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mimzy-writing-online · 5 years ago

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10/10/10 Tag Game

Thank you to @emdop for tagging me in this. This is their tag game here

How it works, answer ten questions your tagger gave you, make ten new questions and tag ten new people to answer.

1. For any of your OCs: What’s their favorite drink?

Ulric: black coffee or cappuccino for a treat

Anna: Earl Grey tea

Felix: English Breakfast tea

2. What very specific thing do you like to write the most?

The scene when two characters sit down and talk, opening up to each other

3. Favorite Tropes?

Friends to lovers, slow burn friendship, slow burn romance, found family,

4. Least Favorite Tropes?

Enemies to Lovers with no friend stage,

5. What is something you’ve always wanted to write?

A Witch’s Memory is something I’ve wanted to write for the longest time, but other projects I think about a lot:

A whimsical magic in a completely different world. A Witch’s Memory is only a different version of our modern world, one where magic is normalized like science and technology. I want to write something in a fantasy world that completely turns everything we know upside down, with climates and natural environments only from our wildest dreams and an era that is only partially recognizable in its fashion and technology, pulling from every era into a wonderful cluster of confusion and fascination.

Soft-fantasy novel set in the 1990′s with 90′s era technology, libraries and librarian aesthetic, dragons, witches,

Most recently I’ve also been playing with the idea of a steampunk royalty story with a romance plot.

6. Do you make playlists for your WIP ideas?

Yes, and they usually either a “if this book was a movie this would be its soundtrack with this song for this specific scene” or it’s a “this would be this character’s personal playlist of favorite songs”. Anna, Ulric, and Felix have their own playlists.

7. When you’re having trouble writing, how do you inspire yourself?

I also make a pinterest folder for my WIP ideas, and A Witch’s Memory has its own board for its world building as well as a board for Anna, Ulric, and Felix. I look at that when I’m stuck and don’t know how to start or continue a scene.

If I’m drafting, I look back at my outline and work through what I have planned. Sometimes I have to deviate from the outline a little and figure out a way to reconnect back, or alter it altogether.

If I’m very stuck I go back to other works of fiction that have inspired me in the past, specific for that story. That includes rewatching them, rereading them, listening to soundtracks or looking at fan art.

I get out of the house and spend some time with a friend. My friend (A) and I usually work through a story problem by talking it out. (K) usually distracts me and takes me to random places. Sometimes I call or message (C) because she lives far away and we talk. They all help.

8. Where do your WIP ideas typically come from?

“I really like this story, but I kind of wish it went differently, involved these tropes, had this world building, had these characters, etc.”

Nothing is really original, no matter how far back in fiction you go. Everything is inspired from something else, so for me what I do is find the aspects of fiction I love most and see what I would do with them personally.

Example: witches are cool, but if it takes place in the modern world then it has to be a secret and humans can never know, but if it takes place in a hard-fantasy historical world then everyone knows about magic and has access to it somehow. - - - > And it becomes the whole premise for this world I built

Example: why do werewolves hate being werewolves? And why must they blackout during a full moon and go total beast? And they’re either always alone or there’s this whole alpha pack thing which isn’t technically true of real wolves - - - > and it becomes a thing that werewolves are proud of being werewolves, they easily form bonds and friendships with other people, even non-werewolves, and when the full moon comes around werewolves run in a group as a fun activity, something they enjoy

Example: Amnesia makes for an interesting story, but it’s not very realistic when you know actual medical stuff, and it’s always one-sided so people are always trying to make their loved one remember or trying to “reconnect” in the exact same way they did before - - - > Which lead me to amnesia through magic curse and mutual loss of memory, forgetting the entire friendship, so now they genuinely start from scratch

Example: Long distant pen-pals is a popular trope, especially since the invention of the internet, but every time I see it, it involves people who have met in real life even if it was only for a moment and they never knew it / didn’t give each other enough information to figure it out. - - - > It turns into, they couldn’t possibly have known each other before, they live in different parts of the world, but they want to meet one day, and then by a twist of fate (or meddling) they do meet

9. If your OC was a breakfast food, what would they be?

Felix: unsweetend English Breakfast tea and jam toast: When I say jam toast, I mean his humor is a little dry like toast, but he’s still enjoyable company, sweet if he wants to be. He can also be a little bitter sometimes, the kind of person you need to know a little bit before you develop a taste for it

Anna: Earl Grey tea and honey on an English Muffin: she’s calming company but complex like the flavor of earl grey tea. As for the English Muffin, it’s a joke that she’s English-adjacent, not actually British. She spent her first eight years in America and then lived in the U.K. with Felix’s family for the next eight until their family moved to America. Her accent is slightly changed and she uses some U.K. English vocab instead of American English, so most people think she’s British. English muffins aren’t actually English. They’re an American breakfast food based on crumpets.

Ulric: A cinnamon roll and cold butter. This is a weird one. I think if you met Ulric and got to know him, he’d be someone you’d want to protect. He’s polite, kind, and shy. Life keeps throwing him lemons (literally throwing, between his emotionally abusive father and suddenly being blind, dealing with new anxiety/depression after going blind, etc) but Ulric’s just trying to do his best. Absolute cinnamon roll. But that’s not a something he’d let you see. Most people don’t know about that part of his life, so he’s like cold butter. He’s friendly but it takes a while for him to warm up and soften those walls to let you in.

Mason (Ulric’s best friend, who I must add): sweetened coffee - very energetic and hyper, a sweetheart of a friend. There’s no coffee-bitterness, by this I mean that it’s easy to enjoy his friendship, you don’t need to develop a taste for it like you do with black coffee. (Mason is also a precious cinnamon roll if you ask me)

10. Explain one of your WIP ideas in the most ridiculous way possible?

I’m going to do this AO3 tagging system style

A Witch’s Memory

Multi, T, Graphic Depictions of Violence

Anna St. Claire & Ulric Matthews, Anna St. Claire & Felix Robbins, Felix Robbins & Ulric Matthews, Felix Robbins/Hayden Watson

Anna St. Claire, Ulric Matthews, Felix Robbins, Mason Shepherd, Elmsley St. Claire, Veronica St. Claire, Hayden Watson, Katarina Matthews, Tobias Matthews,

Memory Curse, Amnesia, Pen-Pals, Found Family, Adoptive Family, Slow Burn Friendship, Enemies to Friends, Platonic Soulmates, M/M Slow Burn Romance

Disability, Blind Character, Bisexual Character, Three Bi Disasters, Trans Character, Elmsley is trans, Elmsley is a Good Uncle, Tobias Matthew’s Terrible Parenting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Emotional Abuse

Magic, Witches, Werewolves, Werewolf Ulric, Witch Anna, Witch Felix,

Graphic Violence is only in two scenes, two different characters get punched, and there’s some blood

Tagging: @snowblossim @thephantomofwriting @novel-scribe @the-moving-finger-writes @sapphoopages @owlsofstarlight @mayvinwrites @belles-library @maggie-wolff-writes @thewritingpirate

Your Ten Questions:

1. What’s your favorite trope to read but not to write? Or vice versa, to write but not read?

2. Some of your favorite aesthetics?

3. Ideal writing environment? (Time, place, sound, drink/snacks)

4. What’s your favorite side character in your WIP?

5. How would your OCs interact with your favorite characters from other works?

6. An embarrassing fact about your OC that they would never tell anyone?

7. What book do you think should be made into a movie?

8. What’s the last mean thing you did to your OCs?

9. Write an Incorrect Quotes post between your OCs

10. I’m stealing from emdop too! Explain one of your WIPs in the most ridiculous way possible?

#writeblr #writing community #WIP #tag game #writing #A Witch's Memory #my wip

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afishlearningpoetry · 6 years ago

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Looking Closer at How The Abominable Bride Foreshadowed and Can Be Used to Chronologically Decode Series 4:

In the opening of TAB, Sherlock imagines John narrating how as Sherlock’s biographer he picks and chooses which of his cases to present to the public, alluding to the nature of John as an unreliable narrator in the canon.

In the opening of TST, John writes Lady Smallwood and co. talking about modifying the footage of Sherlock shooting Magnussen and that their story will become the official one, setting up the nature of John as an unreliable narrator in series 4.

[Continue below the cut for more ➤]

See also: 10 Revealing Things From The Six Thatchers That Haunt You Late At Night, 10 Revealing Things From The Lying Detective That Haunt You Late At Night, and 10 Revealing Things From The Final Problem That Haunt You Late At Night. (#tw suicide)

Bonus: They’re not there:

On John’s blog, he wears his heart on his sleeve. He adores Sherlock and clearly loves him even when he tries to downplay their relationship or play up his relationship with Mary. In his post about meeting Sherlock, he calls him “strangely likeable”, and talks like there’s life in for the first time in ages after multiple blog posts about how nothing happens to him.

This includes how John thinks that Sherlock not only doesn’t love him back, but that he’s “spectacularly ignorant” about some things, including the way that he feels about Sherlock. How does the world’s only genius consulting detective not notice that? John is pretty forward about this is in one of his early blogs and first one about Sherlock’s cases.

He also says for the first time that he has to omit certain things in order to publish the story at all, echoing the nature of the original stories.

But Watson doesn’t say this in the opening of A Study In Scarlet; he straight-forwardly talks about his return from overseas and his meeting Sherlock Holmes, followed by the case that changes his life. It’s really in the other stories that Watson talks more about altering details, which is what the debate around his authorship revolves around.

It does provide an interesting comparison, though, the way that Sherlock hasn’t yet become the emotionless machine that the myth surrounding Sherlock Holmes is so obsessed with. He laughs, he dances, he expresses emotion alongside his deductions. The last line about Sherlock actually says, “Didn’t I tell you so when we started?” cried Sherlock Holmes with a laugh. “That’s the result of all our Study in Scarlet: to get them a testimonial!”

That changes with The Sign of Four. The opening of the second novel, following the success of the first, is about Holmes and Watson talking about the publication of their first case together.

Holmes: “Yes, indeed,” said I, cordially. “I was never so struck by anything in my life. I even embodied it in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of ‘A Study in Scarlet.’ ”He shook his head sadly. “I glanced over it,” said he.

Holmes: “Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemo- tional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.”

Watson: “But the romance was there,” I remonstrated. “I could not tamper with the facts.”

Holmes: “Some facts should be suppressed, or at least a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes by which I succeeded in unraveling it.”

Watson: I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings. More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion’s quiet and didactic manner. I made no remark, however, but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and, though it did not prevent me from walking, it ached wearily at every change of the weather.

As Sherlock Holmes becomes more of a text, the more Watson mentions about how he to change names, dates, details, or wait until certain people are dead until his stories are published, to protect international secrets and the lives of its characters. But it all started with Holmes and Watson in a flat, talking about how the romance should be suppressed.

In one of John’s early blogs he mentions a fortune cookie at the end, pulling a quote from The Valley of Fear:

“Everything comes in circles—even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen per cent. commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again. I'll tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may interest you.”

Except John says he think it’s going to be different this time. This version is going to do something different before. It’s going to admit that the romance was there. It’s not going to suppress it anymore by the end. But before it gets there, the story is also about how much, and what therein, the story is being altered in the first place. Enter series 4.

An important blog entry to understanding the mindset of Sherlock and John after series 3 is the last blog entry. To date, the blog is still suspended because if it continued the true nature and mystery of series 4, the answer would be spoiled.

It reads as follows:

Sherlock is openly disinterested and angry at the wedding to anyone who’s paying attention. And not without reason.

The ending of TSOT is one of the most devastating moments in the show. John and Sherlock both realize that neither of them wanted this marriage to happen, that they could have been together and in this passing look they know it’s moments too late after Sherlock realizes Mary is pregnant.

It happens and disappears in a moment.

Sherlock leaves the wedding early. A month and one honeymoon later, John will be bursting to get out of his trainwreck of a marriage at every waking moment. He’ll bike to work. He’ll keep his bags packed. When he rejoins Sherlock in the flat he’s practically giddy, and then when he meets Janine and Sherlock explains that he used her later, he’s right back at wondering if Sherlock is capable of loving anyone or not.

And none of this is remotely mentioned in the blog entry. Sherlock takes over for John, foreshadowing that the next act of the show is about to retell The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, which includes two stories entirely narrated by Holmes. HLV is one of the most devastating episodes of the show and it’s not on the blog at all. The public doesn’t know anything about what happened to them.

The next time we see John’s blog it’s going to say this. Absolutely nothing about their time gone, what Sherlock did or what John is going through. Of course, nothing about Mary either. He isn’t even typing anything like normal; he just fidgets his two fingers on the same two keys, and his blog isn’t on the screen. It’s a screenshot. Because what we’re watching is the blog itself.

So the parallel starts thus:

After setting up his dream world and arriving at 221B Baker St., and a conversation with Mrs. Hudson about the way that John modifies people to be characters in his story, Sherlock imagines John giving the following narration

Watson: Over the many years it has been my privilege to record the exploits of my remarkable friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes

The beginning is about putting up the front of John’s purpose and their relationship, calling Holmes his remarkable friend. In the next episode, John as the author takes liberties of his own in order to protect the people in it. He protects himself and Sherlock by covering up the true events of Mary’s death.

In TST, the opening scene is about doctoring the footage of Sherlock shooting Magnussen. With a bright projector light behind Sherlock’s head, the footage cuts out Sherlock putting the trigger as someone walks past the camera. This is being displayed as top-secret information as all of them sit inside a glass window room anyone could sit through.

Sherlock and Mycroft describe how it’s different:

I see. Who is supposed to have shot him, then?

Some over-eager squaddie with an itchy trigger finger - that's who.

The over-eager shooter in this story has already conveniently been placed in the room. She has her own pen and paper, but isn’t writing anything down, which is her job as a secretary. It’s because a copy of that text, this conversation should exist, but it doesn’t, because Norbury doesn’t exist. Mycroft tells her not to write it down and put down it down, because once they’re beyond these walls, they must “never speak of it.” There’s also the meaning of Mark Gatiss being a stand in for the show’s writers, similar to the meaning of when John finds the dog’s bones, a correlation to Emelia Ricoletti’s grave being a switch.

It also creates a connection between John the author and Norbury. She’s the one with the pen and she’s going to take the fall, but John is the one who really shot Mary.

Back in TAB, John continues about how he picks and chooses cases to tell:

Watson: it has sometimes been difficult to choose which of his many cases to set before my readers.

That includes, as far as we know right now, the entirety of HLV. He leaves out Magnussen, Mary shooting Sherlock, Mary’s past, and Sherlock shooting Magnussen at once. It’s not just about the cases though, it’s about other things that John leaves out of his story.

In Sherlock’s mind: it’s not just smaller things that John says, like Sherlock being “spectacularly ignorant” about certain things and wounding his ego or embarrassing him, it’s that John never picks up on how much Sherlock loves him. John is hiding the true nature of their relationship from the world because he doesn’t see all the deductions of how much Sherlock loves him back.

Immediately after the credits in TAB John is praised by for the success of the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by a man selling Sherlock Holmes branded content in The Strand Magazine, asking if “there’s going to be a proper murder next time.” He inquires if Sherlock is in the carriage at sight of his profile, the same one printed on the paper he’s carrying, and John dismisses him at Sherlock’s behest. That particular story is from the first short story collection, after A Study In Scarlet and The Sign of Four, and before Sherlock’s presumed death in The Final Problem.

“Remarkable. How did you do it?”

“We have some very talented people working here. If James Moriarty can hack every TV screen in the land, rest assured we have the tech to doctor a bit of security footage.”

John isn’t just talking about how easy it is to doctor footage, but that it’s even easier for him to do as a writer with words. He doesn’t need any government technology to alter the story. All he needs to do is the essence of this scene – lie and invent. Like when John invents the story about Eurus in order to lie about what happened to him where he has a pen and paper.

Watson admits the reason he has to do this back in TAB:

“Some are still too sensitive to recount, whilst others are too recent in the minds of the public.”

At the end of the story, Sherlock will ask to make sure that Watson modified the story, to “put it down as one of my rare failures, of course?” The story was progressing like a normal adventure until Sir Eustace’s murder, and then the entire second half of the story was omitted. Sherlock helped Lady Carmichael get away with murdering her husband. He broke his vow, it’s one of his “rare failures”. Sherlock is imagining their marriage in order to try to predict what would happen in the near future and what danger John would be in.

Mary is the case and she becomes the case the next episode. It’s at this point in TAB that we see a shot of the knife in the mantle – connecting to TLD when Mary’s case, the message tied to the dagger, or the case on how to save John, is the one Sherlock still hasn’t solved. The knife is still there in the fake ending of TFP. John thinks he still hasn’t solved it and that’s why he was shot at the end of TLD.

Mary is Sir Eustace with the dark past coming back to haunt her. Mary is the post-humous revenge Sherlock alluded to, the vengeful bride who faked her death to kill her husband, the figure of Death in the Samarra story, and half the ultimate villain – but some cases are still too sensitive to properly recount. Moriarty isn’t back. No, no, no. He’s definitely dead. He planned his revenge on Sherlock five years ago by filming a bunch of reaction gifs and jiving against the glass with Eurus like a snake.

The next episode, Mary’s past comes back to haunt her, and Sherlock breaks his vow. One of his “rare failures”. The over-eager shooter is hauled away as the projector lights the back of her head.

Mary’s death isn’t the only case that John covers up, however. He manages to do that relatively consistently. Even with how on the nose it is, the audience was convinced. The most convincing case is the one that John doesn’t show at all; the cover-up of his own death.

In TST, it’s clear this is about getting away with murder:

That is now the official version, the version anyone we want to will see.

No need to go to the trouble of getting some sort of official pardon.

Lady Carmichael doesn’t have to bother with a pardon and neither does John. His cover-up story, The Final Problem, is an entirely invented entry in the great Sherlock saga, using the name of a real one as a red herring, ending their story and establishing normalcy so no one will know what happened to him next. Series 4 is what happened, officially. But it’s not the truth. John has modified the truth. The romance has been suppressed.

John can’t tell that story because he has to make it convincing enough to draw Mary into the open; he doesn’t want to go to the trouble of getting a pardon when he has to face her again. This has to be the version everyone believes so that when it’s revealed that John committed suicide, everyone believes that too.

John has let his insecurities, self-hatred, and suicidal ideation leak into the subtext of series 4, so that when the news gets out about what really happened, and that the last story in particular was a total fabrication, people believe the secret story hidden beneath the true one. Suddenly the decline of hi stories becomes the tragic tale of a man losing his way and taking his lie. The story ends on a low note. “It’s gone a bit downhill, hasn’t it?” And it is emotionally true, but it’s all part of John’s bigger plan to fake his death.

When Eurus as Faith gives Sherlock the note about Culverton Smith she writes one story on the surface, the one that Sherlock deduces, but hides another message underneath that he doesn’t see until it’s too late. This is the case he didn’t solve.

This is what John’s story is: one text subsumed by another bubbling just beneath its surface. When John’s original story falls through because of what happened at the end of TLD, darkness completely overwhelms his story in TFP. Sherlock is drowning in it until he ties a nice bow on the ending. One coverup hiding another coverup. That’s how you sell a big lie; you wrap it in the truth to make it more palatable.

One of John’s blog entries has a picture of the knife stabbed into a clue board. Sherlock figured out that the victim faked his own death.

TAB foreshadows the lengths John goes to:

But in all our many adventures together, no case pushed my friend to such mental and physical extremes as that of The Abominable Bride!"

Sherlock is pushed all the way to the predestined end of the story, clinging to life at the Reichenbach Falls with Moriarty punching him down. It’s only when he decides to let John in emotionally that he appears, foiling him easily, kicking over the falls like he isn’t a threat at all. Because he isn’t when they’re together and they openly love each other.

John doesn’t have the same confidence. John thinks that he can’t avoid Samarra – that even if he fakes his death, that happy ending he invents at the ending of TFP is the closest to happiness that he’s ever going to get. Sherlock has more confidence in John and what they can accomplish together. “I’m a storyteller. I know when I’m in one.” The real John knows it too, but he can’t see the same ending Sherlock does if he still doesn’t know Sherlock loves him back. John’s ending is a dark mirror and denial of Sherlock’s hopeful vision.

Nothing has pushed John to such mental and physical extremes as that of the abominable bride. Mary faking her death, returning to manipulate and gaslight him, and trying to get him to commit suicide to burn Sherlock’s heart out of him forever is the worst thing that John’s ever been through. The most trying case in his career working with Sherlock. Faking his death, however, isn’t the end. Because the whole point in all of this is to outsmart Mary and Moriarty, drawing them into the open so John can make his move.

Smallwood: “You're off the hook, Mr Holmes. You're home and dry.”

Sherlock: “OK, cheers.”

Smallwood: “Obviously, there's unfinished business. Moriarty?”

For Sherlock, his unfinished business is Moriarty. For John, it’s Mary. They’re going to have to work together to finally defeat them once and for all – and they can only do that once they both know the truth. Nothing can stop them. Then the spoke will turn, and the world will have something new.

But for now, the truth has to be modified. The romance has to be suppressed. Until the world is convinced John is dead and he’s in the clear.

“That’s not what happened at all.”

“It is now.”

#sherlockedit #tjlcedit #johnlockedit #sherlock bbc #tjlc #john watson #sherlock holmes #mary morstan #vivian norbury #meta #the abominable bride #the six thatchers #edits #gifset #gifs #looking closer at tab timeline #television #john's blog #series 4

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missing-fanfics · 5 years ago

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A Strange Request at a Piano Bar

Include the following in your story:

⟡carnival ⟡sprained ⟡mask ⟡oxidation ⟡awkward ⟡apple ⟡juvenile ⟡controversy ⟡twirl ⟡sassafras

A/N: ello Sarah here. I know they’re kinda out of character I’ve never write Jamie or Charlotte before so I apologise. This does not follow any plot in any of the books. You can read this and even if you only read half of the first book. This whole ‘case’ that they’re working on isn’t real. I was just stringing a case together based on the ten words seen above.

Word count: 2.2k

Warnings: swearing and reader being a cheeky bastard.

Jamie Watson x fem!reader x Charlotte Holmes

Platonic pairings only, sorrrrry.

~~~~

I realized two very prominent things as we slipped into the loud building, that Holmes’ Forever Ever Cotton Candy perfume was nauseating in close quarters and Y/N was wearing clothes three sizes too small. With Holmes’ ‘Hailey’ get up and Y/N’s outfit combined, we passed as obnoxious teenagers.

The bar itself was rather dark. From what I could tell a teenage girls party was taking place. Y/N found this out hours ago and made me ruffle my hair and force me to sag my pants. I fit in with the crowds of carefree teenagers just as well as she did in her awkward tube top.

“Come on Jamie, lets flirt with some strangers for information. She won’t be jealous.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Don’t act so shy it’s not like Charlotte’s paying attention” she said giving me a sly smile. I grit my teeth and glared at her. Holmes payed attention to everything and Y/N knew that. With a wink she twirled away, already blending in with the other girls in the bar.

I groaned inwardly and pinched the bridge of my nose. Holmes was a handful by herself, adding Y/N into the mix was just tourture. I know we needed her though. She was subtle and could move through a crowd like it was water. Also her hacking skills had saved our asses on numerous occasions. Holmes was the brains, Y/N was the eyes, and I guess that makes me the braun. Fantastic.

“Hi!” Someone exclaimed grabbing onto my arm. I raised an eyebrow and turned to face a tall redhead. She was grinning from ear to ear and I groaned inwardly again. Damnit.

“Hey, I’m Jack” I said remembering my aliases. I wasn’t Jamie Watson, the idiot trailing after two genius women, I was Jack Markens a socially conscious and cool young man.

“I’ve never seen you before Jack” the apple haired girl said drawling out the name as if it should affect me. I played into her flirting and forced myself into looking her up and down with a stupid smirk on my face.

“I’m just visiting some friends.” I said flattening my English accent even more. I didn’t want to take any chances in fucking up my already paper thin aliases.

“I hope nothing serious?” She said twirling her red hair around her finger. I wasn’t going to stand here as she clung to my arm and say I didn’t think she was attractive. That being said she was the kind of girl old Jamie would’ve trailed after. The kind of girl I would’ve done stupid shit for. Nowadays I only do stupid shit for two very specific girls.

I looked around in a way I hoped was casual, “I’m never looking for anything serious.” Her eyes widened in delight as she pressed herself closer to me. God I hated myself.

“Well in that case Jack, let me show you around. I’m Roxie.” She said in a sultry voice. I smiled in amusement at her name.

She tugged at my arm and dragged me to a rowdy table full of teenagers dressed and acting like idiots. Roxie squealed and ran over and hugged a blond boy, I cleared my throat awkwardly.

With a loud ear splitting ring of interference, the piano bar hushed as everyone stared at the stage. A younger man smiled sheepishly as he moved his microphone around trying to fix the problem, a clipboard clutched in his hands.

“Well sorry about that folks! Now that I’ve got your attention, I'd like to make some announcements. Today is two very special ladies 18th birthdays: Georgia!” The crowd cheered looking to a girl in a big dress and a tiara. Roxie screamed loud enough to irritate my ears, at I assume her friend.

He waited until everyone settled down and looked at his clipboard. “And Hailey!”

We were in the bar for maybe twenty minutes and in the time Holmes had managed to become quite popular with the other parties juvenile acting friends. They shouted just as loud for her and I looked around trying to find Holmes and Y/N.

“We’re going to be doing something a little different tonight. Please welcome one of our birthday girls and her best friend onto the stage!” The man yelled again and the crowd yelled back again. I furrowed my eyebrows as Roxie grinned at the blond boy and dragged him over to a group of girls. I took that as my que to leave and I shuffled back slightly trying desperately to get away from all the screaming girls.

Holmes and Y/N scrambled into the stage, with an eccentric bow Y/N shimmied to the piano bench and sat down. Holmes embraced her ‘Hailey’ persona and grinned at everyone. She accepted the violin the man handed her with a blush and a giggle. These two were going to be the death of me.

“Sorry for the strange request, my name is Y/N and this is my best friend Hailey. Hope you enjoy us!” Y/N said into her microphone with a wink in my direction. The crowd exploded at the two pretty women on stage. With a nod at one another they started to play a duet. I couldn’t help but wonder when on earth they managed to practice songs together, just the idea of them alone in the music room made me uneasy.

As they played the bar transformed into a carnival. The throbbing lights spun like a merry go round and the once unwelcoming sent of sassafras seemed to melt into a sweet aroma. Holmes looked right at home on stage and I stopped for a moment to watch her. Y/N made eye contact with me again and raised an eyebrow in warning.

I cleared my throat and remembered our carefully crafted plan:

1. Mingle

2. Y/N and Holmes will play

3. In our different vantage points we’ll look for any meaning behind the mask logo of the bar that was spray painted in my room with braille engraving underneath it

4. Maybe have a few drinks

That last one was added by Y/N with a grin. She kept trying to get us all drunk, much to my misfortune and Holmes’ annoyment.

My mind wandered to when I stumbled into my dorm room to find the threatening mask logo spray painted in a cherry red colour. Someone had hacked away, “we’re all mad here” in braille on a chunk of wood under my desk near it.

Y/N figured out the mask was the exact same as the logo for this piano bar and here were were. Trying to find a connection to the Alice in Wonderland quote as well as the break-ins throughout our terrible school.

With everyone busy staring at my only two friends, I slipped to the back of the room. It was quieter back here and the beautiful lights and music didn’t follow me. Taking out my phone I scanned the crowded wall trying to find anything that resembled braille or red spray paint. Hell even a Cheshire Cat would make all this mean something. The wall of stickers was mainly bullshit companies and photos of past patrons. I sighed deeply, but continued to search the wall.

I followed it into a back room. The lights were off and I crouched down just in case anyone was to burst in. I figured through the filing cabinets looking for anything that related to Alice in Wonderland.

Who knew that a theif was such a damn Disney fan? I sighed and sat against the wall as I searched through the files.

Holmes and Y/N burst in both after a few silent moments. Both a little sweaty with matching grins on their faces. They rushed over to me and I stood up quickly to meet them.

“We found out absolutely nothing, but had a good time and that’s all that matters.” Y/N said doubling over as she gasped for breath. Holmes’ glittery outfit shimmered from the lone windows light and her grin melted off her face.

Charlotte Holmes in all her impassive face, was back.

“Did you find anything?” Holmes asked me as she tugged on the bottom of her mini skirt. I blinked at her, momentarily distracted.

“Uh no.” I said crossing my arms. Holmes sighed and started to look around the room. Y/N caught her breath and stood back up smiling smaller now.

“Should’ve seen us Jamie—” Y/N was cut off by footsteps and voices echoing from the hallway.

“Hey who turned on the lights in the back room?” It said and the footsteps started becoming louder. I looked at Holmes in alarm and she looked back momentarily frozen.

Y/N looked around frantically and decided jumping out the damn window was the best option. With little time to waste she yanked it open and dived into the alleyway. I winced as I heard a small yelp from her.

Holmes and I looked at one another as we scrambled to follow her and with only seconds to spare we both leaped out the window as well.

I crashed to the pavement and groaned as I landed flat on my back. Holmes has rolled as soon as she hit the ground and stood gracefully afterwards.

“Took you guys long enough.” Y/N smirked resting against the wall in the grimy alleyway. I sat up and shoved her and she responded with a delighted laugh. She cradled her wrist and Holmes looked down at it.

“You most definitely sprained that.” She said making Y/N shrug. I shook my head and moved to sit across from them against the opposite wall.

“Gotta admit it looked cool though.” Y/N said with a grin. Holmes and I shook our heads at her eccentricity.

Holmes crouched on the pavement with a small magnifying glass in her hands. Y/N leaned against the brick looking casually down at her phone. I knew better than to assume she was scrolling through Instagram. With a few almost bored taps, she disabled the security cameras facing the alleyway.

“Watson what do you make of this?” Holmes asked her voice completely calm for someone who just vallied out a window. I sighed and looked to where she was pointing. The loading dock at the back of the piano bar was clipped shut. Pink hazy graffiti covered it in what I can only assume was a flamingo. A thin line of red paint was hastily painted over an awful path of rust.

“Someone tried to fix their rusting problem and then made a flamingo?” I said completely not trying to be helpful. Y/N smirked down at her phone and before cocking her head at the wall.

“Ohh, I thought it was a weird melted bright pink gun.” She said crossing her arms. She grinned while looking back at me. “This is why you’re the right hand man.”

Holmes looked between us with a deadpan expression. She cleared her throat and turned back to the wall.

“The oxidation down here was covered by the red paint. This red paint is the same pigment and, I suspect, the same used in Watson’s dorm.” Holmes said standing quickly and started rummaging through her Hailey bag. Y/N crossed her arms.

“So? It’s covering a line of rust not a secret door.” She said looking at me with her eyebrows furrowed. I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Holmes to elaborate. She stopped searching through her bag and with a wince pulled out a pocket knife.

“Let’s look at what’s underneath.” Tossing the bag to the ground, she pulled the knife open and started scratching at the paint carefully. After a few silent minutes she brushed away the paint dust to reveal a decent sized hole in the wall.

She blew more paint away to reveal braille above the opening.

Y/N laughed as she knelt down to look at it. With careful fingers she ran her hand over the metal braille on the top of it. The braille very closely resembled the one carved into the underside of my desk.

I looked closer and ran my fingers over it too. Holmes sighed and took out her phone to take pictures of it.

“I wonder.” Holmes mumbled to herself and started to reach into the hole in the wall. I couldn’t help but grimace as I thought of all the disgusting things that could be in it.

Holmes’ posture stiffened as she pulled out a gun wrapped in a plastic bag. The three of us stared at it in shock.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say there's some kind of controversy going on.” Y/N laughed out before wincing and cradling her wrist again.

#jamie watson #jamie watson x reader #jamie watson x charlotte holmes #jamie watson x reader x charlotte holmes #charlotte holmes x reader #charlotte holmes #fanfiction #write the story

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useyourrwords · 6 years ago

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Month Ahead // Going Off Grid – April

Oh it’s been two months since I last went on hiatus? Sounds about time for another one.

Listen, would it be Use Your Words without a hiatus every couple of months? No. Absolutely not.

March was…a lot, to say the least. So I’m switching off and going into hiding for awhile.

But first I want to share what I have planned for while I’m away!

If you would like to buy any of the following books please consider using my Book Depository Affliate link!

ContemporApril

ContemporApril is the topic this month for Devour Your TBR.

Time to read all those contemporary books sitting on your shelf!

UnsolvedAThon

UnsolvedAThon was created by Laura @ The Book Corps!

This readathon is based on the Youtube series, Buzzfeed Unsolved, where supernatural believer Ryan tells his friend, skeptical Shane, about a famous supernatural or true crime case — all of which are unsolved.

I love Buzzfeed Unsolved! Ryan and Shane’s dynamic is perfect and I can’t help but think about how much more perfect it would be if my mum joined them because that woman has seen some shit.

When I saw Laura’s new readathon I knew I had to participate.

Now, the rules are to pick either Ryan’s or Shane’s path and to read a different book for each clue, ten in total. But I’m terrible at following rules so I’m bending them to fit me. Also I can’t read 10 books in a month at the moment, it’s just not possible.

So I’m picking a clue from either Ryan’s or Shane’s path for each step. They will still be in order, I’m just skipping between paths a little. Also for some of the clues I have books for each path so I’m including those as well. And I’m using books more than once! SO my TBR is gonna look a little different!

UnsolvedAThon TBR

*Means that I had books for both clues.

Clue 1*

[Ryan’s Path] The Search for the Mysterious Mothman – Read a book about a mythical creature or a monster.

[Shane’s Path] The Harrowing Hunt for Bigfoot – Read a book about a mythical creature/monster.

│The Rook│The Checquy Files #1│Daniel O’Malley││││││

Clue 2

[Shane’s Path] The Strange Disappearance of D.B. Cooper – Read a mystery or thriller book.

│The Rook│The Checquy Files #1│Daniel O’Malley││││││

Clue 3

[Shane’s Path] The Haunting of the Salem Witch Trials – Read a book involving witches.

│Toil & Trouble│Tess Sharpe││││││

Clue 4

[Shane’s Path] The Horrifying Murders of the Zodiac Killer – Read a retelling.

│Toil & Trouble│Tess Sharpe││││││

Specifically – Daughters of Baba Yaga by Brenna Yovanoff

Clue 5

[Shane’s Path] The Secret Society of the Illuminati – Read a book about or involving a secret society.

│The Rook│The Checquy Files #1│Daniel O’Malley││││││

Clue 6

[Ryan’s Path] The Enigmatic Death of the Isdal Woman – Read a book involving spies or espionage.

│The Morning Star│Shadow of the Templar #1│M. Chandler│││││

Clue 7

[Ryan’s Path] The Haunting of Hannah Williams – Read a book involving ghosts or spirits.

│City of Bones│Cassidy Blake #1│Victoria Schwab│││││

Clue 8*

[Ryan’s Path] The Historic Disappearance of Louis Le Prince – Read an unknown book or a book that has less than 500 ratings on Goodreads.

│Rad Girls Can│Kate Schatz││││││

[Shane’s Path] The Thrilling Gardner Museum Heist – Read a book involving a heist or thieves.

│The Morning Star│Shadow of the Templar #1│M. Chandler│││││

Clue 9*

[Ryan’s Path] The Haunted Town of Tombstone – Read a book about an outlaw/a group of outlaws.

│The Morning Star│Shadow of the Templar #1│M. Chandler│││││

[Shane’s Path] Horrifying Cases of Ghosts and Demons – Read a collection of short stories/anthology.*

│Toil & Trouble│Tess Sharpe││││││

Clue 10

[Ryan’s Path] The Odd Vanishing of Amelia Earhart – Read a book with a female main character.

│The Rook│The Checquy Files #1│Daniel O’Malley│││││

│Toil & Trouble│Tess Sharpe││││││

│City of Bones│Cassidy Blake #1│Victoria Schwab││││

TBR

│I’ve Got This Round│Mamrie Hart││││

│Murasaki Shikibu│Khutlun│Sayyida Al-Hurra│Mochizuki Chiyome│Doña Ana Lezama De Urinza & Doña Eustaquia De Sonza│Bygone Badass Broads│Mackenzi Lee│││││

│”Stagecoach” Mary Fields│Yennenga│Annie Jump Cannon│Wilma Rudolph│Alfhild│Calafia│Keumalahayati│Marie Marvingt│Iara│Jane Dieulafoy│Rejected Princesses│Jason Porath│││││

Structured TBR

│Must Read: 6/5│ 1/1│ 0/0│ 4/2│ 5/3│ 10/10│ 5/5│

│Allowances: 0/1│ 0/0│ 1/0│ 0/0│ 1/1│

Past Grey Reads

Book Review // Girl Made of Stars – I Am Broken

Grey Reads // Everything’s On Fire and I Couldn’t Be Happier – Girls of Paper and Fire

Grey Reads // Bloody Moors & Candy Castles – The Wayward Children 2 & 3

TBW

│Game of Thrones│Season 2-3││2011│ David Benioff, D.B. Weiss│ Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington│

│The Bold Type│Season 3││2017│ Sarah Watson│ Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee, Meghann Fahy│

│Brooklyn Nine-Nine│Season 6││2013│ Daniel J. Goor, Michael Schur│ Andre Braugher, Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz│Watching weekly episodes│

│RuPaul’s Drag Race│Season 11││2009│ RuPaul│RuPaul, Michelle Visage│Watching weekly episodes│

│On My Block│Season 2││2018│ Eddie Gonzalez, Jeremy Haft, Lauren Iungerich│ Sierra Capri, Brett Gray, Diego Tinoco│

│Captain Marvel││2019│ Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck│ Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn│

│Avengers Endgame││2019│ Anthony Russo, Joe Russo│ Brie Larson, Winston Duke, Karen Gillan│

│Us││2019│ Jordan Peele│ Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss│

Past Grey Watches

Grey Watches // I Hate It So Much I Love It – A Christmas Prince

Grey Watches // It Has To Be A Shit Show – A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding

Grey Watches // I Wanna Bone Jude Law and Kate Winslet – The Holiday

I’ll be taking the rest of the month off blogging because I need to centre myself or whatever. Last month took a huge toll on me and I need some breathing room and to relax a little…well a lot, actually.

Blogging isn’t the only thing I’m taking a break from. I’ve also taken a page out of Elise’s @ The Bookish Actress book and decided to delete social media apps off my phone.

Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are all gone. Those are the three I waste the most time on and I need to take that time and apply it to books instead. Also it always makes me sad or angry, with very few bursts of happiness in between that come in the form of animal and baby videos, which I can find on Youtube. If this goes well I’ll be continuing with it and just checking my notifications maybe once or twice a month. We’ll see!

I’m also visiting my Aunt for a few days this month to get away and get some clean air and be one with nature…More like I’ll sit on my ass for most of my time there talking non-stop with my aunt and cousins and playing with their babies. It still blows my mind that I’m at the age where my cousins have kids! But I’m determined to still go for walks while I’m there, but with a change of scenery—the beach! And hopefully I’ll read a fair bit too!

Goals

Get back to going for walks on most days, if not 6 days a week. Baby steps again

Read and read and read and read

Keep Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr deleted off my phone

Get some blog posts banked up

Enter quotes and finish reviews for all read books

Try to use Google Calendar more and make some digital planning spreadsheets because physical planner is too time consuming and annoying but I still need to stay organized

Maybe start writing??? Like just one scene. Please

Past Monthly Posts

February Ahead // I’m Finally Going To Read The Raven Cycle Series & It’s Black History Month + A Great Resource for Education!!!!!

Month in Review // I FINALLY CHANGED MY NAME – February

Month Ahead // Writers Week, Comedy & Too Much To Do – March

Month in Review // The Month From Hell – March

See you again in May

What are you doing this month? What are you reading? What are you watching?

│Blog│Goodreads│Instagram│Twitter│Tumblr│

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#my blog #books #grey writes

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searchforperspective-blog · 8 years ago

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Princess vs. Princess

Let me preface this by saying that, I love Emma Watson, I truly do. She’s a beautiful actress, who’s very inspirational with the work she’s done for the rights of (most. She can be somewhat exclusionary) women across the world. I also loved the recent live action Beauty and the Beast movie she did. I thought it was beautiful and wonderful and magic. I also truly admired the way they had Belle portrayed in the movie as being smart, creative, kind, caring, and pretty badass. I did, however, read an article with a quote (down below), where Watson says that Cinderella is not a strong female role model, or at least not the right kind. Now, Watson can think the character resonates better with her all she wants, and from what I’ve learned about her, that’s true. However, do not belittle another princess, another role model, that could very well be the reason that some people, me included, made it through their childhood. Cinderella, also, is just as curious, compassionate, and open minded as Belle. Just not in the traditional sense that everyone understands. People should dig a little deeper.

“I didn’t know they were going to make Beauty and the Beast at the time I turned down Cinderella, but when they offered me Belle, I just felt the character resonated with me so much more than Cinderella did. She remains curious, compassionate and open-minded. And that’s the kind of woman I would want to embody as a role model, given the choice.” – Emma Watson for Total Film Magazine.

Watson’s first claim here, is that Belle is the kind of role model she would want to embody because she is curious. Well, Emma, I realize that you may not have watched Cinderella 500 times in your life like I have, but let me (respectfully) correct you. Cinderella, in many ways, is just as curious as Belle. No, she doesn’t spend her days inventing and day dreaming about adventure. But that’s because she can’t. She’s constantly being emotionally and verbally abused by her stepmother and stepsisters being treated essentially like a slave, in the house she grew up in. She doesn’t have time for daydreaming and drawing inventions, because if that’s how she’s treated while she’s working, can you imagine how they would treat her if she were to take a second for herself and think, relax, or even daydream? She does, in fact, long for a life outside her house, also “more than she can tell.” She dreams of it constantly, (hell, that’s where her main song comes from) and she’s willing to pursue those dreams and fight for them to become a reality in every way possible. The possibilities, for her, just aren’t as vast as they are for a girl living in a small village in France, with a loving, caring father. That is not to belittle Belle in any way, but her struggles were just vastly different, and those who have never suffered parental abuse would never be able to know that, obviously. But don’t speak in absolutes for the whole world if you can’t see it from every angle first.

Don’t even get me started on her not being as compassionate as Belle. Do we not remember the fact that she allows animals to live in her bedroom so they’ll be safe from the cat? And they she helps them get food clothes (ok, animals might not need clothes) to help them feel loved? Not only that, she cares for animals, like Lucifer, who are just as awful to her as her “family,” because he’s essentially a helpless animal as well? She’s as compassionate as Belle, she just doesn’t have as much chance to show it, as with most other aspects of her life.

Open-mindedness, by the way, Is the premise of Cinderella’s whole movie. She’s all about dreaming, and dreaming is just allowing the idea that something better might come along to take root in your mind. Those who have suffered emotional, physical, and verbal abuse know best, that gathering the energy and motivation to keep going feels, most days, impossible. Cinderella not only does that, but she does it with hope in her mind at all times. Can you imagine being a slave in your own home, a home you were once so loved in, and still thinking, “someday, the dream that I wish will come true.” I don’t know a lot of people that could have done that. It takes courage, resilience, and perseverance. Qualities that Cinderella, and Belle, both have.

So, while Emma Watson, I kknow, meant well, the sentiment she’s putting out is not only wrong, it’s belittling for people, like me, who watched Cinderella growing up and were able to say, “if she can survive it, I can too.” None of this makes Cinderella a better role model than Belle, or vice versa. It just means Belle might be more inspirational for some, and Cinderella might as well. Role models don’t have to be a “one size fits all” situation.

#disney princesses #beauty and the beast #cinderella #belle #emma watson #total film #total film magazine #emotional abuse #verbal abuse #physical abuse #blog #blog post #online blog #online blog post #online diary #searchforperspective #search for perspective #role models #role model

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girl4music · 8 years ago

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I’ve just been to see ‘Beauty And The Beast’, the live-action adaptation of the 1991 Walt Disney classic animation. This movie hit me so hard that I just had to write a review about it. That’s what I do with art, media and entertainment I’m passionate about because I like to express myself on what I like or didn’t like about it thoroughly, letting you get to know what makes me tick (pun intended).

I shall start off by explaining the theme of the movie. Of course it’s a live-action remake of the original musical, but you see, it didn’t just stay true to that. While watching the movie, the story arc and musical numbers we all know and love give you nostalgia and bring to you the enjoyment you felt as a fan of the original. But furthermore, it also renews it with a more well thought out and complicated storyline, as well as new songs written by the original composer Alan Menken, with additional collaboration from Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. These additions to the theme of the movie really give the story a massive lift and will inspire and trigger emotion in you the likes the original never could. It will show you how powerful love, forgiveness, kindness and compassion really are and how they effect and change the human mind, heart and soul. This is what captured my attention and made me cry TWICE, as well as had me laughing and smiling with pure joy while watching the story unfold and come to it’s conclusion. It really makes you feel a lot and that’s extremely important to the overall intention of the movie. I will definitely be purchasing the soundtrack.

Now that’s been explained, we’ll get on to the characters and I guess we’ll start with Belle, since a large part of the targeted audience will be Emma Watson fans from the Harry Potter movies. I mean that’s the reason why I wanted to see it. Sure I’m a fan of the original movie but that wouldn’t be enough to make me pay to see a live-action remake of it. I was initially sceptical of Emma Watson being cast as Belle given that she’s a British actress and isn’t really known as a singer at all. Her acting performance was good once I was able to overlook her British accent but that was a given. I knew she’d portray Belle well as far as the acting went. It was the singing I was sceptical about. And you know what? She didn’t do half that bad. It sounded like she actually took some Classical singing lessons for the role. I’m sure it had a lot to do with the vocal production but I thought the singing was decent and she projected sufficiently, which did the character’s original voice, Paige O’Hara, justice. Her portrayal of Belle was not amazing but it was satisfactory.

Dan Stevens was cast as The Beast/Prince and he has a solo in the movie that sounded really great. His vocal performance was fantastic and very emotive and I enjoyed his singing immensely. His acting however, and I’m not too sure if this had something to do with the CGI animation of the character, seemed very stiff and stoic. I know that’s the point to begin with but even when The Beast warms up to Belle he still doesn’t showcase much expression. I didn’t feel it from him. I’m not sure he was the right person to cast for the role, but like I said, it could be more to do with the CGI animation. But I give him top notch props for the singing performances. He did really well there. One of the best vocal performances from the entire cast.

For the characters that get transformed into objects obviously it’s just voice-acting as they are completely computer-generated until the end of the movie. Particularly Ewan McGregor as Lumière stood out and was for me the best of the lot, although I thought they all did really well. His French accent was absolutely spot on and he had the most screen-time out of all of them to showcase it as much as possible. He really brought the charisma of the character to life both in voice-acting and singing. Being the main vocal for my favourite musical number out of the whole movie,‘Be Our Guest’, his delivery was exceptional. Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts was also exceptional and there was a quote from her that I really loved. I can’t remember the exact wording but it was something like: “People get angry. It’s up to us whether we listen or not.” Wonderful one-liner there that I thought was very wise. As for her singing, she also had one of the best vocal performances with her solo ‘Tale As Old As Time’. The only voice-acting I had a problem with was Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, the antique clock. Mainly because, unlike the original character, there was no humour or sarcasm in his voice. His tone was dull and flat and that’s not how I remember Cogsworth at all. This is mostly the fault of the script-writing more so than it is of the voice-acting, however, even so the delivery was just not funny and there was no banter between Cogsworth and Lumière which is one of the reasons to love the original, so that was very disappointing to say the least. Everyone else though, the drawer, the harpsichord, chip the teacup and plummet could not be faulted. They were all incredible. I loved that the drawer was an Opera singer. I thought that was hilarious.

Josh Gad as Le Fou has an interesting character personality and evolution that was not in the original and it is brought forth with this actor. The writing for him was really good and he was the comic relief of the movie, without question, with his quirky little one-liners towards Gaston expressing his affection for him. You probably already know due to bad press that he is openly gay, therefore he showcases the theme of jealousy towards anyone who woos Gaston while Gaston is wooing Belle. But his character evolution is the most interesting part about him. I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet, but let’s just say, he eventually gives up on Gaston. Josh Gad’s singing was surprisingly good. You probably wonder why I’m saying that as he sings in Frozen portraying the role of Olaf the snowman and has his own solo. Well I never thought he was a very good singer in that movie so I am surprised to find hes vocals are a lot better in this one. There was a lot of humour and attitude in his vocal performances that I really enjoyed listening to and laughing at. He was all-around an excellent casting decision for ‘Beauty And The Beast’.

This next actor has the best acting and singing performance from the entire cast in my humble opinion. LUKE EVANS as Gaston. I could not tear my eyes away from him and that’s not just because the character is supposed to be gorgeous, which this time around, he definitely was. But he was completely convincing as Gaston, both as we know of him in the original, but even more so than that. His acting performance was so good that I really loved to hate the character. I really felt his villainous personality and wanted him to be defeated just as much as everyone else did. As for his singing and vocal performances - Faultless! Absolutely unbelievable. Strong and bold baritone was projected from him which made him even more intimidating and enrapturing. I just absolutely loved him. I cannot say enough about all the newness he brought to the character as well as portraying the original so precisely. I am going to be keeping my eye on Luke Evans in future roles. He blew me away.

I also want to talk about the directing and setting/costume designing. I really believed that it was set in the 18th century, which in England would be Victorian times. The costumes the characters wore, including headdress, steam-powered engines and weapons that are used throughout the movie allude to this. The directing made this very realistic and convincing and I really appreciated it because I love old-timey settings. Bill Condon is an incredible director so there’s no surprise the directing is this brilliant. The whole movie reminded me very much of Les Misérables, which coincidentally is also a musical, because of the setting/costume designing as well dark scenery and the melancholy vibe. There were some really upsetting scenes in this movie which is unusual for Disney, but nevertheless, will draw the adults in.

Finally, to wrap it up, I thought the movie was absolutely astounding and I will be going to see it again and maybe even more than that until the DVD releases. And like I said, I’ll be purchasing the soundtrack too because I want those new songs, especially the one Celine Dion did for it.

It’s a BIG 10/10.

Thanks for reading

- Girl4Music

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katyagrayce · 8 years ago

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The Final Problem: my final opinion

I know that there are some fans, on Tumblr and elsewhere, who actually liked this episode. THAT’S OKAY. SERIOUSLY. You’re entitled to like whatever you want. It doesn’t mean anything other than that we have different taste in movies/different priorities when it comes to what we want from Sherlock, and that kind of opinion divide is pretty much inevitable with a show this varied and this popular. So if you belong to the TFP Fans Club, I want to clarify that I mean you no hate :-)

Personally, however, I did not like The Final Problem. My reasons included, but were not limited to: a) The disproportionally rapid, action-reliant and melodramatic storytelling, which wasn’t really consistent with the series’ tone so far. (This encompasses everything from that crazy Hollywood explosion to the fake cell Euros built for Sherlock - not to mention the the ‘video game’ set up of her puzzle system. Also, the age-old idea of throwing someone down a well. There were a lot of clichés at play in this episode). b) The suddenness with which Euros was introduced as a character, and the unfeasibility (IMHO) of Sherlock not remembering her at all. c) Speaking of unfeasibility - I also had issues with Euros planning the entire torture session in five minutes, building all of that underground lair, ferrying herself between Sherrinford and London so easily, getting everyone to Musgrave Hall/into their various cells so quickly, and getting John/Victor down that well without causing them serious injury. d) The oversimplicity of Euros’ psychological arc also frustrated me. I mean - there is loneliness, and then there is clinical psychopathy. They are two separate things. It’s true that there’s some overlap between the two groups, but not enough to pin all Euros’ behaviour on her being a scared little child with ‘no one’ to turn to - someone who later becomes 100% complacent just because she’s finally been hugged. Plus, when they decided to oversimplify Euros’ psychology Mofftiss basically dropped the chance to create a really complicated, really nuanced villain like Moriarty (remember all that amazing analysis about whether he wanted to beat Sherlock or just wanted the distraction, why he killed himself, whether boredom had driven him almost to the edge of insanity, etc., etc.? Euros doesn’t get any of those interesting conversations, mainly because she’s been automatically typecast as a ‘creepy loner child in need of attention.’) e) Speaking of emotional oversimplification - I also didn’t like the maximum emotional milking that Mofftiss brought to EVERY SCENE. Entire sequences, like Sherlock’s phone call to Molly and Euros forcing Sherlock to choose between Mycroft and John, seemed explicitly orchestrated to stir up audience feels as quickly as possible, instead of doing it slowly, skilfully and in-context (eg. I found Sherlock’s conversation asking for Molly’s help at the end of TRF much more feels-worthy than his phone call here, because it tied back to a conversation they’d already had about her ‘not counting’ and didn’t take place in a completely staged, high-tension situation.) f) And now for a big one - inconsistent character development. I feel that there were a lot of characters who acted quite OOC in this episode. First up, I think that John would have shot the governor. After all, he’s a soldier, he knows the pain of losing a wife, he’s very morally self-assured and he has killed before (see ASIP for evidence of the last two points), so even though he would have found it difficult I think he would’ve pushed through. I also think he would’ve tried very, very hard to talk Sherlock out of suicide, not just stood there dumbly and watched. Especially considering that he’d been prepared to die for him literally twenty seconds beforehand. Now for a second character: Molly. I understand that the scene with Molly was really effective for a lot of viewers, but - I wasn’t one of them. In TEH, it seemed that Molly was finally getting some character development beyond her crush on Sherlock - she recognised that he was using her as a replacement for John and cut that behaviour in its tracks, despite how difficult it might have been for her. In this episode, she spends every second on-screen looking totally lovesick, and proceeds to sacrifice her dignity just to answer a request that - from her perspective - must look a lot like either a cruel prank or a childish whim. The Molly we knew had grown beyond that - and, while I’m happy she survived, I’m not happy she had to fall apart to do it. Plus, what about that quick glance of her in the closing sequence when she pops into Baker St, smiling and seemingly totally okay? Did the phone call really have that low an emotional impact on her? To me, it just seems like a quick, lazy fix. And now, last but not least: Sherlock. This episode throws some spanners in what has been, up until this point, a very consistent and well-written subplot about his emotional growth. Throughout all the previous episodes we can track his ‘becoming a good man’ - he knows he’s hurt Molly in ASIB, he soothes a hysterical Henry Knight in THOB, he can talk down Major Sholto in TSOT and understands John’s grieving process in TLD. He even goes from subtly intervening in John’s suicide in ASIP to explicitly saving ‘Faith’ in TLD, which is an amazing example of how much he’s grown as a character. But in this episode - all of a sudden - he starts fluctuating wildly between ‘emotionally incapable’ and ‘emotional paragon’ when he shouldn’t really be at either end of the scale. The kind of man who can’t understand why Molly isn’t picking up, and who thinks “But it’s me calling!” is a valid excuse, can’t possibly be the same person who charms his sister out of psychosis with a hug and explicitly tells a DI that his brother ‘isn’t as strong as he thinks.’ Personally, I think that the episode’s latter actions are slightly more in-character for Sherlock than the earlier ones, but that’s not the point. The point is that this episode muddled a lot of very good character development back up again. g) A more minor thing, but - this episode was literally full of plot holes. Including, but not limited to, how the furniture in 221B possibly survived the blast, how Euros (an adult woman) sounded like a little girl on the phone, and how John climbed out of a well he was chained to. h) Another, less minor thing - ALL THE LOOSE ENDS FROM THE SERIES THAT THIS EPISODE LEFT BEHIND. Irene Adler was brought back into the picture, only for nothing to come of it. Rosie Watson was born and then featured for a grand total of two seconds after TST. Euros had a working partnership with Culverton Smith (? How did that exist while she was confined at Sherrinford?) that was neither explained nor justified. And, perhaps worst of all - this whole ‘final problem’ promised by Moriarty ended up being organised by someone totally different. i) And finally, one of the most disappointing elements of the whole episode - Mary’s final video. Put bluntly, it contradicted everything that I see the show as being about. Sherlock has always been very much about the two people behind the legend, putting the spotlight on Sherlock’s fragility and John’s dangerous addictions where ACD just smoothed them over with a Victorian gloss - ‘there’s always the two of them,’ as said in TAB, and the focus is on the relationship in between. But what Mary is saying in this speech is that nothing the show gave us apparently matters. Only the legend does. The ACD stories are apparently the important part. It’s a very, very demeaning way for the series to summarise itself, and it’s this, over anything else, that makes me suspect we might have a secret 4th episode upcoming.

Now, you might notice something - reading the above list. You might notice that I didn’t mention Johnlock. That’s right. I, personally, didn’t mind whether Johnlock happened or not. And it’s getting really frustrating seeing people dissatisfied with TFP get dismissed because ‘they’re just angry that their ship didn’t happen.’ There was a lot, a LOT wrong with this episode beyond the ship, and while it might be a valid reason for people not to like TFP (I’ll get to that in Point 4) it’s not the only one. Please, don’t write off some very legitimate, very reasoned disappointment as some kind of ship-driven whim just because you can.

Now, all that said - I have to add that the queer-baiting in the lead-up to this episode was absolutely horrendous. Like I said, I’m not a Johnlock shipper and always had doubts about it happening, but the trailer editing and publicity stunts - Sherlock saying ‘I love you’ right after the Culverton Smith ‘darkest secret’ quote, the flickering rainbow letters on the PBS TV spot, Benedict saying ‘Love conquers all’ and Amanda saying TFP ‘makes television history’ - all those things were pointing in one pretty obvious direction. Now, this wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it had happened with literally any other potential plotline on the show, but the thing about queer-baiting is that it exploits a highly vulnerable and extremely under-represented group - the LGBTQ+ community. It lures them in with something they sorely want and need - media representation - and then not only fails to deliver but thumbs its nose at their disappointment. It rubs salt into the wound. It’s cruel and not okay, and as an experienced partnership with one gay member Mofftiss should have known better. So, even if you think disappointed Johnlockers are ‘just being petty,’ you have to remember that the experience of being denied this ship can carry a lot of emotional impacts other ships don’t.

And, finally - there were things about this episode that I liked, even loved wholeheartedly. Sherlock calling John family. Their re-decorating the flat, and the two-second snapshot featuring a happy Rosie. Sherlock remembering Greg’s name, and Greg calling him a ‘good man’ (it was a bit on-the-nose, but still). Mrs Hudson sassing Mycroft about the kettle. Even the idea of Euros as a little girl on a plane was fundamentally a good one, if oversimplified, over-focused on and overdone. So yes - this episode did have its moments. And it’s not affecting my enjoyment of Sherlock as a whole, but still - that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Um... If you’ve read this far, congratulations! I didn’t mean for this post to get so long, but it feels good to have vented a bit :-)

#sherlock #s4 #the final problem #tfp #rant #long post #sorry for the long post!#spoilers #sherlock spoilers #tfp spoilers #original post

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alltingfinns · 8 years ago

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While I see others in the Tinfoil Hat Society are using The Abominable Bride and The Geek Interpreter as decoder rings for this episode, I've been inspired to go even bolder and more daring. To understand The Final Problem, I will use... The Final Problem.

What? you say. But they already adapted this story, and this episode is TFP in name only. Or is it? Think about it, why is this titled exactly like the canon story? When have they ever used an exact title like that? The Great Game comes to mind, but that was about the meta game within the reading of the stories. So what if this is a meta game? What if they kill the show instead of the character? What if this is their answer to Doyle's final problem?

We've talked about Doyle not being able to tell the story he wanted to, and killing his character off in frustration. But the public weren't satisfied. And they're not now either, because what the hell? This is what we waited years for? Not just johnlockers but casuals as well.

We know it's "gay or trash" but the general public still doesn't/didn't. They needed to see how bad it is when the real story isn't told. It is important to remember that we're an unexpected casualty, too clever for our own good. Too well versed in queer subtext from our hunger for representation. If we hadn't seen the conspiracy, we wouldn't be devastated, only flabbergasted like the rest of the world. This is when we become martyres in the war. It's not right, and it's not okay, but it is what it is. Me writing this is not a way of excusing what they've done, but rather explaining it. Don't read further if your heart can't take any kind of hope or faith right now. Take care of yourself first, you don't have to jump into the rabbithole with me. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I can dealwith that. This is I think the essence of tinfoiling at this point.

So if I'm Charles in the mail room, then the title is my Pepe Silvia. Barney, who got me looking into Pepe, is Eurus Holmes. I already mentioned in this post here, that Eurus is the modern equivalence of what Doyle did with Moriarty. It's hard to wrap our minds around, because a hundred years of pop culture has firmly established Moriarty as Holmes' great foe. But if you reread The Final Problem, and keep in mind that the character was invented for this story, it all starts to sounds eerily familiar.

"You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" said he. "Never." "Aye, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing!" he cried. -snip-

"What has he done, then?" "His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. -snip- But the man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which. instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. -snip-"

"As you are aware, Watson, there is no who knows the higher criminal world of London so well as I do. For years past I have continually been conscious of some power behind the malefactor, some deep organising power which forever stands in the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrong doer."

Never before mentioned character suddenly has been in the background all along? They're the greatest brain Holmes ever encountered? They're just evil for evil's sake? It should also be pointed out that the idea of a criminal mastermind running their own criminal empire undetected by the poice was a ridiculous notion at the time. Now it's so commonplace in both reality and fiction, we don't bat an eyelash at it. What we would find ridiculous is everything about Eurus. She's Moriarty in this scenario.

It doesn't end with Eurus. There's several details like Watson conveniently being alone at the time because his wife/daughter is away with friends, Sherlock disguising himself/the show (because it's the show not the character being killed in this version), a convenient posthumous message. The convenient posthumous message, which was left by a character that a later installment showed not to be dead (Mary and/or Moriarty). The tone of it, the slight absurdity that Moriarty would just go "oh sure write a message, I'll wait here". (Especially when the message includes instructions for the downfall of what is left of Moriarty's criminal empire, and this supergreat mind didn't think that might happen?) Compare this to both Moriarty's and Mary's clipshows, they're also laced with absurd convenience.

This reading of "The Final Problem"ing the show indicates self sabotage, which goes both with the reading that they were denied by BBC to tell the story they wanted and with the idea of a secret episode yet to come. My money is on the latter for one reason:

"I keep saying to people if we’ll pull this off it will be television history. I think it really will because it’s kind of groundbreaking." - Amanda Abbington

We joke about how she must not have seen Orphan Six if she attributes this quote to Siân Brooke's performance. But I'm more interested in the pronoun problem, because it's hard to argue that that was any real group effort. If "we" pull off what? Honestly, canon Johnlock didn't ever fully sit right with me as an explanation either. Because why would that still be a question of "if we pull it off" if the film is in the can? You know what would be groundbreaking television history, that requires a lot of luck and hard work to still "pull off"? A secret episode that no one out of the loop would know about. That's something that could go wrong, be discovered before its time of revelation.

I want to point out that this still doesn't necessarily mean johnlock is going to be canon in this secret episode, and that this means we weren't queerbaited. I think it's possible that johnlock happens, but it's not absolutely tied into this reading, since the point is that it's a secret episode being groundbreaking.

You can say that I am in denial or bargaining here, maybe you are right. What I think is that this episode doesn'tmake sense unless it's deliberately bad with the canon story as inspiration. And that I am just looking for a logical explanation that satisfies if not all the facts, then at least more than "they're just bad writers which we didn't see before because accidentally good stuff" does.

Because take johnlock entirely out of the equation, say we just saw unintentional subtext. And this episode still doesn't make sense. It's still too poorly written, badly executed, and nonsensical. Especially in comparison to previous episodes, whether you saw johnlock in them or not. At some point, it has to be deliberate. Too many odd details and plotholes, that no one picked up on? Simply because the writers had big egos being fed on by the mass appeal of the show? I guess that is an explanation, it's definitively possible. But it doesn't feel like it satisfies all of the facts.

Anyway, it was fun to write a longer meta (if still not on par with others' work) at least once for this show. It’s not good, I could probably go into more detail. But I just wanted to get this brainfart out there, you know?

Tagging other tinfoil hats I’ve seen on my dash: @toxicsemicolon @teapotsubtext @bbcatemysoul @kinklock I’m probably missing some.

#fake or trash #tinfoil hat #reichenbach theory #sherlock meta #tfp

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jadelotusflower · 4 years ago

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May 2021 Roundup

Watching

Chess: The Musical - My second live theatre experience for the year, but this time with no seating restrictions. It certainly felt weird and uncomfortable to be packed into a full house again, even if everyone was wearing masks. I've never seen Chess performed, although I have watched the 2008 concert version many times. I enjoyed seeing it properly staged and sung live, even though I suspect there may have been some illness in the cast as there was issues of breath control and strained voices on occasion. Natalie Bassingthwaighte has a good pop/rock voice and she killed Nobody's Side but was just fine with the rest (including a patchy British accent). Paulini has the pipes as Svetlana, although I do wonder if she would have made a better choice for Florence. The other standout was Brittaine Shipway as The Arbiter, usually a male role but actually working much better gender flipped and having a powerful female character outside of the love triangle (and who spends almost the entire show onstage observing).

Mank (dir. David Fincher) - A love letter to old Hollywood through the eyes of Herman J Mankcovitz as he writes the screenplay for Citizen Kane and looks back on his days in the studio system. Some familiarity with that film is required, or at least the broad brushstrokes and the main players - William Randolph Hearst as the inspiration for Charles Foster Kane, the actress Marion Davies, and Welles himself (who looms as a shadow figure throughout most of the film, shot in shadow, or profile, or in costume until the climactic confrontation with Mank). Gary Oldman is somewhat miscast as Mank imo; he carries every one of his 65 years and is just not believable as a 43 year old Mank, affected with alcoholism and a broken leg though he is. Maybe it’s that Mank (as the film depicts him) is just not very interesting - we’ve seen the self destructive drunk with acerbic wit so many times there’s just nothing new in it and feels quite tiresome. He is however a fulcrum for the other more interesting characters to work around; the lens through which we see Hollywood in action. And there’s a lot going on - the ruthless duplicity of Louis B Mayer, the writers rooms at work, the rich and powerful dismissing the rise of Nazism, Hearst bankrolling a campaign against socialist Upton Sinclair. This video is worth watching dealing with some criticisms, particularly the depiction of historical events, Marion Davies, and authorship. The rest of the cast is however very good - Amanda Seyfried as Davies, Charles Dance as Hearst, Tom Burke as an uncanny Welles. It was also nice to see Robin Hood alum Sam Troughton as John Houseman!

Seyfried has been rightly praised and she is indeed the best part of the film (aside from the bizarre Brooklyn accent and the missed opportunity to give the role to an actual actress in her 40's), so much so I wish it had been entitled Marion and about her perspective of Hollywood. Because there’s still distance, we are viewing her from afar - the bird in the gilded cage - not privy to her inner world and that’s a shame, because she’s clearly the most interesting of the lot. It should come as no surprise that this film does not pass the Bechdel test, even though there clearly was An Attempt to boost the presence of the female characters. Other than Marion Davies, we have Lily Collins as the long suffering assistant Alexander, Tuppence Middleton as the long suffering wife Sarah, and Monika Gossmann as the enabling German housekeeper Freda. Variations on a theme, all revolving around and Mank and exerting little to no agency. There’s also, rather out of place, the silent women in the Paramount writers room, topless except for sparkly pasties. If it’s meant to be a comment on sexism of the time it fails, because it is just there, like window dressing, when female screenwriters did exist and are yet somehow completely absent. Also absent are the women who wielded power at the time - the gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons who threaded the Hollywood needle much as screenwriters did. I enjoyed the film, it’s beautifully made and the time period lovingly depicted, down to the era-appropriate framing, camera lenses, music, and of course, filmed entirely in black and white. I guess I’m just less and less interested in these kinds of stories, or at least these stories told through the same old perspective. For a different take on the Welles/Mank collaboration, check out RKO 281 (that incidentally does feature both Hedda and Louella and is on youtube in its entirety). For more of the facts, The Battle Over Citizen Kane is also a very good documentary about Hearst’s attempts to kill the film. Marion Davies is also fictionalised (earlier in her career) in The Cat’s Meow, which I have not seen for many years but remember quite enjoying. Girls5Eva (season 1) - A girl group with one hit album in the 90's reunites after a rapper samples their biggest hit - this is a fun show satirising the artifice of 90's pop as well as the current music scene, with a great cast including singing greats Sara Bareilles and Renee Elise Goldsberry, and comediennes Busy Phillips and Paula Pell (who has at least ten years on the other girls, but they hang a lantern on it, and I appreciate her plot/character in no way revolved around her size). I really enjoyed it, and am still singing the ridiculous but catchy title song with big Spice Girls/B*witched energy.

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (season 2, episodes 5-13) - A meandering, hit and miss season overall - multiple characters introduced and given setup only to be shunted within a few episodes, plotlines picked up then pushed aside (Emily's post-partum depression that basically boiled down to "I'm on meds so I'm fine now" was particularly egregious) - I cut the show some slack because clearly covid interfered and caused a shortened season, which makes the latter half of the season exceptionally rushed. Alex Newell continues to be MVP, and his romance plot was honestly so much more compelling than Zoe's. I didn't really have a horse in the Simon/Max race, I liked both characters even if the OTP of the show was Zoe/Therapy, but while I'm happy the love triangle finally over, the speed of the back and forth really undermined the story. But I enjoyed the final twist and look forward to next season (hopefully it is renewed).

This is Us (season 5) - I don't expect much from this show other than soapy drama and emotional scenes engineered to make me cry, but is yet another reminder about why I shouldn't get attached to ships while shows are still airing. I have a soft spot for Smallville alum Justin Hartley, but Kevin's season of girlfriend's past is so damn tiresome. Maybe it's just that Madison has become my favourite character and I want the best for her, maybe it's the sloppy writing more interested in twists and turns than a compelling character arc. But hey, there's still the always excellent Sterling K Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson, and I continue to be impressed by Mandy Moore - I remember when she was a teen pop star breaking into acting and she's come so far, making all the right career choices (including pulling double duty as producer/choreographer over at Zoey's).

Reading

Mythos (Stephen Fry) - Fry's typically irreverent and witty take on the Classics (even though he is on occasion a bit twee), his focus mainly on the gods, their origin and exploits. I was a Greek mythology kid, absolutely obsessed with these stories although I never really graduated to a Greek mythology adult but rather a casual fan. It was nice to revisit this world, as many of them I had forgotten or had never known all the details (children's versions being understandably light on the rapes and grislier aspects). As Fry notes, these myths were not kindly to humanity and particularly women, which perhaps leads into the remainder of my Greek mythology reading month:

Circe (Madeline Millar)- A retelling of the Circle myth, the goddess best known for transforming Odysseus' men into pigs, and a book that I've finally got around to reading after many, many recommendations. While perhaps not all I was expecting, Millar's writing is lyrically beautiful and touches upon the nature of gods and humanity, parents and children, exile and freedom,and I enjoyed it very much.

The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood) - Another retelling, this time from the pov of Penelope. I've wanted to read this since coming across a quote ("be like water") that I used for a fic, and the novel, while very short, is typical of Atwood's masterful writing style and love of multi-layered meta. Like Circe, this does not paint Odysseus in a good light, as Penelope reflects back on her life from the Underworld, her story interspersed by the Greek Chorus of the maids butchered on Odysseus' return to Ithaca, and the story is as much a vindication for the innocent maids as Penelope.

Writing

Nothing posted this month, but words written for Against the Dying of the Light (1111), The Lady of the Lake (1006), and Here I Go Again (1390). That makes a total of 3,507 for the month and 27,469 so far this year.

#may roundup #watching reading writing #long post

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gyrlversion · 6 years ago

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Leaked emails `show Labour inaction over anti-Semitism complaints´

Jeremy Corbyn has lost a no confidence motion by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) ‘overwhelmingly’ this afternoon after the group’s leader announced he would vote against the Labour leader, despite Mr Corbyn’s shadow attorney general pleading with the group to look past her leader and not ‘personalise’ the vote.

It comes as internal Labour Party documents have revealed only three per cent of nearly 900 anti-Semitism disciplinary cases have resulted in a member’s expulsion from the party.

Shortly before 3.30pm today, the JLM voted for an amendment, to a broader motion about Labour Party anti-Semitism, which read: ‘The leadership of the Labour Party, including the Leader, the Shadow Cabinet as a collective body, the NEC and the General Secretary, have fundamentally failed to address antisemitism within the Labour Party.’

It went on: ‘The leadership of the Labour Party have demonstrated that they are antisemitic, and have presided over a culture of antisemitism’.��

It said the leadership had ‘used their influence to protect and defend antisemites’, concluding ‘Jeremy Corbyn is therefore unfit to be Prime Minister’.

the Jewish Labour Movement today passed a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn declaring him ‘unfit to be Prime Minister’

The full motion later passed ‘almost unanimously’, according to the JLM’s official Twitter account, after powerful speeches including one from Labour MP Margaret Hodge.

This morning JLM’s national secretary Peter Mason told Sky News Jewish members of the party are ‘looking on in horror’ at what has been happening in the Labour Party and at this afternoon’s AGM will table a confidence motion in the leadership of Mr Corbyn.

Mr Mason said he would be voting no confidence – and would even consider voting to dissociate from the party should such a motion be tabled.

JLM’s national secretary Peter Mason said he would be voting against Mr Corbyn in a confidence motion at this afternoon’s AGM

He said: ‘The Jewish community is looking on in horror. We have had this affiliation for 99 years and it looks like it could come to an end.’

He added: ‘Members voted just a few weeks ago to remain affiliated with the party, because we believed we should stand and fight.

‘[Mr Corbyn] is the one responsible for leading the party and ensuring it acts in an appropriate way – members will be voting on whether he should be leader and should be prime minister.’

This morning shadow AG Shami Chakrabarti appealed directly to the group in an interview with Sophie ridge, saying: ‘My plea to them is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn.

‘He is one person and he won’t be leader forever.’

Baroness Chakrabarti said: ‘My plea to them is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn’

Following revelations about the party’s disciplinary procedure in today’s Sunday Times, one his his own MPs said either Jeremy Corbyn had lied to her, or his office had lied to him, after leaked emails appeared to show direct involvement by the leader’s office in some members’ cases, despite his personal assurances he does not intervene.

The paper said leaked internal documents show the party’s system for dealing with complaints had been beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office.

Some members investigated for posting comments online such as ‘Heil Hitler’ and ‘Jews are the problem’ had not been expelled despite complaints being made a year ago.

And Jeremy Corbyn’s office had been involved in approving, delaying or blocking at least 101 complaints, the paper reported.

Jeremy Corbyn promised Margaret Hodge MP he never intervened in members’ disciplinary cases but the Sunday Times reports his office has done so

But Labour said lines from internal emails had been ‘selectively leaked’ to ‘misrepresent their overall contents’, adding that it was ‘committed’ to rooting out anti-Semitism within the party.

According to The Sunday Times, the hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 also showed that a trade union official was readmitted after being accused of sharing material saying ‘Jewish Israelis’ were behind 9/11.

In another case, a Labour official ruled a council candidate accused of describing Jewish MPs as ‘Zionist infiltrators’ met the threshold for suspension, but then ruled he should not be suspended as he ‘is a candidate’, the paper said.

It reported that 454 of 863 complaints were unresolved, including 249 where the party had not started an investigation, and that of 409 cases where a decision was reached, 191 members faced no further action, 145 received a formal warning and fewer than 30 were expelled.

Labour said the figures quoted in the story were ‘not accurate’.

Dame Margaret Hodge has previously accused members of Jeremy Corbyn´s inner circle of interfering in the outcome of anti-Semitism cases

A spokeswoman said: ‘The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out of our party.

‘All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures. We can’t comment on individual cases.

‘Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents.

‘One of the emails shows the General Secretary’s Office ending the practice started by former staffers of asking the Leaders’ Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This practice lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by Jennie Formby.’

Other emails are reported to show Thomas Gardiner, head of Labour’s governance and legal unit, stepping in to frustrate efforts by a member of his staff to fast-track an investigation of a member who condemned two Jewish MPs for being ‘sh**-stirring c** buckets’ in the pay of Israel’.

People with placards and Union flags demonstrated as part of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism outside the head office of the Labour Party in London last April

A Labour Party source said: ‘These emails show Thomas Gardiner arguing for an anti-Semitism complaint to be recorded as anti-Semitism, in line with the Macpherson principle, and to ensure the case is dealt with through the fast-tracked anti-Semitism procedures.

‘In another email Thomas makes clear it’s right and appropriate that Jennie Formby had ended the practice of LOTO (leader of the opposition’s office) being asked for help with cases, and it is untrue and misleading to say LOTO are involved as there is a firewall between the complaints process and the Leader’s Office. He was outlining and supporting this process.’

Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking, told the paper: ‘The scale of the abuse, the depth of the hatred and the total lack of action by the Labour Party is astonishing.’

Jewish MP Luciana Berger received death threats and a slew of abuse. She left the Party

She added: ‘Jeremy gave me assurances that he does not intervene [in complaints].

‘This investigation proves that either he is lying to me or his office are lying to him.’

The paper also revealed that in a meeting in which Corbyn and his political secretary, Amy Jackson, assured Hodge his team would ‘never’ interfere in complaints, he told the MP: ‘It doesn’t come here . . . I don’t involve myself in the complaint at all.’

And Ms Jackson added: ‘Absolutely not. I could tell you 100% we would never do that, that would be an appalling thing to do.’

But in the leaked emails the leader’s chief of staff says Jackson herself must be kept abreast of certain complaints.

In an email dated April 5 last year, Corbyn’s chief of staff, Karie Murphy wrote: ‘I think it’s important for Amy Jackson to have an overview of all complaints that involve elected politicians or candidates.’

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: ‘The Sunday Times investigation shows that our demands to root out anti-Jewish racism have been treated with utter contempt.

‘Rather than own up to the problem, the Labour leadership has put its efforts into a cover-up operation.

‘Any claims to a politically independent system can now be seen as a total sham.

‘Labour must now urgently open up its processes to scrutiny by the Jewish community.

‘We stand united with all decent people in the fight against ugly racism.’

Jeremy Corbyn faces a Labour split as 80 MPs call for a second EU referendum

Jeremy Corbyn is facing a split in the Labour Party as 80 MPs called for a second referendum while the party chairman warned backing a so-called People’s Vote would cause massive divisions.

Remainers within the Labour Party want Corbyn to push Theresa May to hold a second EU referendum.

But the party chairman, Ian Lavery, warned Corbyn if he backed another referendum he risked causing an irrevocable split withing the movement.

During a shadow cabinet meeting earlier this week, Lavery, ‘wagged his finger’ at the party leader as he made his point moments before MPs were due to cast a vote, according to The Observer.

Several top figures in the party including deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, reportedly backed a ‘confirmatory referendum’ on any deal MPs agreed during the same summit.

Around a third of Labour MPs wrote to Corbyn telling him not to strike a deal with Mrs May unless it included a second referendum.

The letter was signed by high-profile Remainers in the party, including Margaret Hodge, Jess Phillips, Stella Creasy, Rachel Reeves, Clive Lewis and Kate Osamor.

It read: ‘Labour is offering a vision of hope which has inspired millions of people. Tory Brexit threatens this, and so does any perceived participation in delivering it.

‘Any compromise deal which is now agreed by Parliament will have no legitimacy if it is not confirmed by the public.

‘The only way to guarantee jobs, rights and protections – and Labour’s reputation with its membership and the electorate – is to support a confirmatory public vote on any option which is agreed by parliament, which will put additional pressure on the government to hold the early general election the country needs.’

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ethelbertpaul444-blog · 6 years ago

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How the Church of Scientology Went After Danny Mastersons Rape Accusers

In March 2017, columnist Tony Ortega reported that the actor and Scientologist Danny Masterson was being investigated by the LAPD on multiple tallies of sexual abuse. Ortega’s bombshell narration referenced a Victim B, who entered a report with the LAPD in 2004 claim that Masterson sexually aggression her in 2003. A facsimile of Victim B’s report was of the view that,” The victim woke up while the suppose was having copulation with her and struggled with him. The accused strangled the victim until she passed out .” Masterson has vehemently rejected the allegations. While Masterson was eventually shelled from Netflix’s The Ranch in response to the sexual-assault allegations and precede spat, the suit against him is ongoing. In a November 2017 report, Huffington Post’s Yashar Ali wrote that police investigations” has inexplicably stopped .” Citing five generators” inside and outside the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office ,” Ali reported that there were four accusers involved in the case, and that,” At least three of the women who have accused him of rape were also Scientologists and reported the incidents to the Church of Scientology at the time .” ” One of Masterson’s accusers entered a police report in 2004 saying that she was abused in 2003, but the contingency didn’t move forward after the Church of Scientology happened and referred over 50 affidavits from Scientologists who rejected the woman’s detail ,” Ali continued, seemingly referring to Victim B.” In April 2017, police referred the matter back to the district attorney. Since then, the district attorney’s office has examined the evidence returned over by LAPD and deported its own investigation. Despite compelling–what one law enforcement informant described as’ overwhelming’–evidence, the charges had not been able to been approved for filing. The evidence includes audiotapes, emails sent to and from Scientology men at the time the suspect rapes happened, forensic computer exhibit and a threatening handwritten letter Masterson sent to one of the alleged victims .” The Daily Beast has obtained copies of two of these symbols addressed to Scientology officials, who the hell is written by the mother of Victim B. The notes were also submitted to the LAPD, according to two generators with knowledge of the issues and emails reviewed by The Daily Beast. A source close to the family of Victim B sanctioned with The Daily Beast that they understood these words at the time, have indicated that they” were passed them to proofread” and that the latter are “involved” in delivering both sets of characters by hand, so as to ensure that they reached their desired recipients without obstruction. The first symbol is dated January 26, 2004, and is addressed to a Tammy Wilkoff; the address yielded is for the Religious Technology Center, a non-profit religious corporation that oversees the registered trademarks of Dianetics and Scientology. The RTC too restrains Scientology’s Knowledge Reports( KR )– basically a lane for Scientologists to submit information about another Scientologist without confronting them face-to-face. The second symbol is dated March 11, 2004, and was sent to David Miscavige, the leader of the Church of Scientology. The root close to the family had reaffirmed that they helped to personally deliver that letter to” one of Miscavige’s Sea Org security guards at the headquarters .” In the symbols, the mother of Victim B invoked a Knowledge Report that she wrote on December 7, 2003. The beginning told The Daily Beast that this report was the result of the mother’s anger at the Church’s non-response to her daughter’s sexual-assault allegation. The mom cc’d a number of beings in the report, including Danny Masterson. After research reports, a Non-Enturbulation Order–the last step before showing someone a” Suppressive Person ,” thereby ejecting them from the Church–was issued against the daughter. The baby referred to this Non-Enturbulation Order throughout her correspondences, at one point alleging that its purpose was ” to suppress the data on the atrocity .” Victim’s B baby wrote to Wilkoff to detail the alleged abuse, and to carry her frustration with the road that the Church was handled with dispute. Harmonizing to the source, the mother accused the Celebrity Centre:” In her thought, she believed that they were singlehandedly to address it and seeing these decisions, and that maybe conduct didn’t know .” In the note, the mother claimed that public officials” from CCI[ Celebrity Centre International] called after I wrote each of these reports dated December 7, 2003, and said she wanted to interview me for a 3P devote[ third-party investigation ]. She told me that she told everyone involved to stop talking about it until it all gets sorted out .” Afterward, she computed,” I was the last to be interviewed on December 18 th 2003 I ever heard from her again or anyone else for that nature .” She further conveyed her notion that Scientology’s Celebrity Centre International” is not able to standardly are dealing with cycles/second because 1) It is CC’s celeb public that the’ rules’ get divulged for … 5) The responsible Execs in charge of this area allow these out tech 3P devotes to continue as a tool to shut beings up and make their populace’ happy .’ We will all pay for this .'” ” The knowledge that I now know that David Miscavige knew that Danny Masterson has raped at least two women is just destroying .” div> — Chrissie Carnell Bixler In the second letter, responding to Miscavige, the victim’s mother includes the January letter to Wilkoff, and offered an overview of the situation. In the present letter, she territory her daughter’s allegation that she” was raped last year” and disclosed it to Advanced Organization( AO ).” She went into period and disclosed to her listener at AO…All this happened prior to November of last year. Nothing was done no one expected all the issues .” But after she wrote the December report, she claimed, everything changed. Her daughter received the Non-Enturbulation Order” and has been being sec checked ever since. it has been almost three months of sec checks and she is on her 3rd intense .” A sec check, aka defence check, constitutes a form of Scientology auditing that can be quite costly–the source close to the family told The Daily Beast that the alleged scapegoat devote over $25,000 on auditing “intensives,” firstly at Advanced Organization and then at the Celebrity Centre. When presented with the words’ allegations, Masterson provisioned The Daily Beast with a tedious announcement through the existing legislation firm of Lavely& Singer that read in part:” There is no brand-new indication. The’ documents’ Ms. Zimmerman refers to were created by the mother of the status of women who concluded these allegations against Danny Masterson…The LAPD has all of this this information and twice now has thoroughly investigated these claims, which Danny has feuded and denied from day one. Danny has been extremely cooperative with law enforcement throughout their investigation because he has absolutely nothing to hide. While his accusers have been cackling for more than a year about the so-called’ mountains of ground’ against him, Danny has never been charged with a crime–let alone convicted of one .” The letter to Wilkoff at the Religious Technology Center instantly addresses the events of the night of the alleged aggression. It quotes an suspect 4/25/ 03 Knowledge Report from Brie Shaffer, Masterson’s then-assistant( and the present spouse of actor/ Scientologist Michael Pena ), who wrote up her account the morning after. Writing about” last nighttime ,” Shaffer allegedly remembered waking up at 4 a.m. at her room, and being worried because Victim B was supposed to have slept over.” Last I listened she was being declined off at Danny’s house to get a ride with Luke Watson to my home ,” Shaffer wrote, as quoted by the mother of Victim B. She drove to Danny’s house, and Watson, a friend of Masterson’s, reportedly came down to speak to her:” When I ask him where[ Victim B] was he told me she had gone terribly drunk and find sick, that last “hes seen” of Danny and[ Victim B] was that Danny was going to make[ Victim B] to throw up .”( Shaffer and Watson did not respond to requests for remark .) Weaving in many reports with what she claims her daughter told her about that night, the mother interjected,” Another interesting point is that per[ Victim B] she had not drank that evening when she found out that she did not have a ride and was not devoting the nighttime she asked Danny for a imbibe and he cooked it for her. She only remembers that one suck being given[ to] her .” This account was corroborated by an attendee at the party that night, who asked to remain anonymous. They told The Daily Beast that,” When I first pictured[ Victim B] at Danny’s she was totally normal, absolutely fine .” In a longer report that they wrote up and submitted to the LAPD and D.A.’s office, they recollected, “[ Victim B] had only had one imbibe and although I did not experience him make it, she clearly remembers that[ Danny] compiled her a drink in a scarlet bowl and she boozed part of it before he shoved her into the Jacuzzi .” The testimony continued,” I was riled toward Danny that he have said and done to her…Danny picked her up and begin to generate her inside and upstairs I remember she used refusing but she just seemed a little bit alcohol and out of it at that point .” The source was held that Victim B was in good hands with Masterson, who was attempting to help sober her up or, in Scientology vernacular, “control” her. In the statement, they wrote,” At some station about an hour or an hour and a half eventually I recollect encountering[ Victim B ], who came up to me…and she articulated,’ Oh my God Danny really crimes me .’ Her hair was still a bit wet and she had bare hoofs. I retain experiencing scandalized and then Luke suggesting’ no that’s not what happened !’… I recollect trying to help her as well get some water in the kitchen and she was sort of was stumbling around and Luke and Danny wanting to get her back upstairs…They didn’t want me to interfere though and I remember thinking that they are able to get her back upstairs and she would sleep it off and be more appropriate .” They told The Daily Beast that,” Rape never would have even come to mind, even though she had said that…what impelled appreciation to me was that somebody handed her something at the society and she had a bad reaction to it, and Danny and Luke were just trying to help her .” The statement continued,” Everything there is happened very fast but Danny had her by the waist and was dragging her back upstairs she was bawling and yelling at him,’ Get the fuck off me! Get the fuck off me !’ and blaspheming at him. I Remember kind of screaming up toward her,’ It’s okay. Calm down, he’s going to take care of you .'” The source shared that they tried to call Victim B multiple times the next day to see if she was feeling better. They told The Daily Beast that,” The following day–it was either two or three days after–I got a call that I needed to get a’ world influence’ at the Celebrity Centre ,” signifying they would be filled in on important info. They recalled that those discussions with a Scientology official was very brief.” I was just told, “its about”[ Victim B ], because you were at the party, and she’s OK–she’s being handled. The practice that she was presenting it was that[ Victim B] had been out morals[ not obeying the regulation of Scientology ], that she was pissed .” Asked to excuse what he belief was intended by “handled,” the source sustained,” That meant that she had drawn in something that effected her to pull in get drunk and coming pharmaceutical at a society ,” which are more likely to be explored and dealt with through” hours and hours of sec check examining .” ” The word ‘rape’ was never even a remote possibility ,” they settled.” Because that’s what they told me. She’s being handled and that’s that. When you’re sacrificed R causes on situations, you never question that .” According to the source close to the family, Victim B’s mother wrote to Miscavige after stopping across a “handwritten report” — a epitome of a March 2004 insurance check hearing with Danny Masterson. According to the source, during this specific process, those named in the reports received a print,” so that report was created residence by the daughter and left in the home office .” When the mother emanated across the report” she was very angry and disturbed .” The mother of Victim B wrote,” Per Danny she was very drunk…Per Danny she hit him while in the shower” and” Per Danny she was all of a sudden dispassionate because he rained her so therefore it was all of a sudden ok to have his room with her .” The letter persisted,” Per Danny when he returned to his bunk she made her’ move’ on him not the other way around…Per Danny while he was on top of her she shoved a pillow at his appearance. Per Danny he suffocated her with that pillow.( He could have killed her, again .) Per Danny she grabbed him by his throat. Per Danny he strangled her by her throat.( He could have killed her .) Per Danny she was grabbing thoughts off the end counter. Per Danny he asked why she was doing this and she said she was going to hit him with them. Per Danny he grabbed both her pass and restraint her. Per Danny he told her not to tell others about this. Per Danny he did all of the above while have sex on top of her. Per Danny this was the best copulation he ever had .” ” Per Danny he did all of the above to her because he translated her violent actions towards him as an INVITATION and REQUEST to have it done to her not as an deed of self-defense ,” the mother indicated.” Per Danny they had aggressive copulation 9 months earlier…per[ Victim B] the only vigorous thought that happen earlier was when Danny tried to sodomize her and she made him stop which she had to go to the doctor to handle stuffs .” Apparently, Victim B and her family had a sea trip planned for shortly after the alleged abuse.” We all observed the several bruises on[ Victim B ],” her mom wrote.” The thing that struck me the most was that the back of[ Victim B ]’ s entrust was full of bruises she claimed she fell on her entrust .” Addressing Miscavige, the mother of Victim B expressed scandalize at CCI’s handling of the case, which allegedly included a plan to threw Masterson and[ Victim B] in a room together” because Danny wants to talk to her .” ” I do not know what to say ,” she sustained. “[ Victim B] could be dead today and we could all be confronting the fact that a Scientologist assassinated another during a bazaar[ sic] sex ritual. The media would have a field day with this .” She abhorred the personality doubled touchstone at play, saying that her daughter had been” called a liar and under the threat of com ev and ousters for months” and was now being pressured to meet with her accused rapist, presumably for his benefit.” Where is the Justice code ?” she requested.” Celebs are exempt from these codes ?” The source close to the family asked the seriousness of the Non-Enturbulation Order against Victim B, and how it may have depressed her from speaking out or reporting to the police. If she used propagandized out of the Church, they interpreted,” She couldn’t have her friends, her mothers couldn’t have her in their home…Going to the authorities is the highest offense they are able to perpetrate. That entails instant removal .” The generator told The Daily Beast that the letter addressed to Miscavige did yield results–the Non-Enturbulation Order was elevated eventually that month, and Victim B received further auditing at no expense, who the hell is “unheard of.” Leah Remini, who, according to the Ortega report, facilitated promote the LAPD to reopen Victim B’s case, told The Daily Beast that,” I have attended[ official documents] and conceive these are 100 percentage genuine .” She resumed,” These pair precisely everything I learned in Scientology and are consistent with my a better understanding and experience about how Scientology analyse victims of crimes. I believe that there are many more papers contained in Scientology folders that are required to be kept by Scientology. Those records would support all other aspects of what these preys portrayed .”( The LAPD did not respond to multiple is asking for remark .) The Church of Scientology has repudiated dallying any sort of role in stillness Masterson’s accuser, releasing the next statement to The Daily Beast:” The Church adamantly denies that it ever neglects any allegations of criminal action, especially at the expense of alleged victims. What is being stated is thoroughly dishonest. This has nothing to do with belief. This narration is being operated to pushing a bigoted agenda. The School follows all laws and cooperates with law enforcement. Any account or implication to the contrary is mistaken .” While the mother of Victim B was clearly outraged by her daughter’s therapy, she also stated that she was afraid of what Masterson might do in the future. She quoth the alleged sex offense of Chrissie Carnell Bixler, Masterson’s ex-girlfriend, multiple times in her letters–allegations that Masterson has denied. In the January letter, she wrote that she recently learned that Bixler” was very upset with Danny because she somehow got very drunk and Danny sodomized her. Did CCI know about this when it happened and what did they do about it .” She computed,” Danny needs to make it up to Chrissie and all those that failed to report and voided her behind her should make amends to her .” Bixler told The Daily Beast in a statement posted that she started reaching out to the Church of Scientology over the summer of 2016, when she” emailed the moralities officer at Celebrity Centre requesting what handling or improve Danny ever received after I reported him for abusing me. The morals policeman “ve been informed” she would get back to me. She never did .” Bixler says that when a reciprocal friend employed her in touch with Casualty B virtually two years ago, Victim B revealed to her that she had known about Bixler’s alleged sexual assault.” I went into a complete commonwealth of surprise ,” Bixler recollected.” I had only told the ethics policeman and the chaplain, as it was started very clear to me what would happen to me if I told anyone about the abuse .” Bixler resumed,” I was told by the church that I couldn’t go to the authorities for two reasons. 1) I was in a consensual relation with Danny so it’s not a crime, and 2) because it’s a high atrocity in Scientology to report another Scientologist to the authorities .” Bixler filed a police report in December of 2016. She told The Daily Beast that,” I detected penetrating hurt just knowing that had I gone to the police after it happened, that although there are the Church would have destroyed me, maybe he wouldn’t have hurt anyone after me .” Responding to Bixler’s allegations, the Church issued the next statement to The Daily Beast:” The Church adamantly disavows the implication it would dismiss the criminal behaviour of certain representatives, especially at the expense of alleged scapegoats. What is being stated is completely inaccurate. This has nothing to do with religion. This tale is being controlled to push a bigoted agenda. The Faith follows all the regulations and is cooperating with law enforcement. Any proclamation or implication to the contrary is inaccurate .” Having ever seen these notes before, Bixler does she was extremely disrupted after reading the sections pertaining to her alleged carnal abuse.” The knowledge that I now know that David Miscavige knew that Danny Masterson has crimes at least two women is just devastating…the Church and the COB David Miscavige KNEW and they did nothing to facilitate Danny or stop him. They should have helped Victim B and me instead of punishing us. They should have driven us to the LAPD and had us report him. Had they done the right thing, he wouldn’t have been able to hurt anyone else .” The mother of Victim B culminates her January 2004 word with a desperate request:” The fate of any young girl “re going away” near Danny lies in our hands, please help me .” Read more: https :// www.thedailybeast.com/ how-the-church-of-scientology-went-after-danny-mastersons-rape-accusers http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/08/02/how-the-church-of-scientology-went-after-danny-mastersons-rape-accusers/

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everettwilkinson · 7 years ago

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WH says Moore should go if allegations are true — GOP seems to be STUCK with Moore — TRUMP's fiery trade speech — POTUS and PUTIN will not have a meeting in Asia — WHAT SAVANNAH ASKED CHUCK at MTP’s 70

THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY … ROY MOORE is in hot water after a blockbuster Washington Post story said he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old and pursued a relationship with three other teenagers. Alabama should be a seat that Republicans should easily hold. And a dismissed juror in the trial of SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.) said the jury is deadlocked, raising the prospect that he could escape with an acquittal or hung jury.

— IF MOORE wins, imagine how toxic his relationship will be with Senate Republicans, who have tried to nudge him out of the race. If, somehow, Doug Jones, the Democrat, wins, that would strip Republicans of a crucial vote.

Story Continued Below

Good Friday morning. THE FALLOUT — “Trump, McConnell call on Roy Moore to exit Alabama Senate race ‘if these allegations are true,’” by WaPo’s Michael Scherer: “A growing chorus of Republicans, including President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have called on Senate candidate Roy Moore to withdraw from a special election in Alabama if allegations prove true that the former judge initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl nearly four decades ago.

“White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was accompanying Trump as he traveled from China to Vietnam on Friday, said, ‘Like most Americans, the president does not believe we can allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.’ …

“Several state Republicans suggested Thursday that the party is unlikely to disqualify Moore. Samuel H. Givhan, the senior vice chairman of the state party, described The Washington Post story as ‘allegations from somebody who has been silent for over 40 years’ who was speaking out just weeks before an election. When asked about the Senate majority leader’s call for Moore to step aside if the accusations are found to be true, Givhan said, ‘I’m not sure Sen. McConnell has any say so in this.’” http://wapo.st/2yo11ba … The blockbuster story: “Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32,” by Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites http://wapo.st/2yNdxoL

— THE REPUBLICANS saying “if the allegations are true, he should withdraw” are giving themselves miles of leeway. Women are on the record. Moore is denying it. What other evidence are these Republicans expecting to see?

— “Republicans might be stuck with Roy Moore,” by Daniel Strauss, Elana Schor and Kevin Robillard: “GOP leaders desperately want Roy Moore off the ballot. But they have neither the legal nor the political leverage to force the defiant ex-judge out of the race. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Vice President Mike Pence and a host of other Republican senators called on Moore to drop out of the race Thursday if there were truth to the accounts of four women who told The Washington Post that Moore pursued relationships with them while they were teens and he was in his 30s. The news sent Republican operatives scrambling to parse the dusty sections of Alabama state law that deal with replacing candidates on the ballot.

“But some absentee ballots have already been sent to voters, which appears to make it impossible to install someone in place of Moore on the Republican Party line. The election is on Dec. 12. Apart from the legal considerations, Moore owes no loyalty to Republican leaders in Washington, who backed another candidate in the primary and spent millions of super PAC dollars to defeat him while Moore won the nomination on an anti-McConnell platform. Moore’s campaign lashed out as condemnation rained upon him Thursday, calling the story a ‘baseless political attack.’” http://politi.co/2Axh0VI

— “Moore fundraises off of report alleging relationships with teenagers,” by Daniel Strauss: “‘The Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me I’ve EVER faced,’ Moore wrote in the fundraising email. ‘I won’t to get into the details of their filthy and sleazy attacks.’” http://politi.co/2yN9nxs

— “Bannon compares Moore report to Trump Access Hollywood tape,” by CBS News’ Jackie Alemany and Kathryn Watson: “‘But it’s interesting,’ Bannon told the audience [in Manchester, New Hampshire]. ‘The Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post that dropped that dime on Donald Trump, is the same Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post that dropped the dime this afternoon on Judge Roy Moore. Now is that a coincidence? That’s what I mean when I say opposition party, right? It’s purely part of the apparatus of the Democratic Party. They don’t make any bones about it. By the way, I don’t mind it. I’ll call them out every day.’ Bannon called out the media saying, ‘it’s not a free and fair media anymore.’” http://cbsn.ws/2zLQ5s3

**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/2lQswbh

QUOTE OF THE DAY, courtesy Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns: “‘This is what happens when you let reckless, incompetent idiots like Steve Bannon go out and recruit candidates who have absolutely no business running for the U.S. Senate,’ said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell aide.” http://nyti.ms/2zyhY5Y

LIVE FROM NEWARK, our own MATT FRIEDMAN on MENENDEZ: “Dismissed Menendez juror: ‘I don’t think he did anything wrong’”: “A juror who was excused Thursday afternoon from U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s federal corruption trial said that if she had stayed on, she would have found Menendez ‘not guilty on every charge.’ Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby also said other jurors’ feelings about the case are mixed and she believes the result may be a hung jury.” http://politi.co/2md3p2G

TILLERSON AND TRUMP ON SAUDI ARABIA: NBC’S AYMAN MOHYELDIN (@AymanM): “Reporter: Are the arrests overreach by #Saudi? Are you concerned there’s a power grab happening under the guise of anti corruption? Tillerson:[….] ‘My own view is that it does, it raises a few concerns until we see more clearly how these particular individuals are dealt with’”.

TRUMP said on Nov. 6: “I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing……..Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years!”

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING … CATCHING YOU UP ON TRUMP ABROAD:

— NO TRUMP/PUTIN MEETING: Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Air Force One: “Regarding a Putin meeting, there was never a meeting confirmed, and there will not be one that takes place due to scheduling conflicts on both sides. There is no formal meeting or anything scheduled for them. Now, they’re going to be in the same place. Are they going to bump into each other and say hello? Certainly possible and likely. But in terms of a scheduled, formal meeting, there’s not one on the calendar and we don’t anticipate that there will be one.”

— TRUMP WAS FIERY AT APEC: “When the United States enters into a trading relationship with other countries or other peoples, we will, from now on, expect that our partners will faithfully follow the rules just like we do. We expect that markets will be open to an equal degree on both sides, and that private industry, not government planners, will direct investment.

“Unfortunately, for too long and in too many places, the opposite has happened. For many years, the United States systematically opened our economy with few conditions. We lowered or ended tariffs, reduced trade barriers, and allowed foreign goods to flow freely into our country. … We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore. I am always going to put America first the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first.”

****** A message from Morgan Stanley: Amid a confluence of regulatory, market and technological factors, the production and sales of battery-powered electric vehicles may finally shift into high gear. A Morgan Stanley report projects that as many as a billion electric vehicles will be on the road worldwide by 2050. Read more. ******

BANNON SITS DOWN WITH NYT’S JEREMY PETERS — “Key Takeaways From Steve Bannon’s Interview With The Times”: “This will be looked at as a revolt of working-class people of both parties. O.K. At a time that really rejected the permanent political class that is inextricably linked, both Republican and Democrat in Washington, D.C., and try to take back — try to take back their government and — and had it — have it more responsive to themselves. …

“PETERS: ‘Do you think Mitch McConnell will be majority leader at this time next year?’ BANNON: ‘I absolutely do not think he will be majority leader.’” http://nyti.ms/2zM6WuV

THE LATEST ON PODESTA — “Podesta Group CEO quits to start her own firm,” by Theo Meyer: “Kimberley Fritts, the longtime chief executive of the Podesta Group, is leaving the firm to start her own lobbying shop, according to three Podesta Group staffers. Tony Podesta, the firm’s founder, tapped Fritts as his successor when he announced he’d step down as chairman last week, hours after an indictment was unsealed, charging Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, with violating foreign lobbying law. The indictment accused Manafort of hiring the Podesta Group to lobby for an ostensibly independent nonprofit that ‘was under the ultimate direction’ of the Ukrainian president, his party and the Ukrainian government.

“Fritts had been expected to relaunch the Podesta Group under a new name in the days after Podesta stepped down. But after more than a week of working to hammer out the details of what the new firm would look like, Fritts announced at a staff meeting late this afternoon, that she would resign and start a new firm, exacerbating questions about the future of the Podesta Group and its dozens of employees. One Podesta Group staffer described Fritts’ decision as the next step in rebuilding the firm without Tony Podesta. ‘Tony Podesta’s name had become a scarlet letter,’ the staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ‘I expect a lot of the top talent will go with her,’ the staffer added.” http://politi.co/2hp8t2G

AROUND THE TAX REFORM HORN …

BERNIE BECKER, BRIAN FALER and AARON LORENZO: “Senate GOP’s tax bill points to nasty fight ahead: There are dramatic differences between the House and Senate versions of the tax overhaul, imperiling Trump’s desire to sign legislation by year end”: “The Senate and House are split on some key issues, including the top tax rate and the timing of the corporate tax cut, and also at odds with President Donald Trump in many areas. Hard bargaining, battles between GOP factions and an onslaught of lobbying are the gauntlets Republicans will have to run to get legislation to Trump’s desk by the end of the year — and into their mailers and ads for the 2018 elections.” http://politi.co/2ypxHkL

WSJ GRAPHIC describing the differences in the two bills http://on.wsj.com/2zKa0Yp

MEDIAWATCH — “AT&T Deal Puts Trump’s Antitrust Cop at Center of a Political Storm: Makan Delrahim, who leads the antitrust division at the Justice Department, has thrown a surprising twist into a blockbuster bid for Time Warner,” by NYT’s Cecilia Kang: “A year ago, Makan Delrahim predicted that AT&T’s $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner would be approved by regulators. ‘I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem,’ Mr. Delrahim, then a law professor, said to a Canadian television network. Now, five weeks into his job as the top antitrust regulator at the Justice Department, Mr. Delrahim has taken a different position. The department has threatened to block the deal in court unless AT&T sells off major assets.” http://nyti.ms/2ynuty6

— “Watchdog lawsuit seeks to determine if White House influenced Time Warner-AT&T merger,” by USA Today’s Heidi M. Przybyla: “Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan watchdog group, is suing the U.S. Justice Department to determine whether there has been any inappropriate influence from President Trump or his White House advisers over the AT&T-Time Warner merger. The Justice Department failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request the group filed in July seeking confirmation of any contacts between the White House and the Justice Department regarding the proposed deal, which prompted the lawsuit.” https://usat.ly/2yoJHCW

ROBERT ALLBRITTON at the International Center for Journalists dinner last night at the Reagan building: “My family has been in the news business for nearly half a century. Our industry faces all kinds of pressure, particularly during these times, to get the story, get it right, and be truth tellers for our audience. In many ways, the independence of a free press in American democracy has never been more important. This is especially true given the perception that the independence of a news organization is being used as a bargaining tool in a private business transaction—the AT&T/Time Warner merger.

“As a publisher, this gives me deep concern. Media ownership must have the same resolve as our newsrooms. We must never allow threats or intimidation to impact the quality of our journalism, or the value of or brands. Administrations come and go, but principles last forever. But let us be humble about these challenges. Very few of our colleagues here face the threat of imprisonment or death – whereas journalists around the world do. It is in that spirit that we are here tonight. It is to honor the idealism and courage of those colleagues around the world that produce incredible journalism in the face of danger and the worst of humanity.”

CHRIS WALLACE was given the ICFJ award for Excellence in Journalism and also spoke: “We are not players in the game. We are umpires–or observers–trying to be objective witnesses to what is going on. That doesn’t mean we’re stenographers. If the President–or anyone we’re covering–says something untrue or does something questionable–we can and should report it. But we shouldn’t be drawn into becoming players on the field–trying to match the people we cover in invective. It’s not our role.”

RUSSIA UPDATE — “Trump Bodyguard Keith Schiller Testifies Russian Offered Trump Women, Was Turned Down,” by NBC News’ Ken Dilanian and Jon Allen: “After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to ‘send five women’ to Donald Trump’s hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview. Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, ‘We don’t do that type of stuff.’ The two sources said Schiller’s comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the Trump dossier. …

“That night [after the business meeting], two sources said, Schiller said he discussed the conversation with Trump as Trump was walking back to his hotel room, and Schiller said the two men laughed about it as Trump went to bed alone. Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump’s hotel room for a time and then went to bed. One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump’s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.” http://nbcnews.to/2m9IZHU

— “Trump, Clinton camps both offered slice of dossier firm’s work: sources,” by Reuters’ Mark Hosenball: “The same political research firm that prepared a dossier on Trump campaign ties to Russia had unrelated information on Clinton Foundation donors that a Russian lawyer obtained and offered to President Donald Trump’s eldest son last year, three sources familiar with the matter said. … The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican Trump’s campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation.” http://reut.rs/2zLzzZs

— “Mueller interviews top White House aide,” by CNN’s Pamela Brown, Gloria Borger and Evan Perez: “White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has been interviewed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, according to sources familiar with the investigation. … Miller is the highest-level aide still working at the White House known to have talked to investigators.” http://cnn.it/2zsxot6

— “Mysterious Putin ‘niece’ has a name,” by Ali Watkins: “Federal investigators have a name for a mysterious Russian woman who offered to help broker meetings between former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Kremlin officials: Olga Vinogradova. The name, which has not previously been reported, has taken on new significance for federal investigators seeking to more fully understand the role of the woman, whom Papadapoulos initially described in emails to campaign colleagues as ‘Putin’s niece,’ before later learning she was unrelated to Russian President Vladimir Putin. … Russia’s intelligence services rely heavily on third-party cutouts with vague or hidden ties to the Kremlin, including academics, businessmen, oligarchs, and even ‘honey traps’: attractive women who lure their targets into illicit liaisons that can be used for blackmail.” http://politi.co/2je843x

–“Russian Network RT Will Register as a Foreign Agent After U.S. Request,” by WSJ’s Paul Sonne: http://on.wsj.com/2iIIJL3

THE JUICE …

— HAPPENING TONIGHT — GW men’s basketball opens its season against Howard tonight at the Smith Center in Foggy Bottom. The second time out — the 12-minute mark — will be the debut of the Playbook Timeout, where Jake will interview a politician or media figure for about a minute on the Jumbotron. Tonight’s guest: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

— YOUR WEEKEND BOOKENDS … WASHINGTON WEEK (Friday at 8 p.m. on WETA): Chuck Todd, Molly Ball and Peter Baker. … KASIE D.C. (Sunday night at 7 p.m. on MSNBC): Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.).

PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump embraces Vietnam War veteran Max Morgan of Santa Clarita, Calif. at an event to sign a proclamation honoring veterans at the Hyatt Regency Danang Resort in Danang, Vietnam on Nov. 10. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo

ALEX ISENSTADT: “Romney moves toward Senate bid”: “Mitt Romney is edging closer to a 2018 Senate run. The former GOP presidential nominee is huddling with Utah’s class of GOP power-brokers, contacting the state’s major political donors, and hitting the trail for candidates running in local races amid mounting speculation that the state’s longtime senator, Orrin Hatch, will retire. Romney is also raising money for House and Senate Republicans, winning him favor with GOP leaders ahead of a treacherous midterm election.” http://politi.co/2i0ea3Z

MARIN COGAN in N.Y. MAG’S “THE CUT” — “The Powerful Predators on Capitol Hill”: “For years, Ellen, a former staffer for a Republican on Capitol Hill, worked with a serial sexual harasser. His methods were myriad: He’d make sexually explicit comments in the middle of meetings. He’d come up behind her desk chair and grind himself against it. The staff offices on Capitol Hill can be snug, and he would take advantage of this, coming into her workspace while she was meeting with constituents and standing so close that his penis was touching her arm through his pants. Once, at a work function they both were attending, he walked up to her, interrupted the conversation she was having, and slapped her on the butt. Both Ellen and the person she was talking to were too stunned to say anything about it.” http://bit.ly/2zuqQtC

— “Senate passes measure requiring sexual harassment training for senators, aides,” by Elana Schor: “The Senate unanimously approved legislation late Thursday that institutes mandatory sexual harassment training for senators and aides — a potentially meaningful shift amid calls for overhauling Capitol Hill’s system for handling harassment complaints.” http://politi.co/2zw4xDF

— “Gabby Giffords’ Gun Group Sues The Trump Administration,” by HuffPost’s Jen Bendery: “The gun control group led by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) is suing the Trump administration for failing to turn over documents that could show the National Rifle Association’s influence over President Donald Trump’s gun policies. … The gun safety group is accusing ATF of refusing to respond to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for documents relating to communications between administration officials and the NRA.” http://bit.ly/2iJc6ge

PETE SOUZA PROFILE — “Pete Souza Photographed the Obama Presidency. Now He Helps People Remember It,” by NYT’s Katie Rogers: “Toggling between a career as a photojournalist and a White House photographer — he was also a photographer in the Reagan White House — Mr. Souza has honed an ability to crouch and shrink to capture the details no one else sees…. He is still not quite sure why his Instagram feed has ballooned into a nostalgic haven for millions mourning the end of the 44th presidency, or why his book, ‘Obama: An Intimate Portrait,’ which was released this week, has rocketed to the top of Amazon’s best-seller list and sold out speaking events from this corner of New York to the Tate Modern in London.” http://nyti.ms/2hid7eV

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT FILES — “Louis C.K. Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 5 Women,” by NYT’s Melena Ryzik, Cara Buckley and Jodi Kantor: “In 2002, a Chicago comedy duo, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, landed their big break: a chance to perform at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. When Louis C.K. invited them to hang out in his hotel room for a nightcap after their late-night show, they did not think twice. The bars were closed and they wanted to celebrate. He was a comedian they admired. The women would be together. His intentions seemed collegial. As soon as they sat down in his room, still wrapped in their winter jackets and hats, Louis C.K. asked if he could take out his penis, the women said.

“They thought it was a joke and laughed it off. ‘And then he really did it,’ Ms. Goodman said in an interview with The New York Times. ‘He proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating.’ In 2003, Abby Schachner called Louis C.K. to invite him to one of her shows, and during the phone conversation, she said, she could hear him masturbating as they spoke. Another comedian, Rebecca Corry, said that while she was appearing with Louis C.K. on a television pilot in 2005, he asked if he could masturbate in front of her. She declined.” http://nyti.ms/2zLzIMu

THE POST WHITE HOUSE LIFE — “Sean Spicer to judge D.C. dance contest because why not,” by WaPo’s Helena Andrews-Dyer: http://wapo.st/2yN38tx

SPOTTED: Don Trump Jr. and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) on yesterday’s 12:59 p.m. Delta shuttle from DCA to LGA. Both traveled in coach. “Upon disembarking, Don waited to say hello to Zeldin and they both walked out of the terminal together,” per our tipster. … Reince Priebus yesterday in the Acela club room at Penn Station waiting for the 5 p.m. Acela to DC … Charlie Gasparino having dinner with Dann Florek of “The Flintstones,” “Law and Order” and “Law and Order SVU” and others last night at Hunt and Fish Club in NYC.

HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY to GABBY GIFFORDS and MARK KELLY. They’re celebrating by going out for dinner and a movie in Tucson tonight. The original NYT wedding announcement http://nyti.ms/2yNVwXq

SPOTTED at Meet the Press’ 70th anniversary party last night at the Newseum: Chuck Todd, Tom Brokaw, Kellyanne Conway, Andrea Mitchell, Phil Griffin, Maureen Orth, Don Nash, Keir Simmons, Hans Nichols, Ken Strickland, Andy Lack, Savannah Guthrie, Ari Melber, David Brooks, Jo Ling Kent, Don Nash, John Reiss, Susan Rice, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), Dana Bash, Hugh Hewitt, Bob Costa, Stephanie Ruhle, Betsy Fischer Martin and Jonathan Martin, David Corn, Jo Ling Kent, Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Lauren French, Sergio Gor, Evan Quinnell, Paul Kane, Eliana Johnson. CRUZ, MITCHELL and SAVANNAH turned the tables and asked Chuck questions. BEST QUESTION: SAVANNAH said: “Trump has referred to you in tweets as ‘Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd.’ I don’t really have a question here.” Photos http://bit.ly/2AvMhs9 … http://bit.ly/2AvM8F7 … http://bit.ly/2ApJhww

— SPOTTED at Baby Wale last night for a surprise 30th birthday party for Tyrone Gayle ahead of his big day: Tyrone’s fiancée Beth and sister Tamara, Adrienne Elrod, Paul Kane, Doug Thornell, Jennifer Palmieri, Lily Adams, Ian Sams, Gabe Debenedetti, Corey Ciorciari, Gwen Rocco, Chris Harris, Xochitl Hinojosa, Mary Rutherford Jennings, Marc Brumer, Alex Phillips, Sarah Peck, Miryam Lipper, Pat Burgwinkle.

SUNDAY SO FAR — “Fox News Sunday”: Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas). Panel: Mike Needham, Julie Pace, Gillian Turner, Charles Lane … Power Player: Cary Summers, president of the Museum of the Bible

–CBS’ “Face the Nation”: Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) … a discussion with Trump voters from Manchester, New Hampshire. Political panel: Ed O’Keefe, Amy Walter and Jeffrey Goldberg.

–ABC’s “This Week”: Panel: Mary Bruce, Alex Castellanos, Matthew Dowd, and historian Mark Updegrove, author of the new book, “The Last Republicans”

–CNN’s “State of the Union”: Panel: Van Jones, Mary Katharine Ham, former Mich. Gov. Jennifer Granholm, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)

–CNN’s “Inside Politics,” hosted by John King: Abby Phillip, Margaret Talev, Molly Ball, Michael Warren

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Lee Gochman, an alum of the Kathleen Matthew for Congress campaign and on the board of the Arlington County Dems (hat tip: Cam Erickson, who was on time)

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Mary Jordan, WaPo national correspondent and former longtime foreign correspondent. How she got her start in journalism: “I wrote a few articles for the Irish Press while studying Yeats at Trinity College in Ireland where my parents were born. I sent those to the Washington Post in the hopes of getting a summer internship and have been at the paper since.” Read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2yNkRRh

BIRTHDAYS: CBS’ Howard L. Rosenberg … The United States Marine Corps is 242 — this year’s video birthday message http://bit.ly/2hq49jt (h/t Chesty Puller) … former Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is 74 … Benjamin Pauker, executive editor of Foreign Policy (h/t Ben Chang) … Bush 43 alum Misty Marshall … NPR congressional reporter Sue Davis (h/t Tim Burger) … Jim Kuhnhenn, co-founder of WaVe Communications and an AP alum … Cary Justice … former Rep. Brad Ashford (D-Neb.) is 67 … Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) is 63 … former Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) is 73 … Amanda Chiarappa Candy … Michael Hacker … Marla Romash … Pierce Stanley … CNN’s Kylie Gudzak (h/t Lauren Pratapas) … Amanda Ashley Keating, VP at GPG… Geoff Brewer, editorial director at Gallup, is 53 … Elizabeth Greener, director of communications at American Forest Foundation (hubby tip: Ted) …

… ABC News’ Josh Margolin is 47 (h/t Ali Dukakis) … Zach Lowe, director of comms at international conservation NGO Rare (h/t Anthony DeAngelo) … energy consultant Howard Marks … Andy Diaz … LaRonda Peterson … Politico’s Jeff Daker … Jean Weinberg, chief comms. officer at NYC Housing Authority … Tim Garraty … Jessica Cole Buchanan … Julie Weber … Jared Miller, video producer at NYMag … Robyn Patterson … Allison Kelly, a Wisconsin native and “longtime research extraordinaire” at the Obama White House and then deputy press secretary at NASA (h/ts Andrew Bates) … Elias Alcantara … Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch, digital media director at Alliance for American Manufacturing … Nate Treffeisen, senior national mobilization manager at City Year … Christina Brown … Elizabeth (Ladt) Sullivan … Ben Engwer … Kristin Stiles of High10 Media … Andrew Mims … Alexandru Godescu … Jeremy Nordquist, COS for Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.) … Blake Deeley … Miranda Lilla … Zachary Enos … Jessica Taylor … Brian Romick … Tom Cosgrove … Andrea Dukakis … Lisa Stefanik (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

****** A message from Morgan Stanley: For years, many industry watchers have predicted the demise of traditional gas-guzzlers and the rise of electric cars. Yet, despite the advent of hybrid vehicles, better and cheaper batteries, and the entry of high-performance luxury electric competitors, the former continues to dominate roads globally. Now, however, the automobile’s long-promised electric future may be in sight, according to a new report that projects that as many as a billion battery electric vehicles will be on the road worldwide by 2050, reaching parity with vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine. Why have electric cars never been successful before and why is it different this time? Read more. ******

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NFL draft profile: No. 7 — Ohio State S Malik Hooker, injury concern but sky-high upside

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Ohio State Malik Hooker 6-foot-1, 206 pounds

Key stat: In his one season of starting for the Buckeyes, Hooker logged 74 tackles (5.5 for losses), 11 passes defended and tied for third in NCAA with seven interceptions (184 return yards and three of those picks run back for touchdowns).

Ohio State S Malik Hooker (R) is a threat every time he intercepts a pass. (AP)

The skinny: Prep star in basketball had strong Division-I attention in hoops and won two state championships in the sport. Only started playing football as junior in high school but was heavily recruited and committed to Ohio State, where he redshirted in 2014. The following season, Hooker primarily was a special teamer, playing behind Vonn Bell, a 2016 second-round pick of the New Orleans Saints. Once Hooker earned a starting role in 2016, there was little stopping him as he earned first-team All-American and first team All-Big Ten honors.

Hooker declared for the 2017 NFL draft following his redshirt sophomore season. He had surgery to repair a torn labrum and a hernia on Jan. 31 and was medically excused from performing at the NFL scouting combine and could not work out at Ohio State’s pro day. He turned 21 years old recently.

Best-suited destination: Any NFL team wanting to roll the injury dice on a player who has immense talent — he might have been our No. 2-ranked prospect had he been fully healthy and played a bit more before this past season — would apply here. Hooker is inexperienced and could use time to get healthy and fully acclimated to sophisticated NFL passing offenses. So he might be best suited to land with a team that can afford to not have him start immediately if need be, but scheme-wise Hooker’s range, size and instincts lend him to any type of defense teams want him to run. Teams that could be especially interested in Hooker include the Los Angeles Chargers, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Arizona Cardinals — but again, Hooker’s raw talent has mass appeal around the NFL.

Upside: Immense ceiling. In a league where teams are always seeking defensive backs who have the range to cover, the instincts to make plays on the ball and the size to be forces in the run game, Hooker’s skill set is an absolute dream. Terrific height, length and some of the biggest hands (10 3/4 inches) you’ll ever see in a defensive back. Moves around with ease, like you’d expect a quick basketball guard to. Absolutely ideal height-weight-speed numbers for a safety when you consider that he likely can add 5-10 pounds easily and not lose anything in the process.

Ninja-like in his ability to read the quarterback’s eyes, react and pounce. Has extreme confidence in his own diagnostic skills and the makeup speed to correct mistakes quickly when he makes them. Want to see range, instincts and playmaking — all in one play? This is early in Hooker’s first college start, mind you, as he comes all the way from the far hashmark in a single-deep safety-look, traverses more than half the field (off the quarterback’s three-step drop), tips the pass to himself and hauls in a memorable first collegiate INT against Bowling Green (and he later made another terrific pick in the same game):

Ohio State S Malik Hooker made an insane interception against Bowling Green. (Draftbreakdown.com)

Worth another look:

What a play — and just a tease of what Hooker could one day become. (Dratftbreakdown.com)

Reads screens and draws well, even front center field position, and can come downhill to erase them before they get started. Good last-line defender — takes good angles to the ball, doesn’t get beat deep and can be counted on to prevent touchdowns. Home-run threat with the ball in his hands — averaged 26.3 yards per INT return and had TDs off picks against Tulsa, Nebraska and Michigan and almost housed his second INT in the Bowling Green game.

Also served as the Buckeyes’ punt-team gunner and the defensive end on the field-goal block unit. Arrow is pointed up — way up. All Pro potential is obvious when you watch where he is after so little football.

Downside: Still learning the game. Offenses with more sophisticated passing concepts slowed him down a step. Can bite on play action (see Indiana and Penn State games) and also get fooled by a savvy quarterback’s eyes (see Clemson game). Will arrive a hair early trying to make a play on the ball — got away with a few of these on non-calls last season. Has man-coverage ability but appears to be best in deep space. Still a bit of a guesser who gets some wrong.

Injury could keep Hooker out for the start of offseason training. Might be best served with a rookie season where he’s not expected to be a game-changer right away. Could use more bulk on his frame — especially in his upper body. Not a forceful run defender yet. Will make tackle attempts at the ankles and will let a few slip through his grasp. Also can overshoot gaps and leave his feet too much. Will run around receivers’ block attempts at times. His vision is much better in space — the closer Hooker is to the line of scrimmage and the more traffic there is, the less he’s able to diagnose plays.

Scouting hot take: “I can look at 13 games of a one-year starter at safety and project what he’s going to be a lot easier than I can a quarterback … He’s a special one. Mark my words: I love [LSU’s Jamal] Adams, but Hooker will be the better player in five years.” — AFC college scouting director

Player comp: There’s a little Sean Taylor and a little Earl Thomas in Hooker’s game, but we’re still projecting here in a big way for a one-year starter coming off a notable surgery. Some on the Buckeyes’ staff even invoked the name of Ed Reed — that’s how special Hooker could be.

Expected draft range: Top-15 pick

Previous profiles

Nos. 51-100: Here’s who just missed the cut No. 50: Indiana OG-C Dan Feeney No. 49: Iowa DB Desmond King No. 48: Vanderbilt LB Zach Cunningham No. 47: Wisconsin pass rusher T.J. Watt No. 46. Alabama pass rusher Tim Williams No. 45. Washington CB Sidney Jones No. 44. Alabama LB Ryan Anderson No. 43. Ohio State WR-RB Curtis Samuel No. 42. Florida DT Caleb Brantley No. 41. Connecticut DB Obi Melifonwu No. 40. USC CB-KR Adoree’ Jackson No. 39. Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes No. 38. Michigan State DL Malik McDowell No. 37: Ole Miss TE Evan Engram No. 36: Florida LB Jarrad Davis No. 35: Washington S Budda Baker No. 34: Oklahoma RB Joe Mixon No. 33: Alabama CB Marlon Humphrey No. 32: Florida CB Quincy Wilson No. 31: Tennessee RB Alvin Kamara No. 30: Michigan DB-RS Jabrill Peppers No. 29: Alabama OT Cam Robinson No. 28: Notre Dame QB DeShone Kizer No. 27: LSU CB Tre’Davious White No. 26: Missouri DE Charles Harris No. 25: UCLA pass rusher Takkarist McKinley No. 24: Michigan DE Taco Charlton No. 23: Wisconsin OT Ryan Ramczyk No. 22: Utah OT Garett Bolles No. 21: Western Kentucky OG-C Forrest Lamp No. 20: Florida State RB Dalvin Cook No. 19: Miami (Fla.) TE David Njoku No. 18: Tennessee DE Derek Barnett No. 17: Clemson QB Deshaun Watson No. 16: North Carolina QB Mitchell Trubisky No. 15: Washington WR John Ross No. 14: Clemson WR Mike Williams No. 13: Western Michigan WR Corey Davis No. 12: Temple LB Haason Reddick No. 11: Ohio State CB Gareon Conley No. 10: Alabama TE O.J. Howard No. 9: Stanford RB-WR-RS Christian McCaffrey No. 8: Alabama LB Reuben Foster

– – – – – – –

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @Eric_Edholm

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