#Shane A. Hopkins

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic - Fragments Shane A. Hopkins

wada sez: Shane A. Hopkins wrote two comics for Mosaic, "Coming Storm" and "Archaeological Anomaly". However, he wrote far more scripts than just those! Most of these he shared at the very end of 2010, but he came back on April 28th, 2012 with a few more.

"Arcee In Wonderland" [2010-12-31]

Shane sez: "Okay, so I thought for my first devs of 2011 I would present you with some scripts for Transformers Mosaic that never made it to being drawn and colored despite my trying… This first one features G1 Arcee and a host of cameos. It was inspired, obviously, by the story of Alice in Wonderland, and was prompted after I saw the Disney film of the same name directed by Tim Burton"

Author Note: All transformers are classic Generation One versions.

PANEL 1:

SCENE: Arcee falling through blackness.

ARCEE: Where am I?

ARCEE: What's going on?

PANEL 2:

SCENE: Arcee is now standing in a meadow, only it's all metallic. A chibi version of Blurr is speeding past her.

BLURR: I'mlate!I'mlateforaveryimportantdate!

ARCEE: ?

PANEL 3:

SCENE: We see Arcee turning to her left, and near her Wreck-Gar sitting on top of a giant metallic mushroom.

WRECK-GAR: Listen, one side of this mushroom will make you grow... Another will make you shrink...

PANEL 4:

SCENE: Arcee is stumbling through a forest and comes across a table with a tea party laid out on it, on the other side of the table sits Wheeljack wearing a Mad Hatter's top hat.

WHEELJACK: More Energon my dear?

PANEL 5:

SCENE: Arcee is now in a fancy metallic garden, at one end is a throne, on that sits Grimlock, with a crown on his head, tilted slightly to his left, to his left and right are some Sharkticons.

GRIMLOCK (pointing at Arcee): Off with head!

PANEL 6:

SCENE: Arcee, presumably running from the Sharkticons comes across Rumble and Frenzy in the forest, they each have an arm round the shoulder of the other.

RUMBLE: Beware my dear...

FRENZY: When a cat brings it's smile to bear.

PANEL 7:

SCENE: Razorclaw, in lion mode, jumps down from a tree in front of Arcee, he has a huge grin on his face.

RAZORCLAW: It does not matter where you run...

PANEL 8:

SCENE: Arcee is strapped to a table, on her head is a contraption like a VR unit, hooked up to a computer bank. Around her are three Quintessons

QUINTESSON 1: She is giving in to her delusion...

QUINTESSON 2: Then begin the conditioning...

QUINTESSON 3: And begin the downfall of the Transformers...

PANEL 9 (Full width panel):

SCENE: Same as PANEL 8 only a wider angle

QUINTESSONS: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

"The Last Autobot On Earth" [2010-12-31]

Shane sez: "This one features Marvel G1 Spike and Fortress Maximus. Not certain what inspired this one, I think too much cheese…"

NOTES: This goes straight into the story, the titles and credits at the bottom of the page, the title being in fact the last words of dialog.

PANEL 1: (Full width panel – 1/3 the height of the page) Downtown, some random city with tall buildings and rushing people (as in all are blurry no features can be made out) In the center of the frame we see G1 Marvel comics style Spike Witwicky standing, center frame, his head bowed slightly

SPIKE (subtitles, break into as many speech bubbles as needed): They don't understand. They go about their daily lives, not knowing that the war still rages out there in the deserted areas of this planet. They just don't see it.

PANEL 2: (Half width – 1/3 the height of the page) Same background, but Spike's still in the center of the page so we see only half his face, only now Spike is looking straight out of the page at the reader

SPIKE (subtitles): They could never understand the burden of being a Binary Bonded human being…

PANEL 3: (Half width – 1/3 the height of the page) We see a snow covered landscape behind Fortress Maximus' face, think of it like the other half of Spike from PANEL 2

FORTRESS MAXIMUS (subtitles): The burden of being the only Headmaster left on the planet.

PANEL 4: (Full width panel – 1/3 the height of the page) The Fortress Maximus equivalent of PANEL 1, the background is the same one we saw part of in PANEL 3. In the foreground we see Fortress Maximus looking out at the reader, a crazed and damaged Galvatron leaping towards Fort Max from behind.

FORTRESS MAXIMUS (subtitles): The weight of responsibility that rests upon the shoulders of THE LAST AUTOBOT ON EARTH.

"Rise Of The Beasts" [2010-12-31]

wada sez: No, not that one.

Shane sez: "This one features the Battle Beasts (aka Beastformers) and a cameo by IDW Jhiaxus. I was inspired for this one when I found the only surviving Battle Beast I had, Rubberneck Giraffe (sans weapon sadly) I also found Hardtop Tortiose but he's missing an arm (he's 'armless! :lmao:)"

PANEL 1:

SCENE: A shot of space filled with stars and nebulas etc. On the right is a planet, orbiting an orange sun (as opposed to Earth's yellow sun).

NARRATOR: It is the Earth year 2000...

NARRATOR: On the planet Beast the population is undergoing a change...

PANEL 2:

SCENE: We see three humanoid animals, a lion, a stag and a tiger. The tiger and stag are fitting what looks like armour to the lion.

NARRATOR: The inhabitants are dividing into three factions, those supporting Fire...

PANEL 3:

SCENE: We see another three humanoid animals, a dog, a turtle and a snake, the dog and snake are fitting armour to the turtle.

NARRATOR: Those supporting Water...

PANEL 4:

SCENE: Yet another three humanoid animals, a warthog, a cow and a beaver, the beaver and cow are fitting armour to the warthog.

NARRATOR: And those supporting Wood...

PANEL 5:

SCENE: Now we see the lion, turtle and warthog fighting each other

NARRATOR: Those three factions are locked in a violent civil war...

NARRATOR: The outcome of which could have ramifications elsewhere in the universe...

PANEL 6:

SCENE: Same scene as PANEL 6 only now it's quite obviously a computer monitor/screen.

JHIAXUS: Yes...

PANEL 7:

SCENE: Head and shoulders shot of IDW style Jhiaxus.

JHIAXUS: They are progressing well, soon our new army will be ready...

"Mad Scientist Territory" [2010-12-31]

Shane sez: "This one features the mad scientists of the Autobots, Wheeljack and Ratchet, as well as Ultra Magnus and Verity Carlo (obviously this is set in the IDWverse. It also introduces the Japanese character of Grand, the headmaster portion of Grand Maximus.) This one I blame on too many IDW comics and the Japanese Masterforce series…"

PANEL 1:

SCENE: Black, the internal console of an offline Transformer. Scrolling up the screen is a series of computer boot up code, saying things like "loading friend or foe protocols" and "initializing audio input" etc. Mentions of Verity Carlo, Ultra Magnus, Ratchet and Wheeljack

VERITY CARLO: This is crazy Magnus! I mean combining Megatron's mass displacement capabilities, The Machination's… What did you call it? Transtector tech? Scorponok's Headmaster tech, and Bludgeon and Jetfire's pretender tech? You're heading into mad scientist territory here!

ULTRA MAGNUS: Verity, as much as I appreciate your company, don't you have something better to do?

VERITY CARLO: Hmm… Nope.

PANEL 2:

SCENE: Same as PANEL 1 only the text is different, this time recording what's being said.

ULTRA MAGNUS: Ratchet, how's our volunteer doing?

PANEL 3:

SCENE: Same as PANEL 1 but the text is now saying things like "loading memory drives" and "engaging optic sensors" in between what's been said

RATCHET: As near as we can determine, Grand is doing fine, his internal memory systems are booting up…

PANEL 4:

SCENE: we see a heavily pixelated shot of Ratchet and Wheeljack leaning over the camera POV

WHEELJACK: And it looks like his optic systems are coming online too.

PANEL 5:

SCENE: A less pixelated version of PANEL 4

RATCHET: I'm still worried about the core processor interface, it's a little… Glitchy…

PANEL 6:

SCENE: Crisp version of PANELS 4 and 5

WHEELJACK: Don't worry, Grand's a strong bot, he is from the same Protoform Plant as Fortress Maximus, just a later generation…

PANEL 7:

SCENE: A shot of Grand (who looks like Cerebros only red and blue) sitting up on a table between Ratchet and Wheeljack, see the back and side of Magnus' head

RATCHET: We went with a verbal release command for the Pretender Shell, to engage or disengage it simply give the command 'Pretender'

PANEL 8:

SCENE: Similar shot to PANEL 7, only this time Grand's Pretender shell is flowing over him and he's shrinking

GRAND: Like… PRETENDER!

ULTRA MAGNUS: Good, and now, lets go get you acquainted with your Transtector, Maximus…

"Alliance" [2010-12-31]

Shane sez: "This one features the heads of F.L.A.G., G.I. Joe and S.H.I.E.L.D. Also a cameo by Optimus Prime and Megatron, IDW style. I got no excuse for this one, it was a bit of fun that had rolled round in my head for a while LOL"

PANEL 1: (full width panel)

SCENE: A shot of the Pentagon from above, looking down on a 45 degree angle

PANEL 2:

SCENE: A man sitting in a chair, leaning forward, fingers interlaced in front of his face, he's wearing a suit and one way mirrored glasses

SUBTITLE: Federal Agent Franklin James

SUBTITLE: Director, Foundation for Law And Government (F.L.A.G.)

AGENT JAMES: Gentlemen, we have a problem...

PANEL 3:

SCENE: A shot of what looks like a television screen showing IDW Optimus Prime and IDW Megatron fighting

PANEL 4:

SCENE: A military General, wearing a typical uniform, his name badge reads Hawk

SUBTITLE: Major General Clayton M. Abernathy

SUBTITLE: Code name: Hawk. Commander, G.I. Joe

AGENT JAMES: And it's time we started working together

PANEL 5:

SCENE: Agent James again (same as PANEL 2)

AGENT JAMES:  G.I. Joe has the manpower...

PANEL 6:

SCENE: A man with greying hair on his temples and an eyepatch on his left eye

SUBTITLE: Nick Fury

SUBTITLE: Director Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.)

AGENT JAMES: S.H.I.E.L.D. has the experience...

PANEL 7:

SCENE: Agent James again (same as PANEL 2)

AGENT JAMES: And F.L.A.G. has the technology...

PANEL 8: (full width panel)

SCENE: The Pentagon again (same as PANEL 1)

AGENT JAMES (SUBTITLE): What I propose is an alliance...

"Immortality" [2010-12-31]

Shane sez: "This one features Starscream's Ghost. This one is all because I was watching the Beast Wars episode "Possession" and so I wondered how he'd lost his body (again)…"

PANEL 1: An asteroid in deep space

PANEL 2: Same asteroid, closer, we see a crumpled Transformer body, a wing is visible, it's Starscream

PANEL 3: Over Starscream's body is a glittering shape, just a cloud at the moment

STARSCREAM (voice over): He did it to me again!

PANEL 4: The glittering shape is taking form, it's now recognizable as a seeker style shape

STARSCREAM (voice over): That's the second time Galvatron has blown me away…

PANEL 5: The glittering shape is now recognizable as Starscream, he's looking down at his body…

STARSCREAM (voice over): And the second time I've survived the destruction of my body…

PANEL 6: Close up on Starscream's glittering face, he's smiling rather maniacally

STARSCREAM (voice over): It would seem I have been touched by Primus himself.

PANEL 7: The glittering Starscream is collapsing into a ball of light

STARSCREAM: I AM IMMORTAL!

PANEL 8: The Starscream ball is now flying through space

STARSCREAM (voice over): And some day, I will find another body and have my revenge!

"Unicron Rising" [2010-12-31]

Shane: "This one tells a possible tale of how Unicron started on his course for Cybertron… Yup, I was reading the old Marvel comics, that's the only explanation for this one :D"

PANEL 1: (Full width panel) A shot of Cybertron in space. There are ripples in space radiating out from it.

SUBTITLES: The call went out.

PANEL 2: A metal city, full of robots, all look blurry except one

SUBTITLES: Primus was awake.

PANEL 3: The same robot as in PANEL 2, this time in a room, he's lowering a Unicron like mask over his face.

SUBTITLES: The Fallen Disciples were alerted.

PANEL 4: Deep in space, a dark planet starts moving.

SUBTITLES: Their master began to follow the signal.

PANEL 5: The same dark planet, only now we see the trademark ring of Unicron starting to move away from the surface of the planet, we start to see some color on the planet too

SUBTITLES: Their feud was about to begin again. A feud older than the universe.

PANEL 6: (Full width panel) Same shot of Cybertron as in PANEL 1 but no ripples, looking over it is a transparent image of Unicron's head

SUBTITLES: Primus had foreseen this, and prepared.

PANEL 7: Not a panel as such, the bit at the bottom of the page, reads like the intro to one of the classic Marvel G1 comics…

Created for one purpose, to fight the Chaos Bringer, Unicron, their world had been torn apart by eons of brutal civil war. Their race divided into two, the Heroic Autobots and the Evil Decepticons, with the ability to alter their shapes into those of vehicles, machinery and weapons… They are THE TRANSFORMERS

"Revelations" [2012-04-28]

PANEL 1: Full Width Panel

SCENE: A shot of a common city street, people walking down it

HAWK (subtitle): I know you are out there.

HAWK (subtitle): I can sense you now.

HAWK (subtitle): I know that you are afraid... Afraid of us. Afraid of change.

PANEL 2: Half Width Panel

SCENE: Similar to PANEL 1, only focusing on a phonebox

HAWK (subtitle): I do not know what the future holds.

HAWK (subtitle): I did not come here to tell you how this is going to end.

HAWK (subtitle): I came here to tell you how it is going to begin.

PANEL 3: Half Width Panel

SCENE: Similar to PANEL 2, Closer on the phonebox, we can see Metalhawk's Pretender shell inside

HAWK (subtitle): I am going to hang up this phone, and then I am going to show these people what you do not want them to see.

HAWK (subtitle): Us.

PANEL 4: The Rest of the Page

SCENE: Hawk shedding his Pretender shell and revealing himself in full robot mode, breaking the phonebox in the process

Author's Note: The titles and credits should go at the bottom of the page

Shane sez: "Yes, I blatantly ripped off The Matrix…"

"Rebirth At Darkmount" [2012-04-28]

PANEL 1: (Half width panel) Shot of Straxus' head, clearly inactive as his eyes are not lit.

PANEL 2: Same as PANEL 1 only now Straxus is online, eyes glowing.

MEDIC (Offscreen): Ahh, Lord Straxus, you're online at last…

PANEL 3: (Full width panel) We see Straxus' head sitting in an apparatus on a benchtop. A Decepticon Medic approaching him. The medic looks somewhat like Megatron, but with a blue helmet arms and waist, red lower legs and no fusion canon.

STRAXUS: Reaper? What happened? The last I remember is fighting that infuriating Autobot, Blaster*

SUBTITLE: See Transformers #18 – Historical Harry

PANEL 4: Reaper (the Decepticon Medic) is now sitting on a stool near the bench with Straxus' head on it.

REAPER: Indeed, he defeated you, sent you into the unstable vortex surrounding the Spacebridge.

STRAXUS: He… Destroyed me?

PANEL 5: We see Reaper clicking a remote to turn on a monitor screen opposite Straxus.

REAPER: Yes, however we spent the next eighty cycles working on a Quantum Energy Displacement engine, using plans left behind by Spanner.

REAPER: Using it we were able to retrieve a copy of your mental engrams a fraction before Blaster killed you…

PANEL 6: We see the screen now, it's showing an image that looks somewhat like a diagram of a wormhole.

REAPER: We discovered something in the process…

REAPER: We believe we can send mental engrams in both directions…

PANEL 7: Straxus' face, flowing across his eyes are a lot of ones and zeroes

REAPER: To that end we're downloading all the battle strategies our techs have come up with. When we're done, we'll send you back to just before the start of the battle…

STRAXUS: So I might change the outcome!

Shane sez: "Yes, my mind works strangely at times…"

"Conspiracy" [2012-04-28]

PANEL 1: Half page wide, quarter high

SCENE: We see the front windscreen of a yellow car, inside are two men, in the passenger seat is Miles Lancaster, behind the wheel is Sam Witwicky, they're talking, on the radio is playing 'Conspiracy' by Paramore (add some music notes and some of the lyrics along the bottom of the panel)

MILES (looking disbelieving): So, wait, you're trying to tell me that those... Those giant robots were real?

PANEL 2: Same size as PANEL 1

SCENE: Same scene as PANEL 1 except the music is different, same song, just the next lyrics

MILES: Come on, I mean Steven Spielberg admitted that they were just a publicity stunt for Robot Master...

PANEL 3: Same size as PANEL 1

SCENE: Same scene again, only next bit of the lyrics

MILES: Are you trying to tell me that someone brought Spielberg?

PANEL 4: Sae size as PANEL 1

SCENE: Same scene, further on with the music

MILES: And the government too?

PANELS 5-7: Each panel to take up full height remaining and  1/3rd of the remaining width

SCENE: This time we're looking at the front of the car, it's the 2009 Camaro we know as Bumblebee, in the center of the front grill is the Autobot symbol, we can see the bottom of the windscreen and the two occupants. In PANEL 5 the car's headlights are on, PANEL 6 the left headlight is off, the right is on, and PANEL 6 the headlights are both on. Music is still playing so lyrics and music notes again, just carry on with the lyrics from where they were left in PANEL 4

MILES: Hey, how'd you get the insurance to spring for a new Camaro anyway?

Shane sez: "Oh come on, y'all were wondering how he'd explain it too…"

wada sez: Check back tomorrow for the last of our script showcases!

[cancerian-woman]

How do you think Bonnie's life could've played out if 1) Abby actually decided to make up for being a deadbeat mother and 2) the dynamic with Abby/Bonnie/Rudy being a healing family unit (after Grams death especially). Like even with the whole being a witch thing and all... cause Abby didn't like it and Rudy said he lost Abby to it. It's an interesting dynamic.

❤️ reading all your YVD/TO insights and having these discussions with you.

Stay easy and safe 😘

oooh nice!

As I said in my post with Lucy I think one huge factor that would be eliminated is A LOT Bonnie’s grand sacrifices. Yes, how loyal, protective and maternal (in a sense) Bonnie is amazing. It’s great, but what is she getting in return from her friends? Nothing.…

Abby and Rudy would both have to show not tell Bonnie that they care and will be there for her. It has to be consistent. Rudy’s job was mentioned that he was a traveling Pharmaceutical Rep. Abby was absentee. Bonnie went so long without parental guidance we can assume after Grams. Therefore neither Abby or Rudy can’t just show up and force control over Bonnie when it’s defined uncontrollable for them. Rudy, Abby and Bonnie would need to communicate more. Abby’s presence makes Bonnie uncomfortable and the only way to get over that is by being there physically. Abby’s “my daughter is done helping Elena Gilbert” will hold weight. If she’s around.

The Bennett-Hopkins needs to be honest with each other. Tbh, I don’t think Rudy liked any of the Gilbert’s. None of them. Not for Abby and certainly not for Bonnie. He could explain why he disliked the Gilbert’s and that could lead into how the Petrovas x Bennett’s are tied together but it’s never as beneficial for the Bennett’s as it is the Petrovas well-being. Now Abby needs to admit she doesn’t like the burden of being a witch. It’s hard, Bonnie said so herself. Abby ran from it to protective herself but in doing so she forgot to protect Bonnie. Bonnie could benefit from hearing Abby’s struggles as a witch. I’m sure if they gave the story some room Abby and Miranda could’ve been just as similar to Bonlena’s friendship. Bc how do you ask your friend to drop everything to help save your child…like whut. Well, we know where Elena gets that from lmao. Abby could explain why twice she tried to strip Bonnie of her magic. Did Grams do it to her when she was “out of line?” Lastly, Bonnie NEEDS to call them out. They can’t separate Bonnie from her magic. It’s who she is they have to love her for who she is. No matter who came into town Bonnie was always going to be a Bennett witch. They can’t love her on terms and conditions. Grams was the only one who loved both Bonnie as a witch and Bonnie as her grandchild. Bonnie has to be vulnerable and let them in. Lessen some of her independence to be dependent on her parents. Open up room for separation from her friends.

I think Bonnie would still make plenty of mistakes. She was 17-23/24 throughout the series. She’ll still give more for people who don’t do the same for her. Mess up with magic. I just think they’ll be more self reflection before she jumps into things for her friends. In a healed life for the Bennett-Hopkins, Rudy won’t let things get swept under the rug. He’ll call out would’ve called out how he thinks something was off with Bonnie like here. You can tell in his face something was off with Bonnie. Abby would call out the repetitive patterns in Bonnie’s friendships. Imagine Bonnie telling Abby, Elena tried to kill her. She’d have to work to break this cycle that Abby set her up for since she wasn’t around as a child. She could start with helping Bonnie get ready for prom, being there for graduation. The Bennett-Hopkins working on healing I don’t see Bonnie being able to die for a summer and going unnoticed by everyone, she wouldn’t have been left in the prison world so long, Rudy wouldn’t have died in front of her and by Silas. The anchor plot would’ve been different. While Abby/Rudy plays more of an emotional role in Bonnie life’s she could learn that she doesn’t need the MFG, she shouldn’t give so much into people who give very little into her. Or demand that they start caring for her and doing something own their own for once. I could see the Bennett-Hopkins moving in together to undo that 17 years worth of trauma.

Thank you! I love reading your thoughts and metas too! Bonnie fans are so small compared to most of the fandom and we’re always ignored. But I just love our little fandom ❤️.

Thank you for the ask!

[quevadilla]

this may be kinda niche but one of the people in the food safety training videos I have to watch rn sounds like the guy that did the shane co ads on radio

[superspecial-awesome]

Yugioh DM english localized names list I have no idea who this is gonna be useful for but it's out there now

Feel free to tell me if I missed something or got something wrong.

Jonouchi Katsuya: Joey Wheeler

Anzu Mazaki: Téa Gardner

Hiroto Honda: Tristan Taylor

Other Yugi: Yami

Ryuji Otogi: Duke Devlin

Mai Kujaku: Mai Valentine

Shizuka Kawai: Serenity Wheeler

Pegasus J. Crawford: Maximillion Pegasus

Insector Haga: Weevil Underwood

Dinosaur Ryuzaki: Rex Raptor

Ryota Kajiki: Mako Tsunami

Esper Roba: Espa Roba

Ghost Kotsuzuka: Bonz

Sugoroku Mutou: Solomon Muto

Rishid Ishtar: Odion Ishtar (I'm like 90% sure "Rishid" is also a failed localization of the Japanese spelling of "Rashid" but I'm mostly chosing not to be annoying about the Ishtars' names here)

Rebecca Hopkins: Rebecca Hawkins (Arthur Hopkins got the same last name change)

Miho Nosaka: Melody

Tomoya Hanasaki: Lint Greendale

Isono: Roland

Amelda: Alister

Cyndia Pegasus: Cecelia Pegasus

Princess Mary: Princess Adena

Pandora: Arkana

Doll/Pantomimer: Strings/The Quiet One

Mask of Light: Lumis

Mask of Darkness: Umbra

Mei: Para

Kyū: Dox

Player Killer of Darkness: PaniK

Imitator of Death: Mimic of Doom

Mr. Crocketts: Croquet

Saruwatari: Kemo

Soichiro Ota: Nezbitt

Chikuzen Ouka: Johnson

Konosike Oshita: Gansley

Kogoro Daimon: Leichter

Shuzo Otaki: Adrian Randolph Crump III

Takaido: Sid

Satake: Zygor

Juan: Aaron

Tom: Sam

Miruko: Mikey/Micheal

Barry Ginger: Balfry Ginger

Theodore Iwalaos: Totani Ialos

Essel Jansen: Shane Jordan

Mr. Morita: Coah Morty

Tetsu Ushio: Tetsu Trudge

Blankey: Lucky

Sunny: Skye

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

Okay, folks, the mini-tourney is inching closer to the finals, so I'm going to give a list of the competitors in the Miss Billboard Tourney in order to give everyone a chance to submit more propaganda. The nominees are:

Lale Andersen

Marian Anderson

Signe Toly Anderson

Julie Andrews

LaVerne Andrews

Maxene Andrews

Patty Andrews

Ann-Margret

Joan Armatrading

Dorothy Ashby

Joan Baez

Pearl Bailey

Belle Baker

Josephine Baker

LaVern Baker

Florence Ballard

Brigitte Bardot

Eileen Barton

Fontella Bass

Shirley Bassey

Maggie Bell

Lola Beltran

Ivy Benson

Gladys Bentley

Jane Birkin

Cilla Black

Ronee Blakley

Teresa Brewer

Anne Briggs

Ruth Brown

Joyce Bryant

Vashti Bunyan

Kate Bush

Montserrat Caballe

Maria Callas

Blanche Calloway

Wendy Carlos

Cathy Carr

Raffaella Carra

Diahann Carroll

Karen Carpenter

June Carter Cash

Charo

Cher

Meg Christian

Gigliola Cinquetti

Petula Clark

Merry Clayton

Patsy Cline

Rosemary Clooney

Natalie Cole

Judy Collins

Alice Coltrane

Betty Comden

Barbara Cook

Rita Coolidge

Gal Costa

Ida Cox

Karen Dalton

Marie-Louise Damien

Betty Davis

Jinx Dawson

Doris Day

Blossom Dearie

Kiki Dee

Lucienne Delyle

Sandy Denny

Jackie DeShannon

Gwen Dickey

Marlene Dietrich

Marie-France Dufour

Julie Driscoll

Yvonne Elliman

Cass Elliot

Maureen Evans

Agnetha Faeltskog

Marianne Faithfull

Mimi Farina

Max Feldman

Gracie Fields

Ella Fitzgerald

Roberta Flack

Lita Ford

Connie Francis

Aretha Franklin

France Gall

Judy Garland

Crystal Gayle

Gloria Gaynor

Bobbie Gentry

Astrud Gilberto

Donna Jean Godchaux

Lesley Gore

Eydie Gorme

Margo Guryan

Sheila Guyse

Nina Hagen

Francoise Hardy

Emmylou Harris

Debbie Harry

Annie Haslam

Billie Holiday

Mary Hopkin

Lena Horne

Helen Humes

Betty Hutton

Janis Ian

Mahalia Jackson

Wanda Jackson

Etta James

Joan Jett

Bessie Jones

Etta Jones

Gloria Jones

Grace Jones

Shirley Jones

Tamiko Jones

Janis Joplin

Barbara Keith

Carole King

Eartha Kitt

Chaka Khan

Hildegard Knef

Gladys Knight

Sonja Kristina

Patti Labelle

Cleo Laine

Nicolette Larson

Daliah Lavi

Vicky Leandros

Peggy Lee

Rita Lee

Alis Lesley

Barbara Lewis

Abbey Lincoln

Melba Liston

Julie London

Darlene Love

Lulu

Anni-Frid Lyngstad

Barbara Lynn

Loretta Lynn

Vera Lynn

Siw Malmkvist

Lata Mangeshkar

Linda McCartney

Kate McGarrigle

Christie McVie

Bette Midler

Jean Millington

June Millington

Liza Minnelli

Carmen Miranda

Joni Mitchell

Liz Mitchell

Marion Montgomery

Lee Morse

Nana Mouskouri

Anne Murray

Wenche Myhre

Holly Near

Olivia Newton-John

Stevie Nicks

Nico

Laura Nyro

Virginia O’Brien

Odetta

Yoko Ono

Shirley Owens

Patti Page

Dolly Parton

Freda Payne

Michelle Phillips

Edith Piaf

Ruth Pointer

Leontyne Price

Suzi Quatro

Gertrude Rainey

Bonnie Raitt

Carline Ray

Helen Reddy

Della Reese

Martha Reeves

June Richmond

Jeannie C. Riley

Minnie Riperton

Jean Ritchie

Chita Rivera

Clara Rockmore

Linda Ronstadt

Marianne Rosenberg

Diana Ross

Anna Russell

Melanie Safka

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Samantha Sang

Pattie Santos

Hazel Scott

Doreen Shaffer

Jackie Shane

Marlena Shaw

Sandie Shaw

Dinah Shore

Judee Sill

Carly Simon

Nina Simone

Nancy Sinatra

Siouxsie Sioux

Grace Slick

Bessie Smith

Mamie Smith

Patti Smith

Ethel Smyth

Mercedes Sosa

Ronnie Spector

Dusty Springfield

Mavis Staples

Candi Staton

Barbra Streisand

Poly Styrene

Maxine Sullivan

Donna Summer

Pat Suzuki

Norma Tanega

Tammi Terrell

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Big Mama Thornton

Mary Travers

Moe Tucker

Tina Turner

Twiggy

Bonnie Tyler

Sylvia Tyson

Sarah Vaughan

Sylvie Vartan

Mariska Veres

Akiko Wada

Claire Waldoff

Jennifer Warnes

Dee Dee Warwick

Dionne Warwick

Dinah Washington

Ethel Waters

Elisabeth Welch

Kitty Wells

Mary Wells

Juliane Werding

Tina Weymouth

Cris Williamson

Ann Wilson

Mary Wilson

Nancy Wilson

Anna Mae Winburn

Syreeta Wright

Tammy Wynette

Nan Wynn

Those in italics have five or more pieces of usable visual, written, or audio propaganda already. If you have any visuals like photos or videos, or if you have something to say in words, submit it to this blog before round one begins on June 25th!

If you don't see a name you submitted here, it's because most or all of their career was as a child/they were too young for the cutoff, their career was almost entirely after 1979, or music was something they only dabbled in and are hardly known for. There are quite a few ladies on the list whose primary career wasn't "recording artist" or "live musician," but released several albums or were in musical theater, so they've been accepted.

[sharp-silver4795]

Who I Write For!

Specifically for My creepypasta stuff!!

Sooooo… yeah!

Quick Key:

* I made up a last name bc they don’t have one that I know of

** I made up an entire real name for them

« I’m still doing research on them

~ I’m unsure if I will actually use them

≈ I basically took the principle of the character and made my own story out of it

° Possibly Spelled Wrong

❌ Traitors

📍Technically Neutral

🐝 Marble Hornets

✏️ Personal OC

! Not the name of the Creepypasta

[Emoji] there will be a key in that section!

Second(s) in Command

Proxies (HCs)

Rouge Proxy (Heather Marshall)

Zechariah (Lynn*)

Wilson the Basher (Wilson Shane*)

Kate the Chaser (Kate Milens)

Kat Hunter (Rodrigo Ortiz)

Neon Spike (Na-eun Shinn) ✏️

X-Virus (Cody Chess*) HCs

Ticci Toby (Toby Rodgers) HCs

Masky (Tim Wright) 🐝 HCs

Hoodie (Brian Thomas) 🐝 HCs

Casters

Bloody Angel (Cassie Hanes**)

Judge Angels (Diana Clark)

Scarecrow Girl «

Allies

Non-Proxies

Jane the Killer (Jane Abbot°) HCs

Nina the Killer (Nina Hopkins) HCs

Jeff the Killer (Jeffery Woods) HCs pt2

Liu Woods 📍HCs

Nathan the Nobody (Nathan Lux) ❌

Puppeteer (Johnathan Blake) 📍

Clockwork (Natalie Ouellette) HCs

BEN Drowned (Benjamin Lawman)

Lost Silver (Ethan Miller) HCs

L. Jack 📍

L. Jill 📍

Candy Pop 📍

Jason The Toymaker 📍 HCs

Eyeless Jack (!Jack Nichols)📍HCs

Non-Casting

ChessMaster (William Dwight)

Ani the Wight (Anastasia Morozov) ❌

Bloody Painter (Helen Otis) HCs

Zero (!Alice Jackson) ≈ HCs

Dark Link

Doll Maker (Vine Gier)

Glitchy Red «

Kagekao « ~

Candy Cane 📍

Double Sided

Nurse Ann

Dr Smiley

Rose Demon OCs ✏️ (HCs)

These are basically all the Demons from an AU/Story that stemmed from my version of EJ.

It kinda Snowballed from me creating an idea of Death.

Children of Hydra

(True)Name // Name (by Humans) - Pronunciation - Sin

Sutna // Satan - “set-nuh” - Wrath

Lucifer - “loose-if-er” - Pride

Levinn // Leviathan - “lev-in-in” - Envy

Asmodeus - “Aw-s-mo-dee-us” - Lust

Bzelba // Beelzebub - “Beh-zel-buh” - Gluttony

Belphegor - “bell-feh-gore” - laziness

Mammon - “ma’am-uhn” - Greed

Pale Rose [Pride]

Skail

Niak

Violet Rose [Male Envy]

Selcra

Blue Rose [Lust]

Armery

Ceri

Pkal

Jegyn

Crimson Rose [Gluttony]

Eyeless Jack Eashar

Kikurik

Natural Rose [Sloth]

Harbre

Lixew

Treq

Amber Rose [Female Greed]

Sharbor

Weste

Rekol

Golden Rose [Male Greed]

Zcer

Gar

Lupar

I know I probably over did it with the dividers but it’s not my fault that they’re pretty 🤷

Divider Creds: Sister Lucifer

Header Creds: ME!!

[chthonic-cassandra]

Top Reading Experiences, 2023

In a few categories, because lists are satisfying.

Series - Anne Rice, The Vampire Chronicles - I reread almost the entirety of the series (I skipped Memnoch), and read the weird ones that I had skipped the first time. Fascinating, wild reading experience to do it all together. Chronicled here, though it subsequently turned into my general VC tag. - C. J. Cherryh, Alliance-Union series - I reread Cyteen and then read Regenesis and 40,000 in Gehenna for the first time. While Cyteen is unmatched, I loved reading the others as well, and am looking forward to reading the rest of them slowly, gradually, and lovingly. Immensely satisfying experience of science fiction. - Tanith Lee, Tales from the Flat Earth - reread the first three, read Night's Daughter and Night's Sorceries for the first time. More to come on these. I haven't yet gotten a hold of the remaining few stories in the series, which were recently published for the first time. - Tanith Lee, Unicorn series - I started 2023 with these. Just a delight. - Pat Barker, Regeneration - reread for the first time in many years. Still so good, though the first is notably the tightest. Its reflection on moral injury felt very grounding right now.

Other notable rereads - Henry James, The Golden Bowl - Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre - Annie G. Rogers, The Unsayable - Caitlin Sweet, The Pattern Scars - Susanna Clarke, Piranesi - Elizabeth E. Wein, The Lion Hunter and The Empty Kingdom - Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

Fiction, read for the first time - Wole Soyinka, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth - A. S. Byatt, Medusa's Ankles: Selected Stories - Dion Fortune, The Demon Lover - Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Of One Blood - Maureen McHugh, China Mountain Zhang - Werner Herzog, The Twilight World - Vanessa Hua, Forbidden City - Marina Dyachenko, Assassin of Reality - Magda Szabo, The Fawn - Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho - Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait - Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors

Non-fiction, read for the first time - Artemis Leontis, Eva Sikelianos Palmer: A Life in Ruins - Shane McRae, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping - Claire Mac Cumhaill & Rachel Weisman, Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life - Simon Palfrey & Tiffany Stern, Shakespeare in Parts - Nayan Shah, Refusal to Eat: A Century of Prison Hunger Strikes - Hugh Ryan, The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison - Ron E. Hassner, Anatomy of Torture - Judith Herman, Truth and Repair - Julie Phillips, The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem - Nanno Marinatos, Minoan Religion

[crossbackpoke-check]

find a blorbo (nhl tag game)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

utah hockey: crouse, keller, tuba

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

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

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

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

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

[burningexeter]

Here's a fairly solid amount of all the different kinds of media that I think both can fit well in and could share the same universe as Ms. Incredible & InvisiGirl, which you can both read and see below for yourself:

• Shane Black's The Nice Guys (2016)

• 20th Century Fox's Die Hard Quadrilogy

• Jan De Bont's Speed (1994)

• Renny Harlin's The Long Kiss Goodnight

• Tony Scott's The Last Boy Scout

• Stephen Hopkins' Judgment Night (1993)

• James Cameron's True Lies

• John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China

• Panos Cosmatos' Mandy (2018)

• Jami O'Brien's NOS4A2 (AMC)

• Stephen Sommers' The Mummy (1999)

• Luc "Yikes!" Besson's Nikita (1990) & Leon The Professional

• Julius Avery's Overlord (2018)

• Michael Mann's Thief (1981)

• Ilya Naishuller's Nobody (2021)

• John Woo's Hard Target (1993)

• Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead

• Toru Hagihara's Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night

• Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man (2020)

• Robert Kirkman's Outcast (TV Series)

• Steven Spielberg's The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)

• The Spierig Brothers' Predestination

• Rowdy Herrington's Road House (1989)

• Gary Dauberman & Mark Verheiden's Swamp Thing (2019 TV Series)

• David Leitch's Atomic Blonde

• Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes Duology

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #398 - "Archaeological Anomaly"

Originally posted on July 9th, 2009

Story - Shane A. Hopkins Art - V.J. Anderson

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: At the end of Beast Wars, Waspinator was left on Earth, so this strip runs with that idea by having an archaeologist find him in the present day. Apparently the writer of this one never watched Beast Machines, which went on to show that Waspinator made it back to Cybertron.

[kwebtv]

Sneaky Pete - Amazon Prime Video - August 7, 2015 - May 10, 2019

Crime Drama (30 episodes)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Stars:

Giovanni Ribisi as Marius Josipović / Pete Murphy

Marin Ireland as Julia Bowman

Shane McRae as Taylor Bowman

Libe Barer as Carly Bowman

Michael Drayer as Eddie Josipović (season 1)

Peter Gerety as Otto Bernhardt

Margo Martindale as Audrey Bernhardt

Jane Adams as Maggie Murphy (season 2, guest season 3)

Recurring:

Ethan Embry as the real Pete Murphy

Bryan Cranston as Vince Lonigan (season 1)

Victor Williams as Richard (season 1)

Karolina Wydra as Karolina (season 1)

Jacob Pitts as Lance Lord

Michael O'Keefe as Detective Winslow (season 1)

Virginia Kull as Katie Boyd (season 1, guest season 2)

Alison Wright as Marjorie

Mike Houston as Dennis

Tobias Segal as Sean

Brad William Henke as Brendon Boyd (season 1)

Jeté Laurence as Ellen

Justine Cotsonas as Shannon

Kevin Chapman as Bo Lockley

Jay O. Sanders as Sam

Chaske Spencer as Chayton Dockery

René Ifrah as Wali

Jasmine Carmichael as Gina (seasons 1–2)

Pej Vahdat as Raj Kumar Mukherjee (season 1)

Max Darwin as Tate

Jeffrey De Serrano as Ayawamat

Malcolm-Jamal Warner as James Bagwell

C.S. Lee as Joseph Lee (seasons 1–2)

Ben Vereen as Leon Porter (seasons 1–2)

Domenick Lombardozzi as Abraham Persikof (season 1)

Debra Monk as Connie Persikof (season 1)

Joseph Lyle Taylor as Frank (seasons 1–2)

Michael DeMello as Mikey (season 1)

Desmond Harrington as Joe (seasons 1–2)

David Kallaway as Bako (season 2)

Jesse Lenat as AJ

Michael Oberholtzer as Colin (season 2)

Jennifer Ferrin as Joyce Roby (season 2)

Miriam Morales as Teacher (season 2)

John Ales as Luka Delchev (season 2)

Sara Tomko as Suzanne (season 2)

Chris Ashworth as Miro (season 2)

Justine Lupe as Hannah (season 2)

Efrat Dor as Lizzie DeLaurentis (season 3)

Jeff Ross as D.C. Doug Decker (season 3)

Leonardo Nam as Alexandre Park-Sun (season 3)

Ricky Jay as T. H. Vignetti (season 3). This was Jay's last performance before his death in 2018.

Darren Pettie as Chuck Johnson (season 3)

Stephanie Faracy as Dotti (season 3)

Charlayne Woodard as Hickey (season 3)

Amy Landecker as Lorraine Sheffield (season 3)

M. Emmet Walsh as Tex Hopkins (season 3)

Patrick J. Adams as Stefan Kilbane (season 3)

[boxscorehockey]

2024-25 Alpha Fwds L-Z

Last Updated November 22

L’Heureux Zachary Lafreniere Alexis Laine Patrik Lambert Brad Landeskog Gabriel Lapierre Hendrix Lardis Nick Larkin Dylan Lekkerimaki Jonathan Leonard Ryan Leschyshyn Jake Letourneau Dean Lindholm Elias Lindstrom Cayden Lombardi Amadeus Luchanko Jett Lucius Chaz Ludwinski Paul Lund Cam Lundell Anton Lysell Fabian Maccelli Matias MacKinnon Nathan Malkin Evgeni Mangiapane Andrew Mantha Anthony Marchand Brad Marchenko Kirill Marchessault Jonathan Marner Mitch Masse' Maxim Matthews Auston Mazur Carter McCann Jared McDavid Connor McGroarty Rutger McMann Bobby McMichael Connor McTavish Mason Meier Timo Mercer Dawson Merkulov Georgi Mesar Filip Michkov Matvei Miettinen Julius Miller J.T. Minten Fraser Miroshnichenko Ivan Mittelstadt Casey Monahan Sean Moore Oliver Mustard John Musty Quentin Nadeau Bradly Nazar Frank Necas Martin Neighbours Jake Nelson Brock Newhook Alex Nichushkin Valeri Niederreiter Nino Noesen Stefan Norris Josh Novak Tommy Nugent- Hopkins Ryan Nylander William Nyman Jani Nyquist Gustav O’Connor Drew O’Connor Logan O'Reilly Ryan Ohgren Liam Olausson Oskar Olofsson Victor Ostlund Noah Othmann Brennan Ovechkin Alexander Panarin Artemi Parascak Terik Parssinen Juuso Pastrnak David Pekarcik Juraj Pelletier Jakob Perfetti Cole Perreault Gabriel Perron David Perron Jayden Peterka John- Jason Petrovsky Servac Pettersson Elias Pettersson Lucas Pinto Shane Plante Max Point Brayden Poitras Matthew Poulin Samuel Protas Aliaksei Puustinen Valtteri Quinn Jack Ranta Sampo Rantanen Mikko Rasmussen Michael Raty Aatu Raymond Lucas Rehkopf Carson Reichel Lukas Reinhart Sam Ritchie Calum Ritchie Ryder Robertson Jason Robertson Nick Rodrigues Evan Rosen Isak Roslovic Jack Rossi Marco Rousek Lukas Roy Joshua Roy Nicolas Rust Bryan Saad Brandon Sale Edouard Samoskevich Mackie Sapovaliv Matyas Savage Redmond Savoie Matthew Schaefer Reid Scheifele Mark Schenn Brayden Schmaltz Nick Seguin Tyler Sennecke Beckett Sherangovich Yegor Sidorov Yegor Sillinger Cole Slafkovsky Juraj Smith Reilly Smith Will SJ Snuggerud Jimmy Soderblom Elmer Sprong Daniel Stamkos Steve Stankoven Logan Steel Sam Stenberg Otto Stephenson Chandler Stiga Teddy Stillman Chase Strome Dylan Stutzle Tim Surin Yegor Suzuki Nick Svechkov Fedor Svechnikov Andrei Tarasenko Vladimir Tavares John Teravainen Teuvo Terry Troy Thomas Robert Thompson Tage Tippett Owen Tkachuk Brady Tkachuk Matthew Toffoli Tyler Tolvanen Eeli Tomasino Philip Torgersson Daniel Trikozov Gleb Trocheck Vincent Tsyplakov Maxim Tuch Alex Tuch Luke Turcotte Alex Unger-Sorum Felix Vanacker Marek Veleno Joe Verhaeghe Carter Vilardi Gabriel Villeneuve Nathan Voronkov Dmitry Wood Matthew Wright Shane Yager Brayden Yurov Danila Zacha Pavel Zary Connor Zegras Trevor Zellers William Zetterlund Fabian Zibanejad Mika Ziemmer Koehn Zuccarello Mats

[ulkaralakbarova]

An urgent phone call pulls a Yale Law student back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his own future. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: J.D. Vance: Gabriel Basso Beverly “Bev” Vance: Amy Adams Bonnie “Mamaw” Vance: Glenn Close Lindsay Vance: Haley Bennett Usha Chilukuri: Freida Pinto Papaw: Bo Hopkins Young J.D. Vance: Owen Asztalos Matt: Jesse C. Boyd Phillip Roseman: Stephen Kunken Ken: Keong Sim Travis: Morgan Gao Chris: Ethan Suess Kevin: Jono Mitchell Uncle Pat: Bill Kelly Uncle Arch: David Dwyer Lori: Sarah Hudson Jimmy (Bev’s Brother): Ted Huckabee Bill (Nurse): Nathan Hesse Cousin Nate: Max Barrow Bonnie (Mamaw, 30’s): Sunny Mabrey Jim (Papaw, 30’s): Brett Lorenzini Young Bev (6 years): Tierney Smith Cheryl: Helen LeRoy Emma: Kinsley Isla Dillon Adult Frank McFee: Ryan Homchick Chip: Joshua Stenvick Brooks Houghton: Bill Winkler Brett: Chase Anderson Pamela: Amy Parrish Rich: Ed Amatrudo Hiram Walcott: David de Vries Cocktailer #1: Holly Morris Cocktailer #2: Brandon Hirsch Server: David Alexander Obsequious Server: Alexander Baxter Waiter: Steven Reddington Wiry Law Partner: Angelo Reyes Stodgy Partner: John Rymer Young Bonnie (Mamaw 13 Years): Abigail Rose Cornell Adult Louis Zablocki: Lowrey Brown Young J.D. (4 years): Hunter James Evers Dane: Riley McNerney Pool Woman: Zele Avradopoulos Mr. Selby: David Jensen Holler Aunt: Skylar Denney Young Louis: John Whitley Doug: Zac Pullam Young Frank: Shane Donovan Lewis Officer #1: Mike Senior Officer #2: William Mark McCullough Kameron: Dylan Gage Katrina: Hannah Pniewski Doctor: David Marshall Silverman Dr. Newton: Jason Davis Davis: Joshua Brady Nasty Cashier: Cory Chapman Nurse: Tatom Pender Patient: Cathy Hope Ray: David Atkinson Salesperson: Adam Murray Scared Woman: Dianna Craig Meghan: Emery Mae Edgeman Young Jim (Papaw 16 Years): Rohan Myers Meals On Wheels Delivery Man: Matthew Alan Brady Young Lori (6 years): Lucy Capri Sally Coates: Déjá Dee Kyle: Daniel R. Hill Arguing Girlfriend: Jordan Trovillion Secretary at Club: Yossie Mulyadi ICU Nurse #1: Alisa Harris ICU Nurse #2: Tiger Dawn Rehab Mother: Darla Robinson Rehab Recepcionist: Belinda Keller Old Mamaw Blanton: Jessie Faye Shirley Nurse Vivian: Cheryl Howard Law Candidate Tim: Tim Abou-Nasr Curt: Leland Thomas Griffin Officer Connor: Drew Emerson Jones EMT #1: Justin P. Turner EMT #2: Joshua T. Schneider Marine Barber: Tony Ward Dining Hall Manager: Mara Hall Jill at Financial Aid Office: Tess Malis Kincaid Gas Station Attendant: Chris Charm Intake Receptionist: Mary Kraft Shoe Store Manager: Suehyla El-Attar Study Hall Friend #1: Matthew Withers Study Hall Friend #2: Jessica Miesel Study Hall Friend #3: Benjamin Rapsas Peter (uncredited): Ethan Levy Middletown Resident (uncredited): Bret Aaron Knower Film Crew: Original Music Composer: Hans Zimmer Producer: Brian Grazer Producer: Ron Howard Post Producer: William M. Connor Executive Producer: Diana Pokorny Production Design: Molly Hughes Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Robert Hein Director of Photography: Maryse Alberti Casting: Carmen Cuba Producer: Karen Lunder Stunt Coordinator: Monique Ganderton Writer: Vanessa Taylor Compositing Artist: Daniel L. Smith Camera Operator: Thomas Lappin Compositing Artist: Michael A. Martinez Supervising Art Director: Gregory A. Weimerskirch Costume Designer: Virginia B. Johnson Set Costumer: Bob Moore Jr. Makeup Department Head: Eryn Krueger Mekash Foley Artist: Heikki Kossi Art Direction: Shawn D. Bronson Rigging Grip: Gary Blair Makeup Artist: Erica Stewart Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Josh Berger Compositing Artist: Steve Dinozzi VFX Artist: Bryan Haines Visual Effects Producer: Chris LeDoux Original Music Composer: David Fleming Set Dresser: Aaron Robert Hall Assistant Art Director: Chris Yoo Costume Supervisor: Dana Pacheco Sound Designer: Grant Elder Makeup Artist: Jodi Byrne Set Costumer: Robin Fields Compositing Artist: Brad Lucas Set Dresser: Sam Carter Makeup Artist: Andrea Vieth Set Dresser: Maxfield Ladish Set Dresser: Natalie LeCompte Rigging ...

[xtruss]

One of the Greatest Westerns Ever Made Is Now Streaming After Decades in the Wilderness

After Years of Inaccessibility, Maggie Greenwald's "The Ballad of Little Jo" Is Newly Available on Blu-Ray And Streaming — Here's Why That's a Cause For Celebration.

— By Jim Hemphill | March 25, 2024

'The Ballad of Little Jo'Fine Line Features

Throughout most of the 1980s the Western was assumed to be a dead genre, certainly compared to the central role it once played in Hollywood’s construction of a national mythology. While there were occasional outliers like Lawrence Kasdan‘s “Silverado” and Clint Eastwood‘s “Pale Rider,” for the most part the responsibility the genre had to reflect and shape American values was taken up by either science fiction movies like “The Terminator” (which fulfilled the Western’s function as an exploration of the changes wrought on society by evolving technology) or urban cop films like “48HRS.” and Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” sequels, which transposed the form’s archetypes and moral questions to a contemporary setting. Although the decade closed out with the successful “Young Guns,” that film was an anomaly whose success probably had more to do with its cast of attractive teen idols.

Then something funny happened in the early ’90s: Right as Hollywood seemed to have given up on the Western, it came roaring back with a vengeance and yielded the most varied, complex, and satisfying group of films since the glory days of John Ford and Delmer Daves. The box office and awards success of Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves” in 1990, followed by Clint Eastwood’s triumphant return to the genre in 1992 with “Unforgiven,” suddenly made Westerns commercially viable again, and filmmakers who had been biding their time were able to will their dream projects into production. Lawrence Kasdan returned to the genre for the underrated and ambitious “Wyatt Earp,” Walter Hill made two of his best films with “Geronimo: An American Legend” and “Wild Bill,” and talented directors like Jim Jarmusch (“Dead Man”), Sam Raimi (“The Quick and the Dead”), and Melvin Van Peebles (“Posse”) made Westerns as different from each other — and as equally nourishing — as one might expect.

One of the best of the ’90s Westerns has also been one of the most difficult to see, but a special edition Blu-ray release in December and a streaming premiere this month have rescued it from years of inaccessibility. When writer-director Maggie Greenwald‘s “The Ballad of Little Jo” was released in 1993, its relationship to the other Westerns of the time was a bit of a coincidence — Greenwald had written the script before “Unforgiven” — but there’s no question that her film, like the best 1950s Westerns of Budd Boetticher, Howard Hawks, and Sam Fuller, benefited from the comparisons and contrasts enabled by being part of a recognizable tradition. Like those directors, Greenwald was brilliant at using the language of the Western as a shorthand, expressing her point of view not only by what she depicted and how but by where her treatment of the material paid tribute to the Westerns that had come before and where it deviated.

“The Ballad of Little Jo” is based on the true story of a society woman (played brilliantly by Suzy Amis in a performance that deserves to be spoken of in the same breath with James Stewart’s work in the Anthony Mann Westerns) who, shunned by her family after giving birth out of wedlock, rides West and reinvents herself as a man – Josephine Monaghan becomes “Little Jo” Monaghan, a successful sheep farmer who, like the characters in “Shane,” “Heaven’s Gate,” and dozens (hundreds?) of other earlier Westerns, defends her land against an evil corporation. Along the way, she sidesteps the advances of a young woman who sees her as a potential husband and carries on a romance with a Chinese laborer (the only person who knows her true gender) while becoming friends with a guide and mentor named Badger, played by Bo Hopkins in a role that can’t help but evoke associations with Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch.”

The casting of Hopkins gives the viewer a clue to what Greenwald is up to, as she slyly references and honors not only Peckinpah but a whole history of American Westerns at the same time that she finds new directions for the genre. Much as Hopkins retains the strengths of his performances in Westerns like “The Wild Bunch,” “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,” and “The Culpepper Cattle Co.” while also revealing new layers of sensitivity, the film as a whole delivers the satisfactions of Westerns — “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Gunfighter,” “Shane” — that explore both the liberation of a life defined by rugged individualism and its limitations, but deepens and expands on the mythology. Part of this is inherent in the premise, and most of it is due to Greenwald’s probing intelligence and unerring visual sense.

Suzy Amis, 1993, “The Ballad of Little Jo”©Fine Line Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

Most Westerns are about masculinity and how America defines what it means to “be a man,” and many of the best entries in the genre have been films that delve into the contradictions and complexities of the question. By telling the story of a woman who lives her life as a man in the old West, Greenwald explores traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity through a different lens than just about every other Western ever made, even ostensibly female-driven works like “Bad Girls” and “The Quick and the Dead” which, while both have considerable strengths, don’t really engage with the issue on a deep level. Like most Westerns, “The Ballad of Little Jo” takes place in a world where maleness is glorified as a source of power and progress, a fact that Greenwald sharply interrogates via the unique perspective Little Jo’s character provides. Greenwald asks the viewer to consider and reconsider ideas many Westerns (and American films in general) take for granted by posing two simple questions: What does Little Jo gain by becoming a man, and what does she lose?

Greenwald uses familiar conventions both the traditional way and with a spin that gives them a whole new dimension. One of the hoariest cliches in the Western, for example, is that of the “redemptive woman,” the schoolmarm or minister’s sister who exists in the movie to civilize the hero and help him assimilate into society. In “Little Jo,” the redemptive woman is a man, but by making him Chinese — and therefore “lesser” and isolated in the eyes of the white men in the film — Greenwald plays with ideas of power, gender, race, and economics (Jo’s lover works as her handyman) and explores how they intersect in fluid and fascinating ways. The ways in which the viewer is expected to understand these issues are irrevocably affected by seeing them through the eyes of a woman who is pretending to be a man; long before the end of the movie, the line between “male” virtues and “female” ones — a defining feature of many classical Westerns — has been satisfyingly and provocatively blurred.

The pleasures of the film are not merely or even primarily ideological; part of Greenwald’s greatness is how organically woven into the narrative these ideas are. There’s nothing anachronistic about the film, even though, like all great period movies, it’s an equally valuable reflection of the time in which it takes place, the time of its release, and the time in which you’re watching it. Greenwald has the confidence not to force or overstate her ideas but just sets the drama in motion and lets the audience draw their own conclusions.

From left, Rene Auberjonois, Suzy Amis, 1993, “The Ballad of Little Jo” ©Fine Line Features/courtesy Everett/Everett Collection

She also provides a textured and expressive visual experience for the viewer that makes “The Ballad of Little Jo” one of the most purely gorgeous independent films of its era, and also a Western with a distinct look. Other directors had taken pleasure in the small details and nuances of day-to-day living in the old West — Robert Altman in “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” Walter Hill in “The Long Riders,” Budd Boetticher in his detailed depictions of what it really meant to be a cowboy tending to a horse — but Greenwald takes it as far as anyone ever did, focusing not only on where Little Jo lives, but how and why, and how the simultaneously beautiful and forbidding landscape informs her choices. The movie is filled with specific pieces of costume and production design that allow the viewer to ponder the frontier existence in all its particulars, not just its sweeping vistas; it’s an intimate approach that perfectly complements Greenwald’s efforts for us to see everything through Jo’s perspective.

At the same time, “The Ballad of Little Jo” has a sweeping, epic quality that belies its limited budget, as well as a giddy embrace of some of the Western’s most basic pleasures. When Little Jo, in a sense, “conquers” her territory and succeeds on both her own terms and society’s, it’s immensely satisfying, and her sense of freedom is intoxicating. Yet just as Gregory Peck in “The Gunfighter” or the guns for hire in “The Magnificent Seven” are trapped in their roles, Jo is trapped by successfully becoming a man — she can’t escape her role any more than Steve McQueen could escape his. Greenwald ends the film with an allusion to another great Western, John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” with her own take on the idea that “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Like everything else in the film, Greenwald’s perspective on this topic is complex, ambivalent, and, to a degree, open-ended, inviting the audience to continue the discussion after the film is over.

In a sense, Greenwald is doing what the best Western directors have always done despite the “revisionist” label erroneously attached to the ’90s films in the genre. The best Western directors have always been revisionist — John Ford cleverly subverted the idea of the redemptive woman back in 1939, for example, when he made her a prostitute in the same movie where he made the villain the most extreme representative of capitalist philosophy. Like “Stagecoach” — or “Red River,” or “High Noon,” or “Buck and the Preacher,” or any of the other all-time great Westerns — “The Ballad of Little Jo” looks both back and forward.

Also like those films, it’s a singular personal statement. Given that Greenwald was the first woman to write and direct a wide-release American Western in the sound era, it’s hard not to draw parallels between her own journey and Little Jo’s, forging her way forward in a male-dominated field and choosing what to retain and what to discard — and like her heroine, showing everyone else how it’s done. One doesn’t need to know anything about Greenwald or the production history of her film or even its context as a ’90s Western to enjoy it, though; it stands on its own as a masterpiece that has always deserved to be better known and more easily accessed. Its renewed availability is a cause for celebration and an opportunity to rediscover an American classic.

“The Ballad of Little Jo” is currently streaming at Kino Film Collection and is available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

[capellilavita-blog]

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2023 DINERS CLUB WINEMAKER

AND YOUNG WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

The finalists for the Diners Club Winemaker and Young Winemaker of the Year awards have been announced. Six winemakers have been shortlisted to compete for the prestigious Winemaker of the Year award, and six will vie for the Young Winemaker of the Year title.

The Winemaker and Young Winemaker awards focus on quality and the recognition of excellence and are among the country’s most prestigious and most-respected wine industry competitions. While most wine industry awards focus on the winning wines, the Diners Club Winemaker and Young Winemaker of the Year awards celebrate the creators of the winning wines, honouring the skills and talents of the vintners.

The awards are presented to winemakers who produce a wine that the judging panel considers to be the best in the two specified categories for the annual competition. This year, the category for the 43rd Winemaker of the Year award is Syrah/Shiraz, with White Wine the category for the 23rd Young Winemaker of the Year award. As in previous years, winemakers can be shortlisted for more than one submission. These awards are open to all in the South African wine industry at no cost, thus affording all winemakers an equal opportunity.

There were over 180entries this year and the field was narrowed down to twelve finalists through rigorous judging over two days by a team of wine experts. All the judges agree that it will be a close race for the top prize, a clear indication that the finalist wines are outstanding.

THE 2023 DINERS CLUB WINEMAKER AND YOUNG WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS

Winemaker of the Year category: Syrah/Shiraz

Annamarie Fourie – 2018 Holden ManzSyrah Reserve

Charles Hopkins – 2020 De Grendel Shiraz

Dewaldt Heyns – 2021 Dewaldt Heyns Weathered Hands Shiraz

Josef Dreyer – 2020 Raka Biography Shiraz

RJ Botha – 2020 Kleine ZalzeFamily Reserve Syrah

Tertius Boshoff – 2020 StellenrustArtiSons Blueberry Hill Shiraz

Young Winemaker of the Year category: White Wines

Marnich Aucamp – 2021 Stellenbosch VineyardsCredo Chardonnay

Michelle Waldeck–2019 Benguela Cove Catalina Semillon

Morgan Steyn– 2022 De Grendel Op die Berg Chardonnay

Nongcebo Langa –2022 DelheimGewürztraminer

Pieter Coetzee–2021 Quoin RockChardonnay

Richard Schroeder–2022 Groot PhesantekraalMarizanneSauvignon Blanc

THE 2023 DINERS CLUB WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR JUDGES

Carrie Adams – Head Judge; Winnie Bowman; Yegas Naidoo; Shane Mumba; Denzel Swarts

The finalists for both awards are invited to a black-tie gala dinner at the Five Star Arabella Hotel & Spa on 18 November 2023, where the winners will be revealed and presented with their trophies. The winning winemaker receives R50 000 and the young winemaker R25 000. In addition, both winners receive a round-trip air ticket to a wine-producing region – terms and conditions of the presenting sponsor apply.

*content supplied*

Posy Hazell

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everytime I watch good omens and hear witchfinder general matthew hopkins mentioned I just think of ryan and shane going, “matthew hopkins, the witchfinder general!” in their little mocking voices