#Pete you silly competent man | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

baby-girl-e · 2 years ago

Text

Cowboy like me

Characters - Iceman x Maverick, Carole Bradshaw

Summary - Ice once called Maverick a Cowboy. Maybe he was right, but maybe Ice was a cowboy like him.

Or Maverick gets invited to his cousin's wedding and Ice tags along as his secret lover.

Word Count - 5k

Warnings - mentions of period typical homophobia

A/N - This one is massive, but she’s my baby so I don’t care. Cowboy like me by Taylor Swift is one of my favorite songs and it just SCREAMS Icemav in my head. I hope you like it and all of the lyric Easter eggs I’ve included :)

Maverick never thought he’d find love. Not in that ‘oh woe is me’ sort of way, but in the genuine way of, he just didn’t think it would happen. When he met Charlie he thought maybe he was wrong, he let himself believe it for just a moment. That moment was fleeting, she left without as much as a goodbye. Maverick was absolutely crushed, he vowed in that moment to never get his hopes up again. However his wingman apparently had other plans. Ice showed up at his door after he heard about the breakup with beer and pizza stating that he could wallow this one night and then he was done. Much to Mav’s surprise it actually worked, the day Ice demanded that he get over it he actually started to feel better.

“Honestly Mav it would be embarrassing to be so put out by someone like her. She can’t even fly a jet and yet she wants to tell us how? No thanks.”

Ice’s words, although harsh, were exactly what he needed to hear. He still built a brick wall around his heart, but at least he wasn’t crying anymore.

He carried on like that for a while. Waking up, teaching at TOP GUN, hanging out with Ice, sleep, repeat. It was grossly mundane but it was working. He had a schedule and something to look forward to. He realized later that it was actually someone that he looked forward to. Ice was the best part of his day. If he did something he was particularly proud of, Ice was the first person he wanted to show. If there was a new movie out, he couldn’t imagine watching it with anyone else.

Of course Maverick being Maverick he never thought of it as love. Why would he? He had deemed himself incapable and not allowed. Ice on the other hand was on a better track, unbeknownst to Maverick.

He remained clueless until one of his weekly phone calls with Carole when she tried to point out the obvious.

“Peter Mitchell, you are so in love with that boy.”

“What? No Carole this is Ice. He’s a man.”

Silence on the other end. Then a very dramatic sigh.

“Pete, my sweet angel. Did you know that you can fall in love with someone, even if they’re a boy?”

“Yes Carole-anne I know. But I’ve never even thought a guy was attractive, how can I be in love with one?”

He knew that woman enough to know she hated being called Carole-Anne, he was hoping to try and derail her choice of subject. In hindsight he should’ve known, this is Carole, she was the human epitome of ‘if there’s a will, there’s a way’.

“There’s a first for everything sweetie. Will you indulge me, just this once? Just hear me out.”

There was no way he’d get out of this, better to get it over with fast.

“Fine Carole, but there’s no way this is going to end like you think it will.”

(Spoiler alert, it does)

“That’s the spirit! Okay, first question. And feel free to just answer these in your head if they’re too personal. When you wake up in the morning, who do you most look forward to seeing?”

“Hey, that's not fair. Ice is the only competent person I see all day. It’s either him, my students, or fucking Viper. We’re friends, it's not that weird.”

“Okay, okay. Next question, when you called to tell me about that cat you rescued from a pipe, was I the first person you thought to tell?”

His immediate thought had been Ice. He didn’t think much of it then but now? Maybe she was onto something. His first thought was often, ‘I've got to tell Ice.’

“That silence is loud Mav. Okay now I want you to close your eyes.”

“Carole, this is silly.”

“Hush boy, are they closed?”

Maverick reluctantly closed his eyes and told Carole he had them shut.

“Now, imagine you’re at home. It’s a Saturday night and you’re bored. You’re just dying to do something. Then there’s a knock at your door, you open it and, who’s there Maverick? Who do you wish was there? Living people only, you can’t say Nicky.”

Ice. There was no question. It was how he had been spending his Saturday nights for the last couple of months.

“It’s Ice Care bear.”

“Wow, I never would have imagined. Keep your eyes closed for this last thing, and bare with me here. He comes in, and kisses you. Be brutally honest here, would you pull away? Or would you kiss him back?”

That was enough to give him mental whiplash. Never before had he imagined kissing Ice. But he listened to Carole, like he always did, and tried his best at imagining what it would be like.

Oh, Oh.

He audibly gasped at the thought. He’s sure he’d kiss like he flew, straight to the point. A man on a mission. He’d probably hold Maverick in a vice like grip, and he can almost feel his hands at his waist.

“Fuck Carole.”

“Sorry Pete. This probably isn’t the best of revelations is it?”

For a million different reasons, no. It’s the worst revelation. But for that one good reason? It’s everything.

After that phone call Pete is hyper aware of his interactions with Ice. He notices every look, every touch, everything. He can’t decide if he’d rather the feeling be mutual or not. On the one hand if Ice didn’t like him like that, he’d be crushed. But if he did? That was an entire can of worms that he wasn’t particularly excited to open.

“Alright Mav, give it up. What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothings wrong. Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that you’ve said maybe four words to me since I came over? Or the fact that you’re sitting on the other side of the couch like I’ve got some contagious disease or something.”

He was right. He was sitting so far away because of something contagious. He was noticing how good looking he actually was and wanted to jump him every other second. He could play it cool at work, no matter how good he looked in that uniform it was a reminder of why crushing on Iceman like a schoolgirl was such a bad idea. But here in the comfort of his own home, Ice on his couch wearing sweats and a black t-shirt he was certain was soft, his self control was dwindling.

“Ice I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Almost like he didn’t hear him, he scoots closer to Maverick, getting right in his face. Maverick couldn’t help but let out a small gasp.

“No, I’ll worry about whatever I want. What’s going on?”

He said it so soft and low that Maverick couldn’t help his gaze dropping to the other man's lips. They looked so soft and inviting he almost reached out. Almost.

“I can’t say Ice. I just can’t.”

He was whispering now too. There was no way he could trust his voice to stay steady otherwise. Ice’s eyes caught Mavericks again and put his hand on the joint of his neck and shoulder.

Maverick shudders.

“Hey, it’s me. There’s nothing you can say that will make me run away.”

Oh he could think of a few things. But he didn’t think Ice would drop it anytime soon.

“Promise you won’t laugh at me or stop being my friend?”

He had never felt so small in his life. He felt like a child, just begging for love.

“I promise. There’s no getting rid of me.”

His eyes looked genuine. He was serious. Maverick thinks he could do this.

“Well lately… I’ve been having these feelings. Romantic feelings. For you.”

There it was, bomb dropped, now all that was left was brace for impact and damage control.

The impact hit and… Ice broke into a smile. Wait, a smile?

“You do?”

He looked almost childlike too. Only his wasn’t fear, it was hope. Almost like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but in a good way.

“Yeah Tom. I do.”

Mav could see tears starting to form in his wingman’s eyes.

“Fucking finally.”

The next thing he knew he was being kissed. This kiss was nothing like he’d imagined. Still straight to the point, but oh so much better. Maverick was kissing him back in an instant and felt those hands he had imagined move from his shoulder to his waist. The intensity picked up and before Maverick knew it he was on Ice’s lap. He was straddling the taller man and took this opportunity to feel his hair for the first time. It was softer than he’d imagined in this un-gelled state, short but still long enough for Maverick to run his fingers through. The sound that prompted out of Ice’s mouth was positively sinful. It was all Maverick could do to moan back.

Eventually air became a need and they pulled away slightly.

“Fuck Mav. That was…”

“Yeah. I know. How do we…”

Neither of them could finish sentences at the moment it seemed. But the question of How do we do this still hung in the air. It was the looming threat of dishonorable discharge that made them hesitate in the first place.

“Did we just kiss?”

Apparently kissing Ice made Maverick stupid, more so than usual.

“Yes Pete we did. Do you wanna do it again?”

“Yes please.”

And so they did. Again. And again. And again. Eventually they found themselves in the Kitchen? How did they get here?

“Seriously Mav, we need to talk about this. Do we want to keep doing this?”

“Oh I absolutely do.”

“As in just the kissing or… like an actual relationship?”

Maverick thought for a moment. He wasn’t sure they could ever have an actual relationship, at least not in the same sense most straight couples do. But whatever they came up with, he wanted it.

“I want everything with you Tom. Whatever we can get away with.”

And so they did. True to their word they made their own version of a relationship. Ice told Slider and Maverick told Carole and Merlin. He had gotten close with the RIO in the months following the Layton rescue. The circle was small, but they didn’t need the world to know for them to feel valid. They had who mattered.

Sooner or later a year goes by and the couple is all but living together. Ice rarely goes to his house, if only to keep up appearances. They’re on the couch one night when Maverick gets a phone call, not uncommon given Carole usually calls at this time of night.

Mav comes back from the kitchen with an unreadable look on his face, which is uncommon given Ice is usually able to read his boyfriend like a book.

“Babe? Something wrong?”

“No, no. That was my Aunt Margie.”

“Aunt? I didn’t know you had relatives you still talked to.”

Tom was right. Maverick really didn’t have much family that he still talked to. His dads family made him out to be a pariah after what went down and his mothers family was nearly non-existent.

“Not much no, but this aunt was only 20 when everything with my dad went down and she was already disowned by the family because she had a kid at 16. She contacted me when I was a teenager and introduced me to my cousin Emma, she was only a little younger than me. Anyways, we were always close, I still call on holidays and birthdays. They called after Goose died.”

“Oh baby I had no idea. What did she want just now?”

“Emma’s getting married.”

Maverick couldn’t believe someone younger than him was getting married. He supposed that maybe if things were different him and Tom would probably be starting to talk about that too. A nice thought.

“Wow. Are you going to go?”

“Yeah she was calling for my accurate address so she could send an invite, on the flip side I’m one of their only family members too. It’s in two months, Texas.”

“Two months huh? That’ll probably line up with our leave.”

“Which poses the question, would you go with me? She already said I could bring a plus one.”

Tom looks stunned, like it had never crossed his mind. They had spent so much time just assuming that they’d be doing things separate that it shocked them to consider doing stuff in public, together.

“I’m sure she meant it to be a romantic partner, Pete.”

“Well it’s a good thing you’re my boyfriend then Tom.”

“You know what I mean.”

Of course he did. All he did was understand that stupid little fact. It was killing him.

“She knows I’m a pilot, I’ll introduce you as my wingman. We can even come up with some story that you have family in Texas and decided to tag along to save money on gas.”

“Maverick she just called, how did you think of that so fast?”

“Darlin, I spend most of my time thinking up excuses for us to do all sorts of things. I love you like that.”

Tom had tears in his eyes, something Maverick noticed ever since they started dating. It was almost like he couldn’t believe Maverick was in love with him, even if they had exchanged those words months ago.

“Well when you put it like that… Let’s do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah baby. Let’s go to Texas.”

///

Maverick was extatique to say the least. He spent the next two months booking a hotel and making all of the necessary arrangements. He even researched towns for Ice’s fake family to be from in case someone asked.

Finally the day came for them to leave and Maverick was up before the sun packing the car.

“Mav, baby, I love you but for Christ’s sake the sun isn’t even up.”

“We’ve got places to be darlin, giddy up!”

“Pete, you did not just say ‘giddy up’.”

Ice looks pretty, all exasperated in the light of the just now rising sun, staring up at Pete from their shared bed.

“We’re going to Texas my dear, I’m just getting you ready.”

A signature eye roll from the Iceman.

Eventually they made it on the road, with a little prodding from Pete and a lot of groaning from Ice. The ride itself was long but peaceful if Pete was being honest. The only times that the two of them get to feel like a real couple was when they were alone (besides the times they were around their friends that knew) and this car ride was an extended amount of alone time. They held hands whenever they felt like it, even if Ice had lectured him on safe driving (but he never let go). They talked, and talked, and talked. About nothing in particular, just whatever came up.

“Ice, you’re telling me that you had a girlfriend for an entire year and you didn’t know?”

Ice was driving and past flings came up. A lighthearted mistake honestly.

“First of all I was thirteen. It wasn’t like we were kissing. I thought she was my friend and she and everyone else thought she was my girlfriend. Never in my life have I thought a woman was attractive, she was my first and only girlfriend.”

“Well, I wish I could say the same. You’re my first and only boyfriend.”

Pete realized what he said too late. Was it too soon to talk about forever? Or could they ever talk about forever in their situation?

“That confident huh? Think I’ll put up with your crazy ass forever?”

“You love my ass.”

Tom laughs and Pete lets out a laugh of relief. Ice made a joke about forever, but he never said no. He’ll take it.

///

They eventually (after a fifteen hour drive) make it to Lubbock, Texas where Mav’s cousin is getting married. They pretty much drop dead in the hotel room, not even having the energy to take advantage of the change of scenery and the comfortable bed. Well, they did use the bed but for strictly passing out.

The next day is the wedding and Pete is nervously pacing the room as they get ready.

“Let’s go over this one more time.”

“Baby, I’ve got it. If anyone asks, I am visiting family too, we decided to just drive together.”

“And if they ask where they’re from?”

“I say they’re in San Antonio. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

Pete gave him a nervous smile and Tom pulled him in for a kiss.

“Hey, baby, it’ll be alright. Okay? Let’s just relax a bit and enjoy some time together. Hm?”

Pete was anxious and for good reason. He was about to introduce his boyfriend to some of the last people living he considered family. But they couldn’t know he was his boyfriend and damnit if that didn’t hurt. Pete thought Ice was pretty much the coolest person ever, and the fact that he loved Pete? He wanted to shout it from the rooftops.

They arrived at the wedding without incident, but in a pleasant silence that only came with their level of connection. Walking into the venue, which was some fancy country club, he didn’t really know what to expect. He honest to god only knew the bride and her mother and from his knowledge of weddings while limited, those were the two busiest people on a wedding day.

“What do we do, just sit?” Pete asked Tom in a whisper, only leaning in slightly. Back into the mode of ‘we’re just wingmen, nothing more.’

“What, have you never been to a wedding before?”

Pete stared at him blankly. Not really knowing how to answer since he hadn’t but he knew that wasn’t a normal thing.

“Oh, you haven’t, have you?” Tom looked genuinely shocked.

“I mean I’ve seen them on TV, so I know the gist but… never in real life no.”

Tom looked sad, like he was just putting together why he hadn’t. Pete had been an orphan for a great majority of his life. He had no family but the people whose wedding they were currently at, and it wasn’t like his foster families were super keen on parading him in front of their friends.

“Well I have, so I'll show you. Sometimes they want you to mix and mingle, and other times you sit on a specific side if you’re there for either the bride or groom.” He loved Tom for just explaining it and not dwelling on his less than fun childhood. He always knew what to do.

They venture further into the venue and Pete see’s what is clearly an aisle with chairs on either side. Behind it is a big white tent over the tennis courts, he made an educated guess that it was for the reception.

“See there’s a sign here that says Bride so that’s the side we’ll sit on.” Tom points out a fancy wooden sign that indeed said bride.

They sit towards the back, hoping to inadvertently avoid people talking to them, but that seemed an impossible feat for a wedding. They were approached by what he assumed were two bridesmaids almost immediately.

“I don’t believe we know you two, how do you know the bride?” They seemed nice, both blonde, one tall and the other a little shorter. Obviously his type, case in point: Ice, but he was way too obsessed with Ice to even notice their looks.

“I’m Pete Mitchell, Emma’s cousin. This is Tom Kazansky, my wingman.” He gestured to Ice and he gave the girls a polite wave.

“Wingman huh? Are you pilots?” Ah this age old question.

“Naval Aviators actually.” If Ice weren’t in public that surely would have gotten an eye roll out of him.

“Oh I see, well I’m Emma’s best friend Suzanne, and this is the equivalent of my wingman Anna.”

Pete couldn’t help but laugh. She probably didn’t think of her friend in the same way that Pete thought of Tom, but he understood the sentiment.

“Well it’s nice to meet you both. I’m sorry I can’t say she’s mentioned you.”

“Emma’s always been private about her family for reasons I’m sure you understand. She’s mentioned you a couple times, said you were a victim of the Mitchell shame too?”

“That’s one way of putting it. The Mitchell’s were always about what they looked like to everyone else, and I guess a child of a teen mom and the son of a traitor was just too much.”

Ice was a silent participant in this conversation, but his eyes went wide at his boyfriend's words. Pete wished he could squeeze his hand to reassure him that he knew what he was saying, but alas.

“She mentioned that too. I’m sorry they got you too. But from the looks of it you found yourself some family too?”

She didn’t even know the half of it. Tom was his everything.

“Indeed I did.”

“Well, we’ll catch you later, shows about to start.” With that they walked away, leaving Ice and Mav alone once more.

“Since when are you so loosey goosey with the whole ‘I’m Duke Mitchell’s kid’ thing?”

“Since they weren’t Navy people. I’ve learned that people outside of the Navy don’t really care that your dad is an enemy of the state. At least not much.”

Ice smiled and god was he ever going to get used to that? Ironically his smile made him feel like he was being melted from the inside out.

///

The ceremony was nice, a little boring, but Ice told him that it was normal. He couldn’t help thinking what his and Tom’s wedding would be like. He knew that was a dangerous thought, but he couldn’t help it. In an imaginary world he knew they’d have the class of ‘86 there to celebrate with them, something small. Pete would want to send invitations to everyone he knew though, once again having the urge to shout that he loved Tom Kazansky and was loved back from the top of his lungs.

They made their way to the tent covered Tennis Court that had been lit up with twinkle lights after the sun started to set. It really looked pretty magical. Romantic.

“Wait here and I’ll get us drinks?” Tom was a great boyfriend, albeit a secret one.

“That’d be great thanks.” He had to physically restrain himself from calling him babe and it hurt more than it should’ve.

Tom left with a wink and Pete found himself alone at the table, not something he was upset about. But it didn’t last long before his aunt found him.

“Pete! I’m so glad you came!” She embraced him in a hug and Pete all but melted into it. It had been too long since he had a maternal hug that wasn’t from Carole.

“Me too Margie. Congratulations by the way.” She pulled away but still held Pete by his arms.

“Oh I didn’t do much. She found him all on her own. How are you doing?” What a loaded question. Honestly? He was doing great. He had a boyfriend he adored and a job he loved. The only thing that would make it better was to have Nick by his side to enjoy it with him.

“Things are good. I’m doing good, honestly.”

She gave him a knowing smile, she was always smarter than anyone in his family.

“That’s good to hear Pete. I hope you’ll introduce me to your wingman tonight, maybe get some insight as to just how good your life’s been?”

Wait, what did she mean by that?

“Oh, Margie he’s just-”

“I know Pete, your wingman. Don’t worry I’m not asking, I’m just happy you’re finally happy, no matter the reason.”

She patted his cheek and walked away before he could say anything else. It wasn’t until he felt a tear on his cheek that he realized what had just happened. She knew, and she didn’t care. Well would you look at that.

///

Eventually Ice came back with their drinks and Pete told him what his aunt had said. He was nervous, obviously, but he trusted Pete and if Pete trusted her? That was enough. They were just hanging out when Suzanne approached their table.

“So, how’d we do, boys?” She had an air of humor about her, someone he could really see himself being friends with.

“You didn’t trip once, I’d say it was a success.” Ice had been quiet for most of the day, so it was nice to hear him loosening up a bit. Probably thanks to that drink.

“Well Tom that’s good to hear, I actually had some less than noble intentions coming to say hi. I was wondering if you’d like to maybe dance?” Her question was directed at Tom and Pete could nearly hear his heart break. Oh.

“I’d be honored.” Say what you want about Iceman, cold-hearted or whatever, but the man was a gentleman. He had to say yes. What was he going to say? That he had a boyfriend?

As they walked away Tom looked his way and gave him an apologetic smile. His heart cracked again at the sight of the love of his life taking the dance floor with someone else. She got to hold him close, in the middle of a crowded room, and nobody could say anything. His whole world stood out there swaying with someone that wasn’t him.

Pete rarely cursed the world, god knows he had many reasons to, but he never did. He didn’t like to whine. But now? Under the tent covered tennis court? He could curse the whole planet. All because of some scared little people deciding that he couldn’t love who he wanted, he had to suffer for the foreseeable future.

Not able to take anymore of this, he stood up and walked out of there. He was outside but he felt like he was suffocating from the lack of air going into his lungs. He stops when he knows he’s alone outside of the tent, far enough away that he won’t be bothered but not so far he can’t still hear the music playing softly in the background.

He sits on a bench that’s barely illuminated by the moonlight, and lets himself wallow. He cries for his lost friend, he cries for his parent-less upbringing, and finally he cries for not being able to love out loud. He knows it’s probably the worst place ever to cry about these things, but he can’t help it. It’s like a dam broke and he was helpless to stop it.

Vaguely in the distance he hears someone walking towards him, and he mentally prepares himself to lie his ass off as to why he’s crying. But when he looks up and sees that it’s just his boyfriend approaching he settles. There’s no hiding tears from Ice, it’s a lost cause.

“Mav? Baby are you okay?” When Ice gets closer Pete can see the look of deep concern on his face.

“No.” He said simply. Why lie to the love of your life?

Ice embraces him in a tight hug the second he’s close enough. Maverick can tell he might be crying a little too.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to be rude. I-”

“Shhh, I know baby. I know. Still makes me sad that I can't dance with you like that.”

Ice pulls back and has a look on his face, a rare one of mischief. Distantly Mav can hear the opening notes to Etta James’ At Last, one of his favorites.

“You can if we’re alone, do you see anyone around?”

That cheeky bastard. “No, I don’t think I do.”

Ice looks around for good measure and pulls Mav close, nose to nose, one arm around his waist, and the other gripping his left hand. He leads them in a somewhat sloppy waltz, but it’s quiet enough that he can hear Tom’s small embarrassed laughs so he doesn’t mind. They carry on like that for a minute, just soaking in the moment.

“This is dangerous Ice.”

“What, dancing with my lover?” He whispers that last word far too seductively for them being in public.

“Yes, but us in general. We’re a dangerous game. Can you be okay with that? I know how you are with your rules.” He winked to try and lighten the conversation.

“I know, but you’re worth it to me. If it came down to it and I had to pick you or my wings? I’d pick you.”

Pete was speechless. Flying was their whole world.

“You can’t really mean that Tom.”

Ice had a soft lovesick look on his face.

“But I do. With my whole heart.”

Pete tried not to get choked up, failing miserably. When he and Ice started dating he really didn’t know how long it would last. Like Ice had previously said, he really was a cowboy, he’d never been in a long term relationship like this before and wasn’t sure he had it in him. But after a while he started to realize that maybe Ice was a cowboy like him. Hardened by the world and all of its evils, but it seemed in the end they found each other and all of that changed. Ice’s boots had their home beneath Mav’s bed, and forever they would stay.

“I hope you know that you’re it for me Tom. I’m never gonna love again.”

Tom smiled, all watery, and kissed Pete hard on the lips.

“Me too Mav. Me too.”

They stayed like that for a while, in each other’s arms, relishing in this stolen moment. Pete was infinitely glad he decided to go to this wedding, it was exactly what they needed.

///

Over the years of their relationship, the pair danced a lot after that wedding. It was usually in the privacy of their home, with the kitchen radio playing in the background, but it was their little thing. Mav’s favorite though was at their wedding. It was 2011 and DADT had just been repealed, and they invited everyone they knew. Even Pete’s aunt Margie and cousin Emma, and her three grown children. They decided that they’d have their first dance as a legally married couple to the same song they had their first dance to, At Last by. Etta James. It was perfect.

Swaying in that ballroom with his husband, Pete felt like his world was complete. He had locked down the most beautiful man on the planet and damnit if he wasn’t proud of himself.

“Hey Kazansky?”

“It’s Kazansky-Mitchell to you.”

“Right, but I’ve just gotta say something.”

“Out with it then.”

“You really are a cowboy like me, aren’t you?”

That got him a laugh he could listen to forever, would listen to forever. In that moment he decided that forever was the sweetest con.

#icemav #maverick x iceman #Icemav x Taylor Swift #This is a Taylor swift song #top gun maverick #iceman x maverick #maverick #iceman kazansky #top gun #top gun 1986 #Weddings #dancing #emo sadness

76 notes · View notes

ronanlvnchvevo · 2 years ago

Text

ALRIGHT BUCKLE UP here we go again, friends. Today I’m going to tell you why I think that from the very beginning Kinn intentionally sent an unknowing Pete to Vegas to manipulate him into submission.

So in my previous post I tackled the scene from episode 4 where Pete and Porsche discuss and have some revelations about good vs evil. I also stated in that post “I think Kinn knows (HE KNOWS) that, in addition to basically being [Porsche’s] bestie, Pete is probably the most empathic of all his men...” and I would like to take this opportunity to elaborate on that. Because I may have let my mind run a bit wild with that idea during my rewatch, and it’s not only greatly satisfying to me, but relevant to my point.

So, in that previous post I outlined 4 occasions where we the audience gets to see Pete acting with a fair amount of empathy. TD;LR is 1) he’s nice to porsche when literally no one else is and this includes 2) speaking up to Tankhun when he thinks he’s being unfair (would also add retroactively that Pete speaking up to Tankhun is pretty major esp when we see how anxious he can get around the family). 3) The way he observes the family and internalizes all they’ve been through, and 4) When he calms Porsche down by helping him to understand that Kinn is also Going Through It.

Also, just for funzies I will add this bit where, once again, Pete is the only one to speak up in a situation he doesn’t think is Right (but also lol because he DOES stand by, watching in abject horror, and fascination, as Vegas removes the guys cochlea right after.)

(Also, nevermind the fact that its literally in his job description to commit murder, A MAN COULD DIE)

AND Also this:

Which CAN be considered a silly throw away line, but is important to part of my theory, which is this: Kinn knows that Pete is a bit of a special case. Kinn knows he has this empathetic streak. Knows he’s a bit softer than his colleagues, but that he’s still lethal and competent. Kinn has witnessed the empathy manifest in some of the same ways that we have, like in his friendship with Porsche, and in this throw away line about Macau (which, if you are still wondering why it’s important to my theory is because its behavior that KINN IS WITNESSING).

Additionally, and in my last post I mentioned as well, When Porsche is having an emotional crisis; having his worldview essentially shattered, Kinn sends Pete to sus out the situation and to help Porsche through it, because, lets be honest, if he’d just wanted someone to tell Porsche to suck it up and get back in there, he would have sent Ken. And also, Kinn cares about Porsche. He wanted to see Porsche come out of the situation okay and trusted Pete to help him do that.

Have I convinced you yet that Kinn knows Pete is an empathetic man? Because it’s important for the next bit.

I think Kinn sent Pete to Vegas specifically and intentionally. I think that Kinn knew that Pete would affect Vegas in some way, (with his empathy) and that he could use that to his advantage.

Kinn is an extremely competent strategist. If you’re not sure of that statement, just remember that the entire show is a series of events orchestrated by his father, for gods sake. And that Vegas’ entire Tawan plot was months if not years in the making. Okay, this is a family of people who’re playing an insane game of chess with each other, and the entire point of chess is to be able to predict your opponents move, BECAUSE YOU’VE LED THEM TO MAKE IT. If you still don’t agree with me think about how tankhun got out of being the main family head (he doesn’t seem all that crazy to me, js) or about Kim who’s somehow managed to stay “out” of the game for so long (spoiler alert, its because he’s getting ahead and manipulating situations so he WONT get pulled in. he just never counted on Chay happening to him lol).

My final point and the bit that really brought this theory home for me is this conversation:

Kinn approaches Pete, after, and I cannot stress this enough, MULTIPLE failed attempts on Pete’s part to spy on Vegas. Naturally, Pete is Confused. Just look at him:

and he says:

Pete’s REMINDING him. He’s like ‘hey, idk if thats a good idea. last time was a bit of a failure, maybe spying isn’t my thing’ and typically when someone fails their job multiple times... they aren’t asked to continue doing said job. I would imagine the consequences for failing at your job as a mafia bodyguard could even be something like death. That is, unless they’re NOT failing at their job, and they only think they are because they’re being used for another secret purpose. I would also note that regardless of their “failure”, Vegas does seem interested (drawn, even?) to Pete (aka that temple scene; the weird/sexual tension aside, Vegas and Pete were clearly trying to figure each other out. Vegas: why is the cute bodyguard so intriguing and how is he so BAD at this spying thing??, and Pete: I’m gonna die, he’s gonna kill me, but also he’s acting in a way and doing an activity that’s completely unexpected and I wanna make it make sense, figure him out--wait no. no no no.).

Why else would Kinn, a man who surely has a NUMBER of highly skilled spies at his disposal, continue to send in someone who continuously fails at their job? Unless that was the real goal all along.

#im so desperate to share my theories yall #if you have thoughts please feel free to share them #vegaspete #kinnporche the series #kinnporsche #vegas theerapanyakul #kinn theerapanyakul #pete phongsakorn #porsche kittisawasd #kp the series #kinnporsche meta #my meta

24 notes · View notes

sasskarian · 4 years ago

Text

First Line Meme

I was tagged by @asaara-writes. Thank you, my dearest! <3

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

My Heart and I -

If there’s one thing about Evelyn Swann that the entire Commonwealth knows by now, it is her love of music. Silence does not mark Evelyn’s arrival anywhere— instead, the soft tones of Billie Holiday do, crooning about mountains moved for love. Or the sultry voice of Lady Day herself, Ella Fitzgerald, floating around her and the companions like a bubble of the past, dreaming on into the future. Heavy footsteps beat out a tempo contrasting Butcher Pete and his big old ‘knife’ and everywhere she goes, she trails ribbons of jazz and cheer.

Like Afterimages -

The settlers call her a survivor. Sanctuary calls her a savior. Codsworth cries when she returns from the wastelands, dragging in another minute— heh— victory for the Minutemen, or another rescued synth she doesn’t tell anyone about. But Mama Murphy just calls her a ghost.

That’s what she is, after all. Just a two hundred year old ghost. Like a mirage, superimposed on the darkness, burned into immortality by nuclear fallout and tragedy. Evelyn is only sometimes here, those dark gray eyes a pair of rain clouds on the distant horizon, drifting on invisible fronts. The thunder is inside of her, too, a raging storm swirling in her chest, beating fists made of babies crying and gunshots rimmed in frost ringing out against her ribs.

The Thrill of Your Hand -

Danse has been a soldier too long to be a deep sleeper.

That’s the first thing the Brotherhood trains you out of. The indoctrination comes later, because only a good soldier can be indoctrinated, and a good soldier has to wake up at the first hint of danger. So when he hears the first whimper from across the room, his eyes snap open.

Paladin’s Bubble -

The Commonwealth is quiet tonight.

It’s not silent, by any stretch: Evie can hear the hounds in the distance, their mutated throats sending their boofs echoing through the streets of Boston even from a long distance, and somewhere— a mile or more— the whoop of a raiding party rises over the station’s lookout, too far away to do anything but pity the poor prey they’ve caught. Dogmeat grunts, his paws pushing against her armored thigh as he stretches. His ears are perked, though, so he’s just catching some rest while he can. Even the thwomp-and-hiss of her partner’s power armor is missing from the darkness, the red light of his scope the only thing highlighting his face in their little bubble of quiet.

After the Glitter Fades -

“If there is a future to be had,” Fenris murmured, his lips hovering near Hawke’s, “I will walk into it gladly at your side.”

His gorgeous green eyes were fixed on hers and Hawke fumbled for a moment, a half-smile playing across her mouth as her fingers played with the crumbling stone behind her. Silly, but part of her almost wanted to believe him. With the smallest sound, Fenris leaned in, his gauntleted fingers sliding through her hair as he kissed her— it started out soft, a chaste brush of warm lips and warmer breath, but within a couple of heartbeats, it deepened into something that promised wildness and fire.

Glitter: Marginalia - (E)

She can’t remember what dragged her awake— only that it left a sour, desperate taste in her mouth like old coppers and the cheapest bottle of whatever would get her drunk enough to sleep.

Waking up with nightmares is nothing new. The Amell curse, as most of the Kirkwall film crews call it, has yet to hit Hawke directly, but it had taken her father (a stunt gone wrong) and her mother and uncle (an unlucky intruder)– had struck Carver, too. She and Garrett and Bethie are safe, so far, but it's only a matter of time until it circles back around. The curse is a generations-long predator, still and patient, and it will hunt them down one at a time if it has to

Ah, Kirkwall, she thinks, some blend of annoyance and fondness and adrenaline mixing uneasily in her heart. You fuck with us again and again and still, here we are.

He Might Like That -

“So. Let me get this straight.” Greef lifts his bad knee with a groan, settling it over his other leg so he can sprawl a little more indolently. Din’s HUD focuses in, shows the elevated temperature in the joint in a dark red, and he turns it off with a flicker of his eye. Greef lifts his glass again, takes a sip, and gestures with it before continuing. “You two. Not together?”

Where I Can’t Follow -

The day Geralt of Rivia dies, he hears the whistle of the sword which almost kills him. There’s a series of tiny holes stamped along the spine of the blade, keeping weight down and adding a sinister shrill hiss through the air on each pass. The raiding party - if it can be dignified with such language - are nearly all armed with similar steel, with hunting horns, rattling chime-spangled shields, and bullroarer slings wailing and droning like an oncoming swarm of giant wasps. The effect is deafening, overpowering all efforts to coordinate the various companies on this mission.

Malicious Compliance - (M)

So this is how it feels to have a galaxy tremble at your feet.

Not just the galaxy, though— millions of lives shuddering under the weight of your boot on their necks cannot compare to the half-lidded gray-blue eyes drinking you in like you’re his salvation and damnation both. No, there is power in this, in these stolen moments with him, that rivals nothing else you’ve found anywhere among the stars.

He’s a brave man, your Captain.

Counting the Days (since Exegol) -

“That’s good, Finn.”

Rey smiles, feeling the Force ebb and flow around Finn as he manages to lift himself a few inches off the ground-- along with the meditation mat, two glasses of water, and the plate of snacks they keep for anyone who comes to visit. Finn cracks an eye open, smiles back at her, and lands with a thump. For half a moment, she almost expects him to be disappointed that his training is progressing slowly: hyper-competency is a Stormtrooper trait he’ll never outgrow.

Star by Star -

The galaxy looks different now.

It’s not just the cautious celebrations still happening, weeks later. And it’s not just the way people step back from her now, too much reverence in them for her comfort. It’s in the way she looks at the sky and sees the color of Luke’s eyes, and the gentle wind that feels so much like Leia’s hand, she cries. The way that Poe’s back straightens at the podium, broadcasting Republic news to everyone, and Finn’s hand clutching his under the table, their life forces bright and right in her senses.

Stardust and Memory (and a little bit of romance) -

“Wow.”

Jaal chuckled against her ear, hands firmly on her waist; a good thing, probably, or she’d be on her face on the floor. “It is… a lot, I know.”

“No!” Sara protested, only wilting when Jaal tilted his head at her. “...okay, maybe a little. There’s just— a lot of them?”

Scars and Holes and Broken Things -

Whispers follow him wherever he goes.

What’s left of the crew whispers in the halls, the mess, on the bridge, and conversations trail off when his ghost walks through, haunting the only place that's ever felt like home. Whatever they’re saying doesn’t matter, though—he doesn’t care. He’s too tired to care. He hasn’t slept more than his body demands in weeks. Tali’s immune system has already begun to destroy itself, and even though the Normandy is stocked with more dextro rations than it’s ever carried before—

Almost like Shepard knew. Always prepared, that’s my girl.

Heart of the Woods - (E)

You left the Templars, but do you trust mages? Can you think of me as anything more?

Less than a fortnight of sweet words, gentle touches, and stolen kisses are the only weapons she could levy against the trauma that shaped a man’s youth. And for a moment in time, Isera hoped.

Common Ground (isn’t so hard to find) -

“Skkut! Ryder!”

“Sorry, Enroh— oh!” Sara tried to stop, bounced into a low bench, and crashed into a pile of bruised, groaning Pathfinder on the other side. At least this time, she remembered to shield her head as she skidded to rest against the wall. Lexi would be pleased. Another concussion would get her put back under the scanner and that just ruined everyone’s day. “...ow.”

A Language Reserved for Lovers - (M)

The first time you touch him, his skin flushes red; the first time he touches you back, he trembles. Interesting, since if there is a word to describe him, it is steadfast. But there is more beneath the easy surface, beneath the deadly grace and unflagging stamina. He is loyal, and good, and so fascinating under the burden of his name. But nineteen is a young age, even if you're only a little older, and he seemed so young at first, unsure and innocent— then he gave you that crooked little grin, and stole your heart with it.

Every Beautiful Thing -

I would prefer to be Mary Shelley. She died a widow.

Despite a foolhardy counter, thrown in indifference and pride, Edith never really thought she would be a widow. Despite her foolish quip so many years ago, she is no Mary Shelley. And despite moderate success as an author and teller of stories, the only thing she and Shelley have in common is a belief in a world outside of the everyday, and widowhood.

Yesterdays -

He’s always thought she was invincible.

Sure, Morrigan told them the truth of the Archdemon’s death, an account more grisly and heartbreaking than the one Riordan gave; just the sort of tale that might ensnare a young boy’s heart, give him delusions of grandeur, while an older man might look upon it with resignation. But the truth doesn’t sink in until now.

If You Ever did Believe -

“There are people dying,” Isera repeated slowly, as if she could make her advisers understand what she'd seen. As if giving her memories voice might lift some of their weight in her heart. “We couldn’t even get to Redcliffe because of the fighting.”

Three days of being stuck on a horse, only to have to turn around after three skirmishes— their first mission to the Hinterlands had been a remarkable experiment in failure. Isera had learned her skills at the hands of the best of her clan, had fought alone for years, and yet the shock of tripping over Varric and accidentally hitting Cassandra with a ball of ice had made their first fight a near loss.

Some saviors, Varric had laughed afterward, staggering around like baby nugs.

Glitter: Velvet over Veridium -

If anyone had ever accused Marian Hawke of being a reasonable adult human being, she might have laughed at them. No, she'd have pointed and then laughed at them. But under all her bluster, and all her immature jokes, her dirty one-liners and cheesy pick-up lines, there was an adult hidden in there somewhere.

Okay, maybe I put more than one opening line, but I have a thing for context, dammit!

This got so long -- mobile users, I’m sorry omg.

Forwarding the tag (no pressure as always!) to @mayihavethisdanse @athreehundredthirtythree @thebisexualmandalorian @natsora @loquaciousquark @valdomarx @theggning @cullywullycurlywurly @systlin and @third-rail-vip

#dragon age #mass effect #star wars #cullavellan #fenhawke #fallout 4 #the witcher #shakarios #danse x sole survivor #geraskier #lavellan x fairbanks #ZevWarden #wardistair #rydaal #long post #my fic #i did the thing #do the thing

22 notes · View notes

leossmoonn · 4 years ago

Text

Tongue Tied [Peter Parker]

masterlist

pairing - Peter Parker x fem!reader

type - fluff, lil angst

note - hey, guys! this is my first peter parker imagine. enjoy! also i know this sucks lol i promise ill have another peter one out to reedem myself.

summary - peter is in love with you and struggles to ask you out.

warnings - harrassment. i just wanted to put it as a warning in case.

P.S. also im gonna use random names for the sake of the story. itll make sense when you read lol

————

*gif isnt mine*

Peter stared in awe as you solved the problem at the board.

“She’s so smart,” he muttered.

“And you are so whipped, bro,” his friend, MJ, laughed.

Peter glared at her, his cheeks burning a bright red. “I am not.”

“You kinda are,” his other friend, Ned, said.

Peter ignored them and kept staring at you. You turned back from the board, putting the cap on to your expo marker.

“Thank you, Miss L/n. Take notes, guys. This type of problem will be on your final exam,” the teacher said.

You smiled and went back to your seat, which happened to be next to Peter.

“Hey, Y-y/n,” he said. You turned to him, your eyes locking with his.

“Hey, Pete,” you smiled.

He stared at you again. He couldn’t help it. He was just so in love with you. He didn’t know if it was the way you giggled after he told a joke, the fact that you’re popular, but you still became friends with him and his friends, or that you always knew the answer to each question in class. You were just this amazing, beautiful, intelligent girl to him.

“Hey, Pete, you’re drooling again,” MJ nugded his shoulder.

You chuckled as Peter apologized, obviously embarrassed.

“It’s okay. So, what’s up?” You asked.

“I just wanted to, uh, say good job on solving that problem,” he said.

You smiled, “Thank you. I’ve been studying like crazy.”

“You don’t need to study. You’re the smartest girl I know,” Peter smiled.

“Thank you, Peter. But I think MJ is the smartest one here,” you said. MJ scoffed and shook her head.

“For once, I’m going to have to agree with Parker,” MJ said.

You widened your eyes. You were genuinely surpised. You thought MJ was the smartest girl you’ve ever met.

“Thanks, MJ,” you smiled.

“No problem, Y/n,” she smiled back.

The bell rang, signaling class was over and it wss time for lunch.

“See you guys later,” you waved and left for the cafeteria to see some other friends.

“You gonna ask her out soon?” Ned asked.

Peter scoffed while putting his binders into his backpack. “Who said I was gonna ask her out?”

“No one, we just assumed you were,” MJ shrugged.

“Well, no. She doesn’t like me like that, anyways. Plus, doesn’t she have a thing with Flash?” Peter asked.

“No, I think she has a thing with Aaron Foster, though,” MJ smirked.

Peter groaned. Aaron Foster was one of the football players at Midtown. He knew he could never compete with that, even if he was Spider-Man. But you didn’t know that, therefore, the Peter you knew didn’t have a chance with you.

“Hey, but I think she likes you!” Ned tried to reassure his friend.

“How do you know?”

“Well, she always laughs at your jokes and she chose to become friends with you instead of just staying with her other friends,” Ned explained.

“That proves nothing. You can tell a girl likes someone by their body langauge. They’ll look you in the eye, lick their lips, lean in when talking to you, and put their hand on your arm,” MJ said.

Peter and Ned looked at MJ, shocked.

“What? I’m your friend and a girl. I know you like Y/n a lot and I can tell she’s a good person, so I don’t mind helping,” MJ shrugged.

“Wow, thanks,” Peter chuckled.

“No problem.”

“Well, Y/n does engage eye contact with you. She also leans in a lot,” Ned said.

“Yeah?” Peter smiled, hopeful. MJ and Ned nodded truthfully.

Peter kept smiling all the way to the cafeteria before he saw you with your group of friends. Aaron was also there, too.

You were talking to one of your friends, Maci, about your plans this weekend. Aaron put his arm around you, pulling you closer. You cringed and moved away.

Contrary to popular belief, you actually didn’t like Aaron. You two happened to go on a few dates, but he had the personality of a wall. He didn’t spark any interest for you at all, but you wanted to be nice and said yes to the dates. Ever since, he’s been acting like he owns you. You hated that and were planning to talk to him about it soon. You didn’t want to be treated like an object, you wanted to be treated like a human being. Perhaps Peter Parner could do that for you.

Yes, you did like Peter Parker. No one really knew but you. You had liked him from the first time you saw him. You liked him even more when he helped you in your engineering class. He gave you advice on how to make energy with a potato, and you thought he was so cute and so sweet. He was always there to help you and always up to hang out.

You couldn’t help but have a crush on him. However, you thought he didn’t like you. You thought he liked MJ.

While talking to Maci, you noticed Peter staring at you. You smiled and waved, making him blush and wave back shyly. You chuckled to yourself. He was adorable.

“Hey, is that Parker kid bothering you?” Aaron asked.

“No, Aaron. He’s my friend,” you rolled your eyes.

“I’ll beat him up if he think he can look at my girl,” he growled.

“Aaron, can I talk to you for a second?” You said.

He nodded and you stood up from the lunch table, leading him to an empty hallway. You rested against the lockers, ready to tell Aaron he needed to back off when he kissed you. You put your hands on his chest and pushed him back with all your force.

He stumbled back, frowning.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

“One, I am not your baby. Two, we aren’t dating and I don’t want to. I like someone else,” you said.

Aaron looked at you, confused. “What?”

“Sorry, Aaron. I had fun on the dates. But this just won’t work out. Find a girl who likes you, okay?” You smiled kindly.

Aaron just nodded, obviously not used to girls turning him down. You sighed and went back the cafeteria. You sat back down and finished your food. You got up to throw your trash and put your tray away when Peter came up to you.

“Hey, you okay? I saw you walk off with Aaron,” Peter said.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks, Pete. I’m gonna throw away my trash,” you said.

“No!” He exclaimed. You raised your brows, confused.

“Let me do that for you,” he smiled and took the tray out from your hands. “Stay here,” he added.

You laughed and nodded, sitting back down. Peter came back shortly, holding something behind his back.

“Can we go somewhere to talk?” He asked.

You nodded and followed him outside the cafeteria.

“I wanted to ask you a question, even though I know you are dating Aaron,” he started, but you interrupted.

“I’m not dating Aaron.”

“What?” Peter asked. “Yeah, we went on a few dates, but he has no personality,” you shrugged. “Plus, I like someone else.”

“Oh,” his face fell.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” You tilted your head. You locked eyes with him, making him nervous.

“I.. I um... I wanted to ask you something,” he started again. You nodded.

“Since you’re not dating anyone I-I was wondering if uh... well...”

You smiled. He looked so cute while stuttering.

“I was wondering if you would wannagoonadatewithme?” He blurted.

Your eyes widened. “What?” You asked. You wanted to make sure you heard him correctly before answering.

“I was wondering if you’d, uh, go on a d...date with m-me?” He asked again.

You giggled and nodded your head. “Yes.”

Peter grinned from ear-to-ear. “Really?”

“Yes! I’ve liked you ever since I’ve met you,” you confessed.

“Wow, me, too,” he smiled.

“Awesome,” you laughed. “So, when’re you picking me up?”

“For what?”

“For the date, silly,” you said, poking his arm.

“Oh, yeah! Right,” he blushed. “Tonight, at 6?”

“Deal. See you tonight, Peter,” you said and leaned in to kiss his cheek. You pulled away and started to walk away, turning your head back to him to wink.

Ned and MJ came out from a corned, jumping up and down and screaming.

“Parker got the girl!” MJ exclaimed.

“Yeah, I did,” Peter smiled. He couldn’t wait for your date.

————

Like / Reblog !

taglist form

198 notes · View notes

sweetsmellosuccess · 4 years ago

Text

The Best Films of 2020

The 15 Best Films of 2020

Normally, when I assess a full year of cinematic offerings, I consider both sides of that coin — the outstanding entities, and the least successful — but the year of our lord two thousand and twenty provided more than enough misery for all of us, I do believe. Ergo, in my own small way to bring better vibes into the universe, for this year’s round-up, I’m staying solely on the positive tip, highlighting those films whose unfortunate release date during the Year of the Hex shouldn’t preclude them for being fully appreciated. Let’s take a year off from negativity and schadenfreude, shall we, and just stroll amongst the poppies and bright sunshine of some of the best releases of the year.

15. The Invisible Man

“Leigh Whannell’s film is thoroughly modern in approach and sophistication, but the film it most reminded me of was made back in 1944. George Cukor’s Gaslight starred Charles Boyer as a loathsome husband who attempts to convince his already anxious wife (Ingrid Bergman) that she’s going insane by secretly rearranging things in their house and taking things from her so she thinks she’s always misplacing them. He preys on her emotional vulnerability in order to mask his own pathology and emotional detachment. The effect is absolutely enraging: Onscreen, he’s one of the more hateful villains ever committed to celluloid.”

Full Review

14. The Killing of Two Lovers

“From the opening sequence, with a distraught, estranged husband standing over the bed of his wife and her new boyfriend with malice in his heart, and a gun in hand, the film spirals out into incredibly well structured compositions, taking us inside and outside of David’s recurring psychosis, utilizing a bevy of techniques: The framing shrinks down around him, the sound gets muffled, as if underwater, save for the incredibly unnerving metallic sound of cables being stretched taut, and the sickening kathunk of a heavy car door slamming shut.”

Capsule Review

13. Another Round

“Typically, Vinterberg avoids simple conclusions — and God help us all if this film gets picked up by a U.S. studio and remade with, say, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Rock — providing more or less equal examples of the delirious fun drinking with your friends can be (the film opens with a group of high schoolers gleefully doing “lake races” whereby teams compete to drink a case of beer while running around the nearby body of water; and closes with the same teen crew, and some of their teachers, whooping it up in celebrating their graduation); and the horrorshow it can become (one teacher ends up peeing the bed, and on his wife in the process, another wakes up bloodied and out of it in front of his neighbor’s house), leading to very real and horrible consequences.”

Capsule Review

12. Soul

“Co-director Pete Docter is the creative force behind many of Pixar's best titles, having a hand in the Toy Story franchise, WALL-E, Up, and also directing Inside Out, a brilliantly moving treatise on the subject of emotional upheaval. This film, which he co-wrote and made along with fellow co-director Kemp Powers, is his first film back at the helm since that high-water mark, and he has again dug into the fertile earth of our mortality and come back with a particularly vibrant crop.”

Full Review

11. The Burnt Orange Heresy

“Based on the novel by Charles Willeford, the film briskly moves through its paces, clouding the waters with the schemes of duplicitous men, who have sold out any love of art for their greater obsession of cash and prestige. A literary thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley, it’s become a genre all too rare in the era of blockbuster bravado. This film will remind you what a mistake that is.”

Full Review

10. Lovers Rock

“In the course of the party, the fuses blow while the house DJ is spinning Janet Kay's "Silly Games," a fan favorite at the time. Undaunted, the guests continue dancing away, singing the lyrics a capella in delirious unison, as McQueen's camera swirls around the living room as if nothing happened. Such a heartfelt moment of unbridled togetherness, putting into distinct bas relief the sense of community we've been denied as a species in 2020, feels like a benediction, an epitaph for the year, and a salve for what we've all been so desperately missing.”

Capsule Review

9. Time

“Ostensibly, it’s about the strain of incarceration on even the most grounded of families (an experience naturally disproportionate for POCs); but, on a deeper level, it’s also about the manner of our use of the limited number of revolutions we get to enjoy situated on this earth. It is a profound knock-out.”

Full Review

8. New Order

“Meet the new boss, only in Michel Franco’s damning portrait of a society locked forever in cycles of oppression, revolution, and new oppression, it makes no difference who you are, what your belief system is, or whether or not you subscribe to a moral set of ethics.”

Capsule Review

7. Dick Johnson is Dead

“Utilizing stunt people and special effects, Johnson kills her father off a number of different gruesome ways, as a means of softening the blow of actually losing him as his mind slowly slips away. This eventually culminates in a final gambit, both acutely painful and deeply moving, in which our sense of things gets seriously upended. As Johnson put it during the post-screening Q&A, the film serves as a “doomed experiment trying to keep my father alive forever.” This film won’t make him immortal, alas, but it does make him indelible.”

Capsule Review

6. Martin Eden

“Marcello packs the film with offbeat bits and pieces of other films, including strips of what appear to be vintage home movies, sometimes in juxtaposition to what Martin is feeling — a group of kids swinging wildly from the bar of a fence, to a full galley ship taking in water and suddenly sinking like an iron ingot – which adds a more winsome, timeless element to the narrative. It’s clearly set in the past, but avoids being too dependent on that particular sense of place and time. Martin is a young man, at first, just coming into himself, and the actions he takes, what he goes through, the film seems to suggest, would be similar in any age.”

Full Review

5. Minari

“The film is certainly charming, but that’s not to diminish its straightforward approach to its characters’ plight. It doesn’t shy away from their difficulties, and as a result, it doesn’t cheat towards smarmy emotional closure.”

Capsule Review

4. Collective

“The breath of hope in the film, when the inept Minister of Health resigns, leading to the placing of a new, emboldened director who works quickly to clean the quagmire left by his predecessors, is just as quickly expelled after the next round of elections, in which the Social Democrat party — the very ones in charge of this catastrophe in the first place — gets re-elected with an even greater majority than what they had before. A perfect reflection of what happens when a government is allowed to exist without any meaningful oversight, other than from a bedraggled press and a disenchanted electorate.”

Full Review

3. First Cow

“Reichardt, a naturalist at heart, is not known much as a humorist, but there is a lightness to her screenplay -- co-written by Jonathan Raymond, her frequent collaborator, who wrote the original novel upon which its based -- that keeps it as sweetly airy as one of Cookie's fried confections. The two friends are so out of step with their surroundings -- the party of men Cookie initially travels with are little more than brutish thugs, and the fort upon which they end up is no better -- they almost had to find each other. They are reunited in the local bar of the fort only because literally every other patron runs out to egg on a brawl between two loutish combatants.”

Full Review

2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

“Hittman’s eye for detail and emotional complexity — her characters can rarely articulate anything they’re experiencing — is incredibly acute, and she pulls tremendously understated performances out of her two leads.”

Capsule Review

1. Nomadland

“Perhaps no American director since Terrance Malick has made more of the collapsing light of dusk and twilight than Chloe Zhao. Much of her new film, which stars Frances McDormand as a transigent woman (“not homeless, houseless”), who traverses back and forth across the west in her beat up live-in van, doing seasonal work, takes place in that particular kind of vibrant half-darkness that shrouds the desert and its mountains with a magic kind of mystery.”

Capsule Review

Other Worthy Mentions: 7500; Assassins; Bacurau; Beanpole; Beginning; Black Bear; Bloody Nose Empty Pockets; Boys State; Come Play; Emma; Gunda; His House; Horse Girl; I Am Greta; Jacinta; La Llorona; Let Him Go; Limbo; Mangrove; Mayor; MLK/FBI; One Night in Miami…; Palm Springs; Possessor Uncut; Red, White & Blue; Relic; She Dies Tomorrow; Shirley; Shithouse; Shiva Baby; Some Kind of Heaven; Spring Blossom; Swallow; Tenet; The Dissident; The Invisible Man; The Nest; Sound of Metal; The Vast of Night; The Viewing Booth; The Way I See It; Vitalina Varella; Welcome to Chechnya

Inexplicably Underrated: 7500; Shithouse

Biggest Welcome Surprise(s): The Vast of Night; His House; She Dies Tomorrow

The Best Two Films I Saw This Year, Period: Satantango (1994); Harlan County, USA (1976)

33 notes · View notes

toovirgins · 3 years ago

Text

Le Rêve - Part 8

Summary: A desperate Paul tries to make things right.

Part 8/8. A big thank you to those of you that have followed along, and I hope you enjoy the ending! :)

With the dreary weather came added traffic, and despite the monetary incentive, the cab ride took a little over an hour and a half.

Paul grumbled a less-than-polite “Thank you” as he pushed his way out of the car and back into the rain, which had slowed to a bearable drizzle now. He waited a moment for the cab to drive off, feeling oddly insecure about his destination. The car disappeared around the bend, and before he could get around to feeling silly about the gesture, Paul leaned over and carefully plucked a handful of flowers from the neighbors’ rosebush. Cautious not to nick himself on the thorns, he arranged them in a disheveled bouquet and took a deep breath.

The thick trees loomed over him as he quickly checked both ways and crossed the street. The long and winding walkway seemed to stretch out for miles in front of him, growing farther away each time he blinked the droplets out of his eyelashes. Never had the walk up the drive seemed so insurmountable.

When Paul finally reached the front door, he noticed his hands were shaking. His pulse picked up as he knocked sharply, and he stepped back to wait.

And wait.

Paul felt tears of frustration burn against his lower eyelids. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected—he hadn’t called (reasoning being he didn’t think John would have picked up), and who was he to assume that John had simply gone home after what had just happened? Who was he to assume anything?

“Fuck,” Paul murmured aloud, wiping his nose on his sleeve and turning to go. “This is ridiculous.”

He managed to take one step before the sound of a latch rattled through the air, and the door creaked open.

“Paul?”

Paul spun around instantly, whipping the bouquet around his back. “Hm?”

Cynthia eyed the strange angle of Paul’s elbow as she mindlessly dried her hands on a dish rag. She took a cautious half-step out the door eyes flicking around the porch, presumably surveying to see if anyone else had accompanied him.

“It’s bloody miserable out here,” she noted, dropping the air of perplexity in an instant, though her eyes kept trailing to the bend of his arm that hid the flowers. “Come on, let’s get you inside. I was just making supper.”

Shaken out of his daze, Paul adopted a charming, gracious persona and ushered her back inside with an “after you” wave of a hand. Cynthia spun on her heel, throwing the towel over her shoulder and disappearing into the house. Paul followed not far behind, careful to drop the roses into the bushes before ducking under the doorway.

“John’s around here somewhere,” she called over her shoulder as Paul removed his shoes and coat. “Are you two writing together tonight? He’s been in a sour mood ever since he got back from the studio today. I figured he’d cancelled anything.”

Paul felt a massive wave of guilt wash over him. The picture of John’s face, just before he’d run out, burned behind his eyelids: the mixture of fear and shame and disappointment and hurt. Paul had spent the first hour and a half alone in the studio trying to push the image from his mind.

Cynthia blinked at him patiently, and he realized that she was waiting for an answer.

Paul cleared his throat unceremoniously, neither party acknowledging that he hadn’t brought anything besides himself. “Erm, yes. Writing. Maybe he’s forgotten.”

“I wish he’d tell me these things,” she muttered, half to herself, turning back towards the direction of the kitchen. “Be nice to be a bit prepared for guests.”

Paul shot her what he hoped was a convincing smile. “Cyn, am I really a guest to you, after all these years? Besides, ‘m not hungry anyway, thanks.”

She gave him a playful grin over her shoulder in return. “Right. I’d still like to be a good hostess, even if it’s just for family.”

The way she said “family” turned Paul’s stomach inside out. He felt a sudden chill settle over his body, sending a shudder down his spine. The innocent, welcoming, familial smile on Cynthia’s face no longer seemed any of those things, but instead made him want to curl into a ball, or take off running and never look back. It seemed to hit him all at once—Cynthia, Julian, John. A husband and a father. And his best mate. What had he come to accomplish? What did he think was going to happen? Paul suddenly felt nauseous, and the memory of John’s breathy curses as Paul pulled him to the brink of orgasm flashed through his mind.

Shit. What was he doing here?

“Y’know, actually,” Paul started, taking a step back and stumbling over a stray toy that only made him feel worse. “He’s probably in no state to write, if he’s all worked up, so I should really get going, sorry to bother—”

“What are you doing here?”

Paul and Cynthia both froze, neither hearing the man enter the room, but neither missing the bitterness of his voice, either.

John stood a step or two behind Cynthia, almost protectively, peering over her shoulder at Paul with a frostiness he’d only seen in recent arguments. Paul only stared back helplessly, wordlessly, everything that he wanted to say rendered unspeakable in the presence of the third party.

The three of them stood in that arrangement for a solid minute, no one daring to speak. Paul watched Cynthia shift uncomfortably at the tension, witnessing something she was clearly not privy to. To Paul’s relief (or dismay?), she quickly muttered something about checking on the food and excused herself from the hostility.

“We need to talk,” Paul said quietly, as soon as she was out of earshot.

John’s gaze followed his wife’s path out of the entryway. His eyes flicked back to Paul’s, angry, hesitant. Paul held his breath as he waited for the man to explode, exposing himself and his partner and all of the fucked up mess they’d gotten themselves in.

Instead, John sighed defeatedly. “Fine. Let’s go for a walk.”

—

Paul wracked his brain for something to say.

The ground moulded softly to their feet, sticks and leaves dampened by the earlier downpour and less than vocal. There was an eerie echo in the air, the kind of atmosphere that only exists after a heavy rain, when one is made aware of just how earthly the world is. The sounds were naught, the wind was still, the smell fragrant and sharp. Typically a pleasure, the serenity of the environment only seemed to mock the tension between them.

He knew he needed to be the first to talk. In the context of everything that had happened, Paul figured he had needed to be the first to talk a lot. He knew that John was expecting, even if he wasn’t sure of what to expect, and Paul needed to deliver. Something, at least.

But where to start? Because, “Hey, mate, sorry for not saying I love you back,” felt like a pretty shit place to start.

After two more minutes of walking in silence, Paul started to wonder if a place to start was as good as anything.

He cleared his throat, sensing John tense beside him at the sudden sound. Neither lifted their eyes. Now that he had John’s attention, it was now or never.

“I—erm. I’m sorry. For not saying it.”

John shook his head, but the way his features softened in amusement didn’t go unnoticed by Paul, who suddenly felt like crying with relief. Especially at the next remark. “Shit place to start, mate.”

“Figured why beat around the bush, right? Straight to the point, it is,” Paul joked, unable to suppress his giddiness at the tease of normalcy.

“Trying new things, are we?” John quipped, an edge to his voice.

Ah, the tease of normalcy. Exactly as it sounded.

“John, I—”

“Why?” John interrupted, halting suddenly. He turned towards Paul, his eyes dull with smoldering anger. Residual anger accumulated and compressed into the coals that were confronting him now. Paul felt dumbfounded, and a bit fearful.

“I-Why what?”

John gestured helplessly around them. His voice sounded extremely tired. “Why this? All of it?”

Paul heard the question for what it was. Why me?

“I love you.”

“Bullshit.”

“No,” Paul insisted, taking a step forward. They froze, neither knowing what he would do next. John’s eyes were wide, almost as if his fight or flight instinct was scrutinizing Paul’s every move. After a beat of silence, Paul scoffed and stepped backwards once more. “I mean it.”

“Why didn’t you say it?” John sounded pouty, like a child. Insulted.

“Because!” The word came out much stronger than Paul intended, shocking even himself. He took a shaky breath and raised a hand to his mouth to nibble on his thumbnail as he sorted it out. He began to pace, John’s eyes following him back and forth expectantly. He tried again.

“Because, I don’t know what to do with that feeling. I don’t know how to feel about you. I never have. Even from the moment I saw you, and you looked so fit with the guitar and the quiff and the way you were singing ‘Come Go With Me’ directly to me. And you weren’t, but it felt like it. And I’d never been so nervous in my entire life than when I talked to you after. Because you were John, the lad I’d seen on the bus and at the shop and on the streets, the lad I’d heard about but never actually met. And when I did meet you? It was like everything had fallen into place. Me mum, me dad, school, a career, war; all the things in life that were a drag to me weren’t even there anymore. Because I was in a band with the great John Lennon!

“And I came to hate anyone that had you more than I did. I can’t get on with people because of it—Pete Shotton never shut his gob about all your wild misadventures together, and I’d want to punch a bloody hole in the wall when I would see your eyes on Stu during ‘Love Me Tender’. And I feel so fuckin’ bad to this day for the way I treated Geo when he showed us his first song, but I couldn’t have someone else to compete with for you. I couldn’t. Because I need to be around you, John. I need to be yours as much as you are mine.

“And it’s only grown in all the years. At first, I needed you to like me. Then, I needed you to be proud of me. Then I needed you to trust me, as your equal, and come to me for things and with things. And for us to have the silent little conversations, and to be in tune with one another, and to know you better than I know myself and be known by you. And I still need all of those things, but there’s a new element. Now there’s the want.And maybe it started with some stupid fuckin’ dream but my feelings didn’t stay there. And it took a lot of reflection, to put these feelings into perspective. I've had a lot of time to think, recently. But now I recognize them for what they are. And I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, John. No one ever tells you that when you really love someone, there’s a lot more to it than just love. Or maybe all that is love. But if-if this, between us? If it’s not love, then-then I’m not sure what is.”

There was a long beat of silence. John gazed up at him with an unreadable expression.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

Paul wrung his hands out in front of him, only now noticing how badly they were shaking. His chest heaved as though he’d only just finished a marathon. Fuck, indeed. “Mm.”

“The roses were cute,” John remarked, after a moment. A teasing smile threatened to envelop his features.

Paul stopped in his tracks, feeling his mouth form a surprised “o” as his mind fought for an excuse. Whatever he expected John to say after all that, that was not it.

Finally, he settled on something just as suave and poetic as his earlier monologue: “Huh?”

“Saw ‘em through the window,” he answered dismissively. “Bit queer. But, cute nonetheless.”

Paul blushed furiously, chastising the all-too-large part of himself that craved romanticism.

“I would’ve forgiven you, anyroad. Even without the roses,” John added quietly, his gaze dropping. He gave the ground a crooked smile. “Maybe not for a while, and maybe not all the way. But I can’t… help me self around you. I can’t explain it. And it’s absolutely awful, y’know. It’s been hard for me, too. Because I know that even if you just…” He paused, searching for the right word. “Used me, I’d still come back to you. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be right pissed for a while. It’d hurt like hell, but not as much as being away from you. Not as much as whatever has happened between us.”

The confession was painful. Paul felt a sharp twinge in his heart, almost as if it was the blade that he’d placed there himself. The idea that these past few weeks John had been moping around, ignoring him, reciprocating every effort to ensure that they were never alone, had been because John had thought he was being used. That Paul wanted him, but not in the same way that he wanted Paul.

He didn’t know what else to do.

John breath hitched as his back slammed into the stone wall, but his gasp was cut short as Paul’s lips devoured his own. His mind short-circuited, nothing more in the world existing at that moment than John, John, John. It’s over now, he wanted to comfort, to take John’s head in his hands and stroke the beautiful auburn hair behind his ears and thumb a stray tear from his cheek before placing a honey-sweet kiss on his trembling lips. You don’t have to feel that way anymore. And all he could do in the moment was try to convey that recognition through the kiss.

Fuck it if it would complicate things. Fuck it if they had to hide. Fuck it if it had to end someday. Because right now, all that mattered was John and Paul. As they were meant to be.

John hesitated only a millisecond before back fervently, almost as if he was afraid they would drift away from one another if he gave it any less effort. His tongue was elusive, licking into Paul’s mouth in all the right places but retreating as Paul chased it with his own. Their torsos were a mess of hands and body, pulling restlessly at one another every which way. Paul couldn’t get enough—he was too deliriously happy that they simply weren’t fighting anymore.

As the desperation began to subside, and the boys realized that they were both finally going to stay, the kisses gradually grew light and chaste. Paul felt lightheaded when they finally broke away for a deep breath. John gazed up at him, perfectly picturesque. His cheeks were flushed, lips pink and shiny, his breath coming out in short puffs between them in the shared air. Neither one of them dared speak, as they’d ruined far less important reunions than this with far too many words. The shared silence said more than words could, anyway. Neither had to explain the gravity of the situation to feel it.

Paul wasn’t sure when it had happened, but their fingers were laced together. Gently, as if trying not to spook a wild animal, he lowered them to the ground. Neither minded too much about the rain or the leaves or the damp dirt as they curled into one another, backs against the stone wall. They spent a long time listening to one another’s breathing as it slowed, watching rivulets of rainwater snake from leaf to leaf before pooling at their feet. Everything was okay.

“Paul?”

“Hm?” His fingers traced lazy circles on the soft underside of John’s forearm. His eyes were open, staring at a beading droplet, but they felt locked in a daze that was a cross between asleep and awake.

“Paul.”

Paul groaned at the insistency, a twinge of annoyance stirring in his chest at the interrupted bliss. “Yes?”

“What now?”

Paul blew a long stripe of air out of his lips. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I rather don’t want to consider it. The implications of it,” he rephrased quickly, panic welling up in his throat at the similarity of another “forget it” line. It threatened to bring a whole mess of neural connections that he simply didn’t want to deal with, namely: the awkwardness of the car ride and his resultantly strained relationship with Brian; the tensions in the group and an explanation for their soon-to-be-easing; the way George’s eyes slipped in between them more often than ever, but this time with an air of trauma; how the hell they were going to keep this to themselves if they were so god-awful at it already. Yes, better not to consider the implications yet.

John nodded in understanding. He waited a moment before speaking again.

“Cyn and I…”

As John trailed off, Paul’s eyes shot wide with alarm. His head whipped around to face John with a terror he hoped didn’t present as dramatic as it felt. No, no, no, why was he bringing her up? Why? When finally, finally everything was going well?

John refused to meet his gaze, and Paul waited patiently for the dreaded words of regret to come.

“We’re done for.”

Paul blinked uncomprehendingly.

“I mean,” John began, scratching the back of his neck. “Not officially, or anythin’. But I can see it. We’ve been cold for a while now, an’ it’s only a matter of time ‘fore she up and leaves me. We haven’t talked about it. But… I’ve been with her for ages, Paul. I know her at this point. There’s nothing left.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Paul asked quietly.

“Because you’re not just some bird, Paul!” John immediately flushed, realizing how silly the words sounded out loud, especially in the wake of their earlier conversation. He tried to backtrack, speaking slowly, explanatory. “I mean—I… Listen. I haven’t been the best to Cyn. There’s been loads of others, but it never meant anything. And you and I? I don’t know what this is.” He laughed, suddenly, as if the realization was just now striking. “Christ, do I not know. But it’s too good and too right. And I feel like I owe it to ya—to us—to cut the ties that may be stronger, even if it’s ties of a meaningless institution. I jus’—I dunno. I don’t want you thinking I keep you around for a good fuck and a song or two.”

Paul felt a wide grin spread across his features, and not only at the messy comment. He elected not the mention the way his stomach flipped upside down at the way John had said “us”. Instead, he chuckled lightly, and fished around in his pocket for a ciggie.

“And what a way with words he has. Ladies and gentleman, the better half of the world’s most famous songwriting duo!”

John scowled playfully. “Oh, piss off. How’s this for a rephrase: On account of our complicated and lustful affair of cosmic proportions, I would love it if you considered yourself an exquisite lady of the night proficient in excellent lovemaking and even more excellent intellectual stimulation and is paid with reciprocation rather than meaningless currency.”

Paul frowned around the fag as he focused on lighting it. “Worse. Much worse.”

John gave him a cheeky wink and flicked the end of his nose, causing Paul to gasp and drop the butt end of the cigarette onto his chest, leaving an angry black mark on the shirt. Paul jerked from the shock and swore. John only cackled at his misfortune.

Paul scowled at the loss of his fresh ciggie and the fading surprise of the burn mark. He hastily brushed at the ring, which he now realized was a minute but fizzling hole, and shot John an accusatory (but, regretfully, uncontrollably good-natured) glare. “You’re a child, Lennon.”

John grinned. “But you love me.”

Paul sighed, and for the first time in weeks, he felt utterly, blissfully, peacefully happy.

“Yes. I do.”

#the beatles #beatles fanfiction #john lennon #paul mccartney #cynthia lennon #mclennon #part 8 #chapter fic #ao3 #the end!

5 notes · View notes

papermoonloveslucy · 3 years ago

Text

LUCY SHUNS AUDITIONS

July 21, 1950

[In the below article, reprinted verbatim, Johnson writes using a lot of imagery and insider jargon. This sort of article was common in trade papers like Variety, but seems odd in a daily newspaper.]

Hollywood—(NEA) Lucille Ball slipped me the lowdown on her failure to pin to the canvas the dumb chick role in “Born Yesterday” and make it holler uncle. (1)

She’s got a touch of Francis the mule in her when it comes to auditions. (2)

Instead of scrimmaging for the role with Evelyn Keyes, Judy Holliday, Marie Wilson, Shelly Winters and Jan Sterling, (3) Lucille went bolting the other way.

The “let’s-see-if-you’re-it” boys pleaded and cajoled.

But Miss Anti-Auditions wasn’t having any of the competition, thank you.

“I figure if they want you, they want you,” Lucille plainspoke it. If you’ve got to read and test for it, to heck with it.’

She isn’t chronicled in Hollywood history, but once, badgered by her RKO bosses, Lucille went tripping over to David O. Selznick’s office for a whack at the Scarlett O’Hara role in “Gone With the Wind.”

That’s what curdled her in the first place.

“It was awful,’’ Lucille shudders. I was shaking all over when I hit Selznick’s office. My knees gave way. I did the whole audition in scrubwoman position. Selznick laughs and says thanks a lot. (4)

Judy Holliday landed the junkman’s doll role and Lucille grabbed a railroad ticket for a personal appearance tour with hubby Desi Arnaz. She strutted to Latin rhythms, swung a glittering purse in a manner dear to runaway girls and wisecracked for the customers. (5)

MIMICS OSCAR WINNER

At the last moment she nixed a dancing and singing routine. The star with the forest-fire hair shrugged:

“I decided it would be silly to compete with Grable.” (6)

A lot of movie queens laid in fresh supplies of smelling salts, ice beanies and copies of “Release From Nervous Tension” when word got around that Lucille was about to whoop it up on the six-a-day circuit. (7)

She’s a blister-raiser from way back and the air was shrill with ouches about a year ago when she whipped up an impression of an Academy Award winner.

But the girls can go back to worrying about other things—like shrinking from larger-than-life to television screen size.

Lucille didn’t let any “furriners” see the routine.

“It's for Hollywood only," she said. “I should take radio-active material on the road?”

Her Oscar-grabber routine is strictly for unreal anyhow, she says. and no blood relation to Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman or any other Screen Duse. (8) She insisted:

“She's any movie star, even me. This character has to go up on that stage and act surprised. She’s only been rehearsing what she's going say flor eight weeks. So she says, ‘Ye gads, me? But I’m so unprepared. Really, I didn’t dream...” Lucille is generally is as unflinching about the movie queen business as Pearl White was about onrushing trains. (9)

But her knees executed some wobbles that aren’t in Arthur Murray’s rhumba dance book when she checked into her first vaudeville dressing room. (10)

“Those stages—they’re so big.” she gasped. “Hey, I’d hate to get caught in the middle of one of those stages without bread and water.”

Lucille didn’t take any chances with out-of-town press interviews, either. “I once did a personal appearance tour with Maureen O'Hara and had to show up at a press party,” she grinned. (11)

My sinus - I just die from it - was acting up. The reporter next to me didn’t understand my puffed eyes and cold sores. He called Maureen a lady in his story. But he referred to me as a whisky tenor with red-runny eyes.”

Lucille’s brain cells work on direct current and she’s not one to make with the figure eights when a straight glide to home base would get her there quicker.

They still laugh about her exit line to Louis B. Mayer. (12) Mayer always referred to her as a thoroughbred and sometimes compared her to his famous horses. "Yes, and like your other nags, I'm leaving your stable," Lucille said when she decided to bow out of her contract.

She has high hopes for her new picture “The Fuller Brush Man.” Not that she enjoyed it: (13)

“Honey, this ones that I don t enjoy turn out be the best ones. This one put me in the hospital. My feet are still bandaged up. I’m a mess. No more physical-type pictures for me.”

# # # FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) The 1946 Broadway hit comedy Born Yesterday by Garsin Kanin was bought by Columbia Pictures. Things got complicated when its stage star, Judy Holliday, swore she would not do the film version. Columbia used this as fuel for publicity about who would win the role. Naturally, Lucille Ball was considered a top contender. As the article states, she was not eager, however, to prove her worth to the ‘let’s-see-if-you’re-it’ boys (aka producers). There was talk of Lucille performing the play in London, or summer stock, but her film contracts would not allow her time off for a stage run.

(2) Mules are supposedly notoriously stubborn animals - just like Lucy. Francis the Talking Mule was the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel Francis by David Stern III, adapting his own script for the first entry, simply titled Francis. On “I Love Lucy” Fred Mertz sometimes called Ethel “Francis” to indicate she was being stubborn about something.

(3) These were some of the Hollywood stars looking to play the part of Billie Dawn in the film Born Yesterday. Evelyn Keyes (1916 – 2008) was best known for playing Sue Ellen, Scarlett O’Hara’s kid sister, in Gone With The Wind (1939). Judy Holliday (1921-65), changed her mind about playing the role she originated on Broadway, but by then the casting net was cast, and she was just another performer on the short list. She eventually got the role, which defined her career. Marie Wilson (1916-72) was a zany comedic actress in the style of Gracie Burns. She was widely known as the star of radio and TV’s “My Friend Irma”. Shelley Winters (1920-2006) would be nominated for an Oscar the year after this article. She was adept at playing drama and comedy, and had a long-lasting career in Hollywood. She appeared on “Here’s Lucy” in 1968; Critics raved about her Jan Sterling’s portrayal of Billie Dawn in the Chicago touring company of Born Yesterday and Columbia brought her out to the West Coast to test for the film. At one point, she was actually announced to play the part but the role ultimately went to Holliday.

(4) Lucille Ball did indeed read (not screen test) for the role of Scarlet O’Hara, just like nearly all of the women in Hollywood in 1938. Ball told the story several times on television, each time with varying details, but probably most completely on “Bob Hope’s Unrehearsed Antics of The Stars” (1984).

(5) This is a vivid description of the “Cuban Pete / Sally Sweet” portion of Lucy and Desi’s nightclub act to convince sponsors to buy them as a couple.

(6) Betty Grable (1916-73) was considered one of the most famous pin-up girls in history. In addition to her million dollar gams (legs), she could sing, dance, and act, too. She guest starred with her then-husband Harry James on “Lucy Wins A Racehorse”, an installment of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” aired on February 3, 1958.

(7) “Release from Nervous Tension” was an actual best-selling book by Dr. David Harold Fink, published in 1950. Vaudeville and Burlesque shows were often known as the ‘six-a-day circuit’ because sometimes there would be as many as six performances of the same act in a day. Naturally, this did not apply to Lucy and Desi, who were big film and radio stars at the time.

(8) These were some of Hollywood’s top-line dramatic actors. Bette Davis (1908-89) had won two Oscars, and was nominated for several others during her long career. She was supposed to guest-star on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in “The Celebrity Next Door” in 1957 but dropped out after a horse-riding accident, leaving the role to Tallulah Bankhead; Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020) had also won two Oscars, the second the year this article was published. She was best remembered for playing Melanie Wilkes in Gone With The Wind (1939); Ingrid Bergman (1915-82) was a Swedish-born actress, who, by career’s end, had scored three Academy Awards. When Johnson talks about “any other screen Duse” he is referring to Eleonor Duse (1858-1924), an Italian-born stage actress known for her grand, dramatic style.

(9) Pearl White (1889-1938) was best known as the silent film actress who was tied to the railroad tracks in “The Perils of Pauline” (1914).

(10) Arthur Murray (1895-1991) was a ballroom dancer and businessman best known for the chain of dancing schools that bear his name. Murray was often a punchline on “I Love Lucy,” especially when the subject of dancing came up. The Rhumba was a Latin dance that took America by storm in the late 1940s and 1950. Desi Arnaz often called his orchestra a ‘rhumba band.’

(11) Maureen O’Hara (1920-2015) and Lucille Ball had starred in Dance, Girl, Dance in 1940. As a result, the two went on a promotional tour that took them to several US cities, including the nation’s capitol.

(12) Louis B. Meyer (1884-1957), along with Samuel Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, had formed a new motion picture company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1918. Over the next 25 years, MGM was "the Tiffany of the studios," producing more films and movie stars than any other studio in the world. Mayer became the highest-paid man in America, and one of the country's most successful horse breeders. Both he and MGM reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced out in 1951, just a year after this article was written.

(13) Erskine Johnson gets the title wrong. Lucille had madeThe Fuller Brush Girl, a sequel to The Fuller Brush Man (1948). The film was released in mid-September 1950.

#Lucille Ball #Erskine Johnson #Newspaper #Fuller Brush Girl #Born Yesterday #Judy Holliday #MGM #Louis B. Mayer #Pearl White #Olivia DeHavilland #Bette Davis #Ingrid Bergman #Release from Nervous Tension #Eleonor Duse #Betty Grable #Desi Arnaz #Gone With The Wind

3 notes · View notes

placetobenation · 4 years ago

Link

Holy WarGames Batman!

You can never say that you don’t get your money’s worth when it comes to a NXT:TakeOver PPV and WarGames was no exception!

Whether it be Io Shirai flying off the top of the cage with a garbage can over her head or Pat McAfee doing a swanton bomb from the heavens, this one was another classic from NXT. Plus, Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher put together one brutal war for themselves too. Johnny Gargano became the first 3-time North American Champion, uncovering his new Scream partner in Austin Theory. You know it’s a really good PPV when an above average strap match between Dexter Lumis and Cameron Grimes is probably the low man on the totem pole. Grimes continues to get better each and every week with his versatility and strange personality. He reminds me of a bigger Buzz Sawyer.

Injuries? Sure, got them too! Candice LeRae’s broken wrist and Gargano’s split mouth complete with stitches top the charts.

At the end of the day, Raquel Gonzalez gets elevated into the NXT Women’s Championship picture by pinning Shirai. The Undisputed Era remain kings of the WarGames cage. McAfee proves he’s one tough SOB too!

In the end, WarGames is your Star of the Week!

LET THE PARAMEDICS SORT EM OUT #WarGames #NXTTakeOver pic.twitter.com/XTCAwmXZVo

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 7, 2020

NXT: TakeOver WarGames

WarGames: The Undisputed Era defeated The Kings of NXT

WarGames: Candice LeRae, Toni Storm, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai defeated Ember Moon, Shotzi Blackheart, Rhea Ripley & Io Shirai

NXT North American Championship Triple Threat Match: Johnny Gargano defeated Damian Priest & Leon Ruff to win the title

Strap Match: Dexter Lumis defeated Cameron Grimes

Tommaso Ciampa defeated Dexter Lumis

RAW

RESULTS

RAW Women’s Non-Title Championship Match: Asuka defeated Shayna Baszler

Ricochet & Dana Brooke defeated SLAPJACK & RECKONING

Kofi Kingston defeated Shelton Benjamin

Cedric Alexander defeated Kofi Kingston

3-on-2 Handicap Match: AJ Styles, The Miz & John Morrison defeated Drew McIntyre & Sheamus

United State Non-Title Championship Match: Bobby Lashley defeated Jeff Hardy

Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton ends in no-contest

Some quick hits for RAW this week:

It’s only a matter of time before we get two-straps Asuka!

"Imagine: Jeff Hardy teams with Riddle, and we become The Hardy Bros!" — @SuperKingofBros #WWERaw @JEFFHARDYBRAND pic.twitter.com/DtSVNnzERB

— WWE (@WWE) December 8, 2020

The Hardy Bros? Hilarious! Riddle’s growing on me. His in-ring work is unquestioned. His antics outside it are becoming funnier each week.

The only RECKONING in RETRIBUTION should be taking the masks off and clearing them of the silly names. It’s Mia Yim. It’s Mia Yim. It’s Mia Yim already!

And like that, business is back in motion! @CedricAlexander picks up the win, and leaves #TheNewDay with a statement. #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/tCPwbwufIJ

— WWE (@WWE) December 8, 2020

Cedric Alexander is playing The Hurt Business perfectly. He’s a main event player and is proving it each and every week with back-to-back singles victories over The New Day. How long is it before he says I want a shot at Bobby Lashley’s US Title too?

Is it me or are we headed for a screwjob by The Miz and Morrison on AJ Styles in his upcoming WWE Championship match with Drew McIntyre? Just a gut feeling here.

Things have EXPLODED backstage between @DMcIntyreWWE & @WWESheamus on #WWERaw!!! … Or have they? pic.twitter.com/Kkvj1NBR6N

— WWE (@WWE) December 8, 2020

Having Drew McIntyre and Sheamus fight it out in the back after an inadvertent brogue kick to the WWE Champion led to a loss in the ring was beautiful. Fight each other. Beat up an unsuspecting bystander. Go get a pint.

Really missed Alexa Bliss this week. Sure, Bray Wyatt, it’s for her own safety. But it’s definitely not as much fun without Miss Bliss.

𝐻𝐸's here… #WWERaw #TheFiend @WWEBrayWyatt @RandyOrton pic.twitter.com/phjY9qI9Du

— WWE (@WWE) December 8, 2020

Didn’t love the no-contest ending with Wyatt and Randy Orton. We get it, The Fiend is different but the ending just fell flat for me.

NXT

RESULTS

Jake Atlas defeated Isaiah “Swerve” Scott

Triple Threat Match: Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Imperium & Ever-Rise

Tommaso Ciampa defeated Cameron Grimes

Pete Dunne defeated Killian Dain

Raquel Gonzalez defeated Ember Moon

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒇 #𝑾𝑾𝑬𝑵𝑿𝑻 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕.@WWEKarrionKross & @Lady_Scarlett13 are here! pic.twitter.com/bUpujMXGrI

— WWE (@WWE) December 10, 2020

It’s a week of returns for NXT. And that’s bad news (sorry Wade Barrett) for the men’s roster as Karrion Kross leads the list of returning superstars. I give credit to Damian Priest for stepping up to the challenge, but that’s a challenge with Kross and Scarlett that he’s going to lose. Kross and his NXT Championship that he gave up due to injury will meet again soon I’m sure.

Back too is Drake Maverick, Malcolm Bivens with Tyler Rust, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Austin Theory and the NXT Champion Finn Balor. It remains to be seen who will face Balor at New Year’s Evil on January 6th, but it seems everyone from Pete Dunne to Kross to Priest to a whole host of others are in the mix.

“The Way” in-ring promo just went on too long and was too forced I thought. Theory and Indie Hartwell just felt like 3rd and 4th wheels out there as they just can’t match LeRae and Gargano on the mic.

Sunday, she pins #WWENXT #WomensChampion @shirai_io to win #WarGames for her team. Wednesday, she defeats @WWEEmberMoon in the main event on @WWENXT.@RaquelWWE is UNSTOPPABLE! pic.twitter.com/LBZpJhXPD4

— WWE (@WWE) December 10, 2020

Raquel Gonzalez looks the part of a big-time player and is finding her way into the spotlight. Funny that just one year ago, we were saying the same things about Rhea Ripley and then the pandemic hit. I’m not sure if Gonzalez is ready for the NXT Women’s Title just yet, but it would be intriguing to see her as champ and how LeRae would react to it.

"Toni, I don't have problem with you. I just don't like you." – #WWENXT #WomensChampion @shirai_io pic.twitter.com/cpP9DBL0nk

— WWE (@WWE) December 10, 2020

Anytime Toni Storm is near a ring, it’s a win for us. Whether it be taking on Io Shirai for the title or Ember Moon to continue their feud, I’m all in.

WHAT…did we just witness? 𝑷𝑨𝑰𝑵.#WWENXT pic.twitter.com/880LZBNuD0

— WWE (@WWE) December 10, 2020

Speaking of all in, holy *$#& Xia Li and Boa! I have NO CLUE where it’s going and I don’t care that I don’t know. I am absolutely loving it! Give me more! NOW!

Suddenly, the tag team division is very competive and we haven’t seen Breezango lately. Kudos to the Grizzled Young Veterans and Imperium for stepping it up a notch.

SMACKDOWN

RESULTS

Dolph Ziggler defeated Montez Ford

Non-title Intercontinental Championship Match: Sami Zayn defeated Big E by countout

Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott defeated Billie Kay & Natalya

Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Chad Gable & Otis

SmackDown Championship Match: Carmella defeated Sasha Banks by DQ

It's official. It's @CarmellaWWE vs. @SashaBanksWWE for the SmackDown Women's Championship TONIGHT on FOX! pic.twitter.com/k9mp3SuP8C

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 12, 2020

Loved that the contract signing between Sasha Banks and Carmella to open the show DIDN’T take place in the ring. Something a little different was a bit refreshing having Carmella backstage. Plus, we get a main event title match out of it too! Poor Sommelier!

No surprise that we’re getting a tag team title defense for The Street Profits against Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode after Ziggler pinned Montez Ford Friday night. Good match to advance the feud and set up the title match coming up this Friday night.

Hated the countout victory by Sami Zayn over Big E in a non-title Intercontinental Championship Match. It did nothing for either guy. I like Zayn but here’s hoping this is the start of something big for Big E, pun intended. If you’re going to break him away from The New Day, there has to be a point. First, the I-C Title? Then, maybe a challenge for the Universal Championship down the road too?

.@BiancaBelairWWE brought the *literal* receipts! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/SKtCTajPkK

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 12, 2020

Check the receipts! LOL! Well played Bianca Belair!

An ode to #WWETLC by @FightOwensFight pic.twitter.com/hsAGYn2Lae

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 12, 2020

"Kids, If you don't talk some sense into daddy, I am going to be the guy that takes the food off the table." – @WWERomanReigns to @FightOwensFight's family.#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/jHK6MM2LEm

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 12, 2020

Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns is going to be one insane TLC match. Owens promo was one of his best. Surrounded by his “friends” chair, table and ladder, KO hit hard on his family and just how good Reigns is but that he still vows to get back his Universal Championship. Reigns is so good, just being backstage looking so smug while Jey Uso attacks Owens is priceless. Having Paul Heyman remind him that everything is done on his time instead of running into the ring to fight KO reminds us that less is more. Then, it all turns personal when Reigns finds Owens in the back, beats him down and reminds the Owens family that he’s the one that puts food on the table and that he could take it off theirs. Delicious and well placed right in the middle of the show while the ladies take the main event.

Natalya & Billie Kay. What a waste! We will, though, take a Riott Squad victory anytime we can get it.

Chad Gable is sounding more and more like Kurt Angle and I dig it! I’m hoping Otis is not the only one to join Gable’s training group. Not a bad first pairing either, even in defeat to Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura.

𝒰 𝒩 𝒯 𝒪 𝒰 𝒞 𝐻 𝒜 𝐵 𝐿 𝐸 #SmackDown @CarmellaWWE pic.twitter.com/IKLtCXFLOJ

— WWE (@WWE) December 12, 2020

Carmella’s entrance – absolute smoke show! WOW! The trash talk during the match brought back a little old school feel to it. Carmella was pretty good before but she’s taking it to another level with this latest reincarnation. That was a really good match before the DQ ending. The WWE is relying too much on the DQ finish these days. The aftermath of the match – OMG! Smashing bottles over Banks while sipping champagne – very heelish! Looks like we’ll get round 2 at TLC as scheduled.

#SmackDown @CarmellaWWE @SashaBanksWWE pic.twitter.com/CPDLEMUjgU

— WWE (@WWE) December 12, 2020

SmackDown hands down with the best show of the week!

Parting shots:

Having the WWE ThunderDome travel from Orlando to Tampa had little effect on SmackDown. Moving from the basketball arena to the spacious home of the Tampa Bay Rays, I thought the WWE would use some of that space to its advantage. There may be more screens, but maybe down the road we’ll see some additions but it’s first show in Tampa didn’t look a whole lot different than the last show in Orlando.

TLC PPV – Updated Card

WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles

Universal Championship TLC Match: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Sasha Banks vs. Carmella

The Fiend vs. Randy Orton

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka & Lana

RAW Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day vs. Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin

Coming up this week:

RAW: Firefly Fun House at WWE ThunderDome

NXT: KUSHIDA & Leon Ruff vs. Johnny Gargano & Austin Theory

SMACKDOWN (on FS1): SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Street Profits vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode Bianca Belair vs. Bayley

Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at [email protected]. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

1 note · View note

bustedbernie · 5 years ago

Note

I'm grateful for you on calling out Sanders and providing receipts. Bernie recently claimed that the "establishment forced" Pete and Amy to quit their campaigns. As someone whom happily volunteered for Pete, and knew some pretty decent folks on Amy's staff, I feel like they genuinely made hard calls in order to do the right thing. What do you think?

I think Amy and Pete were largely serious candidates. They put most of their resources into the first four contests (especially Iowa and NH, some in NV, they both ignored SC way too much though Pete was attempting to make inroads there). I think they emerged from South Carolina and saw what everyone else saw: A Biden Blowout. I think they thought long and hard about their path forward and realized that they did not have a very viable path. Going into South Carolina, Nate Silver had said that Warren, Buttigieg and Klobuchar COMBINED had a 3% chance of getting just a plurality at the convention. He argued it was a three-man race between Mike, Bernie and Joe. That came true.

I also don’t know what they think the “establishment” is, or if they’ve ever worked in campaigns or politics in general. It’s mostly passionate volunteers, and most of the employees are under-paid 20-somethings with ideals and old folks who have stuck out the ups and downs of the type of work they do. They are not coniving people. Amy in particular was still hiring for the March 10 contests when she withdrew.

If you know that you have no path forward, you know you don’t have a lot of money to keep contesting contests, and you see the division on the field, why would you stay in after South Carolina? Warren had an argument to staying in, and stayed in. And after that, left the race. This is just serious people doing serious work, and knowing that the stakes are very high. The fact is, they could’ve stayed in to convention if they wanted. Tulsi Gabbard is fuckin doing it. But if you are serious about it, then why would you? The “establishment” has no control. As for dropping and getting behind Joe? Like, what do you expect them to do? I think of Michael Moore’s stupid ass comments on it after Super Tuesday results poured in. And they boiled down to “all they had to do was stay in one more day, it would have cost them nothing.” It says all i have to think about their view of Bernie. He is too weak to win on his merits. They’re bitter. They know there’s no conspiracy, they know their candidate sucks, and they’re failing to take responsibility for their collective behavior, as well as the poor planning of the Sanders Campaign, which according to the New York Times had NO contingency plan in place for candidates dropping out before Super Tuesday. ALL of their plans were predicated on a divided moderate field on Super Tuesday. Warren affirmed so much in her comments to reporters after she left the race. We believed their were more lanes than two, particularly Warren supporters, but in fact, there are just two lanes. And the so-called “moderate lane” is just the larger of the two. Add in that the one progressive left is divisive and scares the more centrist aspects of our party, and of course they did shitty on ST.

Really, what I think is while Amy, Pete and Liz are all acknowledging they failed to appeal to black voters, they failed to make inroads with black voters, and that the status of the electorate wasn’t as they hoped and they planned for a different type of electorate than what existed, Bernie and his supporters/campaign are doing the opposite. They aren’t learning from their losses, they aren’t listening to Voter Concerns, and are playing a dangerous blame game. Let’s be clear, they NEED people to move over from these campaigns to have a chance. If they wanna have a chance now, Bernie gotta win the states left by an average of 14%. I think they’re seeing the writing on the wall and instead of being graceful like the above candidates plus Kamala and Beto who just couldn’t compete while paying their staff fairly, they’re lashing out.

So what I think in short is they’re being silly children and they are emotionally unintelligent dincuses that refuse to take accountability and are instead displacing their own failures onto others rather than do the more important hard work of digging deep, and also admitting that if they do wanna win, they will have to massively change the way their ship is ordered. Right now their ship is taking on water and instead of turning the pumps on, preparing lifeboats for bad eventualities, and shutting the water-tight doors, they’re sitting on the bridge blaming someone on another ship for a hole in their own ship, instead of trying to fix the situation while there is still time to do so.

13 notes · View notes

fly-pow-bye · 5 years ago

Text

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Sideline Dad”

Written by: Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Kyle Neswald, Jaydeep Hasrajani

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Yeah, it should have been left on the sidelines.

Our episode begins with Blossom's head in the cosmos, talking about how soccer is the epitome of the cosmic dance that is sports. That is a near-direct quote, as this scene tries to look and sound way more profound that it actually is.

Blossom: What makes soccer so great is its simplicity! One ball! Two teams! No hands!

Well, except for the goalie, but I can see what she was going with. If you're expecting this to be Blossom trying to convince Buttercup that soccer isn't lame, don't. Unlike other superhero-related reboots, they don't really take any pot-shots against soccer, not even from people who are in the wrong. Pretty surprisingly for an American cartoon. Since this is a "girl power" show, it might be due to how good the US women's soccer team is, though no obvious connection is made. Before Blossom can get even more philosophical, Buttercup tells her to kick the ball already!

The Powerpuff Girls are playing this soccer match with some of the other kids at Townsville Elementary against another team from Citysville, playing this entire game on foot. I always thought that this looked awkward with their designs, but at least there's a decent excuse: they are just trying to be fair by not using their superpowers when nobody else can use them.

Oh yeah, another team! Right off the bat, this sports episode does one thing right compared to another sports episode from this reboot: the other teams actually exist. It is not like Derby Dollies where the other teams that are not made up of evil robots were never shown. They even have names; here, the Townsville Turtles are competing against the Citysville Capybaras. Why are Townsville's team called the Turtles? Not to insult the mighty turtle, but I don't think they're referring to any kind of turtle that knows Ninjutsu. There's no indication that this team is terrible, and they really shouldn't be when they have three kids who have ultra-super-powers.

Well, maybe victory would not be that guaranteed, considering Bubbles likes to play tea parties with Octi in the middle of a game! Oh, that silly blonde and her complete ignorance of everything around her! Not that Blossom pondering about soccer's place in the world of sports is that much better, either. Once again, it looks like Buttercup is the most competent member of the trio, whether it be in crime-fighting or sports.

Bubbles does manage to get her head back in the game before any goal for the Citysville team could happen. She kicks the ball away so hard that, from her goalie position, she kicked it right into the other goalie's, causing the net to explode. So much for the "not using their superpowers" theory, but not that I'm complaining.

While everyone celebrates with their children in tow, including one of the Cabybaras for some reason, the Puffs fly up to their loving father figure to ask him if he saw them do so well. Unfortunately, their father figure was too busy reading a book. See, because he's not a jock, he's a man of science. This is going to be a Professor-focused episode, and it would be a good sign for this episode if I continued to call him that. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode will make that very hard for me.

The Professor also asks if it's time to go, and since it looked like everyone was leaving, I just assumed yes. I get that this is him not having any interest in the game to the point where he just wants to go, but all of this combined with the celebration scene leads to some confusion in the next scene.

That next scene is set at Penguin Pete's, where the Professor treats them to pizza. I thought Penguin Pete's was an ice cream shop, since penguins are normally associated with cold weather, but I guess they serve nice and hot pizza, too. Either that, or they just wanted to use backgrounds they already made. The Professor tries to act like he paid any attention to this important game, and the Puffs immediately see through their Sitcom Dad's attempts at that.

Sitcom Dad: Wow, you really showed them what for!

Blossom: We lost by three.

Maybe it wasn't the end of the game, because it looked like everyone on the Turtles were celebrating their big win at the end. It feels like a bit of a whiplash, but it is possible we're supposed to see this from Sitcom Dad's point of view. Buttercup decides to ask her clueless father figure that the hard-hitting question that she knows that he will not be able to answer: what was his favorite part of the game?

We cut to the insides of the Sitcom Dad's brain, which is piloted by tiny versions of Sitcom Dad. It is certainly not Herman's Head or Inside Out; it's more like that terrible movie where a bunch of tiny people are piloting a robotic Eddie Murphy. With all of the brainpower of at least four Sitcom Dads, he ends up saying that the game was very outdoors.

While apparently staring at his children while they sleep, Sitcom Dad laments that he couldn't properly cheer for his kid's sports game. He has a reason for it, and it would be a good reason.

Sitcom Dad: But I just never got into sports...

Yes, he never got into sports, which makes perfect sense considering in Hustlecup, he was shown to be some sort of basketball prodigy. To be fair, if any episode's canon deserves to be thrown in a fire, it's that one. I kind of stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt with that, though. One second after that bombshell line, we get this one!

Sitcom Dad: I don't know the first thing about this "sock-air".

He was able to pronounce the word "soccer" at least one time before this, but now, poor Sitcom Dad is too dim-witted to pronounce words correctly. He couldn't even be consistently wrong!

We get a sports-related montage of him studying this "sock-air", right down to a "Gonna Fly Now" parody playing over it. Even though I called him Sitcom Dad, they do get that he's a science guy, as he uses robotic legs, holograms, and augmented reality stock images. In the middle of it, the music stops as he takes the time to read about Soccer 101. It’s a bit awkward, but I get it.

After that montage, we cut to the next game. The Mayor has decided to become a sports commentator, because he clearly has nothing better to do. It's not like there's any monster attacks happening any time soon! If only there was an assistant that would take over his job, but I guess that wasn't fitting of the messages. Unfortunately, the Powerpuff Girls do not share his excitement, all because of the knowledge that their dad is ignoring them.

The Mayor: Will Bubbles be able to block the shot, or will she just stand there, looking sad?

Having seen their fights, the latter should be an easy assumption, even if he doesn't know they were sad because their father would rather study science than cheer for his kids. That's not a bad description of the usual Reboot Puff strategy, in fact.

That training really paid off, as Sitcom Dad is actually really into this. He even got jersey with the first three digits of pi on it! It's a little more clever than, "oh, it's the science guy", as the Townsville Turtles logo actually looks like the pi symbol. Probably unintended, but still. He wants everyone to do the wa-ve! I'm pretty sure the Professor would know how to pronounce that.

Blossom and Buttercup are in complete disbelief over this, and Buttercup makes a quip about how it could be the Professor's escaped evil clone. That line could have worked by itself as a joke, but they decide to take this way further.

Sitcom Dad's "Evil Clone": Hahahaha! The plot thickens! Hahahaha!

It looks like another uphill roller coaster, as we get this running gag where an evil twin of Sitcom Dad, complete with the twirly mustache. is evilly laughing. Every time, he's in some sort of garbage disposal. Only one episode later, and I can still continue my "they sure love throwing their characters in the garbage" joke.

Thanks to seeing their father cheer for them, Bubbles wakes up from her bout of sadness and kicks the ball to Blossom, who kicks it to Buttercup, who then kicks it right into the goalie's stomach. This time, it's not the net that explodes.

Instead, it seems to be the kid that explodes. I sort of laughed at this, and then wondered if I really should have. This leads to another montage of the Townsville Turtles winning game after game, mostly just the Puffs making goals. Regular, not exploding goals, that is. Maybe they needed to balance the ridiculousness of the Puff's goals with how ridiculous Sitcom Dad looks.

He even colors his face and his far-more-muscular-than-it-should-be chest in the PPG 2016 colors. Don't worry, this doesn't become a thing. However, if he's trying to show his team spirit, why not color himself in the colors of the team? It makes sense that Sitcom Dad would put his children over anyone else, but it makes sense even if he wasn't their father; it's not like anyone else is doing anything of worth. Turns out, that's part of the plot.

As the Powerpuff Girls are celebrating their winning streak along with their super-dad/super-fan, Coach Darby, or Coach Dorby as the Professor calls her in a probably unintended continuation of the "Sitcom Dad can't pronounce anything" gag, shows up. She's here to tell Blossom that Candice should start the next game. Why? Other than Blossom's tendency to get her head stuck in the cosmos, this is just here to give Sitcom Dad a reason to go bananas. Also, who is Candice?

Sitcom Dad isn't going to take that, and starts raising a fuss about it. Because of that, Coach Darby decides someone is going to leave the team...herself. Okay? The Powerpuff Girls immediately fret, because the championship game is in two days, and they don't have a coach anymore! This gives Sitcom Dad an idea, and, oh boy.

Sitcom Dad becomes the new coach, and he has a training regimen that seems to be made more for people with superpowers than ordinary mortals. He replaced all of the soccer balls with boulders to improve the kid's kicking strength, made kids run across a lava pit with soccer balls and the apparent lack of convection protecting them from being burnt to a crisp to improve their hustle, and even got a lion to chase Robin! Why?

Coach Dad: She knows why.

Outside of the rule of three, that last one just seemed like the Professor being cartoonishly evil for no reason even more than the other two. Maybe it would make more sense if the lion was chasing whoever this Candice was, since her replacing Blossom was what caused this coach switch to happen in the first place. Since it's just another kid that at least we know is not Candice, it just seems random. Speaking of cartoonishly evil...

Sitcom Dad's "Evil Clone": And they say I'm the evil one!

No, nobody did. If anything, this could be the real Professor looking at Sitcom Dad's apparent new villainy. I have a reason to believe this, just wait and see.

He does have an explanation for the other two, at least. Bubbles flies up to the Professor and tells him that this kind of training is way too hard for ordinary mortals, but Coach Dad doesn't budge. He also decided to replace the referee with something that would make the championship match completely fair...

...the Robo-Ref 9000! It has impeccable vision, it can make cappuccinos, and it has ways of dealing with horseplay. This is shown by it punishing a random kid playfully chasing Robin with eye lasers. See, it's funny because children are getting hurt. But wait, what did that kid say?

Random Kid: I'll go get you, Candice!

Oh, that's Candice? Could have fooled me, because, and I know I don't have a screenshot here, but it's clearly Robin Snyder getting chased. Maybe Robin has a evil twin of her own, or maybe it's a mistake. If it is a mistake, the unthinkable, I know, what's worse is that Bubbles called her Robin in that previous lion chase scene! Forget Sitcom Dad, even the show couldn't be consistently wrong!

Bubbles, this episode's designated complainer that is right, tells Sitcom Dad that he's taking the fun out of the game.

Insert another Meet Sitcom Dad joke, where he doesn't know the meaning of the word "fun", and thinks it must be some sort of food! Okay, there's a little more to this cutaway gag than just being unnecessary: it's to show that all of this soccer knowledge has replaced his knowledge of anything else. My mistake, it's not Meet Dave, it's that gag from Spongebob's Squilliam Returns! Finally had to steal something that wasn't the explosions, I guess.

It's the big game, against what seems to be the Citysville Capybaras again judging by the Cs on their shirt. Unfortunately, despite bringing his own coach, the robot actually calls a fair game, letting the Capybaras get goals, and giving the Turtles justified fouls.

For example, the robot gives Blossom a yellow card for being off-sides. It doesn't look like she's off-sides, but Blossom goes with it anyway. Who doesn't go with it?

Coach Dad, of course. He isn't too happy about any of this, as his face contorts in a way that's still on-model. They actually avoid doing any weird face gags in this episode with one exception, and while this does give us quite a few shots of the Professor making some questionable faces, it could been worse. The Robo-Ref eventually gives the coach a yellow card of his own, which he takes quite well.

Robo-Ref 9000: Yellow card. You must calm down.

Coach Dad: Calm? I'll show you calm! (flips the Mayor's table)

Elderly Lady: Wow, that guy's out of control!

Oh, really! He just seems like an upstanding member to society! Eventually, he throws a chair, which lightly bumps the Robo-Ref 9000...

...and he succumbs to Rampancy, deciding to use this Red Card worthy foul as an excuse to disobey the First Law of Robotics and just start zapping randomly. One of the lasers hits the bleachers right after everyone runs away. Another one of the lasers is heading towards the Reboot Puffs, and...

...surprisingly, the Powerpuff Girls manage to not just stand in one place and be sad for once. Aw, I was hoping to say that this repeats the oddity from Trouble Clef where the people of Townsville are better dodgers than the Puffs. It turns out that this episode has its own oddities.

They tell their clueless father figure that they'll take care of it, thankfully not like the way Bubbles said it in the previous episode. The Reboot Puffs do what they do best, and they do it very well.

That is, they seem to be the best at getting Monster Punch, Girls Downed. I do like the variety of ways he does it, using all of his different features, like using. It does feel a bit inconsistent with the way the shots are done, though. Blossom's in particular sticks out like a sore thumb.

The Powerpuff Girls eventually ask how he got this robot. I would think he built it, because he's supposed to be the Professor. He's makes robots, whether it be Schedule-Bot, or the Dynamo from the original. However, they decide to go in a different and kind of interesting direction. No, he didn't make the robot...

...the evil dumpster-dwelling clone did! If there's one other positive I can say about this joke, it's that at least this Evil Sitcom Dad joke isn't just another uphill roller coaster, as it actually ties into the plot. It's canon now; he has an evil twin.

Then again, I'm seeing one Professor that makes robots, and there's one Professor that's apparently controlled by tiny versions of himself that forces kids to jump over lava pits and have lions chasing girls with indeterminate names. Who is really the evil clone here?

Sitcom Dad does get an idea thanks to the little people in his head: start cheering for the girls. This gives the girls the strength they need to come up with this plan: since the Referee has to keep his eye on the ball, they quickly pass it between each other. This ends up confusing the robot to the point where he explodes! Wait, wasn't he going to explode anyway? Whatever.

Despite the giant crater on the ground, they still go through with the game anyway. I guess there's a bit of humor in how nobody really seems to care, but it just feels like it's rushed. Just like this ending, where, in a little bit of a bookend, this other dad gives Sitcom Dad a suggestion.

Other Dad: If your kids love soccer, they'd love hockey!

Sitcom Dad: Hawkeye?

Yeah, trying to channel the MCU is not going to work. We end this episode on another Meet Dave/Spongebob reference, as the little men in his head continue to panic, as they apparently did since the beginning of Mr. Dad's existence.

Does the title fit?

Sideline Dad kind of reminds me of Sitcom Dad.

How does it stack up?

I'm kind of in the middle with this one. On one hand, it's a Sitcom Dad episode, and while it's not anywhere near the worst he's ever been, I wouldn't consider "not knowing what a sock-air is" a good look for him. I couldn’t get into this one that much, but it could have been a lot worse.

That's it for Season 3! Next time on the reboot...

...wait, is this it? Is this the end? Granted, this show is not officially cancelled, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing suggesting that anything is in the works, or if there's any more episodes. No finale, no big villain team-up, no virus robots, no nothing. From what I can tell, this series may have ended with this bland soccer episode. I can't say it wouldn't be fitting for the reboot to end abruptly, as most episodes tend to end abruptly!

I'll say one thing: even if this is the end, beautiful friends, it's not the end of Fly Pow Bye's experiment. Next Saturday, we're going to end this experiment with a final stack up. See you.

← The Oct-Father ☆ The Final Stack Up (The Worst) →

#fpb ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #fpb reviews #ppg 2016 #cartoon network

6 notes · View notes

chuplayswithfire · 2 years ago

Text

You make a lot of really interesting points about Stede, that I definitely agree with - Stede is fundamentally a privileged white man who's not doing shit for the majority of the show, and while he begins to grow and does offer a space that's clearly valuable to the crew its enabled BECAUSE he has the money to create that space without any traditional pirating work.

But I can't help but notice that your analysis of Izzy completely ignores the race angles that come into place *and* the homophobia angles, particularly when you address Izzy and Ed's dynamic (and yes you said this was about Izzy not Ed, but the race, homophobia, and class angles are all critical to that dynamic and the dynamic Izzy has to every other member of Ed's crew that we interact with, because Ed, Fang, and Ivan are all men of color - Izzy is the only white member of Ed's crew given lines or a name and that absolutely plays into how he treats them). Like, for example:

Izzy is upset because he sees this – not as feminine, lol – as him throwing away the “deserved” title of Blackbeard, of making himself look stupid, like a wealthy landowner who doesn’t know what work looks like, like Stede.

Izzy never strikes at Ed for being rich or acting rich? He calls him a namby pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend. Namby pamby is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as meaning "weak, silly, emotional", which has no wealth connotations but absolutely has homophobic connotations given that Izzy is also mocking Ed for mourning aka "pining for" his "boyfriend" which he also stresses in a mocking tone. Izzy is very clearly mocking Ed for no longer being masculine enough to be Blackbeard.

"I want to highlight here that Izzy doesn’t actually give a shit whether Ed wears Stede��s clothes or becomes soft or whatever."

Izzy literally says that Ed is better off dead than being "whatever" what he is ow, where what he is now is a man chilling out in a silk dressing gown and cleaning up his space, singing songs, inviting the crew to use his name and speak to him on a person to person level. It's impossible to believe that Izzy doesn't give a shit about Ed wearing Stede's clothes or being soft when he literally says that Ed would be better off dead than being the person he is while wearing Stede's clothes and being soft???

Izzy clearly comes from a higher social class than Ed - Izzy knows what retirement is, enough to have rejected the idea of it. Izzy can negotiate with the British officers directly and be respected as a friend to the crown. Ed is low class and while he don't know what his father did for a living, we can see that his mother was some form of house servant. Izzy also has the advantage of being a white man in a white world - we see from the show itself that race absolutely has a heavy presence in this world, which opens further doors for Izzy, and has a huge impact on the fact that Izzy is the only white man on Ed's crew and also plainly doesn't respect Ed OR the other people on Ed's crew, even when they're clearly competent pirates - Fang drives the ship, Fang AND Ivan are participants in the raid, Ed specifically orders Fang to skin and kill a man, so they're definitely "real pirates" from Ed's "real pirate ship".

We never really see Izzy in a provider role either - we see him on a power trip. Telling Lucius that he's "first mate hands or god as far as you're concerned" isn't about keeping order on the ship - it's about hammering in on Lucius, who Izzy clearly has a homophobia problem about? I mean, there's Black Pete getting his dick sucked and Wee John taking a nap, but Izzy doesn't give a damn about putting them in their place. He focuses entirely on Lucius with that "ooooh daddy" taunt and then he focuses on Lucius again to call him a bitch and a proper seductress when Lucius doesn't do the (very pointless, based on actual nautical chores) assignment Izzy ordered him to do. And that's the only time we see him putting anyone to work directly. We never actually see Izzy doing any of the work he's yelling at people to do.

And when Izzy is running Ed's ship, he's telling Ed's crew that Ed is half-insane and that his judgement is without merit, then yanking on beards because people asked the exact same questions IZZY feels entitled to ask.

Izzy IS being cruel but he's not overcompensating - he's lashing out with the exact same kind of intensity that we've seen him use all season. And more than that, he's only in a position to have this influence because Izzy spitefully helped the English come after Stede and Ed, AGAINST Ed's wishes, because he resents Stede and the way he's "seducing" Ed. There's a reason he has his whole monologue about how he'd "almost" think Stede was seducing Ed right before the run me through scene where his reactions clearly show that he thinks they're having sex on deck.

"His hair is turning gray and he has ulcers because he thinks that without him the whole place would collapse and he’s right, but he has not yet realized that that doesn’t make it his responsibility and it doesn't mean his coworkers appreciate it."

This is also bizarre because the ship runs fine before Izzy and it continues to run fine *without* Izzy. We never see Izzy's yelling, shouting, or harassing do a thing to fix any problems. Even in Episode 4 when he's running around demanding people work, he doesn't care about the quality of the work (he's right there as Frenchie nails his sleeve down) just that busy work is being done. Even when he's fretting over the Spanish, he doesn't come up with a plan or move people to work, he just yells at Ed about it and doesn't actually do a thing to make anything happen. We see Ivan and Fang (who are real pirates! from Ed's real crew!) doing more work than we ever see Izzy actually doing.... so unless we're going to say the white man on Ed's crew is the only person doing any real work without any evidence of that???

Because the Revenge is fine before Izzy and fine after Izzy, which goes a long way to detangling the argument that he's essential and the only person doing any work. We see Fang manning the helm, we see Ivan looting, we don't see Izzy actually doing any work besides yelling and yanking on Fang's beard.

We do see him harassing Lucius and Lucius specifically for being openly gay and unashamed. We do see him mock Ed for being "pining for his boyfriend". We don't see him yell at Ed for being rich or being lazy or acting privileged.

Izzy hates Stede for a lot of reasons, and many of them probably DO have to do with class (even if he doesn't really use class based insults for Stede, but ones more associated with Stede being softer, weaker, feminine) but the way he treats Ed specifically, does not really match with your class-based analysis, especially given that it leaves out race and the class indicators that Izzy himself comes from more wealth than Ed ever did.

Izzy told Ed he was a "whatever" that should have been killed by the English Navy before he became the version of himself that would talk about feelings, openly miss his romantic partner, and wear a silk dressing gown over a pair of soft pants instead of impractical and uncomfortable leathers. That's not a reaction that comes from class.

Izzy, Stede, and the conflicts of class-based masculinities: an entirely too long look into my twisted mind

Disclaimer: I don’t dislike Stede. I don’t think Izzy is perfect. I think they’re both great characters. I do dislike the fact that people often seem to take for granted the notion that Stede is feminine, and that his brand of masculinity is “healthy” – as well as the notion that Izzy by contrast has uniquely high amounts of “toxic masculinity” and is “femmephobic” because of his dislike of Stede.

I agree that Izzy’s approach to himself is unhealthy. I don’t think Stede is particularly feminine, nor do I think Izzy sees him that way either. I think their conflict is a matter of different kinds of socially supported kinds of masculinity, and that these differences and distinct struggles are based almost completely on class.

STEDE & MASCULINITY

Stede is a wealthy land-owner who has not worked and does not have to work. Period. He romanticizes the life of hard, fulfilling work and the earned rewards of it. When we see people bully him it is specifically people who went on to fulfill this desire (namely by joining the navy) and his father, who would’ve probably been his first male role model. He gets bullied for being a sensitive coward by his peers and for not working to earn what he has by his father. In adulthood Stede’s completely accepted and taken for granted in his presentation of masculinity: he’s a wealthy man, he performs masculinity just fine in this context. He does not stand out from the rest of his peers in terms of his dress, his behavior, his mannerisms, or whether he works or not. None of these people work! They haven’t earned anything! They’re all equally “trapped” in this idle, unearned luxury (see episode 10). Stede’s bullies are specifically bullies with directly violent imperialist ideals on an interpersonal level – not the idle detached status quo for his class. He stands out for having been a pirate, because he has challenged the status quo, the typical masculinity of his class, and his social status.

Stede and Mary’s relationship mirrors the typical stifling heterosexual relationship model of socially powerless women forced to dance around the whims of their husbands. Stede takes the notion that Mary should soothe his anxieties and take care of the household with little to no help from him for granted. His presence is such a burden on Mary’s life that in her eyes it straight up doesn’t begin until Stede leaves. Her life revolves around Stede! Stede, despite not wanting to be married to her in the first place, holds his wife on a leash because that’s the social context of their dynamic. His masculinity is firmly in the context of this structural misogyny that keeps both of them equally trapped, but Stede is COMPLETELY ignorant of this uneven power dynamic – his male privilege, if you will, lol – and is entirely focused on his own pain, the unfairness of his own situation, his trauma. Mary’s suffering and sometimes straight up her personhood doesn’t even enter his mind. She doesn’t want to be there either, but unlike Stede she doesn’t have the luxury to wallow in her sadness. It falls on her to keep the family running. Stede leaves but then he comes back and takes up the house, he adds to Mary’s workload and does not help, he walks around like he owns the house after having been gone for so long, he assumes he can just waltz back in with no work required, he lays down to sleep next to her like nothing’s changed and literally takes up the entire bed, he’s there and he’s still unwilling to talk to her, she’s still the one doing the caretaking and nurturing of his feelings and his physical wellbeing.

On his ship he does nominal amounts of work most of the time. Things “just work out.” He’s clueless in a way white upper class masculinity is constantly rewarded for. He wants to deserve things but he’s so used to not having to do jackshit that the most ridiculous things count as him deserving a reward, or as him having done something worthy of respect and applause. He fumbles his way into stealing some poor guy’s plant. His crew doesn’t respect him because he’s arrogant and useless. He brings on board a type of positive influence – the “talk it through” kind of energy that he never had with his wife – which is a good thing! But Stede is the captain for a reason, and that reason isn’t because he’s actually deserved anyone’s respect or because he’s worked hard to prove himself or learned how to do anything. Stede bought his way into it. Stede is not displaying femininity and softness. He is displaying literally just arrogant and thoughtless ideals of upper class masculinity.

Stede uses up food frivolously to make cake (!) and gets upset when it’s a problem that they’re now out of an important ingredient. In Stede’s world these aren’t things he has to worry about! Things just magically appear! While everyone else is searching for vital resources Stede is wasting money and time going on a little treasure hunting trip. To Stede the promise of a special treasure – just for him, one that would make him special, one that he doesn’t want to share, no matter who it really belongs to – is much more pressing, much more applicable to his interests than frivolous things like food. That’s what he has a crew for! Stede is there to give out commands and have fun. His wife makes food, his wife takes care of the children, Stede is there to get lost in his own world and play with his children, to be upset and confused when him being distant and useless means that Mary grows to resent his presence. Stede is there to journal through a proxy (despite being one of the only people who know how to write!) and to dream about becoming known for being special and changing the face of piracy.

His crew, other than Lucius (and I’m not sure about Olu) is poor. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Stede, a wealthy landowner is “educating” a group of much less fortunate people (some of whom were implied to have been enslaved previously). These are people who have had to work if they wanted to eat. In the context of piracy this means a certain kind of approach to the job that doesn’t really have room for touchy feely emotional moments. They can do this because Stede will pay them a salary regardless of what they do. Stede is sharing with them the world of leisure with his privilege.

The “softness” and “kindness” exhibited by Stede is – sorry, a lot of the time it’s condescending or breathtakingly privileged. Let them eat cake mixed with genuine meanness. He’s a bitch! His pettiness and bitchiness is a rich people's game of layers upon layers of sarcasm and passive aggressiveness, and he’s clearly completely unafraid to act exactly like that with no remorse. We laugh at his mean remarks and then we forget that he said them at all. I assume the reason people read him as feminine is partially because “passive aggressive bitch” is something we associate with women as a negative stereotype, but in the show canon that is a gender neutral trait and the other major character to talk that way is that French dude. When Stede warns Ed about it he specifically says “this is what my people are like.” We are not supposed to see that as a feminine trait. It’s a class thing. “We talk it through as a crew” is nice, sure, but it’s also a very naive, privileged understanding of what pirates do. They rob little fishing boats for god’s sake. I’m sure he wants to be the good guy – despite his insecurities he certainly sees himself as wanting to be one! – and as a core sentiment it’s a good one, but undeniably his wealth and his resistance to giving it up makes him unable to actually be an equal to his crew.

Stede doesn’t fit in in his old life not because he stands out from the accepted notions of masculinity but because he doesn’t want to be a part of it. His childhood bullies didn’t either – their route was to join the navy; they chose to be a part of the imperialist military complex. Stede doesn’t want that. He wants to be their direct enemy and to show them what working for respect can look like (that is, challenging the status quo with the least unnecessary violence possible). But where they have found solidarity between each other – being from the same social background, wealthy and hateful – Stede is still clinging onto his class, he’s still holding onto all of the social implications of wealthy masculinity, while also trying to roleplay as someone who isn’t wealthy. This is why him giving away all his wealth at the end of ep10 is so important: he’s no longer held back by this disconnect. Stede is now (somewhat of) an equal. His upper class masculinity was always stifling but he refused to let go of it; and he couldn’t, as long as he still had his wealth, as long as he was imprisoning Mary. By the end of the episode he doesn’t have his fancy ship or his expensive clothes. He has neutral clothes, he’s got his small boat, he’s alone, and he’s free.

And to make a connection to modern day masculinities – Stede is the man who loads the dishwasher once a week and comes to find you just so you’ll pat him on the head and tell him what a great job he’s done. Stede is the man who eats your packed lunch from the fridge as a midnight snack and is confused when you’re upset when you can just buy something from the store or perhaps Chipotle on your lunch break. Stede is the man who buys a $1800 smoker to put in the backyard without asking and then is confused why you’re upset. Stede is the man who gets asked to do a task and immediately delegates it onto his eldest child. Stede is the Disneyland dad. Stede is the freshly divorced man who “I can fix him” types see as endearing because his first try of running the dishwasher involved him flooding the kitchen with bubbles. Stede is the man who doesn’t remember his kids’ birthdays or his anniversary date. Stede is the man who buys you a stand mixer for your birthday and a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. He’s the man who works a nonsense finance job he got through nepotism or owns a company he inherited and is so mindlessly bored with it that he wants to do something else, anything else, but doesn’t want to actually lose the safety net of his wealth.

IZZY & MASCULINITY

On the other hand Izzy (and Ed, but this is about Izzy) represents working class masculinity. We don’t know much about his past but his dress (complete with a shirt that blatantly just doesn't fit him right as evidenced by the fact that his sleeves are tied up), his attitude and his presentation of masculinity are much more strictly aligned with what would be expected of someone who’s masculinity is tied to their role in a gendered class society as a worker primarily and as a provider secondarily.

Firstly: Ed and Izzy run a real pirate ship. Izzy works under Ed, period. This is a mutual exchange of safety. Where Stede is at the top of the food chain completely untouched by anyone else, Ed and Izzy need each other to equal degrees. Izzy can’t run the ship on his own, but neither can Ed. Izzy is replaceable to some extent, but Ed would be reluctant to actively try to replace a first mate without really needing to. Both of them are competent at their roles but Ed, like Stede, no longer wants to do his job. Just like Stede he’s sick of it, he’s bored, he wants to try something else.

Unfortunately for Izzy, again, his livelihood depends on Ed just as much as Ed’s depends on Izzy. That means that any misstep from Ed can mean that their entire workplace and their actual mortal lives crumble into nothing. So when Ed, already tired of having to work a thankless job he sees as stifling and above all else boring, directs that energy into pretending to be wealthy Izzy is upset because he sees this – not as feminine, lol – as him throwing away the “deserved” title of Blackbeard, of making himself look stupid, like a wealthy landowner who doesn’t know what work looks like, like Stede.

I want to highlight here that Izzy doesn’t actually give a shit whether Ed wears Stede’s clothes or becomes soft or whatever. He’s on board with Ed’s plan of killing Stede and taking his place. Ed retiring into a life of luxury? More power to him. If he kills Stede he’s certainly deserved it. Izzy wants him to have a plan and he wants for it to be a realistic one because they rely on each other. There is a level of communication they need from each other. He doesn’t want Ed to be this guy if he also wants to remain as Izzy’s captain, because then it’s just him slipping into a world where he expects people to take him seriously despite showing every sign of not being worthy of that anymore. Pirates and the wealthy notoriously are, well… enemies. How would it look for them for Ed to be lost in this fantasy world where he, himself, is a wealthy aristocrat? Where he’s bought his ship, hired his crew, not worked a day in his life? Izzy’s working under him. What would that say about Izzy? That he’s accepting wealth as proof of status? Of power? That he’s working essentially the same kind of job he would on land? Where a wealthy, lazy man hires him to do the chores his wife won’t or can’t?

And so when Izzy turns himself into a provider it is not because he’s martyring himself or because he’s a toxic caretaker. It comes from a working class context of… needing to work to survive. In his world – just like Stede thinks – you deserve things by working hard for them. There is a structure of proving yourself, not by money or status but by your actions and your experience. Stede’s a captain not because he’s worked for it but because he’s bought his way into it. Izzy works his ass off. Izzy runs his ship and he’s fucking miserable with no clear support from the one person who was supposed to be on his side but he’s the only person who will do the work. Stede’s crew at this point is used to being able to just do whatever: they will get paid no matter what they do, because no matter if they respect him and no matter if they actually raid a single ship ever Stede can afford to do so to keep his little pirate fantasy alive. Is this fairer? Maybe! It’s also just not how it works for Izzy, and when he tries to get them to listen to him they don’t. In his world this is a prelude to mutiny. Izzy is a caretaker just as Stede is, but his POV comes from the very opposite side of class privilege: Stede can take care of his crew’s mental health and give them days off and pay them regardless of how they perform; Izzy (or Ed) can not. They have to work or they won’t be paid.

So when Stede and Izzy clash it comes from this inability to see each other’s points of view. It comes from Izzy’s disdain for Stede and his wealth; his “softening” of Ed into a ghost of his former self; where softness is a stand in not for femininity but wealth, for indulgence, for luxury. Their life does not have room for that! Izzy sees Ed with his clean shaven face and his prioritization of feelings over work as him pretending to be like Stede, meaning a wealthy man’s fantasy of a pirate. Ed doesn’t even have money! Ed still needs to work for his money, but he’s trying to apply Stede’s POV as someone with immense class privilege to how he runs this ship, where you don’t actually need to MAKE money. This is infuriating to Izzy, who never left the real world. When he yanks Ed back into reality he overcompensates because of this anger and frustration, and Ed overcompensates back because he’s vulnerable and needs support instead of anger, because Izzy is being cruel but he’s not completely wrong, because Ed’s already feeling unworthy and unlovable.

Ed makes Fang get rid of his dog. When this is brought up Fang cries and Ivan comforts him. Izzy doesn’t say shit about the crying or the comforting. Neither of these things is seen as bad: this is a necessary sacrifice, with an emphasis on sacrifice. The feelings are fine and expected. It wouldn’t be a sacrifice if it didn’t matter, and stoicism isn’t the point, you don’t have to be desensitized, you just have to be practical. Izzy calls Stede Ed’s pet. Stede’s useless. Ed can be sad and cry about it and Izzy will understand and help him through it, but he needs to rip off the bandaid or it will just get worse! Izzy even offers to kill Stede for him if it’s too difficult for Ed. He gets it. But it’s possible! It’s necessary! See, Fang did it! We’ve all sacrificed! Now’s your time to put your money where your mouth is. Stede belongs in doggy heaven with the rest of the sacrifices we’ve made to stay alive, to make ourselves stronger as a crew, to build these delicate social bonds we all depend on. Don’t ruin this for everyone. If you refuse to match everyone else’s sacrifice you’ll seem like a hypocrite and a bad, unfair boss. Etc. Caring is not a weakness: you can care, but you can’t carry it with you on the forefront of your mind if you want to be a part of the social structure.

So to me like – modern context Izzy is the neurotic shift leader who lashes out at his coworkers because they’re Leaning instead of Cleaning because he’s caught wind that they’ve started shutting down locations in this area and he’s scared they won’t make their sales quotas. Izzy is the shift leader who’s filling in for the store manager who’s stopped showing up to work. Or Izzy is the store manager who gets told by the regional manager to cope and seethe when he tells them he’s understaffed and overworked. Izzy’s the guy who takes out his anger on his crew because he sincerely thinks he’s doing them a favor. Izzy’s the guy who’s got an intricate social structure built into his workplace and he knows EVERYTHING about all of his coworkers and can manipulate all of them however he likes if needed. He’s the guy who covers up for the boss when he doesn’t pay you on time and convinces you that the direct deposit just hasn't cleared with your bank yet for some reason. He’s the guy who makes excuses for terrible management and pukes during his lunch breaks from stress and takes his job too seriously because he’s been working at this branch for thirteen years and at this point it’s a sunk cost fallacy but he’s got a social contract with his boss he’s also probably in love with. His hair is turning gray and he has ulcers because he thinks that without him the whole place would collapse and he’s right, but he has not yet realized that that doesn’t make it his responsibility and it doesn't mean his coworkers appreciate it. He’s the guy that tells you to quit your second job or to stop wasting your time with your failing marriage and just get a divorce already because your work performance is fucking atrocious. He’s the guy who goes into his manager’s office and straight up tells him to get over his ex because he’s tired of explaining to the team why he keeps showing up to work in a dressing gown and having group therapy sessions in the common space.

Final thoughts

So: Stede and Izzy clash because of their different types of class-based masculinity. For a show to explore masculinity it does not actually necessarily require any specific examination of femininity, and the minimization of Stede’s indulgence in the fruits of his class AND gender privilege is a little frustrating. These things are toxic not only to himself but more acutely to his wife (and the women in his life in general – there’s a REASON why so many of Mary’s friends were relieved to have their wealthy useless husbands die, lol). When we talk about “toxic masculinity” it almost always gets flattened into violence: it becomes “men can’t show emotions other than anger”, “men see love as a weakness”, etc etc. Hegemonic masculinity (also known as toxic masculinity) is… masculinity that enables the material oppression of women, and the fact that people seem to only be able to see the traits we associate with working class men as “toxic” comes across as classist, and flattens Izzy into just being “a homophobic gay with toxic masculinity" while letting Stede completely off the hook despite the fact that out of every character in this show he's the one who's had a tangibly awful impact on a woman precisely because of his ignorant wielding of, well, a very typical kind of middle to upper class masculinity.

I also want to note here that when we talk about violence you have to remember that beyond his burning desire to commit acts of violence to prove himself Stede 100% also benefits from it. It’s just that as a wealthy landowner he doesn’t actually have to see it happen, and he can comfortably be distanced from it. So to look at Izzy and Ed and scoff at them and call their killing and maiming toxic masculinity but ignore the ways in which Stede as a wealthy man directly gains wealth and social power from the same kind of killing in different places around the world (possibly including by his father) is a bit troubling. Violence is not inherently toxic or inauthentic. Violence in the face of injustice is not evil. Stede’s proximity to immense privilege means he has had no need to engage in it. Izzy and Ed are desensitized to it because they have to fight for their survival. Stede’s crew has become desensitized to it because they, too, have had to fight for their survival. To look at this and come to the conclusion that Stede is displaying healthy masculinity while Ed and Izzy are displaying toxic masculinity is to ignore how privileged Stede is, comparatively: the point of piratehood is not to be nice and sweet and polite, it’s a way to fight against the oppressive frameworks of imperialist wealth. Stede does not understand this and it’s clear from the fact that he is well. Wealthy, lol.

Izzy sees Stede as an idiot and a privileged snotty little thing and they hate each other’s guts, not because one of them is more or less masculine than the other but because their types of masculinity clash with each other. They’re the extreme ends of each other. Stede cares about his crew even though the way he shows this is often both misguided and dangerous, and extremely crucially he does not care about his wife until the very end of the season beyond his fears of how she sees him in terms of his courage and worthiness. Izzy cares about Ed and he wants to be loved by him, but he does not know how to fit this care and love into the context of the world they live in without it being toxic for both of them. Izzy’s pragmatic and practical. Stede is idealistic and he can afford to do so. Izzy doesn’t have that luxury. That doesn’t make Stede feminine and it also doesn’t mean Izzy has any more toxic masculinity or internalized homophobia than Stede (who had to be explained to by his wife what love feels like) does. If this show was telling us that Stede is the model of healthy masculinity it would be extremely troubling.

#ofmd meta #izzy hands #fandom fuckery #ah time to break out the fandom interaction tag

781 notes · View notes

goldenknightsnews · 4 years ago

Text

Golden Knights 5, Ducks 2: What Had Happened Was...

——————————————————————————

Thursday evening brought Day Two of NHL action and the opening game for Captain Mark Stone and the Vegas Golden Knights. Stone was named captain by Head Coach Pete DeBoer and his teammates just in time to sew the C on his sweater and for him to carry his team to their first win of the season.

Alex Pietrangelo donned an A, making his first appearance with the club. With his help, Stone and Co. walked away winners after a frantic start, a largely sloppy second period, and a Golden Knight dominated third. Scoring came from up and down their unconventional lineup, a key to success in the National League. It may not have been perfect, but the boys got the job done, heading home with a 5-2 win.

This one started fast and furious, with four goals in the first eight minutes of action. If you blinked you probably missed it. Marchessault and Tomas Nosek got the game going and before I knew it, the two Vegas goals were quickly matched by the Ducks. Not even one drink into the game and four goals were scored. Wow.

It was a wild night inside the T-Mobile Arena. What had happened was......

Marches-score:

If the Golden Knights are going to make a deep playoff run, they’ll need their Top-Six forwards to be on their game. Reilly Smith is as consistent as they come, as is Stone. Max Pacioretty is a prototypical sniper. One big question mark is the 2-LW, Jonathan Marchessault, a player I have admittedly been critical of at times.

The man they call Marchy wasted no time getting on the scoresheet, tallying the first goal of Year Four just 1:07 into the contest. Alec Martinez spotted the chatty, chippy winger as he split the defense and he buried it, top cheese, over the always-tough John Gibson. Marchessault found a nice seam and Martinez didn’t miss. The shot was a beauty. Great start for Vegas.

Marchessault finished the 2019-20 season with a respectable line of 22-25-47, but he fell victim to long stretches of low production and tends to get too involved in the extracurricular portion of the game. When he asserts himself offensively, he is a treat to watch. If he fails to build on his solid start, Alex Tuch is always waiting in the wings, itching for Top Six minutes. Tuch added an empty-netter as the game came to a close.

So far, so good for Marchessault. He’s now on pace for 56 goals; not too shabby.

Shutting the Door:

As mentioned previously, there were four goals in eight minutes. Two of those made it past Robin Lehner, who got the first start in the Vegas’ strong goalie tandem. Lehner did what Lehner does. He made the necessary stops, never made it look difficult, and continued to make the Islanders look silly for letting him leave NY back in 2019 after a 2.13 GAA/.930 SV% season.

Following the game, Lehner acknowledged that the Ducks got a few good bounces, leading to Max Comtois’ pair of lamp lighters. Panda and the VGK defense shut down the Ducks for the next 52:02. Lehner was strong finishing with 20 saves on 22 shots on goal. Expect Fleury in goal on Saturday, when the Ducks come quacking for revenge. Unfortunately we will never know prior to warm-ups, as DeBoer wants to keep his cards close to the vest.

Oh Captain, My Captain:

Wednesday was a big day for Stone. He was named the first-ever captain of the Vegas Golden Knights, which is an honor in itself. Combine that, with the fact that he was chosen over two former captains and original Golden Misfits who have donned the A. Also keep in mind, that he has never worn a C on the front (or back for that matter) of his jersey in the NHL. What an accomplishment.

Mark Stone on the Captaincy:

“It’s an honor and not something I’m going to take lightly.”

What Stone didn’t take lightly, was his team being tied heading into the third period, fresh off the heels of a sloppy second. The captain was noticeably good in the third, scoring the go-ahead goal before setting Pacioretty up for an insurance marker of this own. Stone’s persistence and compete level shone through in the third period and gave the Golden Knights the lift they needed.

Broadcasting in 5D:

Five D, as in Defensemen. In his pre-game availability, GM Kelly McCrimmon broke the news that the opening night lineup would consist of 13 forwards and five defensemen and our collective media jaws dropped.

Shockingly, DeBoer was upbeat and excited about it in his time immediately after McCrimmon. “For me there’s going to be some salary cap gymnastics that we have to deal with.” He followed that up quickly with, “Small price to pay” for the types of players (Pietrangelo) they brought in. Keegan Kolesar benefited from the move, while Nic Hague and Nick Holden found themselves watching from above.

Partially, the five defenseman decision was salary cap driven. In addition to saving money, the team was able to roll out either Pietrangelo or Shea Theodore more often. That also helped get Zach Whitecloud time with some better partners. Whitecloud is really blossoming, a continuation from last year’s training camp, in my eyes. Traditionally he’d be on the third pair, but he looked great alongside the top four.

This surely won’t be a permanent configuration, but what game one showed was that they can do it and do it successfully. Both Hague and Holden will get NHL time at some point this season.

No Fans Needed:

Without their raucous fan base in attendance, the Golden Knights production crew ramped up their efforts, assisted by new Music Director DJ Joe Green. All facets of the in-arena entertainment were in effect. Bruce Cusick screaming through the PA system, mind-numbingly loud music, and of course the debut of their new video opening. COVID made things tough, but not impossible.

This is Vegas and we know how to party. The players enjoyed their two scrimmages with the current setup and it seemed to give them the typical jump you see out of the VGK home games. As much as the fans get recognized for being an X-Factor, the music and crowd noise were an adequate substitute. This team is just good. Fans or no fans, they’ll rack up wins.

A grudge match with the Ducks on Saturday is next up for the Golden Knights. Puck drop in Vegas is scheduled for 7pm. Locally, the game will be broadcast on AT&T Sports Net, in addition to national viewing on NHL.tv and the NHL Center Ice package.

By: HockeyBuzz Golden Knights Writer Jeff Paul

#vegasborn #hockey #goldenknights #vegas golden knights #sports #VGK

0 notes

omgchickmik · 4 years ago

Text

story

My story.

one of my earliest memories was playing with my favorite toy horses. Big Girl, Joe, Jane and Jim. I was playing them with my sister and I think my grandma had gotten me them. There was just something about horses that I absolutely had to have. Growing up was spent in the pool, riding bikes with my best friend Niki, swimming at grandma and grandpa’s, tree house adventues with my sister Kristi and Niki and playing and playing with Barbies, Maple Town and of course horses.

I was a bit of a stinker if I didn’t want to do something, I DID NOT WANT TO DO SOMETHING. Like dance. Fuck dance. So I would sneak over to grandma’s house (mom and dad would freak like you would wtf is my child!?) and I would be at grandma’s and be like grandma will tell you that dance sucks and I shouldn’t do it. Grandma and grandpa always had my back.

The biggest best thing evvver was taking horse back riding lessons. I started when I was in pre school and it was the best thing evvver. I would watch any tv show, westerns, Mr. Ed anything that had horses in it just to watch horses. My sister took lessons with me but soon it was just me taking lessons.

I remember the first time I fell off, I was cantering and froze when the trainer asked to slow the horse down. around and around i went faster and faster then the horse cut down the middle I fell but my leg was still in the striupp so i got dragged a little bit till the horse came to the trainer and stopped. My mom flipped. but i was like ok, i get back on now. That’s what jim from man from snowy river said. not shaken up at all.

I wondered why there was a blimp in my mom taking me to lessons and my grandparents. Bc apparently after that my mom was like i am not taking you riding anymore and of course in came grandma and grandpa to take me to lessons. I remember i would blow kisses to them everytime i passed them by in the ring :).

All i wanted was a horse. my mom said when i was 10 i could get one. so when i turned 10 and didnt have a horse of my own i was a bit upset. and durning this time my family decided to move to west palm beach, about an hour away from where i was. but all my best friends were there and grandma and grandpa i coulnd’t believe this shit! and no one asked me! sooo i hid, threw out checks i thought were going to the house, what a brat i was. and made a fuss when it came to moving.

we did move and i found a best friend there, jackie, she had not 1 horse but 3!! the coolest person ever. we hung out all the time, playing barbies, horses, pretending to be horses, being tom boys, swimming having the best time. then i started taking riding lessons and the cooolest thing i started showing horses! my dream come true! and so was jackie!

soon we got a call from her mom i wanna say who said go to this barn and try out this horse. so we did. his name is sinful and we became bessst friends. first we leased him and showed him then turning 11 my dad, grandpa and a neighbor built me a barn! and sinful came to stay at our house i had a horse!! We did all the compeitions and won so many as well. we did western, english, jumping but i would say our favorite was trail rides and trail rides with jackie.

in middle school jackie and i had different classes and i didn’t have that many friends. i took to another favorite thing of mine. movies. i would watch, the lion king, twister and the cable guy. enter jim carrey. i wanted to be jim carrey., i would dress up like ace ventura nearly every friday for ace ventura fridays. i was not cool but jackie accepted this and contuned being my best friend.

in high school i took drama and was introduced agaikn to chorus something i did in elementary school. and the chorus kids took me in and introduced me to broadway.

i thought broadway was trash but they took me to see rent and i reconsidered. i was then deciding i wanted to be maureen in rent and needed to go to nyc stat!

i got accepted into amda and as my parents tried to convince me not to go i went and made some incredible friends and actually learned how to dance. all the while i was there i was still missing sinful and horses. so when i came home to go to fau - i was not happy about - i made a point to get back into horses and started competing in the jumpers with alfonso.

the coolest horse show is called wef. and i wanted more than anything to ride in wef. i got a job to pay for lessons and by the 4 years i finally got to show in jumpers at wef! while at fau i met some amazing people and roomed with one my best friends smisek who introduced me to alternative music and a person who just loves music and i wanted to love music as much as she did.

so we went to some shows together and saw eric hucthinson. during this time my sister was making a album of her own and performing something i never thought one could just do. and while at amda i started making up songs for people but didn’t think anything of it. till i saw eric and he was funny and also made up songs. so smiske and i went to open mics and as a grad present my dad got me a keyboard that i took to nyc.

moving back to nyc i went to auditions for theater but didn’t care and came home and said i was going to pursue a career in songwriting and they were actually excited, which surprised me.

i went to see eric play and asked him after hwo to get a start as a songwriter and he suggested, playing open mics. so i did.

i met a boy who turned out to be a shit and wrote songs about him, then met a very nice producer and he recorded and helped me put together my songs. and i finally had something to offer and started playing out.

my mom says you never know if you dont ask. so i asked this one artist if i could open for them. they said yes. then i wrote to eric asking the same thing. then i saw him in person randomly at a bar and talked to him and after that he wrote me back saying to look out for dates. i did. and then he reached out to me to open for him.

i did a fucking great job on that show! and he asked me to open for him again. during this time i was working at a riding barn in the bronx and had to yell to talk to students and compete with all the other trainers talking, so my voice was upset. needless to say at the next show my voice bombed and cracked in multiple spots and i felt like a complete failiure.

i went home and decieded to change my voice teacher and found ron. and i decided to leave my teaching job and try to get a job at soulcycle.

while working at soulcycle i was working with ron on finding my voice. i got signed to this silly college label and released my first full length album with dave and did a kickstarter to help get a little bit more money to finish it.

playing a show for one of the pre kickstarter shows i met brian. i wasn;t that into him at first, as his friends introduced him as a douche. but when he came to another show, brought people and hung out at karaoke later i began to get into him.

we started dating and then we fell in love!

i got to open for dweezil zappa bc my dad had entered me into this submission to open for him. after soundcheck he asked if i would be interested in joining his band and going on tour. i thought he was crazy. but he was serisous.

he sent me about 40 songs to learn and i went to la to rehearse, ron and i worked over time. i got to go on my first tour! it was so cool! i had a bottom bunk and would make sure i prioritixed my voice when it came to the tour and go lots of sleep. we played amazing places like red rocks and also got to to europe for the first time and went to finland and even norway! the band is incredible and made me feel so good and happy to be with them. i wanted to be able to pursue my own music so i didn’t continue in their band but i hope one day they ask me to sing with them again.

back in nyc i was at soulcycle and they were kind of poops to me. but i started a musical sketch team called misc. filled with amazing funny peoeple and we make up funny sketches with music and my good friend pete plays all the music for us! but that started bc the magnet theater would never let me into their musucial improv teams so i created my own.

brian and i got married on a rooftop in bk and it was amazing! so perfect! we did so many of the crafts and all of the flowers. we got this cute dog finn and cat hiccup!

i then thought it would be fun to move down to nc to be and spend time with my family and sinful! so we moved here last oct and have been since. its been fun to have a yard, dishwasher, dryer and washer! I now teach my own spin classes and i get to see sinful everyday and try to make him the happiest pony ever! finn loves going to the barn too! and it’s been fun spending time with my nephews and niece. i hope i help them feel better about somethings like school they don’t really like. i also helped kim move out of mom and dads house and into her own and aj into his apt which was so cute. and now i am finally learning and developing the business side of my music and all my little side hustles. i feel really happy and grateful.

0 notes