#also very surprising how much coverage is on this considering that river just announced the return of gallardo as hc

[ratatatastic]

oh my god so far we've only won one medal and its gold in bmx and el maligno (jose torres) is already at the Casa Rosado (basically like the presidential white house. but pink.) celebrating oh my god that was quick (it has been 4 days)

[xseedgames]

2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #1

It’s time for our first 2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza! We’ve got a bunch of these we’ll be posting over the holiday break, so please look forward to them. Now, let’s roll right in!

We have answers from: 

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Liz Rita, QA Tester Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Has selling your games on PC worked out for you so far? I know supporting the PC platform is a relatively recent choice for XSEED. - @Nate_Nyo

Ken: Being on PC has been great for us as it allows us to reach anyone anywhere in the world regardless of region or console. We were probably one of the earlier adopters in terms of bringing content from Japan to PC as we first published Ys: The Oath in Felghana on Steam almost 6 years ago in early 2012.

Brittany: I love working on PC. The work involved is greater than working on console, but I feel like it's a bigger learning experience, too. For console, the developers normally handle the graphics after we translate them, and they do all the programming and such. For PC, everything falls on us. I wasn't that experienced with Photoshop in the beginning, but I think I've gotten a lot better with it over the years. We can also receive updates instantly, and since I talk with our PC programmer through Skype, it's easier to suss out our exact needs and think of ideas to improve the game or bring it to modern standards.

Question: What non-XSEED games do you praise the localization for? - @KlausRealta

Brittany: Final Fantasy XII. I love everything about Final Fantasy XII's writing. I'm also a big fan of the personality in the Ace Attorney localizations. I'm still playing Yakuza 0, but you can feel the passion of the localization team in the writing. There are some projects where you can tell the editing was phoned in, and then there are games where it's obvious it was a labor of love. All of these games have a color I aspire to.

Tom: Probably going to be a popular answer, and not an especially surprising one, but I've got to give props to Lost Odyssey. It's hard to deny the timeless quality and absolutely masterful English writing that went into basically every line of that game's massive script, with the many short stories being of particular note. That game really does represent an inspirational high bar that I think most everyone else in the industry will forever strive to reach in their own works.

For a more unexpected answer, I've also got to give mad props to Sega for their work on Monster World IV. As a Sega Genesis game released digitally in English for the very first time less than a decade ago, I guess I was kind of expecting a fairly basic "throwaway" translation -- but instead, the game boasts a full-on professional grade localization that's easily up to all modern standards, brimming with charm and personality. It's really nice to see a legitimate retro game being given that kind of care and attention in the modern era, and it makes it very easy for me to recommend (as does the fact that the game is actually quite fun, and is sure to be enjoyed by anyone who's played through all the Shantae titles and really wants to try something else along similar lines).

John: I played Okami on PS3 earlier this year (before the remake was announced), and I was awed by how skillfully the team handled text that is chock full of localization challenges like quirky nicknames, references to Japanese fairy tales, and regional dialects. I was especially amused to see a reference to "kibi dango," the dumplings Momotaro uses to bribe his companions in that famous story. We dealt with the same cultural reference with STORY OF SEASONS: Trio of Towns.

Nick: My go-to response is always Vagrant Story, because it’s the game I credit with getting me really interested in a career in localization. Before that point, I had enjoyed games for their story and characters, but hadn’t realized just how much the specific word choices and tone contributed to a reader’s perception of a story as a whole. The gents behind VS’s localization would go on to be industry luminaries, with Rich Amtower now calling shots in Nintendo’s Treehouse department and Alex Smith being synonymous with the highly regarded prose of Yasumi Matsuno’s games – including the cool and underappreciated Crimson Shroud for 3DS, and Final Fantasy XII, which as anyone who’s played it can tell you is a stellar localization. Having spent a lot of time with FFXII’s “The Zodiac Age” remaster this year, the care and attention to detail put into the localization still blows me away. The unique speech style of the Bhujerbans (with...Sri Lankan inflections, if memory serves correctly) sticks with me, because I knew that I myself would never have been able to pull off something like that so deftly. I guess you could say Vagrant Story started a lineage of games that’s always given me something to aspire to as an editor.

Final Fantasy XIV, which I’ve been playing this year, also has a very good localization, especially considering the reams of text that go into an MMO of its size and scope. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and his team have done a bang-up job giving life and personality to the land of Eorzea, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how the localization has changed in subtle ways as time has gone on. The initial “A Realm Reborn” localization sort of cranks the “regional flavor” up to 11 with heavy dialects and vernacular, but in subsequent expansions, they kind of eased up on that and have found a good mix between grounded localization and the kind of flourishes that work well in high-fantasy settings.

 And, while I haven’t played it in a number of years, I remember Dragon Quest VIII having a really great localization, too, with ol’ Yangus still living large in my memories. Tales of the Abyss was fantastic as well, and both DQVIII and Abyss delivered some really brilliant dub work that showed me how much richer one could make characterization when the writing and the acting really harmonized. I still consider Tales of the Abyss my general favorite game dub to date. The casting is perfect, with not a bad role among them. I also want to give mad props to Ni no Kuni’s Mr. Drippy, just as a perfect storm of great localization decisions. Tidy, mun!

Question: How hard is it to turn in game signs and words to English for Japanese? Is it as simple as going in and editing text? Or as hard as creating a whole new texture for the model? - @KesanovaSSB4

Tom: We refer to this as "graphic text" -- meaning, literally, text contained within graphic images. How it's handled differs from project to project, but the short answer is, yeah, it involves creating a whole new texture for the model. Sometimes, this is handled by the developer: they'll just send us a list of all the graphic text images that exist in-game and what each image says, we'll send that list back to them with translations, and they'll use those translations to create new graphic images on our behalf. For other games, however (particularly PC titles we're more or less spearheading), we'll have to do the graphic edits ourselves. When the original PSDs or what-not exist for the sign images, this is generally pretty easy -- but as you might expect, those aren't always available to us, meaning we'll sometimes have to go to a bit more trouble to get this done.

John: The best practice is to review graphic text very early in the localization process because it takes effort to fix and can throw a wrench in schedules if issues are discovered too late. On occasion, it is too difficult to change ubiquitous textures, especially those that might also appear in animation. This was the case with "NewTube" in SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash, which the localization team wanted to change to "NyuuTube" to make the wordplay clearer to series fans.

Question: With the Steam marketplace becoming increasingly saturated and being seen as a greater risk to publish on in recent times, what does XSEED plan on doing in order to remain prominent and relevant in the PC gaming space? - @myumute

Ken: It is indeed getting harder and harder to stand out as hundreds of new titles are releasing on Steam each month. We are working our way towards simultaneous release across all platforms to help leverage some of the coverage from the console version to get more attention to the PC release, so hopefully that's something we can accomplish soon. For PC-exclusive releases it continues to be a challenge, but at least they have a long tail and even if it's not an immediate success at launch we know it can continue to produce sales for years to come.

Question: What was your favorite film that you saw in 2017, and why? - @Crippeh

John: I'm way behind on movies this year (haven't seen Disaster Artist, Phantom Thread, or Get Out, for example), but recently I've enjoyed both Star Wars and Lady Bird. I expect I'll watch my favorite film from 2017 sometime in 2018.

Ken: Wind River. Mainly because of Jeremy Renner's performance and how many quotable lines he had.

Liz: Get Out for horror mindblowing amazingness, Spider-Man Homecoming for genuinely fun comic book movie, and The Shape of Water for Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro should always be a category.

That’s it! Stay turned for blog #2 later this week. Here’s a preview of the kinds of questions we’ll be answering:

Question: Have you ever considered selling the music CDs for your licenses stateside? - @LimitTimeGamer Question: If possible, would you please consider researching and localizing classic Korean-made PC xRPGs? - @DragEnRegalia Question: Do you have any interest in pursuing the localization of any of the large, beautiful Chinese RPGs that have been hitting Steam? Or are you focused exclusively on Japanese titles? - @TheDanaAddams Question: What inspired you all to do this kind of work in the first place? Also, what’s the story behind the company name XSEED? How did you all come up with it? - @TBlock_02 Question: What was everyone's favorite game(s) to work on this year? - @ArtistofLegacy Question: What's everyone's favorite song from the Falcom games you've released so far? - @Crippeh

[famedubaitravl]

Eerie silence and hot chip wars as Adelaide Oval swings back into action

FIRST CROWDS IN

Only 2240 “fans” were allowed to attend the Showdown. © Fame Dubai

In his 35 years as a passionate Port Adelaide fan, Brad Chilcott has witnessed some remarkable feats at the Adelaide Oval, but nothing quite like what he saw transpire on Saturday (June 13). And it didn’t happen on the Oval outfield where his beloved Aussie rules football club handed local rivals Adelaide Crows their worst defeat ever on their shared home-ground. Instead, it took place in the western stand, where he sat three seats and two rows apart from the 699 others who occupied that section of the Oval for Showdown 48, the AFL local derby. The deed itself: a Port fan flinging a hot chip at a Crows fan seated 15 rows below him and “clocking him on the head” with it.

According to Chilcott, the rival supporter had it coming. He’d spent minutes leading up to the chip attack hurling abuse at the Port players. And his reaction was to turn around with a stern gaze before getting back to feeling upset with his own team’s performance. For Chilcott, the unprecedented incident summed up an unprecedented night where a live crowd watched live sport inside an Australian stadium for the first time in three months. In an ideal scenario after all, with a packed house, the Port fan would never have managed to hear what his counterpart was screaming. Neither would he, despite his evidently good arm, have had a clear shot at the Crows supporter like he did with only 2240 “fans” allowed to attend the Showdown.

It was an incident that gave some insight into what the cricket experience might offer in a post-lockdown COVID world.

“One thing different here was that the banter between spectators was much more amplified. You could hear everyone in your section, including someone abusing your favourite player right down the front. So, there was a lot of yelling back and forth between Port and Crows,” Chilcott, the founder of Welcoming Australia which works towards promoting multiculturalism and social cohesion, tells Fame Dubai.

Though the Crows fans might not agree, the eventual outcome of the Showdown was a success. For the prospect of crowds returning for good to sporting venues around Australia anyway. The number is only expected to go up owing to the “respectful” Showdown crowd who according to the South Australian government officials followed all protocols to the hilt. And with six months still to go for the scheduled first-ever Australia v India pink-ball Test, it looks very likely that a sizable crowd might end up yelling back and forth with Virat Kohli & Co at the Adelaide Oval come December.

In less than two weeks will come the second stage of the crowd experiment in Adelaide when close to 5000 fans will be allowed for the start of the SANFL (South Australian National Football League) season. There’s also been talk from Prime Minister Scott Morrison about letting close to 10,000 fans into venues with limited seating as early as next month. And Chilcott, who tries to get in two days of the annual Test every year, is confident of being there to see the much-awaited slugfest go ahead.

International cricket is set to make its own return in less than a month’s time when the West Indies, currently quarantining in Manchester, take on England in the first-ever bio-secure Test series in history. There’ll be no crowds in Southampton or Manchester though unlike here. And the sound of bat on ball will be the only factor contributing to the ambience.

“A country cricket match with a few parents yelling at their kids,” is what the Showdown with a handful of spectators around felt like for Barb and Andrew Staniford. The couple were among the additional 240 guests allowed in the corporate suites at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday. Though originally Crows fans, they were there like they have been for the last 10 years representing one of the lead sponsors of Port Adelaide. And their “weird” experience commenced from the time they hailed a cab to get to the venue a bit earlier than the rest.

“Generally, there are a lot of roadblocks. You’ll find a portion of King William Road being blocked and the War Memorial Drive completely barricaded. But this time, there was none of that. We actually got dropped off comfortably right outside the Oval and walked in without a hassle,” reveals Barb.

It is expected that by the end of the year there will be a lot more people, in the thousands even, lining up outside the Members Entrance at the River End. And so too the road blockades that Mrs Staniford didn’t encounter last weekend.

She adds that once they were in their suite, the alcohol and other refreshments had to be self-served while only around 15 people occupied a room that generally sees up to 40-50 guests. They were also asked to stay indoors and not venture out to the balcony while at one point the staff also shut the glass windows. The Stanifords’ evening started with a customary meal, where again they had to maintain social-distancing. That is before they received a surprise visitor, Professor Nicola Spurrier, SA’s chief public health officer, and the woman who has led the state’s battle against the virus.

“She just walked in as part of the checks she was conducting around the stadium. Some of the people in the room started cheering for her and telling her what a good job she’s been doing. She looked a little shy then and then just said ‘may the best team win’ and left,” Barb says.

“There were 22,000 members who decided to continue paying their fees and only 1475 tickets up for grabs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones.” ©Fame Dubai

The Oval itself before the players ran out carried an eerie feel, she adds, despite the presence of the smattering of people in the stands. There was an explosion of noise, however, when the Port Adelaide players ran on to the field in their legendary yet contentious prison-bar guernseys in what is the 150th anniversary of the club. Chilcott, donning his Port Adelaide ‘Power’ scarf, was among those creating a din around the Oval. He had come to the stadium by himself, having left his son to “hang out” with the puppy they’d bought earlier in the day. The western stand, he reveals, were mainly individuals like him who’d come there by themselves and the lack of “mates in groups” meant there wasn’t the kind of buzz you’d generally expect at such a high-profile event.

The ability to “identify individual voices” in the crowd though was just one of the many unique experiences on Saturday for Chilcott, who’s been a Port supporter since the age of 7. It started with how he even managed to procure a ticket for the big game. Chilcott and his family had been gifted club memberships on his 40th birthday. He decided to renew it this year despite the potential threat of the pandemic completely wiping out the football season. And when South Australian police commissioner Grant Stevens announced last week that the Adelaide Oval will be the first to experiment with permitting a sparse crowd for AFL matches, Chilcott decided to put his membership number in the ballot organised by his club for tickets.

“There were 22,000 members who decided to continue paying their fees and only 1475 tickets up for grabs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones,” he says.

The Crows, for the record, were limited to only 475 tickets as this was deemed as a “home” game for Port in a curtailed AFL season which has been reduced to 17 rounds from the original 23 owing to the Covid-19 outbreak. And for good measure, considering the rather hapless show their team put on during their 75-point loss.

“Funnily, people spoke more with each other than they would when there’s a packed crowd. But as I walked around to my allocated seat after entering through the North Gate, I could sense the lack of buzz, the strangeness of the dispersed crowd,” says Chilcott.

Chilcott and the other members had received an email from the club with some specific instructions, which included “carrying your membership card” and “downloading the Covid Safe government app”. He reveals though that his phone wasn’t scanned and there weren’t any excessively stringent security protocols in place.

“The only time I was actually asked to sanitise my hands was when I went to the Kiosk to get some food and drinks. And they were being strict on social distancing in the lines at the Kiosk too,” he adds. For the Stanifords’, the only aspect that stood out in terms of health policing was how only one person was allowed to be on the escalator at any given time with a security staff actually standing guard at the top of the steps.

The NRL and the AFL have been trying to enhance the atmosphere around their games by adding ambient crowd noises to their coverage. And there was talk of the real crowd noise at the Oval being amplified further by placing microphones at strategic locations. Chilcott doesn’t recall seeing any near where he was sat but did have some of his friends watching on TV wondering how the 2000-odd could have generated such a racket, even if the ratio of Port fans to Crows fans was somewhat similar to the final scoreline.

“Once the game started, the crowd was actually louder than I expected them to be. But on the flip side, there were also periods of dead silence, which you never see in a full stadium. The loudest was at the start and also at the end when they played the team song,” he explains.

There has been a sense of irony on the field ever since the AFL has restarted with regards to how the players aren’t wary of grabbing and jumping over their opponents in an attempt to secure the sherrin (the footy ball) but make sure that they celebrate goals only with elbow bumps. And Chilcott admits that it wasn’t easy for the Port fans to express their unbridled joy at the result as they would normally with hugs and high-fives to anyone else in Power colours. For good measure, he did make his way later to the bar in the city, where Port fans generally meet-up following a home game, and he jokes about how there were “hugs and high-fives” with nobody watching. It was a fitting end to a night where normalcy, even if only a tinge, returned to the Adelaide Oval and sport around Australia. As Chilcott puts it, “Just being in a public venue with a number of people felt like such a foreign concept. So even though it was a sparse crowd, it felt good to do something normal.”

© Fame Dubai

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[yahoo-the-dagger-blog]

Ball-mania has struck the humble Lithuanian town where LiAngelo, LaMelo will play

Some BC Vytautas fans donned homemade Big Baller Brand shirts for their game on Saturday. (Jaunius Mališauskas)

Two weeks before LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball are scheduled to arrive in Prienai, Lithuania, one of the town’s most popular restaurants has already begun preparing to make them feel welcome.

A scrolling electronic sign above Tango Pizza’s front door flashes the message, “PRIENAI GOT BALLS!!!” An American flag now accompanies the Lithuanian one that already hung above the bartop. Owner Jaunius Mališauskas is even considering mounting some Ball family memorabilia on the walls, cordoning off a VIP table for LiAngelo and LaMelo and adding some of their favorite American dishes to the menu.

“At first nobody could believe this is happening, but now, everyone is talking about it and a lot of the people are excited,” Mališauskas said. “If my 63-year-old mother is talking about the Ball family, it must be a top topic in Prienai, trust me on this.”

Since last week’s announcement that LaVar Ball’s two younger sons have signed with BC Vytautas for the rest of the basketball season, the town of Prienai has been abuzz about their imminent arrival. Two globally famous teenagers don’t often visit Prienai, a humble 10,000-person town in the south of Lithuania surrounded by miles of scenic rivers, lakes and forest.

Last Saturday, at the first BC Vytautas home game since LiAngelo and LaMelo signed, the team’s play-by-play announcer sang a song welcoming the Balls to Lithuania and several fans showed up in plain white T-shirts with the BBB logo of the Big Baller Brand scribbled across the front in black ink. Tickets for the Ball brothers’ first scheduled games next month sold so quickly last week that BC Vytautas has since decided to more than double the price.

The media coverage has also been jaw-dropping for a little-known town not used to having the eyes of the basketball world on it. Not only did every major Lithuanian outlet cover the story for the first two or three days after the Ball brothers signed, prominent news organizations from across the United States and Europe have also descended on Prienai to try to learn more about the far-flung outpost where LiAngelo and LaMelo will make their professional debuts.

“We are happy that Prienai and Lithuania have had so much coverage this week, maybe even more than your President,” Alvydas Vaicekauskas, the mayor of Prienai, wrote via email. “It’s like a Christmas gift for Prienai because we couldn’t have thought of a better and more affordable way of advertising.”

An aerial photo of the town of Prienai from a hot-air balloon. (Simona Vaicekauskaite)

While many people in basketball-mad Lithuania were aware of the Ball family before news broke that LiAngelo and LaMelo were coming, the hubbub must be terribly confusing for those just learning about them for the first time. After all, it’s not easy to explain how LaVar Ball has so quickly evolved from the loud-mouthed patriarch of a Southern California basketball family to launching his own shoe-apparel company, starring in a reality TV series and goading the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James and President Donald Trump into public feuds.

LaVar’s far-fetched goal is for LiAngelo and LaMelo to someday join older brother Lonzo with the Los Angeles Lakers, but his meddling has forced the younger Balls to follow an atypical, obstacle-laden path.

LiAngelo parted ways with UCLA earlier this month after LaVar became frustrated with the length of the suspension the freshman guard was serving for shoplifting in China. LaMelo left Chino Hills High School a few months ago to be home-schooled because LaVar no longer got along with the school’s new basketball coach. LaVar had been looking for an overseas pro team willing to try to develop his younger sons when BC Vytautas came calling.

The man who spearheaded BC Vytautas’ pursuit of LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball was the team’s 21-year-old communications director. Erikas Kirvelaitis learned that the Balls’ agent had been rebuffed by a bigger, more successful Lithuanian team and wondered if LiAngelo and LaMelo might consider coming to BC Vytautas instead.

Without the knowledge of any of his bosses, Kirvelaitis sent an unsolicited Twitter direct message to agent Harrison Gaines posing the idea. To Kirvelaitis’ surprise, Gaines quickly got back to him and expressed interest in learning more.

“When I first heard the rumors they might sign with another Lithuanian team, I thought we needed to take advantage of this opportunity,” Kirvelaitis said. “I thought, ‘Why not us? Why couldn’t our team have the Ball brothers on its roster?'”

The next step in Kirvelaitis’ pursuit was persuading team officials that signing the Ball brothers was a good idea, no easy feat since it’s unlikely either LiAngelo, 19, or LaMelo, 16, will be able to help BC Vytautas win games in the Lithuanian League this season. NBA scouts familiar with LiAngelo considered him a mid-major level college prospect had UCLA not taken him as part of a package deal with his brothers. LaMelo has the potential to play high-level professional basketball someday, but scouts believe he is nowhere near ready to play against grown men right now with his current slender build.

What Kirvelaitis emphasized was that a financially struggling team like BC Vytautas needed to consider the attention signing the Ball brothers would bring. LaMelo’s 3.1 million Instagram followers are a couple hundred thousand more than the entire population of Lithuania. If adding LaMelo and LiAngelo could attract new fans and sponsors, it could help elevate BC Vytautas in the future regardless of whether the brothers were capable of making an impact on the court.

“Here in Lithuania, teams have a win-first mentality, so it’s kind of tough to convince the team to sign two young players who maybe don’t give anything to the team yet basketball-wise,” Kirvelaitis said. “But I felt this was a gamble we needed to take part in. After all the speeches and the conversations within the club, we decided to try and see how it works.”

When BC Vytautas staffers spoke further with Gaines, they learned that guaranteed playing time was more important to the Ball family than money. The team laid out a plan for LiAngelo and LaMelo to play right away for BC Vytautas in the lesser-competitive Baltic League against lower-level teams from Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and other surrounding countries. If the Ball brothers fared better than expected in those games, then the team would consider giving them an opportunity to play against higher-level Lithuanian League opponents.

Those terms must have been amenable to the Ball family because the deal was done within a week. The contracts run through the end of the Lithuanian season in June, however, both sides have the option of opting out after a month.

“Of course we want them to help on the court,” said Vilius Vaitkevičius, sports director at BC Vytautas. “Basketball is the most important thing. Also if their popularity will make fans love basketball more and come to the arena to watch more games, then that is good for us too.”

BC Vytautas already landed one new sponsor immediately after signing LiAngelo and LaMelo and has had discussions with a couple others. The club is expecting the Ball brothers to arrive on Jan. 4 and to potentially make their debut on Jan. 9 in a Baltic League game against BC Tsmoki-Minsk of Belarus.

While the signing of LiAngelo and LaMelo has brought BC Vytautas the attention it craves, some of the coverage in the international media hasn’t painted Prienai in the best light. Americans who previously played in Lithuania have predicted the Ball brothers will experience massive culture shock trading sun-splashed California for a snow-covered town with little to do. BC Vytautas officials have actually had to alleviate concerns from reporters about whether Prienai has television or high-speed internet.

The coverage inspired one Lithuanian basketball fan to shoot a parody video last week welcoming the Ball family to Prienai. Kaunas resident Vytautas Mikaitis posed as a tour operator in the video and poked fun at the town’s lack of high-end stores, familiar restaurants or English speakers.

“People in Lithuania think of Americans as living in these magical places, L.A. or New York or whatever, but I’ve been to the United States 15 times and the places most people live are quite similar to here,” Mikaitis said. “In the United States, most of the people who saw the video realized it was a very good joke. In Lithuania, some people would come up to me and tell me, ‘Good video. Good video.’ Others would tell me, ‘Why would you show how bad it is here? You’re going to scare the Ball family away.'”

But while some in Prienai don’t appreciate their hometown being portrayed as Siberia, most are very enthusiastic about the arrival of the Ball brothers and the attention it has brought. Mališauskas is hopeful Tango Pizza will become a destination not just for the Ball brothers but for tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of them.

“We are surprised by the amount of international attention our town and BC Vytautas gets, but we love it,” Mališauskas said. “We invite everyone to come and visit us!”

– – – – – – –

Jeff Eisenberg is a college basketball writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @JeffEisenberg

More from Yahoo Sports: • Inappropriate Snapchat post ends high school QB’s career • Patriots boot Brady’s longtime trainer from sideline • Derek Jeter’s disastrous meeting with Marlins’ fans • NBA icons end decades-long beef in emotional moment

[politicalfilth-blog]

The Government Is Still Lion to You- 3 Proven Paradigm ? Shifts in October

We Are Change

Welcome back beautiful and amazing human beings. Today is October 31st, 2017 and in this video, we are going to be going over the three reality-shattering conspiracy theories that turned out to be true in October.

To make this more interesting, we’re going to go over the latest news occurring now related to these three major truths.

Also available on dTube here.And yes since today is Halloween I am dressed up as a lion so please still take me seriously.

“ROAR! The government is still lion to you!”

Alright, so I think one of the major truths that came out this month is the fact that Hollywood and the media industry is run by rapists, molesters, sexual predators, and pedophiles. Most of whom are connected and protected by the elites, politicians, and mainstream media. This causes them to believe they can get away with any crime that they want just because of their power. However, due to brave celebrities speaking out, that’s no longer the case.

Rose McGowan has been one of the leading voices against sexual harassment in Hollywood even pointing figures at the head of Amazon for complicity and the fact that Harvey Weinstein raped her. Speaking out against powerful lawless sexual predators comes at a price. We’re just finding out that she had a warrant issued for her arrest on a “drug-related charge” stemming from an incident on January 20th of course at the Washington Dulles International Airport.

Now, of course, many people are skeptical of this since just 11 days ago Corey Feldman another whistleblower was arrested for marijuana and smeared in mainstream media after saying that he would expose the people who abused him.

Corey Feldman was just on the Today Show where he accused NBC of slanting the coverage against him.

He has vowed to release the names of the six powerful Hollywood pedophiles within the industry. To do this, he says that he needs 10 million dollars to hire lawyers and to make a full feature film revealing what happened to him.

This has resulted in many people criticizing Corey. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, and ultimately we’re going to have to wait to find out the truth behind this situation.

We are learning that Harvey Weinstein was able to get away with assaulting women for over 40 years.

The police failed to prosecute him, and the media quietly sat on the stories. He is still well-connected with the upper echelons of Washington DC.

Washington DC appears to be just as dirty as Hollywood. As not just one woman has come out against former CIA head warmongering demon George H.W. Bush, but a second, third, and now a fourth woman have all come out discussing how this monster sexually assaulted and groped them while making David Copperfield jokes. In reality, this dirt bag should be in jail for this already, especially if we had any semblance of justice but we don’t.

Now to add the cherry on top, we, of course, have the Kevin Spacey scandal happening now where he has been accused of sexually assaulting another minor. Interestingly even family guy joked about this in an episode. Where one of the characters being a young baby running out saying, “help I escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement.”

Other people are coming out saying that he sexually abused their loved ones and he even admitted there are more stories about him. This story shouldn’t be a surprise for everyone since it goes all the way up to the top. We’re finding out that Kevin Spacey, Bill Clinton, and even Donald Trump have a familiar friend.

That friend, of course, is the billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein who previously took Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey on rides on his private jet which was called ‘The Lolita Express.’ This man who has around a hundred allegations of sexual assault rape and sexual child abuse with underage girls.

He recently settled in court for millions of dollars just a few weeks ago and after he had those airplane rides with Bill Clinton on the Lolita Express. The sick part of this story is that he even started a group to groom child actors.

While Kevin Spacey was promoting his foundation and searching for eager children, the report was published, and it revealed his private flights on the Lolita Express.

These are all facts that you won’t hear in the mainstream media. A mainstream media that is complicit and openly covering up this entire scandal. The reaction to this situation is utterly insane mainly because Kevin Spacey came out and said he doesn’t remember. He was “drunk.” Then he says oh and I’m gay now which in some strange brain altering way absolves him.

The CEO of Allied artists came out defending Kevin Spacey because he was drunk and it happened 30 years ago. The mainstream media simply focused on the single fact that he has announced he is a gay man.

The BBC who protected Jimmy Savile, a pedophile, wrote an article questioning why people are so angry about Kevin Spacey coming out.

ABC News says Kevin Spacey comes out in an emotional tweet. In reality, the mainstream media should have run a story saying that Kevin Spacey came out as a drunk who can’t remember if he was a predator pedophile.

I can’t even fathom how a responsible news organization could run those headlines. This just proves how it’s not only Hollywood but also the politicians, elites, police departments and especially the media. The entire entertainment industry is complicit with horrible sexual predators and pedophiles.

If you would have told anyone a month ago that the entertainment industry and Hollywood are infested with pedophiles and cover-ups of their crimes you might have been laughed at, but they are not laughing now.

Now a second theory turned out to be true this October, and that is the fact that the CIA pretty much still runs the show. It controls the mainstream media narrative, and as we found out from the newly released JFK files, they confirm that the CIA had over 40 journalists who were undercover CIA agents helping stage the national discourse.

Also uncovered in these new documents was the CIA plotting false flag terrorist attacks, murder plots conspiring to run a fake terrorist attack in Miami that would kill American citizens and more evidence contradicting the official story of what actually happened during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

A few weeks ago U.S. President Donald Trump said he would release all of them for full transparency. However, the CIA came to Trump said not so fast buddy and have postponed what is likely more damaging documentation about the CIA’s crimes delaying the official release for another six months.

This, of course, is creating more conspiracy theories since the CIA calls these documents a threat to national security. You would think that fifty years would be long enough for the CIA to redact these records that they’re going to make public.

We shouldn’t be so naive to think that the government would expose themselves to this situation. What this ultimately does show us is, that the CIA and the deep state made a decision and Donald Trump had to go along with it. Which should show everyone who’s really in charge.

If you told anyone in the general public a month ago that the CIA infiltrated the mainstream media, was controlling the narrative and was telling Donald Trump what to do they wouldn’t believe you! We now have the documents to prove that this is true

The third story I wanted to bring to you is the very fact that our government is not a democratic republic but a criminal enterprise. An enterprise bribed by any foreign entity where morals don’t exist, and where you could buy anything. Even advanced US military weapons technology which was sent to Saudi Arabia and of course control of United States uranium to Russia.

All of this is taking place while Donald Trump tells you that releasing government files from 50 years ago which reveal what the government was doing is a “threat to national security.”

This month alone we found out how Russia got control of 20% of American uranium which was approved by the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton at the State Department. This is a scandal that highlights and reveals the bribery, extortion, kickbacks, and shady business that saw Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and their foundations royally compensated.

All of which Obama, the Justice Department, and even the FBI which was run by Robert Mueller who at the time-knew. They even caught Russian spies who got were getting close to Hillary Clinton. This led Hillary Clinton to expedite their release back to Russia and finish the deal while the legal system decided to turn a blind eye. The CIA embedded mainstream media is also being oddly quiet about this entire deal.

The biggest story this month is about Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort who has plead not guilty to charges of not paying his taxes, not filling out proper government forms, and receiving money from Ukraine and Russia.

He is a cheesy lobbyist who was under investigation for these alleged crimes even before becoming Trump’s campaign manager years ago.

Whatever this amounts to we will see as it develops. Ultimately I think we will find out how corrupt, shady, and unethical politicians are in government. We will learn that they will ultimately do anything for a buck including selling this country down a river.

You can see how a lot of the stories that I covered today had to do with big media companies hiding these larger truths from you. Which they will always do, and that’s why I do what I do.

I provide an alternative, an answer, a solution to the mass disinformation and weaponized information that is being used against you.

I do this without any corporate or government help but only your donations.

If you believe in this message and want it spread, please consider helping us out. Share this video with your friends and family members if you can. It means a lot to me. If you disagree with me feel free to verbally assault me in the comments section.

I love you guys thank you again so much for reading this!

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[famedubaitravl]

Eerie silence and hot chip wars as Adelaide Oval swings back into action

FIRST CROWDS IN

Only 2240 “fans” were allowed to attend the Showdown. © Fame Dubai

In his 35 years as a passionate Port Adelaide fan, Brad Chilcott has witnessed some remarkable feats at the Adelaide Oval, but nothing quite like what he saw transpire on Saturday (June 13). And it didn’t happen on the Oval outfield where his beloved Aussie rules football club handed local rivals Adelaide Crows their worst defeat ever on their shared home-ground. Instead, it took place in the western stand, where he sat three seats and two rows apart from the 699 others who occupied that section of the Oval for Showdown 48, the AFL local derby. The deed itself: a Port fan flinging a hot chip at a Crows fan seated 15 rows below him and “clocking him on the head” with it.

According to Chilcott, the rival supporter had it coming. He’d spent minutes leading up to the chip attack hurling abuse at the Port players. And his reaction was to turn around with a stern gaze before getting back to feeling upset with his own team’s performance. For Chilcott, the unprecedented incident summed up an unprecedented night where a live crowd watched live sport inside an Australian stadium for the first time in three months. In an ideal scenario after all, with a packed house, the Port fan would never have managed to hear what his counterpart was screaming. Neither would he, despite his evidently good arm, have had a clear shot at the Crows supporter like he did with only 2240 “fans” allowed to attend the Showdown.

It was an incident that gave some insight into what the cricket experience might offer in a post-lockdown COVID world.

“One thing different here was that the banter between spectators was much more amplified. You could hear everyone in your section, including someone abusing your favourite player right down the front. So, there was a lot of yelling back and forth between Port and Crows,” Chilcott, the founder of Welcoming Australia which works towards promoting multiculturalism and social cohesion, tells Fame Dubai.

Though the Crows fans might not agree, the eventual outcome of the Showdown was a success. For the prospect of crowds returning for good to sporting venues around Australia anyway. The number is only expected to go up owing to the “respectful” Showdown crowd who according to the South Australian government officials followed all protocols to the hilt. And with six months still to go for the scheduled first-ever Australia v India pink-ball Test, it looks very likely that a sizable crowd might end up yelling back and forth with Virat Kohli & Co at the Adelaide Oval come December.

In less than two weeks will come the second stage of the crowd experiment in Adelaide when close to 5000 fans will be allowed for the start of the SANFL (South Australian National Football League) season. There’s also been talk from Prime Minister Scott Morrison about letting close to 10,000 fans into venues with limited seating as early as next month. And Chilcott, who tries to get in two days of the annual Test every year, is confident of being there to see the much-awaited slugfest go ahead.

International cricket is set to make its own return in less than a month’s time when the West Indies, currently quarantining in Manchester, take on England in the first-ever bio-secure Test series in history. There’ll be no crowds in Southampton or Manchester though unlike here. And the sound of bat on ball will be the only factor contributing to the ambience.

“A country cricket match with a few parents yelling at their kids,” is what the Showdown with a handful of spectators around felt like for Barb and Andrew Staniford. The couple were among the additional 240 guests allowed in the corporate suites at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday. Though originally Crows fans, they were there like they have been for the last 10 years representing one of the lead sponsors of Port Adelaide. And their “weird” experience commenced from the time they hailed a cab to get to the venue a bit earlier than the rest.

“Generally, there are a lot of roadblocks. You’ll find a portion of King William Road being blocked and the War Memorial Drive completely barricaded. But this time, there was none of that. We actually got dropped off comfortably right outside the Oval and walked in without a hassle,” reveals Barb.

It is expected that by the end of the year there will be a lot more people, in the thousands even, lining up outside the Members Entrance at the River End. And so too the road blockades that Mrs Staniford didn’t encounter last weekend.

She adds that once they were in their suite, the alcohol and other refreshments had to be self-served while only around 15 people occupied a room that generally sees up to 40-50 guests. They were also asked to stay indoors and not venture out to the balcony while at one point the staff also shut the glass windows. The Stanifords’ evening started with a customary meal, where again they had to maintain social-distancing. That is before they received a surprise visitor, Professor Nicola Spurrier, SA’s chief public health officer, and the woman who has led the state’s battle against the virus.

“She just walked in as part of the checks she was conducting around the stadium. Some of the people in the room started cheering for her and telling her what a good job she’s been doing. She looked a little shy then and then just said ‘may the best team win’ and left,” Barb says.

“There were 22,000 members who decided to continue paying their fees and only 1475 tickets up for grabs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones.” ©Fame Dubai

The Oval itself before the players ran out carried an eerie feel, she adds, despite the presence of the smattering of people in the stands. There was an explosion of noise, however, when the Port Adelaide players ran on to the field in their legendary yet contentious prison-bar guernseys in what is the 150th anniversary of the club. Chilcott, donning his Port Adelaide ‘Power’ scarf, was among those creating a din around the Oval. He had come to the stadium by himself, having left his son to “hang out” with the puppy they’d bought earlier in the day. The western stand, he reveals, were mainly individuals like him who’d come there by themselves and the lack of “mates in groups” meant there wasn’t the kind of buzz you’d generally expect at such a high-profile event.

The ability to “identify individual voices” in the crowd though was just one of the many unique experiences on Saturday for Chilcott, who’s been a Port supporter since the age of 7. It started with how he even managed to procure a ticket for the big game. Chilcott and his family had been gifted club memberships on his 40th birthday. He decided to renew it this year despite the potential threat of the pandemic completely wiping out the football season. And when South Australian police commissioner Grant Stevens announced last week that the Adelaide Oval will be the first to experiment with permitting a sparse crowd for AFL matches, Chilcott decided to put his membership number in the ballot organised by his club for tickets.

“There were 22,000 members who decided to continue paying their fees and only 1475 tickets up for grabs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones,” he says.

The Crows, for the record, were limited to only 475 tickets as this was deemed as a “home” game for Port in a curtailed AFL season which has been reduced to 17 rounds from the original 23 owing to the Covid-19 outbreak. And for good measure, considering the rather hapless show their team put on during their 75-point loss.

“Funnily, people spoke more with each other than they would when there’s a packed crowd. But as I walked around to my allocated seat after entering through the North Gate, I could sense the lack of buzz, the strangeness of the dispersed crowd,” says Chilcott.

Chilcott and the other members had received an email from the club with some specific instructions, which included “carrying your membership card” and “downloading the Covid Safe government app”. He reveals though that his phone wasn’t scanned and there weren’t any excessively stringent security protocols in place.

“The only time I was actually asked to sanitise my hands was when I went to the Kiosk to get some food and drinks. And they were being strict on social distancing in the lines at the Kiosk too,” he adds. For the Stanifords’, the only aspect that stood out in terms of health policing was how only one person was allowed to be on the escalator at any given time with a security staff actually standing guard at the top of the steps.

The NRL and the AFL have been trying to enhance the atmosphere around their games by adding ambient crowd noises to their coverage. And there was talk of the real crowd noise at the Oval being amplified further by placing microphones at strategic locations. Chilcott doesn’t recall seeing any near where he was sat but did have some of his friends watching on TV wondering how the 2000-odd could have generated such a racket, even if the ratio of Port fans to Crows fans was somewhat similar to the final scoreline.

“Once the game started, the crowd was actually louder than I expected them to be. But on the flip side, there were also periods of dead silence, which you never see in a full stadium. The loudest was at the start and also at the end when they played the team song,” he explains.

There has been a sense of irony on the field ever since the AFL has restarted with regards to how the players aren’t wary of grabbing and jumping over their opponents in an attempt to secure the sherrin (the footy ball) but make sure that they celebrate goals only with elbow bumps. And Chilcott admits that it wasn’t easy for the Port fans to express their unbridled joy at the result as they would normally with hugs and high-fives to anyone else in Power colours. For good measure, he did make his way later to the bar in the city, where Port fans generally meet-up following a home game, and he jokes about how there were “hugs and high-fives” with nobody watching. It was a fitting end to a night where normalcy, even if only a tinge, returned to the Adelaide Oval and sport around Australia. As Chilcott puts it, “Just being in a public venue with a number of people felt like such a foreign concept. So even though it was a sparse crowd, it felt good to do something normal.”

© Fame Dubai

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Eerie silence and hot chip wars as Adelaide Oval swings back into action

FIRST CROWDS IN

Only 2240 “fans” were allowed to attend the Showdown. © Fame Dubai

In his 35 years as a passionate Port Adelaide fan, Brad Chilcott has witnessed some remarkable feats at the Adelaide Oval, but nothing quite like what he saw transpire on Saturday (June 13). And it didn’t happen on the Oval outfield where his beloved Aussie rules football club handed local rivals Adelaide Crows their worst defeat ever on their shared home-ground. Instead, it took place in the western stand, where he sat three seats and two rows apart from the 699 others who occupied that section of the Oval for Showdown 48, the AFL local derby. The deed itself: a Port fan flinging a hot chip at a Crows fan seated 15 rows below him and “clocking him on the head” with it.

According to Chilcott, the rival supporter had it coming. He’d spent minutes leading up to the chip attack hurling abuse at the Port players. And his reaction was to turn around with a stern gaze before getting back to feeling upset with his own team’s performance. For Chilcott, the unprecedented incident summed up an unprecedented night where a live crowd watched live sport inside an Australian stadium for the first time in three months. In an ideal scenario after all, with a packed house, the Port fan would never have managed to hear what his counterpart was screaming. Neither would he, despite his evidently good arm, have had a clear shot at the Crows supporter like he did with only 2240 “fans” allowed to attend the Showdown.

It was an incident that gave some insight into what the cricket experience might offer in a post-lockdown COVID world.

“One thing different here was that the banter between spectators was much more amplified. You could hear everyone in your section, including someone abusing your favourite player right down the front. So, there was a lot of yelling back and forth between Port and Crows,” Chilcott, the founder of Welcoming Australia which works towards promoting multiculturalism and social cohesion, tells Fame Dubai.

Though the Crows fans might not agree, the eventual outcome of the Showdown was a success. For the prospect of crowds returning for good to sporting venues around Australia anyway. The number is only expected to go up owing to the “respectful” Showdown crowd who according to the South Australian government officials followed all protocols to the hilt. And with six months still to go for the scheduled first-ever Australia v India pink-ball Test, it looks very likely that a sizable crowd might end up yelling back and forth with Virat Kohli & Co at the Adelaide Oval come December.

In less than two weeks will come the second stage of the crowd experiment in Adelaide when close to 5000 fans will be allowed for the start of the SANFL (South Australian National Football League) season. There’s also been talk from Prime Minister Scott Morrison about letting close to 10,000 fans into venues with limited seating as early as next month. And Chilcott, who tries to get in two days of the annual Test every year, is confident of being there to see the much-awaited slugfest go ahead.

International cricket is set to make its own return in less than a month’s time when the West Indies, currently quarantining in Manchester, take on England in the first-ever bio-secure Test series in history. There’ll be no crowds in Southampton or Manchester though unlike here. And the sound of bat on ball will be the only factor contributing to the ambience.

“A country cricket match with a few parents yelling at their kids,” is what the Showdown with a handful of spectators around felt like for Barb and Andrew Staniford. The couple were among the additional 240 guests allowed in the corporate suites at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday. Though originally Crows fans, they were there like they have been for the last 10 years representing one of the lead sponsors of Port Adelaide. And their “weird” experience commenced from the time they hailed a cab to get to the venue a bit earlier than the rest.

“Generally, there are a lot of roadblocks. You’ll find a portion of King William Road being blocked and the War Memorial Drive completely barricaded. But this time, there was none of that. We actually got dropped off comfortably right outside the Oval and walked in without a hassle,” reveals Barb.

It is expected that by the end of the year there will be a lot more people, in the thousands even, lining up outside the Members Entrance at the River End. And so too the road blockades that Mrs Staniford didn’t encounter last weekend.

She adds that once they were in their suite, the alcohol and other refreshments had to be self-served while only around 15 people occupied a room that generally sees up to 40-50 guests. They were also asked to stay indoors and not venture out to the balcony while at one point the staff also shut the glass windows. The Stanifords’ evening started with a customary meal, where again they had to maintain social-distancing. That is before they received a surprise visitor, Professor Nicola Spurrier, SA’s chief public health officer, and the woman who has led the state’s battle against the virus.

“She just walked in as part of the checks she was conducting around the stadium. Some of the people in the room started cheering for her and telling her what a good job she’s been doing. She looked a little shy then and then just said ‘may the best team win’ and left,” Barb says.

“There were 22,000 members who decided to continue paying their fees and only 1475 tickets up for grabs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones.” ©Fame Dubai

The Oval itself before the players ran out carried an eerie feel, she adds, despite the presence of the smattering of people in the stands. There was an explosion of noise, however, when the Port Adelaide players ran on to the field in their legendary yet contentious prison-bar guernseys in what is the 150th anniversary of the club. Chilcott, donning his Port Adelaide ‘Power’ scarf, was among those creating a din around the Oval. He had come to the stadium by himself, having left his son to “hang out” with the puppy they’d bought earlier in the day. The western stand, he reveals, were mainly individuals like him who’d come there by themselves and the lack of “mates in groups” meant there wasn’t the kind of buzz you’d generally expect at such a high-profile event.

The ability to “identify individual voices” in the crowd though was just one of the many unique experiences on Saturday for Chilcott, who’s been a Port supporter since the age of 7. It started with how he even managed to procure a ticket for the big game. Chilcott and his family had been gifted club memberships on his 40th birthday. He decided to renew it this year despite the potential threat of the pandemic completely wiping out the football season. And when South Australian police commissioner Grant Stevens announced last week that the Adelaide Oval will be the first to experiment with permitting a sparse crowd for AFL matches, Chilcott decided to put his membership number in the ballot organised by his club for tickets.

“There were 22,000 members who decided to continue paying their fees and only 1475 tickets up for grabs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones,” he says.

The Crows, for the record, were limited to only 475 tickets as this was deemed as a “home” game for Port in a curtailed AFL season which has been reduced to 17 rounds from the original 23 owing to the Covid-19 outbreak. And for good measure, considering the rather hapless show their team put on during their 75-point loss.

“Funnily, people spoke more with each other than they would when there’s a packed crowd. But as I walked around to my allocated seat after entering through the North Gate, I could sense the lack of buzz, the strangeness of the dispersed crowd,” says Chilcott.

Chilcott and the other members had received an email from the club with some specific instructions, which included “carrying your membership card” and “downloading the Covid Safe government app”. He reveals though that his phone wasn’t scanned and there weren’t any excessively stringent security protocols in place.

“The only time I was actually asked to sanitise my hands was when I went to the Kiosk to get some food and drinks. And they were being strict on social distancing in the lines at the Kiosk too,” he adds. For the Stanifords’, the only aspect that stood out in terms of health policing was how only one person was allowed to be on the escalator at any given time with a security staff actually standing guard at the top of the steps.

The NRL and the AFL have been trying to enhance the atmosphere around their games by adding ambient crowd noises to their coverage. And there was talk of the real crowd noise at the Oval being amplified further by placing microphones at strategic locations. Chilcott doesn’t recall seeing any near where he was sat but did have some of his friends watching on TV wondering how the 2000-odd could have generated such a racket, even if the ratio of Port fans to Crows fans was somewhat similar to the final scoreline.

“Once the game started, the crowd was actually louder than I expected them to be. But on the flip side, there were also periods of dead silence, which you never see in a full stadium. The loudest was at the start and also at the end when they played the team song,” he explains.

There has been a sense of irony on the field ever since the AFL has restarted with regards to how the players aren’t wary of grabbing and jumping over their opponents in an attempt to secure the sherrin (the footy ball) but make sure that they celebrate goals only with elbow bumps. And Chilcott admits that it wasn’t easy for the Port fans to express their unbridled joy at the result as they would normally with hugs and high-fives to anyone else in Power colours. For good measure, he did make his way later to the bar in the city, where Port fans generally meet-up following a home game, and he jokes about how there were “hugs and high-fives” with nobody watching. It was a fitting end to a night where normalcy, even if only a tinge, returned to the Adelaide Oval and sport around Australia. As Chilcott puts it, “Just being in a public venue with a number of people felt like such a foreign concept. So even though it was a sparse crowd, it felt good to do something normal.”

© Fame Dubai

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