#Jason loves Gus Gus but will deny this

[fcthots]

ngl i see jason as a cat dad. like mf has this big FAT ginger and white cat and his name is gus

LMAO I LOVE THIS. Cats FLOCK to him. He has this reputation as the the Red Hood, the man who clawed his way out of his own grave. Went mad for revenge. Killed countless people.

But you’re watching him hold the cat he named Gus. And he’s showing Gus the tops of the tables and counters, telling him, “This is what you would be able to jump on and see if you weren’t such a fat fuck. Your twenty-five pound ass is making my arms sore.” The cat meows at him. “No, you can’t have a treat. That’s what this entire conversation has been about.”

The next minute, he’s cradling Gus like a human baby. “You’re so glorious, Gus. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. I love you. My sweet son.”

On more than one occasion Gus has smacked Jason, hissed, and then ran away to nap in your lap. You can hear Jason from the other room. “FUCKING TRAITOR. YEAH, GO RUN TO YOUR MOTHER. LET’S SEE IF SHE MIXES THE HARD FOOD AND SOFT FOOD THE WAY YOU LIKE IT.” Jason still ends up feeding Gus his special food even when Gus smacks him while he does it. “I AM FEEDING YOU. WHY DO YOU HATE ME?”

[lilyvalerieorchard]

As much as I hate Lily Orchard, white favoritism is a thing in pretty much every fandom. One example I can think off the top of my head in the toh fandom, was back when Thanks to Them aired, and many people mocked Luz's scene in the classroom (despite being literally a display of suicidal ideation) while writing thinkpieces about Hunter's mental health and abuse, basically ignoring the Black main character's mental health issues to focus on the white boy (hopefully this doesn't come off as me hating Hunter, I like him a lot, it's just an example)

Speaking of season 3, there was quite a group of people who hated on Luz due to her mental health issues, calling her selfish and ungrateful while she was struggling with self-destructive behavior while, once again, Hunter didn't get as much backlash for his ""selfish"" behavior in For the Future, as people mostly understood he was struggling with his mental health and grief. It's a sadly common thing in fandoms to narrow Black characters down as one dimensional and "bad", while white characters get a pass and sympathy from fans

Another example of racism in the fandom, is whitewashed art of Black and brown-skinned characters, mainly Luz, and how many artists don't take this topic seriously - that was more common in the early fandom, though, thankfully becoming less frequent as time went one

There's some other examples: in 2021, there was a Skara/Edric comic that spiraled huge controversy on Twitter due to Odalia objectifying Skara and referring to her as an "it", which has very clear racist undertones. Also, art on Twitter of Luz saying she's gonna "ruin" Amity's bloodline by joining her family, also having clear racist undertones (There's likely more, but these two are the first ones to come to my mind, as they received tons of deserved backlash)

So yeah, once again, I dislike Lily Orchard, but denying racism in the fandom is just... wrong. It may be a minority of fans, especially nowadays, but it's there and it harms people of color in the fandom, who tend to get mass harassment for calling it out. I also hope this doesn't come off as rude, the post just brought back some memories of my personal experiences in the fandom, and I thought I should share

Oh my...I never knew it was that bad. The large majority of the fandom loves Luz but to hear some truly nasty people treat her and the other BIPOC characters like this is just wrong. Speaking as comic and video game fan: I know how most of the Batfam fandom will erase Cass, Duke and Steph all while propping up white/white-passing male characters like Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian (nothing against either of them); how Marvel comic fans will downplay characters like Kamala and Miles or slut-shame MJ; how lead female characters of color in games like Forspoken, Dustborn and Mirror's Edge are lambasted as "too angry", "too vulgar", "too snarky", "too unlikeable" by gamers AND critics alike while angsty white male leads in certain popular games are given free passes. I feel you, There is rampant cishet white male favouritism in ALL of nerd culture and I absolutely hate it. For the record, I have nothing against cishet white male characters in general, I just cannot stand double standards that force female and minority characters to jump through multiple flaming hoops to prove their "authenticity". I looked up the whitewashing "fanart" people were drawing of Luz, Gus, Willow, and-

Disgusting.

*To those so-called "fans"*

If you think Luz, Guz, Willow, Darius, Camilia and others would be better if they were white, if you so happen to be inbred, racist piece of crap.

Get the Hell out and NEVER set foot in this fandom (or any fandoms) EVER AGAIN. Dana didn't create a beautiful whimsical masterwork of animation just so you could hijack it for portraying your own twisted Hapsburg utopia. In fact, she hates everything filth like you stand for. So once again, get out and get drenched by acid rain.

*sighs* That felt good.

Just remember: Plasma Lily stands with marginalized voices.

[cherrysugcr]

some blabbing about my muses can be found under this, it involves the elimination of some muses

I went through my extensive muse lists and found 66 of them did not have active threads, i have decided to remove some and move others onto the main pages in order to promote them more. below i will list the muses that are staying but are not actively involved in a thread, muses whose current faces are likely changing and those who are being moved to a general list of faces i would play if someone requested them. If you’re interested in any of the muses/faces below please reach out! I may be making starters with some of them soon if their muse speaks to me :)    **NOTE** IF YOU NOTICE YOU HAVE A THREAD WITH ANY OF THE MUSES LISTED IN THIS POST PLEASE MESSAGE ME AND I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE FOR THE ERROR ON MY PART 

Current Non-Active Muses:

Alexander (Raymond Ablack) Connor (Penn Badgley) Charlotte ‘Lottie’ (Madelyn Cline) Dorian (Jon Hamm) Damon (Rege Jean Page) Fred (John David Washington) Greer (Barbie Ferreira) Holly (Christina Hendricks) Iris (Gemma Chan) Jack (Colin Farrell) Jagger (Jack Harlow) Kylo (Dominic Fike) Piper (Maude Apatow) Poppy (Lily James) Rhys (Harry Styles, inspired by Jack in Don’t Worry Darling) Sean (Trevante Rhodes, face may be changing to Jonathan Majors) Stella (Hailee Steinfeld) Sutton (Dove Cameron) Titus (Jason Sudeikis) Valencio (Joe Manganiello) Vance (Ben Affleck) Wyatt (David Harbour) Troy (Charles Melton) Donovan (Jacob Elordi) Kieran (Joseph Morgan) Elton (Timothee Chalamet) Selma (Alexa Demie) Warner (Gavin Leatherwood) Sherrod (Brett Goldstein) Augustus ‘Gus’ (Tom Holland) Benedict (Ben Barnes) Cassie (Josie Totah) Beau (Jamie Dornan) Adam (John Krasinski) Deon (Michael B. Jordan) Rubio (Manny Montana) Ace (Skeet Ulrich) Landon (Chris Hemsworth) Adonis (Tom Ellis) Lucian (Idris Elba) Ross (Paul Rudd) Mark (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) MUSES WHOSE FACES ARE CHANGING AND TBD (their current faces can be requested no questions asked, I just feel these faces are losing popularity in the RPC and I want to stay current. The muse themselves, the character is still fresh for me which is why they are not being completely eliminated just revamped)

Brielle (currently Ariana Grande) Roman (currently Noah Centineo) Carina (currently Cindy Kimberly) Tripp (currently Beau Mirchoff) Crystal (currently Eiza Gonzelz) FACES WHO ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST WITH A BASIC MUSE/BACKSTORY  (The character behind these faces just aren’t sparking with me so their faces are being added to a list of general request for my writing partners this may be good to go or denied on how the musings are vibing at that time) Ben Platt (formerly Blaine) Tyler Hoechlin (formerly Elliot) Tom Bateman (formerly Evander) Zayn Malik (formerly Flynn) KJ Apa (formerly Memphis) Doja Cat (formerly Valencia) Tom Hiddlseton (formerly Wesley) Mishti Rahmen (formerly Cora) Niall Horan (formerly Grayson) Normani (formerly Serena) Kieran Culkin (formerly Tate) Sofia Jamora (formerly Whitney) Shawn Mendes (formerly Heath) Richard Madden (formerly Kingsley) Henry Goulding (formerly Reid) Jon Bernthal (formerly Rhett) 

If you’ve read all this, I appreciate you. It’s going to take some time to totally revamp my muse pages with the coding and everything but I will have this post easily referenced should there be any issues with my writing partners past, present and future until that work is completed. Thank you for your time! You’re lovely and I would hug you if I could. 

[we-want-mini-mini]

Since I have no self restraint, I’m writing another prompt/one shot.

Essentially, normal girl Lia (or some OC) whose a big fan of DC comics and the like ends up in a weird inter dimensional accident and ends up in the DC universe (it can be a mix of canon because fuck canon, up to you).

But, where did Lia end up exactly? Fucking Gotham.

The moment she realizes this is decides: Nope. Nah. Nada. No sir-y. This is NOT happening. Fuck this. I might end dying, or, worse, BECOME A FUCKING MAIN CHARACTER IN THE BAT CLAN. NAH. HELL NO.

Lia decides that, no, she will not involve herself in the Bat Clan/Wayne’s at all. Nope. Nah. Too much drama. Too much angst. Too much fucking skin tight suits and my poor Pan heart can’t TAKE all the HOT, RIPPED hero’s like what the fuck.

Now, this can play out in a variety of ways:

Lia is, say, around the same age as one of the Batboys. It can be any of them, up to you. Now, she some how ends up in Gotham Acdemy and begrudgingly befriends them. Cue angst (especially if its Jason. Considering in canon, if Jason survives he becomes Red Robin thats all I know lmao). If Lia is friends with the second Robin, it’d bring up the deliemma of: does she tell him that he’s gonna fucking die and then come back to life. Oh and, she’s actually from an alternate world were everyone thats like a superhero/vigilante is a fictional character. Honestly, if done well, can definitely stir the feelings of the poor saps who read the moral deliemma of Lia. Now, who is Lia? Someone who doesn’t want to get involved. If she avoids Jason in the beginning, does she have doubts and wants to warn Batman of Jason impending death or not? Like, that sort of shit panic attack inducing. There’s a lot of things you guys can do to torture not only Lia, but also the readers who might be like: “TELL HIM! TELL HIMMMMM!!!” or, “fuck, even I don’t know what I’d do” and etc. There’s a lot of leeway.

They are grown, and are in college (let’s say the events of Death in The Family happened and everything surrounding Red Robin striking out to find Bruce whose lost in time). This Lia is much older, recently graduated from college and currently interns for Wayne Enterprises. See, Lia is just another intern in a global colgomerate cooperation, there’s no way she’d ever run into any of the Wayne’s. None at all. But. But. She does. Some how she becomes the Executive Assistant to Tim (he once saw how she managed an entire fucking department’s schedule even though a group of people spontaneously quit. She was able to somehow salvage that shit in under three hours. And, Tim might or might not have fallen slightly in love with her—). Lia, now, a fresh 20-something year old, is now the Executive Assistant to another 20-something year old who happened to run one of the most rich and powerful companies in the entire world holy shit. Now, we follow the adventures of Lia, whose now one of the most powerful persons in the entire company (and proxy the world, I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️). Lia, let’s say, is a fucking god at manipulating people, making connections, accounting and management, and also a Very Tired Recently Graduate of GU. She, cannot, and will not deal with the constant bullshit that the Bats pull regularly. So, Lia can either passive aggressively hint that, yeah Tim, you definitely got that broken arm from a golf accident. Oh hey, I also heard the Red Robin foughy Killer Croc and also sported a broken left arm like you! What a coincidence, right? And she’d say this with a straight face. Tim knows that she knows, and Lia knows that Tim knows and yeah. Alternatively, she could outright tell him: “look, Tim, I swear to god, if you put off another meeting without a day notice just because some gang member got the better of you.” “Wait, gang member—?” “—do NOT interrupt me. Look, I know Bruce Wayne is Batman. Not the whole, ‘Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same person! The butts match!’ type of thing. I know he is Batman, you Red Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Red Hood is the weirdly alive Jason Todd, etc etc. There’s no point in feigning the fact that I don’t know. Because, I do.” They stare at eachother for a bit, and Tim falls just a little more in love. “How... Actually it’s dumb to ask you how you know, but, how long?” “Good tactic to ask me how long I’ve know instead of how I know. But, to answer your question: I’ve know since I was around...” THE FRAME FREEZES now, should Lia say 8, since, technically, she’s know since she was 8 that Bruce Wayne is Batman, considering the whole parallel universe thing. Or, does she say 18, the age in which she arrived into this world? Now, that decision can prompt many things to happen. For one, if Lia says 8, Tim is gonna be so awestruck and also be dry curious. If 18, Tim is still amazed (that she knows at all). Either answer would also illicit this response: “...you’ve known for so long, yet never told anyone?” Lia shakes her head. “You guys have a secret identity for a reason. Plus, I’m not in the business of becoming a vigilante or whatever. I’ve tried my best to steer clear of all of that, in all honesty.” “Huh. Makes sense. Wait. Then... why did you start working at WE, if you knew our identities?” Lia stares at him like he’s grown three heads. “Dude. This is WE. One of the most powerful companies out there, why wouldn’t I work here? But, the ither fact of the matter is that I didn’t expect to become your fucking Executive Assistant. Like, I couldn’t just deny the offer, my mother would’ve disowned my ass the second she heard I turned down such a prestigious position.” Lia shuddered. “Fuck, I can hear her curse me out in like, five different languages.” Let’s also say, at one point or another, Lia’s mother arrives, and say, is the most terrifying person Tim has ever met (and Tim’s faced off against Ra’s al Ghul, a functionally immortal man with a fucking army of highly trained assassin at his disposal).

Lia is tame honest to god tame compared to her mother (if her mother is like, 5’3”, that’s even more hilarious tbh). Essentially, if Lia’s older and somehow become Executive Assistant to Tim (or Bruce, because, fuck canon) it would be so god damn funny (read “The Executive Assistant To Batman” in which Tim nene became Robin but still knows the identities of the various Gotham vigilantes. Oh, and, he’s the Executive Assistant to Batman. It’s so fucking hilarious and y’all gotta check it out. It’s on AO3).

Number 2, is a lot more light hearted compared to the moral deliemma of Number 1 (as, is Lia is the same age as Robin!Jason, and knows that he’s gonna die, but she also doesn’t want to get involved with the vigilantes presents a very large problem). Number 1 is great for angst and a character study for this OC. Number 2, is a more light hearted, fun scenario (as it avoids the can of worms called “Do I Warn the Bats of Robin!Jasons impending death or not because I honestly don’t want to get involved with the Bat.”.

I, personally, would love to read Number 2 (please make Lia, or whatever OC, a god damn Tired of Your Bullshit, amazing assistant to the CEO of WE, competent af and very, Very Tired of the Bats BS, and, PR is Going To Skin Me Alive and Roast Me Over A Flame). Maybe some drama, angst sprinkled in (there’s the blatant fact that, Lia is a completely different world. One that has superhero’s, aliens, magic and so, so much more. The fact that she’s in her doppelgänger’s body could cause some dissociation/body dysphoria and that sort of stuff. It’s a great opportunity for a character study for Lia/your OC).

Regardless of you choose 1 or 2, the basic premise is:

Some rando kid (or young adult, whichever strikes your fancy) who loves to read Batman/DC in general. Ends up in some weird ass accident that lands them in the DC universe, specifically Gotham. Everything about their pervious life and the life in his world is the same (or not, up to you), only difference is that there’s an alien powered by the Sun and that cannot he injured (unless it’s by a glowing green rock). They decide, pretty early on, that they want nothing to do with the vigilantes of Gotham (which also means they have to avoid the Wayne’s and Co, which should be ways right? Right?? Gotham is really big, I’ll probably only ever see them in passing, I’ll be fine—). But, the universe said, LOL, nope. And they end up befriending the Wayne’s somehow. The rest? Up to you. If they befriend Robin!Jason they have to cope with the moral deliemma of getting involved to save his life or not. Or, maybe this is the world where Dick is still Robin. Do we save Jason early on, or not? What about Tim? Cass? Stephanie? Or, what if, they end up in a world in which Jason died and came back, Bruce came back from being lost in the time stream and Damian is now Robin.

Essentially: OC ends up in the DC universe, specifically Gotham. Decided not to ever get in involved with the Vigilantes/Wayne’s. However, the universe said nope and they become friends with one of the Bats/Waynes regardless. Now, how the fuck do they cope?

BONUS: Lia manages to avoid the Wayne’s/Vigilantes of Gotham completely. How? She ends working for LexCorp. As Lex Luthors Executive Assistant (basically the same way as she became the Executive Assistant to Tim). Now, she has to cope with the fact that she works as the Executive Assistant for Lex fucking Luthor of all people. She can hear her mother shaking her head in Disappointment™️. She hates the universe. Also, Lex Luthor is pretty open about his Evil, Bastard Schemes with Lia for whatever reason (much to Lia’s utter fucking chargin). She discreetly sends info about these Evil, Bastard, Devious plans to the Bats. Cue her realizing that, to ensure Luthor doesn’t suspect her, she’s gotta get GOOD at hacking and computer science. And get good she does. Like, her utter fucking Done-ness over Luthors Supervillain ways and her wanted to never be found out by the Bats is like taken to Infinty in the 10 dial scale. Somehow, she manages to both avoid suspicion from Luthor (cue intense moments in which Luthor is talking to her, and he’s speaking in a weird direct way that makes Lia think he found out and she mentally plans for her subsequent “death” and fleeing of the country and when Luthor finishes his sentences it just him praising her or something else innocuous. Lia felt like the sun was lifted off her shoulders.) She’s always on edge. Her hair is slowly turning grey. Luthor notices and makes a comment and Lia simply laughs while making a underhand comment about how Luthors bald so he doesn’t need to deal with greying hairs. Lia stops laughing realizing oh shit I just insulted my boss in the most underhand way. What ghe fuck. But Luthor just laughs, much to Lia’s relief. Her hair is still greying from the stress. Anyways, she inadvertently becomes a techno vigilante that can rival the famed Oracle (let’s say, for the sake of this prompt, Lia’s code name is Reaper because she was drunk and apparently in the mind of her 13 year old self when she came up with it). Reaper’s name is slowly growing, as Lia does some other stuff with her new found skills in hacking. She mostly helps the Bats by giving them crucial info on Luthors dealings and the like.

One day, she realizes, that, oh shit. I became the one thing swore I’d never become. What type of Shakespearean shit is my life—

If someone does the situation in which Lia/their OC becomes Luthor Executive Assistant and then inadvertently becomes a Vigilante themselves because, sure, they don’t want to get involved, but, fuck Luthor and Eat the Rich. Also, I would love it if said fic included the most stress inducing scenes were it seems like Luthor found out about Lia and the whole Reaper situation but he actually DIDN’T and Lia is here like, sweating god damn bucks while her hair slowly falls out. Please. Write this shit. It would be

✨Immaculate✨

Anyways, hope you like this prompt/one shot because I damn well enjoyed writing it!

[jellicleetcetera]

Cats 2019: A Spectacle of a Trainwreck

I saw cats 2019. And I had a lot of thoughts about it. So I thought I'd write an essay. Because that's what I do when I have a lot of feelings about something. I write about it.

So, I’m going to start this off by saying that I’m actually a huge fan of the original musical. I get the songs stuck in my head constantly. My personal favorite rendition is the 1998 direct-to-video adaptation. When I first saw the trailer, I was terrified. I saw that they were adding a speaking plot, and I immediately knew there were going to be a lot of changes. I was prepared, though, because the original musical would be very hard to sell to general audiences. Hell, Cats is hardly a musical for people that like musicals. Cats us a beast of its own kind. A lot of changes would have to be made if this were going to do well at all in the box office. So, I promised myself that I would go into it with an open mind.

My mom asked me a couple months later if I would go with her to see it. Now, as most of you die-hards would know, seeing Cats with your mother is a very dangerous gamble. Either she’ll understand what’s going on in That Scene, or she won’t. But either way, you’ll be uncomfortable the whole time. I didn’t know if they were going to include the scene or not. I was hoping so because I would love to see the reactions, but also praying that it would be cut because Jesus Christ I’m seeing it with my mother. I agreed, though, because I knew I was contractually obligated to see this damn thing and if my mom took me I wouldn’t have to spend my own money on the ticket. So, the release happens, a few days go by, and then my mom and I walk into an empty theater on the morning of Christmas Eve.

It was certainly a spectacle of a film. Everything was super vibrant and flashy. I absolutely adored the giant sets. I honestly think it’s incredible that they actually built giant sets so the actors would look effectively cat-sized. They looked a little too small, but then again, Jellicle cats are rather small. Also, my sense of cat size is warped because my own cat, Comet, is absolutely massive. But I digress.

Aside from the set design and the flashy palette, though, one thing really bothered me visually. And it will surprise no one. I really, really didn’t like the cats themselves. Design-wise, fine, they’re alright. Their faces are a little creepy but it’s not that bad. Add a little more cheek fluff and you’re good. However, there’s a specific reason I didn’t like that they did CGI fur rather than practical costumes. It cheapened the dancing.

The moment you slap something CGI onto something real, it makes the real thing look like it’s CGI. That’s just unavoidable. During the whole movie, I couldn’t really get over the fact that they looked CGI because it made the dancing look like it was computer-animated rather than real people actually dancing. Which sucks, because when you look past the gross look of their digital fur, the choreography and the dancers were incredible. (Although I do wish it was a bit more… feline. The original musical’s choreography wasn’t as complex or impressive, but it really got the message across that they’re cats, and not just human dancers with cat features.) It’s really a shame. If they had been in practical costumes, they would have looked like much better dancers. Creating practical costumes would have also added a bonus of getting to create interesting, modern reimaginings of the old 80’s fluffy wigs and legwarmers.

Now, on to the story and characters. Some changes I liked, some I was fine with, and some I didn’t like one bit. I think it would be easiest to share all of my thoughts by going down the list of musical numbers and sharing my thoughts on each one, with some digressions to talk about other related things. I don’t think I need to say this, but many spoilers lie ahead. I’m going to mostly assume that you, the reader, have at least a basic knowledge of the original plot and characters of Cats, but I’ll fill in crucial details here and there as needed. Here we go.

When the movie opens, we’re treated to a fresh new story for one of the main chorus cats, Victoria. In this film, she’s an abandoned cat dropped off at the dump in a canvas bag. I immediately knew she’d be our main character. I found the decision to make her a newcomer to be a pretty smart one. Victoria became the audience stand-in, since the movie is assuming you’re going into this having never seen Cats.

Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats was a banger. Can’t deny that. It was fun and upbeat, and the choreography was great. I loved the junkyard set, too. Plus, through the speaking plot, they gave The Naming of Cats a little more justification. Honestly, I think the entire speaking plot was just a huge justification for the songs for people that can’t connect the dots between them. But whatever. Anyways. Macavity also appears in this scene, but I’m going to get to him later.

I wish they kept Victoria’s solo dance… you know, a solo. The dance with Munkustrap was lovely, but I wish Victoria got to keep it. This is due to my own personal bias of that dance being my favorite, though.

Now, The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball brings me to a character that changed a lot. Mr. Mistoffelees. They say, in his song, that he is vague and aloof. There was nothing vague nor aloof about this Mistoffelees. They turned him into a hapless, bumbling fool. Personally, I thought he was kind of cute, but it seemed like an unneeded change. The plot would have been fine without it. I liked his pencil wand, though. I suppose they wanted to make the relationship between Victoria and Misto more sympathetic? Rather than making Misto this cool, distant character that any newcomer kitty cat would fall for, they gotta make him clumsy and dumb so Victoria doesn’t look shallow I guess? I dunno. It’s fine. I’m fine with it. Everything’s fine.

Also that song was fine.

Gumby Cat. Oh, Jennyanydots, what have they done to you? Okay, I’ll say it, I’ve never really found Rebel Wilson to be all that funny. I know, boo me, I’m the worst, I suck, moving on. She was fine in this role, and I’ll admit, some of the gags were pretty silly and fun, but watching Cat Rebel Wilson eat tiny roach people was just… not great. Also, the mice were creepy. *shudders*

Now, I’m going to go into this next song’s review with a disclaimer. The Rum Tum Tugger, in Cats 1998 specifically, is my favorite character. I love him. He’s an 80’s rockstar himbo delight with a smooth, sexy voice and he knows it. God help me. When I heard Jason Derulo would be playing the new Tugger, I found it to be a pretty obvious choice in making Tugger new and hip to the modern crowd. It’s fine, I get it. However, making him, like… Not as smooth? I don’t get why they did that. He’s supposed to be an unflinching badass personification (catification?) of swag and confidence. I didn’t like that change one bit. #NotMyTugger

Grizabella the Glamor Cat was pretty great. I loved Jennifer Hudson killed her role in this movie. 10/10 amazing job. However, this song brings me to another matter entirely. I couldn’t tell who was singing it! Pretty much none of the chorus cats were recognizable to me. I could pick out Jemima and that’s pretty much it! It took someone telling me that they changed Demeter to a russian blue for me to even have a chance of knowing which one she was. Demeter is one of my favorite cats, and we’ll be talking about her again later.

Although I wasn’t expecting it, I really liked Bustopher Jones. I thought that it was fun that they really went for it, making him shown literally digging through the garbage for all of the gourmet food he loves so much. It’s not made very clear in the original musical that this was what it was implying. I’m glad they did this, because otherwise it probably would have flown over everybody’s heads. I miss the “toodle-pip” though.

I loved Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. They chilled it down a lot, which I was fine with, though I did miss their loud cockney accents and eccentric choreography. I also miss the double cartwheel… The movie made up for it, though, with having really fun imagery. This one was definitely my favorite one from the movie. They made them more like sly, seasoned mischief-makers, rather than boisterous bastards. (I do love bastards, though…)

I loved Old Deuteronomy. Judi Dench is wonderful, and that song is always a lovely delight. Not much else to say about it.

Can we get an F in chat for The Pekes and the Pollicles? It shall be missed.

They cut down a significant amount of the ten-minute dance sequence that takes place in the middle of the show. DAMN them for shortening it. Cowards, the lot of you. However, this also means they cut out That Scene. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. To those saying this movie is incredibly horny, I BEG you to go watch Cats 1998. THAT movie is horny. It has The Scene, and also a multitude of ass shots throughout the film.

Also I was fine with them changing Victoria’s dance with Plato. (I think they replaced him with Munkustrap? I don’t quite remember.)

I loved Memory. Jennifer Hudson. *chef’s kiss* Amazing.

Beautiful Ghosts was… fine. It was a lovely song, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t… sound like the rest of the musical. It sounds more modern than the rest of the soundtrack. And they modernized the soundtrack, too, so that’s saying something. It just felt a little out of place for me. Also, I don’t like its placement. Let me explain.

Grizzabella and Gus the Theater Cat are supposed to be comparisons of each other. They’re both old and nearing their final days, wishing for days long past. However, the thing that makes them different is their relationship to the other Jellicle cats. While Grizzabella is cast out and rejected, Gus is loved by the clan and he’s a very strong candidate for being the Jellicle choice. There’s already a song between their two songs, The Moments of Happiness, but that song acts as more of a bridge between the two songs, rather than an interruption like Beautiful Ghosts feels to be.

I liked Gus the Theater Cat. Ian McKellen seemed to like his role, which I liked. He’s amazing at everything he does, too, so his performance was no surprise.

Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat was fun and upbeat and everything I hoped it would be. 10/10 would tap dance again.

I didn’t like Macavity the Mystery Cat at all. They cut Demeter out of it entirely, removing her implied history with Macavity, and in the process removing her entire relationship with Bombalurina. Instead, they made Bombalurina Macavity’s bitch. She got the song all to herself. And I’ve gotta say it. I don’t like Taylor Swift. That song felt like nails on a chalkboard. I hated every moment of it. Also, I find it hilarious that they kept the lyric, “Macavity’s a ginger cat. He’s very tall and thin.” and he is very obviously none of those things in this movie.

I didn’t like a lot of things about Macavity, too. I liked Macavity he got more of a presence than in the stage musical, but some things were kind of… lame I guess. Some of the scenes on Growltiger’s boat (I thought they would do Growltiger’s last stand but I was wrong!) were slow and boring. Even their little “action” scene. They also removed the Macavity fight scene, where he tries to kidnap Demeter. Very cringe of them. ANOTHER thing that is very cringe fail terrible was what they did to Grizzabella. They stripped her of her original backstory and just made her Macavity’s ex. FORGET that. Horrible. Hate it. Stop making everything about Macavity.

Back to Mistoffelees and his own song. Although I didn’t like that they removed Tugger’s role in Mr. Mistoffelees, I understood why. They turned him into a main character, so of course he had to sing his own song. However, they kept the lyric, “His manner is vague and aloof,” (well, “My manner is vague and aloof.”) which I find very silly of them. Yet another lyric that directly contradicts what the movie is providing. Also, I didn’t like the lack of dancing in this scene! Mistoffelees is one of my favorite dancers in the original productions. Specifically the big, impressive toe touches. Cowards.

I wish they let Jemima keep her solo. I know why they gave her solo to Victoria, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Congrats, Webber, you got to cut your ex-wife’s part out of the musical. *claps*

I liked the reprise of Memory and the subsequent journey to the Heaviside layer. I loved the chandelier balloon, too. It was all very emotionally impactful. My mom literally cried next to me during Memory’s reprise. Amazing job.

I never really liked The Ad-dressing of Cats in the musical because it feels unnecessary after such an emotional, perfect ending note with the journey to the Heaviside layer, but this version was kind of fun, I guess. Old Deuts looking directly into the camera was a little off-putting, though.

Overall, I thought this movie was fine. Will I watch it again? I don’t know, maybe. If someone put it in front of me, I would probably watch it, but I’m probably not going to go seeking it out when Cats 1998 is right there. It was fun, and it was definitely a spectacle. But was it Cats? Mmmmmm… It sure does look like Cats, but it doesn’t really feel like Cats. Do I think it’s a good movie for someone that isn’t already a fan of the musical? I don’t know, maybe? I’m seeing that most people hate it, which is a shame. If anything, I hope this movie compels people to seek out other productions of this musical. It really is a fun romp of a musical that I think people might like if they give it a try. I mean, it was Broadway’s longest running show in its time for a reason.

Do I recommend this movie? Sure. Go see it if you want. I’m not about to give this movie a score out of ten, because I find those kinds of rating arbitrary. But sure, go see Cats. Maybe it’ll lead you toward the superior version. Cats 1998.

[wolfsnape]

Favorite Movies (no specific order)

- Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir)

- V for Vendetta (James McTeigue / Lana & Lilly Wachowski)

- War Horse (Steven Spielberg)

- The Last King of Scotland (Kevin MacDonald)

- Up (Bob Peterson & Peter Docter)

- Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski)

- Paranorman (Sam Fell & Chris Butler)

- Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)

- What We Did on our Holiday (Guy Jenkin & Andy Hamilton)

- Zootopia (Byron Howard & Rich Moore)

- What We Do in the Shadows (Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement)

- Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner)

- Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)

- Piano Forest (Masayuki Kojima)

- Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis)

- Atlantis : The Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)

- Treasure Planet (Ron Clements & John Musker)

- The Emperor’s New Groove (Mark Dindal)

- Dogma (Kevin Smith)

- Testament of Youth (James Kent)

- Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds)

- Filth! (John S. Baird)

- 120 battements par minute (Robin Campillo)

- Megamind (Tom McGrath)

- WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)

- Beetlejuice (Tim Burton)

- The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)

- Thor: the Dark World (Alan Taylor)

- Astérix et Obélix : Mission Cléopâtre (Alain Chabat)

- Anastasia (Don Bluth & Gary Goldman)

- 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)

- Troy (Wolfgang Petersen)

- Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho)

- Holy Grail (Monty Python)

- Night at the Museum (Shawn Levy)

- Bright Star (Jane Campion)

- Danish Girl (Tom Hooper)

- The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper)

- Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant)

- Birdy (Alan Parker)

- One Flew over the Coocoo’s nest (Milos Forman)

- Un crime au paradis (Jean Becker)

- Les Bronzés font du ski (Patrice Leconte)

- Le grand chemin (Jean-Loup Hubert)

- La grande vadrouille (Gérard Oury)

- Le petit baigneur (Robert Dhéry)

- The Addams Family (Barry Sonnenfield)

- Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki)

- The Road to El Dorado (Eric Bergeron & Will Finn)

- Bohemian Rhapsody (Bryan Singer)

- Ma vie de Courgette (Claude Barras)

- The Bronze (Bryan Buckley)

- La La Land (Damien Chazelle)

- The Grinch (Ron Howard)

- I... comme Icare (Henri Verneuil)

- Les enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné)

- The Indian in the Cupboard (Frank Oz)

- Zathura: A Space Adventure (Jon Favreau)

- E.T. (Steven Spielberg)

- The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan)

- Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore)

- 21 Jump Street - 22 Jump Street (Phil Lord & Chris Miller)

- Freak Friday (Mark Waters)

- The Mummy - The Return of the Mummy (Stephen Sommers)

- The Truman Show (Peter Weir)

- Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)

- Annie (John Huston)

- Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)

- Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)

- Begin Again (John Carney)

- Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve)

- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Jon Turteltaub)

- Knowing (Alex Proyas)

- The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich)

- Deux Frères (Jean-Jacques Anneau)

- I, Robot (Alex Proyas)

- Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)

- The Green Mile (Frank Darabont)

- Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis)

- October Sky (Joe Johnston)

- Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)

- Hatchi (Lasse Hallstrom)

- The Help (Tate Taylor)

- The Miracle Worker (Arthur Penn)

- Love Actually (Richard Curtis)

- The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)

- Frankenweenie (Tim Burton)

- Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)

- Mary and Max (Adam Elliot)

- Lilo and Stitch (Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders)

- Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore)

- The Black Cauldron (Ted Berman & Richard Rich)

- Balto 2 : Wolf Quest (Phil Weinstein)

- Die Welle (Dennis Gansel)

[rivjudephoenix]

Where are the receipts that river was bisexual?

Here’s some:

“There is no doubt in my mind that River was bisexual. I spoke with someone who knew him through PETA functions and she said that, after some of the functions, they used to go swimming in a river and everyone would take off their clothes including underwear. [River was a “boxers man”, by the way.] Then, they would get dressed and go dancing, and she said River would always dance and flirt with men. Women were flocking [to] him, trying to get into his pants, [but] he had no interest in them” - A source from In Search of River Phoenix (Biography)

“In late 1992, a gay filmmaker (not Van Sant) staying at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles heard a knock at midnight and discovered Phoenix outside, drunk and wanting to talk about his struggles with bisexuality. The filmmaker reassured him that it would all work out” - Esquire, March 1994 

In 1993 he was asked about the rumours of his bisexuality and he didn’t deny them but said something like (and I don’t have the exact quote because the article seems to have been removed from the web), whether he wanted a man or a woman depended on which side of the bed he woke up on that day

“Phoenix was also curious about what Parker called ‘the glamour of men wanting to touch our bodies.’ While filming his previous movie, Dogfight, [in 1990] Phoenix had received oral sex from another male actor, saying he needed to do it because ‘he was going to play a gay hustler.’ He had other brief involvements with men over the years, and it was no big deal to friends who knew. Phoenix simply didn’t censor his afflictions. ‘If he loved somebody, male or female,’ says one of Phoenix’s longtime girlfriends, Suzanne Solgot, ‘he felt he should check it out.’" - Esquire, March 1994

He was spotted at gay bars/nightclubs in the 90s and there have been name drops about specific men he was with e.g. Gus Van Sant said that River slept with the male cinematographer of Dogfight, Bobby Bukowski, before and after filming Idaho. Australian choreographer, Jason Gardiner, was asked who was the most famous person he’d kissed and he named River

[eggymovies]

Movies Watched in 2018

Here’s a list of every movie I watched in 2018 at home or in theaters, in order. Re-watches are listed as well so some things will appear move than one.

Mr. Roosevelt (Noel Wells) Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino) Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) Jumanji (Jake Kasdan) Split (M. Night Shyamalan) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (David Yates) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (David Yates) The Post (Steven Spielberg) Good Time (Josh and Ben Safdie) I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie) Paddington 2 (Paul King) The Big Sick (Michael Showalter) Get Out (Jordan Peele) The Greatest Showman (Michael Gracey) Coco (Lee Unkrich) Black Panther (Ryan Cooler) Creed (Ryan Coogler) Black Panther (Ryan Cooler) Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) Annihilation (Alex Garland) Thoroughbreds (Cory Finley) Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater) Before Sunset (Richard Linklater) A Wrinkle In Time (Ava Duvernay) Tomb Raider (Roar Uthaug) Justice League (Abrams/Snyder) Before Midnight (Richard Linklater) Game Night (John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein) Love, Simon (Greg Berlanti) Columbus (Kagonada) Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson) Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg) Pacific Rim: Uprising (Steve S. DeKnight) A Quiet Place (John Krasinski) Free Fire (Ben Wheatley) The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthamos) The Lovers (Azazel Jacobs) Blockers (Kay Cannon) Home Again (Hallie Meyers-Shyer) You Were Never Really Here (Lynn Ramsay) Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh) It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shultz) Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham) Beirut (Tony Gilroy) Avengers: Infinity War (Anthony and Joseph Russo) The Rider (Chloé Zhao) Kodachrome (Mark Raso) Tully (Jason Reitman) Rampage (Brad Peyton) Breaking In (James McTeigue) Life of the Party (Ben Falcone) Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis) Book Club (Bill Holderman) Beast (Michael Pierce) Deadpool 2 (David Leitch) First Reformed (Paul Schader) Solo: A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard) The Seagull (Michael Mayer) On Chesil Beach (Dominic Cooke) Training Day (Antoine Fuqua) Upgrade (Leigh Whannell) Tully (Jason Reitman) The Beguiled (Sophia Coppola) The Social Network (David Fincher) Beatriz at Dinner (Miguel Arteta) Burnt (John Wells) Hereditary (Ari Aster) Ocean’s 8 (Gary Ross) Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Morgan Nelville) American Animals (Bart Layton) Hearts Beat Loud (Brett Haley) Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird) Tag (Jeff Tomsic) Faces Places (Agnes Varda, JR) Set It Up (Claire Scanlon) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (J.A. Bayona) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick) Sicaro:Day of the Soldado (Stefano Sollima) Mamma Mia (Phyllida Lloyd) The Last Movie Star (Adam Rifkin) The First Purge (Gerard McMurray) Uncle Drew (Charles Stone III) Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell) Leave No Trace (Debra Granik) Ant Man and the Wasp (Peyton Reed) Coco (Lee Unkrich) Sorry To Bother You (Boots Riley) Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wandel) Skyscraper (Rawson Marshall Thurber) Killing Them Softly (Andrew Dominik) Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird) The Equalizer 2 (Antoine Fuqua) Mamma Mia 2 (Ol Parker) Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot (Gus Van Sant) Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie) Hot Summer Nights (Elijah Bynum) Sleeping With Other People (Leslye Headland) Mission: Impossible 3 (JJ Abrams) Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach) Jaws (Steven Spielberg) Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie) A Star Is Born (Frank Pierson) Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener) Blindspotting (Carlos López Estrada) Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham) Christopher Robin (Marc Forster) Set It Up (Claire Scanlon) The Witch (David Eggers) The Spy Who Dumped Me( Susanna Fogel) Under The Tuscan Sun (Audrey Wells) Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan) Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach) Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh) Puzzle (Marc Turletaub) Never Goin’ Back (Augustine Frizzle) Crazy Rich Asians (Jon M. Chu) Like Father (Lauren Miller Rogen) Reality Bites (Ben Stiller) Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater) Gattaca (Andrew Niccol) Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie) Please Give (Nicole Holofcener) Everybody Wants Some (Richard Linklater) We The Animals (Jeremiah Zagar) Before Sunset (Richard Linklater) Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski) Juliet, Naked (Jesse Peretz) Operation Finale (Chris Weitz) Searching (Aneesh Chaganty) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón) The Wife (Björn Runge) Before Midnight (Richard Linklater) Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) Columbus (Koganada) The Predator (Shane Black) Girls Trip (Malcolm D. Lee) Madeline’s Madeline (Josephine Decker) Black Panther (Ryan Cooler) The Land of Steady Habits (Nicole Holofcener) Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig) Slice (Austin Vesely) Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins) True Romance (Tony Scott) Blaze (Ethan Hawke) 20th Century Women (Mike Mills) A Simple Favor (Paul Feig) Colette (Wash Westmoreland) A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper) The Old Man and the Gun (David Lowery) Free Solo (Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi) Private Life (Tamara Jenkins) Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuarón) Venom (Ruben Fleischer) First Man (Damien Chazelle) Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance) Bad Times at the El Royale (Drew Goddard) Wildlife (Paul Dano) Beautiful Boy (Felix Van Groeningen) Halloween (David Gordon Green) Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen) mid90s (Jonah Hill) Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller) Bohemian Rhapsody (Bryan Singer) Boy Erased (Joel Edgerton) A Private War (Matthew Heineman) Burning (Lee Chang-dong) Green Book (Peter Farrelly) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel and Ethan Coen) Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen) Border (Ali Abbasi) Widows (Steve McQueen) First Reformed (Paul Schrader) Hail Caesar (Joel and Ethan Coen) Creed II (Steven Caple Jr.) The Front Runner (Jason Reitman) A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen) Thunder Road (Jim Cummings) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel and Ethan Coen) Ralph Breaks The Internet (Rich Moore, Phil Johnston) At Eternity’s Gate (Julian Schnabel) The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos) Copenhagen (Mark Raso) Roma (Alfonso Cuarón) Brad’s Status (Mike White) Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda) Minding The Gap (Bing Liu) La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Mary Queen of Scots (Josie Rourke) The Mule (Clint Eastwood) Minding The Gap (Bing Liu) Bumblebee (Travis Knight) Let The Sunshine In (Claire Denis) Spider-man: Into The Spiderverse (Bob Perischetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman) Crazy, Stupid, Love (Glenn Ficarra) Love, Actually (Richard Curtis) In Bruges (Martin McDonaugh) Momentum Generation (Jeff and Michael Zimbalist) If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) Aquaman (James Wan) Before We Go (Chris Evans) Vice (Adam McKay) Jackass 2 (Jeff Tremaine)

[malte1mj-blog]

2008 Movie Awards

Best Picture: The Dark Knight Milk Rachel Getting Married WALL-E The Wrestler HONORABLE MENTION: Doubt, The Class, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, Burn After Reading, Wendy and Lucy, Man on Wire, Hunger, Ballast, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Happy-Go-Lucky, Synecdoche New York Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Andrew Stanton, WALL-E Gus Van Sant, Milk HONORABLE MENTION: Laurent Cantet, The Class; Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, Burn After Reading; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Lance Hammer, Ballast; Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York; Kurt Kuenne, Dear Zachary; Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky; James Marsh, Man on Wire; Steve McQueen, Hunger; Kelly Reichardt, Wendy and Lucy; John Patrick Shanley, Doubt Best Actor: Michael Fassbender, Hunger Richard Jenkins, The Visitor Ben Kingsley, Elegy Sean Penn, Milk Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler HONORABLE MENTION: Francois Begeaudeau, The Class; Michael Cera, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist; Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man; Colin Farrell, In Bruges; James Franco, Pineapple Express; Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche New York; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Michael Pitt, Funny Games; Alejandro Polanco, Chop Shop; Jason Segel, Forgetting Sarah Marshall; Micheal J. Smith Sr., Ballast; Anton Yelchin, Charlie Barlett Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long Meryl Streep, Doubt Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy HONORABLE MENTION: Amy Adams, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day; Kate Beckinsale, Nothing But the Truth; Cate Blanchett, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Rebecca Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Scarlett Johansson, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Nicole Kidman, Australia; Melissa Leo, Frozen River; Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading; Frances McDormand, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day; Tarra Riggs, Ballast; Jess Weixler, Teeth; Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road Best Supporting Actor: James Franco, Milk Bill Irwin, Rachel Getting Married Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading HONORABLE MENTION: Russell Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall; Josh Brolin, Milk; Brady Corbet, Funny Games; Liam Cunningham, Hunger; Aaron Eckhart, The Dark Knight; Ralph Fiennes, In Bruges; Danny McBride, Pineapple Express; Liam McMahon, Hunger; Mos Def, Cadillac Records; Gary Oldman, The Dark Knight; Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire; Haaz Sleiman, The Visitor Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona Viola Davis, Doubt Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married Samantha Morton, Synecdoche, New York Evan Rachel Wood, The Wrestler HONORABLE MENTION: Hiam Abbass, The Visitor; Amy Adams, Doubt; Patricia Clarkson, Elegy; Vera Farmiga, Nothing But the Truth; Ari Graynor, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist; Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Anjelica Huston, Choke; Beyonce Knowles, Cadillac Records; Sophie Okonedo, The Secret Life of Bees; Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire; Tilda Swinton, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler; Debra Winger, Rachel Getting Married; Elysa Zylberstein, I’ve Loved You So Long Best Original Screenplay: Burn After Reading - Ethan Coen & Joel Coen Hunger - Steve McQueen & Enda Walsh Milk - Dustin Lance Black Rachel Getting Married - Jenny Lumet WALL-E - Pete Docter, Jim Reardon & Andrew Stanton HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, Ballast, Charlie Barlett, Chop Shop, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, I’ve Loved You So Long, Pineapple Express, Synecdoche New York, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Visitor, The Wrestler, Zack and Miri Make a Porno Best Adapted Screenplay: The Class - Francois Begaudeau, Robin Campillo & Laurent Cantet The Dark Knight - David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan Doubt - John Patrick Shanley Elegy - Nicholas Meyer Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy HONORABLE MENTION: The Counterfeiters, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Iron Man, Let the Right One In, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Speed Racer, Wendy and Lucy Best Ensemble: Burn After Reading The Class The Dark Knight Milk Slumdog Millionaire HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Funny Games, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Getting Married, Speed Racer, Synecdoche New York, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Zack and Miri Make a Porno Best Limited Performance - Male: Andre Blake, Rachel Getting Married Justin Long, Zack and Miri Make a Porno Denis O'Hare, Milk Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road J.K. Simmons, Burn After Reading HONORABLE MENTION: Alan Alda, Flash of Genius; Michael Caine, The Dark Knight; Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder; Bill Hader, Pineapple Express; David Rasche, Burn After Reading; Victor Rasuk, Stop-Loss; Mark Rendall, Charlie Barlett Best Limited Performance - Female: Patricia Clarkson, Vicky Cristina Barcelona Hope Davis, Synecdoche, New York Karina Fernandez, Happy-Go-Lucky Amy Ryan, Changeling Robin Weigert, Synecdoche, New York HONORABLE MENTION: Heather Burns, Choke; Zoe Kazan, Revolutionary Road; Jennifer Jason Leigh, Synecdoche New York; Lena Olin, The Reader; Amy Sedaris, Snow Angels; Sigourney Weaver, Vantage Point; Dianne Wiest, Synecdoche New York; Kristen Wiig, Ghost Town Breakthrough Performance: Ari Graynor, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist Alejandro Polanco, Chop Shop Tarra Riggs, Ballast Micheal J. Smith Sr., Ballast Jess Weixler, Teeth HONORABLE MENTION: David Kross, The Reader; Lina Leandersson, Let the Right One In; Charlie McDermott, Frozen River; Gabe Nevins, Paranoid Park; Esmeralda Ouertani, The Class; Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire; Rachel Regulier, The Class; Brandon Walters, Australia Best Film Editing: The Dark Knight - Lee Smith Hunger - Joe Walker Rachel Getting Married - Tim Squyres Slumdog Millionaire - Chris Dickens The Wrestler - Andrew Weisblum HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, Ballast, Burn After Reading, Chop Shop, The Class, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Dear Zachary, Doubt. Funny Games, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Iron Man, Let the Right One In, Man on Wire, Milk, Paranoid Park, Pineapple Express, Speed Racer Best Cinematography: Australia - Mandy Walker Ballast - Lol Crawley The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Claudio Miranda The Dark Knight - Wally Pfister The Wrestler - Maryse Alberti HONORABLE MENTION: Burn After Reading, Changeling, Chop Shop, Doubt, Elegy, Funny Games, Hunger, Let the Right One In, Milk, Paranoid Park, Rachel Getting Married, The Reader, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, Synecdoche New York, Wendy and Lucy Best Original Score: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Alexandre Desplat The Dark Knight - James Newton Howard & Hans Zimmer Milk - Danny Elfman Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman WALL-E - Thomas Newman HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, Burn After Reading, Changeling, In Bruges, I’ve Loved You So Long, Kung Fu Panda, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Revolutionary Road, Speed Racer, The Visitor, Waltz with Bashir, The X-Files: I Want to Believe Best Original Song: High School Musical 3: Senior Year - "I Want It All" - Matthew Gerrard & Robbie Nevil Slumdog Millionaire - "Jai Ho" - Gulzar & A.R. Rahman Synecdoche, New York - "Little Person" - Jon Brion & Charlie Kaufman WALL-E - "Down to Earth" - Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman The Wrestler - "The Wrestler" - Bruce Springsteen HONORABLE MENTION: Australia - “By the Boab Tree”; Bolt - “Barking at the Moon”; Cadillac Records - “Once in a Lifetime”; High School Musical 3: Senior Year - “High School Musical”; High School Musical 3: Senior Year - “A Night to Remember”; My Blueberry Nights - “The Story”; Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist - “Ottoman”; Sex and the City - “All Dressed in Love”; Slumdog Millionaire - “O Saya”; Trouble the Water - “Trouble the Water”; Twilight - “I Caught Myself” Best Art Direction: Australia - Beverly Dunn & Catherine Martin Changeling - Gary Fettis & James J. Murakami The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Zolfo Revolutionary Road - Debra Schutt & Kristi Zea Synecdoche, New York - Mark Friedberg & Lydia Marks HONORABLE MENTION: Burn After Reading, The Counterfeiters, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Iron Man, Milk, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Pineapple Express, Sex and the City, Slumdog Millionaire, Speed Racer, Vicky Cristina Barcelona Best Costume Design: Australia - Catherine Martin The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Jacqueline West Milk - Danny Glicker Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Michael O'Connor Sex and the City - Patricia Field HONORABLE MENTION: Burn After Reading, Cadillac Records, Changeling, The Counterfeiters, The Dark Knight, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Happy-Go-Lucky, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Iron Man, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, Speed Racer, Synecdoche New York, W., The Wrestler Best Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Dark Knight Frost/Nixon Hunger The Wrestler HONORABLE MENTION: Cadillac Records, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Iron Man, Let the Right One In, Milk, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Saw V, Sex and the City, Slumdog Millionaire, Speed Racer, Synecdoche New York, Tropic Thunder, Twilight, W. Best Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight Iron Man Pineapple Express Speed Racer WALL-E HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, Cadillac Records, Cloverfield, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Get Smart, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, The Incredible Hulk, Kung Fu Panda, Let the Right One In, Mamma Mia!, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Slumdog Millionaire, Tropic Thunder, The Wrestler Best Sound Editing: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Dark Knight Iron Man Speed Racer WALL-E HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, Cloverfield, Get Smart, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The Incredible Hulk, Kung Fu Panda, Pineapple Express, Saw V, Slumdog Millionaire, Tropic Thunder, The Wrestler, The X-Files: I Want to Believe Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Dark Knight Hellboy II: The Golden Army Iron Man Speed Racer HONORABLE MENTION: Australia, Cloverfield, Eagle Eye, Get Smart, The Incredible Hulk, Tropic Thunder Best Foreign-Language Film: The Class - Laurent Cantet The Counterfeiters - Stefan Ruzowitzky I've Loved You So Long - Philippe Claudel Let the Right One In - Tomas Alfredson Waltz with Bashir - Ari Folman HONORABLE MENTION: JCVD Best Documentary: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father - Kurt Kuenne Man on Wire - James Marsh Taxi to the Dark Side - Alex Gibney Trouble the Water - Carl Deal & Tia Lessin Young@Heart - Stephen Walker Honorable Mention: HONORABLE MENTION: Bigger Stronger Fast, Encounters at the End of the World, Religulous, Standard Operating Procedure, Waltz with Bashir Best Animated Film: Bolt - Byron Howard & Chris Williams Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who - Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino Kung Fu Panda - Mark Osborne & John Stevenson WALL-E - Andrew Stanton Waltz with Bashir - Ari Folman Every 2008 Film I've Seen: Ranked

[auburnfamilynews]

The Tigers will host five more top targets this weekend in an effort to close out the 2019 cycle strong.

It’s plenty busy on the recruiting trail right now. Auburn coaches are traveling all over the country (more on that later) visiting not only their top targets in the 2019 class but future classes as well. Offers are flying out daily to top level 2020, 2021 and yes even the occasional 2022 prospects. This is typically one of the busiest times of the recruiting cycle as coaching staffs attempt to put the final touches on their signing class and start building momentum for next year.

Official Visitors

Like last weekend, Auburn is expecting five official visitors on campus over the next couple of days. Unlike last weekend, I think there’s a VERY good chance the Tigers add a commitment by Monday. Here’s a look at who is expected on campus later this evening.

4* ATH John Rhys Plumlee | 6’1” | 185 lbs | Hattiesburg, MS | UGA Commit

This was the big surprise of the week. The longtime Dawg commit may have lost his place in that class when UGA pulled off a late flip of former Ohio State QB commit Dwan Mathis during the early signing period. There’s been rumors in recent weeks that Plumlee is being asked to blueshirt (explanation of a blueshirt) which may have put the talented athlete back on the market.

Interestingly, Plumlee prefers to play QB in college and that’s where Auburn is reportedly recruiting him to play. Now could this be a Jason Smith like situation where Auburn allows him a shot at QB before convincing him to slide elsewhere? We will see but it could also mean the staff expects some attrition at the QB position this spring especially when you consider the attempts to evaluate graduate transfer options.

As for Plumlee’s talents, he’s a big time athlete. He could play QB, WR or DB at the next level and is also a terrific baseball player. Plumlee is very quick, able to change directions at a moments notice and has outstanding top end speed that makes him a threat to score anytime he touches the ball. He’s got some Manziel to his game at the QB position in that he’s at his best in the midst of chaos. With a quick trigger and quick feet, he can get himself out of trouble in a hurry and be an all around headache for defenses. Plumlee would definitely give Auburn a dual threat option at QB. Given the signing of Nix though I expect Plumlee’s future at Auburn would be either at slot WR or safety. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are thought to be the teams to watch heading into this weekend. It will be interesting to see if the Tigers can make a strong late push for another elite Mississippi prospect.

3* DT LeDarrius Cox | 6’5” | 300 lbs | Mobile, AL | Tennessee Commit

For months now the thought has been that Cox would eventually land in Auburn’s class. Despite being committed to Tennessee, he’s 100% predicted to the Tigers via 247’s Crystal Ball feature. But as this recruitment has gone on the likelihood of that flip seems to have gone down. Publicly, Cox continues to say all the right things as a committed prospect but he’s set to make two huge visits in the coming weekend. This week its Auburn, next week its Ole Miss. If either of those programs plan on making a big move, now is the time.

Would Auburn take both Cox and 4* DL Charles Moore if they wanted on board? No idea outside of Moore 100% has a spot. VERY interested to see what news comes out on this young man after his visit this weekend.

3* OT Ira Henry | 6’5” | 320 lbs | St. Louis, MO

I’ve been waiting for some new OT names to pop up and yesterday one finally did. Henry has become one of the most sought after prospects on the trail late this cycle with Florida, Florida State and now Auburn hard after his signature. Henry took an official visit to the Gators this past weekend but its the Noles to keep an eye on. They have plenty of playing time to sell and Henry has considered FSU is “dream offer”.

Henry’s senior tape is not available but what you see on his junior film is a guy that can move despite his size and someone with A LOT of power in his punch. At times he can be a little overly reliant on the fact he’s just bigger and stronger than his opponent but I love how light on his feet he is at 320 lbs and his ability to finish. The Tigers need help at the OT spot for 2020 and beyond. Henry would sure help in that regard.

3* LB Christopher Russell | 6’1” | 228 lbs | Dyersburg, TN

Once a Memphis commit, Russell has become one of the top targets for a number of SEC programs. He’s already officially visited Texas A&M, will be on the Plains this weekend and has visits still scheduled for Arkansas and Tennessee later this month. The Hogs were thought to be the leaders in this race at one point but now it’s the Vols who have picked up the intensity after losing JUCO LB commit Lakia Henry.

Russell is a thumper and a clear MLB at the next level. While he doesn’t necessarily face the strongest of competition, he dominates like he should at that level. I have some questions about his speed but there’s no denying that inside the box he’s a force to be reckoned with. Auburn has made him a clear priority in recent weeks and will attempt to make a major move in his recruitment this weekend.

2* ATH Kameron Brown | 6’0” | 222 lbs | Buford, GA

I will be stunned if Brown is not on Auburn’s commit list by Monday morning. The younger brother of super star defensive tackle Derrick Brown, Kameron has spent most of his recruitment trying to convince schools to take a chance on him despite his size and slow 40 time. He finished second in the state of Georgia in tackles in 2018 with 205 and does carry two offers from strong FCS programs UT Chattanooga and Furman. But no FBS schools had come calling just yet.

Until now....

The Tigers offered Brown on January 8th just a few days before his older brother announced that he was returning to school. Interestingly, Auburn is reportedly recruiting him as an athlete. While he might get a shot at linebacker, his future might actually be at the 3-back (H-Back) position. If that’s the case, the future of that position continues to be confusing considering all the different type of athletes the Tigers have signed in recent seasons. That aside, Auburn would be getting a talented young man with a serious chip on his shoulder ready to prove his worth if he were to commit this weekend. Everyone that has spent time with the young man only have really positive things to say about his effort, attitude and leadership.

Curious Case of Dylan Jordan

One target that will not be on campus this weekend is 3* LB Dylan Jordan out of Pittsburg, KS. He recently became a top target for the Tigers and as late as Wednesday evening was expected to visit the Plains this weekend. But yesterday he surprised everyone by announcing he will instead take an official visit to TCU.

So it’s official, this weekend I’ll be taking an OV in Fort Worth pic.twitter.com/Ygp631MMu2

— DJ3️⃣ (@thedylanjordan_) January 17, 2019

Now the Horned Frogs were the originally scheduled destination before Auburn began their push but Jordan told numerous Auburn reporters he was going to the Plains instead. But the TCU staff visited him on Wednesday and apparently convinced him to go back to his original plans. Jordan has stated he wants to commit on January 28th in the past so the Tigers will need to scramble to get him on campus if they want to make a serious move in his recruitment. As of today, TCU and Utah appear to be the top schools to watch. But don’t expect Travis Williams to go down without a fight in this battle.

Interesting Early 2020 Note

Watching offers roll in over the past week for future classes, something interesting caught my eye. Auburn had offered two OTs from the state of Arizona. After some digging I found something interesting.

Interesting note on 2020 recruiting Auburn has already offered 5 players from Arizona in next year's class Auburn offered a total of 4 players in the 2013-2019 classes combined from Arizona Why the change? Dillingham grew up/coached in Arizona

— AUNerd (@AUSportsNerd) January 18, 2019

For those unfortunate folks who have Twitter blocked at their workplace, Auburn has offered 5 players in the 2020 class from the state of Arizona. They offered a total of 4 from 2013-2019 per 247’s “Offers” feature. The link? Auburn’s new offensive coordinator and QB coach Kenny Dillingham.

Auburn’s newest staff addition grew up in the state of Arizona, coached high school football there AND landed his first collegiate gig as a grad assistant for Mike Norvell at Arizona State. Pretty clear he has some connections in the area. In the 2019 class, we’ve seen the clear effect Marcus Woodson’s addition to the staff has had on the trail. All of a sudden Mississippi is a place Auburn can recruit again. Might Dillingham open up some options further west?

Maybe.... Arizona is a bit of a different beast than Mississippi but it’s still something interesting to monitor as we head into a new recruiting cycle. Whether anything materializes in these recruitments is still to be seen and I sure as heck ain’t expecting Auburn to open up a pipeline to the Copper State but I also wouldn’t be shocked if there’s someone a little further west is listed on Auburn’s signee list in 2020.

Tim Horton Impact

Earlier this week, DesertWeagle made the accurate observation in the comment section that we really haven’t talked much about the Tim Horton news on this site. Honestly, I haven’t had much of an opinion on it because I want to see how it plays out. Is he going to take Patrick Suddes old role and become the big picture/right hand man guy for Gus? Or is this Scott Fountain 2.0 and he pops up somewhere else as an on field coach. Neither move would surprise me and until Gus brings in a new RB coach it’s hard to really speculate on the impact moving forward.

However, I will say that Horton doesn’t get as much respect as he should as a recruiter. It’s not as simple as position coach gets all the guys for his position. Often times, it’s the area recruiter that lays the groundwork for top targets. Horton is a very big reason why Auburn has found success in the Tampa and Birmingham areas under Gus Malzahn. His biggest pull was obviously Kerryon Johnson but he played an important role for guys like Austin Troxell and Nate-Craig Myers as well. His biggest impact in the 2019 class was his work on recently tabbed 4* RB DJ Williams who might end up making Horton look REALLY good in a few years.

But I also understand the move. Horton is a solid, not elite recruiter and the RB coach spot is a place where you can find one of those. You see what someone like Dell McGee is doing at Georgia and it’s hard not to feel like the Tigers could get more from that position on the staff. It will be VERY interesting to see who Gus brings in to replace Horton. He will inherit a talented RB room and replace some big shoes when it at least comes to pedigree in producing elite backs in this league.

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/1/18/18187784/2019-auburn-football-recruiting-another-busy-weekend-ahead-john-rhys-plumlee-kameron-brown

[theconservativebrief]

Look at the above image. On the left, of course, is Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, at the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearings. Behind him is his former clerk, longtime Republican legal operative Zina Bash. But what is Bash doing with her hand? Is she resting it normally? Is she making an “okay” sign? Or could it be that she’s making a … WHITE POWER HAND SIGNAL?

This is 2018, and so naturally, some prominent #resistance Twitter personalities jumped on the latter allegation, seeing Bash’s hand movements as proof of Republican complicity with white supremacist movements:

Kavanaugh’s former law clerk Zina Bash is flashing a white power sign behind him during his Senate confirmation hearing. They literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court. What a national outrage and a disgrace to the rule of law. pic.twitter.com/uQGOpNa6xg

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) September 4, 2018

Eugene Gu, a prominent anti-Trump doctor who recently made news when he was accused of sexual assault, racked up more than 13,000 retweets and 17,500 likes for his tweet accusing Bash.

Keith Rubin, an Army veteran whose Twitter bio states he “love[s] everything except racism,” got even more engagement on his version of the post:

In a since-deleted tweet, Amy Siskind, the prominent Twitter personality who writes a weekly list of #NotNormal things the Trump administration has done, stated that the hand signal should disqualify Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.

Before we go any further: Bash was not making a “white power hand signal.” You can, if you want, trust the word of her husband, John Bash, who is currently US attorney for the Western District of Texas:

Zina is Mexican on her mother’s side and Jewish on her father’s side. She was born in Mexico. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. We of course have nothing to do with hate groups, which aim to terrorize and demean other people — never have and never would. 2/3

— US Attorney John Bash (@USAttyBash) September 4, 2018

But if his word isn’t enough, you can listen to real experts on white supremacist movements.

“No one should assume anything about the use of such a gesture unless there are other unmistakable white supremacist signifiers in that context as well,” Mark Pitcavage, an expert on right-wing extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted, adding:

Out of all the things you should be legitimately concerned about regarding the Senate confirmation hearings in Washington, DC, today for Judge Kavanaugh & SCOTUS, handshakes and handsigns ought not be among them.

Actual serious constitutional issues are at stake.

— Mark Pitcavage (@egavactip) September 4, 2018

Jared Holt, a research associate at the left-leaning watchdog group Right Wing Watch, agrees. “It could have just been her resting her hand in a way that looked like that,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything that would lead me to believe this was intentionally a troll.”

That’s the gist of it. But there’s a backstory to why the okay gesture is perceived as a hate sign, and the eagerness of some liberals to embrace fake news on the subject is itself revealing. We have, at this point, gotten plenty of signs through actual policy decisions, and concrete connections between Trump staffers and white nationalist activists, that the Trump White House is pursuing a racist agenda. So why do people still want a secret hand signal to prove that the Trump administration is sympathetic to white supremacist goals?

As the ADL’s Pitcavage explained last year, this whole story was fueled, like so much internet nonsense before it, with a 4chan trolling effort.

Back in February 2017, Pitcavage writes, a 4chan user proposed an effort called “Operation O-KKK” in which he and allies would, in the anonymous user’s words, “flood Twitter and other social media websites … claiming that the OK hand sign is a symbol of white supremacy.” Here’s the original 4chan post, as shared by KnowYourMeme:

KnowYourMeme

The choice of the okay symbol for the prank, as KnowYourMeme editor-in-chief Brad Kim explains, was not totally arbitrary; “Sometime during the 2016 United States presidential election,” Kim writes, “Pizza Party Ben and Milo Yiannopoulos began making the gesture together at various events supporting the candidacy of Donald Trump.”

On February 13, 2017, a few weeks before the 4chan post, Jim Hoft and Lucian Wintrich of the alt-right outlet Gateway Pundit made the okay symbol in the White House Press Room. The left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters denounced it as a “hate symbol,” noting that images of alt-right mascot Pepe the Frog sometimes showed the character doing the “okay” sign:

A far bigger blow-up occurred the following April when journalist Emma Roller, then of Splinter, tweeted a photo of alt-right celebrities Cassandra Fairbanks and Mike Cernovich making the okay sign in the White House press room:

Screengrab by Know Your Meme

To Channers and alt-right loyalists, this was the ultimate proof that the prank had worked: A left-leaning journalist had been fooled into thinking an innocuous hand gesture was a secret sign of deep, racist evil. Especially funny to them was when Roller explained her tweet by referencing a diagram … originating in the 4chan post that launched “Operation O-KKK”:

Screengrab via KnowYourMeme

At first Fairbanks and Cernovich seemed to be having a laugh over the whole situation. Fairbanks told BuzzFeed News’s Joe Bernstein, “There was a troll meme going around saying that it meant white power. But it was a joke because Trump supporters are always being called Nazis even when it isn’t true.” Cernovich told Bernstein that he borrowed the hand gesture from Jay-Z, and from a conspiracy theory alleging that Jay-Z used the gesture as a sign he’s in the Illuminati.

Fairbanks would later purport to take the accusation a bit more seriously, and sued Roller for defamation in federal court. Judge Trevor McFadden of the DC District Court, a Trump appointee, dismissed the lawsuit in an opinion memorably beginning, “Plaintiff Cassandra Fairbanks trolled the web through Twitter …”

Holt at Right Wing Watch said that meanwhile, “people at the ADL and people like me who follow this stuff full-time tried to explain that this is not actually a symbol tied to white supremacy in any way.”

Another iteration of the controversy exploded in December 2017, when the Daily Mail reported that White House intern Jack Breuer had flashed a “known ‘white power’ sign during a photo-op with President Donald Trump.” Here’s the photo in question, from then-Mail reporter Jessica Chasmar:

Breuer strenuously denied the suggestion on Twitter:

In some of our intern pictures, I emulated the OK sign the President sometimes makes. That was foolish. I should have listened more closely to the Commander-in-Chief and given the thumbs up. (1/2)

— Jack Breuer (@jjbreue) December 29, 2017

I’m proud of my Jewish heritage and strongly reject the hateful views associated with racist white power organizations. I would never make common cause with them. (2/2)

— Jack Breuer (@jjbreue) December 29, 2017

Snopes, the fact-checking website, called the accusation against Breuer “unproven,” noting that the only evidence the Mail produced for the suggestion that Breuer intentionally made the sign as a show of alt-right solidarity was an anonymous quote from a fellow White House intern. Even that source conceded, “Jack’s a good kid and is probably doing it as a joke.”

Holt, at Right Wing Watch, said that while it began as a hoax, the symbol’s success as a troll has given it some new meaning in right-wing circles it didn’t have originally. He says intentional use of it falls into two camps. “One is white supremacists making a tongue-in-cheek inside joke to each other,” he said. “Then the larger contingent of people are people who do it in the photos to get a reaction and troll the libs.”

In the former camp, he includes people like Charlottesville rally organizer Jason Kessler; in the latter, folks like Cernovich, an alt-right troll who, while certainly a racist, is “probably more concerned with just trying to make liberals and the #resistance look as bad as humanly possible.”

Zina Bash, the latest conservative ensnared in an okay sign controversy, has a more intellectual pedigree than her predecessors Breuer, Fairbanks, and Cernovich. According to her LinkedIn page, she holds degrees from Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Penn’s Wharton business school, and she clerked for both Brett Kavanaugh on the DC Circuit (hence her presence at the hearings) and for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Until recently, she worked in the Trump White House as a special Assistant to the President for regulatory reform, legal and immigration policy. In July, she joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office as a senior counsel.

It seems clear that Fairbanks and Cernovich were using the hand signal to troll the libs, and at least plausible that Breuer, Holt, and Wintrich were as well (the latter two are pretty prominent alt-right racists, but their incident was also before the 4chan hoax began). But was Bash? It’s certainly possible she was exposed to the idea of the troll.

That said, it’s equally if not more plausible that she was replying to a text message. (Some Twitter hand signal detectives argued she can be seen getting an alert on her phone before the hand signal appears.) Or maybe she was signaling to someone watching the livestream; sending an okay signal to a senator or staffer sitting opposite her and Kavanaugh; or just fidgeting with her fingers.

There’s simply no reason, other than an epistemological commitment to assuming the absolute worst of absolutely everyone ever associated with the Trump administration, to believe she did a small hand movement to prove her commitment to white supremacy.

It’s, of course, natural for fake news about the president and his aides to proliferate among their political critics. When I was 14, I really sincerely believed that George W. Bush had snuck in an earpiece so he could be fed answers during his debates with John Kerry, and that the “bulge” in the back of his suit jacket proved this.

This was, of course, nonsense. But Bush really was awful, and really was prosecuting a horrific war killing hundreds of thousands of people and torturing many more. That made ridiculous suggestions, like that Bush had to cheat at televised debates, seem plausible to me (that, plus I was 14 and my brain was small and unformed).

And, of course, fake news about Barack Obama (he’s secretly Kenyan!) and Bill Clinton (he’s a cocaine trafficker!) spread wildly among conservatives during their presidencies.

But in a way, the Zina Bash fake news is stranger, because it seems to confirm something we all already know: the Trump administration contains racists who want to use policy to harm nonwhite people. You don’t need a hand signal to know that.

Take, say, Rosie Gray’s exposé in the Atlantic of Homeland Security staffer Ian M. Smith, who was close with numerous white nationalists and went to a house party advertised as judenfrei (or “free of Jews”). Or take Stephen Miller, the White House domestic policy adviser responsible for the partial implementation of Trump’s promise to ban Muslims from the US and for the policy of separating immigrant families, and who alt-right leader Richard Spencer has described as a friend and ally when they were at Duke together.

Or take, I don’t know, the president: a man who as a candidate promised to ban all Muslims from the US, who calls Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” who said that a Mexican-American judge is unfit to preside over cases involving him, who called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” claimed Muslim-Americans celebrated the 9/11 attacks. And then, after all that, a man who came into office and set about implementing the most anti-immigrant policies in years, slowing housing discrimination law enforcement to a halt, and reorienting the Justice Department away from fighting racial discrimination against black Americans. Oh, and who empathized with neo-Nazis after Charlottesville, and described Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries, for good measure.

We don’t need to interpret hand signals to know where this administration stands on racism and white supremacy. We know very well where it stands.

Original Source -> No, a former Kavanaugh clerk didn’t flash a “white power sign.” Here’s what really happened.

via The Conservative Brief

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/can-go-b-player-player-rolling-stone-ryan-lizza-writing-jann-gus-wenner-still-kicking-around-jay-penske-media-tycoon-du-jour/

“HE CAN GO FROM A B PLAYER TO AN A PLAYER”: AT ROLLING STONE, RYAN LIZZA IS WRITING, JANN AND GUS WENNER ARE STILL KICKING AROUND, AND JAY PENSKE IS THE MEDIA TYCOON DU JOUR

Jay Penske, the scion of an auto-racing empire, has a legitimate shot to turn the baby-boomer culture bible around—if he can make it safe for millennials.

Jay Penske during the Julius Baer Punta del Este Formula E race on December 19, 2015 in Punta Del Este, Uruguay.

Photo by Adam Warner/LAT/Formula E via Getty Images.

It’s a familiar zombie story by now: struggling dead-tree publication gets sold to private-equity player or gray corporate entity known to manage for costs. Layoffs and cuts ensue as “efficiencies” are “realized.” The product lives on in revenant form, shambling into the digital future—but no one doubts its real life is firmly in the past.

At Rolling Stone, there are signs that this script is being re-written. It’s been two-and-half months since the onetime counterculture bible, founded by Jann Wenner in 1967, found its safe harbor in Jay Penske, a 39-year-old automotive scion whose Penske Media Corporation acquired a 51 percent stake in Rolling Stone after Wenner finally unloaded the other 49 percent to a Singapore-based music start-up, BandLab, in 2016. In a roughly $50 million deal that closed on December 20, Penske’s majority investment valued parent company Wenner Media at a reported $100 million, bringing a much-needed flush of optimism to a publication mired in the same advertising and newsstand troubles that have hammered the entire print industry over the past decade. Usually, legacy brass are the first thing to be excised in these situations, but amazingly, Penske has thus allowed the brand’s brain to live. Jann and his 27-year-old son, Gus, are staying on the payroll—as editorial director and president/chief operating officer, respectively—and Gus has been given a seat on PMC’s advisory board.

Penske has evinced a certain media-tycoon swagger, which never hurts with a brand like Rolling Stone. In media circles, he first appeared on the radar with his 2009 purchase of Nikki Finke’s influential Hollywood Web site, Deadline, and became more of a character to watch as the result of an epic feud with Finke that garnered ravenous press coverage. (Contending with Finke, as everyone in the business knows, takes bravery—or foolishness—and it perhaps says something about Penske’s character that they eventually repaired the relationship, with Finke returning to PMC as an external consultant.) Penske later bolstered his media profile with the purchase of Variety in 2012 and Women’s Wear Daily in 2014—two ailing trade publications that Penske has infused with new sex appeal and financial promise.

But Rolling Stone will be a bigger test for Penske. In some ways, Penske is like Gus Wenner—a rich kid with a self-made father. It gives both of them a lot to prove. “He’s going to work harder to prove he earned this than anyone else in this situation,” a media executive who has spent time with Penske told me. “He has that in his favor. It also seems like he has a lot more money in his favor. He runs his titles for profitability. I think if he plays his cards right, he can go from a B player to an A player.”

Penske, who is known to be press shy, declined to be interviewed for this story, so the nuts and bolts of his turnaround strategy must be left to the imagination. But the magazine is going monthly, with a print and digital overhaul scheduled to debut by June, and PMC is investing. A couple of weeks ago, roughly 20 Wenner Media employees—including the chief financial officer, chief technology officer, communications boss, and other back-end roles that would have been redundant within PMC’s corporate structure—were let go with so-called “enhanced” severance packages commensurate with their time served in the company. The savings are being redirected to editorial to the tune of a 20 percent budget increase, and Rolling Stone editors find themselves in the enviable—and perhaps unfamiliar—position of having a bunch of new jobs to fill.

PMC is also on the prowl for brand-name recruits. One person Rolling Stone has approached is Ryan Lizza, the veteran political journalist who became one in a long list of #MeToo casualties when The New Yorker declined to renew his contract in December following an allegation, as The New Yorker put it, of “what we believe to be improper sexual conduct,” which Lizza vigorously denied. (CNN, where Lizza is a contributor, “found no reason to continue to keep Mr. Lizza off the air” after a six-week investigation into the matter.) Last month, Penske called a meeting with Rolling Stone’s female editorial staff, also attended by Gus Wenner, managing editor Jason Fine, assistant managing editor Sean Woods and senior editor Rob Fischer. The purpose was for female employees to be able to speak their minds about gender representation, but also so that Penske could hear what they had to say about Lizza. Concerns were raised about how it would be perceived if Lizza were to work at Rolling Stone, and whether Lizza was ultimately a good fit, according to people familiar with the meeting. Penske acknowledged that offering him a full-time job didn’t seem like the right move. But after Lizza was cleared by CNN, and Rolling Stone had conducted its own due diligence, the editors moved forward with freelance assignments, as originally planned. (He currently has two pieces in the works for the magazine.) Additionally, Rolling Stone plans to announce this week that it has hired Jamil Smith, a left-leaning columnist and prominent Twitter user formerly of The New Republic and MTV News, as a senior writer.

Some decisions of the Penske era have already generated buzz, particularly in entertainment and music-industry circles. Rolling Stone clocked a big #MeToo scoop with its February 22 takedown of Charlie Walk, in which five women accused the top music executive of sexual harassment and misconduct going back decades. For the March 8 issue, Rolling Stone put Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman on the cover, signaling both a synchronicity with the zeitgeist and a noticeable departure from the aging rock stars that tended to be Jann’s favorite cover stars. “It was like, holy shit, there’s someone on the cover from this year, and even from something going on this month,” the media executive who knows Penske (and who also knows Jann) told me. Indeed, word inside the newsroom is that Jann wasn’t hot on Black Panther as a cover choice, but the editors were pushing for it, and Penske loved the idea, too.

Rolling Stone, once home to the likes of Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, has a strong legacy of doing in-depth reportage on politics and current affairs. But popular music has always been its heart and soul, which is why Penske’s revamp is being closely watched at the uppermost echelons of the industry. The view in those circles is that Billboard, under the investment group Eldridge Industries, has fallen short in its attempt to re-fashion itself as a more consumer-focused brand with wide appeal, which gives Rolling Stone an opening. Before Penske came along, Rolling Stone was considered “dead on arrival,” according to a senior executive at a major music company. But now, depending on what Penske does, it is seen as poised for a comeback. “The obvious challenge is,” in the words of the music executive, “what does Rolling Stone mean to a millennial audience or younger? Does that brand have any relevance to anyone under 50 right now? Reviving print-media brands in this environment, particularly one whose core audience is close to the AARP range, is exceedingly difficult.” (PMC disputed that characterization, citing metrics that show Rolling Stone’s median print reader is 37 years old, and 38 to 41 years old for digital.)

In the short term, though, Rolling Stone employees are just happy that things feel less bleak. Penske conducted individual meetings with every person on Wenner Media’s full-time and part-time staff of around 150, filling the pages of three blue notebooks. One long-serving Wenner employee cried during their tête-à-tête, telling Penske that in all her years at the company, she’d never met Jann, according to people familiar with the exchange. There’s also an office upgrade to look forward to. Rolling Stone’s headquarters at 1290 Avenue of the Americas is very 90s—curvy, pale blue textured walls; patterned carpet, etc. Penske is more of a marble, mid-century-modern type of guy, and he’s eager to get the staff into new digs, pending lease negotiations. In the meantime, he has at least stocked the place with snacks and a coffee machine, which was a hotly desired amenity under the previous regime. If Penske has succeeded in stoking optimism over the past couple of months, it’s unclear how long the honeymoon period will last. (Already, some Rolling Stone staffers are wondering what’s up with the $200 million minority stake that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has acquired in PMC.) But Penske does have a reputation for treating his employees well—ordering a car for someone if there’s an emergency, having food delivered to Finke when she was ill, and so on.

Jann has transitioned into more of an emeritus role—not that one can imagine that making him happy. The latter half of 2017 was a dark time for the 72-year-old mogul. Toward the end of the year, as the #MeToo movement was snowballing, two men went public with allegations of inappropriate sexual encounters initiated by Jann, who has had relationships with both men and women, and has been partnered with the fashion designer Matt Nyesince 1995. (Of one of the accusers, Jann said, “I sincerely believed our relationship was totally mutual and consensual . . . I am saddened to hear this is his memory”; of the other: “I attempted to have a sexual liaison with him. He turned me down, which I respected.”) Jann also ended up despising a well-reviewed biography by Joe Hagan, whom he had personally commissioned to tell his life’s story. Hagan wrote an honest portrayal of a complex and flawed legend, as opposed to a hagiography. The two men had become friends over the course of Hagan’s reporting and research, but as the book was going to press in the fall, they had a very public falling out. Jann broke his hip playing tennis over the summer and had a heart attack that required triple bypass surgery, an ordeal from which he is still getting back on his feet, literally—he’d been using a wheelchair, but recently graduated to a cane. Insiders say he still comes into the office most days and is active on e-mail, but Penske, and to a lesser degree Gus, are running the show now.

As for the younger Wenner, who initially came on in 2012, his role as president and chief operating officer encompasses the continued expansion of Rolling Stone’s digital footprint, including a potential YouTube partnership that Gus has been working to solidify. (Gus had also previously played a role in selling off sister titles Men’s Journal and Us Weekly to National Enquirer owner and Trump pal David Pecker’s American Media Inc.) Insiders (and outsiders for that matter) will be keeping a close eye on the dynamic between Gus and Penske. Until now, Gus, who joined the family business when he was 22, has essentially never had a boss other than his father. A few days after the deal closed, Gus was supposed to get on a plane with Jann to spend Christmas vacation at Jann’s pad in Sun Valley. But at the last minute, with Penske hard at work even as the ink was still drying, Gus thought it better to stay behind and roll up his sleeves. Some Rolling Stone insiders are skeptical about how long Gus will be around, but I’ve learned that PMC has him on a contract that extends for several years. Gus wouldn’t comment on that, but in a phone conversation, he insisted to me that he was in it for the long hall. “It’s my dad’s legacy, and it’s my future,” he said. “I couldn’t even describe to you how much it means to me, and I’m deeply, deeply committed to it.”

With Penske in the driver’s seat, there are three delicate relationships to be managed—the founder, the heir, and the guy who owns the other 49 percent. BandLab’s Kuok Meng Ruwanted to acquire Rolling Stone in full, but he lost the sweepstakes and remains the minority partner. As I’ve previously reported, one of the things that had been weighing on the minds of PMC and other competing suitors was the prospect of ending up in bed with BandLab without being able to predict what sort of partner BandLab would be. (Time will tell.)

Now comes the hard part. “Rolling Stone has been a legacy magazine for a long time, and maybe it can be reinvented for the youth culture,” said Hagan. “But is that gonna happen through editorial? Is that gonna happen through print stories? Because that’s not what engages 20-year-olds.” I asked Hagan how vital Jann’s ongoing involvement is, even if largely symbolic. “I’ve always doubted the future of Rolling Stone without Jann Wenner,” he said. “Someone like him has to ask whether the legacy is a burden more than an asset. Can you hit the reset and make Rolling Stone into a thing that feels vital again, for people who have never listened to the Eagles, or don’t even know who they are?”

(C)

[citizensaul]

Republican Healthcare=NOCARE

Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives were basking in their glory that 217 of them voted to Repeal President Obama’s signature healthcare legislation ,ACA,affordable care act, giving healthcare coverage to millions of low income people as well as those with pre-existing conditions who were denied coverage by  insurance companies because of the high risk of losing money or not making a profit. Obamacare as Republicans refer to it, isn’t perfect and not one of them voted to approve it but Democrats had enough votes and it became the law upheld by the Supreme Court when Republicans challenged it’s Constitutionality !  Hell bent to eliminate anything Obama had made possible during his 8 year presidency, Repealing the Affordable Care act was at the top of the Republican agenda and they passed what is a SAD replacement of a good but not great healthcare plan with one I refer to as” Healthcare to die for” !

These heartless Republicans would deny peace of mind to millions of Americans to cut costs so that Tax cuts for Corporate America and people already wealthy can be implemented ! Make no mistake that is the reason they are trying to Repeal Obamacare, DON’T LET THEM ! Here is a list of  the Republicans I could verify as voting YES to repeal, now it’s up to you to tell them to find a new job  after the next election November 2018 when all that Democrats need to win back the House is 25 Republican held seats and that is really,really doable !

Arizona    :Andy Biggs,Paul Gosar,David Schweikert,Trent Franks,Martha McSally

Alabama :Bradley Byrne,Martha Roby,Mike D Rogers,Robert Aderholt,Mo Brooks,Gary Palmer

Alaska : Don  Young

Arkansas:French Hill,Rick Crawford,Steve Womack,Bruce Westerman

: California:Tom McClintock,Devin Nunes,Kevin McCarthy,Duncan Hunter,Jeff Dunham,Ken Calvert,David Valadao,Steve Knight,Ed Royce,Mimi Walters,Dana Rohrabacher,Darrell Issa

Colorado: Scott Tipton, Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn

Florida : Matt Gaetz,Neal Dunn,John Rutherford,Daniel Webster,Gus Bilirakis,Dennis Ross,Vern Buchanan,Tom Rooney,Carlos Curbezo,Brian Mast,Francis Rooney,Ted Yoho,Ron DeSantis,Bill Posey

Georgia : Earl L Carter,Drew Ferguson,Rob Woodall,Jody Hice,Doug Collins,BarryLoudermilk,Rick Allen,Tom Graves

Iowa : Rod Bloom,Steve King

Illinois:Rodney Davis,John Shimkus,Darren M Lahood,Peter Roskam,-----------,Idaho: Raul Labrador

Indiana:Jackie Walorski,Jim Banks,Todd Rokita,Luke Messer,Larry Bucshon

Kansas:Roger Marshall,Lynn Jenkins,Ron Estes,Kevin Yoder

Kentucky:James Comer,Brett Guthrie,Andy Barr

Louisiana:Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins,Mike Johnson,Ralph Abraham

Maine:Bruce Poliquin

Maryland: Andy Harris

Michigan:Justin Amash,Jack Bergman,Bill Huizenga,John Moolenaar,Fred Upton,Tim Walberg, Mike Bishop,Pastrick,Paul Mitchell,Dave Trott

Minnesota: Erik Paulson,Jason Lewis

Mississippi:Greg Harper, Steven M Palazzo

Missouri: Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer,Vicky Hartzler,Sam Graves,Billy Long,Jason Smith

N.Carolina: George Holding,Mark Meadows,Ted Budd,Virginia Foxx,Mark Walker,David Rouzer,Richard Hudson,Robert Pittenger,Patrick McHenry

N.Dakota:Kevin Kramer

Nebraska:Don Bacon,Adrian Smith

New Jersey Tom McArthur,

New Mexico: Steve Pearce

Nevada: Mark Amodei

New York:Lee Zeldin,Peter King,John Faso,Elise Stefanik,Tom Reed,Chris Collins,

Oklahoma:Frank Lucas,Markwayne Mullin,,Jim Bridenstine,Tom Cole Steve Russell

Oregon:Greg Walden

Pennsylvania:Mike Kelly,Scott Perry,Tom Marino,Glenn Thompson,Bill Shuster,Lou Barletta ,Lloyd Smucker,Tim Murphy

S.Carolina:Mark Sanford,Joe Wilson,Trey Gowdy,Tom Rice,Jeff Duncan

S.Dakota:Kristy Noem

Tennessee:Phil Roe,Scott DesJarlas,Jeff Duncan Jr,Diane Black,Chuck Fleischmann,David Kustoff,Martha Blackburn

Texas:John Culberson,Pete Sessions,Louie Gohmert,Ted Poe,Joe Barton,Randy Weber,Brian Babin,Sam Johnson,Joan Ratcliffe,Kevin Brady,Jeb Hensarling,Michael McCall,K.Conoway,,Kay Granger,Mac Thornberry,Bill Flores,Jodey Arrington.Lamar Smith,Pete Olson,Kenny Marchant,Roger Williams,Michael Burgess,Blake Farenthold,John Carter,Brian Babin

Utah : Rob Bishop,Chris Stewart,Jason Chafetz,Mia Love

Virginia: Rob Wittman,Scott Taylor,Tomn Garratt,Dave Bratt,Robert Goodlatte,Morgan Griffin

Washington: Cathy McMorris Rodgers,Dan Newhouse

Wisconsin:Paul Ryan,Jim Sensenbrenner,Glenn Gruthman,Sean Duffy,

West Virginia:David McKinley

Wyoming: Liz Cheney

That’s the best I can do but know that 20 Republicans had courage and voted NO,they all came from areas that voted for Hillary so as the late former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill once stated” All   politics is LOCAL so let’s all go local and drive these people out of office and bring SANITY back to Congress and Government FOR THE PEOPLE as our Founders envisioned !

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE MUST ADD 25 DEMOCRATS to take back THE HOUSE, LET’S JUST DO IT !