#Mark Mclaughlin

[oldschoolfrp]

Princess Ryan's Space Marines, William Lindsay box art for Mark McLaughlin's game of squad combat in the 23rd century, East Wind Rain Co, 1986. This first edition of the game included 48 space marines and 4 vehicles in 1/285 microarmor scale, all cast in lead by SIMTAC.

[marksandrec]

Marks and Rec: Misc #2581

The thought is implied. (Dialogue from Frasier.)

[nofatclips]

Paranoid Core by Mudhoney (Sorry, YouTube killed the account with the fan video I originally posted)

[gameofthunder66]

Supernatural (2005-2020) tv series

-(finished) watchin' Season 7- 11/27/2024- 3 stars- on Netflix (CW)

74% Popcornmeter- Season 7

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

If there’s someone else who came to mind, feel free to share in the comments.

[ricky-tiki-tah]

Since I like putting aesthetics to people:

Mark: Analog horror/romance

Ethan: 80s/soft boi

Seán: street style/grunge

Gimme an ego and I’ll give them an aesthetic

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Bonnie “Prince” Billy - The Purple Bird

Bonnie “Prince” Billy done went and made hisself a country album.

’Course he didn’t flaunt the idea like other musicians might. And though a country record might seem uncharacteristic for a musician like Billy, Billy also has no defining characteristic, so the Purple Bird maybe isn’t so surprising at all. And country Billy is still Billy, as on the closing “Our Home,” a duet and co-write with Tim O’Brien.

Leggo my ego and embrace my id, Billy sings.

John Anderson lends his twangy vocals to the maudlin environmental anthem “Downstream,” while Stuart Duncan’s fiddle, Pat McLaughlin’s mandolin and Mark Howard’s banjo provide a rural soundtrack to such numbers as the run-around-and-find-out humor of “Tonight with the Dogs I’m Sleeping,” the lovers’ lament that is “Boise, Idaho” and on “New Water,” on which the narrator pines for childhood lost.

And what would a Bonnie “Prince” Billy country album be without an oompah song dreaming of a world without consequence?

If you could do it without anyone saying that you’d committed a crime/make a short list of folks you could destroy for this and all time/who would you shoot in the face?/who would you shoot in the brain?/who would you shoot in the back/and leave bleeding out in the rain?, Billy sings on “Guns are for Cowards.”

Yeehaw!

Grade card: Bonnie “Prince” Billy - The Purple Bird - A-

2/25/25

[oldschoolfrp]

Princess Ryan's Star Marines by Mark McLaughlin, with Larry Elmore box art, Avalon Hill, 1997. The name and themes reference the same setting as the designer's 1986 game, Princess Ryan's Space Marines. Besides changing "Space" to "Star," presumably to avoid complaints from Games Workshop, this is a very different game than its predecessor -- now a combination card and board game that included a single 28mm miniature by Heartbreaker, instead of the previous microarmor tactical skirmish wargame.

[alessandroiiidimacedonia]

New books published on Alexander the Great and Cleopatra and Merry Christmas!

Good morning everyone, I’m Elena from Italy and thank you for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia -your source on Alexander the Great and Hellenism! Sorry for the absence and to try to make up for it today I point out many books that have come out recently about Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. These books are of different genres and are distinguished because they are all self-published on…

[coverpanelarchive]

Action Comics Weekly #639 (1989)

[coimbrabertone]

The State of American Open Wheel Racing in 2025.

This Sunday, on March 2nd, 2025, the NTT Indycar Series will begin. This will be the eighteenth season since reunification in 2008 and it will be the fourteenth season running some version of the Dallara DW12 spec car.

The 2025 season will consist of seventeen races: four street circuits, seven on road courses, and six on ovals. Iowa, however, hosts two races on the same weekend, therefore, it's really five ovals.

Iowa is just under a mile long, Milwaukee is at a mile long, and Gateway is just over a mile long. Nashville is a little on the short side for an intermediate, but I'll count it as such nonetheless. Indianapolis is the only superspeedway on the schedule. More on that a little bit later.

On the face of it, however, this is a pretty good calendar. We have a mix of road courses, street circuits, and ovals, we have some classic Indycar venues like Road America, Milwaukee, Laguna Seca, and Portland back on the schedule after having fallen victim to the split, and we no longer have a month-long gap between Thermal and Long Beach.

Instead, we only have three-week gaps between each of the first four races. Which...well, it's progress at least.

We also have Grand Prix of Arlington scheduled for March 2026, which not only helps fill in the gaps early in the season, but it marks a return to Texas.

I won't pretend that a street race around a stadium parking lot is the most exciting race for Indycar, but Texas is too big a market for Indycar to ignore at Texas Motor Speedway wasn't drawing the crowds.

Maybe partnering with the Cowboys and Rangers to race in Arlington will produce better results.

So that's the positive side to the calendar, let's talk a few more positives:

Indycar has a new broadcast partner in the form of Fox, and while a lot of people have some reservations based on Fox's mediocre NASCAR broadcasts, the signs so far look good. Everyone loves James Hinchcliffe in the booth, Will Buxton has shown passion for Indycar before and he's a name familiar to any disillusioned F1 fans looking for a new motorsport to fall in love with, and Townsend Bell...is also there.

Jokes aside I don't hate Townsend Bell as much as most Indycar fans. I find his glazing of Santino Ferrucci annoying - and just a tad unethical considering he doesn't disclose the fact that he's Santino's agent - and some of his reactions are over the top, but I'd much rather have him around than Fox trying to shoehorn in anybody from their NASCAR coverage.

I'll take Townsend Bell over Clint Bowyer any day of the week.

More importantly, I'd say Fox has brought out the big guns in terms of promoting the series. Indycar got three ads during the Super Bowl, Indycar ads play all the time during NASCAR coverage, and this morning I saw Fox air an Indycar ad in the middle of the morning news, implying that Fox is now airing Indycar ads throughout the day. That's good.

Another good thing is that these ads are about the whole series, not just the Indy 500. That's good - people watch the Indy 500 just fine, now we need them to tune in for the rest of the series.

Another place where Indycar is in a good place is on the competition side. There were some stale moments last year, I won't pretend otherwise, but in the second half, the season came alive:

The first hybrid race at Mid-Ohio? Pato O'Ward snipes the lead from Alex Palou and holds off a charge from the reigning champion to take Arrow McLaren's first on-track win since Iowa 2022.

Iowa? The double-header opens with a thrilling Saturday night race where Scott McLaughlin takes his first oval win, while race two unexpectedly turned into a battle between Will Power and Alex Palou, with Power winning out. Not bad for a doubleheader that Josef Newgarden was expected to dominate.

Toronto? Andretti takes a 1-2, Colton Herta over Kyle Kirkwood, with Herta snapping a winless streak going back to 2022. Meanwhile, it's drama at Penske with McLaughlin and Power making contact.

Gateway? Josef Newgarden wins another short oval race over Scott McLaughlin, sure, but we also got a dose of chaos to stir things up with a weird, botched restart that saw so many cars get damaged that Linus Lundqvist took a shock third-place.

Portland? It was shaping up to be Alex Palou vs. Will Power in the championship at this point and we got to see them battling for the win, with Will Power taking the win, but Alex Palou following him home in second, collecting points and preserving his lead. It looked like the year would turn into Palou's consistency versus Power's speed.

Milwaukee lived up to that promise, with a wonderful race featuring high tyre wear, busy traffic, and numerous drivers coming in and out of contention. Pato O'Ward won the first race, Will Power finished second, but Alex Palou was still in fifth, another good points day, but it wasn't as infallible as Palou's previous performances. Was the pressure getting to Palou and the #10 crew?

Milwaukee race two suggested that maybe yes, with Palou's car running into an issue in the opening laps and getting stuck on pit exit. Just as it looked like disaster for Palou, we saw him rally back to nineteenth while Power, in tenth place, failed to capitalize. Meanwhile, a win for Scott McLaughlin was enough to keep him in contention, but only just.

Alex Palou and Will Power both made the start in Nashville, which was enough to knock Scott out of contention, but it looked like Power would have the pace over Palou. All of that was until Power's race was undone in mere laps when his belts came loose. Power dropped out of contention, while an eleventh was enough to win the championship for Palou.

Power was the only one who could've beat Palou, but that didn't mean that Power was safe in second place, quite the opposite. A win for Colton Herta and a fifth place for Scott McLaughlin was enough to move them into second and third, respectively, knocking Power down to fourth in the standings. Pato finished second at Nashville to finish fifth in the standings.

A Ganassi, an Andretti, two Penskes, and a McLaren.

If 2025 can live up to that promise, then we should have a pretty good season in front of us.

If Fox can bring that good season to new audiences, then maybe the series can have some life breathed into it...and it needs it too, because the bad news is that Indycar has some pretty big problems.

The biggest problem, by far, is that Honda is threatening to leave the series. Honda says the return on investment isn't there and is demanding that Penske either reduces costs tremendously or does something to raise the value of Indycar.

The hybrids are here to stay - and even if they weren't, it's Honda that demanded the hybrids, so taking them out might be the one thing to push Honda out even quicker - and the engines are staying the same, which means costs aren't likely to change.

Side note, but initially, when the hybrids arrived, they were supposed to be paired with a new 2.4L V6 engine, one which Honda is believed to have significantly developed, but between problems for the hybrid unit and Chevy's comparative lack of interest, we kept the 2.2L engines instead.

Honda now runs a 2.4L V6 twin turbo in its Acura ARX-06 GTP car, which I doubt is a coincidence.

Honda spent a lot of money developing a new engine just for the series to drop it and stick with the old engine with a token hybrid unit jammed between the engine and the gearbox. I don't blame Honda for being angry about that.

On the other hand, if Honda leaves, Indycar becomes fully a spec series. Just twenty-seven cars all running a dinosaur Dallara chassis with a spec Ilmor engine - scratch that, if Honda left, Roger Penske would no doubt use that as a justification to reduce the field to twenty-five cars, because, you know, less is more, right? Right?

...No? What do you mean less cars makes for less variety and more boring races? What do you mean that the charter system has no benefit to fans and only serves to inflate the value of teams with artificial scarcity? And what do you mean that value would collapse anyway if Honda left because a series with only one engine manufacturer is inherently less enticing to invest in?

We cannot afford to have Honda leave the series.

Indycar is stagnating with not enough money in the series and an increasingly localized series going back and forth between a few midwestern venues. If Honda leaves, the limited about of money there is in Indycar plummets even further.

There will be no money for a new chassis, no money for going international, hell, there will be no money for new races in the United States.

Speaking of, that brings me to my next topic: international expansion. I've written a whole blogpost about this, so I'll keep it brief here: NASCAR beating Indycar to Mexico City is frankly embarrassing. Indycar used to have multiple races in Canada and Mexico, a race in Australia, a race in Brazil, in Japan, and even a couple of races in Europe over the years.

Now Indycar acts like going to Mexico City is some kind of massive hurdle.

We went to Surfers Paradise, Australia every year from 1991 to 2008.

Finally, let's talk about another problem: the big ovals. This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't area, because Indycar has its best racing at the Indianapolis 500, but whenever Indycar has tried to put on a similar show, it failed to draw in crowds.

Fontana 2015 is the best race that literally nobody watched.

The same can be said for Texas 2023, Pocono 2014, Homestead 2009, Michigan 2001, etc, etc.

I understand that Indycar superspeedway racing is dangerous, so it's pointless to do it if you're just gonna get 20,000 people in attendance, 700,000 people watch on TV, and a trophy with no historic significance, but look at any Indycar commercial or highlight reel.

The kind of spectacular high-speed racing that Indycar does at the Indianapolis 500 is what draws eyeballs, what draws attention...and we only do it once year.

And what really hurts is that at Pocono, it was starting to work out. Attendance was really bad in 2013 and 2014, yes, but by the time we got to 2018 and 2019, the race started to pick up some steam. It was one of the highest attended races outside of the Indy 500. When you come back to a track after having last raced there in 1989, it takes time to grow an event again: Pocono was growing again.

Unfortunately, Wilson died in 2015, Robert Wickens got paralyzed in 2018, and Felix Rosenqvist's 2019 accident was eerily reminiscent of what happened to Wickens the year before.

Ironically enough, that's not what killed the race.

ABC Supply Co. cut their sponsorship, which led to Richmond taking Pocono's place on the 2020 calendar. There was some suggestion that Indycar might return to Pocono in 2021, but, well...the entire planet kinda shut down for a little while there in 2020.

We never returned to Pocono, and we never wound up going to Richmond either.

Indycar's map remains confined to the Great Lakes area with a couple trips out to the southeast and the west coast. The series needs to be doing better than that.

If you won't give me a Michigan or Pocono, at least give me a Homestead.

If traveling's too much for you, how about trying to get something going at the vacant NASCAR venues of Chicagoland and Kentucky Speedway? Both held races in the IRL era and can provide us some real intermediate racing. It won't be a perfect replica of the Indianapolis 500, but we'll get to see these cars at speed. Chicagoland in particular has a good shape and banking that might provide spectacular racing without letting the speeds get too out of control.

If we can get a solid three of these races on the calendar, 1.5 mile plus, then I think we'll truly reach a golden mix of road, street, small oval, and big oval.

Build up these races as crown jewels, give us flashpoints in the season to look forward to after the Indy 500 ends.

We've seen the Indianapolis Motor Speedway go from strength to strength under Roger Penske's supervision, now what I want to see is this Fox deal lift up the rest of the series. I don't want to be negative about Indycar, I want to see Honda stay, I want to see Scott McLaughlin and Pato O'Ward and Alex Palou fighting for wins across multiple different disciplines of racing from tight streets to sweeping road courses to short little bull ring ovals to 200 mile per hour superspeedways.

I want Indycar to make me smile.

That's what I'm hoping for out of the 2025 season most of all.

[scotianostra]

The Pirate station, Radio Scotland began broadcasting in the dying embers of Hogmanay, 1965.

Radio Scotland was a Scottish pirate radio station which broadcast at various points off the Scottish coast between 1965 and 1967, with a mix of pop music and programmes of Scottish interest. It was conceived of and run by publicity and advertising executive Tommy Shields onboard a former Irish lightship, built on the Clyde, named The Comet. Radio Scotland's first broadcast was at 11:50pm on Hogmanay, 31st December 1965, on 1241 kilohertz, 242 metres.

After refitting for her new role in the Channel Islands she had been towed to a position four miles off Dunbar, in the Firth of Forth. Because of delays during the journey north, the ship didn't arrive at the anchorage until early on 30th December, giving the engineers only a few hours to set up the equipment. It was a frantic race against time but the station just made it on air before midnight, albeit at reduced power and with no opportunity to run tests. The first voice on the new station belonged to DJ Paul Young a former presenter of Scottish Television's Roundup programme who welcomed the listeners. He introduced the managing director Tommy Shields, who went on to detail their plans. Radio Scotland was on the air and open for business. The station also broadcast from water near Troon and Northern Ireland over its one-and-a-half years.

While navigating and planting the boat, crew had to be careful to avoid territorial waters, primarily due to the strict laws imposed on the pirate stations by the government of the day. Featuring everything from “modern” rock’n’roll to ceilidh favourites, the station soon became a sensation across Scotland as well as Ireland and northern England, where the signal was also picked up.

With its audience of one million listeners a week in its prime, Radio Scotland was very close to realising Shield’s dream of becoming a successful independent Scottish station.

Joining English stations such as Radio Caroline, Radio Scotland was the only pirate radio station to be formed north of the Border, and soon took its place amongst the big six pirate stations.

People could join the membership of the station and become Radio Scotland “Clan Members”. As a reward, the Clan had their own show every Saturday where they could send in requests, which, alongside Jack McLaughlin’s ceilidh slot, was one of the most popular programmes broadcast.

The station even had its own fanzine called “242” – named after its frequency. The 242 magazine featured interviews with the biggest stars of the day, including The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner, but station managers never quite tempted any of the stars on board the infamous boat.

The pirate station’s theme song was a jaunty wee number sung by folk band The Carrick Folk Four. Finishing off the upbeat ditty were the lines: “Oh Radio Scotland’s playing just for you/So beat the ban, and join the Clan, on station 242.”

Although they received many a plaudit, Radio Scotland was plagued with troubles from the very beginning. A poor signal and periods off-air led to a steep decline in advertising revenue and a frustrated fanbase, while fires on board the vessel and the hazardous North Sea conditions did little to help ease its problems.

In a piece in the Edinburgh Weekly just days after the station was laid to rest, Tony Mark wrote: “The death penalty in this country is supposed to have been abolished, yet here we are mourning the execution of what was surely the sound sensation of both 66’ and 67’ as far as Scotland is concerned.”

Although the station had a short life, as is often the case with such ventures, and was taken off the air in the 60s, Radio Scotland inspired a tribute station, which began broadcasting in the mid 70s.

Radio Scotland International, an independently run pirate station broadcasting to Europe from its base in Holland, started in 1975 and has been going ever since.

For around 20 months his modest little boat made huge waves and pulled Scotland into the "swinging sixties".

The first pic is Tommy Shields unveiling his pirate ship , the last is the stations first DJ Paul Young then, and as "Shug" in the BBC's Still Game.

[ladykailitha]

A Corroded Coffin Christmas ft The Fallen

Hello and welcome to my Christmas AUvent Calendar! Every day from now until the 24th I will be posting a ficlet that is 500-1500 from an AU I've done over the years.

All stories will be marked with the tag #12 aus of christmas so you can follow along as I will only be tagging my permanent list for this (it would get too confusing otherwise).

The next one on our list is: The Fallen verse. You can read the story here and it's sequels here and here. All links will be to the first chapter, but the chapter itself will have links to the rest of the story.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10

~

Steve reached over and put his hand on Simon’s knee as it was bouncing faster and faster the closer they got to the studio. He was nervous as fuck. Hell, they all were. Because apparently the perks of being the boyfriend for the lead singer of the biggest metal band in the world is getting his band to do a Christmas album with them.

It wasn’t going to be a full album, just about eight or so songs that would feature The Fallen in someway. Steve was really looking for to the absolute gay fest his version of “Santa Baby” was going to be.

Other songs would include “Jingle Bells”, “Carol of the Bells”, “Last Christmas”, “Better Do it Right”, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, “I Saw Three Ships” (the duet version Barenaked Ladies did with Sarah McLaughlin), “Little Drummer Boy”, and “Christmas Day” for the feels.

It was going to be so much fun. Gareth and Spencer were going to do a drum off for “Better Do it Right” and Shane was going to really get to let lose on the metal cover of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. While Simon was going take over for Jeff in “Last Christmas”. Jeff couldn’t stand the song and didn’t want to have his ears bleed.

The car pulled up to the studio where they were led into the sound booth would be using. For the most part everyone would be going into different rooms and laying down their parts but would come together for the duet and Carol of the Bells where they would all be singing together.

Even Spence. Which he as super excited for. One secret that not even Eddie knew was that backup vocals weren’t sung by Asmodeus or Astraeus. But by Azrael. He had the best voice next to Steve and he loved that no one knew that but his friends and now Nadia.

They all gathered together in the green room with Bob, Chrissy, and Celeste all waiting for them. It appeared the Corroded Coffin boys weren’t there yet.

“Come on in!” Bob said brightly. “You can take your masks off for bit if you want, Eddie knows to knock before they come in.”

They all looked at each other and then all of them removed the masks with a sigh of relief. The masks were as comfortable as they could be but they were still masks.

They chatted for awhile, talking about the album and which songs they were excited to play. Everyone agreed it was Abbadon doing Santa Baby. Screw “Santa Buddy” for fuck’s sake.

Then there was a knock on the door and after they were given time to put the masks back, Corroded Coffin entered the room.

“Hey, guys!” Bob greeted brightly. “Come on in. I’m Bob Newby, I’m The Fallen’s music producer. Thank you for choosing me to do this with you!”

Jeff reached out and shook his hand. “We’ve heard nothing but things about you from the guys and couldn’t wait to get in the studio with you.”

“Yeah,” Gareth agreed. “It’s nice to put a face to the name.”

Then they all sat down and wrote down which order everyone would going in. And it was pretty much going to a full schedule for everyone for the next couple of weeks.

But they were all excited and couldn’t wait to get started.

Then the day came. The one everyone had been waiting for. The instrumentals had been laid and mixed weeks ago, but it was time for Steve to sing “Santa Baby”.

The little sound booth was crammed with everyone wanting to hear this. Both managers, Vickie their agent, and the seven other members of both bands all clustered behind Bob at the mixer.

Steve had his mask on, but rolled his shoulders as he started his vocal warm ups. He shook out his limbs and then grabbed the mic.

“Santa baby,” Abbadon crooned, “just slip a Jag under the tree for me. Been an awful good boy. Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight!”

Eddie melted on the spot. If the guys had been in the know, they would be making fun of him so hard right now. As it was, they all were under Abbadon’s spell.

“Santa baby, a ‘54 convertible too, light blue. I’ll wait up for you. Santa Baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight! Think of all the fun I’ve missed, think of all the fella’s that I haven’t kissed. Next year I could be just as good, if you check off my Christmas list.”

Steve continued to sing the whole song and the sound booth was going to crazy. Once he was done, The Fallen boys flooded the recording booth and dogpiled Abbadon, telling him how sick that was and that it was going to be a number one hit for sure.

Eddie didn’t doubt that for a moment. Abbadon coming out as bisexual and then two years later, singing that? Yeah. That song was going to be huge. They all walked out of the studio to a bright July evening, excited for the album to drop in December.

~

They were right, The Fallen were asked to sing “Santa Baby” on every morning talk show, late night show, and for the POPS! Christmas special.

Another one that made the POPS concert, which surprised everyone, was Gareth and Spence’s Little Drummer Boy. They credited the idea to Of King and Country, of course, but there was just something special about a metal version of it that drove the masses wild.

The final surprise off the album was people clamoring to know who the contra alto was in their version of “Carol of the Bells”. They wanted to know who the guest female vocalist was. Both The Fallen and Corroded Coffin burst out laughing every time the question was raised.

“All vocals were done by Corroded Coffin and The Fallen,” Bob said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “There was no female vocalist.”

Spence enjoyed every moment of the speculation.

When the album went platinum in two weeks, they threw a party with the two bands.

“Here’s to the best metal Christmas collab of all time!” Eddie toasted and everyone cheered.

Steve smiled, it was a very merry Christmas indeed.

~

Day 12

Tag List: CLOSED

1- @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog @sadisticaltarts @dolphincliffs

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @cryptid-system @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji @dreamercec @blondie1006

5- @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @genderless-spoon @fearieshadow @thesecondfate

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

[mecachrome]

your oscar primer was absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for posting it!! well-researched, well-written, and a good balance of educational and hilarious. if you want to share, i’d be very interested in reading any of the parts you mentioned that you cut out, like george-admiring, oscar’s psyche, etc, but no pressure ofc 🫶

omg no thank you so much for your kind words, i appreciate it a lot!!! :D andddd let me see... honestly i was just going to add a few more quotes & anecdotes from other people about his personality but i ended up incorporating most of them into the primer (e.g. mark's), but in general i think it's really charming how Every Single Adult who has ever worked with oscar throughout the years is so deeply and immediately convinced of his maturity. i did work in most of this old ask but it has a few extra quotes in there from mclaren personnel! anyway more below the cut:

i guess really the thing to Me about oscar is like...... idk if this makes any sense but i personally love how he's naturally a really gracious and diplomatic person but is also deeeeeply self-assured and objective, which on one hand means he presents as quite humble when he doesn't make excuses for himself or get caught up in deceptively high results, but on the other also means he refuses to give anyone else credit for his own success; if you remember me briefly mentioning prematax in that post he talks about it in the f1fs pod where he basically goes i didn't win because of PREMA, in fact i've NEVER LOST TO A TEAMMATE, SO. like any racing driver that is def a big source of pride for him, and i think it speaks to the "silent killer" (per lando) side to him, the guy who mark says "falls asleep" when hearing stories of his (championless) career, who said that he supported mark out of national obligation growing up but—let us not forget—vettel was the one winning everything back then anyway, who says he put even more pressure on himself to win his final race in f2 despite having clinched the title 2 races prior because he felt the innate urge to prove that he wouldn't simply ease off the gas pedal and still had it in himself to subjugate the field one last time.

along these lines oomf and i have discussed before how he and alex rank similarly on the kind/nice dichotomy in a way that is slightly diametric to lando, wherein he is always willing to offer tidy bits of sympathy for someone else's struggles but doesn't ever really envision any of them as relevant to his own experiences, because getting caught up in that "external noise" would be a waste of time (even with logan in the f3 finale it was honestly kind of like "aw man that sucks, i'd hate for it to be me... ANYWAY"). like not to maybe exaggerate his interiority but i enjoy that he carries an amount of hidden tension that he obviously consciously decides to not take reactionary measures over—though that doesn't mean it isn't there, it's just very well regulated (unrelated but he does actually work with mental coach emma murray, who also works with scott mclaughlin and whom he says helped him center himself at the end of his eurocup season). but he's still very... unfiltered about when he's been disrespected in an unperturbed, straightforward manner, like saying otmar confronting him on the sim over being promoted to the seat was "bizarre and frankly upsetting," the face he made when he was told they'd overtaken alpine in the standings in 2023, telling the kids in that hp tuners interview that the renault engineers treated his first f1 test too nonchalantly, etc. 😭 like every interview back when he was a reserve driver was soooo "i'm gracious about being stuck in this role but also i've proven myself way too much to Not Hate This Compromise and i'll be pissed as hell if i don't get a seat next year"... i'll stop here but basically he is truly a master of balancing gritted-teeth conviction with his tactical charm and it is one of my fav things ever about him!!!

also another quote i love is this one from david sera about his driving style, because 1) i love the correlation between it and his personality/calmness, 2) i'm obsessed with the dynamic of his early rc days helping nurture a style of "finesse" in his driving throughout his junior career that may not have appeared naturally if he'd only begun racing in karting (and subsequently how he had to learn to not get "muscled around" after moving to europe), and 3) of course as a noted jb22 appreciator i love when people note similarities in his inputs to jb because it is delicious to ME:

Coming from a remote control car background where concentration, finesse and smooth inputs, these were the traits we saw in Oscar in the cadet category. [...] You would often see other drivers have an advantage in the early part of the race, driving more aggressively, but Oscar had a more calm approach.

c__c but back to the first part of the ask and our good friend russell jorge, i'm mostly obsessed with oscar's reactions to his performance at the rollercoaster that was spa 2021 and the fact that he's been so vocally appreciate of george "outperforming" the car he was in. the 2 instances of the word HERO on his twitter:

and then this quote in an interview he did in 2022:

"[Success] is definitely not just defined by just world championships, and if you can outperform the car that you're in—I think George Russell has been a very fine example of that in years previous, you know, constantly getting the most out of that Williams and of course Spa. (laughs) Bit controversial, but he got a podium at the end of the day! And even without that, he qualified second, he outqualified everyone except Max in a Williams, which, you know, is an unbelievable result."

also george being the only f1 driver (i think) to tweet him for his f2 title :saluting_face:

AND ALSO THEM SHARING THE ANECDOTE OF THEIR AWKWARD FIRST MEETING ON THE FAST & CURIOUS POD??? aka oscar was told in his april 2023 ep that they were going to interview george next and he was like oh ok you can ask him about our "slightly left-field introduction," and then they had george on who was like oh yeah i met oscar for the first time washing our hands together in the bathroom on our way to the ausgp in 2020 😭 what a way to meet.

[jovenshires]

endless au edits: the battle of the bands au nobody asked for pt 7

battle of the bands 2024: an honest op-ed by jeremy elder the six entries to battle of the bands 2024 have finally been announced. not only will we be seeing sad men in their 30s's favorite new band the chosen, known for their appearance on the netflix reality show 'up & coming,' but also four other groups who desperately wish they were as famous. this includes: ftc, renowned alternative-indie sad-girl trio; kolivition, known for making the music your mom turns off every time she walks into the room; coventry, the punk girl group equivalent of that pinterest quote 'we are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn'; and let's do this, who... no, that's it. who? anyway, it's not like any of that really matters, because i've yet to mention the smosh reunion, aka the wet dream of every millenial who asks for a veteran's discount after surviving warped tour. a clear favorite to win, smosh is coming in with an army of fans and a near-decade of experience on these guys. good luck to what little competition they have. in addition, i am thrilled to report that we now know the final lineup of judges. diehard battle of the bands fans - all two of you - will be thrilled to know that rhett mclaughlin and link neal of mythical will be back to judge yet another thrilling year of mediocrity. after winning ten years ago, those guys just won't let go of their glory days. (or maybe it's the other way around. blink twice if you need help, guys.) on the bright side, though, they've also introduced surprise judge jackie uweh. known for being one of the greatest performers of our generation, it will be uweh's first time judging a musical competition. i don't know what she's doing here and i highly suggest that she runs. and runs fast. the three will be the wonderful, charming, and dutifully impartial judges to this year's competition, and definitely will not be just handing it to smosh as a reward for their long-awaited reunion. (because ian hecox definitely wasn't signed onto the mythical label as a solo artist. it's not unfair at all.) finally, the emcee and host of the event will be newcomer to the rap scene, trevor. if that name doesn't ring any bells for you - don't worry, it doesn't for the rest of us, either. the 24-year-old rapper was apparently responsible for mixing the beats on mythical's latest and edgiest album, which, due to the power of nepotism, made him a natural choice for this year's emcee. known for his "meme rap" (i am being so serious right now), trevor auditioned for the battle of the bands but, fortunately, did not qualify. thus, he will not be competing nor, allegedly, performing. though i have my doubts. i reserve the right to run screaming for the hills the moment they hand him a mic. the soundcloud musician (that's right - don't bother looking him up on spotify, you won't get anywhere) will be hosting the battle of the bands and the series of live shows leading up to it. what does all this mean? well, it looks like this year is no different from the last, and predictable set-ups have means to predictable ends. nevertheless, i, your faithful and humble local reporter, will be making the trip to la with an all-access backstage pass in hand and reporting on the entire thing from start to finish. no rehearsal, live show, or, most importantly, complete disaster of a finale will escape my sight. rest assured that you have at least one decent and reliable eye witness to the whole fiasco. tomorrow marks my trip down to la - i'll be reporting live from the road. until then, i bid you adieu. may the best smosh - i mean, band - win.