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stokan · 6 years ago

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Top 20 Things of 2018

1.) Beychella How do you make a long awaited surprise album between two of the biggest names in music that is also one of the year’s best feel like complete afterthought? Set the bar as high as Beyonce’s Coachella appearance.

First awards show performances, then music videos, now music festival gigs: is there anything that Beyonce CAN’T turn into high art?

2.) Explained by Vox The most exciting development in the world of television in 2018 was radically breaking the rules on episodes length. We saw 30 minute dramas, and hour long comedies. We got shows like Maniac where episodes were as long as 49 minutes and as short as 27 minutes. Now television creators can tell exactly the stories they want to tell in however much time they want to tell them in. And perhaps nowhere were these loosened restrictions taken better advantage than Explained, Vox’s documentary series for Netflix. Many topics cant sustain a full length documentary, but, say, 14 minutes explaining cryptocurrency to me? Sure! 17 minutes on designer DNA? Sounds great! 20 minutes on the origins of K-Pop? How do you say “yes please” in Korean? Every episode has a different narrator, a different look, a different feel, and varies wildly in subject matter. Yet they are all exactly the length they need to be. The only thing left I really need explained to me is why no one thought to make this series before.

3.) Serial Season 3 If Explained was a great example of the latest evolution in television, then the new season of Serial is at the front line of the evolution of our newest artistic medium: podcasts. Serial’s third season was nothing like its second, which was in turn nothing like its first. It’s a series still figuring out what it CAN be, while now defining forever what it NEEDS to be. Serial this year explained a deeply important topic in a way that wouldn’t have been possible through any other medium. They always say if you’re a writer you have to ask yourself what form of writing your idea needs to be. Don’t write a play that’s really a TV show, or a movie that should be a book. And now we can add to that don’t make a TV series that’s really a podcast. As Homecoming proved this year, the two mediums are very different and better equipped to tell different stories. And after hearing Serial Season Three I can’t imagine there will ever be a better way to explore the current American criminal justice system. It was 2018’s version of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. It may not change national food safety standards, but it hopefully will do something perhaps even more important: it will make us never again take lightly the election of local judges and sheriffs. It was a podcast for the heart, the head, and the time capsule.

4.) Black Mirror - “Hang the DJ” I know this technically came out December 29th 2017 but I’m counting it here because nothing was more 2018 than this. The sadness, the isolation, the uncertainty, the living in a world you don’t understand the rules of anymore, the unfairness of modern life, but the ultimate perseverance of hope and love: it’s all there in the best episode of Black Mirror’s third season. It made me cry out of sadness and happiness in equal measure. Could anything be more 2018 than that?

5.) Kesha at the Grammys Ok so maybe one thing was more 2018.

The Grammys, an organization led by Neil Portnow, a man who said this year that “women need to step up”, and an organization that didn’t offer its one female Album of the Year nominee a solo performance spot, also offered us 2018’s most powerful show of female solidarity and one of the most moving moments of the Me Too era. It all amounted to the perfect encapsulation of this year. Kesha scream crying and then collapsing into a sea of strong supportive women WAS 2018.

6.) Eighth Grade My favorite movie of the year was also the year’s best horror movie. It was so real, and visceral, and intense, and frightening that at times I literally had to remind myself to breathe. I watched at least half the movie through my fingers and on the edge of my seat. Proving what everyone who has lived through it already knows: there’s nothing in the world more terrifying than being in junior high.

7.) Big Mouth Speaking of junior high, the other side of the pain and trauma of growing up is humor, so why it took this long for someone to make a comedy series explicitly about puberty is beyond me. I guess, of course, making a show like this work is a fine needle to thread. It wouldn’t work without being animated and being on a streaming service that lets them go as far as they did. It wouldn’t work without writing that is both laugh out loud funny and deeply compassionate and human in equal measure. And it wouldn’t work without one of the best voice casts on TV, including a true tour de force from Maya Rudolph. But work does it ever. In a just world junior high health class homework would be simply watching this show.

8.) Emma Gonzalez speech Here’s how long 2018 was: this was from 2018.

Finishing off my personal 2018 Growing Up Trifecta is the most powerful 12 minutes of the year. That high school students could be more inspiring, articulate, and better leaders than the President of the United States is sadly, at this point, a given. But that they are now more effective and efficient than him at starting genuine political movements still feels revolutionary. The kids are our future, and our future has never looked brighter.

9.) Childish Gambino - “This is America” video 100 years from now if theres only one cultural artifact that still exists and is still remembered from 2018 this will be it. A “you know where you were the first time you saw it” level cultural event. No song will ever be more closely associated with its music video, and no music video will ever be more of an avatar for an entire cultural moment than this. THIS is, of course, a truly shocking and horrifying (in a good way) music video from the former fifth lead of the TV show Community. A profound and brilliant piece of art underscored by a fun-sounding dance song. The year’s most complex and important social-political message delivered in 4 minutes via YouTube. This is America indeed.

10.) Drake - “God’s Plan” video While Donald Glover may have perfected the music video as art form, it goes without saying that long ago Drake mastered the music video as promotional tool. And in that sense the music video for “God’s Plan” seems like minor failure. It seemed to sort of come and go from the culture, especially in light of the success of the In My Feelings Challenge. But for me, there was nothing more heartwarming and human this year than watching Drake give away almost a million dollars to strangers. It was an idea so simple it’s shocking no one had ever done it before. And so affecting I was shocked it didn’t seem to penetrate the public consciousness more. There’s so much going on at all times now it’s hard for anything to truly break through all the noise, but this really deserved to. It’s impossible to watch this without smiling, and is there anything 2018 needed more than that?

11.) Nanette The dumbest debate this year was whether or not Nanette was stand up. Form and genre aren’t delineators still worth discussing in 2018. It’s now only about the message and the messenger, everything else is just details. An important fresh voice, the most timely, and sadly, timeless message imaginable, delivered in a way that reached and deeply affected seemingly every person you knew? What is there to debate? Nanette may or may not be stand up comedy, but it’s definitely RISE UP comedy. And in the end, that’s all that matters.

12.) Amber Says What Please click on the link above. The final two minutes are by far the best comedy of 2018. It still makes me laugh so hard that it causes me physical pain. You’ve been warned.

13.) A Star is Born trailers A Star is Born is maybe a perfect film. The performances, the songs, the direction, the fact that there’s literally no human being on earth who could have played her part and made the movie work like it did other than Lady Gaga. It was all perfect. But there was actually something better than watching A Star is Born: anticipating watching a A Star is Born. Before the first A Star is Born trailer came out I thought the whole project sounded dumb and unnecessary. After I finished watching the first trailer I knew I was going to see A Star is Born opening night. True story: I was at a movie where the same A Star is Born trailer got played three times in a row for some reason. And it was riveting every time. There was no grumbling at all in the audience, and I for one was sad when it didn’t replay a fourth time. So as much as I loved A Star is Born what I would really love is be able to still want to see A Star is Born for the first time.

14.) Ariana Grande - “thank u, next” It’s genuinely impressive that a song released in November could be the song I listened to by far the most this year. Somehow it took less than two months for this song to feel completely ubiquitous. Hell, even the PHRASE “thank u, next” is omnipresent now. Forget Song of the Summer, this was maybe our first Song of the Winter. Which is perfect because has a hit pop song ever sounded more winter? It’s cold, but it keeps you warm. It’s the sadness of the holidays with the life reaffirming joy of the holiday season. It’s a sweater for you to wear on the dance floor. And it’s clearly exactly the song so many of us needed. No matter how many times I’ve heard it (and as I said, I’ve listened to it, uh, A LOT) its existence feels like a holiday miracle. Having a new and fresh take on the breakup song in the year 2018? That shit IS amazing.

15.) The proposal at the Emmys This is literally the only thing anyone remembers about this year’s Emmys. It was amazing, and special, and made anyone who watched it believe in true love. But for me it still cant touch the most heart-melting awards show moment of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJrku4fSxk

(Was this whole entry just an excuse to link to one of my absolute favorite YouTube clips? Perhaps.)

16.) Succession When I saw the promos for Succession I literally made the sound UGH out loud. The last thing the world needs is another show about rich white people behaving badly, I thought. How could there possibly be anything original left to say on that topic? Who on earth is still greenlighting shows like this in The Year of our Lord 2018?

People much smarter than I am clearly, that’s who.

Because from writing, acting, production design, direction - whatever element you want to focus on - this was the best and most exciting new show of 2018 by a wide margin. People have been saying for years that TV is the new movies; this show made movies look like the old TV. It was the most vibrant and perfectly crafted big budget feature film of 2018, stretched out over 8 episodes on HBO. Did it have anything new and important to say about the world? Probably not. And turns out, I couldn’t have cared less. The phrase compulsively watchable might have been invented just to describe the world these actors and writers created. I would watch the team involved with this show dry paint.

17.) Angels in America on Broadway Angels in America is the best play of the past 30 years and its not even close. So the fact that it would get a production that’s this good is just unfair for everyone else on this planet who makes theater. It was so good it made all other plays I’ve seen since seem small and cheap and unimportant. It was such a towering achievement that it has made the entire rest of theater as an art form seem insignificant by comparison. When you hear old people talk about seeing Brando in Streetcar or watching the original production of Death of Salesman I now can relate to what they are talking about. I’ll be thinking about Andrew Garfield’s final monologue for the rest of my life. It was unfair that we the audience had to all leave the theater when the lights finally came up and that we couldn’t all just live in that feeling forever. The eight hours I spent watching this play are what art is all about.

18.) Jesse Plemons in Game Night If dying is easy, and comedy is hard, then they should cancel the Oscars and give Jesse Plemmons Best Supporting Actor right now for his work in Game Night. And ok, maybe it wasn’t the BEST performance of 2018, but it was DEFINITELY the best performance relative to what it needed to be. It should have been a dumb throwaway part in a big-budget mainstream ensemble comedy. But Jesse Plemmons crafted a performance so strange and singular and memorable that it elevated the entire movie into something way better than I’m sure even its creators expected. I legitimately don’t know how everyone didn’t break in every one of his scenes. It’s a master class in the comedic power of silence. It should be studied in acting classes everywhere. And 20 years from now when Game Night is considered a comedy classic, Jesse Plemmons will be the main reason why. You heard it here first.

19.) The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships Saxophones? Electric guitar solos? Backing choirs? A concept album about being uncomfortable with the internet? Dumb pretentious song titles? This album couldn’t be any more in my wheelhouse if I made it myself. Its best song is basically a modern reimagining of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for God’s sake!

For me this wasn’t just an album, it was an experience. It was big music to get lost inside of. And I did. At age 36 it’s nice to know that sometimes I can still feel 16. And it’s fitting that a band named The 1975 would be the ones to make music that’s so transporting.

20.) Emma Stone Ok so as someone who once argued in this very space that Emma Stone deserved an Oscar nomination for Easy A, it’s clear I’m pretty deep in the tank for Emma Stone. But even an Emma Stone hater would have to admit than this was a banner year for Emma Stone. Signing up for the insane acting challenge that was Maniac and completely acing it while totally exposing two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill in the process? Going toe to toe with Olivia Colman in the battle of the best acting performances of the year in The Favourite? Coming across as more charming than Jennifer freaking Lawrence ?!?

2018 was Emma Stone’s year, we were all just living in it.

#this is america #drake #emma stone #the 1975 #eighth grade #a star is born #beychella #nanette #jesse plemmons #succession #thank u next #angels in america #big mouth #serial

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thingstodoinsandiego-blog · 5 years ago

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Fun Group Outing Ideas in San Diego 2019

Fun Group Outing Ideas in San Diego 2019

Since 1769, San Diego has been of America’s most beautiful and culturally rich cities, and has a large amount of attractions and things to do. With amazing experiences from state parks and beaches to the world famous San Diego Zoo, this great city has many things for you and your travel group to enjoy. While you’re here, you may get to enjoy a taste or two of the unique cultures San Diego has to offer you and your travel companions. Here are some company outing ideas in San Diego.

1) Museums

San Diego offers a lot of Museums, such as the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Air and Space Museum and many more. There is something for everyone in these unique places, from the young to the young at heart everyone will enjoy learning about San Diego’s long and exciting history and the genuine culture that has formed there. Visit the USS Midway Museum and the Maritime Museum to learn about the history that San Diego has with sailing, boating, fishing, and the boats indiginous to the area.

2) Sailing

Sailing in San Diego is very popular, with many Yacht clubs, sailing schools, and charters to visit and go on, Sailing is no doubt one of the most popular pastimes in this City. Many Sailing companies offer boat rentals, boat charters, and sailboat tours; so you can be a captain for a day, or book a private tour around the bay and enjoy a relaxing evening with your travel companions. While you’re out, you may get to catch a glimpse of a migrating whale or a dolphin traveling through these warm pacific waters.

3) Whale Watching

From December to April, many people from all over the continent visit this city for one thing: Whale Watching. In this chilly winter season, Grey whales migrate North towards Alaska to mate. During the off season from May to November, you can still enjoy Whale Watching as Humpback whales, Minke Whales, and Fin whales travel along the coast all year round. You may even catch a glimpse at a sea lion, or a dolphin while you’re exploring the Pacific coast. Anyone would enjoy going on a whale watching cruise while visiting San Diego, because you never know what you’ll see.

4) Theaters

San Diego has an array of Theaters to go to, including the Old Globe Theater where you can enjoy many plays, recitals, and concerts. Each theater has a unique story behind it, and has its own atmosphere of wonder. You can sit and enjoy a Broadway style musical or a 15th century drama while quietly sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to see what happens next, and then leave with memories you and the people you’ve traveled with may never forget. You may laugh out loud, and you may cry some solemn tears, but you’ll never forget the experiences you’ve gained by visiting these theaters. This is one of the more sophisticated company outing ideas in San Diego.

5) National, State, and Natural Parks

San Diego has as many if not more National and Natural Parks as it does Museums. Each National Park includes something unique, such as Sunset Cliffs Natural Parks will give you a view to a breathtaking Sunset or the Old Town San Diego State Historical Park will transport you back to when Europeans first arrived to this part of the country. Being out in the nature of California will inspire you to take better care of the earth we live on, and maybe take a little more time in your life to stop and smell the roses for a few minutes.

6) Aquariums and Zoos

Animals lovers love San Diego for its world famous Zoo, the San Diego Zoo, but also for aquariums and other animal exhibits in the area. Visiting the San Diego Zoo will give any animal lover the experience to see animals that they’ve never seen before, and may never see again. The Birch Aquarium offers a large amount of marine life that will wow you and any children you have with you. No one gives an up close and personal look at some of the most exotic animals like San Diego Safari. These are some very fun group activities in San Diego, and you will not be disappointed with the Zoos and Aquariums this area has to offer.

7) Beaches

Everyone loves the beach right? With lots to choose from, you and your group can find something everyone will enjoy, whether is be shelling for unique sea shells, fishing to catch a big one, playing in the sand, or just working on your tan, these beaches have something for everyone and anyone. Walk along the white sands of Windansea beach, or catch a big wave at Tourmaline surfing park. Enjoy finding a hermit crab or sea star in a tide pool after the tide washes out. You certainly will not be disappointed with the beach’s San Diego has to offer.

8) Restaurants

Along with the unique culture in San Diego, you can also find unique food here as well. You can experience fine cuisine, comfort food, and even culturally diverse food in this area. During San Diego Restaurant week, over 100 restaurants offer a tour for your taste buds as you take a culinary tour to some of the world’s best restaurants. Along the Gaslamp, you can find many restaurants that offer anything from sweet treats to fast food. Foodies from everywhere will enjoy the amazing tastes that you can find in San Diego’s Cali Baja cuisine, which uses locally grown produce and seafood that will leave you hungry for more.

9) Shopping

You can enjoy finding couture fashion in San Diego’s Fashion Valley, or a knick knack or two to bring home to commemorate your visit to San Diego. The fashion scene is one of a kind as you walk through Seaport Village to shop along the pacific coast. You can finally become as fashionable as you wish in the shopping malls and districts that are located in and around San Diego with cute and trendy boutiques and a plentiful amount of department stores. You and your friends or family will enjoy picking out a gift to bring home to remember this special city.

10) Farmers Markets

San Diego has a vast amount of Farmers Markets for you to choose from that sources local farms and sells their produce, meats, seafood, and other items that the farmers have handmade. Opening early in the morning, this will give you and your group a great opportunity to get up and going by walking and seeing what things the farmer’s markets have to offer for you. Whether you want farm fresh veggies to use for dinner one night or a great tasting homemade jam to bring home, these farmers markets have everything you need.

11) Drive-In Movies

While there are only two in the area, you can enjoy a night at the movies with State of the art projectors and movies to watch daily, all from the comfort of your car. You can sit back with a bucket of popcorn or two and watch movies in San Diego’s mild average of 70 degrees. With an old timey feel, you and your companions can enjoy movies under the stars at the South Bay drive-in theater, which opened in 1958 and shows movies every day of the year. This is the perfect chance to make some memories you’ll remember fondly in years to come.

12) Cultural Art

The cultural art in San Diego is absolutely unreal, and you can find it almost anywhere. From the street art on the walls to nonprofit organizations for cultural artists like San Diego Cultural Arts Alliance, the streets have become a colorful art exhibit that is sure to make anyone look twice, or want to take a picture to show their friends and family later. Going out and observing all of the cultural art that San Diego has to offer can be a great experience for everyone in your travel group. Be sure not to miss out on all the amazing cultural art that makes San Diego beautiful and totally unique.

13) Water Parks

There are many water parks to visit in San Diego, most of which are on the coast near the beach. Everyone will have a thrilling day at one of these amazing locations that includes water rides, large water slides, and playgrounds where children can play safely and soundly with lifeguards on duty in most areas. Aquatica, inside of Seaworld, includes a wave pool, kid zone, and lots of fun rides. Going to one of these water parks would be a great thing to add to your vacation bucket list. Your whole group will enjoy what San Diego’s water parks have to offer.

14) Art Exhibits

Art Exhibits in San Diego is a very common and popular thing, from Contemporary art to Photographic Art, there are many art exhibits to visit if you’re looking for a quiet day inside, or if it’s raining and you want to get in anything you can before you head home and leave this amazing city. Perhaps you want to see some folk art, then Mingei International Museum is perfect for you and your crew to visit. Opening in 1978, Mingei International Museum is non-profit and conserves folk art, design and craft. You definitely won’t see anything like this at home.

15) City Tours

On your visit, you may want to take a tour around the city. Thankfully, there are many Tour companies that take you around the city and gives you many fun facts about this great city. Tours like The San Diego Highlights Tour and The San Diego Tour take you to many of the city’s highlights, landmarks, beaches, and treats you well and like family. While you’re visiting San Diego, consider taking your group on a tour of the city to see all of the sights, and get picture opportunities to bring home and cherish forever as you remember this stunning city fondly. No matter why you’re in San Diego, whether on Vacation, Business, or if you live here, you can always find something amazing to do that will make you want to come back and do it again. This city is so full of excitement, wonder, culture, and amazement it is like no other city in America. I hope you’ve gotten some fun group activities in San Diego. You can see other Group Outing Ideas or team building ideas here on our About page here.

Click here to find more things to do in San Diego

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#fun #groups #sandiego #sightseeing #thingstodo

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winchesters-love · 7 years ago

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Get To Know Me!!! A Little Too Well

1. Name: Nicole 2. Nickname(s): Nik, Nikki 3. Birthday: June 21 4. That makes you: 18 5. Where were you born: Nebraska 6. Location right now: Same place 7. Shoe size: 7 8. How many piercings?: None 9. Tattoos?: None, but I'd love a few <3 10. When you wake up you're: Confused and even more tired 11. When your about to sleep you're: Wide awake 12. Zodiac sign: Cancerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/Gemini 13. Chinese sign: Rabbit 14. Righty or Lefty: Righty 15. Innie or Outie: Innie 16. School: Out of school :P Section Two: Looks 17. Nationality: White 20. Weight: 110 lbs 21. Height: 5'6 22. Braces? No 23. Glasses? Yes Section Three: Private Life 24. Do you have a boy/girlfriend? I do! 25. If so, who? The love of my life, Nate 26. If not, do you have a crush on someone? My boyfriend 27. Who has a crush on you? No one haha 28. Ever cheated on your bf/gf? Nope 29. Who was your first kiss: Nate, he kisses pretty good 30. Who was your last kiss: Nate <3 31. Are you a virgin? Yes 32. Ever had a threesome before? No 33. NQ- Ever been swarmed by ladybugs?: Nope 34. Have you ever been in love? Yes 35. Broken any hearts? Not that I know of 36. Got your heart broken? Quite a few times 37. Ever liked a friend? Yea 38. What happened? We started dating

Section Four: Past Relationships 39. How many relationships have you been in? 1 40. How many were serious enough to count: I'm in it 41. Who were those serious ones: I've only been in 1 42. NQ- Who USED to be your best friend: Well, he's still my best friend so 43. What made them different: Nothing 44. What happened: We started dating 45. Best boy/girlfriend: The one I'm dating 46. Worst boy/girlfriend: N/A 47. Ever been kissed: Yes 48. Who do you want back: No one 49. What do you regret: Focusing too much on guys 50. Why? Because I would've done so much better in school Section Five: Favourites 51. Song: Sound of Silence 52. Movie: Zootopia 53. Food: Anything really 54. Drink: Apple Juice 55. Store: Gamestop and Hot Topic 56. Television show: Stranger Things and Mom 57. Holiday: Christmas 58. Book: Grace Lost Series 59. Ice cream: Mint Chip 60. Sweets: Chocolate 61. Crisps: Doritos Jacked 62. Type of music: Pretty much every genre 63. Artist: Singer is Luke Bryan, Painter is Bob Ross 64. Word: Loquacious, vernacular 65. Time of day: Evening/night 66. Dressing: Ranch 67. Alcoholic drink: Don't drink 68. Colour(s): Blue, Red, Black, and White 69. Piece of clothing: Beanie 70. Character: My fursona 71. Smell: Fresh rainfall 72. Shampoo: Fructis 73. Soap: Fructis 74. Smiley: >3 75. Board game: Too many tbh 76. Sport: Soccer 77. Number: 5 78. Quote: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin D. Roosvelt 79. Animal: Wolf 80. Actor: Ryan Reynolds/Chris Pratt 82. Vegetable: Sugar snap peas 83. Fruit: Grapes 84. Place to be: In my room 85. Thing in your room: Pictures 86. Gum: 5-gum 87. Shape: Circle 88. Country: Europe 89. Mall: Any mall 90. Car: 67 Chevy Impala 91. Boy's name: Christopher 92. Girl's name: Chrissy 93. Family member: My brothers and my dad 94. Restaurant: Johnny Carinos 95. Movie place: The theater 96. Person to go to the movies with: Myself 97. Noise: Falling rain 98. Brand of Shoe: Airwalks 99. Brand of clothing: Aeropostle 100. Body part of a chicken: Thigh 101. Swear word: Asshat 102. Month: December 103. Possession: My ring 104. Team: Don't have a favorite 105. Season: Winter 106. Radio station: Pop station 107. Magazine: Don't read them 108. Favourite grade: Senior year 109. Least favourite grade: 5th grade 110. Teacher: Kindergarten 111. Least favourite teacher: Math teacher in 5th grade, he was a douche 112. Subject: Art/Choir 113. Subject to talk about: Anything and everything Section Six: Family 114. Who's your mum?: Not here 115. Who's your dad?: My role model 116. Any step-parents?: Yea, had a few 117. Any brothers?: 2 118. Any Sisters?: Nope 120. Coolest: Older brother 121. Loudest: Me 122. Best relative: My cousin 123. Worse relative: No one 124. Do you get along with your parents? My dad, yea 125. With your siblings? Mostly, we game with each other 126. Does anyone understand you? Yea 127. Do you have any pets? Nah 128. If so, what kind and name? 129. If not, what do you want as a pet? I want another dog, we had to get rid of ours Section Seven: School 131. Are you still in school? Nope 132. Did you drop out?: 2.75, I didn't pay attention freshman and sophomore year 133. Your current GPA: No thanks 134. Do you buy or bring lunch?: School bill paid for it 135. ABC's?: Know them 136. Favorite class: Choir and art 137. Play any sports at school?: Played soccer 138. Are you popular? With the outcasts 139. Favourite memory: Being the only girl good at soccer 140. Most humiliating moment: Falling in front of my close guy friends 141. Most funniest moment: Hitting someone in the face with a soccer ball 142. Most scared moment: Graduating Section Eight: What do you think of when you hear 145. Chicken: Bawk bawk 146. Dog: Soft puppy 147. Christina Aguilera: Music 148. Ricky Martin: Who? 149. 50 cent: Rapper 150. Poop: Emoji 151. Beach: Sand 152. Dessert: Cactus 153. Water: Blue 154. Osama: Bin Laden 155. Love: Life 156. Your little brother: Xbox One 157. Butt: Nice 158. Clowns: Pennywise 159. Wonder: Over Yander 16o. Brown: Pants 161. Banana: Yum 162. Sex: Rope 163. Parents: One 164. Homosexuals: Jensen and Jared 165. God: Father Section Nine: Do you believe in 166. God: Yes 167. Heaven: Yes 168. Devil: Yes 169. Hell: In a sense 170: Boogey man: No 171. Closet Monsters: Nah 172. Fortune telling: Nope 173. Magic: Nuh uh 174. Love at first sight: Depends 175. Ghosts: Nope 176. Voo-doo dolls: Nah 177. Reincarnation: Nope 178. Yourself: Ehh, not really Section Ten: Do you 179. Smoke: And kill my lungs? No thanks 180. Do drugs: Pfft, why would I? 181. Drink alcohol: Again, I'm not trying to die at a young age 182. Cuss: Yea 183. Sing in the shower: Sometimes... 184. Like school: Yea, it was the best place to be! 185. Want to get married: Mhmm, and I'm glad I found someone 186. Type with all of your fingers: Not really 187. Think you're attractive: Most days 188. Drink and drive: Fuck this 189. Snore: Sometimes 190. Sleep walk: Nope 191. Like watching sunrises and sunsets: Best place to be honestly Section Eleven: Have you ever 192. Flashed someone: On accident 193. Gotten so drunk til you threw up everywhere: I don't drink 194. Told that person how you felt: Yep 195. Been arrested: Nope 196. Gone to jail or juve: No 197. Skateboarded: Yes 198. Skinny dipped: In a bath 199. Rock climbed: Do it every summer 200. Killed someone: Nope 201. Watched porn: Nah 202. Gone on a road trip: Kinda 203. Went out of the country: Nah 204. Talked back to an adult: Yes 205. Broken a law: Nope 206. Got pulled over: Don't drive 208: Cried to get out of trouble: I don't usually do anything bad 209. Let a friend cry on your shoulder: I'm supposed to, I'm there to listen 210. Kissed a brother's or sister's friend: No 211. Kissed a friend's brother or sister: No 212. Dropped something on the floor and let someone eat it anyways: Nah, I usually eat it 213. Mooned someone: Yes, once 214. Shop-lifted: No 215. Worked at McDonald's: No thank you 216. Eaten a dog: A hot dog! 217. Give money to a homeless person: Yea, I've fed them too 218. Glued your hand to yourself: Yes 219. Kissed someone of the same sex: Playing Pocky 220. Had a one night stand: I have two right beside my bed 221. Smoked: Nope 222. Done drugs: No 223. Lose a friend because of your ex: I don't have any exes 224. Slap someone for being stupid: Yes 225. Had cyber sex: Sexted?? Kinda 226. Wish you were the opposite sex: A lot more often than I should sometimes. But for completely different reasons 227. Caught someone doing something: Yea 228. Played a game that removes clothing: Strip truth or dare ;) 229. Cried during a movie: All the damn time 230. Cried over someone: It's hard not to when you can't have an actor love you 231. Wanted to hook up with a friend: Yea, and I did 232. Hooked up with someone you barely met: Nah 233. Ran away from home: Nope 234. Cheated on a test: Once Section Twelve: Would you 235. Bungee jump: Nope 236. Sky dive: Hate heights 237. Swim with dolphins: Yes 238. Steal a friend's bf or gf: That goes against girl code 239. Try to be the opposite sex: No 240. Lie to the police: Hi officer my real name is Nicholas... Cage 241. Run from the police: No 242. Lie to your parents: Done it before 243. Backstab a friend for your own well being: That's just plain rude 244. Be an exotic dancer: Only for my boyfriend <3 245. NQ- Kill the president: Nah Section Thirteen: Are you 246. Shy: Yes, especially around new people 247. Loud: Extremely 248. Nice: I try to be 249: Outgoing: I fake being outgoing haha 250: Quiet: Yea 251. Mean: Depends, I'm mean to those I like 252. Emotional: Sad to say, but yea 253. Sensitive: Mhmm 254. Gay: I'm very happy 255. Strong: I wish, need to start working out 256. Weak: Yea 257. Caring: Yes, especially towards animals 258. Dangerous: Well, does this include caving? 259. Crazy: Uh huh 260. Spontaneous: I am the most random and spontaneous thing out there 261. Funny: I try to be, I fail at it 262. Sweet: To eat ;) 263. Sharing: With most things, but not my food 264. Responsible: Most of the time 265. Trustworthy: Definitely, if you want a secret kept come talk to me 266. Open-minded: Depends on what you mean 267. Creative: For the most part 268. Cute: Um, not even close, no matter how many of y'all say I am 269. Slick: They don't call me Nik the Slick for nothing 270. Smart: Yea 271. Dumb: I act like it 272. Evil: No 273. Ghetto: If only 274. Classy: As in sassy 275. Photogenic: Nope 276. Dependable: Only on a few select things 277. Greedy: Only with food 278. Ugly: Yes, 100 times over 279. Messy: With my life 280. Neat: With everything else 281. Perverted: You can say cookie and it'll go bad 282. Silly: Yea 283. A B****: I can be if you want me to be 284. A Good Listener: Mhmm 285. A Fighter: If you make me mad enough 286. A Party Animal: I'd rather read, thanks 287. A Game Freak: YES 288. A Computer Freak: I literally want to work on computers Section Fourteen: Future 289. Dream job: Animation 290. Dream house: Somewhere out in the country 291. Husband/Wife: My sweet redheaded boyfriend 292. Kids: 2 293. Names: Something with Ns 294. Pets: Literally so many 295. Car: Anything that gets me places 296. Age you would want to get married: I wouldn't mind getting married in the next few years 297. Best Man/Bride's Maid: My best friend Elena 298. Honeymoon: Anyplace that has a bedroom Section Fifteen: Your friends 299. Best friend: Elena, Nate, Jasmine, Kelsey 300. Known the longest: Nate 301. Craziest: Elena 302. Loudest: Elena and I 303. Shyest: Jasmine and Kelsey 304. Best hair: Kelsey 305. Best eyes: Kelsey 306. Best body: Nate 307. Most Athletic: Me 308. Hot-Tempered: Elena 309. Most impatient: Me 310. Shortest: Nate 311. Tallest: Kelsey 312. Skinniest: Me 313. Best singer: Me 314. Funniest: Literally all of us 315. Can always make you laugh: All of them 316. Wish you talked to more: Elena 317. Wish you saw more: All of them 318. Who drives you insane after a while: Elena, but in a good way 319. Who you can stay around forever and never get sick of: All of them 320. Ever lose a friend because you took it to the 'next level': Nah, I'm dating Nate 321. Whose always been there when you need them: All of them 322. Who is like your family: All of them 323. How many friends do you have?: Quite a few, and I love each and every one of them 324. How many are really close? About 10? Section Sixteen: The last 325. Thing you ate: Poptarts 326. Thing you drank: Apple juice 327. Thing you wore: My hoodie 328. Thing you did: This meme 329. Place you went: The store 330. Thing you got pierced or tattooed: Nothing 331. Person you saw: My dad 332. Person you hugged: My dad 333. Person you kissed: Nate 334. NQ- Person you beat to a juicy pulp: I wish I had done that to a couple jerks 335. Person you talked to online: Nate 336. Person you talked to on the phone: Nate 337. Song you heard: Vulnerable by Secondhand Serenade 338. Show you saw: Mom 339. Time you fought with your parents: Um... about a month or two? 340. Time you fought with a friend: Haven't for a while 341. Words you said: Fuck you is what I said Section Seventeen: Now 343. What are you eating: Poptart 344. What are you drinking: Apple juice 345. What are you thinking: About my boyfriend 346. What are you wearing: My hoodie 347. What are you doing: Writing this up 349. Hair: Down 350. Mood: Tired 351. Listening to: Spotify 352. Talking to anyone: Yea 353. Watching anything: Nah Section Eighteen: Yes or No 354. Are you a vegetarian: Mostly 355. Are you a carnivore: Nah 356. Are you heterosexual: Yes 357. Do you like penguins: Yes 358. Do you write poetry: Yes 359. Do you see stupid people: Yes 360. You + Me: No 361. Do you like the Osbournes: Yes 362. Can you see flying pigs: No 363. Do you sleep with stuffed animals on your bed: Yes 364. Are you from Afghanistan: No 365. Is Christina Aguilera ugly: No 366. Are you a zombie: No 367. Am i annoying you: Yes 368. Do you bite your nails: Yes 369. Can you cross your eyes: Yes 370. Do you make your bed in the morning: No 371. Have you touched someone's private part: Yes Section Nineteen: This or That 372. Winter or Summer: Winte 373. Spring or Autumn: Autumn 374. Shakira or Britney: Britney 375. MTV or VH1: MTV 376. Black or White: White 377. Yellow or Pink: Pink 378. Football or Basketball: Football 379. Mobile Phone or Pager: Mobile 380. Pen or Pencil: Pencil 381. Cold or Hot: Hot 382. Tattoos or Piercings: Tattoos 383. Inside or Outside: Inside 384. Weed or Alcohol: No 385. Coke or Pepsi: Pepsi 386. Tape or Glue: Tape 387. McDonald's or In-n-Out: In-Out Section Twenty: Opinions 388. What do you think about classical music: I like it 389. About boy bands: Nah 390: About suicide: Talk to someone if you're thinking about suicide. It is a very real thing and should not be joked about. I don't want to find out that any of you are no longer here because of suicide. I've lost 2 very close friends that way. 391. About people who try to force their opinions on you: They can kindly fuck off 392. About teen pregnancy: Only if they know they'll be able to take care of the baby 393. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years: With my husband in some country town 394. Who do you think you'll still be friends with in 5 years: Nate, Elena, Kelsey, Jasmine, hopefully all my friends 395. About gay men: They're human too Section Twenty-One: 396. Do you have a website: I'm working on building one 397. Current weather right now: Cold as balls 398. Current time: 7:00 399. Last thoughts: Byyyye

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gofahr · 5 years ago

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What Goes Down Must Come Up

I made a big deal about this race all season, and I think that played strongly to my benefit, but also to my detriment once the day finally arrived. I had made it known from the very start of my “career” that my goal was to be the one that takes the title from Katie Compton. At first I only told those close to me, then this year I more openly admitted that I was gunning to win; that I wanted to beat Katie Fn Compton at nationals.

She knew it too, as I gave a speech on self-efficacy at Montana Cross camp and she was there for it. I looked her in the eye and said I was going to beat her at Nationals.

I never considered that I could beat her and still not win. If you have never faced a huge mental/physical obstacle, the difference here may not seem big, but it was.

Nationals being 3,000 miles from home meant it may as well have been in Europe. But then, Europe would have been more convenient, because after flying to the west coast, I flew immediately to Europe, so the week leading up to Nationals I had to deal not just with race nerves, but packing anxiety and the stress of a pending home-sickness. Once I departed my house on Wednesday, December 11, I wasn’t going to be seeing it again until February 21st or so. I was not dealing with these compounded stresses very well. But, I made the last trainings and final preparations and tried to focus on relaxing thoughts. I trusted in the preparations that Chris McGovern and I have laid out.

Arriving on Wednesday night I was not feeling super great after the flight, but, when do the high-altitude fart tubes ever leave one feeling fresh?

Shimano GRX equipped Kona Super Jake on Maxxis All Terranes

Thursday’s trip the venue was a soggy one, and after an easy ride on the course my nerves were greatly diminished – it is easy to build up a course in your head, especially watching videos of other athletes flipping over the bars and various descents, or struggling on the run-ups. I mean, I was still struggling on the run-ups, don’t get me wrong, but, even the UCI only lines didn’t seems tricky or scary to me. Despite that, my goal was to ride them at least twice a day through race day. I wanted to know the lines, know the braking patterns, and have zero hesitations. I visualized racing Katie on these sections. I practiced following down, passing and leading down, and soloing. The problem with wanting to ride the downs so much, is that it requires going back up.

After Friday’s UCI only preride I was given the chance to participate in a panel interview that would be airing on the live feed between races. Here, I admitted that the media saying I stood a chance at the title, or at the very least a podium, had me feeling pressure. It felt a little surreal. Entering this sport in the elite category eliminated any opportunity I had to ease my way in to an elite title by earning a junior, U23, or collegiate title on my way up. I jumped into the back and had to claw my way up, and to find myself finally up there provided me with some imposture syndrome. I took every opportunity I had to nearly make a joke out of winning, both to find a way to verbalize my goal, but also to make it seem like I knew it was a stretch. I was not willing to be serious about it because we all know how big a deal it was to end that 15-year streak. Not to mention beating out all of the other competition.

Foreshadowing, but also is Clara really that much taller than me?

Going head to head with Clara this year I have only beaten her twice, and often she only beats me by one singular place (even last year). I know that I am at least an equal rider to her, but I am not quite the racer that she is. Last year she won U23 Nationals and has had the taste of a title. She can perform under pressure and has a quiet mind (I actually have no idea what goes on in her head but she seems so damn composed at every moment). I knew that regardless of what place I was racing for, the real race would be against her. I saw the podium before it happened, but in a different order. A much different order.

I was nervous the day of the race, but not the type of nervous I normally feel before big events. I was sort of skipping over the day and thinking about Europe – I just wanted this to be over. There was a delay in the gridding and the start so by the time we were within 30 seconds waiting for the whistle my heart rate was 10-20 bpm lower than it normally would be. I went through my mental mantra: “This is happening. This will hurt. I will be strong, and work hard. I will not quit.”

The lights changed. Or whistle blew. Or start metric happened.

I noticed I had the lead nearly right off the line; I could see tires and wheels out of the corner of my eye. I keep charging, thinking about lifting my eyes and filling the void in front of me. At some point, I can’t really see anyone else, so I look under my elbow wondering if maybe there was a false start and I was the only one not stopping. Nope, they were still back there. “Oh my god. I am doing it! Stop thinking about how you are doing it or you will muff this up, ya dummy” – my inner dialogue. Around the turn and Beth Ann Orton comes up along side me, a good start for her too. We are in the thick of it now and I can tell I put in a big effort on the start because this false flat chunky uphill hurts. I try to keep my head in it. I dismount for the run-up too late it feels. I get passed by Compton and Courtenay and chopped by Sunny Gilbert right at the top. Sunny botches the turn at the bottom of the drop and we are forced to run. She isn’t going fast enough! We get gapped. I pass her at the top and charge to close the gap. I pass Courtenay almost by chance. I am neck-and-neck with Katie. I take a moment to compose myself and follow her. We drop back down to the bottom of the course and I am sitting easily on her wheel. I try to find a spot to pass but I know I need to make it clean. I see a hole in a turn and I put my body through it.

I did it.

I passed Katie Compton. At the National Championships. Up until this point I had a fairly quiet mind. Even now, I was calm and composed. I come through the start/finish and Kerry is at the corner yelling “You’re doin’ it, Beck!” I smiled. I think Clara was on my wheel at this point. I figured I was doing too much work on that long pavement section but I just wanted to get Katie out of the picture. I knew the gap was growing and I needed her gone. She was public enemy #1.

Up the run up again. Clara is stronger than me on the run-ups. It made me regret wanting to do the downs making me do so many ups on the days before. I take some time behind her, telling myself it is okay. Once again, sticking her wheel is easy. This is a big deal for me because usually I cannot follow wheels. Start/finish straight and I take the lead. I think this is where I lost the race. Why bother? Why now? Why can’t I take Caroline Mani’s advice to heart and stop pulling people around the course? Did I think I could ditch Clara? Man, reflecting on this now is both helpful and hurtful.

Alone.

Clara, stronger on the runup, fresh from sitting on my wheel, passes me.

Why did I make that effort?

My glasses fog as I work so hard to go so slow and I can’t see and being blind and cracked I botch the turn at the bottom of the drop. Clara gaps me.

That is when the race was lost.

The next few laps the gap was steady. But then I just let it open little by little as I bobbled.

And then, Clara Honsinger won the National Championships, dethroning Katie Compton, 15x US National champion. I was 2nd. Katie was 3rd.

Why did I make that effort? Why did I not throw my glasses? Would Clara still have won if we had stayed together longer? Could I have closed the gap? Would I have raced differently if I were chasing Katie for the win, not Clara? The questions are nagging, but unanswerable.

I lost the opportunity to achieve my goal. It was gone forever.

I am so happy for Clara. She is a fellow Kona athlete, so having two Konas on the Nationals podium in Washington was a huge thing. Plus, Clara is simply a kind human being and a very worthy competitor. This was not a one-off result. I don’t want to detract from her winning, but for my own sake I am taking to heart all of the comments from people that reached out after the race saying I was the one who made the initial pass. I made the cracks show and gaps open. I may have lost the race but I beat Katie. (Shit writing this down sounds really hurtful to Katie but I mean, if you’re gonna be such a shredder you’ve gotta take the heat, eh? Much eternal respect for Katie, but with great accolades come great bragging rights).

A Hella Sweet Kona Maxxis Shimano embrace haha

I have a few points I could go back and redo, but I am so grateful and lucky to have no excuses, especially mechanical ones. No dropped chains, or missed shifts on my Shimano GRX. No flats on the Maxxis tires. Incredible confidence shredding the Kona Super Jake. No broken boas. No missed pits with Spencer (and Doug at Nationals) looking out for me.

The 2nd place at Nationals was my biggest result to date, but also the most anti-climactic. That night, I mourned the passing of my dream. But moving forward, I am celebrating the dawning of a new era. One where I am a top-3 American woman. One where I get top 10’s in European World Cups. One where I can win US Nationals, or any other race. ONE WHERE I CAN HAVE GOOD STARTS. You can’t have only good races, but from here we aim to make the best ones big ones, and hopefully the big ones the best ones.

#CXnats #nationals #tacoma #USAC #cyclocross #cx #fahringer

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airlea-sicarius · 7 years ago

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About moi

Rules: answer the questions and tag followers you’d like to know better!!

Tagged by @insomniasix (I’m hella surprised you have so few followers since you’re so damn talented)

01. Name: Me name is Kim! Well, that’s what I prefer to be called since my full name is Kimberley (it means ‘the king’s meadow’). My full full name though is Kimberley Jade Gray (so work with all but the surname thanks)

02. nicknames: Kim, Kimbob, waffle, graham ((and whatever else my brother decides to call me), jadey, sweetpea, baby (my mother) and then Kimbubble was a short lived nickname by my foul-mouthed Prompto friend. XD

03. zodiac sign: Capricorn and proud (like, most of capricorn is legit me)

04. height: 5ft 2 (well, a few centimetres below tbh)

05. orientation: Straight

07. favourite fruit: Ew fruit. I kid I kid. Grapes, strawberries and melon! Though I have to be in the mood (i can go for months without eating fruit since I’m not a big fruit eater).

08. favourite season: Depends. Because UK winter is basically seven months of the year for me (I fell the cold so easily it’s ridiculous) and so by Febuary I’m just wanting summer. But then in June I’m wanting Christmas. So in general my fave is probably Summer, but oh my god I love Christmas and being huddled beneath a blanket.

09. favourite book: Favouritism is a baaaaad thing. I don’t have a favourite book - never have. I’ve read them once and not picked them up again. But Martin the Warrior by Brian Jaques was my fave for about three months.

10. favourite movie: Got none! I don’t really watch films (I’m so boring I know).

11. favourite scent: So. Damn. Many. The smell of rain on a summers day, the smell of cherry blossoms in spring, vanilla cupcake, orange, melon, orchids and irises and roses and Gladioli’s and the smell of the meadows in bloom and the freshness of the frost on the grass and the snow on the ground in winter.... Anything but the obvious nasty smells and ‘fresh cotton’ in candles. Like, it’s meant to smell like fresh laundry but it is TERRIBALE

12. favourite colour: gimme that blood red and dark plums.

13. favourite animal: BUNNIES FOR LIFE JKAFEBFLUEAHFLEWFHOFANSAC Like, I fangirl over bunnies how I fangirl over Noct. A. Lot. But mythological? I love Phoenixes and dragons (sometimes) and Pegasuses..

14. coffee, tea or hot cocoa: Neither but I do like my hot chocolate. Coffee and Tea can stay away from me making me feel sick.

15. average hours of sleep: Depends when I get to sleep XD Usually it’s six - seven hours but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had two hours and felt the same as I would have done with a full night’s sleep.

16. favourite fictional character: Noctis 100% on top. I’ve said this many a time, but he is the only character I feel like I relate to 99.9% of the time.

17. number of blankets to sleep with: Lemme see, one duvet in summer. Then at the moment since the nights are freaking FREEZING I have a throw (so a thick blanket) and then last december I had that and a thinner blanket.

Like I said: I feel the cold TERRIBLY and I also feel the heat just as bad. So it cold be 17 degrees and even though it’s 20 out in the sunn, the wind to so cold so I’m walking home from school BOILING with my coat/hoodie on because if I take them off I’m going to be FREEZING

18. dream trip: Japan!

19. blog created: February the 10th? 11th? 12th? One of those three of 2017.

20. followers: 323 317 (after blocking spam and porn bots) wonderful people who can make me smile when they choose to (fact that barely any do is beside the point because I love them anyways)

21. random fact: I like eating jelly (or jello - JUST CALL JAM JAM OKAY GODDAMNIT) cubes if I’m not hungry but I know I need to eat something.

Um... Imma tagging @jojopitcher @cerasusazule @neko-otaku13 @chocobabyporcelain

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pinkislouder · 8 years ago

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I was tagged by @genderqueerlarrie, thank youuuuu.

1: Are you named after someone? okay so when i was born, Leonie was such a rare name. My mum had heard it from a friend’s friend’s daughter, or something and she looked it up and she loved that it meant lioness, and she decided her first daughter would be named Leonie. (I think if I’d been born a boy, she would’ve named me Robert or something, rip). My middle name is my grandma’s name and it’s Latin for ‘born again’, and that. means a hell of a lot.

2: When was the last time you cried? like, properly cried and not just tearing up? I think last December.

3: Do you like your handwriting? I do sometimes, yes!

4: What is your favourite lunch meat? I don’t really eat meat, tbh. Chicken?

6: If you were another person, would you be friends with you? I mean, at least I’d have someone who I could drink with.

7: Do you use sarcasm? Never.

8: Do you still have your tonsils? Yep.

9: Would you bungee jump? fucking hell no. Heights are like, my biggest fear.

10: What is your favourite kind of cereal? uhhh, any kind of granola with some kind of fruit. does that count??

11: Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? haha nope.

12: Do you think you’re a strong person? I know I am, but it’s hard to remember sometimes. 13: What is your favourite ice cream? I think yoghurt. 14: What is the first thing you notice about people? christ, okay so it depends on where I meet them. When I meet someone online/on tumblr, obviously the first thing I notice is the way their posts are written, the way they talk in their tags, how funny they are, etc. In real life, I think I notice whether someone is self-confident or not. It takes like .2 seconds. 15: What is the least favourite physical thing you like about yourself? my thighs. 16: What colour trousers and shoes are you wearing now? blue jeans and no shoes. 17: If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? harry voice: RAINBOW

18: Favourite smell? my grandma’s old jumper, horses, newborn babies (i know this sounds weird but when you have the privilege to hold a newborn baby in your arms, and the baby is asleep and it just smells of peacefulness and fresh skin, it’s just.)

19: Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? my best friend

20: Favourite sport to watch? footie!! 21: Hair colour? dark blonde with burgundy/purple tips. I want sort of rose/gold blonde next.

22: Eye colour blue 23: Do you wear contacts? no

24: Favourite food to eat? avocado?? I say this all the time but literally. give me avocado and a bit of salt and pepper and I will eat it, just like that.

25: Scary movies or comedy? I am too much of a chicken for scary movies, so comedy it is! 26: Last movie you watched? Um, I just watched an Inspector Barnaby episode with my parents 27: What colour of shirt are you wearing? pink

28: Summer or winter? neither, i hate the extreme seasons. give me spring or autumn.

29: Hugs or kisses? both, i guess alskdjlaskdj

30: What book are you currently reading? a book on the four inklings (CS Lewis, Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams)

31: Who do you miss right now? my little sister and my grandma, also Louis Tomlinson, where are you son

32: What is on your mouse pad? does anyone even still have a mouse pad?

33: What is the last tv program you watched? Inspector Barnaby

35: Rolling stones or the beatles? Okay so why the fuck do I have to decide. Look, I love both. Sue me. I listen to the Beatles more but the Stones can put me into a good mood immediately.

36: What is the furthest you have ever travelled? To Seattle. From Frankfurt. It was like a 12 hour flight, rip.

37: Do you have a special talent? I think I am good at explaining, which is why teaching makes sense. But I also have a knack for languages, I am really good at interacting with children, and I’m a decent cello player.

38: Where were you born? Germany Okay so I tag @ivegotfirefouraheart @louistomlinsons @plaidcardigan @coffeehazza @prettiestperrie @reinventlou @teamnouis and @loveloveolivia

#<3

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humanistauno · 5 years ago

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A Journal by: Melody Leagogo

Earth’s Rumble

On December 15, 2019 that was Sunday, I slept comfortably and pretty-well that I was not able to recognize the day of our Sabbath and devotion. I woke up as the morning sunray touches my lips, tardily crawling and wriggling like a worm. I accelerate slowly to switch my hips, indolently awake after the heavy sleep. I just told myself that this Christmas break, I should withdraw sleep because if there are classes I always woke up early. I fixed my bed and went into the kitchen to have my breakfast. It was just a normal day for me, no other plans aside from doing my daily routine and household chores then after, I will grab my contraption and start scrolling my social media accounts, watching videos, and doing some leisure. As the afternoon shadow stretched long and thin, I feel drowsy and decided to take some sleep but before that I played a game in my cellphone. I did not expected that this, this boredom feeling will turn into a trauma and replaced a feeling of huge nervousness and worry. Around 2:11 in the afternoon, the Mindanao Island shake again. A magnitude of 6.9 strike the Mindanao again for the third time and the strongest among the major earthquake that happened so far that hit the Land of Promise. I hurriedly jump from the bed and grab my six years old niece together with my father to go out. I was very nervous but my father told us do not panic, do not rattle and be aware. Prayers filled my mouth and I looked into my niece whose wrapping her arms around mine that seems very nervous as well. I opened my Facebook and saw the different updates about the recent calamity where Davao del sur is its center, the damages, and the ruined infrastructure caused by the disaster. The whole Mindanao was mourning and I remained astonished as I never assumed that this day will give a great impact to the Mindanao’s. I ended the day in fear that it might happen again and a prayer that it will not happen again.

Christmas Eve

Every year we are tend to celebrate Christmas with our family and gathered into my aunt’s house in General Santos city. It is our tradition as a family to celebrate Christmas together there and prepare foods for the Noche Buena. Today, December 24, 2019 before the Christmas day, I woke up with excitement because finally I will be able to escape the boredom that ruled the house for the past days but most importantly, I will be able to see my aunties, uncles, cousins and the quality time we will be spending to each other. We prepared and packed our things for the few days of staying there and then, leave the house. We rode on a bus to reach our destination and as we arrived at my aunt's house, the smells of delicious Noche Buena welcomed us. Caldereta, Barbeque, Grilled tuna, Seafood, Sweets and Desserts, fruits, and the every year's center attraction on the table of Filipinos, Lechon. I was glad that there is such event on our life that make us gathered together and capture each moment that our family will cherish. As everyone bide one's time for midnight, my uncles were already drunken laughter, spill the beans of liquor with matching karaoke. My aunties who became story tellers, exchanging one's ideas and hearty laughter. Their clamor and chatter makes harmony in mine that the connection between us is still there. During the Christmas Eve, my sister Cathy, contacted our oldest sister in the family via video call because she was not around with us. Actually, she was not around for 15 years and 15 years of celebrating Christmas without her. I am just 2 years old when she left to catch her luck and currently she's living in Cavite and have her own family now. We greeted each other a Merry Christmas, some chitchats and goodbye for each has stuffs to do. It's now 12 midnight, my uncle light the fire crackers, greeting each other a "Merry Christmas".

Holiday

We Christians celebrate Christmas as a commemoration on Jesus birth and often giving and receiving presents and cards as one of the symbol. Today, December 25, 2019, I started a Christmas day with a midnight mass at the chapel together with my mother in Calumpang, Gensan as a thanks giving for all the gift and blessings we received this year. After attending the mas, we went home and I took some sleep because it's already morning since yesterday of going around. Today, my aunt from Ilo-ilo city together with her son will be arriving soon to have their vacation and will be spending time for us in this season of holiday. I am eager to see them because the last time we saw each other was in the year 2016. It was around 12 noon when they arrived at my aunt's house in Gensan. We greeted each other and welcome them a hug. There were many pasalubong they've brought for us including clothes, bags, shoes, cosmetics, and of course the delicacies of Ilo-ilo is imperishable. There are Bischocho, Piyaya, and Pinasugbo. Aside from giving us all this stuffs, I also received a cash from them. I can say that December is truly a season of giving and the only season for me to collect more money. Our dinner was burst into laughter because my cousin with a mental disorder or what we called being hyper was stealing our foods because he was fond of eating and make funny acts. I hope that this is not the last time that we will be seeing each other again. I am looking forward for many years of spending Christmas with the family.

Union

After staying in my aunt's house in General Santos City to celebrate Christmas, now it’s a time for us to go back home. Last night was another memory to be keep on my album of happy moments and love. It’s already December 26, 2019, time flies really. First of all, I woke excited because this day, I'll be witnessing the annular solar eclipse where Sol and Luna will be meeting each other again. According to the news and information I've read from social media, around noon, the moon will engulf the sun enable to form a ring of fire and will visible in some parts of Mindanao. We are hoping to witness the said phenomenon but unfortunately Sol and Luna was ashamed of showing its stunning union that they were hiding on the clouds. I feel blue because of missing such phenomenon but that was not a big deal. On the other hand, this afternoon, we went into nearby purok not so far from our house because this day was the death anniversary of my uncle, the late husband of my aunt from Ilo-ilo city. My uncle from Cagayan de Oro will be also arriving this day. They decided to stay in Antong instead of directing to Gensan because my aunt will be also going here. As we arrived to my late uncle's house, my uncle and his family was waiting for us. We greeted each other a hug because we've been seeing each other once a year and I cannot deny that I've misses them a lot as the two celestial beings met earlier it happened also on us. Actually, I don't have that strong relationship with my cousins or closeness with them because they are living in Cagayan de Oro and I am staying here but both company was trying to socialize and talk to each other to build connection and friendship. We had boodle fight for dinner and some enjoyable moment as we commemorate the memories of our late member of the family..

Reunited

A family is like branches on a tree that grow in a different directions yet the roots remained as one. Today, December 27, 2019 is our 4th Plaga family reunion. It is once a year occasion that held every December of the month. I started the day grateful because again, our family was a given a chance to reunite and know each other better. Our first reunion happened in Gensan, then Mlang North Cotabato, last year was in Manili Lutayan, and today here in Lamba Banga. As we arrived, they welcomed us with a warm hug and we bless to the elders as a sign of respect. We started a program with a Bible service coming from our relative who is a pastor and shared the value of family. The elders start to bring back the history and ancestors of our race. Each family introduce their children so that the other family will know each other and the connection between us. After the chatters, the story telling, and socializing, we had our lunch. After filling our stomachs, they started to raffle our names who were listed earlier to some prizes awaited. Luckily, my name was not called. I told ‘ya I am not with this kind of gimmick. However, it was fun, expecting that your name will be the next one to be called. Not one of the winners of raffle but a winner in our parlor games. Together with my cousins, we played the game pass the message in the form of face movement and fortunately, we won the said game with a prize of 500 pesos. Our reunited was great and fun, I know a lot of the relatives and start to build friendship with them. I hope that this is not the last and hoping for many years of spending time and moments with them as for the next generation to continue our identity and legacy.

A Decade Has Pass

The year 2019 was not too bad for me. We are just creatures engulfed by imperfections and flaws. Challenges and tests were given and it is normal for us to feel crestfallen, to feel sorrow, and to feel anger. As I leave one year behind and roll into the next one, I am looking forward for the new year of bringing blessings, good health, and prosperity. New Year of hoping for a successful and fulfilling life I desire and deserve. Each fresh new start offers an oozing opportunity and beginning which is probably the reason I look into New Year’s Eve so much. As I end the last page of this chapter, I am with my parents on our own humble home beneath swaying palms. As we celebrate the New Year, we prepared minimal for the Medya Noche because we’re just three left here to face the new chapter. I and my mother cooked a minimal amount of Mango Graham, Lumpiang Shanghai and Grilled Tilapia for some reason, there is served on our daily table where we can eat together. Around 10 pm, me and my mother attended a midnight mass for the last day of the year to thanks God for the year of bitter-sweet and prayed to God that this coming year will shower us blessings, opportunities, and new discoveries. As I stand at the edge of the decade, waiting for 12 am for the 2020 to wave, there were different sounds that believed to drive away all the negativity and bad spirits, so as a tradition each one of us made noise and watched as the fireworks display. No matter what goals and changes I have for this coming year or how many New Year’s resolution I planned to move, in the start of a new year is a moment to acknowledge.

Community Engagement

Today, January 2, 2020, it is great to start a year with discoveries at the same time with adventure. We were tasked to go in a community we thought who are in needs as part of our subject Community Engagement and as a Humanities Student who are in lined with this area of specialization. Our group agreed to meet in front of SPDA at 8 am but unfortunately out of the 10 members only four of us were able to come. It is OK for me because of some instances that we cannot handle and commitments. At around 11 am, we decided to light up the fuel onward. We rode on a tricycle motioning the distance of Brgy. Assumption. We were lost bird in a desert misguided by the location of that hidden vicinity. We have no little knowledge on how far that place is nor where is the exact location because the one who’s suggest the place was not around why the driver occupied our being clueless. He charged us fare that is not accurate to the distance of our trip but we didn’t argue anymore. He dropped us in the low part area because he said that the tricycle has no resistance to climb up the mountainous area so we started walking and seeking for the whereabouts of our destination. Luckily, the people there was approachable and not rude. Some people we’ve asked warned us that the Brgy. Hall is far to walked but we decided to pursue it to exercise our muscles and enjoy the surroundings. We walked for about 4 kilometers fortunately, the road was cemented before reaching the Barangay hall and then we signed our permission letter to run the evaluation smooth. According to the people there, there 7 sitios and we are not sure where to go. The air brought us to Sitio Datal Fitak, the fifth sitio and more elevated and a kilometer away from the Brgy. Office. The people there are B'laans and the way they live is very simple. As we start our evaluation, we were surprised by their kindness and genuinely. The warm welcome and smile to us relieved our tired. Every time we asked them to conduct a survey, they let us in their humble home and treat us politely. It was 3 in the afternoon when we finished our sample target population and we went home. I wish I can go back to that place again where the smiles of the children are genuine and sincere.

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thesnhuup · 6 years ago

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Pop Picks – March 28, 2019

March 28, 2019

What I’m listening to:

There is a lovely piece played in a scene from A Place Called Home that I tracked down. It’s Erik Satie’s 3 Gymnopédies: Gymnopédie No. 1, played by the wonderful pianist Klára Körmendi. Satie composed this piece in 1888 and it was considered avant-garde and anti-Romantic. It’s minimalism and bit of dissonance sound fresh and contemporary to my ears and while not a huge Classical music fan, I’ve fallen in love with the Körmendi playlist on Spotify. When you need an alternative to hours of Cardi B.

What I’m reading:

Just finished Esi Edugyan’s 2018 novel Washington Black. Starting on a slave plantation in Barbados, it is a picaresque novel that has elements of Jules Verne, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. Yes, it strains credulity and there are moments of “huh?”, but I loved it (disclosure: I was in the minority among my fellow book club members) and the first third is a searing depiction of slavery. It’s audacious, sprawling (from Barbados to the Arctic to London to Africa), and the writing, especially about nature, luminous.

What I’m watching:

A soap opera. Yes, I’d like to pretend it’s something else, but we are 31 episodes into the Australian drama A Place Called Home and we are so, so addicted. Like “It’s AM, but can’t we watch just one more episode?” addicted. Despite all the secrets, cliff hangers, intrigue, and “did that just happen?” moments, the core ingredients of any good soap opera, APCH has superb acting, real heft in terms of subject matter (including homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexual assault, and class), touches of our beloved Downton Abbey, and great cars. Beware. If you start, you won’t stop.

Archive

February 11, 2019

What I’m listening to:

Raphael Saadiq has been around for quite a while, as a musician, writer, and producer. He’s new to me and I love his old school R&B sound. Like Leon Bridges, he brings a contemporary freshness to the genre, sounding like a young Stevie Wonder (listen to “You’re The One That I Like”). Rock and Roll may be largely dead, but R&B persists – maybe because the former was derivative of the latter and never as good (and I say that as a Rock and Roll fan). I’m embarrassed to only have discovered Saadiq so late in his career, but it’s a delight to have done so.

What I’m reading:

Just finished Marilynne Robinson’s Home, part of her trilogy that includes the Pulitzer Prize winning first novel, Gilead, and the book after Home, Lila. Robinson is often described as a Christian writer, but not in a conventional sense. In this case, she gives us a modern version of the prodigal son and tells the story of what comes after he is welcomed back home. It’s not pretty. Robinson is a self-described Calvinist, thus character begets fate in Robinson’s world view and redemption is at best a question. There is something of Faulkner in her work (I am much taken with his famous “The past is never past” quote after a week in the deep South), her style is masterful, and like Faulkner, she builds with these three novels a whole universe in the small town of Gilead. Start with Gilead to better enjoy Home.

What I’m watching:

Sex Education was the most fun series we’ve seen in ages and we binged watched it on Netflix. A British homage to John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Pretty in Pink, it feels like a mash up of American and British high schools. Focusing on the relationship of Maeve, the smart bad girl, and Otis, the virginal and awkward son of a sex therapist (played with brilliance by Gillian Anderson), it is laugh aloud funny and also evolves into more substance and depth (the abortion episode is genius). The sex scenes are somehow raunchy and charming and inoffensive at the same time and while ostensibly about teenagers (it feels like it is explaining contemporary teens to adults in many ways), the adults are compelling in their good and bad ways. It has been renewed for a second season, which is a gift.

January 3, 2019

What I’m listening to:

My listening choices usually refer to music, but this time I’m going with Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast on genius and the song Hallelujah. It tells the story of Leonard Cohen’s much-covered song Hallelujah and uses it as a lens on kinds of genius and creativity. Along the way, he brings in Picasso and Cézanne, Elvis Costello, and more. Gladwell is a good storyteller and if you love pop music, as I do, and Hallelujah, as I do (and you should), you’ll enjoy this podcast. We tend to celebrate the genius who seems inspired in the moment, creating new work like lightning strikes, but this podcast has me appreciating incremental creativity in a new way. It’s compelling and fun at the same time.

What I’m reading:

Just read Clay Christensen’s new book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. This was an advance copy, so soon available. Clay is an old friend and a huge influence on how we have grown SNHU and our approach to innovation. This book is so compelling, because we know attempts at development have so often been a failure and it is often puzzling to understand why some countries with desperate poverty and huge challenges somehow come to thrive (think S. Korea, Singapore, 19th C. America), while others languish. Clay offers a fresh way of thinking about development through the lens of his research on innovation and it is compelling. I bet this book gets a lot of attention, as most of his work does. I also suspect that many in the development community will hate it, as it calls into question the approach and enormous investments we have made in an attempt to lift countries out of poverty. A provocative read and, as always, Clay is a good storyteller.

What I’m watching:

Just watched Leave No Trace and should have guessed that it was directed by Debra Granik. She did Winter’s Bone, the extraordinary movie that launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career. Similarly, this movie features an amazing young actor, Thomasin McKenzie, and visits lives lived on the margins. In this case, a veteran suffering PTSD, and his 13-year-old daughter. The movie is patient, is visually lush, and justly earned 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (I have a rule to never watch anything under 82%). Everything in this film is under control and beautifully understated (aside from the visuals) – confident acting, confident directing, and so humane. I love the lack of flashbacks, the lack of sensationalism – the movie trusts the viewer, rare in this age of bombast. A lovely film.

December 4, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spending a week in New Zealand, we had endless laughs listening to the Kiwi band, Flight of the Conchords. Lots of comedic bands are funny, but the music is only okay or worse. These guys are funny – hysterical really – and the music is great. They have an uncanny ability to parody almost any style. In both New Zealand and Australia, we found a wry sense of humor that was just delightful and no better captured than with this duo. You don’t have to be in New Zealand to enjoy them.

What I’m reading:

I don’t often reread. For two reasons: A) I have so many books on my “still to be read” pile that it seems daunting to also rereadbooks I loved before, and B) it’s because I loved them once that I’m a little afraid to read them again. That said, I was recently asked to list my favorite book of all time and I answered Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. But I don’t really know if that’s still true (and it’s an impossible question anyway – favorite book? On what day? In what mood?), so I’m rereading it and it feels like being with an old friend. It has one of my very favorite scenes ever: the card game between Levin and Kitty that leads to the proposal and his joyous walking the streets all night.

What I’m watching:

Blindspotting is billed as a buddy-comedy. Wow does that undersell it and the drama is often gripping. I loved Daveed Diggs in Hamilton, didn’t like his character in Black-ish, and think he is transcendent in this film he co-wrote with Rafael Casal, his co-star. The film is a love song to Oakland in many ways, but also a gut-wrenching indictment of police brutality, systemic racism and bias, and gentrification. The film has the freshness and raw visceral impact of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. A great soundtrack, genre mixing, and energy make it one of my favorite movies of 2018.

October 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We had the opportunity to see our favorite band, The National, live in Dallas two weeks ago. Just after watching Mistaken for Strangers, the documentary sort of about the band. So we’ve spent a lot of time going back into their earlier work, listening to songs we don’t know well, and reaffirming that their musicality, smarts, and sound are both original and astoundingly good. They did not disappoint in concert and it is a good thing their tour ended, as we might just spend all of our time and money following them around. Matt Berninger is a genius and his lead vocals kill me (and because they are in my range, I can actually sing along!). Their arrangements are profoundly good and go right to whatever brain/heart wiring that pulls one in and doesn’t let them go.

What I’m reading:

Who is Richard Powers and why have I only discovered him now, with his 12th book? Overstory is profoundly good, a book that is essential and powerful and makes me look at my everyday world in new ways. In short, a dizzying example of how powerful can be narrative in the hands of a master storyteller. I hesitate to say it’s the best environmental novel I’ve ever read (it is), because that would put this book in a category. It is surely about the natural world, but it is as much about we humans. It’s monumental and elegiac and wondrous at all once. Cancel your day’s schedule and read it now. Then plant a tree. A lot of them.

What I’m watching:

Bo Burnham wrote and directed Eighth Grade and Elsie Fisher is nothing less than amazing as its star (what’s with these new child actors; see Florida Project). It’s funny and painful and touching. It’s also the single best film treatment that I have seen of what it means to grow up in a social media shaped world. It’s a reminder that growing up is hard. Maybe harder now in a world of relentless, layered digital pressure to curate perfect lives that are far removed from the natural messy worlds and selves we actually inhabit. It’s a well-deserved 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and I wonder who dinged it for the missing 2%.

September 7, 2018

What I’m listening to:

With a cover pointing back to the Beastie Boys’ 1986 Licensed to Ill, Eminem’s quietly released Kamikaze is not my usual taste, but I’ve always admired him for his “all out there” willingness to be personal, to call people out, and his sheer genius with language. I thought Daveed Diggs could rap fast, but Eminem is supersonic at moments, and still finds room for melody. Love that he includes Joyner Lucas, whose “I’m Not Racist” gets added to the growing list of simply amazing music videos commenting on race in America. There are endless reasons why I am the least likely Eminem fan, but when no one is around to make fun of me, I’ll put it on again.

What I’m reading:

Lesley Blume’s Everyone Behaves Badly, which is the story behind Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and his time in 1920s Paris (oh, what a time – see Midnight in Paris if you haven’t already). Of course, Blume disabuses my romantic ideas of that time and place and everyone is sort of (or profoundly so) a jerk, especially…no spoiler here…Hemingway. That said, it is a compelling read and coming off the Henry James inspired prose of Mrs. Osmond, it made me appreciate more how groundbreaking was Hemingway’s modern prose style. Like his contemporary Picasso, he reinvented the art and it can be easy to forget, these decades later, how profound was the change and its impact. And it has bullfights.

What I’m watching:

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider is just exceptional. It’s filmed on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which provides a stunning landscape, and it feels like a classic western reinvented for our times. The main characters are played by the real-life people who inspired this narrative (but feels like a documentary) film. Brady Jandreau, playing himself really, owns the screen. It’s about manhood, honor codes, loss, and resilience – rendered in sensitive, nuanced, and heartfelt ways. It feels like it could be about large swaths of America today. Really powerful.

August 16, 2018

What I’m listening to:

In my Spotify Daily Mix was Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, one of the world’s greatest love songs. Go online and read the story of how the song was discovered and recorded. There are competing accounts, but Sledge said he improvised it after a bad breakup. It has that kind of aching spontaneity. It is another hit from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, one of the GREAT music hotbeds, along with Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis. Our February Board meeting is in Alabama and I may finally have to do the pilgrimage road trip to Muscle Shoals and then Memphis, dropping in for Sunday services at the church where Rev. Al Green still preaches and sings. If the music is all like this, I will be saved.

What I’m reading:

John Banville’s Mrs. Osmond, his homage to literary idol Henry James and an imagined sequel to James’ 1881 masterpiece Portrait of a Lady. Go online and read the first paragraph of Chapter 25. He is…profoundly good. Makes me want to never write again, since anything I attempt will feel like some other, lowly activity in comparison to his mastery of language, image, syntax. This is slow reading, every sentence to be savored.

What I’m watching:

I’ve always respected Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but we just watched the documentary RGB. It is over-the-top great and she is now one of my heroes. A superwoman in many ways and the documentary is really well done. There are lots of scenes of her speaking to crowds and the way young women, especially law students, look at her is touching. And you can’t help but fall in love with her now late husband Marty. See this movie and be reminded of how important is the Law.

July 23, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spotify’s Summer Acoustic playlist has been on repeat quite a lot. What a fun way to listen to artists new to me, including The Paper Kites, Hollow Coves, and Fleet Foxes, as well as old favorites like Leon Bridges and Jose Gonzalez. Pretty chill when dialing back to a summer pace, dining on the screen porch or reading a book.

What I’m reading:

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson tells of the racial injustice (and the war on the poor our judicial system perpetuates as well) that he discovered as a young graduate from Harvard Law School and his fight to address it. It is in turn heartbreaking, enraging, and inspiring. It is also about mercy and empathy and justice that reads like a novel. Brilliant.

What I’m watching:

Fauda. We watched season one of this Israeli thriller. It was much discussed in Israel because while it focuses on an ex-special agent who comes out of retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist, it was willing to reveal the complexity, richness, and emotions of Palestinian lives. And the occasional brutality of the Israelis. Pretty controversial stuff in Israel. Lior Raz plays Doron, the main character, and is compelling and tough and often hard to like. He’s a mess. As is the world in which he has to operate. We really liked it, and also felt guilty because while it may have been brave in its treatment of Palestinians within the Israeli context, it falls back into some tired tropes and ultimately falls short on this front.

June 11, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Like everyone else, I’m listening to Pusha T drop the mic on Drake. Okay, not really, but do I get some points for even knowing that? We all walk around with songs that immediately bring us back to a time or a place. Songs are time machines. We are coming up on Father’s Day. My own dad passed away on Father’s Day back in 1994 and I remembering dutifully getting through the wake and funeral and being strong throughout. Then, sitting alone in our kitchen, Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence came on and I lost it. When you lose a parent for the first time (most of us have two after all) we lose our innocence and in that passage, we suddenly feel adult in a new way (no matter how old we are), a longing for our own childhood, and a need to forgive and be forgiven. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand. As Wordsworth reminds us in In Memoriam, there are seasons to our grief and, all these years later, this song no longer hits me in the gut, but does transport me back with loving memories of my father. I’ll play it Father’s Day.

What I’m reading:

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. I am not a reader of fantasy or sci-fi, though I understand they can be powerful vehicles for addressing the very real challenges of the world in which we actually live. I’m not sure I know of a more vivid and gripping illustration of that fact than N. K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award winning novel The Fifth Season, first in her Broken Earth trilogy. It is astounding. It is the fantasy parallel to The Underground Railroad, my favorite recent read, a depiction of subjugation, power, casual violence, and a broken world in which our hero(s) struggle, suffer mightily, and still, somehow, give us hope. It is a tour de force book. How can someone be this good a writer? The first 30 pages pained me (always with this genre, one must learn a new, constructed world, and all of its operating physics and systems of order), and then I could not put it down. I panicked as I neared the end, not wanting to finish the book, and quickly ordered the Obelisk Gate, the second novel in the trilogy, and I can tell you now that I’ll be spending some goodly portion of my weekend in Jemisin’s other world.

What I’m watching:

The NBA Finals and perhaps the best basketball player of this generation. I’ve come to deeply respect LeBron James as a person, a force for social good, and now as an extraordinary player at the peak of his powers. His superhuman play during the NBA playoffs now ranks with the all-time greats, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, MJ, Kobe, and the demi-god that was Bill Russell. That his Cavs lost in a 4-game sweep is no surprise. It was a mediocre team being carried on the wide shoulders of James (and matched against one of the greatest teams ever, the Warriors, and the Harry Potter of basketball, Steph Curry) and, in some strange way, his greatness is amplified by the contrast with the rest of his team. It was a great run.

May 24, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I’ve always liked Alicia Keys and admired her social activism, but I am hooked on her last album Here. This feels like an album finally commensurate with her anger, activism, hope, and grit. More R&B and Hip Hop than is typical for her, I think this album moves into an echelon inhabited by a Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or Beyonce’s Formation. Social activism and outrage rarely make great novels, but they often fuel great popular music. Here is a terrific example.

What I’m reading:

Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad may be close to a flawless novel. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer, it chronicles the lives of two runaway slaves, Cora and Caeser, as they try to escape the hell of plantation life in Georgia. It is an often searing novel and Cora is one of the great heroes of American literature. I would make this mandatory reading in every high school in America, especially in light of the absurd revisionist narratives of “happy and well cared for” slaves. This is a genuinely great novel, one of the best I’ve read, the magical realism and conflating of time periods lifts it to another realm of social commentary, relevance, and a blazing indictment of America’s Original Sin, for which we remain unabsolved.

What I’m watching:

I thought I knew about The Pentagon Papers, but The Post, a real-life political thriller from Steven Spielberg taught me a lot, features some of our greatest actors, and is so timely given the assault on our democratic institutions and with a presidency out of control. It is a reminder that a free and fearless press is a powerful part of our democracy, always among the first targets of despots everywhere. The story revolves around the legendary Post owner and D.C. doyenne, Katharine Graham. I had the opportunity to see her son, Don Graham, right after he saw the film, and he raved about Meryl Streep’s portrayal of his mother. Liked it a lot more than I expected.

April 27, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I mentioned John Prine in a recent post and then on the heels of that mention, he has released a new album, The Tree of Forgiveness, his first new album in ten years. Prine is beloved by other singer songwriters and often praised by the inscrutable God that is Bob Dylan. Indeed, Prine was frequently said to be the “next Bob Dylan” in the early part of his career, though he instead carved out his own respectable career and voice, if never with the dizzying success of Dylan. The new album reflects a man in his 70s, a cancer survivor, who reflects on life and its end, but with the good humor and empathy that are hallmarks of Prine’s music. “When I Get To Heaven” is a rollicking, fun vision of what comes next and a pure delight. A charming, warm, and often terrific album.

What I’m reading:

I recently read Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, on many people’s Top Ten lists for last year and for good reason. It is sprawling, multi-generational, and based in the world of Japanese occupied Korea and then in the Korean immigrant’s world of Oaska, so our key characters become “tweeners,” accepted in neither world. It’s often unspeakably sad, and yet there is resiliency and love. There is also intimacy, despite the time and geographic span of the novel. It’s breathtakingly good and like all good novels, transporting.

What I’m watching:

I adore Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film, Pan’s Labyrinth, and while I’m not sure his Shape of Water is better, it is a worthy follow up to the earlier masterpiece (and more of a commercial success). Lots of critics dislike the film, but I’m okay with a simple retelling of a Beauty and the Beast love story, as predictable as it might be. The acting is terrific, it is visually stunning, and there are layers of pain as well as social and political commentary (the setting is the US during the Cold War) and, no real spoiler here, the real monsters are humans, the military officer who sees over the captured aquatic creature. It is hauntingly beautiful and its depiction of hatred to those who are different or “other” is painfully resonant with the time in which we live. Put this on your “must see” list.

March 18, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Sitting on a plane for hours (and many more to go; geez, Australia is far away) is a great opportunity to listen to new music and to revisit old favorites. This time, it is Lucy Dacus and her album Historians, the new sophomore release from a 22-year old indie artist that writes with relatable, real-life lyrics. Just on a second listen and while she insists this isn’t a break up record (as we know, 50% of all great songs are break up songs), it is full of loss and pain. Worth the listen so far. For the way back machine, it’s John Prine and In Spite of Ourselves (that title track is one of the great love songs of all time), a collection of duets with some of his “favorite girl singers” as he once described them. I have a crush on Iris Dement (for a really righteously angry song try her Wasteland of the Free), but there is also EmmyLou Harris, the incomparable Dolores Keane, and Lucinda Williams. Very different albums, both wonderful.

What I’m reading:

Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Christopher Steele presents little that is new, but she pulls it together in a terrific and coherent whole that is illuminating and troubling at the same time. Not only for what is happening, but for the complicity of the far right in trying to discredit that which should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Bob Mueller may be the most important defender of the democracy at this time. A must read.

What I’m watching:

Homeland is killing it this season and is prescient, hauntingly so. Russian election interference, a Bannon-style hate radio demagogue, alienated and gun toting militia types, and a president out of control. It’s fabulous, even if it feels awfully close to the evening news.

March 8, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We have a family challenge to compile our Top 100 songs. It is painful. Only 100? No more than three songs by one artist? Wait, why is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” on my list? Should it just be The Clash from whom she samples? Can I admit to guilty pleasure songs? Hey, it’s my list and I can put anything I want on it. So I’m listening to the list while I work and the song playing right now is Tom Petty’s “The Wild One, Forever,” a B-side single that was never a hit and that remains my favorite Petty song. Also, “Evangeline” by Los Lobos. It evokes a night many years ago, with friends at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA, when everyone danced well past 1AM in a hot, sweaty, packed club and the band was a revelation. Maybe the best music night of our lives and a reminder that one’s 100 Favorite Songs list is as much about what you were doing and where you were in your life when those songs were playing as it is about the music. It’s not a list. It’s a soundtrack for this journey.

What I’m reading:

Patricia Lockwood’s Priestdaddy was in the NY Times top ten books of 2017 list and it is easy to see why. Lockwood brings remarkable and often surprising imagery, metaphor, and language to her prose memoir and it actually threw me off at first. It then all became clear when someone told me she is a poet. The book is laugh aloud funny, which masks (or makes safer anyway) some pretty dark territory. Anyone who grew up Catholic, whether lapsed or not, will resonate with her story. She can’t resist a bawdy anecdote and her family provides some of the most memorable characters possible, especially her father, her sister, and her mother, who I came to adore. Best thing I’ve read in ages.

What I’m watching:

The Florida Project, a profoundly good movie on so many levels. Start with the central character, six-year old (at the time of the filming) Brooklynn Prince, who owns – I mean really owns – the screen. This is pure acting genius and at that age? Astounding. Almost as astounding is Bria Vinaite, who plays her mother. She was discovered on Instagram and had never acted before this role, which she did with just three weeks of acting lessons. She is utterly convincing and the tension between the child’s absolute wonder and joy in the world with her mother’s struggle to provide, to be a mother, is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. Willem Dafoe rightly received an Oscar nomination for his supporting role. This is a terrific movie.

February 12, 2018

What I’m listening to:

So, I have a lot of friends of age (I know you’re thinking 40s, but I just turned 60) who are frozen in whatever era of music they enjoyed in college or maybe even in their thirties. There are lots of times when I reach back into the catalog, since music is one of those really powerful and transporting senses that can take you through time (smell is the other one, though often underappreciated for that power). Hell, I just bought a turntable and now spending time in vintage vinyl shops. But I’m trying to take a lesson from Pat, who revels in new music and can as easily talk about North African rap music and the latest National album as Meet the Beatles, her first ever album. So, I’ve been listening to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy winning Damn. While it may not be the first thing I’ll reach for on a winter night in Maine, by the fire, I was taken with it. It’s layered, political, and weirdly sensitive and misogynist at the same time, and it feels fresh and authentic and smart at the same time, with music that often pulled me from what I was doing. In short, everything music should do. I’m not a bit cooler for listening to Damn, but when I followed it with Steely Dan, I felt like I was listening to Lawrence Welk. A good sign, I think.

What I’m reading:

I am reading Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Leonardo da Vinci. I’m not usually a reader of biographies, but I’ve always been taken with Leonardo. Isaacson does not disappoint (does he ever?), and his subject is at once more human and accessible and more awe-inspiring in Isaacson’s capable hands. Gay, left-handed, vegetarian, incapable of finishing things, a wonderful conversationalist, kind, and perhaps the most relentlessly curious human being who has ever lived. Like his biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, Isaacson’s project here is to show that genius lives at the intersection of science and art, of rationality and creativity. Highly recommend it.

What I’m watching:

We watched the This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode, the one where Jack finally buys the farm. I really want to hate this show. It is melodramatic and manipulative, with characters that mostly never change or grow, and it hooks me every damn time we watch it. The episode last Sunday was a tear jerker, a double whammy intended to render into a blubbering, tissue-crumbling pathetic mess anyone who has lost a parent or who is a parent. Sterling K. Brown, Ron Cephas Jones, the surprising Mandy Moore, and Milo Ventimiglia are hard not to love and last season’s episode that had only Brown and Cephas going to Memphis was the show at its best (they are by far the two best actors). Last week was the show at its best worst. In other words, I want to hate it, but I love it. If you haven’t seen it, don’t binge watch it. You’ll need therapy and insulin.

January 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Drive-By Truckers. Chris Stapleton has me on an unusual (for me) country theme and I discovered these guys to my great delight. They’ve been around, with some 11 albums, but the newest one is fascinating. It’s a deep dive into Southern alienation and the white working-class world often associated with our current president. I admire the willingness to lay bare, in kick ass rock songs, the complexities and pain at work among people we too quickly place into overly simple categories. These guys are brave, bold, and thoughtful as hell, while producing songs I didn’t expect to like, but that I keep playing. And they are coming to NH.

What I’m reading:

A textual analog to Drive-By Truckers by Chris Stapleton in many ways is Tony Horowitz’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning Confederates in the Attic. Ostensibly about the Civil War and the South’s ongoing attachment to it, it is prescient and speaks eloquently to the times in which we live (where every southern state but Virginia voted for President Trump). Often hilarious, it too surfaces complexities and nuance that escape a more recent, and widely acclaimed, book like Hillbilly Elegy. As a Civil War fan, it was also astonishing in many instances, especially when it blows apart long-held “truths” about the war, such as the degree to which Sherman burned down the south (he did not). Like D-B Truckers, Horowitz loves the South and the people he encounters, even as he grapples with its myths of victimhood and exceptionalism (and racism, which may be no more than the racism in the north, but of a different kind). Everyone should read this book and I’m embarrassed I’m so late to it.

What I’m watching:

David Letterman has a new Netflix show called “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and we watched the first episode, in which Letterman interviewed Barack Obama. It was extraordinary (if you don’t have Netflix, get it just to watch this show); not only because we were reminded of Obama’s smarts, grace, and humanity (and humor), but because we saw a side of Letterman we didn’t know existed. His personal reflections on Selma were raw and powerful, almost painful. He will do five more episodes with “extraordinary individuals” and if they are anything like the first, this might be the very best work of his career and one of the best things on television.

December 22, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished Sunjeev Sahota’s Year of the Runaways, a painful inside look at the plight of illegal Indian immigrant workers in Britain. It was shortlisted for 2015 Man Booker Prize and its transporting, often to a dark and painful universe, and it is impossible not to think about the American version of this story and the terrible way we treat the undocumented in our own country, especially now.

What I’m watching:

Season II of The Crown is even better than Season I. Elizabeth’s character is becoming more three-dimensional, the modern world is catching up with tradition-bound Britain, and Cold War politics offer more context and tension than we saw in Season I. Claire Foy, in her last season, is just terrific – one arched eye brow can send a message.

What I’m listening to:

A lot of Christmas music, but needing a break from the schmaltz, I’ve discovered Over the Rhine and their Christmas album, Snow Angels. God, these guys are good.

November 14, 2017

What I’m watching:

Guiltily, I watch the Patriots play every weekend, often building my schedule and plans around seeing the game. Why the guilt? I don’t know how morally defensible is football anymore, as we now know the severe damage it does to the players. We can’t pretend it’s all okay anymore. Is this our version of late decadent Rome, watching mostly young Black men take a terrible toll on each other for our mere entertainment?

What I’m reading:

Recently finished J.G. Ballard’s 2000 novel Super-Cannes, a powerful depiction of a corporate-tech ex-pat community taken over by a kind of psychopathology, in which all social norms and responsibilities are surrendered to residents of the new world community. Kept thinking about Silicon Valley when reading it. Pretty dark, dystopian view of the modern world and centered around a mass killing, troublingly prescient.

What I’m listening to:

Was never really a Lorde fan, only knowing her catchy (and smarter than you might first guess) pop hit “Royals” from her debut album. But her new album, Melodrama, is terrific and it doesn’t feel quite right to call this “pop.” There is something way more substantial going on with Lorde and I can see why many critics put this album at the top of their Best in 2017 list. Count me in as a huge fan.

November 3, 2017

What I’m reading: Just finished Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, her breathtakingly good second novel. How is someone so young so wise? Her writing is near perfection and I read the book in two days, setting my alarm for 4:30AM so I could finish it before work.

What I’m watching: We just binge watched season two of Stranger Things and it was worth it just to watch Millie Bobbie Brown, the transcendent young actor who plays Eleven. The series is a delightful mash up of every great eighties horror genre you can imagine and while pretty dark, an absolute joy to watch.

What I’m listening to: I’m not a lover of country music (to say the least), but I love Chris Stapleton. His “The Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” is heartbreakingly good and reminds me of the old school country that played in my house as a kid. He has a new album and I can’t wait, but his From A Room: Volume 1 is on repeat for now.

September 26, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo. It took me a while to accept its cadence and sheer weirdness, but loved it in the end. A painful meditation on loss and grief, and a genuinely beautiful exploration of the intersection of life and death, the difficulty of letting go of what was, good and bad, and what never came to be.

What I’m watching:

HBO’s The Deuce. Times Square and the beginning of the porn industry in the 1970s, the setting made me wonder if this was really something I’d want to see. But David Simon is the writer and I’d read a menu if he wrote it. It does not disappoint so far and there is nothing prurient about it.

What I’m listening to:

The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast. I love this band. The opening piano notes of the first song, “Nobody Else Will Be There,” seize me & I’m reminded that no one else in music today matches their arrangement & musicianship. I’m adding “Born to Beg,” “Slow Show,” “I Need My Girl,” and “Runaway” to my list of favorite love songs.

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itsworn · 7 years ago

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Watch As We Rescue & Revive a Nearly New 1969 Ford Ranchero GT After 29 Years of Storage

The subject of storage is a deep one, indeed. Here at the family compound you might see muscular classics out to pasture. Let’s call those cars “pasturized.” Over yonder is a weathered old barn. Its roof went away years ago, so the barn cars all have “barnacles.” Around here, premium indoor storage involves shipping containers. Sure, they’re hot ’n’ cold with the seasons, but a tight container can be fairly safely used as a portable garage. A not-so-tight container, however, can become the tomb of doom.

Long, long ago, back in 1969, Uncle Gary Bauman drove a new 1969 Ranchero GT off the showroom floor of Riverside, California’s Warren Anderson Ford. It was pretty much loaded. A 390, a four-barrel, a floor-shifted C6, and bucket seats to boot. As his company vehicle, the shiny new Ranchero propelled Uncle Gary to and from work at the old family business, Bauman’s Auto Wrecking. It was never used for parts deliveries. Nobody else ever drove it, and I’m pretty sure it never hauled anything in its bed. Now, it’s been a long time, but I’m rather proud to possess a 20/20 long-term memory. Amongst other details, the one I recall most vividly is the Ranchero’s new-car smell.

We are all familiar with the story of the one that got away. This will not be a rehashed version of that. Uncle Gary still has the low-mileage 1969 Ranchero GT. It hasn’t felt the sunshine in many, many years. In fact, it’s been stored away in one of those shipping containers. Knowing its secret whereabouts, and knowing Uncle Gary wouldn’t mind, I sort of got to thinking that you readers might enjoy a peek inside that container. Little did I know that slippin’ in for pictures would lead to a grisly discovery.

Out of sight and out of mind, the near-new/old Ranchero had languished in that old shipping container long enough that the container had settled into the ground. One door would still open, just enough to allow someone of average build like me to slip inside. Through the dank darkness it sort of looked as though both left tires had deflated, causing the left-rear bumper corner to contact the container wall. Although I couldn’t clearly see the Ranchero, I could clearly smell it. The stench of mildew had replaced the new-car smell I remembered from childhood.

Clues at this crime scene suggest that the container’s roof sprung a leak. Sadly, that leak went undetected for years. Cold winter rain came in. Hot summer sun came out—and the container’s precious contents sustained a series of summer-long steam baths. We can be certain that condition has taken a toll on Uncle Gary’s Ranchero. We won’t know the extent of the damage until we get it out. We won’t get it out until we get the container doors opened. And we won’t get the container doors opened without a lift from a friend with a heavy-duty hydraulic wrecker.

We will have to work for this, but we will get the Ranchero out into the sunlight for a better look. No doubt it will need a complete, professional detail job, but its mechanical needs might be tougher to assess. Pending Uncle Gary’s approval, I’ll personally see this rescue through—with a little help, as needed, from friends.

For the first phase of the job at hand, let’s begin with a mechanical evaluation by “Guardrail” Willie Martin, third-generation owner/operator of Riverside, California’s Ed Martin Garage. Following Martin’s inspection, shop manager/parts guru Mike Ferguson will provide us with an estimate. Then, providing it’s practical, let’s get this Ranchero Rescue mission underway.

1 Welcome one and all to container No. 2. These doors have been locked long enough that we don’t even remember which key opens them. That’s OK; these older locks ain’t too particular. In such situations, a worn-thin key is quite dependable.

2 Suddenly, this sight for sore eyes puts a hurt on our noses. Worse than any locker room, this much mildew stinks. Before we go any further, let’s do what’s necessary to get this container aired out.

3 Over the years the container settled to the point where the doors no longer open. Fortunately, my friend, Gary “Wiz-Bang” Estee, is a heavy-duty towing and recovery professional. With a big hydraulic wrecker, raising this container is a breeze.

4 As luck would have it, the two flat tires are up against the wall. This makes valve stem access inconvenient, but my flexible friend, Pelon Sanuntillanes, doesn’t seem to mind. Here toward the rear we get our first glimpse of expired tags: December 1989!

5 Compressed air in the new/old tires gives us a little clearance so we can see more of the Ranchero’s left side. Here we believe we have located the leak. Sure enough, it’s in the roof, right above the left fender.

6 An initial check under the hood reveals a bone-stock 390. Further visual inspection reveals a coating of corrosion over pretty much everything.

7 Much to my dismay, the new-car smell of my childhood no longer lingers. Let’s just hold our noses as we slide inside the moistly mildewed interior. Here behind the wheel, the odometer speaks the truth: only 12,155 miles!

8 Quite fortunately, the interior mildew had not yet crept into the center console. In the mix with other factory documents, the owner’s manual and warranty cards are present and in mint condition.

9 Through years of steamy storage the park brake was not set. Even so, the rear brake shoes have corroded to the drums. The Ranchero will not roll, so Estee has returned to winch it out with a rollback. Now we can see the only nonstock modification: circa 1969 American Torq-Thrust originals with late-1980s Goodyear Eagle ST radials.

10 Freshly offloaded from the bed of Estee’s rollback, Uncle Gary’s Ranchero assumes a position on a lift at Ed Martin Garage. After 29 years of improper storage, we are expecting the fuel system, cooling system, and brakes to require attention.

11 During Martin’s evaluation we see things we don’t often see, still in place on a 49-year-old Ford. For example, this air filter element is Motorcraft original equipment. Just below, an original Motorcraft four-barrel carburetor is all lacquered up. It’s so bad, its butterflies won’t budge.

12 In the usual places, Martin begins looking for clues. Here the fuel cap and radiator cap each have stories to tell. That crusty crud confirms our suspicions—there’s trouble in the tanks.

13 The condition of this heater-control valve suggests that the Ranchero was parked without Prestone. The heater core could be all plugged up to match. If so, there will be much disassembly required for access.

14 The poor old Ranchero is stiff. Wheels won’t turn, butterflies won’t budge, and things we’ve seen are not encouraging. At this point, before looking further, Martin goes for his ratchet. The engine still turns! After a full revolution, we are optimistic again.

15 Even under the distributor cap, steam has made a mess. Surprisingly, the vacuum advance has passed a bench test. Here a lap around the solvent tank may reveal more ugliness.

16 See the heavy pitting on the distributor cam? New points won’t last long. Those pits will grind a new rubbing block away quickly. For that, Martin recommends a cleverly concealable PerTronix box.

17 According to a paper Pennzoil sticker in the left doorjamb, Uncle Gary’s Ranchero was last serviced on February 7, 1989, right here at Ed Martin Garage. Yes, it’s been here before. Last time, quite coincidentally, was after long-term storage as well.

18 With a new filter in place and fresh oil added, it’s prime time. With a pneumatic drill, Martin spins the oil pump at a fairly high speed as yours truly monitors instrumentation inside. We have pressure!

19 Just wanting to hear the engine run, we have filled the float bowl through the vent with fresh gasoline. At this stage the carburetor’s butterflies are still solidly stuck, but the engine has fired and idled quietly. What we see here on the floor is fresh from the tailpipe.

20 Pleased with what he’s heard, Martin begins to overhaul the carburetor. A couple screws have broken, and the accelerator pump refuses to let go. Notice the dark goo in the bottom of the bowl. A dunk in the shop’s ultrasonic cleaner, followed by pressure washing, will remedy that.

21 Here on a different bench we have a two-piece fuel filler neck. The rubber joint has been discarded. It will be replaced. Although these two parts are clearly cruddy, a lap around the bead-blasting cabinet will clean ’em up like new.

22 The fuel tank’s condition, however, is the worst we’ve ever seen at Ed Martin Garage. Pretty obviously, the poor Ranchero was parked with a full tank of high-test. The questionable tank will be sent to a nearby radiator shop. With a little luck it might actually survive.

23 Perhaps if it weren’t so stinky, this sending unit might make a nice souvenir. We just don’t see them like this every day.

24 Earlier, from the appearance of the heater control valve, we had determined that the Ranchero was parked without Prestone. Let this thermostat housing support the initial observation.

25 Toward the end of a very long haul, this low-mileage 390 is running really good, but as Murphy’s Law would have it, something is wrong. The heater core is leaking warm green coolant. It needs to come out. Access will not be easy, so this is a setback.

26 Following a good deal of disassembly, we have accessed the problem. The heater core on the left is the original. The one on the right is N.O.S. Even though it’s new, testing revealed leaks, so it has been to the radiator shop for repairs.

27 After reassembly, the coolant leak is history. Now perhaps we should think about settling up. While these four pages of receipts add up to something, the money is well spent on a vehicle worth saving. Once we have obtained insurance and current registration, it will be time for a test drive.

About That Test Drive Have you ever driven a brand-new, 390-powered 1969 Ranchero GT? Neither had I until just lately. For me, there’s a gooey, squishy, rather emotional feelin’ that goes with the experience. Hey, it’s my favorite uncle’s ride, and after 29 years in storage, I am the first to drive it. Thanks to Ed Martin Garage, it’s running great and stopping straight. Even though it feels quite powerful, I’m driving like a granny because two of the late-1980s Goodyear Eagle ST radials sat flat so long that the thumping won’t subside. Before rolling down the highway I’ll gingerly putt down the street to see my tire guy, Dave, at Kuma Tire ’n’ Wheel.

Our final stop will be the detail shop. We have made an appointment with Ricky Pope of Soft Touch Auto Detailing. In Part 2 we will tend to cosmetics. Again with a little help from friends, and still more help from friends at Mothers, we’ll have Uncle Gary’s near-new/old Ranchero back in showroom shape—for auction, or for keeps.

The post Watch As We Rescue & Revive a Nearly New 1969 Ford Ranchero GT After 29 Years of Storage appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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junker-town · 7 years ago

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Tiger Woods turns 42: What to expect from the aging superstar’s latest comeback

Happy 42nd birthday, Tiger Woods.

Butch Harmon believes Tiger Woods is back for real (as does Tony Romo). Greg Norman not so much.

Las Vegas gives the four-time Masters winner a pretty good shot to earn his fifth green jacket. And Jack Nicklaus (who jokingly hinted at his own comeback to protect his majors record) has better things to do than watch the closest challenger to his all-time mark make his latest return to the PGA Tour following another lengthy, injury-related hiatus.

No matter where you stand on Woods’ chances of reclaiming even a wee bit of his erstwhile winning form (and nearly everyone in the golf world has an opinion on whether Tiger will ever get back to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2013), two facts are beyond debate:

The victor of 79 tour events will go it alone as his own swing coach (at least to start the 2018 campaign).

He’ll be 42 when he next strikes a ball that counts against Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and a host of other young players who grew up idolizing Tiger but are unaffected by the aura surrounding their elder in his glory days.

They say it’s your birthday

It’s difficult for those of a certain vintage (who remember when a 2-year-old mini-me Tiger made his debut on the national stage and can’t believe it’s been 21 years since his “Hello World” moment) to come to grips with Woods ripping another year off the calendar.

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Yet Tiger celebrates another birthday every Dec. 30. The occasion of his 42nd, with one tournament deemed a success by most under his white belt, and 2018 looming for the injury-plagued superstar, seemed a good time to reflect on what we might expect from the world’s 656th-ranked player when he kicks off his season poised to work himself into game shape for the Masters in April.

Woods’ solid showing at the 18-player, no-cut Hero World Challenge sparked widespread enthusiasm in the golf community and beyond, with even casual fans anxious to see how Tiger can perform in the latest attempt to revive his career. While not every observer was bullish on what Woods may accomplish going forward after four back surgeries since March 2014, ex-swing coach Harmon cautioned naysayers against betting against his former student.

“I learned a long time ago never to say never when it comes to Tiger Woods,” Harmon told Golf Channel after Woods put up three strong rounds (69-68-75-68) at the Hero.

“He’ll prove you wrong,” Harmon said. “I think he can win again.”

Tony Romo, T22 in Golf Digest’s 2015 ranking of the top 100 athlete-golfers, does not think his sometime Pebble Beach pro-am partner will hoist at least one more trophy; he knows it.

“Tiger’s going to make a run,” the Cowboys former QB and current NFL analyst for CBS told broadcasting partner (and voice of the Masters) Jim Nantz during a recent Patriots-Bills game. “I’m telling you right now, Tiger Woods is back."

Tony Romo: "I'm telling you right now, Tiger Woods is back" http://pic.twitter.com/BMmSf51OAX

— GOLF.com (@golf_com) December 24, 2017

Not so all-in on Tiger’s chances for a successful resurgence was Norman, who sought to slow the roll on the Tiger Woods Hype Train. It was a long, circuitous route, Norman recently reminded reporters at his recent QBE Shootout, from Woods conceding at Liberty National in September that his playing career might be over to blasting drives past playing partner Justin Thomas at the Hero in the Bahamas.

“Everybody was wondering, you know, the speculation of him saying, ‘I may never play golf again,’ and then all of a sudden he says he’s hitting the ball 330 yards. Big difference from there to there, right?” Norman said. “I hope he manages his expectations more than everybody else’s expectations being [that] he’s going to come back and be Tiger of past. I think he still has a little bit of time on his side, but not a whole lot.”

Way to harsh our buzz, dude. Undeterred, we offer some educated guesses as to where and how Woods will try to hone his game for the Masters.

No mo’ Como

Given his wretched opening-round 77 and subsequent withdrawal with back spasms from February’s Dubai Desert Classic, we’re betting the next stop on the TW Comeback Tour will be closer to home, albeit across the country from his Jupiter, Fla., digs, at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Joey was good afterward. Said he has no clue about future schedule but, if Tiger feels good, would hope he plays Torrey. Believes Tiger’s days of going overseas (Dubai) are over.

— GC Tiger Tracker (@GCTigerTracker) December 1, 2017

Assuming Woods’ caddie Joe LaCava has even an inkling about where his boss will or won’t play next, Torrey Pines would seem a comfortable place for an official unveiling of his new, coach-less, back-friendly swing. (In an announcement last week, Woods related that he and Chris Como ended their three-year professional relationship, leaving him, “for now,” to continue to “relearn” his swing following fusion surgery.)

By TW http://pic.twitter.com/uudaN5hP31

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 22, 2017

“I want to say a special thank you to Chris Como for all his past hard work,” Woods wrote in his annual holiday message on his website on Friday. “I’ll always be grateful for what he did for me and I know he’ll continue to be successful.”

Either as his own drill instructor or with a new hire tending to his swing (time for a Tiger-Butch reunion?) the Farmers (Jan. 25-28) appears to be a likely spot from which to catapult Woods’ rebound to official, full-field play.

Teeing it up at Torrey, where Woods owns eight wins including the 2008 U.S. Open, also seemed a natural launch pad for Tiger at the start of 2017 and, well, how’d that work out? The much-anticipated fireworks from Tiger soon fizzled out with a missed cut to go with a T80 and that glutes-related withdrawal in his last three starts in La Jolla.

Of course, that was then and this is now, and now — after contending and finishing with no pain at the Hero — Woods seems in far better health than he did for his last career revival attempt in January.

With way too little data to go on, questions remain regarding how Tiger would fare should he decide to make Torrey his first stop of the new year. How will his surgically repaired back hold up under the pressures of full-field events? How about his mental game? With a short game that remains somewhat sketchy, has he truly gotten over the chipping yips that dogged him during prior return efforts?

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We’ll go out on a limb here and predict that, should we catch a glimpse of Tiger 4.0 as soon as next month, that he’ll make the cut at Torrey and give us all 72 holes on which to base future prognostications.

Riviera revisited

While reports indicated Woods had committed to play at Riviera, the Los Angeles track on which he made his tour debut, Woods wrote on Friday that a start there was not a gimme. He did, however, note that he will attend in some capacity the event (Genesis Open) that his foundation hosts.

“One way or another, I will be at Riviera Country Club in February for the Genesis Open,” said Woods, who even had to cancel his scheduled press conference there last year because of his back. “It’s such an historic site and the course will always have special meaning for me. That’s where it all started back in 1992 when I played in my first PGA Tour event at age 16. My foundation now runs the tournament and it will be great to return to my old stomping grounds.”

While there could be Tiger sightings at the Phoenix Open (Feb. 1-4) and/or the Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Feb. 8-11), it would be unusual for him to play so many tournaments in a row. He set out at the start of 2017 to play four times in five weeks — at Torrey and Riviera, in Dubai, and then home for the Honda Classic — but we know how that plan panned out, with Woods done for the year after just one round in the Middle East.

Woods has yet to make a public commitment to play the L.A. tournament, which he has not appeared in for 10 years after back spasms forced him to withdraw from the 2017 competition before it began.

Could this be the year Woods ends his victory drought on what is essentially a home course for the Cypress, Calif., native? Unlikely, given his record and lack of competitive reps.

“I’ve always loved playing [the course],” Woods told reporters ahead of last year’s tilt. “I’ve just never played it well.”

Sure, there were the missed cuts in 1992 and 1993 from the then-Nissan Open, when Tiger was still an amateur, and the WD in 2006 after shooting 69-74. But Woods has also recorded four top-7 finishes, including runner-up status in 1998 and 1999, as well as three top-18 results, so his Riviera record’s not that bad.

Home cookin’ at the Honda

Woods is likely to tee it up in his backyard at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, when the PGA Tour begins its Florida Swing with the Honda Classic (Feb. 22-25). He finished T2 in his second of just three Honda starts, in 2012, after giving chase but eventually falling short of Rory McIlroy.

If all goes well and he is still upright after more competitive rounds than he has played in a year, we would not be surprised if Tiger missed the cut at the difficult PGA National. That would not be optimum on the rollup to the Masters, but if Woods follows his usual pattern and plays Bay Hill, he could bounce back on another course that has yielded eight wins to the former world No. 1.

Missing Arnie

Should Woods put the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 15-18) on his schedule, even he will likely play second fiddle to the late host of his eponymous tournament. Next year will mark the second time the tour will stop at Bay Hill since Palmer’s death in September 2016 but Tiger missed last year’s event and the emotion will probably still be fresh when Woods et al descend on Orlando.

Indeed, Woods has not teed it up at Arnie’s place since he won his third of five tour titles in his 2013 Player of the Year campaign. What a boost it would be to his confidence and his chances at the Masters three weeks later were Tiger to earn his 80th tour victory in honor of Arnold.

All roads lead to Augusta

Because wherever he plays and however he performs, for Tiger it’s all about getting his game Augusta-ready. Certainly, the oddsmakers are looking forward to Woods’ arrival at the Masters, as the wise guys dropped the odds of his prevailing at the men’s first major of the year from 100-1 prior to the Hero to its current 15-1, at least according to VegasInsider.com.

Even those backing Woods to get back to his field-conquering ways would doubtless scale back on those numbers a bit.

Harmon, for example, believes his bygone disciple — who, he noted, enters every event asserting, if not actually convinced, that he can end up on top — will hoist another trophy, but he declined to put another grand slam event in the win column just yet.

“Whether or not he can win a major championship again, we’ll have to wait and see,” Harmon said. “I think he can win on the regular tour and when he does that, I think he’ll have confidence when he comes to a major.”

With “the Rickies, the Justin Thomas’s, the Spieths” and other “pretty good” kids sharing the same goals, Harmon maintained the path to another Woods major win is especially difficult.

“I think we have to temper our optimism,” Harmon said, “because we see him play and we say, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s going to be like he was in 2000 and 2001.’”

As for the guy Woods still hopes to surpass on his way to 19 major championships, he’ll follow Tiger’s progress — but not from his couch.

“I’m not interested at all [in viewing Woods’ comeback],” Nicklaus told Golfweek earlier this month.

“Do I wish [Tiger] well? Yeah, but I’m not interested in watching him,” said Nicklaus. “I’ve watched him play golf for 20-something years, why would I want to go watch more? I don’t watch anybody play golf.”

Nicklaus, who has fielded Woods queries since Eldrick the Younger won his first Masters in 1997, recently came up with a different response than his traditional “Wish him well blah blah blah yada yada yada” rejoinder. Replying to a question during the tour’s annual tournament meetings about whether he would prefer to secure a 19th major trophy or see his grandson, Buffalo Bills tight end Nick O’Leary, catch the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, the Golden Bear had ‘em rolling in the aisles with his riposte.

“Uh, right now I'd rather have a 19th major,” Nicklaus answered, according to the AP’s Doug Ferguson. “Tiger is back playing again.”

That he is, and he’s feeling fine, though he has yet to fill in his calendar for the coming year.

“I feel I’ve taken it to another level,” Woods wrote after being “very encouraged” by his Hero play that he hoped “was the start of something big.”

He said he was practicing and building up his strength to be able to handle a large workload going forward, though exactly where and when was still up in the air.

“I would love to play a full schedule in 2018. What that entails, including back-to-back events, I don’t know,” Woods said. “I just have to continue to work on my body and game and see where I pan out. I wish I knew where I was going to play and when I was going to play — it’s a lot easier to prep for that — but we really don’t know. This is all unchartered territory.”

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thesnhuup · 6 years ago

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