#Public Adjuster Staten Island

[jitchak]

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[chelsfic]

Vampire Seeking Familiar - Nandor x Guillermo Fanfic (One-shot)

WWDITS Masterlist

Summary: Nandor places an ad for a human familiar and Guillermo responds. My take on how they first meet!

A/N: I woke up with the urgent need to write this. I was inspired watching Harvey’s AMA where he mentions that maybe Nandor placed an ad on Craigslist for a familiar. Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Fluff, Crack, Smooching, Light mention of sex (not explicit)

---

"Greetings, peasant. I require your assistance with the electronic computing device."

Nandor hulked over the reference desk, looking like an anachronism standing amidst the dull, institutional decor of the public library. He wore a floor length cape trimmed in gold embroidery over a brocade tunic and deerskin pants. He attempted an awkward smile, putting his fangs on full display.

He wasn't the strangest thing the librarian had seen that day.

“Sure,” she replied with a guarded smile. “What are you trying to do?”

"I am attempting to post an advertisement on a list kept by a man named..." he glanced down at a scrap of paper in his hand, "...Craig."

Ninety painstaking minutes later the librarian breathed a sigh of relief as the strange man finally clicked “publish.”

“Now, you just keep an eye on your email,” she kindly explained, “and wait for someone to respond.”

Nandor’s eyes lit up with a kind of hungry delight as he switched tabs to his empty Hotmail inbox.

“Your assistance has been most appreciated,” he thanked her, reaching into his tunic and flicking a heavy, gold coin in her direction.

She flinched as the coin flew at her head, awkwardly catching it and placing it beside the keyboard. 

“You’re welcome, Mr. Relentless. But I can’t accept a tip. Have a nice night.”

She stood up and walked back to her desk with a look of repressed hilarity on her face. She doubted anyone would reply to this guy’s post. But then, she reminded herself, she’d certainly seen stranger things happen…

Nandor clicked refresh and frowned when his email remained stubbornly empty.

---

Vampire’s Familiar (Staten Island)

Attention Mortals!

Do you weary of your pathetic human lives? Do you wish to find purpose in serving your evolutionary superior? Can you lift at least 50 lbs without assistance?

I, Nandor the Relentless, Conqueror of Thousands and Immortal Vampire, seek a human familiar to do my dark bidding. Duties include, but are not limited to, daytime errands, cleaning of a large mansion, laundry, personal valet services, securing the house against sunlight, blowing out candles, and waste disposal. The successful contender will be provided room and board for a fair rate ($1200/month) and the promise of eternal life after their term of service (length TBD).

If you possess the courage, kindly respond by electronic letter.

---

It had to be fake, right?

Guillermo sat in the break room at Panera Bread, idly scrolling through job ads on Craig’s List when the heading “Vampire’s Familiar” caught his eye. For a second he felt his stomach swoop with excitement before he got a hold of himself. It was probably just another jerk looking for attention. Guillermo knew in his heart that vampires were real, despite never having met one in real life. And it was his dearest, secret dream to become one of them. But so far, his internet sleuthing had uncovered nothing but a whole lot of pathetic internet trolls.

But what if this was the one?

He clicked the link, biting his nails as the text of the job posting loaded on the screen. He read through it, a smile tugging on his lips. He really shouldn’t get his hopes up, but his eyes kept darting back to that name. Nandor the Relentless. Conqueror of Thousands. What a cool vampire name.

He opened his Gmail app and started a new message.

---

Dear Nandor the Relentless,

My name is Guillermo de la Cruz and I am writing to you in response to your Craigslist posting seeking a human familiar. I have long been an enthusiastic admirer of vampires and it would be a dream come true to meet one and work for them.

I’m a responsible, hard worker who’s eager to learn new things. While I have never worked as a familiar before, I do have a background in customer service and a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Stony Brook University. I have attached a copy of my resume.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Guillermo de la Cruz

---

Guillermo suggested they meet at a Panera Bread on Staten Island because it was familiar and, more importantly, public. He was less worried about meeting an immortal, murderous creature of the night than he was about the possibility that the guy could turn out to be a regular human serial killer.

He picked a comfy armchair by the window and sipped his tea while he watched the door, feeling a thrill every time it opened. He was early. If this guy turned out to be the real deal, then he desperately wanted to make a good first impression. When a tall, darkly handsome man with long hair and a cape walked through the door Guillermo gulped and raised his hand in a shy wave.

“Nandor?” he asked, just to be sure. 

The man turned to him and there was no mistake. Guillermo’s breath caught in his throat. His skin was pale, almost glowing in the restaurant’s warm lighting. His eyes were dark brown and penetrating. Guillermo felt struck when the vampire’s gaze fell on him, as if he could see straight through him and into the most secret parts of his soul. He stepped closer, looming over Guillermo and looking somehow both self-important and unsure.

“And you are…” Nandor glanced upward, searching for the name. “Guy...Gil...Gilbert?”

“Guillermo,” he corrected with a shy smile. He shifted on his feet and adjusted his glasses nervously. He knew vampires were sexy by nature, of course. But he hadn’t been expecting to feel an immediate attraction to his prospective employer. This guy had his own gravity and he was sucking Guillermo in.

“Guillermo, of course.”

Hearing his name in the vampire’s rich, accented voice sent a tingle down his spine.

“Shall we, uh, sit down?” Guillermo stammered and then smacked a hand to his head, gesturing to the display case of pastries, “Unless you want something…?”

Nandor hissed dramatically and Guillermo got his first good look at his fangs. Honestly, he felt faint. This guy was either an excellent cosplayer or he was for real.

“Vampires cannot consume human food,” Nandor announced with a grimace of disgust. “Lesson number one.”

Nandor sat with a sweep of his cape and Guillermo followed suit.

“Oh! Of course! I have a lot to learn… Mr. Nandor--Mr. Relentless, sir,” Guillermo stammered, finally picking up his tea and taking a big gulp just to shut himself up.

“Master will do just fine,” the vampire replied as he adjusted the fall of his impressive cape around him. “That’s how you’ll refer to me if you get the job.”

“Oh! That’s--um,” Guillermo tilted his head and narrowed his eyes as he pondered the right word, “very...antiquated?”

“Well, hello! I’m a vampire! Kind of comes with the territory,” Nandor scoffed dismissively. “If you’re not interested--”

“No! No, I’m...I’m definitely interested,” Guillermo insisted, blushing furiously at his own words. He was interested...in more ways than one, apparently. He couldn’t stop glancing down at the vampire’s mouth, his full lips and the delicious hint of sharp fangs. God, what would it be like? To be bitten…

Nandor watched as the human’s full cheeks darkened with a blush. He parted his lips and inhaled longingly, scenting the sweet, spicy aroma of the man’s blood and barely suppressing a growl. 

He cleared his throat, shifting in his seat and abruptly asking, “So, you want to tell me a bit about why you are wanting to become my familiar?”

The interview--oh my god, I’m having an actual interview with an actual vampire!--flew by somehow. At first, Guillermo was all nervous stammers and sweaty palms, but after a few minutes he couldn’t help the natural urge to gush and he found himself barraging the vampire with fascinated questions. Not just about the job, but about himself. How old was he? Could he fly? Turn into a bat? Use mind control? What about sunlight, was that really a thing? Garlic? 

Rather than becoming annoyed, Nandor seemed to preen under the human’s obvious admiration. He held his head high and his word choice became increasingly grandiose as he waxed poetic about his existence as a creature of the night.

As the meeting finally wound down, Nandor turned his deep, liquid eyes on Guillermo, capturing him in his gaze as he spoke.

“Now, Guillermo, you must tell me one thing. If I choose you for this job, are you willing to give up all this,” he gestured around at the interior of the Panera Bread. A cashier wiped down the glass display case and an infant wailed somewhere in the back of the dining area. “And come and live with me, putting yourself under my control and becoming subject to my dark power?”

Guillermo gulped down his nerves, feeling the momentousness of the occasion as he whispered, for the first time, “Yes, master…”

“Wonderful!” Nandor cried with a clap of his hands. “I will reach out to you through the ether after the checking of your background.”

The vampire stood, moving away from the table before Guillermo could formulate a response.

“The...ether?” he finally asked, his brows knitting together in confusion. “How will that work?”

Nandor waved away Guillermo’s confusion with a flick of his wrist and answered, “Very simple. My voice will come to you in the evening before you are a falling into the slumber.”

Guillermo was silent for a beat, wondering how this answer was meant to clear up his confusion. 

“Right,” he finally murmured. “Of course…”

Nandor turned to stalk out the door and Guillermo jogged after him, “Wait! There’s just...just one more thing, before you go.”

Nandor turned back with an annoyed expression, “Yes, what is it? I’m getting pretty hungry over here!”

Guillermo choked down an enthusiastic squeak at this admission and attempted to school his features into neutral calm as he asked, “How do I know you’re legit? Can you...show me proof?”

Nandor’s eyes darkened and he seemed to grow even taller as he turned his full focus on the human man, “You require proof? You require proof from Nandor the Relentless, who has twice turned the waters of the Euphrates red with his enemy’s blood. Proof, you say?!”

“Yeah,” Guillermo shrugged, holding onto what he hoped was an aloof calm as he quaked internally.

Nandor sighed and rolled his eyes as he answered, “Fine! Come with me. Fu-cking guy…”

He led Guillermo to the alleyway behind the Panera. During the day you might find a delivery truck back here or an employee taking out the garbage, but it was deserted at this hour of the night. Nandor stomped ahead of Guillermo, clearly aggravated at this request. He stopped and turned to face the human with a dramatic flare of his cape.

“Prepare your puny mortal brain,” he warned and then, without ceremony, he transformed into a bat.

Guillermo gasped, his face splitting into a wide grin as the tiny, squeaking thing flew circles around his head, landing in the lush curls of his hair for an instant before taking flight once more and erupting back into his vampiric form.

Guillermo rushed up to Nandor’s side, positively gushing, “It’s true! You’re real! A real vampire! Oh my god, I--”

Nandor suddenly broke out into an aggrieved hiss, grimacing and turning his face away.

“Watch it with that shit!” he complained loudly. “You can’t say...the g-word around vampires! You understand?”

Guillermo tilted his head in confusion for a second before realization lit his eyes.

“Oh! The g-word, of course! I’m...I’m sorry, master. I promise I’ll learn quickly,” he babbled. Now that he knew for certain that Nandor was a vampire, he was desperate to land this job. It was everything he’d dreamed of since he was a little kid first watching Antonio Banderas as Armand.

“Yeah, well--you’d better!” Nandor griped, but his face smoothed into a self-satisfied smirk at Guillermo’s obvious hero worship. A thought occured to him as he watched Guillermo’s adoring gaze. “There’s one more thing--I’ve just remembered. You can never fall in love with me, human. I know a lot of vampires who get into the whole sex thing with their familiars and it always ends up...messy. Understand? That’s a condition of your employment.”

Guillermo felt his face once again heating up with mortification. Had he been so transparent?

“Of course, master. I understand,” he murmured. 

Nandor nodded, looking satisfied with Guillermo’s answer.

“Alright, then. Remember, you will hear my voice through the ether! Night, night!”

And then Nandor braced his knees and leaped into the air, soaring over Guillermo’s head and into the night sky.

“Wow!” Guillermo sighed, watching the tiny pinprick that was his vampire disappear into the darkness. “He’s so fucking cool…”

---

Some years later…

Guillermo sat in the fancy room with his legs tucked up underneath him, typing away on his laptop as Nandor fed another piece of wood to the fire. He paused long enough to enjoy the view of his boyfriend’s ample (yet firm!) backside as he bent over the fireplace. 

“Guillermo,” Nandor started, dragging out the last syllable adorably. “What are you working on over there?”

“Why don’t you come here and see?” Guillermo replied with a shy smile. He patted the cushion next to him. He was still bashful about flirting with his master. Their relationship had finally--finally!--advanced after years of longing and pining. But even after a week of learning everything Nandor had to teach him about the joys of vampiric sex, he still felt unaccountably shy about their new relationship status.

Nandor settled down beside him, pressing their sides together and peering down at the thin computing contraption with a look of trepidation. 

“You need to be careful with these things, Guillermo!” Nandor admonished, wrapping an arm around his familiar and pressing his face into the warm crook of his neck. He breathed in his delightful scent before continuing, “There are witches on the internet who can curse you through the electronic post!”

“Don’t worry, mas--Nandor. I’m being very careful,” Guillermo assured him. 

The night they first made love, Guillermo had been overwhelmed, beside himself with a heady mix of physical sensations and emotions. He’d cried out at Nandor’s touch, using the title that he’d been trained to use for almost a decade. Nandor had felt his stomach drop and ice flow through his veins at the sound. “No...no, my Guillermo. Call me Nandor. Please. Call me by my name…”

“What do we have here…?” Nandor pondered, squinting his eyes as he read the text on the screen. “Guillermo! What is this all about!?”

“You said it yourself, Nandor,” he replied with a sly smirk. “Not falling in love with you was a condition of my employment…”

The words hung in the air between them for a moment and Guillermo felt as though he’d just opened up his chest and revealed his beating heart to the vampire’s hungry gaze. 

Nandor’s dark eyes softened and sparkled in the firelight as he murmured, “Oh, my Guillermo… I--I love you too.”

Nandor took the laptop and set it on the coffee table before taking Guillermo into his arms and laying kiss after kiss across his sweet face. 

“Are you ready?” Nandor’s voice was hushed. Guillermo looked up at him and was awestruck all over again at his luck. That such a man could love little ole Memo.

“Yeah, just--hang on a sec,” he said, leaning over Nandor’s lap to reach the computer and hitting “enter.” He fell back into Nandor’s arms, looking up at him with perfect trust and saying, for the last time, “Yes, Master. I’m ready.”

---

Vampire Couple seeking Human Familiar (Staten Island)

Do you long to explore the hidden world of magical creatures all around you? Do you have a strong stomach? A career as a vampire’s familiar might be for you!

Nandor the Relentless and Guillermo the Great seek a human assistant to do their dark bidding...

[tabloidtoc]

In Touch, August 24

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Pregnant Meghan Markle finally talks

Page 1: Contents 

Page 4: What’s going on with The Bachelorette 

Page 5: What should be a happy memory for Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively their wedding day now only brings shame because they were married on a plantation that once housed about 85 slaves, Candor of the Week -- Ellen Pompeo on why she’s stayed with Grey’s Anatomy for 15 years, Restriction of the Week -- Prince William on his staff controlling his Twitter account, Number of the Week -- 14 marriage proposals Martha Stewart got after posting a sultry pool selfie, Man Candy of the Week -- Jemel McWilliams

Page 6: Crib of the Week -- Calvin Harris has listed his bachelor pad in L.A.’s famed Hollywood Hills for $5.5 million, Makeover of the Week -- Reign Disick’s shaved head that Kourtney Kardashian is not OK with, Winners of the Week -- Who’s the Boss fans is coming back with original stars Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano, Loser of the Week -- Jake Paul’s Calabasas home gets raided by the FBI

Page 8: Up Close -- Duchess Kate Middleton helps unpack donations at Baby Basics (full page)

Page 10: Vegging Out -- Katie Couric with a zucchini the size of a baby, Justin Long and cucumbers, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and tomatoes 

Page 12: Mask Up -- Charlize Theron at a drive-in screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, Justin Theroux bikes on the streets of NYC

Page 14: Dog Days of Summer -- Kevin Hart and his dog by the pool 

Page 15: Salma Hayek gives her dog a bath, PLEASE ADOPT, DON’T SHOP 

Page 17: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Garner both newly single sparked romance rumors when the former co-stars met up for a beach date with Bradley’s daughter Lea 

Page 18: Kit Harington adjusts himself in public (full page)

Page 19: Adele paying her respects to Beyonce’s Black Is King while wearing the same crescent moon print, Kaia Gerber and Cara Delevingne share a sweater Taylor Swift sent to a select group of fans to promote her single Cardigan 

Page 20: Cover Story -- Meghan Markle breaks her silence -- she wants to set the record straight about the controversial new book Finding Freedom 

Page 22: While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new life in America is engulfed in drama back in the U.K. Prince William and Princess Kate looked more at ease than ever as they did charity work amid the COVID-19 pandemic 

Page 24: What Portia de Rossi knows -- is Ellen DeGeneres a secret meanie? Portia has seen it all 

Page 26: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West battle over the prenup -- the gloves are off as Kim and Kanye go to war over their prenup after a make-or-break vacation 

Page 28: Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn secretly engaged -- Taylor is ready for her happy ending as she accepts longtime boyfriend Joe’s proposal

Page 30: Beth Ailes the widow of disgraced Fox News CEO Roger Ailes insists Megyn Kelly’s claim that she was sexually harassed by Roger is untrue and that Megyn turned against her boss after a decades-long friendship because he reprimanded her for trying to negotiate her salary in the press 

Page 31: A former employee at Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant SUR has filed a class action lawsuit alleging the reality star failed to compensate workers properly, after welcoming their first child together daughter Lyla Katherine Schwarzenegger and Chris Pratt spent the first days showing her off to family 

Page 34: The Big Interview -- Shay Mitchell on not rushing into marriage -- she’d rather go to other people’s weddings -- the actress and new mom has no intention of tying the knot anytime soon 

Page 38: Beauty Buzz -- Tool Time -- Jennifer Aniston 

Page 40: Entertainment 

Page 42: Animal Overload -- My dog looks like Lin-Manuel Miranda 

Page 45: Double Take -- Jersey Shore’s Vinny Guadagnino does some yard work in Staten Island 

Page 46: Horoscope -- Leo James Corden turned 42 on August 22 

Page 48: Last Laughs 

[hunnywrites]

Arcade Dreams: Chapter Twenty One

Summary: There’s a new girl working at the Palace Arcade and Hawkins’ Family Video. Billy can’t stand her, and the feeling is mutual. No matter what everyone else seems to think.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/OFC

A/N: It’s a Thanksgiving miracle I’ve finally finished the chapter. I’m sorry this is so late! We’re heading into the summer of ‘85 now, but don’t worry! I’ll be writing a few chapters of Chasing Yesterday to fill in the spaces between Billy and Teddi moving in together and now. I just didn’t want things to feel too clunky. This chapter also ends a tad awkwardly, but I’m breaking it into two parts so the chapters don’t get too long. Hope you enjoy!

The Hawkins public pool was packed to the brim with people. As Teddi hopped out of her van and made her way through the parking lot, the sound of splashing, kids yelling and laughing and the Power of Love playing on someone’s boombox nearby grew louder and louder. Today was her day off, but since everyone she knew was working Teddi decided laying out by the pool was probably a better decision than staying home and watching Star Trek reruns all day. 

Teddi made her way inside the gates, passing the bulletin board that read “Meet our ‘85 swim season lifeguards’ in large yellow letters. Teddi’s photo was between Heather and Billy’s. Her hair was longer than it had been when she moved to Hawkins and no longer platinum. Heather had helped her dye it a more natural, golden, honey blonde at the beginning of the summer. The silver ring that had been through her right nostril had been replaced with a thin gold ring that Billy had gotten her simply to match the small gold hoop that was in his ear now (the silver dangly earring Billy had been wearing before was now in Teddi’s ear). Teddi was smiling brightly at the camera, which was a stark contrast from the cool, almost bored expression that was on Billy’s face in his photo. 

“Hey, Katie.” she said with a smile as she passed by the front desk. Katie was sitting with her feet up on the counter and a magazine in her lap. Katie threw a wave in Teddi’s direction, not bothering to look up. Heather was perched up in the lifeguard’s chair, glaring down at a group of kids who were running over to the diving boards. Heather waved at her before blowing her whistle at the kids loudly. 

Teddi walked over to the tiny snack bar window, smiling tentatively at the girl on the other side. Cheryl Burns had gotten a job at the pool at the beginning of the summer. Initially she had applied to be a lifeguard, but had quickly changed her mind. “You mean if someone totally disgusting starts drowning or whatever I have to like...give them mouth to mouth? Gross. No thanks.” were her exact words. So Freddy had stuck her at the snack bar. She of course hated it. 

Cheryl’s strawberry blonde hair sat high up on her head in a ponytail. She brushed her feathered bangs out of her eyes, her eyebrows raising expectantly at Teddi. “...Coke, please.” Teddi squeaked out. Cheryl was an intimidating girl, and she knew it. Sometimes Teddi was certain that Cheryl enjoyed making her nervous. 

Cheryl set down the can of coke in front of Teddi, sneering at it in disgust. “I don’t know how you drink that shit,” she jabbed one of her long, painted nails at the “New Coke” logo. “They totally ruined it.” she held her out towards Teddi. 

Teddi dropped her change into Cheryl’s hand. “It’s not that bad...you get used to it.” 

Cheryl rolled her eyes. “I’d rather shove old man Myers’ speedo in my mouth,” she scoffed, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. Cheryl was also the most dramatic person Teddi had ever met. Cheryl looked back at the red clock on the wall behind her, a smirk forming on her lips as she leaned forward. “Here comes lover boy,” she said in a sweet, sing songy tone, nodding her head towards the locker rooms. 

Teddi turned just as Billy was walking out. While Teddi enjoyed the summer time, Billy came alive in it. It brought out the Cali boy in him like flowers that bloomed with the warm weather. His sandy blonde hair had turned a few shades lighter in the sun. His skin was a deep, golden bronze. Billy had gotten a new air of confidence about him ever since he’d move out, but now it was something different. Something that Teddi wasn’t the only one to notice. 

Karen Wheeler and a few of the other moms showed up to the pool every day around mid afternoon for Billy’s shift. They weren’t very secretive about it either. Heather would climb down from the lifeguard chair and each of them would start adjusting their swimsuits and makeup while they waited for Billy to come out. 

“Look at them,” Cheryl scoffed. “It’s so gross how they’re all drooling over him. I mean, Karen has a kid his age. And like he’d want some dried up old hag anyways,” she said with an eye roll. “You should go over there and like french him or something and tell that tacky bitch to back off. I mean, who the fuck wears a pearl necklace to a pool?” 

Teddi couldn’t help but laugh. She pulled her eyes from Billy, turning back to Cheryl. “Cheryl, do you always have to be so...blunt?” she asked, taking a sip of her coke. 

Cheryl pursed her glossy lips. “I’m a leo. It’s what we do,” she said matter of factly. Teddi coughed on her soda, sputtering loudly. “Jesus, Larsson. Say it, don’t spray it.” Cheryl frowned, leaning away from Teddi. 

“Sorry,” Teddi cleared her throat. “Sorry...I’m gonna go. Always a pleasure chatting with you, Cheryl.” she gave the blonde an awkward salute, wincing at herself as she spun around on her heel and heading over to Billy. 

Billy smirked down at Teddi as he watched her approach him, pushing his sunglasses down his nose to look at her. “You stalkin’ me, Larsson?” he teased. Teddi stepped up onto a bar at the bottom of the lifeguard chair, balancing carefully as she reached up to kiss Billy. She laughed when she felt his fingers slipping into the back of her cut off shorts, smacking his hand away. No doubt a show for the group of eyes that were glaring a hole into Teddi behind her. 

“Aren’t you a little over dressed for the pool?” he asked, his hand resting on her lower back. 

“Cool your jets. I’m gonna change,” she rolled her eyes. “Are you busy tomorrow?” 

Billy looked at her cooly. “...Depends.” 

Teddi let out a huff. “Depends on what?” 

“On what you’re gonna ask me to do...and which bikini you’re wearing under there.” he was smirking again.

Teddi pulled a face, popping her hip slightly and raising an eyebrow. “Who says I’m wearing anything under this?” 

Billy’s smirk twitched just slightly before he looked over the top of his glasses at her again, his eyes trained on the white crop top that was covered in little daisies that Teddi was wearing before looking back at her. “...Where am I going?” 

Teddi laughed. Sometimes it was just too easy. “It’s El’s birthday tomorrow. Hop’s having a party for her at the cabin and then she and Max are sleeping over at our place.” dinner at Hopper’s cabin had become a regular weekly thing for Billy and Teddi. He’d started to invite them over after the fight between Billy and Tommy. Billy had of course been closed off to the idea at first. Teddi had gone to the cabin alone for about the first three weeks before she convinced him to join her. 

“You want me to go to some 13 year old’s birthday party?” he asked.

“She’s 14 now.”

“Whatever.” 

“Oh come on,” Teddi huffed. “It’ll be fun. There’s cake. How can you say no to cake?” 

Billy held up his hands. “I’ll go. But don’t expect me to play pin the tail on the donkey or whatever the hell those little dorks do at parties,” he grumbled. Teddi rolled her eyes. “Speaking of birthdays...what do you wanna do for yours?” 

Teddi let out a groan. Her 18th birthday was in a week and she’d been trying her damndest not to think about it. “I don’t know...do we have to do anything?” 

Billy shot her a look. “If I tried that with my birthday would that work?” 

Teddi sighed “No…”

“What’d you used to do back home?” he asked. 

Teddi thought about it. Birthdays in her family had never really been a very big deal. Her parents hadn’t even celebrated their own unless you counted the fancy new purse her dad would buy her mother every year. “...Me and Hannah would drive into the city and we’d ride the Staten Island ferry back and forth for a few hours and smoke weed.” she finally said.

Billy laughed. “Jesus, Larsson. As fun as that sounds, you got any other ideas?”

“Well what did you do for your 18th birthday?” she asked with an irritated sigh. 

Billy smirked. “Cheryl.” he said with a snort. 

“Ugh. You’re disgusting,” she groaned, Billy chuckling at her. “As fun as that sounds, I think I’d rather just go to the movies or something. Maybe we can go to Starcourt and bring Max and El.” she suggested. 

Billy’s smile faltered for just a moment. “Whatever you say, Birthday Girl.” he said cooly. 

Teddi frowned slightly, pulling away from him. “...I’m gonna go find a lounger and read for awhile. You gonna come see me after you’re done up here?” she asked. Billy’s smile was back as he nodded and leaned in to kiss her again as if nothing had happened. Teddi hopped down, not looking at Karen and her friends as she passed them and headed for an empty chair by the pool. 

She started to wonder almost obsessively about the look on Billy’s face when she suggested going to the movies as she peeled her crop top and shorts off. She knew that he was watching her strip down to her bright green bikini, but didn’t turn to look at him. Had he maybe planned something different? Was it because she wanted to go with El and Max? When it came to Billy there was really no telling what was going on in his head.

Teddi let out a heavy sigh, plopping down onto the white lounger and pulling her copy of the Fellowship of the Rings out of her bag. With her sunglasses on, she allowed herself to peek back at Billy as she pretended to read. He was watching her with a sort of confused frown before his jaw set tightly and he turned away from her. 

He was definitely up to something. 

---

Teddi was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, chewing on her bottom lip as she carefully folded the bright purple wrapping paper around the stack of books she’d gotten El for her birthday. Teddi had picked them out carefully. There was the Princess Bride, Alice in Wonderland and the Last Unicorn; each bound in intricate covers with a short message that Teddi had written inside each of them. 

The phone started ringing as she scrawled From Teddi and Billy on the little tag she’d stuck to the wrapping paper. “I got it,” Billy called from his room. Teddi didn’t pay much attention to him. She grabbed a smaller present, wrapped in the same purple paper, and set it on top of the other, larger present. “Yeah?...Oh, yeah hi,” Billy threw a look over at Teddi before he turned from her, lowering his voice to speak to whoever was on the other end. 

Teddi watched him with a frown. She grabbed the TV remote, muting the Starcourt commercial that was playing so she could hear a little better. “Just give me like...an hour. I’ll be there. Yeah. Alright, I’ll see you then.” Billy hung up. He turned, going still when he met Teddi’s eyes. She crossed her arms. 

“Who was that?” she asked. 

Billy shifted awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nobody...uh, look Ted, I know I said I’d go to El’s party…”

“You’re cancelling? Billy, we were supposed to leave like ten minutes ago.” she huffed. Teddi stood, scooping the gifts into her arms. 

“Something came up is all. I gotta…” he shook his head. “I just gotta be somewhere, okay? El’s not gonna give a shit that I’m not there.” his tone was starting to get a little colder. Like Teddi was accusing him of something. It only made her more suspicious. 

“You know that that’s not true,” she argued. While Teddi and El had grown significantly closer over the last few months, Billy had also (begrudgingly) bonded with her much to Teddi’s surprise. “What’s going on here? You’re acting really weird. Why can’t I know where you’re going?”

She was trying to keep her tone light, playful. She even let out a little laugh at the end like she was teasing him. Billy’s jaw clenched, and Teddi’s stomach dropped. “...I gotta go. I’ll see you later. Tell El I said happy birthday.” he muttered, grabbing his keys and quickly walking out. 

Teddi glared at the door. The Camaro’s engine rumbled in the distance, slowly disappearing as Billy drove off. “Of all the nights to pull this shit…” she mumbled to herself, nearly stomping over to the kitchen counter and snatching up her keys. She spent the drive back into Hawkins going over theories to herself. Teddi found herself feeling ashamed when she wondered if maybe there was someone else. 

She liked to think that if Billy was cheating on her he’d hide it better. Or maybe that was just her ego. It was Billy after all. Teddi let out a heavy sigh. It had to be something else. She just had absolutely no idea what it could be. 

When she arrived at the cabin she pushed Billy from her mind. She wouldn’t let this ruin the party. Teddi grabbed the presents, hopping out of the van and heading up the porch, her boots thumping against the old wood. Hopper answered when she knocked.

“Hey, kiddo,” he grinned down at her, his eyes immediately looking over to the empty space beside her. “...No Billy?” he asked, his eyebrows raised. 

“Something came up last minute,” she explained, trying to keep her tone neutral. “It’s probably for the best. I’m sure he’d complain about the cake ruining his physique or something.”

Hopper chuckled and stepped aside to let Teddi in. He’d traded in his uniform for some jeans an old plaid button up. Teddi always thought he looked less intimidating in his own clothes. More like a dad that liked to tell cheesy jokes...which was exactly what Hopper was. 

The kids were all already there aside from Dustin, who was off at summer camp. They were all crowded around the dinner table playing a game of Candyland. The cabin was decorated with colorful streamers, balloons and a big banner that read Happy Birthday! was hanging above the kitchen. There was a small cake sitting out on the counter waiting for it’s candles. It was a soft yellow color with bright pink piping and Happy Birthday El scrawled in shaky lettering that Teddi assumed belonged to Hopper. 

“Teddi!” El said, smiling brightly at her before pushing her chair back and hurrying over to the blonde. Teddi set her presents aside before wrapping her in a tight hug.

“Jeez, Ellie Bean. When’d you get so tall? I don’t have to bend down to hug you anymore.” she laughed. All of the kids had hit a growth spurt over the summer. Teddi no longer towered over them. She wasn’t really sure when it had happened exactly. It was like one day suddenly Mike was taller than she was and she’d nearly had an existential crisis. 

El let out a small laugh. “Hop says I’m not allowed to get any taller.” 

“He’s right.” Teddi muttered. 

“...Where’s Billy?” El asked, peering out one of the front windows as if she expected to see Billy smoking out on the porch.  

Teddi winced a little at her disappointed expression. “He’s not gonna be able to make it. Something came up, I guess. He told me to tell you happy birthday.”

That had gotten Max’s attention. The redhead looked away from the board game, looking at Teddi suspiciously. “What do you mean something came up? Did you guys break up?” she asked.

Teddi let out a sigh. “No...it’s a long story. I’d rather not talk about it.” she mumbled, heading over to the fridge to grab a drink. El and Max shared a knowing look. They’d agree to drop the subject. For now. 

“Hey, how come we can’t go to the sleepover?” Lucas asked as Teddi pulled a seat up to the game. 

Max rolled her eyes. “Because it’s a girl’s night, genius. None of you are girls.”

“That’s pretty sexist of you guys.” Mike argued. 

Hopper scoffed loudly from his spot on the couch. “Quit while you’re behind, Wheeler.” 

“What do you guys even do during a girl’s night?” Lucas asked, looking between the three girls. 

“Summon demons.” Teddi said with a straight face.

Mike, Lucas and Will all shared a look. “...I’m pretty sure she’s kidding.” Will finally decided. 

After the game of Candyland (Mike won, but Lucas had accused him of cheating) they all crowded around El to sing happy birthday and eat cake. After the presents had been opened, Teddi held up the smaller gift she had wrapped earlier, motioning to El to follow her out to the porch. 

She handed the small, but long box to the teen with an almost embarrassed look. El smiled at her, making quick work of ripping the paper open. Inside the white box was quite frankly one of the tackiest necklaces Teddi had ever seen. It had a clunky, golden chain and a deep blue stone at the end of it. In the stone there was a constellation that was almost crudely carved into the stone. 

“When I was little and my dad started working for the city, he took me and my mom to this state fair so he could make himself look good for his bosses. There were all these game stands, and one of them was this little pool that had these little rubber ducks in it. You got to pick three of them, and if you picked the right one you got a prize. So I begged him over and over to let me play and I ended up winning that horrible necklace,” she said, her and El both laughing. “It’s how I found out I was a gemini. The girl that worked at the stand was a total hippie and gave it to me when I told her my birthday. The stone is supposed to be our birthstone and then that’s the gemini constellation...I don’t know. I found it again after I moved in with Billy and I thought you should have it. It’s ugly in kind of a cool way.”

El held the necklace up, smiling up at Teddi. “I love it.” 

“Yeah?” Teddi asked, letting out a relieved sigh. “Good! Here,” she took the necklace from El, twirling her finger to tell her to turn around and clasped it around her neck. El turned back towards Teddi, taking the small pendant between her fingers. “Perfect. Come on, we should go get Max and head out before Hop tries to kill Mike.” Teddi snickered. 

The two girls headed inside, El hurrying over to Max and pulling her to her room to grab their things. Hopper looked so relieved Teddi thought he might cry. He stood up from the couch, waving his hands at the door. “Alright, boys, the party’s over. You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell outta my house.” 

“This is totally unfair!” Mike complained. “I can’t spend time with my girlfriend on her birthday because of girl’s night?” 

“How ‘bout you complain to someone who cares, Wheeler. Let’s go.” Hopper said, herding him towards the door. El and Max came running back out, arms full with their bags and sleeping bags. Lucas and Will wished her happy birthday again before practically dragging Mike out to their bikes. 

“Don’t worry chief, I’ll take good care of them,” Teddi said, placing her hands on El and Max’s heads. “We’re gonna make crank calls and break out the ouija board.”

Hopper smiled thinly at her. “Funny. You two be good, alright? No boys or ritual sacrifices,” he leaned forward, hugging El and placing a kiss on her head. “Happy birthday, kid.” he said, smiling down fondly at his daughter. 

Once the three girls were in the van and headed back for the apartment, Max spoke up. “So...what’s going on with Billy? Is he being an ass again?”

“What happened to not talking about it?” Teddi asked. 

“Why not? The boys aren’t here. So, what did he do? What was this thing that suddenly came up?” Max asked, leaning forward excitedly. 

Teddi looked at the two girls in the rearview mirror before letting out a sigh. “...I’m not really sure yet. Someone called right before we were supposed to leave for the party and he said he had to go. And when I asked him what was going on he got all...weird.” 

Max and El looked at each other. “Weird how? Like weird weird, or Billy weird?” 

“Billy weird. He’s been acting like this all day. Like he’s keeping a secret or something.”

“We should find him.” El said with a firm nod. 

Teddi laughed. “Find him and do what? Spy on him?” 

Max looked at her as if the answer was obvious. “Duh. If he’s with someone else you can catch him in the act and dump his ass.”

Teddi actually considered it for a moment before shaking her head. “That’s insane. What about the sleepover? And how would we even find him? You want me to drive all around Hawkins all night?” 

“We can still have the sleepover later,” Max shook her head. El shot her best friend a brief, knowing look. Max looked back at Teddi with an unsure expression. “...El can find him.”

“Oh yeah? How?”

El smiled at Teddi sheepishly. “...Long story.” 

[antoine-roquentin]

Many social scientists who study climate change are driven at least in part by political commitments—including us. We want a safer, more equal world. We want to work in partnership with people outside the academy who share those commitments, and these guide our research.

Climate social science troubles our commitments, both in the ordinary ways that complexity challenges pre-existing belief, and in the particular way that climate change’s tense timeline seems to compel. These political contradictions play out in two distinct but interrelated ways: through the uses (and abuses) of climate discourse to compel certain kinds of dispossession and unequal resource distribution, and the tensions between the ways in which strategies for addressing climate change have different and unequal impacts in different ecological and political economic contexts. We address each of these tensions in turn below.

First, climate change is not only embedded with social and political relations that we need urgently to understand, but the idea of climate change is also a discursive battleground in political struggles. Specifically, discourses about climate crisis can be used, in their more techno-scientific iterations, to depoliticize the historical social relations shaping the vulnerability of the poor and racialized, potentially exacerbating the unequal distribution of power. Take Bangladesh, perhaps the global climate justice movement’s favorite example of a climate victim. There, local political activists are daily battling shrimp farming and agrarian-development policies that are lauded as necessary and inevitable adaptations to climate change.9 As Kasia Paprocki shows, the urgency of climate change is often used there as cover by local and global development elites who are pursuing ecologically and socially harmful forms of economic development. During a historic drought in São Paulo, the site of Cohen’s research, a conservative governor blamed climate change, when in fact the water shortage was predictable, had occurred in similar form over a decade earlier, and was worsened by the semiprivate water utility that same governor oversaw. Moreover, the association with climate change sought to naturalize the unequal ways in which water use was curbed, disproportionately drying the taps of the poor and racialized.10 In both contexts, our engagement with the politics of climate change forces us to grapple with the uncomfortable possibility that oversimplifying these ecological conditions as “climate change” might lead to a reductionism that makes dispossession seem inevitable.11

Yet, in other contexts, retaining climate change as a political category does quite the opposite. If climate science projections can be wielded for nefarious ends, making climate knowledge itself a material force, the very same climate science has been wielded by other actors to forge more hopeful alliances. Also in São Paulo, housing movements have used basic facts about residential density and emissions to argue that a genuinely low-carbon city would have to be organized around affordable working-class housing in central and well-connected areas.12 Indeed, the best carbon footprint analysis suggests that affordable housing and good public services (including transit) anchor the most sustainable and livable neighborhoods.13 An even more immediate example is the renewed battle for a Green New Deal, through which a giant coalition of eco-socialists, labor organizers, housing movements, farmers, and ranchers find common cause in climate change discourse to assemble a collective movement for climate justice. Of course, this nascent movement finds purpose precisely in uniting a plethora of political perspectives and demands. Our job as ethnographically minded researchers is explicitly not to edit out all the “noise,” but to embrace it in assembling an account of how climate politics manifest across radically different social, economic, and spatial formations.

Second, understanding these different conditions helps us see that equitable climate-change adaptation will look different in different contexts. The same strategies for adaptation applied universally will not result in climate justice. A key example is in debates over whether and how climate change will require the movement of peoples and communities away from vulnerable ecological hotspots and rising seas. This manifests as struggles over the contested necessity and inevitability of planned retreat.

As Liz Koslov describes in her research, in Staten Island, where communities hard hit by Hurricane Sandy went on to vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and were largely “agnostic” on the question of climate change, social movements composed of waterfront homeowners were also amongst the first in the country to advocate in serious and concrete ways for state buyouts as a strategy to support retreat—a potentially transformative mode of climate change adaptation.14 Conversely, in coastal Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) supported by the World Bank has promoted a vision of retreat that would involve massive displacement of rural residents in favor of export-oriented production in distant cities.15 Local social movements of landless peasants argue that this dispossession is not inevitable (nor related to climate change)—rather, it is the result of an ongoing process of development through structural adjustment and export-led economic growth.16

Reflecting on these dramatically different movements forces uncomfortable questions about planned retreat as a strategy for adapting to climate change. Who does it serve and what are its politics? Our analyses indicate that these answers cannot be oversimplified; they must always be understood in context and in conversation with local communities. Struggling with these uncomfortable questions is productive because it helps us to better understand and articulate how climate politics is always and already embedded in the social worlds that our disciplines have prepared us to understand.

[genexjoycex-blog]

GENE JOYCE is a 34 year old HOMOSEXUAL CIS MALE that was born on JANUARY 7. He live in STATEN ISLAND, but they’re originally from QUEENS, NY. They are a TELEVISION METEOROLOGIST for a living, and often get told they look like JAMES LAFFERTY. we wish them the best of luck in the city that never sleeps! 

Hello, all! This is Gene. You can find some info about him below, but please do feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to connect, plot, and write together!

Gene has a handful of early memories of living with a birth mother until the age of three, at which time he was placed into foster care. He was adopted by the Joyce family of Queens, NY at the age of six. 

His childhood was comfortable if not doting. His mother, a secretary at a burgeoning public relations firm in the city, was certainly a loving, if somewhat timid, woman who may have had difficulty adjusting to an older child in her home. His father was firm at best, domineering at worst.

He was active in his family’s church growing up, first as an altar server but then as a lector and Eucharistic minister. He attended Catholic school through the twelfth grade.  

A growth spurt in his freshman year made Gene into something of a second-tier athlete. Although he was not particularly good, he secured a spot on his school’s wrestling team and was a founding member of a short-lived boxing club.

An injury in said boxing club benched him for a semester but allowed him to take up additional hobbies, including the school radio station, where he primarily got stuck reading morning announcements. 

Gene then attended Cornell University and earned an undergraduate and then Master’s degree in meteorology. 

Relocating to New Jersey, he worked as a weatherman for a local television station for several years. He jokes it was the dental veneers that eventually got him over the Bayonne Bridge to New York. No one thinks this joke is funny. 

As a midday weekday meteorologist for WNBC, he ferries to work each morning from Staten Island and then back each evening. He makes jokes to strangers about the movie Working Girl.

No one thinks those jokes are funny either. 

[crestviewbpublicadjusterbest]

Public Adjuster in Brooklyn, NY

Public Adjuster in Brooklyn is a professional who specializes in insurance claims. They are hired by people who have suffered damage to their property due to an accident or natural disaster. The adjuster will then work with the insurance company on behalf of the victim, to make sure that they are compensated for the damage done.

Best public adjuster are not lawyers and they do not provide legal advice. They help you negotiate with your insurance company and make sure that you get what you need in order to recover from the damages done to your property.

Common insurance claims to hire a public adjuster

While there may be many reasons to hire a public adjuster, the most common insurance claims Public Adjuster can help with are natural disasters. These include flooding, fire, theft, water damage, and mold.

Some other types of insurance claims are cyber security issues, business interruption (for business owners), and theft. If any of these happened to you, and you’re not sure what step to take to ensure that you’re fully compensated, call Crestview Public Adjusters today for a free consultation.

Not from Brooklyn? We manage claims across New York, including The Bronx and Sayville.

Crestview can manage your NY insurance claim

Searching for the best public adjuster in New York can be overwhelming. You probably already recognize that not all public adjusters are equal. Make sure you find an experienced public adjuster who has specific experience in the area that you’re seeking assistance with.

It is also necessary for the public adjuster to be available at all hours of the day because natural disasters can happen at any time. Crestview Public Adjusters has recovered millions of dollars for its clients and may be able to help you do the same. Call today for a free consultation.

About Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn is one of the most populous cities in the United States and is the second-largest borough of New York City. It is geographically adjacent to Long Island and includes several bridge and tunnel connections to Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Brooklyn has a long and rich history, dating back to its founding as an independent Dutch colony in 1636. Since then, it has been a major melting pot of cultures from around the world, resulting in a unique and diverse community. Today, Brooklyn is home to more than 2.6 million people from all walks of life, making it one of the most vibrant and exciting places to live in New York City.

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City, and is known for its diverse population, hipster culture, and spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline. Brooklyn has something for everyone, whether you’re looking for a night out on the town or a day of exploring. Here are some things to do in Brooklyn:

Visit the Brooklyn Museum, which houses art from ancient Egyptian to contemporary times. Take a stroll through Prospect Park, Brooklyn’s version of Central Park. Check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is home to more than 14,000 species of plants. For a taste of local flavor, head to the Brooklyn Flea Market, where you can find vintage clothes, handmade jewelry, and delicious food.

Real Results:

Brooklyn, NY – A hail/windstorm storm caused siding damage and the client experienced water damage throughout the house. The insurance company originally claimed the damage was because of normal wear and tear and Crestview was able to negotiate a settlement with the insurance carrier for over $60,000.

Brooklyn, NY – The mainline sewer was backed up inside the clients finished basement which caused water damage throughout the entire basement. The insurance offered $25,000 and Crestview was able to negotiate a $45,000 settlement.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to our Election Update for Wednesday, Sept. 19!

The most likely scenario in the upcoming midterm elections: split control of Congress. As of Tuesday evening,1 the Classic version of our model gave Republicans a 7 in 10 chance of keeping control of the Senate, slightly better than when we launched the forecast, and gave Democrats a 4 in 5 chance of flipping the House. That’s close to the highest odds for taking the House that Democrats have had since the beginning of August.

As I wrote last Wednesday, 21 U.S. House seats fit in the middle of the Venn diagram between “districts carried by Barack Obama in 2012” and “districts carried by Donald Trump in 2016.” These districts aren’t quite as fertile for Democratic gains this year as Romney-Clinton districts, but they are nonetheless a competitive batch of seats — so let’s take a closer look at the data behind our forecasts in each of them.

Nine district where Democrats are playing defense

First, nine of the 21 aren’t Democratic pick-up opportunities at all; they’re already held by a Democratic representative, so Republicans are the ones playing offense. However, as of Tuesday evening, our model gave the GOP a greater than 28 percent chance in just two of those nine: the Minnesota 1st District and Minnesota 8th District. Both are working-class districts in Greater Minnesota where the incumbents are stepping aside. Both were closely divided in 2012, but Trump won them by 15 points or more in 2016. In the 1st, an internal poll by the GOP showed Republican Jim Hagedorn with a 14-point lead, which was enough to cause our model to favor Hagedorn. In the 8th, a poll showing a slight Democratic lead balances out slightly GOP-leaning fundamentals (Republican Pete Stauber has raised more money) to produce a race that is close to 50-50.

Four districts where Republicans should hold on

Of the 12 Obama-Trump districts currently represented by a Republican, four will be particularly hard for Democrats to flip — as of Tuesday evening, our model rated them all “likely Republican.” Interestingly, all four are in New York, specifically in some of the state’s Trumpiest corners, like Long Island, Staten Island and the North Country. The 21st District is the safest for the GOP; Rep. Elise Stefanik won by more than 35 points in 2016 and hasn’t been afraid to buck her party in roll-call votes. In the 1st District, Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin has outraised Democrat Perry Gershon in contributions from individuals, $2.0 million to $855,000.2 In the 2nd District, GOP Rep. Peter King is an entrenched incumbent (first elected in 1992) who won by 24 points in 2016, although somewhat surprisingly, his individual contributions slightly trail his Democratic opponent’s. And finally, Republican Rep. Dan Donovan won the New York 11th District by 25 points in 2016 but, so far in 2018, has been outraised in individual contributions, $1.6 million to $1.0 million.

But there’s one important caveat to our analysis: We haven’t found a single public poll in any of the four races, so our Classic and Deluxe forecasts are based largely on the districts’ fundamentals (e.g., past election results and fundraising). Ideally, we’ll get a bunch of survey results on these races — the more polling available for a race, the more our model can rely on polls as opposed to just fundamentals.

Five toss-up districts

Polls are much more plentiful in the five Obama-Trump districts that our model rated as a “toss-up.” We’ve collected four polls so far in the New York 19th District, and six in the New Jersey 3rd. Both average out (once house effects and other adjustments are accounted for) to a GOP lead of less than 1 percentage point. As for the fundamentals, the Democratic challengers in both districts have raised more than double the individual contributions of their Republican opponents, and both Rep. Tom MacArthur and Rep. John Faso have relatively maverick-y voting records. Yet the fundamentals favor the Democrat in New York and the Republican in New Jersey, largely because the two incumbents do not have equally strong electoral track records. MacArthur didn’t face a competitive race in the New Jersey 3rd in 2016, whereas Faso had a scare in the New York 19th.

Next up, in the Maine 2nd District, two polls (once adjusted for the pollsters’ statistical bias) give Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin a narrow lead, while a third shows the Democrat, Jared Golden, slightly ahead. (The district’s fundamentals are virtually split between the two parties.) The other two toss-ups are the Illinois 12th District and Iowa 3rd District. In Illinois, both the polls and fundamentals point to a very close race. The 12th District is quite red (it is 13 points more Republican-leaning than the nation as a whole, according to our partisan lean metric3), but Democrat Brendan Kelly has raised more in individual contributions than GOP Rep. Mike Bost (are you sensing a pattern?). But in Iowa, the fundamentals point to a 5-point Democratic win: The 3rd District is, after all, just an R+2 district in a very Democratic-leaning environment. However, the polling suggests the opposite: that the Republican “should” win by 7 points, largely thanks to one recent outlier poll that gave Rep. David Young a 16-point lead (before our adjustments).

Three districts likely to flip to Democrats

Finally, our forecast rated three Obama-Trump districts as “likely Democratic.” The New Jersey 2nd District is an open seat being vacated by GOP Rep. Frank LoBiondo, but national Republicans pulled all support from their candidate, who has raised a relatively paltry amount of money and has some serious PR problems (see below). In the Minnesota 2nd, an internal poll gave GOP Rep. Jason Lewis a 1-point lead, but when that’s adjusted for the pollster’s statistical bias toward Republicans, it translates to a nearly 7-point lead for the Democratic challenger. Lewis also sits in a closely divided district (R+2) that he barely won in 2016, which suggests it should be Democratic-leaning in 2018’s political environment. The story is similar in the Iowa 1st District, a D+1 district where Republican Rep. Rod Blum is currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, which hurts him in our fundamentals calculations. And although these missteps don’t factor into our model, Republican candidates in both the New Jersey 2nd and Minnesota 2nd have also become embroiled in controversy — in their case, by circulating racist and sexist comments.

[daloy-politsey]

When Laurel was a child, before the current conflict began in Syria, his family moved to Saudi Arabia for his father’s work. The business thrived, but the boy did not. He says Saudi Arabia was not a welcoming place for a disabled foreigner who was prone to asking questions, and he felt that he was considered “a burden on society.” The word from the country he left was not encouraging, either: the family home had been broken into. Friends were killed. A cousin, forced to join the join the Syrian army, died in service. An uncle simply disappeared.

Despite not speaking a word of English, he applied to study the language in the U.S. He was granted a student visa on his third attempt. Laurel left Saudi Arabia alone, buying a ticket on borrowed cash, and flew to Los Angeles — a place he picked because he knew of it, and because he thought wrongly that Harvard, which he had heard described online as the best college in the U.S., must be nearby. He spent one night in a hotel and left his luggage in the lobby; he never returned for it, unable to find his way back, and began sleeping in a park instead.

...

Laurel began the process of applying for affirmative asylum, as opposed to a defensive application. In this situation, people who have come to the U.S. legally but temporarily bring their cases to the asylum office. They undergo a full background check, with fingerprinting, and then are thoroughly interviewed by officials about their claims. The process often takes months, depending on the backlog.

He remembers the immigration interview as terrifying. Though he had already written out his statement explaining why he could not return to Syria — detailing the abuse he had suffered for being different from others, the fear he felt about what would happen if he were forced to return to a war zone — he found that it was something else to speak those words in front of an interpreter, his lawyer and an immigration officer, knowing that more people were listening in on the phone.

...

By this point, Laurel had been living in a shelter for young people and attending a public high school in L.A. His English had become strong. But in the summer of 2015, he found himself in a bind: his educational assistance was contingent on having a permanent address, while the shelter he was in would not allow him to stay longer because he received social security benefits for his disability. So he decided to move to New York City. A new city would be nothing compared to moving to a new country, he thought.

Once again homeless, he was in Union Square during rush hour when, in what might be called the second serendipitous chapter of Laurel’s American life, a man named Steven McLaurin noticed a boy with a white cane being practically trampled by pedestrians. McLaurin offered to walk with him to his destination — which happened to be the Department of Education, so he could register for school and disability services.

...

His father’s business in Saudi Arabia had collapsed and the family was forced to move back to Syria in 2014, as the civil war ramped up.

There, Laurel’s oldest brother, who is also blind, was arrested for not having fulfilled his military service. The family paid to get their son released, but with another brother approaching his mandatory service age they knew they could not stay. Laurel’s mother and five siblings fled to Turkey. His father, with whom Laurel has had a distant and strained relationship, fled to the U.S. in the hopes of establishing a beachhead for the family. He successfully applied for asylum and became an Uber driver in New Jersey and New York.

...

Laurel received his green card in 2015 and is one step closer to becoming a citizen, a milestone for which he’ll be eligible in 2020. Since then, his mother and five siblings have joined him in the U.S., renting a home in New York City’s Staten Island. There, before Laurel moved out west, his mother stoically described what her son has been through as “a great adventure” — and she would know, having been through one of her own.

It was Jan. 27, 2017, when the family, in Istanbul, finally received the visas they had applied for in 2014 and that had been approved last summer. They were planning to come quickly, to see Laurel and his father for the first time in years. But on the same day the visas arrived, President Donald Trump signed his executive order on immigration, indefinitely suspending the admission of all refugees and immigrants from Syria. An email from the consulate informed Laurel’s family that their visas were no longer valid, they say, and officials at the airport in Turkey would not let them through security.

When a judge blocked the implementation of Trump’s order, the family rushed back to the airport, trying to secure a flight in the midst of the ensuing confusion. On Feb. 5, the six of them finally arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York. There have been some difficult adjustments since then — physical distance can sometimes disappear more quickly than emotional distance does — but you don’t need a visa to bridge the latter.

[antoine-roquentin]

“This... thing, [the War on Drugs] this ain't police work... I mean, you call something a war and pretty soon everybody gonna be running around acting like warriors... running around on a damn crusade, storming corners, slapping on cuffs, racking up body counts... pretty soon, damn near everybody on every corner is your f**king enemy. And soon the neighborhood that you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory.” -- Major "Bunny" Colvin, season three of HBO’s The Wire

I can remember both so well.

2006: my first raid in South Baghdad. 2014: watching on YouTube as a New York police officer asphyxiated -- murdered -- Eric Garner for allegedly selling loose cigarettes on a Staten Island street corner not five miles from my old apartment. Both events shocked the conscience.

It was 11 years ago next month: my first patrol of the war and we were still learning the ropes from the army unit we were replacing. Unit swaps are tricky, dangerous times. In Army lexicon, they’re known as “right-seat-left-seat rides.” Picture a car. When you’re learning to drive, you first sit in the passenger seat and observe. Only then do you occupy the driver’s seat. That was Iraq, as units like ours rotated in and out via an annual revolving door of sorts. Officers from incoming units like mine were forced to learn the terrain, identify the key powerbrokers in our assigned area, and sort out the most effective tactics in the two weeks before the experienced officers departed. It was a stressful time.

Those transition weeks consisted of daily patrols led by the officers of the departing unit. My first foray off the FOB (forward operating base) was a night patrol. The platoon I’d tagged along with was going to the house of a suspected Shiite militia leader. (Back then, we were fighting both Shiite rebels of the Mahdi Army and Sunni insurgents.) We drove to the outskirts of Baghdad, surrounded a farmhouse, and knocked on the door. An old woman let us in and a few soldiers quickly fanned out to search every room. Only women -- presumably the suspect’s mother and sisters -- were home. Through a translator, my counterpart, the other lieutenant, loudly asked the old woman where her son was hiding. Where could we find him? Had he visited the house recently? Predictably, she claimed to be clueless. After the soldiers vigorously searched (“tossed”) a few rooms and found nothing out of the norm, we prepared to leave. At that point, the lieutenant warned the woman that we’d be back -- just as had happened several times before -- until she turned in her own son.

I returned to the FOB with an uneasy feeling. I couldn’t understand what it was that we had just accomplished. How did hassling these women, storming into their home after dark and making threats, contribute to defeating the Mahdi Army or earning the loyalty and trust of Iraqi civilians? I was, of course, brand new to the war, but the incident felt totally counterproductive. Let’s assume the woman’s son was Mahdi Army to the core.  So what?  Without long-term surveillance or reliable intelligence placing him at the house, entering the premises that way and making threats could only solidify whatever aversion the family already had to the U.S. Army. And what if we had gotten it wrong? What if he was innocent and we’d potentially just helped create a whole new family of insurgents?

Though it wasn’t a thought that crossed my mind for years, those women must have felt like many African-American families living under persistent police pressure in parts of New York, Baltimore, Chicago, or elsewhere in this country.  Perhaps that sounds outlandish to more affluent whites, but it’s clear enough that some impoverished communities of color in this country do indeed see the police as their enemy.  For most military officers, it was similarly unthinkable that many embattled Iraqis could see all American military personnel in a negative light.  But from that first raid on, I knew one thing for sure: we were going to have to adjust our perceptions -- and fast. Not, of course, that we did.

Years passed.  I came home, stayed in the Army, had a kid, divorced, moved a few more times, remarried, had more kids -- my Giants even won two Super Bowls. Suddenly everyone had an iPhone, was on Facebook, or tweeting, or texting rather than calling. Somehow in those blurred years, Iraq-style police brutality and violence -- especially against poor blacks -- gradually became front-page news. One case, one shaky YouTube video followed another: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, and Freddie Gray, just to start a long list. So many of the clips reminded me of enemy propaganda videos from Baghdad or helmet-cam shots recorded by our troopers in combat, except that they came from New York, or Chicago, or San Francisco.

Brutal Connections

As in Baghdad, so in Baltimore. It’s connected, you see. Scholars, pundits, politicians, most of us in fact like our worlds to remain discretely and comfortably separated. That’s why so few articles, reports, or op-ed columns even think to link police violence at home to our imperial pursuits abroad or the militarization of the policing of urban America to our wars across the Greater Middle East and Africa. I mean, how many profiles of the Black Lives Matter movement even mention America’s 16-year war on terror across huge swaths of the planet? Conversely, can you remember a foreign policy piece that cited Ferguson? I doubt it.

Nonetheless, take a moment to consider the ways in which counterinsurgency abroad and urban policing at home might, in these years, have come to resemble each other and might actually be connected phenomena:

*The degradations involved: So often, both counterinsurgency and urban policing involve countless routine humiliations of a mostly innocent populace.  No matter how we’ve cloaked the terms -- “partnering,” “advising,” “assisting,” and so on -- the American military has acted like an occupier of Iraq and Afghanistan in these years.  Those thousands of ubiquitous post-invasion U.S. Army foot and vehicle patrols in both countries tended to highlight the lack of sovereignty of their peoples.  Similarly, as long ago as 1966, author James Baldwin recognized that New York City’s ghettoes resembled, in his phrase, “occupied territory.”  In that regard, matters have only worsened since.  Just ask the black community in Baltimore or for that matter Ferguson, Missouri.  It’s hard to deny America’s police are becoming progressively more defiant; just last month St. Louis cops taunted protestors by chanting “whose streets? Our streets,” at a gathering crowd.  Pardon me, but since when has it been okay for police to rule America’s streets?  Aren’t they there to protect and serve us?  Something tells me the exceedingly libertarian Founding Fathers would be appalled by such arrogance.

*The racial and ethnic stereotyping.  In Baghdad, many U.S. troops called the locals hajis, ragheads, or worse still, sandniggers.  There should be no surprise in that.  The frustrations involved in occupation duty and the fear of death inherent in counterinsurgency campaigns lead soldiers to stereotype, and sometimes even hate, the populations they’re (doctrinally) supposed to protect.  Ordinary Iraqis or Afghans became the enemy, an “other,” worthy only of racial pejoratives and (sometimes) petty cruelties.  Sound familiar?  Listen to the private conversations of America’s exasperated urban police, or the occasionally public insults they throw at the population they’re paid to “protect.”  I, for one, can’t forget the video of an infuriated white officer taunting Ferguson protestors: “Bring it on, you f**king animals!”  Or how about a white Staten Island cop caught on the phone bragging to his girlfriend about how he’d framed a young black man or, in his words, “fried another nigger.”  Dehumanization of the enemy, either at home or abroad, is as old as empire itself.

*The searches: Searches, searches, and yet more searches. Back in the day in Iraq -- I’m speaking of 2006 and 2007 -- we didn’t exactly need a search warrant to look anywhere we pleased. The Iraqi courts, police, and judicial system were then barely operational.  We searched houses, shacks, apartments, and high rises for weapons, explosives, or other “contraband.”  No family -- guilty or innocent (and they were nearly all innocent) -- was safe from the small, daily indignities of a military search.  Back here in the U.S., a similar phenomenon rules, as it has since the “war on drugs” era of the 1980s.  It’s now routine for police SWAT teams to execute rubber-stamped or “no knock” search warrants on suspected drug dealers’ homes (often only for marijuanastashes) with an aggressiveness most soldiers from our distant wars would applaud.  Then there are the millions of random, warrantless, body searches on America’s urban, often minority-laden streets.  Take New York, for example, where a discriminatory regime of “stop-and-frisk” tactics terrorized blacks and Hispanics for decades.  Millions of (mostly) minority youths were halted and searched by New York police officers who had to cite only such opaque explanations as “furtive movements,” or “fits relevant description” -- hardly explicit probable cause -- to execute such daily indignities.  As numerous studies have shown (and a judicial ruling found), such “stop-and-frisk” procedures were discriminatory and likely unconstitutional.

As in my experience in Iraq, so here on the streets of so many urban neighborhoods of color, anyone, guilty or innocent (mainly innocent) was the target of such operations.  And the connections between war abroad and policing at home run ever deeper. Consider that in Springfield, Massachusetts, police anti-gang units learned and applied literal military counterinsurgency doctrine on that city’s streets.  In post-9/11 New York City, meanwhile, the NYPD Intelligence Unit practiced religious profiling and implemented military-style surveillance to spy on its Muslim residents.  Even America’s stalwart Israeli allies -- no strangers to domestic counterinsurgency -- have gotten in on the game. That country’s Security Forces have been training American cops, despite their long record of documented human rights abuses.  How’s that for coalition warfare and bilateral cooperation?

*The equipment, the tools of the trade: Who hasn’t noticed in recent years that, thanks in part to a Pentagon program selling weaponry and equipment right off America’s battlefields, the police on our streets look ever less like kindly beat cops and ever more like Robocop or the heavily armed and protected troops of our distant wars?  Think of the sheer firepower and armor on the streets of Ferguson in those photos that shocked and discomforted so many Americans.  Or how about the aftermath of the tragic Boston Marathon Bombing? Watertown, Massachusetts, surely resembled U.S. Army-occupied Baghdad or Kabul at the height of their respective troop “surges,” as the area was locked down under curfew during the search for the bombing suspects.

Here, at least, the connection is undeniable. The military has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in excess weapons and equipment -- armored vehicles, rifles, camouflage uniforms, and even drones -- to local police departments, resulting in a revolving door of self-perpetuating urban militarism. Does Walla Walla, Washington, really need the very Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) trucks I drove around Kandahar, Afghanistan?  And in case you were worried about the ability of Madison, Indiana (pop: 12,000), to fight off rocket propelled grenades thanks to those spiffy new MRAPs, fear not, President Trump recently overturned Obama-era restrictions on advanced technology transfers to local police. Let me just add, from my own experiences in Baghdad and Kandahar, that it has to be a losing proposition to try to be a friendly beat cop and do community policing from inside an armored vehicle. Even soldiers are taught not to perform counterinsurgency that way (though we ended up doing so all the time).

*Torture: The use of torture has rarely -- except for several years at the CIA -- been official policy in these years, but it happened anyway.  (See Abu Ghraib, of course.)  It often started small as soldier -- or police -- frustration built and the usual minor torments of the locals morphed into outright abuse.  The same process seems underway here in the U.S. as well, which was why, as a 34-year old New Yorker, when I first saw the photos at Abu Ghraib, I flashed back to the way, in 1997, the police sodomized Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, in my own hometown.  Younger folks might consider the far more recent case in Baltimore of Freddie Gray, brutally and undeservedly handcuffed, his pleas ignored, and then driven in the back of a police van to his death.  Furthermore, we now know about two decades worth of systematic torture of more than 100 black men by the Chicago police in order to solicit (often false) confessions.

Unwinnable Wars: At Home and Abroad

For nearly five decades, Americans have been mesmerized by the government’s declarations of “war” on crime, drugs, and -- more recently -- terror. In the name of these perpetual struggles, apathetic citizens have acquiesced in countless assaults on their liberties. Think warrantless wiretapping, the Patriot Act, and the use of a drone to execute an (admittedly deplorable) American citizen without due process. The First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments -- who needs them anyway? None of these onslaughts against the supposedly sacred Bill of Rights have ended terror attacks, prevented a raging opioid epidemic, staunched Chicago’s record murder rate, or thwarted America’s ubiquitous mass shootings, of which the Las Vegas tragedy is only the latest and most horrific example. The wars on drugs, crime, and terror -- they’re all unwinnable and tear at the core of American society. In our apathy, we are all complicit.

Like so much else in our contemporary politics, Americans divide, like clockwork, into opposing camps over police brutality, foreign wars, and America’s original sin: racism. All too often in these debates, arguments aren’t rational but emotional as people feel their way to intractable opinions.  It’s become a cultural matter, transcending traditional policy debates. Want to start a sure argument with your dad? Bring up police brutality.  I promise you it’s foolproof.

So here’s a final link between our endless war on terror and rising militarization on what is no longer called “the home front”: there’s a striking overlap between those who instinctively give the increasingly militarized police of that homeland the benefit of the doubt and those who viscerally support our wars across the Greater Middle East and Africa.

It may be something of a cliché that distant wars have a way of coming home, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Policing today is being Baghdadified in the United States.  Over the last 40 years, as Washington struggled to maintain its global military influence, the nation’s domestic police have progressively shifted to military-style patrol, search, and surveillance tactics, while measuringsuccess through statistical models familiar to any Pentagon staff officer.

Please understand this: for me when it comes to the police, it’s nothing personal. A couple of my uncles were New York City cops. Nearly half my family has served or still serves in the New York Fire Department.  I’m from blue-collar, civil service stock. Good guys, all. But experience tells me that they aren’t likely to see the connections I’m making between what’s happening here and what’s been happening in our distant war zones or agree with my conclusions about them. In a similar fashion, few of my peers in the military officer corps are likely to agree, or even recognize, the parallels I’ve drawn.

Of course, these days when you talk about the military and the police, you’re often talking about the very same people, since veterans from our wars are now making their way into police forces across the country, especially the highly militarized SWAT teams proliferating nationwide that use the sorts of smash-and-search tactics perfected abroad in recent years. While less than 6% of Americans are vets, some 19% of law-enforcement personnel have served in the U.S. military. In many ways it’s a natural fit, as former soldiers seamlessly slide into police life and pick up the very weaponry they once used in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere.

The widespread perpetuation of uneven policing and criminal (in)justice can be empirically shown. Consider the numerous critical Justice Department investigations of major American cities. But what concerns me in all of this is a simple enough question: What happens to the republic when the militarism that is part and parcel of our now more or less permanent state of war abroad takes over ever more of the prevailing culture of policing at home?

And here’s the inconvenient truth: despite numerous instances of brutality and murder perpetrated by the U.S. military personnel overseas -- think Haditha(the infamous retaliatory massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines), Panjwai(where a U.S. Army Sergeant left his base and methodically executed nearby Afghan villagers), and of course Abu Ghraib -- in my experience, our army is often stricter about interactions with foreign civilians than many local American police forces are when it comes to communities of color.  After all, if one of mymen strangled an Iraqi to death for breaking a minor civil law (as happened to Eric Garner), you can bet that the soldier, his sergeant, and I would have been disciplined, even if, as is so often the case, such accountability never reached the senior-officer level.

Ultimately, the irony is this: poor Eric Garner -- at least if he had run into my platoon -- would have been safer in Baghdad than on that street corner in New York. Either way, he and so many others should perhaps count as domestic casualties of my generation’s forever war.

What’s global is local. And vice versa. American society is embracing its inner empire. Eventually, its long reach may come for us all.

[photographasdocumentspring14blog]

Like all of you, we have had to adjust time and again to new information on quarantining, working from home, virtual schooling, all the while fighting off the burn-out effects of never-ending zoom calls and social media fatigue. We took a long look at what we could do and we adjusted, shifted, tweaked, reinvented, punted – we hustled – and found a way for the festival to still take place, while staying true to its spirit.

So yes, Photoville will look slightly different this year! With social distancing in mind, we’ve had to temporarily let go of our beloved shipping containers, our beer garden, and in-person sessions. Instead, we’re spreading our wings and spacing out our photo village throughout our beautiful home in Brooklyn Bridge Park and even beyond – into the heart of the city at Times Square, and parks across New York City’s five boroughs – thanks to our friends at NYC Parks, Abrons Arts Center and Times Square Arts.

We’ve worked with an exceptional group of artists and programming partners to curate 63 outdoor exhibitions. Taking many different forms, all exhibitions are designed to be viewed and enjoyed at a safe social distance.  Our daytime programming has been expanded and moved online, encompassing our growing education offerings for students and educators, as well as dozens of riveting talks and fun-filled workshops for all ages and abilities.

Another big change, while our village is normally open for two weeks in September, this year all the outdoor exhibitions will be on view for over two months (through November 29), so you’ll have plenty of time to see everything. We hope you will be able to visit every location, share your favorites with your friends, and return for second viewings as well.

After so many months of working behind-the-scenes to bring this all together, we are so excited to share with you amazing lineup of photographers and their brilliant and important work. You’ll find strong and somber stories, reflecting the times we are living in and also light and joy to lift your spirits and put a smile on your face.

To get to the point of unveiling these city-wide public exhibitions and virtual programming, we rely upon our mighty Photoville team who always answers the call, our fantastic Board of Directors, and the incredible support network of partners who trust us to present compelling photography in public spaces. Please see a complete roster of all our partners  but we want to shout out Brooklyn Bridge Park, NYC Parks, Two Trees Management, Leica Camera, PhotoWings, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the DUMBO Business Improvement District for continuing to step up and support our community.

We also count on you, our visitors, for your attendance, participation, and good will. If you are able, we ask you to donate to support the success and longevity of this community event.

We feel that the spirit of our annual “village” gathering will remain intact even with 6ft of physical separation between one other.  We look forward to the day in the near future when we can all safely gather in person once again, and until then, never hesitate to reach out if we can help in any way to keep you moving forward.

Stay safe, stay active, keep fighting the good fight, and making your compelling images.

Welcome to Photoville 2020 - we will see you online and 6ft away in a public space near you!

Laura, Sam, Dave and our incredible team of superstars

LET US KNOW YOU WILL BE JOINING

Over 60 Exhibitions in

Public Spaces Across NYC

This year’s exhibitions are all outdoors, spread out through all 5 boroughs! Stay safe and enjoy visual storytelling free to all and open to the public starting September 17.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn

St. Nicholas Park

Manhattan

Jackie Robinson Park

Manhattan

Times Square

Manhattan

Lower East Side

Manhattan

Chelsea Park

Manhattan

Soundview Park

The Bronx

Van Cortlandt Park

The Bronx

Astoria Park

Queens

Travers Park

Queens

South Beach

Staten Island  

Washington St.

Brooklyn

CHECK OUT ALL OUR EXHIBITIONS HERE

Live Sessions OnlineSeptember 17 - October 4, 2020

All of the exciting and insightful commentary and community that you’ve come to expect from Photoville’s talks and workshops will be available from the appropriately socially-distanced comfort of your own home!

The full programming schedule and registration for events will be announced on Friday, September 4!

September 25 & 26 Freelance

Safety Clinic

Presented in partnership with The ACOS Alliance, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Frontline Freelance Register. Are you a freelance photojournalist or documentary photographer in need of some expert, one-to-one advice on safety, risk assessment, digital security, or trauma management? Sign up now for one of our FREE virtual safety clinics. REGISTER HERE.

Sept. 18 - Oct. 2Back to Business - Diversify Photo Professional Development

Geared towards BIPOC photographers, and open to photographers anywhere in the world, Photoville is proud to partner with Diversify Photo to host our first set of professional development workshops, for experienced and emerging editorial photographers who would like to take on commercial assignments and want to learn the business skills to do so. Proudly supported by FujiFilm with additional support by the Philip and Edith Leonian Foundation.

Full line up and registration to be launched September 4, 2020

Sept. 19 - Oct. 4Talks

Taking place over the course of three weekends, our talks will feature some of the most innovative work and pressing issues in photography today, with conversations led by at National Geographic, Leica, The New York Times, Adobe, Aperture, and more. Panel discussions will give added depth to many of these exhibitions, with artists and industry leaders addressing some of the most compelling topics and photo stories of the moment.  LEARN MORE

Full line up and registration to be launched September 4, 2020

Sept. 19 - Oct. 4Workshops

Our interactive and on-demand workshops will provide fun, practical, skills-based instruction in some of photography’s most sought-after markets. Workshop highlights include a series of programs hosted by Adobe for photographers looking to expand their skill-sets; Editorial Masterclass Workshop with the Visual Thinking Collective; Tabletop and Prop Stylist Robin Zachary will lead Styling Beyond Instagram; and many more. LEARN MORE

Full line up and registration to be launched September 4, 2020

Sept. 17 - Nov. 29 Family-Friendly Activities

Parents grab some snacks and hang out with little ones while you enjoy some awesome family-friendly programming.

Our on-demand programming will include a pre-recorded Online Cyanotype Demonstration from Penumbra Foundation for photographers and families looking to delve into the cyanotype process; Make-Your-Own Container Exhibition and Make-Your-Own Camera guides will be available from Photoville; and other family-friendly activities like a PhotoBooth from PhotoWings. DISCOVER ON SEPT.17

Photoville Education MonthWeekly through October 2020

Photoville Education Day 2020, which will take place throughout the month of October, as a series of education programs for young people and educators. Students will be able to experience Meet the Artist Exhibition Tours, in which students connect with Photoville artists, Youth Photography Panels, in which students learn from their peers, and an Educators Lab, where teachers connect with Photoville artists and collaborate on lesson plans based on their work. Our 2020 Festival education program is proudly supported by our partner Photowings with additional contributions by the Philip and Edith Leonian Foundation.

SIGN UP FOR PHOTOVILLE EDU MONTH

Photoville-At-A-Glance

This year’s exhibitions are all outdoors, spread out through all 5 boroughs! Stay safe and enjoy visual storytelling free and open to the public.

PLAN YOUR PHOTO EXCURSION

Partners

We couldn't do it without them! Get to know our amazing Photoville 2020 partners...

Image credit from top to bottom: Empire Fulton Ferry. Brooklyn Bridge Park. Etienne Frossard via Brooklyn Bridge Park website; Fall in St. Nicholas Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks - St. Nicholas Park website; Jackie Robinson Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks - Jackie Robinson Park website; Times Square; Rainbow Shoe Repair Exhibition. Jasmin Chang; Chelsea Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks - Chelsea Park website; Soundview Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks -  Soundview Park website; Van Courtlandt Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks - Van Courtlandt Park website; Astoria Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks -  Astoria Park website; Daniel Avila. Travers Park. Image via NYC Gov Parks -  Astoria Park website. South Beach Promenade. Laura Roumanos; Washington St. Image via NYC Go website' 2019;  Photoville 2019. Freelance Safety Clinics. Lauren Crothers. Photoville 2019. Table styling workshop. Jessica Bal; Photoville 2019. Cyanotypes. Jessica Bal; Photoville 2019. On Feeling Good Talk. Lauren Crothers; Photoville 2019. Flower pounding. Jessica Bal; Photoville EDU Panel 2019. Gareth Smit.

[ladystylestores]

What to Know – WWD

https://pmcwwd.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/kanye-west-at-fast-company-panel-nyc.jpg?w=640&h=415&crop=1

Comedian Ricky Velez is slowly settling into the life of more sunshine and space, all while adjusting to new levels of attention courtesy of his breakout role in “The King of Staten Island,” Judd Apatow’s semi-biographical film about the life of Pete Davidson (who happens to be Velez’s real-life best friend). Velez both acted in the film and worked with Apatow on the script, and, revealed earlier this month, will star in his own HBO comedy special executive produced by Apatow.⁣⁠ ⁣⁠ In the film, as in real life, Davidson’s father was a firefighter who died in the 9/11 attacks. Velez lost his own mother four years ago on Valentine’s Day, when she died suddenly. Putting out an honest conversation on mental health was important to Velez — and it made the creative process all the more challenging, he says.⁣⁠ ⁣⁠ “I would say there were parts that were definitely hard. Being Pete’s friend, I definitely know a lot more than a lot of other people. So it felt like we were kind of letting people in on our secrets. The scene when he’s driving with his eyes closed, that was a scary time in our lives. Putting that out there was terrifying, honestly. But it’s helping a lot of people,” Velez says. “I think a lot of people either know somebody or deal with mental illness daily. And this makes people understand it a little bit more about loss and grieving. It’s a cool movie. I had somebody tell me that they’re happy it didn’t go into theaters because they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to get that emotional in public.”⁣⁠ ⁣⁠ Tap the link in bio⁣⁠ for more. ⁣⁠

: @leighen⁣⁠ Photos Courtesy of Najah Brown⁣⁠: @najwitthecam ⁠ #wwdeye⁣⁠ #kingofstatenisland⁣⁠ #rickyvelez⁣⁠

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[districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog]

Amazon Facing Its Prime Time of Lawsuits: In Relation to COVID-19

By Linh McCool, George Washington University Class of 2021

June 12, 2020

As many businesses and workers face the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, it is evident that even large corporations are feeling the heat. Amazon, a corporate beast of the 21st century, has seen immense business success during the quarantine. Due to the stay-at-home order, Amazon experienced a surge in online purchases, and its first-quarter sales include revenue of $75.5 billion.[1] The corporation had such a magnitude of deliveries to the point where Amazon Prime is becoming less purposeful for consumers. Due to the threat of the coronavirus in the workplace and lack of the Prime subscription benefits, Amazon faces several lawsuits. 

 May 29, 2020 – Amazon Prime Lawsuit

Due to the unprecedented turn of events from the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon Prime shipping was disrupted and ineffective. On March 17, Amazon officially shut down its Prime Delivery service to focus on its deliveries of groceries and pharmaceuticals to consumers, which resulted in delays for "non-essential" items purchased by Prime members. As a result, a subscriber to the service, Jeremy Shepherd, filed a lawsuit alleging that Amazon had unfair and deceptive trade practices. He claimed to have lost two months of Amazon Prime benefits with no compensation.[2]

An Amazon Prime membership costs $12.99 per month (about $119 annually) for free and expedited shipping of select products. Amazon Prime also consists of streaming music and videos for its 118 million subscribers.2

When Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017 and then PillPack in 2018, the corporation offered delivery services for these entities to Amazon Prime members. However, in a 2020 poll cited in the lawsuit, 68% of Prime members use their subscription for Amazon's fast and free shipping, not their grocery and pharmaceutical purposes. When the stay-at-home orders began, Amazon shut down that service and instead focused on the grocery/pharmaceutical services. Shepherd claims that the company focused on a smaller percentage of people during the lockdown and failed to provide its services to the majority. Sellers were only allowed to send six product categories to Amazon fulfillment centers for Amazon Prime shipping: baby, grocery, health & household, beauty & personal care, and industrial & scientific.2

On May 12, Amazon began its normal operations, with sellers being able to ship through its warehouses. The lawsuit claims that although the company made Prime shipping inactive, the company still benefitted from selling those items, even when sellers had to ship from their places. As a result, it increased the costs and shipping time for Prime sellers that relied on Amazon for their shipping needs and capacities. Many requested refunds but did not receive any.2

The lawsuit makes four specific claims:

Breach of contract.

Negligent misrepresentation

Violations of the New York Deceptive and Practices Act

Unjust Enrichment

Jeremy Shepherd, et al. v. Amazon.com. Supreme Court of the State of New York Queens. Courthouse News (2020).

June 3, 2020 – Worker Safety Lawsuit

On Wednesday, June 3, a lawsuit was filed against Amazon by three employees at one of the company’s New York fulfillment centers.[3] They accused the company of failing to comply with labor laws and having “oppressive and dangerous” practices that put workers at risk, regardless of the pandemic.[4]

The lawsuit occurred due to an Amazon worker, Barbara Chandler, claiming that she contracted COVID-19 at the warehouse in Staten Island, New York (also known as JFK8). She then passed the infection along to her cousin, who died after experiencing the COVID-19 symptoms. As a result, the Amazon employee is suing the company to provide proper sanitization against the coronavirus in their workplace. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the workers by advocacy groups like Towards Justice, Make the Road New York, Public Justice, and the Terrell Marshall Law Group.4In March, employees at the JFK8 facility conducted a series of walkouts. Amazon then fired the leader of the protests, claiming that he violated the company’s quarantine order.

An investigation began by Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Attorney General Letitia James.[5] The lawsuit also claims that Amazon utilized “purposeful miscommunication with workers, sloppy contract tracing, and the culture of workplace fear it has instilled at JFK8 to ensure it can maintain productivity while reducing costs.”4

The lawsuit makes six significant claims:

Amazon has     only "sought to create a façade if compliance" and continued     with unsafe practices.

Workers     "continue to work at dizzying speeds, even if doing so prevents them     from socially distancing, washing their hands, and sanitizing their     workspaces," thus increasing the virus's potential spread.

Amazon told     its employees its contact tracing consists of reviewing its surveillance     footage rather than interviewing infected workers about their     interactions.5

The     plaintiff, Barbara Chandler, was infected with COVID-19 while at the     warehouse, where employees were "encouraged to continue attending     work and prevented from adequately washing their hands or sanitizing their     workstations."

As a     result, Barbara Chandler exposed COVID-19 to her family. A month later,     her cousin, whom she lived with, died in their bathroom after showing     symptoms of the notorious disease.4

Amazon's     failures caused injury and death to workers and family members of workers.5

However, the plaintiffs who are filing the lawsuit are not seeking damages for illness or death.5The lawsuit would entail forcing Amazon to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York state guidelines. This includes employee access to 48 hours of paid time off and giving workers extra time to sanitize their workstations.4

Amazon's Response

As a response to the lawsuit, Amazon claims that it has spent $4 billion from April 1 to June 1 on COVID-related initiatives to protect its employees. They also claimed to have offered unlimited time away from work for its workers between March to May 1 and providing leave for workers who are at-risk or need to care for their loved ones. Spokeswoman Rachael Lighty stated that the funding also included $800 million on supplies such as masks, gloves, sanitation, extended pay, benefit options, testing, etc.4

Amazon claims that during the national stay-at-home orders, the company was scrambling to meet the huge demand for the upsurge in online shopping. As a result, the corporation hired 175,000 workers while also adjusting its policies and procedures to protect its employees better. Amazon also instituted a policy where workers diagnosed with COVID-19 are being offered additional paid time off.5

 _______________________________________________________________

Linh McCool is a rising third-year student at the George Washington University. Majoring in International Affairs with a dual concentration in International Development and Contemporary Cultures & Societies. Linh is interested in the legal profession, as well as communications, marketing, and non-profit work.

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[1]Protalinski, Emil. "Amazon Reports $75.5 Billion in Q1 2020 Revenue: AWS up 33%, Subscriptions up 28%, and 'Other' up 44%." VentureBeat, VentureBeat, 3 May 2020, venturebeat.com/2020/04/30/amazon-earnings-q1-2020/

[2]Bryant, June 2, Kat. "Amazon Prime Shipping Halted During COVID-19, Lawsuit Claims." Top Class Actions, Top Class Actions LLC, 2 June 2020, topclassactions.com/coronavirus-covid-19/amazon-prime-shipping-halted-during-covid-19-lawsuit-claim/

[3]Statt, Nick. “Amazon Warehouse Workers Sue over Risk of COVID-19 Infection.” The Verge, The Verge, 3 June 2020, www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21279740/amazon-sued-nyc-warehouse-workers-covid-19-coronavirus-safety-measures

[4]Picchi, Aimee. “Amazon Workers Sue after Allegedly Bringing COVID-19 Home from Warehouse.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 4 June 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-workers-sue-contracting-coronavirus-warehouse/

[5]Eidelson, Josh, and Spencer Soper. “Amazon Workers Sue Over Virus Brought Home from Warehouse.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 3 June 2020, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-03/amazon-warehouse-employees-sue-over-virus-brought-home-from-work

[jobsearchtips02]

3.2 Million Filed for Welfare Recently: Live Updates

Today

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. unrefined requirement, increased about 6 percent to more than $25 a barrel.

Federal government orders alone probably can’t resume the economy.

Partial reopening

40%from Jan.

20%

STAY-AT-HOME ORDER

0%

–20%

Change in economic measures

in Georgia

–40%

Consumer spending

Small businesses open

–60%

Time invested at work

Hours operated at small companies

–80%

F eb. 1

March 1

April 1

M a y 1

Change in financial procedures in Georgia

Customer costs

Small companies open

Hours worked at

small businesses

Time spent at work

Partial reopening

40%from Jan.

STAY-AT- HOME ORDER

20%

0%

–20%

–40%

–60%

–80%

March 1

April 1

M a y 1

Partial reopening

40%from Jan.

20%

STAY-AT-HOME ORDER

0%

–20%

Change in financial measures

in Georgia

–40%

Customer costs

Small companies open

–60%

Time spent at work

Hours operated at small companies

–80%

F eb. 1

March 1

April 1

M a y 1

Partial reopening

40%from Jan.

20%

STAY-AT-HOME ORDER

0%

–20%

Modification in economic measures

in Georgia

–40%

Consumer costs

Small businesses open

–60%

Time invested at work

Hours operated at small businesses

–80%

F eb. 1

March 1

April 1

M a y 1

Source: Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren and Michael Stepner, Chance Insights · The New York Times

Individuals were successfully winding down the economy– before the federal government told them to.

Image

Neiman Marcus was required to close its 43 shops throughout the nation due to the fact that of the pandemic.

The pandemic has been dreadful for the currently weakened retail industry.

6

million

33,483,00 0

5

Claims were filed in

the last 7 weeks

4

Preliminary unemployed claims, weekly

Seasonally adjusted

3

2

ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

1

’04

’08

’09

’12

’16

’20

6

million

33,483,00 0

5

Claims were filed in

the last seven weeks

4

3

ECONOMIC CRISIS

2

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

1

’04

’08

’09

’12

’16

’20

33,483,00 0

6

million

Claims were filed in

the last seven weeks

5

Initial jobless claims, weekly

4

Seasonally changed

3

RECESSION

2

1

’04

’08

’09

’12

’16

’20

33,483,00 0

6

million

Claims were submitted in

the last 7 weeks

5

4

3

ECONOMIC CRISIS

2

Preliminary jobless claims, per week

Seasonally changed

1

’04

’08

’09

’12

’16

’20

Image

A demonstration outside an Amazon storage facility in Staten Island last week.

Tech stocks have actually been rallying on the view that giant business like Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with even more power than they had prior to it started.

But the bank, which likewise revealed it would hold interest rates stable at 0.1 percent, said it expected economic activity to choose up “materially in the latter part of 2020 and into 2021” after the lockdowns in Britain and elsewhere are eased and people are able to return to work.

Updated April 11, 2020

What should I do if I feel sick?

If you have actually been exposed to the coronavirus or believe you have, and have a fever or signs like a cough or problem breathing, call a doctor. They should provide you guidance on whether you must be checked, how to get evaluated, and how to look for medical treatment without possibly contaminating or exposing others.

When will this end?

This is a difficult question, due to the fact that a lot depends on how well the infection is consisted of A better question might be: “How will we understand when to reopen the country?” In an American Business Institute report, Scott Gottlieb, Caitlin Rivers, Mark B. McClellan, Lauren Silvis and Crystal Watson staked out 4 objective posts for recovery: Hospitals in the state need to be able to safely treat all patients requiring hospitalization, without resorting to crisis requirements of care; the state needs to be able to a minimum of test everyone who has signs; the state is able to carry out tracking of validated cases and contacts; and there need to be a sustained reduction in cases for a minimum of 14 days.

How can I assist?

The Times Neediest Cases Fund has started a special project to assist those who have actually been impacted, which accepts contributions here Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities utilizing a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits operating in communities impacted by the break out. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Cooking Area has actioned in to disperse meals in major cities. More than 30,00 0 coronavirus-related GoFundMe fund-raisers have started in the previous couple of weeks. (The large number of fund-raisers means more of them are most likely to fail to meet their goal, though.)

Should I use a mask?

The C.D.C. has suggested that all Americans use fabric masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal assistance showing brand-new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by contaminated people who have no signs Previously, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that common people do not need to use masks unless they are ill and coughing. Part of the factor was to protect medical-grade masks for healthcare workers who frantically require them at a time when they remain in continually short supply. Masks do not change hand cleaning and social distancing.

How do I get tested?

If you’re sick and you think you have actually been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your health care service provider and explain your symptoms and fears.

How does coronavirus spread?

It appears to spread very easily from individual to person, specifically in homes, hospitals and other restricted areas. The pathogen can be continued small breathing beads that fall as they are coughed or sneezed out. It might likewise be transferred when we touch a polluted surface area and then touch our face.

Is there a vaccine yet?

No. Clinical trials are underway in the United States, China and Europe. However American authorities and pharmaceutical executives have actually said that a vaccine stays at least 12 to 18 months away.

What makes this break out so different?

Unlike the flu, there is no recognized treatment or vaccine, and little is understood about this specific infection so far.

What if somebody in my family gets ill?

If the household member does not require hospitalization and can be cared for at house, you must assist him or her with standard needs and monitor the symptoms, while likewise keeping as much range as possible, according to guidelines issued by the C.D.C. If there’s area, the ill household member ought to remain in a separate room and utilize a separate bathroom.

Should I stockpile on groceries?

Plan two weeks of meals if possible. However people should not hoard food or supplies. Regardless of the empty shelves, the supply chain stays strong. And remember to clean the handle of the grocery cart with a disinfecting wipe and clean your hands as quickly as you get house.

Can I go to the park?

Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who do not live in your home. Even if you simply hang out in a park, instead of go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and ideally sunshine, is a good idea.

Should I pull my money from the marketplaces?

That’s not an excellent concept. Even if you’re retired, having a well balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds so that your money stays up to date with inflation, or perhaps grows, makes good sense. Senior citizens might desire to believe about having adequate money set aside for a year’s worth of living expenses and huge payments required over the next 5 years.

What should I finish with my 401( k)?

Viewing your balance go up and down can be scary. You might be wondering if you must reduce your contributions– don’t! If your employer matches any part of your contributions, make certain you’re at least saving as much as you can to get that “totally free cash.”

%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/3-2-million-filed-for-welfare-recently-live-updates/

[apexart-journal]

Tasha Dougé, Day 11

Hello Day 11!  Growing up, it was not uncommon for me to listen to the radio in the morning.  When I was younger, it was Lite FM, 103.9 or WBLS.  Junior HS/High School, I would listen to Hot 97, KTU or Power 105.  Today, I listened to Radio Aporee.  On Day 3, while in Staten Island, I was supposed to listen to a local station.  Ironically, the station didn’t work while I was in Staten Island.  All I heard was static.  Fast forward to today, that wasn’t the issue at all.  I heard a lot.  Ranging from folks ordering their breakfast or their lunch to history about Frankfurt, I heard it all.  At one point, I didn’t know what I was supposed to be hearing.  Was this a joke like a performance or was this a real radio station?  Turns out both were true.  The platform is a collection of sounds provided by artists, phonographers and other folks.  The sounds come from all over the world.  The particular area is indicated by a different color dot on the map.  I loved this part that is written on their site, “In addition to aspects of collecting, archiving and sound-mapping, the radio aporee platform also invokes experiments at the boundaries of different media, and public space. Within this notion, radio is both a technology in transition and a narrative. It constitutes a field whose qualities are connectivity, contiguity and exchange. Concepts of transmitter/ receiver and performer/ listener may become transparent and reversible.”  I know I’m not supposed to be doing art things or thinking art-ish, but I will admit that this had my art senses tingling.  I may or may not refer back to this new resource for my own practice.  You will just have to stay tuned.

After listening to other parts of the world, now it’s time for me to listen to my own city.  For this venture, I headed over to Grand Central station.  From there I walked East on 42nd, cut through Tudor City (yes a city in a city), worked my way up to 50th, then went West until I reached Madison to loop back to Grand Central.  Aside from the sights, never have I thought to listen to my city. I hear her all the time (like it or not), but I never listened.  At the corner of 42nd and Lex, my walk started with a smile from a cyclist as bright as my hair.  I looked up and realized that the Chrysler Building was literally right there.  Thinking about the Empire State Building, I thought to myself that I need to book a tour.  Not just for the Chrysler, but for a lot of other NYC sites.  Our gems are not just for tourists, they are part of my birthright too.  With my appreciation of my city growing, I took my first steps on this listening tour.  Almost immediately, my ears are accosted by the bombarding bellows of a least five car horns.  Underneath my feet, I could hear and feel the rumbling roar of the silver snake aka the train.  That is the NYC that I know all to well.  But then, I adjusted my audio dial and turned up the volume so I could listen to the soundtrack of NYC.  It really is a profound and complex soundtrack.  Here are some of the things I heard: bus engines, dog collars clanking, water droplets colliding with the pavement, high powered air conditions, tires rolling on asphalt, people talking with different accents, ringing of bike bells, cars speeding down the FDR, sounds of construction, car doors slamming, Hip-Hop blasting out a car window, plastic bags rustling, someone sniffling, car driving over sewer lids, the wind tickling the trees, me stepping into a puddle, a sweet kissed planted a grandmother’s cheek, birds flapping their wings as they take flight, and so much more.  

I have to say the birds were going in.  Maybe it is tied to my time with Birding Bob, but the birds chirping seemed to be amplified and it was sweet music to my ears.  Visually, the walk was great because I discovered some new nooks and new eateries to try out.  However, this exercise really illuminated that the sounds of NYC make up the score of my life.   Rather they are the track that continues to play as more beats and elements get layered on.  And I like the sound of that.  What came up next blew my mind. 

The Church of Scientology.  There I said it.  I don’t know how else I could have introduced this leg of the day.  When I hear the Church of Scientology, cult comes rushing to mind. Yet, someone could very much say that about Catholics/Christians and other religions.  Hence why I posted two pictures of the church.  The first as a reminder not to be afraid of anyone.  I mean it isn’t like I could have disappeared on site...Right?  I am joking.  I told myself to go in as I do with anything else and that is with an open mind.  I was slated to be there for 30 mins.  This is how it went.  I went in and I was greeted by Nick.  I told him that I was interested a tour.  He said okay and instructed me to sign in, take my temp and put on a pair of gloves.  Then he directed to go up the stairs where someone would guide me through the tour.  Once upstairs, I started to read the placards because the woman was finishing off a conversation with someone else.  I read that the founder, L. Ron Hubbard was a humanitarian and wait for it... an ARTIST!  I didn’t see that one coming a mile away.  He said, “A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreams by artists.”  Okay okay.  This was not going how I imagined.  My curiosity was piqued.  The woman walked up and introduced herself as Nicole.  We chatted a bit and she asked what brought me in.  I told her that I was a visitor to the space looking to get more info.  She guided me to a video that broke down the fundamentals of the church.  It went through the 8 dynamics of Scientology, what Dianetics is, what the symbols in the logo mean and so on.  The video talked about the tone scale and showed the auditing process.  I loved the tone scale and I could get down with 8 Dynamics, but the auditing part resembled a lie detector type situation for me.  Nicole asked me thoughts.  I shared them and then she asked me what I knew of Scientology.  I told her Scientology was Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Leah Remini’s exit.  I told her that I have never met Scientology in human form (up until meeting her), and that to me it was building that was shrouded in mystery.  In their creed, it is mentioned that everyone is equal (and you know the spiel).  So I asked what is the church’s stance on Black Lives Matter issues and police brutality because I have yet to see a Scientology table at a rally.  She mentioned a lot of the community work they do and that they are not in favor of violence against anyone, but that they are more focused on doing the actual work rather than being seen.  I understood that point because I talk about performance with my friends and peer often.  She asked me if there was a Dynamic or area of myself that I wanted to improve.  I hit her with words like alignment, discernment, purpose, harm reduction and also added intentional adaptation from Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategies.  In a nutshell, I mildly stated that I am good.  I did get a demo of what an auditing session would be like.  If you haven’t guessed it by now, then let me tell you.  30 mins rapidly turned into an hour and thirty-three mins!!  Am I a convert, NO.  Did I walk away from my visit with some newfound knowledge, I sure did.  That experience was another affirmation that you can find gems where you least expect it.  Like Marlys, never lose your curiosity.

Last, and surely not least, it is time for Game Play.  I have no idea, but let’s go.  In this game play, 4 people (including me) acted out characters through this interactive process.  The scenes are going to provide input for an actual game!! My main character was the youth.  I chose the name Hydriel (Hydro + Ariel) for my character.  Hydriel is a 15 yr old budding cartoonist that uses she/they/Hy pronouns and has an imaginary friend named Octavia Butler.  We each also had to play the role of the “visitor,” an alien coming to Earth for a brief vacay.  The visitor’s name was dumb long and so eventually, it boiled down to Sunny P.  P stood for Phallus.  I also played a badass grandma.  She went by the name GramZee and was the burlesque queen.  PERIODT.  Improving with strangers and getting to chat with the game makers (thornygames.com) was a good time.  This was my first time doing anything like that.  I am looking forward to seeing the final outcome.  This is Hydriel/GramZee/Sunny P.  saying good night.