#also for my US fans it released 8 pm ET time

[bubblegum-and-ciggarettes]

Ugh the title card fake outs were so good. I knew they would have a real one near the end of the episode and I was waiting for it the whole time!! Also interested in what it’ll turn into. Maybe the crack will grow to show different universes? Or maybe it’ll just break the bloodied title card and reveal a new one? Idk but I’m so excited.

Lowkey kinda glad that it’s one episode a week because I love discussing individual episodes every week!! I also know myself and know I would binge watch all 8 episodes if they came out at the same time and wouldn’t sleep until I did. That’s about 8 hours of episodes and is a lot. Sucks that we have to wait until 2024 for the other half of them tho.

Might post a more spoiler version discussing the new episode later but I’ll b sure to let y’all know if I’m talking about the actual plot in it.

[gacmediadaily]

Great American Family made an official announcement today regarding their Christmas in July movie event! The network also gave a premiere date for "A Belgian Chocolate Christmas," their new Christmas in July movie premiere!

See the full press release below...

Press Release via Great American Media:

A CHRISTMAS SO NICE,

WE CELEBRATE IT TWICE

‘GREAT AMERICAN CHRISTMAS IN JULY’

RETURNS JUNE 30

WITH AROUND-THE-CLOCK HOLIDAY FILMS

AND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF

A BELGIAN CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS NEW YORK, NY – June 1, 2023 – The whimsical season of enjoying hot cocoa and Christmas cookies on blazing 100-degree days is upon us, as ‘Great American Christmas in July’ returns to Great American Family on June 30. Along with 24/7 holiday films, ‘Great American Christmas in July’ features the World Premiere of A Belgian Chocolate Christmas, starring Jaclyn Hales and Zane Stephens, Saturday, July 8 at 8 pm ET.

In A Belgian Chocolate Christmas, a photographer takes her best friend’s place at a Belgian culinary school at the holidays and connects with the chocolatier leading the class. As romance begins to bloom, the only problem is a case of mistaken identity.

Great American Family recently announced the network’s sustained ratings growth streak after closing out April 2023 as TV’s fastest-growing network for six consecutive months.

Photo: Jaclyn Hales, Zane Stephens (© Great American Family)

ABOUT GREAT AMERICAN FAMILY

Great American Family is America’s premiere destination for quality family-friendly programming, including original holiday movies, rom-coms and fan-favorite series that celebrate faith, family and country. Great American Family is home to year-round seasonal celebrations including Great American Christmas, the network’s signature franchise featuring holiday themed movies and specials. Founded in 2021, Great American Family is part of the Great American Media portfolio of brands. Follow Great American Family on Twitter: @GAfamilyTV Facebook: @GAfamilytv Instagram: @gactv

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Pam Slay Network Program Publicity 818.415.3784 pamslay@gacmedia.com

Mead Rust 469.663.7717 meadrust@gacmedia.com

My Quick Take:

So... that's certainly exciting news that we will be able to see the premiere of "A Belgian Chocolate Christmas" on July 8th! That leaves plenty of time for encore airings throughout the month. 

And I'm delighted we now have this confirmation that movies will air 24/7!!! *Christmas in July* is certainly going to be a fun event this year on Great American Family!

[newmusicradionetwork]

Honky-Tonk Country Traditionalist Ben Fugate &; The Burning Trash Band Announce New Self-Titled EP

Honky-tonk country traditionalist and Appalachian singer-songwriter Ben Fugate & The Burning Trash Band are excited to announce their new eight song self-titled EP from Louisville-based sonaBLAST! Records, due out on Friday, April 12. Leading up to that release date, the Eastern Kentucky sextet will release the EP’s first two singles, a rerecording of Fugate’s signature song “Dream Song #1” on February 09, followed by the quirky tale of running into the law on “County Fuzz” on March 08, the latter which Fugate is planning to shoot his first ever music video for. “This album is a big departure from my garage days with just one mic,” said Fugate. “We aimed to reflect our unique sound, while drawing inspiration from country legends, and I believe we’ve captured that essence!” Proudly hailing from Hazard, Kentucky, Fugate first began amassing a sizable following on his Tik Tok channel in 2020 by just simply singing a number of classic country and southern rock song favorites, along with a few of his originals. In 2021 Fugate released his debut EP by Sonder House, Pronounced Appa-Latch-Uh, where the title track has garnered more than 100,000 spins on Spotify, firmly solidifying a growing interest among his listeners and fans. In 2021, Fugate was discovered by Louisville-based Entrepreneur, Community Organizer, Filmmaker and sonaBLAST! Records founder Gill Holland. Holland, who has played a role in the musical careers of other Kentucky recording artists like Jack Harlow and Ben Sollee, also saw the raw, natural talent in the Appalachian country songwriter and invited him to Louisville’s La La Land recording studio to bring his self-written song-tales to pristine audio perfection. Record release shows planned throughout Kentucky in Louisville, Hazard & Harlan: Fugate and his band will celebrate the release of the new EP with a series of shows in Kentucky. The first will be on Thursday, April 11, 7 pm ET at The Monarch Music & Arts Community (1318 Bardstown Rd., Louisville), and then on Friday, April 12, 8 pm ET at the VFW Post #7387 (1700 N Main Street, Hazard) in his hometown of Hazard. The following week they’ll perform on April 20 at Harlan County Beer Company (120 E. Central St., Harlan). Admission is Free and open to the public for these events. “I’m thrilled to host these release shows in my hometown, Harlan and Louisville,” Fugate said. “Both Hazard and Louisville have been pivotal in our success, so it feels only fitting to bring the celebration to where it all began for us!” Tracklisting & Songwriters: 1. “Dream Song #1” (Ben Fugate, Kevin Howard) - “Til’ Death Do Us Part” (Ben Fugate) - “County Fuzz” (Ben Fugate, Kevin Howard) - “Take Your Love” (Ben Fugate) - “Lovesick Over You” (Ben Fugate) - “Impossible” (Ben Fugate) - “Tick’s Blues” (Derek Mullins) - “Dream Song #2” (Ben Fugate, Kevin Howard) EP name: Self-titled Audio release date: April 12, 2024 Video release date: April TBA (“County Fuzz”) Audio producer: Anne Gauthier at La La Land Studios; Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering Pre-Save/Buy/Stream: onerpm.link/282416597085 Shows + Promotional Appearances: FEB 17 – 123 Pleasant St. / Morgantown, W.V. MAR 09 – Pat’s Snack Bar / Manchester, Ky. APR 11 – WAVE Country with Dawn Gee appearance (WAVE-TV) / Louisville, Ky. APR 11 – The Monarch Music & Arts Community / Louisville, Ky. APR 12 – VFW Post #7387 / Hazard, Ky. APR 20 – Harlan County Beer Company / Harlan, Ky. ** Ben’s most up-to-date show and appearance schedule also available on his BandsInTown About Ben Fugate: Ben Fugate is the product of many things: the rural Southeastern Kentucky landscape he calls home, the belting of gospel vocals behind shoddy guitar amplifiers at the Pentecostal church he spent most Sundays, and the hardships that come with being a young adult in a town he loves, which both time and the rest of the world have seemingly passed by. Ben chose the path of music from an early age, donning the famous studded apparel of Elvis Presley and impersonating at his family gatherings as a young boy, playing Lynyrd Skynyrd songs to an amphitheater of his high school peers in talent shows, and forming his first band after graduation, spending all his time in a sweltering garage with his buddies coming up with melodies and singing every John Mellencamp song he knew. The influences Ben draws from, range greatly. From the high twanged vocal acrobatics of The Osborne Brothers, or the heart-tugging slow country warbles of Vern Gosdin. The influence of Joe Diffie, Hank Williams, Keith Whitley, George Jones, Travis Tritt, Bob Seger, Eagles, and Charlie Daniels are all evident in the music that Ben makes. However, he understands that he’s not those influences, but like any great artist, Ben is merely a vessel that channels all the great emotional highs and lows across the vast history of country music and makes them his own. This is before accounting for his equally incredible group, The Burning Trash Band, a band of music vets who always display their tight guitar work and clock-like rhythm section both in shows and in the booth. Ben Fugate and The Burning Trash Band have only been a collective for a few years, and they have been constantly working towards honing their sound, adjusting melodies and delivery, and obsessively messing with tone. What Ben and his band of honky-tonk heroes seek to achieve is none other than their own perfect vision of what country music is to them. And with every show, every record, every practice, every lyric, and every broken guitar string, they come that much closer. Read the full article

[pluto-art]

Comic Give-away/Raffle!!

Howdy, folks!!

Today I’ve got a little surprise for ya’! I happen to have a healthy little collection of Pinky and the Brain comics. All that you see here are doubles of ones I’ve already got -- 11 official comics that Warner Bros. produced, and 1 very special fan-made comic!

Below is a list of all the official comics I’m giving away (in order from top to bottom and from left to right in the first photo):

Issue #3 - 1 copy; released Sep. ‘96 Issue #4 - 1 copy; released Oct. ‘96 Issue #5 - 1 copy; released Nov. 96 Issue #7 - 1 copy; released Jan. ‘97 Issue #8 - 2 copies; released Feb. ‘97 Issue #10 - 1 copy; released Apr. ‘97 Issue #12 - 1 copy; released Jun. ‘97 Issue #17 - 1 copy; released Nov. ‘97 Issue #22 - 1 copy; released May ‘98 Issue #23 - 1 copy; released June ‘98

The special comic is a fan-made release by artist Natsu-Nori, who is probably the best Pinky and the Brain fan artist I know. Her work is astounding -- very adorable and on-model. The comic is a collection of mini stories she did. This is all the way from Japan and was one of the few English versions out there (I basically got what was left), so you’re not gonna get this anywhere else. I have my own copy of this comic, of course, and, yes, it’s awesome.

A closer look at the fan comic:

Now, here’s how the raffle will work (please read carefully):

1. Instructions

Yes, I am giving all of these away. You won’t have to pay a cent for the copy you win. I shall take responsibility for ALL shipping and handling costs.

To qualify for the raffle, please take note:

- You MUST be a Pinky and the Brain and/or Animaniacs fan and leave a comment on this post via your Animaniacs/PatB fan account. Reblogging the post and replying to it DOES NOT count; you must comment on the original post. No exceptions. I should be able to browse through your blog a couple pages back and still see Animaniacs/PatB content. I am not giving these away to just anyone. You’ve gotta be a fan of one or both shows (preferably PatB). This goes for friends of mine, as well. Y’all gotta abide by the same rules, even if I know you’re a ravid Pinky and the Brain fanatic.

- You can only put your name in/comment once. If anyone is caught entering their name in two or more times using multiple accounts, you will be automatically excluded from the raffle. (Please don’t do this, you guys.)

2. Selection Process

This post will remain up for one week. Raffle will end next Tuesday, August 11th, at 11:59 PM PST. Once the time is up, I shall gather all the names submitted and put them into an online Random Name Selector/Picker. I’ll then  roll the random generator for each comic, in order of release. One person will get comic #3, another #4, et cetera until I’ve gone through all the comics, including the fan book. If I roll the same person twice, I’ll reroll until I get a different name. Every person will get one comic only, unless less than 12 people enter the raffle, as I have 12 comics total. We’re gonna keep it as fair and square as possible. You cannot request that your name gets put in the generator for a particular issue. It will be a random selection. It’s a mystery as to which issue you’ll end up winning!

3. Winner Announcement

All winners will be announced on Wednesday, August 12th, at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM PST. Winners will be tagged and sent a message in their inbox. Please note that you must be willing to share your address with me if you win. This can be a personal address, P.O. box, or business address. All personal information will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone outside of myself and, quite possibly, my boyfriend who may help with packaging.

-------

Questions and Answers:

a. Who can enter? b. Tumblr users and Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain fans only.

a. Do you ship internationally? b. Yes! I will ship internationally!

a. If I win, can I have the item shipped to a third party’s address? b. Yes. This is fine. However, once it arrives at said address it’s up to the third party to get it to you. It’s out of my hands at that point.

a. If less than 12 people enter the raffle, how will you determine who gets the extra comics? b. If this happens, I shall allow one person to win up to 2 issues, which will be determined via the random name generator.

a. Do I have to pay any shipping and handling costs? b. Nope! I shall handle all costs. You won’t have to pay a dime if you win.

a. I’m not sure if I qualify as an Animaniacs/PatB fan. Can you help me? b. If you’re unsure if you qualify, please message me privately. We’ll go over any proof you have so as we can determine if you qualify.

a. I’m not a fan, but I want to enter the raffle to win a comic for a friend/family member who is. Does that count? b. I will only allow this IF you can provide proof that your friend/family member is a fan.

a. How obsessed with Pinky and the Brain are you? b. Pretty obsessed....

a. Why the heck are you doing this? This is gonna cost you a lot of money! b. Because. ;)

-------------

If you have any other questions that are not on this list, please message me privately and I will get back to you promptly.

Also, Natsu-Nori, if you see this and you’re uncomfortable with me giving away a copy of your comic, please let me know and I’ll take it down immediately. Since I already have my own copy, I wanted to give another of the copies to another Pinky and the Brain fan who would also appreciate it. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I will not, of course, be profiting off of your work. Everything here I’m giving away for free to fellow fans of the show. Again, though, let me know if this makes you uncomfortable at all!

Happy rafflin’! :)

- Pluto

[rangercommand]

NEWS - The POWER RANGERS: UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with MIGHTY MORPHIN #1 in November 2020

The POWER RANGERS: UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with MIGHTY MORPHIN #1 in November 2020  Two New Series. Two New Teams. A New Beginning For All Power Rangers Is Here!

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 13, 2020) – BOOM! Studios, under license by Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), today announced an exciting new series premiere, MIGHTY MORPHIN #1, from superstar writer Ryan Parrott (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and rising star artist Marco Renna, as they launch the first of two all-new series with two all-new teams in November 2020.

A new Mighty Morphin team has assembled to take on the deadliest threats to Earth – but who is the All New Green Ranger by their side?

The new Mighty Morphin team is on a collision course with an even deadlier Lord Zedd, who has a new mission and a new motivation – one that will change everything you thought you knew about our heroes! But even if the Mighty Morphin team can find a way to survive Zedd and their mysterious new enemies, they may discover the greatest threat to their future is the shocking secret of Zordon’s past! A new Mighty Morphin epic begins here, perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike.

New York Times bestselling author Ryan Parrott is a comic book and screenwriter based out of Los Angeles. A graduate of Chapman University, Parrott has written for television series NBC’s Revolution and Hulu’s Chance. Parrott is also known for his work on DC Comics’ Batman: Gates of Gotham, IDW’s Star Trek comic book series, including Starfleet Academy, Boldly Go, and Manifest Destiny, Dynamite’s Death to the Army of Darkness, and his creator-owned projects Volition, Oberon, and Dead Day with Aftershock Comics. He is currently the writer for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with BOOM! Studios.

“This is a brand new beginning for an all-new Mighty Morphin team featuring characters you know – and an all new Green Ranger. This book is a chance to explore the past, present and future of the team in ways you’ve never seen before,” said Parrott. “Coming out of Necessary Evil, there seemed like an opportunity to not only start fresh but focus the story in on our new MIGHTY MORPHIN team like we haven’t before.”

Marco Renna is a comic artist from Italy who made his debut with Action Lab Comics. After winning the Top Cow Talent Hunt 2016, Renna became the main artist of Fathom Vol.6 and other Aspen Comics series. He has also worked on some short stories such as Sandokan for Star Comics and Muhammed Ali for Petit à Petit. He also collaborated with Dynamite Entertainment on James Bond.

“I’m really happy to have the opportunity to work on Power Rangers. I used to watch the TV show every day and being able to draw these characters is a dream come true,” said Renna. “I feel honored to be part of this fantastic team and I am excited to go into this new adventure. I really hope you enjoy my art.”

Currently, Power Rangers is celebrating 27 continuous years on the air, making it one of the longest running kids’ live-action series in television history with nearly 900 episodes aired to date. Created by Haim Saban and launched in 1993 with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the franchise celebrates its 27th season, “Power Rangers Beast Morphers” currently airing on Saturdays at 8 a.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon in the U.S.

The hit comic book series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers launched in 2016 at BOOM! Studios, outselling nearly every other comic book in its month of release. The series went on to launch numerous hit spin off series like Go Go Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The series concludes in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #55, on-sale in October, which also features the first appearance of the All New Green Ranger.

“The UNLIMITED POWER era is all about new beginnings for two new teams of Power Rangers as they meet new allies, new enemies, new secrets and an all new Green Ranger,” said Matthew Levine, Editor, BOOM! Studios. “Both of these new series will be critical for long time fans and present an exciting jumping on point for new readers who will learn that the true history of the Power Rangers isn’t what they expected.”

Fans who attend the BOOM! Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Future is Now Panel on July 25, 2020 at 1:00 pm PT on the Comic-Con@Home website will get a very special preview of never-before-seen art as well as behind-the-scenes information about the series and what’s in store for readers! More details at www.comic-con.org/.

Print copies of MIGHTY MORPHIN #1 are scheduled to be available in November 2020 at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one), or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers like comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

Softcover collections of MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, and other Power Rangers releases from BOOM! Studios are available now, everywhere books are sold

For continuing news on the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS series and more from BOOM! Studios, stay tuned to boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.

For more on Power Rangers, please visit www.powerrangers.com and follow Power Rangers on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Hasbro Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to Creating the World’s Best Play and Entertainment Experiences. From toys, games and consumer products to television, movies, digital gaming, live action, music, and virtual reality experiences, Hasbro connects to global audiences by bringing to life great innovations, stories and brands across established and inventive platforms. Hasbro’s iconic brands include NERF, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE, POWER RANGERS, PEPPA PIG and PJ MASKS, as well as premier partner brands. Through its global entertainment studio, eOne, Hasbro is building its brands globally through great storytelling and content on all screens. Hasbro is committed to making the world a better place for all children and all families through corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Hasbro ranked among the 2020 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere Institute for the past nine years. We routinely share important business and brand updates on our Investor Relations website, Newsroom and social channels. Learn more at www.hasbro.com, and follow us on Twitter (@Hasbro) and Instagram (@Hasbro).

About BOOM! Studios BOOM! Studios was founded by Ross Richie in 2005 with the singular focus of creating world-class comic book and graphic novel storytelling for all audiences. Through the development of four distinct imprints—BOOM! Studios, BOOM! Box, KaBOOM!, and Archaia—BOOM! has produced award-winning original work, including Lumberjanes, Once & Future, Something is Killing The Children, Giant Days, and Mouse Guard, while also breaking new ground with established licenses such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, WWE, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Cartoon Network, and The Jim Henson Company properties. BOOM! will also bring their original series to life through unique first-look relationships with 20th Century for film and with Netflix for TV. Please visit www.boom-studios.com for more information.

Web: www.boom-studios.com Twitter: @boomstudios Facebook: @BOOMStudiosComics Instagram: @boom_studios

NEWS – The POWER RANGERS: UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with MIGHTY MORPHIN #1 in November 2020 was originally published on Ranger Command Power Hour

[sithabsolutes-blog]

Resistance vent

I’m not very active on Twitter. I log on from time to time to see what’s going on but it isn’t something that’s important in my daily life. I get on this morning and my feed is full of TLJ gushers who are doing nothing but COMPLAINING about people who have voiced their dislike/disinterest in the new cartoon. 

Apparently the hypocrisy in this behavior escapes them.  The constant need to highlight the complaints and ridicule them does nothing but further divide the fanbase.

They are the first ones who say they just want to be left alone to like what they like so why are they so effing bothered to the point that they search for people who are not excited for this show and proceed to engage? 

Well, I want to be left alone to dislike what I dislike.  Fans who dislike it don’t need to be picked apart or highlighted on Twitter by TLJ gushers. I don’t go around behind every person who loves TLJ and call them stupid or tell them they are wrong!  My tweet doesn’t automatically have to be retweeted and ridiculed. It also does not require a response telling me that I am stupid for not giving the first episode a chance before making up my mind on the show.

I have ZERO interest in whatever story they are telling during the time period leading up to TFA. ( I already read Bloodline for that) They have given me no reason to honestly care about the ST characters. I do not give one fig about Poe Dameron taking some new character/ kid under his wing. Even if Leia does make an appearance in this show I am still not interested because they screwed her over so much already.

Another reason I have no interest- honestly, I am not a HUGE fan of Rebels nor am I a HUGE fan of The Clone Wars. I didn’t watch either series until a couple years AFTER the shows first aired. There are a few things I enjoyed from each one but The Clone Wars was hard for me to watch because I could not wrap my brain around Matt Lanter’s voice being Anakin. There is a jarring disconnect for me still to this day and I don’t sit and watch them on repeat religiously. The Clone Wars resulted in the trend where people have bashed more on Hayden since its release, as if he had any control over the script and character development given to a cartoon VOICE actor. I realize I am in the minority here while I like Ahsoka as a character but I am not going to clamor for her to be in everything or survive everything. She has now outlived everyone else from the PT. I also greatly dislike the Clovis episodes with Padme. 

By the way, I am sick of the rebuttal that it’s for KIDS! If that were entirely so then why does Disney have it in a Sunday 10 PM time slot during the school months? 

Some of these people are mad that those of us who dislike TLJ are still talking about it 8 months later and letting it color our opinion on further media. Well, how many of them are still bashing the prequels and talking crap about Hayden, Jake, Lucas et al 13 years at the least afterwards? How many of them are making up the flimsiest of excuses as to why Anakin doesn’t need to appear in Episode 9 purely out of their hate for Hayden? 

[chucksuffel]

What’cha Reading reviews DC Collectibles’ upcoming Supergirl TV action figure!

Ahead of the season finales of The CW’s Supergirl and Arrow, the good people at DC were kind enough to send us their upcoming wave of DC TV action figures before they hit store shelves in June. Their current wave consists of Supergirl‘s Girl of Steel and Martian Manhunter and Arrow‘s Constantine and Vixen. I’ve been a fan of DC Collectibles for a long time now and their action figures have always offered fans a figure of premium quality. I was very excited for this current wave since I saw it debuted at Toy Fair and I could not be more happy with the current assortment that will soon be available to fans.

As a super fan of DC’s The Man of Steel, Supergirl is my favorite of the DC shows currently on air. Two seasons into her show, which will air its season finale on Monday, May 22nd, we are finally starting to enjoy more merchandise featuring Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl. Previously, Mattel released a DC Multiverse action figure of Supergirl, but now DC Collectibles has soared past that action figure with their upcoming (and highly anticipated) action figure of Supergirl. DC Collectibles upcoming Supergirl action figure is the first of two figures in her wave, with the second figure being Martian Manhunter. This figure continues DC’s TV series action figures that started with Arrow and continued with The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. While we only have two action figures right now, one could only hope for an upcoming figure of villain Livewire (Brit Morgan) and Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh).

While the pictures originally released in support of DC Collectibles’ Supergirl action figure looked great, they honestly do not live up to the actual figure as the real figure looks even better! The likeness of Melissa Benoist has been perfectly captured and the level of detail is amazing. While the Mattel Multiverse figure of Supergirl offered a more cartoon-ish version of Benoist, DC Collectibles version of Benoist is terrific and every bit of the costume is accurately captured, as well.

Supergirl also features 17 points of articulation which allows for more dynamic poses. Sometimes the ball joints on newly released figures could be extremely stiff, but this was not the case with Supergirl. Her shoulders allow for a wide range of motion, allowing the fan to pose her in a more authentic way, accurate to the series.

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Supergirl also comes with a set of three different hands, one open, one closed, and one allowing her to hold an accessory. However, the figure does not comes with any additional parts.

I could not be happier with DC Collectibles’ Supergirl action figure as it was well worth the wait. There were previously some delays with their Supergirl merchandise as extra time was taken to get the likeness just right and the figure shows the hard work put into it. Supergirl was sculpted by Adam Ross and James Marsano, who are also the sculptors behind the upcoming Supergirl TV statue.

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Supergirl will be available this June and retails for $29.95. Supergirl’s season two season finale airs Monday, May 22nd on The CW at 8:00 PM ET. Check your local listings.

*Stay tuned for more DC Collectibles action figure reviews of Martian Manhunter, Constantine, and Vixen.

*Steven Biscotti, of Universal Monsters Universe, would like to thank Candice Dorsey of DC Entertainment for sending out these action figures to us.

(Steven Biscotti – @reggiemantleIII)

DC Collectibles Supergirl Action Figure Soars! #Supergirl #DCCollectibles What'cha Reading reviews DC Collectibles' upcoming Supergirl TV action figure! Ahead of the season finales of The CW's…

[siphen0]

Two New Series. Two New Teams. A New Beginning For All Power Rangers Is Here!

BOOM! Studios, under license by Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), today announced an exciting new series premiere, MIGHTY MORPHIN #1, from superstar writer Ryan Parrott (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and rising star artist Marco Renna, as they launch the first of two all-new series with two all-new teams in November 2020.

A new Mighty Morphin team has assembled to take on the deadliest threats to Earth – but who is the All New Green Ranger by their side?

The new Mighty Morphin team is on a collision course with an even deadlier Lord Zedd, who has a new mission and a new motivation – one that will change everything you thought you knew about our heroes! But even if the Mighty Morphin team can find a way to survive Zedd and their mysterious new enemies, they may discover the greatest threat to their future is the shocking secret of Zordon’s past! A new Mighty Morphin epic begins here, perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike.

New York Times bestselling author Ryan Parrott is a comic book and screenwriter based out of Los Angeles. A graduate of Chapman University, Parrott has written for television series NBC’s Revolution and Hulu’s Chance. Parrott is also known for his work on DC Comics’ Batman: Gates of Gotham, IDW’s Star Trek comic book series, including Starfleet Academy, Boldly Go, and Manifest Destiny, Dynamite’s Death to the Army of Darkness, and his creator-owned projects Volition, Oberon, and Dead Day with Aftershock Comics. He is currently the writer for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with BOOM! Studios.

“This is a brand new beginning for an all-new Mighty Morphin team featuring characters you know – and an all new Green Ranger. This book is a chance to explore the past, present and future of the team in ways you’ve never seen before,” said Parrott. “Coming out of Necessary Evil, there seemed like an opportunity to not only start fresh but focus the story in on our new MIGHTY MORPHIN team like we haven’t before.”

Marco Renna is a comic artist from Italy who made his debut with Action Lab Comics. After winning the Top Cow Talent Hunt 2016, Renna became the  main artist of Fathom Vol.6 and other Aspen Comics series. He has also worked on some short stories such as Sandokan for Star Comics and Muhammed Ali for Petit à Petit. He also collaborated with Dynamite Entertainment on James Bond.

“I’m really happy to have the opportunity to work on Power Rangers. I used to watch the TV show every day and being able to draw these characters is a dream come true,” said Renna. “I feel honored to be part of this fantastic team and I am excited to go into this new adventure. I really hope you enjoy my art.”

Currently, Power Rangers is celebrating 27 continuous years on the air, making it one of the longest running kids’ live-action series in television history with nearly 900 episodes aired to date. Created by Haim Saban and launched in 1993 with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the franchise celebrates its 27th season, “Power Rangers Beast Morphers” currently airing on Saturdays at 8 a.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon in the U.S.

The hit comic book series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers launched in 2016 at BOOM! Studios, outselling nearly every other comic book in its month of release. The series went on to launch numerous hit spin off series like Go Go Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The series concludes in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #55, on-sale in October, which also features the first appearance of the All New Green Ranger.

“The UNLIMITED POWER era is all about new beginnings for two new teams of Power Rangers as they meet new allies, new enemies, new secrets and an all new Green Ranger,” said Matthew Levine, Editor, BOOM! Studios. “Both of these new series will be critical for long time fans and present an exciting jumping on point for new readers who will learn that the true history of the Power Rangers isn’t what they expected.”

Fans who attend the BOOM! Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Future is Now Panel on July 25, 2020 at 1:00 pm PT on the Comic-Con@Home website will get a very special preview of never-before-seen art as well as behind-the-scenes information about the series and what’s in store for readers! More details at www.comic-con.org/.

Print copies of MIGHTY MORPHIN #1 are scheduled to be available in November 2020 at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the one nearest you), or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers like comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

Softcover collections of MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS,  and other Power Rangers releases from BOOM! Studios are available now, everywhere books are sold.

For continuing news on MIGHTY MORPHIN and more from BOOM! Studios, stay tuned to www.boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter. 

For more on Power Rangers, please visit www.powerrangers.com and follow Power Rangers on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The POWER RANGERS: UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with MIGHTY MORPHIN #1 Two New Series. Two New Teams. A New Beginning For All Power Rangers Is Here! BOOM! Studios, under license by Hasbro, Inc.

[automaticpostinfluencer]

Every concert you can live stream on March 20 during the coronavirus outbreak

Melissa Etheridge

Jonathan Daniel/Staff/Getty Images

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US government have encouraged social distancing to slow the spread of the sickness. This has led to the cancellation of large gatherings like NCAA’s March Madness and concerts.

More artists are still trying to provide experiences for fans without sacrificing safety. Here are all the shows you can stream now:

Ultra Music Festival

One of the first festivals to cancel because of the coronavirus, Ultra will present the Ultra Virtual Audio Festival on SiriusXM’s UMF Radio, featuring exclusive sets by Major Lazer, Afrojack, and Martin Garrix.

SiriusXM’s UMF Radio channel will launch on Friday, March 20 at 5 p.m. ET and will air through Monday, March 23 on channel 52, on satellite radios and on the SiriusXM app. The limited-run channel will also highlight past live DJ sets from previous Ultra Music Festival performances that have aired live on SiriusXM. Past sets from DJs, including Kygo, The Chainsmokers, Marshmello with special guest Roddy Ricch, Zedd, and Carl Cox, will broadcast throughout the weekend.

When: 5 p.m. ET

Where: SiriusXM

Tim Mosenfelder / Getty Images

Erykah Badu: Miss Badu

Erykah Badu: Miss Badu is hosting an “interactive experiment,” aka a live concert series from her bedroom. Fans can pay $1 to watch and will get to vote on songs she’ll perform. “We gone pull it off. We gone be calm. You gone help me make it happen,” she wrote, noting that the time on Friday and details will be announced soon.

The Thrill is Gone: A Tribute to B.B. King

The Thrill is Gone: A Tribute to B.B. King: This is a stream from a previous show on Feb. 16 from Relix at The Capitol Theatre featuring some of music’s greatest Blues and Rock legends celebrating the legendary king of Blues, B.B. King including Ann Wilson, Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks, Ivan Neville, David Hidalgo, John Scofield, Little Steven, Robert Randolph, Ann Wilson, Robert Randolph, Susan Tedeschi and Warren Haynes.

Charli XCX is hosting a ‘girl’s night in’ with Rita Ora 

Claude Von Stroke

Cousin Earth (Corey J. Solo)

Family friendly livestream w/ Corey J!

Elliott Wilson

Family Elliott Wilson will be going live on Tidal’s Instagram on Friday at 12 p.m. EST, with Rapsody, Benny The Butcher and Noreaga.

The Honey Badgers 

Folk duo from Delaware bringing their distinctive harmonies and sincere Americana sound to stages across the…internet

Horse Feather

#JAMINTHEVAN

Vienna State Opera: Tosca

Juliana Hough

Julianne Hough will perform KINRGY, “a movement experience inspired by the elements” via Together, At Home: WHO-Global Citizen Solidarity Sessions inspired by Global Citizens #TogetherAtHome initiative

La Blogoteque

No Take Away Shows during lockdown? No problem, here are the Stay Away Shows! We want our entire community and all music lovers to have access to their favourite artists and discover new talents during the confinement period. That’s why we’re launching the Stay Away Shows. Every day, at 7pm Paris time, 2pm NYC time, 11am LA time, on our instagram, friends from the Blogothèque will come and play a live show with a lot of surprises. Please, stay home, stay safe, and see you tomorrow !

Beethoven Evening with German National Youth Orchestra

Hollis Brown

We will perform our album Ride On The Train in full. We’re happy to announce that Mike and Jonathan will be doing that (acoustic style).

Baxter Dury

Hozier

Hozier will perform via Together, At Home: WHO-Global Citizen Solidarity Sessions inspired by Global Citizens #TogetherAtHome initiative

OneRepublic

OneRepublic will perform via Together, At Home: WHO-Global Citizen Solidarity Sessions inspired by Global Citizens #TogetherAtHome initiative

Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy

Vaeda Black 

From Left Bank Live from Liverpool, UK

Psychostick

Psychostick is a comedy metal/hardcore band

David Foster and Katharine McPhee

David Foster and Katharine McPhee from Malibu, California

Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge: Day 5

Conan Gray

Conan Gray will be hosting a live digital party all weekend long to celebrate the release of his debut studio album Kid Krow Friday, March 20. Gray plans to kick off the festivities Thursday at 8:30 p.m. PT with an Instagram Live session, followed by a YouTube live stream Friday at 3 p.m. PT, a Twitter Q&A Saturday at 1 p.m. PT and ending with a Reddit AMA Monday at 10 a.m. PT.

Year of The Knife

Tune and watch YEAR OF THE KNIFE perform live on hate5six from Landmine Studios in NJ.

Christine and the Queens

Christine and the Queens is doing something every day on Instagram and she promises “guests and weird concepts included.”

Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn: Banjo House Lockdown

Husband and wife banjoists Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn will perform the first installment of their Banjo House Lockdown live stream series from home in Nashville.

Ben Gibbard: Live from Home

Lead singer from Death Cab for Cutie live streams from his home

Sech

Since we are in quarantine, Sech will bring you a concert to enjoy in the comfort of your homes. The show will begin at 7 p.m. ET. Do not miss it! #YouTubeandChill

Gaelynn Lea

Violinist Gaelynn Lea’s Virtual Tour

Chris Moyse from Americana Highway: Live Music From the Quarantine

This nightly series will kick off Friday (March 20) and will include four back-to-back 30-minute sets from different artists, six nights a week.

Jeremy Denk: Bach in the Greene Space

William Lederer

William Lederer from Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, Maine

Anders Osborne

Anders will be playing songs, telling stories, answering questions and more.

Metropolitan Opera: Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment

From The Metropolitan Opera House in NYC

Mal Blum

A Webcast Variety Show

TAUK: Live From Out There

Watch TAUK’s Halloween 2019 show as part of nugs.tv and 11E1even Group’s Live From Out There series benefiting Sweet Relief’s COVID-19 fund.

When: 7:45 pm ET

Where: Nugs

Christian McBride

Christian McBride: A listening party of McCoy Tiner from Montclair, NJ

String Cheese Incident

Replay of 12/28/18 at 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO.

When: 8:00 pm ET

Where: Nugs

The Lizards

We have scheduled a live to “air” performance #CouchTour on our Facebook Page this coming Friday night March 20 from 8 p.m. till 11 p.m. ET with no set break. 

Nowadays

Nowadays: Aurora Halal and DJ Python from Brooklyn, NY

Zach Aaron from Americana Highway: Live Music From the Quarantine

This nightly series will kick off Friday (March 20) and will include four back-to-back 30-minute sets from different artists, six nights a week.

Ron Gallo + Chickpee

Anne Heaton, Mary Bragg, Becky Warren, & Mark Erelli: Shut In & Sing

Third Coast Percussion

Live from Chicago

D.B Rouse from Americana Highway: Live Music From the Quarantine

This nightly series will kick off Friday (March 20) and will include four back-to-back 30-minute sets from different artists, six nights a week.

Jacksonville Symphony performs Give My Regards to Broadway

Junior and Izaak Opatz

Broadcasting live from Attack & Release Studio in East Missoula, Montana. Tune in to listen, connect, support, be supported. 

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Halloween 2019 Replay: Live From Out There

Watch Pigeons Playing Ping Pong’s Halloween 2019 show as part of nugs.tv and 11E1even Group’s Live From Out There series benefiting Sweet Relief’s COVID-19 fund.

When: 9 p.m. ET

Where: Nugs

Junior and Izaak Opatz

Broadcasting live from Attack & Release Studio in East Missoula, Montana. Tune in to listen, connect, support, be supported. 

Fat Tony

This Friday’s live stream concert is a fundraiser for the Houston Food Bank, an organization that will ensure quarantined individuals and the children who are out of school won’t be missing any meals. I’m broadcasting live without an audience at Purgatory in Brooklyn.

Stephen Lecky

WFTB presents: THE SOCIAL DISTANCING STAY AT HOME LIVE STREAM TOUR

The Harmed Brother from Americana Highway: Live Music From the Quarantine

This nightly series will kick off Friday (March 20) and will include four back-to-back 30-minute sets from different artists, six nights a week.

Diplo

The Thomas Wesley Show

Start Making Sense : Live From Out There

The song requests are in, the set list is written and the streaming vehicles are in place.

When: 11 p.m. ET

Where: Nugs

Dead And Company 

Full Show from Austin, TX 12/2/17

When: 8 p.m. ET

Where: Nugs

Source link

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[realselfblog]

HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores

On January 10, 2019, Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money recommended that Apple buy Epic, a market leader in EHRs. At that moment in the Twitterverse, it occurred to me that health IT as a consumer-facing industry was beginning to mainstream in America.

Cramer’s pronouncement led to a tweetstorm where hundreds of tweeters in and outside of health/care talked back and with Cramer.

A few of my favorite comments were:

“Jim Cramer needs a crash course in FHIR standards” from the wonkier section of peanut gallery.

“They are not even in the same universe” among people dissing the idea in short-hand.

“Where is the iPhone listed on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs?” from someone noting Apple fans’ brand-love.

“Epic has too much technical debt and would be a mess for Apple” for those with a strategic bent.

Then the final consensus that, Epic, at the end of the day, would “never sell,” which most health IT insiders confidently asserted.

Here’s what I wrote.

My longtime health IT pal John Lynn wrote an entire treatise on “why” this just couldn’t/wouldn’t happen.  Brian Ahier, another close collaborator, asserted that “Judy” (Faulkner), Epic’s CEO, would have nothing to do with such a deal would go against the company’s legal foundation structure. Cramer later tweeted that such arrangements could change, on January 16th asserting, “I still say never say never.”

As I approach my 20-somethingth HIMSS, having been a member of the organization for most of my professional life, I’ll be focusing on the mainstreaming health IT Zeitgeist as I meet with innovators and experts this week in Orlando. I’m keen to learn where the industry is on that diffusion curve in putting health information and tools into the hands of consumers, patients and caregivers.

Why is this so important? I’ll give you four big reasons:

The patient is expecting a consumer experience from health care.

The patient is worried about privacy and data security.

The patient is growing aware of her personal “data space.”

The patient is a payor.

The patient-consumer experience. Central to this theme on the HIMSS exhibition floor will be the Personalized Health Experience at Booth 888 in Hall A. I spent time on the phone before the conference with John Sharp of HIMSS. John has been hands-on in curating the participants in this space, which John said are moving care outside of the hospital into peoples’ homes and hands across the continuum. In addition to exhibits, there’s a full agenda of sessions that focus on consumer health at home. A few topics that pique my interest address benefits for people and their pets, AI for everyday peoples’ health, and the assertively (spot-on) titled session, “don’t build more healthtech without asking patients first.”

Patient’s privacy and data security. Personalized health in the context of connected health means the flow of personal data, and this is another theme I’ll be exploring at HIMSS19 in terms of privacy, security, and consumer data ownership and control. We know that the volume of cybersecurity breaches against healthcare providers and plans has escalated year over year. One reason is because a medical data breach is more valuable than a hack of, say, consumers’ credit card identities. There will be a slew of data security solutions to evaluate at this conference. I expect a large proportion of HIMSS19 attendees will be at the conference focusing on just this challenge, the response to which can make-or-break a provider’s reputation in their local market.

The patient’s personal data-space. In the post-Facebook/Cambridge Analytics era, people have sobered up on the issue of the value of their data and respect for their ability to control and even monetize the value of that information. This is subtler than the data breach challenge. It’s related to Big Data algorithms and analytics that health care stakeholders assuming financial risk employ to manage that risk. More companies that supply the healthcare industry with personal data beyond the health care claim are exhibiting at HIMSS19. Several big-name vendors in this space that are also speaking on  the importance of gathering and using personal consumer data from retail, wearable tech, and other non-healthcare sources. LexisNexis has already garnered attention on this topic in a Politico story published earlier this month on the company’s approach to calculating a personal score for opioid risks.

Acxiom will host a lunch-and-learn on “Using Data to Overcome the Barriers to Patient-Driven Experience.”  Ahead of HIMSS19, Acxiom published a paper on this topic, summarizing a HIMSS survey on social determinants of health and data analytics. As the pie chart from the study result illustrates, well over one-half of health care providers are interested in integrating SDOH data into the EHR. With this growing demand on the provider side, it will be critical for providers – who currently enjoy a trusted relationship as patient data steward – to ensure consumers understand how their personal data is being used, and what rights people have over their data. The fact is that HIPAA may not cover all of these data flows. Consumers should be informed that their providers are using these data in the context of their health and health care in a value exchange. This area will get more attention as patients become more aware of personal data from retail receipts and social network check-ins being used in disease management, wellness programs, or other uses that might do well to receive a patient opt-in in advance of using PHI beyond HIPAA’s embrace. I covered this topic in my paper, Here’s Looking At You, prepared for the California Healthcare Foundation. The cautions I raised in that paper five years ago remain unresolved in U.S. privacy law.

The patient as payor. Americans don’t save much relatively to peers in other developed countries (even compared  to health citizens living in highly-taxed Scandinavia). Revenue cycle management (RCM) is a big HIMSS theme from providers’ points of view. But patients are now payors, facing high deductibles and thousand-dollar out-of-pocket costs that can overwhelm the average person’s savings account. Lively Inc.’s HSA Spend Report found that people who use a health savings account tend to interpret the “s” as “spending” more than the opportunity of “saving” with a triple-tax advantage. This is a benefit that too many patients-as-payors don’t well understand or take advantage of. Experian and TransUnion will be among the companies exhibiting at HIMSS that are involved in this space, which deals with a growing problem for healthcare CFOs and for consumers, as well. For patients facing cancer and other serious diseases, people can experience financial toxicity – that is, the side effect of being prescribed an expensive drug or procedure. I’ll be looking for consumer-facing solutions to lessen this fiscal-health challenge.

As I close out this first-of-many posts that I’ll be writing this week during HIMSS19, I come full circle to the Cramer-Apple-Epic saga. I found this tweet of mine from 2009 about Apple and Epic’s collaboration for a mobile EHR. That was tweeted ten years ago.

Life is long; HIMSS20 is but 366 days from today. Can we even imagine the bedfellows, strange or not, that will be collaborating for health-tech interoperability and consumer-facing care twelve months from now?

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  I expect many conversations during HIMSS19 to involve the “A” words, Amazon and Apple. Since HIMSS18, Apple has expanded its footprint and collaborations in health, with hospitals, tech developers, and patients. Most relevant for HIMSS attendees, Apple has revealed plans to expand its reach into patient records which could, eventually, disrupt the businesses of, yes, Epic, along with other major EHR vendors like Allscripts, Cerner, et al.

As for Amazon, Investing.com just-released a survey conducted among Prime members asking what kinds of products these ecommerce shoppers would be keen to buy from the site. Health-oriented goods and services ranked highly along with the usual fast-moving consumer goods suspects.

Emerging categories, like medical cannabis, was also a new-new thing to add to the growing menu of possible healthy things Amazon could channel.

This is continued evidence that in 2019 and the near-term future, Amazon continues to “prime” consumers for experience. Price transparency, consumer reviews, and fast-shipping feature high on Prime shoppers’ love-list of features. These facets of consumer experience are bleeding over into peoples’ expectations for health care.

At HIMSS19, we’ll see this play out, through the fast-growth of voice assistants, price transparency and appointment-scheduling tools, and platforms for health benefits self-service.

See you on the show floor, or at any of my four public meet-ups this week, linked here:

Tuesday 12 February, 3 pm – Women in HIT Meet-up  – Changing the Scales to #BalanceforBetter, HIMSS Spot, Hall C

https://www.himssconference.org/session/womeninhit-meetup-changing-scales-balanceforbetter

Tuesday 12 February, 4 pm – Meet the HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors, HIMSS Spot, Hall C

https://www.himssconference.org/session/meet-himss-social-media-ambassadors-1

Wednesday 13 February, 8 am – Microsoft Health Forum and Innovation Awards

https://www.himssconference.org/education/microsoft-health-forum

Thursday 14 February, 10:15 am – PCHA Consumerism of Health Forum– Digital Traction of Consumerization of Health Care panel with leaders from Walgreens, Heal, and Cleveland Clinic

https://www.himssconference.org/session/digital-traction-consumerization-healthcare

 PS — For more insights into Epic, see a New York Times article published December 23, 2018, titled, “Willy Wonka and the Medical Software Factory.”  This story takes us into the inner sanctum of Epic, and begins: “In the farm country of southern Wisconsin, 12 miles from Madison, is one of the nation’s biggest tech companies – and almost certainly the quirkiest.” It is a must-read for any HIMSS19 attendee.

The post HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores appeared first on HealthPopuli.com.

HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores posted first on http://dentistfortworth.blogspot.com

[rangercommand]

NEWS - Power Rangers UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with POWER RANGERS #1 in November 2020

The POWER RANGERS: UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with POWER RANGERS #1 From BOOM! Studios Two New Series. Two New Teams. A New Beginning For All Power Rangers Is Here!

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 14, 2020) – BOOM! Studios, under license by Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), today announced a brand new series, POWER RANGERS from superstar writer Ryan Parrott (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and acclaimed artist Francesco Mortarino (Firefly: The Sting), launching in conjunction with the brand new Mighty Morphin series. Two New Series. Two New Teams. The Era of UNLIMITED POWER begins HERE — and only Lord Drakkon, their greatest enemy, can save the Power Rangers!

POWER RANGERS #1 reveals a new cosmic threat that only the original Power Rangers, now known as the Omega Rangers – Jason, Trini and Zack – can hope to defeat! But their secret weapon is… the villainous Lord Drakkon?! Zordon forbids the Omega Rangers from contacting Drakkon, so if they want to save the universe then they’ll have to go rogue – and go up against their Mighty Morphin allies.

New York Times bestselling author Ryan Parrott is a comic book and screenwriter based out of Los Angeles. A graduate of Chapman University, Parrott has written for television series NBC’s Revolution and Hulu’s Chance. Parrott is also known for his work on DC Comics’ Batman: Gates of Gotham, IDW’s Star Trek comic book series, including Starfleet Academy, Boldly Go, and Manifest Destiny, Dynamite’s Death to the Army of Darkness, and his creator-owned projects Volition, Oberon, and Dead Day with Aftershock Comics. He is currently the writer for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with BOOM! Studios.

“We’ve spent several years building out the Power Rangers comic book universe and continuing the adventures of the Omega Rangers gives us a chance to fully explore it beyond the confines of the show. Not only can we add more heroes and villains but we can also bring in elements from future seasons viewed through the lens of familiar characters,” said Parrott. “It’s very exciting to explore new corners of the Power Rangers universe that fans have always imagined – and also never expected!”

Francesco Mortarino is an Italian cartoonist who graduated from the Comics School of Milano. He started working at Sergio Bonelli Editore on the comic series Nathan Never and made his US comics debut on Jupiter’s Circle for Image Comics, soon working on other projects like Dungeon & Dragons: Evil at Baldur’s Gate for IDW. Mortarino has worked on high profile BOOM! Studios series including Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Firefly: Bad Company.

“A year and a half ago, I helped illustrate Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #33, and now I’m drawing the first issue of the new POWER RANGERS series! I’m very proud to be a part of this new era with Ryan and BOOM! Studios,” said Mortarino. “I know that many readers are waiting to see where the new team’s adventures will take them. As a fan myself, I can’t wait to show everyone exactly what I’ve been working on. It’ll blow your minds!”

Currently, Power Rangers is celebrating 27 continuous years on the air, making it one of the longest running kids’ live-action series in television history with nearly 900 episodes aired to date. Created by Haim Saban and launched in 1993 with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the franchise celebrates its 27th season, “Power Rangers Beast Morphers” currently airing on Saturdays at 8 a.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon in the U.S.

The hit comic book series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers launched in 2016 at BOOM! Studios, outselling nearly every other comic book in its month of release. The series went on to launch numerous hit spin off series like Go Go Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The series concludes in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #55, on-sale in October, which also features the first appearance of the All New Green Ranger.

“Lord Drakkon is back but will he save the Power Rangers…or does he have a darker plan in mind?” said Dafna Pleban, Senior Editor, BOOM! Studios. “Introducing the Omega Rangers allowed us to reveal a huge piece of Power Rangers history – and POWER RANGERS #1 answer questions you never thought to ask!”

Fans who attend the BOOM! Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Future is Now Panel on July 25, 2020 at 1:00 pm PT on the Comic-Con@Home website will get a very special preview of never-before-seen art as well as behind-the-scenes information about the series and what’s in store for readers! More details at www.comic-con.org/.

Print copies of POWER RANGERS #1 are scheduled to be available in November 2020 at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one), or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers like comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

Softcover collections of MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, and other Power Rangers releases from BOOM! Studios are available now, everywhere books are sold

For continuing news on the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS series and more from BOOM! Studios, stay tuned to boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.

For more on Power Rangers, please visit www.powerrangers.com and follow Power Rangers on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Hasbro Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to Creating the World’s Best Play and Entertainment Experiences. From toys, games and consumer products to television, movies, digital gaming, live action, music, and virtual reality experiences, Hasbro connects to global audiences by bringing to life great innovations, stories and brands across established and inventive platforms. Hasbro’s iconic brands include NERF, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE, POWER RANGERS, PEPPA PIG and PJ MASKS, as well as premier partner brands. Through its global entertainment studio, eOne, Hasbro is building its brands globally through great storytelling and content on all screens. Hasbro is committed to making the world a better place for all children and all families through corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Hasbro ranked among the 2020 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere Institute for the past nine years. We routinely share important business and brand updates on our Investor Relations website, Newsroom and social channels. Learn more at www.hasbro.com, and follow us on Twitter (@Hasbro) and Instagram (@Hasbro).

About BOOM! Studios BOOM! Studios was founded by Ross Richie in 2005 with the singular focus of creating world-class comic book and graphic novel storytelling for all audiences. Through the development of four distinct imprints—BOOM! Studios, BOOM! Box, KaBOOM!, and Archaia—BOOM! has produced award-winning original work, including Lumberjanes, Once & Future, Something is Killing The Children, Giant Days, and Mouse Guard, while also breaking new ground with established licenses such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, WWE, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Cartoon Network, and The Jim Henson Company properties. BOOM! will also bring their original series to life through unique first-look relationships with 20th Century for film and with Netflix for TV. Please visit www.boom-studios.com for more information.

Web: www.boom-studios.com Twitter: @boomstudios Facebook: @BOOMStudiosComics Instagram: @boom_studios

NEWS – Power Rangers UNLIMITED POWER Era Begins with POWER RANGERS #1 in November 2020 was originally published on Ranger Command Power Hour

[maxihealth]

HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores

On January 10, 2019, Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money recommended that Apple buy Epic, a market leader in EHRs. At that moment in the Twitterverse, it occurred to me that health IT as a consumer-facing industry was beginning to mainstream in America.

Cramer’s pronouncement led to a tweetstorm where hundreds of tweeters in and outside of health/care talked back and with Cramer.

A few of my favorite comments were:

“Jim Cramer needs a crash course in FHIR standards” from the wonkier section of peanut gallery.

“They are not even in the same universe” among people dissing the idea in short-hand.

“Where is the iPhone listed on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs?” from someone noting Apple fans’ brand-love.

“Epic has too much technical debt and would be a mess for Apple” for those with a strategic bent.

Then the final consensus that, Epic, at the end of the day, would “never sell,” which most health IT insiders confidently asserted.

Here’s what I wrote.

My longtime health IT pal John Lynn wrote an entire treatise on “why” this just couldn’t/wouldn’t happen.  Brian Ahier, another close collaborator, asserted that “Judy” (Faulkner), Epic’s CEO, would have nothing to do with such a deal would go against the company’s legal foundation structure. Cramer later tweeted that such arrangements could change, on January 16th asserting, “I still say never say never.”

As I approach my 20-somethingth HIMSS, having been a member of the organization for most of my professional life, I’ll be focusing on the mainstreaming health IT Zeitgeist as I meet with innovators and experts this week in Orlando. I’m keen to learn where the industry is on that diffusion curve in putting health information and tools into the hands of consumers, patients and caregivers.

Why is this so important? I’ll give you four big reasons:

The patient is expecting a consumer experience from health care.

The patient is worried about privacy and data security.

The patient is growing aware of her personal “data space.”

The patient is a payor.

The patient-consumer experience. Central to this theme on the HIMSS exhibition floor will be the Personalized Health Experience at Booth 888 in Hall A. I spent time on the phone before the conference with John Sharp of HIMSS. John has been hands-on in curating the participants in this space, which John said are moving care outside of the hospital into peoples’ homes and hands across the continuum. In addition to exhibits, there’s a full agenda of sessions that focus on consumer health at home. A few topics that pique my interest address benefits for people and their pets, AI for everyday peoples’ health, and the assertively (spot-on) titled session, “don’t build more healthtech without asking patients first.”

Patient’s privacy and data security. Personalized health in the context of connected health means the flow of personal data, and this is another theme I’ll be exploring at HIMSS19 in terms of privacy, security, and consumer data ownership and control. We know that the volume of cybersecurity breaches against healthcare providers and plans has escalated year over year. One reason is because a medical data breach is more valuable than a hack of, say, consumers’ credit card identities. There will be a slew of data security solutions to evaluate at this conference. I expect a large proportion of HIMSS19 attendees will be at the conference focusing on just this challenge, the response to which can make-or-break a provider’s reputation in their local market.

The patient’s personal data-space. In the post-Facebook/Cambridge Analytics era, people have sobered up on the issue of the value of their data and respect for their ability to control and even monetize the value of that information. This is subtler than the data breach challenge. It’s related to Big Data algorithms and analytics that health care stakeholders assuming financial risk employ to manage that risk. More companies that supply the healthcare industry with personal data beyond the health care claim are exhibiting at HIMSS19. Several big-name vendors in this space that are also speaking on  the importance of gathering and using personal consumer data from retail, wearable tech, and other non-healthcare sources. LexisNexis has already garnered attention on this topic in a Politico story published earlier this month on the company’s approach to calculating a personal score for opioid risks.

Acxiom will host a lunch-and-learn on “Using Data to Overcome the Barriers to Patient-Driven Experience.”  Ahead of HIMSS19, Acxiom published a paper on this topic, summarizing a HIMSS survey on social determinants of health and data analytics. As the pie chart from the study result illustrates, well over one-half of health care providers are interested in integrating SDOH data into the EHR. With this growing demand on the provider side, it will be critical for providers – who currently enjoy a trusted relationship as patient data steward – to ensure consumers understand how their personal data is being used, and what rights people have over their data. The fact is that HIPAA may not cover all of these data flows. Consumers should be informed that their providers are using these data in the context of their health and health care in a value exchange. This area will get more attention as patients become more aware of personal data from retail receipts and social network check-ins being used in disease management, wellness programs, or other uses that might do well to receive a patient opt-in in advance of using PHI beyond HIPAA’s embrace. I covered this topic in my paper, Here’s Looking At You, prepared for the California Healthcare Foundation. The cautions I raised in that paper five years ago remain unresolved in U.S. privacy law.

The patient as payor. Americans don’t save much relatively to peers in other developed countries (even compared  to health citizens living in highly-taxed Scandinavia). Revenue cycle management (RCM) is a big HIMSS theme from providers’ points of view. But patients are now payors, facing high deductibles and thousand-dollar out-of-pocket costs that can overwhelm the average person’s savings account. Lively Inc.’s HSA Spend Report found that people who use a health savings account tend to interpret the “s” as “spending” more than the opportunity of “saving” with a triple-tax advantage. This is a benefit that too many patients-as-payors don’t well understand or take advantage of. Experian and TransUnion will be among the companies exhibiting at HIMSS that are involved in this space, which deals with a growing problem for healthcare CFOs and for consumers, as well. For patients facing cancer and other serious diseases, people can experience financial toxicity – that is, the side effect of being prescribed an expensive drug or procedure. I’ll be looking for consumer-facing solutions to lessen this fiscal-health challenge.

As I close out this first-of-many posts that I’ll be writing this week during HIMSS19, I come full circle to the Cramer-Apple-Epic saga. I found this tweet of mine from 2009 about Apple and Epic’s collaboration for a mobile EHR. That was tweeted ten years ago.

Life is long; HIMSS20 is but 366 days from today. Can we even imagine the bedfellows, strange or not, that will be collaborating for health-tech interoperability and consumer-facing care twelve months from now?

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  I expect many conversations during HIMSS19 to involve the “A” words, Amazon and Apple. Since HIMSS18, Apple has expanded its footprint and collaborations in health, with hospitals, tech developers, and patients. Most relevant for HIMSS attendees, Apple has revealed plans to expand its reach into patient records which could, eventually, disrupt the businesses of, yes, Epic, along with other major EHR vendors like Allscripts, Cerner, et al.

As for Amazon, Investing.com just-released a survey conducted among Prime members asking what kinds of products these ecommerce shoppers would be keen to buy from the site. Health-oriented goods and services ranked highly along with the usual fast-moving consumer goods suspects.

Emerging categories, like medical cannabis, was also a new-new thing to add to the growing menu of possible healthy things Amazon could channel.

This is continued evidence that in 2019 and the near-term future, Amazon continues to “prime” consumers for experience. Price transparency, consumer reviews, and fast-shipping feature high on Prime shoppers’ love-list of features. These facets of consumer experience are bleeding over into peoples’ expectations for health care.

At HIMSS19, we’ll see this play out, through the fast-growth of voice assistants, price transparency and appointment-scheduling tools, and platforms for health benefits self-service.

See you on the show floor, or at any of my four public meet-ups this week, linked here:

Tuesday 12 February, 3 pm – Women in HIT Meet-up  – Changing the Scales to #BalanceforBetter, HIMSS Spot, Hall C

https://www.himssconference.org/session/womeninhit-meetup-changing-scales-balanceforbetter

Tuesday 12 February, 4 pm – Meet the HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors, HIMSS Spot, Hall C

https://www.himssconference.org/session/meet-himss-social-media-ambassadors-1

Wednesday 13 February, 8 am – Microsoft Health Forum and Innovation Awards

https://www.himssconference.org/education/microsoft-health-forum

Thursday 14 February, 10:15 am – PCHA Consumerism of Health Forum– Digital Traction of Consumerization of Health Care panel with leaders from Walgreens, Heal, and Cleveland Clinic

https://www.himssconference.org/session/digital-traction-consumerization-healthcare

 PS — For more insights into Epic, see a New York Times article published December 23, 2018, titled, “Willy Wonka and the Medical Software Factory.”  This story takes us into the inner sanctum of Epic, and begins: “In the farm country of southern Wisconsin, 12 miles from Madison, is one of the nation’s biggest tech companies – and almost certainly the quirkiest.” It is a must-read for any HIMSS19 attendee.

The post HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores appeared first on HealthPopuli.com.

HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores posted first on https://carilloncitydental.blogspot.com

[alexbandfan]

Rediscovering Alex Band, former Lead Singer/Song writer/Performer of The Calling!

A story about how & why one of today's most accomplished, talented, performing/singer/songwriters has to "Start Over Again!"

By Gino De Lucia, Patch Poster| Jul 13, 2011 3:03 am ET | Updated Jul 14, 2011 11:24 pm ET

Although this blog is about a Band, it is not about a Band that's an actual Band! Confused? OK then~ this ought to clear things up: The Band that I'm referring to is actually a person!  

Currently, give or take a record or two, 30-year-old Alex Max Band, (a/k/a Alex Band) has sold over 8 million records.  

Moreover, the chances are pretty good that you either own one of Band's songs right now, or else you have recently sang along with one while listening to the radio! While you may or may not be familiar with or recognize the name Alex Band, the fact of the matter here is that unless you are a baby; was just born yesterday; or have been living on some other planet up until now, the odds are very good that you are quite familiar with the sound of the voice. 

Born June 8th, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, Alex Band is the former lead vocalist, songwriter, and performer from a California-based rock group known throughout the world since 2001 as The Calling!  

Band's latest biography informs us of the fact that the inspiring sound of his powerful, emotionally charged voice is often instantly recognizable to millions of music lovers, thanks to The Calling's modern-day classics like Adrienne, Our Lives and their chart-topping Mega-hit song, Wherever You Will Go!  

At the end of 2009, Billboard Magazine, a popular weekly music publication that has been in existence for 109 years, named Wherever You Will Go as "The #1 Song of the Decade" on its Adult Pop Chart. (Billboard is a music trade publication that Record label executives, recording artists, musicians, record producers etc. often refer to as being "The Bible of the Music Industry.") 

The popularity of Wherever You Will Go and the impact that it has had on people totally amazes Alex Band. Perhaps it all has something to do with the song's meaning? 

Band, who was just 16 when he wrote the song explains its origin: "It was written at a time when my friends Grandmother's best friend had passed away. She had left behind a husband of fifty or more years and I was at the funeral and afterwards, I just started thinking of what it would be like to be him and have your whole life change so dramatically and not for the best in a matter of moments… Somebody that you live and grow with and are one with, just to be gone, is crazy and I figured all he ever thinks about probably is finding a way to get back to her or be with her or make sure she's alright or something like that. That was the sentiment behind that song." 

After parting ways with The Calling 6 years ago and opting to go solo, Alex had been in Musical Exile for the most part. However, between trying to have some sort of a private life; doing an occasional small tour here and there; charity work; writing songs; sorting out legal issues pertaining to his relationships with the Recording Industry; and doing his best to maintain his sanity, he certainly had had an awful lot on his plate to keep himself busy while being out of the limelight! 

From the moment when you first meet Alex, it becomes quite obvious that Alex Band is a person of class, and that he's also someone who treasures true friendships and has the deepest of respect for others. To sum up his persona in a nutshell, people that meet him might likely be very much inclined to say this: "Alex Max Band is an extremely polite, charming, charismatic, caring, and down-to-earth but yet professional, easily and very likable individual." With all of that being the case, it's no wonder then that millions of his dedicated fans often attest to his loyalty; to the tight bond that exists between them. Numerous world-wide Fan Club board postings, Chat Room discussions, MySpace blogs, Facebook comments, and Twitter Tweets all display an almost countless number of positive testimonies and other good things to say from fans everywhere. 

The artist/fan love relationship that Band and his fans share and enjoy seems incredible in itself; especially when one takes it into consideration that he managed to maintain and even add to his undeniably huge world-wide fan base regardless of the fact that he had been out of the mainstream media for 5 years.

Regardless of the fact that he's no longer a teen, Alex has managed to maintain his youthful boyish good looks; but after growing tired of going through the salon ordeal just to dye his hair blond, he chose to allow it to grow back to his natural chestnut brown color. 

It's evident too, that he has matured somewhat, both musically and personally; and this adult maturity seems to suit him well. Evidence of this is perfectly demonstrated through his meaningful song lyrics, and also by the deep compassion that he has for mankind's well-being. 

Throughout most of his career, Band has worked with several charities. However, because of an illness that his ex-wife dealt with, Alex has zeroed himself in on one in particular, and has became a huge supporter of educating the public to become more aware of the importance of organ donation, working closely with the charity, Donate Life America. In October of 2007, the singer performed at his first Alex Band's Donate Life Rocks Concert to raise money and awareness for the cause, and he has continued to do so annually ever since. 

Each year Debbie Hagerman, who runs his official fan site, organizes a birthday charity project in Band's name asking in lieu of gifts that fans donate to his favorite charity instead. In addition, a calendar is produced each year too; one showcasing Alex in concert and all proceeds from its sales go to The Alex Band Education Fund for Donate Life. To date, these projects have raised over $30,000 in honor of the singer. 

Recently, Donate Life Hollywood proudly awarded Alex Band the #2 spot in its 2010 Hollywood Person of the Year Award!  Band's first full-length Solo CD entitled, We've All Been There, was released in the USA on June 29th, 2010, and then world-wide soon thereafter. The14 song CD was co-produced by Band, along with Matt Serletic (Rob Thomas, Collective Soul); John Fields (Switchfoot, Jonas Brothers); and Tal Herzberg (Black Eyes Peas, Christina Aguilera). 

After leaving RCA/BMG 5 years ago, Alex signed with Ron Fair at Interscope/Geffen Records as a solo artist. However, due to a rapidly changing music business, he decided to leave Geffen and major labels in general and instead, to release his music here in the United States on his very own label called AMB Records. 

According to Band's official Bio, International Releases of the CD will be on the EMI Records Label because of their excellent marketing capabilities. In addition, EMI will also solely be in charge of the handling of the CD's distribution world-wide. Alex is currently touring with some awesome new musicians; performing old favorites from The Calling days and many of his great recently released songs as well. 

If you wish to check to see if Alex will be touring in your area, you can do that by logging onto Alex's website at alexband.net.   

In addition to touring, Alex also continues to do some occasional acoustic radio promotions in order to help promote his awesome new songs. As for the recently released album, the songs & the musicianship are all of excellent quality; outstanding! Playing alongside Band, who plays guitars and several of the bass lines, were some of the best musicians on the planet, including drummers Abe Laboriel Jr., Dorian Crozier and Kenny Aronoff, keyboard player Jamie Muhoberac and guitarist Tim Pierce. The renowned Paul Buckmaster (Elton John's '70s classics) contributed string arrangements to several tracks, and Chris Lord-Alge mixed the album, as he'd done with The Calling. 

Several singles from We've All Been There & Videos associated with them have officially been released to radio and to the media, and like the album, they too are also available for purchase on iTunes, at most FYE Music Stores, and on Alex's website. 

For additional information about Alex Band, visit his official website at https://www.thecallingmusic.com/.  You can also follow him on Twitter, on Facebook, and on MySpace too!

From my personal experiences with Alex Band, I can truly tell you that he is an amazing human being; one that's extremely talented, and one that also has an awesome future ahead of him.

Moreover, the story has only just begun, so keep an eye out for my future blogs on Alex right here on Patch! :)

Source

[365footballorg-blog]

Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 20 MLS slate

July 13, 201812:55PM EDT

A quick rundown of midweek:

NYCFC dominated Montreal 3-0, but did so with an unusual tactical approach – one I don’t think I’ve seen before (we’ll get into it in a minute). Dome Torrent has been impressive.

Chicago and Philly played a wild one, with the Union eventually prevailing 4-3 in second half stoppage thanks to David Accam’s first goal of the year. The Union will be extraordinarily grateful for the weekend off ahead of next Wednesday’s US Open Cup quarterfinal, as they looked like a team that could use a break.

They’ll be the only ones getting a break this weekend, as there’s a full schedule of 11 games on tap. Let’s dive in:

Saturday Slate

New York Red Bulls vs. Sporting KC

7 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

On paper, this is a fairly even matchup between two of the best teams in the league. Slightly closer look, and…

#RBNY at home: Scoring 2.5 goals per match Allowing 0.5 goals per match#SKC away: Scoring 1.4 goals per match Allowing 1.4 goals per match#RBNYvSKC

— Mark Fishkin (@MarkFishkin) July 12, 2018

Home/road splits matter quite a bit, and especially so if Ike Opara – who’s limped out of last weekend’s Sporting game with a hamstring strain – can’t go. And especially especially so if Peter Vermes decides to go with a very experimental XI, which is, IMO, pretty likely given that 1) Sporting have their own USOC quarterfinal on Wednesday, and 2) over the past five years nobody’s treated that tournament with more respect than SKC.

To put a fine point on it: I expect Sporting’s lineups to be reserve-heavy. And I think RBNY should/will dominate that group.

The question is “How?” We know that, under Jesse Marsch, the idea was to create as many 50/50s as possible, win those and go direct. Chris Armas is putting his stamp on the team by asking them to use the ball more, to possess and pass and be patient when the game warrants.

That has, in the words of Tyler Adams, “already caused some conversations.” It will cause more as the season marches on.

New York City FC vs. Columbus Crew SC

7 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

So about our friend Dome: On Wednesday his NYCFC bunch faced a Montreal team that – wisely, in my estimation – decided to skip the soccer and go directly to the bus parking. For the first half it worked a charm, especially since the Cityzens were without either David Villa or Jo Inge Berget (both still likely out this weekend as well), their two true center forwards.

In the first half NYCFC played a 4-2-3-1 with one false 9, which is what most managers would do at that point. In the second half, well, here are his own words:

“The message was that we have to change a little bit, especially when we play with two strikers. Our intention was for our strikers to go back and our wingers up. The intention was to create a space behind the midfielders. After 10 minutes, we were able to create the spaces and we were more comfortable in the field, so we can make 10, 11, 12 passes and that’s very important for us… Two special players for me right now are [Jesus Medina] and [Maxi Moralez]. It’s very difficult for them to lose the ball and their intention for us was to play with Jesus, play all the time with Maxi, and our wingers go inside and play behind them.”

In other words, after the halftime break they switched from a 4-2-3-1 with a flooded central midfield and one false 9 to a 4-2-2-2 with a spread out midfield, wing overloads and two false 9s in Medina and Moralez.

The Impact didn’t know what hit them – it’s unlikely they knew what they were seeing across the field from them – and a tight scoreless draw turned into a blow-out in which the NYCFC wingers ran wild.

I’m not sure what look we’ll see against Crew SC. I’m also not sure what we’ll see from Columbus, who’ve won once in seven, have been shut out three times in four, and could probably stand to toss a different look out there. We’ve seen Gregg Berhalter go with three at the back before, and this might be a good game to trot that out again.

Montreal Impact vs. San Jose Earthquakes

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

And so this is the end of a string of mostly pretty easy games for the Impact (save obviously for the midweek excursion to the Bronx), a home game against the worst team in the league. If the Impact have designs on the sixth spot in the East – and why wouldn’t they, obviously? – this is a must-win, because the schedule’s about to get much harder.

Let’s have Quakes M/D Florian Jungwirth explain why this is a must-win for Montreal:

Wow. Rarely see players this unvarnished.https://t.co/DaXziBEkeW pic.twitter.com/HYRYnOt7uc

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) July 12, 2018

Three points or bust, Impact.

New England Revolution vs. LA Galaxy

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

I’m struggling to figure out what to say about this one. In part it’s because the Revs have not changed much, at all, since the early part of the season, and in part it’s because the Galaxy still play a relatively nondescript brand of soccer that pretty much runs through Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Both teams are prone to errors at the back, both hit an unusually high number of long-balls (the Revs actually lead the league in that stat).

The big difference between the teams is that the high-energy Revs are likelier to snatch a goal off a turnover or a mistake, while the Galaxy – decidedly not a high-energy team – are likelier to build one either through Zlatan or, as last week showed, perhaps through a bit of midfield play. They have that club in the bag now that Jona Dos Santos is back from World Cup duty.

But it’s still hard and high-risk to play through the midfield against the Revs, so I’d expect LA to try to play over it. But this is a game on turf, and Zlatan didn’t start the last time the Galaxy had to play on turf (he played 18 minutes at Portland), and long balls are much less effective if you’re punting them in the direction of Ola Kamara than if you’re punting them in the direction of Ibrahimovic.

Not sure what we’ll see here to be quite honest.

FC Dallas vs. Chicago Fire

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Here is the FC Dallas network passing graph, created using Opta data, from last weekend’s 2-0 loss at RSL:

Each circle represents the location of the corresponding player’s aggregate touch, and the thickness of the lines connecting them represents the volume of passes exchanged. You can see pretty clearly that the three attackers, Michael Barrios (21), Tesho Akindele (13) and Ema Twumasi (22) were stranded and starved of service from the ultra-defensive central midfield of Kellyn Acosta (23), Victor Ulloa (8) and Carlos Gruezo (7).

This is pretty obviously a problem in the post-Mauro Diaz era for FC Dallas. In the past when Diaz has been out, Oscar Pareja has opted for a bog-standard, counterattacking 4-4-2. The idea has been to defend deep in banks of four and then release their fleet-footed attackers into space.

They still have the personnel to do this, as they showed in the final 10 minutes of last week’s 3-2 win over Atlanta United, and as they tried to do in the second half of the loss at RSL. We’ll see if Pareja goes in that direction for the full 90 on Saturday.

As for the Fire, here’s what Veljko Paunovic said after the midweek home loss to Philly:

“Not happy with the performance of course defensively. No team in the world, if we were in the Spanish league or somewhere else, teams that concede so many goals, they get relegated. No team in the world can support so many goals and it’s my responsibility. I have to make decisions.”

They, uh, did not play well.

D.C. United vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The big news, of course, is the debut – not of Wayne Rooney (my guess is we’ll see him for the final 30 minutes or so), but of Audi Field. Stadium openings have become something close to old hat, given the boom over the past decade. But I’m still at a point where nothing gets me quite so hyped as a new home for our sport:

Add in the fact that it’s a stadium in the city proper, in a great location… I’m excited for D.C. United and all their fans.

I’m also excited to see how Ben Olsen adjusts his lineup with Rooney as an option. The Patrick Mullins trade seems to tip his hand at least a little bit, in that trading away center forward depth is an indication that, yes, Rooney is likely to be used as the No. 9 his shirt says he is. And that’s probably the right idea, given the glut of wingers and attacking midfielders also on the roster.

Vancouver will have to match D.C.’s energy, as you know United will come out hyped. They’ll also quite honestly have to defend better than they have been. D.C. aren’t an attacking juggernaut, but 23 goals from 14 games is a very good return, especially when 12 of those games were on the road.

Expect United to press the ‘Caps high and hard.

Minnesota United vs. Real Salt Lake

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

It’s starting to feel like 2018 is going to be a reprise of 2017 for RSL: Start slow, make some changes, then find your form, get into a groove and make a push toward the top of the conference. The good news for the Claret-and-Cobalt, who are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games: The season’s start wasn’t so awful as last year, and the push toward good soccer came earlier. And so they’re sitting fourth in the West on points, and fifth in PPG. Last year at this time they were like 92nd.

The bad news: So far it’s almost all come at home. They’re 8-1-1 in Sandy and 1-7-1 away. If they’re going to stay above the playoff line, they will need to pick up the occasional road win.

At a MNUFC team that still struggles to defend, and doesn’t move well as a unit, seems as good a time as any to collect some road points. Let’s all recall that when RSL are going good, it’s largely because they’re moving the opposing defense and midfield around a ton:

That clip is old, and that attacking philosophy is older. But it’s been as applicable in recent weeks as it was in May, and it’ll keep being applicable for as long as soccer’s about time and space.

The Loons have struggled to cope with that sort of thing throughout their whole MLS existence to this point. Their best bet is probably a shootout similar to their 4-3 win over TFC last week, though it’s tough to ask for another three golazos from Darwin Quintero.

Orlando City SC vs. Toronto FC

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

A recap of the first game of the James O’Connor era for Orlando City:

They lost 4-1 at LAFC

Their first 25 minutes were really good

Then Jonathan Spector got hurt

Their next 25 minutes were really bad

Then they came out of the break

Their next 30 minutes were really good, and they could’ve turned a 2-0 deficit into a 2-2 game

But for Video Review

Then they fell apart down the final 10 minutes

Nobody should’ve expected them to take points out of that game, especially after Spector got hurt (he is out for this one), but I was nonetheless encouraged. They seemed to be more difficult to break down than they had been, and their attack was less a series of 1v1s and more a series of good passing moves that started deeper in midfield. They looked like they wanted to absorb and counter, which is absolutely fine for a team that’s questionable in defense.

Maybe TFC should take a page from that book? They shipped six goals last week and, while they’re still missing literally half their field starters (Jozy Altidore, Victor Vazquez, Auro, Chris Mavinga, Drew Moor)… it’s simply been shocking to see this team deteriorate. 

Colorado Rapids vs. Houston Dynamo

9 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

The Rapids rearranged a few deck chairs this week, releasing Joe Mason and reportedly close to signing former MLSer Giles Barnes. That’s not likely to move the needle much given Barnes has not consistently produced at any level since the spring of 2015:

Giles Barnes stats for past 4 years- 2018; Club Leon; 0 GP, 0G, 0A 2017; Orlando; 34 GP, 3G, 2A 2016; Vancouver; 10 GP, 2G, 1A 2016; Houston; 14 GP; 4G, 2A 2015; Houston; 28 GP; 7G, 3A

30 yrs old, significant decline in production the past two years. #Rapids96

— Rapids Rabbi (@rapidsrabbi) July 12, 2018

He hasn’t been officially announced as of yet, so it’s unlikely he’ll play. And it’s tough to figure out how he’d fit, anyway, since as the season’s gone on the Rapids have retreated more and more into a defensive shell (their 5-4-1 of recent weeks has featured center backs at wingback and at center mid), and more and more they’ve ceded any sort of midfield possession or creativity. They are purely a “hit it long and hope” team at this point.

The question in this one, then, is how Houston will handle that exact thing. The Dynamo are getting better at playing on the front foot – they’ve quietly gone 5-3-2 in their last 10 – and can occasionally produce something memorable out of possession. But they also leave themselves vulnerable when they get all over the ball, and don’t have enough speed at the back to play anything close to effective emergency defense.

Saturday Doubleheader

Atlanta United vs. Seattle Sounders

2 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Well, Raul Ruidiaz made the trip, so that should mean a debut and at least a little slice of happiness for Seattle fans. It’ll be interesting to see how Brian Schmetzer uses the Peruvian international, who’s really much more of a No. 9 than anything else. I sort of suspect we’ll see him in a second forward role, playing just underneath Will Bruin. 

For Atlanta, it’s officially been five straight games in which they’ve started in the 4-2-3-1 – last year’s formation, as opposed to the 3-5-2 that they deployed for most of the first half of 2018. This is in part a function of getting Tito Villalba healthy, and lest anyone forget how good the Argentinean (soon to be Paraguayan) attacker was: He has 2g/2a in those five games, having played 264 minutes during that time.

The return to the 4-2-3-1 hasn’t, however, meant a return to last year’s all-out, frenetic press. The Five Stripes still play on the front foot a lot, but they’re drawing a deeper line of confrontation and are much happier to absorb pressure, then use the running lanes created when an over-aggressive opponent sends too many of their own men forward. To wit:

That’s filth.

Of note: Atlanta haven’t won back-to-back games since the end of April/beginning of May. They’ve gone 5-3-3 in their last 11, which is very good, but they’ve yet to get themselves back on the type of run I think everybody is waiting for from them.

LAFC vs. Portland Timbers

6 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Portland are unbeaten in 11 games (8-0-3) in regular season play. Seven of those wins have been by a single goal, and five of them have been at home. Their only road games during the streak were at San Jose, at Colorado, at Atlanta and at Seattle.

Their two best results during this streak were pretty easily the 1-1 draw they got last month at the Five Stripes, and the 2-1 home win over this LAFC team back in mid-May. They have proved, undoubtedly, that they are a very good, very well-structured team who can absorb pressure, who can gameplan defensively, and who can get just enough out of the attack to hang in there against almost anyone. And if you give them the opportunity to hang in there, they tend to find a way to get the result they want.

If they get a result here, at an LAFC team that actually has a forward this time (they did not have one for their meeting in May), then the Timbers probably stop flying under the radar a little bit, and we probably start talking about them as one of the very elite teams in MLS, and probably the team to beat in the West.

LAFC are much better at attacking back-foot defenses than they were two months ago, though. Watch Adama Diomande come off his marker in the box before getting the tap-in:

Armchair Analyst: Columbus have a system. LAFC? They’ve got principles, and so far they’re devastatingly effectivehttps://t.co/pWcUlJmjJO

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) July 1, 2018

This is a huge, litmus test game for both clubs. If Orlando City vs. TFC is the biggest game of the weekend in terms of long-term “will they make the playoffs?” implications, this is the big one in terms of “who’s actually the favorites?”

One More Thing To Ponder

Enjoy the summer. Happy weekending, everybody.

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MLSsoccer.com News

Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 20 MLS slate was originally published on 365 Football

[anthonycharlestabone]

Tuesday, September 19, 2017 TOP OF THE MORNING … It's Tuesday, September 19, 2017 and welcome to Fox News First, your preview of the day ahead with all the headlines you need to start the morning ... If you are a subscriber to Top Headlines, you can still to get your early morning news fix and so much more right here … In the meantime, please spread the word: Tell your friends they can subscribe to Fox News First by clicking here at FoxNews.com/first. Here's your Fox News First 5 - the first five things you need to know today : President Trump and how he confronts North Korea's growing nuclear threat will be closely watched when he addresses the UN General Assembly today Hurricane Maria wreaks "widespread devastation" on the island of Dominica as the rest of  Caribbean braces for "potentially catastrophic" storm Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was wiretapped by US investigators, according to a report  Hillary Clinton says she wouldn't rule out challenging the 2016 presidential election results, cheers on the "resistance" Laura Ingraham joins Fox News' prime-time evening lineup as "The Five" and "Hannity" get new time slots Let's take a closer look ...  THE LEAD STORY: Donald Trump will take center stage when he addresses the UN General Assembly for the first time as president and North Korea will likely dominate his much-anticipated speech ... Trump is expected to try to make an unequivocal case for the assembly's 193 members to help stop North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from testing nuclear bombs and intercontinental missiles on which to launch a nuclear warhead. North Korea has conducted 14 missile tests this year, the latest on Sept. 14. Trump will also have an opportunity to show the world his diplomatic skills as many world leaders, concerned about the president's "America First" rhetoric, will get their first chance to hear and meet him today. Tune in to Fox News for full coverage and analysis of President Trump speech before the UN General Assembly at 10:30 am ET! Two must-read items from Fox News Opinion: 1) Listen up, UN -- Trump means what he's telling you (2) Will Trump make America great again at anti-American UN? Or will he cave? MARIA THE MONSTER: The prime minister of Dominica, a Caribbean island, posted online that Hurricane Maria devastated the island, sweeping away the roofs "of almost every" resident he contacted—including his own ... The category 4 hurricane is starting a charge into the eastern Caribbean that threatens islands already devastated by Hurricane Irma and holds the possibility of a direct hit on Puerto Rico. Authorities in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico warned that people in wooden or flimsy homes should find safe shelter before the storm’s expected arrival there on Wednesday. Click here to track Hurricane Maria's path. FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIR ON INVESTIGATORS' RADAR: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was wiretapped by U.S. government investigators both before and after the 2016 presidential election, according to a report ... The wiretapping was authorized by a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court after the FBI started to investigate Manafort  in 2014, CNN reported. He's been under scrutiny over his financial dealings and lobbying efforts with pro-Russia and Ukrainian officials but has denied colluding with Russia to influence the election. ELECTION'S NOT OVER FOR HILLARY: Clinton continues to stir up headlines on her book promotion tour, saying in one interview that she wouldn't rule out contesting the 2016 election results and telling supporters at a separate event Monday night that she's proud of the "resistance" ... In an interview that aired Monday afternoon, NPR's Terry Gross pressed the former first lady and Democratic candidate on whether that meant she would "completely rule out questioning the legitimacy of this election if we learn that the Russian interference in the election is even deeper than we know now.” Clinton responded, "No. I would not." Why does this matter? - Hillary Clinton can't put the 2016 election behind her - and neither can the Democratic Party as long as she dominates the headlines. Almost one year after her election loss, she sucks the air out of the room for potential Democratic challengers to Trump in 2020 - you can name one. Headlines like these are why some Dems dreaded the release of Clinton's book. A NEW PRIME-TIME FOX NEWS EVENING LINE-UP UNVEILED: Laura Ingraham to host The Ingraham Angle at 10 pm ET, starting Oct. 30 ... While The Ingraham Angle will debut late next month, the other changes to Fox News’ prime-time lineup take effect on Sept. 25 when Hannity moves to 9 pm ET and The Five returns to its original home at 5 pm ET, where it was regularly among the most-watched shows in all of cable news. FNC’s 10 pm. ET slot will be occupied by a variety of rotating guest hosts until Ingraham’s show premieres. There's so much more you should know as you start your day ... so, let's do this.   ABOUT LAST NIGHT Heard on Fox: "I can't second-guess this judge. ... [The judge] has a feel for the evidence - a sixth sense as to whether or not you should believe a particular witness."" – Judge Andrew Napolitano, on "The Story," on a judge's acquittal of a white former police officer in the shooting of a black man - a decision that sparked three days of violent protests in St. Louis. Click here to watch ICYMI (And you didn't set your DVRS) ... Tucker: The Emmys more indoctrination than entertainment Fox Business: "You're presenting a fallacious argument": Kennedy battles "dead cops" tweet professor who supports Antifa "The Five": Greg Gutfeld: Trump gets mowed by the press MINDING YOUR BUSINESS Toys "R" Us bankruptcy imminent: Sources FedEx to report earnings amid e-commerce boom Just for you: A tax rate cheat sheet Rolling Stone to be put up for sale FOX TROT ACROSS THE NATION 3 arrested as protest turns violent Georgia Tech after police shooting Non-STEM professors reportedly push for boycott of UC Berkeley "Free Speech Week" Protesters call out Pelosi over Trump DACA deal Dylann Roof asks court for new lawyers, says race makes them his "political and biological enemies" Convicted rapist throws a fit while being deported, report says NEW IN FOX NEWS OPINION Michael Goodwin: Trump vs. Hillary -- It's time to reverse the "abnormal" and "normal" labels Tomi Lahren's Final Thoughts: Another city, another riot Eyes Wide Shut actress: Reaction to my "coming out as a conservative" story was absolutely shocking Sen. Rand Paul: Graham/Cassidy does NOT repeal ObamaCare and I oppose it  HOLLYWOOD SQUARED Emmys ratings crater; Trump-bashing to blame? Error on Beyonce vinyl surprises fans with Canadian punk band songs Did The View cut Jedediah Bila for being tough on Hillary Clinton? Netflix sends lighthearted cease and desist letter to Stranger Things pop-up bar DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS? College footballer dies after complaining of illness following game The ancient Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series just won't die DSEI: From Leopards to Boxers --- top armored vehicles grab attention at defense show Mail carrier battling cancer delivers hope to fellow patient on her route DON'T MISS THIS TODAY On Fox News: All Day: Team coverage of President Trump's address before the UN General Assembly will include: John Roberts, Kevin Corke, Eric Shawn, and Laura Ingle.  Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean and the Fox News Weather Center will have the latest on Hurricane Maria's path of destruction; Mike Tobin and Will Carr are in St. Louis for the latest in the tension following a white police officer's acquittal in a black motorist's shooting death  Fox & Friends: Guests include: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt; country music duo Big & Rich; Dr. Oz tackles the opioid epidemic America's Newsroom, starting at 9 am ET: Guests include Rep. Ron DeSantis Tucker Carlson Tonight, starting at 8 pm ET: Guests include former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson Hannity: Amb. John Bolton and Monica Crowley President Trump's first address before the UN General Assembly On Fox Business: Mornings with Maria, starting at 6 am ET: Guests include filmmaker Ken Burns, former U.N. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte and model and entrepreneur Kathy Ireland Cavuto: Coast to Coast, starting at 12 noon ET: Guests include NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Risk & Reward, starting at 5 pm ET: Guests include Rep. Marsha Blackburn #OnThisDay 1997:  In his first public comments since the death of Princess Diana, Prince Charles told the British people he would always feel the loss of his former wife, and thanked them for their support. 1985: The Mexico City area was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed at least 9,500 people. 1982: The smiley emoticon was invented by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman, who suggested punctuating humorously intended computer messages with a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis as a horizontal "smiley face." :-) 1970: The Mary Tyler Moore show debuted on CBS-TV   Thank you for joining us on Fox News First! Have a great Tuesday and see you in your inbox first thing tomorrow morning! Unsubscribe ©2017 Fox News Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10036. Privacy Policy.

[wavenetinfo]

After six seasons as a cohost on The Talk, Aisha Tyler is leaving the CBS daytime show. “I have had an amazing six years with you guys,” Tyler, 45, said on the show’s Thursday, June 15, episode. “We’ve had babies and weddings, and you know good things have happened, and you know I went through the biggest breakup of my life with you. I could not have done with this without you. I’ll never be able to thank you guys enough.”

Aisha Tyler on ‘The Talk Robert Ascroft/CBS

Tyler cited her busy schedule as the reason for her departure. Aside from her gig on the talk show, she also hosts Whose Line Is It Anyway?, acts on Criminal Minds and voices a character on animated series Archer. “People always go ‘How to you do all that?’, and I don’t always have an answer,” she said. Of her latest gig as the director of a feature film, she added: “I knew that was what I wanted to do the rest of my life, what I wanted to put my energy into. And I started to think about it and could not see how that would work.”

Aisha Tyler with ‘The Talk’ hosts on June 15, 2017. Monty Brinton/CBS

The fan-favorite talk show is also hosted by Sharon Osbourne, Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert and Sheryl Underwood. Despite their frequent heated discussions on trending topics, the cohosts have proven time and time again that they support one another. When the actress was going through her divorce from Jeff Tietjens, the five women had a raw discussion about her heartbreak on the show’s Monday, April 18, episode.

Talk Show Controversies and Feuds: The Biggest Ever

“Even though we’re separating, all I want for him is joy and fulfillment in whatever he chooses to do in his life next. And whatever I can do to help him do that, I want to do it,” the actress said of her husband of 20 years. “I don’t, not in any way, see this relationship as a failure. I was with this extraordinary person. I had this extraordinary love affair for 25 years of my life. And that is how I see it.” Breaking down in tears, Tyler added: “He’s a wonderful person. He’s been my best friend for almost my entire life. I’ll always, always love him.”

Best Dressed TV Show Hosts

The Talk airs on CBS weekdays at 2 p.m. ET. 

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15 June 2017 | 8:43 pm

Source : Us Weekly

>>>Click Here To View Original Press Release>>>

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