#Is Carrie Fisher in Catastrophe Season 3?

[cindavis]

I Just Jerked Off; What’s Wrong with Your Face; On Top of Everything Else, I’m Fat Now: Giggle Away at Catastrophe Season 3 Trailer 

[birdlord]

Everything I Watched in 2019

Movies

The number in parentheses is year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite watches of the year. 

01 The Death of Stalin (17) does a neat trick of building goodwill for Steve Buscemi’s Krushchev, then brutally pays that off in the last few minutes. 

02 Sorry to Bother You (18)

03 Support the Girls (18)

04 Paddington (14)*

05 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (16)

06 Eighth Grade (18) probably the most terrifying movie I watched all year, if you didn’t watch it through your fingers, who even are you?

07 Morvern Callar (02) much less bleak than the book, but then, nearly anything would be

08 The Favourite (18) revolting and beautiful. 

09 Columbus (17) a really lovely movie about architecture and parent-child relationships.

10 Bring it On (00)*

11 The Land of Steady Habits (18) feels wackier than your average Holofcener, but still a good watch. 

12 Spotlight (15) i was really bowled over by this, and wasn’t expecting to be. Workmanlike filmmaking, but an extraordinary story, well-told.

13 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (17) Barry Keoghan is a blank, but somehow compelling screen presence. This one has an ending that made me bark with laughter.

14 Legends of the Fall (94)

15 Moneyball (11)* if you don’t feel like watching anything in particular, you can always watch Moneyball

16 If Beale St Could Talk (18) very beautiful, but I failed to connect with it on any other level. 

17 For Keeps (88)

18 Abducted in Plain Sight (17)

19 Oscar Shorts (Animated) (18) the offerings were very sappy this year, but the winner was decent! Lots of Toronto content (weird). 

20 Oscar Shorts (Live Action) (18) *unquestionably* the worst one of these won ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

21 Velvet Buzzsaw (19)

22 Vice (18) ugh

23 Friends with Money (06)

24 Can You Ever Forgive Me (18)

25 Bohemian Rhapsody (18) haha what. was. that.

26 Mars Attacks (96)*

27 Paddington 2 (18)

28 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (92)*

29 Shoplifters (18)

30 Blindspotting (18) jacked Ethan Embry in a supporting role?! Whither? Howso? Wherefore?

31 Witness (85)

32 Harry & the Hendersons (87)*

33 The Matrix (99)*

34 T2 Trainspotting (17)

35 Blockers (18)

36 The Slums of Beverly Hills (98)

37 Can’t Hardly Wait (98)*

38 Avengers: Infinity War (18)

39 Iron Man II (10)

40 Isle of Dogs (18)

41 Chinatown (74)*

42 To Live & Die in LA (85)

43 Age of Innocence (93) Daniel Day-Lewis manages to make Newland Archer compelling, where in the novel he’s...the worst?!

44 Shopgirl (05)*

45 The House (17) didn’t sustain all the way through, but then, that’s how mainstream comedies often go. 

46 The Beguiled (17)

47 Badlands (73)*

48 Poetic Justice (93)

49 The Empire Strikes Back (80)*

50 Calibre (18)

51 The Kindergarten Teacher (18)

52 Hounds of Love (17) a nice little Aussie thriller, set in the 80s

53 Kicking & Screaming (95)*

54 Octopussy (83)*

55 Jaws (79)*

56 Lover Come Back (61)

57 Frenzy (72)

58 Always Be My Maybe (19)

59 Certain Women (16) took a while to get to this one, but it’s as great as they say it is. 

60 Baby Driver (17) all flash, little substance.

61 Sneakers (92)

62 Roadhouse (87)*

63 Bull Durham (88)*

64 Ghostbusters (84)*

65 Booksmart (19) I think this will improve on multiple viewings, though I loved the soundtrack and the mix of characters. 

66 Hereditary (18)

67 Rebecca (40) George Sanders as Rebecca’s cousin is BRILLIANT

68 Vertigo (58)*

69 The Dead Don’t Die (19)

70 Crawl (19)

71 Dazed & Confused (93)* If you don’t watch this once a summer, what is wrong with you?

72 Jackie Brown (97)

73 Talk Radio (88)

74 The Guilty (18)

75 Killing Heydrich (17)

76 Lady Bird (17)*

77 Billy Elliot (00)*

78 White House Down (13)* Channing Potatum saves the White House!

79 The Film Worker (17)

80 Whitney (18)

81 Mascot (16)

82 Apocalypse Now (79)* technically I’d only seen the Redux version from the early 2000s, so the regular cut is new to me. 

83 Apollo 13 (95)*

84 Psycho 2 (83) the twist is very guessable, but there are a couple of nice-looking scenes.

85 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (04)*

86 The Bodyguard (92)*

87 Murder Mystery (19)

88 Wildlife (18)

89 The Stepford Wives (75)*

90 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (71)*

91 The Natural (84)

92 The Other Boleyn Girl (08)

93 Speed (94)*

94 Opera (87)

95 That’s my Boy (12) haha what?!

96 The Big Short (15)

97 Elizabeth the Golden Age (07)

98 The Glass Castle (17) when I read the book, I genuinely thought it was fiction, it’s so insane. 

99 Dawn of the Dead (78)*

100 All About Eve (50) lady on lady violence is a special thing

101 La La Land (16)

102 Morning Glory (10) remember Rachel McAdams?

103 Casino (95)*

104 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (06)

105 Pet Sematary (19)

106 Clue (85)*

107 Her Smell (18) amazing soundtrack and the songs were well-chosen. Heartbreaking musical moment in the final act. 

108 Bobby Sands: 66 Days (16)

109 She’s Gotta Have it (86)

110 Good Morning (59)

111 Hustlers (19) I didn’t connect with this as much as the reviews led me to believe I might. 

112 Nocturnal Animals (16)

113 Kill Bill Vol 1 (03) I’d only ever seen the second one before, being a non-Tarantino completionist.

114 Fried Green Tomatoes (91)* I watch this more than anticipated...

115 Steel Magnolias (89)

116 Notting Hill (99)*

117 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (19) the tiny city models were inspired!

118 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89)*

119 Let It Snow (19)

120 Frozen (13)

121 The Irishman (19) most interesting as a sort of pastiche/reckoning on the part of Scorsese about his other gangster films. Really outmoded view of unions. Definitely could have been edited down if anyone were able to come to it without undue reverence, but I did love the bit about the fish.

122 Girls Trip (17) actual plot is beside the point. 

123 About a Boy (02)* I always think of this as the “vomit and sweaters” movie, anyone else?

124 Animal House (78)*

DOCUMENTARY : FICTION - 4:120

THEATRE : HOME - 9:115

TV Series

01 Russian Doll - I think I would have enjoyed this more if it hadn’t been bingeable - would have made a nice week-by-week discussion sort of show. I loved to watch the changes between re-ups of our major characters, and I think the actual plotting would reward re-watches. 

02 Catastrophe S4 - A satisfying ending to an excellent show, with very charismatic leads (and deeply weird supporting characters). Had to write around Carrie Fisher’s death, and I’m sure did a better job of it than Star Wars did. 

03 Friends from College S2 - More of the same, which is what I was after. A show like cotton candy (but with more infidelity). 

04 High Maintenance S3 - A lot more of this season took place outside of New York City, which was a great change of pace. And a great deal more information about The Guy and his own life; both difficulties and successes included. 

05 Losers - This was a great little docuseries on Netflix that I didn’t hear a lot of people talking about - it’s about sports losses, but unusual sports ie curling, figure skating and the like. You’d think it would get repetitive, being as it’s always about recovering after loss, but it doesn’t! I wish they would make another season….

06 Shrill - a tight six episode dramedy about an alt-weekly journalist in the Pacific Northwest, based on Lindy West’s memoir of the same name. John Cameron Mitchell as her boss (based on Dan Savage) stands out of the ensemble cast, as does Annie’s roommate played by a British standup Lolly Adefope.

07 Broad City S5 - I haven’t always kept up with Broad City, but I came back to it for its final season, and thought it did a good job of setting its characters up for big changes in their lives. 

08 I Think You Should Leave - It’s easy to assume that all sketch comedy is terrible and always will be, but then you see this, and throw your TV out the window (due to all the laffs)

09 Fleabag S2 - Everything you’ve heard is true, this season is goddamn hilarious and ridiculously sexy. A huge step up from the first season, which was already pretty fantastic and incisive. 

10 Fosse/Verdon - Musicals are not particularly my bag, so I’m sure there was a lot that I missed in terms of references, but the lead performances ably carried me through all of the time jumps and various performances. 

11 Stranger Things S3 - Say it after me: d-i-m-i-n-i-s-h-i-n-g r-e-t-u-r-n-s! Maya Hawke kills it, though. 

12 Big Little Lies S2 - Unnecessary, and (if possible) even sillier than the first season.

13 Lorena - Part of the ongoing quest to rehabilitate the maligned women of the 1990s, this gave me tons of context that I had no idea about at the time, due to being a dumb kid. 

14 Glow S3 - I felt like I was losing steam on this series this year, but episodes like the camping ep kept me coming back. A great ensemble, though some unusual character choices (like a certain kiss *cough*) took me out of it by times. 

15 Lodge 49 S1-3 - I’d kept hearing about this show, so I finally sought it out. I can’t say it was amazingly compelling (I almost dropped it after the first season) but it’s definitely an oddball of a show, slipping from setpiece to setpiece with little regard for logic. For me, a background show. 

16 Chernobyl - This show really gave me the Bad Feeling, humans were definitely A Mistake.

17 On Becoming a God in Central Florida - Kiki in a trashy mode, not as infinitely appealing as the version she pulled off in the second season of Fargo, but scrappy and industrious nonetheless.

18 Show Me a Hero - I’d put off watching this for years, it felt like it was going to be too dull (housing policy in Yonkers?) but it’s great, and larded up with Bruce Springsteen songs, obvs.

19 Great British Bake Off S9-S10 - I’d also held off on watching this for a long time, out of loyalty to Mel, Sue, and Mary Berry. But I needed some comfort viewing towards the end of the summer, and the new hosts and judge do an able job, although the show’s tropes are feeling a bit well-worn at this point. 

20 Righteous Gemstones S1 - A rollicking ride for sure, with a great cast. Your mileage/patience with Danny McBride may vary, so keep that in mind, naturally. 

21 This Way Up S1 - A small show starring the fabulous Aisling Bea, about mental health and families and some nice comic physical acting. Oh, and in case you were watching The Crown and crushing on Tobias Menzies’ version of Prince Phillip, he plays a hot dad love interest in this, which gives you all the Tobias you’re looking for, without the PP racisms. 

22 The Crown S3 - This is the first season of the big cast switchover, and I thought it stuck reasonably well, once we were in it an episode or two. This season concentrated even less on Elizabeth herself, preferring her sister, husband, and (newly!) her children.

[donheisenberg]

Top 20 TV Shows of 2017:

So this is the bit where I talk about how difficult it is to write a top 20 list because of peak TV, yada, yada, yada. If you are into TV criticism you have read it all before several over the last few years, the thing is while it might feel like a cliche it is totally true and with every year it become more true. Trying to watch everything out there is impossible and trying to then narrow down what you have watched to a list of 20 is almost as difficult. Every show on this list had an outstanding year as shown by some of the shows I left off of the list. In any other year the likes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Americans would be givens even if they just had middling seasons but not this year. It was truly a great year for TV and here are my top 20 shows of 2017.

Shows I Did Not Get Around to Watching/Completing That May Have Made My List: The Deuce The Handmaid’s Tail (to watch) Legion (to watch) Better Things Search Party Difficult People

Honorable Mention: Rick and Morty (season 3): Shout out to Review as well, which was excellent but just had to few episodes for me to really count it. In terms of Rick and Morty it was often in the news (or at least the twitter news) for the wrong reasons this year as a group of its fans decided to act like complete dickheads for a period of time. All of which deflected from the fact it had its best season ever. I’ve always had issues with the show and basically how pro-Rick and his asshole behavior Harmon and co seem to be and this year didn’t necessarily dissuade me of that but on a week to week basis it was crafting, ambitious and well thought out stories, at a rate the show had never before.

No 20: Fargo (season 3): As many observed this was not Fargo’s finest year and it maybe took a while to get going. It is also the case that 3 seasons in it is tougher for a show as idiosyncratic as this one to surprise us. When a seemingly major character dies in episode 1 it is less of a shock than it should be because that is what happened in season 1. Yet at the same time I so enjoyed this season and the performances by the likes of Carrie Coon (more on her later), Ewan MacGregor and David Thewlis and you still had episodes as excellent as The Law of Non-Contradiction.

No 19) Veep (season 6): Similar to Fargo this was a just slightly below average year for Veep, but even then the quality of the ensemble is so far above any other comedy out there and the quality of the writing/jokes/insults is again just of the highest order. There are few shows I enjoy more than Veep.

No 18) Master of None (Season 2): In my review I did write about how aspects of MON did frustrate me. For it’s social awareness, it is a show that wants me to desperately feel sorry for the man with seemingly the nicest/most privileged life in the world. The extent to which the show is essentially lifestyle porn at times can be a problem and the extent to which the show never questions Dev’s actions can also be a little off-putting. Yet having said that the good outweighs the bad and then some. The show crafts so many beautiful fully realized episodes and months after watching it is episodes like Thanksgiving that stick with me, more than the show’s flaws.

No 17) The Young Pope (Season 1): I’m not sure I get The Young Pope. I love it but I’m not sure I get it. Even in this age of weird TV there is something truly odd about this show. So difficult to write about because it does not conform to any conventions or labels and that’s why it makes this list. Having said all of this I’m not quite sure the show ever hit the heights of its pilot (even if it remained excellent throughout) and that’s why it is not a little bit higher.

No 16) Brockmire (Season 1): Brockmire is exactly the sort of gem that can get lost in this golden age, but for those few of us who did see it we know that it was one of the most raucous, hilarious and endearing comedies out there. I don’t know or care about baseball at all but I do love Brockmire and can’t wait til it comes back.

No 15) Brooklyn Nine Nine (season 4/5): Just as Brockmire can get lost in a sea of amazing shows, B99 is the sort of show that you can take for granted so easily but 5 seasons in and it is still full of heart and brilliant gags. More than that though this year on a couple of occasions we saw the show break-out of its comfort zone with episodes about Terry being racially profiled and more recently Rosa coming out to her less than progressive parents. Those episodes showcased a different side of the show and demonstrated how B99 is not just a great sitcom but an important one. Nine Nine!

No 14) Preacher (Season 2): Parts of season 2 of Preacher were as good as anything on TV. The opening scenes of the first two episodes, as well as standout episode Sokosha plus a whole host of other moments, showed how Preacher could execute some of the most ambitious TV out there to near perfection. It was not all perfect and the season might have benefited from being 10 episode long rather than 12 but nonetheless I love this show and it seems to only go in one direction. Bring on season 3.

No 13) GLOW (Season 1): GLOW was sort of the perfect summer show. It was funny and likable and so binge-able. Netflix makes a lot of deeply serialized shows, designed to be consumed in one sitting so as you find out what happens next. Glow was not that. What GLOW was, was a show that quickly established an ensemble of distinct and interesting characters who you wanted to spend time with and for that it was a standout show.

No 12) Better Call Saul (Season 3): It pains me to put BCS at number 12, in any other year this could be a contender for my number 1 spot but here it does quite make the top ten. Part of the reason why it is a little lower than you might have excepted is that at this stage I don’t have to tell anyone how good this show is. Into it’s third season and BCS was possibly better than ever. Certainly episodes like the chilling Lantern and in particular Chicanery mark series high points and some of the finest TV I’ve seen all year.

No 11) American Vandal (Season 1): American Vandal is a curious show. It is ostensibly a parody, yet by the time you finish it you look back and think that was funny but not funny enough to be making this list necessarily. What it was though was the most engrossing show of the year. And it all centred on the question “who drew the dicks?” Yet for the silliness of the premise I could not have been more intrigued. AV found new ground for the most tired of sub-genres, the mockumentary and in the process delivered an absurd but in many ways tragic story of a stupid but well meaning kid in high school whose life goes array for reasons that have little to do with him. Defining the pleasures of the show may not be straight, but boy was it insanely watchable-the Netflix model at its best.

No 10 )Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Season 3): Similar to B99, UKS is the sort of consistent joke machine that you can take for granted, and that many have, but for me this year there were few shows enjoyed nearly as much as it. I thought the show delivered its best season. The work of Ellie Kemper and in particular Titus Burgess can match any comedic performers on TV. Again though amidst all the laughs is a very human character study piece of an abuse victim and maybe where the show’s genius thoroughly lies  is in the way the show balances these two sides of itself.

No 9) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Seasons 2/3): Rachel Bloom’s musical comedy/drama goes from strength to strength. Like many shows of this list it perfectly balances cartoonish sensibilities with discussions on mental health and never more so than in the first half of season 3. In addition to that though are the musical numbers. At times I’m just in awe of how spot on and clever their parodies, my favorite this year being “Let’s Generalize About Men” and for that it had to make my top ten.

No 8) Bojack Horseman (Season 4): In its 2nd and particularly 3rd seasons Bojack became a show that delivered some of the most outstanding individual episodes of television, possibly ever. Escape From LA, Fish Under Water and That’s Too Much Man are just incomparable half hours of TV. Season 4 did not deliver a single episode of quite that standard. What season 4 did do though is deliver quite possibly the show’s most consistent, revealing and hopefully season. Something we all needed at the end of the show’s previous season.

No 7) Catastrophe (Season 3): Okay it was only 6 episodes along, but I ask this question every year, is there a better written show on TV? There might be snappier dialogue out there, there might be more profound existential musings on some other show, but there is no show with more wonderfully naturalistic dialogue on now or possibly ever. Also there is not really a couple of TV I root for quite as much as Sharon and Rob and I really just want to watch the two of them on screen together as much as possible.Plus the final episode of season 3 was just the perfect send-off for Carrie Fisher and for that alone it deserves it place on my list.

No 6) Jane The Virgin (Season 3/4): Now four seasons in Jane the Virgin still has the power to surprise and hit me emotionally as much as just about any show on this list. I would go as far as to stay no episode of television this year hit me as hard as (spoilers) Michael’s death which was absolutely devestating. But when it comes to Jane the Virgin it is not just the big gut-punches that count, it is the smaller moments as well. The other scene that sticks with me most from its episodes this year is when Rogelio (often the show’s most comic presence) opens up to Xo about how he hasn’t been able to grieve properly for Michael, who was his best friend, because he knew he had to be strong for Jane while she was grieving. It is a comparatively small moment but every bit as resonant. I can take or leave all the intrigue concerning the Marbella but week after week the show delivers moments that really effect me, which even in this golden age can’t be said of too many show.

No 5) Twin Peaks (Season 3): It seems to me that Twin Peaks has either been number 1 or completely absent from every critics list. And I can understand both positions. Twin Peaks was fascinating in a way that television and art more generally rarely is. It was also incredibly and deliberately frustrating at times. I’m almost reluctant to point out how obviously frustrating parts of the revival were because I feel like I might be missing something. On the other hand because its Lynch and because he is a widely and rightly acknowledge genius I think some critics have been too forgiving of some pretty blatant narrative issues, that on another show they would have lambasted. Ultimately though it was the TV event of the year and nothing quite engaged me on a week to week basis like it did. More than anything though there were certain moments, particularly toward the end of the season, that were greater than anything else on TV this year. Moments I completely lost myself in, in ways that are quite difficult to explain and for that I won’t be forgetting the revival for a very long time.

No 4) Mr Robot (Season 3): If season 1 was clinically perfect, in a way no show since Breaking Bad has been, season 2 was an over-ambitious, definitely fascinating, mess. I was a bit of an apologist for the largely disliked second season-but even I was somewhat disappointed after the heights of season 1. Season 3 not only got the show back on track but it found a balance in the ensemble that neither season 1 (which was almost all Elliot) or season 2 (which felt like very little Elliot) had. It also starting making sense again and the show successfully battled the urge to be overly opaque or to have unnecessary twists. All of which meant that we got some of the show’s finest hours yet specifically the thrilling fifth and sixth episodes as well as the surprising and heart-warming eight hour, not to mention the finale which had a bit of everything. And for all its pessimism few shows made me happier this year, because I was so delighted to see this great show prove all the doubters wrong.

No 3) The Good Place (season 1/2): Michael Schur has secured himself a place in TV history with The Office, B99 and in particular Parks and Rec, already but with The Good Place he has gone one further. We all knew he could craft wonderfully funny and likable sitcoms, but here he has delivered a show as twisty and as engaged in huge philosophical issues as any prestige serialized drama. The Good Place is not necessarily a sad-com like many of the show’s on this list but it is possibly the most plot driven network sitcom ever. The thing is the plot has real stakes and is completely unpredictable as well. The huge twist at the end of season 1 showed that even in the age of Reddit you could pull out the rug from underneath your audience and I did not think that was possible. I don’t know how much longer they can continue it but as of now The Good Place is just about a perfect piece of television. 

No 2) Halt and Catch Fire (Season 4): Without spoiling what is number 1 on my list, when it aired I thought nothing would come near it but Halt and Catch Fire came very very close. Back in its much derided first season Halt was a jukebox spitting one antihero cliche after another. In some ways it never strayed too far from the conventions of the antihero drama but what made it different was that at a certain point it just wasn’t about antiheroes. Sure all the characters were deeply flawed, none more so than Joe, but their constant strive for something more, for some kind of connection felt so human you could not help but love them. The final four episodes were TV drama at its best and when it ended I really struggled with the notion that I would not be spending more time with these characters, but if anything made it okay it was how well they stuck the landing. Speaking of which..

No 1) The Leftovers (Season 3): No show has ever made quite the impact in such a short space of time. The Leftovers conclude its mere 28 episode run this year, just 28 episodes yet about half of them are nothing short of masterpieces. That includes just about every episode in this final run. It’s tough in just a paragraph to breakdown what made The Leftovers such a transcendent piece of television-so to be glib I’ll say it took the ambition and phantasmagoria of Twin Peaks and combined it with the heart and focus on character of Halt and Catch Fire. LOST-one of my absolute favorite shows of all time-will define Lindelof’s career but The Leftovers is ultimately a more complete and mature piece of work. The writing, performances and direction coalesced to give us something often hilarious and surprising and always deeply powerful. There may never be a show like The Leftovers again and for those reasons it was always going to be my number 1. 

[rebelsofshield]

2017: The 10 Best Pieces of Star Wars Media

With installments in almost every form of storytelling media, 2017 has been a busy year for the Galaxy Far, Far Away. There have been more than a few duds, but even with a few minor hiccups, 2017 brought us some all-time classic Star Wars stories. 

10. Forces of Destiny

In a way, “Forces of Destiny” may just be a glorified series of animated toy commercials. However, there is an undeniable sense of charm and energy to the series. With its simplistic but often expressive animation and all-star voice cast, “Force of Destiny’s” chronicling of the adventures of Star Wars’ heroines is a fun distraction with plenty of family friendly adventure. It’s a welcome reminder that this universe is a place of inspiration and escapism for fans of all ages, genders, sexes, and races. Also, I’m weirdly a huge fan of Sabine Wren and Jyn Erso teaming up. Let’s see that pairing again.

9. Star Wars Aftermath: Empire’s End

Despite a rocky start, Chuck Wendig’s expansive, quirky, and inclusive Aftermath trilogy improved itself with each installment before finally reaching its creative zenith in Empire’s End. With a galaxy spanning scope and a truly diverse ensemble of characters, Wendig draws to a close the narratives of three books but also creates a tight epilogue for the finale to the original era of Star Wars. The result is frequently mysterious and foreboding but just as often romantic, tragically emotional, and laugh out loud funny. Wendig’s take on the Star Wars universe feels unique to his own mind and bridges the distant war-torn galaxy to our own political landscape in intelligent and oddly relevant ways.

8. Captain Phasma/Phasma

Yes, I’m aware the duel pairing of this would really make the list “Top 11 2017 Pieces of Star Wars Media,” but Delilah S. Dawson’s novel, Phasma, and Kelly Thompson and Marco Checchetto’s limited comic series, Captain Phasma ,function as a perfect duology. Together, both Thompson and Dawson take on the task of redeeming the character of Phasma in the cultural psyche and craft the chrome armored warrior into the dangerous and surprisingly haunting villain we all expected her to be when she first debuted in The Force Awakens in 2015. The two create a strong piece of storytelling synergy that draw together Phasma’s origins and future and craft a dangerous and opportunistic woman who quickly stakes her claim as the Boba Fett of a new generation.

7. Star Wars: Darth Vader -Dark Lord of the Sith

When writer Charles Soule originally solicited this series earlier this year, he described it as “Darth Vader: Year One,” referencing the famous Frank Miller Batman comic.  Soule has taken this inspiration in following the immediate aftermath of Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader and has turned in a brutal and at times horrifying character study of a man at his moral and emotional lowest point. Coupled with Giuseppe Camuncoli’s dynamic art which excels at kinetic action sequences, Soule is more than on his way of living up to the lofty legacy of Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca’s now legendary run on Darth Vader just last year.

6. Star Wars Battlefront II: Inferno Squad

While the video game that shares its name and from which it draws inspiration may have largely been a disappointment, Christie Golden’s tie-in novel “Inferno Squad” makes for one of the best Empire centric narratives told in the current canon. Following an elite Imperial special forces unit in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the Death Star, Golden’s take on the titular Inferno Squad hammers home the dangers of fanatical fascism in the face of catastrophe or loss. The result is a tense and nail-biting story that sees squad leader Iden Versio and her allies infiltrating some of the last remaining members of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans to stop potential terror threats against the Empire. While Golden may not turn you into an Imperial convert, she does explore, in perhaps the most realistic and intimate way to date, the mindset that a soldier working for this government would have.

5. Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi

While understandably controversial and divisive, writer and director Rian Johnson’s eighth installment in the Star Wars saga is among the most creatively daring of the franchise. Upending much of our expectations for both the series and genre, Johnson’s script, even if it may run a little long, crafts a twisting and unpredictable tale of legacy, destiny, and the personal/societal importance of heroes. The result is a Star Wars movie that feels unique in its purpose, delivery, and message. From thrilling space battles, political intrigue, to musings about the place of Jedi and the Force in the galaxy, Johnson’s Star Wars is an epic space opera that tickles the brain as well as the eyes. Drawing it together are a wide string of talented performances with particular standouts being in Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac. However, hanging over the entire proceeding is a genuine sense of melancholy as Carrie Fisher provides her final, and one of her best, performance as the iconic Leia Organa.

4. Thrawn

Thrawn and Timothy Zahn are a pair as linked by destiny as any two in-universe characters in the Star Wars saga. Ever since Zahn brought the calculating, art-loving tactician to life in his deservedly iconic Heir to the Empire, Thrawn has haunted and loomed over the Star Wars expanded universe with an appropriate sense of gravitas. For the first time, Zahn positions Thrawn not as a villain but as an anti-hero protagonist and in the process creates a unique look in this iconic aliens mind. The result is a thrilling and intriguing piece of military sci-fi that functions not only as a prequel to the third season of Star Wars Rebels but also to Zahn’s work in the Legends continuity. Fans of classic Star Wars novels are sure to be as satisfied as new converts to Thrawn’s web.

3. Doctor Aphra

Without a doubt the best creation from Marvel’s current tenure in the Star Wars universe, Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra is just about everything that makes a great character in the galaxy far, far away. Originally created in the formerly mentioned Darth Vader ongoing by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, Aphra quickly won the attention and hearts of readers through her blunt sense of humor, wild schemes, and fluid morality. In short, Aphra is a queer, chaotic neutral Indiana Jones that also happens to get herself into uneasy alliances with Sith Lords, unstable Wookie bounty hunters, and psychotic murder droids.  Gillen’s follow up series with regular artist Kev Walker is one of the most refreshing and stylistically unique offerings of the new canon that regularly blends heist thrills, light cosmic horror, and laugh out loud humor. It’s a series that delights with almost every issue and Star Wars fans are all the more blessed to have it.

2. Star Wars Rebels

While it may not have had anything as instantly iconic and mythic as season two’s stellar finale “Twilight of the Apprentice,” Star Wars Rebels continues to grow into a mature and superbly realized animated journey. As the series moves into its conclusion in the first half of 2018, it is important not to underplay the important work that executive producer Dave Filoni and his crew provided in 2017. While furthering the growth and personal saga’s of its central cast, the series took us to Tatooine to Yavin to Mandalore and, of course, to the now war torn planes of Lothal. In the process, the Rebels delivered the best on screen Star Wars installments of the year in the emotional “Trials of the Darksaber” and beautifully realized “Twin Suns.” It doesn’t get much better than this, but we still have just under three hours of Rebels left before the series concludes. 2018 may still top this.

1. From a Certain Point of View

From a Certain Point of View is the kind of Star Wars product that, like all of the best, is a communal stroke of mad genius. Taking the works of over 40 different authors to tell 40 stories, “From a Certain Point of View” as collected retells the full narrative of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope from a wide variety of periphery and supporting views. Through the talented prose stylings of Kelly Sue DeConnick, Paul Dini, Ashley Eckstein, Matt Fraction, Alexander Freed, Kieron Gillen, Christie Golden, Claudia Gray, Pablo Hidalgo, Charles Soule, Chuck Wendig, and more From a Certain Point of View offers a truly unique and undeniably special reading experience. In the process, A New Hope evolves into a series of moments and adventures that connect this seminal film to the prequels, Rogue One, the canon comics and books, the animated series, and even teases of the sequel trilogy in new and exciting ways but at the same time plays with the heart and mind. Even more impressive is the sheer variety of subject matter and genre on display. Meg Cabot, Cavan Scott, Claudia Gray deliver beautiful post-mortems for Aunt Beru, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick deliver a sprawling crime caper that collides with a tense table sit down at the Mos Eisley cantina. And of course, Gillen finds a way to work in Doctor Aphra. Fans of unique creative projects in the Star Wars universe owe it to themselves to read this collection. Also, a large chunk of the proceeds go to a charity that provides reading materials to students in need. Just buy this book.  

[auburnfamilynews]

Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Defense is optional this year

After only three weeks of SEC play only two teams remain undefeated. That number is assured to drop to one this time next week. Only one team has been unfortunate enough to lose every game so far this season. Everyone else seems capable of beating or losing to anyone else any day of the week.

It’s chaos and ya’ll know deep down you love it.

It was a wild weekend featuring numerous upsets and some close calls. Attempting to figure out who exactly should be ranked over whom is getting a little ridiculous at this point but I did my best. Let’s take a look at where things stand heading into Week 4.

#1.) Alabama 3-0 (—)

SP+: 3 | FPI: 3

Last Game: 63-48 W @ Ole Miss

Despite two dominant performances to start the season, there were some cracks showing on this Alabama defense. Lane Kiffin took a sledgehammer to it on Saturday night to reveal that everything is not suddenly better on that side of the ball for the Crimson Tide. Granted, Alabama’s excuse is that Kiffin knows their signals since it’s impossible for the opponent to actually just play well against them.

Alabama LB Dylan Moses said he “definitely” thinks Ole Miss had Alabama’s signals on defense, pointing to Lane Kiffin’s time in Tuscaloosa.

— Alex Scarborough (@AlexS_ESPN) October 11, 2020

But it didn’t matter. Mac Jones continues to show why Tua was not a “generational QB”. He was just a good QB in a system that does an excellent job getting its insane amount of playmakers the ball in space.

This weekend though is the big one. Can this offense continue to dominate against the best defense in America? Can this defense slow down UGA’s resurgent run game? I am fascinated to find out.

Next Game: vs Georgia

#2.) Georgia 3-0 (—)

SP+: 4 | FPI: 4

Last Game: 44-21 W vs Tennessee

For the 2nd time this season, UGA went into halftime trailing. For the 2nd time this season, it didn’t matter.

The Dawgs took control of the game in the 2nd half rattling off 27 unanswered points. The Dawgs run game still isn’t dominant but it’s effective. Kearis Jackson is emerging as a big time playmaker in the slot while Stetson Bennett continues to avoid making the big mistakes.

It gets real this weekend with a trip to Tuscaloosa. To be honest, I actually think the Dawgs have been the best team in the SEC through the first 3 weeks and have a great chance at winning this weekend. Can Kirby Smart get over that mental hurdle and take down his former mentor?

Next Game: @ Alabama

#3.) Texas A&M 2-1 (+3)

SP+: 22 | FPI: 24

Last Game: 41-38 W vs Florida

We were all ready to bury Texas A&M early in the third quarter when they fell behind 28-17. But credit this Jimbo Fisher team. They rallied and pulled out a must win and gave Jimbo his first big win as the head coach of the Aggies.

Kellen Mond had that game he has every year where it looks like maybe he’s actually turned the corner and is ready to be an elite QB. He threw for over 300 yards and 3 scores while completing 25 passes on 35 attempts. Isaiah Spiller though was the difference late just gashing a beat down Gator defense again and again.

Despite struggling to beat a bad Vanderbilt team week 1 and getting walloped by Bama week 2, A&M is now in position to cement themselves as the #2 team in the West and a potential CFB darkhorse.

Strange times.

Next Game: @ Mississippi State

#4.) Florida 2-1 (-1)

SP+: 8 | FPI: 9

Last Game: 38-41 L @ Texas A&M

The margin of error is now incredibly slim for the Gators if they wish to finally knock UGA off their SEC East perch. It looked like they had taken control of the game early in the 3rd quarter but poor defense and a brutal late fumble resulted in a frustrating upset.

This offense though is still scary and if the defense can just get slightly better they are still a force to be reckoned with in the East. They MUST win this weekend against a falling apart LSU squad.

Next Game: vs LSU

#5.) Tennessee 2-1 (-1)

SP+: 24 | FPI: 23

Last Game: 21-44 L @ Georgia

For two quarters it looked like Jeremy Pruitt’s Volunteers belonged with the Dawgs. Unfortunately for the men in orange, football is a four quarter game...

The Vols lost their chance to prove they are ready to be an SEC East contender but are still in position to make some noise this season. They play host to Kentucky this weekend, a program they have only lost to twice since 1984. With Alabama, Texas A&M, Auburn and Florida still on the schedule, the Vols have plenty of opportunities remaining to put together a big season.

Next Game: vs Kentucky

#6.) Auburn 2-1 (-1)

SP+: 14 | FPI: 13

Last Game 30-28 W vs Arkansas

Auburn rediscovered its run game this past Saturday but failed to consistently do anything through the air and defensively were exposed much of the 2nd half. Bo Nix escaped a catastrophic mistake thanks to an official being so surprised at such a dumb play he blew his whistle early. This team is littered with injuries especially on the defensive side of the ball and continue to struggle to put points on the board.

And yet...

The Tigers are 2-1 with a legitimate chance to beat everyone on their schedule not named Alabama. They likely won’t but it’s a testament to the averageness of the SEC that the Tigers will be the favorite in at least all but two games left on their schedule. If Bo Nix can find any sort of consistency and this defense can get somewhat healthy, they could be a problem later this year. But this weekend is a must win for Gus Malzahn if he hopes to have any shot at challenging for the SEC West crown.

Next Game: @ South Carolina

#7.) Ole Miss 1-2 (+2)

SP+: 44 | FPI: 51

Last Game: 48-63 L vs Alabama

I was wrong on a lot of things this preseason but one team I absolutely nailed was Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin inherited an offense loaded with playmakers and he’s getting the most out of them every night. He also inherited a defense that legitimately might be the worst in the country.

He took the Tide the distance Saturday night in one of the most entertaining games of the year. Now he must travel to take on a pissed off Arkansas team that is proving they aren’t the pushovers of years past.

Next Game: @ Arkansas

#8.) Kentucky 1-2 (+3)

SP+: 33 | FPI: 38

Last Game: 24-2 W vs Mississippi State

I thought the UK-MSST game would have the oddest of box scores this past weekend and man was I right. Just look at this majestic piece of art.

The `Cats dominated a game in which they only had 157 yards of offense including 2.6 yards per carry. That happens when the other team throws 6 interceptions. Though per UK fan logic Mississippi State was clearly the better team...

Next Game: @ Tennessee

#9.) Missouri 1-2 (+4)

SP+: 60 | FPI: 47

Last Game: 45-41 W vs LSU

Ok I didn’t see this one coming...

Elijah Drinkwitz got his first win as head coach of Missouri by beating the defending champs on a 1 yard goal line stand. It was an incredible offensive performance as the Tigers picked apart Pelini’s defense all day long. I still don’t think this is a great team but they deserve the bump after a big time win

Next Game: vs Vanderbilt

#10.) Arkansas 1-2 (—)

SP+: 72 | FPI: 46

Last Game: 28-30 L @ Auburn

As if Arkansas fans needed anymore reasons to hate Auburn...

After falling behind 17-0, Arkansas outscored the Tigers 28-13 the rest of the way. Unfortunately for them, that was not enough to make up for the slow start and now Gus Malzahn is 6-1 against his alma mater.

It’s clear Sam Pittman is getting the most out of this team and I think it’s likely they get at least one more W before this season is over. Let’s see if Barry Odom’s defense can slow the Lane Train down.

Next Game: vs Ole Miss

#11.) South Carolina 1-2 (+1)

SP+: 42 | FPI: 32

Last Game: 41-7 W vs Vanderbilt

After some valiant but unsuccessful efforts to start the season, Will Muschamp’s Gamecocks took it to a bad Vanderbilt team in Nashville over the weekend. Kevin Harris averaged 8 yards a carry and scored two touchdowns. They get a vulnerable Auburn team this weekend inside Williams-Brice Stadium. Which boom will be the loudest this weekend?

Next Game: vs Auburn

#12.) Mississippi State 1-2 (-5)

SP+: 54 | FPI: 57

Last Game: 2-24 L @ Kentucky

Ok so it turns out I wasn’t wrong about Mississippi State. This is a bad team who was fortunate enough to draw a REALLY bad LSU defense week 1. K.J. Costello is a walking turnover and Mike Leach is already blaming everything on his players. Things are totally gonna go great in Starkville this year.

Next Game: vs Texas A&M

#13.) LSU 1-2 (-5)

SP+: 18 | FPI: 16

Last Game: 41-45 @ Missouri

I thought LSU would take a major step back this season. I did not expect that step to be “2nd worst team in the SEC” back but here we are.

Turns out that Bo Pelini is in fact NOT better than Dave Aranda. The LSU defense is a sieve and seemingly incapable of making any sort of in game adjustments. With all that said though it still wouldn’t shock me if they upset Dan Mullen this weekend....

Next Game: @ Florida

#14.) Vanderbilt 0-3 (—)

SP+: 117 | FPI: 112

Last Game: 7-41 L vs South Carolina

Every team that has beaten Vanderbilt this season has immediately lost the following game. Here’s to hoping that trend continues.

Next Game: @ Missouri

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/12/21511196/sec-power-rankings-week-4

[thefordcastpodcast]

Catastrophe season 3, Carrie Fisher’s final performance,  is now streaming on Amazon in the US and Canada. (also a damn good show)

[bondi-oldgirl]

To my Australian followers who haven’t yet been turned on by Catastrophe

Season 2 of Catastrophe is being repeated on Wed night ABC around 10 ish (check your guides).   Which means Season 3 is not far away.  Yay!

If you haven’t seen it yet here is a taste (promo for season 3)

Don’t worry about missing season 1, you will soon get the gist and you can catch up later.  Precis: Irish girl fooks US boy in London, pregnancy and chaos ensues.

Season 2 has Carrie Fisher as Rob’s Mom!  Season 3 has Tobias as well!

 Bad language, adult themes, no laugh track, grown up comedy.

You’re welcome, and you can thank me later.

regards

Heather

[screenrant]

Catastrophe Season 3: Carrie Fisher Is Terrific In One of Her Final Performances

Amazon’s foulmouthed relationship comedy Catastrophe features Carrie Fisher in one of her final performances, and she’s great.

http://screenrant.com/?p=956314

[apocalypticmovierp]

Carrie Fisher Appears In The New Trailer For ‘Catastrophe’ Season 3

“I was just thinking that maybe we should have some sex,” Sharon playfully posits, gently slipping into bed next to Rob who turns and answers, “I just jerked off.”

The lewd and hilarious Emmy-nominated “Catastrophe” has just dropped its 3rd season trailer. This season, which premiers on April 28th on Amazon, continues to follow co-stars and series-writers Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan as they delve head-first into parenthood, waning sexual attraction, sleeping on the sofa versus head-to-toe, physical fitness or lack thereof, Brexit and “[our] new President” to which Rob contests, “Don’t put that on me!” The trailer also briefly features the late Carrie Fisher in her last television appearance reprising her role as Rob’s mom.

Continue reading Carrie Fisher Appears In The New Trailer For ‘Catastrophe’ Season 3 at The Playlist.

want watch movies online from The Playlist http://ift.tt/2oKHRv2 by via watch movies online via IFTTT

[lodelss]

Sarah Trent | Longreads | November 2019 | 22 minutes (4,920 words)

Jack Thomas was home in time for dinner, but he wasn’t really home. His head was still in the fire, gnawing on the details of what his strike team had accomplished, hazards they’d found, a care facility they’d partially saved from the flames. For 19 hours of their nine-day deployment, his team had fought to save those 25 senior apartments, which had somehow been spared when the wildfire tore through town. Thomas knew that if they could stop the fire at the building’s central atrium, these homes would stay standing. And they did.

Walking through his front door, in a suburban Santa Rosa, California, neighborhood the weekend before Thanksgiving, Thomas still smelled of smoke.

He had dinner with his wife, shared photos from the fire, and talked through their holiday plans. Afterward, he unfurled parcel maps across the table while his bags waited, packed, on the couch. After more than a week fighting the most destructive wildfire in California history, the Santa Rosa fire captain had just a few hours to study the maps and get some rest: His deployment on a fire crew was over, but hundreds of people were missing, and FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force #4 needed someone to help manage the search.

Thomas set his alarm for 3 a.m. He was going back to Paradise.

That night, the next morning, and for many days after, trained search and rescue professionals and volunteers from across California and beyond drove into the smoldering heart of catastrophe. The Camp fire, which started the morning of November 8, 2018, and within hours had overtaken the town of Paradise, was unprecedented: in size, pattern, intensity, damage, and number of people missing, which climbed as high as 1,300. It required the largest search in state history — in conditions few of the searchers were trained for. But to leaders like Thomas, it seemed a portent of things to come: Wildfires are becoming more common and worse. And other disasters are, too.

Rachel Allen got to Paradise two days before Thomas, after dark on Friday, November 16, joining the first wave of volunteer searchers responding to the call for mutual aid. It was the earliest she could arrive, leaving her postdoc research behind for the weekend. A member of the Bay Area Mountain Rescue (BAMRU) team since 2012, she has deployed to dozens of searches across the state, usually for one person missing in the wilderness: a snowshoer lost in a storm, a hiker injured and stuck off-trail, or a person with Alzheimer’s who wandered away from home.

She and her team spend hundreds of unpaid hours each year practicing specialized search and rescue skills. But in Paradise, little of their training in snow conditions, rope systems, or tracking was relevant. Allen wore a white Tyvek suit over her hiking boots and learned how to identify what was typically the only trace of people who hadn’t escaped the blaze: small fragments of bone.

When Thomas arrived Sunday morning, just in time for the morning briefing, searchers in a rainbow of high-viz red and orange agency-branded jackets filled the Tall Pines Entertainment Center parking lot: county search teams, mountain rescue teams, law enforcement, the National Guard, all ready for the day’s assignments.

Thomas joined the fray with USAR Task Force #4 — one of 28 teams in the nation equipped for large-scale disaster relief. Most USAR members, like Thomas, are professional firefighters. On top of a grueling season fighting record-setting wildfires, this was his team’s third urban search deployment in as many months. They’d been to the sites where Hurricane Florence made landfall that September. Where Michael had hit in October. And now this. 

New kinds of disasters require new response plans and training, and bigger ones need more people who know what to do.

All weekend, the air was thick with smoke and a pervasive otherworldliness. “If you had told me I was on Mars, I’d be like, ‘OK, right,’” Allen told me. She searched for two days, mostly in silence, wearing a mask she had to remove to speak. Her hiking boots sank with every step into ash up to eight inches deep. The sky was a murky orange. Trees were still green. Everything else was gray. It was a town like any other. But everything had changed.

In 2018, wildfires swept not only California, Australia, and Greece, but also the colder, wetter landscapes of England, Ireland, and Sweden. Kerala, India, was hit by one of the worst floods ever recorded, killing more than 500 people; a heat wave hospitalized 22,000 in Japan; and a series of tropical storms and typhoons affected more than 10 million across the Philippines. A bomb cyclone slammed the U.S. Northeast. Avalanches crushed Colorado. Mudslides buried Montecito, California. Record-breaking hurricanes battered the Southeast. As of this writing, what has come to be known as “fire season” is well underway in California, and fires blaze in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. 

To climate scientists, the pattern of increasing extremes comes as no surprise — it’s in line with projections for life on a warming planet. And at 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average, according to NASA, 2018 was one of the hottest years on record. 2019 is on track to be hotter.

When disaster strikes, rescuers like Thomas and Allen drive toward the danger the rest of us are desperate to escape. They’re trained to find us when we’re stuck somewhere — lost, injured, or worse. But a changing planet has raised the stakes: Avalanches, tornadoes, fires, and floods fill news cycles with counts of the missing and cell phone footage of neighborhoods turned to wilderness. The U.N. warns that climate catastrophes are now happening once a week across the globe. And unpredictable shoulder seasons — the busiest months for search and rescue calls — are getting longer. New kinds of disasters require new response plans and training, and bigger ones need more people who know what to do.

Search and rescue teams train for the worst conditions. But the worst conditions are getting worse. Search teams are stretched. Rescuers are burning out. We are all less safe.

***

On a May 2013 day in Naujaat, in the Canadian province of Nunavut — an Inuit hamlet known at the time as Repulse Bay — the local search and rescue team was called after a nearby traveler activated an emergency GPS beacon. It was a day with almost 18 hours of sunlight, but blizzard conditions postponed the search.

The call itself was unremarkable — Nunavut search and rescue records are full of similar reports: emergency signals turned on in harsh weather, hunters who’ve run out of gas, a group trapped by moving ice. Nearly everyone is brought home safe. But one trend is nonetheless alarming: In 2016, researchers showed that search and rescue calls in the province had doubled over a decade.

The reasons were complex. More powerful boats and snowmobiles carried hunters, fishers, and travelers farther from safety; people’s preparedness for harsh conditions had not kept pace with their ability to travel so far; high costs to maintain equipment led to makeshift repairs and more frequent breakdowns. But one factor stood out: As the Arctic warms — and it’s warming faster than anywhere else on earth — weather and ice conditions have become less and less predictable. 

“It’s the perfect storm” for accidents and the ensuing calls for rescue, researcher Dylan Clark told a Canadian Senate committee in 2018. And this storm is anything but localized.

In Iceland, where tourism is booming and glacier driving tours are popular, the ice is melting, opening crevasses that threaten vehicles and people. A woman died in 2010 after falling into one with her 7-year-old son just a short distance from a tour jeep. 

In the Alps, retreating glaciers have changed popular climbing routes, increasing exposure and difficulty on nearly all alpine climbs. Where there once was snow, there’s now ice. Where there once was permafrost, there’s now unstable rock. One catastrophic rockfall in Bondo, Switzerland, killed eight hikers in 2017. Their bodies were never found.

Search and rescue teams train for the worst conditions. But the worst conditions are getting worse.

Eddy Cartaya, a Portland Mountain Rescue volunteer and expert on glacier cave exploration and rescue, says that across the Pacific Northwest, more and more people are exploring the backcountry. Outdoor equipment is better and less expensive than ever, cultural interest in the outdoors is surging, and longer summers mean more access to beautiful, wild places. 

Normally, “deep snow-pack insulates some of these locations from inexperienced people,” Cartaya said. But that’s changing. Hiking into areas with now-melting glaciers — in which ice caves are prone to sudden collapse, volcanic gas-filled fumaroles are becoming exposed, and flash floods of glacial melt can occur on the bluest of bluebird days — even an expert outdoorsperson is more likely to run into trouble.

Many of these hazards are new to rescuers, too, making operations riskier for everyone. Now, Cartaya said, his team trains in glacier caves — areas most mountaineers spend their entire careers trying to avoid. After two rescues in noxious fumaroles, the team has purchased new equipment to measure crevasses for hydrogen sulfide. And with a higher volume of calls than ever before — to a group of volunteers in an industry where burnout is already high (few last more than a couple of years) — they’ve increased their recruitment efforts, tripling their most recent cohort of trainees.

But you don’t need to be a backpacker, hunter, or mountaineer heading deep into the wilderness to require rescue from a disaster compounded by climate change. Increasingly, that disaster is coming to us.

In Switzerland, rockslides have buried villages and stranded residents. In Alabama, devastating tornadoes have cut swaths through towns and neighborhoods. Across the Midwest, floods have done the same. In Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean, residents have evacuated from record hurricane after record hurricane. And all of this, according to climate scientists, is at least partially attributable to a warming planet, in which ice is melting at record speed and rising levels of atmospheric water are strengthening storms and producing unprecedented rainfall. 

While the Eastern U.S. is inundated with water, the Western states suffer without it: As temperatures rise, the snowpack melts faster and forests dry out. By late summer, much of California is a tinderbox. Any spark — lightning, a barbecue, a faulting power line — can set the whole thing off.

***

Ten of the 20 most destructive wildfires in California’s history have occurred since 2015. They include the two most destructive (2018 Camp and 2017 Tubbs fires), the two largest (2018 Mendocino Complex and 2017 Thomas fires), and the deadliest by far: In Paradise, searchers found 85 people dead. Two remain missing. This is more than the previous three deadliest fires combined.

For Thomas and his team, the Camp fire set another kind of record and, leaders believe, a precedent: It was the first time FEMA USAR teams had ever been called to a fire. Thomas and others doubt it will be the last. The federal program, which launched in 1991, was designed primarily to respond to catastrophic earthquakes. But as the nature of disasters has evolved, USAR task forces have too. In 1994, teams deployed to the Northridge quake in Los Angeles. A year later, to the Oklahoma City bombing, and in 2001, to downtown Manhattan after the World Trade Center attack. 

In 2005, all 28 teams went to Hurricane Katrina, and as the size and severity of hurricanes have increased since, so have the calls to USAR: Sandy in 2012. Matthew in 2015. Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017; Florence and Michael a year later; Dorian this fall.

Thomas went to most of them. “We’re in the water business now,” he said. And the fires? “I totally think that’s going to be in our scope now.”

As a firefighter of more than 30 years who fought the 2017 Tubbs Fire in his own city and countless more around the state, Thomas knows firsthand the ways wildland fires have changed. “It never used to be like this,” he said. When he first started, he’d go to one, maybe two “mutual aid” calls (that is, requests to help other agencies) per season, fighting wildland fires to the scale of around 10,000 acres. “Since 2015 it’s just been non-stop with these major fires,” he said. 

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In 2018, between USAR calls and wildland fire response, Thomas spent 75 days working outside Santa Rosa County, including 21 days in a row at the Mendocino Complex fire. When he came home from that blaze — which burned nearly 460,000 acres before it was finally contained — he had just enough time to move his daughter to college before he was deployed again.

“It pulls on your heartstrings to go help,” he said. But every time he arrives at base camp for another wildland fire, he sees the same guys, grim with fatigue.

“You can see it in guy’s eyes,” he told me. “It seems like it’s more and more and more and more.” Between fighting fires around the state, flying east for hurricane missions, and expecting that USAR’s scope will grow, the effort is not sustainable, he said. “But you know the thing is, who are you going to call? With the amount of missing residents, the amount of destroyed homes — who’s going to do that work?”

Headquarters for Thomas’s team — one of eight in California — is tucked between I-880 and the train tracks in East Oakland, behind a city vehicle maintenance facility. On a cold March morning, a dozen men and women in dark shirts and caps emblazoned with their agency logos — Pittsburg Fire, Sonoma Fire, Contra Costa Fire — ambled from room to room, catching up and collecting signatures for their annual reorientation exercise. 

Each member checked the fit of their issued full-face air mask, re-upped their baseline EKG test, and verified, essentially, that they knew the drill: Every checkpoint is a step they’ll repeat in the hours before an actual deployment. In the garage, Thomas signed off on helmet fits and asked each member if their go-bag was ready. 

“97 you said?” He searched for Tracey Chin’s duffel among the hundreds of numbered red bags on the shelves surrounding the garage. He found it and pulled it down, and she unzipped the pockets to inspect what was inside. She checked the size of the clothing, in case it had changed, and the toothpaste’s expiration date. The team has just four hours to deploy when a call for mutual aid comes in, and they must be prepared for 72 hours of self-sufficiency. The “creature comforts,” as Chin calls these basic necessities, are nearly as important as a tightly sealed air mask.

She zipped the bag closed over carefully folded T-shirts, and Thomas snapped a red plastic lock seal through the zipper pull. Her mask fit. Her photo had been taken. Her sign-off sheet was full. Chin was ready to deploy.

And this team fully expects to — though until recently, that was far from their norm.

“We went eight years without deploying,” said Oakland Battalion Chief Robert Lipp, who leads the task force. But since 2017, they’ve fielded six calls. Now, come autumn, when hurricane and wildland fire seasons are both in full swing, he said he’s “more surprised if we don’t go somewhere than if we do.” 

To climate scientists, the pattern of increasing extremes comes as no surprise — it’s in line with projections for life on a warming planet.

As the need for rescuers goes up, the whole response system is stretched thin. Two Southern California USAR teams, which largely pull on members from one fire department each, were undeployable for USAR calls last fall while wildfires raged in Riverside and Orange counties. The Oakland team is more insulated from that pressure: Its 230 members — enough for three full rescue units — come from 15 different departments. The team has never had to turn down a call for mutual aid, Lipp said. “But we’ve been awful close.”

“When there’s a disaster, we all want to go.” But, he added, “anyone who says it’s not worsening is not paying attention.”

***

On the first day of SAR-Basic — required for anyone who hopes to join Bay Area Mountain Rescue — 15 recruits listened and took notes as veteran members explained the weekend training. Wearing an array of technical fleeces and down coats, it was obvious that they were the newbies: Every sworn-in member wore a red jacket — BAMRU patch on one shoulder and the San Mateo County Sheriff star on the chest — to insulate against the early morning chill.

The first lesson in every emergency response training — from first aid through wilderness paramedicine — is the same, though every teacher has their own way to phrase it: The most important person at the scene is you; don’t let someone else’s emergency become your own; your safety comes first. Adrenaline and the powerful urge to help someone in need can be difficult to overcome — and dangerous to everyone. 

Under the county park picnic shelter, Nathan Fischer sat atop a long wooden table, his gray waffle fleece and close-cropped beard blending into this year’s cohort of mostly twentysomething men. With one leg casually folded, he absorbed the morning lectures. He, like everyone seated around him, was there in part to fulfill that urge to help. “Other people adopt kittens or mentor kids,” he told me. “I’m awful with kids, but maybe I can stop the bleeding.”

An instructor addressed the group. “The first rule of search and rescue,” he said, “is don’t create more subjects.”

This year’s safety talk was unusually personal for the team. Just months earlier, a Ventura County mountain rescuer was killed and two teammates were injured in a storm while trying to help the victims of a rollover crash. The team was en route to a training exercise. The roads were slick. Another vehicle lost control.

At every training station at SAR-Basic, the safety talk was reinforced. Fischer and the other recruits learned to perform a fine grid search, crawling shoulder to shoulder looking for shell casings in the dirt and leaves — while also scanning for poison oak. They learned how to load and carry a person in a titanium-frame litter — along with effective communication to spread the load, and to lift and move as one. Navigation skills, radio skills, tracking skills. And then, finally, a mock search.

Fischer, leading a team of three, talked his group through the details of the briefing. Two trail runners were missing. Their team had been assigned a trail to search. They grabbed a radio and a map and set out for the trail, flanked by mentors.

’It’s the perfect storm’ for accidents and the ensuing calls for rescue.

The mock search is an audition of sorts, at which members and the soon-to-be can feel out their future colleagues. Trust, teamwork, and leadership are as important as technical skill and search savvy. Those who are accepted to train with BAMRU will start deploying on calls as soon as they wish: Trainees join searches while they work through a long list of skill sign-offs and training exercises that typically take a year to complete. The best lessons — and the hardest — will come in the field.

After a morning of searching for the “missing” runners, Fischer’s team broke for lunch. Mentor Eric Chow — just a year into his own tenure on the team — knew that the action would soon pick up. He pulled Fischer aside. “What do you have for PPE?” Chow asked, using shorthand for personal protective equipment — namely, in this case, nitrile gloves. Fischer had none. Chow found a pair in his radio chest harness and handed them over. 

Then the radio blared, cutting into the quiet on the trail. Another team had found the last missing subject. Fischer looked at the map. They were close. When they arrived on scene, his wilderness medical training kicked in. He went straight toward the subject — a woman who had fallen off-trail and injured her leg — and joined another rescuer assessing her injuries. He removed her shoe and checked the circulation in her foot.

Uphill, proctors were watching. One of them whispered: “Where are his gloves?”

Blood is a hazard. Smoke is a hazard. Needles, nails, cornices, rocks, hypoxic subjects, moving vehicles. The powerful urge to help someone can come at profound personal cost. Forgetting safety precautions in an exercise merely means failure. Being without them in the field can mean creating more subjects. 

Physical safety is paramount, but psychological preparation is important as well: The emotional costs can be just as high.

This team typically deploys to difficult, far-away searches — ones that have already gone on for days without success. Stopping the bleeding (or rescue at all) is not usually involved: Often, they recover bodies.

Veteran team member Alice Ng is haunted by the search for a young mountaineer crushed by an avalanche. The recovery of a body brings closure to everyone, but this one hit her hard: The traumatic stop of this boy’s life, while doing something she might have done too; his family, walking in circles around the airfield, with nothing to do but wait. The day after finding him, while chopping vegetables for dinner, she suddenly broke down in tears. The task was so normal, she told me: “That can be taken away from you so quickly.”

For Eric Chow, one of the mentors who took part in the mock rescue, one search near Lake Tahoe was especially memorable. “We were in our element there,” he remembered. It was high angle, high altitude, in avalanche conditions, a search for one missing person. It was everything this team trains for. The Paradise fire, on the other hand, felt like the opposite. There were scores of bodies reduced to bone fragments, cesspits hidden under the ash, and “widowmakers” — the precarious branches of burned trees — that could fall at any moment. “We don’t know any of those hazards,” he said.

***

It’s difficult to plan or train for what’s never been experienced before, and in climate-influenced disasters, nothing is as it was. The Camp fire was apocalyptic. Michael St. John, long-time leader of Marin Search and Rescue and newly retired from the Mill Valley Fire Department, deployed to Paradise on day five of the blaze to help Butte County search coordinators and state search and rescue leaders wrap their collective heads around organizing such a massive search.

“What’s your PPE plan?” he recalled asking the leaders at search command. He knew they’d need air masks. Tyvek. Steel-shanked boots if they could find them fast enough. And decontamination facilities. When a forest burns, the smoke is dangerous. When a city burns — with all its plastics, paints, chemicals, and more — it’s deadly. If not today, then perhaps years from now when the cancers start growing, St. John said. And while many teams like BAMRU and Marin SAR have limited county insurance for in-field accidents, volunteers don’t get workers’ compensation. They just get sick.

You don’t need to be a backpacker, hunter, or mountaineer heading deep into the wilderness to require rescue from a disaster compounded by climate change. Increasingly, that disaster is coming to us.

From search headquarters at the Tall Pines bowling alley, where cots were set up in the bar and a rec room was converted to mission command, St. John searched Amazon for boots. A dozen deputies raided every Home Depot in the Central Valley for supplies. The National Guard was called to set up mass decontamination tents. 

On the first day of the search, central command ran out of P-100 masks, which offer more protection than the N-95 masks the public was encouraged to wear. Some rescuers who couldn’t get masks in the first days of the search, before donations poured in, turned around and went home. The air was so thick with smoke and particulate matter that it choked out even the sun. Just a few hours in Paradise was too much for some: The personal risk was just too great.

Over the week, St. John and search leaders troubleshot challenges. They had state, county, and federal resources at their disposal, and while every one of them was trained in the same incident command structure — a logistics and hierarchy system built to scale to any emergency — each group had its own culture, communications, and even GIS mapping systems. 

Leaders struggled to manage the growing list of missing people — and to commit enough resources to sort all 1,300 reports, winnow out redundancies, and narrow the search. As best they could under pressure, they integrated lessons from failures along the way, improving the system a little bit more every day.

And every day, the massive search continued across 240 square miles, where homes, stores, schools, and retirement homes — more than 18,000 structures in all — were now gone. Just the grid of streets remained, along with stone, metal, and randomly spared objects. Chimneys stood like sentries. So did radiators. Mailboxes. The intricate metalwork of a headboard. Cars had melted by the roadside, their metal shells resolidified as river-flows on pavement. 

As a USAR search manager, Thomas worked “forward reconnaissance,” evaluating structures and triaging search efforts before larger teams were assigned to move through. Allen, with BAMRU, led one of those teams, each member carrying a shovel or rake. In full, hooded Tyvek, with double-canistered P-100 masks on or around their necks, they searched house by house, block by block, using rake tines to pick through the dense mixture of ash and nails and metal debris.

They’d been trained on arrival to look for one thing only: yellowed or charred fragments of bone, just inches long, and barely recognizable.

They searched most carefully near the remains of beds. The fire had begun around 6:30 a.m., and by 8, it had rushed into Paradise. Mattress coils were easy to spot. Bathrooms were recommended as focus areas, too, but toilets were harder to find. Somehow, Allen said, most of them were gone.

On Sunday afternoon, on their last assignment of the day, Allen led eight BAMRU members to Cape Cod Mobile Estates, two miles up the road from search command. The sign was intact at the entrance, and the office was still mostly standing. They parked on the H-shaped road of the park, where every other structure had been flattened, their corrugated metal roofs collapsed onto the nothingness of ash. The group moved through quickly, in pairs, spending a few minutes at each structure before they focused on two that a deputy requested. As they finished each search, one member spray-painted an X on the driveway: standard communication in bright orange paint. At the top of the X, the date. At the bottom, a zero. No bodies found.

It’s difficult to plan or train for what’s never been experienced before, and in climate-influenced disasters, nothing is as it was.

Allen drove home that night with teammates, her Prius covered in gray, toxic ash. Once home, she struggled to explain the experience. The fires are too big, she’d told her friends and, later, me. The resources — masks and people and insurance coverage — are just not going to be enough, she said. “Now I know how the world ends.”

A few days later, Thomas went home to channel everything he had left into hosting 20 guests for Thanksgiving. When the last one left, he collapsed. For two whole days, he felt awful, and it took weeks to recover. Next year, he told his wife, he’ll turn down some of the calls. But that’s easy to say in the off-season — that annual period of rest which is, of course, getting shorter.

***

Months after the fire, on a sunny day in April, Michael St. John, enjoying retirement, was home from an early morning run up Mount Baldy. His neighborhood — and all of Marin County — was lush and green from heavy winter rains, and while fire danger was no doubt out of mind for most, it was weighing on his. California, after all, doesn’t stay green for long. He searched the state website from his couch, and even he was shocked to see that the first wildland fires of the year had already begun — weeks ahead of normal. 

St. John worries that the lessons from Paradise can’t be integrated fast enough: The season is too much of a crush. He worries about the Santa Ana winds — those northeasterly gusts that every autumn fan the flames. He worries that his county, too, is at risk.

When I asked him where he most worries about being affected by future wildland-urban fires, he climbed onto a table to read the small print on a huge wall map of California. He ran one finger up the entire eastern edge of the Central Valley, reading out the name of every major town it crossed. Porterville. Mariposa. Sonora. Placerville. This state was built to burn.

The Santa Ana winds are blowing again. National Weather Service meteorologists have called this season’s gusts dangerous, extreme, and historic. Across the state, vegetation is parched, humidity is low, temperatures have hit record highs,  and some 60 miles north of St. John’s kitchen table, Sonoma County is smoldering. At the height of the October Kincade blaze, the evacuation zone covered some 180,000 people. 78,000 acres are black.  The latest Predictive Services report, released November 1, says large fire potential could last through the end of the year.

And in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, major storms are brewing. In Japan, Washington state, and the Gaza Strip, flood banks are breaking. Everywhere, rocks and mud and gas are being freed from the ice. And every town, like Paradise one year ago, is on a precipice: It’s a place like any other, in a world that has already changed.

***

Sarah Trent is a freelance journalist covering the environment, food systems, economic development, and the ways everyday people around the world are affected by the climate crisis and environmental degradation.

Editor: Kelly Stout Fact checker: Steven Cohen Copy editor: Jacob Gross

[cindavis]

Spit on Your Hand, Jerk Off and Then Get Ready to Get Excited: Catastrophe, Season 3 Is Coming 

[nonprocycling]

@robdelaney @SharonHorgan Fitting send-off: Carrie Fisher is in full force in finale of Catastrophe season 3 https://t.co/4Xjt3gJyGJ via @smh

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Week 15 Fantasy Busts: Tyreek Hill, DeMarco Murray to have owners tilting

Week 15 Fantasy Lames: Petty, Anderson won’t rekindle 2016 magic

Each week the Noise highlights 10 somewhat un-obvious names whom he believes are destined to implode leave egg on his face. To qualify, each player must be started in at least 50 percent of Yahoo leagues. Speaking as an accountability advocate, I will post results, whether genius or moronic, the following week using the scoring system shown here (Thresholds – QB: 18 fpts, RB: 12 fpts, WR: 11 fpts, TE: 10 fpts). If you’re a member of TEAM HUEVOS, reveal your Week 15 Lames in the comments section below.

Jared Goff, LAR, QB (58 percent started; Yahoo DFS: $33) Matchup: at Sea Before the regular season commenced, my podcast partner Brandon Funston and I playfully nicknamed the Rams quarterback after a mediocre German beer, “Gaffel.” After Jeff Fisher ruined Goff his rookie year, the look, the taste, the smell … it ALL applied. It explained why the industry consensus ranked him outside the position’s top-20. But because of Sean McVay’s genius, the once skunky QB is going down with the hoppy delight of a Heady Topper. His pronounced strides surveying defenses while consistently attacking outside the numbers has led to striking improvements in multiple categories, particularly yards per attempt (’16: 6.1, ’17: 8.1), deep-ball completion percentage (25.0, 37.0) and overall passer rating (63.6, 99.2). Vaulting up the ranks, he’s consistently fallen inside the QB top-12 on a week-in, week-out basis. However, this time around I believe he doesn’t deliver starter-level production. Yes, even against a Seattle secondary down Richard Sherman. Without the decorated corner’s services, the Seahawks’ pass D hasn’t come unglued. It has relinquished 275.3 pass yards per game, but Blake Bortles is the only passer to reach 18.0 fantasy points against it during that timeframe. Emerging star Shaq Griffin (51.9 passer rating allowed since Week 10) and Seattle’s hard-hitting safeties have picked up the slack. In hostile territory, expect Goff to tally a similar line as he did in the first meeting (268-0-2-22).

Fearless Forecast: 273 passing yards, 1 passing touchdown, 3 turnovers, 10 rushing yards, 12.9 fantasy points

Samaje Perine, Was, RB (60 percent started; Yahoo DFS: $17) Matchup: vs. Ari Perine, who came on like gangbusters post Rob Kelley and Chris Thompson shelvings, has cooled significantly. Scalding against New Orleans (126-1) and New York (130-0), he fell into a deep freeze in followups vs. advantageous opponents Dallas (69-0) and the L.A. Chargers (52-0). Victimized by poor blocking, game flow and his own sudden lack of YAC (2.24 YAC/att last two games) it seems his breakthrough efforts from just a couple of weeks ago were fleeting. In Week 15, don’t expect the rookie to quickly regain his previous form. It’s been an arduous journey to irrelevancy for the Arizona Cardinals. Catastrophic injuries, particularly to Carson Palmer and David Johnson, sapped any postseason possibilities. Problems at DB outside Patrick Peterson only piled on. Still, their lone silver lining is their rather inflexible defensive line. On the year, Karlos Dansby and friends have given up the seventh-fewest fantasy points, 3.43 yards per carry, 75.7 rush yards per game and seven rushing touchdowns (in 13 games) to running backs. Combine that with Washington’s patchwork offensive line and Perine’s ceiling is very limited. Kirk Cousins should be able to move the ball vertically with success, but bank on the RB adding to his string of sub 80-yard efforts.

Fearless Forecast: 16 carries, 58 rushing yard, 3 receptions, 21 receiving yards, 0 touchdowns, 9.4 fantasy points 

DeMarco Murray, Ten, RB (63 percent started; Yahoo DFS: $18) Matchup: at SF Every Saturday night clubs thump the latest, hottest tracks for partygoers aching to escape reality. Drinks flow. Inhibitions disappear. Inevitably, fleeting romances bloom. Hey, many people, no matter how flawed, look good under colored lights. Murray and Henry are fantasy’s version of those willing dance partners. Most would automatically assume they’re worth entertaining due to the opponent, San Francisco, but looks they are often deceiving. Cast a bright light on the situation and an aghast reaction is sure to happen. Yes, the Niners rank No. 8 in most fantasy points surrendered to RBs on the season, but they’ve greatly improved in the category down the homestretch. In fact, since Week 9 no franchise has yielded fewer fantasy points to rushers. Over that span, the Niners have coughed up just 3.74 yards per carry, 120.2 total yards per game and zero touchdowns, containing the likes of Lamar Miller and Jordan Howard. What explains the turnaround? Reuben Foster. Per Pro Football Focus, the rookie from ‘Bama has posted the second-best run-stop percentage among linebackers in the past six weeks. Throw in the fact Murray is essentially locked into a 50/50 timeshare with Derrick Henry and has compiled an appalling 2.88 yards per carry over the past five weeks, and he’s easily avoidable. Henry, too, shouldn’t be counted on. The Niners’ run D is officially legit.

Fearless Forecast: 12 carries, 41 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 17 receiving yards, 0 touchdowns, 

Tyreek Hill, KC, WR (94 percent started; Yahoo DFS: $29) Matchup: vs. LAC

If a strawberry-flavored gumdrop sprouted feet and owned the athleticism to rip off a 4.34 40-yard dash, it would be Hill. The short, stocky and blazing fast receiver has packed plenty of fantasy sweetness this season. Though a bit inconsistent for some likings – he’s finished short of the 10 fantasy-point line in standard leagues eight times – “The Freak” checks in at No. 6 in total points scored at wide receiver. When the play calling has been aggressive, allowing Alex Smith to tap into his attacking alter ego, Hill has knifed through the opposition. No defensive scheme, even Cover 2s, can contain the guy. His speed and evasiveness are nearly unmatched. Casey Hayward, though, may be the exception. Arguably the tough cover man currently in the league, he’s transformed several fantasy princes into paupers. His list of the vanquished reads like a Pro Bowl roster – Demaryius Thomas, Brandin Cooks, Dez Bryant, Amari Cooper (Ok, maybe more of a human gutter ball) and Alshon Jeffery. Targeted 65 times, he’s given up a mere 28 receptions (43.1 catch%) and posted a 51.3 passer rating, the fifth-lowest among qualifying defensive backs. Hill scurried his way to a 5-77-1 line in the first matchup back in Week 3. However, the Chargers, riding the crest of a late-season tidal wave, have allowed ONE touchdown to a wide receiver since Week 7. Calculate the variables and the solution for Hill isn’t a positive one.

Fearless Forecast: 5 receptions, 56 receiving yards, 7 rushing yards, 0 touchdowns, 8.8 fantasy points 

Robby Anderson, NYJ, WR (76 percent started; Yahoo DFS: $27) Matchup: at NO

This time last year, Anderson poured fantasy risk takers an oversized cup of cheer. Against an overly generous Miami secondary, he left defenders in the dust catching a long bomb from then starter Bryce Petty. His final 4-80-1 line proved to be a large enough jackpot to score owners playoff riches. Coincidentally enough, he’s placed in a familiar position. Josh McCown, out for the season with a broken left hand, thrusts Petty back under center. The QB’s established chemistry with Anderson offers promise, but the result this time around will be very, very different. Yes, the receiver has developed into a well-versed commodity, shedding his streak-only image. One of the more profitable wideouts in fantasy this season, he ranks WR10 in points scored. Netting 23.1 percent of the targets share, he’s repeatedly torched defenses downfield (2.26 yards per pass route (WR10)) and emerged as a reliable red-zone asset. But despite his advancements and rapport with Petty, he’s tough to trust in Week 15. Marshon Lattimore lurks. The talented rookie, who typically shadows assignments, has given up the third-lowest passer rating (47.3) among all DBs along with a 53.4 catch percentage and 12.4 yards per catch. Altogether the Saints have allowed 7.1 yards per attempt and the seventh-fewest fantasy points to WRs over their last eight contests. Anderson has fallen short of the 75-yard mark only three times since Week 6, but a second-consecutive dud is entirely possible.

Fearless Forecast: 4 receptions, 57 receiving yards, 0 touchdowns, 7.7 fantasy points

BONUS WEEK 15 LAMES

#TEAMHUEVOS PICKS OF THE WEEK

Each week one fortunate guest prognosticator will have a chance to silence the Noise. Following the rules stated above, participants are asked to submit their “Lames” (1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 D/ST) by midnight PT Tuesdays via Twitter @YahooNoise. How large are your stones?

Brady, kamara, Morris, Fitzgerald, Hilton, Doyle, Seahawks

— lazersho (@lazersho) December 12, 2017

Reader Week 14 Results: 2-5 (Season: 43-55) My Week 14 Results: 3-7 (Season: 92-48) (W: Mike Evans, Christian McCaffery, Kirk Cousins; L: Russell Wilson, Jordan Howard, Julio Jones, Leonard Fournette, Devin Funchess, Kyle Rudolph, Denver D/ST)

Want to bull rush Brad? Follow him on Twitter @YahooNoise. Also check out his TV show, “The Fantasy Football Hour,” now available in 75 million households on Fox Sports Regional networks and his new podcast, “The Fantasy Record.”

[bondi-oldgirl]

Catastrophe

One of the unexpected benefits of being an Outlander “fruit loop” is seeing fans talk about about other shows that might not be on your radar. 

@cabochonruby  has already given this show a plug, but I thought I would add my 2 cents worth.

I didn’t watch the first time round,  caught up on repeats after folk started raving about it.  Original, funny, uncomfortable to watch sometimes.  Lots of bad language and adult concepts, so not suitable for the kiddies.  I love it.

Carrie Fisher has a supporting role as Rob’s Mom.  It’s going to be weird? sad? I don’t know the right word to use... it’s going to be difficult watching Carrie’s last performance when Season 3 airs.  Added bonus - Tobias appears briefly in Seasons 1 and 3.  

I have a link to the Catastrophe Facebook page with video of the first program, with funny pop up commentary from Sharon and Rob.  Couldn’t get it to load (I think the url is too long).  But if anyone is interested I could try sending in DM. 

If you are all ready a fan, the added commentary is nearly as good as the original script.

[reincarnatedasacupcake]

Art by Simini Blocker

August was a blur, wasn't it? I blinked and it was over. Somehow I managed to actually get a few books read while it all rushed by. Here are the books that I read this month:

Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5)

by Sarah J. Maas

704 Pages (25:23 Hours)

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those don't.

As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

Aelin's journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down?

I went into this book thinking that it was the last one in the series. Boy was I surprised when it left off on a bit of a cliff hanger. I then discovered that there will be at least 2 more books in this series with the next one coming out in a few more days! Woohoo! I really like this series and I want to know what's going to happen next.

The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1)

by Brent Weeks

661 Pages

Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

This was my RBA book of the month and I really enjoyed it. It was really refreshing to have a cast made up almost entirely of POC characters. I wish more writers would do this. I also really enjoy the style of magic, which is based on colours. I think colour magic might be my favorite type of magic (other than baking magic, of course). I really enjoyed the characters and the plots of this book and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

331 Pages (11:00 Hours)

The Handmaid's Tale is not only a radical and brilliant departure for Margaret Atwood, it is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men of its population.

The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment's calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid's Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.

Everyone is abuzz with  The Handmaid's Tale TV series, and I'll admit I was intrigued by all the talk. I don't have cable, so I can't watch the show, so I decided to listen to it instead. That and I like to have the book under my belt before seeing a recreation of it. 

The story, although simplistic on the surface, has a deep undercurrent as you delve into what happened through Ofglen's memories. Even though this was written in the '80s, it still feels very current, as if this could happen at any time. Sometimes the best dystopian novels are the simplest ones. I'll let you know if the book was better.

Thistle & Thorne

by Ann Aguirre

103 Pages (3:08 Hours)

After a catastrophic spill turns the country into a vast chemical wasteland, those who could afford it retreated to fortresses - self-contained communities run by powerful corporations. But for Mari Thistle, life on the outside - in the Red Zone - is a constant struggle. To protect her family, Mari teams up with the mysterious Thorne Goodman. Together, they'll face an evil plot in both the underworld of the Red Zone and the society inside the fortresses that could destroy those on the outside...for good.

Speaking of dystopian novels, this story falls more into the fantastical side of it. It wasn't chilling or thought provoking like The Handmaid's Tale was, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Ann Aguirre never dissapoints and I always enjoy picking up her stories. In 3 hours, she can still give you in-depth characters to love and a underdog fight to cheer for.

Gather the Daughters

by Jennie Melamed

341 Pages (10:09 Hours)

NEVER LET ME GO meets THE GIVER in this haunting debut about a cult on an isolated island, where nothing is as it seems.Years ago, just before the country was incinerated to wasteland, ten men and their families colonized an island off the coast. They built a radical society of ancestor worship, controlled breeding, and the strict rationing of knowledge and history. Only the Wanderers--chosen male descendants of the original ten--are allowed to cross to the wastelands, where they scavenge for detritus among the still-smoldering fires.The daughters of these men are wives-in-training. At the first sign of puberty, they face their Summer of Fruition, a ritualistic season that drags them from adolescence to matrimony. They have children, who have children, and when they are no longer useful, they take their final draught and die. But in the summer, the younger children reign supreme. With the adults indoors and the pubescent in Fruition, the children live wildly--they fight over food and shelter, free of their fathers' hands and their mothers' despair. And it is at the end of one summer that little Caitlin Jacob sees something so horrifying, so contradictory to the laws of the island, that she must share it with the others.Born leader Janey Solomon steps up to seek the truth. At seventeen years old, Janey is so unwilling to become a woman, she is slowly starving herself to death. Trying urgently now to unravel the mysteries of the island and what lies beyond, before her own demise, she attempts to lead an uprising of the girls that may be their undoing.GATHER THE DAUGHTERS is a smoldering debut; dark and energetic, compulsively readable, Melamed's novel announces her as an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

I guess I really wanted dystopian audiobooks this month. This book straddles the line between not real and too real. It was thoroughly disturbing while also being whimsical and innocent, which I think might make it more disturbing. The terrible things that happen are never spoken aloud or even put into words, so it took me a little while to understand what they were referring to. There were many parts that made me want to cry or to stop listening, but the story of these girls begs to be listened to and acknowledged. 

Blood's Pride (Shattered Kingdoms #1)

by Evie Manieri

435 Pages

Evie Manieri's Blood's Pride is the first book of The Shattered Kingdoms, an engaging, action-packed, and "highly imaginative" (Kirkus Reviews) series of fantasy novels with epic scope and "the perfect mix of romance, family ties, betrayals, and agonizing dilemmas" (RT Book Reviews).

Rising from their sea-torn ships like vengeful, pale phantoms, the Norlanders laid waste to the Shadar under cover of darkness. They forced the once-peaceful fisher folk into slavery and forged an alliance with their former trading partners, the desert-dwelling Nomas tribe, cutting off any hope of salvation.

Now, two decades after the invasion, a rebellion gathers strength in the dark corridors of the city. A small faction of Shadari have hired the Mongrel, an infamous mercenary, to aid their fledgling uprising—but with her own shadowy ties to the region, she is a frighteningly volatile ally. Has she really come to lead a revolution, or for a more sinister purpose all her own?

I really wanted this book to be good. I mean, just look at that cover! It's not often that you see a badassed chick covered in that many scars. I wanted to know her story.... I still want to know her story.... This book had so many plots that it was hard to get into any of them. I feel like this one book could've been stretched into at least 3 books and I would've read them all. There was major character development, but you knew so little about the characters that it didn't really make any difference to how I felt about them. In fact, I didn't care about any of them at all. Too bad. It makes me not want to read any more of the series. 

Books that I am currently reading

Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow #2)

by Anthony Ryan

425 of 602 Pages (17:03 of 24:39 Hours)

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

65 of 603 Pages

Ascent of Women by Sally Armstrong 70 of 320 Pages

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 102 of 228 Pages

Rhapsody: Child of Blood (Symphony of Ages #1)

by Elizabeth Haydon

197 of 656 Pages (9:46 of 30:08 Hours)

The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson (Butterfly Effect #1)

by Jon Ronson

20 of 200 Pages (0:26 of 3:27 Hours)

Ashes of Honor (October Daye #6)

by Seanan McGuire 

78 of 353 Pages

[junker-town]

Fantasy football 2017: 2nd-year breakout candidates

We sifted through all of the 2016 rookies and made a list of 12 players who could break out in their second fantasy football campaign.

Fantasy Football is back everyone! Championship-level team owners are looking for that extra edge every season, and that means finding players in later rounds with high value. Rookies are covered at large, but sometimes players in their second season make enormous jumps in play after a year of experience. Some start on the bench while others are thrown in the fire their first year. We sifted through all of the 2016 rookies and made a list of 12 players who could break out in their second fantasy football campaign.

Quarterbacks

Carson Wentz - Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles look like they have struck gold with Carson Wentz after a promising 2016 campaign. The second-year quarterback showed flashes of brilliance last year, particularly during the first half of the season. Wentz failed to reach 20 fantasy points in 10 of his final 12 outings, but that could be attributed to not having Pro-Bowl tackle Lane Johnson due to suspension and a lack of receivers who can create consistent separation. According to Pro Football Focus, Eagles receivers dropped a total of 36 passes in 2016, only to be surpassed by the Raiders’ receivers with 37 drops.

The front office recognized this problem and addressed the wide receiver position the first few days of free agency with signings of Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith. According to PFF, for comparison purposes, Jeffery has had 19 drops in 323 catchable targets in his career. Dorial Green-Beckham, Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor had 20 drops on 165 targets in 2016 alone. If Jeffery returns to 80 percent of his full potential and can beat some 1-on-1 coverage, I look for Wentz to break out this season by finishing as a mid-tier starting quarterback option in later rounds.

Jared Goff - Los Angeles Rams

When you are as terrible as Jared Goff was last year, the only direction you can go is up. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft struggled, to say the least, in his rookie campaign but I expect him to turn it around this season to make him a plug n’ play/injury insurance quarterback in deeper leagues. I believe general rookie mistakes, horrendous coaching on the part of Jeff Fisher and the rest of the staff, and the lack of overall offensive line talent did not set Goff up for success and caused his poor play.

This is a new season, and the Rams have a brand new coaching staff that will surely take them in a more positive direction. Sean McVay brings in a new style of play calling that will open up some easier throws for Goff. With an upgraded offensive line and multiple additions in the receiving core, I look for McVay to unlock Todd Gurley’s potential that was hindered by Fisher running him up the middle every play last season. If the Rams can generate a consistent running game, they have the defense to keep them in most of their games, which will give Goff ample opportunities to prove he can be a fantasy asset dependent upon the matchup.

Cody Kessler - Cleveland Browns

Cody Kessler will make the list as my long-shot breakout candidate at quarterback this season. Last year when healthy, the USC product held his own with 2,720 passing yards, 17 TDs and 13 interceptions behind a below-average offensive line. That changes in 2017 because the Browns will boast one of the best offensive lines in the league after making some big additions this offseason.

Three new offensive line additions combined with the return of 2016 first-round pick Corey Coleman, Kenny Britt from the Rams, and rookie tight end David Njoku (who was a NCAA high jump champion in college) will give Kessler multiple weapons he did not have last year. The Browns will be much more competitive in 2017, and I have a feeling Kessler is going to be one of the reasons why. Like I said, this "breakout" season is a long shot, but I do not think it is inconceivable for Kessler to be a spot filler on bye weeks or be picked up as a "play-the-matchup" type player if catastrophic circumstances hit your team.

Running backs

Paul Perkins - New York Giants

The Giants backfield is a bit of a mystery going into 2017, and that is why Paul Perkins is a breakout candidate on my list. The UCLA product began getting touches midway through 2016 and he started the final two games of the season, including the Giants Wild Card Game. In an interview with WFAN, head coach Ben McAdoo said that Perkins will be the starting running back on first and second downs. It looks like they have Shane Vereen, who missed most of last season due to injury, penciled in as the third-down back.

I love Perkins’ upside this season because Vareen is a question mark with his injury history and there is not a veteran like Rashad Jennings to lean on. According to NumberFire.com, after the team’s bye week in 2016, Perkins saw his offensive snaps per game increase from 12.5 per game to 27.5 as the season progressed. The only question mark on his value comes from the team’s lackluster offensive line. The unit was not very good in 2016, and I don’t expect it to be much better in 2017. They did add Brandon Marshall opposite Odell Beckham Jr., so that should bring some defenders out of the box and possibly create some favorable run match-ups for the O-line. Perkins has a lot of value as a RB2/Flex player that you look for in the mid to later rounds.

C.J. Prosise - Seattle Seahawks

C.J. Prosise was an ninteresting player last season in the limited action he played for the Seahawks. The RB/WR tweener is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. He gashed opponents for big plays on his way to 172 yards on 30 carries (5.7 YPC) while also racking up 17 receptions for 208 yards (12.2 YPC, 11.5 per target) over limited touches in six games.

The concern for Prosise remains his health. He missed 12 games for the Seahawks his rookie season and missed multiple games for Notre Dame is his senior year with the Irish. Seattle should be able to ease him back into the fold with a healthy Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls heading into the season. I do not see Prosise as the bell cow back in this offense, but Seattle will certainly put together a package around Prosise’s versatility. He is a bigger, stronger, and faster version than Darren Sproles or Danny Woodhead and I expect him to be used similar to the way those two players are utilized.

Wide receivers

Josh Doctson - Washington

Another potential receiver breakout candidate is former TCU Horned Frog Josh Doctson. The 2016 first-round pick struggled to find his role in a very crowded and talented receiving core. He will surely get more opportunities in 2017 following the departures of DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon. That pair combined for 135 catches, 2,046 yards, and seven touchdowns on 216 targets in 2016, which will need to be made up by Doctson and free agent signing Terrelle Pryor.

Doctson should have a leg up on Pryor having already been in the system for a season. The Redskins offense is loaded with weapons that should create favorable matchups across the board. With Jordan Reed demanding double teams and Pryor’s size creating mismatch problems for defenses, I think Doctson will feast on favorable 1-on-1 matchups in a breakout sophomore season.

Corey Coleman - Cleveland Browns

Coleman has a chance to really break out in year two after showing flashes of success on a horrendous 2016 Browns team. He had seven catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns in his first two games before suffering a broken hand prior to Week 3. The Browns improved their offensive line this offseason and will have a top-10 unit if they stay healthy. Any sort of consistent running game should open up the middle for Coleman to work.

If you haven’t caught on to the theme of most of my breakout candidates, most have a significant receiver in their offense from 2016 moving to another team. For the Browns, it was Pryor who signed as a free agent in Washington. Coleman will have ample opportunities and targets opposite Kenny Britt. The Browns will be a much-improved team in 2017, and I think Coleman will be one of the bright spots the team will be building around in the future.

Michael Thomas - New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints may have had a bad record the last few years, but that is not because of their offense. The Saints led the league in total yards and passing yards in 2016. Second-round pick Michael Thomas was a large reason why. Thomas racked up 78 catches for 1,173 yards and eight touchdowns in just 15 games. His impressive rookie campaign was the second-most catches by a rookie receiver in NFL history, behind only Anquan Boldin’s 101 in 2003.

The reason I think Thomas can take his game to the next level and break out this season hinges on the departure of Cooks, who was traded to the New England Patriots this offseason. Cooks was a large part of the offense (1,173 yards, 8 TDs) and the Saints will need to make up his production, which will lead to an increase in targets for Thomas. Look for Thomas to be featured even more in New Orleans’ high-flying offense as it tries to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

Malcolm Mitchell - New England Patriots

Mitchell should be looked at in very late rounds and deeper leagues. The Super Bowl champs will be defending their title with even more weapons than last year. All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski will be returning from a back injury in addition to the acquisitions of Dwayne Allen and Brandin Cooks. Combine that with Julian Edleman, Danny Amendola, and the running backs the Patriots utilize and you see how many weapons Tom Brady has at his disposal.

The reasons I like Mitchell as a breakout candidate revolve around the fact that most of the Patriots’ elite weapons play on the inside of formations and will command most of the double teams. Mitchell, who is an outside receiver, should always be in 1-on-1 coverage. Brady knows this and will get him the ball when the time is right. Mitchell gained Brady’s trust toward the end of the season and finished with 32 catches for 401 yards and four touchdowns, including six catches for 70 yards in the Patriots’ Super Bowl win. I think he will build on his impressive rookie campaign during 2017.

Tight ends

Austin Hooper - Atlanta Falcons

Austin Hooper will round out my list by stepping in as the starting tight end for new Falcons offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. His rookie campaign ended with 19 catches for 271 yards and three touchdowns for the NFC champs. He also chipped in three catches for 32 yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl 51. Atlanta’s offense is a well-oiled machine that will not be slowing down no matter who is calling the plays. Hooper should be the beneficiary of favorable coverage with defenses having to key on the Falcons running game and All-Pro receiver Julio Jones. Dependent upon your draft style, if you are in need of a tight end in later rounds Hooper could be a streaming option.

Hunter Henry - Los Angeles Chargers

Henry appears on our potential bust list, but he could very well be a significant boom or bust player in 2017. He had a strong showing last season for the San Diego Chargers, finishing the year with 36 catches for 478 yards and eight touchdowns on 54 targets while splitting time with Antonio Gates. Gates is also returning this season, but at age 37 the likelihood he can match his earlier production is low. The now Los Angeles Chargers will have Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen returning from his ACL injury and they drafted All-American receiver Mike Williams with the No. 7 overall pick. That added firepower will open up coverage over the middle for Henry to take advantage of during his sophomore season. If he can shake Gates in the battle for targets, his upside is tremendous.