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arkus-rhapsode · 24 days ago

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So I just Played Star Fox Assault For the First time in Years and I have some thoughts...

So Star Fox, a franchise that needs no introduction when it comes to weird directions for a franchise to take. What started out as another classic Miyamoto title that fit perfectly alongside the likes of Mario and Zelda. Star Fox kinda fell into the unenvieable position of Mid tier Nintendo franchise: Iconic enough to have a bunch of devoted fans and not be lumped in with the weirder more niche releases like Geist, Chibi Robo, and Pushmo, but not quite enough a sales juggernaut to become a core pillar of Nintendo that will almost always get an new game with each console like Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and of course, Mario. With the GameCube being a particularly tumultuous time for the furry space mercenaries.

I'll admit though, GameCube is where I come into the Star Fox story. As I was actually not really a fan of the original SNES game or Star Fox 64. This was because as flight based rail shooters where the cool animals were bound to their ships for most the game, I just didn't really get the appeal. But around the sixth generation with the advent of... Star Fox Adventures I was willing to give the franchise another chance. And while Star Fox Adventure is literally not a Star Fox game, I still enjoyed it as it focused a bit more on something I wanted-actual control of Fox McCloud the character (Of course then I played Smash Melee and basically got the same experience). But ultimately after the GameCube generation Star Fox never really stuck with me the way it had with its fanbase. But there was one more game on the GameCube that I hadn't played for a while. Like... almost 20 years ago. Star Fox Assault.

Star Fox Assault feels like a weird middle child of the franchise no one really wants to talk about even though before the disaster that was Star Fox Zero on the Wii U, this was basically the last home console Star Fox game. And it looked to appease long-time fans of the franchise that wanted an in-depth 3D rail shooter and newer fans like me that wanted more direct character involvement gameplay. Assault originally started as an expansion of the Star Fox 64 multiplayer on-foot death match with the single-player story mode eventually being added later after poor reception to an E3 2003 showcase focusing on just the multiplayer aspect according to Electronic Gaming Monthly. This would also be a Star Fox that would be handled by Namco instead of Nintendo in-house. So did they manage to make that perfect Star Fox that would appease old and new fans and provide a fun multiplayer experience?

Well... its complicated.

Star Fox Assault, even now with my 20 extra years of developing my video game tastes still hits me oddly. The flight sections feel really slick and operatic, honestly Assault really made get the space opera vibes that fans often praised 64 for. The Arwing sections running on a much smoother frame rate than 64 also helps. Add on the damn great score after Adventures pretty generic one, and you might just have one of the best openings of the series. Seriously, even as someone who doesn't really like the flight combat sections, the presentation is strong.

But that's just the flight sections, what about the ground sections? While these section have been controversial, I actually like them. Fox being able to just get out of the vehicle and interact with these planets on a smaller scale is something that kept me from really enjoying the 64 game, but the problem with Adventures is that when they did this, their style of gameplay was closer to Ocarina of Time, with melee based combat and emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. But Assault giving Fox a gun and making the levels being more open with little platforming honestly feels way more true to the series. Fox run and gunning through Aparoids feels like something out of Starship Troopers, and that's the kind of gameplay I think Fox and co should have and not a magic staff.

However, these on foot missions sadly are hampered by the controls. The tank-ish controls are just not conducive for me, and I would've preferred a more Star Wars Battlefront 2 style of third-person shooting. Also the GameCube controller is just annoying to play a shooter on. It always feels like when I need to get that one precise shot, I'm fighting with the control stick. Still though after all these years, this is still the part of the game I remember the most, and had hoped to see more of with some level of tune ups in future installments, but that ended up being a different story.

Speaking of the story, how is it? Honestly, the story is fun, introducing this new race of cyber insects that assimilate machines and people becoming such a threat the Fox and Wolf need to team up to beat them. Its simple, but lends itself to a lot of epic moments. Aparoids going for a more existential horror than Andros changes up the vibe of what we're fighting being a "Bug Hunt" (yes, I did just go there) and allowed us to put all of our characters under intense pressure. As well as have our banter with Wolf and his crew.

However, one thing it lacks from Star Fox 64 is branching paths, rather they opt for one much longer singular narrative which isn't a bad thing, but that leads into I think the biggest problem with this game, its single player mode is really short. All told-with cutscenes-I spent somewhere between 4 to 5 hours playing the main campaign. This is a shame because the branching pathways of 64 allowed for more replayability and unique play experiences. Now knowing that this game's single player mode came later while the emphasis on was making a great multiplayer experience first and that Assault would see multiple delays across its development cycle, its safe to assume the story treatment of the campaign didn't have enough time.

This is especially bad when we were in the sixth generation of console gaming. See, small tangent, I think one of Star Fox's problems is at its core its a very arcade-y style game, and by the time of the PS1, lots of arcade style games were getting left behind by console gamers. Stuff like Daytona USA, Pac-Man, and Virtua Fighter were more made to be quick quarter munching experiences that got pretty note-for-note home ports just weren't really justifying a purchase with what the amount of content they were offering. By now, gamers were looking for longer games, that were more ambitious in scope and story, and more complex in level design. They didn't have to be played over and over again, they were just a completely filling experience for gamers. This only got more prevalent going into the PS2.

Take for example, Panzer Dragoon by Sega, which started as a Rail Shooter like Star Fox in 1995, but by 1998 would convert in to a more traditional RPG to compete with the likes of Final Fantasy 7 on the Playstation.

But Nintendo being their usual unusual selves didn't really commit hard either way. You got arcade style games like F-Zero GX and WarioWare Micro Mini Games, but then you have games like Metroid Prime and Super Mario Sunshine that open the player up to these diverse 3D worlds and environments that you could sink hours into. Star Fox Assault sadly felt like it was stuck in the middle. You get some space sections that feel right at home with Star Fox 64, but clearly they wanted you to have something more than just being in the Arwing. But the story around those outside the Arwing or Land Master is so minimal it leaves a lot of Star Fox Assault feeling like potential was left on the table.

I know Assault isn't pure Star Fox like a lot of fans want. The on-foot sections were going to be divisive no matter what. There are fans who just want to continue the story of the Lylat Warriors but through the mechanics of 64. However, as a non purist and more casual enjoyer of the Star Fox franchise, I can say having a more intimate character levels can go a long way for people wanting to engage with the game and its world. Instead of just seeing Fox as a little talking head in the corner of the screen, being on the ground as fox fights for life is attractive. But its clear that these sections had a lot of potential just left on the table. Instead of taking the formula of Assault that mixed flying rail shooting sections with ground combat peppered with story and character moments and improving upon it and drawing out new stories or game ideas for it, Nintendo opted to basically just remake 64 again and again.

I guess we'll never know what it look like if Nintendo invested in a game that mixed the air and ground combat in a fun and slick fashion that offered a lot of content. Wait... they did do that it was called Kid Icarus Uprising!

Yeah, its kinda crazy going back to Star Fox Assault as someone who really enjoyed Kid Icarus Uprising and seeing what almost felt like prototype DNA for gameplay. Made even more surreal when researching that Masahiro Sakurai was originally considering making a Star Fox game for 3DS that would utilize the third person shooter style game play to highlight the handheld's 3D technological capability. However, Sakurai would apparently find the "Star Fox style" to be too restrictive for the gameplay he wanted to implement. So he went with Kid Icarus a franchise that had been much longer dormant.

Now look, I know this was supposed to be about Star Fox Assault, but believe when I say Kid Icarus Uprising is a fantastic game. Levels were split up into three parts: a flight rail shooter that would put your trigger finger to the test, an on-foot combat section that utilized stylus based movement, and a huge boss battle. Intersperced throughout a level is main character Pit bantering with his Goddess Palutena and villains that flesh out the characters and serve as a does of comedy.

It's crazy to say, and I'm sure it was unintentional, but I feel like I can see this game being built on the skeleton of Star Fox Assault's core mechanics. Making a character driven story of large scale proportions in the sky that would then become more intimate detailed levels on the ground that has a major focus on character interaction. Except, it manages to improve in the sections of Assault that needed more polish like its story length, its controls, and replayability.

I'm really glad we got a modern Kid Icarus game that fleshed out these characters that I guarantee most had only heard about for the first time through Smash Bros Brawl, and even though it aesthetically and gameplay wise was a soft reboot, still acknowledges the Kid Icarus games before it and the events that would appease older fans and intrigue newer ones to look into. All done in a very presentable and fun package. But it's a shame knowing that this could've been an opportunity for another franchise. A franchise that would've honestly slotted in perfectly with this style of gameplay and who have been having an identity crisis for years and seems to be now on Nintendo's self.

Going back to Star Fox Assault, while I don't think it would've converted me into the type of fan of Star Fox that waits with baited breath of hoping to see it mentioned once in a Nintendo Direct, I do see a lot of potential for it to become a thing I like. The world of the Lylat System and the anthropomorphic space-farers that inhabit it has definite appeal to reach a wide audience. The epic space battles of a Mass Effect, but with the soapy furry drama of Sonic. But it seems like the barrier of entry for Star Fox is finding that fresh idea that gets both fresh and iterative, but also attractive to new players that will grow the brand and please the existing players. And when I see how that it can be done for Kid Icarus and how close it is to Star Fox Assault, it makes me lament that we may have found that direction for franchise and let it slip away.

Sooooo yeah. Replaying Star Fox Assault after so long. I'd say the game is mostly fine to good. With the key decider, I think, for players is going to be if you got enough fun out of 5 hours worth of gameplay. Since Assault is a GameCube game, that means that its only available through second hand like eBay. And because the price for GameCube games is really jacked up, I do think its hard for me to fully recommend this game when I don't think it has one hundred dollars worth fun.

It also is just not "pure" Star Fox. Its not 64 2. Bt it isn't as radical a departure as Adventures. So I know that there's just going to be a bunch of people who don't like the new sections period, I do think it fits enough in the series that it makes its inclusion justifiable as opposed to Adventures. At the very least, I can say this is a game with a lot of potential. And we may probably never see that potential implemented in the Star Fox universe.

#star fox #star fox assault #star fox 64 #star fox adventures #kid icarus uprising #fox mccloud #pit kid icarus #falco lombardi #nintendo #video games #discussion #slippy toad

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dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt · 4 years ago

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Not me saying I wasn’t going to post any of my writing and then immediately going back on my word, no sir!! I’m actually really REALLY proud of this tho, so... up it goes. His Dark Materials AU for my OCs!

[For those that don’t know, in the HDM world everybody has something called a dæmon, which is the physical manifestation of their soul in the form of an animal.]

Dusk bruised the sky, ugly purple-black with smoke and the oncoming night. No stars dared to tread above this city. Even the moon hid her face.

Below, the streets were populated only by shadows. It was easy to mistake them for one, hunched as they were on the stairs in a dark suit and with their face hidden behind an even darker sheet of hair. Only the ember at the tip of their cigarette separated them from the night.

Footsteps descended down the stairs behind them. Their owner had his hands tucked into his pockets, refusing to touch the brass rails mottled with grime. A staccato of claws clicked between each step.

“You’re late,” the living shadow said, the memory of a thousand other cigarettes burnt into their throat.

“I wasn’t sure I was going to come at all.”

A ribbon of smoke curled from their lips. “Don’t give me that shit,” they said, disgusted. “You always do. You always will. We both know it.”

“You’re in good spirits tonight,” he responded mildly. His name was Dante, and he regretfully knew the shadow too well to be offended. He hated them less than they deserved. His dæmon stood by his side in the form of a large black dog, the feeble anbaric light of the streetposts settling on her fur and gleaming in her calm eyes.

The shadow had no dæmon to be found.

They merely grunted and rose to their feet. They flicked their cigarette away; it carved a red arch through the air before it winked out on the pavement. They started walking.

Dante exchanged a glance that spoke volumes with his dæmon. But they followed, because he did know. They both did.

The shadow’s name was June, and Dante was their only friend (though, that may be too strong a word.) The reasons for this were immediately obvious, not limited to the miasma of cigarette smoke that seemed woven into their clothes, nor their frankly ugly tongue. Their voice was complicated, interesting, but their face was ordinary; long, with stark bones beneath dark golden-brown skin, an interesting nose and eyes the colour of charcoal. They were also abysmally short, the crown of their head barely reaching Dante’s shoulder. He didn’t mention that.

They barely had to flash their card at the bouncer before he swung the door open for them, his lizard dæmon curled nervously along his forearm. June strode through without a backwards glance. Dante gave him a nod.

It was dim inside the den. The air ought to have been stained red for the stench of copper, sweat and alcohol that clung to every breath; Dante thought he could feel the effects of a pint just from inhaling. The walls were panelled with dark wood, packed to bursting with people. Barely people – raucous grins, jostling, laughing, screaming like fiends in human skins. Even their dæmons seemed inebriated, staggering between their legs with tongues lolling against chins. Nevertheless, all parted for June and their silent, bulky shadow.

June didn’t spare them a single glance. They had bred this intimidation, this mystery, fed it with the tender care of a mother and watched its first steps with pride.

“Just keep your mouth shut,” they had told Dante. “You’re unknowable now. Their fear and uncertainty will make you great.”

That suited him just fine. He never was a man of many words.

Darodrey stayed pinned to his side like a moth to a board. The angle of her ears still read as calm, but she had begun to pant in the crushing heat of the den. He rested a soothing hand on her head. He could feel her anticipation crackling beside his own. They never felt quite so alive than when they were in these ratholes.

He drew back the shabby curtain that sectioned off the preparation quarter, allowed June to step in first. He pulled it to behind him, hands immediately dropping to unbutton his short coat. It fell to the floor, revealing an expanse of scarred olive skin and the lines of thick muscles. He opened the tin set to the side on the bench.

“Nova,” June told him, low. “Dumb as a barrel of shit, but he hits like one too.”

“His dæmon?” It was Drey who asked, as Dante slid a guard over his teeth. The shock of his dæmon speaking to them had been worn away by familiarity long ago.

“A mountain lion.”

Drey noted, “Also stupid.”

Dante pulled a white roll from the tin and began to unwind it around his knuckles. “Only Nova?”

“Mitchellson could be taken as well, if you’re fit after the first.”

“I’ll take him.” Dante flexed his fingers experimentally. “A bear, right?”

“Black,” June confirmed.

Maybe I’ve finally found a challenge, Drey murmured to him and him alone.

Dante secured the final bandage. “What do we get for both?”

“Enough.” June tilted their head, their hair falling against the blade they called a jaw. “As long as you don’t fuck this up.”

“I won’t.” He couldn’t.

They’re depending on us.

They, they, they. The two men currently warming his bed with their dreams, wound together in a lover’s knot. Maybe they did depend on him, but not in a way that led into an underground fighting den. That would break them to know.

A roar went up from behind the curtain, more ferocious than any bear. Darodrey’s fur rose along her spine, lips pulling back in fierce delight. Dante rolled his shoulders, knocked his knuckles together till they ached.

“Get out there,” June said, and then their hand closed claw-like over his wrist. “Do not disappoint me, Diệu.”

With the adrenaline biting in his pulse, he didn’t even deign to answer that. Instead, he merely gave them a measured look and pushed through the curtain. Darodrey’s tail whipped out on his heels.

June watched after him for a moment. Their expression was unreadable, their fingers hovering over the red kerchief folded in their breast pocket. Then their jaw set, and they followed him out.

Dumb as a barrel of shit seemed to be the perfect way to describe Nova. His angelic name didn’t look like it belonged to the brutish man with a vividly new scar wound across his bald head. His eyes were, by all means, bright blue, but even they looked dull in his face.

To his credit, he wasn’t prancing or hopping like he was on hot coals, like some of the other peacocks Dante had fought. He simply leaned against the metal links behind him, taking in his competition from under furrowed brows.

Dante ran his eyes up him, down him as if in a mere cursory glance. His fingers were still purple with fresh bruises, darker on his left hand than his right. The muscles in his arms were massively developed. He was also very actively trying to convince Dante he held his weight on his right side. He was concentrating on it harder than he was concentrating on breathing.

Meanwhile, Drey was summarizing her opponent. She found her wanting – the same dull eyes, patchy pelt and a tediously swaying tail.

“Don’t be arrogant,” he told her.

“Vrox is right. You confuse arrogance with confidance too much.”

“It doesn’t hurt to be cautious.”

“Utter modesty never got anyone anywhere, Dante.” She stretched out one hind leg and then the other, unbothered. “We wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think we were the best.”

Dante hesitated. Something troubled curled like lead in his stomach.

“Pay attention,” she warned.

Their opponent and his dæmon had leaned to their feet. The crowd was stirring around them, a great wave of excitement, raw in the way only betting could achieve. Dante knew three quarters of those bets were on him, and he knew that would chafe at his opponent’s pride. Sure enough, he saw something close to hate flicker in Nova’s deep-set eyes.

The referee pushed between the two men, a smile fake and white as a skull’s wide on his lips. He dove enthusiastically into his usual spiel, but Dante tuned him out. He could recite it in his sleep already. He watched the lion dæmon’s claws unfurl from their sheathes, ticking lightly against the floor. Her eyes were locked on Darodrey. On her throat.

Good luck with that, bitch, Drey growled.

The bell sounded early, ringing clear above the crowd’s uproar. A look of frightened consternation darted across the referee’s face, but he did the sensible thing and tossed aside his dignity to sprint out of the way of the two fighters. Not a second too late, either: Nova came at Dante like a boulder in an avalanche.

Nova jabbed with his right hand, but expectedly the blow was weak enough for Dante to smash it aside with his forearm and return one of his own. It snapped Nova’s head back, snapped something else as well. Blood splattered down his chin, his nose a pulpy mess. His dæmon hissed in pain.

There was definitely hate in those eyes now.

Dante flicked some of the blood of his hand as Nova came at him again. A grimace crossed his face as Drey fastened her teeth deep enough in his dæmon’s foreleg to scrape bone, but his next punch whistled toward Dante’s face. Dante had to duck to the side to avoid it. It clipped his ear instead of knocking out his teeth, and Dante didn’t bother straightening, just slammed his fist into his stomach.

The angle was wrong, but Nova folded anyway, and Dante jerked his knee up. It caught his chin was a satisfying clatter of teeth. Nova fell backward, and cried out – not for himself, though.

Darodrey had his dæmon’s neck between her jaws and was shaking her violently, back and forth, back and forth as if she were trying to rip clean through to her spine. The lion twisted under her, loose skin bunching, and ripped at her face with jagged claws. Darodrey fell back reluctantly with red dripping from her mouth, snarling like thunder.

Claws, teeth, fists, two fights tangled into one. The noise was atrocious. Curses smudged into growls, roars, the sound of flesh ripping, skin and bone colliding.

Nova kicked Dante’s knee, forced him to down or risk a break. An arm found its hold around his neck. The demented cheers of the crowd dulled as if Dante had submerged his head underwater. Blood pounded thickly in his ears.

No time for fear, no hesitation. He grabbed Nova’s wrist in an iron grip and began to inexorably pry it away from his throat. Nova grunted from the strain – from surprise – his weight wavering on Dante’s back. The moment he could draw in a breath, he gathered himself and threw. Nova slammed into the ground, every scrap of air rushing painfully out of his lungs. His dæmon yowled. Dante was only half surprised when he rolled to his feet and came at him again immediately.

A sloppy mistake. To stay on the ground would mean the end of him, but to swing so quickly, so desperately, with his weight falling now onto his left side–

Dante left an opening. Waited.

And there was the left hand, twice as fast as the right, angled to catch him on the chin and knock him senseless.

Dante caught the punch by the wrist. He saw the panic flash in Nova’s eyes and waited just one moment more to let it set in, let him feel it. Then he twisted his arm under his own and drove downward with brutal efficiency. The bone shattered, and Nova screamed.

It was a ragged noise, an animal noise, the same that his dæmon gave as she writhed on the floor. Drey took advantage of the distraction by sinking her teeth in her shoulder and flinging her against the metal barrier.

Dante let the momentum carry Nova forward. The other man crashed to the floor, clutching at his arm. Dante noted distantly that he could see a shard of bone poking through the ripped skin at his elbow. Distant, far-away, nothing. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t a man. He was the roaring in his ears, the blur behind his eyes, the molten heat coursing through his veins. He was the mechanical action of kneeling over him, caging him in his knees, and smashing a punch into Nova’s cheekbone, feeling it give. Then his jaw, the imprint of the teeth within against his knuckles. Blackening an eye, splitting a lip to ruin. One punch ran into many. Raining until Nova resembled something out of a nightmare.

“Enough, enough or you’ll forfeit, I swear you’ll forfeit–”

He paused. There was a frantic, quiet voice in his ear. The referee had been trying to hold his arm back, but he hadn’t felt any resistance as he destroyed Nova’s face. Nova, whose body was a wreck. Nova, who he held between his knees.

In his mind, Jesse smiled up at him. His hands smoothed down his stomach, his thighs. Curious and trusting.

Nova groaned, blood bubbling from his lips.

Abruptly, Dante was sure he was going to be sick.

He staggered to his feet and lurched through the open cage door, shoving through the crowd. He would leave smudges of dark, dark crimson on their clothes wherever he touched them, he knew, but they couldn’t seem to get enough of it: hands showered down on him, patting, smacking, gripping, pushing and tugging. He could hear Darodrey snarling, only white noise that buzzed in his ears.

He burst through the back door into the reeking alleyway beyond. He stumbled against the wall, nails drawing bloody streaks down the uneven bricks. He stood there, and he shuddered.

But he wasn’t sick. He was nothing at all.

Darodrey whined and pressed her nose into his palm, licked at his trembling fingers, trying to clean off the blood. He could still feel the gore caught between her teeth. The torn flesh of a soul – such a terrible thing.

Diệu, Diệu, Diệu, she whispered.

The nothing coalesced slowly, becoming simply the bricks rough against his forehead. Out here in the cool and the smoke, the clouds had made good on their promise: a thin veil of rain misted the streets, gathered and trickled down between Dante’s shoulder blades. It should have steamed where it touched his skin, but it didn’t, because nothing here was pure. It tasted like soot in the back of his throat.

The door crashed open behind him. The violence echoed in his ears.

“They need you back,” June said, sharp as broken glass.

Dante didn’t reply.

“I said get back in there, Dante.”

Darodrey said, “No.”

“What.” The accent of the city made their voice flat and vicious. They turned their gaze to the dæmon.

The one without a soul, she thought.

“He hates this,” Darodrey said. She looked back at Dante, her eyes fathoms deep, gleaming starlike. “We hate this.”

“Liar!” June snapped. Drey laid back her ears. “You can be sweet with your boys as much as you like, you can pretend to be a husband and a friend, but this is you. This is what you were made to do, and you enjoy it.” A snarl twisted their voice.

Dante stood still for a terribly long time. An eternity, hanging in the faint drizzle, printed in stinging flesh. Jesse would call it a postcard moment. He knew it would never leave him, even when it was nothing more than a memory.

June let their words sink in in silence, their nails biting red crescents into their own palms.

Then Dante pushed off from the wall and it was a horribly efficient, broken motion. He straightened, wiped the beading rain from his face with one bloodstained hand. He didn’t look at June, nor Darodrey, but as he turned back to the den she moved with him, closer than his shadow. The roar and the heat thundered through the door to welcome them both.

June was left standing in the alley alone.

“This will ruin them,” Thyne said. It shifted where it hid tucked behind their breast pocket, wings fluttering in the place of their heartbeat.

They said nothing.

#Drey is a Hmong docked tail dog #and Thyne is a shrike #my writing #Dante #June #my OCs #I'm so fucking proud of this asdfghjkl #......... sigh.#long post #look at me actually trying to edit something for once lmao

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lordshaxxion · 6 years ago

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Breathtaking

Cidrex/Drifter because I can

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It was chilly onboard the Derelict as Cidrex wandered, but he didn’t mind. If anything, it was a welcome change having been in bed with a known Solar Lightbearer. The Hunter was sure he’d no doubt lost a couple pounds from sweating alone, never mind the multiple rounds the two of them had gone for, so to wander the Derelict and feel the chill bite at his bones was more than welcome for him.

Drifter was almost unusually guarded, but when Cidrex recalled the visions the Nine had been forcing upon him it made sense as he carefully worked his way around tripmines and traps that littered the Derelict’s hallways. All he was wearing was one of Drifter’s dark green shirts and his own boxers, otherwise barefoot as he wandered idly. Cidrex hadn’t really been allowed to explore much and he knew that there was much more to the ship than most Guardians had been allowed to see. But even with his trusted status at Drifter’s side (and in his bed), he’d not been granted express permission to explore further than what was available. The only reason he was making such progress in his explorations now was because Drifter was still fast asleep, all his energy exhausted from railing the Hunter into the shitty camp bed mattress.

Cidrex hadn’t been paying all too much attention to where he’d been going, too busy idly thinking about Drifter’s paranoia and the lengths the guy had gone to in order to secure the safety of the rest of his ship. The narrow maintenance hallway he’d been climbing through opened up into a much larger room, something that looked like the cockpit of the whole ship or the command deck or whatever it was called - Cidrex didn’t care, the room was massive. There was no dust, or at least very little, and the freaky alien flora from the Haul hadn’t spread this far through the ship either. It wasn’t as cold as the rest of the ship too, Cidrex noticed as he wandered through and examined the consoles. They’d been used recently, which told him that Drifter still used this section of the ship at the very least.

Then he looked up and saw the massive circular window that gazed out into the void of space. He moved past the beeping consoles, ignoring the flickering lights of switches and the urge to push them, and pulled himself up to the ledge the window was embedded in. It was at least a metre wide, more than enough for a person to sit in, and that is where Cidrex made his home to watch the stars. The sight itself took his breath away, leaning back gently against the curve of the frame and resting on his side with one arm tucked under his head for comfort. Green eyes tracked stars and drew mental patterns between each one, watching dust clouds drift through the dark expanse before him. He guessed that the window itself wasn’t more than a few feet thick (he was no engineer or shipwright, he left that knowledge with Holliday), and as he pressed a hand to the window he breathed softly.

This sheet of glass was all that stood between him and the cold nothing of space. It was breathtaking.

Void Light pooled in his fingertips, almost in response to the sight of the universe on the other side of the window, and Cidrex traced little patterns along the glass idly. Often he had wondered what it would be like to just disappear into the backdrop of the universe, to be folded away into its quiet embrace and no longer worry about much else. He supposed those types of thoughts came with being a Void user. Regardless, it was peaceful if nothing else and almost lulled him back to some semblance of sleep.

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“Where is he?” Drifter grumbled. He’d woken to the absence of the strange warmth that was usual leeched to his side, sitting up to find Cidrex gone and a draft settling in to the little bunker. His Ghost didn’t answer and Drifter rolled his eyes, not knowing what else he should have expected. Cidrex’s Ghost wasn’t responding either to his pings, which was almost unusual given Sox’s protectiveness over his Guardian. The Lightbearer groaned and got up, shrugging on his duster and at least the pair of slippers he’d been given a while back, having the decency to pull a pair of boxers on and a tank top as well before he trudged out to find the Hunter.

Slippery bastard, he could be anywhere on the Derelict and without Drifter’s knowledge too - that in itself was enough to set off his paranoia, even with how much he’d begun to trust the guy. He’d hoped he would’ve heard some of his traps go off by now if Cidrex had wandered into somewhere he shouldn’t be, but then again he was a Hunter and Hunters were known for being able to get past near enough any deterrent put in their way.

Drifter shook his head a little as he started walking, soon sensing wisps of Void Light leaving the bunker in a particular direction. It lead away from the launch pads the Gambit teams would use, away from the makeshift living room area and kitchen, and it made Drifter’s skin buzz. Ever since the Nine had been giving him visions, he’d developed a keen sense on detecting the Light of certain Guardians. Cidrex sat at the top of that list and Drifter’s sense was keener on his Light than anyone else’s, able to pick up on the slightest hint of the Hunter’s Void in his vicinity. It was an alluring trail that lead him through the Derelict, the Lightbearer inwardly cursing at how easily the Hunter had bypassed his traps and security measures and equally finding himself impressed. Every so often the Drifter would catch hints of purple wisps in the corner of his vision, those alone confirming he was on the right trail in the very least.

He wasn’t happy to realise that the wisps were leading him deeper into the Derelict and towards the command deck, and when he entered sure enough he saw Cidrex lounging against the window. He went to call to him and then hesitated instead, noticing just how relaxed the Hunter looked up there. Cidrex could be jumpy sometimes, especially when he was by himself and lost in his thoughts. Instead, Drifter moved to a console and dimmed the lights down slowly. Cidrex shifted a little but didn’t roll over to see Drifter there, he could sense the mingle of the other’s Light and instead continued to gaze out upon the stars that drifted past them as the Derelict moved slowly to its next location.

A colourful dust and gas cloud wandered idly by the great window, the glow from the Derelict lighting it up and casting great arcs of blues and greens around the ship. Drifter watched the colours dance across Cidrex’s bared skin and for a moment wondered how many times he’d end up catching the Hunter up here. He surprised himself with the realization that he wouldn’t mind catching him up here so many times as long as he’d be treated to such a pretty sight. A soft, content sigh left the rogue Lightbearer as he kicked back in one of the chairs and watched the stars and clouds go by. He’d ask Cidrex later if he wanted any takeout when they arrived at the Tower, but for now he was surprisingly content to enjoy the sightseeing and the silence.

#destiny 2 #destiny #the drifter #drifter #cidrex #the derelict #long post #jay writes #see sometimes i write things and then actually post them

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charliejrogers · 7 years ago

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Best of 2017

Below is my list of the 40 best movies of 2017. Why 40? Because that’s all the movies I saw. In full disclosure, I have a life and must attend school so I didn’t get to see every notable release this year, so if you’re wondering why Thor: Ragnorok, Coco, Mother!, Jumanji, Justice League, I Tonya, Disaster Arist, or Blade Runner aren’t on the list… it’s because I didn’t get to see them. And also in full disclosure, I did get to watch the first half of Battle of the Sexes but fell asleep for the second half. That fact is not indicative of that film’s quality - I was just really tired when I saw it - but it didn’t feel right rating a movie I’d only seen the first half of. So without further ado, here’s my list.

0.5/4.0 Stars

40 The Little Hours

1.5/4.0 Stars

39 Guardians of the Galaxy 2

2.0/4.0 Stars

38 Beauty & the Beast

37 Okja

2.5/4.0 Stars

36 The Trip to Spain

35 A Ghost Story

34 Kong: Skull Island

33 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

32 Dunkirk

31 Logan Lucky

30 American Made

29 Lost City of Z

28 Phantom Thread

3.0/4.0 Stars

27 It

26 Lady Macbeth

25 Ingrid Goes West

24 Call Me By Your Name

23 Spider-Man: Homecoming

22 Detroit

21 Brad’s Status

20 Logan

19 Wind River

18 War for the Planet of the Apes

3.5/4.0 Stars

17 Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

16 The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected

15 Get Out

14 The Post

13 Wonder Woman

12 The Lego Batman Movie

11 Darkest Hour

10 The Beguiled

9 Mudbound

8 Shape of Water

4.0/4.0 Stars

7 Sanctuary

6 The Big Sick

5 The Florida Project

4 Baby Driver

3 Columbus

2 Good Time

1 Lady Bird

Do you disagree with the list? Well check out below to see my thoughts on each of the films.

40 The Little Hours

This movie is wholly terrible. It’s jokes include extended sequences of rape, sexual manipulation, and cruel beatings. Please don’t let the truly all-star cast fool you, this movie sucks.

Movies that had probably had some great scenes but were overall not satisfying: (1.5-2 stars)

39 Guardians of the Galaxy 2

The sophomore slump hit Star Lord & co. hard. Compared to the grand set pieces of the first film, the isolated focus on Quill and his father really hindered the fun, action-packed hi-jinks fans expected from the first film. The soundtrack almost single handedly prevented this from being an outright terrible movie.

38 Beauty & the Beast

It will be interesting in the long run to compare the quality of these live-action remakes to the animated originals. Jungle Book was great, but it helped that it’s source material was a superficial 60s musical with lots of room for expansion. Beauty & the Beast was heralded as a masterpiece back in 1991, even being nominated for an Oscar for best picture. Not best animated picture. BEST PICTURE. The Emma Watson version? Not so much. It’s boring.

37 Okja

Snowpiercer is an awesome movie. It’s perfectly paced world building combined beautifully with its creative action sequences (creative both in terms of plotting and in filming). The second English-language film from director Bong Joon-Ho? Nowhere as good. Maybe I’m too jaded… but I didn’t feel any real connection to the titular Beast (the hippo/cow named Okja) or the dangers it faced. And Tilda Swinton (who was fantastic in Snowpiercer) is too abrasive and, frankly, too odd to be taken seriously as a person. And that’s to say nothing of Jake Gyllenhal’s lunatic of a character. Skip it.

Just shy of being good, but are Solid movies.(2.5 stars)

36 The Trip to Spain

It’s kind of hard to fault Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in any meaningful way, since anyone who has seen the first two movies in this trilogy knows exactly what to expect (and really, who but anyone who has seen the first two movies would see this?). They know to expect impressions of famous British actors by two very talented impression artists. They know to expect two actors playing irritatingly arrogant caricatures of themselves. And they know to expect a movie devoid of plot, purpose, and interesting dialogue. That said, you come for the impressions, and Coogan and Brydon will always deliver on those (Mick Jagger and David Bowie being my two favorite additions to the duo’s repertoire.) just don’t expect much else.

35 A Ghost Story

This whole movie seemed to walk the line between a solid indie movie and a parody of a self-important movie. The central gimmick of the film involves Casey Affleck spending the vast majority of the film under a white sheet following his character’s death as the character’s ghost continues to pine after a love lost. When the film focuses on the futility of grief (particular in scenes where Rooney Mara is involved), it is moving. When it tries to make larger philosophical statements about what it means to inhabit land, it gets silly.

34 Kong: Skull Island

I watched this movie hoping to see some cool action sequences of King Kong and dinosaurs. It delivered, though no dinosaurs, but “Skeleton Walkers”. Cool Vietnam War-era atmosphere. The Samuel L. Jackson character is so angry towards Kong as to defy logical sense and the plot is threadbare, but John C. Reilly does wonders when he enters the film midway for comic relief.

33 Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

I wanted to like this movie more. I tried to like it more. It has so much going for it: A pair of knock out performances by Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson, often fascinating and engaging dialogues and monologues a la the Coen Brothers, and an intriguing premise in a mother trying to discover her daughter’s murderer. It falls apart for me because many of the supporting characters are more caricature than people, especially the insufferable bigoted police officer played by Sam Rockwell. The film is far more interested in developing the character of this unwatchable man than in ever dealing with the McDormand character’s grief, and Harrelson exits the film far too early. There are individual scenes that shine, but the sum of the film’s parts falls flat.

32 Dunkirk

I like Christopher Nolan. I really do. That said, I haven’t liked anything that he’s done since 2010. Dark Knight Rises was bloated, and Interstellar somehow doubled down on the bloat. Dunkirk, while beautifully shot and containing some truly gripping looks at the brutality of war, just never clicked with me. I particularly found the film’s tripartite structure, jumping between three stories whose chronological length differed significantly, more distracting than revelatory.

31 Logan Lucky

Appropriately nicknamed “Seven Eleven,” Steven Soderberg’s first heist movie since the Ocean’s trilogy adapts the standard caper film tropes to a down-to-Earth, working-class West Virginia setting. It’s unclear throughout if Soderberg is mocking his blue collar characters’ way of life or celebrating it, and the humor, particularly in scenes between Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, never quite clicks. But Logan Lucky probably includes the most intelligent, clever, and fun-to-watch heist in any movie. Period. If only the movie were even half as smart and entertaining as the heist it is about.

30 American Made

Doug Liman, The Director of American Made, so badly and clearly wants people to confuse this film with something from the Scorsese catalog. But this is a poor man’s Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas. It tries to glorify and legitimize the life of a criminal, and it hits all the highlights. It’s loosely (very loosely) based on real life smuggler Barry Seal. There’s clever heists and crimes. Shady dealings. A big budget plane crash into a suburban neighborhood. And all of it is shot and directed with a fun, vivacious energy. The problem is that this film fails to hit the hard emotional punches. There’s no equivalent to Joe Pesce “getting made” or even a real sense of come-uppance that eventually hit Jordan Belford. There’s a montage in this movie of Tom Cruise scared to start his car due to fear it’s been rigged to explode. What could have been a tone-altering sequence for the film that would bestow a great deal of gravitas, is used for laughs. And that’s about all you need to know about this movie. It’s entertaining and probably worth watching, and Tom Cruise is as cocky as ever in the lead role, but there’s nothing under the surface.

29 Lost City of Z

The is the most action-less adventure story ever told. The life of British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) and his explorations through the South American Amazon plays out at about the speed of a turtle. I’m not gonna say I was ever bored, because I wasn’t, but I was kind of waiting the whole movie for something exciting to happen and it never does. The film makes being captured by natives look as routine as a DMV visit. The movie is divided into a few key locations. There’s Britain where Fawcett spends so little of his life and where his wife (Sienna Miller as a progressive woman railing against the monotony of housewifery) and children lives. There’s The Amazon, and there’s briefly France for Fawcett’s stint as an officer in WWI. As you’ll be unsurprised if you’ve glanced at my review of Wonder Woman below, that the WWI section was my favorite. Perhaps it’s my fault for expecting something more out action of this film, but I think it even fails on the grounds of what it tries to be: a character study. Fawcett’s character is so thinly drawn and his motivations so weak, that when his son (Tom Holland) calls him out on it it’s a breath of fresh air - but then his son and wife later validates his motivations and the movie makes him out to be an unqualified hero - a champion of viewing Natives as more than savages. Fawcett did incredible things in his life, sure, but I don’t think he’s any hero. I don’t know - the movie could have been better.

28 Phantom Thread

The first half of this movie I consider excitingly British-boring, like an episode of Downton Abbey or The Crown. High class British people of the past dealing with first world problems, if well acted, well costumed, and well written, will always be entertaining to me no matter if what’s at stake is who will marry whom or, in this case, whether a dress will be ready on time. But the first half of the movie particularly shines because Daniel Day-Lewis plays the stereotypical controlling genius who society forgives because he’s so brilliant to the T. He’s insufferable, petty, emotionally stunted, and a joy to watch. And the whole first half of the film builds to a moment where Lewis’ girlfriend, a meek waitress played by Vicky Krieps, calls him out on all his bullshit. In the midst of the #MeToo era, her speech railing against his dominating, controlling behavior feels entirely appropriate. And as an audience member you expect the movie to go in a certain direction in the second half… and it doesn’t. At the risk of spoilers I won’t say more, but your response to film’s plot in its second act will be the deciding factor about whether or not you enjoy this film. For me, I did not, which is a shame because I liked the first half so much.

Good, not great movies:(3 stars)

27 It

I have never seen the original It movie or read the book, but based on the infamous boat scene that circulated virally on YouTube and the premise of a killer ghost clown… I wasn’t too pumped to see It. I happily had my expectations reversed. It is perhaps unfair to say the movie borrows from Stranger Things since that show definitely borrows heavily from Stephen King, but it’s hard to deny the similarities between the two 1980s set stories of kids against a cosmic beast. It featured incredible performances from its teenaged cast, with Jaeden Lieberher truly shining as the lead, but overall the movie felt overly long and oddly enough lacking the tension required of a remarkable thriller. Plus, I had far too many questions leaving the theater about the nature of Pennywise and so on for it to qualify as having a completely coherent plot. But as far as coming of age movies disguised as horror movies go, when It focused on the kids and less on Pennywise it was entirely engrossing.

26 Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth was a fascinating little film out of the UK about the extents (often violent) one woman would go to achieve freedom in an incredibly oppressive patriarchy. At just 22 Florence Pugh turns in a masterful performance of a woman wracked with guilt but full of pride in her freedom. She’s at once both sympathetic and monstrous, and watching her go from one to the other is worthy of the film’s Shakespearean title. Only complaint was that the movie, despite being only 90 minutes still felt it dragged a little in places.

25 Ingrid Goes West

What an interesting movie. Aubrey Plaza still seems to be playing the same Aubrey Plaza character she’s played in literally everything she’s been in, but this time it’s different. Rather than accepting Plaza’s character’s usual eccentric behavior as just par for the course, in Ingrid Goes West, these same behaviors are frightening. Obsessive, sociopathic, paranoid. That is the character Aubrey Plaza plays as her Ingrid travels Westward with the inheritance from her mother’s demise to emulate and become Taylor Sloane - a wonderfully basic Elizabeth Olson - someone she found on Instagram - avocado toast and all. As a movie that tries to make a statement about the ill-effects of social media on society, the movie falls flat. But viewed in the line of movies like Taxi Driver, Nightcrawler, etc. that is, movies that present the inner workings of sociopaths, Ingrid Goes West is an admirable demonstration of what Travis Bickle would look like in 2017. Also, poor O’Shea Jackson Jr. All his character wanted was to talk about Batman - and instead Ingrid ruins his life. Sad!

24 Call Me By Your Name

I’ve struggled to rate this movie fairly. One the one hand, I found it kind of boring. I found what the characters and movie deemed a meaningful relationship between Elio and Oliver to be based on little more than the fact that both were open to male on male sex. Their dialogue was supposed to come off as playfully hostile and full of sexual tension, but i just saw Oliver, played by Hammer, playing hard to get a little too well. Maybe I just wasn’t picking up the signs, but to my eyes it never seemed like Oliver ever liked Elio. On the other hand, it was a beautifully shot movie, included a scene about IndoEuropean etymology, and another about Greek bronze sculpture. Plus, Michael Stuhlbarg’s heartbreaking speech towards the end (you know which one) almost single handedly prevents this from being rated lower on this list. Thus, I left the movie thinking a lot, which is always a sign that the movie had done something right. Particularly it raised questions about and shed light on the nature, often awkward, of coming out. And for that, I recognize the movie’s importance and beauty. But that doesn’t mean it was my favorite movie to watch this year.

23 Spider-Man: Homecoming

Now for something completely different. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the definition of a mindless, fun summer blockbuster. Tom Holland shines it what is essentially a high-school action movie. It had cool action sequences (Washington Monument) and laughs (thanks Martin Starr - perhaps the best person to to cast as a nerdy high school teacher - , the school’s PA announcements, and the film’s new Spider-Man sidekick… some kid named Ned). Plus the movie’s villainous twist was legitimately a surprise in the best way. That said, Michael Keaton’s Vulture had some questionably plausible motives, with the theme of forgetting about the working class feeling a bit cliche in this film. It’s a real issue, but the movie didn’t really treat it like one. Still, I can’t wait for Spider-Man: Prom as Marvel’s first take at a high school movie was a success, even if it did little to reinvent the wheel.

22 Detroit

Detroit is a movie that tests your endurance and tolerance for brutality. Based on the historical Algiers Motel incident during the contentious race riots in 1967 Detroit, the movie is less about the incident as it is director Katherine Bigelow’s recreation of the event itself. This movie is like if you pieced together all of the scenes from a recreation typically found in a true crime documentary, and then left out the documentary narrative piece. As a result, the movie has little nuance (besides a beautiful opening animating sequence detailing the Great Migration.) Instead viewers are “treated” to two hours of raw violence. It’s not entertaining, and it’s hardly art, but it is engrossing. It stretches the imagination that some people could be so cruel and that more could be so permissive of such cruelty seen here, but at the end of the day 3 black teens ended up dead and nine others beaten… so I can grant Katherine Bigelow some leeway in how the lead racist cop in her film is portrayed as being the devil incarnate. It’s a powerful movie - just not one you’ll want to watch again.

21 Brad’s Status

If your biggest fear is that you’ll never satisfy your life’s largest ambitions… Brad’s Status is the movie for you. Ben Stiller as Brad is a guy who by all measures has a fine life - a loving wife, comfortable job, and a smart kid… any complaint he has is, by definition, a first world problem… but when he sees his old college buddies go on to become uber-successful… well, anyone is bound to get jealous. The movie is a great look at the emptiness so many feel with the direction of their lives, and Ben Stiller as Brad is perfectly cast as an understandable neurotic. While the movie does a great job of setting up Brad’s dilemma over his lack of status, it perhaps “solves” the issue a little lazily. It turns out his “successful” friends? They’re all jerks, crooks, or unhappy… so again we learn that money corrupts… an answer which doesn’t entirely satisfy the audience… or Brad.

20 Logan

If Deadpool showed how an R-rated superhero could look if you think R-rated = potty-mouth… Logan decided to show us what R-rated means in terms of violence. The opening scene where our “hero” eviscerates some gangsters by the side of a desert road is phenomenally beautiful. And the movie remains as bleak throughout - as well as, perhaps surprisingly, very thoughtful. Every scene with Patrick Stewart was beautiful. Beautiful because of his performance, but also because of how smartly written and well-paced his character’s story unfolded. What do you do when a man who could bring the world to its knees with his mind… gets Alzheimer’s? That Stewart was not even in the discussion for an Oscar baffles me. I legitimately lose interest in the film the moment Stewart stops playing as big a role about ¾ of the way through. It’s still a good movie after that point, but the story of mutant kids revolting against their slave drivers holds less power and realism than the story of a powerful man coming to grips with his dementia.

19 Wind River

Hell or High Water was, for me, the surprise hit of 2016, and when I found out that writer Taylor Sheridan was both writing and directing this film I saw it as soon as I could. While the movie may drag in a few spots here and there, it’s a pretty powerful movie about grief. It shares many story beats with Three Billboards but frankly I think this film does a much, much better job of staying focused on what’s most important. No, not the moral awakening of some insufferably racist cop, but the injustice of a girl’s life being ripped away from her family. And, more importantly, the impact that has upon an already depressed community. I don’t know how many movies there are that highlight the ironic contemporary struggle of Native Americans to get by in what should be their own land, but i don’t think there are many others. And for that fact alone Wind River deserves to be seen. While I’ve thus far talked like this movies a masterpiece it’s not. It drags a bit, Jeremy Renner’s character is both a little boring and a little too unbelievably good at his job, and Elizabeth Olsen’s character is a little bit too unbelievably inept at hers. But Sheridan crafts scripts whose violence is so genuinely shocking (no doubt in one place due to a perfectly placed flashback towards the end of the film) that you actually drop your jaw. You’ve seen thousands of people get shot in movies, but never quite like here.

18 War for the Planet of the Apes

Of all the major blockbuster franchises to be churned out these days, few have had the boldness to be both entertaining and artful. The first 15 minutes of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should be taught at all film schools as the prime example of world building without needing a single spoken word of dialogue. I think overall I liked the new War for the Planet of the Apes a little less than its predecessor, but still more than the reboot’s first entry, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For starters, this is a long movie and it didn’t need to be so long. That said, it has some of the best symbolism and beautifully structured motifs of any major blockbuster out there. Caesar is at times a Christ figure, a new Moses, and a slave in revolt, and the movie does a fantastic job of never letting these themes lay on too thick. And for a movie about apes, most of the sympathy undoubtedly comes from Andy Serkis. He deserves some sort of award for his work as Caesar… his facial ticks say a million things and more. Combined with the cinematography of the icy blue winter fortress, it’s a beauty to behold. Had the movie been a little tighter, it could have been that much better, but as is there’s still much to enjoy.

Great, fucking movies:(3.5 stars)

17 Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

By far the most divisive film of 2017, The Last Jedi was… a fine film. Like for every illogical plot point, for every cringeworthily forced joke, for every time that Mark Hamil didn’t know how to act, for every unnecessary venture onto the casino Planet, for every time Leia was a force zombie… I still walked away from the movie feeling satisfied. The action was good and The plot included legitimate surprises. Rian Jonson is many things, but a poor plotter is not one of them. Plus I was just so attracted to the film’s overwhelming feeling of abject failure. Blockbusters are supposed to lift us up and give us hope… but this movie presented an interesting antithesis to all that, even more so than its spiritual predecessor Empire Strikes Back. This movie will and has already been picked apart to death… but I think if someone walked into this movie knowing little about the Jedi, the Force, or who shot first, they would find an entertaining blockbuster and that’s what I saw. Perhaps not the best Star Wars movie… but a fine film.

16 The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected

Adam Sandler can act? Who knew! I did! I’ve seen Click! Anyways, this was a very good movie all around. There are top notch performances from all of its leads, with a special shout out to the quiet Elizabeth Marvel and the terrifyingly unemotional Hoffman. The films plot focused on three adults’ differing relationships with their father (Dustin Hoffman) an overbearing father and aging sculptor who failed to achieve any success. The script is superb and beautifully crafted. The whole movie can be summed up in three scenes, with each scene showing a different of the three children running. In one, Sandler is running to catch up to his Dad, representing how his character always felt like he had to prove himself to his father. In another Stiller is running in front of his father, just as his character has tried to escape the overbearing smothering pressure of his father. And thirdly Marvel’s character runs from danger but her father plays no role - she unlike her brothers has managed to shed the shadow of her father. The movie has some missteps in failed jokes (Sandler’s daughter’s movies?) and is a little long which keep it from being an instant classic, but it’s very well done.

15 Get Out

The best horror movie In a decade isn’t much of a horror movie. There are few jump scares and there’s hardly a real enough sense of danger to raise the audience’s blood pressure. But as a drama that intends to say a thing or two about America’s racial issues, this is a damn good movie. The script is extremely well-crafted and the story’s mysteries unfold in such an organic way. You’ll have thought you have it all figured out at least 3 times before the truth is revealed, and the “truth” actually makes sense and appears unforced unlike the twists in many movies of this type. There’s an alternate ending to this film you can find online where Director Peele could have pushed this movie to make a stronger statement about race… I wish he had. He used a half-measure when he should have used a full measure. The movie as a whole can be a little slow at times… but the ending action sequence and the film’s tone and message throughout more than make up for it.

14 The Post

The best newspaper movies are those that are procedural. Films like Spotlight or All the President’s Men made you feel like you were part of the investigation, highlighting the excitement and importance of mundane tasks like combing through directories of priests or tracking down witnesses that ultimately lead to giant breakthroughs. The Post has none of this. The Pentagon Papers literally fall into the lap of the Washington Post and Nixon’s paranoia ensures that The Post will be the only paper with the opportunity to publish. So it’s not a newspaper movie in that it’s not about investigative journalism so much as about the people who run the newspapers and their commitment to the first amendment. As a result, it’s preachy and a little too on the nose for those of us bombarded daily with claims of fake news. That said, it’s still Spielberg so it’s incredibly well-crafted and entertaining and Meryl Streep is fantastic in drawing out the complexity of Kay Graham. And who doesn’t love seeing Bob Odenkirk and David Cross side by side?

13 Wonder Woman

The undersaturation of the movie market with movies about World War I is a shame. Compare it with World War II which has a minimum of 4 movies a year… always. But where WWII is so often portrayed as the heroic triumph of good over evil or dives into the heinousness of the Holocaust, rarely does it get the chance to just pause and question the brutality of war itself. World War I doesn’t have that problem. There was no Hitler, no Nazis, no Holocaust. Just rulers and treaties that led to the senseless loss of life. And it’s this that movies like Joyeux Noel, War Horse, and now Wonder Woman have captured beautifully. Yes, Wonder Woman is a movie about immortal beings and super heroes with lassos of truth… but at its root it’s about the disgusting fact that humans inflict mass pain on each other based on the lightest of pretenses. The movie has a villain… but humanity is the real evil. The plot was smartly put together, the scenery and costumes nail the period, and the budding romance between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot is a treat to watch. But it’s film’s depiction of the senselessness of war (embodied in Wonder Woman’s shell-shocked Scottish companion.) that really sold me. This movie was far more moving than it deserved to be for a silly super hero movie, but it deserves its praise.

12 The Lego Batman Movie

Perhaps this of all the choices on this list will be the one to not age well… but when I saw this movie I was thoroughly pleased. Not only was it an entertaining and funny beyond a “kid’s” film, it was a parodic love letter to the Caped Crusader. I did not see 2017’s Justice League… but I can safely say this is the best Batman movie since 2008’s Dark Knight. The whole plot of this Lego movie is in fact a direct play on a line of dialogue from The Dark Knight. There the Joker tells Batman, “You complete me,” a line which in its context embodies a central theme throughout Batman lore: does Batman exist because Gotham is full of criminals, or is Gotham full of criminals because Batman attracts them. Here though, the line is taken at face value in its pseudo-romantic sense - Joker pledges his “love” for Batman and here he gets denied. And the world hath seen no wrath as a Joker scorned. It’s a funny set-up that leads to a fun who’s-who of villains from across the Batverse and beyond. The film is anchored in the now-classic Lego movie sense of humor. Special props to Will Arnett’s arrogant, self-centered turn as the lead and to Michael Cera’s bubblingly boyish Dick Grayson/Robin. The two have a perfect comedic give and take. It’s as if the whole movie is a side project of Arrested Development with a young George Michael Bluth playing along with the delusional fantasies of his Uncle GOB. Tobias would of course be Mr. Freeze - he already blued himself.

11 Darkest Hour

Who was Winston Churchill? I’m still not quite sure. The movie presented him as a drunk, surely, but also scared, crude, abrasive, confused, a little Alzheimer’s-y at times… but the least I can say is that he deserved my respect by the end of the film and that’s what the movie wanted from me. Gary Oldman is amazing in this movie and other people could speak more eloquently about his performance. But he’s not alone and Ben Mendehlsson as King George and Stephen Dillane as the preposterously prissy Lord Halifax deserve special praise. Lily James as Churchill’s secretary does not though… her role was kinda pointless… But what really caught my eye about this movie is it’s beautiful cinematography. The movie plays with light and dark so well - fitting for its title. Plus the movie tells the story of the Dunkirk travesty from such an interesting perspective. The knowledge of Hitler’s ultimate intentions today make it difficult to swallow arguments of the past that peace might have been possible, but the film does a great job of establishing tension in a conflict where everyone in the audience knows the resolution. There are times when you wonder along with Churchill whether peace might be worth pursuing. However, if you, like me, enjoy getting your history from film, You’ll likely be saddened as i was to learn that the scene where Churchill goes into the Tube and talks to the common folk for inspiration was all made up for the movie… still, the scene’s pretty magical to watch. So everyone plays their roles to the T and the pictures are pretty. If that’s not enough for you, just watch this as an antidote to watching the lifeless Dunkirk. Ugh. Fuck Dunkirk.

10 The Beguiled

This is an extremely moody, brooding film that sticks with much you longer than you’d think. It’s really a short, little movie at only 94 minutes long, but director Sophia Coppola packs that time full of lust-filled intrigue and tension. If you ever wonders what happens when a house full of sexually repressed women in the 1860s encounters a wounded soldier who’s happy to “please”… the answer is not a lot of good. This is not a porno. If anything this movie takes a male fantasy and turns it into a nightmare. Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst, and Nicole Kidman play a fearfully tempting trio, each approaching the mysterious figure of Colin Farrell with their own motivations. Elle as a young woman exploring her sexuality, Kirsten as a woman sheltered for too long and yearns for the companionship, while Kidman as the older woman wants to feel love again… yet Colin cannot have all three and tries anyways… and the result is chilling and creepy reminder that you don’t mess with the heart of a woman. It’s Like Gone Girl in this sense, but better because this movie’s actually rewatchable and the perspective is entirely female-centric.

9 Mudbound

Somewhere online this movie is described as “literary in the best sense” and that’s about all you need to know about this movie. It’s a sprawling character-based epic that charts the lives of two families, one white, one black, whose lives continue to intersect while living in the 1940s rural South. Like much of the 19th c. and early 20th c. American literature, the big takeaway is that life in the country is miserable and prone to stagnation (a little stuck in the mud if you will). And Carey Mulligan’s role as a sophisticated woman forced into the staid life on the farm is practically a carbon copy of the main character in Willa Cather’s “Wagner Matinee” - and that’s a good thing. Mary J. Blige looks really cool with her sunglasses but also does a great job acting as the loving matriarch of her family - in fact the whole cast is pretty incredible. However the heart of the film is the friendship that forms between the veterans returning from WWII- one from each family. Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell carry well the invisible wounds of war and the movie does a great job of highlighting the great injustice and indifference our society all too often places upon the plight of veterans - especially those who are also racial minorities. It’s a movie both reflective of its period’s morals, and a reminder of how close in time we are to some of our nation’s worst racially-based hate crimes.

8 Shape of Water

Love comes in all shapes and sizes - a theme Hollywood has pushed on us for decades. But here the trite fairy tale truism is made fresh… precisely because director Guillermo del Toro does not hide the fact that his Shape of Water - though a movie for adults with rather graphic violence and sex - is a fairy tale. Its love is both unbelievable and beautiful. The film tries to say something about the civil rights movement and oppression in its portrayal of the stigmatized relationship between woman and fish monster… but I personally found those parallels a bit wonky. The film works best as a simple story devoid of overt politics. Few scenes this year are as heartwarming as two rain droplets dancing on the side of a bus window as it races through the night or a dance scene between a fish monster and a woman filmed in the black and white style of the grand musicals of Old Hollywood. The movie includes a heist (the best!), Communist intrigue, comedy, and an amazing villain in Michael Shannon. That guy’s face is made to be evil. Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Jenkins round out a superbly talented cast and the movie is a joy to watch. It was clear this was a work of love for delToro and though it’s not my favorite movie this year it deserves all the praise it gets. It’s a technical and moving marvel

Fantastic films (4 stars)

7 Sanctuary

Of all the movies on this list, I’m gonna bet this is the one you’ve never heard of. I’d never heard of it either. It was an accidental find hidden deep in the Hulu catalog which only attracted my roommate’s and my attentions because it was recently voted the best film in Ireland for 2017 according to some Irish critic’s circle. It was never even released in America. I like Irish film, and I loved this movie. It’s an ambitious project - at least by modern standards. A movie about people with intellectual disabilities, whose cast is mostly filled with people with intellectual disabilities, including like 4 people with Downs Syndrome. It’s part comedy, part rom-com, part romantic-drama, and throughout a tragedy. The movie struggles to find a fine line between viewing it’s largely adult cast of people with intellectual disabilities as people who need to be watched after and people who deserve independence and freedom. And that is not a fault of the movie… in real life finding that balance is hard. The movie has you laughing one moment, crying the other, but at all times forcing this viewer at least to challenge his perceptions of those with intellectual disabilities. It’s a powerful movie, an entertaining one, and one which I think all should see.

6 The Big Sick

Yes, this movie may have committed the worst of comedy movie sins - putting the best joke (the one about 9/11) in the trailer - but that doesn’t stop The Big Sick and it’s plot from surprising. I won’t spoil the plot because it’s best experienced first hand - but one thing I wish I knew going in is that this is fairly closely based on Kumail Nanjiani’s real life, who wrote the film with his wife Emily V. Gordon. I say this because when I first saw this my complaint was that the plot seemed too unbelievable and were this a purely fictional tale I’d be right - but truth is stranger than fiction. The movie has many thematic parallels with the second episode of Aziz Ansari’s Master of None in that the film presents the real pressures faced by children of immigrants to balance wanting to live a “normal” American life without seeming ungrateful or unappreciative of your parents’ culture and the sacrifices they have made to give their kids a better life. Kumail’s mother may be the “villain” from a plotting perspective, but the film is more nuanced than to portray her as heartless. In fact, the incredible love of a parent for their child is palpable throughout, and Ray Romano and Holly Hunter do wonders portraying a couple who though strained will unite to do anything for their daughter. Like life, the characters are realistic, the conflicts have no easy resolution, and it’s equal parts comical and emotional.

5 The Florida Project

Probably one of the best compliments I can bestow upon any piece of art is, “It reminds me of The Wire.” Yes, I am one of those people… deal with it. But what that to me means, is that this particular work of art manages to present an important social problem in a way that has no clear heroes or villains. Rather, it presents real, flawed humans dealing with a terribly shitty social construct. Here, the social construct is poverty - severe, depressing poverty. What are you supposed to do if you have no money, no home, no hopes for the future? You scam, you prostitute, you lie, you do anything to get by. But the characters in the Florida Project aren’t Robin Hoods or Aladdins - lovable thieves. No, they are often ugly people. This is a movie largely about “white trash” America - or rather people we cast aside without a second thought as white trash. However, what makes this movie so brilliant is that it grounds its message in the perspective of a child. Brooklyn Prince is damn near perfect in her role as the six year-old Moonee, the daughter of the aforementioned lying, scamming, destitute woman. By framing the move from Moonee’s view, director Sean Baker allows the movie to be at one moment light-hearted and the next moment heartbreaking. Like The Wire this movie deserves to be taught in any sociology class alongside any textbook. It’s an insightful look at the way the other half lives that’s full of empathetic humanity without providing its characters forgiveness carte blanche. And as entertainment it’s riveting.

4 Baby Driver

I am confident that this movie will not be as good on a second pass, as it’s more of a roller coaster adrenaline rush than artful film, and once you know all the twists and turns the fun will surely be lessened. But that doesn’t stop the first ride through the life of a bank-robbing getaway driver with a heart from being a hell of a good time. Like Patrick Stewart’s snub for Logan, I am legitimately surprised that there was never ANY talk of best director in the cards for Edgar Wright - though it’s probably a little more accurate to call him a choreographer than director as Baby Driver is, for all intents and purposes, an extended music video. Like Wright’s previous work in the Cornetto trilogy, the soundtrack is an eclectic mix of deep tracks from the mainly 60s/70s, but here the music does more than provide a backdrop to the action; it reflects and informs the action. Car chases are coordinated so that the best parts match musical crescendos. Take for example the foot chase towards to the end of the film set perfectly to Hocus Pocus’s “Focus.” The song alternates between a rocking guitar riff and a yodeling breakdown, and Wright appropriately sets the Chase parts to the guitar part and parts where Baby has to hide to the yodel. But calling it a music video perhaps robs the movie of the fact that it created an interesting cast of characters. Yes, it stars Kevin Spacey… but he’s creepy in this movie so at least art reflects life. But more of interest are Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm as two of Baby’s slightly unhinged compatriots in bank robbing. Ansel Elgort in the title role carries enough charm and heart to capture audiences, and Lily James as the Southern beauty with the heart of gold is just grungy enough to be the perfect match for Baby’s criminal nature. Few movies have ever been this fun to watch with incredibly coordinated car chases, and the plot carries enough twists and turns to keep audiences on their toes.

3 Columbus

This movie is one of those movies where I can’t really put into words why I liked it. The most obvious reason is the movie’s scenery. Set entirely in the small town of Columbus, IN, a real town renowned across the world for its collection of buildings made in the modernist style. The town is shot beautifully and even if the movie weren’t good otherwise, it’d be worth a glance for the pictures. However, the plot is good. It’s a two-for-one with two of my favorite themes. One plot deals with the coming of age of a teenaged girl who’s too smart to get stuck in a dead end town. The other deals with a son comings to terms with his troubled relationship with his father. As I said, the movie is slow and I won’t claim to fully believe that in real life a relationship would have formed between the two main characters - it’s a little forced. But the emotions of the movie are undeniably real and it never feels like melodrama. This is one of the few movies where upon watching I immediately wanted to watch it again.

2 Good Time

Unlike Columbus, I was happy when Good Time ended and did not want to watch it again. It’s not because it’s a bad movie - far from it. But it paints such an ugly, depressing, and frankly terrifyingly real view of humanity that you’re happy when it’s finally over. This is film at its most linear (aside from one notable flashback that ranks among the best flashbacks of all time) and that’s not a complaint. The film’s runs quickly from start to finish like a bullet. The story is one of survival, as Robert Pattinson’s Nicky tries to free his accomplice and brother from custody while avoiding the cops himself following a botched bank robbery. This is not a light hearted bank heist movie like the Oceans movies, Baby Driver, or the like. While Nicky’s attempts to evade detection are certainly clever, as the movie continues you find you aren’t rooting for the protagonist - I wasn’t at least. The movie plays with the idea that the cat & mouse trope so popular in literature is far from fun in real life. It’s a hell of an adrenaline rush, Robert Pattinson gives - i think - one of the best performances of the year, and the plot is damn near perfect - not a second is wasted.

1 Lady Bird

The amount a movie makes me cry sits in direct proportion to how much i enjoyed the film (Interstellar being the big exception). At the end of Lady Bird I was awash in tears. The movie depicts with such a razor-sharp accuracy just how hard being in a family can be. Just how contradictory it can be. How is it that you can hate what your mother does, says, and stands for, and still love her? How is it that you can be so relieved to send your daughter off to college and out of your hair but also cry the entire way home? The taut relationship between Lady Bird and her mother (played extraordinarily by Saorsie Ronan and Laurie Metcalf) is without a doubt the cornerstone upon which Greta Gerwig built her semi-autobiographical story. And in a world filled with nuanced stories of miscommunication between fathers and sons, it was so incredibly refreshing to see the mother-daughter relationship explored with the same respect. The key? Neither character is flawless. Yes Lady Bird is our protagonist, but she’s just a teen. The movie can not help but remind us that for all of her confidence and sophistication there’s just so much to this world she doesn’t understand. We see her engage in doomed sexual relationships, get into petty spats with her best friend, and generally just act immaturely. And her mother is no saint either. Yes, she undoubtedly makes great sacrifices for her daughter and her whole family. She is patient and loving with her husband who suffers from depression and struggles to find work. But she also has no interest in learning about her daughter - her thoughts, her feelings. She embodies the mantra “cruel to be kind” yet it’s sometimes hard to see when the kindness kicks in. The movie is honest, it’s funny, and at times heartbreaking. It’s the best movie I’ve seen since Boyhood in terms of showing what life in America is really like, and it’s a gem of a movie deserved to be seen by all.

#Oscars #bestof2017 #Movies #Lady Bird

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carpostnet · 5 years ago

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2020 Mercedes GLE review, test drive of the GLE 400 petrol and GLE 300d diesel

12th Dec 2019 6:00 am

Built on an extended wheelbase and loaded with tech, the new GLE guarantees to raise the luxurious SUV. But how significantly better is it?

Sunrise remains to be an hour away as I slip the new GLE off its moorings and roll slowly into the inky black. With a lot of ‘data’ to gather and masses to find, I’m trying ahead to driving it over acquainted roads.

Instrument panel may be reconfigured.

First impressions, actually straight out of the field, come as a bit of a shock. Merc’s new GLE is clearly longer in beam, constructed on an extended 2,995mm wheelbase, and is wider too. I discover the further size as I reverse out of my tight parking spot, and then once I hook a left to exit the gate, I’ve to offer parked automobiles a large berth.

Trackpad takes some getting used to.

City slicker

Once on the transfer, the new 4,930mm-long GLE simply appears to shrink round me. Loads of this has to do with how on the ball Merc’s BS6-ready OM654 diesel is, and how fast and slack-free the steering is.

No Sport, so throttle responses, steering not altered.

As I speed up over Mumbai’s empty roads, the engine feels gentle, agile and responds nearly immediately to a faucet on the throttle. Almost petrol-like in operation at low and medium speeds, it pulls so cleanly, it’s troublesome to consider it displaces just one,950cc. Some of this effervescence is right down to the proven fact that it comes with a 2,500bar fourth-generation frequent rail system, it has an aluminium block with metal pistons, twin sequential turbos (a big low-pressure turbo and a small high-pressure one), and that the engine additionally makes use of a water-to-air intercooler. Putting out a really wholesome 245hp and, extra importantly, 500Nm of torque, what additionally impacts the manner the 300d drives is the 9-speed gearbox.

Quality of wooden, chrome, match and end spectacular.

As I proceed my journey throughout Mumbai’s 5km-long Sea Link and onto some smaller roads, I marvel at the how exact and effort-free the steering is. It isn’t precisely oily-smooth like the Volvo XC90’s, or fairly Audi-like both, but it surely clearly is extra exact and nearly as effort-free. It’s so good that every one it is advisable do to maneuver this mass of metallic is roll your wrists, and the GLE goes precisely the place you level it.

Knurled toggle switches and chrome buttons.

The experience, nonetheless, may have been tauter. This turns into evident as I drive over some damaged patches of street on the outskirts of Mumbai, the place the coil spring setup (no air suspension on this model) feels a bit floaty over lumpy tarmac. Some tough patches are dispatched effortlessly, and consolation generally is nice, however sharp-edged bumps and massive potholes register as ‘thwacks’ and thumps in the cabin.

Massive legroom and ample thigh assist make it really feel like the E-class of SUVs.

As I flip onto the street that results in Nashik and meet up with the relaxation of the crew, I discover a faint glow in the sky. Now black isn’t the perfect color relating to capturing a car. It’s doesn’t maintain gentle in addition to a lighter color, and protecting the reflections down, except you might be in an open space, may be very troublesome. Still can’t however assist marvel at how the rivulets of gentle run alongside the ridges on the bonnet.

Panoramic sunroof makes cabin look even greater.

Further alongside the Nashik street, the street opens out and the site visitors thins. We discover a good patch to shoot in, however we’ve got to attend – there nonetheless isn’t sufficient gentle. Time for some robust morning espresso. The Starbucks we cross is closed, however the native Udipi joint offers me espresso so sturdy, it may wake a rhino. Must admit, the new GLE appears equally ‘buff’, particularly in black.

Leather-lined and padded handles work nicely.

Outside and in

Of course the M-class’ signature raked-forward C-pillar is carried over, and rightly so; it’s the one which began the world development, and that huge Cyclops-eye, three-pointed-star is prominently featured on the grille too. The new GLE additionally will get muscular shoulders, enormous wheel arches and a extra planted stance. Like the GLC, the new GLE’s cabin is positioned inset, lending extra agility to the design, and the headlights with two LED bars point out that that is the E-class. The bit I like finest, nonetheless, is the bonnet; I simply love these nearly reptilian nostrils or bonnet ridges, and the tightly skinned nostril appears beautiful with the gentle spilling over it.

BS6 245hp diesel is refined and responsive.

With the gentle correctly up now, we clamber again on board and take the GLE throughout an off-road path. There’s a lot of grip and Merc’s SUV scampers up simply, however floor clearance isn’t too good. The air suspension with the raise perform can be of nice assist right here.

Twin LED bars in headlights assist establish it as a GLE.

I’ve to maneuver the car round for the digital camera, and I take this chance to get a better take a look at the ethereal and huge cabin. While the new GLE doesn’t appear to have grown an excessive amount of on the outdoors, that just about 3m-long wheelbase actually does make the cabin really feel cathedral like. And what makes it look much more expansive is the white ‘leather’ cabin and the huge panoramic sunroof. And it isn’t simply the dimension. What additionally has me going ‘oohh’ is that innate sense of class that’s so evident right here. Sure, there’s masses of bling, with the two huge digital screens completely mounted in the identical aircraft, a lot of chrome scattered throughout the cabin, and LED highlights in every single place. Still, the whole lot has been executed so tastefully, it looks like a superbly tailor-made Savile Row go well with. Not in your face in any respect, however nonetheless so enticing. I additionally love the 4 block-like metallic vents; completed in luscious chrome, they frost over superbly once you open a window. And then there are the leather-lined seize handles that sit on both facet of the centre console, and the superbly constructed ‘chromed-over’ buttons. Even that band of matte wooden that runs throughout the sprint and the high-quality steering wheel look nice.

No air springs on the 300d, however 450 petrol will get them.

Can’t say I a lot take care of the fake vent on the left of the touchscreen although, and the high quality ranges at the backside of the sprint are strictly common. Then the door bins are so massive that smaller bottles fall over, and although it appears cool, the gear stalk feels a bit too flimsy. The car we examined got here with solely Type-C USB slots, so we couldn’t cost our telephones. Still, this clearly is one of Merc’s higher configured interiors. Even the trackpad, first launched by Lexus, the MBUX system and the touchscreen work nicely, and I even type of obtained to grips with the thumb-controlled contact pads on the steering wheel – the left one for the important display and the one on the proper for the instrument panel.

Raked C-pillar a signature that’s carried over.

The GLE 300d additionally aces it relating to seat consolation. This lower-spec variant might not have a 37,000-way adjustable entrance seat, and the steering alter remains to be guide, however the seat’s fundamentals are so good that fatigue, even after a complete day behind the wheel, is minimal. And I simply love the proven fact that the entrance seats are round a foot thick when considered from facet on and is completed in robust ‘leather’. Rear-seat consolation, as ever, is extraordinarily necessary; this can be a car that might be chauffeur-driven so much, and climbing up into the again is straightforward. The door opens extensive, it isn’t an excessive amount of of a step up, and there’s masses of legroom. You are sat at an excellent peak and thigh assist is greater than enough, however the backrest in the 300d can’t be reclined. Those preferring a extra relaxed angle can go for both the 400d or the 450 petrol. Higher-spec GLEs get a incredible six-way-powered rear seat, a primary in the section, which may be reclined by 30 levels, supplying you with E-class ranges of consolation. Top variants may even get further package like gesture management, wi-fi charging and a 360-degree encompass digital camera.

Large 630-litre boot is extensive, deep and straightforward to entry.

Into the nice extensive open

Shoot executed for the morning, it’s time to get behind the wheel once more and take off up the fabulous Nashik ghat. The floor isn’t in too good a situation after the rains, and there are sometimes some street works, however what permits me to take pleasure in the car is that the site visitors is skinny.

300d will get a robust 1,950cc diesel.

Far from feeling out of breath on the extra open roads, the 300d manages fairly nicely, the intelligent 9-speed gearbox all the time managing to maintain the engine in the meat of the powerband. So efficiency is powerful all the manner as much as and previous 160kph, and what’s good is that, regardless of the bulk, the new GLE’s slippery form and low drag coefficient of 0.29 (by the way the identical as that of the W124, the car Merc first offered in India 25 years in the past) permits it to chop via the air with out making you are feeling like you might be driving a brick. The engine does get a bit noisy once you pull it to the redline, and there’s a trace of street noise over poorly surfaced roads, however, that aside, the 300d is refined, silent and very luxurious car-like, even once you go fast. We even managed to test the GLE 300d with our Vbox, and true to kind, efficiency didn’t disappoint. 0-100 comes up in simply 8sec, nearly a second and a half sooner than the outgoing 250D, and that’s so much.

GLE solely will get a space-saver spare tyre.

It even manages to entertain round corners. The steering weighs up properly on entry, there’s a honest quantity of grip, and so long as you retain physique roll (of which there’s a good bit) in verify, you may even take pleasure in your self. Wish the brakes delivered a bit extra confidence although. Initial chew is nice once you hit the pedal, however squeeze it a bit more durable and the degree of retardation don’t improve; this takes some getting used to.

Petrol energy

450 is the first-ever Mercedes straight-six petrol on sale in India.

We additionally briefly obtained behind the wheel of the range-topping 450 petrol. Merc’s first-ever straight-six petrol in India is creamy {smooth} and places out 367hp, with a 22hp electrical increase from a mild-hybrid system. Straightline efficiency, with the engine winding up the rev vary, is powerful; 0-100kph comes up in a claimed 5.7sec, and it feels not less than as fast from behind the wheel. And since the 450 has air suspension, it feels a bit sportier to drive. There’s no Sport mode on the 450 both, so don’t count on agility to take an enormous bounce.

Onwards and upwards

Slated to be launched in January 2020, the new GLE is an SUV that’s taken an enormous step ahead in nearly each space. It’s extra silent and refined on the transfer, it’s extra responsive and lighter to drive, the engine is stronger, the gearbox is faster, and then on the inside, area, consolation, high quality ranges and package have gone up massively. Higher- spec variations even get that incredible rear seat that may be reclined by 30 levels. Ride on the 300d, with its metal springs, nonetheless, may have been higher. The GLE might be a bit costly, with its value anticipated to climb to round Rs 75 lakh. Still, if you’re on the lookout for a luxurious SUV that majors on consolation and refinement, this ought to be it.

The new GLE: The lengthy and quick of it

Mercedes’ new GLE has grown in dimension over the one presently offered in India. Where the outgoing GLE has a wheelbase of 2,915mm, the new car’s longer 2,995mm wheelbase is a full 80mm longer. This is why Mercedes has given it an inner code that begins with a ‘V’ quite than the custom ‘W’. Now often called the V167, the new GLE can also be intently associated to the new GLS which is able to now be often called the X167 for its even longer 3,135mm wheelbase. As a consequence, Mercedes-Benz India is quietly assured of the new GLE’s success. Its different lengthy wheelbase car, the E-class (V213) is a runaway success in any case.

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Buying used: (2016-2019) Mercedes-Benz GLS

Mercedes-Benz GLC facelift launched at Rs 52.75 lakh

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wikitopx · 5 years ago

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There are miles of beautiful Chicago beaches, Chicago museums that rank among the world's best and the friendliest city-dwellers out there (if we do say so ourselves).

Whether you’re an out-of-towner or a tried-and-true Chicagoan planning a staycation, we’ve assembled the 25 best Chicago attractions for your touring convenience. Oh, and if you’re feeling decadent, cap off your day of sightseeing with a meal at one of the best restaurants in Chicago. What can you do in Chicago for a day? Ready to dive in to the windy city?

1. Millennium Park

What must see in Chicago? Millennium Park - This vast 24.5-acre section of Chicago’s front yard is one of the most popular places to spend time outdoors in the city, look at public art and attend special events.

To take a selfie in front of Cloud Gate (a.k.a. the Bean), go for a stroll through the serene Lurie Gardens, catch a free concert in the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion (in the summer) or skate on the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink (in the winter).

2. Art Institute of Chicago

What is the most popular tourist destination in Chicago? One of the city’s most well-known cultural institutions, which houses more than 300,000 artworks and an on-site restaurant, Terzo Piano (Italian-Mediterranean food).

Acquaint yourself with classic paintings like Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (as seen in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and Grant Wood's American Gothic, or explore an expansive collection of contemporary works in the museum’s Modern Wing. Check the museum's website for more information on temporary exhibitions.

3. Lincoln Park Zoo

Located in the middle of Lincoln Park, this 35-acre zoo houses more than 1,000 animals and is one of the few remaining free zoos in the country.

Watch lovely African penguins frolicking, observe majestic cats in the Kovler Lion House or visit the scaled residents of the McCormick Reptile House—all entirely free of charge. Trust us, it’ll get wild.

4. Garfield Park Conservatory

Among the largest conservatories in the United States, this giant greenhouse in Garfield Park provides a home for some 600 species of plants (most of which aren’t indigenous to the region).

Stop by 365 days a year to admire the gigantic trees that fill the Palm Room, see a depiction of ancient Illinois vegetation in the Fern Room or window shop for succulents and cacti in the Desert Room.

5. Wrigley Field

Built in 1914, Wrigley Field has been the home of North Side baseball team the Chicago Cubs for more than 100 years.

To watch baseball at one of the oldest ballparks in America, sing along during the seventh-inning stretch and see one of the only manually operated scoreboards in existence, controlled by three members of the Cubs staff.

6. Museum of Contemporary Art

Take in a constantly changing lineup of exhibitions, including touring shows from the likes of Takashi Murakami and Kerry James Marshall, or stop by the museum’s in-house restaurant, Marisol, where chef Lula Cafe chef Jason Hammel serves an inventive menu.

7. Time Out Market Chicago

Opening in 2019, Time Out is curating a 50,000-square-foot food hall in Fulton Market, hosting some of the city's top restaurants and chefs.

Time Out Market Chicago is a living, breathing version of our magazine, stocked with 18 different kiosks where you'll be able to enjoy dishes from folks like Brian Fisher of Michelin-starred Entente, Thai Dang of HaiSous and Zoe Schor of Split-Rail. There will also be three bars on-site, a demo kitchen and plenty of events taking place within the bustling space.

8. The Second City

Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Joan Rivers are just a few of the famous folks who honed their talents onstage at this theater devoted to sketch and improvised comedy.

You’ll see some of the most talented rising comedic talents (and maybe a couple future Saturday Night Live cast members) on the Second City’s Mainstage. If you want to learn more about improv, stand-up or sketch writing, you can sign up for a class at the Training Center.

9. The 606

A 2.7-mile stretch of an abandoned elevated rail line that has been transformed into a pedestrian path that connects Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Bucktown and Wicker Park.

It’s a great place to go for a jog, zip around on your bicycle and quickly transverse some of the most popular North Side neighborhoods. Plus, you’ll spot some art installations as you go.

10. The Green Mill

Once you’ve snapped a picture of the iconic Green Mill marquee, head inside, order a cocktail and take in a set from some of the city’s top jazz musicians. The music typically goes late, but you’ll need to show up early if you want to score a good seat.

See also: Top 10 things to do in Pittsburgh

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-chicago-702902.html

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garagedoorshampshire · 6 years ago

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51 Beautiful Black Bedrooms With Images, Tips & Accessories To Help You Design Yours

Black bedroom decor might not always be everyone’s cup of morning tea or bedtime cocoa, but maybe we can change the minds of nonbelievers. Black bedrooms don’t have to be a dark and dingy affair, or feel closed in; black painted walls can be the backdrop to a much more vibrant set of coloured accessories. An all black bedroom furniture ensemble brings a slick look to a sleep space, which can be edged in cool modern lighting solutions, and complemented by decadent wallpapers. Alternating black and white walls or furniture pieces makes for a fresh monochrome aesthetic, which looks great warmed through with wood accents. Find inspiration for all this and more right here.

Designer: Davidsign Create an inverted art gallery. Black and white photographic prints and paintings are an ideal accessory for a black room. Art galleries may typically present these on white walls but a black display wall looks twice as striking.

Visualizer: Igor Sirotov Keep it simple. An all black bedroom suits minimalist bedroom furniture, with clean linear shape.

Visualizer: Double Aye Black makes a perfect backdrop. When walls are knocked back in black, you can go wild with colourful accessories, like this tricolour light installation. Black also makes a good base for standout furniture pieces like this unique painted bed.

Visualizer: Kriss Maksymchuk Reflect light into dark coloured rooms with mirrors. Situate a stripe of mirror behind one or both bedside units. A floor to ceiling strip of glass will go a long way in bouncing extra natural light around your interior.

Visualizer: Now Design Light it up. If you’re going to have a black bedroom then you have to consider lighting as part of the plan. Install too little illumination and you might find yourself left in the shade. LED strip lights present the perfect solution for edging furniture; attach them along the perimeter of the headboard and around the bed base for a truly inviting and cosy look. Hang a modern chandelier low for extra drama.

Visualizer: Jeffrey Faranial Borrow light – and colour. This bedroom is opened up at the back by having a glass wall ensuite bathroom. This can contribute extra daylight via the bathroom window, or it can just be a way to introduce another colour. In this case the open ensuite adds a glowing woodtone vista to the scene.

Visualizer: Makhno If flat black feels to stark to you, then consider a textured feature wall. Don’t forget to throw some illumination over it to really pick out that detail. Keep the rest of the scheme white and woodtone so as not to overpower the strength of the dark wall.

Visualizer: MirrorR Studio Rich rustic. Black and rich woodtone make an ideal colour narrative for a rustic bedroom scheme. Bring in a chunky black metal pendant light and some natural woven baskets to shape the theme.

Visualizer: Tài Nguyễn Fashion a headboard feature wall out of black storage cabinets. These black slab fronted units appear like a contemporary panelled wall behind the bed.

Visualizer: Dim Eysner Wire up the wardrobe. Another way to get lots of light into the back of a dark room is by installing a closet with glass doors. By day, the glass will reflect natural light from the window. By night, the closet can be a lightbox, where LED strip lights glow from the garment rails and shelving. Edge other shelves in the room too, for an all around glow.

Visualizer: Alexandru Ionita Go green. Live greenery will soften a black decor scheme and breathe life where there is shade.

Visualizer: Alexandru Ionita You can push the green theme a little further by bringing in coloured furniture, like this plush green fabric bedstead.

Visualizer: Anastasia Andryushchenko A little splash of white will go a long way. Thin white electrical wires of a modern pendant light scribble luminously across a subtly patterned black wall here. Slender white bedsides trim the baseline.

Visualizer: Johny Mrazko These circular bedroom pendant lights hang like moons in a pitch black sky. A red stool and blue ottoman break up the neutral scheme.

Visualizer: Asgard Interiors Hit the sheets in a black and blue room. This black bedroom has been dressed with a blue bed set. As the bed is such a massive item in the room, changing out the colour of the bedclothes will completely change your colour scheme – you could have a new look every week. Check out the beautifully warming stripe of wood shelving across this cool slatted black headboard wall too. Illuminate a slatted wall along the ceiling line to pick out the detail, and hang a modern chandelier to layer up the look.

Visualizer: Madi Chanyshev Draw inspiration from art. If you find a particularly striking piece that you’d love to display in the room, then let its colours inspire the decor. No need to paint a whole wall to match, a small colour insert works wonders in a dark scheme. Notice how the bookcase in this room also adds relief in the blackness.

Visualizer: Freedes Studio Camouflage large furniture items. This winged black accent chair is hardly noticeable against the black wall, which makes the scheme seem more open.

Visualizer: Stanislav Borozdinskiy When walls are dark, fill the floor with light. This pure white platform bed on a smooth white floor looks ethereal in contrast to deep black-brown walls. A white art canvas draws light into the vertical plane.

Visualizer: CG Lab Pierce solid black areas with light accessories. Pale bedside table lamps bring light relief to black bedside sections. See more ideas for wood slat walls here.

Designer: Rande Hackmann Photographer: Megan Thiele Dark decadence. Nothing has quite the same depth of decadence as a black and gold bedroom. Push it up a notch or two with a gold four poster bed and black boiserie. Notice the unusual placement of a fireplace between the windows too. The decorative surround houses a group of pillar candles – though always remember to keep lit candles away from draughts and curtains.

Visualizer: Marina Donskikh A more subtle black and gold bedroom scheme – this time just two elegant gold pendant lights bring the glamour. A blonde wood floor matches their tone.

Visualizer: Harun Kaymaz Dark dressed eclectic. This interesting mix of modern and classic pieces are held tightly together by the strong colour scheme.

Designer: Cortney Bishop Brighten where it matters. The bed and the windows are brightened as the stars of this show, black walls fall back. Pretty little indoor plants dress white bedside units, under white wall sconces. A striped bed throw ties the black and white of the room together, whilst beige cushions and wall art stop the scheme from becoming too coldly monochrome.

Visualizer: Peter Janov Have fun with an unexpectedly colourful piece.

Visualizer: Sergey Ko Quietly lighten an all black bedroom with low grey wall panelling and a pale grey rug.

Visualizer: Artem Meshchankin & Sergei Makhno A second example of keeping things light on the floor – this time with a cream fabric bed and cream circle rug. The bedside table and designer table lamp echo the circular theme.

Visualizer: Kriss Maksymchuk Build a black room, within a white room. A black ‘box’ has been fashioned to house the bed in this predominantly white space. The dark area is uplifted by motivational quotes over the bed, under an illuminated canopy. A huge swing arm wall lamp adds reading light.

Visualizer: Aleksey Bereznyak Much more understated wall sconces bring reading light to this ruffled bed. The bedside units span out to create a desk and dressing table on either side.

Visualizer: Harun Kaymaz Apply black and white imagery into panel moulding.

Visualizer: Luydmila Todorova A black bedroom is a neutral home for hard to match items.

Visualizer: Giorgos Tataridis Slice it through. Cut through the darkness with a slice of white or cream. This textured niche with recessed lighting completely changes the dynamic of the room.

Visualizer: Ugljanitsa Alexander Go big with wallpaper prints that have light detailing.

Visualizer: Inna Shapovalova An equal combination of light and dark makes a soothing yin and yang. The bed and bedroom chair create a beautifully balanced visual, each with dark bases and light fabric.

Visualizer: HATCH STUDIO Make narrow windows appear larger by hanging drapes that expand all the way across the window wall.

Visualizer: Lera Katasonova Design Hang window drapes all the way up at the ceiling line to create added height too.

Visualizer: Sergey Kondratev Go black with brickwork. Exposed brick has been painted over in this black and gray bedroom, so that the texture can still be seen. The wall acts as zoning decor for a small bedroom lounge area. The brick texture is complemented by geometric pattern in a niche behind the bed.

Visualizer: Igor Sirotov In this example of a glass wall ensuite, the bathroom borrows light from the bedroom rather than vice versa.

Visualizer: Dekaa A dark slatted door features in this bedroom with wardrobe display. Beige furniture lightens the look.

Visualizer: KUOO ARCHITECTS An expanse of wooden wardrobes balance an all black wall.

Visualizer: IQOSA Architect Make things pop with perimeter lighting.

Visualizer: Van Dz A single black wall, beaten back by white in the rest of a Scandinavian style room creates a clean look.

Visualizer: Nunzio Cava Throw together a cool bedroom with a black feature wall, a reclaimed pallet bed and music themed art.

Visualizer: Mohamed Terko Halo lights make this black and white bedroom a heavenly space.

Visualizer: Ahmed Itafy Keep it cosy. That close feeling that all black decor evokes presents a positive effect in an oversized loft space.

Visualizer: Maxim Nizovkin Shake up simplicity. A flush-fitted floor bed design and sleek ceiling lights create a wonderfully simplistic scheme; a black accent wall gives the design depth and dimension.

Visualizer: Makhno Texture all the way. Think monochrome granite and woven rugs.

Visualizer: MI Group Industrial style lighting suits a strong backdrop. Try adding brightly coloured flex to make them pop.

Visualizer: Kroom Accessorise a black wall with a large wall clock.

Visualizer: Mahdi Bina Mahdi Bina A black and red bedroom looks sumptuous…

Visualizer: Haytham Alaa … add panel moulding for a high-end finish.

Visualizer: Olga Podgornaja

1. Moon phases artwork 2. Swallow clock 3. Black platform bed 4. Black vase set 5. Tom Dixon style beat pendant lights 6. Black designer bedside table lamp 7. Smart clock 8. Moon lamp 9. Black side table

Recommended Reading: Black Living Rooms

Black And White House With Moments Of Kid-Friendly Quirky Decor

Interior Design In Black & White

Modern Minimalist Black and White Lofts

Black, White & Beige Apartment For The Fashionista

Dark and Dreamy Bedrooms

Four Perfectly Pale Scandi Style Interiors

from Interior Design Ideas http://www.home-designing.com/black-bedroom-furniture-set-design-ideas-images-tip-accessories

#Interior Design Ideas

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365footballorg-blog · 7 years ago

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Pool parties, secret rooms, local culture: 10 Things About LAFC's new home

April 23, 201810:57AM EDT

LOS ANGELES – When expansion side LAFC announced in May 2015 that they’d selected a site for their new stadium, they had no coach, players, colors or even a crest.

This was a time before their black and gold snapback became one of MLS’s most-lauded accessory.

Yet there was a sense that spring day, on an unassuming grass median beside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, that if the club could build the first open-air stadium in Los Angeles proper since 1962, then everything else might just fall into place.

Down the street from the Staples Center, across the street from USC, accessible by train and two major freeways, the Sports Arena site was more than ideal — it was perfect.

By August of 2016, the iconic arena had fallen and LAFC co-owners Will Ferrell and Magic Johnson worked the levers of heavy machinery to break ground for the club’s home.

While Wednesday marked the official ribbon-cutting for the completed Banc of California Stadium, several key elements are still receiving finishing touches ahead of Sunday’s home opener against Seattle (9 pm ET; FS1 — Full TV & streaming info). In the meantime, MLSsoccer.com was given an exclusive tour of the stadium in its entirety and found 10 features for future visitors to take an early peek at.

Key to the city

Banc of California Stadium’s keyhole feature | photo by Alex Dwyer

Inspired by executive chairman and co-owner Peter Guber’s vision, a northeast slice of the stadium has been carved away to capture the downtown Los Angeles skyline and the San Gabriel Mountains behind in – a perfect frame.

In a city famous for its urban sprawl, it’s a visual reminder of the stadium’s inclusion in LA’s growing urban core. Though the entire southwest corner of Banc of California is gifted the view, members of the media in the venue’s angled press box have one of the best vantage points to peer through the keyhole.

3252 North End

Safe standing in the North End | photo by Alex Dwyer

Across MLS, clubs are doing their part to give supporters a platform to express themselves. Banc of California Stadium is no exception. The ground’s North End is home to the 3252 independent supporters’ union and their “safe standing” section. Among the league’s steepest at 34 degrees, the stand’s angled handrails were designed to provide a less encumbered support experience. In practice, the curved guard rails are reminiscent of gripping the safety bar when you’re strapped into a roller coaster.

The central section of the stand is an actual removable stage — something built in to allow the stadium to play a role beyond regular MLS matchdays for concerts and events (the first of which, Wango Tango, will take place June 2). Both owners and architects spoke to the stadium’s function not just as a soccer stadium, but a cultural hub.

Capping off The North End is a supporter-designed bar to be officially unveiled later this week with members of the 3252.

For the people

LAFC fans check out the 3252 section | photo by Alex Dwyer

For all the glitz elsewhere, $ 20 seats in the supporters section invite local participation.

In a sense, the 5 million pounds of steel and 190,000 square feet of ETFE roofing that comprise the meat of the structure is only the skin laid atop the heartbeat of the stadium: the people in the south Los Angeles community.

“It might be the only stadium in America that, right across the street, is affordable housing,” co-owner Magic Johnson said ahead of Saturday’s open house. “That means everybody gets to participate.”

Though the stadium also achieved LEED Silver status for its environmentally conscious construction, it’s the more than $ 7 million in total annual revenue for the city/county and the several thousand jobs that make the stadium itself the metaphorical manifestation of the club’s “street by street, block by block” approach.

Gear up

One of LAFC’s merch trucks at the stadium | photo by Alex Dwyer

Buying merchandise at a professional sports venue is about as exhilarating an experience as sliding your finger across a phone screen — which is perhaps why so many people buy their club gear online these days. To their credit, LAFC has tried to reimagine swag acquisition in their designing of the stadium.

LAFC have two gear outposts in the stadium concourse — designed using the same shipping container architecture as the club’s new training facility — as well as two of the city’s quintessential food trucks converted to sell merch, which have been roaming the city for some time and will be parked at the stadium occasionally.

The flagship store sits outside the gates of the stadium in an auxiliary building that will also feature two beer gardens (one on the roof and another adjacent) as well as a high-concept restaurant to be opened later this summer. The store features a massive mural of 3252 supporters and ample rack space, where the club may take a cue from the clothing boutiques of city and offer exclusive offline-only gear in an environment that’s as much experience as commerce.

Hidden room

The owners-only hidden room in the Director’s Lounge | photo by Alex Dwyer

From its foundation, LAFC’s varied A-list ownership group has distinguished the club not only from other teams in MLS but among sports organizations around the world. These owners range from NBA legends, MLB All-Stars, and World Cup winners to founders of YouTube, creators of video game League of Legends and, yes, Will Ferrell.

Numbering over 30 members, this group had plenty to say in the design of the stadium — the $ 350 million venue was privately funded, after all — and one space more than any other attests to this.

Inside the exclusive, gold-accented Director’s Lounge, where only owners and their guests have access, is yet a further tier of exclusivity. In fact, this room is so exclusive, it’s hidden to the naked eye. Push one wall the right way, however, and a door creaks open to a space featuring several chairs, a couch and a panel of private lockboxes.

One can only imagine the conversations that will take place there in the years to come.

Bunker breakaway

A view from the Field Level suites | photo by Alex Dwyer

Among the 33 suites in the building, only one third of them — the “Field Level” — possess the ability to actually put feet on the grass. Those seats are immediately beside the visiting and home benches, essentially pitchside.

The highest-entry club available to the public, these fortunate individuals also have exclusive access to the player tunnel and a vaulted ceiling food/beverage area that was described to me by one supporter who found its fancifulness to be “something I’d imagine seeing in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.”

But it’s the third space in the “Field Level” that re-imagines private matchday luxury. Referred to during the construction phase as “Bunker Suites,” these spaces are essentially boxes directly beneath seats where members can easily duck into through their personal entrances whenever they feel like taking a break from the action.

Business-first changing room

A glimpse of the locker rooms | photo by Alex Dwyer

LAFC spared few expenses in their cushy treatment for season-ticket holders and extended that kindness to players. Everything from the magnetic compartmentalized lockers to the giant hydrotherapy baths in the changing room is evidence of the club’s concern for the employees whose work is the most scrutinized.

The home team’s dressing room is a departure from the shapelier locker rooms at the club’s training facility, a difference architecture firm Gensler’s design director Steve Chung summed up by explaining that at the stadium the players are “expected to be all business.”

A tunnel vision

A shot of the players tunnel | photo by Alex Dwyer

Arenas across the world have redesigned the “tunnel.” The path players walk from the locker room to the field can be considered the most important ground athletes cover that’s not an actual playing surface, and LAFC’s take on the tunnel underlines that fact.

With another illuminated art-deco crest glowing behind them, players will march down a tunnel blacked out on one side, gold on the other, where owners and certain ticket holders are able to wish players luck as the enter the field in an unobstructed, wide-open space.

Though a private tunnel exists for players who are sent off or require treatment, the starting 11s will be fully throttled by the time their feet touch the stadium’s Bermuda grass.

Pool party vibes

Banc of California Stadium’s Sunset Deck | photo by Alex Dwyer

Images of a Los Angeles summer might include crashing waves, breezy palms and burning sands. Outside the beach neighborhoods though, those dreamy ideals have transitioned onto the rooftops that dot the city’s urban interior. Banc of California Stadium’s Sunset Deck is of this mold.

Ping pong tables, shuffleboard and a water feature — think a knee-deep fountain where match-goers might soak their feet — create a vibe not unlike what one would imagine the best Coachella VIP areas offer. The indoor/outdoor space is a full-blown day-club, with mosaic tiles, a fireplace and cabana-like coverings with more cleverly designed seats and tables than I have room to describe.

Topping it off is the view to the west, where the California state flag peeks out above the nearby Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum right where the sun will drop when it retires for LAFC’s evening matches.

Sacred ground

A look out at Exposition Park | photo by Alex Dwyer

It’s hard to overstate the historical significance of Exposition Park. Famous for museums (Natural History Museum, California Science Center, California African-American Museum, and forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) events (John F. Kennedy received the presidential nomination in 1960 and musicians from Michael Jackson to Bruce Springsteen to Migos — have performed on the grounds over the years) and sports (a home to the Dodgers, Chargers, Rams, Lakers, Clippers, and Kings, as well as both basketball and football programs of UCLA and USC, to say nothing of hosting the 1932, 1984, and forthcoming 2028 Summer Olympics), Banc of California Stadium fits right in.

And from the 2-2 draw in a 1966 World Cup qualifier between Mexico and the United States to the 1967 United Soccer Association final where the LA Wolves defeated the Washington Whips in one of the first nation-wide contested professional leagues in the country, Expo Park also boasts over five decades soccer history. That includes the storied LA Aztecs of the 1970s and 80s, who called both the Coliseum and the Sports Arena home (for indoor). LAFC’s Carlos Vela even scored his first-ever goal for Mexico at Exposition Park’s LA Coliseum in a 2007 friendly against Guatemala.

The location of the stadium on a patch of land with such weighty history is perhaps its most significant feature. Now it’s simply up to the club to make its own impression on that sacred soil.

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MLSsoccer.com News

Pool parties, secret rooms, local culture: 10 Things About LAFC's new home was originally published on 365 Football

#about #culture #home #LAFC&039s #local #parties #pool #rooms #secret #things

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heartowrite-o · 7 years ago

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this was a warm-up I did before I started working on something else. I was considering going back to it and making a short story out of it but I never did

It's familiar, she thinks, in a way she can't properly describe—nostalgia for a place she's never been. The scenery outside the train window is foreign, the passing of open fields and trees clustered together across the landscape like a gathering of gossipers, heads huddled together, is completely new to her. Yet she can't deny the warmth in her chest as the train slows to a stop, the feeling of returning home when she steps onto the unfamiliar platform.

The wind is the first to welcome her, a gentle breeze that tugs at the loose strands of hair not gathered away into her ponytail, and seems to beckon her towards the well-worn dirt path just to the west of the train stop. She adjusts the strap on her bag, to have something to do with her hands and calm her nerves, and descends the steps to the path, a wisp of dirt wafting up as her feet hit the ground after landing hard off of the just slightly too tall last step.

She follows the path, the sun overhead. It's warm, but not unpleasantly so thanks to the cool wind encouraging her onward. She keeps her eyes forward, trained on the spot where the dirt road disappears into a single point on the horizon.

Belatedly, she wishes she had arranged for someone to at least drop a bike off at the station.

There is no point worrying about it now. The station is far behind her, just a lone speck in the vast field surrounding her. She can't turn back—doesn't want to—so she shakes away the anxiety, and the tiny bits of dread forming in her mind at the thought of how much, ugh, exercise she's about to get.

At the very least, the scenery is pleasant. It's all very much the same, she initially thinks, until she bothers to take a closer look and really appreciate the world around her. The grass is swaying gently in the wind, a brilliant bright green in a way she had only seen in paintings back home. Small white flowers pepper the field, breaking up the sea of green. A sea parted by the dirt path she walked upon.

The sky is orange, and the sun is disappearing over the gentle slopes of the field by the time she sees the fork in the path. A single signpost is jutting up from the split, leaning slightly towards the right path. There is only one arrow on the post—she finds the other when she stubs her toe on it. It was lying pitifully on the ground in front of the post, nearly covered by the tall green grass.

She already knows the arrow on the sign is the one pointing her in the right direction, but she stoops over and picks the fallen arrow from the ground, blows the dust from it's surface, and leans it carefully against the post.

She follows the sign pointing to the left side of the path, where the dirt road curves towards the treeline that had been out of sight from the station. Her feet ache, and she's tired—tired of walking, tired of being outside, tired of having to pull her socks up because they keep bunching under her heel—but she's so close, and that thought alone keeps her going.

The field feels different at night. The wind has picked up, turning the pleasant breeze into one just slightly on the wrong side of chilly. As the stars twinkle into view, a symphony of crickets fade in slowly, until they're so loud she's convinced herself that every cricket in the world must have followed her here.

She stops just short of the treeline, craning her neck upwards. The stars are so bright, brighter than anything she'd ever seen in the city. She knew the light of the city blocked out the stars, she had learned that so many times from school, from TV, friends. But seeing it was unbelievable. No matter where she cast her gaze, no matter which section of sky she focused on, the sky was freckled with what must have been hundreds of stars.

For a moment, the crickets seem to quiet, leaving just her, the stars, and the realization that she suddenly feels very, very small.

She smiles. The feeling doesn't scare her at all.

With one last look up at the stars, she lets the path guide her through the forest. The tree branches allow in just enough of the moonlight that the dirt in front of her is dappled with bursts of light, a splattering of white paint on a black canvas. It's just barely visible, enough that she can keep following the trail, although she does occasionally have to readjust herself when she realizes she's reached a curve.

She's never been afraid of the dark, not since she was a little girl, but the shadow of trees and the silence (the crickets have all but disappeared now), does make her chest tighten with anxiety. She holds onto the strap of her bag like a lifeline, keeps her eyes on the path, and tries not to jump whenever the silence is interrupted by a snapping twig, or the hoot of an owl.

She's practically jogging by the time she sees the opening in the forest, and breaks out into a sprint. She whirls past the trees, weaving her way through the low hanging branches, ignoring the way they seemed to be reaching for her. Her feet pound against the dirt, kicking up dust clouds and knocking small rocks out of the way, and she doesn't stop until she finally, finally breaks out of the forest's clutches.

A fence post is a welcome rest stop. She leans heavily against it, nearly doubled over as she catches her breath. Her lungs burn, and her feet hurt worse than before...her socks have also slipped under her heels again, and she wrinkles her nose with annoyance as she drops to the ground to fix them.

It's not until her socks are fixed (removed entirely and shoved into her bag), that it clicks in her head that a fence post usually means a whole fence, and that a whole fence is usually surrounding something. She stands upright finally, pushing her bangs away from her forehead, and lets her eyes follow the line of the fence to a small home with dark windows. It's dark, but even so, she can see the details of the home—brick, a cobblestone path leading up to the wooden door. Each window is adorned with a flowerbed on the windowsill, and even more flowers litter the small garden protected by the fence.

But this home is just one of many. She gets back on track, and returns to the path, which winds through the village. Lampposts line the road, their glow only dim, and working more like beacons rather than doing anything to actually illuminate the area around it.

The homes are a little bit cookie-cutter. Bricks, dark wooden doors. Some have curtains drawn closed, others have windows glowing a gentle yellow, shadows moving across them. The yards vary in size, some with none, others with large expanses of gardening space, filled with flowers and vegetables that make her mouth water.

The path leads her to a small bridge over a babbling creek. She stops to lean against the railing, peering down at the water below. The moonlight shines off of the water, illuminating the pebbles below the surface. The shadows of fish move slowly underneath her, hiding under the bridge when she pushes herself from the railing just a bit too quickly.

On the other side of the bridge, the path disappears entirely. It's just a semicircle of five buildings on the other side. Most of them are small, but the one in the middle is large, the only two-story building she's seen since arriving. The windows are lit up, and she can hear voices drifting outside, but she can't make out the exact detail of the chatter. It's got double saloon-style doors leading inside, and she catches her first glimpse of another human being for the first time in hours. They're seated on a stool, elbows on the counter, smiling at someone out of sight.

She shakes her head. There will be time to introduce herself later. She has no idea what time it is, but judging by the number of dark windows she had already passed, it must be late.

She approaches a building on the left end of the semicircle, a rusted mailbox just barely hanging onto it's post painted with fading numbers that matched the one on the piece of paper she had tucked away into her shorts' pocket. From excitement, or anxiety, or exhaustion, her hands shake as she takes the keys from her bag, steps up to the front door, and unlocks the door with an audible click.

“You're later than I thought.”

She fumbles with the keys, but no amount of flailing or trying to catch them with her knee prevents them from clattering to the front step of her new home. In the night air the clang of metal against stone sounds deafening, and her posture immediately goes rigid at the noise. She glances over her shoulder, face hot with embarrassment.

No taunts are thrown her way, at least not verbal ones. The person behind her—the one she had seen smiling earlier—had their hip leaned against the fence post (her fence post, a thought that wasn't important but struck her anyway), their hands in the pockets of their gray sweatshirt. They've got a smile on their face still, one slightly lopsided, a tiny smirk pulling up at the corner of their lips. Mocking, she would say, but she appreciated them not saying anything.

She picked up the keys and put them back in her bag, straight faced.

The stranger didn't move, but their eyes softened.

#heartowrito original works #heartowrito word count: 1650

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robot-radar · 8 years ago

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2016 Honda CRV EX Review

2016 Honda CR V EX Review

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Additionally incorporated into this cut (EX) is a traveler side mounted camera mounted on the traveler side that diminishes the blind side demonstrating a wide point picture on the inside touch screen when you turn the irregular right.

Those searching for extra wellbeing components may consider the CR-V Touring level higher, which includes the path in keeping help and programmed braking when the CR-V recognizes an up and coming crash some time recently.

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2016 Honda CR V EX AWD

2016 Honda CR V EX Black

2016 Honda CR V EX Interior

2016 Honda CR V EX Price

2016 Honda CR V EX Rear

2016 Honda CR V EX Review

2016 Honda CR V EX Trunk

2016 Honda CR V EX White

2016 Honda CR V EX

2016 Honda CR V EX Interior

The 2016 CR-V EX gives a more functional stand portion. There is a lot of space for the back travelers, and have leaning back seats and tyke wellbeing seats LATCH stay focuses in the three seating positions.

The front space is additionally great, particularly with the more noteworthy versatility that accompanies the power driver’s seat accessible, giving prevalent perceivability and a feeling of openness.

Less noteworthy are the materials that fill within the CR-V. The lodge is an ocean of hard plastic that the arm comes to. It would not be so awful notwithstanding many opponents with insides that look and feel more selective.

Albeit most controls are intelligently organized and simple to take in, the 7-inch touch screen experiences a hard to translate catches and in some cases befuddling menu structure. We additionally despise the absence of volume and change of the catches.

Outside the touch screen, exceptional innovative elements incorporate a back view camera, Bluetooth (telephone and sound), a peruser instant message in a digitized voice and similarity with Pandora. These are all standard on the fundamental LX, coincidentally;

You work additional in numerous contenders on the off chance that it is offered by any stretch of the imagination. Moreover, some famous elements are constrained to higher qualities, including a vitality hatchback.

Effective or not, which uncovers one of the hatchback zones less demanding to use in the smaller SUV stack fragment. The CR-V can convey 37.2 cubic feet of load behind the back seats. This zone gloats a low stacking floor and a container shape in general, which encourages the vehicle of extensive protests or canines.

By bringing down the back seatbacks collapsed down with programmed spring levers mounted in the storage compartment 70.9 cubic feet greatest, which is one of the top figures in the section are revealed.

The EX comes standard with 16-inch steel wheels, full power adornments, a back view camera, journey control, cooling, movable driver situate stature, a tilt and extending controlling wheel, discussion reflect, 60/40 situate collapsing and tilting back, Bluetooth telephone and sound availability, and a sound arrangement of four speakers with CD player, a USB port, an assistant information and support for Pandora Internet radio.

EX includes programmed headlights with LED daytime running lights, sunroof, haze lights, retractable load and start passage, eight-way power driver’s seat (with two-way lumbar support), Heated front seats (Honda LaneWatch) a 7-inch touch screen HondaLink cell phone joining, dynamic rules for the rearview camera and a sound framework with six speakers, an additional USB port.

The EX-L includes rooftop rails, warmed outside mirrors, auto-darkening back view reflect, cowhide guiding wheel, double zone programmed atmosphere control, calfskin upholstery, satellite radio and seven-speaker sound framework.

The Touring is appropriate for 18-inch wheels, light headlights, control back end, versatile voyage control, upkeep bolster rail, front effect crash with programmed slowing mechanism, Alert rail, radio.

The route framework (with HD radio) is discretionary on the EX-L trim, yet generally no processing plant choices on all CR-Vs.

2016 Honda CR V EX Lead

While 185 hp is by all accounts a decent measure of a four-barrel motor, the vast majority of this power does not achieve high in the motor range. You should press to pass the street.

When all is said in done, the force of the Honda CR-V motor is sufficient, however numerous different contenders, including the Santa Sport Fe and Escape offer all the more intense discretionary motor augmentations give quicker and less focused on speeding up.

At the top, the CR-V has a great mileage, and one reason is the CVT now required. Some CVTs may appear to be odd by they way they change and modify the motor speed contrasted with conventional programmed, however for credit Honda CVT CR-V does not attract thoughtfulness regarding itself in ordinary driving.

Indeed, it is discreet to the point that have a tendency to overlook it is there, so we consider one of the best CVTs in any vehicle. It will be noted, nonetheless, that in purchasers’ suppositions, numerous shoppers have whined about the vibrations that occupy their CR-V in 2015, and which was the main year for the CVT.

It is something you’ll need to focus on the off chance that you are trying a present CR-V.

As far as taking care of, the Honda CR-V 2016 feels safe to pivot, yet the remarks of the directing haggle parcel of stop moving counteracts much incitement driver excitement. The CR-V has an exceptionally smooth ride, be that as it may, and the suspension retains the vast majority of the knocks out and about.

It is likewise one of the calmest little hybrids accessible in contrast with street clamor and wind.

2016 Honda CR V EX What’s up

Another uncommon version (SE), including 17-inch compound wheels, glass raise seat situate and a security framework to the base LX opens. Something else, the CR-V 2016 does not change.

Each 2016 Honda CR-V accompanies a 2.4L four-barrel with 185 pull and 181 lb-ft of torque. Persistently Variable Transmission (CVT) is the main transmission accessible. Purchasers can pick between front haggles wheel drive in all trim.

The EPA mileage assessed in 2016 CR-V with front-wheel drive is 29 mpg joined (26 city/33 street), an incredible presentation for this fragment. The all-wheel-drive CR-V at 27 mpg consolidated (25 city/31 street), is quite recently behind.

In the track occasions, an AWD CR-V quickens from zero to 60 mph in 8.8 seconds, which is somewhat quicker than normal.

2016 Honda CR V EX Security

The Honda CR-V 2016 comes standard with electronically monitored slowing mechanisms, security and footing control, side airbags in the front seats, side blind airbags and a rearview camera. LaneWatch’s blind side of observation framework (with a camera itself demonstrating the action of the blind side on the traveler side on the 7-inch touch screen) is standard on everything except LX and SE.

The Touring has a path takeoff cautioning framework and an impact cautioning and lessening framework that can recognize vehicles and people on foot (and caution the driver as needs be) and apply a mediation Automatic slowing mechanism to decrease the seriousness of the crash.

In government tests, the CR-V 2016 has not been tried in this way, but rather the 2015 model has won four of the five conceivable stars for aggregate stun assurance, with four stars for frontal insurance hangs Five stars for security against sidelong stuns.

Amid the Insurance Institute for street security testing, the Honda CR-V got the most astounding rating of “good” in the frontal crash test and direct cover. It additionally got a “decent” for parallel effect tests, rooftop quality and assurance against the blow of the rabbit (head restrictions and seats) score.

The IIHS likewise tried the CR-V frontal crash alarm and impact choice and gave a higher rating of “Prevalent”.

Amid the braking tests, a Touring AWD Honda CR-V ceased from 60 h in 119 feet, which is shorter than the normal class meters.

2016 Honda CR V EX – Whether you’re just starting a family or finishing up with one, the CR-V EX makes a Great Choice 2016 Honda CR V EX Review The simplicity of ordinary utilize is the main thrust behind the inside outline of the 2016 Honda CR V EX.

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jeremystrele · 6 years ago