#KENT JOHNSON MY BELOVED

[crossbackpoke-check]

find a blorbo (nhl tag game)

RULES: Go through the roster of each NHL team and find at least one player that you can root for.

tagged by @bondedpairs!! when i say too many teams to count and here for the narrative um. i may not have lied. this is not an extensive list of my blorbos but in order to make it not ten thousand years long i made up the rule that i had to do it straight from memory :)

anaheim ducks: as evidenced by recent events i DO like mason mctavish and trevor zegras but i have to honor laura and mention troy terry and beloved goalie gibbie*

boston bruins: oh for sure brad marchand… can i say patrice? one of the charlies got traded but i think mcavoy is still there because gryz is gone, brandon carlo is there still i think

buffalo sabres: cozens & thompson, owen power, rasmus dahlin, ukko pekka luukkonen

calgary flames: is chris tanev still here? is markstrom still here?? noah hanifin?? as a last resort i’ll say blasty

carolina hurricanes: aho & jarvy & teuvo teravainen & brent burns is still playing maybe? i know sepe got traded

chicago hockey: the bedsy narrative is compelling but ANDREAS ATHANASIOU MY BELOVED reunited with tyler bertuzzi… that’s the real story. also i like foligno

colorado avalanche: gabe landeskog, whatever ross colton & miles wood have going on, natemac + jo, mikko

columbus blue jackets: have long been on the merzlikins train, have been swayed to the darkside of umich boys (brindley, kent johnson, fantilli, blankenburg who is now on nsh)

dallas stars: seggy! mush! roope + miro and otter and robo and wyjo (rip ty dellandrea) and harls! etc.

detroit red wings: MOST players. dilly larks, moritz seider, jv, raymond, rasmussen, kitty, lyon, etc except for k*ne

edmonton oilers: mcdrai, ofc. nugent-hopkins, nursey, rip vinny & skinny

florida panthers: tkachuk, reinhardt, sasha barkov, verhaeghe (is there still?)

los angeles kings: adrian kempe… kevin fiala… danault… quinton byfield & alex turcotte

minnesota wild: kirill, marat, fleury, brodes, fabes, boldy, moose, middsy, spurge… god’s perfect idiots

montreal canadiens: going out on a limb here to say martin st. louis but also xhekaj (both), slafkovský, suzuki, my austrian reinbacher, yes fine cole caufield

nashville predators: MOST BEAUTIFUL D PAIR IN THE WORLD GRADY SKJEI AND ROMAN JOSI!! juuse, evangelista, isn’t stamkos there and also someone else who absolutely should not be

new jersey devils: nico… tuna (tatar), dawson mercer, siegenthaler, dougie hamilton, yes the hugheses whatever

new york islanders: barzy, zeeker & marty, anders lee, noah dobson lol

new york rangers: mika & chris, lafrenière & k’andre, shesterkin

philadelphia flyers: frosty & beezer and tk and sanny and the new baby michkov and coots and scooty loots and foerster etc etc. you know the Guys

pittsburgh penguins: the two headed monster but also compelled by rutger mcgroarty, and kevin hayes was there!!!

ottawa senators: timmy stü & brady! josh norris! the evolution of shane pinto! ullmark now and brännström and claude giroux and chabot

san jose sharks: ekky, thrun, mario, borde, logan couture, shakir, that other vaguely blond rookie

seattle kraken: brandon tanev, andre burakovsky! grubauer & d’accord also

st. louis blues: jordan kyrou, nathan walker (is still there?), rob thomas? is parayako still there?

tampa bay lightning: hedman, point, they dumped so many guys after the cup run… is kucherov still there or is he in nashville?? anthony cirelli (notable for being made out with by pat maroon)

toronto maple leafs: mitch, jt, willy, alex nylander, kniesy, dewar, et

utah hockey: crouse, keller, tuba

vancouver canucks: quinn, brock, petey, jt, garly, höggy, i want to say dakota johnson, elias lindholm?

vegas golden knights: brandon montour is here now… alex pietrangelo, so sorry to one i can’t remember who loves the lions it will come back to me

washington capitals: full of love and stupidity. oshie, nicke/ovi, pierre-luc dubois, dowd, vrána, milano

winnipeg jets: adam lowry!! josh morissey and kc and morgan barron, also vladdy my beloved

tagging @stillfertile + @colap1nto + @songsandswords + @moregraceful if they haven’t done it yet, i know they follow at least a couple teams. if anybody else wants to play i love adopting blorbos!!

[catboygretzky]

any Thoughts on logan stankoven cropping up in your olen zellweger journey? signed, a stars fan starved for some stanks love on tumblr dot com

ohhh my GOD my love for logan stankoven knows no bounds like that is my CAPTAIN my BEST FRIEND please you must all be aware he is NOT part of my olen zellweger journey he is his own journey !!!!!!

speaking of journey:

look at him! look at him!

most of you may know him from this image, yes?

but! there is more! so much more! so once again, i'm about to write an essay with video links that few people will actually read but that hardly matters. stars fans ya gotta check this man out and i would 100/10 recommend everyone in general to check this man out.

stars fans have nooo idea how lucky they are to have him. he is genuinely such a steal, and not enough people respect that. he's gonna be this season's alex debrincat (ie "every team passed on him because of his size and now regret it")

he had a 35 game point streak this season (tied this season only with connor bedard's 35 point streak)(connor bedard who has stated multiple times he looks up to stanks which is funny bc. ya know. stanks is very small.) and his hands and shot and skating are SICK. just. look at some of his highlights here, here, and here.

he's a beast. they call him the pitbull for a reason okay.

not only is he 5'8" (officially) so automatically beloved to me, he's such a great type of player to have on your team. he's relentless and such a hard worker. in my (correct) opinion the hardest working player on the blazers, and also one of the hardest workers in the entire whl.

(click here if you don't believe me)

when your captain is your hardest worker? when he never gives up and is always there to be the support system your team needs? KEY to success.

he's an absolute force to be reckoned with and is always 100% dialed in, and his forecheck? his "never give up" attitude? oh captain my CAPTAIN.

on and off the ice, he's dialed in, he's intelligent, he's humble, he's my best friend. oh also this article made me go!!! ahhh!!!!

when asked, multiple whl players have said he's the hardest player to play against in the entire western so. i do nothing if not back up my words so there's also that. fun fact, he won CHL player of the year last year!

he also was a top-3 player on the last 2 winning canadian wjc teams so there's also that and, in fact, assisted on kent johnson's GWG in 2022. just for idk fun.

also he's !! aaahhhh

look at that smile!!!

:D ahhhhh!!!!!!!!

[three-headed-monster]

everyone else: *serious quote about determination and hockey*

kent johnson: BE A GOLDFISH

(x)

[rutgersmcgroarty]

kent johnson || canada vs austria || 12.28.21

[lily-s-world]

Review without spoilers. Black Adam was incredibly good!! (honestly, so many people expect superhero movies to be this flawless masterpiece that they get mad and throw awful reviews when it isn't).

The movie was fun, with a good plot and great characters. Having so many characters is sometimes hard to balance but I think that they did great letting each character having their moment to shine.

I'm not a huge Dwayne Johnson fan, but I'm happy for him. He expent more than a decade working for this movie to see the light of day, and as an artist, it must be really rewarding to be able to finally see it on the big screen and having such a great response.

Also, as I predicted, I totally loved the Justice Society. Carter was on point, (Aldis Hodge my beloved), Pierce was the perfect Kent Nelson. Quintessa and Noah were very good as this starter superheroes.

The characters in Kandaq were also really compelling (I want Amon and Freedy from Shazam to be BFFs 😂). And I feel in love with the phrase "Not your country. Not your decision."

In overall, it is a great superhero movie and worth the time.

PD: The movie theater completely lost it in the end credit scene. It was so good!!

[savoies]

here are some more hockey player playlists I've made!

[jostystyles]

don't delete this one >:( but: 5, 9, 14, 23 aaand 27 <3

i’m a dummy <3

5. unpopular hockey opinion?

the tampa dynasty is over

9. favorite rookies?

kent johnson, maveric lamoureux and juraj slafkovsky my beloveds

14. favorite adoptive father/son relationship?

will always be ebs & beaubarzy :,)

23. what arenas do you want to visit in the future?

ball arena. so bad. i need to be in the sack. and also msg bc i’ve only been to concerts there

27. least favorite jerseys?

the god awful black and neon green stars jerseys

hockey asks!

[skimblyshanks]

What are your favorite Cats Makeup looks?

oh man that's a question alright!

I have many answers!

Aside from Kilworth House Theatre Production My Beloved, I’ve listed some standouts below uwu

Timothy Scott’s Misto, of course

Paul Hadobas' Zurich Munkustrap

Kevin Alvey's Zurich Skimbleshanks (My Icon! Literally!)

Geoffrey Garratt's Skimbleshanks, stage and 1998

Any London-based Alonzo without the eyepatch

(Cavin Cornwall, Neil Johnson, Steven Houghton, and Simon Street, in order)

(David Kent from Zurich, along with Manoel Francisco, Neil Giroday, and Matthias Bitterlin from the Euro-Tour)

(Might be cheating since Mexico is a non-replica, but they were clearly taking their design cues from London Alonzo. Carlos Hampshire)

These Goldielonzes

(Jamie Joseph from US Tour V; Jonathan Stahl and William Patrick Dunne from US Tour IV)

(Mirko Battuello, Michele Carfora, and Phillipe Blair, Hamburg)

Marc Ellis Holland's Tumblebrutus

Marlene Danielle's Bombalurina

Femi Taylor’s Bombalurina

Lisa Dawn Cave’s Victoria and Demeter

Ding Zhenying's Demeter

Amanda Carnie’s Sillabub

Post-Revival Bearded Gus

(Felix Martin)

Gilbert

Niu Junjie’s Carbucketty (Cheating bc I also just really like this design with wig and costume along with makeup)

Li Hongxiao’s Grumbuskin

Ahmad Simmons’ and Phillip Deceus’ Alonzos

US Revival Macavity

(Daniel Gaymon, Ahmad Simmons, and Tyler John Logan. Technically I didn’t need to show 3 pics of the same makeup but i love the makeup so.)

Michael Gruber’s Munkustrap

Bonus: Pre-Revival Australasia Jelly and Misto

Lee Eun-hye and Yu Hoe-ung, South Korea 2008

[multsicorn]

multsicorn’s infinite fic playlist

some friends in a chat were talking about comfort fic!  so I have Made A List.  Ten of my very favorite fics to reread when I need a boost, in ten different fandoms.  In no order.  And with no particular theme, that I can tell.  They’re probably all more-or-less mostly self-contained enough to work even if you don’t know the canon?  Certainly the Hockey RPF fic is (cause I don’t know anything about the canon there!), and who doesn’t know HP, etc....

.... four are about fucked-up families, (cause I find that cathartic, and people dealing with it comforting), two are polyfic, (because more relationships interacting to me means ~more love~), three are really mostly about the ~feel~ of the universe, (the fun mundanity of a not-quite-mundane canon universe! or of a perfectly balanced space au), and then the last one is... about how to know if you’re in love on one side of it, and about how to get over it on the other (because how does one romance).

the ones about fucked-up families:

When The Lights Go Out, Will You Take Me With You? by narceus (Glee, Kurt/Blaine, m, ~11k).  I love the way that it punches out my heart and then puts it back together?  Lmao, that’s very personal.  But I love the way that - what can I say.  This isn’t a fic about romance, it’s a fic about family - well.  How sometimes your family is your boyfriend, and your mutual friends, how sometimes ‘family’ is something you have to leave, and real family is something you build.  ‘This is exactly what it’s like,’ and it’s wish-fulfillment, and, yes, somehow it’s both of those things.

You can run away with me any time you want.

Come Marching Home by ossapher (American Revolution RPF/Hamilton, Hamilton/Laurens, t, ~9k).  Fraught relationships with family members who think they love you but they really really don’t are my jam, and the way that this fic deals with a younger still-dependent sibling who’s caught in the middle between John and his horrible father is especially my jam.  Also, fics that transform a complicated set of characters/relationships/etc. from canon to a completely other setting thoughtfully, which this fic ‘verse has a lot of fun with.

John Laurens attempts to reconcile with his U.S. Senator dad after years of minimal contact. It's family, though, so nothing goes as planned.

Theft of Assets, Destruction of Property by Helenish (Harry Potter, Draco/Neville, e, ~23k).  I love the way that Draco here builds a life up out of nothing.  It’s very cozy from one angle, full of cooking and baking and making a house a home, but it also goes hard on the way that abused children will internalize their situation as the expected baseline of life, which I appreciate very much.

Surely it is a mistake to allow a single youthful indiscretion to cloud an already promising career.

A Month of Sundays by Kelfin (Hockey RPF, Erik Johnson/Gabriel Landeskog, m, ~69k).  I love the push-pull of a relationship that naturally slides very quickly into something very close and intimate, that keeps being pulled back from that by Erik’s internalized homophobia.  I love the way the story negotiates the very real knock-on effects of that on Gabe, his maybe-maybe-not partner, and the way the Erik negotiates ‘I love my family... but they don’t love me.’

Unlike some guys, who freak out when things get even a little bit gay, Erik is fine with this stuff. Erik's not even fazed when Gabe's attempts at flirting with him start to get semi-public, a fact that, by his own judgment, makes him at least five to seven times more tolerant than your average forward-thinking American.

the polyfics:

Everything That You Can Keep by Dira Sudis (dsudis) (Vorkosigan Saga, Aral/Jole, backgroundy Aral/Cordelia, e, ~30k).  I love this story’s negotiation of not just polyamory (and I love negotiation of polyamory stories - how two people in one relationship share feelings about yet another person, and figure things out? yes, please), but specifically of all the added complications that come out in the highly hierarchical, secretive, and loyalty-based Vor society.  When even asking about asking is a matter of trust, requested and given?  That goes straight to my id.

The impossible takes a little more time, a lot of negotiation.

Love: The Package Deal by jjtaylor (Bandom, Frank/Gerard/Lindsey/Jamia, m, ~30k).  I love the way that the different relationships are layered over and relate to each other - that’s one of the big things I like about polyfic - and the way that the amnesia smashes them together by bringing a past relationship to the present, while making the present one abstract and back to square one.  I love how the amnesia in fact smashes together all the highs and lows of eventful years’ worth of Gerard’s life: artistic success, problems with drugs and addiction... they’re all right there waiting for you.

Gerard gets a special kind of amnesia. Frank gets to reexamine his idea of acceptable relationship structures. Lots of people fail to communicate effectively, but they all sure remember how to kiss.

the cozy weirdness of the universe:

it's a new craze by attheborder (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, t, ~6k).  The development of the relationship strikes a nice balance between angst and sweetness, but what I really come back to this fic for is the fictional advice podcast!  That Aziraphale and Crowley start together, which it’s about, and the way that they sprinkle their up-close experience of history into their discussion on it - and then the way that the fandom latches onto and tries to make sense of that.  It is just, purely, A DELIGHT.

CROWLEY: I try not to make a habit of gratitude, but I must give our appreciation to everyone out there who’s been listening and subscribing to The Ineffable Plan. AZIRAPHALE: Ooh, yes, we’ve become quite popular, haven’t we? CROWLEY: Yeah, just hit number eight on the advice charts … No advertising at all. AZIRAPHALE: Mm. How … miraculous. CROWLEY: … Aziraphale. You did not.

***

Crowley and Aziraphale are very possibly the people least qualified, on the entire planet, to start up an advice podcast.

But what else is there to do when the world isn’t ending anytime soon, you’re technically on indefinite sabbatical from your lifelong careers, and you need a plausible excuse to spend more time with your best friend who you’re definitely not, absolutely not, maybe just a little, actually maybe overwhelmingly in love with?

A Resolution of Territory by arboretum (Hikaru no Go, Hikaru/Akira, e, ~10k).  I just love imagining spending my life playing Go, okay!  This fic is wonderfully immersive in a weird-but-good everyday reality, of spending your whole life immersed in a game that just fascinates you, alongside your friends - and your boyfriend, too, which is to say, the one person who shares your fascination in the most direct and deepest and mutually obsessive way.  Eventually he’s your boyfriend, of course.

The point is, life is hectic, but it's good.

The Vastness of Space by shysweetthing (Yuri on Ice, Victor/Yuuri, e, ~17k).  I love the way that the space setting here gives scope for best-friends-and-partners, for cute and amusing low-stakes shenanigans and then cleverly solved higher-stakes adventure.  I love how sweet Victor and Yuuri are in caring for each other in dire circumstances, and why they both see each other as beyond their reach in the context of this imagined world.

As chief communications officer on board the Interstellar Alliance Fleet’s Star Ship Victory, Yuuri doesn’t have to think about who he actually is on his home planet. He just has to listen to his captain, do his job, and…not fall in love with his best friend, the ship’s science officer, Victor Nikiforov.

Well. Two out of three’s not bad.

Then his mother calls with the worst possible news: She, the Empress of New Nihon, has arranged Yuuri’s marriage. There’s only one thing Yuuri can do: Fake a boyfriend, and fake one fast. Who better/worse to play that role than the friend he wishes was more? What can go wrong? It’s not like Yuuri can fall more in love...

the how does romance (with my beloved controversial otp):

if you change your mind by leetlebird (Check, Please!, Jack/Parse, e, ~35k).  I love the way this story shows Jack trying to work out what love means for him, anyway, and Kent learning to deal with and work around feelings that he thinks for most of the story are unrequited.  And the cozy jury-rigged domesticity of especially the final chapters/scenes.

Beneath the table, Jack’s hand squeezes around Kent’s knee. And -- Kent forgets. For just a few seconds, he forgets that they can’t be together, that Jack doesn’t want him in that way, that he’s trying to move on.

“We’re friends, right?” Jack says.

“Yeah, Zimms,” he says. “We’re friends.”

Or: Kent and Jack are friends, then friends-with-benefits, then maybe something more. Kent isn’t sure.

[chroniclesofamber]

THE CHRONICLES OF AMBER & History Lessons

It should be obvious that writers, composers, painters and all artists respond to the time in which they live, and that this is reflected in their art.  And it should also come as no surprise that some material is more strongly influenced by the historical moment than other art.  All this is at least as true for Roger Zelazny and his idolized Chronicles of Amber — perhaps somewhat more so, given that these five books in no small way chart a complete decade.

NINE PRINCES IN AMBER (1970)

History:  Pieces of the first book saw print as early as 1967.  It appears Zelazny worked on the book here and there for three years or more until its publication in 1970.  Still looming over the political landscape of the time was the assassination of John F. Kennedy years earlier, which had led to the Johnson “great society” era and from there to Nixon’s struggles with China, the Soviet Union and the Vietnam War.  Just as influential was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as that of Robert Kennedy.  The 1960s were dominated by these issues, the Cold War and threat of nuclear annihilation, the rise of the counter-culture and protest movements, the Beatles and Woodstock, and the first landing of men on the Moon.

As someone familiar with Jungian psychology and Frazer’s Golden Bough, Zelazny saw a way to harness the interregnum turmoil of the Sixties while incorporating the ritual of “the Killing of the King.”  (Conspiriologists left and right — politically, and otherwise — have long adhered to the notion that it was not a coincidence that this particular killing of the king had been carried out in accordance with ancient ritual.)  The King of Amber is missing or deceased. Factions have quickly aligned to jockey for the best position to take advantage of the power vacuum.  That a conspiracy to remove both the king and Corwin is uncovered, a few books later, also mirrors the deaths of the Kennedys.  Our hero, already in a state of confusion over his own identity and situation, is thrust into the midst of this power-struggle and — like Armstrong and Aldrin aboard the Eagle — soon finds himself visiting another world.

Lesson:  Corwin charges in somewhat blindly, and is literally blinded (and imprisoned) as a result.  When he miraculously regains both his sight and his freedom, he vows that patience and planning will guide him going forward and that, this time, he will prevail and take his rightful place in Amber.  He also learns that what drives you, what you want, has a lot to say about who you are.

Journey:  He starts out being held against his will in a hospital, recovering from broken legs and near-drowning from a car accident.  By the end of the book, he is recuperating from years of blindness and imprisonment under much better circumstances in a remote lighthouse while cared for by an old friend.  When he leaves the lighthouse, no one tries to thwart his departure (he is voluntarily assisted, in point of fact), he knows exactly who he is and what he wants, and has a clear idea of his objective and how to achieve it.

THE GUNS OF AVALON (1972)

History:  Two years pass, eventful ones.  No shortage of natural disasters — major cholera epidemics in Istanbul and Slovakia; avalanches in France and Peru; earthquakes in Tonghai, Gediz, Burdur, Bingöl, Peru and elsewhere destroy cities and kill thousands; Mount Etna erupts; Montreal is buried by the blizzard dubbed La Tempête du Siècle; the Odisha cyclone overtakes the Bay of Bengal and claims 10,000 lives; 50 tornadoes tear through Louisiana and Mississippi; floods put Bangladesh and eastern Bengal underwater; the Bhola cyclone wipes out half a million people.  But the real disasters turn out to be man-made, so much so that this period could easily be described by the phrase “state of emergency.”  The Apollo 13 mission fails, though the astronauts survive and the summer of 1971 sees a rover rolling across the surface of the Moon.  Oil-price instability and Nixon taking the dollar off the gold standard together signal economic and energy crises yet-to-come, but the real instability is social, political and military.  Coups and assassinations become commonplace as former colonial possessions are granted independence.

Keyword:  Napalm.  Bombs, terrorism, murder and violence, state-sanctioned and otherwise, plague the United Kingdom due to resistance to British rule in Northern Ireland.  American incursions into Laos and Cambodia fuel growing anti-war sentiment.  The publication of the Pentagon Papers and the COINTELPRO documents stolen from FBI offices in Pennsylvania, news images of the Kent State shootings, and revelations of the My Lai Massacre throw gasoline onto the fire:  150,000 protest the Vietnam War in San Francisco on the same day that half a million march on Washington, D.C.  60% of Americans oppose American troops in Southeast Asia.  Meanwhile, the ashes of Hitler, Eva Braun, and the Goebbels family are scattered in East Germany’s Biederitz River.  Echoing all this, Zelazny pulls from the Grail quest an idea which unites the chaos reflected in the natural and human worlds in a single image — the Wasteland — and gives it the form of the Black Road, which Corwin discovers runs all the way to the outskirts of his beloved Amber.

Lesson:  Corwin struggles with his commitment to his system of values as demonic beings and foreign-imposed dictatorship threaten the shadow world Lorraine and Amber herself.  With some reluctance, he risks his own neck for a place lost to him long ago, and abandons his scheme to turn his troops and guns against Amber when the kingdom seems on the brink of falling to an enemy coming in strength.  He understands the necessity to adapt to changing conditions and to remain flexible while pursuing his goals.

Journey:  Corwin intends to sail straight to Avalon but gets lost in his very own Wood of Error, so that a spontaneous choice leads him instead into the hell of Lorraine, its Goat, and the citadel at the heart of the Black Circle.  Toward the end of the book he is again diverted from his course in that his original mission, to exact vengeance on his brother Eric and seize the throne, is set aside when he comes upon the creatures of the Black Road at Amber’s gates.  Just as he set out seeking gunpowder in Avalon but found something else along the way — the knight errant he once was long ago — he marches to Amber to find that the regicide he believed he desired was not what he would ultimately want or choose to do.

Vietnam and the 1970s

The tide had definitely turned against U.S. participation in the Vietnam War by the first years of the decade.  Nixon, having seen Johnson’s presidency founder and meet an early end due to the war, initiated a draw-down of forces.  Australia and New Zealand pulled out of the war in 1971.  By the end of that same year, American ground forces had been withdrawn from the war effort, though involvement would drag on a few more years.

Britain, though victorious after World War I, had been left depleted and weary of war — brutal trench warfare had cost the nation more than a million lives.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 more or less marked the beginning of the Vietnam War in the minds of Americans, when U.S. troop strength went from 23,000 to 184,000.  It had therefore gone on longer than World War I and wound up costing approximately 60,000 American lives.  In America a fatigue had taken hold which was not so different from what post-Great War Britain had known.

Zelazny may have been responding to the mood of the times when portraying the enormity and senselessness of the losses witnessed, and caused, by Corwin and other princes of Amber.

From the first book:

“…ten thousand men dead in a plains battle with centaurs, five thousand lost in an earthquake of frightening proportions, fifteen hundred dead of a whirlwind plague that swept the camps, nineteen thousand dead or missing in action as they passed through the jungles of a place I didn’t recognize, when the napalm fell upon them from the strange buzzing things that passed overhead, six thousand deserting in a place that looked like the heaven they had been promised, five hundred unaccounted for as they crossed a sand flat where a mushroom cloud burned and towered beside them, eighty-six hundred gone as they moved through a valley of suddenly militant machines that rolled forward on treads and fired fires, eight hundred sick and abandoned, two hundred dead from flash floods, fifty-four dying of duels among themselves, three hundred dead from eating poisonous native fruits, a thousand slain in a massive stampede of buffalo-like creatures, seventy-three gone when their tents caught fire, fifteen hundred carried away by the floods, two thousand slain by the winds that came down from the blue hills.”

What tends to jump out from that passage (especially to readers harkening back to the ’70s):

(1)    napalm dropped from aircraft on troops moving through jungles below results in a number of casualties far higher than deaths from any other cause;

(2)    immediately after thousands depart for paradise, their desertion is contrasted with the hell of the detonation of a nuclear weapon;

(3)    aside from deaths due to centaurs, war machines, nuclear warfare and napalm, natural disasters are responsible for the mass losses of life, yet the total taken by disaster is still dwarfed by the number slain in combat.

There is not much other commentary on war in the series.  The subject of warfare is largely confined to the first two books.  But there is this from the end of the sixth chapter of Nine Princes in Amber:

“As I stood on a hilltop and the evening began around me, it seemed as if I looked out over every camp I had ever stood within, stretching on and on over the miles and the centuries without end.  I suddenly felt tears come into my eyes, for the men who are not like the lords of Amber, living but a brief span and passing into dust, that so many of them must meet their ends upon the battlefields of the world.”

[…to be continued in a future post…]

[three-headed-monster]

they know we like sharp dressed men

[rutgersmcgroarty]

kent johnson || canada vs austria || 12.28.21

[some-triangles]

yr favorite poetry/poet(s)/poem(s), broadly or specifically

This is actually a good opportunity to ask for new poetry recs.   Most of the poetry that I was into when I was younger doesn’t do it for me anymore - I used to get big shiny waves off of Berryman’s Dream Songs but something changed somewhere.  Used to be big into Cummings, something’s off there now too.  Eliot’s too clever for me.   I think I’m moving away from the masculine in poetry but I’m not ready for Mary Oliver yet.

I think when I was younger I responded to poets like Cummings who felt Big Love and could spiral into the mad joys of it, because I could certainly do that too.  Baudelaire’s another one.  This was my favorite poem for a while:

“My dear little mad beloved was serving my dinner, and I was looking out of the open dining room window contemplating those moving architectural marvels that God constructs out of mist, edifices of the impalpable. And as I looked I was saying to myself: “All those phantasmagoria are almost as beautiful as my beloved’s beautiful eyes, as the green eyes of my mad monstrous little beloved.”

“All of a sudden I felt a terrible blow of a fist on my back and heard a husky and charming voice, an hysterical voice, a hoarse brandy voice, the voice of my dear little beloved, saying: “Aren’t you ever going to eat your soup, you damned bastard of a cloud-monger?”

Which I think explains my romantic life in college.

Somewhat embarrassingly a poet who I liked then and still like now is Araki Yasusada, who is both a) problematic and b) fictional.  Here’s a poem of his:

Walking in the vegetable patchlate at night, I was startled to findthe severed head of mymad daughter lying on the ground.Her eyes were upturned, gazing at me, ecstatic-like…(From a distance it had appearedto be a stone, haloed with light,as if cast there by Big-Bang.)What on earth are you doing, I said,you look ridiculous.Some boys buried me here,she said sullenly.Her dark hair, comet-like, trailed behind…Squatting, I pulled the turnip up by the root.

Yasusada was a hibakusha, a survivor of Hiroshima, who was invented (probably by the decidedly non-Japanese Kent Johnson) as a kind of prank on the literary world.  He gave his own poems weight by claiming that they were the product of this immensely authentic other and got them highly praised and widely published before the hoax was revealed.  The whole thing could be dismissed as the product of a reactionary making a bad point if the poems themselves weren’t still just as good after you knew the punchline.

[savoies]

kent johnson my beloved ❤.

[junker-town]

Why hasn’t Becky Hammon been subbing for Gregg Popovich?

Photo by Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images

Tim Duncan is a good option, and there are reasons he’s been picked. But it’s still disappointing Hammon hasn’t subbed for Pop yet.

Tim Duncan got his first win as a head coach on Tuesday night in a close 104-103 win for the San Antonio Spurs over the Charlotte Hornets. The team trailed by 17 points in the first quarter, but came rallying back behind Dejounte Murray’s 21 points. Gregg Popovich missed the game for “personal business,” according to the team.

The win was an important one for the Spurs, who are still trying to stay in the Western Conference playoff race. It was big for Duncan, too, who after just one half-season as an assistant coach, was able to pick up his first head coaching win. Duncan also replaced Popovich in the third quarter of a November game against the Trail Blazers, but the team lost, 121-116.

While fans were happy to see San Antonio’s beloved former superstar win as a head coach, it was still disappointing to see it was Duncan, and not six-year assistant coach Becky Hammon, as Popovich’s official replacement. Hammon is the first full-time female assistant coach in any of the four major men’s sports (NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL) ever, and would be the first head coach as well.

Serious question: Why not Becky Hammon? https://t.co/A0mnfkXNlI

— Eric Adelson (@eric_adelson) March 3, 2020

Tim Duncan has been an assistant for like 12 minutes and already gets the interim nod over Becky Hammon? That's some weak shit. https://t.co/FX6CKvkwFn

— sawley (@sawley_) March 3, 2020

I understand that it was Tim Duncan’s responsibly to coach tonight because he scouted Charlotte. My frustration stems from the fact that I just want to see Becky Hammon get the opportunity she deserves and worked so hard for. I want to see her in a head coaching role, period.

— Lyndsey D'Arcangelo (@darcangel21) March 4, 2020

Why was Hammon passed up? While an official reason wasn’t given, the game against the Blazers from November could give us clues. Per the Wall Street Journal, a spokesman said Duncan got the nod because he was the assistant assigned to scouting Portland. “I’m not here to make history,” Popovich said then, when asked if he’d considered naming Hammon head coach.

While Duncan was the “acting head coach” in both instances, Hammon and the rest of the Spurs’ staff were still major contributors in Tuesday night’s win, according to Duncan. “It’s night and day to be in the big-boy chair,” Duncan said. “But truth be told, I wasn’t in the big-boy chair. We’ve got Becky [Hammon] and Will [Hardy] and Mitch [Johnson]. Mitch prepped the game for us. Becky and Will were making all the calls, and I was the only one just standing there screaming at people — nonsensical stuff.

“We did a coach by committee. It could’ve been any one of us out there and we would’ve done exactly the same stuff.”

Still, it’s frustrating that Hammon didn’t get the nod.

There are two, reasoned sides as to who should have been the acting head coach against the Hornets. One will say Popovich is trying to win basketball games, and he felt his team had the best chance to win if Duncan was the lead. And who’s to question Pop when it comes to basketball? Heck, the Spurs won!

But even if it was Duncan who scouted the Hornets (a team that sits 19 games below .500), hasn’t Hammon earned her seat for the Spurs? This year is Duncan’s and Johnson’s first season as assistants, and Hardy’s fourth. Hammon is in year six. She’s also been the team’s head coach in Summer League for three seasons, including a championship run in 2015. Hammon was also interviewed for the Bucks’ head coaching job in 2018. Duncan’s experience as a player is not the same as time spent as Pop’s understudy.

Handing the keys to Hammon isn’t just about making history. Hammon’s earned the chance to take over for Pop. She’s moved her way up the ranks like any other assistant, with even heavier expectations.

“I’ve played under two of the sharpest minds in the history of sports,” Pau Gasol wrote in a 2018 Players Tribune story, “in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. And I’m telling you: Becky Hammon can coach. I’m not saying she can coach pretty well. I’m not saying she can coach enough to get by. I’m not saying she can coach almost at the level of the NBA’s male coaches. I’m saying: Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.”

Until Hammon lands a head coaching position, it appears she’ll have to wait until Pop’s absence lands on a night she’s scouted for.

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: FEATURE: Final 2020 Awards Tracker

FINAL 2020 AWARDS TRACKER

Welcome to the ninth year of Every Movie Has a Lesson’s “Awards Tracker.”  My goal every year is simple: Help each and every one of you win your Oscar pools. As a member of three recognized awards-voting bodies of film critics (OFCS, OFTA, and Chicago Indie Critics), it’s a pleasure and honor to see my own picks made it into the award season discussion. Here’s how this little page of my personal interest works.  I find value in tracking the trends and following the tea leaves of the all the minor lead-up awards before the Oscars.  I chart the winners of each category with listed winners and comments on the surrounding buzz. 

FINAL TAKE: Prediction-wise, I was a so-so 16 of 24. Not great, but not bad. I’ll take being wrong to watch a night of history honoring women and international film!

BEST MOTION PICTURE

FINAL TAKE:  Folks, in another year of #OscarsSoWhite and questionable gender appreciation, the 92nd Academy Awards dropped (or was it raised, LOL) a microphone of history in favor of diversity. Say it out loud. Parasite is first foreign language film to win Best Picture. Boom! What a boom!

WINNERS:  

26- Parasite (ATL, Cannes, NYO, SEA, PCC, CIC, NC, FCC, Chicago, BO, CO, DC, DET, HOU, LA, NSFC, SE, UT, VAN, AUS, EDA, GA, GAL, OFTA, Online, London, Oscar)

10- Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (OK, STL, LV, SAT, Globe, CC, SF, IA, HI, ND)

7- 1917 (KC, Globe, DFW, PGA, DEN, HC, BAFTA)

6- The Irishman (HFA, NBR, NY, SD, NT, NM)5- Marriage Story (GI, IN, NV, GW, DUB)

2- Knives Out (CIC, PHI)2- Little Women (Boston, WC)1- The Farewell (Spirit)

OTHERS: 1- Joker (PHX), 1- Jojo Rabbit (TIFF), 1- Ford v Ferrari (SAT), 1- Portrait of a Lady on Fire (FL), 1- The Nightingale (ACT), 1- Avengers: Endgame (PC), 1- Us (AA), 1- Dolemite is My Name (BF), 1- The Last Black Man in San Francisco (AA), 1- The Souvenir (Sight & Sound), 1- Clemency (Sundance), 1- Wild Rose (BAS), 1- For Sama (BI), 1- The Composer (GSA)

BEST DIRECTOR

FINAL TAKE:  We all thought the WOW and WHOA of Parasite ended here. Man, were we surprised. Keep multiplying the history and reverence!

WINNERS:  

27- Bong Joon-Ho for Parasite (ATL, NYO, SEA, Boston, PCC, CIC, NC, FCC, IN, Chicago, BO, CO, DC, GW, HOU, LA, VAN, AUS, CC, EDA, GA, GAL, SF, OFTA, Online, ND, London, Oscar)

10- Sam Mendes for 1917 (KC, Globe, DFW, NT, UT, DGA, CC, DEN, PHX, BAFTA)

7- Martin Scorsese for The Irishman (OK, BF, DET, PHI, SE, DUB, NM)5- Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (NBR, STL, LV, IA, HI)3- Josh and Benny Sadfie for Uncut Gems (NY, SD, Spirit)

2- Greta Gerwig for Little Women (CIC, NSFC)

2- James Mangold for Ford V. Ferrari (HFA, SAT)

2- Noam Baumbach for Marriage Story (NV, HC)

OTHERS: 1- Olivia Wilde for Booksmart (HC), 1- Celine Sciamma for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (FL), 1- Kasi Lemmons for Harriet (BF), 1- Jordan Peele for Us (AA), 1- Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert for American Factory (DGA), 1- Jennifer Kent for The Nightingale (ACT), 1- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Young Ahmed (Cannes), 1- Matt Pinder for Murder Case (BAS), 1- Jon S. Baird for Stan & Ollie (BAS)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

FINAL TAKE:  This may have been Adam Driver’s year and arguably his decade, but this made for a platform win for Joaquin. Moved and motivated, his late awards season surge culminated all the way to the biggest stage and microphone.

WINNERS:  

29- Adam Driver for Marriage Story (GI, ATL, SEA, KC, PCC, SD, CIC, NC, FCC, IN, NV, Chicago, CO, DC, DFW, DET, FL, GW, HOU, PHI, SE, UT, VAN, DUB, EDA, GA, WC, Online, OFTA)

14- Joaquin Phoenix for Joker (NYO, SD, Globe, NT, CC, DEN, SAG, PHX, HC, IA, HI, ND, BAFTA, London, Oscar)

8- Adam Sandler for Uncut Gems (NBR, OK, STL, Boston, LV, BO, AUS, Spirit)

7- Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory (HFA, NY, Cannes, LA, NSFC, SF, GAL)

2- Eddie Murphy for Dolemite is My Name (BF, AA)

2- Taron Egerton for Rocketman (SAT, Globe)

OTHERS: 1- Levan Gelbakhiani for And Then We Danced (NM), 1- Christian Bale for Ford v Ferrari (SAT), 1- Josh O’Connor for Only You (BI), 1- Damon Herriman for Judy and Punch (ACT), 1- Lorn MacDonald for Beats (BAS)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

FINAL TAKE:  Rambling speech or not, Renee peaked at the right time, even in an underseen movie. She joins a very exclusive list of multiple Oscar-winning women. Someday like Adam, Scarlett is going to get that make-up award for a late career success that harks back to her growth in Marriage Story.

WINNERS:  

26- Lupita Nyong’o for Us (NY, NYO, SEA, OK, KC, PCC, SD, CIC, NC, FCC, IN, BF, Chicago, AA, BO, CO, DC, PHI, AUS, EDA, GA, WC, SF, Online, HC, OFTA)

16- Renee Zellweger for Judy (HFA, BI, ATL, NBR, LV, Globe, HOU, SE, CC, SAG, PHX, IA, Spirit, BAFTA, GAL, London)

12- Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story (STL, FCC, NV, SAT, DFW, DET, FL, GW, UT, VAN, DEN, DUB)

4- Awkwafina for The Farewell (GI, Globe, SAT, HI)

2- Mary Kay Place for Diane (LA, NSFC)

2- Charlize Theron for Bombshell (NV, NT)

OTHERS: 1- Adele Haenel for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (NM), 1- Florence Pugh for Midsommar (ND), 1- Cynthia Erivo for Harriet (WC), 1- Saoirse Ronan for Little Women (Boston), 1- Jessie Buckley for Wild Rose (BAS), 1- Aisling Franciosi for The Nightingale (ACT), 1- Emily Beechem for Little Joe (Cannes)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

FINAL TAKE:  The show led off with lasting popular history. Pitt was the acting lock of the night and the moment did him right. Bravo!

WINNERS:  

29- Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (ATL, NBR, OK, STL, Boston, Globe, CIC, BF, Chicago, BO, DC, DFW, HOU, NSFC, PHI, SE, VAN, AUS, CC, DEN, EDA, SAG, SF, PHX, Online, IA, OFTA, HI, BAFTA, NM)

13- Joe Pesci for The Irishman (NY, NYO, KC, SD, NV, DET, FL, GW, PHI, UT, GA, HC, London)

7- Willem Dafoe for The Lighthouse (SEA, LV, IN, SAT, CO, Spirit, ND)

4- Song Kang-Ho for Parasite (PCC, CIC, LA, GAL)

OTHERS: 1- Tom Hanks for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (NT), 1- Jamie Foxx for Just Mercy (AA), 1- Shia LeBeouf for Honey Boy (FCC), 1- Al Pacino for The Irishman (HFA), 1- Joel Edgerton for The King (ACT), 1- Hugh Laurie for The Personal History of David Copperfield (BI)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

FINAL TAKE:  As of this award, the acting prizes went pretty chalk with odds and trends. Laura Dern prevents a Marriage Story shut-out.

WINNERS:  

21- Laura Dern for Marriage Story (HFA, ATL, NY, NY, Globe, DFW, DET, FL, NSFC, SE, VAN, CC, DEN, SAG, PHX, IA, ND, HI, BAFTA, Oscar, London)

14- Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers (SEA, OK, FCC, IN, NV, SAT, DC, LA, AUS, SF, Online, HC, OFTA, GAL)

9- Florence Pugh for Little Women (NC, Chicago, BO, CO, GW, PHI, UT, EDA, GA)

5- Zhao Shuzhen for The Farewell (SD, CIC, HOU, NT, Spirit)

3- Da’Vine Joy Randolph for Dolemite is My Name (KC, BF, AA)

2- Margot Robbie for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood/Bombshell (STL, LV)

OTHERS: 1- Yeo-Jeong Jo for Parasite (NM), 1- Thomasin McKenzie for Jojo Rabbit (PCC), 1- Kathy Bates for Richard Jewell (NBR), 1- Magnolia Maymuru for The Nightingale (ACT), 1- Ruthxjiah Bellenea for The Last Tree (BI)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

FINAL TAKE:  Bong Hive! I was in the #AnyoneButQuentin camp of one, but this category didn’t become about preferences. This was a win for international cinema. It’s extremely rare for the scene to have attention, let alone victory, in these top categories.

WINNERS:  

21- Bong Joon-Ho and Han Jin-Won for Parasite (ATL, NYO, SEA, NC, Chicago, AA, CO, NSFC, SE, UT, AUS, EDA, GA, SF, Online, HC, OFTA, GAL, BAFTA, WGA, Oscar)15- Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story (GI, STL, SD, FCC, IN, SAT, DC, DFW, DET, GW, LA, VAN, DUB, Spirit, London)

9- Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (NY, STL, Boston, LV, Globe, NV, BO, CC, HI, ND)

8- Rian Johnson for Knives Out (OK, KC, CIC, PCC, HOU, PHI, DEN, PHX)

2- Josh Sadfie, Benny Sadfie, and Ronald Bronstein for Uncut Gems (NBR, FL)

OTHERS: 1- Robert Eggers and Max Eggers for The Lighthouse (NM), 1- Lena Waithe for Queen & Slim (BF), 1- Nicole Taylor for Wild Rose (BAS), 1- Jennifer Kent for The Nightingale (ACT), 1- Celine Sciamma for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Cannes)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

FINAL TAKE:  This was quite a late season surge for Waititi. He is beloved and someday Greta Gerwig will get hers. It’s a matter of time.

WINNERS:  

16- Greta Gerwig for Little Women (KC, CIC, NC, IN, Chicago, CO, SAT, DC, FL, UT, USC, AUS, CC, DEN, EDA, OFTA)

9- Steve Zaillian for The Irishman (NBR, OK, BF, GW, SE, GA, Online, HI, NM)

8- Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit (FCC, NV, SF, PHX, HC, BAFTA, Oscar, WGA)

OTHERS: 1- Todd Phillips and Scott Silver for Joker (SAT), 1- Anthony McCarten for The Two Popes (HFA, LV), 1- J.C. Lee and Julius Onah for Luce (SD)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

FINAL TAKE:  This was the forgone conclusion spot, despite some staunch competition. Go see the other nominees and you’ll find some lovely works.

WINNERS:  

32- Toy Story 4 (HFA, ATL, SEA, OK, KC, STL, PCC, NC, FCC, NV, Chicago, BO, CO, DC, DFW, DET, GW, HOU, NT, PHI, SE, PGA, CC, DEN, GA, PHX, Online, HC, OFTA, IA, HI, Oscar)

14- I Lost My Body (Cannes, NY, NYO, Boston, SD, CIC, BF, FL, LA, UT, Annie, AUS, EDA, SF, ND)

2- Missing Link (LV, Globe)

2- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (NBR, IN)

2- Abominable (GSA, AA)2- Klaus (Annie, BAFTA)1- Weathering With You (NM)

OTHERS: 1- The Lion King (SAT), 1- Love, Death, & Robots – Helping Hand (BAS)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

FINAL TAKE:  An excellent winner with a Chicago connection in its director Matthew A. Cherry.

WINNERS:  1- Hair Love (Oscar)

OTHERS: 1- Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (Annie), 1- Grandad Was a Romantic (BAFTA)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

FINAL TAKE:  I didn’t know this category well, but I loved the Zack Gottshagen appearance as the presenter. That made my night.

WINNERS:  

1- The Neighbor’s Window (Oscar)

OTHERS: 1- The Distance Between Us and the Sky (Cannes), 1- The Devil’s Harmony (London) 1- Anna (BI), 1- The Joke That Isn’t Funny Anymore (BAS)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

FINAL TAKE:  There was no Obama shout-out or red carpet appearance, but the love was there. I’m still going to be pissed for years for omitting Apollo 13.

WINNERS:  

34- Apollo 11 (CCD, ATL, NYO, SEA, KC, STL, PCC, LV, CIC, NC, FCC, NV, Chicago, BO, CO, DC, DFW, DET, FL, GW, HOU, NT, PHI, SE, UT, AUS, DUB, EDA, GA, SF, Online, HC, IA, OFTA)

8- Honeyland (NY, Boston, NSFC, Sundance, VAN, DEN, ND, GAL)

6- American Factory (GI, OK, LA, EYE, Spirit, Oscar)

6- For Sama (BI, Cannes, IN, IDA, BAFTA, London)

3- One Child Nation (SD, Sundance, PHX)

OTHERS: 1- Diego Maradona (NM), 1- Varda by Agnes (WC), 1- The Black Godfather (AA), 1- Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (BF), 1- 63 Up (SAT), 1- Amazing Grace (KC), 1- Maiden (NBR), 1- The Cordillera of Dreams (Cannes), 1- Real Kashmir F.C. (BAS)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

FINAL TAKE:  Let this be a lesson to me to always follow the IDA Award winner in my picks.

WINNERS:  

3- Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)  (IDA, BAFTA, Oscar)

1- Period. End of Sentence. (CCD)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

FINAL TAKE:  This was a no-doubter and the minimum of the top prizes Parasite was thought to win tonight.

WINNERS:  46- Parasite (BI, ATL, NBR, NY, SEA, OK, KC, STL, Boston, PCC, SD, LV, Globe, CIC, NC, IN, BF, Chicago, AA, BO, CO, DC, DFW, GW, HOU, NT, PHI, SE, VAN, AUS, CC, DEN, EDA, GA, SF, PHX, Online, HC, Spirit, HI, BAFTA, ND, NM, GAL, OFTA, Oscar)

4- Portrait of a Lady On Fire (NYO, FL, WC, London)1- Pain and Glory (LA)

OTHERS: 1- Truth and Justice (SAT), 1- The Souvenir (Sundance), 1- Monos (Sundance)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

FINAL TAKE:  The GOAT maintains his GOAT status. Speaking of locks, the technical/artistic lock of the night stayed the lock of the night.

WINNERS:  36- Roger Deakins for 1917 (ATL, NBR, NYO, SEA, KC, STL, PCC, LV, CIC, NC, FCC, NV, SAT, BF, Chicago, CO, DC, DFW, FL, HOU, NT, SE, UT, ASC, AUS, CC, EDA, GA, SF, PHX, Online, HC, HI, OFTA, BAFTA, Oscar)

5- Claire Mathon for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (NY, Boston, GW, LA, NSFC)

5- Jarin Blaschke for The Lighthouse (SD, PHI, Spirit, ND, NM)

2- Robert Richardson for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (OK, BO)

OTHERS: 1- Hoyte van Hoytema for Ad Astra (DUB), 1- Adam Arkapow for The Nightingale (ACT), 1- Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma for Honeyland (ASC), 1- Mihai Malaimare Jr. for Jojo Rabbit (HFA), 1- Benjamin Kracun for Beats (BI)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN/ART DIRECTION

FINAL TAKE:  I may have been a big fan of the massive work in 1917 and not a huge Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood lover, but I cannot argue with the artistic brilliance on display here. All the neon, the dinge, the sets-within-the-sets, and the period architecture were worth this.

WINNERS:  

15- Barbara Ling for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (SEA, STL, LV, NV, Chicago, DC, FL, LA, CC, SF, ND, London, ADG, Oscar, NM)

5- Dennis Gassner for 1917 (SD, GA, PHX, BAFTA, Online)

4- Ha-Jun Lee for Parasite (Online, HI, ADG, OFTA)

OTHERS: 1- Charles Wood for Avengers: Endgame (ADG), 1- David Crank for Knives Out (CIC), 1- Ra Vincent for Jojo Rabbit (HFA), 1- Beth Mickle and Michael Ahern for Motherless Brooklyn (SAT), 1- Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton for The King (ACT), 1- Bob Pauley for Toy Story 4 (ADG), 1- Cristina Casali for The Personal History of David Copperfield (BI)

BEST FILM EDITING

FINAL TAKE:  While Ford v Ferrari was the awards season leader going in, the editing work was not the entering favorite. However, this was a superior technical win, which I’ll always respect and enjoy.

WINNERS:  

7- Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland for Ford v Ferrari (HFA, SD, LV, SAT, DC, BAFTA, Oscar)

6- Thelma Schoonmaker for The Irishman (Boston, Chicago, BO, EDA, HP, NM)

4- Lee Smith for 1917 (CIC, CC, PHX, HC)

4- Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie for Uncut Gems (SEA, GW, AUS, Spirit)

3- Jimno Yang for Parasite (ACE, Online, OFTA)

2- Fred Raskin for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (STL, HI)

2- Todd Douglas Miller for Apollo 11 (LA, UT)

OTHERS: 1- Louise Ford for The Lighthouse (ND), 1- Tom Eagles for Jojo Rabbit (ACE), 1- Axel Geddes for Toy Story 4 (ACE), 1- Todd Douglas Miller for Apollo 11 (ACE), 1- Bob Ducsay for Knives Out (CO), 1- Peter McNulty and Anthony Maras for Hotel Mumbai (ACT), 1- Chloe Lambourne and Simon McMahon for For Sama (BI)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

FINAL TAKE:  When in doubt, pick the period piece. This stood as the single consolation spot for all things Little Women.

WINNERS:  

7- Ruth E. Carter for Dolemite is My Name (SD, LV, CIC, SAT, BF, CC, OFTA)

4- Jacqueline Durran for Little Women (Chicago, BAFTA, OFTA, Oscar)

3- Julian Day for Rocketman (PHX, HC, HI)

OTHERS: 1- Jenny Eagan for Knives Out (CDG), 1- Mayes C. Rubeo for Jojo Rabbit (CDG), 1- Ellen Mirojnick for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (CDG), 1- Anna Mary Scott Robbins for Downton Abbey (HFA), 1- Jan Petrie for The King (ACT), 1- Suzie Harman and Robert Worley for The Personal History of David Copperfield (BI)

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIR-STYLING

FINAL TAKE:  Much like The Darkest Hour, flashy individuals beats volume and that’s perfectly OK. Great to see the wealth spread.

WINNERS:  

6- Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, and Anne Morgan for Bombshell (CIC, CC, MH, HC, OFTA, Oscar)

2- Nikki Ledermanm, Tania Ribalow, and Sunday Englis for Joker (MH, HI)

OTHERS: 1- Lizzie Yianni-Georgiou, Tapio Salmi, and Barrie Gower for Rocketman (HFA), 1- Jeremy Woodhead for Judy (BI), 1- Zeljka Stanin, Paul Pattison, and Cheryl Williams for Lambs of God (ACT)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

FINAL TAKE:  1917 entered the night a big favorite, but this was not a spot it was favored, making this a very cool win. I was in the #AnythingButTheIrishman mosh pit of one.

WINNERS:  

8- Dan Deleeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick for Avengers: Endgame (STL, LV, NC, NV, CC, PHX, HC, OFTA)

5- Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, and Dominic Touhy for 1917 (CIC, HOU, DEN, BAFTA, Oscar)

4- Allen Maris, Jedediah Smith, Guillaume Rocheron, and Scott R.Fisher for Ad Astra (SEA, SD, Chicago, Online)

3- Joe Letteri and Eric Saindon for Alita: Battle Angel (SAT, FL, HI)

2- Robert Legato, Andrew R. Jones; Adam Valdez, Elliot Newman, and Audrey Ferrara for The Lion King (HP, VES)

2- Pablo Helman for The Irishman (HFA, VES)

OTHERS: 1- Brad Schiff, Travis Knight, Steve Emerson, and Benoit Dubac for Missing Link (VES), 1- Benjamin Fiske, Alex Moaveni, Jesse Erickson, Dimitre Berberov, and Kee Nam Suong for Frozen 2 (Annie), 1- Brendan Seals, Michael Perdew, Andrew Zink, and Adam Gailey for Spider-Man: Far From Home (ACT), 1- Howard Jones for A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (BI)

BEST SOUND EDITING

FINAL TAKE:  Excellent and correct technical win and not a Best Picture sweeper. Well done!

WINNERS:  

4- Donald Sylvester, Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow for Ford v Ferrari (HFA, SAT, HI, Oscar)

2- Oliver Tarney and Rachel Tate for 1917 (BAFTA, OFTA)

OTHERS: 1- Tim LeBlanc, Tom Ozanich, Erik Aadahl, Nancy Nugent, and Jason W. Jennings for Godzilla: King of the Monsters (HP), 1- David Bowtle-McMillan, Joakim Sundstrom, and Robert Farr for Beats (BI), 1- Liam Egan for Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (ACT)

BEST SOUND MIXING

FINAL TAKE:  The technical skill of 1917 is fitting for this position. It was going to be between this and the editing winner Ford v Ferrari. This boosted totals nicely.

WINNERS:  

3- Donald Sylvester, Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow for Ford V. Ferrari (HFA, SAT, CAS, HI)

3- Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson for 1917 (BAFTA, OFTA, Oscar)

OTHERS: 1- Doc Kane, Vince Caro, Michael Semanick, Nathan Nance, David Boucher, and Scott Curtis for Toy Story 4 (CAS), 1- David J. Turner, Tom Myers, David Blanck, and Frank Rinella for Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (CAS), 1- David Bowtle-McMillan, Joakim Sundstrom, and Robert Farr for Beats (BI)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

FINAL TAKE:  I love this moment of history for Hildur and her speech was fitting and matching of the moment. Joker haters, be damned.

WINNERS:

11- Hildur Gudnadottir for Joker (PCC, LV, Globe, SAT, CC, DEN, HC, HI, ND, BAFTA, Oscar)

8- Thomas Newman for 1917 (ATL, STL, DFW, AUS, GA, PHX, IA, OFTA)

5- Michael Abels for Us (CIC, IN, CO, DC, Online)

4- Daniel Lopatin for Uncut Gems (SEA, OK, BO, FL)

2- Alexandre Desplat for Little Women (Boston, Chicago)

2- Randy Newman for Marriage Story (HFA, GW)

OTHERS: 1- James Newton Howard for A Hidden Life (NM), 1- Emile Nommensen for The Last Black Man in San Francisco (SF), 1- Matt Morton for Apollo 11 (UT), 1- Dan Levy for I Lost My Body (LA), 1- Matthew Margeson for Rocketman (NYO), 1- Alberto Iglesias for Pain and Glory (Cannes), 1- Francois Tetaz for Judy and Punch (ACT), 1- Jack Arnold for Wild Rose (BI)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

FINAL TAKE:  The legend won in the spot where legends win. I would have loved Cynthia Erivo, but who can argue with Elton John.

WINNERS:  

6- “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” from Wild Rose (HOU, CC, DEN, GA, HC, ND)

6- “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman (Globe, SAT, CC, HI, OFTA, Oscar)

OTHERS: 1- “Swan Song” from Alita: Battle Angel (NM), 1- “I Punched Keanu Reeves” from Always Be My Maybe (CIC), 1- “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4 (IA), 1- “Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2 (PHX), 1- “Letter to My Grandfather” from The Black Godfather (HFA), 1- “Stand Up” from Harriet (LV)

ACRONYM KEY FOR AWARD GROUPS

African-American Film Critics Association (AA), ACE Eddie Awards (ACE), Art Directors Guild Awards (ADG), Annie Awards (Annie), American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), Atlanta Film Critics Circle (ATL), Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (ACT), Austin Film Critics Association (AUS), British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), BAFTA Scottland (BAS), Black Film Critics Circle (BF), British Independent Film Awards (BI), Boston Society of Film Critics (Boston), Boston Online Film Critics Association (BO), Cannes Film Festival (Cannes), Cinema Audio Society (CAS), Costume Designers Guild (CDG), Chicago Film Critics Association (Chicago), Chicago Indie Critics (CIC), Broadcast Film Critics Association/Critics Choice Awards (CC), Critics Choice Documentary Awards (CCD), Columbus/Central Ohio Film Critics Associations (CO), Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association (DC), Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association (DFW), Denver Film Critics Society (DEN), Detroit Film Critics Society (DET), Directors Guild of America (DGA), Dublin Film Critics Circle (DUB), Alliance of Women Film Journalists/EDA Awards (EDA), Cinema Eye Awards (EYE), Online Association of Female Film Critics (FFC), Florida Film Critics Circle (FL), Georgia Film Critics Association (GA), Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association/Dorian Awards (GAL), Gotham Independent Film Awards (GI), Golden Screen Awards (GSA), Greater Western New York Film Critics Association (GW), Hollywood Critics Association (HC), Hawaii Film Critics Society (HI), Hollywood Foreign Press Association/Golden Globes (Globe), Hollywood Film Awards (HFA), Houston Film Critics Society (HOU), Hollywood Professionals Association (HP), Iowa Film Critics Association (IA), International Documentary Association (IDA), Indiana Film Journalist Associations (IN), Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KC), Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LA), London Film Critics Circle (London), Las Vegas Film Critics Association/Sierra Winners (LV), Makeup and Hair-Styling Guild (MH), National Board of Review (NBR), North Carolina Film Critics Association (NC), North Dakota Film Critics Society (ND), National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), New Mexico Film Critics (NM), North Texas Film Critics Association (NT), Nevada Film Critics Society (NV), New York Film Critics Circle (NY), New York Online Film Critics Association (NYO), Online Film and Television Awards (OFTA), Oklahoma Film Critics Circle (OK), Online Film Critics Society (Online), The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences/Academy Awards (Oscar), People’s Choice Awards (PC), Producers Guild of America (PGA), Philadelphia Film Critics Circle (PHI), Phoenix Critic Circle (PCC), Phoenix Film Critics Society (PHX), Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG), International Press Academy/Satellite Awards (SAT), San Diego Film Critics Society (SD), Southeastern Film Critics Association (SE), Seattle Film Critics Society (SEA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SF),  Independent Spirit Awards (Spirit), St. Louis Film Critics (STL), Sundance Film Festival (Sundance), Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), USC Libraries Scripter Award (USC), Utah Film Critics Association (UT), Vancouver Critics Circle (VAN), Visual Effects Society Awards (VES), Women Film Critics Circle (WC), Writers Guild of America (WGA)

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG – Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/38bW9rG via IFTTT

from WordPress https://ift.tt/38fdGPF via IFTTT