#Laurie Holloway

[justforbooks]

Laurie Holloway

Composer, pianist and musical director on popular TV shows such as Parkinson and Strictly Come Dancing

In 1971, when the BBC chat show Parkinson began, its host, Michael Parkinson, asked his friend Laurie Holloway to be the musical director. “I unfortunately had to refuse because I was engaged to be the musical director for Engelbert Humperdinck,” said Holloway, who has died aged 86. “We stayed good friends although I had to turn the offer down.”

Holloway, a renowned jazz pianist who had accompanied Cleo Laine on stage and was at one time a member of her husband John Dankworth’s band, worked with Humperdinck between 1970 and 1975 on tours of the US and TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic – as well as studio recordings – while Harry Stoneham became the Parkinson show’s musical director and composer of its theme tune, one of the most recognisable on TV.

The show originally ran until 1982. On its relaunch in 1998, Holloway, along with his big band, finally had the chance to play the “dat-diddly-da-da-da, dat-diddly-da-da-da” jazzy tune and continued with Parkinson when the programme switched to ITV (2004-07). As well as performing the opening and closing theme, Holloway – distinctive for his silver hair and goatee beard – came up with appropriate arrangements to herald guests. “The play-on that I wasn’t allowed to do was Two Little Boys for Ant and Dec,” he said. “The show producers thought the idea was too cheeky.”

Another star who valued Holloway’s talents, on stage and screen over three decades from the 1980s, was Barry Humphries, usually in the guise of Dame Edna Everage. Humphries described Holloway and his other accompanists as his “closest companions”, adding: “Very often the show is just me on stage with a pianist accompanying the songs and filling in during quick changes before the rousing gladioli chorus at the end … A good pianist will often know the show better than the artiste himself.”

To Holloway’s surprise, he was also approached to become musical director on the TV show Strictly Come Dancing. “I told the BBC I didn’t do dance numbers,” he explained. “But they liked the Parkinson band and asked if I could do the same thing for the show.”

Holloway, leading the live band and composing the arrangements, left after the first three series (2004-05). “It was an awful lot of work and an awful lot of writing, involving 14 musical arrangements a week,” he said. “My daughters said they never saw me. Politicians often say they are leaving to spend more time with their families and that’s what I actually did.”

Showing his talent for composing original music, Holloway wrote the theme tunes for popular ITV series such as Punchlines (1981-84), Game for a Laugh (1981-85) and Beadle’s About (1986-96).

When commissioned to do the same for Blind Date (1985-2019), he decided on a song, in the vein of the American series on which it was based, The Dating Game, and took it to Alan Boyd, the head of entertainment at the ITV company LWT. “He hated the thought of a full song,” Holloway said. “So I said, ‘What about, “Blind date, blind date – da da da da da da!’ And he said, ‘That’s it!’ It was just two [different] notes, but they were so strong.”

Holloway was born in Oldham, Lancashire, to Annie (nee Gillespie), and Marcus Holloway, a French polisher and self-taught pianist. Laurie started playing by ear aged four, began lessons three years later and became a church organist and choirmaster at 12. He then played Saturday-night gigs at a local ballroom and, aged 14, had a phone call from the bandleader Eddie Mendoza, who needed a pianist for a week-long booking at the Theatre Royal, Oldham.

On leaving Greenhill grammar school in the town, Holloway spent six months as an apprentice draughtsman before turning professional as a musician aged 16, spending two years with Syd Willmott and his Band. Stints followed with bands run by Arthur Plant in Dundee and others on transatlantic liners booked by the bandleader Geraldo’s agency.

Back in Britain, Holloway spent two years playing piano in Ronnie Rand’s dance orchestra at the Astoria, Charing Cross Road, in London, often rushing off at the end of the evening to play at the Gargoyle strip club, before performing with bands led by Johnny Gray and Cyril Stapleton.

He began to get session work on records such as the 1964 Petula Clark hit Downtown and was pianist and musical director for two sellout London Palladium shows the same year by Judy Garland and her daughter, Liza Minnelli. He said Garland “wasn’t the greatest singer, but she was so emotional – a bit like Shirley Bassey or Dorothy Squires”, adding: “They lived their songs.”

Holloway was soon able to pick and choose his assignments and once turned down the chance to work with Barbra Streisand. “I found the voice a bit thin,” he said.

Among many radio programmes with his quartet during the 60s, Holloway played on Rolf Harris’s shows (1964-67). On radio and television, they also backed Marion Montgomery (Marian Maud Runnells), the American jazz singer who moved to Britain and became Holloway’s second wife in 1965 after they met at a gig when he was accompanying Mel Tormé.

In the West End, he was in the pit band for Lionel Bart’s Blitz (Adelphi, 1962-63), composed the score for the farce Instant Marriage (Piccadilly, 1964-65), with the book and lyrics by Bob Grant, and was musical director of Piaf (Piccadilly, 1993-94).

His admirers included royalty. Princess Margaret, a regular visitor to Holloway and Montgomery’s home, asked him in 1990 to record a cassette of Scottish childhood songs that she and her sister, Queen Elizabeth II, would sing at Buckingham Palace – with Holloway accompanying them – as a 90th-birthday present for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

He was appointed MBE in 2013.

Montgomery died in 2002. Holloway is survived by his third wife, Maryann Lallyette, whom he married in 2014, and by two daughters, Abigail, from his marriage to Montgomery, and Karon, from his first marriage, to Julia (nee Macdonald), which ended in divorce.

🔔 Laurie (Laurence) Holloway, pianist, musical director and composer, born 31 March 1938; died 9 January 2025

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[vinyl-artwork]

Laurie Holloway Quartet - Hit Parade Holloway Style (1966)

[cellarspider]

23/30 Characterization speedrun

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We return to a movie that exposits with all the grace of an inebriated hippo on rollerskates, Prometheus.

Y’know, I have a soft spot for the first movie adaptation of Silent Hill (2006). Yes, we're tangenting to talk about something else I like better, but I swear it's for a purpose.

It mostly sticks to the first game’s content, meaning it limits the number of themes it has to handle. It makes some alterations that affect its interpretation–it switches the gender of the protagonist, alters the religious elements, cuts out the bit where you basically fight Baphomet at the end of the game, but that always felt weird anyway. And, of course, there’s a required appearance by a certain tetrahedron lad, reanalyzed as a punitive figure turned outward on the world rather than inward toward the person that conjured him. I’ll allow it, partly because I saw it when I was a teenager and I thought he was badass.

But what it really nails camerawork, creature effects, and set design. So much so that a lot of the visuals of following games lifted from creative decisions made for the movie. The Silent Hill movie is more a thing of vibes than anything else, and the vibes are appropriately awful.

[Video description: Rose (Radha Mitchell) and Cybil (Laurie Holden) encounter a Lying Figure (Michael Cota), AKA Armless Man or Straightjacket. There’s only a tiny amount of CG here. It was pretty much all Cota’s unnerving shuffle and his willingness to be shoved into blinding, deafening, arm-tying monster-bondage with a breathing tube hidden around butt-height.. We salute you, Mr. Cota, possibly with our feet.]

But where the movie trips and falls is right near the end, where the vibes screech to a halt so that the movie can sit you down and explain the backstory that it already intimated throughout the rest of the runtime.

On a totally unrelated note, Janek has something to tell Shaw.

This barren moon, believe it or not, isn’t the Engineers’ homeworld. Y’don’t say.

You know what would’ve been a better way to set this up? Have somebody ask “hey, there’s nothing but rocks and ominous buildings here. What gives?”, but they literally never do. Not even the biologist, who does no biology in the movie. The geologist, who also doesn’t do any geology, doesn’t note, say, a lack of siltstone that’d indicate running water, no coal of any kind that’d indicate previous growth of plant matter, no signs of oil or natural gas deposits derived from ancient microbes. Lord knows the poor bastards weren’t swamped with work before the script ate them.

But no, there’s no questioning of this. Shaw dictates in her notes “Was there an outbreak here?”, after exploding the head. But that’s it. No, we leave it to Idris Elba explain, as seriously and as military guy-ily as he can. This is a weapons lab or depot, something went wrong here, Janek’s going to do a self-sacrifice if it seems like the weapon might get to Earth. He even says the weapons are in “those vases”, in case you didn’t notice them before.

Consider: Principle photography for Prometheus was done in 2011, from March 21 to June 10 (cite 1). On November 14, Filming began for Pacific Rim, in which Idris Elba gots to play a serious self-sacrificing military guy with the exact same mustache who has an actual character arc, AND was allowed to use his actual accent.

In Prometheus, Janek apparently had more characterization planned, but it was stripped entirely away until all you’re left is a christmas tree, a plot-mandated laxity in keeping track of passengers, and incomprehensible flirting with Vickers. On balance, that’s more than pretty much everyone else gets, but at the same time, what does that tell us? We are left with a man who’s going to pull a heroic sacrifice, essentially because he’s the only other character we know about.

In cut material, Janek was originally going to give a sympathy monologue to Vickers after she killed Holloway, about a traumatic event in his military career: he watched a bioweapons lab suffer a breach that ended with its destruction. That was cut. His motivation was cut. And more, too, you can see the ragged edges of the script. 

“Right, ‘all you do is fly the ship,’” quotes an exasperated Shaw. “That’s right,” says Janek, who told Vickers that in a cut scene.

Despite these pieces missing, I haven’t been drawing on them very often. Why? Because the movie was still full of baffling decisions, regardless of how they edited it down. The movie that’s shot never looks like what gets shown in theaters, but it is still a representative sample of the material, one that was prepared for us to watch.

While Janek’s entire motivation fell off him in the editing room, Vickers gets undermined by what they did keep. Turns out she’s not just nasty to her employees, she’s nasty to her boss as well, because he’s her dad. She’s presented as obsessed with making sure he dies, which, fair, we’ll soon confirm that his only begotten robo-son is pretty big on that too.

…Except this also means they have the same character motivation, which… That can work, but how well does it work as a twist? 

I am not convinced. Vickers has constantly been pulling power plays on David, who’s pushed back a little in return, but they don’t have to functionally be siblings to make this work. Nor does the weird, occasionally robotic behavior from Vickers have to mean “aha, you see, they are both Weyland’s children with daddy issues!”

She could just be a disposable asset of the Weyland Corporation! She’d have a more sympathetic arc that way, because unlike corpos of Aliens past, she doesn’t want to be there at all. She didn’t want them to talk to aliens, she didn’t express any of the usual flimsy “we can profit off of this uncontrollable killing machine” stuff we’ve come to expect. She seemed to just want to get the fuck out of there. And obviously, she’s gonna die, this movie is frequently aping Alien and Aliens, the corpo does not survive. That could be tragic!

But apparently she wanted to be here, taking five years out of her life and career to sit on ice and do literally nothing but make sure her already dying dad actually dies. Okay. 

It’s especially, structurally weird, because the very next scene has David explaining his motivation to Shaw.

“What happens when Weyland isn’t around to program you?” “I suppose I’ll be free.” “You want that?” “"Want"? Not a concept I’m familiar with. That being said… doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?”

This is what happens when you leave a hyperintelligent newborn alone for two years with nobody but Peter O’Toole as a role model. 

This scene and the pre-caesarian one set up a weird dynamic between David and Shaw that didn’t seem sufficiently motivated by the rest of their interactions, in my opinion. It suggests that David has latched onto her in some way, which the next movie certainly confirms. But why? They’ve barely talked, ad most of it was pure exposition or telling David to do something. Is it because she hasn’t been as bad as the others? Because that’s going to change later. 

David’s hopes are pinned on the Engineer rejecting Weyland. This is a reasonable assumption. The way the scene plays out, however, is not entirely reasonable.

And that will have to wait for another day. Before we get to that, I want another ramble all to myself. About something I like.

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Alt-text rambles:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbhartzog/558247427/in/photostream/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble 

https://youtu.be/cOrcwL5MHYg

Overflow Ramble 1

The kitchen counters don’t have any grippy surfaces on them, and no lip. The *stove* has no lip, which I have seen before, but it’s stupid. Most modern designs for stovetops meant for installation on ships have a high lip and/or grippers that hold cookware in place. There are multiple open shelves that have no lip. And there’s yet another piece of Decorative African Art just hung on the wall above a food prep counter, within the potential reach of steam or grease splatter. The chair Holloway sat in last time is revealed to be free-standing, as is the coffee table.

No. No free-standing furniture, unless it’s collapsible and used at rest. Put lips on every counter and table. Have lots of grip mats you can throw down anywhere. The design in here is more along the lines of airline tray tables, which are meant to be stowed during rough flight. There is no way to stow all this shit in a reasonable and timely manner. Airline furniture is also designed according to hostile forces, which, frankly, might be relevant here. This comfy, beige apartment space was designed by someone who did not give one fuck if a glass went winging off that 2m tall open shelf and gave you a concussion.

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[sophiaannecarusos]

When a couple crashes their car in the mountains, they seek shelter in an isolated cabin. Its inhabitants, though somewhat unusual, are eager to make their guests feel right at home. But as the blizzard outside rages on and one night turns into several, the couple becomes less and less sure of what's true—about their hosts, themselves, and why that sound in the walls keeps getting louder.

Two-time Tony Award® winner Laurie Metcalf (A Doll’s House, Part 2) stars in this first-of-its-kind Broadway experience, alongside Emmy Award® winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Emmy nominee Paul Sparks (House of Cards), Sophia Anne Caruso (Beetlejuice) and Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place). With direction by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (The Humans, Wicked), and written by Levi Holloway, GREY HOUSE is a “savvy, smart new play—that just happens to be legitimately terrifying.” (Chicago Tribune).

COMING TO BROADWAY APRIL 2023

[popculturebrain]

Laurie Metcalf & Tatiana Maslany Set For Broadway Thriller ‘Grey House’; Joe Mantello Will Direct

Grey House, Levi Holloway’s bumps-in-the-night stage thriller, will make its New York debut on Broadway this spring with a cast that features Laurie Metcalf, Tatiana Maslany, Paul Sparks, Sophia Anne Caruso, and Millicent Simmonds. Joe Mantello will direct.

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[fredborges98]

Cambodia: The " burning prisons" fuelled by fast fashion.

By Laura Bicker in Phnom Penn, Cambodia

Por Laura Bicker em Phnom Penn, Camboja

Tradução livre por: Fred Borges.

Observação:

Antes de tudo gostaria de enfatizar a importância da reportagem da BBC do dia 01.02.2024,ela irá agregar valor ao tema abaixo destacado e desenvolvido logo após a tradução.

*Marco Zero.*

É seu único refúgio do calor dentro da olaria que mais parece uma tumba mal iluminada.

“É como trabalhar dentro de uma prisão em chamas”, diz a mulher de 47 anos enquanto empilha os tijolos secos, que serão transferidos para um armazém. "Pedi aos proprietários que nos fornecessem mais ventiladores. Mas eles não o farão porque isso custará mais dinheiro".

O ventilador que ela tem bate lentamente ao ligar, eventualmente entrando em ação. Quase não cria uma brisa.

Quão quente é quente demais para trabalhar?

É uma questão para a qual os investigadores encontraram a resposta aqui, nas olarias do Camboja, onde as pessoas trabalham em algumas das condições de trabalho mais quentes do mundo, alimentadas em parte pelos restos da "Fast Fashion"(1).

A BBC conversou com vários trabalhadores que disseram que suavam tanto durante o dia que parecia que estavam tomando um banho quente.

Os desmaios também são comuns, possivelmente porque ficam desidratados.

Seus nomes foram mudados porque temem represálias por parte de seus empregadores.

Num estudo inédito, os investigadores tentaram documentar como esta exposição sustentada ao calor extremo está afetando a saúde dos trabalhadores.

Sensores especiais registaram a temperatura central de 30 trabalhadores nestes fornos durante uma semana e mostraram que todos sofriam de "stress térmico", ou temperaturas centrais superiores a 38ºC.

Isso pode causar fadiga, tontura, náusea e dores de cabeça.

Uma temperatura corporal saudável geralmente varia de 36,1°C a 37,2°C.

A temperatura corporal acima de 38ºC é sintomática de febre.

Alguns trabalhadores tinham temperaturas centrais de 40°C, o que pode levar a insolação, resultando em convulsões, eventual perda de consciência e até morte, se não for tratada precocemente.

Um trabalhador disse aos pesquisadores que sofria de insuficiência cardíaca devido ao calor. Mas ele finalmente voltou a trabalhar porque essa era a única maneira que conhecia de ganhar a vida.

Isto só é agravado pelo aquecimento do clima e pelo próprio clima do Camboja - em Maio passado, atingiu um novo máximo com 41,6ºC durante o ano mais quente de que há registo. À medida que as temperaturas globais aumentam, mesmo um pequeno aumento pode significar a diferença entre a vida e a morte para dezenas de milhares de trabalhadores de olarias em toda a Ásia.

"Uma das grandes narrativas que ouço repetidamente é que estamos todos juntos nesta [mudança climática]. Mas isso não é absolutamente verdade. Alguns de nós estão muito mais envolvidos nisso do que outros", disse Laurie Parsons, da Royal Holloway University, autora do estudo.

É uma tarde úmida fora do forno, nos arredores da capital do Camboja, Phnom Penh. Lá dentro, onde Chantrea empilha tijolos, é sufocante.

Mas ela está coberta da cabeça aos pés com roupas que pendem de seu corpo minúsculo - seu único escudo contra o calor abrasador e a poeira. Se os tijolos estiverem muito quentes, a pele dela forma bolhas.

Os próprios fornos são cercados por paredes de tijolos e selados.

Os trabalhadores ficam do lado de fora e alimentam a lenha através de uma escotilha para manter o fogo quente o suficiente, geralmente em torno de 1.500°C, para assentar os tijolos de argila. Quando isso acontece, eles param de alimentar as chamas e quando o calor parece menos insuportável, eles entram na câmara.

Não há dados sobre a temperatura média no interior dos fornos, pois é difícil o acesso dos pesquisadores. Também é difícil saber quantos trabalhadores adoecem ou pioram por causa do calor.

Lesões causadas pela queda de tijolos não são incomuns, segundo Chantrea. E os trabalhadores disseram aos pesquisadores do Reino Unido que os tijolos muitas vezes os queimam, mesmo através das luvas.

Do lado de fora do forno, Kosal, pai de dois filhos, pega uma mistura de tecido, plástico e borracha e enfia na escotilha antes de fechá-la rapidamente. A fumaça preta vaza pelas frestas enquanto crianças – dele e de outros trabalhadores do forno – passam correndo.

“Estou acostumado com a fumaça preta. Não percebo mais”, diz ele. "Tenho que manter essas fogueiras acesas por 24 horas. Minha esposa e eu dividimos o trabalho entre nós."

As crianças rastejam sobre sacos cheios de sobras de roupas – mais combustível para o forno da _indústria de vestuário de US$ 6 bilhões do Camboja._

Mas o que pode inicialmente parecer uma solução para as sobras indesejadas das 1.300 fábricas de vestuário do país está, na verdade, a esconder o seu próprio segredo mortal.

De acordo com um relatório de 2018 – Blood Bricks – de acadêmicos do Reino Unido da Royal Holloway, esses restos apresentam vestígios de alvejante à base de cloro, formaldeído e amônia, além de metais pesados, PVC e resinas utilizadas nos processos de tingimento e impressão.

O relatório também descobriu que os trabalhadores das fábricas de tijolos relataram enxaquecas regulares, sangramentos nasais e outras doenças.

O viés laboral é um fator importante nos piores impactos das alterações climáticas”, disse Laurie.

Por mais tóxico ou difícil que seja o trabalho, trabalhadores como Chantrea e Kosal nunca poderão sair.

Vítimas das alterações climáticas, estão presos num ciclo de calor.

A maioria dos que trabalham nas olarias do Camboja eram agricultores. Chantrea costumava cultivar arroz. Mas a escassez de chuvas nos últimos anos tornou difícil a gestão de uma única colheita.

“Pedimos muito dinheiro emprestado depois das nossas colheitas terem fracassado. Mas quando elas continuaram a falhar, acabámos com muitas dívidas”, diz ela.

Eventualmente, ela não teve escolha senão migrar para Phnom Penh na esperança de encontrar um emprego para pagar os empréstimos.

Mais de dois milhões dos 10 milhões de adultos do Camboja têm micro empréstimos pendentes, de acordo com a Associação Cambojana de Microfinanças. Em média, cada um deles deve US$ 3.320 (£ 1.955) ( Em torno de R$16.000,00, o micro tornou-se macro e perdeu sua função de distribuição da riqueza, agora se tornando distribuição da pobreza).

Esta insegurança financeira forneceu mão-de-obra vulnerável para olarias. Os proprietários oferecem-se para pagar o empréstimo, mas, em troca, o trabalhador fica vinculado ao forno.

Muitas vezes famílias inteiras estão ligadas ao forno.

A BBC viu crianças ajudando os pais no forno, apesar dos esforços do governo cambojano para prevenir o trabalho infantil.

“Se partirmos, temos medo de sermos detidos e encarcerados”, diz Chantrea. "Portanto, temos de lutar aqui. Se nos pedirem para entrar no fogo, faremos até isso só para podermos ganhar mais dinheiro para comprar comida e pagar a nossa dívida."

Mas os salários são demasiado baixos para que a dívida possa ser paga.Chantrea ganha 10 mil riels cambojanos (£ 1,92; US$ 2,45 ou R$10,00) por empilhar cerca de 500 tijolos.

Com isso ela tem que pagar comida, luz e água. Sua casa é um barraco de lata na beira do forno e ela sustenta um menino que encontrou sozinho na rua e adotou. Quando estão com fome, eles procuram caracóis juntos.

“Depois de vários anos, nunca paguei ao proprietário”, diz Chantrea. A dívida, acrescenta ela, só aumentou.

Os fornos do Camboja alimentaram o boom da construção na capital. Atraiu investidores estrangeiros, incluindo o Reino Unido, que investiu mil milhões de libras, segundo investigadores da Royal Holloway University.

Mas à medida que Phnom Penh se eleva em direção ao céu, com torre após torre de apartamentos com ar condicionado, a cidade está deixando para trás aqueles que ajudaram a construí-la.

*Marco Final.*

*O Algoritmo da Shein ou da Ultra Fast Fashion e suas implicações ou externalidades.*

Por: Fred Borges

O tempo entre desenho da peça e a fabricação é de 7 dias e tem se reduzido.

A Shein usa algoritmos e inteligência artificial para entender o que o consumidor quer comprar. A partir desse mapeamento, ela produz as peças mais promissoras de forma rápida.

A produção segue a demanda e a empresa não tem estoque. A Shein produz inicialmente um lote pequeno, de 50 a 100 unidades, e mede a procura pelo produto. Ela só faz mais peças se a demanda for alta.

Assim, trabalha com praticamente zero estoque!

A mensagem para o varejista brasileiro é muito forte: a vantagem competitiva da Shein não são os impostos.

"Se eles acreditam que essa é a única vantagem, nunca vão poder concorrer". Marcelo Claure, CEO da Shein na América Latina.

Senão a Shein não seria a empresa fashion mais importante do mundo, crescendo mês a mês numa escala de 10 a 12% ao ano, muito mais que grandes economias no mundo.

Para o modelo funcionar, a Shein só vende pela internet, e não tem planos de abrir lojas físicas permanentes.

Afinal, para ter loja é necessário ter estoque!

"Se abrirmos lojas, teremos os mesmos problemas que os outros varejistas." Ele continua:

"O grande problema do varejo no mundo todo é que, seis meses antes, ele tenta adivinhar o que o consumidor final quer. Isso se traduz em altos níveis de estoque. Estoque que não vende.

"Nós só fabricamos o que o consumidor final quer. E fabricamos quantidades muito pequenas até encontrar o ponto ótimo de demanda".

"Então temos zero estoque, e dessa maneira o nosso custo é muito, muito menor."

*Uma externalidade em específico dentro de uma realidade fragmentada.*

Como apontado no artigo da BBC, as externalidades vão desde humanas,materiais, financeiras, comerciais, e principalmente sócio- ambientais,diante de uma agenda global, seja da globalização econômica ao globalismo ideológico ou político, estamos diante de agricultores bloqueando a Alemanha, França e Itália com seus tratores á uma reduflação por parte da indústria brasileira fornecendo produtos em menor quantidade por unidade vendida e ao mesmo tempo aumentando os preços para o consumidor final, o que Miriam Leitão( jornalista da Globo- Rede Estatal do Governo), tenta explicar afirmando que o governo atual é de extrema competência em tudo.

*Externalidade SC* ou

*Shopping Centers.*

Segundo o estudo de caso, já existem mais de 8,600 shoppings centers abandonados só nos Estados Unidos.

Dados da Coresight* mostraram que, em 2022, houve 50% menos fechamentos e 1% mais aberturas _de lojas_ nos Estados Unidos, em relação a 2021. Mas não são lojas como as que conhecíamos. São lojas com novas e ampliadas funções. Servem para capturar dados sobre as preferências dos consumidores, como a novíssima Amazon Fresh**, repleta de câmeras e sensores que permitem que os clientes não precisem passar no caixa para pagar suas compras. Lojas que apoiam a logística, como no caso da Petco***. Que vendem serviços, incluindo alimentação, como faz a Nordstrom****, que até criou uma subsidiária para administrar o negócio de foodservice dentro das suas lojas.

Em sua apresentação no último dia da NRF ***** 2023, a Kantar ****** lançou um conceito fascinante: o próximo grande objetivo do varejo será ampliar o seu envolvimento com a vida de seus clientes. O que eles chamaram de “share of life” (participação na vida das pessoas).

Isso faz muito sentido. Lululemon há muito tempo convida os clientes para fazerem aulas de ioga em seus espaços. Lego propõe que as crianças se divirtam nas suas lojas. Ulta Beauty******* quer que as mulheres que compram na loja também passem tempo lá fazendo as unhas, sobrancelhas e escovas nos cabelos. A novíssima Starbucks Reserve*********, construída no Empire State Building, conta com salas de trabalho e de reuniões, que podem ser reservadas pelas pessoas.

O que buscam todas essas marcas?

Construir um senso de comunidade e ao mesmo tempo propor novos estímulos para que as pessoas passem mais tempo em suas lojas – e dessa forma concentrem mais gastos nesses locais. A ideia de investir na ampliação do “share of life”, proposta pela Kantar, vai na mesma direção apontada pela GDR*********, da Kate Ancketill. Ela defendeu a tese de que estamos mergulhando de cabeça na “Economia da Dopamina”, onde o consumidor, para se sentir melhor, deixa de comprar pequenas indulgências e passa a preferir experiências imersivas.

Os recursos humanos no varejo devem ser cada vez mais tratados como realmente seres humanos!

O varejo caminha cada vez mais para o “human centric”, ou centrado nas pessoas.

Caso esta transição não seja bem feita, bem estruturada, planejada estrategicamente e taticamente, mas principalmente humanamente, no sentido da antropologia, sociologia, filosofia, cultura e uma nova mentalidade do consumo, os Shoppings Centers ou versões mais atualizadas, mas na essência não modificadas no seu DNA, irão desaparecer!

Estamos diante de uma realidade sem retorno ao passado, e quem vive de passado, com todo respeito à memória dos nossos antepassados, idosos, monumentos e marcos históricos e história da civilização,são as bibliotecas e os museus!

E todos sabemos o que aconteceu com os museus e bibliotecas!

*Caminhando para o Fechamento.*

A economia da:Dopamina, Circular, dos Algoritmos da Shein, da I.A., do Thomas Sowel ou TS ( texto anterior) e demais, chegaram para ficar!

Adeus mundo velho e ultrapassado, bem vindo mundo novo e futuro da civilização e da humanidade!

Ou seria o mesmo mundo, mas numa versão piorada em termos humanos e melhorada em termos de tecnologia?

E por fim, a tecnologia está aí para servir a humanidade ou seu contrário?

Não existe soma zero ou ganha- ganha quando se trata do lucro contábil- financeiro e econômico de empresas e governos, quando esses se justificam pela "nova escravidão dos fatores de produção e produtividade, de competição e competitividade, de efetivação e efetividade( eficiência+ eficácia) a todo custo,a toda morte humana,quando o ser humano perde tudo, tudo mesmo, sua essência e seu propósito, no fim se perde tudo!

* Empresa de pesquisa especializada em consumo.

**Empresa varejista da Amazon cujo diferencial é a utilização do I.A.para previsibilidade comportamental das vendas.

***Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. é uma varejista americana de animais de estimação com escritórios corporativos em San Diego e San Antonio.

A Petco vende alimentos, produtos e serviços para animais de estimação, bem como certos tipos de pequenos animais vivos.

****Site especializado na compra online de sapatos, roupas, joias, vestidos, maquiagem e muito mais das principais marcas globais.

*****NRF (National Retail Federation) é a maior associação de varejo do mundo, fundada em 1911.

Desde então, ela organiza anualmente o NRF Retail's Big Show, que é considerado o maior e mais importante evento de varejo do mundo.

******Empresa de pesquisa de mercado.

******* Loja virtual especializada em produtos de beleza.

******** Muito mais do que uma simples cafeteria, na Starbucks Reserve você tem a oportunidade de encontrar os principais cafés do mundo que a rede tem para oferecer – além de poder ver de perto o processo de torrefação dos grãos.É uma loja que eleva ao extremo a experiência de viver ou vivenciar o mundo do café.

********* Fundadora e CEO da consultoria britânica GDR, uma das principais referências quando se fala em futuro do varejo, diz o que vem por aí. A automação por meio da I.A. está chegando com força no varejo.

[blue-village]

How hot is too hot to work? It is a question researchers have found the answer to here, in Cambodia's brick kilns, where people toil in some of the hottest working conditions in the world, fuelled in part by the scraps of fast fashion.

-

Special sensors recorded the core temperature of 30 workers at these kilns over a week and showed that they all had heat stress, or core temperatures of more than 38C. This can cause fatigue, dizziness, nausea and headaches.

A healthy body temperature usually ranges from 36.1C to 37.2C. Body temperature over 38C is symptomatic of a fever. Some workers had core temperatures of 40C, which can lead to heat stroke, resulting in convulsions, eventual loss of consciousness and even death, if not treated early.

One worker told researchers that he had suffered from heart failure due to the heat. But he eventually returned to work because this was the only way he knew to earn a living.

This is only made worse by a warming climate and Cambodia's own weather - last May it hit a new high with 41.6C during the hottest year on record. As global temperatures soar, even a small increase could mean the difference between life and death for the tens of thousands of brick kiln workers across Asia.

-

Outside the kiln, Kosal, a father of two, scoops up a mix of fabric, plastic and rubber that he shoves into the hatch before shutting it quickly. Black smoke seeps through the cracks as children - his and other kiln workers' - run past.

-

The children crawl over bags bulging with clothing offcuts - more fuel for the kiln from Cambodia's $6bn garment industry.

But what may initially appear a solution to the unwanted scraps of the country's 1,300 garment factories is actually hiding its own deadly secret.

According to a 2018 report - Blood Bricks - by UK academics at Royal Holloway, these scraps have traces of chlorine bleach, formaldehyde and ammonia, as well as heavy metals, PVC and resins used in the dyeing and printing processes. The report also found that brick factory workers reported regular migraines, nosebleeds and other illnesses.

-

Cambodia's brick kilns have long been accused of unsafe and unfair working conditions - and they employ some of the world's poorest people. Now, climate change is only exacerbating those inequalities, experts say.

"What we need to do is to consider how climate change impacts people through the lens of labour and inequality, and recognise that labour exploitation is a major factor in the worst impacts of climate change," Mr Laurie said.

-

The majority of those who work in Cambodia's brick kilns were farmers. ... But sparse rainfall in recent years has made it difficult to manage a single harvest.

-

More than two million of Cambodia's 10 million adults have outstanding micro-loans, according to the Cambodian Microfinance Association. On average, they each owe $3,320 (£1,955).

This financial insecurity has supplied the vulnerable labour for brick kilns. Owners offer to pay off the loan but, in return, the worker is bonded to the kiln.

Often whole families are bonded to the kiln. The BBC saw children helping their parents in the kiln despite efforts by the Cambodian government to prevent child labour.

"If we leave, we are afraid of being arrested and imprisoned," Chantrea says. "So we must struggle here. If they ask us to enter the fire, we will do even that just so we can earn more money for food and to pay off our debt."

[astonishinglegends]

Ep 267: Your True Halloween Stories II – Part 1

"It seemed more like it was coming from somewhere above me, or I like to say no place at all."  -- Persephone Holloway, from story #3

Description:

Well well, dear friends, Spooky Season is upon us once again, so it's time to regale and chill you with true Halloween tales from within our ranks! Our first story, which we're calling "She is Ours," comes from Andy, whose recurring nightmare leads to a standoff with higher powers. Later, a study of palmistry plunges her into a shared vision with a stranger. The following frightening account comes from Maryann, who gets an unwelcome response when you "Speak of the Devil." And finally, Persephone endures a harrowing encounter that may be a puzzle piece to a lifelong mystery that seemed to come from "No Place at All." Light the candles, prepare the beverages, and settle in for an evening of eerie testimony from some Legenders. May all your dreams be pleasant tonight! 😈

Reference Links:

CLICK HERE to listen to “Astonishing Al’s Mix Tape” on Spotify

CLICK HERE to listen to “Astonishing Legends Creepit” – a curated collection of our creepiest episodes on Spotify!

Tim Curry as the character “Darkness” in the 1985 motion picture Legend

Palmistry

Mount de Sales Academy

WHFS radio station

“Mr. Microphone By Ronco (Commercial, 1981)” on the Museum of Classic Chicago Television’s YouTube channel

“Mr. Microphone Hack” from AutoDesk Instructables

“Reflections from Sister Philip Joseph, O.P.”

Washington Crossing, New Jersey

“Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason” from Folklife Today

“Ring a Ring o' Roses” on Wikipedia

Persephone Mae Holloway’s Linktr.ee

Persephone’s KLU (Keep Looking Up) podcast on Podbean

@persephonemaeholloway on Instagram

@persephoneholloway on TikTok

Persephone May Holloway’s music on Spotify

Click Here to email Persephone with your experience

True You Hypnotherapy with Laurie McDonald, CHT

Location:

Washington Crossing, New Jersey, near where Persephone Holloway had her frightful encounter.

Suggested Listening:

Disgraceland

DISGRACELAND is an award-winning music and true crime podcast that tells the tragic, but true stories of musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. This is not the music history you’ve heard before. This is an uncensored, immersive look at the lives of the musical icons who barely survived and the ones who weren’t so lucky. Host Jake Brennan explores the most insane criminal stories surrounding the world’s most interesting and infamous pop stars. DISGRACELAND has covered many artists like Fleetwood Mac, Tupac, The Grateful Dead, Billie Holiday, Taylor Swift, Charles Manson, Britney Spears, The Notorious B.I.G., The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Chet Baker, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Amy Winehouse, and many more! New episodes of DISGRACELAND are released every Tuesday and Thursday. Follow and listen to DISGRACELAND for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

KLU Podcast – Keep Looking up

CLICK HERE for Persephone Holloway’s podcast, KLU “Keep Looking Up” on Podbean

Persephone May Holloway’s music on Spotify

Southern gothic podcast

Listen to our good friend Brandon Schexnayder’s Southern Gothic podcast, featuring Forrest narrating Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, Annabelle Lee

Find us on YouTube!

Click this text to find all Astonishing Legends episodes and more on our Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/Astonishinglegends

Join us on Patreon!

Click HERE or go to patreon.com/astonishinglegends to become one of our Patreon members and receive exclusive offerings, like our bonus Astonishing Junk Drawer episodes (posted every weekend the main show is dark) commercial-free episodes, and more!

SPECIAL OFFERS FROM OUR SPECIAL SPONSORS:

FIND OTHER GREAT DEALS FROM OUR SHOW’S SPONSORS BY CLICKING HERE!

CREDITS:

Episode 267: Your True Halloween Stories II – Part 1. Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound. Music and Sound Design by Allen Carrescia. Tess Pfeifle, Producer and Lead Researcher. Ed Voccola, Technical Producer. Research Support from The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2023 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

[caroleditosti]

'Grey House,' a Subtle Send-up of Horror Films, That Delivers With Humor and Surprise, Starring the Fabulous Laurie Metcalf

'Grey House' is a tantalizing blend of humor, horror send-up and deeper exploration of elements which apply to our current time.

(L to R): Colby Kipnes, Laurie Metcalf, Sophia Anne Caruso, Millicent Simmonds, Alyssa Emily, Sophia Anne Caruso, Eamon Patrick O’Connell in Grey House (MurphyMade, 2023) Top shelf performances and eerie effects in lighting, sound, and on-point set design carry Levi Holloway’s horror-thriller Grey House through to its unreasoned, macabre and opaque ending, leaving the audience disturbed and…

[freshfromhell]

@justice4billiam AAAAA I LOVE U! literally posted this cuz I hoped someone else would have a lil teehee over this. lol

I'll be honest I have no idea why, lmao. I think I wanted to fit it in after the keg scene in chapter 31 but couldn't make it work??? and then I decided to give laurie a little brother instead of a tormented cat (in my head she can't have both. its greedy lmao)

but now I really want to give either chrissy cunningham or heather holloway this haunted ass cat when I write them into the story because I firmly believe billy hargrove would openly eye any animal/child/boy/thing mandy toted around a party with the utmost jealousy and disdain LMAO

can't believe i discarded this scene a million yrs ago......... 😔

“Look at you, neck deep in pussy.”

Billy Hargrove looked down at the collapsed form before him. Slanted sunglasses, and flushed cheeks, and smeared makeup, and a snoring mouth, jaw all askew. 

Mandy Mueller snorted awake, head half hanging off the old plaid couch in Laurie Binkler’s garage. A big fat cat laid across her neck like a scarf, its furry mass clearly closing off her airway if all the honk-shoo snoring and whistle-tone gurgling was anything to go by. Her head popped up, sunglasses falling off her head and onto the floor in a clatter as she jerked into consciousness. 

“Leave her alone,” a freckled girl called from the opposite end of the couch, her body dressed in the ugly green uniform of Hawkins High’s marching band. Ugh, great, Billy thought with a frown. Billy’s mortal-nemesis: Dweebs. “She said she needs to sleep off all the alcohol she drank or she’s gonna die.”

That was definitely not how that worked.

“Yeah, leave her alone,” Mandy slurred out, agreeing even though she clearly had no fucking clue what was going on around her, squinting around all bleary-eyed in her tired, drunken state. “Asshole.”

Oh, my god. 

“You’re being strangled to death, Idiot,” Billy announced in a bid to be helpful, and Mandy muttered a couple of choice words in reply that Billy was going to pretend he didn’t hear to protect his own feelings. Billy gestured to Mueller’s self-appointed representative at the end of the couch with the neck of his bottle. “Were you really gonna let this fucking thing suffocate her like this?”

The girl scratched her nose with a chipped, painted fingernail, looking at him nervously as she inched out, “Ummm, yeah… We already tried to move it, but it, uh, really likes her, y’know?”

Yeah, well, big fucking whoop. So did Billy, but he wasn’t wrapping himself around her and trying to choke her out, was he? Well, he wasn’t tonight, anyway.

“What?” Billy spat out, eyes narrowing in disbelief at the girl. He looked back down at the fluffy gray cat before him, only to find it already staring up at him with creepy green eyes. He frowned, looking away instinctively, before doing a double-take. Eugh. What the fuck? Why was this fucking thing looking at him like that?

“It is so mean,” the girl explained with severe emphasis, rubbing her head with growing concern. “Some guys cornered it up on those shelves and were messing with it, but—!” She pointed an index finger across the room to the shelves filled with large tools and lumber. “Then Mandy came in here and told them that if they didn’t fuck off that she was gonna introduce them to her new best friend over there—“ The girl’s arm swiveled to another far wall, pointing to the chainsaw mounted by the doorway, before she continued, “And they didn’t believe her, so she went over there, ripped it off the wall, started the thing, and then asked if them if they’ve ever seen Scarface.”

“It was super bad ass!” Another geek exclaimed in excitement over the rehashing of the entire event, and Billy sent a dull frown across the group where they were stationed in a quiet corner of the garage, watching and listening like a bunch of nosy creeps.

Billy shifted in thought, taking a long sip of his drink, before asking curiously, “What the fuck does any of that have to do with moving the cat?”

“Well, we think that’s why it’s so attached to her,” she answered with a shrug, and one of the pimply nerds next to her nodded emphatically. 

Was Billy drunk, or did that not answer his question? He pursed his lips in thought.  

“Wait,” he snaked out, raising a single index finger in contemplation as something just occurring to him. “Do you work at the movie theater?”

“Uuhhh,” the girl droned out uncomfortably, eyes darting around shiftily as she drew her knees in tight from her position perched at the edge of an old coffee table. “Yeah, that’s me, I guess.”

“Rape girl,” Billy clarified with a hum.

“That’s—“ She grimaced as if the name physically pained her, shaking her head as she choked out, “Uh, probably not a great thing to call someone.”

Yeah, whatever, Billy thought to himself. 

“But that’s you—?” He prompted, eyes squinting as he tried to connect the girl before him to the girl from last Saturday. All her different uniforms were fucking with his head a little. She was like a secret agent or something with all the weird get-ups. “Right?”

“Uh, yep,” she popped the ‘p’ awkwardly, hunching in on herself. “That’s me.”

��Huh…” He muttered out loud unthinkingly, before gesturing to the sleeping Mueller offhandedly, “You go to school with us?”

“Yeah,” her lips pinched as she scratched her forehead, fussing with her bangs, “I’ve, uh, gone here longer than both of you combined, I think.”

Billy had to withhold from laughing at that. Holy shit, what a loser. That must have sucked.

“And you’re…” Billy trailed off contemplatively as he looked between the once again unconscious Mandy and the ever-annoying girl before him, “Allergic to cats?”

“Uh, no,” she answered, clearly disarmed by his line of questioning, but what the fuck else was he supposed to think in this situation?

“Then why haven’t you moved the cat off her?!” Billy demanded heatedly as he waved his arms down at the lard ass of a cat.

The band geek before him tossed her hands up helplessly as she stood up and announced, “I told you, already! This thing is, like, so mean!!”

A low yowl interrupted their yelling, and both Billy and the girl paused on either side of the coffee table to glance over at the cat. It stared up at them agitatedly, shifting around in one big loaf-like shape atop Mueller to face them down, its big bushy tail flicking across her face now. It must have irritated her nose, because her face scrunched up almost immediately as she awakened again, letting out an annoyed, whiney groan.

She swatted the tail away without even opening her eyes, calling, “What is your problem, Bitch? Get a grip.”

The cat let out a high-pitched mewl in reply, standing to balance atop Queenie as she writhed around on the couch to get comfortable.

“See?” The girl insisted with a vague gesture to the huge cat where it circled around Mandy’s torso, before seating itself very leisurely atop her chest. Queenie let out a pathetic, wheezing breath under its weight like she was a broken squeak toy. “It really likes her! They’re friends!”

“It’s gonna kill her!” Billy argued as he watched the cat begin kneading her flesh, its nails pricking through her off-the-shoulder sweater and pulling loose the threads as it purred loudly, absolutely delighted to be crushing Mueller under its impressive mass. 

“Well—!” Her words choked off abruptly as she floundered, her arms flailing everywhere in her desperation to convey something. “You move it then! See what happens!”

“Fine! I will!” Billy exclaimed, before looking to the cat in question and hesitating. Were they sure it was a cat? It was so big and ugly, it kinda looked like it wandered in from outside. Whatever. He slammed his bottle down onto the table, before pushing up the sleeves of his jacket and moving towards the couch.

It yowled at him again, this time louder and longer and even more unsettlingly. He ignored it, and it hissed, ears going back on its head as it rose up and swiped at him, making him jump back and nearly trip over the coffee table in the process of getting away.

“It’s not a cat—!” Billy declared vehemently, pointing at it as he rounded the table to stand beside Rape Girl again, hands settling on his hips as he glared at the beast that just attacked him, finishing, “It’s a fucking demon!”

It hissed at him and batted at the air wildly like it understood English. 

“It’s totally a cat!” The girl beside him insisted with an annoying amount of exasperation, “It’s just weirdly protective of her, that’s all.”

“Because she’s its next meal!” Billy gestured with a sweep of his arm in Mueller’s direction.

“No, it loves her! They’re best friends!” One of the other dweebs declared, holding her heart. “She’s like a Disney princess!”

Jesus! What was with this place?! Billy wanted to tear out his hair. He fucking hated it here. 

“Stop shouting! I’m up! Ugh!” Mandy complained grumpily, tucking her elbows under her to prop herself up. The cat only moved, stretching down her body and twisting itself onto its back as it meowed for her attention. It draped itself over her, claws stretching down to her hips as its tail waved in her face. She squinted, swatting at the offending appendage.

She looked at the cat, ignoring the rest of the room as she asked it irately, “You gotta fuckin’ problem with me? Quit showin’ your ass, before I kick it.”

It only mewled in reply, swiveling its head around to blink down at her languidly, and she flopped back onto the couch with an exhausted groan, an arm draping across her eyes. It hurried to her again, nuzzling its face into the crook her neck and rolling around until it was once again wrapped around her head.

“Outta my face,” she muttered, shoving it under her arm pit and tucking it down at her side. The cat went without a fight, twisting itself around onto its back as it settled over her abdomen, its body tucked against the back of the couch with its paws facing the sky. Billy scowled.

“Well, don’t you two look nice and cozy,” Billy called down at the pair, and Mandy’s eyes creaked open again.

“Oh, no,” she whined pathetically, tossing her head around on the couch. “I’m already drunk! What more do you want from me?”

Well, he had a joint in his pocket he wanted to share with her. He nabbed it from a stoner in the backyard, taking pity on her after she rushed off earlier to go barf after he and Tommy filled her full with beer. The only issue was that he was a little worried by the implication of sharing. 

Billy Hargrove was not the sharing type.

In his brief moment of hesitation, her eyes opened, gaze clearer as she looked to him very seriously.

“You actually want something, don’t you?” She groaned out, her nose scrunching up at him. “Aw, c’mon, Hargrove!”

He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he rounded the table towards her spot on the couch.Grabbing the back of one knee, he folded her leg up into her torso and sent the cat back into her face as he slipped between her knees and dropped himself onto the couch with a creak of the old springs. 

“Ow, Asshole!” She complained, kicking the leg he trapped between the couch and his back until she was swinging it into the air over his head and plopping it into his lap to join the other. “I’m a girl, not a chair! Don’t fold me up like that!”

Billy ignored her bitching for the most part, the sound of her nasally voice falling to the backdrop as he pulled the joint from the pocket of his jacket and held it aloft before her with a cool glance. “Ugh! God! What is everyone’s problem—?!”

Her voice cut off abruptly, eyes locking on his fingers. “Who’s that for?”

“You, if you want,” he offered, and her eyes shined at him curiously from over the fluffy body of the cat between them. 

“Why?” She asked, blinking at him. The cat joined her, craning its neck over to him and staring, its tail swishing leisurely over the edge of the couch. 

That was a loaded question. Billy licked his lips, putting the joint to his mouth and reaching for his lighter. 

“You in or out?” He asked, dodging her question. She glanced around the room, gaze a little dimmer than usual, before watching him light the spliff and take an inhale.

The teens around them hunkered down with clangs and gongs of their instruments, seeming to think this was a puff and pass situation, and Mandy rolled her eyes, waving a dainty had around in a silent demand. He handed it over, their fingertips ghosting across one another, before Mueller was pulling the joint to her lips and taking an experimental puff.

She winced, breathing out and coughing as she handed it over. “It’s laced.”

“What?” Billy scoffed, looking down at the lipstick-stained paper in his hand, before bringing it back to his mouth for another inhale, “How the hell do you know that?”

She waved the air, and the cat atop her let out a low, agitated meow in warning. 

“Shut up,” she said to it quietly, like she was embarrassed to be addressing a cat of all things, before she was looking to him. “You can’t tell? Ugh. It’s gross. Keep that shit away from me.”

“More for me then, I guess,” he taunted, breathing out a steady inhale over her way. The cat above her hacked, and Mandy waved the air again, looking to him with supreme irritation as she pushed herself into sitting, pulling her legs from his lap.

Scooting away, she grabbed the cat atop her, tucking it into her lap as she tried to get comfortable, leaning into the arm of the couch and patting around in search for something. Billy watched her lean over the edge of the couch, pulling up her jacket and then her sunglasses, before she was rooting around through her pockets. 

Ugh, god. He could watch her do literally anything and be satisfied. Him and the fat cat in her lap had that in common, apparently. The animal just ducked its head beneath her boobs, looking up through the cage of her arms as she pulled out money and lighters and playing cards from her pockets before she finally pulled out a compact mirror and busied herself with her reflection. 

“Why do I look like I’m melting?” She muttered, and the cat replied with a mewl, which made her startle, nearly dropping her mirror, before she was looking down at the thing with a finger to her lips. “Shhh. Don’t answer that.”

“You can’t really think that thing understands you,” Billy muttered to her, eyes dragging from the cat to her. He could not believe she was entertaining this monster’s bullshit.

Mandy didn’t answer him immediately, busy wiping her face clear of smeared makeup. Billy couldn’t keep his eyes from her mouth as he watched her wipe at the edge of her lips, cleaning her face of the streaks of dark red lipstick. 

“Who cares? I understand him,” she said once she was done, shooting him a curled look of judgement as he blinked away the image of her open mouth, tongue curling into the edge of her lips. “And who even asked you, huh?” 

He shook his head, taking another inhale and letting his head rock back as he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds around the room. Muffled conversation, and the static-y sound of stations changing on the small TV setup across the garage, and the distant thump of music in the house, and Mandy Mueller’s usually caustic voice sounding so soft and sweet and dreamy, asking, “Do you want a kiss?”

The words had his heart jumpstarting in his chest, pictures flying behind the dark shade of his eyelids of all the scenarios he could imagine her sounding sweet just like that, and he took another inhale to calm himself, forcing himself not to launch into action at her words. He held it until his lungs burned, before exhaling and forcing his breath not to tremble as he peeked an eye open in her direction, only to spy her looking down at the cat in her lap. 

He knew it. That fucking bitch. Offering a kiss to that smelly little gremlin when he was literally right here. 

“You look like you do,” she said, voice light and lilting as she cocked her head down at the animal in her lap. It did the same, eyes curious and pupils big and dark as it pushed its nose towards hers, craning its neck up, before reaching up towards her with a cautious paw, gently batting at her cheek, letting out a squeaky mewl in reply.

“Aw, you do, don’t you?” She cooed as it purred at her, settling its paw against her cheek, before its claws kneaded slowly into the flesh of her face, snagging the topmost layer of skin there is it pulled away. The gentle look on her features warped into something cold within a blink, and she grabbed the cat’s face in her palm, manicured fingers stretching over its skull and squeezing cruelly. “I’ll make you regret that.”

She bodied the thing in a flash, slamming it back down into her lap and looking at it forbiddingly through the cage of her fingers as she hissed, “Do. Not. Scratch. My. Face.”

When she released it, it twisted around on its belly, slinking off her lap with its hair on all end, before it was scrambling under the couch by her feet, and Billy sighed, suddenly sympathetic to the creature. He knew how it felt.

“That is so evil!” The girl from earlier called, obviously watching them the whole time.

“It scratched me!” She explained in her own defense, tossing her hands out, “I was defending myself!”

“It’s a cat,” the girl called back smartly, crossing her arms. “It has claws. It scratches.”

Mandy scoffed in return.

“Yeah, and I’m an evil bitch,” she said back in the same snotty tone, before she was sticking out her tongue. “I have those, too. You wanna see what I do with mine?”

The girl deflated at that, looking defeated as she turned back to her friend group, and Mandy scoffed to herself, slamming her compact shut and slumping into the back of the couch with a harumph.

Billy watched her with a sideways smile. God, she was completely out of her fucking mind.  

She packed herself up huffily, hands scrubbing through her hair and arms wriggling into her jacket as she stood and spun on a heel to leave. As she rounded the table and side chair, the cat darted out from under the couch and took off after her, weave through her legs and nearly tripping her. 

She shrieked, stumbling and catching herself just as she passed under the threshold, before she was looking around her confusedly. She patted her pockets, spinning around with a pinched look of confusion, a hand going to her hair, before her eyes settled on him across the room, right where she left him.

“I’m forgetting something important,” she said to herself, before a lightbulb went on in her head and she perked up. She pointed to him, droning out with girly exasperation as she weaved back around the clutter in the garage, “Ugh! Hargrooooove!”

She flapped her hand around with a jangle of bracelets as she neared him, stretching across the arm of the couch to pinch the leather shoulder of his jacket and tug him towards her. 

“C’mon! I’m not leaving you with these losers!”

He took a couple last puffs of the joint, holding the smoke as he tossed the roach in the stained glass ashtray on the table. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he breathed out as she plucked at the sleeve on his arm impatiently. As if he had any hope of denying her.

[audiemurphy1945]

The Way Ahead(1944)

[artemisocs]

Laurie Mayfield → Running Up That Hill

17 running from innocence Like it's a lion Nipping at my heels But I'm young, so I outrun 'em

[horror-mix]

S.R.O.D.D Characters

Protagonists

Harry Mason, James Sunderland, Heather Mason, Henry Townshed, Travis Grady, Alex Shepherd, Murphy Pendleton

Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy, Clair Redfield, Sheva Alomar, Ada Wong, Carlos Oliveira, Billy Coen, Rebecca Chambers, Sherry Birkin, Jake Muller, Piers Nivans, Barry Burton, Helena Harper, Steve Burnside, Ethan Winters, Mia Winters

Miles Upshur, Waylon Park, Blake Langermann

Dwight Fairfield, Meg Thomas, Claudette Morel, Jake Park, Nea Karlsson, Laurie Strode, Ace Visconti, Bill Overbeck, Feng Min, David King, Quentin Smith, David Tapp, Kate Denson, Adam Francis, Jeff Johansen, Jane Romero, Ash Williams, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrinton, Yui Kimura, Zarina Kassir, Felix Richer, Élodie Rakoto, Yun-Jin Lee, Mikaela Reid, Jonah Vasquez, Yoichi Asakawa

Frank West, Chuck Greene, Nick Ramos

——————————————————————————

Antagonists

Dahlia Gillespie, Pyramid Head, Claudia Wolf, Walter Sullivan, Judge Margaret Holloway, George Sewell

James Marcus, Albert Wesker, William Birkin, Hunk, Nemesis, Nicholai Ginovaef, Alfred Ashford, Alexia Ashford, Osmund Saddler, Ramon Salazar, Jack Krauser, Jack Norman, Ricardo Irving, Excella Gionne, Ozwell E. Spencer, Carla Radames, Derek C. Simmons, Ustank, Alex Wesker, Eveline, Jack Baker, Margaret Baker, Lucas Baker, Alcina Dimitrescus, Bella Dimitrescus, Cassandra Dimitrescus, Daphnia Dimitrescus, Donna Beneviento, Angie, Salvatore Moreau, Karl Heisenberg, Mother Miranda

Chris Walker, Richard Trager, The Twins, Dennis, Eddie Gluskin, Frank Manera, The Walrider, Father Martin, Jeremy Blaire, Billy Hope, Rudolf Wernicke, Sullivan Knoth, Marta, Val, Laird Byron, Nick Tremblay, Father Loutermilch

The Trapper, The Wraith, The Hillbilly, The Nurse, The Shape, The Hag, The Doctor, The Huntress, The Cannibal, The Nightmare, The Pig, The Clown, The Spirit, The Legion, The Plague, The Ghost Face, The Demogorgon, The Oni, The Deathslinger, The Blight, The Twins, The Trickster, The Cenobite, The Artist, The Onryō

Adam the clown, Cliff Hudson, Convicts, Hall family, Zhi Wong, Kenny Dermot, Red Jackson, Sgt. Hilde Schmittendolf, Steven Chapman, Tyron King, Raymond Sullivan, Kent Swanson, General Hemlock, Dylan Fuentes, Slappy Ernst, Brock Mason, Carlito Keyes, Isabella Keyes

——————————————————————————

Setting

A mixture of all locations in one large city type. Mirroring the settings of each games

——————————————————————————

The point

Having a place where the characters of Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Outlast, Dead by Daylight, and Dead Rising can interact. (Kind of)