu." Right from the start, this show is very, very shoujo. The eyes, the immediate drama, everything is very shoujo. Not necessarily a problem, but be aware that's what this is. Amazing how a dramatic reunion could immediately turn to "Never talk to me again," but that's the genre I guess. Regarding the music, as this is a musical show, there was one main performance, and if I'm honest I thought Alice's voice was quite rough. The music per se isn't a problem - the sound echoes Scandal or Stereopony, bands that do some harder rock that I both love. The vocals, at least in the song they played, weren't to my liking. I was unaware of just how shoujo this show is, and I hope it doesn't become any more overbearing than it already has. I have low expectations on that front. From the insert song and the ED, I know I like the sound, so if the vocals keep up and the shoujo stays down, this won’t be bad. On the other hand, I can't say I expect both of those things to happen.

Sin Nanatsu no Taizai (MAL) Best for last, amirite? Aka “Seven Mortal Sins,” SinNNT is unabashed, unapologetic fanservice. As a quick note, make sure to skip the HorribleSubs release on this one, only because their release is censored. Censored like Shinmai Maou no Testament censored (and that's bad). Anyway, the story involves Lucifer falling first to Earth and then to Hell, where after a short sexual assault by Leviathan (Envy) she proceeds to challenge the other sins for control. Back on Earth, the nun Lucifer passed as she fell to hell (as well as giving her some blood) is having her own daily life. (Don't worry, there's still groping between her and her friend). There's over-the-top transformation sequences, grandiose music, and plenty of inane sexual situations. I honestly have no idea where this show is going - whether it's going to be in Hell, on Earth - but let's be real, no-one really cares. The animation budget is actually pretty great for this show, and that means the fanservice is top tier. As if I need to write anything about this show - it's distilled fanservice. Watch it, or don't.

#alice to zouroku #rokudenashi majutsu koushi to akashic records #sakura quest #clockwork planet #eromanga-sensei #sakurada reset #hinako note #tsuki ga kirei #zero kara hajimeru mahou no sho #seven mortal sins #spring 2017 anime #my anime reviews

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ophirgottlieb · 8 years ago

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Earnings Alert: The Astonishing Truth Behind Apple

Apple Inc Earnings and Services

Date Published: 2017-01-29 Written by Ophir Gottlieb This dossier first appeared in CML Pro -- the institutional research built to break the information asymmetry that the top 0.1% hold. PREFACE Today we will discuss Top Pick Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) with regard not just to the upcoming earnings report, but the future at large. APPLE INC (NASDAQ:AAPL) Before we look forward with Apple, we must look back. So, here are the facts, first. HISTORY Apple released its iPhone 6 series back on September 19, 2014. This was a gigantic shift for the company because it was the first large screen phones it had produced -- a sort of catching up with Samsung's Galaxy and Note franchises. The results were astoundingly good. Here is a chart of Apple's calendar Q4 revenue (aka the holiday season quarter).

We can see that huge spike at the end of 2014. While that is a revenue chart, that quarter was also the single largest quarterly earnings ever reported by a public company. But, many analysts opined that the pop was based on pent up demand for a larger screen phone, and less about Apple's newly found additional market appeal. That was a reasonable guess -- nobody knew the future. But, as it looked like demand might be falling, the mainstream media found a new click worthy idea -- that Apple was going to shrink. Much to many people's surprise, here's what happened in the holiday quarter ending Dec 26th, 2015 (the next year).

Even in the face of an absurd up tick, Apple actually grew revenue again, and it broke the all-time record for largest earnings ever by a public company yet again. As that chart reads, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has never seen a year-over-year drop in revenue in its holiday quarter in the relevant time (over a decade). I know that sounds like a total reversal of what you may have read in the news -- but we are sharing the financial statement data here -- no opinion in these charts. Now, non-holiday quarter revenue has definitely dropped in 2016 from 2015, that's not misleading, that is also fact. For the record, while we don't know yet, Apple has guided, generally, that they will break their own all-time revenue highs again in this upcoming earnings release (2016's holiday season, but they may not break an all-time high in earnings). Very few analysts have Apple not growing that bar yet again -- even in the face of the "disastrous iPhone 7," which wasn't a disaster at all (at least not yet). SOMETHING HAPPENED While stories about Apple's demise grew to be the norm, the story really caught hold in 2016. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock sunk to $89 and all of a sudden there were calls for a $60 stock price from some super bears. While that was happening though, something else was building at Apple and it needs context, so if you will, let's turn to Facebook for a second. Facebook had a huge number of people on its various properties but what it needed to do was turn that group of people into revenue. Advertising is Facebook's answer, and my goodness, they have done an absurdly good job -- so much so that Facebook now is 60% the market value of Apple. That 60% valuation is put in to better context with this table, comparing the company's revenue and earnings (after tax) to Apple.

Company Revenue Net Income Apple $216 B $45.7 B Facebook $22.2 B $6.0 B

Yep, Facebook's revenue in the trailing-twelve-months is about 10% as large as Apple and its net income is about 15% as large, yet its market cap is 60% as large. Now, a big part of that disparity is growth expectations -- Facebook has growth pegged at high double digit percent and Apple is trying to squeak by with low single digit percent growth. But that's not all of it. The real reason we see this is the different sources of revenue. Apple sells hardware, mostly iPhones, and those are one-time events. In other words, after an iPhone is sold, that's it, the revenue is collected and it doesn't recur unless the owner comes back to purchase another one later on. Facebook's advertising revenue is recurring. Advertising is just a service, let's call it that. A business purchases this service, and it will continue to purchase the service as long as it provides the needed return on investment. The great part of Facebook's business is that even if user growth stagnates, the service it provides generates more and more value as time goes on. As anyone who has advertised knows, as time passes, the advertising becomes more refined, more accurate, and more profitable for the buyers. Or, we can just say, the service becomes more valuable. When we add user growth on top of that, well, we get a company that really is pretty small in terms of revenue and earnings but is now the fifth largest company in the world by market cap. SO WHAT? That reality -- that service revenue is worth more to valuation because it is recurring and predictable -- hasn't gone unnoticed by Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and this where the bullish thesis for the company builds. First, unlike Facebook, Apple Inc gets paid to grow its user base -- people buy iPhones, Macs, iPods, iPads, whatever. While a Facebook user joins for free, an Apple user joins for hundreds of dollars. Now, as we read the news carefully, which is to say we avoided the click bait, we noted that the press releases from Apple started sounding a lot like a services company. We broke the story when Eddie Cue, the head of Apple Services, noted that iMessage rates hit 200,000 messages a second. This makes Apple one of the largest social media networks in the world as a side effect of its other businesses. It's on the periphery of what we're talking about here, but CML Pro also broke the story that Apple filed a patent for a Social Network centered on its iPhone (The Secret’s Out: Apple is Creating a Social Network). As time passed, CML Pro has hyper focused on Apple Services as a whole. Here are snippets from our dossiers: Apple Services is turning into a legitimate revenue and earnings driver for the company. In fact, while services accounted for just 14% of revenue, the segment accounted for nearly 25% of operating income. Here's a revenue chart for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Services.

For context, Apple's revenue in the last year from Services alone is about the same size of all of Facebook's revenue in totality. Apple Services comprises of iTunes, iCloud, the app store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and other Apple software and services. This segment is Apple's "diversification" play away from the iPhone. Tim Cook noted on the last earnings call that Apple Services would be showing growth even if iPhone sales stagnate, implying that the current install base of users is spending more and more money with their iPhone on services. He also noted that within a year, Apple Services would be large enough on its own to be a Fortune 100 company. Embedded in Apple Services is the potential giant that is Apple Pay. As of right now, Apple Pay has yet to make a material impact on revenue, but its potential is gigantic. In fact, it’s so large and so complex, we have dedicated several CML Pro dossiers to the subject with great specificity. Here is one of the better ones: Update: Apple Pay is Turning into a Big Win. I rarely recommended leaving a dossier to look at another, but in this case, I really do encourage a read of that piece. It’s too long to include in this dossier, but it is the very guts of Apple’s future. Even further, given what we are going to discuss below about Apple Inc recent failures, this is a huge part of the long thesis for the company. I just can’t say it anymore plainly, if you own Apple stock, you should read that dossier on Apple Pay. In any case, Apple Pay saw 500% year-over-year growth per the last earnings call, with more transaction volume in September of 2016 alone than all of 2015. THE PRESENT Now, these are the realities at Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). The company will probably break its own all-time high in revenue and could break another all-time high for all pubic companies ever in earnings with the quarterly report this week -- but even if it slips a little -- it doesn't really matter. The future is Services and, as an aside, its hardware business keeps growing as the iPhone 8 (possibly called the iPhone 10) will be released later this year. But all the while, Apple Services is turning into the driver behind the company. Apple is doing the one thing no other company in the world can do -- it has combined the largest hardware business on planet Earth, which is now the most profitable business of any type on planet earth, while also building a huge services company. WHAT TO WATCH First, we must remember that whether or not Apple Inc sells more iPhones than it did in the year ago quarter, the total number of iPhone owners is growing. To use our Facebook corollary, the number of MAUs is growing. So then we need to watch... * Apple Services growth * Any specificity behind Apple Pay * Then we need to try to do some math -- the average Apple Services revenue per new iPhone sold. * We can 'hope' to hear news about video as a service * We can 'hope' to hear about augmented reality As long as Services revenue is growing (we already know that the number of total iPhones is growing), then we have our bullish thesis. APPLE INC'S FUTURE While the hardware to Services business is huge, Apple actually has a lot more going on. Rather than try to fit everything into one dossier we direct you to our prior discussions: * Apple’s Surprise About a Self-driving Car * Apple is Getting Dead Serious About Health Care * Apple Files a Patent for Augmented Reality * Apple Goes After Video — Yeah It Really Matters And the risks: * Risk Alert: Apple Faces China’s Wrath * It’s Time to Have a Serious Talk About Apple We remain bullish on Apple Inc for the reasons posted above and in the various dossiers we have authored. The writer is long shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). Thanks for reading, friends. WHY THIS MATTERS If you enjoyed learning about Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) but actually being ahead of the curve, this may be up your alley: Our research sits side-by-side with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the rest on professional terminals. Of our Top Picks, Nvidia is up 250% since we added it. Ambarella is up 60% since we added it. Relypsa was taken over for a 60% gain and we are already up nearly 50% on Skyworks. To become a CML Pro member it's just $19 a month with no contract. It's that easy -- you cancel at any time, instantly. Each company in our 'Top Picks' portfolio is the single winner in an exploding thematic shift like self-driving cars, health care tech, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, drones, biotech and more. For a limited time we are offering CML Pro for $19/mo. with a lifetime guaranteed rate. Get the most advanced premium research along with access to visual tools and data that until now has only been made available to the top 1%.

#$aapl

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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Weekend power rankings: Counting down my worst rankings of the season (so far)

We’re getting into that time of year when power rankings start to lock in from week-to-week. A team might still occasionally have an especially good or bad week and move a spot or two, and every now and then a dark horse will make a surprise charge down the homestretch. But generally, once we get past the trade deadline and close in on the 70-game mark, there really isn’t much reason to make big changes to what we have. Spoiler alert: The Lightning are in first place again this week.

Before we can start looking at our Stanley Cup and draft lottery hopefuls, let’s take a look back with a different kind of top five: My five worst rankings from this season.

I’ll pause here so you can all make your “How did you narrow it down?” jokes.

It’s true that in one sense, we’ve got plenty of candidates to choose from. In all, there have been 15 teams that have made at least one appearance in the top five, and 13 that have made an appearance in the bottom (including one team that showed up in both). That’s a lot, more than in any previous season I’ve been doing this. It’s been a volatile season. Or maybe some of the picks have just been bad.

To be honest, I don’t think anything stands out as an embarrassingly awful call; it’s not like there was some week that had Tampa in the bottom five or the Kings as a Cup contender. But that’s a low bar and let’s just say that some of those picks hold up better than others. Today we’re going to take our medicine and own up to five of the worst:

5. Arizona Coyotes ranked No. 1 in the bottom five (Oct. 5) – The Coyotes might end up making the playoffs and at one point I thought they were the odds-on favorite to finish dead last. That’s not a great look, although in this case, it comes with a pretty decent excuse: The season was just a few days old. We even called that week’s rankings the “way-too-early edition.” The Coyotes had started 0-2-0 so they were probably as good a pick as anyone; within a few weeks they’d made their exit from the bottom five to great fanfare, never to return. But for one week at least, I thought they’d be worse than the Senators, Red Wings or Kings. They were not.

4. Colorado Avalanche ranked No. 4 in the top five (Dec. 3) – “I’ve never fully bought into the Avalanche. I still don’t, if I’m being honest.” Good for you, past me, but you still let a hot streak mislead you into ranking them as the fourth-best team in the league. This one only lasted a week, but it doesn’t hold up well and unlike with the Coyotes, I can’t claim the “it was early” excuse.

3. Buffalo Sabres ranked No. 5 in the top five (Nov. 26) – Of all the teams to crack the top five this year, none will finish lower than the Sabres in the final standings. In that sense, no call was more wrong than this one.

If that’s the case, why not rank it higher? For one thing, the Sabres only showed up in the top five once, at the tail end of that ten-game winning streak. That stretch had briefly elevated Buffalo to first place overall, and yet I only had them fifth that week. More importantly, my writeup was packed with caveats, like that their top-five case “is far from iron-clad” and that this is “probably the only chance to slide them into the top five” and “Will it last? Maybe not.” Reading it all these months later, I half-expected to go back and see that the first letter of every line spelled out “I don’t actually believe this ranking.” But I still made it, so I’ll own it. (But do check out the comments that week from furious Sabres fans who insist I’m short-changing them by ranking them below the Lightning.)

2. St. Louis Blues ranked in the bottom five (five weeks total, as late as Dec. 10) – I have to include this one, especially since it lasted over a month. But the funny thing was that at the time, nobody thought I was wrong. If anything, it became a running joke that Blues fans were mad that I was going easy on them (they dipped as low as No. 3 for a few weeks). As I wrote on Dec. 10, “something big has to be coming in St. Louis.” I was right, just not in the way I thought I was.

1. Minnesota Wild in the top five (for three straight weeks beginning on Nov. 12) – The Wild aren’t as bad as the Sabres and might finish ahead of the Avalanche too. But what stands out here is how long I had them listed – three weeks in all, with them drifting as high as third after a big win over the Jets. And I can’t even fall back on hedging my bets when I wrote about them, because I was saying things like “Yeah, it’s probably time to start taking them seriously” and “Honestly, (fifth spot) is probably too low for the Wild.”

They were playing well at the time, going 10-2-0 at one point, but it was a stretch powered largely by red-hot goaltending from Devan Dubnyk. He eventually cooled down and then got hurt to start an extended cold streak. I couldn’t have seen an injury coming, but I was too eager to buy into the Wild as a legitimate Central favorite instead of what they were: a decent team that can sometimes look like more than that when the goalie is hot and they’re getting some breaks.

OK, I feel better. Now onto this week’s ratings, which I assure you are all 100 percent accurate. (Unless they’re not, in which case, uh, it was still too early.)

Road to the Cup

The five teams that look like they’re headed towards a summer of keg stands and fountain pool parties.

One big story to watch in the final month: The Colorado Avalanche are going to have to make their playoff push without Gabriel Landeskog, who’s out four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury. That timeline means he could be back early in the playoffs and there’s a slight chance he could return before the end of the season. But as Ryan Clark wonders, by that point will it still matter?

5. Washington Capitals (41-21-7, +22 true goals differential*) – Screw it, I’m back on board.

The Capitals showed up in our very first top five, then vanished for two months before reappearing in December. They hung around for five weeks, reaching as high as the two-spot on New Year��s Eve even as I wrote that the ranking “seems a little high.” Now, after two weeks of winning pushed them back into top spot in the Metro, they seem like as good a pick as any out of a crowded top-five field.

Or maybe not. You might prefer the Jets, who have a decent case even though they lost in Washington last night. But the Jets look to have a tougher road out of the Central than what the Caps will have in the Metro and that matters too. For the same reason, I can’t talk myself into Nashville. The post-Stone trade Golden Knights? They’ve looked great at times, but the top of the Pacific is very tough and they’re locked into third. The Islanders are still at least in the mix, but I’d rather know more about the Robin Lehner injury before I get them back near the top five. And the Leafs somehow haven’t shown up here in eight weeks even as they’re tied for second in the league in wins.

It’s a tough call. But this is about who’s going to win the Cup, and when in doubt, deferring to the defending champs doesn’t seem like a bad way to break the tie. For this week, at least.

4. Boston Bruins (42-18-9, +35) – Figuring out where to rank the Bruins is really getting interesting. On the one hand, you could make a very strong case that they’re the second-best team in the NHL. Last night’s loss aside, I’m not even sure you’d get much pushback from anyone. That means they should be ranked second, right?

But this isn’t a “best teams” list. It’s “most likely to win the Cup,” and that means that having the best team in the league in your division is bad news. Without going into the whole playoff format debate again, the Bruins’ path out of the Atlantic is brutal, and unlike the next two teams on the list, there’s no hope of improving it down the stretch.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free seven-day trial.)

from All About Sports http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DownGoesBrown/~3/3pRg6MRLRag/weekend-power-rankings-counting-down-my.html

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plms-hockey · 7 years ago

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Leafs @ Kings - Game 14 - Nov.02.17

KEY NARRATIVES

Toronto Maple Leafs (8-5-0) vs Los Angeles Kings (9-2-1)

Season VS Record: 1-0 Leafs

The Leafs face off against the Los Angeles Kings on a Thursday night, the second of a back to back and the first repeat faceoff of the season. The Leafs took a hard-won two points from the Kings on home ice a couple weeks ago, which was notably one of the Kings only two regulation losses this season. L.A. is currently topping the Western Conference and are probably the last team the Leafs' want to be facing on the second night of a road back-to-back.

On the Kings' hot start, it's at least notable that they currently have the fourth highest PDO in the league (PDO = shooting % + save %, and is used as a metric to judge "luck" and predict regression). At a PDO of 102.5, though, they're not unsustainably high for this time in the season, however. What's more interesting, I believe, is the shooting percentage side of the equation. As discussed at length in my last report against the Kings, the strategy implemented by the Kings in the past decade results in a team that's extremely dominant in possession but has always created a side effect of a low shooting percentage.

While it's still early in the year, we're getting close to the time in the season where we can stop saying that and start making some claims. The Kings are currently at a 9.20% success rate on shots which is solidly at or even slightly above league average which is significant considering they've historically been in the bottom five. While there's still time for regression, the Kings had a coaching change recently, and at the beginning of the season claimed they were making a concerted effort to up that shot success rate. What will be interesting to see, is if they can still maintain dominant possession numbers while doing so (currently they're only middle of the pack in CF% for the season). If they can get those possession numbers closer to their historic levels, that's a terrifying team.

Another terrifying prospect is a McElhinney start this evening - both for us and for him. With Sparks, who's been knocking at the door in the past year or so, Pickard recently acquired from Vegas, and even young Kasimir Kaskisuo starting the year strong, the Leafs' unique goaltender depth is going to make it difficult for McElhinney to keep his job long term. The thirty-four-year-old goalie is really only keeping his job pending a showing bad enough to justify putting him on waivers. The thing is, if he's performing alright in his very limited starts, and Freddie isn't struggling to the point of having to be pulled regularly, then the Leafs don't really want to risk putting him through waivers and losing him for nothing to bring up a better backup (likely Pickard), but that's a clear option I doubt the Leafs would hesitate to take if he has a bad enough game.

We also have a couple shifts in the lineup.

The Neutral/Good: with Babcock thankfully leaving Marleau at center and leaving a spot up for the grabs on the wing, Kasperi Kapanen gets his shot. This bumps Leivo back to the pressbox. Kapanen will slot in next to Kadri and Komarov on the "shutdown line". While I would have to do a lot more research on Kapanen vs Leivo to state anything definitively, what I'll say now is that Kapanen is younger, more favored by Babcock, and feels like he has more upside. Also, the fact that he can play on both the power play and the penalty kill means he has a better shot than Leivo at holding a long-term spot on this team with a good showing.

The Bad: Polak is back. Ironically the first time I typed that was against the Kings on October 23rd. Polak will slot in next to Borgman on the third pairing and bump Zaitsev back up next to Gardiner. Carrick sits.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

youtube

THE POST GAME

SCORE: L 3-5

Well... that was not ideal. I honestly don't even know how to talk about this showing as if it were a single game. It felt like two 30 minute games played back to back.

The Kings score on McElhinney three times in the first period and follow it up with two more in the second. It's 5-0 and I'm settling my bar tab, thinking I can make it home to sad-watch the last period of the game in bed.

And then something weird happens. Auston Matthews gets a penalty shot on an extremely debatable call - and that's coming from a fan of the team that benefitted it. Validity aside, Matthews roofs it. Rielly follows up with a great goal only a few minutes later.

"I'll get you another drink," says my lovely bartender.

The Leafs, who started the game slow and sloppy, are on fire the entire back half of the game. They put another one in it's 5-3 with over ten minutes left in the game. We've seen the Leafs score a pair in ten before, and for those ten minutes, they played so well it felt like it could happen.

Unfortunately, it didn't. Yet, considering the Leafs had a 7-0 game against the Kings last year, and they looked dangerously close to a repeat of that in the first half of this game, they end the night with a score that at least won’t be embarrassing to look back on. The Bozak fourth line looked good again, and Kasperi Kapanen ended the night with a team-leading CF% of 72.22. If there was any way to earn a spot on this team while losing a game, that's how ya do it.

The Leafs ended the night with a 5v5 Corsi For Percentage of 59.46. In a normal or winning game that would be phenomenal, but considering the conditions of this game, it's a fantastic example of how Scoring Effects work. We often look at Shots on Goal (basic NHL metric) or Corsi (shots on goal, misses, and blocked shots) to tell which team "played better" regardless of the final score. This can get dicey, though, when one team has a lead the entire game. Naturally, once a team has a lead (especially a multi-goal lead), they’ll switch to defensive tactics and shoot less. It seems pretty obvious, but over time it's easy to forget and obscure results (like the Oilers this year, who had great CF% but were literally trailing so often it could barely be adjusted for). Below are two graphs from Corsica Hockey's generated game report. The first one shows the "raw" Corsi For Events (SOG, Misses, BLKs). Filled in dots are goals.

As you can see, the Kings basically stopped shooting after the fifth goal, and understandably so.

The next chart is "adjusted". This accounts for a couple of things, but the primary effect here is scoring. It shows how this was really the Kings game the whole time. While the Leafs played well in the back half, there’s no proving that if the Leafs’ had tied it up or gotten closer, then the Kings wouldn’t have turned on the Jets again.

If only the Leafs could come out of the gate as composed as they were in teh back half of this game, they could quickly become one of the scariest teams in the league.

They'll have to, if they want to beat St. Louis, who is currently only behind the Kings themselves in the West.

Statistics courtesy of Hockey-reference.com, Corsica.hockey, and naturalstattrick.com (particular shoutout to NST's WOWY stats and new Line Tool).

#filler1 #filler2 #filler3 #filler4 #filler5 #Leafs #Kings #Loss #Away #110217 #20172018

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euro3plast-fr · 7 years ago

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10 most common keyword planning mistakes to avoid

Don't fall short of these common search marketing mistakes

It seems almost too easy at first. It really does. You find a keyword tool and you type in whatever search term that comes to mind. Voilà! Like magic, you find out how many people are searching for your keyword, as well as a whole slew of other useful statistics like the keyword’s average cost per click, competition, suggested bid, and other data – depending on which keyword tool you’re using.

However, before you get too ahead of yourself and pick a keyword to target, know that there is more to keyword planning than meets the eye. There are a lot of nuanced factors you might not have accounted for that can entirely change your keyword strategy. To make sure you get it right from the get-go, here are ten common mistakes that you’ll want to steer clear of.

1. Not realizing that Google Keywords Planner can give more accurate results

Let’s kick things off with one of the most basic mistakes you can make. The first keyword planning tool you’ll probably start using is Google Keyword Planner. This is Google’s own planner after all, so you’d be right to think that it’s one of the most popular and reliable options available.

If you quickly sign up for a Google AdWords account (in order to access the keyword planner) and type in “content marketing,” this is what you’ll see:

The “Avg. monthly searches” column shows a range of 10K – 100K. That’s a pretty wide range, isn’t it? Fortunately, you can get a more specific estimate if you have an AdWords campaign running. Once you have it set, wait a day or two and you’ll begin getting more accurate numbers like this:

Much better! However, there’s a good chance you don’t want to be spending a ton of money on an AdWords campaign just yet – after all, you don’t even know what keywords you’re targeting! To save yourself money, set a very low daily budget and put filters so that your ad is only displayed a few times a day. You do need ad impressions though, or else you won’t be able to access the more accurate keyword statistics.

2. Not distinguishing singular from plural

Google Keyword Planner lumps plural and singular keywords together. If you put in “whiteboard animation” or “whiteboard animations” in the planner, both will yield results for what appears to be the keyword’s singular form, as shown here:

While you might think Google results are exactly the same for both the singular and plural form of a keyword, they’re surprisingly not. Try testing this out yourself. You will most likely see similar, but slightly different results for whatever keyword you’re searching for.

Unfortunately, Google no longer gives you the ability to tell whether the singular or plural form of a keyword is more popular. The good news is, both SEMrush’s and Moz’s keyword planners are worthy alternatives that give you this data. Here are the keyword results for “whiteboard animation” when using SEMrush’s keyword tool:

Amazingly, “whiteboard animation” is searched for 2,400 times per month while “whiteboard animations” is searched for only 110 times per month. Good thing we made this distinction before we ranked for the plural version of this keyword!

3. Ignoring search trends

It’s easy to fixate on the total average monthly search volume and ignore any potential variation in monthly volume over the past year.

To be fair, most of the time the volume numbers are pretty consistent from month to month, but it’s always better to play it safe and take a quick look. Many keyword tools already have this information neatly shown on a graph right there for you so it’s not too much extra work.

Some keywords may have gradually increasing search volume while others may have gradually decreasing search volume, and you may be able to extrapolate those trends to make decisions about which ones to target. The volume of certain keywords may also exhibit seasonality, perhaps being more popular during one season than another.

4. Not accounting for keyword match types and location

If you have a knack for paying attention to detail, you might have noticed the huge discrepancy in volume for the keyword “whiteboard animation” across different keyword tools in the examples earlier.

Google shows 12,000 searches per month while SEMrush shows 2,550 searches per month if we include both singular and plural versions of the keyword. So what’s going on here?

Really, there are two major factors creating this discrepancy. The first is match type. I suggest learning about each match type by reading none other than Google’s own support page. Google Keyword Planner defaults to a broad match type while SEMrush defaults to a phrase match type.

The other factor is location. Google defaults to including searches from the entire globe while SEMrush defaults to only including those from within the United States. Once you account for both of these differences, you’ll get volume numbers that are far more in alignment with each another. The key is to contextualize your results and be careful when making assumptions about your keywords data.

5. Underestimating long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are more specific search phrases that usually get less traffic, but will have a higher conversion rate. For instance, ResumeGo doesn't target generic keywords like “resumes” or “CVs”. Instead, they shoot for long-tail keywords like “professional resume writing services.”

While we would easily get more traffic if we were ranked for the keyword “resume,” most people who enter that into the search bar aren’t really looking to buy a resume. They might be more interested in, say, learning about resume tips or finding resume templates. On the other hand, people who search for the long-tail keywords that we target would almost certainly be interested in our resume writing services, or else they wouldn’t have searched for those specific keywords to begin with.

It’s easy to underestimate long-tail keywords due to their lower search volumes. However, contrary to what many might think, long-tail keywords actually make up about 70% of total searches so be sure to have your eye out for them!

6. Failing to realize that being on page two means nothing

Think about how frequently you visit the second page of Google’s search results. Not too often right? You might even have a hard time remembering the last time you did it.

If you’re going to target a keyword, be sure to aim for the first page, because according to studies like Chitika's, the front page collectively gets 91.5% of a keyword’s traffic. Page two only get 4.8%.

7. Not doing enough research

Some keyword tools give you data that miraculously shows how difficult a keyword is to rank for. For instance, Moz’s Keyword Explorer has a difficulty and opportunity statistic as shown below:

While this might seem super useful, and maybe it is to some degree, it’s important to take this number with a grain of salt. A more thorough way of studying your competition would be through MozBar. This tool allows you to research your potential competitors’ backlinks and examine other metrics. From there, you can decide whether or not you can compete with them in the SEO game.

8. Judging difficulty solely based on page authority and links

Many people use MozBar or a similar tool to assess keyword difficulty by looking at the page authorities (PA) of the competition. It’s tempting to conclude that if the first page of the keyword “infographics” is littered with 70-80 PA results, then it’d be far harder to rank for that keyword than “essay writing,” for which the first page might have results with only 50-60 PA.

Making that assumption can be quite misleading. This is because some keywords are harder to build links for than others. For instance, someone could devise a strategy where they create free infographics for high authority blogging sites and, in return, they’re rewarded with a lot of links back to their own site with the anchor text “infographics.” This could be a neat strategy, and one that can get you a lot of links fast. However, this same strategy can’t be applied to rank for a keyword like “essay writing.”

Despite a keyword having competitors with high PAs, sometimes it might still be easy to rank for depending on what SEO strategies you have in mind for that particular keyword.

9. Not identifying your goal

When we talk about keyword difficulty, what exactly are we referring to? Are we referring to how difficult it is to get onto the first page? How difficult it is to be among the top three results? Or how difficult it is to seize that very first spot?

For some keywords, it might be fairly reasonable to get onto the first page, but nearly impossible to beat the top three results. This is why it’s so important to clearly lay out what your SEO goals are for each keyword, and then assess the difficulty of achieving those specific goals. For some tougher keywords, you might be able to generate a nice revenue stream simply by being in fourth or fifth place in the search results.

On the other hand, for other keywords – maybe long-tailed ones that have less volume – only by being the top result would you get enough visitors for the SEO effort to be worth your while.

10. Not realizing that your competitors are getting new links too

It’s really natural to look at a competitor’s PA and links, and say to yourself, “I can beat that, just give me four months!” It’s awesome to have that kind of confidence, but don’t forget that your competitors are constantly building links too. By the end of four months, you might have the same quality links as your competitors had back then, but maybe your competitors have been gaining links even more quickly than you, and now you’re even further behind.

Assessing difficulty is more than just thinking about the PA and links of your competitors now. It’s about gauging where they’ll be in the future, and whether you can accumulate links faster than they can.

A great way of seeing how active a site is with its SEO efforts is to use Moz’s “Just Discovered” feature, as shown below:

As you can see, Neil Patel’s site has been getting a ton of recent links. You definitely wouldn’t want to compete with this guy! If you did, you would want to learn the techniques he is using.

Conclusion

Keyword planning is a lot like playing chess. There are so many different options available, it’s impossible to know for certain whether you’ve made the right move. All you can do is think critically, research your opponent, understand yourself, and then make whatever move you think is best.

Thanks to Peter Yang for sharing their advice and opinion in this post. Peter is an entrepreneur and marketing guru who co-founded ResumeGo. His business offers cv and resume writing services by matching job seekers with professional resume writers who assist them in their job search. His latest venture is Mock Interview, an interview training and coaching service.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-strategy/10-common-keyword-planning-mistakes-avoid/

#Blog – Smart Insights

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flauntpage · 8 years ago

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Here’s What The Sixers Need To Do

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I have spent an inordinate amount of time watching and reading about Sixers draft targets. Rather than cast a wide net, I’ve tried to drill down on the four most likely ones: Josh Jackson, Jayson Tatum, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk. I’ve concluded that each represents a compromise of sorts.

Jackson is a terrific player with a lot of upside who has shown off an improving but concerning shot.

Tatum is a really good small forward with NBA-ready skills but plays an old-school style of basketball and doesn’t appear to have a very high ceiling.

De’Aaron Fox has superstar potential but is a very poor shooter at this stage.

Malik Monk is the perfect role player the Sixers need but doesn’t have much of an all-around game and his ceiling is probably Klay Thompson-lite (not necessarily a bad thing).

Both Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball, who are projected to go 1-2, are very good fits with the Sixers– they are ball-handling but not ball-dominant guards who can shoot. If either falls to three or is available to the Sixers through other means (cough, cough trade), then they’re your guy. End of story. Fultz is safer than Ball, who displayed a concerning lack of competitive fire twice going up against Fox this year, and has a dad who is, without exaggeration, actively working against his son’s interests. But both players fit the Sixers well. So let me get this out of the way: If the Sixers can trade up and get Fultz, or Ball falls to them, then that’s their guy. There won’t be any compromise to be had.

Assuming those players aren’t available, though, they’ll have to consider which compromise they’re OK with. Do you take Jackson and wait for his shooting to develop? Or do you reach for Monk because you know he fits a need?

Additionally, the Sixers’ draft decisions will obviously influence their free agency and trade options. If somehow they land Fultz or Ball, you could make an argument that they wouldn’t need to make a splash in free agency this summer. But if they wind up with any of the more likely picks, then they will be compelled to spend big or make a sizable trade to accelerate the process, which Bryan Colangelo seems hell-bent on doing. Any big-name signing, too, would represent a compromise.

There are a lot of options, and each will dictate or influence another. Few are ideal or what you would draw up in a perfect world. Alas, our world isn’t perfect. So, what are the best options? What SHOULD the Sixers do? I have made my decision(s).

Draft Josh Jackson and sign Kyle Lowry

Jackson is a supreme talent who is both a dynamic offensive player and a disruptive, promising defensive player. At 6’8, he can guard multiple positions and would give the Sixers yet another tall, versatile defender and could help turn them into one of the league’s most feared defensive units. He is crazy athletic, would be super fun in transition running with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, and has a sneaky good passing ability (especially as he gains the paint) that would make the combo of him and Simmons attacking from the wings downright terrifying to opposing defenses, even if both players aren’t great shooters.

Jackson’s shot did improve markedly during the second half of the season at Kansas. Part of that was because defenses sagged off him, but part of it was because he genuinely got better. He is extraordinary competitive and his shot seems more consistent when he’s playing in rhythm or “in the heat of the moment.” He made plenty of tough, contested jump shots, albeit not three-pointers. To me, it seems easier to take a superior athlete with an all-around game and superb defensive skills and give him a shot than it does to take a shooter and give him an all-around game and make him want to play defense (I’m talking about Malik Monk).

Most mock drafts lean toward the Sixers taking Jackson at three. Here’s how Yahoo!’s The Vertical describes it in their most recent mock:

The 76ers are still trying to figure out their point-guard situation. Ben Simmons may end up spending quite a bit of time there offensively, but landing outside of the top two picks complicates things. Their consolation prize is Jackson, perhaps the top two-way wing in the draft. Jackson’s strong shooting late in the year for Kansas offered a glimpse into his offensive upside and could make him a fit for the 76ers. They are reportedly very high on Malik Monk as well, are expected to field trade offers and could go in any number of directions on draft night.

Jackson is a safe pick at three, even if he doesn’t fit the Sixers perfectly.

What to do next?

Sign Kyle Lowry to a max deal.

If the Sixers draft Jackson, they will need to acquire a guard this offseason. Lowry is the best available. This isn’t my Nova thing coming into play (OK, it’s a little bit my Nova thing), but Lowry is really good. He’s 31 and is coming off the best season of his career. He shot 41% from three-point range and was among the most prolific long-distance shooters in the league. If you had watched Lowry at Villanova or early in his career, you’d have trouble believing he was a + three-point shooter in the NBA. He used to shoot the ball with his wrist and fire it at a low trajectory toward the rim. His form doesn’t look all that different than it used to, but it is very easily repeatable, he gets his shot off quickly and sets his feet almost instantly. Yet he remains very much a point guard who is excellent with the ball in his hands, but he doesn’t dominate the ball (he just turned in the best season of his career playing alongside DeMar DeRozan, who had a 34.1 usage rate*). His shooting ability will allow him to slowly transition ball-handling duties to Simmons and still be effective as an off-ball scorer. Will he be an ideal three-point shooter making well over $30 million per year in years 3 and 4 of a max contract at ages 33 and 34? No, of course. But again, this offseason is all about compromise. Lowry wouldn’t just be a spot-up shooter, either. Though pudgy-ish and somewhat prone to injuries, he appears to still have plenty left in the tank and relies as much on brute force as he does speed to get into the lane and finish tough shots. He’s a bulldog, good defender, and strong leader.

*DeRozan’s usage rate was third in the league behind Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Lowry’s was a full 10 points lower and 42nd in the league. All this, and he turned in a career-high 22 points per game, not to mention 7 assists and nearly 5 rebounds.

The Sixers have plenty of cap space and can afford to pay Lowry without really limiting their future options. There’s an argument to be made for signing J.J. Reddick, who’s a superior shooter and would likely come cheaper than Lowry, but he’s 33 and simply not as good of an all-around player. Lowry is better, younger, and he’s not the most hated player in college basketball history.

Drafting Jackson and signing Lowry would instantly make the Sixers a playoff team without completely abandoning the process. In two years, barring injures, they could legitimately be a top 3 team in the East.

Trade back and draft Malik Monk

If drafting Jackson and signing Lowry represents the largest acceleration of the process, trading back to draft Monk might represent the most measured, patient approach.

I really like Monk and think he’ll be a phenomenal NBA scorer one day. His offensive game most reminds me of Klay Thompson’s, though at 6’4 he’s shorter and therefore has less upside. Still, his range is ridiculous and he’s a bit of an unconcious shooter. When he gets hot, he’s borderline unstoppable. He’s not fully one-dimensional and is more athletic than most pure shooters, but he isn’t a great defender and gives off a Swaggy P vibe, which is concerning.

Still, if the Sixers can come out of this draft by filling a need with Monk and obtain another first round pick – presumably the Kings’ – it’d be hard to argue with that strategy. Had they just gotten the fifth pick, taking Monk would be almost a no-brainer.

Drafting Monk also wouldn’t necessarily restrict the Sixers from signing Lowry, the way I think drafting Fultz, Ball or even Fox would (they’d be largely redundant). Alternatively, drafting Fox, a point guard who can’t shoot, would still make signing Reddick a possibility. But I think the Sixers, barring a crazy, unforeseen trade (totally possible!), would be best served drafting Jackson and signing Lowry, or trading back to take Monk.

So, to recap:

Ideal option: Trade up to get Markelle Fultz, or take Ball if the Lakers over-think it.

Best, most realistic option: Draft Josh Jackson and sign Kyle Lowry.

Long shot, most prudent option: Trade back and draft Monk.

Here’s What The Sixers Need To Do published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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Ramblings: Updates on Perron and Grzelcyk; Kravtsov; Ristolainen; Heponiemi; Robert Thomas – March 13

It’s that time of year where guys who are property of a franchise, be it in college or overseas, start making their way to the NHL to get some games in. We already saw Quinn Hughes, Vancouver’s first rounder from last year, sign with the team. One guy dynasty owners were hoping for was Vitali Kravtsov, the 19-year old Rangers first rounder from the same draft. It appears that his KHL team will not terminate his contract, allowing him to join New York this season. Rangers fans and fantasy owners are going to have to wait until next season to possibly see him in the lineup.

I know people like to make fun of Rasmus Ristolainen in the real world (and for good reason), but in fantasy, almost no player has been more consistent. Sitting at 39 points on Tuesday afternoon, Risto needs one more to make it four consecutive seasons with 40 points, 2+ shots per game, 100 hits, and 100 blocks. It would also be two consecutive years with 40 points, 2+ shots per game, 200 hits, and 100 blocks. The plus/minus, as it always has been, is a huge concern, but there’s enough everywhere else to more than make up for it. It’s just another solid fantasy campaign for the 24-year old blue liner.

Yesterday in these Ramblings I said I was disappointed with the play of the Stars this year, or at least the way the coach has them playing. All the same, I’m happy to see Roope Hintz get an extended look on the top line. He’s been there for about a month now and considering how often this lineup has changed over the course of the season, that’s a borderline miracle. He only has 6 points in his last 16 games but that they’re giving him such a leash means they’re seeing something beyond just production. This could be good news for him in 2019-20.

On the topic of the Stars:

Posts/Crossbars leaders, all situations this year:

14 Seguin 13 McDavid 12 Eichel, Saad, Zibanejad 11 Gaudreau, Kucherov 10 Kadri, Ovechkin 9 Laine, Pacioretty 8 Just a ton of dudes

— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) March 12, 2019

Seguin needs three goals to crack the 30-goal plateau for the fifth time in six seasons with the Stars, and there’s a good argument that he should be there already. He’s also on pace for 70-plus points for the sixth consecutive season. He’s just a flat-out stud.

Another name of interest on that list is Brandon Saad. I was a big believer in his rebound from last year and he’s currently sitting with 22 goals and should probably have more. Assists are a problem and the lack of PP production, as it has been for most of his career, is an ongoing issue. He’s still a very good five-on-five player, though even I’ll admit that at this point he’s a better real-world player than fantasy option.

David Perron didn’t suit up for the Blues on Tuesday night as he’s still recovering from a concussion. It appears he’s on the mend, but we know how fickle concussions are, and someone with Perron’s history has to be extra careful. It’ll be nice to see him back in the lineup at some point but his long-term health is paramount right now.

The Bruins say defenceman Matt Grzelcyk is undergoing an MRI to determine the extent of his injury. He had been having a very solid year here in his second full season, helping the Bruins drive the play forward, being a good starting point for their attack. As long as this isn’t too severe, I hope he gets back in time for playoffs. Not that he’s a key cog because they do have guys like Krug, McAvoy, and Moore, but having more good puck-moving defencemen is never a bad thing.

There was a good Ramblings over at Dobber Prospects a couple days ago from Jokke Nevalainen discussing, among many other things, Kaapo Kakko and Aleksi Heponiemi. That second name seems to be a forgotten prospect to some people as Henrik Borgstrom solidifies himself with the Panthers, but as Jokke points, out, Heponiemi is among the Liiga scoring leaders and just turned 20 in January. This has been a spectacular season for him and if he can crack the roster in October, could go a long way in lengthening the lineup and making Florida even more dangerous offensively. There are a lot of bridges to cross between now and then but it’s still a very solid effort from the young Finn.

While I was researching some stuff on Robert Thomas (that’s below), I came across this little nugget: among 295 forwards with at least 600 minutes at five-on-five, Ryan Kesler is last in points/60 minutes. Not last on the Ducks, last in the league.

After falling behind 2-0, Pittsburgh reeled off four straight goals to beat Washington 4-3. Two of those Penguins goals were assisted by Evgeni Malkin, giving him 1000 points for his career. Since entering the league, Malkin trails only Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby in points, and Crosby in points per game. With one MVP, two scoring titles, and three Stanley Cups (so far), Malkin will be… walkin… to the Hall of Fame when his career is over. I remember a time he wasn’t listed as a top-100 player in the history of the NHL.

Pittsburgh’s top line did a lot of the damage as Jake Guentzel potted one goal, as did Jared McCann, while Crosby scored two. Those two goals gave Pittsburgh’s captain 90 points on the year, the first time he’s managed 90 points since 2013-14. Scoring is up across the league but getting to 100 points is well within reach. He should be in the conversation for MVP.

Columbus let Boston back in the game but eventually took a 7-4 win from the Bruins. The newly-formed line of Ryan Dzingel, Matt Duchene, and Josh Anderson as they had one goal and two assists, one goal, and one goal and three assists, respectively. I imagine we see that trio get some run over the last four weeks of the season.

Boone Jenner had a hat trick, finishing the deed with under a minute left and an empty net. He also had three blocks, two penalty minutes, and a hit to complete a very good fantasy evening. Jenner also needs just one more point to reach the 40-point bar for the first time in three years.

More updates in the morning.

There have been injuries to the top line all year in St. Louis, be it Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn, or more recently Vladimir Tarasenko. The most recent injury has pushed rookie Robert Thomas to the top line and that is a very cushy assignment, obviously. It’s one that if everything goes well, could tip the balance of some head-to-head playoff matchups this week. I thought it would be worth diving into his rookie season.

You can click on Thomas’s name above to read his Dobber Prospects profile to see what our writers have been saying about him since he was drafted nearly two years ago.

From the outset of the season, we had good reason to believe Thomas would be a featured player on this roster this season. Remember that there was talk at the start of the year of leaving Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko together and then having Thomas centre the second line with Ryan O’Reilly on his wing. The Blues flopped out of the gate and lines were a mess basically until Craig Berube was hired as the head coach.

At time of writing, Thomas has amassed 25 points in 56 games this year. That may not seem spectacular, but he’s averaged just 12:38 per contest in those 56 games. His points per 60 minutes at five-on-five sits at 1.77, just ahead of Schwartz on the Blues. League-wide, he’s tied for 143rd out of 295 forwards with at least 600 minutes. He’s tied, by the way, with Josh Anderson and James van Riemsdyk, the former a surging young star, the latter an established one. Not bad company.

The worrying point is the shooting. I say that because as I mentioned yesterday in my Ramblings, guys who don’t shoot tend to not have a lot of fantasy value in multi-cat leagues. Out of those same 295 forwards with 600 minutes at five-on-five, Thomas is 290th in shot attempts per 60 minutes. That’s lower than notorious non-shooters Travis Zajac and Valtteri Filppula. He’s not very far ahead of Joe Thornton, either. Thomas’s player profile has always been that of a two-way playmaking centre, so goal scoring was not something we should really expect from him in droves. All the same, unless he turns into an elite playmaker like Thornton or Nicklas Backstrom, it’ll be hard for Thomas to be a coveted fantasy option down the road. He’s still a teenage rookie, of course, but shooting so little – and that’s important to keep in mind: it’s not a low shot rate, it’s an abysmal one – is a concern.

There are also his line mates to consider. By far his most common line (per Dobber Tools) was with Patrick Maroon and Tyler Bozak, and the next-most common is with MacKenzie McEachern and Ivan Barbashev. That Thomas has produced as well as he has with the line mates he has is impressive. None of the guys listed are big goal scorers, Maroon being the closest and he’s had a good year if he can manage 20 goals, which doesn’t mesh well with Thomas’s skills. He doesn’t need a playmaker as his centre, he needs a guy who can finish. Playing him with Barbashev, a guy who shoots less often than Thomas does, seems like a waste.

Finally, just watching Thomas, he never stands out. That’s not really a bad thing, either. His new centre, Ryan O’Reilly, is one of the best centres in the league and often doesn’t do anything that stands out to the eye. Thomas seems sound positionally, is always aware of his assignments, and seems to be able to be one or two steps ahead with the puck in the offensive zone. That combination will serve him very well moving forward.

As far as his fantasy ceiling goes, unless Thomas drastically changes his game, it won’t be high outside of points-only leagues. Again, guys who shoot with such infrequency rarely have significant fantasy value in multi-cat leagues. It may be one of those situations where three years from now, Thomas is a much better real-world player than a fantasy one (think of Mikael Backlund). I’m sure the Blues and their fans would be happy with that, but fantasy owners likely will not be.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-updates-on-perron-and-grzelcyk-kravtsov-ristolainen-heponiemi-robert-thomas-march-13/

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beverlymunoz · 8 years ago

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Profile of a possible savior: Chris Collins

I mean (other than that one thing) what’s not to like?

In a previous POAPS, y’all let me know in no uncertain terms your thoughts about hiring a UNC “alum” to coach basketball at NC State. I hear you. But what about a Dookie? Specifically, I’m talking about Chris Collins, who, as you’ve no doubt heard, will pilot Northwestern in the NCAA tournament this afternoon for the first time in the program’s history. Will Collins parlay the rare success for the normally moribund Wildcats to a position at a program with greater likelihood for sustained success?

Important Questions, In Rough Order Of Importance:

1. Has he coached teams that have won a national title, made multiple deep NCAA tournament runs, and/or consistently been highly ranked?

As noted in the intro, Northwestern is making its first trip to The Dance in program history. In his four years with the Wildcats, they’ve been ranked for a total of one week, which came in January of this season. They were 25th.

2. Has he built a program from the ground up?

Collins followed Bill Carmody at Northwestern. Carmody’s club won 20 games in 2010 for the first time in program history and also achieved a short-lived ranking of 25th. He won 20 again in 2011 and 19 in 2012 before getting canned after a 13-19 mark in ’13. Northwestern was actually in one of its best stretches of basketball, 2013 notwithstanding, when Collins took the gig. Remember, this is a program that has won less than 42% of its games all time.

3. Has he substantially improved the program from when he took over?

Given the Wildcats’ at-large bid to the tournament, you would have to say yes. Getting there for the first time is the very definition of a substantial improvement. Their 23 wins so far this season are the most ever for the school, and last year’s 20-win season was then just the third in school history. It took some time, as Collins’ club made just a one-win improvement over Carmody in his first season, 2014, and then just a one-win improvement the following year.

From a more advanced perspective, Northwestern was 132nd in Kenneth Pomeroy’s rankings in Carmody’s last season. The progression under Collins: 134th, 122nd, 68th, 37th. That’s a nice trend.

4. Has he succeeded at more than one head coaching job?

Northwestern is his first head coaching job.

5. Does he have significant high-major experience as either a head coach or an assistant?

Most certainly. Collins was Coach K’s assistant for 13 seasons, including associate head coach for much of that span. The Blue Devils won eight ACC championships and two national titles during Collins’ time as an assistant.

6. Is his team one of the best in its conference right now?

Northwestern finished tied for fifth in the B1G; it’s also the fifth best team in terms of KenPom’s rankings. So, no, not really, but given Northwestern’s historical ineptitude, fifth ain’t bad.

7. Do his teams actually play, what is this thing called, "defense"?

To some extent, the jury is still out in this regard, but it would appear that defense will be a strength for Collins-coached clubs. Remarkably, the Wildcats jumped over 100 points in the AdjD rankings in his first season and checked in at 23rd overall. However, they backslid the next two years before taking strides to get back to an elite defensive team this year, coming in at 34th. The Wildcats are not exactly loaded with athleticism, so methinks Collins deserves some credit for scouting and game planning Northwestern to optimize its defensive prowess.

8. So how about offense?

While his defenses have been a bit all over the place, Collins’ offenses have enjoyed a steady, linear rise from deplorable to solidly above average. The KenPom ranks: 288th, 101st, 72nd, 59th. Phew. Carmody’s Princeton offense was apparently a tough thing to uninstall that first year.

Alas, don’t think that the Wildcats have completely shed their plodding identity. The team is 303rd in pace of play this season, though that’s likely due more to Collins trying to shorten games due to a talent gap than an actual preference to grind things out. Collins also understands the value of the heave from the bonusphere; his team is 31st in three-point rate (and fifth among major conference schools. Vanderbilt is first among major conference schools, so expect plenty of long looks this afternoon).

9. Any indication that he can recruit McDonald’s All-American-type players?

Collins was a Burger Boy himself and of course had a hand in drawing countless Mickey D’s All-American-type players to Duke. He’s only got a couple of top 100 recruits on the roster at Northwestern, but he has certainly improved the school’s recruiting over his predecessor.

10. Does he have any connection to NC State, North Carolina, or the ACC?

Played at Duke. Coached at Duke.

11. Any other random red flags or positives?

Collins has been a college assistant or head coach since 1998, but he’s still just 42 years old. He has the potential to be around for a long, long time. That’s a positive.

Collins is an absolute basketball junkie whose idea of unwinding after a long day of recruiting, watching film in his office, running practice, etc. is to come home and…watch basketball. WNBA, high school, whatever. He’s hoops 24/7, and, while he definitely wants to pattern his teams after Duke, he picks up plays and approaches from all of the hoops he constantly consumes and should continually evolve as a coach. That’s a positive.

The only red flag, if you insist on it being one, is the whole Duke thing.

Summary:

Would he be better than Gottfried?

I get in trouble on this question for ignoring Gott’s feats back in the salad days. I have no doubt that Collins would immediately elevate the program from where it is now, but that’s a low bar. Would he make the tournament four times in his first six seasons? My guess would be yes, and that things would be trending upward in year six rather than coming completely off the rails. But I’ve got no crystal ball. The fact that, even in his worst seasons, Northwestern’s defenses have been better than Gott’s defenses, and, in Collins’ best seasons, Nothwestern’s defenses have been elite would lead me to believe that it’s a pretty safe bet.

OK, so what is his ceiling?

The results of K’s disciples have been mixed. Jeff Capel looked like he was going to be successful until he wasn’t. Johnny Dawkins could never quite get off the bubble at Stanford (though he’s had a nice debut at UCF). Tommy Amaker failed at Michigan but has had a helluva run at Harvard. Wojo is off to a solid start. It’s probably too soon to tell on Bobby Hurley.

Mike Brey’s Irish have been ranked at some point in 15 of his 17 seasons and finished ranked eight times. My gut tells me that Collins is going to be Brey 2.0 but with a little bit better defense most seasons.

Would he take the job if offered?

When you look at that paragraph above you see a lot of potential heirs to the Duke throne. It’s interesting to me, in fact, how comparatively well off Duke is when compared to UNC on the replace your aging coach stocks. Collins is from Illinois, and his wife is a NYC native who quite possibly likes being near the bright lights of a big city (in this case, Chicago). If he thinks he can turn Northwestern into the next Duke, he’s not going anywhere.

If he thinks he’s the frontrunner to replace K at Duke, he’s waiting for that. But, he’ll have a lot of competition.

His total package at Northwestern, from what I can glean from the tubes, is less than two million a year and middle of the pack by B1G standards. The cost of living is a lot lower in Raleigh, and NC State could afford to pay him more. So, from a financial standpoint, advantage Wolfpack.

From a competitive standpoint, NC State is certainly historically a better gig than Northwestern, and the ACC is a better basketball league (some recent ACC-B1G challenge results notwithstanding). I think Collins’ career has a higher ceiling at NC State, but that job also carries more risk. He can get away with 19-14 and the NIT at Northwestern, but not here.

Bottom line: I think he’d listen.

How would I feel if he were hired?

Gregg Marshall is the only candidate profiled so far that I would prefer. That’s strong praise (especially considering how much I like Archie, which is tons). Played at Duke, coached for over a decade at Duke, and breaking Northwestern’s streak of futility—it was the only major conference school never to make the NCAAs—is a helluva résumé.

How would the fan base as a whole feel if he were hired?

There will be some that will freak due to the Duke connection. Personally, I don’t have the Duke hatred. V and K were tight. That’s good enough for me. I think most fans would support the hire initially. The problem in the long run would be expectations. If it’s a K disciple, fans will want K results. Collins could be great and still not come close to measuring up to his predecessor, and that could create a tough climate over time. Can you imagine the media outcry if the “lunatic fringe” wasn’t satisfied with basketball royalty on their sideline?

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